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Big Bullet (1996)


DragonClaws

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I watched Benny Chan's Big Bullit last night starring Lau Ching Wan, Teresa Lee, Anthony Wong, Jordan Chan & Francis Ng. I recorded this off TCM whilst they were showing a few HK films over the summer. Sergeant Bill Chu (Lau Ching Wan) is demoted for assaulting his tactical commander. He is sent to the Emergency Unit, the unit is supposedly a place they only send problem cops to.

This is not a film I would pick up on DVD/BR but I still found it to be a very entertaining HK actioner. Anyone expecting a Martial Arts fest should look elsewhere as action scenes are more gun/explosion based. Some characters do throw the odd kick into the mix but nothing that really stands out. It was nice to see English actor Mike Lambert appearing in the film in a minor role too. The dub given to the film does not really help it but Ive heard far worse. Its rare to see a HK film on British T.V so I guess I cant complain too much about them not using the original audio track.

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I'm not sure why anyone would be expecting a martial arts fest with a title like BIG BULLET and a cast consisting of Lau Ching Wan, Teresa Lee, Anthony Wong, Jordan Chan & Francis Ng. :) But I guess it wouldn't hurt to point that out. 

 

I think the films HK spat out during 1996-1998 were as good as the ones they pumped out during their heyday. Anything Milkway was doing at the time was straight up classic (A Hero Never Dies, Longest Night, Too Many Ways To Be Number One, etc). And Lau Ching Wan was on one hell of a roll with pretty much every film he starred in during the point. And to me, BIG BULLET was one of them. But it doesn't hold a candle to Ringo Lam's FULL ALERT!

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One Armed Boxer

I think the films HK spat out during 1996-1998 were as good as the ones they pumped out during their heyday. Anything Milkway was doing at the time was straight up classic (A Hero Never Dies, Longest Night, Too Many Ways To Be Number One, etc). And Lau Ching Wan was on one hell of a roll with pretty much every film he starred in during the point. And to me, BIG BULLET was one of them. But it doesn't hold a candle to Ringo Lam's FULL ALERT!

 

I really need to see some of these, your post made me realise how few HK flicks from the '96 - '98 period I've seen.  On another note, has Milkyway produced any martial arts movies?  I have a feeling they haven't.

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Throw Down and Running Out of Karma. The latter is not a MA movie technically but Andy Lau plays a Buddhist who knows martial arts, and there are some fight scenes throughout the movie choreographed by Yuen Bun.

As for Big Bullet, I remember it being good although Milkyway did most of the best movies during that period --- The Odd One Dies, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1, A Hero Never Dies, The Mission, Running Out of Time, and Where a Good Man Goes.

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Morgoth Bauglir

This one is a must have on DVD.  One of Lau Ching Wan's best performances and it's Benny Chan's best movie.  Lots of good characters and highly rewatchable.  

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I'm not sure why anyone would be expecting a martial arts fest with a title like BIG BULLET and a cast consisting of Lau Ching Wan, Teresa Lee, Anthony Wong, Jordan Chan & Francis Ng. :) But I guess it wouldn't hurt to point that out. 

 

I think the films HK spat out during 1996-1998 were as good as the ones they pumped out during their heyday. Anything Milkway was doing at the time was straight up classic (A Hero Never Dies, Longest Night, Too Many Ways To Be Number One, etc). And Lau Ching Wan was on one hell of a roll with pretty much every film he starred in during the point. And to me, BIG BULLET was one of them. But it doesn't hold a candle to Ringo Lam's FULL ALERT!

I had no knowledge of this film before seeing it and they can sometimes re-title an Asian film for T.V. Look how many times they've added the word Shaolin or Ninja to a film title when neither are actually featured in the film. The titles of these films can often be as misleading as the cover artwork. Some people reading the comments might not be familiar with the cast members other work too. Ive not really watched that many titles with those actors. The T.V description given for the film even said Martial Arts action lol.

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Morgoth Bauglir

I think that it is at least slightly a martial arts movie because of Rongguang Yu.  He beats the shit out of people so fast in Big Bullet they don't even have time to react.

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I think that it is at least slightly a martial arts movie because of Rongguang Yu.  He beats the shit out of people so fast in Big Bullet they don't even have time to react.

Your right Morgoth, Rongguang Yu does perform some nice moves. I didn't know the actors name whilst watching the film.

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I really need to see some of these, your post made me realise how few HK flicks from the '96 - '98 period I've seen.  On another note, has Milkyway produced any martial arts movies?  I have a feeling they haven't.

Really REALLY good stuff in this period. It's a damn shame a lot of these films have yet to see a Blu-ray (or even a decent DVD) release. Especially Too Many Ways To Be Number One... 

 

During this time, I was obsessed with Lau Ching Wan. 

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One Armed Boxer

Really REALLY good stuff in this period. It's a damn shame a lot of these films have yet to see a Blu-ray (or even a decent DVD) release. Especially Too Many Ways To Be Number One... 

 

During this time, I was obsessed with Lau Ching Wan. 

With more and more classic HK movies getting local Blu-ray releases, hopefully they won't be too far away.  Would love to check them out for the first time on Blu-ray, much the same way the first time I checked out the Shaw Brothers catalog was when they were released by Celestial.

 

On another note, when did your obsession with Lau Ching Wan end and Ernie Barbarash begin?:tongueout

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One Armed Boxer

It's a damn shame a lot of these films have yet to see a Blu-ray (or even a decent DVD) release.

 

Your wishes have been semi-granted - 

 

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I watched this a few years back. The action was fine, the highlight for me being Yu Rongguang's brief flurries. It was nominated for Best Action Design at the 1997 Hong Kong Film Awards, but lost to Jackie Chan and Stanley Tong for Police Story IV: First Strike. If you watch films like this, Man Wanted, and Invisible Target, you start asking yourself what Benny Chan has against cops, because *a lot* get mowed down in these movies.

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Cognoscente
On 10/25/2015 at 11:15 AM, DragonClaws said:

It's rare to see a HK film on British T.V so I guess I cant complain too much about them not using the original audio track.

It's sad because it used to be so common for a HK movie to be aired in the UK back in the nineties and early noughties.

I saw The Big Bullet on TCM too. I like the interplay between the characters. The actors were friends in real life, which really helps to sell the rapport.

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DragonClaws
On 5/6/2021 at 9:19 AM, Cognoscente said:

It's sad because it used to be so common for a HK movie to be aired in the UK back in the nineties and early noughties.

 

It helped me to get into the genre a lot, getting access to movies I couldnt find or afford on VHS at the time.

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Chu Liu Hsiang

I had not seen a movie from this era/ with these actors for a while and really enjoyed it. While I wondered if they had to spent surplus money and thus decided to involve the plane in the finale, that was superfluous but oh well. I just wished Francis Ng's character would have

Spoiler

lasted longer

. Usually I prefer to see him in the role of the manic villain which he can act in a way it's kind of scary. Most characters were stereotypes but they still felt real. Some dialogue was incredibly dumb but I saw a dub version, so that could be the reason. I will have to (re-)watch more of this era, I had forgotten how great these movies are. 

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