'Magnificent' Asian action on DVD

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

If "Kill Bill Vol. 1" proved to be less than a blockbuster, it was still a grand experience for American lovers of Asian cinema, who have had too few opportunities to see Hong Kong-style action so beautifully depicted.

Usually aficionados have to settle for seeing their favorite films on videotapes that have been duplicated too many times or on mail-order DVDs whose legality may be dicey.

The anticipation for "Kill Bill," however, prompted a few DVD distributors — most notably Fox — to issue new, subtitled and digitally remastered editions of underground favorites, bargain-priced at $9.98. At the top of any Hong Kong action-lover's wish list is 1987's "Magnificent Warriors," an entertaining action comedy that was most Western fans' first look at Michelle Yeoh of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Yeoh plays a mercenary hired to rescue a slimy Chinese spy from a Japanese-occupied Mongolian city in 1938, and what "Warriors" lacks in dramatic finesse, it makes up for in choreographed action sequences that capitalize on her balletic grace.

An even better entry in the "Magnificent" series is 1979's "Magnificent Butcher," directed by the man who taught Keanu Reeves to fly in "The Matrix" movies, wire pioneer Woo-ping Yuen. Sammo Hung has the title role as the most devoted and agile student of Wong Fei-Hung, a real-life Cantonese warrior whose exploits were fictionalized in a string of '50s-era B-flicks.

Jackie Chan and Hung were teamed for 1985's "Heart of the Dragon" with Chan playing a SWAT-team hero who retires to look after his mentally challenged sibling Hung, but has to ask his former partners for help when Hung wanders into a jewelry store heist and is taken hostage. "Heart" aims at poignancy and mostly hits it, but a lot of bad guys get hit, too.

Hung was also well paired with Biao Yuen in 1986's "Eastern Condors," a Hong Kong "Dirty Dozen" Hung also directed. He and Yuen are forced to lead a gang of convicts, which the U.S. Army had intended only as decoys, when the plane carrying the actual commandos sent to destroy a munitions dump crashes.

The movie does a surprisingly good job mixing traditional war-movie action with stylized fight sequences. Look for cameos by Woo-ping Yuen and Haing Ngor, who picked up an Oscar for his performance in "The Killing Fields."

Sword fight fans can get their fill of clashing steel and an overload of ninjas in 1982's "Duel to the Death" (Tai Seng Video), a rare plot-driven adventure focusing on a historical competition between Chinese and Japanese warriors.

Finally, the best of the uniformly good "In the Line of Duty" cop series, "In the Line of Duty 4" (Fox), with Woo-ping Yuen directing Donnie Yen and Cynthia Khan as partners on the trail of a drug lord, allows fans to see it with subtitles as opposed to the dubbed soundtrack (which is also included here, as on the other titles.)

'S.W.A.T.' survives ... just

Compared to these, the summer hit "S.W.A.T." (Columbia TriStar), inspired by the 1970s TV series, looks overweight and lethargic. At least Samuel L. Jackson takes it seriously enough to keep the viewer involved.

Jackson plays an old-school police sergeant brought out of retirement to train a new team that includes salvage job Colin Farrell, a cooler-than-you LL Cool J and tougher-than-leather Michelle Rodriguez. Extras include commentary by several of the stars (not Farrell), as well as director Clark Johnson.

From left: Alyson Hannigan, Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott star in "American Wedding," the third movie in the "American Pie" series. Be warned: the extras are more amusing than the movie. Gannett News Service

"American Wedding" (Universal) includes the R-rated cut of the third in the "American Pie" movies, as well as an unrated version with just a smidgen more raunch.

Only half the original cast returns for Jim and Michelle's wedding, which is just as well, since it's pretty much a nonevent. This is one of those films in which the outtakes are more amusing than the film.

'City' gals face reality

Nor do you get much of what you came for in "Sex and the City — The Complete Fifth Season" (HBO), a two-disc set compiling the eight episodes from 2002, devoted primarily to the gang's belated maturity — as if anyone wants to confront that.

Completists or newcomers with Christmas gift cards can also opt for a mega-box containing all the shows from the first five seasons.