On July 20th 1973 the world lost one of the most iconic action stars to have ever been. A star that shone so bright that it was bound to burn out rather than fade away. He would be the standard by which the action genre would be judged and would […]
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
Slasher: Ripper (Episode 1 & 2: Season 5)(Review)
Episode 1 – The Slaughterhouse & Episode 2 – The Painful Truth Comparisons to Fox’s American Horror Story are inevitable for Shudder/AMC’s Horror seasonal anthology series, Slasher. Each season presenting a new story and setting, and just like it’s contemporary, it brings with it a multitude of returning actors in different […]
Punk Samurai (2018) Samurai Comedy Anarchy that we’ve never seen the likes of before (Review)
Punk Samurai, also known as Punk Samurai Slash Down (a title still retained on the main menu screen of this Blu-Ray release), is a title that evokes mental images of Jidaigeki or Chanbara epics, but with a modern twist, and in many ways that is exactly what it is… and […]
Electric Dragon 80000v (2001) A ‘Saturday Morning Avant-garde, Punk Rock Fever Dream’ Cartoon (Review)
There was a moment in the early 2000s when, here in the West, Tadanobu Asano was the new Japanese king of cool. From his portrayal of the crazed Ichi in Takashi Miike’s Ichi The Killer, or the prime antagonist Hattori Genosuke in Takeshi Kitano’s reimagining of the classic tale of […]
Violent Streets (1974) Channels the Spirit of John Cassavetes and Kinji Fukusaku (Review)
Far more synonymous with the Chanbara genre, Hideo Gosha brings his taste for the anarchic to the early 70s explosion in Yakuza movies. Cheap and popular, they became a dime a dozen in the late 60s, a taste which Japanese audiences would carry over into the new decade. Gone was […]
The Executioner Collection (1974) Sonny Chiba’s Lucky Stars (Review)
Japanese cinema carries with it a certain gravitas in the minds of many. It evokes images of great chivalry (Seven Samurai), dreams and heartbreak (Ikiru), honour and justice (Hara-Kiri) and the importance of family (Tokyo Story). Names such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu loom large over its […]
Big Time Gambling Boss (1968) An Essential for anyone with a penchant for Yakuza Cinema (Review)
Big Time Gambling Boss is the fourth entry in the Bakuchi-uchi series (a series that ran for ten films in total between 1967 to 1972 and was released by Toei studios). Starring Koji Tsurata (Sympathy for the Underdog) as a suave and chivalrous gambling Yakuza general, he has everything we’ve […]
The Witch Part 2: The Other One (2022) Korean Superpowered Franchise, reheated (VOD review)
In July 2006 the South Korean government, in a trade agreement with the United States of America, halved the number of days dedicated to South Korean films being shown in their own domestic market. This went from 146 days to just 73. This had a significant impact on the types […]
The Spine of Night (2021) A shining example of what can be done with a singular vision (Blu-Ray Review)
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it”. John Dalberg-Acton Never has this quote been more applicable than to The […]
Angela Mao: Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind (1972) – a must for any connoisseur of the Kung Fu genre (Blu-Ray Review)
There is a long tradition of on-screen female action stars in Chinese cinema history. Sometimes referred to as 打女/Du Na (see THIS excellent video by Accented Cinema for a deeper dive into this tradition) and starting back when Shanghai was the centre of the Chinese film-making world in the 1930s […]