Jiney is a college student who's really interested in photography and one day she start to takes photos of dead animals that she sees and gets more and more into doing it. Later on she happens to see a car crash were a woman gets killed and Jiney starts to take photos of the lifeless human body and after that it's all about death for Jiney and her photography. Only thing she's interested in except for taking photos is her best friend Jas, but after getting obsessed with death even Jas starts to become more and more uninteresting to Jiney, and Jas of course wonders what's going on and tries to talk some sense into her best friend which doesn't really seem to work at first. Jiney actually gives up her obsession later on and returns to her normal life but someone stalks her and keeps sending her videotapes containing disturbing things.
I really like the Pang Brothers movies, most known one is of course The Eye which is a great horror flick, although I must say that the one for me that really stands out from their works, except Bangkok Dangerous, is definitely Ab-normal Beauty.
Only movie made by them that I didn't like was The Eye 10, I liked the second one and I think they could've stopped there. Anyway this movie is a true pearl and you should definetly give it a go if you haven't had a chance to see it, because it's truly great and more over, very different.
 
This movie is good on so many levels, and another cool thing is that the movie is like divided into two parts one could say. First part is about when she first gets her obsession and deals with that and the people around her, and then when everything seems to be over and well, it all starts again but this time with something totally different.
It has to be seen to know exactly what I mean, but the way the movie is built up is just fantastic. The directing is awesome and the movie is very dark and asks a lot of questions. It's also somewhat disturbing at times, has this great atmosphere to it and is very intense at every now and then.
It's also a shame that it hasn't got the attention that it deserves like The Eye got, most people know that movie by now but this have been left in the shadows, and I don't know why that is, maybe because that it's not as commercial as The Eye is.
If you find this movie don't let it slip away. If you ask me, it's one of the better Asian horror titles out there.
Acacia is about a married couple who, since they can't have a child of their own, adopt a boy named Jin-seong who seems to be obessesed with trees and drawing trees. They have a old acacia tree in their garden which Jin-seong hangs around a lot and they soon find out that he thinks the tree is a reincarnation of his dead mother. Shortly after the wife actually gets pregnant and the adopted boy becomes more and more unhappy and feels distant to his family who spends their time with their new child. Things happen and one rainy night Jin-seong disappears.
I had heard a lot about this movie before I actually got a chance to see it and one of the things that I kept hearing over and over again was how slow the movie was and that even though it claims to be a horror movie it lacks a lot in the horror department. Therefore I obviously expected a really slow movie without to many scares which doesn't end up sounding too good.
I usually don't listen to people too much when it comes to movies considering the different tastes that people have but still when I sat down to watch Acacia I was pretty sure it was not gonna be that great.
So I'd like to take time to thank all the people out there who made me not getting my hopes up at all and because of that I actually ended up really liking the movie and not feeling that it was very slow at all.
Although, I wouldn't really call it a horror movie, it's more like a drama thriller with maybe a touch of horror at very few places.
Yes it's slow but it's supposed to be slow, it's not a bad thing and it's not so slow that you have to fast forward. The thing is, things happen in the movie all the time but I guess you have to have some patience to be able to sit through it.
If you're used to Asian flicks then you're probably aware of them tending to move a bit slow at times so it shouldn't be a problem. Acacia is actually a really good drama with a sometimes creepy atmosphere to it.
Towards the end I felt there was too much going on but when the credits started rolling the movie continued for a little bit and explained what needed to be explained.
Like with most Korean movies, it's nicely directed, has very good actors and fitting music. Highly recommended if you have the patience to sit through it.
Se-jin is a single woman living alone in an apartment. She has no real friends, no boyfriend, and is just focused on her work. One day after leaving her job, and is about to take the subway home, a strange girl shows up from nowhere to commit suicide infront of the moving train, and tries to drag Se-jin with her when she throws herself onto the tracks. Later on, her neighbors start to die one by one, and Se-jin figures out that it happens every night at 9:56. Lights starts flickering in a few apartment opposite to hers, and the next day someone's found dead. She tries to tell her neighbors, and even the police, but no one seems to believe her. She spends some time with a paralyzed girl that her neighbours take care of in the opposite building, and soon finds out a terrible secret that they all share about the girl.
From director Ahn Byeong-ki (Nightmare, Phone, Bunshinsaba), comes here another stylish Korean horror movie, this time called A.P.T. or Apartment. It looks like your standard Korean horror flick, slick with nice photography, great acting, and features all these great things fans of Korean cinema have gotten used to. But not totally unexpected, it doesn't work wonders with delivering a great horror story, or any good and effective scares for that matter. Having read about the film, seen some trailer, and been waiting around for it to be released, I really wanted to like A.P.T. since it was just too long ago since I saw some Korean horror movie that had any real effect on me. And while this film might look great, it just fails miserably with delivering any real horror or scares whatsoever.
Talking about scares, A.P.T. has tons of them to offer. Unfortunately they're all way too to easy to predict, and if you've seen a lot of horror flicks, you'll know exactly what's coming and when. Biggest problem though wasn't that the scares failed to scare, it was more the lack of originality that the movie had to offer, and it felt like it was just a mix of previously released Korean horror flicks. This time there are no deadly cellphones, no haunted schools, no crazy videotape, but instead an apartment building, and last but not least, a ghostly girl with long black hair that covers her face. Sounds familiar? Well, get ready for things to repeat themselves.
 
I'm not gonna lie, I was really excited to get to see A.P.T. but at the same time I was also afraid that it would just be another lame horror experience, followed by disappointment. And while it wasn't really followed by disappointment, it sure was a lame horror experience. The way it started off didn't just look great, but had a little bit of a freaky feel to it as well. The scares were many and there right from the start, and even if they weren't very effective, A.P.T. still looked like it had a lot of potential. The story seemed interesting enough, the acting was very convincing, and it all seemed all right until halfway through, when it took a different turn, and slowly things started to go down-hill.
What a movie like this needs is some mystery, but unfortunately everything was revealed, and so didn't leave room for any thoughts whatsoever. What a movie like this needs most though is a clever twist towards the end. They all try, and while some succeed in delivering that, most others fail, and so does A.P.T. But I must still admit that I was interested in the storyline all the way through, and since the pacing was really good, one never got bored or had time to lose interest while it kept running. Worst thing with A.P.T. though, and what came off as totally unoriginal, was that every time the ghost girl showed up, there was a sound extremely similar to the sound the ghost makes in the Ju-on movies. On the plus side, it had some cool effects to offer, and it looked gloomy and dark but in a very nice way. But obviously, it takes more than just that to succeed.
I'm not gonna say that A.P.T. was a bad movie, because that it was not. It looked great, slick, featured some good acting, and had a good pace all the way through, and never felt the least bit slow. But as a horror film it was just too predictable, the scares weren't effective enough, and if you've seen a bunch of Asian horror flicks before, you've most likely seen it all. So while I can't really recommend it, at least I can say that it's still worth a look. Watch it and judge for yourself, but don't expect too much since chances that you'll be disappointed even if not expecting anything are pretty high.
Veteran detective So-young and her rookie partner Hyun-gi happen onto an incendiary homicide case. While Hyun-gi is goofing up and distracting So-young, So-young senses that there is something wrong in the case. They discover that the present case is somehow related to the mysterious death of a girl ten years previously. At this point, So-young becomes plagued with nightmares in which the girl appears. And the serial killings continue...
Remember when Asian horror was still a new concept, not saying that there weren't horrors made back in the day, but what I mean is when it became accessible to the western world. At that time, almost every Asian horror movie you saw had something to offer, something that was still new and interesting, not to mention original and scary. But unfortunately those days are long gone, and for every time when about to watch an Asian horror flick nowadays, that feeling you got back then is really nowhere to be found. Still, you're always hoping that this will be the film that will make that awesome feeling come back once more, but it hasn't happened yet and I'm afraid it never will. What once was something truly original is now something that just keeps repeating itself in one movie after the next, which in the end just leads to one disappointment after another.
Arang is really no exception when it comes to new Asian horror since even if it tries, it's just not good enough and you've most likely seen it all before, or most of it anyway. You'll have to excuse me for being so negative, but sitting through one new Asian horror after another, hoping that it'll do something for you somehow, but when it never really does, it tends to get boring after a while. Sometimes when watching horror movies, not just Asian horror but all kinds of horror, one has to wonder how much actual horror the people behind the movies really have seen. Sometimes it feels like they haven't really seen that much but still are determined to make a horror film, but doing so without having anything to stand on. On the other hand they might have seen much, maybe so much so that they feel that everything has already been done so they might as well copy stuff from different films. I'm not saying that it's an easy task coming up with a great original story and make a great film out of it, but sometimes (actually too often) it feels like a lot of film-makers don't even try to be original, and that's a shame.
 
Arang looks like most Korean flicks and that is really slick with beautiful photography and so on and so forth. For those who have seen a bunch of Korean films, this is nothing new and I guess we've more or less come to expect these movies to look awesome. So for what it's worth, it looks great but to be honest, I couldn't actually care less as I would actually have preferred that it didn't look so great but that it instead would scare the living crap outta me. As you can probably guess, it didn't. It had a few things going for it, one being good pacing and the second being two creepy scenes that while they didn't really succeed delivering the scares, they looked pretty creepy and were a big plus horror-wise. But with a running time of 97 minutes, two good-looking creepy scenes are just not enough.
The movie deals with a ghost, a ghost with a grudge, that is female, that has long black hair, that comes back to take revenge on people who did things to her in the past... Sounds familiar? The ghost girl was raped long ago (I guess the people behind Arang saw Shutter) and so she comes back to extract some revenge. This happened in a place called the Salt Village, where they make and store salt, and is kind of a deserted place far away from civilization. So this female police detective goes there, to that distant place, to find clues about the girl (I guess the people behind the film saw Ringu as well). For a while it felt like a police thriller because of these two homicide detectives who are trying to solve the case of some murders along with a girl that went missing ten years ago, while at the same time, people from that girl's past starts turning up dead. But it's no police thriller, it's a horror film that simply just didn't do it on the horror front.
Arang was yet another new unoriginal horror flick from South Korea that didn't deliver the proper scares. On the positive side it had really good pacing, along with that it looked pretty excellent and had two nice moments of creepiness and horror to offer. Unfortunately this was not nearly enough and in the end it's just not a very momorable film. Luckily it went by pretty quick and even though it had a few things going for it, it was still quite a mess to sit through. Personally, I'm getting really tired of watching these types of new films, still I always want to see the new stuff being released. And even if these flick bums me out at times, I'll keep looking because who knows, one day you might be surprised.
Byung-tae is a teenager who every day gets beat up at school, often several times. He spends most of his time reading martial arts manuals and taking lessons from different adults on how to learn to fight, but nothing seems to work. One day he comes across an old man named Pan-su who is a natural at fighting, and really impresses Byung-tae. So Byung-tae of course asks the man to teach him how to fight, something Pan-su at first doesn't want to do, but later on takes him under his wing. As time goes by, Byung-tae learns a lot but still can't seem to fight back whenever the bullies pick on him, and has a hard time getting rid of the fear inside him that he has been carrying for so many years.
Art of Fighting kinda took me by surprise as I, from looking at the cover and reading about it, first thought it would be some kind of whacky comedy about fighting. Instead it proved to be a real drama that featured some black humour as well, and that sure was a pleasant surprise. Instead of being funny, it turned out to be quite brutal, and a lot of the scenes in it felt very realistic, so to label this movie as a comedy is just wrong. It has a few moments with some black humour in it, but other than that it's way more sad than ha-ha funny. That's except for Pan-su in the sauna scene, you'll know it when you see it.
The basic idea is simple yet quite brilliant and works very well. The two main actors Jae Hee (3-Iron) as Byung-tae and Baek Yoon-shik (Save the Green Planet) as Pan-su, both do an excellent job with their character, especially Jae Hee's character stands out, and if you have a heart, you'll feel for him as well. One thing that makes him stand out is the fact that half of the time he doesn't speak but still manages to communicate in an excellent way. And Baek Yoon-sik is perfect as the old man who is a natural at realistic fighting, and how to fight dirty.
 
Now, fighting dirty might sound like fun, but in Art of Fighting it's really not. It just means that if you're in a fight, just use whatever objects that are around you, and it doesn't matter where you hit the other person, because there are no rules. This can also be translated to kill or be killed, and that's what Byung-tae has to learn from Pan-su.
There are so many fights in this movie (after all it is a movie about fighting), but I was really surprised over the fact of just how brutal some of them were. We get to see Byung-tae get beaten up I don't know how many times, and sometimes it's a little much. You can't help but to feel (very) sorry for him. Before actually watching the movie I figured that bullies were gonna pick on the guy, but instead they beat him senseless, again and again. So later on he meets this man who has an amazing skill when it comes to down-to-earth type of fighting, he fights with any means necessary and seem to always win.
Later on when he has finally accepted Byung-tae, he not only learn the kid about fighting, but about life itself. For a short while it had a strange Karate Kid vibe to it, but luckily not for long. The movie is of course very predictable, but even though you know what's eventually gonna happen, it's still interesting all the way. The actors are so damn good, and even though this movie is quite sad and brutal at times, it still delivers a great feeling. Best thing though is that even if the very ending is kinda predictable, it didn't feel like your typical Hollywood feel-good-ending at all.
It was quite a while since a movie made me feel this good. It's simple yet works perfectly, and it's easy to get drawn in and to feel full sympathy for the unfortunate Byung-tae. The acting is excellent and the pacing is very good, it has a solid tempo and even though it's not fast-paced, it's still very far from being slow. It has characters that are easy to care for, and a story that might be very predictable but still is interesting, realistic, and thinkable. Recommended.
A girl is having some kind of relationship with a married rich guy, but is dumped when she tells him that she's pregnant. He pays her one million bath for her to have an abortion, but later invites some of his friends to rape her while he's taping the whole thing on camera. He tells her that the reason why he did this, was to get his money's worth, and naturally, she hates his for what he did and wants revenge. The girl seek out some kind of witch-doctor, and with his help, she puts a curse on the whole family with the use of black magic.
Art Of The Devil is a Thai horror flick that has its ups and downs, unfortunately the downs weigh way more heavier. While Thailand has become more and more present in the Asian horror market over the years, the movies seem to shift greatly between being really good, (like Shutter), to being completely terrible. I wouldn't say that Art Of The Devil is a completely terrible flick, it's looks pretty good, has decent acting, but does unfortunately not make it at all in a horror point of view.
I felt that the main problem with Art Of The Devil was that it was too messy at times, a bit confusing, and never generated the proper suspense that it sure could've needed. I had a really hard time getting into the movie, and I was actually so uninterested an hour into the film, that I had to turn it off and watch the last remaining half-hour the next day. It's of course never a good sign when you have to divide a movie into two viewings, but to its defense, I can say that I was extremely tired the first time I tried to watch it. Still, if it would've been really interesting, I would of course have watched the whole thing at once.
 
The first 20 minutes or so were pretty good, and I had no problem whatsoever getting into the flick. I wanted to like it, just like I want to like every movie I see, problem is just that it doesn't happen nearly as often as I want it to. It starts off quite interesting with this cute girl who falls for this rich guy, and things seem to go well until she tells him that she's carrying his child. The guy offer her a large sum of money, and there seems to be nothing more to it. But later on, one night, his friends come by and tries to rape her while the guy's taping the whole thing "to get his money's worth". On one hand, this is of course a terrible thing, but it also makes you care about what's going on, and so, makes you get into the movie.
It's natural that the girls wants revenge for what the guy did, but when she seek out a witch-doctor and this whole black magic thing starts, the film somewhat becomes a mess. It has some cool and pretty gruesome scenes, but not nearly enough or that is effective enough for one to get scared. There's also some blond ghost girl kid showing up every now and then, and she looks way more ridiculous than scary. Actually, all the scares failed miserably to deliver, and the only thing that did deliver was one scene when a room and a guy was covered in eels, and some other scene that had a little gore. But that wasn't nearly enough to satisfy considering one had to sit through a lot of boring and uninteresting things during the whole movie.
While the cover looks close to being awesome, the movie's far from being as cool, so don't be fooled by the cover. The acting was pretty ok, not great but not bad either, and maybe felt a little bit stiff at times, but no real complaints when it comes to the acting. The movie looked quite slick, the score was good and there was some decent gore to be found, but it's not a movie to watch for the gore. The overall story lacked suspense, and did not manage to stay interesting all the way through. Scares was really nowhere to be found. Not bad, but still below average.
Company executive Aoyama who lost his wife several years ago is invited by a friend to sit in on a non-existent film audition in the search for an actress, but the intention of the audition is really to find a new bride for Aoyama. He looks through all the applicants resumes and finds a girl named Yamazaki Asami who he really falls for. On the day of the audition he gets to meet Asami and gets totally hooked by her beauty. He then gets her number of the resume list and calls her to take her out to dinner and so their relationship continues but there's something that's not right with the girl.
Miike's finest according to me. Audition is a captivating movie that draws you into it and really makes you get involved in the story which is a sad one but is brilliantly delivered. I would rather rate this film to be a thriller or one could even describe it as a really dark drama than a actual horror movie, although it has some horror elements in it.
I think that Audition is also a great movie to start off with if you're gonna get into the world of Miike, since it's not half as complicated as his other movies and it's easy to follow but still brilliant in every sense. And even if you have no plans to get into more of Miike's movies, Audition is still a great movie to watch.
 
Audition starts out as a drama and goes like that for some time. You get to know the characters which also makes you feel more for them when things happen which is a good thing. Then the movie kinda changes genre and becomes darker and more disturbing and the transition from being somewhat nice and innocent to become so much darker is truly delivered well.
There's some gore in the end and some actual horror but that shouldn't be the reason for watching this movie as it's just a small part of a much bigger piece.
Audition is a fantastic movie and if you haven't seen it yet, well then you might wanna give it a shot.
Seoul pimp Han-gi sees a girl, Sun-hwa, sitting on a park bench and goes up and sits next to her. He can't seem to take his eyes of her, but does not approach her at first, he just sits there. Once her boyfriend arrives to pick her up, Han-gi is about to leave but turns back and forces himself on the girl, grabs her and kisses her against her will. Some policemen arrives at the scenes and breaks them apart, holding Han-gi down and telling him to apologize to the girl, something he won't do. The girl spit on him and walks away, out of his life. Later on, Han-gi frames Sun-hwa for stealing a wallet filled with cash and the wallets owner demands she him pays a huge sum of money or he will go to the police. Since Sun-hwa has no money, she agrees to give up her body if she can't pay back her debt to the man, and eventually she has to do so as well. She is brought to a brothel, run by Han-gi, although she's not aware of that, and have to start a life in prostitution.
Kim Ki-duk have made some fascinating movies, that always carries this realistic feel to them, and that also takes a lot of energy to watch. Bad Guy is definitely hard to watch at times, since the story has some really cruel things to it and gives the viewer a feeling of misery that's hard to shake off. Even though the movie's kind of brutal to watch at times (like most of Kim's movies), it's also a joy to watch at other times as well, and manages to balance negativity/positivity, the feeling of good/bad really well.
Just the way this movie starts out makes you wanna see what happens next. It's really intense in the beginning and things come totally unexpected. Then it turns really tragic and it's hard to watch this nice girl having to become a hooker, and see all the shite she has to go through in the beginning of her new line of work. It kinda makes the viewer feel a lot of hate for Han-gi, and it's really hard not to. But then things kinda change around since you know that he was interested in her to begin with, and why he's doing the things he does is because of his obsession for the girl. Of course that does not justify his actions, but the further the movie goes the more sympathy you actually feel for the guy, how strange it even may sound.
 
When Sun-hwa first arrives at the brothel, she has to learn the business and has to go through hell with men violating her every day. At the same time, Han-gi watches her through a two-way mirror and gets to see her sleep with other men day out and day in, and get to see her wallow in misery. You know that he's really into the girl and that it must be hell for him as well to sit there and go through what she's going through. But he never shows any emotions, and never says a word, he just sits there and watches.
He actually never speaks expect for a little bit towards the end of the movie. On the other hand, it makes it somewhat more interesting, and you can still figure the guy out pretty well, that is with expressions, actions, and the acting of the character itself etc.
Bad Guy is not a movie for everyone, it's not slow but for some it will sure seem like it. It's a very serious movie that makes you think, and even if some stuff is a bit hard to stomach at times, it's actually kinda rewarding to watch.
The movie has a lot of feeling to it and it's hard to not be touched by it. For instance, you know that Han-gi feels something incredibly strong for Sun-wha, still he lets her go through everything and just sits and watches it happen, but it's easy to tell that he's affected by it. Another thing is that in the beginning you feel a lot of sympathy for the girl, but somewhere along the line she learns to like her new job and becomes so good at it that she's a threat to the other hookers. That's also a very weird thing to see and emotions start to take a different turn.
I could go on giving examples as there are plenty to choose from but that's for you to discover.
It's hard to pick one, but this is probably the best movie from Kim Ki-duk that I've seen. The acting is brilliant, always is though, and it's quite a gripping story that actually stays with you long after the film has ended. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of Korean cinema.
Kong is a deaf-mute hitman who lives with his partner and mentor Joe in Bangkok, assassinating people and minding their own business. He's also friends with his partner's former girlfriend Aom, a girl who works as a stripper at a local club and that is who he gets his assignments from. One day a local gangster develops and eye for Aom and rapes her, something that Joe can't just leave be and goes out to seek out the gangsters and avenge her. But when extracting his revenge it also gets him killed, and now Kong in his turn has to avenge his friend.
I've been wanting to write about this movie for a long time but haven't gotten around to do it until now. The reason why I wanted to write about Bangkok Dangerous is because, first off, it's one of my all-time fave Asian movies and secondly because I feel that it has not gotten the attention it so deserves. The story is quite simple and is really nothing that special, but the biggest reason why this movie gets the highest rating is because it really makes you feel something, and it's very hard not to get deeply involved when watching it.
The Pang Brother's has made some really great flicks like The Eye and Ab-normal Beauty, but personally I think Bangkok Dangerous is their best film to date. I know that most people would so not agree with me, and I don't really know exactly why I found this movie to be so extremely good as there are a lot of quite similar Hong Kong flicks out there, but none that makes you care as much about one character as here.
Funny thing is that this guy Kong is such a likable guy. He's a hitman who kills other people that have done him nothing wrong and he's responsible for their deaths. When looking at it like that, he would come out as a pretty bad individual but in the movie he doesn't, he's just extremely likable. To tell the truth, the fact that he's deaf-mute actually makes one feel a little sorry for him and that adds a lot to it as well, but it has more to it than that.
 
During the movie, we get flashbacks of Kong's past and we get to see his fascination with guns and how that later led him to become a hitman. And a true hitman he his, he shows no remorse or any feelings whatsoever when killing people. Been killing for such a long time, he has become immune to it and doesn't seem to think of his actions as something that is wrong, but instead just sees it like a normal routine job. Once again, looking at it like this of course makes Kong look cold and without feelings, something that makes him a bad person, so even though with all this in mind, it's actually quite cool that one still can find him so likable and to be able to see his actions as not so horrible after all.
Bangkok Dangerous is actually a quite standard action movie that is fairly predictable and that does not have any really clever twists. There are some strong scenes but the violence and the killings are not that graphical or the least hard to sit through. So it's not an original movie and if you're familar with John Woo and Wong Kar Wai you'll recognize a lot of the same elements used in flicks by them. I think a lot of John Woo movies are great, stylish, funny and most of all super entertaining. But Bangkok Dangerous separates itself from those kind of movies and has a bit more real feeling to it than just being brutally entertaining with nice action scenes. What makes Bangkok Dangerous interesting and makes it stand out more are the characters and especially Kong.
Pawalit Mongkolpisit (try to say that fast five times in a row) does an excellent job portraying the deaf-mute hitman and looking at him one way he's a cold fellow, but looking at him in another way he's a real guy with feelings who cares for the people he loves and that makes him human. These two sides of the character are really interesting and even though he has a bad side, in the end the good side makes up for it.
For instance, he meets this girl who works at a pharmacy and the movie suddenly takes a romantic and almost cute turn, but still stays interesting. Here we get to see a new side of him and how being a hitman makes him very different. Also since he's a deaf-mute, the dialogue between him and the girl is very different and adds a hell of a lot of feeling to the movie. This romantic part of the movie is fantastic and makes you feel even more sympathy for Kong. Things then take a different turn once again but I don't wanna spoil anything.
The directing is brilliant and the acting is top-notch. It's also great to see a movie like this come out of Thailand as they really need to start making better movies there, lately they have though so that's a good thing. The ending truly delivers and if it hadn't been for the extremely good but quite sad ending, the movie wouldn't have gotten the high rating it now got.
If you like Hong Kong action movies you'll probably like Bangkok Dangerous too. Although it might not be as fast-paced as your typical John Woo flick, it still features some really cool action scenes, but most of all it has a lot of real depth and is emotionally quite strong. It has a little of everything and combining relationships and romance with entertaining action and violence. Plus it has an ending that really makes it come out looking awesome in the end. A great Thai flick that should not be missed.
Battlefield Baseball is about Seido High baseball team that has to play against the Gedo zombie team. The Gedo team plays by their own rules and that means killing the players from every other team they face. A young guy, "Jubeh The Baseball", who has sworn off baseball due to a tragedy is the only one who can help Seido High defeat the other team.
I first thought that Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus, Sky High, Azumi) had directed Battlefield Baseball. Since a lot of people were saying that and also that I remember reading it somewhere. Anyway, he's not behind it, although he's did produce it.
Why I mention this is because I thought Versus was a brilliant movie and then viewing something like this that is so far from everything brilliant. Meaning, how could the same man do such a great movie and then such a shitty movie. Anyway, he's not responsible.
I expected this movie to be somewhat hilarious, it sure sounded like it would be but unfortunately it is not. Actually you could in a way compare this movie to Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies, being a Japanese over-the-top weird movie experience with horrible acting and other negative things.
 
Although it's supposed to be over-the-top and all that it still doesn't work properly and just ends up being a bad movie that could've been much better.
Let me tell you, this movie is way weird and even if you appreciate weird, this will probably be too much for you. The movie mixes genres to left and right and every now and then the characters break out in song. Yeah, it's a musical too.
It might sound good and funny but it's far from it. I remember a few moments in the movie that I actually thought were pretty cool, but to experience those few moments you have to sit through heaps of crap first.
The movie doesn't take itself seriously and that's at least one good thing. It actually feels like you're watching a Troma movie but that is Japanese, only ten times as weird. It's kinda shite though.
Seon-woo works as an enforcer for a vicious gangster named Kang, and when Kang plans to take a trip, he sends Seon-woo to look after his mistress while he's out of town. Kang is suspicious that she has an affair and instructs Seon-woo to execute her if that would be true. Kang leaves and soon, to his great fear, Seon-woo finds out that the girl is actually having an affair but decide not to kill her. When Kang returns, Seon-woo lies and says that she was not having an affair, but Kang later finds out what really happened which makes Seon-woo's own organization turn against him, and he has to suffer the consequences for his actions. Humiliated and thrown out of the organization, he seeks vengeance for what they did to him.
In the same vein as Oldboy comes A Bittersweet Life, a movie so good it shocked me when watching it for the first time. It's a violent revenge movie with a gripping good story, awesome acting and that looks absolutely fantastic. This is easily one of the best Korean movies I've seen to date, and a movie that I will probably enjoy watching many times in the future. If you're a fan of Oldboy, you're most likely to find A Bittersweet Life to be pretty sweet. They both deal with the concept of revenge, but are at the same time obviously very different from each other.
Byung-hun Lee (Cut, Addicted) stars as Seon-woo, an enforcer for President Kang, a very dangerous man and if he wants to get rid of people, Seon-woo is the one taking care of it. Kang tells Seon-woo that he's seeing a younger woman but that he suspects that she's cheating on him and wants Seon-woo to find out if that's the case. If that actually would be the case, Seon-woo is ordered by Kang to kill the mistress along with the person she's having an affair with. When Seon-woo goes to visit her you can tell that he falls for the girl, but also discover that, just like Kang suspected, she is having an affair. He enters her house when her lover is there and gets ready to off them both, but when the final moment comes, he just can't do it, and for this he gets in a lot of trouble.
 
The most interesting thing about this movie and why it's so great to watch is, besides the story being great, the main character that is Seon-woo. The way Byung-hun Lee has captured the character sure tells that he's a great actor and he's what's keeping the movie alive from beginning to end. Seon-woo seems to know nothing about what it's like to have a "normal" life, as the world he lives in is only filled with evil and violence. He has a hard front, can be violent and nasty without remorse, but it's failry easy to see through all that and see that he has a gentle side as well, and that makes him interesting.
For instance with all the violence going on in the movie it sometimes seems like he has no conscience and couldn't care less about what happens to other people. His face is like stone with no expressions to reveal what he really feels, if anything. But at the same time you know that there's something more underneath it all, like when he's around the mistress you really get to see that there's more than one side to him, and that makes him a really likable character. Actually, the further the movie goes, the more likable he becomes and you can't help but feeling sorry for him which is a really effective part of the overall experience.
The movie mixes violence and emotions in an excellent way, and even if the violence is a bit too brutal at times, you still have a lot of "nice" things to fall back on. There are a lot of action elements and the movie is quite stylish to say the least, but the most important thing is that it's not the least bit shallow and while it's entertaining eye candy at times, you still really care about the characters and what's going on. A word of warning though, the violence is a bit much to take in at times, and while it might have a slight Tarantino feel to it, it's very realistic and might be hard to sit through for some, watching people getting beaten senseless in a nasty way.
Just like with Oldboy, this is a movie with a story you can't reveal to much about, but that instead needs to be seen for yourself. It has a little bit of everything from dark humour (well, extremely dark), to gangsters, romance, action and violence among other things. The acting and directing is brilliant, the score is fitting and the outcome is good. Truly recommended.
"Next Door" (Hong Kong)
Jane returns home to her boyfriend only to discover that he has an affair with a girl named Hosie from the Mainland. When he goes back to his old girlfriend, jealousy arise and the girl wants to see both of them dead.
"Dark Hole" (Japan)
A girl keeps having ghostly visions and one day she visits a therapist in order to get some much needed help. When under hypnosis, she remember that she had an imaginary creature when she was a kid and that the creature protected her from all that was evil and killed those who crossed her path. And now it seems that the creature is back.
"The Lost Memory" (Thailand)
A mother just recently lost some of her memory due to a car crash that she was in. She can't seem to tell what's real and what's not anymore, and things just keep getting worse.
Black Night is a collection of three short films from Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong, similar to Three Extremes or Three for that matter, just not as good though. I must say that I'm a big fan of this concept, that is three shorter films in one, basically for the reason that if one sucks, you always have the next one. It starts off with the Hong Kong piece which is called Next Door and is a story about relationships, affairs, ghosts, water and death. I'm actually quite glad that they choose this one to be first out, since this was the one that had the most to offer. If they it would've started out with the Japanese flick, I'm not sure I would've sat through the whole thing. Anyway, except for being the best of the three, Next Door is also the film that looks most sharp, and that actually helped a little, visually that is. The cinematography was excellent and it just looked very slick.
Next Door is about a love triangle between a guy, his old girlfriend who returns to him and the new girl that he has been having an affair with. Not only that but there's also a little boy in the movie who serves no real purpose and looks like he came straight of the set from Ju-on and just walked into the set for Next Door. I mean, if they have to rip something off, then try to do it properly because this just brought too much unoriginality into an otherwise decent flick. So let's ignore the little boy and move on.
 
To look really good is of course not everything, and while Next Door might look terrific, it just doesn't quite do it on the horror front. The fact is that it offers tons of scares, but unfortunately most of them do not work as good as one had hoped for. The story is far from great but I guess it does the job, its main problem is that there are too many non-effective scares. It's actually too bad since it had some scenes that could've been done better, horror-wise, but instead we just get to sit through scare after scare with the next one being more lame than the previous one. In the end, I think Next Door is watchable even though it didn't quite do it for me.
The second movie is called Dark Hole and comes from Japan. Do you remember really long ago when DVD didn't exist and you sat and watched VHS tapes with films on that had been copied ten times before you got your hand on it? Well, even if you don't, this is just what Dark Hole looks like. It felt like watching an old VHS tape that were about to break any minute and that's not my idea of a good movie experience. Ok, so looks aren't everything, just talked about that above, but if it doesn't look all right, then it of course has to have something else going for it to work and the fact is that it doesn't. I don't wanna say that the story is that bad, it's just the way it was executed I guess that made it turn into a horrible piece of cinema. This girl keeps seeing ghost, and later it turns out that she had an imaginary creature when she was little that she totally had forgotten about. This creature being something evil, and it seems like it's back again for more. It might sound interesting but belive you me, it's not. Again, it was really hard to be affected by the scares, and even though the story wasn't such a bad idea to begin with, making this movie sure was.
Last but not least we get to see a movie called The Lost Memory straight outta Thailand, directed by the same man who gave us Bang Rajan, which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately I can't say the same thing about The Lost Memory which somehow reminded me of Art of the Devil which was also a disasterpiece. Just like the first HK flick, this one looks pretty good too, but just like with Art of the Devil, it gradually turns into a mess the further it kept going. I must say that it caught my interest for the first 15 minutes, but after that things started to go down-hill and the last ten minutes or so were pretty terrible. Again, it deals with a little boy trying to scare the viewer, but fails miserably at doing so. With me mentioning that it deals with a boy, don't think Ju-on or that it ripped that movie off, because this was actually quite different. What I liked about the film was that early on the movie delivered some mystery and not just straight forward horror, and I wish things could've stayed that way, but shortly after it switched over and started delivering one dumb horror scene after another. It's just to bad, and not only that, it was confusing as well. If a movie is good but somewhat confusing, you of course try your best to clear things up, but when it's pretty bad to startwith AND confusing, you're kinda bound to loose focus.
Black Night delivered three movies and while it's sad to say, none of them were good. The first one from HK called Next Door was by far the best, but that doesn't really count for much considering what it's compared to. On the Asian horror front, Black Night has absolutely nothing new to offer which is a shame.
Japan 1966, and Saya is a young girl who works together with the police to find and kill vampires. There've been some massacres at a high-school and since they think that vampires are behind it, Saya is sent there undercover to find out what's going on and to slay any possible vampires.
First off let me tell you, this movie is truly visually stunning to watch. If you would watch it and end up not liking it, you would still think it looked amazing and that alone would be worth the time spent.
One really negative thing here though is that it only runs for 48 minutes and towards the end it felt kinda rushed. They manage to get the story through and everything, but it would've been better if it would've been a full-length feature instead as it feel like too much is set to happen during a too short period of time. With a longer running time the characters could've been better developed and I guess the story telling could've been better too.
 
We don't get "the old stick through the heart" here, but instead Saya uses a samurai sword to split the vampires in half which looks very cool indeed, not to mention more brutal in a way.
There's a lot of great action scenes in Blood and the story is quite simple and easy to follow. We get a lot of fighting sequences and of course a lot of blood splatter and such. And even if it's not a "raw" movie per say, it's definitely aimed for an adult audience.
Blood was actually the first fully digitalized anime film and there's visually a huge difference. Look at some older anime flicks and then watch Blood, and you'll notice an helluva difference for sure, in fact, it's quite amazing.
This movie has so much potential and a longer version could've made it close to being fantastic. It feels a little bit when watching it the first time that it's somewhat over before you know it. It has great animation and as said above, great action scenes combined with a really nice atmosphere, it's just too short and that's too bad. But at least you get 48 minutes of great action and great animation and that's of course never a bad thing.
If you're even just a tiny little bit into anime, you should watch Blood. Another highly recommended anime movie when it comes to vampires is Vampire Hunter D and its follow-up, Bloodlust. But do check out Blood, I'm sure you won't regret it.
Music professor Park Young-sun meets In-jeong who's one of his students at an audition for a musical. He offers her a ride, but on the way they stop at a riverside, and he tries to get it on with her. But In-jeong manages to escape, and while Park Young-sun sits in his car, waiting for her to return, a group of brutal youths shows up only to discover him and his brand new Mercedes. And shortly after, the leader of the pack shows up, with In-jeong with him as well.
A Bloody Aria felt a bit like the movie Deliverance, and at the same time, it also had a lot of Tarantino feel to it as well. Why it felt like Deliverance was simply because, this professor, and the girl, run into these cruel people on the countryside who does crazy things to them. The Tarantino feel was kinda obvious considering the some of the dialogue in the movie, along with a helluva lot of violence. A Bloody Aria is supposed to have some comedy in it, and some of the stuff are actually pretty funny, but most of the humour is black, well, very black. It works well though, but in the end, it's a very cruel movie, with the cruelty overshadowing the comedy for most of the time.
One thing that makes A Bloody Aria really good movie to watch, are the characters that you'll get to know along the way. You have the professor who's not very likable, but at the same time, throughout the movie, you can't help but to feel a bit sorry for him at times. You have the girl, In-jeong, who's actually the only person who's likable, and her you'll feel sorry for at all times. There's a cop who seems like a nice guy, but later proves to be the something else, along with the three youths who are just cruel people. But along the way you start to feel bad for them too, due to some things that goes down. Two more to go; One student who gets beaten up like crazy, is humiliated etc, but later gets some revenge (and some more beatings). And last but not least, the leader of the youths, the fourth guy who we are introduced to a bit later, but who proves to be the worst of them all. He's a real psychopath, and you can't wait to see him get beaten up, since he sure has it coming.
 
The film has a simple story, basically just one location along with just a few characters, but provides a helluva lot of entertainment, as well as it provides a bad feeling which is really hard to shake off. I don't want to reveal too much of what happens, but this professor and this girl stops at a riverside where the professor tries to rape the poor girl. Meanwhile, two young guys are beating up a student, putting him in a sack, and pretends that they're gonna bury him alive. It's just too much for the student so he passes out, and the two guys are for a while afraid that they've killed him, and takes him with them to the riverside. The girl manages to escape the professors attempted rape, and while the professor is waiting for her to return to the car, one really freaky guy comes along, and is soon followed by the two youths and the student in the sack. When the professor finally gets out from his car, they group stars to mess with him, and later their leader comes along, and not only that; He has picked up the girl who escaped the professor along the way, and brings her back to the riverside as well.
Everyone are afraid of this leader of the group, and he puts everyone through A LOT of shite. He could be described as a really sadistic bully who couldn't care less about anything or anyone, and therefore he's of course really dangerous. I'm not gonna tell you what he does though, but be prepared for some stupid and cruel things. I thought A Bloody Aria would be kinda hard to sit through since I figured it would feature a lot of realistic looking violence, and while it does, it has some comical things to it which manages to lighten things up a bit at times. It actually provides some tension too, since you know that these guys are not all right in the head, especially the leader, and while watching it, you have no idea what they'll do next, or what will happen next for that matter. The acting is really good, and like I said before, the characters alone are really interesting. Plus that, it's not very predictable either, something to always be grateful for. Also, this movie's from the same guy, Shin-yeon Won, who had his directional debut with The Wig.
I expected A Bloody Aria to be good, but it was even slightly better than I first had thought it would be. It felt very 'fresh' and different, and while it was cruel and hard to watch at times, it also had some funny moments to offer, along with interesting characters and weird situations. Don't think it's just violence and cruelty, because it's really not, even though that's a huge part of the movie itself. Highly recommened.
Masaki and Iguchi, members of a minor baseball team, manage to get mixed up with the local yakuza and run into some problems. The yakuza injures the teams coach, so Masaki and a friend of his set their course to Okinawa in order to get a gun, and to get revenge. Once there, they run into a another strange member of the yakuza who is planning his own kind of revenge.
I always seem to appreciate a Kitano film more long after I've watched it, more than when I actually watch the movie itself. I don't know why that is, but his movies seem to have that effect. Not that they ever give a really negative feeling when watching them, but somehow I always seem to appreciate them a lot more after that I have had some time to let them 'sink in'. It's a strange phenomenon, and I can't really say that the same thing happens when it comes to other directors. Well, with that 'sink in' part it might actually be true at times, but not that it's always better afterwards.
Kitano has his own kind of style and that's what makes his movies interesting and entertaining at the same time, and Boiling Point is no exception. Another thing with Kitano's movies is that they are always pretty slow, but still always manages to draw you in which is an interesting thing as well. The mix of light humour which can be really funny at times, to extreme graphical violence is also a mix that makes Kitano's movies work well. Again, Boiling Point is no exception.
The movie starts off extremely slow, and it's easy to get really bored within the first ten minutes of the film were the movie only focus around a baseball training game with some uninteresting dialogue. But don't let this small thing put you off, as ten minutes into the movie, things takes a different turn. Some yakuza member arrives at a gas station and this guy who works there gets hazzled by one of them. As things progress, some serious problems with the local yakuza arise, and when the teams coach is injured by the yakuza, two fellows head to Okinawa to get themselves a gun.
Once there, they are met by some other yakuza members and their extremely strange leader (Kitano). A lot of stuff happen before they actually get the gun they came for, and it's a fun and pretty crazy ride to say the least. Without Kitano, Boiling Point would've probably been quite a boring flick, but this guy makes it interesting and shocking at the same time with his strange character and brilliant acting.
At one time in the movie, Kitano says to his friend to have sex with Kitano's girlfriend. The friend of course refuse at first but Kitano keeps nagging away until the guy finally accepts. After he has slept with the girl, Kitano wants the guy to cut one of his fingers off since he slept with his girlfriend. The guy of course objects since Kitano told him to do so, but it doesn't help. Boiling Point has a lot of these strange little happenings to offer, and even if some of it is sick, it's hard not to be entertained. It's just so wrong at times that you just have to watch for the sake of it.
Except for Kitano's good performance, the overall acting is pretty good and the story is a bit strange, and maybe therefore, more interesting. The overall movie has a really good feel to it even if some stuff is a bit too much at times. But the fact that the movie also has some humour to offer, often makes things come out a bit lighter, and so makes everything seem ok.
Boiling Point is a very good movie, but might move way too slow for some. If you've seen Kitano films before, you should somewhat know what to expect. It's not Kitano's best flick, but it's still more than watchable. It's pretty twisted and violent at times, but also humorous as well, and the combination of these things is really good. Recommended.
An old man lives with a 16 year old girl in a boat on the sea. He found her when she was 6 years old, and since then she has been living with the man on his boat, and never seen anything else. People come to the boat to do some fishing, and a lot of the men coming there also tries to get it on with the young girl, but the old man is always there to stop them, shooting arrows at them with his bow. He intends to marry the girl as soon as she turn seventeen, but one day a young student comes to the boat to do some fishing together with his father, and the girl falls for him. The student wants to take her away from the old man and the life on the boat, for her to get to see and experience the outside world. But the old man has an obsession for the girl, and won't let her go without trying to do something about it.
Personally I think Kim Ki-duk is one of the finest film-makers out there, since watching his movies are like nothing else. They always have such good stories, strong and well-developed characters, fantastic atmosphere, and are extremely captivating to say the least. The Bow is no exception, and even though it might not be the man's best film to date, it's still a great flick that looks absolutely amazing. Thing with Kim Ki-duk's movies are that they are always really easy to get into and get caught up in. When it comes to strong dramas, they might sometimes be just too heavy to watch, and you need to be in a certain mood to be up for it. This is something I've been thinking about as well before starting to watch a Ki-Duk film, but every time as soon as I start to watch, they're always really easy to get into, and are always a rewarding experience.
What I like most about Ki-Duk's movies is that after you've been watching for a while, that whole feeling that you're just watching another movie goes away, and so it becomes more than just a movie. His flicks always manages to draw you in, to feel for the characters, and to care about what happens. They always carries a touch of the brutal reality we all have to face every now and then in life, and even if you can't releate to all that goes on in his movies, you're still bound to feel something. I guess personally I couldn't releate any less to The Bow, but it still makes for a great film, that is interesting, actually has a little tension, and is just so strange/different that one easily gets caught up in it.
 
This old man lives together with a 16 year old girl on a boat, a girl that he found when she was 6 years old. When she turns seventeen, he intends to marry the girl, and he is counting the days on his almanac. Apparently both the girl and the old man can speak, but they never speak to each other throughout the whole movie, I guess it's some bond they share, and the man is very protective of her. A lot of people come out to his boat to do some fishing and some of them tries to get it on with the girl, but the old man's always there to stop them with his bow and arrows. But one day a student shows up whom the girl falls for, which causes a lot of problems for the old man, and his future wedding plans.
So is she happy on the boat? I mean, she has never seen anything else, and when she grows up she's forced to marry some man, much older than her, who has been taking care of her for the past 10 years or so. She seems happy at first, at place on the boat and with the man, but the day when the student shows up, things changes drastically. The student wants to take her off the boat, for her to see the world, and for her to have another life than the one she's leading right now. It's totally understandable the way the student thinks, and were the old man first seemed like a likable old chap, the student makes him look not so good after a while. And what does the girl think? She has been on the boat for so long with just one person, of course she feels strongly for the old man, as well as she gets all these new feelings for the student, and what he wants her to do. Judge for yourself, or just watch it and enjoy this fine piece of cinema.
The Bow is a great movie that has an interesting story, is beautifully directed and that carries a good pace. If you've watched any of Ki-duk's films before, you might know a little of what to expect, and if you haven't, then why not give it a shot. It's a movie with a lot of feeling, it's looks great, features some really good acting, and fitting music as well. Recommended.
Kyoko carries painful memories from her childhood because when Kyoko was a kid she and her sister performed together in their father’s entertainment act were there was a tragic accident which she have been feeling responsible for ever since. And the more time goes by the more she comes closer to madness of what's real and what's not. She seems to be drifting in and out of reality, fantasy, dreams and dreams of her past.
I guess if you're a fan of Miike you'll most likely check this one out, if you never seen any of Miike's movies before, this one (and all the rest) might tend to be a bit weird but there are better movies to start with than this one.
I'm kinda neutral when it comes to Miike's movies, I'm not a big fan of his as I think some of his movies are excellent while some others are no good at all, but Box I really liked. It's somewhat "arty" with a lot of weird imagery but tells a pretty interesting story, is beautifully directed and is a little bit eerie.
 
This is the most less extreme short film in the Three Extremes movie, it has a few elements of horror but feels more like a dark drama which makes a nice mixture of the three movies combined.
Box has some visually stunning scenes and the imagery is fantastic and has a great feel to it. Miike did a excellent job directing this and it's definitely worth a look even though it might not appeal to some peoples taste.
Cho Yi-Hang is the successor to the Wu-Tang clan but he's not really up for the job. The clan is fighting wars against different foreign tribes but their biggest enemies are the so-called evil cult. One day Cho Yi-Hang meets a beautiful girl and instantly falls in love with her and she falls for him as well, only to find out that he's part of the Wu-Tang clan while she's a member of the evil cult. So he wants out of his cult and she wants out of hers so that they can be together but their different cults does not like the fact that they are seeing each other and plan to leave the cults and a lot of problems arise for the young lovers.
Over the years I've seen The Bride with White Hair many times and it's surely is a HK favourite. Good thing about this movie except for the good story and so on is that it mixes many genres together and the way it comes out is just great.
It has a romantic story which actually is a tragic love story and mixes in everything from sword fighting and martial arts to horror and fantasy elements.
The Bride with White Hair is almost like a HK Romeo & Juliet story only with a lot of other elements in it too. It has a great atmosphere going and this fantasy feeling to the movie as well.
 
The are some over-the-top acting by the weird leaders in the evil cult but other than that the actors all do an ok job. There's one version with subtitles and one dubbed and I guess I don't even have to tell you since it's obvious which version to stay away from.
It actually has some gore but this is so not the main reason for watching it, but it's still nice to have a little to lighten things up I guess.
It's basically a romatic love story but with a lot of action and fighting in it so just because it's romantic does not make it a chick-flick or anything even remotely close to it. It's pure HK entertainment and the movie is fast paced and features some both stupid and too cute kind of humour at times but it's easy to ignore and some of the humour actually works quite well too so there's not really any bigger reason to complain.
If you want a HK flick that has a little of everything to offer, and is very entertaining, then this might be a good pick. From the man who later directed Bride of Chucky.
Yu-jin moves with her mother from Seoul to a small Korean village. She starts school there and is, together with two other students, immediately bullied by a bunch of other girls in her class. One day, Yu-jin and her two bullied friends, uses an Ouija Board to put a curse on their bullies. She tells the other two girls that, while the ritual is taking place, never to open their eyes since if you do, the ghostly spirit can enter your body. Her two friends keep their eyes closed but Yu-jin does not follow her own advise and opens her eyes. Later on, their bullies starts to die one by one, all with a plastic bag over their head which they set on fire so it looks like they've commited suicide. But things take a different turn later on, and the spirit Yu-jin summoned was a girl that were killed by the villagers 30 years ago. And all of a sudden, the whole village is in danger.
Bunshinsaba was written and directed by the same man, Ahn Byeong-ki, who gave us the Korean chiller Phone which was a great movie. Unfortunately Bunshinsaba does not reach the same level of greatness, but it's still an interesting and scary Korean horror flick. If you've seen a lot of Asian horror, Bunshinsaba may not seem that scary or have very effective scares. But it still featured some quality horror scenes, that even people who have overdosed on Asian horror may find interesting.
Best thing about this movie though was the actual story, and the pace the movie had. The story managed to stay interesting all the way through, and the very story and backstory unfolds little by little as the movie goes. It never really slows down either, and is packed with scares and ghostly images from start till finish. Even though half of them or more may not be very effective, it still makes it seem more fast-paced as things happen all the time. So even if you won't get scared, at least you (probably) won't get bored watching Bunshinsaba.
 
The movie begins with the three builled girls who together summon a spirit to get rid of their bullies. When the first of their enemies dies the next day, the girls seem surprised that it actually worked. The spirit they summoned was a student named Kim In-sook who got killed 30 years ago. And as the movie moves forward, the viewer get to know more and more about Kim In-sook and what happened to her. There are also other characters that plays a great part of Bunshinsaba, except for the three girls. The viewer get to know all their stories, which made the movie seem more deep and was not just your typical straight-forward horror movie, but that had twists and turns as well.
First time I watched this, there were a lot of Asian horror flicks released during that same period of time, and I just expected it to be one out of many, that would all seem somewhat alike. It was quite ok the first time, but now, when later watched it again, it was less scary but more effective, and the story seemed more interesting. It has a story that is easy to get caught in, and strong character development as well which made it seem better. Story, character and acting-wise, Bunshinsaba is very good, but when it comes to scares, some work quite ok while most don't. But with me saying that most scares do not work is just my personal thought, and I think that for people who are still quite new to Asian horror, Bunshinsaba will prove to be both a good and scary movie.
It was easy to get caught in the story, as it unfolds and reveals things little by little which made it stay interesting all the way. The acting was totally ok, one could say that it was your standard Korean type of acting which always works. Not outstanding or great, but very good and always very far from being bad. Bunshinsaba featured a lot of scares, but personally I don't think most of them were very effective, but made things happen, and so the movie never felt like it was moving too slow. Story and character-wise it was quite cool, the directing was good, and the movie looks slick. May not work on a horror point of view for hardcore fans of Asian cinema, but that was still very good, and Ahn Byeong-ki is definitely an interesting name for the future.
Two boys from the same school are found murdered, and in their bodies are capsules containing scraps from a diary that describes the next victim. Dong-wook and his partner Ja-young suspects that the murderer might be from the same school, so they let all the students do a handwriting test and hopefully to match that with the handwriting from the diary. But when they finally find a perfect match, it seems that the handwriting from the diary belonged to Jin-mo, a boy who died in a car accident. When Dong-wook and Ja-young later on finds the actual diary, it reveals more clues to who'll be the next victim. Their search also leads them to find out that Jin-mo was being bullied by everyone in school, but he's dead so who's behind the murders?
It sure sounds a bit like a ghost story right? Well, it's not as the story actually sounds a bit cooler than the actual movie turns out to be. I'm not saying it's bad, but when first reading about it before seeing it, I was kinda expecting something totally different.
It starts of somewhat goofy and there are some pretty lame comical situations within the first 20 to 30 minutes. It then turns more serious and so becomes a bit better. Although it's a pretty standard thriller and the killer is revealed way too fast. But the actual ending is fantastic and makes the rest of the movie kinda worth while, but more about that later.
Like with most Korean flicks, it's looks visually great, terrific camera-work, photography and good acting as well. I like the fact that you can almost always count on these things to be great when it comes to Korean films, although it of course does not make up for a bad script.
 
Ja-young, the female detective, is played by Shin Eun-Kyung, that you might recognize from My Wife is a Gangster 1-2, two great movies. Also starring is Kim Yun-jin, the star from the Lost tv-series, and she does a great job with her character.
Being a thriller it of course should have some moments of tension, but unfortunately it doesn't really. It's a very good and interesting story, but the acual mystery is solved a bit too fast and so it loses the suspense. It has this typical ending and I figured that the movie wasn't really worth while. But then it goes on for a bit more than 5 minutes and shows things that the viewer already knows about of why things happened like they did.
We have already found out the background story, but the way the movie shows it and explains what happened is just brilliant and very gripping. This last part also includes a pretty unexpected and horrible scene. Diary of June delivers a message which is a very important message and worth to think about. So when the credits start to roll, you actually feel that you got something out from watching it.
If it would not have been for the very ending, I would probably have given this movie a rating of 4. It's a pretty standard thriller and I can't really say that it's that good, but the ending makes up for a lot. If you're into Korean flicks you might find it interesting and entertaining, but if you're just after horror and/or suspense, then I suggest you look elsewhere.
The story is about a woman named Mi-ju who used to be a really good cello player but due to a car accident that killed her best friend, Mi-ju was scared and had to quit and became a cello teacher instead. So she leads a normal life but as the movie progresses her life becomes more and more tragic due to different events happening. She also has this somewhat slow daughter that she's trying to teach the cello to which just doesn't go the way it should, a new housekeeper that is really creepy and memories that haunts her.
Cello is also one of the new (when writing this) South Korean horror movies that came out this summer of 2005 along with Red Shoes and The Wig.
Problem is that I saw all three of them around the same time and I guess it would have been better to have seen them with a longer break between. Not that they are alike storywise, but just the fact that they are all new Korean horror movies which nowadays tend to look very much the same.
I actually think that I prefer the other two over this one but I still liked this movie as well, and especially the characters in it. It also felt more like a drama with a touch of horror compared to the other two which were focus on horror only.
 
You can tell that the movie really wants to be something and it sure could've been, but unfortunately that's not the case. The lack of suspense is sometimes throughout the movie too big and the scares are few and not very scary and the pace is sometimes way too slow for its own good.
The actors are great, especially Seong Hyeon-a playing Mi-ju, and the directing is very slick and it also has a great score consisting of, yeah that's right, cello music. I actually have the soundtrack for this movie to that came with the movie and it's pretty good. The music itself adds a lot of feeling to the movie, but unfortunately that's not enough.
Cello has a lot of potential, but does unfortunately not deliver all the way through. It might be that there are too many Korean horror movies out there these days, and that many of them end up looking the same in the end. It sure tries, but sorry to say, it's just not good enough. Still, for fans of Asian horror cinema, it's a movie worth checking out after all. At least you get great acting, a really good score, slick directing and a pretty interesting story.
Ning Tsai-Shen (played by a young Leslie Cheung) is a tax collector and arrives in a small town were no one seem to be willing to give him accommodation for the night. So in search of somewhere to spend the night he ends up in the Lan Ro temple which is supposably haunted. Around the temple area he meets Yen Che-Hsia, a swordsman who fights ghosts there and warns Ning Tsai-Shen of the evil spirits surrounding the area. He then runs into Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, a beautiful girl with whom he falls in love with. But it's something strange with her and later he finds out that she's actually a ghost and together with the swordsman they try to break her curse.
A Chinese Ghost Story is definitely a landmark when it comes to Hong Kong cinema and made a lot of people from the west appreciate movies from the east together with such film as A Better Tomorrow among others.
The movie is somewhat like an eastern fairytale and has a lot of fantasy elements in it, although it sure offers something from most genres.
This movie actually have some Evil Dead feeling to it, not the same kind of horror but the overall inviroment and some of the atmosphere around the Lan Ro temple. Also there's a scenes with animated zombies or whatever they are that looks very low-budget and quite similar to some scene in Army of Darkness.
 
Today this movie might not be considered being that fantastic but when it came out I guess that all the martial arts, flying swordsman and other stuff looked amazing, some stuff kinda similar to what you saw in Croushing Tiger Hidden Dragon, (A Chinese Ghost Story is a much better movie though).
It's a sort of a horror story but not scary at all and sometimes even really goofy with the featured kind of humour. It has great martial arts and some nice sword fighting and the sets are all eye-candy adding a lot of feeling to the movie itself.
The actors all do a great job, and the story is very good and very captivating. Add to that great fitting music and a lot of it typical traditional chinese style that fits the movie perfectly. The inviroments are awesome and the movie goes full speed ahead from start to finish without ever having a dull moment. If you're into eastern movies this is definitely a must see.
It's the mid 1800s and a young American named Christopher ventures to Japan in search for a prostitute he loved and left behind years earlier. His search leads him to an island where demons and whores rule the night and where he meets a deformed courtesan who tells him a tale of extreme cruelty and perverse vengeance.
Imprint has it all - well, at least when it comes to sick stuff. I can definitely see why Showtime didn't want to air Miike's contribution to the Masters of Horror series, but at the same time, if your familiar with Miike's work, Imprint won't come as a complete shock either. It is quite shocking though and this sadistic little film has some stuff in it that'll make even the most hardcore fans of gore and horror cringe, I know I sure did. It touches on the concept of the dreaded Guinea Pig films, dealing with torture and a helluva lot of other nasty stuff, but at the same time, it tells an interesting story. So it's not just being shocking for the sake of being shocking, it has something to back it up with - something that is both clever and good.
Miike knows how to make movies, and furthermore, he knows how to make different movies - films that are like nothing else and that's why it's always so darn interesting to see his work. That doesn't mean that all that he do is outstanding, or even very good at all times for that matter. There seems to be a lot of people out there who likes him just because you're "supposed" to like him, and that's just plain stupid. I've watched most of his stuff that I've been able to get my hands on, and while some movies has been utterly amazing, some other stuff has just not been that great at all. Although, I'd have to admit that it's always very interesting to watch his films for the fact that they're always very different from what else is out there.
Imprint is a hard film to write about due to the fact that I'm somewhat indecisive to where I stand. While there were things that I really liked in the film, there were also a bunch of things that I didn't like. That's usually the case when it comes to most movies, but it feels harder to put a rating on this one, for different kinds of reasons. It's a good film, but that of course have positive as well as negative sides to it. Let's break it down shall we and maybe it's best to start with the complaints to get that over with..
 
First off, I wish they would've been speaking Japanese in the film, because that would've felt a helluva lot more genuine since the movie takes place in Japan, and everyone in it is Japanese, except for Billy Drago. He should've learned a few sentences in Japanese instead of everyone else speaking English. Why? Because like I said, it doesn't feel genuine - the language doesn't come natural to them and therefore the lines sometimes feels forced. Other than that, it's every now and then very hard to hear what they say. What else, well, too much focus on torture, at least when it comes to one scene when a whore is being tortured for about 5 minutes straight - it was hell to sit through that. I mean, the film obviously needs elements of torture, but I felt that the story was good/strong enough anyway, so with that scene being as (hyper) graphic as it was, wasn't really necessary. It's a matter of taste though, and I guess some people will like it for that reason.
Another thing that I felt didn't fit was the performance of Billy Drago. Simply put, it just didn't do the film justice and it felt like he was trying too hard which I guess made everything have the opposite effect to what it was supposed to have. This on the other hand is no major complaint and the film still remained more than watchable, but if I'm gonna be honest I didn't feel that his performance was very good - or that is, belivable enough. Ok, that's it, no more complaints. 30 minutes or so into the movie, I wasn't as caught up in it as I thought I would be and was, for a short while, afraid that it wasn't gonna deliver. It did deliver though, and started doing so around the time when the whore told Billy Drago her 3rd version of a story. When she did that, things got nasty as well as interesting and more clear as well as at the same time it remained somewhat mysterious. You can also add sick, horrific, repulsive, smart and spooky to that list and I'm still sure that I've forgotten about ten more words or so to describe it with. Either way, Imprint will leave a mark on you, that's for sure.
While Miike's contribution to Mick Garris' Masters of Horror series maybe wasn't the best episode that season 1 had to offer, it is definitely the most controversial one. I've only seen it one time so far and will be watching it again real soon, because I'm quite sure that this is one of those movies that'll grow on ya. A word of warning though: Imprint is not for the weak of heart of those easily offended either. The film features severe torture, extreme scenes of abortion, incest and a whole heap of other nasty and scary things, so beware of some strong content.
Hyun-soo has never seen her father, but has never been too bothered about that since she have had such a loving mother. With her mother being a plastic surgeon, she's always surrounded by girls who want beauty consultations. But things takes a different turn when Hyun-soo's friends who have had facial surgery done by her mother starts to commit suicides. Not only that, but Hyun-soo starts to feel the presence of someone else being in the house that she and her mother lives in and when she one day discovers a hidden basement within the house, she also finds her mothers dark secret.
Having recently just seen the very good film To Sir, With Love which more than just proved that they can still make great horror flicks in Korea, watching Cinderella didn't really make me loose faith in Korean horror all over again, but was at the same time a big disappointment. The film was slow, or at least the first hour or so, and the scares...well, they were really nowhere to be found. As usual, the movie looked slick, the acting was above decent but the story wasn't captivating enough and there were really no other things in it to make up for that either. I would only say that this would be worth watching if you're a die hard fan that feel the very need to watch all the horror the country releases. If you're not like that, save yourself the headache and skip this one.
Cinderella, makes one think of the fairy-tale right. Well, forget about that because this is not the same, even if you might be able to draw some similarities between the stories. No one meets a prince or looses a shoe here, one actually looses her face though, so hey, there you go. This movie, Cinderella, is about a mother that has a daughter who happens to be in a accident at a young age which makes the kids face become disfigured. The mother soon meets a (missing) girl who mistakes her for her real mommy, and so the mother takes her in and names her Hyun-soo, the same name that she gave her real kid. Hyun-soo grows up and is one happy girl and lives an all right life with her mother being a plastic surgeon and all. But much later, her friends who have had facial surgery done by her mother starts to commit suicides, and from there, things just keeps getting worse.
 
There were a few scares within the first 60 minutes of the film, but so non-effective that it was hard staying interested. The thing is that the story was just not interesting enough, and was actually a bit confusing within the first hour. The last 30 minutes were better, but were still just not good enough to make up for the snoozefest that one had to sit through for about an hour. The confusion went out the window though and things got cleared up, but it was still hard to stay all focused on the film. It might have one or two totally all right scenes, but most of the horror it delivered turned out to be a real mess. Also, the pacing was a bit uneven and way too slow early on which made it hard to stay interested and focused on what was going on.
I thought Arang was quite a mess, but Cinderella turned out to be even worse. And like I said before, only reason why you would wanna watch it is if you're a die hard fan that feel the need to watch all the horror the country spits out, other than that, it was just not worth the time. I first thought that the fact that the film deals a great deal with plastic surgery, might could've added something from a horror point of view, but even though it had some elements of that, it just didn't work out too well. Actually, nothing in Cinderella worked out too well.
Yet another horror flick that didn't do it on the horror front. It looked good like they always do, but with that you only get so far. I won't say that the story was all bad because it had some potential, but unfortunately I found it very hard to stay interested all the way through. Give it a shot if you like, but don't expect anything.
Detective Tae-su from Seoul returns to his homwtown to attend a funeral for a friend of his that has recently passed away. At the funeral he meets up with his old friends with one of them being a guy named Seok-hwan who along with Tae-su suspects that there is something that was not right about their friend, Wang-jae's death. So together they start to investigate the real cause behind Wang-jae's death and discover that one of their old friends named Pil-ho, who works in organized crime, might somehow have been involved.
The City of Violence is a very stylish new Korean kind of action movie dealing with two old friends who believes that there's something fishy behind their newly departed friends death. The title of the movie pretty much sums things up and if you like watching violence and fights on screen, then this movie is a definite must see. But obviously it has a lot more to it than just violence, even though it has more than plenty of that to offer. It also deals with old friends coming together after a long time away from each other, including flashbacks to when they were young, something that made the story telling work really well. The action elements were great in the movie, but it also had a drama part that felt genuine and did a lot for the movie as well.
Tae-su is a a detective, working in Seoul and fighting organized crime. He gets word that his old friend Wang-jae has recently passed and returns to his old hometown to attend the funeral. Once there he meet his old gang and they start to reminisce the good old days. Tae-su though believes that there was something that was not right with the way Wang-jae died, and together with his childhood friend Seok-hwan, they start to dig for the truth to what caused Wang-jae's death. Their digging for the truth makes the city turn into a chaotic battlefield and they discover that there's a lot more to Wang-jae's death once they start to scratch the surface.
 
The City of Violence had a slight Taratino feel to it, as well as it had a feel of some movies from the early 70's, even though it looks, and is, brand new. It also made me think of a few Hong Kong action flicks, not that it had borrowed stuff or ripped off things for that matter, but it just had that kind of feel to it. But most important is that even though it might have the same feel as some other genre films, it completely managed to stay on its own and was truly an entertaining piece of film to watch.
The violence itself looks realistic enough, but never so it became too much for one to sit through. It takes a break from breaking faces every now and then and delivers some fine pieces of dramatic cinema that even has some humour in it at times. So it's not just all about people getting beaten up, even though there's a lot of that going on. Basically, it's a very violent film but that has some good balance which makes things not seem as harsh as they first appears to be. Acting-wise it's all good with Tae-su and Seok-hwan looking really sharp and belivable as a team.
The City of Violence is an adrenaline kick and a real roller coaster ride to watch, filled with explosive action scenes. It's truly entertaining, violent as hell, but still offers some good drama with the story telling and pacing being really good. It's a slick movie that has a great feel to it with some cool characters and a story that is interesting as well as it's intense. Sounds good? It is, so go for it.
Six childhood friends, Ta, Por, Kim, Tae, Nuch and Ko, return to their village during their university break. There they meet Miss Panor, their elementary school teacher and Ta's estranged stepmother. Panor, a girl desired by many young men, is the catalyst of the ensuing misadventure that takes place one fateful night, the night that forces each of the six friends to reveal his/her dark secrets of the past. Competing to win her heart, several men in the village resort to dark magic and cast a Love Spell on Panor. The effect of the repeated exposure to such a powerful spell has driven Panor to lose her marbles; Panor tries to purge herself off the dark magic and seeks help from an Indian witch doctor, who prescribes her to a ritual of eating the flesh of those who've put the spell on her. But something goes wrong during the process, and Panor has turned into a powerful voodoo witch herself. On that dark night, Panor takes her six students on a trip into the underworld where she'll take her revenge on the men who have wronged her.
First off, Art of the Devil 2 is not a sequel even if the number 2 in the title would suggest that it is. The only thing the movies have in common is that they both deal with supernatural forces and black magic in Thai lore. Other than that, the movies have no relation whatsoever, so don't think that you have to watch the original movie before seeing this 2nd one. In fact, it's better to just skip the first boring and pointless film and go straight for the good stuff instead that is Art of the Devil 2. When talking about the good stuff I'm refering to all the blood, torture, gore and other supernatural creepiness that this film has to offer, because believe you me, it has a helluva lot of those things to offer.
When writing this, I've almost repressed all of what the first film had to offer. Only thing I really remember was that it was quite the snooze-fest along with it being very confusing and didn't have too much to offer. I had heard some positive things about Art of the Devil 2 before I saw it, but those things where only in relation to the very gore of the film, and I was actually a bit afraid that it might still be just as confusing as the first film was, only that this time around it would have some nice gore to it. Luckily that wasn't the case, and this 2nd film was quite easy to get into from the very beginning and at least it all came together in the end and left you with no confusion, something I was thankful for.
 
I guess most of us, who keep watching both western as well as eastern horror flicks, have gotten used to the fact that gore is not a big thing in Asian horror and that they instead rely more on the supernatural side of things. One new movie that steared away from that path recently was the South Korean flick To Sir With Love and that instead got a bit brutal and slashy instead of featuring the nowadays pretty boring ghost girls with long black hair. The Thai flick Scared did the same thing and so did Art of the Devil 2, and I'm glad to see that Asia produces these type of flicks just as well as they do with ghost flicks. Art of the Devil 2 deals with Thai black magic, some of the stuff very similar to voodoo but that's also all I'm gonna say about the subject. But the fact is that the movie offers some good supernatural ghostly scares, and also a helluva lot of gruesome gory scenes that are also way more effective than all the supernatural stuff.
The movie starts off with that hooks are coming out from a guy's body, all over the body and face as well. It looks pretty gruesome and you get to see everything up-close which makes things even more effective (and disgusting).. and just like that, you have an excellent start to a pretty great film. I liked the intro because it got the adrenaline pumping, but after that, the film slowed down a bit and dove into a semi-interesting story. It's good for a while and it was not hard to stay focused, but eventually too much time had gone by without anything really happening and I have to admit that I was close to getting bored when nothing had happened for a while and the kids started to talk about realtionships and all that crap. But then all of a sudden it got going again, full-on speed, and did not stop until the credits started to roll. So if you find yourself to be a bit bored in the middle of the film or so, take my word for it and just stick with it, because it's so worth the wait.
When it gets going, it delivers one nasty scene after another combined with some scenes that are not gruesome per say, but that are more focused on actual supernatural horror. Basically, it mixes plenty of gore with supernatural horror with a great effective result to come out in the end. I can't say that the supernatural parts were that scary, but at least they added something good to the film. The gore and torture parts on the other hand are sometimes so nasty that it was sometimes hard not to look away. There were especially one scene where a guy got his toe-nails pulled out which I just couldn't watch, and it's not too often that happens, so even if it was a horrible scene, it was still a very positive thing. And even though it had so many of those nasty gory scenes, it never felt like the movie tried too hard to make the viewer feel sick, but instead they all served a good purpose and delivered some great horrific horror.
Art of the Devil 2 might make you sick to the bone if you have a weak stomach, but is an Asian horror film that is truly worth watching. It separates itself from other Asian movies, and delivers tension as well as pure moments of true horror. If you're a fan of gore, this is a must see, but not a reason alone why you should watch it. I guess I forgot to mention the acting above, but it's all good so no worries when it comes to that. Skip the first movie and go straight for Art of the Devil 2, you won't regret it.
When an undercover cop is killed, Ko Chow is asked to go undercover and take the dead man's place, and try to infiltrate a gang of thieves responsible for a series of high-profile diamond robberies. Chow has to pose as a man who can supply guns needed for a jewelry heist, and later on Chow finds himself accompanying the gang on a robbery that goes totally wrong. Chow also becomes more involved with the gang on a deeper level and has a hard time dealing with what side to choose.
It is said that City on Fire was the HK movie that inspired Quention Tarantino when he made Reservoir Dogs. It's not hard to see, and if you've seen Reservoir Dogs, you'll recognize things here that are quite similar, and some that are the exact same. Or that is, that Reservoir Dogs is similar to City on Fire which was released five years before Tarantino's flick.
Ringo Lam is a great director and a big name when it comes to HK cinema, no wonder since he has truly made some great flicks (and some bad ones too). I can't really say that City on Fire is great, but it is still very good and entertaining. Chow Yun-Fat is as always great to watch, and Danny Lee makes a good performance too. Chow Yun-Fat infiltrates Danny Lee's gang but becomes very close to Danny Lee's character and Chow finds himself having a hard time to choose between his role as a cop or his allegiance to the gang.
 
When it comes to action, it's for the most all good. There are some really cool and intense scenes, and the movie is kinda raw at times as well. People get shot mercilessly, and it actually looks a bit more realistic than a lot of other similar types of action flicks do. While the movie is rather violent, it can also be a bit comical at times, and is a fast-paced flick that is interesting all the way through. It has a mix of being quite a bloody action flick, a thriller, a drama with a touch of comedy every now and then.
One problem that the movie has though, is that there are too many plots going on at the same time. Looking at it one way it's a cool thing with a lot going on and it's all ok to watch. Problem though is that there's not enough time to give all the plots the time they deserve to be fully developed. And while some plots are more interesting than others, they should've been given some more time. Tarantino's movie was a little bit different and had less going on which I personally think made it better. But watch this one to know where it came from.
If you're a fan of HK flicks, City on Fire is a must see. And if you're a fan of Reservoir Dogs, you should check this one out as well. Great action scenes, some truly violent scenes that makes the movie feel more realistic. The bond between Chow and Lee could've been developed much further but is ok for what it is. Recommended.
Satomi's brother is being accused for killing innocent school girls, chopping of their heads. While the brother seems nowhere to be found, Satomi, her sister and mother are constantly being harassed by reporters outside the house, and even by the police until the brother is captured. Since Satomi is sure her brother is innocent, she contacts a psychic in order to help her find him to clear his name. But it doesn't take long before the psychic and her assistant takes over and starts to control the family. Now, Satomi with her newly discovered psychic powers, must find a way to fight back to save her family and her brother.
Crazy Lips is a truly bizarre and strange Japanese horror movie, that has some extremely black humour in it as well. It's a low-budget flick with some really bizarre, twisted and sick scenes, and I'm not sure if people into Asian horror will appreciate it. It deals with necrophilia, rapes and suicides among other things, but it sounds much worse than it really is. These are things considered sick, but here it's neither scary or disturbing, it's just very stupid.
When watched Crazy Lips, it made me think about Miike's Visitor Q as they are a bit similar at certain places, and they are both really bizarre and weird movies. Now, I like most of Miike's movies, but I think Visitor Q really blows, and so does this one. It's not that I didn't understand it, it was just not very good. But if you like Visitor Q, then maybe you should give Crazy Lips a shot too, not saying that it is a clone, but they are somewhat similar at times.
Crazy Lips had a real low-budget feel to it, sometimes when watching these kinda flicks that you know had a low budget, they still can look pretty good every now and then. This does not, but it's not because of that reason that I'm saying that it is a bad flick. I can't say that it's slow, because a lot of things happen, some that are quite entertaining as well, or shocking, depending on your personal taste. But all these scenes that are "nasty" eventually turns out not to be very nasty after all. I hate to watch rapes on film, but here it was actually nothing, it all ends up just feeling dumb.
It has a lot of bizarre scenes and a lot of weird situations to offer, but none of them are really effective. Except for Visitor Q, at times it also feels like watching Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies as well, that with it being over-the-top, feature some stupid dialogue and some gore among other things. Not really sure about the acting, but can't say that it is really bad. I guess it has the kind of acting a movie like this needs. It's not your normal type of flick, and even if some of the acting sucks, it fits the whole concept of the movie if you know what I mean.
Only part of Crazy Lips that I enjoyed was in the end when you got to a lot of people fighting in a forest. It had some gore to it, and it was quite funny as well. Other than that, the movie kinda sucked and I really couldn't recommend it. There's also a sequel to Crazy Lips called Gore from Outer Space, but after having to sit through this one, I'm not sure I can take something similar for a long time.
Film director Ryu comes home from work to find himself attacked by an intruder and when he regains consciousness he is tied with elastic ropes that stretches and therefore lets him move a little. Then he sees his wife who's tied up like a marionette puppet at the piano and have her fingers glued to the piano keys. The intruder tells him that he worked as an extra on one of Ryu's film sets and hates the director because he treats everyone with respect and apparently is jealous of the directors fame. He wants Ryu to show that also he can be evil, and if he can't prove it he'll chop off one of Ryu's wifes fingers every five minutes. Ryu, after seeing that the intruder means business, starts to confess to things he's not very proud of but this does not satisfy the intruder and finally he wants Ryu to commit murder of a little girl brought into the room to prove that also he can be evil.
Out of the three movie in the Three Extremes collection I found Cut to be the best piece by far. Byung-hun Lee (A Bittersweet Life, Addicted, JSA) who stars as film director Ryu is one of my fave actors when it comes to Korean flicks and Cut was also directed by Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, JSA) who's just a brilliant director. So when just looking at it like that, I was convinced this short film would not fail to impress, and neither it did.
Ryu, a film director and a likable and nice guy comes home one day from a shooting and finds an intruder in his home. Later on he wakes up and notice that he has been tied up with elastic ropes and he also discovers that his wife has been tied up like a marionette puppet at the piano with her fingers glued to the keys. At first he can't for his life figure out what the intruder want but soon becomes more aware of the demented individual who has him captured in his own home. Apparently the guy worked as an extra on one of Ryu's film sets and has a serious problem with the director being too nice and that he lack inner evil. And this seems to be his whole reason for doing this as he wants Ryu to show that he has an evil side to him as well.
 
He wants Ryu to confess to things he has done in the past to prove that he's not such a good man after all. The former insane extra also says that he'll chop off one of Ryu's wifes fingers every five minutes if he's not satisfied with Ryu's confessions. Ryu soon realizes that the man means business and eventually starts to confess to things he's not very proud of. He lets everything come out and even things that he know will hurt his wife, but the extra never seems to be fully satisfied and the further time goes by, the more fingers Ryu's wife starts missing.
Why this is the best movie out of the three is mainly because it's the one that is most easy to get involved in and where you really can't help but to feel for the characters. Other than that, it's the most brutal one out of the three and even the most graphical. The viewer gets to sit through torture, amputation, child abuse among other things and it's hard not to be affected by it all.
The directing is absolutely awesome and the story has some twists to it, and really delivers in the end. The psychotic intruder speaks in a totally different dialect which also makes him separate himself even more from the other characters, and that's a fun little addition to the whole thing as it makes it even more different. The acting is brilliant and Byung-hun Lee really stands out as the director who has to go through hell and makes the movie experience feel quite realistic.
Of course Cut is quite short only lasting for 48 minutes, but that's just about enough. I don't know how it would've come out looking if it would've been a full length feature, but it doesn't really matter, it's just great the way it is. The best film in Three Extremes but that doesn't mean Box and Dumplings were not very good as well. Definitely worth a look.
Hye-young is a young woman who works as a sidewalk artist in Amsterdam. She keeps getting flowers delivered to her door every day, without ever knowing who sends them. Park-yi is a hitman, also working in Amsterdam, and has fallen for Hye-young, but just admires her from afar, and never shows himself to her. One day though, while Hye-young sits out in the street doing sketches of people, she meets Jeong-woo, an elite Interpol agent, whom she starts to fall for, and who of course gets in the way for Park-yi who has yet to reveal himself for her.
Directed by HK superstar Andrew Lau, Daisy is a nice little piece of film dealing with two men, both on different sides of the law, and both attracted to the same young girl. The location is Amsterdam, something that felt weird at first, but that just got better and better the further you watched. What I mean is that I wanted to see a Korean film, and when they mix Koreans with this European location, and western people in general, I wasn't sure if it would be any good. I mean, you watch Korean flicks because they're different from western flicks, but when started to watch Daisy, it felt more like some European drama with some Koreans in it. Luckily things didn't turn out that way, and Daisy felt like a geuine Korean (well, with a touch of HK) flick, that just uses Amsterdam as a location, and a great location it sure is. The scenery looks beautiful and fits the movie perfectly.
Daisy is a fairly simple movie, dealing with one girl, one cop and one hitman, were both of the two latter are attracted to the girl. The hitman though saw her long before the cop ever did, and keeps delivering flowers (can you guess what kind of flowers?) to her doorstep every day, shouts "flowers" and hides away before she can see him. Now this guy is such a sweetheart that he even built a bridge for the girl (without her knowing about it), when he saw her fall off another unstable bridge located close by. Now, maybe he should've thought about showing himself at one point or another, because unfortunately for him, a cop named Jeong-woo shows up one day and starts talking to the girl. And from then on, Jeong-woo keeps showing up and eventually the girl falls for the guy, leaving the hitman with a broken heart.
 
A lot of other things happen during the way, but I won't spoil anything for potential viewers. All I can say is that Daisy was kind of a nice flick, a little bit too cute at times, and a little bit too cliché, but that was still ok to watch. Since there's one cop and one hitman in the movie, plus some other criminals, we of course get to see some shoot-outs and so on, but if you're looking for an action movie, it's recommended to look elsewhere. The acting is really good; Playing Hye-young is Ji-hyun Jun (My Sassy Girl), while playing Park-yi is Woo-sung Jung (Musa the Warrior), and playing Jeong-woo is Sung-jae Lee (Holiday, Public Enemy, Attack the Gas Station!). So that all makes for a really good cast. Another good thing was the score which was just nice and very suiting. Nothing I would sit and listen to at home, but it worked wonders in the movie.
Daisy tells a pretty simple love triangle story, but that is easy to watch, and that has some good feeling to it as well. The scenery looks amazing, and you'll get to learn a few things about flowers on the way (well, not too much I guess). Not great, but makes for a pretty good, nice looking and well-acted drama.
Hitomi moves in to a crummy apartment in a shitty building with her little daughter. Shortly after moving in she sees huge water stains in the ceiling which is dripping down onto the floor and each day the stain gets bigger and bigger. She talks to the landlord and the building manager to help fix the problem but time goes by and nothing happens. Her daughter later finds a red bag which Hitomi gives to the building manager as it might belong to someone else, but later on her daughter comes with the bag again and even though Hitomi throws it away it re-appears. She finds out that the bag belonged to a girl that appears missing and more and more strange things start to happen that in the end ties everything together.
After the first viewing of Ringu by the same director, Hideo Nakata, I wasn't sure if I could actually take another movie like that as Ringu scared the living crap out of me. But having it in my hand I kinda had to watch it and it ended up being not half as scary as Ringu of course (nothing could be) but still scary enough and it was a very good movie to watch.
Too bad they also made a shitty remake of it, but back to the original one, it has a interesting story and will make you jump out of your seat a few times, that is if you get into the story and if you're not too dumb to realise when it's scary like some people have proven to be.
 
You must be somewhat impressed by the director to first pull off a movie like Ringu, and then something like this. It uses these special camera angles like in Ringu/The Eye to improve the eeire atmosphere, and it works so well, too well one could say as it gets really creepy at times.
In the beginning it might feel a little bit slow-paced, but once it takes off, it stays that way until the very end.
Dark Water have some really good scares, and the overall creepy atmosphere in the building it takes place in adds a genuine horror feel to it. I would recommend, for the best effect, and to get most out of Dark Water, to watch it alone at night.
The story is quite simple, Lily Chung plays the young daughter who is found as the only survivor when the rest of her family have been massacred. Although she's not as innocent as she seems but on the other hand there were tons of factors that drove her to it and that would have driven other people to it as well for sure. Constantly being raped by her father and actualy bullied like hell by her own family made her take revenge.
I think of all the Hong Kong Cat III movies out there this is actually one of the few that actually feel most real and kinda brutal to watch at times. What I mean is that the other Cat III movies often, while being bizarre and bloody, still have such a big amount of humour in them that you can never take them really seriously and that's what differs them from Daughter of Darkness which is a movie that is just plain dark.
It's not a spoiler and just because you know what's gonna happen doesn't mean that you can't watch the movie plus there's more to it then mentioned here. If you enjoy Cat III movies then this one is for you, but forget the idiotic humour this time and instead get ready for a disturbing experience. It's actually kinda hard to sit and watch the way her family treats her, it's not funny nor entertaining, just sick but it's still makes a good movie and is definitely worth to watch.
 
Anthony Wong has a role in the movie as a police man and he's always fun to see on screen, and he of course has his moments here too which are quite sick ones and of the very dark humour kind but still great to watch. He's not nearly as twisted as in Ebola Syndrome though so don't expect anything like that, it's two completely different movies.
Daughter of Darkness is a bit different from many other Cat III movies but if you're into to the genre and haven't seen it yet, I suggest you give it a shot.
Ji-won is a college student who's suffering from amnesia and can't remember anything about her past. Suddenly, old high school friends of hers starts dying one by one and for some unknown reason they all seem to have been drowned. Ji-won begins to look for what could be the cause and for who's drowning them. Then she comes across another girl from her old school who's a bit strange and is apparently very afraid of even a touch of water. Could she have something to do with Ji-won's friends dying?
This isn't by far the most original horror movie coming out of Asia, although I still think it was better then your average Asian horror flick and is, if not original, at least very entertaining with a cool unpredictable twist in the end which helps and makes the movie a bit more interesting.
Since there has been so many horror movies coming out of Asia in recent times it's easy to miss the good ones when there are so many movies out there that are basically just a waste of time even for the real Asian horror buffs, but this is actually one of the good ones and if you're into Asian horror I would recommend you to check this one out, and if you're not into to it then check it out anyway, you might get into it.
 
Once again it's not original but the story is pretty interesting, well enough to keep you wanna watch anyway. It has a few scares even though you might have seen similar things before, but some stuff's still ok.
What I especially liked about about this movie is the actual drama in it over the horror which was that it was pretty much your normal korean horror with a few ok scares, but the drama part and the acting is really good. Also it's nicely directed and looks great visually.
Slow paced? No not really, not more than your average Asian horror flick, it's worth checking out but don't expect too much.
The visually stunning beginning of the movie tells the story of a doll maker who makes a doll and uses his real life love as a model for it. The doll maker being unaware of that the actual doll he made somehow became living even though it looked exactly like a doll and shortly there after his girl was found hung in a tree and the doll maker was accused for her murder and therefore killed. Much later on in present time four people are invited to a house to be models for dolls but a fifth one also comes along without being invited. The house itself is full of dolls made out of human models. After just being in the house a short while, strange things start to happen to each one of the newly arrived guests and there are also other strange things going on there, like a man being chained in the basement and some weird acting girl in a red dress showing up every now and then.
This movie looks fantastic when it starts, it has this stunning intro and the way the story is told in the introduction itself makes it look like a dark fairytale which I found very appealing. It also has this music to go with the intro which fits it just perfectly and you so wish the movie's gonna look, sound and be like this till the very end, unfortunately it's just like this in the very beginning.
The rest is of course watchable and looks very good too, but the actual intro got my hopes up so much it was kinda hard to get into it as much once the intro finished.
 
The characters in this movie are all not very likable except for maybe one girl who seems to be the most normal one, but the acting of all is very good, not being an unusual thing when it comes to Korean movies.
The Doll Master is a decent horror flick with a few good scares and a lot of scares that might not be so good, there are actually a whole lot of scares in it and once it gets started it keeps going like that almost throughout the movie and even though it might not be that scary, at least stuff happen all the time and keeps it from being slow paced.
Towards the ending it gets a bit dull though and I wish they would've considered doing something else there, but then at the actual ending there's a really cool short scene where a lot of dolls comes alive and it was very nicely done.
All in all I think The Doll Master is an ok horror movie that's worth checking out, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's really good because it's not.
An abnormal taxi driver starts killing women that he picks up night after night in his taxi. He lust for blood every time it rains, and kills them in his car, and then takes them home to take pictures of them, and to cut them up. But eventually he gets caught by the police, and after a while they make him confess to everything.
Personally I consider Dr. Lamb to be one of those movies that really stands out when it comes to HK Category III movies. The film, like most other Cat III films, has some humour in it, but even if Dr. Lamb features some humour, it's a genuine dark film that might even be very disturbing for some. There are a few scenes that contains very graphic and disturbing images, and even if you're used to this type of movies, Dr. Lamb might still be able to get to you. But most of all, the movie portayes a disturbed serial killer in an excellent way. Graphical or not, the overall story is quite interesting and the movie is well done. Danny Lee is always a good actor, and Simon Yam sure seems to know what it's like to kill women and drive a taxi.
Dr. Lamb begins with that the police capture the killer, and takes him and his relatives downtown for questioning. They interview his dad, his sister, brother-in-law or whatever and beat Dr. Lamb A LOT for about half an hour or so. Then the killer obviously can't take it anymore, or he's just sick of the whole thing and starts to confess to the police. After that for the rest of the movie, the viewer get to follow Dr. Lamb's doings by flashbacks while the killer's confessing to the police. So everything the viewer get to see has already happened, and it's an interesting way to tell his story.
 
The first two of his victims were girls who were drunk and who called him names, while the third one was an innocent girl who wanted to be a school teacher. With the first two girls, it's easy to tell that the man couldn't care less, and that he felt hate for them. But the third one was different, and we get to see a new side of the killer, the more gentle side, something that adds a little something extra to the overall experience. So it's not your normal horror were some psychopat goes around and butchers people left to right, and that's a good thing and something that makes you take the film more seriously.
It's not extremely gory, but there are some scenes where breasts are cut off which are somewhat horrible to sit and watch. But this makes for the Cat III elements, and people who's into that sort of stuff will not be left unsatisfied watching Dr. Lamb. Another thing that takes Dr. Lamb to a new level of horror is that it features one scene that deals with necrophilia. Now, don't get me wrong here and send me angry emails. Personally I think necrophilia is a sick thing that I would never practise or encourage others to practise. BUT, in this movie it's great and makes it even more horrifying.
I wish that more horror flicks would dare to take things to a more extreme level sometimes, everything is often the same and you've seen it all before, and since this is a Cat III movie, it's very welcome to see stuff like this. Even though you never get to see actual penetration, it's still graphical enough for one to very well know what's going on. So a lot of credit to the makers for taking things up a notch.
A lot of these type of HK flicks always has a big amount of humour were, at best, half of it works well. Dr. Lamb features just a small amount of humour, but all of it works quite well, and brings some light to the otherwise somewhat depressing tale of a psychopatic killer. But for most of the time, the movie is quite dark, and features quite a few disturbing things and scenes. But it's not just gore and horror, as it has a story that is easy to get into, and that remains interesting from beginning till the very end. Simply put, Dr. Lamb is a very good Cat III movie.
Mrs. Li is a middle-aged woman who once was the star of a popular tv-show. During the time when she was on the show she met her husband who now just seems to be interested in younger girls and is having an affair on the side. Desperate to turn back time and go back to her young and beautiful self, Li seeks out Mei who claims to have the secret to restoring youth. Apparently Mei is decades older than she appears to be, and her secret is dumplings. That is, dumplings filled with a secret ingredient.
Just to make things absolutely clear; This is a review for the feature-length version of Fruit Chan's Dumplings and not the shorter version that was included in the Three...Extremes package. If you've already seen the shorter version like I had before watching this one, the big question is of course if it's worth to sit through the long version as well. And the answer is yes, it sure is. I found this feature-length version to be way more interesting than the shorter version. After all, while the short version only lasted for 37 minutes, this one lasts for 91 minutes which makes it a bit more than twice as long. Now you of course wonder what the major differences between the two are, and I would say that seeing it from a horror point of view, the differences are not too big. But on the drama side of things there's a huge difference, since the feature-length version takes its time developing the characters and making us feel something for them, and when watching this version, it kinda made the shorter version feel a bit rushed so to speak. Don't get me wrong here since I believe that the shorter version sure delivered, but if you liked what that version had to offer, you should most definitely give this one a go since here you'll really get your money's worth.
When I first started to watch this full-length feature, I pretty much just wanted to see what they had left out in the short version. To my big surprise though, watching this actually felt like watching a brand new great movie, rather than watching something I had already seen and knew the story to. This version has subplots that are completely missing in the short version, but biggest thing I think is what I said above; That we get to know the characters not just a bit more, but way better which also makes you care more and makes the film come out looking better once the credits roll. That is, even though you might know how it ends right from the start.
 
In Dumplings you could call the character named Mei the fountain of youth. She makes dumplings containing fetuses that makes you younger, and Mrs. Li who wants nothing more than to be young again, of course goes for it. When first visiting Mei, Li is treated to some of Mei's normal dumplings that are supposed to make you look younger as well but that don't really have that much effect. Mei lets Li know that she could make other dumplings of the most potent stuff there's to find, but that the ingredient itself is quite hard to find. Li then lets Mei know that she really wants it, and money is no object. It's funny to see when Li finds out what's in the dumplings when she sees Mei making them for her. At first she feels sick and leaves Mei's apartment, but to later come back and to go for it. It's amazing to see what she's willing to go through in order to look young again, after all, it's cannibalism folks.
I'm not sure whether or not one special scene was featured in the short version, but it's where you get to see Mrs. Li's husband, Li, eating eggs that contains chicken fetuses. It's of course totally repulsive, but the fact is that this man is trying to keep his youth as well. Best thing with Dumplings is that it really doesn't take sides. It just shows you the whole thing and lets you being the viewer decide what is bad and what is good, who is the worst and so on. It could've easily gone in one direction but I'm happy that it didn't. In fact, all of the characters are both good and bad, and since the movie gives them a lot of depth, you'll probably come to like them and feel that you somehow understand their actions even considering some of the things they're doing.
Dumplings is a really stunning movie that uses awesome colours that looks absolutely amazing. The directing is top-notch and the photography is to die for. If you don't care about these sort of things, let me instead tell you that basically you get everything here, that is except for cheap scares considering Dumplings being a horror movie and all. The actual horror in this film is the subject it deals with and along with that, there are plenty or disturbing images and at some point the movie is bound to more or less gross you out. The acting is absolutely brilliant and it's almost impossible to not get caught up in the interesting and rewarding story. It's a movie that makes you think and at the same time it entertains. Well worth watching, and forget about the short version...this is the real deal.
Anthony Wong stars as Kai, a restaurant employee, who in the beginning of the movie have sex with his boss wife and gets caught by the boss and therefore "have to" murder him. After killing off his boss he flees to South Africa and starts to work in a restaurant and gets another boss that he learns to hate. One day out in the bush with his boss buying meat to the restaurant, Kai sees a Zulu-girl and rapes her. Too bad because the Zulu-girl was infected with the ebola virus and so is Kai after what he did. So he gets sick and just lays around in the restaurant getting worse and worse, and hears that the boss wife wants him killed since she's afraid that she might get infected with what he's carrying (they don't know it's the ebola virus though).
But instead Kai kills off his new boss and also his wife, chops them up and makes hamburgers of their meat which he sells in the restaurant and by doing so spreading the ebola virus.
This movie is one of my favourite movies, first time I saw it I couldn't believe that someone had made a movie as cool as this, and since then I've watched it a number of times and it's just so entertaining, humorous and most of all, different from a lot of other stuff out there.
Anthony Wong is great as the somewhat demented Kai and delivers a fantastic performance that is so good to watch. It's not for everyone and I guess there are a lot of people who would hate Ebola Syndrome or think that it's too much, it's all a matter of taste though, according to me it's abrilliant film.
 
As you probably understand from the story, this movie contains a lot of gore and other sickening things. Thing though is that even if it's somewhat explicit at times, it's done with a lot of humour which makes it somewhat less horrible.
The movie also contains all these little things that makes it so great. It's funny and it's a really cool to see what the psychopatic Kai's gonna do next. If you have a weak stomach then it might not be for you, or if you have really serious (that means dry and boring) humour for that matter then it's probably better to watch something else.
This movie is pure gold, a true HK cult classic, and Ebola Syndrome is a must have.
Set thousands years in the future where vampires used to rule the night but that have been reduced in numbers due to bounty hunters. One of these bounty hunters is a halfbreed called D; A dhampir with a human mother and a vampire father. When a young girl named Charlotte is kidnapped by a vampire named Meier Link, the girl's father hires D and also a rival group of hunters named the Markus brothers to retrieve her. When trying to catch up with Meier Link and the girl, D and the other group has to fight hordes of demons and travel far across a land that has dangers lurking in every corner. But as they come closer to their target, both D and the group begins to suspects that the girl wasn't kidnapped after all and that she might have gone with Link out of her own free will.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the sequel to the animated Vampire Hunter D movie that came out in 1985 and is in fact just as good as the original. This film, being made 15 years after the release of the first movie of course looks a lot better, even though the original still looks great even today. Bloodlust, just like the first flick was based on a popular novel-size comic book written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano where we get to follow a halfbreed named D who's a silent bounty hunter with a human mother and a vampire father. D makes a living slaying vampires, and while he's absolutely great at his job, he still constantly has to fight his urge to drink blood, because underneath it all, he still has a lot of vampire instincts in him. I used to watch anime on a regulary basis when I was younger, but even though I hardly watch any nowadays, I would have to say that Bloodlust is so worth watching, whether you're into the genre or not. It's simply just an amazing flick.
The character D has a few similarities to Clint Eastwoods character in Sergio Leone's spaghetti western films, and those films definitely comes to mind when watching Bloodlust as well as the original. They're both bounty hunter, extremely good at what they do and most of all, either one of them doesn't say too much as well as they've something that is dark and mysterious surrounding them. Now, the films of D are of course set in a totally different time and landscape, but the movies sure have a few things in common. Just like Eastwood's character, D is very likable even though he doesn't say too much, but it's more his actions that shows that what he's doing is (for most of the time) something good.
 
I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes when watching some types of anime flicks, I can find it to be really difficult to get into the story with too many characters, too much background story that needs to be taken in and such. It might also be that I don't really have a genuine interest in most anime flicks so that my brain, without me telling it to, kinda switches over to off-mode whenever I try to watch these films. Not sure what it is, but I can tell you that Bloodlust is extremely easy to get into and that it has a story that is quite simple, yet very interesting not to mention captivating. The character named D is easy to root for and it's super simple to keep track of all the (few) characters that are in this movie, and they are all great in their own way too.
So why is this such a good flick? Well, first off you have your hero who's just such an awesome character, and throughout the movie you feel that you wanna get to know him deeper while the film at the same time teases you and lets you get to know just enough to make it work - and it all works out perfectly. Secondly, you have all the extremely cool looking monsters and fights that really are to die for. Don't expect those usual boring anime type of fights, but instead everything here is quite brutal and visually stunning, and you can't wait to see more and more people being killed, it just looks so darn good. Ok, it might sound a bit sick what I'm saying, but watch the film and you'll understand. Talking about visually stunning, the animation in this movie is absolutely fantastic and everything looks truly amazing. It has all these great looking visuals, but it's never so much that it takes focus off the story or the characters themselves. That's what's separates a movie like this from a movie like Blood: The Last Vampire which looked truly beautiful, but that was in fact pretty hollow on the inside when thinking about it...just like with a lot of girls out there if you know what I'm saying.
Even if you're not into animation and such, don't dismiss this movie just because of that reason alone. I'm almost certain that if you would take time to watch it, you'd also truly enjoy and dig it. For horror fans, this movie is great and for people who are into animation as well as horror, this one's da bomb.
The emperor of the Kingdom of Shilla destroys the Auta tribe that worships the Great Tree, and the hole were the tree once stood turns into a dark lake. A sword is set at the lake to seal off the sorcery power of the Auta Tribe. 1000 years later the Kingdom of Shilla, under Queen Chinsong’s reign, becomes weaker as time goes by, and has to fight endless battles in hope to save the nation. General Biharang, one of the queens most trusted men fights for his country, but after years of wars he just wants to live a quiet life with his love Jaunbie, a peasant girl. When Biharang yet joins another battle, some assassins are sent to kill Jaunbie, and when she's trying to escape them, she falls into the lake and releases the spirit of the Auta Tribe.
This is a hell of an entertaining fantasy movie. I know it has gotten some bad reviews, and even though it has it's faults, it sure has a lot more greater things in it to make up for it as well. Watching The Legend of the Evil Lake kinda remained me of the HK movie The Bride with White Hair. Not that it borrows from that movie or anything, it's just similar at certain places, they both feature super natural stuff and both contains huge amounts of fantasy elements.
The Legend of the Evil Lake is first and most a love story about this General Biharang, working for the queens army and this peasant girl, Jaunbie, that is the love of his life. After the assassins try to kill her and she falls into the evil lake, her body is possessed by the Auta tribe's warlock and she goes after the assassins. Later on Biharang finds her when she's attacking the queen and some guards and lets her get away, despite that she's not herself anymore. He refuses to let anyone kill her since he can tell that there are still something left of her real self in the possessed body.
But while it's first and most a love story, it mixes different genres into the whole thing which gives us a little of everything. The movie itself is kinda fairy-tale like, and the story together with the surroundings and the overall atmosphere sure makes it feels like you're watching a fairy-tale. There's a lot of fantasy elements here which makes the fairy-tale feeling even greater. Other than that, there are some swordplay, many action scenes and some martial art scenes as well.
 
The viewer gets treated to a lot of fight scenes were blood is gushing at times, were arms and legs are chopped off and were heads roll. This is something that makes the movie even better since it gets to be raw every now and then, and therefore ends up just not a cute fantasy love story.
Since we get some Korean history in the movie as well, it also makes the war and battle scenes feel a bit more genuine, and everything that has to do with them are well shot and choreographed. Actually the whole movie is well shot and looks really good, and the different surroundings and the overall environment really adds a lot of feeling when watching this flick.
The movie uses has a bunch of CGI effect, and I remember some effect used in the beginning of the movie did not look too good, but it's not used that often and are for most of the time totally ok to watch when used. I'm not a big fan of these type of effects used in movies but it's totally watchable anyway.
The actors all to a decent job with the characters, only thing that ended up being totally ridiculous was when Jaunbie being possessed and starts talking. They've added effects to the voice that's suppose to make it sound, I guess evil, but it just sounds stupid. Fortunately she does not speak much while being in the possessed state. Another thing that was bugging me a bit was that Biharang says the name Jaunbie like times in the movie and that was kinda annoying. Although, these complaints are just minor things that does not really matter or that brings the movie down that much. All the faults are basically just little things that are all fairly easy to ignore.
Why this flick gets such a high rating is mainly because it's so darn entertaining. There's not a slow minute or a dull moment in the movie, and the action and overall fantasy feeling is great. It's a nice love story, not gripping, but still interesting enough for you to care what gonna happen. Also the mix of many kinds of genres are great and makes the viewer get a little of everything. Recommended.
Set in the future, the city has been devastated after an atomic blast and there's an evil villain controlling the city's water supply. This villain is out to destroy the military government and action needs to be taken against him. The Heroic Trio has gone their separate ways but has to re-unite in order for them to save the city from the evil man that is out to rule the entire country.
Executioners is more than just a sequel as it is very different compared to the first movie and takes a whole different turn than the first one did. While the original movie was simple but greatly entertaining, this one has much more to it story and character wise. It's also a whole lot darker and some of the humour that was found in the first flick is nowhere to be found in this one. The setting of the movie itself also brings a certain type of atmosphere, a gloomy and dark future where the city has been somewhat destroyed by a atomic blast.
Once again we are introduced to the Heroic Trio consisting of Wonder Woman, Invisible Woman and Thief Catcher, but this time they have gone their separate ways and have layed the old days of being superheros behind them. They all have new life now and are doing different things far more normal then being heroes, but things are about to change. After a while one of them decides to take action but is imprisoned for her efforts, something that in the end leads to a tragic outcome. This movie is far more realistic than the first as people actually turn up dead here, and it all has a darker feeling to it, with the military rule and all.
 
This movie also deals with the concept of conspiracy and corruption. There are a lot of things here that the first movie didn't have and I was happy that it was just not another sequel. Even though it actually is a sequel, it's still something else and also something totally different. A very good thing though is that they kept the main characters and that all of them are portrayed by the same actors as in Heroic Trio. Even Anthony Wong is part of Executioners, playing the same character as he did in the first movie.
Executioners is also a lot more slow-paced than Heroic Trio was. The first flick just kept on going like a speeding train without ever stopping to re-fuel, while Executioners slows down every now and then to let everything sink in. The first movie was better as a whole, but this one is good too and I really like the fact of how different this one is.
When it comes to action you'll get plenty. There's a lot of Kung Fu fighting, martial arts and cool action sequences every now and then. Some of the actual plot is a bit confusing and the movie might be needed to be viewed a second time to fully be able to grasp it all. There are flaws of course, but most of them are fairly easy to overlook. I've heard a lot of complaints about this movie, and I guess most of those complaints came from people who either expected it to be the first movie all over again, people who has a short attention span or those who are not used to Asian cinema. It's not a hard movie to watch, even if there are too many characters at times and things can be hard to keep track on, it's still a good and different sequel.
Very different from The Heroic Trio but still manages to be a good sequel. Executioners has a much darker mood and a more desperate feeling to it, all set in a gloomy devastated metropolis. It's a good movie, but very different to the first one, slower but has more story to it and a lot of great action as well.
By examining and interpreting skulls, Hyun-min reconstructs faces for the police but as his daughter's getting more and more sick and has to undergo a heart transplant, he decides to quit his job and instead take care of his daughter full time. The police are at the same time dealing with a series of murder cases were apparently all the victims seem to have had their flesh dissolved caused by acid. A girl named Sun-young seeks out Hyun-min with the skull of a victim and asks him to reconstruct the face. When leaving the skull in Hyun-min's house, his daughter suddenly starts to have visions of woman in a white robe and once finished the reconstructing of the face they find out that the vicitims all suffered from something called beta-allergy. Hyun-min later finds out that his daughter suffers the same condition and that she got her new heart by someone who also did.
I remember there was a lot of fuzz surrounding this movie before it was officially released and when it came out I was really excited to see it, but ended up a bit disapointed after viewing it since it wasn't that great of a horror film.
Some time later I decided to give the movie a go again and sat down to watch it and then I really appreciated it for what it was; a pretty good suspense thriller and not really the horror movie it claims to be.
 
It's actually really good for being a thriller but if you wanna get scared, then I would advise you to look somewhere else. It has elements of horror here and there but I wouldn't recommend it if you're just out for plain horror.
Face is not your average Asian ghost story and that is one thing that makes it feel refreshing. Other than that the movie offers great actors, a good score and an interesting suspense story.
Not too much to complain about here really, it's definitely recommended if you're into Asian horror flicks but wanna see something new and somewhat different for a change
Huo Yuan Jia suffers a humiliating defeat as a young boy, and after that he swears that no one will ever defeat him again. He grows up to be a great fighter without anyone ever being equal. But his arrogance, pride and immaturity leads to that he's stripped of everything he holds dear. He loses his spirit and wanders the countryside of China until he comes across a small village where he meets a blind girl who teaches him the concept of humility and honor. As time goes by, he starts to feel better and becomes a better person as well, only to later hear about that an American is defeating fighters and calls them sick men of Asia. Now Huo has to get back on the horse, but this time he does not fight for his own pride but for the people of China.
Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat have all done some pretty amazing movies in the past, but later when they all ended up in America, it all turned to complete shite. It's sad that a lot of people out there only know Jackie Chan from such disasters as Rush Hour 1-2 or Jet Li from Romeo Must Die and whatever kind of crappy flicks. And that's why it's so fun to see Jet Li going back to his roots, starring in a kung fu flick about China, in China, speaking Chinese.
Ronny Yu has done a brilliant job with Fearless and I've always liked him as a director. I know a lot of people had it in for Bride of Chucky but personally I think that was a great flick too, but compared to Fearless, it's nothing. Even though the plot is somewhat simple and have been seen before in other Kung Fu flicks before, the story is strong and the characters, especially Li's charater are even stronger. There's a little humour baked in here and there, but overall it's a pretty dark film, at least for some time.
 
It starts off great with Li as a kid who wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a great fighter. Soon though he suffers a defeat from another boy and that day he swears that he'll never be beaten again. He grows up and becomes a fantastic fighter and no one stands a chance against him, but he's way too arrogant and soon things take a different turn. He wanders the countryside as a broken man but later comes across a village where he stays and where there's a blind girl who helps him deal with himself. Even though he's kinda arrogant, his character is likable throughout the movie, before and after the change, but it all makes for a great story that is easy to get into and that's interesting from start to finish.
So what about the fights? Well there are plenty of fights and they all look absolutely amazing. The fighting scenes have such energy and sucks you in whether you want it or not. I was absolutely amazed at times when watching some of the fights, the direction is superb and the choreography is fantastic. There's a lot of adrenaline to this flick and it's hard not to get all excited when watching some of the stuff going on onscreen. The movie manages to combine drama and actual Kung fu in a great way, it's touching, heart-warming but at the same time violent and always entertaining.
Jet Li recently announced that Fearless would be his last martial arts film, and in one way it's a great movie to leave the whole scene with, but on the other hand, after seeing him in Fearless you definitely wanna see him in other martial arts film as well. I liked this movie more than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and much more than Hero, and it made me think about Jet Li's earlier movies like The Tai Chi Master and Fong Sai Yuk. So if you're a fan of those movies or movies similar to those, Fearless is a must see, and if you're a fan of Kung Fu flicks and Asian Cinema in general, it's also a definite must see. Truly recommended.
When a man named Million is found murdered, done in with an ice pick, Chow Sing-Sing who's a dead ringer for the man goes undercover to take his place. He do this to see if Million's wife had something to do with her husband getting killed, even though his girlfriend hates when he goes undercover. The deeper he goes undercover, the more he starts to feel some kind of attraction to Million's wife, and he also finds out that his girlfriend maybe playing around on the side too.
This is the third movie in the Fight Back to School trilogy, and this time the movie's a parody of Basic Instinct and does not deal with schools of any kind. Funny man Stephen Chow stars as Chow Sing-Sing, who goes undercover in order to solve a murder case. When a guy named Million is done in with an ice pick, Chow's boss orders Chow to go undercover since he looks exactly like the man who was murdered. He tells Million's wife that he has lost his memory, but even though she think he's a fake, she accepts him anyway.
No attempt is made to connect this third movie to it's predecessors, so you don't have to have seen them in order to understand this. Thing though is that this one is the least funniest movie out of the three (that of course all depends on your taste). It's comedy all the way, and while it sometimes works really well, most of the time it just feels a bit too much. It never really takes itself seriously at any point but since this is not, like parodies in general, a serious movie to begin with, it doesn't really matter.
What you need to have seen though is Basic Instinct, because if you haven't seen it, a lot of the jokes will be lost, and the story won't seem half as good either. Anita Mui portrays Sharon Stone and does a great job doing so, and we get to see a lot of things that happened in Basic Instinct happen here too, but in a comical way of course. Also we get to see some parody of God of Gamblers 2, which Chow was in as well.
Fight Back to School 3 has some moments every now and then when it's very hard not to laugh. But in the end it just becomes too much and feels like a mess, kinda like watching a Leslie Nielsen movie or something. The acting is ok, if somewhat over-the-top 80 percent of the time. But on the other hand, over-the-top acting actually works when it comes to this type of HK flick.
Just like with a lot of parodies/comedies, the first half hour or so works well, and has some quite funny stuff in it. But eventually it feels to much and keeps going like that for another hour, even though some good comedy is delivered every now and then. Stephen Chow does a good job and so does Anita Mui, and it manages to make parody of Basic Instinct pretty well at times. But in the end there's more humour that doesn't work than humour that actually works and it's easy to get tired of it all halfway through. If you're a fan of Stephen Chow you might wanna check out, it's not bad but far from being great.
Near the end of World War II, a young Korean Taekwondo competitor arrives in Japan where he wants to become a fighter pilot. But things does not work out and he ends up on the street where he fights for and against different kinds of things, like crime, occupying American servicemen and more. He also has to battle his own fear of failure as a martial artist. Later he retires from the world and goes to the wilderness to train his body and to improve his skills to later return to the world and challenge everyone willing to take him on.
Fighter in the Wind tells the story of Choi Baedal, a Korean who came to Japan looking for something, but instead had to suffer many hardships. The movie takes place near the end of World War II and being a Korean in Japan wasn't easy to say the least. The result of that Choi Baedal's martial arts teacher was killed by a local Yakuza made Choi take up karate and how to master it. He left civilization to train, and once he had completed his training, he returned to challenge all the dojos who wanted to fight him in order to become the best fighter in Japan.
Since this movie is a biographical of a real karate master it of course makes it more interesting considering that you know that what happens on-screen, also happened for real. I'm not sure exactly just how accurate everything is, but I guess this was the way it went down, otherwise what's the point of making a biography in the first place? Of course we probably don't get to see everything that actually happened to the guy, and a lot of things here might be much fancier as well. But since this is a movie and it's supposed to be entertaining while being interesting, so I guess it's all for the best.
 
Now this is not your normal Bruce Lee or Kung Fu movie with a lot of fights that are just entertaining. Of course there are a hell of a lot of fights since this is a movie about fighting, but there's also a lot of sentimentality and drama, and apart from that, it tells a really good story too. For a while the movie also deals a lot with the subject of racial discrimination and it's hard not to feel sorry for Choi as he has to suffer a lot of defeat and humiliation.
It's a simple concept, the guy goes through a hard time, his teacher is killed, and everything is more or less crap, but he manages to turn his life around and suddenly things start to improve..a lot. It's a typical thing when it comes to movies and after the bad comes the more so-called feel-good feeling, but it's needed here and works very well. Dong-kun Yang do a fine job portraying Choi Baedal, and while it's interesting and entertaining, it at times manages to be somewhat sad and dramatic as well, and so makes you take it more seriously.
The cinematography is beautiful and the choreography is at times awesome to look at. Some of the fights have slow motion in them, but never so much that it ruins them or that they feel too stylish. The score was kinda ok, but at one time when the guy was training we get to hear some crappy song by Finnish opera-metal band Nightwish and that felt kinda stupid. It was like one of those scenes from movies like Rocky 4 where we get to see them train before a fight that has no dialogue but instead some shitty music to lift things up. This movie's too good for that so it felt a little bad having to sit through that scene/song. But other than that it's a cool movie, and you can always fast-forward or hit the mute button.
Fighter in the Wind can be divided into three parts: One where Choi comes to Japan and has to suffer humiliation among other things. The second part when he trains himself to become a great fighter (in the wind), and the third when he travels around challenging different dojos and in the end where he has to fight his life-long enemy. But it has a bit more to it than that, and even if the story's somewhat simple it's still interesting and entertaining all the way through. Expect a lot of cool fights but also some very good drama and that makes it more than your average Kung Fu movie. Recommended.
In 1970, eleven people were murdered in a hotel in Gunma north of Tokyo by a man with unknown motives who himself then met a mysterious death. The murderer was a professor who killed his wife, nine of the hotel guests and finally his young daughter. Fast-forward 35 years and director Ikuo Matsumara is making a movie about the gruesome murders at the hotel. Nagisa Sugiura is auditioning for the part of the little girl that was murdered and, to her suprise, lands the role in the film, that has now been re-written for a grown woman. But shortly after the audition, on the subway home, she notices a small ghostly girl carrying a doll and from then on it just keeps going and Nagisa starts having strange visions as well as she starts to experience the 1970 murders that are happening all around her. Is she somehow connected to the little girl that was murdered and why is she re-living the 1970's hotel massacre?
Takashi (Ju-on, Marebito) Shimizu's contribution to the J-Horror Theater series is a film called Reincarnation and is the 3rd film in the series so far. While Infection was more of a pure horror movie, and Premonition had more psychological stuff to it (while it was still a horror film), Reincarnation is even more of an psychological horror that feels, for most parts of the movie, more like a thriller. One movie that came to mind when watching Rinne was The Shining, since they have more than a few things in common. It's not a bad thing though since first off The Shining is a great flick and secondly, it's not like Rinne is a complete rip-off of that movie either, it's just that they look and feel very similar at times.
I've been pretty excited to see Reincarnation since I'm a big fan of Shimizu's work (except for his US films) and also since both previous movies in the J-Horror Theater series have proven to be really good. Reincarnation is also a very good movie, but personally I don't think it's the best contribution to the series so far. It's very different from the previous films though and that alone makes it pretty interesting. My biggest problem that I had with this film though was the fact that I was expecting a scary horror movie, but got something that was a bit different. It's never good to have too high expectations and I guess I had that which made me focus on what the movie lacked horror-wise, instead of me focusing on what it really had to offer. But a few days after that I had seen it, I started to think about it and what it really was about which made it seem a bit better. So I'm definitely gonna re-watch the film soon and try to take it for what it really is, instead seeing it for what it's not.
 
I think the same thing will happen to a lot of fans of Asian horror, that you might expect Reincarnation to be a really scary horror movie and therefore might be a bit disappointed with the outcome. So bear that in mind, it's more of an psychological thriller rather than a pure horror flick. Although, towards the end of the film you'll get a whole bucket of horror poured all over you and that actually made up for a lot of what most of the movie otherwise lacked when it came to horror. The story is rather good though and watching the film kinda had the same feel to it as when reading a really suspenseful book. It was easy to get caught up in the story and the suspense was definitely there at times, but if you're just looking for really effective scares, personally I don't believe that Rinne had that much to offer.
We get to follow an actress who gets a role in a movie that is supposed to deal with a hotel massacre that took place in 1970. But as soon as she gets the part, she also starts having strange visions involving a little girl. When the cast and crew goes to the same hotel as the massacre took place in and when about to start shooting, the actress starts to experience the terror and see all the murders happening all over again. Reincarnation has some twists and turns to offer and delivers some mystery along the way. Shimizu doesn't explain everything, which I believe is great, because it makes things happen rather unexpectedly every now and then. While I can't say that the movie was completely original, it was at the same time not totally predictable, and that's worth a lot in my book.
Reincarnation proved to be a good thriller that had some psychological horror in it, but that didn't make it all the way when it came to delivering good scares. The ending was very good and satisfying though, and the last ten minutes or so had a lot of horrific scenes that were at times real eye-candy. While the movie wasn't really slow-paced, the lack of scares might make it drag a little towards the middle of the film or so, but if you're completely aware that Reincarnation will not be a very scary flick to begin with, I think that will help a lot when it comes to the pacing. Being the third film in the series, it is, just like the previous two, well worth checking out.
When a lethal disease known as Geostigma starts to spread across the planet, Cloud Strife who has retired into seclusion is asked to help out. Reluctantly he accepts and sets out to fight a man named Kadaj and his brothers Loz and Yazoo who are searching for the "mother".
This is definitely a movie made for fans who have played the video game. It's not a bad story, only that it's quite hard to understand and follow everything that happens if you're new to the game. The story takes place 2 years after Final Fantasy VII left off, and if you haven't been playing the game a helluva lot, don't expect to understand all of what's going on. I play a lot of video games myself but is more of a Silent Hill/Tony Hawk person, and even though I've tried out Final Fantasy VII, I still haven't played it nearly enough to understand the movie very well.
For Final Fantasy VII fanatics, I guess this movie must be truly fantastic. Still though, even if you haven't played it, it might still work as there are so many nice things to look at so only that makes it worth watching. And it's not that hard to figure out the basic idea of the story itself, so even if you don't know the characters, the places, the background story etc, it's still ok to watch. Although, if you've played the game you're bound to get a helluva lot more out from watching it compared to a person who's new to it. Yes, it was somewhat confusing.
 
Since I'm not a big fan of the series, the actual 7th game or other things when it comes to Final Fantasy, I found it to be a bit much to take in at times. Still though, it's fairly easy to get the general idea, so you'll never be completely lost I guess. I loved watching the action scenes, and the animation is the most advance thing I've seen to date on screen. It can't really be described, but has to be seen to fully understand just how amazing everything in this movie looks.
There are of course a lot of action scenes and fights, and they are really something else as well. At times it actually feels like someone's playing a video game while you're sitting there, watching that person play. The graphics are absolutely awesome, and the movie sure has its moment where things are completely stunning. So like I said before, if for nothing else, it's worth watching just for the way it looks. Good score too.
There's much to take in, and especially early on in the movie the story felt too complex at times. If I would've played the game a lot before, things would've probably looked a lot different. There were a huge number of action scenes that were really cool to watch, but I had a hard time to stay fully focused the movie throughout since there was just too much going on. But again, it's probably just because I haven't played the game a lot. It gets a rating of 10 for the way it looks which was absolutely amazing, but I had a really hard time trying to stay interested so I can't really give it more than a six. Recommended for fans of the game, and recommended to others just of the fantastic way it looks.
Chihiro works in Tokyo, seems to have a good life and is about to marry her colleague. But she also has a very dark past that comes knocking on her door one day. Five years ago, Chihiro was raped and filmed by three men, and now they have found her again, showing up in her home one by one, and once again sets the nightmare in motion. Driven to desperation, Chihiro murders them one after one and put their bodies in freezers, but with the last one overburdens the small apartments electrical system.
Freeze me is a movie that I personally have very mixed feelings about, but in the end, when thinking about it, it ranks pretty high. It's a horrible and pretty brutal film to have to sit through, at least early on in the movie, but it's also a flick that, with time, takes these feelings away and replaces them with a good feeling instead. In a way, it's kinda like with Irréversible, just for the fact that it starts off brutally and is hard to deal with, but gives a better feel and takes that negative atmosphere away the further it goes.
If you can make it, emotionally, through the first half-hour or so, then you'll be fine. It's that first third of the movie that is somewhat hard to sit through, and takes a lot of energy to watch, (that is if you're a person who actually cares about other people and don't want to see innocent people getting hurt). It deals with the subject of rape, and even though it's not super graphical, it's hard not to be affected by what goes on.
The viewer get to know Chihiro, a cute girl who seems to have a good life in Tokyo with a steady job in a bank office, and who is about to get married as well. But one day some punk comes knocking on her door and forces himself into her apartment. Apparently that guy, along with two other guys, raped Chihiro five years ago and now have looked her up, and are planning to do the same thing all over again.
 
This guy is a real a-hole and settles in Chihiro's apartment for days while waiting for the other two guys to arrive. He rapes her, beats her and does a lot of stupid things to ruin her life once again. What I had problems with here was, except for the fact of seeing a girl getting raped and beaten, that she just takes it, again and again. Ok if he would've had her locked up or something, but this whole thing goes on for days, and there are times were she could've easily escaped and called for help. At one time, her fiancé drops by to see what's wrong with her and why she's not coming to work, and the a-hole guy tells the fiancé about what he did to her in the past, and it all ends with the fiancé leaves her.
After a while though, she can't take it anymore and do what should've been done a long time ago. She kills the guy and hides his body in her freezer, and he stays there until the next guy shows up, and then the next. The rest is up to you to find out if you choose to watch Freeze Me, as I don't want to reveal everything. One big problem with this movie, or that is the main character Chihiro, is that even if you feel really sorry for her for a long tme during the movie, it's really hard to feel full sympathy at times as well as at most of the time, she shows no resistance at all. Don't get me wrong here, she's trapped in a corner and probably feels too ashamed to seek help from her fiancé or other people for that matter, but at times she doesn't seem to really care about what's going on, and does nothing to improve the situation. And even though she improves the situation later on, it's so much later on and it's very hard to relate or understand some of her actions inbetween.
For the sake of not sounding politically incorrect, I'm not gonna dive further into the subject. Watch it and judge for yourself. I liked the character that is Chihiro, even though it at the same time was very hard to relate to her. But this is a movie that of course can be interpret in different ways, and people will always have different views on the subject. But in the end, Takashi Ishii's film makes you think, and while it's mostly a drama and not really a horror flick, it's still scary, but not in a horror movie sense.
Freeze Me is a good flick that will make you think. It's not slow, but I couldn't say that it's the least fast-paced either. Even if it was somewhat hard to watch in the beginning, it got easier the longer you watched. Compared to other flicks that deals with rape, I guess it doesn't stand out that much, but still felt realistic at times, and so made it scarier than some other movies with the same theme. Compared to I Spit On Your Grave, it's much more brutal, but compared to Irréversible, it's a bit 'nicer' in the lack of a better word. Recommended, but at the same time, watch what you're getting yourself into.
Sing who has some special powers and some gambling talent decide, together with his uncle Ng Man-Tat, to try and become the apprentice of the God of Gamblers in order for them to be able to make some cash. But since the God of Gamblers Ko Chun is not available they have to settle for Little Knife, the Knight of Gamblers. At first Little Knife refuses to take Sing on but when a man named Tai-Kun (The Devil of Gamblers) steals Knife's title, Knife teams up with Sing in order to get his honour and reputation back.
Chow Yun-Fat is gone and is here replaced by Stephen Chow who makes this movie a lot funnier and also a lot more silly than the first God of Gamblers was. I'm a big fan of the old (before America) Chow Yun-Fat stuff and think that God of Gamblers was a great movie. This movie has its positive sides too, but it's pretty different compared to the first one. While God of Gamblers was filled with seriousness and cool action, God of Gamblers 2 is absolutely packed with humour and silly situations. There are a lot of comical things in this movie and while some are really funny, some are far from it.
I think one could say that out of 7 jokes, one works. But since the movie is absolutely filled with jokes and humour, there are of course a lot to laugh about. Also, the stuff that's funny is often really laugh-out-loud funny, but a lot of times it's just too silly as well. I guess it all comes down to what kind of person you are and what type of humour that works for you. This is typical HK humour and if you've seen a lot of HK movies you should know what to expect, some stuff is fun and some is just ridiculously childish. Although in the end you still get a lot of humour that works well and the movie has some hilarious stuff in it.
 
Can't really complain about the story either. It's a good sequel where Stephen Chow wants Andy Lau to take him under his wings and train him to become a great gambler. Lau refuses at first but later realizes that he needs Chow's help in order to get his stolen title back. It's predictable and it's easy to figure out how it's gonna end, but a movie like this you watch for the entertainment. If you want a complicated story with twists and turns, look elsewhere.
The acting is ok, Stephen Chow is always really comical and Andy Lau does a great job with his character. Chow Yun-Fat appears every now and then in the movie, but it's from scenes taken from the first movie so he never really acted in this sequel. Some of the acting from the other actors are way over-the-top at times, but since it's supposed to be comedy it works quite well. You have to expected a movie like this to be somwhat over-the-top at times, a lot of these type of HK flicks are and that is one reason why they are cool. So it's not really bad over-the-top acting we're talking about here, although sometimes it still might be a bit too much.
Expect for humour, the movie also treats the viewer to some great action, some cool shoot-out scenes and some nice fighting as well. In the end it manages to stay true to the first movie even though this is much more of a comedy than the first one was. If you're into HK flicks, you'll probably like it.
Sometimes it's too much but at times this movie offers some brilliant funny stuff and it's very hard not to laugh. It's quite long but is never dull and manages to stay interesting and funny the movie throughout. Plus that, we get to see some cool action scenes too which makes a nice break from the constant comedy. Nothing fantastic but really entertaining. Recommended.
20 years ago, a mass suicide took place in the Yang house and the entire family, except for one member, hung themselves to death. In present time, relative James inherits the house and moves in there with his girlfriend Yo. They invite a couple of their friends Yi-Chen and Ah-Tseng to stay over for one night, and shortly after their friends start to act weird. Yi-Chen starts showing up every night in the house at midnight, and Ah-Tseng is found dead from hanging. James and Yo soon finds out that the family's fortune came from that they raised child ghosts, something that brought them great fortune but at the same time brought great doom as well.
The Heirloom looks visually fantastic and I got the same feeling as when I watched A Tale of Two Sisters for the first time. Not that they have anything in common story-wise, but that they look so good with all the colour combinations and everything that it's absolutely jaw-dropping. I guess my expectations were a bit too high to begin with as I had read some positive things about this movie, and when I turned it on, it looked a hundred percent creepy, yet very beautiful. I was hoping for it to delivers some real mind-bending horror and be scary, but even if it had this eerie feeling to it the movie throughout, it was never really as scary as one would've hoped for.
I of course wish that it would've been a lot scarier, but considering all the other things it has to offer, it still makes a great movie. The story itself is quite original, and actually really freaky when thinking about it. This Yang family use to raise child ghosts for generations, something that brought them great fortune and luck at first. Later on though things started to go wrong, and most of the time when someone in the family had a baby, it was always something wrong with that baby. The last baby that the family had and that didn't have anything wrong with it was James, the same James that got to inherit the huge estate.
 
I don't wanna give away too much of the plot or what happens since then there would be no reason for you to watch it. Let's just say that even if it's not super scary, it worth to watch just because of the great story. Other than that, it is well worth watching for the directing and the photography as well. Another thing that is a great plus was that the movie had a really good tempo. We get introduced to the characters rather quickly and shortly after that, strange supernatural things start to happen. Even if these things never really deliver any proper horror, at least there are things happening which makes it interesting. A very short time after that, they turn on the creepiness and it stays there till the end.
The more the story develops, the more creepy and bizarre things get, something that makes it more interesting and you can't actually wait to see what will happen next. I found this to be one of the greatest things with The Heirloom, that it kinda draws you in, makes you stay interested, and never bores you or really slows down too much. The atmosphere is great, and watching this late at night alone in a dark room will make it even more effective. The house itself is huge and has a really creepy feel to it, and the movie manages to be quite mysterious and suspenseful as well.
When it comes to acting it's for the most pretty good. Terri Kwan who plays Yo, James girlfriend, stands out a little more than the rest and delivers a great performance. Only complaint when it comes to acting is about Jason Chang who plays James. I don't want to say that he's all bad, but he's not very belivable and it could've been much better. But in the end, he doesn't ruin the movie or make a terrible performance, it's just that he felt a bit one dimensional and stiff, although it's not a big thing really. Great score consisting of nice piano music among other things that adds to the creepy atmosphere, is nice to listen to and works as good background music as well.
When finished watching the movie, I must admit I was a little bit disappointed. I expected too much horror, something that the movie never delivered. But when I thought about it later, full-on horror was never really needed. It's creepy and eerie from beginning to end, and has a story that is quite bizarre to describe it at best. The acting is ok, so is the score, and The Heirloom is worth watching just because of that it looks absolutely fantastic. I really hope there will be more beautiful movies like this coming out of Taiwan in the near future. Recommended.
Ching, the Invisible Woman, kidnapps newborn male babies for her evil master while Wonder Woman Tung is trying to solve the case. Meanwhile, Thief Catcher Chat is trying to sell her inside knowledge to the police. Ching later realizes that what she's doing is wrong and together with Chat and Tung they join forces as the Heroic Trio, trying to stop an ancient Ming Dynasty eunuch who is trying to resurrect China's imperialist past by forming a new nation with the newborn babies.
Here we have a real bizarre and cartoonish cult movie from Hong Kong, although the three characters in the trio are supposed to represent Taiwan, Hong Kong and China mainland. I watched this movie a long time ago and absolutely loved it as it is one of those typical HK flicks that offers a little of everything from martial arts, romance and fantasy to great action and humour, all with a comic book kind of touch.
Considering the fact that the Heroic Trio consist of three heroines who together fight evil might steer your thoughts to Charlie's Angels. But let me tell you, being three women who fight crime is also the only thing they have in common, apart from that they are two complete different things and Charlie's Angels doesn't stand a chance in the light of the Heroic Trio. (I don't mean if they would fight, but talking about quality and entertainment value).
This is bascially a superhero movie where three heroines, all of them with special powers that come together to fight an evil over-the-top super villain. Actually there are more things than the super villain that's over-the-top here but it all makes for a lot of cheesy fun. There are a lot of wires used in the movie and it has all that typical HK stuff that a lot of people have come to love. There's also a lot of fantastic imagery and visually stunning scenes to look out for, and considering the fact that it was made in 1993, it still looks pretty damn sharp even today.
The plot is ok but not the most important thing here, the action is. Choreographed by Ching Siu Tung we get to sit through some really outrageous and cool action sequences. But back to the plot. Some evil demon eunuch is kidnapping babies and wants to train one of them to become the king of future China. This is something that should not be but luckily there's the Heroic Trio consisting of three nice looking women with some special powers who makes it their mission to stop him.
 
The eunuch has a helper played by Anthony Wong who helps keeping intruders away from the demon master and his babies, and Wong, here playing a mute man named Kau, is as usual very interesting to watch. The fantasy elements are great and gives the whole movie a good feeling and delivers a great atmosphere. Also this comic book feel combined with the Eastern world and culture also adds a lot to the movie itself.
Some of these types of movies has too much of the silly HK humour in them, and sometimes it works but sometimes it does not. The Heroic Trio of course has some humour in it as well, but never that much so it takes over and becomes the center of what's going on. It's there in the background and appears once in a while which works well with good comical timing and all. If you've never seen any HK movies you will be stunned by some of the imagery but some dialogue and humour will definitely leave you wondering what the hell's going on. If you've already watched some or if you're a big fan then you should be able to know what to expect when it comes to these kind of things.
The Heroic Trio has some real violence, especially towards the ends that is not very cartoonish at all, and makes the movie enter a more adult kind of level. Also some stuff with what happens to the kids/babies are not really for kids to see. So even though it's not a really nasty movie, it's still very far away from being a family feature. The acting is good and most of the characters are really interesting to watch. You have Michelle Yeoh from such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Tai-Chi Master. Maggie Cheung from such films as Project A and Police Story. Some other good actors, and last but not least Anthony Wong from such great features as Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story among many others.
The Heroic Trio is a lot of fun and has a little of everything, from martial arts and fantasy to romance, stunning action sequences and all with a Eastern kind of comic book feel to it. A true HK cult classic that is truly entertaining and never the least bit dull.
Ji lives in a shanty neighbourhood together with his brother. One day government officials and hired mobsters comes to destroy the area in order to build new apartment complexes so everything will look nice when hosting the Olympics. But the people who live there don't wanna leave and a riot breaks out and in the process, Ji's brother is shot dead by a cop and Ji is thrown in prison. Later on, the same cop that shot Ji's brother is appointed governor of the very same prison that Ji's in and there he continues to torture Ji. So together with some other inmates, while being transferred on a bus, Ji and his crew breaks out and manages to escape. When free, Ji's mission is to speak about the injustice and the corrupt system, how people who are rich can get away, but if you're poor, that also means you're guilty. In order to get what they want they take hostages, but will that make anyone listen?
Holiday is a fine looking new crime/drama movie straight out of South Korea, telling the story that is based on a real hostage-taking that occured in October 1988. It's definitely a thought-provoking movie and I found it a little bit similar to Silmido. Even though Holiday is not dealing with what Silmido dealt with, they are both based on true events, injustice and they are both movies that will make you think, (or at least that should make you think).
It deals with the subjuect of an unfair society, that is if you are rich, you're not guilty, but if you are poor, you're guilty. Poor people are thrown in jail for a very long time due to some petty crimes, while those who have commited brutal and much worse crimes get the same sentences or less, and then you have those who gets passed even getting convicted for what they've done. The movie has its heart in the right place and so has the main character Ji, and even if he has done some stuff and later does some other stuff, you know that his heart is in the right place and that makes him really easy to root for.
Since Holiday is based on real events it makes it even more interesting, when thinking about what you see on screen actually have occured for real gives you a different perspective of things and adds a lot to the overall experience. I wasn't familiar with the story before watching Holiday, but I found it to be quite interesting and most of all, something worthy to think about. It's not just about the movie itself, but about how things work in the world in general, things that are unfair etc. In the end it can be applied on a lot of things.
 
To make everything look nice for the Olympics, old crummy neighbourhoods are being torn down in order for new nice looking buildings to replace them. Ji lives in one of these crummy neighbourhoods which one day is supposed to be replaced as well. The day comes, a fight breaks about and Ji's brother is shot and Ji is thrown in prison. The same cop who shot his brother later gets to run the prison that Ji's in and Ji tries to take revenge but fails and ends up being tortured and humiliated.
It's an unfair system where the poor just being pushed further and further down by the rich and someone must speak up. Apparently Ji is that person, a man who has his heart in the right place and together with some other inmates he manages to escape. While on the run, they are constantly being chased by the police and they are all over the news at all times. They try to get their message across but things never seem to look up, and it all ends with a few of them taking a family hostage.
Since I'm not Korean, I'm not sure just how big this thing actually was but it seemed like a big deal, happening around the time Seoul hosted the Olympics and all. And since I'm not familiar with what happened and how everything actually went down, it's also hard to say just how correct this movie is, if they followed everything that had happened to a 100 percent, or if they added something else to it as well. Anyway, have to take it for what it is, and what it is is a good movie that makes you think, so in the end it's all quite positive.
The pacing is really good. Sometimes Asian flicks has a tendency to slow down too much, and even though you might be used to it, it might still feel a bit to slow. Holiday kinda holds the same tempo from beginning to end and it never feels too slow or boring. It was easy to stay interested the movie throughout even though it's two hours long. When it comes to acting it's all good, standard Korean style, and they all do a good job. Main character Ji of course stands out a bit more than the rest and like I said before, he's a really likable character, no matter what he does, since deep down you know that he wants well. The man who shot his brother and who runs the prison is also quite fun to watch, a real bastard but who pulls off a great performance, so even if it's impossible to like him, you'll still like the guy if you know what I mean.
Holiday is a great looking Korean crime/drama, that has a lot of scenes both inside and outside prison. It's has a good tempo, good acting and plus that, a great score. While being an entertaining movie, it's actually more interesting and since it's based on real events, it makes it even more interesting. It also has a good ending which makes it feel even more realistic and not just like you're watching another movie. And most of all, it makes you think. Recommended.
A Yakuza boss named Anjo takes three million yen and goes into hiding so his gang members start searching for him to bring back the money. Kakihara who's the leader of the gang has methods which are too brutal and violent and the other Yakuza gangs start to worry about him and disapproves of what he's doing. Kakihara is then expelled and since he's a sado masochist he has some kind of deathwish and is looking for someone worthy of killing him.
Takashi Miike has made some great movies and of course some less better movies too but out of the movies that the man has made I consider Ichi to be the second best, first one's Audition, no doubt.
But Ichi the Killer is a very strong and original movie based on a manga by Hideo Yamamoto and is full of sadistic violence and black humour and should appeal to a lot of people, but might also be too different and weird for some.
I also feel that Ichi the Killer is a movie that grows on you, first viewing it was good or really good but second time even better and you kinda get hooked to it and after that it just keeps getting better and better. It's also a movie that actually might require a second viewing since this movie is, like I said before, very different and has a lot of things going on in it which might be hard to handle on the first watch.
 
It's kinda hard to explain the story, it's about these two persons, Kakihara and Ichi, who are both very colorfull characters. Kakihara is a kind of sado masochist that seems to enjoy to hurt people and even to get hurt himself. He has this girlfriend that beats him but he feels that it's not enough to satisfy his needs.
Ichi is a totally different character who lives on bad childhood memories and also has a tragic love story going by the side. Although he's still a psychopathic killer.
The story itself is very dark but is done with a sense of humour that lightens it up a little. There's a lot of stuff going on in the movie and it might be hard to keep track of everything, (therefore that second viewing could maybe do some good). It's sad but still humorous and is definitely different from all other films you've ever seen, and even if you won't like it, it's still gonna be different.
Great acting, great directing, great story and with a good score, Ichi the Killer is a definitely must see.
Hee-Jin is a mute woman who works in a fishing resort, somewhere in the Korean wilderness. There she sells baits, food, takes people in her boat, and sometimes sells her body to the fishing tourists. She falls in love with Hyun-Shik, a man wanted by the police, and saves his life when he tries to commit suicide.
Kim (Samaria, Bad Guy) Ki-Duk's The Isle is a very different movie compared to most other Asian titles out there. The genre is very hard to describe, as it has been categorized as a horror movie by some and a drama by some and so on. It's not a horror movie, it has some horror in it, but not the actual horror you talk about when you talk about Asian horror in general. I would say that it's first and most a drama, but an extremely dark drama with a sadistic tone to it. Can't really think of another way to describe it.
Also The Isle is not aimed at a western audience, and I guess a lot of people will have a problem watching this one. Why I say that is that first off it's for Asian film buffs, if you're not very used to Asian flicks, this one is not recommended to begin with. Secondly, it's kind of an art house movie, not too arty, but still enough so to separate itself from a lot of other more general flicks out there, and that may cause problems for some viewers as well. People who go in watching The Isle thinking it's just another Asian horror movie will be truly disappointed.
First time I watched this movie, I kind of expected something in the same vein as Audition. That is, a woman gets hurt by some and seeks revenge, I was truly mistaken. The Isle focuses on this mute woman Hee-Jin, who's a sort of a looner working in this small fishing resort with a little of this, a little of that. She doesn't have a pleasant life and people don't treat her that well.
 
But one day this guy, Hyun-Shik, comes along and an attraction between the two arise. But Hee-Jin acts a little strange and makes it hard for the guy, and the guy doesn't have his head in the right place either, and ends screwing things up a bit with bringing some hooker to his fishing hut etc. This causes jealousy and unhappiness to both of them, and there are a lot of things going on between the two.
The acting in this movie is just brilliant. First off since Hee-Jin is mute which makes her character very different compared to if she could talk, and she handles this character so well it's amazing. Other than that, there are not too much dialogue in the movie at all, it's kind of a silent movie and that adds a special feel to it which is nice, and at the same time a bit eerie. The overall enviroment with the fishing village, the foggy waters and the small floating huts in the lake adds a certain feel to the whole experience as well.
There are two scenes in this movie that are just horrific to watch as they deal with self-mutilation, and watching it sure makes you cringe. Although, this also adds a lot of feeling to the movie as well and is certainly needed. Expect for Hee-Jin and Hyun-Shik, the movie also deals a little with a few other characters, all that are tragic, one way or another. Even if it's not a real horror movie, the actual drama is so strong that The Isle ends up being a disturbing piece of film to watch. It's also a very calm movie, but very bizarre and will sure be hard to stomach for a lot of people.
The isle is a fantastic flick that has a lot of feeling but is very dark and hard to stomach at times. It's a very bizarre and different kind of relationship story that might be hard for some people to appreciate. Truly recommended for fans of Asian cinema.
Issei Sagawa is a cannibal from Japan who, while studying abroad in France, murdered and ate a Dutch university student in 1981. Leaving evidence everywhere, he was soon arrested but was mentally unfit to stand trial. After some time in a French mental institution, his rich father had him extradited to a Japanese psychiatric hospital where he stayed for 15 months, and after that he was released. He then became a huge celebrity in Japan and started doing interviews, apparead on different kind of tv-shows and also became a writer and has then published a bunch of books. Excuse Me for Living is the documentary that tells the story of a small Japanese man that had more than just a thing for tall western women.
For those of us who are not from Japan, Japanese culture can sometimes seem a bit strange, like the weird types of sexual preferences, rape-pornos, the whole schoolgirl thing, extremely weird tv-shows, getting off on torture, eating sushi from naked girls bodies, just to mention a few things. With this, I don't mean it's all negative though, and to many non-Japanese persons it's actually quite the opposite. Different cultures are something that is truly great, and we're all from different parts of the world with different backgrounds, history etc, but Japanese culture often stands out, and maybe that's why we enjoy a lot of things from Japan like films, videogames, anime, crazy porn...you name it. Personally, I'm a big Toyota fan.
Now, making a cannibal a national treasure is something that can be considered to be a truly crazy thing. This can also be applied on all American serial-killers who were raised to the sky for their actions, worshipped by loads of people and getting their stories on film etc. I don't wanna get to personal on the subject and I know that while a lot of people are into this sort of thing, there are of course more people who just find it all to be quite repulsive. Before getting into the story of Issei Sagawa, I just want to make it clear that I don't think any of this is 'cool' nor do I find what the man did to be the least bit impressive. I can't really relate to any of this whatsoever and I feel sorry for the Dutch girl and especially for her parents. I mean, someone murdered and ate their little girl and then became a celebrity for what he did, think about that for a minute or two. On the other hand, this documentary was infact a really interesting piece of film, and even though watching this doesn't make you feel better for what happened, it still sheds some light on things and you get a much better picture of what Issei Sagawa is all about.
Most people who commit horrible acts of crime often comes from a broken home, and that a really bad childhood can lead to insane actions later on is not something that might be true, it's a fact that has been proven a countless number of times. Strange thing though is that Sagawa did not come from a broken home at all, he had a loving family and seemed to have a good childhood. Things started when he first began school where he noticed that he was much smaller than the rest of the kids. He had a dream of him and his brother being boiled in a pot, to become someone's dinner, and since then, cannibalism was always on his mind. He grew an obsession for tall white women, and as time went by, the obsession grew stronger and stronger. Just kissing, touching or making love to a white woman wouldn't be enough; he knew what he had to do, it just took some time before it actually happened.
In some cultures they believe that eating someone is as close as you can get to a person, to capture the very essence of that person, to actually become part of that person or rather that the person actually becomes a part of the eater. To dumb things down a bit, think of the movie Highlander, you chop someone's head off and you gain that persons knowledge, strength etc. Sagawa was a great student who studied English literature at Wako University in Tokyo and later went abroad to Sorbonne, France to continue his studies. A fellow student of Sagawa, a Dutch beauty named Renee Hartevelt were to be killed and eaten by the man. They spent a lot of time together, but while Hartevelt just wanted to be friends, Sagawa wanted more. One night Sagawa invited Hartevelt up to his apartment to read some German poetry and then and there realized that he desired to eat her. The next evening Hartevelt returned to Sagawa's apartment to continue reading poetry, and while she was reading, Sagawa took out a rifle and shot her in the back of the neck. He then began to cut off portions of Hartvelt's body and continued to eat them and he even baked one of her breasts in the oven.
Later on he put various bodyparts in two suitcases and tried to get rid of them, dumping the bags in a park in Paris but was seen by witnesses which later led to his arrest. When the French police later searched Sagawa's apartment they found pieces of the young lady in his fridge. Unfit to stand trial, he was placed under psychiatric care in a French psych-ward where he was examined by psychiatrists saying that he could not be cured. Years later he was transferred to the Matsuzawa hospital in Tokyo where he after some time was declared to be sane and not guilty, (something that the French didn't agree with). The authorities did not seek further prosecution against Sagawa and so he was a free man, and is still alive today.
This documentary, Issei Sagawa: Excuse Me for Living, has a ton of interesting things to offer for those interested in Sagawa and his case. There are interviews with Sagawa and with him reading from his books about his crime, his childhood and his obsession with white females. When just hearing about the man, it all sounds extremely brutal, but watching this documentary actually made me see things a bit different. Sagawa has just done the crime once and since then he hasn't done anything criminal, and even if it's a truly horrible crime (that he doesn't seem to regret at all), watching this and hearing it from his point of view actually made a lot of difference. Not saying that he should be forgiven for his crime or anything like that, but at least the documentary explains a lot about Sagawa, his obsession and everything with him being small, not attractive, walking like with a limp and all of his shortcomings. There's no gore or disturbing imagery in the documentary, it just tells the story about Sagawa where we get to hear him and other people speak about the whole thing. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not at all into this type of thing but I have to admit that watching Issei Sagawa: Excuse Me for Living was very interesting.
Izo is an assassin in the service of Hanpeida, a Imperial supporter, and after killing tons of the Shogun's men in 1865, Izo is captured and crucified. But killing him does not make him go away as his spirit and rage travels through history and ends up in the present day. From there on, Izo's jumps through time and space, going on a killing spree seeking revenge on all of mankind.
I was kinda excited about watching Izo, but at the same time I also had my fears that it would be too weird or just drawn out and boring. I had no idea of what to expect as so often is the case when it comes to Miike. I'm always interested in seeing his films and while I have really liked a lot of them, some has truly disappointed me as well, so I was hoping for the best with Izo. Luckily Izo turned out to be way better than I first had hoped for. It's weird but it's a good weird and not a too weird, and when thinking about it now it was a hell of an entertaining movie that I'm definitely gonna watch again in the near future. I also think that this is the kind of movie the needs to be seen more than once, as there's a lot to take in.
When started watching Izo, it didn't really feel like I was watching a movie on tv, but instead that I was watching a theatre play. The dialogue, the whole feeling, the settings and everything made it feel like it was more of a play than just a movie. Eventually that feeling disappeared, but it was a cool experience, something that does not happen too often and I guess it kinda added to the whole outcome of the movie as well.
 
Izo is a low-born samurai, filled with rage and vengeance, and even though he was crucified and speared to death, his soul would not die and later on made him wake up in present day Tokyo, Japan. From there on he travels through time and space, it seems like he's going to places completely random, and he cannot control where he'll end up next. For every new place he arrives at, there's always people who wants him dead, and he takes out his rage on them, killing them all, again and again. The further time goes, the more Izo himself turns into a demonic figure out to destory and seek revenge on the system that is Japan.
Even though the movie jump like hell between different periods of time and places, it's still easy to follow. Wherever Izo ends up, he also ends up killing the people there and that includes everything from a SWAT team in modern day, vampire salesmen in some cave, a school hallway full of teenage girls, and just tons of different people and characters. Some that just seems to be in his way, and some that know who he is and wants to kill him for a reason.
The body count is extremely high, I was actually counting halfway through the movie, but then lost count and felt that it didn't really matter just how many people Izo could slay, let's just say it's more than a lot. This guy even slices his own mother in half from the waist down. So be prepared for some true carnage and some really cool scenes involving gore and swordplay. Izo is a movie that has enormous amounts of violence in it, it feels like it's never ending and just goes on and on until the very end without ever really stopping to catch it's breath so to speak. Although, none of the violence and carnage is the least bit hard to sit through, even if it's entertaining and in your face, it's not very effective so it would make you feel anything or that it's hard to look at all the mayhem constantly going on.
This might be Miike’s weirdest movie to date, I'm not sure, but what I'm sure of is that I really ended up liking it. It goes on for over two hours and that might sound long, but there's never really a dull moment and it's constantly entertaining. You could look at Izo in two different ways, one is that it's just an entertaining movie and you watch it for the violence, the weird sexuality and the overall madness, and the other way being the first one but also trying to figure out the deeper meaning that is Izo with its political message and all.
I prefer the first way but with a little bit of thought to it as well. I don't think it matters if you're a Miike fan or not, this movie might be to weird for fans of his and for sure to a lot of other people out there. I really liked it, but I'm not sure if I can recommend it, it all comes down to what kind of person you are, that is if you'll like it or not.
Kyoko, an actress known as the 'horror queen', is out driving with her fiancé when they all of a sudden run over a cat on the road. They stop, only to take off a minute later again, leaving the cat dead on the road. After driving for a short while after the accident, suddenly a ghostly looking boy shows up in the car under the steering wheel, and so making them crash. Kyoko's fiancé ends up in a coma, and Kyoko herself is left alone and pregnant. A short while after, Kyoko is invited to star in some sort of documentary about a haunted house. The cast and crew go there to film, but strange things happen, and soon all that was involved in the making of the documentary starts dying in horrible ways, one after the other.
While Ju-on: The Grudge was a good movie but that didn't do too much for me, Ju-on: The Grudge 2 really scared me the first time I watched it a couple of years back. Watching it now again, it wasn't half as scary but as I've been overdosing on Asian horror for a long time, it's quite hard to find stuff that will have a major effect. Still, I consider Ju-on: The Grudge 2 to be one of the best Japanese horror movies I've seen, and I think it's definitely the best one of the Japanese Ju-on movies and tv-series. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are two series made for tv, and two theatrical releases out there which makes this one part 4 in the whole Ju-on 'thing' (not counting the American remake crap).
If you're new or somewhat new to Asian horror, then Ju-on: The Grudge 2 is truly recommended. It's creepy as hell, has a great eerie atmosphere going all the way throughout the movie, and has a lot of great scares that'll definitely make you jump. There are of course some horror scenes that are better than others, but there are really no 'cheap scares' that ever takes the seriousness away. Every time it tends to be scary, it succeeds in doing so as well. Awesome.
 
Ju-on: The Grudge 2 takes place in the same haunted house as the first movie did, and this time it's about a film crew and cast who are filming a documentary for tv there. If you've seen the first movie, A LOT of things will be very familiar, but it's not really needed to have seen the first flick to be able to enjoy this one. Everything is explained and the movie's easy to follow. Best thing compared to the first flick is that there are more scares here, and it has a bit of a faster tempo as well. Well, maybe it doesn't, but since it has more scares, it feels like there are more things constantly happening. Anyway, it never feels slow or slows down for that matter.
When it comes to acting, I have nothing to complain about. Some girl is quite irritating but it's easy to ignore, and her apperance has no effect on the outcome of the movie experience whatsoever. The film has a really eerie feel to it, and it's there from start to finish. Another good thing is that this movie delivers right from the start. It doesn't build the story up and starts to deliver the scary stuff in the last remaining half hour like so many other horror flicks do. Instead it starts off right away with some freaky stuff, and from then on deliver scares every now and then the movie throughout, with not too much time inbetween the scary scenes.
It's not too often a sequel tops the original movie, but this one sure did, and like I said before; I consider this to be one of the better Asian horror flicks out there. If you haven't overdosed on Asian horror and want to see a really scary movie, then this is an excellent pick. Also, it has a great ending that really delivers and makes the whole outcome pretty great. Highly recommended.
A young man commits suicide, and leaves his three friends wondering why he did it. They start to investigate his death which leads them to horrible and strange things they never thought possible. At the same time, Kawashima decides to try to use the so-called internet that everyone seems to be talking about. When he, for the first time, connects to it, a strange website appears, asking him if he wants to encounter a real ghost. He shuts the computer off, but it keeps turning itself on, and always opening that strange ghostly website. Naturally the guy is freaked out, and since he doesn't understand anything when it comes to computers, he seeks help from a girl at his school who seems to know more about the phenomenon called the internet. All of a sudden, more and more people starts disappearing all over Japan. And the more Kawashima and the other young people starts digging into what's behind it all, the more strange and horrible things they find.
While waiting for the remake (which can't possibly be as good as the original), I thought I'd write a review of one of the better Japanese horror films out there. This movie, together with Ringu, set a new standard for what scary (Japanese) horror really is all about. Kairo is different from anything you've seen before, and if you're reading this and have not yet seen the movie; Do yourself a favor and check it out, and don't just wait for the remake, as you should know where it came from.
It deals with the internet that we all know by now, with ghosts, loneliness and fear and joy of death. Kairo has a lot of different interpretations in it, and has something to say, a meaning, but you can also skip all that if you're not in the mood and just see it as a scary movie. Because this truly is a scary movie, something that is quite hard to find these days if you've been watching a lot of horror. I saw this movie long ago, I don't remember when, and since then I've been watching tons of mostly non-effective Western and Eastern horror movies. But now when I sat down to watch Kairo again, I still found it to be quite a scary flick, and if you haven't seen that many scary Asian movies, you're in for a real treat.
 
It might seem slow to very slow at times, but those who wait for something good...
It starts off right away, and keeps building the movie throughout. Still, there are a lot of scares to be found every now and then, and all of them are not delivered towards the end like with some movies. The best thing about Kairo, I think, is that it has a really creepy atmosphere, and unsettling is a good word to describe the movie with. It tends to be more of a psychological horror, and the more you think about everything that you see and hear on screen, the more freaky it becomes.
Another thing is that it never feel that unrealistic. It's easy to get caught up in the story, and since it deals with freaky stuff on the internet, it hits a spot we're all familiar with. When they use computers in some movies, it doesn't look like it would look on the screen in your home, but Kairo actually does, and that makes it feel more realistic. We've all visited freaky websites (I guess) and since it deals with the internet in this day of age, it hits close to home.
There's no gore, but gore is on the other hand not at all needed here. And there are really no sudden scares, but they all comes creeping, and like I said before, it's more psychological and sticks in your head, rather than make you jump. Visually it looks great, and is overall very strange and most of all, eerie as hell. It looks gloomy and dark, and creates a very unsettling kind of mood. The horror grows the longer you watch it and is constantly there to make the viewer feel uneasy. Even if it might feel too slow at times, just sit through it, because it is a rewarding movie, and a landmark when it comes to Japanese horror.
Kairo is a chilling flick that has a creepy atmosphere that never lets go. It might feel a bit slow at times, but like most stuff when it comes to Eastern cinema, it's rewarding in the end, so you try and sit through it. There are really no sudden scares that'll make you jump and spill your coffee, but rather psychological and has a very unsettling feel to it. Highly recommended.
Arano is one pissed-off dude who's always violent, cruel and who never seems to back away from a fight, or at least take revenge on those that hurt him. One day a group of local Yakuza beats Arano up and later they take him into their group to fight some meddling Yakuza, but they do not realize what they're in for because Arano never stops and it doesn't take long before the guy reveals just how crazy he is.
Pornostar is obviously not a movie about a pornostar, but instead about a guy named Arano who one day gets involved with some local Yakuza. I believe that there were some problems with the actual title of the film with the movie first being called Tokyo Psycho in english, later to change to Pornostar and then to change and finally being released under the name Tokyo Rampage. But since the japanese title of the movie is 'Poruno sutâ', which directly translates to Pornostar (well duh!), I'm just gonna keep refering to the film as Pornostar because that is what I first heard it being called as well as it says so on my copy of the film. So why is it called Pornostar one might think? The answer to that seems nowhere to be found and the movie does not deal with any porno, nor does it deal with any stars for that matter. One thing I can tell you about Pornostar though is that it was directed by Toshiaki Toyoda, the same man who gave us Blue Spring which was one great film...and so is Pornostar, Tokyo Rampage, Tokyo Psycho - whatever you wanna call it.
When I first heard about the film, it sounded like it would just be about this one crazy guy who one day decides to start killing Yakuza for no apparent reason. While the guy do kill a bunch of Yakuza, that is still not really what the movie is all about. Basically, Arano does one day end up with two members of the Yakuza, kills one of them and gets beaten up for it, but later they realize that the guy's not half-bad, so instead of killing him, they let him join the group. After that, we get to follow a bunch of characters from that same group, Arano and everything they're up to. There are some killings but I would have to say that the title Tokyo Rampage is actually a bit misleading. Sure, the guy does a lot of things, but the word rampage alone sounds like it's just one big bloodbath all the way through, and that's really not the case.
 
The guy that the film deals with is played by Chihara Kôji who you might have seen in 1-Ichi. The character remains nameless throughout the film, but over at IMDB they called him Arano so I'm going with that even though I'm not sure it's correct. One thing you'll notice straight away is just how perfect the guy is for the part. He looks a bit creepy and rough, doesn't say too much and is basically pretty ice-cold. Once in a while though it feels like there's a more gentle side to him, but every time you'd think so, he soon after proves that that's not the case at all. Even so, he's still somewhat likable even though he's acting just a bit too weird at times.
The movie deals with youth-culture as well as it deals with crime-culture and it looks pretty gloomy and dark (not as in so you can't see dark) all the way through. I believe that the pacing is very good and while the movie takes its time, it never really feels slow and even though there are scenes where basically nothing really happens, they still serve a purpose that delivers a certain feel. Pornostar has a lot of atmosphere and feels very realistic and so does most of the violence in the film, but there's really nothing that is too much to sit through. Except for that it has an interesting story and very interesting characters, the score which is brilliant also adds a great feel and manages to capture it all in a very good way.
Pornostar might be a bit violent but not really as violent as it first may appear to be. I would say that first and most it's a really good drama that has a story that is interesting, easy to follow and especially easy to get caught up in. The acting is truly terrific with Chihara Kôji standing out as the stone-cold not very talkative guy that he is, or that is his character. If you're the least bit into japanese cinema, Pornostar is a great pick.
A girl named Kaoru recieves a mysterious letter that leads her to a small village in search of her missing brother. The people in the village resent her except for one chinese girl. And all the people in the village act really strange and seem to be obsessed with scarecrows. Strange things start to occur and is her brother really somewhere in the village and if so, what's he doing there?
Like a lot of other Japanese movies out there, Kakashi is based on a horror manga by Junji Ito (Uzumaki/Spiral), but even if it's a horror film per se I rather see it as a moody fantasy drama with a touch of horror. What I mean is that of course it's horror but that's only a small part of what the movie really is.
I know people who have watched this movie being sure of that it was a horror flick and then ended up being disapointed as it turned out it didn't have the amount of horror they first thought it would have. I'm saying this just as a warning, it's a good movie but don't get into it thinking it's super scary and similar to other more typical Japanese horror movies because it is not. With that said let's get on to what Kakashi's about.
 
It's a basic plot but that has more to it than what's told above, but everything can't be explained especially not with Kakashi, it's a movie you should watch without knowing too much about.
The village itself where the movie takes place is a small Japanese village with a lot of atmosphere to it, the movie has this eerie feeling to it without ever getting really scary.
Like I said earlier, you shouldn't watch this thinking it's just another horror flick because it's not. It's hard to recommend since I know a lot of people won't like it as it is very different but at least it's worth to give it a try. Also check out Norio Tsuruta's Premonition.
In 1940's China, gangs rule the city and the most feared gang of them all are the Axe Gang lead by Brother Sum. The only safe area is a slum called Pig Sty Alley and is only safe from the gangs because that it's poor. But when Sing and his pal Bone pretends to be Axe gangsters in order to extort money from a barber in the Pig Sty Alley, they manage to draw the real Axe Gang to come there as well. Fortunately for the people in the slum they have a few kung fu masters living among them who manages to fight the gangsters off. But the gang won't give up that easily and finds their own kung fu masters to take on the masters in the slum, and Sing gets trapped between it all, something that brings out his real identity.
Stephen Chow's a funny guy with a load of great movies under his belt, and here he has managed to create something that never really has been done before. Kung Fu Hustle is definitely an exciting ride, mixing comedy and martial arts into a cartoon-like movie filled with cartoonish special effects that looks visually stunning. There has been tons of movies made that mixes martial arts and comedy, but this had a totally new edge to it, adding in effects that makes it feel like you're watching a cartoon with real human beings in it. It's an awesome idea that works so well and it's hard to believe just how well made some of the special effects really are, a word that comes to mind is jaw-dropping.
While being most appealing to the eye, Kung Fu Hustle also has a lot of other great features, the 1940's China scenery adds a lot to the whole feel and it also has a story that is quite simple but works like a wonder. Sing, played by Stephen Chow and his friend Bone are two wannabe gangsters who pretends to part of the infamous Axe Gang in order to blackmail a barber for some cash. The real gang shows up, but the slum that they're in have a few kung fu masters that easily takes the gang down. Now since this is a respectable gang, or a gang that at least wants to be respected, they of course has to get back at the people in the slum for making them look like fools.
 
So since Sing wants to be one of the Axe Gang and he's good at picking locks, they decide to give him a test to see if he's worthy of becoming a member of the gang. The test is to free the worlds top killer, a kung fu master that spends his time in a mental asylum. Once freed, the gang explains what they want the man to do, and since he's always looking for a challenge he accepts. Things look dark for the nice people in the slum, but fortunately for them, Sing has more to him than what it first seems.
Don't wanna reveal to much of the plot and what happens during the movie but like I said before, it's a fun ride that'll definitely keep you entertained throughout the whole thing. There are tons of fights and they are all interesting, visually stunning and fun as hell to watch. The movie's fast-paced to say the least and it never slows down, not even for a minute. Chow has a great sense of humour that works really well. Some HK movies has a tendency to be way over-the-top, and while that might work well on many occasions, sometimes it ends up feeling a bit too much or too dragged out. Kung Fu Hustle manages to balance the action and the comedy really well without it ever feeling like too much, one way or the other.
Sometimes it feels like watching Road Runner, sometimes like watching a greatly choreograped kung fu flick and sometimes just like a very funny flick. All the elements are extremely well done and it's so visually stunning it has to be seen to be believed. The use of digital effects are numerous and even though you often can spot the CGI, it never looks cheap and gives it a very cartoonish feel that works amazingly well. This is a pretty awesome movie that can't really be compared to anything else. A definite must see.
Masuoka is a camera man who wants nothing more than to feel the deepest fear possible. When he on video witnesses another man commit suicide in the train station, he realizes that the man has seen something that made him kill himself and goes to the train station in search for what the man could've seen. There he enters the netherworld, and after walking deep under the city of Tokyo for some time, he finds a naked girl in chains. He takes the girl home but soon realizes that she's not human and that she doesn't want to drink or eat. When Masuoka later gets cut by accident, the girl that he calls "F" drinks the blood from his cut. What is she and was it a wise decision to bring her up to his world?
A lot of people seem to diss this movie, while a lot seem to be really impressed and adore it. Marebito truly separates itself from the general Asian horrors, being a totally different experience and that is just one of many things that makes Marebito great. Because it's truly a great movie that has an eerie feel to it from start to finish, and has a story that is really something else. I'm happy that the movie didn't have any ghosts with long black hair or any other of those elements that has become somewhat of a routine when it comes to new Asian horror. Instead Marebito is more of a psychological horror that has no scares that will make you jump out of your seat, but that has a really creepy feel to it.
This man, Masuoka, is constantly filming, is searching and wants to experience real fear. His search leads him to a world beneath Tokyo where he finds a girl that does not seem to be completely human. He takes her home and studies her, has a camera on that tapes her when he goes out, but it doesn't make him any wiser to what she is. One day when out filming, Masuoka gets beaten up by a man who does not like him taping him and breaks his camera. Masuoka then cuts himself on the broken lens which leads him to find out that the only thing the girl craves is blood. He then starts taking home animals but she only seems completely satisfied when she gets to feed on human blood. He cuts himself and lets her drink his blood but figures that he needs more blood, and that leads him into deeper trouble.
 
Marebito comes out feeling extremely fresh and original. The movie was shot in only 8 days and even though it's shaky and does not look that great at times, those are just minor things that won't stop you from enjoying this fine piece of Japanese cinema. Another thing that makes Marebito great is that it's very unpreditable, you have no idea what's gonna happen next and where things eventually are gonna lead to.
The best thing though is that while watching the movie and after finished watching it, I actually didn't think it was very scary. Sure it was eerie and creepy as hell at times but it wasn't as scary as I first had thought it would be. But much later on it kinda hit me just how unsettling Marebito really was, just like what happened when watching Ringu for the first time. It sticks in your mind, and that creepy feeling is really hard to shake off. So it gets a lot of credit for that accomplishment, it's truly rare with movies that can do that to you.
"F" herself is not the most creepy character in this movie like you at first might have thought she would be. It's actually Masuoka, the camera man, who's the creepy character here considering everything the man is doing. Tomomi Miyashita who stars as "F" is truly great in the role, she walk on all four and it makes her look more like some kind of creature than a human being. Because after all, she looks like a human being, and not a blood drinking monster of any kind. In the special features on the DVD, there's an interview with director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on: The Grudge 1-2) who had heard that she walked around like that naked in her apartment before the shooting of the film to get into the role. It's a fun fact and she manages to do a great job looking really creepy walking like that.
The star of the movie though is Shinya Tsukamoto who does an excellent job starring as Masuoka. It's belivable, feels real and without a performance like that, I don't know how Marebito would have looked like. The atmosphere is just fantastic and even though there's not much music in the movie, there are a number of unsettling sounds that works really well.
Marebito is sick, twisted, original, eerie, but in the end an awesome unsettling movie that stays with you long after it's over and that I'm really happy I got to see. It's not fast-paced neither slow-paced, but moves forward in a really good tempo that lets every little thing sink in while it's running. It's hard to recommend since I know there are a lot of people who sure won't like it. Personally, I think it's one of the better Japanese movies I've seen in a very long time.
Memories of Murder is about a series of brutal rape murders that actually happened for real in South Korea between the year 1986 till 1990. We get to follow two cops who are supposed to solve the case and as more new corpses are found it leads them to frustration and the use of questionable methods to catch the killer. Also the military government uses the police to stop protests instead of focusing on the murder case which leads to even more frustration.
Memories of Murder hit bigtime in South Korea and no wonder, it's an excellent movie based on true events. It also has a lot of Korean political history in it from when South Korea was under military dictatorship so I guess it's even more interesting for Koreans who have actually experienced it in real life.
Not a horror movie per se, but as a Asian thriller I still felt that it would fit among the other reviews.
This movie is very different compared to most other thrillers out there, it has a very strong development of characters throughout the movie and this makes you get more into it so to speak. Also, the fact that it's based on a true story helps adding a lot to the movie itself and makes it of course feel more real.
 
The ending is the biggest surprise which is totally different from what people are used to and that makes it also rise a notch or two. Although that doesn't mean that the ending will satisfy the viewer since it's very different and may as well end up disapointing as it will satisfying.
The movie starts out more like a comedy but becomes more and more serious as it continues on. Might be a tiny bit slow paced at some places but overall it's nothing to worry about. It definitely stands out among South Korean movies and I truly recommend it.
A painter's suffering since his wife's departure, and to find some peace, every now and then he comes down to the sewers to paint what he can find there. One day while being in the sewers, he comes across a mermaid that he had met before when he was a kid, when the sewers used to be a big river. He sits down to paint her, but soon she starts crying in agony, and the painter notices that she has some kind of sores on her body. She has been stuck in the sewers for a long time and she must have been infected by the environment down there. The painter takes her home to help her out and to paint her, but as time goes by, her sores just keeps getting worse until the day she finally dies in his home.
Oh my gosh, this was a lot to sit through. I saw this movie on VHS I don't know how many years ago, and I don't know how many times the actual tape had been copied since the quality was beyond bad. But recently, I stumbled upon Mermaid in the Manhole on DVD, the fourth flick in the dreaded Guinea Pig series, and figured I should give it a shot again. Looking at it from one point of view, it's a pretty gross and disgusting movie, but looking at it from another perspective, it's also a strong drama that has a tragic story. So even though Mermaid in the Manhole is a part of the Guinea Pig series, it's still not as focused on just gore as the flicks are.
Watching this movie now made me think of Marebito. Not that it's that much similar to it, but for the fact that it deals with a guy who finds a girl in some weird place and takes her home. That, plus the fact that the girl's not really human either. It's not completely true when it comes to Mermaid in the Manhole, but since I don't wanna give the ending away, I can't reveal any more about it. Let's just say that it has a good ending that gives a lot more to the overall movie itself. Good might be the wrong word to use, it's actually way more tragic, although it makes for a nice and different ending.
My copy came with a warning on it, and it said something like; if you have a weak heart or if you're easily disgusted, then this is not for you. There use to be warning labels on Cannibal Corpse records too, but here it actually makes a lot of sense. Some scenes are really graphical and might be to repulsive for some to sit through, so I (for once) believe that the warning is justified. If you're not into gore and such, then I wouldn't recommend Mermaid in the Manhole, as the movie is full of gore to the brim. On the other hand it has a good and tragic story, add to that some romance and is also a quite strong drama. So it's not as focused on actual graphic gore as the other movies in the series, but still, it's gory as hell.
 
This painter who takes the Mermaid home to his apartment paints her as her sickness and sores grows worse for each day that goes by. You can easily tell that he loves her and that they share some special kind of bond, so of course it's hard for him to see how she keeps getting worse. Most of the gore is extremely well done, while some of it doesn't really look like complete fake, but is still not too far from it. Anyway, for most of the time it looks real and is quite hard to sit and watch at times. The sores begins to spread over her body early on and towards the end, she's completely covered in them.
She starts leaking puss that comes in seven different colours, and the painter later on uses that to paint her portrait with. Now, that's real art right. Towards the end when the infection has spread and she's almost completely covered in wounds and sores, worms starts to appear and come through her as well. It's never scary so you would be afraid or jump out of your seat in fear, but it is truly gross at times and it's recommended not to eat anything when watching this.
If you would take away all the gore, Mermaid in the Manhole would actually be quite a beautiful film involving two people who care deeply for each other. But now the gore is there, and gorehounds will get a kick out of this movie for sure. Personally, I feel that the best thing about this movie was the actual story, as it is both interesting and quite sad at the same time. But again, it's a lot to sit through so take notice of that. Credits to the girl who played the mermaid since it must've been somewhat difficult to sit through all the gore effects, and especially the worms. A cool and good movie, if you can take it.
The Yam family has had a recent streak of bad fortune, so Taoist priest Kau is asked perform the reburial of one of the family's older members. At the funeral, Kau notice that the corpse has blue fingernails and has turned into a vampire. He takes the coffin and the corpse back home, and with the help from his two assistants, he tries to fix the problem, but somehow the vampire manages to escape. Not only is there a vampire on the loose, but one of Kau's assistants is infected and starts to turn into a vampire as well. And at the same time his other assistant has a female ghost chasing after him.
Mr. Vampire is a super entertaining HK cult film, that has a good mix between slapstick comedy and horror. It's way more fun that it is scary, but it has all these horror elements that makes it a horror movie as well. There are some scenes, especially one that's a little bit creepy, but other than that, it's humour mixed with martial arts action all the way.
A really good thing here is that the vampires are not your usual western gothic vain types of vampires, but actual Chinese vampires that are somewhat different and more interesting to watch. The opening sequence will tell you all about that. There are so many things going on in the movie, you could see it as some type of side-stories, but at the same time they blend into the overall story perfectly. There's the story about the actual vampire that escapes, and he's the one contributing with some of the more real horror that the movie has to offer. At the same time one of Kau's assistants is infected and they have to help him out before he turns.
Another story is about the other assistant who encounters a female ghost whom he falls for, something that Kau does not approve of. This story is a little bit similar to A Chinese Ghost Story, but only for the fact that a guy falls for a female ghost. This assistant who falls for the ghost is the smartest of the two. The other assistant is a little bit dumb, and adds a lot of comical happenings to the movie itself.
 
Some HK flicks has a tendency to overdo it when it comes to how to deliver comedy, and even though it might be funny, sometimes it might feel like too much. Mr. Vampire works all the way when it comes to that, as it delivers the comedy perfectly between all the other things that are going on. So even if the humour might feel a little bit childish at times, there are so many scenes where the humour works to a hundred percent.
The fact that it mixes martial arts and horror with slapstick makes you get a little of everything. The movie has some really cool fighting sequences, but that sometimes manages to be really funny as well. Sometimes it switches over completely to being full-on scary, but shortly after a scene that delivers excellent slapstick comes along and everything turns fun again.
There's for instance one scene early on in the movie where Kau is supposed to have English Tea with the man who asks him to perform the reburial. He has no idea what English Tea really is and how to behave, so he takes the dumber one of his assistants with him, so the assistant can embarrass himself without Kau embarrass himself first. When they arrive at the place they are served coffee with a cup of milk on the side, and they have no idea on how one's supposed to drink it. It's great fun and the movie has so many of these things to offer, plus all the great martial arts action scenes and more.
Mr. Vampire is a great HK slapstick horror comedy, and if you haven't seen it but intend to do so, don't expect a horror movie, just expect a HK comedy that has some horror feel to it. First and most this is a comedy, so if you're not ready for it, it may not work. It is truly an original movie that has influenced a lot of movies after its release, and if you haven't seen it yet, you should look it up. Highly recommended.
Dae-woo, a college lecturer who has never had a girl, or never been to a date for that matter, one day meets Mi-na, a mysterious young woman who has just moved in to the same building as he lives in. He eventually manage to ask her out, quite awkwardly, but to his big surprise, she accepts. They keep dating for a while, and slowly begins to fall in love. She claims to be an artist and that she'll eventually go to Italy and study, but when having a couple's dinner with some of Dae-woo's friends, she can't answer any questions right, and doesn't seem to be the person she claims to be. But that's just a little thing compared to the terrible secret that Mi-na's hiding.
What came to mind before starting to watch 'My Scary Girl' was the old flick 'So I Married an Axe Murderer' with Mike Myers (Wayne's World). The concept seemed familar, but luckily it was far from it, even though these two flicks might have a few thing in common. Now, this movie was a strange mix of comedy, thriller and drama, delivering no real suspense to speak of, but still had some typical thriller elements baked into it. The comedy worked quite well at times, especially for the fact that the guy, Dae-woo, had never been with a girl before. Actually he had never even kissed a girl or hardly even talked to a girl for that matter, so a lot of the comedy came from that, awkwardness and so on. So "bad" that it sometimes made you cringe.
I can't put my finger on whether or not I liked the guy who played Dae-woo. Sometimes, well, a lot of times he came off as way too stiff and genuinely boring. I know that it was the way it was supposed to be, but he was still a drag to watch at times. Can't say that he's a bad actor though, it's just that it was a bit hard to watch every now and then. The girl who played Mi-na did a decent job, and she was still kinda likable even though she had killed a couple of people. Mi-na's friend, who she shared the flat with, came off as very annoying yet quite entertaining, being drunk almost throughout the movie, trying to break the couple up, and basically ruining things for everyone, and even herself.
 
Basically, Mi-na's involved in this big scam together with some other people which will make them a great deal of cash. She's not a murderer per se, and does not really want to kill, it's just the way things turn out, and situations that arises that makes her do it. While dating Dae-woo early on, the movie is focused on delivering comedy, and it manages to do so at times with some stuff that works really well, due to the kind of person Dae-woo is. Later on, it kinda changes from being a straight-forward comedy to instead becoming a thriller with a lot of drama in it, and things tends to get a bit more serious. Dae-woo finds out her true identity and for a while, things doesn't look too bright.
Overall, I think that it was a pretty decent flick, but I must admit that while I really liked some parts of the movie, some didn't do it for me at all. Still, in the end I guess it was slightly above decent, and might be worth a watch for fans of Korean cinema (not just horror). The pacing was ok for the most part, but at times it dragged a little too much, even though this was really no big deal. It looked like your standard Korean flick, which means it looked very slick and nice. But basically this is a movie that you'd wanna watch together with your girl/boyfriend since it's kind of a cute flick. Not disgustingly cute though, because then I wouldn't have seen the whole thing I'm sure.
Best thing about My Scary Girl was the comical side of it that worked well early on in the movie. Overall, it was an ok watch, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again if you know what I mean. The plot was ok, with an ending that was pretty satisfying as well, but there are of course way better Korean flicks out there. If you're a big fan of Korean films, I would recommend you to give it a go, and if not, there are plenty of better films to choose from.
A teenage scientist develops a painkiller that he calls MY SON. His mom works as a doctor, and have three young girls take part in a test for a new contraceptive drug. But her 17 year old son spike that drug with his new experimental painkiller, without the girls or the mom knowing about it. The drug turns pain into pleasure, and soon two of the girls start hurting themselves really bad...and can't stop hurting themselves either. The mom has no idea what's going on, and the son is stalking the girls, documenting everything on his video camera. Needless to say, it all ends in bloodbath.
There were a lot of hype regarding Naked Blood, and even if it's gory, the hype was still somewhat misleading. Same goes for the cover, which looks like the ultimate gorefest. It has some very strong scenes involving gore, but also contains a lot of drama, and there are only a few scenes that are very extreme. If you're only in it for the gore, I would suggest watching the Guinea Pig series instead.
Naked Blood starts of with showing a 17 year old scientist who has developed a new painkiller that turns pain into pleasure. He has never tested it out, so of course he's eager to do so. His mom is doing an experiement on three young girls, giving them a contraceptive drug, and the son goes to her workplace, when about to perform the test, and spikes the drug with his painkiller. It's not your normal teenage prank, and the whole thing turns out to be really nasty with deadly consequences.
 
Soon the girls start to feel the drug kick in, and when they hurt themselves, it does not hurt but instead feels wonderful. To tell you a little of what those nasty scenes contain; One of the girls deep fry her hand, to later cut a piece of her genitalia and eat it. She then cuts one of her nipples off and eats it as well, and when finished with that, she puts a fork in her eye, pulls out the eyeball, and eats that too. (It's recommended not to eat when watching this). Another girl (shown on the cover) can't stop piercing herself with all kinds of things, and after a while she looks like a mess. There are other nasty scenes as well, and most of them might be somewhat hard to sit through.
But Naked Blood is not only a movie with strong scenes of gore. It actually has a lot of drama in it, and even if the story is simple, it's still very interesting to follow. The acting is very good, and the movie never feels too over-the-top. There's no humour in it whatsoever, and ignoring the gory scenes, it makes for a pretty good and serious drama as well.
Naked Blood is a bit similar Mermaid in the Manhole, since even if it has a lot of gore in it, it still makes for a very good drama, and has an interesting story too. It's not just all about gore, but has a lot of other things to offer as well, which makes the whole outcome seem better. Personally, I think Naked Blood is a great movie, but I'm not sure if I can recommend it since it's a very different movie that a normal horror fan might find to be too strange. There are some strong scenes of gore, so take notice of that, but it's also a great drama, and overall, a great film.
The Neighbor No. 13 is about a boy who's recovering from being bullied throughout his childhood were he at one time also had acid poured on his face. He grows up as a very calm person but the hate and violence inside of him makes him form another personality who comes out when the usually calm person gets angry and it's about him wanting revenge on his former bullies.
It was really long ago since I saw a Japanese movie as good as this and I got into it without really knowing too much about it and came out being somewhat amazed by how good this movie actually was. I wouldn't call it a horror movie, although it has few horror elements it's definitely more of a thriller, or psycho-thriller if you would.
It's a bit more to it but I don't wanna give too much away since it should be watched without knowing to much about before hand. Anyway, The Neighbor No. 13 is a great thriller which tends to be very violent at times and has a lot, and I mean a lot of feeling to it.
 
Like with so many other Japanese movies it's based on a manga and a fun thing is that Takashi Miike has a cameo in the movie. It's not slow paced since something happens all the time with a few exceptions were it's only slow but I felt this was necessary as it brings more feeling to what's actually happening or what's about to happen on screen.
The Neighbor No. 13 feels very fresh and I couldn't help but to think of Ichi The Killer when viewing it. It might not be that similar but still there was something. Anyway, highly recommended.
This time it's also about cell-phones that delivers a death message, but this time to solve the mystery/lift the curse some people have to go to Taiwan, so at least we get a new location in this movie.
This was a kinda meaningless sequel to Takashi Miike's Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call), and the sequel is not even from him either.
First movie was a very commercial horror and especially commercial for being Miike, but I kinda got into it and actually ended up liking it more than I expected me to do, it's was far from brilliant or any thing like that but still a totally ok horror movie.
 
Only thing maybe is that it was somewhat similar to the Korean horror movie The Phone, and The Phone was far much better than One Missed Call. But comparing the first One Missed Call to this sequel, One Missed Call 2 doesn't even come close and that's why I used the word meaningless in the beginning, it doesn't really have anything to offer.
There are a lot of scares and shocks and all that but it doesn't really work and it never gets as scary as you want it to be. Problem is that you've most likely seen this before if you're into Asian horror and it's just repeating itself without adding anything new to the formula.
It's not boring, the movie moves at an ok pace, the actors are good and it's nicely shot but in the end this doesn't really help. I guess a lot of people who've seen the first movie wants to see this one just for the sake of it, unfortunately this is so far from what the first one was it just feels like a waste of time.
Ji-won gets a new cell phone and suddenly strange things start to happen. The first strange thing being her friends daughter who plays around with Ji-won's phone and then all of a sudden starts to scream in terror from what she heard. Ji-won later discovers that other people who use to have her new number before have all died under mysterious circumstances. At the same time her friends daughter's starts to act more and more weird and Ji-won tries to seek out the person who first got the number and finds out that apparently it belonged to a high school girl named Jin-hie. Is she somehow connected to all that's going on and if so, why?
It has been a little bit more quiet for a while now but with the flood of new Asian horror movies coming out before, too many of them kinda contained the exact same elements and became more and more unoriginal.
The Phone might not be that original either but it definitely ranks among the best new Asian horror flicks when it comes to fright, scares and suspense.
I could give it a lower rating considering that's it's not very original and may have borrowed a few things from other movies, but I still think it's so entertaining and delivers scare after scare that really works well. So when it comes to actual horror, it's a terrific flick and therefore the high rating.
 
Yeah it borrows from Ringu for sure but it's not that big of a deal as it's still very interesting. Also with a lot of Asian horror flicks being slow-paced let me tell you that this one is not one of those. I have nothing against slow movies if they end up delivering in the end but it's nice with a faster Asian horror flick for a change and that it works really well this way too without a slow build-up.
The scares comes early in the movie and then they last the movie throughout which is nice. And even though if it's not that scary all of the time, it's still kinda hard to really sit back and relax, it's more likely that you sit and wait for the next scare to hit, and then the next and the next and so on.
And yes, there's a female ghost too with long black hair as seen so many times before. But again, it works really well in the Phone and the ghost actually do a real fine job being scary, direct and manages to be frightening.
As most other Korean movies; the Phone features good actors, looks fantastic, is nicely directed and all that and even if it's not original, the story is still interesting enough and the actual horror works truly well. If you like Asian horror but haven't had the chance to see this one yet, I suggest you go and rent it asap.
Ka-kui is an honest cop who manages to capture the big drug lord Cho, almost single-handedly. This leads him to a job of protecting Cho's secretary Selene who will serve as a witness at the trial. But when the day of the trial comes, Selene has escaped from Ka-kui, and is nowhere to be found. And with the main witness gone, the lack of evidence leads to that Cho is set free. If things weren't bad enough, Ka-kui is framed by Cho for killing another cop which makes him have to run, not only from Cho's vicious men, but also from the police who are after him as well. Eventually Ka-kui have to take the law in his own hands.
Police Story was Jackie Chan's international breakthrough, and the film was shown at the New York Film Festival in the year of 1986. Making the film also put Chan in the hospital for a while, due to falling through a glass canopy which made him stop breathing. You're really not surprised when you see it though, since Police Story is packed to the brim with really dangerous stunts, all performed by Chan himself. It's kinda amazing to watch all this massive action at times, and if for nothing else, it sure makes for a helluva lot of pretty awesome entertainment. I read somewhere long ago that this is HK's answer to 'Dirty Harry', but that's just all wrong, other than that Chan and Eastwood both being cops, they don't have too much in common. I guess there are a few similarities, but overall, I find no reason to compare them whatsoever.
Best thing with this movie is that it has so much to offer. The story might be nothing special, but works due to all the other little things that goes on while it's being told. The action scenes are just great, and the fighting scenes are so amazing at times that you can't help but to rewind and watch them again. Everything's fast here, and the movie's not slow or dull for even a minute. Another thing that works wonders in Police Story are a few comical scenes which sometimes are so hilarious it's ridiculous. There are a lot of funny HK flicks out there, but quite often the humour tends to be a bit too childish, while at the same time some of it works well. That's fortunately not the case here though, and when things are funny, they're quite often extremely funny. But don't take my word for it, watch it and judge for yourself.
 
Jackie Chan, who also directed the movie, is a true joy to watch here, and it's really sad when thinking about that he has been in such crappy flicks like Rush Hour, Shanghai Knights etc. Sadly, he's not the only one, and the same goes for Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li among others. But Chan's old HK flicks are of course still really enjoyable, and Police Story (which spawned three sequels) might be his best one. The combination of humour and action works truly well, and it's nice that it provides some good laughs inbetween all the action and fighting scenes. Other than that, Police Story has this real 80's feeling to it as well, the way it looks, the music, etc. I know many people are not into that, but personally I think it just raises everything a notch or two.
If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for? This is a classic HK flick that has a lot to offer the viewer, and is simply put, entertaining as hell. Definitely worth checking out.
The movie starts out with a family consisting of a father, mother and a little girl who are out driving their car and stops at a phone booth since the father has to use it. In the phone booth he finds an article from a newspaper showing a picture of his daughter and saying that she died in a traffic accident on the same day and time as he's reading the actual newspaper scrap. Next thing, the mother leaves the car and shortly after that the car gets hit by a truck, still with the daughter inside of it. That's basically the story of the movie, how could the paper tell what was going to happen, and that's what they try to figure out during the rest of the movie. It's more to it than that but you should just see it for yourself.
I had somewhat kinda high expectations for Premonition since I had read a lot about it before actually viewing it, and the story seemed really cool and more over, really original.
I'm a fan of Asian horror movies, but for some time now most of these movies have been kind of the same, they might still be good to a certain extent, always look terrific and have talented actors in them but often after watching most them you feel that you seen it before, and from what I read about Premonition it seemed different and that you might would be in for something original for a change.
 
And let me tell you, this movie is truly original and feels very fresh among a lot of other Asian horror titles.
Like most other Asian horror movies coming out, this one looks really good and the acting is belivable. Other than that we don't have to put up with any ghost girls with long black hair either and that's really nice for a change.
The story itself is interesting and the movie is interesting to watch as you wanna know what's going to happen. I would rather like to describe Premonition as sort of a (psycho) thriller then your typical horror movie.
It's actually not really scary but more mysterious, dark and has this certain feel to it which makes it really good.
If you're looking for something different among all the newer Asian horror titles, this would be it.
Set in the not to distant future, Japan is ruled by a monarchy, but at the same time there are rebels who fight to overthrow the government. In order to get rid of these rebels, the Japanese government hire some assassins from something that is called the House of Takemikazuchi. Princess Yuki, a member of the Takemikazuchi clan, learns that her parents were killed by the leader of the clan and leaves them vowing revenge. But no one is allowed to leave and the clan sends out assassins to kill Yuki. When escaping from the clan, she meets Takashi, a man that becomes her friend and that she develops strong feelings for as time goes by. Hiding away with Takashi, she starts to plot her revenge against her former clan.
The Princess Blade was adapted from the manga with the same name, and is a movie that makes you think a bit about Azumi, although Azumi was made later on. It's not that similar to Azumi, but since both movies features a sword swinging heroine, is set in Japan and has all these martial arts and swordplay elements, it's hard to not compare them at all. Although The Princess Blade is a bit, how can I put it, "cuter" in lack of a better word and doesn't have the same type of violence that Azumi had.
For being a film that is set in the future, it doesn't look very futuristic at all. There are only a small number of different sceneries used in the movie and most of the time is spent in the woods. And be it the year 1537 or 2028, the woods remain to look like just what woods normally look like, future or no future. Once in a while though, there are some CGI made scenes that actually look a bit futuristic. When it comes to action, this movie really delivers and it's true eye candy to watch some of the fights that take place. Also the fights and the actual action feels kinda realistic and does luckily not have that cartoonish feel to it. Unfortunately this movie is not all about action and swordplay.
 
The Princess Blade has a great opening scene which automatically grabs your attention and all seems well and good. Unfortunately as the plot evolves, this movie becomes weaker and weaker as it goes. Once in a while there's some great action scene that saves it for the moment, but then it's back to the weak story that is not very interesting. It tends to slow down way too much at times without really having any greater development of the characters that are Yuki and Takashi. So even if we get to know them a tiny bit, it's very hard to feel anything for any of them.
At times it's like watching a comic book on screen which is a really cool feeling, and if it could've stayed like that all the way it would've been awesome. Unfortunately it goes a different way too many times and you don't know whether you really like it or if it's just too boring. And that is the main problem with this movie, its ups and downs, because one moment there's a lot happening, it looks stunning and has fantastic action. But then the next moment it completely slows down and you find yourself having a hard time to stay interested. Azumi definitely had a better feel to it as well since Yuki here looks a little bit to young, like some Japanese pop-star or something which makes it a little hard to take her seriously.
I think this is one of those typical popcorn flicks that you watch because you have nothing else to do or for the fact that you wanna watch something but without having to think too much. It has some great action, some visually interesting stuff, the acting is decent but the story is weak and the movie just goes nowhere at times. Can't really recommened it but can't say that it's bad either. A very average movie that gets one extra point for some of the visually stunning action sequences.
Shortly after the death of her cousin, reporter Reiko starts hearing stories about a mysterious videotape that apparently kills people seven days after that they've watched it. When she at first do not believe the rumours, she changes her opinion when she finds out that her cousin's friend who watched the tape died exactly one week after. She starts to investigate and ends up viewing the tape herself, and after that strange things starts to happen. In order to stop the death clock that has started ticking, Reiko teams up with her ex-husband to try and solve the mystery of the tape and the force behind it.
I'm more than willing to admit that this is the absolute scariest and most freaky movie I've seen in my entire life. I've been watching all kinds of horror and weird movies ever since I was a kid with my mom constantly trying to stop me from watching them, and usually I'm not too often really affected of the things that I see, but Ringu alone scared me beyond repair when I first saw it. It's with no doubt the scariest movie I've seen to date and I'm not sure if anything will ever be able to top it. I saw the movie many years ago when it was still pretty much unknown to the western world, and a friend over in England sent me a VHS tape of the film after he had been telling me for a few weeks over the phone just how scary it was. Stupid as I was back then, I was quite sure that it wouldn't be even half as scary as he had said, and I was pretty much sure he was just exaggerating. But hell, he really wasn't.
I was studying at the time and was not supposed to be in class until late the next day. So there, in the middle of the night alone in my apartment, I put the tape into my VCR and watched the whole film. When it was almost finished and I was sure it was all over, I thought to myself that it was a good film that had some suspense to it, but couldn't believe why my friend had gotten so scared watching it. And then it came, that is Sadako crawling out from the tv and I could feel my heart missing a couple of beats as I had this horrible scene infront of my eyes. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night, or the night after that, and the night after that...
 
When people ask me about what movie I have found to be the most scary, my answer is always the same; Ringu. When you were a kid and watched horror movies, there were a lot of them that creeped you out and that you of course found to be horrific, but that is also when being a kid, and those movies I found to be scary back then are obviously not half as scary, or even scary at all for that matter, now. But Ringu is definitely the worst/best film I've seen in my grown-up life of watching horror. And the thing that is the main attraction of this movie is of course the mystery that it has to it. The whole film is packed to the brim with mystery, and it's that feeling of the unknown that makes it so much worse. Even the last scene has a 110 percent mystery to it, because even if you get to see Sadako, she's still wearing her hair over her face so that you can't really see her which obviously brings a helluva lot of mystery to the film along with that it delivers an enormously creepy feel. Also, the way that she walks and looks of course also adds genuine fear.
I've come across people every once in a while who have said that they didn't find Ringu to be scary and some have even said that it's an overrated film. But personally I believe that if you won't get scared when watching the film, you have obviously not paid the proper attention to it or, even worse, you lack the imagination and fantasy that is so needed when watching horror films. I believe that all that is in the film is of pure perfection, everything from the acting to the script, the story, the atmosphere and everything else. And I also believe that even though there are a lot of fantastic ones out there, this is one of the best Japanese films ever made.
So I kinda ended up writing more of an article about Ringu rather than an actual review, but what the hell, you've probably already seen the film right? If you haven't, I guess it's quite obvious what you should do next.
Lo Ka Yiu is sent to prison for manslaughter and he soon finds that life in jail is not an easy life at all. Luckily in there he meets Ching, a fellow inmate who has been in prison for a long time and knows his way around. But it is a brutal world where only the strongest survive, and Lo Ka Yiu soon learns life on the inside is not always easy and fair.
I remember when watching Prison on Fire many years ago that I found it to be a really good film. When watched it now, I still think it's a good film but not quite as good as I remembered it to be. Thing might be that over the years you've seen a lot of films and series that deals with prisons and watching Prison on Fire now, I found it to be not nearly as brutal or violent as I wanted it to be. Don't get me wrong, violence is bad, but this is a movie about life in prison and without all that nasty stuff, it's really not that interesting. Still though, the movie has its fair share of violence and brutality, but just enough to make it entertaining, and never so it feels too realistic or frightening. Good thing though is that we don't have to sit through a lot of pound-me-in-the-ass stuff a la OZ etc, and that's a really positive thing.
Tony Leung Ka Fai stars as Lo Ka Yiu, a naive man sent to prison for manslaughter. Early on in the movie the viewer get the real scoop why the guy ended up in prison, and he was just helping his dad when some punks stole from his dad's store. So when you know the background and you know that the man is not evil, you are bound to feel some sympathy for the guy and care about what happens to him on the inside.
In prison Lo meets Ching (Chow Yun-Fat), a man who serves a long sentence and who has been in jail for quite some time and knows his way around. Soon Lo starts making mistakes by telling on other people and has to watch his back from then on. But Ching is there by his side, always positive and friendly and also brings a lot of humour to all the seriousness. Tony Leung Ka Fai makes a great performance but Chow Yun-Fat stands out as always and is the center of every scene he's in. His character is funny and warm-hearted and is easy to root for. Just like Lo, Ching has also commited manslaughter but it doesn't really matter what he has done in the past, he's still a very likable character.
The movie takes a look at the Hong Kong prison system and shows a lot of things how everything works there. We get to see everything from sadistic guards to how prisoners are being treated, and it also deals with just how much power members of the triads have in there. At times the movie feels quite realistic but some of the humour takes some of the seriousness away. It's actually a good mix between the two, humour and seriousness, it has a great balance and in the end gives a good result.
Prison on Fire manages to be quite a powerful movie at times, and has some realistic scenes every now and then as well. Although, it also features a lot of humour that takes some of the serious feel away, but that works as a good counterweight. The acting is good and both Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Ka Fai does a great job with their character, especially Chow Yun-Fat who's always great to see on screen (except for the American movies he has been in). If you're a fan of HK flicks, you'll probably have a good time watching Prison on Fire.
Pathologist Dr. Ando performs an autopsy on his recently deceased friend Ryuji Takayama, and finds a cryptic note in Takayama's stomach. He starts investigating and his search leads him to a cursed videotape, that apparently anyone who watches it will die a week after. He believes that Takayama wanted him to find and watch the tape and so he does. But after watching it, strange things start to happen, and maybe it was never meant for Ando to watch it in the first place.
Rasen takes off were Ringu ended and this time leaves a man named Ando to try and find out the secret behind the mysterious videotape. In Ringu, when Sadako came crawling out from the tv, the guy who was in that room was Ryuji Takayama. So in Rasen, his body is found and his old friend Ando start searching for clues to what caused Takayama's death.
I found this movie to be quite interesting at first, but after a while it unfortunately turned out to not be so good after all. The interesting thing was that it's like Ringu continues, but then things took a different turn and did not really deliver in the end.
 
Even though the story is quite interesting, the big let-down is that it's not scary, not even comparable to Ringu in any way. We get to see a lot of Sadako in Rasen, only problem is that she's not scary here. The hair over her face is gone and so takes all the mystery away, and that was a real bummer. Also the movie goes more in a scientific direction, with the curse of the videotape really being a virus that's transmitted by one person to another.
Personally, I think that this scientific turn kinda makes Rasen quite boring. Ringu was interesting since it had all this mystery surrounding it, with the tape and how the curse got spread. Here they take all that mystery away, saying it's a real virus, like a disease. It was better when it was more supernatural.
Rasen was originally supposed to be Ringu 2 and should therefore also be watched after Ringu since it's a sequel. Ringu 2 was made only because the audience reaction to Rasen was not that great.
Rasen is more drama than horror and is a kinda slow moving film. It's a bit interesting and if you like the other films in the series you might wanna give Rasen a try too. The lack of scares are brutal and that was a bit of a downer, just like the scientific turn was. I'm happy to have seen it but it's not something I would watch a second time.
Tsui Ting-Yin is a best-selling author and for her new book, she decides to change genre and instead of writing love stories, focus on the supernatural. When writing a chapter for her new book, entitled Re-Cycle, the supernatural she writes about appears to her in real life in the form of a woman. Afraid at first, Tsui Ting-Yin later follows the long-haired woman that appeared to her in order to be able to write more, and is soon plunged into a world of fantasy and great terror.
Obviously, I had heard a lot about Re-Cycle before watching the film, but still I couldn't have told you what it was about, since even if I had heard about it, several times, the descriptions of it were just too vague for one to fully be able to grasp what the story was all about. So when I started to watch Re-Cycle, my mind was basically set to zero and it was all completely new to me. I knew that it would be a horror film and figured (and hoped) that it would have the same effective scares like the Pang Bros film The Eye had, because first time I watched that film, it was really scary. And at first it seemed like it would have the same kind of great horror to it; A young female author writing about the supernatural and all of a sudden there are strange ghostly forces in her apartment. It kept going like that for a while, and since I watched the movie alone in the middle of the night, I figured in was in for a real treat when talking about horror and scares that would do the job. Well, I was in for a treat all right, but very different from what I first had thought things would be like.
Even if the horror elements were there all the way through, I would still like to describe Re-Cycle as a fantasy film that has a horror theme to it rather than a pure horror type of flick. While The Eye was full-on horror from start to finish, accompanied by a great story, Re-Cycle was more like a dark fairy-tale for an adult audience. Actually, the whole fairy-tale feel was present almost all the way through, and was incredibly strong, which was something that made the movie different and made it feel extremely original. First and most, Re-Cycle is a very creative movie and the Pang Bros have really outdone themselves here. There are things in this movie, well an enormous amount of things that were totally new to the eye (not the movie) which made it feel extremely fresh and inventive.
When talking about that it had a fairy-tale-like feel to it, the tale that comes to mind is of course Alice in Wonderland. This basically because of the fact that a woman enters a different world where things are not like in the human world, and are introduced to new characters and sights as well as monsters and things of pure terror. But Re-Cycle just touches the Alice in Wonderland concept, and other than for a few things, the similarities weren't that great, but I felt like that it was still a good way for me to describe to you what we're dealing with here. When comparing it to other stuff, it also had one bigger thing to offer that made you think of Silent Hill, and that was about the darkness coming once in a while and turned the normal scenery into a chaotic hell-like place.
 
It's very hard to describe what Re-Cycle looked like, and I'm sure that words can't do it justice. I would like to start with saying that it's a beautiful looking film, and there are true beauty to be found within, dark as well as light. It offers some disturbing imagery, like a huge cave packed with aborted babies, but also some truly amazing scenery that were just so beautiful, it would be impossible to describe it using just simple words. For the way it looks, Re-Cycle is a definite must see, and I can't stress that enough. You've never seen anything like it, trust me on this folks. Besides that, it looks absolutely smashing at all times. But what you actually get out of the film as a whole is of course a different story.
I think for the fact that I was so focused on that Re-Cycle would be a scary horror film, it somewhat not really ruined it for me, but left me a bit disappointed. If I would watch this film with my mind set on that it would be a fantasy film with some horror to be found within, I guess things would've turned out a bit better. But it doesn't really matter and I must say that it had a lot of things to love as well as countless of things to be impressed by, and when thinking about it now after seeing it, a word like jaw-dropping definitely comes to mind. But it lacked the scares, at least those that would make you sit on the edge of your seat, chewing your nails to the bone, but even so it still had some quailty horror to offer for the sake of it looking extremely good, but unfortunately not providing the proper scares that one's always on the look-out for.
Acting-wise, excuse my language, but it was f**king brilliant and the same goes for the directing, the camera-work, the story-line, all things visual and so on. It's no point of going into detail about these things, because like I said before, words wouldn't do it justice, you just need to see it for yourself, simple as that. But when it comes to the acting, Angelica Lee (who starred in The Eye) makes a wonderful performance as the author Tsui Ting-Yin and leaves absolutely nothing to wish for. The other cast is very good too, but the movie's about her and she sure stands out, even more than she did in The Eye. The score helped to deliver a certain feel at times, as well as it was truly powerful - beautiful - and you couldn't really have asked for more when it comes to the very score either.
My biggest problem I found myself having with Re-Cycle was that I was expecting a really scary horror movie, but that instead proved to be one fantasy film that had a horror theme to it. It's no one's fault except my own, and next time I watch it, I will at least know what I'm in for and I'm sure that'll help. Re-Cycle has wonderful things to offer, and just for the fact of how it all looks, it's worth to check out. And even though the very horror could've been much stronger, I would still like to say that say that the Pang Bros have really outdone themselves here. Highly recommended.
A girl takes a job as a stewardess on a train to work the night shift. Strange things start to occur and passengers start dying mysteriously. She finds out that all the stuff going on might somehow be linked to a train crash of the same train a few years back and the people who died on it. Will she be able to solve the puzzle and stop what's going on or will all people aboard the train die horrible deaths?
Not to be confused with Wes Craven's Red-Eye, this is the Korean horror movie that came out the same year. Unfortunately it's yet another kinda clichéd ghost movie, somewhat entertaining but brings nothing new and original to Asian horror.
To my big surprise I found a lot of positive reviews on the net for Redeu-ai before. But I think that if you're a fan of Asian horror and have seen a lot of those kinda flicks, this won't rank that high.
Even if a movie does not bring anything new to the scene it can still be good, see Phone, Red Shoes or Dead Friend among others. But this one was just too unoriginal, slightly boring with scares that were not very effective. And when the scares do not bite and with a story that's not that interesting, it just leaves you with a lot to wish for.
 
What you can expect are the standard Korean things when it comes to movies like good acting, visually great, nice photography etc. But even if it's nice to look at doesn't mean that the movie will deliver the goods.
The scares are way too few and it's too far between them. There are some scenes, especially one that is great when it comes to horror but it just isn't enough to carry the movie all the way
I think that if you're big fan of Asian horror flicks you might wanna check this one out but don't expect too much. If you just wanna watch a good scary Asian film there are plenty of other better ones to choose from.
The movie is about this lady who finds a pair if red shoes (well pink) and gets utterly obsessed with them. She has a daughter which is a very annoying young girl who also gets obsessed with these shoes. In fact, everyone who comes in contact with the shoes gets obsessed with them, but they also have to pay the prize for wanting them.
Another new Korean horror movie, I always wanna see them but you don't really go in with any real expectations anymore. When you first hear about this movie it sounds kinda dumb that it's about a pair of red shoes (which actually are bright pink...how did that go wrong?).
Anyway, it's not as dumb as it might sound. It's not the most original of movies but still well worthy of a watch.
Does this sound corny? Yes it sure does, but let me tell you that it's not as corny as it may sound, this doesn't mean that it's great in any way but still it shouldn't get dissed just because of how it sounds. It's actually hard to explain the story without it sounding a bit corny.
There's also a back story to the actual shoes but that I won't tell you here. There's more to it then what I have revealed here and you should give it a shot, it's worth a watch.
 
I read some comments about this movie in some forum, and someone (who obviously had not seen the movie) said that it was about some killer shoes the runs around and kill people, but that's not the case.
The actors in the movie are top-notch, visually it's great like most Korean movies out there, it's also quite creepy from the way it was shot, and has a great atmosphere. Also on the plus side is the gore, we actually get to see a lot of gore in this movie and some really cool gory scenes.
The pacing here's like with most Asian movies, if you are not used to it you might get ants in your pants, but it's actually not that slow so it shouldn't be a problem. Like I said before, it's well worth a watch.
Ming Ming, a mentally challenged young woman has recently been admitted to an assisted living facility. In the nearby community, a series of rapes has occured, and keeps continuing, while it spreads fear among those who lives there. Chan, who's the head doctor at the facility where Ming Ming's at seems like a nice guy at first, but when Ming Ming one day wears a dress that is coloured red, Chan goes berserk and rapes her.
Red to Kill is one of those HK Cat III movies that really deserves the Cat III rating, as it is brutal and might as well be way too much for some to sit through. Personally, while it's a horrible film that has some really nasty scenes, I'm still a big fan of this movie. One could call it a sick-flick that has a lot of gore, violence, full frontal nudity over and over again, rapes and even necrophilia in it. Sounds like too much? Well, it might be, but at the same time, everything is not quite as horrible and brutal as it may sound.
When Ming Ming's father dies, Lok, a social worker, helps move Ming Ming who's mentally challenged into an assisted living facility. There are a lot of mentally challenged, retards, living in the facility, and Ming Ming soon makes many friends. Meanwhile, a series of rapes has plagued the community, and the people who lives there blame the assisted facility, thinking that some of the retards may be responsible. The head doctor, Chan, helps Ming Ming get adjusted to her new enviroment, but one day when she wears a red dress, he suddenly snaps and rapes her. The case ends up in court, but since Chan has a really good lawyer, and Ming Ming's statement is far from great, Chan walks, and plan to pay Ming Ming a visit once again.
 
Red to Kill starts off showing its true face right away, when one get to see some psycho killing a girl, to rape her after she's dead. Don't get me wrong here, but it's a great opening, and of course it's horrible and bad, but it's still a great opening. Take notice that if you have problems with rape scenes and gory disgusting scenes, it's recommended to stay away from this flick as it has a few of those type of scenes to offer.
If you're looking for shock value, Red to Kill has some to offer, and even if you kinda know what to expect when watching this type of flick, it's hard to be fully prepared for what's coming. Now, I've probably made this sound like a really frightening experience, and while at one point it is, but on the other hand, it really isn't after all. Talking about the rape scenes, you get to see the softcore version of things, that means, naked flesh and you know what's going on but no visible penetration. Still, watching rape scenes, which ever way they may be filmed in, is a truly horrible thing. But it's far from as bad as Irreversible, because that scene was truly sickening. On the other hand, raping a mentally challenged girl adds to the whole thing, and just knowing what's going on is quite enough.
The worst scene though, which may be really hard to stomach, (I know I had problems with it) is actually after Ming Ming has been raped and she feels unclean in the shower. I don't wanna spoil it for any potential viewers, but it's a bit much. The acting is very good, and if some of the retarded people weren't retared for real, they do an excellent playing retards. But Ben Ng truly stands out as the rapist and psychopath, and delivers an over-the-top psychotic performance that is a hundred percent belivable. Just wait till you see it, it can't be explained but has to be seen as it really stands out. The ending and the finale is truly awesome as well.
What we're dealing with here is a flick with a horrible theme, that is nasty and that has some really nasty scenes. If you watch it and is not at all affected by any of it, it's recommended to see a shrink. It has shock value, a good pace, and an awesome psychopath that you'll love to hate. It's a horrible, but yet, at the same time, a great movie.
Yakuza leader and Kunisada's father figure is murdered, and together with his best friend, Kunisada goes on a mission to avenge his death. Killing off other Yakuza leaders and people working for the different families, and in the end a final confrontation with the man who slayed Kunisada's leader.
This is another one of Takashi Miike's Yakuza movies, and for being a Miike movie, it's actually not as weird or "special" as most of his other movies tend to be. You can still tell it's Miike who's behind it, but it's just not as Miike as many of his other movies feel like. Been using the word Miike to much here already, but I guess if you've seen a lot of his stuff, you should know what I mean, and if you haven't, nevermind.
 Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is about a man named Kunisada, played by Riki Takeuchi that you might recognize from Battle Royale and Dead or Alive among other things. Personally I think that Riki Takeuchi is a really good and believable actor, and it's always fun to see him on screen. Here he's doing an excellent job as Kunisada who's a kind of a psychopathic character who won't stop at nothing getting his revenge. He's actually the perfect actor for this flick as he's somewhat intimidating and that goes really well with all the violence that's in the movie.
So Kuni and his friend sets out to take out all the Yakuza heads and to find the one who killed their leader. But at the same time, since Kuni is causing a lot of disturbance and problems, the Yakuza heads send out their men to finish him off as well. But Kuni sure is determined and won't stop at nothing in his search for revenge.
There's a lot of violence, and it's done very well and feels very realistic which fits the movie perfectly. There's a lot of talk in the movie, and sometimes it feels like it slows down a bit too much, but it never really takes long before it gets going again. One big problem that this movie suffers from though is that there are way to many characters involved, and it's actually really hard to keep track of everyone, their names, who they are and what they represent. Still, in the end this is not such a big problem and it won't stop you from enjoying the overall movie.
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is kinda similar to Agitator, only that Rekka is more simple. It's easy to root for Kunisada, even if he has a temper and is pretty hot-headed, he's still very likable, or maybe that's the reason why he's so likable, I don't know. His friend is kinda hot-headed as well, but is like Kuni, also pretty likable and he actually brings a lot of comic relief to the movie.
The score is just weird, I can't really explain it. The movie is filled with these rock type songs but that are way different and has a lot of weird stuff in them. When first started watching this movie, the music was a bit too distracting and sometimes I found myself focusing more on the music than to what was actually going on in the movie. After a while though, the type of music the movie contains kinda grew on you and after finished watching the whole thing, I actually felt like the overall score fit really well into the film.
If you're into crime or even better, Yakuza movies, this one might be something for you to check out. It's far from Miike's best and if you're looking for a Miike movie there are a lot of other better choises. Still, it's a pretty entertaining flick with good acting, that sometimes is a bit over the top but that still fits the concept.
Milly, a young girl, travels back in time from the year 2084 to 2002 after an alien invasion. Once back in time her mission is to seek out a Tokyo gunman named Miyamoto in order to prevent the war from ever happening. Meanwhile a Japanese mafia boss named Mizoguchi keeps the first alien spaceship and the alien pilot captive and is involved in the start of the war. Now the gunman and the girl from the future must find a way to stop the oncoming destruction of an alien invasion.
Japanese Sci-Fi...haven't watch too much of that and since I'm not a big fan of Sci-Fi either, I've never really bothered to seek it out. Returner though fell into my lap a few years back and I must say I really enjoyed this movie. It has this futuristic feel to it and the fact the it deals with an alien invasion makes it even more Sci-Fi-like, but you don't need to be a fan of the genre to be able to enjoy the movie as it's far from Star Trek or any other similar kind of crap. Although, in the end it is a Sci-Fi movie, and if you're not a fan of that but like action and Asian/Japanese cinema you'll probably find Returner to be quite a good flick anyway.
In the year of 2084, an alien spaceship did a fake crash landing on earth, and later on the alien armies attacked and destroyed most of it. Leaving just a few desperate survivors, they put their heads together and built a time-machine in order to send troops back in time to destroy the first alien and prevent the war from ever happening. Back in time, all to the year of 2002, gunman Miyamoto is about to extract his vengeance upon mafia boss Mizoguchi but is interupted by a time-traveling girl which gives Mizoguchi a chance to escape. He takes the unconscious girl back to his apartment and when she wakes up she tells him that she has travelled back in time in order to save humanity from an oncoming alien invasion.
 
The gunman of course do not believe the girl, but when she attaches a bomb to his neck he is forced to do what she tells him. They have to find the alien spaceship that crash-landed on earth and kill the pilot before the alien gets a chance to signal the rest of the aliens that goes goes by the name of Daggra. Everything seems easy at first and Miyamoto soon starts to believe the girl since he get to witness some astonishing things. But their mission proves to be more difficult than they first had thought since the Yakuza gets involved as well, wanting the technology for themselves.
The movie has some flaws but nothing that keeps it from being entertaining, something it truly manages to be. The overall story is not very original and it's easy to see how they have borrowed things from many different American movies. On the other hand, as long as it's not a rip-off I couldn't actually care less since most things in this movie are pretty great. So what if they borrowed a few things, everybody does and as long as they manage to make their own thing out of it I find no real reason to complain.
Returner has some really awesome action sequences, some fantastic gun battles and since it's from Japan, one can't help but to get a slight anime feel when watching it as well. It's visually quite stunning at times and add to that some really cool scenes involving the use of slow-motion, plus that the camera-work is great too. Of course there are some CGI and while I'm usually allergic to that, it works very well here. Some stuff really look amazing and it's hard not to be impressed.
When it comes to the acting it has no problem delivering whatsoever. Especially gunman Miyamoto is a really cool character and it's hard not to like him. Between all the Sci-Fi and the action we even get some sentimentality, something that actually works quite well, especially towards the end. And the end itself is well constructed and gives the whole outcome of the movie a very positive feel.
A different Japanese flick with some anime feel to it that has some great action scenes and a few cool twists happening. Even though it might be somewhat unoriginal, it's still greatly entertaining and is a fun and thrilling ride from start to finish. Recommended.
The movie is set during the Vietnam war and a group of soldiers recieve a strange message from some other, presumably lost platoon and starts to investigate around R-Point that is Romeo-point. Soon they end up at an abandoned mansion which seem to be the last known location for the other platoon.
I was really excited about seing R-Point since it was supposed to be a combination of a war and a horror movie and it is, maybe not as good as I first had hoped for at first but still good though.
Mixing war and horror is a great idea, the movie entitled "The Bunker" did that but it didn't work for me at all so I was really hoping this would. Seing it from one side this movie is really good but seing it from an other side it's a bit slow and could've had more horror elements in it.
I'm a bit indecisive here about this movie and it's very hard to rate, it all depends on what you've seen before and what you're used to but getting into Asian movies and starting out with this one is not something I would recommend.
 
If you're into the Vietnam war and such, this movie has a lot of the typical war things to offer that you would wanna see and everything surrounding it. The enviroment of the whole movie and where it takes place has a lot going for it, it's dark, it's foggy and this mansion, deep in no mans land where the soldiers end up has a creepy atmosphere and a lot of the scenes in the movie has this genuine eerie feeling.
The problem I had with this movie was that it was way too slow, I'm used to slow paced Asian movies and have nothing against them because they usually make up for being slow, but this was just too slow for it's own good sometimes and that brings the overall feeling down a bit which is quite bad.
Except from being to slow for a too long time, the movie actually delivers some of what you've been waiting for. But if you compare all the "waiting time" towards what you actually get in the end, I'm sorry to say it's not really worth the wait.
Apart from a few nagative thing, I would actually like to recommend this movie to (some) people. It's psychological, eerie, interesting, visually great, has good actors, is beautifully directed and is shot to look creepy at some places which works well. And all that of course makes for a good movie.
Happy Cheung (who's called Fatty) lives a good life, he has a beautiful wife and a nice daughter and he also owns his own business and everything just seems to go perfectly. But one day he finds out that his wife's cheating on him. Devastated he goes to a bar to drown his sorrows and there he meets a members of a Vietnamese underground gang. He tells his sad story and somehow he enlists that group to kill his wife. Later on his wife actually gets killed and now the gang wants money from Cheung for the hit or he's the next one to go. So Cheung seeks out his old friend Wong to come to his aid. But unfortunately Wong ends up dead and his psychotic brother Fung wants revenge on Cheung for getting his brother killed.
Here's a pretty good Cat III flick from master of the genre Billy Tang (Dr. Lamb, Brother of Darkness, Red to Kill). It's first and most an action flick, but has a lot of disgusting typical Cat III stuff in it which makes it part of the genre.
If you're into Cat III this one is definitely a must see. It's first of all super entertaining and has a lot of violence, gore and other HK elements that makes it so good to watch. Of course there are some over-the-top performances but it's a part of it all and is not a bad thing here really.
Kent Cheng delivers on all levels. It's extremely funny at times watching this fat man run and sweat and he has great comical timing. And towards the end his character changes and really delivers on the more brutal plan.
 
I must say that I really like the story, it's simple but yet so entertaining. Everything is just perfect for the guy but suddenly all that was so perfect goes down the drain and from there on everything goes right down-hill and the movie really kicks off.
It's not as gory, sick and disgusting as some other Cat III movies out there but it still has it's charm. It's kinda cheesy but that's a good thing here, and most Cat III movies are kinda cheesy and gory and that's what makes them great.
It's not as "shocking" as some other Cat III movies but does not really need to be either. You kinda have to know what you're getting yourself into when watching a movie like this, I don't mean you'll be scared or anything like that, it's just not for everyone's taste, simple as that.
Yu Gang-in, a recently paroled gang boss reinvents himself as a Christian family man to make an open bid for a political career. He's looking good in the public point of view but is still a gangster at heart. Oh Jin-woo, a by-the-books prosecutor, returns to Seoul after 3 years in exile and it was he who put Yu behind bars. At the same time, Jang Do-yeong, a hotheaded detective who are not too found of going by the book, finds his half-brother stabbed to death by one of Yu's minions. So Jang of course goes after Yu and his people, and so does Oh but they both end up without any good result. So Oh suggest that they them up in order to bring justice onto Yu and his gang.
Running Wild is a slick new crime movie from Korea, and the Korean title translates to 'Wild Beast'. But looking visually great and being a slick film overall is just not enough. It's a somewhat standard crime drama that features a lot of action scenes, violence and some twists, but in the end comes out as just an ok flick, nothing more really.
We have seen the same thing at least a hundred times before. What I'm talking about is these kind of 'buddy-movies' were two completely different persons team up, and while it's akward at first, the more they get to know each other, the better they work together. Even if there are many different characters in the movie, it deals mostly with three of them. One is Yu, a crime boss who has just been released from prison and who has become a new-born christian, but behind the scenes, the man is still a criminal. Then we have Oh, a prosecutor who put Yu behind bars a few years back, and who's trying to do the same thing all over again. Oh strictly follows the books, rules and regulations, something that can't be said about his new partner Jang.
 
Jang is a hotheaded detective who loses his temper so many times that it's hard to keep count (not that I was counting). He doesn't say no to a fight, but instead seems to invite them. He's also the character that makes this movie fun and entertaining to watch. Without him, thing would be way too slow and dull. His half-brother, Lee Dong-jik, used to work for Yu and is released from prison the same day as Yu as well. When Jang is in a store while his newly released brother sits drunk and waiting outside, some of Yu's people stabbs him to death, and so it starts. Jang, filled with rage, goes after Yu's people and even though he beats up a lot of them several times, he himself gets beaten up a number of times as well.
Oh, who's watching Yu and the people who work for him in order to find hard evidence to be able to put Yu behind bars again, is one day disrupted by Jang who attacks some Yu's people. Oh later suggests that he and Jang should team up, and together try to nail Yu, but Yu is smart and things are not as easy as they first had thought. Sounds complicated? It's really not, and everything is quite standard and the movie is easy to follow as well. Unfortunately it's not interesting all the way.
The good things are that, except for the directing being great, that the movie looks slick and visually really good, the acting is as in most Korean movies good to very good, and the movie has a lot of action and fighting scenes. The movie actually featured a hell of a lot of violence when thinking about it, and that's a good thing because it makes things happen as it sometimes slows down and makes you lose interest. The story is ok, but it's a pretty standard crime drama, it works but you've most likely seen it before. One really good thing though is that you don't get a typical Hollywood ending, and the movie also has one bigger twist that came rather unexpected. It's an ok crime movie, and even if it was entertaining at times, I found it hard to stay interested all the way.
In the end Running Wild felt like a pretty standard Korean crime flick. It looks great and the acting is great, but it was hard to get drawn into it and be able to stay focused the whole movie throughout. It has a lot of action scenes and that sure helps, but the story just didn't feel interesting enough at times. It's far from bad but it was nothing that made you go wow either.
Junko who's a psychic and her husband lives a normal life, well maybe not normal since she's psychic and can see ghosts, but still. One day the police wants her help to locate a kidnapped girl and she agrees to help them out with the use of her psychic powers. Later on the kidnapped girl flees from the kidnapper and by coincidence hides in Junko's husband's hardware case when he's out in the forest. Three days later, Junko and her husband finds the girl but won't call the police since it looks like they're involved. This all of course causes a lot of problems for the two.
Here'a a really good and different movie from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Kairo). Even though it's somewhat of a ghost movie, it's not your typical Asian horror flick, it's actually more of a drama-thriller. So if you want a lot of scares and proper horror, look elsewhere.
Seance takes it's time like most similar Japanese movies but that doesn't mean that it's slow. I kinda liked the tempo all the way through and it builds up in a good way. It has it's fair amount of drama which works well, but like I said before, might disappoint people looking for typical Asian horror.
Just the story itself is so good and really interesting to watch. You can't help but feeling really sorry for Junko and her husband who by accident happens to get involved in the mess. And with them also trying to figure out a way to get out of it all that doesn't seem to go very well.
I don't wanna reveal to much. Let me just say that it's a very good and different movie with a lot of feeling and a gripping story. For people with a short attention span and people only seeking scary Asian horror this might not work. But for what it is, it's truly recommended.
After putting up with a lot of abuse from his boss, Li Wai and two friends of his who also work for the same slave driver, decides to kidnapp the boss son in order to collect some ransom money. The kidnapp the son, but when he's trying to escape, they accidentally kill him. Still, they want their ransom money and pretend that he's still alive. But when the boss doesn't want to pay up, and instead send the police after the kidnappers, they decide to kidnapp the boss instead to get some money out from his family.
Apparently Sentenced to Hang was the first HK movie to recieve a Cat III classification, but when watching it, the movie's far from the HK Cat III one's used to. It doesn't have much sex, although one scene features full frontal nudity but it's still far from the extreme. Also when it comes to violence, brutality, gore or the use of drugs, it really has nothing to show for. This on the other hand doesn't mean that it's a bad movie, just don't go get it if you are looking for a 'real' Cat III movie as it will only prove to be disappointing in that case.
Sentenced to Hang deals with three men who work for the same evil boss who keeps abusing them until the day one of them snap. They decide to kidnapp the boss spoiled son, but things doesn't go according to plan, and they accidentally kill the guy. Later, when the boss doesn't want to pay up, they decide to kidnapp the boss himself in order to squeeze some money from his family. A lot of things happen, and the title reveals how it all ends.
So don't expect a Cat III flick, because the movie really isn't, but is a pretty good crime movie that is fast-paced and has some comedy and drama mixed into it as well. The comical elements are most present early on in the movie, and are kinda similar to a lot of other HK films out there, you know, that special type of HK humour that is a bit too childish at times, but at the same time can be entertaining and funny too.
The story is good and even if I couldn't say that it is suspensefull, at least it's interesting all the way through. All the three kidnappers are pretty likable and also well developed characters, as we get to know them more and more the further the movie goes. So even if they are the bad guys, you can't help but to root for them. Sentenced to Hang was also based on a true story which makes things even a little more interesting.
A good, entertaining and yet tragic movie, that has some ok and some not that great HK type of humour, but is mostly an above decent crime drama. Recommended.
In the early 1600's, a new dynasty called the Ching Dynasty has been established, and the new government form a new law to ban the practise of martial arts. The bloodthirsty General Fire-Wind, a surrendered military official, forms his own army and starts killing people who violates the law, not only that but the man tries to kill almost everyone he comes across since he is rewarded for each kill. Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner, see it as his duty to put a stop to the general's reign of terror. Together with two men, Fu sets course towards Mount Heaven to seek help from Master Huiming. Once there, they are each given a powerful sword, and Master Huiming's four disciples joins them as well, and together they become the seven swords who will fight the evil general.
Tsui Hark is a director who has made some crappy stuff, but he has also made a whole bunch of cool flicks as well, and I guess Seven Swords happens to come somewhere inbetween. The man made some great HK flicks during the 1980's and early 1990's, but after that, things took a different turn. Seven Swords feels like a "big" movie, but unfortunately it doesn't deliver all the way, and is not such a "big" experience in the end. It looks great, the acting is ok, it's full of battles, fighting scenes and offers a hell of a lot of action, but it's just there for the moment and doesn't really leave a mark after it's gone.
If I would've seen this movie in the early 90's or something like that, I would've probably drooled on myself from being too excited. Watching it now, it was more of a difficult task to stay fully focused the movie throughout as you've seen everything before, hundreds of times. So we're not dealing with anything new here really, and Seven Swords is actually a pretty straight-forward movie with a simple story, and no real twists and turns.
On the positive side, it was truly easy to get into the movie right from the very start. It doesn't start telling the story slowly, but instead jumps right into the action, and the first half-hour or so is filled with great fighting scenes and some really cool killing scenes. We get to see this evil general and his army storm the villages and killing people everywhere, so yeah, he's supposed to be the bad guy. I don't wanna write too much about the actual story, but basically a group of 7 people get their hands on some powerful swords, one sword per person, and sets out to put a stop to the general and his army.
 
Now, you as the viewer are supposed to root for these people, the seven swords, but I felt like that was extremely hard and so I ended up rooting for the evil general since he was a much cooler character. I'm glad I didn't bet any money on him though. My main problem here was that early on in the movie you get to see the general and his army killing off loads of people and it seems like they can't be defeated. Later on, when these seven swords show up, the general's army look like a bunch of pussies that couldn't kill their enemies even if their lifes depended on it. And it just sucks. These seven swords are invincible and that's no fun. At one in the movie, one of the seven happens to be captured, but since they're all so darn great, you know nothing's gonna happen to him, and that his friends will save him.
Let's take a superhero flick for example. What about Batman Begins.. You know that Batman's not gonna die because that would be the end of the movie, but the guy still gets hurt, beaten, and has to suffer through a lot of stuff in order to stop the villains. That's totally ok, because even if you know that our hero's not gonna be wasted, he still has to go through some stuff, stuff that brings some suspense for you as the viewer. But Seven Swords has absolutely no suspense to offer, and these 7 people are just having a too easy time doing their job. So even if it looks great and all that, it's quite hollow and too predictable.
I can't say it's a bad movie, but on the other hand, I didn't get too much out from watching it. If our seven heroes would have been wounded, some of them would've died or that they just had to go through some hard stuff, it would've been a hell of a lot better. Now, it just felt too easy, too straight-forward, and too predictable. Some of the fighting scenes are great to watch, but the movie as a whole is not that great.
In the year of 927, the prince of Balhae, an acient Korean kingdom, has been assassinated. So-ha, a female warrior is sent to find and escort Dae Jeong-hyun back to Balhae, a prince who has been in exile for 14 years. He has to be returned to Balhae to claim the throne and to restore order to the kingdom. But there are forces who don't want to see the prince take the throne, and their journey back to Balhae is anything but easy.
I read up on Shadowless Sword a little before watching it and I was afraid that there would be too many names, characters, places and stuff to keep track on, at least it seemed like that from what I read. I'm happy to say though that the movie proved to be quite the opposite as this was an easy movie to get into and that was not the least bit hard to follow. I'm not a big fan of fantasy, but I must say that this movie looks really cool and had some nice fantasy elements to it. The history part of the movie is absolutely great, that it takes place back in ancient times and add to that the fantasy elements as well, in the end both these things makes it pretty cool. But of course everything's not great...
This is Kim Young-Jun's second film after Bichunmoo, a movie that was somewhat similar and that I found to be pretty cool but not great, and the same goes for this one. Even the main character in Bichunmoo stars in this movie as the evil blood-thirsty villain, and he's quite cool, perfect for the part. If you've seen Bichunmoo, you'll recognize a lot of things, it's not similar but they both have a lot in common, taking place in the old days, the fantasy, the battles, some of the characters etc.
Now the story is really simple, and to break it down completely; The kingdom of Balhae needs someone sitting on the throne and that someone is a prince who has been in exile for a long time. A female warrior is sent to get the prince and make her way back with him to Balhae, but of course there are people out there who doesn't want this to happen. That's it, simple but entertaining.
 
One thing this movie has going for it is that it's f**kin stunning to say the least. Everything looks so darn good it's amazing, so even if you won't get a kick out of the actual story or things that occur in the movie, you'll always have the visuals. South Korea has a tendency to make their films look visually great and Shadowless Sword is definitely no exception.
The story is quite interesting but way too predictable, and I hated the fact that there where no twists at all. From the very start you know how it's gonna go down so that leaves you with one questions; Are the things that happen in the movie so good that it's actually worth watching it? The answer is both yes and no. Personally I would say yes, being a big fan of Korean films I feel that I have to see most of their films even though they might not turn out to be so good. Then there are a lot of things that makes this movie good, but at the same time there are a lot of things that makes it not so good as well.
Fights and battles. A movie like this should have a lot of fights and battles, and while it does offer the viewer a whole lot of swordplay and martial arts, some of the fights are somewhat brutal and cool to watch, while some has nothing to them at all except for being stylish (that means boring). The very first real fighting sequence in the movie is really great, and I got all excited and hoped that every fight for the next 110 minutes would be like that, unfortunately that wasn't the case. In the first fight we get to see the female warrior fight a bunch of gang members or whatever and you get to see her break their arms and legs which was awesome to watch. But then there are a lot of fights that had nothing to them except for them looking very good, but that wasn't very helpful nor entertaining.
Another thing is that this movie has borrowed a lot from some other movies. At times in the movie you can't help but to think of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon when they jump in the air over builings and fly in the air through a forest etc. There's a little bit of Hero in it, and towards the end you get a big old scene taken straight out of BraveHeart. So that kinda sucked, ok that a movie can be influenced by some other movies, but when it shows this much it's not very good at all. The acting is great though and so is the choreography. The score is also very good and makes the history and fantasy feel become even stronger.
While Shadowless Sword has a lot of positive sides, it also has a lot of negative sides as well. Action lovers will probably not be disappointed as there are plenty of action scenes in this flick, and if you wanna see a stylish movie, Shadowless Sword would be a great choise. Although, the story is a bit too predictable and that makes it a bit boring, and some of the fights has nothing to them, plus the rip-off parts kinda suck as well. But in the end it's still a decent fantasy film. Also even though it's nearly 2 hours long, it won't feel that long at all since there are so much happening and so many action scenes, so at least the viewer won't get bored.
During the early Tokugawa era, two ninja clans from two different hidden villages, Iga and Koga, in the remote mountains of Japan are commanded by the Lord of the Lords to participate in the final battle which will determine the supreme village. These villages consist of so-called Shinobi, warriors born only to fight with skills of superhuman levels. They have been living in peace for a great number of years, but now the Lord of the Lords wants to rid the land of these dangerous Shinobi, for him to be able to dominate it, and so, he secretly wants this battle so that the Shinobi will finish each other off. Both clans have to submit the names of their five greatest warriors, those who will do battle, and the clan who wins will be the one to choose the next Shogun. Gennosuke and Oboro, both from different clans fall in love with each other, but are also chosen to lead their clans in the war against the other clan. Will their love bring peace instead of bloodshed or will they have to be forced to fight one another in the coming war?
Shinobi is a somewhat sensational Japanese film that has some truly beautiful scenery and some awesome fight scenes to offer. All in all, it feels like a mix between a great love story, watching an anime film with human characters, playing a videogame that brings the thoughts to Final Fantasy etc, and watching a stunning martial arts film with a lot of fantasy elements baked into it. It was long ago since I saw such an exciting and beautiful Asian movie, so Shinobi really came as a pleasant surprise. For a while it had some of the flying-through-the-air type of things in it, which brings your thoughts to movies such as Croushing Tiger, Hidden Dragon and similar stuff, although it felt different here, and what looked like it would become a drag actually never became a drag, and that I was truly thankful for since we've seen that type of stuff way too many times by now.
So yeah, Shinobi's different, and what I said before about that it feels like watching an anime movie at times, as well as it has all this videogame type of stuff in it as well were some cool additions that made the movie deliver something extra. Except for that, Shinobi features a love story, but even though it's there, hanging over your head the movie throughout, it never really feels like a proper love story, and the actual romance is just a very small piece of a much bigger cake. I liked the fact that they used a love story, but that at the same time it never took away focus from all the other things the movie had to offer. And trust me, it had a lot to offer.
 
We are first introduced to Gennosuke and Oboro, one man and one woman, one from the Iga clan and one from the Koga clan, who one day meet by a river and fall in love. They are so-called Shinobi, which are ninja warriors with superpowers, born to fight. Although their clans have lived peacefully for quite some time, the old hate is still there, so it's a bit like Romeo & Juliet if you know what I mean. Now, the Lord of the Lords wants total domination of Japan, but since the Shinobi can't really be defeated, he must find some way to get rid of them. So he order each ninja village to pick out five of their best fighters who will do battle against one another. And the village that wins the whole thing will get to choose the next Shogun. Of course Gennosuke and Oboro are picked, and not only to fight, but to both lead their clan as well, something that they don't want to do at first, but later have to do anyway.
Since all the Shinobi just serves one purpose that is to fight, they of course want nothing more than to just fight, so they are all very eager to participate in this final battle, clan versus clan. Gennosuke though is determined to find out the Lords real intentions to why he wanted the Shinobi to fight, so he heads for the Sumpu Castle together with the four other chosen ones from the Koga clan. The Iga clan finds out about this, which leads to that they follow the Koga clan into the forest on the way to the Sumpu Castle, and so the battle begins. But how it ends, I won't tell ya.
Shinobi has a lot of things going for it, it's played out in past time which gives it a certain feel and has all these great characters with different amazing skills. Now, don't think of this like a videogame title like Tekken or whatever because it's really not, even though it may sound like it. It's much more than that and has a helluva lot more to offer except hinting at different videogames. The story itself feels genuine and is easy to get into, while some of the fight sequences look truly amazing, and it was quite hard not getting excited at times when watched it. Although, it's not a shallow fighting film either, and even if it has its fair share of battles, it sure has a lot of other things to offer as well. The scenery is beyond beautiful at times, and the directing is absolutely brilliant. It has stuff in common with a lot of other martial arts films, played out in past time, but at the same time, it separates itself from them as well. My only complaint has to be that the character development wasn't that great, and we never really get to know the characters at all, something that makes it harder to feel anything for them. But other than that, it's pretty awesome.
Shinobi is a truly beautiful movie, with a solid story, amazing scenery, cool characters, and some brilliant fighting scenes. If you're into Asian Cinema, not just only horror, you should give this one a shot. Pretty spectacular and definitely highly recommended.
The story is about Lone Wolf, a samurai warrior who long ago served a shogun, but as the shogun became older he also became paranoid and wanted to destory all those who he thought might be against him and that including our hero. So the shogun sent his ninjas to the samuari's home but instead of killing the samuari himself, they ended up killing the samurai's wife. Wanting to avenge his wife, the samurai sets out on a mission of vengeance together with his son.
Shogun Assassin is a true cult classic, maybe not a horror movie per se but I think it fits well into this category anyway. Famous for being hyper-violent with a massive body count and bloody as hell, people into bloody horror films will definitely have a fun time watching watching Lone Wolf slaying people.
It's a very simple story but that's all that's needed, you watch this movie for the fighting, the killings, the slayings and the blood and not really for that it's a deep or touching story or anything like that. Although I must admit that the story is somewhat like a fairytale and Shogun Assassin makes for a cool brutal saga.
 
Back to the earlier mentioned body count part which is very high, throughout the movie the killings never stop and some of the killings are lame (which means you don't get to see much), and some of the killings are brutal and there's a lot of gushing blood.
Cool thing though is that a lot of times in the movie when someone gets to taste Lone Wolf's sword the blood is actually gushing out in a red stream, like spraying and it adds a lot to the actual killing scenes.
The music fits the movie very nicely, I wouldn't listen to it on a cd but when watching the movie it's great and adds a lot to it. Towards the end of the movie when Lone Wolf's fighting the three masters of death in the desert, the music is actually quite similar to what could be a video game and the desert scene has that feel to it too.
In the end this movie is pretty great and has a lot of feeling to it. Extreme kills happens all the time and the movie features some cool characters. Definitely something worth watching.
When driving home from a wedding, photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane accidently hit a girl standing in the road. Jane wants to go out and help but Tun holds her back and eventually they flee the scene. The next day Tun notices strange shadows in his photographs and a creepy face appearing in them as well. Jane is starting having nightmares and soon Tun has them too and in the nightmares he recognizes a girl whom he dated while in college. Things didn't work out with the girl who's name was Natre and who was a looner. And later on something horrible happened to her involving him and his friends. A dark secret from his past that seems to have been brought back to life once again.
Shutter is by far the best Thai horror movie to date. It was rather unexpected to see such a genuinely good and impressive horror movie come out of Thailand and it all came like a big surprise. Japan has proven to be able to do wonders when it comes to horror, even Korea has by now made its fair share of horror, but most horror from Thailand has failed to impress, that's until now. Shutter has everything a good scary flick should have, it's creepy, has an interesting story and it will make you jump.
Like so many times before we're dealing with a ghost girl with long black hair here too but it's not as unoriginal or bad as it might sound. Since Tun is a photographer and with the girl showing up in the photographs, the movie obviously deals a lot with photos (hell it's even called Shutter). But the photos here are effective, creepy and has an overall realistic feel to them which makes the movie even more scary.
 
The character development is very good and we get to know and feel for the main characters that is Tun and the ghost girl Natre. Thing is that I can't say to much about what's actually happening in the movie without spoliing it for you and that is something I don't wanna do. Let me just say that the story development is extremely good and the further the movie goes, the more interesting and creepy it gets. The movie has a constant eerie atmosphere and is full of really effective scares every here and there. It's not a movie that'll give you nightmares but if you're not afraid when watching it, there must be something seriously wrong with you.
Little by little we get to know the background story to who the ghost really is and about Tun and his dark past. What is different in Shutter is that you feel sympathy for Tun, both before and after his secret is revealed and at the same time you're bound to feel sympathy for the ghost girl who is not some pure evil Sadako type ghost. It's easy to get caught in the story as we get to know more and more the further it goes and it's interesting and constanly filled with suspense and an overall eerie atmosphere.
The acting is really good and the guy who plays Tun really stands out, giving an excellent performance. And even though we get to know that he has done something bad in his past, and even flees the scene in the beginning when they hit the girl in the road, he's still a very likable character.
If you're into Asian horror, Shutter is something that shouldn't be missed. It's an impressive Thai flick that is filled with great suspensefull horror to the brim and that has an ending that delivers as well. I really hope there'll be more flicks like this coming out of Thailand in the future. Truly recommended.
A serial killer is on the loose, and the killer's victims are always found starved, dissected, all weighing 70 lbs at the moment of death. Sergeant Tak starts an investigation, and together with his wife Ling, who's an ex-detective herself, they soon find out that all the victims are somehow linked to a TV show which runs a beauty contest called 'Slim Queen'. The victim's have all appeared on it to be contestants, and now Tak must find the killer before all the contestants ends up dead.
Anthony Wong has appeared in a whole heap of movies, and I'm always interested in checking those movies out, since I think the guy's a great actor. Although, it seems like he made his most memorable performances in movies that were made long ago, because with most of the 'newer' flicks he has been in, he hasn't really been that great. Not saying that he's bad here at all, infact, he delivers a good performance as always, but it feels toned down and doesn't use half of the man's full potential.
Slim Till Dead is a HK thriller in the same vein as Seven, actually there's no way you can't help but to think of Seven when watching it, (that's except if you haven't seen Seven in the first place of course). It follows Sergeant Tak (Wong) who's chasing a serial killer who kills his victims and dumps them when they weigh 70 lbs. The victims are found starved and dissected, all to reach the exact weight of 70 lbs. I must admit that I found it to be a little suspensefull for a while, not nail biting-like, but still a bit suspensefull which was nice, since after all, I was watching a thriller movie.
 
Unfortunately, like when it comes to most thrillers, it was just too predictable. And like in tons of other movies out there, you have one mysterious suspect that you're supposed to believe is the killer (who ever does that?), and of course towards the end it proves to be someone else. Now, some movies do this in a clever way so it's surprises you, and that is of course always greatly appreciated. Slim Till Dead on the other hand didn't manage to do that, and it was a bit too easy to find out who the real killer really was.
One thing I sat and got really irritated about all through the movie was the awful score which kept bugging me from start till finish. Sometimes it had these hawaiian-like tunes in it which were just horrible to listen to. I mean, you think you're watching some dark suspense-thriller, and all of a sudden you hear these happy tunes which just ruins the whole feeling completely. Other than that it had some other crappy music to offer, but enough about that. The acting was all right, nothing terrific, but at least it was decent enough.
Slim Till Dead is also set in the fashion world, so there's some of that to be seen. Also the fashion industry and people in it deal a lot with weight issues, and of course it all has do to with that. Now, maybe you could find a deeper meaning and all when watching this movie, with weight issues in society itself etc, but I feel way too shallow today to get into that subject. Furthermore, I don't really care.
Slim Till Dead is a somewhat ok HK thriller. It offers a little suspense and some gross moments as well, but not too much gore. Unfortunately, it was a bit too easy to guess who the killer was, and the movie didn't feel half as clever as I would've wanted it to be. Still, it might be worth a look, just don't expect too much.
Dong Hyuk is a lowlife street thug who's going nowhere in his life. One day he's abducted by a group of gangsters, and while being held captive, he has to undergo classes and training. While being held for a very long time, Hyuk tries to escape several times but always fail miserably and has to suffers the consequences. He thinks he's being trained to become a member of the crime syndicate, but he's actually being trained to become a police officer and later a homicide detective. Only thing though is that the people who are behind his training need him not to only uphold the normal law, but to execute their own view on the law as well.
Mr. Socrates is a nice looking Korean flick that makes you think of Infernal Affairs and Korean movies Public Enemy and Oldboy, as it is quite similar in certain places. It's first and most a crime movie with some clever twists, but it also features elements of drama and action and a big doze of humour to lighten things up a bit every now and then. The movie deals with different kinds of corruption and the similarities between police and gangsters with street thug Dong Hyuk trapped in the middle of it all.
Dong Hyuk leads a bad kind of life full of crime and violence, but suddenly he finds himself kidnapped and has to undergo some sort of training. He refuses at first, but soon learns that it hurts a lot to go against the kidnappers will. Eventually he becomes a police officer and seems very satisfied with the fact that he's now doing something with his life. Soon after he is promoted to be a homicide detective, and everything seems to go well until the people behind his training wants something back from him.
 
Going from being a criminal to becoming a police officer, Dong Hyuk goes through a lot of changes throughout the movie, and becomes a better person with the way he thinks and acts the further the movie goes. He is a pretty likable character and it's interesting and fun to see him go through these changes and become a whole different person. It's well done, well acted as has a lot of humour baked into the whole thing.
There are many scenes with a lot of violence in them, and when I say many I truly mean many. People get beaten by baseball bats I don't know how many times, and overall, there's just a lot of violence constantly going on. Although, it's not so bad to watch, it's kinda realistic but not realistic enough to make you feel anything really. And since the movie features a lot of humour, it makes it a bit easier to watch as well.
While being an entertaining and action-packed movie it still have a lot of flaws, some that are easy to ignore and some that are not. At least it's fast-paced, has a pretty interesting story and some likable characters, but with an ending that did not quite deliver and was something of a let-down. Nothing great but might still be worth a look if you're into Korean cinema.
Girls between the age of 15 to 17 all seem to die mysteriously and turn into flesh-eating zombies and the only way to put them to a final rest is for them to be re-killed by their loved ones and hacked up into 165 pieces. Then we have some girls "army" that are out to destroy the Stacy's which is what they call these girls once turned into a zombie.
Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies is a really weird Japanese b-movie, so bad that it's actually turns good at times. Bad or not at least one thing is sure, this movie is so not for everyone as you have to be willing to sit through some really horrible and over-the-top acting and I guess most people choose to see it just because of the fair share of gore and splatter it offers.
So the movie is basically about the destroying and killing of zombie girls, and like I said before, we get a hell of a lot of splatter and gore. Only problem is that it is quite the low budget movie, and the effects aren't that nice to watch, and has a tendency to look just too cheap.
To appreciate a movie like Stacy you have to take it for what it is; a very unserious splatter movie. If you go in watching the movie believing it's something else, then you'll probably come out very disappointed.
 
The acting is so bad that I can't even begin to tell you. Also some of the characters in it are bound to give you a slight headache.
If you take it for what it is, it actually has it's moments, and offers some humour at times as well, but if the humour actually works or not is a different story. I can't recommend it though, but Stacy sure is crazy.
Nami's (Megumi Okina who starred in Ju-On) been seeing things in her dreams and starts to create a videogame based on those things. Together with one of the game producers she travels out to an abandoned house, similar to what she saw in a dream. Once there they start to explore the house and Nami starts to have visions of herself being in that house as a child. And the deeper they go into the house, the more secrets starts to reveal.
 I kinda got my hopes up for St. John's Wort as I heard it was gonna be about video-games, that is horror games. Being a big fan of the Silent Hill series I figured it might be somewhat similar to that, at least it sounded cool to mix horror and the making of a horror game in a movie.
Unfortunatley I got pretty disappointed as the movie didn't turn out to be that cool, but instead quite boring and with no really rewarding scares either. I guess the actual idea behind the movie is pretty good but the way it came out did not deliver and it could've been done so much better.
Since the producer who's with Nami in the house has brought a video camera we get to see as he films stuff too, Blair Witch style. This could've been cool but looks kinda cheap and is most of the time quite annoying when it changes back and forth between normal camera to his video camera.
The acting which usually is ok when it comes to Japanese movies is quite poor here, not horribly bad but could also've been a lot better. Also the characters are kinda annoying and not well-developed at all so you feel nothing for them and this makes you also feel distant to the movie itself.
The house has a very eerie feeling to it and creates an excellent atmosphere, and when they walk around exploring room after room it's gets a little bit creepy. Unfortunately it ends there without ever delivering any genuine scares.
It's basically just a creepy atmosphere but never goes anywhere which brings everything down a notch as you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for something to happen but after a while you begin to realise it's never gonna happen.
It sure has a video game feel to it and I guess people who's into video games will appreciate this but it's not enough and only works for a short period of time.
Biggest problem with St. John's Wort seems to be that the makers have spent way too much time with technology, trying to create the video game feel and have spent a lot of time working with cameras, angles and new techniques instead of focusing on the actual script and story.
It's not bad, but it ranks pretty low when it comes to Japanese horror. If you're a fan of the genre it still might be worth to check out though.
We're looking into the future of the year 2001 (well actually looking back) and Ricky is incarcerated in a prison that is run by a corrupt and sadistic system and his only means for survival is to fight the on-going violence with violence.
The Story of Ricky is definitely one of a kind, it's so bad that it's actually good, but it all depends on what kinda person you are and how you would see it as it's so not for everyone.
But if you want gore, (and that's a lot of gore), and really low humour then this might be something for you. It's fast paced, has a lot of violence and a story that's nothing special but the story is not the main concern here.
Like I said, this is not a movie you watch for the story, the story's just there and you watch it for the gore and violence and the humorous situations. It's gory as hell at times but the way it's made and the fact of just how unserious the movie really is, it never really gets very brutal to watch, infact the total opposite.
 
The Story of Ricky is a very entertaining and fast paced b-flick and you have to be open for a lot of things and be able to take it for what it is, that means you can't go in watching it being too serious. But if you can take it for what it is you're definitely in for a entertaining ride.
It's a little bit like watching a cartoon as Ricky is a cartoonish figure and the violence is kinda cartoonish too. He has super strength and there sure are some funny moments when he uses it. Like for instance there's a scene when he practises and has a guy throwing grave stones at him which get completely smashed once they hit his chest.
So yeah, maybe you can figure out what to expect, and like I said it's not for everyone, but take it the right way and it sure can be a really fun ride.
Locked up in a cello case, young Mitsuko is forced to watch her parents making love in front of her. Her perverted father, who's also the principal of the school she's attending, abuses Mitsuko sexually and when he's not at home, her mother keeps lashing out it anger at the poor girl. Pushed down some stairs by Mitsuko herself, her mother dies and Mitsuko takes her place at her fathers side. This is all in a new novel by author Taeko, a wheelchair-bound woman. But is it all just fiction, or is Taeko in fact Mitsuko, or is she Mitsukos mother?
Strange Circus - strange movie, at least the title is very appropriate. The story might sound a bit complicated but eventually everything comes together and proves to be a clever story, but not as complicated at it first seemed to be. Strange Circus though is a very odd film that features some very dark and disturbing moments, dealing with a lot of sex, child abuse along with incest, and add to that some other quite disturbing and bizarre things. Needless to say, I guess you have to be in a certain kind of mood to be able to enjoy a film like this.
But it's all not just a crazy and bizarre film, it also has a lot of dramatic parts that are worth watching, along with beautiful and different scenery, indoors as well as outdoors. It starts off with that we get to follow Mitsuko as a kid and we soon learn that her father is an utterly perverted freak who can't seem to get enough of having twisted sexual acts. Obviously you're bound to feel bad for the poor girl, who btw is only 12 years old, or should I say 12 years young. We soon learn that her father, who's the prinicipal of the school Mitsuko goes to, is a very disturbed man who likes it weird. The movie offers some strong scenes early on that features sexual content which may feel a bit much to some, but eventually things get better. Well, maybe not better but it's not like that all the way throughout.
 
Mitsuko's mom dies and poor Mitsuko who has been sexually abused by her father for a long time starts to think that maybe she really is her mom while her mom was in fact Mitsuko. Does that sound weird? Well, let me tell ya, weird is something this movie offers plenty of. What I told you so far could be called part one of the movie, that is one full-length film but that can easily be divided into two parts. There are of course plenty more things to it than what I've told you, but that's for you to find out. Part two, if we now can call it that is about a wheelchair-bound woman named Taeko who has become a popular writer, writing about the character named Mitsuko and her tragic childhood. Is she making everything up or is her writings autobiographical?
A young man named Yuji starts to work with Taeko, by her side, proof-reading what she writes. Yuji seems like a nice and very shy guy who deply respects Taeko's work. But there are reasons to why he wanted to work with her and the guy of course has a dark side as well, even a little too dark maybe. The film might have a few moments were confusion takes over, but I found it to get back on track fast after it had delivered those moments. The story is solid and the film contains a lot that you don't get to see every day, and except for that it was generally a good film, that is also one reason to why you should give it a shot. Along with a few disturbing scenes with sexual content, Strange Circus also offers some realistic gore at a few places that for some might be hard to stomach as well. The acting was good and belivable even though it was a bit over-the-top during a few scenes, no biggie though. Excellent score with mostly piano music that really fit and captured the movie well.
It's a bit hard to describe everything without spoiling anything, but it definitely had a solid story and is worth checking out. It might not be for everyone though since basically it's a drama but that features a lot of sex and strong scenes that might be hard for some to sit through. While I can't say that I really did enjoy those scenes, they sure did the job. A lot of films have a tendency to not cross the line, but Strange Circus is not one of those films and I believe that's a good thing.
May 26th: 54 school girls join hands in a train station, and seconds after they all throw themselves infront of a moving train. There's a white bag left by some unknown person at the train station which contains pieces of skin, sown together. More inexplicable suicides are to follow, while some teen pop band called Dessert often appears on the tv, singing catchy songs. When the police start looking into what could be the reason for all these recent suicides, they get a tip over the phone about some website that predicts how many boys and girls are next to go in future mass suicides. The suicides all over Japan keeps increasing, while the police seem nunable to take any proper action, or find the right clues on how to stop this wave of suicides.
Personally, I think Suicide Club is one of the finest movies to come out of Japan. One reason for that, except for that it's a fantastic flick, is that it delivers a message that a lot of people out there so needs to hear and understand. Think for yourself, be who you really are, and don't follow others or go with what the media tells you to do, wear, or listen to. This might all seem very obvious, but if you take a look at how things are in the world, it's a message that truly makes sense and needs to be said.
One could go on and on about how television and the media affects and influence us, but I won't do that since this is a movie review and not a lecture on how to be as a person. Still, I think that Suicide Club has a message worth to think about, for some more than others. This mass suicide right in the beginning of the movie is bound to grab your attention, blood splatters, there's gore, but it has more to it than that.
 
The police starts to investigate, but since it wasn't really a crime, it's hard for them to move along and go further. Still, they wanna figure out what triggered this mass suicide, and who left a white bag containing pieces of skin at the station? Shortly after, more suicides takes place, high school kids jumps from buildings and a lot of strange suicides seem to occur, all for some unknown kind of reason. There's also this catchy girl pop band on tv, that everyone seems to like. Can they have something to do with this whole thing? Of course not, they're just twelve year old girls singing catchy tunes with pointless lyrics.
What makes Suicide Club so interesting is the story. It's easy to get caught up in it as it somewhat draws you in, and best things is that it keeps delivering all the way through. I can honestly say that this movie hasn't got one boring minute in it. All the time in the movie is used for something that pushes it a little further, makes it even more interesting, or even more bizarre, depending on how you see it. Death is always present here, and from start to finish, there's a hell of a huge body count. It's also quite graphical, delivering bloodshed and gore, but never so it feels too much or way over over-the-top.
It may sound like a movie full of death and gore, but if you're only after that, there are better flicks to choose from with a focus on those type of things. While I think the main reason for watching this is because of the brilliant story, it also has some good suspense to offer, and is way different from most flicks out there. The acting is great, especially from Ryo Ishibashi starring as Detective Kuroda. This man truly delivers, but so does everyone else as well. The score is great, and while the girly pop is not, it works well in this film. Highly recommended.
An assassin has been killing off a number of ministers, so the government's top swordsman is chosen to find the assassin and bring him to justice...or take him out. After searching for a while, the swordsman finds out that the mysterious assassin is a man that he has had a lot of history together with. Something that makes his mission so much more difficult to accomplish.
Sword in the Moon seems to have gotten a lot of mixed reviews, and as far as I've seen there are way more slightly negative than positive reviews out there. I don't know what other reviewers was expecting the movie to be like, but only thing I knew when I watching it for the first time was that it was supposed to have some historical elements to it, but first and most that it was a martial arts/swordsplay movie.
After watching it, I ended up thinking it was a great movie. It might have it's faults and everything, but the entertainment value is so high and with that you got an interesting story that was easy to get caught in, and that was actually quite gripping at times. One reason why I ended up liking it so much was maybe because I had no real expectations to begin with, and that usually helps.
 
One thing this movie really has going for it is that it does not hold back on the action. It has a lot of great visuals and looks so darn good at times. Also, the martial violence is present all the time, and we get to see a lot of swordplay and blood-splatter. It's something you expect from a movie of this sort, and were many other fail to deliver, Sword in the Moon does not when it comes to great violence and action.
Another great thing about Sword in the Moon is that it has more realism to it than cartoonish violence that a lot of many other martial arts movies tend to have. This of course makes everything more moody and dark, and adds a lot of atmosphere and an overall good feeling to the film itself, and you can't help but taking it a bit more seriously. The use of wires are almost non-existant and that's also a really good thing. That is that no one jumps around in trees or practically flies over roof tops and similar stuff, and that's so nice not having to experience that for a change.
Humour is something we don't get any of either which is also nice for a change, as I said before, it's darker and more moody. The gore is there, right in your face at times, and heads fly, bodies are ripped apart, and everything is so well done and looks very realistic. It's very hard not to get excited.
The plot is pretty simple but yet somewhat captivating and at the same time very entertaining. It's easy to get into the movie and even if the character development are not that huge, we still get to know the characters on a ok level. The actors all do a fine job and I have absolutely nothing to complain about with the overall acting. Nicely directed with a very fitting score and never really has a dull moment. It slows down a bit at times but not so it becomes unbearable, it's still always interesting.
Despite what every one else says, personally I think Sword in the Moon is a fantastic Korean flick that is entertaining and yet feels very real. Offers a lot of action, huge amounts of violence and looks freakin great visually. Fans of Korean and martial arts cinema, check it out.
Lee Geum-Ja is a pretty Korean girl who goes to prison at the young age of 19 for the abduction and murder of a child. She was betrayed and sent there and had to spend 13 years inside the walls and she used her time to plot her revenge towards the man who got her there in the first place. Now 13 years later she's out of prison and with the help from some people she meet during her time there she sets out to take her revenge on the man who put her there.
This is the third and last movie in Chan-wook Park's trilogy about vengeance, but even though it's part of a trilogy it's still a stand alone movie and doesn't require that you have seen the two earlier ones that are Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, although I think most people wanting to see this one have seen the two other movies before as well.
Oldboy was a huge hit and is of course kinda hard to beat but even though it's made by the same director and has a common theme of vengeance you still should not watch this expecting a new Oldboy because it's not. It's a separate movie and I don't think they should be compared since they are different so when you watch it, just forget about Oldboy for a while.
I've been really excited to see this movie for quite some time now and now when I've finally got to see it is it as good as hoped for? The answear is yes. I didn't expect a new Oldboy and I knew it was gonna be different, I still had high expectations but feel that Sympathy for Lady Vengeance really delivered, not because I really wanted it to be good but because it actually was very good.
 
First off you have the story which is great and makes you interested to see where it's going and also you get to know the main character so well that you actually care for her which in the end makes the movie so much better.
The directing is as expected really good and the actors are good too. I didn't really like the daughter but I have a tendensy to hate all kids in movies so that doesn't really count and also her Australian foster parents were kinda crappy actors but fortunately you don't get to see them too much.
Other than that it only has good things to offer and also that Lee Geum-Ja has a really clear and strong motivation for taking revenge that does not make you question her motives.
The music in the movie is of the classical kind but fits so nicely into the scenes and adds a lot of feeling to whatever's going on. It's violent at a few places but does not really have the same graphical violence that Oldboy had and the pace of the movie goes kinda inbetween Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy were the first one's being a bit slower.
I liked this a bit more than Mr. Vengeance but it does not beat Oldboy. On the other hand like I mention before, it's a stand alone movie and for the best result when watching it is to not compare it to the other two. Truly recommended.
In a understaffed hospital everyone's feeling the enormous pressure put on them and a careless mistake makes one patient end up dead. Instead of reporting what just happened, the doctors and nurses involved tries to cover up their mistake and destroy the evidence. But while trying to do so, a new patient arrives that carries an infectious disease which makes their plans for the dead patient go up in smoke, and all of a sudden the whole hospital is in danger while the patient's disease keeps spreading.
Infection (Kansen) is the first film in the J-Horror Theater series, with Premonition (Yogen) being the second and the newly released Reincarnation (Rinne) being the third. All in all there'll be six films released. I actually ended up seeing Premonition before seeing Infection, and while that film breathed some new life into Japanese horror in general, I must say that Infection is pretty much just as good. I believe that this J-Horror Theater concept is a great thing and luckily the films have so far proven to be way better than the terrible Tales Of Terror series, and hopefully the fortcoming flicks will be just as good as those so far released.
Infection starts out as more of a drama that seem to have some psychological horror to it, but is more of a drama for the first 30 minutes or so. But it's interesting enough, has some good character development (we get to know the characters before the shit hits the fan) and since you know that the horror is about to be delivered eventually, the drama parts are a good way to start the movie with. It keeps building in a really good way, take things slow and shows the viewer the hospital itself and its staff. And when the real horror finally kicks in, you're already familiarized with everything else which makes it a lot easier to focus on the scary side of things. The movie is well put together and does a fine job building up some tension along with creating a generally creepy atmosphere that surrounds the whole hospital.
 
The film is just as disgusting as it is scary, or actually it's even a bit more disgusting when thinking about it. Just the whole enviroment of the hospital is somewhat unsettling with all the people being there having something that is wrong with them. The hospital itself is way understaffed and both the doctors and the nurses are stressed out, and that may be why a careless mistake is made that leads to a patients death. With all the doctors and nurses being at the scene of the accident, they agree on that it was an honest mistake, but that it would just hurt them if they would report it so they try to get rid of the evidence on their own. Meanwhile a new patient arrives at the hospital that carries an extremely infectious disease, and it doesn't take long before that disease starts to spread and it all turns into chaos.
This disease causes its victims to bleed some green type of goo, and takes over their bodies to eventually disolve them. Panic starts to spread and things just keeps getting more worse as the disease starts to claim more and more victims to be found within the hospital. Even though I can't say that Infection is extremely scary or anything close to it, it still delivers a whole lotta tension and is at times a pretty fast-paced gruesome ride. Towards the very end the movie has a few twists and turns which makes everything you first believed change a bit. I remember first time I watched Infection I wasn't too thrilled with the ending, but now, after having re-watched it again, I believe that the ending worked a lot better this time around.
Even though Infection might not have answered all the question it asked when the credits starts to roll, the film is still a very good ride on the japanese hospital horror train. The enviroment of the hospital itself does a lot of great work for the movie, and the way the movie's built up is something that was really good. Acting-wise, it really had nothing more to ask for and the cast all do an ok job with their characters. The movie's not very scary but a bit unsettling, disgusting (cutting, sewing, slime etc) and a bit creepy as well. Not really that fast-paced but never slow either, and starts out in a slower more drama-ish way to later turn into a horrific film that manages to be a bit creepy every now and then. Well worth watching.
After spending some time in a mental institution, two sisters return home to their father and their cruel stepmother who has ruled the house since the death of their mother. So the girls are not too happy about returning home, as their stepmother gives them both psychological and physical abuse, and the father won't listen to the girls when they complain about his wife. But after just being home for a short period of time, strange things starts to occur within the house. Is it the stepmother who's up to something or is there actually a spirit in the house seeking revenge?
Before watching A Tale of Two Sisters for the very first time, I had seen a lot of Asian horror flicks before and was a fan of the genre, but this movie actually blew everything I felt about the genre away and made me become an ever bigger fan. It looked beautiful, and while there are a lot of Asian flicks that look stunning, this one had more colours and managed to stand completely on its own. It wasn't just another Asian horror flick that featured a creepy long-haired ghost girl, it had so much more to it and on so many levels. I thought it was fantastic the first time I saw it, but had to watch it again and again later on to fully appreciate everything it had to offer.
While this movie didn't scare me half as much as Ringu did, it still had a lot of other things to offer, both looking at it as a horror movie and as more of a drama. The scares are actually few but once there, they're pretty effective, and even if they won't scare you till tears, the movie is unsettling from beginning to end, and stays with you long after it's over.
 
I don't wanna give too much of the plot away as it would ruin the whole experience of watching the movie. It's not a straight forward film, and it might take more than one viewing to fully understand what's going on. Although, impatient people be warned, it's never dull but moves slow and since it's nearly two hours long, it might be a lot to be able to sit through if you've a short attention span. But the thing with it moving somewhat slow, revealing little by little, asking questions and being somewhat confusing at times are all things that in the end makes this movie great. A fun thing when it comes to movies like this is that since everything is never fully explained, people will interpret it differently. Everyone has a different impressions of the movie itself, what it's trying to say and what really happened in it.
Now I'm not a big fan of kids in movies but I can't complain when it comes to these two sisters since they really deliver in every aspect of the movie. They are different from each other, but still remains to be very close together and seem very alike at times. Actually all the performances are awesome here, usually I find most actors in Korean movies to do a good to a very good job, but the performances here are truly excellent, especially from the sisters. And since the performances are so belivable, you never really see them as actors in a film and that helps you to get into it even more, that and of course the utterly intriguing story itself.
A Tale of Two Sisters is more of a psychological horror with supernatural elements rather than just your normal horror movie. The atmosphere is fantastic and the movie carries a lot of tension. Even though there are not too many actual scares, it manages to stay creepy all the way, and has this unsettling feeling that is very hard to shake off. Apart from all the horror elements, this is a very good drama and a thriller with beautiful cinematography and great acting. One of the best Asian flicks out there so of course it's highly recommended.
It's the summer of 1999 and black garbage bags starts to appear at random places around Seoul, filled with different human body parts. The case falls into the lap of Detective Jo who discovers that the parts in each of the bags belongs to three different victims. Jo later learns that all three victims had one thing in common, they were all old boyfriends of a girl named Chae Su-yeon so Jo looks her up since he figure that she might be in danger as well. The better he starts to know the girl, the more he uncovers from her past and finds out things that might help him catch the serial killer, or is it Chae Su-yeon that is the killer?
Tell Me Something is a stylish South Korean thriller that is somewhat similar to Seven. Not that it has the same plot or anything, but it carries some of its atmosphere and overall feeling, dealing with a smart serial killer and all. It also has the tension and creepiness that Seven had and is a slick movie with a great plot and a good twist towards the end. Fortunately Tell Me Something is not the least bit predictable, something that otherwise easily could ruin a good thriller, and when you think you have the ending made, you'll see it's still far from it.
Little by little Detective Jo learns more and more about the killer and comes closer to solving the case, or so one would think. It sure has its slow moment like a lot of other Asian flicks out there but is never really a snore either. For sitting through those slow moments, you always get something back later on so it's really no big deal, one just have to be patient. Sometimes it feels a bit like a Hollywood movie, but still remains to have a genuine Korean cinema feel to it, and that might be a reason why this movie would maybe appeal to a different audience and not just the hardcore Asian film fans.
 
Even though I said this movie feels a little bit Hollywood, it's still definitely a movie where the viewer is required to think as nothing is fully explained, not even in the end. Sometimes you want everything to be tied together in the end to be able to feel completely satisfied, but sometimes it might as well suck when everything is fully explained. I guess some people will be left unsatisfied with the actual ending as it leaves a lot of questions to be asked, but this is also something that makes it come out more interesting. I think that if everything would've been explained it would've been a totally different movie. Sometimes missing pieces can be nice and leaves you to interpret it any way you want.
I don't wanna give the story away because if I do, there would be no reason for you to watch this. It's probably best to know as little as possible in order to get the most out of it and to be able to feel the real suspense this movie has to it. People with a short attention span might find themselves having trouble sitting through this two hour long flick as sometimes it tends to slow down a lot, Asian style, but if you're used to it there should be no problem.
The acting is one of the greatest things this movie has. Especially Detective Jo is a great character and is easy to get somewhat attached to, but all the others do a fantastic job as well. The directing is awesome and the movie is truly slick, plus that, the use of lights are really amazing as well. The score is very good too and fits the movie perfectly. There's especially one part of the movie that has a Nick Cave song going in the background that is "Red Right Hand" and creates an awesome feeling to what's going on.
Tell Me Something is a kind of dark and serious movie with a great story that really fits well in the thriller genre. It has suspense and it will make you think, and best of all it's not predictable as you'll probably think you have the answears a lot of times to later realize that you were completely wrong. It might be too slow for some and the fact that everything is not fully explained towards the end might be unsatisfying for some, but apart from that, it's a great Korean movie. Recommended.
A small class reunion takes place in a countryside cottage where a group of students meet their teacher for the first time in 16 years. But the reunion soon turns into a nightmare as hidden truths and old grudges are revealed, and one by one the students are being brutally murdered by some mysterious killer.
To Sir, With Love is the kind of Korean horror movie that I've been waiting around for, and while I hadn't completely lost my interest in Korean horror, this movie sure proved that they can still impress the hell out of us on the horror front over there. I mean, lately or that is for the last couple of years we haven't really seen anything that fantastic and most horrors to have come out of the country, even if they have been all right on some level, have basically just been repeating themselves. I thought Red Shoes, Cello, Apartment, Arang and so on and so forth were all ok, but didn't really work wonders from a horror point of view. So I'm happy to say that To Sir, With Love really did work wonders, and brought something completely different to the scene than just the usual long-haired ghost kind of thing.
In fact, there are no ghosts with long black hair in To Sir, With Love and it surprised me in a really good way that the movie turned out to get away from that whole ghost concept and instead deliver a nasty and raw slasher, but that at the same time it had that unique Asian horror feel to it. When I say slasher I also mean slasher, but don't think a la Friday the 13th or anything like that. Sure, it has similarities with those kind of American slasher type flicks, but while they're usually entertaining but dumb, this was entertaining, scary, clever and is the rawest thing since Saw.
 
Story-wise it goes something like this: Some students get together at their old teachers countryside cottage to have a class reunion. Everything seems to go well at first and everyone feels sorry for their beloved teacher who has gotten quite old and really sick. As the movie moves forward, we learn that the teacher had a son that was disfigured and that she kept him in the basement of the house, away from other children. We also learn that she wasn't actually a nice person while she was teaching, and that all the students who has gathered for the reunion seems to suffer in different kind of ways for the way their teacher behaved. We get to know more and more about what the people really feel and learn a lot about what happened back in the day. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's someone going around and murdering the former students, one by one, in brutal kinds of ways.
What really surprised me with this new kick-ass flick wasn't just the fact that it had a slasher theme to it, but just how brutal it was. Some scenes were actually really hardcore which was great to see since when watching a slasher flick you pretty much watch it for one single reason, and that is to see people getting slashed. To Sir, With Love showed absolutely no mercy and had some truly raw moments to offer which made you think about flicks like Saw. But while most slasher flicks are entertaining but most of the time never that clever, this one also had a genuine horror feel to it along with a complicated twist. To be completely honest, everything didn't make perfect sense to me and I'm not sure I understood everything that happened, but it sure gave me something to think about as well as it truly gave me back my hopes for future Korean horrors.
You don't need to be a big Asian film buff to enjoy To Sir, With Love, since it basically had something to offer for all horror fans out there, whether you're into Asian or Western horror. It played out like a smart slasher type of flick but had way more to offer than just the old tired slasher concept. It also gets extra points for being really raw and intense at times, as well as it looked brilliant, was well acted and had an interesting story. Highly recommended, don't miss out.
Student Kawagami Tomie arrives at a new high school were she's welcomed by Matsubara Reiko who seems to be the only one who likes Tomie. All the boys in the class starts drooling over her, and the girls become more and more jealous and tries to do things to hurt her. Tomie uses the male obsession to get revenge on the females, but after some time, everyone figures that she's not human and kills her. Thing though is that Tomie can't be killed and reappears in the class the day after the murder. Something that makes her classmates and even her teacher go insane, and some even commit suicide.
This is the sixth flick in the Tomie series, but you don't really need to have seen the previous movies to understand this one. It's a simple movie that really needs no background, but on the other hand, if you've watched the previous movies, you know what Tomie is all about. Tomie: Beginning was written and directed by Oikawa Ataru, the same man who made the original flick, a flick that I personally didn't think was that good. This one is ok, but really brings nothing new to the scene, compared to the other Tomie movies it's not bad, but it doesn't really stand out either.
The story is told through the eyes of student Matsubara Reiko who was in the same class as Tomie, and who welcomed her when no one else did. So basically she talks to another guy in the class about what happened, and we get to see flashbacks as she tells the story. Tomie was a beautiful girl who arrived at their school, and all the boys became obsessed with her while the girls got jealous. One day some guys from the class tried to murder her, but ended up cutting off her right ear which later growed back out. Reiko as well started to see that Tomie was not human, but still feels sympathy for her and continued to be nice to her while all the others just wanted to do her harm.
Even the class teacher found himself to be utterly obsessed with Tomie, and to make her disappear for good, the whole class killed her and cut her up into 38 pieces. One piece for every student in the class to dispose of. Unfortunately that didn't do any good either, as Tomie came back once again to drive everyone deeper into madness. It's quite a sick scene when they cut her up, not that it's graphical, but that the whole class actually takes part in it and seem like there nothing to it really. A group of school kids hacking up a student to pieces is kind of a horrific thing, but they actually seem happy and not bothered at all about what they do which felt a bit strange to watch.
There's some gore and some spraying blood, but it all looks kinda cheap and is not very scary. Still, it's a good thing that we get some of that as well, I mean, cheap or not cheap, gore is still gore. There are no real scares in the movie, and personally I think it failed with having a creepy atmosphere or any suspense for that matter. There's one scene though that was kinda cool where Tomie's being "reborn", and even though you've probably seen similar things in other Asian horror flicks, it still works quite ok. The acting's not great but it works, and the score was a mess and was just annoying to listen to.
Tomie: Beginning is far from being great, but it's still an ok movie. It has some scares but if you've seen a lot of (Asian) horror, it won't really work that well. It's never slow, and the running time is only 74 minutes so the movie's over pretty quickly as well. An ok addition to the Tomie series, but that is a series that is not that great to begin with. It's not bad, but can't really recommend it either. If you're a big fan of JP horror you might wanna check it out.
Jung-Won, a successful architect, takes the subway home one night and falls asleep on it. He wakes up at the very last stop and when he has left the train, he sees that two girls are still inside of it and it looks like they're sleeping. Later, when watching the news, there are reports of two girls that has been found murdered on the train that Jung-Won was riding, and he soon starts to see the two girls appearing and sitting at his dining table. He then encounters a woman that faints and takes her back to his apartment, and when she wakes up and is about to leave, she asks why he hasn't put his kids to sleep yet. Apparently this mysterious woman can see the dead girls too, and not only that, she seems to be some sort of spiritual medium. Soon Jung-Won finds himself drawn into the world of the supernatural.
I've been avoiding The Uninvited for quite some time, mainly because it didn't seem to be that interesting and for a while I found myself to be quite feed up with Korean horror. I was partly right since while The Uninvited has a pretty interesting story and a lot of things going for it, it still didn't manage to deliver the whole way. Biggest reason for that might have been because how brutally slow the movie was. I have no problem with slow movies whatsoever, and sometimes I find movies being slow also being more effective in the end. But this one was just way too slow without ever giving you that little extra thing that in the end would make it all right after all.
I must say that I found the story to be quite interesting, dealing with the supernatural and the way they had set things up. But at so many places in the movie, there are scenes that could've lasted half the time and still been effective, instead of lasting as long as they did. To be honest, I think this is the slowest Korean flick I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot from all genres. It actually took me two viewings to finish watching this since after the first hour I found myself being bored out of my mind and couldn't take it any longer. I watched the next half the next day, and while it was slightly better, it was still beyond slow. This is something I never do, that is not watching a movie from start to finish, but here I couldn't help but doing so since I was pretty sure I would have fallen asleep otherwise.
 
For being a horror movie, it does not deal with actual horror that much. It's first and most a drama flick that has a story that touches the supernatural. There are two scenes that will wake the viewer wake up, both of them that deals with kids and are pretty horrific. Especially one of them came rather unexpected and made me wake up from my slumber, and I thought that wow, maybe this movie will do something for me after all, but then it just got back to being drawn out and boring again. It's all too bad since it has a lot of things going for it and I felt that The Uninvited really could've been something, unfortunately that was not the case.
I don't wanna diss this movie too much since after all it has all these little things that were great, but when looking at the movie as a whole, it is just way too drawn out to be able to stay interesting and not become a bore. The atmosphere is great though, and the camerawork is really top-notch, that is actually something to look out for when watching this movie. The acting is also very good and it has a nice score that goes well with the movie. But in the end, even if it has all these lovely features, it is still so darn boring and since you can never escape from it being so, it drags everything down a lot.
Has a lot of things going for it but is way too drawn out which makes it truly boring to watch and that is a shame because it had a lot of potential to begin with. Even if it's not supposed to be a proper full-out horror movie, there are still not enough scares, and the very few scares that actually are there are all too far apart and most of the time non-effective. Don't take my word for it but watch it for yourself, but be prepared for extremely slow pacing.
Anthony Wong stars as Wong Chi Hang who has a restaurant serving pork buns which is something that people really seem to like, although it's very uncertain what's actually in them. The police finds some rotten human remains floating up on a beach and starts an investigation which leads them to Wong's restaurant. There they find out that the previous owners disappeared without a trace and also that Wong have no actual proof of ownership for the restaurant. So they connect him with the murders as he might be responsible for them going missing.
Here's another Hong Kong horror flick starring a demented Anthony Wong as a mad butcher and his role is kinda similar to the one he had in Ebola Syndrome, although he's probably a bit more demented in that one.
It's a good HK flick and Anthony Wong is as often quite amusing to watch. It has a lot of gore and some quite gruesome and disturbing scenes, although as said before, not as bad as in Ebola Syndrome.
Problem here is also that you can't help but comparing that movie to The Untold Story as they are quite similar at times and this brings this movie down a notch as it's not half as good as the Ebola. It's still good though and is a very entertaining Cat III movie to watch. It also features a lot of really dark, sick and twisted humour to lighten things up a bit which works quite well.
If you're in the mood for chinese after watching this then there's something wrong with you for sure. Recommended for gorehounds with a sense of humour.
A mosquito bites Dracula in Transylvania, then makes it all the way to South Korea, and there it infect a corrupt cop named Na Do-yeol. The cop starts to notice the changes gradually and can at first not believe what's happening. It seems that he only turns into a vampire every time he's sexually aroused. Na Do-yeol has to deal with what he's becoming but will also try and stay human to reform his illegal ways.
With a title like that it's hard not to expect a dumb and silly movie, and while it is both dumb and silly at times, it also has a tendency to turn completely serious every now and then. And that's was actually a big problem here, I mean you expect a comedy and it has all this humorous scenes but once in a while everything that's funny disappears and it turns into more of a drama. There are a lot of Korean flicks out there that do the same thing, just see My Sassy Girl and Windstruck for instance. Although it worked much better in those movies, but here it just feels weird.
Some scenes have this really low kind of humour which actually works quite well, only that it never stays that way. It jumps between being completely silly, to being all serious and back to being silly, and it's pretty hard to get into it. It starts off pretty cool and funny with a vampyric Transylvanian scenery and we get to see a mosquito making its way in to Dracula's castle and bites the man. It was a great start and it looked like it could be a fun ride.
 
Later on, that same mosquito has made its way to South Korea and bites a corrupt cop named Na. Na soon starts to notice that he's changing and especially when there are hot girls around. That was also a really fun thing here, that he turns when he gets sexually aroused, and the movie has a few humorous scenes featuring that. He also has a craving for blood, but has to hide his new identity at first for the other police officers. Soon they figure out that he has taken money from a gambling place illegally and so he's on the run and has to try and make things right.
The guy who's starring as Na is a little over-the-top at times, sometimes it's funny but sometimes it's just too much. There are many scenes where he's imitating Bruce Lee and while that might be fun for a few seconds it's gets old very quickly. The ending is like a bad Batman rip-off, and it looks like something taken out of a crappy superhero flick (that visually looks great). Na of course takes the righteous path and uses a mask to hide his real identity and fights criminals with his newfound superpowers.
But the movie changes too much, during its playing time it jumps between being a slapstick comedy to suddenly becoming a drama and that was quite irritating. You laugh at some silly thing and get into that mood, but all of sudden the movie turns dark and serious and now you're supposed to switch into that kind of mood...impossible. There are some hilarious scenes, but in the end they are ruined by the fact that the movie takes itself a bit too seriously at times. Too bad, it could've been a fun ride all the way.
A comedy that has a few really funny moments, a few moments that are way over-the-top and not HK over-the-top funny but just way over-the-top, and some moments that are too serious for the movies own good. I really like some parts of it but some parts are not very good. The ending might be a bit fun in one way but personally I thought it was quite lame. Also 110 minutes are a bit too long.
In a distant future only some small civilizations are left on earth and are controlled by supernatural creatures. A young woman named Doris trespasses into Count Magnus Lee's domain when she's out hunting for demons that threatens her home. The Count bites her and she fears that her life will be controlled by the evil Count so she hires a man that goes under the name D to hunt down and destroy they him.
I'm not a huge fan of anime, but once in a while it can be quite fun to watch some. I used to watch a lot long ago and Vampire Hunter D is sure one of those that stands out and is definitely worth a watch even if you're not really into anime.
Considering the fact that Vampire Hunter D was made as early as in 1985, it still looks brilliant today and is visually stunning at times. That combined with a good story about vampires sure makes for a great flick.
It's a simple but a very good story that makes for 80 minutes of great entertainment. It of course doesn't look as good as the newer movie which is Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, but still I think this movie is better than the newer one and this one sure looks terrific as well.
It has really good storytelling and is aimed for the adult audience since we get treated to tons of blood, guts and some minor nudity. So children, stay away.
 
Vampire Hunter D has some fantastic characters in it, especially D himself. Also the movie is not all black and white (I'm not talking about the colors of the screen). That is, there are not just those who are evil and the rest that are good, everyone has two sides. This makes it feel more realistic and more natural and of course makes the movie itself more interesting.
D is somewhat of a anti-hero, being half vampire, half human and descendent of the legendary Count Dracula, he does not belong with the humans nor the vampires. He's a quiet man with a cruel profession that many seem to dislike, and is for sure not the kind of guy that show his emotions very openly. All this makes him a really cool and interesting character to watch.
Stay clear from the English dubbed version and go with the Japanese speaking one with subtitles instead, otherwise the whole movie is kinda ruined. Highly recommended.
Agent 999 is sent to a remote island to capture a wanted criminal named Rolex. Once there, Agent 999 figures that something's not right with the island, and he soon discovers that it's inhabited by blood-thristy cannibals, led by the islands police chief who's a very deranged man. His search of finding the criminal leads to that he constantly has to fight hordes of man-eating islanders, and at the same time, Rolex has had enough and wants to leave the island.
We're Going to Eat You is a pretty crazy (to say the least) film by HK director Tsui Hark, who has done some great flicks in the past. This movie offers extreme amounts of fight scenes, and the other title 'Kung Fu Cannibals' makes just as much sense as 'We're Going to Eat You' does for sure. Except for tons of fight scenes, the movie also offers a lot of gore, and on top of that a whole lotta slapstick humour. The horror theme is of course that the islanders are all blood-thristy cannibals, but the main focus of the movie is on the comedy, and of course on the kung fu as well. One thing that makes the fight scenes great is not just the nice choreography and the very speed of the fights, but also the sound effects added to them. Every time someone hit someone else, there's a pretty loud noise, over-the-top loud, but it definitely makes the fights a lot more entertaining (and hilarious) to watch. And that's a really good thing, because there are so many of them throughout the whole movie.
Hark's movie kicks off at full speed right from the start, featuring a gory opening sequence. The horror is in focus, but it switches over to slapstick mode just shortly after, and basically stays that way till the end. This is both good and bad I guess, because the movie works well like that, but at the same time, it sure could've had some more horror and tension in it. Suspense is really nowhere to be found, since basically everything in the movie has a comical touch to it, and even when there are fights that leads to gruesome death scenes, they don't really come of as very horror-ish since it's all done with a lot of humour. Speaking of humour, some of it works totally ok, but in some scenes the humour is just a bit too ridiculous. If you've seen a lot of HK flicks, you probably know exactly what I mean when talking about the comical side of things.
 
The most horrible thing We're Going to Eat You has to offer may not be the cannibalism itself, but instead a huge woman who tries to rape men every now and then. The character is played by some man in drag and it really looks like a transvestite, much bigger (and stronger) than anyone else on the island. That character provides a few good laughs, but at the same time she'll gross you out as well. The cannibals themselves doesn't look very frightening, but more like ordinary Chinese villagers, or farmers if you like. They wear masks when they're hunting for flesh, and this makes it feel a bit better and makes them come off as bit more raw than if they would've just looked the way they normally do.
There's a lot of spooky music and sounds turning up every now and then in the movie, and this sure adds to the horror feeling and creates a certain kind of atmosphere. Every time something is about to happen we get to hear it, and since there are things happening at all times, we get to hear a lot of it, some would say too much. The acting is ok, very over-the-top at times, but when it comes to HK movies, it's nothing new and infact you kinda expect a movie like this to have some over-the-top acting. Agent 999 sure delivers the best performance, always looking confident and never seems to say no to a fight. It may have some stuff in common with Ricky Lau's Mr. Vampire since they both mix horror, kung fu and comedy into one piece, but personally I think Mr. Vampire had much more humour that worked wonders while it at the same time managed to be a bit creepy. This one does not manage to combine everything and make it work as good, but it's still a very fun and fast-paced ride.
We're Going to Eat is a gory and entertaining piece of film that delivers tons of cool fight sequences. The way it was shot made it looked a bit raw and dirty which added to the horror feel, dealing with cannibals and all. Unfortunately a lot of the humour didn't really work that great, but it sure still had some very funny moments to offer. If you want to see something completely different from the good old 80's, this would be an excellent pick.
The Wig is about this girl who has a fatal disease and has lost all her hair, so her sister buys her a wig which makes her really happy, actually so happy that she even sleeps with it on. Then the wig starts to "take over" and somewhat control the sick sister who also, after wearing the wig for just a short period of time, suddenly gets better and better and loses the disease.
Are you tired of the fact that almost all new Asian horror movies have black scary hair involved in the movies one way or the other? Well, then don't see this one, because it's all about hair.
It's actually not as bad as it may sound, I'm also kind of tired of the fact that most of the new Asian horror movies are somewhat repeating themselves, and even though this movie ain't totally original or anything like that, it was still good and worth to check out.
 
First off, this is like with the also new Korean horror movie entitled Red Shoes that the story sounds stupid but that both movies aren't as stupid as they sound, at least they shouldn't be dissed because of how they sound, as both of them are worth a look.
Secondly the English title is very dumb, "The Wig" sounds ok but a title like "Scary Hair" just blows, what moron came up with that?
Anyway, despite the title it's beautifully shot like most other Korean movies, has good belivable actors and is not especially slow paced either. Could have been more scares though and perhaps a better ending.
If you're a fan of Asian horror movies then check it out, and if you're not then there are of course better Asian titles to start with.
A young boy named Tadashi lives with his grandpa in some small Japanese village. One day at the village festival, he's chosen to be the so-called 'Kirin Rider'. As the Kirin Rider Tadashi is supposed to go to the Goblin Mountain which lies close to the village, and there get the Goblin Sword to stop evil. When up in the forest to visit the goblin, Tadashi stumble across a bunch of spirits called the Yokai. Soon they run into an evil man that is Kato, who is about to start a war, and lay humanity in darkness. Now, Tadashi together with his spirit friends must stop Kato before it's to late.
Takashi Miike has at times surprised with delivering awesome movies, but has at times also disappointed with a few of his creations. The thing is, which actually is what makes Miike great, is that you NEVER know what to expect. But after seeing The Great Yokai War, I'm more than convinced that Miike is one of the worlds most important directors of all time (got the same feeling when I watched Audition though). The Great Yokai War truly amazed me, and must be one of the best things I've seen in a very long time. And when watched it, all doubts I had before about Miike completely vanished.
The Great Yokai War contains so many amazing and jaw-dropping things, I won't be able to even go through half of them. But it doesn't matter, as this is a movie that needs to be seen, and not just read about. First and most it makes for a fantastic fairy-tale with a boy entering a magical world, and has the adventure of his life. At times it is also like watching an animé movie come alive, as well as watching Transformers for real. Best thing is that The Great Yokai War works for people of all ages. If I had kids, I could've parked them infront of the tv and they would've had a great time, and at the same time, so would I.
 
