Gorgeous (1999) Movie Review

Leave it to Jackie Chan to do a romantic comedy and not have a single kissing scene in the entire thing. (Unless you count the film’s outtakes, which play over the end credits; one of them features Chan kissing co-star Qi Shu during an underwater scene.) “Gorgeous” is a straight comedy...

January 18th, 2003 | Read More

Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2001) Movie Review

Besides the title and the presence of a man wearing Kato-inspired threads, “Black Mask 2: City of Masks” has little in common with the original “Black Mask” starring Jet Li. The original was produced/co-written by Hong Kong action mainstay Tsui Hark (”Time and Tide”),...

January 13th, 2003 | Read More

Naked Weapon (2002) Movie Review

Imagine my surprise when “Naked Weapon”, a movie written by Jing Wong, the man behind such lackluster fare as “The Duel” and “High Risk”, turned out to be one of the more entertaining films I’ve seen in a long while. The movie, about young girls abducted (some...

January 7th, 2003 | Read More

So Close to Paradise (1998) Movie Review

I must admit that the Chinese film “So Close to Paradise” surprised me. At first I found the film to be lacking and uninteresting and its acting to be spotty at times. But as the film progressed, its story drew me in, and its characters became people I could believe in and feel for. The film...

December 9th, 2002 | Read More

Enforcer (aka My Father is a Hero, 1995) Movie Review

Besides offering us a chance to see Jet Li pretend he knows how to smoke (which he really doesn’t, natch), “Enforcer” (or “My Father is a Hero”, which is the more appropriate title in my opinion) is a pretty standard Hong Kong action movie. Which is to say its plot is outlandish...

November 29th, 2002 | Read More

Sausalito (2000) Movie Review

“Sausalito” is a Hong Kong movie starring Chinese actors, but set entirely in San Francisco. The film is essentially a Romance, but not a Romantic Comedy since there’s little comedy to be had. It stars the delightful Maggie Cheung as Ellen, a single mother and cab driver who dreams...

October 26th, 2002 | Read More

2002 (2001) Movie Review

Nicholas Tse (Time and Tide) stars as Chiu, the only cop in a department within the Hong Kong Police Department designated “2002″ that deals with supernatural occurrences around the city. (Don’t ask, I don’t know the significance of the title, and the movie never elaborates.)...

September 26th, 2002 | Read More

Devil Face, Angel Heart (2002) Movie Review

Question: How do you know a film has little (to no) faith in its screenplay (re: its story)? Answer: When the screenwriter’s name doesn’t even appear in the opening credits, you know you’re in trouble. In fact, if a Gaffer (!) appears in the credits, but your screenwriter doesn’t,...

August 22nd, 2002 | Read More

The Killer (1989) Movie Review

“The Killer” marks probably the best Yun-Fat/Woo team up as star/director, respectively. After the runaway success of “A Better Tomorrow,” the two men became international sensations, and “The Killer” solidified their reputations for all time. “The Killer,”...

August 22nd, 2002 | Read More

Princess D (2001) Movie Review

About halfway through the Hong Kong drama “Princess D,” a character that has suffered a mental breakdown is visiting her incarcerated husband; in a heartbreaking scene, the woman silently tries (but is unable) to understand why there is a glass partition between her and her husband, and although...

July 20th, 2002 | Read More

My Schoolmate the Barbarian (2002) Movie Review

I’m always a little hesitant to assume things about foreign popular culture that I’ve never studied in-depth (i.e. college courses). Hong Kong is one of those places. I bring this up only because the movie “My Schoolmate the Barbarian” takes place in what I assume is some sort...

July 11th, 2002 | Read More

Hit Team (2001) Movie Review

The most infuriating thing about Dante Lam’s Hit Team is that it’s obviously not a low budget production, and yet so little time and effort was spent on the English translations that one wonders if there is one person in all of Hong Kong that knows proper English. Why oh why couldn’t...

July 10th, 2002 | Read More

Swordsman (1990) Movie Review

“Swordsman” is your standard Hong Kong-produced period martial arts movie. All the conventions of the genre are present, including the always popular girl mistaken for man because she wears man’s clothes big (this “confusion” will become comedy fodder at various intervals);...

July 9th, 2002 | Read More

The Eye (2002) Movie Review

The phrase “Two minds are better than one” seems to hold sway when it comes to sibling filmmakers. Which might explain the recent boom in multiple filmmakers from the same family attached to the same film project. America boasts almost a half dozen that comes immediately to mind, with the...

July 5th, 2002 | Read More

Legend of the Wolf (1997) Movie Review

Donnie Yen’s “Legend of the Wolf” is an absurdly amusing and immensely enjoyable failure. It’s a failure in that its efforts to tell a story comes up lacking and the core of its purpose for being — its action — is a mixed bag of high-octane martial arts showcase and...

July 4th, 2002 | Read More

Legend of Speed (1999) Movie Review

As the saying goes, it is a stupid man who keeps coming back for more punishment from the same source. I am that stupid man, since Legend of Speed is the second movie directed by Andrew Lau and starring Ekin Cheng that I have seen in as many days. Why, oh why, did I not learn my lesson? Legend of Speed...

June 23rd, 2002 | Read More

The Duel (2000) Movie Review

I don’t give out 1-star ratings often (and in fact, I can count all the movies I have given 1-star ratings to on one hand), because I usually reserve them for special occasions. Andrew Lau’s The Duel is the kind of movie that leaves you with your jaw on the floor — for the simple reason...

June 22nd, 2002 | Read More

First Shot (1993) Movie Review

Back in the “˜80s and “˜90s, you could walk into a Hong Kong video store and walk out with a dozen movies like David Lam’s First Shot. You could go back the very next day and come out with another dozen, all-new films in the same genre. The point is, movies like First Shot are a dime...

June 18th, 2002 | Read More

High Risk (aka Meltdown, 1995) Movie Review

Many Hong Kong filmmakers and filmgoers are addicted to what I like to call Absurdist Hong Kong — a subgenre of Hong Kong-produced action/comedy films that seems to describe 2 out of every 3 Hong Kong films I’ve seen over my lifetime. The main conventions of Absurdist HK films is a sequence...

May 29th, 2002 | Read More

Black Mask (1996) Movie Review

Movies like Jet Li’s Black Mask is the kind of film that gave Hong Kong its reputation as an industry unconcern with story but addicted to adrenaline-inducing action. The film, directed by Daniel Lee and written by an army of screenwriters, is a Chinese Superhero tale that like many other Hong...

May 24th, 2002 | Read More