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.
Choosing the greatest fight scene ever depicted in film is a seriously tricky bit of business. After all, there have been countless showdowns on the silver screen over the years that have filled audiences with sheer adrenaline while watching. Some are so memorable, though, that viewers think about them again years later. Here are a few scenes that have had that effect.
Mickey v Gorgeous George – Snatch
Many people will remember the way Guy Ritchie introduced viewers to the bare-knuckle boxing champion Mickey O’Neil in the 2000 classic Snatch. The character, who was brilliantly played by Brad Pitt, first comes onto the scene when Stephen Graham’s Tommy goes in search of a caravan. Mickey ends up in a boxing match against Tommy’s muscle, Gorgeous George.
At first, it seems like the big man played by Adam Fogerty is going to wipe the floor with Mickey. But the viewer quickly learns that Pitt’s character is merely warming up to lay down the one punch he requires to take out George. He kisses his necklace and plants the perfect blow on his opponent, knocking him out cold. This was not only a great fight scene, but it also set up the premise of the whole film really well.
Staircase Fight – Casino Royale
Casino Royale marked the beginning of Daniel Craig’s successful tenure as James Bond, and the 2006 offering directed by Martin Campbell is considered to be one of the best outings of the MI6 spy. The reason it is so loved could be because the casino industry is booming, with a multitude of casinos and sites offering the full casino experience. Another reason why it was so popular was the fact that it had some incredibly memorable scenes, such as the epic staircase fight between Bond and Steven Obanno. This battle incorporated hand-to-hand martial arts, along with Bond’s traditionally clever use of his surroundings. It has to go down as one of Bond’s best ever scraps ever.
Neo v Agent Smith – The Matrix
Forget the fact that the overall trilogy slipped massively in terms of quality, the original Matrix from the Wachowski brothers in 1999 is a classic. As Neo began to get to grips with the Matrix and the powers that he could wield there, the audience sees Keanu Reeves’ character become the Jesus-like figure that Morpheus believed he would be. This all culminates in an epic battle between Neo and Agent Smith in the subway towards the end of the film. There was awesome fight choreography thanks to the instruction of Master Yuen Woo Ping, along with highly original camera effects. The final result was a fight scene for the ages.
While it would be possible to go on all day about amazing fight scenes in films, these three have to be up there with some of the all-time greats. If you don’t agree, you could always watch Jet Li’s showdown with Billy Chow in Fist of Legend, or what about when Jackie Chan fought Ken Lo in Drunken Master II? The list goes on.
Special Mission tells the story of the daring rescue of a princess in the Middle East by the King of Scorpions. The film also stars Yang Ming, Xu Jiawen, Guo Zhen and Si Li.
Special Mission is getting a domestic release on April 27, 2018, but here’s hoping for a U.S. release. On a related note, Fan Siu Wong will also be seen in Steven Seagal’s anticipated martial arts film, Attrition.
Without further ado, here’s the Trailer for Special Mission:
Director: Byun Sung-Hyun Writer: Byun Sung-Hyun Cast: Sol Kyung-Gu, Siwan, Kim Hee-Won, Jeon Hye-Jin, Lee Kyoung-Young, Jang In-Sub, Kim Sung-Oh, Choi Byung-Mo, Heo Jun-Ho, Kim Ji-Hoon Running Time: 120 min.
By Martin Sandison
Since its inception in the mid-90’s, the Korean noir genre just keeps producing gems. Movies such as Lee Chang-dong’s Green Fish, Kim Jee-woon’s A Bittersweet Life and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy are a few of the all-time classics; twisting and subverting noir tropes such as the femme fatale, unique visual style and brutal violence. Director Byun Sung-hyun’s first foray into the genre, The Merciless, almost deserves to be in the same breath as the aforementioned films, with a breakneck, gripping narrative, innovative action, superb characterisation and a visual style that is both obtrusive and atmospheric in its aesthetic brilliance.
Jo Hyun-soo (Im Si-wan, The Attorney) is an undercover cop in a prison in Busan, investigating various gangsters. He becomes close to a fellow inmate, Han Jae-ho (Sol Kyung-gu, Public Enemy) and a dangerous game begins between the two as they emerge from prison to rule the underworld. Twisted loyalties, gang wars and brawls ensue, with chaotic results. Who will survive this insane narrative? Watch on to find out…
Byun’s earlier films have encompassed Hip Hop culture centered comedy (The Beat Goes On) and romantic comedy (Whatcha Wearin’?), so it’s surprising that he directs The Merciless with such a deft hand. Expertly balancing the action with character development, he makes a supremely intricate narrative understandable. The first half of the film shifts time frames constantly – if you don’t pay attention, you’re lost. I find this annoying in films, but the construction is so lovingly put together that I made an effort to follow everything and most of the time, I did.
Byun directs in such a way that the roving camera and editing style create a technique that draws attention to itself, but in a gloriously entertaining and powerful way. One long take during one of the expertly choreographed Korean-style brawls has the camera turn almost upside down, before turning all the way back round. I adore this kind of visual ingenuity, and the Koreans are the masters of it. The important fight in a prison cell between the two leads is a superb example of this; the action is impactful and gritty, but also lends itself to representation of character. We discover Han is the better fighter, and has the cooler head than his younger, hot-headed friend.
The performances from the two leads are truly mesmerising. Sol as Han demonstrates the complete control he has over his parts, and is no stranger to the genre, having appeared in movies such as Public Enemy and Public Enemy 3. Im is a relative newcomer to the genre, and is a very young man. His boyish good looks and easy charisma reminded me of a young Leslie Cheung, and the relationship of the two harks back to John Woo classics such as A Better Tomorrow. Their respect and loyalty to each other, as the narrative builds and builds, is tested to breaking point. This being Korean noir, the outlook on male relationships is much more ambiguous than Woo’s, with true friendship and loyalty replaced by layers of deception.
The Merciless score points for twisting the trope of the femme fatale. Usually a gangsters moll who leads the protagonist into the tangled web of the narrative, here Jeon Hye-jin’s policewoman is the most in control character, despite her having limited screen time. Peripheral characters are also memorable, not least a henchman who aswell as providing laughs is responsible for a pivotal plot point.
Han’s repeated phrase ‘Don’t trust people. Trust the circumstances.’, while being a little spoon fed as the movie progresses, is the movies mantra, and is borne out with the outrageous twists and turns of the plot. The movie moves at such a breakneck place that it is difficult to follow at times. Also a slightly predictable ending aside, The Merciless is unmissable.
While Japanese cinema in the 1990’s was already a far cry from its golden age, one of the best genres to come out of this era was that which would become known as V-Cinema. Kicked off by Toei’s 1989 feature Crime Hunter, this DTV brand of filmmaking catered to the fact that the vast majority of VHS rental store memberships were male. Even then Japan’s mainstream cinema was becoming more housewife orientated (still the largest demographic of Japanese cinema goers today), so the studios saw the DTV arena as the perfect platform to give guys what they wanted. This was of course – action movies, gangster flicks, and raunchy erotica. Made on small budgets and with lesser known stars than their big screen counterparts, you could say in some ways that V-Cinema was the Japanese equivalent of Cannon Films when they were in their prime.
Before long the other studios got in on the act with their own labels – Nikkatsu came up with the V-Feature line, while Japan Home Video branded their output the V-Movie range – but none stuck quite the way V-Cinema did, and over time Toei’s label came to encompass the entire DTV genre. Much like Philip Ko spent most of the 90’s directing action cheapies in the Philippines, so did many of the V-Cinema directors. No doubt discovering how much stuff could be blown up, cars crashed, and stuntmen thrown through windows for a fraction of the price in Japan, Manila soon found itself standing in (usually unconvincingly) for a number of locales.
Score is one such production, a 1995 entry into the V-Cinema cannon that hilariously wants us to believe that the streets of Manila are Las Vegas. It would be more convincing to pass off New York as the surface of the moon, but attention to detail is not what V-Cinema was about – as long as there’s gun fights, explosions, and manly posturing, those are the elements that count. Directed by V-Cinema specialist Atsushi Muroga, this is the guy that directed such entertaining slices of no frills action as the Okinawa set zombie flick Junk, and the Gun Crazy series cranked out in the early 00’s.
Let’s be clear, Score is completely derivative of almost every gangster and action movie which was popular at the time, but it barrels along with such a devil may care sense of energy, that it’s impossible not to enjoy. Framing itself as a kind of Reservoir Dogs if John Woo was at the helm, the plot focuses on a career thief serving a prison term in Nevada, who’s bailed out by his former employees in order to pull off one final heist. Backed into a corner, he agrees to do it along with three cohorts (all decked out in black suits and white shirts, naturally), after which they head to an abandoned factory to wait for the pickup and their payout. Matters get complicated though when a pair of loved up hitchhikers, who’ve been funding their adventures by murdering whoever gives them a ride (Natural Born Killers reference – check), show up to steal the loot for themselves.
The plot is pretty much rendered superfluous though, when it becomes clear the real goal here is an exercise in how many blood squibs can be used in 85 minutes. Muroga would use an identical setup for Junk (the only other of his movies I’ve seen) 5 years later, when after the initial heist of a jewellery store is completed, the rest plays out in the abandoned factory, which here serves as the backdrop for various double crosses and bloody shootouts. I mean our thieves white shirts remain that way for just a few minutes, quickly becoming soaked in blood that’s either their own, or someone they’ve pumped full of lead. The blood squibs in use here seem to impressively pack a few gallons of the stuff in, with guns shots sending buckets of the red stuff trailing through the air in slow motion. Muroga certainly likes his heroic bloodshed.
The John Woo influence isn’t only present in the gratuitous bullet riddled bodily harm though. Proceedings open with the protagonist of the piece, played by a stone faced Hitoshi Ozawa (Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive and Agitator), being chased through the streets by a crossbow wielding assassin. Cue Hard Target inspired side-on shots of steel arrow heads gliding through the air, oh, and his character’s name is Chance, an obvious nod to Jean Claude Van Damme’s Chance Boudreaux (he even sports a matching mullet). Throw in one of Ozawa’s cohorts being called Tequila and the frequent freeze frames of characters in action, you’re left with a better homage to the John Woo aesthetic than many directors were attempting around the same time (Antoine Fuqua I’m looking at you).
Interestingly, the initial scenes with the serial killer hitchhikers, played by Kazuyoshi Ozawa (another Takashi Miike regular, with small roles in both Gozu and the more recent Shield of Straw) and Miyuki Takano (whose only film credit is Score), were actually filmed on location in Nevada. Outside of shooting a few shots on the road though, it appears that everything else (any by that I mean, anything resembling an action scene) was filmed in the Philippines. Ozawa’s character is an entertaining one, as he has an obsession with old westerns, referring to himself as Doc Holliday and Takano as his Clementine. He goes so far to even amusingly refer to the stolen jewellery as the Clantons.
While limiting so much of the runtime to the abandoned factory may sound dull, Muroga paces the tension with a skilled hand, with the ticking clock of (Hitoshi) Ozawa’s employer’s imminent arrival serving as a countdown to eliminate the threat of the loved up outlaws. As the lead, Ozawa feels like an equally important factor in Score’s success as Muroga. Not only is he the producer, but also the fight choreographer, and would himself step into the director’s chair for Score 2: The Big Fight, which would come 4 years later with many returning cast members (albeit in different roles). He may not be Japan’s answer to Chow Yun Fat, but the guy has a strong screen presence, and energetically throws himself around when it comes to the action. The final freeze frame, of Ozawa leaping into action with a handgun, pretty much feels like it sums up Score in a single frame.
Special mention also has to go to the bad guys of the piece, played by Takashi Ukaji (Zatoichi: The Last) and Hiroshi Miyasaka (Shall We Dance? – the original, not the Hollywood remake). Ukaji looks like an Anthony Wong clone of the same era (particularly the Full Contact look), and spends most of the time either laughing manically, or swatting away blonde floozies as if they’re an irritating fly. Miyasaka’s character is called Cobra, and when you see him you’ll immediately know why – he’s decked out like a Japanese version of Sylvester Stallone’s character in the 1986 movie of the same name (ok, minus the green nail varnish part). They make a formidable pair, and when Miyasaka turns up in the finale with a grenade launcher, you know good times are going to be had.
While V-Cinema would increasingly become a shadow of its former self as the years progressed towards the new millennium, with the tantalizing sleeves promising sex and violence rarely being a reflection of the movies contained within, when it was good, it was really good. These movies were never intended to be masterpieces, and while they were also arguably never intended to be as derivative as Score is, it can’t be denied that it’s a movie which ticks all the boxes of what V-Cinema was supposed to be. Bullets, explosions, and lines like “A bitch like you looks better with bullets in”, all combine to make a slice of entertaining B-movie goodness, that which only has the aspiration to keep you entertained for its duration. To that end, Score may not be your date night movie, but if you’re looking for a slice of Japanese machismo from a bygone era, you’re in the right place.
On July 17, 2018, Arrow Academy will be releasing the Blu-ray for Two Films By Hong Sangsoo, which includes Woman is the Future of Man and Tale of Cinema. Check out the official details below:
This collection brings together Women is the Future of Man and Tale of Cinema, the fifth and sixth films by Hong Sangsoo, the masterful South Korean filmmaker who has been favorably compared to that great French observer of human foibles, Eric Rohmer.
Women is the Future of Man tells of two long-time friends, a filmmaker (Kim Taewoo) and a teacher (Yoo Jitae), who have had an affair with the same woman (Sung Hyunah). The friends decide to meet the girl one more time and see what happens…
Tale of Cinema uses the trope of a film within a film to tell two stories, that of a depressive young man (Lee Kiwoo) who forms a suicide pact with a friend (Uhm Jiwon); and the tale of a filmmaker (Kim Sangkyung) who sees see a film that he believes was based on his life, and who meets the actress from the film with view to turning their onscreen relationship into reality.
With these critically-acclaimed films, presented here in High Definition for the first time with a wealth of extras, Hong Sangsoo employs his idiosyncratic, measured style to create two compelling and truthful tapestries of human emotion and behaviour.
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Newly translated optional English subtitles
Newly filmed introductions to both films by Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
Interviews with Kim Sangkyung, Lee Kiwoo and Uhm Jiwon, the stars of Tale of Cinema
Introduction to Woman is the Future of Man by director Martin Scorsese
The Making 0f Woman is the Future of Man, a featurette on the film s production
Interviews with the actors of Woman is the Future of Man
Stills gallery
Original trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow
First Pressing Only: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Michael Sicinski
We’ll soon see Steven Seagal (Above the Law) kicking some ass in Attrition(read our review), a Kurosawa-esque project that Seagal wrote years ago. At once point, Seagal was attached to helm the project (it would have been his first directing gig since 1994’s On Deadly Ground, 22 years ago), but directorial duties were switched over to Mathieu Weschler, the filmmaker behind Covert Operation (aka The Borderland).
Hong Kong cinema fans will be delighted to learn that Fan Siu Wong (Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) and Yu Kang (Wu Xia) are part of the all-star cast that also includes Vithaya Pansringarm (Lupin the Third, Only God Forgives), Rudy Youngblood (Apocalypto), James P. Bennett (Swelter), Cha-Lee Yoon (Plan B, One Million K(l)icks) and Bayra Bela (Netflix’ Marco Polo).
Attrition is said to be about Axe (Seagal), a warrior who’s in search of a missing Thai girl who possesses mythical powers. “I’ve written something called Attrition, which kind of reminds me of a [Akira] Kurosawa movie. I’m hoping to make that soon, maybe in China, maybe in Hong Kong, maybe in Thailand. We’ve got a lot of great offers out there. We’re going to be getting real busy this year,” Seagal told JoBlo in 2015.
According to THR, Boss Level centers on a retired U.S. Army Special Forces veteran (Grillo) trapped in a never-ending loop, resulting in his death every day. In order to stop his endless suffering, he must figure out who is responsible and stop them. The film also stars Naomi Watts (The Ring), Ken Jeong (The Hangover), Annabelle Wallis (Sword of Vengeance) and Meadow Williams (The Mask).
Boss Level is currently in production. Stay tuned for more updates!
After two years away on business, Mr. Ueki returns home on a ship from Hong Kong to meet his family at the Yokohama pier. None of his business partners are there to meet him and the family thinks this suspicious. After a day of catching up with his loved ones, Mr. Ueki receives a phone call to meet his business partners about the next job and takes off for a night of drinking. Then he doesn’t come home. Curious, after two years apart to now have her father disappear in the night, the man’s daughter Keiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) goes off in search for him the next day only to find a mystery awaiting her.
The Sleeping Beast Within is straight up Hitchcockian. There’s a missing man, a murder mystery, a drug trade, a scarred villain, and a religious cult that operates in the shadows. It’s a lot of movie for 87 minutes and it is one much more interested in plot than character development. Joining Keiko on her search for Papa Ueki is her boyfriend, the investigative journalist Shotaro (Hiroyuki Nagato). At first I found the reporter rather dull, because he essentially acts as the audience’s eye, peering into shadows, looking for clues. But things get more interesting the more he learns, as he begins to question whether he must draw a line between helping Keiko and writing a truthful story even if it wounds her.
What makes The Sleeping Beast Within a fun mystery movie is that it solves is central question fairly early and that only deepens the mystery at the film’s core. Papa Ueki, who had dropped clues for his family on the night of his disappearance, suddenly just shows up one day like there was nothing wrong. He laughs at his family for ever thinking something sinister was afoot and assures them that he only disappeared on a drunken whim. But Shotaro, invited into this by the girl he loves, senses there’s more to the story and keeps digging, ultimately shining a spotlight on Papa Ueki that doesn’t make the man look very good, and in turn draws conflicted emotions out of Keiko.
Director Seijun Suzuki (Eight Hours of Terror) and writer Ichiro Ikeda (Red Pier) make their mystery all the more interesting by having these dark discoveries play out with normal, suburbanite people. The plot plays like Hitchcock, but the themes of darkness visited upon the ordinary remind one of David Lynch. It’s unpredictable, yet never feels overly contrived (a religious cult in the plot is kind of goofy but even this has a satisfying conclusion).
I enjoyed time with the daughter Keiko far more than the reporter Shotaro. Kazuko Yoshiyuki (Departures) is very good at selling her conflicted emotions about her father. This is one of her earliest roles. She would go onto become one of Japan’s most popular veteran actresses. Hiroyuki Nagato (Shinjuku Incident) is good as Shotaro but he has less to work with in the more passive hero role. Shinsuke Ashida (Red Angel) as Papa Ueki may remind modern viewers of a certain father from a certain AMC series about a man in the drug trade.
Shot in beautiful noirish black and white and scripted without a dull moment, The Sleeping Beast Within is a perfectly entertaining mystery movie about the people we think we know and the dangerous webs we didn’t know we were caught in just by knowing them. Fans of Suzuki’s action movies may not find what they’re looking for here but those in the mood for a classic thriller won’t be disappointed.
On July 17, 2018, Shout! Factory will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for The Housemaid, an acclaimed Vietnamese horror movie from director Derek Nguyen.
Vietnam, 1953: Linh (Nhung Kate), a poor, orphaned young woman, finds employment as a housemaid in a crumbling rubber plantation presided over by the emotionally fragile French officer Sebastien Laurent (Jean-Michel Richaud). Soon, a torrid love affair develops between the two — a taboo romance that rouses the ghost of Laurent’s dead wife, who won’t rest until blood flows.
Submerged in moody Gothic atmosphere, this stylish supernatural saga confronts the dark shadows of Vietnam’s colonial past while delivering heart-stopping scares.
When director Ryuhei Kitamura hit the scene in 2000 with his low budget zombie kung fu hybrid, Versus, critics were quick to announce the arrival of a new talent on the Japanese movie scene, and it was easy to see why. Versus had a certain energy about it that belied its humble budget, and it was great to see Japan once again returning to the fight movies that guys like Sonny Chiba and Yasuaki Kurata had made famous during the 70’s.
However, given access to bigger budgets and brought into the fold of the Japanese studio system, Kitamura seemed to lose his creative voice in the movies that came out after, whether it be mis-fires like Alive, or trying to put his own spin on one of Japan’s most recognizable icons with Godzilla: Final Wars. In the late 2000’s he decided to leave Japanese shores and head to the US, during which time he made Midnight Meat Train and No One Lives, both serviceable horror thrillers, before finally returning once again to Japan with the 2014 release of Lupin the Third.
But now Kitamura is back in full-on Midnight Meat Train/No One Lives mode with an upcoming, English-language horror flick titled Downrange(read our review), which is being described as “a minimalist thriller with maximum tension.”
Downrange stars Kelly Connaire, Stephanie Pearson, Rod Hernandez-Farella, Anthony Kirlew, Alexa Yeames and Jason Tobias. It’s penned by Joey O’Bryan, who is known for writing Fulltime Killer and co-writing the upcoming martial arts extravaganza Triple Threat.
According to AITH, here’s what you can expect from the film’s plot: Six college students who are carpooling cross-country when one of their tires blows out on a desolate stretch of country road. Getting out to fix the flat, they quickly discover that this was no accident. The tire was shot out. With their vehicle incapacitated, the group is pinned down and mercilessly attacked by an unseen assailant as they desperately attempt to find a way to escape.
Downrangewill be premiering exclusively on Shudder April 26th. As always, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more. Be sure to also read about Doorman, Kitamura’s upcoming actioner starring Katie Holmes (Disturbing Behavior) and Jean Reno (The Adventurers).
Based on the celebrated horror manga, I Am a Hero, comes a live-action film adaptation that’s bound to get your blood flowing! Thirty-five-year-old assistant manga artist Hideo Suzuki leads an unsatisfying, tedious life. But when a virus outbreak hits Japan turning the infected into mindless cannibals, it’s his chance to become the hero he’s always daydreamed he could be, even if it kills him.
I Am a Hero stars Yo Oizumi (Tokyo Ghoul), Kasumi Arimura (Narratage), Masami Nagasawa (Gintama), Hisashi Yoshizawa (The Blue Hearts), and Yoshinori Okada (Oba: The Last Samurai).
The yakuza movie is my favorite of all the Japanese genres, and while its heyday of the 1970’s has long since passed, they are still being made, albeit in more of a trickle than the constant stream of a bygone era. With this in mind, Osaka Badass: Snake of Violence is a unique entry in the genre, as it combines the yakuza genre with one of the last Japanese tough guys – Tak Sakaguchi. Wedged in the middle of the Sushi Typhoon silliness that saw him starring in Yakuza Weapon and Deadball during 2011, and what he declared to be his final action movie Re:Born in 2016, OB:SOV (as I’ll refer to it from now on) is perhaps Sakaguchi’s most poker faced role.
OB:SOV is the third production from writer and director Takahiro Ishihara. Following on from his 2011 debut Violence PM and 2012 sophomore feature Osaka Violence (you may notice a theme developing), OB:SOV can easily be considered his most ambitious tale, compared to the small-scale settings of his first 2 features. With a name like Sakaguchi on-board to utilize as a selling point, surprisingly the first 20 minutes of OB:SOV don’t contain a single glimpse of him. This isn’t a bad thing though, and instead we spend this time with the 3 main characters when they were still kids.
As ill-advised as it may sound to spend the first 20 minutes of a yakuza movie with a trio of elementary school age kids, surprisingly it works. The child version of Sakaguchi is a heavily scarred mute, who after losing his family in a fire is taken in by a sadistic child trafficker, one who delivers frequent beatings. He finds solace though through 2 friends, a scruffy boy and girl, who would rather spend their days hurling abuse at an elderly baker (while also asking for leftover crusts) and pretending to drink in a bar, than go to school. Despite being mute, the boy and girl treat their introverted friend as an equal, as they play together in overgrown fields and muse on what the future will bring. Their time together comes to an end though, when mini-Sakaguchi is sold to a yakuza gang.
One title card later, and we skip forward 25 years to the now grown up Sakaguchi, who has become a branch of the Osaka yakuza’s trusted enforcer. He’s never seen his 2 friends since, but we also follow their lives as well. The boy, now played by Takashi Nishina (Dead Sushi) has grown up to become an incompetent low level yakuza, responsible for such menial tasks as cleaning the toilets, while his illiteracy also makes him the joke of the gang. Despite his failings, we learn he married his childhood friend, now played by Tomoko Tabata (Blood and Bones), and they have 3 daughters together. When Sakaguchi unknowingly assassinates the son of a Tokyo yakuza head, the stage is set for a confrontation between the regional gangs, which will bring the departed friends together again after so many years.
