PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Mazes And Monsters 1982

Mazes And Monsters 1982 Based on the novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe, screenplay by Tom Lazarus, directed by Steven Hilliard Stern.

A TV movie about the dangers of role playing games. It's based on a poorly reported real incident about a guy who played Dungeons and Dragons, he disappeared and the media blamed the game. He was just suicidal and didn't get any help, he succeeded on his third try.

Tom Hanks plays a college student who has a psychotic breakdown during a game of Mazes and Monsters played in a cavern. He comes to believe he is his character. He nearly jumps off one of the Twin Towers but his friends arrive just in time to save him.

I didn't care for it much and wouldn't want to watch it again. It is a good reminder that people should stay out of caverns that aren't set up for visitors.

Kapone Oi Ni Naku 1985 Capone Cries A Lot

Kapone Oi Ni Naku is a 1985 Japanese film that's also known as Capone Cries A Lot. It's based on a novel by Sueyuki Kajiyama, the script is by Takeo Kimura and Atsushi Yamatoya, the director is Seijun Suzuki.

I'm a fan of Suzuki's films, I especially like his yakuza crime films of the 1950s and 1960s. It was Tokyo Drifter and Branded To Kill that first drew me to Suzuki. Both films star Joe Shishido who's a favorite actor of mine. Both films have been in the Criterion collection for a long time.

Suzuki has a bit of a backstory, he worked for Nikkatsu from 1956 to 1967. It was Branded To Kill that got him fired from the company, he sued and they blacklisted him for 10 years. In 1971 Nikkatsu changed to producing pink films, violent and sexy films, that kept them going until 1993 when they filed for bankruptcy. They did leave behind some interesting Yakuza films and some of them are turning up on home video. I've little any interest in their pink films though I have seen a few.

The studio had been at odds with Suzuki for a couple of years, they claimed his films were too over the top and surreal. Some say, the last two films he made for Nikkatsu, Branded To Kill and Tokyo Drifter, are  masterpieces. They're certainly something to watch.

Kapone Oi Ni Naku is certainly something to watch but it hasn't got the impact that either BTK or TD have. KONN is set in the 1920s, the story starts in Japan and then moves to San Francisco. A singer travels to America seeking his fortune.

It's pretty slow moving. It's a comedy but I didn't find it all that humorous. There are plenty of interesting locations and sets.

I'd seen that cave in some other Japanese movie I had seen recently. Others might find the enjoy the story more than me. There's a link to the movie on YouTube in the title at the top of the post.