King Boxer (1972)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
King Boxer (1972)

One of the most enjoyable martial arts movies ever made, this relentless, unapologetic head kicker completed the Shaw conversion from swashbuckling 1960s hits by directors like King Hu and Chang Cheh to full-bodied, empty hand fight movies. Picked up by Warner Brothers and released in the US in 1973 several months before Enter the Dragon, it was King Boxer (under the superb title Five Fingers of Death) that would become the leading example of Hong Kong action cinema in the west and instrumental in introducing kung fu to a whole new audience. With exaggerated zooms, maniacal villains and …

Read More

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1975)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1975)

Seminal schlock favourite among fu followers, Wang Yu’s sequel to 1971’s One-Armed Boxer is a zany triumph. As well as revising his synonymous one-armed fighter, Wang Yu borrows the star of the 1974 Shaw Brothers adventure The Flying Guillotine, namely the guillotine itself: an ancient serrated frisbee on a chain which, when aimed accurately, lassos around an opponent’s neck to deliver freshly severed heads in its own carry bag. Kam Kong plays a blind assassin parading as a monk who learns of the one-armed boxer’s triumph against his two Tibetan disciples from the first film. All within the same opening …

Read More

The Heroic Ones (1970)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Heroic Ones (1970)

Sublime Shaw epic performed on a large scale with no expense spared on props, sets, costumes, extras and fake blood. Loosely based on the Mongol invasion of China, Ku Feng plays the marauding Lord Li commanding one of China’s many kingdoms with a little help from his sons, known collectively as the Thirteen Generals.

Biblical assertions aside, it is Li’s drunk thirteenth son, played by David Chiang, who becomes the group leader after slaying Bolo Yeung with a big stick, leading his brothers into missions of intrigue and espionage. The Lord’s disciples come unstuck when two of the troop turn Judas …

Read More

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978)

When the manual for the Eight Steps of the Snake and Crane disappears along with the Shaolin masters who created it, the martial arts world is thrown into disarray. Hsu (Jackie Chan), a pony-tailed wanderer (you know the sort), claims possession of the coveted book and summarily every goddamn scoundrel wants a piece of him. That’s more than enough to go on for this hearty kung fu film, its most redeeming features being a straight performance from Jackie Chan which is both convincing and unpretentious, plus some of his best traditional kung fu choreography. However, the movie still proved to …

Read More

Best of the Best (1989)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Best of the Best (1989)

Five top US karate fighters are chosen to compete against the Koreans in an upcoming tournament, but not without their own emotional baggage. Alex Grady (Roberts) is a single father with a shoulder injury who has got something to prove. His team mate Tommy (Rhee) is seeking revenge for a deceased brother killed in combat by Korea’s best brute. There is plenty of sentiment as Radler overloads his movie with spiritual overtones, loads of sweaty fighters crying and nauseating power ballads (who actually listens to this stuff?). But the supporting cast are strong, particularly James Earl Jones who plays the …

Read More

Wake of Death (2004)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Wake of Death (2004)

Formulaic action drama directed for the most part like a perfume commercial – all slow motion, detached voiceover and operatic intention. The idea is to add weight to a dud Van Damme vehicle, but it actually sucks the life from it. Van Damme is on autopilot as a doting family man and nightclub owner with a vague heroic or criminal background (it’s never properly explained) who calls on some heavily militarised buddies to help him avenge the death of his wife, killed at the hands of a Hong Kong triad kingpin played by Simon Yam. Yam had been making a …

Read More

Mr. Vampire (1985)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Mr. Vampire (1985)

A smash hit movie, Mr. Vampire has developed a cult following over the years. The unique blend of supernatural horror, comedy and kung fu – the first success of its kind – created a new sub-genre of its own, and the cash-ins and sequels quickly followed. But this is the original, and still the best.

Lam Ching-ying plays a Taoist priest and master of young disciples Chin Siu-ho and Ricky Hui, whose decision to harbour a wealthy man’s deceased father overnight quickly turns into a nightmare. Over the years the decaying corpse turns into a nasty Chinese vampire, now resurrected and …

Read More

Pantyhose Hero (1990)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Pantyhose Hero (1990)

The moment Sammo Hung‘s career commercially nose-dived can be pinpointed to around the time of this homophobic crime caper. It’s a brash, pernicious film which signals a shift in Sammo’s comedy from a childlike innocence into something altogether quite mean. Perhaps, in the midst of a growing AIDS epidemic, the film is indicative of Hong Kong attitudes towards homosexuality in the 1980s – where sexual activity between same-sex partners was still a criminal offence – but I doubt it. Watching it in the 21st century is like being caught in some kind of grotesque and unsettling time vortex. It is …

Read More

Police Woman (1974)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Police Woman (1974)

You’re on really dodgy ground with this quick piece of Hong Kong phooey. Dated, amateur and cheap, the story concerns a taxi driver (Charlie Chin) who is targeted by a gang of vicious hoods after he assists a dying lady in his cab. Before her death, she stashes away a wallet carrying vital clues to the identity of the criminal gang responsible and the bad guys want it back. The sister of the victim investigates and uses her kung fu to help the taxi driver save the day.

Apart from the novelty of Jackie Chan’s young presence as one of the …

Read More

The Killer Meteors (1976)

Posted in Reviews
1 Comment
The Killer Meteors (1976)

Top-knot hairstyles and colourful costumes adorn this period kung fu film, a hopelessly convoluted Lo Wei picture that finds Wang Yu as the indestructible Killer Meteor who waves around a secret, all-powerful weapon. He keeps it strapped to his back and staunchly under wraps, despite the fact it looks alarmingly similar to a long stick. A young Jackie Chan is poisoned by his domineering wife, and Wang Yu is the only one capable of retrieving the antidote. In typical Lo Wei fashion, thousands of two-bit caricatures mess up the narrative, and the lack of decent kung fu makes this one a …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »