BLADE LICKING THIEVES

Hong Kong director Corey Yuen's tremendously enjoyable, Ninja in the Dragon's Den (1982) attempts to settle the perennial schoolyard debate of the 1980s:  What's stronger, Ninjitsu or Kung Fu?   Hiroyuki Sanada, a ninja on a quest for revenge, and Conan Lee, the kung fu master bent on stopping him, square off in this much loved martial arts classic that's chock-ful of enough booby traps, smoke bom...

BLT Team B review one of the defining car chase movie of the 1970s, Vanishing Point.  Amped up on speed, a former vietnam vet makes a bet to deliver his dodge challenger half way across the country within fifteen hours.  Half car chase movie, half road trip movie, it's a maximum trip at maximum speed, with possibly more to say than it initially lets on.  Tune in for the full review! 

The Blade Licking Thieves venture into low budget, B movie territory with a review of South Korea's first giant monster movie:  Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967).  An awful film in nearly every way, Yongary sits at the head of the pantheon of "so bad, it's good" Godzilla rip offs, which is to say: it's a terrible amount of fun.  Tune in to hear the full review!  Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + The...

We review Studio Ghibli's most overlooked, and arguably underestimated film, Ocean Waves, a subtle, bittersweet hymn to nineties teenage youth, centered around a love triangle between two high school friends and a pretty, new female transfer student, that perfectly evokes the nostalgia of youthful romance.  Tune in for the full review! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + The films of Metal Gear Solid 3, R...

In 2018, Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) returned once again to the wuxia genre with the Shadow, a tale of court intrigue, starring Chao Deng, Li Sun, and Ryan Zheng, about a double forced to play the part of a commander in order to retake lost territory from a rival nation.  Tune in for the full review! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + The Heroic Trio, Onward Towards Our N...

BLT Team B review the cult, teen horror movie The Gate (1987) about a group of suburban kids, left alone for the weekend, who discover a large, mysterious hole in their backyard from which demons from hell begin to emerge.   

After an assignment goes awry, a hitman (Joe Shishido) and his partner (Jerry Fujio) are chased by rival gangs to a small seaside town where they meet a young woman (Chitose Kobayashi) who may be their only hope of escape.  Cool and stylish, Takashi Nomura's A Colt is My Passport (1967) is a smoking cocktail of influences, half spaghetti western, half hard boiled noir, with textures and flavors bo...

What better way to end the year than with a with a double dose of Kei and Yuri, a.k.a. the Dirty Pair!  We'll be exploring the history of the beloved space opera franchise, reviewing both the Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia OVA from 1985 and Dirty Pair: Project Eden movie from 1987, and answering listener questions.  Enjoy the show! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + Ashita no Joe manga, Musou games, Ultr...

BLT Team B return with a review of the 2020 cult indie film, Psycho Goreman, an offbeat horror comedy that will tickle the fancy of anyone who grew up thinking it would be rad to be best friends with Power Ranger's Lord Zedd.

It's time for another annual BLT Halloween episode so what better way to usher in the spooky season than with a review of the martial arts comedy The Dragon Lives Again (1977), an infamous entry in the bruceploitation sub genre, in which Bruce Lee dies, ends up in the underworld, teams up with the likes of Popeye the Sailor and The One Armed Swordsman, and squares off against a gang of movie legen...

Grab your buster swords and join us for a look back at Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the CGI animated movie sequel to the landmark video game title that many consider to be the greatest Role Playing Game of all time.  We'll be diving into the history the legendary franchise, sharing our thoughts on the film twenty years out from its original release date, and answering your Bluesky questions...

We review the second film in Hideaki Anno's trilogy of Shin films: Shin Ultraman.  Following the success of 2016's Shin Godzilla, Anno returns yet again as screenwriter but this time with longtime collaborator Shinji Higuchi taking over directing duties in this modern day re-imagining of the popular Ultraman franchise that aims to return the series to its early roots.  Tune in for the full review!...

