"Director: Wai Lun Lam"

• Satan Returns | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Filmed in an oppressively dark and jumpy style reminiscent of the blockbuster 'Seven' this chilling Hong Kong horror stars Chingamy Yau as a police complaints officer being stalked by a psychopath who belives she is the devil's daughter. Maverick cop Mo Ti Nam tries to protect her with his lethal kicks and flying fists as the madman 'Judas' convinces her that she may indeed have demonic powers. Only the bumbling assistance of Mo's partner Ka-Ming busty female cop 'Leon' and the unpr

• Meltdown | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £3.80   |  Saving you £2.19 (57.63%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Jet Li can always be relied upon when it comes to action movies, and Meltdown is no exception. No surprises with the story line: Kit Li witnesses his wife blown up in a gangster attack masterminded by the nefarious Doctor, only to be confronted by the same "no risk, no reward" gangster two years later, now aiming to steal the Russian crown jewels from a hotel complex. The shadow of Die Hard falls heavily across the action, with its skyscraper stunts and marauding helicopter, given an appropriate twist by the high-velocity martial-arts sequences and director Wong Jing's stylish take on the high-tech metropolis that is Hong Kong. Jackie Cheung adds a comic element as Frankie Lane, the action-movie star seemingly past his sell-by date, and Kwan Sau Mei's Doctor is the epitome of suave nastiness. On the DVD: Meltdown on disc has a 1.85:1 widescreen picture that reproduces the plethora of monochrome conference rooms and exploding glass panels with dizzying clarity. This release comes ready dubbed into English--don't check the synchronisation too often and you'll hardly notice--with subtitles in 12 languages. The photo gallery is enlivened with Jet Li trivia, while the filmographies are unusually frank about the commercial nature of the Hong Kong film industry in general and Wong Jing's contribution in particular. But done with this degree of panache, films such as Meltdown are never less than 110# entertainment. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Black Sheep Affair (1998) | DVD | (03/07/2000) from £9.94   |  Saving you £13.04 (187.63%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In The Black Sheep Affair special forces agent Yim Dong (Chiu Man Chuk--the brilliant wu shu marital artist star of 1995's The Blade) is transferred to the fictional ex-Soviet Republic of Lavernia, actually Hungary, where the explosive Now You're Dead (1998) was filmed. Soon he has arrested Mishima, played by Hoi Lin who delivers a chilling performance as a ruthless Japanese terrorist who believes he is Christ returned to bring bloody redemption. Before long Mishima's fanatical followers are causing mayhem, while in a bittersweet sub-plot Yim revives his relationship with the girl he loved in Beijing before the 1989 uprising. The comparatively low budget shows occasionally, and even in the Cantonese version all the Lavernians are dreadfully dubbed with American voices, one duplicitous official coming across like a camp Oliver Reed. Against that there is an attempt to offer some political substance, and the action--a mixture of martial arts and gunplay--is fast, furious and stunningly staged, so that even as it goes ludicrously OTT it remains exhilarating. The "shoot-the-hostages" finale reaches an emotional intensity and breaks rules no Hollywood action flick would dare, turning into a John Woo-like slaughterhouse which makes the likes of Die Hard (1988) look tame. On the DVD: The end titles carry the Dolby Digital logo, so why both the Cantonese subtitled and English dubbed versions of a 1998 film are presented in two-channel mono is a mystery. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image is good but not exceptional, and exhibits some clear compression artefacts. The "music promo" is essentially one of Hong Kong Legends' own specially-made trailers, and is accompanied by more trailers for a further five films. The photo gallery is pointless but the text biographies of the two main stars are detailed enough to be interesting. Two minutes of poor quality video show Chiu Man Chuk demonstrating some wu shu moves, while a four-minute interview conducted at the same time via a translator for French television does little more than reveal the star as an amiable chap. Several of the features are also present on the DVD of Chiu Man Chuk's Body Weapon (1999). --Gary S Dalkin