Yakuza Apocalypse (Japan, 2015)

In the ruthless underground world of the yakuza, no one is more legendary than boss Kamiura. Rumored to be invincible, the truth is he is a vampire-a bloodsucking yakuza vampire boss! Among Kamiura's gang is Kageyama, his most loyal underling. However, the others in the gang view Kageyama with disdain and ridicule him for his inability to get tattooed due to sensitive skin. One day, assassins aware of boss Kamiura's secret arrive from abroad and deliver him an ultimatum: Return to the international syndicate he left years ago, or die.

Yakuza vampires? That's a first for me I think. Takashi Miike is back yet again with his taste for overtop violence and tough yakuza's. It's crazy how he manages to direct 2-3 films every year, but that's a number which also comes with a hit-or-miss price. Looking at his filmography I could single out a few stinkers released just in the most recent years, but I could also name just as many excellent films from the same time period. 

Yakuza Apocalypse falls into the latter category. Sure, it isn't exactly top-quality cinema with Shakespeare on top, but it's wildly entertaining nonetheless and contains so many bloody bone-crushing fights that you'll almost fall over. 

Genre: Action/Comedy/Horror

Macabre (Indonesia, 2009)

Two newly weds Adjie and Astrid, along with 3 of their best friends decided to have an interstate road trip as a last attempt to reconcile Adjie with his estranged little sister Ladya. Their trip is however abruptly interrupted when they run into Maya, a strange girl out of nowhere, who wanders aimlessly into their path. "I've been robbed" is all she has to say. The friends unanimously decided to give her a ride to her isolated house by the end of the woods. Maya introduces Adjie and friends to her blue-blooded mother Dara, a woman of ageless enigma and few spoken words.

Macabre draws a lot of its premise and chock horror straight from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and when the chainsaw is coming out you'll giggle at the resemblance. Nonetheless, Macabre is filled to the brim with blood and gore. People are getting butchered, stabbed and shot left and right. I haven't checked up on it, but Macabre is said to be the first Indonesian slasher flick which sounds terribly late considering it was released in 2009. More originality would have done wonders but for now we'll just have to settle for Indonesia Chainsaw Massacre, which of course isn't bad at all.

Genre: Horror

Funeral Parade of Roses (Japan, 1965)

Bar Genet's new star hostess is the transgender icon Eddie, whose confidence and sexuality threaten the bar's long-time madame Leda, but attract Gonda, the bar's owner. While Eddie becomes entangled in this love triangle, she spends her time with joint-smoking drop-outs, watches experimental films, dances to distorted rock music and occasionally gets involved in protests.

Funeral Parade of Roses is an assault on your senses. The strong black and white glow works perfectly with characters all dressed in 60's Tokyo fashion. It has a huge place in Japanese film history and has influenced a ton of film makers, Stanley Kubrick among others, who gained the inspiration to make A Clockwork Orange (1971) after watching it. Pretty cool.

Genre: Drama

The Forbidden Door (Indonesia, 2009)

Gambir is an artist who on the surface seems to lead a charmed life - he's been enjoying critical and commercial success and is married to lovely Talyda. But Talyda's parents are bankrolling his posh lifestyle, he's struggling with impotence and a low sperm count, and when his struggle to have a child with Talyda finally bears fruit, she opts to have an abortion, and then demands Gambir place the fetus inside one of his sculptures. As Gambir struggles to make sense of his internal chaos, his friend Dandung tells him about a secret club for people struggling with questions they can't answer. However, Gambir has a hard time articulating the mystery behind his agony, and he becomes convinced the key to it all lurks behind a locked door he's found in the basement.

The Forbidden Door is a kind of trippy horror film which I've seen been mentioned in listings of top horror films some few years ago. For some reason I never got around watching but now I'm glad that I have. Horror from Indonesia is something I've been looking for many times and The Forbidden Door makes me realize there's must be a ton of great ones out there. Not terrifyingly scary but very satisfying and interesting. 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Horror

The Assassin (Taiwan/Hong Kong, 2015)

The film is set during the mighty Tang Dynasty-period in Chinese history. Nie Yinniang returns to family after several years in exile. The mission of her order is to eliminate the tyranny of the Governors who avoid the authority of the Emperor. Now she will have to choose between sacrificing the man she loves, or break definitively with the "order of the Assassins".

One of 2015's best looking films is here, and it's directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Café Lumière, Millennium Mambo). It's actually his first feature film in about eight years so he obviously had a lot of time to plan this project. Let me tell you that it shows. The Assassin contains so many breathtakingly beautiful scenes that it's almost ridiculous, with characters standing on top of mountains while clouds are literally swallowing them, or when the camera slowly pans to show a sword fight going on in the distance. That's also one thing to note: the fact that Hou never gets all action-camera on you, he basically always uses his more slower movements and calm camera work. Kind of like Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story), who also were a master of rarely moving the camera.

