Flirting Scholar 唐伯虎點秋香

Released Year: 1993

Directed by 李力持 Lee LikChi & 周星馳 Stephen Chow

Casted by:

 周星馳 Stephen Chow as 唐伯虎 Tong Pak Fu

鞏俐 Gong Li as 秋香 Chow Heung

鄭佩佩 Cheng Pei Pei as 華夫人 Madame Wah

陳百祥 Natalis Chan as 祝枝山 Chuk Chi San

黃霑 Jim Wong as 華太師 Chancellor Wah

宣萱 Jessica Hester Hsuan as 夏香 Ha Heung

苑瓊丹 Kingdom Yuen as 石榴 Sek Lao

梁家仁 Bryan Leung as 武狀元 Mou Zhong Yun 

劉家輝 Gordon Liu as 奪命書生 Evil Scholar

 Story: 

In the Ming Dynasty, there were four scholars, whose literary and artistic skills are unmatched in China. Tong Pak Fu is the most famous, for having eight wives in addition to his expertise as an artist, poet, and calligrapher. However, Tong's wives are all gambling addicts, unappreciative of Tong's artistic skills. This leads to Tong's quest for a woman who truly appreciates his strengths.

The Tong Family have been generations of martial arts masters and has two major enemies: the Evil Scholar, a notorious swordsman known for The Deadly Scholastic Sword, Due to these rivalries, Tong Pak Fu is forbidden by his mother to use any form of martial arts.

One day, Tong stumbles upon the convoy of the House of Wah, and meets Chow Heung, one of the four maids in the House of Wah. This chance encounter convinces Tong that he has finally found his true love. On the advice of a boatman, Tong pretends to be a lowly servant in order to gain employment in the House of Wah.

Tong finds life as a servant very difficult, until Madame Wah discovers that Tong is actually educated. After some persuasion by Chow Heung, Tong is hired as an assistant tutor for Madame Wah's two young sons.

After the sudden death of the main tutor of the House of Wah, Tong is promoted and manages to get closer to Chow Heung. However, the House of Wah is suddenly visited by Chancellor Wah's political rival, Prince Ning, who is planning a coup. Madame Wah is injured, and Tong steps in to finish the battle in the House of Wah's favor. Prince Ning seizes the opportunity to blame the House of Wah for insulting him. Embarrassed at being utterly defeated at the hands of a tutor, Prince Ning leaves hastily, vowing revenge. In reproducing a painting, Tong reveals his real identity to Madame Wah, who is the former love rival of Tong's mother.

Several days later, the Evil Scholar returns to annihilate the entire House of Wah. Madame Wah attempts to defend the family, but is almost killed. Tong appears and after a fierce battle, Tong kills the Evil Scholar and earns Chow Heung's hand in marriage as a reward. Tong then discovers that Chow Heung is just as much a gambling addict as his previous eight wives.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Hehe, one of my fav Stephen Chow's movie back in the 90's. The only time Stephen Chow film with Gong Li... Gong Li always give us the serious type of look, but in this movie, she did tried some effort to be funny, but of course she won't be able to compete with Sandra Ng, Teresa Mo, Sharla Cheung, Karen Mok or other Stephen Chow's movie actress... The biggest surprise would be Jessica Hester Hsuan in this movie, i almost lost my breath because i laugh too hard on some of her scenes~

Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger 龍騰虎躍

 Released Year: 2001

Directed by 蓝海瀚 Allen Lan

Casted by:

洪金宝  Sammo Hung as 陆正阳 Yang

樊少皇 Fan Siu Wong as 白啸虎 Hu

梁铮 Jade Leung as 柳云龙 Long

郑佩佩 Cheng Pei Pei as 柳如燕 Yan

 Story:

 During Yang's younger days, he involved in the fight and cause his wife Yan has to ran away with their daughter Long. But Yan lost Long accidentally and never forgive Yang on this. Yang search for Yan and Long all the times and finally met Long, who was accompany by Hu, a young guy who falls in love with Long.

L² Scored: 3/10

L² Comment: 

Seriously, the caucasian might fall in love with this movie as it's something like the crouching tiger and hidden dragon, but definitely not for me. It was bored and the storyline is predictable... especially a scene of the sandstorm, gosh, it is so fake that I nearly puke.

Lavender 薰衣草

 Released Year: 2001

Directed by 葉錦鴻 Ip Kam Hung

 

Casted by:

陈慧琳 Kelly Chen as Athena
 金城武 Takeshi Kaneshiro as Angel
 陈奕迅 Eason Chen as Chow Chow
 郑佩佩 Cheng Pei Pei as 董夫人 Madame Dong
 谷德昭 Vincent Kuk as 肥天使 Fat angel
 尹子维 Terence Yin as 小提琴天使 Violin angel

 Story:

Athena is a sad woman who can't forget about her passed away boyfriend's smell, she use her whole life to create the smell but fail. She met a fallen angel who is a handsome and innocent guy. The angel live by creating loves to human being, but he was targeted by Chow Chow, a gay guy who live opposite of Athena.

 

It seems like Chow Chow has fall in love with Athena's ex boyfriend and can't forget about him too, especially the smell. Chow Chow was envy of Athena for getting angel as hers. Angel told them where he really from and ready to fly back to heaven after his wings cured. Athena brought angel to buy lavender and hope he can bring it up to heaven for her ex boyfriend. During the trip, both of them fall in love but angel still need to leave.

 

Athena woke up from her filled bathtub after hearing some bang noise. Its seems like she was having this weird dream when she fell asleep in the baththub. The restaurant owner, Angelo is the one who fell down from the roftop when fixing the wire. Athena realize Angelo looks exactly like angel (without the wings of course), and the restaurant name is Michealangelo. It seems like the God has arrange a new faith for her, for her to accept a new love and forget about the old sad one. 

 L² Scored: 8/10

 

L² Comment:

Its quite touching and romantic for me, i love the storyline, love that Kaneshiro is able to act innocent angel which i think is a superb. The movie was brought to the Berlin and shown to the world, though it did not win any awards, but it has been nominated in quite a lot in the HK academy awards. The only flaw i would say is Kelly being a bit stiff, but i think she can be much more better if she has more experience in acting during that time :) 

Naked Weapon 赤裸特工

 Released Year: 2002

Directed by 程小東 Chin Xiao Dong

 

Casted by:

Maggie Q as Charlene Ching
 安雅 Anya Wu as Katherine
 吳彥祖 Daniel Wu as Jack Chen
 黃佩霞 Almen Huang as Madame M
 鄭佩佩 Cheng Pei Pei as Faye Ching
 李菲 Jewel Lee as Jing
 連凱 Andrew Lin as 龍三郎 Ryuichi

 Story:

 The movie opens with the assassination of a man of unknown identity. A team of three CIA officers, including Jack Chen, a rookie, watch through surveillance as a sexy female assassin named Fiona Birch enters the man's heavily guarded apartment suite and, after having sex with him, kills him by breaking his spine with her bare hands. As she makes her escape in her white Porsche 911 GT3, her car is hit by a rocket. As the officers rush over to extricate her from the wreckage, a woman in a limousine shoots her to death.

The woman in the limousine is revealed to be Madam M, the leader of a mysterious assassin organization, to which the killed assassin belonged. After the incident, young girls across the globe start disappearing one after another. The only relationship among them is that they are all trained in martial arts or sports. As Jack correctly theorizes, these girls have been abducted by Madam M and transported to an island to be trained to become professional assassins. After six years of gruesome training, only Charlene Ching, Katt and Jing survive and "graduate". The last test in order for them to graduate was a fight for survival/to the death test. Katt and Charlene, being friends, could not kill each other, and so each is accepted as the third survivor. To celebrate Madame M gives them all different wine which has drugs in it. As the drugs take effect Madame M calls her guards who brutally rape the girls, thus (in Madame M's words) making them ready for what was to come.

The three girls are then sent on several missions around the world. During one of her missions in Hong Kong, Charlene coincidentally runs into her long-lost mother, Faye Ching. Jack, who has been following Madam M's case for the last six years, tracks Charlene down, but Charlene manages to knock him out and escape. Believing that Charlene would return to seek her mother, Jack waits outside Faye's house. However, Jing shows up first and stabs Faye. Jack tries to fend her off but was no match for her. Charlene shows up shortly and kills Jing after a fierce fight. The two then escort the wounded Faye to hospital.

In order to regain their freedom, Charlene and Katt accept a final mission from Madam M. A yakuza boss, Ryuichi, has contracted Madam M to eliminate a traitor in his gang. The mission turns out to be Ryuichi's trap to avenge his partner, who was assassinated previously by one of Madam M's girls (Charlene). Ryuichi kills Madam M and captures Katt, while Charlene escapes. Later, she and Katt went to the meeting place and finds that it was a trap. Ryuichi then shoots a dart containing a drug. Then while Jack was at the hospital, Charlene calls him to meet her at the beach. They end up making love and by the next morning she left a note in his shoe saying if they have fate then they will meet again. When Charlene returns the next day to rescue Katt, she watches helplessly through a bullet-proof glass as Katt, after being tortured, is killed by Ryuichi, with a sword. The enraged Charlene battles Ryuichi and through an intense fight, finally manages to kill him, using the technique used by Fiona Birch.

After everything is over, Jack and Charlene's mother, Faye, are at a Chinese temple offering prayers. Faye jokingly says that these things (the gods that she has been praying to) must have been all nonsense in Jack's point of view. But Jack tells her that although he never had a religion he feels peace every time he is in the temple. Faye commends his behavior and says that he should visit the temple more often. Meanwhile, we see Charlene in a Chinese temple praying for Katt's soul to rest in peace and she tells the deity that she wishes to be with the one she truly loves, Jack himself. Jack claims at the end of the movie that there are times when he is sure that Charlene is beside him; the last scene of the movie is Charlene watching Jack rush through the crowd looking for her.

 L² Scored: 7.5/10

 

L² Comment:

For me the whole movie does not really go on the peak. Hey come on, even though Chin is directing this film, but it was producted by the nasty Wang Jing!!! Where is the excitement?!? Especially the theme is good enough~ I need to see Maggie Q has some body contact with Anya, or at least a lesbian kiss; how about Daniel Wu? He should show us his nice fine ass on the beach sex scene; and don't forget about Almen, she's way too conservative in here, she should at least get a rape scene with Andrew Lin!!! Gosh~ this is rubbish, but i'm still gonna like it :P

 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

 Released Year: 2009

Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak

Casted by:

 Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li
Neal McDonough as M. Bison
Chris Klein as Charlie Nash
Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog
Moon Bloodgood as Detective Maya Sunee
Taboo as Vega

 Story:

Chun-Li moves from San Francisco to Hong Kong with her family. While practicing to be a concert pianist, she learns Wushu from her father Xiang, a businessman. For a while, her life is perfect until one night, Xiang is attacked and abducted by M. Bison's henchmen in front of Chun-Li.

Years later, Chun-Li grows up and becomes a talented pianist. At the end of her concert, she receives a mysterious scroll written in ancient Chinese text. Shortly after, she loses her mother to cancer.

Meanwhile, at Shadaloo headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, Bison announces his complete control of the organization before he has the other shareholders executed by Vega. It is also revealed that Xiang is still alive and working for Bison.

The next day, Thai detective Maya Sunee meets Interpol agent Charlie Nash, when both are called to investigate the murder of several crime syndicate families in Bangkok. Nash informs Maya that this is the work of Shadaloo.

Back in Hong Kong, Chun-Li has the scroll translated by a wise old lady, who tells her she must travel to Bangkok and find a man named Gen. Chun-Li then leaves her home and travels to Bangkok, living homeless and searching for Gen for several days until a fight with thugs leaves her exhausted and unconscious, and Gen appears and brings her to his home. Gen informs her that he was once comrades with Bison and he knows how to find her father, and for the next few days, he teaches her his style of martial arts. Chun-Li also learns more about Bison, who is operating Shadaloo publicly, and is holding the families of property owners hostage in order to force them to sign their property over to him. While spying on Bison's henchman Balrog, she overhears that a property owner is asked to hand over the rights to a docking harbor, allowing the shipment of the "White Rose".

Later that night, Chun-Li goes to a nightclub and confronts Cantana, one of Bison's secretaries. She obtains information on the location of the White Rose before escaping from Shadaloo's thugs and Nash and Maya. As a result of this incident, Cantana is used as a punching bag by Bison the next day.

Gen tells Chun-Li more of Bison's origin. The son of Irish missionaries, Bison grew up an orphan and lived his entire life as a thief. Many years later, as a means of becoming completely evil, he killed his pregnant wife and transferred his conscience into their prematurely born daughter. After telling Chun-Li to go and fetch some food, Gen is attacked by Shadaloo soldiers before Balrog uses a RPG to blow up his house. Chun-Li runs off when she is attacked by Vega, whom she soundly defeats and leaves hanging by the side of a building.

The next day, Chun-Li interrogates a harbor employee into telling her the arrival time of the White Rose. She returns to the shipping yard that night, only to fall into a trap as Bison and his soldiers capture her. Tied up and brought into an undisclosed house, she is reunited with Xiang, only for Bison to break his neck. After Bison and Balrog leave the house, Chun-Li uses her skills to defeat the guards and escape. During the escape, she is shot in the arm by Balrog, but is reunited with Gen, who heals her wounds and continues with her training.

Despite being taken off the assignment, Nash is secretly asked by Chun-Li to back her up in taking down Bison. Nash and Chun-Li, along with Maya and her SWAT team, arrive at the shipping yard, where they engage in a shootout with Shadaloo forces. Maya is wounded in the shootout, but her SWAT team manages to dwindle Shadaloo's numbers. Meanwhile, Chun-Li enters a ship and discovers a girl who speaks Russian before leaving her to continue her search for Bison. On the other side of the ship, Gen faces off against Balrog until he impales him with a liquid nitrogen pipe. Bison takes the girl - who is revealed to be his daughter Rose - and flees the scene by helicopter.

Chun-Li, Gen, Nash and a SWAT officer arrive at Bison's headquarters, where Nash and the officer take Rose out to safety while Chun-Li and Gen face Bison. After a long battle, Chun-Li hits Bison with a bamboo pole and drops sandbags on him, stunning him. She then charges up a Kikoken and shoots it at him, knocking him off the scaffolding before she jumps and twists his neck with her legs. Nash tells Chun-Li to leave the scene as Thai police arrive.

Chun-Li returns to her home in Hong Kong and settles down when Gen pays her a visit. He shows her a newspaper ad for an upcoming Street Fighter tournament, telling her that a Japanese fighter named Ryu might be a recruit for their cause. She declines the offer, telling him she is home for now.

 L² Scored: 1/10

L² Comment:

Seriously i was quite exciting when i know this movie is going to be shown in cinema in 2009, but after seeing the main cast, i lost my interest in it. First of all, do the fucking crews know that Chun Li is a chinese? Though this Kristin Kreuk is a Eurasian, but she looks nothing like an Asian, she's the main thing the whole movie is spoiled.

Beside Josie Ho, Edmund Chen, Robin Shou & Cheng Pei Pei, i can tell you all of those non Asian actors/ actresses are bullshit...No comment for this movie... but i definitely won't watch this ever again

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍

Released Year: 2000
Directed by 李安 Ang Lee

Casted by:
周潤發 Chow Yun Fatt as 李慕白 Bai
楊紫瓊 Michelle Yeoh as 俞秀蓮 Lien
章子怡 ZiYi Zhang as 玉嬌龍 Long
張震 Chang Zheng as 羅小虎 Hu
鄭佩佩 Pei Pei Cheng as 碧眼狐狸 Jade Fox
Story:

The film is set in the Qing Dynasty during the 43rd year (1779) of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Li Mu Bai is an accomplished Wudang swordsman. Long ago, his master was murdered by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn Wudang skills but was rejected due to her gender. Mu Bai is also a good friend of Yu Shu Lien, a female warrior. Mu Bai and Shu Lien have developed feelings for each other, but have never acknowledged or acted on them. Mu Bai, intending to give up his warrior life, asks Shu Lien to transport his sword, also referred to as the Green Destiny, to the city of Beijing, as a gift for their friend, Sir Te. At Sir Te's estate, Shu Lien meets Jen, the daughter of Governor Yu, a visiting Manchu aristocrat. Jen, destined for an arranged marriage and yearning for adventure, seems envious of Shu Lien's warrior lifestyle.

One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the sword. Mu Bai and Shu Lien, with the assistance of Sir Te's servant Master Bo, trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound and learn that Jade Fox has been posing as Jen's governess for many years. Bo makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai, a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter, May, who have come to Beijing in pursuit of Jade Fox. While the three are eating lunch, Jade Fox fires a dart with a written message attached to it, challenging them to a showdown that night. Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Jade Fox. Before Mu Bai can kill Jade Fox, the masked thief reappears and partners with Jade Fox to fight. Jade Fox resumes the fight and kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jade Fox's protegée, Jen). After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Jade Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual and has surpassed her in skill. After finding out that Tsai was a police officer, a guilt-ridden Jen returns the Green Destiny to Sir Te's estate but is intercepted by Mu Bai. Mu Bai easily defeats her and asks her to become his pupil. Jen angrily rebukes his offer and flees. When she returns home, Jen confronts Jade Fox and banishes her from the Governor's compound.

That night, a desert bandit named Lo breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jen's caravan; Lo took an heirloom comb from Jen and she pursued him to get it back, but succumbed to exhaustion in the desert. Lo took her to his cave hideout, where after an escape attempt and Lo's kind hospitality, the two fall in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a cliff to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, he did not die. Lo came to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, when Jen refuses to leave with him, he returns the stolen comb and leaves.

After the wedding, Jen runs away and steals the Green Destiny again. Mu Bai, Shu Lien, and Lo are ordered to find and retrieve Jen. Jen visits Shu Lien at one of her dojos, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Wudang Mountain. After an angry dispute, the two women engage in a duel. Wielding the Green Destiny, Jen gains the upper hand by destroying every weapon that Shu Lien uses. However, Shu Lien finally uses a broken two-handed straight sword, jian, to her advantage, surprising Jen by managing to press its broken but still sharp edge to her throat. However, rather than acknowledging her defeat and handing over the Green Destiny, Jen injures Shu Lien when she lowers her broken weapon. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest. A duel ensues where Mu Bai overcomes a challenge Jen sets before him (to determine whether she will be his pupil), regaining possession of the Green Destiny. But when Mu Bai succeeds and Jen continues to refuse, Mu Bai realizes that she is without honor, thus unworthy of becoming his pupil despite her skills and throws the sword over a waterfall. In pursuit, Jen dives into an adjoining river to retrieve the sword, and is then rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern in which later Mu Bai, Shu Lien and Bo discover her. Fox suddenly reappears and attacks the others with poisoned darts. Mu Bai blocks the needles with his sword and avenges his master's death by mortally wounding Fox, only to realize that one of the darts managed to hit him in the neck. Fox dies, confessing that her goal had been to kill Jen, because she was furious that Jen hid the secrets of Wudang from her.

As Jen runs off to prepare the antidote for the poisoned dart, Mu Bai prepares to die. With his last breaths, he finally confesses his love for Shu Lien, and dies in her arms as Jen returns too late to save him. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen later goes to Wudang Mountain and spends one last night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a balcony overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. He complies, wishing for them to be together, back in the desert. Jen then flies over the side of the mountain and into the clouds.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Multiple awards winner, believe to be the best Asian & proudest film in year 2000. Every Asian see this as a great thing and open a lot of opportunity for Asian to get into Hollywood, this also make us proud and intro our Asian's martial arts to the whole world (after Bruce Lee's success).

The whole film is quite good and the style of fighting is exciting at that period, especially the running on wall thingy. This also bring Ang Lee, Chow Yun Fatt & Ziyi Zhang some fame in Hollywood (Michelle Yeoh already got her when she was in 007 few years back).

A big bravo to them, Ang Lee still continue to produce a lot of good film after this. Hope to see more from him soon :)

Legendary Amazons 杨门女将之军令如山

Released Year: 2011
Directed by 陳勳奇 Frankie Chan

Casted by:
张柏芝 Cecilia Cheung as 穆桂英 Mu Guiying
任贤齐 Richie Ren as 杨宗保 Yang Zongbao
肖明玉 Xiao Mingyu as 杨文广 Yang Wenguang
刘晓庆 Liu Xiaoqing as 柴郡主 Princess Chai
郑佩佩 Cheng Pei-pei as 佘太君 She Saihua
周小飞 Zhou Xiaofei as 杨排风 Yang Paifeng
周海媚 Kathy Chow as 杨五娘 Fifth Sister Yang
陈紫函 Chen Zihan as 杨八姐 Eighth Sister Yang
金巧巧 Jin Qiaoqiao as 杨三娘 Third Sister Yang
葛春燕 Ge Chunyan as 杨大娘 Eldest Sister Yang
大岛由加利 Oshima Yukari as 杨二娘(邹兰英) Zou Lanying
李 静 Li Jing as 杨二娘(耿金花) Geng Jinhua
杨紫彤 Yang Zitong as 杨四娘 Fourth Sister Yang
于娜 Yu Na as 杨七娘 Seventh Sister Yang
刘冬 Liu Dong as 杨九妹 Ninth Sister Yang
王媞 Wang Ti as 杨金花 Yang Jinhua
赵芊羽 Zhao Qianyu as 小豆子 Xiaodouzi

午 马 Wu Ma as 庞太师 Imperial Tung

Story:

The film is set in early 11th century China during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty. The emperor neglects state affairs and indulges in personal pleasures, while the government sinks into corruption and war continues to rage on at the borders of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty is being invaded by the armies of the rival state of Western Xia.

Yang Zongbao is the last man standing in the Yang clan, a family of generals who have dedicated their lives to defending the Song Dynasty from foreign invaders. He dies in battle tragically when the treacherous Imperial Tutor Pang refuses to send reinforcements to aid him. Yang Zongbao's widowed wife Mu Guiying leads the other widows of the Yang clan into battle to continue the legacy of their husbands.

L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

Oh gosh, how should i comment this. Frankie Chan (director) is quite famous in the HK film industry, i was expecting a good action from him... but sadly no... Jackie Chan the producer, did he ever do any QS before they show this film in the big screen?

The cost for this film is quite huge i believe, but the production came out like ATV (亚视)'s quality... Though they gather actors & actresses from China,HK & Taiwan, but due to the bad graphic and dub, the whole movie is spoiled !!!

As for the cast, Cecilia still look stunning after all these while; Kathy Chow is a bit funny in this action kinda film; PeiPei Cheng look even sillier in this character...Overall this film is ok ok only.