2009 - VENGEANCE, a very good revenge thriller

Another film in  the oversaturated "seeking revenge for killing my family" genre, or Death Wish territory if you like.  What redeems this film is the very good direction from one of Hong Kong's best directors Johnnie To.  The action scenes are particularly well done and there are some interesting spins to the usual revenge plot lines found in these films.

The film has an interesting cast Johnny Hallyday a French performer is the man out for revenge., He has some issues to deal with in his own life.  Anthony Wong who I think was in about every Hong Kong action film is a hit man assisting Hallyday.  Gordon Lam from the Infernal Affairs films is another hit man, and Simon Yam yet another prolific performer is the chief bad guy.  The one thing you have to say about these Hong Kong performers is that they don't let the grass grow under their feet, these guys are always working.

 

To comment on the plot or some of the basic situations in the film would spoil a really great action film.   Johnnie To is one of Hong Kong's best filmmakers and has for the most part made consistently good films throughout his career.  Highly recommended

Written by Wai Ka-Fai, the running time is 109 minutes.

1993 - THE HEROIC TRIO, large scale Hong Kong comic book movie

 Way before comic book movies completely took over the cinematic world.  The Heroic Trio beat them all to the punch with this action packed and crazed plot.  The film has something to do with a villain called "Evil Master" who is kidnapping babies in order to find a descendant of the Emperor who will return and rule Asia I guess.  To stop him comes The Heroic Trio.  

The trio is played by some of Hong Kong's top 90's actors.  Anita Mui aka Wonder Woman, Michelle Yeoh aka Invisible Woman and Maggie Cheung aka Thief Catcher.  I also recognized perennial Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong in yet another villain role.  

 

The director Johnnie To keeps the action coming fast with one crazed action set piece after another. The stunt work is up to the Hong Kong cinema's usual high standards.  The women are easy on the eyes and the whole film for the most part seems to be aware of it's outrageous plot line.

 

The Heroic Trio did have a sequel called The Executioners which I have seen but don't recall much of. the film runs a quick 83 minutes and was written by Sandy Shaw

2001 - FULLTIME KILLER, lots of shooting the Hong Kong way

Star and producer Andy Lau plays an up and coming hit man deciding to take on the challenge of unseating the current top hit man.  The results are gun battles, lots and lots of gun battles all directed with a certain amount of skill by Johnnie To.

In spite of all the shootings there really isn't a whole lot to this film but if you are feeling the need to watch a lot of people getting shot, well nobody does action better than the film making gang in Hong Kong.

The film runs 102 minutes.