Death Note: Light up the New World | Blu-ray & DVD (Funimation)
RELEASE DATE: January 22, 2019
On January 22, 2019, Funimation will be releasing the Blu-ray + DVD for Death Note: Light up the New World, from director Shinsuke Sato (I Am a Hero).
Delighted by the reign of Kira ten years prior, the God of Death orders his reapers to find a replacement. When six Death Notes are placed on Earth—who will be worthy to take the place of Light Yagami and become the new Kira? With the help of L’s successor, the police begin their fight to stop this new reign of murder and find that the light of justice won’t die so easily.
Director Wych ‘Kaos’ Kaosayananda (Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever) is re-teaming with Kane Kosugi (9 Deaths of the Ninja) for a 3rd time in Maxx.
This upcoming actioner also stars Jason Patric (The Lost Boys), Shogen (Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist), Koichi Iwaki (Memoirs of a Murderer) and Ammy Chanicha (Zero Tolerance).
In Maxx, the best assassin (Kosugi) in the business makes his 500th kill – and decides to retire. Instead, he finds himself involved in a fierce battle of wits with the perfect enemy.
“Big Trouble in Little China” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Back in 2015, it was reported that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was in talks to star in and produce a remake of John Carpenter‘s cult, kung fu-driven, mystical-filled classic Big Trouble in Little China.
As it turns out, the project will actually be a sequel, not a remake. Collider recently spoke with Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks Productions (which was founded by co-CEOs Johnson and Dany Garcia) and one of the producers on Big Trouble in Little China, and he had this to say:
“There’s a lot of things going on with Big Trouble in Little China. We are in the process of developing that, and let me tell you, the idea is not to actually remake it. You can’t remake a classic like that, so what we’re planning to do is we’re going to continue the story. We’re going to continue the universe of Big Trouble in Little China. Everything that happened in the original exists and is standalone and I think there’s only one person that could ever play Jack Burton, so Dwayne would never try and play that character. So we are just having a lot of fun. We’re actually in a really great space with the story that we’ve cracked. But yeah, no remake. It is a continuation, and we are deep into development on that as well, and I think you’ll start hearing some things about that probably soon.”
The 1986 film starred Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a truck driver whose life on the road takes a sudden supernatural tailspin when his best friend’s fiancee is kidnapped. Jack finds himself deep beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a murky, creature-filled world ruled by Lo Pan, a 2000-year-old magician who mercilessly presides over an empire of spirits.
Updates: In a recent interview with Collider, here’s what John Carpenter had to say about the sequel: “They want a movie with Dwayne Johnson. That’s what they want. So, they just picked that title. They don’t give a shit about me and my movie. That movie wasn’t a success. Barry Diller crapped on it.” (On the DVD and Blu-ray commentary of the film, Carpenter remarks that Burton “thinks he’s a whole lot more capable than he is,” with Russell following up this statement with the much more definitive “he’s useless.” With audiences of the 1980s more familiar with macho death machines like John Rambo than the passive goofball that is Jack Burton, the studio began to get nervous, with then-Fox head Barry Diller instructing Carpenter to film the hasty prologue featuring the Egg Shen character telling a lawyer that “we owe Jack Burton everything.” However, once the film begins properly, Burton is still shown to be more baseless bluster than hero, even if evil is defeated in the end. – via DOG)
Until 2008 my interest in Japanese movies had been centred around Kurosawa, and some Anime. I loved Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Akira, but for some reason I had not burrowed deeper in to the treasure trove of Japanese film. When my local cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland screened a Japanese cult film season, here was my chance. The season was programmed by Matt Palmer, director of recent Netflix original Calibre, my favourite Scottish film in many years. There were 11 movies on in the season, with films such as my favourite horror of all time, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House, Seijun Suzuki’s psychedelic odyssey Branded to Kill and Kinji Fukasaku’s docu-style Yakuza Graveyard. It was the first one screened that would blow my mind sky high, Kihachi Okamoto’s Sword Of Doom.
“House” Japanese Theatrical Poster
I went in to the screening knowing nothing about film, director or star; I didn’t even realise when watching the film that star Tatsuya Nakadai had been the villain in Yojimbo. As the first few frames unfolded, I was rapt, and it was one of those cinema experiences that I will not only never forget, also one that changed my life. Here was pandoras box opening before my eyes; and the knowledge that this film would remain within my top 5. It still is, ten years later.
Within that first scene Okamoto presents Nakadai’s Ryunosuke as cinema’s ultimate anti-hero, as he kills an old man and leaves the mans granddaughter to mourn, his pleasure in killing so evident. Ryunosuke may be nihilistic, but the film is no exercise in nihilism; as an exploration of violence and psychopathology it is near unmatched, and was a complete break from the earlier Samurai films that focused on honour and the code of Bushido, presenting the Samurai as superhuman. While the film does not plumb the depths of Ryunosuke’s psyche, the portrait is one of a man who lives with his demons close at his side and is obviously a psycopath. One that is fucking fantastic to watch.
The film follows Ryunosuke as he is revealed to be the son of a Master of a swordplay school, who has disgraced the school due to his evil ways. He leaves the school after meeting a young woman Hama (Michiyo Aratama) who he has a child with, and falls in with the Shinsengumi, a a gang run by the Tokugawa shogunate who carry out crimes and assassinations. By chance he accepts a duel when passing a school, only for the student he challenged to go after Ryunosuke as his brother is the man Ryunosuke killed in an earlier match. These disparate narrative threads weave in and out, with the attention on Ryunosuke and his escalating insanity.
“Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance” Japanese Theatrical Poster
The genesis of Sword of Doom is interesting. The film is based on a serialised novel Daibosatsu toge, by acclaimed novelist Kaizan Nakazato, who died before the serial was completed, in 1944. There have been versions of this story by such film makers as Hiroshi Inagaki (Samurai Trilogy) in 1935, Tomu Ichida (Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji) in 1957, and the master Kenji Misumi (Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance) in 1960. This is a story ingrained in the wartime and post-war Japanese collective psyche, one that is originally Buddhist in intention, with the Karma of it’s characters, especially Ryunosuke, expressed throughout the narrative. The screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto was responsible for the scripts for Kurosawa’s classics Rashomon and Seven Samurai, and here his approach to the storyline is very different. It would be interesting to know how much Okamoto diverged from the script, as there are such huge jumps forward wherein the view must fill in the blanks. Hashimoto was an authority on Japanese history, and there are some real historical characters in the movie, such as Toshiro Mifune’s master swordsman Toranosuke Shimada, while Nakadai’s character is a complete work of fiction. The way Okamoto condenses the wealth of storylines in to a single film is a point of contention for those who have watched the film.
“Sword of Doom” Japanese Theatrical Poster
The narrative is fractured and fragmentary; huge jumps in time frames occur, storylines are not resolved and characters come and go. This is partly due to the fact that, like the earlier adaptations of the novel, the film was supposed to the be the first in a trilogy. Another factor that the films champions, such as myself, say is that Okamoto frames the film from Ryunosuke’s subjective view; in terms of film making and narrative. As Ryunosuke slides further and further in to pychosis both aspects reflect this, with the fragmented shards of the story indicative of his muddled and tortured mindset. In the aesthetic aspects some of the most darkly beautiful use of black and white widescreen composition, and impressionistic, complex lighting arrangements combine to create a vision of Ryunosuke’s inner hell.
What use would all of these aspects be without a visual representation of the violent poetry of Ryunosuke’s form as a swordsman? Okamoto presents this in a way which blows my mind, and every time I watch the film the fights become more and more fully formed, in a way that is matchless in Samurai cinema. In fact the film was not successful in Japan (due to factors such as the fact there were already films made about the subject and the strangeness of the storyline), but in the West it was embraced, and became an almost cult classic. This is in no small part due to the swordplay scenes. There are three major battles in the film, and each has their own unique stylistic tics and aesthetic approach.
The first is the most iconic. Ryunosuke has just killed an opponent in a formal match, and the man’s clansmen are setting an ambush for him. He descends a path lined with trees, backlighting creating beautiful patterns of mist. As the men approach and the action begins, it is all shot in a long moving take, with Ryunosuke’s flowing style and unmatched form dispatching each man with a ruthless brilliance. When I first saw this on the big screen my eyes widened in awe, just the same as when I watched Enter the Dragon‘s fight scene with Lee vs Han’s guards. As he walks away, the films most iconic shot, and my favourite in film history, is revealed: the victims of his devils sword in the foreground and Ryunosuke in the background, mist surrounding them. I recently bought a T-shirt with that image on it, and keep getting compliments.
The second features that legend of Japanese cinema, Toshiro Mifune, battling men Ryunosuke is in league with. Mifune’s appearance is a glorified cameo really, and the hoped for battle between the two that would be a rematch from previous films, does not emerge; but again this scene is iconic, wonderfully staged and reveals much about the protagonist. Set in a pathway in a blizzard of snow, Mifune emerges from a palanquin cutting a swath through his enemies with Okamoto using a much more dynamic shooting and editing style, favouring close in angles and quick cuts. Ryunosuke stands and is rendered impotent by Mifune’s way with a sword, and this marks the time he becomes not just a psychopath, but psychotic.
“Hard Boiled” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Come the end of the film Ryunosuke’s descent in to madness has taken hold completely, and he begins to see the Ghosts of his previous victims, attempting to use his sword to drive them away. The film making here is some of the most atmospheric and surreal in all cinema, as he slashes endless corridors of curtains, the ghosts appearing in silhouette. A gang comes in to kill him, and one of the greatest swordfights of all time plays out, with techniques light years ahead of their time utilised, and a heightened sense of violence and gore that is extreme for the time the film was released. One sequence of rapid fire cuts with close ups of maiming and slashing predates Lone Wolf and Cub by 6 years, and longer takes with again a moving camera are magnificently realised.
The feeling of adrenalin as I left the cinema, and a world previously untapped and waiting for exploration was so strong, almost the same as when I watched my favourite film Hard Boiled at age 15. Every aspect of Sword of Doom is is dynamite, but I was haunted by star Tatsuya Nakadai’s performance. In every scene he makes Ryunosuke so hard to read, but those intense eyes burn with a fire that looks beyond the moment. His charisma combined with this makes his depiction my favourite performance in all cinema, and Nakadai has since become my second favourite actor, after Chow Yun Fat. Like Chow, his filmography is so dense its hard to see everything, but Sword of Doom led me to more Okamoto films he starred in like the comic Samurai film Kill!, and one of Nakadai’s last screen performances and Okamoto’s last film before he died, Vengeance for Sale. From there I discovered Masaki Kobayashi’s masterful Hara Kiri and Kwaidan, both starring Nakadai.
Sometimes you don’t know when a film is gonna creep up and bite you in the ass. Sword of Doom did just that to me, and the pain made me open my eyes to the endless possibilities of Japanese cinema. As I write these words I’m thinking about the film I will finish watching next, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman of the Dunes. Having watched half, it is already a masterpiece to me, and having read the book, I know it will just get better. Made in 1964, two years before Sword of Doom, these two are just a couple of examples of the goldmine that stretched on in to the late 70’s. To me, it is doubtful any of the films I have left to watch will match the undying dark beauty at play in Sword of Doom.
You’ve seen The Departed, now see the original! Infernal Affairs is a critically acclaimed crime-thriller that is praised for its gritty action and strong character development (there’s a reason Martin Scorsese remade it!)…
Director: Timo Tjahjanto Writer: Timo Tjahjanto Cast: Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, Sunny Pang, Zack Lee, Asha Kenyeri Bermudez, Hannah Al Rashid, Salvita Decorte, Abimana Aryastya, Salvita Decorte Running Time: 121 min.
By Martin Sandison
The Mo Brothers’ Headshot, while a very good action movie in its own right, with effectively bloody violence and some great choreography, fell short of greatness in my opinion. One half of the Mo Brothers, Timo Tjahjanto, announced a few years back he was writing the script for The Night Comes for Us. Anticipation grew with announcements such as the film was to star a who’s who of Indonesian action cinema, and the addition of producer Todd Brown whose XYZ films have been growing in stature with releases like Gareth Evans’ recent Apostle. Both films are Netflix associated, and for fans such as me, it’s great to see such diverse output. While Evans was taking a left turn in to atmospheric horror, Tjahjanto and Iko Uwais decided to take on the mantle left over by his Raid franchise and make it in to over-the-edge OTT action violence. Although I was prepared for the visual onslaught and feast of martial arts and gunplay, I could not have predicted how much I love this movie, and how highly I rate it. Which is very high.
Joe Taslim stars as Ito, who in the opening scene appears to be one of the bad guys as he mows down a family on a beach. Left is a small child, seemingly the daughter, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez). Ito sees his redemption in her, and goes on the run to protect her. So sets in motion a seemingly endless series of set pieces as Ito struggles to protect Reina, involving his old gang and Arian (Iko Uwais, The Raid), a mysterious figure who is a deadly fighter. The tangled web of gangsters, drugs and intrigue are deepened by Ito’s connection to the Six Seas, a gang dedicated to protecting the drug trade in South East Asia, led by Chien Wu (Sunny Pang, Headshot).
A review I read of this movie called it a martial arts Braindead (aka Dead Alive), which is a film I love, but I think that viewpoint doesn’t stick. Braindead has its tongue firmly lodged in its cheek, and is constantly hilarious. The Night Comes for Us is a much darker prospect entirely, and its tone speaks of influences such as Hard Boiled, Tiger Cage 2 (minus the lame comedy) and The Raid 2. That the film is like an outrageously violent cartoon does stick, however. What impressed me alongside the action, which we’ll get to in a minute, is the strength of the aesthetic. The lighting and camerawork create a surrealistic immersive world that has depth beneath the carnage. Little visual touches such as a face off mid-battle as the camera pans to a fly getting zapped are wonderful, and Tjahjanto’s handling of the silent moments between the chaos show his talent. This approach is bolstered by the characters and performances. Taslim is suitably brooding and emotionally wrecked as Ito, in the role of a lifetime. Uwais as Arian is at his most charismatic, and in fact you would expect the two to be in each others roles, as Uwais is the bigger star. Julie Estelle (The Raid 2) kicks some serious ass in her part, which is destined to go down as one of the greatest female fighter characters, blowing Ok-bin Kim, of the recent South Korean actioner The Villainess, off the screen.
So, to the aspect we came here for: action. As much as I love The Raid and 2, and to a lesser extent Headshot, the action at times is scrappy and a little repetitive. As soon as Uwais first fight kicked in, I knew immediately him and his team have stepped up, and leaped in to the stratosphere of primal 21st century martial arts violence. Every single fight in this film is astounding, and the diversity of the combat is without compare. From brawls to all-out brutalistic knife fights to intricate handwork to beautiful bootwork, the film has it all, and is a martial arts movie fans wet dream. Alongside the commitment of the performers in these scenes and their abilities, all aspects of filmmaking are amped up to 11, and the ebb and flow, fluid editing, masterful framing (props to cinematographer Gunnar Nimpuno) and staging of them is in to the beyond. My favourites are the two-on-one all female fight with British actress Hannah Al Rashid (Safe Haven) and Dian Sastrowardoyo (Kartini) taking on Estelle in a fight that moves from hand-to-hand combat to knife-fighting with savage grace. Al Rashid even fights on with her guts hanging out! (Story of Ricky, anyone?). In fact, all three involved in this fight are immediately iconic characters, with Al Rashid’s cool hair and signature knife, and Sastrowardoyo’s bob haircut and cheese wire weaponry.
Of course the film builds up to Uwais vs Taslim, and I honestly think it’s in the Top 3 one-on-one fights of the 21st century, alongside such luminaries as Scott Adkins vs Marko Zaror in Undisputed 3 and Donnie Yen vs Collin Chou in Flash Point. It also gets my vote as one of the most bloodily violent. I even noticed a reference to a fight in Tiger Cage 2 in there (geek mode optimised). Uwais must have been working on his kicking, as it’s the best I’ve seen from him, and Taslim’s rthythm and timing is superb. My only gripe action-wise is that Sunny Pang, who was so great acting-wise and martial arts-wise in Headshot, doesn’t get to fight in the film. His performance and character is still a cool bad-ass muthafucka, though. Another gripe is that the dialogue moves between Asian languages (Uwais character is in China at first, he speaks a little Mandarin) and English at times, and it can be a little jarring. Also the plot lines do fall by the wayside a little to make room for the action.
The extreme bloody violence in the film will put off some, but once it gets going the amount of inventive kills and outrageous blood-letting means you can never take it seriously. From a pigs trotter used as a weapon to smack a guy’s balls, people hung up on meathooks, cheese wire (Audition, anyone?) used to cut off arms and fingers, broken bottles stuck in mouths and seemingly the most stab wounds onscreen in any film ever, it’s an orgy of constantly amping up extremity. Even Reina gets in on the action, stabbing one of the bad guys. And that’s without mentioning the fantastically depicted gunplay, which is a dozen times more graphic than a John Woo film. An aspect I also love is the mix of CGI and practical effects when dealing with the gore. It’s seamless, and for a lower budget film is phenomenal. Also of note is the soundtrack by Hiroyuki Ishizaka, which moves from John Carpenter-esque pulsing synths to strings, and underscores the tone of the film beautifully.
As a writer and conversationalist I realise my passion moves in to hyperbole at times. I need to watch this film again soon, but upon ending my first thought was: It’s a complete action masterpiece and one of the best action films ever made. All I know is that awestruck consciousness was pretty much constant for the 2 hour running time, and it gave me the same adrenalin rush as finishing Hard Boiled at the age of 14. Hey, what would the world be without individual opinions? A very boring place. Let’s see what you guys think. I must say congratulations to everyone involved. The Raid set a new bar. The Night Comes for Us raises that bar through the roof.
“Vengeance is a Golden Blade” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Born in Shanghai on 14 July, 1942, Yueh Hua (aka Elliot Ngok), migrated to Hong Kong in the 1960s and started his acting career after joining Shaw Brothers in 1965. He came to fame for his role in the 1966 wuxia classic Come Drink with Me.
We don’t much as far as plot details, but given Tsukamoto’s shocking body of work (to quote Kyle Warner: “Shinya Tsukamoto is, at his core, a horror filmmaker… Tokyo Fist is not a horror film, but it’s clear it was made by a horror director.”), we can expect a samurai tale that’s probably not for the squeamish.
Zan hits Japan on November 24, 2018. A U.S. release is inevitable.
Director: David Gordon Green Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner, Nick Castle, Haluk Bilginer, Toby Huss, Jefferson Hall, Rhian Rees Running Time: 105 min.
By Kyle Warner
It’s strange – yet totally welcome, in my opinion – for a slasher movie to be an event film in 2018. And it seems only appropriate that it would be a new Halloween that summoned the crowds to theatres, as the original Halloween (1978) was the slasher which led the way for the subgenre’s newfound popularity in the 80s. The last of the original run of Halloween films fizzled out with Halloween: Resurrection (2002), a movie in which rapper Busta Rhymes kicks Michael Myers through a window with a Bruce Lee howl. Five years later they restarted the timeline with Rob Zombie’s grungy grindhouse remakes of Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009). I am not a fan of the Zombie Halloween films, but at least one can give Zombie credit for crafting a remake with so much original flair. In any case, it’s been a while since Michael Myers last stalked the silver screen in a film that all fans loved. For the new 2018 Halloween (the lack of a new title to separate it from the original is not helpful), the decision was made to mix new blood with old. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode. Nick Castle is back as Michael Myers (or “The Shape,” as he’s credited). John Carpenter returns to produce and write music for the new outing. And the new blood is an interesting mix of proven indie talent like director David Gordon Green (Joe), writer Danny McBride (The Foot Fist Way), and popular characters like Judy Greer (Jurassic World), Will Patton (The Punisher), and Toby Huss (Halt and Catch Fire). This style of approach, where they try to recreate the old magic with people from the present and the past, it doesn’t always work out. But the new Halloween is an example of the ingredients coming together beautifully. They even ended up crafting a genre movie that rides on a political and cultural wave, as if by accident they stumbled into the middle of a conversation already in progress with something unprepared but nonetheless relevant to say.
2018’s Halloween ignores all the other Halloween sequels and is a direct follow-up to the 1978 original. This decision will irk some fans of the series. But considering that the Zombie films already ended the original timeline… and that H20 (1998) also kinda ignored some of the sequels that came before it… and that the Myers family tree was getting complicated… oh and also that cult business… well, maybe it was time for another series reboot of sorts. The big thing to keep in mind is that Myers and Laurie Strode are not related anymore. That was something added into Halloween II (1981) to help expand on the story. Writer/director John Carpenter never liked the idea, which funnily enough became the backbone of many of the sequels. So yeah, that’s out. In the new film, we’re told that Michael Myers was captured not long after the balcony fall at the end of the first film. Will Patton’s Officer Hawkins, who was just a young cop in 1978, was among the first on the scene and is considered responsible for stopping Dr. Loomis from executing Michael in the street.
The events of that Halloween night 40 years ago left a deep emotional scar on Laurie Strode. We catch up with Laurie in her fenced off home that she’s transformed into an anti-slasher fortress. She’s the screw-up of her family because she can’t just ‘move on’ from her experience. She ruined the childhood of her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), because she taught her like a survivalist ready for the worst home invasion scenario ever. As a result, Karen is not close with her mother, and does what she can to keep her daughter (Andi Matichak) from spending time with grandma.
I’m always struck by how films – they often tend to be horror films – anticipate a moment in society or politics. A recent example would be Green Room, which seemed to anticipate Trump’s America and his ‘very fine people.’ Well, 2018’s Halloween is an unlikely movie for the MeToo moment, but here we are. The idea of victim vs. predator is a big part of the film. Laurie’s lasting trauma, related to an event most would ask her to forget about, is what she has to carry around with her as a survivor of her assault (though her assault was of a violent, home invasion variety, the symptoms she exhibits are likely relatable to survivors of sexual assault as well). But Laurie is not simply hiding. She’s waiting. As she tells Officer Hawkins, she prays every night that Michael will escape. So she can kill him. Laurie is seen as the victim by many but she seeks to become an avenger.
Of course, Michael Myers does escape. They should really stop transporting that guy around Halloween. Actually, don’t even let Michael see a calendar once we get past August. Michael is visited by a couple of podcast true crime writers who are doing a special on the case from 40 years ago. They try to reach him, going so far as to show him his mask. They think they failed, but they succeeded in waking up the evil within, and it’s not long before Michael comes looking for his mask.
Once Michael Myers makes it to his old haunt in Haddonfield, he proceeds to basically go door to door massacring everyone he sees. It’s bloody mayhem. Myers is portrayed like a shark smelling blood for the first time in years. He’s calculating, unstoppable, and straightforward in his drive to just unleash as much pain on humanity as possible. Myers is scarier than he’s been in years. I was not initially certain that removing the sister/brother subplot was for the best, but now I’m convinced it was. Michael Myers doesn’t care about Laurie Strode. He’ll kill her and her whole family if it’s convenient for him but he’d just as happily kill the neighbors. It’s Laurie who needs closure, it’s she who needs revenge. Michael Myers is just a force of evil moving about town with a knife. The thinking minds among the psychiatrists and cops who try to rationalize the evil are attempting to understand it and, in doing so, dumb it down. This was the greatest mistake of the sequels that came before. Michael Myers is at his scariest when we recognize that there’s nothing to understand.
After some of the bloodiest kills in the series, Myers is maneuvered on a path to the Strode fortress for the showdown that Laurie was always seeking. I say ‘maneuvered’ because that’s exactly what it is. There is a 5 or 10 minute subplot in the film that I don’t like one bit. I will go no further in explaining it, because to do so would spoil a twist, but I suspect you’ll know it when you see it. It’s a shame, too, because if not for this ugly hiccup in the script, I think the film is pretty great.
By my count, Jamie Lee Curtis has played Laurie Strode in five films now. She’s rarely been better than she is here, in or out of that role. It’s the sort of performance that, if horror was more widely respected, would see her get some Best Actress consideration come award season. Laurie Strode was Curtis’ first film role 40 years ago. She’s grown a lot since then and she’s been through some shit, too. You see some of that come out in the character this time that you didn’t see in other Laurie Strode sequels. The actress digs deep for her return to the part. It’s impossible to imagine the film being a success without her.
Will Patton is good as the cop who is committed to killing the man he let live 40 years ago. Judy Greer is again in Mom Mode, but I liked her moments playing off Curtis as the two expressed the strained mother/daughter relationship. Child actor Jibrail Nantambu steals every scene he’s in (which are too few) and gets the biggest laughs in the movie. The rest of the cast is good in their roles. One of the film’s strengths is that you fear for character’s lives even after just having met them. Early on, Halloween kills off a character that most movies would’ve let live, and from then on we know that this movie is not playing around.
The score by Halloween godfather John Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter, and Daniel A. Davies is another highlight of the film. It mixes the old themes with new age music tech, making it sound something like that Trent Reznor Halloween cover from 2017. It’s very cool. Having Carpenter involved at all is cool, to be honest. One wishes he’d return to the director’s chair sometime soon, but a new film score is fine for now.
David Gordon Green’s direction is spot on. It’s a very intense movie. The cinematography by Michael Simmonds (Nerve) makes good use of shadow and color. The screenplay by Green, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley has a sense of humor, as you might expect from the Vice Principals team, but knows when not to go for laughs. It’s a horror movie all the way.
The 2018 Halloween is the best Halloween sequel since Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). And it might even be better than that film, too. It’s a great horror film anchored by a wonderful dramatic performance by Jamie Lee Curtis and no shortage of scares. I would’ve liked Halloween more without that dumb, short-lived subplot, but I still love the movie for what it is. Brutal, funny, and not lacking in something to say, it’s one of my favorites of the year.
I think it’s fair to say that Japanese cinema was a part of my movie watching experience since childhood. I was a kid who loved dinosaurs and as a result I loved watching dinosaur and monster movies. I didn’t really understand until much later that a sizeable number of these movies were made in other countries, many of them in Japan. They were dubbed and, to be honest, the human characters were never what I was tuning in for. While Japanese movies and I go way back, I don’t think I really started to consider myself a fan of Japanese cinema until I got in deep with the classic Toho sci-fi movies.
Kyle’s actual VHS of “Destroy All Monsters!”
I’ve always loved Godzilla. Before the internet, I didn’t know when to expect a new Godzilla movie to be made available on US shelves, so I was always browsing the sci-fi section of Suncoast or Media Play for a new VHS release. The discovery of Destroy All Monsters on VHS at this one Media Play in Atlanta still ranks as one of the geekiest movie moments I have ever experienced. Cloud 9 happy.
But many of these VHS tapes sucked, if I’m being honest. I remember thinking for the longest time that the director of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (titled Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster on my VHS box art) didn’t know how to shoot a movie because everything was so poorly lit. It wasn’t until I started buying the movies on DVD – including a large number of which I had never seen before – that I really started to appreciate the films for their craft. What’s more, the prints were so much better than what I’d seen on VHS. Jun Fukuda absolutely did know how to shoot a movie and the difference between the VHS Mechagodzilla and the DVD Mechagodzilla taught me an important lesson about film transfers and restoration work.
Though I was originally more of a fan of the 90’s Heisei era of Godzilla movies, the DVD wave of Godzilla films made me more of a fan of the Showa era that ran from the 50’s to the 70’s. It was around this time that I was introduced to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Seven Samurai knocked my socks off the way that few films had done before or since. It is an amazing achievement in filmmaking. To this day, I still consider it the best film I have ever seen. Toshiro Mifune is a wild man hero with electric screen charisma. Takashi Shimura is a beautiful contrast to Mifune, playing the stoic samurai who has seen too many battles. And the rest of the gang – from the badass warriors to the ever fearful farmers – is glowing with life. I was in love with Seven Samurai and I wanted more.
“Seven Samurai” Japanese Theatrical Poster
From there, I became a fan of Akira Kurosawa. I believe I started with the other Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations and then branched out from there. What an amazing duo those two made. Seven Samurai opened a door to some of the best films I had ever seen in my entire life. And I noticed something interesting, too: these movies often starred the same people from the classic science fiction films. There was a large talent overlap at Toho during the 50s and 60s. Many films were being produced at the same time and contracted actors basically walked from one set to the next as they made multiple films at once. Toho was a well-oiled movie making machine during those days. For me, a fan watching these films about forty to fifty years after they were produced, the crossover of talent only added to the charm of the movies. I got to know these actors that much faster because they were in everything.
Takashi Shimura in the original “Godzilla”
In 1954, Takashi Shimura was the veteran lead actor in a cast full of young faces for the original Godzilla. He led the Seven Samurai that same year. He would then become one of those familiar character actors of Japanese cinema, splitting almost equal time between Kurosawa art pictures like Ikiru and Ishiro Honda’s sci-fi spectacles like Frankenstein Conquers the World. Akira Takarada’s first film role ever was the 1954 Godzilla. He then went on to be one of Godzilla’s regular leading men as well as working with the likes of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse. Akihiko Hirata starred as the doomed Dr. Serizawa in 1954’s Godzilla, the same year he also starred in the first chapter of Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy. Hirata would go onto become one of the most familiar faces in Toho’s science fiction and fantasy films. And then there’s the likes of Kumi Mizuno, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Akira Kubo, Kenji Sahara, Akiko Wakabayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Mie Hama, Hiroshi Koizumi, and of course, Mifune. This was not to say that it was an actor-driven filmmaking movement; exploring the classic Toho films introduced me to many amazing directors. But it was the familiarity of the stars that connected the movies and made it easier to dive in and explore.
Classic Japanese cinema then made me an admirer of Japanese cinema as a whole. Shinya Tsukamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Sion Sono, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation) are some of my favorite directors working today. Kaiju and samurai started my appreciation of Japanese cinema but I’m now also a fan of Japan’s crime pics, horror movies, and dramas about family life. The comedy is a bit hit and miss — some things get lost in translation — but I enjoy quite a few.
“Tetsuo” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Lately, there are less and less Japanese productions making it over to DVD/Blu-ray shelves in America, and that’s too bad. Part of it is America’s apparent dwindling interest in foreign films, part of it is the shrinking sales of DVDs in general, but a lot of it is also Japanese cinema is having an odd moment right now. Politics and big corporations are more involved now and it’s not benefiting the art of movie making. That’s too bad. Hopefully things will improve, because there are obviously still plenty of talented filmmakers in Japan looking for the right opportunity.
Here at COF, we have so many good writers who can tell you all about Bruce Lee, Shaw Bros., and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. I cannot. I enjoy the hell out of a good Hong Kong action movie but my appreciation rarely goes into how such a movie fits into HK film history. I am no expert, but Japanese movies are my thing. For whatever reason, samurai, giant monsters, and finger chopping clicked with me in a way that Bruce Lee never did (he’s still cool, though!).
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for The Good, the Bad, the Weird, directed by Kim Jee-Woon (I Saw the Devil).
The Good, the Bad, the Weird is the story of two outlaws and a bounty hunter in 1940s Manchuria and their rivalry to possess a treasure map while being pursued by the Japanese army and Chinese bandits.
Part Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly; part George Miller’s Mad Max; all the inventive genius of filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon. Starring Lee Byung-hun (I Saw the Devil), Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) and Jung Woo-sung (Musa).
“Resurrection of the Little Match Girl” Korean Theatrical Poster
Director: Jang Sun-Woo Cast: Lim Eun-Kyung, Kim Hyun-Sung, Kim Jin-Pyo, Myung Gye-Nam, Myung Gye-Nam, Jung Doo-Hong, Kang Ta, Lee Chung-Ah, Seo Jae-Kyung, Park Sung-Woong Running Time: 125 min.
By Paul Bramhall
There are some movies out there that seem destined to only be appreciated in retrospect, such could be the case for Resurrection of the Little Match Girl. It was a title that I avoided since its release, as I still remember lines from certain reviews labelling it as “a confusing rip-off of The Matrix” and “likely only to appeal to die-hard gamers.” Being both a fan of The Matrix, combined with being the very definition of a non-gamer, I decided to save myself the time of viewing such an apparent atrocity. It was only while recently watching the 2001 documentary, Jang Sun-woo Variations, dedicated to the work of the controversial Korean director, that a short segment saw him discussing his next movie which at the time was in pre-production. To my surprise, it was the very title I’d written off.
To give some comparison, finding out ROTLMG (as I’ll refer to it from here on) was made by Jang Sun-woo, was for me the theoretical equivalent of finding out Avengers: Infinity War was directed by Woody Allen. Having been active in the protest movements against the dictator style government Korea was under in the 70’s, Sun-woo was jailed in 1980 for distributing leaflets exposing the truth behind the Gwangju Massacre (covered recently in A Taxi Driver). During his time in prison, he came to realise how film could be used to comment on society, and he’d go on to do just that. During the 90’s he made some of Korea’s most highly regarded but also controversial works, such as The Road to the Racetrack, Bad Movie (which remains heavily cut in Korea), and Lies (his previous movie to ROTLMG).
To go from directing realistic and confronting dramas, to the big budget action spectacle of ROTLMG, was quite the change in direction, and making an action movie was something Sun-woo himself confessed he never imagined doing. However on closer inspection, perhaps it wasn’t quite as big of a change in direction as it seems on the surface. ROTLMG takes its inspiration from the Hans Christian Andersen short story The Little Match Girl, about a poor girl selling matches in the street during the depths of winter, eventually succumbing to the bitter cold and freezing to death. It was a story that had an impact on Sun-woo, and when discussing the movie he stated that he wanted to create a tale where the girl can live again, but this time have a happy life, even if it was only within a computer game.
This is essentially the premise of ROTLMG, which opens as a silent film, the characters dialogue shown in cutaway text screens. Transporting the story to the streets of modern day Seoul, actress Lim Eun-kyung (here in her debut) plays out the story of the Little Match Girl, eventually driven to inhaling the butane gas from the lighters she’s been trying to sell. In fact Eun-kyung plays more than one character, one of many indicators of the blurry lines between reality and fantasy that ROTLMG treads, with her also in the role of a gaming arcade assistant, one which is frequented by a wannabe pro-gamer played by Hyun Sung (The Deal). After purchasing a lighter from Eun-kyung, he finds himself being offered to take part in a game. The goal is simple yet cruel, the player’s mission is to make the Little Match Girl fall in love with them, with the winner being the one she calls out for as she dies.
