A simple hot becomes a buddy crime odyssey in Johnnie To’s elegant genre exercise reuniting the stars of his gangster classic ‘The Mission.’
Tag: Hong Kong
Johnnie To’s ‘Drug War’ on Amazon Prime
Drug War (2012) relocates Hong Kong director / producer Johnnie To, the most rigorous and disciplined (and the most socially observant and politically savvy) of Asian crime movie auteurs, to the Chinese mainland. He trades the urban overcrowding and overheated capitalism of Hong Kong for the open plains and lonely highways of Tianjin but otherwise […]
‘In the Mood for Love’ on Criterion Channel
There may be no more sensual director in the world than Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-Wai, and In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong, 2000) is one of his richest and most melancholy works, a shadow dance of would-be lovers sketched in suggestions and intimations. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai star as next door neighbors […]
‘Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster’ on Netflix
Our story so far: the title character (played by Hong Kong martial arts maestro Donnie Yen) is the real-life martial Chinese arts teacher and proponent of Wing Chun style who was a hero during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria but is more famous to the western world for mentoring the young Bruce Lee. Which is […]
Donnie Yen is legendary martial artist ‘Ip Man’ on Netflix
Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen plays the legendary Ip Man (Hong Kong, 2008), teacher and grandmaster of Wing Chun, in this biographical drama (one in a long line of such tributes) based on the master’s life during the Japanese occupation of China. Yen is a superb screen fighter with an often bland presence. […]
‘Ip Man 3’ with Donnie Yen on Netflix
Ip Man 3 (Hong Kong, 2015) brings Donnie Yen back for one more portrayal of the real-life martial arts master who kept Wing Chun alive during the Japanese occupation in World II and went on to mentor a generation of students, including Bruce Lee. This third chapter is set in late 1950s Hong Kong, where […]
‘Ip Man 4: The Finale’ on Netflix
Martial arts movie star Donnie Yen returns to the role of legendary Wing Chun master Ip Man in Ip Man 4: The Finale (Hong Kong, 2019), the final film in the series based (very loosely) on his life. This film, set in 1964, sends Ip Man to San Francisco, where his student Bruce Lee (played […]
Martial arts classics ‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ and ‘The Five Venoms’ on Netflix
Old school martial arts fans will love these cult Hong Kong classics from the Shaw Brothers canon. In The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Hong Kong, 1978), idealistic student revolutionary Gordon Liu flees the Manchu militia occupying Canton after his group is betrayed and seeks refuge in a Buddhist monastery to learn the secret martial arts. […]
Jackie Chan’s ‘Police Story’ and ‘Police Story 2’ on Criterion Channel
In the Hong Kong action movie explosion of the eighties, when the craziest, most kinetically energetic and narratively surreal action movies were pouring out of the Hong Kong film studios at a breakneck pace, Jackie Chan’s Police Story (Hong Kong, 1985) was one of the films that both defined and redefined the industry while firmly […]
‘Bleeding Steel’ – Jackie Chan is still in action on Amazon Prime Video
Now well over 60 years old, Jackie Chan remains a charismatic actor with some impressive moves that he puts on display in Bleeding Steel (China, 2017), a colorful but awfully silly science fiction action thriller from writer/director Leo Zhang. Jackie plays a Special Forces officer whose duty takes him from his dying young daughter to […]