A Touch of the Ed Woods

I like J. Piquer Simon's Pieces and I like this for very different reasons. It is rather poorly made, but there is something about the director's work that touches something in me.

Have you seen his Slugs, the film based on the Shaun Hutson novel? I like that. He ought to take a crack at Breeding Ground, Hutson's sequel.

 I confess to not liking Mr. Simon's The Pod People, a truly confused and juvenile mess, but I love the title.

That JP Simon has got a touch of the 'Ed Woods' about him. That's not a bad thing, is it?!

Bello To Be Carjacked

As noted in a previous blog, I like Maria Bello a lot.

This upcoming flick starring Bello and Stephen Dorff, another fine performer, has piqued my interest with its arresting poster art.


The story involves a mother and son carjacked by a bank robber.

Original director was Peter Medak, who helmed the George C. Scott ghost story The Changeling ('80). The director now listed is John Bonito, who captained Fox's The Marine, a so-so piece of fluff with solid action.

I'm expecting something along the lines of Pasquale Feta Campanile's insanely good David Hess classic Hitch-Hike (aka The Naked Prey aka Autostop). Boy, am I setting myself up for disappointment!

Clearly I live in hope.

Ad Mat Massacre 2

I remember having a very strange discussion that got close to a serious argument about this film.

I was nineteen at the time. My first wife, who was somewhat older than me, was upset that I wanted to see Goodbye Cruel World instead of visiting a work colleague of hers.

"I have no interest in seeing that crap!" she said.

"That's fine, I'll see it on my own."

She picked up the newspaper and took a close look at the ad mat. "You can't be serious about wanting to see this."

"I'm dead serious."

"I don't get it. You'd rather see a film about a guy living in a toilet than spend the afternoon with me."

"You're welcome to join me," I smiled.

She looked at the ad mat again. "No, there are a million things I'd rather do than watch that crap."

"That's fine."

Although I loved the arm disappearing into the toilet bowl, I was equally drawn to the copy in the top left corner of the ad. It announced that Chuck Mitchell ('Porky' from Porky's) was bigger (aka fatter aka chubbier aka grosser aka more hideously monstrous) in this film than "ever". Than "ever"??? Fuck, I had to see this!!!

Well, I did see the film at the Showcase Sterling Heights, and, unfortunately, it wasn't about a bloke living in a toilet -- or a mermaid in a manhole, either. It was a pile of crap. The ex- had the film figured way before I did.

I'd also dispute the claim that Chuck Mitchell was "bigger than ever" in Goodbye Cruel World. He most certainly was not. I'll never forgive cinema for that betrayal.

 

This was just a damn odd movie that I went to see because it existed and I hadn't seen it. I wanted to leave about ten minutes in, but I stayed because I'm under the ridiculous delusion that I'll be awarded a prize one day for watching films like this.

The good old days when films were rated "X" (Bullitt)  and 'AO" (Bonnie and Clyde).

Nice to see the Dunwich alongside Easy Rider, and within the same general frame as the impressive Anthony Quinn-starrer A Dream of Kings. That film has finally been released on DVD by Warner Archives.

I appeared recently in a documentary by filmmaker Michael Smith in which I took his camera on a tour of Melbourne's now extinct cinemas. The Roma, for example, has become a shoe store; the cinema's original structure is still there, though. You used to walk down steep steps to get to the tiny little box office. The steps now lead to shoe displays. The Century, on busy Swanston St., is now a shady nightclub (aren't they all?).

Only the Rivoli Twin and Balwyn cinemas still exist. Both have at least doubled their screen capacity.

I saw Paperhouse at the AMC Century 14 (in Century City) and loved it. It's a prime example of an adult fairytale, and the type of film that audiences rarely support.  Neither do distributors or exhibitors, it seems. The film played at one cinema only. I like Bernard Rose's films.

Jack Abramoff, the subject of the must-see doco Casino Jack and the United States of Money, produced a couple of feature films with his dubiously acquired cash. Joseph (The Prowler, Invasion USA) Zito's Red Scorpion was one of these features. As you can see, Abramoff's name -- and his brother's name -- are all over the credit block.

The production, filmed in South Africa, was a troubled one. It had a helluva hard time getting a US release because of South Africa's apartheid policies at the time.  It was distributed by James (The Exterminator) Glickenhaus's Shapiro-Glickenhaus organization.

Today, Glickenhaus is a Wall St. bigshot, and Abramoff, still in jail, will be released shortly.

Abramoff was also the subject of the excellent Kevin Spacey film Casino Jack.

I couldn't quite acquire a taste for this filmed play directed and written by David Hare.

Some great dialog, though, and a potent performance by director Mike Nichols.

Saw it at the Angelika while working in New York at the time.

Another interesting release from George Harrison's Handmade Films, and another -- like How To Get Ahead in Advertising -- that nobody went to see.

The film, structured as a road trip, focuses on the plight of Native Americans and applies a great deal of humor to its thesis.

I saw it at the AMC Century 14 on a Saturday afternoon and was alone.

Apparently, it was a passion project for George Harrison, and it's well worth tracking down.

Mermaid at The Railroad?

Heung-Sik Park's The Railroad (2007) is the third film I've seen by this director. Sorry to say it, but it's easily his least.

I loved My Mother The Mermaid, a film echoing elements of Portrait of Jennie, Back to the Future, and Somewhere in Time. When her father goes missing, a young woman travels to the island where her parents first courted and meets a younger version of her mother. Her negative feelings about the woman become more complex as she gets to know her and begins to understand why her mother's ambitions eventually turned to bitterness. Quite a stunning piece with no pretty wrapping.

The director's The Twins (Yeokjeon-ui myeongsu, 05)  I only saw because I'd liked My Mother The Mermaid so much. It a silly, uneven comedy involving an ex-girlfriend's revenge on a corporate type (a twin) and a bank robbery. Not my cup of tea. Interestingly, a railway station setting does play a part.

Which leads us back to The Railroad.  There are two stories. A train driver (Tae-yeong Son) can't get images out of his head involving a woman who stepped in front of his train. He lives with his father, who is pressuring him to marry, and is having trouble sleeping. The second thread involves a part time university professor  (the beautiful Seon-yeong Ahn) whose mother is pressuring her to marry as she dates a married man.

The woman rides the train, but the two don't meet until the movie hits the two-thirds point. They find themselves stuck at a remote train station close to the North Korean border.

What happens to these two is not what you'd predict, but it's not terribly interesting, either. The movie is snail slow. I didn't have too much of a problem with that because I figured it was building to something interesting; that would have rewarded my concerted practicing of patience. Unfortunately, the resolution is slight in the extreme. It ended. I sat there. Went "That's it?" Turned off the TV. Turned off the lights.  Went to sleep.

Then woke up and felt compelled to write this review.

Usually I wouldn't write much about a movie I didn't care for. I see heaps of movies that never make it to this blog. There's a good reason for that. Why sing the praises of ho-hum movies? Especially ho-hum movies that don't even have the odd interesting flourish. Well, I did like some aspects of this movie. I liked the plotline involving the suicidal girl. I thought it would go somewhere. It did go somewhere, but not somewhere interesting. I liked the cinematography, too -- especially the night stuff.

Because I like My Mother The Mermaid, I guess I want to repeat the experience. It's a pretty unreasonable expectation, isn't it?

My Mother The Mermaid

***

The Railroad is one of three Korean films comprising the impressive Independent Film Collection from Fantom Entertainment Group.

The other titles are Boys of Tomorrow and No Regret.

Transfers and presentation are top notch.

Not Quite A Dream Home

 Technically, this is an accomplished Hong Kong horror film. The cinematography is slick and moody, the central performance by Josie Ho is strong, and the direction by Ho-Cheung Pang is solid (mostly). It's a Cat III flick, so the violence and gore are piled on thick. There are half a dozen jaw-dropping, super-inventive kill sequences that are blissfully free of restraint. This is not one of those pulled back Hong Kong horror films that is pandering to the more conservative Mainland censors -- and audiences.

So hats off to the producers Conroy Chan Chi-Chung,  Subi Liang, and Andrew Ooi for a job (technically) well done.

 A great film, however, is supported by a strong script. Unfortunately, the Dream Home script is an awful, schizophrenic mess. According to the rear sleeve of the Blu-ray, the film is about a Hong Kong woman (Ho) who buys an apartment in Hong Kong's insane property market. She can't make the payments, so she resorts to murder. Well, no, that's not why she resorts to murder, and she doesn't ever buy an apartment.

 The film mostly focuses on Ho murdering people in the years leading up to her near purchase of an apartment. It flashes back and forth between the murders, her childhood, and present day Hong Kong where she works two jobs in order to save extra pennies. The marginally important background we get on her is that she had an abusive loser of a father and a little brother. Occasionally, she got beaten, too. A present day addition to this mess is Ho's pointless relationship with a married man. She meets him in expensive hotels you rent by the hour and gets left with the tab. This relationship makes her character look like an idiot.

 It's not clear at all why Ho has become a murderer. At one point, her murders have lowered the value of an apartment she's eyeballing, but we never get a connecting line between her actions and intentions. We are not shown why someone who appears to be relatively sane turned into a serial killer at some point. And not a very good one, either. Her murders are sloppy, she hangs around after the corpses have hit the floor, and she skulks around hallways with blood on her face.

The film, ultimately, is nuts, and not in a good way. Either everything fell apart during the edit (the endless flashbacks and flash-forwards suggest that) or they went with a script that existed but was not ready to be filmed. Clearly, the priority here was violence, and there's lots of that to go around, but why is the screenplay (credited to Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang and Chi-Man Wan) so bloody fragmented and illogical? There are bits and pieces of interesting threads everywhere, but nothing is expanded upon or dramatically explored. Once I reached the half way point, I couldn't help but contemplate what a missed opportunity it was. They had everything at their disposal except a script that made sense.  It's a great shame because I like Josie Ho a lot (I met her once and found her to be lovely), she has plans to make more films with these producers, and her sensibility is in the right place. Next time, I hope she'll take a closer look at the script and ask herself: What is this really about? And does its follow its theme through to the end in a clear and dramatic way?

 Finally, I called Pang's direction "mostly" solid above because a director's most important job is to make a story work dramatically. If it doesn't work on the page, it's not going to work on the screen. This doesn't work dramatically, so Pang didn't do that part of his job.

To be fair, it's good to see a Hong Kong flick that revisits, on a gore level, at least, some of the glorious excesses of the 80's typified by such classics as Love To Kill, Run and Kill, Underground Banker, and Her Vengeance.

Still worth seeing? I think so.

Kitano's OUTRAGE is outrageously good

 It's only January 5, but already I've seen a film that will surely occupy a prime position on my top ten list at year's end.

As my gut predicted, Takeshi Kitano's Outrage (Autoreiji; 2010)  is a controlled masterpiece, and the best film the auteur has made since the sizzling Hanna-bi (aka Fireworks).

Kitano's yakuza films are fascinated by the small details of gangster politics, so it is a small detail -- a wrong decision -- that triggers a brutal war between factions in this deft, crisp, exceptional piece of filmmaking. As usual, the drama provokes splashes of crimson that denote the disintegration of a crime family. Kitano, though not the key participant, takes an enforcer role that shows us his Sunday best.

Written, edited, and directed by Kitano, Outrage does quite the opposite of glorify the gangster life. It paints for us an underground society that is, for most, a vicious hell on earth where nobody is to be trusted, money is more important than anything, and relationships are not worth spit.    Every act is one of self-advancement, and every step on the ladder to the top is but a cruel mirage for gullible players.

The violence is very wince-worthy and impactful. We get chopsticks jammed in ear drums, an excruciating assault with a dentist drill, and a brutally beautiful scene involving a car, a rope, and one unlucky fuck whose time is up.

Music by Keiichi Suzuki, who also scored Kitano's Zatoichi, has a somber, electronic base that adds an interesting but not distracting element to the proceedings. Katsumi Yanagijima, who shot Fukasaku's brilliant Battle Royale, does a superb job with Outrage's visuals. The soft, subtle tones perfectly contrast with the frequent displays of glorious and disturbing Grand Guignol.

 This is a harrowing, compelling yakuza drama from a master of the moving image.

***

The Japanese Blu-ray is of exceptional quality and is English subtitled

It is available from amazon.co.jp or cdjapan.co.jp

RIP, S&M Sniper

 

It's old news, but S&M Sniper (magazine) succumbed to Japan's financial meltdown and the global trend towards the on-line in October, 2008.  

This magazine, which towered as a vital voice of a rich subculture for thirty years, showcased amazing works of art and literature.

Photographer/writer Murata Kenichi was one Sniper's mainstays, and I present here excerpts from his '97 story, 'The Rebel of a Man-made Girl'.  

For obvious reasons (spot the doll!), it's one of my favorites.

Although the magazine does have a web presence at ww*.smsniper.ne* (replace *'s), this is no compensation for the loss of the printed page.

A browse of the on-line edition demonstrates what a feeble substitute it is for leafing through over a hundred glorious pages of enticing and provocative content. 

I would also speculate that the magazine provided a greater income for the artists who contributed to it than the web does. Punters have demonstrated a worrying reluctance to pay for on-line content, and I doubt the late magazine's website defies this trend. As a result, contributions would surely not be as diverse.

Interestingly, when Sniper was launched thirty years ago by the courageous efforts of Yosuke Onishi (editor) Araki Nobuyoshi, and Kyoko Okazaki, among others, so was the 'Alpha Inn', Japan's first S&M hotel. 

There was nothing else like S&M Sniper.

And there never will be.

Not in its classical form.

The Glory Days of Hong Kong Exhibition

Hong Kong movies were exploding in the late 80's and early 90's, and Melbourne was a great place to be if you wanted to catch some of the debris.

The two key exhibitors, the Chinatown Cinema (run by Joe Siu Internationalrun by Joe Su International), and the Capitol Cinema (run by the late Raymond Wu), were screening close to a dozen new releases a month. Yes, folks, a month!

Unfortunately, they didn't market their wares in English language newspapers because they had no confidence in the English speaking market, but you could find their flyers floating around inside and outside their cinemas.

Somehow, I managed to see about four Chinese films a week back then; the main shows were always double featured with something just as interesting or rare (I caught up on stuff I'd missed from the 70's and early 80's this way). I was directing TV commercials then, so I must have driven straight from the location or edit suite to catch the later shows. I doubt I got much sleep.

I haven't seen Satin and Steel since it's '94 release, but I remember it having some good stunt work and a very sexy leading lady (Jade Leung of 'Black Cat' fame).

A new Woo and I was there on the first night, of course, with my brother. I walked away a little disappointed with its uneven tone, but, hey, it was a Woo film, and the man was hotter than hot in those days.

I'm not a big fan of Taxi Hunter now and I wasn't a fan of the film when I saw it at the Chinatown in '94, either. Admittedly, I was expecting something quite hardcore, but it didn't deliver the exploitation elements I craved and it faltered as drama, too.

Wong, however, was good. Still is. Always was.

This was one of the few monthly calendars that the Chinatown Cinema released.

A scan of the titles that were playing is proof that it was an absolute golden era for the Hong Kong film fan. I mean, seriously, take a decent gander (click on image to enlarge) at this mouth-watering line-up.

