Movies
There was a time when you could just blindly go into these big Hong Kong action spectacles and be assured of a great time, but those days are long gone. I had my hopes up with Donnie Yen helming and leading Sakra, but the quality simply isn't there anymore. It's still decent action filler, but not even close to the best this genre has to offer. The action is decent, but there's a bit too much CG and the editing could've been better, certainly for a big-budget production like this. There's a bit too much drama in the middle part, which also tends to get a bit too sentimental. It's still a proper action spectacle, but I long for the times these films had the potential to become personal favorites.Read all
A Donnie Yen vehicle. Though Yen never lacked screen presence, nor the chops for onscreen fighting, his ego got the better of him when his star was rising, which made working in Hong Kong a real challenge. Shanghai affairs is a late 90s film that feels like it was 5 years late to the party, a rather cheap looking and rushed action flick with a throwaway plot. While this sounds pretty bland, the film has one important redeeming factor, which is Yen himself. As a director/lead he has every opportunity to let the action scenes shine, and shine it does. The rest is rather subpar (though a proper remaster could help, the camera work isn't that bad really), so if you feel like some kick-ass martial arts cinema, this is a pretty solid option.Read all
