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- Godzilla Minus One (2023)
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- Magnificent Warriors (1987)
- Odd Couple (1979)
- Three (2016)
- Dreadnaught (1981)
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- Once Upon a Time in China & America (1997)
- Bad Guy
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Elsewhere on the Web
Mother (2009)
Bong Joon-Ho is one of my favourite directors, and in my opinion, one of the world’s best directors working today. His works so far have covered a wide variety of different genres, ranging from the quirky social satire Barking Dogs Never Bite, to the memorable murder mystery Memories of Murder, to the monster masterpiece The Host. What impresses me the most about this director is his ability to tell stories, regardless of their genres, so incredibly well. … (read more)
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Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
When Neon Genesis Evangelion was first released in the mid-90s, it rapidly gained international popularity and became quite a phenomenon. Viewers were generally really impressed by the majority of the anime, so much so that they were able to forgive the very messy ending. Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone is the first of four movies which together will form a new theatrical edition of the classic anime. Enhanced with never before seen footages and plenty of visual and audio … (read more)
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Suicide Club (2001)
Those of our readers who are familiar with Japanese cinema should be no strangers to gory films from Japan. Suicide Club, which I am going to be reviewing here, is one such example. However, in contrast with recent popular gore-packed films such as The Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, which are all way over-the-top in their handling of violence and have premises that are unlikely to happen in the real world, … (read more)
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Astro Boy (1980)
Astro Boy started off as a manga for children in the 1950s, and became a household name internationally with the release of its first anime series in 1963. However, creator and master animator Osamu Tezuka was reportedly not completely happy with the original anime, and went on to remake the series in 1980. This time, it again showcases the action and adventure seen in the original series, but it also incorporates much more of Tezuka’s philosophy and thinking. The result … (read more)
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Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody (2006)
BLEACH has followed the well-travelled path that has been taken by many other anime franchises. It started off as a manga, then became an anime series, and with increasing popularity, has been made into movies. It is well known for its interesting characters, spectacular action and supernatural themes. So how does Memories of Nobody, the first movie based on characters from BLEACH, compare with the successful manga and anime series? Here is what I think.
The Soul … (read more)
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Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009)
From two of Japan’s new breed of gore/horror directors comes this simple tale of high-school romance — though, as you might guess from the title, only one member of this film’s love triangle (that’d be the boy, Mizushima, played by Takumi Saito) is entirely human. He’s the quiet-yet-pretty boy in class, browbeaten into reluctantly accepting Keiko (Eri Otoguro) as his girlfriend. She’s the science teacher’s daughter, dressed to the nines and always backed by her posse of lolita girls. However, … (read more)
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Fire of Conscience (Fou Lung) (2010)
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)
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Ip Man 2 (2010)
This is certainly no tame squeakquel.
More an exuberant throwback to fan-favourite 1980s Hong Kong martial arts movies, with fight scene stacked upon fight scene, shamelessly caricatured gwailo villains, a breezily achieved period setting, and at times (e.g. the fish market) quite thrilling fight choreography. Flawed, without a doubt. Cheesy, yes. The plot is uninspired, the violence unnecessarily excessive at times (Sammo’s face gets a real work out) and there’s emotionally flat filler like the re-introduction of Simon Yam’s character. … (read more)
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