Anchor Bay presents the Blu-ray for Into the Badlands: Season One, starring Hong Kong film star Daniel Wu (Purple Storm, Shinjuku Incident) and Aramis Knight (Ender’s Game, Billy Boy).
Set in a world centuries from now, Into the Badlands: Season One focuses on the spiritual journey of Sunny (Wu) and M.K. (Knight), a teenage boy who harbors a unique ability, and their growing relationship as teacher and student. Both discover their true purpose and decide to explore what lies beyond the borders of the Badlands.
Into the Badlands also stars Emily Beecham (28 Weeks Later), Sarah Bolger (The Tudors) and Oliver Stark (My Hero). Wu’s long time friend and partner, Stephen Fung (Tai Chi Hero), is serving as executive producer.
Into the Badlands: Season One will include featurettes delving deeper into the world of the Badlands: making of the fight scenes, characters of the series, digital comic and a lot more. See below:
Features:
Inside Into the Badlands
Anatomy of a Fight
Building the World of Into the Badlands
The Characters of Into the Badlands: The Barons
The Characters of Into the Badlands: The Clippers
The Master: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 1
Creating Real Kung Fu: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 2
Bringing It All Together: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 3
Fall is traditionally a fantastic time for movie releases, with some real heavy blockbusters hitting the big screen around this time of year. Given the volume of great movies that are due for release in the coming weeks, is it possible to choose just one as the most anticipated movie of fall this year?
Asian and martial arts films aside, let’s take a closer look at some of the Hollywood contenders that are hoping to nab the title of the best movie of fall 2016. Let’s start with a biggie…
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Gareth Edwards – what have you done to the Star Wars name? All joking aside, this movie, coming out on December 14th, is going to be massive. Whether or not it can exceed the records set by its predecessor remains to be seen, but with the promise of more Darth Vader on screen – and the addition of COF favorites Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen – this first in a standalone Star Wars Anthology series is sure to pack out movie theatres for weeks after its release date.
Doctor Strange
Fresh from roles in the Hobbit movies, Black Mass and Zoolander 2, Benedict Cumberbatch returns to take on his most challenging role yet, that of Marvel comic’s Doctor Strange. This movie is the 14th to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
That means that you can expect a cameo from at least one other Marvel super hero at some stage in the movie (not to mention a surprise role from one of my favorite martial arts stars, Scott Adkins). Coming this November, this movie is surely one to look out for.
The Girl on the Train
Based on the smash hit novel of the same name, The Girl on the Train busts into theatres in October. For those who have yet to read the book, the basic premise follows Rachael Watson (played by Emily Blunt) on her daily commute via the train service.
A web of mystery follows what should have been a normal morning. We refuse to give any more spoilers so you’ll have to catch it when it’s released for the full story.
Jack Reacher – Never Go Back
Tom Cruise returns as the one man wrecking crew that is Jack Reacher. Set four years after the ending of the first movie, Reacher returns to his old military unit, only to discover that he is being accused of a 16 year old homicide. Naturally, destruction will follow and lots of action is guaranteed. Look for this one in October.
Inferno
Skipping Dan Brown’s follow up to The Da Vinci Code, in director Ron Howard’s vision, Inferno is the next movie in the Robert Langdon epic. Tom Hanks again reprises the role; with his character Robert Langdon suffering from amnesia. He must make his way across the entirety of Europe (with Rogue One’s Felicity Jones), while attempting to overcome a deadly plot. This one appears in cinemas on October 13th.
Assassin’s Creed
Based on the mega popular video game series, Michael Fassbender brings the Assassin’s to the big screen in a whole new adventure, which are all unrelated to the events of the video games. The back-story of the battle between the Templars and Assassin’s is, of course, present however. This one launches in December and is promised to be a sell-out. However if you are fond of video games we advise you to visit Apnet.com – Casino to find new online games. Or you can just wait when Assassin’s Creed appears on screen and enjoy your time.
September 2016 saw the release of the Scott Adkins action vehicle Hard Target 2, a sequel to Hong Kong auteur John Woo’s 1993 Hollywood debut. Just like any fan of action cinema, I was eager to check it out, and as a writer for cityonfire.com, I was just as much looking forward to giving the British stars latest leading role the review treatment. Writing for a website has its perks, one of which is often distributors are happy to provide screeners before a movies official release, be it via physical media or a secure download link. So, no doubt the same as many other fellow action cinema writers, I reached out to Universal Studios Home Entertainment to see if this was the case with Hard Target 2. Alas though, they weren’t going the screener route with their latest release, so it turned out we’d have to wait for the official release on September 6th like everyone else.
“Hard Target 2” is currently available for purchase.
I was quite surprised then, when reviews of the movie started turning up in August, both on forums and respectable sites that specialise in action cinema. Had cityonfire.com been singled out as not being worthy of receiving a screener, and received short thrift? As with most things in life, the simplest way to find the answer was to ask the question to those who were offering up their reviews – how had they seen it? Even more surprising than when I first spotted the reviews popping up here and there, was the overwhelmingly blasé answer from everyone that I asked the question to – they’d illegally downloaded it off torrent sites.
If any action stars movies are capable of generating discussion on piracy and its effect on the industry, then it has to be Scott Adkins. I’ve read several interviews with the affable star, as well as meeting him during the SENI Combat event in London back in 2014, and he’s always very vocal and upfront about how piracy is effecting the industry and his own career. After Undisputed 3: Redemption was released in 2010, which saw his supporting character of Yuri Boyka from the previous instalment take center stage, he’s been subjected to an almost never ending barrage of questions of when Boyka would be returning to the screen. It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, the fourth instalment in the Undisputed franchise, simply entitled Boyka: Undisputed, has been completed, and is due for release in early 2017.
The following is an excerpt from a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), featuring Scott Adkins and his fans.
However every action star has a shelf life, we’re all only human, and action filmmaking takes a remarkable physical toll (just ask Jackie Chan). So why is there a 7 year gap between the installments of what’s considered to be Adkins’ most iconic role? The answer is a straightforward one – Undisputed 3: Redemption was illegally downloaded so much, that its profit from legitimate sales was barely enough to scrape even. Producers don’t back titles based on a star’s output being overwhelmingly popular on illegal torrent sites, they back them based on knowing they’ll get a return on their investment. Go onto any action movie site or forum, and you’ll see nothing but praise for Undisputed 3: Redemption, but if you were to show a producer its profit as a sales pitch to make a fourth instalment, you’d be understandably laughed out of the room.
While I, just as everyone else, have high hopes for Boyka: Undisputed, there’s already a trailer out there, and the production values are undeniably on the low end of the scale. Thankfully Adkins’ talent is more than enough to overlook such issues, so let’s hope that it delivers, because 7 years is a long time to wait. As recently as Adkins’ last starring role in 2015’s Close Range, during an interview to promote the movie he explained that the original vision was much grander in terms of action, however with only a small budget and tight filming schedule, they had to make the most of what was available. Why did they have to work in such a restrictive environment? Again it was a simple answer, the producers didn’t want to invest too much, as they weren’t confident they’d get much of a return.
Just like we’re seeing with Hard Target 2, in the lead up to the release of Close Range reviews started to flood the net, many of which pointed to the somewhat rushed nature certain aspects of the production appeared to have. So we have a vicious cycle – we have a ready and willing action star who’ll always give 110%, but who many feel doesn’t get productions that are worthy of his talent, because of low budgets and restrictive filming schedules. Adkins’ puts it out there that for him to have those bigger and better opportunities, his fans need to legitimately purchase his movies, and stop downloading them before they’re released. His pleas seems to fall on deaf ears, and with the imminent release of a new movie, opinions start appearing on the net, often complaining of the apparent low budget and anything else they can gripe about. This pre-release negative feedback inevitably has an impact on the chances of increasing legitimate copies being shifted, and hence we end up back at square one.
Click here to order a copy of “Lackey and the Lady Tiger”
I wish the above was conjecture on my part, but for a real time example, all you have to do is go onto Adkins’ official Facebook page, and check out the hundreds of comments from before September 6th of so-called fans labelling Hard Target 2 as ‘boring’ or ‘stupid’. Scroll just a mere few posts down, and you’ll see a post from Adkins promoting the DVD and Blu-ray release, with a note from him requesting to support the legitimate release for all the hard work that was put into it.
So what’s the deal? Is this issue of piracy one that spans across genres, or is it more specific to the martial arts genre? A great example to look at is the recently proposed Zinemaxploitation Blu-ray release of the Hwang Jang Lee and Mars vehicle, Lackey and the Lady Tiger. The release was limited to 200 copies at €20 each, and to make it happen they needed a minimum of 75 purchases, which they aimed to get between 9th August and 9th September 2016. Fans have been demanding Blu-ray’s of kung fu classics for years, and Zinemaxploitation are making the bold move to step up and deliver what’s being asked for. I was waiting for the announcement that the 200 copies had fully sold out, so that the campaign was closed, but instead, 2 days before the campaign ended they were still short of the minimum order of 75. Thankfully, due to several pledgers double dipping, it just scraped over the line.
Now, let’s look at another niche genre, that of Italian horror. Earlier this year UK based distributor 88 Films launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform, with the aim to restore 4 obscure Italian horror titles. They were looking for a minimum of £10,000 to restore one of them, and £40,000 would result in all 4 titles being restored and released. When the campaign wrapped up in June, they’d raised £83,155, which just to put it in perspective, is 808% of their original target, achieved through 1452 backers. Then we have kung fu cinema fans like myself and others reading this article, who can barely find 75 people to purchase a Blu-ray of a movie that features such legendary names as Hwang Jang Lee. It’s kind of sad isn’t it?
The ‘got through by the skin of its teeth’ nature of the Zinemaxploitation campaign saw a certain level of backlash from fans across social media platforms. In the days before the campaign ended, those who had pledged €20 seemed genuinely exasperated that the possibility of not reaching 75 purchases was a very real one, and in one post I read, labelled fans of kung fu cinema “a tight fisted bunch of idiots who want everything for free”. Harsh, however it’s hard to ascertain what else could possibly be the reason for such an appealing title to have struggled to reach a perfectly reasonable number of sales. Is it really the case that fans of kung fu cinema have come to expect everything for free?
You’ve waited for a “Pedicab Driver” DVD for years. Now what?
I decided to research more into this, however ultimately I stopped delving into the matter too deeply, as it paints a depressing picture. Going back to the end of 2015, the Warner Brothers studio finally decided to unearth a movie which had been sitting in their vaults for a countless number of years, the Sammo Hung classic Pedicab Driver. Go on any forum relating to kung fu cinema, and it’s possible to find threads dating back to the early 00’s of posts making enquiries as to when this title would hit DVD. The fact is, it’s never had a DVD release anywhere, not even in Hong Kong, so for it to be finally unleashed as part of the Warner Brothers Archives series was big news. At last, people could rejoice and throw away the poor quality bootleg copies that they’d been living with so long, and enjoy the movie in crystal clear clarity from a legitimate release.
One day after the release, a good friend of mine who is well known amongst kung fu cinema fan circles, e-mailed me to express his disbelief at how many requests he’d had from people, asking when he was going to upload the DVD that they knew he’d purchased onto a torrent site. Having purchased the title on the day it was released, in the hope that supporting it would result in Warner Brothers releasing more of the titles they have sitting in their vaults, the fact that so many were automatically assuming it’d be immediately up for free download, paints a grim picture. The short sightedness, and sheer volume of requests he’d received, is indicative of just how much kung fu cinema fans are their own biggest enemy. Yes it’s possible to get everything for free, but it comes at a price that’ll far exceed the $12 – $15 it costs to pick up the title legitimately.
So where does that leave us? It seems to boil down to one thing – as fans of martial arts and kung fu cinema, we have to be willing to put our money where our mouth is. We need to stop being our own worst enemy. It’s not enough to keep on complaining that there’s no more companies releasing kung fu movies on DVD or Blu-ray, but when companies like Terracotta Distribution and Zinemaxploitation put product out there hardly anyone buys them. It’s not enough to complain that stars like Scott Adkins are appearing in movies that don’t do their talents justice, but then ensure that the situation is never going to change by continuing to illegally download their movies before they’re released. Movie piracy will always be there, and to some extent the large Hollywood studios can absorb the damage it does, however for a niche genre such as ours, where it’s a struggle to even find 75 people to buy a Blu-ray, every illegal download of a new movie has an impact.
In February of this year, I attended a drinks function for the Edinburgh Film Festival, which takes place in June. I bumped into an acquaintance I’d known for many years, an actor and senior programmer called Niall Fulton, who the previous year had put on a Walter Hill retrospective. This guy knows his stuff. He almost immediately said ‘If you thought last year was good, wait until this year. It will be right up your street’. He wasn’t joking.
The festival managed to secure 35mm prints of both Sword of Vengeance and the rare Golgo 13, starring Ken Takakura. Just before the lights went down for the former, he told me they had almost given up on securing the film, because Japanese studios such as Toho are so protective of their legacy. They told him if the print was shown, it would have to be burnt straight away. He decided to go down the private collectors route, and discovered a guy in Germany who owns all 6 films in the series, and had given them to a German label for the Blu-ray release. However, when they tested the print, the audio was out of sync. This was days before the film was to be shown. Kudos to the projection team at the best cinema in Edinburgh the Filmhouse, they took apart the projector and through the miracles of soldering and tweezers, managed to sort the problem. I can tell you seeing Sword of Vengeance on the big screen was worth all of their efforts.
It can be difficult to know how to approach reviewing a film as important and notorious as Sword of Vengeance, but I’ll approach it with my ultimate weapon: passion. Some of the series I’ve only watched once, but my favourite was always Babycart at The River Styx. Both Sword of Vengeance and Babycart at The River Styx were combined into the grindhouse classic Shogun Assassin, which as with most of you, I saw first. A bastardisation of the story really, it concentrated on including all of the violence from them. Nothing wrong with that, but in the heart of Lone Wolf and Cub there is a beautifully observed narrative. This is culled from the huge resource of Manga the films are based on, by the wonderful team Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. Having read most of the series, I can say it is my favourite Manga (and comic book). As the co-programmer of the retrospective David Cairns said, the Manga is sombre and multi-layered, as if Kurosawa had written it.
I would guess that all of our readers know the story already, so I’ll keep it brief. Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) is the Shogun’s executioner, and is framed by the evil Yagyu clan as being disloyal to the Shogunate. He escapes the attack, and goes on the road as an assassin for hire with his infant son Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa), and decides to wage war on the Yagyu.
One can only guess at the impact this first movie had on an unsuspecting Japanese and International audience when it was released in 1972. Prior to this, Samurai cinema was classical and traditional concentrating on existential heroes and historical narratives. Sword of Vengeance treads a line between this and exploitation, with blood spurting action and explicit sexual scenes. A game-changing approach, and one that has influenced filmmakers the world over. The most obvious champion is Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bil Vol. 1), without whom the series of films would not be nearly as well known. Director Darren Aranowsky’s (Requiem for a Dream) dream project is a remake. It was revealed recently that the team behind the forthcoming Ghost in the Shell live-action film have optioned the Manga of Lone Wolf and Cub to make a movie. I’m sure many of you agree with me that it’s a bad choice. There is no need, when there exists these note perfect interpretations. As soon as the first frames of Sword of Vengeance appear onscreen, you just know this movie is going to be a stone cold classic.
As the exploitation genre goes, there may not be another film as beautifully shot and stylistically immersive as Sword of Vengeance. Director Kenji Misumi made many Samurai films prior, with notable inclusions in the Sleepy Eyes of Death and Zatoichi series. His combination of classical Japanese styles with a sharp eye for period detail and gore that had never been seen before in the Samurai genre is a joy to behold. The violence is meticulously staged, with group battles and one on one showdowns ringing with tension. Some of the editing is ground breaking, with short sections depicting extreme violence cutting to long shots with intricate swordplay. One pivotal battle in a lake depicts Ogami Itto’s sword techniques in unbelievably inventive fashion, with fantastic editing that blows my mind every time I see it. Credit to the soundtrack composers Hideakira Sakurai and Kuuihiko Muurai for creating a beautiful score that compliments the imagery, – it’s even worth listening to on its own.
Wakayama as Itto, in the role that became his signature, is magnificent. He communicates through his body language and eyes a man of iron will that will not be shaken, still able to care for his son and those he meets and helps despite laying waste (in imaginative styles) to all those who oppose him. Wakayama’s brother Shintaro Katsu (the actor who played the original Zatoichi) produced Sword of Vengeance and the first three films in the series. Tomikawa, as Daigoro, was only 4 years old at the time, and absolutely captures the spirit of the depiction in the Manga. Various bit parts are played by actors such as Fumio Watanabe and Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, who were part of the Toho stable and went on to work on movies such as the Female Prisoner series.
As the lights came up after taking in the movie, I was speechless. I hadn’t watched it in a long time, and from the dream like opening to the iconically framed last shot, this is a timeless masterwork.
During the 2015 Hong Kong Filmart, a new movie celebrating Wong Jing’s 100th film as a director, titled The Invincible 12 (aka Dirty Dozen), was announced.
