Exclusive: Interview with Won Jin – The Scorpion King

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Paul Bramhall

Back in 2002 I could still be considered a relative newcomer to the world of kung fu cinema, having gotten into the genre only a few years earlier. Living in the UK, most of my kung fu movie watching came in the form of picking up the latest release from the Hong Kong Legends label, which at the time was going through its own golden era. This particular year saw them release a title by the name of The Scorpion King, from 1992. It was a production which featured some familiar names, such as Chin Kar Lok and Lau Kar Leung, and some not so familiar, namely, a certain Korean gentleman called Won Jin.

Keep your Blu-ray discs. It was all about “Operation Scorpio” on high definition VCD.

Essentially playing the villain of the piece, as Sunny the Scorpion, Won Jin marked himself as a legend of kung fu cinema in just a single movie. Showing amazing physical dexterity and flexibility, his kicks seemed to defy gravity, and in the image that defines him, he drops down onto one knee while propping himself up with both hands, arching his other leg over his back to perfectly imitate a scorpion. Not many people can claim to have made such a memorable impact on the genre so quickly, however after featuring in the trashy Women on the Run the following year, just like that he seemed he disappear from the Hong Kong movie scene.

Many rumors circulated around what exactly happened to the mysterious super kicker after so brightly lighting up the screen, from health issues to mentions of him possibly having died. Thankfully the later wasn’t true, however apart from briefly returning to Hong Kong cinema in the early 2000’s, Won Jin has mostly remained behind the camera in his native Korea. Then, seemingly out of the blue, in 2013 he appeared back on the screen in the Korean action movie The Suspect. Despite only being onscreen for a few minutes, they weren’t wasted, as he faced off against the title character in a scene which showed he still very much had all the moves.

"The Suspect" Korean Theatrical Poster

“The Suspect” Korean Theatrical Poster

His appearance in The Suspect was followed by a more substantial role in the 2015 production Kwon Bob: Chinatown, in which he plays the leader of a villainous Chinese gang. Despite its clear low budget, whenever Won Jin is onscreen he lights it up just as he did almost 25 years ago, displaying an array of kicks that the Scorpion King would be proud of.

As it happened, I planned to visit Seoul, the capital of Korea, in September 2015, and in one of those rare light bulb moments, the thought crossed my mind – I’m in Korea, Won Jin has a new movie out, why don’t I try to contact him for an interview? That’s exactly what I did, and after several e-mail exchanges, on the afternoon of 25th September I was greeted by Sunny the Scorpion in a quiet café, located within the backstreets of Gangnam. What was supposed to be just an hour long interview, surprisingly turned into us spending the next 12 hours together, encompassing coffee, alcohol, live octopus, and karaoke.

Below is the transcript of our conversation, which covered everything from his beginnings in the Korean movie industry, to his time in Hong Kong, to his present day activities working in both Korea and China. I hope you enjoy it.

Note: The interview was conducted using a mix of English and Korean.

Author Paul Bramhall and Won Jin kicking back with a cup of pine tree dongdongju.

PAUL BRAMHALL: Master Won Jin, first of all thank you for taking the time out to meet for an interview. I wanted to start by asking about the 2013 movie The Suspect. Of course many of your fans know you from your Hong Kong movies, and some also know of your early Korean productions, but The Suspect marked your return to the screen after a particularly long absence. How did you come to be involved in this movie?

WON JIN: You’re welcome! Well with this movie, actually my work in Korea has mostly been action directing, and I was also involved in constructing some of the action scenes for The Suspect. However director Won Sin-yeon, he knew of my earlier work and was some what of a fan, so he told me that he’d developed a small role in the movie which was just for me, and hoped I would take it. It’s true that I haven’t been in front of the camera for a long time, but of course, it was quite special to have a role made just for myself, so I said yes. I had to train the lead actor, Gong Yoo, how to perform the fight choreography, and I put together the fight scene myself. Gong Yoo learnt quickly, so we were able to film the scene to a high level. When did you see that movie? Was it in England?

Won Jin’s now famous “scorpion” pose.

PB: I watched it a couple of years ago upon its release, but not in England, in Australia.

WJ: Ah, it’s good to hear that you watched it. I took a long break from appearing in front of the camera, because many action movies these days, any actors can play the part in them. But for me, I like the martial arts! So with the chance to perform a fight and assist with the fight choreography in The Suspect, we hoped it would be popular internationally and not only in Korea. Even though Hong Kong doesn’t make martial arts movies to the level it used to, it still has a market for them and they can be popular. In Korea that’s not the case, so we hoped with The Suspect the action would be popular in Korea as well as internationally, particularly in China, the Chinese market still appreciates martial arts in movies.

PB: And now of course you have quite a substantial action role, as the Chinese gang boss in the new movie Kwon Bob: Chinatown. When I watched this I was surprised to see you still seem to move just as well as you did over 20 years ago. What made you decide to take the part?

WJ: (laughter) You know I exercise every day, so staying healthy is very important for me! With Kwon Bob: Chinatown, we actually filmed this movie over just 15 days in 2014. It’s a very low budget movie, I would almost say it’s a no budget movie (laughter). However these days I’m getting older, so I have a lot of ‘little brothers’ working in the industry, especially who want to get into action. Many of my ‘little brothers’ were involved in this production, and they asked me if I’d take the part. To help them out, I said yes, and also with it being an action role, I thought it would be a nice fan service for those who wanted to see me onscreen again. I choreographed all of the fights myself, and despite the low budget, I thought I can still make the action exciting with my choreography and kicks. It also gave me the opportunity to train my ‘little brothers’, and give some advice on how best to make a martial arts movie and film the action scenes. But it’s very much the opposite of The Suspect, please don’t watch the movie thinking it’s a big budget production, it was a very quick film, but I hope you enjoyed my performance in it.

 

"Kwon Bob: Chinatown" Korean Theatrical Poster

“Kwon Bob: Chinatown” Korean Theatrical Poster

PB: I did, and I’m sure your other fans will too once it gets a wider release. I noticed your character only speaks Mandarin in the movie, and as you mentioned you hoped The Suspect would break the Chinese market, was the decision to have your character speak in Mandarin also to help it break the Chinese market?

WJ: (laughter) No, if it breaks the Chinese market, I would be surprised! It was just the way the character was developed. You know every day I would just memorise the sounds of my lines, I really had no idea what I was saying, just practice pronouncing these lines correctly, say them, then fight. You know the last fight scene?

PB: The one in the restaurant?

WJ: Yes, that one, it took 7 hours to complete. I choreographed the whole thing, and it was such a tight filming schedule, so it was a tiring experience! (laughter)

PB: Wow, and there’s also the scene in the parking lot were you take on multiple opponents, how long did that one take?

WJ: Ah, that one, that took 8 hours! It’s impossible! Thinking now I don’t know how I did it, I don’t want to repeat that experience again, but I hope my fans can appreciate the hard work.

Won Jin in a still from “Kwon Bob: Chinatown”

PB: Now going back to when you first got into the movie industry, the Korean Movie Database has your first movie as The Undertaker of Solhwa Province in 1983. Could you tell us a little about how you got into the film industry?

WJ: Actually that listing is not completely correct. My debut was in a 1979 movie called The Eighteen Amazones (aka Bruce Lee’s Ways of Kung Fu). I was just a stuntman in the movie, and the two mains stars were Dragon Lee, he was kind of a Korean version of Bruce Lee, and Chang Il-do, do you know these actors?

PB: Yes, I know their movies very well, Chang Il-do (aka Bruce Lai) also did some Bruce Lee-like movies.

WJ: Yes he did, sadly Chang Il-do passed away last year, but he became my manager for a couple of years in the early days. In the movie I was doing doubling for women, they would stuff my top with padding so it looked like I had breasts, then the more acrobatic moves would be performed by me. I was just 19 at the time, but that was my first taste of working in the movie industry. Like most people my age, the Bruce Lee movies were hugely popular when I was a child, and I’d watch his movies and think I also wanted to be like him.

Won Jin’s movie debut, “The 18 Amazones” (aka “Bruce Lee’s Ways of Kung Fu”)

My father was also a martial artist, now many people tell me I look like my father, I think so too. I have memories of him and how he’d break rocks with his bare fists, he had a lot of power. Sadly when I was 19 he passed away, but that gave me more determination to break into the film industry, I had to prove my worth and I was determined to do it. So The Eighteen Amazones is the movie that gave me that first opportunity.

PB: And what was it like working in the Korean movie industry at that time? I imagine it would be a different world to the industry today.

WJ: A year before The Eighteen Amazones there had been a Hong Kong movie, Drunken Master with Jackie Chan. At that time everyone in Korea went crazy for kung fu, we all wanted to copy the Drunken Master style, so there were many Korean kung fu movies which imitated that style. For someone that wanted to get into martial arts movies, there weren’t too many avenues available in Korea to do something different, however I didn’t want to spend my whole career just as a stuntman. Hong Kong was making so many kung fu movies, and Jackie Chan was going against other Koreans like Hwang Jang-lee and Wang In-sik, so it made me more determined to act in a kung fu movie, but it was quite difficult.

PB: I see, and was it your father that originally introduced you to the martial arts?

 

Won Jin recreates his famous pose, Gangnam Style!

WJ: Yes, actually when I was a child my father thought my demeanour was a little girlish, so when I was 7 he made me start practicing Taekwondo, and of course I was watching the Bruce Lee movies. Because of them, I became really obsessed with nunchucks (laughter). But because of Bruce Lee, I became interested in movie fighting, so when I was 8 me and my friends would practice fighting with each other like in a movie. The more I learnt about Bruce Lee, I read that he made his own martial arts, so I decided that with my Taekwondo training, I would make my own style, the Won Jin style! (laughter) So I would practice doing different kinds of kicks and kicking combinations, mixing in some flips and things like this, and I would imagine what they would look like in a movie.

PB: Great, and apart from the training you received in Taekwondo, did you study any other martial arts?

Won Jin in a scene from “Women on the Run”

WJ: After I studied Taekwondo very hard, I really put all my efforts into focusing on creating my own style. So I started to think of what kicks I can create and how they could be incorporated into action scenes, this is how the progression of my martial arts training developed, I had a real passion for creating my own distinctive style. Despite this though, I was still very young, and teaching myself was very hard. If I had a teacher, you know someone like Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, who could have shown me how to fight in a way that looked great onscreen, it would have been much easier! (laughter) But I was driven, so I persisted to keep on practicing and learning by myself.

PB: Speaking of your own style, now would be a good time to bring up a question I wanted to ask you. I know you choreographed the 2001 movie My Wife is a Gangster, but did you do some doubling for the lead actress Sin Eun-kyeong? Especially the fight in the rain at the start, some of those kicks looked very familiar!

Won Jin signs his life away.

WJ: Yes, I did! I had to double for a woman again, you know it’s the second time! But yes, for some of the more complicated kicks, it’s me. It’s funny, you know, Sin Eun-kyeong actually has a fuller body than me, so I felt like I had to act more tough when I was doubling for her! When she was in character, I felt my demeanour was girly again (laughter). I’m glad you recognized my kicks, I can say all the hard work from when I was a child paid off! By the way, do you know Mike Leeder?

PB: Yes, I know him, we sometimes talk on occasion.

WJ: Oh! Well, I met Mike Leeder maybe that same year that My Wife is a Gangster came out, around that time. He’s also from England like you, and he came to Korea, similar to what we’re doing now. I made a new showreel with him, and he published an article about me, he’s a good guy. I thought if you like action then it’s possible that you know him! (laughter)

Won Jin choreographed the fight scenes for the 2001 Korean hit “My Wife is a Gangster”

PB: Right, he’s a familiar face in the Hong Kong movie industry, and of course I think the showreel you’re referring to was included as an extra on the UK DVD for Scorpion King. This is without a doubt the movie you’re most famous for, as the character Sunny the Scorpion, can you tell us how you came to work in the Hong Kong movie industry?

WJ: It was back in 1991 that I first went to Hong Kong, however my journey to get there started a year earlier in 1990. At that time there was a movie agency situated in Hong Kong, it kind of specialised in action movies, and this agency put out an ad internationally requesting for martial artists to submit showreels of themselves, potentially to be cast in martial arts movies. After I saw the ad, I filmed a video of me demonstrating all of the kicks and moves that I’d created and been practicing.

After I submitted this showreel, a few Hong Kong directors who saw it actually came to Korea to visit me. They were really interested in some of the kicks I’d displayed in my showreel, so they asked if I could train them a little on the types of techniques I use, which I did. One of the directors who visited me was David Lai, and as it turned out we got along really well. Director Lai eventually invited me to Hong Kong, and we made 3 movies together there. On Saviour of the Soul 2 I just had a very small role, so that he could see if I could work well in a Hong Kong movie, then after that we made The Scorpion King and Women on the Run together.

Rare behind-the-scenes photos from “The Scorpion King”

PB: Of course in Hong Kong movies at the time, the action choreographer was a very important role. In The Scorpion King, you didn’t just get to work with one action choreographer, but 3 of the very best in Lau Kar Leung, Corey Yuen, and Yuen Tak. What was it like to work with such talented martial arts directors?

WJ: Working with these three, I can say that they were truly A class. Their direction and vision was so ambitious, and it was an exciting time to be working with them. Lau Kar Leung in particular, at that time he was a similar age to what I am now, but I remember clearly he had so much energy and power. Back then, he was living with a woman who was 25 years younger than him, really so much energy! (laughter) When we had our fight, you could really feel that energy and power, I was very surprised because he was so much older then me! But I felt that we were a good match when we were fighting, and I could feel that it was going to be a good scene. Another memory I have of Lau Kar Leung is his coffee intake, he would drink maybe 10 cups of coffee per day when we were working on the film, he could never get tired of coffee! His nickname was ‘Sifu’, and on set that’s what everyone called him, and I learnt why very quickly. You know he passed away now?

PB: Yes, it was a couple of years ago.

WJ: Right, it’s a great loss to the martial arts world. You know the following year after making The Scorpion King, Lau Kar Leung called me, and he wanted me to come to America with him to help work on the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle III, so I was really excited. But, I couldn’t get the working visa for America, so our chance to work together again was cancelled! So sad.

 

"Police Story 3" Japanese Theatrical Poster

Due to scheudling conflicts, Won Jin had to turn down Jackie Chan’s offer to appear in “Police Story 3”

PB: I had no idea about that, what a missed opportunity!

WJ: It was. There were a couple of missed opportunities while I was in Hong Kong. You know Jackie Chan called me, as he’d seen me in The Scorpion King, and he asked me if I could play a character in Police Story 3 and we would have a fight together. It was an exciting opportunity, however I was loyal to director Lai, and I’d already committed to take a role in Women on the Run which was filming at the same time, so I had to turn it down. The funny thing is, a couple of days before Jackie called me, I’d actually had a dream about fighting him, so to receive his phone call so soon after, it was like some sort of destiny!

There was also a Jet Li movie, I don’t remember the name, but Corey Yuen was working on it, and we’d worked together on The Scorpion King, so he asked me if I could take a role against Li. But unfortunately at that time as well I was also busy, so the chance was cancelled. A shame!

PB: Ok now you’re depressing me. (laughter) Going back to The Scorpion King, the choreography is very Hong Kong style, but watching you in action, your moves are clearly Won Jin style. Was there any difficulty in integrating your style of action into the choreography that Lau Kar Leung, Corey Yuen, and Yuen Tak had in mind?

Paul and Won Jin goofin’ around between conversations.

WJ: Right, thankfully the choreographers were very talented to incorporate my moves into the fight scenes. The way the fight scenes developed was that Lau Kar Leung, Corey Yuen, and Yuen Tak were given a copy of my showreel, which I’d made in Korea, by David Lai. It was lucky because I really put my all into that showreel, so it showed off the whole array of my moves and what I’m capable of doing, then based on what they saw, they then incorporated those moves into the fight scenes. As you can see in the movie, in every one of my fight scenes I just use my kicks, almost no hands, and that reflects what they saw in the showreel.

PB: And for the famous scorpion pose itself, was this an idea of director Lai, the action directors, or yours?

WJ: That was always director Lai’s idea to have this kind of pose for the character, however the problem was to find someone who could do it, so I was happy to be able to deliver the vision that he had. You know an acquaintance contacted me sometime after the movie was released, and he told me that during the monk’s performances from Shaolin Temple, the scorpion pose had now been included in it! It’s crazy. The pose has appeared in other places as well, there’s a Korean pop music group, they’re called Infinite, they do it in one of their music videos (‘Before the Dawn’). And BYC, a clothing manufacturer here in Korea, they released a range of clothing called the Scorpion Collection, and all of the advertising images for the range have the models performing the pose as well! (laughter)

 

“High Grade Player” Korean Theatrical Poster

PB: It’s interesting to hear what an influence it’s had on popular culture.

WJ: Yes, and you know David Lai, he had the idea for The Scorpion King 2, and I was going to come back as Sunny. However it was never able to get off the ground, some financing issues, and a couple of years later director Lai wasn’t as active anymore, so finally the idea was cancelled. But even though it didn’t happen as a Hong Kong movie, actually I’d still like to make The Scorpion King 2, maybe here in Korea, maybe in China. I’m confident I could still give a good performance, but with filmmaking, the issue is always to get financing, so you know it’s hard. But one day, I hope it’ll happen.

PB: I’m sure there are plenty of your fans out there who are hoping it will happen too. The funny thing about Sunny is of course that he’s the villain of the piece, but he became much more iconic than the characters played by Chin Kar Lok and Lau Kar Leung, who are the good guys!

WJ: (laughter) Actually Sunny isn’t the bad guy, his father is the bad guy. Sunny just does what his father tells him to do and wants to protect his family, so I’d say that rather than calling him a bad guy, he should be called a good son!

Scenes from “High Grade Player”

PB: You know I’d never looked at it that way until now! Now after you completed Hero from Beyond the Boundary of Time in 1993, you seemed to disappear from the Hong Kong movie scene, and didn’t re-appear until 2000. Can you tell us about what you were doing during those 7 years?

WJ: Right, in 1994 I returned back to live in Korea from Hong Kong. But actually that time was a little stressful, when I left Korea, the action movie genre was still quite popular here. But even just a few years later, when I came back the Korean action movie had kind of disappeared, and it seemed that TV drama had become really popular. So after taking a rest, I became quite anxious about what I was going to do back in Korea.

PB: I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there were many rumors about what had happened to you at the time, from health problems, to one of them even being that you’d died. Was there any truth in any of these?

WJ: Yes, I heard some of those rumors, one that I read had mentioned I’d lost both of my legs! (laughter) There is some truth in me having health issues at that time, I have a sensitive stomach, and compared to Korean food, I found Hong Kong food to be so greasy. What the exact reason was, I’m not sure, but I developed a liver problem and was hospitalised for a few days. After that though I was fine, and I was really thankful to be able to enjoy Korean food again in Korea. I guess you could say the sickness that I was suffering from was a kind of home sickness, so I was happy to be back in Korea again.

 

Miraculously, Paul walked away unharmed.

PB: 3 years after you’d returned to Korea, you took on one of the main roles in Kim Chun-sik’s movie, High Grade Player, in 1997. It was great to see you back in a role doing martial arts again, how did you come to be involved?

WJ: Kim Chun-sik was from the same era of Korean martial arts movies that I started off in, like me he was a stuntman, and we’d sometimes worked together. Since then he’d developed into a director. He called me one day and said he was going to direct High Grade Player, and said that he’d like for me to take this particular role. After discussing the movie with him, I felt confident that I could perform well playing this type of character, so my heart was telling me that I should take it. You know the character, even before production started on the movie, I felt that he was kind of in the same style as The Scorpion King. He has the unique traits, like a hook for a hand and the long hair, and he’s deadly with his kicks, so in some ways it kind of felt the character was related to Sunny the Scorpion. (laughter)

PB: And how did it feel for you to be back doing a martial arts movie in Korea, now that you’d had the experience of working in Hong Kong?

Won Jin faces off against Yuen Biao in a still from “No Problem 2”

WJ: Firstly, director Kim had a lot of experience in the industry, from being an action star in the past in front of the camera, to his experience working behind the camera as well. Because of that, working with him and taking his direction was very easy, there were no difficulties at all. In Hong Kong, I wouldn’t say it was a problem, but because of the language barrier often scenes would be explained with body language, or choreographers would play out the fight to show what they wanted. Normally my scenes in Hong Kong only took a few days to shoot, so it was never considered worth it to hire a translator. This worked well, but still it was nice to be in Korea and be able to talk to the director. By that time of course director Kim had seen my Hong Kong movies, so he let me have a lot of control over my action scenes and give input on the choreography.

Won Jin with Kang Kyong-joon and Chen Jia Jia.

As for the differences between the two industries, there are so many. What would be considered to be a mid-budget production in Hong Kong, would be considered big budget in Korea at that time, so High Grade Player didn’t have much money behind it which was a shame. The cultures as well of course are completely different, but specifically talking about the culture of making action movies, in Hong Kong they could spend days choreographing and filming just a single fight scene. In Korea it was very different, the fight scenes had to be put together and filmed much quicker, and I think that was partly because we didn’t know if there would even be an audience for the movie. In Hong Kong, it was guaranteed many people would go to see the martial arts movie, so martial arts stars were popular and expectations were high from their performances. I felt envious that Korea didn’t have the same attitude towards martial arts movies, however Hong Kong can be considered as the birthplace of the martial arts movie, and their industry had developed over many years to become what it was. In 1997 Korea didn’t have that yet, so it was much harder.

 

"China Strike Force" Hong Kong Theatrical Poster

“China Strike Force” Hong Kong Theatrical Poster

PB: Speaking of Hong Kong movies, in the last scene of High Grade Player, when you take on a small army single handedly, I noticed it’s filmed using the ‘step printing’ technique. Sammo Hung had used the same technique in a fight scene for the Jackie Chan movie Thunderbolt, a couple of years earlier. Was that scene inspired by the scene in Thunderbolt in any way?

WJ: Oh, in that last scene, actually I’d choreographed the scene but didn’t know it was going to be filmed in such a way. The decision to film it that way was an idea of one of the production staff, who believed it was a good way to visually show the rage of the character, having witnessed the person who killed his mother die. Personally I don’t think it shows off my action in the best way, and I know many martial arts fans would maybe be expecting a differently filmed scene, but in the end it was done that way to show the emotional trauma of the character.

PB: Now in 2000, just as quickly as you disappeared from Hong Kong movies, you re-appeared with a role in China Strike Force. What led to you returning briefly to the Hong Kong film industry?

 

Kickin’ it with Won Jin.

WJ: Oh, this came about because I had a friend in Hong Kong. My friend was also friends with Stanley Tong, and when he announced he was going to be making this movie, my friend recommended me to director Tong for a role. Of course I’d missed the opportunity to work with director Tong on Police Story 3, and I’d heard that this new movie was also going to feature Ken Lo from Drunken Master 2, so it sounded like a good opportunity. But actually, the movie turned out to be no good, it had a big budget, but the quality wasn’t there. When I learnt about my role for the movie, I felt like it didn’t play to any of my strengths, so I don’t really know why director Tong thought it would be a good idea to have me involved. Then my death scene, oh, you know I don’t really want to remember this movie, can we just forget about it? (laughter)

PB: Sure, forgotten! But you did stick around though, making No Problem 2 a couple of years later in what would be your final Hong Kong movie. This movie was directed by your co-star from The Scorpion King, Chin Kar Lok, was it good to meet him again?

 

Reuben Langdon, Won Jin and Big Mike Leeder.

WJ: Oh ok! Actually this movie is a really good memory for me. You know me and Chin Kar Lok, after being in The Scorpion King together, we became good friends. So at the time of No Problem 2, we’d stayed in touch for 10 years, then he called me and said he was going to be directing a movie, with Yuen Biao, and he wanted me to be in it! It was really exciting, I was a fan of Yuen Biao, and Kar Lok told me Biao enjoyed my movies, so working on the movie was a really good experience.

We filmed for 7 days, and when I met Yuen Biao for the first time, he had such a great personality, he’s a really fun guy. At that time, Biao had put on a little bit of weight, but when it came to our fight, it turned out that we were a really good match, and he performed well. You know in Korea, we don’t have that many martial arts actors, so it’s really impossible to find someone who you’re a good match with and can work well together onscreen. But in Hong Kong, at that time, it was always great to find someone who you could be a good match with when performing martial arts. Now in Hong Kong, Chin Kar Lok became the chairman for the Hong Kong Stuntman Association, and sometimes he will call me from his office, inviting me to come there. Even now we’re still good friends. And you know we were discussing My Wife is a Gangster earlier?

 

Won Jin busy working on his next project in China.

PB: Yes…

WJ: Well No Problem 2 filmed in 2001, and so did My Wife is a Gangster, so my time that year was split between filming No Problem 2 overseas, and working on the action choreography for My Wife is a Gangster in Korea, it was a busy year!

PB: It certainly sounds like one! Now with all of the action performances you’ve been involved in, both in Hong Kong and here in Korea, have you ever sustained any injuries?

WJ: Actually not really, of course when you’re doing action scenes, you’re always going to get cuts and bruises, however in terms of any major injuries, no never. Chin Kar Lok on the other hand, you know he doubled many times for Jackie Chan?

PB: Yes I’d heard that before.

WJ: Yes, I’m sure he suffered many more injuries than me, even we both have done doubling work, stuntwork is much more dangerous.

PB: Now that you mentioned Jackie Chan, you did pop up for a brief cameo in the 2006 Korean movie Almost Love, which opens with a fantasy sequence that has you playing Jackie Chan’s father when he’s born. How did that role come about?

 

Won Jin poses with a dummy.

WJ: (laughter) I’m surprised you know about this! Actually this story is a little similar to how I got the role in The Suspect. I was doing the action choreography for the film, and the director of Almost Love, Lee Han, is also a fan of Hong Kong action movies, especially mine! (laughter) So he told me he had the idea for the scene, and he really wanted me to play the part, so of course I agreed to it, even though it’s just a brief role.

PB: One of the questions I was really looking forward to asking you is, out of all of the fights that you’ve been a part of in your movies, which is your personal favorite one?

WJ: I have to say going against Chin Kar Lok in the finale of The Scorpion King. You know it was a very special movie, nobody has ever forgotten that movie, so it’s very close to me. After it, I’d go out onto the street, and people would recognize me as Sunny the Scorpion, sometimes it happens even now, so I’m really glad to have been a part of it. I made a good friend with Chin Kar Lok, and we had a great fight onscreen together, so I’ll say it was my fight with him.

PB: Another old school martial arts star was a fellow Korean, Hwang Jang Lee. Now when The Scorpion King was first released, many people said you’re the next Hwang Jang Lee. How do you feel about this comparison?

 

"Drunken Master" Japanese Theatrical Poster

“Drunken Master” Japanese Theatrical Poster

WJ: Ah yes, I know Hwang Jang Lee, he’s actually in Seoul at the moment. I enjoyed his films from a long time ago, and of course the film which was so popular in Korea, Drunken Master, had Jackie Chan fighting him, so it’s a nice comparison. These days Master Hwang is much older, I believe he’s in his 70s now, but he still occasionally goes overseas to attend Taekwondo seminars and teach his techniques.

PB: Right, I’d also heard this. Since you’ve now been in the action movie industry yourself over 35 years, what’s your own personal preference, do you like acting and fighting onscreen, or creating the action choreography behind the scenes?

WJ: You know I like to do both. When you’re acting and performing in a fight scene, you have to really focus on the outlook, like how is my expression going to look onscreen, however with action directing, it’s very different, the process is internal and you have to think carefully. Actually action directing always makes me a little nervous, but it’s an excited kind of nervous. It can feel like a burden, because with each new production I put a pressure on myself to show some new technique and make the action seem new and fresh. However despite this, I still feel confident that I’m able to do it, so I enjoy each new challenge.

PB: That’s great, and now you’ve been working back in Korea as an action director since 2002, what for you has been your career highlight since then?

 

Won Jin in “China Strike Force”

WJ: Hmm, I worked on a couple of big movies shortly after returning to Korea from filming No Problem 2, and these movies still stick in my memory as being really enjoyable and challenging to work on. One was the sequel to My Wife is a Gangster, and for this one we tried to improve the action sequences from the original, so it was a big challenge to work on. The other is a movie called, do you know Sword in the Moon?

PB: Yes I know the movie.

WJ: I also was the action director for this movie, and it was really big budget, so it was a great opportunity to direct the action on such a big movie. Choi Min-soo comes with the reputation of being difficult to work with*, however when I had to work on a scene with him he was surprisingly quiet. When he was with me he was very respectful, and called me ‘Sifu’.

PB: And outside of your own work, do you have a favorite kung fu movie that you’ll watch when you have some free time?

“Sword in the Moon” Theatrical Poster

WJ: Of course Bruce Lee, but more recently, I like to watch anything which features Donnie Yen. He’s really become popular in China these days and a big star, so it’s great to see a martial arts star become so popular. Even though we started working in the action movie industry in the same era, Donnie Yen’s choreography has become really great in recent years, it’s very realistic. It would be great if there was a chance to work with him, and have a fight against each other. Actually we were both working in Hong Kong at the same time, but I feel that especially now, both with the way his choreography has developed to the standard it is today, and my own, we could make a really good movie.

Also Ong Bak with Tony Jaa, this is a good movie. But only the first one! (laughter) You know Tony Jaa copies some of my moves in that film? (laughter)

PB: I’m sure he must be a fan of The Scorpion King! And my final question for you is, what can we expect next from Won Jin?

WJ: Right now I’m working on the action for The Suspect 2, and who knows, maybe I can get a scene in the sequel as well. (laughter) I’m also working on the action for a Korean TV drama, but right now I’m not allowed to give any details about that, it’s still top secret. (laughter) The drama will be screened at the beginning of next year. Actually though, I’m not really a fan of drama series, I like martial arts movies! On the drama series you’re never given much time to put together the action sequence and film it, everything happens very fast, so film is better for me.

Peace out!

I also recently finished doing the action for a film in China, it hasn’t been released yet, and doesn’t have an English name, but translated directly, it would be Search for the Lost Heroic Grandmaster. The main star is the Korean actor Kang Kyong-joon, and the lead actress in Chen Jia Jia. Maybe you know her? She was in a couple of Donnie Yen’s movies, Seven Swords and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. We shot the movie in Beijing, as these days there are more and more work opportunities there. It seems martial arts action is still popular in China, so I recently opened my own company there, it’s like an action consultancy agency, so I can help those who want to get into action and teach them, as well as be available for opportunities myself. We’ll see how it goes.

For now though, I’ll continue to work both in Korea and overseas!

PB: Master Won Jin, thank you very much for your time!

Special thanks to Seulki Choi for assisting to arrange the interview, and Ju-yeon Yu for acting as a translator.

* Director Kim Sung-ho also discussed Choi Min-soo in this interview.

Posted in Interviews, News |

Jason Statham teams up with ‘Equilibrium’ filmmaker!

Posted on November 6, 2015 by JJ Bona
"Redemption" Japanese Theatrical Poster

"Redemption" Japanese Theatrical Poster

Global action icon Jason Statham (The Expendables) has signed on to star in a new high-octane action/thriller tentatively referred to as Untitled Kurt Wimmer Project – a production between Jason Statham and Steven Chasman’s SJ Pictures and China-based Road Pictures.

Written by Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) the movie is centered around an Ex-Pat Brit in Hong Kong who goes on the run with a high-level female Chinese agent to solve a kidnapping with global implications.

Steven Chasman (The Transporter 1, 2 & 3) will produce the movie with Gongming Cai and Julien Favre of Road Pictures, the Beijing-headquartered global media group. Principal photography will begin in fall 2016. The film will shoot in China and in Europe.

Said Chasman, “Jason and I both have been wanting to work with Kurt for a long time. He has such an incredible vision for this film that this collaboration is particularly exciting for us. The narrative Kurt creates is incredibly rich and while our story is rooted in adventure, it is also very much character driven. We couldn’t be more fortunate to be working with him, as well as our new partners from Road Pictures, Gongming and Julien, who really comprehend the global potential for the film.”

Gongming Cai commented, “This is a perfect vehicle for Jason Statham to conquer the Chinese market – he is a true global superstar who has such an authentic connection with audiences around the world. Jason is in a class by himself. There is nothing he can’t do and he proves this time and time again with every project he’s involved in. We’re excited to put this film into production, which marks the beginning of what we see as a fruitful long-term partnership with Jason Statham and Steven Chasman.”

Cityonfire.com received the above press release from Road Pictures

Posted in News |

Tiger Chen and Robin Shou saddle up for ‘Kung Fu Cowboy’

Posted on November 6, 2015 by JJ Bona
"Man of Tai Chi" International Theatrical Poster

"Man of Tai Chi" International Theatrical Poster

Tiger Hu Chen (Man of Tai Chi, Monk Comes Down the Mountain) is joining forces with Danny Chan Kwok Kwun (Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man 3) and Robin Shou (Cyprus Tigers, City War) in Kung Fu Cowboy, an upcoming East-meets-West martial arts action film.

At the the helm is Jonathan Lim (Pali Road), who is also producing, and co-writing with W. Earl Brown (Deadwood).

According to Variety, Kung Fu Cowboy is a Chinese-Western genre mashup featuring a group of displaced Chinese immigrant workers who fought back against growing racial tensions and discrimination after the building of the U.S. railroads in the 1800s.

Production for Kung Fu Cowboy starts in early 2016.

Posted in News |

Say Yes (2001) Review

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Paul Bramhall
"Say Yes" Korean Theatrical Poster

“Say Yes” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Kim Sung-hong
Writer: Yeo Hye-yeong
Producer: Hwang Gi-Seong
Cast: Park Joong-hoon, Chu Sang-Mi, Kim Ju-Hyeok, Gi Ju-Bong, Lee Chang-Yeong
Running Time: 105 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Think of Asian horror during the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and the image that comes to mind will most likely be one of a long black haired female ghost. The 1998 Japanese movie Ring triggered a whole host of Asian horror movies, all of which relied upon the sight of long black haired apparitions to strike fear into the heart of the viewer. Korea was no exception, offering their own adaptation of the novel that Ring was based on with 1999’s The Ring Virus, and in 2002 with the derivative Phone. However Korea’s horror genre didn’t rely solely on long black hair, and during the same time period its film industry produced a number of grizzly murder thrillers, which easily veered into horror territory.

From the severed blood soaked body parts found in 1999’s Tell Me Something, to the graphic images of sliced up pregnant women found in 2002’s H, both movies relied on the more primeval horror trope of gruesome imagery to sell themselves. Say Yes, from 2001, falls into the same category, however unlike its peers it goes down a different path than the murder mystery, instead opting to go for a more direct approach. If any movie was worth drawing a comparison to, it would be Robert Harmon’s 1986 thriller The Hitcher, which has Rutger Hauer playing a psychotic hitch-hiker who makes life hell for a young couple, played by C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The director of Say Yes, Kim Sung-hong, seems to have quite an affinity for making movies which revolve around a psychotic character. From 1997’s The Hole, to even his most recent effort with 2012’s Doctor (a movie which became more famous for lead actor Kim Chang-wan stating in a TV interview that he wished he’d never made it), Sung-hong isn’t one to shy away from recycling his own movies themes and characters. With Say Yes, we’re introduced to a married couple played by Kim Joo-hyuk and Chu Sang-mi. To celebrate Joo-hyuk successfully finding a publisher for a novel he’s written, the pair decide to take a road trip from Seoul to the seaside town of Sokcho, in Joo-hyuk’s newly purchased car.

Things are going well, until they take a break in a service station along the way. While Joo-hyuk is busy buying coffee, Sang-mi notices a man who persistently stares in her direction. When Joo-hyuk returns he insists that it’s no big deal, however upon pulling out of the car park, the same man throws himself in front of their car, feigning that he didn’t see them pulling out. As an apology, Joo-hyuk agrees to give him a ride to Sokcho, where he’s also headed, and as the expression goes – you should never give a ride to strangers.

The man in question is played by Park Joong-hoon, one of the most recognizable faces in Korean cinema. Joong-hoon was the star in one of the very first Korean movies to get distributed internationally, in the 1999 movie Nowhere to Hide, which had him playing a stubbornly determined cop on the trail of a hitman. He’s an actor who’s been in the industry since the mid-80’s, and at the time of its production was easily the most established star in the cast of Say Yes. It’s surprising then, that if anything his nameless psychopath is really the weak point of the movie.

