Director : Hideyuki Hirayama.
Cast : Koichi Sato, Yosuke Kubozuka, Kumiko Aso, Tetta Sugimoto, Tomoko Kurotani.

Synopsis
37,000 peasants perished in the Shimabara Revolt; among them, the leader of that uprising, Shiro Amakusa. More than a decade later, Amakusa rises from the dead hell-bent on revenge. Resurrecting a ghastly army of living dead master swordsmen by way of an occult art called “Makai Tensho”(demonic transmigration), he sets his sights on overthrowing the Shoganate. Standing in their way Legendary Samurai Jubei Yagyu, who will have to fight the reincarnation of his own father before the fierce final confrontation with Shiro Amakusa himself!

Review
by Edward Tang

Samurai films can be done a few ways, the correct way as seen in every Kurosawa film, and this way, a horror samurai film that really never gets there. In watching this, I lost track of what was happening and why it was happening, because the story jumped around from this to that. I’m a fairly patient person, but seeing random images and things that just don’t make sense gets irritating. This film isn’t ugly and the action scenes are decent enough to keep you ready for something more, but unfortunately, that “more” never comes. I did some research for this review and came up with a film with the same title that starred Sonny Chiba. Reading up on it even more, it is somewhat of a “cult film”. I must check that one out, because this one was very disappointing.

The basic story was easy to take in but the bulk of what followed seemed out of place. We begin with the slaughter of a rebellion (which looked good) and the death of Shiro Amakusa. Amakusa somehow becomes one with something and returns ten years later to exact revenge on those who had killed him. Up to the point where he “came back” from the dead, I was excited to see what was to unfold. But when we got to this point, I was very disappointed. Not because it lacked in anything action wise, but just the story went no place. Characters would be reborn, and they’d fight with Jubei, and eventually they would be destroyed and that was that. I didn’t get if the “bad guys” even wanted Jubei dead, or what the motive behind all of this was. It was very disorganized and lacked any substance that others in this genre have obtained.

What really had my panties in a bunch was the fact that it seemed that the plan of Amasuka was very worthless and seemed not to make any sense. You’d be asking yourself every few minutes, “so wait, who is this guy?” Now this film is based upon Jubei Yagyu, basically Japan’s Wong Fei Hung. His likeness has appeared in many novels, newspaper serials, novels, movies and television shows. Jubei is the main character, a guy who doesn’t show much emotion and seems just trying to flow with the water. I think even he was confused about this plot, after he takes out Amasuka at the end, he begins to laugh. I think this was a very clever ploy to show that this film was basically a waste of our time. The acting in this film is all very basic, the characters are not really likable and the bad guy looks like a very ugly woman, in fact he is a he.

Now what I really hated about this film (yeah I know, I’ll get to the good stuff eventually) was the fact that I was completely bored. Even bad films can leave a smile on your face, take for example “Showdown in Little Tokyo”, a horrible film that should have the filmmakers shot, but it can be dealt with in a very funny manner. But in this film, I think it lacks any enjoyable scenes that could have taken it out of the gutter. The attempt at horror was cheesy and campy, the effects of a dying demon looked exactly like when Blade would take care of a vampire. Even the man climbing out of the girl’s shoulder looked stupid, yeah I said that. But it completely lacked of anything that could be considered worthy entertainment. I was checking the clock every few minutes, because to me, this thing dragged forever.

The positives? Well in general, the film had a good look and the effects were pretty good, although some were plain bad. The action sequences were short and to the point, but were probably the only parts of the film I sat up to watch. The film had a good look and the beginning was plain great, the “storming” of the castle so to speak, was very good and got me to anticipate something that could actually be worth seeing. I’m afraid I was wrong.

So what should I conclude on? This film is very boring and will confuse you to the point with its worthless story. Nothing is special, and this film just looks to be another film that will sink in and out of your mind the very moment it ends. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure the Sonny Chiba one is better, so grab that one.

Rating
Plot : 2/5
Acting : 2/5
Entertainment : 2/5
Overall : 2/5

Notable Scenes
- The beginning “raid” on the rebellion.

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Samurai Resurrection
 

Director : HIroyuki Nakano
Cast :  Morio Kazama, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Tomoyasu Hotei, Tamaki Ogawa, Mari Natsuki and Taketoshi Naito.

Synopsis
Feudal lord Kanzen Inukai receives a precious sword from the Shogun, but it is stolen by the samurai Kazamatsuri. Kanzen’s young son, Heishiro, insists on retrieving the sword himself to protect the family from the shame of losing such a precious gift.

Review
by Edward Tang

“Samurai Fiction” is basically just an older samurai film touched up with new aged music and ideas. I did have a good time during this film, but didn’t really see anything special that could grab me. I must admit that parts of it seemed to tickle the boring fancy but could be passed on because it was a nice refreshing way to look at the genre in motion. The direction was sound, from all of the black and white shots, to the beautiful country side and for the interesting shots including how when someone would die, they’d cut to a red screen. The fights in this film were probably the weakest, because they just really never amounted to anything, it was a bunch of quick movements and they’d be done. But on the other hand, there are basically no shots of blood which makes for a much cleaner film that just has to be enjoyed, rather than looked upon with harsh eyes.

The story revolved around a precious sword which was stolen by a tall samurai named Kazamatsuri. During such a young dude named Heishiro goes to find it, avid his father’s respect. His father sends out two ninja to find the sword as well, as two of Heishiro’s friends join his journey. When Heishiro and company meet up with this tall bastard, he basically kicks the shit out of them. Heishiro on hand gets taken up by a rogue samurai and his adopted daughter to heal him from his wound. Kazamatsuri goes into town, where he becomes somewhat of a popular guy and is treated as such. Heishiro eventually does heal and trains to try and defeat the swordsman, while he is persuaded not to by the older swordsman. So basically, Kazamatsuri kills the folk he was riding with, he steals away the old swordsman’s daughter and challenges him to a duel. Kazamatsuri loses the duel and jumps off a cliff, where in later they retrieve the sword. One year later, Heishiro marries the daughter, and everyone becomes happy!

It’s a shame that this film didn’t have good fight sequences because I think it would have been perfect. The entire story moves along quickly and easily, and is taken in with ease. There were some moments that were boring, going into detail on how the old guy came across his adopted daughter (he killed her father in a duel) but those scenes are far and few between. By far from being boring, it relies on some easy comedic moments and some cheesy but effective 80s-type rock songs. For the most part, this film is just fun, because it really never takes itself seriously. There’s a sequence in such where it introduces Heishiro’s friends with them running from each other, which is shot well and is funny at the same time. Then again, where an old fat ninja basically falls out of ceiling boards and says something to the degree of “I just can’t get rid of old habits”, that was fuckin’ funny. The music on hand as well, added to this film, where as sometimes its just a waste, the hippy type rock actually works itself into scenes with ease.

The film relied more on the entertainment aspect, that developing a true story. The story moved very slowly at parts, and seemed to lose luster towards the end. Not that I was complaining but the film tried to be semi-serious when falling into the end, while it had a real fun pace in the beginning. This doesn’t take away from the film, as it basically is another Jidai Geki style plot with enough to deliver the goods. I must say that this film was awesomely directed, giving the black and white scheme to those classic Kurosawa films that us movie fans can’t be without. The style made this film not horribly funny, but enough to give you a smile on your face as thing went along. Judging this other shit, the voice-over portions seemed a little forced and I didn’t really get why this guy was talking about this being 300 years earlier, or whatever that was meant to do. The film was strong in the eye candy and the actors did follow suit.

I really didn’t find anything special in the fights, where they weren’t overly gory as in some of the classics (which wasn’t bad) they weren’t really anything fun. This film more or less relied on the characters to do the goods rather than the actors to be full fledged martial artists whom also have a keen knowledge of weapons and fighting skills. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by so many other films but the fight scenes in this just seemed a little clumsy if anything. HIroyuki Nakano (director) gives these scenes somewhat of a quirky sense, more than a “I’m here to claim my honor” or some shit like that. With saying that, the fighting scenes weren’t really a distraction on being just okay, they just didn’t stand out. What did stand out however was the characters and their basket full of interesting emotions.

The main goal of these characters are to show that life is much more than avenging or fighting for the next day, life is worth living and is a gift. The acting is good, all the characters having different traits that give them a unique presence on screen. I’m not sure what the goal of Kazamatsuri was, but he had this subtle nature about him that you almost expected him to do something at any moment. Throughout the screams and all around annoying nature of the main character, he does learn a small lesson and eventually finds out that life is more important than silly f*ckin’ differences. What was nice about this film is that I didn’t really dislike any of the actors and that is truly the mark of something good. Too many films give out annoying kids or monkey-faced losers who basically piss on the film’s good graces. Luckily, this cast is filled with talented faces whom make this film a better experience.

If you would like a newer version of the classic films with a new-aged romp in character styles and music, this film is probably the one you should grab. Nothing truly shines in this film to make it a classic, but it is a good time and is worth your fuckin’ time. From the direction, to the cast, to some of the fun (alright I’ll admit it) fight scenes, this film is truly a winner.

Rating
Plot : 4/5
Acting : 4/5
Entertainment : 4/5
Overall : 3/5

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Samurai Fiction

Synopsis :
Takuma “Terry” Tsurugi returns. In this sequel, he sets out to bust up a phony charity put together by the Yukuza.

Review
by Edward Tang

Sonny Chiba STILL rules. Right after re-watching the Street Fighter and enjoying myself, I figured that what the hell. I’ll go and get the other three street fighter flicks and hopefully enjoy myself. So far, so good. In fact, I actually thought that this one was a worthless piece of crap because of all the negatives I’ve heard about how this one doesn’t live up to it’s predecessor. But looking at Street Fighter today, it had lost most of its luster because of the more graphic violence and better choreographed scenes of action anyways. Return of the Street Fighter is very much a good sequel, because it goes back to what the first one touched on, Sonny Chiba destroying as many people in his way. Being the mark that I am, when Junjo returned from the dead, I was cheering myself. (Junjo was in the first one and got his throat ripped out and had artificial vocal cords, yeah I said it). But you get the amount of fighting that is necessary to make a film in this genre watchable. There have been martial arts films that have completely tried to make a story, rather than give the action, please no. Sure the story will seem beat to death, the characters are generic, the bad guys are their typical “ruthless” self. But of course you still can get a knuckle to the back of the head, which knocks a guys eyes out.

Chiba returns as Terry Tsurugi, who if you don’t know, is basically rules with karate and is sort of a like a bounty hunter. He is assigned to knock off one of the only people he trusts. Of course, he tells ‘em to f*ck off and they then send the goons after Terry, whom in turn, get destroyed. Then some awkward plot about the boss forging names or some shit, gets in turn for other masters to question his ideals. Then a plot about the American Mafia comes into play, and how they were doing something with something. Thinking about it now, the story sucked, and was basically just worthless. The flashback scenes in turn, felt like they were there just to add some time to the screen. I mean, God forbid, these flicks came out the same year, and they probably didn’t wait for God’s screenplay, but give ‘em a break.

The cast of flunkies truly isn’t one thing to surprise you. First you’ve got the annoying Japanese girl who is also part of the Mob, who has gained feelings for Tony when she should have been setting him up. Of course she dies! Then of course, the return of Junjo (if you don’t’ know, he wanted revenge on Terry for “killing” his brother). Junjo only has a few scenes and has a pretty cool death, getting electrocuted. Oh yeah, he can talk with a voice box now, you shouldn’t miss that one. Then the typical gweilo actors whom do nothing but waste time on the screen. The one main guy, I have renamed “Evil Jesus”, just because his hair and beard. But this Jesus oh boy, he can’t act, and he can’t shoot either. From dead point range, he had to kill a guy with three bullets. Pathetic. But don’t worry, Evil Jesus finds himself, gets killed in an explosion of a gas tank.

So what is my fascination with these flicks if they have crappy actors and plots? Think about it. Yes, the action in these films is always up to snuff, and that is probably the only reason in why I would give this flick a mention. Chiba as well, has enough screen presence to get you through this otherwise mess of a film. The fight scenes still hold that charm of Chiba running through everyone, usually crushing them with his foot, and getting to where he needs to go. Some of the scenes in particular are just shown to have Chiba fighting random people. He shows up in a bath house, and he’s talking to some idiot, and then these guys just start a random fight with him. I’m not trying to be at all negative, scenes that just have off the wall fighting can be good, as in this. There’s a sequence that shows a bunch of different martial artists using different weapons, such as nun-chucks and samurai swords, what the hell was the point of that? Sure you get to see those weapons later down the road, but was that sequence necessary? Probably not. You’ve got to love the finale as Chiba takes on easily 50 guys and just goes through one by one until he reaches his goal, and kills the mob boss (Evil Jesus). The film ends with Chiba’s toothy grin and the familiar tune that I love listening to for some reason. A cheap but good song to go along with the events that later unfold.

So what do you get out of this film other than loads of good fighting? Pretty much nothing. The first Street Fighter has more gore than this one, and this film only had a few scenes that encompassed such. Being a sequel, it basically feels like the original, that gave us what we wanted in terms of action. I’m easily entertained, and in watching this film was no different from watching the first. But this film is highly outdated, from the clothes to everything that comes out of the bitch’s mouth. Then of course there is a scene that I will always remember, a little bastard kid is trying to break stones, and doesn’t, and lets out the most horrid sounding scream I have ever heard. Just thinking about it now is giving me a headache, and for some reason,

Return of the Street Fighter is a good way to go if you love the first film, or you love older kung-fu flicks. I mean Sonny Chiba is in this film, and he still can kick some major ass. But beware, this film is basically a pile of corn that has been destroyed by better and more recent flicks. But mainly, see it for entertainment and the fight scenes, and just remember that everything else in it was shit.

Rating
Plot : 1/5
Acting : 2/5
Entertainment : 4/5
Overall : 3/5

Notable Scenes
- Terry fighting goons in the bath house
- the return of Junjo
- the final fight against Evil Jesus and his flunkies.

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Return of the Street Fighter

Director : Hiroyuki Nakano
Cast :  Masanobu Ando, Megumi Okina, Kumiko Aso, Jun Murakami, Naoto Takenaka, Fimiya Fujii and Shuuhei Mainoumi.

Synopsis
Aka Kage, Aoi Kage and Asuka are trio of ninjas sent to perform dangerous secret missions for their master. Although Aka and Aoi are both in love with Asuka, the friendship built from their years of training together prevents any jealousies from forming. When Asuka is killed during a mission, however, the heartbroken Aka and Aoi both go their separate ways before returning to avenge their friend’s death.

Review
by Edward Tang

Well, I guess I should start out by saying that this is a corny flick that truly never takes us anywhere special or unique. So in what aspects can this film be saved from being a horrible piece of shit that everyone should stay away from. The story? I’m afraid the story is choppy and full of holes, as we skip from scene to scene, not really getting anywhere, and ending up in a cliche-ridden shithouse with no sink.

The acting? Basically sub-par work, the actors read their lines and truly did not know how to handle humor, as some of those parts were just plain embarrassing. The comedy aspects? I did not laugh once at this film even through it’s numerous attempts by kicking people in the nuts and tripping over shit where the actor gets up and looks all silly! This film isn’t funny, maybe it wasn’t even suppose to, but it tried hard with stupid scenes that were truly nothing interesting. The action? There’s a lack of action, especially considering this film is labeled under the genre “martial arts” on the DVD box. The fights consist of a bunch of jumping around, and messy camera angles to distract the viewer from seeing the crap clearly. Come to think of it, there really isn’t anything that makes this film special.

The story folds out like this, we get three idiot ninjas. They go on a bunch of missions, one of the ninjas dies. This happens to be the girl that both dudes have a massive erection that can’t be fulfilled by the normal requirements. So one ninja disbands, while the other continues his work and eventually joins up with a princess to protect her. He learns later that people want her dead, and since he cares about her oh so much, he has to protect her! So then, cue the corny ending with two morons running onto a beach. Frankly, the flick moved like shit. There’d be numerous scenes that wouldn’t amount to anything. In the beginning, they give this background on metal that has fallen to the Earth and is the most powerful metal in the world. That’s about it on that, it just was there and didn’t cease to annoy me. The film was very choppy, they’d jet around and we would be introduced to characters quickly, and in a later scenes, we wouldn’t have a clue who they were.

For the most part, I was bored throughout this film. Sure, there was some attempted comedy that could only muster a trip to the crapper, but there were only a few scenes that were actually interesting. The entire plot revolved around these ninjas and then out of the blue, we were given something about a girl rising up to power and taking her father’s position. Then to avoid war, she pretended to have a tank. Yeah, and sink your caps around this, she has tube-like slide in her abode. WTF? Just a bunch of crap thrown in to further piss me off. Sure the story was simple once I got who the characters were, but for some time I just watched uninterested. As for the direction, it was solid as in Samurai Fiction but is basically wasted. Sure I like seeing beautiful scenery, but for fucks sake I get the idea. Don’t even get me started on the score, one of the riffs had a Mission Impossible sound to it, that reminded me of it immediately.

As for the action scenes, I wouldn’t write home about any of them. For the most part, it’s a bunch of talking, with a bunch of small sword movements that don’t do anything for me, considering this film doesn’t really have anything going for it. As I’m thinking right now, I can’t even remember if there was an actual sword fight, because what I remember is a guy throwing NUMEROUS ninja stars at one guy, which looks pretty cool, then they overdo the fu*ckin’ thing to the point of: I GET THE POINT, YOU CAN BLOCK THE STARS, WELCOME TO CARL’S JR. I’m just letting out the steam from the view, it was 108 minutes too long. To mention another thing, the final scenes that include the Traitor and the ninja in a small duel is just horribly done, I wasn’t expecting anything after watching SF and getting basic action, but they could have stolen Yuen Wo Ping and made some shit look like gold. The bottom line is that the action is crap, which in turn makes the film crap because their is nothing in the film that can overtake the crappy action scenes.

As for the cast of flunkies, most do their part to a key. Take the main character, an eager lad who has a crush on a girl who dies. He’s a GREAT ninja, who makes a bunch of bad choices but does eventually save the day. I’ll tell you of the effect he had on the film: there were two male ninjas and I couldn’t tell them apart unless they were in full ninja gear and wearing the different colors. That’s it, well done in that aspect son, I can see you at the top as we speak. Make sure that you enjoy that top spot with the villains, all cocky and nothing to show for it. Hell, there was even a villain who couldn’t stop laughing, his quasi-evil laugh that seems forced like a bitch. I don’t know, it seemed like everyone was equally average and nothing that could really pass this film off into the serious category. I swear to God that this film seemed to be two different things all together. The beginning seemed somewhat up beat and happy, then when the girl gets the ax, everything is just crappy and boring.

I happen to have excellent judgment when it comes to films of this caliber. Do not bill a film as “MARTIAL ARTS” when it should be billed as “CAN’T TAKE SERIOUS ENOUGH TO ENJOY, FILLED WITH LOUSY ACTION, ONE DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS AND A CHOPPY STORY THAT TOTALLY F*CKS UP ANY GOOD TIME YOU COULD HAVE ON THIS FILM.” I guess it’s a fun film, but if your definition of fun includes scraping of your skull to find dust, this is the film for you. Other than those three people, stay away from this guy and concentrate on some better work from the director.

Rating
Plot : 2/5
Acting : 2/5
Entertainment : 2/5
Overall : 2/5

Notable Scenes
- N/A

Buy this movie at  YesAsia – Red Shadow

Director : Norio Tsuruta
Cast :  Hiroshi Mikami, Noriko Sakai, Maki Horikita, Mayumi Ono, Kei Yamamoto and Kazuko Yoshiyuki.

Synopsis
Newspapers are used to tell the past, but for a few unlucky individuals, they foretell the future. When Hideki picks up a newspaper he knows what he will see…death. Foretelling ill-omened fate of everything from slaying to train crashes, there is nothing Hideki can do to stop the events…or is there? When the paper predicts the demise of his daughter in a car crash, Hideki seeks out others like himself, searching for a way to change the future.

Review
by Edward Tang

With an interesting plot, a movie can be more hyped than anything. You can give a piece of shit movie a good plot on paper. This film follows that notion to a key. A movie about a newspaper that foretells your death? This could be interesting. But alas, the idea became skewed as the film basically fell down a pit and got lost in the land of throwaway.

Sure “Premonition” has a good story idea, but the point of that should be to give us something to remember. If you’ve seen such films as Ringu or Ju-on, stay with those films, because you won’t find anything new in this one. Sure there’s some “disturbing images” of faceless people and a little girl burnt up, but those images will pass with ease. The way the story follows is just plain stupid. We are thrown all these ideas, and we really never know how and why this newspaper strikes. The acting is over-the-top and forced, from anybody who cries in this film, to the weird cuts between deaths. Somebody dies and you just go home?

Maybe I’m a little bias for the fact that I hate Japanese horror films, but I don’t know how anybody could call this film good. In the first 40 minutes of this film, nothing happened! Absolutely nothing occurs to the point of moving the story along or improving characters to be actually considered likable. This film also tries to build a mystery aspect to it, which leads to nothing eventually. There is one point during the film that the couple reach a guy’s house, whom was doing research on the such paranormal apply named “newspaper of terror” or something to that degree. Anyways, when we learn of what has discovered, it leads to absolutely nothing. Basically I’m trying to say that the story leads no where. There are scenes in which try to further the story, but leave you wondering what the fuck actually happened. The main thing that pissed me off was that the story was uneven, what the newspaper actually did too people wasn’t explained. Or for that matter, why the newspaper decided to show itself to people in the first place.

But not to worry, if you can’t do without movies that are basically just a derivative of other more known films, this one is probably going to be your favorite. The lacking story is laced together with basic scenes that try to shock the audience. Granted, they don’t work, and seem forced more than anything. Then along with that, you get some moment where people get hit by cars, or are found dead in a weird way. Holy shit, how unique! Along with the gore, you are given some pretty good effects. I was impressed by a scene the involved a car that is engulfed by flames. That wasn’t the problem as far as I was concerned, at least it didn’t fall into the trap of using green blood. The film LOOKED good, but sadly what we saw other than effects, was basic trash.

The acting is basically overdone. The performances are pathetic, from horribly forced crying to people who just stand there and talk softly. Hiroshi Mikami plays the main character, and doesn’t do a bad job. I just thought his acting wasn’t anything special, I didn’t like the guy at the end of the film. But what I hated about this film is that it had characters who really didn’t mean anything to the story. There’s some woman who does something and tells the future? What the fuck? Then you’ve got the creepy girl who knows what is happening and talks really creepy. Oh I’m impressed. But the way the characters interacted, and how they dealt with situations was pretty pathetic. I mean this lady was dead in her apartment (maybe a dude) and the lady just ran away. That wasn’t nice. But I guess you have to have crappy acting to go along with a crappy movie, right?

Then we get to the finale, basically a cut-up version of the movie, throwing Hideki through a bunch of versions of death basically. This was his punishment for him changing the premonition. He knew what he had to do, he killed himself to save his daughter and wife. This did remind me of Sin City, in which Bruce Willis kills himself to save Jessica Alba’s character. But unlike Sin City’s, this ending is horribly cut and most of all, ineffective. We are given a bunch of “shocking” images and a bunch of different views of how the main event of the story goes down, but it goes so fast that you probably give a shit whether or not the conclusion is positive. I guess it isn’t so bad, but by the ending, I was sick of this movie.

This isn’t the worst Japanese horror film, and if taken in my hateful way of the following genre, you might not hate the film. But beware, we have traveled this road before and last time we weren’t knocked off our bike and raped. I’m sure if you like this sort of movie, you’ll get something out of this. Maybe I’m just cursed because I like good movies. Whatever the case may be, I say avoid this one.

Rating
Plot : 2/5
Acting : 2/5
Entertainment : 1/5
Overall : 2/5

Notable Scenes
- The final fight between Dong and Mishima

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Premonition

Director : Fumihiko Sori
Cast : Yosuke Kubozuka, Arata, Sam Lee, Naoto Takenaka, Shido Nakamura, Koji Ogura

Synopsis
Two friends, Peco and Smile are the best two table-tennis players in their school. Peco is fullof teenage attitude and often misses practise but plays games for money, while Smile (so called because he always looks miserable) practices but only actually plays to kill time. The two friends enter a tournament and Peco loses miserably and takes it badly, while Smile is convinced by his coach Ota to start playing seriously. As they enter local tournaments the two friends and some of the players around them find that they are maturing in their outlook on the sport – and their lives.

Review
by Martin Cleary

Based on a manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, Ping Pong takes what seems to be an unlikely sport (for the cinema) and turns it into a decent sports-comedy-drama. The two friends Peco and Smile (played by Yosuke Kubozuka and Arata) provide the central plot. This initially seems to be a strange friendship as Smile is a bit of a miserable sod while Peco is a loud show-off. We soon learn that the two became friends as children when Peco saved Smile from being beaten up. The differences in the friends personalities reflects in their approaches to their sport – Peco plays for fun but also to win, while Smile plays to kill time and will not try to win if it hurts his opponents feelings.

Also thrown into the mix are the Chinese player Kong who has come to Japan with an aim to play professionally (sadly he receives racial abuse from almost everyone he plays), Sakuma – nicknamed Demon – who has spent his life obsessively dedicated to the sport and practices constantly to be a better player even though he has no ‘natural ability’, and Kazuma – a determined and aggressive player who obsesses over every game and his selfish need to be the best. Like the best ‘sports movies’, this film isn’t really about its central sport at all, but it’s a character piece where table-tennis merely brings different aspects of their character to the surface. The films strength is in its set-up as each individual has someone who is almost their opposite – the way the characters interact with one another highlights different strengths and weaknesses of themselves and their opponents. The central figure of Peco provides a lot of the films laughs – he’s a colourful character when everyone else seems to be taking themselves seriously – and the film follows his maturity into a sportsman with some responsibility, both to himself and those around him. Each central character in the film is well defined enough – if not particularly complex – and they’re an enjoyable bunch to follow. Ping Pong is a likable film because it’s easy viewing and never gets bogged down with a heavy plot yet manages to juggle it’s gang of colourful characters pretty well.

All of the main group seem perfectly cast, as do the two teachers, Smiles coach Ota (played by Naoto Takenaka) and Peco’s mentor Granny from his local club. There’s some decent use of CG shots in the film. These are not overused in the games but sparingly – which is very effective – as well as to compliment a few of the films more slightly surreal moments (watch out for the films ‘butterfly’ imagery). Sometimes you just want to watch a lighthearted film, and Ping Pong is ideal – although it’s not just fluff. It’s a good teen-flick that for some reason seems old-fashioned (in a good way) with its ‘teenagers growing up’ story.

Rating
Plot : 3/5
Acting : 3/5
Entertainment : 4/5
Overall : 3/5

Notable Scenes
- Peco’s childish reaction to losing
- Granny ‘flashes’ while training
- The tournament final

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Ping Pong

Director & Writer : Shinya Tsukamoto
Cast : Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki, Kazuyoshi Kushida, Lily and Hana Kino.

Review
by Edward Tang

From the man who brought us the classic mindfuck Tetsuo comes another flick that shows his greatness in every scene. There are very few directors out there who establish themselves to a point where as if you were to see a single frame of their movies, you could tell what director was doing the job and his name is all over this one. Perhaps not everyone is familiar with the name, if not check out some of his great works like the already mentioned Tetsuo, Snake in June, Tokyo Fist or Bullet Ballet. Vital is a basic film that really doesn’t showcase notable odd and plain ol’ nasty shit that the man is usually known for but this shows how he has matured as a director, not needing the violent factor (shame) to spice up the night rather than displaying his excellent style of direction and interesting visuals.

Hiroshi Takagi (Asano) gets into a violent car accident that almost kills him but he does survive although his girlfriend isn’t so lucky. When he does awake later on, he can’t remember a thing. He goes back home with his parents to see if that can put that turn his mind around, instead he is drawn to a book about dissection and immediately enrolls in a medical school. We learn later that just before the accident, Takagi lost interest in medicine and became some what of a drifter. Part of the medical schooling features the students taking part in dissecting corpses and for some reason Takagi seems to recognize his project. He later finds out that the corpse he’s dissecting is his former girlfriend.

The story is fairly simple to follow, I’ve heard people bitch about how it got confusing when they’d cut to one of Takagi’s memories quickly and then simply go back to the present situation but that wasn’t really a problem for me. It’s truly interesting going into the main character’s mind as he discovers small memories left and right (his memories don’t feel like true memories, notes Takagi). The film is not without it’s messages that circle around the importance of memories to humans, do we see what we want to see? Tsukamoto adds his flair by directing Takagi’s memories like they were pieces of art from his girlfriend’s dancing style to the bright colors in some of the scenes. I liked the scenes that involved Takagi visiting the parents of his girlfriend, her father noting that his daughter had changed and seemed to have lost her “light.”

Tsukamoto’s direction shines throughout, from his editing style to his art that makes you simply look at the screen and take in the images. I enjoyed alot of his direction, especially in the dissection scenes. The dissection scenes were done in such a way, you could hear the flesh on metal sound and feel every single moment of them as Takagi would jot down his sketches of the mashed up bodies in such a frenzied type way. I’d say if there was a strong point in the film, it’d be the direction because the story can get dull in some spots. All of the scenes that involved his girlfriend and him with their sexual fetish for strangling each other or just them simply sitting on the beach were all well done. Tsukamoto handles all of this without going back to the fuckall technique of showing mangled body parts and blood just for the sake of it being there (there are some notable scenes like this but very few). One of my favorite shots from the entire flick was one which showed Takagi talking to his girlfriend’s father as Tsukamoto slowly motions the camera around him, showing the picture of his wife sitting next to his daughter (showcasing that his WIFE had just passed on from a disease revealed earlier in the film).

The performances are pretty good as well, Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer) portrays the long haired and brain damaged Takagi with expressions and mannerisms rather than with dialog (He has very few lines to say in this film) and does a remarkable job. The two leading ladies (Kiki and Nami Tsukamoto) both do a good job as well, dealing with the characters on how they should be done with some random outburts but they still the job the right way. The secondary characters in the film (The parents of both Takagi and Ryoko) have a little more time to get their characters developed so obviously they have more characteristics that would fall into the human category (while the Asano and Tsukamoto characters seem more off beat and dream like in some sense).

For a film, Vital has much going for that includes stellar direction, worthy performances and a plot that is actually interesting and covers some good topics. It’s actually a surprise to see the director of something like Tetsuo come out with a more mild version (still has its moments of pure intensity) of what he throws out at you. It’s a solid movie experience and showcases one of the more under-appreciated directors at work doing his fuckin’ thing the right way and that’s always worth something.

Rating
Plot : 4/5
Acting : 4/5
Entertainment : 3/5
Overall : 4/5

Notable Scenes
- The autopsy scenes
- Hiroshi’s flashbacks and bizarre dreams.

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Vital

Director : Ryuhei Kitamura
Cast : Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda, Yuichiro Arai, Minoru Matsumoto, and Kazuhito Ohba

Synopsis
A pair of escaped convicts meet up with a group of gangsters by a remote forest road. After an argument over a girl the mobsters have kidnapped, shots are fired and one of the gangsters is killed. The standoff is cut short, however, when the dead man suddenly springs to life and starts trying to kill his former friends. The zombie eventually goes down in a hail bullets, but their problems aren’t over. It seems the gangsters have been using this forest to dispose of of their victims, all of whom are now looking to settle some old scores. Even if they get through this mess, there is still the question of why they’ve arranged to meet the convicts out here, and why they’ve brought along the girl. How are they connected to the dead bodies coming back to life?

