Bullets 'n' Babes

The Mission: 3/5

The Himalayan 1.5/5

A Cast of genre stalwarts (Chen Sing,Angela Mao,Han Ying Chieh,Tan Tao Liang,Sammo) struggle to enliven this rather weak Golden Harvest martial arts actioner.Only really comes to life at it's climax,unfortunately it doesn't save what's gone before.

The Twelve Gold Medallions (Hong Kong, 1970) – 2/5
Solid but somewhat unexciting swordplay film.

Shaolin Handlock (Hong Kong, 1978) – 3/5
Very dumb but entertaining martial arts revenge film. David Chiang goes to Thailand to find his father’s killer (Lo Lieh).

Human Lanterns (Hong Kong, 1982) – 2,5/5
Lo Lieh is hunting for beautiful girls to make human skin lanterns. Surprisingly martial arts oriented for its reputation as notorious horror, Human Lanterns does have its moments in both genres and remains entertaining most of the time. However, Lo Lieh’s madman act gets pretentious at times, and the film is a bit short on gore.

HungFist wrote:Human Lanterns (Hong Kong, 1982) – 2,5/5
and the film is a bit short on gore.

Which version did you watch? There are two available and neither is uncut.

I watched the longer version (Finnish dvd, which is the same cut as the UK dvd.)

What cut is the HK DVD?

hey,

http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittb ... hp?ID=2230

Yubisaki kara sekai wo (Japan, 2006) – 4/5
- https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... 324#131324

No One's Ark (Japan, 2003) - 4,5/5
- Yamashita thread soon

Realism no yado (Japan, 2003) - 4,5/5
- Yamashita thread soon

Sono otoko, kyobo ni tsuki (Japan, 2003) - 3/5
- Yamashita thread soon

Chugakusei Nikki (Japan, 2006) - 2,5/5
- Yamashita thread soon

Rebellion League of Girls in Sailor Uniform (Japan, 1986-1987) – 4/5
Rebellion League of Girls in Sailor Uniform borrows its formula from Toei / Fuji TV’s high school action shows but throws in action choreography by Sonny Chiba’s Japan Action Club. This is the show’s biggest selling point – seeing the lead trio Nobuko Sendo, Risa Yamamoto and Kyoko Goto doing Donnie Yen style split kicks and facing an entire football team on battlefield often makes you forget that these girls are indeed adorable idols, not action movie stars. In terms of storyline Rebellion League is a bit flawed, and there are also a couple of episodes that don’t offer much in terms of memorable characters. Nevertheless, while not a Sukeban Deka beater, Rebellion League is certainly a terrific challenger and comes with plenty of jaw droppingly cool action.

saltysam wrote:The Himalayan 1.5/5

A Cast of genre stalwarts (Chen Sing,Angela Mao,Han Ying Chieh,Tan Tao Liang,Sammo) struggle to enliven this rather weak Golden Harvest martial arts actioner.Only really comes to life at it's climax,unfortunately it doesn't save what's gone before.

I thought it was at least a 3/5. Enjoyable plot where the bad guy takes centre stage for the most part. I know it's been done better before and after but I still have a soft spot for this one.

The Sniper 3/5
Enjoyable enough with some good action and drama. Pretty basic and predictable plot though.

Wushu – The next generation 3/5
I think they added the kidnapping subplot because the main tournament plot is not very exciting. What fighting there was, was pretty good. I also enjoyed the little wushu displays because I’m in to that sort of stuff.

Her name is Cat 3/5
This film makes no sense. Coming from Clarence Ford I guess there’s no surprise there. There were some really cool scenes along with some weird scenes.

Magic Cop 3/5
Not as good as I expected but enjoyable enough. Lam Ching Ying is watchable in anything. The ending went on for a bit too long though.

The Loot 4/5
The last act pushed this one up to a four. Great action and so many twists and turns.

The five venoms 4/5
Very enjoyable Shaw Bros flick. I will try to look out for some more films starring the venoms mob.

APPINESS wrote:The five venoms 4/5
Very enjoyable Shaw Bros flick. I will try to look out for some more films starring the venoms mob.

That is the best one though, so lower your expectations accordingly.

Mad Detective: 4/5

Tokyo Sonata: 4.5/5

Excellent Blu-ray presentations from Eureka too, I look forward to more Asian films from them.

Kid With The Golden Arm 2/5

Mediocre shaw effort featuring the venoms,despite it's short running time rather boring .no real standout fight sequences and certainly one of the poorer shaw movies i've seen.

3 Seconds Before Explosion (Japan, 1967) – 3,5/5
Pistols, dynamite and helicopters. Akira Kobayahi and Hideki Takahashi star in this Nikkatsu turbo action film. Kobayashi plays a government spy who is assigned to gain possession of diamonds that are currently in the hands of a yakuza gang – while another gang is doing their best to steal the diamonds. German smugglers, Chinese femme fatales and Japanese government agents turned villains further complicate the mission. 3 Seconds Before Explosion is stylish, silly (the fist fights are done with a 30 cm safe margin) and very entertaining spy film with loads of action and legendary leading man.

Oryu’s Passion: Bondage Skin (Japan, 1975) – 1/5
Nikkatsu attempts to combine Naomi Tani and the yakuza genre. The title is a reference to the Red Peony Gambler series, which served as influence. Four years later Tani actually made her farewell role in a very similar type of film, Rope and Skin (1979). Neither of them are any good, but to be honest Oryu’s Passion isn’t as bad as some of Katsuhiko Fujii’s other efforts. Some of the yakuza elements – small bits of action, gambling, and even illogical story – do work occasionally. But it’s at the latest when the final 15 minute female punishment session begins when all is lost.

Godzilla vs Megaguirus (Japan, 2000) – 2/5
Decently entertaining Godzilla adventure that suffers from terrible actors. The action scenes could also be more dynamic, and there’s a bit of overlength for such a simple story. Some of the special effects are great, while others are poor. Blame it on CGI.

Ip Man

Best HK-Chinese film since Fearless.

Agree!

Ip Man was decent but not great imo.will pick up the blu-ray eventually though.

Why?

Watched Chocolate in Hong Kong in the afternoon while visiting my girl's family.
To keep it short: it was disappointing in the martial arts performances. The girl was a bit too slow, the fights were too staged, and tbh it lacked a cool villain (the spastic fight was cool but too short).

With a bit more effort and more demanding directing, the action could have been much better. Many directors seem to be 'ok' when a fight is decent, but it really shows on-screen when hits and kicks etc are expected, or hugely miss their opponent cause they are already stepping away before any attack is launched, etc etc.

The girl did look cute and promising though. Not as much in the martial arts skills, but just in her acting and on-screen persona.

3/5.

diceman wrote:Why?

why what? can i only buy great films and not decent ones?

saltysam wrote:

diceman wrote:Why?

why what? can i only buy great films and not decent ones?

Yes - that's the rule. Weren't you told??

Markgway wrote:

saltysam wrote:

diceman wrote:Why?

why what? can i only buy great films and not decent ones?

Yes - that's the rule. Weren't you told??

no i wasn't.wondered why i got funny looks when i bought Starship Troopers 3

saltysam wrote:i bought Starship Troopers 3

Ban this infadel. :shock:

Linda Linda Linda (Japan, 2005) - 4/5
- Yamashita thread

Matsugane ransha jiken (Japan, 2006) - 4/5
- Yamashita thread

Tennen kokekko (Japan, 2007) - 4/5
- Yamashita thread soon.

Subway Serial Rape: Uniform Hunting (Japan, 1987) – 1/5
The original Subway Serial Rape was a rather good film with it’s heavy vigilante and yakuza film vibes. Uniform Hunting fails miserably. The concept is the same; a rape scene in the beginning triggers a storyline involving sex, violence, sexual violence and vigilantism. Unfortunately the interesting elements – action that is – are sparse, the uninteresting parts – sex – come in overdoses. Stylish visuals and effectice soundtrack are also missing.

Wakatsuma ga nureru toki (Japan, 1978) – 1/5
Katsuhiko Fujii directing a human relationship pink drama for Nikkatsu. Loads of storytelling, none of it interesting, and almost as much sex, all of it dull even by Fujii standards.

Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars 2/5

Another 'Lucky Stars' movie, another piece of shit. 'Story' would be too big a word to describe what was going on in the movie, and only functions to get from one lame comedy-piece to the other.
The only slightly saving grace is the excellent fight-scenes, courtesy ofcourse by Jackie, Sammo and Yuen Biao (plus Andy Lau with a convincing double)

Another positive is the huge amount of cameos by well-known HK celebrities in the movie, like Michelle Yeoh, Kara Hui and Sandra Ng.

Only worth watching for the fight-scenes, which are pretty damn good, but apart from that instantly forgettable.

Yi-Long wrote:Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars 2/5
Another positive is the huge amount of cameos by well-known HK celebrities in the movie, like Michelle Yeoh, Kara Hui and Sandra Ng.

Michelle Yeoh wasn't well-known at that time. I think this was actually her first or second film ever.