Jimmy Wang Yu is Tsang Leung aka The Dragon who ends up injured and taken in by Hsiao Yang (Sam Hui) and his eventual (but not until all the ducks grow and breed) wife Ah Hsiang (Sylvia Chang). But when the local gambling house begins squeezing all the money and sense out of the town's gambling addicts, a recovering Tsang steps up to do the righteous thing...

Shot in Thailand and getting a rough, gritty aura to surround the film, there's even deeper, tragic ideas being attempted by director Lo Wei and that deserves kudos in itself. They aren't successful ideas but makes The Tattooed Dragon a more bearable experience as a movie (despite canned melodrama at points). Because as fun, tough and bloody as the fight scenes (of the basher kind) with Jimmy Wang Yu are, they're also not as frequent as one would like. The further you get into Lo Wei's collaborations with Jimmy, the more you realize how movies perked up when he himself took directing reigns in other films. They could be equally dark, often goofy but definitely almost always more fun and bearable. Lo Wei never learned that. Also starring James Tien and Lonnie the dog.

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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Subsequently director Jeng Cheong-Woh would go on to helm martial arts classics such as 1972's King Boxer but 2 years into the Korean director's Shaw Brothers career came Temptress of A Thousand Faces. A free for all mix of groovy 60s atmosphere, gorgeous ladies, heists, peeping cops, surreal production design verging on fantasy and kung-fu! The master thief Temptress (Lau Leung-Wa) is the prime target of the law and an attractive subject for journalists. TV reporter Ji Ying (Ting Chin Fei) poses as the Temptress in faked pictures for her scoop and this sets off a series of events where the advent of sophisticated rubber masks sees the Temptress take over the identify of Ji Ying in order to destroy her life. Jeng Cheong-Woh provides a terrific and short smorgosbord of eye candy, some of which is verging on exploitation but the tone is very tongue in cheek and is in actuality a terrific showcase for the ladies. In particular for leading lady Ting Chin Fei, the actress utilizes the opportunity given to be put in perfect hair styles, perfect and trendy clothes and to come off well as an action heroine. The doubling is very well made and furthermore the movie scores points for not giving a crap about logic. In this universe the rubber masks technology is advanced and our villain's cave lair filled with colorful crystals, smoke and sexy women as assistants/henchmen (or henchwomen). It makes sense in the name of fun. Also with Chan Leung and Fan Mei-Sheng.

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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Straightforward and simple martial arts genre entertainment that is probably still way too busy on characters for its own good, it's still about crowd pleasing and Ten Brothers Of Shaolin delivers. The Shaolin temple brothers of the title are sent out in the world, one is a wanted criminal and thus begins incoherency and entertaining action scenes with popular genre stars. It's this shallow way of looking at a rather well shot product (director Ting Ching uses the widescreen frame very well) that in the end seems suitable. The likes of excellent female lead Chia Ling, Don Wong and Phillip Ko walk about, square off against Leung Kar-Yan, Stephen Tung and white haired villain Chang Yi and the basic ride is what should be extracted out of Ten Brothers Of Shaolin. It IS a good remark.

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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