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

[chazgower01]

Preparation for the Festival (Japan, 1975) fansub 4/5
Tateo is a teenage boy who dreams of one day writing screenplays. He lives on an Island village in Japan, where everyone knows everyone else. His mom looks after him dutifully, almost obsessively, while his dad, no longer lives at home, is always off half drunk with some other woman. His grandfather, isn't much better. Even though he sort of has a girlfriend, Ryoko; Tateo is still a virgin, as Ryoko just seems out of reach to him - she’s smarter, and more cultured and refined than him. 

One day a Club owner returns a girl to the village, Tamami, who had been a whore for the yakuza, but who is now somewhat mentally not all there. She used to say that one day she’d marry Tateo, and even in her unhinged state of mind still has a thing for him. She goes wandering down by the beach at night, where anyone that wants a go at her can have her. Her childlike singing in the night air is almost like a beacon to young Tateo...

A well made, entertaining film showing the cycle of life on a small island village in Japan, with some good dramatic performances all around. We see Tateo, as a young man, struggle with sex, his dysfunctional world, and trying to break free of the environment everyone there is a part of.

Miki Sugimoto, a young mother whose husband has gone to jail (and who has her husband’s brother now pawing her) plays Tamami’s sister-in-law, also seemingly trapped in this futureless island world. It’s a smaller part for her, and she doesn’t escape having to show her breasts in the movie, but her performance is surprisingly good. And as always, she looks amazingly beautiful. 

[Killer Meteor]

The Association (1975)

Incredibly sleazy Golden Harvest offering that tries to make up for its shortcomings with lots of nudity, including cinema's funkiest and funniest abortion scene! One-shot star Byong Yu left production early, resulting in a martial arts film that has no martial arts finale, just a slow and boring scene of the villains being arrested! Poor Angela Mao, Carter Hwang, Sammo Hung et al are horribly wasted. A low point for everyone involved.

4/10

[chazgower01]

Woman of the Afternoon: Incite! (Japan, 1979) fansub 4/5
I'm no expert of Roman Porno, but upon watching this, I know two things I'm pretty sure of: 1) there's no way they can all be as interestingly quirky as this film is and 2) I want to see more of Natsuko Yashiro. Which is good, because generally speaking, I'm not a fan of rape as a plot device, and really, I find Roman Porno to be neither Romantic nor pornographic, so... when you have a Roman Porno that features an actress that I find attractive, and talented with a story that's interesting and add some quirkiness, some revenge and some 70's style production... well... I'm all about that.

Still... the message of the movie seems to be: "Ladies, let your man fool around behind your back because it's a much more dangerous world outside your door!" Despite that, this is a wildly (and weirdly) entertaining movie within its genre.

[HungFist]

Woman of the Afternoon: Incite! (Japan, 1979) fansub 4/5

One my favorites as well. I love how it's a breezy romantic comedy for the first half, and then takes a U-turn to some Deliverance/Texas Chainsaw territory without any warning, and both halves still feel perfectly logical.

And it's gotta have the most politically incorrect scene I can recall when the guys are raping some women, and one of them says something funny and other other is like "I'm laughing so hard I can't get this done" (finish raping her).

The trailer is amazingly good, btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA9wt1lGtFE

Be warned though, director Nobuyuki Saito was mostly a miss. Incite! is easily his best film. Sukeban Mafia: Dirty Insult for example is awful. Wives' Rape Mansion (a marriage drama without raping, actually) and Captured Mother and Daughter (with a Haruhiko Arai script) are good, though.

[chazgower01]

Woman of the Afternoon: Incite! (Japan, 1979) fansub 4/5

One my favorites as well. I love how it's a breezy romantic comedy for the first half, and then takes a U-turn to some Deliverance/Texas Chainsaw territory without any warning, and both halves still feel perfectly logical.

And it's gotta have the most politically incorrect scene I can recall when the guys are raping some women, and one of them says something funny and other other is like "I'm laughing so hard I can't get this done" (finish raping her).

The trailer is amazingly good, btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA9wt1lGtFE

Be warned though, director Nobuyuki Saito was mostly a miss. Incite! is easily his best film. Sukeban Mafia: Dirty Insult for example is awful. Wives' Rape Mansion (a marriage drama without raping, actually) and Captured Mother and Daughter (with a Haruhiko Arai script) are good, though.

Yeah it really took me by surprise... and lots of little quirks too, like the little tin cannister with pieces of the girls' aborted baby's bones in it, and the movie the crazy guy watches who's wife left him for a younger man... it's Tarantino-ish but with an overdrive of carnality.

What about Natsuko Yashiro? She really struck me as a real actress with some depth doing this material (giving it even more credibility as a quality movie within that genre)... anything else with her you'd recommend.

I have some stuff of hers on my pile to watch - Rape! 13th Hour, Young Animals, In the Realm of Sex, etc.,... and imdb shows her as appearing in both Terrifying Girls School Animal Courage and School of the Holy Beast (one of fav nunsploitation movies) as Yûko Oribe? Is that correct?

And would love to find some of her Ama films, as I have a weird fondness for that whole kind of thing...

[HungFist]

What about Natsuko Yashiro? anything else with her you'd recommend.

Incite is probably her best movie. Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train (1977) is fun too. Star of David: Beauty Hunting is memorable but I don't remember which role she plays.

I've seen a bunch of those Nikkatsu ama films. Most put me to sleep, but I recall Lusty Ama: Stirred-Up Pot (色情海女　乱れ壺) (the second poster) being kinda alright. Btw, in the poster she looks exactly like my gf's friend... the gf nearly had a heart attack when I showed her that poster

I don't think she's in the last poster /film you posted, Female Diver's Secret Report: Ecstasy ((秘)海女レポート　淫絶)

As for the Toei roles, I have no recollection. But I'm sure she's in them, jmdb lists her as well.

[HungFist]

Women Who Do Not Divorce (離婚しない女) (Japan, 1986) [DVD] - 1.5/5
80s human relationship anguish with middle aged people crying and acting stupid. A Tatsumi Kumashiro drama about ordinary, dull people being ordinary and dull. A product of the 80s, an era when Japanese films attempted to capture life at its most unexceptional. Snowy Hokkaido settings add a bit to the film, thankfully.

Distant Justice (DISTANT JUSTICE 復讐は俺がやる) (Japan/USA, 1992) [TV] - 3/5
Vacationing cop Bunta Sugawara goes to USA and within 24 hours his car has been hijacked, daughter kidnapped and wife killed. And those are two unrelated incidents! George Kennedy is the useless police chief buddy, David Carradine a rotten politician in green knickers. Relatively good Toei V-Cinema by Toru Murakawa, who also helmed the slightly slicker New York Cop (1993), another one of Toei's mid 90s America ventures. The build up is slow, but the film is fun in a B-way with old man Sugawara (aged 59 here) punching and shooting people, occasional boobs, wooden acting and a score cheaper than a cheese burger. Sugawara's role is almost entirely in English and he does alright. He's trying too hard and doesn’t sound natural, but he remains quite understandable.

[Guro Taku]

Price of a Married Woman: Fragrant Desires (人妻の値段 匂いたつ欲望, 2001) [DVD] - 2.5/5
Starts like a standard Sato film with a lonely guy stealing garbage and then reading people's sex lives by sniffing and analyzing the waste - which leads to flashback sex scenes. Amusing as this is, the real story starts when his new neighbors introduce themselves to him and he becomes obsessed with the pretty wife next door. The poor girl is unhappy in her marriage and her husband can't get it up for her. When the neighbor stumbles home blind drunk one night he reveals to our friendly garbage sniffer that he's a chemist working on an aphrodisiac and gives our hero a sample to try. Surprisingly for a Sato film, this leads to a happy ending for everyone involved. Not exactly top-tier Sato and there's no reason it had to run 80 minutes instead of 60 other than the changed market demands, but surprisngly pleasant and entertaining enough.

Sex Up And Down (喜劇セックス攻防戦, 1972) [VOD] - 2.5/5
Episodic comedy about Shingo Yamashiro as a con man setting up a consulting firm for people's sexual problems. Some of the sketches work, some fall flat. My favorites were the stories about increasing Yoko Mihara's pussy pressure and the ninja antics of the Peeping Tom Association. The retarded canned laughter that ended each episode got on my nerves after a while, though.

[chazgower01]

Peking Opera Blues (Hong Kong, 1986) dvd 4/5
Still not convinced this is as great as some make it out to be, it is still an important and fun piece of work that ranks up there with Tsui Hark's best (For the record: I LOVE Sally Yeh and Hark's 'Shanghai Blues' is one of my favorite Hong Kong movies). It mixes politics with comedy and action, while letting three female leads effectively dictate all of the events of the movie. All of this while incorporating Peking Opera and the Tsui Hark method of movie mayhem. It's not that any of this hasn't been done before - it's just that he crams it ALL into one movie and somehow ties it all together. The ending... is a problem to me (the rooftop ending I mean), as it just didn't... you suspend a great deal of belief at times in this movie, sort of hoping the ending gives a LITTLE more grounding, but...

Brigette Lin is a rebel, but also the daughter, dressed as a boy (to more effectively get around) of a ruling general. Sally Yeh is the daughter of a Peking Opera boss that berates her for TRYING to be in the show ("Only men can be women!), and Cherie Chung is a street thief trying to recover her stolen jewelry. In theory, each of these is supposed to represent a different aspect of China from the time (1920's), but for me the fun is just in how they interact with each other. Even though we get a couple of guys who help out - their role is strictly as sidekicks. It's all about the three female leads. 

[chazgower01]

In the Realm of Sex (Japan, 1977) fansub 3.5/5
Meant to be a parody of the Roman Porno genre, it has its moments to be sure, but for me, the best part of it is seeing the tables turned on the men perpetrating most of these acts. Natsuko Yoshiro (in the most serious story) is the captive of a rope freak that has a rare ravenous fish - and Naomi Tani, well known in the genre for taking punishment, shows a fan who kidnaps her that she's just as adept at dishing it out. Beyond that, it's a lot of gags built around poop, pee, a fart, a fat lady, a cat... hmmm. It even has a dark ending for one of the stories and a clever twist for another. Maybe if I watch a few more of these, some of the jokes will hit home a little bit better, but... I figure it's tough to parody something that's already a bit repetitiously incestuous in its presentation. 

[chazgower01]

Crystal Hunt (Hong Kong, 1991) fansub 3/5
This movie is a hoot. Its plot is silly and all over the place, its got tons of over acting in it, BUT its got some great fights and is a LOT of fun!

Carrie Ng is a rich lady (even though she has plastic patio furniture). Her dad is sick and only ‘Crystal Gold God’ can save him. He doesn’t want his daughter searching for it though, but of course, she does. Ken Lo is her bodyguard or something and... normally his ‘look’, which changes from film to film doesn’t distract me, but this flat top variation just looks ridiculous. The bad guys want Crystal Gold God too, led by a white dude (MMA fighter John Salvitti) and a black dude, both who prove that the Chinese aren’t the only ones able to overact in this. There’s another big muscles black guy (Donnie Yen regular Michael Woods) who’s a part of the gang, who’s even more entertaining to watch. 

Donnie Yen and Sibelle Hu are cops who have a platonic relationship, and go to bars and get in fights and somehow they get wind of the bad guys wanting Crystal Gold God, and then the archeologist who knows about it disappears (the bad guys take him) and his daughter is in danger (Takajo Fujimi), and everything follows a course of overact, then fight, overact, then fight, etc. 

But it’s not acting we watch this for, it IS the fighting - and there’s lots of it. In fact, for every 5 minutes we get to see Donnie Yen and Sibelle Hu yapping about inconsequential nonsense, we get an equal 5 minutes of them fighting. Sometimes with people who have no part of the plot. EVERYBODY fights. Constantly. It's pretty awesome in that.

