Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Steineded How sad is this?

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

MartianOctocretr5 The movie has a familiar ring to it: It bears a strong parallel in its primary idea to Drew Barrymore's power to ignite objects (including human victims) with spontaneous combustion in Firestarter. I didn't expect much from this movie, but its originality set it apart from that other movie, and it surprised me.Akiko Yada, as Junko, the character endowed with the gift/curse of the pyro-kinetic power, leads a spirited Japanese cast. A couple of actors over-do their parts, but everyone is convincing. Naturally, as more and more people learn the truth about Junko's power, several different individuals pursue her, each for opposing reasons. Junko herself is a pursuer, seeking vengeance against a killer. Many back stories, and the competing characters make for an involving story that moves quickly (and often violently). Those who would exploit her power are in abundance.Many innocents are close to the action, too, making for a good, suspenseful plot. It has a strange ending, which provides for a good discussion of what it meant with someone you viewed the movie with. This movie blends elements of suspense, science fiction, romance, and action very well.

Chung Mo "Firestarter" we all know that one even if you haven't seen it. A girl who can control fire is used and persecuted because of her special powers. "ESPY"? That's an obscure one. It's a 1970's Japanese film about an elite team of telekinetics who fight an evil cult of telekinetics who are trying to enslave mankind. Shusuke Kaneko, who turned the laughable Gamera kaiju series into possibly the best giant monster movies ever made, reaches into the Japanese movie genre box and comes up with an entertaining if flawed "B" movie.Simply put, the plot involves a woman with pyrokinetic powers who is on a quest to destroy a gang of sociopaths who torture and kill young woman. She comes under the protection of a mysterious man with different telekinetic powers who receives orders from someone else. Along the way we follow two oddball police detectives as they try to capture the gang and figure out who is crisping the gang to death.Convoluted is a nice way to describe the twists and turns of the plot. There are a couple of scenes that don't make sense within the story. Some of the plot requires you to accept absurd coincidences and make ridiculous leaps of faith. The film "ESPY" had the same problems but as a movie it had a energy that made the problems go away while you watched it. Unfortunately, "Pyrokenesis" is not done that way, it's paced for a standard crime drama not a crazy action film. But overall it is very watchable.Why? The characters are almost all very interesting and the actors are all very good. The female detective is a funny character. You wouldn't think it but cramming a half a dozen different film genres into the film actually helps it. The special effects are mostly excellent. Kaneko really has a way with special effects and integrating them into his films. The only let downs are the human burning scenes that repeat the same kind of effects over and over. In "Firestarter" every bad guy got burned in a different way.It's entertaining, not great but fun.

rstef1 Sorry about the pun, but I really did enjoy this Japanese take on Firestarter. The acting is uniformly excellent, especially by lead Akiko Yada as the pyrokinetic Junko, and Kaori Momoi who gives a wonderfully atypical and original performance as Inspector Ishizu. The film has so many nifty plot threads that I scarcely knew what to expect next. It begins as a typical Carrie-type shocker, becomes a tragic romance, then veers into crime drama by introducing a gang of thugs who appear to kill for thrills. After that, we have a few plot twists which involve snuff films, a corrupt police chief and a mysterious band of vigilantes named the Guardians. That's a lot of plot for a horror thriller, and the movie carries it off beautifully leading to a final, explosive and exciting showdown in an amusement park involving all the lead characters.The special effects in this movie are among the best I have seen, absolutely impeccable, and this helps the film considerably. The pace may seem slow at times for western audiences used to breakneck action, but it pays off by making the action scenes here stand out and resonate with the audience. At almost two hours, the film is long, but it is packed with enough interesting characters, events and revelations to keep most viewers thoroughly entertained.

uncleseven Crossfire, or Pyrokinesis, is a movie made by the person who resurrected the Gamera movies. If you have seen any of those, you know what Shusuke Kaneko can do with old ideas.This calls to question if Crossfire is a some sort of remake of Firestarter. The answer to this was best given by the director who stated that he was well aware of the movie Firestarter while making Crossfire, but didn't want to do a remake. Instead he was going for more of a mature story focusing on the character emotions to a greater extent, and leaving the pyrokinetics as a secondary aspect. The good news is that he succeeded. Crossfire provides characters that are very complex. Often in asian cinema the hero is not just your average "good person" as in many American movies of this type - instead you have someone walking in a sort of grey zone. This is the case with the lead character Junko. What she does to exemplify this is... well.. watch the movie.Needless to say, I liked the film a lot (even with difficult to read subtitling - white on white sometimes.) There has been a lot of crap following in the footsteps of The Ring trying to be Japanese horror hits, but Crossfire stands out with its engaging storyline and amazing special effects.