This young boy, Tadashi, comes from a broken home in Tokyo and now lives in some small Japanese village. He's chosen to be the Kirin Rider when the village has some annual celebration, but is not really sure what it means. His grandfather later explains to him what is expected from the Kirin Rider, and Tadashi heads to the Goblin Mountain to retrive the goblin sword. When up there in the mountains, he stumbles upon the Yokai, which are goblins out of folktales. He soon finds out that the world is in danger since an evil man named Kato is out to destroy it. So together with the Yokai, Tadashi joins them in war to save the world.
This movie is completely packed with all kinds of weird characters, goblins and other living things, and it's really well done and everything looks great. There's a lot of CGI in the movie, but it all looks great as well. Personally, I think the less use of CGI, the better, but here it's never irritating or feels too much, even if it's used a lot. The viewer also get to see stop-motion animation, puppetry, huge monsters, all kinds of creatures, robots, Japanese folk tale type things, and hundreds of things that would make you think of different fairy-tales from around the world, even if it deals with Japan.
Even though it mostly feels and looks like a fairy-tale/fantasy movie, it also has a cartoonish feel at times. Also, a lot of stuff in the movie is pure animé, or since it's real, at least makes you think of animé. It's all a great mix though, and it makes for an amazing movie. I hadn't read a single thing about it, and like with all Miike movies, you never know what to expect, so I was really surprised and deeply impressed after just watching it for ten minutes or so. And as the movie kept rolling on, it just kept getting better and better.
Even if he has done some films that were not that great, most of them are, and this proves that Miike can tackle all kinds of genres, and succeed in doing so as well. The Great Yokai War is a movie that I will re-watch many times in the future, and if I have kids some day, I'll park them infront of it for sure. And if they won't like it, I will definitely question if they really are my kids to begin with. In the end, this is an awesome movie that needs to be seen. Highly recommended.
Five youths has been together since an early childhood, getting involved in the world of the Triads and working their way up for a man named Brother Bee. The years pass and the young guys keep climbing the ladder, lead by Nam and his right-hand man Chicken. One day they get a mission to kill a man named Ba-Bai, something they also succeed in doing but this angers Kwan who manipulates his way to become the leader of the Triad Society. Kwan also holds a grudge against brother Bee, and once he is chosen to be the Triad leader, he makes life difficult for Bee, Nam and the others who has to find a way to fight back and take Kwan down.
Young and Dangerous is a cult classic HK movie that spawned a number of sequels. No wonder since it's a very good movie about young people growing up and becoming involved in the Triad way of life. The movie's based on a Japanese manga and even have comic book art in the actual movie which makes the manga feeling and influence feel even stronger.
Young and Dangerous has a pretty simple story about revenge among the Triads, but even though it's simple, it's still very interesting. The movie focus on a group of young guys who all have worked their way up in the Triad society for a man named Bee. The leader of the group is Nam (Ekin Cheng) followed by four other guys who seem willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. A guy named Ugly Kwan (Francis Ng) wants to be the leader of the Triad society and manipulates his way in. He's has it in for Bee and the five guys working for him, and later on frames Nam to split their group up. Kwan continues to cause trouble for everyone and together they must rise up against him.
To be able to get really into a movie like this with the type of story that it has, there must be some strong characters for the viewer to rely on. Even though the character development are not that great, there are still some genuinely strong characters who are likable and easy to root for. Nam is a great character, a good friend and a good leader and it's hard not to like him, and so is Chicken, his right-hand man.
The villain named Kwan is a man you're bound to hate, but that's the whole point and Francis Ng delivers a great performance making you hate the man. There's a lot of drama in the movie, but it's actually never slow, it manages to stay interesting all the time and every now and then a great action scene breaks out, making things even more enjoyable. There are a lot of scenes that involves fighting and some of them are actually pretty raw. Thing is that these fights look very realistic, and they are not afraid to beat someone who's already down, hit people with bottles over the head etc. Although, this is a good thing and is something that makes you take this movie more seriously.
Even though it focuses on young people, it's not a movie for teens. If you're into HK movies, Japanese Yakuza movies or just simple action movies with a good story, you'll probably like Young and Dangerous.
When it comes to complaints there's not too much to say. Only thing that is somewhat irritating is that some of the action scenes were filmed using some slow motion effect combined with some blur on top so everything becomes a bit fuzzy and it's sometimes hard to see exactly what's going on. Other than that the acting is good, and even though there are moments that'll probably make some people smile, the movie has no real humour in it.
Young and Dangerous is a cult classic, and if you're into HK flicks, you'll most likely find this movie to be great. Even though we don't get to find out anything deeper when it comes to Triads, it's still very interesting and entertaining. Definitely recommended.
Nam and his gang opens a new club and Chicken who was in exile in Taiwan for a while managed to climb the ranks in the Taiwan Triads for the San Luen gang. Bee who was Nam's boss is gone and someone is to inherit his assets, and Nam has to compete with another Triad member named Tai Fai in order to see who can make more money and the one who wins and gets to inherit Bee. Later, the San Luen gang tries to enlist Hung Hing's support in a Macau casino. When the latter declines, violence ensues. Soon Chicken must decide which side he's on.
Young and Dangerous Part II kicks off a few days after where Young and Dangerous left off, something that seems really good if you watch the movies in a row. This sequel stand on its own but it's of course best to have seen the first movie before watching this one as it uses many of the same characters. Although a new characters is introduced, a man who wants to lead, just like Nam, played by Anthony Wong who always is fun to watch. He's quite disgusting here, constantly picking his nose among other disgusting things, but it makes for a lot of fun moments.
This time the movie has more story to it than the original movie had, it's more complicated and there are more things to keep track off. It tells a side story as well about Chicken who left for Taiwan in the first movie, and what happened to him during the time he was there. Apart from the side story, the whole movie this time focus on Chicken and this time we get some more character development when it comes to his person. But it's not all about Chicken, most of the characters are interesting and some new guy called Banana Skin joins Nam's gang, although we don't get to see too much of him.
Young and Dangerous 2 has much less fighting scenes than what the original movie had, and even though we get a lot more storywise here, I still found the lack of fights to be a bit boring. The first movie never really slowed down, and every time it was on the edge of doing so, there was some action element that came alive to save the viewer from boredom. I have absolutely nothing against a good story and more drama, it's just that you got a certain feeling from the first movie and that same feeling wasn't really present when watched the sequel. It's still a good follow-up though and has a lot of interesting things to it.
Another thing is that the first movie was pretty straight forward, somewhat predictable but still super entertaining. What's different here is that it's no longer straight forward at all as Young and Dangerous 2 delivers a few surprises, twists and like I said before, has much more to it storywise. Personally I think that even though I found this movie to be quite interesting and a good follow-up, the one thing that definitely saved it was that Wong was brought in. His character is really obnoxious and it was always fun to see what he would do next.
A bit different compared to the original but still makes for a good sequel. A great thing is that it takes off just where the first one left off, and that they've used most of the original characters as well. Anthony Wong lifts this movie up a little extra with a colourfull performance, and the movie has much more to it storywise than the first one had. Although this is both positive and negative, and it does not have as much great action as the original movie had. Worth checking out if you liked Young and Dangerous.
Chicken rejoins the Hung Hing gang and Nam's girlfriend regains consciousness after being sent into a coma but is left amnesiac. Soon the Tung Sing gang, led by a psychotic man named Crow, starts taking over some of Hung Hing's territory and opens a club next to a bar run by the Hung Hing gang and trouble ensues. Later on in Holland, Hung Hing boss Chiang gets whacked by Crow and Camel Lok from the Tung Sing gang and Nam from the Hung Hing gang gets blamed for it and is once again being framed and has to hide himself from everyone who wants to see him dead. Crow kills his boss and uses the funeral to kill anyone who might challenge his claim to power. Will Nam be able to prove his innocence, and can Crow be stopped?
While Young and Dangerous 2 took a different turn compared to the original movie and had a totally different story to it, this third installment goes back to the roots of the first movie and looks quite similar. Again Nam is being framed and has to prove his innocence, and instead of Ugly Kwan in the first movie who framed him and wanted to be a Triad leader, we here have a guy named Crow to do exactly the same thing instead. So there's a lack of originality for sure, but doesn't really matter since the movie manages to be quite entertaining.
There are a lot of old familiar characters in part 3, but we are also introduced to some new ones as well. Crow, who leads the Tung Sing gang is new and is a man that is easy to hate, but who makes it all become quite entertaining. Also new is Karen Mok who plays the priest's daughter and Chicken's love interest. Anthony Wong shows up again and even though he's a good actor, he was way better in part 2. Here he seems to have calmed down a bit and is not nearly as disgusting as in part 2 either. Too bad, I liked him that way. We get to see a little more of Banana Skin, the guy who joined the Hung Hing gang in the second movie, but we never really get to know the guy on any deeper level, and that goes for all the characters.
The plot is quite simple, and like I said before, even though it lacks originality it still manages to be entertaining. If you're a fan of the two previous movies, you'll probably have a good time watching this third one as well. Even though the story is simple, it's very easy to get hooked into it as it is fast-paced, entertaining and makes the movie interesting to watch. There are of course some fights every now and then, but not too many and even though some are good, they're not quite as mental as in the first flick. The second movie suffered the same problem. In the end of the movie there's a huge fight that is somewhat ok but a little messy for one to be able to fully enjoy.
One thing that this movie has though is a big surprise with someone who dies. That someone was part of both previous movies and it came as a big surprise watching that person die. The whole scene is actually quite brutal, but I won't reveal anything else as I don't want to spoil anything. Although for fans of the series this will probably come as a big and sad surprise.
It's easy to get caught in it and it's easy to know who to root for. This third movie in the series looks an awful lot like the first movie, but manages to be really entertaining and that has a story that is easy to get into. If you liked the two previous films, you'll probably like this one as well. Recommended.
Since Mr. Chiang passed, the branch leaders of the Hung Hing go to Thailand to ask Mr. Chiang's brother to come to Hong Kong to lead the Hung Hing. While being in Thailand, one branch leader of the Hung Hing back in Hong Kong gets whacked and Chicken is given the opportunity to become the new branch leader. But there's an other candidate, Brother Barbarian, who also wants the position as the new leader. So they split the territory up into two parts for some time to see who does the best job running the territory. But another member of a rival triad society is helping brother Barbarian in order for him to gain power and is manipulating the whole contest. And for a while, things are not going too well for Chicken.
When watched Young and Dangerous part 4, the series started to feel a little bit old, but at the same time it's still interesting since a lot of the characters from the past movies are in it, and you've gotten to know them quite well by now. I think that if you are a fan of the series, that is that you liked the previous 3 movies, you'll most definitely have a good time watching this one too. Even if it's a different story here, it still feels like it's repeating itself a little bit, but still manages to be interesting and suspensefull enough for one to wanna watch.
The story is actually quite good and interesting here where we get to see people fighting for leadership, and there are also some minor side-stories going on that are quite interesting as well. So while the movie focus on who will be in charge of this new territory, there are still a lot of other things happening. Chicken's girlfriend starts to teach a class that partly consist of some of Chicken's rivals. Nam meets a new girl who he hides his true identity for at first. The Hung Hing society finds themselves a new leader and one character who died in part 3 comes back as a new character, and is just as evil as he was in the previous movie. So basically, there are actually a lot of things going on in part 4.
Some of the brutality from the first and the 3rd movie can be found here as well. Even though it might not be as brutal, it's still enough for one to feel something about what's going on. And personally I really like these type of scenes, even though the might be hard to watch, it makes the movie feel more real and makes you as the viewer take it more seriously. Young and Dangerous part 4 might feel a little slow in the beginning but once things kick off, it's full-on speed all the way. Except for being a bit slow in the beginning, the movie is quite fast-paced and have a lot of things happening in it.
The little humour, the acting and basically everything else is kinda like in the previous movies, so those who have followed the series should know what to expect. And if you're new to the series it's of course best to start from the beginning with the original flick. The fights are actually pretty good here, I found them to be way more interesting and intense than in part 3, even if that movie had it's highlights as well. There's a lot of fighting and some killings and part 4 has an overall pretty good triad feel to it.
Not great but still really good. Even though it's the fourth movie and things are starting to wear a little thin, Young and Dangerous Part 4 is still a very good and entertaining flick. If you're a fan of the series, this one is a must see.
Tales of Terror Vol.1 are stories from a tv show that tell tales based on true supernatural encounters. In this first volume, there are 8 short (and I truly mean short) stories that will probably not scare but may get you to feel slightly irritated for sitting through stuff like this. Here we go..
1. Elevator (Takashi Shimizu)
It's late at night and a young woman is dropped off infront of the building to where she lives. She goes in there and waits for the elevator to arrive. When it does and the doors opens, she sees a bunch of really pale-looking people inside on their way down. She decides to not enter. When the elevator comes by again, she enters it and sees the same dead/zombie-looking people through a window in the elevator.
Sorry to spoil things for you, I actually told EVERYTHING that this story has to offer, only thing I didn't reveal were the actual lines. Like you probably can tell, this short story has absolutely nothing to offer. Don't tell me it's art or whatever, it's just not very good. This was a really bad start.
2. The School Excursion (Ryuta Miyake)
A class goes away somewhere and stays at a hotel. A girl from the school walks in to the bathroom and hears mysterious sounds, and later on sees some strange woman.
I really don't know what to add here. The girl sees a strange woman, but then realizes that it was just a dream..or was it?
3. Kengo Nishioka (Norio Tsuruta)
A housewife hears strange sounds from the next room in her house. Apparently it's a ghost who seeks revenge on her husband who's at not home.
No, the husband's not at home so the ghost torments the housewife for a while instead. He says that her husband is responsible for his death, but the housewife claims that her husband is innocent. That's all folk. No but seriously, that's really it.
4. The Visitor (Keisuke Toyoshima)
A little girl hears that someone is knocking on the appartment door to where she lives. She doesn't wanna open, and the knocking turns into banging that keeps increasing. After a while her sister opens the door while the little girl hides in the bathroom. Will she be safe there?
...probably not, but we'll never get to see that because the movie cuts off just when it's about to get exciting. It starts off good though, and if it would've kept on going for more than just 5 minutes it might could've been something. But on the other hand, I'm not really sure about that though.
5. Covering the 100 Tales (Inchiro Nakayama)
A reporter visits some group of people who tells about the way they died. When they ask her, she starts to scream.
Huh?
6. Cassette Tape (Shiro Sano)
A member of a rock band listens to some tape at home and hears a message from another band member. Then he gets a phone call and is told that the other band member recently commited suicide.
I felt that this was the story out of the eight that had the most potential. But it was too short and really went nowhere. Too bad.
7. Spilt Water (Norio Tsuruta)
A mother and her daughter goes out to buy a melon since it's the death anniversery of the husband/father. When walking in some park, they realize that he's still watching over them.
What the hell? This was like a super short drama and I have no idea what was the point of this. At least the other stories tries to have some horror in them, but this one was just totally different and doesn't really fit the whole "terror" concept. It was bad though, so it will always have that in common with the other stories.
8. The Backward Suit (Ryuta Miyake)
A father comes home drunk almost every night and his daughter is getting really sick of the old guy. Not only is the man drunk but he has his suit on backwards as well, and giving her some lame explanation that he walked on some haunted street. She of course does not believe him until one evening when she walks the same street. And once at home, she has her clothes on backwards.
This was more funny than scary, and actually worked well as a super short film. It's far from great, but at least I got something from it when getting nothing from the rest.
Tales of Terror Vol.1 wasn't very good. Now, I'm not Japanese and I didn't grow up hearing ghost stories like this, so maybe if I did I would've liked it more. Biggest problem is that these stories are REALLY short, and it feels like they are over before they have even started. Since you don't know the characters or have any kind of background info at all, it's hard to get scared, or that it's actually somewhat impossible. I got into some stories, but they were all over way too quick. The stories vary around 5 minutes each, and are as simple as they could possibly be. There's no time to build a creepy atmosphere or to have some dialogue that explains more about the different phenomenons etc. They are just way too short and it's over before you know it which really delivers no satisfaction whatsoever.
Moving on in the Tales of Terror series, Tales of Terror Vol.2 are, just like Vol.1, stories from a tv show that tell tales based on true supernatural encounters. In this second volume, there are 8 short stories. This DVD continues episodes from Part 1 with another 8 episodes from 9 to 16.
9. Examination Room 3, Part 1, (Akio Yoshida)
A guy takes his girlfriend to what seems like an abandoned hospital, and there he tries to get it on with her, something that she doesn't seem to be interested in. So she runs away, and then when going after her, the guy all of a sudden hears her talking to someone. He stumbles upon a room that is labeled Examination Room 3 and there he sees his girlfriend sitting on a chair, talking to herself. He wonders what she's doing and pulls her out of there, and later on he gets a phone call from her were she says she's in the hospital again...
10. Examination Room 3, Part 2, (Akio Yoshida)
The guy heads over to the hospital and enters Examination Room 3, the same place as where he last found his girlfriend. He sees her laying on a bed and talking loudly to someone. Then she invites him to join her in the bed, but this time he's not up for any sexual adventures. Fast forward a week, a month, a year...I actually have no idea. The guy and the girl run into each other on the street, (I guess they broke up after the incident at the hospital). The guy asks her how she has been, and she says she still goes to the hospital.
Freaky? Not really, but this one was better since it lasted longer. I don't know why they bothered with splitting them up into two different parts, since they both last only for around 9 minutes together. It was quite all right and had a creepy touch to it, but did unfortunately not deliver any scares.
11. Forgotten Item (Ryo Nanba)
A girl has just broken up with her cheating boyfriend, and has moved to a new apartment and changed her phone number. She soon starts getting strange phone calls from someone saying 'Give it back', and then hangs up. It keeps going like that every night for some time till she decides to change her number. But that doesn't seem to help, she still get those calls. One day someone's banging on her door and tries to get in, but of course the girl doesn't open. She figures that 'Give it back' meant that someone left something in the apartment, and the girl sets out to find what it could be that the person is looking for.
Now, this was a good short story, and even if it was really short, it got freaky really fast. The very ending takes away everything that was scary before so that was a bit of a bummer, but still, it was a pretty good story.
12. Video (Hirokatsu Kihara)
A girl is invited to some party (just for girls) and arrives early and seems to be the first one there, that is except for the hostess. The girl who has invited her is cooking and tells her to go and watch some tv while waiting. In the VCR, she finds a tape and puts that on, and suddenly in the reflection of the tv, she sees people sitting behind her. She turns around but there's none there. She looks at the tv, and again she sees people sitting behind her. When walking out in the hallway, she sees that it's full of shoes, but that no people are actually in the apartment.
It sounds ok, but it wasn't really that good. Now, these events have supposably occured for real, and if that would've happened to me, it would definitely have ruined my pants for sure. But just watching it on tv wasn't very effective.
13. Drop Of Blood (Eiji Arakawa)
A girl goes to some place for a job interview, but when she arrives at the place there's no one there. She figures that she's early, but then she gets a strange phone call, and at the same time she sees that the clock strikes three which means that she was an hour late. The person on the end of the phone hangs up on her. She leaves her resume, and when she walk out she has some blood on her cheek.
Okelidokeli, this one was just too weird. I was tired when watching it but I don't think it would've mattered. If you get it, drop me an email.
14. Enlightenment (Takashi Shimizu)
A girl goes through some of her old things and in some kind of box, she finds a sketch book which reads; Not to be read till you grow up, or something similar to that. Since she is grown up by now, she reads it, and it's something about her current boyfriend that she seemed to know when she was a kid.
The subtitles stopped working halfway through, and since my Japanese is non-existant, I didn't get this one (either). Anyway, it seemed more like a drama with no sudden scares or anything like that. All it had that was a bit freaky was the actual music which consisted of strange noises, although it was more weird than freakish. Subtitles or no subtitles, this one didn't do anything for me.
15. Waiting Time (Takashi Shimizu)
A guy is in some sort of hotel building or something, and while he waits around there, he suddenly sees a little girl that stares at him. Later on when he walk around in the building, the same girl appears again and then disappear. She keeps calling him, and the guy gets more and more freaked out.
Ehhh, this one was really strange and actually quite lame. It had what was supposed to be some scares and tried to create some creepy atmosphere, but it didn't work at all. After a little while it got a bit more intense and then suddenly it was cut off.
This one and story no.14 came from the same man who gave us Marebito and Ju-on, and watching these two weird stories makes you not think any higher of him, rather the opposite. Ok, that it's hard to make a scary story that can only last for 3-5 minutes all together. But even so, it felt kinda meaningless watching this, (even if 5 minutes is not a huge waste of time).
16. Off The Shelf (Akio Yoshida)
A man comes home from work and sits down to eat his dinner and starts talking to himself. He says that he misses his family, that seem to be in some other city, but that he's not alone where he lives now. His neighbour starts banging on the walls, and the man says he has some crazy neighbour. He then walks into his neighbours room, and some guy is hanging upside down from the sealing, but the man doesn't seem to notice that. He then goes back to his apartment and keeps repeating that he's not alone.
Yeah I know, it makes no real sense, but this one was still quite funny to watch. It's not scary but instead more comical. But just like most of these stories, it was weird and too short for one to really be able to get into.
Tales of Terror Vol.2 was slightly better than Vol.1. Maybe because with volume one you didn't know what to expect, and so it became a bit of a let-down. When started to watch Vol.2, I knew that the stories would be short and never expected it to be anything else, and that somehow made the outcome feel a little bit better than last time. Still though, the stories are too short and it's hard to get into them and get something from them before they are over. But I got more into it this time, so maybe Vol.3 will have an even better effect.
Moving on in the Tales of Terror series, Tales of Terror Vol.3 are, just like Vol.1-2, stories from a tv show that tell tales based on true supernatural encounters. In this third volume, there are 8 short stories. This DVD continues episodes from Part 2 with another 8 episodes from 17 to 24.
17. Stones (Keisuke Toyoshima)
A man is fishing and some guy that stands far away asks the man if the fish bites. Next second he's right next to the man, asking him the same thing again. A bit freaked out and slightly irritated, the man stops fishing and starts biking through the forest. Suddenly he gets hit over the head with a stone that comes flying through the air, and right after yet another stone hit him as well. When he turns around there's huge pile of stones on the ground, and then apparently a lot stones are coming at him through the air.
Why I said that apparently there were stones coming at him in the end, is because we don't get to see it, only hear it. As far as I understand, the man who was out fishing angered some ghost who got back at him later. A bit funny but not really any good.
18. My Sister's Room (Keisuke Toyoshima)
A girl wakes up at exactly two o clock every night from what seems like horrible nightmares where some ghost with long black hair is standing over her bed. She tells her parents about this but they don't take her seriously, saying that it's just puberty kicking in. Later in the kitchen, ten minutes before two, her brother tells her that he has heard strange sounds from her room every night for a long time but that they always stop when the clock strikes two. Then as the clock strikes two, her brother seems to get possessed and starts making weird noises.
Geez, this one started out ok but turned into a mess quite fast. And like all the other stories it was really short.
19. The Train (Ryuta Miyake)
Two girls sit in a friends apartment while the friend is out buying some things. As they talk, they suddenly hear a train go by just outside the window. Later on they hear it passing by again, and when their friend comes home they ask her how she can stand to live there with all the trains passing by just outside. The friend says that there are no trains passing by and that there's a river outside. They open the window and a train passes by, and the next moment, the girls are gone.
At least this one didn't have any ghost persons in it, but instead a ghost train (that we never get to see). Not great.
20. The Lover (Norio Tsuruta)
While being at home, a guy tells his girlfriend that he's sick of his job and wants to quit, and she just tells him to hang in there. Apparently the guy suffered from depression, and after that killed himself, only to later show up in the apartment as a ghost to scare the shit out of his old girlfriend.
This one was not great but better than the previous ones. The guy couldn't stand his life, and his girlfriend wasn't very helpful either. He kills himself and later shows up as a ghost, and the best thing here was that he did a lot of freaky stuff with stretching out his neck a lot etc. Quite a cool effect, but the story wasn't anything special really.
21. Take A Good Care Of Him (Kei Horie)
A guy from a company is sent to look after another employee's mom while she's in the hospital, and he's not too happy about it. When he arrives there, he sees the other employee, who's been on paid vacation for two weeks, sitting by the side of his sick mom's bed. The guy stars talking to his work mate and at the same time the mother dies. Then while the son is crying, the mom suddenly opens her eyes and tells the guy to 'Take A Good Care Of Him', which I guess should be 'take good care of him'. Then when the nurse walks out the door, the dead mom is the nurse.
Quite good but at the same time also quite strange. To short to give the proper effect, but it was still good enough. If you consider that it has happened for real, it's a bit freaky. But why did the mom become the nurse, and what happened to the real nurse?
22. Let's Play (Toru Moriyama)
Some girls are playing on the yard, and one girl sees another girl standing in a window, looking down on the children playing. The girl writes let's play in the sand for the window girl to see. The window girl comes down but soon runs upstairs again, followed by the other girl. Later the girl tells her parents about the window girl, and they find out that no one has lived in the apartment she was in for years.
Scary? No not really. Slightly interesting but, just like the others, too short to make a good impression.
23. A Motel (Takafumi Ota)
After the shooting of a horror video, two girls stay at some motel that has a creepy host and no other guests staying there. In the middle of the night, one of the girls wakes up from someone banging on the door. The person behind the door has a really creepy voice and says; "Let me in, I'm in pain". Suddenly the other girl stands up and says in a manly tone of voice not to open the door.
This short film was the one that had the most actual horror in it, just too bad it didn't last longer.
24. The Garden (Yo Takahashi)
A woman hears some strange bugs/flies buzzing away, and feel that there's something that's not right in her house. She calls a friend to come over but they can't find anything. When the friend leaves, the woman hear that the vacuum cleaner is on up on the second floor of the house. She goes up there, and when she bends down to turn it off, she sees some pale-looking ghostly pair of feet next to her. When she stands up they're gone and then she gets another call from her friend who tells her to get out of the house.
Ok, forget that the 'A Motel' had the most horror in it, as I think this one actually did. Apparently there used to be some kind of beast caged in the garden, and the were murders in the house were the corpses were fed to the beast. There's one scene where we get to see the cage and it has some kid in it (who looks like the boy from Ju-on) that gets pulled away which looks really cool. Even though it was too short, it still kinda delivered.
Half of the stories here were quite good, while the other half kinda sucked. But after having watched Part 1-2, I'm starting to get into the whole concept of these stories more and more. They say that all these stories were told by people who have actually experienced what is been told here, and if you consider the fact that they have happened for real, it of course gives it a better effect. But whether you believe that they are true or not, they are still all too short to make a stronger impact.
After the 24th episode, there's actually one more called "Fox and A Bath" where we only get to see a guy sit and tell a story to a girl. Thing though is that the story was neither scary nor interesting, and I just wanted it to end. Apart from that, Tales of Terror 3 was just as good as part 2, but I'm not sure whether or not that's really a good thing. Even though I decided to give it a 5 out of 10, I can't really recommend it. It's not your normal type of Asian horror, and the fact that the stories are so short is a really bad thing. Some of them are quite interesting and have some potential, it's just that they end way too fast.
Moving on in the Tales of Terror series, Tales of Terror Vol.4 are, just like Vol.1-3, stories from a tv show that tell tales based on true supernatural encounters. In this fourth volume, there are 9 short stories. This DVD continues episodes from Part 3 with another 9 episodes from 25 to 33.
Don't Ever Open It (Kei Horie)
A girl is left to be home alone, and her grandfather tells her not to open a special cabinet/altar. When the man leaves, the little girl goes straight for the altar, opens it and another little girl pops out from within the cabinet. They start to play but soon the altar girl disappears, and later shows up again and tries to drag the other girls into the cabinet with her. She does not succeed in doing so and jumps back in the cabinet on her own.
This one was actually more stupid than scary. It has elements of ghosts but it wasn't very effective.
Getting Closer (Hiroshisa Sasaki)
A girl is house sitting and suddenly the picture disappers from the tv. She goes up to check what's wrong, and all of a sudden she sees her dog on the tv from inside the house she's in. She walks to the stairway where she finds some drool on the floor, and when she looks around, she sees herself being on the tv and that something's zooming in on her. She then wakes up, and when she looks at the tv next to her bed, she's on the tv again. Once again she wakes up, thinking it all was a bad dream, but then she sees some kind of ghost girl sitting not too far from her bed. Again, she wakes up and this time the ghost girl is sort of licking her face (now we know where the drool came from). Then she wakes up and it goes like that for a while.
Geez, I don't know how many times this girl woke up from having a bad dream. It was at least 6-7 times and it was really frustrating to watch. Also the ghost girl looked more ridiculous than scary so that didn't help either. It started off quite ok but got bad really fast.
Please Don’t (Yudai Yamagudhi)
A guy walking around filming his family and every boring little thing one could possible think of. Even though this story is short, it goes on for way too long. But suddenly someone's at the front door and keeps pushing the door handle back and forth. (To be continued)...
No More, Please (Yudai Yamagudhi)
This story continues 2 weeks after the previous one 'Please Don’t' left off, and the thing with the door handle is still going on every night for 10 minutes each time. By now, the family have gotten somewhat used to this strange phenomenon and just ignores it. But then one night they hear a loud bang and see that their tv has fallen over, and soon after, the microwave owen goes boom too. They call some spiritual guy who comes and takes a look at their house to get rid of the possible ghost that's there, terrorizing them night after night. The guy says that their house might be a passageway for the dead. (To be continued)...
Come, If You Dare (Yudai Yamagudhi)
This story continues from the previous one, 'No More, Please', and it has now been 3 months of weird happenings and the family has grown really sick of it. Since the spiritual guy couldn't help the family out, they call in some scientists and they actually seem to know what they're doing. It's explained to the family that people generate electromagnetic energy, and if all that energy gathers in one place, it causes people to hallucinate. Apparently it's called 'Poltergeist Phenomenon', and the scientists help the family to remove all the energy from their house. After that, the family seem to do ok, and there are no more strange things going on around their house. But one month later they wake up in the middle of the night from hearing some strange noises, and when they go into one of the rooms in the house, the room is packed with dead people. After that, the family decides it's time to move.
This story is quite a long one, at least in when comparing it to the other stories in the Tales of Terror series. It's divided into three episodes and deals with ghost encounters. It's never scary but still worked quite well, except for the first episode which felt like nonsense. In the third episode, we get to see the family being interviewed inbetween the telling of the actual story, just like it has happened to them for real. A pretty cool ghost story but that unfortunately lacked effective scares.
Fox and a Bath (Hiroshisa Sasaki)
This story was told by a man in the end from Vol.3, but felt quite boring as the viewer just got to see a man sit and tell the story to some girl. Here it's actually a filmed short story about a man who's driving in the countryside and suddenly gets extremely sleepy. He wakes up in a bathtub in a house, sitting in the same position as he did when he was driving with his hands on an imaginary steering wheel. A woman comes into the room where he's at and is apparently the owner of the house, and says that once in a while people show up in her bathtub.
This story was more fun than scary. Well maybe not fun as it was actually quite strange. Not the least bit memorable though.
An Interrogation (Kei Horie)
A guy is being interrogated by two police men after an accident. He tells the police that he was out driving when he suddenly saw a woman running towards his car. He tries to steer away from her and so crashes his car, and when he looks at the passenger seat, she lies there all tied up next to him. He closes his eyes and when he opens them again, the woman is gone. Suddenly the officer at the police station has trouble breathing and the woman who was running towards the man's car comes up behind him...
It started off quite cool but became quite lame really fast. Also, the story is way too short to be effective, and we don't get any background on any of the characters, so it was really hard to get into it.
Family Crest (Hiroshisa Sasaki)
A girl marries some guy and moves out to live with his family in the country. The family lives by old Japanese traditions, and the girl tries to adjust herself to that. One night she wakes up and sees some zombie samurai in her bedroom, and he's telling her that she's pregnant and to give him the baby. She replies that she's not pregnant, but later she finds out that she really is, and the samurai keep coming back to haunt her.
A zombie samurai sounds pretty cool eh? Well, it might sound cool, but watching it on screen here isn't that cool actually. Although I liked the story, and it looks quite ok as well, (a lot of these stories doesn't look that great).
Handprints (Takafumi Ota)
A man is in some room and pulls the curtains over the window. He then gets a strange phone call from his daughter but it seems to be a really bad connection and he can't make out what she wants to say. He then hears some noise and pulls away the curtains and sees ghostly white handprints all over the window.
Eh ok? I have no idea where the handprints came from or why they were there. The story was really short and suddenly there were handprints all over the window, the guy looked afraid and that was about it. I'm glad I don't have to watch Tales of Terror anymore, as I think this was the last one.
Tales of Terror Vol.4 turned out to be quite bad which was not very unexpected to begin with. Some stories have a lot of potential but they are just too short to be effective, while some stories don't make much sense at all. Since they are so short and you don't get to know that much about the characters, the ghosts or whatever, it's very hard to 'get into it' and be affected by the so-called scares. I'm glad that the series are over, or so I would think anyway. The best one turned out to be Vol.3 which featured the most interesting and 'scary' stories. But in the end, the whole series was never that good to begin with.
Light Yagami one day finds the "Death Note" - a notebook that has the power to make people end up dead if you write the persons name in it. Since Light hates criminals that only gets mild punishments, he starts writing their names in the book and soon criminals everywhere starts to drop like flies. While Light, together with the master of the book called the Death God, is creating a Utopia of his own under the name Kira, the world's greatest detective named "L", together with a bunch of agents, sets out to capture Kira.
It's no wonder why the live-action movie Death Note, based on the manga, hit so big in Japan as it is simply a remarkable film with a fantastic comic-book like story. Death Note tells an exciting tale about a teenage boy who one day gets hold of a notebook that is called "Death Note". If you write a persons name in the book and think of that person at the same time, that very person will die. The book has a bit more to it, but that's simply how it works and just the idea of the very book was something that I was truly impressed with all the way through, as well as long after having seen the film. But it of course has more to it than just the book, and first and most that is the character of Light that also goes under the name Kira. He's a good person who wants to rid the world of evil, so he uses the book to do good, and while a lot of people seem to appreciate his work, there are also those that don't and among them are the world's greatest detective - "L".
The Death God, who's the master of the book, follows Light around as he cleanses the world from all that is bad. The Death God is a creature made with CGI, and while some may complain that the CG is not great looking, the creature still looks all right, is fun to watch and gives the movie a certain feel to say the least. Only those who have touched the Death Note can see the Death God that is Light's friend and companion, and it all looks pretty cool - a boy and his monster - a monster that only eats apples.
 
Death Note is not a horror movie mind you, but could probably still be enjoyed by a lot of horror fans out there. It's actually the type of movie that I guess most people could watch and be entertained by as it could be compared to one of those time-less fairy-tales or so. I found the film to be extremely entertaining and well as I really enjoy all the bizarre stuff in it and the cleverness of it. It might tend to be a bit corny at times, a bit too Japanese at times (talking about those weird tv-shows where they tend to take the concept of happiness to a new level that is impossible to relate to). But while a lot of Japanese high-school girl might get a kick out of it, so might you. I know it sounds strange, but see it for yourself and I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me.
Basically, we get to follow our hero that is Light/Kira using the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil while detective "L" and his agents are trying to find out who Kira is and stop him. But Light is one smart fellow and it was really enjoyable to see how he constantly tricked them and managed slip away from them. The whole film was an exciting ride and I was happy to see that it was not very predictable as I was kinda wondering how it would all come to an end. While a lot of people die throughout the film, don't expect any gore of anything like it, as it is just not that type of movie we're dealing with here. Most of them gets a heart attack and there's not much to these scenes really, but they still work and the overall movie has so much great stuff to offer that the little errors that it has are more than forgivable.
Death Note is a really awesome flick and you should most definitely check it out. So get away from "Hollywood" for a while and watch something brilliant for a change.
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During the Chinese Seventh Month, the gates of hell open and for 30 days, the dead walk among the living. There are rules to follow in the Seventh Month: Do not swim during the Seventh Month; do not turn back at night when someone calls out your name; do not talk to strangers on a deserted road. For Rosa Dimaano, all these things are just a bunch of old wives' tales until she starts getting attacked by one ghost after another.
Been ignoring this movie for over a year for no apparent reason, I decided to take a look at it last night and while I found it to be somewhat all right, it didn't really come anywhere close to being great, or bring anything new into the world of Asian horror. The movie hails from Singapore and while that is cool due to the fact that the country ain't to big on these types of films, unfortunately in the end, The Maid just remains to be a bleak copy of what the Japanese and Koreans have already done before, plenty of times. Still, The Maid gives the viewer a few decent scares, as well as it have some character development that makes you feel sympathy for our "heroine". But the fact is that writer/director Kelvin Tong just tries a little to hard trying to create one horrifying scene after the next, instead of just taking it more easy and use real horror where it would be appropriate. Maybe he never heard the expression 'quality over quantity'.
The Maid tells the story of a young Filipina orphan named Rosa Dimaano (no, she's not Italian) who comes to Singapore to work for a family as...well, you guessed it, a maid. Her mother and father are dead, her 7-year old little brother is sick and her uncle doesn't have money to buy medicine for the little guy - you just gotta feel sorry for the girl. But when arriving in Singapore, it's the start of the so-called Hungry Ghost time which is a month where people pay their respects to all the ghosts that are around them. The family she works for warns her about the ghosts, but Rosa is not scared and just sees it all as old tales that old people tell. Well, that's until her first ghost encounter and from there on, things just keeps getting worse.
 
I can't really tell you more about the story itself without spoiling it and while I would love to complain about the ending a whole lot, I can't do that either due to the risk of spoilers. Most of the movie works somewhat all right, most of the way through, but towards the end it tries to be a bit more clever than necessary and that just made things worse. Twists and turns are not always great and Kelvin Tong makes the same mistake in the end as he did with the scares in the film - he tries too hard, but since he has nothing of high caliber, most of his attempts for a scary success falls flat.
On the positive side though, having a lot of non-effective scares at least made the movie not seem slow as things kept happening for most of the time. Another good thing was the character of Rosa (played by Alessandra de Rossi) who was innocent and it was easy to feel sorry for her. This girl had to suffer through a lot of crap and even though her character wasn't that strong, it was still enough to make one be able to feel some sympathy for the girl. Other than that, The Maid looked all right and not all the scares were bad, but some were actually quite cool. Thing though is that a couple of good scares and one strong character just isn't enough to stand and build a whole movie on.
Not bad and made for a somewhat good time, although I saw nothing here that I haven't seen a number of times before. The story itself wasn't bad, but the way it was executed could be questioned for sure. If you're a fan of Asian horror, you've probably seen most of what this film has to offer, but it might still actually be worth checking out. I'm glad I saw it, but I would never re-watch it though.
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A mutanted creature emerges from Seoul's Han River and starts to attack and eat people. While on a rampage spreading panic and fear throughout the city, it also kidnaps a little girl. The family members are left devastated since it stands quite clear that she's dead, but that's until her dad gets a phone call from the sewer close to the river where apparently she's trapped. Now the family has to do everything in their power to bring her back.
The Host has been swarming the internet ever since the production of it began - we've gotten to see posters, teaser trailers and most of all; we've heard people talk and talk and talk endlessly about this film for what feels like forever now. I must admit that my expectations for The Host were through the roof, as the film didn't seem like your normal type of movie, this one felt like it was gonna deliver something truly special. And while it did deliver something that was truly special, not to mention the fact that it was probably the best creature feature I've ever seen, I'm still not sure I liked it as much as I first had thought I would. The Host was a great film for sure, no doubt about that, but excellent it was not.
Looking at it from a horror point of view, it lacks a bunch of things. For one, this is a film that everyone can watch, except for maybe young children, but still, it's not just exclusively aimed at an horror audience. Ok, so I never expected it to be very horrific to begin with, but must still admit that it was a little too nice, a little too often. The monster looks cool, or absolutely awesome and it was fun as hell watching it on screen every time it appeared, but that's just it, it was just fun and sometimes exciting, but never the least bit horrifying or scary. People that never watch horror will probably get a good kick out of it while hardcore horror fans will probably wonder, was that it?
With the horror out of the way, let's focus on what else. The film mixes all kinds of genres which was both a positive as well as a negative thing. For most parts, it was just great; a little horror was there, but with what I wrote above that still applies - some of the action scenes were pretty awesome and there were a lot of them to be seen and to be excited about as well. The movie has a comical side to it too which I gotta say worked very well, but at the same time, it sometimes took away some of the seriousness and suspense that were there for the moment. What I mean is that while most of the comedy worked well, sometimes it made everything seem too light and you kinda lost that serious feel that was so needed every here and there.
 
When it comes to character development, it pretty much worked too a hundred percent, well, that's except for the creature itself. When it comes to creature features, you're supposed to feel something for the creature right? It can be a hideous beast, a monster or what else, but whatever it might be, you should also be able to feel something for it. In The Host it stands quite clear that you should root for the family that the movie follows, because you never get to know one single thing about the very monster in the Han River which makes it absolutely impossible to feel anything for it. The family on the other hand comes off as very strong and very tied together - when it matters that is. You have the somewhat semi-retarded adult Song Kang-Ho who loses his daughter to the monster, and together with the rest of his family, they do everything in their power to get her back. Even though we don't get to know any members of the family on a deeper level, we still get to know them enough to easily be able to root for them.
The pacing of the movie was pretty much terrific, even though it might've felt like it dragged a little at some places. There's a lot of action to be had and a lot of excitement as well as it was always accompanied by the interesting story. Talking about the story, it works wonders, but a lot of time is spent dealing with people trying to figure out the infection that the monster is apparently supposed to be spreading around. Later, we find out that there were really no infection and all time spent on it somewhat went down the drain and the whole story that dealt with that really went nowhere.
I've been pointing out a lot of minor issues, because while I really liked the film as a whole, I didn't feel like giving it another rave review (it has gotten that at plently of other places). All I'm saying is that while it was a great movie that provided a great entertaining time, it was not all perfect. Also, I believe that this is one of those movies that'll grow plenty on ya, as well as it probably requires a second viewing.
I had a great time watching The Host and while I felt that it had a few issues that it was struggling with, it was still one helluva ride. The work that Weta, Orphanage and Creature Workshop put in truly payed off and all I can say about the film in the end is that you just gotta see it for yourself. Forget everything you've heard about it and just enjoy it for the terrific film that it is, and I'm sure you'll have one helluva great time.
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Bringing new light to one of Thailand's oldest ghost stories, a newlywed couple bring to life a 100 year old ghost of Mae Nak Prakanong, a victim of love's divine fate. Although the ghost of Mae Nak protects the couple from a sleezy landlord and two ruthless criminals, she in return requests a near impossible favor of the two.
Well come to find out the ghost of Mae Nak Prakanong is really a ghost of a woman who died during childbirth who's name was Nak and lived by the Prakanong river. Anyways her memory has become the subject of many different legends, most of them made up. This one is about her ghost coming back to life to torment a newlywed couple that end up renting out the house she died near. The house is old and falling apart but the newlyweds Mak and Nak think it's perfect so they buy it. Now during the time of the buy and moving in Mak goes and buys Nak a antique brooch which happens to be a fragment of the skull cut out of Mae Nak's skull.
 
One night while the couple is away a couple of idiots break in the house and steals all their gifts including the brooch, and before you know it Nak is in search for the skeleton of Mae Nak and Mak is in a coma after being hit by a bus. The only way to bring Mak out of the coma is to return the fragment of skull to it's rightful spot in the center of Mae Nak's skull.
So this movie, I heard alot of crap about, alot of bad things, but you gotta take into consideration alot of it was by people that don't like watching subtitled movies, which is pathetic being that I actually enjoyed this movie. I thought it had a great story and the FX were awesome. A great decapitation and a badass scene where a dude gets cut in half by a sheet of glass pushed this movie ahead of most ghost stories for me. The Ghost of Mae Nak herself even looked impressive, extremely creepy and conviencing, I thought this movie was great.
To everyone that's ok with ghost stories, this is pretty damn good for being from Thailand. If anyone tells you this movies sucks tell them they have no taste in movies, like I'm about to do. I'm not disappointed one bit in this movie.
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Saikaew moves into a new apartment and becomes a student at the Bangkok University. She soon meets a young girl in the apartment building who calls herself "Little Sister" and grows fond of Saikaew in no-time. Strange things start to happen and it doesn't take long before Saikaew's friends start suspecting that something evil is lurking within the building, not to mention inside her apartment.
"CUT! Let's just forget about making this stupid movie, let's go burn that sloopy written script and in the future just watch movies instead of trying to make them ourselves". That's something director Mr. Nasron Panuangkasiri should've said to his crew, but instead he went along and spewed out this horrible little film upon the world. The Mansion: Sister is such a terrible movie I'm not even sure where to begin with my complaints, because the fact is that there are not just two or three things that are bad here, it's all just a great mess. What we're dealing with here is a low-budget DTV Thai flick that truly fooled me with its nice looking cover. Usually I don't pick what movies to watch based on what cover they have, but this cover just looked so cool, I figured I had to give it a shot and needless to say, that was one huge mistake.
While the cover looks clean as hell, the actual movie looks like shit and not only does it look like shit, but the whole film is practically shit defined. It might sound a bit harsh, but watch it for yourself and I'm pretty much sure you'll agree with me. The 'brilliant' story of the film deals with Saikaew, a female student who moves into a new apartment where she soon meets a young girl, a kid who calls herself "Little Sister". The girl is a ghost and she grows fond of Saikaew, without that Saikaew knowing that she's actually a ghost. This little sisters has a big sister who's haunting the apartment building as well, but we don't get to see too much of her. Now, I'm not sure if that's good or bad since the bigger sisters is the only thing in the movie that actually delivers some horror - problem though is that the horror doesn't work at all. So if we get to see her, we get some horror, when we don't get to see her it's just lousy written drama all the way and I'm not sure what is worse.
Anyway, "Little Sister" starts hanging around Saikaew and her friends start to notice that something is wrong with the building that she lives in. The little sister wants Saikaew to herself, and so scares off her friends when visiting. Uhh, the story itself is just horrible and I see no reason why to write more about it. I can't think of one reason why you'd wanna take time to watch this film as the only thing it has going for it is the fact that it only lasts for 51 minutes, but on the other hand, it's sort of a rip-off as well considering the fact that you've probably paid full price for it. The Mansion: Sister seems like a classic example of some idiot who has been watching other (much better) Asian horror films and then wanted to try and create something on his own. Problem though is that making a film requires some brains, something that the director should've looked into before he started.
It's pretty frightening that movies like this are being released and that people who have no skills whatsoever get to make em´. This one really had nothing going for it and was just a waste of film. Take my advise and stay far away from this ugly creation.
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Akira Fudo is a normal student who's staying with a foster family and spends a lot of time with his best friend Ryo Asuka. Ryo's father is a scientist who one day accidentally, after having discovered it, releases demons into the human world and is killed in the process. Ryo takes Akira to his father's lab where he comes in contact with a demon entity known as Amon which transforms Akira into Devilman. But he's not like the other demons because of the fact that he still has a human heart, so instead of killing humans like the rest of the demons, Devilman battles the demons that try to take over the human world.
Devilman is a live action movie, an adaptation of the original story created by Gô Nagai that came out in 1972. It's well known in its home country of Japan and has been aired as a 39 episode television series over there, as well as it has spawned a few animated features and several mangas. You do not need to be familiar with Devilman at all to be able to enjoy this live action film, although I'm pretty sure those who have followed it and have some background knowledge have a higher chance at liking the movie to begin with. I'm not a follower of the whole concept that is Devilman, I simply just wanted to see the live action film since it looked pretty cool and I really wanted to see how they had done everything in it - the demons themselves, the videogame feel that I had heard it would have, the fights and well, you name it..
Devilman was a somewhat weird film that both had its ups and downs. For instance, some of the CGI looked amazing and had this great videogame feel to it, while at other times the CGI looked absolutely horrible. I think for most of the time it was fairly easy to even sit through some of the really bad CGI, due to that the very story of Devilman kept the interest up. A word of warning though, especially to the picky kind of people, it does not look like Lord of the Rings and it's miles away from WETA standard, but apart from that, it's quite the enjoyable flick and most of the bad CGI is easy to forgive. The problem with most of the CGI was that when, for instance, you saw Akira transform into Devilman it all looked pretty darn amazing, but when they mixed CGI into normal real enviroments, it all turned crappy really fast. Simply put, don't expect too much and you're in for a good ride.
 
In the film, we get to follow a young student named Akira Fudo who lives with a foster family and who has a crush on his "foster sister", and yes, the film has a touch of romance which didn't feel tacky at all, but was actually something that turned out to be quite nice. Akira hangs out a lot with his rich buddy Ryo who seems to hate everyone except Akira and one day Ryo takes Akira over to his scientist father's abandoned lab. Apparently Ryo's dad managed to open the portal to the demon world and while the boys are there, Akira is exposed to a demon entity known as Amon which turns him into Devilman. Still with a human heart pounding in his body, Devilman is half demon (devil), half a man who, unlike the other demons, do not want to wipe out humanity. As the demons starts to flood the human world, the government releases a group of soldiers to rid the world of demons. Unfortunately for humanity, these soliders are morons and seems to think that ordinary people are demons as well, and so begins to wipe out humanity on their own while the leader of the demons, Satan himself, can sit back and relax. I'm not gonna spend more time writing about the story, but let me just say that it's not complicated at all, it's easy to get into and fairly enjoyable even if it has its flaws.
The movie Devilman obviously had a great Japanese feel to it and even though it was a movie that had a high budget, it sometimes didn't look that good at all (not talking about the CGI). Visually, it's a very strange film to watch because sometimes it looks stunning and pretty brilliant and in the next scene to come it switches over to have a more cheap look and feel to it, and it goes like that, up and down, all the way through. The acting is not bad, but sure could've been a lot better as sometimes it comes off as a bit too wooden. Another thing is that Akira doesn't seem to be too overwhelmed with the fact that he went from being a normal boy to, all of a sudden, become one devilish creature with incredible strength. How strange it even might seem, the guy seemed incredibly comfortable with being able to turn into Devilman just like that and didn't seem to think too much of it. Like in the movie Spider-man, he doesn't explore and try out his new powers, but just seems to know how it all works right away and that just didn't feel right if you know what I'm saying. Another thing that was truly bad was to have Bob Sapp as the World Newscaster, it just felt like a totally meaningless thing having him in the film.
I'm sure there are fans who absolutely love this flick as well as there'll be people who get see it and can't for the life of them understand how anyone could like this. I thought it was slightly above decent, very entertaining, but that the cheap feel of it sometimes was too obvious and that there were a lot of things in it that didn't make perfect sense. So my advise to you if you plan to check it out would be - do not think too much, but instead just try and enjoy it for what it is, as well as don't expect incredible CGI at all and you'll be able to forgive that bad CGI and at the same time maybe be impressed by the sometimes stunning effects.
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A Cambodian assassin named Pang arrives in Hong Kong with the mission to kill the wife of a top judge. He completes his task and it doesn't take long before Pang is being chased by the police, with one of them being detective Wai who has more than a few problems of his own. Being on the run, alone and not speaking the language, Pang fights back with all means necessary, killing people in Wai's team one by one as they keep attacking him. Eventually he meets a young girl who is held prisoner by her father and manages to escape HK with his new-found friend. But Wai will stop at nothing to catch Pang who constantly has to watch his back.
I'm a huge fan of old HK action and Cat III flicks and while they sometimes claim to be gritty and brutal, they look more like "cute" films when compared to Dog Bite Dog. With DBD being extremely nihilistic and relentless, I fell in love with it 5 minutes into the film. For a short while thereafter I was afraid that it wasn't gonna last all the way through, but it kept on shocking, featuring utterly brutal violence that was just as hard as enjoyable to watch. While the story was nothing that made you really go wow, the film has tons of stuff in it that you normally wouldn't expect when watching a movie like this, and being as dark as it was, it gave it a certain very genuine feel, and in the end it proved to be one of the best films I've seen in 2006.
Right from the very start it grabbed me by throat and had me in that grip all the way through. The brutality in it is amazing, but is not just there for shock value, but actually does provide something that makes it all work so darn well. Predictable it was not and had stuff in it you couldn't see coming from miles away, and I must admit that I at times was truly shocked at what the film had to offer in certain scenes. You probably seen a few similar scenes a number of types in other action flicks and therefore it makes you think you know what was gonna happen, but the funny thing here was that those things never did happen and Dog Bite Dog, for most of the time, really surprised with where it went.
 
We get to follow Pang, a Cambodian assassin, who grew up in misery and saying to this guy that killing is wrong would be like claiming that the sky is always green - it just doesn't make sense. So this is the type of character we're dealing with, a relentless killer with no conscience and no feelings of remorse. He's brutal as hell and as you probably can figure out, it's fairly easy to compare him to an animal, still you gotta like the guy but I'm not sure why. The other character the film focus on is a detective named Wai who's suffering from his own mental problems and who will stop at nothing to catch Pang. Early on, Wai is of course the "good guy" and Pang being the bad, but as the film moves forward things change and the funny thing is that you end up kinda liking them both, but at the same time despising them for who (what) they really are. I don't wanna give away too much of the story, but let me just say that Dog Bite Dog is one helluva ride that you'll probably never forget.
The overall film looks pretty much amazing and has some visuals that truly are to die for, along with that it sets this type of mood right away that is impossible to escape from. It simply draws you in and never lets go until the very end which is just as brutal as it is shocking, but at the same time very rewarding as well. Where other films dare not to go, Dog Bite Dog goes another mile and for me personally, it made it deliver at all times. The acting is extremely good and Edison Chen truly stands out as Pang - a guy that shows no mercy and always fights like a trapped animal, but that you still can't help but to feel sympathy for. Easily the best Asian movie of 2006, no question about it.
Don't expect Dog Bite Dog to be yet another cat and mouse game where a cop is chasing a crazed killer, because while it has that ingredient in it, it's still very different and you'll be more than aware of that when you see it. It's gloomy, dark, violent, dirty, shocking and abusive, and at the same time it's truly wonderful, beautiful, thinkable - but most of all, it's a definite must see.
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With his sister suffering from a life-threatening disease, a dwarf scientist is struggling in his lab to find the missing link that could make his sister well again. He experiment on animals, but it does not seem to do the trick, eventually a man named Kato calls him up and offers him the body of a 21-year old female corpse. It's a strange offer, but the little scientist accepts in order to save his sister from her ill condition. It doesn't take long before his experiment fails again due to that the corpse was not fresh enough, and to save her he needs a much fresher one, preferably from someone that have just died..
I'm not gonna go as far as to say that I'm a fan of the Guinea Pig series, because that I'm really not. Although I've been somewhat eager to check out every film the series have had to offer, that is except for the sixth one that I've yet to see and hopefully it will be better than this, Android of Notre Dame. What it comes down to with all that is Guinea Pig, is that the series is very hyped, but that has little to really show for. I gotta admit that I really like Mermaid in the Manhole as a proper film, which was the fourth installment, and while the others are all right to watch, don't expect them to be the "worst" you've ever seen because they're really not. I guess that whole rumour with Charlie Sheen hyped the series up quite a bit, but even so, they're just not that extreme.
This is where things really start to go down-hill though for those that have followed the series. Devil's Experiment and Flower Of Flesh And Blood kinda lived up to the hype and are still extremely gory films, even though a lot of things in them just looks too fake. Then there was He Never Dies and after that Mermaid In A Manhole, both of which were quite different from the two previous films, but that provided something new and maybe even more "crazy" (not talking about actual gore, but rather weird stuff.) But this fifth installment sure is a failure as it is not whacky in a good way, nor will it satisfy the gorehounds. To tell you the truth, it's actually quite the snooze-fest and even though it only runs for 51 minutes, the film still feels way too long.
 
Problem with Android of Notre Dame (gotta love the title though) is that even though it tries to be bizarre, it just doesn't come off as being half as bizarre as its two precursors, nor is it as gory as the first two films. It of course has gory scenes to offer, but they're not too many and they do not make you cringe the way you want to, they're simply just there for show, a show you'd regret buying tickets to. It's not all bad and I would say that it has one or two scenes where the humour comes through and works somewhat all right. Problem though is that you have to sit through so much crap inbetween, so when the good stuff finally hits, you're already pretty much bored out of your mind, and so it just slips by somewhat unnoticed.
The production value is not very high and most things look pretty fake, not to mention quite shitty. If it would've had a strong story I'm sure the look of things wouldn't have bothered me much, but even if the story may have worked on paper, on film it was just badly executed. Another thing is that no one in this film is very likable, or even remotely likable for that matter. The scientist it deals with who wants to save his sick sister is just one mess of an actor and it's very hard to take him the least bit seriously. No, this is not working at all, stay away.
Android of Notre Dame may have a few things to offer, but those are so few that in the end of the day, it's not worth the time spent. The whole film felt a bit like an extremely bad parody of Re-Animator where the makers have totally misunderstood all the things they tried to copy.. not saying that they did copy it. Take my advise and run if someone wanna show you this film. If you're a die-hard fan of the series, I guess you wanna check it out and as long as you don't expect anything at all, I guess you'll be fine...once it's over that is.
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The Kang family buys a lodge in a remote hiking area where they start to run a business, problem though is that no one seems to wanna spend the night at their cozy lodge. Eventually a customer comes along, but is found dead in his room the next morning. To avoid bad publicity, the Kang's decide it's better to just bury the body out in the woods and never speak about it again. It all goes well until the next couple of guests also ends up dead, and when more and more bodies start piling up, the family has to come up with new ways to deal with the different situations.
Written and directed by Ji-woon Kim, the same guy who later delivered the brilliant horror A Tale Of Two Sisters and the excellent crime/revenge flick A Bittersweet Life; The Quiet Family might not be in the same class as the two previously mentioned films, but is still one helluva cool black comedy. In 2001, director Takashi Miike did a remake of the film which he named The Happiness of the Katakuris that still had the same very foundation as The Quiet Family had, but that instead became a musical of sorts. The humour in this film is sometimes extremely dark and bizarre, something that you don't see every day, so all the more reason why you'd wanna check this one out.
This was Ji-woon Kim's filmmaking debut and it deals with a slightly bizarre story about a dysfunctional family that are brought closer together due to the deaths that occur all around them. They share some horrible secrets and as the movie rolls along, things just keeps getting worse, more things become messed up and the problems keep piling up.. and so does the bodies. The story is about the Kang family, a family that has moved from Seoul to an isolated mountain lodge called Misty Lodge where they are trying to run a hotel-like kind of business. They're off to a slow start, actually an extremely slow start since there are only a few people passing by their lodge, but no one seems to wanna spend the night there. Eventually a guy comes along and asks for a room and the family couldn't be more happy, because now they're finally in business. Well, the happiness does not last for long when they the next morning discover that their precious guest have commited suicide. Since they're afraid that this unfortunate incident will damage their business if word comes out, they decide to bury the man in the woods instead of calling the police.
 
With the body out of the way, the family is back to their normal routine and at first it seems like they have nothing to worry about. A young couple shows up and wants a room for the night, but after a passionate night of lovemaking, the couple commit suicide as well. This is of course a pretty horrible situation for the Kang's, but since they buried the first victim, the might as well bury these two. Needless to say, things just keep getting worse and the Kang's are up to their neck in trouble in no-time.
In The Quiet Family, the topic of death is always present and even though things may seem a little dark at times, it's all done with some really good black humour. It's a very nice family that the film deals with and you kinda feel sorry for them even though they eventually take things way too far, and that's what's so great about this film, nothing is never ever really simple. Another thing that makes this movie stand out is the character development which is pretty much great, and as the film moves along, you get to know the character pretty darn well and can therefore have a genuine feel for them. The acting is very good and Kang-ho Song kinda reprised his role in The Host playing the dumb brother (and father) again. It may not be 'laugh-out-loud' funny, but The Quiet Family will most definitely put a smile on your face.
The Quiet Family is a clever comedy that has an intriguing story to tell about life, death, weird customers and an even weirder family. Recommended to those who wanna see something smart and different for a change.
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Winnie is a young woman who likes making puppets and to write in her diary, but she has recently lost her boyfriend Seth which she is hurting from. She can't seems to let go of the thought of Seth, but eventually her friend convinces her that it would be better for her to move on. Winnie follows her friend's advise and soon meets a new guy named Ray, who just happens to look exactly like Seth.
Lots of stunning visuals, a creepy atmosphere accompanied by a dark mood, terrific performance by the lead Charlene Choi and made by one of the Pang Bros. Doesn't sound to bad now does it? Well, it isn't either, but what starts off as good eventually leads to being a bit predictable and the feeling of being weird, just for the sake of actually being weird. Diary may not last all the way and lead to a satisfying end, and after a ride half-way through, the road may become a bit bumpy, but even though it might not do exactly what you want it to, it still has a lot to offer if you're willing to watch it with an open mind. Don't expect another Pang masterpiece because that it is really not, still though, that doesn't mean that it's a bad film.
It's pretty much impossible to talk about Diary without mentioning possible spoilers, but basically, what we get here is to follow Winnie who's a troubled young woman who seems to just recently have lost her dear boyfriend Seth. When out one day she sees him and calls for him, but when the guy turns around to answer her call, we find out that it's not Seth, just someone that looks exactly like him. They begin a new relationship, but Winnie can't seem to let the thought of Seth go and keeps mentioning him to Ray, which he obviously does not appreciate. Once in a while we get small hints that Seth might still be with her, and for a while it felt like the movie was gonna go supernatural on me, but it never really did.
 
Basically Winnie's a mess, suffering from some mental illness or whatever it might be and nothing in the movie is what it first appears to be. Now this was one of my main problems, the fact that the film was supposed to deliver all this mystery that eventually became just a bit too much, to later on towards the end try to clear everything up. It works all right for most of the film, but trying to summarize and explain everything at the end kinda made me lose interest. Not saying that the film's not interesting though, because that it really is, well, for most of the time.
It's quite hard to explain exactly what Diary is all about.. it's not really a horror film although it plays with that concept for a little while. It's more like a thriller, but I would prefer to label it a mystery drama, because that was what it truly felt like. The drama in the film is quite strong, but every now and then it tends to drag a little too much and the very running time of 85 minute could've probably been cut down to an hour, no problem. If you want eye-candy, Diary is one helluva good pick though and I'm not talking about either of the two girls in it, but instead about the very visuals the film has to offer as they're simply amazing. Unfortunately, visuals alone does not save the film.
You get a little tension, a lot of mystery and even more mood and atmosphere, but unfortunately, even if this is great stuff, it does not really deliver in the end. The performances, especially from Charlene Choi playing Winnie, are terrific and the creeps are definitely there two or three times, problem though is that it never goes anywhere with that, but instead turns into a somewhat messy thriller kind of film. Not saying that it isn't worth seeing, because I think it is, just don't expect much horror, a new The Eye or anything like that. Infact, don't expect too much and you'll probably be just fine.
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In debt to the Ogoshi mob, ex-celebrity and club owner Bandai robs the gansters' safe and plans to start a new life with his former wife. He succeeds with the help of a local thug, a gay hustler, a recently fired salaryman and an ex-cop-turned-bouncer, but the mob retaliates.
Do writer/director Takashi Ishii hate girls? While I don't really think he does, and while it might all be a big coincidence, the fact is that every girl that shows up in Gonin meets a gruesome fate. One is raped to death, someone else gets a baseball bat in the head, another one gets shot and even two little girls are murdered in the film, and so on and so forth. I'm sure there nothing to it, but it just felt strange that first off, there are not many females present in the film to begin with, and those unlucky enough to show up on screen gets whacked, one way or another. But a lot of men gets whacked too, and the film is just as violent as it is weird. And it's plenty weird all right, in fact, it's even a bit gay. If you wanna analyze things deeper, maybe that's why the females gets whacked "to make room" for the more gay-ish approach...well, beats me.
Anyway, we get to follow this ex-celebrity Bandai who's in debt to the local Yakuza. The guy runs a nightclub but needs money asap, so being as desperate as he is, he figures that he should rob the Yakuza he's in debt to. So the ex-celebrity starts recruiting people and it's not the most normal guys on the face of the planet that he "hires". One's an ex-cop name Hizu, one is a recently fired salaryman who is one strange/deranged fellow indeed, and except for those two, Bandai recruits a thug named Jimmy who seems to be a bit retarded, along with a gay hustler named Mitsuya. I know it might sound funny, but on film it is not, it's just wierd and utterly violent, pretty much at all times.
 
Well, the group of five may not make the most professional team ever, but at least they manage to get the job done and everything seems to be all right for a short while, then pretty much all hell breaks loose. The Yakuza wants their money back and starts tracking down the people responsible for the robbery, and after a while, they even hire two dangerous hitmen to do the job for them. One of the hitmen is Takeshi Kitano and this guy always makes killing someone look easy, but he's perfect for the part though and is probably the best thing Gonin has to offer. At first the very plot might seem a bit confusing, but once you get into it, it's easy to follow. While Gonin really may have nothing new to offer and plays out like your normal Yakuza/Gangsters type of film, the violence is sometimes pretty exciting and the rawishness of how it all plays out kinda makes it hard to look away, or be bored for that matter, but eventually the film just becomes a bit too dark. In the end, Gonin is not a great film but is decent enough and works all right for most the time, and while it might not leave a strong impression, it's still not totally unmemorable. But if that's a good thing, I'm not sure.
The characters in Gonin are of the strangest kind and it's hard to get to know them on a deeper level. The thing with basically all the people in it are that they're just too darn weird for one to be able to relate the least bit to any of them. They do things and act in a certain way that sometimes makes no sense at all, and while that may be both funny and different, it also makes it hard to really get into the film and feel strongly about what goes on. There are fights breaking out way too often for no aparent reasons whatsoever which sometimes makes it feel that Takashi Ishii just wants to show violence for the sake of just showing violence, like he gets off on it or something. Sure, it makes the film more lively and raw, but is it always necessary?.. I think not. The combination of violence and homosexuality that are the constant factors of the film sometimes just becomes too much, and since it never really goes anywhere, one wonders what Ishii really wanted to do with this movie. I'm not saying that the film is bad, but what it is, is extremely weird and in the end not that rewarding.
Gonin must be one of the weirdest Yakuza films I've seen to date and I guess that both makes it good and bad. It is entertaining and it's never really boring either, but the characters are too strange and extremely hard to relate to and it has too much unnecessary violence in it that doesn't make sense, and it's hard to think of a good reason to why it's there in the first place. In the end Gonin works, but could've been a lot better.. well, you be the judge.
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Kwaidan (Kaidan) tells four nightmarish tales that are: The Black Hair, The Woman of the Snow, Hoichi the Earless and In a Cup of Tea.
Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (Kaidan) is told to be one of the most meticulously crafted supernatural fantasy films and I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that it is. Japanese horror from 1964 may not be something that you tend to see every day and even though the four tales that Kwaidan tells may seem to be extremely predictable, they're still quite fantastic, not to mention hyper atmospheric and if you have a real interest in Japanese horror, the film is well worth a look. What is not to expect here are massive scares a la Ringu, Ju-on etc. Kwaidan is instead more focused on telling simple, yet quite haunting stories that can be seen more like old fairy-tales with a horror twist to them rather than scary films. If you're looking for hard hitting scares and wants fast-paced horror, look elsewhere because that is so not what this film is about.
First out is a piece called The Black Hair and even though that is something that is quite common in Asian horror cinema these days - hair - keep in mind that this film is old and I think it's safe to say that black hair was not as commonly used in films back then. It tells the story of a poor samurai who has a loving and very patient wife, but the samurai is sick and tired of living in poverty and so he divorces his wife and marries a rich man’s daughter. The years go by and the samurai discovers that wealth means nothing compared to true love and realizes that he should've never left his first wife. Eventually he divorces his rich wife to return to his old one and when he meets her, he sees that she hasn't changed a bit, and her black hair looks as beautiful as ever. I can't tell you what happens next, but this simple story might be the best one out of the four, as it is somewhat horrific. Well, maybe not these days, but I'm sure it was scary as hell back when it was made, and at the same time it still works ok even today. It may seem a little bit slow moving, something that all the stories have in common, but at least it delivers a very genuine feel that is hard to find in most movies these days.
 
The second story is called The Woman of the Snow and while it may be way too predictable, it's still excellent. It tells the story of a poor woodcutter who, together with a friend, happens to be lost in a snowstorm. They seek shelter in a shack where a ghost-like woman appears before the two. She blows her icy breath over the woodcutter's friend's body which kills him, but she spares the woodcutter's life and he has to promise her to never tell anyone what he has seen. Ten years go by and the woodcutter has found himself a wife that he has three kids with, strange thing though is that his wife does not appear to age at all. She also bears a slight resemblance to the ghostly woman and one evening the woodcutter decides to tell her about what happened to him in the snowstorm ten years ago. Predictable indeed but still well worth watching. The scenery is absolutely amazing and all the backgrounds are handpainted sets which gives the film a fantastic look. Not nearly as "horrific" as the first story, but still a great supernatural tale. (Both stills as seen above are from The Woman of the Snow.)
Moving on to the third story that is called Hoichi the Earless that begins with a very drawn out battle at sea. We get to hear from a narrator that since that battle took place, the beach has been haunted and is infested with all these crabs that has human faces. Pretty freaky eh? Well, it sure sounds much worse than it is. Soon we're introduced to Hiochi, a young blind musician who becomes famous for his singing style. One night he's left to guard the monastery when spirits appears before him and wants him to sing for them. He starts singing to them every night, but soon Hiochi becomes pale and sick and the monastery’s head monk warns him about singing to the spirits as eventually they'll rip him apart. To protect him, the monk paint Hiochi's entire body with prayer verses to ward off spirits.. but he forgets one thing and that is to paint Hiochi's ears! Don't expect gore, but this tale is much more gruesome than the previous two as well as the fourth one. It also has a historical touch to it which is quite interesting.
Last out is something called In a Cup of Tea where a warrior discovers the reflection of some strange man in his cup of tea. He spills the tea on the ground and pours himself a new cup, but the same thing happens. Eventually he ignores the reflection and just drinks the tea, but later that same night, he's visited by the man in the flesh. Even though the man asks, the warrior pretends that he hasn't seen him before and to get rid of him he stabs him with his sword. But instead of bleeding like a normal person, the man goes through a wall, proving to the warrior that he's some kind of phantom. Later on, three other spirits show up where the warrior lives and tells him that the man he hurt will come back to make him pay for what he did. This story was a little freaky and ends in a very cool way that I, for obvious reasons, can't reveal to you. It's not scary, but it sure has some haunting imagery that might stick in your head when turning the film off.
What you need to have to watch Kwaidan is an interest in Japanese (horror) tales, add to that some patience and a genuine interest in film because this is everything but commercial. The film moves kinda slow, runs for 183 minutes(!), but at the same time, you could watch one story at the time and call it a day whenever you like. Don't expect hardcore scares or even too much horror for that matter, but instead Kwaidan has a lot of beauty to offer and the film looks like nothing else.
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American lawyer Jack lives in Tokyo and since he saw his little brother drown when they were young, he has had a fear of water. One day a client of his calls him up and wants to have a business meeting on his yacht which Jack, after some serious consideration, agrees to. With them is the client's wife who Jack is currently having an affair with. Is it all just a coincidence or does Jack's client want something else besides having a business meeting?
Dream Cruise may seem like a standard Japanese ghost movie (with an American actor in the middle of it), but is a decent entry in the 2nd season of Masters of Horror; some of it due to the fact that a few of the scares actually worked quite well. It is Norio (Premonition, Ringu 0, Kakashi) Tsuruta who's helming the final episode of the new season and I believe that the way Dream Cruise plays out will appeal to both a Western as well as an Eastern audience. Needless to say, you don't have to be a fan of J-Horror to enjoy this episode, but if you are, you may be in for a treat.. or maybe you've already grown sick of seeing the same thing over and over again. While Dream Cruise was nothing spectacular and while we've seen better episodes in the series, it was still easy enough to sit through and while it was not very memorable, it sure had its moments.
With Dream Cruise, Tsuruta adapts another story by Kôji Suzuki who wrote Ringu, Ringu 2, Ringu 0, Rasen etc. and this time it's about love and dread on a boat. While I said earlier that this episode would work for both East and West, I think it's safe to say that those that have seen a lot of Japanese horror films have probably seen it all before, with the exception of the location of the boat of course, but where it takes place is actually not that interesting. It is kinda predictable and while it is rather interesting halfway through, the story falls overboard and pretty much drowns in the end.
 
Jack is an American lawyer in Tokyo who has one major fear and that is the sea. His little brother drowned in front of him when they were boys young boys and since then Jack has kept himself on land, and to this day, Jack still has nightmares about the tragic accident that he blames himself for. Then one of Jack's clients (Ryo Ishibashi - Suicide Club, Audition) wants to have a business meeting on his yacht and after some persuasion, Jack accepts the invitation. Apart from Jack, the client's wife also joins them at sea and this lady just so happens to be Jack's current lover. Is it all just a coincidence or does Jack's client want something else besides having a business meeting?
For most of the episode, it's quite obvious what will happen next, where the story will take us and such, but I still found it to be quite all right, that is at least until the last ten minutes or so. While a lot of J-Horror's have a tendency to be slow-paced, Dream Cruise was not and it actually delivered some totally ok scares. Although some scares were stupid and towards the end of the film, the horror seemed a bit too drawn out and pretty much showed some scenes that reminded you of a few other Asian horror films. The acting was actually not that great, but instead came off as a bit mediocre. I don't know if it was the mix between East and West that did not make it work or what it was, but the acting left something to wish for. In the end, Dream Cruise was decent and I really dug some of the scares, but at the same time, it really didn't deliver anything new.
For fans of J-Horror, Dream Cruise may seem a bit clichéd and really offers nothing you haven't seen before. Still, Tsuruta manages to deliver the creeps a few times and while that might not save the flick, it still gave you some value for the money.
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Newspaper correspondent Kyoko Togakure (Haruka Igawa) visits a nursing home in the outskirts of Tokyo. She finds the dead body of a resident. It was an apparent suicide. He's holding a piece of paper with the mystifying word "Death Water" written on it. Nearby are blood-stained scissors, and his eyes are squashed. She has no idea that this death is just the beginning of a horrendous nightmare.
No, not Dark Water, Death Water or Mizuchi in Japanese which is a film that has a slight Ringu-ish feel to it, but this time around we're not dealing with a cursed video tape, but instead cursed water. While it may sound like it, the film is not a rip-off or anything like it, and even though it may have similarities with other J-Horrors it's not a bad film, on the contrary, I actually found Death Water to be surprisingly good. Sure, it wouldn't have hurt if it would've been scarier than it was, but from a horror point of view, it had some of these horrific scenes that were pretty awesome. One of many other things that makes Death Water work in a good way is the very pacing of the film; it didn't take ages for it to begin delivering suspense and it had a cool story where little by little the mystery was uncovered, which made for something to happen for most of its running time.
In Death Water we get to follow Kyoko Togakure who's a very likable character. She's not some super detective, but on the other hand, she's not the least bit dumb either. The fact is that she's very easy to watch and to releate to, and she does a helluva lot for the film, delivering a very good performance and being the kind of person that is easy to root for. When she visits a nursing home in the outskirts of Tokyo, she finds a dead body along with a paper note that reads "Death Water". She of course wonders what it means and later asks a professor who tells her some myths about some fountain that's supposably connected to the netherworld. It doesn't take long before the professor commit suicide and Kyoko finds his notebook where he has written "Water for the dead, don't drink it", over and over throughout all the pages in the book. As other people become thirsty and suicidal, Kyoko tries to uncover the mystery with what she think is cursed water.
 
It was actually quite long ago since I saw a J-Horror film that really did deliver some decent horror, and I'm more than happy to say that Death Water sure did. Don't expect scares that'll send you to hell and back, but if you wanna see some cool horror, told from an all right story that has a great pace to it, you could definitely do worse than this. Most of the characters are pretty likable, with Kyoko being on the top of that list, but there are other interesting characters as well that adds to the whole feel of the film. It's also very hard watching Japanese horror these days without comparing new flicks to some older ones, and while Death Water may have things in common with other films, I would still say that it's well worth a look. If for nothing else, the actual horror scenes it delivers are very good.
Death Water was Kiyoshi Yamamoto's directional debut and with this being his first film and all, I must say that he does one helluva job and might be a name to look out for in the future. He co-wrote the script with Hirofumi Tanaka who's also a first-timer, but that only makes things more cool since they sure show that at least they know what they're doing and that's always appreciated. God knows we see way too many films where the filmmakers seem to have no idea of what they've gotten themselves into. In the end, Death Water may not be a great or for that matter a very original film, but at least it provides some pretty darn good horror entertainment so all of you J-Horror freaks out there, this is most likely something for you to check out.
Good acting, good story, great pacing, fine horror equals a good time. While Death Water may not be the scariest or most original Japanese horror film to date, it sure still has a lot to offer. Recommended.
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Poor Asuka, she been bullied by her classmates and they're cruel people, so of course she wants to see them hurt, well, actually she wants to see em´ dead. So when her classmates embark on a class field trip to Korea, Asuka plans revenge by sending a disturbing photo with the message: If you transmit this cursed photo to someone else, your life will be spared. Soon, chaos is at hand with everyone thinking only about themselves and their own survival, but luckily for all the paniced youngsters, there are those who wants to stop Asuka's reign of terror.
So this is the third and final movie in the popular One Missed Call franchise that director Miike started, and while his movie is still supreme compared to its two followers, this third one was definitely a step up when comparing it to the second mess of a movie. The film bears a slight resemblance to Battle Royale due to the fact that students have to fight for survival, but the weapons they use are not guns, fists or crossbows, instead they keep forwarding deadly cell phone messages to each other. So no old school stuff here, but rather more of the futuristic kind. It's kinda easy to see how a flick like this could be popular, only problem with it is that it drags every now and then, and let me tell ya, it drags A LOT. Still, it makes up for some of that delivering some really cool death scenes, and we all love really cool death scenes now don't we?
We get to follow a Japanese high school class on a trip to South Korea and while being in the country, deadly cell phone messages starts to rain upon all the kids. It starts with a message with a disturbing, or rather morbid photo, and the only salvation is to forward this message to someone else who will die instead of the one who first got it. Needless to say, they forward messages like hell in this flick.
 
The evil mind behind this crazy curse is a young girl named Asuka, and if it would never have been for her classmates bulling her like hell, things would've been fine, but obviously they're not. Do you remember the cartoon Inspector Gadget? I don't remember what that evil dude was called, but I'm talking about the guy with the iron hand who sits in front of a screen watching the s**t go down while stroking a fat cat. It's pretty much the same thing here, with Asuka being the evil genius that sits infront of a computer screen, picking out her next victim that'll receive the deadly message. She doesn't have a cat though but other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.
One Missed Call: Final is a pure popcorn type of horror that is neither too hard to understand or too heavy to watch. We're introduced to some cool kills early on, get a good background story to why all the evil stuff's happening and even though it doesn't build too much suspense during its course, it still manages to entertain. But then, booom!, things starts to drag and if it would've just happened for a while there things would've been fine but every time it starts rolling at a good pace again, it doesn't take long before more slowness kicks in. Eventually I got a bit sick of it and just wanted the film to end.
While it's not very gory at all, most of the deaths that occur has something to offer and that was what kept my spirit up while sitting through it all. Unfortunately, there are not enough cool kills or horrific moments to save the boredom that the film throws upon its viewer from time to time. Another thing is that it was way too long, lasting for 104 minutes when it could've easily lasted for 80-something minutes instead. It's a bit too long and some scenes in the film are just too slow and doesn't deliver anything of much importance. Still, it sure has its moments but when it comes to delivering ghostly scares, it pretty much falls flat.
One Missed Call: Final has some redeeming qualities but lack in pacing and effective scares. While the story is not bad, it's very predictable and don't expect to see nothing new here. Still, if you've seen the other two previous films you might wanna check it out just for the sake of it, and if you don't expect (too) much, I think you'll be fine.
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Two bizarre worlds collide as a man hits another dead on in his car not realising that he is a man known as a "Metals Fetishist" and in retaliation to his crime he slowly starts transforming into a metal being himself.
It took me a good half hour to write the story section of this review even after referencing the entire internet. Thing is with this movie it's kinda hard to understand and it's even harder to keep up with unless you go into it knowing exactly what's going on.
The movie starts out with this guy "Metals Fetishist" that cuts his leg open and inserts a long metal bolt inside the cut, a few minutes later he unwraps his wound to reveal it's covered in maggots. Scared and confused he runs frantically through the streets of Tokyo when all of a sudden he's hit by a car driven by a Man (Tomorowo Taguchi). In a panic the man tries to get rid of the body. The next morning as he's shaving he notices a small piece of metal protruding from his face. As he pulls on the piece of metal it burst open and bleeds all over the place. As time progresses he's finding that his entire body is slowly being consumed by metal. As the metal consumes his body he loses control of his mind, has terrible visions and is overcome with rage. What happens next is so surreal it bends all understanding of his life as he knows it.
 
I have to say Tetsuo: Iron Man is a truly incredible movie, although the visuals are very hard to see at times and it kicks in really quick and rapid. This movie could definately cause seizures with the fast paced flashing from scene to scene. Though it's hard to follow and extremely sick this movie is a definate cult classic.
If you dont mind that the movie is Black and White and barely over an hour long you'll love it; it's sick, twisted, perverted and balls to the wall intense. Also look for the sequel Tetsuo II : Body Hammer.
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A website called The White Room is cursing women to die after 15 days during which time they go through the same symptoms of a pregnancy, but instead of giving birth it takes their life. Soo-Jin is a reporter following along with a private investigator Choi Jun-suk to find a cure before Soo-Jin's 15 days are up.
In alot of ways this movie really does play out like the Ringu movies. In fact it's almost exactly like the Ringu movies but instead of a video tape killing it's watchers a week after watching it, the website kills it's victims 15 days afterwards, and the victims only being young attractive women. Anyways during the 15 day period before the victims die they show signs of pregnancy and right before they die their stomach's puff up like they are in full term pregnancy and then they die.
Man this movie is strange, and it wouldn't have been half bad if it was an origional story. I mean during the movie you can hint out the parts that are modeled after the Ringu movies, which I thought were pretty good, but I'm not a fan of ripping off other movies.
 
Anyways, the main character Soo-Jin checks out the website and next thing you know she has 15 days left to live, so what does she do? She moves into the apartment of one of the earlier victims. I mean what the hell? If I knew I was going to die of the same thing someone else did I surely wouldn't move into their place, that might be the reason they died in the first place!
For the most part I'd give this a pretty good rating, but as I stated earlier, I hate rip-offs.
If you're not a fan of the Ringu series you wont like this one either, but if you DO like the those movies you won't like this much either, the stories are just too similar.
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After waking up from a coma caused by a very bad carwreck Hiroshi Takagi struggles with his newly diagnosed amnesia. The only thing he remembers off hand is his medical books and that he was supposed to go to medical school so he decides to enroll. During a his first class disection he finds that his cadaver holds special memories of his life before the accident.
Vital starts out with a few strange visuals then a group of smoking chimneys which was kinda strange. Then awakens Hiroshi Takagi, our lead character, who's in a hospital room apparently recovering from a car wreck he was in. As he talks with his parents we find that he's got bad amnesia and doesn't even know who they are. They take him back home and he just sits around his room staring into space until he remembers something, he's got a box of medical books in his closet, so he takes them out and looks through them then tells his parents he remembers wanting to go to medical school and that he wants to enroll. Of course they are excited with any signs of him remembering anything so they support it whole heartedly.
So he joins a medical school where he becomes head of his class and gets excellent grades. On his first day of class where they are supposed to dissect a human body alot of memories rush back to him from before the accident, memories of his girlfriend Ryôko. That's when we come to find out that by the tattoo on her arm he realises that the corpse he's dissecting in class is actually Ryôko who had died in the same accident he had been in.
 
Not able to let her go Hiroshi devotes his entire free time to sketching and dissecting Ryôko's body, not letting anyone else touch her. He finds himself constantly having daydreams of his times with Ryôko, most of them times where they'd lay around and choke each other, leaving it open to see they were both pretty manic depressive and wanted to die but were too scared to do it themselves, well that and that they had asphixiation fetishes. Anyways for the rest of the movie he tries to remember more and more about Ryôko as his mind gets crazier and harder to cope with.
I have to say this movie is definately different than any other Shinya Tsukamoto who directed such awesome movies as Tetsuo: Iron Man, which he wrote, directed and co-starred in, Tetsuo: Body Hammer, Bullet Ballet, and Tokyo Fist, all of which were pretty strange. Regardless this movie had a great feeling to it, the story was completely solid and throughout the entire movie it's like you know how he's feeling in great detail through the dialog and acting. This movie is definately a cut above the rest of morbid love stories and for that I grew a great appreciation for the film. I definately suggest it to anyone, no matter what you like. The story is great, the acting is flawless and it's just an all around great morbid flick.
Vital was definately an enjoyable movie, even considering it's pretty slow through the whole movie. It's the type of movie that will keep your interest even after finding out the most important part of the plot. Definately Recommended.
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One day reporter Nami Tsuchiya finds a mysterious video tape on her desk and soon find out that it's a snuff film that some sicko sent her way. She's determined to find out more so she takes a TV crew with her to the location of where the movie was shot.
Mutilation, nudity, torture, maggots, gore, dismemberment, gross-as-hell.. did I manage to get your attention? Good. Evil Dead Trap is all that and more, and while that may sound awesome, the film also has a few bad sides to it borrowing heavily from Cronenberg and Fulci, not to mention borrowing Goblin-esque score from early Argento films which you are bound to recognize when you see it, and that's not only the score itself but the very look and feel of some action scenes. But hell who cares, Evil Dead Trap is enjoyable, primitive, stupid and raw, and you just gotta embrace it for what it is. Like everything else, the film has two sides and while one side is pretty much total crap, this was never meant as a really smart movie with an intriguing story and fine character development. In fact, Evil Dead Trap is like drinking a foul-tasting wine meaning that in the beginning it tastes like shite, but after a while you get more and more intoxicated and stop caring about petty things, detail and smoothness and instead starts to enjoy it for what it is.
Evil Dead Trap is not your normal J-Horror film but is a film inspired by Raimi, Argento, not to mention Cronenberg, but not in a bad way. You'll of course recognize these influences quite a lot during the course of the film, but in the end it's Toshiharu Ikeda own creation that was written by the brilliant Takashi Ishii. Some people will hate this film and others will worship it, and while I won't lay down and worship it at its feet, I'd have to say that it's quite a sweet film when in the mood for some gruesome stuff out of the ordinary. Needless to say, it's not a film to be viewed during a first date but rather with a few of your sicko friends accompanied with a few beers (or bad wine).
 
So is it really as horrifying as some people claim it to be? Well the answer to that is both yes and no, meaning that it will probably satisfy hardcore horror fans while at the same time it won't manage to gross em´ out, but when it comes to "ordinary" people who might enjoy a good horror/suspense film once in a while, Evil Dead Trap will probably be a bit too much to handle. The plot is somewhat taken straight outta videodrome where a TV crew is trying to locate the place to where a snuff film, that was sent their way, was shot. The snuff film however is good stuff and starts the movie of in a really brutal way, showing a chained up girl who gets cut and then gets her eye penetrated by a knife.. very graphic indeed. The crew then end up at a few different warehouses and realises that one of the places is where the film was shot and of course a lot happens while them being in there.
It's the gore and violence alone that saves this flick because the plot is not that great and like I said before, it borrows a lot from a few different flicks. The score adds so much feel to the film and if you've watched a few selected old Argento flicks you should know exactly what I'm talking about because this is just as close as it gets. Evil Dead Trap plays out like a typical slasher flick and stays like that for most of the movie, that's until the end when it goes all Cronenberg, but you'll have to watch it yourself to find out what that means. There are times in the movie when pretty much nothing happens but what it lacks in some departments it makes up for in others. Overall Evil Dead Trap is far from impressive but still deliver the goods.
A classic according to some and not that great at all according to others. Well, you be the judge. Personally I think it works pretty well and has this great 80's feel attached to it, and even though it won't blow minds it's still worth a watch, at least if your a fan of hardcore horror.
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After kidnapping a young girl for ransom, two money hungry teens take her to an abandoned school to hide out while waiting for the girls parents to fork up some dough, during which time they come to find that the girl has been dead for exactly one year to that date. If the girl is dead then who did they kidnap?
So we open the movie with two teens, Mitsuru and Maki, who have just kidnapped a little girl from a playground in hopes to earn a hefty ransom from her parents. When finding out who the girl is Maki call her parents to demand ransom money in return for their child. The parents inform her that their daughter had died exactly one year to the day of the kidnapping. Confused and creeped out Maki and Mitsuru come to find that the little girl has disappeared within the confines of the school, so they go out looking around for her.
The parents of the girl are confused and creeped out too seeing as they think that their daughter is dead but after one year getting the call they gain hope that she might actually be alive. So they go to a spiritualist for answers as to where she is but their fears are correct, the girl is still very much dead.
 
Back at the school a few of Mitsuru's friends come out to the school to try to scare him by making strange ghost noises over the intercom but they arrive to be greeted by a ghost of someone from their past. The ghost rips off the friends left hands and leaves them dead in their own puddle of blood, hand a foot from it's bloody stump, with no reason other than revenge. On the other hand the little girl pops up and disappears periodically through the movie then comes back at the end leaving so many questions for the viewer.
I feel that if the ending of this movie wasn't so hard to understand, if it had a little more content and explanation, that this movie would have been a pretty solid and great ghost story but it came up a little short. I did love the clicking ghost, kinda gives that Ju-On feeling, but to me the evil ghost should have had more on screen time, she kinda disappears near the end and we never find out what the hell she did after she got her revenge.
In all I'd say watch this movie for what it is, just dont expect to understand the ending or be happy about it. The story is pretty cool until that point, just needs a little something more...
If this movie would have been a little longer with a little more background story it would have been really cool but it lacks alot of content in the story. I still suggest it to viewers because it does have alot of twists and turns, almost too much for one movie.
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Dr. Yuji Kotorida is a well-respected plastic surgeon, but beneath the surface the good doctor's a serial killer with a taste for human flesh. He keeps a diary online in which he describes his experience with eating dead young women, but one day a detective discovers his secret. Will this be the end for our cannibal friend?
While pretty much all cannibal flicks are gruesome and raw, and makes one think of cannibalism as something vile and totally insane, The Last Supper is pretty much the complete opposite and never before has human meat looked so good! I'm repulsed kinda easily and I usually avoid eating while watching a gory flick, but this film actually got me hungry.. and curious. Ok, that sounded completely demented but if you watch it I'm sure you'll see what I mean as this film has a great feel to it and furthermore, as far as I can see it's pro cannibalism. Shot on video, the film may look a bit cheap but once I got into the story I forgot all about looks because it played out so well. Some of the gory scenes, head comes off, dead bodies piled up and such may look a bit too cheap at times and take some of the good feel away, but overall it's a little thing in comparison to what the film has to offer as a whole.
The Last Supper starts off with a bang; we're introduced to Dr. Yuji Kotorida who has a good-looking girl over at his place and everything plays out like a romantic date except for that Kotorida chops her head right off instead of calling it a night like a normal person would. Well I was hooked right then and there and it only got better. We soon learn that Yuji Kotorida is a well-repected plastic surgeon and has skills and a touch like no one else. This guy is actually so darn good that one of the nurses refers to him as a God. Later on a tv-team is visiting Kotorida to do a story on him where he cooks for the female reporter and she just loves it (not knowing what she's eating of course). Later on he takes her out to dinner and after that she's nowhere to be found, and the same happens with a bunch of other girls.
 
The doctor is making a big mistake though keeping a diary on the net where he describes how great it feels to eat human flesh. Eventually a nosy detective discovers the diary and starts coming down on Kotorida. What happens next is something really cool that I won't spoil for you here, all I can say is that despite its low production value, The Last Supper is worth watching. Acting-wise it's totally all right, considering that this is a movie made from a low budget, you of course do not get the most talented actors/actresses around but it is ok for what it is and is never bad or anything close to it. Being a Japanese film and all, it's not as slow as some of these J-Horrors tend to be, and even though I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's a fast-paced flick, at least it moves forward at all times without ever slowing down too much.
Best thing about this movie though is the way it portrays cannibalism and it does it in a way that is not scary or repulsive, but instead in a way that is very intriguing. Fun thing is that it brings those myths of eating human flesh to life where one who eats it also feels better as a person and looks better to the outside world. The doctor is a handsome man who once used to look not even half as good, and most of it due to that he got into flesh-eating. But the way things are portrayed, how cannibalism is portrayed is never over-the-top, but instead it makes it both look good and seems like an all right thing to practise.
I would like to recommend The Last Supper for its different take on portraying cannibalism and for that the story alone is simple, yet very intriguing. It may look a bit too cheap at times, but it's not the outside that really matters right.
Note: The Last Supper DVD comes with as version with English subtitles as well as a dubbed version for all you folks who are just too darn lazy to read.
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A two part movie, Shadow of the Wraith is about a girl who leaves her body to torment the lovers of a boy she fancies. The Hollow Stone is about a girl who's new apartment is haunted by the spirit of a little girl.
Shadow of the Wraith is the third movie in a series of four in The Kadokawa Horror Collection set. Strangely enough the movie is only named after one of the two stories envolved. A duo of creepy ghost stories that will raise the hair on the back of your neck.
Shadow of the Wraith is about a girl who is apparently dead, being that she leaves her body and is at more than two places at one time and evertime she walks you can hear water drops, which was kinda trippy. The girl's name is Asaji and she has a crush on the very popular Ryoji Yoshino, though Ryoji is dating the young Mariko Kuramoto. We find out at the beginning that Asaji is not human but for some reason we see her at school with other kids and do things normal kids do. Anyways her jealousy turns to murder when she scares Mariko into killing herself in a freak accident on her bike. Afterwards Ryoji is all shaken up and doesn't want to date anyone new but Asaji's persistance lives on. Another girl comes into Ryoji's life and Asaji just isn't having it. What follows is so strange it's hard to comprehend.
 
Next is The Hollow Stone, a story about a girl, Naoko, who's family moves into a new apartment just to find out that everyone living in the 4 stories below them are dying in mysterious ways. Naoko ultimately comes to conflict with the ghost of a little girl that lives in her closet and the only one that can help her is the brother of Ryoji from the first chapter. His name is Yoshino and he seems to know alot about fending from spirits. Anyways the ending of this chapter threw me in a circle, and left me gasping for breath.
This flick was good, and not like most other ghost stories, the fact that they associate both stories, though totally different, with the same person, who isn't exactly the main character of the movie, is pretty cool. Of course I'd hate to be him after watching this flick, all that trauma, that would suck.
The stories were great, very origional and had a unique flow, the FX were eerie and smoothe, the lighting was great, made it hard to tell day from night at times but otherwise excellent. All around this duo is definitely worth watching, and I'd definitely watch it again.
Very unique and creepy, if you're into good ghost stories give this movie a run, you won't be disappointed. I sure wasn't.
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Formaldehyde poured down the drain into the Han River turns a simple fishlike creature into a man hungry beast bent on feeding off anything it sees. One man and his family search for the monster in hopes to save his daughter who the beast ran away with but is still supposedly alive.
The movie starts in a medical examiner's room where a doctor docks his assistant on how dusty their facility is, saying that there's dirt everywhere and that before he cleans the room he should dump an assload of formaldehyde down the sink drain, claiming that the bottles are covered in dust, which in turn would run down to the Han River, a major sourse of water for the city. Anyways the doctor orders the assistant to pour it so he does, which in turn runs into the river and mutates the inhabitants of the Han River.
Next scene we're introduced to Mr Yoon, a man at the edge of his rope, or at least the edge of a bridge, ready to jump down into the river and end his life. As he's on the edge of the bridge and ready to jump he notices a dark mass in the water but he jumps anyways.
Que the credits and we see Gang-Du, a lazy freeloader with an obsession with this daughter, Hyun-Seo, so much that he stumbles over at the sight of her, you know the bumbling idiot type. He and Hyun-Seo jump in her grandfather's shop to watch her sister, Nam-Joo, shooting in an archery competition. Gang-Du gets in trouble for eating someone's squid leg and is told to bring free food to the customers that made a complaint on him. So he goes to bring the food and notices that everyone's staring at something hanging from the bottom of a bridge in the river. The creature drops from the bridge into the Han River, spectators standing on the edge staring in curiosity. So as they are staring off into the water the creature blindsides them, running along the shore knocking down anyone in it's way, and chasing everything it sees, eating people left and right. Back in Hyun-Seo's grandfather's store she and her grandfather are watching the continuation of Nam-Joo's match which she loses. Hyun-Seo is so sad she walks outside the store to see that everyone is running from something. Suddenly she's grabbed by Gang-Du and pulled into a run to get away from the creature. She trips and the creature runs up to her, grabs her with it's tail and jumps back into the Han River, pulling her behind it, Gang-Du running after them jumping in the water but it's too late and Hyun-Seo and the beast are gone.
 
The military show up that night and blockade the river from civilians and at the memorial of the victims Nam-Joo and uncle Nam-il come back to find that Hyun-Seo is dead. Gang-Du, Nam-Joo, Nam-il and grandfather all fall over and start to cry hysterically, the media snapping shots and filming their rants. Out of nowhere Hazmat comes in and starts spraying people down, taking Gang-Du off because he claims to have come in contact with the creature. Everyone's forced into a medical facility where they tell Gang-Du not to eat anything until they do tests on him the day after. Well being the idiot he is he breaks into a can of some kinda seafood that night when he's interrupted by a phone call on Hyun-Seo, who's alive and deep in the sewers.
The rest of the movie is the family trying to escape the medical facility and save Hyun-Seo. Will they save her or is she destined to be fish food for some big ugly monster fish with feet?
Personally this movie, to me, is funny as hell, although at times it's kinda depressing and slow. They say this movie is supposed to be the best Asian monster movie since Godzilla and although The Host is a great movie I don't think it adds up to Godzilla, those are two big shoes that this monster couldn't fill. It did however give a good laugh and a great ride of action, horror and originality. The creature itself was done really well, looked really lifelike even in the rain and for that matter the fact that it was raining the majority of the movie added to the eeriness of the flick throughout.
And you ask, would I recommend this movie? Hell yes, but not if you're expecting it to outshine Godzilla, that's asking too much. This movie however has a funny twist on the modern monster horror movies.
Though at times it drags out this movie is definitely worth seeing, at least once, if not more, now as an American I'd say I might need to watch it again to better understand some of the character's motives but I've found that's the case with most Asian cinema. This movie is recommended, no matter what other people will tell you. Be warned though, the ending... though it was a good ending it was still very strange.
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Alien beings attack and latch onto human prey to use as robots in their quest to destroy their own kind.
It all begins with a guy that's about to hang himself but is interrupted by some strange creature that kills him before he has a chance, blood spraying EVERYWHERE, tentacles flapping around, consuming the man’s body. Next thing you know we're in the middle of a battle between two creatures that look a lot like the guys from GWAR. Well one beast guy pulls a knife out of his hand and hacks the other beast guy's head open, claiming victory by eating his robot brains. Out of nowhere the winner is electrocuted and killed by some guy with a electro pulse rod and a welding helmet. The killer looks over at a girl named Michino, who has an eye patch and a bandage around her throat, where one side is pulsating. Que the movie title. Next we're at a factory where one of the workers, Yoji Muraishi, looks out into the river that runs along the factory property. Then back to work where he's working on his machine and listening to a conversation his coworkers are having about a girl Miki, who walked out on one of the guys during a date, I’m guessing.
The next morning something bloody craws out of the lake and attacks a young boy, covering him in tentacles. The boy, covered in the tentacles walks out into the road where he meets the reaper by the hands of a man behind the wheel of his jeep, who runs him over so hard it rips the boy's body from his feet and sprays his blood all over the front of the van. The driver gets out sees the vile remains of the boy and throws up, leaning on his van, where he too gets attacked by the tentacle creature. A little bit later after some sappy obsession shit there's another battle between two more man beasts where the welding helmet guy shows up, yet again, to kill the man beast. We then find that one of the man beasts is the guy from the van that was attacked by the tentacle monster. Anyways he gets away and goes off to die, when the tentacle creature gets tired of him, pulling itself off his body and moving on to his next victim.
 
The same night Yoji gets his ass kicked by a drag queen that he turns down and pushed into a pile of garbage bags where he's confronted by the tentacle monster himself, only this time the tentacle monster dies right in front of him. He takes the monster home to investigate it and decides he's going to keep it. The next day he brings the beast to work to try to cut it open with a drill to find that it has a protective shell that can't be penetrated. He decides to put it in his closet for safe keeping and goes out with his friend. He runs into his love interest, Sachiko Misawa, about to get raped by his work associate Tanaka. He jumps into save the day and gets his ass kicked. Tanaka walks off so Yoji takes Sachiko back to his place where we find that she has an obsession with him too. Out of left field Sachiko goes on a rant about how her father abused her and put these horrible scars on her. At the same time the tentacle beast wakes up and attacks Sachiko raping her and ultimately turning her into a wo-man beast, controlled by an alien within her. First she is forced, by the alien, to kill Yoji’s friend, then she attacks Yoji rendering him unconscious. Left with the dilemma of either saving or killing his new girlfriend Yoji is in for the ride of his life, especially after finding himself being infected and transformed himself and set to destroy her.
This movie plays out a lot like Tetsuo: Iron Man, but at the same time developing it's own personality and style, that and its in color which I'm definitely cool with. The gore, the costuming the story, all excellent. This movie is full of hard punches and lots of cybernetic chaos. When you find that this is a love story it really kinda throws you off but it's still compelling and definitely worth watching. Make no bones about it, this movie is confusing as hell, but it makes up for the strangeness with it's effectiveness and style, not to mention it's blood PACKED!
Meatball Machine is a definite must see, I found myself wanting to watch it again after I was finished. It doesn't leave too many things left to question but at the same time it opens your mind to the possibility of aliens consuming humans and turning them into fucked up robot warriors. This movie is definitely worth owning and if you do get a chance to get it check out the special features and watch the original short film that inspired the movie. Very highly recommended!
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CGI/SFX master Masahiro Okano presents this disturbing and graphically shocking horror anthology, whose nine creepy chronicles of bad karma and nightmare logic are bound to a string of PRAYER BEADS...one bead for each 30-minute nerve-jangling, skin-crawling tale of terror.
I have to say this Japanese anthology was a li'l odd but quite interesting. Nine 30-minute stories (aka beads) tie together at the end. Bead #1 is a tale of lies and deceit. Sleeping with her best friend’s husband, a woman becomes preggars and insists the offspring is her husband’s baby. It wouldn’t be a good horror twist if the friend didn’t severely chastise her unchaste compatriot and hubby! Bead #2 turned out to be very intriguing. A camping trip turns nightmare when a vending machine has a mind of it’s own and turns people into an addictive beverage (this sort of extrapolates the "you are what you eat" trend kindled by MATANGO).
The third and fourth beads honestly didn’t make much sense to me even after watching both of them twice! Great effects but WTF? It’s akin to reading an Arkansas road map and winding up in Chicago. Maybe I should have acclimated myself to the culture but the climactic experience was more surreal than scary.
Bead #5 clicked. A girl and two guys meet in a chat room and decide to go mushroom hunting. When they find the field of mushrooms, an old lady in a shack treats the trio to a snack. When one of the boys awaken, he finds his legs have been amputated. (Spoiler alert) The elderly crone turns out to be a witch who lures mortals to her turf and grows mushrooms from their severed body parts (sort of a human hydroponic system)! LOL! The fade-out reveals the girl is the old witch’s granddaughter, abetting the transformation of chat room geeks into living mulch. Ostensibly, it’s TROLL 2 on sake but the metaphor is loud and clear: techno addicts reluctantly regress to their provincial roots (this sort of apathy in the "electronic age" was explored in PULSE).
 
Now let’s move on to the sixth bead. In the beginning, people are going crazy over this seal named Eddie. One group wants him released in the wild and the other group wants him to stay. The funniest subtitle was a hysterical old man screaming, "They say he should be released while still healthy, but if he’s healthy why can’t he stay here?" Here’s the twist: the old man’s grandson has a special power and tells him he hates the seal ‘cause Eddie is bad. Next thing you know, Eddie multiplies and legion of seals emerge from the water and mutate into monsters that eat the patrons. Seriously! The li'l boy uses his "power" to make all the Eddies explode but, in the process, the juvenile dies. At the end, you see more "Eddie eggs" underwater about to hatch. Great graphics in this unlikely hybrid of David Lynch meets Ivan Tors.
The seventh bead is about a telepathic family. One of two female twins is murdered; come to find out, the so-called "boyfriend" sold her organs to a hospital. Grandma & grandpa track him down with the help of the other twin and telepathically conspire to make his entire body explode (think of a lost WALTONS episode directed by David Cronenberg). This bead was pretty short, sweet, and to the point unlike the third and fourth bead. I believe the eighth bead was my favorite. A geeky schoolboy, intimidated by a bully, retreats home to his computer and logs onto a japanimation cartoon called "Nyanta to the Rescue." The adorable cartoon cat dismembers the bully, within its animated environment, via a magical puzzle machine. The next day, the kid finds out that the bully’s real life counterpart was actually sliced/diced. Communicating with his computer, the kid professes a hatred for everyone including his own family. Nyanta obligingly transforms everyone he hates into something he loves, including delicious delicacies. Next day, everyone he "hated" has disappeared. That night, he ask Nyanta to bring them all back. Nyanta complies but the reunion is handicapped when the gang shows-up as the living dead. Oops. I was disappointed that you only hear the kid screaming; the monster that negotiates the comeback is audibly manifested but I felt a bit cheated by the forfeiture of a matching image.
Finally, the ninth bead--a wife stabs her abusive husband--evokes DEAD OF NIGHT. Players from the preceding stories converge in the climactic scenes, e.g. a newscaster from the "Eddie" bead, chronicling the murder, chews the fat with players linked to past episodes.
I give PRAYER BEADS a 7 out of 10, mostly for the special FX; lapses of logic or coherency prevail but this Japanese import is tonic for fans who are sick of sequels and remakes.
By Alexxus Young
A police investigation into the murder of high school student Tomie Kawakami uncovers a history of mysterious deaths of girls with the same name going back to the 1860s. Detective Harada tracks down a classmate of Tomie named Izumisawa Tsukiko, an art student who is being treated for amnesia. She has no memory of the 3 month period around Tomie’s death, and is starting to suspect the cause might be supernatural. Meanwhile, Tsukiko’s new neighbor, her former high school teacher, Yamamoto Tanabe is rearing a peculiar baby-like creature. Over the span of a few weeks it grows into a beautiful teenaged girl with orange eyes and responding to the name Tomie Kawakami. And Tomie will not die.
TOMIE is a film based on the super popular manga by the same name written by Junji Ito, and just from hearing what the awesome manga contain you'd think it would be one helluva film... well unfortunately, like so many times before, the movie does not even compare to the book. The flick came out in 1999, one year after the brilliant RINGU, and has spawned a number of sequels to date. All of you reading this and who are used to watching Asian horror knows that Asian films often have a tendency to "take their time" before delivering the goods. And that's of course fine just as long as we do get the goods at the end, and that's the major problem with TOMIE; we get nothing except for a very slow-moving film. It takes about one hour before anything remotely interesting happens, and when it finally does it leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth.
What's somewhat pissing this writer off here is that Ataru Oikawa had so much to work with borrowing a brilliant novel from Junji Ito and turning into a film... it's actually crazy just how much he missed out on. TOMIE could've been one scary mother, moving at a decent rate and making young adults piss their pants outta fright but instead, as it is now, it could be used instead of taking a sleeping pill since the film pretty much provides the same effect. Maybe I'm a bit too hard but it just angers me when you see potential in something and some random guy comes along and screw things up.
 
The story follows Izumisawa Tsukiko who suffers from amnesia that was brought on by a traumatic experience. She also suffers from insomnia and are having dreams about some headless girl called Tomie, and dreams of herself covered in blood as well. What she doesn't know is that her former high-school teacher Tanabe has moved in to the downstairs apartment just below hers and has a plastic bag with him with some kind of creature living in it. It doesn't take long before that creature has grown into the shape of an 18 year old (murderous) girl that is beautiful and goes by the name of Tomie.
As for the acting it is not really bad at all and the actors do well with what they have to work with, it's just that the film itself doesn't work. Another thing is that it looks really cheap and was obviously shot on a very low budget, which also is quite a shame. As for gore and scares TOMIE really doesn't have much to offer. There are a couple of scenes where a the body of a headless girl moves around and even though it looks quite cool it is just not freaky enough, and definitely not worth watching the whole film for for that matter.
To be completely honest, TOMIE is quite a drag to watch as it takes forever before anything happens and when stuff actually do happen it is just not good enough. If you want good Japanese horror, this should definitely not be your first hand pick.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1999
DIRECTOR: Ataru Oikawa
WRITING CREDITS: Ataru Oikawa, Junji Ito
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Miho Kanno, Mami Nakamura, Tomorowo Taguchi
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 95 min
RATING: 3/10
Tomie Website/IMDB Click here
Tomie Trailer Click here
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