All Film Reviews

Lau Ho-Leung has made a solid crime thriller that benefits from its rough and ready approach, decent action, and an intriguing real-life case.

‘Challenge Of Death’ was always going to provide some exhilarating action thanks to the collection of captivating combatants, but the story certainly leaves a lot to be desired.

Despite the fact that ‘Challenge Of The Masters’ hasn’t aged as well as some of Liu Chia-Liang’s other notable works, there’s undoubtedly much on offer for genre fans and the casual cinema-goer.

An entertaining if hardly revolutionary piece of sports bio, ‘Champion’ benefits from some fine photography, a commitment to do the subject proud and some excellent performances from the cast.

‘Chanbara Beauty’ is an uncomplicated, intermittently fun, undead actioner that will please fans of the genre and the videogames.

Thanks to a mind-numbingly dull story and some weak leading performances, ‘Chanbara Beauty 2’ somehow manages to suck all of the fun out of bikini clad zombie slayers.

‘Chanbara Striptease’ is about topless women fighting with swords of which it has many scenes of, so if you want to see such a thing, then watch this film.

‘Changing Partner’ has enough moments of genuine amusement to help paper over the cracks.

This slick Korean production offers a fair amount of rampaging animal attacks, goofy horror fun and dashings of gore to make it a decent monster movie.

An excellent set of combat sequences strung together with little reason but to get the adrenaline pumping.

Patrick Tam’s ‘Cherie’ is, simply put, little more than a moderately average eighties romantic comedy and decidedly underwhelming when compared against any of the true “greats” of the era.

Hui delivers an always watchable and occasionally hilarious production that works on a number of different levels.

Lee Kyoo-Man provides us with a well shot, gently paced ‘what if?’ that might not be gripping, but is much more than just a distraction.

‘Chilli Laugh Story’ is pure Hong Kong, a comedy drama about those that would probably be forgotten about by other film industries.

The narrative is fairly crisp, but cannot make the action any less ‘American’ in its pace and imagination (or lack of!).

While it’ll never scale the heights of its Hong Kong counterparts of the day, this fast and fun sequel still delivers the Rothock, Norton and Cooke action goods.

It’s worth watching, but will not go down as the best film that Hong Kong has produced in recent years – far from it in fact.

‘China White’ is not as accomplished as Yu’s later films and hasn’t dated the best either but still remains an entertaining thriller with some hard hitting action scenes.

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

‘Chocolate’ is excellent action entertainment from start to finish, and fight fans will be delighted to see that Pinkaew and Rittikrai haven’t lost their touch.

Comic maestro Michael Hui scores a resounding hit with this fast-paced combination of mirth and mystery.

Even the action becomes monotonous by the time the tournament begins and there’s probably as much genuine Choy Lee Fut on display as there was in ‘Pretty Woman’.

‘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 is rare for such a film to hold one’s attention seemingly without trying, and as such it must not be missed by anyone who loves films of any genre.