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 energetic. Ripe for a solo release and wider reappraisal.

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.

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 (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!

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…

Finally released in the UK – thanks to a tie-up between Cine Asia and Weinstein’s US-based Dragon Dynasty label – one of the best martial arts films of the last decade…!

When Inspector Wa Kwun (Donnie Yen) joins an established crime unit, soon to replace retiring Detective Chan Kwok Chung (Simon Yam, Election, Exiled, Full Contact), he finds a team that have spent too long crossing the line between right and wrong. Chung has become obsessed on bringing down ruthless crime lord and keen golfer Wong Po (Sammo Hung, Fatal Move, The Prodigal Son) at any cost since Po organised an assassination of a witness and his family, leaving only his daughter alive and in Chung’s care.

Ma finds himself at odds with both the criminals he’s sworn to apprehend and the unit he’s meant to be leading when the team augment a piece of evidence to pin a murder on Po. But when Po hires a deadly assassin Jack (Jacky Wu, Fatal Contact, Invisible Target), Ma’s ethics must take second place to keeping both himself and his colleagues alive.

It’s no surprise S.P.L.: Kill Zone made one hell of an impact on it’s original release and that’s namely down to the extended showdown between Yen and Wu, then Hung. Tightly choreographed by Donnie Yen, there’s a ferocity rarely seen before in Hong Kong action and martial art films – it helped bring a new realism away from the incredible wire-fu for which it’s become best known.

There’s no dispute that the pairing of Hung and Yen was one that long overdue for martial arts fans (and so nearly happened several times before), but the preceding dual with Wu also helped put back this star back on the map – having been originally heralded back in 1996 for films like Tai Chi Boxer. And it all leads to a shocking and unforgettable ending.

The film itself is notably lacking in martial arts for much of it’s running time. Director and writer Wilson Yip expends a lot of time building up the characters of Chung and his team, ably played by Liu Kai Chi (The Detective, The Beast Stalker), Danny Summer and Ken Chang (Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters), showing them for all faults and merits.

The theme of police detectives crossing the line to get results is by no means new, but here Yip is more judgemental than his peers and predecessors have been. Yip leaves you in no doubt that they have stepped too far over the line, there can be no redemption. Occasionally it’s a little heavy-handed, but overall superbly shot and tightly paced. The setting of the film in the 90s even allows for some playful shots of old technology like video and dv tapes – ah, remember the good old days?

It’s obvious from some of the commentary on the DVD that Yen pushed Yip to include more fight scenes, revealing that he arranged additional funding for reshoots. It’s hard to imagine the film having the same impact without them.

This was, of course, the first collaboration between Yip and Yen. Since then we’ve had Dragon Tiger Gate, Flash Point and the exceedingly likable biopic Ip Man, and what better time to revisit this film with Ip Man 2 soon to be released and that much awaited rematch between Hung and Yip.

Bring it on!

S.P.L.: Kill Zone is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 March by Cine Asia.

A very different Jackie Chan from what we’re used to, but do we want to see him in a serious drama?

Jackie Chan gets something of a hard time when it comes to his acting. Even his most diehard fans will happily deride his abilities, happy to forget the more dramatic elements from the Police Story series, and other fine examples like Heart Of Dragon, where Chan plays brother to Sammo Hung’s mentally challenged character.

Mind you, he’s not done himself any favours with much of his Stateside output. (Did anyone actually watch Tuxedo?) And that embarrassingly bad performance as a drunk at the beginning of New Police Story won’t have helped matters either.

Now The Shinjuku Incident could change all that, or at least chip away at audiences preconceptions. One thing’s for sure, you’ve never seen Jackie like this before.

Jackie plays Steelhead, one of hundreds of Chinese refugees washed up on Japan’s Wakasa Bay in the 90s. Originally a naive farm worker, he has come in search of his fiancé Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei, The Warlords, Confession of Pain, Heroic Duo) who left their remote village in China without a trace.

Steelhead finds himself amongst other Chinese refugees facing prejudice and oppression, illegal work or petty crime their only means to make a living. Old friend Jie (Daniel Wu, New Police Story, Protégé, One Nite In Mongkok, Purple Storm) shows him the ropes of this new life. But when he finds Xiu he learns she has married a minor Yakuza boss, Eguchi (Masaya Kato, Fighter in the Wind, Crying Freeman).

Steelhead starts to organise his fellow refugees, but soon a degree of success makes them more of a target for the gangsters that run the Shinjuku district. When Jie ends up scared and maimed by a local Taiwanese triad, he bargains with Eguchi to help break his friends free of being Japan’s underclass. This doesn’t come without a price, he must commit murder.

But the Yakuza have plans of their own, and will not tolerate foreigners taking over their territory. Soon Steelhead finds himself in the middle of an all-out war between the fractions, and with just one chance of redemption…

Shinjuku Incident a pretty shrewd career move for Jackie – who also executively produced this vehicle – as a deliberate departure from everything we’ve come to expect from him. Collaborating with one of Hong Kong’s darkest, most acclaimed dramatic directors Derek Yee (who also directed Chan’s son Jaycee in 2 Young), you can almost imagine them sitting down in a room somewhere, going through a check list of everything you’d least expect from Jackie Chan. Murder is just the start of it – there’s even a scene in with him in bed with a prostitute.

In fact, the only thing you won’t see are daredevil stunts or tight action choreography – which I can only commend Chan and Yee for doing. Chan is even said to have described this as ‘maybe one per cent action. Heavy drama.’ It’s a brave step and a world away from films like Gorgeous, where fight scenes were feebly written in, in order that fans were given what they expected. (Mind you, other than the literally gorgeous Shi Qi very little could save that film from being a stinker anyway.)

Chan gives a fine performance in the lead role, my only real bugbear being that, rather like Gorgeous and pretty much every film he appears in nowadays, he seems too old for the role he’s playing. He’s joined by a strong ensemble cast including Naoto Takenaka (The Happiness of the Katakuris, Ping Pong, Azumi), Chin Ka Lok (Murderer, Lust, Caution, The Avenging Fist) and the seemingly omnipresent Lam Suet.

Co-writer Chun Tin-Nam has a pretty good track record of late, including contributing to The Warlords and An Empress and the Warriors, as well as a previous attempt for Chan to be taken more seriously, 1993’s Crime Story. As with previous efforts like One Nite In Mongkok and Protégé, Yee’s script doesn’t shy away from the seedier or violent side of gang life and it’s repercussions, even if sometimes he doesn’t quite have the courage to carry them through. And like Protégé, there’s that occasional, overbearing need for him to show us how well this film has been researched, even though it can come off a bit ham-fisted.

At least Yee doesn’t overly simplify the situation. In fact the only real problem is that he paints such a rosy picture or rural China – presumably anticipating the films release there – that you wonder why these refugees would want to leave?

But will fans like it? For once Chan doesn’t seem too concerned – this is, for all intense purposes a vanity project, after all. The controversy surrounding its lack of release in Mainland China is completely Yee and Chan’s decision. Neither of them wanting to make the cuts necessary in order to pass censorship.

It might seem odd for Chan to neglect such a major part of his fan base, but ultimately this is just the sort of film he should make in order to make the transition to character acting. And lets face it, he needs to look beyond his days as an action star – he’s just getting too old for it. He just needs to find more suitable roles…

And the film’s not half bad either!

The Shinjuku Incident is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Cine Asia.

Lu Chuan’s latest film about the rape of Nanjing may be in black and white, but his characters most definitely are not…

It was over three years ago when I spoke to Lu Chuan about his fabulous second movie Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, then about to begin a limited theatrical release in the UK courtesy of Axiom films (despite the fact it had previously been released by Sony on DVD). At the time I asked him what his next film would be, and without any hesitation the answer came back that it would be ‘Nanjing! Nanjing!’ (the original Chinese title of the film). Of course, while it’s usual to ask directors their future plans it’s all the more exciting when they actually come to fruition…

Introducing the film to an audience at the London Film Festival, Lu Chuan revealed the film had been in production for over four years, with much of that time taken up with meticulous research into the situation not only from a Chinese perspective, but also from that of the occupying Japanese soldiers. Unsurprisingly, it makes for grim if undeniably compelling, viewing.

With the Japanese Imperial Army at gates of Nanking, from vignettes the story builds up a broader picture of the travesties committed and motivations of those involved: from the doomed Chinese resistance leader who leads a group that includes children against the might of the Japanese forces (Liu Ye, Curse of the Golden Flower, Purple Butterfly); to the Japanese soldier confused into believing a real relationship could develop between him and a –so-called ‘comfort woman’ (Hideo Nakaizumi); to the anxious Chinese secretary of a German missionary, forced to compromise loyalty to his own nation in order to keep his wife and child alive (Wei Fan, A World Without Thieves).

As you might expect from Lu Chuan’s previous work Kekexili, the picture he paints is not a simplistic version of events where Chinese are the persecuted and heroic, the Chinese secretary effectively sells out his own nation to keep himself alive, while the Japanese soldier is overwhelmed by his own forces merciless treatment of the Chinese. Yes, the film may be in black and white, but when it comes to conflict, Lu Chuan’s loyalties are decidedly grey.

Of course, this has made the film rather controversial in China, where neither a sympathetic Japanese nor a dishonourable Chinese character are particularly favourable. But of course, that’s Chuan’s point – in war we do what we must to survive. It’s not a judgement but an honesty so often missing from films based around war.

Lu Chuan candidly admitted in a Q&A after the LFF screening that his choice to shoot the film in black and white came from his dislike of the sight of blood. He felt it would be too distracting against carnage that was, frankly, horrific enough. (Ironically the same was true of another film screening at the 2009 London Film Festival, Polytechnique, based on the Montreal Massacure of 1989.)

This can’t help but bring Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, but those hoping for a similar uplifting final segment to truly lift the soul won’t find that kind of simplicity here. City Of Life And Death is a haunting but elegant take on the monstrosities of war.

City Of Life And Death will be released by High Flyers Films on 16 April at Curzon Mayfair and selected cinemas around the UK.

Dante Lam directs Nicholas Tse in a tense, extremely well-played thriller…

Following the recent trend for ‘back-to-basics’ in Hong Kong filmmaking shown in movies like One Nite in Mongkok, Invisible Target and Full Contact, the latest film to surface in the UK from director Dante Lam plays down the usual style for showboating set pieces in order to focus on tension to dramatic effect.

Nicholas Tse (New Police Story, Invisible Target, The Promise) stars – surprisingly convincingly – as Sergeant Tong, a hot headed and uncompromising Hong Kong detective unforgiving of his team’s errors. In trying to apprehend his target, kingpin Cheung Yat-tung (Philip Keung), a tragic car crash sets off a tragic series of events – beginning with Tong accidentally killing the daughter of Ann Gao (Jingchu Zhang, Protégé, Seven Swords), the public prosecutor in charge of the case against Chang.

Still wearing the scars from the accident, both mental and physical, Tong is horrified to learn that Ann’s younger daughter has been kidnapped by the triads to blackmail her into ‘losing’ a vital piece of DNA evidence that locates Chang at the scene of the crime. The kidnapper, Hung (Nick Cheung, Exiled, Election, Election 2, The Stunt Woman), is an unremitting contract killer who is no stranger to tragedy.

Despite Ann’s wishes, Tong vows to rescue the girl in the hope of some redemption for his fatal mistake, and to perhaps rebuild his broken life – not realising his link to the kidnapper is stronger than he could imagine.

Unlike many of director Dante Lam’s lighter, glossier more recent works, from Twins Effect to Love On The Rocks and Undercover Hidden Dragon, his latest feature is a whole-hearted return to the genre that made his name. (Indeed, the English title hints at the director’s best-loved film Beast Cops. The original title Ching yan roughly translates as Witness – according to my Mac’s translation widget – a title already taken and seemingly not entirely appropriate, but that’s probably an extremely simplistic take on the words meaning?)

Despite tight, well-directed action sequences, the film itself (rather unusually for a Hong Kong movie) rather shies away from any standout spectacular set pieces – relying instead almost totally on the performances of the actors themselves. Perhaps the biggest surprise is just how well balanced the film becomes because of it. The often near-superhuman abilities of characters even in more grounded, triad based bullet ballets can – in the wrong hands – often distance audiences from the more emotional elements directors so need them to relate to.

As previously mentioned, Nicholas Tse is both a surprise and delight in the lead role, playing a very different role to the cocky, cute youngster we so often associate him with. Of course, it’s Nick Cheung who’s multi-facetted, unapologetic, but ultimately sympathetic portrayal of Hung overshadowed all else, nominated and winning several Asian best actor awards in the process, including the HKFCS Award. The ensemble cast is superb, with Kai Chi Liu as Tong subordinate detective Sun just one of several great, unfussy performances.

Speaking on interviews included on the UK DVD, it’s seems surprising to hear the cast compare this to something of a more American-styled thriller. If anything it’s more European, like the original Vanishing, and also puts me in mind of another Lam, Ringo Lam, and some of his more understated (and usually underrated) pictures like Wild Search and Full Alert – both of which share a lack of specific standout sequences and excel in their leads depictions.

Though the film plays up it’s emotional punch, the sentimentality never seems to overwhelm the piece – unlike many Asian and particularly Chinese movies. Indeed, there’s always something of an edge to the film – it makes you believe that things might not end very happily at all!

The camera work mirrors the nervous tension of the piece, playing out action sequences in downtown Hong Kong to the (rather genuine looking) bewilderment of passes by. It has a genuine energy about it that excuses the rather predictable contrivance of the finale twist. (Without blowing it, it probably won’t come as a huge surprise to find the link between the central characters is not unlike the core device of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores perros.) The fight choreography by Tung Wei (Painted Skin, Perhaps Love, Hitman) is tight, grounded and mainly believable, as is the action direction by Bruce Law (Flashpoint, High Risk, Project S).

This is an impressive, intelligent thriller from Dante Lam with a better balance between sentimentality, action and drama than you might expect. Damn fine!

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…

You know what I mean, the era when Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven ‘ponytail’ Seagal reined supreme, when titles like Best Of The Best and Bloodsport filled the shelves of our local video store (and we just wished we could find those great Hong Kong films instead). There’s more than a little of those hokey, ‘underdog-to-champion’ themes, as well as the decade penchant for exploitative violence. (Yeah, okay, admittedly inherited from the 70s and fed by the burgeoning video market.)

Perhaps the comparison isn’t overly fair, but one read of the setup does bring to those days to mind. Tai (Preeti Barameeanant, best known as lead singer of Thai rock band Clash) is released early from prison to find his twin brother Tan in a coma after being nearly beaten to death by a rival. He soon finds out Tan was involved in a vicious and often deadly underground sport called fireball, a no-holds barred mash-up of basketball and martial arts where anything goes in order to be the last man standing – even murder.

Seeking revenge for his brother’s condition, Tai pretends to be him joining a team of equally desperate individuals. There’s Muay Thai champion Zing (9 Million Sam, a professional boxing champion), out to prove himself; pretty boy teenager Iq (Kannut Samerjai, a real-life rising star of Thai basketball), exceptionally talented but by no means a fighter; Thai-African Muk (Kumpanat Oungsoongnern, ex-goalkeeper on Thailand’s soccer team and star of films including King Naresuran I) trying hard to support his pregnant wife; K (Anuwat Saejao, an ex-professional basketball player), an old friend of Tan’s rumoured to have thrown Tai’s last game; and their boss Den (Phutharit Prombundarn, Bang Rajan), who has much to prove having only been elevated to a higher mafia position as his boss died.

It’s soon clear that this band of misfits is both extremely talented and doomed not to go far in this contest, thanks to being incapable of playing anywhere near as dirty as their competitors. It’s not so much a question of if they’ll make it to the finale – that’s almost a forgone conclusion – but more just how many of them will survive?

Director Thanakorn Pongsuwan effectively uses digital handheld camera to add to the immediacy of action sequences, creating a pretty slick-looking film as a result. The fight scenes (when we finally get round to them) are tightly choreographed by stunt co-ordinator Pangrech Sangcha, and excel at capturing the chaotic nature of a sport where literally anything goes – sometimes a little too well. When illicit weapons like metal bars or more interesting locations like the docks become part of the equation, the action sequences definitely step up a level, turning this Fireball into a conflagration of swift moves and visceral bone-crunching combat. Sure, it’s a gimmick  – muay thai meets basketball – but hell, what a gimmick!

Unsurprisingly Pongsuwan rather labours each of the team’s back-stories, playing up the melodrama to daytime soap levels. But slate it if you will, at least he gives you characters you can care about. Considering that many of his stars are not even professional actors, he doesn’t get bad performances out of them either. 9 Million Sam, Anuwat Saejao and Kannut Samerjai stand out in particular alongside an understated but excellent performance by seasoned professional Phutharit Prombundarn.

