Asian Cinema Film Club

Elwood and Stephen celebrate another 25 episodes by adding another 50 picks to their ever growing list of essential Asian Cinema

Elwood and Stephen take an in-depth look at Park Chan Wook's Vengeance trilogy in this bumper length edition of the show

featuring special guest hosts

Elwood and Stephen look at the Michelle Yeoh classic Royal Warriors which would also become the second film in the long running Line of Duty series.

Here she plays a Hong Kong Police officer who has to team up with Hiroyuki Sanada's Japanese detective and Michael Wong's air marshal to stop a terrorist group out for revenge!!

Elwood and Stephen look at the 2010 remake of The Housemaid as they find out how it compares to the critically acclaimed original.

Elwood and Stephen look at The Housemaid (1960) a favourite of both Martin Scorsese aswell as a key inspiration for Bong Joon Ho's Parasite as a Housemaid hired by a piano teacher and his seamstress wife soon turns out to be more of a problem that either could imagine.

Elwood and Stephen look at the zany musical comedy The Legend of the Stardust Brothers as rival singers Kan and Shingo find themselves paired together by music producer Mimiami. But as their star rises can they hold onto the top spot especially with the arrival of a new pop sensation Kaoru.

Plus is physical media really the best for film preservation, controversial music opinions and more!!

Elwood and Stephen tackle a double feature of Stephen Chow's "King of Comedy" while listener Marcus nominates "Killer Constable" for his Listener Roulette pick

Plus - Stephen finally watches House, Elwood wraps up Asian Horror month and hint at what month is coming next plus more!!

Elwood goes over the week's horror viewing for Asian Horror Month including

* The Snake Girl and The Silver Haired Witch

* Horrors of Malformed Men

* Tetsuo The Iron Man

* Angel Dust

* House

* Tokyo Gore Police

* Greatful Dead

Elwood and Stephen are joined once again by Rashmi Menon to look at Hideo Nakata's "Dark Water" as single mother Yoshimi struggles to deal with her divorce moves into a rundown apartment building only to find their new home suffering a leak which continues to grow as Yoshimi begins to notice strange things happening around the building.

We look at the remake, question why so many directors fail to transfer their success to Hollywood and Rashmi reveals the details of her own soon to be launched podcast plus more!!

Elwood and Stephen look at Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives the first Thai film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in which Uncle Boonmee suffering from Kidney disease and believing he is going to die soon brings his relatives together in the countryside were he is soon visited by the ghosts of the family he has lost.

Elwood goes over the week's horror viewing for Asian Horror Month

* Dumplings

* Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters

* Nuigulumar Z: Gothic Lolita Battle Bear

* Digital Devil Saga: Megami Tensei

* Vampire Hunter D

* Goke Body Snatcher From Hell

Plus Stephen picks a fight, the importance of media preservation and working actors plus more!

Elwood takes on another 31 day challenge as this year he focuses on Horror as he sits down with Stephen to recap the good and the bad of the journey so far as they discuss

* Bloody Chainsaw Girl

* Zombie For Sale

* Mikadroid: Robokill Beneath Club Layla

* Chainsaw Man (Season #1)

* Battle Royale 2

* Devilman (OVA Trilogy)

* Calamity of Snakes

* Genocyber (OVA)

* Pulse

* Hiruko The Goblin

* #Alive

* The Boxer's Omen

Elwood and Stephen look at Zhang Yimou's Shadow as a brilliant general devises an intricate plan involving his wife, a look-alike, and two kings.

Elwood and Stephen look at the first film in the Whispering Corridors series a South Korean ghost story set in an all girls school as a series of unusual murders leads a group of girls to investigate the mysteries the school is hiding.

Elwood and Stephen look at Summer Wars in which the world has become reliant on a digital realm called Oz which maths genius Kenji unwittingly unlocks for the A.I. Love Machine which soon sets about taking over Oz and bringing humanity to it's knees.

Elwood and Stephen look at Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy based on 410 consecutive tweets by @marylony following Mary as she deals with her final year at school and the many problems it brings with it.

