On November 5th, 2019, Universal Home Entertainment is releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Undercover Brother 2 (aka Undercover Brother’s Brother), the sequel to 2002’s Undercover Brother.
This time around, martial arts star Michael Jai White (Triple Threat, Accident Man) takes over the role of “Undercover Brother,” who was previously played by comedian Eddie Griffin.
Way back in 2002, the brothers were hot on the heels of The Man, the leader of a racist, worldwide syndicate known as The Organization, but accidentally got caught in an avalanche of oppressive, white snow. Sixteen years later, they are discovered, thawed out, and as Undercover Brother remains in a coma, Lionel sets out to finish the job they started. With the help of The Brotherhood, an old foe, and an ethereal vision of Undercover Brother guiding him along the way, Lionel must take on an even more dangerous threat to the black community and the world – extreme “wokeness”!
Netflix has released a Trailer for their original Taiwanese series Nowhere Man, which comes from director Chen Yin-jung (aka Chen Dj). The series stars Joseph Chang (Wild City), Jeremiah Zhang, Po-chieh Wang (Bodyguards and Assassins) and Ming-fu Zhou (Welcome to the Happy Days).
To Ah Quan (Chang) and his fellow triad brothers, fate seems have left them few choices. One mysterious night led the brothers down a convoluted web of love, hate, manipulation, and revenge. As a result, Ah Quan must do whatever it takes to save his family and himself, and finally face the consequences of his past choices.
Season 1 of Nowhere Man streams on Netflix on October 31st. Until then, don’t miss the series’ Trailer below:
“Ghost Move” is the name of a mysterious character in The Divine Move who is known as “the god of Go.” The audience had many questions about the character at the end of the first film and it appears as if “Ghost Move” will be a prequel about that character (via Soompai).
Savage marks the directorial debut of Cui Siwei, who is perhaps best-known for penning Jackie Chan’s Bleeding Steel. The film also stars Huang Jue (The Final Master), Liu Hua (The Monkey King) and Li Guangjie (The Wandering Earth).
Buried by treacherous conditions at the top of Mt. Baekdu, a policeman must brave the extreme weather until his transfer comes through. When a group of thieves stumbles into the station in search of safe shelter, both sides must fight for survival.
On December 10th, 2019, Kino Lorber will release the Blu-ray for 1984’s Iceman, starring Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), John Lone (Year of the Dragon) and Lindsay Crouse (House of Games).
Read the official details:
From director Fred Schepisi (Six Degrees of Separation) comes Iceman, a suspenseful drama about a team of Arctic researchers who find a 40,000-year-old man frozen in ice and bring him back to life.
Anthropologist Stanley Shephard (Hutton) wants to befriend the Iceman (Lone) and learn about the man’s past; Dr. Diane Brady (Crouse) and her surgical team want to discover the secret that will allow man to live in a frozen state. When the Iceman becomes part of their lives, the results are emotionally shattering.
Beautifully shot on location in Canada’s breathtaking snowy wilderness by Ian Baker (Plenty, Roxanne). The strong supporting cast includes David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Josef Sommer (Witness) and James Tolkan (Back to the Future).
Special Features:
New! Audio Commentary by Director Fred Schepisi
New! Audio Commentary by Film Historian and Critic Peter Tonguette
On October 11th, 2019, audiences will finally see the return of filmmaker Roger Avary, who is perhaps best known for 1993’s Killing Zoe, 2002’s The Rules of Attraction, and his co-writing credit with Quentin Tarantino for 1994’s Pulp Fiction.
In Lucky Day, Avary’s first directorial project since 2004’s Glitterati, Red (Luke Bracey), a safe cracker who has just been released from prison, is trying to hold his family together as his past catches up with him in the form of Luck (Crispin Glover), a psychopathic contract killer who’s seeking revenge for the death of his brother.
Lucky Day also stars Nina Dobrev (xXx: Return of Xander Cage), Clé Bennett (Jigsaw), Clifton Collins Jr. (The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day) and Hong Kong actress Josie Ho (Full Strike). Martial arts film fanatics will welcome the inclusion of Mark Dacascos (John Wick 3, Ultimate Justice, Maximum Impact), who previously worked with Avary in 1998’s Boogie Boy.
Lucky Day will be playing in select theaters and everywhere On Demand on Friday, October 11 from Lionsgate. Don’t miss the New Red Band Trailer below:
Director: Hung Tzu-Hsuan Cast: J.C. Lin, Kang Ren Wu, Nana Lee, Nikki Hsieh, Frederick Ming Zhong Lee, Jack Kao, Ming-Shuai Shih, Ling-Li Chen, Naomi Lee, Ming-Lieh Hsu Running Time: 105 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Modern Taiwanese cinema may be well regarded for its dramas and arthouse fare, however one genre that definitely isn’t likely to spring to mind is the action one. While there have been some notable efforts, such as the Black & White TV series spin-off movies (2012’s The Dawn of Assault and 2014’s The Dawn of Justice) and the 2015 gangster flick Gatao (plus its 2018 Collin Chou starring sequel, Rise of the King), none of the titles mentioned have resonated beyond local shores. It’s a shame, as they’re certainly no worse than many of the big budget Mainland China productions that get distributed in the West, however one movie that’s planning to change all that is The Scoundrels.
Arriving with neither a big budget nor an established director, first time feature length helmer Hung Tzu-Hsuan instead looks to anchor his movies success on the promise of a gritty story and hard hitting action. Well, he has my attention at least. Riffing on the theme of the disgraced sports star who turns to crime, much like the 2014 Korean gangster tale For the Emperor, in The Scoundrels we meet a down on his luck former up and coming basketball star who’s fallen on hard times.
Played by J.C. Lin (The Last Painting), we learn that a while ago his temper sent a heckling fan to hospital during a game, which results in him reluctantly joining a gang of car thieves to pay off his victim’s medical bills. Working amongst the bottom rungs of the gang, Lin’s only role is the menial task of placing hidden GPS trackers on the vehicles the gang want to steal, so that they can easily be tracked. The other scoundrel that the plural of the title refers to is known as the Raincoat Robber. A thief who specialises in robbing armoured trucks during downpours, adorned in a matching black trench coat and motorcycle helmet, his daylight robberies have made him the stuff of legend. Played by Wu Kang Ren (White Ant), when one of the cars Lin places a GPS tracker on turns out to be Ren Wu’s, not only is he caught red handed, but also ends up being forced at gun point to help Ren Wu, leading to the pair forming an uneasy partnership.
It’s the dynamic between the pair that anchors The Scoundrels, with Ren Wu seizing the opportunity for Lin to put him in contact with the gang boss, who he hopes will help him launder the stolen cash, and Lin’s gradual realisation that he may be able to leverage Ren Wu to get a decent pay day for once. All the while Lin has to deal with his nurse girlfriend (Nana Lee, Rookie Chef), who’s written him off as a no-hoper, and Ren Wu knows that an innocent bystander (Nikki Hsieh, The Assassin), hospitalised after being caught in the crossfire of his last heist, could expose his identity to the cops. So you have two amoral protagonists, placed in a situation to make them the equivalent of tightly wound coils, attempting to work together for their own individual benefit. It’s a recipe for an entertaining movie if ever there was one (and indeed there have been several, with the likes of Changing Lanes and Collateral immediately springing to mind).
For the most part, The Scoundrels does indeed entertain. Tzu-Hsuan has directed several action-themed short films before, and the energetic tone of those endeavours is successfully transferred across to a full length feature. A sizable amount of the credit also has to go to action choreographer Scott Hung, who was responsible for choreographing the previously mentioned Gatao 2: Rise of the King, and puts together a handful of entertainingly chaotic group brawls. While Taiwan is geographically closer to Hong Kong, the style of action on display more closely resembles the rough and tumble aesthetic found in many Korean movies, and there was more than once when the fists and kicks on display reminded me of the likes of The Merciless.
A restaurant brawl is a highlight, with Lin and Ren Wu cornering the gang boss (Frederick Ming Zhong Lee, Petaling Street Warriors) when he’s eating alone, only to discover he owns the whole restaurant. What follows is a highly creative throwdown against multiple opponents, as the pair utilise spicy sauce, a yum cha table, and most amusingly, a CCTV camera. When Lin rips the camera off the wall to brandish as a weapon, the point of view frequently switches to that of the camera itself, as its used as a kind of makeshift brick, in a sequence which shows both a flair for comedy and a welcome breath of creativity. Much like the Ma Dong-seok vehicle Unstoppable, the brawl also incorporates one opponent who’s clearly proficient in taekwondo, and whose kicks lead to some satisfying impacts and falls. It’s a joyous scene to watch as an action fan, and delivers where it counts.
The action scenes are also distinctively filmed in a different way than the rest of the movie, with a switch to hand-held cameras and what I’d guess are most likely GoPro’s, which allow for a variety of creative angles and impact shots. The camerawork adds a welcome franticness to the action, while never obscuring it, and in some scenes recalled the amazing opening to The Villainess. Much like the pedestrian bridges of Hong Kong frequently played a part in the contemporary action flicks of the territories cinematic heyday, so to Tzu-Hsuan makes great use of Kaohsiung’s many alleyways and high density architecture for a tense chase scene. It’s a reminder that Taiwan shouldn’t be ruled out when we discuss Asia’s action movie output, even if such outings are rare.
Action isn’t the only trick that Tzu-Hsuan has up his sleeve though, with the latter half displaying some smart storytelling choices thanks to some surprising twists. The direction The Scoundrels goes down sends it into heist movie territory, and it’s here that the signs of a debut feature length director begin to show themselves. While the execution is effectively executed, the tonal shift from the briskly paced and action sprinkled first half puts a dent in the momentum, despite the plot choices being one of the productions strengths.
The characterisation that I was expecting to develop never really happens either. We know Lin has a violent temper, it’s the trait which led to him being in the situation he’s in, however it’s never explored as to why he’s like that. Similarly for what Ren Wu’s real motivations are, beyond those which are briefly hinted at. We never really have a chance to be invested in his character, as we don’t get to know him enough to understand the why of what he does. Thankfully though with a runtime of 105 minutes, these flaws are forgivable, and The Scoundrels doesn’t stick around long enough to dwell upon them, making for a movie that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
While the inevitable final confrontation between Lin and Ren Wu is suitably punishing, the choreography loses that energetic spark that was present during the group brawls, instead opting for a scrappy showdown that serves to show just how desperate they both are. It’s a worthy finish, however how much audiences enjoy it will likely depend on how much they accept the fact that tonally, The Scoundrels ends feeling considerably different than how it starts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and for those who find the concept of two guys being able to beat up a small army to be a little on the unrealistic side, the change in direction may even be a welcome one.
The Scoundrels is a solid genre effort, delivering a well-paced crime thriller which has a healthy dose of action. As a feature length debut, it’ll serve as an effective calling card for Tzu-Hsuan to present himself as a leading voice for the action genre in Taiwan, so here’s hoping he gets another chance to use it sooner rather than later. The fact that it’s a Mandarin language production that doesn’t need to end with the cops showing up to arrest all the bad guys and remind us that crime doesn’t pay, well, that’s just a bonus.
If you’ve read Paul Bramhall’s article Made (& Remade) in Asia, this next bit of news is hardly a surprise. In 2013, a South Korean thriller film called Montage was released; in 2016 it was remade in Hindi as Te3n; now a Chinese remake, titled The Guilty Ones, is on its way this year (via AFS).
The Guilty Ones (aka You Are the Murderer) follows a terminally ill mother who finds renewed determination to catch the perpetrator who abducted and killed her daughter ten years ago.
Rambo: The Complete Collector’s Set | Blu-ray (Lionsgate)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for the Rambo: The Complete Collector’s Set, which includes all 4 Rambo movies: First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008) – plus over 20 explosive bonus features.
The series chronicles a reluctant killing machine (Sylvester Stallone) as he wages war against corrupt global forces – all while facing a battle within his own soul.
Co-stars include Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Julia Nickson, Steven Berkoff, Martin Kove and George Cheung.
Disaster filmmaker Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla) is at it again with Midway. The film stars Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy), Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers), Mandy Moore (47 Meters Down) and Nick Jonas (Camp Rock).
Midway centers on the Battle of Midway, a clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater during WWII. The film, based on the real-life events of this heroic feat, tells the story of the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome the odds.
Midway also stars Ed Skrein, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Etsushi Toyokawa (20th Century Boys: Chapter 1), Tadanobu Asano (Ichi The Killer), Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura (The Wailing), Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Alexander Ludwig, with Dennis Quaid.
Lionsgate will release the film in theaters on November 8th, 2019. Don’t miss its Trailer below:
On November 26th, 2019, Lionsgate will be releasing the DVD for Mark Dacascos’ zombie thriller The Driver (read our review), which comes from director Wych Kaosayananda, whose credits include Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Tekken 2: Kazuya’s Revenge, and Angels (which was reborn as Zero Tolerence).
Dacascos (Drive, Brotherhood of the Wolf) is enjoying a much deserved career resurgence of late, and arrives in Thailand after a double dose of high impact and high octane action on Netflix’ Wu Assassins and facing off against Keanu Reeves on John Wick 3(not to mention Roger Avary’s upcoming Lucky Day).
The Driver (no, it’s not a sequel to Drive – more’s the pity!) sees Dacascos getting back into action and behind the wheel, opposite his real life wife Julie Condra (with whom he co-starred in Crying Freeman) and their daughter Noelani.
After a plague of the undead decimates human life on earth, a former hit man (Dacascos, Ultimate Justice), his wife (Julie Condra, Eerie, Indiana), and daughter, Bree (Noelani Dacascos, Oh Lucy!), live quietly in a survivalist compound. But when their base is attacked, a massive explosion summons a swarm of the undead. They escape and must seek out the Haven – a rumored sanctuary up north – while the father teaches his daughter to shoot, drive, and survive before time runs out.
AKA: Dragon Tattoo Director: Fruit Chan Cast: Max Zhang, Annie Liu, Anderson Silva, Stephy Tang, Kevin Cheng, Lam Suet, Richard Ng Running Time: 100 min.
By Paul Bramhall
I’ll be the first to admit I’m a huge fan of when directors that have a distinctive style decide to take on the martial arts genre. From Peter Chan’s take on the wuxia genre with 2011’s Wu Xia, to Wong Kar-Wai’s interpretation of Ip Man in 2013’s Grandmaster, to Soi Cheang’s suitably gritty 2015 sequel SPL II: A Time for Consequences. Each of them maintained their respective sense of style and tone, while equally delivering on the promise of some action that’s such an integral part of making a kung fu flick. So it’s fair to say I felt a tad excited when I heard that Fruit Chan was also going to be dipping his feet into the world of fists and kicks.
Chan’s carved out his own distinctive voice in the world of Hong Kong cinema, and having been active as a director since the early 90’s, some of his most well regarded titles include the likes of Made in Hong Kong, the Dumplings segment in the horror anthology Three…Extremes (which would go on to be turned into a feature length movie), and The Midnight After. Over 25 years since his debut, it’s taken until 2019 for Chan to take a crack at a martial arts flick, which arrives in the form of The Invincible Dragon.
Casting kung fu man of the moment Max Zhang, hot off the heels of headlining The Brink and Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy, the plot see’s Zhang in the kind of angry cop role that Donnie Yen used to have cornered in the 1990’s. He’s introduced as a black eye-line wearing undercover cop (because nothing screams legitimate gangster like black eye-liner), whose activities have aroused the suspicions of the big boss, played by Lam Suet. As a fan of Hong Kong cinema, there’s something mysteriously reassuring about seeing Lam Suet onscreen, almost as if his presence alone makes the production feel legitimately HK. He doesn’t stick around long though, as no sooner has he appeared than Zhang ruthlessly shoots his arm off, in one of the most bloodless decapitations ever committed to screen. Exit Lam Suet, enter confused viewer.
With Zhang established as the hot-headed cop, the plot emerges to involve the hunt for a serial killer who targets female cops. When Zhang’s own fiancé (Stephy Tang, The Empty Hands) is kidnapped by the killer during a sting, his failure to save her sends him into a spiral of depression, OCD, and underground boxing. The story picks up several years later, when after a long silence it appears the serial killer may have become active again after a female cop is murdered in Macau. With Zhang now a dishevelled shadow of his former self, the re-emergence of the killer gives him a glimmer of hope that he could still find his fiancé alive, and gives him the purpose needed to spring back into action (minus the black eye-liner).
In perhaps the biggest non-spoiler reveal of the year, the serial killer turns out to be UFC legend Anderson Silva (who we meet via him jumping out of a bathtub in slow motion. I’m serious). After essentially playing himself in small supporting parts in D-grade MMA flicks like Never Surrender and Tapped Out, here he gets top billing opposite Zhang, and the pair share some of the most excruciatingly painful English dialogue you’re ever likely to hear. In one scene at the police station, Silva reacts to Zhang’s dragon tattoo, and says with a deadpan expression, “In Hong Kong people love animals”. Kevin Cheng, playing another cop, then replies with a similar deadpan expression, “Yes, we do.” The script is literally full of baffling exchanges such as the above. In another scene Silva yells “You need to die or be killed!”, and at one point the cops identify that Silva is “speaking Brazilian.”
Worse still, Silva’s partner is played by Juju Chan, and together they deserve an award for the least convincing onscreen couple of the century. Silva can’t act, and his slightly effeminate line delivery doesn’t do him any favours in the imposing bad guy department. Juju Chan fares slightly better, but really that’s only because the bar has been set so low. Zhang himself is clearly in a role several leagues out of his limited range. His cop on the edge requires the kind of nuance and intensity that an actor like Liao Fan or Tony Leung Chiu-Wai make look effortless, but Zhang throws himself at the role with all the subtlety of a bull in a China shop.
Frankly, Invincible Dragon is a mind-bending misfire that lands so far off the mark, it becomes a train wreck that’s impossible to look away from. Quite what Chan was looking to achieve is, in its current form, almost impossible to say. The whole thing is intermittently narrated in retrospect by a narrator who sounds like he’s just come out of a coma, and provides odd disclaimers whenever they’re needed to ensure things stay China-friendly. When the plot threatens to imply that Zhang may in fact be mentally unstable, the narrator jumps in to inform us that “From a medical perspective….”, and remind us that he has depression and OCD. It’s bizarre.
But without doubt the most bizarre element of Invincible Dragon, is the dragon itself. Zhang has a fixation with a 9-headed dragon that saved him from drowning when he was a kid, so much so that he has it tattooed all over his torso, and has been waiting for it to show itself again ever since. I enjoyed the intrigue behind the concept of the dragon, and was trying to figure out which part of Zhang’s psyche each of the 9 heads represented. Alas, I was overthinking things. As it turns out, there actually is a 9-headed dragon lurking in the waters of Hong Kong, and in the final fight which pits Zhang versus Silva, it shows up to lend a hand. Yes, if you thought a killer whale turning up to help Andy Lau in Moon Warriors was over the top, trust me when I say you ain’t seen nothing yet. The arrival of the dragon knock’s Chan’s latest off the rails, into orbit, before landing on an astral plane that as humans we’re still not evolved enough to understand.
If only the action was as bombastic and absurd as everything that surrounds it, The Invincible Dragon may still have held some goodwill, however the usually reliable pairing of Stephen Tung Wei (Fox Hunter) and Jack Wong (Keeper of Darkness) is here surprisingly uninspired and lacklustre. A scooter chase which should have taken a few notes from In the Line of Duty 4 unfolds at a snail’s pace, with stunts that would put even the most forgiving action fan to sleep. Zhang faces off against Juju Chan in a train that (much like the movie itself) goes off the rails, and they continue to fight as it spins through the air, which somehow feels more exciting to write than it was to actually watch. The real issue though is Silva, as it becomes apparent that nobody knew how to apply his skillset to a screen fighting aesthetic. The choreography of his fight with Zhang is pedestrian, and the danger of watching him in the ring is nullified as a screen fighter.
Thankfully though, everything else about their confrontation has the absurd dial cranked up to 11, making for an unintentionally hysterical end to a consistently head scratching 95 minutes. Zhang and Silva yell insults at each other throughout the fight, and they both take turns at yelling “That’s my line!” back at each other to certain put-downs. It’s awesome. The fight even has the audacity to lift wholesale the drawing pins to the face scene from The Night Comes for Us, but luckily they’re just getting started. Ending up on the top of Macau Tower, Zhang gets in touch with his inner-crazy (think a sanitised version of Leung Kar Yan at the end of Thundering Mantis), and what follows involves a side-splitting mix of bungee jumping, lines like “Let’s fly!”, and action that’s as awkward as the acting.
Is The Invincible Dragon some kind of in-joke that only Fruit Chan understands, or is it a legitimate attempt to make a fusion of the thriller, martial arts, and fantasy genres? Chances are we’ll never know the answer, and maybe that’s for the best. At one point Silva yells “Enough, stop!”, and it could just as well have been a line that Fruit Chan would have benefitted from hearing when he pitched the idea for The Invincible Dragon. Ranking up there with the likes of Switch and The Bounty Hunters, it’s an unfathomably incomprehensible disaster, but one that would no doubt make for a fun watch under the correct circumstances.
Louis Koo (Paradox, Three) returns in A Witness out of the Blue, an upcoming action-thriller from writer/director Andrew Fung Chih-Chiang (Concerto of the Bully) and producer Derek Yee (Sword Master, Shinjuku Incident).
According to FEF, A Witness out of the Blue centers around a police detective who must rely on his only witness – a parrot, to help him catch the killer of an armed robber.
“The Machine Girl: Jacked! Definitive Decade One” Blu-ray Cover
RELEASE DATE: November 26, 2019
On November 26th, 2019, Tokyo Shock is releasing the 2-Disc Blu-ray Deluxe Edition for Noboru Iguchi’s The Machine Girl: Jacked! Definitive Decade One, starring Minase Yashiro (Kamen Rider Zi-O).
Read the official details below:
With newly discovered high definition elements, now is the perfect time to rev up the engine and roll out The Machine Girl for another spin! Looking sharper and better than ever, The Machine Girl: Jacked! is the definitive deluxe double-disc HD release on Blu-ray and DVD boasting almost two hours of supplementary materials!
A high school girl’s (Yashiro) life is destroyed when her brother is killed. When her hand is cut off, she gets help from two mechanics, who fit her with a machine gun where her arm used to be. She unleashes her fury, avenging her brother’s death.
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Netflix has released a Trailer for their original Taiwanese series Nowhere Man, which comes from director Chen Yin-jung (aka Chen Dj). The series stars Joseph Chang (
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