Review
by Edward Tang

I give this movie a perfect score, 5/5 because what it does, it takes an unfamiliar plot and mixes it in with zombies and pure action. I’m a pushover when it comes to flicks like these, completely over the top destruction and a few comedic moments here and there. Versus is a great film because it is non-stop entertainment, backed on with a plot that looked good and delivered the goods in an easy, but interesting way. I’m a realist, films like this aren’t made every day, and when they are, you can’t help but smile and enjoy what you are seeing on the screen. Give me this any day over the dreck I continue to waste money on, every time I got the local theater. Okay, maybe not that bad, but Ben Affleck or Keanu Reeves as an action hero? Give me a break, and a kit kat bar as well. As Versus remains off key, and totally out there with some of the stuff that they dish out, I was asking for more the entire time. Seeing that Kitamura has green lighted the second installment, he better not let me down, I don’t think that my childish lust for blood and zombies can be contained for much longer! (Note: Don’t feed the animals)

So when the film begins, I didn’t care for it that much. It looked like it was going to be another worthless Yakuza movie (The first time I saw it was on a plane, it cut out the beginning moments with the samurai and began with the prisoners escaping). Basically as it moved along, and when the guy turned into a zombie, my interests were peaked. As we got into the story, we learned of the connection between the girl, the man and the prisoner. I thought it was at least an interesting approach, why continue to bask in the boring, familiar Michael Bay vehicles when you can have Zombies? Answer that question, and you get a prize. I’d rather see a Samurai take on zombies and prevent his enemy from opening a portal rather than Bruce Willis flying to destroy a meteor. (Armageddon sucked). But as the film got along, the action was noticed the most, and I thought anyway, that the main bad guy “The Man” was pretty damn cool as well. We end with the familiar guy saves girl and destroys bad guy, but do we? 99 Years Later, it seems that everything is not what it seems, and obviously it leaves this bad boy open for a sequel.

Tak Sakaguichi played the main character, more or less. His approach to the kickass prisoner, who was a former samurai was pretty decent. The guy was a old-fashioned dude as well, he didn’t mind to hit women but when someone else did, oh boy, they sure didn’t live to long after it. Tak is okay, not the best, and I just almost threw ravioli at the screen as he puts on the shades in a cornpone Tom Cruise way like from Mission Impossible 2. Please, anytime I’m reminded of MI2, I lose another tooth. Hideo Sakaki plays the villian, an awesome guy with great power and someone not to mess around with. He sold the role to me as he was talking to the girl and then begins to laugh when he unveils his plan all along. Chieko Misaka plays the Girl, and she was good for her role as well. She plays the basic girl, she gets beat up, saved, and even makes a good crack at the end. “I Should have been on your side”, ah yes, fucked up didn’t ya? The other only prominent mention probably goes to the guy in the green suit, who was pretty damn funny, and the guy they refer to as little runt, who just gets pistol whipped about 15 times. Those guys added to the comedic dimension that films of this caliber never tend to try and tackle.

I always enjoy films that have a bunch of little pieces from different genres. Case in point, this flick can be considered a: Samurai! Action! Drama! Comedy! Horror! Science Fiction!

Hell even a bit of romance in thrown into the flick, to make it seem that it has a little more that everyone can enjoy. Action sequences can be a bunch of different ways, bloody, fun, messy, whatever. This flick has all of those in some shape or form. I mean, to let everyone know who hasn’t seen it, they zombies truly aren’t anything of a match to the humans. They basically walk around like idiots and wait to get shot. But the sheer fact that there are zombies in a film like this, is the reason that it succeeds. Seeing the comedy they sprinkled over some of the more serious parts made the film even better. Nobody would take this film seriously if they saw it, and that is what makes it great. Sure we are talking about opening a portal to another dimension, but we can still have a guy with one hand point with his nub and then realize that he doesn’t have a hand there.

The final battle, long awaited in the decrepit mind of a person who just loves when the stage is set and when everything is coming to a close. The final battle in a film such as this has to be memorable, or it would make a very handsome person like me forget that this film had worthy moments throughout. It does succeed for the most part, it seemed to go by fast, and had typical results. I also hate the flashback thing during a fight, and they use it to an advantage here. Evil is slayed and we await for a few more lines of dialog until we reach the finale. The director truly has some skills, as I saw from Azumi recently, his films are enjoyable to the point that I could watch them again and again. Rewatchability is the number one aspect that I look for in flicks, if I can watch it again and it still remains as a good film, that is all that matters to me (the film does have to actually be good, remember).

What to say about Versus? It has a strange plot that is easily saved by great direction and truly great scenes of action. Hell I was smiling the entire time as well, that is something I rarely do. (I’d go blind if I saw my pearly whites). But all and all, this film delivers shiploads of entertainment that many films that have tried the same direction have failed. See it and take it for what it is, and you’ll find yourself enjoying a film that has zombies and hand-less police officers.

Rating
Plot : 4/5
Acting : 3/5
Entertainment : 5/5
Overall : 4/5

Notable Scenes
- The Man versus Prisoner KSC2-303

Buy this movie at YesAsia – Versus