The plan was to cast 12 leading men whom he worked with previously. The actors he was considering include Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Huang Xiao Ming, Louis Koo, Nick Cheung, Ekin Cheng, Daniel Wu, Shawn Yue, Nicholas Tse and Tony Leung Ka Fai.
Wong stated that The Invincible 12 would be an action-packed, HK$ 300 million blockbuster full of pretty girls and a lot of fun for the audience. Filming was supposed to start in June of 2016 (which obviously didn’t happen) but now we have new updates suggesting the project is still alive…
According to MT (via DiP), Wong Jing revealed that he still intends to make The Invincible 12 and plans to bring together Donnie Yen, Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat as a big tribute to classic Hong Kong cinema. None of the actors are officially signed on, but Jing did make one thing clear: “There will be Chow Yun Fat, without him, I would not shoot.” During this same meeting, Jing also announced the inclusion of Andy Lau in Donnie Yen’s Chasing the Dragon.
The veteran filmmaker directed his first film, Challenge of the Gamesters, in 1981. Since then, he has gone on to write, direct and produce a huge number of films, including some very commercially successful ones such as God of Gamblers, Royal Tramp and City Hunter.
It’s probably time for them to update the 2015 teaser poster for the film. If our calculations are right, The Invincible 12 would now be Jing’s 102th film.
We’ll keep you updated on The Invincible 12 as we hear more. For now, watch this:
Martial arts star Conan Lee (Cyprus Tigers) – an actor known for the Hong Kong classics Ninja in the Dragon’s Den and Tiger on the Beat, and Hollywood films such as Eliminators, Armed Response and Lethal Weapon 4 – is making a comeback in MMA, an upcoming film he’s directing, writing and also starring in.
According to SA, MMA is a semi-autobiographical tale about an action star “who is more than willing to put his career on hold to care for his ailing mother. He sees the sacrifice as a simple gesture of gratitude, happy to give back to the woman who gave him everything.”
MMA (perhaps a double entendre for both MMA and MAMA, as suggested by SA) is set to begin production in September. Stay tuned for more details.
For now, here’s a look at what Conan Lee is capable of:
Fists of Fury: 4K Special Edition | Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)
RELEASE DATE: December 6, 2016
Shout! Factory presents the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray for Fists of Fury (aka The Big Boss), featuring an all-new 4K scan and restoration from the film’s original negative.
Fists of Fury stars martial arts legend Bruce Lee as Cheng Chao-an, a young man that moves to Thailand to take a job in an ice factory.
One day, when a block of ice is cracked open, two co-workers find out that something is being smuggled inside the blocks of ice. The two workers disappear without a trace and Cheng starts to investigate their disappearance. He soon finds out that the factory is smuggling heroin and comes face to face with the Big Boss for a climatic showdown.
Product information:
Running Time: 100 min.
Aspect Raio: 2.35:1
Languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin
Subtitles: English
NEW Audio Commentary With Asian Film Expert Brandon Bentley
Audio Commentary With Asian Film Expert Mike Leeder
Includes Rare English Dub Track That Was Not Used For Its U.S. Release
The Chinese Connection: 4K Collector’s Edition | Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)
RELEASE DATE: December 6, 2016
Shout! Factory presents the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray for The Chinese Connection (aka Fist of Fury), featuring an all-new 4K scan and restoration from the film’s original negative.
In The Chinese Connection Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) returns to Shanghai to attend the funeral of his teacher. He vows to uncover what happened to his mentor and all signs point to the local Japanese Marital Arts school who have been taunting and insulting the students of the Ching Wu School.
The local police won’t do anything about the death, so Chen decides to restore honor to his school and his teacher by bringing down some furious vengeance on the Japanese school.
Product information:
Running Time: 106 min.
Aspect Raio: 2.35:1
Languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Audio Commentary With Asian Film Expert Mike Leeder
After apparently feeling that his job was done, director Shunya Ito left the Scorpion series after the third film, Beast Stable. Stepping into his place would be Yasuharu Hasebe, a director with no shortage of experience working in the exploitation genre, including three Stray Cat Rock films with Scorpion star Meiko Kaji. In his time on the Scorpion series, Ito brought crazy visuals, angry political commentary, and nightmarish horror aspects to the story of the female prisoner antihero. Hasebe’s vision is more restrained, more… sane. And as an unfortunate result, Hasebe’s Scorpion is a less interesting movie than what came before.
Matsushima the Scorpion (Meiko Kaji) is still on the run, but the cops are closing in. After a violent run-in with the fascistic Detective Kodama (Eros + Massacre’s Toshiyuki Hosokawa), Matsushima hides out in the bathroom of a strip club. If you’re familiar with the series, the idea of sneaking into a seedy sex club probably seems like the worst idea imaginable. However, Matsushima finds the most unlikely thing in that strip club: a caring man with whom she will soon fall in love with. The sex club’s technician Kudo (Masakazu Tamura) isn’t interested in Matsu for sex or a reward from the police. They’re kindred spirits with similar backgrounds of fighting the system, each with the scars to prove it. Kudo and Matsushima flee together, leading the cops on a chase throughout the city. But it’s not long before the cops catch Kudo and torture him for information. Will he, like his lover, keep silent in the face of opposition? Or will he break and reveal Matsushima’s hiding place to the cops who so want to punish her for all her misdeeds?
Both visually and dramatically, #701’s Grudge Song is a major departure from the tone that Ito helped create in the first three films. I have no issue with Matsu falling in love—her whole story of vengeance began with a sad love story, after all—but she’s not really the same character for much of the movie here. Ito’s Scorpion was a woman of action, Hasebe’s Scorpion is one of reaction. She’s chased, so she runs. She’s attacked, so she fights back. She’s wronged, so she retaliates. The Scorpion avenger who inspired fear amongst those around her doesn’t reveal herself until the film’s final moments (which, it should be noted, are also the film’s most visually inventive). Even Meiko Kaji’s terrifying glare is much more subdued this time around.
Even ignoring how it compares to the earlier films in the series, #701’s Grudge Song storyline is poorly constructed. It’s a film that’s split right down the middle, with the chase for the fugitives dominating the first half and a return to the prison system in the second half. While I appreciated Grudge Song’s attempt to come full circle and return to the first film’s setting, the second half has all new supporting characters and half-baked subplots that feel rushed.
The love interest character Kudo makes for a fine addition to the story. Masakazu Tamura (Samurai Banners) does a good job with the conflicted character. Kudo succeeds when he’s silent and violent like Matsushima, and he falters when he’s soft. Kudo also represents the only major political subplot of the film, as he was once a student protester and is now crippled by the punishment the police dished out on him back then.
The new villain Detective Kodama is a less interesting addition. The villains of Ito’s Scorpion films all had personal grudges against Matsushima, thus making their rivalries more dramatically compelling. Dirty cop Sugimi (Isao Natsuyagi) used Matsushima and tried to cover it up. Warden Goda (Fumio Watanabe) was a cruel man that treated Scorpion like any other inmate until she cost him his eye. Katsu (Reisen Ri) was a former inmate who bore a grudge against Matsushima for their time spent in prison together. Not to mention the strong villains brought to life by Kayoko Shiraishi, Mikio Narita, and Rie Yokoyama. Toshiyuki Hosokawa’s Detective Kodama is a cruel bastard that wants to see Matsushima punished because she’s committed crimes and killed cops… and that’s pretty much it. There’s no real link between Scorpion and Kodama beyond the fact that they belong to opposite sides of the law. Despite this, the obsessive detective goes to cruel, illegal lengths to punish Scorpion. It just doesn’t make for a great villain. It’s not helped much by the fact that Toshiyuki Hosokawa’s performance is a little stiff and one-note.
Yasuharu Hasebe’s Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song is not a bad film but it doesn’t look so good following the wild pieces of cinema that Shunya Ito created. The things that made the series so special and weird are in short supply here. Even Meiko Kaji’s performance isn’t the same. The actress has since said that she quit the series after this film because the role was so exhausting, both physically and mentally, and that’s beginning to show here as she looks a bit tired.
The series would continue without Kaji, as series assistant director Yutaka Kohira rebooted the series with New Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701, starring Yumi Takigawa as Matsushima in one film and Yoko Natsuki in the next. There would be future remakes and reboots, as well, with varying degrees of success. But nothing quite matches what Kaji and Ito created. The Scorpion films are based on a manga series by Toru Shinohara, who also created Zero Woman. The first Scorpion movie is said to be a fairly faithful adaptation, except in the case of the title character. In the manga, Matsushima is a buxom blonde with a foul mouth. It was supposedly Kaji’s idea, after reading the script, to perform the character mostly mute. The choice to change the character, which might’ve bugged fans of the source material at the time if current comic-to-film changes are any indication, would end up being one of the best creative decisions for the series. Most performers are looking for more lines, but the bold choice to go silent made the Scorpion more intimidating and memorable. A fantastic lead female performance, matched with crazy visuals, political symbolism, and no shortage of exploitation cinema trademarks, the Female Prisoner Scorpion series is crazy cool.
Kyle Warner’s Rating: 6.5/10
About this release: The Female Prisoner Scorpion series arrives on Blu-ray and DVD in a box set of the original four films from Arrow Video. The release is said to be a limited edition of only 4,000 copies and is available in the US and the UK. As stated in my earlier reviews and by other reviewers all across the web, the picture quality of the new release leaves something to be desired. Very grainy and very blue, it’s a rough video transfer thanks to poor source materials. Everything else about the set is top-notch, though. It comes in a sturdy box with attractive new art from Ian MacEwan.
The films come in individual Blu-ray cases with reversible artwork—one side is MacEwan’s new art, one side is the original poster. There’s also a hardbound 56-page booklet and a folded up, double-sided poster. The little book is a nice addition; it has a Chris D. interview with Meiko Kaji from 1997, a translated interview with manga Scorpion creator Toru Shinohara, and a great series overview written by Chuck Stephens. I thought each piece was an excellent read.
The special features are different for each disc, with extras both old and new (you can read my reviews for the earlier films Prisoner #701: Scorpion, Jailhouse 41, and Beast Stable for details and comments on those special features). #701’sGrudge Song’s disc includes Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp’s exploration of Yasuharu Hasebe’s film career, an archival interview with Hasebe on finishing the Scorpion series, a 40 minute visual essay on the Scorpion series from Midnight Eye’s Tom Mes, and an appreciation from filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts). Director Kumakiri talks about how the Scorpion series influenced his films and how he admires ‘showmanship’ and reckless, daring filmmaking. It’s not the most focused of interviews and I don’t know Kumakiri’s films well, but it’s entertaining. Jasper Sharp’s detailed rundown of Hasebe’s career is worth watching, especially if you’re familiar with the director’s other works. The 2006 Hasebe interview is a very welcome addition, as he talks about growing up on American cinema, becoming a director, working with Meiko Kaji, and his intentions when he made the #701’s Grudge Song. I think the Hasebe interview is the best extra on the disc.
The 40 minute visual essay on the series from Tom Mes is pretty good, though sometimes it feels like repeated information. The soft-spoken Mes knows his subject well, putting the Scorpion series into historical context with Japanese cinema at the time it hit theatres. The best part of this extra from Mes is the short glimpse at footage of other, later Scorpion series. I’m especially keen to see the 1991 V-Cinema film from Evil Dead Trap director Toshiharu Ikeda.
All in all, it’s another solid disc with some welcome extra features for fans of the series. Though the picture quality for all films is lacking, I’ve very much enjoyed digging through the Scorpion box set.
Director: Roel Reiné Producer: Chris Lowenstein Cast: Scott Adkins, Robert Knepper, Rhona Mitra, Tempera Morrison, Ann Truong, Adam Saunders, Jamie Timony, Pter Hardy, Sean Keenan, Troy Honeysett, JeeJa Yanin Running Time: 104 min.
By Paul Bramhall
As a child of the early 80’s I, and most likely many others, had my first exposure to John Woo from his 1993 Hollywood debut Hard Target. A tale which see’s Jean Claude Van Damme on the run from a group of wealthy hunters, led by a menacing Lance Henriksen, despite Woo’s own complaints about what he felt was a rushed production schedule, the final version still arguably delivers an action classic. I still remember being on holiday with my parents as a teenager, and picking up a double VHS pack which contained Hard Target (the ‘Full Uncensored Version’ no less) on one tape, and Timecop on the other. While Van Damme’s time travelling action flick certainly entered the VHS player more than once, it was usually Hard Target which needed to be ejected first – simply put it lived in the player.
Timecop may have gotten a Van Damme-less sequel in 2003, with the Jason Scott Lee vehicle Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision, but Hard Target has had to wait a significantly longer time, with an equally Van Damme-less sequel being delivered in 2016. In place of the Muscles from Brussels, we have who many people consider to be his spiritual successor, British martial arts star Scott Adkins. Adkins has stated many times how much Van Damme was an influence on his career, and to date the pair have featured in four movies together, proving that in some cases, dreams do indeed come true. For the sequel, Adkins finds himself back in Myanmar, the country which also provided the stomping ground for his 2013 movie Ninja: Shadow of a Tear.
The story see Adkins playing an MMA fighter, who during a fight which pits him against one of his closest friends, sees him accidentally kill his opponent. To drown his sorrows, he ups and leaves the States to move to a ramshackle hut in Bangkok, in which he lives with a pet white dove (it’s never clearly stated if it is his pet, but it’s always hopping about in the hut somewhere), the digital watch his friend gifted him with before their fight, and plenty of alcohol. Adkins spends his time in Bangkok switching between American and British accents, drinking, and getting involved in a series of bare knuckle off the books fight tournaments. When a rich business man, played by Prison Break’s Robert Knepper, offers him a million dollar pay cheque to take part in a final match in Myanmar, Adkins takes the bait, and the rest as they say, is history.
Replacing Woo in the director’s chair for the sequel is Dutchman Roel Reiné, who’s made almost an entire career out of making direct-to-video sequels to popular action movies. It’s a long list – The Marine 2, Death Race 2, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, Death Race 3: Inferno, 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded, Behind Enemy Lines: Seal Team 8, The Man with the Iron Fists 2, The Condemned 2, and of course, the move in question. For me though, he’ll always be the guy that directed one of the better latter-era Steven Seagal movies, with 2008’s Pistol Whipped. Reiné may be used to working in the lower budgeted direct-to-video arena, but one thing he’s definitely not used to is directing a sequel to a John Woo movie. Who would be?
It’s evident from the start that he wants to pay homage to Woo’s original – from an opening that see’s the human prey on the run from crossbow wielding hunters, to the inclusion of randomly placed doves, even to Knepper and his right hand man, played by Temuera Morrison, clearly being styled after Lance Henriksen and Arnold Vosloo. However there’s never any doubt that we’re watching a production which is never going to be in the same league as the original. Hard Target 2 is laden with a particularly awful script, full of painfully clichéd lines and equally embarrassing delivery of them, not helped by some poor ADR work that crops up here and there.
Reiné also takes a huge gamble by having Adkins first scene be an MMA fight in the ring. There’s little doubt that the stars most iconic and popular role is that of Yuri Boyka, from the Undisputed series, and fans have been clamouring to see him back in action since 2010’s Undisputed 3: Redemption. Any movie which puts Adkins in the ring is inevitably going to draw comparisons to his performances in the series, and here they’re not going to be favourable ones. Instead of going for something original with the choreography, the match, and also his bare knuckle fights in Bangkok, feel like more of an Adkins show-reel from the past 10 years. There’s no originality on display, and instead the action leans back on his trademark spinning jump kicks, all of which are shown in slow motion, while the person on the receiving end of them waits to be hit. It’s a letdown.
Things do get a little more interesting once the action moves to the jungles of Myanmar (although the scenes are actually shot in Thailand). Knepper and Morrison lead 6 other hunters – a redneck father and his reluctant son, a big game hunter, a matador (who comes complete with sword), a first person shooter software developer (don’t ask), and a spoilt rich girl with a sadistic streak, notably played by British actress Rhona Mitra, who refined her action chops in 2008’s <em>Doomsday</em>. After narrowly escaping his first encounter with the hunters, Adkins happens upon one of the locals, played by Ann Truong, who becomes his guide through the dense jungle. Truong’s wardrobe makes her appear as if she’s just come from auditioning for the role of Pocahontas, but her character is a pleasant enough addition, and she soon has Adkins paying his respects to the “spirits of the forest” and ensuring her safety.
When it comes to the action, the vast majority of it consists of Adkins dodging arrows, being thrown into the air from explosions, and indulging in some fisticuffs. It’s a somewhat surprising decision that two of the one-on-one fights during the hunt don’t go to Adkins at all, instead giving us an all female showdown with Ann Truong vs. Rhona Mitra, and then later the actor who plays Truong’s brother fights the matador. Both fights are completely unremarkable, and plagued by quick cutting to disguise the lack of screen fighting talent. However it’s perhaps indicative that beyond the Adkins Greatest Hits book of moves, the choreographers really didn’t have much up their sleeve for him to do. There is a face off which pits Adkins against Mitra mid-way through, however it’s so stilted and one-sided that it leaves the memory almost as soon as it’s over.