The game also comes with the warning that if you spend too long inside, you may forget that it’s not real. To that end, while visually there are a few references to The Matrix (the bullet dodging scene is lifted wholesale), the movie that sprung to mind even more was David Cronenberg’s Existenz. There’s really no difference between reality and the environment within the game, except that is, for the crazy action scenes that can be performed within the latter. Hong Kong action was still highly regarded in the early 00’s, and Korea had already imported the likes of Ma Yuk Sing to choreograph 2000’s Bichunmoo. In the case of ROTLMG, Sun-woo brought on board the legendary Ridley Tsui (who notably action directed the Sammo Hung starring The Hidden Enforcers the same year) to create the substantial amount of action sequences crammed into the 2 hour runtime.
Indeed the large scale action scenes resulted in ROTLMG spiralling considerably over budget and over schedule. For what became such a costly exercise, the poor box office it was greeted with upon release meant that, even to this day, Sun-woo has yet to direct another movie since. It’s a shame, as despite its bombast the majority of the action scenes deliver, thanks to plentiful wirework, machine gun fire, and high impact stuntwork. Special mention has to go to a character referenced as the “lesbian Lara Croft”, a highly acrobatic motorcycle riding badass who partakes in numerous extravagant shootouts. In fact she’s portrayed by Jin Xing, a renowned transgender Chinese dancer who was born to ethnically Korean parents (so can speak the language), and perhaps is most recognizable to action fans as Madam Rose in the Tony Jaa starring 2005 movie Tom Yum Goong.
Once Sung is in the game he meets a variety of characters, introduced through onscreen text as if in a real computer game (we also get the same when a level ends, and various other game references). We learn that the creator is also inside, played by veteran actor Myung Kye-nam, who explains that The System has become too powerful, and that Sung could be the one to restore order. This plot thread, which becomes increasingly prominent as proceedings progress, is likely what drew the comparisons to The Matrix, as the game realises that Jung has the power to not only save the day, but also the Little Match Girl. To that end, he soon finds himself being pursued by everything from missiles, to Korea’s top martial arts choreographer in the form of Jung Doo-hong (who pulled double duty in front of the camera in 2002, also appearing in Ryoo Seung-wan’s No Blood No Tears).
Amidst the explosions, blood squibs, and vehicular mayhem, Sun-woo’s Buddhist leanings are surprisingly visible. Kye-nam’s mentoring of Jung in how to achieve the art of complete stillness (through fishing no less) incorporates various spiritual aspects, and what other movie can you say has a ferociously violent gunfight set to a soundtrack of Buddhist chants? The finale arguably goes a little too all out in its craziness, especially when a forewarning of The System’s base being able to constantly change, is demonstrated via a ropey looking CGI helicopter showing up to chase Jung down a narrow corridor. However this misdemeanour is forgivable, when the level of action on display for the vast majority is executed with so much gusto and energy, back in the days when CGI was used to compliment action rather than being the action.
It’s fair to say that despite Eun-kyung’s Match Girl being both the centre and title character of the piece, ROTLMG very much feels like Jung’s movie, with his mission to rescue her from such a sorrowful death giving him a sense of purpose missing from his life in the real world. The ending, 2 of them no less, challenges us to question how much of our happiness is tied into a level of ignorance, and perhaps even more so, is that really such a bad thing? It’s a questions which has been raised again recently in movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, and one which is likely to become more and more pertinent in the coming years. To that end, ROTLMG deserves a chance to be revisited with a fresh pair of eyes, more than 15 years on from when it was first released.
Throw in a cameo by Leon and Mathilda, a gun that turns into a mackerel, and a reference to Tom Cruise, ROTLMG may be an expensive mess, but it’s one that delivers a rewarding experience for those willing to decipher it. Going back to the documentary that initially drew my curiosity toward Sun-woo’s unintended swansong, when describing how he felt about working with such a big budget and large crew, he states “It’ll be like a war.” Knowing the history of the production, it’s safe to say his prediction was right, but unlike most wars, in this instance the outcome was worth it.
Kurt Sloane (Moussi) has always been there for his brother, Eric (Darren Shahlavi, Pound of Flesh), who’s known in the martial arts world as a modern-day warrior. But when the ruthless and undefeated fighter Tong Po (Bautista) brutally ends Eric’s life in a no-holds-barred match in Thailand, Kurt devotes himself to training with a master (Van Damme) in a quest for redemption… and revenge.
Director: Gareth Evans Writer: Gareth Evans Cast: Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Bill Milner, Kristine Froseth, Michael Sheen, Blake Ridder, Owain Gwynn, Juke Hardy, Pino Maiello Running Time: 129 min.
By Kelly Warner
After The Raid 2, many of us assumed that the next Gareth Evans film we’d be watching would be The Raid 3. But Evans made it clear that he needed a break from The Raid and wanted to get out of Indonesia for his next film (though everything from Merantau through The Raid 2 was filmed in Indonesia, Evans is a Welsh born filmmaker). Personally, I was not surprised that the next Evans film would be a horror movie. In addition to his amazing V/H/S/2 segment Safe Haven (the best piece in the entire VHS horror anthology series), I believe you could get a sense of a horror filmmaker underneath the surface of the Raid films. The Raid movies mix action with horror movie violence like they were made for each other. Hammer Girl would fit into a horror movie screenplay just as easily as the script of a crime saga. So, when news came down that a Dan Stevens led horror film titled Apostle would be the next Evans effort, I got excited because I knew the director was familiar with what the genre asked of him.
It’s 1905 and the daughter of a rich man is being held captive by a religious cult. They demand a ransom in exchange for her safe return, but the rich man is too old and weak to journey across the water to save his daughter. So the task falls to the girl’s brother, Thomas (Dan Stevens), a drifter long thought dead and/or useless to the world. Thomas assumes the identity of a different worshiper and slips onto the boat ferrying new arrivals to the far off island that the cult has turned into their paradise.
