Asia has churned out some very good horror films over the past decade. Breathing life into the genre, they brought new vision and new approaches. Of course the first ones to cross the pond were the good ones, films like The Ring, The Eye, Dark Water, and The Grudge; then when the top tier titles were spent we started to get middling titles, and as those began to run out the quality starts to become even more widespread.

The Heirloom hails from Taiwan, and while it picks up in the latter third, it is such a dreadfully dull slog that you may not be able to make it all the way through. The Heirloom is one of those movies that has some very good things going for it, making the whole quite frustrating.

James Yang (Jason Chang) is an architect, recently returning to Taiwan after studying in the UK. He has inherited a large gothic mansion on the outskirts of Taipei. It is an old decaying home whose origins date back to the Chinese occupation. Even though he is urged to sell right from the start, he decides to keep it, and invites his girlfriend, Yo (Terri Kwan), to come and live with him there. She has some initial misgivings, but quickly agrees to move in. Shortly thereafter, in what any veteran of these haunted house type tales will know, strange things start happening. The first victims of the occurrences are James and Yo's friends Yi-Chen and Cheng.

I guess it would help to back up a little bit. The film opens with text telling of the ancient Chinese tradition of worshiping young ghosts. They would take dead fetuses, keep them in jars and feed them blood in return for good fortune. Like most ancient practices used in movies of this type, this one has dire consequences. In this case, a mass suicide by James' family twenty years earlier leaves him the heir to everything, and now that he is of age, it is his. The problem is that he knows nothing of his family's legacy, of their use of dead fetuses to better the family's fortune.

James and Yo try to make sense of what is going on, and aren't making much headway. Then partway through, James' committed aunt reveals the dead baby legacy to Yo, who starts to piece things together. From this point on, it becomes the young couple's mission to close this circle of death.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it moves along so slowly that I found my interest never even building to the point where it could wane. I never really cared about the characters or became invested in their survival. The further it went, the smaller the chances became that I would care. Sure, the post-exposition time did get better, but it was too little too late to save the movie for me.

Despite what a slog it was, it was not a complete loss. The cinematography is gorgeous, the mansion set becomes a character itself, giving an aura of menace, dread, and impending doom. There are some gorgeous tracking shots through the expanse that are just great. Combine that with an intriguing score, and you have a movie that does have a distinct feeling that something bad is afoot; it is the story, and the dreadful pacing that ultimately sinks the movie.

Audio/Video. The film is presented its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and it delivers a very nice image, nicely detailed and free of any major defects. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1. I listened to the Dolby track, and there is nothing to complain about.

Extras. There are a few included here, but nothing terribly compelling. Included are a commentary track with the director, screenwriter, and production crew, a brief making of featurette, deleted scenes, and the original trailer.

Bottom line. You could do much worse, but unless you are starved for Asian horror, I would not really recommend this. The pacing is just a killer of insomnia. There is some nice atmosphere, but again, not enough to save this bore.

Not Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

On Friday's General Hospital:

Lucky banged heads with Liz again for visiting Jason. He asked her if she believes that if Jason wasn't in jail that he would be able to find Jake. I, however, wondered how it is that Jason, being held on murder charges, is able to receive visitors anytime he wants. He's practically living in the interrogation room with a constant stream of people coming and going. Elizabeth says Jason calms her, while all Lucky and Liz seem to be able to do is argue. They were able to stop when they thought Jake had been found, but when the infant in question turned out to not be their son, Jason called on Spinelli to break him out so he could look for Jake.

When Ric came to the Everyday Heroes set asking where Sam was at the time of the kidnapping, Amelia lied and provided her with an alibi. The kindness only confused Sam who can't seem to figure out why Amelia continues to be so nice to her. Later, Amelia's motives were questioned even more by Sam when she found Amelia's file containing Sam's con-artist past.

Kate came to Sonny and begged him to stop a tabloid from running an article romantically linking her to him. All the time he was playing his cat and mouse game with the woman, he was also playing with the gold lighter. For the life of me I couldn't figure out when Sonny had developed pyro tendencies or even a smoking habit, but of course it was yet another forced plot device. They needed a lighter available when Kate came back to the coffee shop and discovered Amelia and Sonny getting hot and heavy in his office. How else would she set off the fire detectors without that lighter? I love Kate showing a jealous side and the desire to be with Sonny even though she protests to his face, but the whole lighter thing was just so convenient!

Carly wanted to jump into hotel renovations with Jax, who seemed eager, that is until he got a call from Jerry and packed his bags. (We all saw this coming, right!) He was no sooner gone when Carly decided she was going after him to bring him back home. No, this is not going to end well!

Warning! News and Spoilers Ahead!

• Spinelli says no to Jason? When it comes to breaking him out jail he does, though I'll be curious to see why, since it was his idea in the first place.
• When Carly catches up with Jax, she'll have to save him from the bartender holding him at gun point. She'll return home alone when Jax insists on finding his brother. Hmm, maybe he should go with Carly as Jerry will be lying in wait with the boys when Carly returns.
• Maxie wants proof of Logan's seduction of Lulu. Proof? Like what kind of proof?
• There's a little more information circling about the new storyline for Noah Drake (Rick Springfield) and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) which is set to roll into motion on July 2nd. Springfield will actually be taking on a second role; that of Eli Love a rockstar/spy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the good Doctor. It does seem to be Noah, however who is Anna's love interest, though I imagine Eli is one of her contacts. When Eli is hurt, Noah will be called upon to step in for the rockstar. I'm also hearing that Anna is a contact of Jerry's. Seems the wonder-woman spy has been pretty busy since her absence from the screen.
• Want a sneak peak at the Night Shift? Check out GHFF2.

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she’s not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. Contact: Phillips.connie@gmail.com

Written by Fumo Verde

If you think the "Bay of Pigs" incident was the only attempt to remove Fidel Castro from power, you need to see this documentary. It's a story of how one sovereign nation has tried to take out the leader of another. You may laugh at the title, but it is a sad truth. Since his rise to power in 1959, Castro's enemies have been plotting his demise. They want to free Cuba from his grip, have tried almost everything, and aren't about to stop.

Director Dollan Cannell opens up this world of shadow agents and assassinations, giving us an in-depth look at the many attempts to bring down one of the world’s most loved and hated men of the twentieth century. He presents the stories of the people who schemed and attempted, how and why they tried, and those that foiled the plots.

This has been one of the most informative and clever documentaries I have seen in a while. Conspiracy-mongers, time to freak out because it is all here. Did the C.I.A. take part? Why, yes they did, but so did a lot of Cuban nationals and even friends of Castro. The first culprit was a man who knew Castro when they went to the university together. Enrique Avarez was a close friend of Castro, but he soon realized that the cigar smoke clouded Castor’s true intentions. He says, "Fidel is for Fidel. People say Fidel was a communist; he was nothing. Fidel is a Fidelista, full stop. For him, that's it."

After the revolution, Castro was still walking around unprotected. Avarez bumped into him at a restaurant and thought that his assassination would be an easy thing to do, but couldn't bring himself to do it. That was attempt number one, and it's not even counted in the number of the title.

Cannell takes us on a trip that includes snipers, a poison milkshake, and exploding baseballs. The C.I.A. didn't try to kill Castro at first. They had better ideas, like cutting off Samson’s hair to sap his strength, and putting powder in his boots that would make his beard fall out. I still don't see how that would work, but those were our tax dollars and well, the government knows best, right?

Fabian Escalante has now retired, but in the early '60s he was the head of Cuban Intelligence. He had so many spies throughout Cuba, it was said you could not light up a cigar in Havana without him knowing. He was so good at stopping the plots to kill Castro, Cuban TV made a show out of his escapades.

Other stories come from the Cubans hired by the C.I.A.; these include Antino Veciana, Felix Rodriguez (the man who gave the order to kill Che Guevara in 1967), and Luis Posada Carriles. They tell of attempts they planned and tried to execute (pun intended). Veciana was recruited by the C.I.A. back in the early '60s. He now owns a boating supply store in Miami, but tells of one attempt he put together where he had four men in an apartment room across the way from the Presidential flat where Castro was living. Veciana had gotten the men a bazooka and aimed it right into Castro's room. What happened? The leader of the group told Veciana that they couldn't fire the bazooka without it being seen, so they abandoned the operation. "No one is suicidal," Veciana said. "You need at least a small chance of getting away."

Every plot worth trying was tried, from blowing up his car with a hand grenade to using remote-controlled model planes that would blow up once inside the window of the library where Castro was speaking. My favorite is the one where the C.I.A. gets his ex-girlfriend to try and hide poison pills in a jar of cold cream. When she went to get them out, they had melted. Castro had asked her if she had come back to kill him. She said yes, and she started to cry. He handed her his pistol and told her to do it. She pointed the gun at him and after a minute she put it down. When he asked her why, she said she couldn’t do it. Castro replied, "Nobody can.”

It was right after that failed attempt that D.C. went balls out to get rid of Castro once and for all. Ike started it, and in the depths of the Miami Zoo, exiles were being trained to land on Cuban shores and take back the island nation from its evil dictator. Thus the "Bay of Pigs" operation was born and executed under Kennedy. Cannell states that Kennedy was one of the Presidents who pushed the C.I.A. the hardest to kill Castro, and as irony would have it, an assassin’s bullet found Kennedy instead.

As plot after plot failed, the hardliners in Miami started going after other targets, members of their own community who wanted to make peace with Castro. One of these hardliners gone awry is Dr. Orlando Bosch, a man who admitted firing a bazooka at a Polish ship headed for Cuba. He was also implicated in the bombing of a Cuban airliner, which killed 73 passengers and crew. C.I.A. documents reveal that days before the bombing an associate of Bosch's was overheard saying, "We're going to hit a Cuban Airplane. Orlando has the details." Bosch was considered to be one of the most dangerous terrorists in the Western hemisphere and was in and out of U.S. and Venezuelan jails. Thirty-one countries refused to take him because of the acts he has committed, yet Pres. George H.W. Bush granted him residency.

Cannell has given a great history lesson with facts and views from both sides of the equation. The war against Castro will never stop. Even at the end of the documentary, we learn of a man who was arrested for owning a stinger missile he was planning on launching at Castro, and the list keeps getting longer. 638 Ways to Kill Castro is entertaining and educational; it also provokes the question concerning who we call terrorists.

The extras include an interview with ex-President Jimmy Carter, an interview with Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly, a look at the 1976 Cubana airline atrocity, and Luis Posada Carriles, another terrorist who lives among us, and more.