Author: Paul Taggart

‘Thirst’ is an enjoyable but flawed experience, a stark, spooky drama with lashings of gallows humour that make up for its slight dips in story and style.

Not that I am expecting high art from what is a low budget Japanese action film but this film really is awful.

‘Once Upon A Time In Triad Society’ is a great little movie, purely down to Francis Ng in what must be one of his greatest roles.

It has a slight campy nature but has the message of the earlier films along with their high technical values and cinematography.

This film’s strength lies in its joy in beating you over the head with excessive 80s bloodshed and cheese.

I walked into it expecting ‘Godzilla’ given a British spin on a Dr Who episode budget, instead it is a great, colourful thriller of a bygone age.

‘The Flower And The Angry Waves’ is a great little film, as worthy of attention as any of Suzuki’s later films or indeed of any fellow period films.

Little bursts of bone jarring violence, especially the bloody conclusion, help raise the stakes to remind you that you’re not watching ‘Pretty Woman’.

A Japanese monster movie with a samurai twist, ‘Daimajin’ from 1966 is a slowburn film that is part period drama and part giant stone man Kaiju extravaganza.

The film carries on down a winding road of raised fists and black eyes but maintains a battered humanity as well.

‘The Blue Jean Monster’ has a little soul and pathos lurking at the heart of its rampant Hong Kong chaos.

Weaving a tangled web, ‘Accident’ is actually elegant in its simplicity but by the film’s conclusion, whatever your thoughts are on the movie itself you are likely to be more cautious of crossing the road or getting out of a car.