Cheng Pei-pei, the Chinese-born action film icon who starred in Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and King Hu’s seminal wuxia feature Come Drink With Me, has died on July 17, 2024 from a degenerative Continue reading
Kid from Kwangtung | Blu-ray (88 Films)
RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2024
On October 28, 2024, 88 Films is releasing the Blu-ray (Region A/B) for Kid From Kwangtung, a 1982 Shaw Brothers kung fu comedy from director Hsu Hsia (Crystal Hunt, Thunder Run).
From the legendary Shaw Brothers Studio, here’s something a bit funnier than their usual fare: after an evil martial arts master, played by the very great Hwang Jang-li (Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow), kills their own teacher, Wong Yu (Executioners from Shaolin) and Chiang Kam (The Young Master) realize that they’re next. But can the squabbling duo put their differences aside long enough to defeat him?
With spirited slapstick, supernatural silliness and some jaw-dropping fights that really have to be seen to be believed, Kid From Kwangtung is gravity-defying Continue reading
The Kung Fu Instructor | Blu-ray (88 Films)
RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2024
On October 28, 2024, 88 Films is releasing the Blu-ray (Region A/B) for The Kung Fu Instructor, a 1979 Shaw Brothers kung fu film directed by Sun Chung (The Deadly Breaking Sword).
In this bitterly divided town, there’s no middle ground; you’re either with one side or the other – cross the line and face dire consequences. One clan hires a kung fu master – played by the great Ti Lung (A Better Tomorrow) – to break the stalemate, but he’s nobody’s servant and his loyalties can’t be bought so easily…
Inspired by Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, The Kung Fu Instructor puts a slightly more cynical spin on traditional codes of honour. Stylishly directed by Sun Continue reading
Facets of Love | Blu-ray (88 Films)
RELEASE DATE: October 8, 2024
On October 8, 2024, 88 Films is releasing a Blu-ray (Region A/B) for Facets of Love, an erotic Shaw Brothers classic directed by Li Han-Hsiang (Hsi Shih Beauty of Beauties, The Enchanting Shadow, The Magnificent Concubine).
The film stars Lily Ho Li-Li (14 Amazons), Yueh Hua (The Water Margin), Hu Chin (The Ghost Story), Teresa Ha Ping (Lucky Stars Go Places), Cheng Kang-Yeh (Daggers 8), Su Hsiang (Men of the Hour) and Lydia Shum Tin-Ha (Tiger of Northland). There’s even a small early appearance from Jackie Chan!
A costume drama like no other, Facets of Love tells the stories of the Shanghai brothel in the early years of the 20th century: of its devious owners, of the unhappy innocents that have been tricked into Continue reading
“Cobra Kai” Season 6 Poster
Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg – all writers, producers, and directors of Cobra Kai – are prepping the final 6th Season of the Cobra Kai saga, which will stream on Netflix.
The upcoming season will be a 3-part, 15-episode event that starts July 18th, then November 15th and ends in 2025 on a soon-to-be-announced date.
Cobra Kai marked the return of Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and Martin Kove playing their respective roles from the highly successful motion picture franchise (the first two were directed by legendary Rocky helmer, John G. Avildsen) that spawned three sequels, a remake, as well as an upcoming Continue reading
Shanghai Triad | Blu-ray (Film Movement)
On July 30, 2024, Film Movement is re-releasing the remastered Blu-ray for Shanghai Triad, a 1995 thriller directed by Zhang Yimou (Hero, The Great Wall, Shadow).
The film stars Gong Li (2046), Li Baotian (The Wanderer and the Swan), Li Xuejian (Monk Comes Down The Mountain) and Sun Chun (New Police Story).
When teenager Shuisheng (Wang Xiaoxiao Cuihua) arrives to Shanghai from the country, he is brought by his uncle (Li Xuejian) to work for gang leader Tang (Li Baotian). Tang assigns Shuisheng to aid his girlfriend Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li), a nightclub singer. After a rival gang kills some Continue reading
“Universial Soldier” Blu-ray Cover
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for John Hyams’ Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (read our review), starring Jean-Claude Van Damme (Cyborg), Scott Adkins (Hard Target 2), Andrei “The Pit Bull” Arlovski (Universal Soldier: Regeneration) and Dolph Lundgren (Skin Trade).
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning also features top notch action choreography by Larnell Stovall (The Raid 2, Falcon Rising, Kickboxer: Vengeance).
In Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, John (Adkins) wakes up from a coma to discover his wife and daughter were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Haunted by images of the attack, he vows to kill the man responsible Luc Continue reading
“Operation Leviathan” Theatrical Poster
Director Dante Lam (Beast Cops, The Rescue) has been reliably turning out hard-hitting films that have helped expand the scope of the action/thriller genre in Hong Kong and his next film, Operation Leviathan – the follow up to 2016’s Operation Mekong and 2018’s Operation Red Sea – will continue the tradition.
The film stars Xuan Huang (Extraordinary Mission), Yosh Yu (Born to Fly), Zhang Hanyu (Manhunt), Karry Wang (The Great Wall), Luxia Jiang (Double World), Chen Li (Never Say Never), Cory Beeston (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Yihong Duan (Wind Blast) and Ivan Kostadinov (Boyka: Undisputed IV).
For Operation Leviathan, you can obviously expect more of Lam’s knack for Continue reading
“Phantom” Theatrical Poster
Director: Lee Hae-Young
Cast: Sol Kyung-Gu, Lee Ha-Nee, Park So-Dam, Park Hae-Soo, Seo Hyun-Woo, Kim Jong-Soo, Bibi, Esom, Lee Joo-Young, Kim Dong-Hee, Kim Joong-Hee
Running Time: 133 min.
By Paul Bramhall
If someone asked if I could recall the name of that Korean movie which was set in 1933, and involves a group of independence fighters whose mission is to assassinate an official in the occupying Japanese government, chances are I’d confidently answer its director Choi Dong-hoon’s 2015 blockbuster Assassination. However as of 2023 I’d only have a 50% chance of being correct, as Phantom shares a plot which is practically identical.
Director Lee Hae-yeong’s (Foxy Festival, The Silenced) 4th solo outing in the director’s chair, Phantom marks his first production since 2018’s Believer (mercifully he didn’t return for the sequel), and marks a welcome return to the kind of period piece action thriller that’s been missing in action from Korean screens for far too long. Adapted from Chinese novelist Mai Jia’s The Message, Hae-yeong transfers the setting from Japan occupied China in 1941 to Japan Continue reading
Now shipping from Goodie Emporium is Film Masters’ Special Edition Blu-ray (Region A) for The Crippled Masters (not to be confused with 1978’s Crippled Avengers), a 1979 martial arts/exploitation film from director Joe Law (The Lost Secrets of Kung Fu).
The Crippled Masters features two genuinely handicapped martial artists: Shun Chung-Chuen (Two Crippled Heroes) and Thomas Hong Continue reading
Demon Pond | 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (Criterion)
RELEASE DATE: October 15, 2024
On October 15, 2024, Criterion is releasing 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray for Demon Pond, a 1979 film from Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda (Ballad of Orin), who transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia.
When a lone traveler (Tsutomu Yamazaki) stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants—including lovers Akira (Go Kato) and Yuri (Kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando, who also plays the ethereal princess reigning over the water) — in their hands. Set to the swirling strains of electronic-music pioneer Isao Tomita’s synth score, Demon Pond blends theatrical artifice with cinematic Continue reading
When you watch a narrative unfold on the screen, you’re going to see some recurring tropes in action. It’s a fact of fiction – tropes make stories and stories need to use tropes to create tension, drama, and (hopefully) a satisfying ending! And sure, some tropes are overplayed and downright boring by now, but some are fun and enjoyable and keep us coming back for more. Indeed, we’ve listed three such tropes below; these story elements have stood the test of time and still pull in massive audiences to this day.
The Leads are Total Opposites
We’re often told in real life that ‘opposites attract’, but never is that more true than in fiction. Most commonly found in holiday movies and romantic comedies, when the lead characters are total opposites of each other but can’t help being drawn together, audiences eat the story up every single time!
It’s a good way to fire up chemistry between the characters (and occasionally the lead actors), and it can be very entertaining to watch them clash over the course of the story as they come to understand each other.
It’s a classic conflict that’s fun to see picked apart and unravelled as the narrative marches on, and seeing as human beings can have a thousand different problems with each other, there’s a chance for a fresh take on this trope every single time.
Training Montage
A classic element of the standard martial art film you’ll see in every era of cinema, a training montage takes us from A to B in terms of a character’s progression from amateur to professional.
Training montages are a great way to keep the story moving and maintain a good pace, without losing out on the context of a character’s actions. We get to see the effort involved, usually accompanied by an entertaining musical score, but we don’t have to sit through hours of back and forth to prove that the character has changed and grown.
Genius Detective
We all love a genius detective character, no matter what form they come in. Sherlock Holmes is the classic detective genius – the kind who helps to solve classic crime mysteries in the Victorian era – but characters like Beniot Blanc, who’s more of a modern take on this archetype, fit the bill perfectly as well.
We all love to see puzzles being solved, if only for the satisfaction of having our own theories confirmed, but the intricacy involved in writing these stories has impressed audiences for centuries. It takes a clever writer to truly fool the audience, but when clues are hidden in plain sight from the moment the film began, the watcher gets to put themselves in the genius detective’s shoes. That’s always a nice feeling!
Movie tropes can be fun to identify and pick apart, and they’re always going to be at the core of story writing. The next time you sit down to watch a movie, see if you can spot the tropes at play.
Kill 4K | 4K Ultra HD SteelBook (Lionsgate)
Lionsgate continues to pump out John Wick-like/The Raid-esque product with Kill, a Hindi-language martial arts actioner from director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (Hurdang) that’s headlined by Lakshya (Haseena).
According to Korean Film Expert Paul Bramhall, some of the film’s action was choreographed by Oh Se-young, whose notable work includes Bollywood films such as Tiger 3 and War, as well as stunts for Snowpiercer and War of the Arrows.
