Advantages: Some lovely cineamtography and really good fight choreography
Disadvantages: Rather overlong and hammy

...breathtakingly inventive and often balletic martial arts smack-downs. Hark is a master of this, having previously helmed instalments of the "Once Upon a Time in China" and "Chinese Ghost Story" franchises. His take on epic Chinese cinema is faithful to its roots but, thankfully, with far higher production values. He knows his audience and provides romance, adventure, mysticism and cracking fight choreography. The cinematography is crisp and Hark's direction sharp yet reverential to the genre. He shoots in luscious colours that direct the audience in how to feel. The opening massacre appears in muted greys and saturated reds, while the pastoral idyll of Martial Vilage is presented in golden hues and Fire-wind's city in a range of unappetising greys and blacks. His attention to detail is superb, giving each of the seven swords as much of a personality... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic authentic stunt work and choreography. A classic Wuxia film.
Disadvantages: The characters were so under-developed!

...has sent one of their long lost friend to also undercover in the opposition clan. Thinking his friend was missing all these years when Sister Ko used her as a pawn for her success. Yip deteriorates over time due to the injury of his left arm and constantly falling drunk and falling in love. Some one is betraying Sister Ko's clan (known as Happy Forest) as they are in constant encounter and battles with enemies wherever they go. The question is who is betraying them and why? ~~~~~~~~ REVIEW ~~~~~~~~ 'Butterfly and Sword' is a Chinese Fantasy Wuxia film, with extremely sophisticated choreography of movements and fast paced martial arts sequences. It is set in the typical era of ancient china as most Wuxia genre does (Wuxia is a genre which combines fantasy and swordfight). The storyline is typical to the period... Read review

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Advantages: Creative Gifts & Projects
Disadvantages: NONE...will take time ..

...This is a great book for beginners. I liked this book because: 1. The paper /pages are glossy , clear , uncluttered and easy to read. 2. The book begins at the very beginning , including teaching us about the FOUR TREASURES [the four treasures in Chinese Callligraphy and painting are : paper, ink, ink stone and the brushes. 3. The instructions for this calligraphy lesson are so precise, clear and specific, even someone like me is able to handle the lessons . [ha, I tend to have a short attention span when it comes to lessons. I want to know everything IMMEDIATELY , like yesterday]. 4. The book's lessons teaches you how to draw or paint the Chinese characters that are our 'words' or 'messages'. The great thing about the lessons is that they begin with each 'stroke', naming the strokes and giving a very... Read review

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Advantages: Great storytelling, visuals and voice acting; Fun; Later chapters challenging
Disadvantages: Some problems with the sound; Earlier chapters too easy

...More than six years after the first two instalments of the acclaimed Broken Sword series, George Stobbart and Nico Collard return for their third outing – Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. Broken Sword 1 and 2 were 2D adventure “point and click” style games in the tradition of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, and are generally considered to be classics of the genre. I was a big fan of these games and was very excited to hear that (finally) a third Broken Sword game was going to be made. When it was announced that Broken Sword 3 was going to be presented in 3D, however, I was a little worried, thinking that it may be turned into a Tomb Raider style action game. For some years now there has been a steady decline in 2D adventure games, as game producers have an annoying habit of viewing them as old-fashioned in comparison to the sort... Read review

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Advantages: challenging, adventurous and extensive gameplay
Disadvantages: patience and difficulty

...::: Introduction George Stobartt is back in a spine tickling sequel to the magnificent broken sword. To adventure; you must perform 'point-and-click' actions to guide George from the horiffic backstreets of paris to the high mounds of new mexico on an adventure to save his girlfriend nico, the world and innocent victims from the dreaded 'Kahns' captivity. ::: Requirements A memory card unit is not necessary required but HIGHLY recommended. This game can take months of patience in order to solve miserys, puzzles and complete the adventure. From personnal expereince, I must have used the memory card way over 100 times throughout the duration of the game. Secondly, you may decide to use a playstation mouse. This is operated in a similar fashion to a P.C mouse. The advantages of using a mouse is to increase... Read review

