October 2007

There’s nothing cooler than a stoical, Katana wielding samurai on a mission of vengeance... unless, of course, that samurai is an afro wearing, roll-up smoking bad-ass voiced by the king of cool, Samuel L. Jackson. Impact reverses its Kangol and checks into the world of Afro Samurai.

I first stumbled across Afro Samurai a couple of years ago when, while trawling the ‘net, I came across Takashi Okazaki’s website showcasing the Afro Samurai comics he had created. I was astonished to read that an anime was in production that would feature the distinctive vocal talents of Samuel L Jackson voicing the lead role alongside ‘Hellboy’ himself, Ron Perlman and the divine action heroine Kelly Hu.

Since then, our US correspondent has covered the release of Afro Samurai stateside courtesy of Spike TV and I managed to catch the tail end of an episode during its UK broadcast on Bravo earlier this year. All of which left me wanting more… Well, my wait is now over as the UK finally gets the DVD box set of all five episodes plus extras.

Afro Samurai is pretty much your basic revenge themed anime slasher, but rendered with such style as to make it a thing of beauty. The basic premise sees Jackson’s character witness his father’s death at the hands of Ron Perlman’s ‘Justice’, a gun wielding, skeletal psychopath a nasty surprise hidden behind his back. Justice is after the Number 1 headband and the rank of top killer –...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

This month we go back to jail with the latest in the Female Prisoner series, take a lie down on a very bizarre Gingko Bed and have One Last Dance with Harvey Keitel and Francis Ng…

There are movies that are so strange you just do not know how to begin describing them and, rest assured, Impact has three of the buggers lined up for you this month. Certainly, in this reviewer’s lifetime, many outlandish, weird and just plain confused feature films have gone on to achieve some kind of cult favour - from Santa Sangre to Showgirls and from Evil Dead Trap to A Chinese Ghost Story.

However, at the very least, these titles have a beginning, middle and an end and the characters manage to act fairly logically within the confines of the bizarre storytelling (yes, even in Showgirls). Sure, each of these flicks has frustrating gaps in reason but, in their own little way, they at least make some sort of sense - irregardless of how bad the acting / dialogue / production values or characterisation might be...

Now, the purpose of highlighting this is important. You see, 1996’s horror epic Gingko Bed, a Korean opus that stars character actor Han Suk-kyu of Shiri and Tell Me Something (both 1999), is an entirely new level of weird. In fact, Gingko Bed is so utterly freaking insane that even thinking about it can cause...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

For this month’s Hong Kong Homegrown Impact goes behind the scenes on the shooting of Northern Ireland’s first Zombie, Kung Fu actioner with the Director, George Clarke

Battle of the Bone is Northern Ireland’s first martial arts horror film... and certainly won’t be the last! As an avid fan of Hong Kong action cinema (not to mention that from Japan, Korea and Thailand), and with a collection of near 2000 Asian DVDs, I aim to become Northern Ireland’s first action hero. My big plan is a constant stream of ‘80s style HK actioners, with a modern day kung fu epic thrown in for good measure. Battle of the Bone came about when I heard that the Northern Ireland Film Commission wouldn’t fund any movie unless it was based on the troubles here. Well, I hate clichés, so I thought I would make the mother of all ‘troubles’ movies, and break the mould for film-makers here.

Set on the 12th of July, NI’s national day of trouble, the movie begins at dawn with a drug dealer making a deal with an undercover cop. He’s dealing a bad batch of ‘enhancement drugs’ that he stole from a local medical centre, and after watching his friend’s head explode after taking some, he wants to get rid of them quick! If you can imagine 28 Days Later directed by Sammo...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Impact leaps into the spirit world with Manga’s UK release of Bleach - a hugely successful anime and manga franchise that has taken Japan and the US by storm...

Created by Tite Kubo and serialised in Shonen Jump magazine since 2001, Bleach is massive in Japan, rivalling super-franchises such as Naruto in popularity. The compiled manga have sold over 40 million copies and the franchise has spun off an animated TV series, two OAV (straight to DVD mini series), two animated feature films, a musical and various video-games.

