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To say that this movie was a mess was an understatement. Which was truly unfortunate, since the movie's plot of surrounding the aftermath of Beijing's fall and the clash with the pirates could've been a good one, but no, we had to be sidelined with the plot of the supposed love triangle between Feihung, Siu Kwan and Siu Kwan's younger sister.

After fleeing from Beijing and returning to Foshan, Feihung and his family returned towards an almost ghost town. Apparently, in the span of time of them being away (being involved with the first Lion King competition and the second one, as well as the fall of the Qing Dynasty), pirate activity started to become rampant. So despite the initial plan for them to head to Hong Kong after reuniting with the rest of the Poh Chi Lam people, Feihung and the others also had to deal with the pirates so as to return peace and safety to the people of Foshan.

I still disliked the whole plot involving the 14th Aunt (not calling her May because that wasn't her name, as it was derived from Siu Kwan calling her Mui which basically means 'younger sister'). Like, I get the appeal of trying to insert another girl in the plot to add some kind of tension that necessitates bringing back Rosamund Kwan as Siu Kwan, but honestly, the way they did it in this movie was not even amusing. But really, the comedic effect doesn't hit quite as well as when we had Jet Li and Kwan do the same shadow play in the previous movies. All because this time the movie relied too much on having Leung Foon create the source of conflict by creating a misunderstanding that Feihung kept chasing after every woman in sight - to which could've worked better had Zhou's Feihung never been shown to have any interest in 14th Aunt from movie 4 and this one. And I also can't really buy the sister's excuse of saying 'she tried not to fall for him' because in the last movie, she did do everything to look and behave exactly like Siu Kwan as if she did intend to get Feihung to like her. And really, the whole fight between the sisters was so unnecessary and very annoying.

That said, this movie brought back Ah Wing and Ah So, and I love the fact that as much as Ah So was shown to still not be good in Kung Fu... he turned out to be quite skilled with guns. Zhang Tielin returned to the franchise again... but this time playing a different character, and honestly, I wished the movie had focused more on the plight of the remaining constables instead of the stupid romance plot. Also, I had to question the fact that this movie seemed to forget that Feihung had been in charge of the local militia, which was the men that had been entrusted to him back in the first movie, which made the scene about them trying to restart the local militia from scratch a tad unbelievable, as if forgetting that the men that had joined PCL in the past were former soldiers, so why were those men missing? And where's the rest of PCL's students in Foshan?

The plot was so choppy, messy and badly compiled, which made this movie hard to bear. The sequence of them going to the pirate's hideout was cool, but due to the bad editing... felt very out of place. Despite how we're being told that the pirates were supposed to consist of multiple groups with different coloured flags, we end up just seeing one. That felt a bit underwhelming, especially when at the beginning they made it seem like the pirates were part of a very huge group... but personally, the Taiping gang had been a lot more convincing at being baddies than this. And seriously, who was it that thought having Vincent Zhou act like Feihung could flirt with girls without effort was a good idea? Like this might work with Jet Li, but Vincent really didn't have that much charisma to really pull that effect.

But hey, after so many years... I finally did actually watch this shitshow for real.

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I saw this title on iQiyi, it sounded interesting so I checked it out. The movie started with Wong Feihung on a mission to investigate yet another kidnapping and human trafficking case, and this time a princess was involved. Somehow the 13th Aunt also decided to join his investigation and alongside Wong's student Liang Kuan, the trio went to track the group suspected to be behind the incident. They managed to track the group at a pier and during an altercation, Feihung was hurt and went missing. Frustrated over the situation, 13th Aunt decided to go undercover to finish the mission to rescue the kidnapped girls.

I have to say that the plot was very refreshing, because usually the main focus of the story was on Wong Feihung and/or his students, yet this time... the aunt took the centre stage. Unlike usual, this time Shaojun won't be the damsel or someone to be protected but she's the one who will be fighting the bad guys. The movie was also unexpectedly funny at times as Shaojun end up getting an extra helping hand and we also got to see her not just as the fiancee of Master Wong, but also part of the member of Poh Chi Lam. It really felt good seeing Shaojun actually made use of all the kungfu lessons she learned.

Nan Sheng was really great at playing the 13th Aunt, she was almost on par with Rosamund Kwan in her portrayal. Tho I kinda wished they could've picked a better looking and a more skilled actor to play as Wong Feihung, like some of his action scenes wasn't really impressive. But I guess I'm kinda biased.

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After so long, I decided to rewatch this movie again as much as I bemoan the absence of Jet Li as the titular Wong Feihung in this movie and the one after. But to be fair, though, I don't really blame Jet Li regarding his old issue with Tsui Hark... especially considering that he often gets hurt a lot during the earlier filming of the first three movies. So his concerns about how much he should be paid for his appearance did have some grounds, since Jet do try to give his best performance in every work he does, but all the many retakes can be taxing.

This movie follows not too long after the previous one, with the last Lion King competition concluded. And we even got a brief montage of the lion battle from the last movie with clever edits that showed Jet Li's scenes without really showing his face.

So, despite having returned the golden medal after winning the competition, another officer had gone to visit Poh Chi Lam to give back the medal to Feihung... as well as honouring his victory in the competition with a Dragon dance, which was almost ruined by Leung Foon, who thought the incoming dragon was yet another challenger. The new governor, Guan Shing Tao, soon informed Feihung that there would be yet another Lion King competition... this time against foreign teams. Meanwhile, there's another anti-foreigner group called the Red Lantern that started to kill any foreigner they encountered,

At first glance, this movie was almost exactly a repeat of the third movie, with the opponents for the competition coming from the eight-nation alliance, instead of the Taiping gangsters, with the bonus side story about the Red Lantern group... which was like the female version of the Red Lotus group from the second movie. Well, technically, the overall plot was pretty okay... once I set aside my personal bias about Jet Li. That said though, I really don't get the reasoning for the side romance with the 14th Aunt to be included. And I really can't get around the whole bit about Vincent Zhou's Feihung being somewhat bedazzled towards not only the 14th Aunt but also Lady Miao from the Red Lantern. Cos it made it appear as if this Feihung was slightly more of a womaniser (and easily distracted by pretty women) compared to Jet Li's Feihung. Aside from this bit... I don't really have that much of an issue with Vincent Zhou. And ugh, seeing 14th Aunt throwing herself towards Feihung at every possible chance can get annoying. Like yes, Siu Kwan told her sister to watch over Feihung for her while she's away... but I don't think she meant it like ... very close. And then there's also Lady Miao being drawn to Feihung... and this Feihung not really doing anything to discourage the affection felt somewhat out of character. And I don't get why 14th Aunt needs to be an almost exact clone of Siu Kwan? Why? I'm also voicing the same exact concern as that one student asking if their master was trying to hog all the sisters. Like it's fine if these two girls were shown to have a one-sided affection for Feihung, but to turn it like he also felt the pull made him feel out of character. Especially since in the first 3 movies, it took Jet Li's Wong Feihung a very long time to even admit that he liked Siu Kwan.

There were also quite a number of new villains in this movie, this time with the Germans as well as a few anti-Qing people... which is fine, I guess. Though I wished there were some mention of what happened to those Russians last time that tried to kill Eunuch Li, as well as the Taiping group. That said, since most of the other casts were more or less the same... at least I had other reasons to continue watching this movie. I mean, having Hung Yanyan still around as Ah Chat made me feel like there's still a trace of Jet Li's presence remaining, so I'm a bit okay about that.

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Can't believe that it took me this long to finally watch this movie fully; like I've seen bits of this movie as well as bits of the original when I was younger, but never completely.

I have to agree that this movie was one of the best movie that Jet LI had produced and it was sad that initially, this movie didn't quite gain popularity when it was initially released.

For a remake of the original Fist of Fury this movie was very well made. I love how multi-lingual this movie was, considering that the setting involved scenes set in Japan and China and involving the said people in either country. The dubbing works was also very well made that unless you have a very good ear you won't really notice the difference.

The fight choreography in this movie was also very well done. And I have to say that Jet Li was one of the very few martial artists who could really emulate a similar fighting style as Bruce Lee without making it look too silly.

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By this point, I had to admit it - I really loved Xie Miao and his works. Because as soon as he's back as Sun Wukong, Dream Journey immediately becomes really funny as hell. Like it can't just be the writing or how the movie's direction, but Xie Miao really can pull some very comedic scenes even just wearing a poker face.

So this time, the gang meets the 7 spider sisters. But before that, we get to see Wukong and Tang Seng have yet another argument which end up with them switching each other's powers as well as making a bet for who would be to most successful in transcending the demons they'd encounter afterwards in seven days. Whoever thought up this idea for this is a genius. Tang Seng with Wukong's powers and simple mind ended up being very unruly and overconfident. Wukong with Tang Seng's intellect ended up being very talkative and thoughtful, and while he lost his invincible powers for a while... he still had his fighting skill but have weak body. You have no idea how funny these scenarios are.

I ended up seeing quite a number of familiar faces, who gonna end up acting together with Xie Miao again in Great God Monkey drama. So that explains why their chemistry with each other was so very good. So yeah, if you're looking for some very good laugh... this movie is for you. I seriously recommend this movie a lot. I somehow end up laughing my backpain away after watching this.

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This time, Monk Tang party would be heading to the Kingdom of Women and encounter yet another obstacle. Yet unlike some other adaptation I've seen, there's a slight difference in how the Kingdom of Women was depicted. There was no well that allowed the women to be artificially pregnant without interaction with men and most of the women became evil spirits in this movie.

So far, this Dream Journey was my least favourite. Not just because Xie Miao wasn't in this... but also because the writing and overall show wasn't as funny or enjoyable as the first two DJs. The actor playing Tang Seng got changed again but at least he's younger than in DJ2. And it felt like this time the burden of being the comical presence seem to only fall on the monk, though the joke were so unfunny. The romance plot was also a bit awkward and the final villain was also too cringy. I'd tolerate the previous Fox King more compared to this guy.

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If you'd like to see a non-serious take on the Journey to the West tale, this Dream Journey series is just for you. Here's the second instalment of the Dream Journey series and this time, Tang Seng party was about to cross the Flaming Mountain but they hit a problem. It was too hot for them to pass through the place so they needed Princess Iron Fan's magical item to extinguish the fire. Problem arises when the fan's power was diminished due to the state of the princess's emotions so to solve this, Wukong was sent into the past to acquire Princess Iron Fan's tear to restore the fan's power. But then later, Sun Wukong ended up losing his memory. So what'll happen next?

I could've sworn that things couldn't get any funnier after the first movie, but I was wrong. I really started to like the writing and direction in this movie, like all the comedic timing was very on point. For some reason, unlike the first movie... Tang Seng this time was played by an older actor, which was a stark contrast Zhang He's portrayal of Tang Seng in the first movie. But I suppose that's what makes the whole interaction between Tang Seng and the amnesiac Sun Wukong even funnier.

Like the first movie, there would be the occasional fourth wall breaking. And we get to see a how the relationship between Princess Iron Fan and Sun Wukong could've progressed in a different setting.

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LOL I didn't expect this level of funny in this movie haha.

But first, the description of this movie was a bit off. Because the synopsis was actually from the Dream Journey 3, in which it was mislabeled as the first movie on the iQiyi site. And Xie Miao wasn't part of the DJ3.

Anyway, this movie started with a battle between Sun Wukong and White Bone Demon, before which they were suddenly sucked into a magical portal and transported into the present time. Wukong landed in the home of Tang Xiaojian, who resembled his master while White Bone Demon ended up in a nightclub. After another clash with each other, both of them decided on a truce while trying to figure out a way to head back to where they belong.

I didn't realize that Xie Miao had a few other movies where he played as Sun Wukong before Great God Monkey, so I might as well rectify that. This is a pretty interesting take on the JTTW lore, to integrate a modern retelling of the story while also including isekai. And there's also romance included in the movie, aside from comedy... and I have to say that this is the first Sun Wukong romcom I've ever seen!

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I ended up watching this movie just because of a brief cameo of Xie Miao, who made an appearance in this movie while reprising his character Li Hongqi from the Fight Against Evil series. And I guess this was only possible due to the director also having directed the Fight Against Evil series.

So instead this time, rather than seeing the misadventures of Li Hongqi, we get served with a different police story featuring a female officer who may be as fiery and volatile as Li Hongqi.

The plot was pretty interesting, as we had a villain who was a bit too superstitious and ending up committing multiple crimes because of it. Qiu Yizhou was also an interesting character as well, who may be a bit tomboyish but still a very capable police officer who wouldn't lose against her fellow male counterparts. Though to be fair, I kinda wished that Hongqi's cameo lasted a bit longer since it would've been interesting to see Hongqi and Yizhou fight alongside each other as partners. But I guess it's not possible in this movie since Hongqi wasn't on vacation this time.

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A pair of husband-and-wife performers committed double suicide one day, leaving the man dead and the wife almost brain-dead. A month later, during one of his blind dates suggested by a colleague... Li Hongqi accidentally encountered a suspicious case after witnessing a woman he was on a blind date with being mistreated in public. And in doing so, he ended up meeting someone who may have a connection to the double suicide a month earlier, as well as an illegal business involving drugs and pornography. As usual, Officer Li Hongqi was hot on the case!