The issue comes down to the fact that a lot of characterization has gone into establishing Joo-hyuk and Sang-mi’s freshly married couple. They bicker, make up, and worry about things like money and what the future holds. Their relationship seems very real, which seems at odds with Joong-hoon’s one note monotone psycho. It almost seems as if the movie should be a romantic drama, but has had Joong-hoon teleported in as a joke, to see what would happen if a horror movie psychopath is randomly thrown into the mix. Their actions in reaction to Joong-hoon also seem far fetched. Apart from the fact that they let him into their car in the first place, when Joong-hoon casually states that he’s contemplating which one of them he’s going to kill first, as expected Joo-hyuk pulls the car over and angrily yells at him to get out. When Joong-hoon insists that he was just kidding, unbelievably they decide to let him stay in.

Proceedings continue with Joo-hyuk and Sang-mi attempting to enjoy their holiday, only for Joong-hoon to repeatedly step in to ruin things or terrorize them in some way. We really have no idea why he’s chosen the couple as the target of his stalking, so for the longest time we’re questioning why he’s doing such things just as much as the couple themselves are. It isn’t until around mid-way through that, while crushing shards of glass in his fist, Joong-hoon explains that he’s hardly slept a minute for the past 3 years, and as a result can no longer feel anything. Well, that clarifies it then. Still, he seems to be in a significant amount of pain later on when he’s beaten full force over the head with a spade several times over, and then impaled in the chest with a pitch fork.

Sung-hong reaches a level of unintentional hilarity however, when shortly after the previously mentioned impaling, Joong-hoon appears behind the wheel of a truck and chases Joo-hyuk and Sang-mi through the streets, ploughing through cars and even whole buildings. Combined with the glass shard crushing, I’m at least partially convinced that Say Yes started life as a Korean version of The Terminator, with Joong-hoon sent back from the future to stop Joo-hyuk and Sang-mi conceiving the savior of mankind (at one point he even throws a stone through the window while the pair are having sex). Either way, his ability to recover in just a couple of minutes from a beating which pretty much guaranteed death, ensures that we no longer take the movie seriously.

The final third of Say Yes rather awkwardly shoehorns in a police investigation, which comes across as rather forced when the whole movie so far has focused exclusively on the trio. What’s more, the complete uselessness of the investigation raises the question of why it was introduced into the plot in the first place. Events build to a particularly mean spirited finale, which is made all the more cruel by effectively being a double climax. With everything resolved, it seems the movie has come to its close, and the couple can finally return to Seoul, probably traumatized for life, but at least still alive and together. But then it turns out there’s still another 15 minutes to go, during which everything goes straight to hell, and events build to what becomes a literal bloodbath. Sung-hong’s movies seem to have a running theme of mean spiritedness, and in the case of Say Yes, it left somewhat of a bad taste in the mouth.

There’s a closing sequence which takes place a few months after the bloody finale, and it’s a sequence which shows just how misguided Sung-hong’s effort is. My recommendation would be that if someone suggests you to watch Say Yes, the best thing to do would be to say no.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4/10

Posted in All, Korean, News, Reviews | Tagged |

Over Your Dead Body | Blu-ray & DVD (Shout! Factory)

Posted on November 2, 2015 by JJ Bona
Over Your Dead Body | Blu-ray & DVD (Shout! Factory)

Over Your Dead Body | Blu-ray & DVD (Shout! Factory)

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

Shout! Factory presents the Blu-ray & DVD for Over Your Dead Body, directed by Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins) and starring Ebizo Ichikawa, Kou Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito, Miho Nakanishi and Maiko.

In this atmospheric and gory-looking horror film, we follow two young stage actors who find their roles bleeding over (no pun intended) into their real lives. Based on the trailer, Miike appears to be pulling out all the stops with this one!

Pre-order Over Your Dead Body from Amazon.com today!

Posted in Asian Titles, DVD/Blu-ray New Releases |

‘Kung Fu Killer’ star takes sci-fi to an ‘Impossible’ level

Posted on November 1, 2015 by JJ Bona
"Impossible" Chinese Theatrical Poster

"Impossible" Chinese Theatrical Poster

The charismatic star of Monk Comes Down the Mountain, Kung Fu Jungle (aka Kung Fu Killer) and Iceman (and its upcoming sequel) is returning in Impossible, an upcoming sci-fi/comedy film directed by Sun Zhou (I Do).

Here’s what you can expect from the plot: Memeda, a “human detector” from outer space happens to meet a depressed man named Liguo (Baoqiang) who just lost his daughter in a car accident. After delving into Liguo’s heart, Memeda decides to follow this poor man and study him inside out; however, it eventually gets itself into the complicated “human world.”

Impossible also stars Xiao Shenyang (The Grandmaster), Xin Zhilei (Love Drift), Da Peng (Jian Bing Man), Andrew Yin (Last Flight), and Donna Zhao (Fiji Love).

The film opens in Chinese theaters on December 4, 2015. Stay tuned for the trailer!

Posted in News |

Matango | aka Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) Review

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Kelly Warner
"Matango" Japanese Theatrical Poster

“Matango” Japanese Theatrical Poster

AKA: Fungus of Terror
Director: Ishiro Honda
Cast: Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kenji Sahara, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Miki Yashiro, Hideyo Amamoto
Running Time: 89 min.

By Kelly Warner

Before 1954, director Ishiro Honda worked in multiple genres, including romantic dramas, documentaries, and war pictures. After directing the original Godzilla in 1954, Honda became Toho’s go-to man for their kaiju films and special effects extravaganzas thanks to his skill, speedy productions, and a good working relationship with special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya. Honda was quite proud of his work in the sci-fi genre (as he should’ve been), but he’d never envisioned himself as a sci-fi director and he longed to have more variety in his filmography. Toho liked what he did for Godzilla, though – Honda remains the fan-favorite director of most Godzilla fans – and by 1960 they rarely let him work in other genres. Even when he got away from the kaiju, Honda still mainly worked in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, though on a more human scale. Films like The Human Vapor, The Mysterians, and Matango may lack the name-recognition of Honda’s kaiju flicks, but the quality was still there. I’d even say that Ishiro Honda’s human scale fantasy films are some of Japanese cinema’s least appreciated gems in the West.

Matango is Honda’s darkest film since the original Godzilla. It’s a cynical story about a group of seven friends and colleagues who go on a boating trip, get lost in a storm, and end up stranded on a deserted island. Things get worse from there. The island has no animals or safe edible vegetation. At one point, the men are out hunting for birds when a gull flies towards the island, only to turn around and head back out to sea. The survivors find a derelict ship meant for scientific research washed up on the shore. It’s covered with thick, colorful mold. The logbooks tell of a new mushroom native to the island called matango. If eaten, the matango mushroom causes hallucinations and poisons the body, making you grow hideous, turning you into a mushroom.

You are what you eat.

The matango mushroom is the only plentiful thing on the island. With food stocks running low, it’s not long before someone takes a bite. Once the mushroom is eaten, that person finds bliss as they lose their humanity. Matango becomes a film about paranoia as no one knows who they can trust. Old friends turn on each other. The mushroom people try to spread the joy of their new lifeform. It’s dark, grim stuff. Think Gilligan’s Island meets The Thing and you’re not far off.

Matango meant a great deal to Honda at the time and it was something of a passion project for the director. Thanks to the money he’d made for Toho with the Godzilla series, Honda had earned the right to make a film for himself. And while Matango would go on to be a financial success for the studio, Toho cut down on similar personal projects afterwards. Matango’s screenwriter Takeshi Kimura was so displeased with Toho’s decision on the matter that he would continue under a penname for many of his future films. Kimura was credited as Kaoru Mabuchi for kaiju classics War of the Gargantuans, Destroy All Monsters, and the wonderfully weird Godzilla vs. Hedorah. As film historian David Kalat noted in his book A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series, Matango’s themes can be compared to selling out. The only way to be happy was to eat the mushroom/work with the studio, whereas going it alone leads to madness and isolation.

In Japan, the special effects and the drama were commonly handled by two different crews and directors. In the good old days at Toho that meant that Honda directed the actors and Eiji Tsuburaya would shoot the kaiju and destroy the miniatures. Since Matango was a horror story shot on a human scale, that allowed Tsuburaya the rare chance to work more directly with the cast. His makeup art turned actors into hideous monsters with impressive results. The older mutated mushroom people more closely resemble giant mushrooms and are kind of silly, but the eerie sound effects make the monsters work. Supposedly Matango was nearly banned in Japan because the mutated people resembled the victims of the atomic bomb.

The cast reads like a who’s who of Ishiro Honda’s regular players. Akira Kubo (Destroy All Monsters) plays the professor, the moral center of the group and the film’s main character. The beautiful and talented Kumi Mizuno (Monster Zero) plays a singer who enjoys the fact that multiple men lust after her. Yoshio Tsuchiya (The Mysterians) plays the wealthy owner of the boat and thinks that money can buy him anything. Hiroshi Koizumi (Mothra vs. Godzilla) plays the ship’s skipper who feels disrespected by Tsuchiya’s character, as he’s the skipper in title only. Kenji Sahara (Rodan) plays against type as the ship’s scruffy first mate. Even Godzilla suit-actor Haruo Nakajima is in the film, here playing one of the mutated mushroom people.

When the film was released in America it was given the unfortunate title of Attack of the Mushroom People. The film has a cult status and is either remembered as one of the worst horror films of all time or one of the most underrated and underseen classics of the genre. Me, I love Matango, it’s one of my favorite films. I realize that my rating will seem high to some people, but that’s just how I see the film and I feel like rating it any lower would make for a dishonest review.

When asked for his favorite of the films he’d directed, Ishiro Honda apparently chose Matango. While my favorite Honda film remains the original Godzilla, I would probably rank Matango as my second favorite. Sure, some it is dated and other parts were probably cheesy back in 1963, but I love it anyway. I rewatch the film at least once a year. As a fan of Ishiro Honda, Japanese cinema, and horror films in general, Matango has just about everything I’d want from a classic Toho genre film.

Kelly Warner’s Rating: 9/10

Posted in All, Japanese, News, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , |

Golden Cane Warrior, The (2014) Review

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Kelly Warner
"The Golden Cane Warrior" Theatrical Poster

“The Golden Cane Warrior” Theatrical Poster

Director: Ifa Isfansyah
Writer: Jujur Prananto
Cast: Eva Celia, Nicholas Saputra, Reza Rahadian, Tara Basro, Christine Hakim, Slamet Rahardjo, Aria Kusumah, Darius Sinathrya, Prisia Nasution
Running Time: 112 min.

By Kyle Warner

I have not seen many Indonesian films. And interestingly the only Indonesian films I’ve seen in recent years were actually filmed by Western directors. Welsh born director Gareth Evans is well-known for his action films The Raid and The Raid 2, and he’s also worked in Indonesia on the martial arts film Merantau and his fantastic short Safe Haven from the horror anthology V/H/S/2. The documentaries of American director Joshua Oppenheimer are also widely seen and highly praised, telling the chilling story of Indonesia’s political killings during the 1960s in the films The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. The Golden Cane Warrior might actually be the first Indonesian film I’ve seen that was made by an Indonesian director, in this case Mr. Ifa Isfansyah (The Dancer).

The Golden Cane Warrior is an old-fashioned martial arts tale given new flavor by a country and a fighting style largely unfamiliar to genre fans in the West. The film is about a martial arts master named Cempaka (Christine Hakim, Merantau), who has grown weary of the inevitability of death that comes with the life of a martial artist. In one of her lessons to her students, Cempaka reiterates, “The greater a fighter’s skill, the more likely he will be attacked from behind,” a line which helps set up the central conflict of the story. Three of her four students are the orphans of rivals she has killed in fights. As she grows old, Cempaka knows she must pass on her knowledge and the famed weapon the golden cane to one of her students. Cempaka makes the unexpected choice of giving the cane to young Dara (Eva Celia), perhaps the weakest martial artist of her four students. As you might expect, this decision is met with resentment from Cempaka’s older and more gifted martial artists, who plot to murder their master and fellow students in order to take the golden cane for themselves.

The plot feels familiar, playing a bit like a classic Shaw Bros. film with betrayal, training montages, and the journey of the warrior. And while the film yields few new surprises to genre fans, there’s still some enjoyment to be found in watching a familiar tale well told by a cast and crew with good intentions.

The cast does admirable work, with some of the most entertaining performances coming from the youngest actors. The female lead Eva Celia manages to play her character as both a strong warrior and a frightened child, someone thrust into the world of life and death long before she is ready. Perhaps the most noteworthy performance comes from newcomer Aria Kusumah, a young boy who makes his mark as the film’s most badass character, Angin. The boy barely speaks a word, preferring to make his intentions known with action instead of dialogue. The ‘strong silent type’ sort of tough guy is a role usually reserved for someone much older but the kid really impresses in the part, making him easily my favorite character in the film.

Director Ifa Isfansyah finds unexpected grace and beauty in the dramatic scenes, making good use of Indonesia’s beautiful outdoors. In these moments the film is reminiscent of a Zhang Yimou picture, and Insfansyah shows he has a good eye for color. Sadly this grace does not follow over to the action scenes, which are poorly edited and filmed too close-up for my liking. The martial arts choreography looks fine, but thanks to the filming style I wasn’t always sure what was happening in certain moments of the film’s various fight scenes. Thankfully the film saves the best for last and the final fight scene is considerably more entertaining than those that came before it.

The film utilizes a fighting style that’s rarely showcased in such detail: silambam, or stick-fighting. Using a long stick or the film’s golden cane, the fighters are able to dispatch multiple opponents at the same time. In the film’s climax, four fighters square off using the same style, giving viewers the best chance to admire the martial art. As mentioned earlier, sometimes the film’s choice to film the fights up close hurts the entertainment value. This stylistic choice is especially strange when considering the fact that the golden cane is a long weapon, and it seems like it would’ve been wiser to step back a bit and give the weapon and fighting style a chance to dominate the screen.

Despite some nagging issues, The Golden Cane Warrior is an entertaining film. It feels familiar and yet somehow new, an old-fashioned story played out in an unfamiliar land. Apparently this was one of Indonesia’s most expensive productions. The money spent makes for a handsome picture, one with breathtaking natural beauty and solid production design. I wish that the film had filmed its fights with a calmer hand but overall it’s an enjoyable film, especially if you’re a fan of old-school martial arts movies. The setting and the silambam fighting style should help The Golden Cane Warrior stand out from the crowd, making it a noteworthy entry in today’s martial arts cinema.

Kyle Warner’s Rating: 7/10

Posted in All, Indonesian, News, Reviews |

Jean-Claude Van Damme is planning a ‘Heist’ in March

Posted on October 26, 2015 by JJ Bona
"Pound of Flesh" Japanese Theatrical Poster

"Pound of Flesh" Japanese Theatrical Poster

Jean-Claude Van Damme (Swelter) and director Ernie Barbarash (Falcon Rising) are joining forces for the fourth time in Antwerp Heist, a Belgian-Canadian co-production that starts shooting in March (via HLN).

The film is presumed to be loosely based on the real events of the 2003 Antwerp Diamond Heist, dubbed the “heist of the century,” which was the largest diamond heist in history – with stolen jewellery valued over $100 million.

Van Damme and Barbarash previously collaborated together on 2011’s Assassination Games, 2012’s Six Bullets and 2015’s Pound of Flesh.

Other Van Damme projects supposedly in the works include The Penrose Affair and The Tower. His long-awaited, unreleased Eagle Path (aka Full Love) is rumored to be finally getting a release early next year.

Stay tuned on the latest updates regarding Antwerp Heist.

Posted in News |

Maggie (2015) Review

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Kelly Warner
"Maggie" Theatrical Poster

“Maggie” Theatrical Poster

Director: Henry Hobson
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson, Douglas M. Griffin, J.D. Evermore, Rachel Whitman Groves, Jodie Moore, Bryce Romero
Running Time: 95 min.

By Kyle Warner

I don’t get the zombie craze. However, I do like that it’s given storytellers the chance to experiment with genre and try new things. Maggie is one of the most interesting films to come out of the zombie boom, a sad drama about a family dealing with a child’s terminal illness in a world that’s given up hope.

The film’s setup is the usual zombie stuff, but it quickly becomes apparent that the execution is different this time. There’s a virus going around. It turns people into zombies but it goes beyond that, killing crops and infecting the earth. The world is barely clinging on and everywhere you go farmers are burning their crops and the dead are locked behind closed doors.

Here’s the main thing that sets Maggie apart: the film cares about the infected. Some people wonder if zombie films are popular because it allows human characters to kill each other while dehumanizing the infected on the other end of the gun barrel, like it provides some kind of sick thrill without the guilt of seeing a healthy, normal dude getting his brains splattered on the wall. That could be part of it but I’m sure it doesn’t explain every zombie fan’s fascination with their favorite genre. I just know that most zombie films feature the infected as little more than monsters fit for shooting, bashing, stabbing, and setting ablaze. In Maggie, the infected are our family and neighbors, and that feels like it matters.

The film opens with Arnold picking up his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) from the hospital. She’s been bitten. She probably shouldn’t even be turned over to her family, but the police are trusting the family to do the right thing when the time comes. Maggie will turn in approximately eight weeks. At that time, they must notify the police, who will take Maggie to the quarantine center. The only other responsible alternative is to do the deed themselves. (There’s hopeful talk about a cure, but this is mostly fairy tale stuff. The quarantine center is where the infected go to die. And they die painfully.) Maggie’s family spends what time they have left with their daughter while counting the days and watching her get sicker and sicker. When the time comes, will the father be able to kill his daughter? Is there any hope for a happy ending?

Maggie is more of a drama than a horror film, but it simply could not work without the horror parts of its DNA. It’s a sad film, surprisingly heartfelt and real. The film is anchored by two great leads in Schwarzenegger and Breslin. When you see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s making a zombie movie, your natural first thought would be that he’s preparing to kick zombie ass. Indeed, some posters for the film show explosions and weaponry not featured in the film. Instead of Arnold cancelling the apocalypse, Maggie gives him one of his most dramatic, human characters ever. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rarely been this restrained, playing a defeated man who knows that the worst is yet to come. As he approaches 70, Arnold may be forced to experiment more with his roles. Maggie is an unexpected choice, yet it yields interesting results. Here’s hoping we see more dramatic performances of this level from the actor in the future.

Though Arnold’s the easy name to talk about, it’s actually Abigail Breslin that delivers the best performance here. Since earning an Oscar nod for Little Miss Sunshine, the actress has been one of the better young talents in film. One can never tell how a talented child actor is going to transition to a grown-up actor, but Breslin seems to be doing all right. Her work in Maggie – essentially playing a terminally ill youth whose sickness will make her inhuman – is one of the most interesting characters in the zombie subgenre. The sadness and surprising sweetness shared between actors Breslin and Schwarzenegger is what makes the movie stick with you after it’s over.

I really liked Maggie. It’s not perfect and one wonders if the PG-13 rating holds the movie back some, but it’s a compelling and strange little film that I keep thinking about in the week since I watched it. It’s easily the most human zombie tale I’ve seen and it’s one of my favorites from the overcrowded genre.

Kyle Warner’s Rating: 7/10

Posted in All, News, Other Movies, Reviews | Tagged |

Exclusive: Enter the ’36 Styles’ T-Shirt & Poster Giveaway! – WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by JJ Bona

Shaolin Chamber 36 is giving away 2 T-Shirts (of your choice, size, etc) and 2 Kung Fu Bob 11×17 prints (of your choice) to four lucky Cityonfire visitors. To enter, simply add a comment to this post and describe, in your own words, this video.

We will be selecting a winner at random. Be sure to include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you for your home address. Will ship prizes worldwide!

CONTEST DISCLAIMER: You must enter by October 27th, 2015 to qualify. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 48 hours, otherwise you will automatically be disqualified. No exceptions. Contest is subject to change without notice.

WINNERS: Joey David (T-Shirt), Brenda King (T-Shirt), Chad Harry (Print) and QualityChimp (PRINT).

Posted in News | Tagged |

Deal on Fire! First Strike | Blu-ray | Only $7.49 – Expires soon!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by JJ Bona
Jackie Chan’s First Strike | Blu-ray (Warner)

Jackie Chan’s First Strike | Blu-ray (Warner)

Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for Jackie Chan’s First Strike, (aka Police Story IV) directed by Stanley Tong (Police Story 3: Supercop). Please note that this Blu-ray is most-likely the English-dubbed, U.S. edited version of the film.

In post-soviet Russia nothing is as it seems. When members of the Russian mafia pose as KGB agents to steal a nuclear missile, the CIA calls on martial arts master Jackie Chan to stop them. Also starring Jackson Lou (The Last Blood), Annie Wu (Ballistic Kiss) and Bill Tung (Rumble in the Bronx).

Order First Strike from Amazon.com today!

Posted in Deals on Fire!, News |

Full Strike (2015) Review

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Paul Bramhall
"Full Strike" Chinese Theatrical Poster

“Full Strike” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Derek Kwok
Co-director: Henry Wong
Cast: Ronald Cheng Chung-kei, Josie Ho Chiu Yee, Ekin Cheng, Tse Kwan Ho, Edmond Leung, Shaw Yum Yum, Wilfred Lau, Andrew Lam, Grace Yip Pui Man
Running Time: 108 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Movies about racquet sports hardly have the most successful track record, either at the box office or critically. Even thinking of one seems liken an unnecessarily difficult struggle. It took me a whole minute before I dragged the 2004 romantic comedy Wimbledon from the depths of my memory, and I was just as happy to return it there. That was a movie about tennis, which you can at least imagine the potential to appear dynamic on the big screen – the speed of the ball, the size of the court, the gracefulness of the players movements. Ok I’ll confess, I’m clutching at straws, but my point is, if it sounds difficult to make a movie about tennis, why even bother attempting to make one about badminton!?

However that’s exactly what directors Derek Kwok and Henri Wong have done with 2015’s Full Strike. If anything, the production had the odds stacked against it even more, thanks to the release of a title during the same year which revolved around another cinematically dull sport, Dante Lam’s To the Fore, which focused on bicycle racing. Having Dante Lam’s name behind To the Fore saw most fans of Hong Kong cinema keeping their gaze firmly locked on his latest effort, and ultimately its failure to exceed anyone’s already low expectations, seemed to result in Full Strike barely registering.

This is a shame, because Kwok and Wong’s effort is one of the most energetically insane and funny Hong Kong movies to come out of recent years, hardly stopping to catch its breath during the entire run time. Kwok is best known for his 2010 kung fu throwback Gallants, co-directed with Clement Cheng, which displayed a keen sense of awareness of what made Hong Kong cinema so great in the past. Full Strike marks Wong’s second time as a director, having both written and directed 2013’s Hardcore Comedy. However the pair have collaborated before, firstly on Kwok’s fire-fighting drama As the Lights Goes Out, in which he was a member of the special effects team, and also on a stop-motion short using Batman action figures. Go figure.

Bringing both of their talents to the directors chair, as well as writing the script, for a full length feature should be a winning combination, and within the first few minutes it becomes apparent that it is. Opening like an old-school kung fu movie, complete with a stern voiced narration tracing the origins of the sport from India to England, there’s no doubt we’re not going to be watching a normal sports drama. Soon we’re introduced to Beast Ng, played by Josie Ho, a lowly worker at her brother’s restaurant who, 10 years ago, used to be the ‘Queen of Hong Kong Badminton’. However thanks to her violent temper, her reign was short-lived.

All that changes though, and bear with me here, when she witnesses a large shuttlecock shaped meteorite fall to earth. Soon she’s being chased by an alien, or it could be a homeless person, and ends up in a run-down badminton school, which happens to be home to a trio of former ex-criminals. All three have some kind of physical impairment, the leader, played by Ekin Cheng (of the Young and Dangerous series fame), is hard of hearing. His two cohorts, one of which is played by Edmond Leong, only has one hand, and the other, played by Wilfred Lau, has poor eyesight. All three of them want to put their life of crime behind them, and redeem themselves through playing badminton. The question is, can Josie Ho rekindle her passion for the sport in time to get them in shape and compete in the Fantastic 5 Badminton Championship?

If the plot outline sounds like a completely random concept for a movie, you’d be right, and the above events also all take place in the first 10 minutes alone. Josie Ho holds the whole thing together though as a likeable anchor to which the craziness revolves around. Ho has been in the Hong Kong movie industry for over 20 years, a highlight of which was her lead role in 2010’s Dream Home (she also had a role in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, but we’ll forgive her), and Full Strike adds another highlight to her filmography. Paired with Ekin Cheng, fresh from starring alongside Jean Claude Van Damme in Jian Bing Man made the same year, they have a good chemistry with each other, with both characters serving to motivate the other to better themselves.

At its heart that’s really what Full Strike is about, bettering yourself regardless of the outcome, however it’s wrapped up in a Looney Tunes paced package that, to some degree, sometimes feels reminiscent of Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. Kwok and Wong throw in plenty of subtle kung fu references, with characters names splashed onscreen in Chinese calligraphy to introduce them, nicknames like the Flying Devil, and a team logo that looks remarkably similar to the Shaw Brothers shield. There’s also a drunken master type character, who used to be a former badminton champion, but has fallen on hard times. Played by Andrew Lam, recognizable from Sammo Hung movies like Pantyhose Hero and Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2, some of Full Strike’s biggest laughs belong to him. From teaching badminton strokes using a couple of giant meat cleavers, to his random outbursts of English, to a fantastic projectile vomit scene.

Full Strike is very much reminiscent of the Hong Kong movies from the 80’s and early 90’s, especially Stephen Chow’s mo lei tau style of wordplay. Some of the interactions are no doubt lost in translation, however just as many hit the mark, with an expletive filled script that doesn’t shy from some hilariously foul language. Also just like those Hong Kong movies of old, it doesn’t shy from bad taste rape jokes either. I guess you have to take the bad with the good. However with such an anything goes approach, proceedings move on so quickly that nothing dwells in the mind too long before another left of field joke comes along, and reminds you it’s just a movie.

Throw in some nice references to kung fu movies of old, from a sequence which has Andrew Lam training the trio of ex-criminals Crippled Avengers style, to a match played with a steel capped shuttlecock. Full Strike could well be the badminton movie that fans of classic Hong Kong cinema never knew they wanted. Much like Gallants, from the music through to the set design and camera work, Kwok and Wong have constructed a movie that captures the essence of why we love watching these productions in the first place. The energy, the action, and most importantly, the heart that seems to have been missing from many of the Hong Kong film industries recent output, is here very much alive and well. For that alone, Full Strike warrants a watch.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10

Posted in All, Chinese, News, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , |

Nick Cheung’s new thriller proves he’s a ‘Keeper of Darkness’

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Sam the Man
"Keeper of Darkness" Teaser Poster

"Keeper of Darkness" Teaser Poster

Looks like a certain someone feels right at home on the dark side: Nick Cheung’s (Helios) new thriller, Keeper of Darkness. In the film, Cheung plays a streetwise exorcist (Cheung) who becomes an overnight sensation when his extraordinary exorcism goes viral online.

Keeper of Darkness is Cheung’s sophomore directorial follow-up to last year’s Hungry Ghost Ritual. The movie is written by Sin Ling Yeung (The Bullet Vanishes) and stars Amber Kuo (Triumph in the Skies), Louis Cheung (The Legend is Born – Ip Man) and Sisley Choi (Overachievers).

Updates: The film’s trailer has just arrived. It is not only full of darkness but also special effects. Check it out here.

Posted in News |

Untold Story, The | aka Bunman (1993) Review

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Martin Sandison
"The Untold Story" Japanese Theatrical Poster

“The Untold Story” Japanese Theatrical Poster

Director: Herman Yau
Cast: Anthony Wong, Danny Lee, Emily Kwan, Lau Siu-Ming, Shing Fui-On, Parkman Wong Pak-Man, Yee Ka-Fat, Lam King-Kong, Julie Lee, Leung Hung-Wah
Running Time: 96 min.

By Martin Sandison

One of the most notorious Category 3 Hong Kong films ever made, Bunman (what a title!) features everything that makes extreme HK cinema so unique: brutality, seriously dark comedy and insane energy that spills off the screen. Only in Hong Kong in the 90’s would an actor as great as Anthony Wong star in such a disturbing film, and then win the Hong Kong film award for best actor for it! At the time Wong was making a name for himself, having appeared in amongst numerous others Ringo Lam’s bizarrely demented and uber stylish Full Contact and John Woo’s utter masterclass in action (and my favourite movie) Hard Boiled. 1993 was a very busy year for Wong, with his stand out roles in The Heroic Trio and another Category 3 thriller Taxi Hunter (also directed by Herman Yau) – only the tip of the iceberg.

Bunman gained a reputation for being nihilistic yet darkly comic, and it’s a testament to the idea and Wong’s performance that the film rises above its exploitative base to deliver a serious message about the nature of man and the realities of modern society. The very premise – purportedly based on a true story – is profoundly sick but humorous like the rest of the film. Wong plays Wong Chi-Hang, a restaurant owner who has inherited it from a gambling friend. As body parts start to pile up on the beach and Wong’s behaviour becomes increasingly psychotic, the police start to move in.

The film manages to maintain an edgy, dark atmosphere that is punctuated by silly comedy (what more would you expect of a 90’s HK film?) and Yau must be given credit for this. Without Wong’s performance the film would suffer however, and what a towering one it is. Wong constantly looks like a real psychotic throughout, a real nasty piece of work. Later in the film I grew to feel sorry for him though, despite his despicable actions. He gives shades of humanity to a real monster of a human being, deserving all the accolades he received. Subsequent Wong performances in everything from Category 3 shockers like Ebola Syndrome or gangster flicks like Johnnie To’s Exiled have proven his range, but none come close to the intensity on show in Bunman.

The film is produced by and co-starring Danny Lee, that legend of HK cinema. The previous year he had directed another Category 3 classic Dr. Lamb, the subject matter of which is similar to Bunman. Other than these two instantly recognisable faces, most of the cast are second or third tier HK actors. Emily Kwan Bo Wai features as Bo, the female officer who is the butt of most of the (sexist) jokes. She appeared in Dr. Lamb and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert among others. Lau Siu Ming has a small part as Cheng Lam, the friend of Wong’s who suffers greatly in his only scene. He is a veteran HK bit part actor, having been in Tsui Hark’s new wave fantasy extravaganza Butterfly Murders and Corey Yuen’s pure 80’s actioner (and the first HK film I ever bought on VHS) Righting Wrongs. Shing Fui On (Big Sillyhead to his fans) has a very small part as Lau’s brother, making Wong’s short spell in prison pretty horrible.

The catalogue of horrors that are depicted in the film are seriously twisted, and test even the strongest stomach. The worst of them comes midway through, with the murder of Cheng Lam and his family (including his three very young daughters). This scene is up there with the most harrowing moments of all cinema. Other ones feature Wong’s torture by the police – wherein a nurse who Wong had previously tried to use as a hostage injects him with water that creates blisters all over his skin – and his suicide attempt that culminates in him biting the artery on his wrist.

Despite not being for everyone, Bunman is a very engaging and intense film that anyone with a penchant for extreme cinema must check out. Obvious faults are the lack of a consistent style and the limitations of a low budget, but these can be overlooked. After watching Wong take on the role with so much gusto, I would be slightly worried if I met him! By all accounts he is one seriously cool and relaxed guy in person, giving credence to his unbelievable depiction of Wong Chi-Hang.

Martin Sandison’s Rating: 8/10

By Numskull

“We seem to be the only species who truly goes crazy without benefit of disease or a sharp blow to the head.” -Jessica Horsting, MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI (copyright 1992, Warner Books)

“Masterpiece” is not a word that I throw around lightly. Pardon me for saying so, but there are certain “critics” on the net who dole out perfect ratings way too easily. It’s feast or famine with some people; either a movie is “flawless,” “perfect,” and “tied with (72 other films) for Greatest Movie Ever Made,” OR, it’s “worthless,” “dog shit,” and “enjoyable only by those with I.Q.s of lower numerical value than their shoe sizes.” No middle ground? Bollocks.

If you ask me, there’s no such thing as a perfect movie, but there are a select few that are so impressive that I can forgive their shortcomings unconditionally. Like what? There’s BRAINDEAD (Yours Truly’s all-time favorite flick), POLICE STORY (Jackie Chan has yet to top it and probably never will), SEVEN (yeah, that’s right, a Hollywood movie…you got a problem with that?!?), and now, THE UNTOLD STORY (which, by the way, is only the second film I’ve ever reviewed on this site and given a 10/10 rating).

How about music? Can you think of any albums (do they still make those? I guess I should just say “CDs”) where you can listen to the whole thing through and not be even remotely tempted to skip a song or fast forward through a small part of one? I can…VEREHRT UND ANGESPIEN by In Extremo, and Kreator’s brilliant ENDORAMA (which, by the way, includes “Chosen Few,” a song I am going to insist, come Hell or waters high, be played at my wedding reception, in the unlikely event that I ever have one). Not even Skyclad…the greatest band ever to walk the Earth…has such a CD in their discography (which, by the way, has been growing steadily since 1991).

Books (you know, those things with words in them)? Well, the “masterpieces” I had to read in school bored the living shit out of me, and served as a solid basis for my theory that English teachers want to turn kids off of literature in general to prevent them from wanting to become English teachers themselves, thus ensuring their own job security via lack of competition (except for Alexander, of course). So what would I happily slap the “M” word on? Definitely TITUS GROAN and GORMENGHAST by Mervyn Peake, and maybe SURVIVOR (which, by the way, has nothing to do with that crappy TV show) by Chuck Palahniuk, author of FIGHT CLUB (which, by the way, has a much cooler ending than the movie).

Now that I’ve lost about 70% of my audience by talking about books and the other 30% by shamelessly plugging stuff, I can get on with THE UNTOLD STORY. It’s a deliberately nasty, brutal film based on a tragic, real-life story (which, by the way, means it is no longer “untold”). How accurately the events are presented…how much fiction is mixed in with the facts…I do not know. Perhaps it doesn’t even matter, because there’s so much senseless violence in the real world anyway; the movie painfully drives home the reminder that all sorts of terrible things can happen to anyone at anytime…especially at the hands of another human being.

Anthony Wong is brilliant as the psychotic Wong Chi Hang. He strikes a perfect balance between ultra-violent dementia and false normalcy. The most dangerous sort of lunatic is the one who gives an outward appearance of being a mentally stable, unremarkable (if a little obnoxious, in Wong’s case) member of society, letting their insanity out to play only when it is safe to do so (or when they’re going to kill all the witnesses…). That’s what you can expect to see in this movie. A lesser actor probably would have played the role like an obscene Saturday morning cartoon super-villain, mindlessly slobbering over child pornography and laughing hysterically while beating people to death in public. Wong resists the temptation to play a Satanic Jim Carrey on crack and instead gives us a thoroughly impressive and utterly plausible performance. Small wonder he won the 1993 Hong Kong Best Actor award for it.

Meanwhile, Danny Lee plays a cop for about the 847th time. He regularly picks up prostitutes (or at least loose women) and he bosses around a few men who alternately try to please him, try to score with his chicks, and needle their female colleague about her lack of ladylike characteristics. They get slapped a lot. The darkly comic aspects of The Untold Story revolve around these decidedly UN-Supercops; witness their childish “Eww, gross” reaction to the human body parts that wash up on a beach at the beginning of the movie.

Too much has been made of the whole “people getting chopped up and fed to restaurant patrons in the form of meat buns” business (which, by the way, is somewhat perpetuated by the restaurant-style DVD menus…nice touch). Yeah, it happens, but to say that that’s what the movie is “about” would be doing it a great disservice.

There can be no argument that the Category III rating is warranted. Little is held back in terms of raw brutality. Two scenes in particular stand out for being shockingly explicit. I don’t want to give too much away; you’ll know which scenes I’m talking about when you see them. After reading EXQUISITE CORPSE by Poppy Z. Brite and AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis (which, by the way, is so gruesome it makes the movie look like a Disney cartoon by comparison), you can handle pretty much anything, so I wasn’t bothered too deeply. YOU might be. And I wouldn’t blame you. Watching women get raped and children get butchered ain’t for everyone. Remember, though: stuff like this happens to somebody, somewhere, every single day.

The script is very well-done. It would have been easy to throw together a cheesy teen slasher flick-type flow of events where Wong remains on the loose until the very end, when the last fine officer of the law finally brings him down. Mercifully, a much more realistic and satisfying road gets taken. I find it a little hard to believe that the cops would have found the evidence in the garbage truck THAT quickly (and in the dark, no less), but, when my first and foremost quibble is something as minor as that, I’m perfectly willing to look the other way.

I’ll definitely be checking out the other Herman Yau/Anthony Wong collaborations, such as TAXI HUNTER and NEW TENANT (which, by the way…oh, shit, I haven’t seen it yet so I guess I’ve got nothing to add here). I’ll be one deliriously happy camper if I enjoy them half as much as I enjoyed The Untold Story.

Which, by the way, was one hell of a lot.

Numskull’s Rating: 10/10

Posted in Chinese, News, Reviews | Tagged , , , |
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