Isabella Leong Movies
Hong Kong-based entertainer Isabella Leong divided her time between onscreen dramatic performances in features and a secondary career as a Cantonese-language pop star, initially for the label EEG Music. Cinematically, Leong's striking and delicately beautiful appearance put her in high demand as a female lead, often in a romantic capacity; she demonstrated a great versatility that made her equally at home in action (Dragon Heat, 2005) ,historical drama (Knot, 2006), and psychological thrillers (Diary, 2006). The actress made her Hollywood premiere with supporting billing in Rob Cohen's big-budget adventure sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Jeffrey Lau's epic, mythological fantasy adventure A Chinese Tall Story unfurls in the distant past, when a small band of travelers - monk Tripitaka (Nicholas Tse) and his (human) companions Monkey King (Chen Bo-lin), Piggy (Kenny Kwan) and Sandy (Steven Cheung) - embark on a lengthy, danger-filled quest through the Himalayan foothills to retrieve some Buddhist scriptures. En route, they encounter all manner of obstacles, such as being sabotaged by The Tree Demon and attacked by a band of cannibalistic lizard men. In a more realistic episode, Tripitaka must grapple with the unrequited love that a homely outcast, Yue Meiyan (Charlene Choi) feels for him; he then ultimately winds up in the midst of an elfin storybook village where he encounters an empathetic waylaid princess (Fan Bingbing). Throughout, director Lau plays aggressively with the film form, packing in everything from witty puns to cinematic allusions to postmodern cultural asides. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi, (more)
A mentally disturbed girl mistakes a man on the street for the boyfriend who walked out of her life without a sound, only to find out just how deceiving appearances can be in director Oxide Pang's mind-bending psychological thriller. Winnie Leung (Charlene Choi) is a rather plain girl who spends most of her days in her apartment cooking, carving wooden dolls, and waiting quietly alone for her boyfriend, Seth (Shawn Yue), to return. One day, after recording Seth's furtive departure in her diary, Winnie ventures out onto the streets and makes acquaintances with a kind and handsome stranger named Ray (also Yue) after mistaking him for the missing Seth. Later revealing over lunch that Seth had apparently been killed in a tragic car accident, Winnie and Ray form a warm bond, and she eventually invites him to move in with her. As Winnie and Ray gradually begin to grow closer, the parallels between her new relationship with Ray and her old relationship with Seth begin to shed an entirely different light on the events of the recent past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlene Choi, Shawn Yue, (more)
Sammo Hung, Michael Biehn, Maggie Q, and Shawn Yue star in this action-packed thriller concerning a disappeared crime lord and the elite team of Interpol agents who set out to recapture him at all costs. A notorious Triad crime boss has disappeared just as his case was about to go before the judge, and now he could be anywhere. Now, on the bustling streets of Hong Kong, a highly skilled team of Interpol agents wage all out war against the underworld in an apocalyptic bid to capture the heavily armed foe and ensure that justice is properly served. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
On the eve before the political handover of Macao to the Peoples' Republic of China, police officer Shing suffers a terrible career crisis: he has been involved in years of money laundering with Portuguese officials and is now facing extradition. Shing seeks comfort in the arms of a young woman, Yan, with whom he wants a one-night stand. Yan, on the other hand, has a different agenda; she confronts Shing with the unexpected news that she's his daughter. Shing didn't even know he had a daughter. And while Shing wants to carry on as a care-free bachelor, Yan has other ideas and, refusing to be shrugged off as an incidental accident, causes havoc in his everyday life -- she insists on moving into her father's apartment. Shing soon has to face up to the challenge of taking on personal and professional responsibility -- paternal responsibility for his daughter and professional responsibility for the money laundering he committed as an officer of the law. In the end, he decides to admit his crime, do his time, and plans to turn over a new leaf after prison for a life of responsibility with his daughter in Macao. ~ Heidi Philipsen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chapman To, Isabella Leong, (more)
- 2006
An unrequited love affair is played out against tumultuous events in Asian history in this epic-scale historical drama. Qiushui (Chen Kun) is a teacher living and working in Taipei in the mid-1940. Qiushui meets Biyun (Vivian Hsu), a beautiful young woman from a wealthy family, when he's hired to tutor her. Qiushui soon falls head over heels for Biyun, and she clearly has feelings for him; however, Qiushui's close friend Zilu (Steven Cheung) is also infatuated with Biyun, and her father Wang Tingwu (Chin Han) isn't sure if Qiushui is a good match for his daughter. Despite it all, Qiushui and Biyun begin making plans to marry, but their hopes are dashed when the Taiwanese government begins a pogrom against those on the political left, and Qiushui's activism forces him to leave the country. Several years later, Qiushui is a medic tending to wounded soldiers in Korea, and an attractive woman named Jindi (Li Bingbing) is assigned to assist him. Jindi is quite taken with Qiushui, but he hasn't been able to forget Biyun, and Jindi finds using her feminine charm to make him forget his old love is an uphill struggle. Later, in the present day, the events of sixty years earlier take on a new importance as aging artist (Chang Gua Ahleh) and his niece Isabella Leong set out to find out what became of his brother Xue. The first co-production between producers from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Yun Shui Yao (English title: The Knot) was released simultaneously in all three nations, and became a major box-office success in China. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chen Kun, Vivian Hsu, (more)
