Japanese Movie Mini Reviews

[legendarycurry]

On 5/2/2022 at 9:34 PM, DrNgor said:

Project A-Ko (Japan, 1986: Katsuhiko Nishijima, Yuji Moriyama) - This was my first real anime, which I saw after a friend lent me her copy during summer school of my Freshman Year (1997). It got me on a short anime stint during my Sophomore year, after which I became a more casual, occasional anime watcher (never got hardcore into it). Anywhoo, Project A-Ko is sort of a send-up of popular anime series from the 1980s, namely Macross, Gundam, and Fist of the North Star (with in-jokes from Wings of Honneamise, among others). But as those parodies are inserted into a story about schoolgirls fighting each other over the friendship of another girl, the story itself stands on its own.

A-Ko is a super-powered, red-headed high school girl with a penchant for oversleeping. Her best friend is C-Ko, a blond-haired crybaby who cannot cook to save her life. Upon arriving at a new school in Graviton City--built in and around a crater where an alien spacecraft crashed years before--they come face-to-face with spoiled rich girl B-Ko, who is determined to have C-Ko as her friend. And does she go about this? Why, she builds giant mechs and power suits in order to take A-Ko out of the game. Pretty standard high school social snake pit stuff. Meanwhile, another alien craft is on its way to Earth to claim C-Ko as their princess. Cue aerial (and space) dogfights, panty jokes, sword fights, martial arts, and all sorts of mayhem. Project A-Ko is a ton of fun and I recommend it to all anime fans.

This sounds like a winner. Gonna look it up. Fist of The North star is my fave!

On 6/27/2021 at 9:21 PM, One Armed Boxer said:

If you ever want to know what it feels like to have no one reading your reviews just let me know.

Too relatable

On 1/20/2022 at 6:15 AM, Drunken Monk said:

These boards are a safe space, right? Don't tell my mum but I like my anime sleazy and ultra violent. The sleazier and more ultra violent the better. Because of this, I find it hard to track down anime I actually like. Well without venturing into Hentai territory and, to be be honest, I'm not sure that's a path I want to set foot on. Put simply, I like demons with vagina teeth and people getting split in half. Stay with me. I'm going somewhere with this.
Having watched Wicked City not that long ago, I was hoping Demon City Shinjuku would also contain the stuff I like. Wicked City was ok. Not fantastic but ok. I hoped Demon City would be better.
Holy shit, this may be the worst anime I've ever seen. It's a soulless, drab, random-as-hell 80 minutes that doesn't deliver on any level. Action? Nope. Story? Nope. Characters? Nope. None of it. It's an absolute disaster of nothingness. At the end, our her basically becomes He-Man and I couldn't give a fuck. I mean, there's a Mexican kid on roller skates if that's your thing.

Granted, I understand my tastes are a little niche but I honestly don't see how anyone could enjoy this dreck. To make matters worse, the dub is an absolute nightmare. There are terrible accents aplenty with no one sounding like they're actually being paid to record their voice. It's all lackluster.
If you can enjoy this one, more strength to you. You're a better person than I am. Maybe you have a more mature pallet than I do. Me? I wouldn't watch this again if you paid me. Demon City? Demon Shitty more like. Hey-oh!

First of all, I said on this forum that Tsui Hark's The Blade sucks and wasn't killed, so yes it is a safe space. and second: Have you seen the Violence Jack OVAs? I feel like you would enjoy them.

On 10/24/2011 at 3:43 AM, Takuma said:

Roaring Fire (Japan, 1981) - 4/5

"The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema is back!". Norifumi Suzuki's mentally insane turbo-entertainer mixes lowbrow comedy, great stunts, HK style martial arts choreography, nazi bitches, boobs, and all star cast. Hiroyuki Sanada stars as a Japanese-American cowboy (!) who travels to Japan with his monkey Peter (!) to kick some neo-nazi (!) ass. The film is entertaining beyond belief but has little depth - the few times the action stops the interest curve also does crash landing. Top supporting cast compensates: Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, Mikio Narita, Tatsuo Endo, Abdullah the Butcher, and Masashi Ishibashi in perhaps the only good guy role in his career. Jackie Chan took notes from this film!

Sounds like a brilliant masterpiece. Added to my list of must-see stuff.

[Takuma]

6 minutes ago, legendarycurry said:

Sounds like a brilliant masterpiece. Added to my list of must-see stuff.

Wow, that's an old review. I've since seen it at least two more times (in 35mm) and upped the rating to 4.5/5.

Also, Toei's got a great HD master just waiting for someone to put it on disc.

[legendarycurry]

On 2/28/2017 at 12:18 AM, DrNgor said:

Son of Godzilla (1967) - (original title: Kaijûtô no kesses: Gojira no Musuko) - This is actually a very enjoyable Godzilla movie, despite the "stain" of bearing Jun Fukuda's name on the director's chair. The story mixes tropical island hijinks (apparently a theme that was popular in Japanese cinema as a whole), an interesting neo-Malthusian story that seemed to be gaining traction at the time, and lots of monster fighting. The puppets used for Kumonga (Spiega in the English dub) and Kamakiras (Gimantis in the dub) are expertly realized--this could have given Them! a run for its money had it come out in 1954, when the latter scored a Best Visual FX nomination. Now that I've read August Ragone's biography of Eiji Tsuburaya, I can further appreciate the FX not directly related to the monsters, like the matte paintings and thousands of miniature trees created for the island sets. Bibari Maeda is  also a darling as Saeko (Riko in the dub). A minor classic in my book.

I used to be a son of Godzilla hater but have come to appreciate it a lot in recent years. Cute movie with good effects, fun setting and decent characters.

15 hours ago, Takuma said:

Wow, that's an old review. I've since seen it at least two more times (in 35mm) and upped the rating to 4.5/5.

Also, Toei's got a great HD master just waiting for someone to put it on disc.

Yeah i scrolled through the entire thread, page by page, reading reviews for stuff that caught my eye

[Super Ninja]

Sympathy for the Underdog (1971) - This is now my second favorite yakuza film from Fukasaku, right after Hokuriku Proxy War. Tsuruta is great as a silent, shades wearing oyabun, but Wakayama's one-armed giant Yonabal is one of the meanest cats in all of yakuza movie history. Cool and honor ooze from the screen as these larger than life anti-heroes battle it out, with a pinch of karate since we're in Okinawa here. Fukasaku was already warming up for the jitsuroku overtake. Bloody masterpiece! 

[DrNgor]

Sweet Home (1989, d: Kiyoshi Kurosawa) - Horror movie that was produced and released alongside a Famicon video game of the same name. Said video game became the first survival horror game and a precursor to Resident Evil--both were made by Capcom. This is one of director Kurosawa's earlier directorial efforts, before he became the horror great that he is recognized as now. It's not bad, but if you saw the title and thought that this might be the next Hausu, you'd be better off re-watching that one instead.

A team of documentarians manage to obtain permission to enter the notorious Mamiya Mansion, which is said to be cursed. I'm guessing this place is located in the Tottori Prefecture, as the film opens with the characters in the middle of a sandstorm while the Producer, Kazuo (Shingo Yamashiro), haggles with the local authorities. The rest of the crew consists of the director, Akiko (Nobuko Miyamoto); the cameraman, Taguchi (Ichiro Furutachi); the reporter/art expert, Asuka (Fukumi Kuroda); and Kazuo's daughter, Emi (Nokko). The purpose of the documentary is to explore the mansion and search for lost art that its previous owner, a great artist named Mamiya, might have left behind. Nothing overtly supernatural happens at first. But then Taguchi knocks over a stone totem/altar, which, if you have seen Avalanche Sharks or GMK, is a big no-no...

The movie takes a little while to get going, but the second half is pretty crazy. There are some very gory deaths on display, which are really neat. When people die, they. Die. Hard. The final scenes are almost so happy as to belong in a less intense horror movie, and the solution to the hauntings is almost so simple as to make one wonder, "Why didn't anyone ever try that before?"

[DrNgor]

Battle Arena Toshinden (1996, d: Masami Ôbari) - This was a two-part OVA mini-series produced in the wake of what I assume was the success of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (a female character even gets naked during a random shower scene!). I know nothing about the source material. It would seem that it was just Virtua Fighter, but with weapons--sorta a Samurai Showdown to Virtua Fighter's Street Fighter II. But to be honest, once fighting games went Polygon and 3-D in the mid-late 90s, I didn't really care anymore. 

I assume this is set after the events of the first game. A powerful fighter--who turns out to be robot patterned after lead protagonist Eiji Shinjo's brother, Sho--is causing all sorts of problems, attacking politicians and challenging characters from the first game. He turns to be the creation of the Organization (which apparently runs the Toshin Tournament), now run by the evil Lady Uranus. She has started the man-machine project, in which she programs cyborgs and resurrected warriors with the data taken from different fights, so that they will be invincible in combat. In other words, the DOA: Dead or Alive movie totally stole the story from this OVA!

There are a lot of plot holes and things just jump around from one location to another with no rhyme or reason. The lack of story coherency is compounded by the dubbing, which has some of the most atrocious voice acting on record. Oh sure, I bet there are far worse examples out there, but the acting was so wooden you could fashion enough bo staves from it to equip the entire Shaolin Temple! The character designs were also a bit funky: everybody is just very skinny and lanky, even the women. There's nothing titillating about seeing the whip-wielding Sophia taking a shower because her body proportions are just...off. Undemanding viewers may the frequent (if short) fight sequences, but you're better off just watching the SF2 or Fatal Fury 2 anime instead.

[legendarycurry]

19 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

Battle Arena Toshinden (1996, d: Masami Ôbari) - This was a two-part OVA mini-series produced in the wake of what I assume was the success of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (a female character even gets naked during a random shower scene!). I know nothing about the source material. It would seem that it was just Virtua Fighter, but with weapons--sorta a Samurai Showdown to Virtua Fighter's Street Fighter II. But to be honest, once fighting games went Polygon and 3-D in the mid-late 90s, I didn't really care anymore. 

I assume this is set after the events of the first game. A powerful fighter--who turns out to be robot patterned after lead protagonist Eiji Shinjo's brother, Sho--is causing all sorts of problems, attacking politicians and challenging characters from the first game. He turns to be the creation of the Organization (which apparently runs the Toshin Tournament), now run by the evil Lady Uranus. She has started the man-machine project, in which she programs cyborgs and resurrected warriors with the data taken from different fights, so that they will be invincible in combat. In other words, the DOA: Dead or Alive movie totally stole the story from this OVA!

There are a lot of plot holes and things just jump around from one location to another with no rhyme or reason. The lack of story coherency is compounded by the dubbing, which has some of the most atrocious voice acting on record. Oh sure, I bet there are far worse examples out there, but the acting was so wooden you could fashion enough bo staves from it to equip the entire Shaolin Temple! The character designs were also a bit funky: everybody is just very skinny and lanky, even the women. There's nothing titillating about seeing the whip-wielding Sophia taking a shower because her body proportions are just...off. Undemanding viewers may the frequent (if short) fight sequences, but you're better off just watching the SF2 or Fatal Fury 2 anime instead.

I've played Toshinden 1 and 3. Loved 3 because of the sheer amount of wacky characters. I rewatched the SF2 movie recently, it felt less exciting and well made than I remember. Nice review doc!

[DrNgor]

10 hours ago, legendarycurry said:

I rewatched the SF2 movie recently, it felt less exciting and well made than I remember. Nice review doc!

Thank you! I think that, even if SF2 has lost a little bit of its luster, it will still shine in comparion to crap like this and the Samurai Showdown movie. God, the latter really sucked.

[legendarycurry]

17 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

Thank you! I think that, even if SF2 has lost a little bit of its luster, it will still shine in comparion to crap like this and the Samurai Showdown movie. God, the latter really sucked.

I remember enjoying the Samsho movie, but the dub was so horrendous that it was an uphill battle. It was like having a decently tasty cake wrapped in a shell of dirt. Some good bits come through but you gotta grit your teeth.

[Yihetuan]

Hanzo the Razor - Dir. Akira Inoue [1994] (Japan)

This is a made for TV (Fuji TV) drama starring Ken Watanabe in the eponymous role as a rogue government constable returning after a 5 year exile on a mission of vengeance. Of course being a TV production means none of the graphic & violent exploitative elements present in the early 70s Kenji Misumi trilogy with Shintaro Katsu but the dramatic acting is far superior. Ken Watanabe is a master thespian and it shows in everything he does but having said that, I didn't enjoy this as much as the Baian the Assassin TV series he did a few years earlier for Fuji TV.

 

[Yihetuan]

On 3/10/2017 at 9:19 AM, Takuma said:

New Female Prisoner Scorpion #701 (Japan, 1976) [DVD] – 2.5/5

 

Toei was quick to reboot the series with Yumi Takigawa taking over Meiko Kaji’s role. This one is a loose remake of the 1972 original. Director Yutaka Kohira helms passable WIP entertainment, but his visual eye is no match for that of Shunya Ito. There are moments where the film really takes off, such as Nami’s final mission of revenge, but most of it is fairly routine. Takigawa is a pretty girl, and she did well School of the Holy Beast, but she lacks the kind of charisma and strong screen presence this role requires. The film is also surprisingly light on exploitation with very little in terms of sex and nudity. That being said, the film is by no means bad, just a little underwhelming compared to the original.

.

New Female Prisoner Scorpion: Special Cellblock X (Japan, 1977) [DVD] – 2.5/5
The second and final New Female Prisoner Scorpion film stars Yoko Natsuki, who was just about the most uncharismatic actress you could imagine for the role. Thankfully, the supporting cast fares much better, with yakuza film stars Takeo Chii and Hiroshi Tachi as prison guards and karate villain Masashi Ishibashi as the warden. The screenplay features a couple interesting elements, such as Chii’s character who has his own way of doing things. Director Yutaka Kohira and screenwriter Tatsuhiko Kamoi keep the film moving especially during the second half, but as far as the surreal scenes go, it’s painfully obvious they lack the understanding of the material that Shinya Ito had. In Ito’s films the surreal images served as exaggerated symbolism as well as visual feast; here they serve no purpose and tend to be more amusing than impressive.

 

Appears the French label, Le Chat Qui Fume will be releasing this on blu ray. It's not very good compared to the others in the series but hopefully, an English friendly label can put it out in the near future.

[Takuma]

On 12/1/2022 at 10:44 AM, Yihetuan said:

Appears the French label, Le Chat Qui Fume will be releasing this on blu ray. It's not very good compared to the others in the series but hopefully, an English friendly label can put it out in the near future.

Sadly for the first four films we will, in all likelihood, be stuck with the awful Arrow masters. Or the old DVDs, which are better than the BDs. Toei really needs to give them proper remasters from the original negatives...

The two NEW films I already own on DVD, and have recorded them from TV in HD years ago, so this box set needs to do something more if they want to get my money...

[Takuma]

Roman Porno Now

Hand (手) (Japan, 2022) [DCP] – 3.5/5
Of hands and lonely souls, through the eyes of young woman keeping scrapbook of all the middle aged men and dates who substituted for her own distant father over the years. Until she falls genuinely in love with a guy of her own age. It should come as no surprise that Daigo Matsui, one of the few contemporary Japanese directors worth keeping an eye on, delivers with this film that is the first in Nikkatsu's 2022 Roman Porno Now project. His earlier films include the charming coming of age film Our Huff and Puff Journey, and while working with a bit older characters here he still manages to deliver a couple of the cutest (sex) scenes you're going to see anytime soon. It's also a delicate, thoughtful, beautifully acted and ultimately surprisingly touching film. On the negative side, it's also very much cinema of its day, another tale of non-cinematic characters in search of identity in the middle of everyday greyness, complete with compulsory narrator voice. And it runs 99 minutes, something the old Roman Porno never did, save for the rare daisaku double features. But perhaps that's alright, because this is Roman Porno now.

