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ADRIFT IN TOKYO (2007) A tale of desperate loners, debt collectors, and even potential murder, isn’t exactly the sort of fare that is typically considered easy watching. But Satoshi Miki’s meandering hangout movie Adrift in Tokyo is anything but typical. Rather than being something like the gruelling Yakuza pictures one of its stars has appeared in this is more a strange and melancholy drama. It’s…
ONCE A THIEF (1991) Discussions of John Woo’s classic run in the late 1980s to early 1990s often omit this caper, but unlike Bullet in the Head it’s not a case of it being too bleak. Plus the stars are all here; Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-Fat return from the Better Tomorrow films, as do several other familiar faces. So are the locations the director enjoys; this time Paris. Perhaps it’s because…
THE ODYSSEY (2026) Like The Dark Knight there's a sense that some of the material in Homer's epic, and its predecessor The Iliad , could have a tendency to become rather silly. There are a lot of choices to unpack in Christopher Nolan's modernist (or perhaps minimalist) adaptation but the way he's decided to depict certain ideas and images is one of the biggest. He must have considered this one of…
BULLET IN THE HEAD (1990) Of all John Woo’s Hong Kong projects this is probably the most overlooked, perhaps because it doesn’t star Chow Yun-fat, or perhaps because of its sometimes gruelling nature. The behind the scenes story is well known but after a disagreement with producer Tsui Hark about a third A Better Tomorrow the pair went their separate ways. The official third movie is best…
NOPE (2022) Nope is a weird movie. In a complementary sense; a long forgotten review of Get Out on this blog suggested that it should have been more unnerving and also funnier. Which is an oddly specific complaint that has been addressed here. The characters are more eccentric, the tone is more peculiar, and the horror moments are much stranger. Which is saying something when the overall vibe of…
SEND HELP (2026) Time for a double helping of people surviving dire situations and overcoming certain doom. In the case of Send Help the ideal version of this story was already told in Hell in the Pacific ; pitting an unlikely duo stranded on an island against each other. However, this is also the return of Sam Raimi who hasn't directed anything fun for very a long time. The couple of misfires…
RIVER (2023) While Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes asked what someone might do if they could see (a very short time) into the future, this later project asks what might happen if that same amount of time kept repeating itself. Taking the concept from Groundhog Day and shrinking it down so much doesn’t seem like a great idea. How can there even be enough room to tell a story and…
SUMMER TIME MACHINE BLUES (2005) Time travel stories exist in a variety of formats whether they’re deadly serious or farcical, but sometimes it’s fun to sit back and enjoy a story with low stakes. In this case the rather silly tone disguises a well planned time-warp adventure, even if the story revolves around some kids trying to kill time during a heatwave. However, the plot is in the realm of…
HARD BOILED (1992) ‘John Woo is… God,’ claims an old trailer for his final Hong Kong action movie. The quotes used almost manage to capture the madness that is Hard Boiled , a crime thriller from a master at the zenith of his powers, which is also described as ‘more exciting than a dozen Die Hards ‘. But look again and you’ll find that this hyperbole is correct; the results are an exaggerated…
SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE (2025) Time for an unexpected (but welcome) surprise in the form of a sequel to the Finnish action flick Sisu . Was this even advertised? The box office takings, much like 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple , suggest not. The theatrical screenings were also limited which doesn't exactly help matters. Maybe they should have just stuck a 'Part 2' on the title and saved themselves…
