Rescue at Dongji (China, 2025, Well Go USA, Blu-ray or DVD, NR, 133 min.). Inspired by the real-life rescue of British soldiers in 1942, the film is a rousing, action-packed story of heroism on the high seas. It was filmed at the actual locations and involved the longest ever Chinese underwater shoot. Co-directed by award-winning filmmaker Guan Hu (“Black Dog,” “The Eight Hundred”) and, in his feature film directing debut, Fei Zhen Xiang, the film stars Zhu Yilong (“Cloudy Mountain,” “Only the River Flows”), Wu Lei (“The Hutong Cowboy”), Ni Ni (“1921”), Yang Haoyu (“Journey to the West”), Chen Minghao (“Too Cool to Kill”), William Franklyn-Miller, Ni Dahong, Li Jiuxiao and Wang Yiquan.

The film details a horrific Japanese war crime, after its troopship Lisbon Maru was sunk by a torpedo from the United States submarine USS Grouper on Oct. 1, 1942. The ship was carrying 1,816 British prisoners of war, most from the takeover of Hong Kong. When Japanese high command realized the ship was sinking, they locked the British in the holds, intending that all would die. When efforts were finally made by nearby Chinese islanders to rescue the British, the Japanese fired on both the rescuers and the prisoners. In fact, Japanese orders were given that the entire population of Dongji Island – 263 people from 58 households – were be killed to secure the secret of the war crime.

Ultimately, only 384 of the British were rescued. The last survivor died in 2021.

The film begins by going back into the history of Japan’s occupation of Dongji Island. The occupation included forbidding the island’s fishermen from going to sea. In fact, mines were placed off the island. The island’s population was somewhat divided, with two adopted brothers living with the school’s teacher, Wu Wanshou (Ni Dahong). The older brother is Ah Bi (Zhu), who hopes to leave the island with his girlfriend Ah Hua (Ni Ni), while the younger one is Ah Dang (Wu). Both often go fishing, despite the Japanese prohibition.

They are out fishing when a torpedo strikes the Lisbon Maru and Dang wants to investigate and see if he can help. Despite his brother trying to stop him, Dang rescues English medic Thomas Newman (William Franklyn-Miller), whom the explosion threw into the ocean. Both brothers are experts at underwater swimming thankfully. (In fact, the actors trained for two months to improve their skills.)

Soon some 10 Japanese military are on the island, searching for Newman, which leads to Japanese deadly brutality to some islanders. With Newman eventually hauled away to the sinking ship, where he is beheaded, Dang attempts to free the trapped British himself. Bi, of course, eventually joins him as the ship is sinking.

Meanwhile, the islanders, whom the Japanese have been shooting from their guard tower, decided to sail their boats and rescue as many of the prisoners as they can. They are led by Hua. These are emotionally stirring scenes, actually filmed on the ocean, although there also were five water stages and 16 underwater sets used, as much of the film takes place underwater or in sinking parts of the Lisbon Maru.

The underwater and action sequences are exceptional. The score by Islandic composer Atli Örvarsson (TV’s “Silo”) also excels, particularly when an islander is set on fire by the Japanese.

The closing credits are accompanied by footage of relatives of some survivors talking about the survivors’ experiences. Extras include a look at making the water scenes (7:42); a look at the history and more survivors’ stories (6:36) and a look at the cast (7:52).

Among its awards and nominations, the film received a “Special Recommendation” as “Film of the Year” at the 2025 Weibo Awards Ceremony and was nominated for six Golden Lotus Awards at the 2025 Macau International Movie Festival, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor (Zhu) and Best Actress (Ni Ni). The film also is available on digital. Grade: film 4 stars; extras 2.75 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Purchase link for some titles: https://moviezyng.com?bg_ref=ApLKdWV51k

Double Impact (1991, MVD Rewind Collection, 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, R, 109 min.). This is the first of two Jean-Claude Van Damme films, both filmed in Hong Kong, receiving the 4K Ultra HD upgrade from MVD Visual. It also is the better of the two films, with Van Damme playing twins, who were separatedwhen six-month-old infants, after their parents were killed by Zhang triad members. Their British father (Andy Armstrong as Paul Wagner) helped build the underwater Victoria Harbour Tunnel to connect Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon Peninsula.

