News

Exclusive: Arrow Films has struck a deal with Shout! Studios to release 156 Hong Kong titles in the UK, including seminal classics by John Woo and Tsui Hark.

It follows the acquisition of the Golden Princess film library by US outfit Shout! Studios in January, which comprised worldwide rights (excluding some Asian territories) to the renowned catalogue of titles.

While Shout! will handle the US release of the films, both on physical media and through streaming platform Shout! TV, Arrow Films has acquired UK rights to the features.

Produced during the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s,...

The home video distributor Shout Factory is collaborating with Hong Kong Film Archives to bring you the 4K remastering of the most coveted of Chinese action film classics. The films will include works by Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark. The digital titles will include A Better Tomorrow in 4K, A Better Tomorrow II in 4K, and A Better Tomorrow III in 4K, Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues in 4K, John Woo’s The Killer in 4K, Tony Ching’s A Chinese Ghost Story (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang), A Chinese Ghost Story II (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang), and A Chinese Ghost Story III (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Joey Wang) and John Woo’s Bullet In The Head in 4K (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai).

However, the first two big releases are the Chow Yun-Fat films Hard Boiled and City on Fire. The descriptions...

Shout! Studios is punching Monday in the face with brass knuckles by announcing an outstanding action film initiative with Hong Kong Cinema Classics! The celebration of Hong Kong action classics includes 4K presentations on Digital and physical media featuring iconic filmmakers, time-honored films, and many of the action genre’s legendary badasses of the silver screen.

The Hong Kong Cinema Classics collection brings films like Hard Boiled, City on Fire, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Fist of Legend, Peking Opera Blues, and more to the stage!

Per today’s press release from Shout! Studios:

Hong Kong cinema in the ’80s and ’90s, renowned for its thrilling action choreography, distinctive visual styles, and emotional storytelling, represents a remarkable era in cinematic history, whose crime thrillers, martial arts classics, and action films, in particular, have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, profoundly influencing everything from Quentin Tarantino’s...

In a major boon for action film enthusiasts and physical media collectors, Shout! Studios is launching a new entertainment label dedicated to restored Hong Kong cinema classics.

The Hong Kong Cinema Classics line will spotlight a treasure trove of Hong Kong cinematic masterpieces, beginning with digital 4K releases in June before expanding to definitive-edition physical media.

The move comes on the back of Shout! Studios nabbing worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library.

The digital rollout begins June 24, while the label’s first physical release will be “The Jet Li Collection,” a 10-disc 4K Uhd + Blu-ray box set arriving July 29. This comprehensive set features five of the martial arts superstar’s seminal Hong Kong films: “Fist of Legend,” “Tai Chi Master,” “Fong Sai Yuk,” “Fong Sai Yuk II,” and “The Bodyguard from Beijing.” The lavish collection includes new interviews, audio commentaries, vintage featurettes and more special features.

Shout! Studios has unveiled Hong Kong Cinema Classics Line, “a new entertainment label spotlighting a treasure trove of Hong Kong’s most captivating and cinematic masterpieces on digital entertainment platforms in 4K and definitive-edition physical releases (Uhd and Blu-ray) for collectors’ home entertainment shelves,” according to the official release. The first titles will be released this summer.

The home video company “in collaboration with the Hong Kong Film Archives, has been working diligently to remaster and restore several prized hits, all scanned in stunning 4K from the original camera negatives. The video and audio have been restored, and the subtitles have been newly translated. With fans in mind, Shout! Studios is currently producing a variety of bonus content for each physical media release for this numbered and deluxe home entertainment series.”

Many of these titles have long been out-of-print or unavailable in the west, so to have them with brand-new...

Hong Kong cinema in the ’80s and ’90s, renowned for its thrilling action choreography, distinctive visual styles, and emotional storytelling, represents a remarkable era in cinematic history, whose crime thrillers, martial arts classics, and action films, in particular, have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, profoundly influencing everything from Quentin Tarantino’s movies to the iconic Matrix and John Wick franchises. Among these are many acclaimed and popular early works by renowned filmmakers John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, Corey Yuen, Gordon Chan, Johnnie To, and internationally renowned actors Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Leslie Cheung, and Tony Leung Ka-fai. Many of these highly sought-after movies from Shout!’s Golden Princess library and seminal Hong Kong classics have been dormant and out–of–print for decades outside of Asia.

For the upcoming Hong Kong Cinema Classics releases, Shout! Studios, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Film Archives,...

Few can rival the international fame of China’s Zhang Yimou. His directorial debut, Red Sorghum, was an instant hit. Likewise, his later films have become beloved cinematic classics. Domestic audiences often tout his historical dramas as must-see parts of China’s rich cinematic history. However, international audiences will know his name from famous wuxia films like House of Flying Daggers. Yimou's works are often hailed for their ingenuity and insight, and his themes are as uplifting as they are heart-wrenching. Yet, like any other creative, he’s had his critical flops.

One of his most divisive films is A Simple Noodle Story. The borderline surrealist comedy is a near-incoherent mix of puns, slapstick, and psychological thrills. Its original title roughly translates to Three Shots That Shock or The Three-Shot Surprise — a surprisingly apt (if not a bit on-the-nose) description of the divisive viewing experience.

Despite its multiple names, both...

One of action-film legend Sylvester Stallone's less heralded movies is getting a new home. Very soon, the 2012 film, Bullet to the Head, will be heading to a free streaming service.

Bullet to the Head is set to debut via Tubi on Feb. 16, allowing fans to see the hard-hitting action flick without charge. The film has been available on another free streamer, Plex, for subscribers on Amazon Prime Video and on home video. The movie is directed by The Warriors helmer Walter Hill and penned by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Alessandro Camon.

RelatedSylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson & Jon Voight Named Hollywood's 'Special Ambassadors' by Donald Trump

The U.S. president-elect has named three celebrity "special ambassadors" to help bring Hollywood "back" from its "very troubled" current state.

Bullet to the Head follows New Orleans-based hitman James Bonomo aka Jimmy Bobo (Stallone) who is forced to work alongside a police officer, Detective Taylor Kwan...

The list of releases for Record Store Day 2025 (April 12th) were unveiled on Thursday (February 6th), and one of the standout items is a new Rage Against the Machine concert album titled Live On Tour 1993.

The 2-lp vinyl release compiles 10 “completely untouched and unmixed live recordings” from various cities on Ratm’s 1993 tour. In addition to three sides of music, the double vinyl includes one side with an artistic etching.

Among the 10 live tracks are such classics as “Bombtrack”, “Killing in the Name” (Orlando), “Bullet in the Head” (Paris), and “Know Your Enemy” (Toronto).

All told, the collection includes live performances of all 10 songs on Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 self-titled debut album. It’s limited to 15,000 copies and will initially only be available in independent record stores.

Rage Against the Machine embarked on a reunion tour in 2022, playing their first shows in 11 years. However, the outing was cut short...

A new documentary titled Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music is set to premiere Monday night (January 27th) on NBC. One of the key revelations from the film is that Rage Against the Machine were locked down by the US Secret Service following their performance of “Bulls on Parade” on the late-night sketch show.

Ratm were the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on April 13th, 1996, an episode hosted by billionaire Steve Forbes, who was then a recent Republican presidential candidate.

As the story’s been told, Rage Against the Machine had their crew hang upside down American flags on their amps, but the flags were removed by the SNL stage crew right before the band launched into the song. Ratm never got to play their second song, “Bullet in the Head,” and have since never been invited back to play on the show.

In the new documentary, Ratm guitarist...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSInland Empire.Former MoviePass CEO Ted Farnsworth pleaded guilty to defrauding the company’s investors by making “materially false and misleading representations” of the company’s operations. In the words of a Justice Department official, Farnsworth “concealed that MoviePass’s subscription model was a money-losing gimmick and falsely claimed that [the company] used artificial intelligence to monetize MoviePass’s subscriber data,” the latter tactic described as “AI washing.”Shout! Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to the Golden Princess movie library, a collection of 156 Hong Kong action cinema classics that have been unavailable in Western markets for decades. The collection includes John Woo classics like The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), and Hard Boiled (1992), as well as Tsui Hark’s...

Incredible news for international action fans this morning. Variety reported this morning that Shout! Factory have announced that they acquired the worldwide rights for Golden Princess' 156-film library. In this library are essential action titles from John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Johnnie To. In a major move set to electrify action film aficionados, Shout! Studios has nabbed worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library, a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been Mia from Western markets for decades. The acquisition’s crown jewels include Woo’s action masterpieces “Hard Boiled,” “The Killer,” the complete “Better Tomorrow” trilogy, “Bullet in the Head” and “Once a Thief.” The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire,”...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

What is quite obviously the best film news of 2025 thus far (and will be tough to beat in the foreseeable future) comes via Variety, who tell us Shout! Studios have acquired worldwide rights (minus certain Asian territories) to 156 films owned by Hong Kong’s legendary Golden Princess, comprising the likes of John Woo, Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, and Ringo Lam, to say nothing of filmmakers whose work’s been long sequestered from western eyes and is finally receiving due attention. For those who consider Hong Kong cinema between the ’80s and ’90s something of a peak for the medium itself (hello) this is a nice leavening effect the same month Los Angeles burns and Donald Trump becomes President once more.

One might expect it’ll take a second for any library so vast as Golden Princess’ to arrive. Restoration plans are unclear, minus the notice that Shout! looks to “remaster...

Home video distributor Shout! Studios has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the Golden Princess movie library – a deal that Variety reports will “electrify action film aficionados” because the Golden Princess library is “a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been Mia from Western markets for decades. The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.“

The line-up that is now in the hands of Shout! Studios includes “Woo’s action masterpieces Hard Boiled, The Killer, the complete Better Tomorrow trilogy, Bullet in the Head, and Once a Thief. The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, Prison on Fire and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s Aces Go Places...

In a major move set to electrify action film aficionados, Shout! Studios has nabbed worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library, a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been Mia from Western markets for decades.

The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.

The acquisition’s crown jewels include Woo’s action masterpieces “Hard Boiled,” “The Killer,” the complete “Better Tomorrow” trilogy, “Bullet in the Head” and “Once a Thief.” The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire,” “Prison on Fire” and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s “Aces Go Places”; Tsui’s “Peking Opera Blues”; Tony Ching’s “Chinese Ghost Story” trilogy; and additional hits...

Prolific filmmaker Herman Yau is no stranger to Hong Kong cinema who has directed bold films that touched on sensitive themes since the 1990s. Films like the Category III rated “The Untold Story” and “Ebola Syndrome” are famously explicit in violence, sex and gore. Most of all, he tells the real stories of Hong Kong through his raw and complex characters. Nonetheless, Yau would move on to direct big budget action films mostly financed by China like “Shock Wave” (2017), “The White Storm” series and “Moscow Mission” (2023) during the last decade. Filmed in different locations, “Customs Frontline” is such a film.

A young hotshot but principled Chow Ching Lai (Nicholas Tse) works for the Hong Kong Customs Department as an assistant superintendent. Fortunately, he has a sympathetic boss Cheung Wan Nam (Jacky Cheung), a senior superintendent there who gives him guidance throughout his career. One day while on a routine patrol,...

While the name Tony Leung (also known as "Tony Leung Chiu-wai") may be widely unknown to Western audiences, he happens to be one of the most well-known and renowned actors in Chinese cinema. It was thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, that he became a much more recognizable face in America and other parts of the West. His role as Xu Wenwu (aka "The Mandalorian") in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been praised as one of the McU's most complex and interesting villains. However, with a filmography that has spanned over 40 years, Leung also has quite several credits that have yet to be discovered by the average movie watcher. One of his greatest films also happens to be one of John Woo's best.

Director John Woo has amassed a couple of well-known directorial efforts in Hollywood, including Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2. However, it...

Exclusive: Legendary director John Woo has signed with Independent Artist Group. Famous for his pioneering work in the Hong Kong action genre stamped with balletic scenes of stylized violence that inspired a generation of Hollywood films, Woo just directed the remake of his signature film The Killer. The new one stars Nathalie Emmanuel and Sam Worthington and was released by Universal Internationally and ran on Peacock domestically.

Last year Woo directed the Lionsgate action thriller Silent Night, which starred Joel Kinneman as a man bent on revenge, but unable to speak.

Woo has always split time directing in both North America and China over an illustrious career that began with the Hong Kong action classics A Better Tomorrow, Bullet In The Head, Hard Boiled, and The Killer. He was courted by Hollywood, where his films have included Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta and Christian Slater, Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage,...

Some people think remakes have to be as good as or even better than the original to be worth making, but that’s a high bar and it’s covered in vaseline. All a remake actually has to do is justify its own existence. Maybe it’s got a new style, maybe it’s got a new context, but either way there just needs to be some reason to watch this new version instead of the old one, at least once.

Unfortunately, the only reason I can think of to watch John Woo’s Peacock-exclusive remake of “The Killer” is because it’s the only version that’s currently available on streaming. It’s not good filmmaking and that’s not even good capitalism. The law of supply and demand falls apart when the only supply most people can access is of inferior quality.

The original “The Killer,” also directed by Woo,...

