Rating - 3 stars
2002. 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... » MORE
A1. No, it's not about a steak sauce. A-1 I imagine refers to the front page of the newspaper: section A, page 1. Ling (Angelica Lee Sinje) is a fashion reporter, Kevin (Edison Chen) her photographer. She wants to quit her... » MORE
Aar-Paar. Kalu Birju (Guru Dutt) is a former prisoner, in jail for reckless driving but out early for good behavior, trying to make a fresh start. On the one hand, there is his job at a garage and his romance with... » MORE
Abnormal Beauty. Jiney (Race) and her girlfriend Jasmine (Rosanne) are art students into photography. But then Jin takes a picture of a dead body and becomes obsessed with death, snapping pictures of dead animals, brooding, contemplating suicide, and having traumatic memories of... » MORE
Accidental Spy, The. 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... » MORE
Aces go Places. One of Hong Kong's classic action comedy series began here, written, directed, and produced by the Cinema City collective, who turned making comedies into a science, estimating and ensuring proper gag to reel ratios. A sendup of Hollywood action films... » MORE
Aces Go Places II. The "Best Partners" Sam Hui and Karl Maka return for the first of four sequels to the popular film ACES GO PLACES. This time out our heroes must face the mafia assassin "Filthy Harry," killer robots, and a gang of... » MORE
Aces Go Places V The Terracotta Hit. 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... » MORE
Agneepath. Every upright man must at one time walk the path of fire. That is agneepath. The path of fire. Agneepath. AGNEEPATH! The path of fire cuts a swath through the friends, family, and entire ancestral village of Amitabh Bachchan in... » MORE
All of a Sudden. Two guys are just yelling at each other after a minor fender bender, when all of a sudden, a naked woman crashes onto the top of one of their cars, dead, an apparent suicide. ... » MORE
Amar. Ahhh, the idyllic village life! Sweet, childish milkmaid Sonia (Nimmi) wakes up with pleasure and takes care of the animals, joyful yet lamenting that her stepmother always beats her -- she even dreams of beating her while she sleeps! ("That's... » MORE
Angulimala. A Thai version of the heartwarming Buddhist legend of an outcast driven to murder by his teacher, and by his Dharma, collecting 1,000 fingers as his fate, until the Buddha enlightens him and he gives up finger collecting, even though... » MORE
Astonishing. This thriller from Herman Yau asks what would happen if you woke up one day and everyone treated you like you were someone else. Someone you knew. And that person that you knew, is now you, and works at your... » MORE
Attack of the Joyful Goddess. 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
Avenging Fist, The. 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... » MORE
Awaargi. Azaad (Anil Kapoor) is a petty thug a "goonda", his dad, head of a gang. But then he rescues Seema (Meenakshi), a village girl, from the local pimp and promises to make her a singing superstar. She loves him gratefully,... » MORE
Bakery Amour. 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... » MORE
Bat Without Wings. Five years ago, 28 of the best boxers of the martial world teamed up to defeat the villainous "Bat Without Wings." In the end, legend has it, he killed 26 of the boxers buy was finally defeated. But it isn't... » MORE
Beasts, The. Siblings Ah Ling (Patricia Chong) and Ah Wah (Eddie Chan) join a fresh-faced group of city teens to take a weekend camping trip in the mountains outside of Hong Kong. Alas, the villagers don't care for visitors, much, and a... » MORE
Beijing Rocks. 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... » MORE
Below the Lion Rock: Road. Grandma checks in to a women's rehab clinic to kick the opium habit, but her daughter Chui Fong (Carol DoDo Cheng) still puffs her life away, mainly because it is so dreary, and because her husband ran off after hearing... » MORE
Beyond Our Ken. Ken (Daniel Wu) is a sturdy fireman who has no trouble with the ladies. That is, until his ex girlfriend Ching (Gillian Cheung) shows up one day at the nightclub where his current girlfriend Zhou-lan (Tao Hong) is a waitress,... » MORE
Beyond the Great Wall. He's the worst kind of villain: the small-minded, petty, vindictive, mid-level bureaucrat that ruins people's lives to maintain his status or to revenge for losing status. It's not good for one's blood pressure to watch too many films with this... » MORE
Big Trouble in Little China. Some movies are almost impossible to review. How to review Star Wars, for example? It would have been easy to do so, just out of the theater, pen in hand. But decades and dozens of viewings later, when it has... » MORE
Black Night. After the success of THREE and THREE: EXTREMES, it was only a matter of time before other studios had a go at the horror "triptych" using the same box office generating conceit of featuring directors and actors from several asian... » MORE
Born to be King. 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
Born Wild. 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... » MORE
Brides of Fu Manchu, The. Fu Manchu invents a ray of energy, which he calls a "laser," which will beam death upon untold millions. Meanwhile, he entertains a bevy of scantily clad beauties. ... » MORE
Broken Blossoms. Trying to break his racist image from Birth of a Nation, director D.W. Griffith put together this film about a poor Chinese man who puts the moves on a white woman and gets lynched. And this is different how, Mr.... » MORE
Cherie. Utterly charming romantic comedy showcasing one of the most popular stars of the early eighties, Cherie Cheung. I've never really gotten the appeal too much, but here she radiantly beautiful and puts in a good performance as well, so consider... » MORE
Chinese Ghost Story III, A. 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... » MORE
Choompae. Pherg Choompae (Sombat Methanee) goes back to his hometown to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the smuggling kingpin Tom (Kecha Plianvithee). Sounds simple, right? Think again! I never knew a simple revenge plot could be... » MORE
Christ of Nanjing, The. 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
Clueless. 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... » MORE
Conman. 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... » MORE
Cop on a Mission. 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... » MORE
Cops and Robbers. Pretty much what the title says. The cops are really, really good guys, fighting evil and generally finding it tough to get a date with the same sense of social justice. Sarge (Wang Chung) is the best of the bunch... » MORE
D. "D" is for Deshu, son of a cop, who rises up the ranks in the Bombay underground to become a kingpin of crime. 'D' is also a sequel to COMPANY (if Company were 'C', the opening voiceover helpfully explains), in... » MORE
Day Off. 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... » MORE
Devi. A modern, big budget "special effects" Indian film about a man who falls in love with a Snake Goddess, and the consequences that ensue. Romance, music, snakes, and really big snakes. ... » MORE
Dream Lovers. 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
Drunken Master 3. 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
Enter the Phoenix. Stephen Fung turns from acting to directing and for his first full length feature has delivered an entertaining action-comedy gay triad movie. When the old triad boss (Yuen Biao in an inspired cameo) dies, his son Georgie (Daniel Wu) is... » MORE
Escape from Hong Kong Island. Mr. Raymond Mak (Jordan Chan) is a miillionaire stock broker that everyone else licks the boots of -- until suddenly, he is fired. That in itself is not bad, he's got another offer that has to be signed at the... » MORE
Explosive City. There's so many things wrong with EXPLOSIVE CITY it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps with the tired idea of the kidnapping ring that raises kids to be assassins, for one. Then there's the international cast that occasionally drifts... » MORE
Eye 10, The. A group of friends in Thailand start sharing ghost stories when their Thai friend Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald) whips out a book called "10 Encounters", which specifically describes all the ways a receptive person can see ghosts. The first two ways,... » MORE
Eye 2, The. This sequel to The Eye (2002) manages to pick up a new idea and keeps the "I see dead people" genre fresh seemingly far past its expiration date. This time it's Shu Qi who gets the ability, in one of... » MORE
Eye, The. 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... » MORE
Face of Fu Manchu, The. Christopher Lee takes his turn as the evil Fu, threatening Nayland Smith with a heaping dose of mayhem and death. ... » MORE
Fantasia. A loving tribute to the classic Hui Brothers comedies of the seventies, starring Lau Ching-Wan in the Michael Hui role (and doing a shockingly perfect impersonation of the man), as the head of a detective company. His impovershed and poorly... » MORE
Feel 100% 2. 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... » MORE
Fighting to Survive. 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.... » MORE
From the Queen to the Chief Executive. 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... » MORE
Gambler's Story, A. 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... » MORE
Give Them a Chance. Sam (Andy Hui), a stuntman, and his brother Jack (Osman Hung), a dance instructor, are inspired by a group of tough, street dancing kids to open a dance studio. It's just as well, Jack loses his job when seen goofing... » MORE
God of Gamblers 3 - The Early Years. 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
God of Gamblers III - Back to Shanghai. 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
God of Gamblers Returns. Chow Yun-Fat returns to the role that made him famous (one of the roles, at any rate), with mixed results. ... » MORE
Goodbye Mr. Cool. 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... » MORE
Great Wall, The. Clocking in at nearly three hours, this is a biopic to rival The Ten Commandments. I kept looking for Yul Brenner but he never showed. A classic. ... » MORE
Green Snake. 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,... » MORE
Haiwan. Cannons. A major, waking up in a hospital bed, hallucinating that his nurse is an enemy soldier, attempts to strangle her. A hatred of all women, buring inside him. Opening credits over scenes at the beach. A boy, killing the... » MORE
Haunted Office. Three intertwining horror tales revolving around a single office high rise. In the first one, Karen Mok takes a job at a company where every year, ghosts force a handful of workers to kill themselves. The second story involves Jordan... » MORE
Headlines. 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... » MORE
Heavenly Kings. The semi-real, semi-imaginary chronicles the "boy band" ALIVE NOT DEAD (Conroy Chan, Andrew Lin, Terence Yin, and Daniel Wu) and their rise to moderate success in Hong Kong, on the strength of their star combined star power and contacts in... » MORE
Her Tender Love. What looks to be another lighthearted family drama of the common type ends up pushed way up to the boundaries, the sort of family you might see on the Jerry Springer show. First, there's dad -- he's rich. His son... » MORE
Hollywood Hong Kong. A young prostitute who dreams of Hollywood visits a soon to be demolished shanty town and teaches its inhabitants about love, happiness, and especially, amputation. Ensnared by her charm are an enterprising young pimp (Wong Yau Nam) and the obscenely... » MORE
Husn aur Ishq. Hiding behind the non-descript title and the poor EROS Entertainment DVD art is a certain story about a magic lamp with a Djinn in it. And no, we're not talking I DREAM OF JEANNIE. It's Aladdin! Sort of. Here, he's... » MORE
Ingeniously Taking Mount Hua. A stirring war picture that pits a small group of heroic scouts of the People's Liberation Army against a large force of Nationalist (KMT) soldiers entrenched on the impenetrable Mount Hua. If you watch this film expecting shameless Communist propaganda,... » MORE
Iron King. A Japanese superhero program that ran for 26 episodes from 1972-73. Similar to ULTRAMAN, each episode featured a guest giant monster that must be defeated by the heroic Iron King. Sounds tiresome, but the format is redeemed in the details:... » MORE
Janbaaz. A criminal gang of heroin dealers need an infusion of money to set up their next opium crop and distillation laboratory (they're a full service shop!) because Inspector Rajesh destroyed their previous efforts. They ruin a rich gambler and cheat... » MORE
Jiang Hu. Director Wong Ching-Po's first mainstream work is also his best to date. The short running time (under 90 minutes) aggresively compacts the story of Yik (Shawn Yue), a young hood who wins the chance to kill a triad kingpin in... » MORE
July Rhapsody. Jackie Cheung is a dissatisfied poetry teacher, Anita Mui his tired wife, and Karena Lam the student that he feels pulled towards despite the fact that she would unravel the life he has lived so far. A life mostly of... » MORE
Kid, The. A 10-year-old Bruce Lee stars as Kid Cheung, an orphan boy who sells comics in a little stall in the slums to survive. He takes care of two still younger kids, and the three are looked after in turn by... » MORE
Killing End. 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... » MORE
Kranti. "Freedom was not a present from the British, presented on a silver platter on a warm august night. It was the culmination of a long and bloody struggle spread over centuries..." I'm sorry, Gandhi who? KRANTI means, "Revolution." And this... » MORE
Kung Fu Mahjong. Is Wong Jing the last filmmaker in Hong Kong regularly churning out entertaining films? It sure seems that way. Here he is with another production that is far more entertaining than it has any right to be, another in his... » MORE
Lahu Ke Do Rang. What a find! Suzie Wong meets Bhagat Singh! Hong Kong meets India! This is one of those movies that Indian DVD shops tuck into their 3 for $15 rack, dismissed as a lesser film by a lesser star. But for... » MORE
Leaving in Sorrow. I enjoy watching independent Hong Kong productions, but admittedly, they are rarely good. Because of low budgets, their technical accomplishments are necessarily limited. Their only strength then lies in selecting interesting subject matter and scripting appropriately. LEAVING IN SORROW has... » MORE
Lifeline Express. A fun comic romp about death. "Your willpower decides whether you live or die," the alarmingly intense hospital psychiatrist (Eddie Ko) proclaims. Meanwhile, Fatty (Kent Cheng) is praying for the life of his brother Tigerino (Teddy Robin), who was run... » MORE
Lost and Found. Kelly Chen is the daughter of a rich shipping magnate, who finds out she has leukemia. She tries getting a job at the shipyards, where she meets a handsome and kind scotsman, improbably played by Michael Wong, of all people.... » MORE
Love is a Many Stupid Thing. Under the generic and misleading title lies a very funny send-up of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, courtesy of schlockmeister Wong Jing. In his typical fashion, the title (and trailer) basically try to mislead audiences into thinking the movie is a remake of... » MORE
Loving Him. Terminal diseases are all the rage in HK Cinema lately, but few of the films are any good, or in the case of this year's SUMMER I LOVE YOU, even coherent. But this one is an exception -- a good... » MORE
Magic Cop. 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... » MORE
Man Called Hero, A. 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
Maniacal Night. 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... » MORE
Martial Angels. 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... » MORE
McDull, Prince de la Bun. Like the first McDull movie, this picture is a remarkable animated interpretation of Hong Kong. This time McDull and his kindergarten is smack in the middle of an urban renewal project and slated for the wrecking ball. His mother, meanwhile,... » MORE
Moving Targets. Wong Jing scores big with another cop vs. triad picture with a strong story and sense of local (Hong Kong) identity, similar to 2003's THE COLOUR OF THE TRUTH. Nicholas Tse and Edison Chen star as young, tough cops who... » MORE
Mummy Aged 19, The. An update of the classic 50's teen angst movie I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, starring the boy band SHINE (Tsui Tin Yau, Wong Yau Nam). 19 year old Bobo (Tsui Tin Yau), hates his name so much he changes it,... » MORE
My Hero. At first, MY HERO parodies A BETTER TOMORROW, later, it imitates it. The story of Sing (Stephen Chow Sing-Chi), a comic book loving waiter who gets caught in gangster crossfire and ends up being hired by kingpin Wai to help... » MORE
My Kung Fu Sweetheart. Phoenix (Cecilia Cheung) finds out at the age of 14 that her parents (Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu) are members of the Secret Society for Martial Arts, her family has a natural talent for it, and she can spend summer... » MORE
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. Johnnie To puts together another of his formulaic comedies, with some success. This time Sammi Cheng stars as a girl who meets a millionaire on vacation and marries him after three days. Shortly after that, he dies, and she moves... » MORE
My Life as McDull. 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... » MORE
Naag Shakti. It's Snake Goddess v. Vulture God, battling over the soul of a man whose kiss is poison. And, there's a talking parrot. ... » MORE
Naked Weapon. Young girls all over the world are kidnapped, taken to a secluded island, and trained to be assassins by Madame M (Almen Wong). After years of brutal training, which includes murder and rape, the best of the best become professionals.... » MORE
Nastik. What does it take to turn a good Hindu boy, a priest's son, into an athiest ("nastik")? How about the landlord's son stealing your Krishna idol, and blaming it on you and your devout father, whom he has already stabbed... » MORE
Necromancer. The gangsters and smugglers are using magic to augment their abilities, so its only natural the police use it as well. A special police taskforce specialising in bringing down magic users corners a man who has hidden a huge amount... » MORE
New Blood. Dark, nasty, and bleak horror film about suicidal lovers. One of the victims has an unusual blood type and three donors are rounded up in the middle of the night to give. They end up saving the man, but the... » MORE
New Option. Shawn Yue stars as a police investigator who wants to join the SDU to become a sniper. He also has lots and lots of guns in his apartment. Michael Wong is the head of SDU and has final say who... » MORE
New Police Story. Jackie Chan is a police superintendant who leads his team into a death trap against a group of young amoral ultraviolent thieves who love to kill police. He turns to alcohol until a new partner (Nicholas Tse) gets him out... » MORE
Nightmare in Precinct 7. 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... » MORE
Once Upon a Time in Triad Society 2. Mainlanders square off against Hongkies in a gang war while a cop tries to keep his pregnant wife clear of the resulting carnage. ... » MORE
Painted Faces. 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
Painted Skin. 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... » MORE
Papa Loves You. A month after releasing Herbal Tea, along comes another warm, fuzzy comedy from director Herman Yau, which even uses an alarmingly similar image -- star on a moped -- to advertise it. Happily, though, this effort is an improvement over... » MORE
Possessed (1983). Buddy cops Hsiao (Gary Siu) and Ming (Lau Siu Ming) go on a drunk and end up shooting to death a homicidal maniac trying to chop up his own wife. It sets in motion a chain of events that unleashes... » MORE
Princess - D. When computer game designer (Daniel Wu) conceptualizes what he hopes to be his breakthrough game, there is only one thing missing: the star. He meets a young, street tough bartender (Angelica Lee), mixing drinks and handing out ecstacy, and sees... » MORE
Public Toilet. Let's face it: Anyone who has seen a sufficient quantity of Hong Kong movies over a period of time will come to notice an almost overeager tendency of those films to display characters in various states and whenever possible discharging... » MORE
Revenge of Angel. 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
Runaway Pistol. The premise of RUNAWAY PISTOL -- an entire movie from the point of view of a gun, as it moves from owner to owner -- is high concept and one might think almost doomed to stupidity. Several American movies have... » MORE
Sangram. When Raje (Ashok Kumar) was born, his mother passed away, leaving his father, a police inspector, to raise him on his own. And he did, and spoiled him so thoroughly that he became something of a neighborhood scoundrel, even going... » MORE
SARS Wars. Zombie movies are a dime a dozen these days, and though many of them are extremely bad, there is a built in audience that keeps shambling forward for more, and keep watching them despite being burned so many times in... » MORE
Secret Drawing, The. When Comrade Li Hua arrives in town to attend a party meeting, he is distracted at the train platform by an old lady, falling. He sets down his satchel to assist, but it was all a carefully orchestrated plot to... » MORE
Secrets of Chinatown. An incredible psychotronic delight. Vancouver Chinatown is a hotbed of men in hoods, knife-throwing fiends, coins of death, and a satan worshipping cult of opium smugglers. What more can you ask for? ... » MORE
Secrets of Wu Sin, The. Surprising for films of this time period, no yellowface actors appear. Instead, its a showcase of Asian talent. Wu Syn runs a coolie smuggling operation, and an ace reporter is determined to break the story. ... » MORE
Shadow. 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... » MORE
Shaheed. The film begins with a small disclaimer: "Every care has been taken in this film to present the heroic struggle and personality of the famous revolutionary Shaheed Bhagat Singh and other leaders of the moment associated with him like Chandra... » MORE
Sharp Guns. 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... » MORE
Sholay. When SHOLAY was released in 1975, it broke box office records, and even today, if you adjust for inflation, it is the biggest box office earner of all time. It is the movie that launched Amitabh Bachchan's career into orbit... » MORE
Slim Til Dead. A serial killer abducts models and forces them to slim down to 70lbs before letting them go, the process naturally killing them. Tak (Anthony Wong) and Bull (Raymond Wong) are the cops on the case, aided by mainland photographer Tin... » MORE
Spooky Bunch, The. A Cantonese Opera troupe gets mixed up with a platoon of ghost soldiers seeking revenge. Lots of atmosphere, little action. ... » MORE
Stowaway. 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... » MORE
Sun, Moon, and Star II. The tearjerking, melodramatic conclusion to the epic saga of three strong women and one idiot man-child that can't choose between them, until it's far too late. Jianbai (Chang Yang) joins the army to be with his beloved Yanan (Julie Yeh),... » MORE
Sword of Emei. The first of Josephine Siao's many swordswoman films that has actually been released with English subtitles! VCD only, a beat up, unrestored print, Black and White for a quite possibly color film, but still, here it is, and fans of... » MORE
Sword of Swords. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Sword of Swords, except honest and hardworking disciple Jimmy Wang Yu, so naturally it falls to him. He hopes to pass it on to the unfortunately named hero, Wang Puke, but the... » MORE
Throwdown. Gripping. And throwing. THROWDOWN presents a whole new way of seeing bodies in motion -- quick twists followed by loud thuds. Aaron Kwok is an enthusiastic Judo practitioner, who loves nothing more than finding other Judo wrestlers to fight. He... » MORE
Twins Effect II. Pure entertainment. Light, kids stuff to be sure, but lots of fun anyway. Not even remotely related to the original TWINS EFFECT, the second movie drops the Vampire theme entirely and delivers basically the Hong Kong equivalent of an Italian... » MORE
Ultimate Vampire. 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... » MORE
Vampire Buster. 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... » MORE
Vampire's Breakfast. A vampire of the strictly Western variety (not even a single hop) is sucking the blood from countless victims and the cops don't have a clue. Along comes a reporter (Kent Cheng) who uncovers the mystery, with the help of... » MORE
Vengeance of Fu Manchu, The. Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu sets up camp in a remote part of China, causes earthquakes, and schemes his mad schemes. ... » MORE
Wesley's Mysterious File, The. Now, although I recognize bad SF, that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy it. Typically, I'm pretty forgiving of SF films, though gaping logical flaws get on my nerves. MEN IN BLACK was bad SF. No explanation, gaping plot logic,... » MORE
Wife from Hell. Andrew Lin was going to be the best doctor around, but instead missed a lot of opportunities because his wife's (Candy Lo) asthma held him back. She is completely devoted to him, however, and even after she dies she comes... » MORE
Wild Ones, The. After getting mocked in Toronto for being a Chinese social worker trying to help Canadian youth, of whom she is told she knows nothing about, Sandy (Olivia Cheng) returns to Hong Kong and gets a job at a girls' home... » MORE
Women on the Run. Let's face it, this is a movie based on a single premise: that a woman can do kungfu completely in the nude. It's such a compelling premise that it completely overshadows the film constructed around it. Not that it's a... » MORE
Yakeen. Dharmendra stars as Rajesh, working on a top secret formula for the Indian government. He cons a month leave after the experiment blows a fuse, and spends his time wooing lovely Rite (Sharmila Tagore). He's determined to get married but... » MORE
You Shoot, I Shoot. 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... » MORE
Young and Dangerous. 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
Young and Dangerous -- The Prequel. Nicolas Tse plays Ekin Cheng, only much more lifelike, in this prequel in which we learn how the boys got so righteous. ... » MORE
Young and Dangerous 2. 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
Young and Dangerous 3. 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
2002. 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... » MORE
A1. No, it's not about a steak sauce. A-1 I imagine refers to the front page of the newspaper: section A, page 1. Ling (Angelica Lee Sinje) is a fashion reporter, Kevin (Edison Chen) her photographer. She wants to quit her... » MORE
Aar-Paar. Kalu Birju (Guru Dutt) is a former prisoner, in jail for reckless driving but out early for good behavior, trying to make a fresh start. On the one hand, there is his job at a garage and his romance with... » MORE
Abnormal Beauty. Jiney (Race) and her girlfriend Jasmine (Rosanne) are art students into photography. But then Jin takes a picture of a dead body and becomes obsessed with death, snapping pictures of dead animals, brooding, contemplating suicide, and having traumatic memories of... » MORE
Accidental Spy, The. 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... » MORE
Aces go Places. One of Hong Kong's classic action comedy series began here, written, directed, and produced by the Cinema City collective, who turned making comedies into a science, estimating and ensuring proper gag to reel ratios. A sendup of Hollywood action films... » MORE
Aces Go Places II. The "Best Partners" Sam Hui and Karl Maka return for the first of four sequels to the popular film ACES GO PLACES. This time out our heroes must face the mafia assassin "Filthy Harry," killer robots, and a gang of... » MORE
Aces Go Places V The Terracotta Hit. 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... » MORE
Agneepath. Every upright man must at one time walk the path of fire. That is agneepath. The path of fire. Agneepath. AGNEEPATH! The path of fire cuts a swath through the friends, family, and entire ancestral village of Amitabh Bachchan in... » MORE
All of a Sudden. Two guys are just yelling at each other after a minor fender bender, when all of a sudden, a naked woman crashes onto the top of one of their cars, dead, an apparent suicide. ... » MORE
Amar. Ahhh, the idyllic village life! Sweet, childish milkmaid Sonia (Nimmi) wakes up with pleasure and takes care of the animals, joyful yet lamenting that her stepmother always beats her -- she even dreams of beating her while she sleeps! ("That's... » MORE
Angulimala. A Thai version of the heartwarming Buddhist legend of an outcast driven to murder by his teacher, and by his Dharma, collecting 1,000 fingers as his fate, until the Buddha enlightens him and he gives up finger collecting, even though... » MORE
Astonishing. This thriller from Herman Yau asks what would happen if you woke up one day and everyone treated you like you were someone else. Someone you knew. And that person that you knew, is now you, and works at your... » MORE
Attack of the Joyful Goddess. 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
Avenging Fist, The. 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... » MORE
Awaargi. Azaad (Anil Kapoor) is a petty thug a "goonda", his dad, head of a gang. But then he rescues Seema (Meenakshi), a village girl, from the local pimp and promises to make her a singing superstar. She loves him gratefully,... » MORE
Bakery Amour. 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... » MORE
Bat Without Wings. Five years ago, 28 of the best boxers of the martial world teamed up to defeat the villainous "Bat Without Wings." In the end, legend has it, he killed 26 of the boxers buy was finally defeated. But it isn't... » MORE
Beasts, The. Siblings Ah Ling (Patricia Chong) and Ah Wah (Eddie Chan) join a fresh-faced group of city teens to take a weekend camping trip in the mountains outside of Hong Kong. Alas, the villagers don't care for visitors, much, and a... » MORE
Beijing Rocks. 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... » MORE
Below the Lion Rock: Road. Grandma checks in to a women's rehab clinic to kick the opium habit, but her daughter Chui Fong (Carol DoDo Cheng) still puffs her life away, mainly because it is so dreary, and because her husband ran off after hearing... » MORE
Beyond Our Ken. Ken (Daniel Wu) is a sturdy fireman who has no trouble with the ladies. That is, until his ex girlfriend Ching (Gillian Cheung) shows up one day at the nightclub where his current girlfriend Zhou-lan (Tao Hong) is a waitress,... » MORE
Beyond the Great Wall. He's the worst kind of villain: the small-minded, petty, vindictive, mid-level bureaucrat that ruins people's lives to maintain his status or to revenge for losing status. It's not good for one's blood pressure to watch too many films with this... » MORE
Big Trouble in Little China. Some movies are almost impossible to review. How to review Star Wars, for example? It would have been easy to do so, just out of the theater, pen in hand. But decades and dozens of viewings later, when it has... » MORE
Black Night. After the success of THREE and THREE: EXTREMES, it was only a matter of time before other studios had a go at the horror "triptych" using the same box office generating conceit of featuring directors and actors from several asian... » MORE
Born to be King. 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
Born Wild. 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... » MORE
Brides of Fu Manchu, The. Fu Manchu invents a ray of energy, which he calls a "laser," which will beam death upon untold millions. Meanwhile, he entertains a bevy of scantily clad beauties. ... » MORE
Broken Blossoms. Trying to break his racist image from Birth of a Nation, director D.W. Griffith put together this film about a poor Chinese man who puts the moves on a white woman and gets lynched. And this is different how, Mr.... » MORE
Cherie. Utterly charming romantic comedy showcasing one of the most popular stars of the early eighties, Cherie Cheung. I've never really gotten the appeal too much, but here she radiantly beautiful and puts in a good performance as well, so consider... » MORE
Chinese Ghost Story III, A. 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... » MORE
Choompae. Pherg Choompae (Sombat Methanee) goes back to his hometown to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the smuggling kingpin Tom (Kecha Plianvithee). Sounds simple, right? Think again! I never knew a simple revenge plot could be... » MORE
Christ of Nanjing, The. 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
Clueless. 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... » MORE
Conman. 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... » MORE
Cop on a Mission. 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... » MORE
Cops and Robbers. Pretty much what the title says. The cops are really, really good guys, fighting evil and generally finding it tough to get a date with the same sense of social justice. Sarge (Wang Chung) is the best of the bunch... » MORE
