Asian Movies I've Watched Part 8 (Jan - Aug 2014)

Sonoko is a relatively wealthy house-wife who has a crush on a female schoolmate named Mitsuko. The two begin an obsessive relationship that turns sour when Sonoko's husband finds out about the relationship, and Mitsuko reveals Sonoko is not her only lover. Things go from bad to worse as the deceptions and obsessions pile up, resulting in a train-wreck of a climax...

Directed and shot with some style, this is a rather lovely tragic drama involving a quartet of characters. The story is a bit far-fetched at times (the brother/sister blood-contract comes to mind) but overall it's a great movie full of interesting and unforeseen twists. Brilliant acting from the cast. A real treat for Japanese movie fans.

aka The Legacy of Dracula.

This was the first of Toho's vampire trilogy they made in the early 70's. It's moody and atmospheric similar in vein to Hammer's gothic movies. Unlike the next 2 entries in the trilogy, Dracula does not appear in this movie. The movie has a nice mix of suspense and scares. The special effects and music add to the movie's experience. For a vampire movie there's hardly any throat biting taking place. The vampire woman Yuko played by Yukiko Kobayashi is very beautiful. The only gory moment is near the climax when a throat is slashed by a knife and blood is sprayed everywhere. The plot falls apart in the final third but on the whole I enjoyed this tale.

Hitoshi Matsumoto (one half of the comedy duo Downtown) hits the jackpot with his latest movie. The plot involves an ordinary man with an ordinary life who joins a mysterious S&M club. The membership lasts for one year only and there is one rule: no cancellation under any circumstance. The man enters into a whole new exciting world he never before experienced where he is publicy humiliated and beaten up by various kinky mistresses. However, when one is killed by accident in his home, the club vows revenge.

Despite the dubious subject matter of this movie, this is a wild and imaginative dark comedy. This bizarre tale of a man exploring his sexual fantasies, while trying to maintain a socially acceptable lifestyle is one of the most hilarious, off-putting, ridiculous comedies I’ve ever seen. Whilst the plot may lack in depth, it does provide plenty of laughs and the story does go off at times in weird directions such as several quick scenes in which the production members of this movie are seen sitting down and discussing about plot holes in the movie. I found this movie to be very funny. It's not for everyone but if you enjoy creativity and humour then you're in for one hell of a ride. Highly recommended.

A gang consisting of seven beautiful women roam around the country stealing and reselling everything that makes money. When the gang leader Ena falls in love with a samurai and agrees to steal guns for him, he betrays her and soon the women are chased by many enemies.

Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, best known for Meiko Kaji's Scorpion and Stray Cat Rock movies, this is a fun movie to watch but it never hits the heights of those 2 series. The usual mayhem of blood spraying, sex and nudity take place. The women are easy on the eye especially Mari Tanaka who plays the leader Ena. It's an interesting movie if you're in the mood for some exploitation.

A fearless Chinese swordfighter recruits 4 local men who are highly skilled with a weapon to help him against an invading army of Japanese soldiers who want to pillage a fishing village.

This is a very well made swordplay adventure (almost like a HK version of the Seven Samurai). After a brief set up, the movie becomes a series of battles as the Japanese make repeated attempts to attack the fishing village. It culminates in a long 35 min battle between the Chinese and the Japanese on a beach at night. Made by Golden Harvest, it has high production values with the sets,costumes and props. The directing by Wang Yu (who also stars in the movie) is superb, his visual style of camera angles and the use of slow-motion is just like the movies are made today. The fight choreography is sharp and visually stunning. This is a great entry in Hong Kong's kung fu genre and is well worth checking out.

Benevolent aliens from the planet Emerald send superhero Starman to protect Earth from invasion by an evil alien race called the Spherions. When Starman arrives on Earth, he discovers a conspiracy involving Earth's top scientists, and he must root out the traitors and also stop the impending alien invasion.

A quite dreadful Japanese sci-fi movie. I think this features one of the first Japanese superheroes. It features the tights wearing Starman who must stop an army of Nazi-like aliens The Spherions from conquering the Earth. When he's not posing and showing off his muscles to those he fights, he helps a trio of Earth people who have been captured. Just about everything is pathetic in this movie apart from the lovely Utako Mitsuya, a gorgeous 30 year old woman who plays a 15 year old teenage girl. This movie is cheesy as hell and the climax which sees Starman taking on the entire Spherion army on their space station is terrible. I would put it up there are one of the worst sci-fi movies I've ever seen. Avoid like the plague.

In this, the 5th Girl Boss movie, bad girl Rurika played by Miki Sugimoto leads a small band of 4 teenage girls in escaping from their reform school where they go on the run from the authorities. They team up with a male criminal and head to a hut near the ocean to recuperate. But the authorities are hot on their tail and discover their hideout. Will the girls manage to escape once more?

This is a spirited movie and follows the tried and tested formula of sex, nudity and violence for this genre. Miki Sugimoto shines as the leading bad girl who dreams of hijacking a ship so she can have a new life outside of Japan. It's probably one of her strongest roles in a pinky violence movie. The plot works well as a rebellion movie with Rurika repeatedly saying that no reform school or prison will ever hold her. An entertaining movie.

A disturbing Cat III drama revolving around a gang of HK teenagers who eventually murder one of their own kind after he betrays them. His punishment was to be beaten to death and his body burnt to a crisp. However, none of the gang escape justice. After another victim of the gang phones the cops they are all captured and several including the vicious gang leader Emperor is sentenced to life imprisonment. The morale of the story is basically a warning to any teenager that no matter how young you are, you will still be punished by the law if you do something serious. This movie isn't in the same league as the Young & Dangerous and in fact a poster of the first Y&D movie is displayed in a shop window right at the beginning of this movie. I'm not sure if this movie is based on a true story? It was a good movie.

When a male student Kirishima unexpectedly quits as a member of the school's volleyball team and disappears mysteriously, his sudden absence affects his classmates.

This is a great character study of various pupils at a high school somewhere in Japan. Kirishima is supposed to be the popular student but never present in the movie physically speaking. His unintentional absence instead is to provide a pivot and eventually prove to the audience that one's absence could trigger unwanted effects on the togetherness/friendship/reliance on another individual and the effects can be compounded. The movie repeatedly plays the same scenes several times, but at different camera angles and different 'main characters' to illustrate the aforementioned views. Great acting from the young cast in particular Ai Hashimoto who is one of my favourite young actresses from Japan. After the confusing ending, I did think if the movie tried to convey a message to the audience, if so it mus have gone over my head. Even though the movie is fine, I find it hard to believe this won the Best Picture at the Japanese equivalent of the Oscars. It's good but it's far from being outstanding.

A ship owned by the Yatsushiro group hits an iceberg and sinks. Fifteen years later the Yatsushiro group invite Detective Muri and his friends on a cruise where a murder subsequently takes place. Now Conan and the police attempt to identify the murderer.

The 9th Detective Conan has an interesting plot and contains a twist (as usual) near the end where secrets of the past are revealed. Even after all seems nicely wrapped up, killer captured and everything, a new villain emerges and we get some great action as several bombs go off on the ship which begins to sink with Ran trapped in a small room. A good mix of traditional and CG animation. All in all, another great Conan movie.

Gu-chang is a poverty stricken college student struggling to establish a career. One day he finds a lost wallet and "borrows" some money from it to buy a meal. That leads to a friendship with the owner of the wallet, Ani. Ani is sweet with a childlike innocence and the two hit it off immediately. Everything's perfect, right? Well, not quite. As luck would have it, Ani suffers from multiple personality disorder and her alter-ego, Hani, is a vicious street fighter who mercilessly beats up Gu-chang whenever her personality is in control. Her multiple personality disorder stems from a traumatic incident which resulted in the death of her boyfriend whilst on an expedition in the Antarctic.

Many have stated that this movie has a similar plot to My Sassy Girl and whilst that may be the case it is still a wonderful romantic comedy with plenty of laughs. Bong Tae-Gyu is once again playing a loser down on his luck student character and he is good with these types of roles. And by the end of the movie he develops into a likable character. But the main show stealer is Jung Ryeo-Won who nails the delicate and naive girl and the wild and brash one. The plot of the movie might not be original but it is so well done that I didn't care. Great acting from both leads. Very surprised it didn't do so well at the Korean box-office. A very enjoyable movie that deserves a look.

This is a romance story with a difference about a young man who has suffered a brain injury when he was young (he fell down a manhole) and a lonely woman who has a habit of doing some petty thieving after she was dumped by her boyfriend. They meet at a coin laundry that the young man works at (he's in charge of looking out for perverts that steal underwear).

It's a simple tale of 2 people looking for happiness which they find in each other. Teru, the young man, shows this with his pure innocence, his ignorance maybe of what life is about. His thoughts and actions makes us see we do not need a lot to be happy. Mizue, the woman, on the other hand offers us another perspective; she is aware of being a reject and tries to fit in, without success. Both are like jigsaw pieces which fit nicely when together. It's a fantastic slowly paced but heartwarming love story even when things turn sour during the final third of the movie. The acting by the two leads (Kubozuka Yousuke and Koyuki) is exceptional. The greatness of this movie can't be described by words, you must see it for yourself.

Yamamoto Kansuke played by the legendary Toshiro Mifune is a ronin, who through chance of fate finds himself protecting Lord Takeda's vassal from another ronin (in a very bloody exchange). Kansuke then moves to the province of Kai, where Lord Takeda awards him a troop of 100 soldiers. Once established Kansuke moves his way up to be Lord Takeda's top military adviser. With Kansuke's help the province of Kai stretches it's grasp to the other provinces through a series of, "complex conspiracies, secret dealings, and assassinations."