Stephen and Elwood are joined by author Ramona Lee Soo-Jun to talk about her book Agent 00 Volume.1 ahead of it's English language release as she talks about the writing experience as well as her Asian cinema inspirations.

Ramona also brings a great listener roulette pick to the show for us to discuss.

Elwood and Stephen look at the 1963 horror film Matango also known by the colourful title Attack of the Mushroom People as a group of friends find themselves shipwrecked on an island with an abundance of mushrooms, while slowly discovering the secrets the island hides.

Directed by the legendary Ishiro Honda we look at how it differs from his usual style aswell as looking at the films he directed outside of the Kaiju movies he is best known for.

We also look at one of Japan's weirdest bands Hanatrash.

Elwood and Stephen look at Hou Hsiao-Hsien's wuxia movie The Assassin as they attempt to dissect the plot from the arthouse direction in this unique tale of revenge set during the last years of the Tang dynasty

Elwood and Stephen look at Kim Jee-Woon's unique thriller as secret agent Kim Soo-hyeon (Lee Byung-hun) sets out to find serial killer Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) who killed his fiancé and soon sets about carrying out a very unique revenge.

Elwood and Stephen look at the Philippine action comedy Super Parental Guardians as a pair of mismatched guardians one a social media influencer the other a gang affiliated uncle are forced to look after the kids of their murdered friend / sister in this Netflix exclusive.

Elwood and Stephen look at the Stray Cat Rock series created by Nikkatsu to compete with Toei's Delinquent Boss series while initially designed as a showcase for Akiko Wada with her co-star Meiko Kaji headlining the further four films in the series combining outlaw bikers, tough girl gangs and some truly memorable chase sequences.

Elwood and Stephen look at Ringu not only a bonified horror classic which helped spark the J-Horror boom and respark the interest in Asian Cinema along side Battle Royale and Audition it would go on to spawn multiple remakes, sequels and spin offs which we also look at while also asking if it still holds up?

Elwood and Stephen look at the 1992 sport comedy Sumo Do, Sumo Don't which recently was adapted into a TV series for Disney+. The film following a rag tag band of misfits who much find a way to work together to help resurrect their school sumo club.

Elwood and Stephen look at Mamoru Hosoda's 2006 anime adaptation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time which see's a high school girl discovering that she has the ability to leap backwards through time. However while initially using this new found power for her own means, she soon discovers that such power comes at a cost.

Elwood and Stephen look at Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress a film best known for being a key inspiration for George Lucas when he created Star Wars but how much did he actually take from the film? We find out on this episode as a pair of Peasants find themselves recruited to help to help a rogue general and a princess on the run while trying to get their share of the gold the pair are transporting.

It's a double feature episode as Elwood and Stephen look at Wong Kai Wai's Mean Streets influenced As Tears Go By as Andy Lau plays Wah a triad enforcer who spends all his time getting his best friend and triad brother Fly (Jackie Cheung) out of trouble while finding his life only getting more complex when he fall for his cousin Ngor (Maggie Cheung).

They also play another round of listener roulette as listener Marcus has them watch Nagisa Ōshima's Taboo aka Gohatto in which an attractive young samurai Kano causes chaos within his samurai clan as various members fight for his affection. 

Elwood and Stephen celebrate another 25 episodes by adding 50 more titles to their list of favourite Asian Cinema.

As we draw ever closer to Episode #100 Stephen has a pretty stellar pick for #99 as we look at Bong Joon Ho's Memories of Murder loosely based on the true story of Korea's first ever serial killer as two small town detectives attempt to solve a brutal murder while being assisted on the case by Seoul detective Seo Tae-yoon. But facing conflicting approaches to investigation and a police force ill equipped to deal with the case will they be able to track down the killer before he strikes again. 

Elwood and Stephen look at the "Saving Private Ryan" beater "Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War" as two brothers find themselves drafted into South Korean army leaving the older brother doing everything he can to get his younger brother out....but at what cost.