Popular screen villain (in among other things Lau Kar-Leung's Martial Club) Johnny Wang debuted at the late stages of Shaw Brothers as director with this completely ordinary and clichéd triad actioner. But having built a strong rep over the years via a censored print, Hong Kong Godfather rightly now takes a place in uncut form on Funimation dvd as a completely MEMORABLE ordinary triad actioner with HEAVY usage of what was probably the very last batch of Shaw Brothers blood available. Norman Tsui is womanizing Lung but is more drawn to the triad brotherhood... not always by choice. Leung Kar-Yan's character is retired. Same story there. They have a cop friend and ultimately are in need uniting, bearing brotherhood and loyalty on their chests and choppers in hands as they take revenge for a betrayal within the gang...

Seriously, you know this flick pretty well and Wang is by no means a finesse director. But he treats it as his baby, both directing, writing and action directing and it's the latter aspect he devotes himself to, big time. We get tastes of chopper action and some spurts of heavy duty violence for the genre throughout but it's the last, vicious reel that turns up the intensity. Smearing tons of blood on screen (and walls), the slice and dice action (literally) is exhilarating and the shopping mall finale (the second of 85, first and different being Jackie Chan's Police Story) gives the stuntmen a painful workout. Hong Kong Godfather lives up to its rep and as goofy as splatter like bloodshed may seem, it's easy to be hypnotized by the animalistic intensity to the violence that would become a Johnny Wang trademark in movies such as City Warriors and Escape From Brothel.

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Hong Kong Godfather is another cops- and triads flick with a cast of comforting faces that does not surprise in the least. Arguably a comfort in itself, in this case much is made muddled aside from a fairly refreshing relationship between a cop (Roy Cheung) and the newly appointed triad head (Andy Lau). Memorable it is though, thanks to another person providing comfort: action director Stephen Tung. Choreographing fun chopper brawls and heavy duty gunplay, it represents a person and aspect that in 1991 Hong Kong cinema could do better than anyone and do it eerily effective. The fine cast includes Tommy Wong, Jimmy Lung, Joey Wong, Lo Lieh, Lam Chung and Lau Kong.

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Musicals in Hong Kong cinema had by this time taken on a Hollywood style and there was no better place than to provide colour and lavish sets to the various numbers than at Shaw Brother's. Japanese director Inoue Umetsugu was drafted in to helm, and remake his own Odoritai Yoru, his first of many features at Shaw's in this story of three dancing sisters (Cheng Pei-Pei, Lily Ho and Chin Ping) and their hardships trying to make careers for themselves. Despite a colourful and sometimes goofy surface, it comes as a surprise that Inoue sets out to depress the hell out of us throughout. He really punishes our main characters and the main theme about families torn apart doesn't so much resonate greatly but proves to be engaging emotionally nonetheless. Not always on the money with his character-drama and throughlines to each and every one of them, Hong Kong Nocturne is a minor delight thanks to a trio of actresses that light up the screen. None more so than Cheng Pei-Pei who simply radiates during this high point in her career.

The musical numbers themselves (including a fair amount set in fantasy land) feature very little to almost no fancy choreography which may seem surprising considering the industry this comes from and the performers involved. However Inoue again injects his so much flair into his images that you're swept away suitably that way instead rather than by some Gene Kelly-esque put together number.

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Credited to another two directors, this mish-mash of genres and moods would've been far more acceptable had the movie decided not to put all into the mix. The key to a bit of a downfall for Horrible High Heels is subsequently the running time and main interest dying out a reel before the end. A worker in a small shoe factory brings some top of the line leather that becomes an instant seller at the shoe shop the company co-operates with. The key to success in that leather? Human skin.