Wait, where was I? Does it matter? No. The plot is a mess, the acting is a mess, but I couldn’t turn this off if I wanted to. The late 80’s/early 90's fashion is a riot with lots of pastel colors and loose fitting suits, and one guy who looks like he just stepped out of a Milli Vanilli video. Takajo Fujimi takes a beating but keeps jumping back into the fight... Fights, shotguns, chases... non-stop action. The fight leading up to the finale is great (I thought it WAS the finale until everyone retreated) and then the finale is even better.

So bad, it’s good.

[chazgower01]

A Serious Shock! Yes Madam! (1993) fansub 2.5/5
I wanted a copy of this movie really bad, because of the teaming up of Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima, and Cynthia Khan. Even though I'd heard nothing but horrible reviews of it, I had to have it! And whereas I'm GLAD to have this in my collection, overall as a movie it's a bit disappointing. It has its moments, as you'd hope with a movie teaming up three big GWG/Fighting stars, but not nearly enough.

First the good: Cynthia Khan and Moon Lee are best friends on the police force. Cynthia is getting ready to marry Lawrence Ng and move to England. Then we find out he used to boink Moon Lee and she's not too happy about it. It leads to a major confrontation between the three of them one night and the events set in motion the rest of the movie (though there's bunch of added nonsense later). Moon Lee, against type, turns into a raving psycho (and later a calculating psycho) and Cynthia goes on the run from the cops.

Also against type, is Yukari Oshima who plays a butch (well that's normal), somewhat goofy car thief who helps Cynthia out and actually becomes the 'good person' and 'sympathetic character' of the movie. They even kind of give her a bit of a... sexual appeal and flirtatiousness! It's butch, for sure, but it's still interesting to see her this way. For me, all of these things were fine up through the half point of the movie. I've read lots of annoyance about Moon Lee's 'overacting' here (I didn't think so) and Cynthia Khan's 'wooden' acting (never understood the hate she gets - I like her). And even with Lawrence Ng, who I have a personal issue with (see below), I thought half way through this was a pretty good movie. A few fights, some serious drama, a MAJOR scene...

The next 30 minutes though, we get Waise Lee as Oshima's brother, leading a gang that turns against her; Eric Tsang showing up for some scenes as her foster father, numerous fights against puzzling gangs of young guys shooting guns, Moon Lee getting romantic (!) and then psycho again (though we only see the aftermath), and Oshima's nephew or son, who we don't actually SEE until the finale - not sure if it's the same kid or two different kids, and... I didn't make ANY of that up! They really added all that! I was more annoyed than confused... I THINK. Anyway...

So in the last ten minutes, you'd think it'd somehow simply wrap this up by having these three duke it out... and they DO, it's just that... they film it wrong (brief flashes, no stationary camera) and intermix it with the stupid drama we don't really care about. Oshima cares about her script added son more than kicking ass? Now THAT'S poor writing!

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE having this movie. Personally, I'll watch it again just because I love these type of movies and I love these (in particular) actresses shooting guns and kicking butt. It just could've been a whole lot better.

Added note: Lawrence Ng. Ugh. This clown wants to renounce his Category III past and talk about how he was embarrassed to do some of those films?? Here's a guy that got to canoodle with Amy Yip, Rena Murakami AND Carrie Ng, all in the same movie! And he's now embarrassed to have done that? Doofus!

[HungFist]

Survey Map of a Paradise Lost (ハードフォーカス 盗聴＜ぬすみぎき) (Japan, 1988) - 2.5/5
A male reporter meets an underage call girl whose client is into videotaping all the perverted, often violent acts. Sex, VHS tapes, AIDS, slight cyberpunk vibe, and a speech about how beautiful idol Yukiko Okada looked when she lied in a pool of blood on the street after her suicide (1986). You wish the film was longer; the carnal action takes half of the otherwise interesting 64 minutes, though it must be said the twisted sex scenes are surprisingly watchable, and so is the cute-as-hell Rio Yanagawa.

