Director: Shinsuke Sato Cast: Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Masami Nagasawa, Hisashi Yoshizawa, Yoshinori Okada, Nana Katase, Jin Katagiri, Makita Sports, Muga Tsukaji, Yu Tokui Running Time: 126 min.
By Paul Bramhall
It’s rare for Asian movies to break out into the mainstream, and when they do, they’re normally of the martial arts variety. So in 2016, when the Korean zombie movie Train to Busan started getting global attention, thanks largely to word of mouth, it was something of a phenomena. Sure enough, the concept of a zombie outbreak occurring within the confines of a moving train was a unique one, and even though personally I didn’t feel that the whole added up to the sum of its parts, there were plenty of people out there that did. However there was another zombie movie released just a year prior to Train to Busan, and that came in the form of Japan’s I Am a Hero, a title which, for all intents and purposes, gives no indication to its subject matter.
In all fairness, people can be forgiven for writing off the Japanese zombie genre, and paying little attention to any new additions. The short lived wave of Japanese splatter flicks, churned out in the 5 year period from 2008 – 2012, quickly found audiences fatigued of a genre that, while initially fun in their over the top nature, soon came to rely on cheap and unconvincing CGI. Productions such as 2008’s Zombie Hunter Rika and 2010’s Helldriver are both poor excuses for feature length movies, and most audiences agreed. Micro-budgets, excessive CGI blood splatter, and little to no story, proved that even the most hardened zombie fan likes at least a little reasoning and quality control to their undead fix.
With that background, it’s perhaps understandable that I Am a Hero hasn’t quite made the same waves as its Korean counterpart. The lack of recognition is unfortunate, as not only is I Am a Hero a far superior slice of zombie entertainment, I’d go so far as to say it’s the most entertaining zombie flick I’ve seen since 28 Days Later revived the genre back in 2002. The ‘hero’ in question is played by Yo Oizumi, a struggling manga artist who, after winning the Best Newcomer award 15 years ago, has failed to fulfil the bright future that once seemingly lay ahead. Within the first 10 minutes, we witness his latest idea for a comic get rejected, and his long term girlfriend reach breaking point in her wait for their lives to improve, leading to her kicking him out of their apartment with only his shotgun (and his licence for it, we’ll get to that later) for company.
Indeed during the opening of I Am a Hero you’d have no indication that it’s a zombie movie at all. The only hint comes from a news broadcast casually playing in the background of the confined Manga studio, covering a story in which a woman was bitten by a dog, during which, as the story comes to a close, the anchor apologies and confirms that it was actually the other way around. However, after receiving a phone call from his ex, sounding distinctly under the weather and apologetic, Oizumi rushes over to the apartment to check up on her, leading to the first scene in a zombie movie which I can say legitimately scared the living daylights out of me in a long time. Needless to say, ‘under the weather’ is an understatement, and soon more and more people are falling victim to the strange virus that turns them into blood thirsty members of the walking dead.
One of the most welcome elements of I Am a Hero are the zombies themselves. Their look is refreshingly gruesome, with no half-baked makeup, or reliance on extras pacing around with their mouths open. The transformation, which involves the eyes bulging out and flesh immediately rotting, is brilliantly done, and a significant reliance on practical effects aided by CGI, rather than the other way around, makes a huge difference. Unlike Train to Busan’s rather toothless approach to gore, I Am a Hero positively embraces it, and does so with top level special effects that put it in an entirely different league than the productions mentioned earlier. Heads explode, limbs are torn off, and faces are ripped apart in a manner that’s never less than convincing.
At its core though, is Oizumi himself, a haplessly timid character who insists on doing everything by the book. He’s the exact opposite of the typical hero found in a zombie movie, the constant rejection he’s faced draining any kind of ambition out of him. Precisely because of his completely average nature, as an audience you’re constantly torn between being frustrated, and at the same time, being able to understand his actions. Such a setup also allows for plenty of darkly comical moments, such as his stubborn refusal to use his shotgun in public, as it’s against the law, and his reluctance to let anyone else use it, as they don’t have a licence. However his character also allows for I Am a Hero’s most human moments, such as when he fails to save an acquaintance, even when he had the opportunity to do so, leading to him angrily questioning himself as to why he’s so useless.
The story itself is based on a Manga by Kengo Hanazawa, and was brought to the big screen by director Shinsuke Sato. Sato got his directorial debut by cutting his teeth on the Donnie Yen choreographed Princess Blade in 2001, and has since then been behind many of the 2-part manga adaptions that plague mainstream Japanese cinema, such as Gantz and Gantz: Perfect Answer, and more recently Library Wars and Library Wars: The Last Mission. Whatever discussion took place behind the scenes that resulted in the decision to not make I Am a Hero another 2-parter, is one that we should all be thankful for. The 20-volume Manga has been stripped down to a lean and mean 2 hour production that works perfectly, with zero time wasted on such unnecessary sub-plots as romantic interests, and most significantly for a Japanese mainstream movie, a welcome lack of lengthy exposition.
The 2nd half of I Am a Hero heads into familiar territory, as Oizumi and a schoolgirl he saved along the way, played by Kasumi Arimura, come across a group of survivors camped out on the rooftop of an outlet mall. Interestingly, as a piece of trivia the location of the mall is actually one that went out of business a few years ago in Korea, as the strict gun laws in Japan meant the producers couldn’t get permission to use firearms at any suitable locations in Japan itself. The nod to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is an obvious one, however it never becomes derogatory. The mall also expands on what we know about the zombies, as one survivor explains that once turned, they revert to behaving in a way which reflects whatever they were most used to doing. One zombie is observed standing motionless, his arm outstretched holding onto an invisible rail, as if on the train to the office, while another desperately attempts to enter the mall so they can shop.
Of course, the initially welcoming leader of the group, played by Hisashi Yoshizawa, soon reveals a darker side, and it’s eventually the combination of both the zombies, and the dark side of human nature, that finally forces Oizumi to stop running away and take action. His decision to step up is not only a punch the air moment, but it also leads into one of the most excessively bloody zombies versus humans confrontations that’s been witnessed onscreen for quite some time. While I’d stop short of saying it rivals the lawnmower madness of Peter Jackson’s Braindead, there’s no denying that there’s a cathartic joy of witnessing Oizumi’s decision to finally put his shooting hobby into practice, as they become more and more surrounded by hordes of the undead.
I Am a Hero ultimately proves to be a suitably ironic title, something that will only be understood after watching it, which I’d recommend everyone to do without hesitation. That rare combination of a character driven zombie flick that, on top of being a character piece, also wants to be an unapologetic gore fest. It’s not so much a case that such a combination has never been successfully pulled off, but rather, is hardly ever attempted. Horrifying, funny, and exhilarating in equal measures, I Am a Hero is everything a zombie movie should be, and maybe even a little more.
This year’s 19th edition of Far East Film Festival offered a special treat for the fans of martial arts cinema. The long-awaited hit title Jailbreak, titled as Cambodia’s very first martial arts movie was scheduled for screening on the opening day of the festival. Coming to Udine to promote the movie was the Jailbreak team: director Jimmy Henderson and producer Loy Te, as well as the film’s stars Jean-Paul Ly and Tharoth Sam. It is there that we got the chance to enjoy a private talk with these special guests. Here’s what they had to say…
The cast and crew of Jailbreak: Jean-Paul Ly, director Jimmy Henderson, Tharoth Sam and producer Loy Te.
MATIJA TOMIC: Jimmy, if I understood correctly, you were born in Italy?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yes, I was born in Italy and I live in Cambodia for six and a half years now.
MATIJA TOMIC: What inspired you to direct a martial arts movie in Cambodia?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Well, I’ve always been a big fan of martial arts films. I grew up with Van Damme and Bud Spencer and all of those guys, and then when I moved to Cambodia I found the cinema needed something different. There was a lot of talent around martial artists, and I thought why not try to explore this option. Cambodian cinema is very saturated with horror comedy, only one type of genre. Making a martial arts film was something new that I wanted to expose to the local audience, for the local taste. That’s how the idea of making this film came about.
In 2012. I tested the water with another film called Hanuman, much smaller, more contained film. We had eight stuntmen at the time and we kept recycling all the fight scenes. Since then the team has grown and when we met JP things began to develop more and we ended up making Jailbreak together.
MATIJA TOMIC: Can we expect another collaboration, more martial arts films from Cambodia?
LOY TE: I hope so.
Is Jailbreak Cambodia’s answer to The Raid?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah, now we’re running the festival circuit, and then by the end of the year, we will know more. What are the numbers that we get out of this movie, or if there’s a possibility to make a sequel, or a different film along the line. The team has grown now and I think if we keep filming, it will become even bigger.
MATIJA TOMIC: Do you hope that Jailbreak could do for Cambodia what Ong Bak did for Thailand?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah, possibly. I’m sure you don’t see this kind of films coming from Cambodia right now. There was Ong Bak, then The Raid for Indonesia and now it’s our turn. I think Southeast Asia has a lot of potential. Jailbreak is the first stepping stone for Cambodian cinema and I’m sure the international exposure will help us to reach a certain level and to produce more along the line. There is a lot of hidden talent in Cambodia, this little gem that is in the middle of Southeast Asia. Nobody really knows what is going on and also, nobody dares to produce a film like this. We are the first, and surely this will continue. Yeah, hopefully we’ll do with Jailbreak what Ong Bak did for Thailand, or The Raid for Indonesia. If not with this one, with the next one definitely.
JEAN-PAUL LY: Maybe Loy, you want to mention about XYZ.
LOY TE: Yeah, two weeks ago we signed with XYZ films, they will be bringing the film to the rest of the world, outside of Cambodia. Hopefully that will give us the lead and help us continue to bring our exposure along with the festivals. We hope that also brings us to our next project and helps us gather more resources to make something even bigger.
Jean-Paul Ly’s Jailbreak character poster.
MATIJA TOMIC: Martial arts style promoted in the movie is Cambodian Bokator. How authentic is it and did you use other martial arts styles as well?
JEAN-PAUL LY: (speaking to Tharoth) Ok, you will answer about Bokator.
The thing is, for the film, we wanted to have two different styles. For the first time to be able to showcase Bokator on a film of that scale. And then, I’m going with my style, which is Hapkido, Taekwondo, there’s more kicks, we compete with each other. Also on the design, we filmed very differently, to give nice scene value but not to bother the authenticity of Bokator.
THAROTH SAM: Actually, Bokator is very traditional martial art of Cambodia that got lost some 2000 years ago. That’s what my Grandmaster said, and he just rebuilt it almost 10 years ago. Bokator films work very hard to keep promoting Bokator to the next generation, especially wanting to pass the spirit to the young generations and all the women. Cambodia lost a lot of smart people in the war, we lost almost everything, so we just built it up again and kept promoting it. It’s really a great opportunity that the producer and the director chose this traditional martial art for the movie. It’s a great chance to spread Bokator through the media to all the people around the world, to know not only about the ancient martial art, but also the culture of Cambodia as well. Most of the stunt team trained Bokator, and we pretty much wanted to promote it and share it to the world.
Tharoth Sam’s Jailbreak character poster.
JIMMY HENDERSON: I’d like to add something as well. In the film we had different people of different background. Like JP said, Hapkido, then Dara, male lead, we decided to go for more Bokator moves with him. He has a particular style that is ground fight, a lot of times you’ll see he fights very low and also jumps up on people. Those are authentic Bokator moves. With Tharoth I wanted to take more of a MMA approach, keeping only some Bokator moves. So, we kept some Bokator moves for Tharoth, but mostly it was Dara.
With Tara Vy who played the security guard, I wanted to go for more, sort of wrestling approach. If you see, there are a lot of take downs, police style. With Socheat, the guy with the long hair, he’s between freestyle of sort and Russian Systema. We wanted to create a variety of film fighting, if you’re a martial artist you will notice the difference between the fights. We didn’t want to keep one style all the way through, but to create a different dynamic to the characters, as well as to reflect their personality.
MARTIN SANDISON: Could I ask how much of it did you previz, and how much did you kind of deal on set?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Well, I started shooting previz myself about a month before in order for us to figure out what was the best angle and also to remember what we were doing because there was a lot of fighting. I flew once from France to Cambodia, then we would look at the previz. Then of course, on set, most of the time we’d never end up finishing the full sequence because of timing restrictions, so a lot of adjustments were made. Some stuntmen couldn’t perform 100%, like sell a hit, so we modified a lot on set. It was like a very quick fix, quick shooting you know, because we didn’t spend more than two days doing a fight scene and with one camera as well.
“Jailbreak” Theatrical Poster
MATIJA TOMIC: What were your influences regarding the action and filmmaking style?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Actually there were some references here and then, but not necessarily to martial arts films. For example, the long sequence at the beginning was very much inspired by the work of Gaspar Noe, you know. There is a very long sequence in Irreversible, so that’s what inspired me. There was another scene when JP and Tharoth fight and Tharoth is on the floor crawling and it was kinda inspired by Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio. I was trying to put a lot of references to a lot of small things from the movies I like.
GORAN NJEZIC: At the beginning you mentioned Van Damme and Bud Spencer. After making this movie and having this experience, how do you look back at those movies and what do you think now about them as a martial artist?
JEAN-PAUL LY: We talked about that actually. Look at the fights in Jailbreak, when I fight Bolo, it looks like Bloodsport because the actor didn’t know how to fight. We had to train him because he had no martial arts background. So we needed to change the way of the film, to adapt to make it more believable, that’s what we tried to achieve. You talk about all the references, my references were The Raid, obviously, and John Wick. I’m always trying to adapt the skill and the action design, how to film it depending on the action and also the story we want to tell.
GORAN NJEZIC: So, East and West mix..
“Chinese Hercules” Japanese Theatrical Poster
JEAN-PAUL LY: Yeah. Of course these films are massive references. Like Bloodsport…
JIMMY HENDERSON: That’s why Bolo as well, the real name of the villain in Bloodsport, Bolo Yeung. (all laughing) This is one reference we kept in the film just for fun.
MARTIN SANDISON: How did you find shooting the fight scenes? Was it difficult, challenging?
JEAN-PAUL LY: It was challenging because it was a matter of time. All the previz before went well, but then again when you’re about to wrap, it’s the end of the shoot… sometimes we achieved only 50% of what we wanted to do. There’s no way I’m gonna shoot that fight again later, so we needed to wrap it up quick. Sometimes you want to finish a fight, you structure your fight scenes, you put some key moves, the nice moves right, to put the rhythm, but when you’re about to wrap, these moves are lost.
For me, to adapt very quickly, that was a challenge. Other than that, it was good because we had good preparations. We trained the Bokator guys, the team was very good, and we had to train the extras as well. So very good preparations for a month and a half, almost two months, to do it in two days. Obviously, it never happens as you want it, and you’re always late.
GORAN NJEZIC: You said those were inexperienced extras, you had to train them?
Dara Our’s Jailbreak character poster.
JEAN-PAUL LY: Mostly. We had the main Bokator team, these guys are professional fighters, they’re amazing. They were also doing stunts in Jimmy’s other project, Hanuman, but I needed to show them the proper way to do it. We had a core team of less then ten people, and then we brought more people to fight. It’s a prison, we fight prisoners. If we want to do a riot scene, we need a lot of people. These guys came and we trained them for a month and a half every weekend, six hours. It was intense.
GORAN NJEZIC: Was there a moment while shooting when you thought it won’t work?
JIMMY HENDERSON: There were a few instances when somebody got hit a little too hard. You cannot do a fall anymore, you cannot take a hit anymore, it’s psychological. When I saw it doesn’t work after we tried a couple of times, I realized we needed to adjust things. Or, if we are not really that deep into the fight, change the stunts. It’s always been like that when we found some kind of a problem. Especially since we had the team of 10 to 15 proper stuntmen to do backflips or very hard falls, because we didn’t use any body protection. The protection was very minimal and people were hitting the ground…
GORAN NJEZIC: It looks good. (all laughing)
JIMMY HENDERSON: It looks painful.
MATIJA TOMIC: Jean-Paul, you mentioned in an interview that you started you martial arts training because of martial arts films. Could you name a few that inspired you?
“Operation Condor: Armour of God 2” International Theatrical Poster
JEAN-PAUL LY: The film that really changed everything for me because I was a fan of Jackie Chan, the name in French is Opération Condor, I don’t know the English title. That film had everything: comedy, martial arts… and of course, Bruce Lee movies. This is very interesting because my father loved Bruce Lee, so I was raised with Disney and Bruce Lee. All these films, like Enter the Dragon, were my references. Bruce Lee is an icon, not only for the movies, but more because of how he represented Asian people. He was like a hero, so I needed to kind of follow his path. So yeah, Bruce Lee was my inspiration, and Jackie Chan.
MARTIN SANDISON: Tharoth, how did you get into martial arts? How did you start to do martial arts, were you quite young?
THAROTH SAM: I started to do martial arts when I was 18, now I’m 26, so not that quite young. (laughs) But I wish I could’ve started when I was younger. At that time I just found out that Cambodia has a wonderful tradition of martial arts so I just tried to taste it, and I just loved sport. I chose to do martial arts because I wasn’t brave enough, I wasn’t good at communicating with people, I was scared and got sick a lot. After doing martial arts, I felt confidence. I have more friends now, I feel like I can go wherever alone, I feel safe.
Once I almost gave up because my parents and my relatives didn’t support me. They said doing this makes them feel ashamed and stuff like that, especially when I’d get to fight in the ring. They didn’t want to see me and said I should stop doing that. They wanted their daughter to be like the other girls, be pretty, do an easy job, do housework and stuff like that. I said I wanna be different, so what if I love this? The idea in heart that my Grandmaster always taught me, he said that if you chose to do things, just keep doing it for the sole show or for your people. So, yeah, I kept doing this.
The name is Tharoth “Little Frog” Sam to MMA fans.
Like I said before, I always wanted to show the women and inspire them to be strong and to spread this to the world. To let those people know Cambodia, wonderful culture and also martial art. I kept fighting and I kept explaining to my family until they started supporting me because I didn’t do anything bad for my country, it’s fun representing Cambodia for the women. Thank you.
MARTIN SANDISON: I wanted to ask about some of the camerawork in the movie, because in the outtakes, you could see some very improvised sort of things happening. And because the camerawork is very impressive and well obviously you were working on a little budget, could you talk about the camerawork a bit?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Well, we talked for quite a while, it was a lot of pre-production talk with the dp. We talked about what kind of style we’re going for, and need to go for. We tried as much as possible to go for the long takes. Most of the time, if you see, we shot the fight scenes pretty wide, so you can actually see all of the action. No point in trying to hide it, if something didn’t work out on camera, we were trying to just change it a little bit. It was very intense camerawork because of the rig. We made the fake rig and the camera was very heavy, eight to nine hours of shooting. Sometimes we’d pause to shoot the dialogue or an easy piece you have seen in the bloopers, I was shooting myself so the cameraman could relax.
If you see, we approached every fight in a different way. The first couple of hits you see, like breaking a neck, a punch, just a little bit teasing the audience, and then it explodes into this big, unexpected fight scene. We wanted fight scenes to progress, to create more unexpected things, even with the camerawork.
“Dead or Alive” Japanese Theatrical Poster
MARTIN SANDISON: You said you’re influenced by Takashi Miike…
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah…
MARTIN SANDISON: After you said that, I was thinking about the humor in the film, it’s kinda similar. Is Miike your biggest influence on the humor?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah, if referring to the dark humor, I think Takashi Miike is one of my favorite directors. I always liked the way he does satire, as well as dark comedy from Ichi the Killer and all of his films. But of course, we have limitations in Cambodia. I cannot extend to what he does in Japan you know, otherwise it wouldn’t pass the censorship. I intended to kill the slapstick with Cannibal, with blood, all that sort of things, but I had to be careful not to get an R rating so it wouldn’t kill the box office. But we still had bad rating because the film’s a bit violent.
