The Chinese Cinema

Vincent Kok

Gorgeous (Vincent Kok, 1999)

David Chung

It's a Drink! It's a Bomb! (David Chung, 1985)

Chen Sicheng

Detective Chinatown 3 (Chen Sicheng, 2021)

Moon Lee

A Serious Shock! Yes Madam! (Albert Lai, 1993)

21st century Propaganda Films

The Battle at Lake Changjin (I & II) (Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, & Dante Lam, 2021-22)

Sammo Hung

Dragons Forever (Sammo Hung, 1988)

Guan Hu

The Eight Hundred (Guan Hu, 2020)

Max Lee Chiu-chun

Who Cares (Max Lee Chiu-chun, 1989)

Wong Jing

Kung Fu Cult Master (Wong Jing, 1993)

Stanley Siu Wing

The Avenging Quartet (Stanley Siu Wing, 1993)

Ohku Akiko

My Sweet Grappa Remedies (Ohku Akiko, 2019)

Fruit Chan

Coffin Homes (Fruit Chan, 2021)

Chor Yuen

The Web of Death (Chor Yuen, 1976)

Introduction

A New Home

Welcome to the new home for The Chinese Cinema. This is a project that began life almost ten years ago, when I was so smitten with Sammo Hung that I started a deep dive into Hong Kong cinema called the "Summer of Sammo." That fall it morphed into an ostensibly

Tony Lu Chun-ku

Angel Terminators 2 (Tony Lou Chun-ku & Chan Lau, 1993)

The only relation I can see between this and the first Angel Terminators film is that they both exist in a universe that follows all our normal laws of physics except for the fact that objects have a tendency to catch fire and explode whenever they impact other objects despite

Unknown Pleasures

Frankie Chan

Reviews: Burning Ambition (Frankie Chan, 1989) – January 25, 2022 Capsule Reviews: The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, 1981)— June 26, 2013 Carry On, Pickpocket (Sammo Hung, 1982)— July 27, 2017 Outlaw Brothers (Frankie Chan, 1990) – January 25, 2022

Frankie Chan

Frankie Chan Capsule Reviews

The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, 1981) — June 26, 2013 Lam Ching-ying is one of the great supporting actors of kung fu cinema, and this is a great showcase for both his acting and fighting. He plays an opera actor (specializing in female roles, as Lam himself did when he was

Frankie Chan

Burning Ambition (Frankie Chan, 1989)

This is the first Frankie Chan-directed film I’ve seen, after knowing him only from his supporting roles in Sammo Hung’s The Prodigal Son and Carry On Pickpocket and for his work as a composer for dozens of classic martial arts films (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Five

Corey Yuen

The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk II (Corey Yuen, 1993)

The second part of the story, released four months after the first, brings back most of the cast and shifts the setting from Canton to the headquarters of the Red Flower Society. Jet Li’s Fong is apprenticed to the leader of the group, whose ostensible aim is the restoration

Corey Yuen

The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk (Corey Yuen, 1993)

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

Lam Nai-choi

The Seventh Curse (Lam Nai-choi, 1986)

Maybe the most 1980s Hong Kong movie ever made. Part of the “Don’t Go To Thailand” horror tradition, wherein an urbane Hong Konger travels to the jungle, does something stupid, and ends up with a horrible magic curse that manifests itself in increasingly gory special effects. This generic cycle

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

Tricky Brains

Chen Yu-hsun

Reviews: The Village of No Return (2017) — July 3, 2017 My Missing Valentine (2020) — August 23, 2021 Capsule Review: 10+10 (2011) — October 1, 2012

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