Sadly not the classic'30s capers starring Warner Oland as the philosophical Chinese detective but those of his replacement Sidney Toler after the Chan franchise had been sold off to the poverty-stricken studios of Monogram. Of the six films here, 1944's mildly diverting chess murder mystery The Chinese Cat is the best of an admittedly ropey bunch, which also includes Meeting At Midnight and The Jade Mask.

FEW ARTISTS IN ANY MEDIUM?Bowie, maybe, or Scorsese?enjoyed such a terrific'70s as Woody Allen. This box comprises every comedy that Allen wrote, directed and starred in from 1971-'79?save 1972's Play It Again, Sam and 1978's psychodrama Interiors, neither of which are included here. Bananas was his second auteurist venture (1969's Take The Money And Run being the first) and saw him fusing the wisecracks of Bob Hope and slapstick of Buster Keaton to create this immortal nebbish New Yorker who bears as much relation to the real Allen Konigsberg as does Dylan to Robert Zimmerman.

Carol Clerk, who covered Live Aid for Melody Maker, on the newly released DVD of the global rock spectacular

Rising Japanese horror star Takashi Shimizu's original...Grudge, pre-Sarah Michelle Gellar redux is a wealth of eerie detail, carefully composed shocks, cadaverous children, vengeful spirits and classic"she's behind you!"moments all crammed into a fairly hoary'haunted house'narrative. Still, the shower scene, complete with wandering ghostly hand, is hard to top.

Bertolucci's woefully self-indulgent tale of a teenage ménageàtrois in Paris, 1968 is hampered by the preening self-obsession of his main characters, despite the director's lush cinematography. They lounge in the bath talking about cinema and stroking each other while the city burns. By the end, you're wishing the riot police had moved in earlier.

Worth owning for the way she peels off her opera gloves as the nightclub singer caught in the snake's nest noir Gilda (1946) alone. It also features Rita chased by Fred Astaire in You Were Never Lovelier (1942); shaking her stuff with Gene Kelly and a pre-Bilko Phil Silvers in Cover Girl (1944); and being a magnificent bitch to nightclub heel Sinatra in Pal Joey (1957). Lady is a vamp.

A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert assist the birth of a rare white camel colt, buts its mother rejects it. The Mongolians send envoys in search of a magical musician to make things right. So far, so Bambl. What raises this is the direction, which shows the nomad boys coveting miracles like batteries, TV and video games without patronising their time-honoured mores.

Engrossing, gritty, Shane Meadows-style debut from Chris Cooke, wherein three boozehounds on a rehab course scheme to scam portly tycoon Hywel Bennett. The lo-fi camerawork's iffy, but after starting slowly it tightens like a vice as cocktails, weed and violence kick in. Well written and acted, and surely the only film to argue that Jean-Michel Jarre's comeback gig was better than Glastonbury.

The second of George Romero's classic zombie trilogy, from 1978. This time the blood and guts were in full colour, the make-up and effects more inventive. Much of the action takes place in a shopping mall filled with zombies lurching mindlessly around?not the subtlest of satires on consumerism, but still highly effective, and as slyly funny as it is gory.

John Woo's 1992 cop thriller was his last Hong Kong movie, and it's a self-conscious career peak. Chow Yun-Fat packs an arsenal that would shame the Pentagon as a cop called Tequila; Tony Leung rehearses for Infernal Affairs as his undercover mob contact. The original HK title translates as"Hot-Handed God Of Cops", which is about right.