Although this movie was the second in the series, it actually served as a prequel to the previous one. So technically, this was the story of Li Hongqi before he met his girlfriend, Taozi. The movie starts with a scene from one of the blind dates Hongqi was set up with, which ended in an incident where he was almost cheated by his date and the shop owner. Since he was fresh from undercover work, he didn't have his badge on him, and he ended up in a brawl with the shop owner and some thugs. After such an experience, anyone would have wanted to swear off going on blind dates, but when you had colleagues who wouldn't stop pestering you to find a girlfriend... how can you refuse? But because of that Hongqi ended up meeting Ma Qiang, a very wealthy man, even though the man was not involved in any legal business.

This movie was a great addition to the series, as we got to find out more about who Li Hongqi was. And it did explain the reason why in the first movie, Hongqi was a bit sensitive about being filmed in plain clothes, since he often works undercover. We also got to see a glimpse of his 'family' from his orphanage and find out why, despite calling them his family, Hongqi seek to find a deeper connection through Taozi's family. But back to this movie, Li Hongqi once again gets involved in a case while he is still on leave from work. And to make it worse, the case also involved one of his brothers from his orphanage! So just like in the first movie, Hongqi had to yet bust another criminal activity while also having someone he knew be part of it.

There were quite a lot of action scenes in this movie, which was expected in this kind of genre, and viewers won't be disappointed in seeing how Xie Miao brings the role of Li Hongqi to life. If you're looking for a good police action movie with a lot of action and drama, check out this movie as well as the previous one.

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If you're looking for a good biopic movie centred on Ip Man, this movie is a good intro to you. Donnie Yen did do a good job in embodying the role of Ip Man and portraying the strength of the Wing Chun martial art style that may often get belittled, just because it was created by a woman. The storyline is pretty simple, as we get to see how Ip Man had been living peacefully in Foshan before his life was upended after the Japanese invaded China. While at first, he preferred to remain in passivity and refused to take in disciples despite his impressive martial arts skills, Ip Man ended up making a choice to stand up against the Japanese and help his fellow countrymen during times of need.

If you're expecting this movie to just be an impactful action movie, you may end up being disappointed since there were quite a number of slow scenes... as well as some interludes of several historical events that happened in between the story. There were some parts that weren't quite satisfying to me, as there wasn't much focus on Ip Man's relationship with his wife and son and how his status as a martial artist affects them indirectly, which made the latter scene that's supposed to be emotional, feel a bit lacking. And the movie seemed to be unable to decide between being a story about Ip Man or being a documentary about the life during the period Ip Man lived in. If you're used to high-impact action movies like those directed by Tsui Hark, you may find this movie a bit boring for most of its duration. But if you don't mind all that, you may give this movie a try.

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I am aware about the Ip Man series, and how it's based on a real-life figure of the same name, but I've never really watched the Donnie Yen movies or been interested in Ip Man stories until now. And then I found out that Xie Miao is playing a younger version of Ip Man, so how can I not watch this movie?

In this movie, Xie Miao plays a young Ip Man who at the moment was studying in Hong Kong. By chance, he encountered a mugging incident... and while he came over to lend a hand, he happened to reunite with an old friend. While spending time with his fellow martial arts student, Man came to witness a kidnapping attempt by some men working for a British company and proceeded to rescue the kidnapped women. What started as one simple incident ended up blowing up as the thugs from the company involved with the human trafficking business started to retaliate, and people around Man started to get hurt. As Ip Man began to reawaken his sense of justice and learn that righteousness must also be followed by wisdom, he sought to confront the British and make right the wrongs that had been done.

Considering that I dived into the story blind, I have no bias toward which actor played Ip Man better. But what I can say is... Xie Miao really brought out a sense of youthfulness and bright energy in his portrayal of young Ip Man. It was really refreshing, seeing him portray a prominent Kungfu master and it's really exciting to see him portray Ip Man from an early point in his life.

If there was anything that I really disliked about any characters in the movie, it would be the man villain MR Stark.Whether it was intentional or not... the character really gave the impression of a very corrupt old Imperial officer with all the many allusions about the Chinese culture that they often speak. Which was really offputting, seeing it coming from a foreigner who appeared to be cosplaying as this 'native' Chinese mob leader. But I suppose, since he's a villain, it's expected for Stark to be a hated character and it really does feel satisfying seeing Man take them down. I'm not sure there were any more plans for future movies featuring Xie Miao as Ip Man, but I would've loved to see more if possible. Xie Miao really did well portraying a Wing Chun master~

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What if the Monkey King escaped the Five Finger mountain a 100 years earlier while still holding bit of a grudge towards the Heavens? Well, through this movie you're about to find out about it.

A-yi had been searching for the Great Sage to help her to ascend to Heaven to report the crimes of the Eastern Dragon who killed her parents. And by some mysterious reasons, A-yi's blood had power to break the seal on the Great Sage to kept him confined in Wuzhi mountain for 400 years. Yet, considering the Great Sage's temperament... why would he so easily agree to help A-yi? His grudge is still so deep and Wukong still harbour the attention to retaliate against the Heavens while not caring how his actions may reflect towards his fellow monkey retainers as well as demon friends.

It's a nice journey as we get to see how Wukong gradually start to warm out to A-yi's presence beside him and how A-yi start to slowly calm the wild fire inside him and telling him not to kill recklessly. And it was interesting to see how the relationship between Wukong and A-yi would lead towards the future where the Great Sage would meet with Monk Tang Sanzang. I especially love the plot twist near the end after everything regarding A-yi's matter with the Long Dragon was resolved.

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While looking up the info for this movie, I've been wondering why this movie was described to be an action-comedy movie. But after watching this to the end, I finally gets it. This is the continuation of Li Hongqi's story, a no-nonsense cop who would not walk away from any crime that came to his attention... even while he's off-duty.

And that, is the crux of the comedic element in this movie. It's quiet subtle to be honest, and you'll only realize it near the end... but for some reason Li Hongqi always did end up getting involved in a case while on holiday, isn't it? It's kinda hilarious when you think about it. The first movie had Hongqi get caught with a case that involved his future in-law's family and the second, which was set prior to the first movie, had Hongqi get involved in case during one of his blind dates. And this time, he gotten involved in a kidnapping and human trafficking case while on a visit to his mother-in-law and planning his belated wedding ceremony. When you think about it, Hongqi really could never catch any break, could he?

The movie started with Hongqi getting a call from Taozi's birth mother after finding out about their marriage and the mom insisting for them to have a proper wedding ceremony. That led to Hongqi meeting with Xinxin on the plane. The case started after Xinxin had gone missing after Hongqi left her to tend to his matters and because of that he felt compelled to recover the girl and get her back safely.

This is really an enjoyable movie as Li Hongqi juggled between planning for his wedding and trying to search for Xinxin while trying to get along with the local police who had a different approach on how they do their jobs compared to him. Since Xie Miao is such a proficient martial arts actor, we got to see quite a lot of action in this movie as Hongqi continued to investigate deeper into the case. Even then, the plot didn't always get too serious at any point as Hongqi also gets some help investigating via unconventional means from his mother-in-law.

I had fun watching this movie and enjoyed all the action and comedic element packed into this movie. While I wished that they could have had the original actress for Taozi to return for a cameo near the end, this is still more or less an enjoyable trip. It made me hope to see more of Li Hongqi's many other misadventures in future movie. Cos who wouldn't want to see more of the story of an earnest cop who kept getting involved with a case every time they were on a holiday? You can bet for sure that I'll be one who wouldn't mind seeing more of this.

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A tale involving an Imugi who failed to ascend as a dragon, a young gifted Shaman who fought against the fate bestowed on her... and a deep grudge that engulfed the royal bloodline, all of these were tied together in a haunting, supernatural adventure. For once, the imugi was not the main villain in the story here, but might as well be part of the good people. In that sense, this drama already set itself apart from the other stories involving the imugi.

This drama was Sungjae's first Sageuk... and a dual role, at that. As much as Sungjae was no stranger to taking a role inside a supernatural drama, this was the first time he played a character set in the Joseon period... and he did it quite well. You can really tell apart whenever he was playing Yoon Gap and wjen he was Gangcheori.

Bona did a great job portraying Yeori, which was quite unlike her role as a princess in Joseon Attorney. It was quite an interesting take, to have a character be gifted with supernatural ability but ended up staying away from that fate due to an incident in the past, while inevitably having to accept it in the end.

I've watched Kim Jihoon in other dramas before, most recently being Jang Bori, and I never thought I'd be able to see him taking a role as a Joseon King. Until now, that is. And I gotta say that I'm overjoyed seeing him being a king.

Overall the drama was pretty enjoyable. While the plot may move too fast or too slow in some parts, it still manage to hold itself together.

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