Blog Archives

Sky Crawlers (2008)

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Posted on May 25, 2009 by Deni

The Sky Crawlers is by far one of the most subtle Mamoru Oshii films to date, and that’s really saying something. Oshii has never been what one would call explicit. He’s far too invested in the humanity of his characters, in the complexity of choice versus fate. If he also happens to have a bit of a thing for more loftily existential issues like artificial consciousness and the self-actualising development of technology, it’s really only an extension of this primary … (read more)

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13: Game of Death (2006)

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Posted on May 25, 2009 by Tom

Being primarily a reviewer of anime it’s nice to occasionally review films that are made using real living actors. The only other film that I have reviewed for Heroic Cinema that was made with real people on screen was Imprint whish isn’t that different from 13:GoD. Both have violence and strange family relationships. Both have horror themes but 13 is more of a horror thriller whereas Imprint was a more standard psychological horror film.

13: Game of Death has … (read more)

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Kung Fu Chefs (2009)

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Posted on May 5, 2009 by Deni

Way back in the day, my early education in Hong Kong cinema was more along the lines of guns and hand grenades, as opposed to fists and barrel rolls. Bullet ballets, car chases, crooked cops and machete gangs; I was all over that. It wasn’t until a double bill at a local cinema — Drunken Master II and Hard Boiled, to be precise — that I realised the other side of Cantonese and Mainland action cinema. Since then, I’ve … (read more)

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Tezuka: The Experimental Films (2007)

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Posted on May 2, 2009 by Ching Yee

Rare indeed as most of these short films were destined for film festivals. Having had the pleasure and luck to have seen a handful at the Hong Kong International Film Festival a few years back, I longed to see them again. Now my wait is over as a selective 13 of these experimental films have been put together in this DVD with some choice extras.

Tezuka’s legacy in modern animation is staggering, having left behind a large body of work … (read more)

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)

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Posted on April 26, 2009 by Deni

What can be said about a remake? Especially when the original was so good?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood opens with the kind of grand introduction that seems to claim that, well actually, not much needs to be said at all. It does in fact assume you are already well familiar with larger than life characters of Edward and Alphonse Elric, throwing itself straight into the action – a rogue alchemist wrecking the city and gunning for King Bradley’s head. It doesn’t … (read more)

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The Shinjuku Incident (2009)

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Posted on April 26, 2009 by Justin

Jackie Chan has been making forays into more dramatic acting in the last few years — there were early attempts like Crime Story and Thunderbolt, and in the last few years we’ve had New Police Story and The Myth as well. But these have still been identifiably Jackie Chan movies — grueling stunts, inventive high-impact fight choreography, Jackie front-and-centre as the hero.

I didn’t think it very likely that we’d get one of those from director Derek Yee, though. … (read more)

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Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (2004)

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Posted on March 30, 2009 by Samson

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue is an anime series that features cute girls carrying big weapons and wearing very little. This description will no doubt sound familiar to many of our readers. But fortunately, this series has enough strong points to put it a notch or two above most of the other animes that share a similar concept.

Maia is an innocent young girl who by chance comes to join the Nereids Kamchatka Branch, a ‘secure, trusted, all-around service provider’. … (read more)

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Big Man Japan (2007)

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Posted on March 30, 2009 by Eugene

I’ve always wondered exactly what it was that made giant monsters and their traipsing through downtown Tokyo a genre unto itself. Having watched merely a handful of examples of the genre, I can still say I really don’t ‘get it’.

But watch it I will, and having seen a handful of examples and with a cerebral understanding of what others might see in the genre, maybe I can at least get the gist of what Big Man Japan is about. … (read more)

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