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Canton Iron Kung Fu
Carry on Pickpocket
The Chinese Feast
A Chinese Ghost Story
A Chinese Ghost Story 2
A Chinese Ghost Story 3
Chungking Express
City Hunter
City on Fire
City War
Come Drink With Me
Crime Story
Crippled Avengers
Curry and Pepper |
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Canton Iron Kung Fu (1979) |
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Almost entirely bog standard old-school kung fu, notable only for the dependably great presence of the beardy Leung Kar Yan. It also has a rocking finale which uses x-rays to show skeletal damage - predating Jet Li's "Romeo Must Die" by a good two decades. |
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Carry on Pickpocket (1982) |
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However thrilling it would be to see Sammo Hung directing Sid James and Charles Hawtrey in an Oliver Twist parody, it's never going to happen. Settle instead for this corking action comedy with Sammo and Frankie Chan as a pair of petty crooks caught up with some nasty bad guys and stolen jewels. They fight on a disco dancefloor (to the sounds of Tom Tom Club), on the street and - in a memorably furious climax - around a big boat. Steal a copy! |
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Tsui Hark's Chinese New Year comedy is an all star affair (Leslie Cheung, Anita Yuen, Chiu Man Cheuk) about top chefs in an OTT cooking competition. As well as being a goofy comedy, it raises some interesting moral questions about outlandish cookery - though it suffers in comparison to Stephen Chow's similar "God of Cookery". Monkey brains, anyone? |
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A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) |
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Clearly inspired by Western horror films like "The Evil Dead", Ching Siu Tung and Tsui Hark's seminal ghostly romance astounds not only through its verve and style but by sheer volume of ideas. Throwing Taoism, zombies, a tender love story, a demon with an enormous tongue, musical numbers, wire-fu, a few frights and some slapstick comedy at the wall and seeing what sticks is bold enough, but when nearly all of it does the result is pure cinematic magic. Leslie Cheung, Wu Ma and the captivating Joey Wong are perfect as the leads - one of the greatest achievements of Asian cinema. |
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A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (1990) |
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An unusual but more than worthy sequel, foregoing the small cast of the first film for a story about a conflict between a wizard and a general. Everyone's back, along with Jacky Cheung and the stunning Michelle Reis, which helps the mood no end: it's nearly as spooky, magical and gorgeous as its predecessor. |
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A Chinese Ghost Story 3 (1991) |
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The third and final entry in the series (though an animation followed in the late 90s) is still a solid piece of filmmaking, but the magic is dimming. It's essentially a remake of the first film, with Tony Leung Chiu Wai as a chaste monk falling for Joey Wong's gorgeous ghost. Jacky Cheung is the only other returning cast member, but the steadying hands of Ching Siu Tung and Tsui Hark hold proceedings together effectively enough. |
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Wong Kar Wai's finest hour to date is a moving, funny look at loneliness and love in the heart of the city. The first part has Takeshi Kaneshiro's lovelorn cop finding solace in pineapple, booze and criminal Brigitte Lin, the second has Tony Leung Chiu Wai being stalked by beautiful fast food kiosk worker Faye Wong. Chris Doyle's photography has never looked better. The actors have rarely looked better. "California Dreamin" by The Mamas and Papas has never sounded better. The Cranberries "Dreams" DEFINITELY never sounded as good as the Cantonese cover version here, by star Faye Wong. In fact, cinema rarely gets this good - a truly remarkable film. |
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One of Jackie's weirdest films is, without a doubt, this adaptation of a Japanese comic book about a womanising private eye. With able support from Joey Wong, Chingamy Yau, Leon Lai and baddie Richard Norton, Jackie (freed from the constraints of his usual nice guy persona, he's goofy and wolfish)liberates a cruise liner from a bunch of nasty thieves. "Die Hard" it isn't, but under Wong Jing's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink direction it becomes very watchable - though garish and even hallucinogenic in a notorious sequence in which Jackie and opponent Gary Daniels become characters from Capcom's "Street Fighter 2" arcade game. |
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It seems a shame that "City on Fire" is best known for being the inspiration for "Reservoir Dogs" because it's a cracking movie in its own right, and in many ways superior to Tarantino's debut. Director Ringo Lam shapes Chow Yun Fat, Danny Lee, Yueh Sun and Roy Cheung in a story of an undercover cop getting a little too close to the leader of the gang of thieves he has infiltrated. What at first seems like a carefully considered character piece is split wide open time and again by brutal violence and, by the climax, a tension so palpable that the viewer is pressed into their seat. Superb in every respect. |
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No film with Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung could ever be boring, but if they weren't in "City War" it would be dismissed as tosh of the first order. As it is, their performances lend it a credibility it really doesn't earn until its thrilling finale, the heroes shotguns blazing in a bus depot shootout. |
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Come Drink With Me (1966) |
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A seminal kung-fu film from King Hu, starring Cheng Pei Pei as swordswoman Golden Swallow, battling a group of thugs who've kidnapped her brother. The innovation here would be hard to spot nearly forty years on if it weren't for the near perfect execution within. Pei Pei is beautiful and tough in the lead, Yueh Hua excels as Drunken Cat, the boozing tramp with incredible skills and a bunch of young lads as a backing band, and the fight choreography by Lau Kar Leung is truly fine. Hu's filming of the fights infuses them with rhythm and magic, giving them beauty, danger and chaos. Still incredible. |
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Kirk Wong directs Jackie in a film originally intended for Jet Li - though you wouldn't know it. Its a straight police thriller that lets JC flex his acting rather than arse-spannering skills, though it does find space for a couple of great stunts and a scene in which Jackie flips his car in a chase, hops out and sets it back on its wheels by hand. Impressive work too by Kent Cheng as a nasty bent cop. |
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Director Chang Cheh reunites the cast of the crazy "Five Deadly Venoms" for this even crazier Shaw Bros kung fu film. A tiger-style practicing nobleman goes a bit loopy after his wife is bisected and his young son gets his arms lopped off at the elbow, and after fitting mad metal arms onto the lad, they go around punishing anyone who insults them (ie. looks at them slightly funny).
The rather cruel and non-PC twist is that instead of killing them, they inflict crippling disabilities on the unfortunate victims - who (take a wild guess) learn new kung-fu styles and come back for revenge! One of the finest - and most bizarre - of the Shaw Bros output, this is well worth tracking down… a US dvd is available under the title "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms" from most retailers, but it's bootleg quality at best. |
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Buddy cop movie with Jacky Cheung and Stephen Chow mooning and bickering over Ann Bridgewater's investigative journalist, assigned to follow them on their latest case. It all works very well, with a good balance of comedy, drama and action and the male leads reigning in their excesses to give performances which are funny while staying realistic. Director Blacky Ko keeps things moving nicely before slamming his foot onto the accelerator for a nasty, frantic, shovel swinging showdown against an intimidatingly tough bad guy. |
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