Notes from the attic: Asian extreme

We watch a fair number of films from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong in our movie club. Before I started attending, the others watched the six-film 70s samurai series Lone Wolf and Cub (based on a manga). I've since watched it and it's pretty awesome (thanks, Tony). If you've ever seen Shogun Assassin (we showed it a couple times when we had a weekly Sunday Cult Night), Shogun is basically the first two Lone Wolf movies smashed together with a (kinda annoying) kid narrator.

"I'll poke you full of holes all day."

Speaking of assassins: if you missed 13 Assassins when we screened it last year you can rent it from 9th Street Video. It's a nod to classic samurai cinema and has an amazing battle scene at the end. Definitely worth checking out.

Here's what we've watched lately:

City Of Violence  (2006)  This is a fun, action-packed Korean film. A detective returns home for a childhood friend's funeral and ends up investigating his death.  A lot of Korean films I've seen have this great quality of mixing goofy comedy and tragedy like no other. CoV is no exception. See also Mother (2009), The Host (2006), Oldboy (2003), Thirst (2009).

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl  (1998) From Japan. A discontented hotel worker fleeing her pervy uncle and a bank robber running from the yakuza form a weird relationship on the lam. Chock-full of fun characters and the best hit man ever...or maybe the most unusual.

"What do you see?"

And if you want to see a whole lot of explosions and ass-kickings (and maybe some smooth jazz) check out Hard Boiled (1992) and The Killer (1989) from master of action John Woo.