agneepath Bollywood has started 2012 with a vengeance, literally, with Agneepath, a remake of a 1990 film. It includes everything you would expect from Indian cinema; romance, action, elaborate dance sequences, and lush colors, only this film has so much more violence and heartache.

As a child, Vijay’s father tries to talk the townsfolk of a small island off the coast of Mumbai out of loaning their land to Kancha, who wants to grow coke in their salt fields. Kancha will stop at nothing to get the land, so he has a little girl raped and murdered and sets Vijay’s father up, leading to mob justice and the father’s death. Vijay and his mother move to Mumbai where he comes across Rauf Lala, Mumbai’s top drugs dealer and human trafficker and becomes a member Continue reading »

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the-eternal-evil-of-asia The Eternal Evil of Asia is another wonderfully produced category III horror/voodoo/sex/comedy romp produced by legendary Wong Jing. Being one of the most prolific filmmakers in Hong Kong, anyone who knows what Wong is capable of, will have an inkling as to what they should expect in this hilarious tale.

Four friends travel to Thailand on a bachelor party excursion, but the trip goes awry when they befriend a local wizard and accidentally kill his sister. They return to Hong Kong, but the wizard follows and begins picking them off one by one. The wife to be has to decide to make a personal sacrifice to save the man she loves and her brother Continue reading »

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drunken-tai-chi Drunken Tai Chi is an absolute Yuen Woo-Ping gem from 1984, and is the very first film by the great Donnie Yen. Like many kung fu films made in the late 70’s and early 80’s by the Yuen clan, Jackie Chan, and Sammo Hung, Drunken Tai Chi is filled to the brim with mind bending feats of physical abilities, amazing kung fu sequences, revenge and comedy galore.

Being a revenge film, it follows the formula we’ve all come to know and love. Chan Chuen Chung’s (Yen) brother embarrasses Ta Sha, a rich schoolmate, and a rivalry ensues. It escalates to the boy having his father pay Iron Steel to kill Chan and his family. Chan is not home, but instead is fighting in a gambling hall Continue reading »

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brides-of-blood Really, do I need to review this movie? Just look at those lovely pictures… they tell you everything you need to know. Blood, boobs and glorious rubber monsters. This is one of these movies that leave you with fluttering butterflies in your stomach.

A nice group arrives at an island in the Philippines to teach the natives the ways of civilization and look for any traces of nuclear testing. There’s the elderly professor, his horny wife that screws anything that moves (except for her husband) and the young guy who would like to screw everything that moves and inevitably will get into the pants of the chiefs wife. It seems the natives have a lottery going on for the village’s young females and the winner will be tied to a pole while an Continue reading »

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tetsuo-the-bullet-man FINALLY! The Iron man is back! With a vengeance! And in… English? WTF? Then again, we always knew that if there was another Tetsuo movie there would be lots of WTFs. Twenty-two years after the original Tetsuo and nineteen after the sequel, Shinya Tsukamoto finally returns to the wonders of biomechanical psychopathics and more loving fusions of flesh and metal.

An American man living in Japan with his Japanese wife and their son is struck by grief when a mysterious man kills the young boy by running him over with a car. As this is a Shinya Tsukamoto movie this event triggers something in our hero, making him turn into a metal beast and he starts searching in his past to why Continue reading »

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black-magic-with-buddha I’ve learned something today. Evil Thai mummy brains aren’t something you should mess about with; it’s as simple as that. And if you do feel like keeping them for your own personal gain, make sure you feed them regularly. They tend to get rather mad if they are hungry. Like any other pet really. That’s something the protagonist of low budget Hong Kong sleaze Black Magic with Buddha learns when he goes to Thailand, takes home a brain with magic powers to use for his own personal gain. You see, our hero is somewhat of a looser. Only somewhat though, for a CAT III hero he is actually fairly likeable. He means well I suppose, he just doesn’t seem to think of the consequences of what he is doing, and the fact that it kills his sister and his wife’s family, well, he never seems to care that much about it. He comes off as Continue reading »

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a-better-tomorrow Throughout the years, there are a handful of films that are made that are truly game changers. Films that not only stand the test of time, but also redefine genres and how future filmmakers hone their own craft. John Woo’s 1986 masterpiece, A Better Tomorrow is one of those films. So much of the way we see action films nowadays is because of this film. So to take a film such as this and remake it, the filmmakers have to not only love and understand the original, but also know how to make their own film and relevant to the world around them.

