Protégé
Protégé is coming to DVD in North America through the Dragon Dynasty label, which might give some people the wrong impression. While the label has carved out a niche for delivering top quality martial arts/action films (in many cases the definitive versions of some of the older titles) this is the first real drama the company has offered. It does, however star some of the greats of the Hong Kong action cinema in its cast, ...
The Enforcer
The Enforcer was made at the height of the second renaissance of Hong Kong action filmmaking, which lasted about 20 years from the late 80s to a few years ago. Starring Jet Li, the film is a balance between crime/character drama and straight up action film. For this reason it isn’t for most fans of the genre simply looking for an adrenaline fix. It is also for this same reason that The Enforcer stands out ...
SuperCop
Supercop is easily one of the best martial arts/action movies around. Starring Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, this is also known as Police Story 3, simply repackaged for North American audiences. The story is less reliant on the previous installments as one might think, so it was a wise decision to make the film stand alone in this regards.
Sadly, as with many other Jackie Chan films there were a number of cuts and edits ...
Written on February 2, 2009 | Posted in DVD/TV Reviews | No Comment
Dragon Dynasty
Written on January 4, 2009 | Posted in Games | No Comment
The Rebel
The Rebel is an interesting film, and one that many fans of “Asian action cinema” may find hard to take – not because it’s bad or doesn’t have much action, but because it is so different from what many would expect from virtually every other release under the Dragon Dynasty label. Johnny Tri Nguyen stars as a member of the secret police in 1920’s Vietnam. Growing ever more weary of the French colonization and ...
Fist of Legend
Short answer – martial arts fans should own this.
Fist of Legend is a remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury, and both are regarded as the best that the genre has to offer. Martial arts films are often derided as being all style and no substance, simply cobbling a shoestring plot together in order to have amazing fights. Sure, there are plenty of examples of this, but when a story comes along that not ...
VietNam’s #1
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE Suspense, romance and action ignite when the Vietnamese box office smash THE REBEL charges onto 2-DISC ULTIMATE EDITION DVD September 30th from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company under the Dragon Dynasty label. Celebrated as the highest grossing Vietnamese film ever made, THE REBEL stars contemporary Asian superstars Johnny Nguyen (The Protector), Dustin Nguyen (“21 Jump Street,” Finishing the Game) and Vietnamese pop star/actress Ngo Thanh Van. Set in Vietnam ...Fist Of DVD
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE When a Chinese student returns to Shanghai to find that his mentor has been murdered and his school has been overtaken by Japanese forces, he has no choice but to take justice into his own hands to restore their honor. FIST OF LEGEND debuts as a two-disc Ultimate Edition DVD on September 9 from The Weinstein Company and Genius Products under their celebrated Dragon Dynasty label. Inspired by a true ...Tai Chi Master
You gotta love Golden Harvest, the company behind Tai Chi Master. Were it not for the film’s stars, this film almost looks like it was made in 1973 instead of 1993. Dated or timeless, that’s the style this production company has with many of its martial arts films, especially the “period” pieces.
The film opens with Jun Bao and Tien Bo as young students in a monastery. They form a friendship and rivalry that is ...
Invisible Target
Hopefully by now you have begun to understand what the Dragon Dynasty label is all about. Bringing some of the “Asian action cinema” to North America has always been a difficult prospect, but this lable is doing a great job of it, with not only newer titles, but some of the classics as well. Just look at the cover of this latest release - Invisible Target. We get four tough looking guys, three of ...
An Invisible DVD
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE Taking the best young talents of a new generation of Hong Kong action heroes and thrusting them together onto the world stage, INVISIBLE TARGET makes its presence known when it arrives on DVD June 10. INVISIBLE TARGET debuts as a two-disc ultimate edition from The Weinstein Company and Genius Products under the heralded Dragon Dynasty label. From acclaimed director Benny Chan (New Police Story, Rob-B-Hood), INVISIBLE TARGET is a slick, gripping ...Come Drink With Me
Dragon Dynasty releases another Shaw Brothers martial arts classics with Come Drink With Me and the cause for celebration is great. This film from the mid 1960’s is not only a great example of the genre, but did so early enough that it could be considered highly influential. I am not sure that such a kick-ass martial arts film with this much style had yet been made.
The basic plot is that the leader of ...
Heroes of the East
When a young man from China enters into an arranged marriage with a Japanese woman, there is plenty of opportunity for misunderstanding and some comedy. Heroes of the East explores the conflict between Chinese and Japanese martial arts, as well as the conflict between a man and woman.
