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- The Divine Move (2014) Review
- The Raid 2′s Hammer Girl joins Albert Pyun’s ‘Kickboxer’
- Cityonfire.com’s ‘The Pirates’ Blu-ray Giveaway!
- Get instant cult ‘n exploitation with VinegarSyndrome.tv!
| Posted: 15 Jan 2015 12:02 AM PST  "The Divine Move" Korean Theatrical Poster Director: Jo Beom-Goo By Paul Bramhall The gambling genre seems to come in and out of fashion in Asian cinema. The early 80's gave us Shaw Brothers gambling flicks such as Challenge of the Gamesters, by the early 90's we had Chow Yun Fat doing his thing in the God of Gamblers movies, and in recent years it seems the genre is back on the scene. Hong Kong gave us From Vegas to Macau and its sequel, and in 2014 Korea gave us The Divine Move. Helmed by Jo Beom-goo, the director who gave us the Korean version of Speed on a motorbike with the 2011 action comedy Quick, The Divine Move revolves around the game of Go. Go involves placing black and white stones on a chequered playing board, the idea being for the players to outwit each other by surrounding the opposing players stones with their own. By the time the board is full, whoever has surrounded the most of the opposing players stones is the winner. Of course, there are countless nuances and intricacies outside of the above explanation, but that's the basic concept. The movies kicks off by introducing us to a pair of brothers, the younger of whom is played by Jeong Woo-seong, barely recognizable under a thick mop of hair and glasses, that are on their way to attend a game of Go. It quickly become clear that things are not quite right when the older brother explains he wants his younger sibling to stay back, guiding the game from their vehicle, thanks to a hidden camera and ear piece he'll be wearing. Woo-seong reluctantly agrees, however when a storm knocks out the connection between them, the older brother is left to figure things out for himself against a superior opponent. Things go wrong, the price of losing is a slashed throat, and after Woo-seong attempts to save his brother, he's ultimately caught by the police and jailed. These events are what kick off The Divine Move, which declare what kind of movie it's going to be from those very first minutes – Jailed younger brother is going to avenge his older brother’s death at the hands of Go playing gangsters. Just like director Beom-goo's previous effort Quick, it's an unashamedly straight forward plot device, only instead of being used for motorbike chases and explosions, here it's used for tension filled games of Go and fist fights. Also like in Quick, the simplicity of the plot works as much in the movies favor as it does against it, but we'll get into that more later. The always reliable Woo-seong does a great job in his role. Most well known amongst action fans for his roles in movies like The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Cold Eyes, and Reign of Assassins, soon his character is playing Go with the chief of the prison, as well as being trained how to fight by a fellow inmate. This is the type of movie were you can have a one vs. many brawl in a prison yard in the middle of the night, and not a single guard will be around to see it. Scenes like this make The Divine Move play out more like an exaggerated comic rather than something that's grounded in reality, and perhaps in recognition of this, the opening titles are also designed in a comic book style. By the time Woo-seong is released from prison and ready to start bringing on the pain and, well, playing Go (not necessarily in that order), the movies biggest problem becomes apparent – we still don't really know a single thing about him. Beom-goo seems to have been so pre-occupied with creating cool scenes of characters playing Go and beating each other up, that character development seems to have been left by the wayside. We know his brother was murdered, but why were they there in the first place, what's their background? It's something which is never explored, which makes everything feel very one dimensional, and dare I say flat. The character development issue spills over into every other character in the movie – Woo-seong enlists the help of a down and out homeless Go master (who is also blind just for good measure) played by Ahn Seong-gi, but again we find out nothing about him and how he ended up the way he is, other than he had some past association with the same gangsters that murdered Woo-seong's brother. The gangsters have a female master amongst them played by Lee Si-yeong, who looks like she doesn't really enjoy working for them, and it's mentioned in passing that she won a national Go competition when she was 20 then disappeared. Again, this is all we find out about her, even though she becomes a crucial character to the plot. Most glaringly of all though, is a Chinese child who the gangsters seem to be keeping captive due to her incredible Go playing ability, but who is given no back-story or explanation as to how she got there. What this ultimately means for the viewer is that we're left with a bunch of characters who we don't really know anything about, so therefore have no connection with. What we do get though, is an abundance of scenes with characters playing Go, and then beating the living daylights out of each other, sometimes they play Go and beat each other up at the same time. One scene, which also seems to have come straight out of a comic book, has Woo-seong lock himself and one of gangsters in a freezer room, in which he's set up a Go board in the middle of the floor and proceeds to turn the temperature down to -35. It's all rather absurd that each of the gangsters he comes across seems happy to have a sit-down game of Go with him before getting down to the violence, but somehow The Divine Move exists in a world were playing Go seems to be the equivalent of boxers tapping their gloves together before a fight. By the end of the movie the games of Go have also become one of its flaws, as there are simply too many of them. While Beom-goo does manage to infuse most of them with a sense of tension, there are a couple too many, which just end up feeling like a chore to watch. Thankfully the plot attempts to go out with a bang thanks to a bloody finish, in a year which seems to have brought back the brutal knife fight with a vengeance (see also No Tears for the Dead and Man on High Heels), Woo-seong and his blade also deliver an effectively wince worthy final showdown against those he's seeking vengeance against. All in all The Divine Move would perhaps be better titled Go and Violence, as that's essentially what it amounts to. The 2006 Korean movie Tazza: The High Rollers took a similar concept, except instead of Go it was Flower Cards, and pulled it off with much more feeling, thanks to giving us characters that we cared about and a decent back-story. While Tazza had the likes of Kim Yoon-seok and Kim Hye-soo amongst its cast, actors like Woo-seong and Seong-gi are more than capable of giving equally charismatic performances, which leaves the finger pointed squarely at director Beom-goo. For his next movie, here's hoping he keeps the fist fights, and exchanges the games of Go for some scenes were we can get to know the characters that we're about to spend 2 hours with. Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10 |
