The Princess Blade - Japan

          Director:  Shinsuke Sato
          Year:  2001
          Plot:  "In the near future, Japan is ruled once more by a monarchy.  But, rebels opposed to this rule seek to overthrow the government.  The House of Takemikazuchi, a band of assassins is hired by the government to suppress the rebels.  As a conspiracy from within signals the shadowy organization's impending demise, Yuki, the last of the Takemikazuchi bloodline befriends one of the rebels and seeks revenge against the group's leader."


          This movie really was quite disappointing.  It is just that I really wasn't very happy with this movie at all.  I started watching it because I wanted to see a movie with a strong female character.  Though this movie has that, it lacks much else.  The fight scenes weren't very thrilling, but that could also have to do with the fact that I watched it on YouTube, but some things just seemed wrong.  Parts of the fights were just edited too fast to be very entertaining.  It really seems sad from what I seen to know that Donnie Yen choreographed the fights.  It just didn't seem to do much justice, there were a few scenes though that were actually pretty good.
          The characters of this movie were quite dull.  I don't think it was the actor's faults, but the story line itself.  The story line didn't leave enough room for much development of any of the characters, even that of the main characters.  Sure there was a little, but the bare minimum.
          I don't really know much else to say about this movie.  Oh I know.  I want to point out that that one sword gimmick looked completely horrible.  If a sword goes through someone and sticks out their back, how is it perfectly clean and shiny.  Usually I don't notice stupid stuff like that, but that kind of irritated me.  >.<


          This is not a movie I would necessarily suggest to anyone.  It was really quite disappointing.  If you are going to give this movie a shot, please don't expect a masterpiece.  That is the only way you might be at most satisfied with this movie.

K.G. (Karate Girl) - Japan

          Director:  Yoshikatsu Kimura
          Year:  2011
          Plot:  "When she was a child, a mysterious group killed Ayaka’s father, kidnapped her sister Natsuki and stole a black belt passed down in her family for 200 years.  Years later when the group makes a reappearance, she decides to do whatever it takes to get Natsuki back."


          I am not sure why I decided to watch this one, but I guess it had to do with the almost 4 star rating on one of my sites.  After watching this movie, I wasn't quite sure on how to rate this one myself.  I did feel that the story line was decent though it wasn't anything really special.  Some of the major points didn't even seem to work themselves out.  I do not know if this fact was due to the horrible subtitles or an actual error in the plot.  I also was irritated with the replaying of scenes.  A fight scene looks great as a base scene but when you play a clip again right after you just seen it, it takes away from the movie.
          I am serious about the horrible subtitles.  They really ruined the movie a bit for me.  I watched it online, and tried a few different versions with the same result, so I do not know if is on the dvd or not.  The subtitles weren't so bad that I couldn't understand any of the movie, but it was quite bad.  There were parts where the kept saying he and him when they were talking about a girl, and in other parts the subtitles sentence structure was all out of order.  It is hard to get into a story when you are constantly trying to decipher subtitles.
          I did like part of this movie.  I liked that our main character is just a seemingly normal girl, she even seem to really downplay her abilities in the beginning.  I did wonder though why she went and got changed into a school uniform before heading over to the bad guy's lair, but I over looked that.  I really did enjoy when the sisters were working together.  It turned out quite well.
          I did find the resolution of this movie to be a little disappointing.  I did not understand exactly why they fought the one guy.  He was a bad guy, but it didn't really look like he was going to fight them, and they attacked him.  The only real good thing about the ending actually came in the credits.  I loved that they showed the girls practicing the stunts and all.  It really made the feeling of the movie slightly better.


         I did feel that this was an okay movie.  It isn't one that I would get excited over watching again but it used up my time decently.  I would suggest watching this only if you found one with decent subtitles as I think that would make this movie considerably better.

Sasori - Japan

          Director:  Joe Ma
          Year:  2008
          Plot:  "A ruthless pack of thugs force mild-mannered, caught-in-the-middle-of-something-bigger Nami to murder her fiance's sister, decidedly ruining her pending marriage and landing the poor girl in the most brutal women's prison. Here she decides to stop being a victim. She eventually escapes the prison and returns to the streets in order to make the thugs who ruined her life pay. By this time, Nami prefers to go by the name of Sasori (Scorpion)."

          Apparently, this is a remake of Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion, but I haven't seen them.  Generally I stay away from movies made in the 70's, but I might eventually watch those versions.  I say might, because I did enjoy this remake, to a point.  It is also based off the manga of the same name by Toru Shibohara.
          I felt that the plot of this movie was really good.  There was two little plot holes that I seen and was a little confused with the Hei Tai ending, but there weren't any major problems.  I do have to say that the fight scenes got a little weird even for me.  I mean usually I can ignore when the fights are fantastical, but parts of this one were just too much for me.  That didn't necessarily take away from the movie too much though.
          I did enjoy the character progression.  Nami really did start off as this timid little thing.  By the end of the movie, she is so drastically changed.  Though, like I said, I am confused with the ending of Hei Tai.  I am not quite sure what happened with him.  Usually this is not hard for me, but I am really confused.  >.<
          Someone said that they thought everything happened because he was involved with the death of his sister and that he was a bad cop.  That makes absolutely no sense though.  From what is shown, he is a good guy, and had nothing to do with the deaths.  The only part that he had with the thugs was going to a sort of therapy that the head person did for him.  That doesn't make him involved with his sisters death though.
          I must bring up something another person said in a review of this movie.  They said that the movie was too much work to enjoy.  This makes me think that they do not usually watch Asian movies, as they seem to feel this because they said it was hard to follow with the flashbacks.  I am of course a big fan of Asian movies and found this one to be generally easy to follow and a fun watch, despite the few points that I mentioned.

          This was a good movie despite a few flaws.  This is one of those movies that if you go into it not expecting perfection, you might be rather surprised at the quality of it.  I gave it leeway and found this movie to be quite good.  n.n

Hua Mulan - China

          Director:  Jingle Ma, and Wei Dong
          Year:  2009
          Plot:  “The epic story of the Chinese girl-warrior, Mulan, who fights to defend her father.”


          Here is another one that I just had to watch.  When I was little, I remember watching the Disney movie about Mulan.  As an adult I found myself coming across Mulan again, but this time it was the movie made for adults.
          I have to say that this movie was one of those that got me crying.  Yeah, it seems a lot of Asian movies have been doing that to me lately.  I have no problem with this fact though.  It just seems to prove that they are in fact good movies.
          It was definitely strange to watch this movie having previously seen the Disney version.  This one though is definitely a better movie as there is more depth to the story and the characters, but of course kids would definitely enjoy the former better than this one.
          I don’t know if there was anything that I felt was done poorly in this movie.  I really did enjoy pretty much everything about it.  I did though get disappointed with the ending.  I know it is the most logical, but I would have been happier with a perfectly happy ending.  The ending just made the movie seem more realistic, and like I said, it made sense.


          I feel that this is definitely one to watch.  I actually bought this movie minutes after watching it.  I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to own this movie for myself.  Like I said, this is definitely one to watch, and I would suggest it to just about everyone.  n.n

Silver Hawk - China

          Director:  Jingle Ma

          Year:  2004
          Plot:  “A Chinese socialite, in her spare time, fights the forces of evil.  She teams up with her childhood buddy, Mr. Rich Man, who is a police officer, to foil a kidnapping ring with more sinister undertones.”


          I forgot to write this up after I watched the movie.  I might be missing some things that I wanted to say about this movie, but I will do my best to get all the important stuff in here.
          I have to say one of the reasons I watched this movie is because I am a bit of a Michelle Yeoh fan.  This movie did really disappoint me either.  I found this movie to have been rather enjoyable for the time I spent watching it.  It isn’t one that I would own besides the fact that it would be a good addition to a Michelle Yeoh collection, but it wasn’t bad.
          As far as the comedy goes in this movie, I felt that it was rather good.  A few points were rather ridiculous, but the majority of the movie had very well done humor.  I absolutely loved Rich Man and Kit though.  Those to following Silver Hawk as she went after the bad guys was quite funny, especially with Kit pretty much laying on top of Rich Man to see, and constantly hitting him.  You also gotta love, “Ten more minutes.  Five minutes?  Two.”
          This is rather reminiscent of Batman, but I did find this movie to be the better one.  The comedy in this movie kept it from suffering from the same problems that the Batman movies did for me.  This was more entertaining than a rich guy in a bat costume, and the action sequences were better as well.  I enjoyed the scenes between Silver Hawk and Jane, and Moris the most.


          This isn’t one that I would own necessarily, but it is definitely worth a watch when you need something to do.  The comedy in it, though sometimes a little too much, is very entertaining and enjoyable.  Also it is one that a Michelle Yeoh fan needs to watch simply because she is in it.  n.n

Chocolate - Thailand

          Director:  Prachya Pinkaew
          Year:  2008
          Plot:  “An autistic woman with powerful martial art skills looks to settle her ailing mother's debts by seeking out the ruthless gangs that owe her family money.”


          I finally got to see this movie after much awaiting.  I was so happy to have been able to find it at F.Y.E.  I love that store to death.  Anyway I did really enjoy this movie.  It was just as good as Raging Phoenix (which was actually done after this one -.-’). 
          All of the people watching this one with me loved this movie.  The fight scenes were just great for me.  I love to see things done realistically.  Though I do understand that stunt people need too be used for very very dangerous stuff, I can’t really accept it for little stuff.  In this one Jeeja Yanin did her own stunts, and this is proven by the clips of injuries at the end of the film.  Seeing that they went through some painful stuff just makes this one easier to appreciate.
          I really didn’t see too much wrong with this movie.  I am really in love with this one.  I am sure there are points that could have been better, but I am not sure what they are.  I have read that some people find the acting bad in this movie, but I didn't really see where there was any really.  Maybe I was just interested in the movie enough to not notice, or the people thinking this way are wrong.  I am not sure which one it is.  n.n


          I absolutely loved this movie.  There might be some reasons why you might not like this one as much as me, but really it is at least worth a watch.  Also if you like this one but haven’t seen Raging Phoenix, you should, and vise versa.

Raging Phoenix - Thailand

          Director:  Rashane Limtrakul
          Year:  2009
          Plot:  "A violent gang is abducting women around Thailand.  Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers.  In a botched kidnap attempt, Deu is saved by Sanim's crew.  After learning their unique martial arts style, Deu helps lure the gang into an epic battle to save the women across Thailand."


          So I would like to start with the movie that has caught my attention lately.  That movie is of course Raging Phoenix staring JeeJa Yanin.  I am aware that some find this movie boring and such, but I have a hard time figuring out why.
           This is a martial arts movie, with apparently bad wire work, though I haven't noticed it.  Many have claimed that this is a bad movie because of a poor story-line.  Again, I do not see this.  Sure the whole perfume idea is quite out there, but the story as a whole is really good.  Mostly I have found that it is guys who really hate this movie.  The movie really comes down to the fact of if you can connect to Deu or not.  If you can connect to her character, this is a wonderful movie simply because you care for her and want her to succeed.  If you don't really connect, I can see how this movie might be a little lack luster to you.
          I definitely connected with Deu, and loved this movie.  For me it was really hard not to care for her.  She lost her father (previous to the movie), her mother wasn't around, she got kicked out of a band, and her boyfriend was cheating on her.  Given all of that it is hard not to want things to get better for her, at least for me.
          So I should probably talk about the fight scenes since this is a martial arts movie.  Like I mentioned, people have talked about horrible wire work in this movie.  I really haven't seen it.  I suppose it is because I was more focused on the characters because I got attached, rather than how their bodies looked exactly during certain moves.  I was not on the look out for this even after hearing about it before seeing the movie.  I really couldn't see a point during the fights that looked like bad wire work, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
          I really did enjoy the fighting scenes.  They are really unique.  It is not too often that a person can break dance in the middle of a fight and not look completely crazy.  The dancing seems to fit rather well into the story and fights.  Being that the characters are pretty much drunk through the entire movie, it isn't too hard to believe that they wouldn't be fighting in a traditional way.  Because of the way that they fight, it comes off as rather humorous for most of the movie.  It is only at the latter half of the movie that they completely abandon this light-hearted style and turn to more brutal fighting.
          I have to say that my favorite fight scene is actually the one Deu fights on the beach after suffering another abandonment.  It is rather pretty to watch with the spray of the water around them.  Though that scene is rather brutal, I still found it rather beautiful to watch.
          I have one more thing to mention about this movie, and that is the special effects.  Many people have critiqued this movie mostly because of the few scenes when special effects are used.  I do not understand this critiquing.  I have watched plenty of Asian movies and know that their special effects aren't very good.  The fact is that most would rather do the things the practical way rather than using special effects.  This is why when they do use special effects, it looks rather crappy.  To be able to not take those scenes as simply crappy effects, you must understand why they aren't done well.  I find that I can easily excuse the poor effect because I know that all the other stuff is done in practical ways.


          I rather enjoyed this movie.  It is one of my favorite martial arts movies (I have an affinity to this genre).  Though I wouldn't say that it is better than one of my many favorite Jet Li movies (simply due to the weird perfume idea), I still place it in the same category (good martial arts movies).  I also have to say that I like the idea of a woman being the best martial artist out of a group of men that comes into play in this movie.  A girl has got to love that, after all, women are usually the damsels in distress not the hero.