"Actor: Sai Kit Yung"

• Hong Kong 1941 | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £21.29   |  Saving you £-1.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hong Kong 1941 is a film from the former Crown Colony uniquely focusing on the Japanese occupation during the Second World War. Starring Chow Yun-Fat, shortly before A Better Tomorrow (1986) made him a superstar, this is a war drama far removed from the usual action fare expected from Hong Kong cinema. The English title deliberately evokes Spielberg's 1941, though the content anticipates the same director's Empire of the Sun, even to the extent that the hymn "Suo Gan" is used in both movies. The story of two friends in love with the same woman may call to mind Pearl Harbor, though this comparatively low-budget feature offers an infinitely more convincing account of the horrors of war than Michael Bay's glossy big-budget epic, with some of the most harrowing sequences since The Deer Hunter. The film does not shy away from the moral complexities of collaboration with the enemy, and likewise presents the main characters as fully three-dimensional. Chow Yun-Fat inevitably dominates (he won a Golden Horse award for his performance), yet Cecilia Yip Tong makes a strong impression as the heroine whose terminal illness does not result in the expected sentimental clichés. Alex Man is memorable as the third corner of the triangle, but what makes Hong Kong 1941 genuinely notable is its emotionally charged evocation of WWII from a rarely seen perspective. On the DVD: Hong Kong 1941 is presented in an anamorphically enhanced transfer at 1.77:1, cropping just a little of the original Hong Kong Critics Award-winning cinematography. The picture is excellent, with no blemishes, fine detail, rich colours and barely a hint of grain. The sound is offered in stereo in the original Cantonese, with optional English subtitles, or in a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix and dubbed into English. Both tracks have occasional distortion on the music. The original version preserves the performances much better, though some of the subtitles are wildly inaccurate--references to living in the 21st century and to Japanese jet planes--while the dubbed track offers better than average voice acting but with many of the cultural references Westernised. The multi-channel remix adds only discrete ambient effects and is barely noticeable. The main special features are an information-packed commentary by Hong Kong movie expert Bay Logan, and two interviews. Chow Yun-Fat speaks rather nervously in English for 12 minutes on a variety of topics, concentrating on his work with John Woo. The interview with Cecilia Yip Tong, specific to Hong Kong 1941, is in Cantonese with English subtitles, runs 27 minutes and is anamorphically enhanced with excellent image quality. Also included is a routine photo gallery, the original theatrical trailer and 12 Hong Kong Legends DVD trailers. --Gary S Dalkin

• Evil Instinct | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £16.58   |  Saving you £-11.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Steamy sex thriller 'Evil Instinct' is one of Hong Kong's most successful Category III movies ever. The most watched hotel pay-per-view film in Asia as well as a substantial box office smash it combines beautiful women and hot action with a powerful and intriguing story. Cop Sam Hui gets picked up by two gorgeous women in a bar and ends up having an intense sexual encounter with one. They are interrupted by a phone call from the scene of a grisly murder. The crime is just one of a series and the investigation leads Sam to an Insurance Company where the two girls work. Penny (Carrie Ng) fascinates him even when he discovers that the girls are selling sex in return for favours. Meanwhile Wendy (Pang Dan one of Cat III's hottest new stars) has set out to steal Penny's clients by offering them kinky sex. Penny starts to go off the rails as her clients defect to Wendy and Sam finds out she is addicted to a weird snake serum drug. When he discovers that all the murder victims have a snake DNA in their blood his suspicions turn to the object of his sexual obsession - but it seems she has the perfect alibi... Both stunning girls wear a succession of skin tight S/M outfits as they turn up the heat in this scorching thriller which pays homage to Basic Instinct - but with hotter women and far more style.