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Three

Stars: Louis Koo, Wei Zhao, Wallace Chung, Siu-Fai Cheung, Suet Lam, Hoi-Pang Lo, Michael Tse, Adrian Wong, Kathy Wu | Written by Ho Leung Lau, Tin Shu Mak | Directed by Johnnie To

When a cop, a wounded crime boss and a doctor are thrown together in the hustle and bustle of an emergency room, a hospital descends from a pristine sanctuary to an explosive battleground. Bullets fly in a when the crime boss’s gang turn up to try and rescue him, and the cop must prevent innocent lives from being caught in the crossfire.

Johnny To’s hospital-set thriller is a Die Hard-esque tale that instantly recalls the John Woo classic Hard Boiled and yet is in no way similar in story and action. Like a number of his films before this, To takes his time building his film – introducing his characters, exploring their motivations etc. – before finally getting...

This is the eighth film review in the coverage of Montreal's 2010 Fantasia International Film Festival. The least we can say is that Teddy Chen's Bodyguards and Assassins announces us that gone is the time when Hong Kong didn't know how to make good blockbusters.

In October 1905, four days before Sun Yat-Sen, a Chinese revolutionary, arrives in Hong Kong, Chinese empress Cixi had sent assassins. They are led by General Yan Xiao-Guo (Jun Hu) and their job is to kill Sun, because his opposition to the monarchy makes him a "traitor". While he has always financed Li Yue-Tang (Xueqi Wang), the owner of a pro-revolution newspaper, decides to openly declare his full involvement in the revolution. In fact, the British authorities in Hong Kong closed his newspaper, the China Daily and his revolutionary friend, professor Chen Xiao-Bai (Tony Leung Ka Fai), got captured by the assassins.

Moreover, before the arrival...

Chicago – In the opening moments of Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s “The Warlords,” martial arts superstar Jet Li performs one of his bravest physical feats yet. He breaks into tears. This comes as a bit of a shock, considering Li’s status as one of China’s most formidable onscreen ass-kickers. Yet it’s in keeping with Chan’s uncommonly emotional approach to depicting historical events often drained of humanity.

“Warlords” debuted in China one year before the release of John Woo’s overblown epic “Red Cliff.” Both films purport themselves to be antiwar pictures, yet in the case of Woo’s epic, the expensive spectacle is romanticized to such a degree that it fails to impact the audience on a visceral level. When arrows are shot through the sky, Woo follows the arrows from their point of view, evoking the tone of a video game rather than actual warfare. There...

It’s time for some DVD love so let’s stop talking about nothing and talk about a show that’s about nothing:

Grab ‘Em Right Away

Curb Your Entusiasm: The Seventh Season

Created by: Larry David

Starring: Larry David, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis Dreyfus & Michael Richards

Why should you buy this? Because it’s the funniest season of this show since they did The Producers season with Mel Brooks. This is a show that’s always been hit-or-miss for me. But when it’s funny it’s side-splittingly hilarious. With Larry David dealing with bringing NBC a Seinfeld reunion episode (a show he and Jerry Seinfeld created together in real life) it’s insane how referential they can get when they want to be. They even reference Michael Richards’ heckling incident that occurred a couple years ago. If you like this show or...