Genre: Martial Arts

Stanley Tong continues to show his skill in the action genre with more kinetic direction.

Scenes are chopped at strange junctures, the plot jumps all over the place and the simple act of allowing actors to have proper reaction shots to the drama unfolding is mostly absent.

A definite improvement over part 1, and other similar fare such as ‘China O’Brien’ – it makes for an adequate 90 minutes viewing – but ultimately reminds us why we love HK fighting so much more.

A bit of ‘Heat’ mixed with Chan’s own ‘Invisible Target’, ‘Raging Fire’ hits hard in both the action and drama, the much-missed director delivering one of his finest.

Despite the slick visual look, kooky set up and a little too much reliance on wirework and CGI enhancement come the last third, ‘Raging Phoenix’ is really what we loved about the fight flicks from Hong Kong’s golden age.

‘Rapid Fire’ is a pretty entertaining action movie, mainly thanks to Lee’s performance and some solidly handled fight scenes.

It may be a little too simplistic in its narrative for some and others may find the one-man-army slant pushed to its limits but ‘Re:Born’ is a triumph for all involved.

While it remains watchable, ‘Red Wolf’ really suffers from its own inability to create anything fresh.

Mixing the zombie, martial arts and men-on-a-mission genres, ‘Redcon-1’ adopts a take no prisoners approach and rarely lets up over its almost 2 hour run time.

Fast, fresh, funny and full of character and tension, this is wuxia done well and should be seen by fans of the genre at their earliest convenience.

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.

This venture was constantly entertaining, and providing the potential becomes reality, should prove a very worthwhile experience.