Shaw Brother's pulls out all the stops with epic battles, lavish costumes, immortal themes of heroism, patriotism, all with a dedicated Ching Gong (The Twelve Gold Medallions) and Charles Tung (also one of the many cinematographers on the production) at the helm. The Yang family is wiped out in battle, all except the women left behind who now sets out to take revenge and settle old scores...

After a lengthy opening designed purely to identify actors and their characters (actually quite helpful), the directors never let up and relentlessly pushes the band of women through various battling scenarios and obstacles. Extensively violent and epic on a scale reminiscent of Chang Cheh's movies, it's not a throwback to the era where female heroes dominated but rather a usage of set style, substituting male for females. The switch if you will is terrific to have and despite the vast character gallery, Ching Gong (also writer) and Charles Tung inject life into certain characters which in itself aids the stock themes to mesmerizing effect. Destined to become everyone's favourite, The 14 Amazons is among the finest of its sort.

Talking action, Ching Gong's son, the trendsetter Ching Siu-Tung (Duel To The Death, A Chinese Ghost Story) debuted as action director on the film, working alongside Leung Siu-Chung. The style is definitely of the Tong Gaai weapons and battlefield kind but never feels like a xerox of said action director's work with Chang Cheh. It's in your face and extensive, one of the primary reasons The 14 Amazons have achieved (and will achieve) such a well-deserved reputation. The mammoth cast includes Lisa Lu, Ivy Ling Po, Lily Ho (playing a man believe it or not), Li Ching, Ouyang Shafei, Fan Mei-Sheng, Yueh Hua, Tien Feng, Paul Chun and Lo Lieh.

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

A fun contrast to Billy Chan's powerful No Compromise released the same year, the 80s hijinxs and skit structure gets a fun showcase in 3 Wishes. Japanese tour guide (Anthony Chan) finds a urine pot with a Devil Ghost (Wu Ma) hidden inside. He gets granted three wishes but at the end of those, the Devil Ghost can claim Chan's life (and must claim 8 additional) in order to gain access to heaven. You see, he was too nice when alive. Chan goes to work with not knowing of the end deal knowledge, trying to get money out of the opportunity (backfires) and trying to teach his female boss a lesson by employing the Horny Curse. A notion that also backfires but represents a peak in low, crass Hong Kong cinema creativity as of course a fat lady is initially the recipient of the curse. Soon an entire office of women AND men are affected but no one will even under this influence go after Sandra Ng. Not even a sex maniac played in a cameo by Wong Jing! Yes, it's repeated jokes against Sandra, high pitched, wild and often illogical behaviour put forth by director Chan, something that carries over to the dual role for Anita Mui. Playing Chan's abusive wife (kung-fu abusing wife rather, something that looks good on film) and her identical, DEAD twin Fa (who falls in love with Chan's brother Sing, played by Max Mok), Mui is a fine asset to the production as a comedienne and an echo of her character from Rouge. Other tangents involve Chan taking his tour bus across the border to China with disastrous results and also being mistaken for a child molester. Plus the literally spirited finale has minor Ghostbusters inspiration as both slime appears and the villainous ghost growing to proportions that will make anyone think of the Marshmallow Man. 3 Wishes is not a balanced and politically correct experience but 80s profiles executing at this frantic pace can suck you in at the best of times. Deannie Yip also appear as the ghostbuster of the group.

Anthony Chan and Anita Mui played husband and wife in Happy Bigamist and One Husband Too Many as well, both of which were directed by Chan.

Or rather the 4 Faces Of Sandra Ng who stars in this art film divided into 4 separate stories. While this particular excessive form of cinematic expression could mean just about anything as being abstract opens up the floodgates for various interpretations, the directors seemingly examines relationships, starting with "Maö" where we see Sandra as a pesky patient of Jan Lam's psychiatrist, following him wherever he goes. "Blowing In The Wind" is an unsubtitled trip into the bizarre where Eric Kot and ugly wife hold a prostitute (Karen Mok) captive in their apartment. "Twins" is a family confrontation of some kind while "Love Game" puts us back into hysteric mode as Jan Lam leads quite a potentially damaging game show disguised as entertainment for the masses.

Directors Eric Kot, Jan Lam and Kam Kwok-Leung on one hand are clearly just messing around, allowing themselves and cinematographer Christopher Doyle to be completely free for all (Doyle can make that photography choice into an art form easily though) to see what content actually makes it into coherency, especially in regards to the first two episodes. If there was a concrete meaning to this though, I sure as hell missed the meeting but again, abstract art very much can lean towards appreciating select sections and overall, 4 Faces of Eve possesses that at heart. No great impact can be had even if "Twins" is easily the one with the clearest of dramatic substance but it's a minor joy to see the versatile talents of Sandra Ng through the various stages of the scattered film. Also appearing is Chingmy Yau, Ha Ping, Wyman Wong and Chan Fai-Hung.

The bells of patriotism ring loudly throughout Chang Cheh's 7-Man Army, an all-star (cast includes Ti Lung, David Chiang, Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan-Tai and Chi Kuan-Chun) war-action-drama of the epic proportions you've come to expect from the man. Co-directed by understudies Wu Ma and Hung Ting-Miu (the latter never directed again), there's technical excellence/embarrassment on screen early on. Utilizing the widescreen format for copious amounts of extras fighting, explosive mayhem does ok for itself but the reactions of those affected by such things as explosions are painfully mistimed. All that grandeur for nothing it seems and when settling down to explore characters, the film goes into forced flashbacks that manage to add nothing at all. It's as if Chang Cheh expects the autopilot to work here but he damn near kills the film. Thank god he's got more mayhem up his sleeve and combining it with man to man combat, he manages to gleefully but successfully push his thematic buttons once more. Few did it as well as Chang Cheh, painting the screen red in blood in the process. You'll have to disregard certain logic and the cast looking rather uninspired outside of the action. Once past that, 7-Man Army delivers.

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