Action Member: Tong Gaai

Popular in its day ‘The Jade Bow’ now is more of historical interest for fans of wuxia pien, its thrills done bigger and better elsewhere.

Even fans of the convoluted martial world of the swordplay genre may find ‘Jade Tiger’ a tiresome 90 minutes.

‘The Kung Fu Instructor’ may lack the incisive bite of the great Sun Chung works, but the director is still clearly comfortable crafting a confident work from basic ingredients.

‘The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires’ doesn’t exactly set the world alight in either of its attempted genres, but it does remain a fun curio for fans of both studios that certainly still sports some old-school charm.

With a director of considerable merit, a cast of fine performers and action that, while not exactly trail-blazing, is certainly very watchable, ‘The Magnificent Trio’ is another good release from Celestial.

In just over 90 minutes so much action, story and style is effortless woven together that it shows the brilliance of one of the genre’s finest minds.

Chor Yuen is once again painstaking in his vision of the visual ambience of the martial world, while he also gets fine performances out of his cast.

A four-star movie that, due to its heavy-handed closing shots, loses half a star; the same idea was used with much more sophistication at the end of ‘Anonymous Heroes’.

‘The Water Margin’ is the kind of grandiose masterwork that is enthralling and, despite the presence of three accomplished directors, has a remarkable consistency to it.

‘The Web Of Death’ would be a four-star film but (and it is a big ‘but’!) for the preposterous sight of seeing the heroes fleeing from a green spider.

Though there is talent behind the lens and in front of it, this is a run-of-the-mill swordplay film with a wasted gimmick.

Perhaps the greatest flaw found within this well-made, yet uninspiring swordplay film is its reliance on theatrical melodrama rather than tension or real emotion.