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  • FUNUKE SHOW SOME LOVE, YOU LOSERS! [Funuke domo, kanashimi no ai wo misero] - Dir. Daihachi Yoshida (2009)

    Decided on a spur of the moment to re-watch this again & it brought back all the emotions from my first viewing. I absolutely love this dark comedy about a dysfunctional family unit brought together in their rural farm hometown by the loss of their parents in a freak (very gory) road accident. Yoshida in his debut film, utilizes the perfect blend of light hearted comedy & a really twisted sense of black humor to carry this film to its surprise climax. There are many standout performances in this film but special mention has to be made of Hiromi Nagasaku who plays the the outwardly cheery but emotionally battered wife -- she is just wonderful and one just aches to see more of her onscreen.

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    • I can't believe I never watched this before Svengoolie showed it tonight. It's freakin' great!

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      • The Pit (1981): as bad/good as I remember it.
        "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

        Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

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        • The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God In a Coin Locker [Ahiru to kamo no koinrokka] - Dir. Yoshihiro Nakamura (2007)

          I came into this movie with a bit of trepidation as I didn't enjoy the only previous Nakamura movie that I've seen which was FISH STORY. Although the one bright spot of FISH STORY was the character played by Gaku Hamada during the flashback sequence to 1982. Lo & behold, Gaku is one of the main characters in this one as well & plays a similar role too as a nerdy, shy pushover type. But the real star here is Eita Nakamura, who I first saw in Toshiaki Toyoda's early films like BLUE SPRING & 9 SOULS & he is superb playing a Bhutanese college student studying in Japan. Incidentally, he is also reunited with fellow BLUE SPRING star Ryuhei Matsuda, who seems to gravitate towards roles where he comes off as a smug asshole at first but is somehow likeable in the end (with the exception being his role in BOYS ON THE RUN).

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          • VIOLENCE WITHOUT A CAUSE [Gendai sei hanzai zekkyo hen: riyu naki boko] - Dir. Koji Wakamtsu (1969)

            Another masterpiece from Wakamatsu chronicling the frustrations of disillusioned youth during the "Golden Sixties" industrial boom. A trio of young men (college student, a factory worker and an unemployed slacker) share a small apartment in Tokyo after arriving from Aomori in hopes of better prospects. After a year, they are left bitterly disappointed at the banality of their daily life, lack of money & especially their mounting sexual frustration. They begin to slowly realize their lives will never improve & their future prospects will remain bleak with their current position in society. Their only outlet & release for their frustrations is to commit crimes ranging from gang rape to petty shoplifting. These guys are faithfully following the famous quote by the Situationist International, "Whatever the eye sees and covets, let the hand grasp it." In one particular stand out scene, the college student takes his slacker buddy to the local university to engage some of the student activists passing out flyers & Koji takes another jab at the utter futility of the impotent student left when even these "losers" in society can see through their empty rhetoric and moral bankruptcy.

            Last edited by 47lab; 06-18-2013, 01:38 AM. Reason: corrected romanized title

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            • Ed Wood double feature of Bride of the Monster and Glen or Glenda. First time watching these. Glen or Glenda is bad but I give the guy credit for what he was trying to do for no money and there's some bravery there. Not as funny as I thought it would be aside from the Lugosi bits and the fact that the film has 4 introductions until it finally starts going.

              I think Bride of the Monster is the best one. Hilarious. Plan Nine is overrated.
              "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

              Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

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              • SOLDIER BLUE - Dir. Ralph Nelson (1970)

                Recently re-watched this & certainly one of the most 'honest' westerns made -- the final massacre of the Kiowa tribe is still unnerving despite the passage of nearly half a century since the movie was first released. Even cooler to mute the finale & put on Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills as the soundtrack.

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                • What are you watching?

                  Originally posted by 47lab View Post
                  SOLDIER BLUE - Dir. Ralph Nelson (1970)

                  Recently re-watched this & certainly one of the most 'honest' westerns made -- the final massacre of the Kiowa tribe is still unnerving despite the passage of nearly half a century since the movie was first released. Even cooler to mute the finale & put on Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills as the soundtrack.

                  Funny - I just talked about this one in the Westerns Classic American thread. I think it's a terrible film - loaded with anachronistic dialog and atrocious performances. Bergen is astoundingly awful with her hip 70's chick lingo and attitude. It's also one of those 70's "message" movies gone badly wrong with a Vietnam allegory so ham-fisted and over-the-top Oliver Stone would blush. The ending massacre is very gory - but I think it's a cheap shot unearned.

                  I'd love to see the Sand Creek Massacre get a really good film - this ain't it. It does have its fans though.

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                  • Originally posted by Horace Cordier View Post
                    Funny - I just talked about this one in the Westerns Classic American thread. I think it's a terrible film - loaded with anachronistic dialog and atrocious performances. Bergen is astoundingly awful with her hip 70's chick lingo and attitude. It's also one of those 70's "message" movies gone badly wrong with a Vietnam allegory so ham-fisted and over-the-top Oliver Stone would blush. The ending massacre is very gory - but I think it's a cheap shot unearned.

                    I'd love to see the Sand Creek Massacre get a really good film - this ain't it. It does have its fans though.
                    Yeah, it's like the massacre sequence and everything that comes before it are two completely different movies that got pasted together.

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                    • I enjoyed it despite the faults you mentioned. I saw that The Green Berets (John Wayne) not too long ago before watching this & it was like the flip side of the coin -- perhaps that had some effect on my perception of this movie? I definitely side with the political overtones of Soldier Blue compared to that wretched pro-Vietnam War propaganda piece. Now that movie should have had a laugh track at the spurious tearjerker ending when that little Viet boy is searching for his "hero" who was killed in action -- when in likelihood, that boy would've been killed in a My Lai type massacre or napalmed.

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                      • Originally posted by 47lab View Post
                        I enjoyed it despite the faults you mentioned. I saw that The Green Berets (John Wayne) not too long ago before watching this & it was like the flip side of the coin -- perhaps that had some effect on my perception of this movie? I definitely side with the political overtones of Soldier Blue compared to that wretched pro-Vietnam War propaganda piece. Now that movie should have had a laugh track at the spurious tearjerker ending when that little Viet boy is searching for his "hero" who was killed in action -- when in likelihood, that boy would've been killed in a My Lai type massacre or napalmed.
                        Interesting discussion.

                        Never seen THE GREEN BERETS. While I've come to appreciate John Wayne over the years in quality films like THE SEARCHERS that kind of right-wing nonsense would just annoy me. At least RAMBO PART II is really entertaining. I prefer my quasi-fascism grounded in a bit more reality like DEATH WISH or DIRTY HARRY.

                        But as I've gotten older the charms of leftie agitprop has worn off too. I'm almost done with Nathaniel Philbrick's excellent book on Custer and the battle of the Little Big Horn. Much like your reaction to SOLDIER BLUE and it's relation to THE GREEN BERETS my dislike of SOLDIER BLUE is based in part on Philbrick's book. He takes cardboard myths and makes them human. The history of the old west is really complicated with heroes and villains on both sides. I find SOLDIER BLUE inept and clumsy and the acting unusually awful. And then you get hit with this crazy all-out bloodbath at the end. If you want to "earn" an ending like that - build up to it with a powerful and serious film. Not a crappy Hallmark love story written like a cheesy feminist romance novel. I do like John Anderson as Chivington though - he's the best actor in this. And I own the German Kinowelt Blu ray because this is an important film historically.

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                        • I readily concede to all the points you make about SOLDIER BLUE being pretty awful in terms of acting, storyline, etc. Yes, at its core it is merely a sappy love story interspersed with a simplistic narrative about the evils the white man dealt upon the Indians but it is precisely that narrative which I find interesting since it goes against the orthodoxy of Westerns I've seen. You know, the typical portrayal of the US Cavalry as heroes & their meting out violence against the natives was justified since it was seen merely as a response to the savagery inflicted by the Indians against the 'civilized' race pursuing "progress" through Manifest Destiny. Granted my knowledge of Westerns is extremely limited and your depth of knowledge in this area far exceeds mine, so perhaps you can steer me towards Westerns which give a more nuanced view of the "history of the old west" than SOLDIER BLUE?

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                          • Originally posted by 47lab View Post
                            I readily concede to all the points you make about SOLDIER BLUE being pretty awful in terms of acting, storyline, etc. Yes, at its core it is merely a sappy love story interspersed with a simplistic narrative about the evils the white man dealt upon the Indians but it is precisely that narrative which I find interesting since it goes against the orthodoxy of Westerns I've seen. You know, the typical portrayal of the US Cavalry as heroes & their meting out violence against the natives was justified since it was seen merely as a response to the savagery inflicted by the Indians against the 'civilized' race pursuing "progress" through Manifest Destiny. Granted my knowledge of Westerns is extremely limited and your depth of knowledge in this area far exceeds mine, so perhaps you can steer me towards Westerns which give a more nuanced view of the "history of the old west" than SOLDIER BLUE?
                            ULZANA'S RAID is really, really good. It strikes a really good balance with the Indian and frontier characters. That's where I'd start.

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                            • Originally posted by Horace Cordier View Post
                              ULZANA'S RAID is really, really good. It strikes a really good balance with the Indian and frontier characters. That's where I'd start.
                              Cool. I'll check it out. I think this played recently on the Western Channel if I'm not mistaken? I seriously have to tweak that channel more. I've only been using it to check out the old B&W Gunsmoke/Matt Dillon reruns. Seeing Chester track down & chase some outlaws with his gimpy leg always cracks me up for some reason & old ornery Doc Adams too.

                              GREEN FISH [Chorok mulkogi] - Dir. Lee Chang-dong (1997)

                              Lee's directorial debut and rather pedestrian compared to his later efforts. I'm a huge fan of Lee Chang-dong and think his movies rank up there with the greatest world cinema has to offer but this film left me cold. The pacing is rather leisurely and I have no issue with that but none of the characters are particularly sympathetic or more importantly...interesting enough to capture your attention for more than a handful of scenes. The love story central to the film seemed forced and rather trite which quickly led me to tire of it.

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                              • SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE [Boksuneun Naui Geot] - Dir. Park Chan Wook (2002)

                                Still my favorite out of the Vengeance trilogy and one of my top 10 movies regardless of genre & national origin. Both Ryu & his gf were fascinating and I would've loved to see a prequel on how they met at the school for the deaf, how Bae Doo Na became a revolutionary anarchist, how they became lovers, etc. I haven't been a fan of PJW's latest films including that godawful THIRST but he has cemented himself in my good graces forever with this trilogy and JSA.

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