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The Lizard (1972)
In a departure from the wuxia/swordplay films that he’s best known for, in The Lizard director Chor Yuen brings us a period action film set in 1930s Shanghai. In a city full of wealthy foreigners and corrupt officials, a mysterious figure in black known only as The Lizard flits among the rooftops, stealing from those who don’t deserve their wealth and giving to those in need. Though a hero to the common people, the Lizard is a thorn in … (read more)
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Island of Greed (1997)
The producer/director team of Johnny and Michael Mak have been responsible for some of Hong Kong’s best known and roughest crime movies. Titles like The Long Arm of the Law and To Be Number One were often based on actual people and events. The sexploitation classic Sex and Zen was also a Mak release.
In Island of Greed, the Mak brothers turn their cameras towards crime and corruption in Taiwan, with a factional retelling of the 1995 general election … (read more)
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Shaolin Prince (1982)
Most fans of Shaw Brothers’ martial-arts and swordplay films know the names of director Chang Cheh and action director Lau Kar-leung, also a fine director in his own right. The Shaws studio had several other top action directors, though, chief among them Tong Gaai, who worked in partnership with Lau sifu on many of Chang Cheh’s films. While Lau is most associated with empty-handed martial arts, Tong Gaai was a weapons specialist, responsible for many of the Shaws films featuring … (read more)
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Burning Paradise (1994)
Burning Paradise is a collaboration between two of the greats of contemporary Cantonese cinema: director Ringo Lam (Prison on Fire, Full Contact) and producer Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China series).
The opening action sequences of this martial arts feature quickly establishes the cinema landscape via a series of human and animal decapitations. The prologue describing the persecution of Shaolin monks by the Manchu government during the Qing dynasty, has been used in Shaw … (read more)
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20:30:40 (2004)
Thankfully, 20:30:40 is not – as some marketing material has suggested to the contrary – a Sex in the City replicate with a Taipei backdrop. Unless you are the type of person that gets really upset when films about women are not also films that deconstruct feminism, try to ignore this kneejerk promotional tactic. I certainly wouldn’t climb over mountains to chase down a movie so advertised, but I might be inclined to set up a base camp, fire up … (read more)
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An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty (1984)
An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty is another in the Shaw Brothers’ studio’s proud tradition of period-setting erotic dramas with dodgy English titles, following on from 1972’s Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan. Like the latter, though, it really is just a bit more complicated than you’d think: this movie has a number of attributes that set it apart from the rest of the pack.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It is what it says it is on the … (read more)
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The City of Lost Souls (2000)
The camera hovers beneath the water of a toilet in which two recently curled out hot ones are still floating. Through the, ahh, murk, we watch as a man is quickly dispatched by a Yakuza killer for hire.
Nice one. Welcome to the maniacal world of Miike, to whom the phrase ‘inventive camera angles’ barely does any kind of justice. And let’s not get started on weird plot twists and oddball scenarios.
OK, let’s. We get murderous games of ping … (read more)
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The Myth (2005)
Well, we’re a little late with this one, and we’re terribly sorry — a new Jackie Chan film should be an event, exploding on to the screen with jawdropping stunts and inspired action choreography. With ceiling fans, clock towers and pachinko parlours. Instead, my copy of The Myth has sat on my shelf a while, looking sorrowfully at me while I passed it over in favour watching of Shaw Brothers classics.
But no more. I picked it up the other … (read more)
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