Kowloon and New Territories Tour

Kowloon and New Territories Tour

Kowloon is the place to find specialist street markets selling everything from clothes and flowers to goldfish and jade. These markets offer great value with a unique Hong Kong ambience and a real slice of local life.

Beyond the hills of Kowloon, lies the New Territories. Much of the land here remains undeveloped. It is dotted with ancient villages, vegetable farms, heritage sites and fish ponds. Scenic coastlines and ranges of hills have been preserved within Hong Kong's network of 23 country parks, three marine parks and one marine reserve. The best way to get your bearings in Kowloon and the New Territories is by joining a tour.

Athena Chu

No Compromise

Well, it's time for this month's seemingly mandatory Danny Lee cop movie review. This time out, we have the 1988 picture No Compromise, in which Danny plays (you guessed it) a hot-headed policeman. He's on the trail of two Mainland criminals (Lam Wai and Pauline Wong) who killed one of his men. Determined to break the case, Lee puts everything aside, including his family, which causes his wife (Carol Cheng) to question their marriage.

Like most Danny Lee police potboilers, No Compromise isn't anything special, but it doesn't fail in any particular department, either. Though it does threaten to teeter off into the land of bad moviedom with the performance of Lee Chi-Git, who plays Danny's son. Now, I've seen a hell of a lot of bad performances by kid actors in my time, but this stuff takes the cake.

We're talking "the brat from Rumble in the Bronx" here. I'm sure some of you out there will be saying I'm mean for criticizing a kid so much, but believe me, after hearing this bowl-cut sporting snot-nosed tot screech and whine for five minutes, you'll be cheering like I was when he finally gets pistol-whipped near the end of the movie -- and even that doesn't shut him up!

Putting the obnoxious kid aside, No Compromise does actually sport some good acting. Surprisingly, the best stuff comes from the women, who are far too often regulated to "jade vase" roles in these types of movies.

In particular, Pauline Wong -- someone often not noted for her acting skills -- does an excellent job. There's a scene where she does surgery on herself to remove a bullet that is one of the most gut-wrenching things I have viewed in quite some time. Carol Cheng also takes what could very well be a stereotypical "cop wife" role and makes into something more three-dimensional.

As for the action, there isn't a ton of it, at least in the expected "bullet ballet" fashion. Sure, there are a couple of shootouts, and the squib hits seem to produce about a gallon of blood, but the action here is more psychological. The final act is a fairly tense cat-and-mouse game between Lee and Lam, which results in a standoff inside a hospital.

It's certainly not the best output Hong Kong film-makers have ever produced, but like the movie as a whole, it kept me interested. At the end of the day, No Compromise warrants a mild recommendation if you for some reason have a hankering for a Danny Lee picture and have exhausted the supply at your local video store.

RATING: 6

Extreme Crisis

The life of a stuntman in Hong Kong is often one with a lot of pain with little in the way of glory. Bruce Law has worked with most of the top stars in action films, such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and made them look good, but has received next to no credit for doing so. However, for all their faults, the local industry does (at least for the most part) reward hard work.

And so, after several years of hurting himself in front of the camera for the viewer's pleasure, Law was granted a spot behind the scenes in the director's chair with Extreme Crisis. Unfortunately, the result was a box office flop that was panned by critics.

Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20, and looking at Extreme Crisis now some nine years after its' initial release reveals that it's actually a damn fine action movie. Sure, it's dopey. Of course, it's derivative. And it's a given that none of the acting is going to win any awards. But is it fun? Hell yeah.

Most of the harsh criticism of Extreme Crisis points to the script, which I will agree with for the most part. For some unfathomable reason, it took six people to sit down and look at the newspapers of the time, see stories about religious cults setting off sarin gas attacks in Japan, and then decide that combining them with a standoff between the cops and criminals with hostages in a building ala Die Hard would equal boffo box office.

Aggravatingly, Extreme Crisis also subscribes to the multi-lingual mish-mash that Hong Kong productions were favoring at this time, supposedly to entice foreign audiences. So we get stuff like Japanese people speaking in their native tongue to Chinese people, who then respond to them in Cantonese, to which they talk back in English -- which, of course, everyone seems to understand, but no one really ever speaks it, except at pivotal plot points. And somehow this is all supposed to keep making sense.

And even if every actor was speaking the same language, there would still be a hell of a lot of problems. Julian Cheung is absolutely uninspiring as the lead, and, more disappointingly for most of the straight male readers out there, Hsu Chi was still in her full-on "annoying eye candy" mode here.

This wouldn't be such a bad thing necessarily if she was allowed to be well, you know, hot. There's actually a bit where Julian tells her to not be so "sexy" by not having her top button undone. What a tramp! The Japanese actors involved seem to try and do a good job, but since they're forced to deliver cheeseball lines in English for the majority of their work, it's hard to judge their output.

