A rare chance for the girls with guns genre icons Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan and Yukari Oshima to venture into darkness but A Serious Shock! Yes, Madam! (aka Yes Madam '92: A Serious Shock), rated Category III, gives us that and the efforts are worthwhile. Emotions and villainous acting does register on the soap opera scale at times but Moon Lee in particular is eerily effective as she is easily looked upon as a charming and bubbly personality but when she commits cruel, violent acts here, that is the serious shock of the film. Yukari and Cynthia are also given emotional beats to work with that are only bearable but notable for the genre, although it has to be said that despite 4 action directors (Fung Hark On, Danny Chow, Benny Lai & Chu Tau), there's relatively little action due to the film playing out more like a straight thriller. Albert Lai's direction is at times sloppy and certain details are brushed over but he deserves credit for for giving the battling babes an acting challenge and within the confines of the genre they usually appeared in, A Serious Shock! Yes, Madam! ends up being worth your while. Eric Tsang, Ku Feng, Lawrence Ng, Karel Wong, Lee Siu-Kei, Waise Lee, Fung Hark On also appear.

There are no signs of what was to become the Ronny Yu (The Bride With White Hair, Fearless) we know today evident in The Servants and his first directing stint (together with lead Phillip Chan) certainly isn't thoroughly accomplished anyway. A fairly gritty take on the cops and gangsters-formula, characters we don't know much of (conscious choice) plan something big and entering are two lethal forces (played by Michael Chan and the explosive expert by Melvin Wong) that have at some time gotten Inspector Pang (Phillip Chan) over to their shady side. Pang's partner Chow (Paul Chu) is a child in an adult man's body, living at home, being forced to go to church and when time allows, he plays with his model trains. Chow is drawn closer to Pang's corruption and the actions of the latter is threatening to manifest itself as hurt for the innocent...

Effective, quick bursts of violence and a decent knack for tension are benefits within Yu's and Chan's direction but lacking most basic explanation why Pang is in business with the other side and why they bear a grudge towards Pang throws most effective storytelling out of the window. The Servants then merely boils down to handful of sequences working well despite being roughly put together. Future Category III brute William Ho produced.

Alex Man leads a cast of Mainland Chinese characters having survived political turmoil but still gets on the criminal path in Hong Kong in order to make a living. Director Raymond Lee's debut feature enjoys a different template as it brings in slight politics and drama into the mix but never really thoroughly establishes an affecting aura with its character drama. Much seems vague, unconnected and even forced. When Set Me Free! then turns into your old fashioned, brutal bullet ballet, level of watchability increases but not final verdict on the filmmaking. Cecilia Yip, Lau Ching Wan, Lau Kong, James Pax and Elaine Kam also appears.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Japan's Nikkatsu Studio, a production house with credits going back to the 1950s, attempted a big, commercial comeback in 1992, injecting money to the max and serving up an international cast (Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland and Hong Kong's own Yuen Biao) in the big screen adaptation of Rou Tomono's novel. Gaining directing reigns himself, this story of mixed alliances, love and opium in the war times of the 30s and 40s is to say the least something that didn't blew up. It bombed and deservedly so as Rou Tomono bringing to screen his cherished images from text form first and foremost really looks incredibly bad, production-wise. No sense of grand scale or big budget can be found and even if it was there, the direction is seriously hindered by lack of background to characters, basic coherence and viewer engagement. Thinking depth can be achieved via historical facts injected at points, Masayo Kayo's and Diane Lane's central romance amidst this war for the gold of the time is embarrassingly acted while Yuen Biao appears totally miscast as a Shanghai gangster. Why Donald Sutherland even had a part in the film remains a mystery too as he's in and out quickly but even if the longer Japanese version would explain his part of the intricate structure no one cares for anyway, it couldn't possibly save The Setting Sun. It sinks and sunk Nikkatsu.

Buy the DVD at:
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KENNETH'S REVIEW: The clumsy or silly seven angels of our piece are in fact police women consciously fired in order to be selected for an undercover mission at a hostess club where a murderer is running loose. The training is on, lead by their Sergeant played by Deannie Yip. It's intolerable, loud crap from the Michael Mak/Johnny Mak factory that has the odd, shocking oddball behaviour worth writing about. Most having to do with the way Deannie Yip raises her son as she pinches him in a torture-like way repeatedly at one point while we later are supposed to dedicate our heart towards this relationship. Yipes. The fighting over customers between the fake and real club girls is enough to cause Tinnitus and even though tolerance level is heightened during some darker passages towards the end, The Seven Angels hurts 99% of the time.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: From the director of The Mission and Election, we get gratuitous shots of bums and cleavage? Yes, before Johnnie To was Johnnie To, there was among other things a stint at Cinema City in a flick that feels entirely like Raymond Wong's baby than anything else. Playing husband Willie who is in his 7th year of unregistered marriage with Sylvia (Sylvia Chang) and feeling the titular itch, men around him advocate fooling around. Women around her somehow knows it's a fact men fool around when they've forgotten anniversary's. Well, Willie does after a Singapore set almost adultery adventure with Siu Hung (Nina Li) who is in fact just using Willie for diamond smuggling. The usual complications, grating presence from Eric Tsang as the brother in-law and little charm from anyone involved, Seven Years Itch is business as usual without any positives coming out from the charming-chute. Typical story moral is imbedded in all this including some fairly offensive views on women and the solid presence from Sylvia Chang doesn't even help matters either. Also with Wu Fung and Maggie Cheung literally runs through the frame at one point.

A vicious group of robbers are terrorizing a defenseless village so they try to recruit defenders of their land. A disbanded army unit plus some outside influences, in total seven of them, are assembled to along with the villagers fight back...yes, it does sound familiar doesn't it?

A remake and homage to a little film called Seven Samurai, the Hong Kong crew does use it as an excuse to fire, fight and blow stuff up but as much as it is an excuse, director Terry Tong (Coolie Killer) makes sure respect is somewhere baked into the mix. Not that he can offer up heavy duty dramatic weight and he more than willingly does everything Hong Kong style, including doses of comedy and melodrama. Seven Warriors does however distinguish itself with its parade of recognizable faces and stars in addition to the mayhem that dominates the latter parts of the flick.

Getting more mileage out of Adam Cheng and Mak Mok's characters, also along for the ride comes Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Phillip Kwok, Ben Lam, Lo Lieh, Shing Fui On, Wu Ma, Chia Chiao, Fung Hark On, Shum Wai, Elaine Kam, Teresa Mo, Chen Jing and Sammo Hung (in an excellent fighting cameo). Quite a load of talent at action directors Benz Kong and Tony Poon's disposal and violent gunplay with bursts of well-choreographed swordplay makes Seven Warriors memorable as a Hong Kong flick of that golden era. Not so much as the distinguished remake it wants to be. But that's ok.

In actuality, all attempts at portraying the life of prostitutes wanting life outside of prostitution are flimsy excuses for Wong Jing and director Aman Cheung to feature the usual softcore sex and excess. But it's a step up from the strangely boring yet arguably on paper more crazier Sex & Zen II. As the film progresses more towards another installment of the A Chinese Torture Chamber Story series, the combo on display makes for fine, crazy viewing. Take poor subtitling, advanced sexual techniques taught by Lo Meng's character, grim torture, heck...even some inventive shots and you'll get what is truly expected yet also wildly funny in its expected ways. A verdict coming only from those of us who wants to embrace this type of "cinema". Jane Cheung, Karen Yeung, Dung Yi and Elvis Tsui stars.