Well GO USA Archives | Otaku No Culture

Livin’ on a Prayer with Takashi Miike’s First Love

First Love has the feel of a madcap chase with all the glory of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World tossed in. It’s the wrong analogy, but that’s what I felt.

Takashi Miike's First Love Movie Poster — **Available to purchase or stream on Amazon USA**

Release Date: Feb 11, 2020
Well GO USA

Spoiler Alert

Takashi Miike is a filmmaker best known for his wry, dark humour. Some of his best films include the crime-exposition with Ichi the Killer and a live action adaptation of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure which I can only describe as gloriously over the top. When these movies have a manga (cartoon) grindhouse style approach, I’m usually hooked! In his exploration into the criminal underbelly of Tokyo in First Love has a lot going on, and plenty of craziness to pack in!

If processing the subtitles is too hard, this region one home video release comes with a dubbed version. I do wonder if the region 2 version comes with Miike’s Japanese commentary though…

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Romulus & Remus: The First King … But Who’s the only King?

Romulus and Remus By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Well GO USA
Release Date: Sept 24, 2019

Romulus and Remus, we know the legend about them, but have we ever seen a movie about the founding of Rome? Despite the debate over how this city truly developed (there’s another account concerning a lady named Roma), what this movie, The First King (Il primo re), by director Matteo Rovere offers is plenty of true grit. Filippo Gravino and Francesca Manieri co-wrote the screenplay with this filmmaker, and what I saw is the relationship of the two brothers as they struggle against a greater enemy–destiny–as who will ultimately be leader.

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The Future is Frightening in Kung Fu League

Romulus and Remus — Available for purchase on Amazon

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Distributor:
Well GO USA

Release Date:
Sept 17, 2019

Be prepared, humble students of Kung Fu League (功夫联盟)! This film is an enjoyable silly romp where real life and fictional legends Wong Fei-Hung (Vincent Zhao, Once Upon a Time in China), Ip Man (Dennis To, Wu Dang), Chen Zhen (Danny Chan, Kung Fu Hustle) and Huo Yuan Jia (Andy On, Black Mask 2) are plucked out of time to help manhua artist Fei (Ashin, Lead vocalist of the Taiwanese rock band Mayday.) have the courage to ask Bao’er (Madina Memet) out for a date. He’s had a crush on her for the longest time but his insecurities get the better of him.

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Freaks (2018) to Redefine a Tired Genre

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Well GO USA

* Spoiler Alert

Opens in Select Theatres Sept 13, 2019
Please check local listings.

Blu-Ray/VOD/DVD Release December 10th, 2019

In an uncertain world, the movie Freaks shows young Chloe and her father living in a dilapidated home. The trailers for this film suggests that she is an outcast and anyone labelled are despised. They are deemed a threat to regular society, and this hook was enough to get me hooked to beautifully crafted tale about parenthood, looking for heroes and isolation. Coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival as one of the Top Ten Canadian Films of 2018, I feel it’ll be a game changer and won’t say more since it’d be a major spoiler.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein wrote and directed a perfect Twilight Zone style episode dealing with a young girl who just wants to be loved. But when her father does not permit her to play outside, her social skills are rough and little about reality she truly understands. The only exception is with the junk mail delivered and a book about an ice cream truck which one day appears. The man she meets, Mr. Snowcone (played by Bruce Dern), is her only source of information to the world around her.

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On Ne Zha and a Sequel

Very few people would not expect a little tyke like Ne Zha would be a troublemaker. But somehow he manages to charm in what may be the first instalment of a series of films.

Ne Zha Movie Poster — Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Well Go USA

Release Dates:
Feb 25th – Digital and March 3rd – Blu-ray

Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世) is Dragonball Z on steroids. This title is the name of a movie about a rascally young boy (voiced by Lü Yanting) who does not have the makings of the divinity Chinese people highly respect today. You don’t want to let him in your home just yet. He needs to earn his reputation. When the world is about immortals battling for positions of power–to be one of the 8 Golden Immortals–in Heaven, I question how easy life is in Ancient China when they live amongst humanity and the battles are fought on land than in the safety of the Aether.

The animation includes many moments worthy of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Infinity War, and Endgame mashup in oriental garb. It offers very little in the charm of extolling Eastern philosophies. This story shines in its premise that destiny can be challenged and reshaped.

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Chinese Animated Ne Zha Arrives West in Select Cinemas!

Just how different this take of Nezha is when compared to others will depend on what this entry offers as its tale.

Well GO USA

The power of myth is strong in China; Nezha is a guardian deity who perhaps rivals the fame of the Monkey King. Both are household names, and the literature they hail from is the most studied. It’s a classical work which teaches prime virtues to which many folks from this country tend to follow.

In Journey to the West, this human fought the primate when he rebelled. They would later become friends. The 3D animated movie about the boy to become a god debuted early this year and it has been making huge waves as it looks to this man’s early days–demonized and not knowing his place in the world–before being the individual he is now.

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