Philip Chan Movies

Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in the aptly titled Bloodsport. An American soldier at large in Hong Kong, Van Damme becomes involved in the Kumite (also spelled Kumatai), a highly illegal kickboxing competition. Whoever survives the bout will be crowned Kumite champion of the world-a title that has plenty of challengers with homicide in their hearts. The finale offers a duel to the death (or near-death) between Van Damme and reigning Kumite king Bolo Yeung. The script is based on the real-life exploits of martial arts champ Frank Dux (who serves as the film's fight coordinator). Denied such niceties as production values, Bloodsport scores big-time in the violent action department. A sequel followed in 1995, inventively titled Bloodsport 2. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jean-Claude Van Damme proves that two cracked heads are better than one in Double Impact. Van Damme plays twins Chad and Alex, who were separated at birth when their parents were brutally murdered by members of a Hong Kong criminal cartel. Incredibly both Chad and Alex have grown up to become world-class martial arts experts. Chad is a snobbish Californian karate instructor, while Alex is a cigar-smoking smuggler in Hong Kong. The two are brought back together by the family bodyguard Frank Avery (Geoffrey Lewis) to team up to avenge their parents' murder. But stacked against them is a thoroughly nasty, over-the-top assassin named Moon (martial arts film great Bolo Yeung). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Inspired by a true story, this action-adventure thriller concerns the race to obtain the blueprints of a MIG-25 "Foxbat" Soviet fighter plane which has landed in Japan, complete with a pilot who is asking for asylum. Undercover U.S. spy Michael Saxon (Henry Silva) is trying to get the microfilms for the state-of-the art film back to his country, but he is competing against agents and representatives from many countries for the privilege: at one point there is a super-secret auction of the plans. Naturally, the KGB is not taking this situation sitting down, and agents are dispatched to destroy the plans and anyone who has them. The action moves from Tokyo to Hong Kong, as Saxon attempts to contact a man who can arrange for the proper delivery of the plans. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Chow Yun Fat, star of many a John Woo actioner, is top-billed in Long Goodbye. Alternately known as Hunting Heads, this is the story of a vengeance-motivated hit man. His methods are unorthodox, not to mention gruesome. The film is alternately known as The Head Hunter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the year 2001, many government institutions have become privatized commercial ventures, like the men's prison where young Riki-Oh (Sui-Wong Fan) is sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter and assault. The ruthless gangsters who control the prison break an old man's face open in the prison lavatory as the film begins. The nearly superhuman Ricky trips one of the guards so his face is impaled on a spiked board in retaliation, and vows to avenge the old man when he hangs himself in despair. When the guards send the huge, Sumo-like Zorro after him in the prison shower, Ricky bloodily disembowels the man with his bare hands and apparently breaks another man in half with a single punch. Ricky is taken to the assistant warden, who has a metal hook-hand and a glass eye (he keeps mints in the socket). He impales Ricky's hand with his hook and beats him, but is quickly reduced to quaking fear by Ricky's incredible abilities. In an outrageous fight scene, a gangster named Oscar cuts Ricky's arm open with a knife and throws ground glass in his eyes, but Ricky ties his own veins together and knocks Oscar's eyeball out with a sharp cuff to the back of the head. Oscar then commits hara-kiri and tries to strangle Ricky with his own intestines before dying. There's a head broken like a vase, a saw-toothed machete to the face, people skinned alive, and the main plot -- Ricky fighting the evil opium-growing crooks running the prison -- gets somewhat lost in the flood of gore and guts, but it doesn't matter a bit. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Kenneth Ip had been a film critic and an editor of a film magazine before trying his hand at directing Sealed with a Kiss, and his former occupations undoubtedly influenced his approach here. Instead of following the usual bullet-ridden, body-strewn plots of other commercial Hong Kong releases, he has focused on the story of a mentally handicapped young man (Albert Au) and an innocent young teenager (Chu Kit) who slowly develop a romantically-inclined relationship through a series of proper and conventional dates. While in a secluded spot (whether symbolically or not, an abandoned church), the couple kiss for the first time - and the teenager becomes overwrought, remembering an earlier time when she was raped. After repeated apologies and entreaties on the part of the disabled young man, the couple get together again and this time, while alone, their passion for each other comes to the surface. Frightened and misunderstanding the effects of kissing, they are overcome with worry that she might be pregnant. When their families are approached with a request that they be married, the subsequent refusals send them off on a desperate escape. Their relationship is then tested by a series of events that may be more than either can ultimately handle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Kwong (Richard Ng) and his friend (Philip Chan) escape the mainland by swimming across the water to Hong Kong, where they are welcomed by a fortunate stroke of luck. A popular kung-fu movie star has just disappeared into the murky deep of Hong Kong's harbor on a shoot, and Kwong is literally a dead-ringer for the extinguished star. As a new career opens up for him and fame and fortune change his life style, Kwong gets wind of the disturbing news that a dead star might be just the ticket to boost box office sales - and of course, Kwong is not about to agree with this latest get-rich-quick technique. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

As a sequel to Pom Pom I, this attempt at slapstick comedy is glued together by a story about a detective and his bride, also a policewoman, who are trying to save their former boss in the precinct from a frame-up. Thwarting their every move is a new, antagonistic boss, some gangsters, and the couple's own tendency to screw things up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Inspector Chow had the effrontery to put the mobster and drug kingpin Lau in prison. While in prison, Lau plots his revenge. The first part of it requires that he have Inspector Chow murdered. The second part requires that he make a big splash in the criminal world by stealing an Italian diamond shipment. He sets his scheme underway, recruiting a corruptible cop, Pang, by tricking him into running up a huge gambling debt. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

International action star Jackie Chan stars opposite knockabout comedy sensation Jackie Chan in this story about identical twins separated in childhood who are unexpectedly reunited years later. While on the run from a Hong Kong hospital, an escaped convict takes an infant hostage, leaving the baby's identical twin brother behind. While the criminal is soon back behind bars, the police can't find the baby, who was hidden in the woods. The child is found by a well-meaning but hard-drinking woman who raises him on her own, while his brother moves to the United States with his parents. Years later, the brother raised in America, John (Jackie Chan), is a world-renowned classical musician, while the other, Boomer (Chan again), is a rough-and-tumble auto mechanic who likes to race cars and start fights. When Boomer's best friend hatches a dubious scheme to win the freedom of a nightclub singer (Maggie Cheung) in dutch with gangsters, he finds himself involved and in danger, just in time for John to arrive in Hong Kong for a concert appearance. The two brothers soon meet by accident, and suddenly finds themselves mistaken for each other. On one hand, both are pleased with the romantic possibilities, as John takes a shine to the nightclub chanteuse and Boomer discovers John's girlfriend is turned on by his more physical personality. On the other hand, John finds people are shooting at him, while Boomer is now expected to conduct an orchestra. Two of Hong Kong's leading directors, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark, teamed for this action comedy, which was a major hit in Hong Kong in 1992, but didn't receive a wide theatrical release in the United States until seven years later. The 1999 American release was dubbed into English (with Chan doing his own voice) and trimmed to 89 minutes from the original running time of 100 minutes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi