TheRetroCritic

Directed by Gordon Chan, Fist Of Legend is a loose remake of Fist Of Fury in which Jet Li takes on the role of Chen Zhen, made popular in the 70's by Bruce Lee. Set during the Japanese occupation, we first meet Chen Zhen as a student who learns of his master's death and returns to his old kung-fu school to pay his respects. Soon enough, he starts to suspect foul play and a rival martial arts school causes trouble over and over. Add to that the fact that Zhen's love interest is Japanese so not exactly popular with his peers and you've got yourself a busy little movie with plenty of tension but also plenty of fighting. Li may not be as expressive or charismatic of an actor as Bruce Lee but he knows his kung-fu and the fight scenes are impressive throughout the film. Gordon Chan not only makes them look fantastic but he successfully makes them feel like timeless, iconic set-pieces. The best may very well be the fight between Zhen and Fumio Funakochi (Yasuaki Kurata)

This week, I taste the milkiest of all milks. Peanut milk.

Mad genius Stephen Chow has a ball in this send-up of cooking contests and turns Iron Chef into a live-action Tex Avery cartoon complete with "pissing beef balls", Shaolin monks and random spontaneous violence. Yes the story is pretty predictable: a Simon Cowell-style harsh TV critic/chef loses everything and goes back to basics to try and get back to being the titular god of cookery. That said, the film is self-aware and pokes fun at every rags-to-riches movie cliché any chance it gets. The humour is pretty childish throughout and the whole thing is undeniably very silly but it's the kind of silliness that's so out-there (think Jackie Chan meets Bugs Bunny) it's just too much fun to dislike. Visually, Chow throws everything at us from ingredients to...clothes (yes, clothes can self-combust in this film) and brings us a vast array of, shall we say, colourful characters? You've got a chubby brown-noser ready to defecate outside elevators at the drop of a

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema, long after a film like Antichrist , Dream Home comes along. Based on a true story (loosely, I'm guessing), the film explores Hong Kong's exorbitant rise in house prices post 1997 and director Ho-Cheung Pang peppers an otherwise pretty sensible story with some of the most graphic and disturbing serial-killings you'll see in any film. Strangulations, guts pouring out, slashed penises, brains blown off, screwdrivers through the eye...the list goes on. And yet, unlike 99% of horror films out there, the story and its characters actually remain involving and intriguing throughout. Main character Cheung's desperation and her troubled relationship with her father add an extra weight to the story and help make Dream Home more than just another slasher flick. And what a glorious slasher flick it is. With every new death more inventive and unpredictable than the last, Cheung crosses the line from despera