# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Lost Boys In Wonderland (1995) Directed by: Samson Chiu

Despite the setting of a male youth prison, Samson Chiu's Lost Boys In Wonderland is at core dead on similar to the likes of Girls In The Hood (especially so since they came out around the same time) but Chiu shows why an actual good filmmaker will nail storybeats much better. Mixing the light with the dark since there exists an extremely thin line for it in regards to his characters, the youths go about their lives flashing the disrespect towards society and family to instead put all their being into loyalty towards their scoundrel brothers. Lam Ming-Lun plays Chi who willingly takes a prison sentence just to be around his big brother but as he's no longer at the same prison, Chi must face the world alone. Redefine his thoughts on society status. Symbolism is strong and valid in Chiu's visuals as they include both multiple shots of heaven and its birds but registers most favorably when featuring a story connected to the comic book character of McDull (Chiu recently directed the 3rd of the feature length adaptations of the little pig's exploits). You pay a debt for clearly going against proper values, take some beating but hopefully come out sunny side up. Chiu is right in underplaying the melodrama of the situation, the darkness and in the end, his varied answers to what fate holds for the characters. To provide hope and darkness is not a bad way to go cinematically. The young cast do fine work, especially otherwise triad character actor Samuel Leung.

James Ha is credited with the story as well as being action director and it doesn't seem wrong to think this is a personal story of his.

Lost Control (1997) Directed by: Joe Hau

Impressive low budget thriller from usual lethal directing weapon Joe Hau, Lost Control is surprisingly and thankfully divided into two stories, making kudos come Hau's way as he doesn't try and stretch either to unbearable lengths. In fact, they are on separate discs of the vcd! Making a Fatal Attraction clone on disc 1 with Bowie Lam in a limp marriage giving in to his urges while drunk, Hau isn't exactly exercising snappy pace but his cast isn't completely dead like in 97' Lan Kwai Fong for instance. Bowie Lam you recognize but it's the ladies getting a gorgeous showcase via veteran cinematographer Venus Keung's eye. It even gives way to decent tension and a freaky twist that is familiar but an eye brow raiser nonetheless.

On disc 2, we see Chow Lui as a make-up person for the dead with past issues and possibly a way too great attachment to her job, something that worries boyfriend Wai (Lam Wai - My Wife's Lover). Quite slow and atmospheric but more importantly sick and depraved, this second story on relationships is a bit too pretentious but survives quite easily on mood and content.

The Lost Swordship (1977) Directed by: Lee Ga

The hunt is on for Lu Nan-Jen (Tien Peng) as villainous clan Tien Cheng Chao wants to obtain The Fragrant Sword from him. Twists, trickery, personal relationships, treachery... it's a regular time with Wuxia cinema and it's worthy of being disliked. Reportedly originally destined to be a Shaw Brothers production, their prolific writer Ni Kuang did however adapt yet another Ku Long novel that has been squeezed into 90 minutes. With a production knowing being extravagant is a key for this type of fantastical setting, director Lee Ga contributes little else but that as he plows through the twisty, turny plot. Despite trying to favour human interest at points, no interest is created and what The Lost Swordship basically offers up as it gets more muddled is the occasional flash of the genre creativity you would also expect. Best example being a fight in the classical setting of the bamboo forest and it's not a poor echo of A Touch Of Zen either. Outside of these highlight reel type moments, it's doubtful anyone would connect emotionally to the so called tension or the drama. Co-starring Pai Ying and Hu Chin.

