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Fight Back To School III (1993) Directed by: Wong Jing

For the Lunar New Year of 1993, Wong Jing takes over a series that doesn't thoroughly match its English title anymore but indeed has Chow Sing Sing (Stephen Chow) go undercover again, much to the dismay of girlfriend Man (Sharla Cheung). After finding a millionaire murdered with an ice pick, Chow goes undercover as the husband to find out who the murderer is. Good thing he looks exactly like him and off he's into a world of wealth with the beautiful wife of the deceased, Judy Tong (Anita Mui)...

Aside from Wong Jing interfering with some crude, rather offensive jokes against amongst others homosexuals and his trademark steal whatever is hot commodity right now (in this case Basic Instinct is parodied in obvious ways), the third installment is predictably hilarious stuff from Stephen Chow. He finds endless ways to create the unpredictable, serious, droll, manic gags and while basically only Anita Mui plays along well, you tend to forgive and forget that a large amount of the other cast such as Nat Chan and Leung Kar-Yan are acting out the style of Wong Jing's. Watch out for references to past Chow vehicles such as when Paul Chun appears as the rival gambler from All For The Winner and Chow dressing up as his gambling self from said film... only to say his imitating David Copperfield instead. Chow also drives an elevator very fast in one scene. Also with Anthony Wong and Phillip Chan.

Buy the DVD at:
HK Flix.com
Yesasia.com

Fighting Fist (1992) Directed by: Casey Chan

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.

Buy the DVD at:
HK Flix.com
Yesasia.com

Fight To Survive (1989) Directed by: Wai Chi-Ho

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.

Final Justice (1988) Directed by: Parkman Wong

Self-reliant cop Cheung (Danny Lee) causes problems with his superior (Ricky Yi) when catching small time hoodlum Boy (Stephen Chow) who is the key to catching a vicious gang of robbers (led by a quiet Shing Fui-On and a psychotic Tommy Wong). As Boy is about to be charged as part of the gang and Cheung has to bust him out of prison and use the next 24 hours to crack the case...

Quite basic and clichéd, Parkman Wong keeps the pace up in his directing debut though. The buddy formula with Lee and Chow works very well despite expected beats of initially being enemies to being pals and coupled with select violent shootouts from action director Yuen Wah, Final Justice provides a fair balance. One of its themes is the difference between the street cops, anyone behind a desk, the hassle of paperwork and while not a fairly portrayed balance (Ricky Yi's character gets few chances to state his point clearly), it's an intelligent backbone of the film. Stephen Chow was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance. Also with William Ho (despite this being his pre-Category III days, he still manages to end up in a sex scene), Victor Hon and Ken Lo.

Buy the DVD at:
HK Flix.com
Yesasia.com

Final Run (1989) Directed by: Phillip Ko

Phillip Ko's absolute best film as director (it could stand proudly alongside Killer's Romance though), this very simple tale of revenge gets big, vast and epic because of the quite unbelievable roster of talent gathered up for one movie. In no particular order, Miu Kiu-Wai, Simon Yam, Phillip Ko himself, Francis Ng, Yukari Oshima, Ridley Tsui, Dick Wei, Ha Chi-Jan, Ha Ping, Shum Wai, Luk Chuen, Leung Kar-Yan, Mark Houghton and in the lead, Cheung Kwok-Keung which is the lesser name compared to some other bankable ones in the cast. Essentially it starts when Cheung's customs inspector gets unwillingly drawn into the narcotics business of childhood friend played by Miu Kiu-Wai. With a rash badass by his side in the form of Phillip Ko, Cheung's family is wiped out and the flick re-locates to Thailand where control of drugs and the Golden Triangle is high priority for many. Connected to and getting in the way are the likes of Dick Wei and Yukari Oshima. Aside from the likes of Francis Ng, Phillip Ko gives many of his players time to shine with either the usage of fists, legs or guns and the assault is quite wonderfully entertaining. A freight train of a movie with often very well-done action (in particular Dick Wei and Yukari Oshima taking on a bunch of henchmen) and the guerilla camp finale fires on all cylinders, not only for martial arts fans. It's not art but very well performed within its parameters.

