Martial arts action star and 11-time World Kickboxing Champion Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Martial Arts Kid, Death Fighter) is back in writer/director Dominik Starck’s The Hitman’s Agency, which is now available to watch on Amazon.
The Hitman’s Agency stars Everett Ray Aponte (Atomic Eden) as Lucas Kane, a professional hitman who uncovers the corruption of his own agency by interrogating the greatest hitman to have ever lived.
The film also stars Erik Hansen (The Countess), Volkram Zschiesche (Arena of the Street Fighter), Wolfgang Riehm (Ultimate Justice) and Don “The Dragon” Wilson’s Traditionz T-shirt.
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 Woo unleashed the heroic bloodshed masterpiece Hard Boiled, and Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh teamed up for Police Story III: Super Cop, to name just a few. In the same year, the booming V-Cinema trend in Japan would collide with Hong Kong’s Girls with Guns genre, the result of which would become Fighting Fist. Japan’s V-Cinema was at its most popular during the early 90’s, a DTV genre mainly aimed at males, which mostly focused on quickly produced action and gangster flicks. The Girls with Guns genre on the other hand, did exactly what it says on the tin – deliver movies with ass-kicking females, usually encompassing plenty of machine gun fire, pyrotechnics, and a healthy dose of fight action.
Fighting Fist is one of the few Japan/Hong Kong co-productions which came out of this era, and notably marked the sophomore directorial feature from karate legend Sonny Chiba. As a director, Chiba had gone all in on his debut, a movie called Yellow Fangs made 2 years prior. Telling the true story of a murderous bear that terrorized a mountain village in 1915, Chiba cast his protégé Hiroyuki Sanada as the lead tasked with hunting the bear, and lavished a sizable amount of his own savings to produce it. Sadly, Yellow Fangs tanked at the box office and almost made Chiba bankrupt, which resulted in him spending most of the 90’s within the V-Cinema genre, and occasionally dabbling in American action B-movies.
For Fighting Fist he’s joined by co-director Casey Chan on the Hong Kong side. Their collaboration would mark the first time for Chan to direct, having previously served as assistant director on The Twin Bracelets from the year prior. It’s safe to assume that it was likely Chan that handled the relatively small segments set in Hong Kong, and Chiba directed the bulk which is set in Japan. While Chan stays completely behind the camera, Chiba can’t resist the temptation to also take a small role in front of it. With a screentime clocking in less than 2 minutes, the Street Fighter plays a superintendent who sends an agent to Hong Kong in order to kill a gangsters brothers and son, believing that it will lure the gangster out (rather extreme I know). His scenes bookend the movie, however most distributors tend to use Chiba’s image when promoting Fighting Fist.
The agent he sends to Hong Kong is played by Shogo Shiotani. A dead ringer for a more youthful Hiroyuki Sanada, Shiotani was a member of the Japan Action Club (that Chiba had to sell off post his Yellow Fangs failure), and clearly has the moves. Shiotani would also appear in Jingle Ma’s Japan set Tokyo Raiders in 2000, however just a couple of years later he tragically committed suicide at just 35, having suffered from depression over the failure of a tokusatsu series he featured in. Once he arrives in Hong Kong, his pursuit of the gangster’s family sees him come on the radar of a pair of HK cops after the same guy, of whom are played by Sibelle Hu and Chin Kar Lok.
This is basically were Fighting Fist’s coherency goes completely out of the window, as the script throws together some of the most unconvincing character connections ever witnessed. It turns out Shiotani and Kar Lok both used to go to karate school together back in the day, and that Kar Lok’s sister (played by Song Lei from The Blade) receives flowers from Shiotani every year on her birthday (because they’re in love!). However after both Hu and Kar Lok witness him massacring the gangsters family members (in a boxed off candle lit area of a warehouse of all places), everyone hightails it across to Japan to track him down. This includes, significantly, a Chinese broadsword wielding Ken Lo (complete with hidden blades in his shoes), playing an assassin whose sole purpose is to kill Shiotani as revenge.
Interestingly there are 2 cuts of Fighting Fist, the Japanese version, which is the one being reviewed here (and which notably has everyone dubbed into Japanese), and the Hong Kong version.* The differences boil down to the Hong Kong version having a more extended fight between Kar Lok and Ken Lo, and the Japanese version containing more gore. The gore certainly stands out in Fighting Fist, sometimes making it feel like the Category III version of a contemporary HK actioner. It’s not so much a spoiler as it is a warning to say that for fans of Kar Lok, this one isn’t worth clocking in for. Not too far into Fighting Fist he has his ear graphically sliced off by Lo’s bladed boots, before the rest of his face is slashed to pieces. He eventually turns up at the police station completely dismembered, his severed head and limbs spread out over a table top.
It’s an excessively brutal end to a character, and is more reflective of the Japanese influence than anything HK was cranking out at the time. Needless to say, Kar Lok is given plenty more to do in the likes of Operation Scorpio and Martial Arts Master Wong Fei Hung, both of which came out during the same year. His early exit understandably gets Sibelle Hu riled up, and she soon finds herself Japan bound in a black PVC number, pre-dating Trinity by a whole 7 years. I couldn’t decide if I found it distasteful or not, but Fighting Fist incorporates a scene when Hu’s character reveals how she was once burnt, at which point she takes off her gloves to reveal the very real scars she suffered on the set of 1989’s Devil Hunters. In the movies finale she suffered the brunt of an explosion which went off too early, encasing her, Moon Lee, and Ray Lui in an unforgiving fireball.
Despite the fact that Fighting Fist throws the likes of Sonny Chiba, Chin Kar Lok, Sibelle Hu, Ken Lo, and Shogo Shiotani onscreen together, there’s a disappointing lack of action. Chiba and Hu in particular get zero to do on the action front, and Hu could be argued to at least be the co-lead (she’s also the character who the HK title references). Action director Ho Wing-Cheung only choreographed 5 movies, the last of which was Fighting Fist, and it’s fairly apparent to see why. Shiotani’s initial raid on the warehouse is a great example of how camera angles can work against selling a kick or a punch, and he uses the annoying step-printing technique that staggers the frame rate. The two main fights both take place between Shiotani and Lo, the first at the hour mark which is more of a chase in and around a warehouse, and a finale which is so short it’s almost funny.
The final showdown between the pair is particularly painful, as not only is it remarkably short, it’s also step-printed to the point that it resembles little more than a series of incomprehensible stills. Still, Lo’s demise is one that manages to raise a smile. Prior to the abrupt end, Shiotani briefly provides some excitement when he turns into a machine gun totting, karate-gi wearing one man army to take on a warehouse full of lackeys. However even typing it, I feel it somehow still manages to sound more exciting on paper than it actually plays out onscreen. Even with the introduction of an old-school style karate master, who teaches Shiotani the “arrow thrust” (a technique that will cause the recipients internal organs to explode 3 days later), proceedings rarely feel anything other than a slog.
Despite Chiba being an electrifying presence in front of the camera, based on Fighting Fist, it’s unfortunate to say that same level of energy wasn’t able to be transferred behind it. Featuring a wasted cast, a plodding pace, lacklustre action, and a level of coherency usually reserved for a Godfrey Ho cut ‘n’ paste flick, it’s a relief to say almost all involved would go onto work on far superior productions. At one point, the old karate master mentions that one technique of delivering the fatal blow, is to thrust your fingers into the opponent’s bowels. Despite such a description making me wince, I feel inclined to say that such an attack maybe less painful to endure than having to sit through Fighting Fist a second time.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 3/10
* The version viewed for this review is likely the one most are familiar with – the 2008 Rarescope release that was paired as a double feature with Soul of Chiba. As with many Rarescope releases, it states on the sleeve that “these films have been lost for many years and these recently discovered prints are the only known surviving elements available.” This is not true for Fighting Fist, and for those curious to check out the Hong Kong version, it’s relatively easy to track down on DVD under the title of Ba Dao Sha Xing, which was released in Cantonese with English subtitles by Hong Kong distributor Wide Sight in 2003.
The Amityville Horror meets Apocalypse Now? That’s the vibe we’re getting from Abishek J. Bajaj’s supernatural thriller, M.I.A.: A Greater Evil. This upcoming Thai-US-UK co-production is written by Peter Alan Lloyd and stars Valerie Bentson (Bad Genius), Lamou Vissay (Truy Sat), Mark Matula, Sarah Ball and Sahajak Boonthanakit (Hard Target 2).
