Wozza's Blogs

Sometimes it’s good to watch something a little different than your latest Hollywood blockbuster. Asian cinema has long been a great alternative to more ‘Americanised’ movies, often providing inspiration for movies we are more likely to see. Now I have only scratched the surface of this genre myself, but I thought I would write a blog anyway and recommend some of the movies I have enjoyed most so far. If you have some movies you recommend I see, feel free to comment and I’ll try my best to check out anything that sounds good.

Note – This is for live action movies, Animation is great and all, but that’s another blog…

Ong Bak

I had heard this title mentioned before in the forums. So when I saw this in the video store, it stood out. The back of the box said Tony Jaa was the best thing since Bruce Lee and old school Jackie Chan. That was it, I had to see if this could really be true.

The fight scenes spoke for themselves. Tony Jaa made his presence felt. HARD! There was definitely some wincing going on with some of the harder hits. Whats really impressive is that Tony does his own stunts and doesn’t use wires. What you see is what you get.

The Protector is another all out action movie by the same people, but I felt Ong Back was a little more down to earth and had more spirit.

Infernal Affairs

I don’t know if I was just in a bad mood, but I disliked The Departed. Probably for the best then that I didn’t know it was a Hollywood version of this movie when I started watching it. Infernal Affairs has a great cast, great direction and a lot of character. If you like your movies with a heap of twists and turns in the plot, this is for you.

The sequels are good to add more background to the characters, but the initial movie is the strongest and easily stands alone.

Yojimbo

Sure Seven Samurai is the Akira Kurosawa movie you always hear of (and rightfully so), but I actually preferred Yojimbo. Yojimbo is the story of a man with no name who arrives in a small town which is torn between two crime lords.

Toshirō Mifune plays the lead fantastically with some brilliant expressions and humour, which for me makes this the movie to watch. If you like this, then be sure to check out more movies by Kurosawa.

Initial D

Sure this may be the least influential movie on the list, but I loved it. Initial D is a fun movie. Anthony Wong puts on a hell of a show and is simply hilarious as Bunta. It doesn’t hurt either that I’m a car fan.

Simply put, Initial D’s race scenes are wonderfully shot and will have you on the edge of your seat. The audio is brilliant, you have to run this on a big screen with a decent home theatre. Oh and there’s just the fact that AE86’s are damn cool.

Sure, it’s camp some of the time. But I love this movie.

Way Of The Dragon

Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris. What more needs to be said honestly? Oh and it’s funny too. “Where’s the sh*tter?”.