Before hitting the big time with his Monkey King trilogy, Soi Cheang was the director of a number of excellent Hong Kong thrillers. Motorway (2012) was one; before that he helmed Accident (2009), a remarkable exercise in style, tension, and growing paranoia. The … Continue reading REVIEW: Accident (2009)
The career of director Johnnie To can be pretty easily split into two phases. From the late 1990s he established his own production company, Milkyway Image, and embarked on a hugely successful career directing idiosyncratic crime films, romantic comedies, and … Continue reading REVIEW: The Bare-Footed Kid (1993)
Johnnie To’s first – and, to date, only – international co-production does not quite scale the levels of inventiveness found in his Hong Kong-specific works, but Vengeance remains a beautifully staged and operatic action thriller. French chef Francis Costello (Johnny Hallyday) arrives … Continue reading REVIEW: Vengeance (2009)
When mid-level drug boss Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) is captured by mainland Chinese police – led by the stoic Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei) – he turns traitor on his underground empire, leading the cops into a complicated sting operation to shut … Continue reading REVIEW: Drug War (2013)
Hong Kong’s Johnnie To has been directing films since 1980, but you can really divide his career into two phases. One, a journey-level career in making relatively derivative features heavily inspired by existing genre conventions. Then, from 1999, a more … Continue reading REVIEW: Loving You (1995)
Kei (Simon Yam) leads a small band of Hong Kong-based pickpockets, while enjoying his off hours taking pictures of the city with a Rolleiflex camera. While taking photographs one afternoon, he captures the image of a woman (Kelly Lin) seemingly … Continue reading REVIEW: Sparrow (2008)
As punishment for his pranks and mis-steps, Dragon Fighter Luohan (Stephen Chow) is sent down to Earth to be re-incarnated as a human. He is tasked with saving the souls of three people: one an unrepentant sex worker (Maggie Cheung), … Continue reading REVIEW: The Mad Monk (1993)
Lo Sa, a tired and overweight detective in Hong Kong’s police department, chases a gang of youths into a Kowloon alleyway. He slips and falls, knocking himself unconscious in the process. When he wakes, his handgun has been stolen. … Continue reading ‘Anyone wearing a uniform is one of our own.’ | PTU (2003)
FictionMachine 