Iron Monkey 2 A.K.A. 街頭殺手, 街头杀手, Jiē Tóu Shā Shǒu, Gaai1 Tau4 Saat3 Sau2 (1996)

A Chinese kung fu directed by Chao Lu-jiang, starring Donnie Yen and Wu Ma.
NOT a sequel to Iron Monkey (1993). A corrupt crime overlord is dealing in guns. A poor conman is trying to trick a stranger out of his money, but the stranger is related to a blind man in town. The stranger and conman end up fighting the crime lord.
What a disappointment. I did not look it up before watching, so I thought this was supposed to be a sequel. It looked and sounded worse than some 1970s kung fu films I've seen. The plot was not communicated clearly and characters were not made clear either. They were definitely shallow and undeveloped. The only thing that I can say in praise of this is that I liked the beginning of the ending fight. The heroes used ladders as weapons, trapping their foes, knocking them down and such. That was it. I rate this bad. You would be better off not watching it.

Iron Monkey A.K.A. 少年黃飛鴻之鐵馬騮, 少年黄飞鸿之铁马骝, Shàonián Huáng Fēihóng Zhī Tiě Mǎliú, Siu3-nin4 Wong4 Fei1-hung4 Zi1 Tit3 Maa5-lau4 (1993)

A Chinese wuxia kung fu directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Yu Rongguang.
A vigilante is trying to defend the residents of a town from corrupt officials. This man is also running a doctor's office. Another doctor and his son come to town and this doctor promises the officials that he will catch the vigilante. There is one official who is not corrupt and warns the doctors of the government's actions. The doctor eventually meet and join forces against the top official.
Very good! It's been about 12 years since I've seen this, so I watched it again. The plot is clear and the characters are relatively identifiable. What made this stand out to me was the professionally done production and exaggerated fight scenes. Everything was filmed and edited excellently, with good framing and camera movement. The fights used Hong Kong wire, props, dust, fire, buildings, etc... to make them each unique and interesting. There were poles used as weapons and recitation of moves, something that I really like in martial arts films. Recitation of moves is only slightly less cool than extended training scenes. The style seemed close to the newer Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) style of wuxia, but it was more kung fu than swordplay, so I labeled it both. I rate this awesome because it's such an exemplary martial arts film. Watch it.

The Bride with White Hair +2 A.K.A. 白髮魔女傳, 白发魔女传, Bái Fà Mó Nǚ Zhuàn, 白髮魔女2, 白发魔女2, Bái Fà Mó Nǚ Èr (1993)

Chinese wuxia films directed by Ronny Yu and David Wu, starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung.
A swordsman from Wu Tang Clan falls in love with a woman raised by wolves who is now working for cult leaders who want to destroy the 8 clans. Because of confusion over conflict between alliances, the wolf girl's hair turns white and she turns evil. The Wu Tang swordsman spends the next 10 years waiting for a blossom on Snow Mountain which will heal the wolf girl. Meanwhile, she has created her own all-female, man-hating cult.
The first film was great and the second was terrible. I blame the change of directors. What I would like to deal with here is the video techniques which made the original unique. By use of heavy back-lighting, the characters separated from the backgrounds in a stark manner. The midgrounds were mostly black, with slightly lighter far backgrounds and even lighter characters. See the image for why I think back-lighting was used. I don't know all the details, but some of the backgrounds looked to be manipulated in a way to produce this set of value contrasts. Motion blur was also used in action scenes. With modern digital editing, it could just be added easily. With older equipment, the film would be run slower to get less frames per second. Dutch angles were also used in some sections. The original had some flying and what I call "long sleeve technique" (long fabric, hair, etc. being cast out to full length as a weapon). Rotten Tomatoes audience score dropped from 75% for the original to 43% for the sequel and I agree. The original was unique and the plot made me care what happened. The sequel seemed like a mockery of what made the original good. I rate them good and bad.

SPL: Sha Po Lang A.K.A. Kill Zone, 殺破狼, 杀破狼 (2005)

A Chinese crime drama directed by Wilson Yip, starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Simon Yam.
A group of police detectives are in conflict with a crime boss. One of the cops was in a car accident 3 years before and the only survivors were him and a young relative. He then finds out that he has a brain tumor.
This was like 1970s American crime films with a "loose cannon cop", but everyone was Asian. The version I watched had an English dubbed audio track and the voices were way off. The voice acting was terrible and I don't think there were any Asian voice actors used. The plot was just total trash and the characters were unevenly developed. Thing that didn't matter were emphasized, but anything pertinent to the plot was not developed at all. For example, who is this guy? (image) He appears multiple times and kills lots of people, but he doesn't even have a name. The cinematography and camerawork looked alright, but there was too much slow motion that was too obvious. I really think this film took itself too seriously. If it had been meant to mock 1970s detective flicks, it would have been great. I rate it poor and would really advise against watching it.

Rise of the Legend A.K.A. 黃飛鴻之英雄有夢 (2014)

A Chinese kung fu directed by Roy Chow, starring Sammo Hung.
Wong Fei-Hung is a gangster, taking the mob down from inside, or so says Wikipedia.
Holy non-linear plots, Batman! It seemed like just a bunch of fights with organized crime to fill the gaps between them. The hero could be a child or a young man at any point without warning. I blame it on bad writing and turned it off at the 1 hour mark. It all looked great, but that's like frosting with no cake. I rate this shit because I turned it off.

Rigor Mortis A.K.A. 殭屍, 僵尸, Jiāng shī (2013)

A Chinese horror directed by Juno Mak, starring Chin Siu-ho, Kara Wai Ying-hung and Nina Paw Hee-ching.
An ex-actor moves into a large apartment building for poor residents. When he hangs himself, he is saved by a vampire hunter who dispels ghosts from his body. A woman in the building is turning her dead husband into a vampire with the help of another resident. There is also a mother with a young boy living in an electrical room.
This was interesting and held my attention, but not like super-fantastic. The characters were great, but the plot was muddy and not clearly presented. The camera-work, editing and special effects looked awesome. I would propose the analogy of great food with no plate. It didn't help that I watched a version with hard-coded Czech subtitles and had another set of English subtitles playing over them. I won't spoil the surprise ending, but the final conflict scene was amazing. I rate this adequate.

Raiders Series: Tokyo, Seoul & Europe (2000, 2005, 2018)

A Chinese kung fu spy comedies directed by Jingle Ma, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Spies and government agents work against and with one another to uncover secrets and obtain stolen items or people.
The first two films were entertaining and had their own style. It was like Jackie Chan mixed with James bond or "what if Austin Powers were Chinese and done relatively well?" The third film was trash: just new Hollywood "how big can we make it?" I should have expected something when the intro was a person skiing down a mountain in a light suit. What was really missing in Europe Raiders was humor. For example, the series had established that after the first fight, Tony says "I don't mind fighting, but don't mess up my hair" and Europe did not have it. All of the films had too much camera movement and the editing was too fast. That is the style of the times and I don't like it, but can live with it if there are other things going on that are good. My favorite scene of the series was in Seoul when Lam has Owen tied up and plays a sushi prank on him as torture because the truth serum won't work on him. Europe was also missing the truth serum! Everything that the first two films worked so hard to establish and that worked so well in them was missing from the third. I'm rating the first two adequate and the third bad. The strategy for watching them should be obvious.

In the Mood for Love A.K.A. 花樣年華, huāyàng niánhuá (2000)

A Chinese romantic drama directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.
A man whose wife is constantly busy with work and goes on business trips to Japan meets a woman next door whose husband is always busy with work and goes on business trips to Japan.
Very pretty, but pretty boring. The blocking in Wong Kar-wai films always stacks characters and items in focal depth. A prime example in this film was the woman standing in front of the man and walking away. She is in focus, then he is in focus as she walks past him and goes out of focus into the background. It's just brilliant camerawork! The music was alright too. Everything else sucked. The plot held my attention like a wet paper bag holds battle axes. Sex could have been implied in a very discreet and classy way, but we don't even see them taking their shoes off to enter the homes. They never touch one another. Is having a friend next door this scandalous in Hong Kong? I rate this poor. Read that first sentence of my review paragraph again.

Fallen Angels A.K.A. Duòluò tiānshǐ (1995)

A Chinese drama directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leon Lai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Karen Mok.
Four people rattle around Hong Kong. One man lives with his father and works at closed stores at night. The other man is an assassin. One woman shakes and may have some relationship with the assassin. The other woman likes rain and wants a relationship with the assassin.
I guess this is the Chinese version of Mike Leigh's British slice of life dramas. I like the camera-work more, but the plots less. There were so many good shots with dutch angles, reflections and blurs. The motorcycle through the tunnel was absolutely beautiful (image). If all you want is the video and don't care about any other aspect, I would recommend this. Not so much for any other reason. I rate it o.k.

Days of Being Wild (1990)

A Chinese romance directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau and Jacky Cheung.
3 men have relationship problems with 3 women. One of the men is adopted, dislikes his adopted mother and wants to find his real parents.
Muddy plot. I watched an hour of it, then read the plot on Wikipedia and turned it off. It just doesn't make sense to me. If my understanding of the plot is correct, it's a whole lot of nothing, so why even bother making the movie? Everyone else online seems to think it's great though. Something is wrong here. I rate this shit in accordance with my turn off policy. Do not watch! ...or listen to everyone else and watch it. I don't care.

Chungking Express A.K.A. Chóngqìng sēnlín (1994)

A Chinese romance directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Two men having a hard time dealing with relationship breakups meet other women. One of them is obsessive compulsive. He buys cans of pineapple with a certain expiration date and meets a woman involved in drug smuggling. The other man likes flight attendants and talking to inanimate objects. He meets a woman who works at the snack bar where both men eat. The snack bar woman gets keys (which are never seen or mentioned) to his apartment without him knowing and begins going there when he is not around.
The video professor where I went to school would be in awe of this. I saw lots of Dutch angles and selective focus. Too bad the $5000 school cameras were too crappy to do selective focus. I'm usually not into romance films, but the plot and characters held my attention. It doesn't matter that I thought it was all one continuous plot about the same man. This also featured a Cantonese cover of an American pop song, "Dreams" by The Cranberries. It's very odd to hear a song that was overplayed when I was in high school sung in Cantonese. There were some humorous moments to mention: the first man eating 30 cans of pineapple and the second man talking to a bar of soap and a towel. What really made me laugh about the latter was when Faye replaced these items and he was talking to them as if they had changed, not been replaced. Lecturing soap about gaining weight is comical. I rate this adequate. You may want to read the plot first, but it's worth watching.

As Tears Go By A.K.A. 旺角卡門, 旺角卡门, Wàngjiǎo Kǎmén (1988)

A Chinese crime romance directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung.
2 brothers are small-time criminals and one of them falls in love with a cousin. Problems with a gang lead to increased violence.
I think most of this was lost in translation. It doesn't look like Wong Kar-wai work, but the plot definitely fits what little I know of his films. I just have some interesting points to bring up. Hearing "Take My Breath Away" (originally recorded by Berlin and featured on the Top Gun soundtrack) with Chinese vocals was a little odd. There were so many translation mistakes in the subtitles that I could not possibly list them here. One character asks the cousin to give him a phone if something happens. At about 1:03:30 one of the brothers puts a gun into a gangster's pants to blow his dick off (image). I rate this o.k. because it just seemed like an average eastern crime flick to me.

2046 (2004)

A Chinese romance directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Gong Li, Carina Lau, Chang Chen and Maggie Cheung.
A writer lives in a small hotel and dates women. He is writing a science fiction story about secrets and uses the room number of a woman he met there as a year or place to set his story.
Very pretty, but pretty boring. Apparently, this is the sequel to 2 of Wong Kar-wai's other films which I haven't watched yet because of my alphabetical order. I think that the writing was what did this in for me. The camera-work was absolutely beautiful. Framing, composition and creative angles were all present and top shelf. Depth of field and something I can only term "item stacking" were great. Shots were arranged in a way which put people behind people, in front of doorways, between cutrains, etc. The plot and characters just could not hold my attention. In stark contrast to the last film I watched, Nymphomaniac (2013), this had me hoping for longer than usual credits so that it would just be done. I rate this poor because of unbalanced production that its visual beauty could not save.

My Lucky Stars A.K.A. 福星高照 (1985)

A Chinese action comedy directed by Sammo Hung, starring Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao.
5 men go to Japan to free their friend from mobsters.
Stupid, pointless and incoherent. I watched about an hour of the 1.5 hour duration and was still lost. I have a feeling that most of the humor that may have been there was lost in translation. I didn't see much action either. In accordance with my turn off policy, I rate this shit. Do not watch!

Mojin: The Lost Legend A.K.A. 鬼吹燈之尋龍訣 (2015)

A Chinese adventure directed by Wuershan, starring Shu Qi.
A trio of retired treasure hunters are living in New York City. 20 years ago, the 2 men narrowly escaped from a tomb, but lost the woman they both desired. Now one of them has returned to the area to search for the Equinox Flower. The other man follows and is accompanied by their female co-worker. The first man who returned is employed by a gang of some type and all of them enter a tomb which is rife with traps.
If you can read subtitles fast enough, this is really cool. It looked like a modern wuxia film, but there was no flying or swordplay. The sets and special effects are the main attraction here. The tomb has bridges that burn with green fire, zombies, collapsing floors and mummies which turn into poisonous dust. It doesn't matter that I could tell when the characters were in front of a green screen. The main characters were moderately developed and their back-story was revealed as the plot progressed. Somehow I was reminded of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I rate this good and would recommend it for those who like big movies with good special effects.

Game of Death A.K.A. The Game of Death, 死亡遊戲, 死亡游戏 (1978)

A Chinese kung fu directed by Robert Clouse, starring Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The version that I watched involved the hero in conflict with a crime syndicate, including motorcyclists with striped suits. There are other versions with different plots.
This is the yellow and black tracksuit film and Bruce Lee's last film. Hence, the historical significance of a mediocre kung fuvie. I think I saw the 1972 version a long time ago, which did not include the gangsters. The other main point to note is Bruce Lee's death. In the beginning of the 1978 version, his character is acting in a movie and a light almost falls on him. There was also a scene in which Bruce Lee's actual corpse was shown in his coffin. The only part of the film that I liked was the main character going up floors of a building to face other kung fu masters. This obviously includes the climax fight against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (also his replacement in re-shooting). The image that I have chosen was to illustrate the main fight and is not from the 1978 version that I watched. If you're into Chinese kung fu films at all, you have to see this at some point because of its historical significance. However, it is not that great a movie. I rate it adequate.

A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation A.K.A. Xiao Qian, Little Pretty (1997)

A Chinese animated wuxia directed by Andrew Chen.
A young debt collector makes friends with a ghost who works for a tree demon. He also meets feuding exorcists, one of which helps him.
There were some similarities and differences with this and the live action version. The fast pacing and basic characters and plot matched quite well. This featured a "ghost town", meaning a town inhabited by ghosts instead of a poor, living human town. The animation style was a little more like traditional western cartoons than eastern anime films. Lots of the character designs were simplified, but the backgrounds were rendered more realistically. Another difference is that the hero in this had a pet dog and the live action hero did not. Overall, I thought this was vastly inferior to the live action. Even though the pacing was quick, it was nowhere near the speed of the live action. There was also no climax fight against the tree demon. Everything in this animated version was way too happy, bright and Disney for the story being told. I rate this o.k. If you're really into the series, go ahead and watch it.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)

