Cast Member: Nicholas Tse

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.

Andrew Lau has a very obvious formula for making comic book adaptations and it’s one that is ultimately not very satisfying.

Not just one of the best thrillers to emerge from Hong Kong in a good few years, but also as good as many that have been released throughout Asia over the artistically-rich 21st century.

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.

The varied cast which includes Tse, Ge You and CN Blue member Jung Yong-Hwa make it an appealing 90 minutes of over-the-top cook-offs, snappy comedy and melodrama.

Don’t compare it to Yen and Yip’s ‘SPL’ or ‘Flashpoint’, just sit back and enjoy a good old fashioned comic book blockbuster with heaps of kung fu action.

It’s best viewed as an occasionally enjoyable diversion that, on sporadic occasions, hints at how good a reboot of one of the 80s most iconic film series could be.

‘Hot Summer Days’ manages the feat that so many productions using multiple stories flatly fail with, namely making each of the plot strands interesting rather than just using a few as killers and the rest as fillers.

Hard hitting action reminiscent of old school Hong Kong actioners, solid performances and sleek direction makes ‘Invisible Target’ one of the years best action flicks.

Samson Chiu can be congratulated for taking a bold step in a new direction while still retaining much of the gentle punch that is associated with the brand.

‘My School Mate, the Barbarian’ is an unusual film that centres on a world of youths that rarely touches that of the adult realm. If the viewer can get used to this, they should enjoy the rest of the duration.

The performances from all parties are excellent, and Jackie has reinstalled a little faith in me that he is still capable of making a good action movie.