“We have to do something,” says one of the many shadowy extremists who populate the fringes of Mike Ott’s tense drama McVeigh, a condensed account of the events that led Timothy McVeigh, an Iraq war veteran, to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring 680 more. His close ties to white supremacist Richard Snell, a convicted murderer put to death by lethal injection that same day, might — reasonably — lead one, and especially people of color, to wonder why this man needs the oxygen of publicity, nearly 23 years after his own execution. But Ott’s film is a rare study of the radicalization of white working-class Americans, a phenomenon that went overground in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

Ott carefully keeps us at arm’s length from his subject at all times, and his direction makes that clear from the outset. When we’re not following McVeigh,...

Tom Cruise did not take over editing Mission: Impossible 2, but he did try to exert influence over the cutting process. Cruise wanted to put a camera in the cutting room to see the work being done, but the team did not allow him to do so. Director John Woo insisted on cutting the film without any interference and Cruise ultimately understood and respected his decision.

Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo clarifies rumors that Tom Cruise took over editing the 2000 action hit. Cruise had a smash with 1996’s Brian De Palma-directed adaptation of the classic 1960s super-spy TV show. For the 2000 sequel, the star and producer enlisted famed Face/Off director Woo to take the helm, and lend the film some of his signature style. The resulting movie grossed $546 million worldwide, guaranteeing the Mission: Impossible franchise would continue to live on (as it does to this day).

Woo...

Why do we not talk about “The Adventurers?” To be fair, this could be asked about many of Ringo Lam's films. For a filmmaker widely considered to be one of the “Big Three” of Hong Kong action along with Tsui Hark and John Woo, only a few of Lam's films are discussed frequently outside of cinephile circles. His work tended to be jagged, foregoing Woo's elegance and Hark's epic scope in favor of open-wound intensity. A film like “School on Fire,” for example, functions more as social issue drama than action flick. This nervy, uncompromising style perhaps lacked the slick commercial appeal of his contemporaries, which would explain why some of his relatively minor B-Sides tend to be left out of the conversation. This is a shame, because “The Adventurers” is an admirably over-the-top revenge thriller that deserves to be seen.

On paper, the film sounds like...

John Woo, the legendary director of The Killer, Hard Boiled and Face/Off has rightly professed his love for David Mackenzie’s 2016 thriller, Hell Or High Water. What impeccable taste.

As is customary these days, a respected outlet has published a fascinating, in-depth interview with a respected filmmaker, and the rest of the internet has zeroed in on the bit where they glancingly talk about Marvel films.

Such is the case with the legendary John Woo, who changed action movies forever with such Hong Kong thrillers as The Killer and Hard Boiled, before moving to Hollywood with the likes of Hard Target, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2.

The New Yorker caught up with Mr Woo just as he unleashes his latest film, the great-sounding Christmas thriller Silent Night, in which Joel Kinnaman plays a grieving father on a festive revenge mission. Incredibly, it’s Woo’s first in 20 years. To mark the occasion,...

John Woo may be one of the masters of action movies, but even he cannot get behind the special effects of the MCU.

The “Face/Off” director told The New Yorker that he refuses to watch superhero movies, and instead opts for “real” films by directors like Martin Scorsese.

“I’ve never liked watching movies with big special effects, or anything based on comic books,” Woo said. “I prefer Martin Scorsese’s movies, that kind of cinema. I can’t wait to watch ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ I like old-fashioned movies, you know? Real cinema. There aren’t many movies like that lately.”

The “Silent Night” filmmaker added that his film “Bullet in the Head” was “an homage to Martin Scorsese, since I was greatly influenced by his film ‘Mean Streets.'”

Woo’s action movie “Silent Night” marks his first U.S. film in 20 years since critically-panned “Paycheck.” The...

Tony Leung Chiu Wai is one of the most recognizable Asian actors in the world, chiefly through his collaborations with a number of master filmmakers, including Ang Lee, Hou Hsiao Hsien, John Woo and Wong Kar Wai. Leung, who also has a career as a pop singer, has been praised by audiences and critics for his ability to wonderfully portray a plethora of different roles, a skill stressed by the fact that he can fluently speak Cantonese, English and Spanish.

His career reached its apogee from the end of the 80s, and Leung never actually deteriorated, with the astonishing parts coming one of the other. It is by no surprise then, that this year, he was presented with the Venice Film Festival lifetime achievement award

1. A City of Sadness

The script depicts the experiences of the Lin family during the upheaval that occurred after 1945, when Japanese forces withdrew from Taiwan after 51 years,...

