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Royal Tramp (1992) |
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 Chow Sing Chi is Wilson Bond, he infiltrates a secret society 'Heaven and Earth'. He must now infiltrate the court of the emperor in order to have his trust. Moreover, Brian a dangerous general wants to kill the emperor and the sect has exchange the emperor's wife with Cheung Man. Wilson must do something to save his friend : the emperor.
 Parodies of Swordsman, Ching Siu-tung does a less good work as he used to do for the Film Workshop productions. The style is less precise, less inventive, coarser. This is the type of movie which has contributed to popularize his style while wearying the spectators. The humour is very low key, the fights are nonetheless very good and girls are very cute. The first installement is very good whilst the sequel is so so.
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Jean-Louis Ogé - top |
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Sixty Million Dollar Man (1995) |
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Shing is a tainted kid whose father is filthy rich. He thinks that all can be bought, even the love of Sylvia, a friend of class. After a first failure, he decides to go to the house of Sylvia which is the girl of a notorious gangster. Thinking that his secrecies were discovered, the gangster does not hesitate to explode the car of the really unhappy Shing. An insane professor (TKK) give again life to him, Shing has a new body with extraordinary capacities of transformation into any object of the everyday life (toaster, microwave, sprinkler pipe, suction, etc)!!!!!!
Beginning in a normal way, the film goes unrelentingly towards the most complete delirious in his second part. The most insane visual gags are possible. Parodying at certain times Pulp Fiction and The Mask, 60 Million $ Man must be seen. The three men Chow Sing Chi, Ng Man Tat and Tsui Kam Kong are worthy of the best Tex Avery (you must see Stephen Chow transformed into water closet). To be discovered urgently.
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Jean-Louis Ogé - top |
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Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993) |
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The Queen of Golden Wheel Kingdom had a love affair with her cousin West Poison, and they planned to take over the Kingdom. The Princess discovered their treason, but she was defeated by West Poison. She sought her master's help. With the helps from East Evil, South Emperor, North Beggar and Chow Op-tong, she challenged West Poison again and a long fight begin......(Mei-Ah)
Based on the same book as for the movie Ashes of time, Jeff Lau and Wong Kar Wai made a Wu Xia Pian parody with non sensical comedy. Either you love, either you hate but you can't be indifferent.
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Laurent Henry - top |
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Mission (1999) |
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Five former triads member are choosen to protect a gang boss who needs help.
Milkyway Image company at full speed produced end of 1999 a film with a basic scenario but which shines thanks to the excellence of its production value and the acting chops of its seasoned cast (Anthony Wong as a hairdresser !). The gunfights are very well staged (particularly in the mall) and each sequence proposes a great many ideas (in addtion to this, one can see split-screens, dear to Brian de Palma). This is an excellent directorial effort from Johnnie To.
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David-Olivier Vidouze 4/1/2000 - top |
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Running Out Of Time (1999) |
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Lau Ching Wan is a very clever negociator. One day, a very clever thief (Andy Lau) begins a cat-and-mouse game with him.
Second film of Johnnie To for the Milkyway in this year 1999 and big success at the box office (success which due to the publicity using Andy Lau in multiple disguises : Andy Lau in person old, Andy Lau as a woman...). It is undeniable that it is the most original story of the last productions of Johnnie To. Maybe it is due to the contribution of the two former journalists of the review HK, Laurent Courtiaud and Julien Carbon, which worked on the scenario ? Running Out Of Time is a very ludic film : one goes step by step, without knowing too much about the story. This time, Andy Lau didn't refuse a good role.
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David-Olivier Vidouze 4/2/2000 - top |
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Hero Never Dies (1998) |
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Martin (Lau Ching-Wan) and Jack (Leon Lai) are friends, but they belong to different gangs. One day, their boss can't bear them anymore. So they want yo kill them.
First film of Johnnie To directed after his declarations about Patrick Yau. Johnnie To announced that he directed himself the three films of Patrick Yau: The Odd One Dies, The Longest Nite and Expect The Unexpected, in order to launch this young director. A Hero Never Dies can be seen as an attempt to prove him paternity on the three films. It is true that one finds the same disillusioned environment, the same photography, the same actors... But the scenario is not very good. A Hero Never Dies is a film for sadists where the heroes are tired and mutilated. One can think that it is a trickery, a meaningless movie... One can like too. The action scenes are once again made by Yuen Bun.
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David-Olivier Vidouze 9/1/1999 - top |
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Sword (1980) |
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A young epeist (Adam Cheng Siu Chow) in search of glory wanted to fight a famous swordman.
With this first film, Patrick Tam updates the wu xia pian film genre in decline at that time in HK. He brings a new vision on this conceited search of glory thanks to fight, a search that Tam find vain because the epeist will always find a stronger man. This movie is a classical of the kind thanks to the choreographies of Ching Siu-tung, already very fast and well edited
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Laurent Henry - top |
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Dr Wai In " The Scripture With No Words " (1996) |
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Dr. Wai (Jet Li) had to recover a ancient parchment and to precede Japanese in this perilous company.
Taking as a starting point Indiana Jones, Ching Siu-tung manages to offer once again a very distracting film, but like most of his movies made apart from the Film Workshop, it is just a simple entertainment. It should be noted that the film exists in two versions. An international version stupidly linear. And a Cantonese version where the adventures of Dr. Wai are written by a writer who regulates his personal problems through the writing. This second version, definitely more subtle, unfortunately doesn't show in a convincing way the sentimental problems between the characters.
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Laurent Henry - top |
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East Is Red (1993) |
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Asia the invincible (Brigitte Lin) comes back to kill all her impostors and to restore the order in the world of martial arts.
This movie has suffered from a bad reputation, mainly because of its too hysterical editing. This movie is actually the same type of Wu Xia Pian as the first two instalments. If it's still less interesting than the other episodes, The East Is Red suffers from Ching Siu Tung's taste for B movie. Mad visuals and ideas such as a flying swordfish, ninjas tied to kites to fly, dwarf samurais, flying ships battles and so on, contribute to make it "special"… Very entertaining indeed, but the noble and tragic spirit from the first two instalments has disappeared.
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Laurent Henry - top |
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Terracotta Warrior (1989) |
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One of the Generals of the emperor Qing (Zhang Yimou) fell in love with a concubine (Gong Li). When this love was discovered, the lovers have no choice, only give themselves death. But before dying, the concubine managed to give to her lover a pearl of immortality intended for the emperor. In the Thirties, the warrior was awaked by plunderers of tombs. They were accompanied by a young scatterbrained actress who looked like the ancient concubine.
Even if Ching Siu-tung does not manage to find the same attaching tone like in his last movie, the esthetism and the presence of very ostentatious scenes confer to this opposed relation a certain beauty. On the other hand the second part is definheely less convincing, especially because of the character of the young girl who is played by Gong Li and of the tone sometimes heavily burlesque of the film. It remains a very interesting reflexion on the past and the inexorable destroying work of time plunging men and their time in the lapse of memory.
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Laurent Henry - top |
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