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...

It took a long time for Bruce Lee to get “discovered” in the U.S. By the time Enter the Dragon turned him into a phenomenon, he was already gone, leaving behind opportunistic producers eager to wring out his legacy and a handful of celebrity students to carry on his techniques. Chuck Norris might be the most famous of the bunch, but Joe Lewis was arguably the most formidable. A karate champion and early evangelist of American kickboxing, Lewis clearly had his eye on replicating his mentor’s big screen success. Instead, his debut, Jaguar Lives! (1979) found more fame years later on MST3K than it did in theaters. It’s follow-up, Force: Five (1981) is still a clumsy martial-arts mishmash stitched together from TV-grade stunt work and flat performances…but it’s aged to the point where an audiences can laugh with it rather than at it. Recruited to rescue a senator’s daughter from a drug-smuggling cult leader, Jim Martin (Lewis) gathers his own team of superfriends (including karat...

When it comes to films that reveal the inner workings of mafia crime families, The Godfather (1972) was far from the first of its kind. As far back as New York Confidential (1955), screenwriters were laying the groundwork for power-hungry dons, resentful daughters, stoic hitmen and crooked politicians. So the Japanese Godfather Trilogy  (1977 – 1978) isn’t exactly breaking new ground, merely shifting the setting to a new locale and reinforcing the adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. As head of the Nakajima group, Sakura (Shin Saburi) understands a brutal truth of the modern era: a business that isn’t growing is already dying. So he pushes his second in command, Tatsumi (Koji Tsuruta) to expand the yakuza empire into legitimate territory, crossing paths with political figures who all want a piece of the pie…but whose morals are even lower than the criminals they publicly condemn. In part two, Ambition , Matsugae (Hiroki Matsukata) carries on with the campaign, ope...

Actors are a bit…self-involved. That’s not exactly breaking news. So for a particular breed of thespian, playing opposite themselves is probably quite a kick. Which might explain why Jean-Claude Van Damme has arranged that very scenario three times in three different movies: Double Impact (1991), Maximum Risk (1996) and Replicant (2001). In retrospect, probably not the best idea for an actor who needs all the help he can get to emote convincingly. But it can still be awful fun to watch, especially his inaugural adventure as Chad and Alex, twins separated at birth who reunite to save their father’s legacy in the aforementioned Double Impact . Raised in L.A., Chad is a happy-go-lucky womanizer who discovers his parents were murdered by a triad in Hong Kong where his twin, Alex, has been slumming for the past 20-plus years. This odd couple is brought together by Frank (Geoffrey Lewis), the former family bodyguard, in search of hard evidence to implicate the murderers responsi...

If your knowledge of Greek history is limited to Ray Harryhausen films and some half-remembered high school Honors English, then Michael Cacoyannis’ Iphigenia (1977), based on the play by Euripides, might seem above your pay grade. But there’s a reason these mythological tales have such staying power; they’re often built around universal truths, political drama and emotional baggage that’s all too familiar even in the modern era. Minus the stop motion monsters, of course. Despite its resemblance to Clash of the Titans , there are no krakens unleashed in this story of King Agamemnon, ruler of Argos, who’s duped into sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia, in order to appease the gods and raise the winds that will send his ships to Troy. Iphigenia’s mother, Queen Clytemnestra, rages for her doomed daughter’s plight, enlisting the help of Achilles to convince his fellow soldiers of the tragedy in the making. But in a world of weak, petty men beholden to their positions of power, women –...

Just as science-fiction cinema was never the same after 2001: A Space Odyssey , modern fantasy films owe a huge creative debt to John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981). Gritty and glorious, this retelling of the Arthur and the knights of the round table was a far cry from the stagey antics of Camelot or even the fantastic mythological adventures crafted by Ray Harryhausen. This felt real! A muddy, bloody medieval slog through the dark ages with a dose of authentic magic for good measure. Orphaned at birth and raised in anonymity, Arthur (Nigel Terry) pulls the sword from the stone and reveals himself as the once and future king…albeit a horribly unprepared one. That’s where Merlin (Nicol Williamson) comes in, schooling the young squire in the ways of proper politics to unite the land. But a bitter love triangle develops between his wife, Guinevere, and most trusted knight, Lancelot, opening the door for an incestual coup d’etat fueled by black magic and family drama. Starring a who’s ...

In the annals of WTF film history, few films make a more vivid impression than The Visitor (1978), an Italian-produced horror-sci-fi oddity that manages to rip off movies as disparate as The Omen, The Exorcist, Close Encounters , The Fury and the psychedelic oeuvre of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Add in an all-star cast of old Hollywood icons, some Chariots of the Gods mythology and a child actor with a southern accent as thick as a plate full of chicken ‘n waffles and you’ve got one must-see hot-mess of a movie! Pursuing the progeny of an evil alien entity, Jerzy (John Huston) finds his next target in the heart of Atlanta. Katy (Paige Conner) is a bad-seed with a bad attitude, using her telekinetic powers to torture her mother (Joanne Nail), housekeeper (Shely Winters) and the cop (Glenn Ford) investing a shooting at her birthday party. Her prospective stepdad (Lance Henriksen) coddles this behavior at the behest of a mysterious cabal (led by Mel Ferrer) determined to utilize Katy’s powe...

While he’s better known as one of the most popular novelists of the past two decades, the late Michael Crichton was a small entertainment industry unto himself. His accomplishments include literary successes like The Andromeda Strain and Congo , director of the hit mid-70s medical thriller Coma , and the producer behind TV’s longtime juggernaut ER . But it’s Jurassic Park that bestowed upon him the same sort of immortality as his genetically-cloned dinosaur creations. As all-encompassing as the book and film became to worldwide popular culture, it was really just a second draft of one of Crichton’s earlier ideas, which he also directed in 1973: Westworld . Delos is the amusement park of the future. Visitors, paying $1000 per night, arrive via hovercraft and are shuttled off to the world of their choice - Medieval World, Roman World or West World – to enjoy a completely authentic experience. This is made possible through high-tech robots indistinguishable from actual human bein...

American Yakuza (1993) was probably destined to slip through the cracks. Marketed as a “mafia vs yakuza” thriller, first time director Frank Cappello’s film feels more like it was a holdover from the Miami Vice era with its internecine gangland warfare, undercover operatives and unmotivated mood lighting. All that’s missing is a Phil Collins drum solo and a couple of commercial breaks. But, taken as a whole, the film is a plain-spoken bit of mid-‘90s direct-to-video action fare, much like its plain-spoken star: Viggo Mortensen. Ingratiating himself with the second-in-command, Nick (Mortensen) manages to work his way into the inner circle of the L.A. yakuza who are at war with the Campanela family, homegrown mafia regulars. While he attempts to lower the temperature between both factions, Nick finds himself torn between loyalty towards his new employers and his official job as a federal agent. Add in an exotic love-interest and some agency meddling and Nick is forced to choose bet...

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career arc is more interesting than all the other action-hero also-rans combined, particularly his ongoing flirtation with the Hong Kong film industry. First teaming up with John Woo for the gloriously overblown Hard Target , the muscles from Brussels proceed to work with Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark, giving both directors a chance to bring their signature style to North American screens. 1998’s Knock Off , his second film with Tsui, is a briskly paced cops and robbers story set in the world of counterfeit merchandising with just enough HK action ingenuity to qualify as legit. Marcus Ray (Van Damme) is a street-smart straight shooter whose business parter, Tommy (Rob Schneider) turns out to be an undercover CIA agent playing him for connections. But they both get duped by Russian counterfeiters using knock-offs to smuggle microbombs into the U.S. as part of an extortion scheme. That leaves Marcus on the hook to clear his name and avenge his adopted Hong Kong fami...

Modern horror – which critics typically mark with the release of Psycho – made most classic horror stars obsolete overnight. Actors like Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, with their capes, fangs and wizard wands, were suddenly passe. And it took a good ten years before they became trendy again as part of a “retro” resurgence by monster kids. 1981’s Frightmare (aka The Horror Star) tries to pound a square peg into a round hole by making the iconic – but invented – cult actor Conrad Radzoff into a vengeful spirit who can still bring his A-game. Staging his funeral as the final act in a storied career, Radzoff (Ferdinand Mayne) leaves a series of video messages for anyone that disturbs his resting place. That doesn’t stop the members of the local horror film society from stealing the corpse to stage one big farewell party at their creepy old house. Radzoff’s revenge involves plenty of severed body parts, spontaneous human combustion and every fog machine available in southern Cali...

While Schwarzenegger and Stallone took up two spots on the Mt. Rushmore of ‘80s action movies and Bruce Willis was paying off the third in installments, there were plenty of hopefuls competing for that fourth-place finish. While studs like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme worked on their applications, every once in a while a studio would give them a shot at the big time. Such is the case with Steven Seagal and Under Siege (1992), an unapologetic Die Hard knock-off that built upon the actor’s growing popularity. Casey Ryback (Seagal) is a decorated veteran riding out his naval career as a cook aboard the USS Missouri when the ship is hijacked by a gang of weapons merchants led by Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones), a bitter ex-CIA contractor with a longstanding grudge. Escaping the crew headcount, Ryback teams up with Miss July 1988 (Erika Eleniak) to thwart the terrorists plans from the inside with government officials debate their options – including killing everyone aboard – to pr...

A double-whammy critique of Korea’s patriarchal society and political repression, 1978’s Splendid Outing also fits comfortably in the “psychotic women” genre that includes paranoid mysteries like Rebecca and Repulsion . Director Kim Soo-yong adeptly keeps his audience guessing which half of his film is real and which is imagined as he drags his lead character from the boardroom to the bedroom of an abusive captor intent on keep her as a replacement for his runaway wife. Gong Do-hee (or President Gong to her business partners) is a respected widow who rose to the rank of chairwoman in her husband’s absence. But on a day trip to escape her busy schedule, she finds herself kidnapped and sold off to a fishmonger on an isolated island. After being raped, beaten and forced to care for the man’s crippled daughter, Do-hee starts to accept her fate. But a sympathetic doctor inspires her to makes one last attempt to return to her former life. Eventually, Splendid Outing does come clean a...

Part of a wave of post-Watergate conspiracy thrillers, Illustrious Corpses (1976) takes on the Italian justice system at a time when the political landscape was already in chaos. As rival parties jockeyed for position, the powerful judicial branch wielded power that could be bought and sold by crime families and politicians alike. Adapted from a fictional novel but grounded in the anxieties of the moment, director Francesco Rosi changes the names and faces but makes it clear his film is anything but a work of fiction. Inspector Amerigo Rogas (Lino Ventura) is assigned to the case of a murdered judge, scoping out the suspects who arrive at the funeral and asking pointed questions. But the assassinations continue and Rogas theory of a lone gunman taking revenge for a miscarriage of justice is soon discarded for a more insidious plot within the government itself. A plot that has no use for nosy policemen. The comparisons between U.S. films like The Parallax View and The Conversatio...

Tackling the classic western theme of savagery versus civilization, Blood of Revenge (1965) transplants that frontier anxiety into a Japanese society straining under the weight of modernization. Where American Westerns pit lawmen against outlaws as railroads carve order into chaos, this early yakuza drama (or ninkyo) frames progress itself as the invading force, encroaching on a rigid underworld code that no longer fits the times. Civilization is coming and it’s arriving with bulldozers, business suits, and a thinly veiled contempt for tradition. Set in a port town caught between old loyalties and new money, the film follows a stoic second-in-command, Asajiro (Koji Tsuruta), trying to navigate a collapsing moral order where honor is still spoken aloud but rarely practiced. Embarrassed of his yakuza past, Asajiro finds himself torn between a romantic entanglement that promises a measure of happiness versus his responsibility to help legitimize the clan. And while his strong belief in t...