Actor, writer, director Lau Kar-Leung is a staple of the Shaw Brothers Studio as evidenced by projects like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), The Shadow Boxing (1979), The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), and Disciples of the 36th Chamber… Read More ›
A staple of cinema is the horror story: possession, corruption, soul-trading. You name it and horror is going to give it to you. For his first feature film, writer/director Hyun Moon-seop utilizes the well-worn path of demon possession in his… Read More ›
The New Hollywood movement (or “period”, depending on who you ask) was a defining moment in cinema where the film director was the “end-all/be-all” authority rather than the film studio. It’s a movement (generally from the mid-‘60s to early ‘80s)… Read More ›
If you’re a fan of physical media (I mean who isn’t, and if you’re not, you’re not reading this) and you care about more than just *owning* a copy of the movie (you like the packaging, you like the extras,… Read More ›
In Keishi Kondo’s 2022 directorial debut New Religion, communal memory and grief intertwine in photographs to illustrate a haunted post-COVID world. The surrealist Japanese art house thriller follows Kaho Seto (My Identity; Beyond the Blue) as Miyabi, a prostitute trying… Read More ›
Whether you’ve been a fan of the kaiju-destroying Godzilla from its initial creation in 1954 from Toho, or your first introduction to the gigantic destructive beast was Legendary’s Godzilla from 2014 or 2023’s spectacular Godzilla Minus One, there is one… Read More ›
In another reality, modern audiences would be elbow-deep in the modern monsterverse Universal Pictures dubbed the “Dark Universe,” which kicked off with the release of 2017’s The Mummy. It was all in place with cast and concept, but the failed… Read More ›
Left to leave her hometown without her partner, a woman moves toward a major city center, finds herself a rich lover who allows her to enjoy the finer things in life, until two things occur requiring her to reconsider her… Read More ›
All the way up to the late 1990s, there had not yet been a satisfactory successor to Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1975 blockbuster hit about a marine biologist and shark hunter taking down a man-eating great white shark. In walks… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: There are several sequences involving flashing lights (especially in the climax) which may be difficult for photosensitive viewers. One cannot deny the infectious nature of co-director John Musker and Ron Clements’s 2016 animated adventure Moana. Between the culturally-specific-yet-universal… Read More ›
We are gathered here, today, to acknowledge the end of the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) with the home release of the J.C. Chandor-directed Kraven the Hunter (2024), the latest attempt of taking an absolute bastard villain and turning him into… Read More ›
By 2000, actor Russell Crowe had made a name for himself in the U.S. through work in The Quick and the Dead (1994), Virtuosity (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), and The Insider (1999). It would be his turn as Maximus Decimus… Read More ›
Published from 2006 – 2007, manga creator Imashiro Takashi’s series Bakeneko Anzu-chan followed a ghost cat, a bakeneko type of kaibyō (a cat with supernatural properties), and its relationship with the people who lived in the town surrounding the temple… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: The narrative centers violence upon the LGBTQIA+ community and this may be distressing for sensitive viewers. If you’re reading this and, like me, you’ve heard of William Friedkin’s Cruising with Al Pacino (Heat), but have never seen it… Read More ›
“I don’t understand you. But I love you.” These are key words said towards the climax of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, a somber slice-of-life film about two disparate sisters in a Black British family. Mike Leigh, a veteran indie darling… Read More ›
Ever since 2015’s The Witch, Director Robert Eggers has proved his genre supremacy. Whether it be the quirky horrors of The Lighthouse (2019) or the violent Viking delights in The Northman (2022), every movie in Egger’s catalog continues to showcase… Read More ›
There is an all-time great story of betrayal, recklessness, and tragedy told about the events that took place among the yakuza of Japan’s snowy north coast, and it’s told through around 50 minutes of interviews included as special features on… Read More ›
If anyone knows me, then you know I champion Criterion and their releases. They’re usually some of the best of the best, bar none to any other release in terms of quality of release (and quality control) and features. While… Read More ›
The ‘80s were a decade of decadence. Whimsical fashion, music, and media reigned pop culture. This was especially true with the films of the era. The year 1984 saw Warner Bros. release both Purple Rain, a semi-biographical concert film starring… Read More ›
While action has been a staple element of cinema since its creation, not all films which use action are viewed the same. For some reason, the bigger the budget, the larger the presumption that the film is good or “of… Read More ›