Asian monster flick D-War tore up the box office in its native South Korea this past summer. Slightly retitled to Dragon Wars by distributor Freestyle Releasing, the film did surprisingly well in the US, grossing more than $10 million, making it the most successful Korean picture released in America. (Total worldwide box office was $66 million, according to Box Office Mojo). It didn't screen for critics, but I saw it anyway, propelled by a childhood love for Godzilla and his monstrous friends.

Director Shim Hyung-Rae's film is incredibly cheesy and nonsensical, but strangely satisfying if you're a fan of monster movies in general and keep your expectations just barely above zero. Unfortunately, the lead characters, played by Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks, are wan and colorless, in part because their roles are so thinly written. Happily, B-movie greats Robert Forster and Chris Mulkey are on hand to juice things up. Most of the production budget was evidently spent on the special effects, which would have been state of the art ten years ago. It's the kind of movie that made me roll my eyes and mutter to myself throughout. Yet days later I found myself quoting some of the more outrageous lines and scenes to others. The DVD includes a featurette entitled "5,000 Years in the Making," storyboard to screen "animatics" and conceptual art gallery.

Japanese auteur Takashi Miike has made dozens of films in almost every conceivable genre (the remake of his horror flick One Missed Call was just released this weekend), but Big Bang Love -- Juvenile A is, I believe, his first foray into the homoerotic prison drama genre. Mark Schilling of The Japan Times noted that it "differs from much of his previous work (especially his recent commercial outings) in its theatrically stylized sets, complex narrative strategies and basic tone." The DVD includes an interview with Miike, "behind the scenes special," an image gallery, trailers and program notes.

Did you see The Host? I didn't think so. Despite it being one of the better-reviewed movies of the year (92% fresh, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and at Cinematical both James and Jeffrey liked it, to varying degrees), what was most commonly called 'a Korean monster movie' failed to cross over to a broad audience outside South Korea, where it smashed box office records. It was by no means a complete failure -- it earned more than two million dollars in its US release, a very respectable amount for an arthouse picture -- yet something limited the word of mouth. Was it the unusual mixture of genres, the hairpin curves shifting from dysfunctional family comedy/drama to horror and then back again? Were people expecting more rampaging by the monster? Were the Korean cultural references and political satire too confounding? Was it the subtitles? I saw it with two very different festival audiences (Fantastic Fest in Austin: mostly Caucasian; AFI Fest in Los Angeles: mostly Asian), and both received The Host rapturously. As a big fan of the film, I'm as baffled as anyone else.

Perhaps people will respond differently, and in greater numbers, when the next Korean monster movie, D-War opens in late August and Los Angeles is terrorized by a giant serpent. Freestyle Releasing certainly must hope so; it's planning to put that sucker out on 1500 screens, according to Variety. D-War stars Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster (yay!) and Chris Mulkey; with the latter two personal faves on board, it can't be all bad. The budget was originally reported to be $70 million, though Korean producer/distributor Showbox now says that price included start-up costs for a local effects house. Even at a reported $32 million, the budget is three times what Showbox forked out for their previous monster movie (you guessed it: The Host). Frankly, the trailer on the Korean site looks pretty cheesy; still, it's in English, it looks to have some camp appeal and late August is traditionally a dead time at the box office, so maybe the kids will check it out. May the best monster win.

You could be forgiven for reading today's casting news and thinking it was 1987. Two of the eighties' most reliable manly men, Tom Berenger and Michael Biehn, are teaming up for the crime thriller Stiletto. The film will be directed by actor/writer/producer/director Nick Vallelonga, who you might remember as "Prison Inmate Sitting Behind Henry" in Goodfellas. No? "Courtroom guard arresting Sean Connery" in Family Business? I'll move on. Stiletto stars Stana Katic from TV's Heroes, as "an assassin whose seemingly random killings puzzle her lover, her clients and the detective following her rising body count." Berenger will play her boyfriend, "whose rise in organized crime is offset by his love for her and his Mafia co-hort," played by Biehn. I assume it's a platonic love with Biehn -- any Sopranos fan knows mobsters aren't too understanding of alternative lifestyles.

Actor Paul Sloan wrote the script -- his first -- and will also play the detective trailing Katic. Dominique Swain (remember her from that Jeremy Irons version of Lolita? Yowza!), Kelly Hu (Again...yowza!) Diane Venora (loved her as Pacino's wife in Heat), Amanda Brooks, William Forsythe, and model human Tom Sizemore round out the cast. I've been saying for years that a Berenger comeback is long overdue. Nominated for an Oscar for his stellar work in Platoon, perfect in Major League, he still does tons of films, but I wonder where he went off Hollywood's "Big Time Star" radar and into the realm of B-movies. Maybe Sliver had something to do with it. Same goes for Michael Biehn, who made something of a triumphant return as Sheriff Hague in Grindhouse. Maybe if Eli Roth's proposed expansion of Thanksgiving actually takes place, Biehn will have another plum role -- he was great in the trailer. Either way, the guy's always got work as long as James Cameron is making films.