The James Marsh film review archive

War

  • James is speaking about The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp this weekend

    I’m a sucker for watching older films restored on the big screen, so the fact that the Hong Kong Film Archive is currently screening a series of classic World War… Read More

  • The Birth Of A Nation

    I had never made the effort to sit down and explore D.W. Griffith’s 3-hour silent Civil War epic before I recently had to review the new Blu-ray release from Masters… Read More

  • Frankenstein’s Army

    After months reading about Richard Raaphorst’s Nazi era found footage zombie movie, I was rather underwhlemed by the whole experience. The central conceit, in which a young Russian soldier is… Read More

  • City of Life and Death

    Hardly a jolly romp, Lu Chuan’s gorgeously shot drama remains to my mind the “best” film to tackle the Nanking Massacre. Most interesting is the decision to depict sympathetic Japanese… Read More

  • After the Curfew

    I’m a sucker for restored classics at a film festival. What better way to catch up on an unearthed masterpiece from yesteryear than in a boffed up print on the… Read More

  • REVIEW: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

    Until now the only time I had seen this film was at university, where our Film Studies lecturer insisted that we included it during the opening semester programme of the… Read More

  • Joint Security Area

    When a South Korean soldier (Lee Byung-hun) stationed with the garrison that guards the 38th Parallel on the North/South border staggers back across from the other side with a bullet… Read More

  • A Foreign Affair

    Screening at the Hong Kong Film Archive as part of mini retrospective showcasing the collaborations between Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich, I went into this with no other information and… Read More

  • Story of a Prostitute

    I’ve had this Criterion DVD kicking around for a number of years and have repeatedly put off watching it. Now I finally have gotten around to seeing it, I’m kicking… Read More

  • Lifeboat

    In the midst of World War II, Alfred Hitchcock directed this high-concept chamber piece for 20th Century Fox, based on a specially-commissioned treatment from John Steinbeck. After their cruise ship… Read More

  • The Last Supper

    Lu Chuan follows up his powerful City of Life and Death with this big-budget retelling of one of China’s many pivotal power struggles. Liu Ye, Daniel Wu and Chang Chen… Read More

  • Opening this week in Hong Kong – 17th May

    Without a prominent blocbuster opening this week, distributors scrabble to release whatever they have left in their slate before the onslaught of summer behemoths arrives. As a result it is… Read More

  • Opening this week in Hong Kong – 3rd May

    As one of the territories deemed lucky enough to get THE AVENGERS last week, today sees a number of second tier titles open ahead of the summer madness. But the… Read More