Blows Kill Bill away

Awelcome Chan-wook Park double bill from Tartan's Asia Extreme series, now that Oldboy has started to give this prolific South Korean director real kudos in this country. If you've heard about the 2004 Cannes Grand Prix winner (well, Tarantino was on the jury), it's probably as 'the film where the dude eats the live squid' (he really did, four times for four different takes - and he's a vegetarian).

But there's far more to this stylish, morally sophisticated symphony of violence than sadistic sushi. One day, average Joe Min-sik Choi is inexplicably kidnapped and locked up for 15 years until he escapes, realises he's been framed for killing his wife and daughter and initiates a trail of vengeance and selfrealisation that simply blows Kill Bill out of the water. This two-disc edition is stuffed with tasty extras, including two making-of documentaries.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Before Oldboy, Chan-wook Park made a comedy, perhaps needing the light relief, because when 2002's Sympathy For Mr Vengeance was released in Korea, it shocked even hardened Asia Extreme fans - not just with its video nastiness (a child's autopsy is almost unwatchable) but also its unrelenting nihilism.

Kang-ho Song is a deaf mute with a terrorist girlfriend who resorts to kidnapping to afford his sister's life-saving kidney transplant - only to spark off a tortuous cycle of vengeance. The film is as pared down and morally challenging as it is hip - be warned that even its own director called it a 'dark, grim sort of film'. Quality over quantity extras on this Collector's Edition, including a director's commentary and behind-the-scenes peek. LI-Z

More, but very different, Asia in Zhang Yimou's Hero: the only thing that's extreme here is the beauty, which rather overwhelms a distressingly reactionary plot. Jet Li is the assassin who claims to have killed a paranoid warlord's three greatest enemies, including Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung (and if that wasn't enough star power, Ziyi Zhang pops up, too). Cue flashbacks and lots of highdefinition martial action, as the warlord attempts to pluck the true story from the assassin's flowery version of his exploits. Three cheers for unifying totalitarianism seems to be the message - an odd one for Zhang, whose best films have been banned in his native China, but a pleasing one for the Chinese government. Extras include a conversation with Li and Tarantino.

Nina Caplan

And now for something completely different: The Best Comedy DVD In The World (self-appointed). How strange it is to watch a collection of classic comedy clips without being told what to think of them by a bunch of telegenic C-listers. Stranger still to find that, without the structure of a Channel 4 list show, it's hard to sit straight through two hours of (largely excellent) sketches, film clips and stand-up.

Still, this DVD - more than £8 from the purchase price of which goes to Unicef's Tsunami Children's Appeal - features some true greats, from David Brent's dance to Andy and Lou at the swimming pool to the original pre-Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Also, Tommy Cooper, rare Pete 'n' Dud, Spaced, Richard Pryor and more. Dominic Maxwell