Asian Reviews

SYNOPSIS: Drug dealing gangsters enter into battle with a narcotics task force; both parties have secret weapons. REVIEW: You’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel. You’ve scraped, and scraped, and scraped—until you think you can scrape no more. You’ve seen TROLL 2, SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS, THEY SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN. You don’t believe it can possibly get any worse. I …

SYNOPSIS: In The Realm of the Senses is based upon a real-life incident which took place in Japan on 17th May 1936. This incident was the particularly gruesome murder of Kichizo Ishida by his lover, Abe Sada: after having choked Ishida to death, Sada cut off his penis and carried it around with her until she was caught two days …

SYNOPSIS: After the statute of limitation expires on the murders he has committed, Lee Du-seok publishes an autobiography describing all his murders in great detail. Detective Choi, who investigated Lee’s murders 15 years ago starts the chase once again and Han Ji-soo, who lost her daughter to Lee, pledges vengeance. Meanwhile, another killer appears, casting doubt to whether Lee is …

SYNOPSIS: “The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.” (courtesy IMDB) REVIEW: Manga are Japanese …

SYNOPSIS: According to ancient lore, if a human freely offers their heart to a demon, that monster can become mortal, experiencing the true pains and passions of existence. This is the ultimate triumph of the underworld. Xiaowei (Xun Zhou, THE GREAT MAGICIAN, FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE), a millennia-old fox spirit, is freed from her frozen prison and transforms into …

SYNOPSIS: When a spate of eerie murders erupts across HK two trouble making cops are assigned to the case. Young maverick WANG and grizzled vet HUANG who is fed up with his reckless younger partner always landing them in hot water. Reaching a dead end after discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet LIU, the detectives must …

SYNOPSIS: A nameless underground doctor who is given the moniker of ‘Devil Doctor Woman’ by her patients introduces nine of her most unusual cases in the form of a video diary. These ‘case studies’ include a family whose heads explode when they are subjected to insults, a man with a tumour with a human face, an internal organ-cum-stalker, a zombified …

SYNOPSIS: Hideshi, a typical salary man, is not having a good week. His beautiful girlfriend, Kyoko, is sleeping with a colleague, Nakamura, and his boss at the computer company where he works has been berating him for not doing a good job. He locks himself in his flat, and not even his boss bothers to ring him up to see …

SYNOPSIS: In post a apocalyptic Japan, Yokohama City has become an epicenter of violence ruled by a vicious gang. The worst of the new breed of criminals, The Jack Brothers . When The Jack Brothers viciously murder Milly’s husband and daughter leaving her to die, she vows revenge. She learns the art of sword combat from a master swordsman named …

SYNOPSIS: During World War II, the tyrannical Judge Murayama uses his military power to imprison and torture innocent people. Suspected of helping an anti-government movement, the lovely Namiji Kikushima is captured, along with a local kabuki actor. Helpless and unable to escape, the two are subjected to a grueling series of tortures including rope bondage and physical assault. As the …

SYNOPSIS: A ruthless governor with a girl’s name turns against his former friends after his lust for pretty young Lotus takes a turn for the more sinister. Now in a position of great power, he has the lot of them violently tortured and brutalised. With power, said a great man (I believe it was Uncle Ben, the rice salesman) comes …

SYNOPSIS: Three Extremes is an omnibus of three tales of the supernatural from South Korea, Japan and Thailand. Memories by Kim Jee-woon concerns a domestic haunting in which a wife attempts to find her way home, not realising that she is in fact dead, while her husband struggles to remember why his wife has suddenly disappeared. Nonzee Nimibutr’s The Wheel …

SYNOPSIS: On the surface, Saya is a stunning 16-year-old, but that youthful exterior hides the tormented soul of a 400-year-old “halfling.” Born to a human father and a vampire mother, she has for centuries been a loner obsessed with using her samurai skills to rid the world of vampires, all the while knowing that she herself can survive only on …

SYNOPSIS: Set in the Tokugawa (or Edo) period, the first in Teruo Ishii’s Joys of Torture series opens with a montage portraying a succession of women being decapitated, burnt alive at the stake and torn in two by oxen. The film then adopts a portmanteau approach of three short stories which all culminate in lengthy torture sessions REVIEW: Director Teruo …

SYNOPSIS: Xiao, befriends Amao a 36 foot crocodile, who lives on his fathers croc sanctuary. Xiao’s father is forced to sell his crocodiles to a gangster who plans to use them for high priced meals. Before Amao is due to be slaughtered, he escapes, slaying his captors in the process. Amongst the chaos, Amao accidentally swallows a bag with $1 …