Reviews

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FOGGY MOUNTAIN Review: Peter Pham’s U.S. Debut Punches In With An Action-Packed Revenge Thriller

Actor and martial artist Peter Pham’s relationship with U.S. distributor Well Go USA has been brewing for some time now, after emerging online with select action shorts in the last several years. This growth eventually led to the production and premiere of Brennan Lane’s hit short film, Mayhem, taking nicely to the virtual crowd for the SDCC Kung Fu Extravaganza back in 2020. That was the year filmmaker Phan Anh’s martial arts thriller, Foggy Mountain, would finally hit the world sales floor through Arclight with the burgeoning star set to finally stake his claim in a feature setting outside of Vietnam.

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Streaming Sleepers: Sammo Hung’s HEART OF DRAGON Delivers Endearing Drama With Hearty Classic Action

The mid-80s delivered peak Hong Kong action. It marked an era of post-Bruce Lee film fandom that helped pave the way for stars to rise and become some of the biggest influences and staples of their industry. This inevitably included Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, whose careers would explode from the 70s and onward with the two joining up once more for 1985 action drama, Heart Of Dragon.

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OSKFF 2023 Review: Chen Hung-Min’s VENGEANCE OF THE PHOENIX SISTERS (1968)

Chen Hung-Min’s 1968 directorial debut lends another poetic treat for curious audiences sitting in for this year’s Old School Kung Fu Festival spotlighting Taiwanese classics. Vengeance Of The Phoenix Sisters is the name with eighty-seven minutes of straightforward action and drama with just a few frills and snags but nothing that takes too much away from the institutionalized efforts to revitalize and restore this bygone action adventure.

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OSKFF 2023 Review: Joseph Kuo’s THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (1968)

While I’ve known the name Joseph Kuo, his 1968 wuxia feature, The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen, is a freshman venture for me into classic Taiwanese cinema. It delves into the time-honored revenge tale of a child orphaned at a young age when his parents are murdered by a quartet of killers looking to acquire his father’s sword, all leading up to our protagonist’s key story kicking off twenty years later when he arrives in a village and ultimately acquires his first of four targets who just happened to be harassing a street performer and his daughter at the time.

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HIGH & LOW: THE WORST X Review: Fisticuffs And Hard-Fought Friendship Lead The Way For Another Supercharged Sequel

The last eight years or so of thrills from the hive mind at Japanese brand LDH and the writers of HI-AX have brought forth what stands to be one of the best multimedia action franchises ever created, with Shochiku and Netflix raking in much of the earnings. Credit as of late goes to the shared directorial powers of Daisuke Ninomiya and Norihisa Hiranuma, and action stylist Masaki Suzumura with a window of at least three years since Shigeaki Kubo transitioned the High & Low saga into a new era, one led by “The Rampage” members Kazuma Kawamura and Hokuto Yoshino, along with actor and franchise favorite Goki Maeda who now return for their continuation, High & Low: The Worst X.

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Streaming Sleepers: Wes Chatham Delivers A Knockout In THE PHILLY KID

Director Jason Connery’s fourth feature came to me as a recommendation years ago from a friend who works in the Thai film industry, and happened to be a fan of Wes Chatham upon seeing 2012 indie action drama, The Philly Kid. I honestly don’t know how the marketing for this particular film was so I can’t really allege anything, but the film was pushed and release in the U.S. at the time from After Dark Action, an imprint of After Dark Films, and I eventually saw it in 2014 on Digital Download.

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FIST OF THE CONDOR Review: Ernesto Diaz Espinoza’s Martial Arts Spiritual Touts A Star Still Reaching His Peak

Fist Of The Condor will commence the Alamo Drafthouse Fantastic Fest Presents series, opening exclusively in select Alamo Drafthouse locations on April 4 in the U.S.. Marko Zaror also will attend special screenings and live Q&A events at the Manhattan and Staten Island locations in New York City on April 4 and April 5, respectively, prior to the movie’s streaming release as a Hi-YAH! Original on April 7. Visit wellgousa.com for more information.

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Make Believe Seattle 2023 Review: SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING, Obviously

The first several moments of Quentin Dupieux’s newest feature, Smoking Causes Coughing, feature a quintet of superheroes (Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi, and Oulaya Amamra) battling a ferocious turtle monster before blowing it to bits, and obliging a traveling family’s request for a photo op for their son. The ceremonial confab ends with one of the team members revealing the secret to their powers, contextualizing with a PSA to the young boy about the importance of growing up with healthy lungs unlike his “idiot” father, seen smoking in the backdrop.

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