One of the nice bonuses of 2007’s Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez tribute to low-rent cinema, Grindhouse, was a flurry of DVD releases of exploitation movies.  One notable set was a batch of “Welcome to the Grindhouse” double feature DVDs by BCI / Eclipse, which offered similarly themed genre pictures along with a “grindhouse experience” of titles and trailers.  

Along with horror and women-in-prison flicks, “Welcome to the Grindhouse” offers up some old chop socky films, and what better than the public-domain exploits of badass extraordinaire Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba and his Japan Action Club, featuring the lovely, talented and deadly Etsuko “Sue” Shiomi.  One such title features the 1976 films Dragon Princess (Hissatsu onna kenshi) and Karate Warriors (Kozure satsujin ken) (Another release features Chiba and Shiomi in The Bodyguard and Sister Street Fighter.)

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Here it is – the film that launched the kung fu movie craze in the United States.  Before even the rise of Bruce Lee, King Boxer (Tian xia di yi quan, 1972), also known as Five Fingers of Death, was a surprise hit on the drive-in and grindhouse circuit. 

In June 2007, Dragon Dynasty released a superbly presented DVD as part of its growing Shaw Brothers collection.  The result is a classic example of chop socky history and an excellent kung fu flick in its own right.  Its relatively complex plot combines popular themes of honor, betrayal, revenge and the handing out of righteous beat-downs.

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When I visited Japan in 2006, I was lucky enough to get a short tour of Studio Gonzo, the anime studio responsible for Basilisk and Gankutsuou. At the time they were promoting two new series pretty heavily, Black Cat and Solty Rei. I have never been a particular fan of Gonzo’s work (in my opinion they have pretty art but lousy stories), so I never thought anything more about either series until the complete collection of Solty Rei arrived in my mailbox. I had some reservations, considering Gonzo’s previous track record, but I figured, why not? I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

The world of Solty Rei is futuristic and not entirely unfamiliar. Twelve years prior to the beginning of the series, an unexplained disaster occurred in the unnamed city where the show takes place. The Blast Fall, as it is popularly known, is spoken of in only the vaguest terms. This disaster killed thousands of people and maimed thousands more, and in the resulting chaos many others simply disappeared. Yet no one seems to know exactly what happened.

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Mushishi has the rather dubious distinction of being one of the most critically acclaimed and popularly ignored anime of the past few years. It’s easy to see why: the show has no nearly-naked girls, no giant robots, no vampires, and no ninjas. What it does have are compelling characters, gorgeous art, understated storytelling and an engaging concept. It’s a gentle yet powerful series, and anime for grown-ups who liked to be moved and made to think at the same time. And that’s exactly why it will never be popular.

The series is based on the manga by Yuki Urushibara. First, the concept: mushi are simple creatures, with no more intelligence or motivation than a bacteria. Their existence is so ancient and primal, in fact, that most higher-functioning creatures aren’t aware of them; on the whole, mushi are invisible t the human eye. Despite this simplicity, they come in an astonishing array of shapes, sizes and colors. Many resemble deep sea animals like squid or jellyfish; others look like primitive worms, birds, or snakes, and still others appear as corkscrews or formless masses. Some mushi eat silence; others eat mall animals or plants or eyeballs. Some live in rafters, some in caves, some in human bodies. The one thing all mushi have in common is that at some point, each variety causes will cause trouble for humans. This is where mushishi come in, a rare breed of human who can see and interact with mushi. Their abilities often attract mushi, so to avoid causing trouble for their neighbors they live on the road, acting as wandering problem-solvers, stopping in towns and villages troubles by mushi. Since little is known about mushi, mushishi rely on mushi lore passed down from their teachers, knowledge swapped with other mushishi and their own innovations.

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Jet Li’s Fearless is a historical epic without the epic, based on a true story of which little is actually used, and is, supposedly, Jet Li’s last martial arts film (so just what does he call The Forbidden Kingdom?).

The movie tells the life story of Huo Yuanjia, a Chinese cultural hero. At the turn of the century Yuanjia is a little boy, the son of a wushu (martial arts) master. He desperately wants to learn wushu, but his father insists he do boring things instead, like learning to read and write. Luckily Yuanjia’s best friend, Jinsun, is a brainy kid who can forge Yuanjia’s lessons. But Yuanjia is disturbed when he sees his father hold back a killing blow in a match, resulting in his losing the fight. When Yuanjia’s father dies, he is finally free to practice wushu. He swears he will never lose a match to anyone.

The film jumps ahead several years; Yuanjia is now an adult, a widower with a spoiled daughter. He lives with his mother and, true to his childhood vow, is a famous local marital artist who has never lost a match. But his success has made him arrogant and unlikeable. He is heavily in debt due to his frequent lavish victory celebrations and is generally disliked for his rude manners. At a perceived slight from rival wushu master Chin, Yuanjia crashes Chin’s birthday party and, in the ensuing battle, kills him. In retaliation Chin’s nephew murders Yuanjia’s mother and daughter. Distraught, Yuanjia flees his home town. He travels aimlessly, eventually ending up in a remote valley where he is nursed back to the health by kindly villagers. Under their care Yuanjia slowly lets go of his anger and learns to live in peace.

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As the credits rolled at the end of Lust, Caution, I turned to my husband and said, “That’s the best movie Ang Lee has ever made.”

I feel I’m qualified to make this statement since I’ve seen nearly ever Ang Lee film. Lust, Caution is better than The Wedding Banquet, better than Eat Drink Man Woman, better than Sense and Sensibility and Hulk, better than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, or Brokeback Mountain. I don’t think it’s too soon to say that Lust, Caution will be seen as his life’s masterpiece.

Lust, Caution (based on a short story by the legendary author Eileen Chang) is both epic and intensely personal. The film is set before and during the World War II Japanese occupation of China. Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang) is a young woman alone; her father has moved to England with her stepmother and brother, and Wong isn’t terribly surprised when his promise to send for her comes to nothing. She goes to university in Hong Kong, where she falls in with a group of idealistic young students. When news of the Japanese invasion reaches Hong Kong, they decide to raise money for a Chinese resistance group by putting on a patriotic play. A reluctant Wong is voted into the starring role. She turns out to be a natural talent, and the donations roll in.

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Anyway you cut it, Heroes of the East is a fine example of classic martial-arts filmmaking. The name Lau Kar Leung may not immediately ring a bell with younger fans of the genre, but if you’ve seen Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master 2 (aka Legend of the Drunken Master), his performance as the tough-as-nails Fu Wen-Chi is nigh-unforgettable, and on more than one level.

The character portrayed by Jackie Chan, Wong Fei-Hung, is well-known to martial arts film enthusiasts as the subject of over 100 films stretching back to the beginnings of China’s movie industry. Lau Kar Leung, a well-respected martial artist in his own right, studied under one of the real-life Wong Fei Hung’s students, making him a living link to this legendary figure. To say that he’s as good a director as he is a martial-artist is a high compliment, and after viewing Heroes of the East I’d say it’s a distinction he rightly earns.

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There’s a certain irony to Vexille that sets in quickly after the opening credits. The film’s central theme is the subjugation of humanity by an increasing reliance on technology. And yet, the film is itself an example of the very sin the screenwriters seek to purge.

Following closely on the massive success of the CGI film Appleseed, director Fumihiko Sori (aka ‘Sori’) uses the same 2D/3D approach that made the former film a smash hit amongst anime enthusiasts, both here and abroad. Instead of adapting another well-known work, however, Vexille is an entirely new universe, albeit one that borrows heavily from Shirow-san in more ways than one. The result is a film that *almost* succeeds despite itself, a beautiful-looking but fairly run-of-the-mill experience that reminds you of better films, but doesn’t quite achieve their level of success.

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There’s not a lot of science fiction horror out there, but what there is runs the gamut of quality. There are really good sf/horror movies (Sunshine), really bad sf/horror movies (Event Horizon) and a few that fall right in the middle, like the 2006 Taiwanese film Silk.

Silk begins, as all good stories do, with an unexplained death. A Canadian photographer is taking pictures in an empty apartment in Taipei, at the behest of some scientists. Apparently he is trying to get shots of a ghost said to haunt the place, but no one is more surprised than he when he actually does get pictures of the ghost, a little boy. He is found dead the next morning, and the scientists quickly cover it up so they can move on with their research, of which the dead child is an integral part.

The team’s leader, Hashimoto, has invented something called the “Menger Sponge” a material that absorbs energy (the Menger Sponge can somehow be applied to create an antigravity effect, but since this isn’t real science the explanations make no sense). Hashimoto theorizes that ghosts are really just energy, so if he can coat a room in his substance he should be able to hold one captive and find out just how ghosts are generated. But even though they can cage the boy, they can’t get any information from him- he talks to himself sometimes, but has no voice.

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The 2003 Korean film The Uninvited shares a title with a 1944 Hollywood movie that starred Ray Milland. The Milland movie is a haunted house story. The Korean The Uninvited at first seems to have a similar theme, but in the end the two movies share little more than a title. Both, however, are shiver-inducing films that will stuck in your head long after the credits roll.

The film begins with an undeniably creepy setup. Jung-won, a talented interior designer, is riding the subway home one evening and dozes off. He wakes as the train pulls into the last station. In his scramble to get off the train he notices two small girls, apparently asleep in their seats. Assuming someone will find them and take them home, he returns to his apartment and to his bossy fiancée, Hee-eun.

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