The Assassin should be watched at the right time due to its slow tempo. It's never in a rush or tries to get to the violence faster. We get long monologues and long takes of people traversing forests and mountains. So have patience with it and dive into one of the most visually astounding films in recent times.

Genre: Action/Drama

100 Yen Love (Japan, 2014)

Ichiko lives the life of a hikikomori (shut-in) at her parents' home. However, when her sister gets a divorce and moves back home, Ichiko decides to move out and live on her own because they don't get along. The only minor happiness in Ichiko's dreary life is working at the 100-yen store where she can catch glimpses of an aging boxer named Yuuji practicing at a nearby gym. One day, the two move in together after getting to know each other better and Ichiko's life begins to change drastically as she takes up boxing herself.

100 Yen Love tells the emotional story of someone who discovers a passion that has the potential to change her life. She goes from someone you want to throw out of your house to a woman you root for completely. You'll cross your fingers and pray for her to make it all the way because that one single win would mean everything. Towards the ends, I was actually almost tearing up, and it's been a long time since a movie did that to me.

Genre: Drama

Nightmare Detective (Japan, 2006)

Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares. "O" intends suicide while talking on a cell-phone with a stranger he meets on line who plans a simultaneous suicide. Events take a horrifying turn. Keiko Kirishima is a cool, seemingly emotionless police detective, brilliant but off-putting. She's faced with two mutilated corpses who appear to have killed themselves, but she's not sure. A cell-phone number links the deaths. She calls on Akumu Tantei, a poor and suicidal young man who has the ability to enter people's dreams. 

So, I have finally seen the first Nightmare Detective (I wrote about the second one a long time ago) and can conclude that it's a pretty damn good duo of films. I really, really liked the sequel and since then I've had a hard time getting hold of this one. Here, Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) is just as amazing without his usually overly shaky camera and unconventional film style and uses a more traditional narrative format, a mystery thriller with his own  cool fantasy twist. In other words, even if you couldn't get into his more crazy stuff such as Bullet Ballet (1998) or Tokyo Fist (1995), you should still definitely check out both Nightmare Detective films.

Genre: Fantasy/Horror/Thriller

Shaolin Soccer (Hong Kong, 2011)

After a fateful mistake costing his career, an ex-soccer player bum meets a shaolin kung fu student trying to spread the word of kung fu. The ex-soccer player helps reconcile with his five brothers, and teaches them soccer, adding shaolin kung fu as a twist.

If there's one thing that could get me interested in soccer, it's apparently the addition of martial arts. Shaolin Soccer is directed by Stephen Chow, the man behind Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and just like that one he also plays the main lead. Here, we basically get an answer to the question; what would you get if you mix Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with soccer? The result is an hilarious comedy with goofy characters with some serious skills in shaolin kung fu. Just like Kung Fu Hustle it has a lot of slapstick action with bodies flying around and people kicking the ball so hard it acts as a fiery rocket across the field. Good fun.

Genre: Action/Comedy/Sport

The Eternal Zero (Japan, 2013)

A young woman and her brother explore the history of their grandfather, who died in the WW2. They start contacting his colleges who knew him, asking them about his personality, and slowly starts to understand what kind of man he was and how he influenced those around him.

The Eternal Zero has an epic storyline and spans many years of turmoil in Japans bloody history. We befriend a group of kamikaze pilots (it's a lot nicer than it sounds) and follow them through WW2. I never expect much from Japans CG-effects but some of the scenes in The Eternal Zero are quite spectacular and did make me raise my eyebrows. Sadly some overacting is present, but we still got a good war drama following a young pilot who steers his fighter plane towards the most dangerous spot in the battle.

Genre: Action/Drama

Arang (South Korea, 2006)

A salt storehouse near the sea may be haunted. A penniless ex-con dies a gristly death in a house he can ill afford. The detectives assigned the case are Min, newly reinstated after a suspension, and Lee, a new transfer from forensics. Min has nightmares: a sexual assault that haunts her. She and Lee work well together, but soon two more deaths occur - each mysteriously poisoned, both friends of the ex-con. A fourth friend, a newly married doctor, is a suspect. But what has all this to do with the salt storehouse, a death ten years ago, and a missing girl? 

Arang is a film which can be found on many lists of great horror films. I didn't see it back in 2006 so I couldn't tell you how original it felt back then, but nowadays the story of Arang is at least decent, though it uses the girl-with-long-black-hair-formula for a lot of the scares. Nevertheless, Arang is a good, scary experience and manages to be involving despite the use of some horror tropes.

Genre: Crime/Horror

Eros + Massacre (Japan, 1969)

In the 1920s, the anarchist revolutionary Sakae Osugi is financially supported by his wife, journalist Itsuko Masaoka. He spends his time doing nothing but philosophizing about political systems and free love and visiting with his lovers Yasuko and the earlier feminist Noe Ito. In 1969, twenty-year-old student, Eiko Sokuta is sexually active with various men. Her friend, Wada, is obsessed with fire and they usually play odd games using a camera while they read about Osugi and Ito.

To begin with, Eros is three and a half hours long. No wait, don't go! I promise it's worth it...  Still here? Okay, good. I know it's a long stretch but Eros is visually spellbinding and features heavenly cinematography and composition. The narrative is sometimes confusing and feels very surreal, characters who're supposed to be living in a different time are showing up in present day. So, it's a bit hard to wrap your head around it, but it's one of the most important films from the Japanese New Wave movement which lasted from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. Not a film that everyone can get into, but a fine piece of cinema nonetheless.

Genre: Biography/Drama

Breath (South Korea, 2007)

A relationship between a condemned prisoner and a married female artist. Jin is a convicted killer awaiting execution on Death Row; Yeon is a lonely artist locked in a loveless marriage. When Jin's repeated attempts at suicide make the nightly news, Yeon finds her emotions stirred, and her curiosity peaked. Eventually, Yeon decides to pay a visit to Jin, and in the course of their many conversations the two lost souls forge an intimate bond. Upon catching wind of his wife's unconventional relationship, Yeon's husband grows increasingly jealous, and attempts to cease communications between her and the convicted killer.

An unusual romance with more anxiety than love is what we're treated to with Breath. Directed by one of my favorites, Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron), Breath is right up the alley of his style of making movies, but those who aren't fans of his minimalistic approach might have a hard time keeping up interest. Not his best film but still another one of his portrayal of a destructive relationship. 

Genre: Drama

A Chinese Ghost Story (Hong Kong, 1987)

Ning Tsai-Shen, a humble tax collector, arrives in a small town to carry out his work. Unsurprisingly, no-one is willing to give him shelter for the night, so he ends up spending the night in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There, he meets Taoist Swordsman Yen Che-Hsia, who warns him to stay out of trouble, and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Hsiao-Tsing is a ghost, bound for all eternity by a hideous tree spirit.

Welcome to Lan Ro temple, don't mind the ghosts and demons, we have comfortable beds!

Or something. A Chinese Ghost Story is a haunted mansion comedy with Hong Kong action and some almost Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon like fights. Maybe that's not so weird due to the fact that the director also made Hero (2002), a huge favorite of mine. All in all, a fun and action heavy ghost flick with some cool monsters done with practical effects. Good stuff.

Genre: Action/Comedy/Fantasy

Parasite Eve (Japan, 1997)

Toshiaki Nagashima is a biologist who is doing major research on mitochondria. When his beautiful young wife is tragically involved in a car accident which leaves her brain dead, in desperation he steals her liver from her body in order to receive the mitochondria from it to resurrect his wife from the dead. The killer mitochondria takes the form of his assistant who then uses the biologist for the host of a terrifying new species that is threatening to take over the world.

Parasite Eve has a plot that make it sound like an amazing alien invasion film, though, it's a lot more personal and intimate than that and with a lot of scientific setup. Based on a novel, which later was adapted into a video game series, Parasite Eve is like an alien movie with barely any aliens, but the story is good enough to satisfy and a film where spontaneous human combustion is a thing always gets my vote.

Genre: Drama/Horror/Romance

Kotoko (Japan, 2011)

The story of a single mother who suffers from double vision; caring for her baby is a nerve-wrecking task that eventually leads her to a nervous breakdown. She is suspected of being a child abuser when things get out of control and her baby is taken away.

Let me just start by saying how glad I am that we finally have another Shinya Tsukamoto film on the site, it's certainly been too long since the last time. Tsukamoto has previously made films such as Tokyo Fist (2005), A Snake of June (2002), and above all, Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988). Kotoko is a chaotic story about a mother whose mind is starting to collapse in on itself. If you're not a fan of shaky camera work, you'll need a barf bag before seeing this movie because sometimes it's like being stuck in a tumble dryer. Crazy camera aside, Kotoko is a phenomenal movie and quite a dark one at that, featuring one of the most shocking deaths I've ever seen, I think. 

Genre: Drama/Horror