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- Andrew Hernandez on The Roundup: Punishment (2024) ReviewI used to live in AZ, and I was fortunate enough to catch theatrical releases…
- Andrew on The Roundup: Punishment (2024) ReviewAlways a pleasure to see Paul enjoying a Don Lee film, glad you liked this mo…
- Typo on Eureka announces Blu-ray for Jeong Chang-hwa’s obscure Golden Harvest classic actioner ‘The Double Crossers’Well... No.
- Tory on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’Totally agree. The geeks are finally taking over. CGI may be the norm, but we…
- Andrew Hernandez on France’s answer to ‘The Raid’? Don’t miss a Newest hard-hitting clip for ‘Mayhem!’ from ‘Hitman’ director Xavier GensI finally found time to rent Farang, and I liked it. I’m glad I read the revi…
- Scott Robinson on The Last Kumite | 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (MPI Home Video)His first name is Bruce..... so we know he's 50% good at fight footage.
- Scott Robinson on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’LP...... you can't just come in and out, give us hard info, then disappear. T…
- HarryToeface on The Last Kumite | 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (MPI Home Video)I'd love to see your fight footage bud. Lets see your accomplishments. XD
- Andrew Hernandez on Is Hi-YAH working exclusively with ‘The Mob’? Watch the Trailer for this upcoming martial arts thriller streaming in MayI hope it’s more action packed than The Game Changer. That movie was a step i…
- Paul Bramhall on Is Hi-YAH working exclusively with ‘The Mob’? Watch the Trailer for this upcoming martial arts thriller streaming in MayThis is giving me 'The Game Changer' vibes.
- Andrew Hernandez on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’Do you know something we don’t?
- LP Hugo on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’No Jeeja Yanin in this film, sadly..
- Andrew Hernandez on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’I won’t call it a renaissance, but we are in an era where more people who car…
- Tory on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’Oh, I’d say so!
- Scott Robinson on The Roundup: Punishment (2024) ReviewIf i'm reading your review right we should have another Round Up movie in the…
- Andrew Hernandez on The Roundup: Punishment (2024) ReviewWell, I was hoping they’d up the ante, but I guess they want to keep playing…
- Andrew Hernandez on Ready to kill some Nazis? New poster for Guy Ritchie’s ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ starring Henry CavillNo, Henry Cavill has plenty of time on the frontlines. Cary Elwes stays behin…
- KayKay on Ready to kill some Nazis? New poster for Guy Ritchie’s ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ starring Henry CavillThis is the third time in a row that Cary Elwes has been sidelined in a spy t…
- Tory on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’Yeah, with that cast and with Kenji in the director’s chair…this should rock.
- Andrew Hernandez on ‘Enter the Fat Dragon’ helmer rounds up Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian for ‘The Furious’I hope this lives up to the hype. I guess Phillip Ng and Andy On’s Without Re…
- Andrew Hernandez on Ready to kill some Nazis? New poster for Guy Ritchie’s ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ starring Henry CavillI caught it over the weekend, and it was some good fun. If Inglorious Basterd…
- ShaOW!linDude on Virtual Recall (2010) ReviewOkay, this movie sounds abysmal, but makes for a witty review. Thanks, Paul.…
- Andrew Hernandez on Virtual Recall (2010) ReviewWas Larry Cheung trying to be like Alejandro Jodorowsky?
- Andrew Hernandez on Lethal Combat: Techno Warriors 2 | aka Digital Warriors (2000) ReviewI’ve heard of the Techno Warriors duology for years, but ignored them. It’s n…
- Aerosniff Someglue on Acclaimed ‘Versus’ filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura is getting into the amusement park business with ‘Thrill Ride’One good movie: Midnight meat train. The rest: crap.
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Category Archives: Japanese
Baby Assassins (2021) Review
Director: Yugo Sakamoto Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Mone Akitani, Yukina Fukushima, Masanori Mimoto, Atom Mizuishi, Yasukaze Motomiya, Takashi Nishina, Yosuke Ohmizu Running Time: 95 min. By Paul Bramhall We can blame the John Wick franchise for the action genres current infatuation with assassins for hire. Following a bombardment of assassin flicks in the 2010’s which came after the release of the original John Wick in 2014, now only a … Continue reading
Special Actors (2019) Review
Director: Shinichiro Ueda Cast: Kazuto Osawa, Hiroki Kono, Miyu Ogawa, Hayate Masao, Nozomi de Lencquesaing Running Time: 110 min. By Paul Bramhall In 2017 Shinichiro Ueda’s micro-budget zombie movie One Cut of the Dead burst onto the scene fuelled almost purely by word of mouth, a production which cleverly subverted the type of movie audiences thought they were watching to entertaining and hilarious effect. His sophomore feature, following up such … Continue reading
Cruel Gun Story (1964) Review
Director: Takumi Furukawa Cast: Jo Shishido, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawaji, Shobun Inoue, Yuji Odaka, Minako Kazuki, Hiroshi Nihonyanagi, Hiroshi Kondo, Saburo Hiromatsu Running Time: 87 min. By Henry McKeand In the 1960s, the Japanese studio Nikkatsu made a string of hard-edged crime thrillers that became known as “borderless action” films. They received this distinction because they borrowed from international influences, combining classic American noir and French New Wave gangster cool … Continue reading
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) Review
Director: Junta Yamaguchi Cast: Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gôta Ishida, Masashi Suwa, Yoshifumi Sakai, Haruki Nakagawa, Munenori Nagano, Takashi Sumita, Chikara Honda, Aki Asakura Running Time: 70 min. By Paul Bramhall The concept of time travel is always an interesting one when it’s transferred to screen, and the Japanese film industry has flirted with it just as much as any other. From modern day military units transported to feudal Japan … Continue reading
Drive My Car (2021) Review
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, Masaki Okada Running Time: 179 min. By Paul Bramhall It’s perhaps a testament to how much inspiration Japanese author Haruki Murakami is capable of instilling in those who read his work, when you consider that Drive My Car is the second of his short stores in recent years to … Continue reading
Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995) Review
Director: Keita Amemiya Cast: Yuji Kishimoto, Mai Hosho, Yasuaki Honda, Dai Matsumoto, Kazuhiko Inoue, Sumisu Andi Running Time: 51/71 min. By Henry McKeand There’s cerebral, lore driven science fiction, and then there’s something like Mechanical Violator Hakaider: a lizard-brained action fantasy with little patience for traditional world-building or character development. Directed by Keita Amemiya (Zeiram, Kamen Rider ZO) and based on the 1972 tokusatsu series Android Kikaider, the film is … Continue reading
Sword of the Beast (1965) Review
AKA Samurai Gold Seekers Director: Hideo Gosha Cast: Mikijiro Hira, Go Kato, Toshie Kimura, Kantaro Suga, Takeshi Kato, Shima Iwashita, Yoko Mihara, Shobun Inoue, Kunie Tanaka, Eijiro Tono Running Time: 85 min. By Henry McKeand “I want to become a beast like you. I can’t stand living for a mission anymore.” While Hideo Gosha has never come close to reaching the same level of Western acclaim as Akira Kurosawa, his … Continue reading
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) Review
Director: Kazuki Omori Cast: Kosuke Toyohara, Anna Nakagawa, Megumi Odaka, Katsuhiko Sasaki, Akiji Kobayashi, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Robert Scott Field, Richard Berger, Wataru Fukuda Running Time: 103 min. By Ian Whittle To paraphrase the great Professor Farnsworth: “Never take lessons in not-changing-history from a man who is his own grandpa!” Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is the third film in the Heisei series, following on from The Return of Godzilla (1984) and … Continue reading
