Arena do Tigre II

I'll say it again: Tiger Cage II is simply the best modern day action movie from Hong Kong. This movie has it all to become a classic: martial arts, gunfights, an awesome swordfight, comedy, and good characters and stunts!! Don't be fooled by the title it has nothing to do with the first Tiger Cage!! Donnie Yen (The greatest, in my opinion!!), Robin Shou(from Mortal Kombat, but don't worry he fights extremely well in this movie) and Davis Wu star in this great action movie. The last 20 minutes of the movie are fights after fights: Robin against David, Donnie against John Salvitti, Donnie against Michael Woods, Donnie against Robin!!! The movie's is also extremely well directed by the Master himself: Yuen-Woo Ping. And Donnie, Yuen Cheung-Yan and Yuen Shun-Yee(two brothers of Yuen Woo-Ping) are in charge of the action sequences. Simply get this movie if you are looking for a great ACTION movie from HK...............................9,3/10

Yuen Woo-Ping once again delivers another modern day actioner full of brutal martial arts action. In this movie, Donnie Yen and Rosamond Kwan are on the run from cops and drug dealers after they are framed for murder. Plot is insignificant in this film, however. This movie has a lot of great fights including Donnie Yen and John Salvitti fighting with swords and a fight with Michael Woods. These are classic fight scenes. The only problem is that in my version, Cynthia Khan fights Robin Shou for a few moments and then arrests him. I felt cheated. The movie was also a bit too vulgar and violent for my tastes. Anyone who likes martial arts movies should check this out.

A sequel in name only to the action-packed TIGER CAGE, TIGER CAGE 2 marks a real highlight of the Hong Kong comedy cop/action sub-genre. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping - undoubtedly one of the best of the Chinese directors and martial arts choreographers - this sequel turns out to be better than the original and indeed might well be the best of its kind.

The film features an intensely likable Donnie Yen and an at-her-most-gorgeous Rosamund Kwan as a mismatched couple (a cop and a lawyer, respectively) who run foul of some sinister money launderers who use murder to keep their business private. The end up on the run being pursued by gangsters. Of course, what this inevitably leads to is an incredible amount of expertly-choreographed action and fight sequences. There are the requisite car chases and shoot-outs here, but the majority of the action is hand-to-hand combat, and boy is it blistering.

Yen is on top form as a physical fight and his bouts with various opponents are fast and furious. The plot is occasionally slightly muddled (and the dodgy subtitles on the Hong Kong blu-ray I watched hardly helped) but it doesn't matter as this is visual, visceral entertainment throughout. Michael Woods makes his third (and best) appearance in a Chinese film, the creepy John Salvitti is back from IN THE LINE OF DUTY 4, and Robin Shou makes a decent antagonist. Watch out for a surprisingly fine David Wu in support and a cameo from veteran star Lo Lieh as a gangster.

There's only one good reason to watch this movie and it's to see Donnie Yen's fight scenes. The last 20 minutes of this film include some of Donnie Yen's best. The rest of the movie up until that point is mind numbingly bad. Cheesy music, bad dialogue, corny humor, and a razor thin plot. In fact, I don't think there was a screenplay written for this thing. I think Yuen Woo Ping just started filming fight scenes and the story was written on napkins in between takes. That being said, your kung fu movie collection will not be complete without the last three fight scenes in this movie. They are classic and almost worth the wait. Just skip ahead to that last 20 minutes and I promise you won't be missing anything.

Sitting down in 2022 to watch the 1990 crime action movie "Sai Hak Chin" (aka "Tiger Gate 2") for the first time. I had actually never heard about this movie from writers Chi-Ho Fong, Kwong-Kim Yip and Yeuk-Kwong Yuen before I had the opportunity to watch it.

But I figured since the movie was a crime action and had Donnie Yen, Rosamund Kwan and Robin Shou on the cast list, then I would be in for something watchable and enjoyable. So I sat down to watch "Sai Hak Chin", and I must say that director Woo-Ping Yuen did manage to put the script and storyline onto the screen in an enjoyable and entertaining manner.

The storyline in Woo-Ping Yuen's movie was pretty straight forward, if not actually somewhat generic for an early 1990s crime action movie. But hey, the formula worked then and still works today, and that makes "Sai Hak Chin" an enjoyable and watchable movie. There is a good combination of the genres, that being crime, drama and martial arts.

The cast ensemble in "Sai Hak Chin" was also good, and needless to say that it was definitely pure joy to watch the young Donnie Yen, Rosamund Kwan and Robin Shou in the movie.

There is a good amount of martial arts and action throughout the course of "Sai Hak Chin", which should provide more than sufficient to keep most viewers happy.

My rating of "Sai Hak Chin" lands on a well-deserved six out of ten stars.