- 2008
A whirlwind romance dies beneath the icy depths of the Pacific Ocean after a diver vanishes in the ancient ruins off Yonaguni Island, and his would-be fiancé embarks on a desperate quest to uncover his true fate. Years ago, acclaimed underwater photographer Dave Chen (Guo Xiao Dong) hid a sparking engagement ring in the 10,000 year old ruins at the westernmost tip of Japan. The ruins are Dave's greatest passion in life, and he always looked forward to the day he would return to the site with his true love, and propose to her in that awe-inspiring setting. Now Dave's dreams of finding the perfect mate have come true, and he's ready to propose to the beautiful Jing Gao (Lee Sinje). But as Dave, his sister Helen (Isabella Leong), and Jing Gao board a boat and set sail for the ruins, Helen implores her brother to take some time and weight his options. Insistent that he has found the woman he longs to share his life with, Dave follows Jing Gao into the ocean, never to be seen again. Soon thereafter, the decapitated corpse of a man is discovered, though lack of proper DNA evidence prevents the authorities from claiming that the body belonged to Dave. Devastated, Jing Gao drifts into a fantasy world populated by mysterious phantoms, where she discovers a strange piece of glass marked with the number "1016." As Jing Gao turns to her friend Simon for advice on finding out what really happened to Dave, Helen follows her instincts and travels to nearby Turtle Island in Taiwan in search of clues. What she finds there - a human head and a video camera featuring footage of the fateful dive - may be crucial to solving the mystery of her brother's disappearance. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angelica Lee
Director Zero Chou's entry into the 2007 San Francisco LGBT Film Festival tells the tale of a teenage webcam tease who decides that a tattoo will make her more appealing, and the memories that meeting the alluring artist arouses. Jade (Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang) is a cute, young webcam performer who thinks that getting a tattoo will enhance her sexy performance skills. Upon venturing out to the tattoo parlor owned by half-Japanese ink-slinger Takeko (Isabella Leong), Jade recalls a crush she harbored ten years ago. Subsequently entering into a surreal cyberspace seduction that emerges through computer images, flashbacks, and lavish costumes highlighted by lime-green wigs, Takeko finds the lines between reality and fantasy blurring as Jade's teasing slowly chips away at her fragile facade. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rainie Yang, Isabella Leong, (more)
The spirit world continues to bleed into reality in Danny and Oxide Pang's supernatural shocker about a group of vacationing teens who happen across a book that teaches the reader how to summon ghosts. May (Kate Yeung and her brother Ted (Chen Bo-lin) are vacationing in Thailand with Ko-fai (Kris Gu) and April (Isabella Long) when a local friend introduces them to a book highlighting ten ways to make contact with the spirit realm. When the methods prove successful, May and Ted suddenly and mysteriously disappear. Now it's up to Ko-fai and April to find the siblings before they are lost forever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chen Bo-lin, Yu Gu, (more)
- 2008
- PG13
- Add The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to QueueAdd The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to top of Queue
The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen continues the tale set into motion by director Stephen Sommers with this globe-trotting adventure that finds explorer Rick O'Connell and son attempting to thwart a resurrected emperor's (Jet Li) plan to enslave the entire human race. It's been 2,000 years since China's merciless Emperor Han and his formidable army were entombed in terra cotta clay by a double-dealing sorceress (Michelle Yeoh), but now, after centuries in suspended animation, an ancient curse is about to be broken. Thanks to his childhood adventures alongside father Rick (Brendan Fraser) and mother Evelyn (Maria Bello), dashing young archeologist Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) is more than familiar with the power of the supernatural. After he is tricked into awakening the dreaded emperor from his eternal slumber, however, the frightened young adventurer is forced to seek out the wisdom of his parents -- both of whom have had their fair share of experience battling the legions of the undead. Should the fierce monarch prove capable of awakening his powerful terra cotta army, his diabolical plan for world domination will finally be set into motion. Of course, the one factor that this emperor mummy failed to consider while solidifying his power-mad plans was the O'Connells, and before this battle is over, the monstrous monarch will be forced to contend with the one family that isn't frightened by a few rickety reanimated corpses. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, (more)
