masterly master lee

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

Archive for action

Sunny 님은 먼 곳에 (2008) review

This could not go wrong: here we have the story of a wimun (“consolation visit”) troupe of entertainers traveling to Vietnam, scenes of seedy bars in Korea and Vietnam, 1970s fashion, the veteran actor Chŏng Chinyŏng – who must be credited for one of the best police car pursuit scenes in cinema history (in Green Fish) – director Yi Jun-ik of former The King and the Clown fame, and Su Ae, an actress with a uniquely, stunning natural beauty. At the start of the movie we see Su Ae play a young woman by the name of Suni who finds herself in a very uncomfortable arranged marriage situation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Jaws Of The Dragon aka The Fierce One (1976) review

Master Lee likes movies with James Nam because he’s such a good bad guy. So, what to think of a movie which he not only directed, but also stars in as the main good guy? Well, fortunately, the good guy here is a criminal, so James Nam can be as bad ass as he wants to be while staying in character. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kung Fu Fever 정무지보 (小師傳與大煞星) (1979)

the black dragon going at it

Another internationally coproduced product of prolific Korean martial arts flick director Kim Si-Hyun 김시현. This one stars Dragon Lee 거룡, sidekick staple Choi Min-Kyu 최민규 and the Black Dragon himself, Ron Van Clief (respect from Master Lee for the Black Dragon!). And quite rarely, Ron Van Clief is the bad guy in this movie about a lost book with the secret finger techniques of Bruce Lee (“So well-suited to a woman,” coos pretty female lead Amy Chun with what hopefully is irony). Read the rest of this entry »

Run Away 런어웨이 1995 review

Oh yummy, a very early Kim Seongsu 김성수 movie! He’s the pulp master that brought us Musa (Musa: The Warrior) 무사, There Is No Sun 태양은 없다, and Beat 비트. And this one features as martial arts director the unsurpassed Jeong Duhong 정두홍.

Yi Donghui (Yi Byeongheon 이병헌), a handsome game designer, and Choe Miran (Kim Eunjeong 김은정), a pretty free-lance illustrator (who lives in an impossibly large loft), have a steamy one-night stand, Read the rest of this entry »

Girl Scouts 걸스카우트 2008 review

The Master just saw the movie Girl Scouts (2008) and he was impressed. No, boys and girls, despite the title, this is not a seedy movie about barely legal pretty girls strutting their stuff and doing naughty things with balding, fat males. This is an action comedy (a genre the  Master usually doesn’t have time for) about four women who get swindled out of significant amounts of money (needed among other things to pay for the surgery of a young son) and decide to chase the culprit (pretty hairdresser cum swindling femme fatale Im Ji-Eun 임지은 who looks suitably sexy-vulgar here, ready to do anything to get her way) Read the rest of this entry »

American Ninja The Magnificent 아라한 1986/1988 review

khsMaster Lee is pissed off. He really is. He just went into a well-known thugs den to pick a fight (well, not just one to be honest), beat a few thugs up, get rid of some frustration and cool down a bit. He was anticipating spending an evening at home, working out, felling some trees with his bare hands and watching a new DVD he just received: American Ninja The Magnificent. Read the rest of this entry »

An Emperor Of The Underworld 암흑가의 황제 1994 review

dragonleeAn Emperor Of The Underworld, directed by Hwang Jang Lee 황정리 (who also convincingly plays the überbaddie here) is a very solid action vehicle for Dragon Lee 거룡, his chubby and funny sidekick Yi Jin-Yeong 이진영 and the very, very pretty and voluptuous Kim Mi-Yeong 김미영. Dragon and his chubby friend are ex-commando’s, forced by the police to take on evil crime lord Hwang Jang Lee. This they do. Read the rest of this entry »

Bloody Mafia 붉은 마피아 review

bloodymafiaThis is the last movie directed and starred in by  action legend Wang Ho 왕호 better known as Casanova Wong 卡萨伐 from his many, many, many Hong Kong action flicks. OK, OK, not his last movie, I mean, this ex-marine also helmed the South Korean Ministry of Defense propaganda flick Read the rest of this entry »

Action Boys 우린 액션배우다 2008 review

actionboys01Master Lee was thrilled to see this documentary about the daredevils who do the stunts and bodydoubles for Korea’s famous (action) stars (not for the Master of course! He invented action cinema). Action Boys follows the careers of the 36 young men who made it passed the 2004 auditions for the 8th class of the Seoul Action School 서울액션스쿨. Within a month 10 of them dropped out due to the extreme physical and mental demands made on them Read the rest of this entry »

Fate 숙명 2008 review

fate6Can you say ‘overacting’? Then you can say Fate. Violent glares, emotional outbursts, screaming contests, ten minute swearing sessions, extreme action, one man beating up tens of tough gangsters, overcooked romantic (?) liaisons, sentimental flashbacks… Read the rest of this entry »

Rainbow Eyes 가면 2007 review

Rainbow Eyes didn’t immediatelyrainbow1 appeal to Master Lee and the box it came in didn’t help (come on, how many contrasting colours can you get away with?). When he put the disc in his trusty DVD player he had his thumb firmly on the fast-forward button. But lo and behold, he never touched it! Read the rest of this entry »

The Terrorists 테러리스트 1995

mlm terrorisatA gangster movie with Choi Min-su (Choe Minsu 최민수)? Master Lee is paying attention. Choi Min-su is one of the few truly believable gangsters out there in movie land. Not as believable as the Master, of course, but that would be asking too much, wouldn’t it now? It starts off well… really fake-looking camera shot of police trainees storming through a wood, screaming their lungs out (and screaming “we’re underpaid extra’s… no f*#&$ing way we’re gonna sound convincing to you!). Read the rest of this entry »

Once Upon A Time 원스 어폰 어타임 2008 review

Movies about the colonial period in Korea are getting more and more popular. And they are looking real good as well. Master Lee was impressed with the production values of these movies: Radio Days, Epitaph and the movie he saw just now, Once Upon A Time.

The best way to describe Once Upon A Time 원스 어폰 어타임 Read the rest of this entry »

Quick Man 追殺令 2002 review + update

quickman.jpgThis is directly from the back of the DVD: “The death of a company CEO triggers a battle for his estate, when his will indicates that he leaves everything to his missing granddaughter. Read the rest of this entry »

Charisma 카리스마 1997 review

vlcsnap-88488.pngWell, after watching Charisma, there can be only one conclusion. Superheroes do exist and they are very hard to beat, although they seem to be very sentimental and vulnerable to rather pathetic music. From the director who brought us Clementine, this 1997 gangster flick is memorable for two things. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »