"Actor: Yan Pang"

• Beijing Bicycle | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Beijing Bicycle kicks off like an updated Chinese reworking of the 1948 Italian neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves: a worker, dependent on his bike for his job, has it stolen and doggedly sets out to get it back. But pretty soon Wang Xiaoshuai's film mutates into something more elemental: a battle of wills between peasant lad Guei, original owner of the bike, and Jian, a surly urban schoolkid who claims to have bought it second-hand. For both the bike is status: for Guei it secures him his job as a courier, while for Jian it lets him keep up with his peers and chat up the girl he fancies. Each sees himself as the rightful owner and neither will give way, so the bike swaps hands back and forth, stolen and re-stolen, as the duel waxes increasingly personal. There's a diverting subplot about a beautiful, stylishly dressed girl glimpsed by Guei who turns out be something other than she seems, but essentially the battle over the bike is the meat of the film. The fascination of Beijing Bicycle--perhaps especially for non-Chinese viewers--is its portrait of present-day Beijing as a buzzing, high-pressure, neo-capitalist boomtown, impersonal and seemingly as lawless as any Wild West frontier burg. At no point, in all the thefts and counter-thefts and mounting violence, does anyone think to call the police--everyone is left to fight his own battles. Wang, one can't help suspecting, is slipping in a hint of social criticism in this vision of an uncaring society where possessions are all that matter. On the DVD: Beijing Bicycle on disc has the original theatrical trailer (the French version, oddly enough), filmographies for the director and four of his lead actors, notes on the film by Nick Bradshaw and trailers for other Metro Tartan foreign-language DVD releases. The transfer's in the full anamorphic widescreen of the original, with good Dolby Digital sound. --Philip Kemp

• My Life's On The Line | DVD | (29/06/2001) from £4.69   |  Saving you £10.30 (219.62%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Kept in the film archives for over two decades My Life On The Line is finally released for the first time on DVD anywhere in the world. Minute Fong is a ruthless contract killer who dispatches his victims in precisely sixty seconds. Working exclusively for an organisation headed by the Master Chou Jau Tung Fong begins to take on his assignments with reluctance. Realising that Fong's days are numbered Chou hires two new experts to deal with him and his sixty second technique but to no avail. Finally the master takes on Minute Fong is one of the Jade Screen's greatest ever showdowns. See tracing Boxing versus the Rolling Style. This long overdue classic will leave you begging for more!

• Heroic Duo | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £18.88   |  Saving you £-3.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Hypnotist Li Shang Zheng (Leon Lai) has been imprisoned following the fallout from an unsettled conflict with the Triads. Once inside Li uses his charismatic hypnotic skills on police inspector Li Wen Jian (Ekin Cheng) who unwittingly begins to engage in criminal activities...

• Choi Lee Fat Kung Fu | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A worldwide search was conducted to find this lost treasure: Choi Lee Fat Kung-Fu a deadly style of kung fu. Featuring the most amazing fight scenes you'll ever see plus authentic training techniques revealed for the first time. A guaranteed classic!