Pleasures of the Flesh is part of the new Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties, which I’m slowly working my way through. I have a hard time mustering up the desire to watch a lot of the Eclipse sets since it seems that Criterion throws them anything they don’t really want to give the full Criterion treatment.

Pleasures of the Flesh might as well be called “Women Will Fuck Up Your Life” since that’s the basic premise. It’s a fairly unique story which is a mixture of Brewster’s Millions and any movie where a guy falls for a girl with disastrous results. It gets some points for originality, but otherwise, there’s not all that much here to recommend. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.

The Chaser is a Korean crime thriller which was really surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting all that much with it, but it surpassed my expectations by a long shot. Once it gets rolling, it just never stops. I had a few minor quibbles over two minor plot points and just a few of the scenes didn’t really seem to go anywhere, but all things considered, it’s a very small complaint compared to the overall film. The Koreans are making some excellent films and the Chaser is definitely one of them. I love how they don’t always follow the traditional Hollywood ending wrap up, but do things their own way. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Starring Donnie Yen with Sammo Hung choreographing; what’s not to love? This is a supposedly true biopic set before and during the Japanese occupation of China during WW2. The real message of the movie is that the Chinese are far superior martial artists and people in general than the Japanese. According to this film, the Japanese are evil, they will shoot you in the head for any reason and they suck at kung fu. But, all is well in the end since “the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to China and China won” (that’s actually in the closing text scroll). I always thought that the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allied forces because the US dropped two massive bombs on them, but what do I know. It was actually China that did all the heavy lifting. The main problem I have with Chinese cinema, other than their treatment of horses, is they sometimes try to pass things off as fact, when the facts they present are only half truths at best. 4 stars anyway for some killer martial arts.

Hmmmm. Gurren Lagann starts off like a Japanese animation series like any other. The first volume is comprised of elements that could be in any other mecha anime series; an unwitting main character bestowed with powers, an over the top smart ass character who spurs him along on a quest, other characters added along the way, and even a love interest, but then it just keeps going. Gurren Lagann has a dozen different places where it could end, but it just refuses to die. Oh, that’s the end, right? No, it’s still going. That’s gotta be the end, right? Nope. The plot just doesn’t stop, but morphs into something bigger every time you think it’s over, until eventually they’re battling the whole damn universe and beyond.

The difference is, that unlike an American show where they drag things out after the ending for ratings and more money, this one seems intentional. It seems as though they want you to think it’s all nicely wrapped up only to sucker punch you with something else. The only annoyance with this series was the clip episode stuck somewhere in the middle. I don’t need a wrap of of what’s already happened, thanks. Gurren Lagann is not spectacularly great, but it’s certainly fairly original as far as mecha anime goes.

Another Japanese High School movie; my expectations were pretty low, and rightly so, but Linda Linda Linda has a lot of heart. Even though it does seem like a manga come to life, complete with the choppy sequences and little denouements everywhere, it manages to be engaging. What makes this movie is its cast and the ridiculously catchy songs by The Blue Hearts that they play. I’d never heard of that band before, but they seem to be something of icons in Japanese culture. They’re referred to as punk, but that’s a bit of a stretch. Still, the songs are, in fact, quite insistent on staying put in your brain.

The cast is excellent, the story leaves a bit to be desired, but overall, it’s worth a watch if you’re into this sort of thing. I think I might even go and scare up some of the original tunes by The Blue Hearts. Linda Linda Linda isn’t among the best of its genre, but it’s certainly above average.

I don’t know why I expected anything good from Jackie Chan after he jumped the shark with that babysitting spy movie (which released in the US first). I figured since this was an HK movie instead of pure Hollywood tripe, it might be alright. I figured wrong. With the exception of Daniel Wu in a silver wig (for no apparent reason), there is not a damn thing in this movie I haven’t seen elsewhere a billion times.

Since there are no martial arts scenes, Shinjuku Incident relies heavily on the plot which is its major failing. When it bothers to make sense, it’s clichéd, but most of the time it doesn’t even do that. The character motivations are nonsensical and the transformations they make over the course of the film are not only unbelievable; they’re ridiculous. The only really interesting thing about it is the portrayal of Japanese xenophobia, but even that has been done better elsewhere. Shinjuku Incident takes an interesting, promising premise and runs it into the ground. It’s also overly long, it drags; it has no martial arts, little violence and not enough gushing blood. Boooo. 3 meh stars.

It’s probably evident throughout this blog that I’ll watch pretty much anything with one of my favorite actors in it. I’ve waded through a lot of direct-to-video nonsense due to my irrational completism. That torrid, romance novel cover alone would normally steer me away from this film. Purple Noon falls into the ‘I wouldn’t have even bothered watching this if not for Alain Delon’ category.

Purple Noon was remade as The Talented Mr. Ripley. I haven’t seen the remake, nor am I likely to, but if it’s anything like the original, I certainly wouldn’t bother now. I can’t imagine that Matt Damon could come anywhere near Delon’s awesomeness, and really, Delon is the only reason to watch this film.

Purple Noon is supposed to be a thriller. Perhaps I’m a little jaded on the concept of what is thrilling, but this wasn’t it. Hitchcock did it better in Rope. By that I mean that we know whodunnit and the tension lies merely in whether the killer will be caught and how.

If you’re interested in seeing Delon in a swimsuit, it’s worth a watch, but others really needn’t bother. Although, I would probably recommend this version over the remake (that I haven’t seen), but 9 times out of 10, I’d do that anyway.

I do love a good heist movie, and In China They Eat Dogs has one of the most interesting capers I’ve seen. It also has one of the dumbest resolutions ever. If not for the ending, I definitely would have given it 4 stars, but no, they had to go and ruin it. I have no choice but to drop a whole star off of my rating because of the ending and it’s lucky to get that.

In China They Eat Dogs definitely had potential. It has a good cast, some moments of humor, and even some really big explosions and lots of gushing blood. It also has an an interesting snowball-effect plot where the every-man protagonist attempts to change his life and seeks help from his violent, criminal brother setting off a downward slide deeper into the hole they dug for themselves. Again, I say, if it hadn’t been for the atrocious resolution that, quite frankly, pissed me off, this would have been a good film, but as it is, it’s a fail. It is worth watching up until the last five to ten minutes though. I’d recommend just making up your own ending.

I watched this one because it stars Daniel Wu, Andy Lau and Louis Koo. What more could you as for? Well, how about a plot I haven’t seen a million times before? To be fair, it does throw in some fairly unique scenes involving Daniel Wu trying to save a junkie and how drugs are really bad for you. Wait, nope, I’ve seen that before. Actually, I’ve seen that before in another Daniel Wu film even. Hmm, OK then. Protégé is also overly long at nearly two hours. A lot of the scenes don’t really go anywhere. Do we really need to go traipsing through poppy fields throwing candy to children while riding an elephant? Oh, I guess we do.

Anyway, Andy Lau is brilliant, as usual, and Daniel Wu, while he’s an excellent actor, furthers the notion that he doesn’t actually have any teeth since he never once smiles. I barely recognized Louis Koo at all. Protégé is not highly recommended, but it’s worth a watch I suppose. I’ve rounded up to 4 stars since it was better than mediocre. It’s slightly better than meh, but not good enough to be good.

If you've been paying attention, you know that I'm quite taken with a lot of the Korean crime dramas I've seen lately. The problem with No. 3 is that there's nothing "lately" about it. It is yet another curious example of a late 90's film looking and feeling like a late 80's film. Matters are not helped any by the magical mullet sported by the lead actor (it's on the cover). Instead of a tense, edge of your seat thriller, it ends up being just another Korean gangster dramazzzzzzzzz. This film probably came out before they knew what the hell they were doing. Min-Sik Choi, who's one of my favorite Korean actors and most likely the reason I bothered watching this in the first place, has a relatively small part. For what it's worth, it's been about a week since I saw this one, and already, I've pretty much forgotten the plot. There are a lot of good Korean gangster dramas out there, but this is not necessarily one of them.  I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're really desperate for something to watch. No. 3 gets my ho-hum rating of 3 stars. In fact, to cleanse my Min-sik Choi pallet, after watching this, I watched Thirst again.