Chinatown Video: October 1998 releases
ASHES OF TIME (1994) Rated
MA. 96 mins. $29.95.
Wong Kar-wai's introspective, forlorn, intriguing and maddening
swordplay epic uses characters from Jin Wong's novel The Eagle Shooting Heroes as
a point of departure into distinctly WKW territory. The all-star cast
includes Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Brigitte
Lin, Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau, Charlie
Yeung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Maggie Cheung.
Travellers visit a lonely desert inn with stories to tell of loss and heartbreak. Each
copes with these personal tragedies in his or her own way; some go mad, some forget, some
die, some survive. The narrative jumps back and forwards through time; it's a good thing
it's on video, as it takes several watchings before you catch it all. With the spectacular
cinematography of Christopher Doyle, evocative music by Frankie
Chan and fast-blurred fight scenes choreographed by Sammo Hung,
even if you don't get the whole story, there's always something to attract the eye or the
ear. This is one of those movies which either features near the top of people's Best HK
Movies list or down the bottom of their Worst HK Movies list. See it for yourself. I loved
it.
Weasel Alert: I wrote the liner notes
for this video release.
HIGH RISK (1995) Rated M,
probably. $29.95.
Wong Jing launches a not-thinly-veiled-at-all satiric broadside in
this amusing action movie. Frankie (Jacky Cheung) is a womanising
alcoholic action superstar who no longer does his own stunts; Kit (Jet Li)
is a member of his stunt team, and habitually takes the fall for him. Kit is also
an ex-cop; he left the force after he failed to save his wife, child and a busload of
schoolchildren from a mad bomber. Lo and behold, the self-same mad bomber turns up to take
a building full of wealthy jewel-buyers hostage. It's more than a few shades of Die
Hard, with gratuitous helicopter fu for good measure. Chingmy Yau
stars as a reporter who is determined to bust Frankie for the fraud that he is, and Charlie
Yeung is a young hopeful who takes the wrong job in the wrong hotel on the wrong
weekend, but manages to save the day with her mobile phone. All this and the fights you
expect in a Jet Li movie adds up to 90 minutes of glass-shattering
entertainment.
ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN
(1983) Rated M. 94 mins. $29.95.
I realised recently that there's about seven films that I cite as "This is the one
that really turned me onto Hong Kong movies..." In my defence, it's an ongoing
process, okay? But the mighty Zu Warriors may well be the original, and not just
for me, but for the whole wuxia rebirth in the 80s and 90s. It's a magic sword movie from Tsui
Hark with the cheapest effects and the most garishly 80s over-use of artificial
sets and coloured lights you'll ever see, but there is no denying the cracking pace and
the sheer invention of this whirlwind fantasy flick. I'll never forget the love duel on
flying stone hippos, or the sifu who holds a cosmic demon at bay by entangling it in his
long white eyebrows. Storm Riders blew me away in the cinema recently but, on the
bang for buck ratio, the Storm Riders plot doesn't fill half of what goes on in Zu
Warriors. Get it out and be amazed, if not by the wild story and situations, then at
least by how ridiculously young Yuen Biao, Moon Lee
and Brigitte Lin are in this one.
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
