Tiger Cage II

Yuen Woo-ping's 1990 Hong Kong film is a sequel unconnected in plot to the first. An ex-policeman and a divorce lawyer, caught up in a dirty money scheme, have to work with a gangster to clear their names, against a money launderer expanding his business and eliminating anyone in his way. The film exists for its fight choreography. Yuen Woo-ping deploys at full capacity the approach that would later bring him international fame through The Matrix and Kill Bill; this is one of Donnie Yen's early works and among the clearest examples of his fusion of free fighting with traditional wushu. The story is thin and the comic sections interrupt it, but the fights rank with the best in the genre. Who it's for: viewers who like Hong Kong martial arts cinema and early Donnie Yen. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a coherent plot, or who will find the abrupt switches between comedy and violence uneven.