The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon.
The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon.
For people who've discovered Jackie Chan through his American hit Rush Hour and want to learn what his Hong Kong movies are like, Project A is an excellent place to start. Chan plays a sailor in 19th-century Hong Kong; pirates have been terrorizing the seas for months and all efforts to combat them have been sabotaged by the corrupt chief of police and a criminal gang, who are in cahoots with the pirates. But the plot is hardly the point--a Jackie Chan movie is about astonishingly acrobatic action sequences and breathtaking stunts, and Project A has plenty. Of particular interest is a bicycle chase that is more suspenseful than any car chase you've ever seen. Chan is joined by Sammo Hung (star of the US TV series Martial Law) as a shifty con man who comes through when the chips are down. Project A also features Yuen Biao, a frequent co-star in Chan's movies, who's yet another astounding martial artist. But what separates Jackie Chan movies from other kung fu flicks is his sense of humour; every fight scene is punctuated by something--a clever use of a prop or sudden reversal of your expectations--that will make you bark with laughter. Sometimes it's just so exquisitely choreographed that the entire movie seems to float on a cloud of giddy delight. Jackie Chan is often compared to the classic silent comedians for his grace and timing--he lives up to it. --Bret Fetzer
Director Wong Kar-Wai goes focuses on the imagination of a sci-fi writer in this avant garde offering.
Equal parts martial arts movie futuristic prison picture and sci-fi monster flick 'The Story Of Ricky' is set in an alternative universe similar to our own. After killing the drug dealer responsible for his girlfriend's death Ricky (Siu-Wong Fan) finds himself banged up in a prison ruled by a corrupt warden and a group of super-mercenaries known as the Gang of Four. Trained in an especially deadly form of martial arts and possessing super-human strength making him virtually indest
Explosive prequel to last year's Hong Kong hit about an undercover cop and triad mole in the police force.
Chungking Express tells two stories loosely connected by a Hong Kong snack bar. In one, a cop who's been recently dumped by his girlfriend becomes obsessed with the expiry dates on cans of pineapple; he's constantly distracted as he tries to track down a drug dealer in a blonde wig (played by Brigitte Lin, best known from Swordsman II and The Bride with White Hair). Meanwhile, another cop who's recently been dumped by his girlfriend (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, from John Woo's Hard-Boiled and A Bullet in the Head) mopes around his apartment, talking to his sponge and other domestic objects. He catches the eye of a shop girl (Hong Kong pop star Faye Wang) who secretly breaks in and cleans his apartment. If you're beginning to suspect that neither of these stories has a conventional plot, you're correct. What Chungking Express does have is loads of energy and a gorgeous visual style that never gets in the way of engaging with the charming characters. The film was shot on the fly by hip director Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together, Ashes of Time), using only available lighting and found locations. The movie's loose, improvisational feel is closer to Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless than any recent film--and that's high praise. Quirky, funny, and extremely engaging, Chungking Express manages to be experimental and completely accessible at the same time. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Ning Tsai-Shen a humble tax collector arrives in a small town to carry out his work. Unsurprisingly no-one is willing to give him shelter for the night so he ends up spending the night in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There he meets Taoist Swordsman Yen Che-Hsia who warns him to stay out of trouble and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately Hsiao-Tsing is a ghost bound for all eternity by a hideous tree spirit...
Inspector Yuen nicknamed 'Tequila' is a courageous cop who shoots from both hips never reloads and never misses. A tough guy with a soft spot and infinite charm Tequila is the only man for the job of cleaning up the city and when his partner is killed in a spectacular shoot-out he decides to take the investigation into his own lethal hands. With a body count well into three figures more firepower than you can shake an Uzi at stylised adrenalin-pumping action sequences which
For people who've discovered Jackie Chan through his American hit Rush Hour and want to learn what his Hong Kong movies are like, Project A is an excellent place to start. Chan plays a sailor in 19th-century Hong Kong; pirates have been terrorizing the seas for months and all efforts to combat them have been sabotaged by the corrupt chief of police and a criminal gang, who are in cahoots with the pirates. But the plot is hardly the point--a Jackie Chan movie is about astonishingly acrobatic action sequences and breathtaking stunts, and Project A has plenty. Of particular interest is a bicycle chase that is more suspenseful than any car chase you've ever seen. Chan is joined by Sammo Hung (star of the US TV series Martial Law) as a shifty con man who comes through when the chips are down. Project A also features Yuen Biao, a frequent co-star in Chan's movies, who's yet another astounding martial artist. But what separates Jackie Chan movies from other kung fu flicks is his sense of humour; every fight scene is punctuated by something--a clever use of a prop or sudden reversal of your expectations--that will make you bark with laughter. Sometimes it's just so exquisitely choreographed that the entire movie seems to float on a cloud of giddy delight. Jackie Chan is often compared to the classic silent comedians for his grace and timing--he lives up to it. --Bret Fetzer
Fate can bring us together; so can sin! Hong Kong's Mongkok district one of the most densely populated places on earth is a hotbed of illicit business separated into turfs by Triad bosses. Two such bosses come to a deadly conflict when the son of one is killed in a car crash apparently the fault of the other. A hitman is hired to take out the driver and the gang lord held responsible but the assassin is inexperienced farm hand Lai Fu (Daniel Wu) a newcomer to Hong
Masterful Hong Kong action director John Woo (The Killer, Face/Off) turns in this exciting and pyrotechnic tale of warring gangsters and shifting loyalties. Chow Yun-Fat (The Replacement Killers) plays a take-no-prisoners cop on the trail of the Triad, the Hong Kong Mafia, when his partner is killed during a gun battle. His guilt propels him into an all-out war against the gang, including an up-and-coming soldier in the mob (Tony Leung) who turns out to be an undercover cop. The two men must come to terms with their allegiance to the force and their loyalty to each other as they try to take down the gangsters. A stunning feast of hyperbolic action sequences (including a climactic sequence in an entire hospital taken hostage), Hard Boiled is a rare treat for fans of the action genre, with sequences as thrilling and intense as any ever committed to film. --Robert Lane
Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh - Enough said! You only need mention the names of these two superstars in relation to a Hong Kong movie and you know you're dealing with a quality production. Such is the adrenaline-charged swordplay fantasy BUTTERFLY & SWORD (18) - a hugely impressive showcase for the dazzling skills of both - which also stars Hard Boiled's Tony Leung. Directed by Chin Siu-Tung (who choreographed Jet Li in Swordsman II) this breathtaking spectacle explodes into action f
2046 continues the story of Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung - Hero) from Wong Kar-Wai's previous film In The Mood for Love a few years after his ephemeral affair with Maggie Cheung's Su Li-zhen. Set in late-1960's Hong Kong Chow is now an out of work journalist and pulp fiction writer living in a cheap hotel. Bruised and battered by love he pursues a playboy lifestyle of zero commitment and one-night stands. He develops a passion for a beautiful call girl (Zi Yi Zhang - House Of The Flying Daggers) enjoys a breezy summer with the hotel manager's eldest daughter (Faye Wong) and happens across the path of a professional gambler (Gong Li) who he met in Singapore some years before. In the meantime Chow works on a science fiction novel about a mysterious hi-tech train that transports people to the year 2046 to reclaim their lost memories.
On remote Isla Nuba entrepreneur John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has built the ultimate theme-park, populated by genetically engineered dinosaurs painstakingly reconstructed from DNA extracted from prehistoric amber... and, of course, frogs! Adapted from Michael Crichton's novels, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park blockbusters became a cultural and commercial phenomenon thanks in part to the enduring appeal of all things prehistoric. But the films' extraordinarily realistic digital dinosaurs also showcased the spectacular computer-generated effects that have since become ubiquitous in Hollywood filmmaking. Indeed, in the years since 1993 it is debatable whether any films have revolutionised special effects to such an extent, and this DVD box set offers the perfect opportunity to relive both movies' visual and aural splendour (the original film was also the first to be released with a DTS soundtrack). Given their rather insipid human prey (including Dickie Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum) there is little doubt that the dinosaurs are the real stars, from the benign majesty of the towering brachiosaurus to the reptilian menace of the velociraptors. Most memorable of all is the T-rex, displaying a spine-chilling