What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[luckystars]

Knockabout: 3/5

Yuen Biao's training scenes were very impressive and the final fight scene in particular had suitably good choreography, but overall the film is standard '70s martial arts fare with lame comedy, seen it all before.

I disagree. The tragicomedy element to the story elevates the film, as does Sammo's teasing cameo introduction of his character. Sammo allows Yuen Biao to shine for the first half of the film, then steps up to joint billing as the film turns to a savage revenge story. He juggles a fine balance of comedy and showboating physical feats, with mercilessly brutal acts of violence. Amazing, and a 4.5/5 genre classic.

[Markgway]

The finale of Knockabout is top-notch.

[grim_tales]

The Emperor and the Assassin: 3.5/5

Handsome period epic, telling a different version of the same story as Hero (the Yimou one). It's long so seems to drag a bit at times and is more of a drama movie, but the acting is excellent, particularly Gong Li's and the assassin's characters. Gong Li looks gorgeous in it BTW
This film is more critical of some of the King's tyrannical methods, than Hero was, IMO.

[Heka]

The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japan, 1979) - 4/5
I've noticed a big switch in my movie taste towards movies from Japan. Movies like The Man Who Stole the Sun only make this more apparent. Interestingly this movie was written by Leonard Schrader. The movie is about a high school science teacher who decides to build a Nuke just for the fun of it. The scene where a happy teacher plays football with a small nuclear bomb is beyond awesome. Funnily enough one of my many interests are nukes. The device the teacher built in the movie was of the Fat Man design. Well enough about that, back to the movie. The movie is a satire about nuclear weapons. Nobody likes 'em but everybody want them. Just don't think the movie has a preachy political message. The movie is a very fun watch. One minor complaint is that the movie could have used a more memorable soundtrack.

If you want to see more a film about nuclear explosions without any "annoying" plot try Trinity and Beyond. A film with cold war archive footage of nuclear explosions with a classical music soundtrack. Visually, one of the most beautiful movies I've seen. I'm one of the few people you can ask "Which is your favorite nuclear test/cloud". I really like Oak (8,9MT) from 1958. http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Ht1oak3.jpg

Karate for Life (Japan, 1977) - 2,5/5
1 point for the beginning, 1 point for the end and 0,5 points for the middle part. Sonny Chiba is again playing his martial teacher Mas Oyama who has some interesting adventures to say the least. The IMDB page of this movie says that based on the true life story of master Oyama . The movie has a strong start and finish but the middle part is a little draggy. If the middle part was a movie of it's own it could be called "corny life advice by Sonny Chiba". I also happen to think this movie is very racist towards Japanese people. Sonny Chiba can quite easily beat 101 Japanese karate players who most were black belts but he has big trouble against one fat Yank who's wearing spandex. It may be that I'm reading too much into this movie.

[HungFist]

Redline (Japan, 2009) – 3/5
An entertaining but noisy racing anime. It’s got speed, but also too much George Lucas style mayhem in its action scenes. More pure racing, less explosions, please. Neverthless, it’s a fun ride and noteworthy for being fully hand drawn alone. Yu Aoi - (voice) cast against type as a big breasted female racer – is almost unrecognizable in her role.

Karate for Life (Japan, 1977) – 3.5/5
- "You’ll have to fight my students, all 100 of them!"
- "That suits me just fine, as long as you’ll be number 101!"

Could a film open any better? Hell no! The final installment in the Oyama trilogy features some of the best Sonny Chiba mayhem in its lengthy opening scene. The film itself is the weakest in the trio – but not weak. Oyama is set against the most terrifying of all bests – US wrestlers, in fixed matches. Only he can’t lose! The somewhat lesser storyline doesn’t let Chiba lose on gangster ass as often as it should, but Hideo Murota (as “Great Yamashita”) makes one hellava cool fella, and Chiba is his usual charismatic self. Wrestling matches, while no match to karate fighting, provide solid camp fun. True fighting does comeback in the film’s finale, which provides perhaps the best Chiba vs. Ishibashi duel of all time. "There’s no end to my way of karate!". Perhaps so, but Karate for Life was the last of Chiba’s pure karate films. It was the end of a glorious era of action entertainment!

[HungFist]

The Killing Machine (Japan, 1975) 4/5
Only months before portraying his real life master Masutatsu Oyama in the Karate Trilogy, Chiba starred as Oyama’s rival Doshin So, the founder of Shaolin Karate, in yet another historically “accurate” biopic. Helmed yakuza/pinky violence director Norifumi Suzuki just prior to his major mainstream streak with Truck Yaro (1975-1979), it’s one Chiba’s most story driven karate films. Set in the slums of post WWII Japan, the film is quite heavy on drama and “social commentary”, including crying children and ill fated women (the relatively talent free Yutaka Nakajima in a risky dramatic role). Chiba himself, as expected, overcomes hardships by breaking skulls and sending evil doers to hell. Strong action scenes, solid storyline, and Chiba’s charisma – this time with a few more acting moments than usual – make it one of Chiba’s best karate films.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Babycart in Peril (Japan, 1973) – 4.5/5
The 4th installment in the all time greatest samurai saga sets Ogami Itto against tattooed (and topless) female assassin. Of course, evil forces shall not rest either, with the traitorous Shadow Yaguy clan constantly sending new ninja assassins after Itto. The ambush at the shire remains one of the most brutal ninja-slaughters ever – still shockingly violent 40 years it was shot. Yet, in the midst of all bloodshed the film is almost beautiful – and packed with nostalgic movie magic as Itto travels through the country sides of ancient Japan. 1970’s rock-samurai cinema at its best.

[Heka]

Hana & Alice (Japan, 2004) – 4/5
A strange movie staring Yū Aoi and Anne Suzuki. This movie is about two girls who trick a boy from their high school that he used to be their boyfriend before a accident that caused him amnesia. The story isn't that important. More important is the atmosphere of youth that radiates from this movie. The soundtrack sounds like it was composed by Berserk composer Susumu Hirasawa (a musical joke that nobody's going to get). The music is sometimes quite strange ranging from ambient pieces to church music. There's one epic piece that's played in a magnificent idol audition scene. This movie is not for ADHD kids. Also cute Japanese high school girls.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Babycart in Peril (Japan, 1973) – 3/5
It was good for me to see a film like this that has clearly influenced anime like Samurai Champloo and Ninja Scroll. I didn't like the beginning of the movie with frankly a ridiculous scene with the cub (a very young boy) running around in feudal Japan. The boy looks neither menacing nor cool. Movies like this rise and fall with the main character. I like my heroes/anti-heroes with a bigger dose of cool and little less stone face (The Lone wolf is very much the latter). The action in the movie is solid.

[HungFist]

Hana & Alice (Japan, 2004) – 4/5
Iwai’s crowd pleaser balances on borderline pretentious thanks to its soundtrack, but is also a visual feast with excellent cinematography by one of the world’s best cinematographers, Noboru Shinoda. The biggest thanks, however, goes to the cast. The absolutely charming Anne Suzuki starts in her best role – and fares quite well against the even lovelier and admittedly far more talented Yu Aoi. Supporting cast features nice cameos and quick appearances by Hiroshi Abe, and Ryoko Hirosue, and Ayumi Ito – 8 years after her starring role in Swallowtail Butterfly.

The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japan, 1979) – 4.5/5
Misfit junior high school teacher steals plutonium from a nuclear power plant and starts building his own A-bomb. Legendary director Kazuhiko Hasegawa’s cult satire, scripted by Paul Schrader’s brother Leonard Schrader, is one of the most interesting movies of the 1970’s. Pop star Kenji Sawada stars as a teacher who threatens to destroy Tokyo if the government doesn’t invite The Rolling Stones to Japan. Tough guy Bunta Sugawara is sent to chase him down. While the action packed ending could perhaps do with less exaggeration, the film is unforgettable. The soundtrack is amazing and there's a chunk of iconic scenes, including the ones with Sawada walking the streets of Tokyo with a ticking A-bomb in his bag.


- trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLWDtxGhyCA
- soundtrack 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWZRjTFYDk
- soundtrack 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaRCdHqNjek#t=111s

Lone Wolf and Cub: Babycart in Peril (Japan, 1973) – 3/5

[gasteropod]

Survive Style 5+ - 3/5

Amusing and odd, but dragged on a bit. I loved the advertising lady's ideas

[Markgway]

Coward Bastard *

[Heka]

All about Lily Chou Chou (Japan, 2001) – 3/5
If Japanese high school sucks this much, I wonder why there aren't any school shooters? I can see why this movie appeals to the art crowd since it's beautifully shot and the narrative is very sporadic. The music is eloquently weaved into the story and the topic is very good for milking quality drama. Well than, why don't I like this movie as much as Swallowtail Butterfly from the same director (Shunji Iwai)? The characters were too one dimensional for my taste. We have the submissive male lead, the bad boy who was mentally broken by his family life and so forth. Here I have to emphasize that this is just my opinion but in a drama I want see interesting characters. The interactions between the characters and the characters itself are what make the drama interesting/entertaining. At time All about Lily Chou Chou feel like some artistic masturbation without any substance. Kinda like The Thin Red Line (1998) but not nearly as bad.

Female Convict 701: Scorpion (Japan, 1972) - 4/5
I don't know what this tells of my character when I regard a 70s pink film better than a pompous art film that the critics seem to love. The film had a nice vendetta story which was seasoned with massive amounts of boob shots and a softcore lesbian scene. What more can a man ask for? The movie is about a female prisoner who has a grudge against a man who deceived her. In the course of the move she has to endure all sorts of hell in order to carry out her revenge against that man. The movie is full of good old 70s pink titillation and one should not view it with a too serious state of mind. Those who have seen Love Exposure might recognize the scorpion character.

Outrage (Japan, 2010) - 4,5/5
Nice suits, nice car, nice guns and a nice movie. A terrific Yakuza film by Takeshi Kitano. There's very little "fat" in this movie and it concentrates on the essentials of being in a highly hierarchical system like the Yakuza. These things are violence and power. One can successfully argue that the pattern of men in fine suits entering a room and beating or killing somebody and then leaving is used a couple of time too often. This still didn't hamper my enjoyment of the movie. Kitano plays a Yakuza tough guy who's on his way to his sunset. I also liked the scheming character Ryo Kase played. I found the black humor in the film very funny.

[HungFist]

Outrage (Japan, 2010) – 3.5/5
Kitano’s return to yakuza cinema pales in comparison to his 90’s classics, but marks major improvement over his more recent output. The ultra-cool, stone cold film is yakuza cinema at its purest – violence, black cars, black suits, and terrific minimalist black humor – to the extent of almost becoming genre satire. The humanism of Kitano’s older films is missing here – as is most of the storyline. While complicated and challenging the audiences with the sheer amount of characters (“They’re all bad guys”, as the tagline states) the film isn’t much more than a repetitive series of violent yakuza encounters. That’s not necessarily a bad thing when executed with such slickness.

All About Lily Chou Chou (Japan, 2001) – 5/5
Iwai’s pioneer work in digital cinematography – and one of the best movies of the 2000’s. The unusual production started from Faye Wong inspiration, went through real time Internet novel phase where Iwai communicated with readers online, and eventually found cinematic form that combined all this. Built on an excellent and challenging screenplay that requires attention from the viewer as it unfolds the story in non-chronological order and changes main character a few times, supported by a terrific soundtrack by Takeshi Kobayashi and the fictional singer Lily Chou Chou (Salyu), it’s also one of the visually best looking movies of all time. Noboru Shinoda’s cinematography is at its best when handheld – these parts best demonstrate the advantages of digital over film in removing the “cinematic lens” between the audience and the characters. The cast features Hayato Ichihara before he became known as the worst actor in Japan, Yu Aoi before she became known as one of the best actresses in Japan, and many others, including Ayumi Ito and the stunning Miwako Ichikawa (Mikako Ichikawa’s sister) in the Okinawa episode, which is the most amazing part in the film.

[HungFist]

Oldboy (South-Korea, 2003) – 5/5
Everything said already. None of the followers managed to mix audio-visual perfection, delirious humor, and terrific performances with the same level of success. The screenplay has couple of weak spots with hypnosis and unfolding the plot, but they can easily be ignored as the rest is some of the best cinema ever made.

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Japan, 1972) – 4/5
Possibly the best women in prison film of all time, director Shunya Ito’s debut movie is a rare clash of exploitation and exceptional audio-visual skill. It comes with all the genre raunchiness from sadistic over-acting guards (classic pinky violence trio Fumio Watanabe, Hideo Murora & Shinzo Hotta) to graphic violence, gratuitous shower scenes, and the longest hole digging episode in the history of cinema. It also comes with stunning surreal visuals (a long, theatrical flashback scene where sets are build “on the fly” being the standout), terrific soundtrack, and an excellent leading performance by Meiko Kaji – an actress who is way above the genre standards. As her role is almost dialogue free – reportedly because she felt the manga source material was too obscene and ridiculous – she acts with her eyes. The film was followed by 5 sequels, Kaji returning to the first three of them.

[Markgway]

School on Fire ***½

[gasteropod]

Chaos (2000) - 4/5

Very clever, was a bit like watching Memento for the first time, I really liked the music.

[gasteropod]

Kakashi (2001) - 2.5/5

It started off all right and had some subtly creepy moments and mysterious atmosphere, but the second half lost it and showed director Norio Tsuruta's unfortunate habit of making things unintentionally funny (and I don't just mean the villagers' accents). Overall it wasn't bad though.

[APPINESS]

School on Fire ***½

Seems a bit generous. It was too melodramatic for me.

Hanzo the Razor ***

This is quite an odd little film with some unique ideas. I can’t imagine Columbo using Hanzo’s interrogation techniques, which involve using his specially trained penis. And you actually see some of the training scenes! It does feel strange, however, seeing Shintaro Katsu with his eyes open. I hope they will show the sequels on TV sometime soon.

[Keung]

Chanbara Beauty: The Movie - 3/5

[HungFist]

Chanbara Beauty: The Movie - 3/5

You finally watch something Japanese...

... and you go for the most worthless piece of trash

Hanzo the Razor ***

This is quite an odd little film with some unique ideas. I can’t imagine Columbo using Hanzo’s interrogation techniques, which involve using his specially trained penis. And you actually see some of the training scenes! It does feel strange, however, seeing Shintaro Katsu with his eyes open. I hope they will show the sequels on TV sometime soon.

The second film in the series is the best.

And yes, it's indeed strange when you see Katsu with his eye open for the first time. A bit like seeing Bunta Sugawara do physical comedy for the first time...

Check out Hitokiri. One of Gosha's best movies, also starring Katsu. Only available via France (Wild Side Video), though.

[Keung]

You finally watch something Japanese...

... and you go for the most worthless piece of trash

Haha, yep! It was £2 in HMV and the cover art was lovely. That's my excuse.

[HungFist]

You finally watch something Japanese...

... and you go for the most worthless piece of trash

Haha, yep! It was £2 in HMV and the cover art was lovely. That's my excuse.

I understand, I'm gonna buy Idol Bomb when I have more money, too

[Keung]

Woah! Nice.

I also picked up Tokyo Zombie after spotting Tadanobu Asano on the cover. Any good?

[HungFist]

I also picked up Tokyo Zombie for £2 as I noticed it had Tadanobu Asano in it. Any good?

Haven't seen it.

[HungFist]

I Saw the Devil (South Korea, 2010) – 3.5/5
The Good, The Bad, The Weird director Kim Jee-woon restores his reputation after the fore mentioned piece of useless plastic. The serial killer film I Saw the Devil ran into quite a bit of censorship problems, reportedly visiting the censor’s office half dozen times before admitted to theatrical distribution. Lead by two of the country’s biggest stars, pretty boy Lee Byung-hun and the show stealing Choi Min-sik, it’s a pitch black thriller balancing somewhere between 24 and Hostel. The purposefully minimal character development adds to the nihilism, but the film runs a bit too long for its own good. Nevertheless, it’s a strong, although unoriginal revenge fare – similar cold images and classical music are found in essentially every South Korean crime film these days.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972) – 4.5/5
Shunya Ito’s more grown up follow up to Female Prisoner Scorpion – a state of art exploitation film and one of the most artistically impressive Japanese movies of all time. The misleadingly titled film is, in fact, a surreal road movie with 7 prisoners escaping from the prison. Ito loads the film with non-stop visual feast and provocative images: rivers turn into blood, scenes are played against theater sets, Japan’s war crimes are brought up, and Meiko Kaji carries a cross like Jesus Christ. The stunningly beautiful Kaji, once again acting with her eyes (she only has two lines of dialogue), contributes several songs to the soundtrack. All in all, one of the best movies of the 1970’s.


edit: Kaji's terrific theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAG2sy7i6GM

[gasteropod]

The Eye 2 (2004) - 1/5

95 minutes of Shu Qi whining and the Pang brothers failing at making a horror film.