Infernal Affairs (無間道) (2002)

This is an exciting Hong Kong action movie bolstered by terrific performances of Tony Leung, open and warm, and Andy Lau, cool and sinister, playing fellow police academy recruits, one who ends up working for years deep undercover as a member of an international drug ring, the other rising through the ranks of the police force while working as a mole for the drug ring's "Mr Big" - a scenario so good this original spawned two sequels (not yet viewed) and a long and boring Hollywood remake, Scorsese's The Departed in 2007.

★★★★☆

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The Great Wall (长城) (2017)

The poster teases, "What were they trying to keep out [by building the Great Wall of China]?" but the intrigue ends very early on in this Matt Damon-helmed fantasy action when the gnashing dog beasts, the Tao Tei, are revealed and then shown over and over and over again, with every subsequent shot of a dog beast leaping forward into a 'mouth spear' further deadening your interest, and nor is your interest likely to be kindled by scenes of political friction between Damon's European mercenary (in China in search of gunpowder) and Jing Tian's Commander Lin - back and forth, back and forth they go: are they allies or are they enemies? - for these scenes exist simply to break up the monotony of the monster wave attacks...and myriad weapons (fiery cannonballs, bungee ropes, big scissors and bedsheets fashioned into wonky balloons) also fail to recapture the wonder of that teaser question.

★★☆☆☆

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (狄仁杰之通天帝国) (2010)

It may disappoint Western audiences hoping for the big budget magic realism of Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc, but despite its not quite so sumptuous staging, Detective Dee is a solidly entertaining mystery adventure, like a Chinese-Hong Kong Young Sherlock Holmes with its intriguing mystery of people bursting into flames in ancient China, a mystery investigated by historically real but embellished Tang Dynasty official Renjie 'Detective Dee' Di.

★★★★☆

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