So it has been a while since I last wrote on my blog, and I must apologise. This blog is still very much active and I am endeavouring to write a post a few times a week with my most recent reviews.

Recently I had the misfortune to purchase a cinema (for you American’s out there, a theatre) ticket to go and see The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor…I must note how many recent films enjoy the use of the colon, its starting to get a little old.

I must say at how utterly disappointed I was with this movie, a feeling that I knew I would probably have upon viewing this attrocity of a movie.  Firstly, let me say how sorry I was that Racheal Weiss was not in this movie, as the woman who has taken over for her (I do not know, nor do I care to know her name) was truly appalling.  I can only imagine she is an American trying to pull off an English accent…either that, or she is an extremely crap actor…to be blunt.

Now, Racheal Weiss is not the best of actresses in the world, but I always thought that her role was very well suited to her acting abilities, and I had always liked to previous two Mummy films, even if there were some awful lines in it.  But this movie was in a whole realm of bad on its own…it was a movie that played to being a sequal, with constant references to its prequals with statements such as “thought you said we’d never do this again” and, “I’ve said it before, I hate mummy’s” and many, many more gut wrenchingly bad lines.

It must be said I am a huge fan of Brendan Frasier, but in this film, you got the impression that he was more rail roaded into the role than participating in it out of choice.  The acting by all but Jet Li was poor, and did nothing but barrel role the movie into a slow decent into hell, with the help of a crap story, poor dialect and heart stoppingly bad direction.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the only thing I enjoyed about this movie was Jet Li and the CG yeti’s which were in fact very impressive graphically.  But these did not redeem the movie in any way, let it be known.  They mearly made me appreciate just how good and actor Jet Li truly is if he can manage to pull off such a good performance given the material he was to work with.

I think it’s safe to say The Mummy series of movies is dead in the water, or at least it should be.  That’s the problem with Hollywood these days…too many sequals of good movies that ruin their name.  I doubt very much I could now watch the previous Mummy films without relating it to this attrocity.  I can only hope that one day Hollywood learns its lessons and starts to create films that are more than just eye candy.

The next film I am looking forward to this year is “My Name is Bruce” which stars the fantastic Bruce Campbell, who is the God of B movies.  Don’t expect anything flashy, he is all about B comedy fun, and none of that graphically beautiful vomit that people think makes a movie these days.  It’s out October this year, hopefully, and Im hoping its not a direct to dvd here in the UK.

Files under movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

On Friday the 9th May, the latest Wachowski "Matrix trilogy" brothers action movie ,Speed Racer, which is based on the 1960s anime series Speed Racer (aka Mach GoGoGo) opened in theaters worldwide.  However, the film has so far failed to achieve the kind of box-office sales required to be the big-budget Hollywood summer blockbuster that is had been expected it to be. The film only took $20.2 million, which is far below the already scaled-down estimation of $30 million.

With this in mind, I once again question the financial viability of the other big-budget live action anime adaptations currently in-production; including the recently finished filming Dragonball, which has been highly anticipated for many years, as well as the recently announced Akira and Ghost in the Shell.  Let’s hope next time they leave it up to the Japanese…im sure we would see an immediate improvement.

Files under Anime, movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Well, thankfully I managed to watch this horror movie yesterday so I can tell you all about it.  The movie is basically about girls being sent to a school to study, but this school is a very strict and indoctrinative school, where everyone must wear the same clothes, and compete to be the best.

As the story goes, four girls find themselves in a room together, in which they bond over their current situation, that is except Woo-Jin who is the rebellious type.  In order to scare the other girls, she tells them about how the school burned down three years ago, with all the students inside, locked in their rooms and unable to escape.

This is just the beginning of their weird journey.  As the story progresses, some of the girls begin to have visions of the death that surrounds them, and strange things…not exactly paranormal on the whole, but psychological things begin to happen.

Watching this film as a nice change of pace from the usual Ju-On type horror movies that I have been brought up with.  It is not often that I get to watch the psychological breakdown of individuals, and the acting was fantastic, and added to the belief that you truly are watching all this happen.

The story itself is actually very basic and drawn out, but not in a bad way.  It allows you to witness people disintegration into madness, and see jsut how horrific the conditions they are expected to live in are.

So all in all, this film is actually very good.  The acting, from people so young, is absolutely fantastic, and in some cases I think they gave a better performance than their older co-stars.  This is definitely a film to watch if you are looking for a change in pace in the horror movie scene.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

The translation of this is "Tales of Terror from Tokyo" and is made up of Fifteen 5-minute horror films from Japan,Terrifying and sensational tales of ghosts hold

Japan in the grips of fear.  These horror films are meant to be made up from real ghost stories…creepy.

This begins with the story of the Bus Lady, an old lady that gets on the bus, and always asks "Do you want to hear a scary story?", and she will not accept no for an answer.

The next story is that of the "Elevator", when a young woman enters into her apartment block and selects the elevator to go up, however, as she watches the elevator decend, the doors in front of her randomly open up…but why is the lift here when it is still decending?

"The School Excursion" is the next story in this series, and is about a school trip to an ancient inn, however, upon visiting the bathrooms late at night, one of the girls finds an occupant of a different kind.

The third story is "Kengo Nishioka" and is about a wife alone at home whilst her husband works late.  She hears some noises coming from the wardrobe.  when she builds up the courage to confront it, it tells it that it is a former employee of her husbands and wishes to know where he is so that he can take him to hell.  But what happens when the wife refuses to divulge the location of her husband?

 The next story, "The Visitor" is my personal favourite, mainly because it is so creepy.  When the doorbell rings, the youngest daughter Mika is told to go and open it.  When she asks who is at the door, the ‘thing’ claims to be her Aunt Machiko.  Mika doubts this as the voice is different so goes to look through the letter box and is greeted by a zombie-esque entity.  Will the entity simply go away upon refusal of entry, or will some foolish individual open the door and grant it access to the abode and its tennants?

"Covering the 1000 Tales" is about a journalist who goes to take part in this event where people take turns to tell stories late at night.  As she sits there they begin to talk about how they died, and she notices characteristics of such a death presenting themselves on their bodies.  She can’t believe what she is hearing.  What will happen when it gets to her turn?

The next story, "Cassette Tape" is about a guy who can’t sleep so decides to reminice about his past.  He finds a cassette containing songs he wrote and sang in his youth.  As he is singing along, he receives a phone call from his old friend, informing him of the recent suicide of one of the female members of the band.  But who is that talking on the cassette?

"Split Water" is the story of a young girl who’s fatehr died when she was merely a child.  She remembers only his shoes about him as she had an interest in these when she was very young.  As the anniversary of his death comes around, her mum and herself decide to buy a melon for her father as it was his favourite fruit.  As they buy the melon and make their way home, the young girl stops and looks down, and sees a pair of shoes she recognises…but who do they belong to?

The story "Backward Suit" revolves around a young girl living with her drunkard father.  Every night he comes home drunk, until one night, he takes a different route and when he enters the door his suit is back to front, something that his daughter is not amused at.  After this event her father stops coming home drunk.  However, one day, the daughter takes the same route home from work.  Could it be her dad is making it all up, or will the strange event happen to her as well?

 "A Forgotten Item" is about a young girl who moves into a new flat.  However, every night at about 1am she receives a phone call telling her to "Give it back".  This phone call occurs every night, so the girl decides to unhook the telephone, thinking this will solve the issue, however, the caller simply calls her mobile.  What is it that has been left in the flat?  And will the previous occupant simply enter to find it?

The next installement,  "Video", begins with a girl being invited to her sisters apartment for a house warming.  As she enters the apartment block she sees a man walk behind her and up the stairs.  And as she gets to her sisters apartment, she sees the man walk in.  Upon entering, she sees that the man has left his shoes in the hall, but upon asking her sister if there is anyone else there, she is informed that she is the only other person there.  Who is this mysterious person, and will they make themselves known?

 "A Drop of Blood" is my least favourite of the short stories.  A girl is heading to an interview, however, when she gets there the place is empty.  She also notices that instead of getting there on time (as she set off an hour early) that she has actually arrived an hour late.  She tries to find someone to give her CV to, but the store is completely empty…until she receives a phone call.  Who is on the other side of the line?

In "Enlightenment", we are brought back to the young woman from the first story "Elevator" as she enters into her home.  She decides to look back over the years as she is about to get married.  Upon looking through old belongings, she finds a book that she wrote, informing her to read it when she was older.  Upon reading it, she is shocked to find a message that couldn’t possibly have been there.  What is this message and what does it mean?

