KCR: Future X-Cops (scifi / Hong Kong / movie)

Image via WikipediaFuture X-Cops is one of those shameless Hong Kong "homage" movies that manage to demonstrate how bigger budget doesn't add to creativity.

Premise: after his wife was killed protecting a VIP against half-machine assassins, this cop must don a mechanical body and go back in time to prevent the assassination of the VIP, who is critical to Earth's future. However, two of the assassins are there, and they have a showdown.

The society depicted was futuristic looking... though it's hardly utopia. Regular cops have no firepower against these half-machine assassins who are obviously inspired by various comic book villains, such as Dr. Octopus (from Spiderman), and others. I mean, bat wings, prehensile tail, lobster claw... heh.

The fights are obviously CGI ish and way too choreographed. How they managed to convince Andy Lau to do the lead role, I have no idea. The plot is pieced together from various major movies, like Time Cop, Black Mask 2, even a few bits from Asimov's stories (about the girl who didn't know she's a robot). Add bits from Jurassic park (hide and seek in the kitchen), Matrix (sky duel between the hero and villain), and a few bits from Superman (bad guy keep using innocent civilians to distract the hero), and you get a feeling that this is a chop suey of a movie.

And yes, Big S (i.e. Barbie Hsu) is the leading lady. Hmmm... Okay...

May be worth watching once.

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KCR: God of Gambler's Return (movie)

God of Gambler's Return is a sequel to the original "God of Gamblers", a Hong Kong movie that started the "gambling movie" craze, starring Chow Yun Fat. (NOTE: God of Gamblers II is not a true sequel, but a spin-off). This one is even glossier, with some truly evil people, and enough trickery, plotting, and such that makes it a little deeper than your usual gambling movie.

Premise: Ko, "God of Gamblers", have retired to France with his pregnant wife and is living a happy life without games of chance. However, when a former rival reemerged from jail, and met up with a psychopathic gambler and killer, Ko found his wife and unborn child murdered. Before her death, she forced him to promise to not gamble for one full year. While travelling in China, Ko stumbles onto a gang turf fight, have a run from the law, and eventually have a showdown with the killer that took his family.

There is plenty of gunplay as bad guys are out to take down the good guys, and good guys shoot back, of course. There's a bit of trickery here and there, and some of the plans seem to be VERY long range, leading to a satisfying conclusion.

This movie is 1994, so production values are quite low by today's standards, and some of the stuff may make people squeam. There is also quite a bit of crude HK style humor. If you don't mind some slapstick humor this is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

Rating: watch it once

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KCR: Triple Tap (movie, shooting, Hong Kong)

Image via WikipediaThe movie "Triple Tap" is a Hong Kong crime drama that has a couple twists and turns that you may not see coming, and as a result, is a much better thriller than what typically comes out of Hong Kong.

Premise: competition shooter "Ken" had just beaten a cop "Jerry" at a live ammo shooting competition by 0.31 seconds with zero misses. On the way home, he interrupted an armored car heist and shot several of the robbers, who were killing the guards. A traffic cop who came onto the scene was also shot. One robber got away. Ken was arrested for murder and illegal discharge of firearms, but was released and hailed as a hero by the media. But not all is as it looked on the surface. Ken has been illegally accessing his supervisor's funds in the investment firm trying to cover his losses. The supervisor wants him as her boyfriend, even though he already has a nice nurse for a girlfriend at home. As Jerry digs deeper for the truth, he discovers that Ken is a methodical planner, possibly with a killer instinct, trying to live a double life. When more people turned up dead, Jerry and Ken match wits resulting in a showdown... Who is the ultimate pistolero?

This psychological thriller is much better than your typical Hong Kong action film, with really tense moments without too much special effects, big explosions, or even much gore. The movie, in a sense, reminded a bit like Roshomon, that Japanese classic where we get four different versions of the story. It's a bit of whodunit, a bit of crime drama, and as clues are revealed, the showdown at the end is inevitable. The only problem I have is with the re-enactment scene, where "Jerry" the cop went to see this retired cop for some advice on reenacting the shooting to get the pscyhological state. It's as if the other guy went into a trance channeling the killer's spirit, and that's just dumb.

Rating: Watch it at least once.

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KCR: Black Mask, starring Jet Li (movie)

Black Mask is a Hong Kong action movie starring Jet Li dated 1996. Production values are lousy by today's standards, and plot is cliche. However, you watch this movie to see Jet Li fight, and it's good stuff.

The setup: A group of supersoldiers, who had brain surgery to sever their pain center, can perform nearly super-human feats. However, they are about to be betrayed by their government, so one guy distract the guards and the rest of the unit slipped out. That one guy is "Michael" (or Tsui Chik, according to IMDB), who settled down in Hong Kong as a simple librarian, trying to leave his past behind. Unfortunately, his old unit, now a crime syndicate, to rival all crime syndicates, is coming to Hong Kong... And they start by slaughtering all crime bosses in spectacular fashion, then bomb the police, all in a plot to steal the Interpol database (all of it). The only one who can stop them is, of course, "Michael", who, in order to conceal his identity, wears a "black mask". Together with detective "Rock" of HKPD, they may yet stop the bad guys...

The sci-fi stuff is minimal, and there are a lot of bull**** elements. They even borrowed the "railgun" from Eraser, except they decided to use something as simple as an Aug Steyr. It's laughable to any one who knows that the after effects are just "drawn" in.

Still, the fighting stuff is pretty good.

If you are interested, there is actually a sequel (not with Jet Li) that's actually not that bad.

KCR: The Defender / Bodyguard from Beijing (movie, action)

Essentially Chinese copy of "The Bodyguard" (starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston), The Defender (also known as "Bodyguard from Beijing") stars Jet Li as a highly trained bodyguard for the Chinese government tasked to protect girlfriend of a businessman residing in Hong Kong. He has two Hong Kong police to help him to protect the girl from possible assassination because she witnessed a murder. He was forced to kill a whole boatload of assassins in a mall. One of those dead was godbrother to one of the best assassins. The assassin, ex-Chinese army special forces, vowed revenge, and there will be a big show down attack vs. defend, gun play and martial arts...

Set before Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control, there was a bit of rivalry between Chinese "cop" and the Hong Kong cops. This one, being somewhat G-rated, cuts down on the bad puns and R-rated jokes and double entenderes. However, the cops are basically treated as jokes, with one cop who can't even tell that his gun was swapped with a water pistol. Also, the various explosions are just spliced together... you don't actually see something blow up. Jet Li have played this completely straight, dialing down his charm to almost zero.

As standard action affair, this movie doesn't really have much to recommend it other than Jet Li's fighting and gunplay. The big fight with the bad guy is pretty good.

All in all, may be worth a rental.

Rating: rent it

KCR: Initial D the movie (racing)

Image via WikipediaNow that Green Hornet DVD is in stores, this reminds me of Jay Chou's first major movie as himself: Initial D the movie. Strangely, this is made in Hong Kong, not Japan, though it was fully licensed... all character names, cars, and so on. The story was that Toyota built 3 Truenos (AE86) for this movie. Hmmm...

Any way, the movie is typical HK style production... plenty of horrible puns, dirty jokes, and so on and so forth. Jay Chou of course play Takumi Fujiwara, the racer / tofu delivery boy.

The story borrowed bits and pieces from the various seasons of the anime. I won't bother naming the elements, suffice to say Natsuki, the AE85, the race with Team Emperor, blowing the engine, the new tachometer, and more are in here. (You would only recognize those items if you've watched the anime)  It is then you realize how much did the movie F&F Tokyo Drift borrowed from this movie.

Any way, the plot is cliche, but the drifting is not bad. This doesn't have all the fancy special effects and computer enhancements typical of the Hollywood productions. It's more... realistic in a certain sense.   Since the folks who started Initial D never made a live action version, you'll have to settle with this one. Unfortunately, you have to deal with Cantonese dialog (or the much worse dubbed Mandarin Chinese). And this is where you realize that Jay Chou speaks horrible Cantonese.

Rating: Rent it... once only