Rob's (mostly) Asian movie blog.
In the near future the world has frozen and the remnants of humanity survive inside a train endlessly circumnavigating the globe. The richest live in luxury at the front, the poorest exist in squalor at the back. But one day those in the rear carriages decide to seize control.
A fascinating, stylishly executed and exciting tale with good performances across … Read the rest
Talented piano student Je (Jay Choo) finds his attention caught by the enigmatic Rain (Guey Lun Mei), a girl who tells him about a mysterious melody hidden in their music school’s soon to be demolished ballroom. But when Je later discovers a decades old photo of Rain with his father (the girl looking exactly the same age) it leads him … Read the rest
A broke and struggling actor named Takeshi (Masato Sakai) seizes the chance to swap his identity and home with middle-aged assassin Kondo (Teruyuki Kagawa) after an accident in a bath house leaves the latter with amnesia. As Takeshi settles into Kondo’s luxurious pad a bewildered Kondo, who’s now living in Takeshi’s hovel, begins a relationship with emotionally repressed businesswoman Kanae … Read the rest
Mr. Mita (Shuji Sano) a Tokyo insurance clerk demoted after punching a superior at work finds new lodgings at the titular inn. Confronted by a hard-hearted landlady, her lazy brother Ossan, overworked servant girls Oyone, Orika and Otsugi, lecherous tenant Mr. Noro, poverty stricken seamstress Omitsu (Sachiko Hidari), visits from friends Tawana and geisha Miss Uwabami (Nobuko Otawa), Mr. Mita … Read the rest
One day Hideyoshi Date (Katsunori Takahashi), a debt-ridden, suicidal 30-something discovers a runaway kid named Densuke Aikawa (Roi Hayashi) in the back of his car. Densuke turns out to be fleeing an overbearing father but when Hideyoshi realises the kid’s parents are loaded he hatches an impromptu kidnap scheme and demands a huge ransom for the boy’s return. Unknown to … Read the rest
A Mafia dealmaker (Claudio Amendola) has plans to turn the summer resort of Ostia into an Italian Las Vegas. But when a bent politician (Pierfrancesco Favino) crucial to the deal is blackmailed the politician seeks help from an ambitious criminal (Alessandro Borghi) and his junkie girlfriend (Greta Scarano) who between them run all illegal activity in Ostia. Before long the … Read the rest
The crew of the fishing boat Lucky Dragon venture far outside their usual waters in search of a bigger catch. Near Bikini Atoll a bright flash of light on the horizon turns the night into day and is followed by a strange cloud of ash which covers the ship and its crew. Returning home, the dreadful truth slowly emerges and … Read the rest
Subtle, engagingly played and shrewdly observed romantic drama in which the death of a mini-bus driver (Louis Koo) in a traffic collision forces his fiancee Sui (Cecilia Cheung) into taking on his job in order to support the child she has from a previous marriage. Spectacularly ill-suited at coping with both driving and life in general Sui is shown the … Read the rest
A retired FBI profiler named Will Graham (William Peterson) has the ability to put himself into the mind of his quarry and at the prodding of a former colleague (Dennis Farina) reluctantly accepts an assignment to hunt down a serial killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan) who targets entire families for slaughter. As Graham renews contact with a former … Read the rest
A hard-hearted Seoul businessman (Gong Yoo) accompanies his 9 year old daughter (Kim Soo-an) on a train journey to meet his estranged wife in the city of Busan. Unfortunately for them the victim of a zombie attack boards the train seconds before departure and before you can shout ‘All aboard!’ the zombie virus spreads like wildfire and isolated pockets of … Read the rest
