By Fred Topel | Image property of respective holders.
Shanghai Express
No, this isn't a Steven Seagal reissue and a Jackie Chan straight to video. These are two classic Hong Kong action films that didn't become as worldwide popular as Drunken Master or Hard Boiled. Now they are the latest entries in Genius Products' Dragon Dynasty series.
On DVD: Shanghai Express and Above the Law
Above the Law is Yuen Biao at his finest. Biao had the same training as Jackie Chan so can do similarly acrobatic movies. Unfortunately, few movies employ these skills, but this one does. Shanghai Express is a Sammo Hung movie that also stars Biao. Not as memorable to me but Hung's movies are usually a hodgepodge with some good moments.
Above the Law has one alternate ending that replays the last 20 minutes of the movie dubbed with different characters living and dying. The second ending is just the same final scene, only subtitled. Well, that is alternate. Shanghai Express's "rare deleted scenes" include some fighting and stunt stuff, and a funny (intentionally or not) scene with Sammo and a gang of prostitutes.
Interviews with Biao look recent, with his reflections translated by subtitles. After some fluff about his costars, he still remembers the key stunts vividly. Cynthia Rothrock sounds like a lot of fun, high energy, and good humor, full of cultural differences and martial arts talk. She even demonstrates a little. Sammo Hung also does a subtitled interview so he's clearly more comfortable in his native language (I was a huge fan of Martial Law but I give the guy a language break.) They even got Above the Law supporting player Peter Cunningham to remember stuff.
Above the Law and Shanghai Express are out on DVD now.
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