Review Hong Kong

A Fist Within Four Walls (城寨英雄) is a Hong Kong TV drama made by TVB that aired from the 1st to 28 August 2016.

About

Bearing the grief of losing his family, Chor Au-kuen returns to the Kowloon Walled City in hopes of finding his long lost sister, only to find that the very place he grew up in has become a lawless no man’s land.

The show won numerous awards across Asia.

Official Music Video

Yuen Qiu (元秋) as Yuk Bo Fung
Appeared in many films since 1972. She trained under the same martial artist master as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung Kam Bo. She is also has Beijing opera skills. Before she was an actress in films she was a stunt woman and as a student rescuing James Bond in The Man With The Golden Gun movie with Roger Moore.
My The Righteous Fists Review

Grace Wong (王君馨) as Fa Man
Another regular of TVB dramas. She grew up in Brooklyn and Queens then went to Hong Kong on an exchange program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Instagram
She also sings:

Review

It was certainly one of the best TVB dramas we have ever seen.

The story line was good, a little typical of a TVB drama of that caliber, and quite similar to The Righteous Fists in a way. I thought “oh, they are going to knock off that character before the series ends” and they did. There were a lot of story arcs with romances and relationship challenges.

If you like martial arts TV shows then this is one for you. The outtakes at the end of each show provided some insight at how they created them and for a couple of the actors, who are not quite whippersnappers anymore, it must have been quite a challenge for them. Certainly more agile than me.

The set was great, very realistic. Some had been reused from previous dramas, or we had seen them in drama’s to come.

The story arcs challenged the actors abilities as well, not just from a martial arts perspective but also how they got into different emotions. Philip Ng’s character was very different to that of The Righteous Fists playing anything from scary to “kind of” romantic.

The things I didn’t like about the show:

• Yuen Qiu’s character was nicknamed “Thai Hag”, I don’t think it was necessary to hear that through every single episode. If I was the scriptwriter I would have excluded that or have the character reprimand others for saying it.
• Even though the character was evil he was put down in a vulgar way for being gay, several times. At that point in the show I questioned whether I should finish it off. In the UK this would have generated quite a few complaints to the TV company, realistic of the times or not.

Summary

Overall, a brilliant “must watch” show but will mark them down for the two issues I had with it. I will give them 4/5.

Where To Watch

I watched this show on TubiTV, they have quite a few Hong Kong drama’s on there.

More Information

View a trailer, other information and stills from the show at the TVB Anywhere website.

Table for Six (飯戲攻心) is a Hong Kong movie that was released in 2022. It reached UK cinemas in November 2022.

About

This is the story of three couples, living under the same roof, who are involved in four romances together. There is a new disaster whenever they sit down to dinner.

Cast

Dayo Wong (黃子華) as Chan Hung/”Steve”
He is also a screenwriter and director. He is from Hong Kong but gained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta here in Canada. He is a stand-up comedian performing in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and the US. He has starred in many TV dramas and films, he won the TV King Award in 2013.

Louis Cheung (張繼聰) as Chan Lai/”Bernard”
He was also the composer of this film. He went to the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, majored in acting, and performed in many stages plays. He is also a Cantopop recording artist and songwriter.
Instagram

Review

The movie was a mixture of drama and humour throughout, more than often over-the-top.

It story rarely took them out of the home and was mainly an interaction between the 6 characters.

I thought this was a very different Hong Kong movie compared to what I’ve seen before, it could have been set on a theatre stage and in fact might have been more interesting in that setting. I didn’t really take to the movie that much, it was kind of slow and didn’t really do anything for me. There was some special effects work. The best humour Louis Cheung seems to have includes the bedroom and toilet scenes, you will know what I mean if you get to see it.

The best part of the movie was the bloopers during the closing credits. I feel really bad saying that.

It doesn’t receive bad reviews online but for me personally, I can only give it 2/5.

I did notice this at the very beginning of the film and wonder if it’s in the Chinese version which is 4 minutes less than the Hong Kong one.

Review of Hong Kong movie Detective vs Sleuths (神探大戰) which was released on 8th July 2022.

About

The Hong Kong police create a task force to investigate a series of murders. Li Jun who was once a detective, until he suffered a mental breakdown, starts his own investigation. The murder victims are all suspects of cold cases being rubbed out by a figure known as “The Sleuth”.

The movie is also known as Cold Detective or Shen Tan Da Zhan.

Cast

Lau Ching Wan (刘青云) as Li Jun
The actor has been in quite a few TVB shows but recently his portfolio has been in movies where he is always in the main role. The actor is also known as Sean Lau.

