Flash Future Kung Fu
Imagine an old-school martial arts melodrama about competing fighting schools dropped into the grungy sci-fi world ofBlade Runner, and you have an idea of the curious mix of styles inFlash Future Kung Fu. Eddy Ko is the maverick star pupil of an honorable school who secretly engages in underground "Black Boxing" bouts, a black market sport off limits to the school. The ambitious X-Gang, a bloodthirsty neo-Nazi-like organization, plots to take care of Ko and his friends and take over the city with their army of mind-controlled zombie soldiers. In true Hong Kong fashion, it boils down to a showdown of champions, and this one takes place in a boxing ring in an eerily empty warehouse with video coverage broadcasting the event all over.This 1982 thriller has the cyber-punk look and texture down cold: misty dark rooms lit by the cathode-ray blue of TV monitors, a funky mix of punk fashions with decorative gas masks and radiation suits, and bizarre nightclub theatrics (two women in pink tutus savagely club a third in a leopard-skin jumpsuit, then try to drown her). It doesn't make much sense, but this pre-Hong Kong New Wave adventure from future Hong Kong luminaries director Kirk Wong (Crime Story,The Big Hit) and editor David Wu (Hard-Boiled,The Bride with White Hair) is a fascinating twist on a familiar genre.--Sean Axmaker