This is an intricately researched samurai epic. The outfits are incredible, especially Mifune's fearsome black samurai armor which boasts the most incredible helmet I've ever seen. The outfits of the Red Guard are also very impressive and help add to the allure of the movie. The set's also match the intensity of the outfits and this movie highly succeeds in painting an accurate picture of 16th century Japan. Mifune is as brilliant as ever in his role where he displays a huge scar above his eye and walks with a limp. The movie itself stays true to the tradition of 60's chambara; a mix of action, romance, war tactics, and character development, which together, helps round out another solid entry for both Mifune and Director Inagaki Hiroshi. A solid historical war epic.

This is a story about a widow who is looking for the truth about her soldier husband's execution near the end of the war. She goes to see several survivors from her husband's unit but each one has conflicting stories about how he died. Will she find out the truth?

This great movie by Kinji Fukusaku is a bit like Rashomon. The movie mixes the present-day (1970s) settings and quest of Sakie Togashi with various flashbacks involving her husband and the company members on New Guinea. This is interspersed with old war footage and photographs from the Pacific Theater. The more chaotic or violent scenes are often filmed in the manner of many action movies from the early 1970s, with chopped, slow-motion effects and caustic drawn-out sounds. The story is well acted and directed with a savage determination to depict the insanity of war in its rawest state. It's a nice change of genre for director Fukasaku who is more famous for his yakuza movies. Well worth taking a look.

The 4th SEOD movie finds Christians in Japan being persecuted and crucified by the thousands. The hero Nemuri refuses to help a Christian who appeals to him. At the same time, a disfigured princess who is an opium addicted sadist takes delight in killing people particularly her pretty ladies in waiting. Kiyoshi is asked to protect Virgin Shima, the leader of the Christians.

This is a brilliant movie in which the viewer starts to learn more about Nemuri. His character seems to have changed from the first 3 movies. He is no longer a straightforward champion of justice (he's now kind one minute and callous the next) and he uses sex as a weapon as well. Details about his mother and father are revealed at the climax and they have something to do with a devil worshipping cult. Still, he does have sense to kill all the bad guys so Nemuri isn't all that bad! The movie was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

A detective is assigned to find a missing man by a beautiful female who is a wife of the lost person. The more the detective attempts to unravel the mystery, the deeper he is dragged into the world of delinquency and pornography where he begins to question his own identity. This movie starring Shintaro Katsu started out well and had a fairly interesting storyline but as the movie wore on the more I become disinterested in it all. I did like Katsu's acting as the detective (one of the highlights of the movie) but I felt the story went nowhere in the end. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara has made far better movies than this one. I'm sure this movie has its fans but it didn't do anything for me.

A decent Cat III horror from Hong Kong. It concerns a group of men who go on holiday to Thailand. When a local girl falls for one of them and asks her brother (a wizard) to perform a love hex on the man, it goes horribly wrong and she is killed accidentally by the man's friends. Her brother follow the men back to HK looking for revenge by using black magic. The movie is wholly off kilter and crazy from the get go, starting with noodle demanding ghosts and continuing with numerous hexes, a wizardry duel, sex and a splash of gore. There are some very funny moments, chiefly the wizards response to an insult from one of the main characters, but the subtitles provide amusement throughout as well. There is some amount of sleaze and nudity to the proceedings as well. It's not the best Cat III horror you'll ever see but it's different with an unusual ending. Worth seeking out.

In the 4th Zatoichi movie, the blind masseur gets himself involved yet again in a power struggle between two yakuza clans in a small village. Also the love of his life from the first movie returns. This entry is somewhat slower-paced and less action-packed. There is only one major swordfight, near the very end, but at least it's a spectacular one, with Zatoichi slashing opponents left, right and centre. This movie may be slow going for most action and swordplay buffs but I enjoyed it.

The 2nd Sister Street Fighter movie is an ultra gory martial arts action movie starring Sue Shiomi. The plot is about a disappearance of a wealthy man's daughter and Sue's character finds a gang is smuggling diamonds into Japan by surgically implanting them in the women's ass cheeks! The action is bloody with a couple of stabbings to the eyes, an arm decapitation amongst other things. It is impossible to get bored with this movie as it is full of wall to wall fights with Sue Shiomi and her male companion taking on a variety of bad guys. Far fetched a couple of fights may be but it sure is entertaining. I really liked this old-school martial arts movie a lot.

3 rookies are sent to the Techno Police in Centinel City. There, they are ordered to try and destroy an unstoppable military tank that is blowing up banks around the city.

This is a rare anime from 1982. Although it looks dated, it's got tons of great action to keep everybody entertained. Techno Police was supposed to have been a series but it was scrapped. The animation that had already been created was made into this 80 min movie. It has been unavailable on any format since the late 90's. The characters are likeable apart from the lead one Ken who is slightly annoying. Joe Hisaishi provides the cool soundtrack. Fans of classic anime should enjoy this movie as it provides enough thrills and spills to satisfy them.

The first of 2 movies that closes the SPEC storyline. It revolves around the revelation of Fatima's 3rd prophecy. The battle lines have been drawn between the SPEC holders and a secret group of people that want to wipe them out by infecting them with a virus called The Special Plan. Sebumi and Toma must battle a Chinese SPEC female by the name of Professor J who has killed their superior Chief Nonomura. In the wings lies 2 mysterious people - Sekai and Jun who have their own plans for the world.

The brilliant SPEC storyline which started out in the last movie Heaven continues in this one. Although it does get a bit too complex for it's own good at times, this is a very enjoyable movie. The comedy aspect which made the series so much fun isn't here in this movie, it's mostly dark and serious (there's a few occasional hints of humour but not a lot). I was shocked at what happens to their boss Nonomura. I liked the 2 new villains in white (one played by ex-AKB48 member Yuko Oshima). You just know that the storyline is building to an explosive climax in the next and final movie which seems to be showing that the world is going to be destroyed in a war involving SPEC holders. Erika Toda and Ryo Kase are excellent as the leads. I can't wait to see the conclusion. Recommended.

The 3rd Zatoichi movie finds the blind masseur unhappy at the killings he's had to made in the past. He is full of regrets and remorse so decides to return to the village where he was born, so he can see his grandmother and any of his old friends. After a duel with the brother of the person he killed during the last movie, he meets up with his old teacher and decides to stay with him for a little while. When the teacher's little sister falls for Zatoichi, the teacher tells the masseur what he really thinks of him and it doesn't make for pleasant listening! Will Zatoichi make amends with his teacher and will he manage to stop the vengeful brother desperate to take his head?

This is the first Zatoichi movie to be in full colour. It has another outstanding performance from Shintaro Katsu who has grown into the role of Zatoichi since the first movie. It seems that Zatoichi will never be able to lead a peaceful life. Whenever he goes, trouble will soon follow and even people who you'd think such as his former teacher would help him is unfortunately out to get him. The storyline is intriguing. The drama builds and builds which leads to a great climatic scene involving Zatoichi and his sensei. The series keeps getting better with each movie. Now onto no.4......

Three robbers escape with loot from a heist, but during the escape, two of them are killed by the other one. Their dead bodies wash up on the shore after a maritime disaster, but a policeman, Yumisaka, becomes suspicious because they are not listed as passengers. The surviving robber Inukai is sheltered by a prostitute, Yae. In return, the robber gives her a large sum of money, and she is able to start a new life. The policeman follows Yae to Tokyo on the trail of the robber, but she refuses to cooperate with him. Many years later, Yae sees the man who had given her the money in a newspaper article. She tries to thank him, but because he has now become a respectable citizen, living under the name Tarumi, he kills her so that his secret is not known. Yumisaka, who was forced to resign from the police force because of his obsession with this case, and a young detective pursue the clue they need to bring him to justice.

This is an incredible crime drama which runs for nearly 3 hours long but because the storyline is so compelling the time will fly by whilst you're watching it. It has all the ingredients of a great movie. A story based on characters. Characters we care about what happened to them. A development both in characters and story and a social commentary on Japan after The Second World War. The black and white cinematography is astoundingly fabulous, especially the billowy ocean under a hurricane. Brilliant acting from a young Ken Takakura and Rentaro Mikuni. This is a movie that should not be missed. Highly recommended.

This is a very disturbing story about a young girl called Midori who ends up in a circus, practically as a slave. At first, with no protection, she is doing all the hard work for everyone else, and gets raped and molested by freaks. After a while, a magician Masanitsu joins the circus and makes it profitable again which gains him influence. He takes Midori under his care and treats her nice, but that arises jealousy among other members so Midori's troubles are far from over.

An interesting and twisted Japanese anime movie. It's got everything that a lover of "subversive" movies could want - gore, perversion, bizarre sex, and a weird storyline all rolled into one. To be honest, somewhere around 30 minutes into the movie I started having trouble following the plot, maybe it loses something in the cultural translation or perhaps it was just me losing interest in the movie. It's a strange movie that will be liked by fans of adult-themed manga, anime, and exploit movie lovers alike.

Police detective Don Lee relies very much on his 'stool pigeons' to provide information for his drugs and criminal cases. However, an act of betrayal involving his last informant leaves him wrecked with guilt. Don resolves to be more careful with his next 'stoolie', an ex-convict nicknamed Ghost, whom Don plans to plant as getaway driver for a gold heist gang led by Barbarian. Ghost, a street-racer who is determined to save his sister from loan sharks, looks like the man for the job. Problem is can they trust each other enough to see the job through?

Hong Kong's crime thrillers are renowned for their portrayal of policemen undercover. This movie takes some pain in portraying the tragic lives of an informant through story lines which are familiar to followers of Hong Kong crime movies. Some may fault it for having too many characters and stories but director Dante Lam's skillful and effective delivery of the stories renders the movie easy to follow. The action sequences will satisfy the most demanding action (and violence) junkies. There is little humour in this generally gloomy affair. Great acting from Nicholas Tse as Ghost and Nick Cheung who plays Don Lee. I enjoyed this gritty Hong Kong cop thriller set entirely in the iconic streets of Kowloon.

A ronin named Shiro is invited to join the Forgotten Eight, a clan of cold-hearted outcasts who have sworn off shame and society's unwritten "rules" of conduct. The clan is ruled by a smart old nutbag who convinces Shino to help him rid Yoshiwara (the Red Light district) of illegal prostitution. Once Shiro has done his job in the bloodiest fashion imaginable, a plot is hatched that will lead to his destruction.

A cool Japanese exploitation movie by director Teruo Ishii. There's plenty of violence, tons of nudity featuring the female naked body, stylish gore sequences and a brilliant leading actor in Tetsuro Tamba as the bad ass Shiro. The words brutal and sleazy come to mind when watching this movie. Director Ishii was one of the most visually artistic of the Toei directors during the 70s and his movies, whilst controversial were always feasts for the eyes. This one is no exception. Fans of exploitation cinema will enjoy this movie.

A Japanese sex comedy movie. An office worker has the dream life. He meets two beautiful ladies at a party, both of whom seem interested in him. He ends up leaving with Sakura. One wild night of passion followed by six months and they find themselves married and living with Takashi's family (father, grandfather, sister) in the same apartment. The ideal situation soon takes a turn for the worse as Sakura's nymphomaniac sex drive drives the man away from her so she starts having sex with the rest of the family!!

This is a parody of a sex movie as it has completely OTT sex scenes with some characters talking directly to the camera. It's all done for fun and nothing else. Don't mistake this movie for pornography as it isn't one at all. The main actress in this movie is buxom Reiko Yamaguchi who plays Sakura. For such a short movie (60 mins), they pack in a lot of sexual situations with some laughs. If you're not offended by this type of movie, you'll find it to be a lighthearted sexy romp. I can't say it was good but you might think differently.

The swordsman Ichibei is assigned by the Shogun Tokugawa to prevent the sale of rifles by the visiting Dutch to the hostile Satsuma clan. On his mission he meets a cowardly ronin who becomes his assistant, as well as a female spy and a female warrior.

The great Tomisaburo Wakayama who is more famous for the Lone Wolf and Cub series takes on the leading role in this movie. Although there is a great deal of action and some gore, this never quite hits the heights of Wakayama's best work. The movie is slightly tongue in cheek with obvious nods to the spy thriller due to the gadgets that Ichibei carries with him. See if you can spot the funny nod to Wakayama's brother who played the blind masseur Zatoichi in this movie. It chugs along at a nice snappy pace, never once becoming boring. There's always an action scene taking place if the storyline starts to lag a little. The movie is stylishly shot in beautiful landscapes around Kagoshima (in southern Japan), with some nice shots of the Sakurajima volcano. The choreography and swordplay are very nicely done, with several sequences of stylish, blood-soaked carnage. Overall it's a lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously.

Ami and Hiroshi are brother and sister by marriage and not by blood relation. With their parents away often on business, they start to develop feelings for each other and one day that passion comes to the surface. However, the pair are caught having sex when their parents come home unexpectedly. They go on the run to contemplate their actions.

This is a short 75 min movie based on the famous 80's hentai manga. There’s nothing pornographic about the movie (some very very mild nudity) but Ami and Hiroshi do have a lot of sex! Nothing is really resolved in this movie - the pair never discuss the consequences of what they've done and how (if ever) they can repair the damage that's been done regarding their parents. It ends on a strange note with Hiroshi thinking that Ami has run away from him (though that it isn't the case). Good acting by the leading pair. Overall it's a decent live-action adaptation.

A Japanese cyberpunk movie that doesn't make any damn sense whatsoever. It's about three mercenaries/soldiers who go to some mysterious storehouse in which an even more mysterious figure is lying on a bed without any mattress. Suddenly, the figure blows some dust/powder on one of the soldiers and then the nightmare begins. Visually it looks good and there are some startling images on show. It's shot in black and white and it does have an industrial feeling to it. Unfortunately though as you don't have a clue what's really going on you will begin to lose interest (I did anyway!). It's fine if you like watching something different from the norm. I just hope you'll understand what the hell it's all about!! Good luck to you.

A seismologist predicts that Tokyo will be destroyed by an earthquake in the next 30 days and everybody dismisses his claim until the inevitable happens. This is a movie of 2 halves: the first is more of a soap opera and centres around the love triangle between the seismologist, his mistress and the newspaper reporter that is in love with her. It's fairly dull stuff to be honest. The second half is far better as the earthquake hits. Impressive miniature work shows Tokyo being razed to the ground as the story now turns into more of a survival drama showing a group of people trapped inside a train carriage with rising water and 2 people trying to escape a half destroyed high rise building. The movie does go on for far too long that it should have as you have to wait 60 mins until anything interesting happens. Despite the lackluster first half, it's a pretty good Japanese disaster movie.

This movie is about a beautiful woman who has the power to defeat demons inside of her but chooses not to use it. Instead she plies her trade as a Feng Shui consultant. When a Sea Demon starts killing people on a small island, she feels compelled to head out to the island and fight the demon but will she use the power she has to defeat it?

This isn't too bad of an adult monster movie. At 75 mins long, it doesn't outstay it's welcome and the plot zips along nicely. It was nice to see traditional special effects used rather than CGI (never a big fan of it to be honest). The story builds up to a satisfying conclusion but also teases that the monster is still alive at the end. The monster is your typical Japanese man in a suit. Hiroko Tanaka is great as the lead character helped by pro-wrestler Keiji Muto as her sidekick. Whilst you won't find anything new here, it's a good movie to watch if you've got nothing better to do.

Tange Tenzen and Nakayama Yasubei are honorable samurai living in an era of corrupt officials and treacherous clans. But after finding themselves in opposing clans and ensnared in a love triangle, only bloodshed can ensue!

This is a just an average samurai movie in my eyes though there's not a lot of swordfighting taking place and it does drag at times and if I'm being honest it can get rather boring. That's the main problem with this movie - it's just too talky. The swordfights on display (what little there is) is rather good culminating in an exciting finale. The acting by the cast is decent enough. This could have been a much better movie had there been less talk and more action.

This is a short 75 min swords and sorcery tale concerning a man named Amon who is looking for evil sorceror Lord Valhiss. Valhiss killed his mother when he was a child so he is looking for revenge. He also has to rescue beautiful Princess Lichia who Valhiss has kidnapped in order to get a map to the Valley Of The Gold. The storyline isn't terribly compelling but there's enough action and gore to keep the viewer interested. The animation by Yoshitaka Amano is pretty good. The movie looks dated compared to other anime movies from the 80's. It's not too bad a movie and it's worth taking a looking once but I imagine you'll be left wanting at the end.

Two boys, whose parents ply their trade by the mouth of a muddy river in Osaka, become close friends. The two families' business are in fact dining and prostitution. When both boys lose their pocket money during the Tenjin Festival, Kiichi the prostitute's boy, invites him home, and Nobuo learns the awful truth about what his friend's mother does for a living.

This is a brilliant movie about friendship and losing one's innocence seen from the eyes of a naive 9 years old boy. It is shot in black and white probably to link with the story which is set 10 years after WWII. The two boys' friendship makes for great viewing and for some I'm sure will bring back memories of their own childhood. I liked how Nobuo's parents never make any judgements about Kiichi and his sister even though they know full well what his mother is doing during the evening. There's also a commentary about how hard life was for some people after the war in Japan and that Kiichi's mother had no other solution to put money on the table to feed her children than to sell her body as her husband died in the war. A classic Japanese movie which needs to be watched more by Asian cinema fans.

An excellent sequel to the first movie which covers the last 4 episodes of the anime series. Madoka is still struggling as to whether to become a magical girl or not thanks to the manipulative actions of Kyubey. Homura (who has a cold personality and has repeatedly warned Madoka not to enter into a contract) becomes the centre of attention in this movie as we discover that as she has the power to go back in time she has failed to stop a powerful witch Walpurgisnacht from destroying Tokyo and only 2 magical girls can destroy it. The plot really becomes interesting in this movie as Homura will stop at nothing to ensure that Madoka never becomes a magical girl but this has its consequences. This anime movie is dark, heavy and emotional. The animation itself is crisp and superb. Can't wait to see the final movie in the trilogy.

An excellent Korean movie. Shot in radiant black-and-white, this movie tells the story of a young woman Soo-jung, "courted" by one acquaintance (and also pursued by her boss) in two equal parts - first from the perspective (mostly) of the young woman's would-be lover, and then again from the start from the woman's point of view. Sometimes the matching scenes are almost identical, other times they are radically different. Both perspectives build up to Soo-jung getting deflowered near the end. It's hard to say which POV is true and what's imagined. It's sad to know that actress Lee Eun-ju who plays Soo-jung committed suicide just 5 years after completing this movie. She was only 24 years old. She gives a brilliant performance in this movie. A great movie about relationships that's worth checking out.

The movie revolves around the exploits of well to do Japanese teenagers in post WWII Japan. The story mostly follow around two brothers, Natsuhisa and Haruji. They go off to the coast where they hang out with friends, water ski, swim, sail, drink, smoke, go clubbing, get into fights and play a game where they try to pick up as many women as possible. They don't have any responsibility and mostly just lie around, complaining about how there's nothing interesting to do. The conflict in the movie arises from Haruji (the younger brother). Out of the group, Haruji is the youngest and most naive. He meets a beautiful girl, Eri and brings her to one of their parties. She catches the eye of Haruji's older and more "experienced" brother, Natsuhisa. Thus the triangular conflict is set and ready to go.

Although this may seem a bit tame now, it was a scandalous movie in 1956. It ushered in a Japanese new wave, or it at least suggested one was imminent. The movie becomes better with time, as you focus on the love triangle. The actors and Mie Kitahara, who plays Eri, are all convincing. It was an influential movie that broke, not only with Japanese cinema traditions but touched on many controversial areas, hitherto not depicted in that country. Difficult to do the movie justice without including spoilers but be assured this is well worth seeing and if not as startling a movie now as it must have seemed it does have the most amazing and startling ending. Recommended.

High school student Kyosuke Shikijo is the most talented member of the school's martial arts of the fist club. His late father was detective and Kyosuke share his father's strong sense of justice. Kyosuke also has a secret. Kyosuke likes to wear female underwear and transforms himself into the alter ego "Masked Pervert," wearing female underwear and gaining superhuman powers. This unusual interest also comes from his parents, with his father a masochist and his mother a sadist. By chance, Kyosuke gets the underwear of female high school student Aiko Himeno. With her underwear, he gains various pervert techniques and attempts to protect Aiko from a dirty and heinous teacher.

Based on a manga, this is a very funny parody of the superhero movie. Only this time though the hero is a pervert!! I laughed all the way throughout and the superhero's trademark moves using the power of his dick and 'golden balls' is hilarious. Going up against the superhero is a variety of OTT characters such as Gay Mask, Slim Guy Mask, Cool Guy Mask and Very Serious Mask but all of them is nothing compared to his true nemesis Fake Masked Pervert who steals his beloved girl Aiko away from him. Suzuki Ryohei is brilliant as the meek school guy who transforms into the hero when he wears a pair of used panties on his face. Fumika Shimizu is so cute as Aiko. I loved this Japanese comedy and it's warped take on the superhero genre. It's obvious to say that not everybody will find this funny especially those that are offended rather easily.

The 2nd Zatoichi movie is definitely a marked improvement from the first movie with a much more interesting plot. This movie finds Zatoichi pining for a long lost love and having an ultimate showdown with his main rival. Along the way, he falls foul of a clan who is trying to kill him to keep their secret (their leader "has issues"). And, as usual, the movie is filled with amazing sword fights as well as tender moments. The story flows better with more sword fights and there's never a dull moment in the zippy 72 min running time. I hope that the rest of the Zatoichi movies are this good.

This is the story of Takeshi Nanjo, the young boss of Nanjyo family in the Meiji-era of Japan. At the time Japan was celebrating victory of Japan-Russia war, the boss of Nanjo family Tatsugoro was killed by a member of Takizawa family. When Tatsugoro's son Takeshi learns about his father's death, he quit naval officer position and headed to home to succeeds father's position and taking a revenge. After Takeshi succeeded father's revenge, he finds out the true enemy is a malicious yakuza boss of Izo family.

While this yakuza movie is quite different and less violent than other typical Yakuza movies, Raizo Ichikawa's excellent portrayal draws audience into the story and holds up tension until the movie's final scene. This is the first installment of eight Waka Oyabun series. Well worth taking a look.

Quite a perverse movie by director Kon Ichikawa about an elderly Japanese man who is sexually obsessed. He is getting shots from his doctor so that he can continue to have an active sex life with his beautiful wife. He wants to feel young and sexually excited. He has discovered that jealousy is one way to obtain this feeling so he tries to get the young doctor interested in his wife by doing such things as getting them drunk together and having the doctor develop naked pictures of her. The doctor is already involved with the family's daughter, but she is not nearly as physically attractive as the mother.

This is a great movie about manipulation and double crosses where each of the main characters has an ulterior motive behind their behaviour. You never know what to expect from any of them. The plot has many twists and turns and by the end you'll be surprised as to the person that eventually manages to kill everybody. Great acting by all of the cast. This is a forgotten gem from Ichikawa that deserves to be seen more by Asian cinema fans.

Based on the popular Go Nagai manga and anime, this live-action movie doesn't transfer well to the big screen at all. I've never read or seen either the manga or anime but I at least expected to be entertained by watching this movie. Sadly it didn't do that. The plot which promised so much at the beginning peters out to be dull, plodding and predicatable. There's too much emphasis on the crappy CGI special effects and the acting isn't much cop either. The filmmakers drag the story to nearly close to 2 hours when a good 30 mins could have been cut. I was really disappointed with this movie and I cannot recommend it.

This movie is considered to be one of the top 3 in Korean cinematic history. It concerns a piano teacher who takes on a young and pretty housemaid for his wife and 2 kids but the maid decides she wants the man for herself and sets out seducing him. She becomes pregnant and then the whole household falls apart as the sexy housemaid plots against everybody after being persuaded by the teacher's wife to have an abortion. There are many twists and turns in this psychological drama and it's such a joy to watch. The story itself, instead of sticking to the formula of its genre, has written a convoluted story of human morality, obsessive love, betrayal in such a way that you really can't predict what will happen; and made it so thrilling that you find yourself on the edge of your seat, waiting for the scene to unfold. What also made this movie more interesting is that the villain is a female sexual predator with a seemingly unstable personality - which defies how Korean women at that time should act in society. The acting from the whole cast is superb but it's the actress that plays the devoius hand maid that stands out more than anybody else. All in all, a brilliant, timeless masterpiece that must have been controversial during its time, and is still relevant in this modern age. Recommended.

The first in the series of over 20 movies which features Ichi, a blind masseur turned swordsman who only fights when he has to. In this first episode, Ichi is hired by a gang leader to defeat a consumptive samurai who's been imported by a rival gang. The two swordsmen meet while fishing and become friends, but destiny has decreed they must fight each other, and only one will survive. Hearing a lot about how good this movie I have to admit being disappointed. Firstly the first hour concentrates on character development and there's hardly any violence but thankfully the final 30 mins more than makes up for that. Shintaro Katsu portrays the complex character of Zatoichi very well. Those that are after a lot of visceral action will not find it here, that takes place more in the later entries in the franchise. It was a decent movie overall. I just didn't find it exciting or violent enough for my taste.

A 2-part horror story. The first concentrates on a teenage boy who is stalked by a creepy looking girl Asaji who becomes jealous that he's more interested in other girls and uses her supernatural powers (having a doppelganger) to kill her competition for the boy's affection. I quite enjoyed this story and the deaths although unoriginal were gory. The second story even though it was OK didn't hold my interest like the first. This one is about a schoolgirl and her family who move into an apartment which has a few secrets. The story didn't make a lot of sense and ended rather poorly. It's a shame the director didn't know how to end both stories satisfactorily because you're left dangling as to what the hell is going on. Even with it's faults I still enjoyed this movie.

An anthology movie by Teruo Ishii which focuses on crimes committed by evil women, one of which is the famous Abe Sada case. If you're familiar with the movie 'In The Realm Of The Senses' you'll know that Sada was the woman who cut off her husband's penis after choking him to death! That is just one of the 5 stories that are presented in this movie. Apart from the Sada segment, I'm not too sure if the other stories are based on real life cases. There is plenty of sex and violent gore scenes on display. Well worth watching if you're a fan of Ishii's other explotation movies.

This is a live-action version adapted from a 60's manga. It plays out like a Japanese version of Robocop as a policeman is gunned down and turned into a cyborg called 8 Man. The story revolves around triangle between 8 Man, Dr. Tani (who created him), and Dr. Tani's cyborg son Ken, the relation between Azuma and Sachiko who is not aware that Azuma is actually 8 Man and also her ex fiancée. Ken is not happy about his father resurrecting him from the dead as a cyborg, and wants to destroy 8 Man as a display of his unhappiness to his father. I wouldn't say that this movie is that good, maybe that's the fault of the awful English dub version I saw. The character of 8 Man is cool looking and the plot had some great ideas but it wasn't executed properly. The special effects is decent enough for the early 90's. I'm sure this movie could have been a lot better than it was but on what I saw it's just average. Perhaps it'll interest tokusatsu fans but as for casual Japanese movie fans I wouldn't bother.

An interesting though rather odd Korean horror movie. A woman is murdered and comes back to wreak vengeance as a cat. Though the visuals look great and the atmosphere is excellent, the acting is rather weak and OTT. I can't say I've heard of director Lee Yong-min but this is one of his earliest horror works. This movie is supposed to be one of the best from Korean cinema's golden era. It's a good movie but at times I just found it a bit too strange for my liking.

This movie by director Kim Ki-Duk deals with juvenile prostitution and its consequences. How would you react if you found out that your 15 year old daughter prostitutes herself after school? This powerful movie has excellent acting and some great silent scenes, such as eating sushi at the grave and the driving lesson. The ending is of great beauty. The movie is basically broken into two parts. Part one is about Jae-Young, an amateur prostitute and her best friend Yeo-Jin, her manager. The second part is about Yeo-Jin and her father. Each part has its tense moments, and the director pretty much does a good job of telling the story. Yet another brilliant movie by Kim Ki-Duk. Recommended.