Naked Killer and Doctor Lamb were doubled up for maximum enjoyment. They've got Bullet in the Head, Erotic Ghost Story, and the relatively obscure Day Without Policeman (sic), an uncut version, playing on the same day. Who'd ever leave the fucking theater?

Further down you've got Swordman II, Peking Opera Blues, and the classic Snake in the Eagle's Shadow.

If you'd never seen a Hong Kong movie, this would have been the best opportunity to get seriously started.

Oh, yeah, Laboratory of the Devil, the unofficial "sequel" to Men Behind The Sun, was back for a second look, too. I clearly recall pestering the Chinatown manager for their only one-sheet of Laboratory. He finally gave it to me on the last night of a short season.

Because I was an obsessed nut, I was there for Simon Yam (as a gigolo) in Hong Kong Gigolo. After seeing him for the first time in Bullet in the Head, I was up for any rubbish he was in. This had lots of nudity, but was slow and moronic.

Playing a gigolo also was Alex Man, a Hong Kong actor I never liked. He was in a shitload of movies in the 80's and 90's, but I could never figure out what his appeal was. He didn't fight well, he didn't do action like Chow or Jackie did, and he was kinda unattractive. Actually, he did do some action stuff in the early 80's, but he was never too impressive.

And speak of the devil, here he is again in the bloody silly Crocodile Hunter, an '89 pile of crap.

Sure I saw it. I saw anything with rice and chopsticks back then.

Finally my beloved A Fishy Story (Bu Tuo Wa De Ren; '89), a mostly forgotten masterpiece that was produced by Jackie Chan's company.

It has nothing in common with Jackie except that it was distributed by Golden Harvest.

One of my Top 10 Hong Kong films of all time, it is unbelievably beautiful and directed with enormous skill and feeling by actor Antony Chan.

The director of photography, Peter Pau, went on to shoot a number of Hollywood movies, but nothing he's done since is as ravishing and amazing as this.

I'd like to stick my head out here and say that if someone of substance at Criterion saw this movie, they probably begin negotiations to restore it and release it on Blu-ray. It's that stunning.

I didn't see it for the first time in Melbourne. I saw it in Sydney with old friend and fellow Hong Kong-a-phile Tony Egan. Both of us were blown away by it.

I returned to Melbourne seven days later saw it five times in one week.

Naturally, because the film is so goddamned fucking amazing, it flopped in Hong Kong and did little business at global the Chinatown venues. I don't think the Chinese knew how to market something that was closer to a Carey Grant Hollywood love story (with politics!) than anything remotely like what they'd distributed before (Song of the Exile excepted).

I hope it is given the recognition it deserves one day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Pulp Fans.

May 2011 be a year of sharing and caring for men and women of all ages.

image courtesy of Toshio Saeki's Onikage (Last Gasp, 2010)

A Loving Poem To Video Nasties

There has never been anything quite like this incredible 3-disc set from Nucleus Films (UK/PAL). All 72 titles that were on the UK's "Video Nasties" list are individually discussed, the specifics of their releases are cataloged, and each movie's trailer is presented.

On top of that, the first disc contains an amazing documentary exploring the "Video Nasties" phenomenon.  Every angle of the issue is examined via interviews with media experts, actual politicians behind the bans (such as the silly Sir Graham Bright), and well known genre commentators such as Stephen Thrower, Kim Newman, Alan Bryce, Xavier Mendik, Dr. Patricia MacCormack, and Alan Jones. Actress/TV personality Emily Booth pops in to do some presenting and points her pretty, leather-clad ass at the camera to keep the fans transfixed.

For those not familiar with Britain's draconian crackdown on films deemed unsuitable even for adults, the documentary will be an eye-opening experience and testament to just how ignorant certain human beings -- those in powerful public positions, in particular -- can be. 

 

The packaging of this extraordinary DVD project shows great love for its subject.

