Author: Andrew Skeates

A mainly cool slice of retro 70s exploitation that while maybe not Golden Harvest’s finest, is an entertaining revenge romp for fans of old school action.

Buoyed by Fukasaku’s energetic direction, copious action, and some still to this day impressive special effects, ‘Message from Space’ delights in being two hours of ambitious infectious fun.

‘Kingdom of Storms’ certainly gives it a good go at adapting the ancient tale for the big screen even though it buckles slightly under its lofty ambitions and reliance on copious CGI. 

Jimmy Wang Yu, Angelo Mao, a very young Bolo Yeung, and one-time Bond, George Lazenby teamed up for this Golden Harvest-produced attempt at cracking the international market.

Arriving with a heft of rightly earned hype, ‘Walled In’ is an often epic, brutal, and thoroughly entertaining throwback to 80s Hong Kong style cinema.

A somewhat straightforward, and at times melodramatic, narrative is given heft by the committed cast, stunning cinematography and set design, and fantastic swordplay action.

Slickly helmed by stunt guy and first-time director Heo Myung-Haeng, ‘Badland Hunters’ is some rollicking fun not to be taken too seriously.

Beginning somewhat sombre and low key before exploding into a cavalcade of colour and crazy (talking) creatures, ‘The Boy And The Heron’ is pure unbridled Miyazaki.

Not as riotously entertaining as the first instalment, ‘Bodyguard Kiba 2’ is still a fun watch, mainly to see Chiba strutting his cool stuff and for the impressive fight scenes that open and close the film.

Existing in its own heightened reality, ‘Bodyguard Kiba’ is all about making our hero look cool (and indestructible!) and the bad guys as nasty as possible.

Owing a lot to likes of ‘Evil Dead’ (and other 80s style demon/zombie/gore films) Kenichi Ugana puts enough of his own spin and Japanese style quirk into proceedings to make it his own.

‘Fighting Spirit’ has some energy and a surfeit of almost non-stop fights but is just a little too cheap, hokey, and grimy to recommend as silly fun.