Reviews

Clearly somebody is screwing around with the rating here. This is no masterpiece, but it's definitely not a 3 star film. It's a solid, decent coming-of-age drama. I'm curious who is out to tank the rating.

In the best tradition of Soviet fantasy, Dikanka is entertaining from start to finish. There isn't much a plot (hijinks during the night), but the practical effects are charming, and I laughed harder than I had in a long time.

The best element is the Devil himself. Rather than a figure of fear and evil, the Devil is a hairy, silly fellow who keeps busy by tormenting a blacksmith who drew a religious picture that the Devil found particularly offensive. In addition, there are a horde of lusty and/or drunken townsmen, and a cameo by the Tsarina herself. Also, a "Three's Company"-esquire set piece where character after character must hide out in the local witch's hut.

This is one of the crazy ones, along the lines of Buddha's Palm or Holy Flame of the Martial World, though not as fun or inventive. Danny Lee plays a scholar who is uninterested in kung fu, who pursues the "Red Python" which can grant great power. His task is complicated by his philandering father, the cute Lin Chen-chi and her magical snakes, and angry Tanny Tien-ni and her dagger-shooting leg bone.

The movie is filled wacky costumes, fake monsters, goofy visual effects, and kung fu "laser" beams. As short as it is, it still gets a bit bogged down in dialogue and exposition. Still, there's enough craziness along the way to hold you until the mind-blowing ending , which features Danny Lee fighting a kung fu gorilla, and a man on retractable metal chicken legs who fires flames out of his mouth. Worth watching, at least for the ending.

Didn't like this one very much. It's an anthology film, with three chapters, progressing from what appeared to be the Tokugawa Shogunate, to Meiji era, to the 60's (can't be positive about any of the time periods).

Basically the flimsy plots are just an excuse to have Yakuza commit brutal acts on each other and throw lots of fake blood around. I can see how this may have been shocking or trail-blazing at the time of release, but I found it quite boring now. Without the shock value, the movie really has no center. The stories get progressively better - the first (amazingly, starring Bunta Sugawara, who usually improves anything he's in) is terrible, the second and third are slightly better.

Sidenote - the actor who plays the alien in Goke has a small role in the final piece as a weird yo-yo obsessed Yakuza.

Basically this is a solid but not stellar Yakuza movie, with some fun twists that make it memorable.

Bunta is his usual excellent self as our "hero," a machine-gun wielding gangster who pals around with bikers and commits robberies with his mother (!?). Eventually, the guys he ripped off come looking for him and he's forced to flee with his incredibly hot girlfriend, who has amazing outfits and no personality.

The things that make this one stand out are a bizarre and possibly incestuous mother fixation, Bunta and his girlfriend's fabulous 20's era gangster and moll outfits, some fun violent set-pieces, and an assassination in a prison bath that was different than anything I'd seen before.

This one gets a marginal recommendation, definite thumbs up if you're a Yakuza flick fan, though it's not on the level of Fukasaku's better work.

Tony Liu plays a hero (the same character from Clan of Amazons) tries to find out why two great heroes are fighting a duel. Many of the characters from Amazons are reprised. The usual Chu Yuan hijinks ensue. Yueh Hua and Ching Li have what amount to cameos in this one, Tony Liu really has to carry the movie. Too bad he's not given much to work with. His character is goofy and annoying, and his only reason for getting involved in the plot seems to be boredom and curiosity.

I must say, I thought Chu Yuan could do no wrong when adapting Gu Long works. This proved me wrong. It adds a bit of unfortunate comedy to the usual twisty "martial world" plotline. Even the art design is not up to the usual gorgeous standards.

Not awful, but not good. Stick with Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue or Jade Tiger.

Fun Sridevi role, where she gets to dress in leather, blow away the bad guys, and constantly hit people in the head with a rifle butt. The plot in a nutshell: an evil and corrupt Thakur is oppressing his village. Sridevi's father becomes a bandit in order to fight against the tyrannical Thakur, with unpleasant consequences for his family. In the meantime, a new tough guy moves into town, romances Sridevi, and may be more than he appears.

Basically this movie is an excuse for Sridevi to ride around on a horse, in full black leather biker gear, blasting villains with a rifle. The action scenes are surprisingly fun, the musical numbers are pretty good, and Sridevi, as always, is great.

Not a must-see, but definitely recommended.

All women love Kilink - that's just a fact. Kilink plays two groups of rival gangsters against each other while trying to get ahold of some Macguffin ... ahem, microfilm. Meanwhile he romances all the ladies, kills half of them, and runs around a lot while the cops chase him. Plenty of silly goons, fun gadgets, sexy babes, and the super-cool Kilink, of course.

This installment is not as wacked-out as Kilink Istanbul'da, which is faster paced and more supernaturally oriented. What Strip and Kill does offer is a more coherent plot, and much more of Kilink himself, in all his badness. Long live Kilink!

Chen Wo-fu plays that "pacifist who finally gets p***ed enough to kick the bad guy's butt" character that we've seen a million times. Of course, this time they have to kill his master, two of his friends, and rape his girlfriend before he gets off his high horse and does something. The "twist" is that he fights using Tai Chi. The fighting is set up to look like it's going to be interesting in the beginning, but trust me, it's not. The baddies and supporting characters are completely uninteresting, with the minor exceptions of Shih Szu as his sifu's impetuous daughter, and his drunk fighting buddy. Not actually a bad movie, but very standard mediocre stuff, and lacking the flashes of brilliance or creativity that might at least make a scene or two memorable.

Not the best Chu Yuan I've ever seen, but quite fun. The sets and costumes are great - the acting is fine but nobody is outstanding. Personal favorite - the Centipeded leader and his excellent metal centipede shield weapon.

Basic Plot - Lo Lieh, a member of the 5 Venom Clan plots to regain their powerful ancient artifact, the 5 Venom Spider (a tarantula that emits elephant roars, and a sound approximating the noise that every Bond villain's lair makes when the self-destruct switch is activated). Assorted heroes and renegade Venom Clan members must work together against Lo Lieh and several 3's Company-esque misunderstandings.

Not as good as Chu Yuan's masterpieces starring Ti Lung, but worth a watch.

I love this movie. Get me some of whatever the director was on. I don't want to spoil the insanity for anyone who's never seen this, but ... tanks, gladiator fights, Sherlock Holmes outfits, a dog who's smarter than anyone in the movie, black leather bondage gear, and villains with Union Jacks on their evil capes. Get some friends and some beer and I guarantee this movie will be a good time.

All hail Moti the Wonder Dog (as he is actually credited in the movie).

This is the incredibly silly story of a heroic Disco Dancer and his mother trying to restore their good name and defeat the evil Disco Dancer and his rich, evil father. The evil Disco Dancer has a goofy Freddy Mercury mustache and rips off the 80's song Video Killed the Radio Star. The good Disco Dancer snaps his fingers when he fights like an extra from West Side Story. The main bad guy employs that big goofy looking bearded white guy who was in so many Indian movies of the era as a heavy. The musical numbers are the reason to show up - they are frequent and hilarious.

I definitely recommend this movie. Very goofy stuff, great singing and dancing, mega-retarded plot. My girlfriend, who generally can't stand silly movies, had the "I am Disco Dancer" song stuck in her head for a week. Go crazy!

Na Cha stars Fu Sheng as the prodigal son of a wealthy local official. When obnoxious sea dragons take on human form and cause trouble on the land, he realizes that the common people need help and takes up his mantle as their protector, fighting the dragons and their flunkies with the aid of supernatural powers.

I was really disappointed with this movie. Fu Sheng character was lame and annoying. Initially he plays an obnoxious, naive idiot. Once his eyes are opened, he pretty much loses all personality. I still have yet to see a movie that adequately explains Fu Sheng's popularity. There are a few good moments - the giant dragon puppets, the flying firey foot wheels, and the wacky "emerging from the sea" shots. Otherwise there is very little involvement in the plot, the characters are dull, and the whole movie never really goes anywhere.

Chang Cheh. I love ya but this one ain't stellar.

Solidly entertaining and gritty Yakuza fare from the master, Fukasaku. Tsuruta is good as the man of honor who can't seem to leave the life behind. Don't watch this one for Bunta Sugawara and Noboru Andoh, their roles are very much supporting and don't amount to much more than extended cameos, albeit in Andoh's case, a great one. The man to watch here is Tomisaburo Wakayama, better known as Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman. Here he's out of control as the heroin shooting violent leader of an anarchistic Hawaiian-shirt wearing gang. His character here really steals the show, and it's a lot of fun to see him in a role so different from what I'm accustomed to.

I can't tell you how let down I was by this movie. We all wanted to turn it off within 45 minutes. The two leads play jailbirds who plot an escape that ends up having unintended consequences both for themselves and for their jailers. The humor is terribly unfunny, and the characters are completely uninteresting and unlikeable. The bigger loser of the two, and his intensely annoying and unpleasant girlfriend were particularly painful to watch. In a better movie, the Shawshank homages would have been clever or funny, but here they were just a reminder of how lame this movie was in comparison to better projects.

This came as a particular surprise given that the director is the same man who brought us the fantastic and original Attack the Gas Station, and the near-brilliant (though tragically-flawed) Kick the Moon. I thought the man exuded humor and quirky moments, but apparently he can make a piece of hack work like anyone else. Too bad. I would think that perhaps the humor didn't translate well from Korean, except his previous two movies were hilarious. Here's hoping this was just a fluke, and he has years of great movies left in him.

Legend of the Bat involves a hero played by Ti Lung trying to find the mysterious Bat Island in order to help friends and solve mysteries, and solve the riddle of the masked Mr. Bat.

This is a fairly entertaining sequel to Chu Yuan's Clans of Intrigue, but is not as engaging as the original. There is some really beautiful, Suspiria-esque use of lighting, and some great sets. Most of the leads do a solid job, and Ti Lung is good as always. However the movie drags in too many irrelevant characters (even by Chu Yuan standards), and Ti Lung's character, the only important hold-over from the first movie is largely eclipsed by other characters. It's solid stuff, but no Magic Blade.

This movie is completely insane. It's basically a like a crazy wuxia epic along the lines of Swordsman II, Zu, or Bride with White Hair but with kick-ass puppets. While the puppet's have minimal facial articulation, the range of movement is absolutely incredible. The filmmakers have managed to integrate puppets, wire-fu, CGI magic effects, and live backgrounds in a way I wouldn't have thought possible. On the downside, the plot is fairly impenetrable, characters behave very stupidly, and there isn't as much fighting as one could hope for. Nonetheless, this movie is worth it - it's completely out-of-control and you're not likely to have ever seen anything like it. Give it a try.

Here's my stab at the plot - An evil demon named Mo Kuei is causing trouble so various heroes get together to put him down. Afterwards, his flunkies (who look kind of like Skeletor toys and have the very cool name of The Unfriendly) try to use magical keys get a hold of the titular wish-granting Sacred Stone either to free Mo Kuei or to prevent his final destruction (I wasn't clear on this). In the meantime hero Huan-Jen and his sidekick team up with pretty Ru-Bing and reluctant swordsman Lord Hong-chen to recover the Sacred Stone, wipe out The Unfriendly, and put down Mo Kuei once and for all. However Ru-Bing's father The Great Protector still harbors a grudge against Huan-jen for failing to come to his aid years ago, and has his own plans for The Sacred Stone i.e. world domination and repairing his ruined face. The Protector schemes to use his daughter and Hong-chen against Huan-Jen to acquire the Stone, which has a nasty secret of its own.

Sometimes classics live up to their reputations and sometimes they don't. This one didn't. It wasn't bad - some quite funny bits, likeable, never boring, but nothing outstanding, except perhaps in the subject matter. I've been watching a few Lubitsch movies recently and I ended up watching this one within a few days of watching Shop Around the Corner. I was struck by how much sharper and wittier "Shop" (which I felt was everything it was cracked up to be) was in comparison to To Be or Not To Be. Benny's character was a little too buffoonish, Lombard's character was a little too boring (though the first scene between Ehrhardt and the false Siletsky was excellent). Unfortunately, this film was just a little too over-the-top, silly, and conveniently plotted, without ever tapping into the fun of a real screwball comedy. Oh well...

When the funniest parts of a comedy are the screwed-up subtitles, you know you're in trouble. Out of all the new wave Korean movies I've watched this is by far the worst. Everything else was at least of good quality and many are great. This just plain sucked and was a terrible disappointment. Figures that this is the flick Hollywood chooses to remake. The movie is choppy and discombobulated, and it's almost impossible to care at all about the characters. The fight scenes are nothing new and bear little relation to the rest of the movie. The humor is just pitiful - I think the low point would have to the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of the cat, straight out a bad Farrelly brothers knock-off. Is it supposed to be funny when the husband (a character I guess we're supposed to like?) tries to rape his wife, the titular character? Most of the secondary characters get by with fart humor and smacks on the head. If you want to see a funny Korean movie, watch The Foul King or Attack the Gas Station, I saw this with 5 other movie fans and we all thought it was terrible. Is the female lead supposed to be a gangster or retarded?

