Rajada de Sangue

Watching a Hong-Kong thriller is always a good experience, there's always hope of find a movie that will stick to your memory like did many movies of John Woo or Tsui Hark. The Last Blood is not only a surprising piece of Hong Kong action is also an under seen movie. It is a good time to discover this hidden jewel that could surprise many viewers. Old racks of movie-stores have many unexpected good movies to be found.

This movie has a frenetic but clear editing that put it in the same league of classics of John Woo. But anyway, Woo is the master and Wong Jing would be a talented disciple. Jing managed to make The Last Blood is an amazing piece of entertainment with a budget that is far from the standards of Hollywood, something that must be studied by filmmakers who want to shot but don't have the money of a mega-millionaire producer.

The level of violence and gore is high, this turn outs to be some of the highlights in the film. The plot is just what one expects from this kind of production. The situations hang between the exaggeration and realism. There's authentic drama (or well focused melodrama), some laughs, interesting characters and enough adrenaline to boost the viewer out of his seat. The relationship between both cops and the common guy who becomes target of the terrorist is handled in a magnificent way. There's space for some reflection in the middle of all the action to focus on important moral matters. All this is quintessential in the good exponents of this genre. Also the characters don't try to be sympathetic to the point of been insufferable. Final notes: Jing tian shi er xiao shi (The Last Blood) was released in the early nineties, a crucial period for HK cinema when it was discovered massively by audiences. This audiences were tired of movies of eighties decadents stars, whose reputations were going down with really lame movies that were mere vehicles for the exploitation of their profiles.

If you are familiar to Wong Jing's work than you know what you can expect. Silly stories with over the top comedy. The action in his movies are always secondary. And that is the way to approach a movie like this otherwise you surely get disappointed. Somehow they gave this movie the subtitle "Hard Boiled 2" even when there is no connection to that superior movie. But when you use a title like that it does raise some expectation concerning the action. And let me make it very clear since the other reviews on this site neglected to give a sufficient description of the action. It is nowhere near the level of "Hard Boiled". How could it be? That is nearly impossible since Woo's Hard Boiled is one of the best action movies ever made. Most of the action scenes in "Last Blood" are pretty decent that consists of gun play and some hand to hand combat. But they are short and not that impressive. There is one chase sequence that showed promise. The bad guys follow the main characters into a crowded subway station on their motorcycles. Now here is a setup for bloodshed and mayhem. Sadly the director preferred a less creative solution and ended the scene to quickly with taking out one bad guy and completely ignoring the remaining ones. And throughout the whole movie Andy Lau is goofing off. There is not one scene where he is serious even when a gun is pointed at him. He used to do to this often in his movies those days. But somehow it bothered me big time in this one. This again is proof that you should approach this movie more as a comedy than an action movie.

This one is no sequel, since it was shot a year before John Woo's breath-taking "tour de force", it just ends in an hospital ; but believe your Phaithful Phrog, it's one of Hong Kong's best, with all the incredible action and beautiful ideas you expect from them - but one or two notches better. The plot's idea - trying to fond a blood donor against a bunch of terrorists - is simple but well-heeded and gives out some brains as well. This ain't got the brains of a Tsui Hark movies or the guts of John Woo, but comes very, very close.

Crazy, and ludicrous Hong-Kong action with a cruel streak. You know, the kind where a lot of innocent bystanders, and I mean alot. Are held hostage or catch a bullet, or two. Wong Jing's "THE LAST BLOOD" is one relentless onslaught after another, which does contribute to a few outstanding set-pieces consisting of wild and imaginative stunt-work (like the airport shootout, bathroom beatdown, tiny cable car combat and gun toting motorbike cyclists road chase)... although i do find the back-half of the film to lose that on-the-clock momentum and set-pieces.

Anyway there's a bit of melodrama on the side, plenty of goofball humour (especially when Eric Tsang's 'fat boy' gets in on the act), a foreseeable game-changing twist and recklessly over-the-top violence. It sure doesnt hold back, and tonally it's all over the place. Chaos and disruption is the name of the game, and this film delivers the promise when it becomes a race against the clock to track down three people with a rare blood type to save a famous reglious leader after an assassination attmept by terrorists. Andy Lau and Alan Tam start off as a duo, looking and wanting the same thing (blood donar), although for different purposes and this leads them to Tsang. Also featuring Leung Kar-Yan and Natalis Chan.

Like in every HK action franchise you can never know whether movies are actually connected.As I reckon this movie`s only tie to famed `Hard Boiled` is the title given by money-lovin` producers. Anyway,two ideas keep Woo`s movie connected with this feature.First of all,main characters are a detective and the `golden hearted` mobster.Second similarity is that plots and final showdowns of both movies have something to do with hospitals. Each movie contains energetic and rampaging shootouts. While Woo`s original had all main landmarks of his opus (Scorsesian and Melivillian influence),the sequel shows that it was made by eminent HK director Wong Jing.His landmarks are `Looney Tunes` pacing,speeded up action and plotting derived from 1980s Hollywood action fare.The difference is quite obvious. This movie works remarkably well and it doesn`t disgrace the `Hard Boiled` franchise.Of course it works well on its own since Woo`s and Wong Jing`s styles are barely comparable. If you overrule the input of dumb HK comedy `Hard Boiled 2` is highly enjoyable.Wong Jing provides us with enough razzle-dazzle that makes this movie a must not just for HK action afficionados but even for weekend fans of the genre that look for recognizable HK fare.If you like high-calibre gunplay,high bodycounts and Eastern Heroes this feature may scratch your itches. Interesting aspect of the movie is its explicit anti-communist orientation because characters joke a lot with the Red China.