Society's obsession with celebrity is something that has been explored in film time and time again -- in The Truman Show and, more recently, The Bling Ring, to name a few examples. The subject matter has lent itself to comedies, dramas and documentaries -- but a crime thriller -- well, that's a niche that affords an interesting take on the topic. Enter Confession of Murder, which takes our shared fascination with fame and uses it as a springboard for a unique spin on the tale of cop vs. killer.
Ask any asian horror film fan worth their salt, and they will surely remember the 2004 film, Three... Extremes. The three-part horror anthology featured segments by some of Hong Kong, Korea and Japan's most reknowned directors: Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook and Takashi Miike. The standout short from that film, Dumplings, based on the story by Lilian Lee, was also later extended into a feature length film. Fast forward nine years, and Chan and Lee are back with a new anthology of the supernatural, called Tales from the Dark Part 1.
After a limited theatrical run, Only God Forgives hits the shelves this week. Nicolas Winding Refn's followup to his smash hit, Drive, garnered mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike -- who found it to be not what they expected. But you can't fault him for trying something different. He's an artist, after all. After his breakout film, Pusher, Winding Refn was faced with meeting similar expectations -- and, in 1999, he responded with his sophomore feature, Bleeder.
Ip Man - The Final Fight is the latest film focusing on the legend of the man who was Bruce Lee's teacher and mentor. Arriving the same year as Wong Kar Wai's own version, The Grandmaster, director Herman Yau's second Ip Man biopic lifts the focus off Ip Man's early years and places it squarely on the latter part of his life. It succeeds by doing more to show the Grandmaster's character as a person rather than to expand the legend of his martial arts prowess.
