DVD/Blu-ray Reviews

New Fist of Fury could have been so much better.  Sure, it was the film that began to launch its star, Jackie Chan, into the martial arts stratosphere but it’s not nearly as smooth sailing as the original film, made 5 years earlier, by the same director,  Lo Wei, who was convinced Jackie was the  ...

Gloriously over-the-top and wonderfully directed by Sun Chung, Human Lanterns is what happens when the Shaw Brothers merge their particular brand of martial arts with the American slasher . . . and this violent result is as disturbing as it sounds. It helps when the leading character is psychotic, you  ...

In which Shaw Brothers enters the Ninja dome and delivers one hell of a knockout punch when it comes to over-the-to-top clenched-teeth martial arts mayhem! Directed by Chang Cheh and featuring solid performances from Cheng Tien-Chi and  Lo Meng, Five Element Ninjas (also known as  ...

Revenge, thy name is Sammo Hung!n The Iron-Fisted Monk is some good ol’ kung-fu delivered with all the grit and the glory one would expect from its talented cast.  Produced by Raymond Chow (who was still licking the wounds made by Bruce Lee’s death) and made when Hong Kong cinema  ...

In which the cave of the Golden Snake is introduced! The Sword Stained With Royal Blood is a certifiable classic of Kung-Fu madness.  It’s an adventure with a strong narrative which sees Yuan Cheng-chih (Phillip Kwok) whisked away from tragedy and raised right so that he might avoid the same fate as his  ...

Revenge, thy name is Sammo Hung!n The Iron-Fisted Monk is some good ol’ kung-fu delivered with all the grit and the glory one would expect from its talented cast.  Produced by Raymond Chow (who was still licking the wounds made by Bruce Lee’s death) and made when Hong Kong cinema  ...

It’s East meets WestERN when Sammo Hung comes to town! With dynamic fight sequences throughout and a genuine goofiness in its DNA, Millionaires’ Express, written and directed by Sammy Hung, continues to deliver the comedic good from station to station.  It looks absolutely beautiful ...

Let the blood flow freely! And boy does it ever in Masked Avengers, a martial arts bonanza which features blood drinking, satan worshiping, and a whole lot of bloody trident action!  Not for the faint of heart, Masked Avengers, once again directed by Chang Cheh, features three of the “venoms” in some  ...

In which Philip Kwok has to wear one of the most ridiculous-looking (possibly) knitted caps throughout the entire film!  Whatever it is, it’s horrible. House of Traps might be for “Venom” completists only.  Oh, sure, if you can follow the twisting plot you’ll get side-switching ...

In which Angela Miao, Whang Ing-Sik and Sammo Hung (in the roles of Yu Ying, Kao and Fan), coming from a small Korean school of Martial Arts, all take turns breaking boards and cracking skulls with their Japanese competitors!  And all they wanted was to start a school of their own! ...

Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers first major competitor for Martial Arts action, hit it big when they landed Bruce Lee in The Big Boss.  Could they strike again with a female leading lady, Angela Mao Ying? Yes.  Yes, they could.  It helped when director Huang Feng (The Shaolin Plot) jumped ship ...

It’s the return of the supernatural to Shaw Brothers!  Well, sort of, as this wuxia extravaganza turns relatively spooky really quick-like thanks to two ornamental figures - one ghoul in red robes (Yuen Wah) and another in white (Chan Man-Na) - haunting a young swordsman (Long Fei) and foretelling of his fiance's  ...

By 1980, it was time for Shaw Brothers to start experimenting with their subject matter.  The straight-up action movies seemed to be slightly out-of-step with what audiences wanted (or at least director Chang Cheh was running out of gas as one of the most overworked directors for the studio), so the  ...

There’s a wonderfully on-point scene in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a co-production between Hammer Studios and Shaw Brothers, in which Hsi Ching (David Chiang) and his seven kung fu-trained siblings, including the only sister, Mei Kwei (Shih Szu), hop into the camera’s frame as they display their  ...

In which the killer kung fu acrobatics turn super silly! Directed by Chen Chi-Hwa (Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin) and starring a young Jackie Chan (who had complete creative control over the project), Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu is probably not going to be for every one out there.  Its comedy is Looney Tunes inspired and  ...