Genre: Adventure

Shen Chiang’s ‘Call to Arms’ is about as dull and listless as they come, never once engaging its viewer even at the most basic levels of entertainment merit.

‘Chinese Zodiac’ gives Jackie Chan fans (including me), who had been awaiting its arrival especially eagerly, very little to get excited about.

‘Chuji The Gambler’ is a superb marriage of a director’s craft and an actor with a transcendent charisma that seeps off the screen.

It may not be quite as thrilling a prospect as it could have been with Bruce Lee in the leading role, but ‘Circle Of Iron’ still retains many likeable qualities.

Despite some effective chemistry between N!xau and Lau Ching-Wan in some scenes, this is a strictly low-priority film.

‘Crocodile Island’ is deadly earnest which doesn’t quite work when characters are facing spiders the size of a shire horse.

If you are a big Donnie fan, or loved ‘Tiger Cage’ and the ‘In The Line Of Duty’ films, then this will surely be a welcome addition to your collection.

‘Dead Leaves’ is a fantastic injection of animated insanity that will leave your brain absolutely buzzing.

‘Death Trance’ isn’t quite as good as ‘Versus’ but is nevertheless a visually striking, always creative and if a little slow in pace at stages, still packed with great Eastern flavoured action.

A life-affirming work that came at a key time for a director whose self-confidence was at its lowest ebb, ‘Dersu Urzala’ is cinema at its most vital.

Much like the first two Dee flicks, ‘The Four Heavenly Kings’ is an often breathless fantasy blockbuster that doesn’t skimp on the wuxia action, CGI wonderment and imaginative scenarios.

Liu provides a more than acceptable ‘Don Quixote-lite’, a necessarily truncated interpretation that will hopefully inspire some to read the Cervantes masterpiece in full.