"You must have big rats, if you need Hattori Hanzo's steel."

Tarantino's unabashed love of martial arts cinema has been well-documented, both within interviews with the man himself and in the confines of his own work. Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown all saw passing references made, and True Romance even offered a prolonged insight into the subject with its Street Fighter scene.

It's all too fitting that Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba, the Street Fighter himself, would appear in a…

Toshiya Fujita's Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance sees the return of Meiko Kaji as Yuki Kashima, the titular Lady Snowblood. Despite a shorter runtime, the sequel is a slower, more experimental film. While it still doesn't quite reach the extremes of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, this film is a better indication of the unique charm that made Meiko Kaji an exploitation goddess.

The whole goddamn police force descends down upon Lady Snowblood early on, capturing her and eventually…

If there are any genuinely great Friday the 13th films, then Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is certainly one of them. This is the first truly exceptional film of the franchise, and probably the most universally praised.

This film sees the franchise take a noticeable leap in character development, most prominently in the forms of Trish (Kimberly Beck) and her younger bother Tommy, played by Corey Feldman in his first prominent film role. The other major characters are also…