Long Xiang is a modern dancing devotee, with the devotion leaning towards a Western style. But breaking onto a desired life path isn't particularly easy. By going freelance, he can claim his freedom but when getting an actual gig that has him being immersed deeper and deeper into the career, it's not sitting well. Enduring the constant stalemates he and his girlfriend are having over said attempts at career, Long Xiang has to face fame at a price potentially. Being talented but wanting to stay underground won't get you anywhere seemingly. Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite, The Horse Thief) engages thematically anyway, with a Mainland Chinese production highlighting Western culture extensively. Also containing universal ideas of struggles for a dream, Rock Kids has much going for it except viewer devotion. Told with little else but half an eye and ear open, a plain style becomes Tian's enemy and his over-attention on the various dance scenes doesn't translate what he's trying to communicate. In fact, Rock Kids is a movie that claims nobility and depth but the notions turn on the filmmakers.

There's no shortage early of directorial booms courtesy of Kirk Wong as cats are massacred as well as humans in a chaotic and frenetic frame. What turns out to be a every 5 minute intensity type of direction pays off for Wong as he directs the plot of Anthony Wong as a music-loving cop who travels to Mainland China where co-operation awaits to bring down a brutal, crafty gang of robbers (led by Yu Rong-Guang). Wong's Hung is a bit of a blow hard and touts Hong Kong's superiority but truth of the matter is, the technically savvy Mainlanders and the Hongkies will have to unite. Yep, there's politics involved, a backstory to the leader of the Mainland cops, Wong (Wu Hsing-Guo - Temptation Of A Monk) that involves Carrie Ng's Hao Yee now dealing with the wrong side of the law and often kickass pace. The emotions and characters are a bit flimsy as conveyed but when dealing with the tension of the multiple operations to bring down the robbers, ensuing violence is done with appealing intensity and a little terrific, brutal finale cements the fair rep Rock N'Roll Cop has. It deserves more, even if only as a ride.

The production company is Ramking and Rock On Fire (released in the UK as Girl On Fire) early on show signs of proudly wearing the Category III rating like a badge on its sleeve. The opening is a long, stylized sex scene with hints at S/M as it involves a knife and so it goes. Blending in an action plot to disrupt things, at least the choreography makes up for lack of consistent creativity with fair power (the finale at a construction yard sees the females duke it out with the boy machinery). You'll have some fun watching tough as nails cops flinch when firing guns, doctors examining head wounds by performing CPR and so it goes. Rock On Fire is indeed generally memorable thrash thanks to a duo of actors that spices up proceedings considerably. Starting with Mikie Ng (Girls Gang) as a deranged femme fatale and on the other side of the spectrum, Stuart Ong is at his depraved best, exploiting the female body whenever he can or even after he can as a bit of death by strangulation won't stop his lusts. Takajo Fujimi, Ken Lo and Shing Fui-On also appear.

Little known Ann Hui adaptation of Louis Cha's famous first novel The Book & The Sword. To date, this marks Hui's only foray into martial arts action (outside of a later co-directing stint on Swordsman) but watching The Romance Of Book & Sword, Hui's trademarks are spread over it as it at its core is a small scale character drama. This first part (the sequel being Princess Fragrance, shot the same year) clearly have taken a chunk only out of the important template of Cha's work and the 90 minute running time isn't devoted to fleshing out many characters to an epic extent, not even the main ones of rebel leader Chen Jalo and emperor Qian Long. Hui treats her characters simple but still emerges with suitable weight to that relationship and the imminent threat of the Red Flower Society exposing Qian's true heritage as part of the Han people.

Interest is maintained throughout via Hui's almost sedate atmosphere and consciously limited scope. No doubt, this mainland China production boasts fine production values but Hui approaches the scope with a laid back and naturalistic eye, allowing the characters to matter and not the eye candy. Even though there's a decent amount of martial arts action corresponding to the Wuxia traditions, there's more grounded work on display that shows acrobatic brilliance sporadically, especially during the large scale finale.

The entire extent of Hui's work can be judged after taking in Princess Fragrance as well but as a standalone effort, The Romance Of Book & Sword portrays the main piece of the cake of Louis Cha's work well.

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

With Ricky Lau (Mr. Vampire) at the helm of another genre exercise and armed with a Category III rating, The Romance Of Vampires goes some expected routes and some astoundingly mature ones, considering the filmmaker responsible for it all. Having said that, nothing on display really validates Lau's status as a maker of drama, only occasionally his cinematography skills does. Rainbow (Yvonne Yung - A Chinese Torture Chamber Story) is a blind prostitute saving up money for her eye operation. Suave Fung (Ben Lam) comes to her rescue during an attempted rape but can he suppress his lust towards her? His blood lust that is...

Ticking off the checklist of what needs to be done in order to get this conflicted Hong Kong movie made (including featuring perverse men, a rap number and some Kingdom Yuen skits barely related to anything), Lau does for a while consider his call is to fill the running time with photogenic, steamy sex. Not that poorly shot to be honest, as with many filmmakers, he seems scared to let a momentum take over the film so you'll get switches like the displaying of a surefire way to stop a female vampire in her tracks, namely fondling her breast. Things take a turn for the straight on dramatic eventually as the doomed love story between Rainbow and Fung connects to past sins of his and Yvonne certainly does just a little bit better work than most here, especially in more tender scenes with Louise Yuen. Even previously grating Yuen follows the descent into the sedated to a certain degree of success (think an aaaalmost calmed down Eric Kot) but as this serious side to The Romance Of The Vampires is in reality rather sappy, it's merely a curious choice to see Ricky Lau trying. Considering that he launches into exploitation at the emotional end once more (reminding us why Yvonne Yung got cast after all), you can't really acknowledge the film as such. Especially not since the subsequent crescendo is almost completely destroyed of its poignancy thanks to ropey optical effects. Also starring Mondi Yau.

The classic Chinese drama Romance Of The West Chamber is quite suitable for the Category III treatment as it centers around young lovers following through on their love outside of marriage and prior to consent to marriage. Thus challenging a system where marriage was based on convenience and influence rather than love. In Lam Yee-Hung's (The Woman Behind) hands, the depth is more clear on paper rather than in the stiff frame. Scholar Cheung Gwan Shui (Jimmy Wong - Don't Tell My Partner) and Ann-Ann (Kawamura Senri), daughter of a highly ranked official, meet in a Buddhist monastery as the former passes through and the latter is accompanying her mother while taking the coffin of their father to his hometown. After foiling a plan to have bandits take away Ann-Ann, Cheung is promised Ann-Ann's hand in marriage but the mother takes back her promise as Ann-Ann is already set to marry court official Cheng Hang. Ann-Ann's maid does carry out a plan to make the pining lovers go through with their desires...

The main story takes a backseat at first as Elvis Tsui's Monk Faben gives shelter to the character of Ming who's lost her parents at the hands of murderous thieves. Not knowing she's a girl initially, this monk character then acts as a catalyst for the main story but he seems awfully unexplored despite. But really, Romance Of The West Chamber isn't out to provide high art as evident by the transition from proposal of massage to almost full on lesbian love scene. Surprisingly the sex still isn't acting as THAT much padding to the running time and while certain sequences take their time, some end midact. A few dream sequences have a more lighthearted, silent movie style comedic flair to them that is a hit or miss concept but a standout concept in the dull frame nonetheless. It's almost a brave choice to want to focus on the important story strands but that is what Lam Yee-Hung does, even though the drama is handled with such a lack OF drama that there's no tension or emotional investment in the plight of the two lovers. Certainly doesn't help when our leading man or lady are sedated too, even though Kawamura Senri gets by with her incredible looks more often than not. Come ending time, the film may close with the exact meaning of the written work but you don't get automatic approval as a filmmaker in this case despite.

Sharla Cheung's production company reportedly only churned out two movies: Romantic Dream and Dream Lover (directed by Bosco Lam). What's curious is that they came out at essentially the same time and were essentially the same movies. An experiment to see which cast & crew would create the better flick or sheer laziness? Based on the different verdicts of the films, it's easy to argue the latter but both certainly aren't space-wasters. Romantic Dream more than Dream Lover though. So we do have the same plots, this time Lau Ching-Wan is Dino Sau, a poor but brilliant engine designer who falls in love with rich girl and equally fanatic car nut Mandy (Sharla Cheung). When their fates eventually doesn't match, despite Dino trying his best to woo her by growing her favourite flowers, the rose, he gets launched into wealth thanks to his invention the V-T engine. But as the years pass, Dino won't let go off Mandy and bumping into her as a married woman certainly springs feelings to life again. So much so that he hires a dream master (Wong Kam-Kong) to at least have him feel the happiness he never had...

