E Y E W A N N A B E

Winners and Sinners (AKA Five Lucky Stars) would be the start of a hugely successful series in HK. While Winners and Sinners is the "first" of the series the second film, My Lucky Stars, would feature most of the same characters but change a bit of the situation from the first. My Lucky Stars comes off as a spiritiual sequel with the 3rd film, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star, being the first true sequel. Make sense? AWESOME!

Only the first three films would feature Sammo Hung (who stars and directs) along with his brothers Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. None of the three appear together on-screen at the same time - Biao's appearance is basically a cameo and Jackie plays a hapless cop who has a side story.

The film itself centers on five men who wind up in jail together. This crew decides to become 'brothers' while in jail and when they are all released they go into business together, along with the sister of one of the cons. They all aren't true cons - most of the gang are just petty thieves while one is a political activist. The gang consists of Teapot (Sammo Hung), Curly (John Shum), Vaseline (Charlie Chin), Rookie (Stanley Fung), and Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng), along with Curly's sister Shirley (Cherie Chung). Together they form the Five Star Cleaning Company - which cleans office buildings and stuff. They all live at Curly's uncle's place where all of them (minus Curly) do nothing but try to sleep with Shirley.

Jackie plays a cop who destroys everything in his path. He usually gets the bad guy but ends up breaking everything, causing car crashes, and leaving everything chaotic in his wake. He's not really important to the film itself - he basically shows up for star value. He does get to quickly fight Biao after the duo have a misunderstanding. That's fun.

While Biao is my favorite martial artist of all time, it sure is fun to watch Sammo. He's truly my idol. He's just a big, fun, heavy, self-depricating guy you just have to cheer for. In this film he's low man on the totem pole (he's 5th brother) but he's the leader come My Lucky Stars.

This film is certainly not a kung-fu film. It's a comedy with a bunch of kung fu thrown into it. It's really fun when the 5 Lucky Stars are off doing something together - like all hit on Shirley. They are all perverts...which makes them loveable losers who really just can't 'get theirs'.

The best is Richard Ng. The man is just a comedic genius. He is the best part of these films and any film that he suddenly shows up in (his cameo in Wheels on Meals where he's locked up in an insane asylum comes right to mind). Here he's just a guy who can't fight, can't land the woman, and tries to become invisible. That's right - he's studying how to become invisible. Does it work? Of course not. Do they trick Richard into thinking he's invisible so he'll walk around naked? Yes they do - and it's played for some of the best laughs in the film.

There is a really pintless rollerskating contest scene really only good for showing off the skills that Jackie acquired for Battle Creek Brawl - having previously never rollerskated in his life. He really does an outstanding job showing off his skating moves...but does it have ANYTHING to do with the plot? Nooooooooooo. Does it matter? Nooooooooooo. There's a slim payoff when Jackie runs into two guys exchanging money for product, but this could have been done anywhere - it didn't have to be at a rollerskating contest.

The film has a nice, thrown together quality to it. It's more of guys having fun with a plot attached - kind of like how I felt Ocean's Eleven was. The cast works well together! I loved watching this film so much I'm going to throw in My Lucky Stars right now so I can continue the fun.

Since starting my Kung Fu Reviews I've basically been going through my massive collection and rewatching films one-by-one for these reviews. Today, straight from HK, I received a copy of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain in the mail today. So I find myself, for the first time, reviewing a Kung Fu film that I've never actually seen before. JOY!!!!!

There are quite a number of Yuen Biao films I have yet to watch, Biao being my favorite martial artist of ALL time. The man is so fun to watch especially his films from the late 70s / early 80s. Zu falls into that category, having been released back in late 1983.

The film is not your typical wuxia film and is more of a fantasy/sci-fi film based in the 10th century. Watching the film it really reminds me, for some reason, of John Carpenter's awesome Big Trouble in Little China. The film is plagued with bad special effects but what can one expect from a film from 1983? A part from the cheese the film is WAY fun which I'm truly glad for.

Biao plays Ti Ming Chi, a soldier caught up in a massive China civil war where at least five different factions are fighting each other at once. When we meet Ming Chi he gets caught up in a fight with a soldier from another army (Sammo Hung!!!) only to discover they are about to get caught up in a much bigger fight. The two decide to team up and try to get out of this massive fight alive, play fighting with each other to try to make it out of the fight. This leads Ming Chi to find a hidden hole in a mountain where he runs into the mystical Swordsman.

Ming Chi gets caught up with Swordsman, another powerful monk Master Ting, and his student Yi Chen all looking to take down a bunch of uber-baddie mythical creature types including the Blood Demon. Fighting these creatures Ming Chi realizes quickly that there's more to the world then the fighting of men. Another monk (also played by Sammo) defeats the Blood Demon but only the body is destroyed, the soul survives and starts to make a new body. So Ming Chi is sent on a quest to get the Twin Swords that can kill the Blood Demon's soul, aided by his friends, and sought after by many enemies.

The film is an early directorial effort by Tsui Hark - who I just talked about in my Double Team review. Though this was made nearly fifteen years earlier with cheesy special effects it is 100x the movie Double Team is. Watching the film only leads to a question...what would Hark do with a bigger budget and a premise like this?!? It's an easily answered question: Hark would do a 2001 sequel titled The Legend Of Zu starring Sammo and Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi. I'm not sure if that film is a true sequel or a spiritual one - I'll have to find out when I finally get a chance to watch it in the future.

It's also very cool that Biao becomes a super cool super guy psychic Jedi guy with a kickass lightsaber thingie.

So if you are in the mood for a weird, awesome wuxia flick with killer chicks (both in looks and they are kickass fighters), evil demons, kung-fu, Biao wish a weird lightsaber, and more....Zu is certainly the flick for you. I can see how some people may not like this film as it isn't your a-typical kung fu flick, but I think that's why I really liked it. Like Biao's The Iceman Cometh it combines some supernatural elements that makes an average kung fu film alot more fun.

Jackie Chan had spent a short time in Australia back in the 1970s - he had made a few films with him in a starring role that weren't successful and went to Australia before heading back to HK to become the star he would become today. It was even in Australia where he received the name 'Jackie.'

It was nice that in 1997 he made an English-language movie in Australia - made even better when he reunited with Sammo Hung who directed the film. The plot is your basic chase-after Jackie for a McGuffin and he takes on 3,000,000 bad guys. Who needs plot!?!?!? This is an amazing action flick with tons of Jackie kicking major ass against drug lords and gangs!

So Jackie is...Jackie - a TV chef who gets mixed up with a reporter that videotapes a drug lord and his crew taking on a local gang who stole his cocaine. Jackie saves the reporter only to end up with this mysterious videotape - which then ends up in the hands of an eight year-old who unknowingly takes the tape and thinking it's some sort of cool movie.

Everyone wants this tape because of how damaging it is. Everyone knows Jackie because he's on TV. So the drug kingpin (Richard Norton - once again playing an awesome Jackie Chan heavy) AND the rival gang both hunt down Jackie and his friends looking for the videotape. So Jackie spends most of the movie trying to avoid these people while trying to save his girlfriend from the mitts of the evil gang.

With a subpar plot you need alot of action and you need this action done WELL. Jackie's stunt team once again brings the action and Sammo, no stranger to delivering an action packed film, directs the hell out of Jackie and his stunt team. The results are a well done action packed comedy.

It's refreshing to have this in English as well. No dubbing - when Jackie's girlfriend Miki shows up and knows no English we are greeted with subtitles. It's part of the plot and thank God she isn't dubbed. Jackie isn't the best English speaker in the world but he has certainly moved past his bad 80's films.

It was nice to see Jackie and Sammo on-screen together again (Sammo has a cameo as a bike courier) and also Jackie with Richard Norton - who he worked with on both City Hunter and Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars. Norton is that great tall, good looking, cocky bad guy who had mad martial arts skillz - a perfect villain for Jackie.

All-in-all Mr. Nice Guy is another Jackie Chan film that you can't take too seriously and you'd never want to. You are in it for the action and the fun and Mr. Nice Guy easily delivers on both parts.

My favorite martial artist of all time is Yuen Biao. The man is just a phenomenon - especially when he was young. The man is just fluid and amazing - performing aerial stunts that border on near impossible. Biao may not be as famous as some of his counterparts but, to me, there is no one more fun to watch on-screen.

1979's Knockabout is not Biao's first film - he had been doing stunts and co-starring in films for a couple years before this film. Knockabout IS Biao's first major screen role and it truly shows off his acting ability and his phenom martial arts. Of course it certainly helps that he is directed by Sammo Hung - the man knows how to direct a motion picture. Add him as a co-star to the mix and you have a kickass flick.

Biao plays Yipao, a con artist who works closely with his 'brother' Taipao. The two work together performing small cons on a village circa late 1800s/early 1900s China. The two are decent enough conmen who usually end up on some bad luck once a con is pulled off, usually using fast talking and subpar kung fu to get them out of situations.

The duo end up seeing a man in a restauraunt and decide to steal his bag. When the plot doesn't goes as planned Yipao and Taipao jump the man in the woods, only to find themselves beat the fuck up. The two see an opprotunity: get this man to become their sifu and get a chance to learn some real kung-fu. So they hound Chia until he decides to take them on as his students. Chia is not what he seems and the boys soon learn their master is Old Fox - a criminal being sought after by the authorities. Not only does Old Fox kill a policeman but he turns on his own students, kiilling Taipao as well after Yipao witnesses the death of the cop. Yipao barely escapes and ends up running into the Blinking Beggar (SAMMO!!!!) who has been turning up throughout the film. Of course the beggar is a kung-fu genius and agrees to teach Yipao everything he knows so he can avenge his 'brother'.

