The Chinese Cinema (Page 18)

The Chinese Cinema

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Yuen Woo-ping

Reviews: Miracle Fighters (1982) – November 8, 2024 Shaolin Drunkard (1983) – November 8, 2024 The Tiger Cage Trilogy (1988-1991) – August 25, 2022 In the Line of Duty IV (1989) – March 24, 2023 The Tai Chi Master (1993) – June 21, 2022 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) — February 27, 2016

Corey Yuen Capsule Reviews

Corey Yuen Capsule Reviews

Ninja in the Dragon’s Den (1982) — December 30, 2013 Conan Lee fights a guy on stilts. Conan publicly humiliates a Taoist magician. Then a ninja shows up, trying to kill Conan’s old friend. Conan fights the ninja (Sanada Hiroyuki, the Japanese guy from Royal Warriors) in a room

Corey Yuen

Reviews: Yes, Madam! (1985) — July 2, 2015 Righting Wrongs (1986) – August 1, 2022 She Shoots Straight (1990) — December 22, 2013 Saviour of the Soul I & II (Corey Yuen, David Lai, & Jeffrey Lau, 1991 & 1992) – April 12, 2023) The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk (1993) – January 23, 2022 The

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

The House of 72 Tenants (1973) — July 21, 2013 A comic version of the “poor people living in cramped quarters” genre that pops around around the world in movies like Humanity and Paper Balloons by Sadao Yamanaka, Street Scene by King Vidor, many of the 1930s films of Naruse and

Chor Yuen

Reviews: Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) — July 7, 2013 Killer Clans (1976) — December 26, 2012 The Web of Death (1976) – February 22, 2022 The Sentimental Swordsman (1977) — July 23, 2013 Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre Parts I & II (1978) — July 25, 2013 Swordsman and Enchantress (1978) – January

Ying Liang Capsule Reviews

Ying Liang Capsule Reviews

Good Cats (2008) — October 8, 2008 Ultra-low budget Chinese film (video) about a chauffeur for a petty gangster/real-estate developer. His boss’s deal with a local village is going badly, his mentor is really depressed due to debt, his wife hates him for not being more successful, and their

Herman Yau Capsule Reviews

Herman Yau Capsule Reviews

Don’t Fool Me (1991) — June 14, 2019 Herman Yau’s second directorial credit is a Cinema City-esque light comedy made significantly better than it should be by Andy Lau and Tony Leung at their most adorable. Teresa Mo and Fenny Yuen aren’t bad either, and Yau keeps things

Ying Liang

Review: When Night Falls [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/when-night-falls-ying-liang-2012/] (2012) —September 30, 2012 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/ying-liang-capsule-reviews/]: Good Cats (2008) — October 8, 2008 A Family Tour (2018) — October 1, 2018

Herman Yau

Reviews: The Legend is Born: Ip Man (2010) — April 27, 2014 Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013) — April 29, 2014 Shock Wave (2017) — September 22, 2017 The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (2019) — July 13, 2019 Shock Wave 2 (2020) — February 23, 2021 The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell

Wai Ka-fai Capsule Reviews

Wai Ka-fai Capsule Reviews

Too Many Ways to be №1 (1997) — February 24, 2013 Wai Ka-fai absolutely off the rails. Gangster life is chaos and crazy shit is inevitable, so you might as well act like a badass. Maybe you’ll get lucky and end up the horribly crippled boss of your own Triad.

Heiward Mak Capsule Reviews

Heiward Mak Capsule Reviews

High Noon (2008) - October 27, 2014 Made when she was only 23 years old, director Heiward Mak’s first feature feels more like a “first feature” than anything I’ve seen in quite awhile. She throws every technique she can think of up on the screen: changes in color

Jeffrey Lau Capsule Reviews

Jeffrey Lau Capsule Reviews

The Haunted Cop Shop (1987) — July 25, 2020 Jeffrey Lau-directed and Wong Kar-wai-written mash-up/parody of the Chinese vampire and girls with guns genres. The vampires are more Western though (with a backstory about the Japanese occupation to satisfy the critics) and the GWG stuff is mostly just Jacky Cheung

Grace Chang Capsule Reviews

Winners & Sinners

Grace Chang Capsule Reviews

Mambo Girl (Evan Yang, 1957) – March 20, 2017 On first glance, a frothy frivolity, a 50s teen rom-com musical with Grace Chang the Debbie Reynolds or Annette Funicello at its center, the bubbly singing, dancing, wholesome good girl everyone loves. But the plot takes a turn: it turns out Grace

Wai Ka-fai

Reviews: Peace Hotel (1995) – March 21, 2023 Running on Karma (2003) — January 1, 2018 Detective vs. Sleuths (2022) – July 30, 2022 Capsule Reviews: Too Many Ways to be №1 (1997) — February 24, 2013 Needing You (2000) — February 25, 2013 Help!!! (2000) — March 9, 2013 Fulltime Killer (2001) — February 23, 2013

Heiward Mak

Reviews: Uncertain Relationships Society [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/uncertain-relationships-society-heiward-mak-2014/] (2014) — October 3, 2014 Fagara [https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/contemporary-chinese-cinema-sammi-cheng-stars-in-heiward-mak-s-fagara] (2019) — September 10, 2019 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/heiward-mak-capsule-reviews/]: High Noon- October 27, 2014 Diva — November 15, 2014 List: Heiward Mak Movies [https://letterboxd.com/theendofcinema/lis

Jeffrey Lau

Reviews: Saviour of the Soul (Corey Yuen, David Lai, & Jeffrey Lau, 1991) – April 12, 2023) Treasure Hunt (1994) – April 18, 2023 A Chinese Odyssey (1995) — August 12, 2019 East Meets West (2011) — December 13, 2012 Capsule Reviews: The Haunted Cop Shop (1987) — July 25, 2020 All for the Winner

Sammo Hung Capsule Reviews

Sammo Hung Capsule Reviews

The Prodigal Son (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 a stage

Sammo Hung

Glory to the Fat Dragon! — August 14, 2017 Reviews: The Iron-Fisted Monk (1977) — June 8, 2013 Warriors Two (1978) — May 30, 2013 Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)— June 1, 2013 Winners & Sinners (1983) — June 4, 2013 Heart of Dragon (1985) – June 8, 2023 The Millionaires' Express (1986)

Ching-Siu-tung Capsule Reviews

Ching-Siu-tung Capsule Reviews

Duel to the Death (1983) — April 10 2018 An end of the line wuxia starring Damian Lau, who began his career specializing in this kind of thing with John Woo’s Last Hurrah for Chivalry and Johnnie To’s The Enigmatic Case, and directed by Ching Siu-tung, who choreographed maybe

Ching Siu-tung

Reviews: Monkey Kung Fu (John Law Ma, 1979) – May 26, 2022 Swordsman and Swordsman II (Ching Siu-tung, et al, 1990 and 1992) — Sep 26, 2012 The Heroic Trio (Ching Siu-tung & Johnnie To, 1993) — August 1, 2015 Capsule Reviews: Duel to the Death (1983) — April 10 2018 A Chinese Ghost

Patrick Tam Capsule Reviews

Patrick Tam Capsule Reviews

The Sword (1980) — August 24, 2013 Patrick Tam’s feature debut is a melancholy end of the line wuxia about a swordsman who learns that running around challenging people to duels for no reason other than pride in your own hierarchical ranking tends to have unintended consequences, namely a bunch

Pang Ho-cheung Capsule Reviews

Pang Ho-cheung Capsule Reviews

Exodus (2007) — November 10, 2014 Very stylish Pang Ho-cheung film (Hong Kong has never looked more eerily alien) in which a cop suspects there may be a conspiracy of women to kill all the men on the planet. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know

Liu Jiayin Capsule Reviews

Liu Jiayin Capsule Reviews

Oxhide II — April 11, 2010 The best film I saw at the 2009 Vancouver Film Festival was this realtime chronicle of the director Liu Jiayin and her parents preparing, cooking, and eating dumplings. It consists of only nine shots, with each setup spaced 45 degrees clockwise from the last. This

Li Han-hsiang Capsule Reviews

Li Han-hsiang Capsule Reviews

Diau Charn (1958) — March 3, 2017 The Shaw Brothers’ first color film, a huangmei musical based on the story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms about the woman who tempted the great general Lü Bu into murdering his patron and father-in-law, the usurping Prime Minister Dong Zhuo, in the latter

Ringo Lam Capsule Reviews

Ringo Lam Capsule Reviews

Aces Go Places IV: You Never Die Twice (1986) — December 11, 2013 Sylvia Chang, who’s mostly been wasted in this series since halfway through the first entry, absolutely broke my heart at the end of this one, when it looks as though Karl Maka’s Baldy has died. That