easternKicks.com – how do you get yours?

Yep, easternKicks is going to be in print (again) and on shelves very soon, this time in Jade Screen magazine.

Turns out Steve Rivers, boss of fan fave label Cine-Asia, is an even harder man to pin down than he let on – so our friends over at Jade Screen magazine will be representing our interview with him in their next issue (which will also feature a brand new look on the cover courtesy of a fab graphic designer not so far away…)

To celebrate this exciting tie-in, we’ll be offering something very special to easternKicks readers in the next few days…

Regular Japanese readers of easternKicks may spot a familiar name in the September issue of glossy interview magazine Cut (hitting shelves right now) – yep, that’s us! Our interview with Lee Byung-hun was reprinted with permisson and translated into Japanese. (And we’re hoping to bring you some more very interesting interviews very soon… So stay tuned!)

Yep. This time quoted in a press ad (our first, I think!) for Jang Hoon’s impressive The Front Line.

(Hmmm, oh yes, now I come to think of it we did say ‘Dazzling’! )

The Front Line is available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Cine-Asia.

Today marks quite a milestone for easternKicks.com: it’s our tenth birthday – we’ve been online for a whole decade! Time for a self-indulgent trip down memory lane then… (more…)

Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Kotoko) and Wang Bing (Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, West Of The Tracks) to attend the 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival… (more…)

The BFI are to celebrate the life and work of the great Edward Yang in late September and early October. Best known for A One and a Two… (Yi Yi) the season will screen all his films, including Taipei Story, A Brighter Summer, A Confucian Confusion and In Our Time. There will also be a special introduction by the season collator Tony Ryans, including some rare clips.

More details about the season and booking available now on the BFI website.

Johnnie To’s triad epic may not offer anything new to the gangster genre, but his ensemble cast are a delight to watch… (more…)

It’s time for another Election, but can there really be any winners in Johnnie To’s vision of Hong Kong turbulent and violent underworld?… (more…)

Also on the Guardian this week, Hostel director Eli Roth talks to Geoffrey Macnab about his upcoming production The Man With the Iron Fist, co-written and directed by the RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, and starring his friend Russell Crowe.

…so it looks like this is finally happening for real? Really hoping we don’t get the the whole Scorsese Departed debacle again…

I mean, as with Martin, I love Spike and his movies, but are we gonna get another shot for shot cover version, compounded by an (admittedly deserved, but not for that!) Oscar?

» View the rumours on the Guardian

A remarkable debut from Korean director Jo Sung-Hee – a filmmaker to keep your eye on… (more…)

Being somewhat privileged in the UK, we got to see Jo Sung-Hee’s impressive debut End Of Animal at last years London Film Festival. So it’s interesting to note that the film is only officially released in Korea from next week, 17 March. Despite it’s low budge and minimal cast, this was a real treat – so let’s hope an international release isn’t far way too!

Sammo Hung’s classic comedy take on the Little Dragon… (more…)

Despite the impression you might have been given, a tender vision of the loss of youth… (more…)

There’s something in the air all right… but Beijing Olympics or not, haven’t we seen it all before? (more…)

With Mitsuko Delivers hitting UK screens this Friday, seems like a good time to rundown some of the very exciting releases Third Window Films have coming up…

There’s hardly moments rest with the DVD release of Keralino Sandrovich’s Crime or Punishment?!? on DVD Monday 14 May. Sandrovich worked with Miki Satoshi (Adrift in Tokyo, Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers) on the comedy TV show Jikou Keisatsu. (Monday also sees the next Asian Movies Meetup Group, where this month the Secret Japanese Movie Meetup also turns Third Window Anniversary Party.)

Of course all eyes will be on the UK theatrical release of Himizu, the award-winning film from Japanese director Sion Sono, which opens on 1 June. Like Cold Fish, it stars the rather lovely Denden in a supporting role. Sono’s epic Love Exposure will also be released on Blu-ray on 6 August. (Meaning you’ll be able to watch all four hours in one go without swapping discs!)

The really exciting news came that Third Window have acquired Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron man and Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer for Blu-ray release to accompany their DVD & Blu-ray release of his latest film Kotoko in late September/October.

They’ve also acquired Sogo Ishii’s first film in ten years, Isn’t Anyone Alive? From a director who has been bringing us strange and surreal films for 30 years such as Burst City, Crazy Thunder Road, Crazy Family, Angel Dust and Electric Dragon 80000V it stars Himizu‘s Shota Sometani.

Wow! It’s shaping up for one hell of a year for Third Window…

We talk exclusively to Chris Nahon, director of Kiss Of The Dragon and the new live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire, released Friday… (more…)

We chat to Gianna Jun, who plays the lead Saya in the new version of Blood: The Last Vampire, released this Friday… (more…)

We chat to Kim Kkobbi, co-star of Yang Ik-June’s Breathless – out Monday 22 March as a two-disc collector’s edition DVD… (more…)

We talk exclusively to Yang Ik-June about his fantastic debut feature Breathless… (more…)

We talk to Yuri Lowenthal, star of Jinno in Afro Samurai and Afro Samurai: Resurrection, about life as an Anime voice actor… (more…)

Another rather convincing slice of the Hong Kong triad gang world from Election director Johnnie To – with an ensemble cast to die for!… (more…)

Fighting magicians,
funny stories. (more…)

Just a small town boy trying to make it big – oh, why have I got Bronski Beat playing in my head, it’s not like that at all!… (more…)

Following on from the recent Tsai Ming-liang season, BFI have another devoted to a respected but often overlooked Asian filmmaker, Jia Zhangke during February. The season includes Platform, The World and and extended run of Still Life.

You can find out more information and book tickets here.

Legendary director Im Kwon-taek shares his wisdom and age in Festival, a tale of faith, family and traditions… (more…)

It seems every time you sneeze another festival pops up at the moment. It’s been difficult not to get rather pre-occupied by the London Film Festival, the Im Kwon-taek retrospective and the upcoming London Korean Film Festival – yet believe it or not there are other festivals going on…!

(I mean really guys – have you not considered how quiet February is? We can’t go to everything, especially if you run them all at the same time!)

The 4th China Image Film Festival runs from Sunday 28 October to Sunday 4 November, looking at modern filmmaking in China. According to one write-up, there will be 23 films screened (though a final schedule of films and venues has been difficult to find on their website and Facebook presences). (Update: The programme is now online!)

Films will include Cai Shangjun’s People Mountain People Sea (人山人海), Chen Kaige’s Caught In The Web (搜索), An Inaccurate Memoir (匹夫), Perfect Baby (巴黎宝贝), Hong Gate banquet inspired White Vengeance (鸿门宴) (but no The Last Supper?) and one film I’ve been hearing lots of good things about, Cheng Er’s Lethal Hostage (边境风云).

Rather easier to navigate comes the London International Animation Festival, running from Thursday 25 October to 4 November. Unsurprisingly, there’s a few titbits of interest, though admittedly at more of the ‘arthouse’ end of Anime/animation. Keita Kurosaka’s Midori-Ko screens with two of his acclaimed short films, Worm Story (1989) and Agitated Screams of Maggots (2006) (I’m sensing a theme here ). There’s a programme of recent Japanese Shorts, and a masterclass and retrospective with Koji Yamamura, described as ‘arguably the greatest short-form, auteur animator in Japan today’.

Also taking place this weekend is the London MCM Expo, which always spotlights anime, manga and cosplay activities.

I’ll write up more on the London Korean Film Festival shortly, but follow us on Twitter or Facebook for ‘one-offs’ and screening recommends that don’t necessarily fit within Asian FIlm……

The full programme for the 55th London Film Festival was released yesterday, and it’s another strong year for Asian film. The line-up includes: the UK première of Takashi Miike’s follow up to 13 Assassins, a neo-classical remake of the Yasuhiko Takiguchi story about desperate, impoverished ronin and implacably cruel feudal lords, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (don’t know if the screenings will be in 3D?); Jiang Wen’s rumbustious comedy-adventure Let The Bullets Fly, starring Chow Yun-fat, Ge You and Jiang himself; A Simple Life, director Ann Hui’s first collaboration with Andy Lau since the film that helped make him a star nearly 30 years ago, Boat People; and AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City, a documentary by Tim Pearce, Sophie Lascelles and Marc Tiley about Chinese Inner Mongolian band AnDa Union, which might very well be the soundtrack to the year. (more…)

The festival kicks-off with an opening gala featuring Kim Han-min’s Arrow The Ultimate Weapon, a Q&A with the director, and a K Pop performance! The closing film will be the UK premiere of Director Kim Ki-duk’s controversial documentary, Arirang, in which he explains his three year absence from filmmaking, followed by a Q&A.

This year’s programme sees a North & South Korean film strand, a Ryoo Seung Retrospective, a light hearted comedy films section, an Animation day and Mise en scene short films, all taking place in London at the Cineworld Haymarket, Apollo and ICA cinemas, and on tour nationally in Sheffield, Cambridge and Newcastle. (more…)

The UK’s premier annual Asian film festival, the Terracotta Far East Festival, will be held over four days this year at London’s Prince Charles Cinema from Thursday 21st May to Sunday 24th May. Presented by Terracotta Entertainment Group, the festival will feature 13 handpicked films representing the very best of contemporary Far East cinema, including titles from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea.

Opening the festival is Eye For An Eye, the eagerly awaited crime-thriller from directors Ahn Kwon-tae (My Brother) and Kwak Kyung-taek (Typhoon). Starring Han Suk-kyu (A Bloody Aria; The President’s Last Bang) and Cha Seung-won (Small Town Rivals; Ghost House), this Heat-style thriller concerns a soon-to-retire police detective who is drawn into an elaborate plot of robbery and revenge when he begins to investigate a heist during which one of the perpetrators impersonated him in order to pull off the crime.

Among the festival’s many highlights are: The Detective, the latest mystery-thriller from co-writer and director Oxide Pang Chun (Bangkok Dangerous; The Messengers; The Eye trilogy; The Tesseract); director Johnnie To’s (Mad Detective; Triangle; PTU) Sparrow, starring Simon Yam and Kelly Lin; the Malaysian horror-comedy, Zombies From Banana Village; and the martial arts action-thriller Legendary Assassin, which marks the co-directorial debuts of star Jacky Wu (Fatal Contact; The Legend of Zu; Drunken Monkey) and Jackie Chan’s longtime stunt coordinator Chung Chi Li. The festival’s programme will also include the films Muay Thai Chaya, Kim Ki-duk’s Dream, Keeping Watch, Ghost In The Shell (2.0), Me… Myself, After School and God Man Dog, the winner of the “Tagesspiegel” Readers’ Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Full details of the TERRACOTTA FAR EAST FESTIVAL can be found at the festival’s official website »

The BFI are to celebrate the life and work of the great Edward Yang in late September and early October. Best known for A One and a Two… (Yi Yi) the season will screen all his films, including Taipei Story, A Brighter Summer, A Confucian Confusion and In Our Time. There will also be a special introduction by the collator Tony Ryans, including some rare clips.

More details about the season and booking will be available soon on the BFI website.

The Film4 FrightFest begins at the Odeon West End in London today, including a midnight showing of Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Tokyo Gore Police on 23 August – described as ‘David Cronenberg body horror and insane RoboCop-style TV commercial inserts meet freaky Samurai bondage splat-stick starring Eiihi Shiina of Audition fame’.

Read more about Tokyo Gore Police at the Fright Fest »

For those that can make it, there’s some very interesting films coming up in the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, which starts today…

Out of Competition, there’s big guns like Tsui Hark’s (2nd?) reboot of King Hu’s Dragon Gate Inn, Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate, which stars Jet Li, Zhou Xun and Chen Kun in 3D (already out in much of Asia Pacfic), and Zhang Yimou’s Jin líng Shi San Chai (The Flowers Of War) starring the dark knight himself, Christian Bale, and the big 3D restoration of the classic 1964 animation, Da Nao Tian Gong 3D (The Monkey King – Uproar in Heaven 3D) (which surely is going to put a dent in Donnie Yen’s live-action, and also 3D, version of everyone’s favourite mischievous monkey also called The Monkey King).

In competition there’s Wang Quan’an’s three-hour epic Bai lu yuan (White Deer Plain) starring Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Yuqi and Wu Gang.

There’s plenty of films from Korea too, including Kim Joong-hyun’s Kashi (Choked), Han Lee’s Wandeukyi (Punch), Jeon Kyu-hwan’s From Seoul To Varanasi and Kim Souk-young’s short Mah-Chui (Anesthesia). (Let’s not for get Park Chan-wook and his brother Park Chan-kyong won big last year with their Night Fishing aka Paranmanjang, shot on an iPhone.)

Yang Yonghi’s Kazoku no kuni (Our Homeland), about one of the 90,000 Korean’s resident in Japan between the 50s and 90s who emigrated to North Korea, will also be on show.

There are also great masterclass events on with filmmakers themselves, including Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, best known for his work on The Last Emperor, Babel and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (not to mention being a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra).

» Find out more from the official Berlinale site here.

This month Third Window continue to release Asian films that might otherwise get missed with two ‘offbeat’ Japanese comedies… (more…)

An intelligent directorial debut from acclaimed actress Nandita Das… (more…)

Dodgeball meets Rollerball in this violent bloodsport flick, but before you go thinking we’re back to the excesses of 80s martial arts films, think again… (more…)

Released on DVD from 18 January, enjoyable martial art/sport hybrid Fireball gets a limited release around the UK from this Friday. Full details follow… (more…)

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has become the first Thai filmmaker to win the coveted Palme d’Or at this years Cannes. The 63rd Cannes Film Festival closed yesterday evening with the announcement of the jury prizes, led by US director Tim Burton.

Weerasethakul’s film Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) concerns a dying man who is visited by his late wife and his missing son, who has become an ape. Uncle Boonmee is played by Thanapat Saisaymar, a roof welder from north-east Thailand whose previous acting experience was limited to TV commercials. The director had previously won the third-place jury prize at Cannes with his 2004 film Tropical Malady.

Lee Chang-Dong won best screenplay for Poetry. And another Korean filmmaker, director Hang Sangsoo, won the Un Certain Regard Prize for Hahaha.

Find out more on the official Cannes website »

Bruce Lee’s landmark movie gets another outing – but what does the new double-disc DVD release add the existing UK version?… (more…)

The latest teaming of director Wilson Yip and star/action choreographer Donnie Yen (Dragon Tiger Gate, S.P.L.) brings the sort of top-notch martial arts we’ve come to expect – so why is it so light on action? (more…)

Jet Li fights a 30 year old version of David Lo Pan. For what? Fortune and Glory, kids… (more…)

Bizarre, inspired fight scenes and farcical fun, Corey Yuen directs Jet Li in a silly but highly enjoyable movie… (more…)

The producers of Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Raging Phoenix and Chocolate are back – with a kids movie! (Well, maybe, if not for the language and violence)… (more…)

Danny Pang proves he can no longer see the wood for the trees in this disappointing, ill-conceived, badly scripted horror-thriller… (more…)

Fortissimo Films has acquired international rights to Come Rain, Come Shine (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anneunda), the latest film from critically acclaimed director Lee Yoon-Ki (This Charming Girl, My Charming Enemy), starring Lim Soo-Jung (I’m A Cyborg But That’s Okay) and Korean heartthrob Huyn Bin (star of SBS TV series Secret Garden and Late Autumn).

The film will have it’s world premiere at the Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival, running from 10 to 20 February, where it will be the only Asian film in competition for a coveted Golden Bear. The film will be released in Korea by NEW late February/early March.

» Read more about Come Rain, Come Shine at Berlinale

Back at the beginning of the year we reported how easternKicks fave Park Chan-wook and his brother Park Chan-kyong had shot a short film entirely on an iPhone 4. Now known as Night Fishing, we were unaware that it had been entered at the Berlinale international film festival, let along walked away with the Golden Bear Award for International Short Film.

Here we present the trailer for it, suitably bizarre, which can be found on the films official site. There’s also a fascinating documentary into the making of the film (where the device for recording may be small – but the crew seems as big as ever!) and both can be downloaded, so take a look…

Would you choose between peace and freedom? Would you choose for all of humanity?… (more…)

To celebrate the Island of Jeju’s nomination as a ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’, the Korean Cultural Centre will be screening films that feature or are set on the island throughout April. Just off the South West coast of Korea, the island is already a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Films will include My Mother, The Mermaid, Rump Of Sugar, Grand Prix and Il Mare, the original (and most would say undeniably better) version of The Lake House. Screenings take place throughout the day in their library – no booking necessary, just pop in.

» You can find out more about the campaign for Jeju on the KCCUK’s website

UPDATE: It’s been a while since this podcast has been updated. You can find similar (and several of the same) films on FilmOn’s Martial Arts channel. Better yet, why not do yourself a favour and watch something of quality? Check out the Korean Film Archive’s YouTube channel, with 70 (and growing) movies from the 1940s right up to the 90s, and all English subtitled. Read a little more about it here…

Fancy watching some free kung fu movies? Fancy getting them in an iPod or iPhone friendly format? Not too picky about the quality – whether that happens picture, dubbing or even the actual movie itself?

Well, if you’re using iTunes, just follow the link below to the Cult of Kung Fu podcasts, a special branch of the Cult of UHF who release a lot of ‘public domain’ b-movies. (Still not really sure how these films become public domain in the first place, but there you go…) There you’ll find a growing selection of American dubbed Hong Kong movies, including Shaolin Invincibles and Shadow Ninja. Many of these have been available in some format or another before on low cost video or DVDs (though often not cheap enough considering the dire quailty!)

Entertaining if not brilliant, they coud be just what your daily commute needs…

See the current list on iTunes

The likeable OVA series designed by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Memories) and co-written by Katsuhiko Chiba (Blue Dragon, Slayers), Yuuichi Nomura (Xam’d: Lost Memories) and Dai Sato (Casshern, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex) finally makes it onto UK DVD and Blu-ray, but are we on too familiar ground?… (more…)

Warning: this is niche soft-core porn… (more…)

An impressive selection from young Hong Kong and Chinese filmmakers to look out for in the future… (more…)

Film clubs, festival organisers, recommended retailers and stuff we just think you should know about…

Links to come

Jeon Kyu-hwan follows his Town Trilogy with an interesting use of nonlinear narrative, but is it just too contrived?… (more…)

From 7 July to 31 August the ICA in London celebrates the more offbeat in Asian cinema with a season of ‘classics new and nearly new, comic, horrific, pre-modern and sci-fi’. This includes a chance to see Fumihiko Sori’s revamp of blind swordsman Zatoichi, Ichi, starring Haruka Ayase, as well his earlier Ping Pong. Also included are several screenings of Tokyo Gore Police; Paul Schrader’s own cut of his true story of Japanese novelist and playwright, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters; 20th Century Boys: Chapter 2; and Chanbara Beauty, an everyday tale of ‘A sword-wielding, bikini-clad samurai who wages war against an ever-increasing horde of unstoppable zombies’…

» Find out more about Cult Japan and book tickets

Goro Miyazaki is becoming a valid director… (more…)

Lau Ching Wan (Mad Detective, The Longest Nite) and Francis Ng (The Bride With White Hair, 2000 AD) star in this superbly paced thriller from writer/director Ringo Lam (Full Contact, City On Fire)… (more…)

A few months back it was announced that the Korean Film Archive was going to begin putting classic and often rare (mostly very hard to get hold of) films online via YouTube. The good news is that after a little stopping and starting (and a worrying couple of days were everything became ‘private’) we’re very happy to say the Archive is up in force with 70 films!

There’s a wealth of Korean film history, with films from the 1940s to the 90s, with special sections devoted to Kim Ki-young, Im Kwon-taek and Shin Sang-ok. Amongst the films there’s Hong Sang-soo’s (Hahaha, The Day He Arrives) debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, and Park Kwang-su’s breakthrough film Chil-su and Man-su, which formed part of the Korean Cultural Centre UK’s Year of the 12 Directors retrospective. And much more besides!

Better yet, all are provided with English subtitles for us to enjoy…

For more, head on over to www.youtube.com/koreanfilm…

(With any luck one day this will beat my Free kung fu movies! post in popularity. Now all I need is the time to watch them all!;))

One of several blockbusters this summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra is of note for easternKicks.com readers due to being the Hollywood debut for Korean star Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, The Good, The Bad The Weird). Could this be the start of things to come? Well, Lee didn’t exactly enjoy his time, as he told us when we interviewed him last year, and outside of the US most audiences won’t know about the G.I. Joe franchise. (We called them Action Man!)

But hey, looking at this clip at least he’s not under that mask all through the film. (Though I can’t watch this without thinking of Team America – f**k yeah!…)

The spirit of Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer is alive and kicking in Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng’s new film… (more…)

Another popular manga and anime series gets the live-action makeover in a promising treatment by director Shinsuke Sato (The Princess Blade, Sand Chronicles) co-starring the ever popular Kenichi Matsuyama (Norwegian Wood, Kamui: The Lone Ninja) – and yes, the sequel is already on the way!… (more…)

We’ve been here before, but was the latest manga to become a live-action franchise worth the wait?… (more…)

A visual delight, sumptuously restored to its original glory… (more…)

One dimensional Samurai revenge flick that harks back to the cheapie B movies of the 70s… (more…)

A good attempt at exploring the intertwined relationships of three lovers, but often lost, forgetting the context of Taiwan’s political transition… (more…)

Motoko is up to her old tricks. (more…)

Some nice ‘accidental death’ set-ups, Omen/Final Destination style, but this is one horror that won’t keep you awake at night… (more…)

Get the 1954 original of Godzilla free with the Guardian today…

Director Kazuaki Kiriya’s follow-up to Casshern is as visually dazzling as its predecessor – thank god it’s a bit easier to understand, too…! (more…)

We were expecting something special, but this star-studded – Bruce, John and Helen…? (more…)

An entertaining trip through the social and economic ups and downs of nearly a quarter of a century in Hong Kong – as seen through the more literal ups and downs of a hooker… (more…)

A really cinematic experience, Yoshihiro Nakamura’s (The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker, See You Tomorrow, Everyone, Fish Story) overlooked thriller… (more…)

Not the sequel to Come Drink with Me you might be expecting, but a damn fine tale of heroic chivalry from Zhang Che… (more…)

Yeah, that’s right, just list the cast. Nice one Empire, glad to see you’re keeping on top of quality reviews. All this time I’ve fretted when PR companies asked me for a quote for a cover, tried to come up with something witty and clever, worried that I couldn’t come up with the goods. (And usually don’t, but that’s more to do with the films I get asked about.) And all I needed to do was list the cast….

Mind you, to be fair for some reason the releasing company have seen fit to cut the original quote down from ‘The most awesome action cast assembled ever…’

…Better, but listing the cast? Really? Come on guys, even in a full review that’s a bit lame.

A sweet wonderfully evocative animation about adolescence and growing up – finally released on DVD… (more…)

Easily one of our favourites from the London Korean Film festival last year, Green Days will finally get a proper release in South Korea from June, according to KOBIZ (Korean Film Biz Zone). Directed by An Jae-hoon and Han Hye-Jin, this the cute and touching animation should find a pretty wide audience there, and hopefully a UK distributor will pick it up too.

This last Monday (17 August) you might have noticed the Japanese horror film Grotesque, by director Koji Shiraishi, did not appear on our shelves as originally planned – and now comes the reason why: the British Board of Film Classification has refused to grant an 18 certificate due to it’s graphic torture scenes! (more…)

The Guardian are giving away a DVD of the classic original 1954 Godzilla movie this Saturday.

Just in time for the release of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance on Blu-ray and DVD on 20 June (though that might not be deliberate!), Uniqlo UK have brought out a a very limited edition series of Evangelion and Gundam T-shirts. At £12.99 a pop they’re a must for any Anime fan, and pretty cool for anyone else for that matter…

Walking fishes! Stinky fishes! Fishes everywhere! (more…)

Familiar ground for Hong Sang-soo in his Cannes-awarded comedy… (more…)

Writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s thoughtful and hilarious take on the samurai genre… (more…)

The Brothers Grimm’s infamous fairytale gets a sinister update in Yim Phil-Sung’s second movie, now on UK Blu-Ray!… (more…)

Yim Phil-Sung’s delightful horror fable Hansel And Gretel is released at selected UK cinemas today by Terracotta Distribution.

You can read our review here »

Fist Of Fury gets the feminine touch in this rediscovered old school kung fu classic… (more…)

It’s the Year of the Dragon. ‘Nuff said…

Takashi Miike’s follow-up to the universally acclaimed 13 Assassins takes another look at samurai honour (in 3D!), but does it have to look so damn much like the original film…? (more…)

To celebrate the recent release of Akira on Blu-ray, we continue our look at the work of Katsuhiro Otomo with his first step into animation, Harmageddon… (more…)

Ahead of next Fridays release of Norwegian Wood, seems the UK press is in the grip of Haruki Murakami fever. Just the other day lead actress Rinko Kikuchi was interviewed by the Observer, now it’s the turn of director Tran Anh Hung speaking to Nosheen Iqbal of the Guardian, explaining how the film was made despite the fact that he didn’t speak Japanese, and even wrote the original script in French. THis has been greatly helped by both actress and director being in London to promote the film, thanks in part to the opening ceremony of the Pan-Asia Film Festival.

Expect a renewed interest into the authors work over the next few weeks – long over due…

An impressive neo-noir thriller from Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Last Life In The Universe)… (more…)

By no means groundbreaking, Byun Young-joo directs a superbly played thriller… (more…)

Nominated for an Oscar, Jet Li stars in director Zhang Yimou’s (Raise The Red Lantern, Not One Less) first foray into the swordplay genre, and it’s one of the most beautiful and offbeat yet… (more…)

It’s John Woo at his most brutal and explosive, but Woo fans beware – there was a reason this film originally stayed on the shelf for a couple of years… (more…)

A meditative and technically impressive piece, sadly let down by a lack of plot… (more…)

More teenagers having problems with our fanged friends of the night, but at least it’s not Twilight or The Vampire Diaries… (more…)

A martial arts movie star famous for his stunts? Now who could Wong Jing be lampooning in this Jet Li vehicle?… (more…)

The dead are walking again, and this time going to school in an Anime version of the manga by Daisuke Sato and Shoji Sato… (more…)

Important in terms of reaction to the tsunami that devastated Fukushima, but was Sion Sono’s (Love Exposure, Cold Fish) adaption of the manga of the same name the right place to do it…? (more…)

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s sweet, charming and utterly uplifting I Wish (奇跡, Kiseki) will be released in UK cinemas nationwide from 8 February 2013 by Arrow Films, who previously successfully released A Simple Life and Poetry.

Featuring stunning performances by a young cast, particularly from leads (and real life brothers) Koki and Oshiro Maeda, and a fantastic ensemble cast of well-known faces, including Joe Odagiri (Adrift In Tokyo, My Way), Nene Otsuka (The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker), Hiroshi Abe (Chocolate, Survive Style 5+) and several scene-stealing appearances from veteran actress Kirin Kiki (Still Walking, Villain, Kamikaze Girls), the film tells of the boys endeavours to watch two trains pass on a new bullet train line, where it is said wishes can come true.

2013 could be the year we here in the UK finally acknowledge Kore-eda as the cinematic master he is, with Matchbox Films releasing a box set, the Kore-eda Hirokazu Collection, collecting Air Doll, After Life, Still Walking and Nobody Knows, on 28 January 11 February.

Now all we need is someone to pick up Hana so we can see how a film about Akō’s 47 Ronin should be approached – before Keanu’s effort gets released!

The Guardian newspaper published a film-inspired holiday article about Hong Kong on Saturday, outlining some of the places you can walk in the footsteps of Bruce Lee or Wong Kar-wai.

There’s mention of some iconic scenes, but honestly this was perhaps a little limited and out-of-date. Enter The Dragon, but we at easternKicks.com could think of many more locations that are still around today.

If you’ve got any great stories or pics of movie locations you’ve found, whether in Hong Kong or from any Asian movie, why not drop us a line in the comments section?

You can find out more about the Guardian film-inspired Hong Kong break here »

The legendary UK label, world-reknowned for great DVD releases with superb restoration, is back from the grave… (more…)

Once upon a time a British label released classic Hong Kong films on DVD the way we’d always wanted to see them. Spruced up, restored, original language and bucket loads of extras! This pioneering label made an international name for itself remastering and reissuing old Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and other classic kung fu flicks.

Thoroughly spoilt we thought those blissful days would never end. But they did, when the label folded at the beginning of 2008.

(But then Steve Rivers, who founded Hong Kong Legends in the first place – and sold it to Contender – started up Cine-Asia, and that soon became just what we’d been missing, especially over the last 18 months!)

And now Steve’s got his mitts on the films released on the HKL label once again, as Cine-Asia start to reissue them once again – giving those of us who remember the label a chance to catch-up on titles we missed, and newbies a chance to catch-up full stop.

The schedule starts from 4th July, with the Bruce Lee classic Fist Of Fury, Sammo Hung classic The Prodigal Son and Tony Jaa’s Ong-Bak (yay!) and Warrior King aka Tom yum goong (er, not quite so yay!).

And we’ll be bringing you a fascinating insight into the Cine-Asia label soon. (Honest Steve & Louise, I will get round to it!)

It’s often easy to forget korean cinema has much more to offer than taught thrillers and action films, and Hong Sang-soo is a great example of a much ‘quieter’ filmmaker whose work is often overlooked, despite his film Hahaha being awarded the Un Certain Regard prize this year at Cannes this year.

From Wednesday 1 to 28 September, the BFI Southbank celebrates his work with a complete overview of his work, including a preview of Hahaha and a personal appearance by Hong Sang-soo himself this Friday. Curated by the ICO, the 10-film retrospective will tour major cities in the UK over the next few months.

For more information on the retrospective and to book, see the BFI’s website »

Dazzlingly dotty and out-of-this-world – welcome to Nobuhiko Obayashi’s (often hilarious) fantasy horror, soundtracked by Godiego (best known for Monkey!)… (more…)

A beautiful tale of romance and bitter betrayal, Zhang Yimou’s follow-up to Hero is even better… (more…)