7 jin gong

WONDER SEVEN is a bizarre little action comedy from Hong Kong that's apparently based on a comic book. The titular characters are a crime-fighting team who straddle the border between China and Hong Kong. The goofy opening sequence, which spoofs THE GREAT ESCAPE, shows them rounding up some criminals before the plot begins for real. It's a muddled mess involving a MacGuffin in the form of a card that everyone's trying to get hold of, and Michelle Yeoh's villain with a heart of gold. I should note that Yeoh doesn't dress up in the sexy outfit as seen on the UK DVD cover, but she does wear some fetching feminine outfits throughout with a hint of goth. Elvis Tsui randomly plays a bullish cop, naturally. The humour's weak and the characters annoying, but there's lots of random action here, much of it inspired by John Woo, leading to an outrageous exploding lift-meets-helicopter climax that has to be seen to be believed.

Review: This movie seemed really dated, even though It wasn't made decades ago, and the stunts were ridiculous, along with the poorly written storyline. I liked the whole "buddy" side to the movie but the jokes were terrible and the music really got on my nerves. Its basically about 7 vigilantes who go out to save the world from bad. When they are set the task to take down an arms dealer, they use there bikes as well as there gun and Kung Fu skills to take down the bad guys. Michelle Yeoh helps the bad guys at the beginning of the film but once she realises that her partner in crime has lost the plot, she joins forces with the vigilantes to save the day. The action isn't that bad and the epic ending is full of tension but its over complicated and I didn't know who was who after a while. A lot of the action is extremely far fetched and they went a bit too far with the gun action. Anyway, I was only interested in this film because of Michelle Yeoh, who usually stars in decent movies but this film, which was made at the beginning of her career, is pretty weak. Disappointing!

Round-Up: This movie was directed by Siu-Tung Ching who brought you A Chinese Ghost Story, the Swordsman franchise, Dr. Wai, An Empress and the Warriors and The Emperor and the White Snake with Jet Li. Judging by the epic movies that he made later on in his career, this was obviously a small project which he used as a stepping stone to become the iconic director that he has become today. I personally have seen better but for that day and age, it was what was expected.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action movies starring Michelle Yeoh, Ning Li, Andy Chi-On Hui, Kent Cheng and Roger Kwok. 2/10

"Wonder Seven" (aka "7 jin gong") is a fairly typical mid-1990s Hong Kong action movie. Don't get me wrong here, because that is not a bad thing. The movie is entertaining and enjoyable. With that being said, "Wonder Seven" doesn't bring anything to the genre or to the Hong Kong cinema that hadn't already been seen before.

Story-wise then "Wonder Seven" wasn't particularly interesting. What kept the movie afloat was the action, gunfights and the martial arts.

People in the movie were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters. I guess Michelle Yeoh was headlining on the DVD cover as she was the biggest star in the movie, despite her not being the lead actress or having the lead role.

"Wonder Seven" is a movie that will appeal to people who enjoy Hong Kong cinema.

On a closing note, then I found the front cover of the DVD to be a bit too tacky and it doesn't really have anything to do with the actual movie.

"Wonder Seven" is a great mix of shootouts and martial arts. This movie is about a gang who consists out of seven orphans joined by one man, serving as a secret police force. Each member of the gang has his own speciality (sounds familiar: Magnificent Seven). At one mission something goes wrong and they are being accused of a murder they haven't commited. Of course you know how this story will end. But this movie isn't about the plot, it is about the action. Let me tell you, the action is very well done. And Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow never dies) shows what she really can do (which she wasn't allowed to do in the Bond movie). This is a fastpaced, humoristic action movie.

The usually stone-faced and solemn Michelle Yeoh smiles quite a bit in this film, and it's a wonderful sight: she's surprisingly cute, loose and playful. She also delivers a graceful physical performance, but the film on the whole is disappointingly short on martial arts action and long on gunplay. Another disappointment is that Xin Xin Xiong (probably the best martial artist in the film) and the incredibly cute Hilary Tsui are underused, and yet another one is that Michelle never appears in the fishnet lingerie that she wears on the DVD cover! Much like another Ching Siu Tung film I saw recently, Jet Li's "Dr. Wai and the Scripture with No Words", there is a lot of activity here, but not all of it is engaging and the story is confusing in spots, though there are occasional moments of inspired action (an elevator shaft launched onto a helicopter - now that is something I've never seen before!). Overall, "Wonder Seven" is not a must-see by any means, unless of course you just want to see Michelle Yeoh looking better than ever. (**)