Reviews

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 6 “To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks like a Nail” Finding Purpose in the West Again

The most obvious reference this episode makes is “Enter the Dragon”. Granted we can argue about that any movie started the mad man holding a tournament troupe but here we are. This time it goes back to the stand alone episode while still connecting to the main storyline, going back to the main theme of the series: finding one’s purpose. And I did forget to put these in my reviews but spoilers are ahead. Especially for this episode and what’s to come soon. Vega brings Ah Sahm, Young Jun and Hong to the border town of Rooker’s Mill. She informs that it is owned by Elijah Rooker, who has interests in fighters from around the world and holds the tournament every year. Vega tells of the prize money to be won as the three check in. Young Jun and Hong settle in while Ah Sahm walks around the town. He […]

ARCHENEMY Blu-Ray Review: Superheroes, Shotgun Shells and Strangeness Abound

Matthew Essary

ARCHENEMY is hard to classify. It’s partially a superhero tale. The main character afterall, Max (played by Joe Manganiello), certainly thinks he’s one. Buy him a few drinks at the local bar and he’ll spout off tales of space cities, giant robots, and evil scientists. He’ll also tell you how he was thrown from that dimension, where he was practically a god, into ours where he is now just a powerless, broken-down wino. ARCHENEMY is also a gritty drama, at least that’s how it feels for Hamster (Skylan Brooks) and his sister, Melissa (Jessica Allain), two young adults trying to survive in a world on their own. Hamster dreams of being a journalist and Melissa- she’s only concerned with keeping food on their table, even if it means working for the local drug kingpin (Glenn Howerton). When Hamster stumbles across Max in an alley, he sees a chance at […]

400 BULLETS Review: A Fully-Loaded Indie Military Actioner That Conserves A Bit More Than Needed

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Jean-Paul Ly’s film career has been astonishing to witness and cover in the last six years or so. Having escalated from stunt performances and small acting roles to headling projects like Jailbreak and Nightshooters, the hope has always been to see him in an even bigger spotlight going forward. Par for the course is the prospect of working with different directors. Black Site and Black Ops helmer Tom Paton often vies for a more dark and brooding appeal in his work, and this particularly goes for his new standoff thriller, 400 Bullets, boasting what reads like an exciting premise akin to the kind of classic action films fans are keen on: Heroes who are outnumbered and outgunned and have no choice to fight to survive. Casting Andrew Lee Potts to kick things off, the film slowly ramps up to the first climatic moment our intial protagonist, military captain Noah, […]

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 5 “Not for a Drink, a Fuck, or a Goddamn Prayer” Trust That Goes a Long Way

Kyle Wong

Trust is a hard thing to come by. You trust your family, you trust your friends, hell you trust the people at McDonald’s not to spit in your burger. This episode explores the theme of trust and the characters who experience it. Episode 15 opens with Mai Ling discussing with Li Young about how her endeavors will benefit Chinatown’s future. Li Young brings up the tournament from Season 1 and how she hasn’t been able to come to terms with Ah Sahm. Mai Ling states she has not forgiven herself for the position she put them in. Penny surveys the Steel Mill’s damage from Leary’s attack, Jacob brings to her attention the dead Hop Wei guards and the Opium stash. Ah Sahm arrives, seeing the damage and meets with Penny. She tells him that she found out about the Opium and it was a mistake hiring him. Knowing what he […]

KNIGHTS OF VALOUR Review: Revenge as Unique Way of Survival

Mike Garcia

This new adaptation of an excerpt from the classic of Chinese literature, ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, brings the audience back in time to the turbulent years towards the end of Han Dinasty, in an exciting journey to an era of war and destruction to portray into screen a bloody tale of revenge forged by mountain of corpses, fire and death, that begins in spectacular fashion with an epic and bloody war battle in which we know the main characters and their motives, giving way to an obsessive seek of revenge as unique way of survival at the hands of the only survival from that battle, the son of General Guan Yu, who also fell in battle. Throughout the film, we are witness how the revenge begins to take shape, and despite that on its second half the pace seems to drop considerably, it is offset by a thrilling […]

Well Go USA’s CRAZY SAMURAI: 400 vs. 1 Trailer Teases The Deadly Odds

CRAZY SAMURAI: 400 VS. 1 review – 77 Minutes of Non-Stop Samurai Sword Slingin’

Matthew Essary

Miyamoto Musashi is a legend; a mix of fact and fabrication. The seventeenth-century samurai certainly existed. His surviving art and writings on philosophy he created in his later years prove that. His prowess in battle, however, is where the facts start to blur into myth. He is believed to have been a prolific warrior who never lost in over sixty duels, many of those to the death. That idea, coupled with Musashi’s thoughtful musings on life and combat in tomes such as “The Book of The Five Rings”, led to him being revered as the ideal example of a samurai warrior by popular culture in Japan and a cult figure among martial arts enthusiasts worldwide. So naturally, embellished versions of Musashi have appeared frequently in Japanese film and television programs. Some strived for realism but frequently the Miyamoto Musashi presented on screen, with varying degrees of success, feels more myth […]

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 4 “If You Don’t See Blood, You Didn’t Come to Play” Silence Doesn’t Save Lives

Kyle Wong

I should mention this as it will come out in a later review but over the past few weeks, the US has been experiencing attacks on the Asian community recently. On January 28th, Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked in the driveway of his home and died in the hospital. Two other Asian elders have been attacked by slashing and beaten due to Racism. This is nothing new when the pandemic started last year, it is sad as the Asian elderly have done nothing to deserve any of this, and people brush off these attacks as Asians are supposed to be the model minority. As I am writing this, it’s getting much worse than 2020. This goes for everyone, if you see a racially motivated attack, it’s time to step up. Time to expose these people and it is time to stand up and stand together. Even Canada has its racism and […]

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 3 “Not How We Do Business” Not Everything is What it Seems

Kyle Wong

After winning another fight at the Barbary Coast, Vega proposes to Ah Sahm participate in a tournament for a bigger reward. He declines as Wang Chao enters to watch the fights. Chao speaks to Ah Sahm, knowing of the deal with Happy Jack but is suspicious of his relation to Mai Ling. Ah Sahm brushes it off but Chao assures that Chinatown will suffer because of his and Mai Ling’s quarrel. Mai Ling visits Zing to collect the Fung Hai share of the Opium dealings but he holds back for service fee. Not backing down, she threatens to break their alliance for killing the Suey Sing and taking the Fung Hai out of the Opium trade. Zing agrees to pay Mai Ling back. Mayor Blake meets with Penny, threatening to pull the Railway contract if she doesn’t rid the Hop Wei protection. While Patterson informs Ah Toy about Lee and […]

SPACE SWEEPERS Review: An Enthralling Sci-Fi Space Adventure Worth Multiple Rewatches

Lee B. Golden III

The least anyone expected in the past year would be to have to wait out a whole pandemic in order to have some semblance of some semblance of fun (yes, I wrote it like that, and you read it correctly the same). Moviegoers the world around were resigned to such a fate even as trailers for Jo Sung-hee’s latest star-spangled space rouser, Space Sweepers, made the rounds with small trailer bits touting a hopeful release last summer, and so with its delay came the usual brouhaha over releasing films onto smaller screens despite helmers priming their work for more grandiose theatrical showings. We can go over all the Nolan-isms on that all day, of course, and sadly, it won’t change the fact that the best course of action for any film to see movement would be to tether it to a streaming deal of some kind. I’ll leave the watercooler […]

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 2 “The Chinese Connection” The Duality of Right and Wrong

Kyle Wong

For those who don’t know, Bruce Lee’s film “The Big Boss” was to be given the title of “The Chinese Connection”, capitalizing on the popularity of the film “The French Connection” as both films deals with drug smuggling. The problem was the titles were switched as “Fist of Fury” was given the title of “The Chinese Connection” and “The Big Boss” was titled “Fists of Fury”. If you didn’t know this history, that’s the quick lesson of why the international releases of Bruce Lee’s films has different titles. Especially after Bruce Lee’s passing, “Way of the Dragon” was released as “Return of the Dragon”, capitalizing on the success of “Enter the Dragon”. So we can say that this episode’s title referencing Bruce Lee’s film deals with drug smuggling and dealing with the theme of duality. The cold open has O’Hara running after another person in debt to the Fung Hai, […]

THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Review: A Proper Martial Arts Tournament Adventure With Nearly All The Trimmings

Lee B. Golden III

Park Young-jie’s 2011 manwha and Naver webtoon finally saw life last year as one of the most explosive animated shows going into a new decade, launching just in time as millions were forced into quarantine as a pandemic spread across the world. Thus, folks lucky enough to have Crunchyroll access got to dive into the insane, fight-filled world that is director Park Sung-hoo’s treatment, The God Of High School. Set in South Korea where teenagers gather from around the world to test their skills in a spectacular no-holds-barred martial arts tournament, The God Of High School culminates around teenagers Jin Mori, and friends Han Daewi and Yoo Mira, who find themselves at a precipice of an epic, historical mystery within the tournament’s backdrop – one that will embolden them to not only discover the bond they share as budding friends, but the very keys to unlocking their fighting prowess as […]

MASTER Review – A Look At The Latest Blockbuster from South India

Matthew Essary

If you asked most film fans about movies that originate from India you would likely hear everyone polled mention long runtimes, jarring musical interludes, and the term “Bollywood.” India’s film industries are more than those things though. Yes, “industries”. Plural. India as a country puts out more theatrically released films every year than any other. This is in large part due to the fact that different regions of the country not only have separate languages but their own unique film studios, stars, and cinematic flavor as well. One of those industries is affectionately known as “Kollywood” (named after the Kodambakkam neighborhood, located in the city of Chennai in the southern, coastal state of Tamil Nadu). Kollywood stylistically is different than its northern brother Bollywood. Painting in broad strokes, Bollywood has adopted the sheen (and massive budgets) of modern Hollywood productions while Kollywood is more heavily influenced by other international film […]

Warrior – Season 2: Episode 1 “Learn to Endure or Hire a Bodyguard” Real Strength through Media

Kyle Wong

Teddy Boys – A British subculture that young men wore clothes that were inspired by dandies of the Edwarian period. Originally started in the UK in the early 1950s of post WWII, it was associated with American Rock and Roll music. It was to differentiate the teenagers from the adults. On 1956, at a screening of the film “Blackboard Jungle”, the Teddy Boys rioted in theatres where the film was shown. Teddy Boys have forms various gangs and fought against other gangs and immigrant communities, one being the 1958 Notting Hill Race Riot where they attacked the West Indian community. In this episode, they attack the Chinese community, taking their queues as part of their initiation. Before I get into Season 2, I will take note of the filming of the season took place in the late summer and fall of 2019 then finally premiering in October of 2020. This […]

THE JADE PENDANT Review: True Love Stained in Racial Hatred

Mike Garcia

The plot of this film leads to one of the darkest days in American history, the largest lynching ever occurred in the stars spangled banner country, an event that happened in Los Angeles Chinatown back in 1871, when an angry mass stormed through LA chinatown, lynching every chinese citizen that stood on their way killing an estimated 18 to 20 chinese immigrant having no consequences for it. (The best TV series that you are not watching, “Warrior” did an excellent ficticional recreation of this happening on their second season) However, this movie only uses that incident as excuse to tell a corny love story that revolves around a girl (Carmen Lee) who arrives to San Francisco running away from an arranged marriage in Guandong, her hometown and a cook (Godfrey Hao), who´s expecting to get rich in the gold rush. Their love story leads to the Chinatown massacre. The […]

PAYBACK Review: Matt Levett Suffices In Joseph Mensch’s Latest Potboiler

Lee B. Golden III

Given the headlines of the past week, it’s only suitable that director Joseph Mensch’s timely arrival with Payback gets some air time for moviegoers. Not so much the intriguing cryptocurrency finance thriller though, the film is definitely a feasible crime thriller that serves its purpose for the most part. Opens in 1992 New York City, we meet Wall Street stockbroker Mike Markovich (Matt Levett), on top of his game at the Mob-connected firm he works for as “the king of the one-call close”. Mike, for what it’s worth is adroit as he is ambitious – characteristics that clearly don’t bode well between him and his boss, Mr. Zhukov (Toby Leonard Moore), as quiet as the tension is beneath the friendly veneer. Adding to the stakes is the baby Mark and loving wife Judi (Anna Baryshnikov) are having in two weeks, which makes it all the more important to prioritize whilst […]

Warrior – Season 1: Episode 10 “If You’re Going to Bow, Bow Low” The Purpose to Keep Fighting

Kyle Wong

Episode 10 starts a week after the events of episode 9, a man wakes up Chinese coolies switching up those who worked the night before for those who are ready for the day. Among them is Ah Sahm, who has given up. O’Hara has been with Lee since his attack, waiting for him to wake up as Lee has no family. Lucy visits them, questioning who attacked with O’Hara hiding the knowledge it is the Foon Hai. Father Jun and Mai Ling meet as they go over the property the Long Zi obtained due to the victory of the match. Mai Ling accepts the small portion given by the Hop Wei as Father Jun swears that if the truce is broken again, he will stop at nothing till she dies. Leary intervenes on an inevitable altercation between his men and two black men wanting a drink, accepting the fact that […]

Warrior – Season 1: Episode 9 “Chinese Boxing” The Cry for Representation is Clear

Kyle Wong

Episode 9 starts with Leary negotiating with Byron on hiring his men for the railway contract while Li Young and Ah Sahm prepare for their match. Penny is informed by Jacob about the match, prompting her to go. At this time, O’Hara and Lee notice the streets of Chinatown are quieter than usual, finding that the community is gathering to spectate the match. Ah Sahm and Young Jun have a moment while Li Young questions Mai Ling on the probability of only one of them walking away. The Foon Hai, Ah Toy, Long Zi and the Hop Wei all gather as O’Hara and Lee join with the other Chinatown officers to spectate. Ah Sahm and Li Young step onto the mat, paying their respects to each other as Wang Chao explains the rules to O’Hara. Ah Sahm manages to gain the upperhand throughout the first part of the match, catching […]

EL INCA Review: Winner In The Ring, Loser In Life, The Tragic Story of Edwin Valero

Mike Garcia

Sports history is full of controversial characters who had everything to achieve glory but ended up burying their legacy, destroying everything they had fought for in a matter of seconds, condemning themselves to one of the few things in this life that It is eternal, oblivion… Edwin Valero was one of those cases, from humble origins on the streets of Venezuela to becoming a two-time world boxing champion. Valero was a formidable boxer with a perfect record of 27 wins, all by KO and 0 losses, achieving a world record guiness of winning his first 18 professional bouts by KO in the first Round. A beast in the Ring who was destined to become a legend of the sport, who in that era was seen as a serious threat to the great Manny Pacquiao, whom he was about to face just before committing a crime that I’d rather not mention,(specially […]

HAYMAKER Review: A Modest Fight Drama Sealed With A Kiss

Lee B. Golden III

Having only worked on a small handful of film and TV productions, it’s with Haymaker that visual effects artist Nick Sasso officially makes the case for his starring and directing debut. Haymaker immerses you into the tumult of a professional fighter named Nick (Sasso) whose career-ending defeat has since landed him a job as club bouncer. It’s not long before he catches an attempted rape in-progress and swoops into rescue club singer, Nomi (Nomi Ruiz), from her would-be attacker, only to get unceremoniously fired by the club’s seedy manager – a prospective move on the part of Nomi, who instead hires him as her personal bodyguard. Their development together is already pre-conceived by the fact that Nomi feels safe around him. This is conjoined by the highs and lows of the slowly simmering shared tension between them at times, with Nomi, slowly peeling away at Nick’s rigid, tough and somewhat […]

ARROW January Attractions: Arrow Shorts Collection, JSA, Tokyo Fist, We Need To Talk About Kevin, And More!

Arrow Review: Park Chan-Wook’s JOINT SECURITY AREA (JSA), A Lamentation Of Peace Through A Darkly Pragmatic Lens

Lee B. Golden III

It was around 2005 or ’06 when I finally managed to observe the work of director Park Chan-wook with an online buy of Oldboy. At this point, Park had already reveled in the ceremony of his previous work, notably with his 2000 film, Joint Security Area (JSA), which still stands on ceremony to this day with film fans as one of the most highly regarded of the last two decades. Set against the backdrop of intense relations between the North and the South, Park’s tale of murder bodes as more of a multi-layered epic drama going about thirty minutes in; The film is set in Panmunjom where soldiers from both Koreas hold the fort on opposite ends of the ‘Bridge of No Return’, initially introducing Swiss-Korean army major Sophie Jean (Lee Young-ae) to the story as the pointwoman for the Neutral Nations Supervisory Committee in its investigation of what happened […]