Rage Against the Machine were just two shows into their 2022 Public Service Announcement Tour reunion tour when frontman Zack de la Rocha tore his Achilles tendon during a frenetic rendition of “Bullet in the Head.” He managed to soldier through the rest of the North American leg by sitting on a road case in the center of the stage, but they wound up cancelling the remainder of the tour so he could properly heal.

“I hate cancelling shows,” de la Rocha wrote in an October 2022 letter to fans. “I hate disappointing our fans.

The 2004 Marvel Comics adaptation The Punisher wasn’t a huge hit when it was released by Lionsgate, it made just under 55 million at the global box office, but that was still enough for Lionsgate to greenlight a sequel. And when The Punisher 2 first went into development, the idea was that The Punisher director Jonathan Hensleigh would be back at the helm, with Thomas Jane reprising the role of vigilante Frank Castle. But there were script issues, Hensleigh left the project, and Lionsgate started searching for another director. And during a panel at the Fanboy Expo Knoxville last weekend, Jane revealed that two of the directors who were considered for The Punisher 2 were Rob Zombie, who was then fresh off of working with Lionsgate on The Devil’s Rejects, and The Warriors‘ Walter Hill.

Jane said (with thanks to ComicBook.com for the transcription),

There were a couple of iterations of Punisher 2. One...

Rage Against the Machine announced Thursday that they must cancel the upcoming European dates of their reunion tour due to Zack de la Rocha’s leg injury.

The singer suffered the injury on just the second show of the band’s pandemic-postponed reunion trek, and while he persevered through the pain by remaining seated for all subsequent shows on the Guy Fieri-attended first U.S. leg — which concludes Aug. 14 at New York’s Madison Square Garden — the band said the European shows in Aug. and Sept. were off “per medical guidance.

“Face Off” helmer John Woo will receive a Career Achievement Award during Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, about to celebrate its 26th edition. The Hong Kong filmmaker is currently working on “Silent Night,” starring Joel Kinnaman and Kid Cudi.

“I defy anyone to watch ‘Bullet in the Head,’ ‘Hard Boiled’ or ‘The Killer’ and not walk away wanting to break down the shots and make a movie. His use of camera movement, close-ups, the ways he would block and choreograph, it’s astonishing to look at,” Fantasia’s artistic director Mitch Davis told Variety, noting the “unexpected poetry” of Woo’s work.

“They are such unconventionally soulful films. I wish we could somehow unleash a flock of doves in the cinema when he steps onto the stage. Backlit.”

The festival, which will unspool July 14 – Aug. 3, has also unveiled its first wave of titles, starting with a selection of world...

Veteran Hong Kong director Herman Yau has assembled a top-notch cast for “War Customised,” a high-octane action thriller that is one of the highest-profile commercial productions to emerge from the territory in the past couple of years.

The cast is headed by Jacky Cheung and Nicholas Tse, along with Karena Lam and Francis Ng.

The supporting cast includes Liu Yase (“Limbo”), Michelle Wai, Angus Yeung (“Raging Fire”), Melvin Wong (“Above the Law”), Ben Yuen, Amanda Strang (“Final Romance”), and Brahim Chab as the villain of the piece.

Production, now underway, is by Emperor Motion Pictures, with principal Albert Yeung named as producer. Emperor is also handling international rights licensing.

The “War Customised” screenplay is by Erica Li. Plot details have been withheld.

In addition to playing the lead, Tse will also act as the film’s action choreographer.

Yau is a veteran of the action, martial arts and comedy genres...

Exclusive: A bountiful American Film Market just got even better. Buyers are buzzing about Silent Night, the first U.S. action film in decades to be directed by the iconic Chinese filmmaker John Woo. Joel Kinnaman will star in an film that will tell a loud action tale, without a word of dialogue.

Sources tell Deadline the story is basic, as a normal father heads into the underworld to avenge his young son’s death. The film is in negotiations to be financed by Capstone. John Wick’s Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri and Lori Tilkin are producing and Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan is overseeing with Joe Gatta. Other casting is underway.

The prospect of a Woo return is as intriguing as his intention to make has buyers sparked up. After directing the stylistic Hong Kong action classics from A Better Tomorrow and The Killer to Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled,...

Tony Leung’s portrayal of Wenwu takes the MCU villain to a whole new level in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the latest feature film in the franchise. Wenwu is complex and textured as written, but veteran actor Leung gives the role such gravity, a level of depth that can only be reached by one of the world’s leading performers. Wenwu easily tops the ranks of MCU’s best villains, but it wasn’t always clear Shang-Chi‘s villain would be a hit. Originally in the comics, Shang-Chi’s father was the xenophobic Asian caricature Fu Manchu. Later, Fu was replaced with the Mandarin, another character that relied on racist stereotypes, so when the Mandarin was announced as the next MCU villain, it aroused concern. However, Iron Man 3 wisely spun the Mandarin to their advantage. Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) became the Mandarin, and the character...

The unloved third movie in a trilogy. How often have we seen this? From the classic examples of “The Godfather Part 3” to “Drunken Master III (This movie does exist sadly!) we see the final parts deemed to be the lesser work and whilst there are good ones, they are generally the exception to the convention. With “A Better Tomorrow III” there was already some consternation prior to its release. Director of the original two John Woo had a public falling out with producer Tsui Hark, with both going their separate ways and to eventually release two films with similar settings. The subject of this review by Tsui Hark, and “A Bullet in the Head” by Woo. This however is not a sequel but a prequel to the events of the first two. With both directors having differing philosophies it poses an interesting question. Do you watch it expecting more of...

As far back as September of 2019 the notion of reviving the classic (it is – really) double-headed actioner Face/Off was being reported. The 1997 film was violent nectar to the millions of die-hard John Woo fans who had watched his Hong Kong career blossom like ripe bruises with hits such as The Killer, Bullet in the Head and the two A Better Tomorrow films. With the dynamic duo of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage playing out an utterly brilliant premise, the film was an instant success and is fondly remembered today.

The 2019 news pointed to a remake of the film, and fans weighed in immediately on who should take over the lead roles – Vanessa Kirby and Samara Weaving is a particular pairing that will occupy space in the Greatest Movies Never Made section of our minds. Fast forward to February of 2021, the news that Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett were to take...

With a prodigious output during its peak, it isn’t hard for some Hong Kong features to fade into obscurity. It’s only with recent re-releases that we are getting the opportunity to revisit them. On researching “Fatal Vacation” for this review, I was surprised to read about the controversy that surrounded its production. With a relatively unusual subject matter for the industry, it veers into exploitation territory more in common a with “grindhouse” movie than regular Hong Kong fare.

Bob (Eric Tsang) runs tours of the Philippines for Hong Kong tourists, assisted by Candy (Irene Wan). In true Hong Kong fashion, he bribes the local airport staff and alters the itinerary to make quick money. At a nightspot, his party are captured by rebels and taken hostage to be used as negotiation for the release of one of their captured brethren. When the government refuses to...

For a long time we were led to believe that Sylvester Stallone and comic book movies don’t mix after 1995’s Judge Dredd bombed at the box office and gained a reputation as a colossal misfire, while he also starred in 2012’s graphic novel adaptation Bullet in the Head, which sank without a trace.

However, after a warmly received cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which appeared to set up a much larger role for the actor’s Stakar Ogord in the third installment, the 74 year-old action icon has since joined the cast of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad very late in the day.

That’s not the only superhero pic on the horizon for the Rocky star, though, and Stallone recently posted a set video to social media celebrating the end of shooting on his upcoming original project Samaritan, which was...

After several years in television and the release of three romantic comedies including “Seven Years Itch” (1987), Johnnie To comes up with his first Action Movie “The Big Heat”. The extremely rare movie, famously known for its DVD release that falls short in terms of synchronization and subtitling, holds the blueprint of many later films of the director.

“The Big Heat” centers around the policemen John, played by Waise Lee also known as the bad guy from “A Better Tomorrow” (1986) and “Bullet in the Head” (1990), who has to solve the murder of his former partner before he can retire. Like many other of To’s heroes John has a disability. Due to a nerve damage, his hand is temporarily paralyzed.

Speaking of Johnnie To, one cannot dismiss the aspect of the auteur. Johnnie To is a prime example of a director that changed the nature of a genre...

“Bullet in the Head” is a 1990 action drama directed by John Woo. Originally planned as a prequel to the successful “A Better Tomorrow” film, the movie became a stand-alone story after Woo’s falling out with his long-time collaborator Tsui Hark (who went on to make his own “A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon”). Does “Bullet in the Head” live up to being “John Woo’s most emotionally powerful film?” Let’s find out together.

The movie tells the story of three friends: Ben (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), Frank (Jacky Cheung), and Paul (Waise Lee), who regularly brawl with gang members in Hong Kong during the 1960s. Unfortunately, Frank accidentally kills one of the mobsters and the friends decide to flee Hong Kong. They go to Saigon, in order to work as smugglers in the ravaged by war Vietnam. However, things do not go as...

In 2013, the veteran director Benny Chan gave us the spectacular action film “The White Storm” which honored the best heroic bloodshed films Hong Kong madein the 80s and 90s. This year the sequel: “The White Storm 2: Drug Lords ” arrives, at the hands of Herman Yau, another veteran director who does not need any introduction.

The White Storm 2: Drug Lords is released in UK cinemas 12th July from Cine Asia

As is usual in some franchises of this type, the continuity is different, which is why it has nothing to do with the previous one. Louis Koo repeats his part in this installment, and he is accompanied by Andy Lau, Michael Mui, Chrissie Chau, Kent Cheng and Kar Yan Lam among others.

The story begins in 2009 in Hong Kong, where the criminal gang of Ching Hing controls much of the city. This criminal gang, led by Yu Nam (Kent cheng...

Nicolas Cage, the Oscar-winning actor and International Film Festival & Awards Macao talent ambassador, reckons he is no stranger to the Asian brand of cinema. He has worked with the likes of John Woo the Pang Brothers (“Bangkok Dangerous” remake) and Sion Sono on upcoming English-language film “Prisoners of the Ghostland.”

Addressing a press conference in Macau on Saturday, Cage said: “Asian cinema is one of the greatest presentations of cinema in the history of cinema. The amount of style and talent that goes into Chinese movies, Japanese movies, Korean movies, is quite remarkable, and I have been blessed to work in several Asian productions.”

“I know the reason I’m still blessed to make movies is largely because of China, and Chinese cinema and also Chinese investors,” Cage said. “It is because of this film industry here that I’m blessed to continue working. So, I know who to say thank you to.

Arguably the most scrutinized festival director of his time, Thierry Frémaux began working for the Cannes film festival in 2001 before taking on the role of festival director in 2014 when Gilles Jacob stood down. During that period he has had to attempt to rewire Cannes in the wake of radical changes in how we watch and talk about movies. He also faces continuous criticism for the ongoing lack of gender equality in the movies that are programmed.

We met Frémaux at the Marrakech film festival recently and found him in an affable mood, happy to discuss how his job has changed in those tumultuous years and also about his directorship of the Lumière institute and their annual festival of restored films in Lyon.

How did the idea behind the Lumière festival come about?

Well, Lyon is the native town of cinematograph Lumière. We celebrated the centennial in 1995 at the Lumière institute,...

An early hit with festivalgoers who prefer to look outside the Official Selection, Jaime Rosales’s Directors’ Fortnight entry Petra proved the Spanish director to be a fluid and unpredictable talent. Arguably most famous—or perhaps infamous—for the almost entirely dialogue-free 2008 Basque terrorist drama Bullet in the Head, Rosales this time presents a very subtle mystery-thriller. Sharing DNA with the work of his compatriot Pedro Almodóvar—not least because it features a supporting turn by Almodóvar regular Marisa Paredes—Petra sees rising star Bárbara Lennie in the title role, as a woman who enrolls in a mentoring project with a famous artist, Jaume (a terrific debut by the non-professional Joan Botey).

Told using chapters that appear in non-chronological order, the film plays games with time before reaching a wholly unexpected climax. Rosales told Deadline that taking such an experimental approach to an otherwise conventional story was part of the project’s appeal.

Action maestro John Woo returns to the mold of his classic The Killer with this remake of a classic 1970s Japanese thriller, about an innocent man who sets out to clear his name after his is framed for robbery and rape.

Manhunt is directed by legendary action Chinese filmmaker John Woo, of many films including A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, Hard Target, Face/Off and the Philip K. Dick adaptation,...

It was August, 2005. I knocked on the double door at the Four Seasons. It opened almost immediately. "Hi, I'm Nic," he said, hand outstretched. Nicolas Cage wasn't who I expected him to be. Like all actors, he was smaller and trimmer in person than he appeared on-screen. Neatly dressed in an Armani suit, Cage also displayed none of the manic fervor in real life as had become his signature on-screen. He was thoughtful, well-spoken and incredibly literate in all seven arts. It's an infrequent experience that you leave an interview feeling you've just met someone that you could hang out with regularly, but I got that with Nic Cage, in spades. He was endlessly fascinating, but also kind of a regular guy. Another of my favorite chats I count myself lucky to have been part of.

Nicolas Cage: Lord Of The Nerds

By

Alex Simon

It’s an inevitable...

