Leonard Ho Movies

Mr. Nice Guy opens on a darkened Australian warehouse full of seedy criminal types who have gathered to make a large-scale drug transaction. When it goes horribly wrong and bullets start flying, the hoods flee in different directions -- until one realizes an investigative reporter (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) has caught the whole episode on video. If she gets the chance to air it on her top-rated news show, it could bring down a powerful crime family. As thugs begin chasing her, the reporter runs into a mild-mannered TV show chef named Jackie (Jackie Chan), whom her pursuers mistake for a cohort. After several thrilling escapes, the tape has accidentally changed hands, unknowingly swapped with a children's video Jackie was bringing to a family friend. As the criminals, dispatched by mob boss Giancarlo (Richard Norton), seek out both Jackie and the reporter for the tape, Jackie's visiting girlfriend (Miki Lee) and his assistant (Karen McLymont) get mixed up in the chase. Meanwhile, the bad guys will stop at nothing, including confronting Jackie on the set of a live cooking show and trying to blow up his apartment. An English-language Hong Kong import, Mr. Nice Guy was filmed after Chan finally earned stateside success with Rumble in the Bronx, but before he was recruited to Hollywood and the Rush Hour movies. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

After years as a major star in most of the rest of the world, Jackie Chan finally broke through to stardom in the United States with Rumble in the Bronx, a dubbed and re-edited version of Hung Fan Kui. Here Chan plays Keung, a police officer from Hong Kong who travels to New York to attend the wedding of his uncle, Bill (Bill Tung). Bill has just sold his grocery store to Elaine (Anita Mui), and Keung finds Elaine to be a pretty good reason to extend his visit to New York. However, a mean-spirited and fashion-challenged street gang has moved into the neighborhood and is demanding protection money from the local storekeepers. Elaine is ready to sell the store and move on, but Keung is determined to show the toughs that he's not about to be pushed around. Things get even more sticky when the hoods are on the trail of a lost cache of stolen jewels. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jackie Chan returns in one of his greatest roles in this action-comedy sequel to his 1978 Hong Kong blockbuster Drunken Master. Wong Fei Hong (Chan) is a young master of the martial art of "drunken boxing," in which fighters use alcohol to blind themselves to pain and release the angry brawler within; with the right amount of drinks under his belt, Hong can become a furious one-man army. Hong accompanies his father (Ti Lung) on a voyage to China, where they purchase a precious supply of ginseng. When Hong discovers thugs stealing from their luggage, he leaps into action to get their belongings back. Instead, he winds up with a box of valuable Chinese artifacts, which criminals are hoping to smuggle to England at a tremendous profit. Hong sets out to fight the gangsters and give the artifacts back to their rightful owners, but while his stepmother (Anita Mui) encourages him to use his drunken boxing skills, his father feels his boozy antics bring shame to the family. Jackie Chan brought some of his most elaborate stunt work to Drunken Master 2, including a remarkable fight on a bed of hot coals; Chan also directed part of the film, after Lau Kar Leung was fired after a number of disagreements with his star. Six years after it became a box office hit in Asia, Drunken Master 2 earned a theatrical release in the United States; the film was re-titled Legend Of The Drunken Master (in part because the original Drunken Master never had a proper theatrical release in America), re-edited, and dubbed into English, with a new score by Michael Wandmacher. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Even for viewers who can take or leave martial-arts films, the work of Jackie Chan bears special attention. Chan is quite simply the hardest-working movie star in the world, regularly participating in the sort of death-defying stuntwork which would make most American action heroes cringe in fear. Combining his daredevil heroics with an almost goofy brand of self-effacing humor, Chan is one of the genre's most entertaining and engaging personalities. In this film, third in the Police Story series, Chan plays a Hong Kong detective working undercover with the Chinese police to nab a Malaysian druglord. The usual hair-raising gamut of stunts follow, and numerous shootouts, fights and explosions surround the plucky cop as he combats bad guys atop a moving train, a bus, a motorcycle, a speedboat, cars, and trucks, eventually being swung through the city at high speed on a rope-ladder suspended from a helicopter. For the kind of fast-paced exotic thrills that make James Bond look like a wimp, this film is the place to go. There are some amusing comedy bits too, as when Chan's superiors all go undercover as his long-lost family, and the story zips along at a feverish clip. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Jackie Chan returns to his adventuring Indiana Jones-esque Asian Hawk character with this rollicking action-adventure yarn. In this go-around, Jackie (aka the Asian Hawk) is looking for 240 tons of gold stolen by the Nazis and buried beneath the Sahara. Along the way, he teams up with a stuck-up archeologist named Ada (Carol Cheng), a Japanese tourist named Momoko (Shoko Ikeda), and Elsa (Eva Cobo De Garcia), the granddaughter of the Nazi captain who originally hid the booty. Opposing them is various groups of blackguards and mercenaries along with Adolf (Aldo Sanbrell) -- the last surviving soldier from the original company -- who is hell-bent on getting the gold himself. Soon, two of Jackie's companions find themselves sold into slavery while Jackie battles the baddies in a massive WWII-era wind tunnel. This film ran 100 percent over Chan's already lavish -- by Hong Kong standards -- budget, making it one of the most expensive films that industry has ever produced. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In 1969, while Hong Kong is undergoing its own localized chaos -- fallout from the Cultural Revolution on the Chinese mainland -- taxi driver Ah-chung is hard-pressed to juggle the two women in his life and his ambition to own his own cab. One of the women is a wealthy socialite who pays for his intimate attentions. The other is his real girlfriend who, despite herself, is drawn to him. What's the problem? The girlfriend is ambitious too: she wants to land someone with real money, not just a hard-working cab driver. One highlight of this light-hearted romantic comedy is its use of music from the period. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This drama focuses on life at the Peking Opera School and is a loose biography of Hong Kong film stars Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. Sammo Hung portrays Master Yu, the academy's brutal schoolmaster, who takes the youths through the rigorous acrobatic training. The film offers an introspective view of Master Yu, as a man who must face the fact that the institution to which he has devoted his life is fading with the passage of time. Although many of the film collaborations of Hung, Chan, and Baio have hinted at their youth together, this film attempts to depict the harsh reality. Nevertheless, Chan has criticized the film, stating that his longtime friend Hung's portrayal was actually too sympathetic an interpretation of Master Yu. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, Rovi

