Formulaic but often very entertaining, Seasonal gave Jackie Chan Peking Opera classmate and frequent collaborator Mars a chance to plow his path as a Chan style comic martial arts hero. That's one aspect of Lackey And The Lady Tiger that is sorely lacking, the leadership. Otherwise, despite following a formula featuring all too grating comedy and swiping entire key scenes from Snake In The Eagle's Shadow (although they stay clear of the animal cruelty in this one), the film has often fine pole work, acrobatics from the lead and energy in the form of Tien Niu's literally boyish character. She even does a version of "Rock Around The Clock" while putting Mars's character through training. Veteran Sek Kin also holds his own quite well when swinging the pole but the real quality injection all round comes when Hwang Jang-Lee (straight from the Drunken Master set seemingly) begins to offer up some trademark, amazing kicking. A momentum that is sustained throughout subsequently. Linda Lin, Fung Ging-Man, To Siu-Ming and Chiang Kam also appear.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Funky sights, sounds, a stiff murder investigation and a family melodrama, this yawner from Taiwan won't have heads turning (probably would've helped to include it though). Pai is the presumably dead daughter that pops up again (possibly from hell) to execute revenge on the associates of her mother. A mother that abandoned her dad (not by blood however) on his death bed. Au Wai leads the investigation and while odd, totally unintentionally funny (such as when drama plays out in front of the corpse of the father and acting reaching parody-like levels during a late revelation), there's nothing going on in A Lady Came From The Hell. Suen Yuet also appears.

Not too special but often intense, stylish and brutal, from one of Billy Chung's most noticeable years of directing (that also contained The Assassin and Love To Kill) comes Lady Super Cop. Inspiring little with that title, Carina Lau is the dedicated (way too some might say) madam whose cousin (also a cop, played by Teresa Mo) has a more laid back attitude. But a manically laughing madman of a villain (Chin Ho) disrupts any fun and puts lives on the line. Chung doesn't touch as such upon character-drama but the ultra-stylized environments (bathed in blue for instance) are fetching and the flick really "only" wants to score when employing brutality and action. Chung, feeling very at home with the atmosphere that content can contain, doesn't bathe the screen red in blood however and that's the effective choice for Lady Super Cop. Waise Lee, Michael Chan and Eric Tsang also appear.

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It is low budget filmmaker Tony Leung Hung-Wah behind the camera so ambitious goals that speak of the psychology behind a rapist and a murderer, in connection with schizophrenia is smothered a bit under the low-fi package that A Lamb In Despair is. Having said that, Leung's ideas are worthwhile ones and manages to unexpectedly resonate a wee bit. The Category III vehicles of this exploitative kind didn't usually allow for slight bit more intelligence, especially not in 1999. Using the cliché of an abusive childhood to elaborate on, lead Mok Ga-Yiu's Ted is both the unstoppable beast and an unfortunate victim as his sickness springs to life again when media (led by a journalist with an agenda, played by Anthony Wong) hounds him. But the human mind is difficult to map out and predict, leading both to Ted's ex-neigbour Mendy (Sherming Yiu) and Maggie, a girl with a keen interest in psychology, hovering in danger. Leung shoots effective, degrading sequences worthy of the III-rating but is not overly interested in graphic depictions. Cheung Tat-Ming is horribly miscast as a tough as nails cop while Simon Loui and Joe Cheung also appear.

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At the beginning stages a fairly ambitious film visually but Lau Ga-Yung (New Kids In Town) squeezes about as much originality out of this downwards spiral triad tale as you would expect a hundred or so movies into the genre. Lee Ga-Sing is the son fascinated with becoming a triad, dragging his family down in the process. Drama enters because father (Ng Man-Tat) used to be one and only way to pull the son out of the open arms of death is to participate a little again. Solid performances by Man-Tat and May Law as the mother makes Lantern at least a product lacking embarrassment but the moral of the story is no news to anyone. Athena Chu gets a flower vase role unfortunately while Max Mok and Lawrence Ng also appear. Extensive audio- and visual censoring is frequent, due to the subject matter within a lower rating.

Incredibly weak, although pretty, debut by Tony Au who gave new wave productions such as The Story Of Woo Viet and The Beasts his art directing skills. Au did go on to log much acclaim but pretty much keeping solely within the hypnotic Dream Lovers and the humanistic A Roof With A View. For The Last Affair, he takes his tragic romance to Paris, introducing Carol Cheng (in her first movie role and first awarded movie role) as Ha Ching, a Chinese woman traveling to France with emotional baggage. Namely, a dead marriage and entering the city of romance, she puts all emotions on the line for musician and all out playboy Kwong Ping (an at times oily Chow Yun-Fat) but he's quite happy to have several women going on at once....

