Tag: Hong Kong

CUSTOMS FRONTLINE – Review

A scene from Hong Kong action crime film CUSTOMS FRONTLINE. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

In CUSTOMS FRONTLINE, Hong Kong delivers plenty of high-octane, large-scale action in this subtitled contemporary cop adventure. The protagonists are the city’s harbor patrol, charged with stopping maritime smuggling. They learn a major international arms dealer that no one in law enforcement has ever seen may be routing heavy-duty weaponry through their waters. The case begins with their boarding an inbound ship with all its crew having been murdered. The retirement benefits for employees in that “industry” seem severely lacking. No union? No perks.

The harbor police teams with reps from Interpol in the pursuit. Our heroes are two guys leading the way. Cheung (Jacky Cheung) is the grizzled veteran. Lai (Nicholas Tse) is his adoring disciple. The story is complex, with scenes occurring in multiple countries, on land and sea, keeping lots of balls in the air, including who is trustworthy among the authorities. We know who the big bad boss is long before the cops do and witness the level of cold cruelty on that side of the crime coin. Many times.

Although Erica Li’s script is above average for the genre with a few surprises along the way, the real stars are director Herman Yau and the horde of stunt and F/X specialists who crafted the sets and choreographed the mayhem. Several sequences are epic in proportion, with a stunning array of shootouts, explosions and crashes while running up an impressive body count. Hong Kong’s sleek, modern architecture and picturesque harbor contrast nicely with the sordid events occurring therein.

Character development is better than most but the action provides more than sufficient reason to watch, and preferably on the largest available screen.

CUSTOMS FRONTLINE, in Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese with English subtitles, opens in theaters on Friday, July 19.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

FATAL RAID – Review

(left-right) Jade Lin, Hidy Yu, Jade Leung, Michael Tong and Sin-Hang Chiu star in FATAL RAID. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.

THE FATAL RAID is a contemporary Hong Kong action flick offering the best and the worst of this category of subtitled imports. It’s cops vs. bad guys, setting up a slew of intense, elaborately staged action sequences. It also features a handful of lethally gifted babes (some of whom wear less than their situations call for) among the ranks on both sides of the law, reviving the “girls with guns” subset of the martial arts family that thrived a couple of decades ago on both sides of the Pacific.

My low rating comes from the script being hard to follow as it jumps between two time frames 20 years apart, and several illogical aspects to what the characters do, even once we understand their motivations.

In THE FATAL RAID, some Hong Kong cops in 1998 got into a major battle with a gang in Macao, resulting in lots of casualties and destruction of property. Stuff blows up big time. The collateral damage would have made horrendous public relations for both sets of authorities, so the incident was covered up like a UFO sighting attributed to swamp gas. As a result, there was no compensation for the families of the deceased officers, or consideration for the few survivors. That proves to have unwanted effects long afterwards. As usual, the cover-up turns out to be worse than the crime.

Twenty years later, two of those survivors are placed in charge of a protection detail for a Hong Kong politico going to Macao for a high-profile conference. A new crew – largely consisting of the aforementioned babes with bullets – is deployed, only to find themselves unwelcome by their Macao counterparts, still resenting the mayhem from that previous visit. A small group of young revolutionaries tries to disrupt the meeting, leading to another big mess the brass wants to shove under the rug. But they’re not the largest threat to the event. That’s a whole ‘nother bunch with different agendas and better weapons.

As the action plays out, we get some terrific hand-to-hand fights and chases. The trio of young women in the newer Hong Kong cop crew (Min Chen Lin, Jeana Ho, and Elaine Tang) would be perfect for, and better served by, a CHARLIE’S ANGELS knockoff. But the shootouts make everyone look inept. Rarely have so many bullets been fired from so many machine guns to hit so few bodies. The bottom line is that if you’re looking for an adrenaline rush with a PG-13 serving of eye candy, this could be a viable option. If you seek more all-around quality in the genre, you can find more satisfying scripts supporting their action, like the recently-reviewed RAGING FIRE.

FATAL RAID, subtitled or dubbed into English from Cantonese, is available on DVD, BluRay, or streaming from Well Go USA Entertainment starting Aug. 23, 2021.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

UNDERCOVER PUNCH & GUN – Review

A scene from UNDERCOVER PUNCH & GUN. Courtesy of Sil-Metropole Organisation

Fasten your seat belts for this high-octane Hong Kong crime story. In UNDERCOVER PUNCH & GUN (aka UNDERCOVER VS. UNDERCOVER), Wu (Philip Ng) is an undercover cop, firmly embedded in the upper echelon of the local smuggling and drug trade. There are several factions with tenuous associations and rivalries, all poised to switch on short notice. Or less. As is often the case, Wu not only faces the constant concern over having his cover blown, but, as is often the case for these dramas, develops personal relations with some of his targets that add layers to the suspense.

Don’t worry about the story; nothing new intended or to be found there. It’s all a setup for the slew of action sequences which are a whole ’nother matter. But for those who care about such things, Wu stays undercover for longer than originally planned because he’s risen to become the main dealer/smuggler’s right-hand man, and heir to the throne. He’s also fallen in love with the boss’ lovely, relatively innocent, daughter. He aims higher on the bust count (arrests, not breasts),  pursuing not only the dragon lady who manufactures most of the crystal meth they distribute, but an even bigger, badder player who is trying to take over from the others and expand the territory to the rest of Asia, Infinity and Beyond. Alliances ebb and flow along the way to resolution, making the film even more complicated (not good), but setting up more action sequences (very good).

This flick offers some of the most exciting chases, fights and shootouts one can find anywhere. Every conceivable location, from high-rise buildings, to docks, warehouses and construction sites, to ships at sea hosts one or more of these fast-paced scenes, offering all the adrenaline rush genre devotees hope for. A parkour-esque foot chase is reminiscent of the thrilling full-on parkour chase by Daniel Craig’s James Bond near the beginning of CASINO ROYALE. The only thing missing is snakes (or Wesley Snipes) on a plane. Wenjuan Feng and Carrie Ng contribute the good and evil sides of eye candy. Several good and bad guys chip in bits of comic relief during and between the mayhem moments. If you need a fix for a Jet Li or Tony Jaa type of experience, this delivers, with the bonus of some new faces with bright futures.

UNDERCOVER PUNCH & GUN, in Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles, is available on streaming, DVD and Blu-ray on June 8, 2021.

SLIFF 2009 Review: THE DRUMMER (Zhan gu)

sliff_thedrummer

The sound of drums can penetrate the soul and resonate deeper than any musical instrument if performed by a true master, which I think is why it is an art and a discipline older than any other musical pursuit. This concept lies at the core of THE DRUMMER, a powerful new film from writer and director Kenneth Bi (RICE RHAPSODY). This is a story of one young man named Sid whose love of the drums developed at an early age out of anger and frustration. Sid plays drums for a rock band, but his life mimics his music as he is drawn to mischief and chasing women. One night, Sid is caught fooling around with the youthful girlfriend of Stephen Ma (Kenneth Tsang), a powerful suited gangster. With his life in danger, Sid’s father (Tony Leung Ka Fai) also a small-time gangster, sends him away with his best man while he attempts to appease his old friend and partner in crime.

Sid and his escort travel into the rural mountains outside of Hong Kong where he finds the remote camp of the Zen Drummers, a group of monks devoted to the drums. Fascinated by their music, Sid decides to join them, but he quickly learns that there is more to the drums than he ever imagined. Sid finds himself struggling, inward and out, with the methods of teaching imposed upon him, reminiscent of those employed by Mr. Miyagi in KARATE KID. Sid simply wants to play the drums, but the patient monks help him to learn how to “play the drums without playing the drums”.

THE DRUMMER is a film that that is both ancient and modern. Sid is pushed from the chaos of urban Hong Kong life filled with crime and violence and finds himself absorbed into the centuries old customs of the monks, discovering meaning and serenity in his life for the very first time. The images and scenery of Sid’s time in the mountains, learning valuable lessons about himself through the drums, are breathtaking. Throughout the story, the audience is given an incredible look inside the inner working of such a discipline, allowing us to witness wonderful moments of concentration and devotion. The monks not only study and practice the drums, they also study martial arts and consider everything from cooking to common daily chores a meditation not separate from their musical study.

THE DRUMMER is an uplifting story, but it is not without pain and suffering. Throughout Sid’s journey with the Zen Drummers, he also realizes an awakening in his relationship with his father. Sid draws on the firmness of his teacher and the compassion of the Zen Drummer’s master to overcome his own stubbornness and become one with the drum, maturing as a human being in the process. Jaycee Chan, son of the international action star Jackie Chan, stars as Sid and delivers a quality performance with depth and emotional precision.

The scenes in which the Zen Drummers perform are captivating, surely not doing full justice to the experience of witnessing a live performance, they are still deeply affecting. THE DRUMMER is not necessarily the most original story, wrapped around age-old themes seen time and again in so many martial arts film, but it’s the heart of the movie that carries it’s weight in polished stones. As an audience, there should be a part of one’s self drawn into the experience Sid lives in the mountains with the Zen Drummers that calls upon one’s soul, that part that yearns to accomplish something great and meaningful. If it does not, then I would ask just how committed one was in fully experiencing this film.

THE DRUMMER will screen at Frontenac on Sunday, November 15th at 9:15pm and on Monday, November 16th at 4:30pm during the 18th Annual Whitaker Saint Louis International Film Festival.

Whoa! Raimi remaking ‘Flying Daggers’? Huh-uh!

houseofflyingdaggers

You see, these are the kind of rumors that I not only hate, but have a really hard time coping with. Apparently, MoviesOnline.ca got wind of a rumor (no source was given) that Sam Raimi could be preparing to remake ‘House of Flying Daggers’. What?!?

The reason this is a troublesome rumor for me is that [a] I really like Sam Raimi and don’t want to see him do “bad” projects… and [b] I love ‘House of Flying Daggers’ and more importantly, I LOVE director Zhang Yimou’s work. He is one of my top five favorite filmmakers currently working and I don’t want to see any of his work remade. For me, it’s like someone trying to remake a Stanley Kubrick and terry Gilliam movie. You just don’t do it!

What do you think? Is this a REAL possibility, or is the rumor simply bogus? Personally, I wouldn’t want to see this project happen, regardless of which director takes it on. If it were to happen, is Raimi the right guy, or is someone else better suited?

[source: Movies Online]

Bruce Lee’s Home will be a Museum

After a lengthy and heated battle by fans, the fate of Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee’s last home has been decided. The late film icon’s 5,700 square foot, two-story town house in Hong Kong will be preserved as a museum for tourists to enjoy.

For a while, it was feared the property would end up being converted into a “love motel” and disrespect the memory of it’s accomplished former resident. However, thanks to it’s current owner, real estate and hotel tycoon Yu Pang-lin, the decision was made to donate the property to the city where Lee made his fame.

Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said it agreed to preserve the “original outlook of the building and its features” with an aim to revitalize it for long-term sustainable operation as a tourism attraction.

Parts of the home will be re-created, including Lee’s study and training hall stacked with martial arts weaponry and other paraphernalia of his discipline.

[source: Hollywood Reporter]