Hyu Joon was pursued by both the North and the South and betrayed by his best friend Jin Sa Woo (Jung Joon Ho). But at least he got the lovely Choi Seung Hee (Kim Tae Hee). The crew managed to compress 20 episodes into two hours. Plus they added some details that were not shown in the series. Maybe I was right all along when I said that they could have removed most of the flashbacks in the series.’

It turned out that the North Korean femme fatale Kim Seon Hwa (Kim So Yun) shot her commander Park Chul Young (Kim Seung Woo). They didn’t state whether he survives or not. But one thing’s certain though, Hyu Joon is really dead. Iris the Movie didn’t have an alternate ending but it exposed who the shooter is – Seon Hwa.

Fans can relive the series by watching Iris the Movie. It is also a must watch for those who would start with Athena: Goddess of War but haven’t seen Iris. At least you’ll have a backgrounder on the story. As a standalone, it is a good action movie. I don’t have any complaints about it, especially since Kim Tae Hee is part of it.

Right off the bat, officers Hwang and Jeong clashed with each other when the former stole the latter’s first arrest. The rivalry became more personal as both vie for the title Officer of the Year. Both have different reasons for wanting the award. Hwang wants it so that he could get a promotion while Jeong needs the prize money that comes with the award to provide a better future for bride-to-be.

Then a serial rape case happened near both precincts and the police commissioner made it a priority to find out who is behind the series of crimes in the area. A joint task force was made between Mapo and Seodaemun but instead of helping each other, the rival precincts tried their best to hinder each other. The rapist managed to commit another crime even when two police precincts were after him. Hwang and Jeong tried their best to find the criminal and bag the title Officer of the Year.

The Apprehenders started out as fun action comedy. It could be compared to the Police Academy movies that I enjoyed as a kid. Park Joong Hoon and Lee Sun Gyun delivered strong performances. The supporting casts also contributed to make the movie entertaining. Among the extras, the most memorable one was Doctor Ko (Im Won Hee). He was a crazy person who frequented the police station to confess to crimes he didn’t do.

But towards the end, it turned serious as the two main characters chase down the serial rapist. The mood established in the first half of the movie was gone and replaced with a somber one. Even though it felt like I watched two movies, I still consider The Apprehenders as one of the good Korean movies I’ve seen this year. It could have been better if the director ditched the serious tone and decided to make it a straight-up action comedy until the end.

Ninja Assassin is all about ninjas killing each other or more accurately, Raizo annihilating everyone on his path. It has lots of blood and a high body count. It is the most bad ass ninja movie I’ve seen so far. I lost count of how much body parts were dismembered in this movie.

The fight scenes in Ninja Assassin were well choreographed. I got no complaints with this department. It has everything you want to see in a ninja movie. It had swords, stars, and lots of action. I’m so glad that Director James McTeigue didn’t mess up the attempt of making a modern ninja movie. He knew what his target audience wanted and he delivered.

Although the storyline is as predictable as any movie of the genre, you wouldn’t be watching it for it. On the contrary, you’ll watch it for the fights and carnage. It’s like a hack-and-slash video game made into a movie.

Tattoo Master: The irizumi does not hide the skin. The tattoo reveals the nature of the man and illuminates the four noble professions in the Book Of Five Rings: the warrior, the artist, the merchant, and the farmer. If there is a conflict between the needle and the skin, between the mark and the man, then perhaps the path you have chosen is not the path for which you’re suited.

The ninjas in Ninja Assassin were as real as they can get and yet they maintained their mysterious aura. I remembered watching documentaries about ninjas when I was young and was mystified about them. This is the reason why I love watching ninja movies.

Although ninjas originated from Japan, the director opted to use a Korean actor to play the lead role. Even the young versions of Raizo were played by Koreans. Young Raizo was played by Yoon Sung Woong and the teenage Raizo by Lee Joon of MBLAQ. Lee Joon’s lovely but he can kick your ass.

Ninja Assassin is a good reimagining of an old genre. It is a nonstop action from start to finish. Don’t let the plot spoil the fun. Just sit back and enjoy the bloody ride.

Narrator: The intrinsic value of people’s enthusiasm is unshackled by the context of a real or fictional environment. So long as the world accords recognition for the applied fulfillment of this enthusiasm, it stands that people would not lose touch with their own reality. Reality, being the foundation of an individual’s conventional wisdom, is a degree of experience that belongs to that single person. Hence, any such individual reality can be perceived by others as nothing more than mere imagination.

Above was the long Engrish intro to Assault Girls. It was accompanied by still photos that established the settings. I should have stopped the movie right there but I wanted to give it a chance to redeem itself. I thought that it would be better once the intro is over.

Then the main act has began. Assault Girls felt like a video game. Actually, it looked like a cut scene from one. CGI effects were believable and this factor was one of the strong points of the movie. It showed a lot of the barren scenery, which at first was cool but it became tedious in the long run.

The characters were paper-thin. They were toons in a game and nothing more. Meisa Kuroki starred as Gray, who is the real reason why I watched Assault Girls. The others are Yoshikazu Fujiki as Jager, Rinko Kikuchi as Lucifer, and Hinako Saeki as Colonel. Their costumes were well made but they were two-dimensional and uninteresting.

I guess they made the movie for a global market and this was evident by keeping the dialogues in Engrish, which still required subs to be fully understood. It could have been better if they kept the dialogue in Japanese.

One of the highlights of Assault Girls was the fight between Gray and Jager. It was funny but it felt out of place from the rest of the movie. But it highlighted Meisa Kuroki and it sort of made up for it. It was fan service for Meisa fanboys who had to endure the whole movie.

Assault Girls was made to look like an MMO and targeted those who play online games. It succeeded in creating a game atmosphere but it lacked a gripping story and interesting characters. I gave it plus points for the settings and having Meisa as one of the stars. Aside from that, there was not much to see from this movie.

The movie was a mix of Kung Fu Hustle; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and a generic romantic comedy. It had glimpses of a good flick with its action sequences but once the action simmered down, the plot became confusing.

It is a good thing that Director Kwak got Shin Min Ah as the Mighty Princess So Hwi, a martial arts prodigy who was destined to protect the world from evil. She managed to brighten up the screen whenever she’s around. She made the movie bearable despite all its flaws.

As any typical Korean romantic comedies, My Mighty Princess featured a love triangle. So Hwi likes Jun Mo (Yu Geon), the hockey team captain who happens to like an older policewoman. While his infatuation was properly explained by a flashback, it was still unclear how it got to a point of being an obsession for him. The third wheel in the triangle is Il Young (Ohn Joo Wan), So Hwi’s childhood friend who is also a martial artist. To cut the story short, Il Young likes So Hwi but she likes Jun Mo who likes someone else.

I felt that the director made one twist too many with My Mighty Princess that it became too contrived. I would have liked it better if it had a dark ending, instead of the fluffy one. The romance part of the movie could have been better. It had a lot of sub-plots that were distracting. Maybe I just expected too much from the director.

To make it more interesting, a love interest is thrown into the mix. This comes in the form of Zulay (Zulay Henao). I guess the writers had a hard time coming up with her character’s name. She’s one part of the movie that I don’t have anything bad to say about. Fighting did well in the eye candy department.

I would have enjoyed Fighting more if it had more fighting and less talk. And when there’s a fight, the shots are too tight that you don’t see the whole picture. UFC and the WWE have better camera work than this movie. Plus some scenes were too jerky for my liking. It was like watching an amateur video of a street fight. I don’t know if that’s the effect that the director was aiming for.

Jack Dancing (Roger Guenveur Smith): In the words of the late, great, Marvin Gaye. Let’s… Get… It… On!

You should not waste your time with Fighting. It was so predictable that you would know that Channing Tatum’s character would end up winning in the end. If you’re looking for a good fight movie, then skip Fighting.

It turns out that the company is just a front for a devious plan to control the world. Yoshie and her sister were turned into Geisha assassins and as their training progresses, some parts of their body are replaced and they become androids.

Yoshie surpasses Kikue and becomes Hikaru’s top assassin. But she has a change of heart when she’s tasked to kill a group of old people who are looking for their kidnapped family members. They tell her about Hikaru’s plans.

While weirdness is what makes B movies fun to watch, RoboGeisha is just a series of randomness and gore. There are some scenes that are funny, such as the giant castle robot doing “The Robot” dance. But there are lots of things that are just too stupid.

RoboGeisha features lousy special effects, stupid weapons and other oddities. If you’re looking for a Japanese B movie, I suggest Machine Girl, which is also made by Director Noboru Iguchi.

Sunny is always bullied by his fellow circus performers. One day, the group, led by Dachu (Collin Chou), decided to explore a mine shaft. They didn’t know that it used to be a bio-chemical lab and they were exposed to an unknown gas that gave them superhuman powers. Dachu and his gang used their newly acquired power to commit a crime spree while Sunny tried his best to stop them.

City Under Siege began slow but once they got their powers, the pace got better. It was like watching the X-Men in an old-fashioned Chinese action movie. It is much better than Andy Lau’s Future X-Cops, which was another Hong Kong sci-fi action flick released in 2010.

The movie featured two capable actresses but they were underused. Shu Qi played the typical helpless girl while Zhang Jing Chu’s character was forgettable. It’s too bad that their talent was not maximized in City Under Siege.

If you can look past the crappy special effects and the clichés, City Under Siege is an entertaining action movie. It has several funny scenes, even though some were unintentional. It is good but nothing special.

Shaolin is a gripping kung-fu movie about repentance and rebirth. It is set during the time when China was plagued with internal conflicts and at the same time threatened by foreign forces. General Hou Jie is a greedy warlord, whose thirst for power is only matched by his second-in-command Cao Man. Right from the start, the movie shows how tyrannical the two men are as they chase down their enemy inside the compounds of the Shaolin temple. They didn’t listen to the abbot’s pleas to spare the man’s life.

Just when it looks like Hou Jie is invincible, he is betrayed by Cao Man. And as a total reversal of fortunes, he goes to the Shaolin temple to seek the monk’s help to rescue his daughter. This started the warlord’s metamorphosis. At this point of Shaolin, the pace settled down as it builds up for the explosive ending.

In Shaolin, Andy Lau shows us why he’s one of Hong Kong’s superstars. His portrayal of Hou Jie is different from that of Jet Li in the 1982 movie Shaolin. Lau might not have Li’s martial arts expertise but he made up for it with his acting.

Jackie Chan as the cook provides the much needed comic relief after the intense scenes from Nicolas Tse and Andy Lau. He might just be a support in Shaolin but Chan’s character will be remembered hours or even days after watching the movie.

Shaolin is an epic kung-fu movie that is ended badly. The moral of the story that was provided in the middle would be forgotten by the bloody finale. I lost count of the number of dead people in the last sequence and I’m with the abbot when he said enough. But I guess that was what really happened in the Shaolin temple and a movie can’t change that.

Shaolin is well-paced that it doesn’t feel like a two hour long movie. The actors did well and the action scenes were well-choreographed. It is entertaining enough that’s worth the watch. I wish Fan Bingbing had more screen time.

The first part of 14 Blades is an introduction of who Qing Long is and his army of bodyguards/assassins. Prince Qing (Sammo Hung) conspired against the Emperor and the first part of his plan was to disband Qing Long’s group.

Qing Long was betrayed by his second in command but managed to escape with the Emperor’s seal. The injured Qing Long hired an escort agency to take him across the desert. This is when he met Qiao Hua (Vicky Zhao), the daughter of escort agency head and thus began a story of unrequited love. I was not surprised when Vicky Zhao or Zhao Wei dressed as a man in one of the scenes in 14 Blades. I guess she’s stereotyped to get roles like that after her great performance in Mulan.

This part of 14 Blades played out like a typical Cowboy movie with an oriental twist. As they cross the desert, they were met with bandits and people who were after Qing Long. What’s funny is that Qing Long hired the escorts but in the end he had to protect them from the attacks.

Along the way for his final encounter with the Prince, he met Judge (Wu Chun), a Jack Sparrow-wannabe desert pirate. Wu Chun watched Pirates of the Caribbean way too many times because that’s what he projected as The Judge in this movie. Judge and Qing Long had one of the best fight scenes in 14 Blade, which resulted in a draw. I guess the two adhered to the saying “if you can’t beat them, join them, and teamed up to fight the Prince.

Tuo Tuo (Kate Tsui), the Prince’s daughter and number one assassin, stalked Qing Long across the land to get the Emperor’s seal from him. She looked like Medusa with Voltes V’s magnetic belt. With the powers of CG effects, she is Qing Long’s hardest foe in 14 Blades. The final battle resulted in a deadlock as both of them died.

Although the main character died in 14 Blades, this movie conveys hope. It tells us that there’s hope despite solitude, pain, and even death. If you like martial arts mixed with romance then 14 Blades is just right for you.