DVD Collectors Online

The Blood of Fu Manchu , a review by samuelrichardscott

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) R0 USA DVD

Overview
From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of TALES FROM THE CRYPT), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where rape and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU.

Maria Rohm (THE BLOODY JUDGE) and Shirley Eaton (GOLDFINGER) co-star in this wild Fu Manchu feature written and produced by Harry Alan Towers (VENUS IN FURS) and directed by the one and only Jess Franco (VAMPYROS LESBOS, EUGENIE). Released in America as KISS AND KILL, Blue Underground has fully restored THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU from its original European negative complete with additional scenes of nudity and violence!

Thoughts
I bought this for several reasons: I'm generally very happy with Blue Underground's output, I'm a fan of Christopher Lee and I'm a fan of Jess Franco. Unfortunately, this film, based on the character of Fu Manchu (whom until this film I was not familiar with) disappoints slightly. Lee overacts (not a problem), and Franco's direction is his standard nudity/violence affair (again, not a problem) but I felt that whilst the idea of Fu Manchu giving ten woman poison so that when they kiss the world's most powerful men, the men die, was a good one it was put together in a rather unconventional way without enough thought to structure. Fans of Franco and Lee might enjoy, but I would recommended a rental first. 2.5/5

(From Never Ending Movie Marathon (short reviews) on July 6th, 2011)

Black River, a review by Antares

Black River (1957) 3.5/5 - This is the film that Masaki Kobayashi made just before The Human Condition trilogy. He still hadn't risen to prominence yet, but after watching this film, you get a sense that he was about to break through. The story involves a love triangle between a waitress, a student and a yakuza boss, and Kobayashi weaves a gritty, no holds barred approach to telling it. I was shocked at times by the level of realism in the dialog, with characters talking about abortions, prostitution and things of that ilk. I couldn't imagine hearing these things in a noir made in Hollywood at the same time. And that is what made this film click for me, it was refreshing to watch characters acting like real gangsters, with out all the Hays white washing. Tatsuya Nakadai, who would go on to star in many of the successive films by Kobayashi, plays the yakuza with a sly, coolness that plays against the atypical roles he was playing up until that time and in the following years. It showed me a depth I wasn't aware of in him. But it was Ineko Arima who stole the film for me. Looking a little like Setsuko Hara, she plays the love interest with not only the frailty of an innocent Japanese youth, but when her mind is made up to get away from the yakuza, a fatalistic femme fatal type vengeance.

If you're interested in watching this, I found a playlist on YouTube for it...

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D9AAB9B22DCE0C60

(From Antares' Short Summations on February 17th, 2012)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

The Riches

Pilot
Through a set of unusual circumstances, the Malloy family assumes the identities of a wealthy family, the Riches, only to find that a glamorous life entails more than they expected.



The Riches stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, a married couple with a family. Wayne and Dahlia spent their youth pulling cons with a traveling band of modern Irish gypsies roaming about the US. Now years later, Wayne hits a spiritual and midlife crisis and begins to question their lifestyle just as his wife, newly sprung from prison, rejoins the family. They decide to finally settle down in suburbia where they battle to live a normal life while trying to escape their former friends.

Eddie Izzard playing serious roles works for me, but hell his accent was not quite right!
Interesting and original, a series bought blindly but one that promises plenty from an entertaining pilot episode. I can think of several ways this storyline could go, so am keen to watch more already.
Minnie Driver was superb and convincing, and seemed to grow into the role in less than an hour, as good as I have ever seen her acting. The supporting cast all add something to the overall success of this first episode, and the whole feel was positive.
I look forward to diving in to further episodes.
 


(From My PILOT Marathon on September 23rd, 2009)