Maria

The Asian Action Cast gets locked up with a Ghost in the Cell in 2026! Joko Anwar’s Indonesian horror comedy ("horredy"?) ticks all the boxes in delivering a gorefest of creative killings while ratcheting up the tension, and the comedy too, in one of the year's most satisfying action flicks. Delivered by a masterful and confident story teller, this movie follows the exploits of a vengeful spirit linked to innocent journalist Dimas, unleashed in a corrupt Indonesian prison. Whilst it is an allegory for political corruption, Joko cleverly never lets this gets in the way of showing a good time. Truly another gem to come out of Indonesia there are some laugh out loud moments, as well as horror exclamations as we clawed our way out of the blood spattered walls of the jail. A wonderfully thrilling good time. They knew what they were doing and did it well – so check it out.

Pedring Lopez’s 2019 Netflix action thriller, Maria, brings Filipino actress Cristine Reyes to the Streaming Screen as trained assassin MARIA! She thought she left that life behind, but the sins of the past never remain dead for long.Cristine Reyes proves she can be a strong, sexy lead with the physicality and agility to be a bona fide action hero, unfortunately Maria is held back by a derivative plot, pedestrian performances and inconsistent pacing.Despite the issues this movie does have its enjoyable moments and is in no way a disgrace to action films or Filipino cinema. It is a little piece of action junk food and clocks in at a very digestable 90 minutes, so why not?Can you feel sympathy for evil henchmen? What's the "proper" way to eat rice? Would you allow your child to sit in the middle seat of your car? How come everyone in this film is so damn attractive? Join us and find out.

Sonny Chibas 1977 love letter to Kyokushin Karate founder Mas Oyama, Karate for Life, rounds out the trilogy of his exciting exploits.No stranger to fighting bears and wolves, this chapter focuses on his potentially fictitious prowess as a wrestler and TB survivor.Guaranteed eyebrows, intense stares and now violent asthma, Sonny Chiba holds you in his Karate Grip and never lets go, Karate4Lyf fools!

It's time to kick back, relax and journey back to the past as we showcase some of our favourite clips from the past (nearly) ten (10!) years of the AAC.Episodes covered include Bio-Zombie, Buddhas Palm, Devilman and more. We watch, review, recap and re-vap the best and worst of Hong Kong and asian action cinema.We'l be back in a fortnight with a regular episode, thanks for listening!

Larger than life, cartoon characters like Tak Sakaguchis Shozo bring hilariously fun fighting for half a film. The latter story does suffer from the whiplash tone change as it explores the tragedy of Jun Murakami’s Tetsu, and fumbles as it blends this with strangely funny/eroti-sex-violence?Yakuza weapon regularly forays into absurdity and lingers a bit overlong, but the colours and characters surprise and delight. One of Tak Sakaguchi’s most unique films, worth a watch!

Kenji Tanagaki’s prodigious 2026 martial arts film, The Furious, is a non stop kinetic revelation that ratchets up tension and creativity beyond anything you’ve seen.The Furious reinvents child star Xie Miao into a modern leading hero, blending an all star action cast with Joe Taslim, Joey Iwanaga, Yayan Ruhian, Brian Le and a bevy of har knock stuntmen selling brutal hits.The action is relentless and defies description - you have not seen anything like this. The way they have distilled the amount of chaos into intelligibly edited action set pieces is nothing short of jaw dropping. A must see.

Yuen Woo Pings 2026 Blades of the Guardians spins an epic wuxia tale of murder, betrayal, love, desert, brotherhood…in fact it’s too many tales.The labyrinthine plot and overbloated but underdeveloped character list does hide some great (plentiful) action, if occasionally marred by shaky cam (it’s Jet Li and Wu Jing!) and unnecessary CG.Despite its flaws it is still a media and audience darling, and little shame for Jet Li’s decade long (oh so brief) return to action cinema - worth a watch!

Fan Siu Wongs 1991 ‘splatterpunk’ entry, The Story of Riki, aka Riki Oh, is a great example of cult cinema - the hyper violent martial arts exploitation flick made barely a splash on entry but has gained notoriety after.With sensational blood and gore effects, Siu-Wongs justice laden acts of brutality still invokes awe and revulsion. Directed by SFX veteran Lam Nai-Choi (the Cat, 7th Curse, Peacock King) the deft visual hand is on magnificent display.Watch with an empty stomach or strong constitution, and a mind open enough to be clapped into smithareens…Riki Oh will bathe in the shower of your entrails while screaming “Noooooooooo!” at the sky.

Sammo Hung’s 1997 film, Once Upon a Time in China and America, takes Tsui Hark’s beloved franchise off shore with Jet Li in his last outing as the legendary Wong Fei Hung.A surprisingly clumsy handling of triple A property, and with less than half a year production time, it shows. This cobbled together affair is a pale shadow of the far better (produced, acted, plotted) Shanghai Noon which Sammo allegedly stole from Yuen Academy Brother Jackie Chan.Despite the rushed production and your typical neglect of Western performances in HK films (poor Jeff Wolfe), there are glimmers of joy with Hung Yan-Yan (7/club foot/Jet’s stunt double) getting more canvass to showcase his amazing fighting talent, but sadly not much more.

Frankie Chan takes us on a moustachioed journey through the trials, tribulations and twists of a crime family full of backstabbing, plots, and melodrama in this Hong Kong game of thrones.Our hairy hero doesn't even show up until at least halfway but his presence is felt both in the writing and as the director in his 1989 vanity project, barely resembling the Shoguns' Samurai from which it was inspired.Despite it's dramatic set up, it has incredible action fight scenes with kinetic choreography that holds up to anything golden age Golden Harvest can produce, with the most Jeff Falcon that ever Falconed, and criminally underused Yukari Oshima and Kara Hui.