Author: Pat King

‘Zen of Sword’ has plenty of plot twists, but not so much as to make it convoluted. Performances are good, and the action handled primarily by Philip Kwok pleases.

Kitano directs with his usual quirky measured style punctuating the narrative with his classic odd ball humour.

‘What Price Survival’ is nice to look at on the surface but is ultimately very tedious and the action sequences make for insufficient compensation. All in all, dull and boring.

‘The Era Of Vampires’ fails to capitalise on a concept that could have turned out to be a solid film given enough care. It does raise interest from time to time but is unable to sustain that interest.

Despite what flaws ‘The Twins Effect’ has, it never actually suffers as a result of them as it always retains the viewers interest and successfully juggles comedy, action and horror.

It doesn’t deliver as much as it promises and doesn’t quite hit the mark as a complete unit due to a less cohesive second half and not enough time spent establishing Dong-Jin’s character.

It’s certainly worth watching once, but as the action is good but not great it is unlikely to require repeat viewings due to it’s shortcomings in other areas.

If you like seventies cheese then you might want to pick this one up. Otherwise it’s probably best to avoid unless you happen to be a hardcore Shaw Brothers or Ti Lung fan.

‘The Shadow Boxer’ is a fairly standard affair as offered by the Shaw Brother’s studio and is unable to elevate itself to compete with the likes of the classic ‘Boxer from Shantung’ and the exceptional ‘The Water Margin’.

‘The Occupant’ doesn’t appear to be sure if it wants to be a horror or a comedy as while it is genuinely funny, this does tend to undermine the horror elements.

‘Naughty Boys’ should only be viewed for one reason – the action. All other aspects of the film fall flat on their face.

The main problem with ‘The Medallion’ is it looks just like a Hollywood film with a modest budget. In fact it’s not even as good as his Hollywood films, including ‘The Tuxedo’.