From the producers that brought us Three comes another trio of horror stories by well known Asian directors, this time featuring Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook and the irrepressible Miike Takeshi. Interweaving throughout out the tales is the subject of performance, both in front an audience, and behind the camera.

In the first segment, we find a once famous actress Ching (Miriam Yeung) in search of Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), whose tasty(?) treats – dumplings made from foetus – contain the secret of youth. But as she grows impatient for results, just how far is she willing to go, and at what price?

Fruit Chan’s ‘Dumplings’, originally released as a feature length film itself, fares badly wedged in to a half hour time slot. If the original didn’t quite fulfil the potential born out of it’s themes – the desperate clambering for youth in modern culture, the westernisation of this aspiration, the satiric comment that this elixir was mainly sourced from unwanted children in Mainland China (much of which still under one child rule) – then this version cuts that subtlety entirely. For instance, the growing friendship between the leads, despite their vastly different backgrounds, is lost entirely, as is much of Tony Leung’s role.

Perhaps the only saving grace is that this version differs from the original, winding in a whole new twist that, if anything, gives a far more satisfying (though incredulous) conclusion to the film. It’s shows us exactly how far Ching is willing to go to hold on to her youth.

In Park Chan-wook’s ‘Cut’ a successful director (Lee Byung-hun, My Bittersweet Life) gets on the wrong end of every directors worst nightmare, an extra with a grudge. In this case, it seems an extra’s (Won-hie Lim) only beef is that he seems too nice. He wakes to find his wife strung up like a puppet to a piano (in a gruesome manner, reminiscent of Dairo Argento) while having her fingers chopped off one by one, while attached to the wall by an oversized elastic band, his wife painfully just out of reach. How long will it be before the director shows us just how nasty he can be?

Chan-wook’s contribution pays knowing reference to his own success, making you wonder if this could be more than partly based on autobiographical experience. It displays the same streak of black humour that would later fill Lady Vengeance and I’m A Cyborg, Chan-wook’s film both amuses and repulses in equal measures. His intention seems, as with Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Oldboy, to subvert the middle class, ‘nice’ lead and their world in comparison to those less fortunate, that somehow seemingly nice people can do (or can be made to do) some very nasty things.

A beautiful and impressively produced featurette, Chan-wook’s film is perhaps the most successful here.

Finally the notorious Miike Takeshi gives us the final offering in the trilogy and perhaps the most unsettling – but not for the reasons you might expect from him.‘Box’ tells of a young author, Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa) plagued by nightmares of being buried alive, and seemingly repressed memories of performing with her deceased sister and father. Whether real or not they seem intent to break into her present life.

Surprisingly restrained for Miike, the segment slowly builds on it’s unsettling atmosphere without need of any real gore or cheap shocks. Indeed, it’s only the payoff to the story, with something of a laughable twist, that fails to convince.

If none of the stories quite achieve the heights of the original Three’s ‘Going Home’ segment, then combined they make a more impressive and undoubtedly worthy follow-up.

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Ah, that got your attention! Sounds good doesn’t it? Except the line continues ‘…from the director of Stuart Little and The Lion King.’ Only it’s actually not that bad. Sure, it’s a kids movie, but with plenty of knowing references and top-notch fight choreography there’s enough here to keep both children AND adults entertained.

 Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano, 24, Seabiscuit) is an obsessed martial arts fan, tracking down bootleg kung fu movies in old stores in Chinatown. Only when local thugs bully him into helping rob his favourite pawnshop, Old Hop’s, he finds a mystical staff does a lot more than beat off ruffians. Before you can say Never Ending Story (or should that be Wizard Of Oz?) Jason is transported back into ancient China. His only hope of getting home to release the imprisoned Monkey King (a very hairy Jet Li) from the evil Jade Warlord’s stronghold (Collin Chou, Flash Point, The Matrix Reloaded).

Jason is soon joined by master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), an advocate of the Drunken Master style, the ‘Silent’ Monk (Jet Li) and the vengeance bound Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi-fei) on his quest, but will they be enough to face the Warlords legions, his ally the White Haired Demoness (Li Bingbing, Silverhawk), and the Warlord himself?

