Chocolate (Thailand, 2008)

When Zin, former girlfriend of a Thai mob boss, falls for Masashi, a Japanese gangster in Thailand, the boss banishes them: Masashi to Japan, and Zin, with her small daughter Zen, to live next to a martial arts school. Zen is autistic, with uncanny swift reflexes. She watches the students next door and Muay Thai movies, absorbing every technique. She's now a teen, and her mother needs chemotherapy. Zin has taken in a chubby kid, Moom, who watches over Zen. Moom finds a ledger listing business men who owe Zin money; he goes to them one at a time to collect in order to pay for Zin's treatment. Zen, with her martial skills, becomes his enforcer. 

First things first, Chocolate is directed by the same man who gave us Ong-ak (2003) and The Protector (2005), and if you know anything about martial art movies that should immediately peak your interest. Awesome action, a  sweet and quirky story but not without emotional depth and the camera work to back it up. Chocolate should be seen by anyone who's looking for a fight-heavy film with a lot of heart. 

Genre: Action/Drama

Suzaku (Japan, 1997)

Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.

Look, I'll admit that there's not a lot of stuff going on in Suzaku (a.k.a. Moe No Suzaku); there's barely a soundtrack to speak of, only the cicadas and leaves blowing in the wind, the dialogue is sparse and it's all so very peaceful and calm. If you've ever dreamt of traveling the Japanese countryside, this is how you'll get there a lot faster. The lush, thick forests and green mountains looks like they've all been taken straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie and the settings are beautifully picturesque. 

In the midst of all this we follow a family where everyone has their own personal struggle, ranging from teenage love problems to money issues. I was never bored while watching Suzaku, and if you kinda know what to expect you shouldn't be either. It's just a very soothing and relaxing slice of cinema.

Genre: Drama

Coin Locker Girl (South Korea, 2015)

A new born girl is placed in a coin operated locker in the subway station. The girl is raised by a mother who is the boss for a loan shark group. Later, when the girl has grown into a teen, she carries out missions given to her by her mother.

Coin Locker Girl is by far one of the most grim movies I've seen lately. There's cold, black void where its comic relief is supposed to be. Great, my kind of movie! The plot starts off pretty dark, with many characters who has few redeeming qualities. Our heroine grows up in a cruel underworld of violence and threats and when the only good thing that has come her way gets taken away brutally, the ripples of her anger may just destroy everyone she has ever known. It's a sad tale which later verges on being a bloody revenge quest, but we always knew this wouldn't have an happy ending.

Genre: Drama

Mountains May Depart (China, 2015)

China, 1999. Childhood friends Liangzi and Zhang are both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually decides to marry the wealthier Zhang. They soon have a son, Dollar. From China to Australia, the lives, loves, hopes and disillusions of a family over two generations in a society changing at breakneck speed.

Jia Zhangke, director of Touch of Sin (2013), is back with his latest feature film Mountains May Depart. I've noticed how he has a special liking for epic scopes in movies, where the plot can span over many, many years. Here we follow a woman through her adult life and it's very easy to get attached to the characters because we stick with them for so long. Great actors and a superb sense of progression in China's society from 1999 all the way to 2025, Mountains May Depart is a realistic portrayal of a few lives during  a couple of eventful decades.

Genre: Drama

Memories of the Sword (South Korea, 2015)

While in medieval Korea, a young girl sets out to revenge the betrayal and the death of her mother. But therefore she must face one of the most powerful men and warriors of the Goryo Dynasty.

Well, this was one hell of a movie to end the year with. Memories of the Sword features lots of wire-fu; characters soar over sun-drenched fields, flies around in thick bamboo groves à la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and have sword fights while jumping between tall towers. Though, just as much care has been poured in to the fight choreography taking place on ground level. Besides all the visual flair we have a powerful warrior played by Byung-hun Lee (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil) and Do-yeon Jeon (The Housemaid, Secret Sunshine) as the two centerpieces in an epic and tragic love story.

If you thought The Assassin (2015) was too slow and eventless, Memories of the Sword was probably exactly what you were looking for. It's constantly beautiful to look at, wow's you with extraordinary fight sequences and tells a great, sad story at the same time. Don't miss it.

Genre: Action/Drama/History

Hiroshima Death Match (Japan, 1973)

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hit man and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba) draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono into a new round of bloodshed, culminating with the tragic demise of the young Yamanaka.

In Hiroshima Death Match (a.k.a. Deadly Fight in Hiroshima), director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) basically lets groups of Yakuza use Hiroshima as their own personal playground. It's works as a follow-up to one of the biggest Yakuza films in history; Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973). Loud crime thugs constantly fight it out and there's a ton of yakuza brawls taking place every 15 minutes. 

Fukasaku juggles many characters at the same time, and it's like we have a whole family tree of gangsters taking each other out. Director Takeshi Kitano is also a huge player when it comes to Yakuza cinema so if you plow through both of his and Fukasaku's films dealing with gangsters, a giant carp tattoo will probably appear all across your back.

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama

Parasyte: Part 2 (Japan, 2015)

Following the bloody events of the first film, high school student Shinichi (Sometani Shota) has been acting as an increasingly unfeeling lone vigilante and taking out parasites with the help of Migi, the parasite nested in his right arm. His actions have attracted the notice of both the parasite leadership and the police task force investigating the mysterious epidemic of deaths. To save humanity from the increasingly organized and aggressive parasites, Shinichi must confront the most dangerous parasite of them all.

The shapeshifting aliens of Parasyte are back, and they're more dangerous than ever before. I mentioned that Part 1 had some great action sequences, and I'm happy to say that Part 2 doesn't disappoint either. The gore is all here and when a war between the aliens and the humans are brewing there's bound to be bloodshed. It does try to be a little bit too bombastic sometimes, with epic music accompanying dramatic speeches every 10-minutes. I think it would have benefitted from a slower buildup instead of having almost a full-blown climax every now and then. But it's intense, and the effects are fantastic.  

Genre: Action/Drama/Horror

Murmur of the Hearts (Hong Kong/Taiwan, 2006)

An artist reunites with her brother after the two were separated years ago when she left Liudau, an island off of Taiwan.

As soon as I began to watch Murmur of the Hearts, I knew I was going to like it. The beautiful imagery grabbed me immediately, and after realizing this film also had some powerful performances, I was sold. It oozes with quality and even though it's not a film where a ton of stuff is happening all the time, it's downright mesmerizing. Recommended for those who want a delicate romance story to fall in love with. And don't worry that it's cheesy and over-sweet, because it's thankfully not and takes itself much more seriously. 

Genre: Drama/Romance

Unholy Women (Japan, 2006)

Unholy Women, is a composite of three unrelated half-hour horror movies. The first segment, "Rattle Rattle", tells the story of a young woman who is pursued by an evil other-worldly being. The second movie, "Steel", concerns a young man who agrees to take the sister of his boss out on a blind date, drawing him into a world more frightening than he ever dreamed possible. The third and final episode, "The Inheritance", is a supernatural tale of a woman and her young son, scarred by abuse and psychological trauma.

Unholy Women is an often disturbing and very creepy film, and tells three unrelated stories of horrific happenings. I rarely see this movie mentioned in horror articles about Asian films, which isn't overly surprising since it's not terribly scary, but I would at the very least recommend viewers to at least watch it once. Especially if you're starved for more Japanese horror films and think you've seen every last one of them. 

Genre: Horror

The Untold Story (Hong Kong, 1993)

In 1978 in Hong Kong, a grisly murder takes place. Eight years later, on a Macao beach, kids discover the severed hands of a fresh victim. A squadron of coarse, happy-go-lucky cops investigate, and suspicion falls on Wong Chi Hang, the new owner of Eight Immortals Restaurant, which serves delicious pork bao. The hands belong to the missing mother of the restaurant's former owner; he and his family have disappeared; staff at the restaurant continue to go missing; and, Wong can't produce a signed bill of sale: but there's no evidence. The police arrest Wong and try to torture him into a confession. Can they make him talk? And what was in those pork buns?

Oh my God. It's been a long time since I saw something this gruesome. It's based on real events too so that makes it even more insane. The Untold Story (a.k.a. The Eight Immortals Restaurant) is an insanely twisted story of a murderer who's trying to outsmart the local cops, all while he's slaughtering people in his restaurant and makes pork buns of them. I couldn't believe that scene with the whole family who're captured by Wong. No wonder the film was awarded a Category III (Persons aged 18 and Above Only) rating i Hong Kong, the equivalent of the United States' X-ratings. 

Even though we got all this disgusting killing going on, the writer still manages to fit in some humor. The group of policemen who're trying to nail Wong always banter with each other and jokes around, and it's a stark contrast to laugh at them just a second before a five minute rape/torture-scene takes place. Crazy movie. 

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama

Demon City Shinjuku (Japan, 1987)

Kyoya's father was a great warrior, killed at the hands of the diabolical psychic, Rebi Ra, who has now opened a portal to hell in the city of Shinjuku. It falls to Kyoya to finish what his father started and battle his way through demons, while protecting a young woman from harm. The only problem is that he's not exactly your classic hero type, and his powers are still latent.

Shinjuku can be a dangerous place. Especially if a demon lord hellbent on the destruction of mankind has opened up a portal to hell in the middle of the city where nightmarish creatures are spilling out like blood from an evil wound. Demon City Shinjuku is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri whose previous works includes Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) and Ninja Scroll (1993), and Demon City is very similar to those movies in terms of plot and graphic violence. 

Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Horror

Sawako Decides (Japan, 2010)

After 5 years in Tokyo, 5 part-time jobs, 5 boyfriends, Sawako's life is going nowhere. When her father gets seriously ill she have to take over his struggling factory. Gradually she becomes the decider of her own life.

Sawako Decides is a typical drama with a good balance of funny scenes and also sadness, with quirky Japanese humor thrown in. The good story makes it a treat to watch and sometimes I don't need anything more complex than a woman who is trying to get her life together.

Genre: Drama

The Golden Cane Warrior (Indonesia, 2014)

The Golden Cane: a relic of incomparable force, coveted by all. And with it, the training of a technique so unrivaled, it vanquishes all who dare oppose its power. As Master Cempaka and her four disciples - orphans of her enemies, now heirs to the Cane - prepare for the new warrior guardian to ascend, an act of villainous betrayal threatens to destroy the clan and destabilize the realm. Their only hope to restore order lies in finding the elusive White Dragon, the only remaining pupil still equipped to unlock the mysteries of the Golden Cane.

I'm so glad that Indonesia has become a country of which I really can trust on making some great films, Killers (2014) and The Raid 1 & 2 just to name a few. The Golden Cane Warrior draw inspiration from Chinese wire-fu films and contains a lot of beautiful fighting choreography, though it holds back a lot of the action and tells an emotional story of four disciples who're in a power struggle. Superb cinematography also.

Genre: Action/Drama

Fist of the North Star (Japan, 1986)

After a nuclear holocaust tears the world apart, mankind is forced to the harshness of not only the oppression of others who are much more powerful, but the dead earth which seems to be getting worse with every passing moment. But a savior has risen from the ashes, a man who will defeat those who would torment the weak and make the world a livable place once more. A man named Kenshiro.

Fist of the North Star began as a manga series, then turned into an animated show and during its run a film was made due to its popularity. The story takes place in a Mad Max-inspired world where nuclear war has made the earth a dead and desolate place, and extravagant villains roam the wasteland preying on the weak. Amongst the ruins of cities long gone, warriors with extreme power are rising up to fight for their right to rule. 

The amount of gore in this film is nothing less of astonishing. The creators even studied anatomy to get the exploding of bodies more correct, which says a lot of what they were trying to do with the film. Fist of the North Star is known for being a testosteron bomb like few others, and the majority of its runtime is dedicated to brutal fights between muscle mountains. Trust me, it gets pretty crazy.

Genre: Animation/Action/Drama

Wicked City (Japan, 1987)

There has been peace between the worlds of the mortals and the supernatural for centuries, but the balance is now being threatened. The Radical elements from the Supernatural world are crossing over into the mortal universe for the purpose of destroying the peace forever.

They really don't make 'em like they used to. I hope you're ready for some R-rated demon slaughter, because Wicked City is some serious sh*t. Full frontal nudity, explicit sex scenes, bodies which get blasted apart with laser revolvers and love songs under the Tokyo night sky, all put together with that distinctive 80's animation style á la Vampire Hunter (1985). It's also very reminiscent of Blade Runner (1982), but with demons instead of robots and a noir drenched Tokyo instead of dystopian Los Angeles. Super stylish and ultra violent, this film should not be missed by anyone.

Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Horror