Ninja Condors (1987)

A remarkably over the top ninja film (even by the standards of the genre!) As a boy Brian (Alexander Lo Rei) witnessed his father torn apart by motorbikes, but was saved by a cop. Now he is a man and part of a brutal ninja crime syndicate led by Lucifer (George Nicholas). However Brian's heart isn't really in all the killings involved and he is kicked out of the gang. Though next Lucifer orders him to be killed (which makes the decision to let him go in the first place a bit strange, but plot coherence isn't the film's strongest point).

Brian meets a guy called Eddie (Eugene Thomas) and they start a strange friendship. They also become targets for Lucifer's gang. Many many fights follow, including involving Lucifer's girlfriend (Mary Johnson). Eddie turns out to be a cop and using Brian to get the low-down on Lucifer's gang...

The action in this film is completely over the top with many ninja wire-fu stunts. The sheer insanity of the action really makes the film. There isn't a great deal of story, but there are quite a few decapitations and lots of throwing stars.

Infra-Man (1975)

Incredible sci-fi kung fu mayhem. The Earth comes under attack from an army of monsters led by Princess Dragon Mum (Terry Liu) who wants to rule the world and make mankind her slaves. Normal weapons (well fists and pistols anyway) are useless against the monsters, however at a secret science base led by the Professor (Hsieh Wang) he converts Rayma (Danny Lee) into Inframan.

Inframan is a bio-electronical marvel who is powered by the sun (although still seems to be able to fight in the dark). He manages to turn the tide of the fight against the Princess and her army. However the Princess isn't finished yet and has plenty of diabolical plans...

Many highly entertaining fights involving people in rubber suits follow. The film is remarkable cheese though plot wise is a bit basic (not that that really matters too much in this kind of film). The film includes many strange scenes to enjoy, one of the best being the scene after the Professor is captured by the monsters and is taken to their lair in a speed boat, flanked by two rubber suited monsters!

Tiger on the Beat (1988)

Tiger on the Beat is not that original a film, a veteran cop and a rookie have some mis-matched adventures but all comes right in the end to face the big baddie. Sgt. Li (Chow Yun Fat) is the veteran, a tough cop who eats whole slices of ham in one go and always has an eye for the ladies. Officer Tso (Conan Lee) is the rookie, eager and ready to use his martial arts skills.

Obviously the pair do not get on, but Li needs Tso to help him bust a big case and get his career back on track. After a good deal of humour and traditional HK movie oddness we get down to a decent showdown with the criminals, including a chain saw fight with Gordon Liu.

A good fun film if a little messy at times. Like many HK action films it could do with a little less. Chow Yun Fat plays a great role, cool and cocky, with plenty of humour. Conan Lee pulled off some incredible action scenes.

City Hunter (1993)

Not one of Jackie Chan's best films though still worth investigating. A comic book adaptation where Jackie plays a rather lazy private investigator called Ryu. He, along with his assistant Kaori (Joey Wang), are hired to find the missing daughter of a Japanese businessman. The search takes them to a cruise ship, which then gets hijacked. Ryu gets drawn into the fight against the hijackers led by MacDonald (Richard Norton)...

It is all a bit silly though not without some good moments including a great Street Fighter scene. Some of the fights are pretty good too, including one that draws upon Game of Death, and the film has a rather anarchic feel.

Unfortunately the silliness is a little too over the top. The film is made as a live action anime and if approached in that way it does entertain. There is some Jackie magic but other films showcase it much better.

Bruce Li in New Guinea (1978)

Crazy Bruceploitation. Bruce Li (not Lee of course) plays an anthropologist who goes to New Guinea with his friend to explore the mysterious snake cult tribe. After a number of fights, including against the likes of Bolo Yeung, Bruce goes missing only to re-emerge from the jungle some time later. Back in HK he is a changed man, and seems to be possessed by the snake spirit...

Bruce remembers that he was nursed back to health by Princess Ankawa (Danna) after being poisoned in a fight against the Snake Wizard (Sing Chen)...

The plot is fairly simple and doesn't get in the way of a series of kung fu fights, some of which are pretty decent. However a little more storyline and a little less fighting might have improved the film a bit. The film is a perfect example of the genre: terrible dubbing, odd sound effects and fast editing. It even has a man in a rather unconvincing ape costume! Not terrible but not terribly original either.

Honor and Glory (1993)

Completely incomprehensible martial arts nonsense. The trigger from a nuclear weapon is stolen in Russia (although apparently it looks a lot like a Bulgarian dildo) and for some reason corrupt banker Jason Slade (John Miller) has it and is trying to sell it to the Arabs. Two sisters are investigating Slade, FBI agent Tracey (Cynthia Rothrock) and reporter Joyce (Donna Jason). Their Dad is a CIA agent (Leo Rocca) is also after Slade.

