Coming soon from Umbrella Entertainment is Suka, the new Asian/Australian gangster thriller starring Jenny Wu (Lady Bloodfight, Australia Day). The film is directed by Heidi Lee Douglas from a script she penned with Lily Cheng and Tsu Shan Chambers, and with action sequences by NSW-based stunt coordinator Jackie Murray (Gold, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse).
2005 was a terrific year for niche Asian film fans fond of actor Lee Byung-hun amid the ceremony for his darling hit thriller, A Bittersweet Life, about a mob enforcer faced with retribution by his boss after falling for his repressed mistress. The film is a point of inspiration for some directors and was even the topic of a potential remake in the U.S., the updates on which remain to be seen.
Following on from the excellent MANDY (2018) and COLOUR OUT OF SPACE (2019), Nic Cage appears in another avante-garde offering called ‘PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND’ (2021). Cage stars as a condemned man recruited by a wealthy stranger to locate and rescue his daughter imprisoned by some bizarre cult like group. Though a simplistic premise, the movie itself is anything but one note and even the two-minute trailer evokes two adjectives: boldly insane.Whether real or imagined, this trailer immediately reminded me of the bizarre ‘EL TOPO’ (1970) directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Drawing from symbolism from both East and West, the characterisations in ‘PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND’ (2021) unashamedly wear its influences on its sleeve; adapting cowboys in westerns, sword fighters from samurai films and a clear post-apocalyptic setting – again boasting the premise that, anything goes.
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