MARTIN SANDISON: Even the part with the knife?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah, it looks painful you know, it looks very painful. Also, there were 22 fights in the movie which had to be cut to 15. So, 7 fights were gone, and in the middle of the shooting we realized that we were massively behind the schedule so we had to cut out 30, 35 scenes. We tried to prioritize the flow of the story and cut all the character development the movie might be missing. It was a matter of time, prioritize the story, prioritize which fight scenes. Make the story progress further and take out the other fights which are just there to showcase. We literally had 15 days to shoot all those fights which is pretty crazy. (all laughing)
JEAN-PAUL LY: As I said before, I was working on Dr. Strange for 7 months. I was part of the fight team so I was helping the choreographer to do the fight scenes for Cumberbatch, and we had so much time. It’s a Marvel movie so it’s big budget, we had everything in abundance and we had time. Now we’re doing Jailbreak and it’s like one fight per day, it’s crazy. With big films it’s like few moves per day. They even had seven units, we had one unit, one camera. So we had to make sure we follow, because if we do long takes and mess up, we need to do it again. And sometimes we had up to nine or ten moves, so you need to nail those moves.
GORAN NJEZIC: You had just one camera?!
JEAN-PAUL LY: One camera.
GORAN NJEZIC: RED?
JIMMY HENDERSON: Yeah, we had RED Dragon.
JEAN-PAUL LY: Sometimes you’re crazy, you have to do it, get hurt, get Red Bull, it’s good. Why? Because we needed to finish. It was like, this is the schedule, we’re not gonna get more days than that. Sometimes as an artist you have to adapt, and I learned so much.
JIMMY HENDERSON: On the set we had to block all the fresh air and all the light to have control of the artificial light. So, in Cambodia, it’s normally 30 to 40 °C. We had two big fans, it was more for them, I was ok. (laughter)
LOY TE: That and the fact that it was an abandoned building when we moved in for the film, and it’s been abandoned for over 10 years. It had no windows or anything, just full of dust and concrete falling apart. We just took out the big pieces so we can clear it and it looks decent in a way for a Cambodian prison, you would imagine it to be really like hard core. Every morning we would come in, have breakfast, warm up, then we’d start. We do one take, the moment we start to do that one take, all that dust got up in the air, and the rest of the day we’re just stuck in this box, there was no airflow…
“Doctor Strange” International Theatrical Poster
JEAN-PAUL LY: No airflow, no air conditioning, at 40 °C, and you don’t have time, you just have to do it.
LOY TE: Every time there’s a break, everyone would just run out to get some fresh air. (laughing)
JEAN-PAUL LY: Everyone’s on the ground lying, and then it’s: let’s go again! Amazing process.
LOY TE: There are a few takes we messed up because someone forgot the mask. Sometimes we were wearing masks because it would get really dusty. They would have masks while they rehearse, and then when we’d go for the take, they’d remove them. There were a few takes where some of them would forget to remove the masks. (all laughing) It’s like ok cut, that was good… did you left the mask on?
JEAN-PAUL LY: It went that far.
MATIJA TOMIC: JP, did you get to work with Scott Adkins on Dr. Strange?
JEAN-PAUL LY: Yeah, when he came for the rehearsal for his fights. They wanted him to showcase his Boyka moves, so that’s where he does the Guyver kick and the kick 720, because the choreographer Jonathan Eusebio (I was working with Jonathan) wanted Scott Adkins fans, Boyka fans to see these moves in a Marvel film. So that was great, he came maybe like two or three times to do his fights, it was very quick because Scott is so good. He does his stuff, we were laughing, drinking, ok bye bye, and he goes. That’s because he is a very good martial artist, very good.
Thanks again to Martin Sandison, Matija Tomic, Goran Njezic, Jean-Paul Ly, Tharoth Sam, Jimmy Henderson and Loy Te for putting together this interview.
Martial arts film legend Cynthia Rothrock (The Martial Arts Kid, Righting Wrongs) is hosting Fists of Fury, a new, butt-kicking DVD documentary by Charles Band and Full Moon Entertainment.
Synopsis: Class is in session as your seductive sensei, Cynthia Rothrock, gives you the hardest hitting lessons of your life! Courses include a study on the greatest ‘Martial Arts Movie Masters’, ‘Deadliest Weapons”, and the many failed attempts at recreating the ‘Magic of Bruce Lee’. Will you earn your cinematic black-belt or get tossed on the pile of failed students? The only way to find out is to find and feel the Fists of Fury!
Fists of Fury features 109 minutes of hard-hitting footage and some of the greatest clips in martial arts entertainment.
Edgar Wright, the genius director known for his pleasantly paced, comedic brand of culture-induced films (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is back with an innovative project that’s being described as an “action crime musical film”.
The movie, titled Baby Driver, involves a young getaway driver named “Baby” (The Fault in Our Stars’ Ansel Elgort), who finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail. In the process, he meets the girl of his dreams (Lily James).
Baby Driver also stars Kevin Spacey (Superman Returns), Jon Bernthal (The Wolf of Wall Street), Eiza González (From Dusk till Dawn: The Series), Jon Hamm (The Town) and Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained).
Baby Driver hits theaters on June 28, 2017. Don’t miss the film’s latest Trailer below:
Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Cast: Sonny Chiba, Rikiya Yasuoka, Saburo Date, Koji Fujiyama, Tooru Hanada, Ryuji Hayami, Jiro Ibuki, Harukui Jo, Kenji Kawai, Hiroshi Kondo, Koji Miemachi, Etsuko Nami, Yoshio Neshima Running Time: 86 min.
By Kelly Warner
There are two types of film fans in the world; those who learn of Sonny Chiba’s 1975 werewolf action movie Wolf Guy with a “Huh?” and those who almost immediately plunk down $20 so that they can watch the newly unearthed gem. I belong to the latter group. As a fan of Japanese cinema with something of a soft spot for Sonny Chiba’s hissing karate master persona, the idea of him sorting out justice as a well-armed werewolf is basically irresistible. I went into the movie expecting something weird. And even so, I was unprepared for the level of weird that I got.
Wolf Guy is that rare sort of movie that can make a sober man feel drunk. The plot operates with a devil-may-care sense of abandon, the camera sees the world at tilted angles, visions of superimposed murder cats come spiraling out of the gloom, ninja cops leap out of the walls… the viewer is left dazed and confused.
In Wolf Guy, Sonny Chiba is a wolf man named Akira. He doesn’t look like a wolf man, never transforms or dons special makeup, and only occasionally shows animalistic traits (landing on all fours in a fight, for example), but trust me: he’s a wolf man. I know this only because the film’s characters keep reminding us of the fact. No one seems particularly surprised to be sharing the earth with a werewolf, though. Akira’s wolf man lineage is so easily accepted that I thought I’d missed something. Strengthened by a full moon but otherwise no different in appearance from any other Sonny Chiba hero, the titular Wolf Guy is more like a superhero vigilante than the typical werewolf from myth and lore. (The film’s full title is Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope. Simply knowing the term ‘lycanthrope’ is about as close as the film comes to embracing werewolf mythology.)
More interesting than the wolf guy is the phantom tiger. At the start of the film, a rock star played by Rikiya Yasuoka (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) stumbles into traffic screaming about a tiger that means to kill him. “Miki turned into a tiger!” Sonny Chiba’s sleuth reporter Akira intercepts the troubled man only moments before Rikiya’s shirt is torn open with deep, bloody cuts running down his chest and back. Akira is brought in as the only suspect but is quickly released when the autopsy reveals that the rocker was likely killed by a demon. The coroner’s straight-faced reading of cause of death: demon is the first sign that we’re operating in a different sort of reality here.
Akira follows the clues. The rock band known as the Mobs raped a girl named Miki. Now, somehow, Miki’s fury has manifested as a vengeful ghost tiger that tears her enemies to shreds. As Akira gets closer to Miki, a mysterious evil organization that’s part Yakuza part Blofeld starts closing in on them. Not only do the bad guys want to manipulate Miki’s rage for their own benefit, they hope to extract the wolf guy’s blood to create a wolf guy of their own (“I received a transfusion of your blood and became a wolf man, too,” is one of my favorite lines of the script).
Akira encounters many other women in his attempts to rescue Miki from her strange fate. And all of these women want to get naked with him almost immediately. At first, it just seems like the film’s attempt to meet a certain skin quota, but some of it soon becomes a bit, err, odd. Like when one lady wants to sleep with him because she wants to have sex with an animal. Um. And in a later part, a lady shoves her boobs into Sonny Chiba’s face and he falls in love with her because she reminds him of his Mom. Uhh. But to be clear, the film always felt a bit trashy and nasty right from the start. It’s just that it finds a way to become more so as it goes on.
Directing the film is B-movie favorite Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, who worked with Sonny Chiba previously on Sister Street Fighter and the underrated Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2. In an interview included on the new disc from Arrow, Yamaguchi admits to not being a big fan of the werewolf sub-genre. It shows. But that’s not to say that he fails to come up with some crazy visuals and ideas. The manner in which Miki’s tiger slashes her enemies to death calls to mind A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Kreuger, who would not make his screen debut for another nine years. Another image that’s impossible to forget is the wolf guy’s healing powers, which includes a shot that shows Sonny Chiba’s intestines getting sucked back into his stomach after being mortally wounded. Yamaguchi’s weird visuals, coupled with a wicked 70’s funk soundtrack, make Wolf Guy hard to forget.
Wolf Guy has been newly unearthed for fans in the US and UK and released on DVD and Blu-ray. The picture and sound are both impressive, I thought. Three new interviews recorded in 2016 are included as special features. The first, talking with director Yamaguchi, shares a bit about his film career and his fairly reluctant decision to adapt Wolf Guy to film. The second interview is with producer Toru Yoshida, who specialized in B-movies for Toei. He expresses some regret in not making Wolf Guy a better film with a bigger budget, but also shares a laugh remembering how much Wolf Guy’s manga creator hated the film. Finally, we get a new interview with Sonny Chiba, which does not speak on Wolf Guy in particular but rather has the actor sharing his views on acting, learning the craft, and how difficult it is to throw a fake punch. Sonny Chiba’s always a fun interview subject, because he’s so clearly passionate about his craft, and this interview is no different.
Part male wish fulfillment, part martial arts movie, and part gonzo anything-goes entertainment as only the Japanese film industry could dream up, Wolf Guy is a bizarre piece of work. It’s silly stuff, but I had a good time.
“King Kong vs Godzilla” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Now that Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island (reboot of the King Kong franchise) and Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla have done their damage at the box office, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. are in full swing with Godzilla vs. Kong, a mash-up of the two aforementioned titles.
According to THR, Adam Wingard (director of Netflix’ upcoming Death Note), who made a name for himself with low-budget horror thrillers such as You’re Next and The Guest, has closed a deal to helm Godzilla vs. Kong.
Godzilla vs. Kong is scheduled to be released May 22, 2020. We’ll keep you posted on its developments. Until then, we leave you with the trailer for 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.
“Aces Go Places V: The Terracotta Hit” Chinese DVD Cover
AKA: Mad Mission 5 Director: Lau Kar-leung Cast: Samuel Hui Koon-kit , Karl Maka, Leslie Cheung, Nina Li Chi, Conan Lee, Billy Chong, Maria Cordero, Ha Chi Jan, Mark Houghton, Walter Tso Running Time: 102 min.
By Paul Bramhall
There’s a distinct feeling with the fifth instalment of the Aces Go Places series, that the producers were trying to aim for as broad an audience as possible. Of course fans of the series would welcome another entry, especially after Eric Tsang, the director of the original and its sequel, unsuccessfully attempted a crossover with the Lucky Stars series in 1986’s Lucky Stars Go Places. While that movie did give us Sammo Hung, it came minus the main star of Aces Go Places, with the notable absence of Sam Hui. For the fifth entry (technically sixth), Hui is back, however this time you also have Lau Kar Leung in the director’s chair, guaranteed to bring in the kung fu movie fan base, and Hong Kong megastar Leslie Cheung thrown into the mix as well, here at the height of his popularity.
The decision to put Kar Leung in the director’s chair was an interesting one, as all of the previous entries in the series had been sold upon the promise of comedy and increasingly elaborate stunts. The third and fourth instalments were directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam respectively, made at a time when both directors were coming into their own. Kar Leung on the other hand was quite the opposite, being an established Shaw Brothers director, now trying to find his way without the studio. What it certainly did mean though, is that we could expect less of the stunt work, and a shift in focus to an increase in fight scenes.
For anyone not familiar, the Aces Go Places series focuses on the comedic exploits of Sam Hui, who plays a kung fu expert master thief, and Karl Maka, who plays his bumbling detective sidekick. Billed as parodies of the James Bond series, the third instalment even featured Richard Kiel, who played Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, and Sean Connery lookalike Jean Mersant in the role of 007 himself. The first Aces Go Places was released in 1982, with sequels released in ’83, ’84, and ’86. The Terracotta Hit marked the longest period that fans had to wait for a new helping of Hui and Maka’s shenanigans. However despite Hui’s return, cast regular Sylvia Chang, who played Maka’s long suffering wife, is missing, explained in the movie as having immigrated to Canada with their son. It’s worth mentioning that The Terracotta Hit would be the last in the series, notwithstanding a poorly received reboot, with Chin Ka Lok’s 97 Aces Go Places, that attempted to replace Hui and Maka with Alan Tam and Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
After directing Jet Li in the Mainland wushu epic Martial Arts of Shaolin in 1986, Lau Kar Leung would try several attempts at directing modern day action, first of all with Tiger on the Beat in 1988, and The Terracotta Hit would follow a year later. Several cast members from Tiger on the Beat return here, notably Nina Li Chi and Conan Lee. After the treatment Li Chi suffers in Tiger on the Beat, senselessly beaten at the hands of Chow Yun Fat, it’s a surprise that she agreed to star in another Lau Kar Leung movie just a year later. However perhaps it has something to do with the fact that she met her husband to be, the previously mentioned Jet Li, on the set of Dragon Fight during the same year. I like to think that Li told her he’d beat seven bells out of Kar Leung if she had to suffer such a scene again. He probably didn’t though.
The inclusion of Conan Lee is also a curious one (his character is hilariously called ‘Chinese Rambo’), as despite his reputation of being extremely arrogant and difficult to work with, Kar Leung worked with him more than any other director. The two would team up again the following year, for a sequel to Tiger on the Beat, in which he famously falls from the top of a streetlight in a stunt gone wrong. For the kung fu fans out there, the cast also includes Billy Chong as a nameless thug in his last Hong Kong movie appearance (a whole 6 years after A Fistful of Talons, so his appearance is random to say the least), Melvin Wong as a villainous thief, wushu champion Lu Yan (she was one of the Beijing Wushu Team that performed on the White House lawns for Nixon, along with Jet Li), and a who’s who of gweilos, including Mark Houghton, Bruce Fontaine, and Wayne Archer.
The plot itself sees Hui and Maka down on their luck, disowned by the police and living separate lives. Leslie Cheung and Nina Li Chi, playing sibling burglars, partially intercept a villainous groups attempt to steal the terracotta warriors, and to ensure the cops are thrown off the trail, they disguise themselves to look like Hui and Maka, framing them for a crime they didn’t commit. Ending up in possession of the Chinese Excalibur (seriously), events culminate in both the ‘old Aces’ (Hui and Maka) and the ‘new Aces’ (Cheung and Li Chi) being hired by the Chinese government to retrieve the stolen warriors, and return them to China.
The tone of The Terracotta Hit tends to veer a little all over the place. At times it goes for out and out comedy, particularly with the introduction of the main villain – a foreign devil played by Brad Kerner who is constantly seen stroking a white cat, until it’s revealed to actually be a hand puppet (which he never takes off!) However when our four Aces see themselves thrown into a prison on the Mainland, which is basically a death camp, the comedy simply doesn’t work in such oppressive surroundings, which includes Danny Lee in a bizarre cameo as a prisoner about to fulfil his death sentence. When it does work though, it’s on point, such as Sam’s office/living area, which contains a wrestling ring as a bed and a phone made out of Lego, oh, and of course – Chinese Rambo.
As expected, the vehicular stunt mayhem that was so prevalent in the earlier instalments is missing from the Aces Go Places swansong, instead relying on the physical talents of its cast. For the most part, the action delivers, and comes frequently enough to remain entertained. When Conan Lee initially visits Hui in his office, believing him to be behind the theft of the warriors, the two engage in a Jackie Chan style sequence of Hui attempting to weave in and out the various nooks and crannies of the area, with Lee in hot pursuit. There’s some nice falls involved, with Hui being sent crashing through every table available, and the whole place ending up completely trashed. In another, Lu Yan challenges the four Aces in a restaurant that, if they can beat her using western fencing against her Chinese sword, they don’t have to help the Chinese authorities, which leads into a playful but well-choreographed four-on-one east vs west sword dual.
The action is choreographed by Kar Leung’s brother, Lau Kar Wing, well known for his roles and action choreography alongside Sammo Hung in such classics as Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog and The Odd Couple, and while none of the leads are real martial artists, he does a fantastic job. Of course in saying that, just about all of the villains who have been cast are martial artists, or are at least well known for their screen fighting prowess, so when events build up to a finale that sees everyone converge in a warehouse storing the stolen warriors, Kar Wing delivers. The scene unfolds as a large group melee, with the added comedy of numerous warriors actually being villains in disguise.
Amongst the chaos, it’s Hui that looks the most legit, going toe-to-toe with both Billy Chong and Mark Houghton, before ending up armed with a Wing Chun Butterfly Sword in one hand, and a pair of nunchucks in the other. His performance could almost be considered a warm up for his role in The Dragon from Russia made the following year. There’s also a certain influence of the finale from Dragons Forever, released a year earlier, with stuntmen delivering some painful falls from elevated platforms to the ground below. Maka, Cheung, and Li Chi also get their licks in, with Li Chi’s retrieval of the sword resulting in one of the laugh out loud moments of the movie.
Despite the strength of the fight action, by the end it’s understandable why it would become the last in the series. The chemistry from the earlier movies isn’t quite there, Cheung and Li Chi are welcome additions, but again don’t really feel like they belong in an Aces Go Places movie, and Lau Kar Leung proves once more that he wasn’t best suited to modern day action comedies. As a time capsule of 1989 Hong Kong though, it has undeniable nostalgia value, back in the days when the Mainland was treated as one large mass of country bumpkins. Ironically, scenes that are played for comedy here, such as Conan Lee accidentally revealing a full back tattoo declaring his love for China, would have comparatively similar scenes played completely poker faced 25 years later in the likes of Wolf Warrior. A sign of changing times, but if you’re after a slice of unpretentious 80’s HK action comedy hijinks, you can certainly do a lot worse than The Terracotta Hit.
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray Double Feature for 1980′s Battle Creek Brawl (aka The Big Brawl) & 1993′s City Hunter.
Battle Creek Brawl is noteworthy for not only being directed by Robert Clouse (Enter the Dragon), but for also being Jackie Chan’s first English-language attempt at making a name for himself in America. Based on the famous Manga of the same name,
Wong Jing’s City Hunter is practically a campy “Die Hard on a Cruise Ship,” which also contains the famous Street Fighter parody.
Director: Wong Chung Cast: Eric Tsang, Shawn Yue, Elaine Jin, Charmaine Fong, Yvan Chan Hok-Man, Ng Siu-Hin Running Time: 101 min.