When a group of college students embark on an expedition looking for gold in the jungles of Vietnam, their dreams unravel when a detour leaves them lost and wandering. Tensions mount, as echoes of the Vietnam War follow their every step through the battle-ravaged jungle. Will they find a way out, or will they become the latest victims of a savage and bloody war?
Updates:M.I.A.: A Greater Evil is now available to watch on iTunes and Amazon. Don’t miss it!
Real money online slots are very thrilling. They are probably the most thrilling form of entertainment available. Get Out is an Oscar-winning horror movie that is really giving real money safe online casino games a run for their money as the most thrilling form of on-screen entertainment.
Getting In
At the beginning of the movie, it gives you time to get to understand the characters. The story moves very slowly in the beginning as the director takes his time to draw you in. As the characters develop their fears, instabilities and false senses of security are revealed.
It is at this early stage of the horror that the director manages to disarm most of the viewers. Those that remain are the hardcore horror movie fans. The only thing that will keep these fans expecting the worst is the too perfect set-up where everything seems to be staged.
At this stage of the movie, the story begins to give basic indicators that there is trouble in paradise. Small occurrences, almost unnoticeable begin to take place. This is when the hook sinks in and you realize that it is too late. You are dragged into the movie with the credits roll being your only hope of escape. Have you ever try the best sa online casinos to play movie related games?
Even though you know full well that the thrills are about to begin you can no longer resist reacting. You will be fully emotionally and subconsciously committed to the movie. And then BANG, your heart is racing as your mind tries to GET OUT.
Movie Spoiler
This is not the kind of horror in which a lot of elaborate special effects where used. Rather the movie is also classified as a low budget movie. The film’s creators used a great story to power the movie to success at the Oscars.
The story told in this movie is one which strikes a chord with many people. There is such a large knowledge gap in the topics explored in the movie. This creates a premise to tap into the audience’s fear of the unknown.
South Korean filmmaker Kim Yong-Wan is taking a cue from Sylvester Stalllone’s 1987 film, Over the Top, for his debut feature, Champion(read our review).
The super charismatic Ma Dong-seok (The Outlaws, Along with the Gods), who practically stole the show in Train to Busan, headlines this inspirational story about an average guy who dreams of becoming an arm wrestling champion.
Batman may just be the most timeless superhero, and the latest edition in the canon, Batman Ninja (2018) further reinforces this. Batman literally becomes displaced through time and sent back to Feudal Japan after a Quake Engine accident while battling Gorilla Grodd at Arkham Asylum. While there, he learns that all of the major villains have set up as feudal lords in Japan in the 1600s and are attempting to change history. Batman, with his newly acquired ninja-esque skills, must stop them.
The movie was designed by Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki and directed by Junpei Mizusaki. The American release – written by Leo Chu and Eric Garcia – is admittedly a complete rewrite of the story from Kazuki Nakashima’s version, essentially creating two different movies that share the same visuals. The Japanese elements of the movie and the setting itself provide a fresh battleground for the Dark Knight and act in tandem with the latest Batman movies to show a different side of the caped crusader.
In all forms and media, Batman still has a considerable amount of fan engagement. From the DC-based movies that capitalize on the hero – fresh off November 2017’s Justice League, and gearing up for the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman, which will take a noir look at Affleck’s portrayal of the superhero – to the armada of games available, such as DC Universe Online, an MMO set in the DC Universe and utilizing Batman as well as almost every single other major character in the DC canon, the William Hill Batman Begins slot game, that features motifs and iconography from the Christian Bale era Batman series, and the Telltale Games episodic point and click mobile adventure Batman: The Enemy Within.
Regardless of where Batman does battle with his villainous cohorts, audiences know what to expect from the narrative. The fact that the time period and setting are different to Gotham City makes no difference to the enjoyment – and taking Batman out of his comfort zone even helps up the stakes against him. His ‘powers’ are weaker in Feudal Japan, especially while pitted against a host of criminals who have made the Edo period their home. The movie will give audiences – especially Western audiences who may be completely unfamiliar with Japan’s history – a chance to learn and connect with the past. By pulling on a time in history when Japanese culture was stronger, modern audiences can appreciate what has gone before and how it affects their everyday lives – all while watching Batman. Plus, the samurai and ninja connections are enough to give any action fan a reason to watch the movie.
