Ching Siu-tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) was, in some ways, the creative peak of the Hong Kong New Wave era’s xianxia movement, as initiated by producer (and some say co-director) Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain in 1983. The genre was already steeped in imitation and homage, so it came as no surprise that Ching’s film led to three official sequels, an animated film, a 2011 reboot, and an array of movies that liberally ‘borrowed’ the imagery and other elem

WITNESS THE LIVES OF INTERESTING PEOPLE MADE MORE INTERESTING VIA SUBJECTIVE TRUTHS, PLASTIC AVATARS, UNRELIABLE NARRATORS, AND CG MONKEY-FICATION!! Biopics: bland, formulaic, predictable. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, right? Well, not every filmmaker is content to follow the blueprint. Join Gabe and returning guest Tyler Foster as they explore four examples of Unconventional Biopics that break the narrative and aesthetic rules of the genre. This month’s titles inclu

From slimy creatures to supernatural wizardry to sex-crazed serial killers, the biggest collection in Arrow Video's Shawscope series yet

Michael Crichton, the forever king of high concept speculative airport fiction, made his directorial debut with the beloved science fiction pastiche Westworld (1973). Unlike the HBO series remake that followed, this version of the story puts thrills and entertainment value ahead of provocative existentialism, preventing Crichton from digging too deeply into the horrors of being a sentient machine. Instead, with what little time he has (this is a very short movie), he focuses

During the 1980s, Hong Kong studios began the search for a female equivalent to rising cinema idols, like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, in keeping with the tradition of King Hu’s Come Drink with Me (1966), Huang Feng’s Hapkido (aka: Lady Kung Fu, 1972), and Lau Kar-leung’s My Young Auntie (1981). This led to a series of full-throttle action classics affectionately known as Girls with Guns movies. The Girls with Guns genre really kicked off with the In the Line of Duty films, a

Surely, on the list of underrated cult filmmakers, Robert Clouse ranks highly. His work with Bruce Lee alone – including directing Lee’s Hollywood debut, Enter the Dragon (1973), and completing Game of Death (1978) after Lee’s death – is enough to get him into the history books, but he also made Jim Kelly’s first star vehicle, Black Belt Jones (1974), attempted to introduce Jackie Chan and Cynthia Rothrock to American audiences via The Big Brawl (1980) and China O’Brien (1990

Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come (1972) is arguably the most famous, influential, and consequential motion picture to ever come out of Jamaica. It’s certainly the most famous, influential, and consequential motion picture about reggae and the criminal connections to the local music scene during the 1970s. Despite Henzell’s film’s impact on the midnight movie circuit and the fact that it helped introduce reggae and ska to North America and Europe, the Jamaican film industr

Katô’s first yakuza film, Blood of Revenge (Japanese: Meiji kyokyakuden - sandaime shumei, 1965), takes place at the turn of the previous century, well before the yakuza’s post-WWII peak, offering a contrast to the rough-and-tumble, modern-set Japanese gangster films Kinji Fukasaku made during the 1970s. The result is a jidaigeki style gangster tale with an industrial revolution twist. It’s not an entirely unique fusion of narrative conventions, as there are plenty of other J

SPLIT PERSONALITIES! BURIED TRAUMA! DEMANDING CAREERS! SHITTY BOYFRIENDS! COLD-BLOODED MURDER! IT’S HARD OUT HERE FOR A WOMAN!! We’ve already talked about the giallo movies released during the genre’s peak year of 1971 with Patrick and covered several of the American films found in the pages of Kier-La Janisse’s House of Psychotic Women with Bill, so why not join Gabe and first-time guest host Sharon Gissy for a look at the female-centric gialli  also found in Janisse’s autob

During the 1990s, a string of international hits brought the Hong Kong New Wave to the attention of Hollywood and several top tier filmmakers, including Jackie Chan, John Woo, Yuen Woo-ping, Ronny Yu, Ringo Lam, and Tsui Hark, were given deals making English-language films. Like previous attempts to import Hong Kong style action to America, most of these films – especially the ones not involving Chan, Woo, or Yuen – were modestly budgeted and either went straight-to-video or