Eastern film fix(ation)

Back in the day I used to love Hong Kong action movies. I first got into them in, oh, I don't know, 1994? The first ones I saw (other than Bruce Lee films, obviously) were in a midnight double bill at the Prince Charles cinema in London's Chinatown, just off Leicester Square. They were the martial-arts classic The Barefoot Kid and the heroic-bloodshed masterpiece A Better Tomorrow 2. Both still have a special place in my heart, although I've not seen TBK since. ABT2, though, for me, is one of those rare sequels that outshines the original. Love it, love it, love it.

Over the years I have bought and watched more HK flicks than I can remember, but still not enough of them. I continue to pick up the ones that interest me, ready to watch when Wife is tired and goes to bed early, cos she just don't be diggin' on them there fillums. Chow Yun-fat was -- and will surely always be, despite such dross as The Replacement Killers and Bulletproof Monk -- the king of HK moviedom.

So it was normal for me to jump on the Japanese horror-movie bandwagon when it came along a handul of years ago. Well, y'know, I'd seen The Seven Samurai back when I were a lad, and I loved that. How bad could the Japanese film industry have become in the ensuing 35 years or so. Well, the answer seems to be "pretty bad", actually.

Despite all the critical acclaim and the countless American remakes, personally I feel a bit misled by the likes of Mark Kermode and Jonathan Ross, two critics whose opinions I usually trust in matters of cinema. Anyway, here's some of the films I've seen over the last four or five years. I just feel that Japanese horror movies don't go anywhere quickly enough, and then when they finally get to where they are dawdling, the denouement is usually so silly as to be laughable.

To be honest, I've even forgotten half of the J-horror movies I've seen because they were, quite simply, forgettable. And because I don't like to tar everything with the same brush, I'm going to throw all Japanese movies into the same wok and write down some that I've liked and not liked of late.

Some that I liked:
Battle Royale; Zatoichi; The Happiness of the Katakuris.

Some that I felt were disappointing or downright rubbish:
Audition; Ring; The Grudge.

Beyond that, looking for my Eastern fix, I have also ventured into Korean and Thai cinema. A few years ago the critics were already saying that Korea was the "new Hong Kong" as far as cinema was concerned. Films being touted were things such as Volcano High, which I still haven't seen but really should. My views on Oldboy (pictured) and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance are posted elsewhere on this blog. And A Tale of Two Sisters was great -- far better than similar ghost-themed Japanese stuff.

My luck with Thai films has not been so great; indeed, I can report that the only two I have enjoyed to any extent are Bangkok Dangerous, which is currently (surprise surprise) being remade with Nicolas Cage, and The Eye. Bangkok Haunted was unwatchable.

Edit: I tell a lie here. The best Thai film was actually the Thai/Jap joint venture The Last Life in the Universe, which was so different to most any film I've ever seen that it not only defies categorization, it almost defies nationality. At least that's my reason for forgetting to include it, and I'm sticking to it!

I haven't really bothered going back to HK cinema for a while. I bought Infernal Affairs on import from Hong Kong when it came out there on DVD largely because it was being named as a return to form for that territory's film-making. I was a touch disappointed, but it certainly had a lot of style to it. And, I suspect, far more than the Martin Scorsese-helmed remake soon to be hitting our screens. My blogmate Soupdragon has something to say about that...

Well, that's all I want to say on Eastern cinema for now. Except to say happy birthday to John Woo, who's 58 today. Please John, go back to Hong Kong and make good movies again, instead of that shit you've been churning out in Hollywood...