Asian Movie Guide
Abnormal Beauty
Jiney is a beautiful and talented photography student. One day she witnesses a gruesome car accident but instead of being horrified she finds herself aroused. Overcome with an excitement and satisfaction, she becomes obsessed with photographing death. Her obsession with death may just get her killed.
Attack the Gas Station
A rebellious athlete, an unemployed rock musician, a frustrated painter and a simple-minded loser. When four friends with nothing better to do decide to rob a gas station, disaster ensues. When they take over the gas station, things only get worse. These four guys prove themselves to be as inept as they are impertinent. From clashes with local gangs to a confrontation with the police, this gang of degenerates has rubbed everyone the wrong way.
Audition
Deceptively innocent at first, Takashi Miikes Audition finds Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi, Suicide Club, The Grudge), a middle-aged widower of many years, urged by his teenage son and his film producer friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura, Ichi The Killer) to get out and start dating again. To help Aoyama meet women, Yoshikawa devises a plan to hold a fake audition for a leading lady. Reluctantly agreeing, Aoyama auditions 30 young hopefuls and falls for the silent beauty of Asami (model/actress Eihi Shiina), a former ballerina with a dark past. Their courtship veers from quiet romance to psycho nightmare, realizing a sadistic breach of contract between filmmaker and audience of which Hitchcock could only dream.
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Battle Royale: Directors Cut
With the Japanese currently leading the way in thought-provoking cinematic violence, it’s only fitting that Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale is being touted as a Clockwork Orange for the 21st century. Based on the novel by Koshun Takami, the film opens with a series of fleeting images of unruly Japanese schoolchildren, whose bad behavior provides a justification for the “punishments” that will ensue. Once the prequel has been dispensed with, the classmates are drugged and awaken on an island where they find they have been fitted with dog collars that monitor their every move. Instructed by their old teacher (”Beat” Takeshi) with the aid of an upbeat MTV-style video, they are told of their fate: after an impartial lottery they have been chosen to fight each other in a three-day, no-rules contest, the “Battle Royale.” Their only chance of survival is through the death of all their classmates.
Big Man Japan (Dai Nipponjin)
BIG MAN JAPAN is an outrageous portrayal of an original superhero. As Big Man Japan, Daisato inherited the role of defending Japan against a host of bizarre monsters. He receives high-voltage electroshocks which transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high. However, where his predecessors were revered as national heroes, he is an outcast among the citizens he protects.
A Bittersweet Life
“A Bittersweet Life,” starring Lee Byung-hun from “Everybody Has a Little Secret” and Shin Mina from “Madeleine,” portrays the desperate and brutal revenge of Sun-woo (played by Lee) after he is expelled from his gang and comes close to being killed by his boss. Lee Byung-hun is a hitman who falls for the girlfriend of his boss in the stylishly violent “A Bittersweet Life.” Conventional ideas of causation are put into doubt in director Kim Jee-woon’s twist on film noire. “A Bittersweet Life (Talkomhan Insaeng)” is what Korean critics are describing as ‘Action Noire.’ In it, he tweaks the traditional Korean gangster story line, presenting a work with film noire undertones and stylish cinematography.
Black Society Trilogy (Shinjuku Triad Society/ Rainy Dog/ Ley Lines)
From the mind of Japanese sensation, Takashi Miike, the director of Full Metal Yakuza and Young Thugs comes his gangster opus, The Black Society Trilogy. SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY – In a twilight world, where gangster and law enforcer attract and repel each other in waves of violence, Tatsuhito, a dirty cop pursues the gay Chinese warlord, Wang, from the night world of Shinjuku to Taiwan. RAINY DOG – An outcast yakuza Yuji, lives as a hitman on the fringes of the Taiwanese criminal world. But when he’s unexpectedly saddled with what may be his real son, his lethal skills are deployed to win a haven for his new family. LEY LINES – Three boys of mixed race seek to escape from Japan, but their search brings them up against dangerous gang boss Wong, who holds the key to their departure.
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Bright Future
Friends Mamoru and Yuji are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders his boss’ family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru’s estranged father, and the two form a bond. But Yuji’s attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo.
Bullet in the Head Two Dvd Collector’s Edition
In 1967, on the way to the wedding of a friend a young man is accosted by a local gang member. Later, the three friends administer justice, in the process of which the gang member is killed, so they leave Hong Kong to avoid the police and the gang. They run black market supplies to Saigon and get embroiled in the war, being arrested as Viet Cong, then later captured by the Viet Cong, and find that their friendship is tested to the limits as they try to escape. Stars Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam & Fennie Yuen. This Special 2 Disc Set gives you the option to play the Original Theatrical Version, Original Theatrical Version with Deleted Scenes, or the Original Theatrical Version with the Alternate Ending.
Bunshinsaba (Witch Board)
From The director of Phone and Nightmare. Picked on in her new school yoo-jin gets some of the other tormented classmates together to put a curse on the cruel popular crowd. They use an automatic writing game to connect with the spirits, later the girls who picked on Yoo-Jin begin to die. Yoo-Jin finds there is a price for revenge, when her friends start bursting into flames, the school is cursed! Now each day onother victim bursts into flames…can Yoo-Jin escape the terrible fate she brought on herself?
Crows Zero
Takaya Genji just transferred to Suzuran, a high school notorious for its gang violence. At Suzuran High, hallways are battle zones, bloody brawls are everyday occurrences, and student life is dominated by the political winds of the school’s many factions. Genji didn’t end up here by accident though. He’s here to do what even his yakuza father couldn’t accomplish years before rule the school. Already stirring up a storm on the first day, Genji is determined to fight his way up the pecking order and unite the gangs. But not if alpha crow Serizawa Tamao has anything to say about it.
Cruel Restaurant
Just what is the mystery ingredient in the pot stickers at Togen Restaurant? Those who look for the answer have a habit of disappearing. So when body parts start washing up on the beach, police trace the murders to Togen’s seemingly innocent owner. But the slaughter of a few curious fans is the least shocking secret coming out of Togen’s kitchen! Mihiro, Sakae Yamazaki, Katsuya Naruse and Yusuke Iwata star in this pitch-black comic horror tale.
Crying Fist
One-time boxing silver medalist Tae Shik (Choi Min Sik) is now nothing but a washed-up alcoholic. Nothing nothing but boxing, Tae Shik now resorts to street performances to earn his living by challenging crowds to knock him out or be their own human punching bag. Elsewhere, young street thug Sang Hwan (Ryu Seung Beom) has been thrown in jail for his latest crime – a fight that ended with his opponent’s ear half bitten off. After a stay in solitary confinement, Sang Hwan is invited to join the prison’s boxing club to “let loose some steam” and Sang Hwan quickly learns that violence is what he’s made for. As these two boxers lead their down-spiraling ways of life, destiny has a cruel way of intertwining lives and the only way they can meet is in the ring . . .
Daytime Drinking
Hyuk-Jin has just broken up with his girlfriend and decides to take a trip to Jeongseon in the province of Gangwon-do. The next day, his friends are too hung over to get up, so Hyuk-Jin makes his way to his destination alone. A trip of opportunity takes a cruel and unexpected turn as misunderstanding and crossed paths occur over and over again.
Dead or Alive
The director of Dead or Alive, Takashi Miike, made his name on the international scene with Audition, a chilling psychological thriller that builds from a quiet start towards a prolonged torture sequence almost too unbearable to watch. But such deliberate pacing isn’t typical of Miike, whose movies often assault the viewer with an onslaught of slam-bang action that makes John Woo look like Eric Rohmer. Dead or Alive, his most successful cops-vs-yakuza thriller to date, kicks off with six nonstop minutes of machine gun-paced violence, sex, and slaughter, all set to a pounding heavy-metal beat. Thereafter things calm down a little, though not much. Given Miike’s penchant for murky, livid-toned visuals and skewed camera angles, it’s not always too easy to work out exactly who’s doing what to whom, but the general outline’s clear enough. The Tokyo underworld is being torn apart by a turf war between the yakuza gangs and the invading Chinese triads. Ambitious yakuza member Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) isn’t above playing both sides off against each other in his bid for power, while police detective Jojima (Sho Aikawa), himself none too scrupulous in his methods, is out to destroy the gangs.
Death Note I
Ace student Light Yagami finds the Death Note, a notebook intentionally dropped by a rogue “Shinigami death god named Ryuk. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies. Upset with the current justice system, Light takes matters into his own hands and vows to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of all evil, and become the God of the new world. Soon, the number of suspicious deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization. A mysterious detective known only as L quickly learns that the serial killer, nicknamed Kira by the public, is located in Japan. Light realizes that L will be his greatest enemy, and a game of psychological cat and mouse between the two begins.
Death Note II: The Last Name
Death Note: The Last Name is a sequel to the movie Death Note, which closely follows major plot elements from the original manga series, while featuring several new key story differences. The story begins on the heels of the first movie as Light Yagami joins the investigation team in pursuit of the serial killer known as “Kira.” While L still strongly suspects that Light is “Kira,” Light tries to uncover L’s real name so he can kill him with his Death Note. Confusingly enough, a new rash of murders all around the world are taking place, with a Second Kira” claiming responsibility. Light learns the identity of the Second Kira and suggests they join forces to get rid of L. Will L be able to catch “Kira” before he is killed?
Death Note 3: L, Change the World
A spin-off of the popular Death Note films, L: Change The World focuses on the legendary detective L as he uses his final 23 days to solve crimes all over the world. When a young girl and boy come to him for aid, L is soon faced with what may be his most difficult case yet: stopping a group of corrupted scientists from spreading a lethal virus throughout the earth.
Double Vision
A wealthy Taiwanese businessman is discovered frozen to death at the desk of his penthouse office. A government official’s beautiful mistress has been burned beyond recognition though there are no signs of fire anywhere in her home. A foreign priest is found disemboweled in bed with no visible traces of struggle. To help solve these grisly supernatural crimes the Taiwanese government is forced to enlist the services of a top American FBI agent (David Morse The Green Mile) trained in tracking down even the most elusive serial killers. After teaming up with a troubled local cop (Tony Leung) the two men follow a series of bizarre and unnerving clues into Taiwan’s darkest most mysterious realms – which lead them to an ancient religious cult searching for immortality – in this suspense-packed psychological thriller.
Exiled
The time is 1998. The setting is Macau. Every living soul jumps at every chance to make quick money before the Portuguese colony ushers in a new era under the Chinese rule. For the jaded hit men, they wonder where this journey will end. Against this backdrop come two hit men from Hong Kong sent to take out a renegade member trying to turn over a new leaf with his wife and newborn baby. They soon find themselves in the throes of a dilemma when two of their former associates also show up, intent on thwarting them at every cost.
Fudoh – The Next Generation
Set on the island of Kyushu, it tells the story of successful high school student Riki Fudoh, who leads a double life in organized crime. With his gang of underage assassins (forerunners of the kiddie killers in Dead or Alive 2 (2000), including five-year-olds with hand guns and a teenage stripper shooting deadly darts from her vagina) he not only controls the goings-on at his school, but aspires to take over criminal affairs on the entire island.
Full Contact
A rather mean-spirited vehicle for the normally empathetic Chow Yun-fat, with a brass-knuckle plot that recalls the Crook’s Revenge story line of Payback and its source movie, Point Blank. Chow is Joe (just plain Joe), a tattooed, crew-cut professional thief who chews Clint Eastwood’s old stogies, packs a sawed-off shotgun, and roars around on a chopped Harley. Betrayed and left for dead by turncoat pal Anthony Wong (the head gunrunner in John Woo’s Hard Boiled), he returns several months later, in a really bad mood, to retrieve his share of the swag.
