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!

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.

Read our full review here »

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.

Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) spoke at a preview of Mother about the influences on his latest film, and how his own mother hasn’t talked to him about it since it’s release…

Bong Joon-ho’s latest film Mother (Madeo) previewed at the BFI during November’s London Korean Film Festival, which also held a season of his films. He spoke, through an interpreter, with Tony Rayns after the filming. As well as tales of growing up in Korea, his influences and how he got into movies, he talked in detail about his new film – the tale of a devoted single mother who’s simple-minded son is accused of murder and she sets out to clear him… with unexpected and harrowing results.

Bong said he’d had the idea for the film since 2004. The curious scene which ends the film – of a group of mothers dancing in the aisle of a moving bus – was the first he thought of.

“In Korea it’s a reality that mothers dance together on the bus, but they dance behind curtains so you can’t really see it as you’re going past,” Bong said. When he was younger he was embarrassed by it, but now as an adult he empathises with them: “It’s funny, but also sad at the same time.” So, he decided if he made a film about mothers that dance would have to be its last scene.

He decided to cast veteran actress Kim Hye-ja as the mother. In Korea she’s well-known for her television work, but Mother is only her third movie role.

“She was acting before I was even born and was one of those faces I always saw on TV. She was always really warm and an iconic mother figure, but in my mind I could see the slightly mad, crazy side of her and I always thought they tried to hide that from the audience,” Bong said.

“I wanted to concentrate on that particular aspect of her character and before the story even existed I wanted to work with this actress, so it wasn’t a typical casting process. I very much wanted to focus on her and how her crazy side could be explored.”

Fortunately, Kim also liked the idea and embraced the role: “she enjoyed this process and would suggest ways of taking it further and making it more extreme.”

The rest of the casting was just as subversive. He turned heart-throb Won Bin into the slightly simple and homely son, and made co-actor Jin Ku the sexy best friend. Bong said he “found happiness turning a handsome man into an idiot,” although he was scared about casting Won in the first instance because he already has a huge fan base in Japan and Korea.

“But when I showed him the script he agreed really easily – he’s actually very adventurous. He’s naturally quite strange and awkward and that helped. Although he’s famous for his looks, he [Won] grew up in the deep Korean countryside and knew the locations even better than I did.”

On the other hand he had to work hard to make Jin look sexy: “he isn’t sexy in real life so we had to work on it in the movie,” he joked.

Bong said he’s never entirely sure how his scripts are created – whether it’s the overall idea or a plot which he thinks of first: “I write scripts more out of instinct, then look back and ask ‘why did this character say this, what’s the hidden meaning behind it’. I hate writing scripts – it’s the part of the process that’s most painful.”

However, he’s exacting about the entire process. “I want 100% control of the movie-making process.” That’s why he draws all the storyboards himself one by one, and that’s the way he’s always worked.

He’s also obsessive about getting the look of the film just right. Unlike Hollywood, where a set would be constructed to the director’s specifications, a Korean film budget doesn’t stretch that far, so scouting the right locations is crucial. For Mother, as in his film Memories of Murder, he sent scouts all over the country looking for the right buildings, fields, interiors and streets: “they complained the price of petrol would be more than the cost of the film,” he said. The final result looks like one town and its immediate environs, but was, in fact, 26 different locations.

And he wanted these locations to mirror the mother as the central character: “I wanted to find locations that were feminine in feel.” He said it’s not easy to say what counts as a feminine location or setting, but he tried to concentrate on a particular look for the landscape, in particular the shapes of hills, curves and waves.

The core of the film is the relationship between the un-named mother and son – and how far a mother will go to protect her child.

“The film is about the mother becoming the monster,” he explained. “The mother becomes a monster out of love and devotion for her son. As love becomes more extreme, so she becomes a monster. I don’t think for a second that all mothers are monsters, but faced with an extreme situation like murder, not many mothers could say for sure they wouldn’t become monsters. Maybe it’s not the side of our mothers we’d want to see, but it is possible to see if you look directly at the situation.”

“Maybe that’s why my mother won’t talk about the film, even though she saw it five months ago.”

You can see more from the interview on BFI’s LIVE site, click here.

Mother is released in the US by Magnolia Pictures on 12 March, and by Optimum in the UK later in the year, but the release date is yet to be finalised.

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.

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.