Latest installment in the series, this movie has no relationship with the 2 earlier movies as the main actors and actresses are all different as well as having a different storyline.

The story starts in Hong Kong at a dinner attended by 2 rival triad leaders, one of them is acted by Ti Lung. The rival leader requested Ti Lung’s daughter, Lim Aryoung, to perform a sword dance for which she is noted. During the dance, a henchman of the opposite faction threw glass onto the floor to humiliate Aryoung. She exacted her punishment by piercing his hand with her sword. A fight was barely averted by her father.
The next day, Aryoung assassinated the rival gang leader and Ti Lung hurriedly packed her off to Korea for her own protection.

Arriving in Korea, she was placed under the care of a small-time hood, Ki Chul, under the impression that he could speak Chinese. A female Korean translator, Hyun Young, was brought in to help but she was so terrified of offending the hoods she deliberately gave pleasant translations that was opposite of what Aryoung actually said. These mistranslations formed the bulk of the comedy moments of this movie.
The HK triad sent killers after Aryoung but Ki Chul thought they were after him, not realising Aryoung’s actual background and fighting skills. It was only when a rival Korean gang leader had captured his underlings and almost beaten him to death that Aryoung showed her true abilities to Ki Chul. From that moment his attitude towards her changed and mutual affections rose between them.
A highlight pf this movie is a car chase with Aryoung sitting in Ki Chul’s laps and driving the car in an attempt to escape killers sent from Hong Kong. Ki Chul was aroused and both became excited when the car hit various bumps on the road and a final drive down a stair case.

The show’s last part was where Ti Lung was injured by a rival and Aryoung returns back to Hong Kong to take revenge. Ki Chul follows her with his gang to lend support.

Cast:
Shu Qi as Lim Aryong
Lee Bum Soo as Ki Chul
Hyun Young as the mousey Korean interpretor
Ti Lung as Lim Aryoung’s HK triad father

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5
This show’s interesting and watchable. Both Shu Qi and Lee Bum Soo are competent actors but Hyun Young was hilarious with her mis-translations in the first half. The fighting is good even though Shu Qi obviously used a stunt double but that was not so noticeable.

Bi Xue Jian (???)

5th in Zhang Ji Zhong‘s adaptation of Jin Yong’s wuxia novels.

Story centred around young Yuan Cheng Zhi (Bobby Dou), son of a Ming general who was executed by the emperor. Yuan ChengZhi was send away to be trained by a master swordsman but was still hunted by killers sent by the emperor. Forced to leave his hideout he embarked upon his adventures and he discovered the precious sword and martial arts manual belonging to a legendary swordsman named Xia Xue Yi. Yuan Cheng Zhi’s skills became even more powerful as a result.

Determined to aid the rebellion led by Li Zi Cheng; known as the Peasants’ King, he retrieved stolen gold meant for the rebellion. He met Qing Qing (Eva Huang), daughter of the swordsman Xia Xue Yi. Qing Qing left with Yuan Cheng Zhi after the death of her mother at the hands of her family. Together they witnessed the end of the Ming Dynasty and the eventual fall of China to the invading Manchurians.

Eventually despairing of the inability of the Chinese leaders to rally and work together against a common enemy, Yuan Cheng Zhi, together with his friends left China.

Cast:

Bobby Dou
Sun Fei Fei
Eva Huang

Links:

The story
Sina
SPCNet Forum
Jin Yong’s novel

Ratings: 4 out of 5
A great effort after the dud that was Return of the Condor Heroes, Bi Xue Jian was a return to straight forward story telling with little fluff. The acting of the main leads made this tv series a great success, although the performance of Sun Feifei was very understated when compared to that of Ping Zhong Xia Ying.
BXJ is a great show for fans of wuxia and GJ. The acting is great and the effects were not overwhelming. It was onl in the last third of the show that it starts to slow down and the protagonist gets mired in the politics of the rebel leader and his coterie.
Highly recommended for those who love wuxia.

HONGKONG – Jackie Chan and Jet Li are gongfu-kicking the stuffing out of their new movie.

Chan was quoted in a report on Tuesday as saying the new Hollywood action movie he shot with Li “isn’t great”, while Li said in his blog that fans should not have overly high expectations.

The Forbidden Kingdom, which finished shooting in China last month, has been eagerly anticipated as it marks the first on-screen collaboration between gongfu cinema’s two biggest stars.

But the two actors played down the film’s potential appeal to Chinese viewers, saying it is targeted at an American audience.

A news report on the Xinhua News Agency website quoted Chan as saying at a press conference in Changchun on Sunday: “The movie I just shot with Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom, actually isn’t that great.

“The Forbidden Kingdom is a movie made for Americans. Chinese viewers may not like it. If I say it’s a good movie now, then many peopple will be filled with overly high expectations and be disappointed when they see the movie.”

Separately, Li made similar remarks on his website on Tuesday.

“I hope that everyone can watch The Forbidden Kingdom with open mind and that they don’t have high expectations for my fighting scenes with Jackie Chan,” he said.

“After all, this is an American production, created by an American screenwriter, about an American child’s dream of the Journey To The West story. It would be more interesting to approach this film from a different angle.”

The movie is about an American teenager’s fantasy journey to ancient China to rescue a mythological monkey king.

Chan has been known to be blase about his Hollywood work, like the successful Rush Hour stories. He said in an interview with Life! this year: “I would rather return to Asia to make my own Asian films.”

AP

Sha Po Lang, an actioner produced in 2005 and starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Jason Wu-Jing, and Simon Yam.

Set on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover to China, the police force is clearing their cases. Inspector Chan (Simon Yam) is trying to bring a crime lord Wong Po (Sammo Hung) to justice but he had his key witness and escorting police officers killed by Wong Po’s henchman acted by Jason Wu Jing.
Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen) is sent in to take over Inspector Chan’s cases as the later is retiring but Inspector Chan is adamant to nail Wong Po regardless of methods used; including illegal means. Inspector Ma is a stickler for rules and tries to stop Inspector Chan and his men from using illegal means to apprehend Wong Po.

Realising that Inspector Chan and his men are after him, Wong Po sent his killers after the police and he starts stalking and killing them. These action sequences are show cases for Jason Wu Jing’s awesome martial arts skills and finally climax in a long fight scene in a deserted alley. Jason’s fast knife is pitted against Donnie’s extended police baton.

Cast:

• Donnie Yen as Ma Kwan
• Sammo Hung as Wong Po
• Simon Yam as Detective Chan
• Wu Jing as Jack
• Liu Kai Chi as Lok
• Danny Summer as Kwok
• Ken Chang as Lee

Cops killing a cop killer

Wu King killing a cop in a stadium

Wu Jing killing 2 cops in a public plaza

End of Wu Jing the cop killer

End Fight

Rating: 4 out of 5
Donnie’s picked a better vehicle to showcase his martial arts than that awefully POS Dragon, Tiger, Gate. But in this movie, he is outshone by Jason Wu Jing who put aside his normal heroic roles to play a ruthless killer. Jason’s fast knife is really fast and his normally cute cherubic face had morphed into that of a cold-blooded killer.
For fans of actioners, this Sha Po Lang is a definite MUST-GET.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a retelling of the Battle for Iwo Jima during WW2. The island is a volcanic rocky island that hold the strategic location being the door leading into the heart of the Japanese home islands, and thus became the prime target for US forces.
The film is based partially on 2 Japanese novels of that battle and partly fictionalised.

Produced by Clink Eastwood as a two-parter WW2 opus telling the battle from both the US and the Japanese perspectives. Although it is an American director’s effort I decided to put this review into my Japanese-Korean movie review blog as the language of that film is in Japanese.

Where Flags was a great disappointment, Letters hit the jackpot.Eastwood did not bring any western emotional baggage into his story telling of Letters from Iwo Jima, but was able to look at the battle from the Japanese perspective. No one, US nor Japanese, was perfect but so very human; capable of great bravery in the face of withering gun fire, as well as utter cruelty
Ken Watanabe as General Kuribayashi is the perfect General, able to command the respect of the lowly infantryman, as well as a masterly tactician and strategist. His plan was not to stop the invading US forces from landing, which he considered impossible to achieve. Therefore, his plan was to stop the US forces from moving inland away from the beaches, making the landing zone a death trap where his artillery and mortars were zeroed in.
He also abandoned the past infantry tactics that the Japanese forces had used, namely the senseless banzai charges that causes needless deaths in the face of machinegun fire. He also forbiddened his soldiers from committing suicide.

Letters from Iso Jima is a sensitive story from the point of view of a young Japanese drafted to defend the island.
He left behind his wife and does not want to die. His fellow soldiers were similarly like him and caught in a situation beyond their control and want nothing more than to get out of it with their lives intact.

Cast:

Links:
Wikipedia – About Iwo Jima
Wikipedia – The Battle for Iwo Jima in WW2
Wikipedia – Letters from Iwo Jima

Rating: 4 out of 5
Clint Eastwood did not make a mess of this movie. It is sensitive and moving film of young men caught in a war not of their making and wanting nothing more than to live. Instead they were forced to fight; kill or be killed. Most of them died……