A Better Tomorrow II (1987)

An action thriller about two brothers on opposite sides of the law, A Better Tomorrow was a smash hit in Hong Kong and helped birth the “heroic bloodshed” sub-genre. With Chow-Yun Fat’s performance as the third member of this triangle, the antagonistic but loyal gangster Mark, it was a role that cemented the actor as […]

Motorway (2012)

I love that the skill which the hotshot highway traffic cop (Shawn Yue) has to master is nailing a tight ass turn. Talk about a hero’s journey! This is what Motorway (2012), a Hong Kong crime thriller from Milkyway Productions, Johnnie To’s company, offers. That and Anthony Wong as the hotshot’s senior partner giving him […]

The Heroic Trio (1993)

I always understood that The Heroic Trio (1993) was one to see, ever since seeing clips of it in Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep (it’s featured as one of the films that convinces the director character played by Jean-Pierre Leaud to cast Maggie Cheung in his remake of Les Vampires). A Hong Kong action adventure thriller, […]

The Grandmaster (2013)

I can’t remember much of a cinema release for Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (2013); it felt like its mixed reception resulted in an underwhelming reputation. Unexpectedly a martial arts movie for fans of Wong Kar-wai’s arthouse melodramas, it might have been too much of an arthouse melodrama for fans of martial arts movies. I was […]

Drunken Master II (1994)

Over the closing credits of Drunken Master II (1994; aka The Legend Of Drunken Master), as tradition with a lot of Jackie Chan movies, we see out-takes of the stunts and action sequences. And it helpfully confirms that Jackie Chan did indeed throw himself onto an actual bed of fiery coals in the factory climax, […]