Bullets 'n' Babes

The Water Margin 3/5

All-Star Shaw Bros epic from Chang Cheh is kind of draggy and there's not much action but it's a good story well told.Some actors are seriously underused though.

All Men Are Brothers 2.5/5

Sequel to the Water Margin has a lot more action but simply isn't as good imo.

Gallants 3/5

Interesting new HK movie is a mixture of kung fu comedy/old scholl martial arts and is notable for bringing back some 70's stalwarts of the genre and placing them in leading roles.Homages abound,from the Fist Of Fury/Way style music, each actor introduced by name with an on-screen credit (an old Shaws move) not a classic but a nice surprise and worth seeing.

Is it on DVD?

is what on dvd?

"it"

The last HK film Salty reviewed.

Yes, Grim. It's on HK dvd.

HungFist wrote:

fucking hell photobucket is pants. They took the pants down. And left the bloody skull in. Re-up to imageshack

Markgway wrote:"it"

Sorry Grim we all failed mind reading skills at school.

HungFist wrote:Fucking hell photobucket is pants. They took the pants down. And left the bloody skull in. Re-up to imageshack

It's an American site. Bloody skull acceptable but pants, oh dear god no!

Well they take stuff down from people grassing you up, not because they look at every image. Chances are someone grassed up your shot, I have had it happen to me many times.

I, the Executioner (Japan, 1968) – 2,5/5
An interesting example of how time can change perception, I, the Executioner was no doubt an exploitation film at the time of its release. Today, it’s a rather slow moving thriller that might even lean slightly towards art house. Shock value is still there, though. Opening with close up of a terrified woman’s face and proceeding to the graphic killing, it’s obvious from the beginning that this “old black & white film” is far from nice and clean. Talented yakuza film director Tai Kato hasn’t lost his ambitions, though. What seems like a dirty and misogynistic serial killer film at first flips upside down radically enough to be thought provoking and timely even today. Similarly, the merciless title character, played by Makoto Sato, gains plenty of exposure before the film reaches its climax. Sato is probably best remembered by foreign audiences as the comic relief in Teruo Ishii’s two Executioner films, completely unrelated to I, the Executioner.

Noisy Requiem (Japan, 1988) – 1,5/5
Yoshihiko Matsui made somewhat an underground name of himself with his early films Pig Chicken Suicide and Noisy Requiem. A discreet punk director; his films don’t necessarily rock the walls off, but the theme of isolation is reminiscent of the punk genre. An equally good comparison would be John Waters as an art house director. Noisy Requiem is 150 minutes of ugliness of life at sedate pace. Violence and sex, cripples and dead babies, dirt and shit. Matsui’s character gallery is crafted of murderers, homeless bums, and midgets. Yet, Matsui does have technical skills. The black and white cinematography is often impressive, and there are scenes of breathtaking beauty to contrast the general ugliness of Matsui’s world. It’s a film to haunt the audiences, although its massive length and audience-unfriendliness are likely to exhaust the random viewers. There are reasons why it has been and always will be strictly underground, to the extent of the director not wishing the film to be shown outside Japan until recently.

Legend Is Born-Ip Man 3/5

Ip Man prequel focuses on his early years-not bad,pretty good for the first hour or so before losing it's way towards the end.Sammo has a first 10 minute cameo,the great Yuen Biao has a fairly large role and while he's looking a little frayed around the edges it's great to see him on-screen again.Worth a watch definitely.

The Housemaid (South-Korea, 2010) – 2.5/5
A remake of the famous 1960 shocker of the same name, this new version attempts to update the story of sexual abuse and rich vs. poor to modern day South-Korea. The plot is as follows: a young poor woman hired as maid for rich family discovers the ruthlessness of the elite world as she becomes the secret lover of the family head, and ultimately tries to play the game at their rules. While occasionally haunting in its emotional coldness, much of the film’s intended “scandal value” comes off a bit short: dirty talk and sex scenes that aren’t ultimately all that graphic. The characters, an older maid aside, have very little depth, and the actors generally don’t do especially good job portraying them. The mansion setting is mainly kept alive by excellent cinematography that is the best thing about the film. The ending, while slightly comical and difficult to take all that seriously, does load some punch and bring the social commentary to a nice conclusion.

Outrage (Japan, 2010) – 3.5/5
Kitano is back! After the creative destruction of his cinema career, the iron faced comedian and media personality returns to the genre western audience best know him for: yakuza film. Gone is the arthouse imagery and humanism of Kitano’s mid-90’s masterpieces, Outrage is the core of yakuza film: violence and men in black suits in a superbly stylish package. The endless brutality is guaranteed to exhaust less experienced viewers but it also works for the benefit of the film in form of dark humor – to the extent of bringing Outrage to the verge of genre satire. Kitano’s more obvious comical touches are firmly included as well. The actual storyline is minimal – crime bosses and their subordinates wasting each other off left and right – and the film admittedly runs 20 minutes too long for its content. Kitano’s ice cold directing and terrific cast featuring actors such as Kippei Shiina, Renji Ishibashi, Jun Kunimura, and Kitano himself, nevertheless keep the film captivating till the end. Outrage also deserves a special award: the most atmospheric use of black cars in the history of yakuza cinema.

saltysam wrote:Legend Is Born-Ip Man 3/5

Ip Man prequel focuses on his early years-not bad,pretty good for the first hour or so before losing it's way towards the end.Sammo has a first 10 minute cameo,the great Yuen Biao has a fairly large role and while he's looking a little frayed around the edges it's great to see him on-screen again.Worth a watch definitely.

Watched it last week. Agree with all of this. (and if kungfucinema.com was online, I'd copy-paste my post from last week...)

Last night I watched 2 movies, namely Rob-B-Hood, and Boiling Point.

Rob-B-Hood 2/5

Nice little local Jackie Chan flick, about a couple of burglars who are 'rascals' with 'a heart of gold'.... or at least, I can imagine that's how they would want to sell it...

Anyway, you get the usual stuff, some scenes where they're busy with their craft, followed by the 'ow, we're all down in the pits', so the movie can set up 'the big score', which turns out to be the kidnapping of a baby. Obviously, this goes haywire, so the leads end up as babysitters, with the baddies in pursuit, and in the end, the baby is OK and all the crimes from our leads are forgiven.

Sorry if I spoiled anything for those people here who are surprised each and every night that the sun goes down and it turns dark.

The movie does exactly what you'd expect from a light-hearted HK action-comedy. It's not a martial arts movie, although there are some cute fights (the part where Jackie poked the baby in the eye before kicking it through a wall is fantastic, although maybe that scene is only in the director's cut...), and the comedy is pretty farfetched at times.

Also, obviously, this being a Jackie Chan flick involving a baby, we see grown men acting all goofy while getting attached to the little tike, and Jackie needs to flex his acting-muscles once again (just like he did in New Police Story) to show how fantastic he can cry on-screen (NO STUNTDOUBLE TEARDUCTS!!!)

Look, I love babies. I like Jackie Chan. I love asian/HK cinema. I love the fact that Jackie is making local productions instead of wasting his time on Hollywood drivel. I even actually LIKED this movie.

It's just not very good. Nothing stands out. It's mediocre entertainment. It's still entertaining, obviously, but it's never more than that, and TBH, that's a shame.

2/5

Couldn't sleep last night, so at about 3 A.M. I started up my new Boiling Point DVD...

Boiling Point 2.5/5

One of Beat Kitano's first movies, and an OK one at that.

Story about a young kid in a small japanese town (or suburb of a big town, I don't know... it looks small and quiet), who's on the baseball-team of his dad (former yakuza), and works at a local garage...

...and with 'works', I mean fucking things up. Kid gets into trouble with a Yakuza, dad tries to fix it, dad gets hurt, kid goes on a quest to find a gun so there can be revenge. Ah.... delicious revenge.... who doesn't love revenge (Grim... I'm still coming for you! Don't think I forgot!!! )

Anyway, kids meets the weird gangster Kitano and his loyal lackey and bitches. Stuff happens.

The whole movie the kid pretty much functions as our silent perspective on all the weird stuff that happens, with barely any emotion ever shown, so we can fill in our own.

I accept and respects that this offers quite an original way to make a movie about a pretty basic story. However, while original, I can't say I would rate it very highly, nor entertaining, nor memorable.

It's a good movie, no doubt. It's just not really for me. While I'm sure there will be fans who LOVE this, it kinda just leaves me a bit 'cold' and not caring.

The girl who looked a bit like Joey Wong was gorgeous though.

2.5/5 Good movie, worth watching, but it's not going into any top 10 lists... (well, maybe it stands a chance in a list of top 10 mediocre japanese movies...)

Yi-Long wrote:Sorry if I spoiled anything for those people here who are surprised each and every night that the sun goes down and it turns dark.

The worst part of Rob-B-Hood was that joke referencing Brokeback Mountain... criiiiiiinge.

Yi-Long wrote:Sorry if I spoiled anything for those people here who are surprised each and every night that the sun goes down and it turns dark.

In case you forgot, in many countries there are periods when the sun doesn't go down at night and it doesn't get dark

gasteropod wrote: The worst part of Rob-B-Hood was that joke referencing Brokeback Mountain... criiiiiiinge.

That was the only good part in an otherwise bad movie.

If you found that funny, your sense of humour is seriously skewed!

Little Big Soldier (HK/China, 2009) – 2.5/5
Jackie Chan’s long time dream project turned out a mediocre action comedy. A historical road movie with war background, Jackie plays a coward warrior with unbeatable battle strategy: play dead. As a sole survivor after a battle he captures a wounded enemy general and tries to take him back to collect a reward. The mission is made difficult by countryside bandits, enemy troops, and a hostage that attempts to fight back at every chance. Slightly more violent than expected, Little Big Soldier entertains but fails to leave a bigger impression. The action choreography and humor have their moments, although there’s little new on offer for Jackie’s fans. The ending isn’t entirely successful, and the gray visual look feels somewhat out of place.

Symbol (Japan, 2009) – 4/5
A Japanese man in funny pajama wakes up in a big white room covered by small buttons resembling a little boy’s genitals. He discovers that by pushing these buttons he can have various items delivered to the room: chopsticks, manga comics, bonsai tree… One button opens a hope in the wall. Getting out proves easier said than done. Same time in Mexico a middle aged wrestler Escargot is preparing for his match. What does this second story – shot entirely in Spanish and falling under the serious drama category – have to do with the nutcase white room Japan scenario? Hitoshi Matsumoto’s (Dai nipponjin, 2007) brilliant comedy is not only the most confusing but also one of the funnies movies in years. Yes, there’s symbolism – what would you expect from a film with such title – but whether it’s meant to have any comprehensible meaning is up for the viewer to discover. While there’s room for 12 million interpretations, ultimately the “symbolism” is just one of the director’s tools and easily ignorable in the sense of deeper meanings. Matsumoto’s main aim is to entertain, not philosophize. Even if he heavily borrows Kubrick.

Markgway wrote:

gasteropod wrote:The worst part of Rob-B-Hood was the 120 mins between the opening and closing logos

Hey, the joke was better than the logos. Otherwise agreed.

This was actually the film that made me stop purchasing Jackie's new HK movies. Being a cool guy (EDIT: Jackie I mean, not me. EDIT 2: No, wait. What did I just say???!!!) I bought his new HK films even though they were what they were... but Rob-B-Hood drew the line. No more, Jackie.

I'm gonna give 'Little Big Soldier' a whirl soon...

The reviews have been more positive than some but then I always disagree with everybody.

HungFist wrote:

Markgway wrote:

gasteropod wrote:The worst part of Rob-B-Hood was the 120 mins between the opening and closing logos

Hey, the joke was better than the logos. Otherwise agreed.

This was actually the film that made me stop purchasing Jackie's new HK movies. Being a cool guy (EDIT: Jackie I mean, not me. EDIT 2: No, wait. What did I just say???!!!) I bought his new HK films even though they were what they were... but Rob-B-Hood drew the line. No more, Jackie.

Damn, it took you THAT long to stop buying Jackie's new movies!? Hell, I already knew he was on his way down when I watched crap like Who Am I, First Strike (a plastic shark, Jackie? Really? Why couldn't you just wrestle a REAL shark, like a real action star would...!?), Mr. Nice Guy, etc...

Not to mention his Hollywood-output...

Well the likes of Who Am I? and Mr. Nice Guy aren't particularly good films but they do at least have good action, unlike say tripe like The Accidental Spy which imo is the real cutting off point where Jackie's HK career died on its arse. That has to be one of the most boring HK "action" films I've ever watched.

I quite like Who Am I. Like you say Shing, it has good action. Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2 and Shanghai Noon are good too. Shanghai Knights and Rush Hour 3 are awful though, especially Rush Hour 3. Just dreadful.

I liked Who Am I? And Mr. Nice Guy wasn't too bad.

But after that, yeah...