A different Moon Lee vehicle but seeing as it partly replays the opera scene from Once Upon A Time In China and features the ghost/man love story that A Chinese Ghost Story made popular, it's hard to look at The Revenge Of Angel as a true original. In the role usually reserved for Joey Wong, Moon plays Angel, a peking opera performer that dies in a fire at the hands of local thug Chan Ping (Chung Faat - Spooky Encounters). 20 years later, fresh opera performer Siu Man (Lau Ji-Wai) finds the spirit of Angel and falls in love. With him and several others of the opera troupe on her side, Angel can finally plot her revenge...

Played almost totally straight (a gag at the very end concerns flashing your underwear to break Taoist priest's concentration), director Yeung Kuen (Seeding Of A Ghost) doesn't play out the otherworldly romance particularly well, pushing for emotions in the most sappy of ways (think stock, manipulative score). It's Hong Kong cinema being slightly more ambitious but in the end drawing a "storyline" merely as an excuse for fights and effects. The latter it does as standard as you'd come to expect from the era but the action choreography is well done. Standouts includes a skirmish onboard a ship heading for the afterlife where Angel's servants turn against her and the ending involving spells and weapons is rather noteworthy. Wu Ma and Alvina Kong co-stars.

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A diamond smuggling triad (Danny Lee) and his ambitious younger brother (Aaron Kwok) reunite but the former stirs up troubles via his criminal ways, drawing his Christian family closer to his shady world...

Directed by Andrew Lau and largely designed to be a movie for Aaron Kwok (dancing and lots of Canto-pop opportunities are utilized), standard sentimental drama comes with the commercial package deal therefore but having producer/lead Danny Lee on board makes Rhythm Of Destiny a lot more gripping than it probably should be. The requisite character that has to come to terms with shedding his criminal skin in favour of family values has Lee anchoring the picture as you've come to expect from the otherwise cop actor. The violent ending is disappointingly highly calculated rather than earned and director Lau really shows no interest in making any of this special. Danny did. Shing Fui-On is fun in a supporting role as one of Lee's wilder triad brothers. Also starring Sharla Cheung, Lisa Chiao, Peter Lai, Wu Ma, Blacky Ko and in one of her appearances in Hong Kong cinema, future Ally McBeal star Lucy Liu.

Rich And Famous, despite the being part 1 in a triad story that was followed up with Tragic Hero (aka Black Vengeance), it was the latter that was first unleashed upon audiences as it was thought to have more commercial potential (more action). Tragic Hero was successful, much thanks to the star power of Chow Yun-Fat and Andy Lau no doubt, but Rich And Famous managed to slide by, taking in over 21 million at the box office. It goes to show that audiences are willing to be put be subjected to mediocrity as long as there's stars involved...

Kwok (Lau), Yung (Alex Man) and Chui (Pauline Wong) are the trio of kids from a poor family that end up working for respected triad boss Chai (Chow Yun-Fat). With Yung being adopted into the family, he is naturally the one that goes astray, leading to betrayal and bloodshed along the way...

Manfred Wong and Stephen Siu's script is the epitome of ordinary and generic within the triad genre. Each and every role is a pure stock character and no attempts whatsoever are made to make old seem fresh. Director Taylor Wong doesn't seem to bothered either and hands over the duties to the actors. Can't say I blame them for acting left alone with no guidance. No star power in the world can in this case overcome the sheer dullness on display and while Chow Yun-Fat can look suave in his sleep, he looks thoroughly bored here. Remarkably sloppily directed at times, Rich And Famous offers up maybe a stunt or two of noteworthy nature towards the end. The other positive out of all this is a fairly likeable performance by none other than Alan Tam as Mak the stuttering coward who has to face his demons in the end reel as these things go. Also with Danny Lee (as yet another cliché character...the cop hellbent to nail the crime boss!), Carina Lau, Shing Fui On and Fan Mei Sheng.

Note that the screencap above is from the Tai Seng dvd. Mei Ah have out an anamorphic edition that surely beats prior home video presentations.

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Freed from prison, the quite lethal Ting Fu (Shan Mao) isn't so much being saved but the warriors equipped with claws and horrible scars have an agenda and it's spelled l-o-o-t. Ling Hua (Polly Kuan) enters the scene as one seemingly wanting the law to handle Ting Fu while Lung (Tien Peng) and Wei (Kong Ban) have their own reasons for wanting the cuffed Ting Fu in their possession...

It's a complex web of mystery all up till the last seconds and while a compelling choice as well as the movie coming off like less of a complex Gu Long novel that it seems, director Hung Tin-Miu doesn't come through with much viewer interest in the developments. The Union Film production looks stunning and the action for its time is big, very epic and even set in complex environments such as fire (the brawl at brewery is a very compelling example of this). You also have compelling design choices in the weapons arsenal present, with each crucial character getting a distinctive trait that carries through nicely in the film (ranging from Polly Kuan's coin sword, Kong Ban's whip to the character of Ting Fu using his big cuffs to gory effect). But a serious, twisty turny core is the intent here and Rider Of Revenge doesn't quite cut it when it's done. It's something, the intent is admirable but the execution an empty one.

