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Power Kids (Thailand): So it's been over two decades since Die Hard made the movie pitch infinitely more efficient, and far by it from me to botch tradition, because this flick is basically Die Hard in a hospital... only with four ass-kicking kids going up against terrorists instead of one intrepid adult cop. Did I mention that they're after the donor heart for their youngest brother's emergency surgery? The kids, I mean, not the terrorists (they're there for the U.S. Ambassador, natch). And kick ass, they do, while taking a fair share of licks in return. Power Kids feels like it was made in the spirit of a Saturday matinee and was meant for kids of all ages, despite all the close-range semi-automatic fire and sepia-toned war flashbacks (not to mention the occasional f-bomb from the boorish American), but if the idea of some moppets Muay Thai-ing their way through bad guy after bad guy sounds good to you, I struggle to think that this would disappoint.

More coverage at Horror Squad!

Subtitle of the Week: "My kung fu skills aren't too bad, eh?" -- Donnie Yen in Ip Man.

This week's edition of Asian Cinema Scene includes capsule reviews of films that were recently released on DVD in Asia.

Departures Takes Off: Yojiro Takita's drama Departures, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, was a popular success during its initial run in Japan last fall. It resurged in the wake of the Oscar victory, ascending to the top of the charts. Departures also swept the 32nd Annual Japanese Academy Awards two days before the Oscars. The director's follow-up film, Sanpei the Fisher Boy, is due for release later this month. [Sources: Screen Daily; Japan Times; Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow; Nippon Cinema.]

Ip Man Inspires: Biopics are always better with martial arts, aren't they? Highly respected Wing Chun master Ip Man (Donnie Yen) lives a comfortable life in Fo Shan, China, but after the Japanese invade in 1937, he is reduced to living with his wife and young son in abject poverty. He works humbly alongside his fellow countrymen in a coal factory until he is forced to use his martial arts skills to defend his country's honor against the Japanese.

Teaming again with director Wilson Yip (SPL, Flash Point), Yen is perfectly suited to play the stoic, peaceful man who refused to buckle under to imperial rule. Simon Yam plays a factory owner and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi embodies General Miura. The great Sammo Hung choreographed the action scenes, which are pretty terrific. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Ip Man eventually counted Bruce Lee among his students. (Trailer embedded below.)

After the jump: Brief looks at Beast Stalker and Legendary Assassin -- plus trailer!

When I saw The Incredible Hulk yesterday at a matinee screening, I was entertained. (My feelings were very similar to what Scott Weinberg wrote in his review, so no sense repeating them here.) But, truthfully, the CGI-to-death battle scenes made me long for hard-core, physical action sequences involving real people, an itch that was easily scratched by watching Invisible Target, which came out on DVD earlier this week.

Directed by veteran action maestro Benny Chan, Invisible Target is a very basic Hong Kong "cops and criminals" tale with a couple of deeper psychological layers thrown in for good measure. As I wrote in my review when I saw it at Fantastic Fest last fall, "Invisible Target may not be strikingly original in either its plot or action choreography, but there's definitely something entirely positive to be said for a film that intends to be nothing more than a delivery system for adrenaline and keeps its promise in a very satisfying fashion."

This weekend's release of The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, features the first teaming of the two Asian action heroes. (My review is here.) Jackie is older and got established first as a comic martial arts master before making a string of modern-day thrillers and adventures. Jet came along later and became known as an ultra-serious, ultra-deadly lethal weapon. Their relative merits have been debated endlessly, and The Forbidden Kingdom finally gives fans a chance to see them go man to man -- first against each other, and then against the bad guys.

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Who's your favorite Asian action hero? (For the purposes of this poll, we'll stick to the living, so that's why Bruce Lee is not included.) Do you prefer Jackie's humor and larger than life thrill-seeking stunts? Or do you favor Jet's solemn precision and frequently death-dealing fighting?

Or ... have you always been a secret backer of Donnie Yen? (He had his own square-off against Jackie Chan in Shanghai Knights.) Sammo Hung? (The former Martial Law TV star is still active in Hong Kong.) Michelle Yeoh? (Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) Or the younger generation represented by Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, The Protector), Collin Chou (Jade Warlord in The Forgotten Kingdom), and Wu Jing (Invislble Target, Kill Zone)? Sound off in the comments to tell us your faves and let us know about anyone else we haven't mentioned.

The Hong Kong film industry, renowned for producing action pictures with a unique blend of outrageous antics, has been enjoying a small resurgence of late. On the modern action side, Wilson Yip's SPL (retitled Kill Zone for the US market) kicked things into high gear in the fall of 2005, and more recently, Yip's Flash Point and Benny Chan's Invisible Target got fanboys like myself excited when they played at TIFF and Fantastic Fest last fall.

In between those films, Dennis Law's Fatal Contact came out in October 2006, and this week Dragon Dynasty makes it available on Region 1 DVD. Unlike those other films, the hero of Fatal Contact is not a police officer but a kung fu champion from Mainland China named Kong (Wu Jing, AKA Jacky Wu Jing, a villain in both SPL and invisible Target). His spectacular performance with a traveling opera company brings him to the attention of the criminals that run the underground boxing scene in Hong Kong. At the urging of a fetching, gold-digging co-worker (Miki Yeung), Kong is drawn ever deeper into a violent world ruled by bosses who gamble millions of dollars on every match.

Very much a story told in the traditional manner, with generous doses of broad humor, social drama and unrequited yearning, Fatal Contact succeeds by delivering a satisfying quotient of increasingly brutal fight scenes. As usual, Wu Jing is a rocket-fueled, unstoppable field of energy. Also notable is Ronald Cheng, a singer turned actor who looks pretty sharp as a fighter in the "street hustling sidekick" role. For good measure, he also performs a song over the closing credits.

Dragon Dynasty's two-disk edition includes an audio commentary by director Law with Bey Logan, four interviews, and a "behind the scenes" feature.

Also out this week is Ryuichi Hiroki's Vibrator, which won acclaim on the festival circuit a couple of years ago. It's a road drama about an alcoholic freelance writer (Shinobu Terajima); she's a woman "on the edge of madness, despair and finally love," in the words of Mark Schilling, writing in The Japan Times. The DVD is from Kino Video.

Crunch! Bam! Ouch! Wow! Great action movies make you want to express yourself in exclamation marks. As evidenced by Invisible Target, the Hong Kong film industry has forgotten more about making action films than Hollywood will ever learn. Invisible Target may not be strikingly original in either its plot or action choreography, but there's definitely something entirely positive to be said for a film that intends to be nothing more than a delivery system for adrenaline and keeps its promise in a very satisfying fashion.

A gang of thieves led by Tien (Wu Jing) and Yeng-yee (Andy On) blows up an armored truck so they can steal the millions of dollars that are secured inside. The explosion is so huge and fiery that it wipes out nearby cars and stores, including a jewelry shop where a woman is shopping for wedding rings. The woman is the fiancee of police detective Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse); six months later, he is still grieving her loss and aching for a chance to avenge her death.

Having fled Hong Kong after the robbery, Tien's gang is forced to return in search of their share of the booty, which was not paid as promised by their "invisible" boss. They cross paths with another police investigator, Fong Yik-Wei (Shawn Yue), who is as arrogant as Chan is brooding. Fong and his squad are in the process of making a drug bust when Tien's gang bursts in, displaying a brazen defiance of police authority. Fong suffers further when he is forced to (literally) eat lead. He aches for the chance to avenge his humiliation.