Sevket_Erhat Reviews

Hindsight (2011)

That is one good looking assassin!

[7/10 · 18 June 2012]

I did not know anything about Hindsight (Blue Salt) before I have read the press release for the US release. After watching the trailer, I knew that I must watch it soon.

Hindsight is the romantic story of an old gangster Doo-hyeon who wants to leave the life of crime behind him with a dream to open up an restaurant. He joins a cooking class to achieve his aim and there he meets up with sweet & young Se Bin. After some hints and tips exchange about Korean cuisine, romance sparks start to fly.

This unlikely romance between the old gangster and the young girl gets really interesting as this innocent girl turns out to be a top shooter assassin. Furthermore, Doo-hyeon's old partners hire Se Bin to keep an eye on him.

Their unspoken romance gets complicated as Se Bin's female friend jumps in the mix as well and I must say that I never understood the relationship between them (Singing at a karaoke bar with handcuffs?).

As for action it is pretty intense towards the end and I always fancy sniper scenes in action movies. I agree with the comment that the action scenes of this movie resembles Beyond Hypothermia. Besides Doo-hyeon handles himself well while fighting some bad guys too.

If you are expecting an all out action movie you might get disappointed as most of the scenes of Hindsight are not action scenes. But if you take this movie for what it is you can really enjoy it.

Hindsight (Blue Salt) Nothing groundbreaking but worth watching.

Score 2: The Big Fight (1999)

Not as good as the first

[5/10 · 4 June 2012]

I went crazy when I have found out that a sequel to my guilty pleasure Score exists. After a brief waiting period I had the chance to watch it.

First of all I must say that Score 2: The Big Fight (I have not seen the Big Title anywhere) is nowhere good as the first one. Some of the guys from the first one play unrelated roles in Score 2 but there is no connection at all.

What made Score a great movie is straight ripping of off Hollywood blockbusters and more importantly the shootouts that would make John Woo or Johnny To proud. In Score 2 I found neither.

I mean lack of copying Hollywood is OK but the shootouts just were not up to the standard set by the first one so I got really disappointed. This does not mean that the action is bad but not nearly there.

As for the story it is as ridiculous as it comes but hey this is Score series. I mean who would hide the money there ? Exactly.

The characters were all cool especially the stunning Japanese gal and Hitoshi Ozawa with terrible mullet. The corrupt cops were quite funny as well. How about the police squad with shotguns ? Scary!!!

If you do not expect much from Score 2 you can enjoy it. I still prefer the first one, I might give it another go soon

Rock N'Roll Cop (1994)

Confusing at first, amazing at last

[8/10 · 30 May 2012]

Rock n' Roll Cop is mainly about "1997" fear in Hong Kong and reflects the society's view toward China and the Chinese at that point in time. This film is very successful in getting its point across by the end of the film.

I am very fortunate (or not depending on how you look at things) to watch Ocean Shores Laserdisc as it is the longest version available yet but the English subtitles have disappeared from the screen more than several times. The subtitles were so-so with occasional translation errors but that does not make the movie unwatchable at all.

Anyway back to the movie. I guess the film is named Rock n' Roll Cop mainly to the leather jacket wearing, guitar playing Antony Wong complete with long hair and the goatie. Wong's character represents the modern and hip Hong Kong Society against the formal suit wearing Chinese cops with their ties and white socks.

The story begins with a murder complete with unnecessary violence which I won't spoil at a rainy night in China. The murderers are real psychopaths and they commit another crime in Hong Kong and Antony Wong is sent to investigate in China in cooperation with Chinese police officers.

What happens afterwards is mainly about the cultural clash between HK cop and Chinese cops. It is obvious that these to are not seeing eye to eye. The Chinese even call him "Honkie"!!! But the best scene in the movie has to be the one that Hsing-kuo Wu plays a song with Pipa (a Chinese music instrument) and Antony Wong plays along with his guitar. That is what I call symbolism!!!

At certain points of the movie it got me really confused as I could not figure out who is from HK who is from China and I found some of the violence very very unnecessary. There was no explanation to why they are doing all this. There are also some subplots that made me wonder if they had contributed to the overall story at all (despite the very good looking singer girl).