One twin, Chad, was rescued by Frank Avery (Geoffrey Lewis of “The Devil’s Rejects,” “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”), who was working with Wagner. Chad was raised in the Los Angeles area by Avery and now teaches at Avery’s kung fu school. The other twin, Alex, is more of a tough guy, raised in Hong Kong and always with a cigar in his mouth. Alex has Danielle Wilde (Alonna Shaw of “King of New York”) as a girlfriend, who has worked for five years for Nigel Griffith (Alan Scarfe of “Lethal Weapon 3”), Wagner’s partner on the tunnel project all those years ago.

It is 25 years after the murders. Avery, having seen a photo of Alex, brings Chad to Honk Kong to reunite the brothers. It seems they may be owed some money or ownership concerning the tunnel;the film never makes this point clear. However, soon the twins, Danielle and Avery are being threatened by Raymond Zhang (Philip Chan of “Hard Boiled,” “Supercop”) and his thugs, including Moon (Yeung Bolo of “Blood Sport,” “Enter the Dragon”). Fighter Kara (Corinna Everson of “Natural Born Killers) runs security for Griffith. Zhang also is working with Griffith, about to start shipping cocaine tothe United States.

There is a cocaine factory shootout, night club explosions and Alex stupidly becoming drunk, leading him to fight Chad over his imagined sex scene (shown) with Danielle. Each twin, by the way, had a different stunt double, and Van Damme, also a producer and co-writer, did the fight choreography.

The Blu-ray holds all the extras, carried over from previous releases. They include a two-part, extensive making-of (52:47 + 58:45; film was originally conceived as an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Corsican Brothers”); 21 deleted and extended scenes, including a fun alternate ending that introduces a plane stewardess twin (53:57); a making of the Hong Kong foot chase scene (7:59); a behind-the-scenes look (6:58); B roll clips (8:03); film clips (4:51); cast and crew interview clips (6:21); and a folded mini poster. Grade: film 3 stars; extras 4 stars

Knock Off (1998, MVD Rewind Collection, 4K Ultra + Blu-ray, R, 90 min.). Despite being directed by Tsui Hark (“Once Upon a Time in China,” “The Taking of Tiger Mountain”), Jean-Claude Van Damme’s return to filming in Honk Kong is an absolute mess. Most of the action scenes are too chaotic, and filmed too closely to know what is going on – not that most of it makes any sense anyway.

Van Damme plays fashion designer (!) Marcus Ray, who admittedly deals with Eddie Wang (Wyman Wong of “The Mummy, Aged 19”) producing designer clothing copies. Ray has a partner in goofy Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider of “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” and its sequel), who turns out to be an undercover CIA agent trying to penetrate Hong Kong's black market. Hendricks works for CIA supervisor Harry Johanson (Paul Sorvino of “Goodfellas,” “Nixon”).

Fat Skinny (Glen Chin of “Natural Born Killers,” “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult”) is working with the Russians, who have developed miniature explosives that they are putting in dolls’ eyes to import to the United States. Another undercover agent shows up in Karen Lee (Lela Rochon of “Any Given Sunday”), supposed an investigator for a firm Ray has unknowingly sold knockoff jeans to.

The timing is just before and during the handover of Hong Kong back to the Chinese by the British, but it is not integral to the plot.

Tsui uses a lot of telescoping shots that soon lose their coolness and become part of the general chaos. The best part of the film comes early with a riotous rickshaw race through the city, with Ray pulling Hendricks. The race has lots of collisions, Ray avoiding hitting a passing van by walking on it and Ray causing a van that has kidnapped Wang to crash into a store.

The film is full of explosions, but it is confusing as to why they happen. One stunt has a car drive through a wall into a two-story drop – things to do not land well. A lot of people get crushed, shot or blown up during the freighter ship climax.

Extras include two interviews with screenwriter Philip E. De Souza (40:51; De Souza is noted for winning two Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Screenplay for “Hudson Hawk” and “The Flintstones”) and a 2020 interview (9:49); an interview with producer Moshe Diamant (18:24); a making-of featurette (23:15); audio commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; and a folded mini poster. Grade: film 2 stars; extras 3 stars

The Time Vortex (2025, Trinity/R2R, Blu-ray, NR, 81 min.). The film, written and directed by George Kaplan (“Overkill,” “Abduction: The Harvesting”), presents an interesting quandary. A quantum physics student (Alex Kraft as Nathan Dubrowski) must fight for his life and the girl he loves (Rabbani Kaur as Inaya Gupta) when he discovers the universe consists of seven parallel timelines and her estranged ex-boyfriend (Bryan Barron, aka Scamman, as Carter) is out to kill her in every single one.

The film opens with a college lecture on “superposition,” with Dubrowski and Gupta being teaching assistants to the professor (Michael Sullivan as Dr. Pelican). In a lab, Dubrowski’s experiments apparently involve shocking living flies – never explained why – but one day he accidentally gets a shock and finds him in an alternate timeline, one in which Carter shoots Gupta. As Dubrowski further explores, he finds five more timelines, including one in which Carter kills him.

Dubrowski eventually takes Gupta to another timeline, where they observe her teaching a class. As they try to stop Carter, they realize he has stolen Dubrowski’s discovery and made a portable version. Not bad for a school janitor. Grade: film 3 stars

The Magician (Chile, 2014, Shoreline, Blu-ray, NR, 83 min.). Directed by Matias Pinochet and written by six people, the film is about two brothers who dream of joining a circus to escape their boring town. The older brother (Jean Paul Olhaberry as Horatio) is a talented amateur magician. The younger brother is Angel (Alonso Quintero) and the film opens with him, bloodied, being interrogated by a police officer. Horatio is missing and Angel insists that the owner of the Circus Santa Cruz (Victor Montero as Negro Santa Cruz) has killed him.

Most of the film is then told in flashbacks. The plot is simple, and includes Horatio falling for Santa Cruz’s woman (Ingrid Isensee as Carlotta), but some of the hand-held magic looks really cool. In one bit, Horatio is locked in a safe, only to be replaced by Carlotta, while he ends up miles away inside a shark! Grade: film 2.5 stars

Force: Five (1981, MVD Rewind Collection, Blu-ray, R, 96 min.). Martial-arts expert Jim Martin (Joe Lewis of “Bloodmoon,” “Bloodfight 2: The Deathcage”) leads a team of five fellow martial artists to rescue a senator's daughter (Amanda Wyss of TV’s “Highlander” as Cindy Lester) from an island ruled by Rev. Rhee (Bong Soo Han of “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” “Kill the Golden Goose”), the evil leader of a fanatical religious cult. Among the five are Richard Norton (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Ezekiel, Pam Huntington (“They Call Me Bruce”) as Laurie, Benny Urquidez (“Dragons Forever”) as Billy Ortega and Ron Hayden (“Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams”) as Willard, their helicopter pilot.

The film introduces each of the fighters, most of whom are seen fighting multiple opponents as they get in trouble. Willard has to be rescued from a prison in Ecuador. The action is rather ho-hum and very predictable, except for the death by a charging bull.

The film is directed and co-written by Robert Clouse, the auteur of Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” and Jackie Chan’s “The Big Brawl.”

Extras include: an interview with Lewis, who is asked a lot about Bruce lee (50:08); Urquidez showing how to properly wrap a hand (8:59); a German featurette of Urquidez fighting (6:41); and a foldout mini poster. Grade: film 2 stars; extras 2.5 stars