For example, the emphasis here is on VHS releases because the bans affected the distribution of VHS's several years before DVD's came along. The producers have built their menus to resemble collections of VHS's on shelves. To watch a trailer separately, you simply arrow left or right across the VHS spines of your favorite "Nasty" and press "OK" to launch the trailer. Little details like this make the experience special.

The conditions of the trailers vary. All are complete, though, and brought back many memories for me. In Australia, there was no official "Video Nasties" list. Nevertheless, the jackboots of the censorship gestapo were well and truly stomping on many of the same titles in the convict colony. Bans were not as frequent, but heavy cuts were common. Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters (aka Zombie/Zombi 2) had much of its beefy goodness excised. The splinter in the eye sequence was cut at its juiciest moment. Even Dead and Buried, which spent some time on the "Nasties" list, was attacked with scissors by the Aussie censor. The primary victim was the scene where Lisa Blount (playing a nurse) stabs 'Freddy' in the eyeball.

The poster child for the nastiest of "Nasties" has always been  Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.  It was banned for years in the UK and was only passed uncut in Australia a year ago. Watched as one of 72 films on this compilation, it certainly stands out as superior entertainment. It's also easy to see how it got the attention of Britain's moral guardians.

Two of my favorite trailers of the 72 are William Asher's  Butcher Baker, Nightmaker Maker and J.S. Cardone's The Slayer. The former, though released on VHS in most territories and screened frequently on US cable in the 80's, is pretty much MIA on DVD. Various companies have announced plans to release it, but there's been no movement so far. It really is a fantastic, terribly twisted movie, and boasts a car stunt you have to see to believe. There is a great central performance by Susan Tyrell, too, who plays a murderous, jealous aunt. Interestingly, Mr. Cardone, still active, recently wrote the remakes of The Stepfather and Prom Night.

Cardone's The Slayer, a formidable presence on the "Nasties" list, was released in Australia by Palace Explosive Video, the "nasty" arm of Palace Home Video's distribution set-up. I was always quite impressed with its grim tone and island setting. Another memorable aspect of it is a murder scene involving a pitchfork pushed through a woman's back and out her chest. This scene is in the terrific trailer.

Some of the titles that made the "Nasties" list did so on title alone. Anything with "Cannibal" in the title (Cannibal Man, Cannibal Apocalypse)) or a power tool (The Tool Box Murders and Driller Killer) was guaranteed a place. But it's hard to explain how the feeble Forest of Fear ended up there, let alone The Boogey Man, Terror Eyes, Possession (!), and Frozen Scream.  Interestingly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre never earned a place on the list, so go figure that one. Also of interest is the trailer for Don't Go in the Basement, the inspiration for Edgar Wright's parody trailer in Grindhouse.

If anything good came out of the "Video Nasties" phenomenon, it's that massive amounts of attention were given to movies that might have been otherwise ignored or totally forgotten. And the DPP's  "Nasty" list became a type of Holy Grail of must-see movies for adventurous fans and scholars.




In addition to all that, excellent books such as The Art of the Nasty, Seduction of the Gullible, and Shock! Horror! were published, and a fine 3-disc DVD set examining this strange period in British culture has been thoroughly explored.


Even if you're only half a horror fan, you cannot be without this extraordinary volume, a poem to the bloody celluloid that keeps us all sane.

Jan Sverak's KOOKY

One of my favorite directors in the world has a new film, Kooky, and it looks amazing.

It's as if he's partially channeling that other famous Czech, Jan Svankmajer, in a tale featuring puppets in live settings.

Sverak is the director of The Elementary School, a '91 masterpiece that I blogged about here:

http://phantomofpulp.blogspot.com/2009/02/obecna-skola.html

It is amongst my top ten films of all time.

He also recently made the excellent Empties.

Empties

Kooky, about a discarded teddy bear who won't lie down, features voice work from Zdenek Sverak, Jan's talented father (and frequent co-writer).

"A Teddy bear forced to stand on his two stuffed feet..."

I'm chomping at the bit to see this.

Sverak has a unique take on the world that will surely render this a classic.