Sure, some of the Gladiator style references are vaguely hokey too, and forget the end title sequence sets up the possibility a sequel of sorts – seemingly playing out the circular nature of revenge without the slightest irony. It might not be Ong Bak, but this is a pretty effective fight flick that could surprise, if not necessarily win over, audiences. It’s really much better than you might think…

Fireball is released at selected cinemas around the UK from 8 January 2010, courtesy of Premiere Films, ahead of it’s release on DVD and Blu-ray by E1 Entertainment on 18th January.

Director Sion Sono follows up Exte: Hair Extensions with an equally unpredictable (nearly) four-hour epic love story… of sorts…

It’s not something you might expect, but Catholic religion seems to be taking something of a central role in Asian films lately. In Park Chan-wook’s Thirst he portrayed it as a surprisingly progressive (at least in comparison to our Western interpretation) faith, ready to accept and integrate a vampiric priest as part of God’s work. In Sion Sono’s Love Exposure it seems anything but, and as impenetrable and bizarre as any cult. However, both directors use it as the basis for their exploration of morals and sexual desire.

When Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) loses his mother at an early age, his father turns to becoming a Catholic priest in order to deal with his grief. If anything, his father’s new life brings them closer together, until a rather emotionally unstable parishioner seduces his father. This, in turn, causes his father to take out his guilt on Yu, he forces him to attend confession as often as possible. As he quickly runs out of false transgressions to own up to, he turns to finding new and real sins to confess – the most successful of which being taking clandestine ‘panty shots’ of women on the streets.

Such antics bring him to the attention of Aya Koike (Sakura Ando, Crime Or Punishment) – con artist, coke dealer and regional leader of a religious ‘Zero’ cult – who decides she can manipulate Yu to her own ends. Shortly after their meeting, he also encounters man-hating (bar Kurt Cobain) schoolgirl Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima, Shaolin Girl, Death Note: The Last Name, Death Note) and falls instantly in love with her (though at the time he’s disguised as a woman at the time due to losing a bet with his friends).

Then Yu finds out Yoko become his stepsister: can he ever reveal his identity and win her over – let alone his double life as the ‘King Of Perverts’ – or will he just be unwilling pawn in Aya’s plans?

At nearly four hours in length you might expect Love Exposure to be something of a mind-numbing (and bum-numbing!) experience, but Sion Sono’s titanic love story is anything but. It’s funny, quirky, and even poignant in places. There’s a clever use of pace, starting slow and eventually building itself into a frenzy in the first half – yet a strange lack of direction permeates the second half, undoing all his good work, and hardly making this the defining work of Sion’s career as some have suggested.

The allegedly bizarre cult (though for the main part depicted as little more outlandish than Catholicism itself) tantalisingly echoes that in 20th Century Boys. But before you go thinking that the film is about to reveal the same sort of overlapping complexities –particularly once Aya becomes involved – will find the latter half somewhat simplistic. If anything, Aya’s motives remain frustratingly unspoken, beyond her being as besotted with Yu as he is with Yoko.

(You might also find the whole ‘original sin’ shtick a bit obvious…)

Sion’s continual returning to the theme of parental abuse and neglect, oddly present in all the leads lives to varying degrees, hints at issues of his own he may well need to sort out. However, if that is the case he definitely brings no resolution to them here.

Perhaps the weakest element is the lack of on-screen chemistry between Takahiro Nishijima and Hikari Mitsushima. Takahiro quirky and (without meaning offense) somewhat effeminate looks may make him believable when he cross-dresses, but hardly as a suitable romantic interest for the feisty (at least initially) and unbelievably cute Hikari. Somehow, you can’t stop thinking she could do an awful lot better –not helped by the fact that Yu’s character is oddly not as sympathetic as it should be. If you’re going to stick with the film for nearly four hours, then you need to.

Ultimately, Sion hints at the quirkiness of Tetsuya Nakashima’s films like Kamikaze Girls and Memories Of Matsuko. He even does a pretty good job of it, making the length feel anything but four hours – but sadly without endearing you to his characters. And you don’t make a four-hour film just because you can.

In short, Love Exposure is interesting, likeable – even good in places – but not quite the masterpiece it might have been, had it carried on with the gusto of the first half.

Love Exposure will open at selected UK cinemas from 30 October, released by Third Window Films.