Beautiful Boxer (2003)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Jason

Following the trends of recent Thai cinema comes another lady-boy flick — Beautiful Boxer. Like other transgender films of recent times, Beautiful Boxer uses a plot that’s constructed around a true story: in this case, the subject is the ultra-famous champion Muay-Thai boxer Nong Toom, who fought professionally to raise money for a sex change operation.

The first 10 minutes of the film opens with a foreign journalist lost and in trouble with some local thugs. Luckily, Nong Toom … (read more)

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Cutie Honey (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alan

Right. It is hard to review this film without going all Valley Girl speak. “Like, dude, this film is seriously sick!” There is something about its bright day-glo colours, insane plot and relentless cheerfulness that just screams substance abusing slacker teenagers let loose in a mall with a bunch of sticky crayons and glitter.

Or maybe that is just me.

Cutie Honey is not unlike the ’60s TV serial Batman in its lurid psychedelia and campness. And, much like that … (read more)

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Beast Cops (1998)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Mark Morrison

Modern cop drama with Anthony Wong playing the mildly corrupt cop who keeps a lid on things, Michael Wong as the uptight straight cop who’ll gun down a criminal regardless of the danger to the hostage, and Sam Lee as the skinny cop who always gets the goss. Most of Beast Cops is concerned with the interaction between the three cops, and the conflict between their way of walking the beat. Roy Cheung plays the local Big Brother who has … (read more)

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Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alison

A bitter and bloody disappointment. The original, Battle Royale, was a truly impressive film which was showered in justified accolades. This one is a piece of total bollocks ripping off the reputation of its predecessor. Despite a pretty good cast, including Fujiwara and Maeda from the original and Oshinari from All About Lily Chou-Chou, this one is just a fire-fest of automatic weapons. And the cast is wasted: poor Oshinari is forced to scream his lines, while other … (read more)

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Battle Royale (2000)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Jonathan

When Battle Royale was released in Japan in December 2000 it received a R-15 classification, meaning that director Kinji Fukusaku’s primary audience could not legally see the film. Fukusaku therefore went public with a statement to the effect of “Children! I made this film for you! See it however you can — break the law! Sneak into the cinema! Just watch the film!”

Fukusaku wasn’t just worried about his box office — BR isn’t just for teenagers because it exploits … (read more)

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Barefoot Gen (1983)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Deni

Perhaps still a controversial subject to this day, because it elicits such a strong emotional response, the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima is something that reflects in Japan’s national culture and consciousness over and over, in numerous and sometimes subtle forms. From the heart-wrenching, almost terrifying spectacle of Bhuto, an avant garde dance form, to the infamous Toho Studios monster movies like Godzilla, such events that shape history leave the world changed not only on a social and … (read more)

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Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by James

Judging from reviews at hand and feet, Bangkok Dangerous is a technically proficient exercise in style (ya know, in general like) that fails to involve audiences emotionally.

Fiddlesticks.

Elevation of emotional affect over formal effect has to be expected, I guess, but in this instance I think it makes for unwarranted criticism. Bangkok Dangerous heavily borrows plot and theme from its generic predecessors (Hong Kong gangster/hitman films), but the Pang’s are not interested in simply re-staging situations. They succeed in … (read more)

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Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Ben Jennings

Action director and dedicated thigh-fetishist Kaneko Shusuke helms this second cinematic paean to the supremely photogenic and tragically vapid Aya Ueto. The sequel finds the director just as in love with his pulchritudinous starlet as was the original, but just as incapable of wringing a remotely convincing performance out of her. Whether she’s cutting chain mail clad ninjas in half, mooning over her inevitable love interest or grieving for her fallen comrades, she wears the same expression. She’s as lovely … (read more)

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