After the first hour mark the real action begins and everything finally becomes clear. The shootouts are really fantastic with several martial arts scenes and daring stunts are all there. Any fan of Hong Kong actioner will find a lot to like during the last half an hour of the movie.

Rock n' Roll Cop is great HK actioner with a strong message at the end despite Hong Kong is way past it 1997 takeover

Partners (2002)

You can enjoy Partners if you don't expect much from it

[6/10 · 29 May 2012]

Partners was on my to-watch list for sometime and I finally found the opportunity to watch it this weekend.

Partners star one of my favorite Hong Kong actors Simon Yam (Exiled), Erci Tsang (Infernal Affairs) and most annoying "I insist on speaking English in HK movies" Michael Wong (Beast Cops) Partners has a basic story that involves three guys forming a group to rob banks and the events that occur afterwards. The story is pretty straightforward so it is really easy to follow.

There are some good gunfights throughout the movie especially in Thailand so I believe that HK action movie fans can find something to enjoy here.

The girl lead looks quite beautiful and there is even a plot-twist which caught me off guard at the end.

If you are looking for an easy to watch HK action movie (it is only 1h 19 mins) you can give it a go

Bullet for Hire (1990)

Great action from Simon Yam & Jacky Cheung

[7/10 · 21 May 2012]

It is always great when a movie turns out to be great when you don't expect anything from it.

Bullet for Hire is a very good Hong Kong actioner that is unfortunately very hard to find.

The story is about a mainlander that comes to Hong Kong to become an assassin (Jacky Cheung) while being assisted by super cool Simon Yam There are some funny parts thrown in as well as Jacky Cheung's character tries to learn the ropes about the life in Hong Kong.

The action in Bullet for Hire is quite good for heroic bloodshed fans and there are even some martial arts thrown in.

Recommended.

Hard Justice (1995 Video)

Great film without the prison scenes

[7/10 · 18 May 2012]

David Bradley has never been my favorite action hero but I have watched many films of him since I saw him on American Ninja 3. When I have heard that he has a John Woo copycat I jumped in.

It is really funny that two very different movies could be made from Hard Justice. One with John Woo style action and one that is a typical prison actioner like Death Warrant.

I am no fan of Prison movies except Undisputed 2 and I could have lived without the very cut and paste prison movie parts.

However John Woo style gun fights (especially the one at the beginning) is awesome. I wish they could have kept the style throughout the movie.

One thing that bothered me is that stunt people's faces were so obvious so all those "more than necessary" dangerous scenes lost its appeal quick.

If you love Hard-Boiled and The Killer you will love certain parts of this movie. The rest is so-so actioner

Bloodmoon (1997)

Eddie Murphie wannabe karate cop!!! Wait ! What ?

[6/10 · 18 May 2012]

I have heard many things about this movie for many many years but never had the chance to watch it. I guess I would have liked it more if I had watched in 1997 or something.

During the first part of the 1990s Gary Daniels was my favorite martial arts movie star ever since he fought Don "the Dragon" Wilson in Ring of Fire. And I have tried to watch all of his movies whenever I can find them.

This movie was produced by Seasonal Films which produced my favorite western martial arts film The King of Kickboxers so it was a winner before I began watching it.

I cannot say that it was a bad movie but it did not turn out to be as good as I expected it to be.

Story of Bloodmoon is much better than most of the martial arts movies that has oh you killed my (insert relative or master) I will get my revenge storyline only. There is certainly revenge at certain points of the story but it is always refreshing to see movies borrowing from other genres to enrich the experience.

This movie has more horror and nudity than I ever bargained for so thank God my son was not around while I was watching. It did not add or subtract much from the overall enjoyment so I did not mind.

As for actors I really disliked the guy portrayed by Chuck Jeffreys in this movie. I don't know about you but who would want to watch a karate kicking Eddie Murphy wannabe cop ? Not me that's for sure.

Gary Daniels, Darren Shahlavi and Brandie Rocci did great performances in this movie. I cannot get terrible hairdo and evil laughter of Darren Shahlavi's character while writing this review. They all acted terribly in this movie but did great fights and that's all that matters in movies like these.

As for Brandie Rocci I really liked her. I will try to find more movies of her.

The fights in the movie were great and especially the final fight of the movie was really really good. So forget about all the acting, low budget and enjoy the fights. Bloodmoon is just for that

Gunmen (1988)

So so HK film

[5/10 · 15 May 2012]

Gunmen is one of the titles I wanted to watch for quite some time but couldn't due to the copy not having English subtitles. I was expecting a Hong Kong action movie with guns blazing (hence the name Gunmen) but I was greatly disappointed. First of all everyone might disagree with me but I cannot stand Tony Leung as the lead actor. I mean he was OK in movies like Prison on Fire and Election but he sucks in this one. The story is so-so as the tale of a man returning home after civil war and becoming a detective. As for Elvis Tsui he had a good performance but I cannot say the same for Waise Lee. The action was OK but do not expect to watch a John Woo movie that takes place in the 1920's

Score (1995)

There are two kinds of movies in this world

[7/10 · 15 May 2012]

I was not aware of this low budget Japanese actioner up until now but it is always better late than never.

As it was stated in many reviews about this movie it copies from films like Hard Target, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction etc shamelessly but they have been put to great use.

I must say that this movie is ridiculous in every way. The script, characters, acting, music, everything. For example who would wear a crocodile/salamander mask when you go to rob a bank ? Exactly.

Chance is the ultimate hero of this with out of this world mullet and same name from John Woo's 1993 movie Hard Target. I like Hard Target so that posed no problems for me.

As for the crazy hitchhikers I really hated them. They were so terrible I was left wondering if they were serious or not.

One other thing that bothered me is that I could not figure out where this movie was taking place. The lady on the radio was speaking in English so I assumed it was America but all the cops at the finale look like they were from Thailand or Philippines. This got me confused.

Put this all aside if you are looking for a crazy Japanese actioner with pretty good gun fights don't miss this movie. To quote Chance "There are two kinds of men. One who likes movies like this and one who should burn in hell for not liking this gem"

Hunting List (1994)

Everything Exaggerated

[5/10 · 6 May 2012]

I have added this movie to my watch list after I read about it at IMDb Hard Boiled forum and had the chance to watch it today.

I wish it would turn out to be an underrated Hong Kong heroic bloodshed gem like Just Heroes but it just wasn't.

The story had bloodshed, brotherhood, betrayal, revenge and even some plot twists but the script felt like a video game with short chapters...

The actors does not deserve any Oscars for their performance in this film and I really hated their unnecessarily exaggerated laughter in almost every scene and excessive smoking. I did not see a scene they weren't laughing or smoking.

I know that this is a CAT III movie but all those sex scenes add nothing to the story except one and the movie would be much better without them.

The version I have watched had dual mono tracks for Cantonese and Mandarin that I really hate as they sound very annoying while playing at the same time. The subtitles had many mistakes but considering the release date of this movie that is acceptable.

If you are looking for a fun past time with good gun fights you can watch it. Just make sure that your kids are not around when watching this

Exiled (2006)

One of the best Heroic Bloodshed movies ever

[10/10 · 15 April 2012]

I did not know what to expect from Exiled when I have watched it for the first time in 2006 and it blew me away. After watching Johnnie To documentary - Johnnie Got His Gun, I have felt the need to watch it again.

As many reviews said before this one is Johnnie To's modern day western. Over the top violence (a door that keeps flying in the air by shooting, spurting blood) at a setting with no police around at all is the order of the day.

Nothing bad can be said about the cast of this movie. All the great guys from 1999's The Mission is here. Add Simon Yam to the mix and that is as good as it gets. Female character could be more beautiful but that's life.

The great cast from The Mission returns in this one.The story is simple but character development is somewhat shallow. With 15 more minutes of character development of good guys and the bad guys and this would be a classic.

As far as the shooting goes this is as good as it gets. Johnnie To is really master of its craft when it comes to movies with guns, lots of guns. The final shootout at the hotel is one of the best ever, competing with John Woo's Hard-Boiled which I think is the best movie ever.

If you love action movies with lots of guns blazing this is the movie for you.

The Restless (2006)

Fantastic Korean Film

[8/10 · 18 May 2007]

I just finished watching The Restless and I must say that I'm stunned by its beauty. If you really want to enjoy this movie please leave all of your expectations somewhere and watch it with a clear mind. You'll see that there is a lot to like in this Korean fantasy flick.

To make the picture more clear I have to make some comparisons. First of all this movie is not better than Shadowless Sword in action or swordplay department. There are some nice CGI filled fight scenes but as I said before there is not as much as action as in Shadowless Sword.

This movie is mostly a romantic fantasy movie with some swordplay thrown in. The sets are awesome and all the effects, costumes everything looks beautiful except two things:

1-The main hero's hair. I really wanted to enter the screen and give him a more charismatic hairstyle

2-Main actress expression. I wonder why she looked so scared like there is a monster or a ghost looking at her. That really ruined most of the film for me.

To sum everything up I have to say few things: 1-There is less fights and action than Shadowless Sword

2-There is more romance and sadness than Bichunmoo

3-Effects are the best I have ever seen in these kind of Korean movies

4-I would recommend you to watch this movie if you liked Shadowless Sword,Bichunmoo and The Legend of the Evil Lake

5-Koreans must make this type of fantasy swordplay movies more often. I really prefer their ones over Chinese fantasy swordplay films

Just Heroes (1989)

Make this film available to English speaking public

[8/10 · 13 May 2007]

From what I have observed a lot of people is really disappointed in this movie but I fell in love with it!

It is such a shame that this movie is only available as French and Japanese DVDs and both are without subtitles. I guess this explains why many people does not know this John Woo movie.

The story is not that bad but they really could've added a lot to "who will be the heir to murdered triad boss ?" storyline.

But they opted for a lazier method and rushed everything in the movie. I guess this is mostly because of the fact that it is shot for Wu Ma which was in desperate need of money.

If they didn't rush everything because of the reason given above, it really could have been a true John Woo classic like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled. This is what I call a missed opportunity.

Whatever your reason for not liking this movie might be but there is no denial that the finale shootout is awesome. This is John Woo and Heroic Bloodshed at its best. I'll surely watch it once again.

Please release this movie on DVD with remastered picture and subs so that other Hong Kong action movie fans get to watch this.

Heat Team (2004)

Not the best movie in the world but watchable

[6/10 · 13 May 2007]

Heat Team was not a special police team action as I suspected from the name of the movie like the ones in First Option. Instead it was about several young HK Police and their affairs.

To me the strongest part of this movie is these two beautiful girls. I really enjoyed watching every scene they are in.

Action in Heat Team is not bad but story is really stupid. But who cares about the story in films like these?

It was nice to see Danny Lee here as well (Despite he loses all his charisma towards the end but I will not spoil that)

If you don't have anything else to watch give it a go. I know that there are far worse films than this.

Tiger Cage II (1990)

8 With Rosamund Kwan 10 without her

[9/10 · 9 May 2007]

Oh man this is definitely in my top ten Asian films along with Hard Boiled ,The Killer ,Fist of Legend etc.

The fights are awesome even better than the ones in In The Line of Duty IV. Especially Donnie Yen vs Michael Woods is an absolute screen fighting legend.

How I wished that Carol 'Do Do' Cheng would play the lead girl instead of Rosamund "I'm the most annoying female lead ever" Kwan. I hated every scene including her. Even her character being clumsy didn't make me smile, made me hate her more.

How I wish I could make this movie without her. It would have been 10/10 for sure. I wonder why they cannot make movies like this anymore.

An action classic...Unmissable for any HK action fan

Dynamite Warrior (2006)

Flying Knees Galore

[6/10 · 23 April 2007]

Watch this movie without expecting Ong-Bak or Tom Yum Goong and you might like it.

The story is really basic but I guess I need to explain it a bit as there are no subtitles on the Thai DVD. French bring Tractor to Thailand in order to use it in agriculture but Thais refuse to use it over their cattle's. So the bad guy of the movie (some kind of rich man I suppose) hires some bandits in order to steal cattle's of this farmers.

And our hero is some kind of Muay Thai Robin Hood (steals from the rich and gives it to poor) in cowboy outfit trying to stop all these ill behavior.

There are some really spectacular Muay Thai moves thrown in this movie and I believe martial arts movie fans which are accustomed to no story - no acting but good action will like it

Lady Kung Fu (1972)

Fist of Fury Remake

[7/10 · 6 August 2004]

I cannot understand why this film is really rare and not widely available. The copy I have seen has burnt in English subtitles that is almost impossible to read as it often goes under the screen and since it was in white color it disappeared in their white clothes.

Apart from that the movie is really good. Although I have never been a fan of Carter Wong or Sammo Hung Kam Bo, I have enjoyed the scenes with Hwang In Sik. He is such a good high kicker.

One thing that bothered me about this movie is that it looks way too similar to Fist of Fury. They even used the same guy that played the annoying Chinese man siding with the Japanese in Fist of Fury too.

Definitely not as good as Fist of Fury but much better than most of the martial arts movies. Recommended...

Bad Boys (1995)

If I had to chose one film only this would be it

[8/10 · 9 May 2003]

God I really don't know how many times I have watched this one and I feel like I'm watching it for the first time in all of them.

The chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence is what makes this movie great. The story is really funny and it is played to a great effect by both actors.

This film makes me laugh every time I watch it even though I know all the jokes by heart as I have watched them a million times.

Bad Boys have great action, car chases, great looking girls and funny scenes. It really has the budget and all the necessary ingredients for success.

I really don't think the sequel can top this but I cannot wait for it.

2009: Lost Memories (2002)

Awesome

[8/10 · 11 December 2002]

To be honest this is the first time that I have watched a Korean movie and from the look of things I will keep on watching more whenever I can. I decided to watch 2009 Lost Memories after a very positive review on one Hong Kong movie website. After all, they were quite correct and I give my highest recommendation for this movie.

The backbone of the plot is basically about the ongoing struggle between Korea and Japan over territory. Coming from a country with territorial dispute (Cyprus) I've more than some similarities which made me enjoy the movie more. Plus it is refreshing to watch an action movie without "revenge" as the main motive. Honestly I didn't know what the struggle between Japan and Korea were all about and I have learned some after watching 2009 Lost Memories. It is always nice to learn and this movie teaches you without you knowing it.

Imagine yourself like this...You live a life for maybe 30-something years have good job and a successful career as an agent. One day you meet with somebody telling you that everything you believed in was wrong, besides your enemies are your friends and your friends are your true enemies. What would you do ?

Quite complicated matters right? Korean superstar Jang Dong Gun manages to represents all these confusions of JBI (Japanese Bureau of Investigation) agent Sakamoto incredibly well that you cannot prevent yourself from thinking "thank God that I'm not in his situation" Besides, development of Sakamoto is very impressively presented. He begins the movie as a dedicated and determined JBI agent then develops into a guy that hesitates to fire even a single bullet because of his confusions.

The movie is not about action only this movie manages to have heart and brains as well. It is a ride of emotions right from the title screen to the rolling end credits. There is patriotism, anger heart break, disappointment, betrayal, sadness, suspense and then some. Thankfully the characters are really well developed so that you can relate to them quite easily.

2009 Lost Memories is quite a long movie but the script is so well written I could not find a minute to get bored. There are very shocking moments in the plot that changes the direction of the movie entirely. You can think of it like a rollercoaster ride; one minute you are very sure of the direction that is ahead but next minute you will be taken into a completely different route.

Don't get it wrong thinking that there is small amount of action in this one. Action fans will find quite a lot to enjoy in 2009 Lost Memories. All of those action scenes are superb done and makes you want to watch them again and again as the end credits roll. The action scenes are on the same level of any big budget Hollywood actioner (minus the car chases that is)

There are some scenes in this movie that I will not easily forget especially the scene that reveals everything. It shows the facts through both sides point of view and the dialogue in this scene fits perfectly.

Plus I can easily state that 2009 Lost Memories has one of the best climax scene ever. The time really stands still and so will your breath. There is so much tension and emotions in that scene that cannot be described simply by words. You must watch it to understand what I am talking about.

I have watched this film with English subtitles and since I don't know any of them I couldn't figure out which parts were Korean which parts were Japanese. But from what I have found out from the internet, Jang Dong Gun did a great job in speaking Japanese. Props to him for his dedication to his role, his future seems really bright.

If I had known some Korean I would surely go for Special Edition DVD set as it features 311 page book called 2009 Memories of Jang Dong Gun that I really want to read. Such a shame that I have to miss it. If I learn Korean one day I will add this DVD to my collection.

The girl could have been more beautiful and I wished that there would be some fighting but these are very minor points. Do watch this movie whenever you can. As I said in the beginning, my highest recommendation.

Time and Tide (2000)

Chinese vs South Americans ???

[8/10 · 30 November 2002]

Ooh I have been waiting to watch this movie for so long and now I finally got the chance to watch it. I have not been able to understand everything in my first viewing so I decided to write the review after giving it another spin.

The movie opens with quite catchy tune that sets up the mood for the beginning of the film.

Time and Tide is about a story of an ordinary guy that we might bump into every day. Nicolas Tse's character Tyler is that kind of guy. He just runs around with a replica gun in all those scenes and gets beat up quite a lot.

I found this quite disappointing as I have watched this movie after Gen-X Cops and I was expecting Tse to be the hero of the movie but he simply isn't.

Tse runs the story but it's Wu Bai that does all the action in Time and Tide.

The story is about the struggle between two guys from Hong Kong and some mercenaries from South America. It sounds like a very unlikely pairing but it happens in this movie.

As a result of this, guys fire guns, jump from place to place and shed a lot of blood all the way through the last half of the film.

The action actually begins in a hotel lobby then moves on to a car park to Hong Kong Project to Kowloon Train Station and finally to Hong Kong Coliseum. There is so much diversity in the surroundings and they have managed to get the best from those areas.

There is only one complaint from me as far as action scenes of Time and Tide are concerned; there are almost no martial arts at all. Some really good high kicking would have been a very good addition.

But never worry, as I said before there is so much action in this movie to make you feel like "yeah this is the kind of action I really want". There are SWAT Team Operations, Sniper Action plus Cat and Mouse style chase scenes that have been shot very cleverly. All these action keeps you on the edge of your seat.

There are really awesome cinematic action in Time and Tide thanks to Tsui Hark's style and vision. For example there is one scene that before the gun is fired the gun becomes transparent and you get to see the mechanism inside the gun with the bullet fired.

There are some sub plots and emotional scenes which are hard to follow in the beginning so I really recommend multiple viewings to understasnd what is going on. Subtitles are essential as there are so many different languages spoken in Time and Tide.

Overall I was expecting some good looking Hong Kong action from Time and Tide and it did not disappoint. So I'll give it thumbs up. Tsui Hark delivers really good cinematic Hong Kong action with this. Recommended

Zu Warriors (2001)

This is how Hong Kong's Final Fantasy should be like

[8/10 · 24 November 2002]

I remember that the trailer for Legend of Zu was quite impressive and being a fan of A Man Called Hero, Storm Riders I decided that I must watch this one too.

Without a doubt this film is a work of art as far as the effects are concerned from the beginning to the end. I even thought that only the actors were real and everything else was computer generated by the end of this film. They must have put a lot of work into this one and they deserve good credit for that.

The storyline of the movie was a fairytale between good and evil with a love story thrown in (I guess Ekin Cheng pulls the girls easily).The story is not very intellectual and deep but that is not what you expect when watching an action movie.

I wished there were more martial arts action with fists and kicks instead of battles of magical abilities,

Plus why did they sound like supersonic planes in the battle through the sky in the end ? That's way too funny.

Legend of Zu is not better than A Man Called Hero but it flows like a video game and that is not a bad thing. I won't be surprised if a company decides to make a game based on this movie as contains many video game elements.