Blog Archives

The Monkey King 2 (2016)

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Posted on February 11, 2016 by Justin

Sun Wukong returns to the big screen in The Monkey King 2, the follow-up film to director Cheang Pou-soi’s 2014 Monkey King feature film. Right on time for Chinese New Year in the year of the monkey, it’s exactly what you want in a New Year film: big, broad, comfortably familiar and filled with with ample amounts of comedy and spectacle.

(If you’re not up on the Monkey King story — Aussies of a certain age should think Monkey … (read more)

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SPL II: A Time for Consequences (2015)

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Posted on August 4, 2015 by Justin

Ten years ago in 2005, Hong Kong action film SPL arrived, suggesting a triumphant return to the sort of film that Hong Kong has always done better than pretty much any industry on the planet; beautifully cheoreographed and edited hard-action cinema, the sort that’s only possible when you have a cast of martial artists and an experienced crew that knows how to shoot them to maximum effect.

In the intro to my write up back then, I called it:

A … (read more)

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The Monkey King (2014)

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Posted on February 2, 2014 by Justin

Well, this one’s been a long time coming! News that Soi Cheang was to direct a giant, IMAX 3D adaptation of part of the classical novel Journey To The West with a major action star in the lead hit the Web in early 2010, and there’s apparently been a sales stand with a poster at HK Filmart every year since then.

Now, all is revealed! After a couple of years of delays, The Monkey King is here in cinemas in … (read more)

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Motorway (2012)

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Posted on July 15, 2012 by Justin

Car movies are hot right now. We’ve had more Fast and the Furious films than really ought to exist (believe it or not, the sixth is in production) and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive won over last year’s Cannes audiences and critics; there’s an undeniable appeal to these stories, whether they’re about gangs of thrill-seeking speedsters or the archetypal getaway driver on a job gone wrong.

The latter in particular is a great fit for the Milkyway Image house style, actually. … (read more)

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Accident (2009)

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Posted on October 11, 2009 by John Snadden

Milkyway Image Films latest Hong Kong release is the classiest and most intelligent film to come from Hong Kong so far this year. Lead actor Louis Koo (Overheard) gives a brilliant performance in Accident and is quickly becoming one of the best screen actors in Asia.

In his debut feature for Milkyway Films, director Soi Cheang (Dog Bite Dog) has tempered his usually dark, violent cinema visions and created a wholly satisfying cerebral crime drama, very … (read more)

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Horror Hotline: Big Head Monster (2001)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

Horror Hotline’s big head monster is a deformed infant, abandoned at birth, described in the dialogue as having seven or eight eyes, a head as big as a rubbish bin and a body the size of a three year-old boy! Unfortunately, we never get to verify this information. The monster appears just once, and then only in the form of an apparition: imagine the ‘floating-foetus’ image from the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey but enlarge the shape of … (read more)

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The Death Curse (2003)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Eugene

Let’s not beat around the bush. This film is a Star vehicle for our lovely little Canto-pop stars, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung aka Twins so that alone lends itself to somewhat low expectations. Which is odd because their two previous cinematic outings together, Just One Look and The Twins Effect, have actually been quite a bit of fun to watch. So is The Death Curse third time unlucky?

Well no, not really. Like The Twins Effect we have … (read more)

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Hidden Heroes (2004)

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Posted on September 26, 2004 by Eugene

It’s a rare event that I walk out of a Ronald Cheng comedy not completely appalled at the completely over-the-top antics and toilet humour that force me to just cringe and pretend it never happened.

With Hidden Heroes it seems there is a spark of promise that may make the next one to come out actually worth watching. Either that or an intense night out beforehand perhaps makes these things somewhat more palatable. So much for a detached objectivity.

The … (read more)

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