Blog Archives

Accident (2009)

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Posted on October 11, 2009 by John Snadden

Milkyway Image Films latest Hong Kong release is the classiest and most intelligent film to come from Hong Kong so far this year. Lead actor Louis Koo (Overheard) gives a brilliant performance in Accident and is quickly becoming one of the best screen actors in Asia.

In his debut feature for Milkyway Films, director Soi Cheang (Dog Bite Dog) has tempered his usually dark, violent cinema visions and created a wholly satisfying cerebral crime drama, very … (read more)

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Push (2009)

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Posted on September 20, 2009 by Deni

You might think you’re seeing things, clicked on the wrong link, become a victim of the internet’s mysterious powers of redirection, but before you check your bookmarks and call your ISP, just let me say this: Push is possibly the most Cantonese film America has ever made. Surprised? I certainly was. I honestly wasn’t sure “it’s set in Hong Kong” was enough of a reason for me to go but I went, and actually, this is one film not so … (read more)

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Election 2 (2006)

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Posted on August 11, 2009 by Samson

With this sequel to the excellent 2005 film Election, Hong Kong director Johnnie To adds yet another great film to his long and impressive list of work. Few other directors have managed to make so many movies and maintain the same high standards in one film after another. Election 2 sees the return of all the characters (at least those who managed to survive) from Election, and guess what; it’s time for another triad election.

It’s been two … (read more)

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Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

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Posted on June 25, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

It’s 1970 and centuries old half demon Saya (Gianna/Jun, My Sassy Girl) is on a revenge mission. Orphaned almost at birth, she was raised by Kato (Kurata Yasuaki), the mentor who taught her all about sword fighting and, apparently, demons. Saya’s looking for Onigen (television stalwart Koyuki), the oldest demon and the source of her misery. With her handler Michael (Irish veteran Cunningham) and his assistant Luke she infiltrates an American army base in Japan to eliminate some “bloodsuckers” … (read more)

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Kung Fu Chefs (2009)

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Posted on May 5, 2009 by Deni

Way back in the day, my early education in Hong Kong cinema was more along the lines of guns and hand grenades, as opposed to fists and barrel rolls. Bullet ballets, car chases, crooked cops and machete gangs; I was all over that. It wasn’t until a double bill at a local cinema — Drunken Master II and Hard Boiled, to be precise — that I realised the other side of Cantonese and Mainland action cinema. Since then, I’ve … (read more)

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The Shinjuku Incident (2009)

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Posted on April 26, 2009 by Justin

Jackie Chan has been making forays into more dramatic acting in the last few years — there were early attempts like Crime Story and Thunderbolt, and in the last few years we’ve had New Police Story and The Myth as well. But these have still been identifiably Jackie Chan movies — grueling stunts, inventive high-impact fight choreography, Jackie front-and-centre as the hero.

I didn’t think it very likely that we’d get one of those from director Derek Yee, though. … (read more)

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Ip Man (2008)

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Posted on February 15, 2009 by Justin

With Ip Man, Donnie Yen takes on his meatiest role yet. He’s played the central hero before (in Iron Monkey and in the miniseries of Fist of Fury, for example) but they’ve all been a bit over the top: period-era takes on the unstoppable leather-jacketed Donnie we know from most of his films. The title character of this film, however, is a quiet young kungfu master of 1930’s Foshan, born into privilege and not a willing participant in … (read more)

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Dirty Ho (1979)

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Posted on November 3, 2008 by Justin

Dirty Ho‘s title may inspire sniggering from the back of the class, nowadays, but it’s a very different film than you’d think: the film does open inside a brothel (a floating one, no less!), but the Ho of the title is a male thief and kungfu practitioner (played by Wong Yue), and his dirtiness is conferred by a poisoned wound he receives early in the film. So, if you’re after something more like The Golden Lotus, I’d suggest … (read more)

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