Winners and Sinners
from 20th Century Fox
"It's an epic!" howls one of the fighters in the free-for-all finale, overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters that get crowded into a single room, all pounding away at each other. Indeed, every comic actor and most of the leading action stars in Hong Kong in 1983 seem to have been squeezed into this amiable kung fu comedy--there are even tiny cameo appearances by several famous movie directors (Ann Hui, Tsui Hark, Wu Ma). This picture marks the debut of a loose-knit group of farce-action stalwarts, the Five Lucky Stars, stumble-bum reformed crooks who attempt to go straight by setting up a cleaning service, but can't seem to help getting into tons of trouble. The Stars went on to appear in several sequels, including My Lucky Stars. Jackie Chan, as a cop pursuing the hapless crooks, is essentially the straight man here, and he seems to be using a stunt double in some of his big scenes. This is a close as Chan ever got to phoning in a performance. --David Chute
What Time Is It There?
by Ming-liang Tsai
from Fox Lorber
A quirky comedy about a young man who sells watches in the streets of Taipei. He sells his own watch to a young woman who is leaving for Paris the next day. He is so moved by this encounter that he goes around setting all the clocks in Taipei to Paris time, in order to keep some connection with her.
Crazy Hong Kong
from Televista
When Shirley and her camera crew are shooting a commercial for an American international hamburger company she is suddenly attacked by a lion and the unexpected happens... Suddenly N!xau an inquisitive "Bush Man" appears from out of the hinterland and sa
Devil Angel
by Clifford Choi
from Cav Distribution
Hong Kong 1941
by Po-Chih Leong
from 20th Century Fox
The effortlessly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat stars in this excellent historical drama about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Yip Fai (Chow), a young man living with his aunt and hostile uncle, befriends a local tough named Kong (Alex Man). Fai wants to flee the city for Australia or America, but Kong is too attached to his home, as well as to the daughter of a local rice importer, Anna (Cecelia Yip). Passions shift among the three as the Japanese invade, creating a tortured world of collaborators, rebels, and black market thugs. Half Jules & Jim, half The Deer Hunter, Hong Kong 1941 successful juxtaposes the conflicted emotions of the three friends with the larger social chaos of the occupation; the personal and the political intertwine powerfully. Chow Yun-Fat, young and handsome, radiates a compelling mix of intelligence, integrity, and doubt. --Bret Fetzer
With a powerful ensemble cast including Chow Yun-fat (Anna and the King, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and acclaimed actress Cecilia Yip-tong, director Leong Po-chi delivers a hard hitting drama portraying the lives of three young friends as they struggle to fulfil their dreams when faced with the physical terrors or war. Set against a backdrop of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945, this highly acclaimed film reveals the the harrowing effects of a conflict that shattered the dreams of a nation during almost four years if bitter repression. A story told with breathtaking cinemaography and compelling characters, the riveting action and stiking moral understones of Hong Kong 1941 celebrate the resilience of the human spirit.
Hong Kong 1941
by Po-Chih Leong
from Image Entertainment
The effortlessly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat stars in this excellent historical drama about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Yip Fai (Chow), a young man living with his aunt and hostile uncle, befriends a local tough named Kong (Alex Man). Fai wants to flee the city for Australia or America, but Kong is too attached to his home, as well as to the daughter of a local rice importer, Anna (Cecelia Yip). Passions shift among the three as the Japanese invade, creating a tortured world of collaborators, rebels, and black market thugs. Half Jules & Jim, half The Deer Hunter, Hong Kong 1941 successful juxtaposes the conflicted emotions of the three friends with the larger social chaos of the occupation; the personal and the political intertwine powerfully. Chow Yun-Fat, young and handsome, radiates a compelling mix of intelligence, integrity, and doubt. --Bret Fetzer
Organized Crime & Triad Bureau
by Kirk Wong
from Tai Seng
Director Kirk Wong set the style for the lean, edgy Hong Kong cop thriller. In this drama, special forces officer Danny Lee bends the law and suspends civil rights to track down ruthless criminal Anthony Wong (Hard Boiled), the leader of a notorious robbery ring, on the run with his loyal girlfriend Cecilia Yip. Lee, who performed similar duties in John Woo's The Killer, is driven and demanding as the passionate authority figure, a man whose selfless sense of duty teeters over into vigilantism, while Anthony Wong tones down his usual flamboyant style to play a charismatic, sensitive criminal who earns the director's sympathies. There's no John Woo bravura shootouts or stylistic frenzies in Kirk Wong's sober, sometimes too restrained approach, lacking the dramatic edge of Rock and Roll Cop and the punch of Supercop, two of his later productions. But the violence packs a wallop in its street-realist directness, and Wong knows how to stage a high-tension action set piece, as evidenced in the opening chase scene and the dynamic police-dragnet finale. What more attracts the director, however, is the inner workings of crime and punishment: the maze of the underworld hierarchy and the mechanics of crime, the contradictions that pull at the police and the bureaucratic tangle they navigate. Though there's none of the romantic gloss that Woo invests his cowboy criminals with, Kirk Wong loves to explore the dynamic that separates--and binds--cop and criminal. --Sean Axmaker
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