masterly master lee
a home for forgotten and famous korean pulp, its heroes, its heroines, and its pulpeteersArchive for November, 2007
Shadowless Sword 無影劍 2005 review
This 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
“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
As 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
Kwak 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 »
The Invincible From Hell 1981
This 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
Here 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
I 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
Korean-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
Sometimes 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 »
Tube 튜브 2003
This 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
Order 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
Surely 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
Haan. 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 »