Cast Member: Derek Yee

‘Death Duel’ is a bleak, nihilistic swordplay film that embodies all of the qualities that one expects from a Chor Yuen adaptation of a Gu Long story.

‘Gift From Heaven’ is a low-key comedy, but a very watchable 90 minutes.

The director has taken complicated source material and distilled it into something arresting before, but here he finds too many sub-plots to balance and too many characters to accommodate.

‘Heroes Shed No Tears’ is the kind of complex swordplay film that was attempted after the demise of the Shaw Brothers movie making empire, but often lacked the skilled control that Chor Yuen offered.

Some may not like ‘How To Choose A Royal Bride’ because of the episodic nature of the story but this is some fun if rather slight entertainment.

‘Legend Of The Bat’ suffers from the same problems as its predecessor, namely its headache-inducing twists and turns.

Whether she’s using a bull-whip, fighting Hwang Jang Lee or enjoying a momentary pause, Yeoh controls this film with pure class.

A gripping and often uncompromising look at the Hong Kong drug trade from the seller’s and user’s side, Derek Yee’s ‘Protégé’ is one of the finest dramas to come out of Hong Kong in recent years.

There’s therefore much to recommend this superior sequel, a film that takes the best elements of the original and invites viewers to contemplate a message beyond the common expectations of the genre.

‘Shaolin Intruders’ doesn’t offer any of the genre-defining moments that leap out of the true masterpieces of the genre.

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

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.