By the time Raymond Chow left Shaw Brothers to form Golden Harvest in 1970 (along with fellow Shaw Brothers alumni Leonard Ho) he had already been head of production at Shaw Brothers for 10 years. But being frustrated with the limitations of the restrictions put in place place by Run […]
Ben Jones
Horror, Cult, Grindhouse & Psychotronic B-Movies. Celebrating the Trashy side of Cinema. Crowned “Trash King” by podhard & Official NWPPVIP of
The New World Pod
Two Taoist Tales (1984 & 86) Taoism Drunkard & Young Taoism Fighter
Lo Wei had an eye for a star. After all he had already brought Bruce Lee to the world with films like The Big Boss and Fists Of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection). Lo Wei also had an ego, one so large that it would put many of the Hollywood […]
Before Shaolin Soccer, there was… The Champions (1983)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the world was football mad. Even those countries that had traditionally been less than enthusiastic about the sport, instead opting to create their own sports so they could anoint themselves as “World Champions”, despite being the only country to actively participate in them. […]
A Man Called Tiger (1973) A Vanity Project that lives up to the Hype? (Review)
In 1970 two former Shaw Brothers executives, Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho, started their own production company – Golden Harvest. While their early films were reasonably successful, it wasn’t until a certain Bruce Lee released The Big Boss that the studio was really put on the map. In a weird […]
Mermaid Legend (1984)(Frightfest 2024) Review
Come the late ’60s the Japanese film industry was floundering, hurt by the rise in popularity of television and the constant influx of Hollywood movies to satisfy an ever present American contingent. Japanese films seemed tired and out of ideas, so budgets were cut and the rise of exploitation cinema […]
Wolves, Pigs & Men (1964) Yakuza Cinema By way of the French New Wave (Review)
The influence that French New Wave had on Japanese cinema throughout the 60s can never be understated. With its swathes of nihilism and cool tragedy, it seemed that one perfectly reflected the emotions of the other, as all sides (just 15-20 years removed from World War II) these children of […]
Message From Space (1978) Japan’s Contribution to the Star Wars Craze (Review)
There has been a long tradition of Tokusatsu (特撮 – “Special Photography”) in Japanese cinema. With greats like Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya unleashing on an unsuspecting world the most they Gojira/Godzilla in 1954, Science Fiction would never be the same again in Japan. Eiji Tsuburaya in particular created many […]
A Bittersweet Life (2005) One of the Many Guiding Lights of the Korean Golden Age (Review)
The South Korean New Wave of the late 1990s to mid 2000s shone a light onto a country whose films were reserved for the arthouse cinemas and festival circuits, with directors such as Im Kwan Taek and Lee Chang-dong telling beautiful stories of Korean people and the loss of their […]
The Double Crossers (1976) Kung Fu Meets Poliziotteschi (Review)
It can’t be stated enough just how much the release of King Boxer (aka Five Fingers Of Death) in North America changed the landscape of this very regional film industry. Suddenly the largest film market in the world was available and a flood of Kung Fu movies would find their […]
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (2023) Ancient Chinese Folktale with Spectacle as Epic as Lord of the Rings (Review)
I can see the quotes now, “The Chinese Lord Of The Rings” they’ll call it, and whilst that isn’t a wild and inaccurate statement (and genuinely meant as a compliment), it does undermine the cultural significance of Creation of the Gods’ story and how only now is it possible to […]