The movie’s success already pre-June 2018’s Japanese release – a strong 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and a favorable review on pop-culture-centric IGN – shows that the Batman character can be applied to almost any setting and is still a formidable draw as a protagonist and hero. The movie also poses an interesting crossover between the more traditional Japanese manga and anime and the original comic book source material – both mediums share similarities, but by combining the pulling power of each one, producers can reap the benefits.
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 the journalist righting wrongs like Spotlight or All the President’s Men are worthwhile reminders of the importance of a free press in a functioning society. But films about journalists behaving badly are often just as entertaining and important. Ace in the Hole is a classic, Shattered Glass showed the world that Hayden Christensen could act, and Network, Nightcrawler, and South Korea’s underrated thriller The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo are all solid examples of the journalist or media company that is so desperate for a story that they either conjure one up out of the blue or twist the facts in order to reach a larger audience. Seijun Suzuki’s Smashing the 0-Line is another such film, focusing on two reporters, one who goes by the book and one who makes the news happen for him.
The two competing leads are played by Yuji Kodaka (Tattooed Life) and Hiroyuki Nagato (Shinjuku Incident). They’re friendly rival reporters from two different Tokyo papers. An early scene has them talking about going to a baseball game together and that’s pretty much the last time we ever get to see them enjoying each other’s company. Yuji Kodaka’s Nishina begins to worry about the unseemly practices of Nagato’s roguish Katori. Though Katori’s paper is proud of all the breaking news crime beat reporting that Katori digs up for them, they’re apparently unaware of how he helps to engineer the busts which he covers. In one of Katori’s first scenes, we see him leaving a woman in bed after some afternoon sex, only to open the door for the police so that they may arrest her for drug trafficking. Not long after that, Katori leads the cops to a raid on a boat which appears to be an Opium den. It doesn’t seem to matter to Katori that the woman might’ve loved him or that the boat was operated by a former classmate, things that Nishina tries to point out to him. Katori replies, “You’d protect a drug dealer just because he was a classmate of ours?” And though that morally gray question leaves Nishina momentarily stumped for a reply, Katori’s increasingly risky attempts to get the big story soon lead them further and further apart.
Katori bites off more than he can chew when he tries to use his tactics to flush out the leader of a drug running business. The drug business, which is linked to Hong Kong, starts going after Katori in response. They abduct his sister (The Wind-of-Youth Group’s Mayumi Shimizu) and threaten to rape her if he doesn’t comply. And then… he doesn’t. They’re just about ready to do their worst to the girl when Nishina and the police arrive at the last moment. Katori, now driven by rage (but no less an asshole), makes it his mission to expose the drug traffickers, even as his own paper begins to second guess keeping him under their employ.
It’s at this point that the film loses its momentum. When it’s a drama about Nishina vs. Katori, I was there for it. But then Katori goes missing in his pursuit of the truth and Nishina has to go undercover in the shipping lanes in order to find his ‘friend’ and I gradually started to lose interest. I’m not 100% sure why that is, other than I think it’s clear that the film works best when Katori is on screen, and when he goes missing the film loses something.
Hiroyuki Nagato, who plays the fundamentally flawed Katori, played a reporter much like Nishina in Seijun Suzuki’s The Sleeping Beast Within. Released just a few months apart, The Sleeping Beast Within and Smashing the 0-Line are strikingly similar films, both focusing on journalist heroes who take on the illegal drug trade. The Sleeping Beast Within was more interesting to me, as it took dark crime elements and dropped them on normal, unsuspecting people. Smashing the 0-Line’s protagonists are journalists, most of them working the crime beat, and as such it lacks the same punch when the villains focus their ire on the innocent. And where Sleeping Beast Within kept ratcheting up the tension until the final moment, Smashing the 0-Line doesn’t manage to do much with its final act. It’s like they ran out of twists or surprising character growth.
