Crystal Hunt
 
Director:  Hsu Hsia
Year: 1991
Rating: 6.5
(Dubbed)

This is one of the great "B" action films from Hong Kong filled with terrifically fun action set pieces and a damn good cast having some fun on their Thai vacation. The story is admittedly poorly written and some of the acting is atrocious but its difficult not to appreciate the zest and energy that is brought to the film on some level.
 

An old man (Tien Ching) is dying and his devoted daughter (Carrie Ng - looking incredibly chic in a variety of outfits, sunglasses and red garish lipstick and being a completely sultry witch) discovers that he can only be saved by finding the Gold Crystal (which is some old relic, but never really explained ). She and her boyfriend Ken Lo hire an archeologist to find it but he soon disappears. The archeologist's daughter (Fujimi Nadeki) gets her boyfriend Donnie Yen and his ex-police partner (Sibelle Hu) to look for him. Besides the fact that Sibelle is a Thai female police officer (not very likely in Thailand) and has gotten a bit chunky, her acting in this is as wooden as Donnie’s is silly - especially in his suspenders. It often feels like they are acting in a different movie than Carrie and Ken, who bring an intensity that is appreciated. Donnie of course makes up for his acting with some astonishing action skills that are on full display.
 

Anyway, there are lots of bad guys - some good fighting gweilos  - Michael Woods being one, John Savetti another - two Thai tarts in pink tops - and lots of others. Everyone fights in this - even Carrie who I have never witnessed doing Kung Fu. This film is definitely bad - but good bad and lots of goofy fun. There are many ridiculous moments such as  Donnie Yen chasing a pickpocket who is on a motorbike and while chasing him on foot he does flips for no reason - as if this will speed him up ! The last twenty-three minutes is just one huge brawl is which Carrie goes up against Savetti, Sibelle against both the gweilos, Nadeki against Woods and Donny of course takes them on as well. His fights against them are not up to the the quality of those in Tiger Cage II, but are still quite effective. Stick around for the out takes - and look at the faces of Sibelle and Ken while someone is tended to - they appear positively ill.
 

My rating for this film: 6.5