MY KUNG FU SWEETHEART (2006) director: Wong Jing (HK) [Mei Ah, Import]
starring: Cecilia Cheung · Leo Ku · Yuen Wah
Phoebe is 23 years old. She's known that she was a Kung Fu Mistress since her 14th birthday... after discovering her parents were Martial Arts Masters. Now she’s found her soulmate, Dragon (he inadvertently saw her climbing up the outside of the office building, so they must be meant for each other) and together they are thrown into a battle against an arch-enemy, White Eyebrows.In typical Wong Jing fashion, this project is a ripoff of numerous other Asian blockbusters (My Sassy Girl and Kung Fu Hustle immediately come to mind). However, as with most paint-by-number productions familiarity breeds contempt rather quickly.

STORY OF GENJI (2005) (Japan)
director: Tonko Horikawa [Toei Video, Import]
starring: Sayuri Yoshinaga · Yuki Amami
One of the few films that attempts to portray pre-samurai Heian Japan (circa 900 AD). Based on the ancient tale of Genji, a wealthy playboy who can't find the perfect mate – a woman like his stepmother – so he marries mom. This film also tells the story of Murasaki Shikibu, a famous female writer credited with writing the original Genji story 2000 years ago. The two stories are interrupted occasionally by distracting music clips from Japanese singing-idol, Seiko Matsudo. Incidentally, the role of Genji is played by a woman, Yuki Amami, a noted actress from the all-female Takarzuka Theatre. Tonko Horikawa is one of the few female directors active in Japan.

BEWITCHING ATTRACTION (2006) [Korean]
director: Ha Lee [CJ Entertainment, Import]
starring: Moon So-ri and Ji Jin-hee
In this (very) black sex comedy, actress Moon So-ri makes a wide departure from her award-winning cerebral palsy role in Oasis and gives a performance more closely in tune with the The Good Lawyer’s Wife. She plays an attractive college professor who has perfected a zealous talent for seducing men. In fact, most of the faulty has already shared her bed. However, when a new teacher arrives, she finds him oddly unresponsive to her charms. It all has to do with with a naughty secret from her past... Much controversy surrounds this film as Moon So-ri engages in her first nude scene, something usually not expected in Korea from an actress of her caliber.

HOUSE GORY (2006) (Thailand)
director: Jarin Vongraen [Winson Ent., Import]
starring: Thavachai Minmukda and
Chutima Avery
Nian is a servant's daughter, sold to the empire by her poor family. Seemingly, once part of Lord Suranrt’s commune, she has little to do besides make herself available for frequent whippings. The Lord, crazy with power, routinely subjects Nian and his other servants to brutal discipline sessions with a bamboo cane. Often he allows his wife, Lady Srikaew to conduct her own brand of torture. In the kingdom, there's a young man named Cherd who is in love with young Nian and decides to challenge Lord Suranrt. This movie is yet another example of “underground” misogynist themes in Asian cinema. As a movie, there’s not much to recommend, however the S&M whip scenes are effective and brutal.

CRUSH BALL (2006) [Hong Kong/Japan]
director: Hidetaka Ito [Mei Fu, Import]
starring: Elizabeth Fujimaki & James Bezy
In the not-so-distant future, the Number 1 spectator sport is Crush- Ball, a lethal version of dodgeball. It’s financed by the world’s largest gambling syndicate, a deadly triad operating from Hong Kong. Lee Wong is the powerful gangland boss who controls the CrushBall franchise. The plot revolves around a girl who goes into the underground to find her dad, a scientist held prisoner by Wong. Dad is being forced to develop an "angel dust type" drug which gives Crush Ball players super-strength, thus allowing them to play even when seriously injured.
Easily, the most significant aspect of this film is its style. Director Ito – in his mission to create the world’s first “living manga” – becomes obsessed with the mechanics of merging live-action and animation. Even though the technique has never before meshed so convincingly, it does so with casualties. Most notably, the acting suffers woefully. Simply, the cast of unknowns don’t manage to keep pace with Ito’s artistic competence.

— SPOTLIGHT —

THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI (2004/05) [Japan]
director: Mitsuru Meike [Albatros Film, Import]
starring: Emi Kuroda · Yukijiro Hotaru · Takeshi ito
George W. Bush in a Japanese sex film?! Okay. I need to collect my thoughts. Yeah, this is a Japanese Pink Film. That means there's a sex-scene every 10 minutes or so. And yeah, these are not homogenized sex scenes (although soft core, they are nasty and sometimes meanspirited with lots of pumping, puncuated by explosions of cum). Surrounding the prerequisite sex stuff is a jaw-dropping plotline:
Sachiko Hanai is a prostitute who specializes in teacher-student role-playing (thus the original title Horny Home Tutor: Teacher's Love Juice). During a coffee-break at a corner cafe, she becomes the victim of a shootout, getting shot squarely in the forehead. She continues to live (and turn tricks) despite the lethal hole in her head. Only now, her IQ has gone through the roof and she engages in philosophical discussions with genius professors. Then... she finds George W. Bush's cloned finger in a cigar case. President Geo. W appears on TV, talks about the Iraq War and the "Bush Technique" while giving her the finger (inserting it, of course). Before long, a North Korean spy kidnaps Sachiko and Bush's finger. The bad guy hopes to use the finger to activate a nuclear weapon hidden inside a nearby cave. Jeez! ...enough! See the movie; melt your brain.
Written by Takao Nakano (of "ExorSister" fame) who, incidentally, conducted the Teruo Ishii interview in ACC #28. or [your decision] –Thomas Weisser