Ip Man

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2008 Director: Wilson Yip Netflix Link IMDb Link

Starring Donnie Yen with Sammo Hung choreographing; what’s not to love? This is a supposedly true biopic set before and during the Japanese occupation of China during WW2. The real message of the movie is that the Chinese are far superior martial artists and people in general than the Japanese. According to this film, the Japanese are evil, they will shoot you in the head for any reason and they suck at kung fu. But, all is well in the end since “the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to China and China won” (that’s actually in the closing text scroll). I always thought that the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allied forces because the US dropped two massive bombs on them, but what do I know. It was actually China that did all the heavy lifting. The main problem I have with Chinese cinema, other than their treatment of horses, is they sometimes try to pass things off as fact, when the facts they present are only half truths at best. 4 stars anyway for some killer martial arts.

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Saam gwok dzi gin lung se gap Chinese: 三国志之见龙卸甲 Release Date: 2008 Director: Daniel Lee Netflix Link IMDb Link

Another large-scale historical-ish drama brought to you, seemingly, by the entire population of China. Humongous battle scenes, tragedy, betrayal, martial arts, incredibly evil bad guys and everything else you can expect from a Chinese legend set to film. My initial reaction to the battle scenes was those poor horses. Chinese cinema is not kind to the equine. Andy Lau and Sammo Hung are brilliant, as usual, and Maggie Q expertly plays a character you love to hate. Three Kingdoms is good, but it doesn’t stand out all that much from other films in its genre like Curse of The Golden Flower or Hero. It pales in comparison to the recently released Red Cliff, but it’s worth watching if you like grandiose period films.

Kill Zone

	Rating: 5 out of 5 Chinese: 杀破狼 (Saat po long) Release Date: 2005 Director: Wilson Yip Netflix Link IMDb Link

Kill Zone a.k.a. Saat Po Long (S.P.L.) was not at all what I thought it would be. Judging from the staid box cover and the synopsis, I was expecting a cop versus thugs flick like any other. Instead, it is so much better. Yes, it has a really evil bad guy, played expertly by Sammo Hung, versus a group of cops led by Simon Yam and Donnie Yen, but S.P.L. is so much better than the average HK flick. Not only is the plot slightly unusual with an ending of Shakespearean magnitude, but it’s peppered with some excellent martial arts to boot. The fight with Donnie Yen versus Jacky Wu, who actually holds his own with Yen, is spectacular. And then, when you add Sammo Hung versus Donnie Yen in a fight to the finish with smashed glass and falls that actually look like they hurt a lot, well, martial arts choreography just doesn’t get much better than this. On top of all the bone-crunching, martial arts mastery, it has some real emotional depth, some great acting and a good story. S.P.L. is a must-see for any fan of Hong Kong cinema. Awesome awesome awesome.

Five Element Ninjas

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Chinese title: 五遁忍術 (Ren zhe wu di) Release Date: 1982 Director: Cheh Chang Netflix Link IMDb Link

Five Element Ninjas makes a point of informing the audience that it is meticulously researched and based on historical fact. It is not. I’m used to shaky, sometimes even nonexistent plots from kung fu movies. That’s fine as long as they don’t try to convince me that it is in any way historically accurate. Besides showcasing some fairly good martial arts, it is blatantly obvious that the entire point of this film is to take a stab at the Japanese. While the Elvis-impersonator clad Chinese with their satin capes and sequin belt buckles are noble heroes who will rise to the challenge, the Japanese are sneaky; they have no honor and they will ambush you in an unfair fight. The honorable Chinese can only survive by fighting dirty, too. Zoinks! Can they… will they abandon all honor to avenge their school and defeat the evil Japanese? Well, if nothing else, Five Element Ninjas is not your traditional bad guy versus good guy story. It also has some pretty interesting martial arts with all sorts of unusual weapons, high-flying wire stunts and tons of dismembered limbs.

Storm Riders

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha Release Date: 1998 Director: Wai-keung Lau Netflix Link IMDb Link

Storm Riders is yet another dazzling display of CGI technology, except it’s not so dazzling. It tries very hard to be cutting edge and yet, it’s not. Instead, it comes off looking dated. It actually makes you realize how far special effects have progressed in 10 years. Some alright wire-fu and a decent cast make it almost worthwhile. Almost. The plot is entirely fantasy with people flying through the air shooting fireballs at each other, but it’s basically a far-fetched love story wrapped in the guise of a take down the evil bad guy type of plot. Strangely, Sonny Chiba plays the evil bad guy in Cantonese and he’s one of the best parts of the film even though it’s not his native tongue. I wouldn’t really recommend this one unless you’re really, really into Hong Kong cinema.

