New Dragon Inn (1992) Movie Review

The thing about New Dragon Inn is, I really don’t care all that much for the movie or its ridiculous plot. Still, I can’t bring myself to completely dislike it, if only for the appearance of Brigitte Lin as Mo Yan, a female warrior who is the real heart of the movie. Without Lin’s character,...

February 5th, 2002 | Read More

Hana-Bi (1997) Movie Review

Detective Nishi (Takeshi Kitano) is having a very bad week. It starts with the death of his 4-year old daughter, which leads to his wife’s hospitalization and discovery that she has terminal cancer, and while visiting his wife, Nishi’s partner, and best friend Horibe (Ren Osugi), who Nishi...

January 26th, 2002 | Read More

Hot War (1998) Movie Review

I’m not a big fan of movies that shows more than one scene of someone typing on a computer keyboard. I have been using computers for over 10 years and unless I’m writing on a word document (say, this review right now) both of my hands are never on the keyboard at once and typing away. When...

January 21st, 2002 | Read More

Full-Time Killer (2001) Movie Review

Full-Time Killer concerns a professional assassin named O (Takashi Sorimachi), a Japanese living in Hong Kong (although he doesn’t speak Chinese) and happens to be the top assassin in Asia. All of Asia’s most lucrative murder contracts go through O because he’s known for his efficiency...

January 18th, 2002 | Read More

Violent Cop (1989) Movie Review

Azuma (Takeshi Kitano) is a 20th century cop living in a country still mired in the traditions of the past. Rookie cops kowtow to the veterans at every turn and even the homicidal drug dealers respect their crime boss. But Azuma isn’t your average cop — he’s prone to violence and perhaps,...

January 17th, 2002 | Read More

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) Movie Review

Blood: The Last Vampire is my second Japanimation in as many days. Blood is a cinematic feature that runs just over 45 minutes long. In Japan, this would be akin to a movie-of-the-week, since animation is considered a movie art form there, not just another weekend morning cartoon show as it is here in...

January 9th, 2002 | Read More

Ring 2 (1998) Movie Review

Thirty minutes into Ring 2 and my only thoughts were, “The director really shouldn’t have hired a woman with a bum leg to play the female lead.” This thought surfaced because of the female lead’s complete lack of personality and inability to invoke enthusiasm. The actress playing...

January 8th, 2002 | Read More

The Hidden Fortress (1958) Movie Review

Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress’ full name is actually The 3 Villains of the Hidden Fortress, and in interviews of the past, George Lucas of Star Wars fame has admitted that there were elements of his space opus that were based on this Kurosawa film. Fortress once again teams Kurosawa...

January 8th, 2002 | Read More

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Movie Review

As the saying goes, Children do and say the strangest things. I couldn’t tell you if I ever saw a big furry creature that resembles a real-life teddy bear when I was 4 or 7 years old. Then again, I have never lived in the country (or anywhere with a lot of trees, for that matter) and I’ve...

January 8th, 2002 | Read More

Fly Me to Polaris (1999) Movie Review

Fly Me to Polaris is a Hong Kong remake of the 1978 Warren Beatty movie Heaven Can Wait, which was itself a remake of the 1941 movie Here Comes Mister Jordan. Chris Rock would later redo the formula in Down to Earth in 2001 with mixed results. All 4 movies have essentially the same basic premise and...

January 5th, 2002 | Read More

Full Contact (1992) Movie Review

Ringo Lam’s Full Contact is a There’s No Honor Among Thieves Movie, a genre of film categorized by the presence of an anti-hero (that is, he’s a criminal but he’s also the hero of the piece) and the betrayal of that anti-hero by his co-horts — he’s double-crossed and...

January 5th, 2002 | Read More

A Man Called Hero (1999) Movie Review

A Man Called Hero’s biggest problem is its lack of focus. The movie meanders from one plot to another, returns to a previous plot to tie up loose ends, then meanders to tie up another loose plot, while leaving a half dozen other plots unresolved. At slightly over 90 minutes, a movie with too much...

December 28th, 2001 | Read More

A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987) Movie Review

Ascant one year after the tremendous success of its original, A Better Tomorrow, theaters around the world were treated to A Better Tomorrow II. Although I think a better title might have been, It’s Still a Better Tomorrow (tongue firmly in cheek, of course). The movie is incredibly rough around...

December 27th, 2001 | Read More

Iron Monkey (1993) Movie Review

Iron Monkey is a tale of two movies. First, let me assure you that “writing credits” in Hong Kong action films are a secondary (if that) concern. Movies are “envisioned” and then shot and “written” while the movie is in-production. This is the case with Iron Monkey,...

December 22nd, 2001 | Read More

Nightmares in Precinct 7 (2001) Movie Review

There is an infamous tradition in Hong Kong cinema to take Hollywood movies and turn them into Chinese movies. Jet Li did it with The Bodyguard from Beijing, which converted the Kevin Costner movie, The Bodyguard. There are a host of other movies, too numerous to mention. Most of the times these “conversions”...

December 17th, 2001 | Read More

Yojimbo (1961) Movie Review

After reviewing Akira Kurosawa’s masterful “Seven Samurai” I thought I’d go back and review his other masterpieces. “Yojimbo” is similar to “Samurai” in many respects, but is also vastly different, in that there is only one main character here, the Yojimbo...

December 4th, 2001 | Read More

The Storm Riders (1998) Movie Review

There is something to be said about a movie which has a hero who, when faced with certain defeat, decides to tear off his own arm and use it as a weapon against his opponent to secure his escape so he can fight another day. That’s the kind of imaginative scene that exists in abundance in The Storm...

December 3rd, 2001 | Read More

The Bodyguard from Beijing (1994) Movie Review

Obviously, as the title implies, Jet Li’s character is a Communist Chinese, and in a weird twist of plot machinations which I am still at a lost to understand, is either requested or ordered to proceed to British-controlled Hong Kong to protect Cheung’s character, a big-name singer/famous...

December 1st, 2001 | Read More

Attack on the Gas Station (1999) Movie Review

Ahe plot of “Gas Station” is a simple one. Four robbers, whose name escapes me, (and maybe that’s because they’re rarely mentioned in the movie) have come to a gas station to rob it for the second time that day. The station’s manager, believing there is no way the robbers...

November 24th, 2001 | Read More

Drunken Master 2 (1994) Movie Review

Let it be said that Jackie Chan, the undisputed “Clown Prince of Kung-fu,” is a good stuntman. Let it also be said that Jackie Chan, the actor, is a one-trick pony. Then, let it be said that “Drunken Master 2″ (re-titled “Legend of Drunken Master” for re-release in...

November 16th, 2001 | Read More