Las Vegas, August 27, 2018 – Russian Film Star and Action Legend Alexander Nevsky wins big at Action on Film 2018’s MEGAFest over the weekend. Maximum Impact which Nevsky produced and stars in won “Best Action Film of the Year” along with wins for “Best Action Sequence” and “Best Special Effects.”
In addition, Nevsky received the festival’s “Breakout Action Star of the Year” Award and co-star Matthias Hues received the festival’s Icon Award.
“Maximum Impact is the biggest film in my career and I’m so glad it was recognized in such a great way! I’m also happy to receive the “Breakout Action Star Award” and would like to thank “Action on Film International Film Festival” and Mr. Del Weston for this honor. But I couldn’t be here without my idols Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ralf Moeller and Matthias Hues so I would like to thank them too for all the inspiration and support over the years!” said Nevsky.
Nevsky received his Awards from Dr. Robert Goldman and Michael DePasquale Jr at the star studded MEGAFest Award Shows which were held at the RIO Hotel Las Vegas and other area venues.
Maximum Impact will be released in theaters September 28, 2018, and On Demand and Digital Video on October 2, 2018.
Director: Julien Leclercq Writer: Jérémie Guez Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sveva Alviti, Sami Bouajila, Sam Louwyck, Kaaris, Kevin Janssens, Alice Verset, Dimitri Thivaios, Laurent D’Elia Running Time: 82 min.
By LP Hugo
While many film critics and casual filmgoers seem to date Jean-Claude Van Damme’s first true flexing of his acting muscles back to Mabrouk El Mechri’s JCVD in 2008, the Belgian action star has actually always been a bonafide actor, with a wide range of performances that have taken him across many shades of good and evil, of comedy and drama, of intensity and playfulness. Of course, arriving to such a conclusion necessitates piercing through a sometimes thick cloud of overblown 80s and 90s heroics, a haze of coke-induced antics in the early 00s, a whole lot of direct-to-video mediocrity since then, and a handful of hilarious commercials. Yet to dismiss Van Damme as an actor is often to prove unable to dissociate a performance from the film in which it is found (simply put: fine acting can happen even with poor scripts), and to deride him is entirely redundant: he’s already deriding himself on a regular basis.
Still, 2008’s JCVD at least made his acting chops and aching vulnerability evident by being mostly devoid of actions scenes – the arthouse veneer that seems to coat French or Belgian films whenever they travel internationally (even when the film has no arthouse pretentions in its home country) helped, of course. Since then, Van Damme has kept doing some of his best work as an actor (the weary and then demented return of Luc Devereaux in John Hyams’ excellent Universal Soldier sequels, the self-deprecating and heartfelt meta version of himself in the Amazon series Jean-Claude Van Johnson…) while strengthening his pop culture good-will (voice work in the Kung-Fu Panda films, a villain named Vilain in The Expendables 2…) and starring in a string of mediocre-to-solid but cripplingly cash-strapped direct-to-video thrillers (Pound of Flesh, Kill ‘em All…). Now, he goes back to French-speaking cinema with Julien Leclercq’s The Bouncer (aka Lukas), whose muted reception in France doesn’t mean it won’t resonate internationally: after all, JCVD similarly made few waves on its home turf, before acquiring a strong reputation abroad.
Van Damme plays Lukas, a former bodyguard who for initially mysterious reasons fled South Africa alone with his 8 year-old daughter (Alice Verset), to start a new life under fake names in Belgium, where he works as a bouncer, trying to make ends meet and give his daughter a brighter future. One day, he nearly kills a troublesome clubber by accident: he’s fired but finds a new bouncer position in a strip club whose shady owner Dekkers (Sam Louwyck) is intrigued by his stoic resilience: the job interview consisted of beating up a room-full of men half his age. But soon, Lukas is approached by police detective Zeroual (Sami Bouajila), who’s aware of his recent misstep, is trying to nail Dekkers for money counterfeiting, and needs an informant. The bouncer must get his hands dirty to earn his new boss’ trust and graduate to henchman, a position from which he can tip-off the police, and avoid prison. But inevitably, his daughter gets caught in the crossfire, and things get ugly.
This is a gritty film. In fact, it is so gritty that it sometimes borders on parody: the low thumps and deep industrial growls of the soundtrack, the endless pregnant silences, the dour Belgian suburban landscapes, the absolute absence of humour… The film almost crumbles under the weight of its atmosphere, especially as it doesn’t have much a script to support it. It’s a perfunctory story, a repetitive succession of simple family moments and scenes where Lukas goes on quick missions for his new boss, while feeding information to Zeroual. Lukas’ mysterious past, when revealed, proves too mundane to warrant how long it took to unravel it, and a twist in the final reel lands with a thud, as it involves a character that has had no room for development until then. And there is a frankly stupid plot turn where Lukas actually takes his daughter along on one of the dangerous, illegal jobs he has to do for his crime-lord boss… Sure, Dekkers summoned him while he was having some quality time with his daughter, but why didn’t he drop her off at home? Because then she couldn’t have been kidnapped easily enough, that’s why.
Nevertheless, this is one of Van Damme’s best performances. He’s of course never more comfortable acting than in his native French, but the dialogue is sparse here. It’s his grizzled face, his deeply melancholy eyes that tell the story, and the subtleties of warmth, anger or despair they convey are the main reasons to watch The Bouncer. He’s well-matched by Sam Louwyck, imposingly dangerous and yet at times oddly sympathetic as the crime boss Lukas must help take down. And Alice Verset has a touching chemistry with Van Damme as his daughter, though the film confines said chemistry to a few small vignettes. The Bouncer is more film noir than action film, but it does offer a handful of very grounded, sometimes impressively brutal hand-to-hand fights, as well as an interesting tracking shot stealthily entering and noisily escaping a drug den; a quick parking lot chase is much less memorable. The Bouncer doesn’t hinder Van Damme’s slow, diluted comeback, but it doesn’t advance it much either.
LP Hugo’s Rating: 5.5/10
If you enjoyed this review, you’ll want to visit Asian Film Strike, which is owned and operated by LP Hugo.
By 2002, I’d seen a handful of Hong Kong action movies – mostly John Woo staples like A Better Tomorrow and Miramax’s dubbed Jackie Chan pictures– but it wasn’t until my hand reached for a lonely copy of Tsui Hark’s 2000 gonzo action masterpiece Time & Tide at Blockbuster Video that I truly became a devotee of the genre. To my teenage self, Hark’s surreal blend of audacious camerawork, Matrix-esque bullet time, and bravado setpieces registered as a revelation. Time & Tide is a film that rarely pauses to catch its breath, one that’s infused with kind of formal inventiveness you’d expect to find in an arthouse picture, not a big-budget action movie. The heady rush of Hark’s visual storytelling isn’t without a price: despite repeated viewings over the years, I’d be hard-pressed to give you a succinct description of the plot; but at this point, that’s almost part of Time & Tide’s charm. Sometimes you have to leap before you look.
“Time and Tide” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Nicholas Tse, then just an up-and-coming heartthrob with appearances in Gen-X Cops and A Man Called Hero, plays an all-around screw-up trying to hold down a job as an amateur bodyguard. Before long, his new gig finds him crossing paths with stoic Taiwanese actor (and massively successful rock star) Wu Bai, appearing here as a former mercenary “with a very particular set of skills,” now looking to start a new life with his pregnant bride. Time & Tide’s rather misleading American tagline was “Trust is fatal,” but Nicholas Tse and Wu Bai will have to team up if they have any hope of surviving a villainous band of South American assassins known as the Angels. Or something.
With hindsight, it’s easy to view Time & Tide as Tsui Hark’s gleeful return to his Hong Kong stomping grounds, bringing with him everything he learned while crafting his Hollywood collaborations with Jean-Claude Van Damme. The same freewheeling, anarchic visual stylings on display in 1998’s Knock Off are present here, but truly flourish thanks to a setting that has more to do with classic heroic bloodshed tropes than JCVD selling jeans with nanobombs in their buttons. Back then, I’d never seen an action movie quite as kinetic as Time & Tide, and by the time Tsui Hark’s constantly roving camera followed Wu Bai out a window as he repeled down the side of a Hong Kong tenement building, I knew I was hooked.
(I’m clearly not the only fan: Time & Tide continues to be an influence on the current generation of Asian action directors, as over a decade later that tenement building sequence I mentioned was more or less lifted for both Choi Dong-hoon’s 2012 smash hit The Thieves, and 2014’s No Tears for the Dead from The Man From Nowhere director Lee Jung-beom.)
Trust is fatal.
Time & Tide proves that, at its core, action cinema is about one thing: motion. The film serves as a tribute to the human form in flight, whether Hark’s actors are scaling the side of a building, leaping over a catwalk, or kicking a live grenade before it explodes. Although these days Tsui Hark has grown more enamored of computer effects, Time & Tide is host to a plethora of practical stunts. The director’s restless visual ingenuity still impresses, and guarantees you’ll be saying “how the hell did they do that?” at least once every five minutes.
You could make the argument that Tsui Hark had already produced better films around this time – whether the nihilistic wuxia of 1995’s The Blade or the lush fantasy of 1993’s Green Snake; and certainly those movies are a little easier to follow, due to Time & Tide’s almost free-association script. But for me, Time & Tide will always loom the largest. It’s the rare action film that reinvigorates the form. During one scene, everything pauses so Tsui Hark can zoom in on Nicholas Tse locked inside a refrigerator as he attempts to survive an explosion; it’s appropriate, as that’s kind of what watching this movie feels like at times. No one else has made a film quite like this –– and I’m not sure anyone but Tsui Hark would be bold enough to try.
For me, Time & Tide represented a turning point. No longer would I be content to wait for the next Jackie Chan movie to be released in American cinemas. No longer would I merely keep an eye out for the occasional Hong Kong film that my local video store decided to procure. Now I was on the hunt; I had to actively track down and get my hands on any movie that featured a Chinese actor throwing a punch or brandishing a pistol. The transformation was complete: Time & Tide had turned me from a fan into a fanatic.
Director: Jon Turteltaub Cast: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson Running Time: 113 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Let’s just get it out of the way upfront. Yes, The Meg is the movie which puts Jason Statham on equal footing with Jackie Chan. Is there another star out there who’s had the pleasure of starring alongside the likes of Shu Qi, Michelle Yeoh, and Li Bingbing? I think not, and it’s an accolade that’s as good a way to start a review off as any (plus, I have a feeling most other reviews may have skipped mentioning this landmark moment). With that fact laid out on the table, we can focus on the movie itself.
Based on the book of the same name by Steve Alten (which, for full disclosure, I haven’t read), The Meg has been over 20 years in the making, having originally been picked up by Disney in 1997 to be adapted for the big screen. At the time Disney ended up backing down, due to not wanting to compete with rival Warner Brothers Deep Blue Sea (which came out in 1999), and from there the property has been passed from pillar to post. At one point it was going to be directed by Jan De Bont (Speed), and in more recent year’s horror maestro Eli Roth looked like the firm favorite. A director known for his love of gore combined with a story about a giant shark seemed like a match made in heaven, but it was this match which eventually saw Roth jump ship, as he wanted to make it an R-rated bloodbath (literally) while maintaining the original $150 million budget. The studio was going to let him have both.
Skip forward to 2018, and The Meg is finally unleashed in the form of a co-production between the U.S. and China, with 3 Ninjas director Jon Turteltaub at the helm. Go figure. Stepping into the lead role of expert diver Jonas Taylor is British tough guy Jason Statham, a fitting choice considering he represented England in the diving category during the 1990 Commonwealth Games. The gruff Brit makes for a welcome sight as the lead, in what’s essentially a summer blockbuster movie for (almost) the whole family. For those wondering, the final rating it was slapped with was PG-13, so that should answer the question of if they went for blood or budget.
The plot, for what it’s worth, kicks off with Statham rescuing a submarine in an unexplored part of the Mariana Trench, one that’s under attack from a large unidentified force (hint: it’s a megalodon). Forced to leave half of his crew behind, 5 years later and he’s become an alcoholic recluse in Thailand, having failed to convince those he was accountable to that a prehistoric shark was responsible for the attack. However when a state-of-the-art underwater research facility loses contact with a sub exploring a similar area, containing a team which includes Statham’s ex-wife, he’s identified as the one person who has the skills to save them. Despite his promise to never dive again, knowing his ex-wife is in danger gets the better of him, and soon he’s enroute to the facility in a race against time to save the crew.
Had the whole movie revolved around Jason Statham versus a giant prehistoric shark, The Meg could have been a fun (big budget) B-movie. As it is, The Meg still feels more like a B-movie than anything else, and it’s one that comes lumbered with a revolving cast of interchangeable characters. Rainn Wilson plays the ruthless millionaire who only cares about the bottom line, Cliff Curtis is the guy who keeps cool under pressure, Page Kennedy is the loud black guy, and Ruby Rose plays the smart female who’s also kind of edgy, like she always does. Of course being a Chinese co-production, we also have Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystalco-stars Winston Chao and Li Bingbing, as a father and daughter duo that run the facility.
In fairness, Li Bingbing is the closest thing to a co-lead The Meg has, and becomes the love interest that begins to soften Statham’s world weary heart. Yes, you may be thinking that the reason he accepted this mission was because of his ex-wife, but don’t worry about that. At one point, his ex-wife even encourages him to start a relationship with Bingbing, it’s a win-win! Bingbing herself has been doing the rounds lately in a number of co-productions, with roles in the likes of The Forbidden Kingdom, Resident Evil: Retribution and Transformers: Age of Extinction. I’m not sure if The Meg can top her career highlight of fighting against an ancient Chinese mummy alongside Kelsey Grammer in Guardians of the Tomb, but it comes pretty close.
But what about the megalodon itself? In fairness, the beast of the deep makes for a surprisingly tensionless threat. Even when it’s initially identified, we simply get a scene in which Statham announces “It’s a megalodon”, and nobody acts particularly shocked or terrified. It’s almost as if the cast knew they’re in a movie called The Meg, so the scene didn’t call for any surprise reactions or, dare I say it, acting. This kind of non-reaction essentially summarises the first hour. It all feels rather flat and lifeless, as the crew explore the dark recesses of the ocean, and we get to watch what looks like an early 2000’s IMAX Under The Sea short film. It’s only when the megalodon escapes the deepest depths of the ocean and into more familiar waters that proceedings (literally) brighten up, and we’re treated to what feels like a series of shark genre vignettes.
As much fun as it is to watch Jason Statham being pulled through the water on a rope while being pursued by the hungry shark, or Li Bingbing trapped in a shark cage stuck inside its jaws, there’s also the unmistakable fact that the megalodon is nothing more than CGI. With the huge budget The Meg has behind it, you’d think at least a few million of it could have been spent on some practical shark effects. You only need to type “megalodon” in IMDB to see there’s been a heap of similar movies in the last 15 years (of which my favorite title has to be 2015’s Mega Shark vs. Kolossus), all of which rely on sub-standard CGI. You can’t replace in-shot practical effects, and I can’t help but think The Meg squandered an opportunity by opting to just make a better CGI version of all those shark flicks clogging up the DTV shelves.
For those looking for some blood soaked mayhem, you’ll also have to stick with those DTV shark movies, as you won’t find it here. Outside of some whale blubber (ok, and one briefly sighted severed arm), The Meg is a toothless affair when it comes to the business of kills, which let’s face it, is half the reason for making a shark movie in the first place. Director Turteltaub and star Statham have been surprisingly vocal about their dissatisfaction at the lack of gore on display, as apparently more was shot, but most of it has been cut for the theatrical release. Here’s hoping we’ll get an unrated home video release, but taken in its current form, the megalodon may have an impressive mouthful of teeth, but we don’t get to see them do a whole lot.
More than any of the above though, what threw me off the most with The Meg was how quaint the script is. There are clunky lines throughout, and some of the exchanges are bizarrely polite. One character is pulled out of the water just seconds away from being eaten alive, and their exact exchange consists of the rescued character saying “Thank you”, and the rescuer replying “You’re welcome.” Then they both go on to continue with whatever it was they were doing before. It’s weird. It gets weirder though. In one scene the crew come across the wreckage of a boat, and the water is scattered with small sharks that have their fins missing. A whole scene is then dedicated to Bingbing and Chao explaining that the sharks have had their fins cut off to make shark fin soup, and what a terrible waste of life it is. I get it, if Li Bingbing doesn’t want to eat shark fin soup, then maybe her fans won’t either. But really, in the middle of The Meg!?
The Chinese investment fully shows itself during the finale, set on a crowded beach in China, the shallow water makes for a fun ending as the shark causes havoc amongst the various water sports and swimmers, sometimes feeling like we’ve stepped into another movie altogether. To its credit, it’s also one of the few scenes in which the comedy actually works. Indeed, The Meg is far from perfect, but any shark flick that throws in a finale that includes exploding helicopters, a wedding, a Yorkshire Terrier, a guy in a zorb, and Jason Statham spouting lines like “I’m gonna make it bleed”, at least deserves some good will. In Jaws they may have needed a bigger boat, and if Turteltaub doesn’t want his movie to sink without a trace, The Meg might need one too.
Today I couldn’t tell you whose idea it was to go to Blockbuster and rent a Jackie Chan VHS but I can clearly remember more than one family movie night spent laughing and gasping in shock while watching Operation Condor. Of course, even this innocent memory of a Hong Kong superstar’s attempt at an Indiana Jones movie is somehow wrapped up in Weinstein controversy. For the longest time, pre-internet Kyle did not know that Operation Condor was actually Armour of God 2: Operation Condor and that Operation Condor 2: Armor of God was actually just Armour of God. Just another reason to hate Harvey Weinstein, I suppose. Anyway.
“His Newest Adventure”?
I think I was addicted to Operation Condor for a while because I remember renting it many times on VHS and DVD. I didn’t think of Jackie as a martial artist so much as an uncompromising action movie star that was willing to risk life and limb for a crazy stunt sequence. The notion of a movie star doing his own stunts and showing off the injuries in the credits as proof of his successes and missteps meant something to me, for whatever reason. I thought of him as a living, breathing special effect. In a way, I still do.
I soon branched out beyond Operation Condor but rarely went beyond Jackie Chan in terms of Hong Kong or Chinese film. I didn’t see my first Bruce Lee film until many, many years later, because again, kung fu wasn’t the main draw at the time. Thinking on it now, I miss the happy discoveries browsing the aisles of the video stores looking for a Jackie Chan movie I had never seen before. You don’t get quite the same feeling when such a film appears available for streaming on Netflix or Amazon, you know? After the Operation Condor/Armor of God movies, I have early memories of Jackie Chan’s First Strike, Who Am I?, Mr. Nice Guy, and Rumble in the Bronx.
It probably wasn’t until I first saw Legend of Drunken Master (the Jackie film that I revisit most often) in the early 2000s that I began to appreciate martial arts on film. The fight choreography in that film was so fast and strange, violent yet hilarious. It remains my favorite martial arts movie today. That movie sparked interest in seeking out similar martial arts movies, introducing me to Bruce, Jet, Michelle, and Sammo, among others.
“Armour of God II: Operation Condor” Chinese Theatrical Poster
But the thing about Hong Kong cinema that remains the main point of interest to me is the unbelievable stunt work. I recall hearing how the rival stunt teams got competitive trying to show who was more daring and more willing to take the bruises and broken bones for their art. And that really upped the quality of what you saw in the movies, I think. Hollywood produces plenty of good movies but you don’t see that same competition to outdo each other in action set pieces and stunts that inspire a sense of awe. Hollywood wants to outdo each other at the box office, which I get, but it’s not the same (Tom Cruise is the closest modern American cinema has to a Jackie Chan but beyond Cruise you’ll rarely see an A-lister risking their life for an action movie in Hollywood). I mean, Jackie Chan’s Police Story had the lead actor/director drive a car through a shanty town. It’s insane. And then, later on in the same movie, he rides a pole down multiple floors in a mall, with glass and sparks flying all around him. How can you not be impressed by that dedication and daring?
“New Police Story” International Theatrical Poster
Today’s Jackie Chan movies aren’t the same, understandably. The star has slowed down with age and requires more assistance of special effects like wire work; I do not begrudge him this for a second. His films have also taken on a noticeably more downbeat tone. New Police Story took the crazy action series to dark new lows, with Jackie trading in comedy for a sad, self-pitying dramatic performance—but at least it still had the crazy action and stunts. And then Police Story: Lockdown kept with the dramatic performance but excised most of the stunt work in favor of a gritty thriller atmosphere. I think the change in tone may be most related to Jackie’s return from Hollywood, where he had success but rarely seemed very pleased with the work he was doing. It’s like he took a bad mood into his movies – that, or, he enjoyed the good reviews for 2009’s Shinjuku Incident and has been trying to get back to that sort of dramatic character work ever since.
2017’s The Foreigner, more than any Jackie Chan movie of the past decade, suggests that maybe Jackie (who wants to be a respected dramatic actor) and the fans (who want to see him kick people and cling to the wall like Spider-Man), and the international producers (who want him to speak English) can all be happy. Because though his movies have changed from what I first fell in love with, at least you can say that he still tries to provide variety and will do almost anything to entertain an audience. And wherever Jackie Chan’s career goes from here, the old movies will always be there, awesome and badass and full of life. Hmm, I think I’m gonna go watch Operation Condor now. Later.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum | Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)
RELEASE DATE: September 18, 2018
On September 18, 2018, Well Go USA will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum(read our review), a South Korean horror film directed by Jung Bum-Sik (The Epitaph, Horror Stories I-II).
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum follows the crew of a horror web show who plan to stream live from inside the asylum. To attract more viewers, the show’s host arranges some scares for the team, but as they move further into the nightmarish old building, they begin to encounter much more than expected.
Selected by CNN as one of the “freakiest places on the planet,” Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital is known as one of Korea’s most haunted spots. Based on the local legends and stories of people who’ve visited the abandoned hospital.
This upcoming China-produced, English-language drama – also written by Jackie – takes place in the early 1930s and is about a young man who leaves Shanghai to come to Europe and reunite with the love of his life.
If you’re expecting to see Jackie kickass on screen, you might find yourself disappointed. In fact, he doesn’t even appear in the film. Instead, he’s letting Noah Centineo (The Fosters), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), recording artist Martina Stoessel (Violetta), his son Jaycee Chan (Railroad Tigers) and last, but not least, Andy Lau (Chasing the Dragon) fill the screen.
We now leave you with an on-set photo of Jackie directing The Diary, as well as the International Trailer for one of his greatest directorial achievements, Police Story:
“Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Tsui Hark Writer: Chang Chia-lu Cast: Mark Chao, William Feng Shaofeng, Kenny Lin Gengxin, Carina Lau, Ethan Juan, Sandra Ma, Ma Sichun, Chien Sheng, Yang Yiwei Running Time: 132 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Before you express concern, don’t panic, the latest entry in the Detective Dee series has nothing to do with the wily sleuth investigating a crime spree instigated by Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, and Leon Lai. With that disclaimer out of the way, we can turn our attention to Tsui Hark’s third instalment in his successful detective story meets wuxia hybrid. The Four Heavenly Kings has made an interesting journey to the screen, with initial rumors suggesting the detective’s third outing would be a tale involving time-travel. Such a scenario would have seen the older Detective Dee, portrayed by Andy Lau in 2010’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, team up with his younger self, portrayed by Mark Chao in 2013’s Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon. However when Lau suffered an injury, after falling off a horse in January 2017, his long recovery time seemed to put paid to this idea.
So it is The Four Heavenly Kings also marks an unspoken handover of the Detective Dee role from Lau to Chao. Gone is the ‘Young’ preface from the title, suggesting that Chao will now be our detective of choice for future instalments. While such a decision will no doubt be a blow to Andy Lau’s significant fan base, Chao made for a worthy replacement in Rise of the Sea Dragon, and it’s good to see him back after uninspiring turns in Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe and Enter the Warrior’s Gate. Also back are plenty of other familiar faces, including William Feng (Painted Skin 2: The Resurrection) as Dee’s rival/partner, Carina Lau (Deadful Melody) as the Empress, and Kenny Lin (Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back) as the bumbling sidekick.
After seeing off the sea dragon in the last instalment, Dee is gifted the indestructible Dragon Taming Mace, the ultimate weapon for dishing out justice. However the Empress feels somewhat irked at Dee taking ownership of such a legendary weapon, so orders the head of the Golden Guards (William Feng) to retrieve it. Not entirely convinced Feng has the capabilities to do so, Lau also hires 4 figures from the martial arts world to aid him in his mission, whose skills range from being able to control the weather, to brandishing a pair of scimitars big enough to slice a person in half. A bigger threat reveals itself though when it turns out an ancient Indian sect are in town, who go by the name of the Wind Warriors, seeking revenge on the Imperial family for their past mistreatment. Can Dee handle the threat of the Wind Warriors, an untrusting Empress, and the constant attempts to steal his Mace by a reluctant Feng and his cohorts?
Anyone who’s seen the first 2 movies will no doubt know the answer is “Of course he can.” The charm of the series though doesn’t lay so much in if Dee is going to succeed or not, but rather the reveal of the mystery at the heart of the story. In the first it was the issue of people spontaneously combusting, and in the second it was the mysterious creature that lurked in the depths of the sea. The mystery is what keeps the audience watching, and with a visionary director like Tsui Hark at the helm, we’re also guaranteed a number of fantastical set pieces thrown in the mix as well, with some of the best use of 3D technology I’ve seen. The Detective Dee series marks the first time for Hark to consistently return to a character since he helmed 4 of the Once Upon a Time in China movies in the 90’s, and the world of Detective Dee (and the characters that inhabit it) seems to be one he’s come to enjoy working in.
The main issue I found with The Four Heavenly Kings then, is that it gives away its mystery far too early into its bloated 125 minute runtime. We learn fairly early on that the Wind Warriors are able to use magic to cause hallucinations and influence people’s thoughts, which provides the explanation for why certain characters are acting the way they are, but as a result we’re robbed of a build-up to a big reveal. Perhaps it was my own expectations from the structure of the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Rise of the Sea Dragon that resulted in my disappointment, however once it was clear what’s going on, and it becomes about following Dee in his pursuit of the Wind Warriors, I found my interest waning.
Indeed The Four Heavenly Kings doesn’t just play with the structure the series set out in previous instalments, it also shifts the focus onto different characters. As the end credits rolled, there was a distinct impression that Detective Dee had played little more than a supporting character in his own movie. Instead, we spend a lot more time with William Feng in his role as the leader of the Golden Guards. One of the actors to appear in all 3 movies, Feng looks to be having a great time here, chewing up scenery with his intense stares and constant scowl, he steals the show whenever onscreen. Likewise for Kenny Lin, who’s given a whole sub-plot in which he and Water Moon (Ma Sichuan), one of the martial artists that Lau has hired, fall for each other (as well as randomly revealing their shared Turkic ethnicity).
Action choreography duties have also been handed over. Hark and Yuen Bun had developed a solid working relationship together, with Bun being one of the few old-school action directors to successfully transition to the CGI driven action aesthetic of recent years. It’s a shame then that he’s missing from the latest entry, and his absence is one that’s felt. Replacing him is Lin Feng, who dials back the martial arts action, and instead relies more on the element of spectacle to convey a sense of awe. If anything, Hark seems to be utilising both The Four Heavenly Kings (and to a lesser degree, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia which he produced), to recreate many of the action concepts from 2001’s The Legend of Zu. The sequel to his 1983 classic was a bold but misguided attempt at a large scale effects driven fantasy flick, and it was clear in many scenes that the technology wasn’t up to the level of creating what Hark was envisioning.
Just like in The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, here we have more red tentacles on display, and the oversized scimitars that one of the assassins wields are more than a little reminiscent of Ekin Cheng’s bladed weapon in The Legend of Zu. But what are all these doing in a Detective Dee movie? To Hark’s credit, the fact that hallucinations play a big part in the story allow him to unleash his imagination to full effect once it gets to the finale. Before that though, there’s an overly long scene with a Chinese dragon statue that comes to life, exposition delivered via a floating fish, and Dwayne Johnson’s mutated silverback gorilla from Rampage. In fact the huge white (Buddhist) gorilla is the centrepiece of the insane finale, which pits it against a monstrous beast made out of tentacles and eye balls, as we get a full-on Tang dynasty version of a kaiju movie. The actors may have little else to do than stare, but it’s a scene which is undeniably Tsui Hark.
Therein lies both The Four Heavenly Kings biggest strength and also its biggest problem. With the 3rd entry Hark has taken Detective Dee and his cohorts, and thrown them into a movie which is closer to the all-out fantasy of his Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back sequel, than anything we’ve seen in the series itself. Dee does very little investigation himself, and his talents are often shown when he’s not onscreen (the way he keeps the Mace from being stolen when it’s not on his body is ingenious), meaning the ‘Detective’ in the title could have been done away with just as much as the ‘Young’. Forfeiting investigation for an overreliance on spectacle, particularly during the mid-section The Four Heavenly Kings becomes a plodding experience to get through, and the pacing struggles to fully recover by the time we’re nearing the 2 hour mark.
While I still consider myself a fan of the Detective Dee series, and indeed anything that involves Tsui Hark in the director’s chair, the decision to focus more on political intrigue rather than mysterious happenings marks The Four Heavenly Kings as the weakest in the series. The spectacle may indeed be impressive, with Hark’s name allowing for budget to be a non-issue, however spectacle needs to compliment story, not the other way around. That’s what the first 2 Detective Dee movies got right, and this one gets wrong. The latest instalment is also the first time that the title has no bearing on the actual plot, with The Four Heavenly Kings in question appearing as statues in just a single scene, and carrying no further relevance. For anyone that’s ever thought it would be cool to make an ancient China version of King Kong though, you’re definitely in the right place.
A sequel to the 2016 box office smash Train to Busan is in early stages of development from the original film’s director, Yeon Sang Ho (Psychokinesis).
“We are planning to begin filming in the first half of next year,” a representative of Sang-ho told the press. “We still have not cast any actors, so we are still preparing a lot of different things.” The source added that Sang-ho does not plan to bring back any of the actors from the last film (via AKP).
Director: Jean-Paul Ly Producer: Law Plancel Cast: Jean-Paul Ly, Laurent Plancel, Phoebe Robinson-Galvin, Toni Ash, Hugo Nicolau, Stephanie Bailey-Wright, Hung Dante Dong, Jane Elsmore, Antti Hakala Running Time: 23 min.
By Martin Sandison
Last year’s Cambodian martial arts flick Jailbreak announced a few new names to the Asian action pantheon, with the most exciting being leading man and choreographer Jean Paul Ly. Ly has worked on the stunts for movies such as Doctor Strange and Now You See Me 2. Based in London, Ly is now working on a lot of his own low budget projects, with the upcoming action thriller Nightshooters being one of those. He made the short The Division as a vehicle for his talents, taking on acting, directing, choreographing, writing and editing duties. Made for only £9,000, does the film rise above its low budget and deliver the action? The answer is a resounding yes.
Jake (Jean Paul Ly) and Lance (Laurent Plancel, Jailbreak) are members of The Division, a special forces unit. The film follows them throughout the course of a day as they try and save London from a terrorist attack. Colourful villains and double crosses abound, as the two and the rest of their team must take on the terrorists using fists, kicks and handguns.
What excites me so much about this project is that it was filmed entirely in the UK, and Ly’s stunt team are all British. While the most famous export from these shores, Scott Adkins, makes most of his films overseas (apart from this years Accident Man), Ly has stuck to his guns (literally) using some British actors, and British stunt talent. They are also top of the game stuntmen, their reactions, falls and martial arts chops proving this. The action concentrates on Ly and Plancel taking out the thugs, in mostly one-against-many fights.
Crackerjack action is the order of the day, with both Ly and Plancel proving they are in the top league when it comes to onscreen Martial Artistry. In fact, the integration of gunplay and martial arts is some of the best I’ve seen, up there with last years John Wick 2, with original use of handguns between the hand-to-hand combat. The long takes are at times a wonder to behold, with superb form shown by both leads, captured with fluid camerawork and superb shot reframing to present the action very clearly. One take has Ly exchanging blows, suddenly the camera whip pans to Plancel taking out three guys with a flying kick and a judo throw. Impressive indeed, and made my jaw drop.
The centrepiece one-on-one fight features Ly, and is a superb example of modern handwork, tricking and high impact kicking. Unfortunately Plancel’s face off with English stuntwoman Phoebe Robinson-Galvin (Wonder Woman) is a bit of a damp squib in comparison, despite some good exchanges. The latter takes place on a pier, and looks a lot like the location used for Tony Leung’s yacht in Hard Boiled, with some gunplay thrown in for good measure, surely not a coincidence. There’s some brutal stuff when Ly arms himself with a couple of hammers, with great hits and conviction.
Ly and Plancel prove they have not just action chops, but are also good actors with screen presence. The two villains are fun, with Tyler played for laughs and a good sleazy performance from Toni Ash, and a charismatic one from Hugo Nicolau as Adam. The moments of humour work, and seem to poke fun at the low budget of the film, which is a definite positive. Some peripheral characters are unfortunately amateurishly acted, but it’s expected with such a small budget. Also expected are the CGI blood and muzzle flashes being not the best, again it’s a shame because the action is so adrenalin pumping.
The plot is decent if nothing new, with good pacing. A very big plus point is the screen doesn’t go dead when there’s no action; a criticism which could be levelled at a lot of independent action stuff we’ve seen in the last decade or so. Ly proves he can take on all the roles with aplomb, and as an independent film the action is up there with anything from the Young Masters, Reel Deal Productions, Andy Long Nguyen and Eric Jacobus, with the overall film being better than a lot of their efforts. Interior scenes are well lit, atmospheric and fluidly edited, belying the very low budget.
If this is what Ly can do with 9k, I can only imagine what he could do with a bigger budget. He made the short to develop in to a feature, and I hope he can achieve that goal, and we can all enjoy a UK production with modern onscreen ass kicking at its finest.
There are many defining moments in the history of cinema, in relation to martial arts, Bruce Lee is still seen as a pioneer and the most famous actor to emerge from Hong Kong. Amazingly influential as he was, especially off screen in relation to the world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) – now a billion dollar business in the shape of the UFC, he only made 4 and a half kung fu movies (dying halfway through 1972’s Game of Death), sadly failing to produce a full body of work. It was actually a group of stuntmen who made a name for themselves in the China Drama Academy that would come to revolutionise martial arts movies and dominate in a fashion that we will never see again.
Qianlong Emperor watching a wrestling match.
The China Drama Academy was a Peking Opera school situated in Lai Chai Kok in Hong Kong. Peking Opera was born in 1790 and used to celebrate the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor and later became available for the general public. It received a revival and rise in popularity after World War II, as it was a focal point for national identity and Chinese pride. Like traditional Opera the performances tell a story (usually based on myths and legends), which is sung by the actors who also perform acrobatics and kung fu movements. As a result it requires a lot of training, hence the need for Opera schools that start students at a young age. This became an option for poor parents with hyperactive children, who could learn a skill and get food and board.
Jackie Chan and Yu Jim-Yuen.
One such hyperactive child named Chan Kong Sang arrived at the school in 1960, which was owned by the notoriously strict Yu Jim-Yuen. He was eventually adopted by the master, taking on the name Yuen Lo but would become to be known as Jackie Chan.
In his autobiography I am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, he describes the harsh regime he had to endure, waking at 5am, forced into the splits for hours on end and being beaten if you were naughty. He also describes meeting Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao at the same school; this meeting would change the course of the film industry as these three students eventually stood out and were recruited into The Seven Little Fortunes.
Spot ’em if you can.
The Seven Little Fortunes were a performance troupe consisting of the best students at the China Drama Academy. They were interchangeable and consisted of as many as fourteen but only seven would perform on stage at one time.
Other noted members included Corey Yuen (actor and director best known for 1988’s Dragons Foreverand 2002’s The Transporter), Yuen Wah (famously moustached actor who plays a brilliant villain in 1987’s Eastern Condors), Yuen Tai (actor and martial artist known for 1983’s 8 Diagram Pole Fighter), Yuen Miu (bit part actor and one of the action directors on 1994’s Drunken Master 2) and Yuen Bun (actor, action director noted for directing 1993’s Once Upon a Time in China IV).
When these performers got older, and were ready to leave the school they discovered that Hong Kong of the 1970’s had fallen out of love with Peking Opera and fallen in love with kung fu movies, first with the Shaw Brothers epics and then with a charismatic young actor named Bruce Lee.
Sammo Hung
Sammo Hung (known as Yuen Lung at this time, like Jackie adopting his teacher’s name) is older than Jackie Chan by two years and thus had been working as an extra, then stuntman and action coordinator for Shaw Brothers since he was fourteen. So when he left the Drama academy he continued to work in the film industry, it was a natural fit considering the skills he had learnt and the popularity of kung fu movies at the time. Jackie and Yuen followed Sammo shortly after, plying their trade as stuntmen on various film productions.
Bruce Lee, after impressing in dramatic roles in films like 1960’s The Orphan, had starred in his first martial arts movie: 1971’s The Big Bossand instantly became a phenomenon in Hong Kong. When an especially daring stuntman was needed for his next feature 1972’s Fist of Fury, Jackie was recommended and ended up doubling for the Japanese villain, being kicked through a Shoji door by a screaming Bruce. The Three Dragons (as Sammo, Jackie and Yuen would later become known) were then united for the first time, all playing stunt men on 1973’s Enter the Dragon, Sammo looking very fresh faced fighting Bruce in a MMA style bout, featuring fingerless gloves and fetching black pants. Just as these wannabe film stars were finding their feet, Bruce Lee died un-expectantly in 1973, casting a dark shadow over the industry and plunging it into the Bruceploitation era.
Jackie Chan (far left) next to Yuen Wah with Yuen Biao (bottom right).
Those films have their own article on this site, so I will just say it is a ridiculous and luckily short lived era. However it did affect one of our protagonists: Mr. Chan. After impressing in bit parts, stunt skills and work ethic he signed a multi-picture deal with Lo Wei Motion Film Productions, starting with New Fist of Fury, a terrible attempt at casting Jackie as the new Bruce Lee. The film vaguely resembles the plot of 1976’s Fist of Fury with a local karate master trying to take over all the kung fu schools in Japanese occupied Taiwan. Jackie plays an irritating thief who has to learn kung fu to survive, the action is especially poor and it doesn’t play to any of Jackie’s strengths in comedy or action.
Jackie Chan and Corey Yuen.
While Jackie was trapped in Lo Wei hell, making movies that didn’t suit his style, Sammo made his starring and directorial debut with 1977’s Iron Fisted Monk. Many of the tropes of this film will be refined by Sammo over the next few years as he found his own style, which is very different from Bruce Lee and the Shaw Brothers movies he had worked on previously. He would usually play a dim witted but lovable character, in a low paid job who is swept up in a real historical situation. He would either be naturally tough or learn that skill from a beggar or unusual master. Sammo’s films are usually violent with choreography so powerful you feel the impact deep in your bones. He would often feature violence against women, whether this was a way of keeping everyone on an equal playing field or he didn’t get enough dates as a younger man, I am not quite sure.
Yuen Wah
Sammo plays Hawker, a foolish but kind hearted down and out who is trained by the Iron Fisted Monk of the title, and ends up rebelling against the evil Manchu’s. The action uses traditional kung fu forms but the pace is faster than had been seen before, using the timing learned from those many years training in Peking Opera, and the stunts are hard hitting with Sammo and his attackers flipping, slamming and breaking through objects. Sammo is especially impressive, though not as large as later years, he is rotund to say the least, yet his energy, power and acrobatics are a sight to see. He uses this power unlike anybody seen on screen before using throws, trips and sometimes even elbow drops to dispatch his opponents. Sammo had finally smashed onto the scene and he was planning on staying for a very long time.
“The Iron Fisted Monk” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Jackie Chan had been toiling away making unpopular movies with Lo Wei such as 1976’s Shaolin Wooden Men and To Kill with Intrigue, the latter especially being an example of the wrong role for Chan due to his character being stoic, serious and even villainous; something that doesn’t suit his demeanour. Therefore Lo Wei had no problem with Seasonal Films recruiting Jackie for 1978’s Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, in which the abused orphan Chien Fu is taught Snake Style by the fantastically named beggar Pai Chang-tien, himself a master on the run from the evil Eagle’s Claw clan.
The film was an instant hit with audiences relating well to Jackie for the first time. His character is vulnerable and silly but through hard work and dedication he gains incredible skill, much like Jackie in real life. You really feel the blood, sweat and tears flying off the screen, Jackie putting his body on the line to show that Chien Fu will do anything to succeed, combining Snake Style with Cat’s Claw to hilarious but devastating effect. All those prat falls, training routines and forms at the Opera Academy were there for all to see.
Yuen Biao was given his starring debut by none other than Sammo’s 1979 comedy Knockabout, the film features Yuen as a con artist who vows revenge on the man who killed his brother, this time Sammo plays the beggar who trains him. The film works hard to establish Yuen Biao and really shows off his acrobatic ability, which is extraordinary. The film is fun but it feels like it was testing the ground before Yuen really double flipped onto the screen in 1981’s The Prodigal Son. The second of Sammo’s films to feature Wing Chun after 1978’s Warriors Two, which was unheard of at the time, stars Yuen as a rich kid whose father pays people to lose to him, naturally he comes up against someone who won’t accept the money, an effeminate Wing Chun practitioner and opera star played by Lam Ching Ying (Lam, most famous for his portrayal of a Taoist priest in 1985’s Mr. Vampire, attended a rival opera school called the Chun Chau Drama Society along with future member of Jackie’s stunt team; Mars).
“The Prodigal Son” Chinese Theatrical Poster
The Prodigal Son sits on the cusp of the old and new style of action that would develop as the trio entered the 80’s. It still uses traditional Wing Chun forms, but introduces a more brutal way of delivering blows that includes head butts, arm breaks and opening up old wounds. This would then develop further into a more ‘Kickboxing style’, as the settings moved to the modern day. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and now Yuen Biao had proven that they could carry a movie on their own, they had stepped out of the shadow of Bruce Lee and shown how a new path could be trod. Armed with the unique training they had received, now it was time for the Three Dragons to unite!
Strangely the first film the Dragons appeared in together was 1983’s Winners and Sinners, which was the start of Sammo’s Lucky Stars film series. These mainly concentrate on bawdy comedy and slapstick, performed between the protagonists, usually involving tricking a woman into touching or being close to them. Harmless at the time, but in retrospect the grounds for a sexual harassment case! Jackie and Yuen both have cameos playing policeman with Jackie’s yellow tracksuit burning the eyes, while he dons roller skates in an impressive car chase. Naturally with Sammo as the choreographer, the small pieces of action you do get are first class, employing the ‘Kickboxing style’ I mentioned earlier, full of great reaction falls from the stuntmen and it is the first time we get to see Sammo’s special move: The jumping double leg kick.
They would eventually star together in the irrepressible Project Ain 1983. Jackie had signed with Golden Harvest, receiving his first million dollar pay check for 1980’s The Young Masterand was an established star, he had taken a jaunt in America that hadn’t gone too well, with 1980’s Battle Creek Brawl, failing to impress mainly because Jackie was restricted in choreographing the action sequences. To get back on track he enlisted the help of his Opera brothers, who all-star in this tale of turn of the century Hong Kong, where the Coast Guard and the Police must put aside their differences to combat a serious pirate problem. The dynamic is perfect here, with so many elements falling into place. We have a rough and ready bar brawl (no beautiful forms here!), Jackie paying homage to Harold Lloyd in Safety Last 1923, but this time dropping from the clock tower, a Peking Opera inspired interrogation and the three brothers coming together to fight the fantastically tattooed pirate Lor Sam Pau. Only together can they defeat such a tough opponent and only together, could they cement themselves as the now true greats of Hong Kong action cinema.
The Three Dragons have only starred in a film together two more times, as of 2018. Jackie and Yuen again appearing briefly in My Lucky Stars and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars– both in 1985 – two films that feature awesome action but far too much prolonged silliness. A year earlier they came together for a film, which always lingers in the memory due to its unusual premise and setting; the fantastic Wheels on Meals.
“My Lucky Stars” Japanese Theatrical Poster
The film features Jackie and Yuen as cousins, running a mobile food truck in an alternate Barcelona, where everyone speaks Cantonese! Director Sammo, sets his stall out from the beginning with a training montage, featuring Jackie Chan attempting his Wing Chun form on a wooden dummy, but giving up straight away to engage in a Kickboxing sparring match with Yuen Biao. Sammo is telling the audience what to expect from this movie, we are in the modern day now, and you won’t be seeing Hung Ga or Wing Chun and there is no beggar to learn a specific style from. Our protagonists are martial arts experts and they fight with a modern more western style, and they fight to win. Sammo cemented this by employing two American martial artists as the antagonists – Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez – an undefeated full contact kickboxer and Keith Vitalli, an expert in karate. They are incredibly tough opponents, with only the resilience and acrobatic skills of our Chinese heroes being the difference in the end. This toughness and skill is what separated them from the pack in the first place.
We finish this story with 1988’s Dragons Forever, fittingly featuring five members of The Seven Little Fortunes. As mentioned it is the last film to star Jackie, Sammo and Yuen, but is also co-directed by Cory Yuen and features fellow alumni, Yuen Wah, as a freakish evil business man with a penchant for cigars. The plot really encapsulates the relationship between the three at the time. Jackie’s lawyer is recruited by a chemical company to discredit a local fishery, who is suing them over polluting the waters. Jackie decides to hire his two best friends Sammo being an arms dealer and Yuen a mentally unstable thief, to gather dirt. When things inevitably go wrong for them, they fight among themselves, both verbally and physically but ultimately team up to take down the chemical company once they discover it is a front for narcotics.
“Dragons Forever” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Like their characters the Three Dragons clearly argued amongst themselves, being control freaks and perfectionists they demanded the best, yet with cooperation and their ability to read each other so well, they could produce something of great quality. This is the reason they would work with each other and other members of The Seven Little Fortunes so regularly, due to the fact no one else could produce the timing and stunt work that they required, with the audience benefiting greatly.
If anything we were spoiled early by such hard hitting action, nothing else seemed to compare to what we saw in the 1980’s. This was a combination of ability, budgetary concerns and the time spent on action over dialogue scenes. Hollywood would eventually learn the virtues of Hong Kong choreography when they hired Yuen Wood Ping (himself a member of The China Drama Academy, leaving before Jackie joined) to direct the action on 1999’s The Matrix. It just took a while!
After Dragons Forever the three brothers remained hugely successful with their own projects: Jackie with the Police Story and Armour of God sequels, Sammo continuing to direct and star in films like 1989’s Pedicab Driver and 1990’s Spooky Encounters and Yuen in 1991’s genre defining Once upon a Time in Chinaeventually directing his only movie to date: 1992’s A Kid from Tibet. Of course they haven’t stayed away from each other and have regularly collaborated in the years since; Sammo directing Jackie Chan in 1997’s Mr. Nice Guyand Yuen Biao serving as the action director on 2000’s Shanghai Noon, with many more examples extending to the present day.
Unfortunately they have never all come together again to headline a film, there have been moments when it was designed to happen, but scheduling conflicts and interests in their own body of work has got in the way. Now with Yuen Biao all but retired and Jackie and Sammo in their 60’s it is very unlikely to happen, and even if it did it would merely be an Expendables-style nod to nostalgia rather than a true action great. It shows the determination and work ethic of Sammo and Jackie that they still have many films slated for release in the next few years. They will probably continue to produce and choreograph as long as they can stand, but when that light is eventually extinguished it will be an emotional day and a realisation what a unique experience they brought to the silver screen.
As aforementioned I don’t believe we will see such an impact by a set of actors again, like the class of ’92 who graduated from the youth team to win the Champions league with Manchester United, they came of age in a unique set of circumstances and those conditions have changed. Peking Opera schools like the ones attended by The Seven Little Fortunes no longer exist and if they did the training would not be as harsh or intense, laws protecting children have come into force in the decades since.
Jackie Chan and his disciples “New” Seven Little Fortunes in an anti-drug advertisement.
The Hong Kong film industry has also seen a decline, with Golden Harvest studios closing in 2003 and China becoming a global player. Safety concerns and increased budgets have also introduced special effects and wire work to ‘enhance’ an action scene. Naturally we will have many more great martial artists on screen in the future, but we will never have an industry rocked by the death of a legend, cut down in his prime, waiting to be filled with a new kind of screen action, influenced by the skills of the traditional Peking Opera.
Master Yu Jim-Yuen could never have known, as he watched The Seven Little Fortunes perform a manoeuvre for the 100th time that these young children would take their acquired skills, and come to dominate Hong Kong cinema of the late 20th century. The action, comedy and stunt work they perfected continues to dazzle audiences to this day. They must have resented the training at the time, but without it we would never have been exposed to the greatest proponents of on screen martial arts, we may ever see. We can all consider ourselves fortunate, to have experienced The Seven Little Fortunes.
Yu Jim-Yuen’s Seven Little Fortunes: Yuen Bun, Yuen Wah, Yuen Tak, Yuen Ting, Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
If you can’t get enough of coming-of-age, anti-bullying films like The Karate Kid, The Martial Arts Kid – and of course, the recent Cobra Kai series – then prepare yourself for I Can I Will I Did, the full-length debut feature of writer/director Nadine Truong. The film stars Mike Faist, Ellie Lee, Jack DiFalco, and Taekwondo Grandmaster Ik Jo Kang.
Depressed foster youth Ben is bullied and as a result gets into a car accident. His recovery process is slow, until he meets Adrienne, a wheelchair bound fellow patient at the hospital who breathes hope into his life and introduces to him her grandfather, Taekwondo Master Kang.
I Can I Will I Did will premier in Los Angeles soon. Until then, don’t miss the film’s Trailer below:
On October 9, 2018, Altered Innocence is releasing the DVD for The Poet and the Boy, the debut feature from filmmaker Kim Yang-hee. The film stars Yang Ik-June (Breathless), actress Jeon Hye-Jin (The Throne) plus young Korean heart-throb and rising star Jung Ga-Ram.
The Poet and The Boy is the story of a struggling poet in his late 30s, who has spent all his life living off his hard working wife. Despite his wife’s constant nagging, all he does is think about his writing. One day, the poet meets a teenage boy working at a donut shop and helplessly develops feelings he has never had before, leading to both dramatic and comedic consequences.
In 2014, Soi Cheang Pou-Soi (SPL II) uncaged his first Monkey King film with Donnie Yen in the title role. In 2016, the director returned with a sequel that had Aaron Kwok replacing Yen as the lead. Then in 2018, Soi Cheang and Kwok returned for a third film.
This brings us to 2019 where we just received news from AFS that The Monkey King 4 is officially in-the-works. Currently, there is no word if Soi Cheang, Kwok or any of the previous cast members are returning, but given their track record, our bet is that the same team will be back for more.
In the meantime, we’ll be catching Kwok in the highly-anticipated John Woo-esque Project Gutenberg with Chow Yun-fat. Stay tuned!
Birth of the Dragon was designed as a way to pay homage to the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee and provide more insight into the film star’s early life. Released on Blu-ray towards the end of 2017, many fans of the Way of the Dragon actor will have been excited to learn things they may not have known before. But unfortunately, the film was heavily criticised by critics and is not considered as a good representation of Lee at all.
For lovers of all things martial arts, Lee is arguably the most important practitioner of all time. He appeared in some of the seminal films of the genre, such as Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon in 1973, and also helped to change the way Asians were represented in American film. When it was announced that there would be a fictional account of the young Lee’s life brought to film in Birth of the Dragon, some were sceptical while others were excited to see a new side to the man. It turns out that the scepticism was justified, and the film from George Nolfi was a poor representation of Lee’s early career with a large amount of theatrical embellishment added for good measure.
Birth of the Dragon has an extremely low approval rating of 26 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, a site which is usually reliable for its film scores. It got slated by many top critics as well, with some pondering over how and why the film got made in the first place. The picture was also received badly by Shannon Lee, the daughter of the late actor. She said it lacked a “complete understanding of his philosophies and artistry,” and also noted that “they haven’t captured the essence of his beliefs in martial arts or storytelling.”
The legend of Lee is still strong in popular culture, and if Hollywood was to release a proper biopic, it would open to a huge audience. Taken too early at the age of 32, Lee would have had great franchise potential today. There have been numerous spinoffs which have taken inspiration from the actor’s famous films over the years. For instance, online slots like Dragon Shrine and Dragon Ship have clearly used elements from the classic Lee films of the early 1970s. Lee has also featured as a special unlockable character in EA Sports titles UFC in 2014 and UFC 2 in 2015. This is a touching tribute to the man who would have taken the mixed-martial arts world by storm if it had existed during his living years.
It would be interesting to see if this latest inaccurate biopic of Lee inspires his daughter to collaborate with filmmakers and create something which does the martial arts man justice. She did say that her family had to generate their own material in order to “get audiences to understand the depth and uniqueness” of her father.
For now, those who want to keep their fond memories of Lee intact should stick to the classics that he starred in. Birth of the Dragon just doesn’t live up to the legend’s memory well enough.
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Today I couldn’t tell you whose idea it was to go to Blockbuster and rent a Jackie Chan VHS but I can clearly remember more than one family movie night spent laughing and gasping in shock while watching 
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