The Shinjuku Love Story (新宿純愛物語) (Japan, 1987) [TV] – 3/5
If you only saw the title, you wouldn't know about the giant machine gun! It's one of the many bits the film seems to lift from Aliens! But there is a better comparison piece than Aliens. In one scene the runaway teen lovers cross a Top Gun billboard. This film is the Japanese youth action equivalent of Top Gun, turbo charged celluloid 80s helmed by pop film specialist Hiroyuki Nasu (Be-bop High School, Lesbians in Uniforms). I initially dismissed Nasu as a hack, but his consistent overblown pop aesthetics and occasionally successful films support a re-evaluation. There are bikes, machine guns, flame throwers, cats, gangsters, high school girls, pop music and idol Toru Nakamura. Not quite as inventive as the first few Be-bop films, and held back by the evident restraint in the violence department (the hero rarely, if ever, aims to kill), but it's still an enjoyable a cinematic personification of the era, like much of Nasu's body of work.

[Killer Meteor]

REVENGE OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER (1982)

Amusing South Korean imitation of you-know-what, starring one Johnny Chan. Much of the plot revolves around his acupuncture skills rather then his drunken boxing, suggesting the latter was bolted onto an existing script. Eagle Han Ying is on hand as a cop tracking the Drunken Master down, whilst Han is purused by a girl he raped and is now in love with him! Sheesh! Blood ninjas, fake vampires, fake lepers and funky music...this is a lot more fun then the usual Godfrey Ho pick-ups, without actually being any good.

5/10

[Guro Taku]

The Wandering Earth (流浪地球) (China, 2019) [netflix] - 2/5
The Chinese version of an Roland Emmerich sci-fi disaster flick.

Lolita Vibrator Torture (ロリータ・バイブ責め) (Japan, 1987) [DVD] - 4/5
An essential exploitation flick with plenty of thematic aspects and ideas to chew on if you can look past the surface level gross-outs.

[chazgower01]

Tough Beauty and Sloppy Slop (Hong Kong, 1995) vcd 3/5
A decently entertaining Hong Kong action flick with Yuen Biao and Cynthia Khan paying homage to Jackie Chan’s Supercop, with Khan going undercover in jail to befriend the wife of a drug kingpin and Biao breaking them out and joining into the operation.

Cynthia Khan plays her usual sexless no nonsense pretty cop who just so happens to be able to kick your butt. Yuen Biao as her new partner, butts heads with her throughout. Some actor named Monsour Del Rosario (maybe his uncle financed the movie) plays a mainland police contact, and he’s actually pretty good. Yuen Wah has a great guest appearance in the opening action sequence and Billy Chow is the big boss. Waise Lee actually isn’t bad as the top lieutenant to Billy Chow.

With all that star power you’d expect something maybe great but this Philippine cheapy had TWO directors with almost no experience (both long time Action Directors on movies), so what we get is entertaining within the realm of girls with guns movies made in the Philippines. Don’t get me wrong, it’s actually pretty funny at times and has a ton of action (the final showdown between Khan/Biao and Chow is great), it just could’ve used a better hand at guiding it all.

Update: Just found out from a forum member of another site that Monsour del Rosario is a popular star in Filipino films. He's also the country's taekwondo ambassador. Check him out in Bloodfist 2 and Aan: Men at Work!

[chazgower01]

Teppanaki (Hong Kong, 1984) vhs 2.5/5
Mid-80’s Michael Hui comedy about a hen-pecked husband (his wife is demanding AND large) who works for her abusive shotgun carrying father in his restaurant. He’s just a kitchen hand, but occasionally, when the step dad isn’t there, he sneaks out and plays the chef for the creative table cooking when it’s a hot girl to try and pick her up. Into this comes Sally Yeh, and he falls head over heels for her…

It’s an 80’s Hong Kong comedy so expect gay jokes and... well, and a blackface scene that has to be seen to be believed. On THAT note, it doesn’t get much better when, after going to the Philippines, Sally Yeh gets kidnapped by Philippine jungle savages who are trying to rape her (toned down for comedy, but no less what is happening)! It’s all what you’d expect from most 80’s Hong Kong comedy’s: Moderately entertaining, with a reliance on star power, a few parodies of American movie scenes (Saturday Night Fever and Indian Jones) and a handful of crude jokes. Me, I think a tennis racket busted over someone’s head is funny, so I laughed at times throughout.

I’m pretty sure he smacks a dog with a frying pan near the end of this, which got me a little annoyed - the abuse towards animals in these Chinese movies is just… not cool. I DIDN’T feel the same way about him smacking his wife (not once, but twice) or her friend just moments earlier because… he didn’t REALLY smack them. It’s acting. There’s a difference.

[chazgower01]

Five Deadly Venoms (Hong Kong, 1978) dvd 4/5
I didn’t grow up around a lot of martial arts movie fans and I really didn’t start reading a lot about the films until the early 90’s, so it took me by surprise at first how highly regarded this movie was. I always remembered it as, “They killed my favorite character half way through it!” 

But I very clearly see why it’s so highly regarded - it’s just a cool concept… and once you get past figuring out who is who and what they’re up to, the lines become pretty clearly drawn, and it’s almost like a superhero vs super villain movie.  Still… if the ‘Snake’ doesn’t change sides at the last minute (and I’m still not 100% sure why ‘Scorpion’ wants him dead - especially right then and there), then Yang and the ‘Gecko/Lizard (Phillip Kwok)’ might not win out.

Best not to over analyze it. Amazing sets, amazing costumes, amazing ‘gimmicks/weapons’, some cool fights and many memorable visuals. Just a fun movie. Only recently realized that’s Dick Wei, in one of his early roles, in heavy makeup at the beginning of the movie as the dying Master of the Venom House!

[chazgower01]

Come Drink With Me (Hong Kong, 1966) dvd 4.5/5
A movie that inspired so much of what would follow it, I've heard it described as slow and outdated... Personally, I think it looks less slow and outdated than some of Jackie Chan's early movies. There are a few of the sword battles that... could've been filmed better, sure, but at the time there wasn't much to influence it. And the ones that rock, to me, are fantastic and hold up well. The characters are great, and it made a star of Cheng Pei-Pei (as Golden Swallow) and Yueh Hua (as the Drunken beggar).

Cheng Pei-Pei is a lot of fun to watch, with her great scowl - how can you be so beautiful and fierce looking at the same time? It had to seem a bit edgy in the day as she takes the lead in the movie through most of it, but she certainly delivers. I want to say that the movie suffers in the second half as it moves away from Golden Swallow's story (and there are some strange choices), but Yueh Hua's Drunken Beggar is a pretty cool character as well, and it presented some of the better surprises in the story. As with any great movie, the bad guys are equally as memorable with Chen Hung-Lieh as the creepy, menacing Jade faced Tiger and Lee Wan-Chung as the Smiling Tiger. 

But the COOLEST cameo in the whole movie is... Mars! I was sitting there watching it and the Drunken Beggar has these kids singing and I think... "that one kid looks like what I would think Mars would've looked like at that age". Checked on hkmdb.com and sure enough, it's him! In one of his (obviously) earliest roles!

Also of note are the sets and the locations. Man, is this a beautiful movie. The Shaolin Temple where the bad guys set up is gorgeous (as well as the surrounding area), and the Drunken Beggars hideout is cool as hell and makes a great place for some action in the movie. Very much deserves the praise it gets.

[HungFist]

Rafureshia (すけべ妻　夫の留守に) (Japan, 1995) – 1.5/5
Horny mother, neglected wife and brainwashed-by-sugar-daddy girl go the sexual liberation route in bizarre pink fashion. Too light and comedic, void of the sharp and nihilist socio-philosophical analysis of better Hisayasu Sato films. It's delightfully light on sex, though.