Stars: Lucas Till, Stephen McHattie, John Pyper-Ferguson, Merritt Patterson, Jason Momoa, Janet-Laine Green, Melanie Scrofano, Adam Butcher, Philip Maurice Hayes, Miriam McDonald | Written and Directed by David Hayter

I, like many horror fans, know that the werewolf movie is the hardest of all the horror sub-genres to get right. For every American Werewolf in London, there’s an American Werewolf in Paris… But once in a while a movie comes along that successfully captures what makes the genre great. Wolves is one such movie.

Written and directed by David Hayter, who has penned such blockbuster films as X-Men and its sequel; and the film adaptation of Watchmen, Wolves tells the story of Cayden Richards. Your typical all-American jock, Cayden goes on the run following a vicious football incident and the murder of his parents – possibly at Cayden’s hands. You see Cayden is changing and not in your typical high-school teenager way.

Warner Bros

This month sees the release of Grudge Match, a film that pits The Raging Bull against The Italian Stallion. Had this film was made in the early eighties, it would break box office records, but in 2014 it has only grossed about $15,000,000 in the States so far, and the reviews have been mixed to negative and even the likes of Kevin Hart haven’t brought in the younger dollar. Similar to ‘Bullet in the Head’ last year, the film is unfortunately another flop for Stallone in this age of super heroes, fantasy and indie hits.

This isn’t the full story though. Stallone’s career has always had its ups and downs. In one way, his whole career is a Rocky Balboa story. Constantly fighting to be back on top when things are going against him. Also, in an age of Rotten Tomatoes, CinemaScore and Twitter, it seems bad...

The first time Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger teamed up was a couple of years ago for The Expendables (and its sequel). It wasn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still a lot of fun, the kind of all-out, over the top action movie they just don’t make anymore, which is probably a good thing. The two marble-mouthed ‘80s action studs join forces again for Escape Plan and if you’re expecting more loud, brainless escapism, you may be surprised. This prison break flick has a linear plot that goes from point A to point B as opposed to a series of action set pieces’, favoring the logistics of the caper over explosions and mayhem and the result is a surprising example of first-rate story telling. I’m not kidding! There is plenty of carnage in Escape Plan but it is much...

Villains have always been and will always be some of the most fascinating and memorable characters in the world of genre film. Here we will take a look at the greatest villains of cinema from the 1990’s.

The criteria for this article is the same as in my previous articles Cinema’s Greatest Villains: The 1970’s and Cinema’s Greatest Villains: The 1980’s: the villains must be from live-action films-no animated features-and must pose some type of direct of indirect lethal threat. The villains can either be individuals or small groups that act as one unit.

The villains must be human or human in appearance. Also, individuals that are the central protagonists/antiheroes of their respective films were excluded.

Brad Dourif as The Gemini Killer in The Exorcist III (William Peter Blatty, 1990): Veteran actor Dourif is intense and unforgettable as an executed murderer inhabiting someone else’s body in...

Over the course of thirty four films and forty four active years one of the most improbable movie stars Hollywood has seen returns from a political sabbatical to the big screen. In The Last Stand Arnold Schwarzenegger is back cracking wise and causing mayhem but there is no Expendables-sized irony here; this is different man causing the shots.

There are still bad guys with dubious foreign accents, still the same needless deaths to prove a point and yet the force meeting these heinous acts is older and perhaps a little wiser. With Sylvester Stallone’s later career proving something of a model the need to send up the ultraviolence of last century is perhaps waning with both Stallone and Schwarzenegger falling back into the good, old fashioned gunplay albeit with a need to address the age issue.

Both Bullet in the Head and The Last Stand are uncomplicated and fun.

Noted editor and director David Wu blasted back into Chinese cinemas in 2011 with “Cold Steel”, a wartime sniper thriller that after enjoying success at international festivals finally lands on DVD. Wu has certainly had an interesting career, having worked with John Woo as editor on several of his classics including “A Better Tomorrow”, “Bullet in the Head” and “Hard Boiled”, as well as directing “The Bride with White Hair 2”, before enjoying success in the Us as a director of genre and television fare. For his return to Asia, Wu assembled an interesting cast, headlined by Peter Ho (“Sophie’s Revenge”) and veteran Tony Leung Ka Fai (“Election”), with support from actress Song Jia (“Once Upon a Time in Tibet”), martial artist Yu Rong Guang (“Iron Monkey”), television star Wilson Guo (“Palace”) and John Woo’s daughter Angeles Woo (“Reign of Assassins”). Based on a popular online novel, the film sees Ho as Mu Liangfeng,...