High Voltage (1995) has Donnie cast as Chiang Ho Wa, a hard-boiled, take no prisoners, reckless cop straight out of the cop cliche handbook. His bad temper and psychological wounds from witnessing his wife's death lead him to a temporary suspension. In the meantime he takes side duties and agrees to help escort an informant from the Philippines into HK police protective custody. After he and Filipino detective Edu are ambushed and the informant is killed, Donnie stays in the Phillipines to help track the killer, Dick (Roy Cheung- Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, Wild Search) a high rising gangland henchman, who just so happens to be the guy who killed Chiang Ho Wa's wife.

High Voltage has a cheeseball charm. As Donnie's characters rogue antics are discussed they cut to a bad-ass montage of him blowing away anonymous thugs in a junkyard. The soundtrack breezily adds some distorted guitar riffs from Rocking 101. The story is negligible and the fighting not exactly top notch. In the fights, there is quite a bit of cutting, some for style flourish but mostly to cover up the constriants of time and limited stunt choregraphy. They at least try to add some atmosphere in the finale with an alleyway, some pouring rain, and burning trash cans. The actor who plays Edu looks like a cross between Lou Ferrigno and the Beau Travial actor.

Circus Kids (1994) Stars Yen Biao (Prodigal Son, Dragons Forever, Peacock King) as a circus performer under Wu Ma's Shanghai troupe. It is set during the Japanese invasion, the bombing leading the troupe breakig up and the core relocating to Canton where they try to make a living. They find that Canton is rampant with corruption and most of their family members have fallen prey to working for/with the opium smugglers. Donnie Yen has a secondary role as a police captain.

This was veteran director/actor Wu Ma's last film behind the camera. Unfortunately for the Dead and the Deadly, Kickboxer and Kung Fu of Eight Drunkards director, his swan song is a very minor film. The whole film suffers from awkward cutting and scant production values both behind the camera in terms of script and in front of the camera due to the sets and design. You can tell that the film feels rushed, and the fight scenes suffer from this hurried staging and don't amount to much. The finale with Donnie and Yuen Biao facing off against the opium bigwigs, big kicker Ken Lo (Drunkenmaster 2) and martial arts afficionado/writer/commentator Bey Logan, almost makes up for the rest of the films faltering- but not quite.

The DVD: Having previously reviewed two other double features for this company, I braced myself for the worst and expected nothing but disappointment. I found myself fairly surprised. While certainly very cheap quality, at least it was watchable, which I couldn't really say for the other double features I'd barely endured.

Picture: Both films are non-anamorphic letterboxed. The quality is poor sourced, with Circus Kids looking barely vhs quality. High Voltage has some okay color and contrast, but the print has some scenes that are a bit too dark and it is hard to tell what is going on. Compared to Circus Kids it looks pristine. Circus Kids is very muted and grainy, as well as artifact laced. It reminded me of the old days when I'd watch a fifth generation bootleg of an HK film.

Sound: Dolby Mono. Again, the sound sources aren't great but get the job done. High Voltage is in Cantonese with burned in English and Chinese subtitles. Circus Kids a terrible English dub with burned in English and Chinese subtitles.

High Voltage gains some unintentional hilarity points due to the poor subtitles. You get stuff like "Billy, this son of the bitch." and the word "purse" being used when referring to a man's wallet, but my favorite has to be a moment where a character yells Billy and the subs bother to spell it out "Biiiiiillllllyyyyy." Still, at least the subs on are pretty legible. Watching the contrast between the English dub and English sub translation on Circus Kids shows that the film is lopsided either way. The subs state Yuen Biao's character as Lo Tung whereas the Westernized dub renames him "Louie." Still if it was Cantonese language instead and you had to rely on the subs, half the time you couldnt read them.

Extras: Chapter and "Jump to Fight"Scene Selections

Conclusion: Really, this is a fan-only affair. Neither film would be a good way to introduce soemone to HK action, but both are okay enough if you are a fan who has exhausted all of the important films. Worth a look, there aren't any other editions of these films coming out stateside anytime soon, the quality is poor, but maybe worth a casual look if you are into the stars.