Michael Chow Movies

Andy Warhol was a phenomenon who warrants a lot of explaining: a completely colorless mega-star celebrity, and a kind of LaBrea Tarpit for a vivid and talented collection of oddballs in the New York scene. He fostered their continued degeneration into weird lifestyles and heavy drug use; and at the same time acted as their mentor, agent, and sponsor. One artist who came to be part of Warhol's "scene" was Jean Michel Basquiat, an antisocial street-bum who went from writing graffiti on alley walls to being the toast of New York City's art world. This film biography chronicles the progression of Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) and his progression from living in cardboard boxes to penthouses, his romances, his drug use, and his death in 1988 at age 27. Along the way, he never stopped detesting the rich, including art agent Bruno Bischofberger (Dennis Hopper), and he never lost his naivete. Warhol (David Bowie) picks up some of the pieces as Basquiat lurches through the art scene. Cameo appearances by Tatum O'Neal and Courtney Love add spice to this interesting film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A man discovers that what he doesn't know can hurt him, especially when it comes to his wife, in this suspense drama. Ray Reardon (James Spader) is an architect who has just gone through a messy divorce; while his friends sing the praises of the single life, Ray would prefer to settle into a life of middle-class domesticity with a home, wife, and family. Ray meets a beautiful but mysterious woman named Lena (Madchen Amick) at a party, and for him it's love at first sight; while she remains elusive, Ray pursues her avidly, and before long he proposes, even though he doesn't know her especially well. A few years later, they're seemingly happily married with children. But Lena's behavior starts to become erratic and depressive, and she is no longer willing to account for where she's been or what she's been doing. Ray is convinced that Lena has been having an affair and begins doing some research into her past; he soon discovers her previous life bears little resemblance to what she told him and that she's been lying to him about nearly every part of her history and their relationship. Lena contends that she's just "a regular screwed-up person," but in time, Ray realizes that there's a purpose behind her duplicity: she's trying to convince people that he is insane. Dream Lover was the directorial debut of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Placed in a mental institution by her twin sister's unscrupulous husband, in this comedy the two sisters decide to trade places, and succeed in doing so. Once freed, the "mad" sister rapidly manages to put her slimy brother-in-law in his place, brings solace to the life of a lonely old man, has an adventure which puts her in the position of preventing some hired killers from doing their jobs, as well as falling in love with a government worker. In the meantime, her previously downtrodden sister finds love at the madhouse with a doctor who is unpopular with his colleagues. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A crack shot with a cool head and an eye for beautiful dames, Mumble Chow, private detective, embarks upon one of his most challenging cases when a pretty femme fatale lures him to the home of a triad boss looking for his missing daughter Cher. Stuffed with action, comedy and beautiful women, this exciting Hong Kong-set detective adventure is based on a popular Japanese manga. Before becoming a gumshoe, Ben Chow had been a marksman with one of the city's most elite commando police units. He got fired after arriving late to a training exercise that ended in disaster. As a detective, he meets Cher by accident when he saves her from a deadly situation. After going to work for her father, he manages to find the missing girl and bring her home. The murder of her oily fiancé, causes the triad boss to hire Mumble as Cher's new bodyguard. That's fine with the detective, for he wants to kindle a relationship with her. At the same time, he is quietly stalked by a vengeful woman who is convinced that Mumble murdered her father. Other troubles arise when someone kidnaps Cher's father, and Mumble finds out that his former commando buddies are out to fulfill a contract on his head. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this light-hearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid-1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first English-speaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her arch-nemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bond-like plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East. Like its mod-era sets and costumes, this unusual, inconsistent effort is certainly intriguing and attractive, but might seem rather dated to some. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Ko directed this absorbing thriller which benefits greatly from the chemistry between Michael Chow and Hilary Tsui as CID officers Ho Tin-nam and Jacky Wong. As the film opens, the officers follow a stray dog to the crucified body of a truck driver in a remote area. Much of the suspicion centers on his fellow trucker Chan (Shing Fui-on), particularly when the victim's wife is killed as well. When not only Chan, but the nosy stray dog are added to the growing number of victims, attention is focused on an arrangement which the drivers had with a Chinese prostitute named Yin-fong. She had been their secret liaison in Shenzhen, and committed suicide when the men refused to let her stop providing her services to them. Yin-fong's twin sister Mei-ping (Miki Ng) also becomes a suspect, but yet another murder provides her with an alibi. Officers Ho Tin-nam and Jacky are faced with a plethora of red herring leads and an escalating body count before they can bring the real killer to justice. Jay Lau co-stars with Liu Kai-chi, Ha Ping, and William Ho. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Anthony Quinn added Eskimo to the many ethnic types he portrayed on film with this drama about a clash of cultures from director Nicholas Ray. Inuk (Quinn) is a typical Eskimo hunter, living proudly as his ancestors did, eking out an existence on the frozen Canadian tundra. When Inuk takes his wife and mother-in-law to a trading post to exchange furs, the family meets a friendly priest (Marco Guglielmi). In time-honored Eskimo custom, Inuk offers the missionary his wife's sexual favors. Offended by the man's rejection, Inuk kills him. Having broken Western law, Inuk is pursued by two Mounties (Peter O'Toole and Carlo Giustini). Slowed down by his wife's elderly mother, he sends the woman out on the ice to perish, another of his people's ancient traditions. The police capture Inuk, but the lawmen and their prisoner encounter severe weather. The Savage Innocents (1959) was the feature debut of actor O'Toole, who objected to the overdubbing of his voice in the finished film. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Violent Playground opens with a few West Side Story style shots of a Liverpool street gang, commandeered by a very nasty-looking David McCallum. We're going to be seeing a lot more of McCallum before the final fadeout: His sister (Anne Heywood) is in love with an upright police officer (Stanley Baker). The film plods along predictable grounds until the climactic rumble sequence, which is as good as anything ever seen in Hollywood "J.D." picture. Violent Playground didn't get much American play in 1957, principally because there was a glut of such films at the time. The picture received a new lease on life in the early 1960s to cash in on the Man From UNCLE popularity of David McCallum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Bond heads East to save the world (and to learn how to serve saki properly) in this action-packed espionage adventure. When an American spacecraft disappears during a mission, it's widely believed to have been intercepted by the Soviet Union, and after a Russian space capsule similarly goes missing, most consider it to be an act of American retaliation. Soon the two nations are at the brink of war, but British intelligence discovers that some sort of UFO has crashed into the Sea of Japan. Agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent in to investigate. After staging his own death to avoid being followed, Bond, disguised as a Japanese civilian, teams up with agent Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) and his beautiful associate Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi). With their help, Bond learns that both the American and Russian space missions were actually scuttled by supercriminal Ernst Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) in yet another bid by his evil empire SPECTRE to take over the world. As he battles the bad guys, Bond finds time to romance both Kissy Suziki (Mie Hama) and Helga Brandt (Karin Dor). You Only Live Twice was one of Sean Connery's last outings as James Bond. The next Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, would star George Lazenby as 007, and while Connery would return for Diamonds Are Forever, in 1973, Roger Moore took over the role. (Connery would play Bond one last time, in 1983's Never Say Never Again, which was produced outside the official series.) ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide