For the Emperor (2014) Review

"For the Emperor" Korean Theatrical Poster

“For the Emperor” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Park Sang-Joon
Cast: Lee Min-Ki, Park Sung-Woong, Lee Tae-Im, Kim Jong-Goo, Lee Jae-Won, Han Jae-Young, Lee Yoo-Joon, Jung Heung-Chae, Park Jin-Woo
Running Time: 104 min.

By Kyle Warner

In his first years playing in the pros, pitcher Lee Hwan (Lee Min-ki) was a rising star. After an injury hurts his career, Hwan starts rigging his games and earning money on the side. When he’s arrested for illegal gambling, Hwan walks away from sports and joins the gangsters he’d only been loosely connected to in the past. A good fighter with ruthless ambition and a devil-may-care attitude, Hwan quickly rises through the ranks to become one of the most powerful gangsters in the city.

For the Emperor will likely feel familiar to just about anyone who’s ever watched more than a handful of organized crime films. In the film we get the usual gangster movie characters and clichés: there’s the rags to riches storyline, the woman who’s indebted to the mob and pays off her debt by working as a call girl, the mafia mentor who is viewed as a rival once the protégé outgrows his teachings, and of course let’s not forget the crazy guy that’s released from prison and threatens to bring everything crashing down… and so much more! Really, you’ve seen all of this before. And you’ve probably seen most of it done better, too.

Burdened with an uninteresting screenplay (based on a comic book by Kim Seong-Dong), For the Emperor never manages to do anything really exciting to set itself apart from the pack of Asian crime films. Beyond the script, though, I found it to be a decently made film. The editing is sharp, giving the film a brisk, agreeable pace. The musical score by Peach and Dalparan (The Good, the Bad, the Weird) is often interesting. The cinematography is cool, making the city of Busan look colorful and bright. And the actors do what they can with the characters given to them, often resulting in some pretty decent performances.

The most interesting part of the film may be the main character Hwan. Early on in the film, Hwan carries himself with complete disregard for his life and the lives of others. Some of his fellow gangsters regard him as overly confident, but it seems to be more than that, like he might be a borderline sociopath. The character becomes less interesting after he finds love and success, learning that he does actually stand to lose something in his life. For the most part, Lee Min-ki (Quick) is impressive playing the lead. His lean frame and pretty boy looks do not always lend well to the character of a tough guy, but when Lee’s allowed to play Hwan as someone dangerous and self-loathing, the actor finds some interesting things to work with. I would compare his performance to the grittier roles of Ryan Gosling – both play their parts with minimal expression or emotion and deliver their lines with cold detachment. Like Gosling, this style of performance only gets Lee so far. When Hwan sits in front of a table of gangsters and is asked to command the screen with just the look in his eyes, Lee falls a bit short. Lee lacks the cool intensity of other better, more experienced actors, and in these scenes he looks less like a man in complete control of his world and more like a man that simply doesn’t have anything interesting to say.

Though the best of gangster cinema are often considered prestige films, For the Emperor only ever tries to be a piece of genre entertainment. It’s just fine with being derivative instead of being original, with characters that try to be cool instead of real, and a romantic relationship between the leads that means to be sexy instead of being believably romantic. Their relationship – and indeed, the love interest herself (Lee Tae-im) – is only there to add steamy sex to the picture while the plot falls into place. Once the villains start announcing themselves, the film pretty much drops the love interest entirely.

Director Park Sang-jun (Bank Attack) fills the film with extreme violence and bone-crunching action. It’s often nasty, unpleasant stuff, but the scenes are fairly memorable and visually striking. Knife fights are the norm for Korean gangster cinema but Park finds some interesting ways to stage the fights, whether by going to new locations or simply lighting the fights in cool and chaotic ways.

I wish the same could be said for how Park staged his dramatic scenes. Way too many scenes feature the characters facing away from each other while they converse. Here’s a fun drinking game for you: down a shot every time someone stares out the damned window, take two shots if we see them staring longingly at either the ocean or the city of Busan lit up like a Christmas tree. I mean, I get it. Dramatically they’re staring off towards the future and stylistically it gives the actors something to do instead of just standing around and talking face-to-face. It’s an oft-used way for staging a dramatic scene, but Park falls back on it way too often here.

For the Emperor definitely feels like a bit of the old ‘been there, done that,’ but that’s not to say that it’s all bad. Yes, it’s overly familiar and lacking deep characterization or any original twists to the old narrative. But it’s mildly entertaining stuff, moves at a good pace, and does not overstay its welcome. I don’t feel that For the Emperor has enough to recommend it, but I expect some fans of Korean crime dramas will find something to enjoy here.

Kyle Warner’s Rating: 6/10

Posted in All, Korean, News, Reviews |

Return of the Valuables (1975) Review

"Return of the Valuables" Chinese Theatrical Poster

"Return of the Valuables" Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Chui Dai-Gwan
Writer: Gam Kim
Producer: Chen Ching-Te
Cast: Chen Tao, Joan Lin Feng-Chiao, Gary List, Lee Seung, Lam Chi, Miao Tian, Lan Yun, Gam Kim, Chen Chiu, Chan San-Yat, Tsang Ming-Cheong, Yeung Hung, Keung Hon, Wong Goon-Hung, Chui Lap, Cho Kin, Siu Wong-Lung, Lui Wan-Biu
Running Time: 82 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Toby Russell should be a name that anyone who counts themselves as a fan of kung fu movies will be familiar with. The son of director Ken Russell, he’s a guy who spent his formative years hanging out on the sets of seemingly every legendary kung fu movie ever made, and acting and directing a fair few of them as well. Back in the 1990’s he assisted to run the Eastern Heroes video label in the UK with Ricky Baker, and then in the 2000’s he was the man behind both the Vengeance Video and the Rarescope labels, which released a wealth of old school kung fu goodness onto DVD, often for the first time.

However by 2010, like every other label out there that specialized in the kung fu genre, releases from Vengeance Video and Rarescope had completely dried up. Thankfully though, it appears Russell still has a wealth of movies in his vaults that never got an official release, and towards the end of 2014 he began releasing them as custom projects, usually focusing on movies which have never had English subtitles before. Return of the Valuables is the tenth title that Russell has put out there in his most recent venture, and is a rare 1975 Taiwanese modern day action movie.

Rare kung fu movies usually fall into 2 categories – the first is that for whatever reason, be it distribution rights or lost to the ravages of time, the movies have never had a release either on VHS or DVD, so remain frustratingly impossible to see outside of bootlegs and collectors circles. The second is much simpler – they’ve become rare because they suck and have zero entertainment value, however develop a reputation for being worth watching just based on the fact that the title is so difficult to track down. Sometimes it’s a fine line, so I was curious to see what the deal was with Return of the Valuables.

Working from a newly English subtitled version of the German print, one of the few countries it was released in widescreen, the movie opens with a group of stunt motorcyclists riding around a racetrack. I had my suspicions that such a scene probably wasn’t going to have any connection to the rest of the movie, and I was partly right. None of the movies characters feature in the performance, however I suppose it does serve as a connection to the surprising amount of vehicle stunts that feature throughout, often involving motorbikes, but we’ll get to that later.

The plot of Return of the Valuables revolves around a treasure box which contains a stolen tiara. The tiara is originally stolen by the fantastically named Nightclub Gang, led by King Hu favorite Miao Tian, however it’s then in turn stolen by another gang, led by Gwailo actor Gary List, here in his one and only movie appearance. Tian’s gang members insist the tiara would never have been stolen, had it not been for the fact that the brakes on their car didn’t work, and it just so happens that the brother of the car mechanic who recently worked on the car is a morally righteous kung fu expert. Solution to getting the tiara back? Kidnap the car mechanic and blame him for the brakes not working, then blackmail the brother to helping them take on the rival gang. That works for me.

The car mechanic is played by Gam Kim, who also wrote the script, as well as directing movies like Six Kung Fu Heroes and Militant Eagle, while his kung fu fighting brother is played by Chen Tao. Tao of course quickly becomes the main character, and has a satisfying amount of screen presence and fighting talent, so I was surprised to discover that, apart from an appearance in The Iron Profligates the year prior, he doesn’t have any other movies to his name.

Special mention also has to go to the funky soundtrack, which really adds to the 70’s vibe. I’m sure almost all of the music came from somewhere else, as I was able to recognize a few riffs from Lalo Schifrin’s Enter the Dragon score. The box housing the tiara also gets its own entertainingly bombastic score whenever it gets opened, no matter how inappropriate. Gangsters are sitting around a table seriously discussing the tiara – box gets opened, bombastic score suddenly plays out of nowhere, box gets closed, bombastic score abruptly stops and gangsters continue talking.

Adding to my ‘theory in progress’ that every movie made in 1975 had to have a sexy dance scene (see reviews for The Association and The Saviour Monk), Return of the Valuables also doesn’t disappoint in this department. In a scene which is pretty much separate from everything else going on, we get to watch a well endowed dancer, adorned in just a bikini and briefs sporting psychedelic swirls, perform a rather bizarre routine in the Nightclub Gang’s, well, nightclub. To sum it up, the dance involves her prancing around with a rather manic look on her face, while wildly shaking her ample chest from side to side with great speed. It’s all shot in gratuitous close-up, and eventually the bikini comes off, which I’m sure must have resulted in her developing some kind of breast version of whiplash. I never thought I’d want a topless dance scene to stop, so this was certainly a first. Ironically, the next line a character speaks immediately after the scene is, “What kind of bullsh*t was that?” Agreed.

Of course movies like this are all about the action, and Return of the Valuables delivers plenty of it. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a surprising amount of vehicle stunt work for a 1975 production. While some of it may pale in comparison to what can be done today, scenes were a motorbike mounts the top of a truck and performs a high jump across a railway track, just seconds away from being hit by a speeding train, are nothing less than impressive. Just like Jackie Chan would use for his shopping mall pole slide 10 years later in Police Story, director Chui Dai-Gwan employs the technique of replaying the jump from a couple of different angles, which succeed in highlighting the danger of such a stunt.

Tao is a satisfying bad ass throughout. He convincingly portrays a guy who wants to do the right thing, but it also isn’t under him to hang a woman by her legs out of a window several stories up, or throw a gown over a gangsters head as he steps out of the shower and punch him in the face. Outside of these occurrences though, it’s essentially Tao’s job to get into a fight in almost every scene he’s in, and he sells the fights well. Return of the Valuables belongs to the basher category when it comes to the fight choreography, and for me bashers tend to be one of two things. They’ll either have very stilted and blocky choreography (at worse – performed slowly), or they’ll contain fights which appear like the director did something to get everyone really angry, and then said “Go at each other!” Return of the Valuables thankfully falls into the later category, with every one of the many fights coming across as highly aggressive and violent.

What the fights may lack in finesse and intricate movements, they more than make up for with raw energy and anger. There are no character deaths here from an elaborate acrobatic move or flying kick, when somebody bites the dust, it’s probably because they’ve just been enthusiastically punched in the face 20 times, and sometimes, that’s perfectly fine. The action really culminates at the 1 hour mark, and never relents for the remaining 20 minutes. Having not only had his brother kidnapped, but also his girlfriend (played by none other than Mrs. Jackie Chan – Joan Lin) as well, Tao goes on a rampage through Gary List’s Gwailo gangster’s mansion. Just to remind us that it’s the 70’s, he also has to compete with 4 color coordinated bodyguards, who have matching bald heads, red sweaters, and black fingerless gloves. It’s a look which demands respect.

The finale is really an exhausting experience, with Tao, Tian, and List, all going after each other in a combination of vehicle chases that involve cars, motorbikes, and boats. And of course, fisticuffs, lots of them. The fight action is raw and desperate, with at one point List and Tao going at each other in a river which has a current that looks close to being white water rapids. Watching them trying to throw punches at each other while trying not to be swept away, you’d have to be in a coma not to feel a rush of excitement. List may be a Gwailo, and it’s debatable if he had any formal martial arts training, but he shows that he can give and take blows, enduring all the way to the end, which has him and Tao fighting it out on a moving unmanned boat – Face/Off style, only more than 20 years earlier.

For a healthy dose of 70’s basher action, you can’t go too far wrong with Return of the Valuables.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10

Posted in All, Chinese, News, Reviews |

The Dead Lands | Blu-ray & DVD (Magnolia)

The Dead Lands | Blu-ray & DVD (Magnolia)

The Dead Lands | Blu-ray & DVD (Magnolia)

RELEASE DATE: August 4, 2015

Magnolia presents the DVD for To a Fraser’s The Dead Lands, an action film that utilized the Maori martial art Mau Rakau (the skilled use of weapons). The film has been described as Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto meets Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak.

After his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery, the teenage son of a slain Maori chieftain looks to avenge his father’s murder and bring peace and honor to the souls of his loved ones. | Watch the trailer.

Pre-order The Dead Lands from Amazon.com today!

Posted in DVD/Blu-ray New Releases, Martial Arts Titles |

1st explosive trailer for Gerard Butler’s ‘London Has Fallen’

"London Has Fallen" Teaser Poster

"London Has Fallen" Teaser Poster

Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman are back for an Olympus Has Fallen sequel, titled London Has Fallen, which has a release date set for October 2, 2015.

Babak Najafi (Easy Money II: Hard to Kill) is directing. Katrin Benedikt and Creighton Rothenberger, who both scribed Olympus Has Fallen, are writing the sequel.

London Has Fallen also stars Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Sean O’Bryan, Radha Mitchell, Jackie Earle Haley, Alon Aboutboul, Charlotte Riley, and Waleed Zuaiter.

Official plot: After the British Prime Minister passes away, his funeral becomes a target of a terrorist organization to destroy some of the world’s most powerful leaders, devastate the British capital, and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. The only hope of stopping it rests on the shoulders of the President of the United States (Eckhart) and his formidable Secret Service head (Butler), and an English MI-6 agent (Riley) who rightly trusts no one.

Updates: Check out the film’s first trailer.

Posted in News |

Cityonfire.com’s ‘Kung Fu Killer’ Blu-ray Giveaway! – WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Kung Fu Killer | Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)

Kung Fu Killer | Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)

Cityonfire.com and Well Go USA are giving away 3 Blu-ray copies of Donnie Yen’s Kung Fu Killer to three lucky Cityonfire visitors. To enter, simply add a comment to this post and describe, in your own words, this classic trailer!

We will be selecting a winner at random. Be sure to include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you for your home address. Additionally, you must ‘Like Us‘ on cityonfire.com’s Facebook by clicking here.

The Blu-ray & DVD for Kung Fu Killer (read our review) will be officially released on July 21, 2015. We will announce the 3 winners on July 21, 2015 and ship out the prizes immediately.

CONTEST DISCLAIMER: You must enter by July 20, 2015 to qualify. U.S. residents only please. We sincerely apologize to our non-U.S. visitors. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 48 hours, otherwise you will automatically be disqualified. No exceptions. Contest is subject to change without notice.

WINNERS: Ben, Carlos Hernandez and Devin T.