Drawing heavily on Wu Cheng’en’s classic Chinese novel Journey To The West that spawned the Monkey series such a cult hit in the late seventies, John Fusco script shamelessly uses every cliché in the kids movie repertoire to rewrite the Monkey King’s 500 year imprisonment and eventual release, and even size things up pretty neatly for a sequel.

Only it could be a lot worse. Fusco packs the script with more than enough references to keep the adults happy. From the quizzical looks from Li and Chan when Jason mentions Bruce Lee, to the very deliberate allusions to their old movies - such as recreating  scenes from Drunken Master with Jackie taking Simon Yuen’s role, or Li looking much as he did in his debut feature The Shaolin Temple.

There’s plenty of references to Shaw brothers movies too, from the opening credits that use their posters, to the names of some of the characters, like Sparrow, named after Golden Swallow played by Cheng Pei Pei in Come Drink With Me and its eponymous sequel. Not to mention the name dropping of easternKicks.com fave The Bride With White Hair (‘It’s actually really good!’) half a dozen times, even though it does seem to be purely to set up Li Bingbing’s character later on. On reflection Fusco, who previously scripted Hidalgo and Young Guns, seems surprising knowledgeable on the subject. (It turns out kung fu is a bit of a passion for him too).

What really makes the film work is it feels like much more of a proper collaboration than we’ve seen before, like for instance in the wake of interest from Hollywood that came from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’s success. Perhaps it’s just the necessity of shooting on location in China, but the crew is as full of Chinese and Korean names as it is American.  

Most obvious in the participation of action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, who has worked with both Chan and Li in the past, recreating the scenes he originally directed with Chan in Drunken Master and Snake In The Eagles Shadow, he also worked with Li on Tai Chi Master and Once Upon A Time In China.

Unlike the current trend for more ‘realistic’ action in Hong Kong movies, this is much more ‘old school’ kung fu, all tricky hand moves and sweeping kicks, that always looks spectacular on the big screen. The much-anticipated clash between Chan and Li is rewardingly exhausting squabble for the staff, as the two attempt to outsmart each other. It’s easy some of the best fighting we’ve seen from Chan in a Hollywood film, and amongst the best we’ve seen from Li in a while. Though often Minkoff’s direction doesn’t quite do them as much justice as he could.

Also on board is cinematographer Peter Pau, who won an Oscar for his work on Crouching Tiger. He made his name on some of Hong Kong’s most visually exciting movies, including The Killer and, of course, The Bride With White Hair. With less obtrusive use of CGI, this is a definite improvement on his recent work for The Promise.

Of course, with the upcoming Dreamworks animation Kung Fu Panda and next Mummy sequel (also starring Li) both taking some inspiration from the East, there’s definitely something of a trend going on here. It’s difficult to tell whether Hollywood is really trying hard to dominate the Asian box office as it does the rest of the world, or if it’s just excitement over the Beijing Olympics? But in this case the balance seems right. (Woo-ping even gets an executive producer credit!)

Chan and Li are pretty reliable in their roles, almost making up for some of their disastrous previous US efforts. And they do get to speak in Mandarin a bit for a change. Angarano isn’t as annoying as these leads tend to be. Particular standouts are the leading ladies, Yi-fei and Bingbing, who both have a relatively small body of previous work, and Collin Chou as the Warlord - though he might want to try and avoid getting typecast as the bad guy next time?

One thing that will be interesting to see is what certificate this film gets on it’s UK release. In the states it’s gotten a PG-13, which has to affect much of it’s target 8-12 audience? A 12 would have a similar impact here, though it’s hard to see what they might be reacting too (I’m sure Monkey was just as violent?!)

Honestly, I really didn’t think I’d enjoy this movie, but it’s actually a pretty successful kids movie. Surprisingly so… and if just a few people check out The Bride With White Hair, then that’s even better.

(Now can someone please tell me what the name has to do with the film?)

The Forbidden Kingdom is released by Lionsgate in the UK on 11 July.

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Obviously working with Jackie Chan on New Police Story must have rubbed off on director Benny Chan. (And not just in the respect of casting Jackie’s son Jaycee.) While recreating the death-defying stunt work of the original Police Story series – and no doubt inspired by the kinetic energy shown by Tony Jaa in his own ‘real’ stunts during Ong-Bak – something definitely stuck.

