The Good Doctor's Countdown to 200 Japanese Movies

[DrNgor]

#150 – Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) – (original title: Kozure Ôkami: Ko wo kashi ude kashi tsukamatsuru) – Produced by Toho Studios. I have already seen Shogun Assassin, which was the first two films of the series edited into one slam-bang feature, and Lupine Wolf/Lightning Swords of Death, which was the third movie of the series, but I had never really seen the original Lone Wolf and Cub series from start to finish. It’s time to change that. I can think of no better film to celebrate my 150^th Japanese movie than this one…well, maybe Tampopo, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

So Itto Ogami is the Shogun’s official executioner, in charge of killing rebellious daimyos and samurai. This position puts the entire Ogami family among the elite of the Shogun’s court. However, there’s a branch of the Yagyu clan, led by the old and creepy Retsudo Yagyu, who serve as the Shogun’s personal assassins and aspire to the honors that Ogami and his clan enjoy. So one day, a trio of Yagyu ninja murder Itto’s wife and leave a memorial plaque bearing the Shogun’s insignia inside a temple on Ogami’s property where he prays for the souls of those he has executed. In other words, they frame him for treason and sedition. So Itto slaughters not one, but two contingents of samurai sent to arrest/execute/force Ogami to commit sepukku, and goes on the lam with his son. He supports himself by hiring out his skills as an assassin, while simultaneously trying to track down the remaining members of Retsudo’s family line and kill them.

 

The story bounces back between the backstory above and Ogami’s first mission, which is to slay a corrupt prefect and the assassins he contracted to ambush a daimyo from a distant district. Ogami and his son, Daigoro, find the villains at a small village known for its thermal baths. The two bide their time until the assassins are about to leave the village to put their ambush in effect, at which point Ogami springs into action and slays every last one of the brigands. End of story.

 

A lot of reviews I’ve read comment that the film is slow and one would best go into it expecting no action at all. I don’t find that entirely true, especially after some of the early 60s jidai-geki movies I’ve seen. There are three major set pieces, with the best being saved for last. Watching Ogami transform parts of his son’s wooden pram into a naginata and hack a dozen men to pieces was just what the doctor ordered. Much like the film Kill Bill, a human being during the Tokugawa Shogunate had about 10 gallons of blood under intense pressure flowing in his/her veins, in such a way that being cut would release a geyser of it into the air. The effect is blackly funny, but using it as a compliment to well-staged action scenes inside of a well-directed film, the exaggeration works more than it does in, say, Machine Girl.

 

Just a funny observation: My wife is a lot more conservative than I am, especially when it comes to content in movies. So imagine my dismay when she sits down to watch the movie with me, just in time for a random rape scene, followed later by another sequence in which Ogami is more or less forced to have sex with a prostitute in front of a bunch of people. She gave me “the look” which translated into “why are you watching this?” I lied and said, “I’m here for the sword fights. I didn’t know there’d be any of this in the film” and followed that up with, “I was also curious because this is one of the films that inspired Kill Bill.” She didn’t stay for the end, but thankfully didn’t argue with me after the film was over. I can only imagine what I’ll have to say to her when it comes time to watch Part 4.

[Takuma]

49 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

 I can only imagine what I’ll have to say to her when it comes time to watch Part 4.

Just wait till you get to Hanzo the Razor

[DrNgor]

1 hour ago, Takuma said:

Just wait till you get to Hanzo the Razor

"Is that policeman raping her?"

"Yes...no...kinda...I mean...yeah...it starts out as rape, but because his pênis is so big and strong and powerful, the girl actually likes it and it becomes consensual...er...I'll see myself out."

[DrNgor]

#151 - Lone Wolf and Cub: Perambulator at the River Styx (1972) - (original title: Kozure Ôkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma) - Produced by Toho Studios. Okay, so this one was a lot of fun. So there's a territory run by a rich daimyo where a special dye-making process has been discovered. The process has made the reigning clan far richer than official records would indicate, which has made the Shogunate a bit jealous and greedy. So the powers that be have sent spies to instigate peasant rebellions, and now one of the rebels is on his way to Edo to testify against the daimyo, which would give the Shogun good reason to confiscate the clan's riches. Ogami Itto is contracted to eliminate the rebel and his entourage of bodyguards, the legendar of "Masters of Death" (as they are known in Shogun Assassin), whom even the Yagyu are afraid of.

