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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 »

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.

“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.

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.

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… (more…)

It seemed rather odd that the one place Park Chan-wook’s revisionist vampire flick hadn’t been released was in his home Korea, but maybe that makes sense now with the announcement of the limited edition 3-disc DVD, which includes not only the original version but the extended director’s cut (which premiered at the London Korean Festival late last year).

This version adds some 10 minutes of new scenes to the film. The DVD itself also includes audio commentary, plus a Bonus Disc containing making of, previews, featurettes on art direction and music, the Director’s Choice animated short film “Dust Kid” directed by Jung Yu Mi, and other special features – though how much of that will have English subtitles is questionable.

The DVD is expected to be released 17 March, and currently available from YesAsia.com. No word of a Blu-Ray release yet, though.

After the rather dark and overly serious Ong Bak 2 (sorry, Ong Bak: The Beginning for UK readers), the proper sequel is on the horizon – slated for release in Asia in April 2010.

As previously mentioned, Ong Bak: The Beginning is now available on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK.

With Takeshis’ finally on a limited release in the UK (we originally reviewed it back at the 2005 London Film Festival!) Guardian writer David Thompson recently posted a brief guide to the man himself, Takeshi Kitano. (But it may leave you wanting to know much more!)… (more…)

Martial art supremo Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak: The Beginning (aka Ong Bak 2) comes to DVD and Blu-ray today. This troubled production is much darker in tone to Jaa’s previous efforts, and despite some standout fight scenes its inconclusive ending now makes it seem like of a prologue to the upcoming release of Ong Bak 3 (to be called Ong Bak what???? in the UK?)…

…there are some great fight scenes though, particularly in the 20 minute-odd end sequence!