Meanwhile Slade's bodyguard Jake Armstrong (Chuck Jeffreys) decides to switch sides. Then a HK agent Dragon Lee (Robin Shou) and a Japanese assassin (Richard Yuen) get involved in this unholy mess. Which ends up in a massive fight in a warehouse.

These films seldom make sense but Honor & Glory takes this to a whole new level. It mostly consists of fairly random segments and plot lines that never get resolved. The film is fun, the fights are often good though lame attempts at plot get in the way a bit. A rare case of a film which needed more fighting and less storyline.

The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

A superbly weird film just as you imagine the HK version of King Kong would be. Johnny Fang (Danny Lee) heads to the Himalayas to track down the mythical Peking Man or Utam, some sort of gigantic (although the size seems to vary between scenes) monstrous ape. Finally he discovers the creature but he is about to be crushed by it... until the arrival of a female Tarzan called Samantha (Evelyne Kraft) who was lost as a child in a plane crash in the Himalayas and bought up by Utam in the ..er.. jungles of the Himalayas.

Samantha falls for Johnny and he persuades her to bring Utam to HK so the whole world can see him. Utam ends up in a show but you just know it will end up badly...

An epic in monster mayhem, the destroyed buildings are so obviously models but the action scenes are tremendous set pieces. Samantha is a terrifically strange character, the fact she seems to hate wearing clothes adds to the sheer camp of much of the film. However amid the camp there is a lot of darkness in this film, Utam dies with honour, many of the humans die after being crushed by his giant feet. In fact Samantha (and maybe Johnny) apart, the humans in this film act terribly.

On the Wrong Track (1983)

Middling early 1980s HK youth drama. Paul (Andy Lau) and Ah De (Chau Wah Yim) are brothers in high school who are always getting into scrapes. Nothing unusual there but these scrapes include baseball bat fights, wrecking a Ferrari and wearing women's underwear in class. A further complication in their lives is that their Dad (Yueh Hua) is a cop...

Despite regular beatings by their Dad and the police they don't seem to want to learn their lesson. Things come to a head with the vandalising of a supermarket, De gets killed by violent police man King Kong (Lau Kwok Shing) and of course Paul wants revenge...

The film is very much of it's time, the usual HK movie mix of humour, melodrama and ultra violence and looks great (it will certainly make you nostalgic for 1980s HK). Although the film isn't too exceptional it is notable for being Andy Lau's first lead role.

To Love Ferrari (1994)

The Ferrari in the title being a girl played by Vivian Chow not a car. Though she does get to drive one at the end of the film.

This is really half film half early 1990s cantopop music video, even down to a bizarre fight sequence where the heroes can only fight while listening to Grasshopper. And when the ghettoblaster is destroyed Vivian leaps onto some oil drums to hammer out the beat so they can fight on. No really.

Vivian plays a girl who dreams of being a singer, she is loved by two guys. They fight, balls get released onto the floor of a dancefloor and Vivian ends up going head first into some electric lights. She ends up blinded, her dreams of being a singer are shattered. Her brother's club gets involved with some minor hoodlums and Vivian is kidnapped. Of course she gets electrocuted again and cured. If only the world of real medicine was as miraculous as in the movies...

Nonsense of course but very watchable and typically cross genre like many HK films. If you like early 1990s cantopop then the soundtrack is great. The film is worth watching just for the tunes and the zaniness of HK pop culture back then.

The Black Dragon's Revenge (1975)

There was much money to be made from Bruce Lee's death* for sure. In this film Ron Van Clief goes to HK to discover the truth about Bruce's death with the help of his friend Charles Bonet. However his method of investigation leaves a lot to be desired, some basic questioning and lots and lots of random fighting.

Meanwhile another group are also trying to find out the truth, and they also get into lots of fights. The bad guys want to stop the truth getting out of course. What is the truth about Bruce Lee's death? Well that is never made clear though every conspiracy theory under the sun is given an airing, amid the endless fights.

Well the story is nonsense but the martial arts is decent. It is also great to see so much of HK in the 1970s.

* Though of course we all know his death was faked and really he was recalled to the Shaolin Temple.

The Merry Couple (1981)

The ups and downs of a couple who walk the tightrope between being cute and incredibly annoying. 

Alan Tam and Joan Lim get married, and of course the in-laws want them to have children as soon as possible, as does Alan. Unfortunately Joan knows she will be fired if she becomes pregnant (obviously this film is from a time before anti-sex discrimination laws). Joan thus insists on protection but her mum-in-law has a cunning plan and pricks all the condoms with a pin (no really). Thus... Joan is in the club and out of a job.

