**spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues:
Emotionless and Iron Hands head to the palace of Prince Ximen where Life-Snatcher is being held **spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues:
Emotionless and Iron Hands head to the palace of Prince Ximen where Life-Snatcher is being held prisoner. There they are beset by most of the surviving 13 masks: Prince Ximen, Ghost Gate Master & Returning Spirit Sword and Bronze Mask (Emotionless' love, Yan).
Meanwhile Sima breaks free of his magic cell and along with Blood Phoenix and Earth Walker leads an attack on the weakened Master Zhuge, guarded only by a recovering Cold Blood. Which of course has been their plan all along to make Zhuge vulnerable so they can defeat him.
The Wiley Zhuge turns the tables however - Cold Blood was never injured, just faking and has actually joined forces with rival, North City's Baiyu Zhou to help defend the Sifu.
Nothing is resolved at the end of this one - we end mid fight so you will need to have volume 5 on hand!
I have to say that this is easily the weakest of the volumes to date. Compared to the first 3 books, this one feels incredibly rushed and not up to standard. Firstly there are quite a few mistakes in the dialogue that any good editor should have picked up - incorrect tenses, letters missed off the ends of words etc. Then there's the change in art style - Majority is still really good though perhaps lacks some of the precision and beautiful detailed facial expressions of earlier in the series - however there are some chibi comedy bits with Life Snatcher that feel really out of place like maybe there's another artist involved. And lastly there's the very linear, simple plot of this particular volume. This one took me half as long to read as the previous instalments - there aren't many flashbacks, explanations, back stories or plain jumping about. There is some - as characters appear and then its explained how they managed to get there in the nick of time having been fighting someone else when we last saw them... However gone is the really complex series plot and intricate detail of both heroes and villains. In a word this one feels very rushed.
Saying that I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I love this world and the characters and the generally stunning artwork. I just didn't think this one was quite as strong as earlier in the series. ...more
**spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues and again keep your wits about you and the other volumes on hand because this is super involved **spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues and again keep your wits about you and the other volumes on hand because this is super involved and plot heavy.
Life Snatcher is imprisoned by two more of the 13 assassins: cleanliness freak, Blood Phoenix - Lian Du and her lover Prince Ximen. Love Life Snatcher as a character and his fight sequences with Blood Phoenix are highly entertaining because she's such a quirky villain. We also briefly encounter the 13th mask, lecherous Earthwalker Bugang sun.
Duke Wu isn't quite dead as assumed last volume - Zhuge is able to keep him alive by infusing him with Chi until they can get him to the Imperial doctor who is currently too occupied to come. How convenient! What it does however is effectively take Zhuge out of the picture and detain top constable Emotionless who has to protect him.
Iron Hands spends the majority of the volume facing off against Sima Huang Feng - a completely psychotic martial artist who's one goal in life is to die a glorious death at the hands of a superior rival. We get a brilliant flashback into Sima's backstory where his entire caravan is butchered by bandits but rather than being appalled, Sima joins in by killing off the survivors, including his own father. He later kills his martial arts master.
Cold Blooded faces off against Baiyu Zhou - Head of North City one of the Four noble houses. We had hint of this in the last volume with the Tang family. As if 13 masked assassins wasn't enough, there are 4 noble houses (North, South, East and West) vying for power and martial arts supremacy - 2 years ago Cold Blooded defeated & humiliated Zhou who has been in constant training for two years preparing for a rematch. Sadly Cold Blooded who was nearly killed last volume in his match with Ghost Gate Master & Returning Spirit Sword is far from peak condition and it shows! He looses and Zhou goes on to be challenged by the head of the South Clan - and we leave the two houses battling it out.
Emotionless re-encounters Yan and we get a sweet romantic interlude with the star crossed lovers knowing that next time they meet they are going to try and kill each other. We also get Yan's back story and how she became Bronze Mask and was forced into working for the enemy.
So other than the identity of the power behind the 13 masks (and my money is still on Cai), we've now met all the major players. As well as the 13 masked assassins and the heads of the four houses (and a few minor bandits and random rapists) we are also introduced to the Duke's villainous son Ahn Hou-Zhen (apparently dead) - I mention him because he has such a pivotal role in the movies - An Shigeng (the major villain of The Four and his defeat the motivation for the villain of the two sequels)
That's an awful lot of villains for such a seemingly slim manga! So kudos to this for making every single character interesting both visually and in their particular quirks. Despite such a huge cast I've never been confused over who's who or what side they are on.
