A generic title like Triad Story should be very telling for anyone with a vague knowledge of the triad genre that was a mainstay during this period in Hong Kong cinema. Director Shum Wai injects some decent thoughts in the portrayal of the old time triads that tries to accept that time has run out for them but it lasts very shortly. Soon the gang conflicts escalate in the usual ways, sentimentality is high and another fault of the film is that it's way too talky when it should be trying to salvage itself with audience pleasing features. After several failed attempts at poetic and lyric imagery as lives are lost, Shum Wai instead wisely unleashes action director Siu Tak Foo. Decent brutality and fight action comes during the finale although there lacks a certain internal logic when we see who takes center stage. Billy Chow (in a rare good guy role) obviously is a fighter so that sets up his place in the finale but at this point, main characters are not even in the same room! Still, it's the best times of Triad Story. The rest is instantly forgettable.

Although poster arts feature Stephen Chow, it's merely a supporting, dramatic role he's given and frankly, he looks uncomfortable dealing with this kind of material (and to add on to that, Chow did not dub his own voice). His subsequent comedy co-star Ng Man Tat receives more screen time while O Chun Hung, Wu Ma, Shing Fui On, Shum Wai and Kwai Chung also appear.

Available is a Mainland vcd release under the title The Last Brother, featuring English subtitles and the Cantonese dub.

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Featuring the leading man and lady from Iron Man, Joseph Kuo taps into a gritty, furious side to martial arts action in Triangular Duel (and also in mentioned subsequent production). It's Iron Man that had the quality and quantity though but eventually Triangular Duel showcases a compelling hand. It's merely a lot lesser when being compared to high standards set by Kuo himself in the next movie and that's not a bad thing. Man Kong-Lung plays a rickshaw driver who's let into one of the local martial arts schools after some hesitation (he's quite a killing machine already). Getting caught up in a conflict between schools as his refuses a joint venture, he's also criticized for getting into fights, destroying the reputation of the school and it doesn't help he's fallen in love with a woman in one of the rival schools...

A basic frame story done with a hell of a lot less resources than Kuo's days making Wuxia's in the late 60s. While the likes of Iron Man and later The 7 Grandmasters survived its minute budget thanks to a constant stream of high quality action, this film is slow and executing its action with little to no impact for the longest of time. Add the fact that it's way longer than it should be, the extended finale does offer up the best action. There's nothing pretty here but only gritty and muddy (literally) brawls as Man Kong-Lung takes on the Iron Triangle of fighters and it shows Joseph Kuo's frame of mind, even when basic, made him rise above the independent competition.

Stephen Chow as the Tricks Master Jing Koo is a character ridiculously well suited for him as the sky's the limit when it comes to conjuring up gags. With Wong Jing directing and playing alongside Ng Man Tat and Andy Lau, he does so in his dry, low-key and highly excessive ways. Watch Chow sneakily destroy and fool people, done the legendary I Am Naked suit and feature the always great gag of large amounts of people beating up one. It's often hilarious and Andy Lau doesn't seem to mind being subjected to all kinds of silliness either. An early 90s joy that is disrupted a few times too many however when Wong Jing attempts to inject his humour into the film. Not only does it rank as distasteful and low but when he lifts a gag from Police Academy 2, you'll know who is the actual king of comedy in the production. Co-starring Rosamund Kwan, Chingmy Yau, Waise Lee, John Ching, Liu Fan, Shing Fui On, Charlie Cho and Wong Jing.

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I'll hand it to Julie Lee. She does try to tell a story in this first of second Category III movies she also supervised heavily. She plays a Mainland girl with harrowing memories from the Cultural revolution, has a sexual awakening after marriage and then tries to elope with a young fisherman. But Lee or for that matter co-director Mou Tun-Fei (Men Behind The Sun) aren't drama storytellers of the elite league kind but at least the attempt is made to make this more than just a wild bonk-a-thon. The latter does dominate indeed and Lee engages in what must be at least 8 sex scenes during the 80 minute running time, many quite wild. The Category III rating lives up to its name.

Trilogy Of Lust was in fact heavily censored upon release in Hong Kong due to it actually being shot as a hardcore porn film. An uncut version was released on dvd in Germany by Laser Paradise, carrying only a dub in German.

As with his Lunar New Year movie of 1995 The Chinese Feast, Tsui Hark enlists the leading duo of Leslie Cheung and Anita Yuen again for some silly shenanigans that barely qualifies as a movie. But it's due to a willingness to please an audience in need of to be pleased at this very time of the year that makes Tri-Star work. Leslie Cheung is Zhong, a popular priest (he even signs autographs for screaming girls after services) getting more and more involved in the life of prostitute Bai Ban (Yuen). With a triad debt over her head, Zhong decides to follow God's words and help out fellow woman (and her prostitute friends). Securing loans at a bank, employment at a photo processing lab and getting the girls into a band, Zhong is very resourceful if not a little out of touch. As he moves to live close to Bai Ban, he's convinced by a fellow priest to dress as Elvis. Snicker ensues. Lau Ching-Wan and Sunny Chan are two mostly incompetent police officers trying to sniff out the crimes surrounding all these characters. Random zaniness, cartoon humour, misunderstandings and romance follows. Tsui Hark makes his mark more when going cartoony to a surreal point but otherwise he's just there to steer the fun in a somewhat acceptable direction. It's a recipe he knows and while the Leslie Cheung/Anita Yuen romance barely holds together (the stars do run on autopilot in this one), the show undoubtedly IS held together by Lau Ching-Wan as a mostly barefoot, bearded cop. Timing is an issue and a willingness to be properly silly during this time of the year. Lau has and does that in spades. Also with Moses Chan, Hung Yan-Yan, Shing Fui-On and Raymond Wong.

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The start of which would amount to 19 movies bearing the Troublesome Night banner-name, the three story format within one (but in this we get interconnected stories) sees Herman Yau head two of them and occupying itself with slight horror and satire of the movie climate of the time definitely shows it's his baby. Acting as our narrator (and playing multiple roles), Simon Loui plays Peter Butt (and later his own fortune teller twin brother) introduces the first story about a group of friends who's taking Ken (Louis Koo) for his birthday barbecue on a beach. A cheap arrangement as times are tough for these youths who are working in the film industry, they run into a group of girls ripe for wooing (among others Ada Choi) and starts playing a game at the local graveyard that comes with deadly consequences. Very, very cheaply made on location, it's surely part of Yau's point even though here and later on in the film, there's no evidence of high division satire. The ghostly sights (including Helena Law Lan in her by now patented creepy grandma-role) work more from the point of view of Louis Koo but the I see dead people-esque plot never jumps out at you.

The survivors of the first story can be spotted when leading into our second story with Christy Chung trying to contact her unfaithful husband on the phone. There's tangents about feng shui as a scam tactic and the possibility of the dead communicating through the phone bur it's all dealt with quickly and is not particularly scary. Simon Loui takes a more active part as the narrator and a character and his dry, silly delivery elevates the downtime heading into our third story. Frankie Ng has been seen earlier in the film shooting a xerox copy of A Moment Of Romance (with him in the Andy Lau role, that's how low the movie industry has sunken) and he's attending his premiere. However seating himself in a seat reserved for a ghost, the evening at the cinema becomes a night of terror. It's a cheap, mild trilogy of ghost-horror with the odd creepy sight, Yau's parody of the movie business he's struggling within and Simon Loui starts of a long running series in not a reference manner. But a cheapness, by choice or when forced on you, can and will lead to finding means to produce. Hence the ridiculous amount of sequels (most if not all in name only) to Troublesome Night.

Venturing into the horror anthology, cheapo franchise Troublesome Night for the third time, Herman Yau (who would direct up till the 6th installment), rather than separate stories he centers his threesome around a group of friends all working at a funeral home. Starting very silly with the boss played by Louis Koo stopped by Vincent Kok cop in a pre-credits skit, things fortunately turn a little bit more fun as Yau explores the cynical side of this particular funeral home business. Death is money. Yau has often had a pretty decent knack for satire and this quite obvious one does provide amusement. Less so when the ghost angle enters that is about a diseased female singer Beauty Chan (Oliveiro Lana) whose biggest fan is one of the employees Shishedo (Allen Ting). So much so that he seems to be consumed physically when preparing for her funeral. The theme of obsession in combination with chills created on the cheap doesn't work particularly well nor does the second story that we flow smoothly into.

Basically an even more cheaper version of The Exorcist but with the Hong Kong horror-comedy angle to it, it's rather embarrassing watching Simon Loui, Emotion Cheung and Frankie Ng ham it up. Desperately trying to scare with no effects added, what was meant as a fun little take on paranoia ends up playing incredibly flat. Helena Law Lan is her trademark, creepy self here as the ghost haunting the trio but can't impact the production despite.

Things improve quite a bit during the last segment that sees the character of Hung (Fennie Yuen) being abandoned by her fiancee due to his disgust of her working with corpses for a living. Herman Yau showcases the warmth a close knit of friends can achieve as Hung celebrates a memorable birthday with her friends but it's ended with her suicide. Emotions come to the surface subsequently. In particular Louis Koo's character Cheng Lik's true feelings for Hung are well played in combination with Fennie Yuen's emotional performance. An avenging ghost angle is inevitable though and shows the moods throughout Troublesome Night 3 have trouble clicking. It is the strongest of the stories though that ends on a good shocker. Also with Chin Kar-Lok and Shing Fui-On.

Joe Cheung (Return Engagement) takes the story of a former triad turned teacher (Simon Yam) that inspires his rascal students (one in particular who's headed on the same path, played by John Tang) in a way you easily can predict. Neither bad, neither very good, director Cheung ends up in the middle ground, even though Yam or Anita Yuen don't put in the greatest of efforts. The finale also sports some fine gunplay courtesy of Tung Wai, Benz Kong and Tony Poon. Also with Lawrence Cheng (as the stereotypical flamboyant gay character of the piece) and Derek Yee.

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Derek Yee writes and directs this winning 1999 romance revolving naturally around Jane (Fann Wong - Shanghai Knights) and Sam (Peter Ho) engaging in a turbulent relationship that has to go through heaven hell in order for the truth about themselves to become clear.

With a very welcome mature touch that involves everything between sugar sweetness to depression, Yee crafts a drama with your good ol' heavy handed sentiments and lessons. However Yee usually can rise above tried formulas and clichés. No different here and the tale proves constantly involving and laid back on a directorial level. True to form, another star is born in the hands of Yee, namely Fann Wong who is a true discovery and up to performing the critical journey of Jane. Peter Ho is suitably dorky as the nice guy who doesn't finish last while Chin Ka-lok logs a fine supporting act as Jane's triad brother. Cheng Pei-Pei and Simon Lui also appear.

Expected sentiments and genre conventions aside, The Truth About Jane & Sam hits all the right notes in a much more classy way than these vehicles usually come with.

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