Thomas infiltrates the cult while the community is at their weakest. The crops have gone bad, the livestock won’t breed properly, faith is fading, and everyone is paranoid about who or what is to blame. The cult is led by the Prophet Malcolm (Michael Sheen), who says he is the chosen voice for a nameless ‘She’ that rules the island and its surrounding waters. On this island, there are no worldly possessions like money, no texts from the outside world, no calls for conflict or war. It is meant to be beautiful. But it is ugly and strange underneath. Most the people here are good, decent folk worshipping a new faith. They don’t all know about kidnappings, ransom notes, or… blood sacrifices.
It’s not long before the cult leaders begin to suspect that the kidnapped girl’s kin is hidden amongst them. Thomas must be careful, but he cannot waste time. The moments when Thomas is slinking around are suspenseful. But when he uncovers the truth, that’s when things get really interesting.
What helps set Apostle apart from other creepy cult horror films is the Thomas and Prophet Malcolm characters. Thomas is a darker character than most heroes for this sort of story, and Malcolm isn’t nearly as evil as we might expect. Both hero and villain operate in interesting gray areas. Thomas is a dangerous man who lost his faith and scowls at the island’s worshippers when they’re not looking. Dan Stevens (The Guest), one of the most interesting actors of his generation, sells the part because he doesn’t act the badass. He’s too slight of frame for that, I think. Instead he presents Thomas as a survivor, a man who knows what it takes to make it to the next day, caring little for the amount of blood or dirt that gather beneath the fingernails to make that possible. Likewise, Prophet Malcolm may indeed do terrible things, but he always does them in an attempt to help his paradise succeed. What I most enjoyed about Michael Sheen’s (Frost/Nixon) performance were the moments he decided to show horror and the moments he was more straight-faced.
And then there’s the ‘Her.’ Apostle is a Lovecraftian horror adventure about the man on a mission who finds people worshipping something old and strange. I enjoyed these aspects of the film as well, though I also wish it’d somehow gone a little stranger. However, at 2 hours and 10 minutes, it’s already a little long for a horror movie. That being said, I cannot on first viewing think of anything that could’ve been cut. Everything in the movie either lends to character, setting, or mood. It’s also a very fast moving 2+ hour movie.
I liked the way in which Evans let the bloodshed start as a trickle before it became a literal waterfall. In an early scene, a knife goes across someone’s throat with surprisingly little blood spray for a film from the director of The Raid 2. In that film, his hero fried a dude’s face off on a stove. But it gets wild and nasty in some later scenes, especially one featuring an old meat grinder. The fight scenes, understandably kept at a minimum by comparison to The Raid and Merantau, are well executed. These scenes are better than similar fights in movies where the action is why you show up. In Apostle, the action is secondary, and it’s still done really well.
There are times while watching Apostle that you could be forgiven if you forgot you were watching a Gareth Evans film. Part of this is simply because Iko Uwais is nowhere to be seen. But also, Apostle is the first chance that most of us have seen Evans do something totally different from his Indonesian films (his directorial debut, Footsteps, was filmed in Wales but the film is not as well-known or as widely seen as his other works). As much as I want to see The Raid 3 (which might never happen) or some other Evans/Uwais collaboration, Apostle made me realize that there’s a lot more to the filmmaker than silat kicks and improvised stabbing. I’m now looking forward to the next Evans horror film as much as I am his next martial arts actioner.
I really liked Apostle. It’s cool and creepy good times with some nice cinematography, an interesting score, and nary a false note in any of the performances. Sometimes I wish it had gotten weirder, but I’m happy with the weirdness that we got. Fans of The Wicker Man and Lovecraft should definitely check it out, but I think it should appeal to film buffs in general, provided they can stand the bloody happenings of the second half.
The shooting starts this weekend on cult director Albert Pyun’s (Cyborg, Nemesis, the Sword & the Sorceror) ambitious fantasy actioner BAAD: Bad Ass Angels & Demons.
The film stars Mia ScozzaFave as Arch Angel Azrael, Fulvia Santoni as Arch Angel Gabriel, Kenzi Phillips, Noa Lindberg as the demon Lilith, Glenn Maynnard as the Demon God Maalik, Ermina Perez as the demon Naraka, Brandy Mason, Chloe Brown, Sheila Krause, Zach Muhs and Linda Kerridge from the classic Fade to Black who previously worked with Pyun on a trilogy of Pyun’s earliest films.
The film is being produced by Donna Fischer-Gray, Brad Thornton, Tai Nicole Weinman and Cynthia Curnan, the films screenplay is by Curnan and Pyun himself. The project builds upon ideas for Pyun’s original unproduced screenplay for Masters of the Universe 2, which in turn evolved into the basic of the cult classic Cyborg starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The film is being directed and shot by Albert Pyun in 360′ VR 3D, using a variety of lightweight action camera systems from Go pro, Xiaomi and Yi. This sees Pyun handling cinematography for the first time since shooting short films and an early feature with veteran producer Tom Karnowski in the 1970’s. BAAD is shooting on locations in Las Vegas, Utah, Israel, Nepal and Thailand with an expected release in the fall of 2019.
The film sees Pyun returning to the director’s chair for the second time since being diagnosed with early stages of onset dementia in 2014. Pyun continues to challenge himself and be an inspiration to film-makers from around the world.
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I think it’s fair to say that Japanese cinema was a part of my movie watching experience since childhood. I was a kid who loved dinosaurs and as a result I loved watching dinosaur and monster movies. I didn’t really understand until much later that a sizeable number of these movies were made in other countries, many of them in Japan. They were dubbed and, to be honest, the human characters were never what I was tuning in for. While Japanese movies and I go way back, I don’t think I really started to consider myself a fan of Japanese cinema until I got in deep with the classic Toho sci-fi movies.
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