I like the structure of this volume - we follow each of the major characters in turn and get a fight scene all leading towards the upcoming major show down. Highlights are the back story of Sima, Emotionless/Yan's romance and Life Snatcher's battle with blood Phoenix. The art is stunning and the fight sequences are vibrant and kinetic. The series is very heavy on plot and has a massive cast list but it is worth sticking with it because the story is strong and intriguing and the characters are larger than life.
**spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues and keep your wits about you and the other volumes on hand because this is super involved and pl**spoiler alert** The Epic Kung-Fu Whodunit continues and keep your wits about you and the other volumes on hand because this is super involved and plot heavy.
So basic premise: our four mystic martial arts constables (Emotionless Cold Blood, Life Snatcher and Iron Hands) work for Master Zhuge - (your standard good wizard Sifu) - They are hunting down (or being hunted by, take your pick) a band of 13 masked assassins who murdered a whole bunch of noble families over the years including all of Emotionless' kin, and leaving him a cripple. Master Zhuge is attempting to solve the mystery of who is behind the assassins pulling the strings.
Emotionless faces Bronze Mask (Yan), who turns out to be his childhood friend (bringing in the character of Ji Yaohua from the film) - It's interesting that the emotional, past tie has been switched to Emotionless rather than Cold Blood - but this could be simply down to the gender switch of Emotionless in the movie. Yan is still a wonderfully complex character - clearly if not good, sympathetic, yet working for the wrong side. It also adds to the mystery since although she is clearly one of the 13 masks, she's too young to have been involved with many of the past massacres.
Cold Blood Faces off against Thousand Chop Mosan and wins but is then swiftly attacked by a double whammy of Ghost Gate Master and Returning Spirit Sword and has to be rescued by Iron Hands. They return to Zhuge to try and piece things together and learn who has captured Life Snatcher -(He was last seen fighting Black Death Palms but has apparently been captured by the enemy) - Master Zhuge thinks that it is the Emperor's Cousin, martial arts expert Duke Zhu Wu -
They rush to his strong hold to confront him, but find the place ablaze and the family under attack. The Duke dies in Zhuge's arms. Iron Hands gives chase and faces off against his new drinking buddy Sima Huang Feng .... cue cliff-hanger music!
So by my count we've now met 10 of the 13 masked assassins and are no nearer to uncovering their mysterious master. Or are we? My money is on Bishop Jing Cai but I have to wonder why Zhuge, who is such a smart man, doesn't have the villainous minister as his top suspect - I mean this guy is far more obvious than the Duke - but hey.
As well as the main masked villains this one also brings in the notion of rival houses. We meet the Tang family (who seem to be the Department Six equivalent) - at least from the movie POV scenes with Department Six are here with members of the Tang family. Though their role is thus far minimal - their heads ending up on pikes outside of the Duke's residence. Though who killed them I'm unsure.
What can I say? Andy Seto's artwork is stunning - Characters are beautiful and the fight sequences have so much colour and energy! Everything you could want for illustration of a kung-fu epic. Plot-wise we dash about rather a lot - cutting mid fight for a seemingly unrelated character flashback - makes this one quite challenging to follow. There's such a huge cast of highly individual and interesting characters and a complex plot weaving back and fourth between the past and present of the four constables so you do really have to take your time teasing out all the nuances and thinking things through. Still that does give more time to truly appreciate the gorgeous artwork.
At the height of the manga revolution (mid 2000's) Comics One released a series of manga adaptations of Kung Fu movies and novels which had sold the rAt the height of the manga revolution (mid 2000's) Comics One released a series of manga adaptations of Kung Fu movies and novels which had sold the rights to film companies (things like Hero, Shaolin Soccer, Storm Riders etc)
The Four Constables is a manga adaptation of Woon Swee Oan's novel series Si Da Ming Bu (四大名捕; The Four Great Constables) which has since been adapted into an awesome film trilogy: The Four/Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood and more recently a TV series sadly still unavailable in English. For English speaking fans of the movies keen to get hold of the source material - The Four Constables manga is the closest you are going to get.
So broadly speaking it follows the same basic plot of Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood - The Four Constables (Life Snatcher. Cold Blood, Emotionless and Iron Hands) work for Zhuge Zhen-Wo and are trying to track down the 13 assassins who murdered Emotionless' family and encounter a metamorph assassin.