Proceedings build up to a finale which attempts to rectify this, as events culminate in a New One Armed Swordsman style stand off on a bridge, which pits Adkins against 5 of Knepper’s fighters at once (two of which are played by Jija Yanin and Patrick Kazu Tang, clocking in about 30 seconds of screen-time between them), followed by Morrison, and then Knepper himself. It allows Adkins the chance to briefly let loose, in a face off which provides the most complex choreography of the movie, but there’s an inescapable feeling that it was rushed. Some camera angles are taken from rather odd positions, and there are kicks on display which clearly don’t connect, immediately taking you out of the action. It’s enough to make you wish that Hard Target 2 had a bigger budget behind it, combined with more time to film, as there’s a good action B-movie in there somewhere.
As it is though, the poor script and illogical plotting frequently see Reiné’s sequel tripping up and landing on its face. A scene which perfectly summarises these problems sees Adkins sneak up on the software developer, who’s secretly filming the other hunters. Adkins whispers to him that if he makes a sound, he’ll shoot him, as it would alert the other hunters that they’re there. However he then proceeds to playback the recording to check what it is, with the audio glaring out at normal volume, but somehow none of the hunters are able to hear it. It’s a scene which blatantly doesn’t make any sense, and with a little more care should have obviously been re-thought. But then again, they’re making a sequel to a John Woo movie, perhaps the whole idea should have been re-thought.
A remake of John Sturges 1960 classic, The Magnificent Seven, is shooting to theaters on September 23, 2016. Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer) is directing the film, which is based off a script by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective).
The original The Magnificent Seven (read our review) – a remake itself of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai – starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, and Horst Buchholz. The plot involved seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small village in Mexico from a group of Mexican bandits.
Fuqua brings his modern vision to a classic story. With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns consisting of Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee of I Saw the Devil), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier).
It’s been over ten years since the release of 2003’s Shanghai Knights – and, indeed, it’s strange to reflect back on a time when Donnie Yen’s most high-profile gigs included a cameo in a Jackie Chan Hollywood movie – and rumors of a sequel have been long dormant.
The franchise, which saw Jackie Chan’s Imperial guard teaming up with Owen Wilson’s laconic outlaw, was always viewed as something of an Old West take on the popular Rush Hour formula (i.e. pair Jackie Chan’s fists of fury with a fast-talking funnyman).
Now, THR reports that MGM has recruited Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) to direct Shanghai Dawn. Back in ’03 Owen Wilson had told Empire Magazine he thought a third film in the series might see him and Jack head to Egypt. Who knows if that particular plotline will survive, but the question remains: would you be interested in seeing Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson team up one last time to close out the Shanghai Noon trilogy?
In addition to Shanghai Noon, Chan now currently has many movies on his current/to-do list, including Bleeding Steel, Chinese Zodiac 2, The Civilianand a possible Rush Hour sequel. In the next year or so, you can catch him in a handful of upcoming titles, which include Foreigner,Kung Fu Yogaand Railroad Tigers. His latest released film, Skiptrace, is currently available On Demand.
Director David Lam (Street Angels) and superstar Louis Koo (The White Storm) are back with S-Storm, the sequel to 2014’s Z-Storm. S-Storm follows the further predicaments of William Luk Che Lim (Koo) – a lead investigator in the ICAC unit (Independent Commission Against Corruption) – and his war with naughty organizations.
S-Storm features a mix of new and returning stars that include Julian Cheung (Flying Daggers), Vic Chou (Detective Gui), Ada Choi (Fist of Legend), Dada Chan (Z-Storm), Janelle Sing (Kung Fu Angels) and Bowie Lam (The Most Wanted).
“Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Director: Shunya Ito Cast: Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Reisen Lee, Yayoi Watanabe, Koji Nanbara, Takashi Fujiki Running Time: 87 min.
By Kelly Warner
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable is a very different movie from the two that came before it. Meiko Kaji’s Matsu the Scorpion is on the lam after having narrowly survived her prison escape in Jailhouse 41. Wanted posters with her face are all over the city streets, warning that she is a dangerous fugitive. We join Matsu on the subway, sitting silently by herself while those around her read newspapers with her face on them. Detective Kondo (Mikio Narita) and his partner notice Matsu and slowly approach. Just before they’re ready to grab her, out comes the Scorpion’s blade. She fights them off and runs for it, but not before Kondo handcuffs himself to her. Matsu rushes out of the subway car and the doors close on Kondo’s arm. The Scorpion doesn’t hesitate before she starts chopping away on the detective’s right arm, soon hacking it off and leaving him screaming inside the subway car as it pulls away from the station. Matsu runs off, covered in blood and still attached to the severed limb, passing by frightened bystanders who look confused enough to possibly be unwitting extras to one of the most violent opening sequences in cinema.
Unlike the first two films, where 99% of the characters wanted Matsu dead in some way, Beast Stable grants her a friend in the hooker Yuki (Yayoi Watanabe, who was also in #701: Scorpion). It’s not a perfect friendship, though. Things get off to a weird start when Yuki first meets Matsu chewing on Detective Kondo’s severed arm in the shadows of a graveyard that’s lit exclusively by neon lights of nearby bars. Yuki takes Matsu to her place, where Matsu meets Yuki’s sex-starved, brain-damaged older brother, a man whom Yuki defends and alternatively plots to kill totally depending on the day. There’s no shortage of sleaze and uncomfortable character interactions as Matsu settles into a routine of life in the shadows, working as a seamstress to pay her rent, and defending her friend Yuki.
All is going relatively well until a moment of violence against a yakuza lands Matsu at the feet of her new employers, who in addition to running a legitimate business also force women into prostitution on the side. They’re ready to beat her and let her go, but then the boss’s wife recognizes Matsu the Scorpion from the time she spent in prison. Reisen Ri (aka Reisen Lee) plays the cruel boss lady Katsu over the top, complete with crazy dresses and ugly makeup that make her look like a drag queen, plus violent animal pets and a very stagey villain’s laugh. Seeing her chance at putting the Scorpion in her place, Katsu drugs her and throws her into a cage of ravens. (This sequence isn’t nearly as frightening or as weird as I imagine they planned it. The birds mostly ignore Meiko Kaji.) Of course, Matsu soon escapes her cage and vows revenge. The increasing body count attracts the attention of the one-armed Detective Kondo, who starts closing in on Scorpion looking to exact personal revenge more than to serve the law.
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion and its immediate sequel Jailhouse 41 were fast-paced thrillers filled with violence, madness, sleaze, and political commentary. Beast Stable is more of a slow-burn, more character-driven. This may not be the ‘crowd pleaser’ that the first two films were, but it does give Meiko Kaji some of her most interesting acting moments in the series. Beast Stable explores some of Scorpion’s softer edges, and though it’d be going too far to call her ‘vulnerable’, she does let her guard down at times. Hell, she even cries at one point. It is an excellent dramatic performance, again performed mostly silent. And I enjoyed the quieter moments which allowed Matsu to stand beside a friend and have a beer. It’s a nice evolution for the character, and serves as a reminder that she wasn’t always a violent antihero.
Yayoi Watanabe is good as Yuki. Though she’s a hooker caught in an incestuous relationship with her brother, she’s also the most ‘normal’ character in the film. Mikio Narita (Zatoichi and the Chess Expert) is surprisingly reserved as the villainous Detective Kondo. And Reisen Ri nearly steals the show as the campy villain Katsu.
This would be director Shunya Ito’s last entry in the series. He made his directorial debut with #701: Scorpion and wanted to branch out. Ito’s three Scorpion films came back-to-back-to-back. All other future films in his career would be more spread out, with only eleven more films over the next 40 years. Though still best remembered for his Scorpion films, Ito remembers in an interview that a Toei executive considered never releasing the original film, likely because of its questionable content. Ito was the head of the studio’s union at the time and he ultimately prevailed, which is something the studio really should thank him for because the films became big successes both financially and critically. Future Ito films would invite a different kind of controversy. 1985’s Gray Sunset was a popular film in Japan and was selected to represent the country in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, despite the rest of the world heaping praise upon Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. (Ran was nominated for four Oscars and won for Best Costume Design, which is a rare level of recognition for a foreign film in an American awards show. Gray Sunset didn’t make the cut for Best Foreign Language Film and has been largely forgotten about outside of its native Japan.) Ito’s 1998 film Pride was a biopic about Prime Minister Tojo, which presented the man in a positive light. Though a box office success in Japan, critics (especially those of other Asian countries) accused the film of historical revisionism, saying Ito whitewashed Tojo’s role in the war and ignored the country’s human rights crimes. Ito defended his film and tried to explain his intentions but, with the exception of a documentary about filmmaking, he would not make another feature film for over a decade.
Ito’s first two Scorpion films had some strong, angry political commentary. Beast Stable has considerably less on its mind. One new theme that Beast Stable explores is motherhood. Motherhood is something that horror likes to return to often but Beast Stable finds some strange new territory in the theme. One disturbing sequence finds two abortions happening at the same time in two different locations. One is sad, the other is terrifying. It’s horrific stuff, and reminds me of the chestburster scene in Ridley Scott’s Alien – and on that note, seeing a similar sequence to the chestburster playout in a real-world situation helps me better understand how/why women reacted so strongly to Alien in 1979.
This is not my favorite Scorpion film but it does feature one of my favorite moments, as we later return to the abortionist’s sterile, white operating room and witness blood spraying onto the walls. There’s no characters at first, no sign of who is bleeding to death, just the sight of blood spray on white. It’s a trippy revenge fever dream.
Beast Stable hits Blu-ray for the first time in the West from Arrow video as part of their new box set. Again, the picture quality is rather disappointing. I don’t think it’s as blue looking as the first two films. But it’s pretty rough looking. Deep blacks appear to flicker at times. To put it simply, it doesn’t look like a Blu-ray. Again, this is all based on the print that Toei provided, so one is forced to assume that this was a case of poor source materials and not a Blu-ray transfer gone wrong. Still, it’s too bad. Features on the disc include an appreciation from critic Kat Ellinger who praises Japanese exploitation cinema, a visual essay from Tom Mes about the career of Meiko Kaji, and an archival interview with Shunya Ito on working with Kaji, in which Ito admits he didn’t want Kaji in his movie because he so disliked her in Wandering Ginza Butterfly. I enjoyed the Meiko Kaji career spotlight the most, because it allowed me to learn more about the career of one of my favorite actresses, who has made many films that remain unavailable to me and others (after the 70’s Kaji did a LOT of TV work).
This would be director Shunya Ito’s last Scorpion film and he ends the story with a stylish, satisfying finale. But this wouldn’t be the last Scorpion film for Meiko Kaji, who would return to the role in director Yasuharu Hasebe’s 701’s Grudge Song. Beast Stable is the quietest of Ito’s Scorpion films; less savage, more brooding. Though not my favorite entry in the series, it does give us one of Kaji’s best performances and a villain you love to hate in Reisen Ri, making it an essential chapter for fans.
Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins | Blu-ray & DVD (Funimation)
RELEASE DATE: November 1, 2016
Funimation presents the Blu-ray & DVD for Keishi Ohtomo’s Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins (aka Rurouni Kenshin, read our review), starring Takeru Satoh (Goemon), Emi Takei (Ai to Makoto), Kofi Kikkawa (Sword of Desperation) and Yu Aoi (Space Pirate Captain Harlock).
When the sadistic drug lord Kanryu threatens the beautiful kendo instructor Kaoru, Kenshin can no longer stand idly by. Together with his street fighter comrade Sanosuke, Kenshin sets his sights on a showdown with Kanryu and his deadly henchmen. | Part II and Part III are also available.
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