The latest action thriller from The Sniper director Huo Suiqiang, Blind War, starring Andy On (100 Yards; Undercover Punch and Gun), initially released in 2022 before landing on Well Go USA’s martial arts streaming service Hi-YAH!. Now, Well Go USA is set… Read More ›
From a modern-day perspective, zombies come in one of two flavors: they’re either creatures of chaos or walkers fueled by wacky circumstances. Yet, in the new film Handling the Undead (based on the book of the same name by Let… Read More ›
**Photosensitivity Warning: A club sequence includes a prolonged sequence of flashing lights that may prove triggering for sensitive viewers.** Shared joy is double joy; Shared sorrow is half a sorrow. – Swedish proverb Just about everywhere one looks, there’s a… Read More ›
Genuinely speaking, I don’t want to condone a movie, but the trance, anxiety, and dread that Thordur Palsson creates with his directorial debut, The Damned, needs to be studied as A Clockwork Orange-style of torture. This movie is the one… Read More ›
In April 2024, physical media boutique Cult Epics released a first-time world premiere 4K UHD of filmmaker Tinto Brass’s erotic dramedy All Ladies Do It (1992). This would be the first of several restorations the boutique would release in the… Read More ›
16th century Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods) is the inspiration for a number of adaptions in Chinese entertainment. Adaptations in written forms, television programs, and, of course, cinema. Sometimes it’s in individual portions, such as with studio… Read More ›
Obsessively pursuing art is the focus of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). The parallels to artistic pursuit as it pertains to a filmmaker are hard to miss, as are the Freudian psychoanalytics. Both of which are apt as Powell (The… Read More ›
Awards season has come and gone once again, like another overblown, overwrought, overlong thief in the night, spanning an impressive seven months from the beginning of the Venice Film Festival to that of the Academy Awards. Though, unlike other years,… Read More ›
Mangas, like all other kinds of storytelling, come in a variety of types. Americans are familiar with the isekai (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime), shonen (Jujutsu Kaisen), and parody (One-Punch Man), with several breaking through into mainstream… Read More ›
The cult cinema streaming service Arrow Player is no stranger to the grotesque, the bizarre, and the gloriously macabre, making it the perfect home for the French dark fantasy film, Pandemonium. This visceral and nightmarish flick, which made the rounds… Read More ›
The shuriken throwing star, the black mask and suit, the high-flying moves — the few identifiers synonymous with the ninja archetype. Radiance Films brings home one of the most respected and influential ninja films of all time with the Shinobi… Read More ›
The 16th century Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods) has been told (and re-told) in portions in text, television, and film over the years with versions animated and live-action. In the fall of 2023, Wuershan’s Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom… Read More ›
“For want of a nail …” Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), and Uncut Gems (2019) are examples of a type of film which is well-made, thoughtful, subject to acclaim, and less likely to be revisited, the latter… Read More ›
The Sea is Watching is the latest splash in the ongoing wave of previously unavailable East Asian films coming to America through boutique Blu-ray labels, this one through Imprint: Asia. It’s the second-to-last screenplay from one of the greatest Maestros… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: The opening title/credit sequence before the film begins and all of the breaks between scenes are accompanied by bright flashes of white light. Viewers with photosensitivity issues should watch with caution. College campuses across the U.S. have been… Read More ›
In 2014, director Kim Han-Min began his epic three-film tale documenting Korean naval history with The Admiral: Roaring Currents, following it up in 2022 with Hansan: Rising Dragon. At the end of 2023, the story concluded with Noryang: Deadly Sea, a… Read More ›
Films can be more than just the latest sci-fi/superhero blockbuster or summer comedy. Some films aspire to teach audiences lessons and history. I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba), a 1964 political propaganda film, is one such story. Its historical richness and… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: There are multiple scenes in which either a character is using a camera with flash or a strobe is used (often at length). Proceed with absolute caution. In the realm of action fantasy, John Milius’s 1982 sword and… Read More ›
In nature, there’s no such thing as evil. There’s the ecosystem with predator and prey, but while there are behaviors that some groups would define within a power dynamic, it’s atypical for the natural world to engage in behavior humans… Read More ›
Since 2017’s The Outlaws, actor Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. and credited here as Don Lee) has led what would become the Crime City series, an action crime series that borrows from Korean headlines for the foundation of each film. Each film… Read More ›