Category: Cinema

A Nerd’s Guide to the 2025 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Although the number of genre films seems small in this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the number of drama are always high as the 2025 event is ready to rumble starting tomorrow!

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival LOGORuns: May 1st to 7th, 2025

When I have a fondness for films made in Asia, I’m always excited to see what the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will screen. This event kicks off tomorrow, and I’m always curious about who may become the next Bong Joon Ho. Or rather, wonder if this event will premiere the next exciting genre flick! My coverage over the years always considers this side of the show before extending the list to other movies that pique my interest.

And while some years offer more fantastical works than others in the short film category, there’s still some good drama to find! This top picks in what to see also considers this category too.

Chinatown Cha-Cha
China, Directed by Luka Yuanyuan Yang

CHINATOWN CHA-CHAThe 92-year-old previous nightclub dancer Coby Yee decides to get back on stage again after joining the senior dance troupe Grant Avenue Follies. Together they go on a tour for the last time, bridging once isolated Chinese communities in the US, Cuba, and China.

From Okinawa With Love
Japan & USA, Directed by Hiroshi Sunairi

In the 1970s, Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa worked as a barmaid for African American GIs and published an impressive photography book.

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All The Scary Details You May Want To Know About Vampire Zombies From Space with Michael Stasko

In part two, fans might want to be careful in what gets revealed concerning all those Easter eggs that can be found in Vampire Zombies From Space.

Mike Stasko - WRITER_DIRECTOR_PRODUCERWhen Mike Stasko makes up one third of the core team who helped fine tune what Vampire Zombies From Space is, I’m really hoping for more! His latest film is almost similar to Casey Walker’s A Little Bit Zombie, a movie made more than a decade ago. Both deal with how victims eventually become a member of the walking dead, and to find a cure is rarely explored. I will post an old interview I did with him and include updates regarding his next horror movie, which is currently in post-production. And please visit this link to read part one with writer Jakob Skrzypa.

While the circumstances are completely different between these two particular films, I’m a sucker for zombie comedies. It’s a subgenre that gets a movie made at least once every two years, but not a lot of them stand out because they lack originality. The last time I laughed out loud was with Anna and the Apocalypse! The fact that it’s also a musical says it all.

There are honestly not enough movies being made that marry random genres together. I have to say it was by sheer luck that this movie and Night of the Zoopocalypse released nearly back to back. The dose of nostalgia and euphoria I had was on cloud nine. Afterwards, I had to fall back to the animated medium to rewatch Monsters vs Aliens to round out what I feel are in my top five favourites of this subgenre. 

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The Alien (UFO) Cinematic Agenda at SXSW 2025 and Nerdy Picks For the Horror Enthusiast

SXSW is always worth paying attention to because of its various premieres in the cinematic front. This year looks exceptional if you love invasion themed material!

SXSW Logo Poster OrientaedSXSW is shaping up to be the year the aliens took over Austin, Texas. Now that this event is in full swing, I’ll be paying attention to how well certain films will do, and how fast they will get (pardoning the pun) picked up by distributors.

Usually, all I do is pay attention to the midnight madness movie screenings over other debuts. When this mega event celebrates music, tech, and film, it’s often the latter two that I have more interest in. That’s because the movies give me a good idea of what to expect when Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival announces their lineup. When there’s five films that share concerns over UFO visitations, I hope these films will land elsewhere later this year!

And while this enormous event has much more entertainment to consider, I have to round out the list to ten than the usual five. There are some fabulous documentaries that have my attention, and as for other buzz worthy films, what I offer is a list of works that definitely have my interest beyond the usual midnight madness picks. What I present works in alphabetical order that are “coming soon.”

Ash

Ash Movie Poster 2025A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.

The Age of Disclosure

An unprecedented film–featuring 34 senior members of the U.S. Senate, House, military and intelligence community–revealing a cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life and a secret war to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin. (World Premiere)

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Top Three Choices to Hail In the Chinese New Year (2025 Edition)

Chinese New Year is almost here, and I offer my list on what I expect to be the top three films that’ll be big! And all the movie trailers I could find are also assembled here:

Creation of the Gods 2 Well GO USA Poster for Chinese New YearChinese New Year is coming! And for those folks who want to enjoy part of that day at the movies, five ‘official’ films are being released January 29th! What I offer here are my top three choices. Although I mentioned the sequel for Crazy Alien is coming in my review, it’s not a mandatory must-see.

And what I offer here are nearly every trailer for each of these films to get a sense of what’s going to be presented.

Creation of the Gods II:
Demonic Confrontation

This continuation of the epic fight between clans can spell disaster for all of China, if all parties aren’t careful. That’s because, after the ascension of the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, the transition is not quiet. When the fox-spirit Daji has a dastardly role to play, all will not be well.

As part two of a trilogy, what’s expected will be like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings–to break the narratives down to smaller pieces. Part three is titled Creation Under Heaven. and that’s scheduled for release next year. As for this middle release,  Well GO USA has IMAX screenings available at select cities (please visit link) on Jan 29th, and will get a wider release at the end of the month.

Trailer 1 (International Release)

Trailer 2 (Chinese)

Behind the Scenes

Continued on page 2

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

The Deets on The Shaw Brothers Classics, Volume 6 and Why This Release Is A Must-See

The love for Shaw Brothers continues as I offer thoughts in the next Shaw Brothers Classics release!

Shaw Brothers Classics Vol 6
Pre-order now on Amazon USA

What’s next for Shout! Studio‘s continued release of films from China is Shaw Brothers Classics, Vol. 6. Fans can now pre-order this upcoming March release, and according to the marketing, this package will focus on the really hard to find films to watch. Since then, a quick check online shows that some of them are available on Amazon Prime (select countries) as individual works or on YouTube.

This week, the distributor also revealed all the new featurettes included in this set. The titles I’m excited to see are Finger of Doom, Na Cha And The Seven Devils, and The Young Avenger. The primary reason is that I haven’t watched these particular films yet. IUn a few entries will be some added notes (or an included trailer)

SWORDSWOMEN THREE
(1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2.35:1) / Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono / 100 min.)

SWORDSWOMEN THREE Movie PosterAlthough this title may seem misleading, that is because it’s not really about these three ladies. Instead, it’s concerned about Lo Lieh, who will stop at nothing to claim victory at a tournament between clans. And by the time these ladies are dealing out the hurt, the question of who is the best is hardly the plot.

Although these sisters–played by Essie Lin Chia, Shen Yi and Violet Pan Ying-Zi–do their best, the question is when will they challenge the patriarchy?

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All Shaw Brothers All The Time! Volume 5 Quick Thoughts

Fans of the works from Shaw Brothers Studios will be happy to learn volume 5 is out now, and there’s a sixth too!

Shaw Brothers Classics Volume FiveShout! Studios

Just when fans thought they couldn’t get enough of the movies from The Shaw Brothers, one of two new collections is here! Volume Six is slated for, and I’ll have a separate article outlining what’s coming in that set. I really appreciate the fact Shout! Studios is keeping the love for wuxia alive.

Volume 5 is now available for purchase on their website (or on Amazon). While I have yet to process this volume myself (I’m still working through the last two volumes before committing to this year’s offerings), this release continues to offer titles from the 60s and 70s.

There’s a bit of a sword theme going on in this release and when I can pick up this set, I’m looking forward to seeing Mission Impossible over all others! You’ll have to visit this entry to see the reason why. Another work is Rape of the Sword, that’s based on the novel of the same name. This book supposedly inspired Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Also, when this studio rarely does sequels, A Taste of Cold Steel is one of those rare titles I have to check out. And when this collection includes all new content to go with each title, it’s a must have for any committed nostalgia enthusiast. Also included are some personal thoughts on a few films.

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