A Chinese American wuxia directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh.
A thief is sent from West Lotus to steal the Green Destiny sword from Sir Te's house where it was supposed to be hidden. Shu Lien captures the thief and hires a group of "Iron Way" warriors to help her guard it. Shu Lien's new student turns out to be related to the thief, everyone fights and most of them die.
Sometimes sequels are not so great. The original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was much better because it seemed sincere and there was not as much fast editing going on. The slower pace of the original allowed audiences to digest what was going on before something else happened, but this sequel seemed rushed. The flashbacks, storytelling and training scenes were too short. It seemed like the audience was not allowed time to get to know the characters in order to care about them. I also noticed that people were flying for no real reason. In the original, the wire flying was always motivated by a purpose in the fight or the plot. The plot in this was unoriginal: they are still fighting over that same sword. I know that the current trend in movies is sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes, but there are actually some decent original films being made. Sorry to Bother You (2018) is a good example of this. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie and not fix what is not broken (cliche' sentence anyone?). I rate this tolerable because it was insincere, unoriginal, but upheld the basic requirements of the genre.

Hand of Death A.K.A. Countdown in Kung Fu, shǎolínmén (1976)

A Chinese kung fu directed by John Woo, starring Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
A military leader has destroyed Shaolin and some various fighters team up to defeat him.
Yet another standard kung fu. If you're looking to see what old school fu was like, it was like this. If you're looking to watch a good movie, steer clear. How many revenge plots involving the destruction of Shaolin by a singular villain can there be? The shallow characters did not do it for me. They were like every other fighter in any of the hundreds of kung fu films I've seen. Dialogue could have been copied and pasted from other films and I seriously doubt that anyone would notice. You probably wouldn't even have to change the names. Acting was the same. Same, same, same. There was lots of fighting with weapons and hand to hand as well as discussion of different styles. I swear the filmmakers all used the same sets and costumes. They were like community property for anyone in China who wanted to make a kung fu flick. There was some shot variety in the camera-work and editing. Two that I noticed were an actor seen from between the feet of a horse and a flashback to training during the final fight. Special effects were the same as every other kung fu and so was audio. IMDb lists a rating of 6/10, AllMovie lists 2/5 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 44% audience score for an average of 53.5%. That sounds right to me because it was so dull and could not be differentiated from any other fu flick. I rate this tolerable because it was not painful to watch.
I might be taking a break from this soon. School taught me too much about movies and I've watched too many. 2500 and something reviews over 8 years is not a bad run if that's all I do with my film blog.

God of Gamblers A.K.A. Doe San, Dǔ Shén (1989)

A Chinese action comedy directed by Wong Jing, starring Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau.
An extremely skilled gambler accidentally falls into a trap laid by a small-time and his friend, hitting his head multiple times and losing his memory. The friends pick him up and soon find out that he can gamble well if they feed him a certain kind of chocolate that reawakens part of his memory. Gambling debts of the unskilled gambler, a bodyguard from the high level gamblers and a team of Triad assassins all converge in a parking garage and the skilled gambler is injured again, restoring his memory. He then goes to one final game before leaving the country.
2 hours of this was a little bit too much. The complex plot had too many sub-plots (as always). There were lots of characters and even more extras, but the few main characters stood out quite well. Their dialogue was written well enough to identify them and their acting was pretty good. Sets and costumes were slightly varied. There were rich people and places as well as poor, seedy ones. My favorite set was the bamboo scaffolding. Camera-work was done very well. Not only was there a variety of shot distances, but a good mix of shot lengths. It was a little heavier on short takes and close-ups, but there were enough medium and long takes and framings mixed in. I think there was something wrong with the version that I got because white items at night had halos around them. This may have been true of the original, but probably not. Special effects were pretty standard of the time and genre: a few shootings, a knifing, some falls and high altitude acrobatics. I watched a version dubbed into Thai with English subtitles, but everything sounded to be mixed correctly. IMDb lists a rating of 7.4/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 87% audience score for an average of 80.5%. I rate this o.k. It would have been better if it were shorter and fewer sub-plots.