BUY BUST (Directed by Eric Matti) ***

Nina Manigan is part of a tough training cop squad. She’s been transferred to this new rookie squad after having lost her own squad in a shoot-out over drugs. They are about to entrap Biggie, the leader of this huge drug ring when everything goes form bad to rotten. Welcome to the squalor of the slums of Manila. Murder, mayhem and a riot resulting in a sea of killings, perpetrated by everyone, including the locals living in these tin tumbledown dwellings show everyone is against the police and the drug kings.

It really is a bloodbath movie graphically showing endless ways to cut up, stab, shoot, strangle, bat- beat and bludgeon those in your way. There is a Judas in the police force, but only the ending reveals who it is. Manigan saves the day of course. She’s a hero of comic book dimensions. (Screened at the New York Asian Film Festival)

CODA (Directed by Alan Holly) ****

Ryuichi Sakamoto, a genius composer form Japan has throat cancer, yet his drive to keep composing is dauntless. This documentary shows him at work in the creative process, traveling to distant lands, including the North Pole to record nature’s sounds and then making soundscape music that is breathtaking.

PARADOX (Directed by Wilson Yip)****

In Hong Kong, a wonderful little daughter and Li Chung Chi, her dad – a former cop - are as close as can be. The mom was killed in a car accident (shown in flashbacks) The daughter, now grown up, goes missing in Taiwan. The dad is devastated. The cop in Taiwan likes Li and together they decide to help one another. Bu Li is on a war path to find his daughter. He eventually does and the reason for her disappearance is ghastly and full of political intrigue. Lots of incredible Kong-Fu and just enough violence to make you shudder. What will happen to Li is not what he wanted, but with revenge, you have to pay the piper. (Screened at the New York Asian Film Festival)

1987 WHEN TOMORROW COMES (Directed by Jang Joon-hwan)*****

A stunning tour de force that recaptures the horrific corruption in South Korea used by Chun Doo-hwan that turned the country into a regressive state of repression against students and adults who objected and were portrayed as Communists. But even the cause of democracy was crushed by his henchmen. North Korean defector Park Jeol-won has a personal axe to grind against all commies. He heads the office of against all commies. He heads the office of Anticommunist Investigation.  Plot-wise, a student is tortured and a huge cover-up ensues. The Seoul Olympics is not too far off, and so all must look good. Lawyers, journalists and student revolutionaries are murdered. What a gripping film this is, and an important one. In this film, North Korea and South Korea could have been one and the same. (Sceened at New York Asian Film Festival)

 RIVER'S EDGE (Directed by Isao Yukisada) ***

                                                                            

On the outskirts of Tokyo, teens have a ton of skeletons hanging in their private psyche. Each character has a burden to bear.  Heroine-like Haruna seems to feel little; she's a cool cat, but everyone turns to her for strength, especially Yamada who gets bullied and beaten up; he’s gay. His chatter-box girl friend has no idea he is - despite how cruelly he treats her. Finally and fatally, jealousy fires her up (hinting here at her ending); she can’t take it any more. Kozue is the bad boy bully in all this and a sex maniac. His sex toy gal  - there are two - one who meets a gory-girl ending; (I won’t give away the who-done-it spoiler). It’s a sad depressing  pseudo-melodramatic take on teen angst in Tokyo taken to its fullest. (Screened at new York Asian Film Festival)

BUFFALO BOYS (Directed by Mike Wiluan) *****

In 1860, the Dutch committed a brutal genocide. Led by Captain Van Trach, there was no peace for the oppressed Indonesians. The father of two brothers  - the family is from a royal line - is killed. The brothers, Arana, Jamar and their uncle flee in exile. They seek to free their people and decimate Trach and his horrid men. There are many excellent scenes that show the brutality of the Dutch; tragedy and terror reign. But the two brothers are triumphant at the end. This film is superbly executed and entertaining, with much action and suspense that is totally believable. (Sreened at New York Film Festival)

NEOMANILA (Directed by Mikhail Red)***

                                       

Toto, a young teen, is taken in by Irma and Raul, two very poor people caught in gang warfare who murder in order to get meth. They both like Toto, but things become heated and complicated for poor Toto. 

He can’t find money to get his brother out    of prison nor anyone who will confess to the crime he is in jail for.  Irma teaches Toto how to shoot, and Raul teaches Toto that suspect and victim are one and the same in Manila. This gritty, bare-bones dark film is raw     and realistic. Violence and ominous threats 

  are ever-present. (Screened at New York Asian Film fFstival)