By Martin Sandison
The name Eric Tsang conjures up images of Golden Harvest comedies like My Lucky Stars (I’ll never forget the button mushroom joke) or his magnificent turn as gang boss Hon Sam in Infernal Affairs and it sequel. A seasoned veteran of Hong Kong cinema, even directing martial arts movies (he helmed two of the very best, The Loot and the Challenger), Mad World sees him tackle a very different character, and a very different style of movie. This heart-wrenching drama, which has experienced great success commercially and critically (it won best film at the Osaka Film Festival this year), pushes all the right buttons. It manages to shed light on the taboo subject of mental illness in a very human way, while maintaining a platform for superb performances by the two leads.
Tung (Shawn Yue), a stockbroker diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has been discharged from hospital and goes to stay with his estranged father (Eric Tsang), a truck driver who lives very frugally. The movie flashes back at times to Tung, looking after his mother (Elaine Jin), who was also bipolar; Additionally, Tung has to deal with the reconciliation with his ex-wife (Charmaine Fong). The main thrust of the narrative is the relationship between father and son, not to mention the challenges and stigmas they encounter along the way.
Mad World is the feature film debut of Wong Chung, who had directed a segment of the Tsang-produced Streets of Macau anthology. This film is an anomaly of a Hong Kong film; a very heavy drama that doesn’t rely on action or CGI, but the weight of its subject matter, as well as the three magnificent performances from Tsang, Yue and Jin. Everyone involved in making the film, especially Tsang, were worried about its production. For Tsang, to take on such a heavy project was risky business, and the same goes for Yu, who is known for his genre film roles.
Mad World’s script, which was written by Wong and Florence Chan, was what convinced all the actors to work on the film. They both researched the project meticulously, talking to families who had experienced bipolar disorder and even truck drivers. The screenplay is very lean screenplay with no superfluous scenes; it’s near-perfect for the subject matter. Both Wong and Chan are influenced by the Hong Kong new wave films, which addressed social issues and subverted genre in a game-changing way – Jacob Cheung’s 1992 Hong Kong film, Cageman, was also a reference point. The knowledge and reverence these two young talents have for the history and relevance of Hong Kong cinema shines when watching the film.
Tsang knew the movie would lend itself to critical appraisal and come award season, he has been proven right: Tsang ended up winning Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards, as did Elaine Jin. Yue has been nominated for numerous awards, and Wong Chun won a Golden Horse for Best Director and the award for Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
What makes this film so successful is its approach; one that is so sensitive to the depiction of mental illness and poverty that you can’t come away and not be affected by it. Most people in their lives will experience mental illness, be it themselves, or family and friends. This movie stands tall and proclaims that these people need to be treated with care and respect, and not dismissed as merely “crazy.” Director Wong has indicated that in a culture, such as Hong Kong’s, which is so fast and at times impersonal the general public don’t take the time to understand this. Personally, I feel lucky to live in a society like the UK wherein the treatment and understanding of mental illness is recognised as important, and there are numerous charities that do unbelievable work for those who are vulnerable.
Some of the scenes between Tsang and Yue are so powerful that I was moved to tears. One of them, near the beginning of the film – with Tsang owning up to his weakness as a fathe – is incredibly emotionally honest. The character arc of both is magnificently drawn, with Tsang coming to understand bipolar disorder and experiencing both positivity and negativity from the people around him. Yue depicts the manic phases and extreme emotions of Tung brilliantly, as he so desperately wants to reintegrate in to society but is crippled by the illness. One scene shows him appearing at a friends wedding and very bravely making a speech wherein he talks about it, something that can empower sufferers to come forward. It’s the kind of scene that makes you remember the power of cinema.
While the low budget of the production hinders aspects of the film, such as style (Mad World was shot for $2 million HK dollars in 16 days), its depth of themes and characters means it will stay long in the hearts and minds of viewers. I, for one, am very glad Tsang decided to make the film, and kudos to the bravery of all the filmmakers, as they have captured modern societal problems in a truthful and beautifully sad way. Mad World will be released in the West soon, and I will watch it again.
On July 4, 2017, Well Go USA will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Bitcoin Heist (aka Sieu Trom), a Vietnamese action film directed by Ham Tran (Hollow), who is perhaps best known for his editing work on the martial arts gems, The Rebel and Clash.
In Bitcoin Heist, hackers have become the bank robbers in the new world of crypto-currency. In order to catch the most wanted hacker, The Ghost , an Interpol special agent assembles a team of thieves to plan the ultimate heist. But as any good criminal knows, there is no honor among thieves.
Bitcoin Heist stars Kate Nhung (Sut), Thanh Pham (She’s the Boss), Petey Majik Nguyen (The Lost Dragon), Suboi, Jayvee Mai The Hiep (Sword of the Assassin), Lam Thanh My (How to Fight in Six Inch Heels), Veronica Ngo (House in the Alley) and Teo Yoo (Codename: Jackal).
AKA: Rocky’s Love Affairs Director: Choi Young-chul Cast: Michael Chan Wai-Man, Casanova Wong, Andy Chworowsky, Chae Eun-hui, Eagle Han Ying, Park Yun-geun, John Ladalski, Mabel Kwong Mei-Bo Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Let’s just get it out of the way upfront – City Ninja is such a muddled production, the very prospect of reviewing it and providing some kind of background of how it came to be is an intimidating one. Almost every source available presents small variances on the backstory, however having now watched it, the one that seems to make the most sense goes like this – in 1983 director Choi Young-chul make a Korean action movie by the name of Hwa-ya, that featured Casanova Wong and imported Hong Kong star Chan Wai-Man. In this version, Wai-Man is the bad guy and ultimately dies in the finale.
This is where it gets confusing. A couple of years later, a source that was most likely Godfrey Ho decided to re-jig it, notably not for an overseas audience as he did with so many Korean productions, but for a local HK audience. The reason I say Godfrey Ho is that, despite his name not being directly mentioned on the likes of either the Hong Kong or Korean Movie Database, the editing style has his name all over it, and although not a significant detail in the movie itself, the inclusion of gweilo actor Andy Chworowsky. Chwowosky featured in 3 movies in 1985, and the only one that doesn’t implicitly state Ho’s name as the director is this one. I’d assumed the co-director listed on hkmdb, one Yeung Chun-Bong, must for sure be one of Ho’s many aliases, however Chun-Bong does have one other movie to his name as a director called Searching for Love, which was released in 1986. So, is he the real deal or not? I have a feeling we’ll never know.
There is of course, one other major factor that indicate the involvement of Godfrey Ho, and that comes in the form of ninjas. City Ninja, despite not quite being geographically accurate, does at least half deliver on its promise in the form of ninjas aplenty. One source states that Casanova Wong filmed additional scenes once Hwa-ya was picked up for HK distribution, and there certainly seems to be some truth in this. There are moments when he appears bulkier than in his initial scenes, in which he cuts a slimmer figure, but again how much truth there is in this we’ll likely never know. Whatever the case, Hwa-ya was eventually re-jigged and released in Hong Kong under the new title of Rocky’s Love Affairs in 1985, and even made a profit, leading it to be dubbed into English and released to western audiences either under the alias of City Ninja or Ninja Holocaust.
All of the above elements of course usually add up to a horrendous unwatchable mess, but not the case for City Ninja (this is the title I watched it under, hence the review referring to this version), which somehow manages to be 90 minutes of pure entertainment from start to finish. A pre-credits sequence takes place in Hong Kong during World War II, in which a gweilo soldier is hunted down by ninjas that want to get their hands on a necklace in his possession. It turns out the necklace has a Swiss bank account access code carved into it, so those pesky Japanese want to get rich. Skip forward to modern day Hong Kong, and it’s revealed that half of the necklace is in HK, with the other half in Korea. Both Casanova Wong and Chan Wai Man, who play kickboxers, end up hired by gangsters in each of their countries to find the other half of the necklace. Oh, and there’s ninjas.
The logic of the plot falls apart the moment you give it more than 2 seconds thought, so the recommendation is not to. Instead, sit back and enjoy Casanova Wong and Chan Wai Man kicking ass and having sex for 90 minutes. Indeed, it seems City Ninja at least in part wants to be a saucy softcore romp, to the point that when it ended, I had a hard time remembering if either of them did anything apart from interchange between fight scenes and sex scenes for most of the duration. The excuse for all this is as illogical as everything else. Wai Man has a fiancé, but his sexually frustrated manager wants to use him to fulfil her desires, which he never objects to. At its most bizarre, the pair end up doing it against one of the padded corners of a boxing ring, to which they then smoothly transition to a rowing machine. Such imagination, and a whole 6 years before Sex and Zen!
Casanova Wong on the other hand ends up falling for the moll that was hired by the gangster he’s working for to basically seduce and make sure he agrees to do the job. Naturally, to complicate things, she also falls for him as well. Hilariously, these parallel plot lines unfolding in Hong Kong and Korea respectively, at one point result in both Wong and Wai Man being involved in sex scenes within 5 minutes of each other (note: I said ‘of each other’, not ‘with each other’). With that being said, the main actresses tend to keep their modesty through strategically placed limbs or camera angles, with only an overzealous Caucasian lady at a bar willing to expose everything, which she does via ripping all her clothes off once a victorious Chai Man enters with his entourage. Bizarre.
But let’s face it, nobody is checking into a title like City Ninja to see how good Wong and Wai Man are in bed (at least I assume they’re not), we’re here for the action, and in that regard, it delivers in spades. Despite the presence of Wai Man, the majority of the action beats fall to Casanova Wong, and to see him letting loose in that rare contemporary setting is a joy to behold. The audience doesn’t have to wait long to see him in action, when at just over 10 minutes he’s facing off against a man mountain of a Thai kickboxer in the ring, and from then opportunities for him to unleash come thick and fast. A standout is his assault on a pool bar, that puts Steven Seagal’s rampage in Out for Justice to shame, as he takes out a room full of thugs with lightning fast kicks, all the while having to avoid pool balls being shot at him by a kabuki makeup wearing Japanese villain. To top it off, the scene ends with him in a mud wrestling ring, what more could you ask for?
