Reviewed by pollypolly

Beardy plays Liang Chen Yu an ex-racing driver and successful businessman with some sharp boxing skills to boot. A chance meeting at the airport reunites him with an old school friend, Wang Chien Heng, who Beardy and his fiancee invite to stay over at their place for a while. It seems that Wang Chien has more pressing issues than visiting old pals and it soon emerges that his motive for coming to Hong Kong is to kill Wei Chiao (Chang Yi) - a jewelry tycoon whom Wang holds responsible for his fat... Morehers death. After an assassination attempt goes wrong, Wang Chien tries to blackmail Wei Chiao by threatening to expose the tycoon's wrong-doings with some damning photographic evidence. However, things start to take a turn for the worse when Chang Yi's two henchmen - Chan Wei Man and Philip Kao Fei - go after the engaged love birds assuming that Beardy now has the incriminating documents.

At a fleeting glance of the cast to die for, 'Profile In Anger' promises so much but ultimately fails to fully hit the mark. Liang Kar Yan's direction lacks the punch needed to carry a film of this kind - there is no real urgency or fluidity to the camerawork. It is not helped by the fact that the script contains very few surprises and is riddled with common cliches such as a token bar brawl complete with clumsy fat bikers, a (cranked up) car chase with dangerous barrels placed strategically in the middle of the road and the classic and obligatory gym training scene in the lead up to the finale. I must also mention a fairly ridiculous and jarringly out-of-place scene where Beardy has a fight with the leader of a gang of 'underworld punks'. The overall look of the gang has blatantly been lifted from The Warriors or Mad Max and whilst their barbaric behaviour would fit quite well within an Italian Post-Apocalyptic exploitation film - here, in what is supposed to be a tough modern day thriller, it doesn't quite gel!.

Still! Enough of the bad - what's good about 'Profile In Anger'? Well, first and foremost the film does boast some decent stand out performances from Chan Wei Man and Philip Kao Fei. Chan is as mean as ever as the hired professional killer. He manages to reach his despicable zenith in a brief but unintentionally amusing scene where he crushes a little girl's kite after she accidently lands it on the hood of his gleaming Pontiac. Kao Fei however, is simply a maniac in this film. At first he comes across as the quiet, sinister type who keeps a machete in his black jacket at all times - when suddenly his character takes a bizarre turn and becomes almost super-human accompanied by plenty of incessant laughter which left him at times seeming like a demented hyena.
It was interesting to see Chang Yi in a role like this. He still managed to exude that same silent menace even though he was clad in a shirt and tie and not a Dragon Suit!. Beardy was as good as always and even made sure he got to have a love scene in his own movie. There were also a few effective touches too, like a quickly glimpsed shot of Philip Kao Fei revealing some nasty scarring at the back of his head (hinting at the sheer insanity of his character that is to come...) and the remains of the dead housekeeper in the closet, these all helped sustain a certain amount of tension to help lift the, sometimes, lagging script.

With a tighter control over the action and a few more fights, this could have been quite a memorable film...I'd say that it's definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of any of the featured actors (especially Chan Wei Man) - but if you are purely seeking some no-nonsense, brutal mid 80's HK cinema, you would be best off re-directed to the far superior 'Hong Kong Godfathers' first before trying this one out.Less
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Reviewed by Goldenswallow

Magic Crane is one of my favourite Tsui Hark films, directed by Benny Chan (Gen X Cops, Who Am I?) it’s a fast paced ride through a fantasy wuxia land inhabited by flying swordsmen, beautiful women and the odd giant animal thrown in for good measure - kind of like a Buddha’s Palm for the nineties.

Normally at this point I would give a brief synopsis of the plot but that would be fairly difficult without going into it in too much depth, suffice to say Tony Leung’s impover... Moreished clan gets embroiled in various schemes to rule the martial world thanks to not one but two opposing bad guys in the shape of Lawrence Ng the leader of the evil Tien Lung Clan and Kelvin Wong a shady and calculating government agent. A straight forward clan based story then? Not quite, here’s a rundown of what you can expect to see - a giant crane that carries Anita Mui around, a swarm of poisonous bats (with some bat cruelty thrown in for good measure), a tense gathering of all the clans in the martial world, a powerful master chained up in an underground cave, sex drugs, a magic kung fu manual, a giant thousand year old tortoise and musical instruments used as devastating weapons. I’m sure I’ve missed a few things out there but you get the idea, Tsui Hark throws in just about every wacky idea he’s got but still manages to produce a coherent and entertaining film - as long as you don’t blink and miss something!

Despite the fact that some of the effects (mainly the animals) aren’t up to the standards you would expect to find in a modern CGI film this is still a great looking movie and the old fashioned animatronic and rubber suit style creatures are done quite well, the magic crane itself looks like it was made from bits that Tsui Hark found in his garage but they did a decent job of making it fly and even managed to imbue it with a bit of personality. The human cast did a good job as well, Norman Tsui pops up as Anita Mui’s master, Rosamund Kwan turns up as his daughter (and deadly enemy) but my favourite was the gorgeous Jay La Kam Ling who played the deliciously slutty sister of Lawrence Ng who tries to sleep with every one she meets and even does a kung fu version of the Sharon Stone style no knickers routine while she’s fighting with Tony Leung! Another stand out performance for me was Kelvin Wong who after eating a magical manual (it’s a long story) went absolutely nuts like Kam Kong in Jade Dagger Ninja and embarked on a murderous rampage, he even managed to kill Lawrence Ng while making sweet love to his sister and laughing maniacly, great stuff!

It’ll probably come as no surprise that the action in Magic Crane is of the high flying wire assisted variety but as far as it goes it’s pretty good if you like that sort of thing, which I do. To give you some idea of what to expect the choreographer is Lau Chi Ho who worked with Ching Sui Ting on Duel To The Death, Swordsman and A Chinese Ghost Story so as well as some decent swordplay there’s also magical weapons like the Lute and Kelvin Wong’s bell which is about the size of Big Ben!

If you’re a fan of new wave swordplays I would strongly recommend Magic Crane - it’s like watching Kung Fu Cult Master, Deadful Melody, Dragon Chronicles, Chinese Ghost Story, Zu Warriors and Flying Dagger all crammed into the same film - but in a good way! And remember, that giant crane sacrificed himself for the good of mankind, bless him, there’s a lesson for us all there.

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Reviewed by Goldenswallow

Despite the fact that there was no subtitles and my mandarin stretches to about 100 words I quite enjoyed A Valiant Villain (1969), most of the time the older swordplay films I watch tend to be from Shaw Brothers so it’s quite refreshing to see something a bit different now and again.

Basically the plot is about Tien Yeh, a local hardman with a bad reputation. As the story progresses we get to see that he’s got a softer side as he repeatedly saves the main foxy female protago... Morenist (who’s name escapes me) from the corrupt local officials and various baddies. He then spends the rest of the film performing various heroic deeds such as fighting the officials, killing the local maneating tiger, rescuing prisoners from the jail and finally killing a 25 foot rubber water monster / dinosaur which has been plagueing the local waterways. I’m not sure of his motivation for this - he was either a decent but misunderstood guy from the start or he was simply trying to win over the girls dad, either way he ended up as the hero of the village - or a real valiant villain.

Although A Valiant Villain has the look and feel of a wuxia film there is very little swordplay on show - that’s not to say that there’s a lack of action but Tien Yeh’s character is portrayed as being a real strongman so as such he doesn’t usually bother with weapons and fights off his attackers with kicks and punches. There is a fair amount of wire work in evidence as he performs superhuman leaps and kicks his opponents thirty foot through the air, it’s all done fairly well for the time though. My favourite bit was when he hunted down and ended up wrestling the tiger which was similar to Ti Lung’s fight in Tiger Killer - at least it fought back a bit more than the water monster which just thrashed about while getting stabbed in the neck, a bit of an anticlimax really but still good fun.

I like these sixties films, the kung fu might not be up to a real high standard but they usually manage to offset this shortcoming with quality acting, settings and drama etc which is the case here. A lot of the film is shot on location in the mountains and the woods which the director uses to maximum effect, the actors are pretty good and at times he manages to really pile on the tension (such as the tiger hunting scene). Despite the fact that there’s no subtitles it’s still fairly easy to follow and enjoy Tien Yeh’s antics so I’d recommend it to fans of sixties films - I’ve seen a lot worse.

6.5 / 10Less
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