After acclaimed features Over The Rainbow, Under The Skirt and The Golden Girls, Joe Ma took a nosedive into mediocrity but not commercially as the twentysomething's rom/com Feel 100% (based on a comic book) became a success at the local box-office. Starring Ekin Cheng, Eric Kot and Sammi Cheng, they portray three friends since school who are now living life in a shallow way and not growing up. All not breaking pattern except Sammi's Cherie who is feeling the crush she has on Ekin's Jerry. He is feeling nothing but to fool around and Kot's Hui Lok goes on a risky venture by meeting up with a phone flirt (Christine Ng) who turns out to be all out insane. The "I learned something today..."-statements are not far away.

From a hot year for in particular Ekin Cheng, star of Young And Dangerous, the main men Andrew Lau and Manfred Wong behind that franchise perhaps looked to spawn more series but thankfully stopped early (Feel 100%, Once More followed, then key personnel except director Ma were out) despite the figures being in their favour. Feel 100% attempts a mix of upbeat, light and clownish behaviour mixed in with so called drama as our characters finally understand what the true love is in their lives. All fine and well but striking that balance in an awful way, Ma's film is the equivalent of tasteless chewing gum and that's not enough to earn any acclaim. Decent parodies of A Moment Of Romance and Mission Impossible rises the off-beat nature of the flick but lacking devotion towards anyone hurts it severely. The cast is pretty, wacky and are not asked to venture far outside of that realm. A sappy end montage offends the viewer, Christine Ng is earlier basically seen raping Eric Kot and then trying to commit suicide with him in the most odd tangent of the flick. Watch Ng, better style and emotions in Riley Yip's Love Is Not A Game, But A Joke instead.

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Cheap, poor, boring and even a little embarrassing action-drama from Wilson Tong, featuring his recurring teaming up with old school chums Norman Tsui and Gordon Lau, all once under the mighty wing of Lau Kar-Leung. Ending up being just another gangster actioner of its time, if you face direction where characters walk into camera as a way ending scenes and sappy montages for fallen characters, you know you're not in good hands. Even the action, blending some fisticuffs but mostly gunplay, is routinely staged and doesn't get enhanced one bit even as the blood is thrown around freely. Lo Lieh also take part in this one.

Imagine Dean Shek (Drunken Master) and Karl Maka (Aces Go Places) team up and do exactly what they do "best" (cue audience groans) and you can well imagine how this Taiwanese indie feels like.

Starring Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng, two out of the team that Chang Cheh assembled from Taiwan for his Venoms films at Shaw's (although Chiang didn't participate in the original The Five Venoms) as the god of plates and chopsticks respectively, the two have a tradition of dueling it out every 10 years. After the last ferocious battle involving, you guessed it, plates and chopsticks, they decide to challenge each other to find the best human disciple instead. The choice falls upon two teahouse waiters and the gods begin to put them through all kinds of embarrassing hell.

Best described as a kung fu cartoon (complete with the expected sound effects), director Huang Kuo-Chu is clearly having a ball! Pace and energy is borderline frantic, surely making a lot of jokes fly by without knowing they were ever jokes in the first place. The Drunken Master influence is definitely well on its way into the picture but it's quickly a thought ejected considering the craziness otherwise on display, in particular wonderful opening duel between the gods. The bizarre nature makes it very much less a carbon copy, I'll tell you! It all makes for entertaining viewing even though honestly nothing on display will tickle your funnybone to the extreme. Fight Among The Supers is also a good tester to see how receptive you really are to the low-brow comedy of Asian cinema, especially since it occupies most of the running time here.

As for traditional action, various skilled acrobatics from the leads crop up during the running time and the final reel becomes more of a conventional showdown but one with the Taiwanese players strutting their stuff in a lively way. Shame about some of the undercranking but somehow it makes sense and adds on to the entertainment value of this slice of Taiwanese kung fu cinema.

Stephen Chow plays Sing who goes undercover in a school in order to retrieve a stolen police gun. A sufficient frame plot-wise for Chow and co-star Ng Man Tat's antics, this time directed by the reliable Gordon Chan.

While the films of this period are no cinematic showcases, they are Chow's funniest works without a doubt, even though Fight Back To School elicits "only" chuckles for some stretches with some inspired laugh out loud moments from Chow sporadically. However all that's ok because director Chan keeps entertainment level high and intrudes very little on Stephen's excellent work here. A choice even Wong Jing knew was a suitable one when directing Chow. A particular strong point is Chow's observation of his bizarre surroundings (a scene with a rather dim-witted chemistry professor becomes the culmination in that regard) and the interplay with Ng Man Tat is as always great, with relatively little full on verbal gags employed. Also with Sharla Cheung, Gabriel Wong, Roy Cheung, Paul Chun, Dennis Chan and Barry Wong.

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No need to change a winning concept but that's ok because the original Fight Back To School actually was a winner. This time Gordon Chan and company add synch sound to the hilarious, if slightly calmer antics of Stephen Chow, proving his masterful handling of the range concerning verbal dexterity and in my opinion the most hilarious of the act here, him in his odd surroundings trying to cope. Gordon Chan again knows to not interfere but the direction is as always solid, with a decent gunplay ending worthy of his talents. Perhaps not Chow's though. Reprising their roles are Sharla Cheung, Ng Man Tat, Gabriel Wong while Athena Chu, Deannie Yip, Michael Chow, James Wong, Spencer Lam and Blackie Ko are added to the mix. Since the plot revolves around foreign terrorists, some of the resident gwailo players such as Mark Houghton, Mark King and John Wakefield also appear. Paul Fonoroff however plays a head of the police force.

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The sole good idea the producers behind Fighting Fist had was putting Sibelle Hu in leather. Not often associated with sexiness, Hu owns the screen even when doing nothing but much derails as soon as clothes are changed. Standard story of vigilante actions and the morals that come with the territory are mixed up to poor effect, with only sparse, highly indistinguishable action on display. About half a tussle between Chin Kar-Lok and Ken Lo is worth it before the former buys the farm in a welcome, macabre way. Welcome in a sense that the movie could've benefited from this excursion but director Casey Chan utilizes his momentum extremely poorly. Relocating to Japan and introducing training sequences akin to the old school kung fu movie furthermore illustrates the poor fit Chan's elements are. Sonny Chiba also appear sporadically.

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Brutal violence highlights this otherwise ordinary triad actioner. Alex Man plays a suspended cop that takes on the triad way, rising through the ranks much to the dismay of characters such as those played by Shing Fui On and Phillip Ko. Despite all kinds of familiar elements and clichés popping up to say hi, there lies a charm in efforts such as this and the era it's from. The filmmakers certainly doesn't set out to develop characters to any great extent and just as the martial arts movies of the 70s took inspiration from successful concepts, the triad genre also made sure to feature those elements, with freshness rarely attempted. Fight To Survive goes about its business quick, giving us the triad brutality and brawls in a gritty manner and that's about all you can expect. Kind of hard to be disappointed therefore. Carrie Ng, Eddy Ko and O Chun-Hung co-stars.

As Big Brother Bo (Tsui Hark) is about to go to jail, lowly triad Hung (Eric Tsang) gets awarded the task of looking after two mistresses of his, Sue (Margaret Lee) and Mimi (Loletta Lee). They're difficult to contain and along the way some kind of bravery in Hung makes Mimi fall for him. Question is, how will this breach of confidence go down with the imprisoned Bo?

Written by Wong Kar-Wai and being a departure from the majority of the scripts he was behind at the time (including The Haunted Cop Shop) in the way it leans more towards black comedy, drama and arthouse. A strange little off-beat creature therefore, directed by Patrick Tam (My Heart Is That Eternal Rose). Strange in the way it seems to wander endlessly without a purpose, churning out black comedy that is merely amusing but all of a sudden Wong and Tam turns the film into a coherent one. Then there's the big problem of believing in the love story between Tsang and Loletta Lee but Tam pours on the style, making this work a fairly immersing one. In the end it's still a frame that's more clear to the filmmakers than the audience but it's worth the time spent. Eric Tsang puts in admirable dramatic acting although his efforts at this time was still rough but instead it's Tsui Hark that impresses with a convincingly menacing performance. Aided by writing and direction quite a lot obviously but it's the rare chance for Tsui to not done his goofy persona when in front of the camera. Dennis Chan and Chen Jing also briefly appear.

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Wong Chun-Yeung (Dreaming The Reality) to me is a director who uses the tactic of throwing everything possibly against the wall of movie content until something sticks. Usually, it doesn't stay for very long and while Fire Phoenix isn't a whole lot different from his other actioners, it does things at such a high pitch, creating an entertaining distracting in the long run. Francis Ng and Sibelle Hu BOTH have fighting roles with Ng doing admirably well as he is clearly doing choreography for longer takes but is really flailing his arms and legs more than anything. His Mantis style against Mark Houghton is a sight though. Playing against the likes of Alex Fong, Carrie Ng, Alex Man (another performance based on growling) and Sandra Ng, initially this means a whole lot of action sans style but some of the stuntmen under action director Chui Fat showcases their talents well. Francis is comedic relief for the first few reels but seeing as director Wong want to have this carrousel spinning at top speed, Sandra Ng and Shum Wai turn into representatives of the intense "comedic" side to Fire Phoenix. At best, Sandra is a fine comedienne, at other times like here, she's really the female equivalent of Dean Shek. Still, it's a short and breezy package where guns, gore and sophomoric behaviour rules but I've had worse.

There are a number of movies from this time where Francis Ng and Alex Fong have shared the screen, a match up that would be a character acting heaven these days. What we know today is that they needed to grow older and that Fong needed to shave. Rest is history...in the making.