Lau Kar Leung revisits key elements from The Spiritual Boxer and The Shadow Boxing but delivers more polished results in Legendary Weapons Of China, one of his more offbeat martial arts films. That however isn't a thread that runs through as the sillier, in the best of ways, first half with the spirit boxers and magic fighters displaying their prowess in the quest for the supposed traitor Lui Gung (Lau Kar Leung) serves a purpose for the serious second.

Lau has proven adept at communicating a serious message in the midst of fighting (see Challenge Of The Masters) and here he deconstructs the notion of belief in stopping the foreign guns with Chinese magic. It's a developing truth that the Chinese aren't able to stop but it's here one must rely on the strictly Chinese ways (i.e. the 18 Legendary Weapons Of China), despite shortcomings against the foreign influence.

This abrupt change of mood may not sit well with certain viewers, nor the fact that we see little traditional action for the longest of time. However, it's a clear structure decision on Lau Kar Leung's behalf that works tremendously as we have great fun with Hsiao Hou, Lau Kar Wing, Fu Sheng and feel equally engrossed by Lau Kar Leung's central, serious performance subsequently. When Lau does make the screen explode into action, and it doesn't get old saying this, we get an exhilarating display of weapons choreography, mainly in the two-part finale. In a clever touch, presumably all 18 weapons are employed and are even identified in on-screen text. It may take a little while to see Legendary Weapons Of China as a great work of substance, one that Tsui Hark definitely was influenced by when creating the Once Upon A Time In China series, but Lau strikes his desired balance admirably well. Also with Gordon Lau.

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A cheap film about cheap films, this Category III rated portrayal of the slight rise and hard fall of Chan Hung (Liu Chi-Tak), a Mainland girl turned adult movie star adheres to the usual genre requirements (including softcore sex and gang rape to pass the time. Or rather get the time up to 90 minutes) but director Siu Bong possesses some unusually sharp wit considering what movie he's making. Lead Liu is a suitably ditsy and ignorant main character who thinks of herself as a star after appearing once on the motel TV circuit in one their available "blue" films. Thinking initially her big debut might be pirated already, her actual 35 millimeter debut goes nowhere as well. The scene where she's trying to get in on a staged threesome is wonderfully funny and features Stuart Ong in basically a sex cameo. Nice gig if you can get it while also Siu Bong makes it a decent jab at the cheapness of the business. Have a sneaky feeling it ain't that exaggerated. Other off-beat highlights includes a gang of triads trying to turn in illegal immigrant Chan Hung to the authorities but even the church won't condemn her for having no Hong Kong I.D. Oh well, they rape her instead and bizarrely enough the film goes out on a positive high! Director Siu follows with some of his utmost off-beat touches here, injecting a theme of celebrating and utilizing Hong Kong from the Mainland girls perspective. Expect it to make little sense but The Legend of An Erotic Movie Star scores (and showcases) points.

The poster spelled out the title as The Ledgen Of A Erotic Movie Star.

Wong Jing was enjoying financial success during the new wave martial arts movies in the 90s but this Wuxia starring Aaron Kwok flopped at the time of release. Not that Wong Jing's efforts deserves any kind of recognition here though. The cinematography on occasion shines but whenever Wong is in charge of the narrative, the movie sinks as he relies on his usual tiring comedic shtick that for once even the Hong Kong audience didn't want. What makes The Legend Of The Liquid Sword a passable time sporadically is Lau Shung Fung's action directing that comes out on par with most of what you saw during the time and that's not a bad thing. Too bad at 83 minutes, the film is still a chore to get through. Chingmy Yau, Derek Wan, Anita Yuen, Gloria Yip, Norman Chu, Julian Cheung, Gordon Lau and Cheung Man also appear.

A Chinese ghost story from King Hu, his second production of 1979. The other was Raining In The Mountain, by many regarded to be Hu's peak as director and it shows in Legend Of The Mountain that a decline was taking place. Having said that, Hu was in a league of his own anyway and this ghost story still impresses enough to make it a standout when measured against... everybody elses work! The widescreen compositions are an addicting asset as per usual, in particular when showcasing of outdoor locations and the evolving mystery leading towards scenes of ghost busting (the only so called action featured in the film) is efficiently developed, if not a little lesser on the Hu scale of filmmaking. But again, he's been extremely high, even on top of that scale a number of times so with that perspective in mind, Legend Of The Mountain is very much worth it, not only for completists sake. Starring some of the usual King Hu cast including Shih Jun, Hsu Feng and Tien Feng. Sylvia Chang adds support as well.

