"Actor: Yao Lin Chen"

• Legend Of A Fighter | DVD | (05/03/2001) from £13.73   |  Saving you £6.26 (45.59%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the historically based Kung fu drama Legend of a Fighter director Yuen Woo Ping offers his version of the early life of martial artist Fok Yuen Gap (played by Leung Kar Yan). Set at the beginning of the 20th century, Fok is considered too weak to learn the family Kung fu style. Still, as his father can break eggs by growling, he probably considers most people weak. The teenager forms a bond with his humane Japanese tutor (Kurata Yusuaki), who secretly teaches martial arts. The story builds to a moving climax as 12 years later pupil and now ageing master are forced by honour into a deadly duel. The opening and closing acts are by far the strongest, the plentiful fight scenes being balanced by gentle humour and emotions torn between friendship and duty. Both lead actors are excellent, with Yusuaki being particularly fine as the noble warrior-teacher. The middle, a series of disconnected tableaux in which Fok establishes his stature as a Kung fu expert, goes on much too long to sustain interest. Nevertheless the story of Fok Yuen Gap, a genuine Chinese hero who was also the inspiration for Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (1972), is fine and Woo Ping delivers the one-on-one Kung fu action with the touch of a master.On the DVD: The 1.77:1 image doesn't benefit at all from its anamorphic enhancement, the entire film being presented slightly out of focus so that by the end eyes are likely to be aching. The opening 4:3 Academy ratio archive footage has been distorted to 1.77:1, while the original trailer shows Legend of a Fighter was shot in an extremely wide format--possibly the Hong Kong equivalent of early 2.66:1 CinemaScope, or even 2.74:1 Techniscope--which means that large amounts of the original image are missing. This is very obvious as characters constantly vanish off the sides of the screen or are cropped in half. Additionally, and again compared to the crisp, sharp trailer, colours are washed out, while the mono sound distorts whenever the music gets loud. The film is available in Mandarin with optional English subtitles, or in an awful English dub littered with inappropriate obscene language. There is a nine-minute interview with Leung Kar Yan, and a 23-minute interview with Yuen Woo Ping, which is a slightly longer version of the conversation presented on the Magnificent Butcher DVD: it's notable how he expresses his love of science fiction and indicates he would like to make a SF Kung-fu movie, something he achieved with The Matrix (1999). There is a Hong Kong Legends' promo for the film, together with seven further new trailers. The photo gallery is pointless, simply cropping some shots even further than the main presentation. --Gary S Dalkin

• Snake In The Monkey's Shadow | DVD | (17/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  In this suspense drama martial arts expert John Chang demonstrates many of the most deadly fighting techniques ever developed--and a young kung fu student melds monkey and drunken fists to totally dominate two snake masters with murder on their minds!

• Ten Tigers Of Shaolin | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Kung Fu stars Bruce Liang and Jason Pai Piao lead a group of highly skilled fighters known as the Ten Tigers - real life heroes who roamed China during the last century.

• Death Duel Of Kung Fu | DVD | (04/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  The stars of SECRET RIVALS reunite in this most action packed of films. Wong Tao and John Liu play a pair of Ming patriots who are trying to stop the Ching Army from crossing the Formosa Straits and attacking the remnants of the Ming troops residing in Formosa (Taiwan). Their plight is made more hazardous as news of their presence spreads to the capital. What follows is nearly an hour of superb fight choreography set against the beautiful backdrop of South Korea.