A daughter is born, then a son. But Joan hates the housewife life, stuck at home having babies pee on her while Alan works all day as the Worst Advertising Executive in the World. So she returns to work but then Alan is the downtrodden one...

The couple are a little extreme in their emotions to make for that enjoyable a viewing and it detracts from the film quite a bit. They both get pissed off with their partner so easy you wonder how they got past the first date never mind marriage for 5+ years but there you are.

A reasonable film, you would call it a romantic comedy drama. There are some funny scenes but also a lot of tweeness.

Treasure of Bruce Lee (1979)

Bruceploitation films are not always bad, some indeed are pretty good even if they are shameless cash-ins on Bruce Lee's name, but Treasure of Bruce Lee is pretty mediocre. Master Chen is training four pupils including Bruce Le. With the Japanese poised to invade China, Master Chen knows the importance of his ancient skills, details of which are kept in a book... which the Japanese led by Vivian Velasco are desperate to get.

Master Chen challenges his four pupils to protect the book, though one of them Cha Ya-Fan turns out to be a traitor. So far so good (if unsurprising) but then the film makers decided to splice in footage from another Bruce Le film which throws everything into confusion...

So it could have been a reasonable martial arts film but everything just goes wrong. The scenes showing kung fu training though is interesting. Everything else is... not so much.

Way of the Black Dragon (1979)

Allison (Cecilia Wong) is a young Thai girl who is kidnapped by gangsters and trafficked to HK. She is just one of a number of poor girls sent to HK as drug mules and then sold to a grim life of prostitution or as wives to unsuspecting locals. Allison's fate is the latter and she is to become the wife of local worker and kung fu expert Chen (Carter Wong). When Chen finds out the real reason Allison was in HK he wants to help her get back home to Thailand (and marry her for real) but she'll also need the help of US agent Bill (Ron Van Clief)...

Along with Allison's brother Hsiao Ho (who just so happens to be a handy fighter too) our heroes work to bring down the evil syndicate led a rather laughable gwailo villain. There are a lot of fights, many of them rather random (the film makes little sense of course). The film starts off rather slow though improves a lot when Van Clief finally makes an appearance about half way through the film. The action then comes pretty thick and fast.

Sometimes sleazy, often violent, none of the film really makes a lot of sense but for a chopsocky 70s martial arts action film it does the job. The quality of the film making is rather suspect but the terrible dubbing makes the nonsense entertaining.

God Father (1980)

A fairly enjoyable HK genre romp starring a young Chow Yun Fat. You can probably guess what this film will be like: violence, ropey kung fu with badly matching impact sound dubbing, dubious comedy, overacting and a weird convoluted plot. But of course these are the ingredients of many a classic HK film!

Chow plays a minor card shark / mechanic who tries to tangle with the local hood. Chow thinks he has the magic card skills from his god father, an ex Minor Deity of Gamblers but hes not quite that good. So he ends up owing the Boss thousands of HK$ and gets a good kicking for his cheek. But then his god father calls upon his old mate, a real God of Gamblers and the revenge begins... amid a rather convoluted plot. The Hood ends up in gaol and all the good guys go and visit him to laugh at him. 

Is this film any good? Well its not God Of Gamblers but fairly decent entertainment all the same. Seeing Chow Yun Fat so young is quite entertaining.

Enter the Game of Death (1978)

Shameless Bruceploitation, it even rips off music (and much else) from real Bruce Lee films. This film starring Bruce Le is based on Game of Death's original concept...

The Chinese resistance need a document detailing Japanese plans of invasion, the document is hidden on the top floor of a tower, each floor guarded by specialist kung fu fighters (even a snake man). Bruce Le goes in, wearing a jump suit (where have we seen this before)...

Although terrible in many ways with the meagre story just a skeleton for a lot of fight scenes, the film is entertaining especially as Bruce Le tries to squeeze in as many Bruce Lee-isms as he can. The film is a kind of mash-up of the greatest hits of the Bruce Lee canon. The numerous fights with the always excellent Bolo Yeung are a highlight.

Fun and Fury (1992)

A fast paced action comedy of the type HK churned out by the score in the 1980s and early 90s.

Leon Lai plays a Singaporean cop who is in love with Vivian Chow... who is the daughter of Kent Cheung, a HK Triad boss! Well of course daddy doesn't want a son-in-law who is a cop so he concocts a plan to frame Leon as a womaniser using the rather fetching young wench Sharon Kwok... 

So Leon and Vivian fall out and Leon has to enlist the help of his buddy Frankie Chan to mend matters. But while all this is happening another Triad boss (whose brother was killed by Leon or something like that - its not fully explained, these films do tend to have complicated and convoluted plots) moves in and with the help of a large black man wielding an RPG and a kung fu blonde babe with an assault rifle proceed to kick ass...

The plot is very simple and predictable but the action is great with some really good inventive kung fu fights and plenty of explosions especially in the cool final showdown. The film doesn't take itself too seriously which is why it works.

Fist of Fury (1972)

For this blog's five hundredth review the first martial arts film i ever saw, it was life changing...

Enter the Dragon was the breakthrough hit for Bruce but Fist of Fury remains the classic martial arts movie, and the classic Bruce Lee film. The story is fairly simple and nationalistic in parts and seldom subtle. Set in Shanghai before the Second World War, the teacher of a Chinese kung fu school is poisoned. His star student Bruce Lee returns home to investigate what happened to his teacher and doesn't have to look far to find out it is the evil Japanese led by Mr Suzuki (Chikara Hashimoto) who have killed him...

The story plays heavily on the racial prejudice the Chinese suffered in Shanghai in the early twentieth century. Bruce is set on revenge and is willing to pay the ultimate price to achieve it. Therefore the story is pretty predictable. But this is not a film for story telling it is a film for action.

The action is out of this world, the fight scenes in the Japanese bushido school are quite simply perfect examples of martial arts action. Perfectly paced and truly explosive. Scenes such as Sick Man of Asia at the start and Bruce fighting with his nunchakus have become iconic. It is a great film but incredibly violent as you might imagine.

It was the first martial arts film I ever saw, I started with one of the best.

Girls Without Tomorrow (1992)

Another hard tale of life as a prostitute in HK. The lives of three of them, a mamasan and her daughter, now a film star, intertwine as the prostitutes get into various troubles, and the mamasan is shunned by her daughter who in turn has to whore herself on the good old casting couch... As you might expect with a HK film from this era it isn't subtle.

The troubles of the girls are myriad, one girl Carina Lau has the problem of not being able to drink anymore and ends up having to leave the hostess job she was highly successful in. She ends up as a jobbing prostitute and is paid to take a very young looking Ekin Cheung's (in his first film) virginity... and of course he falls in love with her...

The film is actually very good, though sometimes a bit confusing with so much going on and the story switching rapidly between the various sub-plots. There is everything here that makes a great HK film: drama, action, humour and a heap of star power. It all comes together with a very powerful funeral scene.

Mystery Files (1996)

Andy Hui is that 90s phenomenon, a slacker: all comics, baseball caps, laid back and skint. So skint in fact he and his sister Vivian Lai head to the mainland to help their cousin Edmond Leung solve a murder. Andy is a genius you see, like Columbo, who knows the murderer almost before the murder has taken place. In the first case an abusive husband is found dead, his wife's lover is suspected by Edmond but Andy uncovers the truth. Vivian looks cute but doesn't really add much except act girly and scream at all the right moments.

As Andy and Edmond are celebrating the solving of the case in a KTV bar another murder takes place there (how lucky!) And they begin to solve this one too, which is mixed up with the red herring of some ghostly supernaturalness...

To celebrate his reward money Andy packs Vivian off to HK and goes on a Malaysian cruise instead, there he fancies some singers but then finds out they are ladyboys. Yeah hes a slacker. Another murder takes place on the boat, and what has Ada Choi got to do with it? One thing for sure death seems to follow Andy, its definitely safer to keep away from him...

Enjoyable enough murder mystery(s), a bit contrived and low-budget but decent fun anyway. Its worth it alone for one of Vivian Lai's few forays into film. The film would probably work better as a mini series as its really three separate stories only linked by some of the same actors but enjoyable all the same.

Off Track (1991)

Jacky Cheung stars as a Triad street racer thug  who of course has a dad in the police (there seem to be that many HK cops with sons in the gangs you'd think someone would have noticed a link by now)...

Jacky races Max Mok and they come to car blows followed by people blows. Then Max falls for Jacky's sister Loletta Lee and gets more than just his oats for his troubles. (Hint : never try and date a Triad's sister, especially a really violent Triad.)

Jacky wants a way out of his life of crime though after his Dad is killed but of course there is one last race... against Max. Then it looks like he has been killed by Max and Jacky's gang go crazy in order to avenge their big brother...

Its all very silly with typically over the top Triad hi-jinks really with a very bloody and tragic ending. Its a film of it's time and that time is massive brick cellphones and Sierra XR4is. The film isn't that great but the street racing scenes are.