Asia-Pol (Japan/Hong Kong, 1966) – 3,5/5
Jimmy Wang Yu, with both hands still intact, stars as a secret agent in this highly entertaining camp adventure. His mission is to take down an organization smuggling gold from Hong Kong to Japan. Taking place in both countries the film features a great multinational cast. The most notable actor aside Wang Yu is the legendary Japanese action star Jo Shishido as the head of the crime organization. Obviously a lot of influences have been taken from Nikkatsu’s stylish action and yakuza films. This is only natural as the pic is, in fact, a co-production between the Shaw Brothers and Nikkatsu studios, with most of the crew being Japanese. A lot has also been borrowed from the James Bond films. The sunsets, casinos, gadgets and femme fatales are all included. The storyline doesn’t always make perfect sense (perhaps because they originally made two versions of the film, one for Chinese market, and another one, with Shishido in the lead, for the Japanese audiences!!!) but that shouldn’t bother anyone. Wang Yu, playing a Japanese character for once (instead of beating them to death as usual) is perfect in the lead role. Also notice that despite the seemingly obvious connection to You Only Live Twice (1967) Asia-Pol was made already before. The Hong Kong release was in summer 1967, but the Japanese audiences saw the film already in 1966.
- dvd / IVL
The Delinquent (Hong Kong, 1973) – 2,5/5
Good but not excellent modern day film from Chang Cheh and Chih-Hung Kwei. Graceful old school choreographies have been thrown into trash bin and replaced with brutal street fighting (although still courtesy of Liu Chia Liang and Tang Chia) and hectic cinematography that isn’t too far from Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza films of the same era. Frankie Chan’s score accompanies the action rather succesfully. Storyline and character fates are typically black, to the extent that near the end it starts feeling a bit too much. The main character’s motives can be understood in the beginning, but later he becomes quite dislikable. But the film’s got a few surprises in its back pocket, too. The amount of female characters is higher than one, and one of them actually gets topless. Usually in Cheh’s films you only have half naked men and close ups of their oiled muscles! I guess this was Chih-Hung Kwei’s doings here. Looking at the film, it seems like Cheh’s contribution may not have been awfully huge, although it’s hard to know who exactly directed the film and how much of it (sometimes Cheh basically â€