Nearly four decades before Kill Bill the groundbreaking Shaw Brothers classic Come Drink with Me set the bar for sword-wielding kung fu heroines. "A revelation in martial arts... read more

Nearly four decades before Kill Bill the groundbreaking Shaw Brothers classic Come Drink with Me set the bar for sword-wielding kung fu heroines. "A revelation in martial arts filmmaking" (Ross Chen LoveHKFilm.com) it stars legendary fight queen Cheng Pei-pei (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) as Golden Swallow a deadly agent sent to rescue a kidnapped official from a bandit clan. To take down the clan's five ruthless leaders she teams up with a hard-drinking martial arts mentor who helps her to cut a path of destruction through her enemies. Featuring pioneering wire work landmark fight scenes and a stylized sense of cool far ahead of its era.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/MARTIAL ARTS UPC: 796019809979 Manufacturer No: 80997 (hide)

In the realm of revenge thrillers, you'd be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import... read more

In the realm of revenge thrillers, you'd be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import made a pop splash at the Cannes Film Festival and during its limited theatrical run thanks to the imprimatur of Quentin Tarantino, who raved about it and its visionary director, Chan-wook Park, to anyone who would listen. It's easy to see why QT fell in love with the grindhouse attitude, fast-paced action, violent imagery, and icy-black humor, but it's a disservice to think of Oldboy as another Tarantino homage or knockoff. The darkly existential undercurrent in the themes that Oldboy traces over its life-long narrative arc is much more complex and deeply disturbing than anything of its kind. The movie's tagline is, "15 years of imprisonment... 5 days of vengeance." The imprisonee is Oh Dae-Su, an ordinary Joe who is snatched off a Seoul street corner and locked away in a dank, windowless fleabag hotel room for the aforementioned 15 years. Just as abruptly he is released, and thus the five days begin. Why did this happen to Oh Dae-Su? Ah, but that would be telling, and in fact we don't know ourselves until the final wrenching scenes.

Oldboy breaks into a classic three-act saga, the first of which details the hallucinatory period of imprisonment in which Oh Dae-Su wades from mild insanity to outright psychosis in the hands of unseen yet attentive captors. Act 2 is the revenge, when an entirely different tone takes over and Oh Dae-Su moves with single-minded purpose and clarity. It's this section that has gained the most notoriety, primarily for the claw-hammer dentistry scene, the one-man-army tracking shot, and the wriggling octopus that Oh Dae-Su consumes in a sushi bar (he's been dead so long he simply needs life back inside him in any way possible). In act 3, answers finally start to emerge and the sinister atmosphere grows even more profound--not without a healthy dose of extra bloodletting, of course. Oldboy is an undeniably poetic masterpiece of tension, fury, and dynamic craft. Ultimately, its epic cycle of tragedy is of the sort that mankind has been inflicting upon itself for all time. Some of the images may be gruesome, but all converge into a kind of beauty. It's in the telling of this lurid tale that these details become one and the memories of pain ultimately heal. --Ted Fry (hide)

The second film in director King Hu's trilogy, which began with "Come Drink With Me" and ended with "A Touch Of Zen". The first eunuch of the emperor... read more

The second film in director King Hu's trilogy, which began with "Come Drink With Me" and ended with "A Touch Of Zen". The first eunuch of the emperor has managed to have a major opponent condemned to death and his family banned from the empire. In order to avoid a revenge of his victims, the eunuch sends his secret police to assassinate the deportees. The ambush is to be carried out at the inn of the Dragon Gate, an isolated place close to the border. The original plan of the secret agents is upset as several unexpected travelers - who prove to be master fencers - arrive at the inn. Very soon, and till the end of the last reel, secret agents, the escort of the deportees, mysterious travelers of all kinds, the personal guard of eunuch, the soldiers protecting the frontier, and the eunuch himself engage in ceaseless treacherous manoeuvres, frantic pursuits, and especially acrobatic sword fights in he good old tradition of the Chinese cinema. (hide)

This popular and beloved film, produced by Tsui Hark and directed by Ching Siu Tung, is a standout in the Hong Kong supernatural-action genre and spawned many sequels... read more

This popular and beloved film, produced by Tsui Hark and directed by Ching Siu Tung, is a standout in the Hong Kong supernatural-action genre and spawned many sequels and copycats. A Chinese Ghost Story stars Leslie Cheung as Ning Tsei-Shen, a timid and likable tax collector. Looking for a place to stay the night, he comes upon a spooky abandoned temple occupied by a tough Taoist swordsman (Ma Wu). Despite his warnings, Tsei-Shen stays anyway. Later he encounters a beautiful maiden (Joey Wang) who he quickly falls in love with. Unfortunately, she is a ghost who is being forced to trap men for an evil spirit who feeds on their souls. A Chinese Ghost Story has been widely praised for infusing the genre with humor, action, romance, and inventive special effects. Memorable images include an attacking mile-long tongue and a cloak opening to dozens of ghastly decapitated heads. The final battle in hell is said to have inspired scenes in Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness. And the film has its share of homage: A group of crusty zombies are reminiscent of the skeletons in special-effects guru Ray Harryhausen's 7th Voyage of Sinbad--and they are eliminated by Tsei-Shen in comedic slapstick fashion, not unlike the style of Charlie Chaplin. Cheung and Wang are a likeable romantic pair, and Ma Wu creates a hilarious character who breaks out into song and a martial arts dance when drunk. The DVD transfer is topnotch, with the film's misty mood lighting and fluttering gowns appearing layered and crisp. It's a must-see for Hong Kong action film fans. --Shannon Gee (hide)

Actor and martial arts maestro Jet Li and iconoclastic director Tsui Hark revisit historical China and legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung in the second installment to the... read more

Actor and martial arts maestro Jet Li and iconoclastic director Tsui Hark revisit historical China and legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung in the second installment to the wildly popular Once Upon a Time in China film series (or better yet, "serials"). The main players include Li as Wong Fei Hung, Rosamund Kwan as his beloved but Westernized Auntie 13, and their clumsy sidekick Foon (Max Mok). China is in a period of political unrest. Dr. Sun Yat Sen is beginning to gain momentum behind his Nationalist party. A Qing minister (played with intensity by skilled fighter Donnie Yen) firmly carries out his job as police enforcer and a crazed cult called the White Lotus Sect has decided to take matters into their own hands by bullying citizens and destroying everything foreign. Wong and his crew find themselves at odds with the minister and the Sect, who have more in common than they initially let on. It all leads to some high-octane action scenes, including an all-out table-stacking and airborne brawl with the Sect (in which Wong uncharacteristically goes a little berserk himself) and a one-on-one matchup between Li and Yen. Tsui juggles the multilayered plot while Li juggles his opponents in a perfectly serviceable epic that is perhaps not as significant as the first Once Upon a Time in China but is solid kung fu nourishment for fans. --Shannon Gee (hide)

The first of a popular series (six in all) starring the charismatic and athletically adept Jet Li. Li plays legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hong, a late 19th... read more

The first of a popular series (six in all) starring the charismatic and athletically adept Jet Li. Li plays legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hong, a late 19th century southern Chinese healer and kung fu master. The story begins with Western powers (American, British, and French) encroaching on the city of Canton. Wong is asked by the Black Flag army to safeguard the town by creating his own militia of kung fu experts. His assistants include the butcher "Porky" (Kent Cheng), a Chinese-American named Bucktooth So (Jacky Cheung), and his westernized "Auntie" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), a non-blood-related childhood friend for whom he holds a special affection. But the Westerners aren't the only problem in Canton. The Sha Ho gang terrorizes local businesses and has begun dealing with the Americans in exporting Chinese for slave labor and prostitution. A down-on-his-luck kung fu master named Iron Vest Yim (Yan Yee Kwan) has decided he needs to defeat Wong to open a school and Leung Fu (Jackie Chan contemporary Yuen Biao), a traveling opera troupe groupie, just keeps getting in the way. This epic martial-arts film showcases Li's amazing fighting and acrobatic skills and established Tsui Hark as a top-notch action film director. The final fight scene between Wong and Yim entails a dizzying orchestration of kicks and punches while teeter-tottering on ladders. The DVD features star bios, filmographies, trailers, and clips from early Wong Fei Hong films that starred veteran actor Kwan Tak Hing. --Shannon Gee (hide)

Jackie Chan was 40 when he stepped back into the role of young Wong Fei Hung in this sequel to his 1978 breakthrough comic hit, Drunken Master. In... read more

Jackie Chan was 40 when he stepped back into the role of young Wong Fei Hung in this sequel to his 1978 breakthrough comic hit, Drunken Master. In the ensuing years the character, one of China's most popular folk heroes and a cinematic staple for decades, had been taken up as a quiet, introspective healer by Jet Li in the first three films in the fabulously popular series of films Once Upon a Time in China and in the more comic Last Hero in China. Chan returns Wong Fei Hung to the mischievous youth of the original film, an impetuous rascal with the skills of his healer/martial arts master father (Ti Lung of A Better Tomorrow) and the impulsiveness of his conniving, fun-loving mother (Anita Mui). Comic mix-ups and misunderstandings land Wong in the middle of a plot by British smugglers stealing Chinese treasures and enslaving local workers in an iron foundry. This mad mix of slapstick comedy, energetic action, and melodrama offers some of Chan's finest fight scenes, a series of tightly choreographed, highly acrobatic skirmishes that build in intensity to the battle royal in the foundry where Wong dodges coal carts, parries sneak attacks, and crab walks through red-hot coals while taking on a succession of comers. Though 20 years older than his character, Chan pulls it off with grace, energy, and youthful vigor. --Sean Axmaker (hide)

Unjustly accused of murder, Nami is sentenced to lifetime imprisonment in a Los Angeles women’s prison. Caged with a sadistic warden and salacious inmates, she vows to escape... read more

Unjustly accused of murder, Nami is sentenced to lifetime imprisonment in a Los Angeles women’s prison. Caged with a sadistic warden and salacious inmates, she vows to escape and get her revenge. The Ultimate Women in Prison Movie! (hide)