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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Jackie Chan's NEW POLICE STORY; Sequel ONE MISSED CALL 2
Jackie Chan revived his POLICE STORY franchise by slapping NEW in front and making it more dramatic -- his squad is killed in front of his helpless eyes and he becomes an alcoholic until a young cop gets him...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 05:27 AM
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Yes, it is LATE SPRING
Dig deep into your pockets, folks, it's time to fork over two twenties for another Criterion release. Here's the sales pitch in their own words: "One of the most powerful of Yasujiro Ozu’s family portraits, Late Spring tells the story...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 07:36 PM
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006
18 Fingers May Kill You
Sorry for the delay in posting this week. This is an arid time for Region 1 Asian releases, so if you're aimlessly wandering around the "New Releases" section of your local rental shops and come across 18 FINGERS OF DEATH!,...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 09:18 PM
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Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Rural Laughs, Gorgeous Beauty
Fighting for shelf space against BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, look for Gong Li in THE STORY OF QUI JU. Amazon lists the DVD as being released last week, but whatever the case, it might be hard to...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 12:04 AM
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Tough Miike
Once upon a time, prolific Japanese auteur Takashi Miike was barely represented on Region 1 DVD shelves. Now, thanks to companies like Arts Magic DVD, more and more of his prodigious output is coming to light. OSAKA TOUGH GUYS "Regarded...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 10:38 AM
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Slow News Day
No new releases this week. Takashi Miike's OSAKA TOUGH GUYS is due from Arts Magic next Tuesday, so get your pre-orders in now....
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 04:10 AM
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Chilling and Bizarre
Minor health problems have plagued me for the past month, salvaged by a mostly enjoyable week-long working vacation. Back to the DVD salt mines! MAREBITO Out on R1 DVD today is the latest from the director of JU-ON. Here's the...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 05:10 AM
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Scared Soldiers, Life in a Theme Park, Adultery and Beauty
DVD releases this week give Region 1 readers an opportunity to catch up with two recent festival favorites as well as check out two classics by Zhang Yimou that star Gong Li. R-POINT Korean film from late in 2004 about...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 07:49 PM
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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Erotic, Bizarre, and Arid
Between Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Michelango Antonioni, which is which? Wong's film is a riff on 2046 that feels warm and sticky. The heat emanates from subtle gestures, sneaky glances, and flashes of flesh. With Gong Li and Chang...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 01:07 AM
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Monday, January 23, 2006
Thunderbolt and, uh, I forgot...
Sundance occupies the cinema blogosphere right, and rightly so, but it's not easy to find much about foreign-language films premiering there. On the other hand, Region 1 dwellers might easily find a couple of new Asian pictures on disk. THUNDERBOLT...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 08:47 PM
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Gather Ye Forces
Kenji Mizoguchi's UGETSU (1953) came out last week. It sounds fabulous (details here at the Home Vision site). The PINKY VIOLENCE COLLECTION has been delayed a few weeks, and is now set for release on December 6. Read the details...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 07:22 AM
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Revenge of the Samurai
It's a splendid week for fans of classic Samurai films to have access to money and a DVD player, though some may prefer a dark and haunting Korean thriller. This Week's Region 1 DVD Releases REBEL SAMURAI: SIXTIES SWORDPLAY CLASSICS...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 08:40 PM
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Monday, October 17, 2005
Support Asian American Films
Busy busy on a very rainy day in Los Angeles: two screenings, more to come this week, and plenty of work that might actually pay me a little. But there's always time to recommend Alice Wu's SAVING FACE and the...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 10:32 PM
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Monday, October 10, 2005
Unborn, Unleashed Unrated
Here's a link to a sale at Amazon.com on Asian horror titles. Many interesting Region 1 titles. If you haven't yet taken the plunge into the wondrous world of region-free DVDs (and subsequently kissed your life savings goodbye), you might...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 02:24 PM
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
DVD Disfigurement
This Week's Region 1 DVD Releases FACE (2004) South Korea. 88 minutes Directed by Yoo Sang-gon Release Company: Tartan Video "A forensic examiner, exhausted from his work, turns in his resignation. His former boss, pressed because of a recent...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 03:52 PM
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Wireless Mayhem, Corporate Bashing , Torturing Nuns, and Wild Gangsters
ONG BAK. "You will believe a man can fly." That's how I described this film in the AFI FEST 2004 program notes, and multiple viewings have not dimmed my enthusiasm. Amazing, kinetic, and wireless action sequences are the obvious...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 01:59 AM
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Terror for Boys and Girls
AUDITION. Directed by Takashi Miike. The first of the prolific filmmaker's works to receive play in US cinemas, AUDITION now seems, in light of some of Miike's other, more extreme films, to be rather restrained. The story is that...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 04:49 PM
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Family, Drama, Miike
R1 DVD releases this week include two Studio Ghiblio animated productions from the director of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (both with gentler subject matter) plus a Mainland Chinese dramatic epic that has won critical raves. GRAVE was an incredibly...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 05:19 PM
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
Impatient R1 Chow Fans
If you're eager to see KUNG FU HUSTLE on DVD -- which means you don't have one of the original editions from Asia -- check out this review by Ian Jane at DVD Talk. The R1 disk will be released...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 11:17 AM
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Empty Shelves
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Posted by Peter A. Martin at 05:03 PM
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Need 'Another Lonely Hitman'?
Rokuro Mochizuki’s ANOTHER LONELY HITMAN (Japan, 1995) is the featured new title on DVD shelves this week. John Willis of DVD Talk writes that the film "bears all the emotional tones one expects of a new wave gangster picture while...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 07:01 PM
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Two Kurosawas and a Grudge
Because I am once again "between positions" and have time on my hands, I've spent most of the past few days dreaming of Cannes. It's fun to imagine sprinting from screening to screening in the sand and sun until all...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 12:06 AM
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Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Japanese Movies Coming Soon
Region 1's release calendar is empty today, so we summarize recent announcements for upcoming discs. All of them happen to be Japanese. As noted at Twitch and DVD Journal, the Criterion Collection will be releasing two Seijun Suzuki classics on...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 08:56 AM
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005
More Heroics
Benny Chan's HEROIC DUO hits Region 1 today. This Hong Kong thriller from 2003 stars Ekin Cheng and Leon Lai, with Francis Ng. Kozo at LoveHKFilm.com said in part: "Rare action and fun performances makes Heroic Duo an entertaining film,...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 09:17 AM
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Chop Socky Tuesday
Don't miss CHOP SOCKY: CINEMA HONG KONG, a documentary released on DVD today by Docurama. In my advance review, I concluded: "As the documentary wraps up, you only wish there was more to it. For those with a greater and...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 09:08 AM
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Slicing, Dicing, and Gliding Majesty
Slicing and dicing his way into your heart, HANZO THE RAZOR meets America today. Home Vision Entertainment releases a three-disk box set of 1970s samurai films, starring Zatoichi himself, Shintaro Katsu, as a less politically-correct hero than we might expect...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 07:25 AM
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Haunting, Mysterious, and Unsettling
Out today in a Region 1 edition from Tartan Video USA is the Korean thriller MEMENTO MORI (1999). It's one of my faves from the last few years. Though I haven't had a chance to check out Tartan's version, which...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 01:15 AM
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Slow Week Means Catching Up
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Posted by Peter A. Martin at 12:09 AM
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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
'Angel Guts' Burst Out
How could I forget this stunningly deviant release today? Now corrupting the youth of America, ArtsMagic has unleashed the five films in this notorious series of films from Japan as part of a box set. Included are numerous extras, such...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 10:22 PM
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One Japanese Master and Two Korean Sisters
Two new DVDs, both 2-disc editions, are due out today. KAGEMUSHA (1980) From the Criterion Collection, Akira Kurosawa's KAGEMUSHA rolls out in its complete, uncut version -- it was shorn of 20 minutes during its North American release in 1980....
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 01:07 AM
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Upcoming on DVD
"There’s only so much time in the day and money in the bank." DVD News: Apparently no new Asian films on Region 1 DVD this week. Which allows me to elucidate my reasoning for the “Upcoming on DVD” list on...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 12:50 PM
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Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Monsters Stalk the Land
Toplining the DVD releases of interest are two Japanese films featuring everybody's favorite stampeding monster: GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS and GODZILLA, MOTHRA & KING GHIDORA: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK. Both titles from Columbia/TriStar are presented in anamorphic widescreen editions and include...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 04:06 PM
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Monday, January 19, 2004
Seijun Suzuki Rules!
Region 1 is blooming with three little known but sharp looking classics due for release tomorrow (January 20), all directed by Seijun Suzuki. Retail is $19.95 for these disks from Home Vision Entertainment, which has proven to be a reliable...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 04:52 PM
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Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Spooky Love, Digital Style
Spooky movie THE DEATH CURSE is due out on DVD from Universe today; the picture stars both the Twins and the Boy'z; what more could you want? Evidently you'd like BREATHING ROOM, an English-language romance; the two are packaged together...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 03:11 AM
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Monday, January 05, 2004
Kicking Off the New Year
Toplining DVD releases this week in Hong Kong: Louis Koo and Eason Chan decide to start their own porn magazine in NAKED AMBITION. Panorama will make this available on Friday, January 9. You can learn more about the movie at...
Posted by Peter A. Martin at 03:20 AM
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