However there are some startling differences the biggest being the sex of Emotionless - here he's a man and in the films the role is gender-swapped. Since the Emotionless/Cold Blood romance is so central to the films I'm wondering how it will play out here? We do get a couple of scenes where Emotionless shows admiration and gratitude to Cold Blood for stepping in and saving him in a flashback - but whether this will develop I'm not certain.
So far we've had no department Six either or rival police forces and our crew have been working together for some years.
Plus each of the assassins is a detailed character in their own right with a very specific martial arts skill. In this one wee meet Cruel Scholar (Shendong Wu) Murderous Erudite (Shengxi Wu) Black Death Palms (Elder Guan), Iron Umbrella Scholar (Xiuao Zhang) and Thousand Chop (Gei Gei Mosan) But so far we have not uncovered the identity of their master.
I absolutely loved this first volume. The biggest selling point is Andy Set's artwork which is beautiful and really kinetic giving the fight sequences a great vibrancy as well as capturing the emotion of the characters.
I also like the pulp story telling - we have flashbacks, dramatic pauses and cut scenes - we'll be in the middle of a fight sequence where the villain has given a seemingly fatal attack. Then the dialogue will say something like ""Will the loyal and patriotic master Zhuge fall prey?" and then we'll shift to the back story of one of the four constables for a flashback interlude, before jumping back into the fight. You are either going to love this style or find it supremely annoying. Personally I think its rather fun. Hilariously over dramatic, but it breaks things up and keeps it interesting.
This is unlike most manga I've come across before - It's a cinematic hybrid which is such a refreshing change - this doesn't feel like an abridged retelling of a movie - this is something unique in its own right and is so epic that it really lives up to the term 'graphic novel'.
So Kitaro is a yokai boy born in a graveyard and semi raised by humans - his father watches over him in the form of a sentient eyeball. Kitaro champioSo Kitaro is a yokai boy born in a graveyard and semi raised by humans - his father watches over him in the form of a sentient eyeball. Kitaro champions humans and is a sort of paranormal investigator, helping humans troubled by Yokai.
I love Kitaro its so nuts - from his eyeball father, super powers that include killer dart hair and a chameleon tongue and a parade of traditional yokai both good and bad this is a delight from start to finish. Love the artwork as well.
This volume gives Kitaro's origins as well as a few adventures - we also get lots of bonus material - a Yokai encyclopaedia of all the yokai in this volume and various puzzles and trivia.
Cross Dororo with Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard book and you've got an approximation of Kitaro which is a total must for fans of manga and Japanese folklore. Also recommend the 2007 movie which does a fun job of getting this on screen....more
This three story anthology is my favourite of the Ring manga series because it at last expands the mythos.
The first story looks at Mai and its not badThis three story anthology is my favourite of the Ring manga series because it at last expands the mythos.
The first story looks at Mai and its not bad - we have some nice floating coffins and a very nice scene of her pixelating.
The second story is the root of the movie Ring 0 - looking at Sadako's time at the theatre troupe. One of the members is in love with Sadako and plants the ideas of video immortality and reproduction we see come into fruition through the curse. There is also one gorgeous piece of horror art - where we get an almost autopsy style pic with the skin being peeled away to reveal the heart.
The last story is a sort of overview - we gets Sadko's POV of events - her mother finding the statue, her romance with the guy in the theatre troupe her rape/death and redemption.
The art in this one is a lot stronger than the three previous books - the plot is much more easy to follow and it adds to what's in the films and novels. Quite liked this one....more
Well it was a slight improvement on Ring 2 at least. Better art and a more coherent story - I like the dark ending of Spiral - it's a bit rushed but IWell it was a slight improvement on Ring 2 at least. Better art and a more coherent story - I like the dark ending of Spiral - it's a bit rushed but I thought did an OK job of condensing down a very complex story....more
I was disappointed with the manga version of the Ring, but it's a masterpiece compared to this. This one follows the plot of the movie Ring 2, but itsI was disappointed with the manga version of the Ring, but it's a masterpiece compared to this. This one follows the plot of the movie Ring 2, but its extremely disjointed so if you are unfamiliar with the movie this manga version makes no sense whatsoever. The other thing about this one is the awful artwork - really did not work for me at all and completely changes the look of characters from The Ring - so if you read these back to back, it becomes even more confusing.
