This time out it’s more tough chicks kicking butt… and you know Neko just loves that! I’ve got the recent remake of the Japanese “Women in Prison” revenge classic “Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion” to review. Meiko Kaji is nowhere to be seen in this one, but thankfully we have the star of “Hard Revenge Milly”, Miki Mizuno to step in for the lead in “Female Prisoner 701: Sasori”.

You all know the story, but here’s a quick synopsis for those of you still woefully ignorant of the legend: “When a band of assassins invade the home of their target Hei Tai they find only his lovely, innocent, bride-to-be, Nami and force upon her a cruel dilemma: either she kills her fiancee’s sister or they kill her fiancee. Trapped, and unable to confide in the person she loves most, Nami kills her fiancee’s sister and is sent to prison where she survives only by becoming as ruthless as those around her. Trained to fight by a fellow inmate, Nami develops the skills and strength to escape and sets out on a quest for revenge. After killing two of the assassins she’s reunited with Hei Tai who’s still unaware she killed his sister. As their love is rekindled Nami decides to abandon her crusade of vengeance when the remaining assassin finds them and tells Hei Tai what Nami did. Nami realizes she can never rest until she finds and defeats the assassins’ employer, but now her beloved’s torn between helping her and his own personal desire for revenge.”

So… will this one equal the classic, or fall miserably on it’s butt? It’s got all the necessary prerequisites to succeed…. Women in prison…. brutal unrelenting violence and torture… a beautiful woman pushed to her extreme and honed into a lethal killing machine…. and, as the poster promises, “Lots of Girl-on Girl violence” all leading our Heroine to a well deserved vengeance by the film’s end. How can it fail? (But… as Neko well knows…. that somehow, some way, they can still mess it all up once in a while… so I’m keepin’ my lil’ paws crossed for luck!!)

Your Favorite Catgirl knows you like these unabashedly exploitative silly films too, so let’s all “Read On” and find out for ourselves!!

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By now, if you’ve been a regular visitor here at the ol’ Litterbox, you already know I’m goofy for horror movies. But… ever since I was a wee lil’ kitten and more than a bit of a tomboy…. I’ve always had just one real regret about growing up Asian in the good ol’ US. Never getting to learn Martial Arts….

You see… in that secret place….. waaay back in my heart….. lives a fierce and deadly Kung Fu Princess…. ready to fight for truth, justice, honor… and the sheer fun of smashing bad guys into tiny bloody bits… Hehehehe!! But, no….. there was never any Kung Fu for Miyuki….. no nunchucks…. no Eagle Claw or Mantis Style…. not even one lil’ throwing star to be seen. Still… now that I’m all grown up, I still sigh sometimes and live my childhood dreams vicariously through the occasional Martial Art film that shows me that we girls really can kick ass.

Earlier this month, I made an evening of two recent such films, the Chinese film “Coweb” and the Thai follow-up to “Chocolate”, “Raging Phoenix”… First up for review… “Coweb”, and our synopsis goes like this: “Nie Yiyi (Jiang Lu Xia) is a skilled martial arts expert working as a security guard after her father’s death while dreaming about resurrecting her father’s martial arts academy. Then Yiyi’s childhood friend, Zhong Tien (Sam Lee), who works as a personal assistant to billionaire Mr He (Eddie Cheung), persuades her to become a bodyguard to Mr He’s wife. Reluctantly Yiyi accepts and she takes her job very seriously.

But before long, kidnappers appear and despite Yiyi’s best efforts, Ho Kwan and his wife are abducted, but not before he slips Yiyi a small box. Upon investigating, Yiyi learns her boss was kidnapped by ruthless gambling impresario Sung. The box contains a key to a mainframe that controls online betting on fights to the death, and in order to save Ho Kwan, Yiyi will have to join the tournament and gamble with her life.”

Hmmm? sounds like your typical martial art plot…. but that’s OK… I’m not watching these to be intellectually stimulated. So….. let’s all get with it and see if “Coweb” has all the right stuff for this lil’ Kung Fu wannabee!!

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Our latest Halloween Review finds your Favorite Catgirl in Taiwan, for a look at what is being described as Taiwan’s first homemade slasher flick, “Invitation Only”… their contribution to the recent “torture porn” end of the genre.

Our quick synopsis goes like this: “Ordinary young men and women often dream of the unreachable life of the worlds idle rich. Wade, Richard, Hitomi, Holly and Lin certainly do. They have all received an invitation to an exclusive party held by a group of rich & famous people,obviously addressed to them by mistake.But all the same, they attend. It is the best party ever, a wishing game takes place where their deepest desires materialize. But when they find Richards body brutally killed, the wishing game turns into a killing game in which they are the tortured victims and a rich audience the sadistic spectators. To escape from the party and survive is now their only dream.”

