Movieline Online

While the floodgates finally opened for classic Japanese cinema not that long ago, contemporary filmmakers don’t seem to have the same cache among collectors. But perhaps 88 Films’ release of Sakuran (2007) and Helter Skelter (2012), both from acclaimed photographer and advertising veteran Mika Ninagawa, will inspire a bit more curiosity. Set in different centuries but dealing with the same pitfalls of beauty and fame, Ninagawa does more than make pretty pictures; she pulls the directorial strings with uncommon skill and righteous neo-feminist fury. In Sakuran , that fury simmers beneath layers of silk and spectacle. Kiyhoha (Anna Tsuchiya) is a courtesan in the famous Edo-era red light district who refuses to be molded into something more manageable, raging against the machine that’s trapped her like a goldfish in a jar. Mixing in contemporary music and a punk rock attitude (think Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette ), the result is less a traditional period drama and more a senso...

The third feature film from director low-budget Texas auteur Bret McCormick, Highway to Hell (1990) is a ride-or-die for fans of regional action epics. Mass murderer Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) escapes from prison to continue his random killing spree, grabbing a pretty hostage (Blue Thompson) along the way, dodging pursuit from a cop (Richard Harrison) with a personal grudge. Like most of McCormick’s films, this one lives and dies on enthusiasm rather than resources. And lead actor Benton Jennings has the former in spades! In a performance that veers from chaotic to hilarious, his turn as the gun crazy Gilmore is equal parts Nicolas Cage, Rutger Hauer and Yosemite Sam, throwing a temper tantrum at every inanimate object in sight. He’s like the overly committed lead singer of a punk band, spitting, swearing and sweating through every scene at full volume. And dragging the entire movie along with him. Highway to Hell adds a few production upgrades that make it seem more profess...

Movie gangsters come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and temperaments. There’s enough variety to apply a variation on the open-ended quote from Civil War , “But kind of gangster are you!” I mean, there’s Scorsese gangsters, Guy Ritchie gangsters, Suzuki gangsters even Tarantino gangsters. And while Takashi Miike gangsters probably don’t crack the top ten, they are most decidedly a breed of their own. 2001’s Agitator finds the director’s technique evolving alongside with his yakuza counterparts in a decidedly mature, and, compared to his V-Cinema creations, retrogressively conservative take on Japanese mafiosos. Yoichi (Naoto Takenaka) and Kunihiko (Masaya Kato) are sworn brothers in the Higuchi Gang under the banner of the Yokomizo family. But their loyalties are tested when a pair of high-ranking assassinations sets rival gangs against one-another in a secret plot to wrest control from within and without. Appalled by their leaders’ lack of loyalty – not to mention backbone – Yoic...

Even a creative genius isn’t born in a vacuum. While Sam Raimi’s visual razzle-dazzle in The   Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2  were wildly entertaining, any self-respecting fan of Asian cinema could see the influences written on the cabin walls. That’s not an insult. In fact, it’s an opportunity for fans to branch out into the Hong Kong horror-fantasy genre for more of the same. Take 1987’s Picture of a Nymph , itself a retread of A Chinese Ghost Story , which pits a pair of demon hunters against the only supernatural force they weren’t prepared for: true love. The adopted son of a Taoist monk, Shih Erh, (played by Yuen Biao) strikes up a friendship with a desperate scholar (Lawrence Ng) who falls in love with a wandering ghost (Joey Wang) kidnapped on her wedding day by a local spirit. Unsympathetic to their doomed love affair, Shih’s master wants to send them all back to the hell they came from. But his student takes a stand to prove that love can still survive beyond the ...

Martial arts movie fans are a pretty forgiving bunch…probably second only to horror fans. The structure and predictability both genres are part of their charm. So audiences are often willing to praise second-rate material simply because there’s so darn much of it. Which makes it all the more shocking when a movie comes along that really brings its “A” game. Fifteen minutes into 1990’s She Shoots Straight and you realize this is what all those movies were trying to achieve in the first place! When Mina (Joyce Godenzi) marries into the Huang family, she butts heads with her husband’s four sisters, particularly Chia Ling (Carina Lau), who’s jealous of her new sister-in-law’s reputation in the police force. But a tragedy brings them together in pursuit of a vicious gang of Vietnamese thieves intent on covering the tracks of their most recent crime. That means taking out members of the Huang family one by one. Produced by Sammo Hung’s Bo Ho Film Company and utilizing his top-notch...

Your chances of dying from a 20-foot-tall ninja made up of 30 ninjas standing on top of each other are low, but as 1983’s Duel to the Death proves, not totally impossible. The directorial debut of action choreographer Tony Ching is a riotously inventive hodge-podge of wuxia, kung-fu, chanbara and the aforementioned army of mystical ninja warriors that never stops trying to top itself. Two warriors are chosen to compete in a once-a-decade contest that will determine the superiority of Chinese or Japanese martial arts. But subterfuge on both sides results in a series of assassination attempts that bring the combatants together to defend their mutual sense of honor and fair play. Meanwhile, the daughter of their host wages her own campaign to fulfill her clans’ destiny and break into this elitest boys’ club. Duel to the Deat h manages to be both ridiculous and thoughtful at the same time, offering up a respectful view of Japanese culture and combat that was all too rare in Hong Kon...