The Prodigal Son (1982)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Justin

Sammo Hung’s been in the film industry a long time and has produced, directed or acted in a huge number of films, working with virtually every major martial arts actor in the business: his younger brothers-in-Opera Jackie Chan (Project A, Wheels on Meals and more) and Yuen Biao, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing, Lau Kar Leung, Lau Kar Wing… the list goes on. The Prodigal Son is lauded by many as one of his best, … (read more)

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Princess Raccoon (2005)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Ben Jennings

Whoa. Weird.

Seijun Suzuki’s Princess Raccoon is frequently wonderful, frequently irritating, always gorgeous to look at and mostly pretty difficult to follow. Drawing upon the rich Japanese fields of kabuki plays and tanuki folklore, veteran director Suzuki has sought to create an absurd, colourful funhouse of a musical, and has mostly succeeded.

The mythical tanuki is a shapeshifting, fun-loving and mischievous raccoon dog, and we are informed at the movie’s opening that love between a human and a tanuki is … (read more)

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Phantom: The Submarine (1999)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by James

As political anxiety concerning North Korea’s alleged nuclear weapons program increases in tempo with each new report on Kim Jong-il’s supposed love for the Friday the 13th movies (a logic which seems to be: passion for horror = bad taste = evil tyrant), the thematic situations presented in Phantom become all the more interesting. It is extremely tempting to follow in the story and characterisations an allegory for the North: the connection to Russia (as Stalinist allies), the numbering of … (read more)

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The Mighty Peking Man (1975)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Justin

Well, well. My first real Shaw Brothers exploitation film. You can see the executives meeting to greenlight it: “Right, guys, let’s make a King Kong movie, but use the Connaught Centre, not the Empire State building. Using scale models and a guy in a big suit, like Godzilla. And some location shooting in India, with tigers and elephants. And a blonde wearing a square foot of animal skins, who swings through the trees on lianas. That’ll really sell tickets.”… (read more)

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Mon-Rak Transistor (2000)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Alison

Where on earth can I start with this film? I could start with the beginning of the movie: I’ve seen a lot of common narrative devices used to introduce us to the characters, but I’ve never seen one like this. Perhaps I should explain…

The film begins inside what seems to be a police station cell area. The out-of-focus camera shows only blurred figures, as one of the police takes a call on his phone. It seems he and his … (read more)

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Moving Targets (2004)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Mark Morrison

Moving Targets delivers on the promise of its title: it keeps moving, and hits most targets. This pot-boiling, lead-slinging, father-hating police yarn is based on the legendary 1980s TVB series Police Cadet (which, Ching Yee informs me, is where Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Lau Ching Wan became stars). I can’t speak for how faithful the adaptation is, but that would explain why the movie feels like it is cranking many hours of plot into 90 blink-and-miss-it minutes.

Fer instance: … (read more)

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Lady Joker (2004)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Alison

I’m sorry to have to say that this film was one of the two major disappointments of this year’s MIFF (the other being the execrable Pink Ribbon, possibly the only film in existence to make Japanese soft-core porn completely boring). While promising such excitement, the film devolved into a messy combination of docu-drama and mystery thriller, and failed to live up to any of its promises.

Part of the blame must be laid at the feet of the script-writers. … (read more)

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Love/Juice (2000)

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Posted on October 29, 2005 by Eugene

It is really amazing how depressing the Japanese can be without a lot of effort. Just looking back at what Japanese films I have seen that focus on the relationships between two people (not a huge reportoire, admittedly), not a single one springs to mind that didn’t leave me with an impending sense of doom.

Along comes Love/Juice, and once again we look at the tragedy of unrequited love. Well that’s not necessarily true. There is definitely a level … (read more)

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