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Showing posts with the label kung-fu

THE WAY OF THE DRAGON - REVIEW

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Bruce Lee not only starred in this martial arts movie from 1972 but he wrote, produced and directed it as well, not to mention he also handled the fight choreography. The Way Of The Dragon is mostly remembered for its intense climax in which Lee faces Chuck Norris in the Colosseum. The plot is pretty typical for the genre: a Chinese restaurant is struggling to bring in customers due to an intimidating gang pressuring the owner to sell to their boss by causing mayhem so Bruce Lee is called in to help get rid of the bad guys for good. Along the way, he inspires the staff to work on their Kung-Fu and the one girl is, of course, kidnapped at some point. We first meet Bruce Lee as he lands in Rome where he is instantly like a fish-out-of-water due to the language barrier and the people's odd reactions to him. It's a surprisingly awkward opening sequence as an old woman stares at him as if hypnotised and Lee orders like six soups in a restaurant by mistake, causing him to ask f

MANBORG - VIDEO REVIEW

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Here's the video version of my Manborg review.

THE LEGEND OF FONG SAI-YUK - REVIEW

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After the success of Once Upon A Time In China , it was time for Jet Li to set aside his serious face for a bit and try something a tad lighter. The Wong Fei-hung films are great, don't get me wrong, but the tone throughout these movies is all-over-the-place, so much so that whenever it does attempt to lighten things up a bit that tends to come off as a bit distracting. The Legend does have its weird tone-shifts but they work well as a whole. Jet Li's Fong Sai-Yuk is much less of a flawless superhero than Fei-hung, he's a mischievous kid who happens to be good at martial arts due to his mother being a true badass. Yes, his mother. It's not everyday that a film's hero is upstaged by his mommy but Josephine Siao is so good she actually steals the show rather effortlessly. At first it's all a bit dodgy with her and her son having to take a beating from Kong Chu's father in order to keep his reputation as the strong head of the family intact but later