Hong Kong Movie Reviews »
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...
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...
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...
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”...
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...
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...
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...
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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...
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...
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...
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...
Read More »Dance of a Dream (2001) Movie Review
When it comes to ballroom dancing, I’m an ant working around an anthill — re: I am clueless. Having said that, I couldn’t tell you if the actors in Andrew Lau’s Dance of a...
Read More »Tokyo Raiders (2000) Movie Review
Tokyo Raiders is an action/comedy that stars one of my favorite Hong Kong actors, Tony Leung, who plays a dashing private investigator/ spy/ government agent/ ladies man. Prolific actor Ekin Cheng once again rears...
Read More »Skyline Cruisers (2000) Movie Review
There are a lot of differences between a Heist film and a Caper film. A Caper film concerns itself with looking “cool” as its protagonists steal from or break into high-tech security systems, buildings,...
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Avenging Fist (2001) Movie Review
Hong Kong actor Ekin Cheng (Second Time Around) is prolific, but unfortunately it’s the kind of prolific that goes for quantity over quality. I can scarcely sit down to watch a Hong Kong film...
Read More »The Bride With White Hair 2 (1993) Movie Review
Ronny Yu’s The Bride With White Hair 2 is a good example of a sequel that shouldn’t have been, and the two White Hair films, put together, is a good example of a movie...
Read More »The Bride With White Hair (1993) Movie Review
The Bride With White Hair looks more like an overly produced and big budgeted stage play than an actual movie. As written and directed by Ronny Yu (with co-writer David Wu) The Bride With...
Read More »Young and Dangerous 6: Born to be King (2000) Movie Review
Young and Dangerous 6: Born to be King is the latest chapter in the Young and Dangerous series, which began in 1996 and has become something of a phenomenon in Hong Kong. There have...
Read More »Second Time Around (2001) Movie Review
My never-ending enthusiasm for Time Travel movies is one of the few things I can depend on about myself. Jeffrey Lau’s Second Time Around is a Time Travel movie, and like all Time Travel...
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China Strike Force (2003) Movie Review
As the writer/director of a movie you know you’ve done something grossly wrong when your audience would rather spend time with your villains than with your heroes. Such is the case with Stanley Tong’s...
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