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A Chinese New Year release in 1987 that fit the bill perfectly as Cinema City pulled out all the stops for their event with popular adventurer/novelist Wisely (as also seen in The Seventh Curse, The Cat and Bury Me High) and definitely a case can be made that this is the Hong Kong equivalent of an Indiana Jones. No one's been able to top Mr. Ford in that regard though, especially not our star Sam Hui here.

Shot in beautiful scope by Peter Pau, the location work not only in Hong Kong but Egypt and Nepal is gleefully insisted on being overused by director Teddy Robin. The location work is never withheld from the frame nor is the luxurious, sometimes futuristic design Hai Chung-Man. It's the world of movies to a T and the definition of entertainment for the masses as the proceedings are grand, stupid, action-packed and contains stars that are allowed to be planks. Sam Hui is certainly one but he's obviously a clever/shameless marketing tool that always opens up the prime op to attach a tune of his to the flick too. Joey Wong, despite having an action oriented character setup is put into division of flower vase status and Ti Lung is Mr. Kickass. Our director pops up as the one surely able to decipher the secret behind a religious pearl many want to obtain and while pretty much only Blacky Ko's action directing (good blend between fights, stunts and vehicular design) is the sole piece of relevant cinema that still lives today, The Legend Of Wisely is a packed event that makes no excuses for what it is. There was a time where this was highly acceptable. It was also the time when Hong Kong cinema still had the ability to gather up the stars. Therefore, it's still valid today.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: Against one-tone backgrounds in the opening credits, the structure of Lee Tso-Nam's movie plays out. Specifically he wants to make sure the mix to expect is the stoic and the wacky. Pretty much a lazy and bad move that, Ha Kwong-Li plays Phoenix that think she's on the top of the martial arts world. Her trusty, loud, grating servant thinks so too but under the guidance of Master Tan (Dorian Tan), she'll revise her views. All while Tan's sworn enemies will draw close for a final showdown where legwork of different genders will stand together. Despite acrobatics being pretty much top notch, Dorian Tan featured as your suitably amazing kicking expert, The Leg Fighters annoys rather than entertains. Comedy kung fu is an art but the art is reduced here to merely performing without the dedicated touch. Ha Kwong-Li is truly amazing in one of her latter fight scenes and Dorian never less than a perfect genre staple but Lee Tso-Nam doesn't make his cheap vehicle grow beyond that. It's worked before. Also known as Incredible Kung Fu Legs.

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Godfrey Ho's exploitation version of The Killer is certainly audience friendly. Serving up a smorgasbord of girls, naked girls and a high pitched frequency to the gunplay WITH the girls, this is all very calculated, especially the drama and the Category III aspect of this production is embarrassingly forced. Lethal Panther get by just by lining up these elements for the slaughter but if Ho's action directors would've executed the stylized, acrobatic gunplay violence with a few more notches better flare (slow motion doesn't make mundane choreography automatically cool), there could've been something very gory and cool in the end product. Lead Maria Yuen fits her role very sufficiently though while Sibelle Hu merely supports the flick at various points. So does Lawrence Ng, Alex Fong and Ken Lo.

Released in the UK as Deadly China Dolls while the unrelated sequel was re-named to Lethal Panther in the same territory.

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Named Lethal Panther for its UK release since the actual first, unrelated film was blessed with Deadly China Dolls, this contains precious little Cantonese speaking performers as leads since the Philippines was used as a location. Phillip Ko appears briefly and choreographs the action and while quick-cut editing is an issue, this is unusually strong, acrobatic gunplay coming from him. The team for once channels the need for excess and creativity so above average for a Ko Fei production it definitely is, with Yukari Oshima responding dependently. Watch out for a brief but obviously Bullet In The Head inspired car finale. Drama in between is just basic framework for mentioned action aspect but we do get to the fair goodies within relatively short periods of time.

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