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Advantages: Nice, different flavour
Disadvantages: Fat and calorie content

...These new Walkers Great British Takeaways crsisp are everywhere at the moment aren’t they? This is clearly the latest thing from Walkers to make us all buy more crisps and obviously no new product from Walkers would quite seem right without a truly cheesy advert involving Gary Lineker and these are no exception! I like crisps a lot (as anyone who has read a few of my ops will know!) but I have to confess that I find normal Walkers crisps a little on the greasy side and I find their fat and calorie content scarily off putting. However, like anyone else, I sometimes get peckish, and it was in one of these moments that I decided to give the new Chinese Spare Rib flavour a try. In case you haven’t encountered the Walkers Great British Takeaways range yet, they are available in the following flavours: - Chinese Spare... Read review

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Advantages: good balance between conversation, grammar, exercises and new words
Disadvantages: Chinese language in itself!

...Conversational Chinese 301 is a very good learning material for beginner students of Chinese. The series consists of two volumes for a total of 40 lessons and 8 reviews. Alongside the books there are six audio CDs and it is possible to buy also the DVDs, although, after checking them, I don't find them as useful as the books and CDs. The course has a good balance between conversation, grammar, exercises and new words. The book is aimed to teach basics of Chinese and enable learners to have simple conversations. I also like the black and white cartoon illustrations in the books. Each lesson in the books and CDs is divided into six parts: 1. Sentences They give a "taste" of the subject that will be discussed in the unit. The sentences are between four and eight per unit, written in Chinese characters with translation... Read review

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Advantages: Delicious, easy to prepare, authentic taste
Disadvantages: Have to buy your own spring onions and cucumber

...My favourite Chinese dish has to be Crispy Duck - I love it! Whenever I go out for a Chinese meal I always select something that has Crispy Duck as one of the courses. Most meals that I enjoy I like to find out how to cook them at home but with Crispy Duck I must confess that the recipe has so far eluded me so it is a real treat to eat it when I go out. It is quite rare for me to visit the 'ready meals' section in supermarkets anyway as I much perfer to batch cook food and then freeze down my own ready meals. However one day when I saw Crispy Duck in amongst the ready meals on a rare sortie past the fridge at my local Tesco I had to give it a try to see if it could possibly be as good as it is in my 'local' Chinese restaurant. Now I use the word 'local' somewhat creatively because here in rural Suffolk nothing is exactly 'local... Read review

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Advantages: Easy and quick to cook
Disadvantages: Shrink in size, high in calories

...While out shopping in Sainsbury's, i was in the freezer section, searching for something a little different for dinner when i came across Dalepak 4 Chinese style Ribsteaks, they were on special offer of buy one get one free and being a bit of a Chinese food fan, so i thought 'Hey, why not' and stuck them in my trolley. The packaging of Dalepak's 4 Chinese Ribsteaks is quite simple really, a small box with a clear and bright picture of the steaks cooked on the front as well as the Dalepak logo. On the back you have another smaller picture as well as the ingredients, cooking instructions and nutritional information. Also it gives you storage instructions and a calorie break down. Well, later that afternoon i decided to cook them for myself and my husband, i got them out the box, there was no other packaging, they seemed a good size... Read review

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Advantages: Great food, fair prices, good service
Disadvantages: Nothing I can think of

...I'm sure everyone - well everyone who likes Chinese - probably has a favourite Chinese restaurant that they keep returning to. For the area where we live - between Northampton and Market Harborough - the Han is our Chinese of choice. It's located in the small Leicestershire market town of Market Harborough and you can find it on St Mary's Road. For those who know the town, it's the road which runs from the Market Square towards the railway station. With the Square behind you, pass the new Starbucks on the left hand side and it's just a hundred meters or so further along. From the outside your first instincts might be that it doesn't look that much like a restaurant. This is because the Han is on two levels and you will only be able to see the downstairs reception area. Here there are sofas and coffee tables where people usually wait... Read review

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