I’ve said about all I needed to say about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in my original review. There’s little to add, really.
But I would like to point out that like a lot of the films that have become personal favorites, there’s always something that I notice each time I watch it. This time, […]
A lot of people would cry “foul” at my including a film like Shenmue: The Movie on this blog. For one thing, it was not released to theaters in the United States. For another, it is made up almost entirely of in-game footage from the Sega Dreamcast title Shenmue, rather than being a […]
Even before Woody Allen made What’s Up, Tiger Lily? people had been putting new dialogue to old movie footage. (Fractured Flickers, for instance.) The difference here was that Allen re-dubbed and re-edited the entire movie (in this case, the Japanese spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi aka Key of Keys) to give […]
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster us best known for serving as the turning point of the original series as far as Godzilla is concerned. He makes the turn from villain to hero in this film, teaming up with established characters Mothra (already a hero) and Rodan (villain of his own film) to defeat a new […]
King Kong vs. Godzilla is my favorite Godzilla film. Yes, I know that other films have more depth to the storyline, or better effects or a higher monster count. But this one has Kong and that’s all that really matters. *
Not that I’m completely smitten by this film just because of the big […]
For me, Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men will forever be linked due to their connected appearances on Mystery Science Theater 3000.* They both feature groups of children who befriend a mysterious outer space super-hero type, who helps save the world from invaders from space.
First up, Prince of Space tells of […]
When Toho made the 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destroyah, they intended it to be the final Godzilla film for awhile. They had recently licensed the character for a big-time Hollywood film, so didn’t want to get in the way of that proposed new franchise. Well, the Hollywood version of Godzilla, though performing well […]
Okay, so Kung Pow! is not for everyone. It is, in the final analysis, an extremely silly movie. Writer/director/star Steve Oedekerk (of Ace Ventura, Jimmy Neutron and “Thumb” movie fame) bought the rights to Hong Kong action film Hu hao shuang xing (aka Tiger and Crane Fist or Savage Killers) and reworked the […]
The Venus Flytrap (more often found as The Revenge of Dr. X, listed on IMDb as The Double Garden) is a Japan-made sci-fi/horror film starring a down-on-his-luck James Craig as a scientist who tries to prove his theory of man’s evolution by creating a “human” plant. Typical b-movie stuff, of course, but this one […]
Viewed December 28, 2006
The Road Home begins with a young man named Changyu (Hao Zheng) learning of the recent death of his father. When he returns to his village, he finds that his mother wishes to have his father’s body carried home by the men of the village (an old custom), despite the difficulties […]
Viewed November 13, 2006
Darna: Ang pagbabalik aka Darna: The Return is an adventure story centering around Philippine super hero Darna and her struggle with her arch-nemesis Valentina.
For those of you unaware of Darna, she was created by Marz Ravelo (under the earlier name of Varga) in 1947 as an answer to the many American […]
Viewed November 4, 2006
Okay, this is another one of those circumstances where I really should like a film, but somehow it just doesn’t connect with me. I expected to like Kung Fu Hustle, since it plays into a lot of things I enjoy, yet it somehow missed the mark.
For one thing, it’s not nearly […]
Viewed October 11, 2006
Vampire Effect is, in many ways, a typical Hong Kong actioner with little originality or truly interesting aspects to make it stand out from a sea of lookalike films.
The story tells of a vampire hunter named Reeve (Ekin Cheng) who has not had much luck with assistants (they keep getting killed). […]
Viewed September 18, 2006
It’s A Wonderful Life (aka Daai foo ji ga) has little in common with its much more famous namesake than the fact that both are set in and around Christmastime. But this Hong Kong family comedy is surprisingly fun and heartfelt, rarely straying into the over-the-top nonsense seen so often in […]
Viewed July 31, 2006
Cohabitation is a Hong Kong film that revolves around the love lives of two friends. The story is pretty standard soap opera-type stuff. The trobules of the two couples aren’t really that original or interesting. There aren’t even any twists to the stories, just the typical variations on the […]
Viewed June 28, 2006
I don’t know what I was expecting from SkyHigh, but I’m certain it’s not what I got. The box notes seemed to indicate an intense look at the possibilities of vengeance and the nature of the afterlife. What SkyHigh ends up being about is just another attempt to storm the […]
Viewed June 21, 2006
King Kong Escapes from Toho Studios follows their highly successful King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). To a degree, it follows the basic plot of the original King Kong. Ship comes to island, finds giant ape, ape falls for girl, ape is brought to mainland, etc. The big difference, of […]
Viewed May 18, 2006
I came across The Wesley’s Mysterious File at a local record store and it looked interesting enough that I picked it up. It led me to buy a bunch of Asian films, several of which I have already covered. But I never actually watched the film. Sadly, although it […]
Viewed April 23, 2006
Hero has a lot going for it. There is exciting action and strong drama, good characters and beautiful camerawork. Unfortunately, somehow it never quite comes together as well as it should.
The story is actually pretty simple: a nameless warrior (Jet Li, actually called “Nameless”) has apparently defeated three deadly assassins. […]
Viewed March 19, 2006
It’s A Mad Mad Mad World Too (original title Fu gui huang jin wu) is the fourth of the “Mad Mad Mad World” films that chronicle the trials and tribulations of the Biu family as they cope with the problems life brings them.
In ‘Too’, the family finds it difficult to continue in […]
Viewed February 20, 2006
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the film that brought down the mighty house of Square. Until making this film, Square was a highly respected and successful video game company, mostly on the strength of its “Final Fantasy” series of RPGs. The Spirits Within was to be their big crossover […]
Viewed February 14, 2006
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is the story of a man trapped between the world he inhabits and the one he hopes for (but probably isn’t really for him, anyway). General Lui rules over a section of China and is despised by his people. His wife ignores him (instead […]
Viewed February 3, 2006
Your ability to enjoy Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)* is probably directly linked to your tolerance for violence. The “Lone Wolf and Cub” movies are exceptionally violent affairs. Based on the comics by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, they tell the story of Ogami Itto, a […]
Viewed January 30, 2006
I avoided Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon when it first came out mostly because it was friggin’ everywhere. I had already seen more than my fair share of Hong Kong martial arts/revenge flicks, so I was dumbfounded at the treatment the film recieved. I didn’t see anything in the trailers or […]
Viewed January 25, 2006
Well, I sat down to watch the Roger Moore film Gold (1974) and was enjoying it when all of a sudden, the DVD stopped working. So there I was, halfway through a movie and no way to finish it. I decided to watch Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia because it […]
Viewed January 17, 2006
Center Stage tells the story of Ruan Ling-yu, a Chinese silent film star who commited suicide at the age of 24 after pressure from the local media threatened to destroy her life.
The structure of Center Stage is somewhat odd. The film takes a partial documentary approach, by using footage of the […]
Viewed January 9, 2006
Okay, so I needed to place an order with HKFlix.com and they have a deal where you get free shipping if you spend $49. So after adding the couple of items I needed, I filled up on every $1-$4 DVD I could find that looked even moderately interesting. Three of […]
Viewed January 5, 2006
Tenchi Forever (also known as Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 ) is the third of three theatrical films based on the Tenchi Muyo series.
What makes Tenchi Forever a bit odd (and made it a little difficult for me to get into) is that its tone is radically different than the […]
Viewed January 2, 2006
In many ways, The Princess Blade is a typical Japanese action film. It’s got swords, acts of vengeance, betrayal, an old guy with secrets to tell, unrequited love, the death of innocents and lots and lots of blood.
Still, it’s a very stylish film. Based on the classic Japanese comic “Lady […]