Safe Word (愛してる！) (Japan, 2022) [DCP] – 3.5/5
When Nikkatsu announced their directors for the Roman Porno Now project, it was not hard to guess Daigo Matsui would fare well, and Shusuke Kaneko would deliver a stinker. But Koji Shiraishi tackling S&M was a complete question mark. Happily for us, this may be the best of the bunch. The gloriously bonkers, endlessly uplifting and sympathetic tale follows a female pro wrestler gone badly performing idol (phenomenally good, funny and cute newcomer Misako Kawase) scouted by an S&M club owner (almost equally good non-binary model/talent Ryuchell) as dominatrix. Only she doesn't initially realize it's an S&M job, and requires going through the "slave" part first, which results in lots of extremely funny reactions, especially since she sports quite an attitude and a wrestler's physical responses. This film is really quite the opposite of a vintage Nikkatsu S&M film where noble Naomi Tani would be subjugated to a blue collar male power / sexual get-even fantasy. Shiraishi's film instead is a female empowerment piece and a love song to being a happy pervert. Here all the "S" is committed by women to men, or by women to women, who all enjoy it. Shiraishi shoots it in his trademark faux documentary style (done well enough for you to stop noticing it almost immediately) and lets the film run too long (10-15 min could have been snapped from the 94), but the first grade direction and superb performances really make this quite a cheerful experience. And yes, not to belittle Shiraishi, but this feels like early 2000s Sion Sono in more ways than one.



When the Rain Falls (百合の雨音) (Japan, 2022) [DCP] – 2/5
The last of the three Roman Porno Now pictures, helmed by Shusuke Kaneko who hasn't done a decent picture in nearly two decades (his fame dates back to Death Note, 90s Gamera, and to a lesser extent a handful of original Roman Porno pictures from production line's twilight years). Expectations were accordingly low, further lowered by the lesbian theme that has proven tricky for many filmmakers. That is perhaps an issue here too: even with a female screenwriter this can never quite avoid the feeling that there is a straight man behind the camera (though thankfully the results are nowhere near as embarrassing as in Hideo Nakata's White Lily from the previous porno batch). But it might be unfair to lay the blame on Kaneko's gender and assumed sexual orientation. Here he does art and metaphors, and does them both clumsily, and probably wouldn't have done much better even with a straight tale. Acting is merely ok (above pink standards, but way below Hand and Safe Word), and the visual look of the picture is that of a not particularly accomplished modern digital production (with added dream-like softness). Oh and the plot: a young office lady seeing black & white flashbacks of lesbian high school girl encounter falls in love with an older, unhappily married woman. It feels like television drama with sex and nudity cranked up to 11. But the storyline does work on a basic level at least, making this somewhat watchable.

[DrNgor]

On 1/15/2013 at 7:21 AM, Takuma said:

Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club (Japan, 2011) [Cinema] – 3.5/5

Japanese school girls go nasty in Eisuke Naito’s cheap and attention seeking, but effective exploitation drama. Based on true events, the film pretends a social commentary, but comes out ballsy genre cinema that celebrates its little devils in school uniforms. Tech credits are above average J-trash, and the heavy soundtrack is used to a great effect. Gore is missing, but the topic and dealing alone push the film to borderline horror. Bits of pitch black humor provide minor relief. Clumsy drama comes as part of the package, as goes with the genre.

I checked this movie out tonight. I liked it's minimalist approach, including the use of music. I would have liked to have learned a bit more about the three other girls, but I liked how the script only gave the faintest hints of what Mizuki's home life might have been like, bringing her psychopathy into question--as I understand it, "psychopath" stems from "nature" while "sociopathy" is a "nurture" issue. Most other reviews refer to her as a psychopath, and for all intents and purposes, that is the case. But there is indeed the possibility that there's more to her than meets the eye. Three of Mizuki's followers are indeed sociopaths in the making as the result of their hanging around her. And there is a bit of a message about overbearing parents, the stress the same puts on teachers, and how modern Japanese schools (and probably schools everywhere else) are powerless to do anything about bad children because of helicopter parent culture.

[Yihetuan]

11 hours ago, Takuma said:

Sadly for the first four films we will, in all likelihood, be stuck with the awful Arrow masters. Or the old DVDs, which are better than the BDs. Toei really needs to give them proper remasters from the original negatives...

The two NEW films I already own on DVD, and have recorded them from TV in HD years ago, so this box set needs to do something more if they want to get my money...

I wholeheartedly agree about the color grading of the Arrow box set. I complained about it on another forum and was gaslighted lol. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about it and it reflected the original intention of Shunya Ito blah blah blah. I mean anyone with eyes can see something was terribly off about it and the old discotek DVDs were far superior!

Edited December 3, 2022 by Yihetuan

[Takuma]

11 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

I wholeheartedly agree about the color grading of the Arrow box set. I complained about it on another forum and was gaslighted lol. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about it and it reflected the original intention of Shunya Ito blah blah blah. I mean anyone with eyes can see something was terribly off about it and the old discotek DVDs were far superior!

