24 April 2005Japanese films
24 April 2005
Okay, we all know anime is some of the strangest stuff to come out of Japan, but there are a host of real films with real actors that are equally undecipherable. We have been finding these films on VCD and DVD from Asian websites. Occasionally you'll find a Japanese film for rent or in the library, but all in all, they are seldom physically or mentally accessible to North American and European audiences. We doubt we can change that, but here are some titles we have tracked down and in most cases watched through to their end.
Marebito Masuoka is a man obsessed with images, and he lives half in the real world and half through the viewfinder of a videocamera. He constantly replays his footage of a man who killed himself in a subway station. The man's look of terror fascinates Masuoka and he longs to experience that same emotion. While randomly wandering and filming around Tokyo, he discovers a maze of tunnels beneath the city. The first inhabitants he finds are homeless and afraid. Then he encounter Muriko the suicide victim from his video. Muriko explains the dangers of the Deros- short for detrimental Robots ( See Richard Shavers 1921 Sci Fi Classic) who are blood sucking inhabitants of this underground city. Further exploration brings him to an open canyon where he discovers a beautiful girl chained in a cavern. He brings her home, only to find that although she appears human , she is actually a Dero. Naming her "F" ,he taps his own blood supply to keep her fed but before long he needs to supplement her diet. His ex wife comes around looking for their daughter and she becomes the first five liter donor. He enjoys the fear of his donors/victims and of course it all goes into his video collection. F is grateful for the baby bottles filled with blood and all in all it's a happy arrangement. But the plot, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu of Ju-On fame is far more twisted and visually disturbing than you'd anticipate. The director of Tetsuo-The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto plays the lead part of the nerdy and perhaps insane cameraman. Just one more instance of sophisticated, adult scarey ass Japanese horror films that are often copied but never duplicated. The stiffs in Hollywood do not have the balls to make stuff this good, but don't get me started. 2005 Japanese 91 minutes Rated III (18 years+)
Azumi "Merely killing one hundred bandits will not save this nation" advises the master. Ten orphans, trained in secret have grown into ruthless assassins and set out with their master to change the course of Japanese history. First they are whittled down to a team of five. Their first mission is to put a cap in some warlords ass. Of course, as Samurai, they actually use swords, but you get the idea. Following the assassin's motto "There are many evil people in the world. Someone has to kill them" they then attack a second, more cunning, warlord. They only succeed in killing his double which allows him to plot his revenge. He releases Bijomaru the murderous drag queen, from prison, and s/he deftly dispatches one of the team. Another assassin falls victim to the nasty Ninja trick of poisoning their swords. Azumi, the only female member of the group then gets turfed out by their master for being too soft. The remaining two killer orphans and their master storm the palace in a futile attempt to get their target, but immortality eludes them too, leaving only Azumi to finish the task. We won't spoil the ending, but this is a great tale of war & peace. At times,the stylized violence resembles a Nintendo game but overall the film should manage to hold your interest. Think of it as a Japanese version of " Showdown at the OK Corral". Very very bloody and kinda cool. Expect a sequel, soon.
