Recent content by Professor Irony

Bold of Arrow to give Pedicab Driver the product details from When Harry Met Sally…

Steel Ball Run 2nd Stage ep1 It’s been so long since the previous episode, I did wonder if I ought to rewatch it in preparation, but who’s got time these days? Dudes on horses, high stakes race, let’s go. Anyway, I did feel myself warming a little more to Johnny and Gyro by the end of the...

Let’s Sing Along (2001) Timid office worker Anita Mui is entered into a big-time karaoke competition by her ex-boyfriend in a bid to stop her hiding her talent for singing, but every time she tries to sing in front of other people, her crippling stage fright lands her in embarrassing...

New trailer for the AD Police 4K. I still can’t believe we’re actually getting it, I thought they’d never find the materials.

Heartbeat 100 (1987) After the bodies of a big-time robber and his girlfriend are washed ashore in a remote village, screenwriter Maggie Cheung elects to go there for a holiday, in the hope it might cure her writers’ block, while electing to drag both her sister and their nebbishy friend along...

Osamu Dezaki’s signature ‘Postcard Memory’ effect is actually known as a ‘Harmony’ in Japan. TIL.

Looks like a new Eat-Man series may be on the cards.

I’ve only seen the first Chinese Ghost Story - it was a fun time, but given how well regarded it seems to be, I thought it was actually kind of slight. The effects are genuinely good though; it’s a great looking film.

Scuzzy genre films do be scuzzy. Underworld (1985) An intriguing urban fantasy oddity and an early screenwriting credit for Clive Barker, seeing ex-gangland minder Larry Lamb coerced into searching for a high-class call girl (Nicola Cowper) kidnapped by a secretive gang of disfigured drug...

The Ghost in the Shell ep6 Arguably the best episode of the series so far? It’s certainly the one that seems the most emblematic of GitS as a franchise, both with this chapter of the manga presumably serving as inspiration for the climax of the 95 film and, in the broader sense, just the...

The Ghost in the Shell ep4-5 It was nice to see Saru put so much care into the little cameo, getting the original VAs back was a nice touch. It would be great if they get the chance to continue this iteration in some way after the main series ends, although I suspect trying to fashion...

It’s definitely worth watching ABT3, but it’s easily the least of the series. Apparently Bullet in the Head started life as Woo’s intended third Better Tomorrow film before his falling out with Tsui Hark, so I don’t know if maybe Hark was rushing to get his film done first out of spite, but it...

To the best of my knowledge, the reading of Woo’s films as queer-coded is something that’s been popular among fans in the west from around the time they started to become available on VHS. I wouldn’t want to deny anyone the opportunity to read it that way (or even want to definitively say that...

The Ghost in the Shell ep3 It’s a shame they couldn’t have included this one with the cinema preview, it feels like a good episode for showcasing what Saru are doing with the show, covering some impressive action, an irreverent aside with the Fuchikomas and also some world building with the...

The Ghost in the Shell ep1-2 Not to throw shade on Suzie Yeung, but I definitely prefer Maaya Sakamoto as Kusanagi in this version. She seems to be playing it a lot closer to Atsuko Tanaka’s original performance.