Produced by and starring Yasuaki Kurata, the spirit of Bloodsport and Kickboxer is very much present as he brings together Hong Kong stars for another stab at utilizing the moment in time where tournament fight flicks was the rage. Never boring and hitting the genre clichés well, why Bloodfight is to be laughed at a little is the fact that all performers are performing in synch sound English and let's just say rhythm is off by a mile. The snappy pace and fun within the production hitting genre content well can't be neglected though and Bloodfight succeeds in a fair manner. Simon Yam plays the young fighter Kurata takes under his wing, Bolo Yeung is the almighty villain while Stuart Smith, Meg Lam, John Ladalski and Ken Boyle also appear.

1974 saw Shaw Brothers teaming up with Hammer Studios which resulted in Shatter and The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires. A bit more obscure is this co-production with Italy that tapped into the notion of combining martial arts with the popular spaghetti Western and paired up Lo Lieh (King Boxer) and Lee Van Cleef (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). Lo Lieh is Wang, dispatched from China to find the the missing fortune of his late uncle. Setting free Dakota (Van Cleef), the man accused of the murder of Wang, the two begin uncovering clues tattooed on the bottoms of women that leads them closer to the hidden wealth. A psychotic, bible quoting gunman is also following their every step...

While not particularly memorable, the novelty of pairing up East and West in this case survives the entire feature. It feels distinctly less Shaw and more Italian though which results in subpar martial arts choreography (a 70s score put on such scenes doesn't help either) but the pair of Lo Lieh/Lee Van Cleef are a fairly fun double act to follow as cultures are shown merging. Especially our Asian star nicely portrays the cunning nature of Wang and is a typical fish out of water character by choice. The many excuses to be very naughty and feature shots of women with their pants down is some kind of genius exploitation thinking as well. Also released as The Stranger And The Gunfighter. Also with Wang Hsieh and Chan Shen.

The Japanese invaded Korea set against a cold and dramatic backdrop is surprisingly well handled in combination with some breathtaking martial arts action. Essentially the invaders have hired one of the Koreans of the town (the main character of Lui) to handle the matter of The Doll Bride Mask who's leading a destructive rebellion against the Japanese. Lui is of course disliked by his own people and family but tries to stand firm under the circumstances. A basic melodrama but one that works fairly well against the gritty nature of the narrative, to boot there's some excellent kicking from the man behind the mask. Acrobatic showcase amidst a basher (with some select moments of bad undercranking) and a surprising end reveal is proof that Blood Of Dragon Peril demands attention all throughout its lean running time.

Tomas Tang’s Filmark distributed the film internationally under the title Blood Of Dragon Peril and re-did the credits so Kim Seon-Gyeong’s credit is now Rocky Man.

Designed to scare the living pants off the superstitious Chinese (the opening caption does well in that regard), Ding Sin-Saai (The Beheaded 1000) directs all three stories contained within The Blood Reincarnation, starting with "The Treasure". Featuring Dean Shek, this quite short scenario strips the narrative down to a minimum and goes for the highest gear possible in the audio- and visual field. The relentlessness of it all is eye catching and atmospheric.

Soon we're into "The Wanton", settling again as per the first story on revenge but with some goofy and darkly comedic twists that manage to work by the time the ending has done its thing.

The center piece "Lau Tin Sok" is the story corresponding to the title of the film and takes a different route. Not only is it the longest of our short stories but also designed to dig into our emotions, hard. A doctor played well by Peter Yang is framed but returns thanks to the titular blood reincarnation to settle what he didn't have time for before his natural life ended. A neat twist by Ding Sin-Saai is inserted and it's a story therefore that takes a potentially predictable main plot to secondary status as well as unexpected places. It helps that the atmosphere is suitably spooky as well as touching, even though the typical broad melodrama is quite ear piercing in the final reel. The Blood Reincarnation ends up overall on a positive note, being a show reel for what director Ding can do and no aspect truly fails. The drama easily beats the terror though.

An ex-con (Norman Tsui) and his private detective friend (Deon Lam) are hired by a wealthy man to investigate his daughters involvement in what is referred to as "evil religion". A huge problem of society and the Hong Kong police at the same time are fighting the battle...

A hilarious presentation of Keith Li's particular Hong Kong society being infused with a youth desire to go into evil religion sets the tone for what merely is an audience pleasing effort. But Li (Centipede Horror) knows a thing or two about pleasing an audience, something that is, as criminal as it may sound, a very valid filmmaking method here. The silly comedy (much featuring Ng Man Tat, dubbed by someone else) is as expected just that, and disgusting at times but seeing Norman Tsui goof off is a little entertainment factor in itself. Tsui is also very much an anti-hero as he gladly mistreats the female lead character of Caca.