D. "D" is for Deshu, son of a cop, who rises up the ranks in the Bombay underground to become a kingpin of crime. 'D' is also a sequel to COMPANY (if Company were 'C', the opening voiceover helpfully explains), in... » MORE
Day Off. 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... » MORE
Devi. A modern, big budget "special effects" Indian film about a man who falls in love with a Snake Goddess, and the consequences that ensue. Romance, music, snakes, and really big snakes. ... » MORE
Dream Lovers. 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
Drunken Master 3. 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
Enter the Phoenix. Stephen Fung turns from acting to directing and for his first full length feature has delivered an entertaining action-comedy gay triad movie. When the old triad boss (Yuen Biao in an inspired cameo) dies, his son Georgie (Daniel Wu) is... » MORE
Escape from Hong Kong Island. Mr. Raymond Mak (Jordan Chan) is a miillionaire stock broker that everyone else licks the boots of -- until suddenly, he is fired. That in itself is not bad, he's got another offer that has to be signed at the... » MORE
Explosive City. There's so many things wrong with EXPLOSIVE CITY it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps with the tired idea of the kidnapping ring that raises kids to be assassins, for one. Then there's the international cast that occasionally drifts... » MORE
Eye 10, The. A group of friends in Thailand start sharing ghost stories when their Thai friend Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald) whips out a book called "10 Encounters", which specifically describes all the ways a receptive person can see ghosts. The first two ways,... » MORE
Eye 2, The. This sequel to The Eye (2002) manages to pick up a new idea and keeps the "I see dead people" genre fresh seemingly far past its expiration date. This time it's Shu Qi who gets the ability, in one of... » MORE
Eye, The. 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... » MORE
Face of Fu Manchu, The. Christopher Lee takes his turn as the evil Fu, threatening Nayland Smith with a heaping dose of mayhem and death. ... » MORE
Fantasia. A loving tribute to the classic Hui Brothers comedies of the seventies, starring Lau Ching-Wan in the Michael Hui role (and doing a shockingly perfect impersonation of the man), as the head of a detective company. His impovershed and poorly... » MORE
Feel 100% 2. 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... » MORE
Fighting to Survive. 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.... » MORE
From the Queen to the Chief Executive. 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... » MORE
Gambler's Story, A. 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... » MORE
Give Them a Chance. Sam (Andy Hui), a stuntman, and his brother Jack (Osman Hung), a dance instructor, are inspired by a group of tough, street dancing kids to open a dance studio. It's just as well, Jack loses his job when seen goofing... » MORE
God of Gamblers 3 - The Early Years. 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
God of Gamblers III - Back to Shanghai. 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
God of Gamblers Returns. Chow Yun-Fat returns to the role that made him famous (one of the roles, at any rate), with mixed results. ... » MORE
Goodbye Mr. Cool. 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... » MORE
Great Wall, The. Clocking in at nearly three hours, this is a biopic to rival The Ten Commandments. I kept looking for Yul Brenner but he never showed. A classic. ... » MORE
Green Snake. 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,... » MORE
Haiwan. Cannons. A major, waking up in a hospital bed, hallucinating that his nurse is an enemy soldier, attempts to strangle her. A hatred of all women, buring inside him. Opening credits over scenes at the beach. A boy, killing the... » MORE
Haunted Office. Three intertwining horror tales revolving around a single office high rise. In the first one, Karen Mok takes a job at a company where every year, ghosts force a handful of workers to kill themselves. The second story involves Jordan... » MORE
Headlines. 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... » MORE
Heavenly Kings. The semi-real, semi-imaginary chronicles the "boy band" ALIVE NOT DEAD (Conroy Chan, Andrew Lin, Terence Yin, and Daniel Wu) and their rise to moderate success in Hong Kong, on the strength of their star combined star power and contacts in... » MORE
Her Tender Love. What looks to be another lighthearted family drama of the common type ends up pushed way up to the boundaries, the sort of family you might see on the Jerry Springer show. First, there's dad -- he's rich. His son... » MORE
Hollywood Hong Kong. A young prostitute who dreams of Hollywood visits a soon to be demolished shanty town and teaches its inhabitants about love, happiness, and especially, amputation. Ensnared by her charm are an enterprising young pimp (Wong Yau Nam) and the obscenely... » MORE
Husn aur Ishq. Hiding behind the non-descript title and the poor EROS Entertainment DVD art is a certain story about a magic lamp with a Djinn in it. And no, we're not talking I DREAM OF JEANNIE. It's Aladdin! Sort of. Here, he's... » MORE
Ingeniously Taking Mount Hua. A stirring war picture that pits a small group of heroic scouts of the People's Liberation Army against a large force of Nationalist (KMT) soldiers entrenched on the impenetrable Mount Hua. If you watch this film expecting shameless Communist propaganda,... » MORE
Iron King. A Japanese superhero program that ran for 26 episodes from 1972-73. Similar to ULTRAMAN, each episode featured a guest giant monster that must be defeated by the heroic Iron King. Sounds tiresome, but the format is redeemed in the details:... » MORE
Janbaaz. A criminal gang of heroin dealers need an infusion of money to set up their next opium crop and distillation laboratory (they're a full service shop!) because Inspector Rajesh destroyed their previous efforts. They ruin a rich gambler and cheat... » MORE
Jiang Hu. Director Wong Ching-Po's first mainstream work is also his best to date. The short running time (under 90 minutes) aggresively compacts the story of Yik (Shawn Yue), a young hood who wins the chance to kill a triad kingpin in... » MORE
July Rhapsody. Jackie Cheung is a dissatisfied poetry teacher, Anita Mui his tired wife, and Karena Lam the student that he feels pulled towards despite the fact that she would unravel the life he has lived so far. A life mostly of... » MORE
Kid, The. A 10-year-old Bruce Lee stars as Kid Cheung, an orphan boy who sells comics in a little stall in the slums to survive. He takes care of two still younger kids, and the three are looked after in turn by... » MORE