Arrow/Criterion/whatever fan boys are the worst. Anyone with common sense can tell the Arrow masters don't reflect the original look of the films. I mean why would they go through all the trouble of creating the extremely detailed visuals and then wipe out half of that detail and colour in post production? I don't even need to resort to common sense since I've seen all of these movies from Japanese 35mm film prints and they look nothing like the Arrow disasters.

In case of Jailhouse 41 especially there are so many references. The Japanese 35mm prints. The Toei DVD based on a Japanese master. The French DVDs that I believe are based on a French 35mm print. The old US DVD based on an American 35mm print. And then we have the Arrow BD. Only one of these looks radically different from the rest. You know which one.

I think it's pretty obvious what happened with the Arrow releases. Toei wouldn't let them touch the camera negatives, and sent them the worst 35mm prints that had faded to pink. Arrow did what they could by colouring them modern blue. And that's it.

[Yihetuan]

Yasuhiko Kawano - MACH 78 aka DAREDEVIL DRIVERS [1978] (JAPAN/USA)

Sometimes you find rare gems especially films you've never heard before and are pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those but hey, no complaints as I got to watch it in pristine blu ray HD with English subtitles! A very strange US/Japanese co-production about a Japanese stunt driving team heading to California for a tournament & one of the guys falls for a leggy blonde. Well, that about sums up the entire plot. The blonde actress love interest has such a stilted and expressionless delivery of her lines that it's hilariously bad. The japanese guy (Chiaki Otomo, who passes for 100% white) only speaks Japanese & is corny too. This love story with a contrived and far-fetched coincidence seemed to be just put in to give it this movie some semblance of drama. Some of the stunt footage and driving scenes were okay in a documentary style way. I guess this might appeal to nostalgic car buffs more than it did with me.

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Yihetuan

[Super Ninja]

11 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

Yasuhiko Kawano - MACH 78 aka DAREDEVIL DRIVERS [1978] (JAPAN/USA)

Sometimes you find rare gems especially films you've never heard before and are pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those but hey, no complaints as I got to watch it in pristine blu ray HD with English subtitles! A very strange US/Japanese co-production about a Japanese stunt driving team heading to California for a tournament & one of the guys falls for a leggy blonde. Well, that about sums up the entire plot. The blonde actress love interest has such a stilted and expressionless delivery of her lines that it's hilariously bad. The japanese guy (Chiaki Otomo, who passes for 100% white) only speaks Japanese & is corny too. This love story with a contrived and far-fetched coincidence seemed to be just put in to give it this movie some semblance of drama. Some of the stunt footage and driving scenes were okay in a documentary style way. I guess this might appeal to nostalgic car buffs more than it did with me.

 

Nice find. That plot is perfectly enough for a possibly delicious slice of '70s carsploitation, sounds like something that might have been conceived in Corman's workshop, or in Hal Needham's head.

[Yihetuan]

17 hours ago, Super Ninja said:

Nice find. That plot is perfectly enough for a possibly delicious slice of '70s carsploitation, sounds like something that might have been conceived in Corman's workshop, or in Hal Needham's head.

Yes, you summed it up perfectly. It's definitely 'carsploitation' and something out of Corman.

[DrNgor]

Tomie (1998, d: Ataru Oikawa) - First film in a franchise of eight movies based on a manga by Junji Ito. The premise revolves around a girl, Tomie, who is both enchantingly beautiful and immortal, and whose mere presence (not to mention flirtatious manner) drives men to murder and madness. In this first film, we follow a college girl, Tsukiko, who is taking a photography class during her summer vacation. Tsukiko has some selected amnesia revolving an unexplained accident a few years before, and is seeing a psychiatrist in hopes of reviving her memories. Meanwhile, the new tenant in her apartment building is taking care of what appears to be a severed human head...

Whatever this film's pedigrees are, it's not a particularly well-constructed or even spooky movie. There are several parallel plot strands, most of which never come together in any meaningful way. This is especially true for the subplot involving Tsukiko's boyfriend Yuiichi having an affair with her best friend, Kaori. Detective-Inspector Exposition hangs around just to do that: spout off exposition, but never actually contributes to what's going on in the present. At first it looks like the Psychiatrist is going to do some investigating of her own, but in the end, she's just a non-entity. At no point before the climax does Tsukiko ever realize that she's in any kind of danger, so there's no gradual feeling of dread there. Lots of disturbing stuff happens offscreen and/or is completely unexplained: Just how did Kaori end up in Tomie's apartment? At what point did Tomie bewitch the landlord? What exactly were the circumstances involving the deaths of Yuiichi's co-workers? And where is Tsukiko's mother, whom she is always talking about?

