The Maze
The Maze depends on atmosphere. Very little happens. Small tidbits are thrown the viewer’s way — a glimpse of a glistening creature, a webbed footprint, the foreboding stares of the butlers.
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The Bastard Swordsman Saga
Near the end of its lifespan, Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers studio decided that no film was too weird, resulting in a late-in-the-game deluge of utterly bizarre martial arts fantasy films.
Read moreDo Ankhen Barah Haath
V. Shantaram was an artist of conscience who dedicated himself to using the filmic arts as a means to further social causes. At the time Do Ankhen Barah Haath, Shantaram was a good few years beyond his most acclaimed works.
Read moreHatchet for the Honeymoon
Hatchet for the Honeymoon is not the kind of film to watch for ingenious murders. It is the kind of film to watch for paranormal and sartorial phenomena, discotheques, and horrifying old toys.
Read moreThe Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Forbidden Photos is not an exceptionally plotted giallo. Nonetheless, it has a structure sturdy enough upon which to hang a lot of crazy mid-century design
Read moreIsland of Death
Island of Death still has the power to shock and entertain in a hilariously debased, grubby way. Twists are heaped upon perversions until the whole thing threatens to collapse into one giddily irredeemable pile of filth.
Read moreKung Fu Zombie
Kung Fu Zombie, , one of the films that inspired the creation of Teleport City, pits Billy Chong against an indestructible living dead martial artist with flaming hands and feet.
Read moreSex and Naps
On the surface, The Wicker Man is the story of one police constable’s attempt to scrooge up a town’s May Day revelries. Delving deeper into its waters, however, is aided by a few key texts that informed the film.
Read moreBullitt
These days, Bullitt‘s reputation is built almost entirely on the exhilarating eleven-minute car chase. Even people who have never seen the movie have seen or heard about that scene.
Read moreAsia-Pol
Despite secret lairs and spy gadgets, Asia-pol plays things straight where other Shaw Bros. espionage efforts reveled in the most outlandish sci-fi aspects of spy films.
Read moreMars Men
Mars Men kicks off with a little kid stumbling upon a hidden cave in which he finds a small statue of Yud Wud Jaeng. The kid insists on calling him “Hanamajin”, and the rest of the cast follows suit.
Read moreFighting the Unknown
As the series begins, Quatermass and his team are in a quandary after their most recent manned space flight vanishes without a trace, only to turn up later when it crashes into a farmer’s field. Rushing to the site, Quatermass is baffled to discover that of the three astronauts launched into orbit, only one is still in the ship.
Read moreThe Super Inframan
Inframan is, in many ways, a perfect film, in that it is resoundingly successful in achieving what it sets out to do. Every one of its scenes could be bullet-pointed with the word “SEE!” in front of it.
Read moreRome, Open City
Although one certainly cannot dismiss the impact of World War II on the United States, it’s an order of magnitude more shocking to witness the devastation wrought across Europe. For all our suffering, we could come home to a country that remained largely untouched by large-scale conflict. Those in Europe, however, were already home.
Read moreA Dandy in Aspic
A double agent operating in London dreams of retiring, but his life is complicated when he is assigned to assassinate a traitor: himself. With one foot in the pop art fantasy of James Bond and another in the grim world of John Le Carre, A Dandy in Aspic never quite succeeds at being either.
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