Impressively goofy yet equally dark

A spiritual successor to Yuen Woo-ping's earlier triumph, Drunken Master, The Magnificent Butcher does take a while to get going but once it does, it doesn't let up. Its action is consistently wonderful, often the result of a misunderstanding due to Sammo Hung's character being too impatient to hear the whole story leading to a series of unfortunate events throughout. The combination of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao is always a treat and here it's no different, but as a comedy film first, the tone is right down the middle, featuring everything from fart jokes and the Popeye theme to an incestuous rape which drastically changes the direction of its story, if a little clumsily. Regardless, what The Magnificent Butcher does offer is Woo-ping patterned precision and creativity when conducting a fight scene with the two different tones of the movie offering such visceral moments of martial arts excellence.

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Solid if lacking

Just Heroes is far from John Woo's finest hour, but even then there's a lot to love about this minor classic, with Woo's trademarked heroic bloodshed coming out in full force during the finale. Commissioned by Tsui Hark to raise retirement money for a broke Chang Cheh, John Woo's main influence and tutor, Cheh then spent said money on making another film instead. Woo only directed about 60% of this and his style is plainly obvious when compared to the 40% helmed by Wu Ma. It's the kind of film that desperately needs another 20-30 minutes to let all its ideas flow, it feels rushed which doesn't surprise me given how quickly it was thrown together, the pedestrian script could have done with some tightening up. Despite this, Just Heroes boasts a funky musical score, some great performances from David Chiang, Danny Lee and a young Stephen Chow and is packed full of intrigue even in a routine-like mob world with elements that feel like they belong to a Takeshi Kitano yakuza thriller.

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You can see why Woo was hired for Mission: Impossible

John Woo's penultimate film before his emigration to America and produced during his two masterpieces of Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled, Once a Thief is certainly more laid back than the two films it's sandwiched between which leaves it in an odd position. It's a loving send-up of the 50s globe-trotting capers with Woo's signature explosive style of hi-octane action, a nice mix of a playful, romantic love triangle between childhood friends in a relentless pursuit of impossible dreams and exuberant slapstick comedy (the wheelchair dance is truly kino). It's the sort of film atypical of Hollywood at the time and no wonder he was chosen to helm the best instalment of the first three Mission Impossible films, just a shame he didn't bring Chow Yun-fat along for the ride.

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Controversial Woo is Good Woo

Released during John Woo's so-called "Golden Period", Bullet in the Head is easily Woo's most personal and bluntest film that he himself financed single handily. While hits like The Killer solidified his bromantic style of filmmaking, Bullet turns it on its head. It's a disturbing masterpiece that he rewrote as a reaction to the June Fourth Incident and it doesn't pull any of its punches. Even opening the film to "I'm a Believer" doesn't prepare you for the sheer masterclass that is about to unfold. I really wish his original 3-hour cut would grace our screens one day, but even in its truncated form, Bullet in the Head is sheer perfection.

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Woo at his finest

Unquestionably the crowning jewel of John Woo's filmography, Hard Boiled is a film that doesn't have anything to prove and Woo's last hurrah to the industry that brought him lasting vitality as a filmmaker. Mayhem has never looked better. So many films owe their origins to this movie and Woo himself, his shootouts are a ballet; his firebombings are poetry. And while he lets the body count get away from him, he constantly fascinates, through a combination of chaos and an excruciating control over what we're allowed to see.

Boasting some of the finest action sequences ever filmed and beautiful emotional resonance Hard Boiled is a powerful thriller that hits hard in more ways than one. It's the very definition of an action masterpiece; Heroic Bloodshed that only Woo could deliver, give him a gun, he's Superman. But give the man two and he's a God.

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Fun if uninspired sequel

Takashi Miike's loose and belated sequel to The Great Yokai War, Guardians is much more of the same, so if you liked the previous adventure, you'd like this. It's made for kids so accessibility is a key factor to its appeal, meaning there's not much meat to its story beyond your standard hero's journey, but just because it's more kid-friendly doesn't mean it lacks a lot of wacky, and sometimes downright disturbing, imagery courtesy of the Yokai themselves which are brilliantly realised (both east and west alike). Miike even managed to bring back our great guardian god Daimajin for an extended cameo which put a big smile on my face knowing he was originally lined up to direct a film reboot in the late 2000s. Fox-Faced Woman also was ?.

While there's certainly a lot of love and creativity put into this movie, I can't deny like the previous film, it certainly has its faults. The child-friendly tone does its story no favours, especially in the final act where you'd normally find Miike going hell for leather, it falters. The overreliance on CG like the last, has dated the film extremely quickly although Japan has never really had the best of results with this technology. Regardless, for what it's worth, The Great Yokai War –Guardians– is a fun romp but extremely subdued Miike which is saying a lot.

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Just as fun as the previous adventure

After viewing the pleasantly surprising Ironfinger I had to check out its sequel sooner rather than later. Golden Eyes, again a translator's joke of a title, plays itself slightly straighter than the previous adventure. I say slightly because there are still out-and-out ridiculous moments sprinkled through its runtime that rival that of its predecessor.

A killer-for-hire gets mixed up in an intense battle for control over a gold smuggling route from Beirut to Tokyo, all the while trying to support a little girl in her quest for vengeance over the men who killed her dad.

Golden Eyes continues the mysterious international intrigue set up by the Bond series with the globe-trotting antics of its cast. I'd mentioned that this film does contain some ridiculous moments worthy of its predecessor and that is true. Be it the amazing use of ricocheting bullets to shoot guns at guns to fight assailants dressed as nuns pushing baby carriages with machine guns mounted on them or the poison gas chicken room service or the champagne bottle firing squad, Golden Eyes hardly lacks inventive ideas. But there's an equal mean streak going on here and the moment the two leading ladies get tortured with a cigarette lighter is admittedly a hard watch.

Jun Fukuda's direction is perfectly solid, I don't think it's nearly as diverse as the previous film but serves it's duty well. He directs the action sequences with such kinetic energy you can't help but be suckered in, helped by the short 80-minute runtime. The man knows how to direct engaging gunfights. The writing is a strange combination of returning talent Michio Tsuzuki, Ei Ogawa of the Bloodthirsty trilogy and Space Amoeba fame and even Jun Fukuda gets some semblance of duties when handling the writing.

Akira Takarada continues to be an effortlessly badass, with all his charm and sophistication carrying over. Ichirô Arishima's character Detective Tezuka is back only this time played by the equally reliable Makoto Satō who makes the character his own while still managing to carry over elements of Arishima's portrayal. Bibari Maeda and Tomomi Sawa both play great equivalent Bond girls with Maeda's Ruby acting as a constant foil for Takarada's Andy to overcome. Of course, it's equally wonderful to see Yoshio Tsuchiya as one of the bad guys and is very much the film's primary antagonist to overcome even if he does get overshadowed by Andrew Hughes' blind eccentric billionaire Mr Stonefeller and his dog Sinbad.

The music by Masaru Satō continues his efforts from Ironfinger. Bringing back a few of his cues from the previous film but also enhancing a lot of them by adding more elements to them. The title song is also in English this time around and if anything is a bigger earworm than the last one, I definitely prefer it.

Overall, Golden Eyes may be seen as having diminishing returns when directly compared to Ironfinger, but what it lacks in contrast it makes up for in sheer fun, great acting and engaging action set pieces. The 100 Shot, 100 Killed series, unfortunately, ended here in what you can easily picture as turning into a multi-episode adventure.

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Japan meets 007

Ironfinger was such a pleasantly surprising film, the Japanese tend to have a good track record for Bondsplotation and this is no exception. I'd honestly say it's a much better film than most of the Connery outings and this one even stars a later Bond girl to boot. The title of this film is actually 100 Shot, 100 Killed, Ironfinger was more of a translator's joke to more closely associate it with the James Bond series that it's a parody of.

After being mistaken for an Interpol agent, a man who was just supposed to go on vacation gets mixed up in a war between two gangs intent on winning the favour of a notorious arms dealer.

For those of you who read my Godzilla reviews know I'm not a fan of Jun Fukuda's work on the series, nor his Star Wars venture The War in Space, I am however a big fan of his other works, the man clearly has a talent for mad-cap action and Ironfinger is just another film I can add to his repertoire of great films. Funny, inventive and full of wit, it's hard not to love its madness.

The whole idiot accidentally becomes Hero trope is nothing new, I'll admit. But it's played off in a fantastic way befitting of Fukuda's manic and inventive directional techniques, combined with a superbly written screenplay by Kihachi Okamoto and Michio Tsuzuki that balances the playful tone with a much more menacing and serious threat looming overhead with a deadly gang war with a poor tourist caught in the middle.

It's got everything you could want from a Japanese take on James Bond, the action, the gadgets, the humour, the girls, the partial nudity, the seemingly indestructible henchman and a likeable lead to boot, all presented in a nice mad cap Japanese concoction that should satisfy the most die-hard of Bond fans.

Akira Takarada is cast against his usual type of more buttoned-down archetypes into one of a bumbling fool that effortlessly switches between speaking Japanese, French and English with such outstanding effort, it can't be easy. Mie Hama stars as the film's female lead, eventually going on to play Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice, she gets way more to do here than she does in her later official Bond film. It's kinda sad when a knockoff does that better than the series it's knocking off. Other familiar faces include Ichirô Arishima, Susumu Kurobe, Chōtarō Tōgin and of course, Akihiko Hirata playing the film's villainous henchman.

The score by Masaru Satō is genuinely good fun, it combines his usual trappings with a fun dose of John Barry-esque motifs. There's even a killer theme song to boot although not quite on the same level as some Bond numbers, it's catchy enough to stick with you.

Overall, Ironfinger is another fab film from Jun Fukuda, up there with the likes of ESPY and The Secret of the Telegain in terms of sheer quality mixed with brilliant storytelling. I'd easily watch more of this sort of stuff from Fukuda and thankfully there's a sequel.

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Verstility is the name of the game

Original Hong Kong Version

Even with this ancient DVD print full of screen tearing and damaged frames, God of Gamblers showcases one of Chow Yun-Fat's most versatile performances effortlessly switching back and forth between impeccably suave and utterly adorable on a dime. Backed by the ever-amazing Andy Lau, it's really only two extremely questionable moments that hold this film back from being rated any higher. Even then Wong Jing's intense gambling drama is a classic of Hong Kong cinema and one I will definitely pick up on Blu-ray. I do question the sheer number of sequels and spin-offs though with one of them being a time travel story... Nonetheless, sign me up.

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The best street fighter movie

I'm not overly familiar with Tsukasa Hojo's original manga, but I have seen the original anime a long time ago. As adaptations of the source material go, Wong Jing's City Hunter isn't really the most faithful, it tones down a lot of Ryō's antics to fit with Jackie's style of humour and image but offers in its place a genuinely great movie that doesn't repeat a lot of the mistakes of American anime adaptations by trying to make it gritty, it's bat shit insane in the best way possible. It's also the best adaptation of Street Fighter this side of Future Cops, who doesn't wanna see Jackie Chan dressed as Chun-Li?

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TAKE ME HIGHER!

It's taken me way too long to finish this series and I wanna apologise to my friend Garasharp for that. After small side steps into a few short-lived co-produced Ultra shows, Ultraman returned to his full Japanese roots with Ultraman Tiga marking the debut of a new full-fledged Ultra series and the first full Heisei series.

After a franchise hiatus of over 15 years, set in a universe different from all previous series and updated with a new look and feel. Ultraman Tiga is basically one of, if not, the defining Ultra show. You don't need prior knowledge of any of the previous shows to get Tiga, it acts as a fresh start for the series but remains faithful and familiar to the long-time fans.

Where Tiga shines brightest is in its cast of likeable lead characters, raw emotional impact and breathtaking production values. The storytelling is up to the usual Tsuburaya quality with seemingly every episode, for better or worse, developing the characters and their own motivations over the course of the 52-episode run. The slow-burn love story between Daigo and Rena is extremely worthwhile and rewarding for those invested in the series, and the rest of the supporting cast is equally fantastic although Horii can be extremely hit or miss with his comedic antics even then he gets a satisfying and conclusive character arc.

Wildly unpredictable at times with a multitude of excellent episodes under its belt (and yes even some rather dire ones), the series is never lazy. It continues to bring out new and imaginative monsters without feeling the need to recycle and even when an old monster shows up again, it's not without reason.

Unfortunately trying to watch this series in its original format is made nearly impossible due to a long-standing and extremely strict contract with lead actor Hiroshi Nagano's talent agency, Johnny & Associates. There's a great video on why this happened by Vintage Henshin which you should all watch. It's a real shame that due to this, Tiga has been plagued by a lack of reruns, botched home video releases and even suffering from extreme cuts or outright being skipped due to the use of Nagano's own likeness.

The show's production is essentially flawless, the top-notch suitmation work combined with tight direction, scripts and fantastic musical score by Tatsumi Yano. But it's the use of Take Me Higher for the series' opening and often used to accompany the final battles of the episodes where it really gets your heart pumping, unfortunately, it's another casualty of Johnny & Associates' rules due to the fact that Nagano is a member of the band, V6, who perform the song.

There are so many stand-out episodes from the show it's hard to narrow it down to a list of favourites or best episodes, although I will attempt it:
1. The Ultra Star
2. One Vanishing Moment
3. The One Who Inherits the Shadows
4. Zelda's Point Defences
5. Dear Mr Ultraman
6. Take Me Higher! / Master of Darkness / To the Shining Ones
7. The Released Target
8. Second Contact
9. Resurrected Friend
10. Hana

The series has range and it uses it superbly well, be it introducing the first fully evil Ultra of the franchise with Evil Tiga, a self-indulgent love letter to the founding father of Tsuburaya Productions telling a story of how he met the original Ultraman or a scientist trying to live with the grief of his creation that killed his own daughter. There's a multitude of different styles and genres present in this show, catering to everyone and anyone. Even the more kid-focused stories while being the weaker ones are more than worth a look for some rather decent kid acting and storylines.

Ultraman Tiga on the whole distils everything and anything you could want or need out of an Ultraman show. Pure glowing hope and love in the face of Lovecraftian cosmic evil. No matter how dire the situation, it never relents in its depiction of its titular character as a source of optimism. My love for Tokusatsu as a whole can more than be summed up with my love for this show.

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