Filmed with the look of a docudrama, Smashing the 0-Line isn’t among the most stylish of Suzuki’s films. It’s reminiscent at times of a Kinji Fukasaku crime picture, complete with freeze frames and onscreen text reading criminal indictments. It’s interesting to watch the director play with such similar material as his previous film and make such a radically different movie. What’s most impressive is to see how good Nagato is here compared to the decent but kinda dull work he delivered in The Sleeping Beast Within. It’s a great performance. Yuji Kodaka is fine; he has more screen time than Nagato but the script and the audience understands it’s not his movie.
Smashing the 0-Line feels a bit like a stepping off point as Nikkatsu and director Suzuki transitioned away from mainstream genre fare of the 50s and moved towards the ‘borderless action’ style of the 60s. Though the film is not much of an action movie, it does have the grimy, liquored up, and unsparing qualities that the ‘borderless action’ movies were known for. Also worth noting how the film makes use of immigrants and westerners in its plot. The Chinese are Katori’s favorite criminal informants, Hong Kong is the source of many of the drugs, and American military deserters are some of the drug trade’s most loyal customers. At this point, Japan was beginning to turn the corner from the post-war cleanup but Smashing the 0-Line’s vision of the country seems more pessimistic and grim. It is full of background characters struggling with addiction and/or poverty. The moments I will likely remember most from Smashing the 0-Line are the slums and Katori’s eagerness to exploit their suffering for a cover story. It’s just a shame that, like the main character, the second half of the film loses its way.
On June 12, 2018, Well Go USA will be releasing the Blu-ray for The Mimic, a South Korean thriller directed by Huh Jung (Hide and Seek).
In The Mimic, a family gets involved with a mysterious creature known as “Jangsanbum.” The animal can imitate a human’s voice and entices children to eat them. For more information about the plot, be sure to read our review.
The Mimic stars Yum Jung-Ah (Tell Me Something), Park Hyuk-Kwon (A Taxi Driver), Shin Rin-Ah (Ode To My Father), Heo Jin (The Wailing), Kil Hae-Yeon (Missing) and Lee Yool (Hello Murderer).
Looks like Scott Adkins isn’t the only one going to space. On June 5, 2018, Sony Pictures will be releasing the DVD to Astro, a sci-fi actioner starring martial arts star Gary Daniels (Cold Harvest, The Expendables, City Hunter).
Directed by Asif Akbar (Smoke Filled Lungs), Astro is the story of a billionaire’s private space exploration program (Elon Musk anyone?) returning to Earth with an abducted extraterrestrial from a newly discovered alien planet.
The film also stars Marshal Hilton (The Perfect Weapon), Courtney Akbar (Assassin X), Max Wasa (House of Manson), Louis Mandylor (The Debt Collector), Michael Paré (Streets of Fire) and Dominique Swain (Face/Off).
Acclaimed Cambodian martial arts actioner Jailbreak, (read our review) is finally breaking into America on May 2nd, courtesy of Netflix.
Jailbreak is directed by Jimmy Henderson (Hanuman) and features up-and-coming martial arts stars Jean-Paul Ly, Tharoth Sam, Dara Our and Céline Tran.
What started as a simple escort mission will soon turn to chaos as the prisoners of Koh Kla take over the prison grounds. A special task force (Jean-Paul Ly, Dara Our and Tharoth Sam) gets trapped in the prison will have to fight their way out for survival, to protect a key witness (Savin Phillip).
If you haven’t already, don’t miss our coverage and interview with Jailbreak’s director and cast. It’s the perfect way to get prepared for its Netflix debut!
After years making Hollywood films and big budget Chinese epics like Red Cliff and the recent The Crossing, John Woo, the man behind action classics such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killerand Hard Boiled, has finally made a return to the genre that made him an internationally acclaimed director with Manhunt(read our review).
And now, Manhunt will finally make its U.S. debut on Netflix’s streaming service on May 4th – it’s also currently available on Blu-ray & DVD from our trusted online retailer, DDDHouse.
The film is a remake of the 1976 Japanese classic action thriller (starring the late Ken Takakura), which tells story of a man who is accused of multiple crimes and trying desperately to clear his name.
