Wellson Chin The Inspector Wears Skirts Series (Wellson Chin, 1988–1992) The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988) A Girls with Guns riff on the Police Academy series, with Sibelle Hu and Cynthia Rothrock training a group of Female Commandos led by Kara Hui and Sandra Ng. The training sequences are rote, with important lessons learned about teamwork and community. Most of the
Stanley Tong Project S (Stanley Tong, 1993) This sequel to Police Story 3: Supercop, also known as, appropriately enough, Supercop 2, focuses on Michelle Yeoh’s character from that film, with the same director (Stanley Tong) and Jackie Chan reprising his role in a single scene (in which he foils Eric Tsang’s jewel robbery attempt while
Hamguchi Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Ryūsuke Capsule Reviews Happy Hour (2015) — March 12, 2017 Would have been better to be able to see it all at once, in a theatre, but as it was, on my TV and spread out over five days, it’s pretty remarkable. All the performances are great, but I’ll go with Kikuchi
Devils on the Doorstep Hamaguchi Ryūsuke Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/hamguchi-ryusuke/]: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/wheel-of-fortune-and-fantasy-hamaguchi-ryusuke-2021/] (2021) — November 2, 2021 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/hamaguchi-ryusuke-capsule-reviews/]: Happy Hour (2015)— March 12, 2017 Asako I & II (2018) — October 3, 2018 Drive My Car (2021) — November 2, 2021 List:
Ohku Akiko Ohku Akiko Capsule Reviews Tremble All You Want (2017) — July 19, 2018 Tremble All You Want features yet another unrequited school crush[1], this one seen in flashback as 24 year old Yoshika is still obsessed with a boy she had a couple of fleeting interactions with a decade before. Now working as an
Devils on the Doorstep Ohku Akiko Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/ohku-akiko/]: My Sweet Grappa Remedies [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-sweet-grappa-remedies-ohku-akiko-2019/] (2019) – March 10, 2022 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/ohku-akiko-capsule-reviews/]: Tremble All You Want (2017) — July 19, 2018 Hold Me Back (2020) — August 2, 2021 List: Ohku Akiko Movies [https://letterboxd.com/theendofcinema/
Good Men, Good Women Tsui Siu-ming Capsule Reviews Mirage (1987) — March 22, 2021 The cinema is sending a few dozen stuntmen, a couple hundred extras, a few old trucks, a bunch of horses, and way too many explosives to the desert to fuck around and find out what happens. “Why not let the pictures show the difference between
Tricky Brains Chen Yu-hsun Reviews: The Village of No Return [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/the-village-of-no-return-chen-yu-hsun-2017/] (2017) — July 3, 2017 My Missing Valentine [https://inreviewonline.com/2021/08/23/my-missing-valentine/] (2020) — August 23, 2021 Capsule Review: 10+10 [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/a-better-tomorrow-capsule-reviews/] (2011) — October 1, 2012
Good Men, Good Women Ricky Lau Capsule Reviews Mr. Vampire (1985) — July 15, 2013 Fun. Added January 15, 2022: The first time I watched this, I remember thinking there wasn’t nearly enough Lam Ching-ying in it, that he was sidelined for a bunch of mediocre Ricky Hui hijinks. And I didn’t remember Moon Lee at all.
