Videohound's Dragon: Asian Action & Cult Flicks

Rating:
Summary: Strangely lacking
Review: Though I find the usual Videohound a good referance guide, that cannot be said of this book. Their selection process of what to include seems at best enigmatic and the reviews are often confusing and some down right misleading. I find the book oddly lacking as a guide to Asian cinema purhaps more so given the self-imposed limitation of scope.

Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: VideoHound has outdone itself. After giving us great books on Cult movies, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Foreign Films, they've finally given fans of Asian movies a smart, thorough, and utterly indispensable guide. The conceivable problems of cataloging Asian movies are handled with the utmost respect to the reader's intelligence. Asia, being the largest continent, presents it's own unique problems for the people at VideoHound in terms of content. For example, Russia, for the purpose of this book, is considered a European country, and will be included in the European guide to Action & Cult films. India is hardly represented, although VideoHound states that this is due to the fact that few Indian movies are available in North America with subtitles.

One potential problem is categorizing films as cult movies. This guide is silent on the criteria used to give cult status to movies, yet almost every movie I could possibly think of is included. Nearly every conceivable giant monster film from Japan is covered, as well as tons of horror movies from all over the continent. If a film is not included, it is usually because the movie is hard to find, and VideoHound wants to stick to reviewing movies that are attainable to people in English speaking countries.

As with any film guide, the amount you agree or disagree with the reviewer makes all the difference. VideoHound's reviews are done by people who are fans of these movies, so alongside obvious four bone movies such as Tampopo and Seven Samurai, movies like Gamera 3: The Revenge of Irys and Mr. Vampire are given top honors. (VideoHound rates on a bone scale to keep with the dog theme. Four bones is the best, and a "Woof!" is the worst.) There are tons of martial arts movies listed. They comprise the majority of the films reviewed in the book. I am not a big fan of martial arts movies, but I still do not feel cheated by the book's content. There is a good mixture of impossible to categorize movies to keep it interesting. Besides, the essays on martial arts stars and histories behind the films are enough to compel people who hate kung fu movies to check out a few titles.

VideoHound's indexes are what put this book far beyond the grasp of any other book on Asian movies. You can search by cast members, directors, writers, cinematographers, alternate titles (which is essential considering how many of these movies have different titles based on when and where they were released), and categories. The categories range from every film made in Hong Kong to hopping vampires, and of course your standard categories like horror movies, action/comedies and so on. The only drawback to the indexes is that they are too thorough. For example, under the Sumo wrestling category, the film Happiness of the Katakuris is listed. Having seen this movie, I can tell you that the sumo wrestler is a very small part of the movie, and someone searching for movies about Sumo wrestling would be disappointed if they took the information at face value. Also, a video distributor index would have been helpful. There is, however, an index called Dragon Connections in which books, websites, and a few online stores are listed. There is even a glossary at the front of the book, defining terms like Kowloon, Shaolin, kaiju, and so on, for the uninitiated.

The sidebars are amazing. There's a "Who's Who of Kung Fu movies", biographies on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and others, essays on Godzilla, Gamera, hopping vampires, yakuza, subtitles vs. dubbing, and just about any other conceivable subject.

Anime fans be forewarned, very few animated movies are covered. The movies covered tend to fit either into the cult category (Barefoot Gen and the Vampire Hunter D movies), or are considered classics, (Akira, Spirited Away). The introduction of the book hints at a VideoHound Anime guide, so keep your fingers crossed.

In the past, I've bought so many other guides to Asian movies. They are now all worthless thanks to VideoHound's Dragon: Asian Action & Cult Flicks.

Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: VideoHound has outdone itself. After giving us great books on Cult movies, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Foreign Films, they've finally given fans of Asian movies a smart, thorough, and utterly indispensable guide. The conceivable problems of cataloging Asian movies are handled with the utmost respect to the reader's intelligence. Asia, being the largest continent, presents it's own unique problems for the people at VideoHound in terms of content. For example, Russia, for the purpose of this book, is considered a European country, and will be included in the European guide to Action & Cult films. India is hardly represented, although VideoHound states that this is due to the fact that few Indian movies are available in North America with subtitles.