Killing End. 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... » MORE
Kranti. "Freedom was not a present from the British, presented on a silver platter on a warm august night. It was the culmination of a long and bloody struggle spread over centuries..." I'm sorry, Gandhi who? KRANTI means, "Revolution." And this... » MORE
Kung Fu Mahjong. Is Wong Jing the last filmmaker in Hong Kong regularly churning out entertaining films? It sure seems that way. Here he is with another production that is far more entertaining than it has any right to be, another in his... » MORE
Lahu Ke Do Rang. What a find! Suzie Wong meets Bhagat Singh! Hong Kong meets India! This is one of those movies that Indian DVD shops tuck into their 3 for $15 rack, dismissed as a lesser film by a lesser star. But for... » MORE
Leaving in Sorrow. I enjoy watching independent Hong Kong productions, but admittedly, they are rarely good. Because of low budgets, their technical accomplishments are necessarily limited. Their only strength then lies in selecting interesting subject matter and scripting appropriately. LEAVING IN SORROW has... » MORE
Lifeline Express. A fun comic romp about death. "Your willpower decides whether you live or die," the alarmingly intense hospital psychiatrist (Eddie Ko) proclaims. Meanwhile, Fatty (Kent Cheng) is praying for the life of his brother Tigerino (Teddy Robin), who was run... » MORE
Lost and Found. Kelly Chen is the daughter of a rich shipping magnate, who finds out she has leukemia. She tries getting a job at the shipyards, where she meets a handsome and kind scotsman, improbably played by Michael Wong, of all people.... » MORE
Love is a Many Stupid Thing. Under the generic and misleading title lies a very funny send-up of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, courtesy of schlockmeister Wong Jing. In his typical fashion, the title (and trailer) basically try to mislead audiences into thinking the movie is a remake of... » MORE
Loving Him. Terminal diseases are all the rage in HK Cinema lately, but few of the films are any good, or in the case of this year's SUMMER I LOVE YOU, even coherent. But this one is an exception -- a good... » MORE
Magic Cop. 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... » MORE
Man Called Hero, A. 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
Maniacal Night. 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... » MORE
Martial Angels. 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... » MORE
McDull, Prince de la Bun. Like the first McDull movie, this picture is a remarkable animated interpretation of Hong Kong. This time McDull and his kindergarten is smack in the middle of an urban renewal project and slated for the wrecking ball. His mother, meanwhile,... » MORE
Moving Targets. Wong Jing scores big with another cop vs. triad picture with a strong story and sense of local (Hong Kong) identity, similar to 2003's THE COLOUR OF THE TRUTH. Nicholas Tse and Edison Chen star as young, tough cops who... » MORE
Mummy Aged 19, The. An update of the classic 50's teen angst movie I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, starring the boy band SHINE (Tsui Tin Yau, Wong Yau Nam). 19 year old Bobo (Tsui Tin Yau), hates his name so much he changes it,... » MORE
My Hero. At first, MY HERO parodies A BETTER TOMORROW, later, it imitates it. The story of Sing (Stephen Chow Sing-Chi), a comic book loving waiter who gets caught in gangster crossfire and ends up being hired by kingpin Wai to help... » MORE
My Kung Fu Sweetheart. Phoenix (Cecilia Cheung) finds out at the age of 14 that her parents (Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu) are members of the Secret Society for Martial Arts, her family has a natural talent for it, and she can spend summer... » MORE
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. Johnnie To puts together another of his formulaic comedies, with some success. This time Sammi Cheng stars as a girl who meets a millionaire on vacation and marries him after three days. Shortly after that, he dies, and she moves... » MORE
My Life as McDull. 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... » MORE
Naag Shakti. It's Snake Goddess v. Vulture God, battling over the soul of a man whose kiss is poison. And, there's a talking parrot. ... » MORE
Naked Weapon. Young girls all over the world are kidnapped, taken to a secluded island, and trained to be assassins by Madame M (Almen Wong). After years of brutal training, which includes murder and rape, the best of the best become professionals.... » MORE
Nastik. What does it take to turn a good Hindu boy, a priest's son, into an athiest ("nastik")? How about the landlord's son stealing your Krishna idol, and blaming it on you and your devout father, whom he has already stabbed... » MORE
Necromancer. The gangsters and smugglers are using magic to augment their abilities, so its only natural the police use it as well. A special police taskforce specialising in bringing down magic users corners a man who has hidden a huge amount... » MORE
New Blood. Dark, nasty, and bleak horror film about suicidal lovers. One of the victims has an unusual blood type and three donors are rounded up in the middle of the night to give. They end up saving the man, but the... » MORE
New Option. Shawn Yue stars as a police investigator who wants to join the SDU to become a sniper. He also has lots and lots of guns in his apartment. Michael Wong is the head of SDU and has final say who... » MORE
New Police Story. Jackie Chan is a police superintendant who leads his team into a death trap against a group of young amoral ultraviolent thieves who love to kill police. He turns to alcohol until a new partner (Nicholas Tse) gets him out... » MORE
Nightmare in Precinct 7. 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... » MORE
Once Upon a Time in Triad Society 2. Mainlanders square off against Hongkies in a gang war while a cop tries to keep his pregnant wife clear of the resulting carnage. ... » MORE
Painted Faces. 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
Painted Skin. 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... » MORE
Papa Loves You. A month after releasing Herbal Tea, along comes another warm, fuzzy comedy from director Herman Yau, which even uses an alarmingly similar image -- star on a moped -- to advertise it. Happily, though, this effort is an improvement over... » MORE
Possessed (1983). Buddy cops Hsiao (Gary Siu) and Ming (Lau Siu Ming) go on a drunk and end up shooting to death a homicidal maniac trying to chop up his own wife. It sets in motion a chain of events that unleashes... » MORE