The setting is very French, touching less upon clichés but more on picture perfect elegance and at times the material resembles a Yonfan picture. Which is not a good thing and the emotions running high (apparently) makes for a cold viewing experience. Structuring itself around and as an opera, this is not a clever way to drop hints at what's to come as Ha Ching tries to decide where and if she can find romance anywhere. Or someone to hold rather. The psychology passes in terms of being filled with opportunities and watching Chow's Kwong Ping, we try to come to understand if he's just living like the city does or if he's a grade A dickhead. Up to a point we wonder anyway and bringing in poorly developed supporting characters struggling with their careers and emotions, The Last Affair seriously derails into tedium even before its utmost pretentious and terrible ending. It's a new filmmaker indeed, not knowing jack about how to present subtle emotions. It may work for a type of crowd finding substance in any kind of elegance but I feel sorry for you therefore. Pat Ha appears in a supporting role.

Marketed as a sequel to Hard Boiled when released on video in the UK, there exists a valid theory that director Wong Jing might've heard of John Woo's plans for the climax of the classic actioner as that shoot went on for a long time before release in 1992. Eastern Heroes anyway figured that gunplay and a finale set at a hospital warranted the deception, despite being released the year before said classic. Anyway...

Shot on location in Singapore, The Last Blood doesn't represent Wong Jing bringing anything worthwhile to the table as the humour is lame and plotting routine. I bet the overabundance of celebrity jokes (including ones aimed at the celebrities actually in the film) is a riot to Wong but it gets tired fast. Having said that, the proceedings are made much more bearable thanks to action director Blackie Ko who logs some entertaining and effective gory mayhem from the good old days of the heroic bloodshed genre. That genre, headlined by John Woo, came with its share of pale imitators and while The Last Blood is one among them, it doesn't take much to make it a passable, pale imitation. However, it is a bad movie. Andy Lau, Alan Tam, Eric Tsang and Leung Kar Yan stars.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: Very much bombastic it seems as the flick sends out Asian soldiers into war during the last months of the Vietnam conflict. Politics, melodrama and feeble romance take center stage and are elements this production simply isn't good at. No, it's thrashy and gory elements for the exploitation crowd that reigns supreme here but these tremendous sequences are far too few. What we get however, in this narrative that really is all over the place, are torture sequences involving acid poured into a brain with the poor fella on the receiving end subsequently jumping out of his skin and stomachs being slowly sawed to pieces (all mostly thanks to Fan Mei-Sheng's character). It's nothing less than a triumphant, jaw-dropping experience at points. But swinging back to the hopelessness of the time portrayed in the film, Last Breath continues to remain clueless. Extract the highlights instead and it'll end up playing favourably. Starring Chin Han while Dorian Tan and Chan Sing also appear. The Jungle Heat edit of the movie (prepared at the same time) contains footage with Sam Jones (Flash Gordon) and Christopher Doyle. Compromising mostly of training sequences featuring the Asian cast as well, the director credit is here Jobic Wong.

Suen (Alex Man) is framed by born to be supremely über evil cop Ken (Karel Wong) and is blessed with a 3 year prison sentence. Upon his release, Suen tries to steer his life in the right direction when moving in with an old friend (Dicky Cheung, playing it dramatically straight which some of us aren't used to. It's a welcome change from the drooling idiot from The Black Panther Warriors) and newly found girlfriend with a shadowy secret. Prone to violence, Suen's hopes and dreams will obviously be crushed by Ken, who also happens to be the boyfriend of Suen's neighbour (Rosamund Kwan)...

From a relatively inexperienced main film crew, The Last Duel doesn't benefit from its overwrought drama, Rosamund Kwan in a flower vase role or the low-budget. However Alex Man comes through with an affecting performance that despite its melodramatic excursions is worthwhile. All this of course is at best fair dramatic cinema, a springboard for hysteric action and that Lau Chi-Ho graciously gives the production. Distressing and brutal prior to the final reel, the team comes through with what seems like a modest display of firepower due to the sparse number of characters involved in the scenarios but it definitely has raw power that has carried over from Man's performance. Plus Karel Wong is a great deal of fun in one of those 223% unsympathetic bad guy roles. Tommy Wong appears in support.

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