Certainly the script is not important - it is your basic 'Young Master gets trained by bum/drunk to avenge someone in the end' plot that plagued many of the 70's kung fu films. Again it is Biao who shines. You watch him do 10 flips in a row and you are dumbfounded. You watch him do these flips atop a small table and you are simply...without words. Later films would showcase his acrobatics better (the end scene from Dragons Forever amazes me every single time I watch it) but considering this is Biao's first lead film he couldn't have started off better. Knockabout is a kung-fu classic - a shame that it isn't truly recognized as such.

The film has a very silly feel to it at the start which is good - the comedy leads you to care for Yipao and Taipao. By the time Taipao dies and Yipao starts training, the film takes a more serious turn. It feels like two different films put together, as if two different directors show 1/2 a film each. But I don't feel that the shift is a bad thing. The beginning shows Yipao in a free carefree lifestyle only to be forced to grow up very fast.

You can also tell by his hair and build why the producers of Game of Death chose to use Biao as one of the 'Bruce Lee' stunt doubles in the film. The man just looks MAD Bruce Leeish in Knockabout.

This is probably my second favorite 'solo' Yuen Biao film - the flick The Prodigal Son (again directed by Sammo) would take the same-ish plot and just do it WAY better. But Biao was a bit bigger then and because of this more money and time was probably spent on the film.

Winners and Sinners (AKA Five Lucky Stars) would be the start of a hugely successful series in HK. While Winners and Sinners is the "first" of the series the second film, My Lucky Stars, would feature most of the same characters but change a bit of the situation from the first. My Lucky Stars comes off as a spiritiual sequel with the 3rd film, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star, being the first true sequel. Make sense? AWESOME!

Only the first three films would feature Sammo Hung (who stars and directs) along with his brothers Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. None of the three appear together on-screen at the same time - Biao's appearance is basically a cameo and Jackie plays a hapless cop who has a side story.

The film itself centers on five men who wind up in jail together. This crew decides to become 'brothers' while in jail and when they are all released they go into business together, along with the sister of one of the cons. They all aren't true cons - most of the gang are just petty thieves while one is a political activist. The gang consists of Teapot (Sammo Hung), Curly (John Shum), Vaseline (Charlie Chin), Rookie (Stanley Fung), and Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng), along with Curly's sister Shirley (Cherie Chung). Together they form the Five Star Cleaning Company - which cleans office buildings and stuff. They all live at Curly's uncle's place where all of them (minus Curly) do nothing but try to sleep with Shirley.

Jackie plays a cop who destroys everything in his path. He usually gets the bad guy but ends up breaking everything, causing car crashes, and leaving everything chaotic in his wake. He's not really important to the film itself - he basically shows up for star value. He does get to quickly fight Biao after the duo have a misunderstanding. That's fun.

While Biao is my favorite martial artist of all time, it sure is fun to watch Sammo. He's truly my idol. He's just a big, fun, heavy, self-depricating guy you just have to cheer for. In this film he's low man on the totem pole (he's 5th brother) but he's the leader come My Lucky Stars.

This film is certainly not a kung-fu film. It's a comedy with a bunch of kung fu thrown into it. It's really fun when the 5 Lucky Stars are off doing something together - like all hit on Shirley. They are all perverts...which makes them loveable losers who really just can't 'get theirs'.

The best is Richard Ng. The man is just a comedic genius. He is the best part of these films and any film that he suddenly shows up in (his cameo in Wheels on Meals where he's locked up in an insane asylum comes right to mind). Here he's just a guy who can't fight, can't land the woman, and tries to become invisible. That's right - he's studying how to become invisible. Does it work? Of course not. Do they trick Richard into thinking he's invisible so he'll walk around naked? Yes they do - and it's played for some of the best laughs in the film.

There is a really pintless rollerskating contest scene really only good for showing off the skills that Jackie acquired for Battle Creek Brawl - having previously never rollerskated in his life. He really does an outstanding job showing off his skating moves...but does it have ANYTHING to do with the plot? Nooooooooooo. Does it matter? Nooooooooooo. There's a slim payoff when Jackie runs into two guys exchanging money for product, but this could have been done anywhere - it didn't have to be at a rollerskating contest.

The film has a nice, thrown together quality to it. It's more of guys having fun with a plot attached - kind of like how I felt Ocean's Eleven was. The cast works well together and it really showcases that Sammo has a wonderful directing eye for comedy and action! I loved watching this film so much I'm going to throw in My Lucky Stars right now so I can continue the fun.