Our 2011 staff top ten lists continue with an excellent selection of offerings from Mr. Andrew Skeates. In amongst his list, you’ll find a couple of Johnnie To’s finest, some samurai classics, and a touch of kick ass kung fu. When it comes to his booby prize, Thailand you should be ashamed!

10. Rogue Ninja

Director: Seiji Chiba
Cast: Mika Hijii, Masayuki Izumi, Kentaro Shimazu, Mitsuki Koga, Tatsumi Natsuko

If you are looking for straight up, no frills, ninja-on-ninja action then you could do a lot worse than Seiji Chiba’s ‘Rogue Ninja’. Despite being shot in what seems to be three locations (a cave, a feudal palace, and a never-ending forest) and on what must have been a minuscule budget, ‘Rogue Ninja’ is a whole heap of fight fun. Good, simple, ninja fun.
Read the Far East Films review

9. PTU

Director: Johnnie To
Cast: Simon Yam, Lam Suet, Ruby Wong, Raymond Wong Ho-Yin, Maggie Shiu

A stylish and moody piece from one of the masters of style and mood, ‘PTU’ is a dark journey into the equally dark heart of Hong Kong where the cops are almost as corrupt as the criminals. Similar in tone to the likes of To’s ‘The Mission’, ‘Exiled’ and ‘Vengeance’ but lighter on the action, ‘PTU’ is still an excellent thriller thanks to the director’s trademark style, another stellar performance from the always good Simon Yam and tension that literally crackles under the heat of the neon lights illuminating the dark night time world of Hong Kong.
Read the Far East Films review

8. Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame

Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Deng Chao, Carina Lau

Legendary Hong Kong director Tsui Hark delivers a big, stunning looking blockbuster that harks back to the golden Hong Kong fantasy days of ‘A Chinese Ghost Story’ and ‘Swordsman 2’. Combining his unique visual skills with his knack for impressive production and action design, ‘Detective Dee’ is one part fantasy, one part detective mystery and one part wuxia action. Big, adventurous and with some thrilling set-pieces ‘Detective Dee’ can’t always keep up with its own uniqueness but is still an inventive and often wildly entertaining ride.
Read the Far East Films review

7. The Lost Bladesman

Director: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Cast: Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen (1), Betty Sun Li, Alex Fong Chung-Sun, Shao Bing

This is a good looking, very well made and once it kicks in, action packed epic. Eschewing any flashiness for a more old school and care given to character and pacing approach, directors Felix Chong and Alan Mak craft a beautifully shot and finely acted period piece. It also delivers all the finely realized Donnie Yen action you could want.
Read the Far East Films review

6. Exiled

Director: Johnnie To
Cast: Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Nick Cheung, Richie Ren, Josie Ho

While many might see ‘Exiled’ as Johnnie To hitting all his unique beats to create a sort of greatest hits, the film is still a finely tuned, bullet riddled thriller about friends protecting one another. All To’s trade marks are here: finely dressed gangsters/hitmen, sumptuous widescreen photography and expertly choreographed gunplay sequences. But along with its impeccable style and taut execution, ‘Exiled’ is a riveting portrayal of a group of friends sticking by one another as their once chosen profession threatens to kill them all.
Read the Far East Films review

5. Harakiri

Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishishama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tanba, Masao Mishima

A slow burn samurai classic, ‘Harakiri’ is a tough and tense dissection of the samurai code and what the honour of a noble death to a samurai really means. Japanese filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi crafts a riveting character piece that builds to an epic explosion of violence as a down trodden but noble samurai searches for the truth about what really happened to his son in law. If you’re any kind of chanbara cinema fan and if you haven’t seen it already then ‘Harakiri’ is an absolute must see in all its widescreen glory.
Read the Far East Films review

4. Shaolin

Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, Fan Bingbing, Jackie Chan, Wu Jing

Blockbuster kung fu doesn’t come much more enjoyable than Benny Chan’s ‘Shaolin’: a big, slick epic that features some of the best kung fu action around. The kung fu is sharp and slick, the choreography tight, featuring just the right amount of wirework to enhance some of the confrontations. It might not always be subtle but ‘Shaolin’ is still a well-made blockbusting period action film that shows modern kung fu still have a lot to offer.
Read the Far East Films review

3. Blades Of Blood

Director: Lee Joon-Ik
Cast: Cha Seung-Won, Hwang Jung-Min, Baek Sung-Hyun, Han Ji-Hye, Lee Doll-Hyung

A classy affair all round, ‘Blades of Blood’ is an invigorating and hugely enjoyable slice of chanbara styled storytelling from Korea. Featuring some sumptuous photography and characters with real personalities and like-ability, ‘Blades of Blood’ takes the overused set up of a man out for revenge and crafts a refreshing and exciting story of a set characters trying to set a series of wrongs right. A pleasant surprise.
Read the Far East Films review

2. Wind Blast

Director: Gao Qunshu
Cast: Duan Yihong, Ni Dahong, Wu Jing, Zhang Li (1), Francis Ng

Wonderfully shot and often breathlessly staged, Gao Qunshu’s film delivers full throttle action by dropping a group of characters into a remote location and setting them off against one another. Quite literally a (ahem!) blast, ‘Wind Blast’ is a pure action film that sticks to its ever-firing guns as it tears across the beautiful and rugged landscapes of the Gobi desert upping the ante with every scene of action and mayhem.
Read the Far East Films review

1. 13 Assassins

Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Hiroki Matsukata, Tsuyoshi Ihara

An almost perfect blend of slow build storytelling and blistering action, ‘13 Assassins’ is Eastern storytelling at its best, a samurai masterpiece and an auteur showing he still has creative muscles left to flex despite churning out something like four films a year for the past fifteen or so years. The last forty minutes or are action heaven: this is one big, bad samurai movie.
Read the Far East Films review

 Edge Of The Empire

Director: Nirattisai Kaljareuk
Cast: Than Thanakorn, Sara Legge, Awain Muangawan, Arnuz Lapanich, Lalisa Sontirod

This wannabe historical Thai epic certainly tries hard but due to a low budget, an excessive amount of melodrama and mediocre action, ‘Edge of the Empire’ just fails to entertain like a lot of recent Thai action cinema has. The heart is there and the makers try their best but the movie is just an hour and forty minutes of amateur dramatics, what seems like continuous shouting and muddled action scenes.
Read the Far East Films review