Deal on Fire! The Complete Lady Snowblood | Blu-ray | Only $21.73 – Expires soon!

"The Complete Lady Snowblood" Blu-ray Cover

“The Complete Lady Snowblood” Blu-ray Cover

Today’s Deal on Fire is for Criterion Collection’s The Complete Lady Snowblood collection, which includes Lady Snowblood (1973) and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974).

A young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for her father’s murder and her mother’s rape, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction.

Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita’s pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, set in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan, respectively, are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. The first Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga, and both of Fujita’s films remain cornerstones Continue reading

Posted in Deals on Fire!, News |

Fantastic Ways to Have Fun with Your Friends

When you’re building a good life for yourself, one of the best things you can do is foster strong relationships. Friends can improve your life in so many ways, which is why you need to be careful to keep in touch with yours.

Like anything important in life, a good friendship requires care to keep it in its best condition. It can be easy to forget to maintain friendships, but they are much harder to repair once they fall apart. Fortunately, there are plenty of easy ways to help keep your relationships from withering away.

Relax and Play Games

This might seem obvious, but the bread and butter of your friendships is the time you spend with one another. By keeping in touch with your friends and spending time together little and often, you can make sure you don’t start to drift apart. Besides, just because this is a simple truth doesn’t make it any less important.

There are plenty of ways to maintain this constant interaction. For example, if you all enjoy gambling, you could always get together and spend some time playing around with the games in an Aussie casino online or even playing some pokies together at home. Alternatively, if you prefer board games or video games, playing these together every other week is a wonderful way to care for your friendships and enjoy some downtime. Whatever your preferences, games are a great way to spend some time great quality time together with your friends.

Plan for Experiences

One of the most important things to remember when planning time to spend together with your friends is that 9 times out of 10, you are more likely to remember and cherish and experience shared.

While playing games and going for dinners together is a great way to stay in touch, don’t forget to plan an outing that can make your relationships with your friends truly special. Besides, great experiences don’t have to be big expenses, either. 

For instance, you can make dinner a thing to remember if you want to! Plan out a fantastic murder mystery dinner party or book a midnight screening for a film series you and your friends love. Experiences can be found all around you, so long as you are willing to look.

Go Travelling Together

Speaking of amazing experiences, some of the most incredible things you will ever see are found far from home. This means that if you want to craft experiences that you and your friends will never forget, you might want to consider planning an overseas getaway.

Just planning a trip like this can be a great experience for you and your friends. Get together and brainstorm some ideas for things you’ve always wanted to do, and then have a look around to see whether you can do them now. There are so many amazing options available, from visiting the Pyramids in Giza to climbing up to the peak of Kilimanjaro. The world is your oyster.

Finally, after you’ve all worked together to craft a plan that you love, you get to actually experience the holiday too. Make sure to put aside plenty of spending cash and take a great camera; memories like this can truly be once in a lifetime.

Posted in News |

Johnnie To’s 2004 thriller ‘Breaking News’ is now available on Blu-ray to order from Goodie Emporium

Breaking News | Blu-ray (Chameleon Films)

Breaking News | Blu-ray (Chameleon Films)

Chameleon Films’ Blu-ray (Region B) release for Breaking News, a 2004 Hong Kong film from director Johnnie To (Three, A Hero Never Dies), is now available from Goodie Emporium.

The film stars Richie Ren (Bodies at Rest), Kelly Chen (The Monkey King), Nick Cheung (Integrity), Eddie Cheung (Bruce Lee, My Brother), Hui Siu Hung (Naked Killer) and Lam Suet (Undercover Punch and Gun).

Official details:

The premiere of Johnnie To’s Breaking News at Cannes marks the moment when art cinema finally embraced the Hong Kong action genre. Here is a film as intelligent as it is tense as it is well-made. From the breathtaking intricacy of its seven-minute opening take, shot on location in a grungy side street in the New Territories, the complex Continue reading

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Sonny Chiba Collection | Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)

Sonny Chiba Collection | Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)

Sonny Chiba Collection | Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)

RELEASE DATE: November 15, 2022

On November 15, 2022, Shout! Factory will be releasing The Sonny Chiba Collection on Blu-ray. This upcoming set will include 7 movies, spread across 4 Blu-ray Discs.

Read the details below:

Get ready for some of the wildest action films from the impressive legacy of Sonny Chiba! This box set comprises just a small collection from his incredibly successful career. Some of these films are making their North America Blu-ray debut. Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba will be greatly missed by his legion of fans. The “Street Fighter” will live on forever!

Disc One:

Yakuza Wolf: I Perform Murder (2.35:1, DTS-HD Master Audio Mono, 87 min.)

In this riveting Western, a vengeful man is after the Japanese yakuza for killing his boss and selling his sister into slavery. This exciting thrill-ride is “one of Chiba’s most Continue reading

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

Libera Me (2000) Review

"Libera Me" Theatrical Poster

“Libera Me” Theatrical Poster

Director: Yang Yun-Ho
Cast: Choi Min-Soo, Cha Seung-Won, Yoo Ji-Tae, Kim Gyu-Ri, Park Sang-Myeon, Lee Ho-Jae, Jung Joon, Heo Jun-Ho, Jeong Ae-Ri, Kim Soo-Ro, Park Ga-Ryeong
Running Time: 119 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Korean cinema was in an interesting place at the turn of the millennium. The 90’s was a tricky decade for the film industry, it’s first one as a democracy, and initially the outlook didn’t look promising for local productions which struggled to compete with glossy Hollywood blockbusters. However in 1999 a movie called Shiri came along, and suddenly a countries output which was little known outside of domestic shores found its breakthrough. An action thriller pitting South Korean agents against North Korean spies, Shiri presented a distinctly Korean story, and infused it with liberal doses of Michael Bay style shootouts and explosions. Shiri would open up the doors to international interest in Korea’s output, and by 2003 Korean cinema was well and truly on the map, its output termed as the ‘Korean Wave’.

Libera Me was released the following year after the success of Shiri, and follows the logic that action movies were the way to go, the more bombastic the better. Clearly influenced by the 1991 Hollywood production Backdraft, the plot sees Choi Min-soo (Sword in the Moon, The Terrorist) as a world-weary firefighter whose taken on a devil may care attitude since losing his partner (Heo Joon-ho clocking in a cameo) in a previous blaze, which he blames himself for. He’s forced to put his guilt aside though when a mentally unstable arsonist played by Cha Seung-won (Man on High Heels, Night in Paradise) starts running rampant through Busan, setting off a number Continue reading

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Twins Effect (2003) Review

"Twins Effect" Japanese DVD Cover

“Twins Effect” Japanese DVD Cover

Director: Dante Lam
Cast: Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi, Ekin Cheng, Josie Ho Chiu-Yee, Jackie Chan, Edison Chen Koon-Hei, Mickey Hardt, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Chapman To Man-Chat, Bey Logan, Spencer Lam
Running Time: 107 min. 

By Henry McKeand

Vampires and Kung Fu films have a long, if troubled, history. From 1974’s Shaw Brothers/Hammer Horror co-production Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires to wacky 80s fare such as Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire, the late-20th century found Sammo Hung and other action experts infusing martial arts stories with hordes of undead bloodsuckers. More specifically, these filmmakers drew upon the rich mythology of the jiangshi, or the Chinese hopping vampire. 

Practically, the most obvious difference between jiangshi and their Western counterparts is their tendency to move by leaping into the air with outstretched arms. In addition to the fight choreography potential, jiangshi films often use this hopping motion as a form of comic relief. While jiangshi are not inherently funny (and they can be frightening), these landmark films laid out a clear blueprint for success by blending horror and comedy elements.

While Hong Kong cinema was developing this new horror-comedy subgenre, Western fiction was learning to take vampires seriously for the first time in decades. Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and a post-70s wave of sexy, stylized vampire Continue reading

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Bruce Lee is back! Alan Canvan’s ‘Game of Death Redux’ to screen at the 2022 Urban Action Showcase & Expo

"Game of Death Redux" Theatrical Poster

“Game of Death Redux” Theatrical Poster

Stay as far away from the stair way as possible! Alan Canvan’s long-awaited Game of Death Redux will be screening at the 2022 Urban Action Showcase & Expo (UASE).

The first release of Game of Death Redux (released exclusively on Criterion Collection’s 2020 boxed set Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits) showcased 23 minutes of the 1972-era Game of Death footage that was presented closely the way Bruce intended, while at the same time, keeping in-tact some of the stronger as aspects of the universally panned, pieced together 1978 film (known to fans as Game of Death ’78), such as John Barry’s acclaimed score, as well some of the film’s strong audio design.

So why is there an updated Game of Death Redux – and more importantly – what can we expect from from it? We asked Canvan ourselves, and this is what Continue reading

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Steel Rain 2: Summit (2020) Review

"Steel Rain 2: Summit" Theatrical Poster

“Steel Rain 2: Summit” Theatrical Poster

Director: Yang Woo-Seok
Cast: Jung Woo-Sung, Kwak Do-Won, Yoo Yeon-Seok, Shin Jung-Keun, Kim Wang-Do, Ryu Soo-Young, Angus Macfadyen, John D. Michaels, Yook Hyo-Myung
Running Time: 131 min.

By Paul Bramhall

In 2017 director Yang Woo-seok helmed Steel Rain, an adaptation of his own web comic of the same name that saw Jung Woo-sung and Kwak Do-won thrown together from opposing sides of the Korean peninsula in an attempt to prevent a nuclear war. 3 years later and Woo-seok is back with Steel Rain 2: Summit, a sequel which also features Woo-sung and Do-won, and once more they’re involved in a tale that involves the threat of nuclear war and the measures that must be taken to prevent it. For those who have seen Steel Rain, the elephant in the room will of course be how exactly Woo-sung and Do-won have been brought back together, and the answer comes in the form of them playing completely different characters than they were in the original.

This isn’t the first time for a director to bring back the same cast members from the original for a thematic sequel. Director Kang Woo-seok’s bringing back of Sol Kyung-gu for 2005’s Another Public Enemy, playing a distinctly different character than he did in 2002’s Public Enemy, immediately springs to mind. Here Woo-seok maintains the theme of Steel Rain, but crafts a decidedly different take on the same material. Whereas last time Woo-sung was a North Korean agent and Do-won was the Foreign Affairs Chief for South Korea, here the actors get a chance to switch their geographical allegiances, with Woo-sung playing the President of South Korea, and Do-won a ruthless Continue reading

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Watch the New Trailer for Lee Demarbre’s over-the-top martial arts parody ‘Enter The Drag Dragon’

"Enter The Drag Dragon" Poster

“Enter The Drag Dragon” Poster

Lee Demarbre, director of 2001’s Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, returns with what’s being branded as “The world’s first Dragsploitation action film”.

Official details below:

From the filmmakers behind Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Smash Cut, and Harry Knuckles comes a brand-new chapter in Canuxploitation cinema, as Lee Gordon Demarbre invites you to Enter The Drag Dragon! Get ready to go on a Drag-Fu odyssey, filled with face-crunching action, corset-busting comedy, gut-munching horror, and soul-touching musical numbers! You’ve never experienced anything like Enter the Drag Dragon! This blast of true of independent cinema will leave you wobbly in your heels as you try to recover from Continue reading

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Exciting Dragon | aka Drunken Dragon (1985) Review

"Exciting Dragon" Poster

“Exciting Dragon” Poster

AKA: Drunken Dragon
Director: Chiu Chung Hing
Cast: Suen Kwok Ming, Chiang Sheng, Chow Mei Yee, Philip Ko Fei, Leung Kar Yan, Yeung Hung, William Yen, Ko Jan Pang, Chen Chin Hai, Lam Gwong Wing
Running Time: 94 min.

By Henry McKeand

One set piece in Chiu Chung-Hing’s Exciting Dragon (or Drunken Dragon, depending on who you ask) involves a man steering a wheeled rowboat as he fights, indoors, against two men who lay on top of one another and use a flame-thrower hat and bladed wheels to create a lethal human vehicle that can cut a man’s leg off. The “eight-year-olds with toys” quality to this scene has turned it into a minor classic amongst action fans who appreciate its unrestrained creativity and zany choreography. For kung fu fanatics who have seen almost everything and are starved for something new and fresh in the genre, the half-infamous “rowboat scene” may seem almost too good to be true. 

“Surely, this kind of gonzo spectacle is just an isolated occurrence,” I told myself. “If a movie actually managed to maintain this level of energy for its entire runtime, I would have heard of it before.”

When I pressed play on Exciting Dragon and saw that the scene arrives in the first ten minutes, I braced myself for disappointment. If Chiu was so quick to show Continue reading

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David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s 87North production company to remake Kara Hui’s 2016 actioner ‘Mrs K’

“Mrs K” Theatrical Poster

“Mrs K” Theatrical Poster

Writer and humorist, Mishna Wolff (Werewolves Within), who is best known for her 2009 book, I’m Down: A Memoir, is penning a remake of the 2016 Kara Hui actioner, Mrs. K.

The upcoming “re-imagining” will be produced by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s 87North production company. Currently, there are no filmmakers or actors attached to the project (via Deadline).

The original Mrs. K (read our review), a Malaysian-Hong Kong production, told the story of a woman (martial arts icon Kara Hui) who gives everything that she has to protect her husband and daughter when enemies from her past come hunting her. The film was directed by Ho Yuhang and co-starred Simon  Yam and Wu Bai.

We’ll keep you updated Continue reading

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In the Mood for Love | 4K UHD (Criterion)

In the Mood for Love | 4K UHD (Criterion)

In the Mood for Love | 4K UHD (Criterion)

RELEASE DATE: November 1, 2022

On November 1, 2022, Criterion Collection is releasing an all-new 4K UHD for Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (read our review), starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Bullet in the Head, Europe Raiders) and Maggie Cheung Man-yuk (Police Story, New Dragon Inn).

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Cheung) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them.

With its aching musical soundtrack and its exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle (Chungking Express) and Mark Lee Ping-bin (The Assassin), this film has been a major Continue reading

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

Day Shift (2022) Review

"Day Shift" Poster

“Day Shift” Poster

Director: J.J. Perry
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, Oliver Masucci, Peter Stormare
Running Time: 114 min. 

By Paul Bramhall 

One of the biproducts of the John Wick franchise being so successful is that producers are now more willing to back experienced players from the stunt community who want to have a crack at directing. When stuntmen turned directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski unleashed the original John Wick in 2014, it proved that not every action movie needed to be a superhero flick, and that there was indeed an audience for authentic action that kept things gritty and grounded. Both have gone on to have successful careers in the director’s chair, which in Stahelski’s case has included helming 3 sequels, and one of his most recent credits is producing the directorial debut of another long-time stuntman – J.J. Perry.

Anyone who’s familiar with American action cinema, particularly DTV action cinema, will have heard of J.J. Perry. Making his debut performing stunts in 1987’s They Still Call Me Bruce, Perry got his first fight choreographer credit on 2004’s long forgotten Sunland Heat, in which he replaced a certain Loren Avedon after he walked away in pre-production. Just 2 years later he’d secure his sophomore fight choreographer gig for Isaac Florentine’s Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing. Forever known as the movie which introduced Boyka to the world, a character played by British martial arts wunderkind Scott Adkins, it would lead to the pair collaborating a number of times together. Perry has Continue reading

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Emergency Declaration (2022) Review

"Emergency Declaration" Theatrical Poster

“Emergency Declaration” Theatrical Poster

Director: Han Jae-Rim
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Hun, Jeon Do-Yeon, Kim Nam-Gil, Im Si-Wan, Kim So-Jin, Park Hae-Joon, Kim Bo-Min, Hyun Bong-Sik, Seol In-A, Lee Yeol-Eum
Running Time: 141 min.

By Paul Bramhall 

The disaster movie has become something of a regular fixture in Korean cinema over the last 15 years. We’ve had colossal tidal waves in 2009’s Haeundae, towering infernos in 2012’s The Tower, nuclear meltdowns in 2016’s Pandora, and most recently the threat of unthinkable volcanic destruction in 2019’s Ashfall. Understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged 2020 and 2021 has seen film goers appetite for the disaster genre on the wane, so 2022’s Emergency Declaration hopes to recapture audiences fondness for big budget chaos by taking it to the skies.

How much sense that makes will likely depend on audiences willingness to separate fiction from reality. With a story that involves a disgruntled lab worker releasing a highly contagious virus on a packed flight to Hawaii, with so much talk of how easy a virus can spread in the confined environment, it may not exactly be what everyone wants to see as the world begins to re-open to travel. Of course everything is relative, so ultimately such concerns will likely only apply to those watching Emergency Declaration at the time of its release. What can’t be argued though is that director Han Jae-rim (The King, The Face Reader) has brought onboard an all-star heavyweight cast, and chances are many will likely check out Emergency Declaration just to see some of the biggest names in Korean Continue reading

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Carter (2022) Review

“Carter” Netflix Poster

“Carter” Netflix Poster

Director: Jeong Byeong-gil
Cast: Joo Won, Lee Sung-Jae, Jung So-Ri, Kang Yoo-Ra, Camilla Belle, Mike Colter, Yeo Dae-Hyun, Shin Woo-Hee, Kim Won-Jung, Lee Ye-Joon, Jung Jae-Young
Running Time: 133 min.

By Paul Bramhall

When it comes to modern day action cinema the influence of the John Wick aesthetic is undeniable, defined by its stripped-down approach to killing, and imbued with a kinetic energy and sense of immediacy that’s become the antithesis of the CGI filled superhero movies that usually surround their releases. As much as it’s become the standard to cite the John Wick influence in many contemporary action movies, there is one man who can claim the opposite to be true, and that man is director Jung Byung-gil. A Seoul Action School alumnus, Byung-gil’s 2017 feature The Villainess contained a fight scene that took place on speeding motorbikes, a sequence which director Chad Stahelski lifted wholesale in 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. In my humble opinion, that doesn’t just make Byung-gil any man, it makes him “the man”.

The Villainess was set to be Byung-gil’s Hollywood calling card, and the following year he was announced to be directing his English language debut, a project called Afterburn that was set to star Gerard Butler. For whatever reason Afterburn never materialised, and it’s taken 5 years for another Byung-gil flick to arrive, landing in the form of 2022’s Carter courtesy of Netflix. Remaining in his native Korea, Carter is the name of the title character played by Joo Won (Fatal Intuition, Don’t Click), who in the opening scene finds himself rudely awakened by a group of gun totting CIA agents. With no memory of who he is, half naked, and a woman’s voice giving him orders Continue reading

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