Director : Bruce Lee
Written by : Bruce Lee
Cast : Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Ping-Ao Wei, Chung-Hsin Huang, Robert Wall and Ing-Sik Whang

Synopsis
Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business. They are being pressured to sell their property to the syndicate, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When Tang arrives he poses a new threat to the syndicate, and they are unable to defeat him. The syndicate boss hires the best Japanese and European martial artists to fight Tang, but he easily finishes them off. The American martial artist Colt (Chuck Norris) is hired and has a showdown with Tang in Rome’s famous Colosseum.

Review
by Edward Tang

“Let him know. If I ever see him here again… HE WON’T LEAVE ALIVE!”

Being a huge fan of the martial arts genre, you can’t help but know Bruce Lee’s films by heart. My first experience with his flicks was when I bought a piece of crap VHS of Fist of Fury (The Chinese Connection) with horrible picture on dubbing. But still, amongst that, you could still witness Bruce Lee and how much presence the man has on the screen. This film in general is so basic, yet is probably one of the true gems in the particular genre. Everything is pretty basic, from the over-sized ugly ass goons, to your basic plot described in a few minutes, and so so acting. But in watching this film, it showcases why Bruce was great, every fight scene was entertaining and the final confrontation between him and Mr. Walker Texas Ranger is a classic and shouldn’t be missed by anyone. I’ve actually renamed this film “Smiley” because even though shit doesn’t go everyone’s way, smiles are always consistent on their faces.

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Director : Johnnie To
Action Director : Ching Siu Tung
Cast :  Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Wong, Damian Lau, James Pax, Paul Chun Pui, Yen Shi-Kwan

Synopsis
The Trio join forces against an ancient Ming Dynasty eunuch who is trying to resurrect China’s imperialist past by collecting male babies and storing them up to form a new nation.

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Director : Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang
Cast : Shu Qi, Eugenia Yuan, Jesdaporn Pholdee, Philip Kwok, May Phua, Rayson Tan, Alan Tern and San Yow

Synopsis
Pregnant Joey (Shu Qi) teeters on the brink of madness after several fruitless suicide attempts. She’s the unwilling recipient of an influx of shadowy images that haunt her pervasively.

Review
by Edward Tang

What can I say? This “sequel” is basically following the same path as the first one (see ghost) but really has nothing to do with it in any other regard. Me myself, I wasn’t really a fan of the first one, but respected what the Pang Brothers brought to the table. This film really doesn’t have anything special going for it, a few interesting images but not much else. The direction is top notch, but the story gets cluttered after you see the ghost image about 50 times and just get tired of it. Some aspects of the story do remain interesting however, we get an explanation of reincarnation with includes people’s ghost figures floating into vaginas and coming back as babies. But then the story seems to be another like Sixth Sense, as the events unfold as to why this ghost is actually following her, it just seems beat to death. Basically for the time being, the film lurked around, gave us a few interesting images and just ended with the sappy happy ending. I can’t say that I was bored, but this film just didn’t improve on the above-average original. 

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Director : Siu Hung Cheung
Cast : Rosamund Kwan, Siu Chung Mok (Max Mok), Zhang Fengyi

Synopsis
A poor farmer who loves a woman he is forbidden to associate with becomes a hardened mercenary, and is hired by a local warlord as a professional assassin. Years later, he runs into his old love and begins to question his violent past. 

Review
by Edward Tang

Finding this film on the shelf of some store, I wondered why I had never heard of it. Sure, it wasn’t a big production, didn’t really have any big name talent, and wasn’t the best film in the rack, but it had it’s moments that probably were brought on by the surge of bloody duels and an all around fun approach. You won’t find anything in this film that you might consider unique, other than a very gruesome scene which involves sewing a man’s eyes closed. But being a small budget flick that has only an 87 minute running time, I felt that they delivered what I wanted from something like this. Sure, the plot is sketchy because it moves so fast, and you might not know some characters, and none of them are really developed, but who cares? The fast pace also adds to the fun that this film delivers, whether or not making the plot more successful. I got everything they threw at me, but later heard that people had a trouble keeping up with it. 

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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.

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Director : Johnnie To
Cast : Aaron Kwok, Louis Koo, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Jordan Chan, Siu-Fai Cheung, Calvin Choi, Hoi-Pang Lo and Cherrie Ying.

Synopsis
A former judo champion quits the tournament circuit and runs a nightclub. However, when a new challenger appears as well as an old rival and a judo master in need of reviving his school, the young man must go back in training and prepare for the ultimate challenge.

Review
by Edward Tang

I read a review recently about Throw Down, which basically went into how this film was one of the worst he had ever seen. He so apply titled his review “Let Down”, which gave me a laugh for some odd reason. Now this is far from the worst Hong Kong flick ever created and there are a few shitty Aaron Kwok films that make this film look like masterpiece. Throw Down is directed by semi-great Johnnie To, a man who for the most part, delivers the goods when his flicks come out. All too recently, I had one hell of a time watching Fulltime Killer. But Throw Down goes into my pocket and basically rapes me with it’s beat-to-death story and worthless scenes of slow motion crap. Granted, this film is about Judo and the entire fight scenes include a bunch of rolling around on the floor, so I didn’t expect something great. But even though this film is short and to the point, it felt very long to me, mostly because I was bored. Johnnie throws in our direction, pointless characters whom really seem to be just reading their lines, rather than acting.

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Director : Yuen Woo Ping
Cast : Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Siu-hou Chin, Fennie Yuen, Cheung-Yan Yuen, Shun Lau and Hai Yu.

Synopsis
Jet Li was a monk in Shaolin. In a friendly competition for a higher place in Shaolin, he was betrayed and framed for using weapons (which cannot be used in the competition). He and his friend got kicked out of the Shaolin. They met rebellions at that time of China. His friend betrayed Jet Li and his rebellion friends for money from the China government. Jet Li went crazy and discovered the art of Tai Chi at the recover period. Revenge seem to the only thing he is going to do.

Review
by Edward Tang

I bought a Jet Li pack that was sent out by Dimension a few years back. It included most of his classics, butchered and without the original language track. For the most part, these “versions” were pretty decent with good picture, but basically fuckin’ up what the film was, cutting scenes and replacing the dialog. But “Tai Chi Master” or as it’s known here “Twin Warriors” still remained my favorite Jet Li flick, just because it had great fight scenes, and good characters for one thing. Michelle Yeoh is a great presence (for what she is given in her short role), and made movies like Police Story 3 and Tomorrow Never Dies worth seeing, and in this as well. Yuen Wo-Ping directed this flick, and you can tell, the fight scenes are some of my favorite, not because they standout like your Jackie Chan/Benny “The Jet” style, but they just are loads of fun. The story is average but the characters are pretty damn cool, I especially thought that Siu-hou Chin (Chin Bo) had a great transition to the main villain of the film. But this film remains as one of my favorites, for the sheer fact that it never gets old. Plus you get to see Jet Li act like a crazy and talk to ducks.

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Director : Wilson Yip Wai Shun
Produced by : Carl Chang
Action Director : Donnie Yen
Screenplay : Szeto Kam Yuen, Ng Wai Lun
Cast : Donnie Yen (Inspector Ma Kwan), Simon Yam (Chan Kwok Chung). Sammo Hung (Wong Po)
Co-Starring : Liu Kai Chi, Danny Summer, Ken Chang, Austin Wai, Timmy Hung, Kenji Tangki
Special Introduction : Wu Jing (Jack)

Synopsis
A powerful crime lord who constantly eludes the law…a senior detective at the end of his career who will go to any lengths to catch him…and a deadly martial arts expert who is about to take the reins of the serious crime unit. Over the course of one special day – a time when family bonds are supposed to take precedence – a bloody confrontation will take place between the underworld and the police.

Review
by Gary Cheah

WARNING : Might contain some spoilers

It seems that all the hype about this crime-thriller flick was true. SPL is definitely one of the most anticipated film to come out from the ever great Hong Kong movie industry in recent years. This is the movie that will be remembered as the one that recapture the glory of HK’s action movies. So, what is this SPL? It stands for Sha, Po and Lang which derived from the names of three renegade stars in Chinese astrology which symbolize the three main characters (destruction, conflict or avarice).

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