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The severe violent nature of professional wrestling has always mesmerized audiences worldwide. There are not many differences between those who lust horror and those who desire wrestling. It’s our primal urges that make us want to watch the forbidden. Now, most of us would never want to watch a murder or a real life tragedy, but if we know in the back of our heads that it’s not real, it makes it acceptable.

When horror fans watched Leatherface terrorize teenagers in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Michael Myers stalk babysitters in Halloween, they suspended disbelief for two hours to satisfy that need to see gore and violence. When the movie is over, most people go home and live a somewhat normal life. The same can be said about the professional wrestling fan.

When you go to a professional wrestling event, you know the athletes are not really trying to hurt each other.

David Korda, a prominent member of the Korda family movie dynasty who served as a producer and important film financier in a show business career that spanned more than 60 years, has died. He was 87.

Korda, chairman of the British company Film Finances Ltd., died Sept. 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London, author, editor and film historian Charles Drazin told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been in poor health after a battle with cancer.

Korda’s parents were Zoltan Korda, director of the Ralph Richardson-starring epic The Four Feathers (1939), and actress Joan Gardner (Dark Journey, The Scarlet Pimpernel).

One of his uncles was Alexander Korda, the founder of London Films, the owner of British Lion Films, a producer of such classics as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and The Third Man (1949) and the first filmmaker to receive a knighthood. Another uncle, Vincent Korda, was a painter and Oscar-winning art director.

By 1964, Kinji Fukasaku had been working as a director for only three years, but had already directed eight works. That year, however, is an important one in the famed director’s long and illustrious career. For one, it gave him one of his early box office hits in “Jakomon and Tetsuo”, which starred Ken Takakura, then an actor freshly making his name and secondly, it also saw the release of what is now considered amongst his early career masterworks, the film noir tinted “Wolves, Pigs and Men”, a feature that may not have done well at the box-office upon release due to extenuating circumstances but would have an impact not just on his career but also his personal life.

Set in post-war Japan, “Wolves, Pigs and Men” follows three brothers. Ichiro, the eldest, abandoned the family to join the yakuza for a life of comfort and luxury. Jiro, the middle brother,...

When two criminals—Kawanishi (Nishimura Kô) and Sabu (Murota Hideo)—first force their way into Misawa’s (Mikuni Rentarô) home, the middle-class salaryman bolts up from his bathtub, standing before his assailants nude and covered in bubbles. This darkly humorous moment lends a bit of levity to the first of many chaotic sequences in Fukasaku Kinji’s The Threat, but more importantly, it speaks to the near-comical, childlike vulnerability of the film’s kowtowing protagonist, who goes from finding an equally spineless underling at work who’s willing to marry his boss’s mistress to complying with every order given by his captors without resistance.

What follows is a remarkably tense and claustrophobic home invasion thriller, in which Misawa becomes the middleman between Kawanishi and a wealthy man, Sakata (Mitsuda Ken), whose infant he and the younger, more impulsive Sabu kidnapped before breaking into Misawa’s house. But coursing just...

By 1964, Kinji Fukasaku had been working as a director for only three years, but had already directed eight works. That year, however, is an important one in the famed director’s long and illustrious career. For one, it gave him one of his early box office hits in “Jakomon and Tetsuo”, which starred Ken Takakura, then an actor freshly making his name and secondly, it also saw the release of what is now considered amongst his early career masterworks, the film noir tinted “Wolves, Pigs and Men”, a feature that may not have done well at the box-office upon release due to extenuating circumstances but would have an impact not just on his career but also his personal life.

“Wolves, Pigs and Men” is released by Eureka Entertainment and Film Movement

Set in post-war Japan, “Wolves, Pigs and Men” follows three brothers. Ichiro, the eldest, abandoned the family to join...

Georgian producer Tekla Machavariani, in Locarno this week for the world premiere of director Tato Kotetishvili’s “Holy Electricity,” which plays in the Swiss fest’s Filmmakers of the Present section, has unveiled a slate of new features at her Tbilisi-based production company Nushi Film.

Among them is the first Georgian-Japanese co-production, a film inspired by the brutal Georgian Civil War of the early-1990s, and a movie set among the hip-hop generation of the 2000s in the crime-filled streets of Tbilisi.

“When I founded the company, my main goal was to work with my friends who were inspiring me. They taught me cinema,” said Machavariani, who launched Nushi Film in 2015. “For me, the most important thing is to make Georgian films with directors with whom I grow. We start with short films and then, slowly, we go through the journey together.”

“The Dog is Barking” is the ambitious feature...

American-made films took two top prizes at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea, ahead of a slew of Korean and Taiwanese titles that took the lesser prizes.

“The Last Stop in Yuma County,” a crime thriller directed by Francis Galluppi and set around a restaurant in Arizona, won the KRW20 million Bucheon Choice feature award. The jury called it a, “profound exploration of human nature [with] characters traversing the boundary between righteousness and malevolence.”

Jt Mollner was named best director in the same section for his “Strange Darling,” a retro-feel, horror-romance with what the jury called, “an exhilarating and engaging narrative, challenging genre and character stereotypes and subverting implicit bias.”

The awards were presented Friday evening at a closing ceremony at the Bucheon City Hall. The ceremony was followed by a screening of Soi Cheang’s smash hit Hong Kong action film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.”

Cheang,...

Experience

A “Friends”-themed exhibition and experience is setting up home permanently in London. Inspired by the iconic sitcom, The Friends Experience is set to open in a purpose-built location at London’s ExCel center this summer ahead of the show’s 30th anniversary this year.

The experience features full-scale recreations of the show’s sets, from Monica and Rachel’s apartment to the infamous “Pivot!” scene complete with couch, as well as costumes, backdrops, props and memorabilia. Guests can recreate some of their favorite on-screen moments and enjoy themed food and drinks as well as exclusive merch.

It has been created by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment, Original X Productions and Warner Bros. Television Group and is operated by U.K.-based The Luna Entertainment Group. Tickets can be purchased at www.FriendsTheExperience.com/London.

Homecoming

Philippines-born filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (Venice title “Lingua Franca”) has wrapped principal photography on her new film “Moonglow.

Red Cat Ramen , a TV anime based on the cooking manga of the same name, has revealed a new trailer, a new key visual (below) and five additional cast members for the series, which will begin broadcasting in Japan on the Tokyo Broadcasting System network on July 4, 2024. The new cast members include: Sasaki voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama (Loki Oriflamme in The Case Study of Vanitas ) Sabu voiced by Michiyo Murase (Jill in Deca-Dence ) Hana voiced by Rie Kugimiya (Catherine Sue in Delusional Monthly Magazine ) Krishna voiced by Saori Hayami (Emma in Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- ) Tamako Yashiro voiced by Kurumi Orihara The original Red Cat Ramen manga by Angyaman is serialized in Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ digital manga magazine, and an English language version is also available on Manga Plus. Hisatoshi Shimizu directs the Red Cat Ramen TV at animation studio E&h production. The series also features series composition and...

Sometimes a WWE title run just doesn’t work. Maybe the wrestler wasn’t right for it. Maybe the wrestler was right but the writing was all wrong. Maybe the disastrous choice to make someone champion not only hurt the careers of others but also damaged the company as a whole.

We’re looking back at 15 WWE wrestlers who shouldn’t have been crowned world champions. Keep in mind, this list is broken down into specific title runs, so while it was copacetic to have Hulk Hogan wave the banner during the Hulkamania era, that doesn’t mean that it was always the best move to put him at the top of the food chain. Let’s have a look…

15. Sycho Sid

When Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania Xii, the two made an agreement that they would have a rematch the following year. As...

Although not exactly famous for erotic films, particularly considering the conservative nature of many countries and the harsh censorship occasionally found (with the exception of Japan and Korea), films that could be described as erotic can be found in Asia also. Of note, however, is a recent trend that has begun within the Japanese movie industry, of presenting erotic films that try to cater to the aesthetics of both men and women, while abiding by the MeToo rules, with the result being interesting as much as ambitious as much as an effort mostly found in Chinese cinema, to come up with titles that combine the erotic with the intensely art house.

In this list, we tried to focus on titles where the erotic is one of the key elements, while trying to stay away from exploitation or soft-porn (S. Korean cinema is filled with these btw) for the most part,...

Back in 2019, Mari Asato's “Under Your Bed” made a splash in the festival circuit, with its extreme approach on the erotic thriller. Now, another adaptation of Kei Ohishi's homonymous novel comes to the fore, this time from Korea, although the director is a familiar Japanese, Sabu, in his first outing in the particular country.

*The review was based on a version of the film before post-production.

Ji-hoon is a young man who has been ignored by everyone since his schooldays, to the point that he decided to stay in the background, roaming his own world with a camera shooting from “behind the lines”. The only person who actually interacted with him, even calling him by his name, was the girl he was in love with in college, Ye-eun, although their one date ended up being completely unremarkable. For her at least, since Ji-hoon never actually forgot about her,...

Starting his career with an uncredited role in Akira Kurosawa's “Ran” in 1985, the first role anybody would have noticed Susumu Terajima would have been in Takeshi Kitano's 1989 debut “Violent Cop”, as a drug addict henchman. Since then, he has been a notable face in many a cops vs. thugs film, among others, now with over 200 credits to his name.

Having been a regular with some of Japan's leading directors, notably Kitano, Takashi Miike, Hirokazu Koreeda and Sabu, to name but a few, he is typically always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Terajima's career has been one of support roles, not often taking the lead, but his face is a reliable one, with many top directors turning to him, and any Japanese cinema connoisseur will need more than 2 hands to count the number of roles of his they've seen.

Here are some standouts from his career that has seen him play: a likeable,...

Hiroyuki Tanaka, better known under the pseudonym Sabu, has started his career as an actor, but in the 1990s became a director, which arguably proved to be a much more successful venture for him. Especially internationally, he has made quite a reputation for himself, creating a unique blend of comedy and drama with many philosophical, sometime even social comments.

Running and walking are one of the recurring motifs within his filmography, especially his early work. It is both a means to escape something, a yakuza henchman chasing a character or a postman trying his best to deliver the mail. But there are also the walkers among the protagonists in his work, attempting to find some kind of hidden meaning in chaos, it seems.

In this list, we will take a look at how Sabu employs running and walking in his features

1. Dangan Runner (1996)

Already his debut feature introduces the concept of running,...

Hardcore legend and WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Terry Funk has died. He was 79.

Funk’s mentee and fellow Hall of Famer Mick Foley confirmed his passing Wednesday on X, the app formerly known as Twitter. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

More from TVLineAnother World's Nancy Frangione Dead at 70Dallas and Knots Landing Creator David Jacobs Dead at 84Edge Defeats Sheamus in Farewell Match on Friday Night Smackdown

“Terry Funk is gone. I just talked to Terry’s daughter, Brandee, who gave me the awful news,” Foley wrote. “He was my mentor, my idol, one of the closest friends.

It’s one of Aew’s biggest pay per views of the year, it’s Double or Nothing 2023; which was broadcast live from Las Vegas and was a damn sight Less controversial than last year’s event, with even the media scrum going off without a hitch! Let’s see what went down…

Match #1: The Hardys & Hook def. Ethan Page & The Gunns (Austin & Colten) The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:

Hook and Austin locked up, trading wrist control. Hook went for an ankle lock, but Austin grabbed the ropes. Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy showed tag team synergy on Austin. And then Hook took out all three members of the opposition with Judo shoulder throws. Hook took Page for a ride with the El Camino. Matt peppered Colten with shots. He followed up with a Side Effect to Austin. Page jumped back in, but he ate a Side Effect from Matt.

There is a lot of advice given to those who are going through the loss of a loved one, but the truth is that there is no formula, each person responds to grief differently. Now, in times of post-pandemic, it is more than necessary to reflect on this subject, both to deal with death and to help those who are bereaved.

Watching films that address the theme can be fruitful to observe and learn, for this reason, we have put together a list of excellent movies with characters who are going through or have gone through the end of a cycle. Among the selections are Little Big Women (2020) by Joseph Chen-Chieh Hsu and Bunny Drop by Sabu.

If you are in a grieving situation or know someone who is going through it, comforting the person can be a way to show affection, whether it’s in person or through condolence messages,...

Sabu, the Japanese actor and director who has at times enjoyed cult status, is to direct his first Korean-language film, a thriller called “Under Your Bed.”

In doing so, Sabu (real name Tanaka Hiroyuki) joins a growing list of international directors attempting to catch their own piece of the Korean wave by making movies in South Korea.

The film is a Korean adaptation of a Japanese novel of the same title, originally written by Ohishi Kei. It tells the tale of a lonely man pulled into a whirlwind of twisted and destructive love.

The Mystery Pictures production will star Lee Ji-hoon, alongside Lee Yun-u as the female love interest and Shin Soo-hyang as the woman’s husband. Lee Ji-hoon’s career has largely been in television to date, with roles including “School 2013” and “River Where the Moon Rises.”

Sabu is known for directing crime comedy “Postman Blues,” “Drive,” “Blessing Bell” and literary adaptation “Kanikosen.

Mumbai, Oct 27 (Ians) ‘Phone Bhoot’ is moving over to the comic world to serve horror-comedy in 2D. The makers of the upcoming film, which stars Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ishaan Khatter and Jackie Shroff, have partnered with India’s premier comic studio Diamond Toons, the iconic book publishers behind the classic comics ‘Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu’.

With this partnership, ‘Phone Bhoot’ will now feature in the ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ comic series created by Pran along with the horror-comedy’s three key characters. The story takes the audience on a hilarious ride as two clueless ghostbusters team up with a ghost on an elaborate plan to take down an equally hilarious bad guy.

Speaking on the launch of the comic, Manish Verma, Director, Diamond Toons said in a statement: “We are delighted to partner with Excel Entertainment for this exclusive edition of ‘Chacha Chaudhary and Phone Bhoot’. Chacha Chaudhary, being an all-rounder,...

If there was ever a region that included themes, characters and motifs that occasionally surpassed even the borders of the surreal, that would be Asia, with the titles that can be easily described as absurd coming out in scores. Maybe it has to do with a particular type of idiosyncrasy, maybe that in a number of countries, particularly in Japan and India, filmmakers feel the freedom to express themselves in any way they want, away from any kind of political correctness or even cinematic “rules”. A number of these movies have already garnered the title of cult, but as we are about to see in this particular list, titles from the whole spectrum of cinema can be found here. Without further ado, here are 40 movies that definitely deserve the title of weird, in alphabetical order.

Ps. The focus on Japanese films was inevitable…

1. A Man Vanishes

This is the closing...

Continuing in the style of Eric Khoo’s project “Folklore” where horror was combined with intense social commentary, Erik Matti presents his own omnibus, inspired by the hardships the whole world, but particularly the Philippines experienced during the pandemic, through four stories.

“Rabid” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

The first and longest segment is titled “Bad Luck is a B*tch” and focuses on a bourgeois family of three, who end up hiring an unknown middle-aged, deaf-mute woman as their maid, after the mother of the family feels sorry for her. Despite the caution the daughter asks her parents to exercise, the two of them are happy with the cooking of the newcomer, and do not pay much caution to her. When the daughter witnesses the “deaf-mute” performing a ritual naked in their living room, the father decides to kick her out but comes across a witch...

ReviewDirector Srinath Rajendran’s film tells the story of a real-life murder, peppered with fiction, but is almost as loyal as a biographical account.CrisStill from 'Kurup'a black diary, bulging with notes and photos stuck to its pages, is almost conspicuously left behind by a retiring police official. Maybe he wants it to be read. It contains the biggest case he is remembered by – the murder of a man by another who tried to pass the body off as his own for personal benefits. On cue, the first page of the diary is opened by someone, and there is the photo of the missing criminal – Kurup. Dulquer Salmaan with long hair and a closely trimmed beard. These first shots of Kurup, the film, take you straight to the story of a real-life murder, peppered with fiction, but almost as loyal as a biographical account. The criminal Sukumara Kurup was never caught in real life.

The second film of Japanese writer and director Satoshi Miki is a “miscellany of characters” reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” albeit lacking “both sentimentality and humor” according to reviewer Emma Slawinski, whose focus is also on the missing plot of the film. Even though her review may be harsh, it nevertheless points at some of the aspects of the film as well as Satoshi’s body of work as a whole.

Having worked within the Japanese TV industry, the director was responsible for TV movies, mostly in the field of drama, until he eventually ventured into feature films for the cinema. In an interview following the release of his most popular film in the West, “Adrift in Tokyo” (2007), he claims his style of infusing often nonsensical comedy in everyday situations is derived from the British comedy group Monty Python. Apart from both countries being islands, British audiences thus understand...

Ever since “Dangan Runner” the filmography of Hiroyuki Tanaka or Sabu has been defined by themes such as fate, destiny and coincidence, and how these affect our daily lives. Whether it is the salarymen in “Monday” or the bankrobbers in “Unlucky Monkey”, bizarre events, blended with a certain talent of the character for being clumsy and somewhat pedestrian at times, result in strange and often quite absurd development, which challenge the character’s greatest fears. In more recent films such as “Dancing Mary” Sabu has also (re-)implemented the idea of spirituality within the narratives of his movies, considering how our ways of defining our lives may even affect our well-being for good or worse. In “My Blood and Bones in a Flowing Galaxy”, whose cinematic release in 2020 had to be postponed due to the pandemic, he combines these aforementioned themes within a story which also deals with the topic...

Fine entertainment, food for thought, five world premieres and at least a touch of Japanese wackiness and warmth – this is what awaits the audience with around 80 current Japanese short and feature-length films of the 21st Nippon Connection Film Festival. After weeks of hoping and worrying, it is now certain that unfortunately the pandemic will not allow in-theater screenings in 2021 either. The largest festival for Japanese cinema worldwide will once again be held exclusively online from June 1 to 6, 2021.

All films are available online for six days throughout Germany and in some cases outside of Germany. Face-to-face talks with the filmmakers are moving into the digital realm to spark a direct exchange. For everyone whose yearning for Japan is stronger than ever, there is also Nippon Culture: the digital supporting program with over 40 interactive workshops, talks, extraordinary performances and concerts. For the first time, the Nippon Click & Collect Kiosk at the usual...

Cinema The move marks a shift to newer avenues for film promotions in Malayalam. Sreedevi JayarajanSeveral promotional clips of ChathurMukham, Manju Warrier's recently released techno-horror film, show her interacting with popular Malayalam YouTubers. In one of the videos, she creates quite a buzz by riding pillion with a vlogger who owns the channel 'Mallu Traveler'. ChathurMukham has won critical acclaim for ditching conventional horror film tropes and delivering a new-age storyline focused on smartphones, selfies and the internet. But it isn’t just the storyline that is distinct, the film also took a unique route with its promotions. The film was endorsed by social media influencers, including big names from Instagram and YouTube, many of whom were invited to chat with Sunny Wayne (who is also in the cast) and Manju before the film’s release. Tnm caught up with the ChathurMukham’s makers to understand why they chose influencer-driven marketing for the film,...

The fourth entry of the series changes its focus from racism to drugs, while retaining the same, music promoting (the film also features Meiko Kaji’s sister Tomoko Arisawa giving a performance), exploitation/action premises that characterizes the whole series. At the same time though, it becomes obvious that the peak of the collection, had already been met in “Sex Hunter”, and there was nowhere but down to go from there.

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Maya is the leader of a gang of girls who have teamed up with a motorcycle gang of men, the Dragons, led by Sakura, in order to have fun doing drugs and listening to music in clubs but also to terrorize the area they spend their time in. One day, they encounter two “country bumpkins”, Nobo and Sabu, and they proceed on harassing them for no reason, particularly for not being from Tokyo. A bit later,...

ReviewJeethu makes us believe Georgekutty is playing snakes and ladders; we realise in the end that it was chess all along. Sowmya RajendranScreengrabThere is no such thing as a perfect crime. The criminal always leaves behind his or her mark; whether that is discovered or not depends on a number of factors. However, in Jeethu Joseph's 2013 film Drishyam, the audience was left convinced at the end that Georgekutty (Mohanlal) had indeed pulled it off. He had hoodwinked the police forever and it was all over. But cinema is different from reality and crime has a way of catching up with the guilty. And no one knows this better than the cinema-crazy Georgekutty who has learnt life lessons from the popular art, sitting in the small office of his cable TV operation. In Drishyam 2, a sequel that was highly anticipated with much misgiving by fans (how can that story possibly be continued?...

Take a look at more footage from the FX/BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean':

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...

...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu,...

Sabu‘s 16th fiction feature film “My Blood & Bones in a Flowing Galaxy” which screens in the ‘Current Waves’ program of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights) is based on the best-selling novel by Yuyuko Takemiya, the author of light literature on which the anime Toradora! and Golden Time are based. If I could summarize its plot in just one sentence, I would by no means use a single word from any of synopses I have read about it so far besides the names of the film’s protagonists.

Let’s start by calling it a joyride in the genre-themed amusement park. It all begins as a teenage saga, with a 17-year-old dreaming to became a hero like his dad, who lost his life few hours before his son was born. Hero is here not an exaggeration or a product of the boy’s fantasy about the parent he had never met; during a heavy flood,...

Take a look at more new footage from the upcoming BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX: 

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

"Black Narcissus", referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir', is the new BBC drama miniseries, based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as "Sister Clodagh and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX: 

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...

...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, David Farrar,...

In the first in a new series of wrestling career retrospectives, Chris takes a look at the Extreme Career of Tommy Dreamer…

Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1971, Thomas James Laughlin was a wrestling fan in his youth and at the young age of only 18 years old he became a wrestler himself. Training under legendary New York pro-wrestler Johnny Rodz, Dreamer would debut in 1989. Rodz would train many wrestlers who we all know very well, from Dreamer himself, to guys like Bubba Ray and D’Von Dudley, Taz and others. Working indie federations such as Iwccw out of Boston, Dreamer began plying his craft in the ring, and it didn’t take him long to land a bigger job, that being with Eastern Championship Wrestling, which he joined in 1992. From there, the man formerly known as Thomas Laughlin’s life would change forever (And ever!…. And ever!…. And ever!)

His...

The New York Asian Film Festival has been a major highlight of the movie calendar since it first launched in 2002, but celebrating this annual orgy of contemporary Asian cinema has always felt a bit like bragging about an experience that most people out there will never get to have. Not only is Nyaff the country’s best-curated and most fearless showcase of new films from Japan to Indonesia and all points in between, but most of these great films never find more permanent homes in the United States (though anyone willing to sift through the recesses of Amazon Prime or explore niche-driven streaming platforms like AsianCrush and Rakuten might find some titles that haven’t completely fallen through the cracks).

Miss a masterpiece like Li Wu’s “Buddha Mountain” or Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok’s “Gallants” and you may never have a chance to see it again; miss the...

Talent stars in festival selection Baseball Girl, one of several South Korean films this year.

The 19th New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) will honour South Korea’s Lee Joo-young with the 2020 Screen International Rising Star Award at its upcoming virtual edition.

Lee stars in Choi Yun-Tae’s Baseball Girl, which receives its international premiere and screens throughout the festival from August 28-September 12 on the Smart Cinema USA app.

Baseball Girl centres on a talented high school athlete who battles chauvinism to make it into the team.

Lee, who stars in Netflix drama Itaewon Class, made her screen debut in...

Trading platform enables buyers to select films, negotiate rights with sellers, sign contracts and request deliverables directly.

Yokohama-based digital rights trading outfit, Filmination, has launched a platform to provide global VOD acquisitions executives with the ability to buy Japanese films and TV series directly from rights holders.

The site, filmination.jp, builds on the company’s previous browsable catalogue of Japanese films available to global VOD buyers, launched in January 2019. The new platform provides a bilingual marketplace ecosystem, through which buyers can select films, negotiate rights with sellers, sign contracts and request deliverables directly.

Japanese films currently have low penetration on international VOD services,...

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“Technicolor Sabers”

By Raymond Benson

Was this really a movie sub-genre? Colorful “Middle Eastern” action-comedy-adventures loosely derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights? Full of harem girls, saber-wielding swashbucklers, epic set pieces with beautifully designed sets and “Arabian” costumes, camels and horses and tigers, and… comedians?

The answer is, ahem, yes. During the war years of the early 1940s, Universal Pictures made several of these “exotic adventure” pictures that capitalized on the success of Britain’s Thief of Bagdad (1940). Hollywood quickly got into this act, but like the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope “Road to…” pictures, these movies set in the world of ancient Arabia were filmed on sound stages in southern California… and it shows.

The films were hugely popular at the time, but they have not aged well. We shall examine two of the more successful entries of...

The Thief of Baghdad

Blu ray – All Region

Colosseo Film

1961 /100 min.

Starring Steve Reeves, Georgia Moll, Arturo Dominici

Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli

Directed by Arthur Lubin

When he shuffled off this mortal coil in 1995, Arthur Lubin’s New York Times obituary was titled “Arthur Lubin, 96, Director Of ‘Mr. Ed’ TV Series, Dies.” It’s doubtful the prolific Lubin would have complained about that particular credit headlining his accomplishments; the man who directed Karloff and Lugosi, jumpstarted Abbott and Costello’s film career and gave Clint Eastwood his first break, also had a thing for talking animals. In 1950 he bought the rights to a book about a talking mule and began a series of hit comedies starring a four-legged chatterbox named Francis and his two-legged pal played by Donald O’Connor.

Industrious to a fault, Lubin’s career was spent crisscrossing from theater to film to television and back again yet...

The notion that possessing a firearm, for most people in a civilized society, is a rare and fascinating thing is the ideological underpinning of Japanese thriller “The Gun 2020.”

The pitch may have its limits in the U.S., but in the hands of director Masaharu Take (“100 Yen Love” “Netflix’ “The Naked Director”) the story flows from a student’s accidental discovery of a handgun, right when she needs it, through to the slaying of a neighbor, and to a police chase. Along the way the back story of both the gun and the woman become clearer.

The film stars “Shoplifters” standout Lily Franky as a detective, alongside Kyoko Hinami and Koichi Sato. It is conceived as a sequel of sorts to Take’s “The Gun” which also started with the discovery of a weapon, and was presented at the autumn 2018 edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Heading to a commercial release,...

It is always a pleasure when a director manages to blend a particular genre, or even elements of many genres, with themes of spirituality, destiny and questions about how much of our lives is perhaps pre-determined. Thankfully, Japanese director Sabu has the talent and wit to get away with an otherwise quite risky mixture, resulting in entertaining features such as “Dangan Runner”, “Monday” and his last feature “Jam”, which also screened at last year’s Nippon Connection. Therefore it should come with no surprise to see the director continue his unique take on genre conventions and narration in his feature “Dancing Mary”, which combines elements of romance, drama and horror while also delving into themes such like self-determination, all of which spiced with the obligatory deadpan, black humor that has also become an ingredient in his works.

“Dancing Mary” is screening at Nippon Connection 2020

After several attempts at demolishing an...

Stephan Holl is Managing Director of Rapid Eye Movies, a German film label dealing in distribution, production and music. Since 1996 the company has been distributing highly aesthetical and extraordinary cinematic gems. As distributor, Rapid Eye Movies triggered the breakthrough of Asian directors like Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ki-Duk in Germany and above all, popular Indian cinema in Europe. The initial focus of primarily distributing national and international film has been extended bringing together talents from a diverse array of cultures and artistic spheres – from music to film and visual arts – to create and produce movies that push boundaries and defy the conventional.

On the occasion of our #TheKhavnProject, we speak with him about his career, Rapid Eye Movies, Asian cinema, the future of the movie industry and of course, Khavn.

Can you give some details about your background in cinema. How did you end up creating Rapid Eye Movies?...

When someone talks about the Japanese movie industry in the 00s, inevitably the discussion goes towards anime, which, in the specific decade, accounted for 60% of the local film production. With films like Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” and the rest of Studio Ghibli’s productions, along with masterpieces from Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii, Katsuhiro Otomo and other great filmmakers, there is no wonder why the 00s were considered “Japanese Cinema’s Second Golden Age”, particularly for the penetration of local films in cinemas around the world.

However, anime were not the only story Japanese cinema had to tell in this decade. Yojiro Takita also won an Oscar, Shinji Aoyama and Naomi Kawase won at Cannes, Hirokazu Koreeda continued his successful festival run, Yoji Yamada made an exceptional trilogy of samurai films, Shunji Iwai directed one of the most critically acclaimed film of the decade, Kinji Fukasaku released his last film and Takeshi Kitano his most successful.

Welcome to this week’s Impact Wrestling review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have Mike Mignola re-making Hellboy into Joey Jack: King Of The Little People. Also, coronavirus is killing people, so take that seriously, but remember that there are a lot of other things that are killing people which are not taken seriously. We gotta keep this all in perspective and not just try to scare people into staying home, like that Sara Haines/Haynes/Hanes chick from The View wants…to some degree anyway. Okay, Impact is back so let’s…review it? That sounds lame, like a George T. Miller movie.

Match #1: Willie Mack def. Cousin Jake, Acey Romero, Daga, Rohit Raju, Jake Crist, Chris Bey & Trey – X-Division #1 Contender Scramble Match The following is courtesy of impactwrestling.com:

Whoever scores the first pin or submission will be be the #1 Contender for the X-Division Championship.

Tony Sokol Feb 13, 2020

Last summer's Aladdin made Disney rich enough to impress a princess. Studio stands by its oath loyalty to a sequel or three.

There's still a lot of gray area, but after the billion-dollar success of last summer’s reboot, Disney is developing a sequel to Aladdin, according to Variety. Director Guy Ritchie is scheduled to return to the helm. Aladdin starred Will Smith as Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine, who are expected to take another ride on the carpet.

Aladdin 2 will be an original story and not follow the sequels to 1992's Aladdin, 1994's The Return of Jafar or Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), which went straight-to-dvd. The Aladdin 2 screenplay will be written by John Gatins, who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the Denzel Washington film Flight, and Andrea Berloff, who was nominated for an Oscar...

Part of a very successful franchise that also includes a manga and an anime, “Bunny Drop” takes a lighter approach to the family drama genre.

Daikichi Kawachi is 27 years old, single and a successful businessperson, but without being very rich. At one point, he returns to his family’s house, that he has not visited for a long time, to attend his grandfather’s funeral. Once there, he discovers in amazement that a new member has been added to the family: the 6-year-old Rin Kaga, baseborn daughter of his deceased grandfather, from a woman who tended to him the last few years. Her mother has abandoned her and the rest of the family is determined to give her up for an adoption. In a moment of thoughtless enthusiasm, Daikichi decides to adopt the little girl, a decision that immediately makes him face on the hardships of single parenting.

Both Sabu and the zombie genre seem to be at their best in this low-budget hidden gem, which won a number of awards internationally, including ones in Dhaka Interantional, Fantasporto, and the Grand Prize at Gérardmer.

In a world where zombies have become pets, a cage with one of them arrives in Dr. Teramoto’s house. Her guidelines mention that her name is Shara and that she should not be fed meat, just fruit and vegetables. The “package” even includes a gun, in case something goes wrong.

Shizuko, the doctor’s wife, whom he does not seem to appreciate at all, orders her to scrub the courtyard, and feeds her with rotten food, a practice repeated every day. Additionally, Shara’s daily routine includes a gang of youngsters that attack her every day and Kenichi, the youngest son of the family, who constantly takes pictures of her.

Cobra Woman

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1944/ 1:33 / 71 min.

Starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu

Directed by Robert Siodmak

In the early 40’s Universal Pictures was still best known for its shadowy black and white horror shows. That all changed in 1944 when the studio produced the kind of candy-colored dreamland not seen since Dorothy woke up to Oz. The movie was Robert Siodmak’s Cobra Woman starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall and studio stalwart Lon Chaney Jr., last seen putting the bite on Louise Allbritton in Siodmak’s Son of Dracula. There aren’t any vampires in this florid South Sea adventure but this is Universal, after all – villagers are dying and the bite marks on their throats suggest Siodmak’s latest wouldn’t stray too far from the studio’s comfort zone.

Montez plays two roles, a moony island girl named Tollea and her twin sister Naja who rules far-off...

The fact that Joko Anwar was going to become a great director became obvious from the beginning, with his debut incorporating all those elements that make his cinema unique, and particularly the extremely intelligent, pointy, and ironic sense of humor.

Joni works as a film-reel deliveryman in Jakarta, since, as Anwar eloquently explains, the distributors buy one copy of each film (made from 5-6 reels) for every two screening rooms, thus the need of people who take the reels from one cinema to another during the screenings. One day, while waiting for his next reel, he stumbles upon a gorgeous girl, who is waiting in line for a movie with her high-maintenance (to say the least) boyfriend, Otto. Joni cannot help but notice her, and the same applies to her, leading to a discussion that ends up with her promising to give him her name if he manages to deliver the reels in time.

Hiroyuki Tanaka, better known under the pseudonym Sabu, was born in 1964 and originally wanted to become a musician before he eventually decided to pursue a career as an actor. Over the course of his career he has worked with director such as Takashi Miike and Ryuichi Hiroki. In 1996 he directed his first film “Dangan Runner” and has been a regular in international festivals like Berlin Film Festival or New York Asian Film Festival.

While his last film “Jam” awaits its cinematic release in Germany at the end of December, we sat down with the director to talk about the themes in his work, the characters in his films and the importance of running for his movies.

You said previously that the way your main actors looked was one of the main inspirations for the film. Can you elaborate on that?

Even though the main characters may have a different personality than you,...

Japanese director Toyo Sato’s most recent project “Kaiji: Final Game” is set for theatrical release January 20th, 2020. This is the thrid film in the series, which is based off of the manga by Noboyuki Fukumoto, who also wrote the screenplay. Tatsuya Fujiwara reprises his role as the titular Kaiji, a man forced into a the dangerous world of underground gambling.

In anticipation of the productions theatrical release, Toho has made a trailer available, which can be viewed below.

Synopsis

Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara) experiences the biggest adventure of his life. He encounters four different games: “Babel no Tou,” “Saigo no Shinpan,” “Dream Jump” and “Gold Janken.” (Asian Wiki)...