Hae-sung Song, and his team of six writers set out to remake this classic and not only did Woo’s original justice, but they exceeded in making the film completely fresh and Continue reading »

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helldriver After a meteorite makes impact with Japan, it sends alien spores into the atmosphere, infecting humans with a virus that mutates them into flesh-eating fiends with little horns protruding from their foreheads. Japan, as the world knows it, ceases to exist and in its place is an island nation divided into two parts by a massive wall, effectively separating the living from the infected (read: zombies). To make matters worse, the horns of the dead are being illegally harvested, dried, ground up and sold on the black market as a new drug.

Factions within the current Japanese government are intent on halting the advance of the horde by putting together a special team, lead by Kika, and sending them into the infected zone. Their mission Continue reading »

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imprint Takashi Miike is one of those directors where if he makes something brilliant, it’s brilliant. If he makes something horrible, it’s torture to sit through. But then there’s films he makes, that you have no idea what to make of them, or have an inkling to the way you feel about what you’re watching. Imprint, from the Masters of Horror series, falls in the last category as I’m still pondering what it was exactly that I watched and have no real opinion on if I enjoyed it or not.

Christopher (Billy Drago) travels back to Japan in search of a woman he once fell in love with, Komomo (Michie). He chooses a girl (Youki Kudoh) who stays in the shadows due to her deformed face. She tries to please Christopher Continue reading »

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shaolin A darkness falls upon China when warlords and their armies clash in bloody combat and the noble Shaolin temple’s warrior monks find themselves caught in the middle. Intent on remaining separate from the violence of the outside world, yet willing to offer a helping hand to all those in need, their way of life is put to the test when a fallen general seeks medical help, and eventually enlightenment, from the very same monks he offended.

To those who doubt the Hong Kong film industry’s ability to continue Continue reading »

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DVD Artwork

A young man travels to the countryside to meet his fiancé, Yuko. When he arrives at the secluded house he is told by her mother that she has died in a car accident. He spends the night at the house and hears some strange sounds at night, even seeing someone that looks just like his dead love. Later he sees Yuko outside the house and follows her to a grave with her name. Cut to some days later where the young man’s sister is worried since she hasn’t heard from him in some time. She persuades her boyfriend to take her to the house, but is told that he already left. For the sake of proper plot development she doesn’t believe Yuko’s mother and fakes the car breaking down so that they can investigate what really happened. Cue eerie Japanese vampire. Yum yum.

Vampire doll is a fine piece of Gothic horror, straight out of the Hammerverse with an atmosphere worthy of Terence Fisher, yet firmly located in the Japanese horror folklore Continue reading »

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Theatrical Poster

Beat Takeshi goes back to his roots, eh? Outrage is truly a “classic” Yakuza tale, featuring several groups of gangsters being played out against each other by the top dog, and sadly, that is about it. The first 30-40 minutes of this movie aren’t exactly what I would describe as entertaining, it is just a collection of scenes featuring Yakuza screaming, beating each other up and so forth. Not that heavy violence is a bad thing, but when Outrage has no characters whatsoever it gets kind of… dull actually. They can shout how much they want but, beat up innocent people just for the fun of it but when there really isn’t anything separating the characters other than the fact that one of them is played by Takeshi Kitano and the others aren’t, it doesn’t make great viewing. The actors are all good, except for the fact that Kitano himself does one of those roles that he can Continue reading »

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