Crazy Samurai Musashi | aka Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 (2020) Review
Director: Yuji Shimomura Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Kento Yamazaki, Yousuke Saito, Ben Hiura, Arata Yamanaka, Fuka Hara, Kosei Kimura, Nobu Morimoto, Akihiko Sai, Masaaki Takarai Running Time: 92 min. By Paul Bramhall Crazy Samurai Musashi is one of those movies that’s journey to the screen is just as interesting as the movie itself, spanning over 10 years before it eventually arrived in 2020. Initially announced as a collaboration between Japanese action … Continue reading
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) Review
Director: Ishiro Honda Cast: Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yu Fujiki, Ichiro Arishima, Mie Hama, Shoichi Hirose, Haruo Nakajima, Jun Tazaki, Akiko Wakabayashi, Akihiko Hirata Running Time: 97 min. By Ian Whittle The great animator Willis O’Brien remains immortal for his legendary creation King Kong, introduced in 1933 in RKO’s mega-hit film. But that didn’t translate into lots of steady work. O’Brien walked off the rushed “serio-comic phantasy” sequel The Son … Continue reading
Green Slime, The (1968) Review
Director: Kinji Fukasaku Cast: Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel, Luciana Paluzzi, Bud Widom, Ted Gunther, Robert Dunham, David Yorston, William Ross, Gary Randolf, Eugene Vince Running Time: 90 min. By Ian Whittle The late Japanese New Wave director Fukasaku Kinji has a formidable reputation for his many Yakuza classics of the 1970s, his contributions to the Hollywood production Tora! Tora! Tora!, and his latter day masterpiece Battle Royale. He also directed … Continue reading
Flower and Snake: Zero (2014) Review
Director: Hajime Hashimoto Cast: Maiko Amano, Noriko Hamada, Rina Sakuragi, Kanji Tsuda, Naoki Kawano, Hideo Sakaki Running Time: 113 min. By Paul Bramhall Spend enough time in the world of Asian cinema, and somewhere along the line, you’re likely to stumble across the Japanese SM (sadomasochism) genre. At least, that’s what I’ve been telling myself for as long as I can remember. Not that I’ve seen that many of them, … Continue reading
Hydra (2019) Review
Director: Kensuke Sonomura Cast: Masanori Mimoto, Miu, Tasuku Nagase, Takaya Aoyagi, Takashi Nishina, Satoshi Kibe, Kensuke Sonomura, Tsutomu Uchigasaki, Naoki Hayashida Running Time: 75 min. By Paul Bramhall Ask anyone about the best martial arts movies from Japan during the 2010’s, and chances are the unanimous vote would go to the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy, the adaptation of the manga that spanned 2012 – 2014. The reason for why these movies … Continue reading
Godzilla vs. Gigan | aka War of the Monsters (1972) Review
AKA: Godzilla on Monster Island Director: Fukuda Jun Cast: Ishikawa Hiroshi, Umeda Tomoko, Hishimi Yuriko, Takashima Minoru, Fujita Zan, Nishizawa Toshiaki, Nakajima Harou, Satsuma Kenpachiro Running Time: 89 min. By Ian Whittle Godzilla vs Gigan generally doesn’t get a good reception from G-fans, who dislike the Scooby Doo-ish human characters, the recycled music score, the frequent stock footage from earlier films, and the fact that the Godzilla suit (this particular … Continue reading
First Love (2020) Review
Director: Takashi Miike Writer: Masaru Nakamura Cast: Masataka Kubota, Sakurako Konishi, Nao Omori, Shota Sometani, Seiyo Uchino, Becky, Jun Murakami, Sansei Shiomi, Takahiro Miura, Maimi Yajima Running Time: 115 min. By Martin Sandison It’s pretty difficult to be an Asian movie fan in the last 25 years, and not love at least one Takashi Miike film. An omnipresence in challenging, genre-shifting vital cinema, the director is irrepressible and much-loved. Even … Continue reading
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