Category: Live Action

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Features Live Action Movies

Possible Love
(Ganeunghan Sarang,
가능한 사랑)

Possible Love (L to R) Jeon Do-yeon as Mi-ok, Sul Kyung-gu as Ho-seok, Cho Yeo-jeong as Ye-ji in Possible Love Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026

Possible Love (Ganeunghan Sarang, 가능한 사랑)

Director – Lee Chang Dong – 2026 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 164m

*****

A filmmaker working on a documentary about workers who’ve been laid off from their companies invites a worker’s wife and her husband to stay at her and her husband’s lavish coastal home – plays the London Film Festival (LFF) Sunday, 11th, Wednesday 14th, Sunday 18th October, then out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, October 23rd, the London Korean Film Festival on Tuesday, 3rd November, and is on Netflix from Friday, November 6th

South Korea’s Official Selection for International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards

The family of laid-off manual worker Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu from A Normal Family, Hur Jin-ho, 2023; Memoir of a Murderer, Won Shin-yeon, 2017; Peppermint Candy, Lee Chang Dong, 1999), his wife Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon from Beasts Clawing at Straws, Kim Yong-hoon, 2020; The Housemaid, Im Sang-soo, 2010) and their young son Cheol (Ha Lim) attend the funeral of one of Ho-seok’s fellow laid-off workmates. The reticent Ho-seok plans to stay in the car, but then goes in to the ceremony some time after the rest of his family and stays for the wake where, against what he’s promised his wife, he drinks, and as he starts to lose it, the pair get into an argument in public.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

The Borrowers
(1997)

The Borrowers – Peter Hewitt – 1997 – UK – Cert. U – 89m

****

A slimy lawyer sets about evicting the human occupants and the ‘little people’ from a property – opened in UK cinemas on Friday, December 5th 1997

Take Mary Norton’s Borrowers, tiny people who live under the floorboards and borrow household items only as and when they need them, throw in underrated British director Peter Hewitt (much beloved by critics for his wonderfully stupid Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, 1991) and you have The Borrowers. Aimed equally unashamedly at both children and the American market, this deftly services both constituencies without alienating the rest of us – which is no mean feat.

The plot is a tried and true Hollywood formula – slimy lawyer wants to evict family who own house, so the occupants (and therefore the Borrowers too) must move on. The likeable John Goodman is on hand to play the lawyer (both he and the audience have a lot of fun here) aided by Mark Williams’ Exterminator Jeff, the pest control man Goodman hires to flush vermin (i.e. the little people) out from under the floorboards.

This all takes place in what appears from the outside an unnamed American city, with central skyscrapers, but with numerous locations (house interior, sewer pipes, milk bottling factory) looking suspiciously British.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Case 137

Case 137 (Dossier 137)

Director – Dominik Moll – 2025 – France – Cert. 12a – 116m

*****

A member of the internal police watchdog department investigates a complaint of police violence in the 2018 Yellow Jackets riots – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 16th

Who watches the watchmen? Who polices the police? It’s a question with great relevance to today’s societies, including our own in the UK. In the US, the Police have the Internal Affairs. In France, the police have a branch called the IGPN (L’inspection générale de la police nationale / The General Inspectorate of the National Police). So if members of the public accuse the police of bad or criminal behaviour, they have a department set up to investigate that. An internal department, not an external body.

IGPN inspector Stéphanie Bertrand (Léa Drucker from Mars Express, Jérémie Périn, 2023; Two of Us, Filippo Meneghetti, 2019; The Blue Room, Matthieu Amalric, 2014) is working on allegations of police misconduct during the Yellow Jackets protests of 2018. She tries to be scrupulously fair in questioning an officer who threw stones at rioters, later defending him to superiors as being in a situation that put him under intense psychological pressure.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Whalefall

Whalefall

Director – Brian Duffield – 2026 – US – Cert. 15 – 106m

The abusive father drama (about half an hour) ***

The whale scenes (most of the film) *****

A man’s memories of his emotionally abusive father help him to survive when he is swallowed by a whale – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 16th

This is very much a film of two elements. On the one hand, it’s about a bereaved man coming to terms with his memories of his recently deceased, abusive father. On the other hand, it is the spectacle, indeed, the experience, of a man being swallowed by a sperm whale. The whole thing, based on a novel by Daniel Krauss, is set in a coastal town and, mostly, in the nearby ocean.

In the opening 10 minutes, Mitt Gardiner (Josh Brolin from Dune & sequels, 2026, 2024, 2021, Sicario, 2015, all Denis Villeneuve; No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007), an experienced diver losing his fight against a rare cancer named mesothelioma, steps off the side of a boat into the ocean and is never seen again. (Except in flashback.) Before jumping into the water, he seals a number of letters and puts them in a box on the deck.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Deadline
(Tzu Sha Tung Kao,
自殺通告)
(2025)

Deadline (Tzu Sha Tung Kao, 自殺通告) (2025)

Director – Kiwi Chow – 2025 – Hong Kong, Taiwan, UK – Cert. 15 tbc – 118m

****

A secondary school focused on maximising exam results is upset by pending suicide and use of performance-enhancing drugs – out in UK cinemas from Friday, October 16th

The students of En-Shan Secondary School, clad in distinctive uniforms of purple shirt with militaristic shoulder boards and dark grey tie, perform aggressive workout moves as they chant their school litany extolling hard work leading to success. Principal Kung (Anthony Wong Chau Sang from Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau, Alan Mak,2002; Hard Boiled, John Woo, 1992; My Name Ain’t Suzie, Angie Chen, 1985 – this latter showing in this year’s HKFF) encourages them in the idea that present suffering leads to later success.

The ubiquitous iSmart system contains a database of vocabulary the students must master to game the exam system; its latest 2.3 iteration uses eye-tracking software to record how much time the pupil is taking in direct eye contact with the teacher. It makes the surveillance technology of Happyend (Neo Sora, 2024) sound amateurish by comparison, even if, overall, Deadline is the more satisfying viewing experience.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Ken Russell’s
The Devils

Ken Russell’s The Devils

Director – Ken Russell – 1971 – UK – Cert. 18 – 114m

*****

Restored. Remastered. Uncensored. Ken Russell’s notorious masterpiece finally reaches the big screen as he originally intended it to be seen – from the BFI London Film Festival 2026 which runs from Wednesday, October 7th to Sunday, October 18th in cinemas and on BFI Player, a new 35mm film print previews at BFI Southbank from Friday, October 23rd to Thursday 29th, and the film is out in UK and Ireland cinemas Friday, October 30th

NSFW.

To anyone who has seen the version of The Devils released theatrically in the UK with an X certificate in 1971, and put out on DVD by the BFI about ten years ago, watching this new version has about it the sensation of tasting forbidden fruit. (If you’ve never seen that version, all I can say is, start with this one: this is the version that Russell intended.) It’s perhaps instructive to look at what has changed, in other words those scenes which were considered by the BBFC and / or distributor Warner Bros. too shocking for inclusion back in the day.

Writing about the X certificate version on its DVD release, I noted that the four areas in which the film didn’t hold back were sex, religion, politics and torture.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

The Uprising
(2026)

The Uprising (2026)

Director – Paul Greengrass – 2026 – UK – Cert. 15 – 128m

****

A farmer, a priest and an ex-soldier lead a march on London that will later become known as the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 9th

1381. South East England. Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) stands, a lone figure in a desolate landscape. A commoner.

At a local village, backed up by a small retinue of soldiers representing the Crown, a tax collector is collecting annual revenue from each and every adult male, which has increased to a point where ordinary people who work the land can no longer afford to pay it.

It comes out that Ploughman has lost his wife and kids to the recent outbreak of the Black Death, and he loses his composure and gets into a fracas with a soldier over the latter’s inappropriate treatment of a woman. You expect at this point for Ploughman to get carted off and imprisoned, but somehow his act inspires others to stand up to the soldiers, and he comes through the experience rather better than the official, who is forced to leave.

Meanwhile, the 14-year-old King (Woody Norman) is a spiritually troubled young man beset with nightmares and doubts.… Read the rest

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Dance Features Live Action Movies Music

Take It or Leave It
starring Madness

Take It or Leave It, starring Madness

Director – Dave Robinson – 1981 – UK – Cert. 12a – 86m

*****

Struggling with their day jobs, some friends get together and form a band, which becomes the ascendant ska / dance band Madness – previews on Wednesday, September 30th, out in cinemas in the UK on Thursday, October 1st, and on Blu-ray from Monday, October 19th

The band Madness occupy a unique place in British pop music history. They first appeared In the brief space following the punk and new wave movements of the late 1970s which embodied the idea that anyone could learn to play a musical instrument from scratch and any group of people could put together a band. It was very much a DIY aesthetic.

What Madness had is different, however. Like the title of their debut album One Step Beyond and its iconic cover photograph capturing the seven band members one pressed behind the other walking forward in a synchronised movement, they embodied, as their promotional catchphrase would have it, “that nutty sound”.

Very much a dance band, albeit one unlike any previous combo that had coined that term, they built their songs on ska rhythms and incorporated saxophones into the overall sound.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

A Better Tomorrow II
(Yingxiong Bense 2,
英雄本色2)

A Better Tomorrow II (Yingxiong Bense 2, 英雄本色2)

Director – John Woo – 1987 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 105m – Workprint cut 140m

The first half **

The second half *****

Workprint cut *****

To continue the franchise, Chow Yun-fat returns playing the brother of his character in the first film, a New York restaurateur – 4K Restoration is out on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Monday, 28th September

There’s something hugely endearing when Chow Yun-fat appears here, playing the brother of his character in the first film, insisting his name is not Mark but Ken. Nevertheless, he has on hand his late brother’s coat, with a few holes from bullets, to don in the closing scenes. Mark can’t possibly return having died at the end of the first film, and yet, to all intents and purposes, he’s back for this sequel!

The film as it appeared in release prints feels like little more than an excuse to have another big shoot out with Chow Yun-fat and others at the end, and you can feel Woo struggling as he tries to find a way of getting there without completely losing interest.

(Update: for struggling read; struggling with the editing required to get the film down to 105 minutes for cinema release.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

A Better Tomorrow
(Yingxiong Bense,
英雄本色)

A Better Tomorrow (Yingxiong Bense, 英雄本色)

Director – John Woo – 1986 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 94m

*****

The seminal gangster movie that crystallised John Woo’s now-trademark style of brotherhood, bullets and blood and catapulted Chow Yun Fat to Oriental, big screen stardom – 4K Restoration is out on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Monday, 28th September

After a decade directing comedies and kung fu movies (many for Golden Harvest), Woo’s last two films had been box office flops when producer Tsui Hark gave him the opportunity to make A Better Tomorrow, loosely based at least in plot and character terms on the gritty The Story of a Discharged Prisoner / Yingxiong Bense (Kong Lung, 1967).

Hong Kong’s cinema owners had no problems with two of the three proposed leading men – Ti Lung (from Drunken Master II, Liu Chia-Liang, 1994; Shaolin Temple, Chang Cheh, Wu Ma, 1976) had achieved great success in director Chang Cheh’s martial arts epics at Shaw Brothers (Woo had worked as assistant to Chang early in his career) and Leslie Cheung (from Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai, 1997; Once a Thief, John Woo, 1991; A Chinese Ghost Story, Tsui Hark, 1987) was a successful singer – but Tsui and Woo had to fight hard for third lead Chow Yun Fat, a big TV star lacking any box office clout.… Read the rest