A VHS release called it a "A Chinese Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and it definitely holds true for a few minutes as the opening murder and skinning contains elements of darkly comedic scenes from the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Cutting to essentially a small drama about a missing father, jealousy and conflicts spiced up with gangsters and cops, it literally feels like three different directors handling their own segment. The Shing Fui-On and Billy Chow scenes may have shoes IN them but are the ones that feel the most out of place (especially when the gangsters re-emerge during the end) while Dick Wei investigating the case has one action scene and very sporadic presence. More so than prior mentioned cast members scenes because eventually the cops are going to get a whiff of the crime by sheer logic. Horrible High Heels is pretty low class filmmaking with some welcome nasty sting to it though, decent gore but two bizarre moments makes it an eyebrow raiser. One is the main villain (whose identity is revealed pretty early on) having a fantasy that his rape victim is a swan or a goose while Dick Wei's tactic to disarm the second villain towards the end literally consists of him faking her out by saying: "Look behind you!". Low level fun that should've ended at the 80 minute mark but while I welcome the closure needed (but I don't welcome the attempted grave seriousness to the film), the aftermath with personal revenge, gunplay, fight scenes makes the movie overstay its welcome.

Although requiring some better tuned spirituality than I have myself, the visual splendor combined with quite a minute but tragic story makes Tian Zhuangzhuang's (The Blue Kite) introspective tale quite the experience. Shooting in Tibet, casting untrained locals and highlighting as much of Tibetan culture as he can, the scope frame is incredible, with Tian's cinematographers Hou Yong (The Road Home) and Zhao Fei (The Emperor And The Assassin) capturing vistas of unparalleled beauty. It's not hypnotizing enough however to make us forget there's a largely non-dialogue based plot revolving around Nowre's (Gaoba) fate as a horse thief caught, banned from his town and struggling on the cold plains of Tibet. Tian rarely highlights the why's of Nowre's initial reasoning to actually betray Buddhist learning's but human nature isn't always written in the clear, concise reasoning. What's clear though is that Nowre enters a hell that can't be escaped from, no matter what right steps are attempted after sin.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Nat Chan collaborated on the script as well as starred in this excessively uneventful and dull ghost-comedy. Directed by Ding Sin-Saai (The Beheaded 1000), the opening murder leading to fairly dopey behaviour with Nat Chan's Ah Nak is classic Hong Kong cinema in the way the mood changes. Especially illogical it seems when we during the opening credits hear the great song about Ah Nak and see how rich he is. Yet he's not and Ah Nak the journalist also engaging himself in an apartment-war resembles little of our expectations if you will. It's a late plot as it turns out, which is no excuse, but when his flatmate Mimi is possessed by a female ghost that gives him horse racing tips and a dead writer pays him a visit, director Ding will get the audience to go aha as he connects the dots. Despite, the whole affair is a missed a train and even though lead Chan plays underplays his annoying-factor, Host For A Ghost can't nail the finer points of how to make a ghost-comedy. Also with Melvin Wong.

A full on boring, embarrassing to even decent cop-thriller from the early days of Chow Yun-Fat's (unsuccessful) career on the big screen, he's credited here under his old English name Aman and paired up with Mark Cheng Lui (whose character is ALSO called that conveniently enough). Ah Cheng (Chow) is the calm civil servant while Cheng Lui is the hothead getting increasingly frustrated about the lack of appreciation from the citizens. All while they're also a hunting a pair of very dangerous thieves (Fung Hak-On, the co-action director of the film, and Lu Chu-Sek)...

Uneventful and episodic, Hot Blood at times feels like a PSA for the struggling police force who strive to do their best and will help out all walks of life including gambling- and drug addicts. The message is way on the nose at times, especially when portraying the media yet probably not at all untrue which is a sign of director Richard Yeung (Seeding Of A Ghost) improving as he goes along. Achieving fair viewer-immersion and getting us to buy this gritty world (thanks to a bunch of shooting on location), Hot Blood is way too basic to matter but unexpectedly effective at times during the latter stages. Unexpected because it's plodding along aimlessly otherwise. Especially when it gets pre-occupied with pratfall comedy and the sound effects that go with it. A young Simon Yam can be spotted during the latter parts of the film.

