Country: China

Bathed in nihilism from the opening frames to the last and creates a gradual sense of doom that would befit the most ice-cold thriller of the 40s.

‘Cala, My Dog!’ is, as so many modern Chinese films are, a way of observing a misunderstood country on a detailed level.

Lau Ho-Leung has made a solid crime thriller that benefits from its rough and ready approach, decent action, and an intriguing real-life case.

Even the action becomes monotonous by the time the tournament begins and there’s probably as much genuine Choy Lee Fut on display as there was in ‘Pretty Woman’.

What starts off as quite interesting and engaging becomes progressively more disjointed meaning drama and characters suffer.

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.

‘Kingdom of Storms’ certainly gives it a good go at adapting the ancient tale for the big screen even though it buckles slightly under its lofty ambitions and reliance on copious CGI. 

‘Crocodile Island’ is deadly earnest which doesn’t quite work when characters are facing spiders the size of a shire horse.

The fights are almost seamlessly integrated and amongst some of the best on offer for a few years even if they are not new by Jade screen standards.

‘Curse Of The Golden Flower’ is another sign of the growing confidence of Chinese cinema, the imagination of Zhang Yimou and the iconic status of Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat.

Stories of mismatched characters rely on the relationship between the two and ‘Detective Chinatown’ has a pair who play off each other’s quirks remarkably well.

Much like the first two Dee flicks, ‘The Four Heavenly Kings’ is an often breathless fantasy blockbuster that doesn’t skimp on the wuxia action, CGI wonderment and imaginative scenarios.