By Dave B.

​The Wandering Earth (currently on Netflix) is a Mandarin-language, sci-fi epic, based on the award winning novel by Liu Cixin about humanity’s attempt to move the entire Earth to another solar system due to the sun beginning its final stages of existence several billion years before expected. People have moved to underground cities beneath 10,000 engines that propel the planet through the solar system on its way to the Alpha Centauri solar system. While attempting a slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, a course miscalculation leads half of the Earth’s engines to malfunction. Both on the frozen surface and in a massive space station that guides the way for the planet, people struggle to repair the engines before Jupiter’s gravity causes Earth to collide with the gas giant. 

By Dave B.

The foreign-language Vampire Cleanup Department (2017, currently on Amazon Prime), follows the exploits of a secret Hong Kong agency devoted to the elimination of vampires. The protagonist, Tim, is a reluctant hero who discovers that he’s immune to vampire conversion (he's basically Blade, but without strength, speed, or skills). On his first mission, he encounters Summer, a female vampire, who displays some unexpected human characteristics. Tim and the rest of the Department must use ancient magic and weapons to defeat Summer’s master and prevent him from turning Hong Kong into a vast feeding ground for the undead. 

By Dave B.

Revenger (Netflix) follows a disgraced Interpol supercop hell-bent on revenge. After his family is murdered, Yool (Bruce Khan) assassinates members of the gang responsible for the killing of his wife and daughter. He’s caught and sent to a penal colony in the Indian Ocean where some of Asia’s worst criminals serve their life sentences. Fortunately for Yool, the head of the gang upon which he’s sworn revenge is incarcerated in the tropical prison. Unfortunately, the gang leader has recruited a new group of deadly followers. If Yool wants his revenge, he’ll have to fight his way through scores of enforcers to face the man who destroyed his life.

By Dave B.

The White Helmets (Netflix) is a foreign-language documentary that follows the Aleppo branch of the White Helmets, a civil defense organization that has helped save victims of Syria’s civil war. They were the initial first responders on the scene of many air strikes and bombings conducted by Syria, Russia, and ISIS. The 40 minute documentary takes a look at some of the triumphs and tragedies of these modern-day heroes.

By Dave B.

​Operation Mekong (2016, currently on Netflix) is a Chinese action movie (loosely based on a true story) that’s centered on an elite counter-narcotics police unit. After Chinese civilians are executed aboard a cargo vessel on the Mekong River in the lawless Golden Triangle area (where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar border each other) the unit is dispatched to capture the local cartel leader and his top lieutenants so that they can be put on trial in China. The team uses an array of advanced technology, tactics, and disguises in their attempt to infiltrate and dismantle the cartel.

By Dave B.

​I’ll admit that for the first three-quarters of Tag (Riaru Onigokko) (2015, currently on Netflix), I had almost no clue what was happening in the Japanese-language, quasi-horror film. The heroine, Mitsuko is a quiet student at an all-girls high school who enjoys writing poetry. While on a bus trip with her classmates, a supernatural wind gruesomely kills everyone on the bus except for her. During her attempt to escape the wind, she is apparently transported to an alternate reality where none of the events that she recalls happening that morning actually occurred. Throughout the movie, Mitsuko is transported to several other alternate realities where, each time, her friends are brutally slain in a variety of unexpected ways.

By Dave B.

​If you watch enough movies, you’ll eventually come across some that are truly unique. Yakuza Apocalypse (2015, currently on Hulu) is near the top of that list. A Yakuza boss, who is loved by the people of his town (and unbeknownst to most, is a vampire), is confronted and killed by a rival syndicate. Before expiring for good however, he passes along his powers to a trusted underling, Kagayama, who begins a quest for revenge against the syndicate and those within his own organization who betrayed the boss. Kagayama then inadvertently (at first) begins to spread vampirism around the town. My synopsis may sound a bit odd, but I assure you that these are the least odd events in the entire movie.

By Dave B.

​This is my first time watching Battle Royale (2000, currently on Netflix). I have heard of it, of course, as the book and movie that provided the inspiration for Hunger Games (that’s my polite way of saying that Suzanne Collins stole and Westernized the plot of Battle Royale, but I digress). Briefly, in Battle Royale, due to a massive wave of youth criminality and disrespect for authority brought about by high unemployment, the government institutes a law that requires one 9th grade class be randomly selected every year to compete in a three-day battle to the death on an abandoned island. If more than one student is alive at the end of the three days, all of the remaining survivors are killed. With that plot, it’s easy to see why this movie caused so much controversy when it was initially released.

By Dave B.

​Raw (2017, currently on Netflix) is a French-language film that shows a young woman’s journey of self-discovery…into a life of cannibalism. I’ve seen a lot of gruesome and brutal things, both in life and on film. There isn’t much that puts me off-keel for long, positively or negatively. But this movie…I had some sort of severe visceral reaction to it. My fight or flight response nearly always defaults to fight, but while watching Raw, all I could think about was fleeing. And hiding. Perhaps curling up into a ball and whimpering a bit. (There’s a slight, early movie spoiler in the next paragraph, so if you don’t want to know ANYTHING that happens in this movie, skip to paragraph three.)

By Dave B.

​The Trader (Netflix) is another strong Netflix short documentary. Winner of the Sundance Short Film Nonfiction Jury Award, it depicts a day of the life of a merchant who purchases second-hand clothes and baubles from thrift stores in Tblisi, Georgia and sells them to villagers in the Georgian countryside in exchange for potatoes.