Indie filmmaker Leroy Nguyen – writer, director and star of the gritty festival favorites Black Scar Blues and Silverback – is back with The Brokenhearted, his latest upcoming action thriller from Rising Tiger Films and 02 Hero Media.
A weary, small-time hoodlum (Nguyen) attempts to quell the escalating conflict between two of his childhood friends-one a struggling martial artist whose Continue reading
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“Lucky Seven” Theatrical Poster
Director: Chao Chen-Kuo
Cast: Chiao Pei, Yang Wei-De, Lin Tung-An, Wang Chi-Cheng, Cheng Wei-Pai, Chang Chai-Ming, Hsu Yu-Ta, Hsiao Hung-Me, Eugene Thomas, Chang Yi-Teng
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Spend long enough in the niche genre that is kung-fu cinema, and you’ll eventually find yourself exploring some of the more obscure corners of what’s on offer. One such corner is that of the Taiwanese kids kung-fu movie, a sub-genre that rose to prominence in the 80’s and lasted into the early 90’s. While the traditional kung-fu flick was on the way out by the beginning of the 80’s, in Hong Kong the likes of Jackie Chan kept audiences engaged through bigger stunts, and an evolution into a more modern kickboxing style of screen combat. Taiwan and Korea on the other hand, while attempting to emulate the same, largely shifted their focus to making productions aimed at kids, and it was a move that turned out to be a successful one.
Many of these productions made the decision to actually have kids headline the cast, and some of the first out of the gates were 1980’s The Flying Tigers and the Kung Fu Kids and Kung Fu Kids Break Away. In 1986 the first entry of the popular Kung Fu Kids series hit the screens, spawning 5 sequels over the next 3 years, plus a reboot in 1992! Suffice to say, if watching Continue reading
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2025
On May 13, 2025, 88 Films is releasing the Blu-ray (Region A/B) for Magnificent Bodyguards, a 1978 kung fu classic directed by Lo Wei (The Big Boss) that stars Jackie Chan (Hidden Strike, Ride On).
Jackie leaps out of the screen in Magnificent Bodyguards, the first Hong Kong movie shot in 3D! The icon joins a team of guards who are escorting an ill man across a land Continue reading
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– From your friends at Cityonfire.com
“Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” Theatrical Poster
Director: Rob Cohen
Cast: Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Nancy Kwan, Michael Learned, Lim Kay-tong, Ric Young, Luoyong Wang, John Cheung, Van Williams, Shannon Lee
Running Time: 120 min.
By Ian Whittle
This is a film I enjoy a lot more unreservedly now than I did as a teen. Back then, I knew all the ins and outs of Bruce’s life (or at least, I thought I did, Matthew Polly’s recent biography certainly tears up a few myths!) and this just seemed like fancy Hollywood Babyloney.
Now, having seen that two of my favourite “true story” films, The Elephant Man and Ed Wood, were just as fictitious as this, and having laughed through several Hong Kong/Taiwanese Bruce bios, I can now appreciate it for its merits. Which are considerable.
Jason Scott Lee is superb. A three-dimensional portrayal that captures the essence of Bruce without restoring to clichés like thumb-nosing. Although the fights rely a tad too much on flipping out of trouble, they have energy and drama in them – and boy, John Cheung Continue reading
Happy Holidays to ALL OF YOU!
– From your friends at Cityonfire.com
“A Legend” Theatrical Poster
Director: Stanley Tong
Cast: Jackie Chan, Bextiyar Gülnezer, Yixing Zhang, Aarif Lee Zhi-ting, Chen Li, Max Huang, Kim Hee-seon, Shawn Dou Yecheng Zheng, Ray Lui Leung Wai
Running Time: 130 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Back in 2021 I wrote a retrospective on Jackie Chan and Stanley Tong called ‘Giving the People What They Want’, framed from the perspective of how their collaborations as director and star always appealed to the demographic Chan was catering to at that point in his career. In the closing line I’d speculated how “when the pandemic is over we’ll need a movie that gets people back into cinemas for good, and perhaps Chan and Tong will be the ones to deliver it.” Well, writing in 2024 thankfully for most of the world the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming an increasingly distant memory, and it also happens to be the year when Chan and Tong would reunite, this time for A Legend, the official sequel to their 2005 collaboration The Myth.
I say official because their 2017 atrocity Kung Fu Yoga was originally touted by Chan himself as a sequel, however at some point during production The Myth connection was dropped, despite the glaring similarities. Whereas Kung Fu Yoga opened with an extended Continue reading
“Beyond the Sin” Theatrical Poster
Filmmaker/actor Kwok Man Ki – who is perhaps best known for his assistant director credits on films like 2009’s Bodyguards and Assassins, 2010’s True Legend and Reign of Assassins – is taking on a full director’s credit with Beyond the Sin.
The upcoming thriller stars Louis Koo (The White Storm, Wild City)and Gordon Lam (Z Storm, Nessun Dorma, The Brink) and is produced by Catherine Kwan and Tang Wai But (Full Strike, The Empty Hands).
According to AFS, Beyond the Sin is about a man on the hunt for his daughter’s killer.
Look out for the film in its domestic territory on January 11, 2025. A U.S. release Continue reading
“Nobody” Japanese Poster
Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto (The Big 4, The Night Comes for Us) – of the “Mo Brothers” directing duo (Killers, Headshot, Macabre) – has wrapped production on Nobody 2, the sequel to 2021’s Nobody, which has Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) reprising his lead role.
Tjahjanto directs from a script by Derek Kolstad (John Wick, Nobody), Aaron Rabin (Jack Ryan), Odenkirk, and Umair Aleem (Kate). Kelly McCormick and David Leitch are returning to produce through 87North’s first look deal with Universal, as are Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero through Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment, and Braden Aftergood through Eighty Two Films (via Deadline).
The original film follows a former ‘auditor’ (Odenkirk) for the likes of the CIA and Continue reading
RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2025
On March 3, 2025, 88 Films is releasing a Blu-ray (Region A/B) release for 1970’s Play it Cool, a little-seen gem by one of Japan’s most highly regarded directors of the 1960s, Yasuzō Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi), a filmmaker known for his social satires and powerful portrayals of women.
Play it Cool is a chic and erotically charged drama starring popular Japanese singer of the day Mari Atsumi as a college girl negotiating her way through Continue reading
“Black Cat II” Theatrical Poster
Director: Stephen Shin
Cast: Jade Leung, Robin Shou, Zoltan Buday, Bob Wilde, Alexander Skorokhod, Tatiana Chekhova, Mike Miller, Jack Wong Wai-Leung, Wan Seung-Lam
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Despite Black Cat’s middling box office results, it wasn’t enough to deter D&B Films from continuing to push Jade Leung as a bankable action lead for the 1990’s, and just a year later we’d get a sequel in the form of Black Cat II – The Assassination of President Yeltsin. The production brought back D&B’s executive director Stephen Shin as director, and if anything doubles down on the globetrotting location shoots, keeping America as the setting (before being turned into an assassin in the original, Leung was a waitress at a New York truck stop diner), and having the primary plot play out in Russia.
As a sidenote, at the time of writing in 2024 the good folk at 88 Films released Black Cat II on Blu-ray during the same year, perhaps showing a sense of humour in their timing to put a movie out that shows the American government doing all it can to protect the Russian president. Times have certainly changed. The release is worth noting though as it’s one of the few times for the sequel to be made available with its original English audio, of which the majority Continue reading
The Crow | 4K UHD (Paramount)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the 4K Ultra HD for The Crow, a 1994 thriller from director Alex Proyas (I, Robot) that stars Brandon Lee (Legacy of Rage, Rapid Fire) and Ernie Hudson (The Ghostbusters). The film is often overshadowed by the death of Lee, who was tragically wounded on set.
Based on a series of cult comic books by James O’Barr, The Crow stars Lee as Eric Draven, a rock guitarist who is killed, along with his fiancée, on the eve of their wedding and returns from the dead as “The Crow” to seek revenge.
The Crow also stars David Patrick Kelly (Warriors), Michael Wincott (Nope), Rochelle Davis (Revenge of the Devil Bat), Bai Ling (Maximum Impact), Jon Polito (Miller’s Crossing), Laurence Mason (True Romance), Tony Todd (Candyman), Michael Continue reading
Only the River Flows | Blu-ray (Picture House)
Now available is Picture House’s Blu-ray (Region B) for Only the River Flows, a 2023 thriller directed by Wei Shujun (Ripples of Life) that’s based on Yu Hua’s popular short novel, Mistakes by the River. For U.S. audiences, the film will be released on DVD from KimStim.
1990s small town China. A woman’s body washes up in the local river. The chief of police, Ma Zhe, is tasked with heading up the investigation. An obvious perp leads to a hasty arrest, though the mystery lingers in Ma Zhe’s mind. What kind of darkness is truly at play here?
Director Wei Shujun’s murky throwback film noir, gritty, textured film grain captures the pulpy proceedings. Torrents of rain envelop the characters as they descend into madness in pursuit of the truth. Equal parts atmospheric tour-de-force and Continue reading
Yokohama BJ Blues | Blu-ray (Radiance)
Now available from Radiance is the Blu-ray (Region A/B) for Yokohama BJ Blues, 1981 Japanese thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Eiichi Kudo (13 Assassins).
When his police detective best friend is killed, down-at-heel private eye and part-time blues singer BJ (Yusaku Matsuda, The Game Trilogy) gets the blame. He must start his own investigation to clear his name, but what he uncovers is a tangled web involving crooked cops, drug-dealing gangsters, the city’s underground gay and biker scenes, and even his own past.
A loose remake of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye that also draws from Visconti’s Death in Venice, this was Matsuda’s break with his action hero image. Samurai movie veteran Eiichi Continue reading
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on Bow-wow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay! Martial arts star Scott Adkins and Jesse V. Johnson teaming up for ‘Irish Dog’Pleasure is ours! =) Thank you stopping in throughout the years!
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