With John Woo having transformed himself into a blockbuster hack for hire, and Jackie Chan cracking jokes in no-brainer films like Rush Hour, it might be worth remembering how both got their kick-start in Hollywood: through the stripped-down mayhem of the Hong Kong action flick, of which Black Mask is very possibly the greatest example of recent times. Easy-going librarian (no, we're not making this up) Michael (Jet Li, now successfully carving out a career in the US himself in such films as Lethal Weapon 4) has a secret. Prior to securing his job among the dusty hardbacks, Michael was a "701", a genetically engineered superman created by the authorities to help fight crime. The trouble is, the rest of his old compadres have now gone mad, and are busy taking over the local crime and drug scenes. Cue, of course, some explosions, some gunplay and an awful lot of exquisitely choreographed fight scenes, which is where Li, notwithstanding the occasional crafty one-liner, does what he does: cracking heads like some kind of intensely hard ballerina. As he pirouettes effortlessly atop a series of girders on a downtown building site, it's hard not to feel a quiet sense of awe--even among viewers for whom an ability to render one's enemies unconscious with one's feet isn't the first thing we look for in a movie star. Brutal, minimalist and expertly made, Black Mask is a masterpiece of the genre. --Danny Leigh
Once upon a time in China & America' is one of the biggest budget Hong Kong movies of all time taking over million at the box office and combines the talents of Director Sammo Hung and Producer Tsui Hark together with a heady mix of gunplay and Kung Fu action with Jet Li proving that the fastest guns in the West are no match for the fastest hands in the East. Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) together with his fiancee (Rosamund Kwan) and devoted sidekick Seven (Yueng Pan Pan) find themselves in the Wild West in search of new horizons. However an early confrontation with Native American Indians renders Jet unconcious and parted from his group. When he comes to he finds he has lost his memory but the one thing that is still clear in his mind is the ability to fight with lightening speed. The warriors of the tribe are amazed at his unique abilities and offer him respect and friendship. Unable to communicate he manages through sign language to persuade them to help him find his true identity leading to countless action packed encounters on his path to be reunited with his friends.
Kung Fu superstar Chan Hui Man takes on the might of the dreaded Silver Hermit in the hope of avenging the death of his father... Great fight sequences from Hong Kong's original bad boy Chan Hui Man plus the might of Kam Kong make this ultra-rare martial arts gem a must!
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