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The 14 Amazons (1972)

The Yang family, men and women, have served their country loyally for generations. During the war General Yang is ambushed and killed. His widow and the entire family set out to avenge his death and defend the country.

Wonder Women am discovering the Shaw Brothers weighty output. I suppose this is typical: 75% fights with goofy, fakey choreography. There isn’t any wire work in this one, but some magical human bridges and the like. This time it is warrior women who by some guile...


Published July 25, 2025
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The Black Tavern (1972)
Filmmaker(s): Teddy Yip Wing-Cho

This sword-filled thriller centers on the title location--an inn where the down and dirty meet to plot nefarious doings. Award winning actor Ku Feng stars as the "Whip Devil," while the luminous and lethal Shih Szu plays "The Lady Hermit" who has a surprise in store for all the double-crossing masters of mayhem.

Zombies This is I think my first Shaw Brothers film. I think the formula is simple stories, easy stereotypes, and lots of (for then) clever fighting. The scene here is a remote inn, which we see in four setups. There’s a really fake looking model for...


Published June 17, 2025
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Ghost Ship Part 2 (1957)
Filmmaker(s): Sadatsugu Matsuda

As Part I opens, Jubei (Denjiro Okochi), the best of sea skippers, is unable to overcome the stormy seas of Luzon. All hands on board the Kannonmaru were lost except for Shinkei, who alone made his way to land & eventually home to inform his grandson Jiromaru (Kinnosuke Nakamura) that his father Jubei met with disaster. Young Jiromaru tells his grandfather that he doesn't want to be a skipper like his father, but wants to go to Kyoto and become a samurai…

Pirates! Ghosts! Samurai! not sure how much I will be able to devote to a study of Japanese cinema. I am attracted to films that rinse modern concepts through a Shinto lens. So the filmmakers and projects I value are actually few. But you have...


Published June 17, 2025
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The Gamma People (1956)
Gamma-Ray Creatures Loose!
Filmmaker(s): John Gilling

An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.

Women, Trained story here is a bit interesting, deriving from Nazi experiments with children and indicating a trend actually well supported in the US. But the production is ho hum and it has no value for what it is. But it is an example of something...


Published July 23, 2025
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The Arrival from the Darkness (1921)
Filmmaker(s): Jan S. Kolár

One of the first Czechoslovak films to be shown abroad--a fantasy horror, filmed on the fully furnished premises of the Berlin film studio Am Zoo. The central role is portrayed by the “arrivee from darkness”, Ješek, who is awakened from a deathly sleep. The film represents unusual sparks of creative efforts and the ambitions of creative community around the director Jan S. Kolár, who was inspired by international trends and techniques.

Parallel Realities this is yet another instance of a woman actress, made a star by her filmmaker lover. The story is a valentine to her charm and beauty, sufficient to bend reality. She indeed became a star until talkies made her accent unsellable. Here, she...


Published June 25, 2025
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Hamlet (1921)
Filmmaker(s): Svend Gade, Heinz Schall

A free adaptation of Shakespeare′s drama. The Danish queen masquerades her daughter as a boy, and thus, the girl lives her life as 'Prince' Hamlet. Her father poisoned by a venomous snake placed by the treacherous Claudius, Hamlet fakes madness to investigate without suspicion.

Citizen Asta has long been attractive to vain actors, despite its opposing energy. Mel Gibson! Olivier! So many… And such committed variety. There are four notable things. The first is that the play may be the richest long form narrative in history, essentially inventing poetic metaphor....


Published June 17, 2025
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Roswolsky’s Mistress (1921)
Filmmaker(s): Felix Basch

Mia Verhag loses her job as a chorus singer when she rejects the advances of the theatre director. While she is in the grips of despair, she encounters the millionaire Roswolsky, who takes her to his luxurious house and gives her a key to the garden gate, allowing her to visit the surrounding park whenever she pleases. This chance meeting sends rumours flying everywhere, and soon Mia appears on the front pages of all the newspapers as Roswolsky’s mistress. The city’s merchants and creditors compete to lend her money, and she lands the leading role in the theatre’s new production. There, she falls in love with Count Albich – but, believing the rumours, he avoids her. Mia follows him to Monte Carlo, while Roswolsky himself falls genuinely in love with her and plots to take Albich out of the running. A grand drama is set to unfold.

Industrial Revolution came to this as a warmup for what trusted folks say will be an important viewing in her ‘Hamlet’ made this same year. This is a woman who invented women in film, so popular she went by ‘The Asta’. She was so powerful that...


Published June 17, 2025
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The Secret of House No. 5 (1912)
Filmmaker(s): Kai Hansen

Choose your own Revolution the basic info first. This is the first 15 minutes of a silent film without inter-titles that we are told is both a vampire story and a mystery. The people appear and act as any actors would representing the upper class...


Published March 2, 2025
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