Dr. Lamb (Hong Kong, 1992) – 3/5
I almost went to praise Danny Lee for creating a solid, Billy Tang esque cat III thriller until I found out Billy Tang was indeed the second director. Dr. Lamb combines court drama, that however takes place at a police station (expect some police brutality), and audio-visually captivating and intense suspense scenes a bit similiar to those seen in Red to Kill. The HK dvd is a censored (for uncut version look for the german dvd) but still comes with a big red throw up warning. Humour is black and sick as it should. Simon Yam does excellent gob portraying the film’s pathetic psychopath, and Danny Lee himself plays a cop, as always.
- dvd / Winson
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Japan, 2004) – 5/5
When a director’s debut film is a masterpiece one shouldn’t expect the next one to be as good. That doesn’t seem to apply to Makoto Shinkai. At least on the first viewing The Place Promised in Our Early Days felt about twice as good as Voices of a Distant Star. It’s still not perfect as it’s a bit over-written and stumbles with some scifi content that could’ve been left out for the most part. Nevertheless, if it wasn’t for Shinkai’s next film, which is out on dvd but hasn’t reached my mail box yet, I’d say it’s gonna take a decade before we’ll see another movie as beautiful as this.
- dvd / ADV
Freeze Me (Japan, 2000) – 4/5
Takashi Ishii’s extremely tense and strangely beautiful rape thriller is no doubt one of the best japanese thrillers of the past 10 years. The film kicks off a bit too fast but Ishii’s direction is stylish, hard hitting and fascinating. Taking place almost fully in one appartment the film has an almost claustrophobic feel to it. The final image will burn into your mind for quite some time.
- dvd / R3K
Magnificent Warriors (Kong Kong, 1987) – 3,5/5
David Chung and Michelle Yeoh team up again in this enjoyable WWII adventure. While Michelle is in top form she is sometimes over shadowed by Chindy Lau (who may not be as talented as a fighter, but is twice as cute). Hong Kong’s best comedian Richard Ng steals every scene he is in (as usual).
- dvd/ HKL