Kung Fu Fridays in May

Cheng Pei-Pei is the featured star on May's KFF poster, one of modern Hong Kong cinema's first female action stars. She made her debut in Come Drink with Me, but you might have seen her as the Fox in Crouching Tiger. Of course, neither film is on tap for May (been there, done that), so here's what visitors to my home showings can expect next month:

Ip Man 2 - Donnie Yen's Ip Man, about the early life of Bruce Lee's master, was easily one of our favorites last year. I sure hope the inevitable sequel is up to snuff! Because of an improv tournament over the weekend, I've decided to break with tradition and show it on Thursday instead. The movie just came out on DVD and we can't wait any longer than that.

The Lady Hermit - There's always at least one Shaw Brothers movie each month, and in May, that's The Lady Hermit starring Cheng Pei-Pei. It'll also be a test of Funimation's Shaw Bros. line, to see if I will buy from them again. Amazon keeps pushing their product with cool mod covers, but I want to check out the quality before I invest more.

The Man from Nowhere - Been a little while since we've had an Asian crime thriller, and even longer since we've been to Korea. The Man from Nowhere is a new release that offers both, and from what I've heard, it's pretty good, even if I expect the story to be derivative (it usually is in these things).

Warriors of Heaven and Earth - Our token historical epic mixes western-style outlaw heroes with magic and Chinese history. Production values on Chinese historical epics are usually high, so even if it turns out the film has problems, it'll most likely be entertaining. I've bought films like this on sight based on what actors were in it. In this case, I don't recognize anyone, but reviews were favorable, so why not?

And that's our month of May. Hope that those who can join us, will!

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