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.

Last Blood (1990) was a funny flick by Wong Jing. The Daka Lama is severely wounded while making a goodwill trip to Singapore. A triad's girlfriend is also wounded when a group of Japanese Assassins try to kill the Lama. The two share a rare blood type and only five people in Singapore have it. But three are dead and one is on holiday. The fate of Asia lies in the body of Fatty who's being chased by two cops, the vacationing triad and a horde of terrorists. The film winds up in a crackerjack finale. Wong Jing throws in everything including the kitchen sink in this low budgeted action film.

One scene to watch for is the man in a wheelchair during the Hospital invasion. It's a real hoot. Film stars Alan Tam, Andy Lau and Eric Tsang who's also the Producer. Wong Jing is a hired gun on the film but he brings his usual stamp on to the screen. Blackie Ko is the Action Director. This is sometimes called Hardboiled 2, but this came out almost two years before that one and is just as entertaining.

Highly recommended.

This is a solid Heroic Bloodshed drama with some EXCELLENT scenes of stunt work and gun play. The plot doesn't cover anything memorable, however it has a fast pacing so the run-time will go by fairly quickly. A high religious figure visits Singapore with full knowledge of a planned terrorist attack, although he entrusts the local police to protect him if anything awry should go down (which it most certainly does). The movie follows a group of ragtag men who try to save the religious figure's life after it becomes endangered and on-the-line in a local hospital. A terrorist group wishes to have the figure killed, and many waves of enemies confront our group of ragtag heroes in the midst of assassination attempts. There's a multitude of great action present within the movie, and a couple scenes should surprise you in terms of WOW.. If your a fan of over-the-top action movies then this should be a satisfying watch. - 7/10

(1990) 12 Hours of Terror/ The Last Blood (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION

The first time I saw this, it was on Laserdisc and that I was so hung up on Hong Kong action movies as they did not use cheap parlor tricks and the action was quick and fearless. I saw this as The Last Blood with zero subtitles, and after Hard-boiled was popular on home video in North America, producers decide to rename it by calling it Hard-boiled Part II even though it was released year earlier, and that it was most likely John Woo who may have been inspired by "The Last Blood" to make Hard- boiled. Anyways there is a impressive shoot out toward the end as well at the hospital. I only watched it solely for the action sequences and nothing else, made during the time when neither Hollywood or before the China takeover of Hong Kong. Anyways because "The Last Blood" is available on line streaming, I am able to understand it better. Written and directed by Wong Jing, the king of Hong Kong's Roger Corman movies that showcases comedy, action, violence or sleaze. It has Lui Tai (Alan Tam) and his partner, Stone (Ka-Yan Leung) infiltrating a possible terrorist with the main baddie, Saporo (Jackson Lou) managing to escape. Saporo main target is the Dehla Lama. A close happens on his life that ended up with the Lama going to the hospital where he has a rare blood type. It turns out Fatty (Eric Tsang) has that rare blood type except that he refuses to cooperate- hence the title "The Last Blood". With gang leader on board, Brother Bee (Andy Lau) on board with the mystery here is that whenever they go somewhere the bad guys appear to be one step on top of it. The point is the action to which all I did to rewatch this movie was use the fast forward to see some of the action since the comedy falls flat with some of the biggest highlights are the explosions that looked very dangerous.

And anyone who is a fan of John Woo's Hard-boiled released a year after "The Last Blood" should be able to tell he was heavily influenced by watching this movie particularly the motorcycle chase sequences; the final shoot out at the hospital, among other action movies Woo has seen.

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.