Donny Yen returns as the real-life Chinese martial arts teacher and godfather of Wing Chun in the action-packed sequel set in Hong Kong after the war.
Tag: Hong Kong
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. […]
‘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 […]
Donny Yen and Andy Lau are ‘Chasing the Dragon’ on Netflix
Directed by the insanely prolific Hong Kong action veteran Wong Jing, Chasing the Dragon (China, 2017) is the filmmaker’s crime epic, a historical drama that charts the rise and fall of two notorious gangsters who thrived in the rampant corruption enabled by Britain’s colonial rule of Hong Kong in the 1960s. The title is slang […]
Johnny Hallyday gets ‘Vengeance,’ Johnnie To style, on VOD and DVD
Johnnie To, the reigning king of the crime movie and the romantic code of gangster brothers within the mercenary world of organized crime, delivers another perfect little genre piece with Vengeance (Hong Kong, 2009). French pop legend Johnny Hallyday stars as Costello, a retired pro who comes to Macau to take revenge on the men […]
‘The Mission’ – Johnnie To’s gangster brotherhood on VOD
Johnnie To took over the crown of Hong Kong’s king of crime thrillers after John Woo left for Hollywood and The Mission (1999) is the film that put him on the throne. The story is a generic gangster stuff: a middle-aged mob boss (Eddy Ko) survives an assassination and his brother / right hand man […]
‘Sky on Fire’ – Hong Kong action on Netflix
Ringo Lam made his name as Hong Kong cinema’s grittier, leaner alternative to John Woo’s flamboyant action films with Prison on Fire (1987) and City on Fire (1987), the latter most famous as one of the primary inspirations of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (the heist, the undercover cop, and the image of the multi-gun stand-off […]
Blu-ray: Jackie Chan begins in ‘Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow / Drunken Master’ from Twilight Time
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow / Drunken Master (Twilight Time) Boyish, baby-faced Jackie Chan trained at the famed Peking Opera Academy, had an early career as a stunt man, supporting player and fight choreographer in scores of Hong Kong films, and was unexpectedly chosen as “the next Bruce Lee” in a series of stiff, serious […]