November 26, 2010
Brass Knuckle Boys is a Japanese comedy about an old Japanese punk-rock music band from the ’70s and ’80s looking to extend their 15 minutes of fame.
November 28, 2010
Accident devolves into a too simplistic whodunit, where the director tries to dazzle us with his technical mastery and film knowledge.
October 17, 2013
Shield of Straw My first film at Fantasia in 2013 was Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw, one of the director’s contribution to the festival. Miike is a known workhorse, directing sometimes three films per year, in a myriad of genres and styles. Yet, there seems to be a connecting thread through his films, which feels harder to ascertain for me […]
March 11, 2013
After Executioners from Shaolin, Fists of the White Lotus confronts our heroes with Pai-Mei’s brother hell-bent on exacting revenge for Pai-Mei’s death.
December 16, 2013
The Lady Assassin, a martial arts blockbuster, is my first Vietnamese film. A light Sunday night screening at this year’s Fantasia Festival, it was attended by a notable number of people from Montreal’s Vietnamese community. Billed as a Vietnamese wu xia, in the film, a princess sold in marriage is taken in by a team of high-flying, ass—kicking, thieving assassins […]