Posted in News | Tagged |

Trailer for the Ringo Lam-less ‘Prison on Fire 2015’

"Prison on Fire 2015" Chinese Theatrical Poster

"Prison on Fire 2015" Chinese Theatrical Poster

Don’t let the title fool you. Prison on Fire 2015 has little to do with Ringo Lam’s 1987’s Prison on Fire or 1991’s Prison on Fire II, other than being in the “prison film” sub-genre and sharing some of the same cast members, mainly William Ho, who appeared in the original, as well as 2001’s two throwbacks, Prison on Fire: Life Sentence and Prison on Fire: Plaintive Destiny.

Actually, the film’s real title is Imprisoned: Survival Guide for Rich and Prodigal and is more of a comedy than anything else. The plot involves a loser who hits a passer-by while drinking and driving. He’s then sentenced to one year in jail where learns that the prison world has its own rules for survival…

Christopher Suen (3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy) directs with a cast featuring Gregory Wong (Legend of the Fist), Justin Cheung (Stool Pigeon), Liu Kai-Chi (The Viral Factor), Babyjohn Choi (The Way we Dance), Philip Keung, Jessy Li (Port of Call) and Ken Lo (The Constable).

Prison on Fire 2015 received its domestic release last month. In case you missed it, watch the trailer (via DiP).

Posted in News |

Bukaw Banchamek kicks A$$ in ‘Thongdee: The Warrior’

"Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya" Thai Theatrical Poster

"Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya" Thai Theatrical Poster

Thai welterweight Muay Thai kickboxer Buakaw Banchamek (Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya) is back with Thongdee: The Warrior, an upcoming martial arts flick that will apparently be directed by Bin Bunluerit (Panya Raenu trilogy).

Here’s the film’s official plot: Phraya Phichai was a Siamese general serving under King Taksin. After the fall of Ayudhya in 1767, Phraya Pichai and Chao Phraya Chakri (who later become the first King of Chakri Dynasty) followed Phraya Taksin in repelling the Burmese and reuniting Siam. They were considered Phraya Taksin’s left and right hands.

Don’t miss a preliminary clip, which should give you an idea of what to expect from Thongdee: The Warrior (via FCS).

Posted in News |

Cross | aka Smile for Me (2012) Review

"Cross" Chinese Theatrical Poster

“Cross” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Daniel Chan Yee Hang
Writer: Daniel Chan Yee Hang
Cast: Simon Yam, Kenny Wong, Mimi Kung, Liu Kai-Chi, Evelyn Choi, Chen Ran, Nick Cheung, Pal Sinn, Zhu Guangxuan, Mo Tzu-Yi, September Zhang
Running Time: 90 min.

By Kelly Warner

It took four directors over two years to complete Cross, a thriller that’s less than 80 minutes long with a good portion of that running time taken up by flashbacks. Why did it take so long to finish? Why was it passed from director to director in a desperate attempt to save it? I don’t know the answers but clearly something went very wrong in the making of Cross.

The film starts by giving the viewer false hope. First we get a notice that the film won the 2010 It Project NAFF Award (an award I’m unfamiliar with, but from what I understand it was awarded to screenwriter Daniel Chan’s original pitch for the film, not the finished product that went to theatres). The film kicks off and we get a cool horror movie title sequence, a rather obscure quote from the Bible, and an interesting scene as Simon Yam goes to a police station, spreads evidence across a police officer’s desk, and turns himself in for murder. Except, in Yam’s character’s eyes, he’s not really committing murder, he’s doing “God’s work.”

A devout Catholic, Yam’s killer believes suicide is an unforgivable sin. When his sick wife overdoses on pills and kills herself, Yam becomes obsessed with suicide and begins frequenting websites where people talk about suicide, give each other tips on how to kill themselves, and post videos of their deaths.

Yam’s killer has no interest in talking people out of killing themselves. Rather, he offers his services to them, saying he’ll kill them and they can find peace in death without any worries about Hell. Many people take him up on his offer and he becomes a self-righteous serial killer. And though the killer claims he gave his victims a peaceful, joyful death, one method of murder included driving a power drill into a man’s brain… which, if you ask me, doesn’t seem like a peaceful way to go.

Because the killer turns himself in at the start, all of his kills are told in flashbacks (sometimes flashbacks of flashbacks). As a result, the film never builds up much momentum, resulting in a slog of a thriller. While Yam tells his story to the police and lawyers, a criminal psychologist played by Kenny Wong (Firestorm) tries to piece together the crimes. Wong goes to Yam’s house, puts on Yam’s clothes and eye glasses, touches all his things, and apparently attempts to become the killer in order to get into his head. Ignoring the fact that he’s putting fingerprints all over evidence, this entire subplot seems completely unnecessary, as the killer is already giving them everything they want. I still don’t understand the importance of Wong’s character in the story’s narrative. The film’s cast also includes a cameo by Nick Cheung (Helios), who plays the sleazy webmaster of the suicide site. Cheung’s scene is actually one of the film’s best but I imagine the actor feels lucky he didn’t sign on to play a bigger part.

At times the film plays like a dark drama about death and faith and other times it’s a bloody serial killer thriller. Considering the four writer/directors employed to make Cross (Daniel Chan, Steve Woo, Hiu Shu-Ning, Lau Kin-Ping) one should not be surprised that the film developed a split-personality disorder during its production. So instead of just being a boring movie, Cross is often a confusing one as well.

The most baffling part of the film is the fact that Yam’s lawyer Woo Yip is played by three different actors (Jason Chang, Morning Mo, and Sit Lap Yin). Now, casting young Sit Lap Yin makes sense, as he plays the teenage version of the character in flashbacks. But Jason Chang and Morning Mo are both approximately the same age and the film switches between them with no notice, no reason, no sense of logic whatsoever. When I was first watching the film, I naturally thought they were two different characters… linked somehow… but definitely different people. Not so. Same guy. I had to go back and rewatch things to make sure. Interestingly, the film ends with credits that include freeze frame images of all the primary cast members, but the Woo Yip character and the actors that played him are mysteriously (suspiciously?) left out of the slideshow. In the white text on black screen crawl that follows, the three different versions of the character are officially identified as ‘Woo Yip (Glasses)’, ‘Woo Yip (Ego)’, and ‘Woo Yip (Young)’. If this was an artistic decision, it makes no sense. I suspect the casting of both Chang and Mo had more to do with scheduling conflicts that arose thanks to the prolonged production (or possibly one of the actors ran away from the set and never returned). Whatever the reason, the choice to cast both Chang and Mo did not work, and only served to make more of a mess of things.

In the film’s final act something snaps and whatever had once barely held the film together falls apart. We get an admittedly unexpected twist and then the rest of the film is spent explaining the twist and giving us flashbacks of all the previous kills with new, distorted filters. So many flashbacks. I guess it was easier than filming new material? I don’t know. It’s at this point that you can tell the people making the film were just ready to be done with it and passed it along to the editors to figure out.

The concept behind Cross is decent and one can imagine how it could’ve been a good movie (or perhaps a decent episode of a dark police procedural on TV). Things just went wrong along the way and all attempts to fix it only seemed to exasperate things. Simon Yam’s reputation won’t be hurt by this one as it’s clear he did just about everything he could with the character. Only Yam’s biggest fans should bother with Cross. Everyone else is better off forgetting it.

Kelly Warner’s Rating: 2/10

Posted in All, Chinese, News, Reviews | Tagged , , |

Zhang Ziyi and Ge You venture through ‘The Wasted Times’

"Lethal Hostage" Chinese Theatrical Poster

"Lethal Hostage" Chinese Theatrical Poster

Young rising director Cheng Er (Lethal Hostage) is back with another thriller titled The Wasted Times, which stars Ge You (Let the Bullets Fly), Zhang Ziyi (The Grandmaster), Gillian Chung (Ip Man Final Fight) and Asano Tadonobu (Lupin III).

According to FBA, the offbeat thriller, which takes place in 1920s Shanghai, is about a Japanese spy hunting down a former friend for the murder of his family.

If you haven’t already, check out the film’s funky teaser trailer, which keeps the element of surprise up its sleeve. The Waste Times hits Chinese theaters on October 3rd. Stay tuned!

Posted in News |

Silver Hawk (w/Bonus Movies) | DVD (Echo Bridge)

Silver Hawk | DVD (Echo Bridge)

Silver Hawk | DVD (Echo Bridge)

RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015

Echo Bridge presents the DVD for Jingle Ma’s Silver Hawk starring Michelle Yeoh (True Legend), Richie Ren (Punished), Luke Goss (Death Race II),  Michael Jai White (Falcon Rising) and Li Bingbing (Detective Dee). The DVD also includes the bonus movies: Running Delilah, The Legend of Red Dragon, Snake-Crane Secret and Honor.

In the public eye, she’s billionaire heiress, but with a mask, she’s transformed into a silver crusader. Silver Hawk’s (Yeoh) martial arts skills are put to the test though when a villain sets out to enslave the world.

Pre-order Silver Hawk from Amazon.com today!

Posted in Asian Titles, DVD/Blu-ray New Releases, Martial Arts Titles |

Ready to see some ‘Awesome Asian Bad Guys’?

"Awesome Asian Bad Guys" Theatrical Poster

"Awesome Asian Bad Guys" Theatrical Poster

Get ready to get reacquainted with Awesome Asian Bad Guys from films of the 80s and 90s! This action/comedy is about two offbeat filmmakers (Stephen Dypiangco and Patrick Epino) who reunite iconic Asian bad guys – from action films such as Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo: First Blood Part II – to carry off one impossible mission.

Awesome Asian Bad Guys stars Dante Basco (Blood and Bone), Al Leong (Big Trouble in Little China, Rapid Fire), Yuji Okumoto (The Karate Kid II, Red Sun Rising), Tamlyn Tomita (The Karate Kid II), George Cheung (Big Trouble in Little China, Lethal Weapon 4), Randall Park, (The Interview) and Aaron Takahashi (Welcome to the Jungle). | Don’t miss the 1st trailer.

Updates: The film is currently available to watch on Amazon’s Instant Video service. Don’t miss the latest trailer!

Posted in News |

Stray Dog (1949) Review

"Stray Dog" Japanese Theatrical Poster

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi, Noriko Honma, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Ichiro Sugai, Gen Shimizu, Noriko Sengoku
Running Time: 122 min.

