PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1026

The Snow Woman 1968 Based on the stroy Yuki-onna from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, screenplay by Fuji Yahiro, directed by Tanaka Tokuzō. A Japanese horror fantasy set in feudal times. Tokuzō's first assistant director job was on Rashomon, on his own he directed a good number of movies, including 3 in the Zatoichi series, before working in television in the 1970s and 1980s. The second film in the Radiance Box Set.

A wood carver and his apprentice are traveling through a forest looking for a special tree to use in the carving of a statue. They find one and rejoice. A sudden storm has the two men camp over night in a abandoned house. That night they are visited by the Snow Woman, she freezes the old man and tells the young apprentice she won't kill him if he never tells anyone he saw her. The young apprentice heads home the next day.

The young apprentice gets the commission that was to be his masters. The local temple wants the sculpture, the wood arrives but needs 5 years to cure. A young woman comes into his life, they marry and have a child. Five years pass and the young apprentice starts the carving. A local Lord wants the young apprentice's wife for a bit of rape. The Lord does some underhanded things to ruin the life of the young apprentice. He's not getting his way and the Lord becomes impatient, his attempts to rape the wife go poorly for him when it's revealed she is the Snow Woman. We were all suspecting that. The Lord and his scummy retainers are all frozen to death. The Snow Woman leaves the young apprentice and their son and disappears into the snow storm.

It's a rather sad tale. It usually is in feudal Japan. I'm reminded how awful it was in feudal Japan. The film looks nice. I enjoyed it but it's the weakest of the stories in the Radiance box set. You can see a watchable copy on YouTube in the link above.

Riddick 2013 Written and directed by David Twohey. The third of the Riddick films. We watched a 4K disc. We watched it back in 2014. Back then there was talk of a 4th film, I hoped it wouldn't take 9 years like it did between 2 and 3. I didn't get my wish but I'm told there should be a fourth film next year.

Riddick gets double crossed by the Necromancers and is abandoned on a crappy planet. He uses a distress signal to call in a ride. Two rival teams of bounty hunters show up and Riddick has to kill a bunch of them before he can escape in one of their ships. Hopefully to destroy as much of the Necromancer society as possible.

I enjoyed the movie but not as much as I did The Chronicles of Riddick when we watched it a few weeks back. I'll still want to watch it over again someday.

Gate Of Flesh 1964

Gate Of Flesh 1964 Written by Taijiro Tamura and Goro Tanada, directed by Seijun Suzuki. I hadn't seen this for a while and I had no DVD. I ordered the Criterion disc and enjoyed it the other night. Suzuki is one of my favorite directors, mostly for Tokyo Drifter and Branded To Kill.

The story is set in Tokyo just after WW2 has ended. Japan is in shambles and the US military are in charge. A group of prostitutes band together for mutual protection. They have taken over a bombed out building to live in. They have some rules and punishments for breaking them. They're harsh judges and meet out fierce punishment.

Joe Shishido is a ex-soldier, he's got no job prospects and no place to go. He takes part in a robbery at the US base, it gets him shot in the leg. He hides in the abandoned building the prostitutes are using. They let him stay and that interferes with their lives. He's a bad guy, women fall for him, jealousy breaks rules. No one comes out of that encounter any better.

Tokyo is a dark and dangerous place for the average citizen. Crime is rife, dead bodies turn up, no one cares. The police and US military work to stop black marketeers and thieves. People will double cross you in a heartbeat and turn you in for next to nothing.

Despite it's dark mood it's an entertaining film. I've enjoyed it every viewing. I certainly hope to see it again a time or two more.

The DVD has interviews with Suzuki and art director Takeo Kimura. Both men are interesting but I really liked Kimura's story about building the sets out of salvaged material from the studio lots. The used materials lent a rough look to everything and gave it a stage like look.

Jigoku 1960

Jigoku 1960 Screenplay by Nobuo Nakagawa and Ichirō Miyagawa, directed by Nobuo Nakagawa. A Japanese film about some horrible bunch of people who get thrown in Hell.

Shiro is a student, he's going to marry Yukiko, the daughter of his professor. Fellow student Tamura gives him a ride back to school. On the drive Tamura hits a man in the street with his car. He takes off and blames Shiro for making him drive down the street. Shiro is such a wimp he goes along with his wishes.

The run down man was a local gang leader, his mother saw the accident and she plans to kill the two students. Shiro want to go to the police but Tamura doesn't. A ride to the police station gets Yukiko killed in an accident, along with her unborn baby. Shiro gets involved with the gang leaders old girlfriend. She learns he was one of the people in the car. Things just get worse and worse and Hell gets some more  customers.

The scenes from Hell are pretty entertaining, almost makes me think it would be nice to send some people there. I enjoyed it as much as I could, there's hardly anyone to like, they seem to deserve Hell. The Criterion DVD is one of the poorest that I've ever seen from them. Especially the subtitles, very jagged looking. It was mastered in 2006 and that's pretty early on. I'd still watch it again someday. I do like the Japanese posters quite a bit.

 

Friday Night Movies 1022

Demon Pond 1979 Based on the 1913 play Demon Pond by Izumi Kyōka, screenplay by Haruhiko Mimura and Tsutomu Tamura, directed by Masahiro Shinoda. A Japanese fantasy movie staring Tsutomu Yamazaki, he played Goro in Tampopo. We watched the Criterion Blu-ray. It looks very nice.

The movie is really a vehicle for Tamasaburô Bandô. He's an actor and director, he appeared in a lot of Kabuki plays, often playing a female part. He plays both Yuki and the Dragon Princess.

The movie starts with a man called Gakuen arriving in a small remote village only to find his friend Akira. The two taught at the same school, three years ago Akira had gone on summer vacation and never returned. No contact at all, with anyone, even his mom. Akira is now married to Yuki and they are both bound to the Demon Pond. Akira rings the bell three times a day to keep the Demon Pond from flooding the village and Yuki is some sort of sorceress.

The village is in the middle of a drought and the villagers think that the only way to reverse the drought is human sacrifice. They've got Yuri in mind. Akira and Yuri get helped by Gakuen, Princess Shirayuki and the pond spirits. Things go badly for our heroes, the villagers are a  horrible lot who need drowning. Lucky for us, the villagers suffer a mighty retribution for their nastiness. Don't poke the dragon.

Sadly it's rather slowly paced and not much happens. Lots of people staring into space and wondering lethargically about makes my mind wander. It looks pretty, the sets and costumes are nice and the spirits from the Demon Pond were entertaining. Still, it's not something I'm likely to see again.

Hundra 1983 Written by José Truchado, John F Goff and Matt Cimber, directed by Matt Cimber. An Italian, US and Spanish production with a bit of music by Ennio Morricone.

Hundra is a good hunter for her tribe of Amazons, she's not interested in staying home and having babies like most of the women. She's out on a hunt when the village is attacked by a horde of men. Hundra arrives at the village to find the town in heated battle. The women haven't been doing so well in the fight and Hundra arrived too late to turn the tide. She's the only one to survive in the village. She goes to see the old wise woman in the mountain only to be told to go have a baby. The old wise women is just one of several odd characters that really aren't much help to our rather dim heroine.

Hundra tries it on with some unsuitable suitors but things go poorly. Hundra finally settles on getting up the duff with the local healer in a small town. After the birth the child is kidnapped by the evil cult operating in the temple. They kidnap women to use as prostitutes for their flock. Hundra goes after the baby and gets beaten down by the local cult. Eventually she'll fight back.

It's a decent looking film but it meanders around way to slowly. At 109 mins it could use some editing, speed some bits up and strip some bloated scenes. It isn't something that I'm going to bother picking up.

Friday Night Movies 1019

Black Tight Killers 1966 Written by Ryūzō Nakanishi and Michio Tsuzuki, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe. A Japanese spy film spoof. We watched the Radiance Films Blu-ray.

Honda is a war photographer, he's just finished an assignment in Vietnam, on the plane back to Japan he meets a flight attendant called Yuriko. They meet up for a drink after the flight, leaving the club separately a creepy guy attacks Yuriko. She's helped out by three black tight wearing ladies. Honda shows up a bit late only to be beaten by the ladies. They run off.

Soon after someone kidnaps Yuriko, Honda chases after her. He finds out there are a couple of groups competing for a treasure that Yuriko's father left behind when he died. Honda forms a bit of an alliance with the black tight gang, sadly the gals get picked off one by one. Eventually Honda and Yuriko prevail and the movie ends with them heading back to their jobs.

There's plenty of fights and gun play, lots of running about and nice scenery. It's a fun bit of business and I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. For those too cheap broke to buy all the Blu-rays out there, you can download it at Rarelust.

Bunny The Killer Thing 2015 Written by Joonas Makkonen and Miika J Norvanto, directed by Joonas Makkonen. A Finnish slasher comedy based on the director's previous short film. It's part of a two movie DVD set with Sky Sharks.

A couple arrive at their vacation house only to be attacked by a man with a shotgun, he kills the woman and kidnap the man. The man wakes up in a dirty lab, two men give him a shot of some silvery serum. The man reacts to the shot immediately, he shakes and moans then breaks free with his new found strength. After beating the men the man  runs away. The animation in the opening credits shows the man changing into a man size bunny with an enormous wang.

After the credits we are introduced to some folks going camping. Lucky for them they picked the part of the forest where the bunny man is raping and killing. He's uncontrollably horny, he'll rape anything and everything that looks like a vagina. He continuously whirls his wang as he attacks.

It's plenty gory and very violent, not something for the average viewer, but there are plenty of laughs to be had from some of the gags and situations. Not surprisingly it got poor reviews in Finland but it's since got a bit of following on disc. I enjoyed it well enough, I might even watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 1008

Sisu 2022 Written and directed by Jalmari Helander. 

I watched this a couple of months ago, then I bought the Blu-ray, no one else had seen it but we'd all seen the director's first feature, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.

Second time around I enjoyed the music more and and the Glorious Carnage about the same. Like the first time I saw this I was a bit sad that they'd run out of Nazis to slaughter. Oh, well.

Samurai Wolf 2 Hell Cut 1967 Written by Hideo Gosha, Norifumi Suzuki and Kei Tasaka, directed by Hideo Gosha. This is the sequel to the 1966 film Samurai Wolf we watched last week.

Kiba is traveling when he encounters some prisoners being transported in baskets to court. He tags along and helps keeps one of the prisoners from being assassinated. He gets hired to keep the prisoner safe from future attack. He's offered a couple of gold pieces so he takes the offer. A traveling ronin always needs some cash.

There's a whole cast of characters that are more trouble then they're worth, you can't trust the gold mine owner, the swordsman, the bad lady or the dojo master. All are likely to kill you if you get in their way. One thing we were reminded about by both movies tonight, gold mining is well dangerous. Mind you, I had already learned that from the hundreds of Westerns that use that same plot device.

There's a good bit of fighting and sword play. I enjoyed the movie about as much as the other one. Worth seeing for the fan.

Friday Night Movies 1007

Samurai Wolf 1966 Written by Hideo Gosha and Kei Tasaka, directed by Hideo Gosha. The movie is packed in a recent Blu-ray with Samurai Wolf 2. Gosha has directed a good number of movies. I've only seen the 1971 Yakuza film The Wolves and that was fairly good. It's a modern day story and nothing to do with the Samurai Wolf series.

A ronin who calls himself Wolf gets caught up in a fight between the blind lady who runs the postal station and the local baddie. The blind lady has to move 30,000 pieces of gold from her station to the next station. The local baddie and the horrible woman who runs the brothel want that money. Many die before the story ends.

It's very similar type of story like you'd find in Zatoichi movies. Isao Natsuyagi is OK as the Wolf and the rest of the cast is fine. There's plenty of fights and a stack of bodies when the movie is done. Plenty of vacancies for new baddies the day after the movie. The score is heavily influenced by Italian Western music, it's rather noisy. Over all I liked the movie. Looking forward to the second Wolf movie.

Monster Party 2018 Written and directed by Chris Von Hoffman.

Casper, Iris and Dodge are three house robbers who steal from the rich. Casper is in dire need of $100,000 to pay off his father's gambling debts or the baddie will light his dad on fire. The trio decide to rob a mansion posing as replacement catering staff for a fancy dinner party. They figure out where the safe is and create a plan of action.

Things don't go so well once they start the plan. Turns out the house is filled with psychopaths and murders celebrating their not murdering anyone in a while. Like addicts who haven't had a drink or taken some drugs the urge is still inside. The urge takes over and poor Dodge is the first to go. The fight for survival is on and Casper turns out a dab hand with a katana. It's touch and go for Casper but he has some help from the daughter of their host.

It starts off a bit pokey and I didn't care that much for the trio of robbers. It picks up once the house guests start showing their true colors. I wound up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I did enjoy the movie's sense of humor but I don't think I'll pick up the Blu-ray.

Science Fiction Sunday 802

Terminator Dark Fate 2019 Story by James Cameron, Charles H Eglee, Josh Friedman, David S Goyer and James Rhodes, screenplay by David S Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray, directed by Tim Miller. The 6th in the Terminator series and a sequel to the first two films but not the three that followed.

Rev-9, a new style terminator, comes from a well changed future to kill a woman called Dani who's going to be a problem for the future robots. Instead of the rise of Skynet there's been a AI revolution called Legion. The machines want to kill off the humans. The resistance to Legion sends an augmented soldier called Grace to destroy the terminator and save Dani.

Linda Hamilton plays Sarah Connors 25 years on. She saves Dani and Grace and they escape for a bit. Rev-9 keeps on coming and there's a seemingly endless series of flights and fights with plenty of explosions and collateral damage. At some point Arnold Schwarzenegger turns up, he's a T-800 and he's been alerting Sarah to the arrival of the Legion terminators. That's how she arrived to save Dani and Grace. Near the end of the film they finally destroy the Rev-9 and hope to stop the rise of Legion.

Mostly it was entertaining but I got tired of the constant battle by the end of the second act. At least it was only 128 mins, so many of these action films are over long. I'd still watch it again at some point.

Attack Of The Giant Teacher 2019 Written by Nobuhiko Ishii and Yoshikazu Ishii, directed by Yoshikazu Ishii. A Japanese low budget kaiju musical movie.

A teacher is informed his school will close at the end of the school year. He gets his class to put on a musical and they do. In space an alien plans an attack on the Earth. The teacher grows large to fight the alien.

Sadly the musical isn't interesting to me but I liked a few of the characters. I'm sure the budget meant the giant alien action only happens in the last act. Most of the effects were CGI and the low budget didn't help there either. Doubtful I'll get back to this one, thankfully someone passed a copy to me and I didn't buy a copy. You can see it for free on YouTube, link in the usual place.

Godzilla Minus One 2023

Godzilla Minus One 2023 Written, directed and visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. It did well in the box office, more than a 1000% return on it's $10-12 million cost.

A kamikaze pilot called Kōichi fails in his mission, he claims plane trouble and lands at a repair base on Odo Island. The ground crew of mechanics can't seem to find anything wrong with his plane. Later that night Kōichi and the ground crew have an encounter with Godzilla. He's small in 1945, only 3 or 4 times the height of a man. The pilot fails to fire on Godzilla and all the ground crew are killed except the lead mechanic Tachibana. They return to Tokyo with Tachibana hating him.

Back in Tokyo Kōichi find his parents have died in the bombing of the city. There's not much left in his old neighborhood. He takes in a young woman called Noriko, she comes with a baby called Akiko, the dying parents asked Noriko to take care of their dying baby. Kōichi gets a job and so does Noriko. Things seem to get better over the next couple of years. Kōichi struggles with survivor guilt. Deep in the ocean Godzilla has been caught in the nuclear radiation from a test on Bikini Atoll. He gets much bigger and starts attacking ships. He eventually winds up in Tokyo and the real action begins.

Godzilla destroys a lot of the city with his new heat ray. Noriko disappears in blast area and Kōichi vows to get revenge. The government is unhelpful and the military has been defanged. A local man funds a plan to attack Godzilla, Kenji, a friend and co-worker of Kōichi, has a plan to use freon to sink Godzilla in a deep bay, he's hoping that the pressure will kill the beast. Kōichi is involved with an alternate plan to kill Godzilla.

There's a lot of good CGI and plenty of explosions and heat blasts. All incredibly good considering the small budget. The cast is fine and Godzilla looks pretty good. The story is complex and you can take a lot of things out of it. The pilot is angry, the lead mechanic is angry, Godzilla is angry. No good comes of that. At least it has a happy ending and it leaves a big ass door, wide open, for a second movie. One of my takeaways from the movie: I thought that the Emperor and the government leaders got off lightly after the war, they needed some more punishment, more ritual suicide. I'll definitely want the Blu-ray so I can watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 994

Eight Men To Kill 1962 Written by Tatsuo Honda and Kôji Takada, directed by Shigehiro Ozawa. The third in the Bounty Hunter series with Wakayama Tomisaburo. The three film Blu-ray box set is from Radiance.

Shikoro Ichibei takes on the job of getting a huge stock of gold back from some bandits. He's got til the day of the eclipse and that's only 4 days away. He chases down the members of the gang only to find them empty handed, someone else in the gang has taken the gold. No honor amongst those thieves. There are a good number of sword fights and plenty of horse riding, bodies dot the landscape.

Ichibei barely survives the mission but he gets there in the end. Most everyone else is dead. A constant reminder of the short and dangerous life in feudal Japan. All in all a good trilogy with plenty of action and stabbing. Highly recommended.

Neon City 1991 Written by Ann Lewis Hamilton (as Buck Finch), Jeff Begun and Monte Markham, directed by Monte Markham. A Canadian post apocalypse film that was filmed in Utah.

Bounty hunter Micheal Ironside captures Vanity in the out lands, she turns out to be a valuable captive, big reward offered for her capture. At the local town they tell him he has to take her to Neon City, that's where the warrant was issued, that's where the reward credits are payed out. It's a few days away but he'll go, he wants his credits. The local officer has Micheal's jeep blown up. That officer hates Michael and that forces Michael to take the stagecoach transport to Neon City. The movie is Hamilton's update of John Ford's Stagecoach. Instead of native braves the passengers have to fight off the local mutant raiders. They've been damaged by the residual radiation in the out land. 

There's some action scenes and a bit of dull time before the action picks up again. They get to Neon City where Michael has to kill one of the passengers for murdering another. He lies to the authorities when he tells them Vanity died on the road. Michael and Vanity leave Neon City with Lyle Alzado.

It's pretty much average, nothing too new or exciting. Richard Sanders as the comic relief machine reminds one how sad it is when the apocalypse wipes out all the really talented entertainers. That's why I'm saving DVDs. Hope I can get some electricity and a working DVD player.