Action choreographer on Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, The Warlords and far too many others to mention, Tony Ching Siu-tung is back in the director’s chair for the first time in five years – but is this the triumphant return we were hoping for…? (more…)
Derek Yee’s follow up to One Night in Mongkok, Protégé, is released on DVD today by Liberation Entertainment. You can read out review here »
And there’s still a chance to enter our giveaway competition to win one of three copies – but hurry, there’s just a few more days to go! Enter here »
The new film by director Derek Yee (One Night In Mongkok) and starring Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers, Infernal Affairs) and Daniel Wu (One Night In Mongkok, Purple Storm) is released on DVD in the UK on 8 September by Liberation Entertainment.
Directed and co-written by Dante Lam (The Twins Effect) and starring Nicholas Tse (Dragon Tiger Gate; New Police Story; The Medallion) and Jingchu Zhang (Rush Hour 3; Seven Swords), the intense, hyper-kinetic crime thriller THE BEAST STALKER comes to DVD in January 2010 as a two-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition that fans of hard-boiled action cinema will not want to miss.
Tse stars as Sergeant Tong, a tough and uncompromising Hong Kong detective willing to put everything on the line in the pursuit of the city’s most dangerous underworld kingpin, Cheung Yat-tung (Philip Keung). However, on the day he manages to apprehend his target a fateful car crash sparks a tragic chain of events that begins with Tong accidentally killing the eldest daughter of Ann Gao (Zhang), the public prosecutor in charge of handling the case against Cheung.
Just as Cheung is about to stand trial, Ann’s younger daughter is kidnapped by a relentless contract killer, Hung (Nick Cheung), a man also familiar with tragedy and who has been blackmailed into taking on the job by Cheung’s henchmen. Still devastated by recent events, Tong, against Ann’s wishes, determines to seek out Hung and rescue the young girl in an attempt to find some kind of redemption amidst the chaos of his shattered life.
A pulse-pounding thriller with plenty of emotional kick, THE BEAST STALKER is a gripping ride that features one of the most stunning cinematic car chases seen in recent years and an awesome – and ultimately significant – crash sequence delivering a final twist that will leave audiences breathless.
Special Features include: Behind The Scenes (The Car Chase; Scaling The Sign; The Street Chase; Little Actors); Making Of; Interview Gallery (Nicholas Tse; Jingchu Zhang; Nick Cheung; Dante Lam); extended/alternate scenes; trailer gallery; Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Cantonese and 5.1 English audio options; optional English subtitles.
Three undisputed masters of contemporary Hong Kong cinema – Tsui Hark (Seven Swords; Zu Warriors; Once Upon A Time In China), Ringo Lam (Full Contact; City On Fire) and Johnny To (Mad Detective; PTU) – join forces for the first time ever to apply their directorial skills ‘exquisite corpse’ style to Triangle, an “inventive, and darkly comic” (Mail on Sunday) crime thriller starring Louis Koo (Flashpoint), Simon Yam (SPL; Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life), Honglei Sun (Mongol; Seven Swords), Lam Ka Tung (Mad Detective; Infernal Affairs) and Kelly Lin (Mad Detective; Zu Warriors).
A return to form for Jackie, but this could be way too sentimental for Western action audiences… (more…)
Director/action choreographer Ching Siu-tung’s solid if slightly disappointing movie An Empress and The Warriors is released on UK DVD today.
Starring an under-utilised Donnie Yen, Leon Li and Kelly Chen, it’s an historical melodrama. Yep, another one. And sadly it doesn’t delight in the way you might hope from the director of Hong Kong 80s and 90s classics like the Chinese Ghost Story and Swordsman series of films, or from his collaborations with Zhang Yimou – Hero, House Of Flying Daggers and Curse Of The Golden Flower.
You can read our full review of An Empress and The Warriors here »
A worthy successor to director Derek Yee’s One Night In Mongkok with a fantastic performance by Andy Lau, but a lack of true menace in the film stops this just short of being a classic… (more…)
Protégé, the latest film by One Night In Mongkok and 2 Young director Derek Yee, is released on DVD by Liberation Entertainment on 8 September. To celebrate its release we have THREE copies to giveaway…! (more…)
Just a quick round-up of some future releases to look forward to:
Of course, the chief one will be Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, coming to DVD and Blu-ray on 25 January 2010, an undoubtedly one of the biggest releases for the newly reborn Palisades Tartan label.
January also sees the release of The Twins Effect and Sniper director Dante Lam’s The Beast Stalker as a two-disc collectors edition. Starring Nicholas Tse (Dragon Tiger Gate; New Police Story; The Medallion) and Jingchu Zhang (Rush Hour 3; Seven Swords), this kinetic crime-thriller gets released on 4 January 2010 by Cine Asia.
There’s also the Ong-Bak styled Thai martial arts film, Fireball, from producer Adirek Watleela (Bang Rajan, Bangkok Dangerous) and director Thanakorn Pongsuwan (Opapatika, The Story Of X-Circle). Fireball is released on DVD and Blu-ray by E1 Entertainment.
Just to remind you that the Tetsuya Nakashima scripted sex comedy Lalo Pipo is on limited release around the UK. Those based in the UK and fully digital (shouldn’t we all be) may be interested to know that Film4 is showing Nakashima’s epic Memories Of Matsuko and (the arguably more impressive) Kamikaze Girls, as well as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, so set your PVRs.
The latest Tsui Hark movie is more than a decent stab at a ‘wuxia’ movie in the wake of Zhang Yimou’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers – but does it fall short of being the epic he intended?… (more…)
A nicely played and well-directed swordplay film – but haven’t we seen it all before? (more…)
Dante Lam directs Nicholas Tse in a tense, extremely well-played thriller… (more…)
The impressive feature debut from Tsui Hark (Seven Swords, Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain) that kick started the Hong Kong ‘new wave’ of the 80s… (more…)
Three of Hong Kong’s most respected directors – Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To – each take one half-hour segment of the same plotline, each with complete creative control – but is it any more than an self-indulgent experiment? (more…)
Hong Kong directors are ditching young stars for old veterans who’ve hardly been on screen in twenty years or more, but the real surprise is they’re giving them the best roles (more…)