This slapstick martial arts film is often regarded as superior to the original Project A. Dragon (Jackie Chan) runs against the pirates he defeated in the first film and also gets in trouble with corrupt cops, and a revolutionary group that includes popular Hong Kong actress Michelle Cheung. Many of the acrobatic fight sequences in this installment are legendary, including a scene where Dragon runs down the wall of a collapsing building in the style of Buster Keaton. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, Rovi

Following up from their success with Project A, martial arts-comedy trio Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao head out to Spain for this screwball kung-fu flick. Thomas and David (Chan and Yuen) run a Chinese lunch wagon in the streets of Barcelona. One day, David encounters a beautiful pickpocket named Sylvia (Lola Forner, who also appeared in Armor of God) and he is immediately smitten. Meanwhile, inept private dick Moby (Hung) is tracking down the illegitimate daughter of a dead count. If the woman can be found within two weeks after his death, his vast riches go to her. If not, then her evil stepbrother gets the goods. Of course, Sylvia turns out to be the missing heiress. And naturally her evil step-brother has sent out a bevy of goons to insure his inheritance while David, Moby, and Thomas vow to protect the lass. The film was originally going to be called "Meals on Wheels" until studio head Raymond Chow, after the utter failure of his 1982 opus Megaforce, vowed never to have a film that began with an "M." ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In this softporn movie from Hong Kong, the sex scenes are artificial enough to seem absurd -- not a good start for a film that sells itself as erotic. The story concerns a Japanese singer who is in Hong Kong to promote a new recording when she runs into her ex-lover and the old flame is re-ignited in her hotel room. One of the wealthy Hong Kong magnates tries to buy his way into the Japanese star's affections, and when that does not work, he becomes nasty. But in the end, the ex-lover -- a kung-fu star -- settles the score all around. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

International martial arts superstar Jackie Chan directed and choreographed (along with veterans Corey Yuen and Fung Hark-on) this action-packed follow-up to The Young Master. Chan also stars as Dragon, a rebellious young man who is always getting into trouble along with his best friend, Cowboy (Feng Sing). The friends soon meet Tiger (Michael Chan), a desperate man in hiding from the Chinese Imperial Guardsmen who conspired with him to steal a number of priceless artifacts from the Forbidden City. Tiger's fellow guardsmen were intending to sell the treasures to foreign interests and divide the money, but Tiger left before the transaction could be completed. What neither Tiger nor Cowboy knows is that the Captain of the Guards (Whang Ing-sik) is working in collaboration with the latter's corrupt father to pull off the illicit deal. Tiger goes back and purloins some of the artifacts, escaping with the guards in hot pursuit, as they need a complete collection to maintain their agreement with the buyers. Dragon and Cowboy remain blissfully unaware of the situation and give Tiger a place to seek shelter, only to face the wrath of the Captain and his men when their hiding place is discovered. Stand-out sequences include the final battle between Dragon and the Captain inside a large barn and a scene in which the precariously perched Dragon tries to keep from falling off a steep roof as the guards stick sharp spears through it from below. Dragon Lord also inaugurated Chan's practice of including clips of misfired stunts and injuries at the end of his films. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Following up on his success with his 1978 smash hit Drunken Master, Jackie Chan directs this old school kung-fu-comedy. Lung (Chan) is an orphan being raised in a grim martial arts school run by a strict dour master. During the Lion Dance competition, Lung's buddy, Keung (Wei Pai), jumps ship and helps a rival school win. Keung is immediately kicked out of the school and Lung is sent out to go find him. Meanwhile, Keung falls in with a pair of thugs who are looking to bust the master of the rival school out of prison. The cops headed by the earnest Sam Kung (Shih Kien) mistakes Lung for Keung and eventually captures him. Though Lung easily manages to slip out of the cuffs and evade Kung, his daughter proves to be much harder to lose and a formidable kung-fu to boot. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi