It returns, like a phoenix from the ashes! Pulled from release at the last minute back in September of 2022, this fighter jet movie from China bares more than a passing resemblance to a certain Tom Cruise blockbuster.
Chinese netizens were brutal! Their feedback was harsh! So the movie was delayed and the special effects were re-worked into what we see below.
Check out the new trailer released today (23/3/2022) and then check out my reaction video and then join in the fun in the comments section! This is going to get brutal....ly funny!
Genre Action Drama Director Liu Xiaoshi Starring Yibo Wang, Hu Jun, Dongyu Zhou Original Title 长空之王 Country of Origin China Release Date 28 April 2023
If there is one country we can trust for insanity, it would have to be Japan, right? This trailer shows the sum of that awesomeness where director Koichi Sakamoto of Girls Blood and the Ultraman TV Series fame has managed to combine ninja and sharks together for one movie.
And as you'll see from the trailer and my reaction video, it's damn awesome
Genre Horror Action Martial Arts Awesome Director Koichi Sakamoto Starring Kohshu Hirano, Shun Nishime Original Title 妖獣奇譚 ニンジャVSシャーク Country of Origin Japan Release Date April 14 2023
Mumun is a very popular woman. After her father rejects the
third marriage proposal for her, she pushes her boyfriend to hurry up. While at
a party, Mumun received an SMS from a debt collector telling her she owns them
50 Million Rupiah – side note: that approximately $5K Australian dollars.
Problem is she never borrowed the money – her identical twin
Mimin did, using her ID.
When Mumum fails to pay back the debt in time, she is
harassed by the boss who also has a crush on her. While attempted to do some
funny business with her, she escapes from his car but is hit and killed by a
truck.
However, as should be tradition in the Muslim father, Hussein
the gravedigger forgets to untie her shroud rope, which would allow her spirit
to enter the afterlife.
Annoyed, and returning to Earth as Pocong – which is a kind
of Muslim zombie – she haunts her attackers until Hussein can help her out.
MY THOUGHTS
Kinda doesn’t really sound funny, right? It sounds a bit
silly – but probably not funny.
A lot of the movie relies on a form of slapstick type humour
– and no doubt a lot of dialogue is lost in the translation, so really there is
no guarantee that the jokes are coming through in English the way they’re
intended
The story itself is quite endearing – Mumun has a lovely
family life and boyfriend and there are scenes where it shows she is well loved
in their village – to the point where her boyfriend calls all her fans “Mumunaholics”
and other kinds of wacky nicknames.
But the film has a bit of a dark side, and a strange violent
streak but those who like comedy horror might not really get into.
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Comedy Horror Director Rizal Mantovani Starring Acha Septriasa, Dimas Aditya Original Title Mamun Country of Origin Indonesia Release Date September 1 2022
Six classmates at a high school find themselves in the
school chapel at exactly midnight. A young girl clutching a soft toy and soaked
in blood brutally murders them all.
But they awake the following morning in a loop. They are
repeating the same day.
With the help of one of the classmates, the work out they
are stuck in the Body Search game, where their task is to find all the body
parts of a murdered girl and assemble them in a coffin located in the chapel.
But if the little girl catches them and they all die before
the task is complete, they need to do it all again.
Working together, and developing a sense of friendship, they
devise strategies on how to assemble the body and how to defeat the mutated red
monster chasing them every night.
MY THOUGHTS
This was the top Japanese horror
movie of 2022, and the third highest grossing Asian horror film of 2022. Based
on a web novel, this movie has cool concept.
It’s a shame that it will be
remembered (groan) by it’s Netflix title rather than its Japanese one, but at
least we get to see it.
The plot sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? It’s Happy Death Day,
or depending on how old you are, its Groundhog day, but I’ve never read the web
novel this is based on, so I can’t comment on how close it sticks to the source
material. This review will be based on the movie only.
The biggest thing is I am glad to finally watch it. This was
the movie that trounced Sadako DX at the box office, so there is a lot of
interest behind this
First let’s see the movie did right:
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Horror Thriller Director Eiichiro Hasumi Starring Kanna Hashimoto, Gordon Maeda Original Title カラダ探し Alternative Title Karada Sagashi, Find My Body, Body Search Country of Origin Japan Release Date October 14 2022
Just to prove it has tenuous links to the previous film, this
movie picks up after the conclusion of the first movie. Ffresh after killing
her murderous husband, A now pregnant Soi and her dad board a boat to an island
to start a new life.
But desperate for her children to see the face of their
father, she starts to practice black magic howver is stopped by her father. But
not soon enough, as it unleashes a new, terrible curse on the island.
Fast forward around 30 years later, and a group of friends
lead by a woman with a severe leg injury, her adopted sister, her boyfriend, a
magician and two travel guides/Instagram streamer idiots head to the island for
her birthday.
Lo and behold, things start to happen on this cursed island.
Visions are experienced, death occurs, the truth is revealed and more weak
links to the first movie are shoehorned in to remind you that there is a better
movie out there you should be watching
MY THOUGHTS
Where do you start with this disaster?
Firstly the first movie didn’t need a sequel, since it was
based on a real event. So making it a sequel is shoehorning characters into an
original story
That’s what this is – this is a modern style horror movie
about annoying people who film everything they do. Luckily its not found
footage
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Horror Thriller Director Lê Bình Giang Starring Tran Nghia, Sam Original Title Đảo Độc Đắc - Tử Mẫu Thiên Linh Cái Alternative Title Jackpot Island: Kumanthong Returns Country of Origin Vietnam Release Date December 12 2022
A series of high profile murders occur where clan leader Kiu
Feng seems to be the main culprit. Desperate to clear his name and prove he is innocent,
he leaves his clan – well more like is he forced out of the position – and
comes across a face-changing thief called Zhu.
She gets critically injured while Kiu Feng is fighting, and
he vows to take her to a medical practitioner. At the same time he makes a
promise to her to reunite her with her family.
But the clans and masters keep hunting down Kiu Feng as they
discover his blood family are actual their mortal enemies, which leads to a
showdown with both the people who killed Kiu Feng’s parents and the people who
set him up.
MY THOUGHTS
To be honest I don’t know if I have captured the story
correctly as I’ve never seen the original movies or series, nor have I read the
book, so I went into this one completely fresh in the story department
But one thing I am is a fan of Donnie Yen movies –
especially more of his mid naughties content as that’s when I really got into
his movies with the first Ip Man movies.
I’ve missed a lot of his pre-Ip Man movies, which means I’ve
missed a lot of his more fantasy and wuxia style flicks.
However, I know a bad movie when I see it, and quite frankly
this one is terrible.
If I was to try and put my finger on what was bad,
unfortunately it all comes back to one thing – Donnie Yen.
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Wuxia Action Director Wai-Man Cheng, Donnie Yen Starring Donnie Yen, Cya Liu, Kara Hui Original Title 天龙八部之乔峰传 Alternative Title Demi Gods and Semi Devils Country of Origin Hong Kong Release Date January 19 2023 (Hong Kong), January 16 2023 (Malaysia)
A family on a road trip stops by a picturesque lake to take a rest when their youngest child, Kinan, mysteriously goes missing after he interacts with a strange looking doll.
With the help of the local police, a search team looks for him, but Sandra, his mother, and Niki, his step-sister, start to experience supernatural incidents after Niki retrieves the same doll.
Alongside the police chief’s nephew Faisal, Niki investigates the parallel’s between Kinan’s disappearance and the cases of other missing children until she opens up a portal belonging to the spirit who is responsible.
MY THOUGHTS
Going into this movie with the understand that Kimo Stamboel is the director, one half of the famous Mo Brothers duo, was enough to get my attention. I loved his previous film Macabre, so my expectation was hoping it would something closer to that than his other 2022 film Ivanna.
This movie is a spin-off of the previous Jailangkung films, in where a doll is used as a catalyst to call the spirit of a departed loved one. Or in this movie, it’s also used as a lure to capture unsuspecting young children.
Being set in the forest, the movie oozes atmosphere. From the heavy rains to the mould-soaked interiors of the house, there is an immense feeling of dread throughout the film, intensified by brief horror scenes involving bodies with twisted necks. These bits are quite hair raising.
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Supernatural Horror Director Kimo Stamboel Starring Syifa Hadju, Dwi Sasono, Titi Kamal Original Title Jailangkung Sandekala Country of Origin Indonesia Release Date September 22 2023
As humanity faces the end of its existence due to the death of the sun, a plan is enacted that will save the planet – the Wandering Earth project, which involves moving the moon out of Earth gravitational pull and then, using 10,000 thrusters, push Earth out of orbit and into a new Solar System.
At the same time this project is occurring, an alternative metaverse project dubbed “The Digital Life” is being developed, in where all human consciousness is uploaded into a server where a digital instance of that person will live forever.
We follow three main story arcs – Liu Peiqiang from the first movie, who is an acclaimed astronaut working on the Wandering Earth project, Tu Hengyu played by Andy Lau who is a researcher for the Digital Life project who faces a moral dilemma in trying to preserve the memory of his dead daughter Yaya, and Zhou Zhezhi and his assistance Xiaoyi, who are the Chinese representatives in the United Earth Government forum who fight to ensure the success of the Wandering Earth project.
The movie follows the two or so decades before the commencement of the first movie, leading up to the construction of the Earth Engines, the development of the sophisticated AI that runs everything, the construction of the Underground cities and all the terrorist disasters that occur before the Wandering Earth project is enacted.
MY THOUGHTS
The first thing you’re going to want to know is if this is a good film? Well it is, but it does come with a few massive caveats. For full enjoyment, this movie should really be experienced in the cinema on a giant screen. Like the first film, watching at home on a TV – regardless of the size – won’t do any justice to the film.
The movie is an utter spectacle, make no mistake about that. Cohesion of the story line and quite a lot of logic are put on the back foot, as action set pieces, explosions and lots of quick science adjacent talk take place to bamboozle the audience.
This movie really does put the “fiction” in the genre “science fiction”. But then the idea of moving the Earth out of orbit using thrusters powered by a finite number for rocks for 2500 years would always borderline on the more fantastical part of science fiction. This is pure sci-fi, so if you’re a junkie for this style, then this movie has you covered.
If it could be likened to anything, perhaps shades of Day After Tomorrow and other big Hollywood environmental disaster blockbusters of the early naughties are the closest similarities. Since Hollywood stopped making movies like that, it good to see someone else take over.
Watch the video for my full review
DETAILS
Genre Sci-Fi Action Director Frant Gwo Starring Wu Jing, Andy Lau Original Title 流浪地球2 Country of Origin China Release Date January 22 2023 Alternative Title The Wandering Earth Ⅱ
Interested in what the top movies in Asian cinema were in 2022? Check out the three videos below - one for China, one for Korea and the other for Japan.
I love horror movies that are set in cinemas! Or use the cinema as a backdrop. Maybe I am weird - check out my video on the topic and let me know what you think