Hmmmm? Sounds grisly…. and you know how that sorta goes down for this lil’ Catgirl…. but it is subtitled, and I can never pass up a chance to snag Asian horror with subtitles. So… hopefully it’ll be more of an over the top spoof than a realistic gore fest…. but somehow I doubt it. I just know I’m gonna have nightmares….

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Mmmmm!! We’re back in familiar territory with this one. Period story… check. Tragically complicated romantic triangles….. check. Lots of Kung-Fu wirework and swordplay….. check. Melodramatic ending with lots of teary romance…. check. Oh!!… and ghosts too!!…. or at least demons!! Yay!! Yep…. Neko’s been looking soooo forward to this one.

Based upon the classic Chinese literature Liao Zhai, I had been a bit worried that the more supernatural aspects might have been removed given the recent films out of Hong Kong which have fallen victim to Bejing’s aversion to ” unnecessarily promoting a belief in superstition among the masses”. I can tell you, thankfully, that is definitely NOT the case……

The synopsis reads as follows: “During the Chin and Han era, Commander Wang Sheng ( Chen Kun) leads his troops in a raid on bandits in the desert, in the process he rescues a beautiful woman and brings her back with them. However he has no idea that this woman, Xiao Wei ( Zhou Xun), is in fact a fox spirit in human form. Xiao Wei needs a regular supply of human hearts to maintain her human form, and the task falls on her helper Xiao Yi ( Qi Yu Wu)–a chameleon who’s also taken on human form and has the special ability to camouflage into the environment he is in. To prove his love and devotion to Xiao Wei, he carries out a spate of murders in order to provide her with human hearts; this terrorizes the whole city.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wei has fallen in love with Wang Sheng, after being impressed with his gallant attempt in rescuing her. She keeps trying to seduce Wang in an effort to steal him from his wife Pei Rong (Vicki Zhao). Pei Rong finds out about Xiao Wei’s feeling for her husband; she also discovers that Xiao Wei is not human, so she secretly approaches martial expert Pang Yong ( Donnie Yen) and demon Catcher Xia Bing ( Sun Li) for help…

Subsequently a drama unfolds that delves into intricate emotions and relationships between man and demon, love and passion, loyalty and temptation, treachery and integrity, ending in a finale with surprising twist.”

So….. have we got a winner here? Well, if you are a regular visitor here at the ol’ Litterbox, you just know you gotta “Read On” to find out!

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Well, Saturday’s Movie Nite at my apartment wasn’t a total loss… I managed to watch the new Chinese ghost movie, “The Deserted Inn”, and now I’m ready to tell you all about it too.

The simple synopsis for it reads: “Kenny Kwan stars as a music composer whose career is on the rocks and retreats to a deserted town looking for inspiration to write his next hit song. After checking into a local inn, he begins to experience nightmares that push him to the brink of insanity until he unveils the dark secret of the innkeeper.”

There’s a bit more to it, of course, but to learn that, you guys are just going to have to follow Neko’s lead and “Read On” !!

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Another day, and another movie for you, dear readers. Today we take a look at the Malay/ HK co-production “Possessed”, the second film by Malay director Bjarne Wong. By most accounts, Bjarne Wong is not a terribly skilled director, and what I read of this didn’t make it sound that good, but….. the most unusual element of it was the staring roll by Korean transsexual pop star and model Harisu. I must confess that it was more a curiosity about Harisu whom I had heard of but never seen that got me interested in seeing this than anything else I had read. When the Singapore disc popped up, I just had to give it a try.

The synopsis for it reads: “China-born sisters Amber (Chia) and Lisu (Harisu) come to Malaysia seeking greater opportunities in their modeling and singing careers, respectively. But things go wrong when Amber falls into a coma and Lisu goes missing.

Amber is sent back to China for treatment. When she wakes up five months later, she has no recollection of her past, not even boyfriend Dino (Alan Yun). Dino decides to bring Amber back to Malaysia, hoping it will help jog her memory.

Back in Malaysia, Amber starts having nightmares. When she stumbles upon a photograph and video of Lisu and her, she decides to search for her missing sister. During her search, she meets William (Steve Yap), who claims to be Lisu’s ex-flame. Soon strange things begin to happen. Amber begins having visions of Lisu’s spirit and her nightmares become more frequent and violent.”

So….. is it a good lil’ long haired ghost movie? Or did it really need the notoriety of Harisu to sell it? Let’s find out, shall we……

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Time to go way, waaay out with this classic old Chinese Horror/ Exploitation example of the weird films of HK’s heyday of horror, 1983’s “Devil Fetus”, just released on DVD as part of Joy Sales “Legendary Collection”.

Neko has herself an old copy of this one on VCD, but when I found out it was going to be remastered and released on DVD, I just had to grab this goofy one all over again…..

Remember…. this girl’s tastes in movies tends to be, shall we say “special”, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the truly baaaaaad and silly…

So…. is it worth your time as well? Let’s find out!

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