Director : Alexi Tan
Producer : John Woo & Terrence Chang
Cast : Daniel Wu, Shu Qi, Liu Ye, Chang Chen, Tony Yang.

Synopsis
Blood Brothers (aka Gateway to Heaven) tells the story of 3 youngsters from the countryside who arrives in decadent, dangerous 1930s Shanghai where they find life is the big city isn’t quite the paradise they hope for. As time goes by each is forced into a life of crime, taking a different path in life. The days of innocence have passed for them and the three men must grow up quickly and make hard choices.

Quick View
Produced by John Woo and Terrence Chang and directed by newcomer Alexi Tan, Blood Brothers is a stylish and elegant gang flick. Inspired by John Woo’s classic -Bullet in the Head (1990), Blood Brothers shares similar story where three youngsters arrives in Shanghai to find fame and fortune. There are some beautiful moments in the movie but overall Brood Brothers still lack of depth and never satisfy as a gangland epic.

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Tsui Hark
Cast : Leon Lai Ming, Charlie Yeung Choi Nei, Lu Yi, Sun Honglei, Kim So-Yeon, Donnie Yen, Wang Xueqi, Zhang Jingchu, Zhou Qunda, Dai Li-Wu, Huang Peng

Synopsis
Adapted from renowned writer Liang Yu-shen’s timeless classic, Seven Swords tells the story of seven unlikely heroes gathered together to save a village from the massacre of a general that is seeking a fortune through killing. In the early 1600’s, the Manchurians have assumed sovereignty and established the Ching Dynasty. A highly oppressive reign thus began. To fight against the brutality of the new government and save the innocent, seven unlikely heroes gathered together and became the Seven Swords. Each sword carries its own character - The Transience Sword, The Dragon Sword, The Heaven’s Fall Sword, The Unlearn Sword, The Deity Sword, TheCelestial Beam Sword and The Star Chasers Sword.

Review
Well, finally Seven Swords hit the Asian cinemas. Adapted from renowned writer Liang Yu Shen’s novels, it tells a story of seven unlikely heroes gathered to save a village from the massacre of a deadly, barbarian cult armies. They are seeking fortune from killing the innocents to collect prize money from the government. Basically, Seven Swords follows the “Seven Swordsmen Leaves Mountain Heaven” novel where 5 swordsmen are summoned from Mount Heaven to save the innocent people. Each and every of them carry an unique sword which has it own capability and usage. There are The Unlearnt, The Dragon, The Transience, The Deity, The Heaven’s Fall, The Celestial Beam, and The Star-Chasers. Another 2 swordsmen came from the village itself and joined as a group to become the Seven Swords.

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Peter Chan Ho-Sun
Cast : Andy Lau, Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Xu JingLei

Synopsis
The nineteenth century was an era of conflict: the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire in Europe; the Civil War in America; the Meiji Restoration in Japan; the Opium War in China followed by the Taiping Rebellion in Nanjing… all critical events that shaped the world today. At times of chaos, heroes are born yet innocence is forever lost…

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Wei Lang, Shen Dong, Chen Jian
Cast : Zhang Lin, Alan Lau Tak Hoi, Wang Wu-Fu, Liu De-Kay, Tony Leung Ka-Fai

Synopsis
Set during the first three years of the Sino-Chinese war (1938-41), On The Mountain of Tai Hang tells the story of three separate groups of Chinese forces who managed to work together to defend a vulnerable Chinese province from a large Japanese Army. The film follows Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and his troops as they risk their lives to defend their country and how different classes of Chinese managed to unite for one common cause.

Review
by Martin Cleary

At its best On The Mountain of Tai Hang is an epic war film depicting the Chinese Red Army’s military defence of the Shanxi province of Tai Hang against Japanese invasion. The film’s battle scenes are truly impressive as what appears to be thousands of troops fight over a massive mountainous area. There’s some pretty good CG camera shot’s allowing the camera to fly through the air, through the cockpit of a plane and out of the otherside, as well as assisting in showing bodies being blown to bits through the air. Some of it is pretty gruesome – but of course this is a war film.

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Namchoke Daengput
Cast : Shahkrit Yamnarm, Darawan Wilaingam, Suwannaparp, Suthida Harnwisej, Sattawat Dullayawijitt, Aadchara Luengsawat

Synopsis
In this explosive action thriller from Thailand set in Bangkok’s sizzling Yaowarat Chinatown district, the precarious truce between two mafia gangs. Yaowarat and Pahurad ended in violent gunfights when Kao, one of Pahurad’s hit man killed a Yaowarat member. In retaliation, Yaowarat enlists the help of Saleng, the best hit man in the business, to take Kao out.

