Genre: Action

An overlooked gem from the 1970s, ‘The Yakuza’ is both a cracking thriller and a genuinely touching character piece.

A worthy addition to any avid kung fu fan’s DVD library as it hits all the right beats, benefits from some impressive photography and features some interesting, well staged and even downright barmy fighting styles.

Possibly not as well structured or action packed as ‘Drunken Master’, but still an impressive note in both Biao’s and Jackie’s filmography making it an essential purchase for fans of old school kung fu.

Though the overly moral message may deter some, there’s more than enough rough and tumble scraps to entertain fight fans and a host of strong performances from the leads as well as a thoroughly involving story to engage most everyone else.

A mixed bag of what is essentially a series of heavily leaning comedy sketches spiced up with some creative action, the Yuen Clan seem to be firing on less cylinders here.

When you’ve got Dean Shek, Sandra Ng and Eric Tsang all screeching for ninety minutes, you know it’s going to be a tough experience.

‘Those Merry Souls’ has a strong cast, some genuinely funny moments, and a bizarrely entertaining plot.

‘Three’ could be the least involving, least exciting action thriller in recent memory. That it has Johnnie To behind it is a particularly sad thing to report.

Although not his most important film and certainly not his most famous, ‘Three Against The World’ is a welcome addition to the Andy Lau canon and certainly worth catching.

‘Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon’ is a mixture of well shot conflict, stirring heroism and flawed drama.

It may be To’s intention to slightly alienate the audience with characters stuck in limbo, without any explanations, but, if this is the case, he cannot be too surprised to learn that this is an uninvolving film.

Admittedly some of the action is passable but the rest of the movie is generally so damn depressing and sloppy that I wouldn’t personally want to sit through it again.