Director – Yuen Woo-Ping – 2026 – China – Cert. 15 – 126m ***** In ancient China, a bounty hunter with his small nephew in tow must transport a man across a desert to Chang’an – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, April 17th The synopsis opening this review might make it sound like a bad film. […]
Director – Choi Dong-hoon – 2022 – South Korea – LKFF Cert. 12 – 142m ***** In Part One of a proposed double feature, aliens incarcerate prisoners in human brains and time travel between present day and fourteenth century Korea and mayhem ensues – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2022; Part Two Alienoid: […]
Directors – Larry and Andy Wachowski – 1999 – US – Cert.15 – 136 mins ***** The Matrix combines tropes of Japanese animation with live action Hong Kong stunt choreography and groundbreaking ‘bullet time’ special effects. 25th Anniversary UK rerelease (4k remaster): Friday, June 8th, 2024; UK release: June 11th 1999; Article originally published in […]
Director – Daniel Lee – 1996 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 99m ***** An experimentally created supersoldier without feelings revolts against his creators, even as they attempt to take control of Hong Kong’s drugs trade – on Blu-ray from Monday, April 22nd in the UK and Tuesday, April 23rd in the US and […]
Directors – Jim Capobianco, Pierre-Luc Granjon – 2023 – US, France, Ireland – Cert. PG – 100m **** Towards the end of his life, inventor Leonardo da Vinci goes to live in France under the patronage of the King – stop frame / drawn animation composite is out in the UK’s Vue cinemas on Friday, […]
Director – Ching Siu Tung – 1987 – Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 95m ***** Some of the most seminal offerings of the commercial Hong Kong cinema are the product of creative wizard Tsui Hark. The producer who first gave John Woo his niche as bullet strewn action director on A Better Tomorrow (1986) […]
Director – Lam Ching-ying – 1989 – Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 87m ***1/2 A Taoist priest must defeat various supernatural forces including a Western-style vampire occupying a coffin in an old church – out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, May 22nd as part of Eureka! Video’s Hopping Mad: The Mr. Vampire […]
Director – Ricky Lau – 1988 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12 – 96m ***1/2 A feud between Taoist and Buddhist neighbours, and a tentative romance between their boy and girl apprentices, are interrupted by the arrival of a coffin, from which a hopping corpse escapes – out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, […]
Director – Ricky Lau – 1987 – Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 88m***1/2Stunt-filled action comedy in which a travelling con-artist in cahoots with ghosts helps a Taoist priest fight a gang of horse thieves led by an evil sorceress – out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, May 22nd as part of Eureka! […]
Director – Ricky Lau – 1986 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12 – 89m ***** After a professor unearths a family of undead corpses, the child befriends a little girl and the parents go looking for it – out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, May 22nd as part of Eureka! Video’s Hopping Mad: […]