Kung Fu Killer (5 Stars)

I watch a lot of films. You all know that. Some people have claimed that I watch a lot of junk. That's not true. I only watch films that I expect to be good. I'm not a professional film critic who sits in an office and watches everything his boss tells him to watch. I'm a film fan, and I watch films for enjoyment. I want all the films I watch to deserve a four star rating. Anything that gets less than four is a disappointment, and anything that gets less than three is a big disappointment.

The last few days I've been watching disappointing films, and the worst of all was "Horrible Bosses 2" yesterday evening. I already felt like turning it off 15 minutes into the film, but I thought I'd give it a chance. By the time I reached the end I knew I'd made the wrong choice. After watching a film that bad I feel drained, and I need to watch a great film to restore myself. I could have done it the easy way by pulling one of my favourite films off the shelf, but I felt in the mood to watch something new. That's a risk, so I spent almost an hour scrolling through films on Netflix. Finally I spotted two films starring Donnie Yen, "Dragon Tiger Gate" and "Kung Fu Killer". Either of them would have been a safe choice. Of the eight Donnie Yen films I've watched so far I've given six of them five stars, one four and a half stars and one four stars. After reading the Netflix one-sentence summaries I decided to watch "Kung Fu Killer" first, despite its silly title.

The film started off as very good and got even better as it continued. It could be called a martial arts serial killer film. A man is challenging martial arts champions to fights, battling each one in his own fighting style, but not as friendly matches; he fights to the death. As he repeatedly says to his opponents, "Martial arts isn't for playing, it's for killing". The only person who knows who the killer is is Hahou Mo (Donnie Yen), a disgraced police martial arts trainer who has been imprisoned for accidentally killing an opponent in a match. He persuades the police to release him temporarily so that he can pursure the killer. He knows who the intended victims are before they're killed, but even this knowledge doesn't protect them.

The fight scenes are spectacular, and they get better as the film continues, when Donnie himself gets involved. The final battle is breathtaking, taking place in the middle of a busy road, dodging traffic as they fight to the death.

I feel like bingeing on TV series for a few days, so I'll probably be watching less films than usual this week. I still haven't watched the third season of "Arrow". That needs to be put right.

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