Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Road House (1989) Shout Select Review

Link to my review

http://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2016/09/Road-House-Review.html

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Shogun Assassin (1980)

“He whips out his sword and relieves his victims of their heads!” [1]. This declaration may actually piss some people off, but this is a totally must see bad ass blood splattering samurai action masterpiece. So for the uninformed viewers, why would this statement piss people off? Well this movie is actually the first two films of the Lone Wolf and Cub film series; it was condensed, re-edited, dubbed into English, and re-scored for American release. So there are some purists that really dislike this version and feel that it bastardizes the series. The fact remains that this version was most Americans first introduction into this series and the world of crazy samurai spraying blood movies.

The rights to the original Lone Wolf movies were purchased by David Weisman from Toho Studios for $50,000 and then it was released in America by Roger Corman’s studio New World Pictures. The pictures were based on a comic book called Lone Wolf and Cub written by Kazuo Koike, who also created Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, and one based on Hanzo the Razor. This movie is about a rouge samurai that wanders around Japan with his son in a baby cart, looking for work and defending himself from his many enemies. The main character is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, a veteran actor to the samurai film genre and brother to producer Shintaro Katsu. Katsu is best known for playing Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, in 26 movies and a television series.

This is simply a totally bad ass movie. The American edit is super fast paced and filled with a ton of bloody action, featuring eleven fight scenes, tons of spraying blood, and splitting heads. All of the fight scenes are memorable and Lone Wolf always has some type of tricks available on his baby cart. The narration by the child and the new score are perfect for a dubbed film and are a good fit for the time period in which it was released, the synthesized score is very reminiscent of the sound from John Carpenter films and the Phantasm horror series.

The movie was highly influential on many filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter. Tarantino has incorporated the super violent spraying blood into the Kill Bill films and many of his other ones. This motion picture is the one that the bride’s daughter watches when she goes to bed in the second Kill Bill film. Carpenter used some similar imagery from this film in Big Trouble in Little China, mainly the three guys wearing the straw hats. If you like action and violence, then this is essential viewing. There are also six films from the original Lone Wolf and Cub series, along with a television series and the comic that they were based upon. All of them are worth checking out.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 17 3 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081506/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 17 3 2016].

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

The Whale God AKA Kujira gami (1962) featuring Shintaro Katsu

Another somewhat forgotten gem from Japanese production company Daiei Studios is the 1962 release of The Whale God AKA Kujira gami, which was based upon a 1961 award winning novel with the same title by Uno Koichiro. Bearing similarities to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, it is the story of a small whaling village that has devoted many generations of men in order to kill a giant whale that they refer to as The Whale God. It has been many years and the townspeople are obsessed with destroying the monster. The wealthiest man in the town has offered up his lands, title, and daughter to the man that kills the whale. The main local resident Shaki (Kojiro Hongo) is looking to avenge the deaths of his father and grandfather. A stranger from out of town, Kishu (Shintaro Katsu), is solely interested in the potential inheritance. This is an excellent film that features a strong story, powerful themes, and a wonderfully dark performance from Katsu.

The screenplay was written by Kaneto Shindo, who was also a talented director as well. He ended up with 177 writing credits and 41 directing credits, which includes the highly acclaimed Children of Hiroshima (1952) and Onibaba (1964), among many others. It’s a complex story that deals with obsessions, family, love, rape, and the whaling culture. It was directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, who has 51 directing credits including The Snow Woman (1968), The Haunted Castle (1969), three Zatoichi pictures, and Sleepy Eyes of Death: The Chinese Jade (1963). It was shot in a very dark black and white film, which ends up producing some stunning shadows and helps the whale look more realistic. The camera work is superb in this, with some nice long tracking shots and good camera movement during certain important scenes. There are many sequences in which the camera stays on the action or a character for a lengthy time, such as the whalers departing into the ocean and a special ritual. This helps balance the battle sequences with the whale that are highly edited, which has a justifiable reason behind it.

It should be noted that the whale is not real and the effects are something similar to a kaiju movie. They use a combination of techniques in order to bring the creature to life and make him look genuine. All of the sequences involving the whale where filmed inside of a studio with some type of tank set up and the walls painted to resemble the skyline. It appears that there were two versions of the whale, a smaller version that was used with miniatures and a larger version that the actors could climb onto in the finale. Edited into that footage are real scenes where the men are in the ocean on the boats, combining it all together in order to create the illusion of it all being real. This combination works tremendously and the frantic editing during the whale battle scenes creates an extra element of tension. The creature effects look fantastic and could be viewed as an early influence to Godzilla and other kaiju in cinema. It is also shockingly violent for the era, featuring a great deal of spraying blood not typically scene during this era of filmmaking.

The acting from the entire cast is great. Hongo plays the main character, who is the sort of Ahab of the story. He’s admirable and moral, yet has a deep seeded obsession with killing the whale in which he is willing to sacrifice his life for. He gives a good performance, but it is vastly overshadowed by Katsu who dominates during his on screen time. His character is the polar opposite of Zatoichi and is quite possibly the most evil person that he has ever portrayed. He did play Hanzo the Razor who interrogated women by having sex with them, however it turned into a moment of ecstasy for the women and the situations are more outlandish to really take seriously. This is a really bad man, who cares for nothing but whatever pleases himself.

Bottom line, if you’re a Katsu fan, then this one is an absolute must see.

Score 8/10

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

“L.A.'s deadliest street gang just declared war on the cops” [1]. A small group of cops and prisoners must band together and try and defend a police station from an attack by deadly gang. The films influences cross genres and include Forbidden Planet, Rio Bravo, The Birds, and Night of the Living Dead. The film was written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. He is arguably one of the great directors of the 1970’s and 1980’s, creating a ton of movies with cult followings including Dark Star, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live.

This was a very low budget film but it really stands out for the directing, editing, sound, and acting. There is a strong story and good dialogue, with the sort of western last stand theme going on. Carpenter said that the whole movie “came up very quickly. An investor from Philadelphia had some money and sad, ‘Let’s make a movie.’ And so, I said, ‘Let’s go,’ and I wrote the script in eight days. I wanted to do a western, and it was the closest thing to it. Of course a lot of movies I made are westerns” [2]. This is the film that provided us with the “horrifying situations, compelling rhythms, and haunting set pieces” that have come to be associated with Carpenter and his films [2]. Before this film, his two others had more comedic elements in them.

The two main characters, Bishop and Wilson are great and mesh well together. Both actors are relatively unknown and didn’t go on to become big stars, but they are the right people for these roles and they end up being quite memorable. The score on all of Carpenter’s movies is good, and in here it adds that extra element of suspense that would be missing without it.

It initially received mixed reviews and didn’t do well at the box office, but has a very strong cult following. It was really limited to mostly festival viewing when it was released in 1976 through 1979, until Halloween came out and it finally got a New York Times review [2]. Had it been seen earlier by a larger audience, this film would’ve declared Carpenter to be competent and rising director.

A remake was made in 2005 starring Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne, but is nowhere near as good as the original. If you’re a fan of the remake, the director, or action films, then you really need to watch this one. Personally, it is my favorite Carpenter film and I love them all.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/?ref_=nv_sr_3. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[2]	Cumbow, Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Complete Santo Film Poster Collection

This is the complete movie poster collection of the iconic Mexican Luchadore and film star Santo, beginning in 1961 through 1982.

Santo contra cerebro del mal (1961)