無間道 III (Mou gaan dou III) [Infernal Affairs III] (2003)

I’m pretty sure that, as of the second movie, we’re far beyond whatever there was of this series in The Departed. Well, most of it, anyway. I sort of expected there was more to say about Lau in particular, but was not entirely sure where it would go all the same. Given the nature of […]

無間道 II (Mou gaan dou II) [Infernal Affairs II] (2003)

Life has gotten quite in the way of my ability to continue my “series project” for the year, but here I am hobbling along, attempting to get back on track (whilst knowing I’ve got an entire bridge out here shortly: oh well). I just watched the first Infernal Affairs for the very first time last […]

無間道 (Mou gaan dou) [Infernal Affairs] (2002)

Like many Americans, I saw The Departed. Saw it in the theatres, in fact. I became aware there was a film that inspired it, and so I kept an eye out for it—but I didn’t actually manage to get around to watching it until now. It’s a whole trilogy, and I’ve heard that The Departed […]

Dead or Alive: Final (2002)

Well, after Dead or Alive and Dead or Alive 2, there was no telling what to expect from a third film in the series. One was a mostly straight gangster film with some weird excesses and extra dollops of style, the second was an intimate story of friends tangentially connected to gangsters, and largely uninterested in them. […]

精武英雄 (Jīng wǔ yīngxióng, lit. “Jing Wu Hero”) [Fist of Legend] (1994)

I still haven’t pushed too hard into Asian action cinema, martial arts or otherwise (for “otherwise”, think, for example, John Woo–or even modern yakuza films). I opened myself to the notion years ago, despite not growing up on any of it, but have still been relatively slow in taking it forward. I pick things up […]

太極張三豐 (Taai Gik Zeong Saam Fung) [Tai Chi Master] (1993)

I had a brief period in the years I was buying DVDs where my “I should expand my horizons” attitude and general curiosity about films I heard a lot about (and knew next to nothing about) included films that wandered in under the “Dragon Dynasty” label. This meant a lot of John Woo films, as […]

縱橫四海 (Zong heng si hai, lit. “Criss-Cross Over Four Seas”) [Once a Thief] (1991)

I haven’t actually seen many John Woo movies. I own Hard-Boiled, sure, but I’ve never seen A Better Tomorrow or The Killer or even, as I hoped for a bit while it was in a local theatre, Red Cliff. But this one, being less well-known, I was able to pick up at a serious discount […]

辣手神探 (Lat Sau San Taam) [Hard Boiled] (1992)

Once upon a time, I didn’t care at all about John Woo movies. I don’t recall why–I’ve always had some kind of appreciation for action movies. I enjoyed Face-Off well enough when I stumbled across it on television some years ago. I knew fans (still do) who endorsed it as artistically-produced, well-choreographed, “respectable” action. Perhaps […]

狗咬狗 (Gau Ngao Gau) [Dog Bite Dog] (2006)

The Weinstein Company purchases the rights to many Asian action flicks and releases them through their Dragon Dynasty label. OK, that’s a fact that most people reading this are probably aware of or do not care about, but it’s a half-roundabout way of getting to my real point. There’s an automatic association in many minds […]

順流逆流 (Seon lau jik lau) [Time and Tide] (2000)

Yet another foreign film I knew absolutely nothing about, it turns out that screenwriter and director Tsui Hark in fact produced some of the most renowned Hong Kong action films (alas, I have seen none of them). I had seen a trailer for this one, though, on one of the other DVDs I’ve purchased, so […]