Sammo Hung Movies

Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jackie Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Hefty Hong Kong kung-fu star Sammo Hung steps behind the camera to direct this period swordplay flick. The film opens in 1895 when a band of nationalists calling themselves the Black Flag Troop get annihilated while attacking the Japanese army during the Sino-Japanese war. Fast forward a couple years to 1898 when kung-fu master Tan Tzu-tung (Ti Lung), along with his assistant Nine Catties (Cynthia Yang Li-ching), stop over in a small town. Tan quickly learns that ruffians have infiltrated the berg hoping to murder a government official. Tan, Nine, and a surprisingly skilled blacksmith manage to fight off the thugs. The blacksmith turns out to be none other than Wang Wu, the leader of the Black Flag Troop. Tan quickly tries to recruit Brother Wu to his cause -- to reform China and expel the foreigners. Soon Tan, Nine, and Wu find themselves in a plot to assassinate China's wizened, corrupt Empress Dowager. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Piecing together exciting film footage of martial arts performances, Deadliest Art demonstrates the reasons for the popularity of martial arts combat in visual entertainment. The history of the art, including basics of the Eastern philosophies that govern it, provides insight along with the demonstration of various types of martial arts fighting. Touching on the skills and frame of mind necessary to perform feats of this kind, this film showcases the beauty of defense without weapons, as well as special techniques required to incorporate the use of weapons, and the ways in which the martial arts have been showcased in the film industry. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide

With the rising international popularity of Asian filmmaker Sammo Hung, it may be surprising that this fast-paced action-comedy -- which he not only produced, directed, and choreographed, but also contains one of his most amusing starring roles -- has not seen wider distribution outside Hong Kong. Surprising, that is, until one gets to the final third of the film, which proves that the sociocultural gap between nations can often be huge. The story begins as veteran police officer Pierre Lau (Hung) is partnered with an uptight young cop named Tang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who, in standard buddy-movie fashion, disagrees with him on almost everything. Pierre also has difficulties with overly eager customs official Wong Yuk-man (Yuen Biao), but the trio must forget their problems and work together when a group of Japanese drug dealers bomb the local police station. The action scenes are impressively staged, particularly a drug raid on the station by the criminals disguised as agents of the SDU (Hong Kong's equivalent of a SWAT team), but Western viewers may still be highly offended by the film's humor. The problematic sequence involves Tang and Wong wearing blackface in order to convince some black criminals that they are also black. The scene plays on every conceivable racist stereotype so blatantly that it makes enjoyment of the entire film problematic, but viewers able to overlook it should find the rest of the film entertaining, particularly the plethora of cameos by familiar faces like Blackie Ko, Wu Ma, Billy Lau, Melvin Wong, and Lau Kar-wing, among others. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

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

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, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular kung fu films ever, and perhaps the peak of the famed Bruce Lee's career, Enter the Dragon achieved success by presenting a series of superbly staged fighting sequences with a minimum of distractions. The story finds Lee as a martial-arts expert determined to help capture the narcotics dealer whose gang was responsible for his sister's death. This evil villain operates from a fortified island manned by a team of crack martial artists, who also host a kung fu competition. Lee uses his skills to enter the contest and then tries to chop, kick, and otherwise fight his way into the dealer's headquarter. The story is, of course, merely an excuse for showdown after showdown, featuring masterly fighting by Lee in a wide variety of martial arts styles. Essential viewing for martial arts fans, the film was also embraced by a larger audience, thanks to a fast pace and higher-than-usual production values. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Sammo Hung's directorial debut Fast Sword stars Chang Yi as a young man who attempts to kill the man who murdered his father. He is arrested for his actions, but eventually forms a partnership with the very man who arrested him. Together they work to stop a warlord who is controlling the area. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong filmmaker Allen Lan directs the martial arts-action film Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger, which, despite its similar title and sharing some of the same actors, has nothing to do with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Set during the Ming dynasty, the story involves horse thief Luk Ching-Yang (Sammo Hung) and his wife Liu Lu-Yian (Cheng Pei-Pei). After Luk was betrayed by his brother Kiu Hung (Tsui Goh), Lu-Yian left him. They reunite 20 years later, along with Liu Lu-Yian's adopted daughter Liu Wan-Long (Jade Leung) and the young warrior Pak Suk-Fu (Louis Fan), in order to seek revenge. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this comedy starring its director Chan Friend, an ex-wife prevails upon her first hubby to let her stay at his home. She has some financial troubles and this will help her out a lot. However, since her ex-husband has remarried in the meantime, his current wife is none too happy with this arrangement, and she resorts to petty trickery to force her rival out. Later, it is the husband who suffers when he sees how happy his ex is with her new boyfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This melodrama is one of many that have embraced the period setting of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation of World War II. Chow Yun-Fat, in an award-winning performance, plays a poor worker at a small rice shop. He befriends a rickshaw driver (Alex Mann) who falls in love with the shop owner's daughter. When the shop owner forbids the couple to marry, the trio decides to runaway to mainland China. However, their plan is interrupted by the Japanese invasion, and their friendship and loyalty is put to the test in the events that follow. Similar to films like Casablanca, Hong Kong 1941 is a good example of how Hong Kong cinema has made much use of this period and the theme of love in a desperate time. However, the film also depicts the brutality that occurred during the occupation, and the portrayal of the Japanese invasion force in this film reflects a deep resentment that parallels the representations of the German Nazis in Western film.
~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide

Leung Po-chi directs and Sammo Hung produces this grim horror flick about a school field trip gone horribly horribly wrong. Mr. Cheung (John Sham Kin-fun) takes a half-dozen high school students for a two-day outing on a remote island. Soon after they are dropped off, they realize that the supposedly deserted island is inhabited by three raving hillbillies and their paranoid mother. Though the two parties at first fashion an uneasy truce of sorts, mayhem ensues when one of the loonies decides to make a captive of one of Mr. Cheung's female students, for breeding purposes. With no way off the island and their boat not scheduled to return for two days, Mr. Cheung and his charges are forced to hunker down and defend themselves. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide