What Asian Films Have You Been Watching Recently?

[ropo1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ropo1]

mostly into non-asian film projects atm but managed to sneak some in

The X from Outer Space (1967) 6.0/10
Solid, and the only(?) Shochiku made, kaiju film with a spacemonster wreaking havoc.
Not much more to add, I enjoy this type of film.

The Web of Death (1976) 6.0/10
Chor Yuen is one of my favorite shaw directors, i've seen pretty much everything he did in the 1980s.
Here the action and special effects are pretty bleak in comparison, but it's still a rather colorful and enjoyable ride.
It's quite annoying when during action, that multiple people run to someone that was hit and shows their concern
although it's a minor downside and something that seemingly was a part of the earlier (as in pre-80 somewhere) output.

[tetrapak Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tetrapak]

Circuit of Sorrow (哀愁のサーã‚ット) (Japan, 1972) [TV] - 3.5/5
Extremely interesting, if slightly ham-fisted 2nd follow-up to Tí´ru Murakawa's landmark Roman Porno Delicate Skillful Fingers (1972). Based on real life Toyota race driver and fashion model Sachio Furusawa (Tí´ru Minegishi) who tragically died on track in 1969 and pop singer Tomoko Ogawa (Kei Kiyama), the film depicts their brief romance in the shadow of media pressure. Like Delicate Skillful Fingers, the film is essentially a Nikkatsu youth film conceived under the Roman Porno reign. There are fast cars, a bunch of Sun Tribe youngsters who challenge the protagonist to a bike race, and absolutely shitloads of catchy pop music (enough that they released an LP). But the title oversells the film: there's little sorrow on the circuit as the protagonist is only behind the racing car wheel in the opening and closing scenes. There's potential for great melancholic poetry which comes thru occasionally (their departure from a seaside motel on a rainy day is soaked with movie magic), but the protagonist is superficially written and portrayed. Murakawa's touch likewise isn't as sharp and dynamic as in Skillful Fingers, even if he claims to have had the actors have real sex in the camera. The film nevertheless remains highly entertaining, extremely stylish and thematically fascinating, and is yet another example of Nikkatsu Roman Porno's incredible versatility.





Onsen osana geisha (温泉おさな芸者) (Japan, 1974) [DVD] - 1.5/5
The 6th and final Hot Springs Geisha film, somehow as tame if not even tamer than the 1968 Teruo Ishii original. This was directed by the walking definition of mediocre Ryuichi Takamori who sabotaged a whole bunch of Sonny Chiba films. Occasionally he delivered good entertainment, though. Silly, childish and largely void of exploitation, this still remains just about watchable, partly because it's wise enough to focus on its theme (modern harem in onsen town), unlike the fore-mentioned Ishii film (which is the best comparison point because all the other films were better, especially part 2). It's also somewhat fast moving at delightfully short 70 minutes, positive rather than smutty, and features high school girl geishas. The rating could be perhaps a notch higher.

watched these 2 and I enjoyed them both... Murakawa's film has some beautiful scenes and it deserves a bluray release in my opinion...

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I caught Yang Woo-suk's latest action thriller STEEL RAIN on Netflix. It's based on his own webtoon and his first film since his 2013 hit, THE ATTORNEY. Thought it was pretty good and entertaining overall. Equal parts tense political thriller, action movie and strangely even a comedic buddy movie all set against the backdrop of nuclear brinksmanship on the Korean peninsula. The title refers to the cluster bomb munitions which is used to terrifying effect in the opening sequence which exposes an attempted assassination of Kim Jung Un and a subsequent coup by a rogue North Korean general. The script is on point and gets its message across without needless and endless twists and shenanigans. What really separates this flick from the pack is the terrific chemistry between Jung Woo-sung and Kwak Do-won. These two are reunited again since their pairing in ASURA: CITY OF MADNESS, which is another fine flick too.

I've always thought highly of Jung Woo-sung and a shame he doesn't get the name recognition in the West of some of his contemporaries like Lee Byung-hun or Gong Yoo for example. He just has this steely glare and icy demeanor & just oozes charisma onscreen & Kwak Do-won of WAILING fame is equal to the task and he brings a certain ebullient personality to his character to offset the intensity of Jung woo-sung. The scene where he's getting down to G-Dragon in the car while Jung Woo-sung is giving him daggers was gold. Definitely will give this one a re-watch and will be picking up the blu ray as long as I can find a reasonably priced bare bones edition which is getting harder with Korean movies as they all seem to be pricey limited edition first press editions. Anyway, that's a topic for another day.

Also found out that the Vietnamese female revenge thriller, FURIE starring Veronica Ngo will be playing in my area. Going to definitely go check that one out this weekend!

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Circuit of Sorrow (哀愁のサーã‚ット) (Japan, 1972) [TV] - 3.5/5
Extremely interesting, if slightly ham-fisted 2nd follow-up to Tí´ru Murakawa's landmark Roman Porno Delicate Skillful Fingers (1972). Based on real life Toyota race driver and fashion model Sachio Furusawa (Tí´ru Minegishi) who tragically died on track in 1969 and pop singer Tomoko Ogawa (Kei Kiyama), the film depicts their brief romance in the shadow of media pressure. Like Delicate Skillful Fingers, the film is essentially a Nikkatsu youth film conceived under the Roman Porno reign. There are fast cars, a bunch of Sun Tribe youngsters who challenge the protagonist to a bike race, and absolutely shitloads of catchy pop music (enough that they released an LP). But the title oversells the film: there's little sorrow on the circuit as the protagonist is only behind the racing car wheel in the opening and closing scenes. There's potential for great melancholic poetry which comes thru occasionally (their departure from a seaside motel on a rainy day is soaked with movie magic), but the protagonist is superficially written and portrayed. Murakawa's touch likewise isn't as sharp and dynamic as in Skillful Fingers, even if he claims to have had the actors have real sex in the camera. The film nevertheless remains highly entertaining, extremely stylish and thematically fascinating, and is yet another example of Nikkatsu Roman Porno's incredible versatility.

I just caught this the other day. A nice English subbed rip was available, so decided to check it out. Nothing to add to your review. It had potential but the script was pretty bad.

[mjeon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mjeon]

I saw "Inugami" last night. I agree with everything that Ian said in his R!S!P! review of the film. "Inugami" was obviously influenced in tone and somewhat in plot by the famous "Inugami Family" movies. (There was an excellent article about these in Video Watchdog.) It was a pleasure to descend into the creepy Inugami universe again.

I watched "Inugami" on the Hong Kong Universe DVD, which is anamorphic and allows you to view the movie in Japanese with optional English subtitles. A nice, colorful disc. Perhaps it's worth mentioning that both of the versions of "Inugami Family" (one of which was a TV movie, I believe) are available with English subtitles on Hong Kong DVDs as well.

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Caught Roy Chow's 2009 crime thriller, MURDERER starring Aaron Kwok. Kwok plays a cop with amnesia who begins to suspect he is behind a series of gruesome "driller killer" murders. It was a taut, tense and entertaining up to the point of the reveal of the mcguffin. It was so ridiculous that I couldn't stop laughing. It turned a decent thriller into pure camp and shlock. I have to say that Aaron Kwok does put on an electrifying performance especially when he just loses it at the end. He genuinely looked fucking scary! The child actor did a have creepy vibe throughout but I just couldn't take it seriously during the last half hour or so. Such a shame as it showed promise too. The opening sequence with old Shaw Brothers stalwart Chen Kuan-tai was awesome.

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Been catching up on the entire YOUNG AND DANGEROUS series and the various spin offs & reboots such as PORTLAND STREET, LEGENDARY TAI FEI, GOODBYE MR. COOL & RELOADED. I remember this is where it all began for me as far as getting into the triad/jianghu genre. So many memorable characters. Loved Anthony Wong during this period with the greasy long hair and chronic nose picking, Jordan Chan was cool as was Sandra Ng as '13', Karen Mok was my favorite female character as the priest's wayward daughter, Roy Cheung was great as the detestable villain who kept reppearing after getting killed off for the umpteenth time & Sonny Chiba made an appearance looking all pimp. Ekin Cheng is the central figure but I didn't care for him and his gf, Shu Qi was so fucking annoying in this too. Took me a long time to warm up to Shu Qi because of her role in this series lol.

Anyway, I'm also going to try and check out the directorial debut of Chinese filmmaker, Bai Yue with her movie, THE CROSSING sometime this week as it's playing locally. Heard some good buzz about it on the festival circuit, so let's see if it lives up to the hype.

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As mentioned went to check Bai Xue's THE CROSSING last weekend and I put it up there with Jia Zhangke's ASH IS PUREST WHITE as my most memorable movies so far early in 2019. A fine debut by director, Bai Xue and although parts felt a bit like a student indie film, she did an exemplary job of bringing the angst and frustration of teen life to the screen. A lot of credit goes to fine acting of newcomer, Huang Yao. She delivers a superbly nuanced portrayal of a girl caught between the moral impasse of low level criminality, a difficult family situation, nascent yearnings for romantic love and her desire to fit in as a normal teenager with her peers. The editing and cinematography was top notch as well. Highly recommended. Special shoutout for veteran HK character actor, Liu Kai-chi who plays Huang Yao's estranged father. It's a low key bit part with limited dialogue but you definitely feel his presence here.

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I caught Lee Kwok-laap's "girls with guns" sequel to STING OF THE SCORPION titled MURDERS MADE TO ORDER. It leaves off with Maggie Siu's character being released from a psychiatric prison ward and working deep cover for Lester Chan to infiltrate a female assassin ring led by Waise Lee. The entire ordeal with Lester Chan in the first movie is pretty much glossed over for convenience sake to tell this story and it doesn't make sense at all. This flick is totally disjointed as the story veers off into ridiculous arcs and it's just plain lazy with roughly a quarter of the film being just endless flashbacks from the first. There are several scenes which are just blatant rip offs of LA FEMME NIKITA including the opening sequence set in an Indian restaurant with an all too brief cameo by Cynthia Khan. Another copycat scene where Maggie Siu dons a headset to receive further instructions from her handler while using a suppressed Steyr AUG just like Anne Parillaud in her famous scene in Venice. Benny Chan plays a third wheel who falls in love with Maggie and ends up making a fateful decision during the finale. Just a mess of movie and lazy filmmaking.

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I heard and read a lot of negative shit about the BIRTH OF THE DRAGON, although to be fair I also heard some positives about Phillip Ng's portrayal of Bruce. A lot of the negativity stems from the fact the movie is basically a bait and switch and really doesn't focus on Bruce's battle with Wong Jack Man but instead centers around one of Bruce's fictional students. Well, I decided to check this out for myself and what a mistake! I couldn't make it past the half hour mark before I shut this off. What a fucking travesty and injustice to the memory of Bruce. No wonder Shannon Lee felt compelled to publicly rebuke this movie:

“A great number of you have written to me with your concerns about Birth of the Dragon. I share your concerns and want to make it clear that Birth of the Dragon was made without my family's consent or involvement. I have seen the film (out of necessity alone) and, in my opinion and the opinions of many (see link), this film is a travesty on many levels. I think this film is a step backward for Asians in film not to mention that the portrayal of Bruce Lee is inaccurate.”

Not absolving the Lee estate or Shannon as they've proven to be money grubbing opportunists but guess the backlash was so great that even they had to come out against it. Anyway back to the flick, Phillip Ng did a decent job emulating Bruce's mannerisms and he certainly has an impressive physique & background. But he's just hamstrung by the ludicrous screenplay. He comes off as a total jerk and egomaniac & Wong Jack Man is the sympathetic character. But the biggest problem is both Bruce and Jack Man take a backseat to some goofy gweilo and his romantic interest in some FOB chick. Who cares about this Steve McKee's romantic troubles? I sure the hell didn't. Avoid at all cost!

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Danger Pays (危いことならéŠã«ãªã‚‹) (Japan, 1962) [DVD] - 1.5/5
Nerve wrecking idiot comedy with Joe Shishido, Hiroyuki Nagato and Kí´jirí´ Kusanagi goofing around after stolen money and master counterfeiter. Production design and Shishido's car are admittedly cool.

Organized Crime 2 (続組織暴力) (Japan, 1967) [TV] - 4/5
Superb proto-jitsuroku type yakuza film by Junya Sato. Fumio Watanabe (in his best role) is a wonderfully untypical crime boss who says he hates the yakuza but acts like one, actually cares for his men, and is the first one to barge into a fist fight when rivals come knocking on the door. Powerful political figure Eijiro Yanagi becomes his consultant, after which short tempered boss Ryuhei Uchida starts feeling the fire under his arse, especially after Watanabe takes a Ginza gambling joint from Chicago mafia with the assistance of machine gun happy lone wolf Noboru Ando. Add Tetsuro Tanba, Hideo Murota and Rinichi Yamamoto (wonderfully cast against type) as a detective squad in desperate battle against red tape while trying to bring the gangs down. The story is fictional, but the film feels like a jitsuroku movie. Like Fukasaku in many of his films, Sato draws an entire underworld map with cops, gangsters and political players all placed on the chess table. The film is talkative, but never boring, feels extremely matter of fact.



Organized Crime: Loyalty Offering Brothers (組織暴力 兄弟盃) (Japan, 1969) [DVD] - 3/5
Back-from-WWII hoodlum Sugawara and street crook Ando team up and form a gang. Fairly routine first half, after which both Ando and Sugawara mature into genuine psychopaths. The film turns correspondingly ultra-violent. Ando especially pulls no stops at torturing info out of his victims in scenes that would be at home in a Teruo Ishii film. The climatic shootout is just as bloody. Good stuff. Director Junya Sato parallels the brutality with Japan's post-war social and political situation, though the allegory could be stronger. The large scale depiction of underworld dynamics that made Organized Crime 2 so impressive is mostly absent here. The films are only related in thematic and marketing sense.

Outlaw Corps (ごろつき部隊) (Japan, 1969) [TV] - 3/5
Toei's Where Eagles Dare / The Dirty Dozen mash-up with a squad of lifetime and death row prisoners (Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Oki and a whole load of regular Toei villains) sent behind enemy lines with sarge Bunta Sugawara to free Osman Yusuf (gets killed before he manages to say a single line) and another prisoner of war. The limited budget and locations pale in comparison to the Western counterparts, but the concept and characters are pretty cool and the gunplay action not as haphazard as in some 60s Toei films. One of the film's charms is that although the characters are turned into heroes, they still retain a bit of their bad guy grit throughout the film. Quite an entertaining time waster.



Outcast Man (日陰者) (Japan, 1972) [TV] - 3/5
Surprisingly good later day Kosaku Yamashita film with a beatiful depiction of honorable Tsuruta and his relationship with lover Kayo Matsuo. This kind of love based sentimentality was rare in the genre. Tsuruta's theme song a bit of a mismatch though, and the plot with evil Bin Amatsu building a factory and deceitful Kyosuke Matsuda being deceitful is thoroughly disposable (aside the fun fact that for once it's the good guys who want to blow up something!). The more soulful moments carry the film, however.

Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison (脱獄広島殺人囚) (Japan, 1974) [DVD] - 3.5/5
Anarchic, entertaining jitsuroku film about a jail breaker (excellent Hiroki Matsuka) supposedly based on a real person. Director Nakajima helmed several films on autopilot, but this one is sparkling with violent energy, groovy score and clever humour arising from irony. The performances (most notably Watase, Wakayama, Kaneko, Murota and Umemiya) are all good and the escape scenes even too exciting: you find yourself rooting for the bad guys!



Prison Island Riot (暴動島根刑務所) (Japan, 1975) [DVD] - 3/5
Unexceptional but entertaining prison (not jitsuroku, apparently) film packed with reliable Toei bad guys (Hiroki Matsukata, Nobuo Kaneko, Kunie Tanaka, Goro Ibuki). Also features enough naked men squatting to have kept the censors busier than many pink flicks. The main weakness is the usual one in the prison genre: with wild but superficial characters literally confined, there's a sense of something holding the film back. The film is at its most enjoyable when the guys are on the run.

Blow the Night (“BLOW THE NIGHT ! " 夜をぶっとばせ) (Japan, 1983) [DVD] - 4/5
Incoherent, yet fascinating youth docu-drama from Japan's golden era of educational problems. The film opens with live recording of The Street Sliders performing their rock hit "Masturbation" and then proceeds cut back and forth between two tales for the rest of the movie. The first features a band-affiliated girl exploring the ambivalent Tokyo in a strictly specified 24 hour timeframe in mid November, the other a transfer student (real delinquent Namie Takada) being a bully bitch in different, loosely specified place and timeframe spanning about one year. There's a bit of director Chusei Sone's own rock film Red Violation here, then there are youth doc style parts that actually resemble Shinji Somai's divine Taifu Club (1985). It's realistic and bleak with an unsympathetic lead, challenging partly because it's so confusingly told in places, and yet utterly fascinating in its documentation of youth, era, and location. It feels like the flawed work of a genius who wasn't in full control of his device. Sone produced this via his own company Film Workers as their first picture, following the thematically close but far more high flying sun tribe modernization The Young Ramblers (1981) for Toei Central.



Tokyo Vampire Hotel (東京ヴァンパイアホテル 映画版) (Japan, 2017) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Here goes Sion Sono down the Dario Argento path, not just in filming a Dracula film but quality wise too. Two vampire families are in war, and where else than in near future pop Tokyo. Too bad the bargain basement aesthetics are at constant odds with the pseudo epic mayhem. Even worse are the trigger happy vampires who are some kind of gothic Kyary Pamyu Pamyus and Dennis Rodmans, which is just embarrassing. Sono also has no idea how to make gunplay look good, chooses to have his main character (Ami Tomite) remain hysterical till the end, apes Scarface, steals from his own Bad Film, and smears it with some ugly CGI (though most of the splatter is practical). For some reason nudity is absent despite plentiful sexual content. The only positive: it's somewhat watchable in the train wreck sense. Oh, and this is the cut-together 142 min movie version; the original was a 6 hour Amazon Prime series.

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I caught Sadao Nakajima's RAPACIOUS JAILBREAKER (1974) earlier. Damn, Hirokl Matsukata is on point here. Don't think it was intended as comedy but that's the way I took it for the most part. I was cracking up at his give no fucks attitude even as the penal system keeps adding more years to his original sentence for every jailbreak and prison murder he commits. It starts off at 20 years for a murder and he can probably get out in half that time with good behavior but of course that would be too easy for Matsukata. Hilarious how Matsukata's unchecked libido gets him in trouble every time and add in some gory death scenes, unintentionally funny hijinks (the scene where he's hiding under samurai armor to evade the police in high pursuit is a high point) and this flick is good times.

[ropo1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ropo1]

Memory digging, apparently pretty bad, last ~1.5 month watches

Norweigan Wood (2010) 6.0/10
Never caught on to this when it was "a thing", but my intrest repeaked after watching Lee Chang-Dong's recent Burning. I mean it's not bad but comes with common flaws of current time filmmaking, very bland when it comes to using same type of shots over and over. That's pretty much what i remember about it.

Audition (1999) 10/10
Needs no introduction, masterpiece of the deranged

Colonel Panics (2016) 5.5/10
Wrote about this already in it's thread but summarized it's a bit over ambitious for it's budget with future promise.

Robotrix (1991) 7.0/10
Wacky "robotactioneer" about two female androids duking it out with an evil mad scientist also turned android. Many amazing scenes, I think it's the last of the "famous" CAT III films i yet had to watch, and there's indeed something special about late 80s/early 90s HK cinema.

Sex Rider: Wet Highway (1971) 6.0/10
Roman Porno as early as they come. The recurring theme here is jokes taken to far (which is something that tends to be in line with my kind of humour), well enjoyable but aquired tastes as always with niche comedy.

Liverleaf (2018) 7.0/10
I didn't quite get the hype of Eisuke Naito with his earlier Puzzle although it had some promise. Here's even more promise.. The movie starts of as a dark drama about teen bullying and then eventually flips a switch and turns into a ultraviolent humorous gore fest. I have to admit that I enjoy both "parts" and that's what makes it rather perplexing, it's like 2-in-1, I don't know.. i like it.. but it would have been better a singular focus.

One Cut of the Dead (2017) 7.5/10
Im impressed with the fact that this movie made first hate it and wonder what the fuck everyone is on about and why this is such a great movie, and along the ride made me change that opinion. The 2nd great japanese zombie movie in recent years, other one being Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (I didn't miss any did I???)

The Glacier Fox (1978) 6.5/10
Documentary about the northern fox where you get to follow a foxfamily, the filmmakers even take the liberty to name them up. Parts of what's interesting is to speculate what's real and what's staged, especially given the narration. There's for example a scene where a fox gets caught in a trap after a scene where the foxes scavenge a chickenhouse. I mean the fact that they film the scavenging part and also the fact that it's cinematic. You can always be cynical and say there's a high possibility most scenes where stages to make the movie more dramatic which is successful but not so ethical (not really judging, just an observation). I'm a fan of mondo (this is indeed not) in the vein of Mondo Cane, and this movie indeed pulls of the juxtaposition of beauty and tragedy.

[tetrapak Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tetrapak]

Blow the Night (“BLOW THE NIGHT ! " 夜をぶっとばせ) (Japan, 1983) [DVD] - 4/5
Incoherent, yet fascinating youth docu-drama from Japan's golden era of educational problems. The film opens with live recording of The Street Sliders performing their rock hit "Masturbation" and then proceeds cut back and forth between two tales for the rest of the movie. The first features a band-affiliated girl exploring the ambivalent Tokyo in a strictly specified 24 hour timeframe in mid November, the other a transfer student (real delinquent Namie Takada) being a bully bitch in different, loosely specified place and timeframe spanning about one year. There's a bit of director Chusei Sone's own rock film Red Violation here, then there are youth doc style parts that actually resemble Shinji Somai's divine Taifu Club (1985). It's realistic and bleak with an unsympathetic lead, challenging partly because it's so confusingly told in places, and yet utterly fascinating in its documentation of youth, era, and location. It feels like the flawed work of a genius who wasn't in full control of his device. Sone produced this via his own company Film Workers as their first picture, following the thematically close but far more high flying sun tribe modernization The Young Ramblers (1981) for Toei Central.

This is in my watchlist since forever... I always imagined it as a more "rock and roll" version of a Terrifying Girls' High School film ...

DVD TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6bFNSROpZk

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Caught a SBs double header earlier. Haven't seen these in years, so was wondering if a re-watch would change my initial impressions of these two films. First up was Lu Chin-ku's THE MASTER which melds typical vengeance tropes with the burgeoning kung fu comedy of the era. A shame that lead, Yuen Tak was mostly sidelined as a bit player and character actor for SBs & never gained the recognition of his more popular "7 little fortunes" brethren even though he went on to have a prolific and successful career as an action director and fight choreographer. He is highly entertaining in his fight sequences especially the finale with Wang Lung-wei. His slim and lanky build belies his lithe athletic ability. This flick is SBs attempt to capitalize on the success of the Jackie Chan films and it's not up to those levels especially the comedic moments but Yuen Tak is superb in terms of implementing tumbling and acrobatics in the fight scenes. The main issue with this flick is the entire training sequence is abruptly cut short and that's a major letdown. That's what made the JC films so fun. As mentioned, I have no complaints about the actual fight choreo scenes. They were uniformly very good and fun to watch. Recommended for the fight scenes and not the comedy.

The second flick was Patrick Yuen Ho-chuen's WHAT PRICE HONESTY? starring Jason Pai-paio. I think this is Jason's best role IMO. He is superb here as a forthright constable going against the corruption of the local constabulary & high officials. A lot of the themes in terms of societal injustice & the suffering of the common folk from other SBs movies are present here like KILLER CONSTABLE but with a heroic bloodshed twist. The ending with Sun Chien was just so poignant and full of pathos. Highly recommended!