Furthermore, Li gives us some worthwhile gritty skirmishes (action was directed by Tsui Siu Ming), nudity and a healthy dose of gore for the hounds out there and frankly, those are the ones seeking out Blood Ritual. It's a fitting tribute to the way Hong Kong films performs the elements well, but not the movie as a whole. If you have that particular frame of mind, you know there is no shame in liking a movie like Blood Ritual.

The old Ocean Shores VHS contained an uncut print of the film while subsequent Laserdisc editions had the nudity toned down.

Cut out of standard gangster movie template with added twist upon twist thinking by Chor Yuen (in a way tracking back to his Shaw Brothers days), Blood Stained Tradewinds somewhat more ambitious eye makes it stand out a little. Attempting large scale mayhem but not John Woo STYLE, melodrama is high as brothers turn against brothers, brothers try to leave the gangster world unsuccessfully but Chor Yuen also stages more honed dramatic moments that while not poignant does come off as more ambitious than needed. Ultimately, it's about the noise and explosions though. With Alex Fong, Waise Lee, Carrie Ng, Ng Man-Tat, Lo Lieh (who has a brief fight scene even in his latter years here) and Stanley Fung in a surprising key role.

Playing it safe by setting 90% of the narrative in flashback, Bloody Beast represents yet another excursion into immoral Category III nastiness of the 90s but it can't really go the atmospheric and thematic heights the likes of Red To Kill did. Lawrence Ng (Center Stage) is the perverted, sexual deviant of the piece, working with a scripted template of old proportions. Ng channels the giddy aspects of Simon Yam in Dr. Lamb but can't reach out due to a rather drab village setting that doesn't make for any distinguished cinema. That drabness includes the various hollow characters that remains a downfall for the proceedings as well. It's also the kind of film where going dopey places with the inept cops is always an option (although the director spare us broad comedy compared to Daughter Of Darkness for instance) as well as exploiting mundane events such as washing for erotica purposes but we'll take it obviously. For those of us after it, Bloody Beast does have a nasty streak that is deeply offending and effective, whenever following Ng on his killing streaks with a hammer and subsequent necrophilia. The latter largely removed by the Hong Kong censors. Ken Tong, Lau Siu-Ming and in a role reversal for this genre, William Ho plays a cop. But yes, a rather dim-witted one who gets an ear chewed off by Ng.

A shot on video and shameless scene for scene rip off of Herman Yau's The Untold Story, Tin Chun brings the same story mix of depiction of the horrific real life crime mixed with the police investigation involving goofy, lazy and incompetent cops. Hugo Ng in Anthony Wong's role does the little he can without much guidance and the whole watered down nature of the horror hurts Bloody Buns as well. With no budget to shoot gore or to replicate even minor moments, this is limp exploitation of exploitation merely and amazingly enough manages to feel longer than Yau's film despite barely featuring any of its good stuff.

To the tones of Europe's "The Final Countdown" in Cantonese, Wilson Tong opens his modern day action vehicle designed for many of his old Shaw Brother's chums, in particular those from the Lau Kar-Leung camp of players. Therefore featuring Gordon Lau, Norman Tsui, Fung Hak-On and Lau himself, A Bloody Fight shows little sparks of director Tong adjusting well to this new era of genre filmmaking. Expectedly the story of lifelong friends now on opposite sides of the law is rather limp (although at its darkest, there is a poignant line about what use it is to be good in this world) while Tong also resorts to cheap nudity and a rape scene to hold our attention. Cheap is the word and literally the film corresponds to its title largely as the gore level is kept pretty high up, creating some satisfaction on a primal level in the process. One wishes Tong would've let go of the idea of many characters dying by spurting blood out of their mouths as it looks silly after the 19th time it's done and those hoping for a big fighting showcase will be disappointed. Lau Kar-Leung lights up the screen briefly in a fine bout, showing his well-handled transfer of his action sensibilities to the late 80s era. Could've made all the difference if Lau had been running this show. Also starring Ngai Lau-Loh, Shum Wai and Chor Yuen.

The chase for the "Friday Killer", an awfully clever motorbike rider in black drives cop Ko (Simon Yam) slowly but surely towards the brink of being burned out and insane...

Low-budget but quite effective evil tale from Danny Ko (co-director of The Day That Doesn't Exist). Even though he delivers an awful, expository ending, a way too invincible faceless villain and never gets the ol' Hitchcock zoom right, Ko has quite a superb eye for chilling violence, highlighted mostly in the various stunt-heavy chase scenarios for the dark rider. An unfair but underrated low-fi thriller. Also starring Loletta Lee, Ada Choi, Stephen Au, Emily Kwan and Elvis Tsui (who never does any scene outside of his office chair).

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