The series concerns the constant battle for souls between the Soul Society (loosely translated as ‘heaven’ where souls live a peaceful life for up to 1000 years before being reborn in the human world) and the entities know as ‘hollows’ who reside in Hueco Mundo, leaving only to hunt human souls who, for whatever reason, may not have passed to the Soul Society...

At the frontline of this war are the Shinigami - an order of Soul Reapers whose job it is to collect any wayward souls and send them to the Society while also fighting the Hollow’s attacks using zanpakuto - swords whose size and power reflect their wielder’s spiritual energy.

The majority of this conflict takes place outside of human knowledge between beings invisible to most human eyes... but Ichigo Kurosaki isn’t ‘most humans’. Instead, our orange haired teen hero...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

From the video game classic to the cinema, out of the dark and into the Nevada desert... Milla Jovovich takes on more of the Undead.

The first Resident Evil movie established the world of the Resident Evil film franchise, the evil Umbrella organisation and turned Milla Jovovich into the queen of the action DVD market. The second film, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, found Alice (Jovovich), L.J. (Mike Epps) and a renegade Umbrella officer named Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) escaping Raccoon City and Umbrella’s plot to extinguish them. So where does the intrepid team go from here? Well, if you want to contain a bad situation there’s one thing you have to know: whatever plays in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Resident Evil: Extinction finds them loose in Nevada, moving from place to place in an armoured convoy, outrunning and outgunning the throngs of Undead that lurk in the wide, empty spaces that can no longer be called civilization. An 80 x 40 foot miniature of the post-apocalyptic Las Vegas Strip was even created by New Deal Studios in Los Angeles to create the right effects.
“I think the strength of the Resident Evil movies is that they’re not just zombie movies,” claims writer/producer Paul W.S. Anderson. “There are creatures in these films, more than just the Undead. There are also a lot of science fiction...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Beau Smith says stand-alone stories are a rare breed, but have the multi-story arcs and mini-series changed comics forever? Part One of a one-part overview!

Now and then when reading through the comics I buy, I stop and think about something that’s missing. Something that true craftsmen of my youth built franchise books upon, the “Stand-Alone” story. Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Robert Kanigher were masters at the stand-alone story. They had what it took to build up characters and story lines within a short amount of pages. They proved it with almost every issue.

Back in the day, within a tweleve month run on a comic, you would have usually one “saga”. That being a three part story line. The rest of the year you would have stand alone issues with interwoven sub plots that would continue through the book’s run. Stand alone issues gave new readers a chance to jump on board. Stand-alone issues gave the reader their money’s worth, meaning their cover price investment was paid back in monthly entertainment. Some books like Marvel’s Tales To Astonish and Tales Of Suspense were divided into two separate stories with different characters. Never did they let the reader down with story content.

Why don’t we have that today? When I got into this business back in the mid ‘80s I cut my writing teeth on...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Donnie Yen and Director Wilson Yip return for their third collaboration, Flash Point, a tough martial arts police thriller. The dynamic duo of Yen and Yip previously delivered the excellent SPL and the entertaining Dragon Tiger Gate, Impact’s Eastern editor Mike Leeder brings us the first UK review...

It is 1997, and the clock is ticking for the final handover of Hong Kong back to China. Tensions are running higher than ever, as the majority of the population, law abiding and law breaking are fearful of the possible consequences of the return to Communist China. It’s a time of anarchy, with old allegiances and loyalties being abandoned in the sake of making a few fast bucks.

If the criminals are getting tough, it’s going to take a tougher breed of lawman to bring them to justice. The toughest Cop in Hong Kong is Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen); known for his high arrest rate and for the no nonsense way he deals with the criminals, his partner and best friend is Wilson (Louis Koo) an undercover Cop trying to bring down a ruthless Vietnamese crime gang headed by three badass brothers.
A final takedown is coming and everybody knows it, but will the Police bring down the gang before they realise Wilson is undercover, or will Wilson become another statistic in the fight against crime?

Flash Point hits the screen as one of the most highly anticipated action movies of the year. the trailers and promo footage, show...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Andrez Bergen, takes an autumn sabbatical to nut out the most steadfast, unswerving, earnest, reliable, and - to tell the truth - occasionally whacked-out, disingenuous or crazed sidekicks to partner up with our erstwhile champions in Japanese film.