combination of physical ferocity and child-like bewilderment in the face of its reincarnation in the modern world. While Jurassic Park still retains a unique power and a seminal place in film history, Spielberg's The Lost World sequel exceeds its predecessor in almost every respect: the digital dinos are more populous, faster and meaner, the set-pieces have more bravura, and the special effects raise the benchmark even higher in blending CGI and live action spectacle. Overall, the first film's sense of awe and almost stately contemplation of its own visual splendour are replaced with a more visceral style and darker tone, as the raptors and rexes attack with a predatory ferociousness more reminiscent of Aliens than Godzilla. Highlights include the T-rexes' cliff-top assault on a trailer van, the trails of attacking raptors as they move silently through a field of tall grass, and the safari-style dinosaur round-up by the marauding hunters, led by a grizzled Pete Postlethwaite. --Steve Napleton
In The Mood For Love (2 Disc Edition Within The Set): Hong Kong 1962. Chow (Tony Leung) is a junior newspaper editor with an elusive wife. His new neighbour Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) is a secretary whose husband seems to spend all his time on business trips. They become friends making the lonely evenings more bearable. As their relationship develops they make a discovery that changes their lives forever... In this sumptuous exploration of desire internationally acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai creates a world of sensuality and longing that will leave you breathless. 'In the Mood for Love' has seduced audiences and critics alike winning awards at Cannes 2000 for best actor cinematography and editing. As Tears Go By: Low-level triad ""big brother"" Wah (Andy Lau) has a hot-tempered ""little brother"" Fly (Jacky Cheung) who can't keep out of trouble and consequently is in constant need of being bailed out by his protector. Wah is super cool but lacks the ambition to rise in the ranks of the triad societies and once he meets his cousin (Maggie Cheung) and falls in love with her he decides he wants to leave ""the life"". But it turns out that he has to bail out Fly one more time. And this time Fly may have gone too far.... Days Of Being Wild: Hong Kong 1960. In a sweltering hot summer York (Leslie Cheung) an amoral disillusioned and cruel young man is kept in luxury by his foster mother a retired courtesan who gives him everything but the one thing he needs to know; the identity of his natural mother. A self-obsessed man desperately seeking his true identity York plays carelessly with his lovers a lonely submissive bargirl (Maggie Cheung) and a beautiful club hostess/dancer (Carina Lau) and his friends before leaving them all for Taiwan in search of the truth that has been denied and may ultimately destroy him...
In the last Big Boss Cheng Chao-On was arrested after killing Hsiao Mi ""The Big Boss"". In this sequel his brother Cheng Chao-Chun visits his brother in Thailand. He then finds a job as an ice factory worker at the same ice factory that his brother worked at. While the previous film never explained why Chao An promised never to fight again it was actually due to the fact that their father was killed in a fight. However the villain in this film is the man who was responsible for th
2046: Opening in the year 2046 in which a man named Tak (Takuya Kimura) attempts to persuade wjw1967 (Faye Wong) to travel back in time with him the film soon shifts to the year 1966 in which Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) a struggling author asks the woman he loves Su Li-Zhen (Gong Li) to sail with him from Singapore to Hong Kong on Christmas Eve. She declines and over the next three years we return to Chow Mo-Wan on December 24 as he finds himself with another woman
Chungking Express tells two stories loosely connected by a Hong Kong snack bar. In one, a cop who's been recently dumped by his girlfriend becomes obsessed with the expiry dates on cans of pineapple; he's constantly distracted as he tries to track down a drug dealer in a blonde wig (played by Brigitte Lin, best known from Swordsman II and The Bride with White Hair). Meanwhile, another cop who's recently been dumped by his girlfriend (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, from John Woo's Hard-Boiled and A Bullet in the Head) mopes around his apartment, talking to his sponge and other domestic objects. He catches the eye of a shop girl (Hong Kong pop star Faye Wang) who secretly breaks in and cleans his apartment. If you're beginning to suspect that neither of these stories has a conventional plot, you're correct. What Chungking Express does have is loads of energy and a gorgeous visual style that never gets in the way of engaging with the charming characters. The film was shot on the fly by hip director Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together, Ashes of Time), using only available lighting and found locations. The movie's loose, improvisational feel is closer to Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless than any recent film--and that's high praise. Quirky, funny, and extremely engaging, Chungking Express manages to be experimental and completely accessible at the same time. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Are you ready to be possessed and believe that ghosts are real? A young woman haunted by fleeting images of ghosts visits a psychologist who tells her that the visions are all in her mind. But when the psychologist starts having the same visions the two begin to unravel a mystery that leads to a forgotten past... This was the final big screen performance from the wonderful Leslie Cheung (1956-2003) who took his own life shortly after the film was released.
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