Too Young to Die (æ»ã¬ã«ã¯ã¾ã æ—©ã„) (Japan, 1969) [35mm] 4.5/5
Kiyoshi Nishimura is one of the most exciting undiscovered Japanese directors. The opening for this film is cinema at its purest, and best! Nishimura uses very little dialogue as he first shows a man and a woman in bed, making love. We don't know exactly who they are and what their relationship is, but they're not married. Quick crosscuts reveal that he appears to be a former race driver. She makes references to her husband who is away, somewhere. Cut to the following night as they are in a car. They stop in a small bar by the highway. Minutes later a desperate gunman charges in and takes everyone as hostage. This is the premise for Nishimura's gritty and intelligent debut film which serves as a prime example of what is good filmmaking. The film drafts excellent characters without ever over-explaining them, which allows us to feel for them, yet we cannot anticipate their every move. Nishimura's attention for every detail, every drop of sweat, every painful breath, combined with sparse but clever use of music make this one hell of a thriller. Unfortunately, it has never been released on home video.
Lake of Dracula (呪ã„ã®é¤¨ 血をå¸ã†çœ¼) (Japan, 1970) [35mm] 1.5/5
Part 2 in Toho's Dracula trilogy. I haven't seen the others, and based on how boring this one is, it shall remain that way. The dull, bloodless film attempts to relocate Hammer style horror to Japan, but the characters are dull, the style is lacking, and the storyline about a woman who ran into vampires as a kid and at the end of the film realizes it wasn't a dream after all fails to spark any interest. The vampire himself (not actually Dracula, but a descendant), played by the usually interesting Shin Kishida, is but a pale shadow of Christopher Lee, and his "castle" is more like a big cottage by a lake. The pale faced vampire make up (that no one in the film particularly pays attention to) looks especially ridiculous.
City of Beasts (野ç£éƒ½å¸‚) (Japan, 1970) [35mm] - 3.5/5
Director Jun Fukuda is probably best known for his Godzilla films. Those films gave little indication he could make films this good. This aptly titled film follows a university student (Toshio Kurosawa) who makes friends with a middle aged factory owner (Rentaro Mikuni). The men have a common interest: guns. When Mikuni takes his new friend to a shady business meeting, the young apprentice cold bloodedly guns down the men who showed up with guns. The two click immediately and a father-son like relationship develops between them. Kurosawa's loyalty comes much in need when his mentor's sexy daughter is about to be married to a man with close family ties to the yakuza, who in turn are looking for the men Kurosawa shot dead and dumped in the bottom of a lake. Minor roughness in Fukuda's filmmaking is evident, but the film is cold, gritty and fast paced while simultaneously offering a fascinating insights to the characters. Based on a book by Haruhiko Oyabu (Youth of the Beast).
Yakuza and Feuds (ã‚„ãã–ã¨æŠ—争) (Japan, 1972) [DVD] - 2/5
A jitsuroku / ninkyo hybrid based on Noboru Ando's partly autobiographical, partly fictional novel of the same name, released earlier the same year. The film focuses Ando (played by Ando himself, of course) and his gangs in the early 1930s when they were still small time street thugs. Ando makes friends with a doctor and his daughter, and comes across an honourable yakuza (Bunta Sugawara) who's affiliated with villainous gangsters (Bin Amatsu, Fumio Watanabe). Unfortunately the film lacks clear vision, packing 93 minutes of mediocre yakuza mayhem that falls somewhere between the jitsuroku and ninkyo genres.
Note: this is the 1st of three films that could be considered to be a series. There's a bit of confusion about the films since in his book Chris D got the titles mixed up, calling the first two films "True Account of the Ando Gang - Yakuza and Feuds" and "Yakuza and Feuds - True Account of the Ando Gang" respectively. Actually the 1st film is just called " Yakuza and Feuds", and the 2nd one is "True Account of the Ando Gang - Yakuza and Feuds". The mistake is repeated to an even greater degree in IMDb (at least as of June 2017) where not only the English titles but also to cast listings, trivia, running times etc. for both films are mixed up, and sometimes combined.
Girl Boss: Escape from Reform School (女番長　感化院脱走) (Japan, 1973) [35mm] - 4/5
The 5th film in the series. This one keeps getting better every time I see it. The film comes with genuinely cool characters (especially after the nasty, misogynist Girl Boss Revenge), badass girl power, groovy soundtrack, and bits of good humour instead of dumb comedy. Cool without being too flashy, except for the reform school's standard punishment method which is stripping teenage girls topless, tying their hands behind their back and leaving them in a cell alone. Hah! I also liked Kenji Imai, an actor I normally don't pay much attention to, as the reform school teacher chasing the escapees, and of course Tsunehiko Watase as a young robber who hooks up with the girls. Watase is always good at playing these kind of rough but somehow pitiable characters. The film is, generally speaking, a little more believable than most other films in the genre, which is probably why it doesn't initially stand out but grows on you on subsequent viewings. Oh, and needless to say seeing this from a near pristine 35mm print on Shin Bungeiza's large screen was a blast.
Saburai: Way of the Bohachi (忘八æ¦å£«é“ ã•ç„¡é ¼) (Japan, 1974) - 2/5
A disappointing follow-up to Teruo Ishii's chanbara masterpiece Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight (1973). Ishii mention in an interview he didn't even know Toei had made a sequel to his film. This movie is very much a re-telling of the original, with Goro Ibuki playing Tetsuro Tamba's role, althoug it's not clear whether the protagonist is the same character or not. The storyline is almost the same with many scenes remade from the original. It has its own trashy appeal as the film is even more violent than Ishii's movie and features just as much sex. However, the film is entirely incoherent in its characterization and storytelling, and lacks the style, pace and originality of Ishii's film. It feels like a copy made by a lesser filmmaker, the man being the mediocre Takashi Harada. A good comparison would be the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, where the originals (1972-1974) had their own surreal, twisted logic to them while the remakes (1976-1977) were just nonsensical. Ibuki and Harada, however, teamed up for a much better sexploitation chanbara the following year, Shitakari Hanjirí´: (Maruhi) kannon o sagase, which, like this film, was based on a Kazuo Koike comic book.
Lion Enforcer (å”ç…åè¦å¯Ÿ) (Japan, 1974) [DVD] - 2/5
Regrettably dull yakuza film by the uneven Sadao Nakajima. Tsunehiko Watase is a young hothead who befriends older gangster Akira Kobayashi until his temper starts causing trouble and the men find themselves enemies. The film mainly suffers from the fact that it's not all that interesting. Everything has been done better in other films, and this one is not even especially violent in its genre. Somewhat decent last 3 minutes aside, the only memorable scene is Watase raping a horny French woman who doesn't mind it at all, quite the contrary instead. Hardly counts as a merit.
Majoran (é”女åµ) (Japan, 1984) [TV] - 3.5/5
Exciting delinquent girl drama is in equal parts a youth film and a blazing gangster movie set to "live" music í la Walter Hill's Streets of Fire. First timer Yuko Watanabe stars as an Osaka bad girl who's introduced to the world of indie rock bands by a friendly biker gay hanging out in a small a rock bar. The film was cast with open auditions, most of the sukeban girls being obvious real delinquents with wonderfully coarse Osaka dialects. The film is also packed with 80s heavy metal bands and rock stars with mind blowing names (Mad Rocker, Jesus, Christ etc.). What sets Majoran apart from Streets of Fire is how it's rooted in reality unlike Hill's pop culture fantasy. There's a wonderfully touching scene at the end - spoiler warning I guess - where the heroine, disappointed by her ex-boyfriend who's relocated to Tokyo and cut his rock star hair in preparation for salaryman life, lets him know just what she thinks of him. She then rides back to Osaka on a night bus alone. The world changes and friends grow adults, but a couple of rebels will never give up. Well, they will eventually, but the film ends before that, on a high note on the streets of Osaka, on a motorcycle, with director Seiji Izumi cross cutting to a gig by heavy metal girl band Majoran as the credits roll.
Chikan to nozoki: Shitagi mania (ç—´æ¼¢ã¨è¦—ã 下ç€ãƒžãƒ‹ã‚¢) (Japan, 1991) - 1.5/5
A pervert real estate agent inserts cameras and peepholes into cribs he's renting out. Tons of sleazy sex scenes follow and one romantic one at the end when cameras have been gotten rid of and the couple can make happy love in privacy. Ah yes, this is genuine early 90s pink cinema with no artistic ambitions, and as such it comes with its own cultural appeal. That films like this were once shot on 35mm for theatrical distribution in pink joints where old men in raincoats would line up to see tits, ass and women fondling themselves - and that they still continue to be shown in the few surviving pink theatres for an audience whose average age is around 65 - comes with its own appeal. The film itself is something of a skeleton of a movie where the only flesh is found in the women's chest area. At least the leading lady is rather pretty. Original title: Chikan to nozoki: Shitagi mania ("Molester and Peeper: Underwear Mania"); re-release title: Hitozuma no nozoki-kata: Yogoreta shitagi o nerae ("Housewife Peeper: Targeting Dirty Underwear").
Kodoku Meatball Machine (è ±æ¯’ ミートボールマシン) (Japan, 2017) - 2.5/5
Occasionally exciting but poorly paced follow-up to Yudai Yamaguchi's 2005 splatter punk film. The film is essentially a 40 minute introduction followed by a 50 minute non-stop monster melee on the streets of Tokyo. Yoshihiro Nishimura once again excels with his inventive low budget monster design and entertains the audience with the usual blood showers as well as a "topless chase scene". Unfortunately he also uses some depressing CGI and green screen sequences, and relies too much on drama that fails to engage during the first act. Another problem is that Nishimura has never been a very good action director. The fights often seems like random moves and clips edited together. Composer Kou Nakagawa played an important role in making Nishimura's earlier films so effective, but for the past few collaborations his work has been repetitive and less interesting. The film remains, however, quite watchable and at times even exhilarating despite the issues.
Essentially, this is a more violent and action oriented take on Besson's LA FEMME NIKITA but actress, Kim Ok Bin puts Anne Parillaud to shame when it comes to getting her hands dirty. The opening sequence reminiscent of OLD BOY but shown from the POV of the protagonist is well done as is a later action set piece involving crotch rockets and samurai swords. So yeah, you'll recognize the familiar tropes of a young girl turned into a secret government assassin but it's still quite entertaining. Well Go has picked up the NA rights and I'll probably end up getting the eventual blu ray release down the road.
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