Asian movie diary (2008)

The Odd Couple (Hong Kong, 1979) – 4/5

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Sammo Hung’s old schoolers, but this film I’ve always liked. The casting is ingenious. Sammo plays the master of sword, whose duels with the master of spear (Lau Kar-wing) always end up with a draw. Therefore the old masters decide to settle the score by taking young students (Sammo again, as the student of Lau Kar-wing, and Lau Kar-wing again, as the student of Sammo Hung) who will do the fighting for them. The fight choreography is fantastic, and the comedy scenes (usually with Dean Shek) are insane enough to be funny.

  • dvd / HKL



    Tenkousei (Japan, 1982) – 4/5

    My previous experience of Nobuhiko Obayashi has been hit somewhat close to the target (The Little Girl Who Conquered Time, School in the Crosshairs) or miss (Hausu). I decided that unless Tenkousei can win me over I’ll give up on the man, more or less. Gladly I can say I’m a newborn Obayashi admirer now. In Tenkousei the beautiful visuals don’t get the upper hand over all the substance that has been the problem in many of Obayashi’s films. The story of two young students who after an accident realize they have switched bodies is funny and charming, but never cheap. I don’t think any other country than Japan could have handled a subject like this so well. The two leads are both excellent.
  • dvd / R2J

Love Letter (Japan, 1995)

I’m speechless … Wow, this is what I call perfection! I’ve rarely seen a movie with a winter-setting, yet radiating with more genuine warmth and human emotion; sometimes it feels a little like a live-action adaption of a Shoujo’s Manga: all those beautiful images definetely have the clarity of a Comic-Book, without being that shallow, of course. This must be my favorite Shunji Iwai Feature yet (haven’t seen much of him, though, so don’t get me started). Although there are some thematic elements about romantic feelings, it’s not really a romantic movie. Or let’s say, it’s definetely more than that; it’s about Nostalgia and precious childhood-memories, about people we’ll never forget again in our lives. There are some mildly funny moments throughout, but in a very natural, realistic way, and in the end there’s one major dramatic scene, which literally had me sitting on the edge of my couch. Also the music was very nice, some tender piano-pieces with a bit of support by string instruments. “Love Letter” is one of those movies you can’t ever imagine being produced in Hollywood, because there’d always be some stupid sexual annotation around the next corner to spoil the pure mood. Ah … such perfection! Wait, what’s that? Must be something in my eye …

  • Korean DVD

Heroes shed no Tears (Hong-Kong, 1986)

One of the more interesting, early John Woo flicks, though objectively not a good one; pretty cheesy, in fact. It’s all-out Mercenaries Action, where a couple of freelancing soldiers try to get a captured Drug-Kingpin safely across the Thai-border, while confronting some heavy resistance on the way. Despite over-the-top Heroism, Woo fails to provide us with believable characters (that little boy was especially irritating), but there’s still enough Ultra-Violence (one really nasty torture-technique made me wince), ferocious shootouts, awe-inspiring explosions and inflationary Gun-o-philia to keep you entertained, whereas this also helps with looking rather lenient upon frequent overacting and unintentionally hilarious scenes. Yeah, I know, sounds a lot like “Windtalkers”, but this one is more Fun (mind the Capital). Especially the final stand-off between Hero and Bad Guy is absolute madness. Both incredibly Brutal and Exciting. And, no, there wasn’t a single dove around.

  • UK-DVD

Dream Hazard (Japan, 1998)

This Hentai-Feature ran unter some pretty creepy premise, yet I found parts of it oddly fascinating: A shy girl, who doesn’t dare to advance the guy she’s secretely in love with, tries to approach him at least in Virtual Reality (there’s a technology-centre in town, offering such service). What starts out as a romantic date with maybe some option on tender kissing, soon turns into an unstoppable nightmare, when a fatal program error occurs and pitchforks her into far darker realms of Fetish-Love. For a feature mainly appealing to the lower carnal impulses of men (man?), 30 minutes of running-time certainly weren’t too long. Apart from that, there’s nothing much of character-oriented values to be found, though, so if you’re not a die-hard Hentai-Afficionado, you may as well skip it (unless you’re really, really curious). Also the animation (in comparison with superior fluidity of major titles like “Mezzo Forte”) is a rough sketch, at best.

  • US-DVD

Enter the Dragon (Hong-Kong/USA, 1973)

After having watched an abundant share of Martial-Arts movies from the 70s, one can’t help to feel a little disappointed with this fourth, full-length Bruce Lee vehicle. Most of the Fighting is being spoiled by choppy editing and obscuring close-ups, which seems strangely amateurish. Still, what makes it kinda work, is Lee’s overwhelming charisma, a surprisingly likeable performance by the sidecast (John Saxon), and, although the story is basically a cliche, there’s fair amount of suspense at work. Things to look out for are some major stick-fighting skillz by The Man in the movie’s last third, and Mr. Han’s (bad guy with an iron claw) incredibly beautiful set of female bodyguards, who deserve to be called “Guardian Angels” more rightfully than anyone else. But would you hate me, when I say, that (action-wise) there are far better movies out there?

Pianist (Japan, 1998)

Rather mainstream Hentai-Title (how’s that for an Oxymoron?), but with a nice and petite, if somewhat forgettable storyline about a famous pianist, who lost his ability to play in a car-accident, and now lives with a female android for a companion. Name’s Yuna. Had some really charming and cute moments, when he tries to teach her playing the piano like a human would. Some pleasantly kinky hardcore-scenes throughout, but not too much, and the plot even worked on an emotionally involving level. In some shots I found those over-sized busty features of Yuna extremely irritating, but on the other hand she’s an android, so I guess that’s a legitimate exaggeration, after all. Hehe. Kudos for the beautiful solo-piano soundtrack.

  • US-DVD

Casshern (Japan, 2004)

Number One Example why excessive use of CGI will once be the death knell of classic story-telling cinema as we know it. If so, it’ll still be a pretty impressive way of dying, though. As a series of unpersonal, yet incredibly apocalyptic visions it works; as an attempt to tell a continuous storyline it utterly fails. A shame really, because there was more than one image of truly haunting beauty which provided me with a chill down my spine; then again, there were parts which were simply strenuous to watch, because “Casshern” is 99,5 percent detached Blue-Screen acting. The story was something Masamune Shirow could’ve come up with (devoid of it’s overly simplistic human message, of course), so as an over-length animated feature, employing a soundtrack of similar epic proportions, “Casshern” by now would’ve probably become my most favorite movie of all times. Give me “Natural City” anytime.

  • Japanese DVD (Ultimate Edition)

Midnight Panther (Japan, 1998)

If you didn’t think, that a crucifixion could be funny, you haven’t seen “Midnight Panther”: somewhere in medieval Japan there’s a famous Idols Pop Group of three incredibly sexy girls, called The Pussycats. At night, though, they become bounty-hunters, killing with sharp blades and even more dangerous, uhm, bodies. Actually more of a real Anime feature than Hentai, there’s daring Fan-Service to boot, but always in a plot-relevant and/or extremely tongue-in-cheeky context. And, most of all, it’s FUNNY! Still, wouldn’t watch this with my parents, guess why. And while the animation-style certainly could’ve been more fluent, it’s nevertheless sparkling with a fond amount of detail and athmosphere; had to deal with exaggerated, Manga-like facial features, though, but some outrageously entertaining, blood-spouting Splatter-Scenes more than made up for it. So, what else could you ask for? Hmmm, another episode, maybe.

  • US-DVD

Alien from the Darkness (Japan, 1996)

Fairly enjoyable, but utterly unoriginal Hentai-take on a Ridley Scott/“The Thing” inspired tale about an Alien Invader on a spaceship. Especially in the beginning, when the all-female crew was exploring a deserted ship only to find traces of Death and Slimy Mayhem, there’s been sadly wasted opportunity of creating a suspenseful athmosphere; childish humour and an agonizingly annoying voice-cast (and I’m not talking about a crappy dub here) is to blame. Get’s better though, when finally the Monster is loose, but quality of animation was mediocre at best; I’m used to far better, even in Hentai. Considering title and genre, it’s only fair to reveal, that there’s weird Tentacle-Rape to boot. Some explicit girl-on-girl couplings, too, but surprisingly found them more ridiculous than erotic.

  • US-DVD

Tennen kokekko (Japan, 2007) – 4/5

I’m not sure if Nobuhiro Yamashita will ever be able to direct anything as good as No One’s Ark and Realism no yado again, but the quality of his new films remain pleasingly high. Small village romance Tennen kokekko displays the mainstream effect in tighter editing, although the overall pacing is thankfully not hasty at all. As always in Yamashita’s movies, the cinematography and use of music are excellent. Characters and storyline are good, with no melodrama weakening the pic. The young cast fares well.

  • dvd / R2J



    Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Japan, 2004) – 1,5/5

    I recall Isao Yukisada’s earlier film, A Day on the Planet, being quite good, which unfortunately isn’t the case with Sekai no chushin de, ai wo sakebu. It features a couple of nice landscape shots and a cool Sano Motoharu song, but that’s pretty much it. The film tries very hard to be emotional but that only makes it harder to emphatize with. The screenplay has an okay start, if you ignore the first 10 minutes, but the second half makes you constantly wonder what were they thinking? Still, Sekai no chushin de wouldn’t be an especially bad film - in fact it would be just like all the others – if it wasn’t so exhaustingly overlong.
  • dvd / R2J



    Ardor (South Korea, 2002) – 1/5

    If you’d like to see the beautiful Lost star Yunjin Kim in a Korean movie, I recommend you give up on the idea. She’s in the terrible Korean Bruckheimer equivalent Shiri, downright worthless sci-fi pic Yesterday, and in the “daringâ€

[quote=“Hung Fist”]
Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Japan, 2004) – 1,5/5

I recall Isao Yukisada’s earlier film, A Day on the Planet, being quite good, which unfortunately isn’t the case with Sekai no chushin de, ai wo sakebu. It features a couple of nice landscape shots and a cool Sano Motoharu song, but that’s pretty much it. The film tries very hard to be emotional but that only makes it harder to emphatize with. The screenplay has an okay start, if you ignore the first 10 minutes, but the second half makes you constantly wonder what were they thinking? Still, Sekai no chushin de wouldn’t be an especially bad film - in fact it would be just like all the others – if it wasn’t so exhaustingly overlong.

  • dvd / R2J[/quote]

I vaguely recall I time, though, where you gave it a much higher (and more sympathetic) rating.

Slightly confused here.
:-[

[quote=“diceman”]
I vaguely recall I time, though, where you gave it a much higher (and more sympathetic) rating.

Slightly confused here.
:-[
[/quote]

There was a time when I liked it. Too bad opinions are not forever.

Oni Tensei (Japan, 2000)

There’s a fabled tattooist, whose body-artworks reach a level of perfection, that they’re said to be coming alive. A gruesome killing-spree throughout the city, a fragile girl with a hideous image of an ogre painted on her back, a determined policewoman on the verge of putting a dark past behind her. Fleshed out characterdesign and athmospheric imagery succeeded in creating a dangerous fiction of a cut-throat world. If you can stomach some of the strongest and most exploitive Hardcore Rape-Scenarios ever invented for Hentai, you’ll highly enjoy this. Borders between arousing and disturbing levels of sexuality, just as much as savage acts of violence became increasingly blurred, which may seem equally fascinating, than it’ll be of sublime shock-value. Since the story was literally pulsating with Cinematic Life, I could easily imagine it to be made into a live-action Horror-Movie. If you wanna start exploring Hentai, though, don’t let this one claim your virginity! This is a serious warning!

  • Greek DVD

Koihime (Japan, 2000)

There’s a lot of crap to be found in the genre of Hentai, more than bliss, actually, well “Koihime” is neither, but at least a welcome change from the usual fare of Rape-o-Tainment. Woah, did I really just say that? Anyway, it’s a charming story about a boy visiting the village he grew up in, and meeting with his childhood (girl)-friends, strangely without recalling their faces and names. And why does everyone refer to them as Princesses? There’s a pleasant shift into Fantasy-Genre, if somewhat ridiculous, but it worked for what it is: a Fairytale-Drama with some not too innocent Romance (if you know what I mean) and cute character design. Some exaggerated animated slapstick made me laugh, despite it’s obvious stupidity. Quality of animation was fine, with fluency not only confined to raunchy moments, which are still very explict and hardcore, but in a gentle and pleasing context. There may be an issue, though, with some of the girls looking rather young. Overall solid, lighthearted Adult Entertainment, and the song in the credits was extremely catchy.