A remake of Bruce Lee's classic Fist of Fury,  director Gordan Chan's Fist of Legend, arriving to Hong Kong movie goers in 1994, softens the harder line of the original film's patriotic fury yet loses none of its tremendous punch with martial art stars Jet Li, Billy Chow and Yasuaki Kurata all in top form.  Tune in for the full review! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + G-Fest '25 report, Return of Ultra...

A disturbing peek into the dark underbelly of a small American town, David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), with his signature flourishes of dream like logic, penchant for the psychological, and a plot pulled straight from the pages of a tattered noir paperback, tells the story of Jeffrey (Kyle McLachLan), a bored young man, who in his search for clues about a mysterious missing ear, perilously descend...

Join us for a master class in action comedy as we take a look at Yuen Woo Ping's Drunken Master (1978).  Jackie Chan, in the role that would launch him into stardom, plays the young and impetuous Wong Fei-Hung, who, after being kicked out of his house by his angry father, is forced under the tutelage of an old, perpetually intoxicated, martial arts master (Sui-Tin Yuen) to learn the unorthodox fig...

A blind piano player accidentally gets caught up in a world of crime in Andhadhun, an Indian thriller by writer/director Sriram Raghavan that's loaded with so many twists and turns that the only thing that comes as no surprise is that it became both a critical and commercial hit with audiences.  Tune in to hear our review! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + Mickey 17, Combattler V, Tatami Time Machine Bl...

BLT Team B return with a look at the comedy /  horror sequel House II: The Second Story (1987) from director Ethan Wiley. 

We review Jin-Roh director Hiroyuki Okiura's second animated film, A Letter to Momo, about a young girl that forms an unlikely friendship with a trio of troublesome yokai who through a series of comical misadventures help her to cope with the loss of her father.   Released in 2011 after seven years in production, and to seemingly little fanfare on this side of the Pacific, this underrated family f...

We review Hong Kong director Ringo Lam's Burning Paradise.  The film stars Willie Chi as legendary martial artist Fong Sai Yuk, who after being captured by the Ching government, must escape from the imposing Red Lotus Temple, a deadly prison filled with spike pits, booby traps, poison gas, and even more dangerous opponents! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + God Mazinger, Combattler V, DanDaDan, Kageki S...

As a chaser shot to our last episode about the North Korean Kaiju movie Pulgasari, BLT Team B have heroically taken it upon themselves to review the much unloved North American remake Galgameth! 

We're kicking off the new year with a review of the North Korean monster movie, Pulgasari (1985), in which a Godzilla like creature from Korean folklore fights with a peasant army to topple a corrupt feudal regime.  We also recount the far more fascinating story of the film's production, a stranger than fiction tale involving international kidnappings, daring escape attempts, and dictator Kim Jong...

We review the first film in the long running exploitation series, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), featuring the talented and beautiful Meiko Kaji in one of her most iconic roles as Scorpion, a steely eyed avenging angel hellbent on revenge against those that wronged her.  Be they crooked cops,  sleazy yakuza, abusive prison guards, or fellow inmates, she'll slay them all!  Timestamps: [00:0...

We're back -- just in time for Halloween! -- with a look at Samurai Reincarnation (1981), a supernatural samurai film from the director of Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku), in which Jubei Yagyu (Sonny Chiba) faces off against a group of resurrected demonic warriors led by the charismatic sorcerer Shiro Amakusa (Kenji Sawada) who intends to destroy the Tokugawa regime with his unholy powers.  Tune in...

We review King Hu's Dragon Inn (1967), a period tale about a cohort of heroic warriors fighting to protect the innocent from the shadowy forces of an evil Eunuch, that showcases a graceful interplay between characters, landscape, editing and compositional form that elevate it above other works in the wuxia genre.  Tune in the for the full review! Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + City Hunter, Mononoke,...

Grab a ticket and join us for a wild and spooky ride aboard the Train to Busan, as we take a closer look at the original film in the popular South Korean zombie apocalypse franchise by director Yeon Sang-ho.  Timestamps: [00:00] Intro + Trails games, The Great Pretender, Sonic X OVA, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun [33:35] Review - Train to Busan