| The Raid 2′s Hammer Girl joins Albert Pyun’s ‘Kickboxer’ Posted: 14 Jan 2015 07:00 PM PST  "Kickboxer 2" Theatrical Poster 1989′s Kickboxer was just another stepping stone on a young Jean-Claude Van Damme’s path to stardom. The movie was little more than a remake of Bloodsport, this time transported to the world of Thai kickboxing, but the film was successful enough to spawn a number of sequels, and an upcoming reboot in 2015 by John Stockwell (In the Blood). The first sequel saw Cyborg director Albert Pyun team up with actor Sasha Mitchell for Kickboxer 2: The Road Back. This film actually received a limited theatrical release in 1991. Mitchell, who would later achieve fame as a co-star on the 90′s TV sitcom Step by Step, was supposedly playing the brother of Van Damme’s character from the original. The formula must have worked as Sasha Mitchell stuck around for two direct-to-video sequels, Kickboxer 3: The Art of War and Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor, before domestic problems temporarily derailed his career. Now, looks like Pyun is bringing Mitchell back for a new Kickboxer project (not to be confused with Kickboxer: Vengeance with Alain Moussi). Here’s the scoop from Pyun himself (via Facebook): I was committed to making the Algiers screenplay in January/February. Our foreign distributor took the project out at the American Film Market, which is going on right now, until tomorrow. Well, a couple of shifts in the project. Turns out they would really prefer a Kickboxing film starring Sasha more than an Algiers. So quickly, Algiers became The Kickboxer and that shoots for 6 weeks in January and February… The plan is too shoot 3 weeks in LA and 3 weeks in Nevada.” Click here to see the promotional artwork for Pyun’s upcoming The Kickboxer, which also stars Michael Tushaus, Kevin Sorbo, Norbert Weisser and Scott Paulin. Updates: Pyun announced that Dennis Chan (Kickboxer 1-3) is reprising his role as mentor, Xian Chow. Also, Michel Qissi (Kickboxer 1-2, Bloodsport), who played the original Tong Po in the series, will be appearing as a different character named Said Ali. In addition – and this should be taken with a grain of salt – there is also some talk about Mark Dacascos (Drive) and Michael Dudikoff (Americna Ninja) joining… From the words of Pyun himself regarding the newly titled Kickboxer: City of Blood: ”Its the biggest action movie I’ve ever attempted. Bigger than Nemesis or Cyborg.” In addition, Mike Leeder (Pound of Flesh) is now co-producing an will be handling casting in Guangzhou, China, where the film starts shooting on February 26th 2015. BREAKING NEWS: According to Albert Pyun’s Facebook (via FCS), producer Mike Leeder has connected the director with Indonesian actress Julie Estelle (Macabre), who’s mostly known for playing Hammer Girl in The Raid 2. She’ll be appearing in Kickboxer: City of Blood as Tun, a secret police agent. |
| Cityonfire.com’s ‘The Pirates’ Blu-ray Giveaway! Posted: 14 Jan 2015 06:44 PM PST  The Pirates | Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA) Cityonfire.com and Well Go USA are giving away 3 Blu-ray copies of the Award-winning South Korean crime thriller The Pirates to three lucky Cityonfire visitors. If you’re not familiar with the film, you’ll want to watch the trailer! To enter, simply add a comment to this post and describe, in your own words, this clip (we apologize in advance regarding 0:49 to 1:10). We will be selecting a winner at random. Be sure to include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you for your home address. Additionally, you must 'Like Us' on cityonfire.com's Facebook by clicking here. The Blu-ray & DVD for The Pirates will be officially released on January 20, 2015. We will announce the 3 winners on that day and ship out the prizes immediately. CONTEST DISCLAIMER: You must enter by January 19, 2015 to qualify. U.S. residents only please. We sincerely apologize to our non-U.S. visitors. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 48 hours, otherwise you will automatically be disqualified. No exceptions. Contest is subject to change without notice. |
| Get instant cult ‘n exploitation with VinegarSyndrome.tv! Posted: 14 Jan 2015 12:00 AM PST  "Raw Force" Blu-ray Cover For much of the past year, Vinegar Syndrome has been promoting a streaming site with the name Skinaflix. In the early development stage, they decided that as wonderful as the Skinaflix concept was, it seemed a mistake to limit it only to sexploitation. With that in mind, they have revamped the concept into VinegarSyndrome.tv, a more diverse streaming service with the inclusion of ALL genres distributed by Vinegar Syndrome and our new label, Etiquette Pictures. Launching with over 200 titles presented in HD, VinegarSyndrome.tv promises to be a streaming powerhouse for all things exploitation and sleaze (*cough* Raw Force), from G rated to full hardcore. Including informative blogs, exclusive titles, and special discounts on DVDs and Blu-rays. To help speed up the development process and add features such as Roku, iOS and Android apps, they’re launching an Indiegogo campaign. If their goal is met, the site will go live on May 1st. Much of the legwork has already been done, but with a successful campaign, the process could be sped up exponentially. Please give what you can, and if not please promote the campaign and spread the word in any way possible. For more information and to view the Indiegogo campaign, visit VinegarSyndrome.tv. |
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