Princess - D. When computer game designer (Daniel Wu) conceptualizes what he hopes to be his breakthrough game, there is only one thing missing: the star. He meets a young, street tough bartender (Angelica Lee), mixing drinks and handing out ecstacy, and sees... » MORE
Public Toilet. Let's face it: Anyone who has seen a sufficient quantity of Hong Kong movies over a period of time will come to notice an almost overeager tendency of those films to display characters in various states and whenever possible discharging... » MORE
Revenge of Angel. 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
Runaway Pistol. The premise of RUNAWAY PISTOL -- an entire movie from the point of view of a gun, as it moves from owner to owner -- is high concept and one might think almost doomed to stupidity. Several American movies have... » MORE
Sangram. When Raje (Ashok Kumar) was born, his mother passed away, leaving his father, a police inspector, to raise him on his own. And he did, and spoiled him so thoroughly that he became something of a neighborhood scoundrel, even going... » MORE
SARS Wars. Zombie movies are a dime a dozen these days, and though many of them are extremely bad, there is a built in audience that keeps shambling forward for more, and keep watching them despite being burned so many times in... » MORE
Secret Drawing, The. When Comrade Li Hua arrives in town to attend a party meeting, he is distracted at the train platform by an old lady, falling. He sets down his satchel to assist, but it was all a carefully orchestrated plot to... » MORE
Secrets of Chinatown. An incredible psychotronic delight. Vancouver Chinatown is a hotbed of men in hoods, knife-throwing fiends, coins of death, and a satan worshipping cult of opium smugglers. What more can you ask for? ... » MORE
Secrets of Wu Sin, The. Surprising for films of this time period, no yellowface actors appear. Instead, its a showcase of Asian talent. Wu Syn runs a coolie smuggling operation, and an ace reporter is determined to break the story. ... » MORE
Shadow. 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... » MORE
Shaheed. The film begins with a small disclaimer: "Every care has been taken in this film to present the heroic struggle and personality of the famous revolutionary Shaheed Bhagat Singh and other leaders of the moment associated with him like Chandra... » MORE
Sharp Guns. 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... » MORE
Sholay. When SHOLAY was released in 1975, it broke box office records, and even today, if you adjust for inflation, it is the biggest box office earner of all time. It is the movie that launched Amitabh Bachchan's career into orbit... » MORE
Slim Til Dead. A serial killer abducts models and forces them to slim down to 70lbs before letting them go, the process naturally killing them. Tak (Anthony Wong) and Bull (Raymond Wong) are the cops on the case, aided by mainland photographer Tin... » MORE
Spooky Bunch, The. A Cantonese Opera troupe gets mixed up with a platoon of ghost soldiers seeking revenge. Lots of atmosphere, little action. ... » MORE
Stowaway. 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... » MORE
Sun, Moon, and Star II. The tearjerking, melodramatic conclusion to the epic saga of three strong women and one idiot man-child that can't choose between them, until it's far too late. Jianbai (Chang Yang) joins the army to be with his beloved Yanan (Julie Yeh),... » MORE
Sword of Emei. The first of Josephine Siao's many swordswoman films that has actually been released with English subtitles! VCD only, a beat up, unrestored print, Black and White for a quite possibly color film, but still, here it is, and fans of... » MORE
Sword of Swords. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Sword of Swords, except honest and hardworking disciple Jimmy Wang Yu, so naturally it falls to him. He hopes to pass it on to the unfortunately named hero, Wang Puke, but the... » MORE
Throwdown. Gripping. And throwing. THROWDOWN presents a whole new way of seeing bodies in motion -- quick twists followed by loud thuds. Aaron Kwok is an enthusiastic Judo practitioner, who loves nothing more than finding other Judo wrestlers to fight. He... » MORE
Twins Effect II. Pure entertainment. Light, kids stuff to be sure, but lots of fun anyway. Not even remotely related to the original TWINS EFFECT, the second movie drops the Vampire theme entirely and delivers basically the Hong Kong equivalent of an Italian... » MORE
Ultimate Vampire. 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... » MORE
Vampire Buster. 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... » MORE
Vampire's Breakfast. A vampire of the strictly Western variety (not even a single hop) is sucking the blood from countless victims and the cops don't have a clue. Along comes a reporter (Kent Cheng) who uncovers the mystery, with the help of... » MORE
Vengeance of Fu Manchu, The. Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu sets up camp in a remote part of China, causes earthquakes, and schemes his mad schemes. ... » MORE
Wesley's Mysterious File, The. Now, although I recognize bad SF, that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy it. Typically, I'm pretty forgiving of SF films, though gaping logical flaws get on my nerves. MEN IN BLACK was bad SF. No explanation, gaping plot logic,... » MORE
Wife from Hell. Andrew Lin was going to be the best doctor around, but instead missed a lot of opportunities because his wife's (Candy Lo) asthma held him back. She is completely devoted to him, however, and even after she dies she comes... » MORE
Wild Ones, The. After getting mocked in Toronto for being a Chinese social worker trying to help Canadian youth, of whom she is told she knows nothing about, Sandy (Olivia Cheng) returns to Hong Kong and gets a job at a girls' home... » MORE
Women on the Run. Let's face it, this is a movie based on a single premise: that a woman can do kungfu completely in the nude. It's such a compelling premise that it completely overshadows the film constructed around it. Not that it's a... » MORE
Yakeen. Dharmendra stars as Rajesh, working on a top secret formula for the Indian government. He cons a month leave after the experiment blows a fuse, and spends his time wooing lovely Rite (Sharmila Tagore). He's determined to get married but... » MORE
You Shoot, I Shoot. 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... » MORE
Young and Dangerous. 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
Young and Dangerous -- The Prequel. Nicolas Tse plays Ekin Cheng, only much more lifelike, in this prequel in which we learn how the boys got so righteous. ... » MORE
Young and Dangerous 2. 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
Young and Dangerous 3. 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