Though New Police Story didn’t live up to its potential – the stunts were pretty wild but rarely had anything to do with the story – Invisible Target finally delivers the action film we’ve all been waiting for from Benny Chan.

The story centres around three cops who have more in common that they would like to admit: the maverick Inspector Carson Fong Yik Wei (Shawn Yue, Infernal Affairs 2, Dragon Tiger Gate, Initial D) who’ll happily break all the rules to get his man; Detective Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse, New Police Story, The Promise, Dragon Tiger Gate), the cop-with-a-deathwish ever since his fiancé was killed during a robbery of an armoured truck (no, like that is different to the maverick, yeah?!); and lastly the do-gooder Officer Wai King Ho (Jaycee Chan, 2 Young, The Sun Also Rises), the naïve young cop who always wants to do the right thing.

(Well, no one ever said anything about originality!)

What they have in common is the gang who pulled the heist on the truck, who are back in Hong Kong six months later after being ripped off of their share by the mastermind behind it all. Carson has a run in with the gang while on a routine spot check, leaving his many of his colleagues critically injured. And Ho’s brother, also a cop (and played by Aaron Kwok in a bizarre, photograph-only ‘cameo’) is accused of helping them. But was he actually undercover, and did someone betray him?

Both our heroic trio and the last surviving gang members, led by Tien Yeng Seng (Wu Jing aka Jacky Wu, S.P.L., Tai Chi II), have the same target, the architect of the original heist who seems to know a little too much to be on the wrong side of the law. The trio start to look within their own ranks, but who will find him first?

While Invisible Target might not be quite worthy of the ‘Hard Boiled for the Noughties’ title it’s been given in some parts, the comparison with John Woo’s film is pretty fair. Like Woo, director Chan sticks pretty close to the original narrative of the martial art novels that became swordplay movies from the 60s on (particularly those of directors like Zhang Che and Chor Yuan), simply transplanting them to modern day. You might as well call the film Magnificent Trio ’07. (Well, maybe not, but you get the point…)

Chan’s flaw previously was to let the sentimentality completely derail the action, a failing in both New Police Story and Divergence. This time around, though still as soppy as you’d expect from a mainstream HK movie, it’s actually does propel the action. You actually get the impression that, unlike his previous work (and that of many of his peers in Hong Kong), Benny Chan really isn’t taking this too seriously.

What Chan brings is his demand that the actors do their own stunts – yes, just like the old days of Hong Kong movies. (In fact, I’m not sure they ever stopped!) Action was always Chan’s strong point, just look at the thrilling chase scene in Divergence over roads that culminates in the Central Market, but the difference here is the sort of action we get to watch our stars in. Not just in tightly choreographed hand-to-hand combat, but jumping off bus shelter roofs only to get hit by passing buses, get pushed off buildings, through glass windows (and doors) and down flights of stairs. Though you never feel the danger of those early days – the Jackie Chan style outtakes over the credits may show the cast doing the stunts themselves, but in the safety conscious filming of today there seems little danger of them coming to too much harm – it adds a frisson to the film that most American action movies not only lack, but never come close to. Simply put, it feels a hell of a lot more real than we’re used to.

Of course, with real stunts comes the true HK old school ‘double take’, where we see the stunt over and over again from several different angles. (No, maybe I’m wrong, maybe we still are in the 80s?) The films only fault is its over reliance on CGI, the effects look okay but a jarringly out-of-place with the very real stunts. You get the impression with Chan that when he runs out of ideas he resorts to blowing things up!

Cunningly pilfering much of the cast from Wilson Yip’s last successes, the cast out do themselves with fight scenes nearly as good as those in Yip’s Flash Point (originally released just a few weeks after this) and there are more of them! It’s better paced too, though the film is still about 20 minutes too long – mainly showing on a surprisingly flabby conclusion, where the initial velocity is too often lost with perpetual showdowns between the good and bad guys. It sure looks good for its $8 million cost, barely a fraction of a comparable US movie right now.

(Which might explain why the Weinstein’s have bought international rights. Let’s hope that doesn’t mean the same as it did for S.P.L. for the UK audience – that is no release and bloody difficult to get anything else?!)

