The Prodigal Son
by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
from 20th Century Fox
Heart of Dragon
by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
from 20th Century Fox
Something a bit different from the team of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, Heart of Dragon has action scenes and comedy, but also tells the dramatic tale of two brothers who are torn between duty and dreams. Tat Fung (Chan) has recently left a S.W.A.T.-type agency for the local police force to take care of his mentally disabled older brother Do-do (Hung). Although Do-do is a full grown man, he has the mental capacity of a young child and is always getting into mischief. Tat has put away his dreams of marriage and traveling the world as a sailor to watch after Do-do. While playing cops and robbers with his kid friends, Do-do gets mixed up in a jewelry heist and is kidnapped by the bad guys. Tat momentarily puts aside his official law-enforcer status and takes matters into his own hands, which results in serious repercussions. The fight sequences in Heart of Dragon are closer to such American films as Die Hard; Tat and his S.W.A.T.-team buddies take on the bad guys in an unfinished building with zero comedy and lots of bloodshed. At a crucial impasse in the story Tat lashes out at Do-do, and this poignant scene perfectly illustrates the frustrations of a man who loves and hates his brother at the same time. It's a switch from the usual fare, and Heart of Dragon offers ample proof that Chan and Hung can handle dramatic material. --Shannon Gee
Spooky Encounters
by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
from 20th Century Fox
The Mr. Vampire films of the 1980s may be the most familiar examples of a unique Hong Kong subgenre, the knockabout horror comedy. But here, as elsewhere, the true pioneer turns out to be the Fat Dragon, Sammo Hung. He worked out all the basic moves (sticky rice as a ghost repellent; the frantic use of spells scribbled on slips of paper) in this 1980 ghost farce. It's a fancy-dress period film in which a gang of clowns, pretending to be spooks in order to terrorize each other, inadvertently invoke the real thing. Pretty soon everyone in sight (including Sammo's foxy but unfaithful wife) is conjuring up a hopping corpse or a nasty poltergeist, and a supernatural traffic jam ensues. (The same basic idea was recycled, much less effectively, in 1982's The Dead and the Deadly.) Hung's world-class kung fu skills prove to be as well adapted to slapstick horseplay as to knockdown action, and in the best scenes they work both ways at once. In the finale, Hung fights off several attackers as his body is possessed by one ectoplasmic intruder after another, each with a distinct personality. Sammo is never more graceful than when he's pretending to be a clumsy oaf. --David Chute
The Moon Warriors
by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
from Tai Seng
Once Upon a Time in China and America
The Game of Death II
by Corey Yuen
from 20th Century Fox
Project A
from CineVu
For people who've discovered Jackie Chan through his American hit Rush Hour and want to learn what his Hong Kong movies are like, Project A is an excellent place to start. Chan plays a sailor in 19th-century Hong Kong; pirates have been terrorizing the seas for months, and all efforts to combat them have been sabotaged by the corrupt chief of police and a criminal gang, who are in cahoots with the pirates. But the plot is hardly the point--a Jackie Chan movie is about astonishingly acrobatic action sequences and breathtaking stunts, and Project A has plenty. Of particular interest is a bicycle chase that is more suspenseful than any car chase you've ever seen. Chan is joined by Sammo Hung (star of TV's Martial Law) as a shifty con man who comes through when the chips are down. Project A also features Yuen Biao, a frequent costar in Chan's movies, who's yet another astounding martial artist. But what separates Jackie Chan movies from other kung fu flicks is his sense of humor; every fight scene is punctuated by something--a clever use of a prop or sudden reversal of your expectations--that will make you bark with laughter. Sometimes it's just so exquisitely choreographed that the entire movie seems to float on a cloud of giddy delight. Purists may object to the movie being dubbed, but given the overall hamminess of the acting, it's not particularly intrusive. Jackie Chan is often compared to the classic silent comedians for his grace and timing--he lives up to it. --Bret Fetzer
Once Upon a Time in China and America
by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
from Image Entertainment
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