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Frequently slammed for efforts such as Passion Unbounded and Hong Kong Showgirls (and rightly so), Joe Hau's debut film is a fine ensemble drama focusing on career women possessing that tough/equally soft shell that speaks to their longing for love. A terrific cast consisting of Cecilia Yip, Carrie Ng (looking nothing like her trademark glamour self), Pauline Wong (also producer) and Petrina Fung performs in the often familiar template with gusto but much credit goes out to Hau's sense of making simplicity and familiarity work. Best scene probably being when the character of Dickson (Wu Shing-Guo - Temptation Of A Monk) takes Cecilia Yip's Ha to meet his parents. Staged as a cross examination, Hau's cinematic sensibility gels perfectly here and he remains truthful throughout. Bringing in elements of farce in the interaction between the women (Pauline's character doesn't go for a boob job, she goes for a pump that she adjusts whenever she likes), this clearly signals his desire to not go overboard with depth but Right Here Waiting... isn't a production that has calculated wrongly in its strife to be simple about the fate of characters. Their stern, playful shells make way for shyness, innocence in a way that is felt and even depressing. But the message about being pro-active, to only worry about the things you can change and change them brings the movie to a fine close. Shot in synch sound thankfully where you for once get to hear Pauline Wong speak in Chinese AND English. Emil Chow, Julian Cheung, Crystal Kwok, Jimmy Wong and Law Kar-Ying also appear.

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The more you watch the unearthed Taiwanese swordplay movies, the more you come to encounter a cinema just content with making a genre movie just to make one. Adhering to a market demand in other words... heard of that notion before? The Ringing Sword features the usual Wuxia techniques (in 1969, technically the effects and portrayal of them expectedly was basic), stiff fight scenes, betrayal, scheming, honor, revenge, twists and lacks any excitement or coherence to rival elite personnel on the scene such as King Hu. It's not King Hu-lite. It's just a production failing to make an impact in any area. Not even the inclusion of a ninja or killer darts helps.

Before he managed to star in a bunch of Shaw Brother's more outrageous films (Super Inframan, Oily Maniac, Mighty Peking Man, Bruce Lee And I), the studio tried to find something for Danny Lee to do, not hitting the mark with River Of Fury. A familiar story of innocence abused and betrayed, thematically much can be squeezed out of it but director Cheung Chang-Chak never manages to find the sparks for the film to ignite into worthy poignancy. No complains about the sets and cinematography plus Lily Ho (Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese Courtesan) is stunning as a Peking opera performer yet it's far from sufficient. Really far. The usual end credits caption "Another Shaw Brother's production" never rang more true. Also with Ku Feng, Tin Ching and Ouyang Shafei.

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Danny Lee was well into his transformation into the movie cop acting for the real life cops and a very apparent support seems to be in place for Road Warriors as Lee portrays the bike cops trials and tribulations. Taking time to highlight routines before duty, routine during duty, put up factoids on screen about the subjects, one can understand Lee's desire to paint an image of a civil servant but it does harm Road Warriors in a sense that it's a late starter. A very basic but sufficient plot soon takes shape about the fast speeding antics of Tony Wong (Billy Ching), son of a wealthy adult magazine publisher (James Wong). Tony evades the police thanks to his father's wealth but when he causes an accident that leaves several children dead, the police do everything they can within the law to have him taken away. Faring poorly in that regard, it has to take several more unlawful acts before the fractions of the police (led by Li, played by our director) realizes someone needs to step outside the frames of the law to punish rightfully...

Therefore giving us a taste of law the harsh Lee-way, his character is still the voice of reason amongst a torn group of mostly young cops and the message about standing together certainly feels more balanced than later flicks such as Twist where it was open season on interrogating in just about every way conceivable. However come ending time, controversy sets in that feels like Lee's venting in future flicks. Lee does effectively set up the urban nature of the story however, featuring the ordinary people trying to make a living, the cops in need of acting as role models (again, the ending seems to correspond little to this prior notion and does ring false) and for once it's not gun wielding gangsters to take down. Effective pushes into the tragic and thankfully playing the events out straight, Road Warriors is merely decent, a bit askew but also balanced in the way that it's not playing a commercial game. Jamie Luk, Shing Fui-On, Parkman Wong, Ken Lo and Liu Wai-Hung also turn up.

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A more action oriented The Story Of Woo Viet if you will, director Jeng Wing-Chiu (who also co-wrote) delivers a dependant immigrant drama that is suitably and not unnecessarily spiced up with bloody gunplay. When the Vietnamese of the piece are gathered up into one sole setting when they're not performing assassinations for their "saviours", Jeng injects the piece with quite decent knack for character explorations coupled with the dirty, gritty Hong Kong world they're forced to live in. The promised land on the horizon is America and obviously that's a great big criticism if there ever was one. So Jeng's work is more out in the open compared to what Ann Hui did but the tragedy that ensues is still earned thanks to solid performances, in particular from Lau Ching-Wan whose character questions the need to be cold blooded to gain future freedom. Also with Kara Hui (who performs the single most chilling acts of violence in the film), Sibelle Hu and Waise Lee.

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TROY'S REVIEW: Tomas Tang launches yet another cinematic poop-fest onto the bewildered general public in this absolutely insane Robocop inspired/hopping vampires/action/love story! To describe the end result as not making any sense would be a gross understatement. In fact, watching this you'll very quickly find yourself rendered mouth agape in gormless disbelief as the random onscreen events flash by before your bleary eyes! But let this not put you off viewing this cinematic mess for despite the completely nonsensical nature of it all. It is strangely captivating in a very bizarre way. Much akin to being hypnotized in fact! From what I could discern, the story centers around a bunch of drug smugglers who take the unusual step of employing a corrupt Taoist priest/sorcerer to resurrect vampires in order to stash their drugs inside them! One the vampires raised called the 'Vampire Beast' (on account of the cheap gorilla mask the relevant actor is wearing), is the ex lover of a lady ghost who shows up none to happy that her boyfriend is being used as it prevents them both from passing on to the afterlife together. So what does the word 'Robo' in the film's title pertain to you might ask? Well, in yet another bizarre plot tangent, an American agent is killed by the Vampire Beast and is brought back to life as a cheap looking Robocop clone in order to battle the forces of evil. Hurrah!

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