About the only positive thing I can say about this one is the ending and a couple of bits of text/dialogue. I love the idea that "the dead are inside that ring of time from which they can never escape" and "only those that stay in the ring of time are dead" - The idea of a ring of time adds another dimension to the Ring metaphor which I thought worked rather nicely - otherwise... meh....more
I was quite disappointed with the Ring manga - It follows the plot of the film quite closely but I wasn't overkeen on the artwork - Ryuji in particulaI was quite disappointed with the Ring manga - It follows the plot of the film quite closely but I wasn't overkeen on the artwork - Ryuji in particular is very feminine looking and its just not scary. There's not much emphasis on Sadako and I thought this was a big disappointment all round, both as a Ring fan and as a fan of horror manga in general....more
Horror anthology by Koji Suzuki (The Ring) centred around the theme of water. The First Story "Floating Water" has been filmed twice, once in Japan anHorror anthology by Koji Suzuki (The Ring) centred around the theme of water. The First Story "Floating Water" has been filmed twice, once in Japan and remade in America under the title "Dark Water" "Dream Cruise" has also been adapted for screen in the second season of Masters of Horror. The stories as a whole are a mixed bag - Floating Water has a far more upbeat ending than it's cinematic adaptations and seems far less developed.
My two favourites here are The Hold - in which a drunken sailor lies to himself about what really happened to his wife and the Lovecraftian 'Adrift' which is the most eerie and supernatural of the tales - the mysterious shell in the bottle with a human eyeball is seriously freaky! I love the dark ending too.
Watercolours I'll admit I didn't 'get' at all but I think that might be the point - it looks at an avant-garde stage director who uses water features in his multi tiered play. There's a line which says "there can be no denying that the audience is provided with an insufficient explanation as to what is going on" and I can't help but feel that that's Suzuki talking to the reader about the story as well... Ponderous in the extreme, like a dream.
I raced through this anthology which has it's moments but is far from his best....more
This sequel follows directly on from Ring - the protagonist being the pathologist doing the autopsy on Ryuji. Sadako's will has mutated from the videoThis sequel follows directly on from Ring - the protagonist being the pathologist doing the autopsy on Ryuji. Sadako's will has mutated from the video tape into a physical virus that resembles smallpox and we follow its further evolution throughout the novel.
Absolutely loved this particularly the ending where Sadako comes into her own. I also loved the idea of codes and puzzles which is very clever. The one downside is all the technical stuff which bogs this down until its like reading a biology text book in places as it goes into detail on DNA, Amino acids which made my brain ache a little. However the story is strong and once you get out of the science and into the dark implications of what is actually going on... Its pretty frightening. I can't wait to see how the trilogy concludes in Loop.
Fans of authors like Robin Cook are going to absolutely love this one....more
A journalist investigates the death of four teenagers and discovers they died exactly one week after watching a cursed video. He tracks down the tape A journalist investigates the death of four teenagers and discovers they died exactly one week after watching a cursed video. He tracks down the tape and watches it and now has one week to solve the origin of the curse and save himself. On the surface it sounds ludicrous - some cheesy urban legend, but the story goes much deeper than that. So many fears are exploited here: fear of modern technology (the video), fear of death and our nature to do anything to stop it, fear of unstoppable viruses, to deeper, more primitive fears of demons, people with supernatural powers and of course the simple but effective revenge from beyond the grave...
The book is a completely different entity to the film with different characters - I particularly like Ryuji because he's such a complex character - is he a rapist as he claims or is that all simply a front? Sadako is equally as fascinating - no creepy girl crawling from out the TV here. I loved the gender confusion - giving her testicular feminization syndrome gives her yet another sense of 'Otherness' in addition to her supernatural powers. Also really liked all the virus/disease themes running throughout the novel giving it a sense of apocalyptic doom if the ring virus fails to be contained.
The story travels around a lot and so the reader is bombarded with a lot of Japanese place names and characters which makes this a bit clunky- while this grounds it in reality and makes the tale seem more believable it can be disconcerting to Western readers unfamiliar with Japan. However the story is exciting and the pace fast due to countdown to solve the mystery. Overall thoroughly enjoyed this one. ...more
This is the 1st novel of the Wicked City trilogy - adapted (fairly faithfully) as the anime wicked city and not so faithfully as the live action movieThis is the 1st novel of the Wicked City trilogy - adapted (fairly faithfully) as the anime wicked city and not so faithfully as the live action movie. If you are familiar with either of those you are pretty much guaranteed to love this.
Every century a peace treaty is signed between inhabitants of the demon world and the human world - this latest treaty set for 500 years peace is unprecedented and many demons do not want it to go ahead. Diplomat Mayart is vital to the signing ceremony and two Black Guard (supernatural police) - Taki from the human world and Makie from the demon world have to work together to protect him for 24 hours until the signing.
I love the plot of this one - and it has one hell of a good twist too. The characters are great too - pervy old Mayart is like Happosai from Ranma and a real handful.
There's lots of Kikuchi's trade mark freaky sex too - we get a woman that turns into a giant vagina, demon rape, succubi that absorb their victims and have faces in their abdomens, tentacles, snake rape - You like hentai you'll love this - but it balances the erotic horror with a decent plot.
The problem I think a lot of people have with this is the writing: First off it's translated from the Japanese so it is always going to be a little stilted but Kikuchi's sparse writing style can be problematic as well. It is like reading a screenplay - It's very visual in terms of content but seriously lacks description - you do have to re-read bits to make sense of what's going on sometimes. Watching the anime first with this one really helps.
Personally I absolutely love this series - it's up there with Yashakiden, but it's not going to be to everyone's taste....more
**spoiler alert** Parasyte is the best horror manga I've read in ages! In this one Shin's mother becomes possessed by a Parasyte and tries to kill him**spoiler alert** Parasyte is the best horror manga I've read in ages! In this one Shin's mother becomes possessed by a Parasyte and tries to kill him! He also meets the first hybrid like himself - where the parasyte took over the lower jaw instead of managing to reach the brain. The coming of age allegory is brilliantly handled with a wonderful dose of weird and some truly freaky art. As the integration continues our hero just gets more and more interesting. I can't wait to see the end result....more
This is the 2nd of a set of 4 illustrated movie guides (the others covering vampire, werewolf and Frankenstein movies). It lists films alphabetically This is the 2nd of a set of 4 illustrated movie guides (the others covering vampire, werewolf and Frankenstein movies). It lists films alphabetically by decade, giving a brief synopsis and mark out of 5.
It is somewhat absurdly completest - listing films which I would not consider dinosaur movies per-se. Godzilla, and films featuring gigantic animals I can kind of see, but Edward Scissorhands because of the dinosaur topiary scene and Robocop because of the dinosaur advert? seriously???
I strongly disagreed with a lot of the reviews and several of my favourite films are given unfairly low ratings in my opinion. Saying that everyone involved in "at the earth's core" should be ashamed particularly got my back up. I also have to question a book on dinosaur movies that doesn't award Jurassic Park 5 stars....
It is however a fantastic compendium of monster movies with a wonderful selection of film posters and stills. I have found quite a few movies to seek out from this, even if I don't necessarily agree with the reviews. ...more
Collection of Bollywood film posters categorised by genre and text about the history of the Bollywood film poster and each genre of film.
This is fine Collection of Bollywood film posters categorised by genre and text about the history of the Bollywood film poster and each genre of film.
This is fine as far as it goes and is a great introduction to Bollywood cinema, but is of course limited in what it contains. I for one wanted more on Bollywood horror, which is marginalised to only one double page.
Also a lot of the films only have their Indian title so sometimes you have to guess if its the film the text is talking about.
What posters there are, are gorgeous and colourful and it has led me to find a couple of films I want to track down, but it is hardly a comprehensive guide of the topic.
Enjoyable and a nice addition to any film book collection....more
A wonderful "dipping into" book that I can read time and again. Collects together 104 short stories from 17/18th century writer Pu Songling. The storiA wonderful "dipping into" book that I can read time and again. Collects together 104 short stories from 17/18th century writer Pu Songling. The stories are a bizarre mix of folklore and strange but true accounts - A cross between the travels of john manderville/ Marco Polo meets Grimm's fairytales with a bit of Fortean times thrown in, all with a period Oriental flavour. We have fox spirits, Kyonsi, demons, gods, taoist wizards, naive clerics and corrupt officials.
This is the origin of almost all HK fantasy cinema - A Chinese Ghost Story, Mr Vampire, Painted Skin all stem from this.
Loading...