Tomie Replay (2000, d: Fujiro Mitsuishi) - The second follow-up--following a 3-part anthology series that was packaged and released to theaters--to Tomie is more of a horror movie than the first and fifth entries, beginning with a horrific opening scene of a medical team trying to remove a tumor from the stomach of a young girl, only to discover that said tumor is the living head of our titular character (played this time by Hôshô Mai)! In the following days (or weeks), the surgical team goes crazy and the head surgeon/hospital director disappears. From there on out, the director's daughter, Yumi (Sayaka Yamaguchi) investigates her father's disappearance with the help of Fumihito (Yosuke Kubozuka), whose friend went insane after brings a fully-grown Tomie back to his pad

The first film was a badly-structured mix of mystery and teen drama, with Tomie's face being obscured until her seduction of an important male character in the third act. There isn't much mystery about who Tomie is or why she's dangerous, so new director Fujiro Mitsuishi plays up the horror elements (and interestingly enough, plays down the sexual ones) this time. There is a bit of a mystery in terms of what exactly happened to Yumi's father, which leads to a number of creepy moments. The film suggests that Tomie is the J-horror equivalent of Drexler's Grey Goo, although I don't think that angle will be explored until later installments. But it does explain how this movie could be set in the same universe as Tomie while having nothing to do with the events from that one. IMDB reviews suggest that this is the best entry in the franchise.

Tomie Re-birth (2001, d: Takashi Shimizu) - The fourth entry in the series is interesting in which it jettisons all elements of mystery from the story and features a more-focused plot that can best be described as a "Vengeful ex-girlfriend" story, but with horrific overtones. The film opens with a talented artist, Hideo (Shugo Oshinari), painting a picture of Tomie (Miki Sakai), our resident narcissistic Lorelei (filtered through Reptilicus). She destroys the painting when he finishes, prompting him to slit her throat with a painter's knife in a fit of anger. With the help of his two friends, Shunichi (Masaya Kikawada) and Takumi (Satoshi Tsumabuki), Hideo disposes of Tomie's body...albeit not for long. She shows up a few days later at a party and drives Hideo to suicide, and then exacts her revenge against the other two by inserting herself their lives and turning them upside-down.

Notable for being Takashi Shimizu's directorial effort immediately preceding Ju-On: The Grudge, his entry is just as violent as the other ones, but decidedly less creepy than the previous Tomie Replay. Miki Sakai plays her Tomie less as the seductress from the first film or the cynical man-hater from Tomie Replay, but more as a master manipulator hidden behind a thick veneer of kawaii. The movie doesn't do much to further the Tomie lore, except that it posits that Tomie is less Reptilicus and more John Carpenter's The Thing, in that exposure to just a few of her cells (or strands of hair) can infect and possess someone.

Dark Water (2002, d: Hideo Nakata) - Nakata-san's follow-up to his Ringu films is unnerving and sad (albeit not actually scary) supernatural tale of a divorced woman, Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), who moves into a rickety old apartment with her six-year old daughter (the adorable Rio Kanno). There is a water spot on the ceiling indicating a link in the apartment above, which the elderly apartment manager (Isao Yatsu) seems rather blasé about. As her custody mediations with her asshole ex-husband (Fumio Kohinata) are reaching fever pitch, she begins to suspect that something is wrong with the apartment, and that it's connected to little girl who went missing three years before. And that water spot seems to be growing...

There's a lot to be said about a story that deals with the trials of a woman who put aside her career for marriage and motherhood, only to be forced to juggle both after the end of the marriage. Although in many cases, a woman may opt for that path, I understand that a lot of Japanese men expect their brides to assume the housewife role, which makes it a double-kick to the balls when a woman has to not only learn to balance motherhood and a career, but has to deal with a jerk ex and his equally-jerky lawyer, too. Add some supernatural goings-on that it seems that only Yoshimi is noticing, than you have a situation that looks quite bleak from Yoshimi's perspective. The ghost scenes aren't particularly scary, but you feel for Yoshimi as she experiences them because you know what she has to lose.

Ju-On: The Curse 1 & 2 (2000, d: Takashi Shimizu) - A pair of V-cinema horror flicks directed by Shimizu that started the whole Ju-On universe. Anyone who has seen The Grudge knows what to expect here and there isn't a whole lot you haven't seen, although these films still freak the heck out of me. A teacher named Kobayashi (Yûrei Yanagi, of Don't Look Up and the Ringu films) goes to visit the house of one of his students, Toshio (Ryôta Koyama), to find out why he's been missing so much school. He discovers that whatever marital issues the parents, Takeo and Kayako, had been going through reached a violent apex. And now it's haunting anyone who steps foot into the cursed place, including the Murakami and Kitada families, who rent the house over the next couple of years.

The movie is less of a plot-driven film and mainly a collection of spooky vignettes dealing with the fates of all those people whoever entered the place. The vignettes are not arranged in a chronological order, but for the most part, aren't that difficult to follow or mentally arrange in order. Most of the set pieces have an equivalent in The Grudge, although the ones here are done on a lower budget. The second film features a 30-minute recap of the first film and about 45 minutes of original footage. I judge it to be less good than the first one on the basis that the rules for ju-on become murky as the curse spreads outside of the original house. But it's still a creepy little pair of movies.

Tomie: Beginning (2005, d: Ataru Oikawa) - The sixth entry in the series was the first one to be shot on video and not released to theaters. Director Oikawa from the first Tomie returns to direct this prequel to his own contribution the franchise, which tells the story behind the class photo that Detective-Inspector Exposition was always babbling about in the first one. Tomie (played this time by Rio Matsumoto, probably the most attractive actress to play Tomie thus far) shows up at a high school and immediately causes havoc. All the boys (and the teacher, Mr. Takagi) all fall head over heels for Tomie, while the girl clique instantly takes a massive disliking for her. Tomie befriends a girl named Reiko Matsuhara (Asami Imajuku), who becomes something of a support for her.

Like most of the Tomie films, the film isn't really scary. There is some graphic violence, including a severed here and an infamous bit (I assume taken from the manga) where the class joyfully dismembers Tomie's curse. The film suffers from too many "important" events--Tomie's murder and the subsequent cases of insanity and suicide--taking place offscreen. Those are the sorts of things I'd like to see and not just hear in narration. The same material was handled much more effectively in the first 10 minutes of the video below:

Tomie: Another Face (1999, d: Toshiro Inomata) - Second entry in the franchise is actually three episodes from a TV anthology series edited into a single film. In the first story, Tomie (the gorgeous Runa Nagai) shows up at school after having been found dead by authorities some days before. She tries to get back together with her former boyfriend, but his ex-girlfriend stands in her way... In the second story, a photographer who's in a creative funk meets Tomie, who's working as a go-go dancer of sorts at a bar. She reminds me him of a girl he was infatuated with years before. She agrees to be his muse, but when the photos are developed... Finally, a businessman is about to ask his girlfriend, Tomie, to marry him. But then a mysterious man, a former autopsy doctor, shows up and tells him the truth about his love...

Most people dismiss this on account of its production values and acting. As beautiful as Runa Nagai is--especially when she dons a yipao in the second episode (yowza!)--her voice is high pitched and kinda annoying. Like a parody of the stereotypical child-like Japanese girl voice. My main problem is that the finale of the third episode, which is framed as a huge twist, goes against the "rules" for Tomie as established in the other films and Junji Ito's manga. And if you consider it for more than a few seconds, you'd have to assume that she would have Grey Goo'd the world decades earlier. I do like that it establishes Tomie as being the personification of narcissism, as if Pandora had opened her box and the demon of narcissistic behavior took the form of a hot Asian girl with a mole below her left eye.

Tomie: Revenge (2005, d: Ataru Oikawa) - Seventh entry in the franchise is a DTV film and generally considered the weakest of the bunch. A doctor at a small mountain village hospital runs into a naked girl (Anri Ban) in the forest. The girl is unhurt and the doctor follows her to an isolated cottage inhabited by some of Tomie's male admirers and an unconscious girl. The girl is taken back to civilization, but is missing her memory of how she ended up at the cottage. The doctor, a single lady, takes a liking to her and even considers adopting her...until one evening Tomie's goons show up at the hospital.

Tomie doesn't really show up until the end, where she starts making (to quote an IMDB reviewer) SCUM Manifesto speeches. Although the Tomie in Tomie Replay was also a man-hater, this one feels false and forced, mainly because we haven't seen her interact with anyone up to that point. Moreover, the most we'd seen of her was through a camcorder tape showing her ordering her male admirers to kill an innocent young woman, so WTF? Also, the climax involves neither the rescued girl or the female doctor, but hinges on the sudden revelation that one of the male cast members has actually been holding a torch for Tomie, despite there being NO SCENE to establish that he'd even had any contact with her in the first place...and all this seconds after the revelation that there's a second Tomie who's feeding off the entrails of one of the male followers, zombie-style. These two events are happening within a few feet of each other, but the script focuses on the former and COMPLETEY FORGETS about the latter. WTF? And the final scenes are so completely random that I can't help but think that the entire script was cobbled together from ideas at a stage 1 brainstorming session.

One Missed Call (2003, d: Takashi Miike) - Takashi Miike's entry in the "long-haired, vengeful female ghost" genre following the success of Ringu is considered a parody by many, mainly because it slavishly copies the tropes so thoroughly that nobody thinks he was really taking it seriously. People receive phone messages dated in the future, with the message being their own horrible deaths. It starts as The Ring meets Final Destination, and then off the rails in the last 30 minutes or so. The final twist was eventually stolen for the Ouija movie. The film runs a good 20 minutes too long, with the police characters being unnecessary and the TV show subplot, while interesting in showing the effect of such a curse on popular culture, is completely forgot about in the third act. I would have liked to have seen the fallout of Natsumi's death on camera to the TV station.

[DrNgor]

Ju-On: The Grudge (2002, d: Takashi Shimizu) - The third film (and first theatrically-released one) in the franchise is what inspired Hollywood to remake it (with Shimizu himself at the helm) in 2004. Much like the previous Ju-On: The Curse films, this is little more than a series of vignettes about the horrible fates of those who have moved into the former Saeki residence. This one focuses on a single family and the employees of a Social Services company who regularly check in on the husband's aging mother. 

For the first hour, you'll find that little has changed between this one and The Grudge. The last half hour or so takes on a different turn. Whereas The Grudge focuses on the Sarah Michelle Gellar narrative and supplements the set pieces with ones cribbed from Ju-On: The Curse, the original version actually jumps a decade or so into the future. We learn that the final set piece of Ju On: The Curse 2 was also set years after the events of that movie and this film finally gives a bit more meat to that segment. The non-linear nature of these scenes make the final moments a bit confusing, and the impetus for Rika to revisit the Saeki house after so many years is just stupid. There is also no explanation of why Kayako treated Rika different than all the other women who'd ever entered the house.

