masterly master lee

a home for forgotten and famous korean pulp, its heroes, its heroines, and its pulpeteers

Archive for November, 2007

Four Toes 4발가락 2002 review

four-toes.jpgThis is the kind of movie that gives gangster movies a bad name. Not satisfied with producing a gangster comedy, that unfortunate bastard child of two genres that should have stayed away from each other, the producers of Four Toes felt it necessary to drag the viewer with them into the darkest depths of cinematic stupidity and meaninglessness. Read the rest of this entry »

Run 2U 런투유 2003 review

run2u.jpgPretentious pulp is about as hard to stomach as pretentious art-house cinema. And this Japanese-Korean co-production is pretentious. Two Japanese-Korean best friends (a lethargic singer of love songs and a would-be yakuza) flee Japan Read the rest of this entry »

Shadowless Sword 無影劍 2005 review

shadow1.jpgThis must be my favorite pulp movie or at least one of my favorites. Shadowless Sword 무영검/無影劍 is extremely well-made fun, loaded with historical and contemporary references and with those rare actors who under the right direction gracefully bear the load of impressive action scenes and tongue-in-cheek acting. Read the rest of this entry »

D-war 디워 2007

dragonwars-poster.jpg“Since the dawn of what became a legend, the most unimaginable is about to occur . This summer, experience the absolute conquest of all mankind. Beginning with one search. For the one and only. The chosen one. Descended from the heavens above. Welcome to Dragon Wars.”

Yup, that about says it for D-war or Dragon Wars. Read the rest of this entry »

Anarchists 아나키스트 2000

anarchists1.jpgAs opposed to Korean- Japanese co-productions, Korean-Chinese productions usually work out. The first such co-production ever, Anarchists is a typical coming-of-age gangster movie, but with anarchists instead of gangsters. Set in 1920′s Shanghai it tells the story of a tightly knit group of übercool Korean anarchists who have joined countless other Koreans in exile in China. There they continue their struggle against the Japanese colonizers. And boy, do they do so in style! Read the rest of this entry »

Typhoon 태풍 2005

typhoon.jpgKwak Kyung-taek made millions of friends with his 2001 smash hit Friend 친구 which had all of South Korea imitating Pusan dialect for the next year. With Typhoon he probably lost them all. Allegedly 15 million dollars went into making this melodramatic tearjerker Read the rest of this entry »

Hanbando 한반도 2006

hanbando.jpgThe man who brought us the reasonably enjoyable cop flicks Two Cops 투캅스 I, II, III, the overly nationalist action drama Shilmido 실미도 and the action blockbuster Public Enemy 공곡의적 is back. This time Kang Woo-suk tells a story set in the not-too-distant future in which North and South Korea are planning to reopen the Kyungui Railway that once connected the southern tip of the peninsula with its northern top. But alas, in an act worthy of Emperor Ming the Merciless (and about as plausible), Japan throws a spanner in the works Read the rest of this entry »

The Invincible From Hell 1981

masterlee.jpgThis blog really should have started with a review of this DVD (a double feature; the other movie on it is Duel of the 7 Tigers), starring the eponymous Master Lee. In The Invincible From Hell Master Lee plays a former triad member who has taken on the triads after they killed his wife. This really is a very nice movie, starting with the soundtrack, which is improbably versatile Read the rest of this entry »

The Last Fist Of Fury 最後의 精武門 1977

lastfist.jpgHere is a treat. An authentic Dragon Lee movie! Starring Dragon Lee 巨龍 거룡, whose Bruce Lee impersonation is so perfect it borders on the surreal. Bruceploitation at its best, it is hard to tell that this was originally a Korean movie. The original version is lost, Read the rest of this entry »

The Korean Connection 1977

koreanconnection.jpgI think this is a nice movie. I guess, because it seems to have been made up from left-overs from other movies. This is the story how it is supposed to be: “Korean martial arts star Yong Chul stars as “Tiger”, a loner fighter with a deadly kick! Read the rest of this entry »

Seoul 72 Hours 서울 2001

seoul.jpgKorean-Japanese co-productions have a tendency to produce unfortunate results. Seoul 72 Hours 서울 is a cop flick about a young and ambitious Japanese detective (played by singer Nagase Tomoya 長瀬 智也) who coincidentally gets on the trail of an international gang of terrorists. He is placed under the command of tough guy and charisma canon Choi Min-su, Read the rest of this entry »

Sword In The Moon 청풍명월 2003

sword.jpgSometimes happiness (or contentment at least) is within easy reach. In this case it is Choi Min-su 최민수 and a sword that make for a great night. Sword In The Moon 청풍명월 is a historical epic of distinct Korean provenance, but filled to the brim with influences of and references to the wuxia 武狹 and chambara genres. Lacking the superhuman martial feats of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the Korean Shadowless Sword 無影劍 and Bichunmoo 飛天舞, Read the rest of this entry »

Family: Action Vs. Love 패밀리 2002

family-action-vs-love.gifWell, I guess I had it coming. I am quite vocal about my love for really bad Korean gangster movies and in general low standards and budgets do not scare me off. There is one exception, though. Really bad gangster comedies. I can’t stand them. They sully the genre and aggravate the hell out of me. Family: Action Vs. Love has all the ingredients to ruin a perfectly good viewing experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Say Yes 세이 예스 2001

say-yes.jpgJust say no to this movie. Trust me. This is no Se7en, Tell Me Something and certainly no Memories of Murder.This is one of those many, many imitations, copies, and cheap reproductions of classic serial killer movies, which time and again fail to achieve any significant standard of quality, originality, creativity or honest workmanship. Say Yes is an attempt to emulate the success of the Korean hit Tell Me Something, a well-written, well-acted and well-directed noir thriller about serial killings in Seoul. Read the rest of this entry »

Tube 튜브 2003

tube.jpgThis is what happens if you put together Die Hard, Speed, Hunter (yes, the TV series), all John Woo movies but without the white pigeons, a gifted actress with a penchant for choosing the wrong movie and a script writer with a penchant for choosing the most implausible plot turn. Tube starts with a big bang at the airport and ends with a whimper. Three (!) terrorists make short work of several heavily armed SWAT-teams and take off with a valuable computer chip. Read the rest of this entry »

Face 페이스 2000

face.jpgOrder some pizza, get out a bottle of plonk and enjoy this deliciously predictable horror flick. No surprises here, but everything has been acted out perfectly. Shin Hyeon-jun is someone who reconstructs faces of dead people and who is plagued by nightmares about a scary woman in white clothes and with long, black hair (sound familiar?). Read the rest of this entry »

Arahan 아라한 대풍 대작전 2004

arahan1.jpgSurely this is cinema as it was meant to be. It entertains, moves, astounds, engages our sympathy, and makes one want more. It is a loving tribute to classic Asian martial arts and fantasy movies and it produces that elusive belly-aching laugh. The actors are great and the casting is a sequence of strokes of genius. It is the third movie made by the two golden brothers of Korean cinema: Ryu Seungwan 유승완 and Ryu Seungbeom 유승범. It is Arahan 아라한 대풍 대작전. Read the rest of this entry »

Haan! 한길수 2005

HaanHaan. It’s Dutch for rooster or cock. It’s also the slightly unfortunate English title for the Korean version of Pearl Harbour: Han Kilsu 한길수. Based on honest-to-god true facts, this is the story of Han Kilsu, a Korean expatriot in 1940 in Hawai’i. As Korea had been colonized by Japan, Read the rest of this entry »

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