Dream Home (Review)

Dream Home

Dream Home (2011 - USA)

Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang

I take pride in watching Category III Hong Kong flicks. I loved the Anthony Wong driven The Ebola Syndrome and Dr. Lamb, video nasties that were fucked up beyond recognition. So it's been a while since I've seen a Cat 3 HK flick but having seen Dream Home litter a few best of 2011 lists, I knew I had to seek this beauty out.

And what did it do? It slaughtered a few of the other flicks from my 10 story top 10 list and moved right into the building (see what I did there?) Dream Home is an uber slasher exploitation film that not only will make inner gorehounds FAP but make the intellectual cinephile think and FAP as well. Rarely does a Cat 3 make you think. Usually you think you're gonna watch some vicious kills and see some boobies. But with a stellar performance by Josie Ho and director Ho-Cheung Pang satirizing the desire for the have nots to have at any costs, it's a tour de kill slasher film of 2011.

Dream Home does suffer with issues with realism, the kills are somewhat comic bookey and there is a serious issue with the use of flashbacks that may confuse some viewers. A subplot of affairs and pacing issues also hurts the film a bit as does the super strength of our uber killer. But all that aside, Cat 3 HK flicks have always had a bit of slapstick and oddness about them that makes them mesmerizing to watch.

Dream Home is my dream movie. Fuck yeah.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Cheng Li-sheung is a young, upwardly mobile professional finally ready to invest in her first home. But when the deal falls through, she is forced to keep her dream alive - even if it means keeping her would-be neighbors dead.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Let's break this down movie down by different sections of an apartment building.

The Lobby

Cheing Lai (Josie Ho) works as a telemarketer for a bank around 2007. She's a regular office drone leading a typical life (working 2 other jobs, taking care of her father and brother, being a mistress and whoring it...you know typical shit). However, she has a dream. She wants to live in an apartment looking over the ocean bay of Hong Kong. Despite her lack of funds to buy this apartment she is willing to do anything to make her dream come true.

It's not everyday a movie opens with some suffocation via plastic bag and plastic handcuff restraints. With Dream Home, you get sucked in and the movie starts to establish a pattern of Cheing Lai going to slasher school while we also get flashbacks of her life as a child which establish her motivations for what happens in the present.

The Living Room

Soon we start seeing our girl in action as she slaughters her would be neighbors all in one night. The odd part of this is I usually root for the slasher and was kinda mystified by my lack of cheering as it seems silly to kill your potential neighbors to bring the price down of an apartment. But the slaughter is magnificio! Our first kill scenes revolve around a pregnant woman who is brilliantly suffocated via suction (you gotta see this shit...fuckin crazy...see below)





....and the old reliable ocular trauma makes a cameo. But as the movie went on, Cheing Lai showed she was vulnerable, getting wounded in the midst of her battles and though we shouldn't empathize with a cold blooded killer, I was hoping she'd be OK.

Maybe it's because she's a woman but oh have Cat 3 flicks changed. Cheing Lai rivals Anthony Wong's throne of being the hardcore of hardcore slashers.

The Kitchen

I mentioned previously the movie employs ill timed flashbacks. First with Cheing Lai as a little girl whose family has to deal with being forcibly removed from their apartment by Triads working for greedy developers. Later she sees the plight of her family and the tole of her dad being sick and not being covered by health insurance.

The flashbacks show up without any notice and sometimes I got lost in where I was. Early on years were subtitled in but it's a bit confusing as one can't tell where we are with the story. I'll say the flashbacks do give you a glimpse of our slashereta's motivations of why this apartment by the sea is so important. Sure it's not justification to kill people but for a crazy insano like Cheing Lai, I guess it is.

The Bedroom

Ahh the bedroom, because that's where the good action all takes place. Cheing Lai's best kills when she home invades a group of Chinese hipsters, whores and drug dealer. The movie climaxes in the kill scenes here with a variety of creative kills ranging from intestine spillage, toilet trauma, glass beaker neck stabbings and wood to mouth Fangoria approved slaughter. And some J. Bobbitt. Because's what's a slasher movie without a penis trauma right?

It's a testament to non CGI-ness of it all. Cheing Lai also gets some luck to get out of the mess she's been in as the cops want to bust in and stop the madness. It's this ridiculousness that makes Dream Home a little fantastic. Can a dude still smoke a joint while his intestines are all over the floor? Dream Home says yes.

The Patio

With all this fuckin awesome slaughter, the movie poses a few ideas about why our mistress of slasher-dom does what she does. The movie satirizes what one is willing to do to buy her own home which in turns plays out the notion of how the housing crisis evolved. Sure Cheing Lai goes the fuckin beserk route to get the price down by the real estate agent by murdering a bunch of people in the building but in retrospect the working class, even the poor are willing to do what it takes to own their own home thus taking those shady deals from the Fannie Mays and other home brokerage companies. Should they have known better? Of course. But somebody should have told them it was wrong. These companies didn't.

As the flashbacks indicate, the HK government seemed to conspire with the mob and real estate developers to remove poor people from their homes in order to replace them with luxury high rises. It seems we can then conclude that the movie was implying that the working class wanted what was originally theirs. Cheing Lai is the embodiment of that.

The movie ends in irony and it's pretty obvious that nobody will live happily ever after. But what Dream Home establishes is a why in the midst of the chaos. The slasher genocides these people for her own selfish reasons but in a way the movie wants us to ignore that she's killed innocent people and empathize with her working class background.

Dream Home is intelligently designed to be an effective satire and an uber bloody and gory slasher which is to say, not an easy thing to do. Ho drives the movie, her performance yings to a woman who has lived harshly than yangs to her being a vicious, cold blooded motherfuckin killer.

I have not seen a HK Cat 3 movie that's left an impact this much like Dream Home. I think I've grown as a horror fan in that I'm not easily glamoured by wicked gore or spectacular splatter anymore. I expect my wickedly gory and spectacular splatter slasher flicks to say something about the world I live in.

Dream Home does just that.


Nude-ipedia

Whores show boobies
Simulated sex and BJs
I love Cat 3 nudity!

Gore-ipedia

See my descriptions above
So much awesomeness and creative kills, it should go into the Hall of Fame

WTF moment

The whore gets floor boarded

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

Dream Home came out in Hong Kong in 2010 but was released in NA and EU in 2011. It's available on DVD via IFC Midnight. Rarely does one see a Cat 3 film and say that it's thought provoking. Usually I go and say that shit was hilariously fucked up. I can proudly say that it's both!

Rating:


Check out the trailer.

Categories: 2011 horror movies, anthony wong, category 3, china, dream home, gore, hong kong, slasher films, slashers, slice and dice, splatter, splatter gore, top splatter movies

Ip Man 2 (Review)

Ip Man 2

Ip Man 2 (2010)

Directed by Wilson Yip

[this review brought to you by guest writer Camiele White who was a former apprentice of Beatrix Kiddo]

After 20 years of consciously watching film (the first five don’t count, for obvious reasons), my favourite films seem to always be Martial Arts related. When my brother came to me with a film he dubbed “the greatest action film of all time”, I had my doubts, particularly because I hadn’t seen a large variety of action films that were both adrenaline pumping and artistic works of brilliance. However, my brother has yet to steer me wrong, so I gave it a chance. It was the moment I welcomed Ip Man into my life.

After having seen the first film, I was thirsty, no RAVENOUS for more! Without becoming overcome with emotion, I’ll simply say Ip Man 2 didn’t fail to deliver. It was one of those films that you see once in your life, once in an existential dilemma about the worth of your own life --yeah, it was that deep for me.

Barring my overdramatic infatuation with the film, it actually opened my eyes to a universal truth --Americans don’t know shit! I consider myself incredibly open-minded. That being said, there’s so much about Asian cinema that I’m missing that it’s almost embarrassing. That point was driven home with a stake the size of Montreal when I had the pleasure of experiencing the Ip Man series for the first time.

Ip Man tells the story of the legendary Yip Man, known commonly as Ip Man, one of the most venerated masters of Chinese Martial Arts and the undisputed master of Wing Chun. Most renowned for becoming the teacher of, arguably, the greatest Chinese martial artist of all time, Bruce Lee, Ip Man was a quiet nobleman who had a keen and organic understanding of the movement of the human body. The first film shows his struggle to effectively carry an entire nation on his shoulders during the second Sino-Japanese War. As with most films based on historical fact, the directors take a few liberties with the facts in order to heighten the dramatic effect; however, those moments are few and far between. What I experienced was nothing short of miraculous.

Ip Man 2 picks up where its predecessor left of: after winning a battle against Miura (portrayed by Ikeuchi Hiroyuki), a ruthless Japanese general and respectable martial artist in his own right, Ip Man is shot by a shady lieutenant with a sizeable chip on his shoulders who spits on the self-respect and tradition of the Chinese folk (let’s just say the man had one hell of a Napoleon Complex). After his shooting, the Chinese people, who are barricaded behind wooden spiked fences, force their way through and help Ip Man and his family escape their home of Foshan.

In the opening scene, we see Ip Man, portrayed by the highly underrated (and the second most incredible Chinese actor I’ve ever seen), Donnie Yen, attempting to find a place to open his Martial Arts school. He finds an abandoned roof annexed to a plant nursery, used solely to hang laundry. As is the case in many traditional Martial Arts films, a cocky young challenger waltzes through the doors to flex his muscle and see what all the fuss is about this Ip Man. Boy, did he learn a thing or twelve. Without blinking an eye, Master Ip devours this man with all the grace and poise of an elegant dancer. Thus setting the pace for the rest of the film.

On top of all the craziness surrounding the territorial nature of Martial Arts, Master Ip’s wife, Cheung Wing-sing (played by the ever-gorgeous Lynn Hung) is pregnant with another child and trying her best to save as much money as possible as her husband waits for students. Then when the British Invasion hits the Chinese shores, all hell breaks loose.

As tends to be the trend, the Brits have an itching for some Imperialism and decide to spread their European power to China. With a snarky (and poorly acted) British event promoter exploiting the beauty of Chinese Martial Arts to make some quick cash, the film alludes early on to an imminent clash between a British boxer and Master Ip. The fight is, of course, set up with an early casualty of nationalism --Master Hung, a renowned teacher of Hung Gar. He’s killed by the British boxing star, Taylor “The Twister” Milos, when Master Hung becomes outraged with his blatant insults of Chinese culture and challenges him in the ring.

Vengeance and national honour is on the line as Master Ip prepares to fight Twister and obliterate the misconception of most of the Western world of the 50s that Chinese culture is a commodity in place to entertain the masses.

As the plot twists and escalates in overt social commentary, two aspects that always remain effortless are the dramatic poise and natural beauty of the surroundings. The film is a testament to the grace inherent in true Martial Arts. It’s a film that’s completely full of pride and dignity. As with the other films that fill the top spots of my all time favourites, Ip Man and Ip Man 2 are true cinematic marvels that have enough action to keep one riveted, but is never crass or over the top, simply dramatic and sophisticated, portraying true life at its most intense.

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Camiele White suffers from too much film information. In order to remedy her psychosis she’s decided to write about it. Right now, she’s trying something a bit different and writes about Theatrical Costumes. If you want to engage in a little conversation (at your own risk) she can be reached at cmlewhite at gmail [dot] com.

Check out the trailer below.

Categories: action cinema, china, hong kong, kung fu, martial arts

NYAFF 2011: Top Movies to Check Out

Summer is upon us and I know you want to head outdoors and enjoy the sun and the grass but starting next month you may want to head indoors to see some awesome Asian flicks courtesy of the New York Asian Film Festival.

