Chan Pui-Wah Movies

A Hong Kong fast food restaurant acts as the link between two unusual stories of police officers in love in this eccentric, stylish comedy-drama. Director Wong Kar-Wai plays freely with traditional narrative structure, dividing his film into two loosely connected segments. The first centers on a depressed cop struggling to come to terms with a recent break-up. His sad isolation is transformed when he encounters a beautiful, mysterious femme fatale, whose involvement with the criminal underworld proves troublesome for both. The second story explores the odd relationship between a female restaurant worker and another recently jilted police officer. The strange woman decides to regularly clean and redecorate the man's apartment in his absence, allowing the two to form a close intimacy without meeting face to face. Both stories present a beautifully atmospheric look at modern urban life and romance, with its combination of isolation and casual, unexpected meetings. Chungking Express came to the attention of American audiences thanks to the efforts of director Quentin Tarantino, whose own brand of fractured storytelling and urban cool owes a debt to Wong Kar-Wai. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Actor/director Sammo Hung gathered an international cast including the late Oscar winner Dr. Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields) and some of the most recognizable faces in Hong Kong cinema for this action-packed martial arts adventure. Set in 1976, the film focuses on a ragtag group of Chinese and Vietnamese prisoners trained by the United States government to carry out a potentially suicidal parachute mission into Vietnam. They are charged with destroying a cache of American weapons accidentally left behind when Saigon fell the previous year before they are recovered by the Vietcong. Led by Tung Ming-sun (Hung), the troops are escorted by a trio of hardbitten female guerrilla fighters from Cambodia (led by Joyce Godenzi), and guided by a black market peddler (Yuen Biao) and his insane uncle (Ngor). Chased by a crazed Vietnamese colonel (Yuen Wah), the team makes their way to the underground storage complex for a violent, impressively staged finale. Blending traditional genre elements with those of the American war film (notably The Dirty Dozen), the film co-stars Corey Yuen, Yuen Woo-ping, Dick Wei, and Phillip Ko, among a host of other familiar genre regulars. The dubbed version released by Tai Seng changes some character names to eliminate any Vietnamese among the heroes and cuts three sequences available in subtitled import editions from other distributors. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Hong Kong filmmaker Brandy Yuen wrote and directed this breezy sports comedy set in the 1960s soccer scene. Yuen Biao stars as Lee Tong, who leaves his remote farming village after accidentally injuring the chieftain's son and travels to the big city. While settling in, Lee meets Suen (Cheung Kwok-keung), an aspiring soccer player who encourages him to audition for the Luen Wah team. Unfortunately, Lee falls for a trap, as he had earlier disgraced the team's star player, King (Dick Wei), who is eager to get revenge. Lee becomes the team's ballboy and is subjected to repeated humiliation, but finally gets his chance to shine when King accepts a bribe to throw a match and has Lee take his place, assuming that the lowly ballboy will make a fool of himself. As has become standard procedure in films like this, Lee singlehandedly leads the team to victory, gets the stuffing beat out of him as punishment, and finally redeems himself one-on-one in a climactic showdown with King. Moon Lee co-stars with Eddy Ko. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi