What Asian Films Have You Been Watching Recently?

[AngelGuts]

I love it, too.

[47lab]

Went to check out Lee Sang-geun's directorial debut, the survival comedy film, EXIT last weekend. This flick made my top 10 of 2019 so far. Just a perfect blend of family drama, comedy and disaster film all rolled into one. It's even funnier if you are familiar with Korean cultural norms and family dynamics but I think even the lay person will enjoy this one. Wasn't a fan of the last film I caught lead, Cho Jung-suk in which was DRUG KING but he's absolutely first rate here. Fine dramatic performance coupled with great comedic timing especially in concert with co-lead, Yoona. She was hilarious as the slacker in love with Hyun Bin in CONFIDENTIAL ASSIGNMENT but she's really elevated her acting in this one. Funniest onscreen couple that I can recall in a long time. The thing that really separates this flick from others is that the comedic core is kept intact even though the flick seemingly does a complete turn once the disaster/survival film takes over about a third of the way in. It turns serious but never forgets the laughs. Highly recommended!

[47lab]

I caught Bong Joon-ho's latest, PARASITE. It's been available for awhile but no decent subs until recently. One of the best black comedies/social satires that I've seen and possibly surpassed MEMORIES OF MURDER as my fave film from him. I'll have more to say on this flick later but suffice to say that I will be catching this again when it opens up theatrically in my area in October as well as picking up the eventual North American blu ray release.

[Takuma]

Keiko Sekine x 6

With Laputa Asagaya running a Keiko Sekine / Daiei Lemon Sex series in Tokyo soon, but me not being there, I gave myself a quick introduction to Daiei's early 70s youth film star at home since most of these films are streaming on Amazon Prime (also out on DVD). Btw, Sekine now goes by the name Keiko Takahashi... ever since she married Banmei Takahashi.

High School Affair (高校生ブルース) (Japan, 1970) [VoD] - 2/5
Daiei youth eros with a school girl (cute Keiko Sekine in her debut role) getting accidentally pregnant after a tender moment with a boyfriend. Charmingly innocent with an old fashioned score, sweet characters and amazing metaphors (the love scene cross-cut to a basketball match has to be seen) until suffocating conservatism kicks in and robs it of all the joy. Sekine's character turns into an irritating drama queen in the process. The lesson is: sex is a filthy thing and will destroy a youngster's life. This was the opening film in Daiei's Lemon Sex line, which was quite a bit tamer than what other studios were putting out. The theatrical poster, however, is surprisingly daring for Daiei, with Sekine in a wet see-through shirt... at 15.



Child Bride (おさな妻) (Japan, 1970) [VoD] - 2.5/5
High school girl Keiko Sekine part-times as kindergarten teacher and falls in love with the young single father of her favourite student. She becomes his wife and the child's mother. Expectedly sweet and tame, but also a curious contrast to High School Affair with its pro shagging-minors narrative. But then again, shagging minors has always been a popular activity among the conservatives and this movie doesn't stray far from its conservative roots. Quite watchable nevertheless, not least because of Sekine, who had a lot of charm to her. This was supposed to be her debut film, but became no. 2 when Daiei used her as a replacement star in High School Affair a few months earlier.

The Forbidden Fruit (新・高校生ブルース) (1970) [VoD] - 2.5/5
More Daiei conservatism, this time disguised as sex comedy. A group of boys makes a pledge to lose their virginity. One of the targets is ultra-chaste Keiko Sekine who preaches in class "sex without love is for wild animals, not for human beings". This is actually moderately entertaining despite of, or because of, its American style hypocrisy that simultaneously preaches about love and morals but can't resist being a bit naughty (or perhaps it's the other way around, doesn't really make a difference). A sequel to High School Affair.

The Awakening (成熱) (Japan, 1971) [VoD] - 2/5
A barely disguised 'Keiko Sekine and pretty scenery` concept film set in various small towns during summer festival season. The story excuse aka plot centres on two rival high schools competing in photography. Tension and romance ensues. Quite watchable, but ultimately unrewarding (save for the "let's raid the agricultural high school" line that surely can't be heard in any other film). For some reason Sekine doesn't get naked this time, and there's nothing even discreetly erotic in the movie, which is greatly at odds with the Lemon Sex Line billing.



Love for Eternity (é«˜æ ¡ç”Ÿå¿ƒä¸ ç´”æ„›) (Japan, 1971) [DVD] - 3/5
High school lovers and part-time runaways Keiko Takahashi and Saburo Shinoda try to escape the conservative world that won't accept their relationship. A real rollercoaster, emotionally and quality wise. Sekine hits career low in a hysteric crying scene, then climaxes in a love scene in the clouds (which is awesome)! The adults are all toxic cunts, which gets your blood boiling because you really care for the young protagonists and wish they'd have the upper hand.

Play (Asobi) (遊び) (Japan, 1971) [VoD] - 3/5
Keiko Sekine gets the Yasuzo Masumura treatment. Shy girl Sekine from shitty home hooks up with unconfident youngster Masaaki Daimon who is revealed to be a yakuza under peer pressure. The story is told with frequent flashbacks to be past putting present moment scenes into an emotional context. This is Masumura in Electric Jellyfish mode, only the spark isn't quite on the same level. There an overload of misery (especially with the bad parents) and characters feel like they're on rails towards doom. But it comes alive big time when they decide to fight the destiny, with a very rewarding and touching last half an hour of gritty youth escapism. Easily Sekine's most rebellious Daiei film.

[47lab]

We've all made that mistake here. Don't fret, our supreme leader will fix it. On the way to check out the THE KING'S LETTERS.

It's freaking hot and humid, so we'll go for a bowl of cold buckwheat noodles after the show. Also RIP to actress, Jeon mi sun who played king sejong's wife in her last role. She apparently took her own life about a month ago.

[Takuma]

oh shit, wrong thread. This was supposed to be in the JP releases of course...

[47lab]

Shame AFRICA'S LIGHT isn't coming out on blu ray and only dvd. I really enjoyed the movie, it gave me some GOING PLACES vibes and Kunie Tanaka had me rolling. This flick has been out for several months now as someone had ripped it from a VOD or streaming service & made it available at the usual sites with English subs. I'm sure the official dvd release will be better because the rip looks like it was sourced from VHS tape. So I'll definitely upgrade my copy once that Toho dvd comes out.

[Takuma]

Finally! Toho is releasing Kumashiro's Failed Youth (青春の蹉跌) (1974) and Africa's Light (アフリカの光) (1975) on DVD on 2019/12/18.





Also the same day, Koreyoshi Kurahara's Two in the Amsterdam Rain (雨のアムステルダム) (1975)

[Takuma]

I didn't know that the Meika Seri film was a documentary!

I can hardly believe I finally saw it. My short history of missing the film:
2014: Meika Seri retrospective in Laputa Asagaya (Tokyo). Skipped the screening in favor of a Shunji Iwai triple feature.
2016: Meika Seri retrospective in Cinema Vera (Tokyo). Missed the first screening due to a delayed flight.
2016: Meika Seri retrospective in Cinema Vera (Tokyo). I was seated for the second screening, but I got so sick I had to leave before it started.
2018: Meika Seri retrospective in Shin bungeiza(Tokyo). I wasn't in town.

Then finally:
2019: My girlfriend's mother mails me a copy

[tetrapak]

Front Row Life (かぶりつき人生) (Japan, 1968) [DVD] - 2/5
Tatsumi Kumashiro's debut film about a moody gal whose fat mother is a stripper. The daughter gets a bit into the same trade, and runs into some unpleasant men, one of whom wants her to star in a pink film. Kumashiro fans should enjoy this as it's unmistakably his work; I wasn't that impressed by it though, nor were the audiences at the time it seems. Kumashiro was back to assistant duties until Nikkatsu went Roman Porno. This film is tame compared to those, a character drama with mainly talk, but there are a few (non-striptease) scenes that show brief glimpses of nudity while pretending to be part of serious narrative. You get the feeling they calculated how much they could get away with.

The Turkish Bathhouses of Japan (æœå¹Œãƒ»æ¨ªæµœãƒ»åå¤å±‹ãƒ»é›„琴・博多　㠃ˆãƒ«ã‚³æ¸¡ã‚Šé³¥) (Japan, 1975) [TV] - 3/5
A Toei documentary exploration of "Turkish baths". The film features toruko-wanderer Meika Seri employing herself in the country's many brothels in a fictional frame story into which documentary footage and interviews with real pros are inserted. Shingo Yamashiro narrates, Tsusai Sugawara pops up, and there's footage of foreign prostitutes and a visit to a women's toruko with male workers. The most obscure thing we learn: 90% toruko girls own a pet because they are lonely! Some of the lengthy footage with bubble specialist sex workers doing their thing is also interesting, though marred by tons of fogging, and this being an exploitation doc you can never be quite sure what's staged and to what extent. The structure works pretty well anyway, with real footage balanced with a fictional road movie drama and not too many boring moments. A bit better than Sadao Nakajima's similar pictures from a few years earlier. Note: Turkish baths were re-named into Soaplands in the 80s after the Turks took offense. The younger Japanese are no longer familiar with the term “toruko”.



The Day of No Return (Kaerazaru hibi) (帰らざる日々) (Japan, 1978) [DVD] - 3/5
A young man (Toshiyuki Nagashima) returns to his hometown and recalls his youth, including an unlikely friendship with a brutish bully (Jun Etí´), and a girl (Kahori Takeda from Pink Hip Girl) whose father (Atsuo Nakamura in a Yoshio Harada role) was a yakuza. Told in parallel in 1978 and 1972 with plenty of period detail. Another good, though not exceptional film by Japan's top youth film director of the 70s, Toshiya Fujita. He's ironically best known abroad for his most atypical film, Lady Snowblood. Perhaps that makes sense though, as revenge films travel better, and serious youth dramas are a genre the Japanese are for some reason much more comfortable with than the rest of the world.


Big Magnum Kuroiwa Sensei (ビッグ・マグナム黒岩先生) (Japan, 1985) [DVD] - 3/5
“Violence education is my motto”, explains one of the new teachers at the School without Honor and Humanity, an institution full of delinquents, neo nazis and girls flashing their breasts (imported Nikkatsu actresses, I believe). And by "violence education" he means using violence in education. But the real badass in the school is the other newcomer, Kuroiwa sensei, a harmless looking old man who is actually a secret agent armed to the teeth, sent by the Board of Education! A relatively insane Kazuhiko Yamaguchi high school action comedy runs out of bullets at the end when the educational Rambo has to clear the school of bad boys without actually killing anyone. Lame. It's because the film was a family friendly mainstream comedy manga adaptation, released just prior to the 80s high school action boom (Be-bop High School and Sukeban Deka followed soon). It's still a good bit of fun, though.

very interested to watch these 4 ... thanks for sharing... I didn't know that the Meika Seri film was a documentary!

[mjeon]

I watched Hideo Gosha's Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron (1978) and can't recommend it. For one thing it's long: 2.5 hours spread over two disks in the HK DVD version I watched. The film is most interesting when it functions as a pre-modern caper movie. It opens with ninja types walking on a tight rope with umbrellas to keep their balance to perform a heist. It seems in 18th-century Japan the nation's finest samurais have joined forces to create an “Arson and Theft Investigation Arm.” (Who is investigating the murders and rapes we never learn.) We see samurais working at desks and reading what are apparently crime files. One samurai complains about the paperwork. The samurai cops are always just a step behind the bandits, although they kill dozens of them. There's a down-at-the-heels sexy female aristocrat who uses her body and feminine wiles to set up a very elaborate crime. (Plenty of boobs in this movie.) I honestly thought that the film was about her and we would discover how she became this slutty criminal.

Instead she simply disappears at about the two-hour mark; and the movie veers off on a totally different trajectory without her and without the samurai police. The head (the magnificent Tatsuya Nakadai) of the extremely diminished bandit gang has a score to settle with the shogun who besmirched his name long ago. I am bound to say that for someone so touchy about his honor, he did seem very comfortable leading a life of crime for years. It turns out that he was the shogun's accountant. Somehow he also is the natural father of the shogun's son, although this is as much of a surprise to him as the viewer. Nakadai goes Sword of Doom on the shogun's men, but in this movie he has an escape plan, which goes awry when his row boat inexplicably explodes. Somehow he survives anyway. Long before this I had given up wondering why things happen. The final scene is Nakadai visiting the grave of some old man who had volunteered to pretend to be him and be executed in his stead at the exact same time the now resigned head of the samurai police - who seemed to be a bit of an asshole -- is visiting that man's grave. Go figure.

[Takuma]

The Tale of Zatoichi (座é å¸‚物語) (Japan, 1962) [BD] - 4.5/5
Zatoichi meets honourable but enemy gang affiliated samurai Shigeru Amachi in the beautifully written and directed opening film. It's curious how ninkyo'ish the storyline is (before the genre even existed), with Katsu and Amachi's meetings and discussions being old fashioned romanticized male honour/duty/friendship cinema at its best (you don't find anything quite like this in modern cinema, except maybe in 80s John Woo films). At the same time it steers away from the dull evil gang vs. good gang yakuza film pattern by making both gangs rotten. And the entire movie is funny and touching, with both elements beautifully integrated into the narrative rather than slapped on top of it. Also Amachi, an actor I've sometimes dismissed in his Toei films, is extremely good here. One of the all time best yakuza films.

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (続・座é å¸‚物語) (Japan, 1962) [BD] - 3.5/5
Part 2. Zatoichi meets a man from the past (Katsu's brother Tomisaburo Wakayama). Enjoyable, wonderfully short (72 min) sequel nevertheless feels slightly superficial compared to the amazing original. The score (by Ichiro Saito instead of Akira Ikufube) dates the film, the storyline is built on back-story threads intentionally left loose in part one, and the Katsu-Wakayama pairing isn't milked to the full until the fantastic last 15 minutes. Still very good, but there was potential for even more.

New Tale of Zatoichi (新・座é å¸‚物語) (Japan, 1963) [BD] - 4/5
Part 3. The first colour entry and a return to top form with comparable honour/duty/respect play as the original film. Zatoichi is about to leave the yakuza life behind when he encounters a man who isn't evil, but must kill Zatoichi because his brother was slain by him. Effective and very touching. Three further points of notice: the film contains one of Akira Ikufube's most beautiful scores, features stunning framing throughout, and intensifies the action with powerful sword action sound effects (something that, typical to older chambara and yakuza films, was largely absent from the first two Zatoichi movies).



Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (座é å¸‚あばれ凧) (Japan, 1964) [BD] - 3/5
Part 7. Evil yakuza Tatsuo Endo tries to obtain a riverside area from a decent boss who is harbouring Zatoichi without knowing his true identity. Standard entry with a routine storyline. Katsu is lovable as usual and Endo has a great evil laugh.

Adventures of Zatoichi (座é å¸‚関所破り) (Japan, 1964) [BD] - 3.5/5
Part 9. Sometimes you can do without a good plot. The characters, scenery and the hugely atmospheric final duel, all handled with finesse, make the uninspired `yakuza scheming with corrupt officials to extort villagers` plot surprisingly unobtrusive. Smooth sailing with the world's most lovable movie character.

Zatoichi's Conspiracy (新座é å¸‚物語・笠間の血ç¥ã‚Š) (Japan, 1973) [BD] - 3.5/5
Part 25. The last of the original run before the 1989 one-time revival. This one is better than the previous few entries, more in line with the classic 60s films than some of the cruder 70s entries. Nothing unique, but there's a nice atmosphere and the film makes a satisfying closing for the series.

[47lab]

I re-watched Ahn Guk-jin's 2015 debut feature ALICE IN EARNESTLAND. This flick was actually in my top 10 a few years back and upon a re-watch it still captures the multi-mood, genre busting feel of some of the early 2000 Korean flicks. A bit of really off beat humor/black comedy mixed with social satire with a dash of ultra violence. Okay, it's not SAVE THE GREEN PLANET! or anything but still a very engrossing and funny film which gets progressively darker. The lead actress, Lee Jung-hyun, who is probably better known as a pop singer does a fantastic job portraying a quirky naive headstrong character who develops psychopathic tendencies as she is pushed to her physical and mental limits. Recommended and my impetus for a re-watch is due to this film being the subject of What's Korean Cinema Ep #45 on the POF.

[47lab]

Thursdays are reserved for SBs around my house, so I put on Hsia Hsu's kung fu comedy, KID FROM KWANGTUNG. Director Hsu reunites with Wang Yu, Wong Mei-mei & Sharon Yeung from his earlier film LION VS LION and like that flick, this one includes a very entertaining lion dance scene with a chicken and a centipede. The flick is pretty slow going other than the aforementioned lion dance fight but it sure picks up when Hwang Jang-lee arrives on the scene. He's worth the price of admission alone. Speaking of kickers, Wong Mei-mei is also very underrated in my book with her flexible kicking techniques. Although she doesn't get to really show her stuff in her limited role here.

[Takuma]

Front Row Life (かぶりつき人生) (Japan, 1968) [DVD] - 2/5
Tatsumi Kumashiro's debut film about a moody gal whose fat mother is a stripper. The daughter gets a bit into the same trade, and runs into some unpleasant men, one of whom wants her to star in a pink film. Kumashiro fans should enjoy this as it's unmistakably his work; I wasn't that impressed by it though, nor were the audiences at the time it seems. Kumashiro was back to assistant duties until Nikkatsu went Roman Porno. This film is tame compared to those, a character drama with mainly talk, but there are a few (non-striptease) scenes that show brief glimpses of nudity while pretending to be part of serious narrative. You get the feeling they calculated how much they could get away with.

The Turkish Bathhouses of Japan (æœå¹Œãƒ»æ¨ªæµœãƒ»åå¤å±‹ãƒ»é›„琴・博多　㠃ˆãƒ«ã‚³æ¸¡ã‚Šé³¥) (Japan, 1975) [TV] - 3/5
A Toei documentary exploration of "Turkish baths". The film features toruko-wanderer Meika Seri employing herself in the country's many brothels in a fictional frame story into which documentary footage and interviews with real pros are inserted. Shingo Yamashiro narrates, Tsusai Sugawara pops up, and there's footage of foreign prostitutes and a visit to a women's toruko with male workers. The most obscure thing we learn: 90% toruko girls own a pet because they are lonely! Some of the lengthy footage with bubble specialist sex workers doing their thing is also interesting, though marred by tons of fogging, and this being an exploitation doc you can never be quite sure what's staged and to what extent. The structure works pretty well anyway, with real footage balanced with a fictional road movie drama and not too many boring moments. A bit better than Sadao Nakajima's similar pictures from a few years earlier. Note: Turkish baths were re-named into Soaplands in the 80s after the Turks took offense. The younger Japanese are no longer familiar with the term “toruko”.



The Day of No Return (Kaerazaru hibi) (帰らざる日々) (Japan, 1978) [DVD] - 3/5
A young man (Toshiyuki Nagashima) returns to his hometown and recalls his youth, including an unlikely friendship with a brutish bully (Jun Etí´), and a girl (Kahori Takeda from Pink Hip Girl) whose father (Atsuo Nakamura in a Yoshio Harada role) was a yakuza. Told in parallel in 1978 and 1972 with plenty of period detail. Another good, though not exceptional film by Japan's top youth film director of the 70s, Toshiya Fujita. He's ironically best known abroad for his most atypical film, Lady Snowblood. Perhaps that makes sense though, as revenge films travel better, and serious youth dramas are a genre the Japanese are for some reason much more comfortable with than the rest of the world.

Prey (餌食) (Japan, 1979) - 4/5
Yuya Uchida x Koji Wakamatsu x Reggae. Uchida is a pot smoking ex-rocker back from the States. He hooks up with a small community of ex political radical, a bozo zoku style lone youngster and a teenage girl while growing increasingly concerned about the heroine trade conducted by gangsters in the show biz back-stage. A little more laidback than your average Wakamatsu fair, with an amazing non-stop reggae soundtrack and no graphic sex. Not the director at his most intense, yet unmistakably Wakamatsu all the way to the ending where Uchida goes postal in bright daylight and starts shooting random people on the street.



Shanghai Rhapsody (上海バンスã‚ング) (Japan, 1984) [35mm] - 3/5
Enjoyable but overlong Shanghai musical set in the 30s and 40s. With Fukasaku's usual frantic pacing I was quite enjoying the film until at 45 minutes I realized there's still two thirds to go (most directors would've taken 80 minutes to get that far). Plenty of singing and dancing in night club context, a gwailo gangster speaking English and Japanese in the same sentence, and a brief, hysterical Etsuko Shihomi karate scene (she has the film's biggest supporting role as Chinese girl marrying a Japanese musician). For a while I though the film was drawing a naive depiction of Japanese-Chinese co-living until I realized the war just hadn't started yet. When it does, it's Japanese soldiers executing children on the streets. Not what the target audiences expected perhaps, but this wouldn't be a Fukasaku film without that kind of brutal honesty.

Big Magnum Kuroiwa Sensei (ビッグ・マグナム黒岩先生) (Japan, 1985) [DVD] - 3/5
“Violence education is my motto”, explains one of the new teachers at the School without Honor and Humanity, an institution full of delinquents, neo nazis and girls flashing their breasts (imported Nikkatsu actresses, I believe). And by "violence education" he means using violence in education. But the real badass in the school is the other newcomer, Kuroiwa sensei, a harmless looking old man who is actually a secret agent armed to the teeth, sent by the Board of Education! A relatively insane Kazuhiko Yamaguchi high school action comedy runs out of bullets at the end when the educational Rambo has to clear the school of bad boys without actually killing anyone. Lame. It's because the film was a family friendly mainstream comedy manga adaptation, released just prior to the 80s high school action boom (Be-bop High School and Sukeban Deka followed soon). It's still a good bit of fun, though.



Railroad Man (鉄道員) (Japan, 1999) [VoD] - 1/5
Old man devoted his life to work instead of family and spends most of the movie seeing b&w and sepia toned flashbacks. Popular Takakura movie could just as well have been women's sappy TV drama because nothing sets it apart from those other than the occasional widescreen landscape shot. Shinobu Otake's wife character so exceedingly tailor made for female TV audiences that any other viewer's head is likely to explode í  la Scanners.