Wow! This movie was so inappropriate. Incredibly funny stuff, albeit unintentionally. An ugly lamp humps, possesses, and slaughters it's way through an entire family. The (non-gore) highlight for me would have to be the wild and tacky 80's dance party that stuck in the middle of the film. None of these people should ever be allowed to dance or act in a movie again. Was that dog doing what I think he was doing during the party? The sorcerous fight scene using Atari-era special effects and teleportation via the simple expedient of turning the camera off and on was also classic. The only disappointment is that the titular fetus only really appears onscreen in its "fetus" incarnation for a few seconds, in a scene stolen straight from Alien. Don't miss this one, it'll mess you up and loosen your bladder.

Not all that entertaining, and very low budget, but flashes of Miike's wacky brilliance make this worth seeing for fans of his work. A wanna-be yakuza loser bumbles his way through the lower echelon unpleasantness of a gang, before a very unpleasant incident results in his being transformed into a deadly (if goofy-looking) cyborg fighting machine. Will he get revenge or will he just mope around like some whiner from a French movie and short-circuit in the rain?

People familiar with Ichi will see a lot of the same elements (though Ichi does come from different source material). The protagonist of FMG is a proto-Ichi in many ways, full of angst and completely dysfunctional, stalking around in a plated body-suit and not much of a hero. Any serious pathos or plot development is undercut by the wacky joke bits Miike throws in (like our hero learning stances to deflect bullets). The silliness is definitely fun, but the movie is so schizophrenic that most of the enjoyment is of the "Whoa! Did that just happen?" variety. Dig in if you're a Miike fan, otherwise don't start here.

This movie has a lot of great stuff to recommend it. It's very funny, and the little world it creates is fascinating and a lot of fun. All the main characters and the supporting part are interesting, and the actors (and actress) involved turn in great performances. Up until the end I was ready to call it a masterpiece. Sadly, the director just couldn't pull it all together in the end, and the tightly woven plot just seems to fall apart. Definitely a more mature piece than Attack the Gas Station, with potential to surpass it, but ATGS hangs together better and never loses its high. Worth seeing though, and I look forward to anything this director wants to try. The guy is a real talent. Special tip of the hat to Sung-jae Lee, that guy is awesome.

Dario Argento is very good at lining up nice shots. If only he could hire someone to review the screenplays and point out all the errors. Any idiot of the street could do it for $10 an hour. Yes, yes, I know the whole "My movies are like a dream" crap, but it's hard to get absorbed in the dream when you keep being smacked over the head with plot inconsistencies and intensely moronic characters. Credit to Phenomena, Jennifer Connelly made one of the few appealing Argento protagonists, and generally didn't behave like a complete nitwit (with several exceptions). David Lynch's movies feel like dreams also, but don't pull you out of your suspension of disbelief with patent stupidity. If you don't know Argento, don't start here. If you've never liked Argento, this won't change your mind. There are some effective moments and nice shots that make the movie not a complete wash, but nothing to really justify it's existence.

Not really an outstanding piece. Some of the fights are really fun and inventive, particularly the Jar Man, and the pseudo-midget fu. Sunny Yuen plays the heavy as usual. His Sorcerer Bat character has some good moves, and comes off as a more intelligent and controlled version of his villain in Taoism Drunkard. The final sorcerer's competition is mighty goofy and entertaining, and there's less reliance than usual on the crossed-eyes, big fake mole brand of humor. Still, Taoism Drunkard is much wackier, and Dreadnaught is much more coherent, as well as having better fighting. Worth seeing if you like the Yuen Bros, or bizarro cinema in general.

This movie is fantastic. Don't be put off that Yuen Biao's character is completely annoying, and that some of the comedy is of the "guy with crossed eyes getting hit in the face" variety. This movie has at least for of the most memorable scenes I've ever enjoyed in a movie, including tailor-fu, laundry-fu, and doctor-fu. The lion dance is easily one of the coolest and most enjoyable set pieces in any kung fu movie. I saw this in a theater, and at the end of the lion dance, the entire room applauded. Both Kwan Tak-hing as Wong Fei-Hung and Sunny Yuen as White Tiger really stand out in the acting department. I've seen more powerful villains, but never one this psychotic and aggressive. Now that I think about it, I can't remember if White Tiger ever even speaks in the movie. His presence is so strong he certainly doesn't need to. This is an odd movie that doesn't fit the usual patterns. If you're not a fan of the Yuen Bros more goofy fare, like Taoism Drunkard, Drunken Tai-Chi or Young Taoism Fighter, see this anyway, it's much less random and silly, and the production values are very high. Don't miss it.