But despite all its' problems, Extreme Crisis still warrants a recommendation based on its' action scenes. Bruce Law might be a screw-up of a "real" director, but he sure as hell can make some good old-fashioned ultra-violence.

And yeah, it might be because of the relatively tepid recent output -- not just from Hong Kong, but pretty much everywhere else in the world -- but there is a certain grittiness to the action scenes (ie, no overuse of CGI) present here that gave the action sequences a bit of punch that is much appreciated.

The bottom line is: if you're looking for a movie that is conducive to just kicking back with a few adult beverages and having a good time with, then Extreme Crisis is something right up your alley. It might ultimately be put in the "guilty pleasures" file, but at least you won't be itching to hit the fast-forward button halfway through.

Eileen Tung Hong Kong Movie Star

Sammi Cheng Concludes Solo Concert in Hong Kong

Sammi Cheng Concludes Solo Concert in Hong Kong HONG KONG May. 28, 2007 (Credits to CRI) Hong Kong singer and actress Sammi Cheng concluded her eight-day solo concert tour "2007 Show Mi Concert" on Friday night in her native home. After two years away from the stage, the 34-year-old came back into the singing spotlight with contagious high spirits. This spirit was unabated on Friday, as she invited Hong Kong singers Andy Lau and Denise Ho to perform with her. Sammi's Show Mi concert which ran for 8 nights was a great success and there were many celebrities that attended her concert including Miriam Yeung, Hocc, Hacken Lee, Andy Lau, Lisa Wong, Shu Qi, Hon Hung, etc but of course the most important guest Andy Hui. Andy Hui who appeared at the last show was seen enjoying the concert and when Sammi read out the letter written to herself, the audience was touched and even Andy himself was seen with teary eye. He was also seen talking to Sammi's mother who was in tears after that. During the celebration party, Sammi said that she learned a lot during the 2 years break and without it, she won't be standing here today as she is. When asked why Andy Hui did not go on stage to become one of the performing guest, she said, "Actually, there are some love that we would like to keep within ourselves and preserve it and I feel uncomfortable to show it out." This means that Andy Hui will be in her heart and she said that Andy is a very, very good friend of hers. Later, Sammi showed the media the bruises on her hands and shoulder that was a result of some technical problems during rehearsal. However, the concert was a great success, so such a small matter is nothing to deter Sammi!

Jet Li and Jackie Chan's "The Forbidden Kingdom" coming

Jet Li and Jackie Chan's "The Forbidden Kingdom" coming

CHINA June 16, 2007 (Credits to varietyasia & jackiechan.com)

"Forbidden Kingdom," the $70 million movie that brings Jackie Chan and Jet Li together on the big screen for the first time, is midway through its China shoot and "on schedule," according to producer Casey Silver. Currently filming on Asia's biggest film set in Zhejiang Province's Hengdian Studios.

The movie tells the story of an American teenager, played by Michael Angarano ("Almost Famous"), who finds an antique Chinese staff in a pawn shop and is transported back to ancient China. There he meets kung-fu master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and a deadly silent monk (Jet Li) on his journey to return the staff to its owner, the Monkey King, imprisoned by an evil warlord (Collin Chou).

Movie, which also stars local actresses Li Bingbing ("The Knot") and Liu Yifei ("Love of May"), is helmed by Rob Minkoff ("The Lion King," "Stuart Little"), with d.p. and action director roles taken, respectively, by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" alumni Peter Pau and Yuen Woo-ping.

Jackie injures Jet Li in fight

Jackie Chan was called upon to pretend to fight Jet Li for a scene in a Robert Minkoff movie yesterday but he ended up really hitting and injuring Li during the shooting, Chan said in his blog on Sina.com.

Chan said he noticed Li's face was bruised after several shots were completed. "It was my knapsack which hit Li during the performance," Chan said on his blog. However, it was still lucky because the knapsack used yesterday was made of linen instead of the bamboo one he carried earlier, otherwise Li's face might have suffered a much more severe injury, Chan said. "It might have given him a bloody face," Chan added.

Chan also said he really enjoyed his "fighting" with Li, a feeling he had not experienced for a very long time. The feeling reminded him of the enjoyable moments he used to have when filming with Sammo Hung Kam-Bo and Biao Yuen. He said their speed were so quick that the cameramen had to ratchet up the shooting speed of their cameras. But when he was acting with others the camera speed was always slower.

The movie, in which Chan and Li are expected to show off their kung fu skills will include several traditional Chinese mythical figures, such as the Monkey King and Sha Monk, two figures from "Record of a Journey to the West" — one of China's four classic novels.

Both Chan and Li will play two roles in the movie. Li, the Monkey King, and Lan Cai He — one of China's Eight Fairies. Chan will mainly play Sha Monk in the movie.

Though it will be categorized as a comedy, 60 percent of the film is supposed to consist of fight scenes. Mainland actress

The movie title was changed from "Kings of Kung Fu" to "The Forbidden Kingdom."

Forbidden Kingdom Cast