Though hardly deep portrayals, Chan manages to inject just enough into the characters to make them three-dimensional. Shawn Yue in particular shines, believable as the tough cop who’s even cold to his girlfriend he really seems to be turning into a credible leading man, as is Nicholas Tse, finally shedding those teenage years to take on more adult roles. It’s hard not to shake the image of Jackie Chan watching his son play a more similar role to him, his innocent morality really echoing his dad in Project A and Police Story, but it’s a fair performance nonetheless.

The real star, however, is Wu Jing, who makes his character a lot more sympathetic than he should be. Since Tai Chi II Wu’s careers has been pretty slow, but perhaps now his time has finally come.

Ultimately this is a movie that thankfully knows just what it is, a fun action film, and that makes it very enjoyable indeed.

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Back when Park Chan-wook visited Britain to preview the last of his celebrated Vengeance trilogy, Lady Vengeance, he said he’d like to make a science fiction film next. Well, I’m A Cyborg isn’t quite that, in fact it’s a little difficult to pin down exactly how you’d describe it, but it is the sort of visual treat that we’ve come to expect from this director.

Young-goon, (Lim Su-jeong, A Tale Of Two Sisters, Happiness) works in a repetitive job at a radio manufacturing plant when her attempt to ‘recharge’ herself by plugging herself into the main circuit at work causes her mother to commit here into a psychiatric ward. She believes herself to be a cyborg, bent on revenge on the white coats who took her beloved grandma away, who it turns out thought she was a mouse and constantly ate picked radishes. (Yum, no actually yum!)

Young-goon believes eating will only harm her, and talks little except to fluorescent lights and the sweet vending machine, getting ‘cyborg commands’ from her radio. Amongst the patients there, Il-sun (Korean pop star Rain), who has the other patients believing he can steal traits they hate about themselves from them, becomes besotted with her – hatching a plan to get her to eat before she really does herself harm.

From the opening titles Park Chan-wook delights with an abundance of imaginative ideas that can’t help but get any cinephile overexcited, right from the credits themselves, which are hidden on circuit boards, monitor, mouse mats, and so on. Beautiful to look, at each element of the film – from the production line Young-goon worked at, to the psychiatric ward, to how Park brings the patients delusions to life, and even the seven deadly sins that Young-goon tries to avoid, illustrated Alice In Wonderland style – all are finely honed and stylised.

Lim Su-jeong, with her eyebrows bleached and her constant gaping stare, looks positively bizarre, like Bjork or some other, otherworldly, being. Pop star Rain (Jung Ji-hoon) does a good turn as Il-sun, and the supporting cast is genuinely strong throughout. The script, however, does his character no favours, making him appear too shrewd and knowing to truly be suffering from mentally illness, passing notes to the staff and, in his own way, help many of his fellow patients to come to terms with their problems.

In many respects the film itself is not unlike the first half of Lady Vengeance in tone. Again, more of a fairytale, it also shares that same dark humour. (Something Park showed off best for his segment in Three… Extremes.) In some ways it often veers towards making too light of mental illness, becoming something of a (very) offbeat romantic comedy. When we see Young-goon’s extended fantasy about gunning down all the hospitals staff, machine guns from her fingers, it not only stalls the narrative, but brings with it a worryingly comic turn to violence. That might be necessary to stop those very real emotions that her character has from turning the film into something much darker, but it brings with it an unnecessary shoot-up scene that almost seems to exist simply to appease fans of Park’s other films.

Of course, it’s not really like them, it lacks there coherent conclusions, instead petering out as the pair try to work out what grandma’s message to Young-goon about the purpose of her existence, just when it felt like we were getting somewhere. But then perhaps that’s the message, no one really has a purpose other than to exist?

If the film is too light, it’s still wholly enjoyable, if just in a very different way to its predecessors. But you can’t help but worry that Park himself may be becoming too much of an auteur – unchallenged in his amazing vision but also ungrounded to audiences needs. It will be interesting to see how this film does in the UK. I wouldn’t be surprised if it fares similarly to as it did in Korea, plummeting from the box office after a very successful first week because audiences just didn’t know what to make of it!

In some ways, it’s little more than an extremely fanciful version of Girl, Interrupted, highly enjoyable, but perhaps a little too personal.

I’m A Cyborg is released in the UK on Friday 4 April.

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