Koan Hui Movies

Chinese director Hua Tao-Teng's Mandarin-language gothic horror picture The Matrimony (AKA Xin zhong you gui) unfurls in Shanghai, during the 1920s, when the fiancée of wealthy Junchu is killed in a bizarre accident. Junchu allows his mother to talk and pressure him into marrying Sansan, another woman all but unknown to him. He agrees - begrudgingly - but in time Sansan's body is occupied by Junchu's dead fiancee's vengeful spirit, which drives Sansan over the edge and sends her plummeting into insanity and homicide. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Two men who have a great deal in common become friends, only to find themselves turned into enemies in this slam-bang action fest from Hong Kong. Tyler (Nicholas Tse) is a man trying to make a career in a rough section of Hong Kong. One night, after several drinks too many, he hooks up with Ah Jo (Cathy Chui), an off-duty undercover cop who has also had a bit more alcohol than usual. Tyler and Ah Jo spend the night together, even though she usually prefers the company of women, and Ah Jo soon finds she's pregnant. Ah Jo has no desire to remain involved with Tyler, but he wants to do the right thing, so he takes a job as a bodyguard for low-level gangster Uncle Ji (Anthony Wong) and sends her his money, all the while wishing he could be in Brazil. Meanwhile Jack (Wu Bai), who once lived in Brazil, is back in Hong Kong with his very pregnant wife Ah Hui (Candy Lo), the daughter of a triad kingpin targeted by Brazilian gangsters. Uncle Ji is in charge of protecting the triad leader, and he makes Tyler one of his right-hand men. Tyler and Jack get to know one another and become close friends, but their friendship comes to an end when the Brazilian mob makes Jack an offer he can't refuse, putting the two men on opposite sides of a gangland war. Seunlau Ngaklau was directed by Tsui Hark, who returned to Hong Kong filmmaking after a brief sojourn in Hollywood. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The godfather of the Hong Kong action spectacular, Tsui Hark adapts Chang Cheh's 1967 martial arts masterpiece The One-Armed Swordsman into a two-fisted yarn about violence and revenge. On (Zhao Wenzhou) is a nebbish orphan working at sword manufacturers. When he learns of first the vicious murder of a local holy man and later of the equally vicious slaying of his own father at the hands of barbarous band of bandits, he vows revenge. His early attempts at justice go horribly -- he loses his right arm in an ambush. Though On recovers after being nursed back to health by a recluse, he remains an outcast in the world of warriors. After dogged training, he invents a new fighting technique that proves to be quick and powerful enough to thwart the baddies -- especially the psychopathic bandit leader Lung (Xiong Xinxin). This film -- along with Wong Kar-wai's brilliant Ashes of Time -- is considered to be the high-water mark of the swordplay genre that gained popularity in the mid-'90s. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi