What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[saltysam]

Lone Wolf & Cub:Baby Cart At The River Styx 4/5

Ogami and Daigoro continue their amble through Japan,nonchantly killing various bandits and would be assassins on the way.much more action than the first one,and possibly the best of the series.The Gods Of Death were awesome characters.

[HungFist]

New Battles without Honor and Humanity (Japan, 1974) – 3/5
Fukasaku’s yakuza epic takes a restart; new story, old cast, same theme. Bunta Sugawara plays a yakuza henchman who makes a hit and spends 8 years behind the bars. When he’s released, his old boss (Nobuo Kaneko) has seemingly lost his touch, and sworn brother Tomisaburo Wakayama plans to take over and turn against his own family. Fukasaku deals with the interesting loyalty dilemma, but mixes in a bit too much humor (Kaneko overacts on the border of comic relief, despite his character being vital for the storyline). The camerawork is handheld documentary style as should in the films of the genre, but perhaps a touch less hectic than in some other Fukasaku movies. Supporting cast includes Toei regulars from Reiko Ike to Tsunehiko Watase and Hiroki Matsukata.

New True Story of a Woman Condemned to Hell (Japan, 1976) – 1/5
Koyo Ohara’s final film in the True Story trilogy isn’t quite the worst wip garbage Nikkatsu has to offer, but lacks real merits nevertheless. A handful successful elements can be pointed out – a couple of beautiful tattoos, and an instantly recognizable Downtown Boogie Woogie Band score – but they do little to electrify the otherwise impassionate movie.

[HungFist]

School Day of the Dead (Japan, 2000) – 2/5
First of all, it must be said School Day of the Dead is a really dumb film. The silly screenplay comes close to turning some scenes into unintentional comedy. However, it should also be noted that Kyoko Fukada is at her most charming in this film. It’s entirely thanks to her that the film holds up till the end, more or less. For lovers / haters of Japanese ghost horror it might be good to tell in advance that School Day of the Dead does not feature any supernatural elements.

Patriotism (Japan, 1966) – 2/5
Yukio Mishima’s black & white and silent short film is a piece of interesting history, but not much else. It does get quite graphic in the harakiri scene, considering the production year. Mishima ended his own life in similar fashion four years later.

[grim_tales]

A Bittersweet Life: 4.5/5

Very good film, very violent. The hotel worker/enforcer's boss's girlfriend is sweet The music in the film is excellent.

[grim_tales]

The music in the fim is excellent.

[saltysam]

The music in the fim is excellent.

You'd be far better editing your original post and adding to it with new thoughts Grim,this way it looks like you are talking to yourself

[Yi-Long]

It;s been a while since I seen A Bittersweet Life. I really liked it, though didn't rate it as highly as Grim. $,5 seems a bit steep.

The scene with the punks on the highway is fantastic though Brilliant scene.

[saltysam]

Lone Wolf & Cub Baby Cart To Hades 3.5/5

The series continues with this effort which doesn't reach the giddy heights of River Styx but is a fine film nonetheless.A Bit slow at first but builds to a great climactic battle with Ogami taking on guns,swords and anything that gets in his way.

[thelostdragon]

Agree with Grim on "A Bittersweet Life". Gave it a 4.5/5 as well. I love it when simple stories are told so well.

[grim_tales]

I'd never seen it before but it was very good

[saltysam]

Lone Wolf & Cub Baby Cart In Peril 3.5/5

Fourth in the series has Ogami hired to kill a beautiful female killer.Not the best in the series but any movie whose opening sequence features a topless female killer despatching enemies right left and centre has to be good The Lone Wolf suffers more punishment here than previous entries in the series and ends withhim barely surviving an ambush at the hands of the yagyu. 2 to go,looking forward to them.

[Yi-Long]

Just watched A Dirty Carnival. I score it a 4/5.

Slowburning crime-drama about a young guy making his way upwards as a gangster, and the balance between being a 'normal' person, and a criminal.

It's a bit long, and a little bit predictable, but still pretty damn good. Especially the acting by many involved was very good. The lead is convincing, but personally I was most impressed by Jin Goo, who has a small role as the lead's partner in crime within the group. He reminded me alot about a favourite HK ctor of mine: Patrick Tam Yiu-Man.

