Shocks as sharp as a knife

Keeping its secrets guarded and living off the shocks of its knife-edge turns, Chime sees Kiyoshi Kurosawa covering more than familiar ground with plenty of desolate moodscapes, recognisable for anyone with even a cursory knowledge of his past output. However, there is something particularly chilling about the oppressive mundanity here, a mundanity to which Kōichi Furuya's digital cinematography adds another layer of dread. It's a dreary madness that slowly begins seeping into the life of its character. Despite its skeletal form and brief runtime, the film ends on a fascinating rupture; the previously ambient evil becoming tangible shifts, terrifyingly, within the realm of possibility and the suggestion of this curse being made concrete becomes overbearing. Relishing in the awful psychological residues of violence while suggesting a lucid dream, the kind of fragmented nightmare you are grateful to wake up from but just as terrified to leave so unresolved.

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Rest in peace Kenpachiro Satsuma, your spirit will live eternally.

To say that Godzilla Minus One is my most anticipated movie of the year is a severe understatement. It currently holds the candle for my most anticipated movie ever. The wait has been agonising, less so for my brother who I brought along for what is our first experience seeing Godzilla on the big screen. For the better part of December seeing Letterboxd members gushing about it has been terrifying. But finally, I managed to catch a screening today, 2 days after its UK debut, by god, it was worth every minute, every second... this is the best Godzilla movie to date, bar none.

Feeling as if he unfairly cheated death too many times, Shikishima, a surviving Kamikaze pilot is attacked on Odo Island along with many war plane engineers by an enormous monster. After the engineers die due to Shikishima failing to distract the monster, an overwhelming amount of guilt weighs on him, especially after a homeless woman and a baby move into his home when he returns. Shikishima, now on a personal mission, teams up with a large group of veterans to finally take down the monster known only as Godzilla.

Having spent the better part of a week watching Takashi Yamazaki's other directorial efforts certainly didn't prepare me for what he would bring to the table with Minus One. Choosing a post-war setting for the movie invited some rather minor scepticism but the film ended up an extension and refinement of his earlier wartime epic, The Eternal Zero. Tension and redemption run high throughout this film, with everyone seeking a path forward in the face of utter destruction and hopelessness.

Yamazaki's proficiency for human drama was not in question, having watched his Always Sunset trilogy the other week, emotions run high and his characters inject so much life and soul into the picture. It's backed by an utterly terrific script, heartfelt and often awe-inspiring and his calling his direction anything less than superb feels wrong.

I still can't believe that Yamazaki and company pulled this off for the money they had, either Hollywood blows their film budgets in all the wrong places or Japanese VFX artists are severely underpaid for the job they do (maybe it's both). Godzilla is one scary-looking bastard, taking his main influence from the Heisei suits but blown up with scales and spikes added into places you didn't know he had, his presence throughout the film is one of constant overhanging dread, cropping up when the characters least expect him and terrifying all who see him. Seriously, the build-ups to his atomic breath gave me constant goosebumps and seeing him standing amongst the ruins of Ginza just sent shivers down my spine.

I could technically accuse Yamazaki of nepotism given how many of his regulars take on roles here but I'm not going to. Everyone gives it their all, especially given the immense weight they had to carry on their shoulders, everyone is incredible, I can't fault a single performance. Ryunosuke Kamiki especially did a stellar job, the emotional resonance of his dialogue leaves you hanging on every word, Minami Hamabe is the rock to his PTSD-ridded life and the two of them share beautiful chemistry.

Naoki Satō's music is just phenomenal, his music carries so much menace and unease but thoroughly compliments Yamazaki's incredible style, there's a beautiful use of pure silence (especially in the climax) to emphasise both creative forces. His utilisation of the classic Ifukube cues is hands down one of the best of the entire franchise, cropping up at just the right time to not feel out of place or irrelevant.

Godzilla Minus One is truly the first of the franchise to make me truly afraid, the Big G's villainous stance hangs over the picture with a looming dread that remains unshaken even when the credits roll. Putting the trauma of history at its core was an inspired creative choice, evoking the original film more than any other since GMK (which Yamazaki lists as his favourite, based). Everything about this film works and exceeds any expectations I had of it, with its emotional heart just as prevalent as its terror. I'm so glad my brother was along for the ride, no way I was experiencing this alone.

