No comments about China's Last Eunuch.

No comments about Eastern Condors.

1 comments about Burning Sensation.

1. Lai Yin San in Burning Sensation 1 - Getting world's attention This movie was made in the mid 80s when Lai Yin San got her miss Asia Pacific title just a few months away. In all happen at one night when a taxi driver was listening to some ghost story on radio and decided to end his work for the night. Suddenly, he saw a very beautiful lady on the street, long curly hair, wearing a silky blue dress with black high heels. He offers a ride. She got into the taxi, and the camera quickly zoomed onto her beautiful pair of legs.

   When the driver asked her where she wants to go, she replied "as you like". He said, "If I say we go to Kowloon would you?" She replied "Why not?" The she started rubbing her chest and said she was in pain. When she's 100% sure he's seduced, she quickly pulls out her tongue and killed him. Her tongue is her ultimate killing weapon.

   Later, she went into a pub and lighting starts to strike to show great beauties entering the area. All guys were eyeing on her. She sat down, and ordered a drink. This fat guy when over and try to talk to her with excuse that she has dropped some money. She replied, these are not mine. He said, "You have beautiful hair". She replied "Well, everybody said that!" Somehow, these guys pulled one piece of her hair and started sucking the hair believing that by doing so; the Yin San will come to them. I bet they did not really got the chance to lick and suck her beautiful hair. She knows about their plans, so she posed seductively and walks towards the guy and invited one of the guy out.

1 comments about Painted Skin.

1. King Hu (1932-1997) is my favorite director, and I consider at least three of his movies (*Touch of Zen*, *Raining in the Mountain* and *The Fate of Lee Khan*) to be masterpieces, comparable in their authenticity and power (though not in their production values) to Ang Lee's *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*. Unfortunately, widescreen copies of Hu's works are very hard to find, and it takes me an average of three years to get a new one. So when Amazon announced the release of *Painted Skin* (Hua Pi Zhi Yinyang Fawang, 1992) in letterbox format, I was elated. (The movie is actually presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, in Cantonese and Mandarin with fixed Chinese and English subtitles. Misleadingly, Hu is presented on the cover as the director of *Dragon Inn*, while the movie he directed is better known as *Dragon Gate Inn*, the former title being more closely associated to the currently available remake.)

   Inspired by Pu Songling's *Liaozhai Zhiyi*, this weird supernatural tale covers the same territory as Ching Siu Tung's *A Chinese Ghost Story*: Hsi Tsu (Adam Cheng), a lascivious would-be scholar, comes to the help of You Feng (Joey Wang), a ravishing lady who claims to have fled her home because "No. 1" (her husband's first wife) tormented her. Actually, Feng is a demon who has escaped from the "Yin Yang boundary" and is being pursued by the King of that supernatural kingdom located somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Only the taoist recluse "High Monk" (a bearded Sammo Hung), intent on maximizing both his Yin and his Yang, will be able to protect her.

   Contrary to Hu's earlier movies, the action here is not limited to classical martial arts scenes with the occasional subtle supernatural touch; it is pure Tsui Hark stuff: a confused mixture of explosions, magic weapons, fireballs and coloured smoke (only the laserbeams are missing). Losing much of his refinement and sobriety, King Hu seems to have been contaminated by the "new wave" of Hong Kong cinema, with its predilection for the grotesque and the ostentatious. The movie opens and ends with a pop song, and were it not for King Hu's beautifully restrained camerawork and his preference for shooting on location, *Painted Skin* would look just like another clone of *Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain* (to Hu's credit, though, I read that budget restrictions prevented him from giving the movie the scope he initially envisioned.)

   *Painted Skin* is not a bad film and I even prefer it to the poorly constructed and verbose *All the King's Men*. It contains moments of pure poetry that raise far above the eye-catching imagery of most Hong Kong movies; its opening scenes are wonderfully eerie; and some of the views of the Chinese countryside are simply beautiful. But it is not a great film, which one should always expect of Hu.

   What I hope is that Tai Seng will soon offer us the rest of Hu's filmography in widescreen on DVD, including such unobtainable titles as The Story of Sue San (1962), The Love Eterne (1963), Sons of the Good Earth (1964), Come Drink with Me (starring Cheng Pei Pei and considered to be one of the best 100 Chinese films ever, 1965), Dragon Gate Inn (1966, recently released in a pan and scan DVD version as *Green Dragon Inn*), Four Moods (1970), The Valiant Ones (1974), Marriage (1980), The Wheel of Life (1984) and Reincarnation (1981).

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.

1 comments about Where's Officer Tuba.

1. Sammo's character is not much of a fighter in this movie. He plays a cowardly police officer who plays the tuba for the police force's marching band. David Chiang plays the tough cop and needs someone who doesn't look or act like a cop to go undercover for him. Jacky Cheung plays Sammo's friend and recommends him for the job. It is a money exchange and David Chiang ends up dying at the hands of the villains. Sammo promises to avenge his death, but then decides against it since he is a weakling. So Chiang's ghost starts to haunt Sammo and forces him to take revenge.
   
   A lot of the comedy is good, but I found the comedy with Chiang's ghost very lame. The story is decent, and like most Sammo movies, there are a couple of moments that will have you laughing really hard.
   
   There is not too much action to speak of. Some cool stunts here and there, but you have to wait until the end for the 2 main fight scenes. Hwang Jang Lee shows up and gives Sammo a serious beat down. His kicks have never looked better. Unfortunately, the way he gets beat is not very satisfying. I don't want to give it away, but prepare to be disappointed.
   
   This is not a bad movie, but it could have been so much better.
   
   3/5
   
   The Universe DVD has very good picture quality and the subtitles are written wll enough.

No comments about Diao nu.

No comments about Possession of Ghost.

No comments about Gui meng jiao (Spooky Spooky).

1 comments about Ah Kam.

1. i would like to see this movie in the english dubbed version. we miss the movie reading the subtitles...