Reviews

A gang of masked thieves known as the Eight Dragons bust into a wealthy man's home and steal a map, leaving no witnesses alive. Once the deed is done, the leader decides that this ordeal has gotten way out of hand, and orders his men to each take one piece of the map and go into hiding for three years before they regroup and finally reap the rewards of their newly obtained treasure. Dorian Tan plays a cop who uses deceit, disguises, and finds himself in a compromising situations on more than one occasion as he tracks down each member and attempts to regain the stolen treasure. This premise sounds very promising but unfortunately the movie falls short.

The movie flows along and holds one's attention pretty well as Tan finds each of the thieves but each resulting confrontation is plainly unsatisfying. Huang Lung's fight choreography here is stale and just plain boring. While I can certainly appreciate Dorian Tan's impressive kicking ability there is simply too much emphasis put on it. All too often do we see Mr. Tan hopping around on and attacking his opponent with one leg, which is all fine and dandy, but results in his kicks looking like they have no power behind them. Punches suffer similarly due to the slow speed at which they tend to be delivered, which is actually a fault I found with the kicking as well. The fight scenes get a bit more interesting towards the end, but regardless, I can honestly say that I enjoyed Tan's performance vs Yang Sze and Jim Kelly in The Tattoo Connection more than any fight in SDK. Even the talents of Lo Lieh, Gam Gong, and that of some other recognizable HK cinema stars are wasted here. The final fight where Tan and Doris Lung take on Lo Lieh is also quite bland and the ending itself is abrupt and like the rest of the film, extremely unsatisfying.

The meticulous and well-orchestrated soundtrack by Chow Fook Leung is one of the high-points of this film and the only thing I really liked about it besides the inclusion of Miss Doris Lung Chun-Erh, who played the daughter of the Eight Dragons' leader. The English dub, acting, and directing are all fine and passable. Unfortunately, the action isn't, and for a movie of this type that is not acceptable. I would recommend this only to Flash Legs completists.

This is a sprightly little film that follows the adventures of three young vagrants: San Mao, an athletic young man hoping to find his mother and who's teacher was shot during the war, Qu Pu Li, a clever and brash young fellow, and the oldest of the three, tomboy Zsa Zsa Meng. San Mao's wandering eventually leads him to meet and befriend the other two. Some time after banding together the always scheming Qu Pu Li comes up with the idea that he and San Mao perform as stunt men on the streets with Zsa Zsa Meng acting as a sort of hype man. As time goes on they become more and more of a bother to the General and his men until he finally sends his henchmen after the brats to teach them a lesson. At around the same time a mysterious loner codenamed Eagle (Casanova Wong) comes to town to try to prevent the General from making a deal with one Mr. Chu, and he ends up aligning himself with the youths as they have a common enemy. Things are made a bit more interesting by the General's son's attraction to Zsa Zsa Meng and the subsequent clashing of the motives of he and his father. I won't spoil the ending but I will say that it left me a bit um, emotionally confused, or conflicted, or . . . something.

There really isn't much on offer in the way of stupendous kung fu fighting. Casanova Wong does a fair job at making up for the film's lack of any recognizable and talented martial artists when given the chance but there are only three or four scenes where he gets to "spread his wings," so-to-speak, and kick butt. The end fight where he squares off with the General is mostly interspersed with scenes of the motley young trio taking on a big, lumbering, bald guy at their secret hideout. This switching back and forth between scenes, while not too sudden or frequent, served more to break up the flow of the final duel and spoil the excitement that one should be feeling at that point than to make me laugh at the kids and their endeavor. Still, this little bother didn't make me restless and/or hate the movie.

I'd prefer to think of this film as a comedy/adventure with some martial arts on display here and there, and fortunately it does alright in both categories. The English dub is actually pretty good and the picture quality itself is average or slightly above average for movies of this type (or at least it was in the version found on the Martial Arts 50 Movie Pack from Mill Creek Entertainment). Also, the full screen presentation doesn't hinder the action except for in a few minor instances. All in all I give it a 5 out of 10.

This is a racy (in more ways than one) and somewhat entertaining martial arts film that contains decent to good action and an unusually large fill of nudity.

The plot is centered around one wealthy boss-man, David Lo, who is trying desperately to retrieve two halves of a precious necklace formerly belonging to his father before Red Head (who's villainous persona is just as lacking as the amount of thought that went into the creation of his name) and his thugs get the two pieces, and ultimately, the Swiss bank account number engraved into them, for themselves. Wan Lee, a boxing champion and some guy played by Casanova Wong are approached and used by each side over the course of this struggle and end up duking it out in the end. It's really not quite clear who the real good guy is but I personally didn't find this to be a problem. The ending was kind of odd and not as conclusive as it could've and should've been.

Wong delivers some fancy whirling maneuvers but overall the fight choreography is just passable. The action does become a bit more exciting at the end however.

There is plenty of silliness to be found in the excessive slow-motion climaxes that conclude some of the fight/death scenes, and naturally, in the dubbing, which contains great lines like "Hey! You haven't seen nothing yet! Now you're gonna see something!"

And speaking of "seeing something," there are many things to see in this movie; things of the womanly, soft, and supple variety. That is to say, that this is one "ninja" movie that is replete with T&A. It manages to not only titillate at times but also to add to the comedic value of the film, with the first sex scene in particular providing more "haha"s than "ooh"s and "ah"s.

One last thing I'd like to point out is just how unaptly titled this movie is. There are no more than two fight scenes involving ninjas and neither are anything special. As if that's not enough, these ninja fight scenes take place out in the country side, not in the city. Furthermore, our two . . . martially skilled protagonists do not employ any ninpo techniques at all, but I digress.

All things considered, if you dig poorly made kung-fu/ninja films, for the fights and their overall intrinsic goofiness, then this one's bound to entertain you for 80-90 minutes.

You probably want to watch this for horror, titillating sex scenes, or perhaps because you love vampires.

Well, let me set a few things straight.

1. This low budget, B-grade, not-unlike-late-night-Skinemax-movies type of flick, is a somewhat suspenseful melodrama which explores addiction, relationships and the innermost demons present in all of us (though I'm pretty sure it's safe to say most of us would take a Pepsi over our crony's blood), not a horror movie (though it puts a foot in - though just past the toes - that realm in the last ten minutes or so of the film).

2. If you bought, rented, or illegally obtained this film just to see Leslie Danon in outrageously, stupendously and/or wonderfully erotic, hot, amazingly sensual sex scenes that occur at least once every 10 minutes...you will be disappointed. She has one scene where she's nude, but as others have said, the lighting is a bit too dark and the camera angles much too lacking to really enjoy it. She does look absolutely beautiful throughout the movie, and if I dare say, her acting chops are not wanting so much so that at any point I found myself becoming bored or unable to continue watching. She actually surpassed my expectations (prior to this, my only viewing experience of her was a few episodes from the short-lived kids show "Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills." Monique Parent shows her stuff in the other 2 or 3 scenes she's in, so, if it's her you came to see, you should get your worth out of it. Also, Julie Strain's time on-screen is next to zero.

3. This is NOT a vampire flick. Sure, the audience is subjected to seeing blood being *licked* off of *cuts*, but there are NO excessively pale-skinned wights (pun intended), funny accents or fangs to be found here folks.

The acting is decent and the soundtrack is pretty good overall. There are no glaring mistakes in any regard (though there was one line of dialogue that was said which left me scratching my head). One thing of note is that there is little variation in setting; in fact, this whole movie basically unfolds entirely in one house, so it's especially important to listen and not miss the dialogue wherein a character says they are leaving to go here or there, to avoid confusion in regards to a seemingly sudden change in a character's behavior, appearance or generally, the passage of time.

Keep all of that in mind. If you like *some* suspense, *some* eroticism, and a *somewhat* tense atmosphere and above all, drama, then go ahead and watch this film, (I'd suggest doing so at night to amplify it's sullen, perhaps gloomy tone, and because, for a flick like this, viewing it at anytime between past midnight - so that it ends before the sun comes up - just feels...right).