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Fantasy fun from director Yojiro Takita, but seriously, it’s no When The Last Sword is Drawn… (more…)

Another solid horror from South Korea, but surely the lesson here is don’t give your daughter a scary haircut like that girl from The Ring?… (more…)

A beautiful film by veteran filmmaker Im Kwon-taek with a fine performance by Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik, but suffers from covering far too long a period… (more…)

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

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

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

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

More schlock thrills from the J-Horror Theatre, but this is more Garth Marenghi’s Dark Places than Lars von Trier’s Kingdom Hospital… (more…)

Little Red Riding Hood retold as a psychological thriller from the director of Ghost In The Shell and Patlabor – but just who exactly is the wolf? (more…)

Scary and genuinely unsettling, presenting the latest cult Asian horror to get a Hollywood makeover… (more…)

There’s no doubting director Takashi Shimizu’s ability to do some very scary, very unsettling stuff, but has he achieved his potential yet?… (more…)

From the pen of Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, Memories Of Matsuko) comes a comic look at the Japanese porn industry… (more…)

The groundbreaking manga that influenced generation upon generation of comic book creators and inspired the notorious ‘Baby Cart’ series that began with Shogun Assassin… (more…)

As Damon Albarn’s latest collaboration with Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, the opera of Monkey: Journey To The West, draws to a close at London’s O2 dome, and we await the release of the new Monkey Magic film on DVD, is there a better time to remember the soundtrack to show that started it all. Come on now, you all know the words: ‘Born from a rock on a mountain top…’ (more…)

Chen Kaige’s The Promise finally crawls its way on to UK DVD and Blu-Ray, courtesy of Momentum Pictures. Originally released way back in December 2005 and reviewed by us shortly afterwards, it failed to spark any interest from UK distributors despite being given a limited release in the US, France, Germany, Greece, Russia – in fact just about everywhere else! Unsurprisingly Chen’s attempt to follow rival Zhang Yimou into wu xia territory met with mixed reactions. Indeed the core story itself holds a neat fable with beautifully baroque costume design (pre-empting Yimou’s Curse Of The Golden Flower), but relies perhaps a little too heavily on CGI to make it all happen.

Sadly, this is a ‘bonus feature lite’ DVD release, and worse still, it’s the edited US release, running some 20 minutes shorter. Mind you, guess better to have it than not at all (?)

Also out today, Afro Samurai: Resurrection on DVD from Manga Entertainment.

A solid, extremely well-made slice of Anime – so why does it all seem so familiar? (more…)

Origin: Spirits Of The Past is released by Manga on DVD today. Directed by Keiichi Sugiyama (Neon Genesis Evangelion), is the first full-length animated feature film made by Studio Gonzo, the Japanese anime studio responsible for the likes of Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Hellsing and She, The Ultimate Weapon.

Read our review here »

A tense and intelligent psychological Anime thriller (yes – ANIME!)… (more…)

The opener for Takashige Ichise’s J-Horror series is Asian horror by numbers, but with a redeeming finale… (more…)

Somewhat derivative but well played sci-fi action flick – a welcome alternative to the lame Matrix sequels… (more…)

The book that spawned the cult movie, not to mention the US remake, and led the tsunami of Asian horror movies in the last few years. But is it really that scary?… (more…)

A nicely played and well-directed swordplay film – but haven’t we seen it all before? (more…)

A beautiful, bizarre and completely compelling masterpiece, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning follow up to Princess Mononoke is a wonderfully dark fairy tale for all ages… (more…)

Nearly twenty years on from the groundbreaking Akira, was director Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s first feature length anmie since really worth the wait?… (more…)

A triumph of autonomy over consequence, what begins as a sharp comedy blurring the lines between reality and fiction quickly devolves into a banal mess that an art student might be ashamed of (sorry Beat!)… (more…)

Another fine fantasy movie from Studio Ghibli, but this debut from Hayao’s son Goro Miyazaki misses out on the magic of Spirited Away and the potential of the Earthsea novels… (more…)

First Zhang Yimou made a film about the same subject as Chen Kaige had, now Kaige has followed Yimou by making a CGI led ‘wuxia pian’ movie – will these guys ever stop treading on each others toes?… (more…)

Solid horror anthology with three very different takes on life after death from three different Asian countries and directors… (more…)

A solid follow-up to horror anthology Three features segments by Park Chan-wook, Takeshi Miike and Fruit Chan… (more…)