One out of five spin off movies based on Johnnie To's PTU but the sole connection aside from some of the cast returning as similar but different characters merely remains the police unit being featured. Through different filmmakers and Johnnie To producing, none is so far in my viewing experience trying to emulate the stylistic nature to To's one night experience that was his earlier movie in a nutshell. Tactical Unit - Human Nature is mainly a vehicle for Lam Suet who may walk around with a head injury like in To's film but is in reality playing a different character. Saddled with a gambling habit and huge debt with loan shark Hung (an energetic Gordon Lam making the most of his standard, clichéd character), Lam Suet's Tong steals money from a crime scene and close friend Sam (Simon Yam) in the police tactical unit rather than report Tong tries to get him out of the situation with his job intact and character restored. It's a little redemption tale that also involves the police force trying to redeem their image with the public after a video is leaked online showing Simon Yam's unit stuck in a van while Mainland robbers are shooting up the van. That gang of robbers is also one Tong gets closer and close to as the promise of money seems greater with them. The cast of Lam Suet, Yam and stone faced Maggie Siu bring fine presence in what is a very flat movie in reality. Low production values and indeed the feel of a TV movie dominates but the cast makes us hang on and director Andy Ng (The Untold Story 2) at least delivers a competent story of morals, friendship and brotherhood. Sans the Johnnie To stable however, would've been close to a turkey.

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How in the world David Chiang managed to end up in this low-budget, broken English language modern martial arts actioner of 100% inept-status, god only knows. Hong Kong cinema gave him minor spotlights in 2 Young and Election recently but this throwback to genre "fun" of yesteryears (in particular American produced films of its kind) has evidence of a Chiang (credited as John here) being old and bored. Yet, playing Master Dragon, he's the best part of Tai Chi Warriors, where there exists valid themes of disillusioned students of his choosing darker martial arts paths, new students trying to find acceptance and cocky, black, sexist, wannabe movie stars named Bruce (with credits such as "Karate Elvis" and "Transsexual Karate Queen" under their belt) trying to punch their way through the Tai Chi-way American style. It's performed atrociously, in heavy Chinese accents mostly, personal drama is told in ham fisted style, drab comedy appears (the Tai Chi bowling game would've needed resources to pull off some effects. Here it's just student film levels on display) but the usage of stock elements of genre flicks isn't necessarily a bad choice. I can even swallow the appearance of new wave Wuxia fight scenes in this modern scenario and it probably isn't 2000 miles away from crap that came out 20 years before it but that's still not an excuse. It's a mess with no official release on the horizon but that fate would be well deserved. Can't say I was bored though, which is perhaps a cardinal sin to admit as a reviewer? You be the judge.

Low budget and painfully unfunny slasher flick, Take Five tackles a murder mystery set in a school with a way too generous and wacky character gallery. Goddess Athena Chu is an overprotective sister looking through the various creative areas of her sister's school, including the cooking class with the busty teacher, arts class and theater class. All supervised by a controlling principal constantly in conflict with the nutty school priest (Cheung Tat-Ming). Oh it so desperately wants to kooky to the max but doing isn't equal to funny and especially not so since Take Five plays it very dry. No suspense either when mixing in the murder plot, it's all capped with a strange supernatural twist that no one in their right mind would bother decipher. Little else is penetrable anyway. Elvis Tsui is the sole amusement as the janitor looking like Jean Reno out of Léon and therefore carries a plant with him constantly. It's a testament to the actor that he can induce snickers through sheer presence. Also with Edmond Leung as Chu's love interest in a limp romance subplot and Wayne Lai.

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Very little seems wrong and little right about Dick Cho's Danny Lee-vehicle but eventually scoring with edgy and suspenseful sequences of action and getting a Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau-esque chemistry out of Lee and Wu Ma, Takes Two To Mingle grows. Lee is the impulsive, often annoyingly loud-mouthed cop who is very protective of his sister (Fennie Yuen). When she brings home boyfriend KK (Lam King-Kong), the son of a rumoured to be triad businessman (Wu Ma), this particular hell breaks loose. On the more dangerous side of the story coin, Ricky Yi is working within the company of Wu Ma's alongside dangerous, sharp shooting villains. Straight and often barely decent, director Cho eventually finds a flow that is very entertaining, mixing comedic banter, Lee's particular fists before brains attitude and fun touches such as one of the timid cops finding an outlet via guns to really let loose. Lam Wai also appears.

After a rare lunar event, out of the earth rises 3 Ching Dynasty characters. One is Huang Zhin (David Wu - Full Throttle), a royal servant to Little Princess (Chan Cheuk-Yan - Fatal Termination) who also is awakened along with the feisty Blood Devil (Daai Cheung). Huang ends up in the hands of Chu Kor Yee (Joey Wong) and her brother Tai Lit (Billy Lau) while a pair of wacky electricians (Eric Kot and Jan Lam, aka the Soft Hard DJ duo) tries to figure out the origins of Little Princess that they are stuck with...

A great, big history lesson in the opening narration perhaps signals something significant but it's merely a basic lead into a Manfred Wong directed piece that's flirting with elements already present in The Reincarnation Of Golden Lotus and The Iceman Cometh. It's certainly broad and a product that tries to commercially satisfy on all levels but Wong's choice to try and balance the elements still creates little distinction in A Tale Of The East. It goes through its comedy routines courtesy of the "comedy" performers, some cuteness and over the top fantasy fighting but overall stands out little despite having ideas. It register as dull even at points. I Kuang appears in support as his own creation Wisely, dishing out helpful advice while nods to The Evil Dead and Ghostbusters (with a sliiiiight re-working of its famous theme can be seen and heard. Manfred Wong himself as well as Lawrence Cheng, Amy Yip and Alfred appear in cameos.

