EDITOR'S NOTE: Lisa Morton is one of the busiest people I know (check out her credits at the end of this, her final column for Fear Zone), and it's been an honor to run THE EAST IS RED, which she plans to continue on her website. I've learned a lot from every one of these pieces, and hope you have too.

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Ah, we provincial Americans. We love to imagine that our Hollywood reigns supreme atop the mound of world cinema.

But here's a wake-up call, kids: There's another country's film industry that out-produces (by frigging double ) and out-sells ours. Think Tom Cruise, or Harrison Ford, or Brad Pitt, is the biggest star on earth? Uh-uh. It's a charismatic, handsome hunk named Shahrukh Khan, and ... (more…)

Although the phrase "Asian cinema" usually puts a cineaste in mind of one of the major film centers - India, Hong Kong, Japan - film production has exploded throughout the entire continent over the last ten years. One of the most interesting countries producing movies right now is Thailand. Yes, a place known in the past for dishes with names like "Prik King" is now putting out some of the best horror movies in the world.

Unlike the scarefests released from Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, the general bent in Thailand's spooky movies seems to be low-key and almost gore-free, but with heavy emphasis on local folklore. Thai horror movies from the past also relied on folklore, and movies like ... (more…)

The EAST IS RED #4: Is That a Severed Hand Sticking Out of Your Back, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?


Americans who have any knowledge whatsoever of Hong Kong's classic martial arts films probably equate them with Saturday afternoons spent in front of a television screen, laughing at badly-dubbed pan-and-scan epics with overused zooms and stolen soundtracks. A real hipster might have caught something like THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS or THE CHINATOWN KID at a grindhouse theater in the '70s, maybe even double-featured with a blaxpoitation actioner - SHAFT'S BIG SCORE or BLACK CAESAR. They might even know that most of these movies were produced by a Hong Kong company called Shaw Brothers (who had ... (more…)

THE EAST IS RED COLUMN #3 - Why the DEATH NOTE series is one more reason to thank Japan


If you're anything like me, I'm betting you came out of the last horror movie you saw in a theater somewhat underwhelmed. Maybe you were pissed off because they set up rules and then didn't bother to play by them. Maybe the damn thing was so full of SLC's (Spring-Loaded Cats) that you felt like you were stuck in a cheap Halloween yard display. Maybe the young actors were so indistinguishable and disposable you wondered if there was a 99 Cent Store on Hollywood Boulevard that sold 'em.

Now, imagine a movie that not only suffers none of those problems, but is also tense, smart, well made, and - get this - ... (more…)

So you've already seen most of the 2009 summer blockbusters, and you've so far been somewhat underwhelmed. STAR TREK was fun, but somehow you never quite got the "wow" factor you suspect the filmmakers were going for. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN mainly left you with a sense of your own impending middle-aged grumpiness. UP was enjoyable, but you're wondering why a live-action film can't work that well.

They can, and one has - but you, American moviegoers, won't get to see it (at least not on a big screen) any time soon.

Before I tell you what that movie is and why you're being rooked, let's start this on-topic and with a statement that's sure to raise hackles on a few of you: South ... (more…)

Ghost movies...boy, think you've seen a lot of 'em on American screens ever since The Sixth Sense roared past the box office flags?

Try living in Hong Kong.

Chinese culture has long had a perverse love/hate relationship with ghosts. If you have any Chinese friends, ask them if they believe in ghosts, and I can almost guarantee that you'll not only get a "yes", you'll get the kind of "yes" that includes that little hint of perplexity, wondering why you'd even ask the question. Ghosts are such a fixture of Chinese life that there's even a holiday (Qingming, sometimes translated simply as "Ghost Day") honoring them. Ghosts and spirits have long been a part of Chinese storytelling; the 16th -... (more…)