A defining and important work of Hong Kong cinema, this Chor Yuen helmed (the director being hot property after the classic and classy exploitation vehicle Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese Courtesan) star-filled Shaw Brother's comedy was an immediate success at the time of release (even beating the then recently diseased Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon at the box-office). Much having to do with its introduction of the local Cantonese dialect into a pre-dominantly Mandarin language movie scene. That choice struck a chord with the local moviegoing audience in combination with the portrayal of the working men and women they knew, a theme later to be taken to new comedic heights at Golden Harvest by a then Shaw Brother's contract player called Michael Hui. Suffice to say, without The House Of 72 Tenants, the development that Cantonese comedy went in might've been delayed or gone very different routes.

Based on a stage play and having been shot before in China during the 60s, this adaptation seemed like a fit for Chor Yuen due to the fact that he had not only shot Mandarin language movies but several Cantonese ones prior as well. The success of The House Of 72 Tenants is also much due to Chu's audience friendly material that he'd rewritten for the screen. Taking a bunch of social issues that the everyday man and woman could relate to such as the need for the Hong Kong people to unite, the shortage of money during the undisclosed depression time period of the film where even the firemen demand cash on site (their very funny chant goes: "you pay, we spray"). The main focus of the very episodic narrative remains the tenants vs. the landlords fight though (a plot device echoed recently in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle) and Chu presents very much noisy Hong Kong comedy, something that can take a few movies to get used to as a newcomer. However, locals eat this noisy dialogue exchanges up and despite the visual style of the film being very stagy for periods of time, there's ample colourful characteristics of the tenants to be engaged in. At times, Chu also showcases terrific depth to the set design as well as some visual trickery (including the very opening shot where, true to the stage roots, the lights go up).

But obviously all the attention of the filmmakers are directed towards the local audiences so how does the film fare in Westerner's eyes today? Knowing the history and its place in the Hong Kong cinema timeline is more than enough for one to venture into the film and the end result is not side splittingly funny no but very entertaining, pleasant and amusing. While characters are excessively broad, the film can easily be looked upon as a product of its time, for the people it was close to and outside eyes looking in should have no problems relating. Eventually Shaw Brother's faded out in favour of comedy/kung fu staples set in stone by such filmmakers as Lau Kar Leung, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan but there's no doubt Shaw Brother's sow a very important seed in 1973, one that blossomed into what is now a worldwide phenomenon; Cantonese comedy.

Featuring Shaw Brother's established and up and coming talent pool in large to walk on roles, the cast is headlined by Yueh Hua, Ching Li, Hu Chin, Tin Ching, Lau Yat Fan and Hoh Sau San. Finally, I thoroughly recommend Yves Gendron's, of Hong Kong Cinema - View From The Brooklyn Bridge, breakdown of the film. An extensive piece that also includes a helpful cast gallery.

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Ken (Charlie Yeung) returns to Hong Kong from Los Angeles to clear up among other things insurance issues surrounding her brother David's death and learn more of him. Asked to seek up David's friend Joe (Max Mok), Ken shacks up in the apartment complex that has a central shared room filled with many walks of life. Foreigners, drugs, a single mother, aspiring singer, not only is the living room culturally diverse but these particular Hong Kong streets are as well. Including the look at the gay community which Joe is said to be very much part of. Yet, him and Ken fall in love...

A cheesy setup for sure but Andy Chin (Call Girl 92 and yet being a director favouring shooting in synch sound) doesn't bring How Deep Is Your Love into offensive territory. Since he doesn't push for plot matters until very late either, the agenda is indeed to offer up something culturally diverse and meeting our different characters with aspirations (or not), the feel is certainly interesting. Chemistry between leads Yeung and Mok remains solid as well but when unearthing his final plot strands late, Andy Chin simply doesn't know what to do with a movie that has been different up to this point. So he opts for something easy and gets no stirring emotions going in the final moments. Also with Vincent Wan, Kenneth Chan, Joe Junior, Kingdom Yuen and Wu Chien-Lien.

