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The Eye (2002) Movie Review
The phrase “Two minds are better than one” seems to hold sway when it comes to sibling filmmakers. Which might explain the recent boom in multiple filmmakers from the same family attached to the...
Read More »Legend of the Wolf (1997) Movie Review
Donnie Yen’s “Legend of the Wolf” is an absurdly amusing and immensely enjoyable failure. It’s a failure in that its efforts to tell a story comes up lacking and the core of its purpose...
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Electric Dragon 80,000 V (2002) Movie Review
The most curious thing about writer/director Sogo Ishii’s Electric Dragon 80,000 V is just how well it starts, only to go drastically downhill. Ishii’s Electric Dragon is approximately 55 minutes long, including both opening...
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Bad Guy (2001) Movie Review
There has been so many South Korean and Japanese gangster films that they deserve a subgenre of their own — the Traditional Asian Gangster films, which exists only from South Korea and Japan. Why...
Read More »Legend of Speed (1999) Movie Review
As the saying goes, it is a stupid man who keeps coming back for more punishment from the same source. I am that stupid man, since Legend of Speed is the second movie directed...
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The Duel (2000) Movie Review
I don’t give out 1-star ratings often (and in fact, I can count all the movies I have given 1-star ratings to on one hand), because I usually reserve them for special occasions. Andrew...
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Last Witness (2001) Movie Review
Chang-ho Bae’s “Last Witness” is a Crime Drama that deals with the Korean War (1950 — 53), a favorite subject of many South Korean films. I can only guess that the North Koreans favor...
Read More »First Shot (1993) Movie Review
Back in the “˜80s and “˜90s, you could walk into a Hong Kong video store and walk out with a dozen movies like David Lam’s First Shot. You could go back the very next...
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Sakuya: The Demon Slayer (2002) Movie Review
I’m not sure how the movie Sakuya: The Demon Slayer came to be, but judging from what I saw, the film certainly looks like an adaptation of either a comic book or an anime,...
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Cure (1997) Movie Review
The most surprisingly thing about Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure is just how average it is. The film is a crime drama, and like dozens of other Japanese crime dramas I’ve seen in the past, Cure...
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Kairo (aka Pulse, 2001) Movie Review
Especially for a Japanese film, there’s a fine line between becoming another in a long line of Slow Bore Horror films and just being a Horror film. Luckily for my faith in Japanese cinema,...
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Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl (1998) Movie Review
Japanese Yakuza films are old hat, and I am dangerously close to becoming overdosed on them. Writer/director Katsuhito Ishii’s strangely titled Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (or SSMAPHG) is much closer to...
Read More »High Risk (aka Meltdown, 1995) Movie Review
Many Hong Kong filmmakers and filmgoers are addicted to what I like to call Absurdist Hong Kong — a subgenre of Hong Kong-produced action/comedy films that seems to describe 2 out of every 3...
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Audition (1999) Movie Review
I’ve been hearing filmmaker Takashi Miike’s name for a while now. The man is apparently the biggest thing to come out of Japan since the samurai, and his other movie, Ichi the Killer, is...
Read More »Black Mask (1996) Movie Review
Movies like Jet Li’s Black Mask is the kind of film that gave Hong Kong its reputation as an industry unconcern with story but addicted to adrenaline-inducing action. The film, directed by Daniel Lee...
Read More »Dance of a Dream (2001) Movie Review
When it comes to ballroom dancing, I’m an ant working around an anthill — re: I am clueless. Having said that, I couldn’t tell you if the actors in Andrew Lau’s Dance of a...
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Joint Security Area (2000) Movie Review
Chan-wook Park’s “Joint Security Area” (“JSA”) tells the tale of 5 soldiers — 3 North Koreans and 2 South Koreans — who become involved in a bloody gun battle one cold night while manning...
Read More »Tokyo Raiders (2000) Movie Review
Tokyo Raiders is an action/comedy that stars one of my favorite Hong Kong actors, Tony Leung, who plays a dashing private investigator/ spy/ government agent/ ladies man. Prolific actor Ekin Cheng once again rears...
Read More »Skyline Cruisers (2000) Movie Review
There are a lot of differences between a Heist film and a Caper film. A Caper film concerns itself with looking “cool” as its protagonists steal from or break into high-tech security systems, buildings,...
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Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) Movie Review
Ang Lee’s movies always find a way to surprise me. Maybe that’s why I like them so much — I go in not expecting much, but come out having learned a lot about life....
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