Ikigami:The Ultimate Limit (2008)

In a future society of Japan, the government has passed a “National Prosperity Law” that says 1 in 1000 citizens aged 18-24 will die from a nano-capsule that’s been injected into their bodies when they entered elementary school and will rupture the coronary artery inside their heart killing them instantly. The law was passed to bring crime and suicide rates down in the country and the scheme has worked.

This movie focuses on one government worker Kengo Fujimoto as he sets about delivering an “Ikigami” to 3 people. The “Ikigami” which is a death note informs the person that they’ve got 24 hours left on this earth and that they can do whatever they want in reason. The government will even fund the person’s wishes for the day and give a generous pension to their loved ones after they’ve died. We get to follow the 3 picked to die on the final day of their lives and how Kengo starts getting 2nd thoughts about the law.

What an incredibly sad tale this was and it really makes you think about the value of life. I thought it was magnificent all round from the storyline, cast, the music and the acting. I teared up in the end, that’s the kind of effect this movie will have on you. It hits you like an emotional brick wall and packs a punch. Most definitely recommended.

Sadako’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Ichi (2008)

Beautiful and blind young girl Ichi travels alone in the countryside visiting towns and villages making a living as a musician. However she’s isolated and feels abandoned in the world and thus she’s searching for her father. Now you’d imagine that somebody like that would be an easy target for thieves but you’d be wrong as Ichi isn’t as weak as you think. Trained at an early age by another blind man (who could be her father) she’s skilled with a sword and can take care of herself when she has to. When she crosses paths with the Banki-to gang a samurai comes to help her but she ends up taking them all out in order to help him. An orphan child guides Ichi and the wimp samurai to a village where Banki is making a nuisance of himself with his thugs. The village isn’t big enough for both of them so somebody has to die.

A new take on the Zatoichi story but this time having a woman playing the blind swords person instead of a man. I’ll be honest and say this was slightly better than the Beat Takeshi version I saw years ago. I liked Ayase Haruka in the lead, she did pretty well in the sword fighting scenes but her singing left a lot to be desired. If you’re expecting an all out action movie then you’ll be disappointed. Another problem is the use of CG blood. It spoils the movie, I’m not a fan of it at all. The script isn’t the best but the actors involved did what they could with it apart from the lead villian who really hams it up badly. The movie length could have been shortened too. Despite the flaws it’s still a pretty decent flick with much to enjoy.

Sadako’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Red Room 2 (2000)

4 more individuals enter The Forbidden King Game hoping to win a large cash prize. The rules stay the same as before. Cards are dealt out and the person lucky enough to get the Crown card nominates 2 of the other contestants to do whatever they want in a small cage.

If you thought Red Room 1 was disgusting you’ve ain’t seen nothing yet as the sequel here ups the ante by having more sick and humiliating games. It’s depraved and absolutely insane the things that happen with a lot of blood and gore being splattered around. Some of the highlights if you can call them that include somebody having to swallow a bowl of bile soup, a common bathroom object being used forcefully up a nostril and a vile abortion that nearly made me gag. Just when you think things can’t get any more stomach churning, Red Room 2 enters into ludicrous territory by the climax. If you’d paid attention to one character and the dialogue that character says throughout then the revelation that’s revealed won’t surprise you. It really is bonkers this movie and I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. Depending on your taste in horror movies you’ll either love this kind of torture porn or not. It might be too much for some.

Sadako’s Rating: 3 out of 5

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Monster X Strikes Back:Attack The G8 Summit (2008)

The monster Guilala returns to Earth during the G8 Summit which leads to a big crisis amongst the G8 leaders. The G8 leaders take their turns in coming up with a lame brained scheme to destroy the creature. It doesn’t surprise you that none of them work until a TV reporter comes across a golden deity in a remote village called Take-Majin that could save the day.

Guilala is a kaiju that’s made it’s one and only appearance in the 1960’s flick The X From Outer Space which flopped big time in Japan. This comedy sees it’s return. This movie is fairly amusing but some of the jokes fall flat on it’s arse. It’s embarassing rather than funny seeing how they lampoon the G8 leaders. Typical stereotype for example the French Sarkozy guy bedding his interpreter. It’s the type of film you’ll roll your eyes rather than laughing out loud. That’s how bad it is but there are one or two humourous moments. I liked how they made fun of the delicate situation in Asia right now – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il makes a surprise appearance trying to sabotage the summit by disguising himself as former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi! I would have liked to see more destruction by Guilala but even that is kept to a minimum. This could have been a far better comedy but it’s let down by the script and bad performances by the cast. I thought it would be better seeing as I enjoyed watching the 2 previous movies the director made – The Calamari Wrestler and Executive Koala. To be perfectly honest I wouldn’t waste time watching this drivel.

Sadako’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5

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The Good The Bad And The Weird (2008)

Set in 1930’s Manchuria, 3 men are all set on a collision course with each other when The Weird steals a treasure map from an official on a train. The Bad is paid to get it back for his boss whilst The Good is a bounty hunter who gets caught up in the mix and tracks both of them down. Who is going to come out on top at the end of the day?

A funny Korean take on the spaghetti western genre with it’s inspiration coming from Sergio Leone’s classic The Good The Bad & The Ugly. It maintains a nice balance of comedy and violent action with the 3 main leads doing a great job especially Song Kang-ho as Yoon Tae-goo (The Weird). He’s the movie’s scene stealer. The sets, clothes, soundtrack and the cinematography are all fantastic. The only complaint I have is the threadbare plot but otherwise this is great stuff. One of the best Korean movies to come out in 2008 for it’s sheer entertainment value. Miss it miss out!

Sadako’s Rating: 4 out of 5

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Frontieres (2007)

I did mention that I’d be adding some French movies in this blog and this is the first of them:

Amidst fierce rioting in Paris, 4 young thieves (3 males and a female) who have tried to stage a robbery which has gone awry decide to flee the capital by splitting up in two cars and head to Holland via the French backroads. They decide to meet up at a small hostel deep in the French countryside run by a family. The first 2 men to arrive at the hostel get laid by the 2 sexy women running the reception area. After they’ve had their fun, one of the cocky young men insults one sister. Her brother comes along and all hell breaks loose. Both men decide to run for their lives and try and escape through a tight claustrophobic cavern until one of them is clobbered over the head by an axe when the cavern opens up inside the hostel kitchen. The other man fearful for his life backtracks in the cavern and goes and hides somewhere.

Meanwhile unaware of the troubles that have befallen their friends, the other two arrive at the place. They ask for their friends and one of the receptionist girls will show them where they’re staying on the estate. Curiosity takes over for the male when he starts snooping around the outbuildings and discovers one of his friends half-dead and dangling upside down like a butchered animal. It’s then a battle for survival as they have to escape from the hell they’ve found. However they’re captured and the male subjected to one of the movie’s nastiest moments before being chained and thrown into the family’s pigs pen. What they thought would be a nice place to stay on their way to Holland has turned into their worst nightmare. Who, if anybody will survive?

If there’s any nation that makes decent horror movies these days it’s got to be the French. Frontieres is yet another brilliant example of a shocking and frightening movie to come out of the country. It’s a terrifiying movie with a great storyline and solid performances from the cast especially from the heroine Karina Testa. I really enjoyed it. It’s inspired partly by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that you have a family of cannibal nutcases run by an elderly ex-Nazi patriach who kills any person staying at their hostel and then they cook and eat the meat! It has some really extreme moments which will make some of you wince. Overall this is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in the past year – it’s unsettling, disturbing and edge of your seat stuff. Gorehounds – miss this at your peril!

Sadako’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Geisha Assassin (2008)

The movie begins with our young geisha heroine Kotono trying to track down her father’s murderer – a samurai. When she finds him he claims not to remember who her father is and takes off leaving behind his lackeys to finish her off. But Kotono isn’t an ordinary geisha. She’s skilled in sword-fighting and martial arts. She dispatches the samurai’s cronies in spectacular style and goes after him but there are other opponents blocking her way. She’ll have to defeat each and every one of them if she’s to take on her father’s murderer.

Throw the plot and character development out of the window as you don’t really have one with this b-movie but if it’s action you want you’ll have that in bucket loads. The action is relentless. The sword-play and fights are really entertaining with some ridiculously over the top wire-fu moments. In fact you’re never more than 5 mins away from a skirmish. I liked the actress Minami Tsukui. She was pretty cool in the role of Kotono. The alternative title for this movie is Geisha vs Ninjas which is very confusing as the ninjas disappear after the first 20 mins as our heroine takes on other more interesting opponents on her way to meeting the final ‘big boss’. It does start to lose some steam after the hour mark though. Disengage your brain and just enjoy this popcorn movie. It’s great fun.

Sadako’s Rating: 3 out of 5

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Sasori (2008)

Pretty Nami lives a cosy life with her cop boyfriend until one evening a gang of assassins break into their home whilst he’s out collecting his father and sister. They want to kill the father but that’s not enough for them. They want Nami to make a choice – kill his sister or watch them kill her boyfriend. It’s not hard to know which option she decides to take.

She’s sent to the slammer where she becomes a target for the top dog there. Nami is given advice that in order to survive she has to learn to fight and that she does. At the end of one brutal session Nami has destroyed the top dog and her cronies. For doing this she’s sent to hang by her wrists outside to freeze to death. The following morning her corpse is bandaged like a mummy and dumped in some woods by the prison guards. There a man collects her body and revives her before teaching Nami the art of fighting by sword and kung fu.

Once her training is complete, Nami seeks revenge against those that destroyed her life and to find her old boyfriend who’s had his memory wiped.

Sasori is a poor remake and re-invention of the Japanese 70’s exploitation movie Female Prisoner 701 Scorpion and it doesn’t even come close to matching the greatness of it. Miko Mizuno who plays Nami is no Meiko Kaji that’s for sure. The acting I have to say is weak. I don’t even think the sword fights and martial arts are that good considering the over-use of wires which makes some of the fights look so far-fetched. If you’ve seen the original movie I wouldn’t bother with this one. It’ll only disappoint you.

Sadako’s Rating: 2 out of 5

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Red Room (1999)

4 people desperate for big money enter a new risky reality show card contest called The Forbidden King Game. Up for grabs is 10 million yen. All 4 have a reason why they want the money so bad. The rules of the game are simple enough. The 4 are placed in a small dimly lit room which has a cage in it and video cameras on the ceiling recording their experience. There’s also a box full of props which they can use on each other. They have to play a game with 4 cards: one card has a crown symbol on it whilst the others have a number from 1-3. The person who draws the crown card after they’re dealt out gets to nominate 2 of the others players to enter the cage and do whatever she/he commands. Getting the crown card is a big plus in this game. Anybody can quit at anytime or if they don’t carry out the commands of the crown card winner they’ll be disqualified. The last one remaining gets to claim the cash prize. It starts out innocently enough with two women kissing each other but the challenges set out by the crown card winner begin to become sadistic and vile!

Probably one of the most controversial low budget extreme movies to come out of Japan over the past 10 years. It’s very sick, depraved and twisted involving sexual humiliation, objects being thrust into places where they shouldn’t be and something being bitten off! It just goes to show that some human beings will do anything to get their hands on some money and will plumb to any depth of depravity and cruelty to win the contest. This movie is definitely not for everyone and it does have a bit of a reputation about it but this isn’t the sickest Japanese movie I’ve seen. Even though it’s got some gross out scenes I was entertained by it. The sequel is supposed to be even more disgusting. Guess I’ll have to check that one out too!

Sadako’s Rating: 3 out of 5

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The Shinjuku Incident (2009)

Jackie Chan stars as Steelhead, a tractor mechanic in China during the early 90’s. His childhood sweetheart Xiu Xiu goes off to Japan but never returns – seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth. A couple of years later Steelhead takes off to find her with other Chinese people on a ship bound for Japan. Once in Japan, he teams up with other illegal immigrants and finds work cleaning rubbish from the gutter. There’s also a war brewing on the streets of Kabukicho, Shinjuku between rival Japanese and Taiwanese gangs. Steelhead finally sees his girlfriend but she’s now the wife of the yakuza boss Eguchi and has a child. Steelhead gets involved with the yakuza and slowly but surely climbs up the ranks to take control of the Taiwanese gang’s territory for doing a favor by killing two yakuza leaders and documents to make him a citizen of Japan. But tragedy is about to take place…….

This movie shows than when he feels like it, Jackie Chan can do a really good serious drama. It’s very refreshing to see JC act in a drama and I hope he does some more. Daniel Wu and the gorgeous Fan Bing Bing also contribute to this engrossing movie. Those expecting JC to do some kind of fighting will be disappointed as he doesn’t do that at all. JC even said years ago that he would never do a sex scene but we see a brief one in this movie – this shows how different this is from other JC movies. Most Western fans will be not like this movie because there’s no comedy or martial arts and probably think this movie is boring but for me Shinjuku Incident proves just what a versatile actor JC really is. I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 out of 5

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Scared (2006)

A group of young college freshmen go on a trip to the Thai forests to bond together. When their bus has to cross a rickety old bridge spanning a river, it gives way and the bus plunges into the river. Some die during the fall. The remaining survivors go and look for help. But there’s somebody in the forest bumping them off one-by-one. Will anybody live long enough to find help?

This was a very good Thai teen slasher movie. It’s not perfect though. The plot is disappointing, unoriginal and the characters are horribly one dimensional but I still loved it. Some nice gory, creative and gruesome deaths on hand and it doesn’t take a genius to know who the killer is. There’s a wonderful twist right at the end which I didn’t expect. The girls in the movie are pretty cute looking too. Recommended for gore/slasher fans who like a fast paced movie with a high body count and nasty deaths.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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Grotesque (2009)

Banned in the UK, this disturbing Japanese movie finds a new young couple after having a drink and a meal in a restaurant attacked on an empty street from behind using a hammer by a weirdo who takes them to his basement where he chains both of them up and subjects them to sexual abuse and humiliation before viciously torturing them in various gruesome ways by using for example a chainsaw. He’s doing this as he can only get sexually aroused by watching people’s will to survive in the most extreme situation.

This is probably one of the most sickest films I’ve ever had to see. It’s obvious the director only had 1 thing in mind – to shock and horrify viewers and he does that to good effect. This movie is unrelenting in it’s sadism and violence. The ending was also fairly ridiculous. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone – it’s vile, gory and disgusting. By banning this notorious movie, it’ll only make people even more curious to check it out. The British Board Of Film Classification’s reason for not granting this a certificate is that it could psychologically harm viewers. I think it’s up to us as individuals what we can or cannot see and not the BBFC. They’re treating adults as children. You might get a kick out of watching Grotesque if you like torture porn movies but otherwise steer well clear.

Sadako’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

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Crows Zero II (2009)

The boys at Suzuran High are back and this time facing an even bigger threat from the thugs of Housen Academy who are after revenge for the death of one of their own at the hands of Suzuran pupil Sho Kawanishi. He was sent to a correctional facility but is now free again. When several Suzuran guys are brutally attacked, Genji decides the only way he can take Housen on is by a united front from everybody at the school. Can Genji unite the various factions under his leadership?

I loved the first Crows Zero movie so I was so looking forward to seeing the sequel. It did not disappoint me. It’s even more violent than the first and featuring a massive rumble between Suzuran and Housen. Seeing both camps staring at each other from a distance before the big fight reminded me of Braveheart! Shun Oguri slips effortlesly back like he never went away as Genji, the leader at Suzuran. Takashi Miike, no stranger to directing violent films did a good job here. The ending leaves me in no doubt that another sequel could be on the cards.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 out of 5

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Please Teach Me English (2003)

Unlucky in love and in life female public office employee Na Young-ju is nominated to enrol at an English class so that she can deal with all the foreign people as there is nobody that can speak with them. It is there she meets the shallow Park Moon-su, a cocky shoe shop worker who thinks that he’ll be able to pick up any women with English chat-up lines and be able to communicate better with his sister who lives in New York. Na Young-ju who is nicknamed Candy in the class falls for him but Park Moon-su (nicknamed Elvis) only has eyes for his Australian classroom teacher Cathy. Will true love prevail for Candy?

A great little Korean rom-com. Na-yeong Lee is hilarious as Candy who struggles to learn English. It’s rather predictable as you’ll have a feeling that both Candy and Elvis will end up together in the end but it’s still a rather funny movie The two leading roles have a great chemistry with each other. The director also implements some cartoons highlighting what Candy thinks of herself and the people around her which I thought was a nice touch. As with other Korean comedies you’ve got to have a dramatic sub-plot and this has one about a family being split apart due to them being poor. If you’re after a fun movie to watch then this comes recommended with plenty of laughs in it.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Ab-Normal Beauty (2004)

Jiney is a beautiful young photography student who isn’t satisfied with the work she’s creating. One day there’s a car accident near her home and Jiney feels an urge to photograph the aftermath and especially the dead body lying across the road. This obsession grows further by wanting to see more deaths and even asking a man in an open-air market to kill some chickens in order for her to photograph them. But after shooting a suicide she realises that what she’s doing is wrong and with the aid of her close friend (and lover?) she tries to get over this obsession. But there’s somebody else out there who knows of Jiney’s fascination in death. Events take a turn for the macabre when a snuff videotape arrives on her doorstep with a woman chained to a chair being brutally beaten to death by a masked freak and when her friend is also kidnapped and subjected to the same treatment, Jiney must face her demons head on.

I enjoyed this Hong Kong movie. It was different from other Asian horrors as it’s quite unsettling and morbid. An intriguing look about a young woman’s unhealthy interest in death. I liked the way they took us on Jiney’s route to madness which had not been helped by the abuse she suffered as a child and a mother that thought she made the stories up. The two sisters (Race and Rosanne Wong of HK singing duo 2R’s) are great in their roles and I’ve always liked the work of the Pang Brothers. If you want to see an Asian horror with a difference then Ab-Normal Beauty is well worth having a look.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 out of 5

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