Battle B-Boy (2012)

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Battle B-Boy (2012)

A charming, morality-driven underdog film from Californian independents LLR Productions focusing on the trend for ‘da-fi’ (dance-fighting) battle crews, popularised by TV talent shows. The film uses an underground tournament setting to weave in the combative elements and ends up looking like a cross between Step Up and Fight Club. The choreography fits into the contrivances of a made-up breakdancing competition with rules like “fight to the music” and “no brawling”, and given the film’s wholesome nature the resulting action is mostly non-violent. Instead, the film is essentially a succession of sublime acrobatic spectacles highlighting the rhythmical talents of its …

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Last Hero in China (1993)

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Last Hero in China (1993)

Last Hero in China sprawls, but not without a certain style. The movie opens with the abduction of four runaway slave girls at the hands of a giant levitating lampshade with an extendable grabbing claw. Inside sits evil monk Gordon Liu whose horny Nun-yan Temple – full to the brim with Boxer Rebellion outlaws – kidnap Chinese maidens and sell them to the highest bidder. Not content with that, Wong Jing throws in a manic kung fu dignitary with a laugh that matches his bite and a selfish desire to take over the land. Then there’s Jet Li reviving his Wong …

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Profile: Donnie Yen Chi-tan

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Profile: Donnie Yen Chi-tan

Date of birth: July 27, 1963 (Guangdong, China)

Other names: Yen Ji-dan, Yan Chi-tan, Yen Chi Ten, Yin Sze Dan

Occupation: Actor, director, producer, action director, stuntman

Style: Wushu, tai chi, taekwondo, boxing, kickboxing. MMA, judo, wing chun

Biography: Donnie Yen is one of the most successful and popular kung fu movie stars working in the business today. He has been involved in some of the best kung fu movies of the last 30 years and worked with the biggest names in the industry.

Donnie Yen was born in Guangdong, China – the son of newspaper editor Klyster Yen and martial arts instructor Bow Sim-mark, …

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In the Line of Duty 4 (1989)

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In the Line of Duty 4 (1989)

A Seattle dock worker named Luk (Yuen Yat-chor) gains his US citizenship after seven years working illegally and plans to spend his new found freedom living a normal life with his ageing mother. Right from the off, Luk’s plans turn to dust after he witnesses a murder and then loses a videotape which could bring the culprits to justice. Hoards of gweilo fighters want their nasty mittens on the tape and soon enough the cops get involved. First there’s impulsive super kicker Donnie Yen and sentimental nutcracker Cynthia Khan, then there’s an intriguing subplot involving crooked cop Michael Wong who …

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Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)

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Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)

The first Undisputed was an adequate if bog-standard boxing film in which heavyweight champ Ving Rhames was sent to prison after rape allegations in shades of Mike Tyson’s life story, only to enter a bitter grudge match with the prison champ’, Wesley Snipes. Although hardly striving for the Palme d’Or, the first film at least had mild delusions of grandeur. This loose, hair-brained sequel is a B-movie without pretension and all the better for it. The always engaging Michael Jai White picks up the Ving Rhames character with no attempt to connect the dots, quickly winding up in an English-speaking …

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Drunken Tai Chi (1984)

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Drunken Tai Chi (1984)

Another wacky kung fu outing from the Yuen clan, this is a hyper kinetic fusion of ballsy slapstick and wild action. Offering little in the way of tai chi and even less drunkenness, Woo-ping’s film is essentially a showcase for the enormous talents of debuting star Donnie Yen. He plays a charming wushu rich kid learning the tai chi style from an alcoholic sifu and master of puppets (played by a bucktooth Yuen Cheung-yan). Donnie’s family is killed by an evil Wong Tao as compensation for turning his son into a basket case. He hires the crazy killer from Dreadnaught …

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Legend of a Fighter (1982)

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Legend of a Fighter (1982)

This interpretation of the life of Hou Yuen-chia (first played by Yuen Yat-chor, then Leung Kar-yan in his later years) is a pleasing mix of pastiche and homage. His nationalist tendencies are thrashed out in trashy segments which lay waste to British, Russian and Japanese antagonists (all spirited and harmless fun), which recalls the patriotic stance of (historically) Wong Fei-hung and (thematically) Bruce Lee.

Hou is the poisoned sifu of whom Lee’s fictitious character avenges in Fist of Fury, but the film only shares parallels with Lee’s film in its sentiment and Leung’s strained facial expressions. Yuen Woo-ping’s comedic choreography is …

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Man of Tai Chi (2013)

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Man of Tai Chi (2013)

Keanu Reeves takes bold and ambitious steps for his directorial debut. Man of Tai Chi is a bilingual, contemporary kung fu film made in mostly Mandarin and filmed entirely in Beijing and Hong Kong. Given the large sums of money China has ploughed into its film industry in a bid to overtake, or at least overshadow, the commercial might of Hollywood, Reeves’ film may hint towards the sort of Asian American crossover project we should expect to see more of in the years to come.

Business aside, this still looks like the sort of film Keanu Reeves has wanted to make …

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The Blood Brothers (1973)

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The Blood Brothers (1973)

The kind of Chinese epic only Shaw Brothers could have made, this extravaganza matches Hollywood melodrama with lavish imagery so impeccable you realise why fans proclaim this film to be Chang Cheh‘s most accomplished work. He’s David Lean with a machete.

It’s a rags to riches tale with glorified antiheroes and misguided loyalties, featuring Chang Cheh’s most destructive force: a woman, here played by Chang Li. She manipulates the three central males into a spiraling self-destruction, played out over a Ben Hur-style exposition.

David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai and Ti Lung gang up to run their own bandit clan and enlist into the Imperial …

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The Miracle Fighters (1982)

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The Miracle Fighters (1982)

Yuen Woo-ping‘s response to Sammo Hung‘s Encounters of the Spooky Kind is the most delirious, frenetic and wildly imaginative kung fu movie the director ever put his name to. He certainly outweighs Sammo on the bizarre scale with all the rabid spirit of a Looney Tunes cartoon on speed. As with much of Woo-ping’s product from around this period, the story is swallowed whole by the sheer exuberance and enthusiasm of the manic fight sequences. The director continually sidelines traditional kung fu choreography in favour of a more quirky, zany, slapstick variety.

The story follows orphan Shu Gun (Yuen Yat-chor), a …

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