When army commando Amrit (Lakshya) finds out his true love Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) is engaged against her will, he boards a New Delhi-bound train in a daring quest to derail the arranged marriage. But when a gang of knife-wielding thieves Continue reading
RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2024
On October 28, 2024, Radiance Films is releasing the 3-Film Blu-ray (Region A/B) set for Daiei Gothic – Japanese Ghost Stories, which includes 1959’s The Ghost of Yotsuya, 1968’s The Snow Woman, and 1968’s The Bride from Hades.
A collection of three of Japan’s most famous ghost stories that have haunted people for centuries. Kenji Misumi (Lone Wolf and Cub) directs The Ghost of Yotsuya, in which a woman returns from the grave as a horribly disfigured phantom to torment her husband and his new bride. In The Snow Woman, directed by Tokuzo Tanaka (Zatoichi), a woodcutter must Continue reading
Avenging Force | Blu-ray (Kino Lorber)
RELEASE DATE: September 10, 2024
On September 10, 2024, Kino Lorber will be re-releasing the Blu-ray for Avenging Force (aka Night Hunter), a 1986 Cannon Films’ actioner directed by Sam Firstenberg (Revenge of the Ninja) and starring Michael Dudikoff (American Ninja).
Dudikoff portrays Matt Hunter – a character previously portrayed by Chuck Norris in 1985’s Invasion U.S.A. – an ex-secret service agent trying to protect his best friend from a super band of rightwing terrorists known as Pentangle. When the ruthless organization torches his ranch and kidnaps his little sister, Hunter is forced into Pentangle’s barbaric “manhunt”, played out in the remote swamplands of Louisiana. It’s the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse, as Hunter employs an awesome array of martial arts skills in his desperate Continue reading
on A hunk, a hunk of ‘Burning Blood’! ‘Young and Dangerous’ stars Jordan Chan, Michael Tse and Jerry Lamb fire it up!oh another generic cgi mainland cop snorefest, great
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’Its not just the commies fault that HK stopped making the movies you love....…
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’Thanks for giving me some titles I haven't seen yet to check out (Once Upon A…
on Tony Jaa will make America great again! Well Go USA is giving ‘Striking Rescue’ a U.S. theatrical release in DecemberThis is actually a pretty good movie. The plot and the acting are all cinema-… on Tony Jaa will make America great again! Well Go USA is giving ‘Striking Rescue’ a U.S. theatrical release in DecemberAmen. Some of the best action movies out of China/HK are going straight to st…
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’Based on that notion, there haven’t been any good Chinese martial art films s…
on High Forces (2024) ReviewLOL!!! =)
on High Forces (2024) Reviewi couldn't be more focused, i'm getting high right now. on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’That being said, it looks vastly more appealing to me than any martial arts f…
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’I agree. They need to stick to their martial arts garbage, which all looks th… on Netflix ‘n KILL! Streaming giant awakens the English-language remake of Kim Jee-woon’s 2005 hit ‘A Bittersweet Life’I would feel better about this if an auteur type of film maker or someone who…
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’Tom Cruise is a Samurai... you forget ;) on Tony Jaa will make America great again! Well Go USA is giving ‘Striking Rescue’ a U.S. theatrical release in DecemberThere have been some pretty good, straight to streaming "low budget" movies.…
on The final ‘Mission Impossible’ we reckon? Watch the action-packed Teaser for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’This isn't an asian or martial arts film. COF not on fire. on High Forces (2024) ReviewNot imprtant! please focus on what's important!
on High Forces (2024) Reviewi honestly don't get the reference. only thing i find about DEI on the intern…
on Jackie Chan – Cameo Story: His Top 10 HK Cinema Cameos"I’d love to see 88 Films, Eureka or Arrow pump out a special edition of “Fea…
on Tony Jaa will make America great again! Well Go USA is giving ‘Striking Rescue’ a U.S. theatrical release in DecemberIn china, the movie go straight online, which mean it is low budget. Low budg… on Die Hard in a bar unit? Watch action scenes from Scott Adkins’ latest thriller ‘Take Cover’I rented Take Cover on Vudu a few days ago, and it’s decent. Certainly much b… on We always thought they looked alike! Scott Adkins joins Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Joe Carnahan’s thriller ‘RIP’I hope Adkins has a sizable role. Affleck has to be familiar with his filmogr… on We always thought they looked alike! Scott Adkins joins Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Joe Carnahan’s thriller ‘RIP’are you sure it's not Good Will Hunting 2? on The Tai Chi Master (2022) ReviewI’m glad that Wu Yue and Zhang Kai are playing the same characters as in Woo-…
on What’s going on with Donnie Yen’s ‘Ip Man 5’? Let’s speculate!IP MAN 5 🔥 on ‘Paradox’ and ‘Ip Man 4’ star Wu Yue kicks ass in the Trailer for Well Go USA’s ‘Tai Chi Master’ on Digital on November 12You talkin' to me? There isn't anyone else here, so you must be talkin' to me…
on Love…. exciting and new! 88 Films announces Blu-ray for Teruo Ishii’s 1969 cult thriller ‘Love and Crime’jaydevsethi18@gmail.com
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