The whole affair starts off a bit slow, and it takes about 20 minutes before husband and wife square off against each other. Everything that happens before ...
Flash Point
The phrase “standard cop drama” may not sound like much, but when the film in question stars Donnie Yen, you know the standards are going to be high. Flash Point stars Donnie Yen as a police officer who isn’t afraid of doing what needs to be done in the pursuit of justice. He may be a bit reckless, but he also happens to be one of the best.
The plot centers around some drug smugglers, ...
P.T.U. – Police Tactical Unit
PTU is the Police Tactical unit in Hong Kong, as well as the latest title being released under the Dragon Dynasty label. The film examines one night that goes badly for a number of people, and while it is billed as an action film (which it is to a certain degree) there is a clear emphasis on characters and events that make the film more of a thriller. It is this differentiation that makes ...
Legend of the Black Scorpion
What is so wonderful about Shakespeare is that his works are so universal in theme that most can be adapted easily. Romeo & Juliet to West Side Story, Taming of the Shre to 10 Things I Hate About You, and King Lear to Ran. Now we have Hamlet becoming Legend of the Black Scorpion. Some may recognize this film under its original title, The Banquet, the penultimate scene in the film that essentially serves ...
Royal Tramp 1 & 2
As soon as I saw Shaolin Soccer in theaters I was hooked. I was a Stephen Chow fan. Kung Fu Hustle then was released, and my brother and I got into a very heated debate as to which film was the better – but we both agreed that they are amazing films. While shopping for a DVD of Shaolin Soccer I had learned that a number of edits were made to the film for ...
The Next Unit
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE As the lights go down on the dangerous streets of Hong Kong, police forces and street gangs will meet with the cruel hand of fate as the latest Dragon Dynasty release, PTU: POLICE TACTICAL UNIT debuts on DVD from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. The martial arts masterpiece boasts an assortment of awards for renowned director Johnny To (The Mission, Running Out of Time) including Best Director at the Hong ...Fatal Contact
Fatal Contact has what amounts to all of the ingredients for a massive martial arts onslaught. What we get in essentially a drama punctuated by several moments of action.
Jacky Wu Jing stars as a martial arts performer recruited to fight in Hong Kong’s underground fight scene. He is reluctant to sign up, but does so because – well, there’s a girl involved. People do some of the stupidest things for love. What follows is ...
Action Comedy Coming
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE Witty and bursting with high-energy action ROYAL TRAMP 1 and its sequel ROYAL TRAMP 2, land on DVD February 12, under the Dragon Dynasty label from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. Hong Kong superstar Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) stars as a fast-talking conman who manages to avoid death and score hot women, all while trying to save the Ming Dynasty from falling. Based on the book ...Robin-B-Hood
After failing to find enough roles that satisfied him within the Hollywood system, Jackie Chan returned to Hong Kong and began producing his own films. These were designed to demonstrate his acting abilities and not simply rely on the comic action that audiences the world over know and love him for. The good news is that each of these films are top quality and solid offerings in the “Jackie Chan” genre and will please ...
Last Hurrah For Chivalry
Watching Last Hurrah for Chivalry and expecting a typical John Woo style action film would be a mistake. This 1979 film came long before he created the “gunplay ballet” sub-genre of action films that would become his signature. Instead we get a very standard but solidly build swordplay epic that is typical of the Hong Kong studio system of the era.
At the time, there were two major studios, Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest. John ...
Hard Boiled
Do I really even need to review this? Hard Boiled is one of the greatest action films of all time, and those moviegoers that think that Stallone, Swarzenegger, Statham or Willis are the pinnacle of the genre need to see Hard Boiled.
This film is the epitome of the gunplay ballet that director John Woo is known for. Chow Yun Fat, the film’s star worked with the director in several previous films, and the ...
The City of Violence
The City of Violence is not quite the accurate title. Rather than simply having violence for the sake of something to happen on the screen, the film is filled with plenty of fighting when it serves a purpose in the story. To drive home this point, most of the action that takes place in this regard is of the hand to hand variety and though there are some weapons, mostly bladed, the film boils ...
Crime Story
I have been a Jackie Chan fan since … well, a long time before he exploded onto the North American consciousness with Rumble in the Bronx. There is a theater here in Seattle that used to show a different double feature every day. Some weeks would be James Bond films, sometimes it would be all sorts of different animated films from bygone eras, or simply those lower profile releases and foreign films that were ...
