Justifiable cheating is the agenda of the characters played by James Wong, Tommy Wong and Lam Lei. Being businessmen on a trip to Korea, the latter two follow the advice of their Godfather of sexual practices but when feelings towards the women enter the frey, they break away from the words of "wisdom". Very offensive if you want it to be but a tiny little, naughty heart resides in the film. Basically Wong's pupils want care and love, not necessarily an urban, sexy time with prostitutes and with the master having an answer or a piece of wisdom to anything they might encounter, the name of the game is for a long time paying for casual sex. The sight of a sexually frustrated Tommy Wong is gold but when director Simon Yip does take the flick into something akin to serious, the consequences of the trio isn't portrayed in any felt fashion. It tries with some sappy romance but is more fun when the consequences are about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases. Know the agenda you're clearly better at, Mr. Director. Also with Elsie Chan, Kathy Chow and Wong Yat-Fei as the VD Doctor. The duo of James Wong and Tommy Wong would go on to roam in a similar manner in Stooges In Hong Kong and Stooges In Japan.

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Tao Ten-Feng (Brigitte Lin) aborts her acting studies in England in order to find out what truly happened to her diseased sister Tao Pi-Huai (Tse Ling-Ling) back in Taiwan. Gathering info from the husband and brother in law Chiang Huai (Chin Han), Tao goes about her business with a degree of viciousness. In fact, this lady in black, a wild goose flown in, seems to want revenge and Chiang Huai's brother ends up in her path. But he's not knowingly meeting and acquainting Tao Ten-Feng but instead wild flower Lin Hsiao-Shuang...

Veteran director of Taiwan romance and melodrama Lau Lap-Lap does little to enhance cinematic qualities of the cinema climate he's in. In fact, The Wild Goose On The Wing is visually and structurally nothing else but a stage play concerning four characters and the secrets within. Little skills are shown by director Lau though as he unveils the truths about the death of Pi-Huai little by little and the flip flop of emotions in Lin's Tao Ten-Feng. A character that is an actress after all. The sense of danger is merely enhanced via lazy usage of one sound cue and the melodrama lacks a realistic stamp on it to make us truly hooked. Then again, The Wild Goose On The Wing does seem to challenge the movie climate of the time by going darker on us. Kudos for trying but if anything, Brigitte Lin manages to escape unharmed from criticism. While part of the critique towards the mentioned melodrama, the gorgeous looking Lin in whatever wear she appears in, puts in a patented epic performance of emotions. Skills that would eventually be put to use in better movies.

The logical step down from the anger height Ringo Lam reached in his critical School On Fire from the year before. Back in his gritty realism, cops and robbers territory but despite mixing in romance, he doesn't cheat any portion of his audience. In fact Lam is mellowed out and the stance equals his absolute best movie. Said to be a remake of Peter Weir's Witness (1985), I can't say how much if even THAT much Lam takes in order for his take to take flight but one thing's for certain, you can't complain when the final product is this excellent. In one of his many collaborations with leading lady Cherie Chung (An Autumn's Tale, Once A Thief etc), Chow Yun-Fat plays the cop who protects the only living witness of the murder of a female arms dealer... her daughter. Cherie is the sister who wants to put the little girl into the care of her biological father, a gangster played by Paul Chun. Getting close to him also get the trio close to violent assassins (led by Ringo Lam's favourite on screen bastard Roy Cheung) working for the gangster...

As a matter of fact, Wild Search isn't a classic Hong Kong cinema mood switcher. Lam takes his camera to the streets, focuses his eye on cops, features rather copious amounts of extreme violence when you think about it but where he's clever is via the use of very little visible effects to make it felt firmly, firmly, firmly felt. The violence IS visible but it's more about amping sound, camera technique instead of loading up with squibs. Therefore it fits to take Chow Yun-Fat's cop into a more human territory. Very on top of his game and showing his kind side, the classic bonding between two at first antagonistic characters creates an unusual screen romance where much is picked up on by the viewer but little is said. Even when, and this is going to sound very clinical, it's almost a romance based on a contractual agreement. But there are feelings there, feelings of feeling comfortable with a new person in your life (all while Cherie Chung's ex-husband played by Lau Kong turns up to stir the pot) and carrying all this are the terrific leads. It's essentially touching to watch these performers on top of their game and complimented by a terrific supporting cast such as Ku Feng (as Chung's angry father) and Tommy Wong's as Chow's partner, Wild Search is essential Hong Kong cinema viewing and Ringo Lam's pitch perfect showcase for his cinema statements. It doesn't have to do with anger.

A group of stewardess including Kwok Ching-Wan (Dayo Wong), the sole male of the group meet during a training course. Finding it hard to establish connections first, the quickest one happens between Kwok and Violet (Valerie Chow). It's a light, jokey friendship and Violet is looking for more attraction than that but is taking it at her own pace. As the seasons come and go during the year, she is chosen by a wealthy family who are descendants from the Ching dynasty to be paired up with the son Sai Wing (Yu Rong-Guang) in marriage while she also engages in a serious relationship with struggling musician Chan Wai Ming (Moses Chan). But when devotion is put forth by Violet to make others receive wind beneath their wings, when will she get hers?

A mature piece by Andy Chin (Call Girl 92) that lacks the emotional hook to must be conveyed through his main character Violet. Thankful he doesn't let matters degenerate into basically a movie that could've been called Stewardess Academy, the rather subdued atmosphere gets to the point where high emotions equal uneventful as they try and reach outside of the screen. Really poor character narration tries to deepen aspects on friendship and the philosophy on love but little registers aside from Dayo Wong's fairly infectious role as a confidant.

Jay (Tien Peng) gets into a car accident that leaves him blind afterwards. Reverting into a dark shell after losing everything, his otherwise working mom does her best to support her son in every way possible but the effect isn't there. Not until newly examined and strong-willed nurse Mei Chi (Wong Jing-Gwan) is hired, Jay starts looking at his new situation in a more reasonable light...

For a Taiwan melodrama (with a minor dash of romance), The Windows Of The Mind offers up fair intelligence and warmth with genuine sincerity behind it. Director Hung Tien-Miu (co-director of 7-Man Army) argues successfully that no elaborate setup is needed as it's mere minutes into the film we're into Jay's problems post-accident. Thanks to Tien Peng's performance, the facets expected to come at the forefront such as this rich boy once being best and having the best at his disposal now reduced to "nothing" remains very real in the hands of the performer/director co-operation. He also gets to confront his mother with buried issues and appreciating life via the work of somewhat of an angelic character (the nurse) isn't as on the nose as you would think... despite Hung Tien-Miu making sure all meaning of the film is spoken about very clearly. It makes The Windows Of The Mind feel like a novice work somewhat but meaning is definitely behind it despite.

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Also known as Gambling Ghost Are Ready, Wu Ma's master gambler escapes the clutches of hell to play one last game against his rival (Ku Feng). He reincarnates in recently diseased and mentally handicapped Pai and hits the gambling circuit with Mark Cheng's and Yukari Oshima's characters. Micro-budget take on familiarity established by Wong Jing's God of Gamblers but despite this certain doom, Yeung Jing-Chan keeps the movie afloat with a focus on delivering in the light areas. It's not gut bustingly funny but rather pleasant, ranging from Wu Ma escaping from his two wacky hell guards, a Terminator parody where Wu Ma's genitals accidentally are shown on camera, sloppy but welcome gunplay to a gambling finale that sees Wu Ma jump bodies left and right.

Featuring footage from Devil Sorcery (1988) during the opening credits and a really dumb cameo from Kwan Hoi-San, apparently there's some incredibly vague connection made by someone thinking someone out there pays attention. I obviously did to an extent and Witchcraft Vs Curse is more genre fodder (i.e. the sorcery-movie) for those of us gladly feeding on it although this time the welcome is outstayed for most of the film. Basically two families want Fu Yuk Lung (Ng Gong) to marry their daughter but the one he desperately wants to stay away from has a Taoist Priest (Yeung Chak-Lam) cast a spell on him so that he'll offer his love, sexually of course, to her. No choice but to counter the Taoist Priest and his Adultery Ghosts with Thailand's Simol (Nishiwaki Michiko) who along with her elephants starts the Vs of our title...

The fun setup quickly gives way to tedium and evidence of filmmakers only wanting to flood the market with more of the highest rated kind but even key elements are so cheap they borderline on embarrassing. A few scenes in its favour Witchcraft Vs Curse does have however in addition to its shameless behaviour. Simol's usage of elephants is an unusual addition and even though every effect (animated or otherwise) is barely serviceable even for Hong Kong cinema, you also realize there's filmmakers behind this that knows that for certain viewers, cheap and bad is enough. Heck, even the physical effects are suitably subtle as little would take place anyway. The finale with the Taoist Priest employing his what I assume is sex- or temptation-ghosts for what seems like a shameful 10 minutes is further realization of the intentions we're witnessing. The animal cruelty that follows isn't pretty and the film does its thing incredibly bad yet we're entertained for the few minutes it can provide... even though they barely qualify. Funny how that works. Exodus From Afar (1998) features footage from Witchcraft Vs Curse.

A witch from Nepal (Emily Chu) has finally found her new master as the scriptures have proclaimed. He's a modern day artist named Joe (Chow Yun-Fat) and the relentless devotion the witch has for him threatens to shatter his current relationship. Fate can't be avoided though and our Joe also has to step up to the plate to battle a not as nice witch from nepal (Ng Hong Sang)...

Ching Siu-Tung directs and despite his team of action choreographers being quite large (Alan Chui, Lau Chi Ho and Phillip Kwok), Ching puts a surprising amount of focus on story and characters. He infuses his narrative with a more subdued atmosphere which is truly surprising considering the supernatural elements of the plot. While very basic and unremarkable, he also does follow through on characters and their dilemmas. All this could've been seriously disrupted if Wong Jing had written the script but it becomes serious in a b-movie way and engages decently. Something you rightly can expect from a Ching Siu-Tung helmed production but not that it would come with this tone of filmmaking. Tom Lau (director of The Rape After) also offers up fine cinematography while the action flows and excites well enough. In particular the finale has striking resemblance to the climactic battle between Neo and Mr. Smith in The Matrix Revolutions.

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Hostess Tweedy (Rosamund Kwan) is the object of desire for sharp-shooting, psychopath Prince (Jacky Cheung) who does leave her alone after hit that forces him to flee. Meanwhile, young cop Ming (Leon Lai) and Tweedy falls in love and of course it's just a matter of time before Prince returns to wreck even more havoc now that he's challenged by another suitor...

Heavily stylized, both on an audio and visual level (Herman Yau was the cinematographer), there seems to be little reason to care for the love triangle presented and predictably because it's Taylor Wong directing, matters quickly turn really boring. The actors fall into their roles dependently though and John Ching is lively as a triad boss that is harsh on the hostesses looking after him. However the extended finale is sustained toughness, with an entertaining overact from Jacky Cheung and plenty enough gunplay mayhem. Also with Ng Man-Tat. The prequel No More Love No More Death was directed by Herman Yau.

Produced at Seasonal, Ng See-Yuen co-wrote this social drama detailing the situation of Vietnam refugees trying to make it into Hong Kong or any kind of land. Initially a bit tricky to follow, not only due to the cropped full frame print, but co-directors Keung Chi-Ming & Tung Liu achieves focus very late in their story. There's a plethora of characters featured but in the end there's an actual focus on a very few and that's when the narrative starts to form. The writing allows for some hideously over the top symbolic gestures about how refugees view their fellow man adapting to a higher class lifestyle but a chilling nature comes with the proceedings as well. Not only violence is in your face but the notion of these social destitute's grabbing every opportunity there is results in the more poignant passages. In particular a scene where hordes of people are looting the possessions of a recently diseased. Eventually part of the film takes on the feeling of a pre-cursor to Long Arm Of The Law and the role for the star of that film, Lam Wai, here in Without A Promised Land begins expanding to a fine degree. On the surface seen as corrupting a young boy via his violent ways, it is a preparation for innocence to go out into a form of adulthood at the expense of the death of others, which certainly rings true of realism. Without A Promised Land isn't remarkable or balls-grabbing social commentary but what's said, however minor it is, feels warranted.

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