Chinatown Video: July 1998 releases
FULL THROTTLE (1995) Rated
M. 108 mins. $29.95.
If you dig Hong Kong movies for the nonstop action and cordite-scented mayhem, this may
not be the film for you. But if along the way you've developed a taste for Cantonese
melodrama, read on. Full Throttle stars Andy Lau as
Joe, the fastest illegal biker this side of Clearwater Bay. He's estranged from his
father, a bit of bad management on his behalf as daddy runs a racing team and a bike
importing business. He's also well on the way to being estranged from Yee (Gigi
Leung), his girlfriend of seven years, who figures that sooner or later she's
going to end up spoonfeeding Joe noodles and changing his colostomy bag. Alas, the chance
of Joe laying down helmet and leathers are unfortunately nix; besides the fact that he
likes the look and the film-makers are banking on the fact that you will too, there's a
new racer in the neighbourhood, rich boy David (David Ng), who won't rest
until he's proven that he's faster than Joe. Joe's not about to settle the matter over a
game of mahjong, and before you know it they're speeding around deadman's curve. If you're
thinking that this is all sounding a bit Top Gun on bikes, then you're right,
complete with plenty of exceptional high speed lane-splitting truck-dodging motorbike
footage. I spent the first hour going "Where's the guns? Where's the blood? When does
Gigi take her glasses off?", but after I got the idea that this was
big on characterisation and small on fu, goddam if I didn't settle back and enjoy it.
Directed by Derek Yee, and the 6th highest grossing film at the HK box
office in 1995. I'm thinking "date movie".
RIGHTING WRONGS (1986) Rated
M. 100 mins. $29.95.
The first scene sets the tone for this one. Lawyer Hsia Ling-cheng (Yuen Biao)
gets a lecture in front of the courthouse from his silver-haired legal mentor, on the
importance of prosecuting the guilty. Sharp-eyed Hsia pushes said mentor out of the way of
the fake blind man with the revolver, and shepherds him from the guy on the roof with the
high-powered rifle and the bad bad haircut. But he's not quick enough to stop goon number
three who drives up in the cheapest second-hand car I've ever seen a hitmen forced to use,
hangs a submachinegun out the window, and empties the full clip into the poor old bastard
at point blank. Hsia leaps into his car and gives chase, finally running the crooks off a
bridge. While they scream for mercy, trapped in their overturned car, Hsia fires coolly
into the petrol tank, incinerating them. And then the opening credits roll. This is a
no-apologies actioner from the mid-80s, when films were fast and mean. Hsia, the cinema's
first two-fisted lawyer, continues in his pattern of "If you can't get 'em in the
courtroom, then break into their apartment that night and kick them to death".
Meanwhile the bad guys prove that they're even worse by blowing up families of 8 and
slaughtering the odd comic sidekick. Enter high-kicking cop Cindy Shih (Cynthia
Rothrock), who blames the mounting death toll in the precinct on Hsia (she's half
right), and vows to bring him in. Hey presto, the scene is set for cop vs. vigilante vs.
crook action, and action is what you get; one tremendous martial arts scene after another.
My only complaint is that the producers should have realised that when you sub a
black-haired Asian stuntman in for a blonde-haired Western woman, it doesn't really take,
but what the hell; Cynthia still pulls out plenty of cool fu moves
herself. In between all this, there's some nice interchange between Tsia and the lead bad
guy, who maintains that they're both killers after all. A good point, but someone should
have told him that bright orange pants were not a good look for the big fight at the end
of the film. Almost every fight ends with the painful death of one of the combatants, and
almost all of the cast members are expendable. This is not a feel good film, but if you
want some old school action, then Righting Wrongs has it in spades.
THE SEVENTH CURSE (1986) Rated R. 88 mins. Rental only. Available in dubbed and subtitled editions.
This may be the stupidest film I've ever seen. I loved it. It's a pulp adventure barely
starring Chow Yun-fat as the hero Wisely; 90% of the film follows the
exploits of his doctor/explorer/martial artist friend Dr Yuan (Chin
Siu Ho),
who's a man with a problem: when he's about to have sex, he's smitten with a damn
unsatisfying Thai curse which makes bullets burst from his body. The only way to solve the
matter is to go back to Thailand, where he tangles with mad witch doctors, beautiful
natives, a pesky reporter and part-time arms smuggler (Maggie Cheung), an
evil flying foetus monster which burrows right through people, and a shuffling skeleton
called Old Ancestor who inexplicably transforms into a H.R.Gigeresque man in a rubber suit
when the pressure is on. Typical plot exposition, Seventh Curse style:
"Doctor, we must climb up," says noble savage, indicating enormous statue.
"Good thing I went on that expedition to the Himalayas last year" says the good
doc, reaching for the first hand-hold. Like I say, very stupid, but irresistibly so, and
with not one dull spot. Check this one out without fail, preferably in company so that you
can howl "Did you see THAT!" to the person next to you while sneezing coca-cola
up your nose. Don't forget the popcorn.
SEX AND ZEN II (1996)
Rated R. 88 mins. Rental only. Available in dubbed and subtitled editions.
I suspect they trotted this one out after the foreign distribution made Sex and Zen
(1991) a bit of an earner. The link to the original film is tenuous: different cast,
different director, different writer, and a different producer. So, if you liked the first
one, be warned. If you didn't, be extra warned. And yes, Virginia, there is a Sex and
Zen III (1998). I'm shocked that you asked such a thing. Go to your room.
Index of Chinatown Video releases since May
1998
H E R O I C * C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