+ Sonny Chiba Special: Part 72 (2/2)

Shogun Iemitsu, Hikosa and Tasuke Issin (家光と彦左と一心太助 天下の一大事) (Japan, 1989) [TV] - 3/5
The 4078th adaptation of Tokugawa Iemitsu / Tokugawa Tadanaga story, a harmless but rather amusing TV movie. The charm of these retellings lies in altering the emphasis, details and interpretation (Fukasaku's Shogun's Samurai is the best known version in the West). The emphasis here is romantic/humoristic with fish seller Tasuke (Toru Nakamura) being the spitting image of Iemitsu (Nakamura again). The two end up switching roles - and girlfriends - to deceive the enemy. This was co-written by Norifumi Suzuki (but unlike many of his own films, this would offend absolutely no one) and directed by Toshio Masuda, with a great cast including Tomisaburo Wakayama, Takeo Chii, Isao Natsuyagi and of course Sonny Chiba as Yagyu Jubei. Chiba's role comes in the middle part of the film, lasts about 30 minutes and is mostly humoristic. It's rather enjoyable though hardly essential in his filmography, much like the film itself.

[chazgower01]

One Armed Swordsman (Hong Kong, 1967) dvd 4/5
When a servant dies protecting his master (Tien Fang), the master raises the servant’s son as his own. As a young man now (Jimmy Wang Yu) rubs some of the other students the wrong way and the master’s daughter chops his RIGHT arm off.

Left for dead, he’s found by (Lisa Chiao) who nurses him back to health and they fall in love. When some local punks rough up him and his wife, he vows to learn to fight (and wield a sword) with only his left hand. When the local punks, who are a part of a rival gang decide to start killing students of his former master… he has to intervene.

A classic of the genre, it’s not as action-packed as it could be, but still enjoyable.  And it looks beautiful.

Jimmy Wang Yu takes a mask from some kid at an outdoor fair, and with just a brief glimpse of the SIDE of the kid's face, I thought, “Is that Mars as a kid again?”

Yep.

[HungFist]

Shanghai Rhapsody (上海バンスキング) (Japan, 1984) [35mm] - 3/5
Enjoyable but overlong Shanghai musical set in the 30s and 40s. With Fukasaku's usual frantic pacing I was quite enjoying the film until at 45 minutes I realized there's still two thirds to go (most directors would 've taken 80 minutes to get that far). Plenty of singing and dancing in night club context, a gwailo gangster speaking English and Japanese in the same sentence, and a brief, hysterical Etsuko Shihomi karate scene (she has the film’s biggest supporting role as Chinese girl marrying a Japanese musician). For a while I though the film was drawing a naive depiction of Japanese-Chinese co-living until I realized the war just hadn't started yet. When it does, it’s Japanese soldiers executing children on the streets. Not what the target audiences expected perhaps, but this wouldn't be a Fukasaku film without that kind of brutal honesty.

Tokijiro Kutsukake: Lone Yakuza (沓掛時次郎 遊侠一匹) (Japan, 1966) [35mm] - 3.5/5
Tai Kato's adaptation of Shin Hasegawa’s often filmed book (at least 7 earlier films + TV versions). Kinnosuke Nakamura is a yakuza wanderer who is assigned to kill a man whose wife and son he had helped earlier. It’s basically ninkyo yakuza film with a matatabi touch and a bit of samurai film flavor. Masahiro Kakefuda and Naoyuki Suzuki's script is reportedly an improvement over the source material in some ways, adding more depth. Yet, it’s also one of Kato's more old fashioned emotional pictures, which is more to my liking anyway than the cold minimalism found in some of his other films. A classy story drawn in vivid colors, easily recommended.

[HungFist]

Three Brothers' Identical Dice (ゾロ目の三兄弟) (Japan, 1972) [TV] - 1.5/5
Akira Kobayashi, Tsunehiko Watase and Kunie Tanaka goof around and fight some bad yakuza at the end. None of it matters as far as the audience is concerned. The one bit of semi-originality: the "final walk" is done by car instead of foot. It's sad 60s ninkyo master Kosaku Yamashita sank to such dull and unimaginative programmer pictures in the 70s.

