Kung Fu Jungle (Hong Kong: 2014): Classic Fighting Film with Cameos Galore

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kungfu-jungle-official-poster

 

Teddy Chen goes old-school in this martial arts detective story starring Donn Yen. The fighting is intense and the special effects muted in this story about a former martial arts champion released from prison to help capture a serial killer. An homage to the one-on-one Hong Kong action films of the past, Kung Fu Jungle is filled with dozens of cameo performances from the action stars of the past four decades.

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I Sell Love (Hong Kong: 2014): it could be accused of glamorizing prostitution if it weren’t so dull

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Rose Chan & Pakho Chau

Rose Chan & Pakho Chau

What could have been an insider view of the practice of compensated dating and prostitution devolves into a romantic drama involving two good looking people like we’ve seen before. I’d lost interest long before Mr. Perfect showed up.

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Voyage (Hong Kong: 2013): The final journeys of love and depression

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Warning: Trailer contains nudity

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Voyage is Hong Kong director Scud’s fifth film.  Audacity would be a good one-word summary of Scud’s output to date, and those who have appreciated that about his films will not be disappointed. Like his previous films, Voyage has plenty of obscure and sometimes idiosyncratic symbolism and allusions, abundant full nudity, saturated colors, explanatory texts, and a very negative story about love. Scud is not a director for the modest. The film is a series of shorts on the themes death, depression and and the afterlife, framed as stories being written by a psychiatrist (Ryo van Kooten) as he travels on his yacht with the intention of determining whether or not to take his own life.

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