Review
by Edward Tang

Hmm. Thailand gets another release via Tai Seng who usually bare bones it up for a decent film. On the cover is a guy holding two pistols ala God of Guns John Woo. I wonder if that interested me? Of course it did. “Yaowarat” tries to be a cool film and edgy, starting off with a gangster boss raping the shit out of one of his girls and follows with one boring film filled with nothing in between. There were some attempts at action, but they looked completely stupid. Take this out for example, one guy has one pistol, against four other guys with pistols. Now, how does this one guy kill two of them and still survive? The action-thriller promised in the synopsis is never really met, and what we are left with is something that resembles a gangster-drama-romance type story. So in the long run, the film isn’t that bad and for the most part I got enough out of it, but the editing and the annoying voice-overs left me wanting to go home.

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Ping He
Written by : Ping He
Cast : Kiichi Nakai, Xueqi Wang, Bagen Hasi, Vicki Zhao, Tao Ho, LInian Lu, Deshun Wang & Yeerjiang Mahepushen

Synopsis
A Japanese emissary is sent to the Gobi desert to execute a renegade soldier. When a caravan transporting a Buddhist monk and a valuable treasure is threatened by thieves, however, the two warriors might unite to protect the travelers.

Review
by Edward Tang

This is an example of a great film that was probably tailor made to have something of a notice in the states. Like your “Crouching Tiger” and “Hero”, it’s an epic film with great action sequences and top notch acting/story. But covering familiar ground seems to be the constant with films of this nature, and it doesn’t change here. The film looked good and remained good until the ending. Everything up until that point was great, but the ending seemed rushed and out of place. What we were shown was good enough for me, but how the events unfolded left a sour taste in my mouth, considering we had been along with these characters for almost 2 hours and the harsh tone wasn’t needed. But as in all films of this caliber, it saves itself with a great bunch of actors whom pull the reigns of this film. Both main characters (whom wanted each other dead) pulled off their roles with great respect, you didn’t want either of them to face each other at the end. 

Continue reading

Share This

Director : Mabel Cheung
Producer : Willie Chan, Solon So
Cast : Jackie Chan, Chan Chi-Long
Narration : Ti Lung

Synopsis
Jackie Chan grew up thinking that he was an only child, only to discover later in life that he had two older sisters. This was followed by the revelation that he also had two older brothers. Upon finding out about his ‘secret’ family, Jackie asked his father about his these relations and his parents life in China. His father did not want to discuss it with him. Around 1999 Jackie’s mother became quite ill which led to Jackie’s father having a change of heart - he decided that he needed to tell Jackie the truth about his family history. Traces Of A Dragon tells this story.

Review
by Martin Cleary

In his autobiography - My Life In Action – Jackie Chan describes the fear that discovering that he had two older brothers and sisters gave him. He feared that he would find out that he was adopted or some similar terrible secret. The actual truth of Jackie’s parents backgrounds is just as – if not even more – amazing as Jackie’s own ‘rags to riches’ story. As they say, even Hollywood couldn’t write this. Traces Of A Dragon opens with Jackie’s father explaining that he didn’t want his secrets to die with him, so he finally decided to reveal to his son his own past. The documentary uses interviews with Chan Chi-Long (Jackie’s father), and other family members to tell their collective family history.

Continue reading

Share This

Director / Writer : Chen Kaige
Producer : Chen Kaige, Chen Hong
Cinematography : Peter Pau
Art Direction : Tim Yip
Action Director : Tung Wai, Dion Lam
Costume : Masago Kimiya
Cast : Jang Dong-Kun, Cecilia Cheung, Hiroyuki Sanada, Liu Ye, Nicholas Tse, Chen Hong, Cheng Qian

Synopsis
An epic fantasy about a love triangle between a general, a princess and a slave in ancient China. Empowered by the love of a slave, a royal concubine is given the chance to make an extraordinary decision. Its an epic story about “promise, betrayal, nations and love”. Can Love Change Destiny?

Review
by Gary Cheah

WARNING : Might contain Spoilers

Despite all the “negative” reviews on the net, it does not stop me from watching The Promise on the big silver screen. I went into the cinema with minimal expectation on the film, but in the end -it’s quite satisfactory i would say…

Continue reading

Share This