Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

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Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Colourful cult excitement from fantasy maestro John Carpenter. Jack Burton (Russell) wants his truck back. It has been nabbed by a clan of creepy Chinese kung fu magicians deep in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, which resembles a Narnia-esque underworld led by age-old mystic Lo Pan (Hong) whose 2,000 year search for a sacrificial bride with green eyes may soon be at an end. He kidnaps the girlfriend of Burton’s kung fu buddy and also sneaks off with his green-eyed girlfriend Kim Cattrall, which pisses Jack off, so he attempts to rescue her. But Lo Pan’s forces are formidable; …

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Profile: Jimmy Wang Yu

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Profile: Jimmy Wang Yu

Date of birth: 28 March, 1943 (Shanghai, China)

Date of death: 5 April, 2022 (aged 79), Taiwan

Occupation: Actor, director, producer, screen writer

Real name: Wang Zheng-quan

Other names: Wang Yu, Wang Yue, Wong Yu-lung, Wong Jing-Kuen, Jimmy Wong Yu, Tiger Yang

Biography: Despite receiving no formal martial arts training, Jimmy Wang Yu predates Bruce Lee as Hong Kong’s first kung fu action hero. Born and educated in Shanghai, he grew up in a wealthy family – his father was a businessman – and he was very active as a child. He was also regarded locally as something of a troublemaker and would often get into …

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Ip Man 2 (2010)

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Ip Man 2 (2010)

This sequel, which quickly follows on from the 2008 original and reunites much of the same cast and crew, is a seething post-war potboiler which substitutes the original film’s Japanese aggressors with that of the colonial British in 1950s Hong Kong.

Ip Man (Donnie Yen, brilliantly understated) leaves war-torn Foshan to set up a Wing Chun school on the terraces of Hong Kong. But the subsequent story (rebel-rousing pupils cause trouble for rival kung fu masters) is the sort of recycled plot device you would expect to find in a Wong Fei-hung film from the 1940s.

There are fragments of Ip Man’s …

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Crime Story (1993)

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Crime Story (1993)

Based on the true story of a businessman who was kidnapped twice and held for a $6m ransom, Jackie Chan (in a role initially offered to Jet Li) plays an impulsive cop sniffing out corruption in the Hong Kong police force. The demolition of Hong Kong’s notorious Walled City is used to great effect in an explosive finale where a frantic Chan attempts to save the life of his crooked police partner (Kent Cheng). Kirk Wong directs with a gritty realism attacking the power and influence of Hong Kong’s triad organisations. It is also refreshing to see Chan play a straight …

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Gorgeous (1999)

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Gorgeous (1999)

Still sailing from the phenomenal success of his first major American hit (Rush Hour), Jackie Chan’s return to Hong Kong is an instantly forgettable rom-com designed as a cash cow for a Chinese New Year audience. Shu Qi plays a naive Taiwanese beauty whose quest for true love takes her on a journey to Hong Kong in response to a message in a bottle. This leads her into the open arms of Chan (Jackie Chan), a millionaire businessman who has “never had many friends”. Chan’s stock market interests lead him into danger with his corporate friend Lo (a great turn …

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Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)

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Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)

Although the story of how Sun Yat-sen led a republican uprising which would eventually see the end of dynastic rule in China is quite well known, this highly romanticised and emotive film has been designed as a tribute to those forgotten martyrs who paid the ultimate price. The film may not work in a scholastic sense but it is always entertaining. At times, Teddy Chan makes the 1906 arrival of Dr. Sun in colonised Hong Kong look like a taut heist thriller, and the battle for his protection descends into relentless kung fu carnage with flying daggers and arrows, teams …

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King of Beggars (1992)

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King of Beggars (1992)

Stephen Chow’s first period-set comedy went up against Police Story 3 at the Hong Kong box office and smashed it convincingly. He plays the privileged idiot son of a Ching dynasty general who falls immediately in love with Sharla Cheung, who has been working undercover as a prostitute to lure out the evil Mr Chiu (Norman Chu), a Manchurian magician determined to kill the Emperor and put his own evil cult in power. In order to win her heart, Chow embarks on a quest to win a nationwide martial arts competition. But he is found to have cheated on the …

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John Wick (2014)

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John Wick (2014)

Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s directorial debut (the founders of 87Eleven Action Design) is one of the best action movies of recent times. They land the audience in an established criminal underworld with minimal histrionics and a superb lightness of touch. The film hints at a wider, expansive ‘universe’ beyond its rather simple cat-and-mouse premise, and although the plot may be simple, it is executed with great wit and style. Their distinguished careers as fight choreographers and stunt coordinators informs every frame in this beautifully made film, equally indebted to the gun fu of John Woo, the brutality of The Raid, …

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Who Am I? (1998)

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Who Am I? (1998)

Jackie Chan plays part of a Special Forces unit sent into deepest Africa to kidnap scientists working on a volatile new weapon formed from meteorite fragments. The raid is a disaster and the team perish in a helicopter crash, except for Chan, who is taken in by a nearby tribe and nursed back to health. Once he has recuperated, Chan is discovered to have developed amnesia, and a quest to uncover the truth begins. Shot in South Africa and Holland (the truncated tribal section is a particular highlight), this globe-trotting Jackie Chan adventure is one of his better nineties outings. …

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Shaolin vs. Lama (1983)

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Shaolin vs. Lama (1983)

Fantastic kung fu movie from Lee Tso-nam (Eagle’s Claw, The Hot, the Cool and the Vicious), highly regarded in fan circles not only for its sublime action but also its notable story centred around the quest for spiritual (and physical) enlightenment. It can also be read as a study on the contradictory role religion plays in the balance of admonishing evil and the need to show mercy. Similarly to the Christian divide of Catholic and Protestant, the film depicts a violent opposition between Chinese Shaolin monks and a rebel group of Tibetan Buddhists; although the film is never in doubt as …

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