Charlene Choi (蔡卓妍) as Chen Yi
Choi is a Hong Kong-Canadian actress and singer. She was born here in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Her family moved to Hong Kong when she was little. She has been on a long list of TV shows and films.
View profile on Instagram

Raymond Lam (林峯) as Fong Lai Shun
He has appeared in mainly TV shows but the only program I’ve seen him is “Step Into The Past”, I only saw one episode though. Part of his studies was at the University of Southern California. He is also a singer:

Review

There was a basic story line but didn’t really have to think to hard during this movie at all.

It wasn’t until 10-15 minutes into the movie that you started to realize the main character had “imaginary friends”. At first I just thought they were real. It was an interesting trick.

It did have some humour in the movie but not a lot. I don’t actually recall any of the characters smiling.

Lau Ching Wan had the best part and he acted it well mainly because he also, at times, played the character of his “friends”.

I recommend this movie for anyone wanting a lot of action and explosions. This is what the movie was mainly about and they did that well. They most likely employed a lot of stunt actors and special effects creatives.

Things moved so fast in the movie I got quite confused what was going on. Maybe they should have just extended the duration from 1 hour 42 min to about 15 minutes longer.

I would give this movie a 3/5.

Trailer

Short review of Trivisa (樹大招風), a Hong Kong movie released in April 2016.

About

The handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China upcoming, when the city still has a booming economy, is imminent. Three crooks from China head to Hong Kong to make their fortune.

Cast

The only actor I immediately recognized in this movie was Yueh Hua (岳华) who played Ho Yu Kei. He was in support, not the main role. He was in No Regrets which we are currently watching.

Review

I won’t spend a lot of time reviewing this movie as it was pretty bad. It was only in the last half an hour that I started to understand what was going on. I thought, at first, the movie was very poorly planned out. At one point I couldn’t tell if they were in China, Thailand or Hong Kong.

So, they appeared to spend time focused on planning to rob a Gold shop but are not sure they did in the end.

The movie did show a lot of urban degeneration. Not sure if it was the real Hong Kong or just a set, most likely the latter.

It was kind of interesting to see stock footage of Chris Patton in the movie, he was the 28th and final Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He has appeared in other Hong Kong related documentaries plus a game called “Hong Kong 97” I believe. An interesting yet humorous review of Hong Kong 97:

Reviewers on Internet Movie Database gave it positive reviews, generally. On Asian review sites it was pretty much the same, around 7/10. For myself, I will give it a 2 out of 5.

Where to Watch

The movie is available on Netflix Canada, not sure if it’s there for other countries.

This is my review of Chasing The Dragon (追龍), a Hong Kong movie that was released on 30 September 2017.

About

An illegal immigrant from China sneaks into the underworld part of Hong Kong, currently under British rule, in 1963.  He transforms himself into a ruthless drug lord.

Evidently, this is based on a true story.

This is the second film based on this story, although not a follow-on from the original. The original was called “To Be Number One”, made in 1991. Kent Cheng starred in both the original and this version. More about this trilogy.

There is also a sequel to Chasing The Dragon, called Chasing The Dragon 2, with different cases playing different characters.

Cast

This had two of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema.

Donnie Yen (甄子丹) as Crippled Ho
The actor is of course huge in Hong Kong playing in many action films. He has made more films than I’ve had hot dinners.
Instagram

Andy Yau (劉德華) as Lee Rock
He also produced as well as starred in this film. Andy has a huge portfolio of films but is also known for directing, producing and in one movie was even the cinematographer.

Review

The film was better than some I had seen but it wasn’t great. They tried to make it look epic.

The story wasn’t great and this didn’t appear to be central to the film, I would go far as to say it was a bit of a mess. It feels they went for gangster violence shock value. More of an action movie but where Donnie Yen doesn’t really do too much of that, which is unusual for films he’s in. It felt as though a lot of people get hurt badly and die horribly. There was some humour, mainly in Kent Cheng’s character, but it did feel all kind of grim. I don’t think there was anybody in the film that was near likeable.

The “look and feel” of the movie was dark and a lot of urban degeneration, I guess that worked given the subject matter of the film. There were some, what appeared to be, filmed in plusher surroundings, like the small sequence in Thailand.

The film portrayed a dislike of the British in Hong Kong, well, perhaps more than a dislike. Every British person portrayed in the movie was corrupt. Not sure who the alleged British actors were, the ones I did recognize weren’t and had been voiced over and it was so poorly done I cringed every moment of it. They probably could have hired some real British actors just to be more authentic.

My summary would be 1) lots of violence, 2) virtually everyone died horribly, and 3) some other bits in between. Not like the Hong Kong movies of yesteryear. I will give it 2 out of 5.

Links

• Internet MovieDatabase

Where Can I See It

It’s available on TubiTV, and I understand on Netflix in certain countries.

Trailer