The Ringo Lam thread

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 10 Aug 2005, 11:56

Thought I may as well start this.

I watched Full Alert this evening, it was great. A solidly made cop thriller that heavily leans on realism. The action scenes were good and tried for realism (and succeeded).

The larger characters (especially the main cop, Ah Pao and main antagonist, Mak Kwan obviously) were fleshed out somewhat and seemed human. Pao was more like your '60's family man cop (thank god it wasn't the tired post Dirty Harry by-his-own-rules cliche) and Kwan wasn't just a 2-dimensional laughing villain (eg like Bond villains).

Ringo Lam would be able to make a real cracking Jason Bourne film IMO. Too bad he's stuck in DTV Van Damme hell.

The MeiAh remaster had pretty good quality PQ and subs; also the 5.1 remix was great.

I look forward to seeing City on Fire and Full Contact (which are on the way to me).

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 11 Aug 2005, 08:30

You just discovered Ringo Lam!? Lucky you! You have so much goodness to look forward to! And please add "Prison on Fire" to your list...

As for Van Damnit DTV Hell... you should check out "In Hell" ("The Savage", "The Shu") ... suprisingly good. As for that I also quite liked their "Maximum Risk" from 1996. (Their other collaboration is best left unnamed IMO).

As for other HK movies you should definitely check out "The Victim" for something a bit different, and I've heard people give good recommendations for "Wild Search" and "School on Fire".

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 11 Aug 2005, 13:10

Watched the HKL Full Contact this evening. Cracking good action flick, right up there with Woo's HK movies IMO. Chow was utterly ruthless as Gao-Fei (It was cool how he's like the anti to all Chow's Woo roles, except Tequila to a limited extent) and Simon Yam was very memorable as the gay villain, Judge. The action scenes were well done IMO. Especially liked the bullet POV sequences.

I'll be watching City on Fire HKL in the weekend.

gojensen wrote: And please add "Prison on Fire" to your list...

Definitely, I'll be getting HKL's eventual releases of PoF1&2.

As for other HK movies you should definitely check out "The Victim" for something a bit different, and I've heard people give good recommendations for "Wild Search" and "School on Fire".

Yeah, I'll give Victim a spin, since it has a Meiah remaster. I won't bother with the other two you mentioned though; Wild Search has by the looks of it a shit DVD release (By my standards. I'm sure alot of people would put up with old non-anamorphic HK DVDs, but not me.) and School is only available as a cut VCD.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Aug 2005, 16:23

RINGO LAM films you should try:

City on Fire
Prison on Fire I/II
School on Fire
Wild Search
Full Contact
The Adventurers
Maximum Risk
Full Alert
Victim

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 12 Aug 2005, 06:16

How're Undeclared War and The Adventurers?

I must say the cantopop tracks in Full Contact were fucking dire, especially the hair metal one (I think it may've been used as the main theme).

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 08:30

You mean the "Get the Funk Out" one at the beginning? I quite liked that one but I suppose by its very nature the pop would sound dated, no?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 12 Aug 2005, 11:14

Watched City on Fire HKL this evening. Great film, with realistic characters. The tragic friendship between CYF's Ko Chow and Danny Lee's Ah Fu was really effective, unlike the hyper-homoerotic totally cheesy dynamics of Ah Jong and Inspector Li in The Killer. CoF completely succeeds in it's melodrama, unlike The Killer which falls down the stair and cracks open its head in that department. The HKL PQ was quite shitty IMO, I'll be getting the IVL boxset for sure.

grim_tales wrote:You mean the "Get the Funk Out" one at the beginning? I quite liked that one but I suppose by its very nature the pop would sound dated, no?

I mean the Catonese-vocalised hair metal song which has lyric about springing traps or something.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 11:32

OK, I see.
Not sure I remember that one...

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 12 Aug 2005, 15:01

EvaUnit02 wrote:How're Undeclared War and The Adventurers?

Undeclared War is mostly in English - a stab at an International marlet release. It failed miserably, but isn't that bad really. Worth a look once you've checked out the best of his filmography... The Adventurers stars Andy Lau and is fairly underrated. Not in his top five, but good.

I must say the cantopop tracks in Full Contact were fucking dire, especially the hair metal one (I think it may've been used as the main theme).

If you mean the CLOSING credits theme by Alan Tam, yeah, that's Cantopop/rock. I thought the song was fine, nothing special. I don't know what "HAIR metal" is??

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 16:29

Maybe Eva means the sort of American poodle rock from the 80's?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 12 Aug 2005, 16:48

In Ringo Lam's filmography I've only seen Burning Paradise.

It's a sort of dark WuXia film with a touch of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 17:00

That sounds good, Tom. I heard there was an uncut Dutch (?) or German DVD somewhere.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 12 Aug 2005, 17:32

There's a non-anamorphic german DVD with english subs available.

Don't know anything about the quality.

There are only two DVD editions of Burning Paradise.
-German DVD.
-French DVD (anamorphic but no english subs).

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 18:18

Is this the same as the German DVD?

This one is Dutch DVD by "Mo Asia"

http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.2866/qx/details.htm

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 12 Aug 2005, 18:48

looks the same, except that the dutch disc doesn't have a german dub included.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Aug 2005, 19:37

Thats' OK then

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 13 Aug 2005, 01:49

Can't believe I forgot about BURNING PARADISE, Lam's only New Wave Martial Arts effort. A very good film, that's sadly hard to find uncut these days.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 13 Aug 2005, 08:49

The link I posted (and the German DVD Tom mentioned) are uncut versions I think

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 13 Aug 2005, 12:55

I wish HKL would pick this one up...

I have a VHS tape which maybe uncut? (Not the old MIHK which was cut)

If the DVD were 16:9 I would pay the $20. But these days I grudge buying LTBX unless it's budget.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 13 Aug 2005, 17:46

Markgway wrote: . I don't know what "HAIR metal" is??

grim_tales wrote:Maybe Eva means the sort of American poodle rock from the 80's?

Yeah, it's 80's glam rock. Bands from that genre:- Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Guns & Roses, etc.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 13 Aug 2005, 22:19

I suppose Extreme would fit into that....

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 14 Aug 2005, 15:50

EvaUnit02 wrote:The HKL PQ was quite shitty IMO, I'll be getting the IVL boxset for sure.

My niggles with the picture quality was that it looked colour-faded/over-saturated. I know now that it's an intention result of the blue filters that Andrew Lau used. The HKL PQ is actually quite decent then. Still riddled by the flaws common with all the HKL Media Asia prints I've seen (eg low shadow detail) - but meh, still quite decent.

Don't think I'll get the IVL set now, unless HKL use MA prints on their Prison on Fire 1&2 DVDs.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 15 Aug 2005, 10:47

Hey,

IVL have a "Chow Yun Fat On Fire Trilogy" box (City on Fire, Prison on Fire and Prison Fire II) out on August 25.

http://www.asiandvdguide.com/

I've never seen any of those movies

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 15 Aug 2005, 18:38

I've never seen any of those movies

Shame on you young man! Pre-order that set immediately!