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thomas-mcgovern
Reviews
Long gan wei (1981)
enjoyable comedy
Richard Ng stars and produces this comedy film, where he plays both an illegal immigrant from China and his doppelganger, an action movie star.
The premise is contrived but still a lot of fun as Richard Ng replaces himself as the movie star when the stunt actor is feared drowned following a stunt.
Philip Chan played the manager as far as I'm aware.
A number of the jokes worked well and Richard Ng obviously has no fear of heights, which would have petrified me. The action star and manager are made to be completely obnoxious, allowing for the audience not to care what happens to them.
Jiao wo ru he bu xiang ta (1963)
Enjoyable musical
A film from a very different era, which is well presented. The musical numbers are numerous (twenty) but follow on from one another - six or seven in a row - and is reminiscent of an American in Paris. The songs refer to various different parts of the globe and the music changes accordingly. Some are fun and help distract from the old story.
Time passes and the story of a woman who becomes pregnant outside of marriage has mercifully less significance nowadays. Grace Chang the singer becomes pregnant but Roy Chiao her impresario, steps in and marries her. The father of the child returns to the scene in the second half of the movie and the leading lady is faced with a dilemma which proves traumatic to deal with.
The film is well made and acted.
Wo ai Tang Ren Jie (1989)
HK goes to London.
Lawrence Ng sets off in chase of his girlfriend Rosamund Kwan when he belatedly realises his jealousy will lose him everything and he journeys to Paris to find her. Instead he finds Nina Li Chi an old friend.
Meanwhile his girlfriend has moved to London and has met up with small time gangster Ray Lui. The four get to meet and a bit of action develops in the latter stages of the movie.
It was refreshing to see a Hong Kong film made on location and the film is amenable enough without being particularly memorable.
Ray Lui's voice seems high pitched and I wonder if this impeded him from being a bigger star.
Heubhyeol hyeongsa na do-yeol (2006)
Good fun
Good fun as Ricky, a cop of dubious virtue has deal with two problems which claim his soul and cast him into the outer darkness. Cleverly mirroring his gradual change into a vampire with his attempts to reclaim his good name as a police officer, the script offers some jokes and some action along the way. It leaves plenty of room for a sequel as the concept has some more mileage.
The lead is engaging and brings the necessary vitality to the role. As with most Korean films,it could perhaps do with some editing as it goes on for 2 hours, but the film didn't outstay it's welcome.
The special effects were fine and the action well shot. A deserved success.
San sha chuang shi jie (1976)
Unfunny Seventies Hong Kong Flick
The film stars Hsia Wan Ji and Chang Guo Zhu. The film appears to have been made in the late seventies and involves the misadventures of three friends (though only two feature for the main part)- they work first in a restaurant and a hotel and find their incompetence leads to their sacking.
They meet a man who is attempting suicide. The man states he has lost his job and girlfriend after he was falsely accused of stealing from her father's firm. The three crazy boys agree to help him vindicate his name.
running time 87 mins. I'm afraid the film wasn't up to much, but it only cost 2 euro on VCD so I can't complain. None of the jokes worked well and the acting wasn't very good.
Yakuza deka (1970)
The Assassin is better than the first undercover mission
Yakuza Deka 2 : The Assassin is another name for this film and is listed under the Assassin on the IMDb.
Actors killed off from the first movie reappear in the second which shows no link to Yakuza Deka other than the central character being called Hayata.
This feels like it is a remake of the first film with virtually the same plot but with added campy fun. It is better than the original and the climax is as exciting as it is ridiculous. This film starts out over the top and decides to stay there.
As ever in Asian films, the Western characters are despicable and lascivious. Bizarrely, even though he is undercover, Sonny Chiba still has time to attend police briefings so no-one is worried about the Mob having their own sources within the Police.
Hua xin meng li ren (1989)
Hong Kong romantic drama
Romantic drama starring Eric Tsang, Frankie Chan and Cheung Man has an unusual ending, the romantic couplings not ending up as you would imagine. The film is a cut above the usual romantic comedies in that it deals with unrequited love and that not everything will have to resolve itself in the end. Unusally for a Hong Kong movie it also contained quite a number of songs, six or seven which made large tracts of the film seem as if it were an endless montage as each character waited for their destiny to be met. Frankie Chan played his usual cool (or cold) persona and Eric Tsang was gratefully restrained as a number of his performances in Eighties films are irritating and over the top. Like most Hong Kong films the people are aspiring to a better life and is the thing that stands out most to me as I watch more and more HK films.