Joseph Kuo Return of the 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo, 1976) Probably the most confounding entry in the excellent Joseph Kuo boxset from Eureka. Not so much because of the film, which is certainly unusual, but because it is so obviously merely the first part of a multi-film story (despite its title it is not in fact a sequel to The
Joseph Kuo Joseph Kuo Capsule Reviews Shaolin Kung Fu (1974) — January 12, 2022 Has almost nothing to do with Shaolin and really not much kung fu either, at least of the philosophical variety you’d find in more reputable films. Instead it has a whole lot of fighting: quick and brutal, if not especially gory. The
Tricky Brains Joseph Kuo Reviews: The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968) – May 20, 2023 The Shaolin Kids (1975) — January 13, 2022 The 18 Bronzemen (1976) — January 13, 2022 Return of the 18 Bronzemen (1976) — January 14, 2022 7 Grandmasters (1977) — January 6, 2022 The 36 Deadly Styles (1979) — January 7, 2022 The Mystery of
Joseph Kuo The Shaolin Kids (Joseph Kuo, 1975) Like Joseph Kuo's Shaolin Kung Fu, this has very little to do with the mythology around the Shaolin Temple, nor does it feature any kids, at least of the non-grown up variety. Nor is it a kung fu film in the vein of the Shaolin cycle Chang Cheh
Joseph Kuo The 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo, 1976) Finally an honest-to-God Shaolin film from Joseph Kuo, and of course it’s not one that has the word “Shaolin” in the title. Focusing on the Temple’s site as a center of pro-Ming resistance to the nascent Qing Dynasty, it otherwise follows a typical Kuo revenge plot: like in
Joseph Kuo The World of the Drunken Master (Joseph Kuo, 1979) Solid bit of Yuen-sploitation from Joseph Kuo, a prequel that dares to answer the question nobody anywhere ever asked: why does Beggar So, the Drunken Master, drink so much? Yuen kids Yat-chor and Cheung-yan handle the choreography, while patriarch Yuen Siu-tien appears very briefly in the opening moments, performing on
Joseph Kuo The 36 Deadly Styles (Joseph Kuo, 1979) There was a weird cutaway scene early in Joseph Kuo’s 7 Grandmasters that struck me as a mistake, a bit of the story thrown into the middle of another storyline, the context and meaning of which wouldn’t become clear until much later in the film. It was jarring
Joseph Kuo 7 Grandmasters (Joseph Kuo, 1977) With the start of the new year I’m finally digging into Eureka’s Joseph Kuo boxset. The only other Kuo film I’ve seen thus far is a dubbed version of The Mystery of Chess Boxing. Right away here the limitations of Kuo’s independent production in Taiwan, as
Derek Kwok Schemes in Antiques (Derek Kwok, 2021) The latest film from director Derek Kwok does exactly what it says in the title: there are antiques and a lot of schemes surrounding them. An mystery adventure film that has some of the same energy as the Detective Chinatown series, Schemes in Antiques has been out for a few
Dante Lam The Rescue (Dante Lam, 2020) Dante Lam’s latest propaganda piece for the Chinese military, following 2016’s Operation Mekong and 2018’s Operation Red Sea (one wonders if he wanted to call it Operation Rescue, but someone explained to him that that name was already taken), was supposed to anchor the 2020 Chinese New
Wei Junzi Kung Fu Stuntmen (Wei Junzi, 2020) Wei Junzi’s documentary Kung Fu Stuntmen is about exactly what it says it is: the people who made Hong Kong action cinema the most breathtaking in the world for the past 60 years. It’s also about the decline and fall of that cinema, about nostalgia for a past
Tsui Hark The Once Upon a Time in China Series With the fall 2021 release of Criterion’s Once Upon a Time in China boxset, I put all my reviews of the series together here in one convenient place. Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991) Tsui Hark is the John Ford of Chinese cinema, and Once Upon
Hamguchi Ryûsuke Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2021) The similarities I found to Hong Sangsoo in Hamaguchi Ryūsuke’s last feature, Asako I & II, were surface level, based on the inexplicable doubling of (at least) one main character in a romance (as in Yourself and Yours), while the bulk of the movie’s greatness was to be
Good Men, Good Women Ricky Lau Reviews: The Mr. Vampire Sequels (1986-1989) – October 9, 2023 Capsule Reviews: Mr. Vampire (1985) – July 15, 2013 Where’s Officer Tuba? (1986) — July 21, 2020 Lists: Ricky Lau Movies
Unknown Pleasures David Lai Reviews: Saviour of the Soul I & II (Corey Yuen, David Lai, & Jeffrey Lau, 1991 & 1992) – April 12, 2023) Capsule Reviews: Heaven and Earth (1994) – September 29, 2023
Crippled Avengers Xu Haofeng Reviews: The Final Master (2016) – June 1, 2016 100 Yards (2023) – September 18, 2023 Capsule Reviews: The Hidden Sword (2017) – October 5, 2017 Lists: Xu Haofeng Movies
