Bullets 'n' Babes

You should check out the USA Ring Two, that's also decent. Nakata directs it.

I know he did, and no thank you

Ring Two was awful. Need I remind you about the CGI deer scene?

I was going to add that scene sucked but except for that it was good, much better than the American Ring 1. Sure it's no Ringu but you shouldn't go in expecting that.

The Magnificent Ruffians (Hong Kong, 1979) – 2,5/5
Sometimes when watching a Chang Cheh / Venoms film you really start wondering how many pages the screenplay was. The Magnificent Ruffians is a good example of a film with loads of fighting and very little plot (even by genre standards). Feng Lu is Golden Sword, an arrogant martial arts master who wants to find a worthy opponent. He uses his restaurant to lure potential opponents. Hardly surpringly a bunch of venoms find their way into his diner... At 100 minutes the film is a bit too long. Action isn’t especially memorable appart from the excellent final fight. It also benefits from not being overly long like some venoms finales. A bit surprisingly blood and gore is not splattered all over the place; instead the film has a very easy going tone. Perhaps the success of Golden Harvest kung fu comedies in the late 70’s made the studio ask for something less dark.

Screenplay? What?

HungFist wrote:The Magnificent Ruffians (Hong Kong, 1979) – 2,5/5
Sometimes when watching a Chang Cheh / Venoms film you really start wondering how many pages the screenplay was. The Magnificent Ruffians is a good example of a film with loads of fighting and very little plot (even by genre standards). Feng Lu is Golden Sword, an arrogant martial arts master who wants to find a worthy opponent. He uses his restaurant to lure potential opponents. Hardly surpringly a bunch of venoms find their way into his diner... At 100 minutes the film is a bit too long. Action isn’t especially memorable appart from the excellent final fight. It also benefits from not being overly long like some venoms finales. A bit surprisingly blood and gore is not splattered all over the place; instead the film has a very easy going tone. Perhaps the success of Golden Harvest kung fu comedies in the late 70’s made the studio ask for something less dark.

Lu Feng, not Feng Lu

Delinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night Dreams (Japan, 1970) – 4/5
Stylish, Stray Cat Rock inspired girl gang film with Toei’s most adorable female star, Reiko Oshida, in the lead. Great cast and good music. The last third is slightly weaker than what comes before, but doesn’t really harm the film.

Delinquent Girl Boss: Tokyo Drifters (Japan, 1970) – 3/5
Feels like a quick cash in on the success of the original, although that’s not to say it’s a bad film. In fact it’s quite an enjoyable film, there just isn’t much going on storywise between the great reform school opening and violent ending.

Delinquent Girl Boss: Ballad of Yokohama Hoods (Japan, 1971) – 4/5
Yukie Kagawa steals the show as a chick biker gang leader dressed in black leather. Thoroughly entertaining film with an awesome finale full of motorcycles, machine guns and samurai swords.

Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (Japan, 1971) – 4/5
The best film in the series. Tsunehiko Watase returns to play the ”Ken Takakura character” after skipping the third film. Again the ending is great, even if something very similar has already been done in the series before.

Red Cliff 4/5

Kepted me entertained - but then again my standards have been lowered as the amount of drivel that comes out of HK these days is endless...

Was that a screener or something Toge?

Presumably the same boot as everyone else has been watching.

Ohh

The Daredevils (Hong Kong, 1979) – 2,5/5
Similar to The Magnificent Ruffians, only with slighly better story and too long final fight. Still enjoyable enough for a solid one time view. The dining scene is great too, reminds you of Cheh’s talent.

Bewitched (Hong Kong, 1981) – 3,5/5
More black magic horror from Kwei Chih-Hung. A Hong Kong man goes vacationing in Thailand (a scene of a topless Thai girl running on the beach in slow motion is included, yes) and comes back with something more serious than a sex disease. Boring opening but the rest is very effective, including some genuinely gruesome horror. From halfway on the film turns into one hell of a excorsism fest. Not much humour other than those ever so amusing monster bats. The pic could be considered a prequel to the legendary The Boxer’s Omen.

Sengoku Rock: Female Warriors (Japan, 1974) - 1,5/5
Hasebe's semi sequel to the Stray Cat Rock series, with the main difference being that this is a period film, meisaku roman production and, well, pretty much everything. Sountrack has it’s minor moments, but borrowals from Stray Cat Rock feel completely out of place. More mainstream oriented studios like Toho and Toei did similar films with less sex, better action, and far more success.

Iron Fisted Monk (Hong Kong, 1977) – 3/5
Sammo Hung’s directorial debut. Predictable storyline but stylish fight choreography and charismatic performance by Hung. Frankie Chan’s old school score adds to the classic feel. Some brutal rape scenes come as a surprise.

Flash Point: 3.5/5

Decent police thriller with some good action, I especially liked the Donnie v Colin Chou finale.
Fan Bing-Bing is cute

grim_tales wrote: Fan Bing-Bing is cute

Was she the female cop? She was cute.

Fan Bing-Bing, what an hilarious name . Fan Bing-Bong would've been even funnier .

HungFist wrote:

grim_tales wrote: Fan Bing-Bing is cute

Was she the female cop? She was cute.

She plays Judy, Wilson's girlfriend (I think). Though the female cop was pretty too.

Though the female cop was pretty too.

Donnie's sister-in-law.

An Adolescent (Japan, 2001) – 3/5
Junior high school student falls in love with a middle aged cop (director Eiji Okuda himself) in an interesting if not entirely succesful drama. One of the strong points is that the film doesn’t make its love story too polished – Okuda’s character for example is more of an asshole than your typical tragic jdorama hero. On the minus side the film does lose it’s credibility more than once. There’s slight pretentiousness over the whole production but it’s the supporting characters – mainly the girl’s mother and brother – that come close to killing the film a couple of times. But if you can get over those flaws it’s ultimately an entertaing and even slightly humoristic ride. The female lead, Mayu Ozawa, was 20 years old at the time of making, but she looks young enough to pass for a 15 year old.

Paranoia Agent: 4.5/5

Superb in every way really, I was so hooked that I've watched the whole series in only two viewings haha (last night and this afternoon). It's better than Paprika.

gasteropod wrote:It's better than Paprika.

Well, Paprika is Kon's worst movie.

I've got the R1 Paranoia dvds in the shelf. Hopefully will find time to watch them some day.

Paprika is his only film I've seen

You need to get his other movies then. There aren't many.

Rainbow Song (Japan, 2006) – 3/5
This one gained initial interest points by being based on Shunji Iwai’s scrip. Vaguely described it’s Hana and Alice with less humour, male lead, and the death of one character written into the story. The master’s magic is missing, there’s no going round that, but Nana plastic this is not. Naoto Kumazawa isn’t an exceptionally talented director, but he’s attempting the right thing most of the time. Major melodrama and sobbing is kept out, although there’s a couple of weaker moments like one part that plays out almost like a farce (story wise, not visually). The film is divided into chapters and often you can tell the quality of the following scenes from the sub-title; Stalker Days is not that great while The Kodak Girl is notably better. The storyline follows two university students making a film. Juri Ueno, as a novice director, and Hayato Ichihara as her assistant / actor both fare well, but it’s Yu Aoi’s brief but enjoyable appearance that stands out. Bright and slightly washed out visual look supports the film.

Serial Experiments Lain: 2.5/5

Yikes, a lot of boring episodes in this short series. The animation wasn't very good either. Episode 11 was just plain bad (the first 15 minutes is everything you've already seen spliced together into random flashbacks), but the last couple of episodes weren't too bad. Its only saving grace is its philosophical ponderings, really.