-
-
Newest Comments
on Is Tom the only megastar who does his own stunts? Watch the New Trailer for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’Lets hope MI8 is a step up from 7. MI 5 and 6 are near almost top-tier (De Pa…
on You guys ready to Jet? Full details for Shout Studios’ 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray set for ‘The Jet Li Collection’Part of me wants to see High Risk on 4k with that Meltdown 'Van Damme dub' th…
on John Woo’s action classic goes hard! Restored ‘Hard Boiled’ is coming to Cannes, Digital and Physical from Shout!Great news! I would like to see it here in the UK as well, maybe 88 Films or…
on Striking Rescue (2024) ReviewI rented this, and it was worth a watch. The action is nice and the showdown…
on Can Spike Lee take an Akira Kurosawa flick higher? Watch the Trailer for ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ starring Denzel WashingtonNick, cheers. Fixed =)
on Can Spike Lee take an Akira Kurosawa flick higher? Watch the Trailer for ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ starring Denzel WashingtonCorrection: Old Boy was remade in 2013, not 2023.
on Billy Zane, Zach Roerig and Scott Adkins’ ‘Day of Reckoning’ NOW on Digital! Watch a New Extended PreviewHow much screen time does confederate white supremacist supporter Trace Adkin…
on Get your kicks on Route 666! Scott Adkins attacks Marko Zaror in the New Trailer for Ernesto Díaz Espinoza’s ‘Diablo’the movie looks good, the trailer is awful. had to stop it midway to avoid be…
on Havoc (2025) ReviewThanks for continuing to visit COF Will! I felt the same way, the action kick…
on Get your kicks on Route 666! Scott Adkins attacks Marko Zaror in the New Trailer for Ernesto Díaz Espinoza’s ‘Diablo’This trailer has me pumped. Can't wait
on Havoc (2025) ReviewI've been reading this site for years. Really appreciate the reviews. I'd say…
on COF Presents: The Legend of the The Seven Little Fortunes[…] COF Presents: The Legend of the The Seven Little Fortunes | cityonf…
on Heroes of the East | aka Shaolin Challenges Ninja (1978) ReviewLiterally just finished watching this for the first time - catching up with m…
on Havoc (2025) ReviewThat anonymous guy is an idiot
on Someone call the 🔥 department! Ringo Lam’s seminal Hong Kong actioner ‘City on Fire’ arriving on 4K Ultra HD in JuneThis is absolutely beautiful. I use to dawg on shout factory artwork but damm…
Category Archives: Japanese
Tokyo Knights (1961) Review
Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Koji Wada, Mayumi Shimizu, Yoko Minamida, Nobuo Kaneko, Yoshiko Nezu, Shoichi, Ozawa George, Luiker Naomi, Ozawa Moto, Matsuyama Hiroshi, Kamayatsu Yasuhiro, Kameyama Zenpei, Saga Hiroshi Running Time: 87 min. By Kelly Warner Seijun Suzuki was a contract studio director for Nikkatsu. That meant that he made the films they told him to, with little time for pre-production, rewrites, or creative decision making. 1961 alone saw the … Continue reading
Posted in All, Japanese, News, Reviews
Tagged Nobuo Kaneko, Seijun Suzuki
Fighting Fist | aka Lady Cop in Fury (1992) Review
AKA: Lady Cop in Fury Director: Sonny Chiba Co-director: Casey Chan Cast: Sibelle Hu, Sonny Chiba, Chin Kar Lok, Song Lei, Ken Lo, Shogo Shiotani, Masashi Ishibashi, Masaru Matsuda, Gam Biu, James Ha, Lee Fat-Yuen Running Time: 91 min. By Paul Bramhall Let’s face it, 1992 was a great year for Asian action cinema. Jet Li and Donnie Yen faced off in Once Upon a Time in China II, John … Continue reading
Posted in All, Chinese, Japanese, News, Reviews
Tagged Chin Kar Lok, Ken Lo, Sibelle Hu, Sonny Chiba
Smashing the 0-Line (1960) Review
AKA: Secret Zero Zone Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Hiroyuki Nagato, Yuji Kodaka,Sanae Nakahara, Mayumi Shimizu, Tomo’o Nagai, Kaku Takashina, Emiko Azuma, Shoichi Ozawa, Ryohei Uchida, Keisuke Noro Running Time: 83 min. By Kelly Warner One of my favorite film heroes is the investigative journalist. Seekers of truth armed only with pen and notepad, overturning stones to reveal the misdeeds of powerful men who thought justice couldn’t touch them. Films about … Continue reading
Score (1995) Review
Director: Atsushi Muroga Cast: Shu Ehara, Hiroshi Miyasaka, Ryushi Mizukami, Hitoshi Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Ozawa, Miyuki Takano, Takashi Ukaji, Masahiro Yamashita, Ryuji Minakami Running Time: 88 min. By Paul Bramhall While Japanese cinema in the 1990’s was already a far cry from its golden age, one of the best genres to come out of this era was that which would become known as V-Cinema. Kicked off by Toei’s 1989 feature Crime Hunter, … Continue reading
Sleeping Beast Within, The (1960) Review
Director: Seijun Suzuki Writer: Ichiro Ikeda Cast: Hiroyuki Nagato, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Shinsuke Ashida, Kinzo Shin, Kojiro Kusanagi, Keisuke Noro, Hisano Yamaoka, Ko Nishimura, Shoichi Ozawa Running Time: 85 min. By Kelly Warner After two years away on business, Mr. Ueki returns home on a ship from Hong Kong to meet his family at the Yokohama pier. None of his business partners are there to meet him and the family thinks this suspicious. After … Continue reading
Osaka Badass: Snake of Violence (2013) Review