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A benefit movie for director and producer Lo Wei but he reportedly passed away before the completion of this resurrection of the Lucky Stars-series. Back on board are everyone except Charlie Chin and Sammo Hung merely appears briefly (despite having two roles). Left are Stanley Fung, Eric Tsang, Richard Ng, Miu Kiu-Wai and Vincent Lau as a Buddhist monk who are called in to be taught gambling skills in order to assist on taking revenge on lesbian gambling champion Sheung Kun Fai Fa (Gung Guet-Fa). She drove the King Of Gamblers (Chen Kuan-Tai) to suicide after losing to her and the daughter (Francoise Yip) along with inspector Wah (Walter Tso in his regular outfit playing an inspector) are behind the plan for revenge...

Overlong and unfocused, of course the movie has the traits of a quickie made for a cause. Occasionally the banter between the lucky stars work but it's often only Richard Ng coming away with any laughs. The rest of the movie is devoted to the gambling training and the borderline sex criminal antics of the gang (they are pushing to get Francoise Yip drunk in order to take advantage of her). It seems wilder than it is but on the bright side, Gung Guet-Fa is smokin' as our lesbian villain and Sammo's interactions with Diana Pang Dan are very enjoyable. The long cast list help entertain also despite the running time. Some of those that are appearing are Nat Chan, Cheng Pei-Pei, Jimmy Lung, Nora Miao, Mars, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Lowell Lo, Tai Bo, Shing Fui-On, Kingdom Yuen, Mark Houghton, Gabriel Wong and Ricky Yi.

A re-thread of sorts of Fong Yau's own Devil Of Rape, Charlie Cho stars as the head of a underwear- and bathing suit designing company who falls in love with designer Pauline (Pauline Chan). Despite being the boss and otherwise having no problem getting sex out of his employees, he thinks different of Pauline... so he goes to a Taoist Priest (Fong Yau) for a little black magic touch and out of his body he proceeds to rape helpless Pauline. Once is not enough but the second time around, she's employed magic assistance and thus begins a battle between priests as well...

This production might as well have been a leftover from about 1993, 94 or 95 because it has the exact feel of the assembly line Category III filmmaking of that era. Not a thoroughly bad thing if you tend to agree with even the cheapest concoctions. Hunting Evil Spirit falls into that category and does have the right attitude about what it's doing. Initially it seems very off and cartoony when we see other clients of the priest being re-united but then The Cho enters. Establishing his business via WAY too long scenes of models posing, posing and also posing, a fairly explicit sex scene later and we're into Cho's giddy out of body rapist part of the film. You can if you want extract a bit of commentary when looking at the business Fong Yau's priest runs but that would be too kind. No, this is unashamed, cheap stuff with quite a lot of energy to give via a short running time, big animated special effects and a lead actor who never apparently said no to anything in this genre. Bless him... kind of. Pauline Chan seemingly did not want to expose anything else but her breasts as evident in a tacked on shower scene where she has underwear on. Yep, it's shameless filmmaking but it's overall the cheap, supernatural shenanigans that matter and they deliver quite well. A disappointingly short climax ruins a lot of momentum however.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: From back when the Golden Harvest logo/intro was literally a shot of golden harvest followed by "presented in Dyali Scope!", comes this Lo Wei (Fist Of Fury) directed Wuxia. Trying to make his audience captivated by the secretive plot of what a particular message carried by the Hurricane (Patrick Tse) contains, there's little excitement or coherency in his story anchor so the flick goes little refined places. By turning off and just watching, you get a view of some nice outdoor scenery (there's little indoor sets used), decent action for its time that gains more momentum when it's intense and in a way I personally like the feeling of these low budget genre vehicles. It's tough to explain but it's a favourable response despite watching a weak film. Something to write a paper on one day perhaps. Also starring Sek Kin and Nora Miao.