"Director: Woo Ping Yuen"

• Red Wolf | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Following the tragic death of his wife a top undercover police-officer (played by Jackie Chan screen-partner Kenny Ho) resigns from the force to take up a position as chief security officer on a luxury cruise liner. When the ship falls victim to a sophisticated terrorist sting operation instigated by the men under his command he must fight to keep himself and the other passengers alive! Directed and choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping action-director of The Matrix Matrix: Reloaded Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Iron Monkey.

• Ti Chi Boxer | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An enchanting tale of love and heroism underpinned by Yuen Woo-ping's dazzling fight sequences Tai Chi Boxer tells the story of a young fighter inspired by the teachings of his heroic father to combat the violent excesses of an opium-smuggling ring and win the heart of the girl of his dreams. Tai Chi Boxer is an outstanding tribute to the innovative genius of Yuen Woo-ping combining striking imagery compelling characters and amazing fight sequences.

• Last Hero In China | DVD | (02/06/2000) from £10.98   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  In Last Hero in China, Jet Li reprises the role of Wong Fei-hung, a legendary figure in China. Both a doctor and a teacher of martial arts, Wong has just moved his school in Canton, only to discover that the neighbouring house is a brothel. Though Wong's students are delighted and the earnest brothel master only wants to study with him, Wong feels he has lost face. But this becomes the least of his troubles: soon he's fighting a corrupt police chief, a temple of slave-trading monks and a deafness-causing medicine sold to children--and that's just in the first hour. Last Hero in China is a grand melodrama, featuring exaggerated heroes and villains, goofy humour and hyperbolic kung fu action. The plot takes some hard-to-follow turns, but the action is so non-stop it hardly matters. The lion vs centipede dance/fight has to be seen to be believed, to say nothing of the priest with a floating lotus chariot and a flying claw. Jet Li is in fine form, Gordon Liu (as the venal top cop) is maniacal and despicable, and the lovely Cheung Man plays an expert martial artist looking for her kidnapped sister. The character of Wong Fei-hung also appears in the Once Upon a Time in China series (where he was first played by Li) and in Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movies. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• The Last Hero in China | DVD | (29/08/2002) from £17.96   |  Saving you £-11.97 (-199.80%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In Last Hero in China, Jet Li reprises his role as Wong Fei-Hong, a legendary figure in China. Both a doctor and a teacher of martial arts, Wong has just moved his school in Canton, only to discover that the neighbouring house is a brothel. Though Wong's students are delighted and the earnest brothel master only wants to study with him, Wong feels he has lost face. But this becomes the least of his troubles: soon he's fighting a corrupt police chief, a temple of slave-trading monks, and a deafness-causing medicine sold to children--and that's just in the first hour. Last Hero in China is a grand melodrama, featuring exaggerated heroes and villains, goofy humour and hyperbolic kung fu action. The plot takes some hard-to-follow turns, but the action is so non-stop it hardly matters. The lion vs. centipede dance/fight has to be seen to be believed, to say nothing of the priest with a floating lotus chariot and a flying claw. Jet Li is in fine form, Gordon Liu (as the venal top cop) is maniacal and despicable, and the lovely Cheung Man plays an expert martial artist looking for her kidnapped sister. The character of Wong Fei-Hong also appears in the Once Upon a Time in China series (where he was first played by Li) and in Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movies. --Bret Fetzer

• Legend Of A Fighter | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the historically based Kung fu drama Legend of a Fighter director Yuen Woo Ping offers his version of the early life of martial artist Fok Yuen Gap (played by Leung Kar Yan). Set at the beginning of the 20th century, Fok is considered too weak to learn the family Kung fu style. Still, as his father can break eggs by growling, he probably considers most people weak. The teenager forms a bond with his humane Japanese tutor (Kurata Yusuaki), who secretly teaches martial arts. The story builds to a moving climax as 12 years later pupil and now ageing master are forced by honour into a deadly duel. The opening and closing acts are by far the strongest, the plentiful fight scenes being balanced by gentle humour and emotions torn between friendship and duty. Both lead actors are excellent, with Yusuaki being particularly fine as the noble warrior-teacher. The middle, a series of disconnected tableaux in which Fok establishes his stature as a Kung fu expert, goes on much too long to sustain interest. Nevertheless the story of Fok Yuen Gap, a genuine Chinese hero who was also the inspiration for Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (1972), is fine and Woo Ping delivers the one-on-one Kung fu action with the touch of a master.On the DVD: The 1.77:1 image doesn't benefit at all from its anamorphic enhancement, the entire film being presented slightly out of focus so that by the end eyes are likely to be aching. The opening 4:3 Academy ratio archive footage has been distorted to 1.77:1, while the original trailer shows Legend of a Fighter was shot in an extremely wide format--possibly the Hong Kong equivalent of early 2.66:1 CinemaScope, or even 2.74:1 Techniscope--which means that large amounts of the original image are missing. This is very obvious as characters constantly vanish off the sides of the screen or are cropped in half. Additionally, and again compared to the crisp, sharp trailer, colours are washed out, while the mono sound distorts whenever the music gets loud. The film is available in Mandarin with optional English subtitles, or in an awful English dub littered with inappropriate obscene language. There is a nine-minute interview with Leung Kar Yan, and a 23-minute interview with Yuen Woo Ping, which is a slightly longer version of the conversation presented on the Magnificent Butcher DVD: it's notable how he expresses his love of science fiction and indicates he would like to make a SF Kung-fu movie, something he achieved with The Matrix (1999). There is a Hong Kong Legends' promo for the film, together with seven further new trailers. The photo gallery is pointless, simply cropping some shots even further than the main presentation. --Gary S Dalkin