The Tongfather (1974)

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The Tongfather (1974)

Cheap Taiwanese spy fu from Tien Peng who looks rather charming as a chain-smoking secret agent, hardly recognisable from his swashbuckling persona in King Hu‘s A Touch of Zen. A revolving Chinese cast play Japanese opium dealers in Samurai attire, planning their nasty racket from the confines of a dojo. Tien Peng and partner Tin Hok are recruited by their government to infiltrate the dealers and take it down from the inside, although Peng makes only the smallest of efforts to remain undercover, bragging about his espionage skills before laying waste with his special kung fu chops. The marvelous title …

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Kick-Ass (2010)

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Kick-Ass (2010)

Gratuitous but fun action movie that makes unsubtle use of its comic book source, partly as a ploy to please the nerds by linking live action with neat animation, but mainly to add a distinctly fantastical cartoon element to its extreme scenes of post-Kill Bill violence.

Mark Miller wrote the original comic (he of Wanted fame), a writer on the more absurdist end of someone like Alan Moore (he of Watchmen fame) and his neo-political subversion. Kick-Ass delves into the motivation of an opportunistic superhero borne from the conformity of everyday life, with Miller choosing an awkward, teenaged internet geek as …

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The Way of the Dragon (1972)

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The Way of the Dragon (1972)

A nasty Italian syndicate threaten to reclaim the site of a Chinese restaurant in Rome. Luckily, the owners are cousins of Bruce Lee, who is sent from Hong Kong to help out his struggling relatives. A flimsy story (even by kung fu movie standards) proves categorically that writing wasn’t one of Lee’s fortes. But as the film’s director, producer, choreographer and star, this is the closest thing we have to deciphering Lee’s personal cinematic vision. As director, Lee utilises the picturesque Roman backdrop for a number of smart location shots, steadily building the character development in the absence of any …

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Ninja Phantom Heroes (1987)

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Ninja Phantom Heroes (1987)

Another patchwork hatchet job from Hong Kong cinema’s king of commerce Godfrey Ho, manufactured from old film stock and edited into something resembling a dog’s dinner. Ho produced many films like this purely for financial gain during the golden age of overseas video distribution, using gweilo actors in practically redundant roles to dress up as colourful ninja and fill up the running time. Ho would duplicate footage in more than one film, re-dubbing and repackaging cheap titles for a kung fu hungry crowd. Using this technique, Ho could pump out as many as 15 movies a year, covering his tracks …

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Fist of Fury (1972)

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Fist of Fury (1972)

Lee’s most intense performance, Lo Wei’s powerful kung fu film is ripe with anti-Japanese hysteria, and there is not a single pleasant Japanese character in the movie – unlike Gordon Chan’s remake Fist of Legend.

But politics aside, this is a riotous Bruce Lee vehicle, kicking out trademarks and smashing teeth in the process. The revenge plot (based on factual events) has Lee’s sifu poisoned by a rival Japanese school in turn of the century Shanghai. All of which acts as a fine excuse to string together a great succession of fight sequences.

Lee’s majesty of touch with the fight choreography shows …

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Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

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Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

Highly romanticised American biopic of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, grossly inaccurate and overly sentimental but also highly engaging, packed to the brim with Lee-like kung fu fighting. Released to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of his death, the film offers the uninitiated a window – if a little frosted – into the life and times of the fallen star.

Hawaiian actor Jason Scott Lee plays the Little Dragon from his formative years in Hong Kong to his student days in Seattle, where he meets and marries Linda (Holly) and tries with muted success to make it in Hollywood …

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Ninja Wars (1982)

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Ninja Wars (1982)

Mad jidaigeki from the Sonny Chiba school of crazy. Evil Lord Donjo (Akira Nakao) is visited by a creepy floating soothsayer and told he will control the world if he wins the heart of the Shogun’s daughter. He enlists the help of five ‘devil monks’, each possessing bizarre supernatural skills, to kidnap the girl from the loving arms of young ninja Jotaro (Sanada). The assassination squad use slightly unorthodox combating techniques, like the mastery of a boomerang sithe and a gross projectile vomiting trick which douses unsuspecting adversaries in a highly corrosive yellow gunge. Just when you think the film …

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Legendary Weapons of China (1982)

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Legendary Weapons of China (1982)

Another righteous morality tale from the Lau family. Here, reckless youth fail to adhere to their forefathers and unscrupulous governments threatened by inadequacy take desperate measures to combat the new world order.

Boxer Rebellion, China: black magic is considered the only defence against the force of foreign artillery. A trio of brainwashed and deeply committal spiritual boxers (one of which tears off his own penis as a sign of his unwavering loyalty) follow governmental decree and vow to hunt out and kill the legendary traitor Lui Gung – former head of the Black Magic Unit and master of all 18 weapons of …

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The Big Boss (1971)

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The Big Boss (1971)

In Bruce Lee’s starring role debut he plays Cheng Chao-an, a country bumpkin sent to Thailand with his uncle to visit his cousins who work at the local ice factory. When drugs are discovered in one of the ice blocks, the finders (two of Cheng’s cousins) go missing and Cheng is quick to investigate. The big boss of the factory is soon discovered to be a part time hustler as more cousins start turning up in ice blocks with various body parts removed. Cheng is forced to break his celibacy of violence and confront the evil doers in a blood …

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Enter the Dragon (1973)

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Enter the Dragon (1973)

The one that started it all. Robert Clouse’s action classic is the kung fu movie that even people who don’t like kung fu movies have seen. The now legendary Bruce Lee vehicle turned the 32 year old martial artist into an international superstar, only for him to die six days before its release.

Devised as a formulaic James Bond style spy movie with lashings of martial arts mayhem, the story concerns Shaolin monk Lee (Bruce) who is sent undercover by British intelligence to infiltrate the deadly island of Han (Shek Kin) – a reclusive, one-handed drug trafficking meanie who holds a …

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