Goodness, I’m late already and this is only the second time I’ve done this! Must do better! Oh well, not so many films this week what with Christmas fast approaching – not sure how many I’ll get to see over the festive period as I’m staying with family so it’ll probably be mostly old favourites. My family don’t really share my taste in films so much but I’ve bought my mother some Scandinavian thrillers which she really likes at the moment (unfortunately we seem to have exhausted the available French policiers which are her favourite!) so hopefully we’ll be able to fit some of those in.

Yakuza Graveyard

Yakuza no hakaba: Kuchinashi no hana

やくざの墓場　くちなしの花

Eureka DVD

The second film in Eureka’s first Fukasaku box set, now OOP, and another genre classic from the prolific director. Police Corruption and Yakuza honour play out as mirror images as a complicated policeman ends up caught between two worlds.

Smuggler

HK Blu Ray

Slightly disappointing film from Katsuhito Ishii, director of The Taste of Tea, which sees Satoshi Tsumabuki’s failed actor being unwittingly forced into the criminal underworld. Unfortunately this is a film that might have benefitted from being more absurd as the darkness of the story and the humour of the script/direction never really gel. Still, the action scenes are entertaining and the performances are universally good it’s just a shame it never quite comes together.

The Silent War

Ting feng zhe 聽風者

HK Blu Ray

Chinese late ’40s war film about radio telephonists and code breaking – lacking in tension and high on propaganda it’s never quite as exciting as it promises to be.

Joyeux Noel

Film4

Maudlin film about the 1914 Christmas truce. Excellent performances from the international (and often multi-lingual) cast can’t quite enliven the uneven, unsubtle scripting.

Babycall

Soda Pictures DVD

Odd Norwegian psychological thriller with Noomi Rapace where a brutalised woman trying to protect her son becomes increasingly paranoid and believes she overhears a murder on her baby monitor. The ‘twist’ can be seen a mile off but at the same time nothing is actually explained adequately at the end making this quite a frustrating experience despite Rapace’s excellent performance.