Guest Morgoth Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Chow Yun Fat is billed as the star on the Tai Seng DVD, but he is only in the movie for a few minutes. But that's okay, because legendary villain Dick Wei is one of the stars of the movie!! David Lam Wai (Project A2), Ko Chun Hung, and Dick Wei are the lead actors, and it is a rare oppurtunity for Lam Wai and Dick Wei. Lam Wai usually just gets bit parts and Dick Wei almost always plays the bad guy, and similiar to Billy Chow, he rarely speaks in any of his movies. I am a huge fan of both of these guys so I was overjoyed to see them as 2 of the lead actors. And Ko Chun Hung is the best actor in the movie. He gives a great performance. Chow Yun Fat, Danny Lee, and Dennis Chan appear briefly, so that is just a bonus. Just to give you a little info on the director, Billy Chan directed All Men are Brothers: Blood of the Leopard (starring Elvis Tsui and Tony Leung Ka Fai) and Crazy Safari (a Lam Ching Ying Mr. Vampire type movie). He is best known for working with Sammo Hung as an action director on movies like Knockabout and Warriors Two, and also many other Sammo movies. This movie is completely different from all of those. It is probably Billy Chan's masterpiece as a director. The only reason I say probably is because I have not had a chance to see all of the movies he directed. First of all, I need to point out that this movie is pretty dark. People rarely smile, there is some sexual abuse against a woman, and the violence is very graphic. A guy gets stabbed in the back with blood running out everywhere, a kneecap is broken, good stuff like that. There are a couple of fight scenes, and they are brutal as can be. They are choreographed very well, but the best part about the fights is how brutal they are. I don't know if these guys are wearing padding or not, but it doesn't look like they are. There is some real contact, and you will probably be wondering like I was how they achieved this. The best way to describe this movie is that it feels like real life. Nothing feels fake. Even though I watched this with the English dub, the movie still felt extremely real to me. This was made in 1987 and in my opinion it is one of the best of its era. ALL of the actors are good and Dick Wei is the worst actor in the movie, and even he gives a good performance. If this movie sounds interesting to you, then you don't even need to read the rest of this review. Just go and get it. It is a cheap DVD. The movie begins with a man named Hank (David Lam Wai) saving Uncle Ho's life. Uncle Ho (Ko Chun Hung) is a crime boss who controls 3 of the 5 major Triad gangs in Kaloon, and the other 2 gangs don't do anything without letting Uncle Ho know. Hank is a Vietnamese who was living in a refugee camp when he saved Ho's life. Hank and Ho become good friends and to show his appreciation Ho gives Hank a business to run. While all of this is going on, there is a cop (Dick Wei) who has been after Uncle Ho for 10 years because Ho killed his father. Uncle Ho has changed and he is not the ruthless man he used to be, but he is still loyal to the gangs he controls. But he shouldn't have remained loyal. Dick Wei manages to convince the leader of one of the gangs to rat out Uncle Ho and he may go to jail. So as you can imagine, his friend Hank is not too happy about this. This is like somebody ratting out The Godfather (Marlon Brando). So what happens next? Watch and find out. And I only described the first 40 minutes, so don't worry, I didn't give away too much. WARNING- spoiler alert. Recently I have been trying my best to break down all the fight scenes in movies. I try not to spoil anything, but only read below if you really want to know what the action is like. And at the very bottom of my reviews I always like to talk about the DVD quality, so you should at least read about that. There is not much action, but when it happens it is very good and very brutal. The first fight is not really a fight. Shing Fui On plays the leader of one of the 5 gangs. He finds out that there is an undercover cop working in his gang. After jamming a fork through the undercover's cheeks and cutting his fingers off, Dick Wei shows up. Turns out the undercover is Dick Wei's brother, and Wei is not too happy. He gives Shing Fui On a major beatdown and there may have been a couple of bones and a nose broken because this fight looks completely real. The next fight is only about 30 seconds long, but man is it amazing. Dick Wei fights a Japanese guy and they go at it hard. It looks like a real fight. They are both throwing a bunch of wild punches extremely fast. Also some good legwork is mixed in. Next fight has the Japanese guy against Lam Wai. Its about 2 minutes long and just as good as the other fights. Amazing stuff!!! The last major action scene is a foot chase. I don't really want to describe it because that would probably be giving away too much, but I will tell you that it is a long and thrilling chase and there are some really cool lifelike stunts. One of the best chase scenes ever filmed. Rating- 4.5/5 The picture quality on the Tai Seng DVD is decent. It is one of the Ocean Shore prints so it is full screen, but it doesn't really affect the movie. There is an English, Mandarin, and Cantonese dub included, so that is nice. And there is a special feature on this DVD, a great commentary from Bobby Samuels, Frank Jane and Ric Meyers. Ric Meyers is one of the worst commentators around and he basically just reads stuff out of a book or off of the internet during the commentary. But the commentary is still worth listening to because Frank Jane and Bobby Samuels give tons of good information. And at least Ric Meyers is funny at times. Meyers- "What is this, Hung Gar?" Bobby Samuels (a Hung Gar man himself)- "Actually this is just a fight". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Mark Pollard Posted October 23, 2007 Member Share Posted October 23, 2007 That's a pretty comprehensive review. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Morgoth Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Thanks. I read a review by Eric Jacobus and he said it was good. He knows his fights so I had to pick it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 According to the OFDB the Tai Seng edition is missing a 1:20 section of dialogue near the film's end that's in the HK version. Anyone know more about this and/or got a clip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Forgot to mention...... Apparently this has just come out on BD in HK under its original title: http://sensasian.com/product.php/en/V2821H-B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted October 7, 2011 Member Share Posted October 7, 2011 sounds a good movie unfortunately I didn't realise this was an old review, looked on Amazon UK expecting to find a cheap copy – not that I can afford one right now anyway. Instead some f**kers are asking for a minimum of £29.99. Outrageous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 The least expensive option would be to import it from DDD House. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted October 8, 2011 Member Share Posted October 8, 2011 The least expensive option would be to import it from DDD House. There's no DVD of it Mark only Blu Ray... and region A:squigglemouth: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 There's no DVD of it Mark only Blu Ray... and region A:squigglemouth: Oh, yeah, it was BD I was talking about. Sorry, I thought you knew that. You might have to make do with a BD-rip until you get a dedicated player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted October 8, 2011 Member Share Posted October 8, 2011 You might have to make do with a BD-rip until you get a dedicated player. Probably have to I can't even dream of an unlocked Blu Ray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 There are multi-region players out there. I have one. It's a Tevion. Not too expensive. Got it a couple of years back. Not sure if they're made anymore. I think each country has its equivilent brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted October 9, 2011 Member Share Posted October 9, 2011 There are multi-region players out there. I have one. It's a Tevion. Not too expensive. Got it a couple of years back. Not sure if they're made anymore. I think each country has its equivilent brand. Really! I didn't realise that I thought it was only the super expensive ones and then you had to send them off to have the hardware modified or something like that. maybe I'll look into it next year, thanks for the Info though Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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