Autumn in Japan, with its multicoloured leaves and cooler climate, is traditionally a time for reflection in this most eastern Asian nation with its history of Zen Buddhism - and what better subject to reflect upon than the boys (and girls) of bravura behind the action heroes we know and love?

Batman has Robin, Captain America hung out with Bucky, Wallace would be powerless without Gromit, and even Judge Dredd puts an element of trust in his Lawmaster motorcycle: we’re talking dependable sidekicks, the pillars of strength who support the principle characters in comics, movies, TV series, and... anime.

Impact’s Tokyo bureau chief, Andrez Bergen, here takes an autumn sabbatical to nut out the most steadfast, unswerving, earnest, reliable, and - to tell the truth - occasionally whacked-out, disingenuous or crazed sidekicks to partner up with our erstwhile champions in Japanese film.

DAISUKE JIGEN &
GOEMON ISHIKAWA XIII [Lupin III]
Let’s face it: Jigen and Goemon are two of the coolest and most unswerving sidekicks in a Japanese yarn, despite having such polar-opposite demeanors - and our hero, Arsène Lupin III, also known as the Wolf and the grandson of French gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin - has to be recurrently thanking...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

The classic sci-fi action series gets a revamp for radio, but how will fans feel now that it’s a new Avon calling?

It seems that everything old is new again. In an era where technology is expanding in leaps and bounds, there is something to be said for taking advantage of more tried and tested means. In the cases of Blake’s 7, the classic BBC series about fugitives in space, it really is a back to the future approach, exploiting a mixture of the internet and good old fashioned audio presentations.

Many readers of a certain age will remember the Blake’s 7 series. In a dystopian future, Roj Blake is an agitant that the imperialistic Federation can’t afford. He’s mind-wiped but the wipe doesn’t completely take and with only the vaguest appearance of a free trial he’s whisked off to a prison planet, Cygnus Alpha. The prison craft comes across an alien space-craft and decides to use the expertise of some of its inmates/passengers to see if they can salvage it. However the likes of Blake, hacker Kerr Avon; and the feisty smuggler Jenna have other ideas and manage to steal the craft, ultimately freeing some of their fellow prisoners, including the locksmith Villa and murderer Gan. Now Blake has his ‘Liberator’ and the makings of a team with which they...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Mark Millar has written some of the best-selling comics of all time and saved the universe. So, what is he up to next and why does it involve Angelina Jolie and sun-cream?

There’s many an adolescent who has saved life, the universe and everything from the relative safety of his room and just in time for tea. What child hasn’t dreamed of being Superman and jumping tall buildings in a single bound - at least until the notion of bounding and jumping with the fairer sex takes precedence during your teenage years - and how many kids have climbed the walls emotionally until they discovered fellow nerd Peter Parker who did it for real? It’s less usual to be able to turn that fountain of imagination into a veritable sea of profit, a solid career and award-winning dream-spinning. Mark Millar may still save the universe from his bedroom (or more accurately a study with walls covered by movie and comic posters) but today he does it for a living.

And it’s a good living too. When Impact last spoke to Mark he was still working on the second volume of The Ultimates, a recreation of the early days of Marvel’s Avengers team, re-imagined for their Ultimate imprint. The volume came to a close after thirteen issues, riding on a sea of acclaim and only slightly bruised by the severe delays en...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Half Bart Simpson, half ninja, full on phenomenon. Impact reviews the new DVD.

At first glance, calling something ‘...the Harry Potter for the Pokemon generation’ may be something of a mixed blessing and, while probably intended as a compliment, it might also suggest a love it-loathe it split divided along strict boundaries.

However there’s no doubt that Naruto, as featured in previous editions of Impact, is a genuine phenomenon and this month the final episodes of Naruto: Unleashed are released onto a three-disc set featuring the last thirteen episodes shown on television, uncut, with the added bonus of extra footage.