  • US-DVD

Yo-Yo Girl Cop (Japan, 2006)

Slow Motion Bitch-Battle featuring Hot Yo-Yo Vixens, but let’s not get too euphemistic: of course this is an incredibly silly, and dramatically even more questionable undertake, but it still managed to thoroughly grab my attention. Expect some entertaining MTV-Trash with not half as much action like the cover-artwork implies, but whoever has a thing for Pretty Japanese Girls in Schooluniforms, this is the Ultimate Movie to get. Fukasaku (no, not that one; the other one) takes a surprisingly earnest approach on the bizarre concept and delivers harsh Teen-Violence and ample Fanservice to please the eye. Obtrusive “Hello Project”/Apple Product Placement have to be accepted, though, therefore gimmicky ADHD-Camerawork makes the Dorama seem less shallow. Overall a solid Sequel/Hommage to the 80s-Phenomena with a sympathetic lead (Aya Matsuura), but this time it’s all Cool and Sexy, instead of Kawaii. Alas, more than one wasted opportunity to make this a real action-movie, instead of just another campy Deliquent Girl Dorama … Hey Mr. Miike/Kitamura-San, how about another Yo-Yo flick?

  • German DVD

Fallen Angels (Hong-Kong, 1995)

This is an all-time favorite of mine. “Fallen Angels” does not have a consistent storyline, in fact, it moves nowhere and anywhere at once. It feels like fast-forwarding through random moments in the life of different people, all with their own hopes and expectations; violent moments, happy moments, sexy moments, nostalgic moments: a female client in love with a Killer; a mute guy, breaking at night into stores, opening them for general customers needs, and other weird creatures roaming the night. Cinematography feels cool and detached, and the colourful city-lights of the HK-Metropole contribute to a slightly unreal feel, like you’re wading through a dream.

  • German DVD

Exiled (Hong-Kong, 2006)

Let’s face it, there won’t be another “The Killer”. Ever. Thankfully Johnnie To’s “Exiled” is a Prime Example on how Heroic Bloodshed may look like in our new Millennium. In tone and athmosphere almost a Spaghetti Western, it’s still telling a deeply conventional story from indside the Triads-Milleau, but crisp, tight and straightforward enough not to seem pretentious. Seeing a cool bugger like Anthony Wong taking slaps to the face without response, hurt like a bitch, though. Meticulously composed, there there’s hardly a random image to be found; just during action-scenes To seemed a bit too much concerned with stylistic matters (things like perfected light-and-shadow display and Coolness as an end in itself), instead of concentrating on exciting choreographies. Then again, final Stand-Off paid off excellently, and the melodious guitar-soundtrack went right through me. So was it Heroic? Check! Will there be Bloodshed? Check! At least once cheesy depiction of exaggerated Friendship and Nostalgia? Check! So, yeah, it was good.

  • German DVD

The Blue Light (Japan, 2003) – 4/5

This was a surprising find. Yukio Ninagawa’s slick drama thriller of a 17 year old schoolboy who starts planning on his stepfather’s murder isn’t half as bad as it ought to be. In fact, it’s next to terrific. The screenplay of course stumbles a bit here and there but the storyline remains interesting till the end. The audio-visual execution is extremely pleasing. Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya’s acting is okay, and the ever sweet Anne Suzuki appears in a small supporting role.

  • dvd / Asian Vision



    Hunter in the Dark (Japan, 1979) – 4/5

    Hideo Gosha’s 1979 chambara flick reminds of his earlier film, Bandit vs. Samurai Squad, but avoids that film’s flaws. The storyline is less epic and quite simple in the end, but the characters’ backgrounds are handled skillfully. The cast is thoroughly impressive - Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Shinichi Chiba and Tetsuro Tamba, just to mention a few – but especially Yoshio Harada is amazingly good as an assassin without memory. Gosha’s direction is visually stylish, but also aims at certain degree of realism. The fights are intense but very brutal.
  • dvd / HK Video



    Kagero (Japan, 1991) – 3/5

    Late Gosha’s yakuza film has more than a few similarities with the Red Peony Gambler films, although Kagero is hardly as remarkable. Kanako Higuchi stars as a female gambler looking for her father’s murderer. Gosha requlars Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Ken Ogata and Tetsuro Tamba appear in supporting roles. The storyline lacks originality, but the excellent cast compensate enough to keep the movie interesting from start to finish. The excellent ending credits sequence leaves a good aftertaste.
  • dvd / R2J

[quote=“Hung Fist”]
The Blue Light (Japan, 2003) – 4/5

This was a surprising find. Yukio Ninagawa’s slick drama thriller of a 17 year old schoolboy who starts planning on his stepfather’s murder isn’t half as bad as it ought to be. In fact, it’s next to terrific. The screenplay of course stumbles a bit here and there but the storyline remains interesting till the end. The audio-visual execution is extremely pleasing. Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya’s acting is okay, and the ever sweet Anne Suzuki appears in a small supporting role.

  • dvd / Asian Vision[/quote]

I’m quite pleased, that for once a “recommendation” by me actually got you a little excited. Even cooler to know, the fact, that “Blue Light” does seem to work on a plot-wise level as well, instead of being just another Idols-Movie (because for my part I solely got interested in it for the sake of Aya Matsuura).

Now I really can’t wait to see it.




Paprika (Japan, 2007)

“The Cell” meets “Alice in Wonderland”: Satoshi Kon’s SF-influenced Psycho-Thriller sure is something to be watched on a big screen, still the second viewing didn’t quite click with me like the first one did. Although the animation impresses on an absolutely insane level of detail and fluency, the reason for it may be, that I could still feel wasted potential quivering in the ether. Especially when we’re talking about such boundless thematic elements like Dreams and Visionary Unfoldings of Subconscious Matters. Instead it’s the same old Circus Parade over and over again, and some of the more stirring images are suddenly being interrupted by weird cuts to real-time events; so it becomes more of a frustrating stop-and-go, rather than a continuously overpowering Avalanche of Images, thus depriving “Paprika” of the chance to grow into another “Akira”. Why I’d still give it a re-watch anytime soon? Because of the incredibly cool title-sequence, the rousing Synth-Soundtrack, and some very imaginative (and disturbing) handling of subthreshold Sexuality.

  • German DVD

Shikijo mesu ichiba (Japan, 1974) – 3,5/5

Directed by one of Nikkatsu’s most interesting directors, Noboru Tanaka, Shikijo mesu ichiba is an Osaka set story of a young prostitute. While the film comes with the usual overload of sex scenes and would benefit from some editing, the director’s skill with images and audio is undeniabe. Shot beautifully in black and white, some of Tanaka’s audiovisual compositions are nothing short of breath taking. The lead star Meika Seri’s persona is perfect for the lead role, and even occational wooden acting feels spot on. The supporting cast (including former classical ballerina Genshu Hanayagi, cult poet Sakumi Hagiwara and genre queen Junko Miyashita) features some weak but enjoyably campy performances that add their spice to the weird mix.

  • TV



    A Woman Called Sada Abe (Japan, 1975) – 1,5/5

    Tanaka’s view of the famous true story is, unfortunately, rather bland. This despite the fact that it’s considered as one of the very best films in the genre by some. The visually talented director is trapped with a script that takes place almost fully in one room. Tanaka still manages to create some stylish images, but the music choices are weak. The lead role is played by genre legend Junko Miyashita, but her acting talent isn’t on the level this story requires. The characters feel distant, which partly the director’s fault. The little impact the film might have had in 1975 was all gone only one year later when Nagisa Oshima’s notoriously graphical but psychologically challenging adaptation of the same story hit the screens, under the title Ai no corrida.
  • TV



    Watcher in the Attic (Japan, 1976) – 3/5

    Hard to think of a better director to adapt Edogawa Rampo’s novels into high brow exploitation than Noboru Tanaka. The outcome doesn’t reach the level of excellence of the director’s best works, but it is still obvious right from the beginning – where we see Junko Miyashita having sex with a clown while the landlord (Renji Ishibashi) is spying on them from the attic – that this is no routine production in Nikkatsu’s Meisaku Roman series. The first half suffers from some occasional drifting but the film becomes more solid during the second half. The impressive last 20 minutes turns the piece into pure arthouse.
  • TV