Agree with gasteropod on both counts regarding Dragon From Russia and Clarence Fok. Even Iceman Cometh (which has many top class moments) is a very muddled film. Anything that's not an action scene is quite painful, or over long.
Ditto to HungFist on Project S, I gave it the exact same score. Stanley Tong is a better Director under Jackie Chan and his stunt team's wing. Project S is only straight to video quality, and giving him artistic license on The Myth was a career shuddering moment for Jackie.
The Bells of Death (Hong Kong, 1968) – 3,5/5
Ice cold wuxia action with heavy chambara influences. The storyline is the usual ”dead family, must find the killer” revenge plotting with no big surprises appart from the complete omission of training sequences. But it’s the style and darkness that sets the film appart from most other movies of its kind. Action is correspondingly bloody.
Heads for Sale (Hong Kong, 1970) – 2,5/5
Solid swordplay film with a female focus and weaker last third. Thankfully the very last 5 minutes provide a worthy finale. Action is well shot throughout, but the soundtrack, which features loads of tunes heard before and after in better movies, fails to impress. More coherent storyline wouldn’t hurt either.
The Heroic Ones (Hong Kong, 1970) – 2/5
The two problems Chang Cheh often fails to overcome are 1) too long running time and 2) too many main characters. The Heroic Ones runs over 2 hours, and features no less than 13 heroes. It’s hard to get any grip of the film in the beginning. Later it becomes more interesting, thankfully. Ti Lung and David Chiang stand out from big cast.
The Bamboo House of Dolls (Hong Kong, 1973) – 2/5
World War II women in prison cap sleaze from Kwei Chih-hung. As usual, the Japanese are sadists (although played by Chinese actors) who torture and humiliate the prisoners day in and out. The Chinese patriots must fight back... with the help of a Scandinavian soft core starlet (Birte Tove). Hardly a boring film, but 20 minutes too long and lacking the style and technical virtuosity of its Japanese genre sisters. Terry Liu, who played Dragon Mom in The Super Inframan, appears as a lesbian prison guard. Lo Lieh is our evil male lead.
Heroes Two (Hong Kong, 1974) – 3,5/5
Chen Kuan Tai in top form as Hung Hsi Kuan who escapes from the burning Shaolin Temple. Fu Sheng, as Fong Sai Yuk, tends to get a little overshadowed by Kuan Tai’s powerhouse Hung Gar, but otherwise the actor fares very decently and also keeps his over-acting to minimum. The storyline is straigh forward but works. The non-stop fights are kept short and written into the story, more or less. An exception would be the over-long final brawl, which weakens the film a little bit.
Men From the Monastery (Hong Kong, 1974) – 3/5
The second film in the Shaolin cycle follows Fong Sai Yuk, Hung Hsi Kuan and Hu Hui Chien before the destruction of Shaolin Temple, which was seen in the beginning of Heroes Two. The chronology gets a bit confusing after the first hour when the film takes a time leap and it becomes unclear if the rest happens after Heroes Two, or is simply an alternate version story. Either way, the four part film works best in the beginning where Fu Sheng really gets to shine. The second hero Chi Kuan-Chun also has an entertaining story. A bit surprisingly Chen Kuan Tai fares worst in the bunch. The final part of course shows our heroes three face the familiar villains in a 15 minute braw.
The Mighty Peking Man (Hong Kong, 1976) – 3/5
King Kong in Hong Kong. And not bad at all. The storyline is similar to the classic, but this time the beautiful blond (Evelyne Kraft) doesn’t come with the reseach group, instead she’s an orphan girl raised by the big ape. This adds a nice Tarzan...uhm, no, Jane aspect to the film. Humour is plenty, and almost always unintentional. Also included is; cute animals, minor nudity, some gore, and Danny Lee. The middle part is very hear warming and even makes you wish for a happy romantic ending instead of the special effects show that awaits.
Never got round to seeing this in the cinema as I'm not a fan of Ang Lee's films as a whole. The main thing that appealed to me was a possible good performance from Tony Leung, who always comes across well, and usually takes on good projects from what I've seen. Sadly there wasn't much here to enjoy in what I found an over long film lacking in any real guts. Visually I found the picture very flat and the colour pallet quite drab (perhaps intentional?). The story was a simple espionage/war story enveloping the 'romance' which was frankly lacking in any eroticism. No standout performances, except it was nice to see Chin Kar Lok make an appearance.
