Kamen Rider J, 1994

★★★½ Watched on 2 Feb, 2026

Rewatched this again with the commentary and was a little surprised that the Kamen Rider J theme WAS actually ripped straight out of blade runner end credits by Vangelis hahaha. Also shocked to hear this was targeted at 5-7 year olds as the creepy and oozy monsters were truly terrifying. Real fun watch since there’s no plot at all, shout out to the flying wasp scene too, that crane work was impressive!
Kamen Rider J, 1994

★★★½ Watched on 2 Feb, 2026

I thought Kamen rider zo was lightning fast and this is even faster! It feels zanier and more unhinged than zo but I think that’s only because there’s no time to flesh almost any backstory out. What’s with the earth spirits, why is fog mother on earth, what happened to her original monsters, how does J energy work? All these questions are quickly dismissed in favor of kicking and punching. Which I’m not even mad about but it could have been a meatier film. I love the talking grasshopper and the Blade Runner-esque main theme. The monster designs are also a hoot and an half and seem to be a continuing strength of the Kamen rider films.
Hard Boiled, 1992

★★★★★ Watched on 28 Jan, 2026

Once more with extra explosions! I had no idea this the filmed Q&A after the movie and last time I missed it because my friends wanted to walk out right after. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find out the Q&A was the one I attended at the Egyptian back in August so I got a nice little refresh of that glorious screening. Got to enjoy the teahouse scene today which I walked into in the middle of last time. It’s just amazing how explosive this is from the beginning, that shot of Yun-Fat caked in white flour shooting the police assassin in cold blood goes hard and that’s like the first ten minutes! The theme of a cop, or for a less fascist reading a brother, killing another comes up again in different ways and really this brother against brother is one of the core themes of all of woo’s work, as well protecting the innocent which is why a hospital and a baby ward is at the heart of the insane third act. Looking forward to watching this again hah
Hard Boiled, 1992

★★★★★ Watched on 25 Jan, 2026

We are BACK in theatres baby! This time I noticed how Woo subtly (or not) increases the action in each fight scene. Each one has successively more stunts, more squibs, more explosions culminating in that almost hour long climax. The whole hospital sequence goes harder than it has any right to, I mean that building was demolished inside and out. I think that counts as cinema verite?
Kamen Rider ZO, 1993

★★★★ Watched on 24 Jan, 2026

Yeah this is so short I watched it right again with the commentary track. There was a lot more commentary on what was actually on screen this time, and mostly gushing at that which yeah I get it, this film is basically engineered to create tokosatsu/masked rider fans. They brought my attention to the fact that the last battle has an unbroken shot for 2 minutes which is bonkers for a production on this scale, take that Scorsese! Also pointed that the villains transformation at the end cues in an evil version of the masked rider song which is so cool.
Kamen Rider ZO, 1993

★★★★ Watched on 24 Jan, 2026

WHOA! This is whiplash from Shin Kamen Rider prologue, this is basically the length of an episode of a prestige drama of tv and it wastes no damn time with the tokusatsu fights. It’s filled wall to wall with effects, breathtaking shots, beautiful music and ruminations on nature. It’s like they took the best scenes of Shin prologue, toned down the horror and ratcheted up the action. He even battles with the motorcycle in this one! This kind of encompasses what’s so thrilling about tokasatsu, it really goes for broke, fills in the plot with the help of a delightful grasshopper plot device and even somehow takes the time to connect Kamen Rider with nature via an instantly memorable music box tune. Not to mention the monsters themselves are amazingly put together! What a wild ride!

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