When it was released in his native Hong Kong in August 1990, John Woo's brutal Vietnam-era epic Bullet In The Head was a box office disaster. Speaking to Uncut in April 2003, Woo remembered: "When we did the premiere, people just walked out...I felt totally exiled."
Coming just over a year after the brutal massacre of students in Tiananmen Square, it's perhaps no surprise that the movie—called Die xue jie tou in Woo's native Cantonese, aka Bloodshed In The Streets—was too complicated, too downbeat, too pessimistic. And it is.
OPENS JULY 30, NO CERT, 114 MINS
Coming-of-age sports movies tend to adhere to a formula and, in essence, this debut feature from computer-effects whiz Fumihiko Sori is no exception. Familiar setbacks and triumphs are all present and correct, but this adaptation of a five-volume manga delivers enough character quirks, visual flair and unique detail to make it the Japanese equivalent of a Wes Anderson film.
Friends since childhood, the wild, outgoing Peco (Yôsuke Kubozuka) and the quiet Smile (Arata) are ping-pong heroes of their school.
