"Actor: Li De Yin"

• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £5.22   |  Saving you £16.03 (404.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Ang Lee’s return to Chinese cinema is an action packed and critically acclaimed epic tale of ancient China.

• The Charge of the Light Brigade | DVD | (18/07/2017) from £18.20   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• City Of Lost Souls | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £12.67   |  Saving you £5.31 (54.86%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A stylised and violent thriller, prolific director Miike Takashi's The City Of Lost Souls (2000) is set in the ganglands of Tokyo and pays homage to Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and, in a daft, animated cockfighting sequence, The Matrix. Mario (Teah) is the Japanese-Brazilian gunslinger fresh out jail who, in a hilariously audacious action sequence, hijacks a helicopter to save his Chinese girlfriend Kei (Michelle Reis) from deportation. He must then secure 18 million yen to secure fake passports for both of them to make a new life for themselves in Australia. In a misconceived operation, Mario arrives at the lair of the intriguing Ko, Kei's ex-boyfriend--a self-assured, effeminate young exchange student--who is somehow head of a vicious gang of Triads. He is on the point of buying a consignment of cocaine from decadent, cold-blooded Yakuza gangster Fushimi when Mario's arrival triggers a shootout, with Mario escaping with the wrong suitcase. Now, in time-honoured True Romancefashion, Mario and Kei are on the run from the mob. Although visually tricksy with some strong set-pieces, The City of Lost Souls is rather hazy when it comes to story and characterisation. We get little sense of the runaway couple as people. A young blind girl is introduced into the tale and there are romantic moments between Mario and Kei but these feel like sugary palliatives to the bloodshed rather than touching moments. Better perhaps to check out Takashi's Audition, a brilliantly gruesome satire on male Japanese attitudes towards womanhood. This is a flashier, faster but less artistically satisfying affair. On the DVD: The City of Lost Souls is presented in video aspect ratio 1.85:1, with reasonable clarity and sharpness. However, the English subtitles are a little pidgin and slapdash in places, none of which improves the main special feature, a rather dull and vague interview with director Takashi. --David Stubbs

• Dragon From Russia | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £17.97   |  Saving you £-7.98 (-79.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on the Legend of Crying Freeman Dragon from Russia is a spectacular visually flamboyant 'Manga in motion' concept adventure from the director of 'Naked Killer'. An invincible killer the Crying Freeman is the most skilled assassin of the Secret Chinese Society 'The 108 Dragons'. Once an ordinary artist with a passion for life and love he was kidnapped by the society's leader the Dragon Master and trained in the deadly arts of the sect. His memory erased he has no recol

• Born To Defend | DVD | (22/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It is 1945 and the war has just ended in China. A discharged soldier Jet comes to Tsing Tao to stay with Cheung a rickshaw puller and narrowly misses being hurt by a US naval officer Hans when he comes to a local's aid. Soon after Jet is challenged to fight and Bailey swears revenge. Following this Bailey and Na a local bar girl are dumped out of Cheung's rickshaw because of their fighting Bailey then badly beats and hospitalizes Cheung. Han challenges Jet to a fight but the fight spreads into the crowd and leads to a riot. In the commotion Jet is injured by Hans and is taken home to recover. After discovering that Na is Cheung's daughter Jet tries to reunite them but this ends in tragedy. Seeking revenge Jet is arrested but he escapes from prison and sets up the American soldiers for a final showdown in the factory!!!

• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon -- Superbit | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £5.96   |  Saving you £7.03 (117.95%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is so many things: an historical epic on a grand scale, an Asian martial-arts flick with both great effects and fantastic fighting (choreographed by The Matrix's guru Yuen Wo Ping), a story of magic, revenge and power played with a posse of star-crossed lovers thrown in for good measure. Set during the Qing dynasty (the late 19th century), the film follows the fortunes of righteous warriors Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien (Asian superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, respectively) whose love for one another has lain too long unspoken. When Li Mu Bai's legendary sword Green Destiny is stolen by wilful aristocrat's daughter Jen (exquisite newcomer Zhang Ziyi), who has been trained in the way of the gangster by Li Mu Bai's arch-rival Jade Fox, the warriors must fight to recover the mystical blade. The plot takes us all across China, from dens of iniquity and sumptuous palaces to the stark plains of the Western desert. Characters chase each other up walls and across roof and treetops to breathtaking effect, and Tan Dun's haunting, Oscar-winning East-West inflected score. Directed by Taiwanese-born Ang Lee and co-written by his longtime collaborator American James Schamus, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon joins the ranks of the team's slate of high-quality, genre-spanning literary adaptations. Although it superficially seems like a return to Ang's Asian roots, there's a clear throughline connecting this with their earlier, Western films given the thematic focus on propriety and family honour (Sense and Sensibility), repressed emotions (The Ice Storm) and divided loyalties in a time of war (Ride with the Devil). Nonetheless, a film this good needs no prior acquaintance with the director's oeuvre; it stands on its own. The only people who might be dismissive of it are jaded chop-socky fans who will probably feel bored with all the romance. Everyone else will love it. --Leslie Felperin On the DVD: As might be expected this superb anamorphic widescreen version of the original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio presents Peter Pau's spellbinding cinematography in its full glory; the same goes for the Dolby 5.1 audio track that showcases Tan Dun's haunting score. Annoyingly, however, the default language option is the dubbed English soundtrack, which means you have to select the original Mandarin version before playing. The extra features are good but not exceptional, with an obligatory "making-of" documentary and commentary from Ang Lee and James Schamus being the best options: the director and producer/cowriter chat amiably and in some detail about their martial arts version of Sense and Sensibility. But it's the breathtaking delight of the seeing the movie in such quality that really counts, and this disc does not disappoint. --Mark Walker

• T'ai Chi - A Practical Learning Guide | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £13.42   |  Saving you £2.57 (16.10%)   |  RRP £15.99

  T'ai-Chi has been used for thousands of years to promote balance health harmony and peace in everyday life. T'ai-Chi is also an ancient system of self defense which uses graceful controlled movements to teach a flexible and yeilding response to confrontation. In this DVD Professor Li De Yin instructs the home student by taking them through the complete form step by step and demonstrating the applications of the postures. Professor Li De Yin is the world's highest authority on the Chinese twenty four step short form T'ai-Chi