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.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Three pickpockets (Lau Ga-Yung, Lee Hoi-San & Mang Chiu) do their damndest to get hold of a gold treasure circulating around town. It's just a matter of finding the right box and keep out of harms way of others who wants the riches. Greed, murder and undercranked comedy follows as well as the Jackie Chan stamp on the action so The Gold-Hunters can't fail that miserably beforehand. Not in any way a long lasting classic, seeing Lee Hoi-San being part of the light, wacky lead trio is a fun change of pace and a handful of scenes are quite clever. In one we see the trio re-enact a fight that contained written clues and the fake fighting in a local whorehouse registers. Obviously with the involved logging a high level of competence and the Jackie Chan's Stuntmen Association making sure the choreography is intricate while also utilizing props, the film scores sufficiently and adds very little violence to top it all off. Fung Hak-On, Wilson Tong, Tai Po and Wu Ma also appear.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Presented by Tomas Tang's Filmark merely (i.e. no ninjas as that idea was not yet at the forefront), this Thai/UK production runs way too long and takes itself seriously to the point where it becomes way too uneventful. But unintentional hilarity and decent sized mayhem will have B-movie lovers finding some slight charms to cherish. John Banner (Robert Ginty - The Exterminator) leads a team of soldiers into enemy territory to retrieve a major shipment of gold that has gone done with its cargo plane. Along the way he reconnects with an old flame and fires on hordes of stuff. We need oozes of camp and we're rarely near it, which is a problem imposed on us by director Philip Chalong but pieces scattered throughout are worthwhile. Hear the English language track still make the point that Thai people and Americans don't understand each other, see poor special effects galore in the form of the biggest fish in the pond, vampire bats, a wonderfully dubbed, one-legged General, John Banner's very American-made missile motorbike/hang glider and "serious drama" concerning friends divided by politics. It all even ends with what was attempted to amount to a poignant speech about the hopelessness of it all but caps a hokey experience its audience would want to endure. It certainly is slicker than Filmark's own productions so I bet Tang and co. were proud. Also known as Fire Game.

It looks a little tired as it's from a production year not notable for many genre highlights but this mostly Mainland set actioner featuring Yu Rong-Guang fleeing the world of triads to reconcile with his son is a bit of a sleeper hit on the senses. Granted, it's very low-budget and its drama isn't prime or suited for prime time but within the genre framework, director Chun Lok makes his dips into seriousness surprisingly worthwhile. Dealing with how lies affects your child, you do become even more surprised that it actually rings true of poignancy towards the end. But Goodbye Captain is mostly about adhering to its preferred movie type and it almost seems to blow its wad early with some impressive mayhem. Stock bad guys (main one being Ken Tong, sporting an eye patch that "creatively" varies throughout) and some slightly sluggish choreography is very evident subsequently. However grit and flow there continues to be plentiful of, especially in the warehouse finale. Also with Diana Pang, Cheung Kwok-Keung, Takajo Fujimi and a short appearance by William Ho (who is hilariously dubbed on the Mandarin version).

Many should be asking themselves when faced with Goodbye Darling: how could Raymond Wong bag Cherie Chung as his wife in the film?! Aside from being the creative force of course, the character is probably just a nice guy but he's about let her slip from his gentle grip. All due to a misunderstanding that makes him believe he has terminal breast cancer and he sets out to find a suitable husband to take over after he's gone. The choice is Joe (Mark Cheng)...

Wong's recipe for the film seems to be breakneck speed and going as low brow as possible. Pratfalls, AIDS jokes, gay jokes, transvestite jokes, more gay jokes and the male Hong Kong populous is portrayed as having a great, big hard on for Cherie Chung. This is the politically incorrect world as interpreted by Wong but it's a very funny one. It's simple but it's rapid in a sense, creating comedic effects of the guilty pleasure kind. Hong Kong cinema reveled in this silliness but it's rare when it's actually delightful to boot. More often than not, you sigh along with it. Not that any of those types of comedic executions are hard to get through though.

Raymond does seem to go some heartwarming routes also but never ventures too far into it and never showcases that he's capable either. So it's not an underrated pre-cursor to Always On My Mind but it's a fine, funny addition to Cinema City's catalogue. Co-starring John Shum.

A welcome glimpse into the lowly life of a Hong Kong stuntman, Goodbye Hero stars Derek Yee as the veteran Tony who handles both a friend (Chin Siu-Ho) who's been paralyzed from the profession and a cocky, new kid on the block (David Wu). Feeling shame for not having moved on, Tony is at a transition where he's either going to pass on his knowledge or die practicing it...

An ace director directing an ace director, Jacob Cheung (Cageman, Battle Of Wits) gets solid presence out of Derek Yee (who had directed The Lunatics and People's Hero by this point), possessing the shell of a usually reserved character well. The glimpses into the mentioned shame he feels, having not upgraded himself to even action director is quietly communicated and felt. During this heyday of action filmmaking, limits were pushed without much acknowledgements at least in terms of money coming to these brave men and women. The film is at his best when highlighting these issues and the behind the scenes aspects. Having to create more extreme stunts, the risk for the ACTUAL filmmakers here is that they have to do the same for sake of drama. This they pull off but when Cheung directs his attention to the off-set narrative involving David Wu and Vivian Chow's characters, the film doesn't engage as much and would've benefited from even more focus on Yee and supporting player Chin Siu-Ho. Ching Siu-Tung plays a director while Lam Ching-Ying, Petrina Fung and Cora Miao also appear. The story scenario would later be somewhat echoed by Yee when he directed Full Throttle that also co-starred David Wu.

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Listed as a 1988 production if you look it up at Hong Kong Movie Database, while watching this Chow Yun-Fat vehicle it's very evident that it was shot at least 8-9 years prior. Unearthed and released (perhaps for the first time ever?) after Chow became a megastar all over Asia, Goodbye My Friend is a perfect example of cashing in, regardless of quality. With a horrendously poor Cantonese dub (that does feature Chow), the movie comes off as a bad story restructured in the post dubbing into another bad story. One even wonders if Cantonese should be the intended language. Still, these geeky details aren't worth worrying about as Goodbye My Friend is a turkey from the initial stepping stones into a screen acting career for Chow Yun-Fat.

A standard gangster story set in 1940s Thailand involving revenge also holds some bizarre subplot about a blood sect collaborating with the Japanese so naturally, the Chinese must unite to bring them down. Featuring little to care for and characters that no one possibly can figure out what they're doing and who they are, the hokey aspect that runs through the production does create some ludicrous moments that transforms the film into a minor guilty pleasure. The gore does draw attention to itself and the action is not only highly incompetent but at times undercranked to wonderfully bizarre levels. And fact of the matter is, the film is easy to get through. Kenneth Tsang also appears briefly.

Xenon was responsible for a subtitled VHS release under the title Shanghai Killers, utilizing a still from City War for its cover. A wise decision since Chow Yun-Fat had better hair in that film.

Three mainlanders (Chow Yun-Fat, Eric Tsang & Shing Fui-On) swims ashore in Hong Kong, hoping to prosper. As luck would have it, a wealthy man played by Wang Ching is out for revenge due to the humiliation cast upon him by women in his life (namely Nina Li Chi and Pauline Wong) and he hires image consultant Anita (Anita Mui) to make a playboy out of Chow's character...

The sometimes reliable Clarence Fok provides the manic in both comedy and melodrama for this 1980s effort, creating an uneven experience but one that comes with an enjoyable pairing of Chow Yun-Fat and Anita Mui. While Chow's character does everything from eating tiger poop (and just about anything he can get his hands on), kiss Eric Tsang, generally whine and act retarded, it's an annoying performance in intent in a way as Chow then grows into the trademark suave character that's such a immortal image of 80s Hong Kong cinema. Mui also gets a role that is just tailor made to fit with her image in entertainment circles as she was constantly changing her looks in real life, being nicknamed the Asian Madonna in the process.

80s Hong Kong cinema had the uncanny ability to simply entertain despite a flawed package and even hugely flawed packages. The Greatest Lover therefore is highly questionable on a film quality level but does the job commercially and for fans of the star's. Elizabeth Lee, Sandra Ng, Wong Jing and Anders Nelson also appear.

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