Liu Chia-hui Movies
Perhaps the most highly anticipated film of 2003, Kill Bill Vol. 1 marked the return of renowned filmmaker Quentin Tarantino after a six-year hiatus. Re-teaming the director with Uma Thurman for the first time since 1994's Pulp Fiction, the film was originally the first half of what was to be a three-hour-plus movie before being split into two films. Thurman stars as The Bride, one-fifth of a team of assassins called DiVAS. When The Bride opts to leave the outfit for a life of marital bliss, it doesn't sit well with her boss, Bill (David Carradine), so he has her former cohorts, played by Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, and Michael Madsen, show up at the nuptials, leaving behind a blood bath. Miraculously, The Bride survives a bullet to the head and, four years later, she sets out for revenge against her four assassins and their employer. The story is concluded in Kill Bill Vol. 2, released six months later. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, (more)
In a change from the usual action film, this story starts with the marriage of a young, uptight female martial-arts champion, Cheng Tai-nun (Hui Ying-hung) to an elderly and very wealthy landowner. The marriage is in name only, and takes place at the wishes of the old man expressly to keep his estate from falling into the greedy and unscrupulous hands of his brother. Tai-nun inherits his estate when he dies, and is soon in Canton, staying with her older nephew by marriage, Yu Cheng-chuan (Liu Chia-liang), and his young and attractive son Yu Tao (Hsia Hou). When the traditional and conservative Tai-nun, a woman from the provinces, runs into the modern and Westernized Yu Tao for the first time, the sparks fly and the comedy of cultural clashes begins. As the relationship between the two young protagonists of the old versus the new takes its own jaunty course, the evil brother steals the deed to the dead husband's estate, and the action begins. Tai-nun gets to showcase her martial-arts talents, as her views of the world slowly begin to change. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liu Chia-Liang, Hui Ying-Hung, (more)
As a sequel to Executioners from Shaolin, this standard kung-fu actioner features Liu Jiahui as the fighter Hong Wending whose friends have been killed by the seditious White Lotus Society. He wants revenge. In order to prepare himself for the great confrontation with the head of the White Lotus fighters, White Eyebrow--otherwise known as Pai Mei--who has two remarkable skills: He can achieve weightlessness and he can draw his reproductive organs up into his stomach in order to protect them. Wending is trained by a woman (Hui Yinghong) in how to use her more flexible style of combat. From his boss, he also learns the secret of acupuncture points that are connected with specific parts of the body. Armed with needles placed in his braided hair, he is ready to shut down his opponent like a toy whose batteries are disabled. His opponent, it so happens, is an aged abbot (played by director Lo Lieh) who looks like he could not harm a fly. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liu Chia-hui, Lo Lieh, (more)
Popular Hong Kong martial arts star Gordon Lau headlines this entertainingly comic Shaw Brothers production from prolific action director Lau Kar-leung, who also choreographed the film's fight scenes. Lau plays Wang Chin-chin, who is both the 11th prince and an expert fighter. Wang has fun secretly subverting a local con-man, the inept Ho Chi (Wong Yue), but blackmails the crook into becoming his student after making it look like a B-girl named Choi Hung (Kara Hui) has poisoned Ho and beaten him up in a nightclub. Prince Wang is on his way to the palace for the announcement of the heir, but doesn't really want to rule. His major function has been to prevent his brothers from falling victim to assassins, so Wang knows that there are forces who wish to see him killed before he reaches the palace. He brings Ho along with him, because, although his new sidekick can't fight very well, he could still prove useful in the event of an ambush. The two face various perils together, including a spectacularly staged attack in the wastelands near a village's typhoon wall and a group of comically effeminate attackers who seem to masochistically enjoy being beaten up. Eventually, Wang teaches Ho enough about kung-fu for the reforming con-man to protect him so they can get to the palace. Veteran supporting actor Lo Lieh co-stars with Johnny Wang, Hsiao Hou, and Peter Chan. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