While the plot description may sound like a thrilling tale of yakuza honour and emotional reunions, onscreen it plays out much more low-key. There’s an almost ‘slice of life’ feel to the way OB:SOV plays out, with the plot feeling as if it progresses in spite of our observations into the trio’s daily lives, rather than because of them. Despite director Ishihara’s seeming preoccupation with violence, he frequently subverts expectations. Being the type of gritty low budget production that it is, I felt sure watching Tabata’s frequent slaps over the head to her lowly yakuza husband was going to result in a violent retaliation, but instead he accepts them as a form of affection. Indeed, the more we see them together, the more we learn that despite the hardships and moral ambiguities of the world they’ve grown into, their relationship is still very much as it was when they were kids.
Ishihara’s treatment of Sakaguchi’s enforcer often recalls Miike Takashi’s early DTV days, back when the likes of Bodyguard Kiba and Fudoh: The New Generation threw left of field elements at the audience. and expected them to be accepted as the norm. Mute (he doesn’t have a single line) and frequently behind sunglasses, Sakaguchi is presumably the Osaka Badass the slightly ridiculous English re-title refers to, and spends the duration strutting around in a sharp black suit. His partner in crime, played by frequent collaborator Arata Yamanaka, shares what appears to be a psychic connection with the mute enforcer, able to explain to waitresses exactly what he wants off the menu and engage in humorous banter, despite it seeming one-way. Sakaguchi and Yamanaka are usually onscreen together, and make for a likeable pair of rogues in the Osaka underworld.
Of course the violence in question is for the most part given to Sakaguchi to dish out. From bathroom strangulations, to putting the beatdown on a group of cowardly white collar yakuza with a selection of wooden planks and a baseball bat. For those hoping to see the type of action found in the likes of Versus and Death Trance though, this is definitely not the right place to be. The action is intended to be realistic and brutal, however it’s also were the budgetary constraints show through. When Sakaguchi is breaking yakuza’s heads by assaulting them with the planks of wood, it’s fairly clear that the wood is so flimsy that even a slight impact would break it in two. That being said, the actors sell the hits well, and OB:SOV is the type of movie where it’s the emotion which is more important, rather than the physical delivery of the action itself.
Proceedings get interesting when the Tokyo yakuza branch send an equally silent psychotic killer to Osaka, with the sole purpose of wiping out as many local yakuza as possible. Played by Lee Sung-lee, again the Miike Takashi influence is prominent, with a character that likes to roam around naked and clothes himself with the threads of those he kills (even if that happens to be a pink apron). It’s quickly established that Sung-lee is near indestructible, kind of like a yakuza terminator (I should really copyright that), and it’s Nishina’s lowly toilet cleaning yakuza that finally gets a chance to leave the office, when he’s tasked with killing him. His sudden responsibility for offing the psychotic yakuza are what sets him up for a chance meeting with his old childhood friend, and like everything else in OB:SOV, the eventual meeting is a low-key affair, but one which still manages to resonate.
The introduction of Sung-lee does allow for Sakaguchi to let loose in a one-on-one fight, which is always a pleasure to watch. A mute yakuza enforcer against an indestructible yakuza killer is a match up any movie could be sold on, and both lay down some pretty heavy punishment on each other in a brief but satisfyingly brutal bout, that ultimately ends up incorporating a forklift truck. Despite the welcome inclusion of some Sakaguchi infused violence, the lasting impression that OB:SOV leaves is that of the friendship between the trio of main characters. The decision to spend the initial 20 minutes of the movie with them as kids was a wise one, as opposed to using flashbacks throughout, as it firmly establishes their relationship, and allows us as the audience to relate to them in later life. The fact that the 3 child actors really nail their performances is a bonus.
As Sakaguchi’s most straight laced (and silent) role, his performance here is enough to make you wish he’d played more serious roles during his active years, however the success of OB:SOV doesn’t rest only on his shoulders. As a relatively new director on the block, Ishihara marks himself as an auteur with a gritty eye for realism, and has already made another feature with 2015’s Control of Violence. While the yakuza genre may not be what it once was, gritty low-key productions such as this are enough to give me hope for what it could be.
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