The Illuminated Lantern: Country

2001 | Wilson Yip

Nicolas Tse is the head cop in a special, secret ghostbusting crime unit, and his partner, played by Sam Lee, is a ghost. But when Lee reincarnates, he needs to find someone new -- and ends up with fresh-faced traffic cop Stephen Fung. Together they track down a "fire ghost" in a burned out rave club, where they find the ghost's boyfriend, a "water ghost" to be a deadly opponent. This film is a visual delight, borrowing liberally the look and feel from films like MEN IN BLACK, THE MATRIX, and BATMAN AND ROBIN, though for some reason I felt most of all reminded of THE LOST BOYS. They're all blended into a stew which pours out uniquely Hong Kong and completely enjoyable.

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2001 | Teddy Chan

Jackie Chan is once again in globetrotting mode, this time hitting all the tourist destinations in Istanbul. Having been there myself just recently, spotting all the locations was half the fun. Which is a good thing, since the movie itself is only half as fun as it could have been. The plot, rather complicated for a Jackie Chan film, involves his search for his father and his father's inheritance, which leads to international intrigue and the recovery of a deadly virus. For no apparent reason, a remake of SPEED is tacked on at the end, and it is exciting, but pointless. Eric Tsang has a good bit part, but some of the other actors are terrible, including one woman who speaks English and is supposed to be CIA, but pronounces "Athens" as "Ay-thens." Embarrassing. ***

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1989 | Lau Kar Leung

Aces Go Places V The Terracotta Hit is the last in a series of films which were in many ways a watershed in Hong Kong Cinema. The Aces Go Places series established, once and for all, that chop-socky wasn't all the little island colony was capable of producing. Instead the series offered action comedy complete with master thieves, bumbling detectives, clever gadgets, killer robots, and international intrigue. But then, in a bit of a turnaround, the last movie in the series features chop-socky anyway. » MORE

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1990 | Jeff Lau

Stephen Chow parodies the God of Gamblers with his own character, the Saint of Gamblers, in a movie that becomes just as big a hit. » MORE

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2001 | Tam Wai-Shing

If you asked who you had to sleep with to get a decent part in a Hong Kong film, the answer is most decidedly not Jackie Chan, since Elaine Ng, recent mother of his illegitimate child, ended up in this dross. She's a killer, and the cop she beats on throughout the film does a lot of decidedly Jackie-ish mannerisms. Coincidence? Probably not, though the plot of this wreck of a film is full of them. Early on, our hero, a pathetic cop, loses his job and tries to kill himself but regrettably does not succeed. So the police give him his job back. Gee, I didn't know that was such a good way to solve all my problems, thanks for the tip. He travels to the Philippines, a sort of Mecca for all low budget films, and there meets his ICQ buddy "Grasshopper," who he thought was a man but turns out to be a beautiful, kung-fu lesbian (Almen Wong). When two of the good guys are killed at the same time, two of the other good guys cradle them and take turns performing laughably bad dying monologues. Poor Almen. Love her to death, but her career is following a familiar trajectory: burst onto the scene with a splashy action picture or two, then supporting roles in a few, then made-in-the-Philippines crap, and out.

| Available on [VCD]

1997 | Gordon Chan

Director Gordon Chan pulled out all the stops on this one, creating a big budget, high concept snooze-fest that should have been much better than it is. Perhaps he should have left a few of the stops in. It might have kept the plot from leaking out. » MORE

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1984 | Chang Cheh

Never put baby dolls face up in the trunk, they might kill you. Oh, and its also a bad idea to kill one of the actors and bury them under the stage. But you probably knew that. » MORE

2003 | Lam Kim Lung

There are a lot of points to recommend this film, if only it didn't just boil down to the same tired, formulaic tripe that we've been served so many times before. Nicola Cheung is a spoiled rich girl who has patterned her life around the Cherie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat romance AN AUTUMN'S TALE. She longs for a tough, straight-talking, down to earth, Chow Yun-Fat type, but instead is encouraged by her father to marry a geek whose sole purpose in the film is to be the recipient of a running joke involving a knee to the groin. When all seems hopeless, she meets Ambrose Hsu, a tough, straight-talking, down to earth, Chow Yun-Fat type. He has a group of lovable but eccentric friends, of course, and from here the plot follows the predictable path so well worn by so many that have come before. » MORE

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2001 | Andrew Lau

There are a lot of problems with this science fiction spectacle film, beginning with the fact that it was originally intended to be based on the "Tekken" arcade game, until Namco got wind and got ready to sue. No doubt the abrupt rewrite, while keeping most of the character costumes intact, makes the film more disjointed than in should be. The story concerns government experiments on cops to create superwarriors who could use 100% of their brain (fancy that) and harness a special power glove which enhances their abilities. Combat 12 (Roy Cheung) takes his glove and turns evil, and it's up to a whole bunch of good guys who like to fight to get together and save the day. A great cast, with Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Stephen Fung, Gigi Leung, Kristy Yeung, and Chin Kar-Lok. But inexplicably the movie stars the uncharismatic and untalented Wen Hon Lee. Where's Nic Tse when you need him? The future is loaded with CGI, and though much of it is used to create a cheap BLADE RUNNER -- no, cheap FIFTH ELEMENT knock-off aesthetic, some of it is quite good. Sammo makes a grand and powerful entrance. Stephen Fung fights a creature right out of a game of UNREAL. And so on. Despite this films many, many flaws, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Don't know how it compares to the video game, but it has a distinct live-action Japanese anime feel to it (especially the fights), and it is at least better than Van Damme's STREET FIGHTER.

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2001 | Stephen Lo

When Lok To's (Michelle Reis) new neighbors move in, Uncle Jet (Francis Ng) finds the previous tenant has been stealing all of her mail, including 99 letters from her boyfriend in Paris. Her boyfriend has given up, but Uncle Jet decides he just may have a way to get them back together again -- open a bakery. The only problem is that he begins to have feelings for Lok To himself. A sweet romance which hits all the right notes. But it would be completely forgettable anyway were it not for the character of Uncle Jet, a senior member of a large Hakka clan. The character is unique, and as played by Francis Ng, charming and real.

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2002 | Raymond Yip

Since last year a movie had great success showing two men developing a new type of bra (La Brassiere), I suppose having two men develop breast enhancement cream is the next logical step. And when they actually grow breasts, well, you knew it was coming, didn't you? Francis Ng and Daniel Wu star as a womanizer and a womanizer-in-training, with Michele Reis as the woman who makes them see the light. And gives them breasts. Actually, it is at times pretty funny, certainly no worse than La Brassiere.

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2001 | Mabel Cheung

Hey, Beijing really does rock in this movie about a wimpy Hong Kong pop musician (Daniel Wu) whose rich folks send him to Beijing for inspiration. He gets in trouble, instead, and ends up going on the road with some Beijing rockers he meets in a club. The front man, Road (Geng Ye) is insane like all lead singers, and of course his girlfriend (Shu Qi) is damn fine. The other principle character is Black Whirlwind, Road's dog. Road really loves that little puppy. Toward the end, the plot takes a turn for the typical and goes down the tortured, self-destructive artist path, and this overly dramatic turn takes away from the movie's strength, which is its exploration of the indie rock scene in Beijing, An inside look at the youth culture in a communist society. The last moments of the film drag a bit too long, as if they were uncertain how to end the story. And in a way, I didn't want it to end. For once, here's a Hong Kong movie that shelves the insipid Cantopop crap and rocks out. Solid performances throughout, and Mabel Cheung's directing has moments of real inspiration.

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2003 | Kant Leung

It's 2003 and people are still trying to imitate Bruce Lee. Come on, people, get a hobby. This time Dragon Sek does his best Lee while costar Karen Cheung tries her hand at imitating Angela Mao. Both the leads have some charisma, if they weren't so busy imitating, they might've had a shot at some actual acting. The kung fu on display is passable but not very inventive, and each hit throws enough talcom powder into the air as to nearly blot out the sun. They get beat up a lot, but they are all as dry as a baby's bottom. The story concerns a noble, upright kung fu hero whose fiance is kidnapped, and her mother killed, by evil Big Boss Ben Ng. Our hero works a restaurant owned by the Angela Mao impersonator while he searches for his beloved. The only almost interesting relationship comes in the form of two street performers, who had befriended our heroes, but take up with the villain for money. Set in 1930s Shanghai. Shot on video, and unusually for a video production, not in synch sound, so not only is the video quality terrible, the audio is worse.

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Kenneth Lau

Bloody awful, more like. Veteran actor Roy Cheung, who can often turn in memorable and exciting supporting performances, is dull as white toast as the star in this mystery about a murdered teacher stuffed in a box. Roy Cheung is the cop investigating, but instead he is distracted by his partner horning in on his wife, whom he's not particularly interested in anyway, since he is so busy dating the beautiful main suspect, Pinky Cheung. A lot of twists and turns come at the end, as a bit of congratulations for those able to make it there. All things considered, I'd rather be watching Colombo.

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2001 | Chung Shu-Kai

When I'm browsing the video shop and pick up a video which has a cover like the one on BLUE MOON, I put it back down just as quickly. This sort of cover usually depicts an ensemble of well dressed, vaguely yuppie twenty-somethings, all posed together and grinning like fools directly out at the would-be viewer. In fact, it seems every effort is made to suggest that you are about to rent a particularly dramatic episode of FRIENDS. Perhaps this appeals to some segment of the population which I am not a part of, and indeed that sitcom is very popular throughout the world, though not, I gather, as popular as BAYWATCH.

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2001 | Patrick Leung

Tide (Daniel Wu) and Tan (Louis Koo) are fraternal twins -- even in the womb, they were always competing, always boxing. All grown up, Tan is found dead and Tide, who hasn't seen his brother since he turned 18, meets his brother's girlfriend Sandy and his old friends and begins inhabiting his dead brother's world of gangsters and underground boxing, until at last he can seek revenge for his brother, and closure for himself, in one last spasm of pugilistic excess. This one has a lot of passion, with both Koo and Wu putting in strong performances. The boxing scenes are not well staged, excepting their fights with the toughest, meanest gwailo actor I've ever seen, referred to throughout as "the black guy" (White Wraith), which are absolutely punishing.

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2000 | Andrew Lau

In the (so far) final entry in the Young & Dangerous series, Ho Nam (Ekin Cheng) learns that nothing says success more than having your own personal attache. » MORE

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2001 | Andrew Lau

A Hong Kong/Japanese co-production starring Leon Lai as a cop and Asaka Sato as his girlfriend lawyer. When he captures and she puts behind bars one half of the dynamic criminal duo "Day and Night," a hitwoman is hired to take her out. But the hitwoman, instead of just doing her job and going home, gets all hot for Leon Lai in the worst way. When Leon Lai's girlfriend dies, another woman shows up who appears to be her identical twin. Director Andrew Lau plays it as if the audience honestly doesn't realize that the new woman is the hitwoman from before, but surely you would have to be as mentally challenged as the cop's uncle Tiger (Ng Chi Hung), whom he goes to live with in Lantai after he retires from the force. The movie just plods along with all kinds of light subplots, but at last at the end, Night (an over-the-top Terence Yin) is released from jail, and most of the cast ends up lying in pools of their own blood. The subtitles are too small on the VCD to read.

| Available on [DVD]

2003 |

Tsui Kam Kong is a fun Hong Kong actor who has been around for ages, playing masculine, bald, and mustached types for as long as I can remember. Whether engaged in wild, over-the-top wire fu or wild, over-the-top flying mad sex, Tsui Kam Kong is the man for the job. Unfortunately, he has all but disappeared from the movies lately. I was excited to see him on the cover of this one, but sadly, it lacks subtitles, and a quick skim through the movie revealed nothing over-the-top, nothing even near the edge. Just a plain looking digital video production about the owner of a cafe (Tsui Kam Kong), his customers, and family.

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Billy Chung

Overly complicated heist plot about a crack team of professional thieves who decide to ride the coattails of a big time conman (Simon Lui) who has joined a corporation in order to steal HK redevelopment plan dollars. I'm not entirely sure who betrays who by the end, and I don't really care enough to watch the movie again to find out. Jordan Chan and Alex Fong star and drive really expensive cars.

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1978 | Chang Cheh

Alexander Fu-Sheng is a poor kid from the Mainland who pretty much only cares about money and really nice watches. His watch fetish takes him to San Francisco, and soon he's dressing nice and killing people. » MORE

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1987 | Ching Siu-Tung

This is the classic Tsui Hark tale that made ghost stories popular again. Beautiful ghosts, giant tongues, and warrior priests battle it out with scholar Leslie Cheung right in the middle of it all. » MORE

1990 | Ching Siu-Tung

The adventures of scholar Ning continue, when a series of coincidences and chance meetings thrust him into the center of political intrigue that threatens the nation itself. » MORE

1991 | Ching Siu-Tung

100 years have passed since the end of A Chinese Ghost Story, and the evil tree demon is back, having licked its wounds and recovered from its battle with the Taoist Master Yan. A Chinese Ghost Story III is in many ways a remake of the original instead of a sequel. It's as if Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-Tung have returned to the original material and re-written it, with subtle variations. Nevertheless, it makes for an engaging picture, because it follows the rule of sequels: make everything the same as before, but bigger. » MORE

2002 |

Another shot on video cheapie from Small Siu and B&S; Creative Films Workshop, and not even the presence of mid-level talent like Cecilia Yip, Kenny B, and Shing Fui On can save it. Four girls live it up and get into trouble when one of them gambles too much and the others have to pay off her debt or else become prostitutes. But that doesn't happen until an hour into the film -- up until then, absolutely nothing happens. It's excruciating. Once some semblance of plot does finally kick in, it's too little, too late. The cast of youngsters are familiar faces from B&S;'s long running TROUBLESOME NIGHT series; thankfully, their acting has improved somewhat. Kenny B only appears in flashbacks as the dead husband of the titular Chinese Orthopedist (Cecilia Yip). If you're watching it on VCD, just put in the second disc and call it a day. These characters aren't worth taking the time to develop.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1995 | Tony Au

A Japanese writer cures his writer's block by going to China and sleeping with a young virgin. At first a pretty good deal, but tragedy results. » MORE

2001 | Raymond Yip

Sandra Ng stars as a daughter returning to Macao to take over her father's business. Only trouble is, his business is prostitution, and it isn't pretty. Alex Fong is her childhood friend who wants to settle down with her, Anthony Wong a local priest who sees Macao as a modern day Gommorah. Not nearly as sensational or exploitative as it needed to be, the film prefers to preach and to look down on the whole affair. All men are pigs, all women are abused, and a subplot about a cop (Blackie Ko) who takes a deaf prostitute (Alice Chan) into his home to care for her ultimately goes nowhere. Sandra Ng gives a fine performance, as does Anthony Wong in his brief appearances.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Ally Wong Ka-Fai

Enjoyable supernatural thriller about buddy cops (Hacken Lee and Tsui Kam-Kong) investigating cases involving the supernatural. First they have to stop a serial rapist who can leave his body while sleeping to attack women, then Hell's hitmen show up and their trouble really begins. A good performance by Tsui Kam-Kong, who for once isn't broadly overplaying his role. Law Lan appears as the police station janitor and resident expert on the supernatural.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Samuel Leung

A hit man from Japan (Kenya Sawada) gets a bullet in his brain while on assignment in Hong Kong and can't go home again (apparently since the airport metal detectors would go off). With nothing to lose and just a little time left before the bullet kills him, he hooks up with some young Hong Kong punks (including Terence Yin and Sam Lee) and brings their heists to the next, much more violent, level. Josie Ho plays a police chief to no good effect, while Raymond Wong is the cop trying to bring the gang in, who finds he has more in common with the hit man than he could have ever imagined. Enjoyable B-grade actioner.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | O Sing-Pui

Eason Chan and Julian Cheung are a comic book artist and writer who work to create their own best selling series of comics. They interact with their own creations, including their dramatic hero, played by Nic Tse. The first part of the movie is bursting with potential and has a sense of excitement, but the film loses all momentum and the pace turns absolutely glacial when they both fall for the same girl and get angry at each other and mope around a lot, while their comic book heroes dispense advice about love. Fans of Young & Dangerous, A Man Called Hero, and the like should pick this up to enjoy the comic book reconstructions and parodies here. I found the conversations of the comic book characters who know they are comic book characters to be especially amusing.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1998 | Wong Jing

Andy Lau is a conman just out of prison. So of course he rushes to the blackjack table, in the first of what eventually becomes a new, loosely defined, "conman" series of films, that are smaller, less flashy, and altogether less interesting than the God of Gamblers films. » MORE

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2002 | Aman Chang

Nick Cheung stars as the unluckiest man alive. When he starts dating the sister of a top gambler (Stephen Fung), the gambler decides to use his bad luck to make him his student. Some moments are mildly amusing but gambling movies live or die by their end competition, and here producer Wong Jing and director Aman Chang show themselves to be dried up and all out of ideas. After an uninspired parody of THE WEAKEST LINK we are treated to a fixed soccer match, and our heroes win the day using the exact same gambit that was used in the original Conman just a few years ago. Its too bad. The first twenty minutes set up some interesting characters and conflicts, but then it was as if no one had finished the script and they all just ad libbed the rest in a day and went home. Easily the worst of Wong Jing's gambling movies, and that's quite an accomplishment.

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1999 | Wong Jing

Never has a gambling movie contained so little actual gambling. But there is some poo shaped like Mickey Mouse, if that's any consolation. » MORE

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2001 | Aman Chang

Eason Chan is pretty entertaining sometimes as the slob in a buddy picture, where the other buddy is a straight man, or at least more handsome. The mistake here, is pairing him with Jerry Lamb, who is even worse. The resulting Dumb and Dumber combination is too lame to bear. The Cop Shop Babes of the title at first tease us with the promise of some Girls with Guns action, but it becomes clear that neither the script nor their abilities will deliver. Which leaves us with a few shots of the girls in bikinis, and a couple of them getting hosed down at one point. Thirteen year olds, rejoice. All others, avoid.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Marco Mak

Daniel Wu stars as a cop who goes undercover and finds he likes it there more than he should. Eric Tsang does his best Robert DeNiro as Al Capone impersonation as the Triad boss he's trying to bring down. And Shooky Kwan is Tsang's beautiful wife, unable to find fulfillment, as it turns out, because her husband is impotent. Our cop hero is always ready to step in and lend a hand, though. The film charts the corruption of an undercover cop without sympathy as he ruthlessly climbs the ladder of power, at first out of duty, then out of desire. Yet the line is so thin it is almost impossible to tell when he changes. Strong performances all around and steady and competent direction by longtime editor Marco Mak make this more than just another routine actioner. Plus, Daniel Wu's naked ass is featured prominently, if that's of interest to anyone.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1991 | Billy Chan Wui-Ngai

A hopping vampire falls out of a plane, and lands in South Africa, where a little bushman discovers it, and is not sure what to do. Sure is a hell of a lot more confusing than that Coke bottle was, that's for sure. » MORE

2001 | Yip Wai-ying

A scruffy loser wanders into a fancy subdivision in Shenzhen and finds a large house that appears to be empty, the owners on vacation. He invites his girldfriend over, but in the meantime, the owner's sex-crazed wife (Emily Kwan) returns for a liason with a gigilo (Wayne Lai), but he has a mistress of his own(Sophie Ngan) and pretty soon everyone is caught in some compromising position. Its surprisingly fun for a low budget digital video cheapie from B&S; Films, with a decent script that arrives at a meaningful conclusion. Both Lai and Kwan overact atrociously.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | David Lau

I can only assume the "beast" of the title is the director, this video his crime. A lousy, debt-ridden cop gets beaten by loan sharks and fired from the force before heading to Malaysia, where he gets a hotel job. He ends up on a boat with a wedding party. The boat explodes with a lame digital explosion, washing him up on a deserted island. There are two other survivors: Grace Lam and Sophia Ngan. Grace Lam ends up disrobing constantly for baths and eventually, sex, but I swear she looked more enthusiastic when she was bathing. The guy just wants to stay with them on the island forever -- can you blame him? But ultimately he is just a scumbag and the girls decide to try and escape on their own. Terribly directed with an uncharismatic loser as the lead. A naked Grace Lam is the only draw here, but interested parties would do better downloading her picture off the internet than sitting through this stinker. Shot on video.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Andrew Lau

Comparisons to the Japanese film SHALL WE DANCE are inevitable in this film about a girl (Sandra Ng) who becomes infatuated with a dance instructor (Andy Lau) and decides to learn to dance. But where SHALL WE DANCE soared as the infatuated student becomes committed to dancing, DANCE OF A DREAM doesn't even get off the ground. It moves from one scene from the next as if on autopilot. When Sandra Ng joins the group of misfit dancers, the very next scene they have become best friends. Excuse me? Couldn't we watch their relationship develop? Not a chance. It's as if the story is so routine the filmmakers don't even bother to put it through the paces. And hey, what about dancing? There's a lot of it in the movie, but it is completely incidental to the story. You never feel the passion of dance through any of the characters. Anita Mui plays the other love interest, a rich woman who never smiles, until she does the tango with Andy Lau. Fans of the actors will find a lot to enjoy in their performances despite the fact the film itself is largely a dud.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Louis Tan

A documentary about the Cantonese hip-hop group LMF (LazyMuthaFuckahs, for the uninitiated). Bandmember talking heads tell us why they love getting high and playing video games while the documentary utterly fails to provide any context as to why we should care. The only thing colorful about the group appears to be their language. If nothing else, I did discover that one bandmember is a dead ringer for Willem Dafoe. Ultimately one of the guys (never could keep them straight) summed up my feelings exactly: "What a fucking waste of time. Partying's better."

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Jamie Luk Kim Ming

A pretty-boy hit man (Peter Ho Yun Tung) gets a job at a hotel in the Philippines run by an old timer played by Yasuaki Kurata, and kills for only ten bucks a hit. Turns out it's because he's the adopted, but favorite son of a powerful businessman. His brother-in-law hates him for it and so he's in exile, while a rogue cop wanders the streets of Manila raping people and chucking grenades for the hell of it. All of the interesting cast members get pointlessly killed off, Kurata is completely sidelined, and the movie seems only concerned with whether the two brothers will ever become friends again. Much worse than it should have been.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Raymond Leung

I feel like I know all the plot elements by heart, now, they are so familiar in Hong Kong cinema: the story of a hitman (Nick Cheung), a loner, who had a terrible childhood. He never sees the man who hires him to kill, he only kills people "who deserve killing," and before he does the killing he always visits the same prostitute. But then the script takes each of these conventions and turns them on their ear. He finds out he is going blind, and soon finds himself re-evaluating his life. He falls in with a quirky and charming girl (Yo Yo) he meets at a quicky mart, and their relationship slowly evolves. As he loses his vision, he begins seeing his life more clearly than he had ever before. I have never seen a film with so many genuinely surprising moments, all of which just flow naturally out of the story and never seem forced. It could have easily been played as a black comedy, since so much of the hitman's life turns out to be utterly different than what he thought he knew, but it's played straight -- a risky choice, which somehow works. Add absolutely inspired direction throughout by Raymond Leung, great cinematography, Spanish guitar on the soundtrack, and you end up with as unique and compelling a work as Wong Kar Wai's more famous FALLEN ANGELS. Just as good in its own way, DAY OFF will however languish in obscurity, having no big name director, nor big name actors, nor any foreign distributors even looking its way.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Chow Chun-Wing

Pinky Cheung, on the run from her past, goes down to the harbor to commit suicide. Jackie Lui is there, too, drinking away his depression with Heineken. He saves her, and ends up taking her in. The two have nowhere to go and nothing to lose, with every choice being another dead end. Looks like I would enjoy it, but the VCD does not have English subtitles, so I only skimmed through the first fifty minutes or so.

| Available on [VCD]

2002 | Hong Lung

Deadly boring. A woman kills her rich husband and sets up her former lover, just out of jail, to take the rap. When someone who saw her kill (Ben Ng) tries to blackmail her, he sets in motion events that will lead to most everyone dying. Not giving anything away, either -- the movie shows all the highlights and ending during the opening credits before the story actually starts. Unbelievable. Shot on and direct to video, not even fast foward can save this one from the rubbish heap.

| Available on [VCD]

2002 | Leung Hung Wah

Sam Lee and Samuel Leung star, along with Ronny Cheung, a regular in the TROUBLESOME NIGHT films (never a good sign). Shot on DV. The three skinny punks are complete losers and deep in debt with the local loan shark. One night, they shout out their wishes to be rich, damn the consequences, and a man in a black raincoat holding a miniature black dragon comes and asks them to pray to the dragon and their wishes will be answered. And so, they all make their deals with the 'dark,' and pretty soon they become rich, but suffer the consequences. Suddenly the guy who wished, "I want to be rich, I won't care if I die," probably is feeling he got the short end of the stick compared to the other wish, "I want to be rich, and I won't care who dies except me!" It seemed almost like a Media Evangelism film like Ultimate Intelligence, but the moral is muddled and I'm not at all sure what the filmmakers were trying to say, except "greed is bad."

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Leung Pak Kin

Eason Chan stars as Buster, an acrobat in a Chinese Opera troupe, never given a starring role and always chastized for his laziness by the troupes star (played by Anthony Wong). When his previous incarnation, a female opera actress (Joey Yung) comes back to haunt him, he must perform her final performance for her to give her soul a rest, and perhaps so her old lover (played in flashback by Nicholas Tse) might come and see her one last time. There are lots of nice moments in this film but the cast, with the exception of Wong & Tse, refuse to take the material seriously. Eason Chan, like the lazy acrobat he plays, is not really up to the challenge of his leading role.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Cash Chin

A group of friends goes to Thailand and witness a murder, but do nothing. Soon after the ghost starts haunting them. Things take a turn for the idiotic when one of the girls videotapes her own murder, but the police don't watch the tape, and when her friends do they don't immediately take it to them. "Let's investigate," they say, Scooby-Doo style. Even then they didn't have enough material to make a ninety minute movie so the ending is padded out by some scenes of Thai monks, who have nothing whatsoever to do with the story. This is as bad as it gets. Michael Tse, Iris Chai, and Cheung Tat-Ming star. At least they got a vacation to Thailand out of it.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Billy Chung Siu Hung

Daniel Wu and Lam Suet are assassins, and they are also brothers. Stephen Fung and Sam Lee are cops on their trail. When the triad boss's wife takes a shine to Wu despite the fact that he is horribly disfigured, he decides he will do anything for her. Will he be betrayed, or will she be faithful? Will he get into a car accident which damages his face futher, allowing doctors to somehow fix it entirely so that he looks like young sexy Daniel Wu again? Will a prostitute famous for her fellatio teach him the art of seduction? This isn't a completely terrible movie by any measure, but it isn't exactly good, either. It does have its moments, though. Lam Suet puts in a solid performance. There are a couple violent and nasty gun battles, and I could appreciate the liberal use of blood packs -- some moments are downright gory.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Miu Kin Tak

A shot on video snake woman cheapie starring Sophia Ngan and Diana Pang Dan. But the key thing you should know about this film is this: although it is rated Category III, there is no nudity or gore of any kind. There are also no subtitles, making this film a completely pointless exercise, in more ways than one.

| Available on [VCD]

2002 | Billy Tang

Tang follows up last year's SHARP GUNS, a movie filled with intricate ploys, clever strategems, and byzantine betrayals, with DEVIL TOUCH, which tries to be just as clever but doesn't quite pull it off. When a department head (Michael Tao) is accused of sexual harassment by his secretary, it is only the first in a half-dozen ploys set in motion by the various department heads jockeying to become the next CEO. Investigative attorney Alex Fong has to unravel the plot while ambition leads to extortion, murder, and a chase around his house with a chainsaw. Pinky Cheung and Iris Chai are the sexy femme fatales. The DISCLOSURE/BASIC INSTINCT-type sexual thriller has never been my favorite genre, and this one is no exception.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Ah Kam

Shot on video. A group goes out to a village in the country to track down legends of a mythical beast, called "The Distinctive." A reward has been offered for photos, even more money for hide. The group goes hunting, little knowing that THE DISTINCTIVE is hunting them! Here's something new -- a HK version of the monster-in-the-woods genre. Too bad it is so excruciatingly bad as to rob all enjoyment. The monster never, ever appears. Not even once. Further, although the movie is clearly labeled CAT III, which is frankly why I wanted to watch it, there is a distinct lack of gore or nudity. In fact, none whatsoever. No monster, no gore, no nudity, shot without style, written without craft, what does this movie have? Nothing. Nothing at all.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Albert Mak

The good doctor Rock (Stephen Ma) can't remember whether he is a killer or not, but he starts out chained to violent prisoner Blackie Ko when he overpowers the guard and drags the helpless doctor to freedom. Blackie helps him get back on his feet, open a clinic, while at the same time he befriends a young prostitute and an older woman. The cops close in as his memories return. The first twenty minutes are very promising, but then it sags in the middle as action is put on the bottom shelf and exchanged for romantic drama. A good supporting cast, including Yoyo Mung, Blackie Ko, Lam Suet, and the not so good Jerry Lamb keep things moving along, but the biggest standout of this film is the soundtrack -- a couple of really excellent chant and music tracks bring a lot of tension and depth to the most ordinary of scenes.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1981 | Yuen Wo-Ping

Dreadnaught is, on the face of things, the very simple story of a crazed, relentless, homacidal maniac. In some ways it is what the movie Terminator might have been like, if it was set in Republican China, and instead of guns there was kung fu, and instead of Arnold's cool and calm "I'll be back" line there was White Tiger's slobbering and maniacal "GRREAHHRRH!". » MORE

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1986 | Tony Au

Chow Yun-Fat stars with Brigitte Lin in this tale of a timeless love which waits for 2,000 years then goes nowhere fast. » MORE

1994 | Lau Ka-Leung

Lau Ka-Leung didn't much care for the results of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2, so he whipped up his own version of the Wong Fei-Hong story to have the last word. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Joe Ma

Miriam Yeung and Louis Koo turn on the charm in this romantic comedy, to no noticable effect. About twenty minutes into the picture, the subtitles drop off of the DVD. Nothing I had seen thus far made it look like a worthwhile investment to buy the VCD and finish watching the picture. It was a box office hit, perhaps those who find Miriam Yeung funny would find much to enjoy here. I don't, and I didn't.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1982 | Ching Siu-Tung

The ultimate Ninja action film, period. Directed by Ching Siu-Tung. » MORE

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2002 | Lam Wai Yin

Kent Cheng heads up the cast in this story of a security agency run by a woman being driven out of business by the man who heads up the competing agency. But the dedication and loyalty of the guards, including long time employee Cheng and new recruit and martial arts expert Wayne Lai save the day. Several scenes depict recent college graduates looking for, and not finding, work, while others take jobs in coffee shops. The girlfriend of one disparages him for working at something as menial as security guard, but she changes her opinion when she finds that holding a job, no matter how trivial, and working with dedication, is more respectable than being unemployed. Cheng's wife, played by Emily Kwan, seems hungry for money but eventually comes to the same conclusion. The message: there's no shame in answering that help wanted ad at the McDonalds. Not much happens in this message movie but Wayne Lai manages to get a few laughs. Shot on video.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Joe Ma

It's not that I hated this light situation comedy about a woman who pretends to be pregnant in order to keep her job, it's just that there isn't anything special about it. I remember a time when Hong Kong comedies were outrageous, even the quietest ones containing at least one or two gags that would shock, horrify, or amaze. But not anymore. Now they resemble more than anything else Hollywood movies of the same type. Just about anything with Hugh Grant in it comes to mind by way of example. These films might have a few chuckles, but for the most part you're just watching the film and theoretically caring about the characters. DUMMY MOMMY had some cute moments, and star Miriam Young does manage to be mostly endearing, but I have to be honest with myself -- if it was an American movie, I wouldn't give it the time of day.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1990 | Ricky Lau Koon Wai

It has been ten years since the original Encounter of the Spooky Kind, and the horror-comedy landscape has changed. Whereas the original movie was really giving the genre it's start, the sequel sits on the other end of the spectrum, when the genre was in decline. Encounter of the Spooky Kind 2 breaks very little new ground plot-wise, and in fact looks more like a Mr. Vampire sequel than anything else. » MORE

2001 | Chan Kin-Tak

The only enemy this cop has is his own sorry-ass pathetic self. After busting a Triad kid, he discovers the kid is dating his former girlfriend (Josie Ho) who dumped him right before they were to marry. She falls into some chemicals and temporarily loses her vision, so she stays with her friend, a radio talk show host who is, as it turns out, also blind. The cop starts hanging out with them, pretending to be mute, to discover why his old girlfriend dumped him. Turns out its because he's lame and boring -- as anyone could have pointed out. Also turns out everyone liked him better, even his own dad, when he used to collect trash and make sculptures from it. Just think of what he could do with a box full of THE ENEMY VCDs.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Billy Chung

From the pen of veteran TROUBLESOME NIGHT actor Simon Loui comes an anthology film in much the same style as early entries in the TN series. Three stories about love between ghosts and humans, the first in an office, the second starring Loui as a taxi driver, and the third between a triad ex-con and a nurse. And surprisingly for an anthology film, all three stories are involving. Although the emotion was a bit tinny at times due to the short length of each of the pieces, the actors acquit themselves well and each of the stories have a bit of suspense. At the end, all three of the stories tie up and lightly intertwine, making for a satisfying conclusion. A couple CGI effects are used for cheap scares, though I'm not sure why they are in the picture, except perhaps to make for a scarier-looking preview.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | James Yuen

There's something inherently sick in this film about a girl (Michele Reis) who can't find a good man, until a fluke accident changes her beloved dog into one (Nick Cheung). He has to learn how to walk, talk, and use the toilet like a man, and in the process falls in love with his master, and she with him. I was beginning to feel queasy at the idea they would soon start going at it, but the movie falls apart in the last act rather than daring to go to its bestial conclusion. Good for a few laughs, but not many, and the way it steals piecemeal from a dozen other films, including DR. DOOLITTLE, THE ANIMAL, and CYRANO de BERGERAC. Lam Suet and Sophie Ngan co-star.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1993 | Wu Ma

Sifu extraordinaire Lam Ching-Ying faces his most challenging opponent ever: the Catholic Church. Ghosts, hopping vampires, and communion all threaten to unbalance the feng-shui of an entire village. Sifu to the rescue! » MORE

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2001 | Stephen Tung

The Power Net Show is sponsoring a tournament to determine their next big spokesman. The fights are all set up like a video game, on platforms over water or mountains. Only difference is, no one seems to have any particularly special moves to show, and the outcome of most every fight is not even remotely in doubt. What a shame. The only real kungfu movie of the year, but it's a complete dud. Why anyone thinks the 'tournament' plot is worth filming is completely beyond me. I might have enjoyed some of the fights, as there obviously was some talented martial artists on board, but kungfu is so much more exciting to watch when it has a point. As it is, I felt like I was watching a real tournament, which are usually only exciting for the parents of the participants.

| Available on [VCD]

2002 | Danny and Oxide Pang

Angelica Lee plays a young blind woman who gets corneal implants to restore her vision. Unfortunately for her, it also gives her the ability to see ghosts, and even more chilling, the strange visitors who come to take the dead away. A creepy and satisfying film that manages to put a new twist into the by now tired "seeing dead people" storyline. The second half of the picture, set in Thailand, is less effective, but the eye-popping conclusion more than makes up for whatever faults came before.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Cha Chuen-Yee

Francis Ng is a down and out painter living the bohemian lifestyle in Paris among his artsy friends. Kristy Yang is a woman who has devoted her entire life to marrying a millionaire who also loves her, and does anything it takes to catch the eye of her next target. When the two meet, Ng immediately falls in love, though its never clear why, as Yang's character seldom approaches endearing. To further add to the improbability, Ng has been trying to woo a beautiful French girl, and at last succeeds just when Yang enters the scene. The French girl loves him, but suddenly he forgets all about her. Sorry, not buying it. I won't even mention the fact that Ng is supposedly suffering from a rare disease, called "Faint-after-climax" or something like that, and he expects the next time he makes love may be his last. Silly. Still, there are some good points. Francis Ng is mostly fun to watch, the Parisian street scenes are beautiful, as are the Parisian women, who are not ashamed of their bodies and doff their tops a few times. Compare this to the love scene between Ng and Yang, in which each are wrapped in their own blanket, and not even the pretense is made that she might be naked somewhere under there. I wish they had made this movie about Francis Ng and his efforts to woo the French girl -- that could have been a film worth seeing.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1993 | Chen Kaige

A fabulous, sweeping drama about two men in the Peking Opera, one a Hua Dan, the other a Jing, and the annoying prostitute that keeps on screwing up their lives. » MORE

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2002 | Ah Bu

Shot on video. A candidate for the worst Hong Kong video I have ever seen. A woman gets a job at a clothing store, and has an affair with the owners husband. But who cares about the plot? It's a category III movie, and no matter how lame the plot, surely it is just a convenient device on which to hang some T&A;, right? Wrong. Category III it is, but completely devoid of any nudity. Unless you count a scene in which the husband peeks in at a woman changing and sees a naked back. I hate everyone involved in making this for wasting a good fifteen minutes of my life -- which is how long it took to watch the whole thing with near constant use of the fast-forward button. No good bits materialized to make me even consider watching at normal speed.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai

Andy Lau is the Mahjong Master, Gigi Leung is his crazy but determined girlfriend, Louis Koo is his geeky brother, and Lau Ching-Wan is a hip-hop Mahjong con man. This movie is a love poem to Mahjong. Fans of the game simply must see the movie. All others, be warned. It is at times funny, the cast is charming, the story entertaining, but it contains more Mahjong than most westerners can take. After watching it, I felt like I just stayed up until 5 AM shuffling the tiles. And although I am familiar with the game, a lot of the humor derives from the characters getting the "special" hands which I don't recognize at all. Other than the almost constant games of Mahjong, the movie follows the regular gambling movie formula.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Joe Ma

I wasn't expecting to like this film but it turns out its quite funny. Concerning two best friends who fall in love, one with a beautiful bartender whose old boyfriend (Eric Kot) comes back and threatens to ruin the whole affair, while the other friend (Eason Chan), a womanizer, goes for a young University professor who takes dating him as a study in herself. Of course everyone finds out the true meaning of love in the end. The film is a bit long, sagging toward the end as the romances get more dramatic and the affairs must follow the usual path we've seen thousands of times before. But some good humor and tender, likable characters help sustain interest until the end. Judging from this effort, I suppose I'll have to go back and watch the first one, which I studiously avoided at the time.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Ivan Lai

A boy whose father loses the house in a gambling game then commits suicide, and whose mother shortly thereafter dies after coughing up blood, has special power to be able to win at games of chance. He grows up and enters a gambling tournament to become the king of gamblers. Lots of really dull things happen inbetween. A cheap production with uninspired directing with some of the most boring gambling scenes I have ever had to sit through. Note to the director: It's more exciting for the viewer if we can actually see some of the cards the gamblers are playing with, you know, so we can tell who's winning. Thanks.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Joe Ma

Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Sammi Cheng star as two cranky people who get into a car accident with each other, and then are drawn together and fall in love. Plods along at the usual pace for yuppie romances, then becomes nearly narcoleptic in its third act. Not even the dozens of closeups of charming Tony and beautiful Sammi can save this picture, it's damn dull. Tony's character has a quirky family (boy, where have we seen that before? Oh yeah, in all of them). The most amusing and bizarre part has his sister always throwing temper tantrums, the only way to calm her down being to stick your foot or an old shoe in her face. No one ever mentions how odd this is. It would be a similar experience, I imagine, to watching this film.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Dayo Wong

There was a time when mere mention of comedian Dayo Wong was enough to make me break out into hives. But not anymore -- I take back everything bad I ever said about him -- this movie is a gem. Wong plays a grown man who has never left Tien Mun, because he cannot stand to be in any moving vehicle. He concocts scheme after scheme in an attempt to get rich without ever leaving. FIGHTING TO SURVIVE is a throwback to the comedies of Michael Hui, a small potato with big schemes, caught in difficult situations, always trying to come out on top. The funniest comedy of the year, with a great ensemble cast including Sonija Kwok and the ever-versatile Anthony Wong.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1997 | Derek Chiu

This courtroom drama about a fallen priest boils down to one word. And I'm sorry to say, that word is 'smegma.' » MORE

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Alan Mak

Two lovers promise to meet on Valentine's Day at a wishing tree in the snowy mountains of Japan, but instead its their brother (Edison Chen) and sister (Amanda Strang) who meet, carting their siblings remains as per their last requests. Of course they misunderstand each other at first, but then they fall in love. But, she has a heart problem, and also a very powerful and rich dad (Simon Yam! Is he that old?), who doesn't like it when his girls fall for punks, especially when he's got her lined up with the cardiologist. The first half of the film, with beautiful, snow-covered mountains and Windham Hill Sampler music playing in the background, sets a nice tone for this romance despite the ridiculous premise. Sam Lee adds a bit of spark to the picture as Edison's friend. The story never stops being wildly implausible, but the cast has an infectious charm that helps you muddle through.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Ally Wong

Jackie Lui is a mean, tough, unscrupulous triad baddie, Michael Tse is a nice righteous one. He and his brothers form the smallest, wimpiest triad gang I've ever seen, their elder brother teaches them forbearance instead of action, and the baddies get the upper hand. If there aren't enough stereotypical characters in here for you, there's also an innocent hooker with a heart of gold. Low, low budget film shot without artistry. Michael Tse is a poor man's Ekin Cheng.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Sherman Wong

A drug scare flick about the terrible effects of 'fing' drugs on a persons family, on their character, and also on the inside of their skull ("My God...it's pock-marked and scarred!"). Sam Lee plays a young tough whose brother gets involved in selling fing drugs, while his mother encourages him to do so she can have gambling money. When his brother is set up by the gangsters he works for, Sam Lee plans his revenge. Not an ounce of humor, not a shred of soul, this film is too mired in the message to bother with being entertaining. Show it in Health class if you must, otherwise, forget it.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Raymond To

What the ---? A Hong Kong movie which approaches the topic of AIDS with sensitivity and sincerity? Well I never thought I'd see the day. Chris Lee plays Fu, a young man with hemophilia who gets a transfusion of AIDS-infected blood and slowly dies. He finds his God given purpose on life is writing about his condition, so that others may benefit. Based on a true story, though given the usual usage of AIDS in Hong Kong movies as a cheap gay joke, I can only assume not many people read his writing. Sylvia Chang turns in a credible performance as his steadfast and religious mother, while Josie Ho struggles to create a real moment in her role as an HIV positive woman and comes up empty. Although this sensitive approach must be something of a watershed in Hong Kong cinema, it's nothing I haven't avoided watching dozens of times before here in the States, and this weepy melodrama offers nothing fresh and never strays from its tired formula.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1991 | Wu Ma

Wu Ma, a true master of supernatural cinema both as an actor and director, here does both as he presents his own version of the traditional boy meets fox tale, updated with a little kung-fu, a little black magic, and a big heaping cup of cheesy special effects. » MORE

2002 | Chow Jan Wing

Three airline hostesses have a several day layover in the Philippines. They stay at a nice hotel, and are eager to hit the town to pick up some guys. But the only ones they manage to attract is a guy who keeps rubbing himself and drooling, a guy who is suspected to have murdered someone in their hotel (Kenny Bee), and a gorgeous woman who just might be a lesbian. They all fall for the suspected murderer for some reason, but then one of the girls sees a ghost, and soon another murder occurs. Pretty freaky, huh? Shot on video. Not completely terrible, though probably best remembered for its overall quite anti-lesbian tone. "I just want you to be normal," says Kenny to one, in a flashback. If you naturally assume all lesbians are abnormal borderline psychotics, here's a movie just for you.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Herman Yau

Under British rule, minorities convicted of committing crimes punishable by the death penalty if they were older were sometimes detained "by the Queen's pleasure," without ever actually being sentenced. Now, on the eve of the handover, a dedicated lawyer and a romantic student try to rally the citizens of Hong Kong to get the kids sentenced so that they may serve the appropriate time for their crimes, instead of just being held indefinitely. Although it occasionally drifts into TV Movie of the Week territory, this is an effective and heartwrenching drama, based on true events, courtesy director Herman Yau, well known for his more exploitative and violent Cat. III films (The Untold Story, Ebola Madness).

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Chiu Shun Ki

Two unemployed families, one consisting of Eric Tsang, Miriam Yeung, and Dodo Cheng, the other led by Wayne Lai, compete in a television game show, 'Frugal Game,' to spend the least amount of money possible in one week's time. Eason Chan is the unhappy director, who would rather be making period dramas starring Ti Lung. Certainly the theme of unemployment and thriftiness is timely for Hong Kong's recession bearing citizens, but the movie never takes off, and the fictional game show is more mild mannered and less shocking than, say, any given episode of FEAR FACTOR. Chan and Yeung fall for each other, but it comes off strained and the reunion is not as successful as their romance in last year's FEEL 100% II. When will Miriam Yeung's fifteen minutes of fame elapse? Not soon enough for this poor reviewer.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Johnnie To

A killer who can't stand flickering flourescents hunts down a killer who gets off his game when he hears country western music, both problems I can readily identify with. Tok (Andy Lau) wants to be the number one killer, O (Takeshi Sorimachi) already is. The only thing between them is O's cleaning lady and a cop who shouldn't be speaking so much english (Simon Yam). The first time I tried watching this I shut it off after a half an hour in boredom, unable to bear the self conscious artifice on display. Director To still knows how to make movies with style and energy, too bad he forgot how to make one with a point. When I finally decided to try and finish the thing I found the middle to be fairly entertaining, but then I was let down again by the ending. It's not that bad, really, compared to a lot of other Hong Kong movies on release this year, but compared with To classics like A HERO NEVER DIES or THE MISSION, it's complete shit.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Marco Mak

Francis Ng is a compulsive gambler, Shooky Kwan a down on her luck nightclub madam in debt. Their paths cross several times, and they fall in love as they try their fortunes in Macao. The film is very clever in showing the life of a compulsive gambler -- these two are not unlucky in gambling, in fact several times they win huge sums, but their addiction drives them to disaster no matter how successful they are. A sweet, lighthearted film starring two of my favorite actors in HK cinema, marred only by a disappointing and predictable ending.

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Sam Ho

This is a surprisingly entertaining film about the horrors of Rave scene drugs such as ecstasy, reminiscent of those old American drug scare films of the fifties. The young bunch (the 'gang' of the title, I suppose) go to Shenzhen on the mainland to Rave the night away. They score some drugs, and get crazier and crazier, at last resulting in ruin, overdose, death. Blackie Ko is a social worker they meet along the way who tries to help them out and who inexplicably breaks into song at one point. The drug scare scenes are most effective when they show the kids in the bathroom, afterwards, inevitably trying to take a painful dump, vomiting, or even getting urinated on and being too whacked out to notice.

| Available on [DVD]

1973 | Chang Cheh

David Chiang, Agnes Chan, and Ti Lung get together for some serious angst in this film about the "generation gap" -- a title which I suppose must pertain to the empty space between the ears of almost every character in the film, where their brains should be. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Lawrence Lau

Maybe I need to be younger to enjoy this but I found this adolescent drama about two friends who both fall for the same girl to be rather slow moving and lacking in any really dramatic scenes. The friends are in a high school band, and I appreciated that for once they actually sound like a high school band, that is to say, not very good. Still, I found myself pining for a murder, a drug overdose, a gang fight, anything at all other than still more scenes of High School kids hanging out skateboarding, which is unfortunately all that I got.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Carol Lai

A remarkable film about the grandfather of a runaway girl, enlisted by the girl's parents to help track her down. He falls in with the girl's friend, named P, who is a brash, stubborn, independent herself. Together they try to find the missing girl, and in the process, perhaps, find something missing from themselves. The performances in this film are shockingly good, especially old time kung-fu star Lo Lieh as grandfather. As a loner and ex-cop, grandfather is a fabulous character study, as are the missing girl's parents, who become hopelessly unconnected and listless. Director Caroline Lai takes her time with each scene, going for that art house aesthetic, but never to the point where it compromises the energy of her youthful, and not-so-youthful, stars. Other 'wild youth' films released this year like GANGS 2001, GIMME GIMME, or THE YOUNG ONES are not even in the same league.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1989 | Wong Jing

Chow Yun-Fat redefines cool and consumes copious amounts of chocolate in the undisputed champion of gambling films. » MORE

| Available on [DVD]

1990 | Wong Jing

Now it gets weird. Stephen Chow reprises his character from All for the Winners, as he meets up with Andy Lau, reprising his character from God of Gamblers, in a sequel to both films. How economical! » MORE

1996 | Wong Jing

Apparently the people in charge of English titles can only count to three. So here's another God of Gamblers 3, this time going back to his youth, with none of the original actors involved. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1991 | Wong Jing

Stephen Chow and Ng Man-Tat are swept back to Shanghai 1937 by a vengeful group of superpowered villains. He meets his grandfather and sings about Pork Buns. Oh, and there's some gambling thrown in as well. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1994 | Wong Jing

Chow Yun-Fat returns to the role that made him famous (one of the roles, at any rate), with mixed results. » MORE

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Wong Chung Yam

There are no gold fingers whatsoever to be found in this story of an undercover cop infiltrating the triads. Once there, he befriends another undercover, generally laments about being undercover, and gets rippingly drunk and confesses to his girlfriend about being undercover. Not Surprisingly, what little cover he has is quickly blown. A good cast, headed by Ethan Hawke's HK lookalike, Terence Yin. An unexpected ending (which, however, drags a bit), but ultimately the plot is yesterday's news.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2002 | Samson Chiu

Sandra Ng is a not particularly good-looking prostitute who makes a living by working twice as hard as anyone else. Trapped in an ATM booth overnight with a would-be thief (Eric Tsang), she tells the story of her life in the sex trade in Hong Kong for the past few decades. Her career follows the economic and social ups and downs of the city itself, but she perseveres. When times are good, she works hard. When times are tough, she works even harder. She never gives up and never loses hope. A message everyone in Hong Kong these days could take to heart. Forget the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold stereotype, here is a hooker who develops marketing strategies and tries to make a comfortable living by providing a service. Sandra Ng delivers a career-topping performance, unashamed, unrestrained, and so enthusiastic she seems capable of bursting from the screen.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1987 | O Sing Pui

