Blog Archives

Slice is one of those films that very nearly defies review. A serial killer thriller cut from the same cloth as Se7en (can we move past this please?), with a dash of Ms 45 and Baise-moi thrown in for good measure, the central murderer weaves a tangled web of personal vendettas, righteous indignation and red herrings while offing some really ‘deserving’ types. If you’ve seen the aforementioned movies, you’ll clue in pretty quickly that there’s a sex crime angle to … (read more)

To try and sort out the convoluted plot of Dante Lam’s Fire of Conscience would take more space than this website has bandwidth. Just thinking about the gratuitous twists and turns in the narrative is enough to prompt a migraine. To that end, Lam was probably going for more of the cops and robbers action vibe Hong Kong did so well in the ‘80s and ’90s — and that Lam evoked so effectively in last year’s Sniper and 2008’s surprising … (read more)

No matter what anyone says or does and no matter how hard Emperor (the film’s production company) tries, the biggest draw to Heiward Mak’s middling twentysomething romantic drama is lead Gillian Chung. Ex is the kind of star vehicle released at Just The Right Time that Emperor excels in forcing into the cultural discourse; let’s not forget this is the organisation that decided to makes stars of Twins — and unfortunately did so. This time around, the goal is rehabilitating … (read more)

Okay. So all you have to know about being gay in Asia is that 1) your life will end miserably and you will die too young and 2) you will become smitten with a straight guy, but that’s not really an obstacle to your imminent demise. Horror, sci-fi, rom-com and kitchen sink dramas have tropes and conventions that define them as such, and in that light, Asia’s queer cinema scene is making a case for itself as a genre. That … (read more)

There is no way anyone could consider Wakamatsu Koji’s anti-war, anti-military, anti-nationalist tirade subtle. The man cut his teeth and made his name in pink eiga, so chances are he doesn’t know the meaning of the word. But that would belittle Wakamatsu’s cumulative knowledge — he has over four decades’ experience — and the fact that he left straight up soft-core porn behind long ago to use his considerable clout making ‘real’ films. Wakamatsu has never been into titillation … (read more)

We all know the story of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet who longed to be a real boy. When he finally got his wish, things didn’t go quite to plan and at one point he burns his feet off. There’s also that whole lying/long nose thing … The gist of the story is that Pinocchio is an inanimate object that is defined by his maker until he finds the gumption to go out and define himself.

Well, flash forward to 2000 … (read more)

It’s been a decade since Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng starred as Cloud and Wind respectively for Andrew Lau’s adaptation of Ma Wing-shing’s popular The Storm Riders (1998). Released on the cusp of the Hong Kong industry’s virtual collapse, it was a hit that set the digital standard for filmmaking in the SAR for years to come. It was also one of the last big, all-star epics from that period to find a cult following overseas.

So what’s changed, what’s … (read more)

Where to start when discussing Tetsuo: The Bullet Man? Does one begin with the no-longer-ahead-of-the-curve self-parody the Tetsuo franchise has become with this instalment? Or does one start with the wealth of truly wretched, nigh unwatchable ‘acting’ that recalls high school drama class – only not quite that good? Maybe one should begin with the completely and utterly pointless nature of the whole endeavour? It doesn’t matter because anyone familiar with Tetsuo will be furious at the cynicism that … (read more)