Charlie Yeung Movies
Glamorous actress Charlie Yeung (her name occasionally anglicized as Charlie Young) checked in as one of Hong Kong's most bankable and iconic female stars during the 1990s and 2000s, which led to a string of leads in Asian productions; as such, she demonstrated great versatility, deftly handling both action-oriented material and more sensitive, often romantically tinged dramas with equal aplomb. Yeung received one of her earliest roles in 1994, when cast as a young girl in Wong Kar-wai's hypnotic martial arts epic Ashes of Time. Given Wong's reputation, it marked a prestigious beginning; Yeung re-teamed with the great director, and ascended to higher billing, with her supporting role as an ex-convict's emotionally troubled girlfriend in the 1995 Fallen Angels. A portrayal of a WWII-era lesbian in Jacob C.L. Cheung's 1997 Chi So evinced Yeung's courage and challenged those who dared to typecast her, but following a lead in the 1998 action comedy/crime thriller Task Force, Yeung temporarily withdrew from the spotlight, retiring from the screen for several years to pursue a career in image consulting along with her then-boyfriend.She stepped back in front of the camera in 2004, as the female lead of Jackie Chan in the action thriller New Police Story, then signed for additional leads in Seven Swords (2005), After This Our Exile (2006), and Bangkok Dangerous (2008). The latter, which enlisted her as the romantic lead of Nicolas Cage, represented Yeung's premier Hollywood bow. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-Fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jacky Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
- 2006
A young boy finds his unwavering loyalty to his loutish dad sealing a decidedly grim fate in Hong Kong director-turned-editor Patrick Tam's first directorial effort since his 1989 thriller My Heart Is That Eternal Rose. There was a time when Chow Cheong-shing (Aaron Kwok) was considered a smooth-talking ladies' man, but many years of gambling have turned him into a bitter and abusive shell of his former self. When Chow's admiring young son (Gow Ian Iskander) reveals to his father that his mother is packing her bags and planning a hasty getaway, the enraged Chow delivers a merciless beating to the woman that leaves father and son to fend for themselves. Now forced to resort to petty thievery as a means of helping dad pay off a series of lingering gambling debts, the young boy soon ends up locked away in a juvenile-detention facility. Soon thereafter, when Chow drops by to visit his son, the boy launches a vicious attack on his father that drives the pair apart for more than a decade. Years later, Chow's son has grown into a man, and is suddenly stricken with an overpowering bout of nostalgia and that leads him back to his old hometown and the quiet streets of his youth. Just then, far off in the distance, the emotionally scarred son catches a glimpse of a man who appears to be his father. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aaron Kwok, Charlie Yeung, (more)
A police officer has been disgraced in front of both the department and the entire city, and when the sadistic gang that wronged him attempts to cement their grip on the terrified community, the only man who can come to their aid is the one nobody believes in anymore as the long-running Police Story saga receives an exciting breath of fresh-air from director Benny Chan. Police Inspector Wing (Chan) used to be Hong Kong's top cop, but when his entire team is wiped out by a youthful group of cold-blooded bank robbers, Wing quickly falls into a deep depression. A year after everyone including Wing's fiancée has lost their faith in the fallen police inspector, Wing gets a second shot at glory when he is assigned an ambitious new partner and given the opportunity to bring the gang that nearly destroyed his life to justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, (more)
- 1997
Teddy Chen spins this Mission Impossible variation featuring international heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro. Crack members of the Available Tactical Mercenaries group, Jackel (Kaneshiro), Cash (Jordan Chan), Sam (Charlie Yeung), and Titan (Ken Wong), are coerced into performing dark deeds for the Hong Kong government. Their mission is to steal some U.S. dollar printing plates which Britain's M-15 swiped from an Iranian syndicate ring and has plans to use themselves. With the help of their computer whiz cohort Phoenix (Theresa Lee), their assignment goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong government double-crosses them by planting a bomb in a briefcase housing some incriminating information about their group and making off with the plates while the group reel from the blast. Soon Jackel and company are heading to Budapest to get the plates and clear their name. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1997
Jacob Cheung directed this $1.5 million Hong Kong lesbian drama. Shot in China, the film was first shown in Hong Kong in a two-hour version, but a longer version, the director's cut, runs 158 minutes. In 1990s San Francisco, designer Wai (Theresa Lee) has friction with her boyfriend Wah (Winston Chau). Wai moves her father's former servant, aged Auntie Foon (Gua Ah-leh), into her apartment, later taking her to China to reside at a Guangzhou (Canton) retirement home. During the trip, the older woman experiences flashbacks to the '30s and '40s, a time of bittersweet memories when Japanese bombs separated her from her lover. These flashbacks follow the young Foon (Charlie Young), who ignores her parents' wishes and joins the Comb Women sisterhood, the women of southern China's Pearl River delta who "combed their own hair" (meaning they chose chastity over marriage). Foon is working at a spinning factory when she's seen by Wan (Carina Liu), wife number eight of silk-merchant Siu Tung (Tung Wei). Wan hires Foon as a maid and becomes jealous when Foon is attracted to fisherman Hung Ngau (Chin Karlok). Foon is stunned when Wan confesses her love for Foon, but the women finally become a couple after Hung Ngau rejects Foon. Amidst Japanese bombing raids, as Siu Tung tries to get Wan to safety, tragedy erupts, as the story continues to dissolve back and forth between past and present. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carina Liu, Charlie Yeung, (more)
- 1997
Patrick Leung (Beyond Hypothermia, Somebody Up There Likes Me) directed this Hong Kong action-crime comedy-drama, centered on plainclothes crimebuster Rod Lin (Leo Ku), who narrates. Lin is the son of a cop who died after he was shot by a thug (John Lone). Crime has overtaken the Mongkok district, where Lin falls for prostitute Fanny Chan (Charlie Young), who loves Killer (Allen Moo). Other characters include Shirley (Karen Mok), abused by her boyfriend, and divorced womanizer LuLu Tong (Eric Tsang). John Woo appears in a cameo as a policeman. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leo Ku, Charlie Yeung, (more)
- 1997
- NR
Tsui Hark is the executive producer, production designer, and screenwriter of this 82-minute Chinese animated feature displaying a full panoply of magical supergods, vexing spirits, and mere mortals. After debt collector Ning (voice of Jan Lam) loses his girlfriend Siu Lan (Lasi Suiyan), he beckons his playful dog, Solid Gold (Tsui Hark), and the two embark on fantastic adventures encountering the attractive Shine (Anita Yuen), a follower of Madame Trunk (Kelly Chen). Their eventual goal is to board the Reincarnation Train in hopes of getting Shine reborn. The original Siu Sin title is Shine's name in Chinese. To realize this fluid-action fantasy, animators at Tsui Hark's Film Workshop in Hong Kong labored for four years. Shown at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jan Lam, Lai Sui-yan, (more)
- 1996
Hong Kong filmmaker Ching Siu-tung directed this lavish epic adventure set simultaneously in the present and in 1930s China, with the entire cast playing dual roles. International action star Jet Li plays Chow Si-kit, a bookish novelist whose writing is adversely affected by his problematic relationship with his wife Monica (Rosamund Kwan). Chow is best known for a series of books under the "King of Adventurers" banner in which his courageous alter-ego, an adventurer patterned on Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark, uses his impressive martial-arts skills and prodigious cunning to fight the Japanese. Chow's personal life is threatening his deadline, however, so his assistants Shing (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Yvonne (Charlie Yeung) decide to help him out by setting up a story line, which is then played out for the viewer. Hero Chow (Li again) is asked to purloin a letter from the Japanese embassy by the Chinese government. Writer Chow is upset that the story's heroine, Cammy (Kwan again) reminds him of Monica, so he makes her a villain. Chow and Shing's 1930s alter-egos, meanwhile, are looking for a magical box (not unlike the Lost Ark of the Covenant in the film's model) which can be used to divine the future or -- if the necessary safeguards are not followed -- bring evil onto whoever opens it. The box is also being sought by the Japanese military and a group of criminals called the Salt Gang, whose leader (Ngai Sing) makes the mistake of opening it without taking steps to protect himself. Monica then takes over the writing and sends the characters to the magical scripture which can help them use the box's power to defeat their enemies. Another version of the film cuts all of the modern-day material and adds new 1930s footage to explain the abrupt shifts in story line caused by the intervention of the multiple authors. Law Kar-ying co-stars with Billy Chow. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels is a sequel of sorts to the director's 1994 U.S. breakthrough Chungking Express. Expanding on the latter's style, themes, and mood, Fallen Angels is set in the surreal milieu of urban, nighttime Hong Kong. As with the filmmaker's other features, plot takes a back seat to mood. The wisp of a narrative intercuts two story lines. The first follows a hitman (Leon Lai) who finds that the assassin's life has slowly lost its allure. Complicating his life is his beautiful contact (Michele Reis, a former Miss Hong Kong winner) who pines after him with fetishistic ardor, although the two have never met in their nearly three-year partnership. In another part of the city, He (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a mute, boyish ex-convict, makes a living by sneaking into and running businesses after hours. Still living with his father who runs the Chungking Mansions hotel, the restless Ho falls for Cherry (Charlie Yeung), a woman getting over her breakup with the offscreen Johnny. The movie follows these episodic romances almost half-heartedly as with Wong's other films, and digressionary moments attract much of the camera's distracted gaze. This visually stylish and unabashedly effusive work is considered by some critics to be the quintessential Wong film. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, (more)
- 1994
Andrew Chin Wing-keung directs this melodrama about Ken (Charlie Yeung), a UCLA med student who ventures to Kowloon to tend to her death brother's affairs. There she encounters Joe (Max Mok Siu-cheung), her brother's gay landlord. They soon develop a friendship and later, something more. Along the way, she also meets a host of colorful characters including Siu-fu (Jacqueline Wu Chien-lien), a Taiwanese artist; a pair of lesbian cokeheads; and a Mainland Chinese woman with a half East-Indian child. Later, Ken learns that Joe and her brother were lovers, leading to a viper's nest of unanswerable questions about her dead sibling. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1994
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jackie Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, (more)
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