Violent Panic: The Big Crash (暴走パニック 大激突) (Japan, 1976) [35mm] - 4/5
My earlier review still stands (slightly updated below)

Violent Panic: The Big Crash (Japan, 1976) [DVD] - 4/5
An utterly insane action film that is one of Kinji Fukasaku's lesser known movies, despite featuring one of the greatest car chases of all time. Tsunehiko Watase is a bank robber trying to escape the country with his girlfriend while being chased by the police and his dead partner's maniac brother (Hideo Murota) who wants his share of the cash. Fort the first 60 min it's an enjoyable heist drama set to Toshiaki Tsushima's (Battle without Honor and Humanity) terrific score and with excellent turns by Watase and Sugimoto (her best performance was in the previous year's ATG film Preparation for a Festival), followed by an incredible 20 minute demolition derby car chase. Imagine The Blues Brothers directed by Fukasaku as an ultraviolent crime film and you'll get the idea. Also features a hilarious Takuza Kawatani performance as policeman whose girlfriend (Yayoi Watanabe) has constant trouble remaining faithful.

[chazgower01]

Inspector Wears Skirts (1988, Hong Kong) haiuken 3.5/5
First things first - Besides the opening, which is great and the finale which is great, and few minor things throughout - this is first and foremost a goofy comedy with some great action pieces in it. BUT....

Those action pieces include Sibelle Hu actually kicking some ass (and shooting guns), Cynthia Rothrock kicking ass (and shooting a BIG ass gun), Jackie Chan's Stunt Team doing some amazing work, and even some of the female recruits fighting and shooting, and naturally, some goofy comedy. Oh and lots of training sequences for the female police recruits. On top of that it has Stanley Fung, Kara Hui, Sandra Ng being her wonderfully goofy self, Ellen Chan as the cute girl, Billy Lau getting smacked around, a brief appearance by Bill Tung (as the police commissioner, natch!), the strangely entertaining Jeff Falcon, a cameo by Ricky Hui, Mars of course, Ken Lo... it's pretty entertaining stuff if you're a Hong Kong Film Fan.

The story: After helping some Shiek NOT get killed, he's still unhappy because one of the policeMEN touches his girlfriend, so a special female task force is commissioned to be trained and set up by super cop Sibelle Hu. Training and goofiness ensue. Then a great finale. Some great stunts, quality fighting, lots of shooting... lots of fun!

[chazgower01]

High Noon Ripper (1984, Japan) dvd 2/5
Man, talk about rising from the lower depths...
Director Yojiro Takita started his career in Japan making movies like a few of the 'Molester Train' series and a few of the "Groper Train' series and probably never thought he'd one day win an American Oscar for best Foreign Language Film ("Departures' in 2009)! He also made this slasher pinku in 1984 complete with cynical male characters, overly horny masturbating women, and naturally, the weird twist ending.
When a cocky crime scene photographer (specializing in graphic crime scene photos) and his female assistant suspect another photographer (based upon his photos) of being a local serial killer, they begin to investigate him. And that's about it. You get some fairly well-done sex and masturbation scenes, and Takita certainly shows visual creativity throughout, but... ultimately the tired old subject matter just doesn't allow him to rise above it.
Perfect example: In one scene we see a pretty girl get in the shower, and soap herself up and start masturbating. The killer comes in and the scene unfolds in an overly obvious homage to the shower scene in Hitchcock's 'Psycho'. Afterward, the hero comes in and even though the girl, who is obviously dying, reaches her hand out to him, he decides getting the pictures of the crime scene is more important! (How do you root for THAT guy?)

If you'd told me he made this in college I would've been moderately impressed, but I do give him points for not sleepwalking through it. Plus the fact that the work he was probably getting at the time was not of the best literary quality (his next film was 'Sexy Timetrip Ninjas') and you can see that even Oscar winning directors have to start somewhere.

Note: There's also a scene where... it sure looks like full frontal nudity to me (taboo in Japan at the time)... maybe the running water counts as distorting the view? https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FsSkEZBGvnM/ ... 7%2BAM.png