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- Godzilla Minus One (2023)
- Midnight (2021)
- Magnificent Warriors (1987)
- Odd Couple (1979)
- Three (2016)
- Dreadnaught (1981)
- Decision to Leave (2022)
- Once Upon a Time in China & America (1997)
- Bad Guy
- Dali & Cocky Prince
- A Korean Odyssey
- Special Delivery (2022)
- Hwarang
- My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho
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Elsewhere on the Web
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (III) (2002)
Hitherto my experience of Godzilla consisted mainly of the Hollywood big-budget remake, unimaginatively titled Godzilla. I thought I knew the general gist of the Godzilla story — prehistoric lizard comes out of the sea and begins to run amok in downtown Tokyo, conventional weapons are useless, and so the race is on to find a weapon that can defeat the beast. In any case, when I received Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla I thought it would be a good idea to … (read more)
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Mekong Full Moon Party (2002)
With a barrage of good films emerging from Thailand of recent, such as Last Life in the Universe, Legend of Suriyothai and others, I was excited to see what the writer and cinematographer of the cult hit, Iron Ladies, was going to offer. Much to my delight, this film gave me an effervescent hit of fresh Thai culture that can only be paralleled by the hit that you get from a spicy Thai Green Curry.
Mekhong Full Moon … (read more)
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My Life as McDull (2001)
Damn if this film didn’t make the whole audience roar with laughter!
My Life as McDull is an incredibly cute and bittersweet animated feature from director Toe Yuen and the brainchild of producer Brian Tse. Spinning off from a successful TV series in HK, it’s a series of vignettes about piglet, McDull and his childhood in HK. A combination of mixed media – 2D, 3D, live action etc.., McDull is visually gorgeous, with nods to Takahata’s My Neighbour the Yamadas… (read more)
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Martial Club (1981)
Martial Club, shot in 1981, is one of action director par-excellence Lau Kar-leung’s later films for Shaw Brothers. It stars Gordon Liu as Chinese historical figure Wong Fei-hung, who’s been brought to the screen many times by many different actors. Notable in this list are Kwan Tak-Hing in some 100-odd Wong Fei-hung films, Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China and Jackie Chan in Drunken Master I and II. Gordon Liu played him in Challenge of … (read more)
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Lone Wolf and Cub Vol 2: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
Following on from the first film in the series, Sword of Vengeance, Baby Cart at the River Styx continues the story of Ogami Itto and his baby son Daigoro as they wander the Japanese landscape as assassins-for-hire. Dour and quiet, Ogami is still haunted by the death of his wife, and early in the story we hear the chimes that were ringing as she was murdered in the first film.
After the events of the first film, the Yagyu … (read more)
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The Longest Summer (1998)
As with Cantonese director Fruit Chan’s previous film Made in Hong Kong, this is again set on the mean streets of Hong Kong. It’s a fascinating, Altmanesque view of the pivotal months surrounding the HK hand over to China during 1997.
The Longest Summer follows the plight of a recently disbanded Chinese unit of the British Army, whose members find life in civvy street to be a demeaning and frustrating existence. Their unusual talents soon ensnare them in a … (read more)
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Love Undercover (2002)
I caught this 2002 Miriam Yeung vehicle early this year, then her third collaboration with Joe Ma, and was pleasantly surprised by how charming it was. Since then the duo has teamed up to make Sound of Colours, and a sequel to this one, Love Undercover 2. Joe Ma is now planning on a third installment to the adventures of bumbling police officer Fong Lai Kuen — in animated form!
The first installment details the (mis)adventures of Fong … (read more)
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Love is a Many Stupid Thing (2004)
Love is a Many Stupid Thing is a reasonable parody of HK smash Infernal Affairs that is marred by the inclusion of some truly stupid material that makes the mistake of deviating from an otherwise successful spoof formula.
Music, locations, and even actors are ripped right out of IA, while entire scenes are reproduced shot-for-shot with only the smallest of changes — usually just enough to make them look ridiculous (yeah, subtlety in a Wong Jing film — who’da … (read more)
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