Curse of the Golden Flower (2005)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Curse of the Golden Flower (2005)

Zhang Yimou’s wuxia trilogy concludes with perhaps his most meticulous instalment, with visuals so striking you may need sunglasses to deflect the glare. Unfortunately, once Zhang hit upon his golden formula with instant classics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, stunning cinematography has become de rigueur. Most of the sweeping shots are done on computers, along with much of the trickery in the battle scenes. Hero utilised CGI to a minimal and aesthetic effect. Here, Yimou is seemingly growing more dependent on digital tampering to create huge vistas of perfect symmetry in an attempt, possibly, to mask what is essentially …

Read More

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Themes of love, loyalty and self-sacrifice adorn Zhang Yimou’s follow up to the successful Hero. It’s hard to view House of Flying Daggers without drawing comparison, especially with Christopher Doyle returning to add his remarkable cinematography, and Tony Ching splashing a glossy CGI undercoat to his superb swordplay. Even gimmicks and cast members are recycled. Where it differs is in its melodrama which is sometimes too sentimental for its own good, acting as an emotive showcase for Zhang Ziyi. The soap opera soon gets tiresome and holds much less of an impact than the affectionate subtlety of Hero. The mood-shifting characters …

Read More

Hero (2002)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Hero (2002)

Hero is a magnificent movie; like looking at wuxia cinema through a kaleidoscope. Chinese arthouse director Zhang Yimou brings together an ensemble of exquisite talent to create a period martial arts tale of epic proportions – one which references the wuxia films of old (namely Chang Cheh’s 1967 masterpiece, The Assassin), but feels strikingly original thanks in no small part to Australian cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, and some of the most breathtaking visuals ever captured in an action movie. At times the film is quite overwhelming, and a small screen could never do it justice. Hero is the story of China’s first …

Read More

The Master (1989)

Posted in Reviews
1 Comment
The Master (1989)

Chaotic Jet Li film in which the young star displays his usual wushu flair in a cross-cultural hodgepodge of a story. Yuen Wah plays a contemporary Wong Fei-hung-type character working as an unassuming Chinese physician in inner-city America who falls foul of rival mullet-sporting bootmaster Jerry Trimble and his gweilo minions. Jet arrives from Hong Kong and is embroiled in the same senseless vendetta, befriending a Chinese ex-pat (Crystal Kwok) and a gang of punks who take Jet as their master. The film is too broad to effectively launch Jet Li as a potential star in the west; he would …

Read More

The Owl vs. Bombo (1984)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Owl vs. Bombo (1984)

Action comedy with a slight social conscience, highlighting disenfranchised Hong Kong youth at a juvenile detention centre and adding a Blackboard Jungle-esque morality boost to the fragmented story. Crooks Bombo (Sammo) and Owl (George Lam) volunteer at the centre as recompense for past crimes. They are being blackmailed by the same retired cop (Stanley Fung) as a ploy to get at James Tien’s crew of nasty real estate developers. Sammo shows his tender side for the film’s romantic elements: Lam’s support for Michelle Yeoh‘s harassed teacher, and Sammo’s wooing of head mistress Deannie Yip. He spontaneously dons tap shoes and …

Read More

Bushido Man (2013)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Bushido Man (2013)

A sublime spoof set in contemporary Japan. A wandering fighter in Samurai attire returns to his sensai after a year’s traveling to challenge a succession of martial arts masters. He is a diligent pupil of the Cosmic Way, told by his food-obsessed teacher that in order to truly understand his adversary, he must first eat like them. So he stuffs his face with Chinese dumplings before squaring off to a young mantis style kung fu master, and tucks into steak before facing the bullets of an American-themed gunslinger. The film is a glorious farce played brilliantly deadpan by lead Mitsuki …

Read More

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Michelle Yeoh abolishes the more demeaning Bond girl tropes for her first English language performance. The film made her a star in the west after over a decade of hard graft as Hong Kong’s premier superheroine. She is Bond’s espionage equal in shades of Jackie Chan‘s Supercop, sharing steering duties on a bike chase through Vietnam and trading ammunition while blowing up a stealth warship. Despite playing second fiddle she comes out on top, and the film’s excitement picks up considerably when she takes over the action about halfway through. Brosnan, in his second Bond outing, handles the rough and …

Read More

Royal Warriors (1986)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Royal Warriors (1986)

Exciting 80s buddy cop movie, but this is far from Lethal Weapon. Filmed the Hong Kong way, this plays hard and fast with wild set-pieces and gawping stunt work. Yeoh, in her second leading role for D&B Films, reprises her fearless by-the-book police officer from Yes, Madam!, forming part of a brave trio of cops who apprehend a mid-air hijacking onboard a passenger jet. Michael Wong plays her smitten Romeo – a sweet comedic ploy – and Sanada plays a Japanese family man on the brink of retiring and returning home. The war buddies of the crooks killed on the …

Read More

Out for a Kill (2003)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Out for a Kill (2003)

This lightweight B movie stars Steven Seagal as an archaeologist and professor at Yale (yeah, right) whose wife is killed by a moody bunch of cigar-chomping Chinese stereotypes and off he trots to Paris, Bulgaria and New York to exact his revenge. What’s interesting about this movie is Seagal’s futile attempts to become a fully-fledged kung fu hero at a time when his speed and agility have long since vanished. He looks horribly uncomfortable when dueling with an expert Chinese stunt team half his age. There are bizarre duels with Shaolin monks and a wire-fu Monkey Fist expert, all a …

Read More

Exit Wounds (2001)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Exit Wounds (2001)

Routine action thriller which sees heavy duty Steven Seagal playing a reckless inner city street cop teaming up with rapper DMX. They lay down some whoop-ass on a bunch of crooked police dealing heroin through a T-shirt factory. Cinematographer Bartkowiak sticks to his principles and creates another Romeo Must Die-style extended music video with similarly brash editing and slow-motion. Seagal looks a bit out of step, and out of shape for that matter. The movie comes alive during the fist fights, including a wire-enhanced sword fight between Seagal and Michael Jai White which looks so out of context it’s actually …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »