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Guards Of Shaolin (1984, William Cheung)

Also known as Ninja Vs Shaolin Guards and Hero Of Shaolin and credited to an additional two directors (both Korean), this suggests a co-production that prepped this martial arts movie for their respective market. At any rate, watching the English dubbed version reveals narrative- and technical efficiency (as well as martial arts mastery of the highest order). This is a mostly shot outdoors road movie whose bread and butter is the fight scenes but Guards Of Shaolin possesses a confidence that means it's going to let the basic reign, dial down the comedy to a sound nature which then makes room for jaw dropping choreography. Within the different pieces of scenery (seasons really judging by the appearance of snow after a while) that's also lensed beautifully for a film of this nature, star Alexander Lo Rei and Robert Tai put together a fight package of fast, intense, impactful and most importantly varied nature. With a roster of performers responding effortlessly to the intricacy and need for lingering effect required of them, Guards Of Shaolin stands as one of the finest example of a kung fu movie stripping filler away to make room for genre conception and grand execution.

Guests In The House (1988) Directed by: Jamie Luk

KENNETH'S REVIEW: While they await their actual new house, Chung (Derek Yee) and Carmen (Carol Cheng) move into a temporary that is unbeknownst to them haunted by the a spirit (Nina Li) and her servant (Joan Tong). Just casually hanging around the couple in order to explore the advent of new technology and occasionally possessing Carmen for fun or when they don't agree with her views, ultimately Nina Li's spirit is looking for closure of her past. Jamie Luk opens wonderfully odd with a full on dance sequence that does have its connections to Carmen's profession but this higher gear doesn't exactly run throughout Guests In The House. The palette is both flat, visually alluring but merely amusing at best as Yee/Cheng interact with only basic chemistry present. I've seen better farce and sitcom-esque comedy but at least we get some ramming speed-pace for the end when Yee and friends tries to battle the ghosts in the most feeble of ways (including singing "Help" by The Beatles). Lawrence Cheng co-stars while Wu Fung, Liu Wai-Hung and Shing Fui-On also appears.

Gun Is Law (1983) Directed by: Norman Law

Phillip Chan plays a trigger happy cop but one with good instincts that ends up having his rough action on display in the local media. Instead of taking a desk job, he decides to resign instead to spend more time with his son. It soon becomes apparent someone wants revenge on Chan for a past incident however...

Norman Law (A Hearty Response) mixes decent suspense and expected commentary (the hard working cops on the streets vs. the heads behind the desks) with a Phillip Chan performance with a suitable amount of dignity. Quite good suspense is generated through the theft of various music cues from other films, most notably Goblin's famous contribution to Dawn Of The Dead. Score also over dramatizes certain moments and Melvin Wong isn't saddled with the most well-drawn character. Basically just an image for the commentary mentioned. Style is suitably gritty coming from this era and the bleak ending was not a rarity at this time either. It's all worth an investment. Also with John Sham and Roy Horan.

Buy the VCD at:
HK Flix.com
Yesasia.com

Guns Of Dragon (1993) Directed by: Tony Leung

New York and Puerto Rico are the playing fields for Tony Leung Siu-Hung's routine actioner shot in synch sound (and probably elsewhere than mentioned locales). Ray Lui is the overworked Hong Kong cop traveling to the United States to face marriage problems (wife played by Category III starlet Yvonne Yung) and the bad guys from home are now running wild on the streets of New York. Choosing to vacate the premises and go to Canada is not an option as the family gets dragged into the triad war...

A lot of painful dialogue and New York cop stereotypes aside, at least Leung isn't aiming that high with his international flavour and initially there is some fast paced action and teeth included with Guns of Dragon. But when those sharper elements goes missing and we unfortunately have to watch a story unfold, proceedings turns standard in a poor way, also in the action department. Mark Cheng, Alex Fong, Patrik Lung and an amusing John Shum also appear.

Guys In Ghost's Hand (1991) Directed by: Ma Siu-Wai

In all likelihood shot at the same time as The Twilight Siren (aka Devil And Master) as it utilizes largely the same crew & cast (some of which, such as Alex Fong and Wu Ma make very pointless cameos), at least Ma Siu-Wai conjures up a little genre fun within an equally cheap frame. Chang Siu-Yin plays a girl once upon a time executed wrongfully and is now after revenge on the families in modern times that are related to her executors. Kara Hui and Ku Feng are the Taoist masters battling back. With a nauseating repeat of a stolen music cue almost all throughout and at least an hour of fully incoherent storytelling, around that very hour mark some better spirit and energy erupts in Ma Siu-Wai's frame. Shooting his better stuff in darkly lit forests, the setting matters little when the technical skill on display is admirable for a few minutes. Pouring on fairly heavily with the animated special effects and shooting graceful slow motion battles, it's not always the film speeds are properly set but when we get a bazooka out of nowhere during the ending... you could say a little is forgiven. But not nearly enough.

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