HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
Action with swords
18+
Starring Kaneshiro Takeshi, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi
Directed by Zhang Yimou
2004
Made in China

FULLTIME KILLER
18+
Action with guns
Starring Sorimachi Takashi, Andy Lau, Kelly Lin
Directed by Johnnie To & Wai Ka Fai
2003
Made in China

THE YIN-YANG MASTER
13+
Action with magic
Starring Nomura Mansai, Ito Hideaki, Sanada Hiroyuki
Directed by Takita Yojiro
2003
Made in Japan

CA BAU KAN
18+
Drama with various killing devices
Starring Ferry Salim & Lola Amaria
Directed by Nia DiNata
2003
Made in Indonesia
[but the title is, by the way, not an Indonesian phrase;
it is a Chinese term]

THE RETURNER
13+
Action with guns
Starring Kaneshiro Takeshi, Suzuki Anne
Directed by Yamazaki Takashi
2003
Made in Japan

PYROKINESIS
18+
Action with fire and bikes
Starring Ito Hideaki, Yada Akiko
2001
Made in Japan

WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN
13+
Action with guns
Starring Nakai Kiichi, Koichi Sato, Nakatani Miki
Directed by Takita Yojiro
2003
Made in Japan

THE SHADOW WARRIOR
13+
War movie with swords
Starring Nakadai Tatsuya, Ryu Daisuke, Yui Masayuki
Directed by Kurosawa Akira
1980
Made in Japan

YASHA
18+
A noir flick with blades & guns
Starring Ito Hideaki
2003
Made in Japan

BLISTER
13+
How hard life is for a zealous toy collector (an 'otaku')
Starring Ito Hideaki
2000
Made in Japan

ONMYOJI (THE YIN-YANG MASTER) II
13+
Magic with swords
Starring Ito Hideaki, Nomura Mansai, Nakai Kiichi
2003
Made in Japan

AZUMI 2: DEATH OR LOVE
18+
Action with swords
Starring Ueto Aya, Ishigaki Yuma, Kuriyama Chiaki
2005
Made in Japan

ANOTHER BATTLE -- CONSPIRACY
18+
Action with all sorts of weapon
Starring Watanabe Ken
2003
Made in Japan

 

U N W A T C H A B L E F L I X

( C L I C K A B L E-----T I T L E S )

 

THE PRINCESS BLADE
13+
Action with swords
Starring Ito Hideaki, Shaku Yumiko
2003
Made in Japan

2009: LOST MEMORIES
13+
Action with guns
Starring Jang Dong-Gun, Nakamura Toru
Directed by Lee Si-Myung
2003
Made in Korea

MOVIES ABOUT THE LAST SHOGUN ON EARTH
All are 13+ drama and action with swords
Starring Sorimachi Takashi, etc.
By various directors
From 1990 to 2004
Made in Japan

GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA (G.T.O)
13+
Drama with big bikes
Starring Sorimachi Takashi
1998/2001
Made in Japan

THE SEA MONKEYS
13+
Coastguards and Imperial Navy
Starring Ito Hideaki
2004
Made in Japan

LOVE SONG
18+
Just what the title says
Starring Ito Hideaki
2001
Made in Japan

BOY HUNT
13+
Drama with one guy and lots of girls
Starring Ito Hideaki
1998
Made in Japan

 

 

 

Postscript to this section:
I'll never revise the watchable/unwatchable partition,
but that's just one very truly personal opinion.
You don't agree with me anyway, do you?

INTO THE MIRROR - Korea, 2003
A relentlessly logical horror flick, and thus so dang scary: how does it like, if your killer is your own reflection, literally? Starring Kim Hye-na.

Or, as far as Korean films go, if you prefer drama with occasional gunshots, try FRIENDS. Starring the best (and un-typical) of the Koreans, Jang Dong-gun.

 

ÃSOKA - India, 2003
A mercilessly beautiful epic about the great emperor of ancient India. Starring Shakhruh Khan. Seven out of ten Indonesian women say Khan is the sexiest actor around the Milky Way. But even if that means no straw to you, if you can ever forget the dance perpetrated by the ravishingly beautiful Kareena Kapoor, I'd eat my cat.

 

KILLER TATTOO - Thailand, 2004
An outrageous comedy with gunblasts.

If you're a sucker for monsoon horror, get THE EYE and its sequel. The Thais have been routinely launching watchable devil-infested and other-world-ly scary tomes since 2000.

 

8 TOMBS VILLAGE - Japan, 2003
An absolutely new atmosphere of a uniquely Asian whodunit. The cast is excellent, the atmosphere perfect, the crime logical, and the most lovable Japanese Detective Kindaichi is alive. Starring Toyokawa Etsushi.

 

 

.....and a somewhat incongruent
but predictable appendix
to these lists:
Tom Cruise's
THE LAST SAMURAI
(2003),
the only caucasian samurai movie
that makes sense.

 

 

.....and the Bible of all samurai movies, Kurosawa Akira's SEVEN SAMURAI (1956), against which everything else is measured until this minute.

Plus story and pictures of other movies, computer and video games, animation flicks, and so on, that have been copying or remaking this movie since 1960 until 2005.

If you think you love samurai movies but have never even seen this one, and only heard about it, you'd never know what you miss.

This movie is the genre itself, man.