Mike Astill

While not afraid of subtitles, I rarely dip into French cinema for the simple reason that people speaking French tends to lull me off to sleep. No such worries here, I think I even started to forget to blink as this hideously compelling film unfolded.

A young girl named Lucie (Jampanoi) escapes from unspeakable imprisonment and torture. Traumatised beyond measure, she's brought up in an orphanage, where she is taken under the wing of Anna (Alaoui), who cares for her with simple and heart-wrenching humanity. Fifteen years later, a helpless Anna cannot control the tragic and brutal events as Lucie takes her revenge on the couple who may or may not have been her tormentors so long ago.

A few years back, I really enjoyed Hostel. It was a lurid ride of bible-black comedy horror. It did, however, let loose a torrent of lookey-likeys that have become both tedious and sinister. Martyrs director (Laugier) considers this an 'anti-hostel', and by the film's end you can see what he means.

If you survive the squirmy gore and horror of the seemingly conventional (but technically excellent) first act, you find the film drags you deeper and deeper into the grotesque, but ultimately for a purpose. Whether that purpose justifies the movie or not depends on your resistance to high concept pretension, or the level of empathy you share with Anna, a character who surely belongs in any list of cinema's most tragic heroines.

Korean chiller that initially appears to poach elements from better known J-horrors 'Ringu' and 'One Missed Call', amongst many others. Fortunately, with the very important advantage of having a decent plot, 'Phone' is clearly far better than the latter, and perhaps even as good as the former.

Ji-won is a journalist who receives menacing phone calls after exposing a paedophile ring. She decides to lie low in an empty house belonging her best friend Ho-Jeong and her husband Chang-hoon, and their young daughter Yeong-ju.

All's well, until her new cell phone starts ringing, and all that can be heard down the line are disturbing noises and disembodied voices. Worse still, when little Yeung-ju accidentally answers the phone, she's possessed by a malevolent spirit that turns her from cutie-pie to scowling devil child. Ji-won desperately seeks the reason behind the possession, but will she be prepared to find the source of the evil is so close to home?

Refreshingly edgy horror, delivered with atmosphere and style, a little welcome humour, and perfect timing. Too many recent horror flicks seem to rely too heavily on their concept, and forget to tell a good story. In Phone, the twists keep coming, and every time you think you've got the film pegged, it pulls the rug out from under you - right up to its freaky, memorable climax.

The adults are perfectly fine actors, but all their thunder is stolen by See-woo Eun, who plays the little girl. A large part of the unease and sinister atmosphere the film generates is from how uncomfortable you feel seeing such a very young actress in such a role. I was watching the Tartan DVD, and felt much better after watching the behind-the-scenes footage included - which showed little See-woo clearly loving being the centre of attention, and the more intense scenes being filmed in small doses and in a light-hearted fashion.

When a logging company uncovers an ancient artifact in the mountains of Hokkaido, the Company's boss Mr. Goto finds a mysterious talisman. He prises it free from its resting place, thinking it would be a nice present for his daughter. Unfortunately he's unsealed the resting place of Desghidorah, a three headed, fire breathing beastie that's soon freed to run wild and destroy the local scenery, sucking Earth's precious energy.

Only a giant plush moth can save the day! A tired old Mothra - tending a lovely big egg - is reluctantly summoned (in a slightly more J-pop than usual fashion) by her tiny priestesses Moll and Lora. These cuties are from a race called the Elias, and they spend much of the movie astride a mini-Mothra called Fairy, battling their nemesis Belvera, who gets to fly a mini dragon thing and cackle a lot.

First in a trilogy of Mothra films for the nineties, while Godzilla was taking a well earned break. Clearly aimed at kids more than the average kaiju fan, this is still great fun, and while no cities get totalled in this offering, the countryside looks nice and there are some cool fight scenes between Death Ghidorah and Mothra.

There's a 'save the planet' theme going on that gets rammed down your throat a bit before the movie ends, but the more obvious beef many western fans are going to have with this flick is the lack of a Japanese language option on seemingly the only version available. Why do they do this? Yes, the film's been tarted up nicely, and the dubbing is lip-synched and not overly annoying, but some people will always prefer the original language and there seems to be little reason why it shouldn't be included.