He also gets a rooftop fight scene against an imposing African American sniper, which predates the Donnie Yen versus Michael Woods scene in In the Line of Duty 4 by 4 (possibly 6) years, and I’d daresay with the way the fight concludes was possibly an influence on it. One point that Yen certainly has over Wong though, is that he didn’t perform the fight with the seam of his pants between the legs completely ripped, exposing bright red underwear underneath. Surprisingly it’s not the only fight scene involving underwear exposure, as when Wong and his girl (played by Chae Eun-hui) are confronted by numerous thugs, the pair engage in some nicely choreographed tandem fighting. Wong manipulates Eun-hui’s body to kick the living daylights out of the thugs, resulting in some gratuitous underwear flashing on Eun-hui’s part. While all of this may seem out of place in a kung fu flick, it’s important to remember how popular erotic cinema became in Korea during the 80’s, once the heavy censorship of the earlier decade has been removed.
The final 25 minutes of City Ninja are essentially one long action sequence, which have the wonderfully welcome surprise of Eagle Han Ying showing up as the main villain. Well, kind of main villain. Thanks again to the editing, Wai Man goes from good guy to bad guy with wafer thin explanation. When he finally boards a plane to Korea, he and Wong meet for the first time at the 1 hour mark, however with Wong’s girlfriend already kidnapped, the Korean is more preoccupied with getting her back (especially since she’s being tortured via being spun around on a big red platform, the horror!) than any necklace nonsense. What follows is Wong going on a 10 minute rampage against a small army of ninjas in a cemetery, before it segues into a two-on-one as he takes on both an empty handed Eagle Han Ying and katana wielding Park Yun-geun, which makes for a ferociously satisfying fight in a warehouse. Han Ying in particular looks as fast and sharp as he ever has here.
Then, like that, we have a randomly inserted sex scene with the gangster who hired Wai Man and his moll. In retrospect though, this scene appears to have been inserted in order to bridge the scene of Wong’s fight against Han Ying and Yun-geun, and the ultimate final fight against Wai Man, so in that regard, it’s forgivable. Why? Simply because watching Wong and Wai Man go at each other is worth the price of admission alone, as they launch a barrage of kicks against the other with an almost animal like ferocity. I wasn’t entirely convinced that they didn’t in fact want to kill each other. It’s a fantastically intense fight, from two of the most legitimate fighters to ever grace the screen, and it doesn’t disappoint. Except for, that is, one of the most infuriating freeze frame finishes to a fight I’ve ever seen. Actually I’m sure the fight was over, however the editing cuts it off at the worst place possible, which almost made me throw the remote at the screen. Again, this most likely is connected to the new ending the HK version was given, which doesn’t involve Wai Man dying.
Despite the above qualm, the sheer quality of the action (both in and out of the bedroom) makes it easy to recommend. Both Casanova Wong and Chan Wai Man look legitimately dangerous when they’re called on to fight, and that’s no easy feat when you’re in a kung fu movie and people can get hurt. The bizarreness of everything in-between only adds to its incoherent charm, from the Japanese villain balancing upside down with one hand on a pool table, while preparing to take a shot with the other, to the elaborate acrobatic displays the ninjas perform just to create a human seat for their master. City Ninja may have a generic title, but trust me when I say it’s not a term you could apply to any other aspect of it.
Cityonfire.com and Well Go USA are giving away 3 Blu-ray copies of Ringo Lam’sSky on Fire(read our review) to three lucky City on Fire visitors. To enter, simply add a comment to this post and describe, in your own words, the video below.
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Sky on Firewill officially be released June 6th, 2017. We will announce the 3 winners on June 7th.
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When you think of the famous studios responsible for producing some of the most popular kung fu classics, some names that will likely spring to mind are Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers, and Cathay, to name but a few. One name that certainly wouldn’t be near the top of anyone’s list, or even on it at all for that matter, is American cable channel HBO. However at the end of 2016, the networks Asian channel, suitably titled HBO Asia, announced they’d be airing a pair of new, exclusively made for HBO, kung fu movies. Both would focus on famous characters from Chinese history, ones that should need no introduction for fans of kung fu cinema. Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying tells a tale of Wong Fei-Hung’s father, and his battles to rid China of opium, while Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So, tells the origin story of the legendary Drunken Master.
“Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying” Promotional Poster
While neither tales are likely to break any new ground when it comes to kung fu movie storytelling, the decision for HBO Asia to make these movies at all most definitely is a ground breaking one. Naturally, the biggest question of all is – why? It’s no secret that China’s burgeoning middle class has boomed over the last 10 years, and with it, going to the cinema has come to be one of the countries favourite past times (often regardless of the movie in questions quality). In 2015 alone, China saw 22 new cinema screens opening daily. Daily! While the US continues to wrestle with rampant piracy of new movies, the willingness of Chinese audiences to visit the cinema, combined with a potential box office from a population of over 1 billion, has seen the Hollywood studios keen to ensure their productions have China-appeal.
However as much of a no-brainer as it is, making a movie that can be shown in China isn’t quite as simple as it sounds, with production companies using an increasing number of workarounds to ensure distribution. The most obvious one – China’s quota for foreign productions which can be shown, has largely been circumnavigated by Hollywood making its movies as Chinese co-productions. Throw in some China-specific content, and you’re good to be screened. Now you know why China saved the day in The Martian, and the reason behind the jaunt to Hong Kong in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Remember at the beginning of Looper how Joseph Gordon-Levitt is determined to move to Paris, but then the script simply drops it and has him re-locate to Shanghai instead? That’s because the productions Hollywood budget didn’t stretch to a shoot in France, so the Chinese co-producer stepped in and offered to pay for location shooting in Shanghai. A few script adjustments later, and China saves the day.
“Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So” Promotional Poster
Then you have the culturally (or more specifically, politically) sensitive issues to be mindful of. There were mass accusations of white-washing, when the Tibetan mystic from the Doctor Strange comics was changed to a Celtic woman (played by Tilda Swinton), for the movie. But really, look closer, and it’s easy to see that there was no way a production with a main character that’s both Tibetan, and a practitioner of the supernatural, would be shown on Chinese shores. With that much box office at stake, again, the decision to change things was a no-brainer. However, with a president that’s implemented a renewed push to make the Communist Party relevant again, Hollywood’s rush to please China could be about to come undone. In 2016 alone, in addition to the existing bans on such themes as the supernatural, now time travel, one-night stands, and even cleavage have been given the chop from being shown. Had Looper been made now, I guess there’d be no Chinese producers to step in.
In August of the same year, the national media regulator warned local news programs not to “express overt admiration for Western lifestyles”, and authorities have been actively discouraging broadcasters from adopting imported TV formats, such as The Voice of China. Throw in the governments closing down of both Walt Disney Co.’s movie streaming service and Apple’s, and it seems that the noose is tightening on Hollywood’s attempts to drink from China’s cash coated well. This background of course, makes it all the more interesting for HBO Asia to dip its toes into Chinese waters at such a time. While this may be the first time for the channel to deal specifically with the Chinese market, it’s not the first time they’ve dabbled in the Asian market, with their 2012 production Dead Mine aiming to capitalise on appealing to a pan-Asian demographic.
The movie, which starred Japanese actress Miki Mizuno, well known for her roles in the likes of the Hard Revenge Milly series and Sono Sion’s Guilty of Romance, and a fresh from starring in The Raid: Redemption Joe Taslim, was a complete bomb. Shot in English, the Indonesian productions attempt to throw Japanese, Indonesian, and Western actors together, for a tale of undead Samurai warriors in an abandoned Japanese bunker from World War II, simply didn’t mesh together. Undeterred however, HBO continued on with the Australia-Singapore co-produced TV series Serangoon Road, a 1960’s noir detective series set in Singapore and starring Joan Chen. Again, the series was shot entirely in English, and again, it bombed.
After a double-whammy of flops, HBO Asia Chief Executive Jonathan Spink readily acknowledged that, co-productions made with the intent of pleasing two completely different markets, simply don’t work. So it was time for a change of tactics, if it wasn’t possible to gain viewership by appealing to several different countries with one product, what country was capable of providing a high level of viewership as a single entity? Of course, the answer was simple – China. While HBO Asia is not widely heard of in China, let alone available (it’s mostly limited to high end hotels), the network revealed an ace up its sleeve by partnering with the China Movie Channel, which is, most significantly, a division of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). What that means for the average Chinese TV viewer is that they don’t need HBO Asia, as CCTV will handle local distribution, while HBO Asia can concentrate on marketing both movies across the rest of Asia.
The greater advantage for HBO Asia is that, by partnering with a state-run TV channel, anything they make has essentially already been given the stamp of approval for being shown before the cameras even start rolling. It’s a smart move for both HBO Asia and CCTV, and not the first time the pair have worked together. In the past CCTV has licensed and aired HBO TV movies, such as The Gathering Storm, however this is the first time that they’ve come together to co-produce content. With CCTV’s domestic audience of more than 1 billion, and HBO Asia’s presence across Asia, their partnership has the potential to be a powerful one. For HBO Asia specifically, the fact that CCTV is a state-run entity puts them in a strong position to stay on the good side of the Chinese authorities, and position themselves as distributors of Chinese culture to the world.
The impact of Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Tei-Ying and Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So has already exceeded the expectations of both HBO Asia and CCTV. Speaking in August 2016, senior vice president of new business at HBO Asia, Beibei Fan, had stated there were no plans to show the movies outside of HBO Asia, indicating that the Chinese audience figures alone were enough to justify making them. However as of January 2017, both became available in the US via iTunes and the usual platforms, thanks mainly to a small but dedicated western fan base of kung fu movies who had gotten wind of the productions, and began increasingly asking how they could be seen. Ironically, most of the interest from western shores focused on the involvement of veteran choreographer Corey Yuen, the director of the likes of Ninja in the Dragon’s Den and Yes, Madam! However Yuen’s involvement was only limited to that of executive producer.
Of course like any good marketing department knows, that didn’t stop the promotional posters made for a US audience plastering on top of them – ‘Executive Producer Corey Yuen (X-Men, Lethal Weapon 4 and The Expendables)’ – in a bid to draw in more viewers. Indeed the choice of movies from Yuen’s extensive filmography are indicative of just that, with HBO clearly aiming to draw in not only kung fu fans, but also more casual viewers with references to big budget Hollywood action movies and superhero flicks. Amusingly, it is perhaps the first time a production has referenced Lethal Weapon 4 as a selling point since the 2001 Billy Zane vehicle Invincible, which was, ironically, also a TV movie. Fifteen years prior, the long forgotten cash-in on The Matrix came with the proud tagline of – ‘Executive Produced by Mel Gibson And Jet Li’ – which, if I’m not mistaken, is not even grammatically correct.
The actual man in the director’s chair for both productions is Guo Jian-Yong, a former stuntman and action director in his own right. Yuen and Jian-Yong are well acquainted, with Jian-Yong playing a part in Yuen’s Mahjong Dragon as far back as 1997, as well as action directing on Yuen’s post-millennium efforts such as So Close and DOA: Dead or Alive. Jian-Yong seems well aware of his role as the man responsible for ensuring the movies deliver, with plans already announced that if they’re well received, HBO and CCTV would consider making further instalments. Beibei Fan explained that the approach for both productions was to look at them “almost like pilots”, with Spink further elaborating that the plan is not to be another US studio or network trying to fit into China, but rather the goal “is about taking great content out of China.”
Jian-Yong echoes Spink’s words in particular, explaining that “We have the endorsement of the HBO brand, but it has to be authentic Chinese if it’s going to work, it can’t be half-Western and half-Chinese or audiences will be confused.” True to his word, Jian-Yong has filled both movies with genuine martial artists and stunt performers, with likely the most recognizable face for most kung fu fans coming in the form of Chen Zhi-Hui. The only actor to be given prominent roles in both movies, Zhi-Hui can be recognized for his roles in the likes of Fearless, Ip Man, and Rise of the Legend, usually playing authoritative older figures or masters. This should come as good news to kung fu fans, as while most genres would frown upon made for TV fare, the kung fu genre has had as much action unfold on the small screen as it has the big, with the likes of channels such as TVB producing a large number of martial arts themed serials.
With both productions weighing in at a lean 90 minutes, I decided to watched them back to back, which after the flip of a coin saw Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So being viewed first, and Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying second. It’s the latter movie that caught my attention the most though, as while the plot of ridding China of opium has been covered countless times before, Wong Fei-Hung’s father Wong Kei-Ying has had surprisingly few screen appearances as a main character. Usually taking a back seat to his sons adventures, Kei-Ying has been notably played by Kong Yeung (Challenge of the Masters), Lam Kau (Drunken Master), Ti Lung (Drunken Master 2), and even Adam Cheng (Drunken Master 3). However as far as headlining a movie, the only time that springs to mind is when Donnie Yen stepped into his shoes for Yuen Woo-Ping’s 1993 classic Iron Monkey.
This time around, he’s played by newcomer Sun Hao-Ran. Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying is, as expected, far from ground-breaking, however what it does do is deliver a solid little kung fu movie, regardless of if it’ll likely be forgotten soon after watching. Hao-Ran is a capable lead, and in much the same way as when Jet Li played Wong Fei-Hung in the Once Upon a Time in China series, all he’s really called upon to do is to act suitably stoic and upstanding. What counts is that he does it well, and clearly has the moves to back it up. It’s easy to recall Fan’s words of how the productions should be treated as pilots when watching, however Jian-Yong looks to have made the most of the limited budget he was given to work with.
While the fights come frequently, there’s also a surprisingly high level of violence on display, including a decapitated arm, and a throat being cut with a Chang Cheh level of blood splatter. These, and several other instances of bloodletting, play their part to ensure proceedings never feel too much like, well, a HBO TV movie. Jian-Yong also seems to be a fan of old school kung fu movies himself, with the villains Peking opera mask an obvious nod to The Five Venoms, and the revelation that an old master has stitched a secret kung fu manual under his skin (and the subsequent gory procedure to remove it) recalling a similar scene in Shaolin: The Blood Mission.
The fights themselves are well paced, and flow at a nice speed with no signs of undercranking, although purists will no doubt bawk at some of the wire assisted moves. The finale in particular sees inspiration being drawn from Fearless, as Hao-ran has to face off against a Muay Thai fighter, a fencer, and the villain himself. What makes the fights work so well is what’s at stake, with Hao-ran’s acquaintance, aunt, and son (Wong Fei-Hung himself, who does nothing but whine incessantly for the whole movie) all captured by the villains. During the round with the Muay Thai fighter, for each of Hao-ran’s limbs that touches the ground, the corresponding limb of his tied up acquaintance is broken. During the round with the fencer, for every part of Hao-ran’s clothing that gets sliced, the corresponding piece is ripped off from his aunt, resulting in a kind of bizarre game of strip kung fu.
The setup results in a welcome sense of immediacy, and perhaps thanks to the grittier and more bloody version of Wong Fei-Hung that was recently presented in 2014’s Rise of the Legend, the fights finish on a suitably brutal note. It surprises me that I actually enjoyed Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying more than I did Rise of the Legend, despite, in terms of production values at least, Roy Chow’s movie being superior in every way. In an attempt to make Wong Fei-Hung relevant for a modern audience though, for me Rise of the Legend sacrificed too much of what makes Wong Fei-Hung the enduring character that he is, and perhaps more specifically, what he stands for. Here there’s a balance, with Wong Kei-Ying still being the impeccably upright character we know Wong Fei-Hung will become, but when it comes to facing off against the bad guys, he also knows when it’s time to show no mercy.
It’s interesting then, that the elements that make Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying work, are somehow almost entirely absent from Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So. As a movie, it seems to be aware of how easily it could stand in the shadow of 2010’s True Legend, however does nothing to differentiate itself from such inevitable comparisons. The titular character of Beggar So, a character played by everyone from Simon Yuen to Donnie Yen to Vincent Zhao, here has his shoes (or should that be bottle of wine?) filled by another newcomer in the form of Jun Cao. However Jian-Yong seems to struggle to do anything beyond creating a simpler, less ambitious, retelling of Beggar So’s origins, compared to what audiences have already seen in True Legend.
The long hair and spinning on your back breakdancing move are both present and accounted for, however instead of battling Gordon Liu and Jay Chou on a mountain in an alcohol fuelled dream, Cao has an outer-body experience (after being hit by lightning), and drunkenly staggers around with CGI water drops. It all seems very derivative of what we’ve seen before, only on a smaller budget and with more pedestrian direction. Short of simply writing off Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So as a poor man’s version of True Legend, the production also has plenty of its own issues to contend with. While the TV format sees a much less devastating event than his family’s death lead to Cao’s inebriated state, the aftermath, and lack of any interesting supporting characters, sees a disproportionate amount of the run time dedicated to watching him wallow in his own misery.
This is likely due more to the script and direction than Cao’s performance, who at times resembles the spitting image of a Story of Ricky era Fan Siu-Wong, however that doesn’t make it any more tolerable to sit through. The training sequences also feel like a miss, as despite being surrounded by several props, apart from a brief scene of balancing on bamboo poles, Cao’s entire regime seems to consist of staggering around in an open space performing drunken boxing. Training scenes are a grand tradition in any old school kung fu movie, and allow the action directors to get creative regardless of how little the budget they’re working with is. So to see none of the props in plain sight get utilised, in favour of endless scenes of drunken forms, seems like a missed opportunity.
While Cao does eventually get to use his drunken boxing skills against an evil eunuch, it all comes a little too late, and ultimately feels underwhelming. The fight scenes in Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying may not be a significant improvement, however they come at frequent intervals, which allows proceedings to maintain a steady pace and keep the viewers interest. That sense of pacing isn’t there with Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So, with far too much time spent with a character, who most will already be family with, feeling sorry for himself, and not enough on the business of people beating each other up.
The contrast in both movies, despite them being unmistakably made for TV, is a noticeable one – with Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying being an example of how to keep a TV movie interesting, despite an unremarkable story and archetypal characters, and Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So suffering all the pit falls that one would expect from such a production. For western audiences in particular, it’s difficult to imagine coughing up the money for both features if Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So is the one chosen to be watched first. Back over in Asia however, as Beibei Fan pointed out, the viewers in China alone, who can watch them for free, are more than enough to justify the cost of making them, so the western market is really just an afterthought.
Most likely HBO Asia’s decision to appeal specifically to the Chinese market is something we’ll be seeing more and more of in future. When Jackie Chan picked up his honorary Oscar in November 2016, he recalled that when he first went to Hollywood to make Battlecreek Brawl, nobody cared for his opinions or wanted to listen to his ideas. But he went on to explain that “Today, they ask me what Chinese people like to see. They need to consider every aspect of China because China has gotten strong, and China’s film industry has gotten strong.” While not everyone may agree, it’s arguably true, and if that means that HBO get to make more kung fu movies on a higher budget and with more time to film, then it’s definitely not a bad thing. Maybe a few years from now we’ll have Master of the Chain Punch: Ip Man and Master of the Iron Skin Technique: Fong Sai-Yuk.
Time will tell, but until then, it’ll be interesting to see if other networks decide to follow the same route of abandoning appeal-to-all co-productions, and instead choose to focus specifically on the Chinese audience. Netflix already abandoned its attempts to launch in China at the end of 2016, due to the government regulations over foreign digital content simply being too strict to overcome, so it seems like a very real possibility. However not every filmmaker is as enthusiastic about working under such restrictive conditions, a sentiment reflected in comments made by Troma Entertainment President Lloyd Kaufman, during a panel discussion held during the Chinese American Film Festival last year. “How are you going to learn from American producers if we have to conform to a system controlled by bureaucrats from the top down?” said Kaufman, indicating that we’re likely not going to get a Chinese version of The Toxic Avenger anytime soon.
Whatever the future may hold, HBO will be remembered as the first network to boldly branch out into Chinese territories, and there are certainly far worse ways to do so than with a couple of kung fu movies. Jian-Yong himself seems to understand the universal appeal of the genre, insisting that he wanted all of the action and stunts to be performed by the actors with no CGI or special effects, adding that “audiences across all cultures can appreciate that.” Indeed, I doubt there’ll be many people reading this article who’d disagree.
Updates: Making good on their promise to produce more kung fu, it’s been reported that the vice president of the China Movie Channel, Zhang Ling, has confirmed they’ll be making 2 more movies with HBO.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter shortly before the China Night Party took place as part of the Cannes Film Festival, Ling had this to say – “We were very pleased with how our first collaboration turned out, so we are very happy to be partnering with HBO on two more high-quality TV movies that celebrate Chinese culture and history.” While no further details were provided, based on Beibei Fan’s comments from 2016, expectations are that once again each movie will be a stand-alone story of a martial arts hero from Chinese history.
As we hear more, we’ll be sure to keep you updated!
Director: Cy Enfield Cast: George Lazenby, Ben Caruthers, Robin Hunter, Edward Judd, Alan Barnes, Cy Enfield, Germaine Greer, Rudolph Walker, Chrissie Townson, Guy Deghy Running Time: 94 min.
By Jeff Bona
While promoting 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, model-turned-actor, George Lazenby, the film’s “New James Bond” star, was literally a signature away from playing Bond again, until his then-manager, Ronan O’Rahilly, convinced him not to take the deal: “Bond is [Sean] Connery’s gig,” O’Rahilly told Lazenby. “Make one and get out.” Lazenby listened, only to admit later that he had taken bad advice: “Yes, I turned down doing another [Bond] film… It was hippie time and getting laid in a suit was difficult. You had to have long hair and bell bottoms. It was the time of Easy Rider. Bond was part of the establishment.” (*)
Ultimately, Lazenby turned down a six picture/$1 million upfront deal to return as 007 (Connery ended up coming back for 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever) and instead decided to downgrade his newfound acting career by taking a lead role in Universal Soldier, a low budget, art-house drama directed by Cy Enfield (Zulu).
Universal Soldier was everything a Bond production wasn’t: Low on action, slow-paced and contrary to the cutting edge camera work of a Bond flick, it was shot guerilla-style, using the fly-on-the-wall approach – an unconventional method similar to what was applied to Easy Rider, which was the type of film Lazenby desired to be a part of.
Additionally, Lazenby’s clean cut, tailored-suit appearance was replaced with shaggy long hair, an extreme pornstache, bell-bottoms, and a black leather trench coat; also gone was the cool cigarette dangling from his mouth, which was swapped with wacky tobacky (one scene shows him inhaling smoke through an actual gun; a “golden gun” no less – see alternative VHS artwork).
In the film, Lazenby is Ryker, a mercenary soldier/weapons expert who takes part in a scheme to overthrow an African dictator. To do the job, he reunites with some former associates – Jesse (Ben Carruthers), Freddy (Robin Hunter) and Temple (Alan Barnes) – and together they plan their strategy, which mostly involves the testing and shipment of military-grade firearms. In the process, Ryker, who suffers from a slight case of shell shock, has a change of heart and begins to question his morality, which intensifies even more when he falls for a young woman (Chrissie Townson, who would later become Lazenby’s real-life, first wife).
Despite the film being incoherent with no real sense of direction or solid plot line, Universal Soldier is an interesting viewing, but for all the wrong reasons. To put it simply, it’s Lazenby’s post-Bond involvement that gives the movie a certain appeal, especially in the context of these points: Lazenby became Bond by luck; Lazenby was an exceptional Bond; Lazenby was Bond in a great Bond movie; Lastly, Lazenby voluntarily gave up playing Bond ever again so he can sport long hair, smoke grass, partake in hippie sex orgies and star in an Easy Rider-wannabe that most-likely paid chunk change compared to the goldmine he would have received from the Bond franchise. Definitely not Lazenby’s wisest choice, but you have to respect the guy’s honorable decision. Obviously, the Age of Aquarius was more important to him than money.
In spite of what you’d expect from the film’s title, there is hardly any action going on, other than some weapon testing scenes, a brief car chase and a short fight sequence. The lack of action didn’t stop the producers from marketing it as an “action movie” (see poster), which may have played a part to why it bombed at the box office. Let’s get real here: If a film is titled Universal Soldier and it stars a former Bond, then who wouldn’t expect a decent amount of violence? Even today, the film has been completely overshadowed by the 1992 Van Damme/Dolph Lundgren all-out actioner of the same name, which, as you may have already guessed, is 100% unrelated to the former.
What stands out the most about Universal Soldier is its catchy soundtrack, which features a handful of melodic songs by Phillip Goodhand-Tait. In fact, if you have a decent imagination, you can pretend the film, along with its accompanying music, is an unofficial sequel to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service(just think: Bond resigns from the British Secret Service to become a hippie, but takes odd mercenary jobs to make ends meet), not to mention a metaphor for Lazenby’s actual life and career choices. The following is an excerpt from the prophetic lyrics to Goodhand-Tait’s song, “One Road,” which plays during the film’s opening credit sequence:
One road leads to sadness One road leads to pain One road shows you life is a game One road leads to darkness One road leads to light One road leads you right to love
I wouldn’t be surprised if some film connoisseurs out there consider Universal Soldier Lazenby’s masterpiece, which isn’t totally unrealistic. As epic and innovative as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was, it was still a Bond film, i.e. a blockbuster extravaganza, one that was first and foremost designed to make lots of money. And as entertaining as Lazenby’s exploitative Italian/Hong Kong/Hollywood films that followed – 1972’s Who Saw Her Die, Stoner, 1974’s Stoner, 1975’s The Man from Hong Kong, 1976’s A Queen’s Ransomand 1978’s Death Dimension – they all lacked any real artistic merit, when judged from a film snob’s point of view.
With its artsy, unorthodox approach, Universal Soldier is somewhat of a hidden gem. And considering its anti-war/pacifist overtones, together with Lazenby’s natural acting abilities, it passes as a well-crafted film with a message. As long as you’re a fully caffeinated Lazenby fan, it’s well worth checking out.
For the last few years, Legend of Conan (aka King Conan or Conan the Conqueror) – the proposed ‘true’ sequel to 1982’s Conan the Barbarian – has been in an off again/on again status by Universal. The film was most likely pushed aside, numerous times, due to “higher priority” projects (i.e. Terminator Genisys) that involve the series’ returning star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Over the years, City on Fire has collected news updates regarding the development Legend of Conan. Here’s what we learned in the process:
1. Schwarzenegger will return to the title role and the movie is “100% happening,” says Frederik Malmberg, Paradox Entertainment’s President and CEO.
2. Legend of Conan will ignore both 1984’s Conan the Destroyer and 2011’s Conan reboot that starred Jason Momoa. It will pick up exactly where John Milius’ 1982 movie ended, focusing on an older Conan who has survived countless wars and bedded even more women as he searches for his life’s final battle.
3. Chris Morgan will serve as both producer and screenwriter for Legend of Conan. His credits include Wanted and Fast Five: “We think this is a worthy successor to the original film. Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven,” says Morgan. Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center) is also one of the writers.
4. During a Q&A screening of 2013’s The Last Stand, Arnie explained that Universal admitted ‘the previous regime has missed the boat’ and they wanted to produce a serious action movie with a top director and top writers: “[Universal] finally came forward and said, ‘You’re absolutely right. The previous regime has missed the boat here. We want to pick it up. We’re going to buy the rights and we’re going to be serious about it and make a quality film with an A-director and with A-writers and so on. And we want you to participate in this. We want you to star and you to play Conan. We’re going to take a story where Conan is at that age so it’s totally believable and you’re not looking like a 30-year old action guy.”
5. Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall) has expressed his love for 1982’s Conan and he has openly stated that he’s interested in directing Legend of Conan if given the chance.
6. Fredrik Malmberg, one of Legend of Conan’s producers, had this to say: “We want to polish up the script, specifically about the characters…” He adds: “A lot of directors have come fourth and expressed interest… we have been in touch with old great names and new fresh faces. We’re excited about finding the right guy for that.”
7. Schwarzenegger has supposedly invited Shankar (Anniyan, I) to direct Legend of Conan. Shankar is known for directing high budget Tamil films (he’s considered the pioneer of vigilante movies in Tamil).
8. Chris Morgan, Legend of Conan’s producer/co-writer told TAF: “We plan nothing more than to immerse ourselves in the world Milius envisioned from Robert E. Howard’s unforgettable stories and Frank Frazetta’s stunning artwork. I can’t give specifics (nobody likes a spoiler!), but know we are honoring the locales, the religions and the traditions of the ’82 film.” He also mentioned that three characters are returning from the first Conan movie.
9. “…I’m sitting on the throne for years and years – decades, and then all of the sudden, the time comes when they want to overthrow me. So that story WILL be told and that movie WILL be done,” said Arnold.
10. After all these years, Legend of Conan is moving forward. Just recently, Schwarzenegger (via The Arnold Fans) mentioned that he will be soon meeting Shane Black (the director of the upcoming Predator movie) to discuss a possible role (as Dutch?). And he also said this: “There’s also a meeting coming up soon about Conan, about the project moving forward.”
11. On April 7th, 2017, the 3rd Conan film was looking like it was dead in the water. Here’s what Chris Morgan, the film’s would-be producer, recently had to say: “At the end of the day, the studio decided that they weren’t gonna make that,” Morgan told EW. “I gotta say, it’s honestly a heartbreak. I love that first movie so much, so much, it’s one of my favorite movies… ultimately, the budget was big, the studio was not really sure of the title, and the relevance in the marketplace.”
Updates: In a recent chat with SD, here’s what Arnie said about the Conan film: “It’s being rewritten…the idea is to do it.” We’re crossing our fingers…
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This year’s 19th edition of Far East Film Festival offered a special treat for the fans of martial arts cinema. The long-awaited hit title 
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