They've just released their schedule and it's packed full of choice flicks from love stories to horror flicks to plain old crazy WTF films. Check out the full schedule. Also head over to the official site for more info.

I've perused the list and here are the top flicks that you really need to check out. I haven't seen them all but I've been itching to see the one's below. There are plenty of other flicks on the schedule, so be sure to check out all of them.

Ticket prices this year will be:

• $13 general / $9 students & seniors / $8 members for Lincoln Center
• $12 general / $9 members, students & seniors for Japan Society
• Japan Society will be running a special “buy 5, save $2 off each ticket” deal (in-person or telephone purchases only).
• Lincoln Center will again offer their Ten Film Pass for $99 general / $79 students & seniors / $69 members.

CHINA

BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (China, 2010, North American Premiere, 105 minutes) - gobbling up festival awards around the world, Sylvia Chang stars as a suicidal landlady who rents an apartment to three irritating young hipsters in this transcendent drama from Li Yu (LOST IN BEIJING) one of the only female directors working in China. Popular actress, Fan Bingbing (SHAOLIN), stars as one of the hipsters, but it¹s Sylvia Chang, the most important woman in Chinese show business in the 70¹s and 80¹s, who owns this movie.

PUNISHED (Hong Kong, 2011, International Premiere, 94 minutes) - the latest movie produced by Johnnie To, this is a hardcore revenge drama featuring a powerhouse turn by Anthony Wong as a real estate billonaire whose wild child daughter has been kidnapped. Bullet-to-the-head action the way Hong Kong used to do it.

RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY (Hong Kong, 1991, 91 minutes) - the classic HongKong midnight action movie about prison privatization and monsters who strangle you with their guts. Rarely seen on the big screen, this is a full-on, ridiculously crazy mind-melter full of crucifixion, flaying, classic kung fu combat and prison wardens who keep breath mints in their glass eyeballs.

JAPAN

13 ASSASSINS: DIRECTOR'S CUT (Japan, 2010, 141 minutes, New York Premiere) -
the complete UNCUT version of Takashi Miike¹s samurai masterpiece. With 17 minutes of original footage restored.
***One of the movie¹s stars, Takayuki Yamada, will be at the screening

BATTLE ROYALE (Japan, 2000, 114 minutes) - a celebratory screening of Kinji Fukasaku¹s masterpiece now that it finally - after 10 years!!!! - has a new distributor who wants people to actually see it. Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR (Japan, 2011, New York Premiere, 106 minutes) ­ Noboru
Iguchi (Robo Geisha) makes his best film yet. Not just that, but this is the best-looking flick from label, Sushi Typhoon, yet. Slick, big budget and almost family friendly, it¹s based on an obscure TV show from the 70¹s about a young, bright-eyed police officer and his karate robot (who transforms into a motorcycle) fighting crime. But in Iguchi¹s version, the two split up and have to reunite years later after middle-age has taken its toll.

NINJA KIDS!!! (Japan, 2011, World Premiere, 100 minutes) -
Centerpiece Presentation. Takashi Miike's latest flick.

Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

VERSUS (Japan, 2000, 120 minutes) - a tenth-anniversary celebration of the Japanese zombie action film that launched a thousand horror/splatter/action flicks.
***Star and action choreographer, Tak Sakaguchi, and writer, Yudai
Yamaguchi, will be at the screening.

YAKUZA WEAPON (Japan, 2011, New York Premiere, 105 minutes) - stuntman-turned-director, Tak Sakaguchi, turns in a high calibre, action-heavy riff on Robocop all about a robot yakuza out to put his fist through the skulls of the bad guys. From Sushi Typhoon, purveyor of movies like Alien vs. Ninja.
***The movie¹s director and star, Tak Sakaguchi, and co-director and writer,
Yudai Yamaguchi, will be at the screening

Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

KOREA

BEDEVILLED (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 115 minutes) - part of Sea of
Revenge focus.

PHILIPPINES

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED (Australia, 2010, New York Premiere, 84 minutes) -
from the people who made Not Quite Hollywood, comes this definitive documentary about the Filipino exploitation film bonanza that erupted in the 70s and 80s.

CHECK OUT THE JADED VIEWER'S REVIEW OF MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!

THAILAND

BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT (Thailand, 2010, New York Premiere, 105 minutes) -
Tony Jaa¹s mentor, Panna Rittikrai, will school you now. This exploitation stunt-tacular features all his best stuntmen and women unleashing muay thai, capoeira, dirt bike fu, shovel beatdowns, fights on fire, fights in the water, fights under trucks, fights in mid-air, and two back-to-back
climactic smackdowns that have to be seen to be believed.

CHECK OUT THE JADED VIEWER'S REVIEW OF BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT!

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Ninja Kids and Machete Maidens Unleashed are my top priority. Once I check em out, you'll see my reviews here starting next week.

Are you psyched yet?

Then check out the trailer.

Categories: 7th Annual New York Asian Film Festival, battle royale, china, festival, filipino horror, japanese, korean horror, muay thai, NYC screenings, nyc movie, takashi miike, versus, yakuza

Beach Spike Trailer shows us Hong Kong is just as shallow as America

When Hollywood conjures up ways to somehow show beautiful hotties in bikinis, they usually put them in surfing or cheerleading movies. It's pretty much standard now. When they really think the audience won't care, they also like insert these hotties in tight leather and parade them as super secret agents, fledgling singers or dance street competitors. Regardless of the case, you know the movie somehow will involve a boy, a hardship that has to be overcome and some sort of life lesson learned.

But lets be real.

As much as we'd like to think these camouflaged chick flicks are designed to get women to see their life problems addressed, they are aiming for that 18-34 year old male demo as well. Remember that rom-com starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston? Nope? Do you remember it also starred Brooklyn Decker in a bikini? See now you do.

It's not too hard.

Well rest assured the Hong Kong film industry also likes to parade their young and beautiful hotties and put it into movies where they have to do what's right. In this case, 2 attractive beach volleyball girls defend their beach from ruthless developers. But the twist here is they learn kung fu to aid them to victory. Yeah it echoes Shaolin Soccer alot but there be boobies bouncing around in this.

First check out the plot:

(via BeyondHollywood.com)

Hong Kong’s Paradise Cove is like Venice Beach on the South China Sea, a haven of tanned bikini-clad Asian babes, bronzed bodybuilder types, artists, surfers, musicians, beach bums? Chrissie (Chrissie Chau) and Kim (Theresa Fu) are two of Paradise’s sunniest spirits, working at the restaurant of their kung fu master uncle Tao (Lo Man) and taking on all comers in lively beach volleyball matches. One day, a shadow falls on this apparently endless summer: The wealthy Bu Family plans to turn the beach into a playground for the rich, banishing the young, poor and fun-loving. Mrs. Bu’s two arrogant Eurasian daughters, Porsche (Jessica C) and Phoenix (Phoenix Valen) challenge Chrissie and Kim to a volleyball match, and our heroines suffer a humiliating defeat.

The two Eurasian vixens lay down a challenge: if the two local girls enter and win the upcoming All Hong Kong Women’s Volleyball tournament, Mrs. Bu will revise her plans to further develop the area. Though they accept the challenge, Chrissie and Kim feel they have little chance of winning the tournament, until Tao teaches them superior kung fu skills that can be applied to the volleyball court.

After surviving their training under Tao, the girls get to test their newfound skills both on and off the sand. Comedy, curves and kung fu collide in a fast-paced actioner in the madcap martial arts tradition of? Shaolin Soccer. And Kung Fu Hustle.

Now let's whet your appetite with some stills.

(via Twitchfilm)

We're like your typical Eurasian hot girls. We love stacking chairs!

She's got a good grip on that ball. Go team go!

It's a staredown! The evil bitchy volleyball hottie is like "I'm taller and have a bigger cup size!" If this was America, she'd be a brunette with a tattoo.

Finally, here is the trailer with gratuitous slo-mo bouncing boobies...errr I mean volleyball action. I like how their is a Miyagi figure and a nerd and fat guy for comic relief. I think Chrissie Chau is my new favorite Hong Kong pseudo model of all time.




Clearly a film like this has only one goal in mind when it gets released. But it goes to show you Hollywood and HK know how the male mind works. Sure you don't want to see the beach be turned into a resort, but I'm still hypnotized by the in game action.

And to all the dudes, you know you flipped on ESPN and checked out beach volleyball for that. Well that and the other thing.

Categories: china, cute chinese girls, hong kong, sports movies, volleyball

A Foundling (Review)

A Foundling

A Foundling (2010)

Directed by Carly Lyn

[screener provided by Carly Lyn]

The moment I saw the premise and trailer for Carly Lyn's film A Foundling, I was completely mesmerized.

Was this a Western film that had sci fi elements?

Were the leads both Chinese American actresses?

Was this a film about 2 Chinese American women in the way back West finding an alien?

Yes to all these questions. The beauty of independent cinema is your not constrained by a formula. You can write any story you choose, cast any leads you want and throw in a hook that nobody has ever done before.

Carly Lyn does all of these in A Foundling. It's a beautifully crafted film that tells a story that for once in my long film viewing history I've never ever seen before. That is both refreshing in a way I can't describe. I've seen only a few others indies (like Ink) that have made this happen. But never have I seen a movie that follows Chinese American women in a sci fi western.

A Foundling breaks the handcuffs of the conventional indie film. It's a serial Western with a twist and though follows such a simple story of 2 sisters reunited, it's even smart enough to comment on the world around them.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Virginia (CINDY CHIU) - a young Chinese woman in the Old West - rescues her long lost sister, Mattie (NORA JESSE), from a brothel in Arizona. On their journey home to San Bernardino, they discover the strange, steaming wreckage of an otherworldly craft. Inside the vehicle, Mattie finds a very mysterious baby.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Simply, A Foundling is about the reunification of Virginia and Mattie as they trek home to Virginia's home. Both have lived different lives and try to find common ground. To not point out that the lead actresses are Chinese Americans would be wrong. Clearly, any Asian Americans are not in many films, Hollywood or indie. To see both Cindy Chiu and Nora Jesse play strong, evolved female characters was very refreshing to see. The stereotype for Asians in films is they are either A.) skilled in martial arts B.) skilled in swords C.) An evil enemy in organized crime D.) All of the above.

Oh yes, and they speak broken English. This is clearly not the Asians in America I know. And it should be reflected in film. Chinese Americans have been in America since waaay back when. We've often heard they built the railroads. I'm no history buff but I'm sure Wikipedia can verify that. To see Chinese Americans break these stereotypes and be portrayed as Americana as can be is to be applauded.

But I digress. As both make their way home via single horse, the film introduces some wild alien lore to the mix. A crash landing brings in a mysterious alien to which the women have no idea of what this is. But they take a liking to the strange child and bring him along on their journey.

Soon the women encounter food shortages, a sick horse, white men who may have a different agenda and a illness befalls one of the sisters. The movie is not an action packed John Wayne flick here but a slow, sun drenched tale of woe. Within their journey, the women experience the world of the times. Racism, sexism and classism are all commented on. Clearly, Chinese women in America in the 1800s were the bottom of the barrel and we see trust and loyalty are challenged when the world is full of inequality.

Chiu and Jesse give excellent performances and play off each other perfectly. Chiu, playing the disciplined straight shooter seems to have a solid presence onscreen while Jesse goes all anti as a prostitute with a change of heart. If any of them faltered in their performances, the movie would have suffered greatly. But they don't and they help the film reach it's potential.

The gripes are small but they should be acknowledged. This film clearly could have been a stepping stone to explore issues of the time. I would have liked to have seen the plight of what Chinese Americans endured during the 1800s. But that may have been asking to much from an indie. The cinematography is fantastic but some scenes felt mostly filler in some instances. Somehow even the sci fi element felt a little SyFy-ish mixed in with a Lifetime movie of the week. But these are minor picks.

Lyn has carved a Sci Fi story into a Western that challenges the conventions of films you've seen countless times. I don't know why we think all alien movies need future tenses. I kind of dig these films that invade our notions of the past and blend in two genres into one.

Carly Lyn's A Foundling is that rare film that wants you to see that all the tales we've heard before can be rewritten in a new way. A Western, a Sci Fi or a travel drama can all be intertwined into a film that explores our humanity by seeing what we would do when introduced with something unimaginable.

And sometimes, we don't need a spaceship to do it.

WTF moment

Whoa! That's some funky alien child

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

I challenge you to watch something different, something new and something that's not a remake of a remake. The joys of watching indie cinema is experiencing stories and characters that never get seen. A Foundling is one of many that are part of the new frontier of independent film.

The Vitals

• Check out The Official Site
• Visit the Facebook Page
  

Rating:

Check out the trailer.

Categories: china, independent cinema, indie film, sci-fi, western

When Rappers Make Movies, Movies become AWESOME

You'd think having a rapper in your movie would turn out to be a big FAIL. Somtimes that's not the case. That's because your not watching the right rappers in the right movies, you know what I'm saying? Insano Steve already detailed how awesome Stickey Fingaz hip hop musical A Day in the Life was. Even I was blown away by the cleverlogue of seeing Stickey, Omar and WeeBey from the Wire, Michael Rappaport, Caine from Menace II Society and Treach (from Naughty by Nature).

So thank the hip hop gods, Stickey Fingaz made another musical. This one is called Caught on Tape and it looks fuckin awesome. And whose in this one you asking? OMG, look at this lineup motherfucka. Vivica Fox and Cedric the Entertainer are the notables in this one with Sticky.

Bust a cap and watch the trailer below.




Straght out of Shaolin (aka Staten Island) comes The RZA's Wu Tang vs. The Golden Phoenix trailer (news via FilmDrunk). The RZA, musical genius and founding member of the infamous Wu Tang Clan goes all homagy to all the old Chinese king fu flicks of old.

This fucker has got serious street cred my brothas. Jackie Chan's stunt team, Fight choreographer Robert Tai of 5 Deadly Venoms,members of the USA Shaolin Team, and starring Shaw Bros. Legend Chi Kuan Chun and Dr. King Ogun Ali Muhammad, founder of the Universal African Fighting System.

And it wouldn't be Wu Tang without 5th generation Shaolin disciple The RZA.
It's got serious kung fu-ery and all sorts of insane action.

HaaaaaaaaYaaaaaaaaaa. Check out the trailer.






Have I changed your perception of the rapper turned filmmaker stereotype? Hahaha. Maybe not but what do you think of these flicks?

Categories: blaxploitation, china, gangsta movies, kung fu, martial arts, musical, wu tang clan

Seventh Moon (Review)

Seventh Moon

Seventh Moon (2009)

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

[This is a review I wrote for UGO.com hence the different format of the review.]

Believe it or not, this is the 2nd movie I’ve seen where a Caucasian American blonde is married to a Chinese American guy and has to deal with Chinese mythos gone awry (the first movie was They Wait). Well 2 movies counts as a subgenre right? It’s this new subgenre that Eduardo Sanchez, co-director of The Blair Witch Project has decided to make his 3rd film since the BWP made him a household name.

To sum up the very brief plot, Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou) are a newly married couple who decide to take their honeymoon in China during the worst time….well ever. Because during the seventh lunar month according to an ancient Chinese myth, the gates of hell and the dead are freed to roam among the living. After a walking tour of a festival, their tour guide Ping abandons them in the middle of Nowhere, China. You’d think a country filled with a billion people would not have any nowheres. But you’d be wrong.

Soon they are chased by ghostlike creatures that have already attacked a few of the unsuspecting strangers who have ended up lost in this town. As they go searching for a place to hide it’s not too long until we find out why this is all happening to our American couple.

The first thing you notice is that Eduardo Sanchez hasn’t spared us from the shaky cam feel he developed from the Blair Witch Project. It’s ever evident within Seventh Moon as most of the film is eerily similar to the Blair Witch Project in many ways. We have a relationship going through the strainer through a supernatural ordeal. We also get lots and lots of chase scenes. The chases are handheld nauseous ness to the extreme but it works 30% of the time. The blurred out glimpses of our Descent like creatures add to the atmosphere of backwoods China under a starry night.

Sanchez also implements the “how are they going to escape this situation” scenarios as both Yul and Melissa have to escape from would be dead ends that would seem to lead to certain death. From a head lit runaway drive in desolate fields to an abandoned farmhouse to being trapped in a car as the creatures move in, all are tense moments filled with jump scare-o-thons and panic filled moments of suspense.

Both Chiou and Smart are decent would be victims, though a little back-story of the couple would have established some need for the audience to care about our newlyweds. Smart’s Melissa is a tough as nails final girl while her husband plays the dude in distress motif to the max. That little role reversal was a little neat. But between their dialogue of grit vs. give up, Smart whines and yells and actions are actually spoken (a big no no in film)

But Seventh Moon is a grind that you have to have the stomach to go through. The grind eventually ends up weak towards the end. As menacing as these ghost like human creatures are, they don’t have the evilest evil I would have thought we would get.

Also, the Chinese mythos is something inherent in Asian culture that somehow we American audiences cannot grasp. Thus, we don’t get scared easily by hordes of monster demons slaughtering animals and such. Finally, gorehounds won’t rejoice as there isn’t anything to write in the splatter wikia though the FX and makeup done by Hong Kong’s Spectral Motion are top notch.

Seventh Moon is a change of pace from your death knocking on your door or slasher slice-a-rama and it has some genuine moments of eerie spooky. But it’s no Blair Witch and unfortunately the comparisons are something we can’t overlook.

Grade: C

You'll like it if....

• You’ll watch any movie Amy Smart is in
• You love C-horror with a twist of American horror
• You love shaky cam and Blair Witch style cinema
  

You won't like it if....

• You get nauseous watching shaky cam
• You hate slow burn, jump scares and lots of running around
• Ghost creatures aren’t your bag
  

Check out the teaser trailer below.

Tags:
seventh moon, seventh moon teaser trailer , 7th moon , the blair witch project, gore splatter, amy smart, top horror movies of 2008, horror blog, amy smart naked, chinese horror movie, Eduardo Sanchez, zombies,

Categories: 7th moon, amy smart, amy smart naked, china, fast moving zombies, horror movies 2008, hungry ghost festival, living dead, seventh moon, seventh moon trailer, the blair witch project

Seventh Moon (Trailer)

Eduardo Sanchez (who directed The Blair Witch Project) stayed under the underground radar as nobody noticed his last film, Altered.

But I'm sure everybody will notice his new film, Seventh Moon, as the tagline alone has given me fanboy chills:

"On the full moon of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell open and the spirits of the dead are freed to roam among the living.”

Seventh Moon stars the super hot Amy Smart and Tim Chiao as newlyweds who attend the Hungry Ghost Festival in rural China. They soon find themselves stranded at night in the middle of a superstitious ritual that may be more real than folk legend.

Ooooooooo spooky.

Check out the teaser trailer below.

Tags:
seventh moon, seventh moon teaser trailer , 7th moon , the blair witch project, gore splatter, amy smart, top horror movies of 2008, horror blog, amy smart naked, chinese horror movie, Eduardo Sanchez, zombies,

Categories: 7th moon, amy smart, amy smart naked, china, fast moving zombies, horror movies 2008, hungry ghost festival, living dead, seventh moon, seventh moon trailer, the blair witch project