The Imp (1981) Movie Review

Director Dennis Yu’s “The Imp” is a Hong Kong horror film from the early 1980s, which comes with the heady boast of being one of the all-time genre greats from its native country. Whilst this may sound like a rather immodest claim, it is certainly true that the film has garnered a fair...

February 23rd, 2005 | Read More

Seoul Raiders (2005) Movie Review

Jingle Ma’s “Seoul Raiders”, the sequel to his semi-hit “Tokyo Raiders”, is not so completely without merit that it finds itself tagged as a movie in search of a purpose. To be sure, it’s nothing you couldn’t live without, and is certainly nothing you should...

February 18th, 2005 | Read More

Night Corridor (2003) Movie Review

“Night Corridor” is a film which takes itself very seriously, striving for significance and desperately trying its best to convince the viewer of its intelligence and cunning. Unfortunately, although writer/director Julian Lee has created a moderately effective “Angel Heart”-style...

February 17th, 2005 | Read More

Ebola Syndrome (1996) Movie Review

Even within the most dependable bastion of bad taste known as the category III genre of Hong Kong cinema, there are a few films which stand out as having a reputation for being truly offensive. “Ebola Syndrome” is one of the most notorious examples of this, a film with enough nauseating violence...

February 15th, 2005 | Read More

Leave me Alone (2004) Movie Review

“Leave me Alone” is Danny Pang’s companion piece to brother Oxide’s “Ab-normal Beauty”, the two films linked by a tragic car accident which has far reaching effects on the lives of all those involved. Whilst the latter film focused on the impact of the incident on...

February 11th, 2005 | Read More

Distinctive (2002) Movie Review

In times like these, when Western cinema screens are plagued with vapid, money grabbing remakes of vastly superior Asian films, it is vaguely comforting to find the likes of “Distinctive”, which provides positive proof that such unwanted traffic travels in both directions. The film is modeled...

February 10th, 2005 | Read More

Kung Fu Hustle (2005) Movie Review

There hasn’t been a more highly anticipated film in recent years than “Kung Fu Hustle”, the latest action/comedy offering from Hong Kong’s Stephen Chow (“Shaolin Soccer”). Upon release, the movie broke box office records, and a sequel is already being talked up, even...

January 25th, 2005 | Read More

Ab-normal Beauty (2004) Movie Review

Ever since the global success of “The Eye”, the Pang brothers have become an increasingly hot property, and despite having only a few films under their collective belts, are now two of the most established and well-known names in Hong Kong cinema. For their latest efforts, whilst still giving...

January 20th, 2005 | Read More

We’re Going to Eat You (1980) Movie Review

Tsui Hark is one of the all time greats of Hong Kong martial arts cinema, having been responsible for undisputed genre classics such as “Zu Warriors” and “Peking Opera Blues”. Unfortunately, his output in recent years has been somewhat patchy, including a number of dire Van Damme...

January 18th, 2005 | Read More

Last Ghost Standing (1999) Movie Review

Horror comedies have always been popular in Hong Kong cinema, and the sub genre has produced a number of classic films such as Sammo Hung’s “Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and the enduring “Mr. Vampire” series. These films have a uniquely Asian feel to them, combining...

December 25th, 2004 | Read More

Deadly Camp (1999) Movie Review

Along with the likes of “Bloody Beach” and “The Record”, “The Deadly Camp” is another Eastern take on that most venerable of cinematic forms, the U.S. slasher film, and is further proof that the recent flood of remakes and rip-offs is by no means a one way traffic....

December 9th, 2004 | Read More

Devil Touch (2002) Movie Review

Director Billy Tang is best known for category III classics such as “Red to Kill” and “Dr. Lamb”, and since the majority of his less graphic films have been disappointingly pedestrian, it is with understandable trepidation that we come to “Devil Touch”. Alarm bells...

November 29th, 2004 | Read More

Dr. Lamb (1992) Movie Review

“Dr. Lamb” is a classic of the category III genre, and one of its most influential, trailblazing films, which helped establish the template that so many of the subsequent rip offs would slavishly adhere to. Released shortly before the genre’s defining moment, “The Untold Story”,...

November 27th, 2004 | Read More

A-1 (2004) Movie Review

“A-1″ proves my theory that any movie with Anthony Wong in a prominent role can’t possibly be bad. More old fashion mystery than thriller, “A-1″ stars Angelica Lee (the driving engine of “The Eye”) as Ling, a fashion reporter who discovers that her ex-boyfriend,...

November 26th, 2004 | Read More

The Big Brawl (aka Battle Creek Brawl, 1980) Movie Review

“Rumble in the Bronx” wasn’t Jackie Chan’s first attempt to break into the western market. Fifteen years earlier, Hollywood’s search for the next Bruce Lee brought Chan to American screens via “Battle Creek Brawl”, more commonly known as “The Big Brawl”,...

November 25th, 2004 | Read More

Daughter of Darkness (1993) Movie Review

Even in the rancid depths of category III cinema, there is bad taste, and then there is bad taste. Ivan Lei, director of such redoubtable classics as “Ancient Chinese Whorehouse” and “The Peeping Tom”, is a master of bad taste of the highest order. His seminal “Daughter...

November 16th, 2004 | Read More

Chinese Torture Chamber 2 (1998) Movie Review

Wong Jing’s original “Chinese Torture Chamber Story” was an undisputed classic of the Category III genre, and one of the few which enjoyed any kind of mainstream success or recognition. Given this, and the veritable swamp of similar sleaze films already available for discerning fans,...

November 9th, 2004 | Read More

Yesterday Once More (2004) Movie Review

While watching Johnnie To’s “Yesterday Once More”, I kept waiting for someone to pull a gun. And why not? To has, in recent years, almost single-handedly kept Hong Kong in the action movie game. The king of the crime genre has returned in 2004 with not one, not two, but three movies...

November 4th, 2004 | Read More

Three: Extremes (2004) Movie Review

The release of the Asian horror anthology “Three…Extremes” on DVD comes as a bit of a dilemma to international moviegoers who had already seen one of the three stories, Fruit Chan’s “Dumplings”, when it was released earlier in full-length version. As with the original...

November 1st, 2004 | Read More

Legendary Weapons of China (1981) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) At the turn of the 20th century, China is in chaos as foreign imperialists move in and divide the country into neat little pieces to exploit. This leads to the rise of quasi-religious societies/cult militias made up of Chinese “Boxers,” warriors bent on expelling...

November 1st, 2004 | Read More