Cast Member: Fan Bingbing

‘A Battle Of Wits’ is that rare work that is exciting, tense and yet is an introspective on the violence, war and conformity.

Lau’s modern interpretation is an extremely wild one that is often mind blowing in its visuals, but in truth it’s the heart warming love story that prevails and makes the film a very entertaining one.

Overall it’s a wonderful film, a blockbuster people call it, and maybe it is, but really for us Asian movie fans this is what it’s all about – a hard hitting, hard punching film with a heart of gold and a fist of iron.

‘Flash Point’ isn’t a perfect film in the classical cinematic sense, but it is a damn fine action movie that doesn’t short change the viewer in any department.

Seemingly endless scenes of two annoying kids, empty nods to whatever is currently in popular culture and a few moments of teeth-grindingly insincere pathos.

‘Lost in Thailand’ is a remarkable debut for writer/director Xu Zheng, especially as his turn as the film straight man is also so impeccable.

‘My Way’ is a based-on-true-events film with significant embellishments and dramatic orchestration. Of course, that’s not to say it isn’t very affecting overall though.

‘Sacrifice’ is not going to find itself among Chen Kaige’s most revered films, yet it is still a classy almost operatic historical film that holds the attention.

The dramatic framework is sturdy enough to make ‘Shaolin’ emotionally engaging, while the Yuen Kwai-orchestrated action is a delightful throwback to the Golden Age.

There’s some very powerful visual displays of violence that pepper the film throughout, showing us that if you turn to the dark side you really will become slave to its master.

It’s almost as if the makers watched ‘Rush Hour’, ‘Shanghai Noon’ and even ‘Around The World In Eighty Days’ and thought how utilitarian it might be just to throw various elements from these into one puzzling lump.

‘The Lion Roars’ is slickly produced, well performed by its beloved leading couple and not without its moments of amusement.