Crime

  • Hao Ning – Wu ren qu AKA No Man’s Land (2013)

    2011-2020AsianChinaCrimeHao Ning

    Being shelved for four years over censorship issues sounds like a death knell for any film, and yet in the case of Ning Hao’s No Man’s Land, it may actually have been a considerable boon : indeed, the four-years delay meant that the film came out after the comedy Lost In Thailand, which starred two of the leads of No Man’s Land (Xu Zheng and Huang Bo), and thus became positioned as their follow-up to what is still the all-time highest-grossing Chinese film in China. It did however lose its potential status as China’s very first modern-day set western – with Gao Qunshu’s Wind Blast having been released in the meantime – though in truth it is closer to a film noir than a western, with moody voice-over and a cynical outlook on human nature. It tells of an arrogant big city lawyer (Xu Zheng) who travels to the far west of China to plead the case of a falcon trafficker (Togbye), then tries to rush back to the city to close a book deal on that very case.Read More »

  • Bahram Beizai – Sagkoshi AKA Killing Mad Dogs (2001)

    Bahram Beizai2001-2010CrimeDramaIran

    Author Golrokh Kamali has left her husband and has been living with her parents in the provinces for the past year. When she returns to the capital city, she finds out that her husband has gone bankrupt and that a group of unscrupulous businessmen are threatening to imprison him for debt. Although still angry about her husband’s past infidelities, and in spite of her previous pessimistic views about life with him, she comes to his defense and tries to help him overcome his problem. Starring Mozhdeh Shamsai as Golrokh and Majid Mozaffari as her husband. Nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Female Lead Actress (Mozhdeh Shamsai), Best Male and Best Female Supporting Actors, Best Set Design, and Best Sound at the 19th Fajr Film Festival, where it also won the Audience Choice Award.Read More »

  • Terence Fisher – The Last Page (1952)

    Terence Fisher1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirHammer FilmsUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    The Last Page was the original British title for the 1952 murder meller Man Bait. Hollywood’s George Brent plays a married bookstore owner who is blackmailed by scheming Diana Dors. The subsequent chain reaction of events leads to the death of Brent’s invalid wife. It gets worse when Dors is killed by her partner-in-crime Peter Reynolds, and Brent is accused of the crime. The bookseller’s faithful secretary Marguerite Chapman comes to the rescue. As with many British programmers of the 1950s which starred American actors, The Last Page was distributed in the U.S. by Lippert Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Corey Yuen – Huang jia shi jie AKA Yes, Madam (1985) (HD)

    1981-1990ActionCorey YuenCrimeHong Kong

    Yes, Madam! was the first starring role for Malaysian-born actress and action superstar Michelle Yeoh, and the feature film debut of American martial arts expert Cynthia Rothrock. It was also the 2nd movie as director and action coordinator Corey Yuen, most well known internationally for The Transporter and DOA: Dead or Alive. But if you’re a Hong Kong action fan you may have seen his work in any number of films such as Jackie Chan’s Drunken MasterRead More »

  • Derek Tsang – Shao nian de ni AKA Better Days (2019)

    2011-2020ChinaCrimeDerek TsangDrama

    Quote:
    When it is time for the Chinese gaokao, a two-day national college entrance exam, the entire country comes to a standstill. For nearly ten million high school students, this exam not only determines where and if they get to study but the fates of their entire families as well. Like so many others, Nian has been single-mindedly preparing for the exam, cutting everything else out of her life. When she becomes the target of relentless bullying, fate brings her together with small-time criminal Bei and the two form a strong friendship. Before they can completely retreat into a world of their own, the two are dragged in the middle of a murder case of a teenage girl where they are the prime suspects. In this dramatic thriller, Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang paints a bleak picture of an oppressive society, in the guise of a gripping fairy-tale love story, exposing the dark world of bullying and societal pressures of achievement facing today’s youth.Read More »

  • John G. Blystone – Great Guy AKA Pluck of the Irish (1936)

    John G. Blystone1931-1940CrimeMysteryUSA

    Plot:
    It’s the New York Department of Weights and Measures vs. a systematic effort to cheat the public by giving them less product than they pay for…organized by crooked city alderman Marty Cavanaugh, who put the last chief deputy inspector in the hospital. The new man, pugnacious Johnny Cave, steps on the toes of influential merchants and gets increasing pressure, both political and strong-arm, to desist. Will the luck (if not the pluck) of the Irish pull him through?Read More »

  • Montgomery Tully – Five Days (1954)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirHammer FilmsMontgomery TullyUSA

    Quote:
    A failed business deal forces James Nevill to blackmail his weak-willed friend into murdering him so that his wife can collect his insurance, but circumstances suddenly change.Read More »

  • George Blair – Lightnin’ in the Forest (1948)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaGeorge BlairUSA

    Psychiatrist David Lamont is pressured into “analyzing” the madcap but glamorous niece of a judge. Then crooks on the lam intrude.Read More »

  • Volker Schlöndorff – Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass AKA The Morals of Ruth Halbfass (1972)

    Volker Schlöndorff1971-1980CrimeDramaGermany

    from Hans-Bernhard Moeller and George Lellis, “Volker Schlöndorff’s Cinema”

    Volker Schlöndorff based his film “Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass” on a rather spectacular murder case that involved a rich Düsseldorff industrialist’s wife, Minouche Schubert. The case was the stuff of tabloid newspaper exposés, and to some extent “The Morals of Ruth Halbfass” was a calculated attempt by Schlöndorff to win over a popular audience.Read More »

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