The remake, which obviously follows the same theme, is about a prosecutor, played by award-winning Chinese actor Zhang Hanyu (The Taking of Tiger Mountain), who is framed for robbery, rape and multiple murders and sets out on a difficult solo mission to clear his name. Japanese heartthrob actor and singer Masaharu Fukuyama (Suspect X) plays the detective chasing Zhang’s character (via Variety). Ha Ji-Won (Sector 7) and newcomer Qi Wei also star.
Updates: Watch the New Netflix-branded Trailer below:
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! | Blu-ray (Arrow Video)
RELEASE DATE: July 10, 2018
On July 10, 2018, Arrow Video will be releasing the Blu-ray for Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!, a 1963 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki (Tokyo Drifter). Check out the official details below:
Starring original Diamond Guy, Jo Shishido (Massacre Gun), Seijun Suzuki’s Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! is a hard hitting, rapid-fire yakuza film that redefined the Japanese crime drama.
Detective Tajima (Shishido) is tasked with tracking down a consignment of stolen firearms, as the investigation progresses things take an anarchic, blood-drenched grudge match.
Rapidly paced, darkly funny, and extremely stylish, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! is unlike anything seen before and rightly deserves its cult status. Suzuki’s send up of post-war greed would go on to cement his domestic and international status as one of the leading directors to come out of Japan.
Features:
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Newly translated optional English subtitles
Interview with historian and Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
Gallery of original production stills
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
For the first time ever, Martheus and Janet Wade’s Shinobi: Ninja Princess is being collected in a hardcover edition. This beautiful book is 326 pages of epic ninja action, collecting both volumes of Shinobi: Ninja Princess. It’s an action-adventure story in the vein of Japanese anime, the series is a cross between Naruto and Riverdale.
The first chapter introduces Shainndrea, a 14-year-old ninja who is also royalty! She’s on the run from a rival ninja clan while trying to discover the powers within her. In the second chapter, The Lightning Oni, Shainndrea takes on the Red Dragon’s most powerful Oni yet, Yawata: the embodiment of war with the powers of lightning!
There’s an option to donate books to libraries and schools. Writer/artist Martheus Wade comments, “For Shinobi: Ninja Princess to be in schools and libraries is a dream come true for us. The fond feelings we had of our childhood super heroes are the gifts that we want to give this new generation of readers. The minds of kids everywhere are where we want our stories to live and thrive.” Artist Janet Wade adds, “I’m very honored to have been a part of Shinobi: Ninja Princess‘ creative team. I’m excited to get our stories into schools and libraries, and I’m very happy to share our hard work with readers, young and old.
According to Variety, Sheng’s film traces the journey of a former smuggler who attempts to start his life anew after his release from prison and repair his relationship with his estranged brother. But that is not counting on gangland betrayal, a botched drug deal and a devastating family tragedy.
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura Cast: Kelly Connaire, Stephanie Pearson, Rod Hernandez, Anthony Kirlew, Alexa Yeames, Jason Tobias, Aion Boyd, Eric Matuschek, Ikumi Yoshimatsu Running Time: 90 min.
By Kelly Warner
Ryuhei Kitamura is a director I keep tabs on because he interests me. He has this weird balancing act where he teeters back and forth between almost greatness and absolute garbage – sometimes, in his most well-known films, you get a bit of both. 2000’s Versus was this renegade breath of fresh air in Asian cinema, a gonzo mix of martial arts and Sam Raimi, and I feel like we’ve been waiting for the renegade spirit to return in full ever since. Alive was too scattershot, Azumi’s enjoyable but too mainstream to show off Kitamura’s wild side, I personally have no love for Sky High, and Aragami… actually, Aragami is pretty badass, I highly recommend that one. After the failure of Godzilla: Final Wars — the big budget 50th anniversary project in which Toho planned to send Godzilla off to (temporary) retirement on a high note — Kitamura went to Hollywood. His first English-language film, The Midnight Meat Train, is considered a cult classic today, but the studio that released it was apparently ashamed of it and dumped the movie straight to cheap theatres instead of putting it in regular movie theatres. So, while we mostly think highly of the director’s American debut today (I quite like it), the fumbled release didn’t do much for his career. Kitamura has been bouncing back and forth between America and Japan since then (most recently, Lupin the 3rd in Japan and the Luke Evans horror movie No One Lives in America). He is a famous director still best known for his early success and his kaiju-sized stumble that has fans (of which I guess I consider myself to be) still hoping to see something cool and special from him again. Well, sad to say, we gotta keep waiting, because Downrange ain’t it.