L - O - V - E ..... LOVE (1997) Directed by: Matt Chow

Horny dogs want women in a beauty pageant or as the literal translation for Matt Chow's comedy goes "Super Invincible Pursues the Girl", which sums up matters quite nicely but Matt Chow's feature debut is an intolerable mess of over the top wacky antics and unfunny ones at that. The boss and workers at a sushi bar (Nat Chan, Eric Kot and Jerry Lamb) are joined by real estate tycoon Super Ma (Michael Tiu - False Lady) on a trip to Thailand after already pursuing/stalking the contestants of a beauty pageant in Hong Kong. No wonder, some of them are played by Shu Qi and Vivian Hsu. If a satire or parody of some sort was attempted or if Chow wanted to do a cheap throwback to 80s comedies in the vein of My Lucky Stars (again the horny dogs aspect), it all fails gloriously despite the eye candy automatically being good. With no restraint placed on the likes of Eric Kot, Chow lights the fuse and hope that his direction will explode into fireworks of hilarity. The sole laugh comes from the girls discarding their various surgical enhancements in one scene but a laugh like that is followed by the lame inclusion of Lee Kin-Yan (nosepicking transvestite of many Stephen Chow movies) as the transvestite participating and it's indeed all pretty lame. Pretty to look at and intolerable... die hard Shu Qi and Vivian Hsu fans don't even need to bother.

Love & Sex Among The Ruins (1996) Directed by: Cheung Chi-Sing

While it's easy to proclaim there's something not quite satisfactory about Cheung Chi-Sing's (I Wanna Be Your Man!) comedy-drama, the story of impotent cab driver Man Cheung's (usually annoying Dayo Wong) adventures within a triangle of lust/love and art goes quite the creative bit in terms of portraying facets of sex. After being part of a Farrelly Brother's movie during the first few reels, Man Cheung's vacation to Lamma Island means further acquaintances with his trusted customer Man (Liz Kong), lesbian bar owner Billie (Ada Choi) and just plain out there husband of Man's, Tung (Cheung Tat-Ming). Acting as a righteous, nice guy, the triangle he finds himself in is encouraged to be by wacky Tung who sees it as his dream to have a free for all lust and love relationship even though Billie was Man's lover at one time. Enter an island cop (Pauline Suen) on the busy stage, who sets out to cure good guy Man Cheung...

Major tangents of life contemplating, musings on sex and how longing will disrupt a desired structure to love, it's sex vs. heart and soul in quite the bizarre package as presented by Cheung Chi-Ming. He goes deep in his exploration no doubt but these characters aren't particularly mapped out to cohere all the way through. Especially Cheung Tat-Ming's Tung who is a peculiar number that is hard to pin down. It doesn't seem particularly illogical to cast comedy actor Cheung Tat-Ming then and Dayo Wong handles himself adequately too. Ada Choi dominates the show though, oozing sex, desire and remains the sole, clear cut character material director Cheung squeezes out of Love & Sex Among The Ruins. Vincent Kok and Lee Lik-Chi appear in cameo roles.

Love And Sword (1979, Yu Kan-Ping)

A nice break from the usual intrigue between clans and just like Patrick Tam's The Sword, Yu Kan-Ping's debut movie goes for human traits despite depicting swordplay heroes out of a fantasy realm. Not a great showcase for story all the way through (the melodrama being the main reason why), Yu is still on a mission to vary up encounters and scenes. The stylistic intent comes through via staging of action scenes and more of a gloomy depiction of the martial world. For a debut director, the eye is strong as is the theme of the emptiness in these heroes pursuing fame as they pursue each other. Said Patrick Tam movie is a sharper embodiment of it but there's an unusual amount of fodder for the mind still present in Love And Sword, Yu went on to helm comedies and dramas such as Can't Stop The War and Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?

Love And The City (1994) Directed by: Jeff Lau

Jeff Lau has proven he can score with wacky comedy but turning his attention to romance equals complete disaster. Love And The City sees small time hoodlum Wu (Leon Lai) being let out of prison only to get entangled with the law again and meet the women of his dreams. Fate plays Jo Jo (Wu Chien-Lien) in his hands but also unluck in the form of a corrupt police force looking to pin a murder on Wu...

Lau asks cinematographer Arthur Wong to bathe certain sections in blue for some reason and doesn't make a convincing case of the true love present between his leads. Leon Lai and Wu Chien-Lien on top of it all doesn't even strike up minor chemistry while narrative choices such as rampant voice over, melodramatic high gear amplified by a constant weepie score and a subplot involving a pager call center becomes absurdities with Lau at the helm. The film does resemble a fantasy for all the wrong reasons with primarily Lau living his, thinking this is how you make passable drama. Ng Man-Tat in a dramatic act is a welcome choice but neither he or an automatically radiant Wu Chien-Lien can't outshine the inept material at hand.

Love Chaser (1993) Directed by: Woo Ga-Kan

Silly soap opera and Category III softcore porn tactics interspersed with Wayne The Sorcerer having wild sex in his sorcerer like, smokey bedroom. Yes, it's a gloriously cheap time for lovers of crap cinema but expecting little is the correct tuning for Love Chaser so there's plenty of unintentional fun to be had. Mrs. Leung (Siu Yam-Yam) has and is prostituting her daughters Shun Shun (Ruby Wong but not the PTU supporting actress) and Jo Jo (the luscious Amy Wong, often shot very well) and in this convoluted mess there is also movie star (but in Category III films) Yung (Foo Wai-Kei) in love with Shun Shun but also drawn to Jo Jo. The vicious mom does her best to favour only herself financially, something that proves to be tough in a slumping stock market and then there's Wayne The Sorcerer appearing every now and again. It's fairly fast movie crap with a capital C but it has a plethora of funny scenes including involuntary groping during the in the film movie shoot (a notion the director is the main cheerleader for), perverted glass-eyed customers with a penchant for wearing Mickey Mouse-ears during sex and a tedious triangle of love chasing that is often amusing in its poor ways. Also watch out for snot during the melodramatic finale, porno score galore and some supernatural shenanigans pretty much out of nowhere.

The Love Eterne (1963, Li Han-Hsiang)

Based on the classic Chinese folktale 'Butterfly Lovers', Li Han-Hsiang continued to strike commercial gold with his vision for Huangmei opera on film. Although compared to the likes of The Kingdom And The Beauty (1959), The Love Eterne is more grand in every sense of the word. Featuring what feels like 20+ songs as the tragic romance is told through both off-screen choirs and his performers Betty Loh Tih and Ivy Ling Po (playing the male character in this version), the feel is that of a big stage performance. From the obvious aspect to expressive acting and latter melodrama. But commitment to the classical makes the film very enjoyable, even if its huge impact (especially in Taiwan with both the public and during awards-season with Ivy Ling Po having an award specially created for her) isn't thoroughly easy to feel as a Westerner. Li Han-Hsiang and production crew at Shaw Brothers also merges all of this with extremely detailed indoor- and outdoor-settings (all shot on stage) that makes The Love Eterne one of the more grand and reference examples of what directorial vision and production facilities can achieve. It's probably one of the best looking Shaw Brothers movies to this day. Tsui Hark made his own version of the story in 1994 as The Lovers, starring Charlie Yeung and Nicky Wu.

Love, Guns & Glass (1995) Directed by: Ivan Lai & Lai Gai Keung

Triad boss Siu (Simon Yam) gets out of prison only to find out that his wealth and power has been diminished. While a group of loyal followers is still around, Siu in the end decides to start a from scratch and does so by helping and eventually marrying the debt ridden Ching (Cecilia Yip). Escaping the triad world where he's left permanent scars proves to be difficult though...

Ivan Lai and Lai Gai Keung takes on the redemption theme, one certainly worth examining but in the end only goes slightly humane and affecting places. Initial fresh chemistry between the stars help keep the drama buoyant but Love, Guns & Glass more or less becomes traditional genre fodder for the majority of the time. The Lai's take their story to such over the top levels that the romance angle actually turns awfully bizarre at points. Basically, the filmmakers know how to pound but not how to stroke gently and emotions therefore runs so high that it kills off any such investment from the viewer.

What Love Guns & Glass therefore is, is watchable, violent action cinema and it for sure delivers the goods. The action, directed by Phillip Kwok, is very intense and well-staged with the gore landing on quite extreme levels. Elements of sadism also rears its head, which is no surprise considering Ivan Lai was coming off Category III nastiness such as Daughter Of Darkness. Roy Cheung, Farini Cheung, Chin Ho (sporting quite bad prosthetic scar makeup) and Mark Houghton also appear.

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