Lee Lik-Chi ultimately stumbles compared to the out there trickery of Bosco Lam's. Structurally both movies are way out there but a few notches beyond the usual Hong Kong cinema shenanigans and while Lee seems to adhere to the Stephen Chow-esque notions of comedy (he directed quite a few of those films), he IS on board with the weird, epic structure. Central message is fine during the opening reels, about seeking real love, but gets buried under one sheet of weirdness after the other, something that makes Romantic Dream stumble less as it moves on. Credit Lau Ching-Wan for the dedication as a few instances of heartache gets to us too and credit director Lee for enhancing the frame with basic yet unusual Hong Kong cinema techniques. Problem overall is, the plight of the lovers ultimately must be compared to Dream Lover. Lau Ching-Wan and Sharla Cheung rank below Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Wu Chien-Lien therefore. Similar exaggerated and felt package deals, the bout of movies where Romantic Dream just isn't as adept is interesting and definitely shows why Dream Lover is such an underrated piece of fireworks display you're just not going to see each day. It feels like being thrown around like a rag doll and being a free for all experience, final kudos could actually go to Sharla Cheung the behind the scenes profile for her work. Co-starring Lawrence Cheng as the mostly grating best friend of Dino's. Also with Michael Wong.

Cop Lau (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) witnesses his long time partner (Kent Cheng in a cameo) commit suicide t in front of him, leading to him moving and working on small time cases in order to deal with this loss. His neighbor Hiu Tung (Veronica Yip) is a single mother struggling to find a footing in life and men only seems to want to be with her for casual reasons. When her father passes away, she makes a commitment to step away from any loose lifestyle and helping along is neighbor Lau. Eventually love is in the air and both now has to overcome issues of trust and commitment...

For Tony Au's streak of movies during the 90s, he utilized Tony Leung Ka-Fai as his leading man and after their first collaboration on Au Revoir, Mon Amour, Au went back to something smaller in scale and old fashioned in its ways, namely the romance/drama/comedy. He consciously uses genre staples that have been done to death but hinges a lot on his leading man and lady for it to stand out and he succeeds.

A Roof With A View sees an already suave and terrific actor strike up fine chemistry with prior Category III starlet Veronica Yip. Yip gets strong emotional beats to work with for sure but Au challenges by letting the whole proceedings, including the drama and comedy, play out calm and light, something Yip in particular nails. A lot of subtle things can be read into Hiu Tung's plight and desire to finally settle down and further shows how easily Yip escaped her sexy image from movies such as Take Me and Pretty Woman. A Roof With A View can easily be looked down upon as being too clichéd but it thoroughly works and is a small, Sunday afternoon delight of a movie. Perhaps even Au's finest next to Dream Lovers. Kwan Hoi San, Ray Lui and Carina Lau also appear.

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

Sporadic fun can be had in this buddy-cop actioner starring Yuen Biao and mostly otherwise composer Lowell Lo (An Autumn's Tale). We've seen better pairings and for 90 minutes it's also uneven Hong Kong comedy hijinxs with mainly two action set pieces in between. To list good points, Lowell Lo is a visual amusement in itself and Paul Chun is a good sport, being the object of much punishment at the hands of our two cops. The action directing trio of Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah and Lam Ching Ying also serve up dependably executed action and stunts, playing to the strengths of Yuen Biao nicely while Lowell Lo participates as much as he can as more of a comedic fighting sidekick. Kara Hui, James Tien, Dick Wei, Chong Fat, Tai Bo, Zebra Pan and Blackie Ko also stop by. Writer Wong Kar-Wai would go on to better things...

Buy the DVD at:
HK Flix.com

Also known as The Story Of Rose and Lost Romance, Maggie Cheung is the titular character going from the pouting, annoying girl that every man wants to a full grown woman in the space of 90 minutes...or something like that. However many deep sensibilities may have been intended by director Yonfan, Rose is a hasty product with attempts that resembles grave pretentiousness despite not hiding behind abstract behaviour. There's the obvious journey Rose needs to take, from shallow youth to maturity, form an independent aura around herself and realize that love hurts, taking it or giving it. Her relationship with brother Charles (Chow Yun-Fat) is a close one, both clearly not being able to survive without each others presences. Loneliness. Bada-bim, bada-boom, Rose goes on a lighting fast ride through studies, marriage, parenthood, divorce, death and love again when Chow Yun-Fat turns up a second time in the picture as a different character. For obvious symbolic reasons partly, Yonfan doesn't convince other than in the careful design of the flick. Being a photographer, it's no surprise surroundings are impeccable and that the stars look marvelous. The transformation in Maggie Cheung is admirable because Yonfan finds an early version of the movie star she turned out to be while Chow spreads some well-honed charisma over the production. Then again, it never really helps. Roy Cheung, Ha Ping and Alfred Cheung also appear.

The dvd release supervised by Yonfan reportedly replaced the dubbing of the leads with a new voice track by Tse Kwan-Ho and Ada Choi. The Winson laserdisc preserves the original soundtrack.