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HK cinema is back baby!

I'm so happy to see a modern Hong Kong film that remembers it's a Hong Kong film and not a pretender to the throne, an action-packed homage to the nitty-gritty choreography-crazed neon-daze of '80s Hong Kong cinema, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is a long overdue and very welcome dose of ass-kicking goodness, hopefully signalling the start of a new wave. Packed with wall-to-wall bone-crunching, wall-shattering mayhem, dizzying feats of acrobatics and martial arts madness, the film might be a bit long but it's extraordinarily stylish, seamlessly edited and viscerally exciting. It's all directed to masterful effect by Soi Cheang, his nimble camera swimming through the walled city with a hyperkinetic frenzy that balances the excellent action that brings you closer to the edge of your seat with every punch and every kick and the misery enacted by neo-liberalism and cold vicissitudes of fate. A bittersweet dystopian canvas, but also the purest action machine built on the choreographed denial of physics. The cast is all excellent with veteran stars Louis Koo and Sammo Hung giving as good as they get, however, it's Philip Ng who makes the biggest mark as a cackling villain with supernatural abilities, even if his ascension to villain doesn't feel entirely warranted. The musical score by Kenji Kawai is utterly joyous and so typical of his masterful touch, I especially loved the use of Walking in the Air as part of the underscoring. If anything, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In proves that Hong Kong cinema is far from dead, and not every film the country produces has to be subjected to a Mainland committee's scrutiny. It's easily one of the best action films of the year and I'm annoyed it took me this long to watch it.

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Questionable stance but oh so beautiful

For all of Hero's striking use of colour and landscapes, the drama, characters and ideas are not sufficiently compelling enough to sustain the martial arts. It's easy on the eyes, but too segmented to gather much momentum and too art-directed to convey much urgency. However, I can't deny the result. Both thrilling and thoughtful, offering imaginative and meticulous set pieces as it considers questions of loyalty and the individual's role in history. It is not so much a historical epic as a kind of highly determined ballet: dreamy with bloodless violence, relying less on shades of character than on magnificence of gesture. For all my grievances, the performances of its leads are captivating, Dun Tan's score mesmerising, while Christopher Doyle's photography is overwhelmingly stimulating. Hero is a dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism even if its ideology is confused.

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Ending on a high note

Despite Police Tactics ending on a high note, I guess Toei thought there was still more to tell with this story and mandated that we get a definitive ending with nothing left unresolved. The fittingly titled Final Episode maintains the series' exceptional quality, one that doesn't feel tacked on in the slightest, easily the talkiest of the series and burdened with the task of wrapping up dozens of loose threads, it's a testament to Kinji Fukasaku's incredible talent that he and his crew were even able to fashion a film out of so little material and on such a tight schedule. Though the incidence hasn't been perfect all along, five pictures deep, the trajectory of the ongoing narrative mirrors, at the first and the last, how the instalments are approached in terms of both film-making and storytelling style. The progenitor explored the violence of the yakuza in the early post-war years as Japan rebuilt, and it's quite fitting that as both written and executed it would bear wild, chaotic energy that was a veritable shot in the arm for the genre. Granted the pacing of this one is filled with stops and starts due to the loose structure of its script and the big players are mostly kept to the sidelines for the majority of the runtime; I'll be damned that it follows in the same vein as Deadly Fight in Hiroshima thanks to some exceptional performances from its cast, all of whom deliver fantastic performances. As compelling for its performances as for its historical detail, Final Episode keeps the energy level high, its technical aspects strong and its cast thoroughly engaging right up until the last body falls and the Battles finally end, one age of the yakuza fades to be replaced by another.

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Merry Christmas

Unattainability. No other word so clearly defines Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Unattainable pursuits for perfection, connection and forgiveness. An affecting and hauntingly beautiful experience about finding common ground even in the most hellish of circumstances, an undercurrent of revolutionary discourse in masculinity subversion bubbles furiously throughout the film deepening its already poignant lamentations about war's humanity-stripping effect and the self-imposed prisons that are obsession, honour and shame. Cultural divide and human nature encapsulate Nagisa Ōshima's film and one that he directs with the utmost care and attention, every shot is purposeful and framed with an immaculate beauty. It's relentlessly grim, constantly off-balance, periodically moving and continually striking thanks to Tōichirō Narushima's enchanting photography. There's a certain mystical quality to the performances of Bowie and Sakamoto both as arresting as each other, most likely a causality of their star power as musicians. However, it's the all-too-human reflections of Kitano and Conti that make this a true tearjerker with the duo sharing the film's final and most powerful moment, sometimes all it takes is a "Merry Christmas" to get the tears flowing. The real kicker for many is the film's utterly intoxicating musical score by Sakamoto; it stays with you long after viewing, conjuring up an atmosphere of regret, lost love and repressed heartbreak that we see in Yonoi's unrequited love for Celliers bloom. One of the most powerful pleas for tolerance ever committed to celluloid, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is one of the most captivating and mournful looks at the atrocities man commits to himself, so much is said without words, sometimes just emotions are enough. One that acquires depth and emotional scope the more you dwell on it, I should know, I've been thinking about this film since I first watched it two years ago and it's every bit a masterpiece now as it was back then.

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An ethereal tapestry

Upon this ancestral stage, even the most virtuous are drawn in by the temptations of Maggie Cheung and Joey Wong. A rich ethereal tapestry of stunning colour, kitsch illusionism and slow-motion eroticism, Green Snake has been on my radar for a while now but little prepared me for how vividly imaginative it would end up being. A profound metaphor for the frailties of humanity and the fallacy of religion, Tsui Hark's take on the White Snake folk tale left him plenty of time to ruminate on what would happen post-1997. The snakes are depicted as creatures simply seeking to live their lives in the human world, but they face denial and persecution from strict societal norms and overzealous individuals enforcing the so-called "natural order." The primary enforcer of these rules is devoted monk, Fa-Hoi, who is also shown to be just as susceptible to desire, anger, and even hypocrisy as the snakes. While the snakes seek love, family, and hope, Fa-Hoi and his Buddhist enforcers are denying the very humanity that they claim to be upholding. Fate, love, sex, hate, religion and desire all play a role in eventually bringing down the world the two snakes attempt to build. The allegory here is obvious, Fa-Hoi’s large red surplice only means one thing: China. Beyond the film's fangs with its messaging, it's directed with all of Tsui's usual flair for the kaleidoscopic that's part art-house wuxia, part softcore smut but all beauty. Bringing weight to the proceedings are fantastic performances from its central trio with Maggie Cheung and Joey Wong turning in gorgeous performances as the sister snakes, while Vincent Zhao gets an equal opportunity to shine when the two ladies aren't bathing in the limelight. The art direction, outstanding musical score and beautiful costume design all add to the spectacle, really I only have slight niggles with the hilariously charming rubber snakes and horrendous early CGI which are thankfully kept to a minimum, other than that, Green Snake is a must-watch.

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Simply magnificent

I genuinely can't believe I put this film off for so long! A darker-than-dark neo-noir thriller, On the Run, is exactly the kind of film I adore one that's raised to another level by an incredibly dark sense of humour and a knack for doing the unexpected. It takes you for a ride, managing to assault, frustrate and delight regularly never ceasing to be entertaining or compelling. It's far from uplifting, a constant overhanging anxiety plagues its characters from the then-upcoming Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, even in 1988 they were worried about the future, it gives the film a suitably grim atmosphere even in the face of its stunning visuals. It's so weird to think that Alfred Cheung was more well-known for his comedies because watching this you honestly wouldn't know it. He perfectly complements the gloomy theme with dark cinematography of the black, Hong Kong horizon dimly lit with the traditional glow of neon lights. It is almost impossible to not be utterly captivated by its mood. As much as this is one of Yuen Biao's finest performances, the film is absolutely stolen by Pat Ha; displaying an intense physical presence throughout as a cold-blooded hitwoman with a heart of gold that commands incredible respect and sympathy. Aside from an incredible pole-slide stunt performed midway through by Yuen Biao, all the action is played with a brutal realism that's nothing short of spectacular, especially that final fight. Featuring a brilliantly crafted script that moves at lightning speed and a truly unforgettable musical score by Violet Lam, I cannot find myself praising On the Run enough, it's simply terrific.

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Truly mad

Picking up shortly from where the first film left off, A Chinese Ghost Story II is a very entertaining sequel, one that amps up the horror, comedy and special effects wizardry. Providing the same type of action and romance that made the first film so popular, this sequel has its faults because it can't match the first film's originality or ability to surprise. Still, as Tsui Hark's thinly disguised response to Tiananmen Square, the film works wonders, criticising authorities and reflecting on the meaning of hope. This is a film made to go all out to please and thrill an audience. All stops are ignored in this wild rollercoaster, one with stunning colour and photography, wild changes of pace and characters suddenly and unexpectedly changing form all over the place. Surrealistic scenes, gorgeous music, suspenseful situations and imaginative production designs accompany the great performances by the cast. Although A Chinese Ghost Story II is very good, it doesn't quite compete with the amazing beauty of the original, regardless, this is still very worth checking out for something a little bit more mad.

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Unflinchingly tense

A gripping, often uncompromising look at the Hong Kong drug trade, Protégé takes a tried and tested storytelling formula and marries it to compelling cinematic finesse caught up in a cobweb of drugs, loyalties and deceit. Mercifully unpretentious, the film is directed with remarkable proficiency by Derek Yee, offering a look at both sides of the drug coin: those who profit from it and those who ultimately suffer from it. By keeping it more personal, Yee's film feels more intimate and urgent, more satisfyingly intriguing, helped in no small regard by its star power. A greyed-up Andy Lau is as great as ever, offering up a sympathetic spin on an otherwise purely business-focused drug lord, while Daniel Wu plays off of Lau with a subtle and controlled rage. With its smart script, solid acting and tight directing Protégé varies from intense drama to dreamlike to subtle shades of black comedy yet never feels like an afterschool special or an obvious morality tale.

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Joe Hisaishi's music destroys me

From its hypnotic style to its pessimistic plot, Sonatine is a mesmerizing manifestation of Takeshi Kitano's continued revitalisation of the yakuza movie. It is a largely peaceful, contemplative work, punctuated by moments of extreme violence all delivered with purpose balancing the fine line between gorgeously dreamy and grim reality. Kitano's haunting elegy to the gangster way of life, he spends the film exposing the gangster ideal as the myth, of little boys who forget to grow up, doing so with incredible flourishes of style, playfulness and jarring outbursts of his trademark humour. Having only written four scenes, the vast majority of the film was largely spontaneous, often Kitano finding his feet in the moment at hand. Sonatine sees the bleak suicidal tendencies of Kitano's mind coming right to the forefront, especially since he suffered partial facial paralysis after a motorscooter accident not long after this film's release. One he has often mentioned was an unconscious suicide attempt, this alone lends a massive amount of weight to the Russian Roulette sequences, giving Sonatine so much more emotional levity to its already unconventional narrative. With the addition of another stunning musical score by Joe Hisaishi, Sonatine rewards those with patience, offering up plenty of existential dread among its exceptional beauty.

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Arigato, Ultraman

I genuinely couldn't wait for a second longer in viewing this, I've been so excited for its release for so long that when some heroes leaked it to the internet during October I was over the moon, yet equally annoyed due to the fact I was already dedicated to Spooky Season at the time. But finally, my time has come and Shin Ultraman is everything I hoped it would be and more.

As the threat of giant unidentified lifeforms known as "S-Class Species" worsens in Japan and just when the JSDF and SSSP are pushed to the breaking point, a silver giant appears from beyond Earth's atmosphere.

In this house, we do not stand for Shinji Higuchi erasure, dude had just as much input in the creation of this as Hideaki Anno so it feels morally wrong to completely exclude him from any and all credit he deserves. This film is fucking raw and equally gorgeous, with so many shots of note but the scene of "Ultraman" standing amongst the burning ruins of a city goes hard. Also worth noting is that if you only went to see this or Shin Godzilla due to Anno's name, maybe rethink how you are approaching these movies, just saying.

There's a conscious production design decision by the duo to make Shin Ultraman look as if it was in its genesis and absolutely not concerned with reaching the modern "standards" of polished reboot looks is such a refreshing take. Shin Ultraman looks the part of a brilliant piece of tokusatsu media, a fresh reboot for a new generation and a love letter for long-time fans as both Higuchi and Anno are themselves.

Like Shin Godzilla before it, the visual effects are fantastically stylised. There's a clear love for the original designs and a clever little riff on the reuse of the Shin Godzilla CG model if you know your Ultraman. Shirō Sagisu returns as the composer for the second time, beautifully enhancing the original works of Kunio Miyauchi while adding in works left unused from both Shin Godzilla and of course, fucking Evangelion.

There's so much to be said about the overwhelming success of this film, for a time the highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan alone and currently sitting at the most commercially successful Ultraman film beating out my beloved Superior 8 Ultra Brothers. It stands tall as one of the finest examples of both a reboot and a piece of Ultraman media, although perhaps not as tall as Brave Love Tiga.

The film doesn't really want to spend time with the politics of its predecessor, as Higuchi has stated in interviews "if we just did the same thing, it's kind of pointless". More power to the man, but the film isn't without a small political commentary on the Japanese government and how they would delineate a situation like this.

There's a little commentary on humanity's place in the universe, and whether we've proven ourselves worthy of continuing as a species. This messaging isn't always elegantly executed but, like so much of the film, it's presented with such enthusiastic sincerity that it's hard to resist. The world may sometimes be a terrible, frightening place, but Shin Ultraman argues that a little decency can still go a long way. I fucking love it, roll on Shin Kamen Rider!

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Seriously underrated madness

One part ET, another part Indiana Jones but a Wong Jing movie in every other sense, Magic Crystal has everything and the kitchen sink cheesed up to the max, but dosed on adrenalin too. Wong Jing's signature chaotic direction, balls-to-the-wall pace, brutal stunt work, cheesy yet ridiculously charming effects and humour that ranges from childish to outright offensive but it's presented in such a way that it remains hilarious. Topped off by an incredible cast that includes the likes of Andy Lau, Cynthia Rothrock and an awesomely villainous Richard Norton all of whom commit 100% to the film's stupidity. It's over the top and knows it, delivering endless, ferocious and well-choreographed action all set to a rocking synth score that has become a staple of most 80s Hong Kong movies. Daft, dumb and oh-so-fun, Magic Crystal is one you owe yourself to watch if you are in any way a fan of shlocky excellence. Then again I also gave 5 stars to Future Cops... so you decide.

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Sammo does John Woo

If you only know Sammo Hung for his more happy-go-lucky roles, then Eastern Condors will be a massive shock to the system, going as far as to tread into John Woo's territory of heroic bloodshed. Taking the idea of The Dirty Dozen but setting it in Vietnam, Sammo got serious with this one, even cutting his trademark hair and slimming right down. There are no mincing words about how brutally violent Eastern Condors gets... Hands get chopped off, Vietcong kids play Russian Roulette and people are shot point blank with no hesitation, in the wrong hands it's distasteful stuff, but Sammo treats it all with sincerity, marking this film out as one of his finest accomplishments as an actor, martial artist and director.

Although the majority of the action is hyper-intense gun fights occasionally punctuated by a familiar moment seen in Western war films like The Deer Hunter or the Rambo franchise, there is a spectacular final bout of full-contact fisticuffs for the patient ones among you. The cast is populated by plenty of familiar names and faces, although I do wish they got a bit more characterisation outside of their nicknames and who plays them, they all commit often coming away bloody and bruised from the hyper-dangerous stunt work. For better or worse, Eastern Condors has a gritty edge that makes it truly stand out amongst Sammo's filmography often feeling like what Heroes Shed No Tears had originally wanted to be, it's an absolute must-see!

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