Makoto Sasaki’s 2019 documentary, Night Cruising, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and it’s a gem to catch if you’re into exploring at least one other dimension of content creation nary explored. The movie is an extensive profile of Hideyuki Kato, congenitally blind and intent on completing his first movie, with Sasaki chronicling the careful steps and the tedious, concentrated planning he ventures to make it happen.
With the fair certainty of the second part set to arrive sometime this year, it’s worth making note that director Choi Dong-hoon’s fantasy time-travel sci-fi adventure, Alienoid: Part 1, is now streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. The film stars Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Woo-bin, and Choi Yoo-ri in the story that spans two time periods in which robot bounty hunters caring for a Joseon orphan in present-day Korea, and a fledgling Joseon-era Taoist wizard eyeing a mysterious gun-toting woman in search of a “divine blade,” meet head-on as an alien invasion looms.
Kung fu cinema may be far and away from its heyday glory, but its enduring fandom remains adherent to its ties to the genre with unrelenting fervor through rigorous preservation and re-releases of these considerable classics in various selections. To date, you can look toward companies like Arrow Films’ genre specialty imprint, Arrow Video, with the recent launch of its streaming platform currently beholden to numerous titles in cult cinema, including and especially martial arts classics like Sammo Hung‘s 1979 hit, Knockabout.
Hats off to Fred Topel’s Showbiz Cheat Sheet article for listing all the current films available now streaming on The Criterion Channel featuring leading lady of action, Michelle Yeoh. The ceremony has not waned since the release of Everything Everywhere All At Once, the Daniels-directed bouquet of kung fu, sci-fi, fantasy, and family comedy and drama attributed to a ubiquitous cinematic vision and incumbent messaging of love and acceptance, and generational healing, also being hailed as a banner moment for AAPI inclusion in entertainment.
You’d never know it considering the lack of marketing that most niche independent films get, but actor Mykel Shannon Jenkins, best known for roles in Undisputed 3: Redemption and Bao Tran’s The Paper Tigers, is also an accomplished filmmaker with four directing credits to his name among other short film and TV projects. His current resume at the helm includes his 2017 sophomore effort, The Gods, an operatic Romeo & Juliet-style crime drama about what it means to choose between families when falling in love means possibly going to war.
It’s been a while since Japan Cuts had a festival run, but one of the most memorable catches for me was Kenji Iwaisawa’s On-Gaku: Our Sound, adapted from an original manga and made in the span of seven years with almost 40,000 hand drawings. GKids eventually released the pic in late 2020 and launched it on disc the following year, while those who are more streaming-oriented can also find it available on The Criterion Channel to which folks can subscribe with a free trial.
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