One potential problem is categorizing films as cult movies. This guide is silent on the criteria used to give cult status to movies, yet almost every movie I could possibly think of is included. Nearly every conceivable giant monster film from Japan is covered, as well as tons of horror movies from all over the continent. If a film is not included, it is usually because the movie is hard to find, and VideoHound wants to stick to reviewing movies that are attainable to people in English speaking countries.

As with any film guide, the amount you agree or disagree with the reviewer makes all the difference. VideoHound's reviews are done by people who are fans of these movies, so alongside obvious four bone movies such as Tampopo and Seven Samurai, movies like Gamera 3: The Revenge of Irys and Mr. Vampire are given top honors. (VideoHound rates on a bone scale to keep with the dog theme. Four bones is the best, and a "Woof!" is the worst.) There are tons of martial arts movies listed. They comprise the majority of the films reviewed in the book. I am not a big fan of martial arts movies, but I still do not feel cheated by the book's content. There is a good mixture of impossible to categorize movies to keep it interesting. Besides, the essays on martial arts stars and histories behind the films are enough to compel people who hate kung fu movies to check out a few titles.

VideoHound's indexes are what put this book far beyond the grasp of any other book on Asian movies. You can search by cast members, directors, writers, cinematographers, alternate titles (which is essential considering how many of these movies have different titles based on when and where they were released), and categories. The categories range from every film made in Hong Kong to hopping vampires, and of course your standard categories like horror movies, action/comedies and so on. The only drawback to the indexes is that they are too thorough. For example, under the Sumo wrestling category, the film Happiness of the Katakuris is listed. Having seen this movie, I can tell you that the sumo wrestler is a very small part of the movie, and someone searching for movies about Sumo wrestling would be disappointed if they took the information at face value. Also, a video distributor index would have been helpful. There is, however, an index called Dragon Connections in which books, websites, and a few online stores are listed. There is even a glossary at the front of the book, defining terms like Kowloon, Shaolin, kaiju, and so on, for the uninitiated.

The sidebars are amazing. There's a "Who's Who of Kung Fu movies", biographies on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and others, essays on Godzilla, Gamera, hopping vampires, yakuza, subtitles vs. dubbing, and just about any other conceivable subject.

Anime fans be forewarned, very few animated movies are covered. The movies covered tend to fit either into the cult category (Barefoot Gen and the Vampire Hunter D movies), or are considered classics, (Akira, Spirited Away). The introduction of the book hints at a VideoHound Anime guide, so keep your fingers crossed.

In the past, I've bought so many other guides to Asian movies. They are now all worthless thanks to VideoHound's Dragon: Asian Action & Cult Flicks.

Rating:
Summary: I am so glad that I bought this book!
Review: What Brian Thomas, et al, have done is nothing short of amazing! He has taken a survey of thousands of Asian films, most from Hong Kong but also included Korea, Japan and others, and put together a book of limitless information. Videohound guide books have always had great indexes, and The Dragon continues in this tradition. Like a film by director A? Find all of his other films, and then buy, buy, buy! There are reviews for films in almost every genre, from every period of Asian cinema, and all are written from a fans point of view, which I appreciate. Often times genre fans find their favorite movies slashed and burned by other guides, but in this guide the reader can easily tell that the author is a fan and appreciates and admires the films he has reviewd! My only complaint is that this book will further the extinction of my already vanishing bank acount! We at the MHVF are all proud!

Rating:
Summary: A great well written survey of Asian films...
Review: What Brian Thomas, et al, have done is nothing short of amazing! He has taken a survey of thousands of Asian films, most from Hong Kong but also included Korea, Japan and others, and put together a book of limitless information. Videohound guide books have always had great indexes, and The Dragon continues in this tradition. Like a film by director A? Find all of his other films, and then buy, buy, buy! There are reviews for films in almost every genre, from every period of Asian cinema, and all are written from a fans point of view, which I appreciate. Often times genre fans find their favorite movies slashed and burned by other guides, but in this guide the reader can easily tell that the author is a fan and appreciates and admires the films he has reviewd! My only complaint is that this book will further the extinction of my already vanishing bank acount! We at the MHVF are all proud!

Rating:
Summary: My own personal bible
Review: Wow, I wish they would've made this book sooner, so I would have known which movies to rent! No more guess and check, I can now read this book and find out which movies are good, and who's in them!