Rating: 3.5

It’s a languid, leisurely swordplay film that advances at a glacial pace and is defiant in doing so. Yet that is, along with the crisp cinematography, its greatest strength.

Much more than a trashy quickie horror sequel than many might be expecting, ‘The Tag-Along 2’ is an entertaining ghostly romp that when on form, expertly blends drama and frights.

While it hasn’t aged well in comparison to ‘Come Drink With Me’ and even some of Chang Cheh’s early work, it still proves to be a mildly diverting Shaw Brothers’ swordplay film.

A four-star movie that, due to its heavy-handed closing shots, loses half a star; the same idea was used with much more sophistication at the end of ‘Anonymous Heroes’.

‘The Twin Swords’ isn’t the type of Shaw Brothers production that will appeal to everyone, mainly due to its fairly dated style that lacks the superior fight choreography.

Lam certainly throws a lot in and the tone does vary but thanks to the confident staging and the unrelenting momentum it all works for the most part.

Despite a solid start and the production values to do events justice, ‘The War of Loong’ just misses out on being overly memorable.

‘The Web Of Death’ would be a four-star film but (and it is a big ‘but’!) for the preposterous sight of seeing the heroes fleeing from a green spider.

The characters are realistic and have sympathetic worries to consider, the twists keep the viewer guessing throughout and it benefits from Kim Sang-ho at his very best.

Despite being labelled a black comedy, most of the jokes are silly and cute–People are always eating a treat called “Yummy Snack”, and Americans are doing Arnie impressions for pocket change.

‘Those Merry Souls’ has a strong cast, some genuinely funny moments, and a bizarrely entertaining plot.

‘Thread of Lies’ has its weaknesses, yet mostly succeeds in shedding light on the aftermath of a tragedy.