Legend of the Black Scorpion

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Ye Yan Release Date: 2006 Director: Xiaogang Feng Netflix Link IMDb Link

Legend of the Black Scorpion is yet another massive-scale Chinese epic extravaganza with humongous sets, thousands of extras, extravagant costumes and an implausible story. This film was choreographed and produced by Yuen Woo-Ping, which makes it sound more action packed than it is. It’s really more of a drama with a little martial arts thrown in than a straight martial arts film. The martial arts scenes it does have are made up of high-flying wire stunts like you’d find in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but there just weren’t enough of them. Legend of the Black Scorpion is worth a watch as part of the Yuen oeuvre and to see the grand scale of films that China is producing, but it wouldn’t be my highest recommendation.

Fist of Legend

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Jing wu ying xiong / Cheung miu ying hung Release Date: 1994 Director: Gordon Chan Netflix Link IMDb Link

Directed by Gordon Chan and choreographed by the masterful Yuen Woo-ping, Fist of Legend is one of Jet Li’s finest films. There aren’t as many high-flying wire stunts as there are in other Li films, but it truly shows his power as a martial artist. Playing against Li are some excellent masters in their own right including the long-lived Yasuaki Kurata, who was a contemporary of Bruce Lee, and Siu-hou Chin. The new Dragon Dynasty release has excellent picture quality and subtitles. Yet, strangely, it’s still missing the deleted scenes (apparently only ever available in the Thai version), where the son is shown to be an opium addict with his prostitute girlfriend. I don’t know why they would still choose not to include those scenes in this new fancy version since, once you know that, it makes a whole lot more sense as to why the son of the legendary kung fu master and the new head of the school is off his game. Regardless, Fist of Legend is essential viewing if you’re a fan of Jet Li. 4 stars with a star deducted for the continued lack of the deleted scenes.

The City of Violence

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Jjakpae Release Date: 2006 Director: Seung-wan Ryoo Netflix Link IMDb Link

The City of Violence is a nicely composed gangland drama with a surprising amount of martial arts, knife fights and even nods to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and The Warriors with some Baseball Furies look-alikes, etc. The fight scenes are really well done and the evil guy is evil; you want him dead, right now. While the story isn’t all that original, The City Of Violence presents it in a fresh way making it seem as if we haven’t seen a similar story a thousand times before. The City of Violence isn’t quite a straight gangster drama, nor is it a martial arts film; it’s rather an entertaining combination of both and it was much better than I expected.

Samurai School

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Sakigake!! Otokojuku Release Date: 2008 Director: Tak Sakaguchi Netflix Link IMDb Link

If you’ve seen some of Tak Sakaguchi’s films, you should already have a pretty good idea of what to expect with Samurai School; lots of fighting, posturing, displays of manliness, a little comedy and a farcical plot. Sakaguchi adapted the screenplay from the manga, directed and starred in Samurai School. It fits nicely alongside Death Trance or Versus, but with less seriousness, a little more comedy and a lot more satire. Samurai School pokes fun at Japanese male machismo by presenting plenty of its own. In fact, the literal title is ‘Be a Man!! Samurai School’ and the character of the drill instructor seemed like a caricature of Toshiro Mifune. The plot is silly, but it never takes itself too seriously. The fact that it was filmed in two weeks with an ultra low-budget shows, but all in all, it’s not an entirely unpleasant way to spend 110 minutes.

Fist of Unicorn

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Qi lin zhang Release Date: 1972 Director: Ti Tang Netflix Link IMDb Link

Even though the box has Bruce Lee’s name and picture all over it, and even the special features are all about Bruce Lee, he’s not the star of this film. Those clever marketing people took the liberty of plastering his name and image all over Fist of Unicorn simply because he did some of the choreography as a favor to his protege, Unicorn Chan. Even the tagline is a lie – The most exciting kung fu picture ever directed by Bruce Lee. So, if you’re looking for a film starring Mr. Lee, look elsewhere. As to the film itself, it’s your standard martial arts fare; down-and-out good guy struggling against his master’s directive not to fight takes on multiple bad guys and, well, you know the rest. Even with Lee’s choreography, it’s not the best 70′s kung fu movie out there, but it’s not the worst either. At least this one has the option of subtitles.