distant signals from the wicked weird cinema of the past
Kickboxing. Drugs. Radio DJs. Vigilante violence. Virginia exteriors. These are the core elements in the cinematic playbook of PSYCHO KICKBOXER.
A martial arts special agent travels halfway across the world to help a team of archaeologists hunt for treasure. Along the way, they’ll fight ninjas, zombie ninjas, a zombie ninja final boss, and a jerk from Florida with a mustache.
An entertaining and low-budget gang-violence-via-martial-arts romp that served as a cinematic launchpad for some of the bigger figures in the American martial arts b-movie scene of the 1980s.
It seems almost far-fetched now, but there was once a time when San Francisco was filled with leather bars and martial arts schools instead of unaffordable housing and tech startups. Like a limp body flying over the bar and smashing only the bottom-shelf vodka, THE WEAPONS OF DEATH comes out of nowhere to surprise and delight.
The decade of the 1980s was a banner era for the fantasy film all across the globe. KUNG FU WONDER CHILD probably isn’t the only one to feature bathroom humor alongside martial arts and magic, but it might be the only one that has a monster with blonde bangs and Yukari Oshima kicking dudes into trees.
When his brother overdoses on a new designer drug called “nirvana,” a fresh MBA graduate must choose between the stable pursuits of marriage and a burgeoning family business, or traveling to Hong Kong to learn kung fu and fight drug dealers.
A mystical sword formed from a meteorite. A nun in a wheelchair flying off a cliff. A motorcycle riding hero in a red cocktail dress. All these random threads converge in the misshapen, cable-knit sweater of a 1980s action film that is SWORD OF HEAVEN.
This is a lean and mean 1970s yakuza exploitation picture that plays with a lot of genre tropes – rival groups, old ways versus young guns, etc. – all capped off by a deeply fatalistic streak. And mannequins!
Death Ray Dive 