Referencing Peter Fleming's book, Feng Xiaoning's first of his "War And Peace" trilogy (that was followed by Lovers' Grief Over The Yellow River and Purple Sunset) takes place in the early 1900s as a small British expedition heads for Tibet. Stuck in an avalanche due to their defiance against respecting local gods, they are saved by a poor family living on the Tibetan planes. Part of the expedition, Jones has to tend to his wounds before returning and begins experiencing an on the surface uncivilized culture that has as much of a valid place in evolution as his normal, high-tech reality. Perhaps even more. More is coming though as British forces are preparing to enter Tibet as liberators, with full force...

Feng Xiaoning is careful not to expose either side as heavenly. The Tibetans uses human sacrifice to please the gods and are bound very much by that otherworldly reasoning. Portraying them as divided by rich and poor, emotions come together in characters that sometimes are looking for simple love only, simple life only and individual choice not governed by social status. The awakening of the character of Jones sees even the Western world mix perfectly with the quote unquote simple reality on the outskirt of civilization and tending to these smaller, more intimate sections becomes a stepping stone of great importance for director Feng when he unleashes his epic sensibilities later. The vistas are dependently beautiful at all times but Feng has an eye for large scale mayhem. He does produce the odd abstract and overly explicit symbolism at times but this is nonetheless powerful, speaking in a global perspective to boot. When one force has decided it knows best (the British in this case), events unfold that are unifying a people in death and in spirit. That's possibly even stronger than a million cannon balls inflicted upon your land. Many times reincarnation is touched upon in A Tale of The Sacred Mountain and therefore a sense of sadness does come with the material because now into the 21st Century, we're still making the same flaws as a human race and not realizing until late what the essence of simplicity is. Simple still means humanity. Don't touch that. Ning Jing (Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker , Set To Kill) co-stars.

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The palace of heaven is threatened to be destroyed by Against nature-Boy so a supreme buddhist with supernatural powers (Lam Ching Ying) sets out to locate the chosen one who can withstand such an evil force,; the Sharp-witted Buddha. Thinking his blood brother and fellow buddhist (played by Wu Ma) has located the one, it turns out that it's village boy Dragon (Chin Ka-Lok) who unknowingly is the Sharp-witted Buddha. Time is short to truly enlighten him and the threats are drawing closer...

Mang Hoi utilizes some fine looking temple locations and a lighthearted tone that surprisingly, and thankfully, never takes the broad comedy route. While nothing astonishing ever occurs in The Tantana, a likeable cast gets Mang Hoi places of acceptance despite this having the feeling of just another production. Mang Hoi himself appear as well as Sammo Hung and Tai Po.

From the wonderful era of the early to mid 80s from the Yuen Clan where they produced live action cartoons after live action cartoons of incredible, creative quality. The likes of Taoism Drunkard and The Miracle Fighters do feel like head trips fueled by substance but I think the Yuen brothers were a bit more disciplined than that. This is just a group of passionate, incredible physical performers managing to bring to the screen some of the most manic, silly and incredibly odd scenarios within a period setting (Mismatched Couples managed to transfer all of the above nicely to modern day though). Director Yuen Cheung-Yan plays dual roles, reprising his grandmother role from The Miracle Fighters and the crazy drunkard from Shaolin Drunkard. The film has so many tangents it's impossible to mention all or even keep track of all but it's part of the ride where we try and buckle our seat belt for 90 minutes but keep getting yanked around. The main, minor plot strands concerns Cheung-Yan's crazy drunkard wrecking havoc at a temple with his little car and being ordered to find a virgin born on a particular date for a future ceremony in honor of the temple's grandmaster and he is to be relieved once the virgin is in place. The grandchild (Yuen Yat-Chor) of grandmother fits the criteria and he is also training in her elaborate chamber that includes burning coal, spears and a mechanized, round robot. The villain in the form of Yuen Shun-Yi's Old Devil wants the writ placed on the altar of one of the chambers too...

So begins manic, madness that sustains momentum rather well, mixing unpredictable scenarios, very broad comedy accentuated by sound effects and a versatile choreography job by the Yuen's that work equally well with whatever mood or scenario is being attempted here. Also with Mandy Chan, Tai Po and Yen Shi-Kwan

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One of those titles corresponding exactly to the content, A Taste Of Killing And Romance initially can be viewed upon as PERHAPS offering up a more solid mix than usual through its attractive leading performers and a female director at the helm of an action picture. Aside from some not totally uncool ventures into visual style, Veronica Chan makes us taste one sweet and one sour taste, with the latter belonging to the romance sadly. Standard chemistry between Andy Lau and Anita Yuen, playing hitman and hitwoman respectively, doesn't cut it but Stephen Tung's action is rousing. Veronica Chan obviously is somehow connected to the choice of featuring this much brutal bloodshed but Stephen brings the explosive factor to it, be it in sadism- or gunplay mode. Mark Cheng's deliciously evil supporting act enhances matters also. Co-starring is Waise Lee and Christine Ng. Keep your eyes peeled for a debatable partial rip-off/homage concerning The Killer.

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