Cinema of Vengeance
March 19, 2001
Review
Format: English VHS
Stars: Many HK action stars

This is basically a compilation of fights from various films out of China as well as interviews with people like Ti Lung, Lau Ka Leung, Gordon Liu, Sammo Hung, and many others. Some of the stuff is very informative, such as how Lau became a hit in HK, but some of it drags on. Some of the interviews are boring, and the commentary during the action can't be heard because someone dropped the volume during it, so we lose some important information.

But what's nice here is that we get a glimpse of TONS of movies that we've never even heard of. Most of the fights have captions telling us what movie it's from, but sometimes that doesn't happen and we sit there thinking, "What the hell was that?" For example, there's one where Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton are fighting close to an alien craft (I think), and it's one of the coolest fights. Norton is unusually crisp, Rothrock is her self of course but still looks good, but the choreography is very interesting and fast. Some older works like stuff from Kwan Tak Hing and the old Master Wong movies (there's an interview with him too which is very nice) is shown, which is very interesting, and then of course some Bruce Lee imitations (but no actual Bruce Lee, why was that?), Jimmy Wang Yu stuff, Jackie Chan, some Donnie here and there, and a part with Yukari Oshima and some of her work. One thing, you'd be totally surprised at the interview, I swear it's not her, just someone with the same name and same background... looks nothing like her. It's like she completely changed when leaving movies or something.

I would have really liked to see more on the women fighters in HK like Michelle Yeoh, Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan, Chang Pei Pei, and others. It seemed like this movie was mostly men and had lots of Americans, as though men are the only ones who can fight in those films. Just watch ILD1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to prove that wrong. Add to that the only 3 women that they went into detail on were Sophie Crawford (American, no talent), Cynthia Rothrock (American), and Yukari Oshima for a little bit (Japanese). Where the hell are the Chinese women? And some of the interviews are painfully annoying, such as one with some guy who fought Robin Shou in Death Cage (which looks interesting, have to look into it), and this guy talks like he's such an expert, but he's a total football goof with no clue.

Of course they had to have Chow Yun Fat in this. Don't get me wrong, Chow is a good actor and his movies are entertaining. But they go on with other shooting movies and explosions all over the place and I'm thinking to myself, "This looks like American entertainment." Oh well, it's not too extended. Some of the stuff they picked was either complete crap (Simon Yam in Death Cage was embarassing, I had to close my blinds) or total spoiler (they show almost all the fighting in Pedicab Driver, that's bad). Some of their picks were badly dubbed as well, like the ILD4 fight between Donnie and Woods. All of a sudden that fight sucked... amazing what bad dubbing can do. Wait a second... does that mean Crystal Hunt might actually be GOOD?!... impossible. Other things include some sword fighting movies, some of which are good, others are rediculously wired like this Ninja vs Shaolin movie or something.

At least they didn't have any Van Damme (Knock Off was HK) in this. If I had done it I would have given more focus to the legendary masters like Lau ka Leung, (not enough stuff is done on this guy and they instead have a huge interview with him in which he looked like he was 30 years old but couldn't have been less than 60), Hwang Jang Lee, more Kwan Tak Hing, different Jackie stuff (they show Island of Fire of all things, COME ON!), John Liu, more women, I could go on. Oh and there's no Jet Li in this either, which surprised me. Maybe legal stuff? But some interesting and odd material is here, like License to Steal with Yuen Biao (which I absolutely MUST own now) and Spooky Encounters 2 with Sammo.

Could have been better, but for some clips of various HK movies for a decent price (I pulled this out of a bin for $8), this isn't a bad thing to have.



4/5

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