Also, the actor who plays the movie director (who looks a bit like Stephen Chow btw, both in appearance and facial expressions) does a great job, as well as the dude who plays the big boss.

Soundtrack is OK, but nothing immediately memorable. Cinematography is pretty basic and a bit bland TBH. And although the movie is pretty long, there are some characters in the movie who you would have liked to have seen get some more screentime, if only to learn more about their personalities and their relationship with the lead.

Also, I'm a little bit disappointed that the movie doesn't really have the footage from the amazing teaser in it. It does have the song, which is very fitting, but it only comes at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcNOQsTI7vw

Definately worth a watch, but at the same time it really lacks any stand-out scenes that will stick with you. It's the overall experience that will either impress you, or bore you to death.

[thelostdragon]

Just watched A Dirty Carnival. I score it a 4/5.
Definately worth a watch, but at the same time it really lacks any stand-out scenes that will stick with you. It's the overall experience that will either impress you, or bore you to death.

That was exactly my rating when I watched it like 3 years ago. I only watched it once so I disagree with your comment about the film not having any memorable scenes. I clearly remember the scene where the girl's ex-boy friend follows her and the lead actor/gangster and he pisses them off until he beats the shit out of him after giving him many chances to just go away.
That was a great and well-acted scene in my opinion.

[Yi-Long]

Just watched A Dirty Carnival. I score it a 4/5.
Definately worth a watch, but at the same time it really lacks any stand-out scenes that will stick with you. It's the overall experience that will either impress you, or bore you to death.

That was exactly my rating when I watched it like 3 years ago. I only watched it once so I disagree with your comment about the film not having any memorable scenes. I clearly remember the scene where the girl's ex-boy friend follows her and the lead actor/gangster and he pisses them off until he beats the shit out of him after giving him many chances to just go away.
That was a great and well-acted scene in my opinion.

Yeah, that is a good scene, but IMHO nota great scene, like for example the highway scene in A Bittersweet Life, or the diner-scene in Arahan. I think both of those have a lot more 'impact'.

I do think they could have given this scene MORE impact, by putting a bit more focus on how the girl suddenly sees what the lead actor is capable of. We see her tell him in the next scene that he scares her, but I think it would have worked better if they had zoomed in on that a bit more, in the scene before that. They really should have used that scene better to show that 'transformation' between 'normal' guy to suddenly getting so extremely violent (the beating was deserved, though), which is pretty much what the movie itself is trying to say.

They showed it a little bit. Like I said, it's a good scene, but compared to some other movies, including the ones I mentioned, it's not GREAT. Again, in my opinion

[saltysam]

Lone Wolf & Cub Baby Cart In The Land Of Demons 3.5/5

Even bleaker than usual 5th entry in the series is extremely violent and quite nasty.Ogami takes on mission to kill a feudal lord,his wife and and (fake) child.

Lone Wolf & Cub White Heaven & Hell 4/5

The baby cart series hurtles to it's conclusion and probably tries to cram too much into it's 84 minute running time. disappointingly nothing is resolved,the fims ends with Itto surviving an attempt to kill him by Retsudo,who escapes into the distance. No doubt another entry was planned.

[grim_tales]

Blood Brothers (1973): 4/5

Maybe a bit long but very good, with some bloody fights. Ti Lung gives an excellent performance as a man who becomes too powerful and steals his brother's wife.
At about 1hr 20m in I noticed the sound became echoey in one scene when 2 guys were talking, even on the Mandarin track.
The subtitles are a decent size but I still missed them occasionally for some reason.

[Markgway]

The IVL DVD is remixed (I take it that's the one you have).

[grim_tales]

I have the Austrian/German MIB DVD (unrated). Is that based on the IVL?

[Markgway]

I have the Austrian/German MIB DVD (unrated). Is that based on the IVL?

That should be mono then.

I don't have it myself.

[grim_tales]

Maybe it was my ears

[HungFist]

LoveDeath (Japan, 2006) – 1,5/5
Ryuhei Kitamura’s so called return to roots is True Romance set in Japan. Suffering from nerve wrecking supporting characters and lacking in that style that brought the director to fame, it’s no surprise this mess of a film was ignored by most international distributors. Numerous cameos, ranging from Riki Takeuchi to Yinling the Erotic Terrorist aka Yinling of Joytoy attempt to spice it up with mixed results. Lead couple Shinji Takeda and singer NorA – two lovers on the run from yakuza and corrupt cops - are as convincing as NorA artist name. The film was shot with modest budget – hence the advertising tagline of Kitamura returning to his origins – but with unaffected film stock ; the epic runs massive 159 minutes. Partly due to the circus display sort of nature of the film, it does manage hold up till the end – in theory at least. There’s occasional success with humor and atmospheric shots of lovers cruising through the mad world in red Corvette, but the American… sorry, Japanese dream, is brought to a quick end by the noisy cast and embarrassing dialogue.

RoboGeisha (Japan, 2009) – 2/5
Noboru Iguchi knows how to create hype. The Machine Girl was a cult classic before anyone had seen it, and RoboGeisha received 700 000 trailer views in youtube. What went beyond most international cult film fans, is that RoboGeisha is not a splatter epic but a PG-12 movie. Iguchi and special effects designer Yoshihiro Nishimura have replaced gore with noisy and childish humor and massive CGI effects, only leaving in a handful of computer generated blood spurts (which did earn the film a ridiculously high 18 rating in the UK). The film’s stylistic shortcomings are compensated to some effect with desirable insane imagination. Most of the cast fails to make an impression, including evil Tengu girls Asami and Cay Izumi, although Naoto Takenaka and Demo Tanaka give enjoyable supporting performances. Nevertheless, Iguchi’s robotic geisha wars is an undeniable disappointment.

[HungFist]

Female Ninja Magic: 100 Trampled Flowers (Japan, 1974) – 1/5
Here Chusei Sone, a talented Nikkatsu director responsible some terrific movies such as Red Classroom, demonstrates how not to make a female ninja movie. It has the right ingredients – Iga vs. Koga, ninja vs. one legged samurai, ninja with clothes vs. ninja without clothes (ok, actually neither had clothes) – but the outcome is underwhelming. There isn’t much action outside bed, and what little there is never manages to excite. Some scenes make the viewers scratch his head, but these moments are too few and far between. Junko Miyashi is the film’s strongest asset; she looks exceptionally beautiful here. It’s mostly because of her hair.

High Kick Girl (Japan, 2009) – 2.5/5
"She is more than just a cute high school girl. She is a master of Karate!" High Kick Girl delivers what it promises. Idols on wires are out, High Kick Girl is a vehicle for its 17 year old lead, Rina Takeda, who, like most of the film’s cast, is a real life karate practitioner. Director Fuyuhiko Nishi attempts to deliver a relatively authentic karate-movie with no wires, special effects, or other gimmicks, such as proper storyline. The intention is good – with teen girl karate being first rate entertainment by theory alone – but the execution falls a bit short. Having already captured bucket loads of excellent action, the director has lessened the film’s punch in post production with an overuse of slow motion and replays – essentially every highlight is seen twice. Nevertheless, despite its constant cinematic clumsiness it must be admitted the film is, in many places, a lot of fun. Its merits are not based on cinematic achievements but rather on displaying realistic karate. And to some extent, school uniform. Everyone can make their own conclusion based that that.
- full review here

[HungFist]

Evil Dead Trap (Japan, 1988) – 3.5/5
A small legend of Japanese horror cinema, Evil Dead Trap remains Toshiharu Ikeda most famous film. Ikeda started his career in the pink genre. Many of his Nikkatsu features were compromises, but clearly displayed the director’s technical skill. Evil Dead Trap is Ikeda without pink restraints; a highly energetic genre film based on one of Takashi Ishii’s less sophisticated screenplays. The English title makes a reference to The Evil Dead, but Ikeda’s films is more than that; the camerawork is obvious Raimi, the gore bows to Fulci, and the electrifying soundtrack could easily be a Goblin score from a Argento film. A plastic copy Evil Dead Trap isn’t; the director clearly understands his idols and continues their spirit – although admittedly without too much own vision.

[luckystars]

Days of Being Wild (Tartan WKW Boxset)

Beautiful film with beautiful performances. 4.5/5

[Yi-Long]

Days of Being Wild (Tartan WKW Boxset)

Beautiful film with beautiful performances. 4.5/5

Pretty much my absolute favourite film of all-time. Stunning performance by Leslie Cheung.

If anyone ever decides to cut that movie up to give us a 'new version', I will dedicate my life to hunt that person down and gut him like a fish!