"Actor: Ying Huang"

• 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.

• Bruce Lee - The Master Collection | DVD | (27/11/2017) from £66.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Collection of action films starring martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. In 'The Big Boss' (1971) Lee stars as immigrant worker Cheng Chao-an who takes a job with his cousins in an ice factory and discovers all manner of suspicious activities. When he begins to investigate a series of disappearances - the latest of which has seen his own cousin go missing - he can't help but display his formidable martial arts skills. Taking on one opponent after another, Cheng will not stop until he has fought his way to the truth and the inevitable confrontation with the man known only as The Big Boss (Han Ying Chieh). In 'Fist of Fury' (1972) Lee stars as martial arts student Chen Zhen whose mentor dies in suspicious circumstances. Whilst he is mourning his old friend, members of a rival school arrive and taunt Chen and his friends, who do not react at first. Chen later humiliates his adversaries by beating every single one of them, but this causes bloody repercussions and begins to uncover the real reasons behind his master's death. In 'The Way of the Dragon' (1973) Lee stars as martial arts expert Tang Lung who travels to Rome to protect a family friend's restaurant from a powerful Mafia man. A violent altercation between Tang and the mobster's heavies persuades the gang boss to call for reinforcements, an American martial arts assassin (Chuck Norris), who challenges Tang to a fight to the death within the walls of the Colosseum. In 'Enter the Dragon' (1973) Lee plays the role of a secret agent who is sent to infiltrate a martial arts tournament presided over by a one-handed supervillain. His mission: to destroy the villain's opium-smuggling racket. Finally, in 'Game of Death' (1978) a successful martial artist who refuses to join a crime syndicate has a contract to kill put out with his name on it. The assassination attempt fails but his death is broadcast to the world to throw the criminals off his trail. Unfortunately, the hoods do not believe the stories and make him face a series of adversaries in one-to-one fights to save the life of his girlfriend (Colleen Camp).

• Mr Vampire | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mr Vampire is a multi -leveled kaleidoscopic action adventure which combines the supernatural elements of black comedy and award-winning action in one of the most successful Hong Kong pictures ever made. Now re-mastered enjoy the physical brilliance of leading-man Chin Siu-ho the stunning art design of Lam Sai-kan and the innovative direction of Ricky Lau. This flamboyant and thoroughly entertaining fable of the Chinese supernatural was so successful it spawned an entire sub-genre

• Puccini: Madame Butterfly -- 1995 film version | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £23.82   |  Saving you £-3.83 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman's disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn of the century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set; airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skilfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton. Purists may prefer a more traditionally robust, stage-bound Butterfly, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually heartbreaking interpretation. Chinese soprano Ying Huang doesn't rock the rafters with her vocal power; hers is a tender, delicately observed performance. Tenor Richard Troxton's self-seeking Pinkerton is well sung. Overall, this is a haunting cinematic treatment of an enduringly popular opera. On the DVD: Madame Butterfly is presented in a letterbox widescreen format (enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions). The Dolby Digital surround soundtrack engulfs the listener in some of Puccini's most memorable tunes, stringing you out and leaving you emotionally spent. The main special feature is a charming portrait of Ying Huan, providing interesting insights into how the film was made and how she won the role. --Piers Ford

• Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £13.87   |  Saving you £-6.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Since bursting onto the martial arts film scene in 1973 Jackie Chan has become one of the world's most popular stars. His movies - in which he acts performs his own stunts for and often directs - have earned millions at the box office. In Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin he plays Hsu Yin Fung a young warrior falsely accused of killing the Shaolin Masters after they developed a new martial arts technique called Snake and Crane at Hua Mountain. After Hsu's fellow warriors ostracize him he tries to clear his name. To do this he receives aid from two women who are in love with him. After one of the brave ladies is killed and the other warriors realize that Hsu wasn't responsible for the murders they join him for a trip to the Shaolin Temple to find Master Tse Kung. And it's there that they find the real killer. In the film's thrilling climax Hsu having secretly mastered the deadly martial arts style of Snake and Crane faces the murderer one-on-one.

• 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

• Killer Of Snake, Fox Of Shaolin | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Martial arts movie starring the charismatic Carter Wong. A film featuring some of the most daring and action-packed examples of Shaolin kung fu fighting with spectacular acting and locations...

• Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Since bursting onto the martial arts film scene in 1973 Jackie Chan has become one of the world's most popular stars. His movies - in which he acts performs his own stunts for and often directs - have earned millions at the box office. In Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin he plays Hsu Yin Fung a young warrior falsely accused of killing the Shaolin Masters after they developed a new martial arts technique called Snake and Crane at Hua Mountain. After Hsu's fellow warriors ostracize him he tries to clear his name. To do this he receives aid from two women who are in love with him. After one of the brave ladies is killed and the other warriors realize that Hsu wasn't responsible for the murders they join him for a trip to the Shaolin Temple to find Master Tse Kung. And it's there that they find the real killer. In the film's thrilling climax Hsu having secretly mastered the deadly martial arts style of Snake and Crane faces the murderer one-on-one.