No-Brainer | The Furious (2025) Review

June 11, 2026

We’ve got to talk about Joe Taslim and Kensuke Sonomura and Jeeja Yanin and all the With Eyes East favorites who’ve assembled for this action movie Super Bowl, but the story of The Furious might begin with a different name: Bill Kong. The last (and first) time producer Bill Kong came up on this site, it was in the comparison between live-action Blood: The Last Vampire – which he produced as a vehicle for Gianna Jun – and Kingdom: Ashin of the North, the homegrown Korean product which more successfully showed off Jun Ji-hyun to the world. If there’s one thing Bill Kong likes, it’s an American audience, as he also helped foster such crossover hits as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Disney live-action Mulan. He may have found a fellow traveler in director Kenji Tanigaki, a Japanese action coordinator who cut his teeth in Hong Kong productions like SPL, Flash Point, and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (not to mention odds and ends like Blade II and Takashi Yamazaki’s Always: Sunset on Third Street). Together, they’ve brought The Furious to the international market, starting with the Toronto International Film Festival, up to and including American screens the same day as the latest Spielberg release. That’s confidence. … More No-Brainer | The Furious (2025) Review

I Will Be So Sad if This is Bad

May 28, 2026

Mark your calendars, folks, for a new Ghost in the Shell on July 7th! “Ghost in the Shell?!” I hear you erupt, indignant, “You mean the Japanese cyberpunk media franchise which hasn’t been good in over ten years, being generous?” “Ah,” I say, with scholarly poise, “Japanese postcyberpunk media franchise.” How clever indeed. The plan was to totally play it cool and wait to write about Science Saru’s The Ghost in the Shell only upon its release, theoretically doable as I haven’t been trapped in a hype cycle (hype psyop) in what feels like ages. And frankly, the first two teaser trailers weren’t doing much for me, beyond providing excellent music samples – the second like something out of Metroid Prime – and selling the concept of animating the artwork of Masamune Shirow with a budget larger than, say, the Appleseed OVA. So, what happened to turn things around? The third trailer. And so, I want to tell you a story in three trailers, and it’s my favorite one: the story of the Major. … More I Will Be So Sad if This is Bad

Kitana Wins

May 7, 2026

I’ve just gotten back from Mortal Kombat II, with a couple of hours to post this and prove that I saw it extra nerd early on Thursday rather than on Friday. I suppose I could show you the ticket, which I’d wanted to anyway because it was for 6:30, but then on the door, it said 6:45. And when I looked at Fandango today to see if anybody was gonna be sitting next to me, it also said 6:45, but there’s no way to prove that now. So, take my word that I thought to myself, “How can it be a 6:30 showing and a 6:45 showing at the same time?” Like a practiced modern moviegoer, I arrived at the theater at 6:30 sharp, budgeting enough time for all the pre-movie rituals, including waiting at the concession stand wherein the group in front of me appeared to be buying tickets? Growing surprisingly anxious, I finally made it to the premium-format theater and my seat and proceeded to sit there like a dope through, like, ten minutes of ads for insurance and cars. … More Kitana Wins

2026 Movie Preview

April 16, 2026

We’ve had a lot of movie news pouring out lately, apparently because of CinemaCon, something I’m only vaguely aware of. A high-profile exhibition for movies, in an age where movie theaters and international industries are dying and we don’t even have E3 anymore? Sounds made-up. But anyway, it looks like the rest of 2026 is pretty jam-packed, which I was not expecting. I already got The Bone Temple; I was good for the year. Also, 2025 was quite jam-packed itself, with representatives from my favorite brands and directors — Alien, Predator, Jurassic Park, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Alex Garland, David Cronenberg, and on and on. What could possibly be left? … More 2026 Movie Preview

This Wasteland

April 2, 2026

On the most recent episode of QNA, Donovan and I spoke with the hosts of Comic Timing about the comics industry, which like Hyman Roth, has been dying of the same heart attack for the last twenty years. I think it’s easy to hit the panic button in situations like these, as Korean luminaries recently have with regards to the local film industry. On the press tour for No Other Choice, Director Park described a “state of great danger.” It was only the blockbuster release of The King’s Warden that would appear to course-correct from the COVID slump, but there are perhaps deeper, systemic problems. … More This Wasteland

Feels Great! | Second Life (2024) Review

March 22, 2026

This is the rare case where my memory of a film, “edited” into snatches of images by whatever neurological sorcery, just about matches the film itself. When you hit play on Second Life, also known as Son of a Punch, you’d better not take a second to close an app on your phone or fiddle with a bag of – what do the kids like these days? – Fritos. It doesn’t even clear one minute, including studio logos, before something insane happens. A gang boss busts in on a police funeral and starts talking when all of a sudden he’s silenced forever by the flying kick of the widow, Lao Liang. Pregnant and now imprisoned, Liang establishes herself as top dog by defeating the treacherous Sister Hong in a fast, prop-heavy battle scored with music out of an old King Hu epic. The lighthearted tone and broad comedy are established here, as well as a relentless pace. The moment Hong is put down, she becomes a lifelong ally and friend, jumping to Liang’s aid when her water breaks only moments later. And in the next few moments, we jump ahead thirty years and meet Gui, an enforcer for gang boss Chang Meng who shoots up the ranks after protecting him from a dozen guys in a shirtless blaze. … More Feels Great! | Second Life (2024) Review

There Are No Female Kamen Riders

March 21, 2026

“Cool! Where’s the girl version?” has been my reflex with pop culture for as long as I can remember, and surely for longer than I was able to admit. I was into a lot of things – genres, subject matter, etc. – which were not, in turn, interested in women. Funny how that came to a head during my own coming-of-age, with #GamerGate and Star Wars and everything. Not “funny” ha-ha, mind. Anyway, Kamen Rider was one of those examples of pop culture, and same with Ultraman. Godzilla less so, because I’d heard that the one in Godzilla Raids Again was female, and that was good enough for me, parthenogenesis or not. I like Kamen Rider, but my ideal version – ‘90s, Keita Amemiya – never made it past a pilot or two. And truthfully, my ideal version is “girl Kamen Rider,” so I was heartbroken to discover that, out of the one-thousand-and-one Kamen Riders to ever don the motorcycle, none have been women. And even when they sort of were, they wouldn’t wear the helmet! That’s, like, a totally different thing, man. So, imagine my surprise – and confusion – when this popped up in my algorithm … More There Are No Female Kamen Riders

Rip and Tear | The Forbidden City (2025) Review

March 20, 2026

Whoa! You know, it wouldn’t take much for an Italian kung fu movie to be the best Italian kung fu movie, so why set the bar so high? I don’t think anybody else is coming. First of all, I’d be happy to address any reservations one might have, as I did, based on the title. Despite its somewhat foggy thematic resonance, The Forbidden City is “Chinese restaurant name” generic and may resurface unpleasant memories of The Forbidden Kingdom, the Jet Li versus Jackie Chan anticlimax which happened to be the Hollywood debut of Liu Yifei, who’d go on to play Disney’s Mulan in 2020, doubled by stuntwoman Yaxi Liu, the star of The Forbidden City. Capisce? As we find, “Forbidden City” is the name of a Chinese restaurant in the movie, but it could also refer to its primary setting of Rome, upon which Liu’s wayward character Xiao Mei eats, prays, and lays a heavy beating, and that’s only barely a joke. Fair warning (or invitation): the spice level here is “Korean.” We’re not talking CG blood and the weightlessness of mild American fare nor the horror-hewn sadism of Indonesia. It’s roughly comparable, I’d say, to The Man from Nowhere. Guys, do not fight in a Chinese kitchen, where there’s grills and frying oil and – oh, God – cheese graters. There’s a bone break so severe I yowled. Mei is hardcore, animated by rage and, to borrow a useful term, too angry to die. … More Rip and Tear | The Forbidden City (2025) Review

Godzilla Mentioned | Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare (2026) Review

March 16, 2026

My reaction to the HBO documentary on the Fukushima nuclear accident was somewhat fussy. I found it moving, then odd, then moving again, and ultimately, wanting. How could a movie that elicited genuine emotion be, in the end, kind of mediocre? For starters, and despite the star rating, I would absolutely recommend Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare. If you’re familiar with the event – as I so was, having done what I assume was Wikipedia-level research for a post about Shin Godzilla – it’s a more intimate look at the human cost, and if you’re unfamiliar or have largely forgotten, it’s a great overview. I’d love to say it’s scarily relevant, but only in how much “World War III” has been trending lately between four nuclear powers. My understanding of the event begins with politics, that the meltdown scare was the result of corporate mismanagement and a government too afraid to take consequential action. It begins, truthfully, with Shin Godzilla. The info spinning out of that movie wasn’t contradicted by Fukushima, but it was hinted at, frustratingly. … More Godzilla Mentioned | Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare (2026) Review

K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong, Part IV

March 9, 2026

One of the great ironies in my life is that I spend so much time on media criticism but have never successfully recommended anything to anyone. Well, there was that time a friend asked if he should take a date to either Renfield or The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and later thanked me profusely for the latter choice – myself having seen neither. I’d say I’ve also become calcified against recommendations, but there was no “become,” truthfully. For me, the science of picking a movie is so delicate and mood-based, a fast-closing window that, nine times out of ten, results in no movie being selected. How is external opinion supposed to factor into that sort of non-thinking? And so, the concept of the recommendation has retreated to an abstract use: “Would I recommend this, theoretically?” as part of the critical evaluation. It’s a question that’s surprisingly complicated with Undercover Miss Hong, being a pitch-perfect television show start to finish. I loved it, I thought about it a lot, but I struggle to identify concrete terms for the basis of a recommendation, assuming phrases like “It’s really good” don’t suffice. I asked this question last time, basically “How can perfection not be enough?” and with the show’s conclusion, I’ll try to answer. And for the record, it’s not because I feel, emotionally, that the show deserves the indignity of my criticism, but because it might be an interesting exercise. Might. … More K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong, Part IV