fantasia 2022

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Fantasia XXVI Review: For a Dose of Thrills, Make an Appointment with DR LAMB!

Scrolling through a list of available films to review for a film festival can be overwhelming. One should not judge a book by its cover, but sometimes a reviewer has to follow their gut and request films whose posters and titles catch their attention. I can’t explain exactly what drew me to Dr. Lamb at first, but once I read the brief description saying that it was about a serial killer in Hong Kong, I knew I wanted to watch it.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: Short Films Short on Time but Not on Entertainment

One of the aspects of covering film festivals that I look forward to most is covering the short films that are shown. This year’s selection of shorts at the Fantasia International Film Festival did not disappoint. My friend and I now have new favorite directors to watch for and we have obscure lines we can quote from these shorts for a laugh. You should try to view these as well:

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Fantasia XXVI Review: Takashi Koizumi’s THE PASS: LAST DAYS OF THE SAMURAI, An Exquisite Snapshot Of Tumultuous Japanese History

The late Ryotaro Shiba remains one of the most celebrated authors of his time, with his work standing front and center for many a film adaptation. Such is the case for his 1968 novel, Touge, adapted and directed for the big screen by Takashi Koizumi, who plies his trade once more – following a career that includes having worked as assistant director for the legendary Akira Kurosawa on films like Ran (1985) and Kagemusha (1980) – now with his sixth narrative feature, The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai, under his belt.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: CULT HERO, Unapologetic Genre Camp That Goes All-In

Dale Domazar (Ry Barrett) is a TV sensation. He’s known for his Clint Eastwood-style approach as a career “Cult Buster”, freeing people from captivity and pulling the veil off of false prophets, and doing so all in his first season as a television star. For all intents and purposes, he’s become a hit, and unfortunately, his success gets short-lived when his latest undercover operation results in the gruesome deaths of an entire cult and its leader. Fallen from grace and reduced to hustling for subpar gigs while living desolate in his trailer, it’s not until one evening when Dale gets a desperate phone call though his hotline that he finds a chance for redemption.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, Fantastic Wuxia Entertainment For A Different Medium

Chinese opera a la glove puppetry (a.k.a. “budaixi”) is nothing new if you’ve been exposed to this kind of entertainment in the last forty years or so. I’m a Westerner, so obviously when I caught wind of Thunderbolt Fantasy over on Crunchyroll, I was amazed at what I saw, which provides what little background knowledge I have to collect on the art, to which I now get to add Chris Huang Wen-Chang’s latest endevaor, Demigod: The Legend Begins.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: Life Hits Hard, But Can THE FIGHT MACHINE Hit Harder?…

Published July 26: Take a look at almost any film about boxing or sportfighting, and in almost every instance, you’ll find an underlying theme pertinent to the film’s character development through questions of “Why?” – “Why fight?”, “Why keep going?”, “Why hurt yourself?”. The best thing viewers can take away from this point on is how this aspect of the film gets broken down, further putting the pieces to the puzzle together to help answer the necessary questions, something that speaks inherently to a film like Sweet Karma and Spare Parts helmer Andrew Thomas Hunt‘s newest action drama, The Fight Machine.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: A Look At Wong Jing’s 1982 Action Adventure, MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG

Undoubtedly, one of the most well-received aspects of being an avid Arrow Video collector nowadays means being exposured to rounds of cult classic titles long-adorned by certain niches. Specifically, we’re talking those of the Hong Kong cinema kind and folks especially fond of Arrow’s Shawscope 2K restorations of late, including and not limited to Wong Jing’s third directorial outing in his career with Ti Lung starrer, Mercenaries From Hong Kong.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: SPECIAL DELIVERY Arrives With Full-Throttle Fun

If there’s one particular kind of story that usually hits many of the right notes with Korean movie fans of late, it’s where the hero must rescue a child from certain dangerous, criminal elements. For this third film to date, writer/director Park Dae-min is handed the reigns for a story that clearly takes some cues from the likes of Edgar Wright, Simon West and Louis Leterrier and for this, we get Parasite and Man Of Will actress Park So-dam’s newest role in action thriller, Special Delivery.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: BABY ASSASSINS, Japanese Action Cinema All Grown-Up!

Originally published July 15, 2022: The last several years have seen a notable of proliferation of the newest J-wave of action cinema titles out of Japan. To this end, films like the HiGH&LOW franchise which remains on-going to this day, stars and figures like Shun Oguri, Tak Sakaguchi, Takumi Kitamura and Masanori Mimoto, and directors like Kensuke Sonomura have all been welcome assets amidst the emerging talents of late, and it’s not over yet with other filmmakers and performers bound to leave their mark in the coming weeks and months. This especially goes for director Hugo Sakamoto, who has been increasingly influential in his craft for at least six years to date, having since made waves stateside at Fantastic Fest last year with his most recent endeavor, Baby Assassins.

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Fantasia XXVI Review: Lee Sang-Yong’s THE ROUNDUP Knocks ‘Em Out Once More In The Hit Action Crime Sequel

Watch any of actor Don Lee’s earlier films and you’ll know he wasn’t as sizeable as he has been in the last, say, maybe eight or ten years. Regardless of whether his beefy build was a planned effort or not, however, you have to give it to him for using it to his advantage and ultimately paving a way for an evolution in Korean cinema of late with a raft of hard-hitting roles as a big, hard-hitting character with enough screen charisma to match the likes of Schwarzenegger and current business partner Stallone to name a certain few, which now brings us to Lee Sang-yong’s The Outlaws follow-up, The Roundup.

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FANTASIA XXVI: SHIN ULTRAMAN, PSYCHOTIC WOMEN, ‘Cult’ Heroes And Many More In The Second Wave For The 2022 Edition!

Welp, it’s about that time now with the first wave out of the way and now the official second wave of titles to be hosted for the 26th Fantasia International Film Festival, inclusive of another round of diverse and unique films and some key spectacular thrillers. The announcement firstly hails Severin Films’s Kier-La Janisse for her contributions to film and literary work of more than two decades and then some, and a spotlight on queer cinema with the works of Rita Baghdadi, Eduardo Casanova, Tara Thorne and others.You also get KC Carthew’s Polaris which has a nice read; Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Ultraman gets included; Franklin Ritch’s World Premiere of internet vigilante thriller The Artifice Girl; Aya Ashina boxing drama starrer Red Shoes; Shinzo Katayama’s serial killer thriller Missing; Jesse Cooke Thomas’s hot new Cult Hero; Lenin M. Sivam’s small town dramatic thriller The Protector; South Korean gangbuster crime hit sequel The Roundup starring Don Lee, and so, SO much more!

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FANTASIA XXVI: First Wave – WHAT TO DO WITH THE DEAD KAIJU, GLORIOUS, BABY ASSASSINS, A Celebration Of JOHN WOO And More For The 26th In-Person Edition!

Posted MAY 5, 2022: It kind of feels like forever since we covered Fantasia. I guess that’s one residual effect of pandemic fever, and while I can only imagine the hype and excitement of those who will finally be able to return to the festival atmosphere in-person for screenings, workshops and more, I share the mood all the same albeit remotely as I can’t make the travel, and it’s a privilege to help share a voice as the festival has just announced its 26th edition with a first wave of titles topped by ceremonial tributes to cinematic legend and action cinema auteur, John Woo.

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