2 comments about Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog.

1. On almost every website I've seen with martial arts movie reviews, this film has been panned as been not that great in terms of the martial arts quality or content. Usually the ending is what people recommend about this film the most, but overall, it usually gets 2 or 3 out of 5 stars type of reviews. Personally, I strongly disagree. Sure, when you stack it up against films like Prodigal Boxer or Magnificent Butcher, it looks rather slow and archaic. But this film was made in 1978. High speed action was still in its early stages. There are plenty of martial arts scenes speckled throughout this film. Again, they are not up to the par of Sammo's later films in terms of speed and intricacy, but they are good watching, none-the-less. I actually liked the first fight scene at the beginning of the film, where we almost get to see all of the Legendary Weapons of China, to quote another film Lau Kar Wing was in. They pull out weapon after weapon fighting each other. Actually, the whole film features a lot of different traditional Chinese weapons, which is interesting to see. Don't know if it was intentional. I liked seeing Sammo in action using the three-sectioned staff. Normally, I've seen him using swords and poles, so it was the first time I saw him use the multi-jointed pole. And he's great! Too bad he didn't use that weapon in more films.
   Another cool thing about this film are all the 'cameos' by many stuntmen/actors who would go on later to star in Sammo's films or films associated with him. It's fun picking out guys like Meng Hoi, Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying. The only guy who is conspicuously absent is Leung Kar Yan. I guess he was busy. ;>)
   Overall, this is a fun film, with enough martial arts to keep a fan of the genre entertained.



2. This is a simple comedy where the characters are constantly doublecrossing eachother which leads to plenty of kung fu fights. Sammo plays a man who married an 80 year old lady so that he could steal her famed Invincible Armor. After successfully stealing it, he gets it taken by a young woman who tricks him into going into her bedroom. Sammo's wife hires Lau Kar Wing to track him down, but after finding out about the armor, Lau Wing decides to help Sammo. After they get the armor back, Lau Wing doublecrosses Sammo and takes it for himself. Sammo then gets it back, but then it gets taken by the evil White Brow Monk played by Lee Hoi San. Jason Pai Paio (Tiger) plays one of his main henchmen, and Dean Shek (Panther) plays the other giving a hilarious performance. The movie is also filled with a ton of small roles from countless actors including Fung Hak-on, Chan Lung, Hsiao Ho, Alan Chui, Yuen Biao, Mars, Lam Ching Ying, Hoi Meng, Chung Fat, and the mantis fist teacher from Thundering Mantis Chien Yuet Sang.
   
   The action is just about as good as it gets for the time it was made. Most of the fights are pure comedy, but the choreography is extremely intricate. Watching some of these scenes, it is easy to see why Sammo has so many physical problems these days. Sammo is one of a kind when going off on a room full of people. This may be his very best all around athletic performance, and being Lau Wing's horse is no small task either! And if you don't know who Sammo Hung is, then all I can tell you is that he is not exatly a small man, yet he pulls off moves that will make your jaw drop. The best part of the movie is when the 90 minute feature ends with Sammo and Lau Wing defeating the villain, and then they have their own duel.
   
   The Invincible Armor is a key element to the story, and you will be wondering why they don't just punch or stab in the face instead of the stomach, but there is so much fun in this movie that it can easily be forgiven.
   
   4.5/5
   
   DVD from Mei Eh has good sound and picture quality.

1 comments about Legend of the Dragon.

1. Huang Xiao Ming stars as a young man who finds himself always being bullied. Timmy Hung plays his friend and they go to learn kung fu from Xiao Ming's long lost father (played by Sammo Hung). Right after he finds his dad, his mom comes and takes him away. The movie is very boring up to this point with mildy funny Cantonese comedy, but then Sammo runs after the bus his son and ex-wife are on and this scene blew me away. Sammo may be a fat man with ridiculously good kung fu skills, but he has always been a very good actor and really gets to show off in this scene. This is a light comedy-drama, and Sammo fits right in. Timmy Hung's comedic performance is not too bad. He is Sammo's son in real life and plays the young man that Donnie Yen handicapped in Kill Zone.
   
   Xiao Ming ends up accepting a challenge from his bully, and the bully's teacher is a karate master who wants to challenge his old rival, Sammo. And the karate master is played by Leung Kar Yan! I liked the fight, but just because it was such a joy to see Leung and Sammo on screen together again. It is only an average fight. If it wasn't shot so close up it could have been much better.
   
   The final fight is good. Xiao Ming is not a kung fu master in the movie, and he is facing a karate champion. The choreography is only average, but I liked how they kept the scene believable.
   
   The movie ends with the villain realizing his mistakes, and it ends on a very light note. No surprises whatsoever in the whole movie. Only one good scene with Sammo, and a couple of decent fights. The rest of the movie is something you would watch on Lifetime.
   
   There is an artistic attempt to show kung fu using special graphics showing the lungs breathing. It is also a love story, and while it is not bad, the story is not very interesting. It is really hard to recommend this to anyone. I suppose local Hong Kong audiences would probably enjoy it.
   
   I enjoyed the soundtrack, but unfortunately there are no subtitles for the songs.
   
   2/5
   
   The DVD from Cinema Epoch has slightly above average picture quality. The original soundtrack sounds good enough, and the subtitles are well written.

3 comments about Burger Cop: AKA: Don't Give a Damn.

1. My major objection to this DVD is that it was made from the VCD of the same title. VCD is a popular format in Asia, and most Hong Kong films on VCD (and DVD) have two available dialogue tracks; Cantonese and Mandarin. VCD players allow you to choose which you want. But when you burn a DVD from a VCD source, which is what hapened here, you get BOTH languages running constantly. It inspires a kind of linguistic epilepsy. I'm sure I could have manipulated my video system to get only one, which is what I do with VCDs, but THIS IS A DVD. Granted a DVD whose licensing rights must be as dubious as their packaging; I've seen better looking bootlegs. The film itself is widescreen, but because its a copy of a VCD made from a pretty washed out print, the picture quality is low. The only memorable thing about the film is some jaw-droppingly racist plot machinations: Yuen Biao and Takeshi Kaneshiro put on blackface to fool an African American villain into thinking one of them is his brother. Yuen Biao wins this dubious honor by defeating Kaneshiro in a 'quiz' about Black people; the questions and answers are practically unrepeatable. The worst part of it is that the villain actually is fooled. Luckily for me, I bought this only for the above mentioned material, which I needed for a research study. Otherwise _I_ was thoroughly fooled by this DVD.



2. SAMO OWNS ALL!!! BUY THIS AND LOVE IT!!!1YOU CANT LIKE MARTIAL ARTS AND NOT LIKE THIS MOVIE!!



3. On the minus side, it appears to have been filmed on a cell phone, the sound was processed in an underwater echo chamber and the subtitles were created by someone who is clearly not a native English speaker. And there's a scene in blackface which keeps referring to African-Americans as negroes. On the plus side, Kaneshiro Takeshi. And it's a sort of charming window into lowbrow Hong Kong humor. Did I mention Kaneshiro Takeshi?

5 comments about A Chinese Ghost Story.

1. This movie is for kids, and in that sense, it does a fine job. Not too scary, a little silly/funny, but a moving storyline. There are some oddities that probably resulted from translation, and it may be more compelling in its native language (some of the songs seemed particularly odd), but it was, all in all, an engaging and entertaining movie.



2. I found this quirky little gem at a local video store that specializes in foreign, independent, and classic films. Having exhausted much of the anime and Far East categories, I decided to give this one a chance, even though I had looked over it dozens of times before.
   
   I'm a huge fan of animation in all its forms, so when this piece began, I was bombarded by awkward, bulky CGI images playing as a background to the traditional 2-D approach to animation. Normally, I'd find that sort of thing appalling (hey, if the styles clash, they clash) but at the same time, the odd mixture seemed to work in a very surreal sense and heightened my dedication to the story, which, as it turns out, was about China, ghosts, and a bunch of mystical weirdness that really seemed to draw strength from its bizarre visual scizophrenia.
   
   And then there was the story. Firstly, you've got your underdog who is dense as a rock, but ultimately a good guy, his love interest, who is kind of a retread of that old "bar girl with a heart of gold" character you'd see in old Western movies, three bumbling enemies who start out trying to destroy the underdog's ghost girlfriend but end up mainly fighting each other, and, of course, the vain villainess whose only goal in life (death?) is to hang on to her youth. What kid's flick would have been complete without her, after all? Apparently, kid vehicles in China work much as they do here, in that there was also a cute, anthropomorphic dog sidekick that would drop over or growl or bat his eyelashes comically whenever the situation demanded it. Despite the formula, I found his antics charming, and only ended up liking his character more after I learned that director Tsui Hark provided all his grunts, snarls, and whimpers!
   
   There's definitely something about the idea of a living man and a dead woman being in love--it's that darned Romeo & Juliet star-crossed lovers thing, again!--that stirs the romantic in me, so I found myself really rooting for Ning and SiuSeen's cause when they decided that the best way for them to be together was for them to be reincarnated and try to find one another on earth after their births.
   
   So basically what it comes down to is that it looks weird, feels weird, sounds weird, and that the weirdness is wonderful to experience. I could safely liken it to some of Tim Burton's films, if you really need an American equivalent to get a better idea of what you're in for. But it's still kind of a loose comparison; just check it out for yourself, and I'm sure you'll have more fun with it than you're expecting.



3. It is such a valueless gem produced by Pioneer and Tsui Hark and all the other excellent staff.
   The tune companies every single step of the story and reveal the true feeling between the two lovers.
   Ning is rare for his trueness and loyality and hard to find in reality, who is almost a perfect male for love. And Xiao Cian is just characterised as a super ghost, if more plots and stories added to enrich Xiao Cien that she sacraficed something for Ning, e.g. the scene she grabbing Ning out of "Black Mountian". This story will be perfect. However, this is just an animation for teenagers but not for adults, such a balance between male and female characters is necessary for girls.
   the ending song "Evening Fly" is such a diamond to summarize the "silver-shining" story.
   In all, it just tells you: True love can never be too far away.



4. It starts out extremely lame. that is compared to the rest of the story. This movie is for kids not adults for laughter and not too scary. the animation is good for a 1997 movie. This movie was not made in China but in Japan. I love seeing the ghostbusters having powers.



5. Despite the fact that A Chinese Ghost Story is actually a Chinese production (made in Hong Kong in fact), it's always being classified as an anime everywhere online. If you're still in doubt, you can check the DVD release and see that the only language tracks available are Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Anyhow, I'll be joining the internet bandwagon by placing this review on the anime index.
   
   The first thing I noticed about A Chinese Ghost Story is the youthful look of the characters. Our hero Ning looks like a 10-year old boy (although he's actually older than that) -- being the vertically-challenged and roundish-ly drawn character that he is. It's kind of hard to believe that he has a girlfriend and that they are of marrying age already (but then people did marry young in ancient China). The female characters look slightly older, maybe around their mid-teens. Ning is immediately attracted to the ghost Siu Seen, and Siu Seen in turn gradually falls for Ning... but theirs is a love that's not supposed to be -- and that becomes the main dilemma of this unique story.
   
   Things happen in a frenzied pace, and get a little too chaotic for my taste. In many scenes, the characters run, scream, fight, and jump around all at once. The art and animation are good. Although the character designs are on the cutesy side, vibrantly rendered visuals abound. The Chinese countryside comes alive with backgrounds that are computer generated, reminiscent of video game FMV sequences. The theme songs and music also add a nice touch. They are unmistakably Chinese in style (performed by popular Chinese artists) and tempo, which suits the film perfectly. The English dubbing is pretty decent, albeit in this case the Mandarin track (if watching the DVD) would give you a more authentic experience. A Chinese Ghost Story gives you a brief glimpse of the intricate and interesting world of Chinese mythology. It's a fairly solid title which the whole family can enjoy.

5 comments about The Legend of Zu [Region 2].

1. This movie's plot is a bit hard to follow (or pay attention to ) but the action and effects are absolutely incredible! I bought this movie because I absolutely loved Storm Riders and was hoping this would be as good if not better. You are better off renting it if possible.



2. This MOVIE is way ahead of its time. The special effects, or fireworks as some reviewers put it were well in advance of anything I've seen in Matrix, X-men, Hulk, Spiderman and the like. If your looking for a storyline, plot and all that pick up a book instead of watching a MOVIE. For action packed, VISUAL ectsasy this is one of the greats. CGI is the wave of the future for movies my friends. Hell, the CGI Smigel from LOTR almost got an Oscar didn't he?



3. Despite this movie being about 1. magic, 2. kung fu, 3. general weirdness and cheap funny props, 4. lots of flying in colorful outfits, 5. a spattering of cutie Chinese girls who also know magic- all of which attributes people who love kung fu think should/MUST be a really great combo- it was actually so boring to me (a diehard kung fu fan) and hard to follow that i didnt' want to watch anymore of it half way thru.
   
   It looked like a high-budget Chinese kung fu fantasy film from the 70's. Oh wait, it was.
   
   There was NOT a lot of fighting/kung fu, but there was a lot of flying around in funny colorful costumes and strange,convoluted dialogue.
   
   I got the impression they filmmakers were trying for something really epic, an -alien- Chinese mythology that didn't quite have the neatly-packaged-story nature of familiar, Western mythologies. In short, it make no sense and didtn' try to explain itself (nor should it)! It was a good try tho and if I were Chinese and kind of weird and living in the 70s i'd think the movie is like Chinese star wars.
   --
   One more thing:
   They used saran wrap enshrouded with packing tape to depict large broken blocks of ice. I mention this to attest to the early Tsui Hark's innovative set design and creative props. It was a neat although distracting way to cut costs. Also worthy of mention in this regard is the fake, incongruent, drawn cartoon lightning interleaved with fancy acrobatics and disjointed dialogue.



4. The original Hong Kong version really is an incredible piece of work. I enjoyed the heck out of it. However it does require that you view it with a certain frame of mind. Most importantly you have to understand that it is not a character drama. There is little range of depth to any of the characters. They exist only to serve their various roles in the story. Think of it as if it were a legend passed down through the ages (like classic Greek mythology). In such legends you always hear the story told through a series of actions and outcomes. You're never given any insight into what drives the characters and we never see more than one side of them. They just represent these sort of unchanging idealized personas. The stories that come from this are fascinating nevertheless. So in this way The Legend of Zu is literally told in the style of a legend.
   
   That said the story is actually quite awesome. The basic premise is again very, very similar to classic Greek mythology: There is a mythical mountain range in China called Zu. Its highest peak, shrouded in mists, reaches up into the heavens. This place is populated by immortal beings who, in their scattered temples, have devoted themselves to various schools of thought. Across centuries they've honed their skills in the martial arts and have attuned their spirits to the forces of the universe. It is their task to maintain order and balance in the universe so that man can live in harmony with nature. Their actions influence the fates of the mortals below. Trouble arises when an unstoppable entity of pure evil calling itself Insomnia threatens to overthrow the most powerful school in the heavens, the Omei clan, and throw the world into an eternity of discord.
   
   The story is steeped heavily in Chinese lore so some parts are a bit esoteric, granted, but for the most part it's easy to follow if you can just keep up with it. There is a user on imdb who wrote "The most soulful, spiritual film I've ever seen," and I think I might have to agree with him. One of the more interesting aspects of the mythology is that just as the warrior has a spirit, so too does his or her weapon. As the warrior achieves mastery with the weapon their two souls act as one; until finally their sword is no longer a physical object but rather an extension of the warrior's own spirit, capable of unleashing devastating effects and allowing the possessor to fly. The weapons are all so unique in form and function that it makes the battle scenes quite unlike anything you've ever seen before in a martial arts film.
   
   The visuals and CGI effects, while perhaps not up to the level of say Lord of the Rings, are utterly stunning to behold. Every frame is like a painting straight from the mind of a creative genius. Matched to the superlative audio the film is quite a treat for the senses. All of this carried along by an engaging, complex, epic narrative and we have ourselves a little gem of a film! But like I said - you have to be willing and able to both divorce yourself from western conventions and to appreciate the sensibilities and beliefs of a different culture. Step out of yourselves for an hour and fourty minutes and just allow yourselves to enjoy this fun, lighthearted spiritual journey into the world of Chinese legend!



5. ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (XIN SHUSHAN JIANXIA, featuring Bridgette Lin)is a film dating back to the 1980's and is NOT to be mixed up with the much more recent LEGEND OF ZU (SHUSHAN ZHUAN, in which Zhang Ziyi appears), which appeared a couple years back, even though both are directed by Tsui Hark and both are supposed to be (I want to emphasize: SUPPOSED to be) based on a long fantasy novel entitled SHUSHAN JIANXIA (SWORDFIGHTERS OF MT SHU) by Chinese author Huanzhu Louzhu (also named Li Shoumin; 1902 ~ 1961). Many of the reviewers here seem to get mixed up between the two movies. By the way, the novel's not yet translated into English, sorry -- even though I'm perfectly confident it's more than a match for Tolkien's trilogy in terms of content. :p (Certainly the novel has exerted a tremendous influence on later Chinese swordplay fiction, such as the work of Jin Yong or Louis Cha.)
   
   NEITHER movie is true to the original novel (which in my estimate would require at least five long films, serious). The films aren't even condensed versions of the novel. With both movies Tsui Hark has committed the unpardonable sin of whipping together a story with elements and characters selected almost at random from the novel, possibly even adding his own stuff, and naming the resultant hodge-podge after the novel itself. To give a couple examples of how Tsui Hark's movie departs from the novel, in the novel becoming a blood monster is a strictly voluntary matter; you must go through special training :p and can't become one merely by being 'infected' by a blood monster, as happens in the movie. (I don't remember the blood monster forming a coccoon of skulls around itself in the original novel, either.) Also, in the original story the green and violet twin swords were lost treasures discovered by accident by two GIRLS, NOT guarded by a female immortal who then handed them to two BOYS, as in the (earlier) film. And that's just two examples, mate.
   
   So does that automatically make ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN a bad film? Yes and no. Yes, because it's nothing short of sacrilege to mar a work of literature in this way. No, because the film actually does have a lot of cool and spectacular effects, such as fighting with swords of lightning ;) and the visually impressive and lovely interior of the palace/fort of the 'Ice Queen' (though I doubt these appear in the novel at all), and the film's own plot is not too bad, either (I personally would have much preferred that the 'Ice Queen' could eventually cure the hero who turned into a blood monster, though). Tsui Hark has a very annoying knack, however, for rushing the story so much that all you have to do is blink and you'll miss out on a huge chunk of what's going on. Can't you have at least a few slower and calmer moments, for Heaven's sake? (This gets even worse in LEGEND OF ZU, so much so the plot is in danger of being utterly lost to the viewer.) Also, sometimes the acting just doesn't feel emotionally appropriate. When you learn that your beloved martial arts teacher is in danger of turning into a blood monster and no one can do anything to help, what would you feel? How would you act? The one playing the role of the teacher's disciple in the film acted like a stupid idiot at the point of learning that hard truth. Really. Tsui Hark really should have known better, for goodness' sake. Also, would you not feel at least some sorrow when learning of your teacher's death, even though he has turned into an evil creature? In the film, the idiot apparently didn't. Yeah, he died, now let's move on. Sure, right.
   
   My overall assessment: superb graphics, passable plot, atrocious handling of human emotions. And that's not taking into consideration the violence done to the original novel.

5 comments about Jackie Chan Is the Prisoner.

1. I was disappointed with this movie - I was expecting some Kung Fu action centered around a plot, at least any plot. There is no plot in this movie. It's just The Day-To-Day Life In Prison, which soon gets rather boring and one begins to wonder what the point of the movie is. The ending doesn't really match with the rest of the movie - it's like watching two movies in one. Overall, there's not much kung fu action to be had in this movie. There's nearly more gun shootings than necessary and fist-fighting scenes. The dubbing is also the worst I have ever heard. No attempt has been made whatsoever to match the spoken words with the lip action. Sometimes, I wasn't even sure if it was the character speaking, since the mouth was closed most of the time and the tone of voice did not match the character's demeanor.
   
   If you need a movie to put you to sleep, this one will do the job.



2. Bottom line: Jackie Chan owed Jimmy Wang Yu a favor, but apparently so do a lot of people. I wouldn't recommend this movie, but do recommend reading about how it came about in Jackie's autobiography "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action".



