Ip Man (2008)

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Ip Man (2008)

To describe Wilson Yip’s glossy take on the formative years of Wing Chun master Ip Man as a biopic is being somewhat economical with the truth. The same misnomer could apply to other vaguely biographical sensationalist potboilers like Fighter in the Wind and Fearless. Yip’s passionate and patriotic drama closely resembles a companion piece for the latter, focusing on the second Sino-Japanese war and the subsequent hostilities facing the Chinese living in invaded Foshan. It even champions an outwardly familiar anti-Japanese sentiment, something Chinese filmmakers have been flogging since, well, the war.

The role of Foshan is also symbolic, being the …

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Beautiful Boxer (2003)

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Beautiful Boxer (2003)

The true story of Nong Toom (Thailand’s famous transgender kickboxer) is told in true Hollywood style by director Ekachai Uekrongtham, who focuses equally on her troubled formative years as well as her many violent exploits in the ring. Nong’s story is remarkable and handled with great sensitivity, told through her many developments from a confused child with a penchant for lipstick to her first dabble with Muay Thai kickboxing as a means of supporting her parents. She becomes a national hero before her more troubling later years prior to a sex-change operation. Suwan is fantastic in the lead, contrasting delicate …

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Snake Crane Secret (1977)

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Snake Crane Secret (1977)

Wu Ma’s cheap 70s kung fu films are meatier than your average, a director not merely content to get the best physical performances out of his cast but also allotting valuable screen time to put flesh on his characters. Yu Tien-lung plays flamboyant villain Master Hung, a Ching Dynasty consul with political and personal links to the Emperor. With his psychadelic robes and greying mane he looks a bit like a member of Slade, masterminding his villainy via the brownnosing exploits of his loyal minions, played by Dean Shek and Wu Ma favourite Dorian Tan. Their mission: to find a …

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Snake in the Monkey’s Shadow (1979)

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Snake in the Monkey’s Shadow (1979)

Although the title makes reference to the hugely successful Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, this kung fu film actually adheres more closely to a different Jackie Chan helmer, Drunken Master. John Cheung is the young pretender, a poor bumpkin type taught the ‘drunken fist’ by a top alcoholic master. Studious and proficient, the young Cheung runs into trouble after beating on two rich kids who hire lethal ‘snake fist’ fighters (Wilson Tong and Charlie Chan) to end the boy’s life. Befriending a master in the monkey style, Cheung combines his drunken fist with monkey fu to take on the adversaries. This is …

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Rumble in the Bronx (1995)

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Rumble in the Bronx (1995)

Jackie Chan plays off duty Hong Kong policeman Keung who travels to New York (or Vancouver, rather, doubling for The Bronx) to attend his uncle’s wedding. But his vacation is extended when he agrees to help out the new owner of his uncle’s convenience store, played by Anita Mui. Battle soon commences as street punks terrorise the store, forcing Keung to fight back in an orgy of stylised violence. You could write the story on a matchbox, so Stanley Tong conjures up more excuses for carnage: there is a disabled boy with stolen diamonds stashed in his wheelchair, and Chan …

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Death Machines (1976)

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Death Machines (1976)

This starts promisingly: a robotic dragon lady engineers three superhuman assassins (one Chinese, one white, one black) to kill on command, but when a massacre at a karate school leaves one sole survivor, the cops hit the case and soon the ruse is up. She is constantly accompanied onscreen by an ear-piercing synthesizer, and if that doesn’t make you want to throw the TV across the room, then the lumbering action and redundant filmmaking should do it. This is so disturbingly void of any kind of redeeming features that if someone walks into the room when you’re watching it, you …

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The Image of Bruce Lee (1978)

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The Image of Bruce Lee (1978)

Forget the ‘image of Bruce Lee‘, this one has absolutely nothing to do with the long-buried superstar, although it can boast a passing resemblance in Bruce Li – perhaps exploitation cinema’s most reluctant exploiter. He forgoes the Lee-alike schtick for a change to play a hardboiled kung fu cop, complete with matinée idol looks and sharp 70s suits, but by this point in his career the damage had already been done. “You should work in movies,” a female escort says during one scene, “you look just like Bruce Lee.” “Not interested,” he shrugs, despite the fact he can be seen …

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Return of the Kung Fu Dragon (1976)

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Return of the Kung Fu Dragon (1976)

So, the kung fu dragon returns (when did he go away?) in such a stock title you wonder whether the filmmakers merely placed all the kung fu clichés into a hat and picked them out at random. Descendants of the former royal guards of Phoenix Island are viciously usurped by a magical warlord capable of awesome kung fu tricks, mostly involving a smoke machine. He’s so badass he even employs a minion to carry his beard. The descendants unite to take down the evil doers and rid the warlord of his sacred Dragon Stick, seemingly the source of his super powers which he uses …

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The Spy Next Door (2010)

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The Spy Next Door (2010)

Innocuous family fun, an homage to American spy shows from the 1960s like Get Smart and similar to the sort of insipid knockabout comedies you find in the children’s section of DVD stores. In a way it is also a tribute to Jackie Chan himself (the movie opens with clips from his earlier action films), which is odd considering the film’s universal audience. Only experienced, hardened Chan fans would consider going anywhere near this. The target market will doubtlessly be left perplexed as to the significance of casting an aging Chinese man in the lead role.

Chan doesn’t seem too distressed at …

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The King of the Kickboxers (1991)

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The King of the Kickboxers (1991)

A skewed retelling of the Kickboxer story, Van Damme‘s seminal hit released two years previously. The irony being it was Seasonal Films that first recognised Van Damme’s high-kicking potential in their 1986 film, No Retreat, No Surrender. The same team back this spirited if hammy revenge film, offering Loren Avedon a prime spot for his bolshy American routine and great footwork. He plays renegade New York undercover cop Jake who breaks up drug busts with his sharp kickboxing skills and refuses to call for back-up. He’s assigned (for completely unfathomable reasons) to a case in Bangkok where big-budget snuff movies are …

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