The question that get’s asked to me more than any other.  It seems my love of Asian cinema has not only perplexed my friends and family, but also makes me the laughing stock of some inner circles.  Let’s face it, there is a lot of weird stuff in Asian entertainment.

Right away you think about Japan, about tokusatsu and kaiju shows.  Now you’re thinking “One-Sheet, why the hell do you know the words for shows that are, in simple terms, Power Rangers?”

I know it’s weird sometimes

And I totally understand where you are coming from.  This stuff is bizarre.  Don’t worry, I’m not oblivious to the celluloid oddities that flash across my 42″ TV on an almost nightly basis.  In fact, I go out of my way to search them out…the weirder the better in my opinion.  But there is something you have to realize, not all Asian entertainment is this weird stuff.

In fact, there is so much of it already in America that you didn’t know you were already watching, and enjoying Asian films.  We’ll get to that in a bit though.

First I want to give you a little insight into how Asian cinema became a big part of my life.

Growing up, I didn’t get it.  I didn’t even know where Japan was, or that they made these kind of monster movies.  I thought Godzilla was stupid.  Hell, who would want to watch a black and white movie of a guy in a lizard suit kicking the shit out of a model city?  Sounded boring as hell to me.

So I went about my childhood playing night-games, and being fueled by a diet consisting of chocolate milk and pb&j.  As the 80s strolled along, something happened, America became consumed by martial arts.  Chuck Norris was fighting in The Octagon, and Bruce Lee was starting shit in ice factories, then one man entered every 80′s child’s life, Mister Miyagi.

This one called “hold the pretty tea pot”

This small man taught the lanky, uber white Daniel LaRusso how to kick ass and take names in The Karate Kid.  I can remember recording this off the TV along with the televised premiere of Return of the Jedi, and watching both on constant replay.  I would attempt to perfect the crane kick in my living room while standing on the arm of our couch to perfect my balance.  I want nuts for martial arts.  But as quickly as that love came, it left shortly after.

Every child has A-D-D when it comes to things like that.

Flash forward to summer 1993.  I’m in third grade, sitting inside on a Saturday afternoon excited as fuck for a new phenomenon that is about to grip every child in America…Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  Again, just like with the plight of Daniel LaRusso, I was completely enamored by these “special” teens who could do karate, fight puttys, and control mechanical dinosaurs (the racism went over my head).  The tapes of episodes started piling up in my bedroom, and again, I mimicked the badass karate moves I saw those heroes of Earth try to pull off.

Then it all faded again, for years, and I became the type of person I never wanted to become, a hypocrite.

In my post Power Ranger years, I dabbled in the Ronin Warriors of animation, but from the ages of 11-23 I was completely consumed by horror films.  Not just mainstream horror films, I’m talking Hammer horror, 1960′s Spanish werewolf psychedelia films.  Italian splat films that could make the stomach’s of the weak churn.  I was a hardened fan, looking for the envelope to push.

This stuff is supremely demented

I remember there was a kid I ran track for several years.  My locker was next to one of those kind of socially awkward kids.  I can’t recall his name, but I do remember he was obsessed with Jet Li, would always talk about the movie Black Mask.  I had no idea who Jet Li was, let alone had any knowledge about the martial arts world, I had been out of the loop for many years now.  I never made fun or anything, just always had that lingering “what’s this kids deal?” question in my head as he did martial arts moves while doing a 10 mile run.  Now I get it, and when I look back, I feel like a total turd for ever thinking that about him.

I moved to Atlanta when I was 23 for work.  It was a short stay, 6 months, but that time seemed to affect me more than I realized.  I was working for an IT consulting firm, unpaid, training myself on databases.  My living situation had me in a 3 bedroom apartment with 7 other guys from India, Canada, Iraq, and Vietnam.  One of my roommates had lived in Vietnam and escaped to Japan as a child.  He had a library of these virtually unknown films from Asia.  A mix of fantasy martial arts, samurai love stories, even some pretty hardcore cop films.

When I came back home from that job after getting laid-off I was living in the failing economy of Michigan.  I had seen all my movies in my collection, and couldn’t afford to buy new ones.  So I turned to the discs my old roommate burned me.

I suddenly realized just how original so many of the ideas were, and how, even the worst films I could find from that area, were still much better than the worst American films I could find.  On top of that, the character development was so well done, that even in a goofy Thai movie like Bio-Zombie or Wild Zero I could relate to, or care about what happens with the characters.  That hardly ever happens when I watched American movies.

So I made the switch.

I started finding Fansub sites, sites that had taped Asian shows off TV and subbed them themselves to post for American viewers, and downloading whatever I could find.  This is where my love for the tokusatsu genre got kicked back into full swing.

All of you reading this will laugh, I’m 100% on that.  But I started watching shows like Kamen Rider, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, even Cutie Honey…and loving them.  It was just like when I would watch Power Rangers as a kid, but with scantily clad Asian women.  It was a win/win for me.  You’d be surprised how excellent the acting is in these shows, on top of how amazingly cheesy the old “dude in a suit” monsters were.  I was in nostalgia heaven.

Cutie Honey

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

But my love for Asian cinema spans outside the borders of Japan.  I watch movies from Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam, you name it.  It really all depends on what you are looking for in a film.

So let’s very quickly branch out, let me show you that what you are watching now, is just recycled Asian cinema.

Let’s go big first.  Did you see The Departed?

This Oscar winning film that has some of the biggest names in Hollywood both in front of, and behind, the camera, is actually an Asian film.  Moreso, it’s an Asian TRILOGY of films.  The Infernal Affairs Saga.

If you thought you liked The Departed, well you haven’t even begun to watch cop films…not until you’ve seen this trilogy.

Like Quintin Tarantino?

Did you like Kill Bill?

Well why don’t you watch the movies he based that on, most importantly Lady Snowblood.  He even stole the theme song for his movie.

That’s all Tarantino does, he’s a guy that has seen success tweaking obscure films he loves and making them his own…none of his ideas are really original.

Have you ever heard of John Woo?

Yeah he’s pretty huge over in Hong Kong.  In fact, he’s the inspiration behind the whole “bullet time” crazy that swept America in the late 90s/early 00s.  You thought that was brand new technology huh?  Nope, go watch Hard Boiled, John Woo’s hyper-violent Hong Kong cop film that has “Tequila Time”.

This is what I’m talking about, so many people don’t realize that there is more to Asian film than the bizarre monster movies that I talk about.  Those are just the most fun.

Are you a little more interested in Asian film now?  Let me give you a breakdown of what to expect from where.

Japan – Full gambit here.  You’ll get insanely gritty crime films (mostly revolving around Yakuza), Kaiju (monster) films, Tokusatsu (superhero) films, some of the best love dramas you will ever see, and samurai films.

China – This areas film industry is so heavily controlled by communism you won’t find much.  All the films I’ve seen come out of here have been historical accounts of the dynasties mixed with fantasy kung-fu.

Hong Kong – Not part of China, so not mandated by Chinese regulations.  Hong Kong is where you’re going to find the most gritty, hyper-violent films out there.  You’ll also find films by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, John Woo, and several others.  This is a big area of film you’ll want to get into if you like action.

Thailand – Best things to come out of here have been muay thai films.  Muay Thai is a form of fighting that kicks the shit out of kung-fu or bujinkan.  Thai fighting films are the Dark Knight of the martial arts world.  Check out Chocolate as an example.

Korea – This is a more Americanized style of film.  But if you are going to watch any films watch Korean (when I say “Korean” I mean South Korea).  Check out the vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mister Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance).  You will not be sorry you started watching these films.

India – I’m not really going to vouch for these films because I don’t watch them.  I don’t like musicals of any sort. Period.  I even turn off Family Guy if there is a musical number, I will never watch Glee, so Bollywood is a no-go for me.

So to sum up a terribly long post.  I’m bored with American cinema.  The last American film I saw in theaters was a re-make, True Grit.  I want to see some original work come out of this country, hell we pump enough cash into the entertainment industry.  As I’ve looked down the road-map for future movies I’m seeing re-makes of movies (both foreign and domestic), comics, comic movies, and TV shows.

The Asian film market is it’s own world.  You get to learn about their culture, and to see well done films with awesome stories.  Right now I’m on a 1970s crime and vengeance kick.  Watching films like Zero Woman.

These films allow me to experience new stories, go on insane escapist adventures, and feel for characters, and isn’t that what cinema is all about?