Sandy Shaw Movies
Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow returns to the helm for this sci-fi comedy about a struggling single father whose quest to find the perfect toy yields out-of-this-world results. Ti (Chow) is a poor construction worker who breaks his back to ensure that his young son Dicky (Xu Jiao) can stay enrolled in an exclusive private school. But while Ti does everything possible to give his son the opportunities that he never had, Dicky still feels like a classroom reject due to his tattered clothes and lack of the latest toys. Dicky's classmates all play with the coolest and most expensive gadgets that money can buy, so how is a kid who gets his toys from the local junkyard ever supposed to fit in? One day, while scrounging through the trash heap in search of a new toy, Ti discovers a mysterious orb and brings it straight back to Dicky. Though at first the "CJ7" appears to be little more than an unidentifiable oddity, it proves to be much, much more once the young boy starts to play with it. This isn't your average action figure, but a living "pet" with extraordinary powers. Realizing that his new toy may be just the thing to help him fit in with his demanding classmates, Dicky brings the CJ7 to school with him in order to show it off and have some fun. But the CJ7 has its own ideas about how to have fun, and it isn't long before the situation at school gets hopelessly out of hand. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Chow, Xu Jiao, (more)
Following up on his two-fisted Hong Kong action thriller Full Contact, ace director Ringo Lam spins this hard-boiled revenge drama. After the murder of his parents and only sister at the hands of the villianous gun-running billionaire Ray Lui (Paul Chun Pui) in 1975, crack jet pilot Yan (Andy Lau Ling-tung) vows revenge. Pairing up with Shang (David Chiang Da-wei) -- a Cambodian born CIA operative -- Yan ventures to Thailand, where he soon becomes romantically entangled with Liu's mistress Mona (Rosamund Kwan). Afterwards, events send him to San Francisco where he falls for Liu's beautiful, innocent daughter Crystal (Jacqueline We). Soon Yan finds himself included in Liu inner circle, accompanying the gangster to the secret hideout of a Cambodian autocrat. Yan places a beacon in the dictator's bunker so that the CIA can locate and destroy it with a surprise air strike. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Gangsters abound in this lively, romantic crime drama that is set in Shanghai during WW II. The tale of Taiwanese patriot Hsu Wen-Chiang begins as he is washed up on a beach near Shanghai. He is taken in by Ting Lik, a kindly beggar who is desperately in love with Feng Ching-Ching, the daughter of a prominent gangster. It isn't long before Ting Lik successfully rises through the underworld ranks to become one of the city's most powerful gangsters. Hsu is beside him all the way and uses his own power to get revenge against those who tried to have him killed much earlier. The film's later focus is on the exploits of Feng who long ago had a relationship with Hsu when he was on the lam in northern China. Back in the present, Hsu and Feng meet again by chance and they resume their affair until Hsu learns that Feng's father is one of his enemies and kills him. Poor Feng goes mad with grief. Ting finds out and swears revenge upon Hsu. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Hong Kong filmmaker Ching Siu-tung directed this lavish epic adventure set simultaneously in the present and in 1930s China, with the entire cast playing dual roles. International action star Jet Li plays Chow Si-kit, a bookish novelist whose writing is adversely affected by his problematic relationship with his wife Monica (Rosamund Kwan). Chow is best known for a series of books under the "King of Adventurers" banner in which his courageous alter-ego, an adventurer patterned on Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark, uses his impressive martial-arts skills and prodigious cunning to fight the Japanese. Chow's personal life is threatening his deadline, however, so his assistants Shing (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Yvonne (Charlie Yeung) decide to help him out by setting up a story line, which is then played out for the viewer. Hero Chow (Li again) is asked to purloin a letter from the Japanese embassy by the Chinese government. Writer Chow is upset that the story's heroine, Cammy (Kwan again) reminds him of Monica, so he makes her a villain. Chow and Shing's 1930s alter-egos, meanwhile, are looking for a magical box (not unlike the Lost Ark of the Covenant in the film's model) which can be used to divine the future or -- if the necessary safeguards are not followed -- bring evil onto whoever opens it. The box is also being sought by the Japanese military and a group of criminals called the Salt Gang, whose leader (Ngai Sing) makes the mistake of opening it without taking steps to protect himself. Monica then takes over the writing and sends the characters to the magical scripture which can help them use the box's power to defeat their enemies. Another version of the film cuts all of the modern-day material and adds new 1930s footage to explain the abrupt shifts in story line caused by the intervention of the multiple authors. Law Kar-ying co-stars with Billy Chow. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Jet Li stars in this kung-fu vehicle directed by Corey Yuen Kwai. Though a committed father and husband, Kung (Li) is a mainland undercover cop assigned to a case so sensitive that he dare not tell what he does to those he loves the most. Ordered to infiltrate the crime syndicate run by the psychotic Po Kwong (Yu Rongguang), Kung befriends Po's associate Darkie (Blackie Ko Shou-liang) and helps him escape from jail. In gratitude, Darkie smuggles Kung in Hong Kong and introduces him to Po. During an exchange between the crime lord and a second shady customer who is hawking liquid explosives, a shootout ensues. Kung takes policewoman Fong Yat-wah (Anita Mui Yim-fong) hostage and flees the scene. After he saves her from falling to her death, Fong suspects that Kung is more than the average thug. She journeys to China to investigate the matter, and learns that indeed he is an honest cop. Unfortunately, some of Po's associates also go to China and learn the same thing. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
The Dead Pool is the fifth and (thus far) the last of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies. A sports pool is placing bets on which famous person will die next. Suddenly a serial killer who preys upon celebrities enters the scene, radically (and perhaps deliberately) changing the odds in the pool. As a celebrity of sorts, maverick cop Dirty Harry Callahan becomes a target of the killer, as does high-profile TV journalist Patricia Clarkson. Surprises are at a minimum in The Dead Pool; the film gets down to business quickly, moves logically if violently towards its climax (with a spectacular car-chase sequence thrown in for good measure), and delivers exactly what its fans expect. One major difference between this film and the earlier Dirty Harry epics is that the murders are committed in so outrageous a fashion that the picture seems at times to be a Freddie Krueger vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, (more)
