Yakuza Busting Girls: Final Death Ride Battle (2010)

This is the 2nd of two movies and I haven’t seen the 1st one yet. The plot is as follows: Asami was thought killed after being betrayed by Junko, but she suddenly returns to town after a 2 years. However, a lot has changed since she was last around. Yakuza have taken over the town and the powerful Kanto Sukeban Alliance which Asami once headed had been completely decimated in the process, with former members now turning to drugs and prostitution. Under the guise of sukeban hunting, Junko had led her old friends to slaughter at the hands of yakuza boss Murakawa. Because of this, Asami has gradually been enveloped by flames of rage. Meanwhile, four yakuza hunters pledge their lives to her cause as the stage is set for a final bloody battle at Tokyo Bay.

A low budget Japanese gore movie about a group of female Yakuza Hunters. Hot girls with ridiculous weapons battling slimy Japanese mobsters. Blood sprays, limbs go airborne and there are breast shots galore. It’s just a shame these kind of movies use too much CGI blood. If you’re familiar with such ‘classics’ as The Machine Girl and Robogeisha then you’ll know what to expect here. It’s not too bad a movie.

Sadako’s Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

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The Little Norse Prince (1968)

Horus, a kid living in a unnamed Scandinavian/Eastern Europe culture of the Iron Age, recovers the Sword of the Sun from the rock giant Moog and learns from his dying father that he must returns to his ancestral territory. In the process, he defends a village from the attacks of Grundewald, a warlord/ice demon and befriends the enigmatic Hilda, a lonely and beautiful girl who sings haunting songs (and who hides a terrible secret).

A pre Studio Ghibli anime movie that Hayao Miyazaki worked on with Isao Takahata. It took 3 years for this movie to be made. The animation is well done even if this was made such a long time ago when anime was still in it’s infancy. It’s interesting to watch and it has a good storyline. The originality that The Little Norse Prince exudes is nothing short of impressive. While it may not be the greatest anime of all time, it is nothing short of being the most important and provides the seed of the greatness that was to come from Miyazaki and Takahata.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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Bedevilled (2010)

“Bedeviled” is a Korean horror/revenge tale of two women. Hae-won is depressed by her empty corporate financial job. Close to an emotional break-down she decides to visit her childhood friend Bok-nam who is living on the tiny island of Mundo. Bok-nam is often abused by her violent husband and his retarded brother. When her daughter is killed by her husband, Bok-nam snaps. Finally this horribly victimised human being decides to retaliate against her tormentors.

The movie is slow-moving and depressing drama for the first 75 mins or so then suddenly turns into a bloody revenge movie. The cast is strong, especially Seo Young-hee who gives a truly memorable performance as bullied Bok-nam. Consumed by growing anger she becomes a beast. The script is horrific with several scenes of sexual and verbal abuse and plenty of bloody violence.Very brutal pay-off that has to be seen to be believed. Highly recommended for gore fans even if the red stuff takes time to show itself onscreen.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Gothic & Lolita Psycho (2010)

Yet another fantastic Japanese OTT splatterfest. A young woman named Yuki is seeking vengeance on a group of people who murdered her mother and crippled her father years ago when she was young. In her sexy black gothic lolita costume and armed with lethal umbrellas, Yuki will stop at nothing to avenge those that wronged her.

Rina Akiyama is superb as Yuki and looks so hot in her costume. Ridiculously inventive with some humour, lots of great fast paced action, frequent torrents of blood and never boring – this is an excellent movie for those that love Japanese gore fests.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Gantz Part 1 (2011)

Pretty good adaptation of the manga/anime which follows 2 childhood friends who die when a subway train hits them. However they wake up in a room dazed and confused, in an apartment furnished only with a giant black sphere and populated by others who have recently died and have no idea what they are doing there. The sphere, called Gantz and operated by a bald, naked man in some sort of trance, contains exotic weapons and form-fitting suits that they are to use on missions in the world they have just departed. Their goal: to kill monstrous aliens within a set time. If they succeed, they will receive points. A total of 100 will allow them to leave this limbo or send someone else back to life. If they fail, they get nothing and may even die for good.

There is also a certain repetitiveness to the story: mission, aftermath, mission, aftermath but with each alien threat they face getting stronger and more tough to destroy. The acting by both Ken’ichi Matsuyama and Kazunari Ninomiya is competent enough to zip the story along. Eye candy is provided by Natsuna Watanabe who makes her entrance in the movie in a quite revealing way if you know what I mean!!

Having not really read the manga or even watched the anime, I know from reading other reviews that fans aren’t happy with it’s PG-13 rating considering the original work is dark but I was satisfied with the results I saw onscreen. It was exciting, entertaining and it kept me engaged for the 2 hour plus running time. Roll on Part 2 which comes out later on this year.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Alien vs Ninja (2010)

The plot which is threadbare is about a fireball crashlanding in a forest where a group of deadly ninjas clash with an alien which is rampaging around and impregnating people (shades of the Alien movies here).

There’s a consistent string of physical gags, impressive stunts and exaggerated gore that keep upping the ante in this movie and providing a lot of laughs along the way. The action is fantastic with a couple of superb swordfight sequences which are amazing to watch. Kaiju fans should enjoy this movie as well as the alien is a man in a suit fighting the ninjas. Alien vs Ninja is a sure-fire crowd pleaser. A silly but very enjoyable movie.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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Chanbara Striptease (2010)

A young woman called Lilli, who on her 20th birthday is informed by her grandmother that she is to inherit her family’s mystical martial arts technique. During the ceremony, she is unexpectedly sent back in time to 18th Century Japan, where she stumbles upon a small village being menaced by an evil geisha and her unpleasant henchmen. Falling in with one of the local lads, Lilli takes it upon herself to protect the villagers, armed only with her sword and the discovery that by baring her breasts her fighting skills are considerably enhanced!

This movie is basically only an excuse for the main female lead who’s an AV idol to get her breasts out as it somehow manages to power up her energy when she’s fighting with a sword. Atrocious acting, crappy fight choreography coupled with a shitty plot. You’ll be doing yourself a favour by avoiding this dirge.

Sadako’s Rating: 1 star out of 5

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Oneechanbara – Vortex (2009)

Sisters Aya and Saki put aside their rivalry and go toe-to-toe with Himiko and her band of zombies. The evil Himiko needs the blood of the young girls to restore her youth, while the sisters need to stop Himiko to save mankind…

Very disappointed with this movie considering the original Chanbara Beauty was so good. The sequel which is more or less a rehash of the original is badly done and a bit of a mess. Although the women in this movie are nice to look at, they can’t act to save their lives. Terrible acting from them. The action sequences are pretty bad with some awful fake CGI blood being splattered on the screen all the time which got annoying very quickly. There’s hardly any positives to take from this movie. A total waste of a sequel. Watch the original but keep well clear from this movie.

Sadako’s Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5

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4th Period Mystery (2009)

Han Jeong-hoon has an argument with one of his classmates Tae-gyu who is soon found dead in a classroom by him. A shy female classmate nicknamed “Curtain” who’s a fan of detective novels believes Jeong-hoon didn’t commit the crime and soon the pair are on the case as to who’s behind the murder before 4th period comes to a close. It doesn’t help that there’s a school inspection taking place at the same time.  A suspect is found soon, but as time goes by, more and more evidence appears and the case is soon turned on it’s head.

However far fetched this movie might seem about 2 school pupils trying to solve a murder case at their school, it does have an interesting mixture of being a thriller and a high school drama. It’s tense and captivating at times with some great adrenaline moments peppering the movie. Running at a tight 90 mins, this might not be one of the best Korean movies of 2009 but it’s so entertaining and it does have an edgy style which does make it stand out a little bit from other thrillers. Give it a go and see what you think.

Sadako’s Rating: 3 stars out of 5

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How To Date An Otaku Girl (2010)

This rom-com movie deals with a university male student Hinata who starts dating an otaku woman called Yoriko who has an interest in B-L anime and manga. For those that don’t know what B-L means it’s Boys Love and is very popular in Japan with women who can’t get enough of seeing two boys/men fall in love with each other. Anyway the plot follows the couple as Hinata tries to adapt to Yoriko’s geeky hobby.

There’s plenty of anime references on show and some great comedy as Hinata tries to take an interest in her hobby leading to many funny situations. You do have the usual cliches and melodramatic moments you’ll find in this type of Japanese movie but it does have that feel-good factor at the end. I did expect a little bit more on the otaku side of the story. Overall it’s a nice sweet movie.

No trailer but did find this clip from the movie

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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Superkid (2006)

A quirky children’s movie from Hong Kong about a boy genius escaping from his prison of sorts in a top secret facility and meeting up with his female internet friend as he wants to understand what makes a family happy. Along the way, they get up to all sorts of scrapes as the female boss of the secret facility Chloe sends her goons out to get her top student back.

Hong Kong isn’t that well known for producing kids movies. Although tagged as a kids movie, it does have some scenes that might disturb them involving hypodermic needles and even referencing to a notorious HK Cat III horror! Thankfully the majority of the movie is light stuff with some slapstick comedy and lessons to be learned in life aimed squarely at the kids. The leading characters are OK, at least they’re not annoying. It’s a good movie to watch on a rainy afternoon.

No trailer for this movie

Sadako’s Rating: 3 stars out of 5

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Unholy Women (2006)

Rattle Rattle – A young woman, Kanako, is haunted by the spirit of a frightening, evil woman.
Hagane – When Sekiguchi’s boss sets him up on a date with his sister, Sekiguchi gets more than he bargained for.
The Inheritance – Saeko and her son Michio go to live with their grandmother in the mountains after a divorce. However, there is a legend there that puts Michio’s life on the line, as well as Saeko’s sanity.

This movie is divided into 3 seperate short stories with the standout story being Rattle Rattle. The tale is about a young woman about to be married who’s chased around her apartment block by a menacing ghost woman in red who has a large kitchen knife in her hand. It is just scary and unrelenting terror all the way. The ghost woman is terrifying and plain insane. The story might only last 30 mins but it does the trick in scaring the crap out of you. The other 2 tales Hagane and The Inheritance are OK but don’t even come close to Rattle Rattle in scares. A great watch.

Sadako’s Rating: 3 stars out of 5

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Kamen Rider Black: Terror Of Demon Pass (1988)

Taking place between episode 38 and 39 in the series, Kotaro heads to Yubari in Hokkaido where Shadow Moon and the evil Golgom empire have taken over a city.

Another great KR Black movie which typifies why this character was so popular in the late 80’s. This is pure escapist fun with a rocking ’80s soundtrack, great costume design and exciting battle scenes which doesn’t rely on heavy CGI. Tetsuo Kurata makes a great Kamen Rider, and his undying will to defeat Golgom shines in every scene in which he’s is in action. Very enjoyable.

Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Kamen Rider Black:Hurry To Evil Island (1988)

The first KR Black movie has our hero Kotaro hitching a ride to an island that Golgom is using as a base in which they’ve kidnapped children and are threatening to transform them into mutants.

Kamen Rider Black is definitely my favorite KR series from the Showa era. This movie is brilliant, inventive and full of thrills, spills and explosions that we’ve come to expect from this genre. In the era that had no CGI, the movie tries to create wonderful SFX with the technology they possessed during that time, giving us a great superhero movie that we can enjoy. If you’re a fan of the series, or an adult who watched this series back when you were a child, you will really enjoy this movie.

No trailer but here’s the intro to the series

Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Dead Waves (2005)

The plot of the movie is about a man known as Usui, a talented segment producer who loves to feature paranormal phenomenon occurrences on a TV show. Ratings for the show has dropped and Usui is asked to do something special to get the ratings back up. Usui and his crew arrive at a house of two siblings in which the male is mentally ill. The brother accuses his sister of being possessed and tells the producer that his sister might be intruded by unknown spirits; because of her strange and unusual attitude for she cannot sleep nor eat for days. As a result, he sought a healer to cure her. Nevertheless, the healer did not succeed but something evil has been awakened.

This movie unfortunately is a mish-mash of ideas and cliches from other Japanese horror movies we’ve all seen before. In fact the contorted ghost writhing on the floor has been done to death and smacked so much of unoriginality. I’m tired of seeing the same thing done over and over, it does get boring. This movie has its moments but for the most part it fails. It was interesting to see when some characters bled, the blood was of a different colour than normal: yellow for the lead male character, green for another. It’s never explained why this was the case. The story for the most part doesn’t make much sense and feels rushed. The movie had a good idea behind it but what the filmmakers gave us was a complete waste of time. I wouldn’t really bother with it, you’re more than likely going to be disappointed.

Can’t find a trailer for this movie.

Sadako’s Rating: 2 stars out of 5

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