Following his critically acclaimed anti-triad movie Mongkok Story, young and upcoming director Wilson Yip (Juliet In Love, The White Dragon, SPL) teamed up with producer/writer Vincent Kok for this comedy/satire/romance. Teaching Sucks!! is a title that represents a starting point for the character journey Yip takes teachers Lam (Jan Lamb who is also the voice of adult McDull) and Wong (Anthony Wong, again collaborating with Yip after his wonderful turn in Mongkok Story) on. As Yip's visuals indicate, these guys have lost inspiration in their line of work and their fellow teachers are all going through the motions. Enter a fresh beauty in the teacher's lounge, namely Miss Lee (Cathy Tsui - Time And Tide) and she inspires her fellow personnel to actually fight for such things as keeping the astronomy club. Meanwhile, all seemingly falls for her, none more so than best friends Lam and Wong...

At its core, Teaching Sucks!! a simple romance but one peppered with Yip's compelling habit of going off on off-beat tangents and injecting unusual story beats. He makes a bold move by hinging a lot on Cathy Tsui's character as she is an important key for both the teacher's work and Lam and Wong's desire to obtain fulfilled lives. Tsui doesn't necessarily come through as it's an awkward performance but Yip does come through by "just" making her a sweet presence. That works as a counterpart since Jan Lamb and Anthony Wong are such a likeable duo, creating sweet, sincere and heartfelt emotions eventually. Arguably, the movie takes some odd detours (still related to the character arcs though) but Yip easily keeps the audience's attention on an entertainment-level when doing this. Best examples being a sudden birth during a teacher's meeting and Lam's visit to a teaching coach (a very funny Cheung Tat-Ming). Christine Ng, Kim Yip, Lee Kin Yan, Bobby Yip, Lee Lik Chi and Wilson Yip himself also appear.

I guess Phillip Ko cares little for the fact that sci-fi usually becomes pretty laughable when you're operating in the arena of low budgets and incompetence. So therefore Techno Warriors came out of the Philippines in 1997, showcasing perhaps quite rightly little care for plot and just for mayhem instead. In a future where the computer illiterate turn to crime instead, we divide our time between the game world seen through the eyes of a master player and the intrusion of these fighting characters into the real world. You might think Ko and co. are blowing their wads early on in this Street Fighter influenced vehicle as all manner of explosions and laserwar goes on but he populates the film with pretty much wall to wall action of this kind. At times entertaining, at most others tiring as it presents little variation. When it then combines rather poor kicking from the players and constant posing, the fast forward button becomes your friend during the action. At least there's little comedic annoyance when the main element takes a rest, despite that risk looming over the production.

Although King Hu's 1966 Shaw Brothers production Come Drink With Me is recognized for firmly launching the Wuxia genre, Hsu Tseng-Hung's Temple Of The Red Lotus from the year before (and also at Shaw's) deserves a huge chunk of the credit even if it's not comparable to Hu's honed vision. The first of three parts (the others being The Twin Swords and The Sword And The Lute), Jimmy Wang Yu is Wu who's on his way to Jin Castle to marry childhood sweetheart Jin Lian Zhu (Chin Ping). Interrupting a robbery by a group of bandits, he's injured but nursed back to health by Red Lady Swordswoman (Ivy Ling Po). Finally reaching his destination, Wu starts suspecting the family he's marrying into may in fact be behind the acts of robbery and he decides to try and escape the intricate confines of Jin Castle together with Lian Zhu. Easier said than done when the family (played by the likes of Tien Feng and Lo Lieh) are all adept at fighting and swordplay...

Consistently high production values can't mask the fact that director Hsu Tseng-Hung isn't very able at making this easy template impactful. We're rarely convinced of the emotional devotion between our leads or the melodrama happening when deadly action is taking place between family members. It's all told in a refreshingly basic way though and the action (mainly weapons based) does excite. Although relying on the static master shots with subsequent cuts to closer/different angles, much of the clashes on display has an exciting rhythm that isn't at all far behind King Hu's vision. It may have been a different vision but Temple Of The Red Lotus isn't a bastard child of the genre. For a while maybe but the latter plot developments engage on a much higher level. Plot strands like Wu seeking revenge for the death of his parents is presumably matters that are going to be the focus for the sequels and Temple Of The Red Lotus overall wets our appetite for this story and audiences would take to heart even more intensely the new take on Wuxia on screen. Therefore this early effort matters more than just historically.

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It's almost exotic but ultimately out there in regards to how Ho Fan (Yu Pui Tsuen) opens his flick. In a hut with dancing tribes men and women, an old men on a bed, his brother sitting beside, a sexy white nurse and erections... we're in (smutty) Hong Kong cinema territory indeed. Injecting the plot amidst this madness about the sons of the old man, Man (Lee Chung-Ling - I Love Miss Fox) and Ray (Ricky Chan - Hong Kong Bronx), the deal in a will eventually left behind is that one of them must marry before 35. If not, all money goes to the other brother. The older of the brothers, Man, seems like the best and worst candidate. Not only is his 35th close by, he's also totally disinterested in women. Being a teacher, he would rather read... by himself. The younger brother is more of the player but does show care for the well being of his brother and their future. Is it a sweet tale of brotherly love and respect or a quick Category III fix with tons of the lowest humour imaginable? It's not sweet, it's definitely low but then again not far away from Ho Fan's better track record as director. It begins when bringing in Miss Cheung (Chui Hei-Man), who is totally in love with Man and imagines him rescuing her from wolves (rapists in wolf-masks) in his Category III super man costume (it literally has the rating on his chest!). Cue the emulation of the Superman score and a flow to the film that scores when echoing Ho Fan lightheartedness of this kind. Of course there's the odd steamier scene that survives thanks to Ho Fan's slightly more keen eye for erotica. Truth be told, any director of this kind could've shot this but not just any director would've made Temptation Summary a valid, silly time.

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Ambitious, senseless Hong Kong madness from Lee Lik-Chi (a frequent Stephen Chow director) seems to want to emulate his success with said star initially but after the wild plot has settled in, gags really start to fly. It's not because Lee is unusually creative or that the initial start to this period comedy is highly muddled. But as sloppy son Chan Ta-Ha (Kenny Bee) manages to kill his dad with a vampire clock and subsequent scenes showing him and wife Chan Wai-Leung (Sharla Cheung) cast out to the country, matters turn around big time. Apparently in possession of a bracelet of pearls from heaven, the couple are blessed with a piece of land that can grow anything into a LARGE something. So they're the talk of the town and even Kingdom Yuen and Wong Yat-Fei tries to utilize the soil. He wants a bigger head and she wants a bigger bust (the standard Kingdom Yuen joke). It naturally works tenfold and within this Lee Lik-Chi has started to take us on a mad journey where it's not about making sense of the plot but to have fun with whatever the filmmakers come up with. Especially so when the Chan couple swallow five pearls each while on the run from General Hu (Elvis Tsui) and each give birth to five adult children fairies (among them Law Kar-Ying and the kiddie duo from Shaolin Popey) with super-duper powers. One half of the children gets manipulated by the General and raised like dogs while the other half with mom tries to find dad who is now imprisoned by Hu. Utilizing very basic but a hefty amount of CG and a fair amount of big scale ideas, Ten Brothers doesn't demand much attention overall but is one of those "did they just do that"-experiences from Hong Kong where certainly pace is an expertise evident in the filmmakers. Throw in feces jokes and a few gory deaths and yet somehow it's all a family product.

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Even general story coherence seems absent from Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung, Chang Cheh's vehicle for some of his old guard (Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, Ku Feng etc) and new (Chiang Sheng, Phillip Kwok, Wai Pak among others). This may very well be a fitting plot structure for his Chinese audience but the overabundance of characters, relations and flashbacks doesn't do the flow any favours for Westerners. However the plentiful and varied fight scenes, some quite gory as per usual coming from Chang Cheh elevates Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung to fine entertainment. Especially weapons choreography gets a good showcase and one of the final fight "blows" comes with an outrageously gory consequence. Little else though and it all still represents Chang Cheh's decline as a storyteller but it's a memorable blimp in his vast filmography despite.

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Shot on tape for home video release, this lazy thriller deserves its obscure fate. Starring Andy Hui and Cheung Kwok-Keung as two cops going undercover to a singles club to investigate the murders of several members, Teqila has the flavour of a TV-movie mystery of the week. Although executed way below even that standard. With clichéd scenes like the cops getting yelled at by their boss, clue dropping in the most obvious ways, sappy romance montages and the villain telling it all in the end reel, thankfully the film is very short so you're quickly out of the torture YOU put yourself in. Andy Hui appears as himself in an early scene and later we see prisoners named after the likes of Andy Lau and Tony Leung. Not clever. Cheung Kwok-Keung also hams it up to an unbearable degree, being the shallow, horny cop while Hui's character turns out to be a very sad, desperate one. The semi-realism to the gun violence towards the end is the only attempt at praise I can come up with.

The previously little seen collaboration between Ching Siu-Tung and Zhang Yimou sees the latter being part of the epic images rather than creating them. On Hero he had Siu-Tung action directing but this Tsui Hark co-produced effort sees Yimou playing the part of Chamberlain Mong Tianfang of the Qin Dynasty. Witnessing a large array of men and women assembled for a trip to find the recipe for eternal life to give the emperor, a defiant girl catches Mong's eyes. She is Dong Er (Gong Li) and the two secretly fall in love. When they're caught, she is sentenced to offer herself to the terracotta gods but before she slips what turns out to be the successful elixir for eternal life to Mong. Waking up 3000 years later in the 1930s and in the middle of the booming movie industry, the confused Mong encounters Dong Er or rather ditsy actress Lily and moviestar Bai Yunfei (Yu Rong-Guang) who has been searching for the emperor mausoleum Mong was guarding until his resurrection...

A grand looking production (Peter Pau was one of the cinematographers) and certainly displaying an atmospheric first 40 minutes that deals with the Qin Dynasty part of the narrative, overall Ching Siu-Tung creates an above average time when depicting the love between Mong and Dong Er. Necessarily not a bad thing of course but clearly a grander story attempt needed/wanted to be there too. This criticism applies to the generally well-made first 40 and the switch the 1930s isn't as smooth either. Oh Zhang Yimou is suitably stone faced and fun as he acts out the requisite fish out of water jokes but pace stumbles well into the climax. Here when the production boosts its biggest set pieces, there is also the reprisal of the basic beats that starts to translate into something more emotional and deep when again covering Zhang Yimou and Gong Li's plight. Getting quite a bit of mileage through Yimou's expressions, ultimately this strength also reminds us of the shortage of pure story affection throughout.

Thanks For Your Love had been given flattering review quotes such as "begins to outstay its welcome after a mere fifteen minutes" and "giving twelve pints of blood in one sitting may be preferable". With that in mind, it's kind of fun in a punishing way to go into something with the lowest of the low of expectations. As expected, this Andy Lau and Rosamund Kwan vehicle still fares incredibly bad.

Starting with a strange plot regarding Kwan's inability to be touched by men without beating the crap out of them to borrowing the template from the average Steve Martin movie Housesitter, it's indeed soon very clear that the proceedings will be marred by the inadequacies by the duo of directors at hand. Neither funny, nor overly romantic, we even are subjected to some very distasteful jokes (in particular towards black people) that quickly seals the ill fate of Thanks For Your Love. Admittedly, a chuckle and a half can be found, which is of course a lot more than expected but die-hard fans of the stars and the genre need only apply. But I doubt you'll say thanks after 90 minutes. Also with Deannie Yip, Yuen King-Tan and Maria Cordero logs a quick cameo.

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Ivan Lai debut feature is a Hong Kong Police Academy but thankfully without any of the toilet humour. Plot, characters and all events taking place within Thank You Sir is no news to any movie goer but Lai keeps proceedings moving fast and while no real commitment is there on a viewers behalf, the entertainment level is in place (and I'm sure the Royal Hong Kong Police was satisfied as well). Danny Lee is great as the senior instructor, being able himself and as a character to bring the warmth and need for strict authority. Basically a role he's made for and played variations of on screen a dozen or two times. Shing Fui On is also memorable as a father of one of the cadets.

Despite being rather standard, Thank You Sir is actually Ivan Lai's best film after The Blue Jean Monster. Subsequently, Lai turned to Cat III but for the fans, I recommend taking a look at the work he did in 1996's The Imp. Thank You Sir also stars very young Nick Cheung, Joan Tong, Chiao Chiao and Parkman Wong (who alco co-wrote).

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