Naruto, for the uninitiated, is an adaptation of the work of writer/illustrator Masashi Kishimoto who created the characters and concepts for his long-running manga saga and centres around a boy with a very unusual heritage. Years before, the Shinobis - ninjas to you and me - fought to protect the village of Konoha from the nine-tailed Demon Fox. They fought valiantly but in vain. However in a final act of sacrifice one of the Shinobi, the Fourth Hokage, made the ultimate sacrifice, managing to seal the spirit of the demon within an infant child. That child was Naruto Uzmumaki. The years pass and Naruto finds it impossible to shake that heritage -...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

It has the production values of a major sci-fi show, but is designed for a whole different medium. Kerry Glover seeks the web-based ‘Sanctuary’.

Imagine a world in which monsters exist... and hold the key to the future of the human race. That’s the concept that the new supernatural sci fi series Sanctuary explores while blazing the trail ahead for other series through the uncharted techno-tainment seas known as Convergence. You see, Sanctuary is not a television series... yet. Currently, the eight 15 to 20-minute webisodes that make up Sanctuary’s two-hour pilot can only be found on the Internet.

And though you can purchase the webisodes for download or viewing on the series’ official website, www.SanctuaryForAll.com, you can also find preview clips on a variety of online video and BitTorrent sites available for free. And, as soon as distribution and syndication deals close that are currently in negotiation, the series will be made even more widely available.

What sets Sanctuary apart from other Internet series? Well, for one thing, the show’s production budget: $4.6M Canadian (roughly £2.16M), the largest ever for direct-to-web series... and creator Damian Kindler (Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis) has the entry in the Guinness Book of World Records to prove it, having been awarded the World Record for ‘Highest Budget Television Production Direct to the Web’.

“I have a...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

DVDs: 300 - Double Disk Set and Curse of the Golden Flower
Games: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Cover star Clive Owen has a baby to care for and bullets to dodge. Impact looks at the shiny, nappy people...

Last year, during a trip to London to promote M Night Shyamalan’s The Lady in the Water, I sat down with the film’s star Paul Giamatti to discuss his role and his career and he mentioned that he loved the fact that the latest film he was working on was an action movie in which he be playing the bad guy... and that it would be great fun as he’d never really done an action movie before (smaller roles in films such as Planet of the Apes notwithstanding). Paul Giamatti: action star. He was as surprised as anyone.

A year on and the result is Shoot ’Em Up and there’s every chance this totally hip action movie will delight those who want one last decent rollickin’ romp at the cinema before the summer becomes a totally distant memory. Bringing together the ever versatile Giamatti (playing a hitman) together with Clive Owen (star of King Arthur, Children of Men and who apparently turned down the chance to be Bond, here in full Die Hard mode) and arguably Italy’s most mouth-watering export since pizza, Monica Belluci as a lactating hooker sounds... ambitious. Perhaps scary. Definitely a little crazy. All are also...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Neil Gaiman’s classic illustrated novel gets the big screen treatment with Michelle Pfieffer, Robert DeNiro and a literal all ‘star’ cast.

Our tour guide is the warm voice of Sir Ian McKellen, which begins the film thusly: “A philosopher once asked, ‘Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?’ Pointless, really. Do the stars gaze back? Now that’s a question.” One such dreamer who believes they do is young Dunstan Thorne (Ben Barnes), who lives in the village of Wall. Wall is so named because it has a wall, guarded by a strange old man (David Kelly) intent on keeping the villagers from wandering into the magical kingdom of Stormhold that lies just beyond it.

Dunstan sneaks inside and quickly catches the eye of a beautiful girl (Kate Magowan) who tells him she’s a princess tricked into slavery by a witch called Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). Dunstan’s not able to liberate the lovely lass but she does liberate him from his knickers, and nine months later a bundle containing a baby boy arrives on Dunstan’s doorstep. Dunstan (played now as an older man by Nathaniel Parker) raises Tristan (Charlie Cox) alone, and when he comes of age he takes a job as a shop boy and falls in love...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

No recent John Woo big-screen outings? ‘Console’ yourself with this digitised outing from the master of the bullet ballet.

He’s one of Hong Kong cinemas most famous directors and responsible for many of Impact’s favourite movies - from A Better Tomorrow to Hollywood high action like Broken Arrow. The movie that played the biggest part in breaking John Woo’s heroic bloodshed, bullet ballet style of film-making to Western audiences was the non-stop, bullet-fest that is Hard Boiled. The film featured Chow Yun-fat as Inspector Tequila, a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners kind of cop who uncovers a huge arms dealing operation beneath a hospital. Shoot ‘em Up (reviewed elsewhere this issue) is just one of the Hollywood films to take stylistic cues from Hard Boiled but pretty much every time you watch an action hero dive across the screen in slow motion with two hand guns blazing, remember, it’s John Woo who pioneered that look.

Woo is currently working on a film adaptation of a game, featuring The Rock as Spy Hunter, but this month sees things cut the other way as Midway releases a gaming sequel to Hard Boiled in the form of Stranglehold. Impact sat down with Mr Woo to discuss the game and the return of Inspector Tequila...
What is Stranglehold about?
Stranglehold™ is the continuation of Inspector...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Scott Adkins, Jean Claude van damme and Isaac Florentine. What else do you need to know? Impact takes a look at their latest project...

If we were putting together ingredients for a highly anticipated American martial arts movie, what would we want to add to the mix? Impact’s original cover star Jean-Claude Van Damme, check! A solid supporting role for rising British martial arts hero Scott Adkins as the villain’s super kicking lead enforcer, check! Fight choreography blending the best of East and west from JJ ‘Loco’ Perry of Undisputed 2 fame, check! Oh and US Seals 2, Undisputed 2 director Isaac Florentine at the helm, check again! Well we didn’t have to select the ingredients for this project, Sony did and the result is a highly anticipated American action thriller...

The Shepherd is set in and around the Mexican border, and chronicles the conflict between a Texas lawman (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and a special forces team gone ‘rogue’, who have taken over the local drug trade and are making it their own. While at first the film seems to be treading similar ground to that taken by Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade and the Walter Hill classic Extreme Prejudice, you have to take into consideration Isaac’s respect for the genre, and the influence of spaghetti westerns and much more upon his...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

As Day Watch gets a long awaited Western release, Impact catches up with the director responsible for bringing Western action sensibilities to a Russian audience raised on State sponsored cinema.

A few years ago, many in the West had written off - or more accurately - knew very little about the Russian film industry. Nowadays that’s changed somewhat. Not only have actors/producers such as Alexander Nevsky managed to make their projects truly international, but it seems the Russian industry can produce movies such as Night Watch that compare favourably with blockbusters like The Matrix.

When Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor), was released in its native Russia in July 2004, it became an instant smash-hit, breaking all film gross records in post-Soviet history. Made for a mere $4 million, the film out-grossed both Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Spider-man 2 at the Russian box office, eventually taking in more than $16 million. Now, Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor) has done even better, grossing over $30 million. This month you’ll get the chance to see it here...

This sequel continues to revolve around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness - the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides. This ancient war between the forces of Light and Darkness is reaching a tragic outcome. Each side has gained a powerful ‘Great Other,’...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]

Jet Li has most often played the hero, but in this month’s War he gets to be the villain of the piece for a change. Impact discovers how Li travelled to the dark side and the production team designed the action...

War screenwriters Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley had been long time Jet Li fans and disciples of the Asian-influenced action genre when they created the role of ‘Rogue’ and they did so expressly to accommodate their screen idol. Many screenwriters write scripts with particular stars in mind, but in this case, producer Jim Thompson actually managed to get Smith’s and Bradley’s script to Li, who signed on to play Rogue.

“It’s one of those rare occasions where the writers had a vision, they had one guy in mind, and we actually made it happen,” says Thompson. “We got it to the guy that it was intended for, and the movie actually happened with him in the part, which is rare.”

Steven Chasman, who represents Li and acts as one of War’s producers, says he was surprised by Li’s strong endorsement of the War’s script. “When I first read it I didn’t think Jet would be interested because the character is really the antithesis of almost everything he’s ever played in a movie. But to my surprise he responded enthusiastically.”

“I’ve never played this kind of character before,” agrees Li. “I don’t know whether he’s good or bad. I only...

[To read this article in full you must buy the October 2007 edition of Impact]