The Bird People of China It is awfully hard to classify the work of Japanese director Takashi Miike. In this one, a young business man is commandeered to travel up to northern Hunan in search of a rumored jade mine. Enroute, he realizes there is a yakuza on his tail and perhaps there's more to this mine than his boss let on. As the trip becomes more arduous the two team up just to survive, until they eventually reach their destination. Along the way, they hear rumors of people who can fly and when they arrive, there is a great deal of evidence to support the stories. After slowing to the rural pace the two men become less concerned with the jade and more interested in the rich village life. When the time comes to return to civilization, they must face the dilemma of bringing modernization to the last unspoiled place in China. Japanese Rated 1
Ju-On:The Grudge Japanese director Takashi Shimizu (who gave us Ringu) has perfected the haunting movie where an appearance of normalcy lures you in and deceives you into thinking there's nothing seriously wrong. But. there is an undefined weirdness that takes over so slowly that you can deny it's existence until you are starting to vibrate with fear. This subtle form of horror has been emulated but never equaled in American remakes and copies like The Ring or The Sixth Sense. Anyway, this film begins with a social worker visiting the home of a badly abused little boy. In the next scene new tenant have moved into the same house and they have a few minor technical glitches and some odd noises, but no Chucky dolls, just some eerie music and a black cat oh , and that thing in the attic. The third scene has a high school girl finding a cell phone when she sees a little kid run past the phone rings and there is a cat on the other end. The little boy reappears and in the next scene she's stumbling up to her bedroom in the same house with only half a face. Obviously. the house is cursed but why are cats harbingers of horror? There are lengthy silent scenes punctuated by resonant string music and seemingly meaningless acts but it is all mounting in a steady and stealthy fear. Basically this film and a few like it will scare you senseless and you'd be hard pressed to explain why. Flashbacks to the social worker's visit slowly fill in the origin of the boy's vengeful ghost. This Japanese horror film makes you realize just how deep and scary this genre can get. Watch this film and you'll perhaps appreciate the possibilities of an adult horror film. Inexplicably good. 2003 120 minutes Rated R
Inugami A beautifully stylish psycho horror thriller set in a lush Japanese village dominated by the Bonomiya clan. Miki is a lovely single woman who runs the clans paper making business. The new classics teacher in town catches her eye but their are spirits to be assuaged. Miki carries the Inugami curse of the Dog Gods which is not something you can ignore. Like so many Japanese stories the motivation of the characters is elusive, but the imagery and photography alone make this an appealing film. As a bonus you'll learn how to make your own paper. 2001 Rated OAT II 102 minutes Japanese w/subtitles
High and Low a k a Heaven and Hell This Akira Kurasowa mystery stars Toshiro Mifune as Gondo, a tough industrialist in the shoe industry. Just when he is about to take over his company, it appears as if his son has been kidnapped and the ransom will break him. In actuality, the kidnappers have taken the wrong kid, it is actually one of his employees kids. He has a dilemma. He was prepared to lose his deal for his own son but will he offer up his cash for a loyal assistant's son ? The kidnappers realize their mistake, but still threaten to kill the child if the ransom goes unpaid. The story was taken from the Ed McBain novel " King's Ransom".142 minutes B&W Japanese w/subtitles
MARKS A detective thriller centered around an alpine climbing team whose members keep showing up dead which ice ax holes in their heads. The story was indecipherable so we made up our own to accompany the violent and sexually graphic film. In our version an inmate of an asylum is quartered with a sexually predatory member of this climbing club. On his release he goes around killing the members in the alphabetical sequence in MARKS order. Japanese w/subtitles Rated III
Parasite Eve Dr Nagashimi forgot his anniversary, he was so involved in his biological research. When his wife Kiyomi dies in a car crash, he is so distraught, he starts culturing her liver cells. The cell culture become a modern day blob that is actually a sentient mitochondrial organism. This is pseudoscience at its best and there are some good spontaneous human combustion scenes. Will love conquer the mitochondrial takeover? You'll have to watch it, cause we’re not gonna give it away. Japanese w/subtitles
Brother The Yakuza are a Japanese criminal hybrid of Mafiosi and Samurai traditions and have spawned their own sub-class of Japanese gangster cinema. Director Takeshi Kitano, breaks out of the yakuza film stereotype in this tale of a Tokyo mobster who is forced to flee to Los Angeles. After a few days in a seedy hotel, Yamamoto makes contact with his low rent brother and by the end of the week, they have wrestled control the local drug distribution from some bad boy Mexicans. By the end of the next week, they have eradicated the competition and control a chunk of the city. This boy is ruthless, even by American thug standards. With a little difficulty, they merge with the reigning Japantown crime lord to become a force to reckon with. Drawing attention from the Italians, they are asked for a 50% kick back to The Mob. That's a bit too much for Yamamoto and before long they "go to the mattresses" in an all out war. It is both a brutal and and stylish confrontation, but you sense that for Yamamoto, it is a form of ritual suicide. This is a very good film and recommended, especially if you like gangster stuff. Japanese & English w/subtitles Rated III 90 min VCD*
Kakashi Kauru is looking for her missing brother, Izumi.. He vanished without a word to his family. After searching his apartment she finds an address in the countryside and sets out to investigate. The small village is in the midst of some type of harvest festival and they do not welcome the nosey stranger. Her prodding only takes her somewhere she does not want to go, kind of like a Japanese Children of the Corn/Wickerman story. Direct to video and a trifle confusing. 2001 rated IIB Japanese w/subtitles
Abnormal Family It is a toss up. This may be a soft core porn movie posing as a social comedy or just the reverse. The subtle difference is lost in the translation. The main character has married into a family that is not as unusual as the title suggests. The father yearns for his dead wife and sees her resemblance in a barmaid and his new daughter in law. The eldest son is having an affair with this barmaid and enjoys tying up his new bride. The younger son likes to watch them and also gets to sleeps with his brothers wife. The daughter takes a job in a sex parlor and her first customer is her brother. The director Hentai Kozuku has two other titles "Shall We Dance" and the intriguing " Sumo Do, Sumo Don't", which must be a joke, don't you think? Rated III 65 minutes Japanese w/subtitles
Adrenaline Drive There seems to be an abundance of movies that combine large bags of money and high speed car chases. This is a Japanese entry for this new Oscar category. Suzuki has a boring life, no lovelife and a crappy job with a boss that constantly brow beats him. This all ends when he rearends a car owned by a yakuza (Japanese mobster). To repay his debt, Suzuki is pressed in to service by the mob and his life will never be the same. Mainly it is a love story, but it would take longer to explain than if you just watched it. Directed by Shinobu Yaguchi. 1998 Japanese with English subtitles.
Battle Royale Think Japanese "Lord of The Flies" with lethal weapons. This is the final film of director Kinju Fukasaku and it met with a frosty reception in Japan where it was deemed too critical of the current political/social situation in the country. Perhaps it's also a bit too violent as it garnered a III rating (18 and over) which is usually reserved for porn films. Anyway, compulsory education is eradicated in Japan and a few adults feel the kids are out of control. As part of a social experiment, a whole high school class is flown to a deserted island and given three days to kill one another. There can only be one survivor or everyone dies. Get it, kind of a deadly reality show. The kids soon turn feral and after day one the 42 students are whittled down to 30. Each kid has a different weapon, from a pot lid to an M16 and you get to accrue weapons as you murder your classmates. Sound like fun, maybe Fox will pick up the rights for next season. Rated III, Japanese w/subtitles, 2001 90 min approx.
La Blue Girl This anime series is technically about Miko Mido an 18 year old ninja trainee who heads up a female ninja clan. Classified as 'Anime 18" this is a sexually explicit cartoon in which voluptuous animated girls are forcibly disrobed and raped by sexual predatory monsters. It leaves you wondering what sort of sexual predatory monsters produce this crap. If an hour of this is not enough, there are 8 episodes in this ridiculous series. 1992 Japanese w/English dubbing or sub-titles.
The Ring 2 Everyone who sees the video tape , dies. Two psychics, a woman and Yoishi a little boy know something about it but they are not telling the police. Sadako's body was found in a well and it must have something to do with the first film. Honestly, this was really hard to follow, so maybe we have to see The Ring before we can decipher it. Japanese w/bad subtitles
St. John's Wort A Japanese haunted house tale that is a technically updated version of the traditional High School thriller. Naomi inherits a house and she goes to visit it with her ex boyfriend, only to find out her real father was a famous painter. They get trapped in the house during a storm which blocks the road. Sound familiar? They discover his hidden secret, that he kidnapped and painted children and their mummified corpses fill the basement. Rated OAT II Japanese w/subtitles 2001
Sonatine This is a Japanese mobster movie of the Yakuza genre directed by Kitano Takeshi. It might be more aptly titled "Yakuza On Holiday" as the story is about a Tokyo posse that go to Okinawa to help out a related clan involved in a gang war. They travel up to Okinawa and decide to hide out at the seashore as their in town hideaway was recently bombed. These hard core gang member frolic in the sand, take showers in the rain, have fireworks fights, play Russian Roulette and just have a grand vacation. Occasionally, they meet up with rival gang members and they face one another and blast away. It's so weird, that nobody runs for cover or ducks behind anything during the gunfights. Eventually, these skirmishes take their toll and the boss Mr Murakawa has to machine gun the whole other gang to even the score. Then he commits suicide. I can't figure out why, it must be some Samurai warrior thing , not at all like the Sopranos. Rated IIb 94 minutes Japanese w/subtitles 1993
Vengeance is Mine Kind of strange Japans serial killer movie that is quite unlike the others on this list. If there weren't so many corpses, you wouldn't know this was a wholesale slaughter film. Something definitely gets lost in the translation and you'll never know what it was. A mild mannered guy, Enokizu, goes around killing women in otherwise peaceful surroundings. The murders are graphic and disturbing even though the main character is not. I was more confused than anything else. Directed by Imamura Shohei and is considered a classic by most Japan filmophiles. Japanese w/subtitles 120 min 1969 Unrated
Tetsou: The Iron Man This short freaky Japanese film is a blend of Eraserhead. Le Chien Andalou, and Robot Wars. The hero of this unusual film has a serious metal fetish. He goes to abandoned factories and collects chunks of scrap metal that he surgically inserts in his flesh. He makes all you body piercing fans look like wimps. After getting hit by a car, he mutates and chunks of metal start popping out all over his face. His girlfriend gets into it at first, but it soon proves fatal to her. This is extremely brutal and degrades to an incomprehensible robo-mush towards the end, but if you enjoy shocking black and white footage, go for it. You know there may be a small contingent of you body alteration freaks that might actually draw some inspiration from this one. Hey, don't overlook the sequel, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer. 1989 Rated III, 67 Minute,B&W Japanese, with useless English Subtitles.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer More of an adaptation than a sequel to The Iron Man, this is far slicker and slightly more comprehensible. If we got it right Tomoo Tanaguchi and his brother were made into robo-human weapons as a kids. They killed their creator/father and grew up weird. When Tomoo gets pissed off, guns sprout from his chest and he makes the Terminator look tame. This is really too frigging strange for 98% of us, me included. 1992 82 minutes Rated III Japanese w/subtitles
Tokyo Drifter (Tokyo Nagaremona) A Japanese mobster, Tetsu has decided to give up 'the life' and retire from Kuratsu's crew. His last job, is to disentangle his boss from a tricky lease on a legitimate real estate deal. If he could do that, the film would end and we'd miss out on all the cool gangsters driving around in big US cars and doing hard to fathom Japanese mob stuff and hearing Kuzo Sushi sing the title song. Directed by Seijur Suzuki 1966 83 minutes
Tomie A teenage girl, Tsukiko, undergoes hypnosis to overcome some traumatic experience that she refuses to recall. It involves a beheading of a girl named Tomie, perhaps in a car accident. Some guy has a head in a bag that whines and refuses to eat. It might all coalesce if you understand Japanese, cause the subtitles are no help, whatsoever. There are some cool gory shots, but mostly, this film left us dumbfounded. Rated IIb 1998 Japanese w/subtitles VCD
Cruel Story of Youth Director Nagisa Oshima's Japanese juvenile delinquent movie is an Asian offshoot of the James Dean genre. Mayo has fun hitching rides with business men and shaking them down when they hit on her. She and her boyfriend make it into a nice business until the police intervene. Love does not prevail in this Romeo and Juliet update and they must pay for their social indiscretions. The photography is good but the social pressures and taboos seem a bit obscure. 1960 Color Japanese with English subtitles Unrated
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