Guest Yi Long Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Saw this in shops today for 8 euro. I could buy it together with Banlieu for 12 euro. But how is Muscle Heat? I believe I once read a positive review on it, but I'd like your opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmungus Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 www.ponycanyon.co.jp/intl...ht_18.html man thats another very entertaining ma actioner that receives a lot of bashing. mix trademark mid-90s us+hk b-movie action cinema of the fast paced, violent, gritty kind, and u know what muscle heat is like. theres a good amount of stunts, in your face martial arts (tho most times the army of bad-guy opponents serve as punching bags) and okay gun play action. cinematography and general direction is quite alright without setting any new standards. nice package along with banlieue 13 that is definitely worth the money. now release the haters (sometimes i really dont understand what some ppl expect to get from these kinda flix :\ , and i am often told, I would be overly discerning :rolleyes bollocks :smokin ) *edit* oh yes, u deserve to get a rating. 7.2/10 as a reference, some similar movies that receive a similar rating from me: black mask, magic crystal, b13, dr wai & the scripture..., she shoots straight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yi Long Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Thanks man, and good review. 7,7 doesnt sound all that great, but after reading the review I'll certainly pick it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yi Long Posted July 29, 2006 Share Posted July 29, 2006 Ok... got it this afternoon and watched it tonight. I wasnt all that impressed with it. First of all the multiple languages bothered me. Joe speaking english alot of the time, the voice-over was unneccesarry, the bad cantonese by the villain etc. Story was pretty bad. Not interesting at all. Normally, in these kind of movies you wouldnt care much if the story wasnt all that great, if you cared about the characters, but I didnt care for Joe. He was way too stoic and comic-book 1 dimensional. The only character that was OK was the leader of the sewer-rats. Not that he got to do much. Cinematography was pretty mediocre as well. The 'sets' weren't all that great, and it all just seemed like an amateur movie that got upgraded to a budget movie. So with all that said, there's only 1 thing left. The action. You can look at it from 2 ways. Do you view it as an american action movie, or as a Japanese actionmovie? For an american action movie, the action was pretty entertaining. Some nice moves by the lead character and more then a couple of fights. But when you compare it with the better HK action movies, it falls shorts. Although we see some good moves, the choreography isnt all that interesting, and the camera-angles used arent always the best. Furthermore in the ring-battles, our view on the action is more then occasionally obscured by stuff in the foreground, due to the artistic decision to pan around and film through the cage's metal boundaries and stuff... All in all, I'd rate this about a 5 or a 6 I guess. It just wasnt very interesting, nor entertaining, plus it didnt manage to make me care for the story or for the characters. A shame, cause you have a talented lead (martial arts wise) and you have Ken Lo who seems to have been available for quite a long time, considering the screentime he got and the amount of fights he's in. Missed opportunity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest limubai2000 Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Yeah I didnt care for this one very much, it was a diversion from my normal stuff at best. It was nice to see Kane Kosugi up there doing his thing but it could have been better. Japan isn't known for cranking out hand to hand martial arts films so I wasn't expecting too much, it's not like I expected Ong Bak Japanese style or something!!! I hope we can see better from Kane in the future. Hopefully in DOA we will get to see him do some great screen fighthing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted February 24, 2009 Member Share Posted February 24, 2009 I have to say I really liked the movie. It may have had that B-movie feel, but seeing Kane under Sam Wong and Chan Man-Ching's choreography was awesome. I love the move where he jumps in the air, spins and split kicks two of Kenjin's goons. Originally, Kenjin was supposed to speak only Japanese, but it was during shooting that they decided he should speak all 3 languages. And Joe, the character played by Kane, is Japanese-American. I would say like Kane himself, but Kane is actually "Japanese/Chinese/American". At least that's what Kane said in an interview in Jade Screen magazine. That explains him using more English than Japanese in the film. Kane is playing a taekwondo fighter named Song in Xiong Xin-Xin's upcoming Coweb, but I'd like to see him take the lead in another MA action film. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted May 24, 2010 Member Share Posted May 24, 2010 I just discovered this yesterday and MUSCLE HEAT was made just for Kane Kosugi. As I'm sure everyone knows, Kane and his brother were competitors on the popular show SASUKE, known here in the States as NINJA WARRIOR. SASUKE and the female version, KUNOICHI, were created by none other than Ushio Higuchi, who came up with the very story for this movie!!! Talk about a connection! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted May 30, 2021 Member Share Posted May 30, 2021 Speaking of Muscle Heat, a photo of Ken Lo can be seen in the September 1996 issue of Hong Kong Penthouse. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Super Ninja Posted May 31, 2021 Member Share Posted May 31, 2021 Wow, great kicker and a Penthouse model, he's my new idol. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 My Japanese film marathon continues with this movie. Full review here: https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2022/07/blood-heat-2002.html 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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