cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments |
- The Saviour Monk (1975) Review
- Luc Besson and Mark Chao to enter the ‘Warriors Gate’
- 2nd trailer for Shinji Higuchi’s live-action ‘Attack on Titan’
- Lust of the Dead 5 | DVD (Tokyo Shock)
- Third time’s a charm for Takashi Ishii’s ‘Gonin Saga’
- Ryan Gosling to join Harrison Ford in ‘Blade Runner’ sequel?
- Suzune Complete | DVD (Tokyo Shock)
| The Saviour Monk (1975) Review Posted: 17 Apr 2015 02:00 AM PDT  "The Saviour Monk" Chinese DVD Cover Director: Leung Chit Foo By Paul Bramhall The Saviour Monk is a tricky movie to review – it looks, feels, and sounds like an old school kung fu movie. It has a cast which includes familiar old school faces like Doris Lung and Philip Ko, and, well, what 70's Hong Kong movie with the word 'monk' in its title doesn't feature the monks in question busting out some kung fu moves? The Saviour Monk is that movie, as in its compact runtime (it clocks in at under 90 minutes), apart from some brief and decidedly average swordplay action, not a single punch or kick is thrown. So, what are we left with? In place of a kung fu spectacle, director Leung Chit Foo appears to have set out to sincerely tell the tale of a suitor to the throne, who decides to forego his birthright in order to become a monk. There's some onscreen text at the beginning of the movie which could well explain that proceedings are loosely based on a true story, but unfortunately it's impossible for me to tell, as none of it was subtitled. The subtitles do kick in for the characters dialogue, even if they look like they were made on a typewriter that's been dropped on the floor, wildly shaken, and stomped on for good measure. The quality of the subtitle appearance aside, The Saviour Monk did actually add a new word to my vocabulary, when the father of the would-be monk yells at him, "You! the recalcitrant!" Sadly the range of vocabulary is let down later on by such lines as, "Please sit down up." The monk himself is played by Tong Wai, who's righteous appearance often saw him starring in wuxia productions such as Majesty Cat and The Smart Cavalier, as well as featuring in the occasional Shaw Brothers production such as Naval Commandos. With a host of genre talent playing against type, and the selling point of watching a rich prince on his journey to become a monk, you may wonder if there's any reason at all to watch The Saviour Monk. Thankfully, there is. Those reasons mainly come in the form of director Chit Foo's rather bizarre production design decisions, which pop up with enough regularity to keep you watching. When Wai is told by his father that he has to marry the daughter of another provinces royal family, in order to try and discover their military secrets, he reluctantly agrees to go through with it. On their first night together as a married couple, Wai looks at his new wife, and suddenly finding himself tempted by the flesh, reminds himself via voice over that "Sex means empty." When he next looks at his wife, she's a jangling open mouthed plastic skeleton. Of course, he's appropriately turned off. Worrying that his wife is still frisky though, he tells her to light up a joss stick, and together they proceed to run circles around a small table for nearly a whole minute. What makes these scenes so hilarious, is that they appear to have been filmed with a genuine sincerity and seriousness. As a reward for not giving into his human desires, Wai is visited by the ghost of a monk who's been inexplicably following him around since the start of the movie, and taps him on the head with a brush, making all of his hair disappear. Having achieved his goal of becoming a monk (seemingly by doing nothing more than resisting having sex with the woman he was forced to marry), Wai doesn't even bother to wake her up, simply abandoning her in bed and setting off on his monks journey. This sets up the main structure of the plot, which finds Wai stumbling across a cult called the 'Heaven Religion', who want to control the population, while at the same time his wife and father are in hot pursuit after she was given the one night stand treatment (minus the sex part). The leader of the 'Heaven Religion' is played by kung fu legend Philip Ko, decked out to look like a Chinese version of Dracula in black robes and pale makeup, it almost seems like a crime that he doesn't throw a single shape. His base seems to be in some kind of underground cave, albeit a cave which has automatic doors, and when we're first introduced to his evil schemes it's through one of the daughters of a village elder, who's been possessed by his evil spell. The daughter is played by another familiar face from the jade screen, Doris Lung. Lung had an interesting career in the Hong Kong movie industry, active for the best part of a decade from the early 70's through to the early 80's, some sources report that she had an unstable personality, and attempted suicide three times during this time. Whether these facts are true or not is difficult to confirm, but regardless of their authenticity, in The Saviour Monk she gets to unleash her wild side via plenty of manic laughter (dubbed over by a man, no doubt inspired by The Exorcist, made 2 years prior) and arm flailing. Most interesting of her scenes though is one in which she performs a sexual dance routine in Philip Ko's lair, not at all dissimilar to the go-go dance scene in The Association, only with slightly less revealing clothing. Both The Association and The Saviour Monk were made in 1975, so it begs the question of which one introduced the 'sexy dance in a cults hidden lair' scene first. While Lung's dance doesn't involve a see through gown, the scene does get points for incorporating a lineup of male and female backup dancers, some of whom wear expressions which look like they're questioning how they got roped into such a performance. The Saviour Monk saves its pièce de résistance for around the mid-way point, when out of nowhere, it decides it's going to be a kaiju flick, and Philip Ko summons a giant bug eyed monster to erupt out of the ground, stomping everything in its path. Ok, so the only thing in its path are a few model trees, but it still counts. Unfazed by the monster, probably because the scenes were filmed separately, Wai calmly prays to the Buddha, and summons a Chinese dragon to appear and throw down with the bug eyed beast. While the scene is arguably sub-standard compared to its Japanese counterparts of the same era, the novelty of witnessing a kaiju battle in the middle of a movie which it really has no place in being, makes The Saviour Monk worth a watch. Thankfully the bug eyed monster makes a comeback for the finale, but not before more onscreen randomness such as watching Wai parting a river as if he's Moses, and Lung being shrunken to the size of a small doll. The Saviour Monk is perhaps best viewed as a watch once curiosity, and as Wai's character felt after spending a night with his wife, once should be enough. Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10 |
| Luc Besson and Mark Chao to enter the ‘Warriors Gate’ Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:59 AM PDT  "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon" Japanese DVD Cover Director/super producer, Luc Besson (Lucy), is working on Warriors Gate, a French-Chinese co-production that’s being described as a “big production” fantasy film. At the helm of the project will be Matthias Hoene (Cockneys vs Zombies) who’ll be directing a cast led by Mark Chao (Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon), Ni Ni (Flowers of War) and Uriah Shelton (Girl Meets World). Here’s what Besson told Variety: “It is a pretty big co-production. It is like food. You always try to find something for everybody. It is a very happy family film, kind of like Chronicles of Narnia.” Warriors Gate starts shooting in May. We’ll keep you updated as we hear more! |
| 2nd trailer for Shinji Higuchi’s live-action ‘Attack on Titan’ Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:41 AM PDT  "Attack on Titan" Japanese Theatrical Poster The shrinking budget for complex computer-effects has allowed many Japanese filmmakers to bring the world of anime, with its gravity-defying heroes and city-destroying battles, into the realm of live-action. Successful adaptations of the Death Note and Gantz series have helped pave the way in recent years, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, director Shinji Higuchi – known primarily for his special effects work on the 90′s Gamera trilogy – is preparing to bring Attack on Titan to the big screen in a two-part saga, the first of which releases next year. The series Attack on Titan takes place in a strange, quasi-medieval world in which giant humanoid creatures named Titans appear and threaten the lives of everyday people. Civilization’s only line of defense of the Titans are teenage soldiers who traverse the Titans’ massive bodies using powerful grappling hooks. The first season of the popular show is currently streaming on Netflix. In preparation of the film’s release next year, the producers have released several character posters (click here). | First footage from the live-action film. | First teaser trailer. |
| Lust of the Dead 5 | DVD (Tokyo Shock) Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:40 AM PDT  Lust of the Dead 5 | DVD (Tokyo Shock) RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2015 Tokyo Shock presents the DVD for Lust of the Dead 5 (aka Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead 5) starring Asami (Prison Girl) and Mihiro (Ju-on series). The insane apocalyptic zombie saga continues! Watch the viral epidemic spread as the sex-craved, walking-dead expand their rampage across post-nuke Tokyo! Can they be sopped? Can their perpetual lust ever be satisfied? Don’t miss the trailer! Also see Lust of the Dead 4. Pre-order Lust of the Dead 5 from Amazon.com today! |
| Third time’s a charm for Takashi Ishii’s ‘Gonin Saga’ Posted: 17 Apr 2015 12:00 AM PDT  "Gonin" Japanese Theatrical Poster In the mood for more Yakuza action? Well, so are we. Takashi Ishii (Freeze Me) is currently wrapping up the third entry to his violent Gonin series. But before we talk about that, let’s take a look at the first two films: 1995′s Gonin revolved around a disco owner who convinces 4 other guys to go along with him in a planned heist of the local Yakuza thugs for over 100 million yen. The heist is successful, however, the Yakuza, obviously perturbed at the theft, send out 2 hit men (one of which is played by Beat Takeshi) to kill the five. Gonin 2, which came out in 1996, followed Masamichi Toyama (Ken Ogata), a married man who gets into a bad gambling debt he cant pay back. As a result, Yakuza gangsters track him down, beat him to a pulp and rape his wife. Now, the only thing Toyama will pay back is bloody revenge! According Film Business Asia, Gonin Saga (aka Gonin 3) follows an investigative reporter who meets the sons of the gangsters involved in the aftermath of the original heist. The film stars Masahiro Higashide (Crows Explode), Kenta Kiritani (Outrage Beyond), Anna Tsuchiya (Kamui Gaiden), Tasuku Emoto (A Story of Yonosuke) and Masanobu Ando (Battle Royale). Gonin Saga is expected to be released in Japan on September 26, 2015. Until then, here’s the first trailer (via FCS). |
| Ryan Gosling to join Harrison Ford in ‘Blade Runner’ sequel? Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:02 AM PDT  "Blade Runner" Japanese Promotional Poster THE MOVIE: Ridley Scott and Hampton Fancher, director and writer, respectively, of the original Blade Runner, are currently working on the follow up to the ground-breaking 1982 science fiction classic, which will take place some years after the first film concluded. Harrison Ford is officially returning as Rick Deckard and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) is taking over directing duties for Scott. Updates: Rope of Silicon reports that the upcoming Blu-ray for Prometheus clearly shows (screen shot at link, originally from Reddit) that there is a connection between the Blade Runner and Prometheus (which technically means the Alien franchise is also connected). The connection is a dictated message by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) that implies an obvious reference to Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) from Blade Runner and his creation of Replicants. Of course, this may have an effect on the upcoming sequel to Blade Runner. | THR reports that Michael Green, writer of 2011′s Green Lantern, is in negotiations to work on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner sequel. In a recent interview, Empire asked Ridley Scott about Blade Runner 2, and this is what he had to say: “Yeah, we’re working on [Blade Runner 2] right now – that will happen sooner or later.” According to Variety (via MTV), Ridley Scott says the screenplay is not only "written and ready to go," but that Harrison Ford loves it: "I sent him this (script) and he said, 'Wow, this is the best thing I've ever read,' so it's very relevant to what happened (in) the first one," Scott told MTV News. "I'm not just doing a sequel with lots of action and see how far we can go with the special effects because you can't really. 'Blade Runner' kind of landed on a somehow very credible future. And it's very difficult to change that because it's been so influential with everything else." BREAKING NEWS: According to sources, Ryan Gosling (Drive) is in talks to co-star in Blade Runner 2. No other details about his potential character are available. |
| Suzune Complete | DVD (Tokyo Shock) Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:01 AM PDT  Suzune Complete | DVD (Tokyo Shock) RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015 Tokyo Shock presents the DVD for Ryu Kaneda’s Suzune Complete, which contains Suzune: Genesis and Suzune: Evolution. When your body is bursting with all kinds of erotic parasites, the only person that can save you is Dr. Suzune (Rei Yoshii). Based on Japan’s most popular mobile phone manga, Kisei jui-Suzune by Haruki. Watch the trailer (don’t blame us, we’re just here to report this stuff). Pre-order Suzune Complete from Amazon.com today! |
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