A Few Shorts.
Ballistic Kiss, Bury Me High, Casino, C'est La Vie Mon Cherie, God of Gamblers 3: The Early Stages, Kick Boxer, Lifeline, Shogun in Little Kitchen.
Ballistic Kiss (1997).
Hello, but who said this was shit? Everyone I think, but this was far from it. It set out on a mission to ooze coolness and suceeded, all the flashy camera shots, bad boy poses, shiny guns...... Not a KF film, but more than a few times, Donnie pulls off some of his lovely kicks. He plays an assasin who unwittingly gets police girl Annie Wu mixed up in his affairs. And guess what, they fall in love and she gets torn between him and her job (I've never understood why they always go for their jobs, when this happens in films. What a crock.) Lots of shoot outs and sentimental dialogue (one of the things I love about HK films - "My mother used to say......blah, blah....."). Yu Wong Gwong and Michael Woods also turn up to get killed.) This film was spot on. Yuen Woo Ping went to see it 3 times when he was in Australia, and I'd have to defy the masses and back up his apparent opinion. I dunno why people slate this movie. Donnie Yen directed himself - 8/10.
Bury Me High (1991).
Moon Lee, Chin Kar Lok, Sibelle Hu, Tsui Siu Ming (also directed), Yuen Wah, Yuen Kwai. Couldn't really follow this, as it was another Ocean Shores pan & scan print, with huge subs half way off the screen. This was a shame, because the cinematography was seemed very impressive, but couldn't really be appreciated. As it was, I found it fairly entertaining archaeology/feng shiu adventure. As f or the fighting, Moon Lee was a bit underused, Yuen Wah was his usual self and as for Chin Kar Lok, well - you know the score with this fella by now. Absolutely breathtaking. Try and get a w/s copy of this, I reckon it'll be a very enjoyable number. I won 't do an injustice and give much comment, until I get hold of a widescreen version. As for Kar Lok nut-nut moves - 10/10 matey.
Casino (1998).
If you like unneccessary violence like I do (not in reality, except towards a few people I could think of - I wouldn't mind larupping James Ferman with my nunchuku), then you should watch this film. Simon Yam stars as the most blatant triad I have ever seen in a HK film. He just don't give a funk. Alex Fong is his right hand nutter. He's being interviewed by a reporter, which gives lots of excuses for flashbacks explaining how he got into the game, won his fame and made his name. Lots of mayhem chase-you-with-my-water melon-knife type warfare. Based on a real triad and released around the time of his trial and somebody said he allegedly funded the thing himse lf. A lot better than I expected, don't expect another real life depiction lamer like Operation Billionaires. Lots of fun. Billy Tang directed 8/10.
C'est La Vie Mon Cherie (1993).
From the opening scene, I thought it was going to be a great film (maybe something to do with Carina Lau), then after that I thought it seemed to slow down and become uninteresting. For me, the sight of Lau Ching Wan not really speaking much, just plodding along in a constant sulk was starting to annoy me. Then Anita Yuen exploded onto the scene with truly the best performance I have seen from a HK actress. She just does not let up, harrassing Lau Ching Wan constantly, thankfully cheering him up somewhat. Wonderfully annoying, beautifully hyperactive and then........ check it for yourself, I don't want to throw in any spoilers. Sweeped the 93 awards with loads of nominations, so it took me a while to get around to it, but I'm glad I did. Occassionally funny, often romantic and incredibly depressing. Derek Yee directed. Delightful and wonderful - 9/10.
God of Gamblers 3: The Early Stages (1996).
Wow! What a mental film. Leon Lai plays Ko Chun, Jordan Chan plays the body guard, Anita Yuen and Gigi Leung are in it too. It's a prequel and explains all that you may or may not have been wondering about the other movies, like the chocolate eating, the jade ring, gelled hair, etc... But HELLO!? Excuse me, would someone care to tell me what the funk Leon Lai and Jordan Chan were doing running around performing jump kicks, Bruce Lee flying kick specials and jumping into the splits on subway trains? There was some doubling for the acrobatic stuff, but they themselves were clearly busting the moves I just mentioned. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Has Turbo been downloading those Matrix combat trainning disks into cantopop stars while we weren't looking?Up until a couple of months ago, I the fact that this film existed seemed to elude me - lovely suprise. Another Wong Jing Gambling jaunt. Going for a flutter down Ladbrokes will never seem quite the same - 8.5/10
Kick Boxer (1994).
DANG! No subs! So I just flicked through the fights. Oh my! Some arse was getting kicked all over the shop. Anyway, there's some mental kicking in this film, above average action scenes after all. I think Biao plays a Po Chi Lam student or something, but other than that, I have no idea what's going on. Yuen Wah is the bad guy. Directed by Wu Ma. Action by Mr. Matrix - Yuen Woo Ping and it shows - 8/10 in terms of action.
Lifeline (1997).
Kind of like a HK feature length, London's Burining, this one really hammers at the characterisation of the firemen and women. The main players are Lau Ching Wan, Alex Fong and Carmen Lee, and as per usual they put in a good performance. I thought the fire scenes would bore, me, but they were done really well, especially the huge set piece at the end, which was a true spectacle. Quite a funny film sometimes, and at one point unintentionally so, when you hear the little girls' english dub! More great stuff Johnny To directed, I seem to remember reading that the story was adapted from Jackie Chan's original idea for his Fireman Story - 8/10
Shogun in Little Kitchen (1994).
Leon Lai, Yuen Biao, Ng Man Tat, Maggie Siu, Jimmy Wang Yu. Very average flick about a runaway rich kid (Leon Lai), restaurant owner Ng Man Tat and his chef, acrobatic uncle (Yuen Biao!). Very light hearted, but a bit of a sassy film. I was always under the impression that Yuen Biao was kicking arse in this..... alas. He does do some damn fancy cooking thou'. Probably would have enjoyed it a lot better if someone had warned me about the lack of action. It's always a pleasure to see Uncle Tat in one of his gigs, so it wasn't a total blow out - 6/10.