 

Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003, d: Takashi Shimizu) - Although this one continues to be played out as a series of non-linear vignettes with intertitles that tell us who'll probably be dead by the end of the segment, this one has more of an actual plot thant he previous entries. Long story short, a sensationalist TV program wants to shoot an episode at the Saeki residence, with the gimmick being that horror movie queen Kyoko Harase (singer Noriko Sakai) will be in attendance. After the episode, members of the cast crew either die under mysterious circumstances or simply disappear. Kyoko seems to be spared, but Kayako has something else in store for her. 

The fact that the narrative is a bit more focused (albeit still presented out of order) made this a better watch than the Ju-On: The Grudge. I still wish that the rules of Ju-On were better explained, since people die that had never stepped into the house in the first place.

Spoiler

The film climaxes (ha!) with an adult Kayako emerging from Kyoko's vagina in a hospital and scaring a team of nurses and obstetricians to death. The last scene, however, begs the question: "If you go through all that trouble to get yourself reborn, can't you do so without being infected with all the hate and anger from your previous life? Apparently, not."

 

[Yihetuan]

Station - Dir. Yasuo Furuhata [1981] (Japan)

I re-watch this film every couple years as it's my favorite Ken Takakura performance. Not sure where this movie ranks on Kinema Junpo's all time best films list but it ranks right up there on my mine. In addition to the aforementioned performance by Takakura Ken, the visuals are also top notch. The snowy backdrop of Hokkaido is captured perfectly by the cinematography and the melancholic enka soundtrack fits the move so well too.

On 12/27/2022 at 4:03 AM, Super Ninja said:

Didn't yet get to explore what Singapore has to offer on the action front. This doesn't sound promising, but I'll probably be checking it out. Where can I find it?

I sent you a PM

[Yihetuan]

Somebody's Flower - Dir. Yusuke Okuda [2021] (Japan)

I had this on my to watch list for the longest and finally got around to catching it the other night. What a revelation! It would easily make my list of top 10 movies of the year. A tremendous thought provoking narrative drama revolving around the concept of grief, shame and blame in Japanese society using the aging Japanese population and dementia as its focal point. The main lead, played by Shinsuke Kato is fantastic as the lonely single middle aged factory welder who is harboring guilt about the possible implications of his dementia addled father in a tragic neighborhood accident while simultaneously dealing with a tragedy within his own family. There is a particular ruse which director Okuda uses to great effect in which in he portrays Kato's alter ego elucidating all his feelings while the 'real' Kato is silently welding at his iron works job. Seems like a gimmick at first but it's a wonderful device & also provides some levity among the heavy subject matter. Highly recommended!

 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Yihetuan]

Missing aka Sagasu - Dir. Shinzo Katayama [2021] (Japan)

Absolutely fantastic second film from director Katayama, as much as I enjoyed his debut, Siblings of the Cape, this movie exceeds that by a fair margin. Katayama worked as an assistant to Bong Joon-ho for many years and it shows in how he defies genres. I went in thinking this film was going to a taut psychological thriller about a young teen girl who stumbles upon a serial killer while looking for her deadbeat father. But Katayama completely turned the tables and this film goes from one unexpected turn to  another.

It evolved from a suspense thriller to a dark satiric take on family bonds and the tenuous relationships they entail. I had vibes from Sono's Cold Fish to a Coen brothers movie. I can't say enough of the acting performances which were uniformly excellent from Jiro Sato (who usually plays comedic roles) as the ne'er do well father to especially Aoi Ito who played his impetuous daughter, Kaede. She's definitely someone to keep an eye on in the future. The ending scene between father and daughter playing ping pong is devastating in its implications. Highly recommended!

Spoiler

The emotionally wrought scenes involving Sato and his wife who has ALS is some of the best in recent memory especially when Sato, who thinks he's abiding by his wife's wishes with noble intentions but soon realizes all his rationalizations are just a slippery slope to ease his own conscience. The other highlight is the scene involving what appears to be a kindly old mandarin farmer who invites the "no name"  killer to a warm meal and some companionship. It quickly takes a dark turn when the old man reveals his massive pornography collection and his sexual fetishes which triggers the killer once he put on some Oniruku Dan bondage porn.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Yihetuan]

My Small Land - Dir. Emma Kawawada [2022] (Japan]

A nice debut by Hirokazu Kore-eda protege, Kawawada about an immigrant Kurdish family in Japan and the obstacles they must overcome due to Japan's draconian refugee/asylum policies. I think this will resonate with Asian families as basically it is the same story of first gen Asian offspring dealing with growing up in the West. Most first generation immigrants want to fit in with the 'majority' population but not wanting to lose your cultural identity either.

It's fairly predictable and all the usual tropes present such as the clash between the culturally acclimated first born daughter and her traditional strict Kurdish father. The alienation and burden she feels as she is expected to help not only her immediate family but the general Kurdish Japanese community at large with her language skills, her budding romantic relationship with a Japanese co-worker at the convenience store she works part-time which is frowned upon by her father who has already arranged her marriage with a local Kurdish man & despite being a high achiever in high school, her tenuous immigration status may prevent her from pursuing her dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher.

Speaking of the daughter, actress Lina Arashi (in her acting debut as she's mostly known as fashion model) does a uniformly excellent job without resorting to theatrics or over acting. But most of my praise goes to her family - yes, her real father, brother and sister played her dramatic family in this movie and as rank amateurs they did a superb job (although I'm sure being a real life family made a lot of the scenes less awkward as they have a comfort factor). Recommended and worth a watch!

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Yihetuan