Director: Takahiro Ishihara Writer: Takahiro Ishihara Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Maya Fukuzawa, Rikiya Kaido, Takashi Nishina, Tomoko Tabata, Taichi Suzuki Running Time: 110 min. By Paul Bramhall The yakuza movie is my favorite of all the Japanese genres, and while its heyday of the 1970’s has long since passed, they are still being made, albeit in more of a trickle than the constant stream of a bygone era. With this in mind, Osaka Badass: Snake … Continue reading
Vampire Clay (2017) Review
Director: Soichi Umezawa Producer: Yoshihiro Nishimura Cast: Ena Fujita, Asuka Kurosawa, Yuyu Makihara, Ryo Shinoda, Momoka Sugimoto Running Time: 80 min. By Kyle Warner Horror fans like to convince themselves that they’ve seen it all. ‘That new horror film everyone loves is actually a more mainstream take on a similar horror movie made 20 years ago that nobody paid attention to at the time, don’tchaknow?’ But then something like Vampire Clay … Continue reading
Eight Hours of Terror (1957) Review
Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Nobuo Kaneko, Harue Tone, Sumiko Minami, Kenjiro Uemura, Minako Katsuki, Kan Yanagiya, Hiroshi Kondo, Hideaki Nitani, Masao Oda, Taizo Fukami, Ryutaro Nagai, Fumiko Fukuda, Keiko Shima, Eiko Misuzu Running Time: 78 min. By Kelly Warner Now this is more like it. I enjoyed watching Seijun Rising, the first Arrow Video box set showcasing five of Seijun Suzuki’s earlier films. As a big fan of the director, … Continue reading
Born Under Crossed Stars (1965) Review
Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Ken Yamauchi, Yumiko Nogawa, Masako Izumi, Masao Mishima, Ruriko Ito, Chikako Miyagi, Michio Hino, Michi Azuma, Yoko Benisawa, Keisuke Noro Running Time: 98 min. By Kelly Warner Filmed just two years later, featuring the same leading man in Ken Yamauchi, and based on a book by the same author in Toko Kon, Born Under Crossed Stars is something of a spiritual sequel to the angst-driven youth … Continue reading
Third Murder, The (2017) Review
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda Cast: Masaharu Fukuyama, Koji Yakusho, Suzu Hirose, Yuki Saito, Kotaro Yoshida, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Mikako Ichikawa, Isao Hashizume, Izumi Matsuoka Running Time: 124 min. By Martin Sandison Director Hirokazu Koreeda has gone from strength to strength in the last ten years, with a strong following thanks to films such as Still Walking and Our Little Sister. His most recent, The Third Murder, swept the Japanese Academy Prize last week … Continue reading
Soul of Chiba | aka Soul of Bruce Lee (1977) Review
Director: Chan Tung-Man, Noda Yukio Cast: Sonny Chiba Shinichi, Luk Chuen, Shiomi Etsuko, Bolo Yeung Sze, Fong Yuen, Kong Chuen, Tadashi Yamashita, Lau Nga-Ying, Peter Chan Hoh-San, Krung Srivilai, Naowarat Yooktanun, Somjit Sapsamruey Running Time: 94 min. By Paul Bramhall At the risk of blacklisting myself from ever writing for an Asian cinema site again, I’ll admit I initially wasn’t very enamoured with Sonny Chiba. When I first got into … Continue reading
Posted in All, Bruceploitation, Chinese, Japanese, News, Reviews
Tagged Bolo Yeung (Yang Sze), Krung Srivilai, Noda Yukio, Peter Chan Ho Sun, Sonny Chiba, Tadashi Yamashita
Incorrigible, The | aka The Bastard (1963) Review
AKA: The Young Rebel Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Ken Yamauchi, Masako Izumi, Midori Tashiro, Chiharu Kuri, Emiko Azuma, Mieko Takamine Running Time: 95 min. By Kelly Warner The Taisho era, named after Emperor Taisho, was a period in Japan sandwiched between the rapid modernization of the Meiji period and the ultimate push to war of the Showa era. Director Seijun Suzuki was born in the final years of the Taisho period but … Continue reading
Junk Head (2017) Review
Director: Takahide Hori Writer: Takahide Hori Animator: Takahide Hori Running Time: 115 min. By Martin Sandison Dystopian Science Fiction has a prerequisite to be po-facedly serious in tone and downright depressing at times (see genre stalwarts Blade Runner and Brazil), and it’s about time a movie came along that alters this. Enter Takahide Hori’s Junk Head, a one-man show labour of love that manages to be an endlessly inventive, hilarious entrant … Continue reading
Gintama (2017) Review
Director: Yuichi Fukuda Cast: Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, Kanna Hashimoto, Masaki Okada, Masami Nagasawa, Tsuyoshi Muro, Kankuro Nakamura, Yuya Yagira, Ryo Yoshizawa Running Time: 130 min. By Kelly Warner It’s the age of the comic book movie in Hollywood. And though you can argue that there is an oversaturation of such films at the theatres, I don’t really think there’s much debate that the filmmakers have gotten better at making … Continue reading
Posted in All, Japanese, News, Reviews
Tagged Hirofumi Arai, Masaki Okada, Shun Oguri, Takayuki Yamada, Yuichi Fukuda, Yuya Yagira
Teenage Yakuza (1962) Review
Director: Seijun Suzuki Cast: Tamio Kawaji, Noriko Matsumoto, Keiko Sugiyama, Kayo Matsuo, Asao Sano, Midori Tashiro, Kotoe Hatsui, Tatsuya Fuji, Toshio Sugiyama, Kaku Takashina Running Time: 72 min. By Kelly Warner Listen kids, I know that your teenage years can be rough. Your body is um, changing. You have, uh, urges. And sometimes your emotions are out of control. But you’re a good kid. You know the difference between right … Continue reading
2 Comments