Who would've thought that aggravating comic Eric Kot, who directed arguably the most abnormal episode of 4 Faces Of Eve would go on to log a scattered yet emotionally felt arthouse experiment? I certainly didn't and generally not being a fan of this genre of cinema either, First Love: The Litter On The Breeze genuinely is flawed as well as being some kind of great gem of proportions hard to define.

Kot is an extremely conscious guy, opting to give the film a direction where we're instead watching the making of the arthouse film backed by Wong Kar-Wai (producer) and Christopher Doyle (cinematographer). Kot appears in video segments talking about trying to find a direction for his musings on first love, seemingly making up crap as he goes along (true old school way of creating fine Hong Kong films) and aiding us through it all via visual- and audio commentary at select points.

If it sounds frantic and fragmented, you wouldn't have assumed wrong and Kot's laid back attitude and actually mistreatment of the audience is perhaps the biggest delight of his film. Kot eventually finds two stories he likes, going over unusual, joyous first love and love where destruction has entered. It's the quirky touches on display, ones that Kot in his commentary acknowledges aren't meant for interpretation (a sly dig at viewers wanting to interpret every single frame and one of many examples of the kind of off-beat humour served up) that eventually leads into visual poetry of a rather felt kind. Aided by an equally quirky but perfect score for Kot's surroundings, anti-arthouse camps should give First Love: The Litter On The Breeze a shot. It isn't a chore to find Kot's telling moments. It's instead a lot of fun watching him come to a conclusion that is as meaningful for his characters as it is for him as a director. Our firsts aren't perfect but as delightful as anything we as humans can ever experience. With Takeshi Kaneshiro and Karen Mok.

The Category III rating may have had an impact profit-wise but audience still turned out dependably, making Fist Of Fury 1991 another hit for Stephen Chow. Aside from the very funny reworking's of the classic funeral and "we are not sick men"-scenes from Bruce Lee's Fist Of Fury, this 1991 version bares little resemblance. It's all in the now established nonsense comedy style of Chow's which in this movie still relies on many verbal gags but good doses hilarious universal humour as well. Watch out for a truly disgusting spitting duel between Chow and Kenny Bee, Chow doning the famous Mark gear from A Better Tomorrow and some very funnily staged fight action by Corey Yuen.

Speaking of that, viewers might be quite uncomfortable during the finale as it's almost exclusively dark and turns incredibly Raging Bull-esque violent at times. When it then turns to comedy again, the contrast is tough to accept but it's a minor niggle as Fist Of Fury 1991 is a satisfying Stephen Chow vehicle from the early days. My favourite days of his. Corey Yuen, Cheung Man, Shing Fui On, Woo Fung and Vincent Wan co-stars while Ng Man Tat appears in a cameo that connects the worlds of Fist Of Fury 1991 and All For The Winner.

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An interesting footnote in martial arts movie history concerns the making of Fist Of Unicorn (aka The Unicorn Palm). Conceived as a vehicle for Bruce Lee's long time friend, the late Unicorn Chan, reportedly producers had said to Chan that if he could get Bruce Lee into the movie, he would have himself a starring role. Bruce did indeed agree to support the project by coming onto the set to direct the action and to promote the film. However the film crew secretly filmed Bruce on the set and ended up integrating the footage into the storyline in addition to marketing Fist Of Unicorn as a Bruce Lee film. Whether Unicorn knew of this plan or not is unclear but it definitely put a strain on the soon to end friendship with Lee's untimely demise so close. Legal actions were taken but I haven't been able to figure out whether or not a settlement was made since the proceedings were interrupted when Bruce died.

That's about as interesting as it gets aside from the fact that the Mandarin version presented on VideoAsia's dvd doesn't have any of the poorly inserted shots of Bruce Lee or the backstory to Unicorn's character where these reside. It was clearly once part of the print (as evident by a brief shot of the Chinese/English subtitles on the English version during Lee's segment) otherwise we wouldn't have had this ruckus.

Outside of all this, Fist Of Unicorn remains poorly plotted and made with Unicorn Chan being all too wooden to be sold as the great, new martial arts hero. Points of interest turn up through young Mang Hoi's energetic performance and Whang In Sik's glorious kicking skills gets a fine showcase. Finally, Bruce's action directing is felt as selected fights are razor sharp in the to the point-way that he employed.

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Starring and directed by Ho Chung-Tao (otherwise known as Bruce Li), here's yet another poor Bruceploitation that completely misunderstood that by avoiding the obvious Bruce Lee references you automatically was a clever filmmaker. Case in point, Ho directs a dull cops and gangsters story, with himself playing a cocky agent infiltrating one gang while others are out to do something else too. Yes, I stopped caring early and when we don't get any relentless, shameless, attempts at echoing the Little Dragon's legacy, the film stands on its own and feels completely embarrassed. And it should, despite one good fight scene at a playground, the theme from Live And Let Die and the actual James Bond-theme rearing its head as well as a Bond-esque villain weaponry turning up in Lo Lieh's hands. Or rather, his hand is suddenly on a chain while squaring off with Li. Extremely minor tangents of fun, otherwise Fists Of Bruce Lee is a torture consisting of poor dubbing galore that has no chance reaching the all important area (and the only area where these efforts could compete) of fun.

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Released in Hong Kong as Flirtong Scholar (I'll go out on a limb and say it's a typo), Lee Lik-Chi lets the curtain rise and we're into led very typical Hong Kong nonsense comedy, with the verbal dexterity of lead Stephen Chow at center. Now, Flirtong Scholar is really a perfect example of why Chow's film can't or shouldn't travel. A Western viewer such as myself remains constantly on guard, trying to figure out why over the top behaviour of characters and muddled subtitles are direct references locals would catch onto and hail as comedic scenarios of masterpiece status. Yep, there seems to be a lot of that and Chow never makes a secret that his jokes are going to be Cantonese in nature. Still, I think, and I repeat that... I THINK credit still must go out to the filmmakers for making an ounce of the comedic behaviour and in-joke structure travel to the extent that a Western viewer may think of it as off-beat in an entertaining way. It's problematic if you want it to be.

But there's silliness in the expected UN-expected rapid pace jokes, something Chow rarely has a problem nailing. Add onto that some new wave kung fu action and special effects of the Zu-kind and you've got yourself a local comedy with luggage that does arrive in torn but workable condition when reaching the West. I recommend trying it on. The film also possesses the welcome cast of Gong Li, Cheng Pei-Pei, Gordon Lau, James Wong, Kingdom Yuen, Francis Ng and Leung Kar Yan.

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Garage repair man/drunkard Roy Chiao teams up with young singer (Rosena Cortes, who also sings the requisite cheery ditty during the opening credits) as they try and beat a bunch of inept assassins (a hilarious teaming of Fung Hark On, Chin Yuet Sang, Lee Hoi San, Wong Ching and an actor I personally am not able to identify) to a hidden money stash connected to the father of the singer...

In between Money Crazy and Follow The Star, John Woo reacquainted himself with the martial arts genre via the classic Last Hurrah For Chivalry and returning now to comedy, traces of a multi-genre thinker crops up in what essentially is Golden Harvest trying to achieve more success in the vein of the Hui Brother's landmark comedies. It's no surprise that Michael Hui and company does it better but Woo scores points with his breakneck pace and the generally amusing slapstick that Follow The Star is populated with. Outside of some quite extensive comedy fights (action directors Fung Hark On and Huang Ha are kept highly busy), a little bit of slow-motion, religious symbolism and gunplay marks some ever so slight precursors of what would be Woo's trademarks in the 80s/90s also.

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