@synth_cinema: 2025

Monster Bites - The Devil's Whistle

GAMERA VS. JIGER (1970)

Time for a final look at the Showa era Gamera films, and the last double feature before heading to the later series. At least in the main run before the reboot; I don't think the clips show from 1980 counts. So let's check off all the usual ingredients. Another submarine used by two children? Yes. Another flying saucer, and another undersea monster? Correct. However, at least when it comes to Gamera vs. Jiger someone said 'hey what if we make a monster movie?' So there are actual kaiju attacks and the pacing is almost tolerable. Let's see how the rest of the film stacks up.

Review Roundup - Super Friends

SUPERMAN (2025)

Superman has a lot to answer for. The 1978 film directed by Richard Donner that is. Over the years that same origin story formula has been done to death; in comic book movies beyond. That classic three act structure that often runs out of steam when it needs to reach an action filled resolution. But what happens when that formula, and in turn the backstory, is jettisoned entirely? Of course, you know the story of Krypton, everyone knows it. Is it a refreshing way to reboot the whole thing, again, for a new era? Or does it result in pacing issues for everything that follows?

Review Roundup - Public Relations

BREAKING NEWS (2004)

Time for one more cops versus robbers thriller on the streets of Hong Kong. Not exactly imaginative stuff, at least on the surface, but this is another Johnnie To feature so things are always a little out of left field. Particularly when it comes to the music... which I will get to in due course. It's also a tale of media manipulation and reality versus narrative, promising to add another dimension to so many familiar character tropes and action beats. But what makes this one stand out from the crowd is the smaller flourishes sprinkled throughout.

Review Roundup - A Dish Served Cold

VENGEANCE (2009)

While some of Johnnie To's films have a fresh take on old themes and tropes, or a new perspective, others feel more like ideas he wanted to revisit. Such is the case with Vengeance, a story that feels like another take on the ideas from Exiled. So it's back to Macau for another tale of brotherhood and bloodshed with yet another crime boss played by To regular Simon Yam. However, it's not just a series of familiar faces and situations, there are plenty of original and creative moments. More importantly the execution still feels fresh in plenty of sequences.

HCF Review - The Apartments

FUKUCHAN OF FUKUFUKU FLATS (2014)

Writer and director Yosuke Fujita’s Fukuchan of Fukufuku Flats is ostensibly just a rom-com about lonely outcasts. An offbeat and quirky drama in which characters try (some more successfully than others) to navigate their mundane lives or move from various states of arrested development. But under the typical trappings of the genre (including toilet humour and random moments of slapstick) is a darker story about bullies and abusers that has a something to say beyond the plot about finding love and friendship

HCF Review - Time Warrior

A SAMURAI IN TIME (2023)

The idea of yet another time travel movie with a fish out of water protagonist isn’t exactly the most exciting prospect. Even the electricity which sends the hero from the past to the present is a very familiar visual trope. However, Junichi Yasuda's A Samurai in Time isn’t another action movie like The Iceman Cometh. The biggest surprise is that it’s not really a straight up comedy either. It’s still a silly premise, and there are indeed sword fight sequences, as well as plenty of laughs. But there’s a subtle touch at work that means that it’s often more of a drama than the synopsis would suggest.

HCF Review - Collaboration

HONG KONG 1941 (1984)

In the early 1980s Sammo Hung and Dickson Poon formed the company D&B Films. It’s another one of those names and logos that will be well known to action movie fans. But the first of their projects to be released would be a period drama about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, with some romance and class conflict for good measure. In 1984 the UK government began the process of the territory’s handover, and so perhaps the last time it left British control was on the minds of screenwriters. It’s also the breakout role of rising star Chow Yun-Fat; though it’s not his first movie part it was his first awards win. Let’s take a look at how all of these enticing elements hold up today.

Review Roundup - Time Tunnel

BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES (2020)

Time for a brief excursion into the sub-genre of Japanese causality loop movies. Which seems like an oddly specific thing to exist but something that's impossible not to be absorbed by with films like Fish Story and Summer Time Machine Blues. The latter is of particular interest here since it has the same writer, someone clearly interested in the most mundane and quirky time travel stories possible. However, while Blues had a breezy after school club vibe, making it well worth seeing, this shares the ultra low budget single-take feel of One Cut of the Dead. Which is also well worth seeing, spoiler free. How does this particular movie fair against so many other strange goings on?

HCF Review - Vendetta

THE ADVENTURERS (1995)

In the early ’90s various film-makers planned to take their talents from Hong Kong to Hollywood, including Ringo Lam. Interestingly he’s one of several directors that wound up working on action vehicles starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that’s a story for another time. In this case it’s that final project, the one right before the big move to North America, that’s up for consideration. Which means that it’s an exciting prospect; is the film one last mega-blowout like John Woo’s opus Hard Boiled or are the results a mixed bag? Are their still shades of Lam’s grimy excesses from Full Contact or is it closer to the heroic bloodshed in City on Fire? Let’s take a look and see what undercover thrills are on offer.

Review Roundup - King Rat

NOSFERATU (2024)

It's been a while since the days of the old Drac vs. Drac vampire movie blog, in fact more years than I'd like to admit, but here we are back with that old creep once again. Since there have been not one but two recent Bram Stoker adaptations the comparison was inevitable. Of course because true evil never dies (in studio board rooms and on the big screen) there are always plenty of films like this around, but stories taking direct inspiration are always an interesting prospect. There's always a chance for creativity, and there's always a chance someone will do an accurate version of the original book. Which unfortunately is only partly true in both cases here.

HCF Review - Flower Basket

HANAGATAMI (2017)

The final part of this trilogy comes in the form of a period drama several decades in the making. Facing a terminal illness the director set out to finish an idea that could become his final film. He would in fact make one more feature, Labyrinth of Cinema, a few years later. Still, this being one last passion project is a tantalising prospect. The same sentiments explored in Obayashi’s previous two releases are present as young people are faced with a destructive conflict. However, while there are many similar visual flourishes there’s a sense that much of the characterisation and the themes of the story as a whole are lacking.

HCF Review - Fireworks

CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY (2012)

Much like Seven Weeks this is a story about the effects of war, spanning various time periods and told through the remembrance of an ensemble. It also has many moments based on true stories and accounts taken from real people. There are verbal family histories, low budget edutainment breaks, and a whole lot of newspaper clippings. However, it’s described by one of the main characters as a journey into a dreamland. Does Obayashi’s interest in strange green screen effects and ghost stories form a cohesive narrative about tragedy, or does it start to come unstuck with such a long running time and so many disparate elements?

HCF Review - Last Rites

SEVEN WEEKS (2014)

Given the projects Obayashi directed in the Kadokawa Years trilogy you might be surprised to find that some of his other films are more serious. In Seven Weeks the nostalgic and sometimes shallow elements are replaced by a darker atmosphere of loss and regret. Which isn’t to say that the style of the film is any more realistic, but there’s certainly a more ominous tone to the story. Can this sustain itself for a lengthy running time of nearly three hours without being oppressive? Does it have more depth than those 1980s melodramas? There are some rough moments in the first act but the results are more complex than they first appear.

Monster Bites - Cosmic Shenanigans

GAMERA VS. VIRAS (1968)

Oh boy, here's where things really start to tumble of the miniature cliff. If the difference between Gamera's last two adventures, versus Barugon and Gyaos respectively, weren't obvious enough, it's the late 1960s where the series reaches new depths. Some literal, others purely in quality. Shoe-string UFOs and stock footage are imminent as the infamous Gamera March is introduced. As a result it's a time in the franchise where the line between each film gets a little blurry; all the mischief making children rarely feel distinct. But is there still a fun time to be had, and are the resulting productions charming in the face of such low budgets?

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