The final story, "Waiting Time", is simply the conclusion to the preceeding story.  It explains what the message means and where it came from.  For this reason I’m afraid I cannot tell you any more about it, without revealing spoilers.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

This story is also known as Death Water, or Water of the Dead. This horror story is about a journalist investigating a mysterious series of deaths in an isolated

region of Japan. People all over are starting to commit suicide, by first puncturing their eyeballs and then, if that is unsuccessful, then continuing to kill themselves through any method possible.

Our journalists interest in the Death Water theory begins when she finds that her lecturer has killed himself under mysterious circumstances. His journal

reads only “Water of the Dead…Do Not Drink!”. What is this about the water of the dead and how can our journalist stop the spread of this cursed water?

This story is suprisingly enjoyable, though I must admit, there were times when I was tempted to turn it off. However, this was merely because there is a story between the journalist and her ex-husband that is completely pointless in reality. It plays a very small part in the plot of the story.

However, the overall story of this movie is actually really good, and definitely something that I have never seen before in a movie. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, and watching the truth of the story unfold. Definitely worth a watch!

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Black House is based on the Japanese writer Kishi Yusuke’s award-winning hit Psychological horror novel.The story centers around an insurance agent that suspects a family murdered their son to receive his insurance policy.

The story begins when the main character is sent to a difficult clients house, after apparently being asked for by name.  When he gets there, he is invited to sit

down in the lounge.  The father then calls his son, calling him rude for not showing his presence.  When the son does not appear, the father tells the insurance agent to go and get his son, something which the agent finds extremely weird. 

When he enters into the boys room, he finds him hanging there.  At this the father stands up and walks over to the room.  What is that we see in his expression?  Shock at the events that have occurred under his roof?  Or guilt at the death of his son?

This film was REALLY good, in fact, so good, I didn’t even expect the ending, I was too drawn into the stories that occur throughout.  The movie shows the story of the insurance agents attempt to prove the guilt of the father, as well as the breakdown of his relationship as he becomes too engrossed in his work.  If you want to watch a movie that is not your typical horror, then this is the one for you.  It’s not so much a horror, as a psychological thriller, and a brilliant one at that.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

This is something I have wanted to post for a while, my reviews on Japanese, Korean, Thai and any other asian horror movies.  So I decided that I would start from the top, with the first Japanese horror movie I remember watching, ‘The RIng’ or ‘Ringu’.

I remember watching it downstairs with my sister, late at night, with the volume down low so that my mother didn’t know.  It was so creepy and eerie…unlike the US adaptation.  There was just something different about it, I was used to watching horror movies, but Ringu was like somehting I had never seen before.  the story, the style, the concept, everything was completely different to US and UK theatre, and that was where my interest began.

The creepy thing about watching Ringu, is it actually makes you believe that there is a possibility of this being a true story, it is told as though it was from a newspaper headline.  So, of course, when my mobile rang just at the end of the film, I was very reluctant to answer until I saw the callers ID…phew!

The synposis for Ringu is:

Investigating the inexplicable, near-simultaneous deaths of her young niece and three teenage friends, reporter Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) learns of a story about a supernaturally cursed video-tape circulating among school kids. As soon as anyone has watched the tape, allegedly recorded by mistake from a dead TV channel, the telephone rings and the viewer has exactly a week to live. Those doomed are invisibly marked, but their images are distorted if photographed. Inevitably, Asakawa gets hold of the tape and watches it. The enigmatic collage of images include a coy woman combing her hair in a mirror, an old newspaper headline about a volcanic eruption, a hooded figure ranting, people crawling and a rural well. When the phone rings (a memorably exaggerated effect), Asakawa is convinced that the curse is active and calls in her scientist ex-husband Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada) to help. He watches a copy of the video a day after Asakawa is exposed and willingly submits himself to the curse. Even more urgency is added to their quest when their young son is unwittingly duped, apparently by the mystery woman from the tape, into watching the video too, joining the queue for a supernatural death.

So if you like your horror movies and want something different, the DVD of Ringu can be picked up for as cheap as £3.50, which is a bargain ^_^

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »