One of the all time performances from Louis Koo!

Decided to leave 100 Yards for a time I could better focus on it, it's late, so what better time than for some cinematic comfort food, Benny Chan's Call of Heroes. The last significant Hong Kong wuxia? One of the best HK movies of the last decade, for sure.

#NowWatching 100 Yards (2023 Xu Haofeng) All of this watching Chinese streaming movies has reminded me that I have an unwatched Xu Haofeng movie that I KNOW will be good, sitting on my shelf.

Odds were against me finding a minor classic in my trawl through Chinese streaming services, but Strange Door and Dark Blade is it. It's very CGI based action, but it kicks ass. Great story, characters, and action. I've edited this clip for spoilers (and it's definitely getting tagged for violence)

#NowWatching Strange Door and Dark Blade (2022 Chris Huo) 30 minutes in, this absolutely owns. Just non stop action, admittedly CGI assisted, but incredibly stylish, and with a great central mystery. We'll see if it holds up over 90 minutes.

Part 2's finally getting a BD release next month 😂

The White Haired Witch (2020 Wu Yingxiang) Eva Huang provides some star power, and there is a good amount of well shot action here. It kind of acts of a sequel to the other Wolf Witch movie from the same year, but with better, more practical fight action. This is a definite recommendation.

The action is a little over edited, and there's a good amount of CGI magic shenanigans, but this a pretty decent effort, only 73 minutes, and the last 20 or so offer some pretty solid action

#NowWatching White Haired Devil Lady (2020 Zhou Tianyu) Norman Tsui stars as a villainous Eunich (is there any other kind in historical China/The Martial World, Zhang Weina stars as the titular lady in this Youku adaptation of The Bride With White Hair. Some decentish fantasy action, 73 minutes.

#NowWatching The Mysterious Story of Longyun Town (2022 Liu Xuandi, Chen Wenlong) What can I say, I am a sucker for Chin Siu-ho, even in his crappy streaming era. Anyway this is maybe supposed to be better than the average iQIYI slop.

Lethal Panther: wow Godfrey Ho can make a real movie. I really weird movie but still. Lethal Panther 2: I can see both god and Satan in this

After watching 3 episodes of Welcome to Derry I feel like sunk cost fallacy might have set in and I'll have to finish it, but this isn't great.

It's Saturday! 📺 Post a cartoon TV series you love.

Man, crappy streaming movies started looking really nice at some point

#NowWatching Mr.Zombie: Demonic Poison of Golden Cicada (2021 Wei Zhang) If you watch enough iQIYI in a short enough span of time, your brain will come leaking out of your ears. Just testing out that theory with what I reckon to be...Mr Zombie 3?

Southern Mao and Northern Ma (2023 Zhang Shitao, Xu He) AKA Nanmao and Beima is another adventure with Zhang Dicai's take on the one eyebrowed Taoist priest, but it's rather slow, boring and uneventful. Not recommended. Still, the sole action scene is pretty good:

#FF @podcastonfire.bsky.social @wonggifs.bsky.social @sogoodreviews.bsky.social @yourmcpodcast.bsky.social @cinemastrikesback.bsky.social @mibih.bsky.social @easternfilmfans.bsky.social @heroes3podcast.bsky.social @bigmikeleeder.bsky.social @bulletproofpod.bsky.social @culturalgutter.bsky.social

Post a shot from a film that blows you away 🖤

Love to see two old Shaw Brothers stars, Chin Siu Ho and Norman Tsui go at it in Taoist Priest. ESPECIALLY when you get a dope Demon of the Lute reference thrown in for good measure! Also...third hand technique! lol

As expected, the Zhang Dicai action directed choreography in Taoist Priest absolutely rocks. Is he the hidden gem in the iQIYI streaming mines?

Didn' realise that this was in fact a sequel to Taoist Priest (2021 Ricky Lau) which reunited director Lau with old Mr Vampire chums Chin Siu Ho and Billy Lau. Also with Norman Tsui, and action choreographed by Zhang Dicai, meaning it has dope action too! Shame about the word salad subs....

#NowWatching Almost Human (1974 Umberto Lenzi) Podcast prep. Tomas Milian in this is totally unhinged. In fact it's like he's only

The Master Returns: Ghost Prisoner (2024 Zhang Dicai) Zhang directs/stars as a Taoist priest in this Mr Vampire esque throwback. A bit slow to begin, but full of cool, Ching Siu-tung esque wire-fu battles in the back half. At 76 minutes, it doesn't waste your time either. Good fun!

Zhang Dicai is a Ching Siu-tung understudy who does the rounds directing on Chinese streaming services. He can reliably make an incredible wuxia action scene, a totally crappy yet enjoyable monster B-movie, and now a totally serviceable World War II spy thriller.

The problem after 14 years of damage wreaked by the Tories is that we now have a f***ed up BBC and a f***ed up NHS. But, remember, the f***ing up has come from outside. It is not intrinsic We desperately need a properly functioning BBC and properly functioning NHS DEFEND THEM!

Lethal Panther 2. Some of the most insane action ever shot, sandwiched with the most inane scenes ever. Still, a lot of this is pretty rad. Would go for a good release of this.

ACtion by Yuen Wo Ping

it's finna be a Predator summer. What say you, ladies? Y'all ready for some green/orangey chocolate.

I look at the news Tears fall in raging river Michael Wong! Save me!

In the 90s Winona was everything

Okay I'm actually enjoying this. It's not just a worse version of Stranger Things. There are actual characters played by great actors. The horror imagery is more original and interesting.

#NowWatching It 2: Electric Boogaloo (2019 Dir: Some dude) If this is as bad as the first movie I will riot. At least it has some good actors in it. It's 3 hours long though ffs

I can't stop thinking about this trailer. In the role of a lifetime...Gary Oldman.

Val is so charming in this. At times it's almost a throwback to his early comedic performances

Jesus H Christ

Apparently he's brought the character back and interviewed Mike Flanagan. youtu.be/q7dyWmIPXFk?...

Yaaaaaaasssss

Having just read the book may have coloured my impressions on this rewatch, but it's terrible as an adaptation, and deeply mediocre as a horror movie on its own merits.

Wooooooo

A bit of a cliche, but Kerouac's On the Road inspired me to travel, so I probably wouldn't have been living and working abroad for 15 years had I not read that. Haruki Murakami's books got me through a very dark time in my life. The Easy Way to Stop Smoking got me to quit smoking! Books are good!

It's paywalled, so I'll save you the click: Enter the Eagles Beast Cops Whatever You Want Royal Warriors Surprised at Whatever You Want, that's a deep cut.

I was really looking forward to this rewatch after reading the book but...this sucks. One of those 'why didn't they just adapt the book' situations. I do like the "they're gazebos" line.

Not a wrong or incorrect opinion.

Death to the IDF. And folks wonder how people can become radicalised.

#NowWatching It (2017 Andy Muschietti) I did of course grow up with the miniseries, which had a performance from Tim Curry so good it made you forget that the rest of it was kind of mediocre. I remember this being very competent, but too reliant on jump scares. Bill Skarsgard is a good Pennywise tho

You're never going to find someone who loves FREEJACK more than I do.

Sad to say that my only seen Tatsuya Nakadai movies were Sword of Doom and Wicked City, and all I can remember of the latter is Leon Lai turning into an action figure. However, Sword of Doom, holy shit, just one of the most incredible performances. RIP to one of the greats.

One of the greatest actors of his, or any, era. Brooding, haunted, Gothic good looks with the intensity and conviction to back them up. He worked the camera like a speed bag. RiP king