  Superman The Movie
Christopher Reeve
Picked By Ceriseno (See all picks by this editor)
Super in many aspects
Towards the end of the 70s, the movie world witnessed a very familiar caped hero take flight again.
Superman, perhaps the world's best-known superhero, was never among my favorites, ranking far behind characters like Spiderman, Batman, or the Flash. He was just too super for my taste; super sight, super strength, super invulnerability, etc. just didn't seem tangible enough for me at that time. Now that I'm older, but not necessarily wiser, it seems that Superman: The Movie has won me over as a supporter for the father of all superheroes.
Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie offers all the original tale's key elements including the main character's arrival from Krypton, his adoption by ... [read more]
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 Alone Again Wonderful World (SINGLE+DVD)(First Press Limited Edition)(Japan Version)
Plastic Tree
Picked By Sanwei (See all picks by this editor)
Plastic World
Though I love Plastic Tree at all paces and pitches, I am particularly fond of the band's slower, quieter numbers, and their new single Alone Again, Wonderful World is an outstanding example why. Written and composed by vocalist Ryutaro, the song starts off with steady strokes of repeating guitar chords, setting the stage for Ryutaro's signature melodic, childlike voice which tip-toes in and calmly curls around the guitar. In comparison to many of Plastic Tree's more ethereal mid-tempo numbers, Alone Again, Wonderful World largely employs a straightforward band sound arrangement, letting Ryutaro's singing carry the song's introspective lyrics and sentiments.
The combination of the floating... [read more]
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 Kon Ichikawa: The Great Adaptor
Written By Mike Crandol
For international audiences, Kon Ichikawa - who passed away February 13, 2008 - might be called the Ringo Starr of the great Golden Age Japanese film directors. In the West, at least, Ichikawa is a name that does seem destined to remain eclipsed by the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, and Yasujiro Ozu. But the Japanese have long recognized and celebrated Ichikawa's invaluable contribution in forging the identity of their national cinema. If Kurosawa, Kobayashi, and Ozu were auteuristic luminaries working within clearly defined boundaries, Ichikawa was the master-of-all-trades. His work spans six decades and virtually every genre of filmmaking imaginable. Comedies,... [read more]
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 Ghost and the City: Hong Kong Ghost Films
Written By Siu Heng
Ghosts are no strangers to Hong Kong cinema, especially in the horror genre. Horror films often feature supernatural beings such as vampires, zombies, and demons. Occasionally these "ghosts" are actually faked by other characters or generated by the characters' hallucinations. Ghosts, real and pseudo ones, also exist in other genres such as romance, action, and even comedy. Some of them have fierce appearances, while some just look the same as human beings. We find them frightening not because of how they look, but what they represent. As individuals, as members of a society, or as residents of a fast changing city, we all need to repress or abandon certain things in order to... [read more]
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 Sworn Brothers (DVD) (Joy Sales Version) (Hong Kong Version)
Andy Lau (Main Cast) | Cheung Kwok Keung (Main Cast) | Lai David (Director)
In recent years, I have enjoyed watching few actors as much as I have enjoyed the work of Andy Lau by developing quite a line in flawed men. Like many Hong Kong performers, he was simultaneously sold as a heart-throb male lead and a pop singer but in the last few years he has become my favourite Chinese actor. In the Infernal Affairs trilogy, he was the intriguing centre of the films and his final performance was as superb a display of tightly wound nervous breakdown as you could hope to catch in a populist movie. In Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers he played another very morally grey character with great sympathy, and his redeemed trickster in World Without Thieves was another delight ... [read more]
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 Fatal Move (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Simon Yam (Main Cast) | Sammo Hung (Main Cast) | Jason Wu (Main Cast) | Danny Lee (Main Cast)
With the awesome SPL still fresh in the memory, it's hard to imagine any Hong Kong action fan not getting excited at the prospect of Fatal Move. Boasting a cast reunion of Simon Yam, Wu Jing and the legendary Sammo Hung, and bringing in familiar faces such as Danny Lee, Tien Niu, Lam Suet and others, the film promises old school triad thrills, beefed up with plenty of bloody violence. Also in its favour is the fact that the film marks director Dennis Law's follow up to his excellent martial arts Wu Jing vehicle, the similarly titled Fatal Contact which certainly showed him to be more than capable of giving the modern genre a much needed shot of adrenaline.
The plot follows time-honoured ... [read more]
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 The Beasts (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Chong Ching Yee (Main Cast) | Ngai Dik (Main Cast) | Chan Sing (Main Cast) | Chung Po Law (Main Cast)
Originally unleashed back in 1980, The Beasts is a nasty piece of exploitation cinema that has been lurking around and gathering a quite reputation for itself over the years, now finally re-issued on DVD. The film was the second from director Dennis Yu, who also gave the Hong Kong horror genre a couple of high points in the form of The Imp and Evil Cat. Interestingly, it provided much-loved character actor Kent Cheng (who recently returned to screens with Run Papa Run and Flash Point) with an early and very different role as a slobbering, shaven-headed villain.
The Beasts is basically a Hong Kong version of 1970s Western rape-revenge films such as Last House on the Left and Spit on Your Grave... [read more]
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 Tennen Kokekko (DVD) (First Press Limited Edition) (English Subtitled) (Japan Version)
Okada Masaki | Kaho | Natsukawa Yui | Sato Koichi
After the success of teenage bubblegum drama Linda Linda Linda, minimalist Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita has found himself one of the new darlings of western Asian film fans. His latest film: Tennen Kokekko, is based on a manga story from award winning shoujo (young girl) manga writer Fusako Kuramochi, and it once again examines the intergroup relationships and school lives of a group of teenage girls, but takes the location away from the city to a tiny school in a tiny village in the countryside. Helping Yamashita to adapt Kuramochi's work into film is the similarly trendy and in-demand writer Aya Watanabe, who gave us the excellent Joze, the Tiger & the Fish. This would seem like a ... [read more]
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 Once Upon a Time In Corea (DVD) (DTS) (Limited Edition) (Korea Version)
Park Yong Woo | Lee Bo Young | Jeong Yong Ki
Once Upon a Time in Corea sees the return of director Jeong Yong Ki, previously responsible for the second and third instalments of the hit comedy series Marrying the Mafia as well as the ghost story The Doll Master. Here, he tries his hand at period set action, with a tale of high adventure mixed with plenty of wacky laughs.
Set in the early 1940s during the brutal Japanese colonisation of Korea, the film revolves around the search for a 3000-carat diamond called 'The Light of Dong Bang', a stone of great national importance. Heading up the chase is cunning gentleman thief Bong Ku (Park Yong Woo, also in Love Now), who plans to swipe the jewel before the Japanese can transport it out of... [read more]
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 Le Grand Chef (DVD) (Standard Edition) (Korea Version)
Yim Won Hee (Main Cast) | Lee Ha Na (Main Cast) | Kim Kang Woo (Main Cast) | Kim Sang Ho
Although cooking may not sound like the most exciting subject for a film, Stephen Chow's hilarious God of Cookery aside, Le Grand Chef from director Jeon Yoon Soo (previously responsible for My Girl And I and Besa Me Mucho) proved to be a big hit at the Korean box office. The reasons for this soon become clear upon viewing, as the film, which was based upon a popular comic by Hur Young Man, delivers a winning mixture of drama, good natured humour and of course, delicious looking Korean food.
The film starts with a flashback showing young chef Sung Chan (Kim Kang Woo, recently in The Railroad) being thrown out of the nation's most prestigious culinary school for supposedly poisoning the judges... [read more]
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