The Final Test (1987) Directed by: Lo Gin

A rare venture for Hong Kong into sci-fi territory but not the first time them borrowing a plot outline from somewhere else. In the case of The Final Test, you'll recognize the plot beats from the Sean Connery movie Outland (1981) but The Final Test is spiced up with enough Hong Kong uniqueness to make it its own and it's bad choice. Sum Ying Mo (Austin Wai, not a successful action, comedic or romantic lead) becomes the new security chief at a mine and uncovers a plot where the workers are injected with a drug called LAXO49 in order to increase productivity. An operation headed by the foreman played by Blacky Ko and the mine doctor Jo Jo (Deborah Sims). Ying Mo digs deeper, romances Jo Jo and in the end has her by his side to shoot and kick his way through the plant leading up to the suspicious plant manager (Yuen Wah) who is more often than not occupied with his Space Invaders gaming session...

Austin Wai largely hams it up and when Billy Lau enters as one of the security staff, the movie largely grates. Clashing with all this is the various scenes of harsher violence, fight action and even rape plus the future design of the mine is rather poorly realized. Putting fences inside and shooting in a factory, it hovers into low budget territory that didn't do the movie any favours in the 80s. It's just poor but the similarities in costumes to that of the TV-series V is amusing. The second half picks up considerably and moves along at a snappier pace thanks to an ejection of clownish comedy. The lack of true sci-fi weaponry or any refined gunplay is ok as director Lo Gin (Fatal Love) barely stops to breathe and Yuen Wah at the end turning into a robotic fighter is a classic sight that redeems the movie for an all too short while. The undeserved dark ending does spoil the positives a lot though. Also appearing, Chin Siu-Ho, Eric Tsang, Mandy Chan and future acclaimed director Jacob Cheung in a fighting role (!).

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Yesasia.com

Final Victory (1987) Directed by: Patrick Tam

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.

Buy the DVD at:
HK Flix.com
Yesasia.com

Fingers On The Trigger (1984) Directed by: Ang Saan

The police, led by Inspector K K Lee (Melvin Wong) seeks a limping man for a murder on the streets of Hong Kong. The connection is former cop and partner to KK Lee, Fan Kun (Stanley Fung) who is desperate to raise money for his sick son...

With some stylish point of view shots for a production such as this during the opening, director Ang Saan provides an assured hand to the almost straight proceedings. The desperation of Fan Kun and the drama connecting his character to KK Lee, it is done according to formulaic expectations so assured hand doesn't mean anything more than fair. But stable Hong Kong cinema, infused with a good sense of providing gritty violence, it gets you places of acceptance on the small scale. Also with Margaret Lee as the love interest of Fan Kun's character and her body double to raise the gratuitous nudity factor for no valid reason whatsoever.

Fire Bulls (1966) Directed by: Lee Ga, Lee Hang & Pai Ching-Jui

The Yen Army is closing in on the territory of the Chi's and their main town so it's up to General Tien Tan to gather troops and the little man against a much greater force. Oh yea and the bulls help too...

An impressive epic scale-wise and the trio of directors brings us some mighty quantity within their images. Engaging on a pretty nonexistent level otherwise when portraying the struggles and suffering of the people vs. the various palace intrigue and strategy, Fire Bulls is an attempt that stops at way above average grade technically. Only.

Fire Dragon (1994) Directed by: Yuen Woo-Ping

One of Yuen Woo-Ping's forgotten 90s new wave martial arts efforts, probably because it's very hard to own this on dvd. Rebel fighter Yuen Ming (Max Mok) must protect an important letter with content that can expose the corrupt Chinese government. Sent to retrieve the letter is Ma, the Fire Dragon (Brigitte Lin) and she infiltrates the small village where Yuen Ming has settled. Along the way the cold blooded Ma's kind hearted side is awaken and the time comes when she must decide where her loyalty lies...

A plot that divides it's time between lowbrow comedy and political intrigue would normally not work for me but thanks to the casting of Sandra Ng, this former element becomes much more enjoyable. By the second half we are happy to leave it behind us though and watch the serious action unfold. Surprisingly little action for a lot of the time but what's shown is a very compelling mixture of over the top wire work and, to my delight, ground based choreography (courtesy of Yuen Cheung Yan). On display are also a high number of well executed fire- and pyrotechnic gags, an aspect that really shines in the finale. Max Mok equips himself well in the first role I've seen him do outside of the Once Upon A Time In China-series and Brigitte Lin provides the necessary depth to sell the journey her character goes through.

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