Rage and Honor (1992) Movie Review

Rage and Honor is an American action crime martial arts film written and directed by Terence H. Winkless. It stars the DTV action movie team up Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton, along with Terri Treas, Brian Thompson and Catherine Bach as a police chief. Interestingly enough, with this film Rothrock would start becoming an associate producer in a lot of her following films.

Schoolteacher and martial arts teacher Kris Fairfield (Rothrock) joins forces with justice-seeker policeman Preston Michaels (Norton) in order to eliminate a dangerous and powerful drug lord after a student gets murdered by the criminal gang.

The lack of Rothrock in favor of more protagonism for Norton is kind of what keeps this one from coming alive, especially at a time when Rothrock could carry a film by herself. However, the two do have some nice quips and their overall chemistry is endearing. Their moves are just as phenomenal as in other films, their fighting skills are top notch and the choreographies in this particular film are nothing short of competent and well done.  Unfortunately, the entire production is a very by-the-numbers affair, ending up as a very standard DTV product with little variety or changes.

Some stylistic flourishes are present, such as the handheld videocamera shots from the opening, which relate to a character in the movie, but not much is done with this device and when the character is practically out of the movie it just disappears. The rest is a very formulaic plot executed appropriately, only slightly memorable because of some peculiar scenes, like the alley fight with the female gang members, the slow motion sequence and the scene where Rothrock has to battle Norton. The climax is a bit underwhelming and the storyline isn't as engaging as other films of this kind but it's enjoyable as a beat 'em up flick.

Recommended for Rothrock completists and fans of cheesy action films from this era.

Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody (1988) Anime OVA Review

Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody is an action sci fi comedy anime OVA and a sequel to Project A-ko 2 (1987). Animation director Yuji Moriyama directs his second Project A-ko (1986) sequel. While the studio changed from A.P.P.P. to Studio Fantasia, a lot of the crew and cast came back including Miki Itō, Emi Shinohara and Michie Tomizawa. The screenplay was done by anime writer and producer Tomoko Kawasaki (Slayers OVAs, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Corpse Princess), which is weird because of the differences in characterization between this OVA and the movie, which she also wrote.

During Spring Break, A-ko decides it's time to stop hanging around with C-ko all the time and get a boyfriend. A-ko wants new clothes and gets a job in order to afford a new outfit. After an altercation, C-ko runs into the street and is almost run over by a motorcycle rider, C-ko was holding A-ko’s earring and drops it on the floor only to be picked up by the driver, Kei. A-ko then meets Kei and she falls instantly in love with him, much to C-ko's annoyance. B-ko also develops a crush on the male biker and plans to steal the man away from the redhead. When a mysterious invitation arrives, the girls get ready for the reopening of the alien resort from the last OVA hoping to get Kei to notice them. 

The love triangle seen in the other features was a solid one but now the writers tried to throw a monkey wrench and add a male love interest for the rival main girls. This sort of destabilizes the status quo and the typical formula a bit, but it creates a list of issues. The first one is that A-ko seems to be quite out of character as she perhaps wouldn't be falling madly in love with a random dude, nor do I think she would just decide to "be normal" and get away from C-ko just to meet a guy. She never struck me as boy crazy or something like that. It's not like we knew every facet of her before, and she was just a parody character after all, but there's something strange about seeing her act that way. I can buy it, however, because the pay off is worth it and everything works out in the end but boy is that a questionable decision.

Having said that, while the OVA money seems to be drying up a bit, this entry has some very good animated sequences with enjoyable destruction (even when the fights are lacking and brief), it continues in the tradition of adding fun references (even if most of them don't amount to much other than some admittedly funny gags), they do some good stuff with the secondary characters and the jokes, reactions and witty lines of dialogue can still be hilarious when they hit, which is often. So it's a well done sequel that simply has a somewhat misguided premise but in which the inner workings still function properly, even if the genius and novelty of the first movie is fading away a bit.

I also do appreciate how this new side of A-ko is awakened as she is seen behaving in an even more grounded or human way, especially after we see her at her fast food job and having money issues. This is honestly pretty sweet and shows how this character can live in the normal world and still have engaging problems in her stories. So I think that by this point, while still relying on the formula to a certain extent, the story potential for A-ko herself was slightly expanded upon.

It's a kind of daring way to break the mold a bit while still being faithful to what we have seen before in the series. It doesn't break what has been established and you can still have a lot of fun with it.

My Wife is a Gangster (2001) Movie Review

My wife is a Gangster is a South Korean crime action romantic comedy directed by Jo Jin-kyu and written by Kang Hyo-jin and Kim Moon-sung. It stars Shin Eun-kyung, Park Sang-myun, Ahn Jae-mo and Kim In-kwon. The film was a phenomenal success inside and outside of Korea, leading to My Wife is a Gangster 2 (2003), My Wife is a Gangster 3 (2006) and two indian remakes titled James Bond and Singh is Bling in 2015.

Eun-jin is a martial arts expert and a deadly dual-wielding blade fighter who gains respect and the position of boss inside the Korean criminal underworld. She manages her goons and thugs with cruelty and harshness. When she learns that her sister, Yu-jin, has a terminal disease she begins to create the life she couldn't have at her request, this involves getting married to Kang Soo-il, whom she just met after the man uselessly tried to stop a fight, and have children. Can the cold and distant assassin deal with married life?

A great deal of the plot involves Eun-jin trying to grasp the gist of normal and mundane conjugal tasks but since her character was brought up outside the realm of normativity she ends up distorting and twisting these norms and in a way, exposing their arbitrary nature as well as their fragility when faced with any strong enough will that won't fit in. That's where the film is at its best, when its satirical commentary is integrated into the comedy and the action in order to make an entertaining statement.

The protagonist’s harshness and brutality gets contrasted several times with more warm and emotionally-based marriage scenes, which not only opens up the possibility for comedy but also to get the character to expose another facet of herself and her weaknesses become apparent when she is out of her element.

The less interesting stuff comes in the form of mostly irrelevant or very unimpactful scenes of Eun-jin's goons messing around. These comedic scenes aren't very funny and they mostly feel like padding or to add some cheap and easy jokes. They aren't awful but they comprise the weakest part of the film.

The movie features crisp 35mm film cinematography with a variety of somewhat light but noticeable and sometimes striking hues that decorate the visuals, add to that some very dynamic camera work that keeps things with energy and a very brisk rhythm that never flacks but doesn't move fast enough to be incomprehensible or disjointed. It's solidly crafted overall and with quite good fight sequences. 

Highly recommended if you wanna get started on South Korean cinema and this series.