Co-written by Kitamura and Joey O’Bryan (Fulltime Killer), Downrange is a lean, mean, single location horror movie about a group of young people who are pinned down by a sniper in the middle of nowhere. The kids are on their way back home when their rear tire blows, sending them to the side of the road. It’s strange how many horror movies popped into my head watching these college kids get out of their SUV to check on the flat tire. If horror movies about adults tend to feature homebuying as extra anxiety, then horror movies about young adults sure do like to terrorize vacations. The young people are casually chatting about plans and places they need to be while the girls struggle to find a decent phone signal so they can call for a tow and the boys and doing their damnedest to act useful by changing the tire. It’s actually a long time of not much happening. One of the girls discovers a cross on the side of the road, likely the sign of fatal crash from the past, but this is never addressed again. During this time we learn a bit about the character backstories and, much to this horror fan’s surprise, none of the kids are assholes, not even the jock. So, that’s something.
I was expecting Kitamura to break the monotony of hanging out on the side of the road at any moment with a bullet interrupting someone mid-sentence. But it takes a very long time for someone’s brains to hit the pavement and by then, oh God, it felt like sweet relief. The kids quickly realize there’s a hidden gunman (shooting with a silencer at first) and they take cover behind the truck, but not before two of their party take mortal gunshot wounds. Most the rest of the movie plays out with the kids in cover, ducking bullets and trying to come up with a plan for survival. They use a cell phone’s camera to pinpoint the sniper’s position in a tree across the road. One girl, a self-described ‘Army brat,’ takes it upon herself to lead the others with her knowledge of weaponry, but they have no real means for striking back. Downrange is a survival thriller with a horror movie’s sensibilities and all of our protagonists are little more than victims waiting to happen
It’s rather bold to make a horror movie about gun violence in this day and age. Guns in movies are more often made to appear as problem solvers and props for our heroes to look cool holding in slow-motion. Guns in real life are responsible for horrors that the movies rarely touch on. So, I’m not opposed to Kitamura’s film being a horror movie about a gunman. Yes, it plays exploitational and showing brains fly seems to be the director’s primary motivator in making the film, but still: there is room for horror movies about guns instead of knives. I also thought it interesting how the one African American youth is cut off from the rest of the group while they plot their escape. He tries shouting for updates on what they’re going to do and begs them to come to his aid, while they largely ignore him and whisper amongst themselves.
The unfortunate thing is that Downrange doesn’t have many tricks in its bag. It’s extreme gore and mean-spirited ruthlessness and little more. The setup seems ripe for suspense but I found it sorely lacking. Perhaps sensing that his script isn’t doing enough for the movie’s forward momentum, Kitamura throws every bizarre camera move he’s learned into the movie, making for something unique to look at anyway.
The acting is subpar. Each actor will have a good moment and then their next line reading will sound grating and strange. It doesn’t help much that the script asks the actors to do some ridiculous things. At one point, realizing that she is missing her sister’s birthday party, a girl begins singing Happy Birthday to the absent relative. Then the others join in. I think they were going for the idea that they’re all exhausted and just talking nonsense, but it plays very silly. I did like the way they depicted the killer, however. He never speaks a word and we never get a clear look at his face. My favorite moment in the film features the shooter eating beef jerky while watching the kids through his rifle scope; it’s a subtle visual detail of a man at rest while he sheds blood and it’s the creepiest thing in the film.
In the later moments of the film, things get outrageous with extreme car crashes and a steadily rising body count. Downrange’s cold-bloodedness is occasionally clever, though not enough for me to recommend it to others. I much preferred the very similar Doug Liman film, The Wall, which saw two soldiers huddled behind cover while an enemy sniper taunts them over the radio. That film lacks the horror elements but it has the tension that Downrange is missing. On paper, Downrange reads like a timely, particularly American nightmare of a horror film, but it’s so one-note it’s boring.
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