A scholar comes across a small bird which turns out to be a demon. They fall in love, and the movie comes to a screeching halt, only to start back up again at the desperately awaited end. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Jingle Ma

This update of STORY OF A DISCHARGED PRISONER follows a former triad leader (Ekin Cheng) after his release from prison. He tries to start a new life, working at the cafe of an old friend (Lam Suet), but his old friends, enemies, and lovers won't let him. A boy he didn't even know he had is dumped on him, he accepts responsibility. But his old girlfriend (Karen Mok), still high flying in the triad ranks, wants him to rejoin her at the top. This film felt like Ekin's farewell to his YOUNG AND DANGEROUS roles of the past, and he puts all of his considerable charm into the role. Almost everyone in the film is given some depth, even the bad guys have their reasons, no ultimate evil here, just shades of grey. A couple good fight scenes, but at its heart this is a drama about an ex-con trying to start over.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1994 | Stephen Shin

This movie is so long it was released as two seperate movies in some markets. It is the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Han are rising ascendant, and Gong Li is there. » MORE

| Available on [DVD]

1993 | Tsui Hark

Green Snake is a retelling of the classic story The Legend of Lady White Snake, albeit from a different point of view, pumped up with lush visuals, special effects, over the top characterizations, beautiful women, and hyperkinetic action. In short, it's your typical Tsui Hark production. » MORE

| Available on [DVD]

2001 | Yau Muk-kei

The story begins with a 'Cryptkeeper' type narrator (a hopping vampire), introducing the tale. Lots of paper flutters everywhere, there's lightning and thunder, and the camera zooms and floats and turns all over the place. Spooky music plays. And then we cut to a school, where a number of students and teachers are introduced. Everything about the production is low budget and shoddy, and I dozed off shortly after that. When I woke up, a girl was screaming and pointing and everyone jumps and says "Ahhh! do you see a ghost!" and then she says, "Sorry, I was choking." and everyone relaxes. Groan. I nap some more. When I wake up again it looks like a group of students have found a treasure map of gold concealed by Japanese soldiers at the end of WWII. Some teachers are also on the expedition. They all head for some old dorm rooms (The Haunted School of the title). The ghosts finally appear, but all they do is stand there while everyone screams and runs around them.

2001 | Heung Laap Hang

The story of three reporters at one newspaper and the stories that they break. The new guy (Daniel Wu) writes a successful story about poor orphans, the top reporter (Maggie Cheung Ho-Yi) gets close with a young triad punk to get the inside scoop, and the veteran (Emil Chow) covers a diamond show which in past years has had several thefts occur. Though the three are together occasionally, for the most part each story is self contained. Surprisingly for an ensemble film like this, I found all three stories to be engaging, with all the principal characters delivering fine performances.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Law Shun-chen

This film bears no relation whatsoever to HER NAME IS CAT. Some pre-credits action has Almen Wong copping a TOMB RAIDER vibe as she steals a gold Buddha from a Thai temple. This is never mentioned again, and has nothing to do with the film. She's a killer, raised in Thailand by a powerful general, who gets killed while running for political office. So, aided by the General's daughter, she steals a microchip worth millions as a roundabout way to revenge the killing. Roy Cheung is an on the run Hongkie small potato trying to hide out in Thailand who unwittingly gets caught up in the action. When he's completely down on his luck, he contacts an ICQ buddy he knows (Fast becoming an Almen Wong plot signature -- see also ANGEL COP: FINAL CRISIS). This film is an absolute mess thanks to poor directing and even poorer editing that at one point has us experiencing a flashback within a flashback within a flashback. Before entering the wayback machine the climax of the film is pretty much totally spoiled. Then, we just have to watch everything lead up to the already known conclusion. On the other hand, Roy Cheung and Almen Wong are excellent and the fight scenes are pretty good and frequent. Despite the considerable flaws I found myself enjoying this low-budget, shot in Thailand, girls-with-guns actioner for what it offers.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Wing Shya, Nicholas Tse, GC Goo Bi, Stephen Fung

Three short stories by new directors, all dealing in some way about love. The first by Wing Shya tells the story of a lesbian who kidnaps a girl and holds her in her bedroom above a shoestore in the hopes that she will fall in love with her. The second, written by Stephen Fung and directed by Fung and Nic Tse, tells the story of a man who loves guns, to the point that he actually sleeps with them in his bed. The third story, which certainly seemed to be the longest, tells the story of two young lovers who meet on ICQ and begin a relationship. Directed by GC Goo Bi, the third story is a lot like her full length film this year, MERRY GO ROUND, in that the characters are charming and real, but nothing much ever happens. The first two are better, more experimental. Tse and Fung's film especially relies on a loud and energetic soundtrack and interesting camera angles and effects to propel the story forward, clearly inspired by Eric Kot's avante-guard DRAGON HEAT (2000). All together, HEROES IN LOVE is an interesting, experimental, low-budget film which, while not entirely satisfying, does deliver an alternative to slick studio offerings pandering to popular sentiment. In other words, its better than all those other romances Hong Kong has been making lately.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Dante Lam

Not since THE KILLER saved his corneas for Jenny have we seen heroes so concerned about saving up for a major medical procedure. This time, it's undercover cop Chin Kar-Lok who needs some extravagant multimillion dollar back surgery. And it's a special kind of surgery which apparently only works if you do it within a month. So his buddies, led by Alex To, resign from the force and scrape up the money by ripping off gangsters. They also end up killing some gangsters, too, which gets another group of cops, led by Daniel Wu, involved in hunting them down. There is an impressive solidity to the gunfights here, each gun large and loud and each bullet, if it doesn't hit a person, makes its mark on a car or wall. Plenty of action and pathos with lots of good moments. I could really admire the detail and complexity of each individual scene, but it never comes together into a satisfying whole. Compared with Lam's JIANG HU: THE TRIAD ZONE from last year, HIT TEAM is utterly pedestrian.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1984 | Chien Yu-Sang

Peking Opera actors try to scare each other by pretending to be ghosts until real ghosts show up and join in the hi-jinx. Hilarity fails to ensue. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Kenneth Lau

Last year, two of the most amusing Hong Kong movie titles were HONG KONG HISTORY X, named after the U.S. film AMERICAN HISTORY X, and HONG KONG PIE, named after AMERICAN PIE. Not that either of the films had anything to do with their american namesakes. Now, as GEN-X COPS gave way to GEN-Y, HK HISTORY has now moved another letter down in the alphabet, as if the X is not significant of anything. Next, I expect to see the sequel to HK PIE named HONG KONG THETA. The movie itself, at least on the VCD version, has no english subtitles.

2001 | Cheang Pou-Soi

Francis Ng is a producer of a radio call-in show about supernatural phenomenon. When a reporter (Josie Ho) and film crew from the U.S. show up to get an in-depth story, they follow the lead of a particularly strange caller, who talked about a childhood encounter with a "Big Head Monster." The story builds suspense nicely and is very enjoyable despite sub-par performances by Josie Ho (speaking almost entirely in English) and her gwailo film crew; unfortunately, the originality craps out at the end and it becomes something of a BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The DVD gives you a second ending to choose from, too bad it isn't any good either.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Benny Chan

Based on the "Hello Kitty" murder, just like THERE IS A SECRET IN MY SOUP, and in fact in addition to sharing details about the crime in question, even share the same plot device of opening the film with the police investigation, then telling the story of the woman who steals money and cannot repay her loan in flashback. Eventually her skull gets stuck in an Hello Kitty doll, but to get there we first have to sit through a lot of sitting around in a dingy apartment taking drugs, eating instant noodle, and brutal beating until death and dismemberment. Although it seemed to have a better cast (no Michael Wong, for one thing), it isn't nearly as good as the other one.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2003 |

Johnny Cash sings, on his last album, "I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel; I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real." I can now relate, having subjected myself to HURT. An anthology film based on getting hurt in relationships, HURT is a low budget shot on video snore fest, starring Sophie Ngan and given a Category III rating. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1984 |
An atomospheric piece that features a scholar with bad teeth, two ghosts, and the requisite drunken Taoist priest. » MORE

2001 | Herman Yau

Dick (Andy Hui) and Junk (Simon Loui) are CID agents who cross some of the top triad bosses in Hong Kong and soon find themselves out of options and with nowhere to hide. In most movies it seems the cops have all the cards and all the resources, but this is an essay in helplessness against entrenched power. In the middle of it all Dick falls in love with a woman (Loletta Lee) who has a number of disorders, including extreme forgetfulness and acute hyper-sensitivity. Herman Yau handles the cast and the material expertly, and knows how to bring the best out of Simon Loui, with whom he worked on the early TROUBLESOME NIGHT films, and who also co-wrote the script.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Patrick Leung

It's the Hong Kong WHAT WOMEN WANT, with Lau Ching-Wan and Louis Koo as men hired to design the ultimate bra. Most of the women in the office are fawning over them, except Gigi Leung, who will never respect a man's design because they have no breasts. It was not long ago that Hong Kong comedy largely consisted of men staring at a woman in a bra and getting a nose bleed, so no doubt the constant bra shots and open mouthed staring were cause for great hilarity and helped make the film a box office smash. I must admit I find nothing wrong with having lots of women parading around in bras myself. This is an art form I can get fully support. But the film goes on a bit too long, at 109 minutes, there are at least twenty minutes in the film that should be on the cutting room floor. Louis Koo is charming, Lau Ching-Wan amusing, and Gigi Leung adorable, so fans of those actors should not be disappointed. My wife assures me it was much better than WHAT WOMEN WANT, though I can't really take that as much of a recommendation.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Stanley Kwan

A gay couple meet, separate, then meet again in this slice of life drama from director Stanley Kwan. Chen Handong (Hu Jun), a successful Beijing businessman, meets the not yet in college Lan Yu (Liu Ye) and they build a relationship. But time and again, Handong drifts away from Lan Yu, first finding another gay lover, later marrying a woman with the idea of starting a family. But each time, Lan Yu remains in his heart. The drama is supposed to cover a time span of over a decade, through Tienamen Square, but the passing of time was difficult to really see. And though it could have been an interesting look at their relationship against a backdrop of Chinese history, the film hardly struck me as Chinese at all. The relationship could have just as easily taken place anywhere, anytime, between any two men. It could have taken place over the course of a year or ten years. I suppose this universality may be appealing to some, I found it only made the film less engaging. An outstanding performance by Hu Jun does not save the picture. Even at only 81 minutes (the DVD says 87, but I say, a lot of end credits), the film goes on and on, seemingly endlessly. Reminded me of the far better Wong Kar-Wai film HAPPY TOGETHER.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Tsui Hark

Great fantasy films are few and far between. And those that are great, are almost always deeply flawed. The original vision in such enchanting pictures such as THE DARK CRYSTAL and LEGEND continue to amaze, despite the fact that the movies themselves are rather weak. So too with LEGEND OF ZU, a film which manages to create a whole other world of immortals who never die, not completely, fighting battles that last for eternities. In the end, Tsui Hark succeeds all too well, as we lowly humans have trouble relating to the problems and concerns of the immortals onscreen. Action packed, but somber and subdued, this is pure fantasy, a creation of unfettered imagination, an awesome spectacle that floods your cortex with s-fx stimuli until you shut down your sense of wonder, and find, like the immortals, that the world is a desolate and unconsoling place.

2001 | Billy Chan

Anthony Wong is a ruthless killer, though as he says, "I only kill those who deserve killing," so I guess that makes it alright. He meets a tough street girl, Josie Ho, and pays her to pretend to be his girlfriend for his mother when she visits from Vietnam (Helena Law). After his mother leaves, they end up staying together, and as he teaches her how to kill, romance blossoms. He only regrets one murder -- a man who stumbled on to a killing and whom he shot accidentally, some time ago. The man had a boy with him, who grows up to be a deranged psychopath, ready to deal out his karmic retribution. I was fully expecting to be bored out of my mind, but instead got drawn in quickly. Anthony Wong turns in a solid performance, as does Josie Ho. The casting of Wong saved this picture from being another sappy hit man romance, as no pretty boy romance is allowed. Having his nemesis completely mentally deranged because of something he did years ago, and regrets, gives the film an emotional depth that is missing from most of the other low budget pictures of this type (like ULTIMATUM, THE ENEMY, or BLOODY COPS).

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Yip Wai-ying

Well, it's like this. Ling is an administrative assistant in an office, but the economy isn't doing too well, her boyfriend withdrew all their savings and gambled it away to try and pay of his debts, failed and disappeared, and her and her mother's new house has large mortgage payments due. So naturally she becomes a bar hostess. But she never drank before -- so will she start drinking? And after drinking, will she take clients home for bigger tips? Strangely, she ends up falling for someone named "Mr. Shit" in the subtitles. Sophie Ngan co-stars as the experienced hostess who knows that whoring with the clients pays better than playing fist games with them.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Derek Chiu

A young stock broker drops out of life and moves to Lantau Island to study under a Zen Master, leaving his girlfriend of five years. His best friend is dumped at the altar by his girlfriend and joins him on the mountain. There, they try to sort out their lives. But no dice -- soon the girls show up and start annoying everyone. Finding happiness does not come easy for anyone. A well scripted and very warm, charming performance by Ko Hon-man as the head monk helped keep me entertained, but it was not enough to get me involved. I suspect fans of romance movies would fare much better.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Johnnie To

When Eddie Murphy put on a fat suit for THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, he was striking a chord with American audiences everywhere, for whom extreme obesity is a well understood part of society. The scenes he did playing all the roles in a large family were so funny, and so true, they necessitated the sequel. Unnecessary, however, is LOVE ON A DIET. Aside from putting on fat suits, stars Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau have no comprehension of what it means to be really fat, nor for that matter does Chinese or Japanese (the movie takes place in Japan) culture as a whole. There is not a single scene in the movie where they are not stuffing their faces, as if filmmakers thought that was the only way someone could be so large. Despite the considerable charm of the leads, and the occasional sweet moment, this film is mostly just sad. The cop-out ending pretty much puts the last nail in this oversized coffin.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1989 | Stephen Tung Wai

Lam Ching-Ying is back with another supernatural adventure, only this time, he isn't a Taoist priest, he's a cop! Well, not really. Actually he's a cop AND a Taoist priest. This film had me hooked before the opening credits even finished. » MORE

| Available on [VCD]

1999 | Andrew Lau

It's the 1930's and Ekin Cheng stars as a swordsman fleeing the law who finds refuge in a famous hotel in New York's Chinatown. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Leung Tak Sam

A movie in the tradition of Jonathan Demme's AFTER HOURS and Sabu's POSTMAN BLUES, though much lighter in spirit. A Japanese man (Taguchi Hiromasa) in Hong Kong on the eve of the handover hires a prostitute at incredible cost because she looks like his childhood sweetheart, in celebration of his 30th birthday. She's only available until midnight. He gets there plenty early, only trouble is, she won't let him do anything without a condom. And so he leaves the hotel in search of a condom, and begins a night where anything bad that could go wrong, does go wrong. As things start spinning wildly out of control, the chief of police (Chin Kar Lok) is called on by the governor to ensure everything is resolved quickly, no matter the cost. On his adventures, the Japanese man meets all stripes of Hong Kongies, friends, foes, and the just plain weird. More of a tribute to Hong Kong and its people, this film showcases a love for the city like none other.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Clarence Fok

Hsu Chi and Sandra Ng head up a cast of superthieving, computer-hacking babes who have to steal a new computer super virus from a high tech vault in order to save Hsu's lover from the Russian Mafia. Fun, campy action film in the "superteam" genre. Gun battles in Chungking Mansion, helicopter rescues, and some of the most ridiculously improbable security measures ever devised. Terence Yin is completely over the top as a demolitions expert and sexual pervert they have to bust out of jail to help them, though, strangely enough, he doesn't do any actual demolition work for them, so one wonders what exactly the point was. The girls have great dialog, like "My name is Spider. Because men who make love to me must die!" A guilty pleasure, I liked this one more than I should.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Herman Yau

It seemed like such a great idea. Take some of Hong Kong's old and beloved comic characters, then do the WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT treatment on them and have them interact with stars like Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung. Only in Hong Kong would they then decide to drop them into a triads and cops film. The mundane plot concerns the star lovers getting into an accident and losing their memories. The comic heroes, Master Q and Potato, help them remember who they are and reunite. Only trouble is, it's supposed to be a comedy but it just isn't funny. The antics of our heroes could not even elicit a chuckle. They were interesting characters, to be sure, but not funny. That's the trouble with favorite old comic characters. Nostalgia drives them on more than anything else. Imagine if comic strips BEETLE BAILEY or BLONDIE were given a similar treatment in the U.S. It would probably have the same result: not funny. But fans of the strip would revel in it anyway, and I presume that is how MASTER Q 2001 was received in Hong Kong.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2003 | Gordon Chan

Jackie Chan is an international action hero. But sometimes, his movies look like they were made for someone who desperately wants to be an international action hero, but doesn't know how to go about it. This movie tries so hard that it takes inspiration in its action scenes from THE ONE, CROUCHING TIGER, and even LETHAL WEAPON 4. What they forgot was that you don't need to be a tired retread of better movies when you've got Jackie Chan. Just let him do his thing, and hang a half-way decent story around it. Unfortunately, director Gordon Chan did neither. Increasingly, Jackie's American films are far more entertaining and better made than his Hong Kong films. Maybe it's time for him to take some more risks with his films, and play more complex characters, instead of just coasting on the success of RUSH HOUR.

2001 | GC Goo Bi

Eric Tsang and his two kids, one a teenage boy, the other a little girl, open up a noodle shop for a few short months. During that time the two kids learn alot about themselves, make friends, fall in love. The boy falls in love with a girl, but her tomboyish sister begins to come between them after a chance game show appearance. Meanwhile, the young girl befriends a poor boy who lives with his grandmother and helps her collect garbage. The kids are all endearing but there's little else to recommend in this determinedly light tale which refuses to get very serious, even when the little boy has to go to an orphanage ("It's OK...I have lots of friends there!"). Based on a radio play.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Jacob Cheung

Anita Mui goes to Paris to get away from her philandering husband, and befriends a young Japanese girl who is in love with a married man. The two decide to extend their vacation and go to Morocco, and while there discover their problems are more connected than they at first believed. This film starts awfully slow, and the two protagonists communicate with each other using English (a second language to both), which makes things even slower. But the slow pace of the first half allows you time to get to know and care for these characters, which makes the second half of the film all the more compelling. A devestating film which creeps up on you slowly, and manages to avoid most, but not all, of the cliches inherent in the material. This film stayed with me longer than any other I've seen this year.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2003 | Raymond To

Michele Reis is a prostitute looking for love, Daniel Wu the object of her affection. The scenes of the brothel, which includes modern song & dance numbers, are obviously inspired by MOULIN ROUGE, a movie so much more inventive with the same theme that this one is unable to stand up to the comparison. Michele Reis is beautiful, and Daniel Wu is perfectly cast as the wimpy, naive scholar, but the story goes nowhere and the film is bereft of real emotion. Based on a folktale and written for the stage, where it should have stayed.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Jeffrey Chiang

The movie follows three plot threads which only barely intersect -- there's a serial killer on the loose. Terence Yin in the obsessed cop trying to track him down. And Ti Lung is the triad boss who gets involved only because the killer murders one of his PR Girls and he is a suspect. Each of the three main characters have their own separate stories. The killer gets a roommate, a young, innocent girl who befriends him. The cop starts going crazy trying to figure out the motives of the killer, and takes to stalking a cowardly psychologist (Tats Lau). And the triad boss finds his relationship with his wife crumbling before his eyes and he is unable to keep it together. Very good performances all around.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1985 | Ricky Lau Koon Wai

Lam Ching-Ying stars as the Taoist sifu in the movie that made hopping vampires a staple of Hong Kong cinema and Lam Ching-Ying a household name. The fun begins when Lam and his assistants attempt to rebury a businessman who refuses to stay dead. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1986 | Ricky Lau Koon Wai

Do you like little cute kids playing vampires? Do you like watching loud, whiny, fat children? Say no more! This is the film for you! » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Yuen Kin-to

Here, at last, is an animated film, Hong Kong style. Based on a popular Hong Kong cartoon series, McDull has a firm sense of place unmatched in any animated film I've ever seen before. It is Hong Kong, it's concerns those of Hong Kong residents. McDull is the story of a young pig, raised by his single mom in the city. Not especially bright, not especially gifted, but filled with hope. A number of different animation styles are mixed together to present different episodes of McDull's life from his birth, to a trip to the Maldives, to a special turkey dinner, and lobbying for bun-snatching to become an olympic event. It is a bittersweet tale of hope, and resignation, and hope, and resignation, narrated by McDull as a grown up (the voice of Anthony Wong), which unfortunately does not reach a conclusion, but rather simply and clumsily ends. The journey up until that point is well worth taking, though, and I look forward, with hope, to more McDull movies in the future.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Wong Jing

Stephen Fung is a rich, smart kid sent to the worst school in the city, where classroom disputes are settled in a makeshift arena in an abandoned classroom. Nicholas Tse is the reigning fight champion of the school. He takes Stephen under his wing and teaches him to fight to survive, while Stephen for his part teaches Nic how to study. Could have been a lot of fun, and the arena fights, courtesy Ching Siu-Tung, are pretty good. But they're way too few and far between, and when the fights move out of the arena and into a garage full of Triad baddies, the choreography becomes so over the top that it just isn't believable nor enjoyable. As with most Wong Jing films, its packed with a lot of ideas, but none really well thought out or executed.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1992 | Ricky Lau Koon Lai

Lam Ching-Ying, Chin Siu-Ho, and Ricky Hui, the original Sifu and disciples, renuite to fight angry Hell Babies, and, of course, more hopping vampires. » MORE

2001 | Herman Yau

Andy Hui is a cop who, after a near fatal shooting, can see dead people. But this isn't a SIXTH SENSE sort of movie where he has to help them now, rather, it is the ghosts who help him. After a long rehab during which he falls for a beautiful nurse (Loletta Lee), he is put on a case to stop -- wouldn't you know it -- a nurse killer and rapist. He and his partner, played by Simon Loui, are quickly on the case, as are a few ghosts who help him out. This movie takes its time with the characters, giving it a depth often missing from ghost genre films. Praise then goes to scriptwriters Simon Loui and Herman Yau, who have collaborated often in the past and seem to have reached their peak, here. And although the film is for the most part quite gentle, a ghost-mystery-romance more than an action or horror picture, Yau comes through by the end to remind us he hasn't lost the sick sense of humor that he used to make his old classics like EBOLA VIRUS and UNTOLD STORY. Made at the same time, with the same cast, as KILLING END.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1985 | Philip Kwok

Ti Lung is Qi Jiguang, the famous Ming Dynasty general in this historical drama turned ninja free-for-all. » MORE

1985 | Corey Yuen

Hiroyuki Sanada disguises himself as a Ninja to defeat his enemies, wading through fight choreography so thick you could dance through it. Shaka-ninja! » MORE

1996 | Cha Chuen Yee

Ugly Kwan shows exactly why he got his nickname, presenting two different versions of his life in the triad, while he lies on an operating table bleeding to death. » MORE

| Available on [VCD]

1996 | Cha Chuen Yee

Mainlanders square off against Hongkies in a gang war while a cop tries to keep his pregnant wife clear of the resulting carnage. » MORE

| Available on [VCD]

1988 | Sammo Hung Kam Bo

Sammo Hung teaches young Peking Opera students about life, love, and psychotic episodes in this dramatization of the adolescence of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Sammo himself. » MORE

1992 | King Hu

King Hu directs this tale about a woman who is trying to escape from the king of Yin/Yang with the help of a group of Taoist priests. She has a beautiful face, except when she takes it off and hangs it on the back of her chair. » MORE

2001 | Jingle Ma

A few redeeming qualities surface in this cookie cutter romance about, as they inevitably are, a handsome but flawed man (Aaron Kwok) who falls in love with a cute but eccentric woman (Christy Cheung). He's color blind -- she makes him see color. As befitting the theme, the film is lushly oversaturated with bright colors. And Director Ma makes good use of Shanghai locations. But the only thing really of interest is the dance numbers -- Aaron plays a sort of dancerobics instructor, and though he is afraid to say how he feels, he can dance it instead. The highlight is a car crash turns into a scene from Riverdance -- I couldn't stop laughing, and yet it made me wish the whole movie was a musical like that at the same time. The titular Para Para Sakura dance, however, is just another one of those tiresome line dances the less of which said the better.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1984 | Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark's masterpiece, a rollicking adventure yarn about revolution, generals, spies, and women warriors, featuring Brigitte Lin. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1984 | John Woo

In John Woo's Peking Opera film, a scholarly Lao Sheng slides down a banister in slow motion, a gun in each hand, mowing down the Jing in an explosion of blood and doves...well, no, not really. This is a classic retelling of the well known Chinese Opera story, The Emperor's Daughter. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Yuen Chi-keung

Lam Suet takes center stage as a man sent to prison for raping and killing his own daughter. But then, after being subjected to 'penis dragging' and various other abuses by the other inmates, he forces them to listen to his tragic tale or risk being stabbed to death by a toothbrush. Since he spells out how the story will end right away, "I killed her for revenge, but I didn't rape her," there isn't much suspense or surprise in the tale, told in flashbacks and making up the majority of the picture. It's fun to see Lam Suet star, although he isn't entirely up to the task. Another low budget shot-on-video production from B&S; and director Yuen Chi-keung, who makes every film he does look like it was shot for a local Cable Access channel.

| Available on [VCD]

2004 | Donnie Yen

How can a film star the charismatic, popular, and peppy Twins (Charlene Choi and Gillian Cheung), be directed by action star Donnie Yen, concern costumed crimefighting against a sexy villainess and her hitwomen, combine action and comedy, and yet still come out tiresome and boring? PROTEGE DE LA ROSE NOIRE is our case study. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Marco Mak

Simon Loui pens another genre thriller, this time about three thieves who accidentally kill a policeman while escaping and retreat into a bar, taking hostages. But someone in the bar is another wanted criminal. Or actually, Loui didn't write it -- this is a shockingly blatant rip-off of the American film ALBINO ALLIGATOR. Which, to bring things full circle, was inspired by RESOVOIR DOGS, which pretty much ripped off the Hong Kong film CITY ON FIRE. Unfortunately here, the similarity is so exact as to pretty much spoil the film. Jacob Cheung leads the gang, with Simon Loui as his brother, badly injured on the way in, and Roy Cheung as his buddy, who has spent some time in jail and starts to lose it imagining he has to go back. At one point he plays a game of JENGA with the hostages to see who he will kill next. All of the leads give strong performances (it probably helped to be able to study how Gary Sinise would play your character before you do), with the exception of Michael Wong, who is the police officer in charge of taking them down, yet even he has one good moment in the film, when he is stopped by a reporter for an interview early on.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1990 | Yeung Kuen

Anyone seeing the title and expecting girls-with-guns action may be suprised to find that our heroine gives up the ghost before the opening credits. But she doesn't give it up entirely. » MORE

| Available on [VCD]

2001 | Johnny To

Director To follows up his classic film with a sequel starring Lau Ching-wan and Ekin Cheng. A lighter, more whimsical film which has split early viewers of the film pretty evenly between like and hate. I liked it, though the writers neglected to put in a point, something I always appreciate finding in a film. Here, cop Lau Ching-Wan once again fails to catch a charismatic thief (Ekin replacing Andy Lau in this role). You'd think he'd be demoted by now. Like To's FULLTIME KILLER, this film has the looks but not the heart of his earlier directorial efforts. Pointless, but Cheng and Lau keep you watching with the sheer power of their charm alone. There are worse ways to spend a couple hours.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1995 | Wong Jing

Ng Man-Tat searches for a new gambling king in this sequel to All for the Winners. It should have been a wonderfully fun action-gambling Wong Jing extravaganza. » MORE

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1996 |

Francis Ng is Satan's emissary on earth. His purpose: rip out women's hearts and see if any of them live. » MORE

| Available on [VCD]

2001 | Aman Chang

Sam Lee and Jerry Lamb star in this pathetic horror comedy about a couple writers looking for new stories, who encounter a woman who lures men to her home where they are eaten by her husband. The appearance of Jude Poyer, gwailo stuntman, in a prominent role as a childlike kung-fu spirit doesn't help at all. Sam Lee's distinctive character trait in this one is that he doesn't wipe or flush after taking a dump, presumably for fear the whole movie would go down the drain with all the other shit.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Chan Yiu Ming

As our cheap, shot-on-video exploitation film opens, a young girl is out dancing, and is kidnapped, raped, and locked up until she agrees to become a prostitute. The gang begins giving her drugs until she's an addict. Her grandmother, Helena Law Lan, comes to Shenzhen and then Hong Kong to try and find her. She finds a sympathetic ear in a policeman played by Vincent Wan. Meanwhile, a college graduate is writing a paper about prostitution and pays to talk to another girl, who he eventually tries to help get out of the life, with tragic consequences. The video plays up the terrors of drug addiction, and puts the blame for prostitution squarely on the men who pay for it. It's a prostitution film mixed with a girls-in-prison film, but there's no nudity at all so perhaps the filmmakers would have been smarter to choose another topic. Also -- no black chicks in this movie, despite the title. The cast is really pretty good, and their engaging performances kept me watching. The story was decent enough, too, with a few surprises. Better than all the other video B&S; Films released this year (the Troublesome Night series, Ling's Story, etc.), but still nothing to deliberately seek out to watch.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2003 | Lam Wai Yin

Ng Chi Hung is a small time boss who had to leave Hong Kong, and can only wistfully look at it from across the border in Shenzhen. Probably it was a mistake to rape the drugged out young woman at his disco, who turned out to be the daughter of the rival gang leader (Lee Siu Kay). Soon enough, the other gang is looking to ruin his daughter. A boring film relieved only by the craggy features of two of the ugliest men in Hong Kong. A subplot about a cop (Michael Tse) dedicated to bringing them down goes, like Tse's acting career, absolutely nowhere.

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2001 | Lo Kim-Wah

Stephen Fung and his pals hang out on the beach picking up women, until one day he runs into a girl he hasn't seen since High School. They look her up and visit only to find she has committed suicide over something he had done years previously. Now they must appease her ghost or suffer the consequences. But now, Fung has found his true love, and won't let her go, even though she is a ghost. Romances are all the rage this year, thank god this one is at least a ghostly romance. The film has a few plot twists that are enjoyable, though not entirely unexpected. The actual story could very easily wrap up at eighty minutes, leaving the last ten to dangle there and not really add much by way of entertainment. But all told -- and perhaps this is because I've watched all the TROUBLESOME NIGHT movies, or maybe because I've seen one romantic comedy too many, I found this film to be pretty enjoyable in spite of its flaws. And only in a Wong Jing produced film would the grandmotherly ghost expert (shockingly, NOT Helena Law), introduce the concept of communicating with the dead using e-mail. That's 'Evil Mail,' you see.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Lam Chun-kit

I was fully expecting to enjoy this low budget action fest. Cheng Pei-Pei is the villainous Red Goddess, sprung from jail by her gang, and intent on revenge for the man who put her there, Shadow Mask. Only thing is, that Shadow Mask died a while back, and a NEW Shadow Mask is getting trained to replace him. She decides to revenge on him anyway. And she also decides, in a plan worthy of Dr. Evil, to kidnap a scientist who has discovered a cure for BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, i.e., Mad Cow's disease), and try to ransom her to the EU for some quick cash. Of course the scientist is a beautiful girl, who falls for Shadow Mask. Red Goddess surrounds herself with other colorful villains, one going for a Tommy Lee Jones look, another Uma Thurman, they look all set to re-enact BATMAN 3, but the fights that finally occur end up crushingly dull. Red Goddess just ends up controlling people's minds alot (when she does, they inexplicably start to wear a brightly colored wig). Unintentionally funny dialog and incongruous images make the film fun to watch in an MST3K sort of way. Lots of could've beens add up to one big isn't.

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2001 | Stephen Chow

Stephen Chiau is a Shaolin monk who wants to popularize martial arts. Ng Man-Tat is a former soccer champ who took a bribe to throw a game twenty years ago and is trying to regain his honor by putting together and coaching a new soccer team. Their paths cross and a legend is born. The best comedy team of the nineties show they've still got it (as if there was any doubt) in one of the most popular films of 2001 and highest grossing Cantonese film of all time. Stephen Chiau and Ng Man-Tat bring their usual blend of touching characterizations, verbal humor, slapstick, absurdist violence, and mo lei tau to the screen and enrich it with exciting sfx. You will believe a monk can play soccer.

2001 | Billy Tang

Alex Fong is Tricky On, an expert hitman hired by an old friend to rescue his daughter from kidnappers. He recruits a crack team, including a sharpshooter, a race car driver, and a hand-to-hand combat and torture expert, played by the beautiful Anya. Together they complete the operation flawlessly, but then find out it is just the beginnings of their problems. The plot twists and turns all the way until the end, never totally ridiculous but never entirely credible, either, always keeping a sense of humor about it. If our heroes get out of one impossible situation after another, well, it's because they are the best, and that's just what they do. Entertaining and satisfying, with a solid script that never fizzles out. Alex Fong does a fine job but Anya steals the show with her steely gaze and distractingly sexy outfit.

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2003 | Stephen Shin

Shoddy Christian evangelism at its most desperate. A young man who stutters and is looked down on by his father redeems his family and teaches them the love of Jesus Christ. Others in his family yell hilarious comments like, "Quit worshipping that foreign God," or "sometimes I think you love Jesus more than your own father!," setting us up for the powerful conversion, when the foolish, incense burning elders learn the error of their ways. Conversion in this movie is mainly a matter of clever manipulation of words, observation of which, far from converting me, prompted me to do some testing of my own. » MORE

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1980 | Ann Hui

A Cantonese Opera troupe gets mixed up with a platoon of ghost soldiers seeking revenge. Lots of atmosphere, little action. » MORE

1981 | Sammo Hung Kam Bo

In one of the earliest examples of the horror-comedy genre, we can see the concepts of the genre taking shape: the Taoist priest, the undead, and the slapstick comedy are all there. But unlike later horror-comedy movies, Enounter of the Spooky Kind sticks closely to traditional Chinese beliefs about ghosts, corpses, and the Tao, instead of merging them with Hollywood monsters and vampires. » MORE

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2001 | Alan Mak

A young architect (Raymond Lam) gets hit by a car and cannot draw anymore unless he is near a mysterious girl (Rain Li) that he believes he has seen before, somehow. She finds him familiar as well, and both of them cannot remember the last few months of 1999. They spend time together trying to remember and inevitably fall in love. Why don't they remember the first time? At last she knows, and the revelation at the end of the film as to why they've forgotten is the single most stupid thing I've seen in Hong Kong Cinema all year, period. Other than the pathetic ending, otherwise it's your typical romance in the NOTTING HILL vein -- that is, sweet couple with eccentric friends falling in love. Years from now I will have a complete blank in my mind as to how I spent this evening, because the movie is completely, totally forgettable. Even now I'm having trouble remembering.

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2001 | Lam Ang Hang

A war photojournalist takes a picture of a beautiful hitwoman (Joey Man Yee-Man) as she assassinates someone from a rival gang, and they immediately fall in love. A tough cop tries to find the murderer and bring down her "dragon team" gang no matter what. Must be based on a comic book with all the eccentric costumes and the sunglasses that seem superglued to some characters heads. Actual kung-fu fighting shows up in a couple scenes, and some of it is not bad, either. But cool looking characters, a beautiful hitwoman in a short, short skirt, and kung-fu does not a good move make. Wait -- what am I talking about? That's the PERFECT formula for a good movie! Alas, this isn't it. Good camera effects constantly overdone, a confusing plot filled with uninteresting characters, and the promise of something interesting that never delivers all add up to a complete cinematic failure.

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2001 | Clarence Fok

A group of illegal immigrants try to make the journey from China to England and go through sheer hell to do it. I can only imagine it isn't always this hard to smuggle people into the west, otherwise there'd be precious few around to tell the tale. The ending is based on a true story. Like this year's FROM THE QUEEN TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, STOWAWAY is a revisioning of the Hong Kong true crime movie, with less exploitation and more thoughtful inquiry. Director Clarence Fok admittedly overuses various stop and blur effects, but does solid location work in London, Vietnam, and Russia. What isn't so solid is some of the British voice acting, which cripples what should have been the most dramatic scene of the film. Despite its flaws, this is a powerful drama which never lets up.

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1990 | Manfred Wong

The First Emperor's quest for immortality leads directly to the comedy relief getting bit on the ass by a decapitated head. » MORE

1990 | Steve Barron

Four mutant turtles make the way of the ninja trendy among nine year olds. » MORE

2001 | Yeung Chi Gin

Based on a true story -- a bunch of punks kidnap a girl, torture her, rape her, kill her accidentally, then stuff her remains in a Hello Kitty doll. The Hello Kitty copyright owners were none to amused by all the screen time the doll was getting, however. Since the film was already in the can, the doll is simply digitally scrambled whenever it is on screen. There is something incredibly ironic and amusing about watching full frontal nudity and brutal, bloody violence in unedited technicolor, while behind the mayhem and to the left sits a little fogged stuffed animal. See also HUMAN PORK CHOP.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Chan Kin-tak

A cheap and nasty little film about a jealous man (Anthony Wong) who suspects his wife (Maggie Cheung) is sleeping with a younger man, and is willing to go to great lengths to prove it. A pawn in his game is a creepy, stupid, psychotic kid (Lee Wing-Ho) who likes to stalk women and has accidentally slashed and killed one already. The creepy kid narrates most of the film, and we watch his blossoming affection for a new potential victim with horror, eventually escalating to a perverse ending involving incest and murder. The movie strings out the mystery for its entire length but the complete lack of any sympathetic characters makes it hard to stay involved. Like a Category III roughie but without any nudity or much extreme violence, which if I may be a sick bastard for a moment, makes it a lot less entertaining.

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1981 | John Woo

John Woo mines his Methodist childhood and rips off Bedazzled to make this sometimes funny but mostly really weird film of flying heads, pop music, and space invaders. » MORE

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1981 | King Hu

The legendary King Hu begins his movie as if it is a Pu Songling tale, then turns it into a political intrigue and, still later, a religious meditation. » MORE

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1996 | Tsui Hark

Leslie Cheung stars as a priest who shouldn't be doing weddings since all the brides fall for him. But he's so darn cute, he can't help it! » MORE

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2001 | Yuen Chi-Keung

In TN 8, we briefly see Bud Gay in his office at a trading company. This time around, the story concerns Gay and his co-workers as their boss (Wayne Lai) takes them on a holiday to Cheung Chau, a common suicide spot. There they meet a ghost woman who was in a suicide pact with her lover because his family refused to let them marry. Unfortunately, almost the entire film is the coworkers hanging out on the island saying, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do here." They are so right. Law Lan finally shows up for the exorcism, though there isn't much reason to wait for it.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Yeung Wan-King

Bud Gay and his co-workers are at it again. This time they volunteer to help clean garbage off the beach to meet girls. And while there, one of the girls gets possessed by a woman who was slain by her boyfriend after loaning him a large sum. Bud Gay's cousin, Bud Yan shows up to do a bit of exorcism, but bungles it. Eventually Bud Lung, our dear Law Lan, must intercede. This time they decide to help the ghost revenge on the bastard who killed her. But there's a problem -- the bad guy can channel the shadow of Bruce Lee to beat people up for him. Luckily, Bud Lung can conjure up a man called Hero AND a Thai boxer a la A FIGHTERS BLUES to take him on. A bit better than the last one, but still quite terrible.

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2001 | Yip Wai-Ying

Bud Gay and Bud Yan are back again, this time in Shenzhen, helping a couple girls with their new beauty parlor. To increase business, their friends (the landlord and his pal, Mr. Nine and Onitsuke, who have been in TN 7-12) strike on the idea to make it a foot massage place. They celebrate at their nightclub, but it turns out the dead like to come there to hang. A ghost possesses one of the girls, and she must go to their ghostly mansion to apply some makeup to a female ghost so that her scars don't show so badly. Spooky, I know. If you are unlucky enough to watch this film, just fast forward to around the 75min mark to see Law Lan arrive and exorcise the nightclub by standing behind a podium and shouting at one of the ghosts, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" I can't really say the TN series keeps getting worse, its more like they keep offering different variants on the same bad.

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2001 | Yuen Chi-Keung

Simon Loui is Bud Pit, an out of work movie maker. He moves his family to the New Territories to save on the rent. So we put up dramatic non-scares like a crummy landlord, a barking dog, taoist prayer slips on the walls, all of which generate a vague sense of unease, as if I could be doing all kinds of more constructive and interesting things with my time. About fourty minutes in the plot finally kicks in, about their beautiful neighbor who is possessed by the spirit of a woman looking for her missing child. Bud Ling (Law Lan) must put together a little ceremony with the help of her sons to find the boy, alive or dead. Pretty lackluster, but there is a heart-ripping-out scene midway through, and a finger cut towards the end reminiscent of the classic SNL Julia Child sketch.

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2001 | Ivan Lai

Picking up right where TN 8 left off, Bud Pit (Simon Loui) has finally found a job, working nights on a casino boat. Maggie Cheung Ho-Yi is a gambling addict who is trying to get rich for love (not quite sure how this works). The Bud family decide to help her out, but not without first enduring a completely lame subplot of Loui getting possessed by a ghost child. Finally Bud Lung (Law Lan) channels the God of Gamblers into her other son, Bud Gay, to help Cheung win big. The point of the exercise is for the most part missing. Ivan Lai is completely inept at direct gambling scenes. Maggie Cheung -- NOT the famous one -- is a good actress, she finds better material in this years HEADLINES. Simon Loui, the last member of the original Troublesome Night ensemble cast, ends his sequential run in the series with this one.

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2001 | Lau Ding-kin

Good lord. Or should I say Lord, since this evangelical film is all about God's love. I wouldn't be surprised if they had priests at the exits during its theatrical run to baptize new converts. When a young man gets into a horrible car accident, his mom prays to Buddha while his friends pray to Jesus. When he recovers, the Jesus contingent takes credit. But he's paralyzed, and can't communicate with anyone, which leads a software developer to come up with a new product, "Ultimate Intelligence Beyond God," with which he hopes to become famous with. It's a familiar conflict, after all, probably more people commune with Microsoft Windows every day than with God. But as is typical in religious films, people looking to earn a living through capitalism are evil and must be saved. Despite its low budget, shot on Digital Video look, the production is pretty good, the actors acquit themselves nicely, and I was never completely bored. As for the story, Ultimate intelligence it isn't, hell, I would have settled for intelligence of any kind. ("A tragedy has occurred, what should we do?" "Let's all pray to God." "OK!") An unsubtitled postscript seems to indicate that the film is based on a true story. The end credits include outtakes where all the actors blow lines and laugh, which seems a little incongruous and kind of blows the mood, considering this wasn't a comedy.

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1991 | Andrew Lau Wai-Keung

Just when you thought the series was going to lay down and die, it jumps right back up and starts hopping around! Ultimate Vampire is really more of a series of vignettes than a film, following the adventures of the Taoist sifu (Lam Ching-Ying) and his two students (Chin Siu-Ho and Wong Pan), but it holds together well because of the strength of its ideas. Of course, the presence of Lam Ching-Ying doesn't hurt, either. » MORE

2001 | Kant Leung Wang Fat

This one starts promising with a nice CGI shot following a bullet across a restaurant, through an open flame, into a man's neck, out the back, and into the glass door behind him, which shatters. But it's a trick -- nothing happens for the rest of the film, which centers on cop Michael Wong protecting his old girlfriend, a witness to murders committed by a Japanese gang, while his new girlfriend, a renegade cop, tries to kill the head of the gang (Yuen Wah) to avenge the killing of her father. Finally in the last ten minutes there is a final shootout, but it's boring, unrealistic, and too little, too late. When one of the main characters dies tragically, all Wong can manage to say is, "Why are you so silly?"

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1989 | Norman Lau Man, Stanley Siu Ga Wing

It's right in the middle of the Cultural Revolution and Cheung Il (Kent Cheng) is being denounced by his son, waving Mao's little red book and shouting that he now 'has no family except the state.' It's out with the old and in with the new, too bad that old Ming vase being tossed away has a demon trapped inside, waiting to get out... » MORE

2001 | Wilson Tong

Every hundred years or so the planets align and this evil demon guy can pop up and take over the world, provided he has the right sacrifice. A few hundred years ago, his plans were foiled by former disciples, and they got half of his magic power book. They learned enough magic to extend their lives to the next attempt. Flash forward, and the demon's lackeys are trying to grab the sacrificial girl, but she's being protected by a detective with paranormal vision. The detective, the girl, and the immortals must band together to defeat the evil or die trying. Sorry, no vampires, particularly, though the opening scene is obviously inspired by, of all things, John Carpenter's VAMPIRES. Some good special effects are thrown around, but the production is generally ugly, the story boring, and the cast lifeless.

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2001 | Tony Leung Hung-wah

Here's a throwback to the old hopping vampire comedies of the eighties, which even tries to add a little hopping-vampire lore. Two sifus, two disciples, driving two different groups of corpses through the woods, stop at the same temple for the night. It's important, we are told, to keep male corpses and female corpses apart, so they don't start getting stiff in all the wrong places. Lots of comedy, none of it funny. But a worst omission in this nostalgic recollection of the popular vampire genre is that there is no kung-fu action whatsoever. Lam Ching-Ying, you are sorely missed.

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2001 | Ann Hui

Shu Qi sees dead people in this mystery/romance which also stars Eason Chan as a somewhat dopey, lovestruck guy intent on wooing her. Things get stranger and stranger for Eason as his romance blossoms, until he can no longer tell who is alive, and who is a ghost, and who is the girl he has been falling in love with. Sam Lee co-stars as his roommate. A really well crafted story which doesn't give away its secrets until the very end.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Wong Chun-chun

At first I was pretty bored by this documentary about women's sexuality. The first thirty minutes play like a particularly risque episode of the daytime talk show THE VIEW. But it gets better from there, beginning with an interview with director Ann Hui, and continuing on to less traditional sexual viewpoints, including lesbians, prostitutes, a gigolo, an ex-porn star, and a woman who set the world record for most men slept with consecutively (251 in 10 hours). Interspersed throughout are interviews with regular women, aged from 4 to 60, from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shenzhen. Toward the end is a surprisingly explicit video of a prostitute 'servicing' her client (with fogged genitals, but still quite explicit). Although at times interesting, disturbing, and even titillating, Wong Chun-chun fails to make any significant observations or conclusions about her subject, and those used to high quality PBS or BBC documentaries will find this project somewhat lacking.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Johnnie To

Emperor Qi (Anita Mui, cross dressing as a man) is fated to marry the beautiful chief Wu Yen (Sammi Cheng). But a fox fairy (Cecilia Cheung) comes between them, causing an ugly facial blemish to appear on Wu Yen's face, repulsing the shallow Emperor. The fairy disguises as a man to seduce Wu Yen, and fails. So she disguises as a woman to seduce the Emperor, succeeding more readily. It becomes a test to Wu Yen's loyalty and steadfastness to stay by the Emperors side no matter what. This should have been an entertaining film, but unfortunately all of the dialogue is spoken at the same tone, a sort of continuous shouting, nasal whine. It passed my eardrums completely, stabbing directly into the brain. I've never had a more splitting headache after watching a HK movie, and it just keeps going on and on and on. I love Anita Mui, but not here. Cecilia Cheung has her moments, this isn't one of them. Only Sammi Cheng remains watchable throughout the story. Sammi, beautiful costumes, and playful shadow puppetry help lift this shoulda-been delightful film to a level just above intolerable.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

2001 | Edmund Pang

Eric Kot is a hitman out of work due to the recession, who ends up reinvigorating his business by adding a cameraman (Cheung Tat-Ming) to film his hits. A very funny satire which takes aim at the movie industry in general with each new victim they gun down. Eric Kot is at his best here as a hitman who idolizes how cool Alain Delon is while despairing of all the little obligations that fill up his incredibly un-cool life. Cheung Tat-Ming brings alot of energy to the role of a young director who dreams of being Scorcese rather than assisting on porn films, and dreams too of being with the beautiful Japanese porn star (played by Higuchi Asuka) he often shoots. Destined for cult status.

| Available on [VCD]

2001 | Lee Siu-Kei

Definitely not the hilarious British comedy series of the same name, this film follows the lives of four near sixteen year old girls as they cause trouble in school and have troubles at home. One is molested by her uncle, another has to become a prostitute, there's a dying father and an evil stepmother in there as well. Cops and social workers with big hearts help them out. Will they learn their lessons and become good girls? The movie draws you in at first, but then becomes overly preachy and tired by the end. Seems to have been the pet project of pock-marked triad actor Lee Siu-Kei, who produced, wrote, and directed, but does not appear.

| Available on [DVD] [VCD]

1972 | Chang Cheh

David Chiang, Ti Lung, and Chen Kuan-tai are at it again, male bonding up a storm, this time as students in modern Hong Kong. They are the best at what they do, whether its playing basketball or a round on the go-cart track. To bad the same can't be said for Chang Cheh, who manages to make even the most action packed moments boring with his uninspired direction. » MORE

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1996 | Andrew Lau

This is the one that started it all. Ekin Cheng lets down his hair and flics his bic in the urban underworld. Just entertainment or a Triad recruitment film? Lean a little closer and I'll tell you. » MORE

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1998 | Andrew Lau

Nicolas Tse plays Ekin Cheng, only much more lifelike, in this prequel in which we learn how the boys got so righteous. » MORE

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1996 | Andrew Lau

Jordan Chan takes the lead in the second installment, in which the Hung Hing boys become the center of a triad war between rival gangs from Hong Kong and Taiwan. » MORE

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1996 | Andrew Lau

The triad traditions collapse around our heroes in this third, and bleakest, outing. Lots of people are brutally murdered, lots of references are made to the 1997 handover. » MORE

1997 | Andrew Lau

Another chapter in the life of the Hung Hing boys. Lots of big groups of people face off against each other without much purpose. » MORE

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1998 | Andrew Lau

An old friend of Ho Nam's gets out of jail and together they defeat another chap who by some weird coincedence is also named Ho Nam. » MORE

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