The Chaser

	Rating: 5 out of 5 Original Title: Chugyeogja Release Date: 2008 Director: Hong-jin Na Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

Ip Man

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2008 Director: Wilson Yip Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

Gurren Lagann

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Tengen toppa gurren lagann Release Date: 2007-2009 Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

Linda Linda Linda

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2005 Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

Shinjuku Incident

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: San suk si gin Release Date: 2009 Director: Tung-Shing Yee Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

Protégé

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Moon To Release Date: 2007 Director: Tung-Shing Yee Netflix Link IMDb Link

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.

2009: Lost Memories

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: 2009 로스트 메모리즈 Release Date: 2002 Director: Si-myung Lee Netflix Link IMDb Link

The first problem with this film is that it’s over two hours long. It could have easily been chopped down to just over an hour. The second problem is that, even though it actually has a unique story line involving an alternate version of history, it still somehow manages to be incredibly boring, cliched and predictable. Plus, the way they filmed it, including but not limited to the incongruous piano score, made it seem like a soap opera. Actually, to be fair, it has way better production values than your average soap opera. Let’s say it makes it seem more like a chick flick. There is a ton of angst in this film with people staring out of windows out at the horizon while the rain pelts allegorically against the plate glass windows. Sigh.

The third problem is that the story is all over the map as far as subplots, geography and timeline. It starts off with an execution scene from a hundred years ago, which barely ties into the rest of the story. By the time it’s mentioned again, you’ve forgotten about it altogether. You think to yourself, “Oh, that scene was in this movie?” since there’s no way that human memory can remember that far back as it seems that you’ve been watching this movie for three years. Maybe that’s what the lost memories in the title is referring to.

Anyway, 2009: Lost Memories isn’t a bad movie, but it’s not a good movie either. It ends up being merely something to watch. We can do better.

Battle of the Warriors

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Mo Gong Release Date: 2006 Director: Jacob Cheung Netflix Link IMDb Link

Another large scale historicalish Chinese period war movie. How many of these has China made in the last decade or so? A lot. Battle of the Warriors has the same general elements as most of the others: a peaceful city in peril from a really evil invader where they are outnumbered at least two to one, a brilliant military strategist who will outmaneuver the really evil bad guy to save the day, lots and lots of arrows flying, gushing blood, an angsty “war is evil” scene, a quasi-love story, etc, etc, etc. It’s good, but it doesn’t stand out all that much from others in the same genre. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find any film these days that comes anywhere close to the spectacle that is Red Cliff, but it is worth watching if you like these types of films.

Dora-Heita

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2000 Director: Kon Ichikawa Netflix Link IMDb Link

Something in the opening credits caught my eye: screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa and Masaki Kobayashi. Four of Japan’s greatest and most prolific directors collaborated on a single screenplay and the story does not disappoint.

It is an elaborate tale of corruption and double-crosses, with a little bit of fighting and a whole lot of intrigue. Dora-Heita, expertly played by Koji Yakusho, is pitted between corrupt officials and corrupt yakuza bosses, all of whom would like nothing better than for him to go away by any means necessary. The character of Dora-Heita actually reminds me a little bit of Kurosawa’s character, Yojimbo, in the sense that he is blustery and gruff, places little value on authority, and will get the job done how he wants to, not how they tell him to. The samurai in this film are not the typical variety you see in jidaigeki who go about fighting in wars or slashing up bad guys, but rather, they are officials. Dora-Heita is a magistrate, akin to a police officer and a judge rolled into one, brought in to clean up a certain troublesome neighborhood.

That being said, in typical Ichikawa fashion, the film does drag a bit in spots and it’s not altogether as tight as it could have been. Still, this is a pretty entertaining story, made even more so by Koji Yakusho’s performance. Recommended to fans of the samurai genre.

Soo

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Korean: 수 Release Date: 2007 Director: Yoichi Sai Netflix Link IMDb Link

The most discouraging kind of film, for me, is the kind that has a lot of potential, but just never makes the best use of it. That is the case with Soo. There are a great number of things I liked about it – the cinematography, the cast, the sound effects, the incredibly raw and powerful violence – but I found the sum total of its parts to be lacking. First of all, it’s over 2 hours long when it doesn’t really need to be. If they had chopped at least a half an hour out of it, it would have made for a much tighter story. Secondly, the plot was a little bit what the fuck? I won’t go into detail for the sake of spoilers, but some of the actions by the character made me wonder if they weren’t a little off in the head or maybe not even human.

And finally, even though the fight scenes in this film are supremely badass, they furthered the concept that maybe this wasn’t a story about humans after all, but about robots; battle robots who have seen a few movies about humans and are doing their best impersonation of what they think they are, but fail. In John Woo style, Soo teaches us that nobody ever runs out of ammo unless it’s integral to the plot, you can get stabbed at least 15 times and still fight back, and body parts, like ears, are surprisingly easy to rip off with your bare hands. If you’re the main character, you can can get repeatedly stabbed, shot at least three times, beaten with baseball bats, crowbars, fists, feet and whatever other bludgeoning tools are at hand, and you can still fight until you get retribution. See? Robots.

Unfortunately, Soo makes the cinema cardinal sin of not being bad or good, but of simply being mediocre. It’s not entirely unwatchable and worth a shot if you like violent revenge films, but it’s not anything I would strongly recommend.