3. This movie followed the typical 'jail house' plot line with both a cop and a gangster's murderer on the inside forming an unspoken, unportrayed alliance. The cinemography was average for a high budget martial arts flick (better than I expected it to be), and there is a delightful selection of great actors present. The title is quite misleading, as Jackie Chan may well be the least represented of the big names, and it left me wondering for the first 15 minutes if the publisher confused actors, as it took about that long for his first appearance. That being said, a change of title would likely raise the average rating of this movie, and I could see it easily gaining 3.5-4 stars.
   
   As alluded to earlier, Jackie Chan's roll in this movie is really something of a bit part. He has maybe a dozen lines of dialogue, and three fight scenes to my recollection (not counting the shoot-out). His total screen time is probably about 30 minutes.
   The discrepency of the title dealt with, the coreography is fairly good (though not on a par with Jackie's other movies), and the acting is convincing an enjoyable. The plot seems to get forgotten at times, and the direction seems a bit confused between trying to be an action flick and an emotional flick without giving enough screen time to either to satisfy. The dubbing sounds to be performed by native English speakers, and has some colorful dialogue.. unfortunately, the voices were not well chosen to match the actors they represented.
   
   All in all, I enjoyed this movie once I got over the part where I was trying to figure out how Jackie Chan tied into the story. Though the fight scenes do display some enjoyable martial arts, I would be quite hesitant to call this a martial arts movie; similarly, while there are several action scenes, I also doubt I would call this an action movie. Ultimately, it seemed to be a movie without focus... foruntately, the actors carried it and you are able to get engrossed just by watching the antics on a moment-by-moment basis.



4. The only reason to watch this movie is a pretty good acting performance by Andy Lau, a beautifully choreographed scene between Andy and Jackie, Sammo in a decent role, and the great Jimmy Wang Yu (one armed boxer, one armed swordsman) in a bit part. I thought the ending was just ridiculously stupid as was the entire movie.
   
   The commentary makes sure you will watch the dvd twice, but THAT IS IT!!!!! Commentary is not very exciting or anything btu is pretty good and is actually a tad more enjoyable than the movie itself. The guy who directed the Best of the Best movies does it and tells some prettty good stories.



5. i thought this was a great movie as the sceme gets deeper , i liked it alot as jacky chan was not the main character in the film but a host of characters put together make this a great film

1 comments about Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon.

1. This could be considered sort of a sequel to Enter the Fat Dragon. It doesn't feature the constant worship of Bruce Lee, but Sammo does fight and act the same way that he did in Enter the Fat Dragon. Sammo and Karl Maka star as cops who try to do their job well, but they are just a little too ready to fight with people. They end up getting in trouble and are fired. But they still want to bust a drug dealer. I don't know why I'm explaining the story, because it doesn't even matter. This movie is nonstop comedy and fighting. The comedy is good at times, though nothing great. The fights on the other hand are magnificent. Sammo must have been using some type of performance enhancement, because a fat man should not be able to move like that. All of the fights are good, and I mean really good. The only thing I was disappointed with was at the end where Mark Houghton and Sammo square off, and the fight seems to be cut way short. I've heard that there is a rare longer version of this movie that has the full fight scene, so I am going to have to track that down.
   
   4/5
   
   The Mei Eh DVD has pretty good picture quality and subtitles.

No comments about Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

1 comments about Broken Oath.

1. Definitely worth collecting. An old school chop sockey. Low on sense and plot. Good picture but not remastered. Not Ms Mao's best work but not the worst movie she's ever been in either. Do not buy this movie to see Sammo Hung though he's barely in it near the end of the movie in his typical bad guy-henchman role.

1 comments about The Dead and the Deadly.

1. I'm not sure if this was intended as a sequel to 'Encounters of The Spooky Kind'. I enjoyed this film a lot. Basically, it was about Sammo's character trying to avenge the death of one of his friends, played by Wu Ma, who he suspects was murdered.
   There isn't much fighting in this one, compared to the previous film. Sammo has one big fight scene in the middle, and that's pretty much it. But the comedy is hilarious, especially when he's going around town arguing with his ghost friend who no one else can see!
   Lam Ching Ying didn't do any fighting in this film. He pretty much played the same role (Taoist priest) he would go on to play in his Mr Vampire films.
   Overall, a fun movie, even though the ending is sudden - like jumping off some cliff.