Expect the Unexpected (1998) Movie Review

Movies like Patrick Yau’s Expect the Unexpected needs to be seen to be believed, because it’s so good and yet so, so bad. Is such a thing even possible, you ask? Yes, Virginia, it is. Expect the Unexpected is a movie that looks like a TV show trying to fake its way into being a low-budget...

April 11th, 2002 | Read More

In the Mood for Love (2000) Movie Review

Hong Kong writer/director Wong Kar-wai finally ditches the constraints of lousy Hong Kong filmstock and his film has never looked, or sounded, better. With his latest movie, “In the Mood for Love”, Wong has completely shed any semblance of “fake action” that existed in the two...

April 10th, 2002 | Read More

Chungking Express (1994) Movie Review

Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express is a romance picture with traces of Everybody’s Related conventions (see Fast Food, Fast Women for explanation). The movie is shot in standard (and dare I say it, awful) Hong Kong filmstock which means much of the film is scratched, there are unintentional...

April 9th, 2002 | Read More

Purple Storm (1999) Movie Review

In the past few years, there has been a shift in Hong Kong filmmaking towards a more Westernized standard. Films in this group have included Gordon Chan’s 2000 A.D. and Jackie Chan’s The Accidental Spy. Both films are centered around “high-concept” plot, an integration of high-tech...

April 2nd, 2002 | Read More

Wing Chun (1994) Movie Review

Some day someone will do a serious study of woman’s roles in Ancient China, but until then, we have Yuen Woo-ping’s Wing Chun to keep us busy. Wing Chun stars action mistress Michelle Yeoh (Supercop) as the titular character, a kung fu master in a small coastal town who defends the weak,...

March 28th, 2002 | Read More

Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997) Movie Review

As was the case with the original Once Upon a Time in China (heretofore known as OUATIC) I don’t expect a lot of historical accuracies in Chinese movies dealing with the “outside world.” It’s unfortunately a common problem with a lot of movies regardless of country of origin when...

March 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Gen-X Cops (1999) Movie Review

At one dangerous point in Benny Chan’s Gen-X Cops, the movie’s 3 protagonists, all undercover cops, find themselves surrounded by men with guns aimed at their heads. One of the cops, thinking fast, grabs the gangsters’ boss who is standing nearby and uses him as a human shield. The...

March 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Once Upon a Time in China (1991) Movie Review

Jet Li’s 1990s Hong Kong career had him reprising two parts, Fong Sai-yuk and Wong Fei-hung, in a series of films starring either character. Both are supposed to be real historical figures, although I’m quite sure that like Americans Billy the Kid and Jesse James, both Fong and Wong’s...

March 14th, 2002 | Read More

The Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors, 1993) Movie Review

I can’t tell you how many Hong Kong period martial arts movies I’ve seen, and I can’t tell you how many of those involves strangers joining a group of good rebels to fight the evil Imperial [insert imperial title here] in a country town. It’s all been done before, so much so that...

March 8th, 2002 | Read More

2000 A.D. (2000) Movie Review

Gordon Chan’s 2000 A.D. doesn’t represent your average Hong Kong film production. For one, one of its writers is a fellow name Stu Zicherman, a non-Chinese name as you’ll ever find. Zicherman shares screenplay credit with Chan, who adopted Zicherman’s English screenplay into Chinese....

February 26th, 2002 | Read More

Ballistic Kiss (1998) Movie Review

Ballistic Kiss is the kind of movie that we in the States refer to as “Vanity Projects.” Such projects usually involve a known actor, already famous and with an established name and reputation, who takes on multiple chores for the film, mostly as star, director, producer, and sometimes as...

February 24th, 2002 | Read More

Gen-Y Cops (2000) Movie Review

The “men” at the core of Gen-Y Cops are 3 Chinese cops who are supposed to be an “elite” squad that handles “all of Hong Kong’s toughest cases,” but the actors playing them look like they’re in their early ’20s and talk like they’re in their...

February 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Danger Zone (2003) Movie Review

“Danger Zone” is one of those movies so unconcern with being even slightly competent that you just have to tip your hat to it, because to do otherwise would drive one insane. Take this scene, which occurs about 30 minutes into the movie: a woman, seeking to distract some cops in the living...

February 22nd, 2002 | Read More

Ashes of Time (1994) Movie Review

Wong Kar-wai’s “Ashes of Time” is a rare film. It manages to be complex, thoughtful, and incredibly entertaining at the same time. Based on a novel of the same name by Louis Cha, “Ashes of Time” is truly an amazing film, one of the best, if not the best, Hong Kong melodrama/action...

February 16th, 2002 | Read More

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

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

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