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Exclusive interview: Kim Kkobbi

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:00:35 +0000

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…

Was this your first trip to London? How are you finding it? Any chance for sightseeing or shopping?
Yes, it was my first time. However, I’m only staying for one day so I couldn’t sightsee. After doing a few interviews, I went shopping and after dinner, partied all night. It was a busy day!

What brings you to the UK this time?
I came to Europe as I was invited to the Dublin International Film Festival so decided to visit London.

When I spoke to Yang Ik-June late last year, he told me that he’d seen you in a short film and you’d blown him away. Originally you’d been up for a different role in the film. Can you tell me how he approached you initially for the role, and how you came to be the lead?
Oh, the Director saw me in a short film which I appear as a secondary school student. He thought I was too young to play Yeon-hue so had intended me to play Sang-hoon’s younger sister’s role. However, when he met me I was older than he thought and felt that I was capable of playing Yeon-hue’s character.

How was it working with Yank Ik-June on his first film as a director? And how does it compare to the other films you’ve worked on?
First of all, Director Yang was originally an actor he knew exactly how to work with actors. How to get the best from actors, how to make actors comfortable. That was what I liked the most. Compared to working with other directors, it was more comfortable and enjoyable. And I learnt a lot – I mean immensely a lot. Through this experience, I feel I have developed a stage further.

The film deals quite frankly with domestic abuse, but according to Yang he was not aware of any message in the film until it was completed and watching it on screen. How did you feel about the subject matter and how he dealt with it.
Hmm… To be honest, I have not experienced domestic abuse so I could not empathise largely with that area. However, the father’s role within a family and his status etc was discussed frequently. Fathers remain dogmatic, dictatorial and unfriendly. They are loners. We talked a lot about fathers who have difficulty expressing in a normal and healthy manner. And such a father’s relationship with his children, love and hate relationship etc.

Both You and Yang have won awards for Breathless at festivals around the world, from the Blue Dragon awards to the Las Palmas Festival. Have you been surprised by the international critical acclaim and success of the film? Why do you think it’s struck such a chord with audiences?
Yes I was very surprised. It is both an honour and a burden. The audiences say that the film’s beginning is very violent and aggressive so it was difficult to watch. However, the more they watched, it is also humorous and as they get to know the circumstances within the story, they feel sad. Audiences who have similar experiences within their own families said that they could empathise particularly more. I think everyone has big and small family conflicts so the film struck a chord with many of the audiences.

Am I right in thinking you’ve actually appeared in several films before? (In fact some of our reader might be surprised by how many.) These include City Of Violence and The Ghost Theater, for which you were nominated for best new actress (some four years too late by the looks of it!). Which performances are you proudest of, and which are the ones you’d like to forget?
Well, I was not nominated for City of Violence but for The Ghost Theater. Hmm… I filmed in several feature length films as a minor role, a few short films, my first main character role in The Ghost Theater and Breathless was my second leading role. I don’t have any work that I am proud of yet… I am expectant and looking forward to my future.

What have you been working on since this film?
Yes, I’ve done a lot of work since Breathless. Be with me is being released this May and also Be my guest… Both were shown at the Pusan International Film Festival. I also have finished filming 창피해 (English title TBC – either So Shame or So Embarassing).

What actors and actresses do you admire?
Hmm…I have a lot of actors that I like. I tend to see actors and think one is great at this and another at something else; and in the process learn from them.

Thanks to Kim Kkobbi for her time, and Joey from Terracotta and Paul from The Associates for setting the interview up.

We also spoke to Yang Ik-June late last year, read the exclusive interview here…

Breathless is released on a special 2-disc collector’s edition DVD on 22 March by Terracotta Distribution.

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:38 +0000

In a marketplace swamped with vampires, here’s one that will really stand out – the latest from Yoshihiro Nishimura, the man behind the outrageous gore of Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl…

High school student Mizushima (Takumi Saitô, RoboGeisha, Tamami: The Baby’s Curse) is (almost literally) torn between two women: the spoiled Keiko (Eri Otoguro, Chanbara Beauty, Shaolin Girl, Shutter 2008), who only wants to go out with Mizushima because he’s the most reasonable looking boy in calls, and whose father is the school’s meek vice-principal; and cute new student Monami (Yukie Kawamura, Hide and Seek, A Slit-Mouthed Woman 2), who just happens to be a vampire.

When Monami causes her rivals fall from the top of the school building that doesn’t necessary exclude her from the running. Her father is in fact a deranged professor with delusions of becoming Frankenstein, and Monami’s blood has given him to key to bringing the dead back to life. A showdown is coming, and Mizushima has the unfortunate honour of being caught in the middle.

Those familiar with Yoshihiro Nishimura’s work as director, special effects and make-up wizard on previous grindhouse splatter movies like Tokyo Gore Police, The Machine Girl and Meatball Machine will know what to expect. Right from the beginning Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl gets started with the excessive bloodletting, in a scene that hardly holds with the rest of the film other than as an excuse to start the film.

Left to his own devices Nishimura and co-director Naoyuki Tomomatsu love drenching the screen in blood, but this effort, based on Shungiku Uchida’s manga, is arguably less gory and, dare I say it, unpleasant than his previous efforts. Sure, there’s that pre-occupation with wrist slashing – this time with an ‘annual wrist-cut rally’ – but he almost seems to hold back, an instead relies a little too much on cheap-looking CGI. In fact the whole thing looks really, really low-budget, far more than the previous films. And the final showdown on the Tokyo Tower is somewhat reminiscent of that in Cutie Honey.

The tone is decidedly lighter than those other films, what with a gang of Ganguro (or Japanese ‘Black face’) girls – a fashion trend of the late 90s as offensive as it sounds – this is far more a case of being played for laughs. Every time Monami lets blood in a kill, a terrible, English sung Japanese pop sing starts.

Perhaps the highpoint is a guest appearance by Ju-On director Takashi Shimizu as a Chinese language teacher with smog hardened lungs – though it’s hardly subtle as he just goes on about the films and their director! Tokyo Gore Police’s Eihi Shiina (Audition) also appears in a cameo as Monami’s mother.

With the very appealing Yukie Kawamura in the lead role, it’s hard not to find this a likeable and very silly horror romp. Yet there’s nothing really new here on the films that have gone before. Sure, thankfully this isn’t Twilight – but it’s not The Machine Girl either!

Virus

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:02 +0000

We keep the disaster movie theme going with a look at a near lost pandemic thriller from director Kinji Fukasaku, best known for Battle Royale…

With the release of The SInking Of Japan earlier this week, we take a look at another Japanese disaster movie, this time with a surprisingly Western cast.

The world as we know it is coming to an end, as a virus known only as Italian Flu (now, now, no racist jokes about it’s effects!) spreads amongst the populace. In fact the virus is manmade, designed for germ warfare, no vaccine exists. The only survivors are international groups of scientists based in Antarctica, who must now find a way to work together to build a new world.

Only when scientist Doctor Shûzô Yoshizumi (Masao Kusakari, Black Kiss) discovers that Washington will get rocked by an earthquake, a desperate mission begins to switch off an nuclear automatic retaliation system before it destroys the planet and even their own sanctuary.

My first run in with Virus was as a podcast from Cult of UHF, those exponents of films that have for one reason or another fallen into the public domain, cheekily released amid the highpoint of fears about the H1N1 virus spiralling out of control. Full of several hammy performances from several B-list American actors of the time, it was easy to dismiss as a terrible low-budget B movie.

Only thing was many of these actors could still get reasonable leading roles: Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas, Romeo & Juliet); Glenn Ford; Robert Vaughn; Geroge Kennedy; Chuck Connors; Henry Silva; Bo Svenson. It’s fun to see the revamped Battlestar Galactica’s Commander Adama Edward James Olmos and wonder if he ever looked young?

Then there was the slight unevenness in the story. The Japanese protagonists seemed quite important, but we hardly got to see them. It turns out that this was a Japanese production, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, whose long filmmaking career included Battle Royale, Triple Cross, Legend of Eight Samurai and Tora! Tora! Tora!.

This was, of course, the heavily abridged US cut of the film, which not only loses some 50-odd minutes from the film, mainly from the Japanese subplots, but also rearranges the footage to it’s own (and often confusing) end. This wasn’t helped by the fact the Cult of UHF version rather helpfully left what remained of the parts in Japanese without subtitles!

Yet despite all this, there was definitely some merit to the film. Hell, it might be corny, but not as terrible as you might have thought.

In it’s longer format it recounts far more of Doctor Shûzô’s past, colouring far more effectively his relationship and growing affection for Olivia Hussey’s character Marit. There are title cards detailing the time and spread of the virus. Then there’s Shûzô’s epic journey south to reunite with the rest of the surviviors – completely cut from the US edit which is by default far gloomier.

There are some interesting ideas tackled during the film, not least the topic of a new morality when 830-odd men have survived with just eight women. There’s a certain amount of intelligence applied to the film that survives some of the hokeyness and occasionally melodramatic performances. Masao Kusakari himself, as the lead, is actually pretty good.

Elsewhere even in it’s longer form so of the edits seem a little rough and clumsy around the edges – particularly when Fukasaku tries to show us Japanese society crumbling in the face of this inevitable peril (which seems to involve clubbers stripping off in a disco!). Then there’s the end footage, mainly shots of penguins jumping off into the Antarctic Ocean. Probably the biggest crime of the film, though, is some dire English accents on show by American actors. I mean, Chuck Connors as a British Naval officer? Really?

Those familiar with Terry Nation’s Survivors series, either in it’s original 70s incarnation or the newly revamped version, will be familiar with the prospect of the world wiped out by a disease. (Mind you, Terry borrowed from John Wyndam, so what the hell?) Virus, or Day Of Resurrection as it’s also known, has it’s roots as much in Robert Wise’s adaption of the Michael Crichton novel The Andromeda Strain (and those that followed, like George A. Romeo’s original The Crazies) as it does with the more mainstream disaster movies. Sure, George Kennedy even recites some of the same dialogue he used in Earthquake.

But there’s something else starting to happen in Virus. It mirrors the growing preoccupation with nuclear holocaust, the fear of a third world war that would annihilate us all, and the very real threat of the cold war that dominated the 80s and 80s cinema (having lost the charade of hiding these themes behind alien invasions and gigantic monsters). In that sense it can be seen ahead of the curve. Shûzô’s journey then becomes something of a post-apocalyptic vision, again only really beginning to become widely popular in films like Mad Max.

It’s said film producer Haruki Kadokawa had hoped this would be his breakthrough into the international market. Instead it flopped, and edited up sold to Pay TV states in it’s heavily edited version.

Despite all the DVDs available, the only place you can officially get the full version is as part of the Sonny Chiba Action Set, alongside Golgo 13 and an edited version of The Bullet Train. Which is ironic as Chiba’s screen time is less than 10 minutes, and not even particularly energetic. Ripe for a solo release and wider reappraisal.

The Sinking Of Japan

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:30:40 +0000

Could this be the final sunset for the Rising Sun? It’s bye bye Japan in this big budget disaster movie…

Just what is it with disaster movies? Seems like a few years ago you couldn’t go a summer without someone like Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay turning the world upside down with aliens, asteroids, volcanoes, giant Japanese monsters or adverse climate change. Nowadays the West seems more interested in ‘low key’ horrors, like waking up and finding the place overrun with living dead (be they Zombie or Vampire), than thinking there might be something bigger to worry about than the next Olympic Games, like, I don’t know, prophecies, end of the world, that sort of thing.

Arguably in the wake of manmade horrors like the Twin Towers, or at least human, bureaucratic negligence in the face of natural disasters like Katrina, such films seem to carry less weight with American and British audiences.

The same can’t be said of the East, where the 2004 Tsunami and even more recently the earthquake in the Sichuan province of China (which this film predates) are timely reminders of just how little control we have over the forces of nature. Hence there’s been something of a resurgence of the old school disaster movie. Only last year Korea was in peril from a Tidal Wave (Haeundae) in what is reported to be their 4th biggest film, and now it seems Japan is in similar danger.

Director Shinji Higuchi’s The Sinking Of Japan follows the tried and tested formula, as used by filmmakers since long before the Airport films first took off, and cemented in the movies of the 70s. In fact Sakyo Komatsu’s novel Nippon Chinbotsu was originally adapted into a movie in 1973, at the height of disaster movies popularity.

The main participants meet at the first of what turns out to only the beginning of Japan’s troubles, when an underwater earthquake strikes deep beneath Suruga Bay and causes no end of destruction. Rescue worker Reiko Abe (Kou Shibasaki, Dororo, Memories Of Matsuko, One Missed Call, Battle Royale) save submarine pilot Toshio Onode (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Monkey Magic) and young girl Misaki (Mayuko Fukudo, Death Note: L Change The World, Kamikaze Girls), and their fates become entwined as Japan’s rising sun sinks.

There’s the Prime Minister’s aide, Saori Takamori (Mao Daichi, Saiyûki TV series) confronted with giving her boss the bad news from American scientist that the shifting tectonic plates under Japan will pull her into the sea in the next five years. Then there’s lead scientist Yusuke Tadokoro (Etsushi Toyokawa, 20th Century Boys), for whom Toshio works, who finds out the
American’s have got it wrong by over four years. So the race is on to save Japan, and one of our protagonists will be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Only thing is, will there be anything left of Japan to save?

After such an explosive start director Higuchi spends much of the first half of the film, like so many of the original disaster movie of the 70s (and no doubt the original book) explaining the science to get us to buy into this situation. Like we really care? In fact, at points Higuchi is even repetitive, doubling up on screen captions to information he’s already had lead characters give us.

It’s when the proverbial finally starts to hit the fan that Higuchi. There’s a definite amount of glee in how he shows us different provinces and major cities obliterated, reminiscent of Emmerich’s trademark felling of major cites and landmarks since be blew up the Whitehouse in Independence Day. Oh, it’s fun alright, and probably even more so for Japanese audiences who may be living there now or have relatives and friends in those areas. Higuchi’s long career working behind the scenes in Anime comes to the fore as he realises this destruction with real panache.

His direction of the cast is less impressive, and this is where his film really sinks. The supposed chemistry between cute but unconvincing rescuer Reiko and lame love interest Toshio is non-existent. Considering the scale, centring on such a small collection of protagonists seems to insular, especially when they’re so uninteresting.

Elsewhere Etsushi Toyokawa makes far more of an impact as lead scientist, dominating scenes with his scowl. His past romance with Saori seems far more convincing, and something we’d love to see more of.

The film has the dubious notoriety of containing the last appearance by the great Tetsurô Tanba, whose career spanned five decades including appearances in Bullet Train, Story of Ricky, The Twilight Samurai and Kwaidan.

The story does in fact pick up on recent events in the states like Katrina and 9/11, with officials dragging their heals to save their populace, more interested in gilding their own exit by shipping out national treasures before the populace. There’s also the heroification of the rescue squad, definitely influenced by the firefighters involved in the rescue attempt at the Twin Towers.

Sure it’s a bit long, but there are great effects. I’m just looking forward to a low-budget New Zealand remake. Ahem.

The Sinking Of Japan is released today by MVM.

On DVD and Blu-Ray today: Kill Zone

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:30:50 +0000

Finally out in the UK on DVD and Blu-Ray, S.P.L.: Kill Zone, starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Simon Yen. Here’s the UK promo to give you a taster…

Read our full review here »

DVD: Rain Fall

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:11:07 +0000

GARY OLDMAN STARS IN THE ACTION-PACKED CRIME-THRILLER BASED ON THE BESTSELLING NOVEL BY BARRY EISLER.

Based on the first book in the series of bestselling ‘John Rain’ novels by acclaimed author and former CIA operative Barry Eisler, the action-packed crime-thriller, Rain Fall, brings Eisler’s half-Japanese, half-American anti-hero to the screen for the first time in the form of award winning Japanese star, Keppei Shiina (The Last Princess; Sakuran).

Adapted for the screen and directed by Max Mannix (Dance Of The Dragon), this slickly mounted, tense thriller co-stars Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight; Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix), veteran Japanese actor Akira Emoto (Ichi; Memories Of Matsuko; Sinking Of Japan), Kyoko Hasegawa (Nanayo), Misa Shimizu (The Unbroken; The Harimaya Bridge) and Dirk Hunter (Undead).

Former US Special Force soldier turned contract killer John Rain is an assassin who specializes in making his ‘hits’ look like deaths from natural causes. Following his own, strict, self-imposed code of conduct, Rain only targets key figures and never accepts a job if it involves killing a woman or a child. But complications arise during Rain’s latest assignment when he becomes attracted to a young woman named Midori, the beautiful daughter of his most recent victim.

It soon becomes apparent that the killing of Midori’s father and its repercussions are just one small part of a much wider conspiracy involving both the CIA and Tokyo’s gangland crimelords. Now, both Rain and Midori have become targets themselves and Rain is forced to compromise his beliefs and to risk everything to protect the girl he loves before she is eliminated as collateral damage for being an innocent witness to a vast CIA cover up operation.

A hard boiled action thriller that will appeal to fans of the ‘Bourne’ movies, Rain Fall marks star Keppei Shiina as an action star in the making and features and typically powerful performance from Gary Oldman as Rain’s nemesis, the Chief Officer of the CIA’s Tokyo Bureau.

Rain Fall (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Momentum Pictures on 29th March 2010.

DVD: Breathless

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:57:52 +0000

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BOLDEST AND MOST THRILLING DEBUT FEATURES.” – EYE WEEKLY.COM

Following its critically acclaimed UK theatrical release in January, Yang Ik-june’s award winning Breathless comes to DVD in March 2010 as a two-disc Special Collector’s Edition featuring a host of exclusive extras including interviews with the director and cast members, specially filmed festival footage and Q&As, plus a collector’s booklet featuring sleeve notes personally written by Yang Ik-june and co-star Kim Kkobbi.

The winner of numerous international film awards in 2009, including the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Jury Prize for Best Film and Best Male Performance at Montreal’s Fant-Asia Film Festival and the Best Film award and Critics’ Prize at the Deauville Asian Film Festival, the debut feature from South Korean writer-director and star Yang Ik-june, Breathless is a brutal, uncompromising and profanity-filled look at the cause and effect of domestic violence.

Giving a stunning performance in the film’s lead role, Yang Ik-june stars as Sang-hoon, a deeply troubled man prone to violent outbursts, who freelances as a hired thug at his friend’s debt collecting firm. His private life revolves around his extremely strained relationship with his ex-convict father, who was directly responsible for the tragic breakdown of their family, and a slightly more subdued, but still difficult, connection with his stepsister and her young son.

Seemingly possessed by the pent-up rage caused by the domestic events from his past, Sang-hoon finds an opportunity for salvation when he encounters a similarly emotionally damaged schoolgirl ((Kot-bi Kim), who is as foul-mouthed, headstrong and fearless as he is. The two begin an offbeat and touching friendship, not realising that their lives are already connected in ways that will have a profound effect on both their fates.

As moving as it is shocking in its portrayal of people struggling to live in a world of routine violence and abuse, Breathless was hailed by ReelAsian.com as “one of the most powerful films of the year” and by Screen International as a film that marks director Yang Ik-june as a name to watch.

Breathless (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£14.99) by Terracotta Distribution on 22nd March 2010.

Special Features include: interview with director Yang Ik-june (20 minutes); interview with actress Kim Kkobbi (10 minutes); behind the scenes at the Rotterdam Film Festival (20 minutes); special Korean Film Industry Preview Screening footage (10 minutes); London Korean Film Festival Q&A at the Barbican Centre; London Press Junket footage; trailers (Korean theatrical, Korean teaser, three UK trailers, French trailer); stills gallery.

DVD: Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:41:53 +0000

From the man (Yoshihiro Nishimura) behind the outrageousness of Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl comes this crazed response to both Twilight and Let the Right One In, a film that consistently overwhelms the viewer in its sheer dementia……

High school student Mizushima receives Valentines Day chocolates from the new student, Monami. Little did she know that the chocolates contained traces of Monami’s vampire blood. He gets infected from eating them and Monami confesses that she wants to live with him forever as vampires. Meanwhile, Mizushima decides that he wants to fully become a vampire with Monami’s help. Keiko, Mizushima’s girl friend, sees the two on the school rooftop kissing and in a state of hysteria, attempts to throw Monami off the roof but falls off herself instead.

Keiko dies but her father, Kenji Furano, the mad scientist, resurrects her as Franken girl. Thus begins a deadly combat between Franken Keiko and Vampire Monami in the name of love. As we all know, this kind of Vampire vs. Frankenstein conflict can only be solved by fighting, beating, stabbing, chewing, clawing and a showdown high atop Tokyo Tower!

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (15.99) by 4Digital Media on 15TH March 2010.

Accident

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:01 +0000

It’s no accident this has been causing such a stir! Intelligent with a fantastic premise, surely this one of the finest Hong Kong films of the last decade…

Ho Kwok-fai aka The Brain (Louis Koo, Election, Flash Point, Protégé) is a genius assassin who, together with his small inconspicuous team, can make any hit look like an fluke accident. His team are so proficient that they’ve gone completely unnoticed for years, but that doesn’t stop their troubled leader being somewhat paranoid about getting discovered.

When a hit goes disastrously wrong and a member of the team is killed, Brain becomes obsessed that it was no accident, and someone is targeting him. He believes that insurance inspector Chan Fong-chow Richie Ren, Seoul Raiders, Exiled, Breaking News) is orchestrating it all. But in a world where there’s no such thing as coincidence, can accidents really happen?

Honed from the finest pedigree in Hong Kong film Accident has arrived to incredible acclaim at every festival it’s played at, including nominations for Best film at the Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival and Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The credits could hardly read better: production by Johnnie To; written by Szeto Kam-Yuen (whose credits include easternKicks fave The Longest Nite, S.P.L.: Kill Zone, Exiled, Flash Point) and Tang Lik-Kei (Flash Point); and directed by Soi Cheang (Dog Bite Dog).

And does it live up to that? Ooooooooh yes! Cheang’s direction is tight, letting his characters develop on screen, but keeping the running time to an unusually concise (by today’s standards) 90 minutes. There’s a terrific build of tension as Ho Kwok-fai falls deeper into his paranoia, reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation.

Beautifully acted by an ensemble cast including Fung Shui-Fan (My Lucky Stars, Mr. Vampire II, Winners and Sinners), Michelle Ye (Sniper), Alexander Chan (Infernal Affairs 2, One Nite In Mongkok) and Lam Suet (Yep, again!), this is flawless.

Surely the only criticism is that, like many classic HK films (particularly those with such a great premise), the film leaves you wanting more. But heck, that’s one of the reasons it’s so good!

Probably the best Hong Kong film since Infernal Affairs, and yes, a remake has already been mooted. Let’s hope the original gets the proper release it deserves in the US and UK long before any American imposter. (Please!)

Damn fine! My advice: find this, watch this… by any means necessary!

Murderer

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:36 +0000

Two/thirds effective, efficient thriller starring Aaron Kwok, one/third bizarre (and near ridiculous) revelation – you will never guess this twist!…

Pretty boy Aaron Kwok stars as Chief Inspector Ling Guang, found unconscious at the site of the work of a serial killer he was investigating whose trademark is to drill hundreds of holes into his victims. Ling wakes not remembering anything about the investigation, and the fact that the latest victim is his superior Tai whom he called to the location starts to through suspicion on him.

Ling can’t help but try and piece together the missing pieces of those weeks, despite his bosses and colleague Ghost’s (Eddie Cheung Siu-Fai, Exiled, Mad Detective, in a superbly understated performance) recommendations that he should spend time with his wife and adopted child. Every time he thinks he gets a lead, it points more closely back to him. Is he going mad? Is he really responsible, or os someone trying to frame him?

It’s hard not to look at the artwork for Murderer and confuse a very harried, manic looking Aaron Kwok for Choi Min-sik in Oldboy. As it happens the film isn’t a pale imitation of a Korean thriller – it’s well paced, nicely atmospherically filmed, and for the main part well-acted with little of the overbearing melodrama of late. It marks the debut of writer/director Row Chow, whose previous credits include crew roles like being assistant director on Lust, Caution.

And a pretty impressive debut it is too, but that comparison to Korean movies comes to the fore in the seeming need from Chow and his co-writer Christine To Chi-Long (Jiang Hu, Fearless) to find a startling revelation for the audience. (Also making it reminiscent of that king of last minute surprises, M. Night Shyamalan.) Now no one’s going to accuse Chow of being unoriginal, but whether you find that revelation at all believable or even just faintly hilarious is another matter.

(And no, I’m not even going to intimate what that is. There are certain things I’d love to discuss in this review but that would just ruin it for you…)

So is it worth waiting for? Well, I’d say yes. It’s a pretty entertaining trip into the ensuing psychosis and paranoia of lead Kwok – by now a dab hand at playing stressed out, obsessed and slightly unhinged police detectives, mainly thanks to roles in Divergence and C+ Detective (aka The Detective), and seems to relish the opportunity. (Though whether it’s deliberate or not, his character becomes a lot less sympathetic towards the end. And I think it is.)

There’s action choreography by Chin Kar-lok (Shinjuku Incident, My Lucky Stars, Lust, Caution), who also appears as Ling’s suspicious police colleague Andy Chan.

It’s the conclusion, following that earthshaking denouncement, where the piece starts to fall apart, and all too quickly. Even references to Seven (you’ll quickly guess what I’m referring to) can’t save it then! Like those aforementioned Korean movies, Chow is by no means averse to graphic images, from the bone crunching beginning through drills to a plainly yucky use for nails.

Murderer is an impressive and beautifully filmed start for director Row Chow. Let’s just hope he doesn’t follow M. Night Shyamalan and get hung up on last minute revelations…

easternkicks.com » Country

Exclusive interview: Kim Kkobbi

We also spoke to Yang Ik-June late last year, read the exclusive interview here…

Breathless is released on a special 2-disc collector’s edition DVD on 22 March by Terracotta Distribution.

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Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

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Virus

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The Sinking Of Japan

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On DVD and Blu-Ray today: Kill Zone

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DVD: Rain Fall

Rain Fall (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Momentum Pictures on 29th March 2010.

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DVD: Breathless

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BOLDEST AND MOST THRILLING DEBUT FEATURES.” – EYE WEEKLY.COM

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DVD: Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (15.99) by 4Digital Media on 15TH March 2010.

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Accident

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Murderer

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