Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Yes, Madam! 1985

  ★★★★★ Watched 28 Jun 2023 5

  Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock finally answer the question of what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object - they high five, then kick the ever-loving-shit out of everyone else!

  Two tough-as-nails no-nonsense cops from two countries come together and fight against the slick newly rich gangsters, their lawyers, and ineffectual institutions, in defense of the common man - the scamming, conning, anything for a buck trio of Tsui Hark, Meng Hoi, and John Shum, who hustle their…

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  Hong Kong Hot Harbor 1962

  ★★★★ Watched 22 Jan 2025 2

  I wish I could live in movies like this, the bright colors, the beautiful people, and of course, Hong Kong in 1962. To sit at a bar in a suit, drinking a shot of whiskey from a tall glass, while an Italian actress playing an Eurasian femme fatale dances the Twist in a tight-fitting cheongsam. This is the life. To really see the city like this you've got to look at international cinema, productions that came to shoot on location,…

Recent reviews

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  Cantankerous Edo 1957

  ★★★½ Watched 16 Mar 2025

  One of at least a half dozen tales of Edo era firefighters from Toei Studios. This is the second one I've seen and both are a bit fuzzy on how firefighting actually works during this period. A bell rings, the fire squad rushes out and, I think, determines the structure they need to save. Then the standard bearer of the fire squad climbs up to the top of the structure and waves around the standard. This of course does absolutely…

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  The Spiders' The Reckless Operation 1967

  ★★★★ Watched 14 Mar 2025

  Chieko Matsubara (of the Outlaw: Gangster series) is on television in an amateur singing contest in Tokyo and she says she would love a man who would just come to her, letting nothing stop them and nothing get in their way, just the shortest possible path, love leading the way. She's hinting to one of her bandmates (Ken Yamauchi, of the Young and Fresh band) to get a move on, but The Spiders, just back from their so-called "American Tour,"…

Popular reviews

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  The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971

  ★★★★★ Watched 21 Apr 2022 10

  This isn't a movie. This is more like a visual album. Each murder is a track, "Bats", "Locusts", and so on, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, re-imagined in the style of a murderous Batman or Avengers TV episode. Vincent Price leads his mechanical band on the organ. The end credits might clue you in on who to root for and who is just part of the ensemble, organized into "Interested Parties", "The Law", "The Victims", "The Girl" (the wonderfully enigmatic…

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  Godzilla 1954

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 07 Jan 2024 11

  The Oppenheimer review.

  By now all die-hard Godzilla fans know the story of the fishing boat named the Daigo Fukuryu Maru getting caught in a hydrogen bomb test and kicking off furious protests from Japan, straining US/Japan relations, and most importantly, inspiring the creation of the movie Godzilla. Godzilla, as told in thousands of reviews and writeups, represents the horrors of atomic destruction, unleashed upon Japan, just as it was during wartime, until it is defeated by Dr. Serizawa and…