Produced by Jimmy Wang Yu and directed by Taiwan veteran Ding San-Saai (whose last film was also Jimmy's last to date, The Beheaded 1000), the fall of a tiny little empire is portrayed in Girls Of The Night. That empire is a hotel for prostitutes, new and old, all located on the outskirts of town. Enter innocence in the form of Ah Jiao (Ling Yam) but this virgin is tricked into believing she only has to make a temporary pit stop before being re-united with her lover again. There are also dreams of love within the group where director Ding asks if that love can even and should be allowed to exist. Jarring jumps in the narrative begins representing signs of a very episodic product where much seems to be said but zero means anything. Even episodes of sadistic, war-damaged Japanese customers and Ah Jiao being drugged for her debut with a one possessing great psychosis doesn't turn into any kind of status. Not even laughable or suitable for the exploitation crowd. The unbearable 100 minutes continues to drag itself in the mud, giving us escalated melodrama of the ridiculous kind (no characters, no character-drama...simple little equation) and undercranked action that seems more like a commercial afterthought further sinks the attempted, valid nature of Girls Of The Night BELOW zero.

First there was Girls Without Tomorrow (aka Call Girl 88) and now this in name only revisit with David Lam still at the helm examines the doomed women in the hostess genre once more (and by the way, a Call Girl 92 was made the same year...just to make easily things comfortable and clear for us). Largely more of the same but not as extremely distressing as the 1988 movie, Lam's co-director Wong Chi also writes some fairly typical melodrama and arcs here. He centers events around Mama Hung (Petrina Fung) in Temple Street whose biggest concern is her daughter the aspiring actress (Vivian Chow) feeling shame, putting blame and hiding her past from the media. A veteran turning authoritarian on the scene (an engaging Carina Lau) acts as support while also being the object of desire of Onn (Ekin Cheng), one she liberated from virgin status. Pauline Chan plays the one prostitute that goes downhill the fastest, trying to support her friends and family back home in the Mainland but also taking part in the more depraved acts in her strife for more money. Finally, virgin character played by May Lo gets shown the ropes by slightly wimpy pimp essayed by Andy Hui and she grows into the role fast...

Pretty much episodic journeys, all detailing familiarity as it touches upon family relations, feeble future aspirations (considering they're whores only in people's eyes), depravity (in particular in men), the clashes you have with the triad world and some inevitable crushing emotional defeats along the way. It's not a flattering picture directors Lam and Wong paints of the populous and what prostitutes put up with. If clients aren't fat, old or Arabs, they're suave with a penchant for pouring alcohol, chili sauce, milk or what have you over Pauline Chan's body (and some whipping to cap it off too). But while there's no really above average drama coming out of Girls Without Tomorrow 1992, the fact that the casting generates an attractive frame and the director's actually do inject some slight hope into the character fates means it's a fairly smooth ride that is far, far from genre material that should be ashamed of itself. Some unexplored sub-tangents involving the characters of Waise Lee and Ekin Cheng represents sloppiness however and is evidence of just a few tads too much of a crowded movie.

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Taiwanese variant of various efforts that turned up in the 70s such as The Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave (although ultimately more patterned after Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 reportedly) but Girl With A Gun is definitely more subdued, which turns out to be its greatest weakness. Attention is spent on Liang Pi-Ho (Ying Hsia admirably trying to add subtle life into the material), mute since childhood after losing her parents and why she snaps into murder mayhem with the titular gun. In her case, it seems like a half-assed robbery and a mild (for the genre) attempted rape is enough to randomly scatter bullets. Liu Ga's script speaks of literally a lack of faith (a fairly poignant moment involves Liang watching a deaf-mute group doing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands") and director Richard Chen certainly tells us something. Not enough however. Because cheap tricks such as repeating the theme song 20 times in the film, inverting colours to suggest whatever and lack of gritty effect hinders Girl With A Gun almost completely. Select moments, in particular Liang's final act of violence towards the end may be chilling but late good work doesn't give the film buoyancy.

Several scenes on the Ocean Shores vcd lack subtitles but it's a very sparsely told film anyway. A lifeless Alan Tam co-stars.

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Set in bizarro Hong Kong (Gnoh Gnok possibly) where the Women's Liberation Movement is in full effect. Meaning they pee on the streets, violently murder men, their fellow women, surgically insert pagers inside the husbands and this oppression has led to the creation of The Society For The Protection Of Cruelty To Husbands. This is where abused Q (Kent Cheng) turns...

One of the most odd comedies I've ever seen, its wild satire has an obvious intent and is not subtle. Basically turning everything on its head but still recognizing a serious real life problem beyond the screen, director Wan Siu-Kuen knows how to get laughs out of this black material. Creative even to a point, things turn muddled at times though in the very noisy frame as we follow Q's quest to achieve harmony in his relationship. Ultimately it comes down to neither side acting right, which sounds like a PSA of the grating kind but perhaps it would've been more so if Give Me Back was mundane. It most definitely is not. Hong Kong cinema being odd we're used to. By being this surreal however....it's something different. A minor pleasure in itself. Co-starring Chow Lai-Guen.

Changed around enough in order to prevent it from being a full on remake, A Gleam Of Hope is still obviously patterned after The Fugitive, with Anthony Wong in the Harrison Ford role and Yu Rong-Guang in the shoes of Tommy Lee Jones. Much less of a grand spectacle, director Jeffrey Chiang does keep suspense and pace at an above average rating and delivers an unexpectedly dark ending. Amy Kwok plays Anthony Wong's wife and John Ching the mastermind behind the framing of Wong's character. No dead wife or no one-armed man in this one therefore.

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The Saint Of Gamblers (Stephen Chow) travels back in time to 1930s Shanghai, bumping into his Uncle's parents and famed gangster Ding Lik (Ray Lui). His only hope to get back to the present is communication with the present...through a cell phone!

The character of Ding Lik will mean a whole lot more to Asian audiences as Ray Lui played him in the successful series The Bund (the show also made a TV-star out of Chow Yun-Fat) and combined with its Back To The Future storyline, Wong Jing sets the stage for his parodies and referencing of various aspects of the show. Not to worry however, us Westerners are still part of much of the silly antics on display and while not as thick on gags, God Of Gamblers Part III: Back To Shanghai greatly entertains.

Wong Jing once again lies mostly low and lets Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat run the show. The production is also infused with much professionalism design-wise, all wonderfully captured by cinematographer Peter Pau. Mainland starlet Gong Li also went on to co-star with Chow in Flirting Scholar.

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TROY'S REVIEW: Not to be confused with IFD's similarly titled Golden Ninja Warrior, this Filmark International production gets off to a cracking start with some poor chap having the crap knocked out of him before his assailants amputate his right hand on a circular saw bench! Ouch! Ok, first thing to note is that the on-screen credits are actually entirely incorrect. Great start eh?! In actual fact this stars everyone's favourite Z-grade actor Stuart Smith (who despite looking painfully skinny insists on spending much of the film in a vest!) in the newer ninja segments and Filipino superstar and regular in these flicks, Sorapong Chatri who was the poor bugger getting his hand abruptly removed in violent style. Anyway, onto the film itself, which details the nefarious Red Sun Ninja Organization, which is run by a shady looking guy called Mr. Warren who likes to wear a panama hat and sunglasses for reasons best known to himself. It transpires that it was this evil fellow who ordered Ritchie (Chatri) to be 'taught a lesson'. And how is our poor Ritchie after his ordeal? Well, strangely enough he's better than ever after his police boss issues him a new 'magic hand' (no, I'm not making this up either) Yes, said bionic appendage is apparently constructed of a flexible Uranium and Titanium alloy and responds to Ritchie's mental commands just like a real hand. Needless to say, our man wastes no time at all in putting his new found toy to good use in destroying the Red Sun organization. Meanwhile Paul (played surprisingly subtly here by our man Smith), the good, sapphire Ninja also gets in on the act to help bring down the evil ninjas. As you can probably well imagine, plenty of chop cocky action ensues, some of it rather pleasantly gory in fact. Check out for instance, the resulting physical damage and rather cool metal 'twang' sound effects that accompanies the blows whenever Ritchie punches an opponent. Best bit of all though is the very daft ending. Just remember folks, only ninjas can use magic ninja beans! You'll really need to watch this to understand the complete absurdity of the scene but suffice to say, it will have you in absolute hysterics for sure.

Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-Pei) has retreated after being nursed back to health by swordsman Han Tao (Lo Lieh). She faces a great emotional challenge as childhood friend Silver Roc (Jimmy Wang Yu) is entering her life again, leaving trails of bodies behind him...

Cheng Pei-Pei reprises her Golden Swallow character from King Hu's Wuxia classic Come Drink With Me, now being part of the male world of heroism that Chang Cheh came to fame portraying. That is why Cheng does feel slightly pushed aside in favour of the Jimmy Wang Yu and Lo Lieh's characters but rumour has it that Chang was prepared to push Cheng Pei-Pei even more to the wayside initially. Cheng fought successfully to be more part of Golden Swallow and the film does achieve a finely tuned balance that doesn't sacrifice any trademarks of Chang Cheh's.

Initially a slow, even cliché, love triangle is painted in extensive amounts of blood by Chang (who also co-wrote) but he manages to turn Golden Swallow into a remarkably felt drama where the choice of quiet emoting from character rises the film to affecting levels. The trio of actors all respond to this and even Jimmy Wang Yu's anti-hero gets a plight the audience can understand, all culminating in a vivid gory climax.

Chang Cheh's usual action directors of choice, Lau Kar Leung and Tong Gaai, offers up fight scenes that certainly are products of their time, meaning crude executions of various elements. However some skirmishes involving Wang Yu achieve an admirable fluidity and the classic action duo's work connects very well to the storytelling, making anyone accustomed to the latter day fight choreography quickly forget about any slow aspects. Chiu Sam Yin and Wu Ma co-stars while Ku Feng, David Chiang, Yuen Cheung Yan and Lau Kar Leung briefly appear.

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Known under all manner of titles such as Amazon Commandos and Jackie Chan's Crime Force (with nothing of Jackie to be seen in the film), whatever shameless violation have been taken with the film since then, Taiwan's b-movie "king" Chu Yen-Ping's desire to do a Dirty Dozen adventure/women in prison flick/spaghetti western/James Bond actioner gets blended together in a time warp of a movie, creating a true "original" in the process. Ed Wood-esque in his eye for logic, Chu's choices will borderline on genius depending on the viewer you are. It's all in the goofy details.

Brigitte Lin equipped with a wooly hat and eye patch (gear she wears phenomenally well) leads a crack team of nutty, gorgeous women, including Sally Yeh as an explosive expert and Elsa Yeung as an assassin hiding behind a bible. The latter sports a character design straight of the 1980s, despite the film apparently taking place in the 1940s and it's this 500% disregard for movie logic (Chinese prison guards in SS uniforms) in a schlocky piece such as this that makes Golden Queen's Commando so damn entertaining. You're very much on board to find out what madness Chu plans, what nutty words are going to come out of the English dubbing (not Chu's choices obviously) and which composer he's lifting atmospheric music from next. Ennio Morricone's scores have always seemed to have an easy time fitting into Asian cinema such as this though. The above is what this reviewer will get out of the film, being only a fairly seasoned cinema fanatic but knowing Chu Yen-Ping's knack for copying scenes of other films beat for beat (see Island Of Fire), there's probably a full chest of additional treasures to be uncovered. You should allows yourself to have that kind of fun because I do know this, Chu Yen-Ping is clearly honoring movies he loves, in an incredible sincere way.