By Matthew Le-feuvre

At a time when social or political ambivalence wasn’t an option to explore or express through art – or by any other visual medium – acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa, then under contract with the Toho film studios, was one of a select few who took a noble stance at edifying post war audiences with personal featur­es like: The Judo Saga (1943), The Most Beautiful (1944), The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945) and Drunken Angel (1948). And despite censorship from an American occupational body, these pictures were structured to both preserve and cultivate an awareness of Japanese national identity, while concurrently reconciling with the savage realities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Unlike his contemporaries, Kurosawa appeared to be something of a political chameleon: in one instance during a drunken stupor in the company of Andrei Konchalovsky, he allegedly praised Lenin for his Communist policies – somewhat eccentric, and totally against character for an artist/filmmaker who deliberately chose to illustrate and promote non-conformity, especially in challeng­ing bureaucracy of all kinds because he himself was from a middle class samurai background. Yet for many – including Hollywood’s elite: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola – Kurosawa remains an emblem of pure genius whose technical innova­tions resonate a visual style which even by current paradigms is unsurpassed.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t always about technicality; character development was just as important as Kurosawa’s fascination with the human condition: particularly the study of the ‘lone archetype’ as presented in his seminal ‘ronin’ masterpieces Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), where customized traits of suspense-building, raw emotion and explicit sword choreography were all majestically weaved to­gether on a rich celluloid tapestry that was far more appealing in the western hemisphere than in homegrown Japan.

This was, in part, due to Kurosawa’s preoccupation with (largely) ‘Western’ filmmaker, John Ford (1895-1973); another contemporary and a relatively older breed of maverick who invariably defied studio executives with his preference for casting stalwart, John Wayne in many of his own productions. Again, Kurosawa followed suit often fighting for, or opting to select, comparatively inexperienced unknowns such as renowned, intensely versatile, Toshiro Mifune, who went on to help revolutionize Japanese cinema with extraordinary performances in: The Seven Samurai (1954) – remade or reenvision numerous times – Throne of Blood (1957) and The Hidden Fortress (1958); the latter inspiring Lucas’ A New Hope (1977) segment of his ongoing Star Wars anthology.

While Drunken Angel (1948) was raw and, at intervals, uncompromising, Stray Dog (Kurosawa’s follow-up picture with Mifune) is more of an allegory piece than a straight forward detective chase thriller. Yes! An element of noir influences from Frank Tuttle (This Gun For Hire) to Jacques Tourneur (Build My Gallows High) are recognizable at the outset, noticeably made more real by a feeling of oppression, firstly from a sweltering heat wave; which, psychologically, is just as uncomfortable for the viewer as was in all probability for the cast. (And) secondly, Toshiro Mifune’s character is almost represented as a lost soul in a neon-lit hades that is Tokyo – a symbolic, and in essence, ‘corrupt’ macrocosm, by night – yet in daylight hours – embarrassingly depicts overcrowd­ing, poverty and refugees juxtaposed to an extant sense of cynicism which permeates every alleyway, town dwelling or high-rise apartment. Equally, devastation is not solely concentrated upon Tokyo’s infrastructure, but ubiquitously within the heart of all citizens yearning to better themselves socially, materialistically and/or spiritually.

On the surface, the premise (based on Kurosawa’s own unpublished novel) of Stray Dog was as ‘simplistic’ as you could get: however beneath its external, unconventional post-WWII moulding lies a very complex, thoughtfully realized project that – despite occasionally confounding, even frustrating – its maker begins with the theft of a police issue gun owned by a former soldier-turned-detective named Murakami (Toshiro Mifune). Enterprisingly, this instrument of law enforcement becomes an extension of death as Murakami’s gun is sold through an illegal black market, and is eventually passed onto psychopath, Shinjuro Yusa (Isao Ko Kimura), who incrementally leaves a trail of murder and confusion just to impress his sponging, morally vacant girlfriend, Harumi Namaki (Keiko Anaji).

Overwhelmed with guilt, Murakami naturally questions his competency, while doubly intent on catching Yusa dead or alive – a broad view that mildly clashes with his more seasoned superior, chief detective Sato (an award-winning Takashi Shimura), whose passively inclined, almost philosophical, ethics nearly costs him his life during a (subsequent) chance encounter with Yusa at a board­ing house. However there appears to be a methodology to Yusa’s violent dementia, and the grand old question is subtly put forward as to whether killers are born, or manufactured by a series of societal interactions/incidents: a typification unknow­ingly conceived (or perceived), even perpetuated out of ignorant vulgarity.

In a climax clearly indicative of Hitchcock, Lang or Preminger, Murakami pursues Yusa to a rural railway station. It is here in a darkly ironic, yet intense, multi-edited sequence, the claustro­phobia of a lively waiting room amplifies Murakami’s desperation as he fails to identify Yusa (as does the audience) from the description given to him. Ultimately, the railway station randomly transforms into an arena; a battleground of wits, observation, adrenaline, as well as razor sharp reflexes: all in accord will ordain closure for one of them… but who?!

Verdict: No hint of ‘Noh’ or ‘Kabuki’ motifs whatsoever, Stray Dog was the least favourite of Kurosawa’s productions as he felt it was “too technical!” Regardless of this self criticism, characters are defined irrespective of controversy, while pivotal messages are concealed just barely beneath an organized narrative, and like Murakami, we first repudiate – even prejudge who’s good, who’s evil, without fully understanding the totality of ’cause and effect’: a liberating perception Kurosawa was relentlessly communicating in a nontraditional way through his own inspirations, topics, imagery and concepts.

Matthew Le-feuvre’s Rating: 10/10

Posted in All, Japanese, News, Reviews | Tagged , |

The Mercury Conspiracy | DVD (Entertainment One)

The Mercury Conspiracy | DVD (Entertainment One)

The Mercury Conspiracy | DVD (Entertainment One)

Entertainment One presents the DVD for The Mercury Conspiracy (aka The Mercury Factor), directed by and starring Luca Barbareschi (Cannibal Holocaust).

After her son dies from poisoned food, Xiwen falls in love with Matteo, a businessman. Though a good man at heart, Matteo has been lured into the black market trafficking of adulterated food – the same food responsible for killing Xiwen’s son!

This Italian film is noted for its heavy Chinese cast, including Jingchu Zhang (Switch), Carl Ng (New Police Story), Kenneth Tsang (The Killer), Michael Wong (Zombie Fight Club) and Eddie Ko (Heroes Shed No Tears). | Watch the trailer.

Pre-order The Mercury Conspiracy from Amazon.com today!

Posted in DVD/Blu-ray New Releases, Other Notable Titles |

Master Killers | aka The Master Avenger (1980) Review

"Master Killers" Theatrical Poster

“Master Killers” Theatrical Poster

AKA: The Master Avenger
Director: Wong Hung Cheung
Cast: Casanova Wong, Blacky Ko, Philip Ko Fei, Bolo Yeung, Chiang Kam, Suen Kwok Ming
Running Time: 92 min.

By Paul Bramhall

There’s an old romantic cliché that goes something along the lines of everyone has that someone out there who’s ‘the one’, and what a tragedy it would be if they never realize it. Comparatively, for a kung fu fan like myself, I always thought what an amazing movie it would be if two of my favorite stars of the old-school era, Casanova Wong and Philip Ko Fei, got to face off against each other. For some inexplicable reason, for the longest time I’d thought there was no such movie, until someone guided me towards the direction of a little known title by the name of Master Killers. Like the protagonist of a love story finding ‘the one’ that they never realize existed, for me stumbling across this slice of old school goodness was the kung fu movie fan equivalent.

Not to be confused with Master Killer, the widely popular international title for Lau Kar Leung’s 1978 classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Master Killers is one of the many productions made in the wake of 1978’s Drunken Master. The movie, which put Jackie Chan, Yuen Woo Ping, and their unique blend of kung fu comedy on the map, spawned countless clones which were churned out with an almost reckless abandon in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and there’s no mistaking that Master Killers is one such imitation.

Blackie Ko is on Jackie Chan clone duty as the main character, playing a country bumpkin looking to seek revenge for the death of his father 20 years ago. Ko, who sadly passed away in 2003, is perhaps most well remembered for becoming an action director who specialized in vehicle stunts, as well as directing such Hong Kong movies as Curry and Pepper and Invincible. However before gaining the nickname of the ‘Evel Knievel of Asia’, Ko could bust out the old school shapes choreography with the best of them, and Master Killers is a rare chance to see him in the lead of a kung fu movie.

The plot is as simple as it comes, and is hardly even worth mentioning. But to give it the one line summary – Casanova Wong turns out to be Ko’s long lost brother, and they team up to take down Philip Ko Fei who killed their father 20 years ago. The end. Such finer details like exactly how they became separated, the reasons why Ko Fei killed their father, and an almost endless list of other questions you’ll ask yourself while watching, are never answered. But let’s face it, when you have the talent on board like you do here, even the most jaded old-school movie fan should be willing to overlook the lack of cohesive storytelling.

Master Killers was made in a year that produced a ridiculous amount of top level kung fu movies. Even without looking outside of the cast it’s easy to reel off several – Philip Ko Fei also starred in The Loot, Tiger Over Wall, and Snake Deadly Act. Casanova Wong was in The Master Strikes and Two Toothless Tigers. And everyone’s favorite lump of muscle, Bolo, was in Challenge of the Tiger. When you then consider that people like Jackie Chan were making The Young Master, and Sammo Hung was directing classics like The Victim and Encounters of the Spooky Kind, it’s easy to see why 1980 is viewed as one of the best years for the old-school kung fu movie genre.

So the question is, does Master Killers stand up alongside those other classics that were made in the same year? Perhaps the movie most comparable to Master Killers is one that Casanova Wong starred in during the same year, The Master Strikes. Apart from sharing a similar title (really, how many kung fu movie are there that have the word ‘master’ in the title!?), they both share the element of being comedy heavy for the bulk of their run times, and it’s not a good heavy. It’s the type of heavy which puts you at risk of a heart attack and comes with a severe health warning.

After a fantastic red backdrop opening, a staple of many kung fu movies of the era, which has Blackie Ko strutting his stuff in an amazing display of shapes and acrobatics, things quickly devolve into what amounts to 40 minutes of gurning, pratfalls, and high pitched cockney whining. My personal pet hate even makes an appearance – the child urination joke. Nothing seems to say kung fu cheapie like the arrival of a scene when a child urinates over someone! People getting hit so hard that it causes them to turn around and slowly walk into a tree also seems to qualify as comedy gold here, so it perhaps goes without saying that a certain level of patience and hope is required to get through these scenes.

Even with the arrival of Casanova Wong, and some unintentionally humorous nonsense about the ‘6.5 method pole fighting’ technique, things don’t really look any brighter. An initial misunderstanding which results in a fight between Wong and Ko is uninspired and almost sloppy, with several of the hits clearly not making any contact. However at the 40 minute mark, a strange thing happens. Wong finds himself in a situation which results in him facing off first against Bolo, and then – the moment I was waiting for – against Ko Fei, and suddenly you’ll find yourself sitting bolt upright to pay attention. Ko Fei is also the fight choreographer, and it’s almost as if he spent the first few days of the shoot asleep, having needed his own lengthy fight scene to wake him up. Either that, or it was one of Wong’s kicks.

Wong is convincingly laid waste to by Ko, and left for dead, which sees him disappear from the movie until the finale. However this isn’t such a bad thing. After watching the triple threat of Bolo, Wong, and Ko in action, all of which is fast and fluid, Master Killers builds up sufficient momentum to ensure your attention is maintained. Soon Ko is being trained by Sam Seed (another shameless nod to Drunken Master) in what is, to be fair, an imaginatively put together training sequence that has Ko suspended in the air by a series of rope pulleys, which he has to use to perform pushups. Most importantly, he’s taught the secrets of Empress Kung Fu, which is basically a rip-off of the feminine drunken boxing that Jackie Chan utilizes to defeat Hwang Jang Lee in the finale of Drunken Master.

Master Killers really comes into its own though in its final reel, as from the 1:10 mark it becomes a non-stop fight fest, and every one of them is certified excellence. Starting with Blackie Ko vs. Bolo and his henchman, this fight is fun to watch just to see Bolo’s unique fighting style. While Bolo’s ability to perform choreography doesn’t always get to shine in many of the movies he’s in, that’s not the case here, even throwing in some impressive kicks. What’s so unique about him though is that he doesn’t look at his opponent during the fight, almost like he’s memorized the choreography to the point that he simply focuses on performing it, and trusts the other person to do what they’re supposed to do. It makes for entertaining viewing.

However the real reason to watch Master Killers is the epic 12-minute final fight which pits Ko and Wong against Ko Fei. The fight is almost like a mini-movie in itself, as over the course of the 12 minutes it builds up in both complexity and intensity. Ko Fei is absolutely on fire, and makes it look perfectly believable that he’s capable of taking out both Wong and Ko. At the same time, you kind of feel sorry for him, while Wong opts to go shirtless, and Ko adorned in a thin white t-shirt, Ko Fei performs the whole fight in a traditional long sleeved Chinese shirt and pants. Within the first minute his back and armpits are completely saturated with sweat, redefining what our perceptions of a sweat patch should look like, but he still looks nothing less than a boss.

All three performers get their time to shine during the fight, with the battle constantly segueing from two-on-one attacks to one-on-one beat downs. Ko Fei proves as always why he’s considered to be the king of shaped based choreography, with his fast and powerful movements looking all but unstoppable. Ko proves to be up to the task of matching his choreography, performing some intricate exchanges which take place over satisfyingly long takes. Thankfully Wong lives up to his name of being the Human Tornado, with at least a couple of his kicks being pulled so fast that if Ko Fei had got his timing even a split second off, he probably wouldn’t have a head on his shoulders. Slow motion is also used sparingly throughout the fight to great effect, particularly to highlight Wong when he starts going airborne with his kicks.

In a world where fights like the finale of Master Killers have become as extinct as the dinosaurs, on reflection, sitting through the painful first half of comedic tomfoolery is a small price to pay to witness some jaw dropping displays of kung fu excellence. Just remember to check your armpits for sweat patches once it’s finished.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10

Posted in Chinese, News, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , |

Lawless Kingdom | aka The Four II | DVD (Lionsgate)

Lawless Kingdom | aka The Four II | DVD (Lionsgate)

Lawless Kingdom | aka The Four II | DVD (Lionsgate)

RELEASE DATE: September 2, 2015

Lionsgate presents the DVD for Lawless Kingdom (aka The Four II), directed by Gordon Chan (Fist of Legend).

Four detectives (Emotionless, Iron Hands, Life Snatcher, and Coldblood), each uniquely skilled with their own individual superpowers, are sent to investigate a murder outside the city.

Lawless Kingdom stars Deng Chao (Detective Dee), Liu Yifei (Outcast), Collin Chou (Special ID), Ronald Cheng (12 Nights) and Anthony Wong (Untold Story). | Watch the trailer.

Pre-order Lawless Kingdom from Amazon.com today!

Posted in Asian Titles, DVD/Blu-ray New Releases, Martial Arts Titles |