Actors & Directors
- Lotus
- Bill Carney (II)
- Eric Stuart (III)
- Rikiya Yasuoka
- Cutey Suzuki
- Gô Nagai
Run time: 70 min.
Price: $19.99
Review Ninja Dragon (Dub) / Asian Pulp Cinema:This 1990 feature from anime legend Go Nagai, creator of Devilman and Cutey Honey among other animated series, is a spirited if uninspired mix of Ninja warrior swordplay, modern yakuza gangster gunplay, and anime-style demons. The mysterious Ninja Dragon is a vaguely supernatural warrior sworn to defend the Nindo clan. He dedicates his sword to Shinobu, the schoolgirl daughter of a yakuza lord, and just in time. Upstart gangster Ranjuji, a hulking thug with demonic eyes, massacres the heads of rival criminal families and kidnaps young Shinobu for his bride. There's plenty of flashy swordplay and bloody violence (blood spurting from wounds like a waterfall, limbs ripped from bodies, and a man's face ripped from his head like a banana peel), and the massive battle between the Ninja Dragon's trio and Shinobu's army makes up for sloppy technique with vigorous choreography and a rush of activity. Apart from a few sidelines for unnecessary exposition and a ridiculous contest that turns Ninja warriors into World Wrestling Federation wrasslin' chicks, Nagai keeps this silly, simplistic Japanese comic book B movie zipping along with gusto. It won't leave much of an impression, but it's a fun 70 minutes of brainless action. -Sean Axmaker.
Actors & Directors
- Hark Tsui
- Tyler Mane
- Andrew Bryniarski
- Jon Polito
- Teresa Herrera
- Tobin Bell
Run time: 101 min.
Price: $14.94
Review Black Mask 2: City of Masks (Spanish) / Sony Pictures:This outlandish comic book of a movie stars newcomer Andy On as the genetically altered warrior played by Jet Li in the original Black Mask. As Zeus-the gigantic brain-in-a-vat that created Black Mask-sends his newest super-warrior to track Black Mask down, the nefarious owner of a professional wrestling network has a plan to genetically alter his wrestlers and turn them into animalistic half-humans-meanwhile, Black Mask falls in love with a beautiful geneticist who's paralyzed with phobic anxiety whenever a man touches her. None of the plot makes much sense, but sense is hardly the point. Though the computer-generated special effects are fairly crude, the relentless camera movement and rapid-fire editing of Hong Kong action master Tsui Hark (Peking Opera Blues, Time and Tide) and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix) keep the spectacle rolling along entertainingly. Also featuring Traci Lords as a kick-ass wrestling queen. -Bret Fetzer.
Release date: 2002-02-05
Price: $19.98
Review Massive (Dub) / Xenon:
Actors & Directors
- Hark-On Fung
- Lung Chan
- Corey Yuen
- Kar Lok Chin
- Billy Chow
- Jackie Chan
Run time: 90 min.
List Price: $19.98
Price: $38.95
Review Dragons Forever / Tai Seng:A fitfully amazing, frequently disheartening hodgepodge of action, farce, and romance, slapped together as a costarring vehicle for three of Hong Kong's major movie stars: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (who also directed), and Yuen Biao. Its light-footed, try-anything spirit makes it consistently enjoyable, but these wonderful performers are working (to put it kindly) beneath their gifts. Chan plays a womanizing attorney who recruits arms-dealer Hung and madcap inventor Biao to dig up dirt on the corporate sleaze balls he's supposedly defending-industrial polluters (and heroin smugglers) whose effluents threaten the bucolic fish farm of a handsome widow woman. The trio doesn't have many collective scenes, so their Three Musketeers act never really gets off the ground. As always, the fights and stunt work are mind-boggling; the jaunty details are fun: Chan's flick-of-the-wrist trick with a fancy briefcase; Hung's deft run- through of a few choice Cantonese opera moves; and Yuen Biao's Olympic-level acrobatics on, around, and within an industrial steel-tube staircase. -David Chute.
Actors & Directors
- Sheng Chiang
- Kwok Chu Wong
- Pao-Shu Kao
- Peter Chang (III)
- Feng Lu
Run time: 90 min.
Price: $19.99
Review Fight Among the Supers (Sub Sp) / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Yat Chor Yuen
- Po Tai
- Ping-Ao Wei
- Sai-kun Yam
- Shun-Yee Yuen
Run time: 90 min.
Price: $19.98
Review Drunken Arts & Crippled Fist / Xenon:
Actors & Directors
- Chung Sun
- Yim Chan Tang
- Feng Ku
- Sheng Fu
- Jamie Luk
- Lung Ti
Price: $14.95
Review Avenging Eagle (Sp) / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Stephen Chow
- Sung Young Chen
- Jackie Chan
- Emil Chau
- Bradley James Allan
Run time: 99 min.
List Price: $9.98
Price: $19.96
Review Jackie Chan's Gorgeous (1999) (Spanish) (Sub) / Sony Pictures:In between the Hollywood productions Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, Hong Kong's most popular export, Jackie Chan, returned home to indulge his romantic side in this modern fairy tale. He plays a modern Prince Charming, a big business mogul and notoriously eligible big-city bachelor to dreamy teenager Shu Qi, a girl from a Taiwan fishing village. When a heartbreaking message in a bottle washes ashore, she traces it back to Hong Kong, where she meets Jackie in the midst of a mid-ocean brawl on a luxury yacht. Hong Kong heartthrob Tony Leung has a grand time spoofing his image, playing a gay fashion photographer who "adopts" Shu Qi and helps her woo her handsome dream lover. It's a pleasant change to see 40-plus Jackie discard his usual goofy lovesick fool to play a suave swinger, but next to giggly teen Shu Qi, who proves to be a spunky and winning actress, he seems a little too mature. There are still plenty of opportunities to see Jackie in acrobatic action with a subplot involving a boyhood friend turned shady business rival, but at heart it's a sweet, silly little love song full of unabashed romantic imagery, elegant art design, snazzy fashions, and a gooey happy ending. Jackie doesn't provide his own voice in the English dubbed edition, which makes a minor dent in his charm but does little to affect the film as a whole. -Sean Axmaker.
Actors & Directors
- Fu Chiang Chi
- Tad Horino
- Chun Lei
- Philip Kwok
- Hui Lou Chen
List Price: $9.98
Price: $37.99
Review Tiger & Crane Fist / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Eric Stuart (III)
- Lotus
- Gô Nagai
- Matsui Tetsuya
- Rikiya Yasuoka
- Cutey Suzuki
Run time: 70 min.
List Price: $29.99
Price: $19.99
Review The Ninja Dragon / Asian Pulp Cinema:This 1990 feature from anime legend Go Nagai, creator of Devilman and Cutey Honey among other animated series, is a spirited if uninspired mix of Ninja warrior swordplay, modern yakuza gangster gunplay, and anime-style demons. The mysterious Ninja Dragon is a vaguely supernatural warrior sworn to defend the Nindo clan. He dedicates his sword to Shinobu, the schoolgirl daughter of a yakuza lord, and just in time. Upstart gangster Ranjuji, a hulking thug with demonic eyes, massacres the heads of rival criminal families and kidnaps young Shinobu for his bride. There's plenty of flashy swordplay and bloody violence (blood spurting from wounds like a waterfall, limbs ripped from bodies, and a man's face ripped from his head like a banana peel), and the massive battle between the Ninja Dragon's trio and Shinobu's army makes up for sloppy technique with vigorous choreography and a rush of activity. Apart from a few sidelines for unnecessary exposition and a ridiculous contest that turns Ninja warriors into World Wrestling Federation wrasslin' chicks, Nagai keeps this silly, simplistic Japanese comic book B movie zipping along with gusto. It won't leave much of an impression, but it's a fun 70 minutes of brainless action. -Sean Axmaker.
Actors & Directors
- Jackie Chan
- Chi-Kwong Cheung
- Wai Yee Chan
- Jackie Chan
- Kwok Kuen Chan
- Kar Lok Chin
Run time: 102 min.
Price: $9.99
Review Legend of the Drunken Master / Walt Disney Video:
Actors & Directors
- Ging Man Fung
- Fat Chung
- Ngai Hung Chik
- Wah Cheung
- Feng Feng
Run time: 90 min.
List Price: $14.97
Price: $19.99
Review Enter the Fat Dragon / Crash Cinema Media:This may be an action comedy, and a fairly boisterous one at that, but director-star Sammo Hung isn't out to poke holes in the legend of Bruce Lee. In fact, he defends the late master's honor in one scene by clobbering an arrogant Lee imitator. Hung plays a tubby hick from the sticks who idolizes Bruce and tries to emulate the Dragon's heroics when his uncle's business is threatened by a pack of gangsters, led by veteran villain Roy Chiao. The well-meaning kung fu trainee very quickly gets in over his head, and his bumbling actually makes matters worse-before (mostly thanks to dumb luck) the day is finally saved. A lot of the action is staged straight, for head-banging thrills, especially a showdown set piece in which Hung faces off against three scary martial arts masters, each with a different skill. The moral of the story, if anything, is that it's harder to be a hero than ordinary mortals realize. -David Chute.
Actors & Directors
- Elvis Tsui
- Wai Lam
- Ma Wu
- Billy Chan
- Lap-Man Sin
- Shun Lau
Run time: 90 min.
Price: $9.95
Review All Men Are Brothers - Blood of the Leopard / Tai Seng:An all-but-incoherent sequel to (and completion of) trendsetting martial arts director Chang Cheh's Water Margin adaptation of Seven Blows of the Dragon. The plot was so familiar to Eastern audiences that it's barely sketched in. Most of the picture is just fighting, Robin Hood-style daring-do staged and shot in the standard slapdash style of 1970s kung fu. China's emperor enlists the Liang Shan Po outlaws in a struggle against the traitorous lord Fang Lau. Seven heroes, complete with cool nicknames (David Chaing is Yen Ching, "The Graceful One") are assigned to infiltrate Lau's impregnable, water-guarded fortress, and several of these paragons get to die staunchly in rivers of blood. Ti Lung, who costarred in John Woo's The Killer almost 15 years later, fights minus an arm, before gallantly expiring. (The broadcast TV version, while nominally uncut, switches to black-and-white during the exsanguinate scenes. ) -David Chute.
Actors & Directors
- Fist of Legend 2-Iron Bodyguar
List Price: $14.95
Price: $29.94
Review Fist of Legend 2: Iron Bodyguards (Sub Sp) / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Chung-yueh Yun
- Hung Tsai
- Jen Chieh Chang
- Kuan-Chun Chi
- Ching Cheng (II)
- Hou Tao Hsiao
List Price: $9.95
Price: $59.99
Review Iron Neck Li / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Sheng Fu
- Yi Min Lee
- Cheh Chang
- David Chiang
- Philip Kwok
- Kuan-Chun Chi
List Price: $19.98
Price: $19.95
Review Magnificent Wanderers / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
- Wah Yuen
Run time: 90 min.
Price: $9.97
Review Mandarin Magician / Crash Cinema Media:
Release date: 2000-02-08
List Price: $9.98
Price: $19.96
Review Eighteen Bronzemen 3 (Sub Ep) / Ground Zero:
Release date: 2000-06-13
Run time: 90 min.
List Price: $9.98
Price: $34.95
Review Wutang Matrix (Sub Ep) / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Keith Lee (III)
- Maple Lin
- Jimmy Tseng
- Paul Chan (III)
- Jerry Young (IV)
- Wang Yung Ling
- John Bun
Price: $12.98
Review Firefist of Incredible Dragon / Epi:
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Ninja Dragon (Dub), Black Mask 2: City of Masks (Spanish), Massive (Dub), Dragons Forever, Fight Among the Supers (Sub Sp), Drunken Arts & Crippled Fist, Avenging Eagle (Sp), Jackie Chan's Gorgeous (1999) (Spanish) (Sub), Tiger & Crane Fist, The Ninja Dragon, Legend of the Drunken Master, Enter the Fat Dragon, All Men Are Brothers - Blood of the Leopard, Fist of Legend 2: Iron Bodyguards (Sub Sp), Iron Neck Li, Magnificent Wanderers, Mandarin Magician, Eighteen Bronzemen 3 (Sub Ep), Wutang Matrix (Sub Ep), Firefist of Incredible DragonTop headlines: Technology Review: 2007 Ford Expedition: Ford's full-size SUV is big on conveniences and standard features. ›07:00 19 Oct, Fri Antarctic ice breaking up even in winter: New satellite images show that an Antarctic ice shelf continues to disintegrate, and even more surprising is that it's happening during the Antarctic winter. ›17:28 11 Jul, Fri EPA knocks $900,000 off value of a life: It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. 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