Asian Action Cast

Sammo Hung’s 1997 film, Once Upon a Time in China and America, takes Tsui Hark’s beloved franchise off shore with Jet Li in his last outing as the legendary Wong Fei Hung.A surprisingly clumsy handling of triple A property, and with less than half a year production time, it shows. This cobbled together affair is a pale shadow of the far better (produced, acted, plotted) Shanghai Noon which Sammo allegedly stole from Yuen Academy Brother Jackie Chan.Despite the rushed production and your typical neglect of Western performances in HK films (poor Jeff Wolfe), there are glimmers of joy with Hung Yan-Yan (7/club foot/Jet’s stunt double) getting more canvass to showcase his amazing fighting talent, but sadly not much more.

For a Halloween special that's twice as nice, we bring you Black Magic Part 2! Same director, same actors as the first but it's turned into a Scooby Doo style mystery in tropical Singapore! Lo Lieh has channeled his charisma into becoming a black magician who keeps zombies in his dungeon. Our heroic trio of doctors (Ti Lung, Tien Ni and Lin Wei Tu) don't believe in magic, but let's drive a nail into the issue and get to the bottom of this. More gore, special effects and boobies like the first movie!

Shaw Bro.’s 1972 historical war epic 14 Amazons sets the bar for fun campy villains who overshadow the ‘heroes’ of the film.Ivy Ling Po and Lily Ho lead our plucky band of (too many) heroines, but they are up against the forces of Lo Lieh’s fantastic 5th Prince and Bolo Yeungs unnamed barbarian wrestler.A ridiculous human bridge sequence is worth the price of admission but the incredible face mugging, arrogant laughs and expressive eyebrows will keep you amused!

Bruce Lee’s 1978 post-mortem movie Game of Death is more than a curiosity, it’s a cultural phenomenon that irreparably bashed its way into modern consciousness.It clearly was damaged by Bruce’s untimely passing, but it remains one of the most wistful and hopeful projects of the silver screen.The small flashes of ‘Real Bruce’ invoke pangs of equal parts admiration, longing and tragedy, with the dreams and dialogue about WHAT IF burning white hot over 60 years after his death.

The hidden 1984 gem Japan-China action collaboration Ninja and Dragons is everything you’d expect, with magic ninjitsu alongside and vs Kung Fu.Starring a plucky ninja Hayate, played by Jun’ya Takagi and his Dragon friend Dong Li, it is a tale of intrigue, vengeance and unsettling villains that will haunt your dreams.Watch it if you can find it, and be dazzled by the colours and wonderful music with decent action in this rollicking thriller.

Slick, tense and intimate, the 2012 Soi Cheang directed vehicle stalker flick Motorway has a surprising amount of style and feeling for what could have been a flat chase movie.Anthony Wong, as always, brings a warmth and charisma to his close to retirement days-of-yore-badass mentoring and living vicariously through Shawn Yue’s high octane speed freak Chan Cheung – all characters are downplayed to raw perfection making you want to spend more time in their world.Villain Jiang Xin is flawlessly portrayed by Xiaodong Guo who has the perfect mix of simmering danger and frightening talent. Not just a great action film, but a great film, check it out!

The City of Violence is a 2006 Ryoo Seung-wan directed friendship thriller starring dapper detective Jung Doo-hong’s Tae-Soo.There certainly is violence aplenty in the city, largely perpetrated by our main cast. Friendships form, falter and fall as snake liquor goes wasted.The violence escalates throughout surprising you how far it’s willing to go, and any action film with sub-boss fights is A-ok in our books. Check it out - THE CITY OF VIOLENCE.