Much like the first film, the mission itself makes up the last act of the movie. Much of the movie revolves around the Yagyu's repeated attempts to kill Ogami. This time, they contact a branch of the Family that is run by Sayaka Yagyu and her band of sadistic kunoichi. All sorts of traps are laid for Ogami, and he even gets seriously injured at one point, leading to an interesting bit where Daigoro, despite being three or so, tries to help his father. The kid says little, but is smart enough to do things like take food that has been offered to the local kami and leave his own clothing in Exchange, so that his father can eat. It's very adorable. The action is of the same high standard as the previous film, with the finale being a standout. Set on some Sandy dunes, the Masters of Death viciously slaughter an entire army hiding beneath the sand. But then Ogami Itto appears in the distance and they meet their match, leading to one of the most memorable throat-slittings of all time.

[Takuma]

I also watched River Styx today...

[DrNgor]

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972) - (original title: Kozure Ôkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro) - Produced by Toho studios. Leonard Maltin gave this one the lowest rating in his movie guide, giving it **1/2 out of **** for being slow and "stylistically overblown." I can sort of understand the reason, since some of the voice-overs just pop up for a single scene and then are never heard again. There's also a lot of time spent with flashbacks, which isn't too much of a problem, since we do learn a bit more of Ogami Itto's backstory, plus that of his current contract.

Said contract is a woman named Oyuke, who has been carving up the men of Lord Owari with a short sword (while topless!). Moreover, she has been scalping her victims and sending them back to her former lord. Why? This is where the movie gets into some grey territory--I've noticed that the lines between good and evil in Itto's contracts have been getting more and more blurred with each successive film. You see, Oyuki was a travelling performer of sorts, who was taken in by Lord Owari to be a bodyguard of sorts. One day her trainer knocked her unconscious during a training session, and then decided to strip her naked and rape her. She woke up just in time for the rape, and is more than a little traumatized. So she deserted her post, itself a crime worthy of death. And now she's killing off Owari's men until her trainer is sent to take care of her. While that sounds somewhat justifiable premise for revenge in the context of these period action films, there's a very big "but" to consider.

You see, scalping her victims and sending them back to court is a rather humiliating thing for her to do, especially for the families of those samurai. So humiliating, in fact, that many of them are committing suicide for feeling dishonored at the very ignominous death the men of the house are suffering. That's where Itto comes in. The wife of one of Oyuke's victims hires him to kill her, committing suicide in front of Itto just as the deal is sealed. There are other factors to consider, and the Yagyu clan, which were largely absent from the last film, come back in force for the big clímax. Itto escapes with his life, but only barely.

Just some observations:

- This one has the most nudity of the films so far, although all of it comes from the comely Michi Azuma, who spends more than 75% of her screen time with her breasts exposed.

- I had heard that the finale for this is one of the best of its kind. I think I prefer the battle sequence at the end of the third movie, but this one ended on a high note. Now, the fight at the temple between Itto and the ninja...that was so vicious it was outright feral.

- I liked the episode with Daigoro on his own, although it went on a bit too long.

- While Ogami is just as much a bad-a** as he Always is, he does show a bit more emotion in this film, especially in the final act, than he did in the last one.

[DrNgor]

#153 - Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973) - (original title: Kozure Ôkami: Meifumadô) - Produced by Toho Studios. This is definitely up there with Baby Cart at the River Styx as one of the best of the series. I found it more satisfying than the last two, even though I liked them. One of the major strengths is that the appearance of the Yagyu clan is integral to Ogami's mission, giving the mission itself a greater sense of urgency than the last movie, where it felt like two separate plots striving for supremacy over the other. In my comments to Baby Cart in Peril, I observed that with each mission, Ogami found himself moving into darker shades of grey with each passing mission. In this film, this is his most morally ambiguous mission yet, and if one were to judge it by modern Occidental morals, it would outright horrifying and villainous. And yet, by the standards of the Tokugawa era, it makes sense that he'd kill the people he does, since the Japanese feudal system goes way beyond the individual. On the action front, the final duel inside the castle is satisfying, probably moreso than the last movie, even though that one had a bigger body count. I think the last movie used up the series' quota of nudity, since this one has none, although it makes up for it in blood geysers. Highly recommended.

[DrNgor]

#154 - Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974) – (original title: Kozure Okami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigorô) – Produced by Toho studios. I was particularly excited about this one, as Leonard Maltin described the finale on the snow-capped mountain as being one of the all-time action sequences in world cinema. Conversely, other reviewers have dismissed said finale as being rather silly. I enjoyed it well enough and it certainly enough scale to it to justify its existence as a capper action sequence to the series. Dozens of ninjas on skis and basket-headed monks on sleds are blown to bits, stabbed, hacked, dismembered, slashed and gored as Ogami makes his way down the mountain. Great stuff all around.

 

This time, the ongoing feud between Ogami Itto and Retsudo Yagyu is brought back to the forefront, without any side mission to provide Itto with more katana fodder. Much like the third and fifth films, this helps the film move along more smoothly, without making us ask “Just which of these conflicts is the *main* one?” Ogami is making his way to Edo, where he plans on offing Retsudo once and for all. Retsudo, on the other hand, is under a lot of pressure from the Shogunate to slay Itto and be done with it. Otherwise, they’ll declare him a public enemy, thus allowing everybody and their mother to take a crack at him, which will also be a sort of insult to the Yagyu clan. Desperate, Retsudo sends first his daughter, Kaori, and then his bastard son, Hyoei, to take care of our heroes. Hyoei is both a swordsman and a magician, having been brought up in the mountains by an obscure, less honorable clan. Hyoei, however, has other plans in store once he kills Itto.

 

The big elephant in the room is the finale, which doesn’t quite tidy up things the way a lot of people wanted. However, on the same token, Ogami has still essentially won the battle, even if he hasn’t cleared his name and redeemed his clan. After all, Retsudo Yagyu has basically had his entire clan slaughtered (I can’t imagine anyone joining him after the massacres that are the finales to this and part 4), has lost all of his children*, and will lose his reputation and be disgraced once Itto is declared public enemy. In other words, Ogami has transformed Retsudo into exactly what he himself is.

 

This is the only movie where the supernatural comes into play, in the form of three pseudo-zombie-ghost warriors from Hyoei’s clan. In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, which clearly feels like a horror film, Itto and Daigoro go to the inn to spend the evening. When the innkeeper’s wife/daughter knocks on the door to offer them dinner, he opens the door, only for the girl to be dead with an arrow sticking out of her neck. Ogami and his son discover that the entire inn has become a bloodbath, with everybody inside having been slaughtered, but done so swiftly and quietly that even someone with acute senses and intuition like Ogami failed to notice. It’s a beautifully-filmed, if graphically violent, scene.

 

The only thing in the movie I didn't like was the (almost) obligatory rape sequence, which felt even more random than the others in the series, despite the fact that involves one important character. I mean, I don't like rape scenes in general, but this one felt particularly WTF to me. The woman in involved happens to be the rapist's sister, and she was introduced as being someone important, but before she can make any contribution to the story at all, her brother rapes her, both of them are killed, and that's that. It really felt incongruous to the rest of the story.

 

*- The movie states that Itto had killed Gunbei, who showed up in part 4, but I thought he was still alive. At the end of Part 4, we see him declaring that he wants to be the one to kill Ogami…or was that a foreshadowing to Hyoei that I missed?

Edited April 28, 2017 by DrNgor

[DrNgor]

#155 - Killing Machine (1975) aka Shorinji Kempo - Produced by Toei Studios. So here the legendary Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba plays Doshin Soh, the founder of the Shorinji Kempo style, which has its roots in Shaolin kung fu. Soh was a secret agent for the Japanese based in Manchuria, where he learned several Shaolin styles. The movies opens with the defeat of the Japanese at the hands of the Americans, and Soh goes back to Osaka to start over. He helps some orphans and a girl who's forced into prostitution, but a fight with some American GIs forces him to move to Shikoku. There he founds his own dojo and fights back against the local yakuza.

Man, this movie is brutal. Sonny Chiba is frequently punching people until the spit up blood, and in the case of the main villain, more than that. Most reviews tend to mention the lack of an actual final opponent, and that is noticeable. But there's also a *sigh* rape scene, which is followed by Chiba castrating the perpetrator with a pair of scissors and throwing his testicles to the dogs. The fights are pretty good on the whole, although there are no standouts.

What I liked best about this movie is how it portrays the immediate post-WW2 Japan as being a rather hellish place. People didn't have it so easy in the early days after the war, as to be expected. One issue I have: there's a comment made about the occupying forces banning the practice of martial arts, but nothing comes out of that, unfortunately. That would've made for an interesting kink in the storyline, but it's dropped as soon as it's brought up.

[DrNgor]

#156 - Karate Wars (orig. title: Karate Daisenso) - Produced by Shochiku. "Mr. Maki, I've met Sonny Chiba, and you sir, are no Sonny Chiba." So, Hisao Maki, a karate expert, is a promising karate fighter who drops off the map after killing a Mexican luchador in a fight. Some time later, a group of businessmen approach Maki's master proposing that he send his best fighter to Hong Kong and Thailand to challenge their best, in order to promote karate and Japanese business interests abroad. The master's daughter finds Maki and he agrees to the duels. Meanwhile, a Chinese kung fu expert/nightclub singer arranges for Maki to fight her brother, White Dragon (some viewers will recognize as Charlie Chan, of Secret Rivals II). She also arranges for scores of thugs to ambush Maki, just to be on the safe side. Look for hung gar expert Chiu Chi-Ling (the tailor from Kung Fu Hustle) as a thug who gets beat in one punch, thus depriving us of hung gar vs. karate duel. Maki kills White Dragon in their duel (was a falling knee smash to the chest really necessary? Really?) and moves on to Thailand, where he most prepare to fight the reigning Muay Thai champion, an alcoholic lout named King Cobra.

Despite his suave pompadour hairstyle, Maki, for all I know, was not so much an actor but a statue of a man sculpted from a block of mahogany that the gods breathed life into, but who still retained the inability to express emotion in any form. His facial expression never changes, even when his master's pretty daughter is undressing in front of him near the end in a bid to get him to call off the duel. That brute mother-(shut yo mouth) gets what's coming to him in the end for that. 

The fights are also substandard. Shochiku's filmmakers frequently demonstrate that they had no idea how to photograph these fights, with lots of unnecessary close-ups and other angles that obscure what the actors (heh) are doing. There's an interesting fight between Maki and some Chinese wall-jumping martial artists in a cramped hotel room, but that's obscured by bad lighting. The fight with Charlie Chan, which should be the ultimate showdown between Japanese karate and Chinese kung fu, consists of Chan getting in one good kick, missing with several other kicks, Maki taking him down, and then the aforementioned knee smash. Even Bruce Lee reserved his fatal blow against O'Hara for when the latter attacked him with a broken bottle. What the heck is Maki's problem? Some of the fights in Thailand are OK, but become kind of funny when Maki gets in a quick, short reverse punch on some guys that has no power whatsoever, but the guys drop to the ground as if he had hit them with a trademark Bruce Lee one-inch punch. Silly stuff, really. In the end, the film is for Japanese karate completists  only.

[DrNgor]

#156 - Return of the Street Fighter (1974) - (original title: Satsujin Ken 2) - Produced by Toei. In this quickly-made sequel to the classic Street Fighter, Takuma Tsurugi is hired by a corrupt karate school teacher to kill Master Masaoka, the heiress' uncle from the first one. Tsurugi turns down the job, and is soon beset by martial artists of all styles and weapons specialties, including his arch enemy Shikenbaru, who survived getting his throat torn out at the end of the first movie. This movie bears all the hallmarks of a quickie sequel, with a shorter running time (19 minutes), two extended flashbacks made up of scenes from the first movie, and a good five minutes or so of different martial artists performing different kata and weapons forms. 

Sonny Chiba is just as bada** as he was in the first film, but he's a little less despicable this time around. No sexual assault and selling poor young girls into prostitution this time around. He does find time to punch a man in the back of the head so hard that his eyes pop out of their sockets, guaranteeing this film an "X" rating like the first one. The fights are very good, although some of the lighting in the climax obscures the action. Leonard Maltin pointed out that the showstopper was the fight in the sauna, which was inded the highlight, action-wise of the film. There's not a whole lot to talk about with this movie, the fighting is good, there is gratuitious 8-track footage, and general bad*ssery, but it's not quite as good as the original.

[DrNgor]

#157 - Dragon Princess (1976) - (original title: Hissatsu onna kenshi) - Produced by Toei. In 1967, violent crimes committed against policemen in NYC were at an all-time high, prompting them to learn Asian martial arts to help them defend themselves. One of the policemen suggested the master of an Okinawan style (Sonny Chiba), but a second, Japanese-originated style is also proposed. The leader of the latter challenges Sonny to a duel, but ends up using treachery to get the upper hand and cripple him. Sonny's daughter, Yumi, witnesses the battle and Sonny trains her to get revenge one day. The daughter, of course, grows up to become Etsuko Shihomi. Yumi goes to Tokyo and challenges the evil dojo, who are making a bid to become the most powerful dojo in the world...or something.

There's a lot of action here, and there's a solid karate cast. Heck, even Yasuaki Kurata shows up in a heroic role. I think my biggest beef with this movie is Kurata's presence, because he gets the most and best fights, and his screenfighting skills steal the show out from under Shihomi, who should be the undisputable star of this. Shihomi puts in a good show, although she feels a bit limited in the climax, fighting with only one good arm. The plot is a load of tosh, but there's enough quality karate on display to warrant a single viewing. Whether or not you want to revisit will depend on how you feel about the top-billed female star being shown up by the male lead.

Edited July 7, 2018 by DrNgor

[Takuma]

Dragon Princess is actually my favourite Shihomi film together with 13 Steps of Maki. I didn't feel Kurata overshadowed her. Quite the contrary in fact, I thought Shihomi was a lot more memorable in her white monk's uniform and straw hat than Kurata (who is admittedly excellent in the fight scenes) and also had pretty great fights.

Did you watch the original Japanese version or the American version with footage from Tokyo Emmanuelle incorporated into the film?

[DrNgor]

5 hours ago, Takuma said:

Did you watch the original Japanese version or the American version with footage from Tokyo Emmanuelle incorporated into the film?

I caught the Japanese version with Portuguese subs on Youtube. The version that's gotten an official DVD release here would be the American version with Portuguese subs.

5 hours ago, Takuma said:

I didn't feel Kurata overshadowed her. Quite the contrary in fact, I thought Shihomi was a lot more memorable in her white monk's uniform and straw hat than Kurata (who is admittedly excellent in the fight scenes) and also had pretty great fights.

I thought she was more memorable in that respect--I liked her using the monk's outfit. Try that in an American film--they'd sexualize Shihomi as much as they could. But like the fight with the assassins in the temple, it was clear that Kurata was having a much easier time than Shihomi, who struggled for much of the battle.

[DrNgor]

#158 - The Karate 2 (1974) - (orig. title: Za Karatê 2) - Produced by Toei. This is the second movie in an obscure karate film trilogy released on the heels of the success of Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter series. Instead of Chiba, we have Tadashi Yamashita, whom Western viewers will remember for his villain roles in The Octagon and American Ninja. While the series may be generally unknown to many, people who used to rent VHS tapes from the likes of Hollywood Video in the 90s might have come across part 3, which was released stateside as Bronson Lee, Champion.

A two-minute rundown of the first film suggests that Yamashita won a karate tournament, ran afoul of the mafia, and got blinded in the process. In this movie, the Yakuza have a new team of international fighters at their disposal. Those include:

- a Swedish knife expert;
- a German fighter who fights with chains and whose toupée suggests one of those umbrella hats that people wear to protect them from the sun;
- a Korean tae kwon do expert;
- a psychopathic American fighter whose sai swords can split into two additional prongs, which he uses to pin people to the wall;
- Bolo Yeung, who plays a fighter named Dracula and who is introduced wearing a luchador mask.

So the Yakuza have a beef with a righteous karate master played by Masafumi Suzuki (essentially the same role he played in the first two Street Fighter films) and steal one his prized katana blades. They then send the diverse masters to kill Yamashita, who, despite being blind, is more than a match for his opponents. Fighting ensues.

There's a strong Enter the Dragon influence here, between Yamashita's fighting style, the presence of Bolo Yeung, and the fact that the main villain has a metal hand. The fighting is pretty good and there are some interesting moments of graphic violence. The film is also bereft of the sleazy (sex, nudity, rape) that shows up in many 70s karate movies. Fans of the genre will easily find something to enjoy here.

Edited December 9, 2020 by DrNgor

[lilmanjs]

Gotta recommend Yakuza Graveyard. Gritty and the action is good. Bayside Shakedown movies are good as well, but you kinda have to see the Rhythm & Police tv series to get the movies which are continuing stories.

[Takuma]

On 7/9/2018 at 9:42 PM, DrNgor said:

The Karate 2 (1974)

I actually haven't seen any of these. Been hoping Toei would remaster them.

[DrNgor]

40 minutes ago, Takuma said:

I actually haven't seen any of these. Been hoping Toei would remaster them.

Amusingly enough, I saw it on Youtube, which was "dubbed" in Russian. It wasn't dubbed so much as it was a single Russian man, reading a transcript of the Russian translation of the Japanese dialog.

 

[DrNgor]

#159 - Onibaba (1964) - Produced by Kindai Eiga, distributed by Toho. I caught this on the big screen on a double-bill with Hausu, and despite being filmed mainly in a single field of susuki grass (Miscanthus sinensis), plus a few small huts, this is one of the most beautifully-filmed black-and-white movies I've seen. The film is set as the Nanboku-cho Civil War (AD 1336 - 1392), but deals with three people: a woman, her daughter-in-law, and their neighbor, who has fled the conflict. The two women eke out a living ambushing samurai, killing them, and trading their weapons and armour for food. The neighbor shows up with news that the son/husband has been killed. That kicks off a conflict of interests between the three parties. This could be set in any war, and in any culture in which the wife is absorbed into the husband's family. I'm pretty sure WW2 produced a staggering number of widows in Japan, and if the wife wanted to move on, it probably meant a huge loss to the mother-in-law, especially if her husband was also not around. The film isn't so much a horror as it is a drama cum social commentary, although there are some horror elements in the last act. I should point out that the two lead actresses have their breasts exposed for about 75% of their screen time, although it's rarely in a sexual context. The only part I didn't care for was the fate of Hachi, the neighbor. It felt so random and disconnected from the main conflict that it disappointed me.

[DrNgor]

#160 - The Golden Bat (1966) - Produced by Toei Studios. Apparently The Golden Bat is the first comic book superhero, predating the most creations of DC and Marvel by almost a decade. This film was made and then followed by an anime series in the late 60s, which arrived on Brazilian shores as "Fantomas." The story here is that an evil alien emperor wants to destroy the Earth so that he and his followers will be the only sentient beings in the universe...jerk-off. So he's directed a comet to hit Earth and make short work of us. The scientists of Earth, including Sonny Chiba and a white guy that Toho fans will recognize from Destroy All Monsters! and perfected a death ray to destroy the comet, but need a special element to make the lens. The element is found on an uncharted island that has appeared out of nowhere. While investigating the island, which appears to be the remnants of Atlantis, the scientist's find a sarcophagus whose inhabitant is the Golden Bat, an eons-old superhero with a silver baton and a skull for a face, the only one who can help humanity defeat the invaders.

There's a lot of action, fist fights, laser fights, miniature submarines and jets, and all sorts of daring do. The action is a bit repetitive: Golden Bat just sort of bobs and weaves and whops people with his cane, but without much actual choreography. I honestly found the action scenes in Super Giant/Starman more exciting. I know this has a big following among fans of Japanese cult cinema, but I thought it was just okay.

[DrNgor]

#161 - The Whale God (1962) (Original title: Kujira Gami) - Produced by Daiei Studios. Interesting jidai-geki take on the Moby Dick motif about a small whaling village who becomes obsessed with killing a seemingly-indestructible baleen whale, known as the Whale God. Our main character, Shaki, wants to kill it to avenge his grandfather, father and older brother. The villain elder (Takashi Shimura) wants to do it for the glory of the village, no matter how many fishermen die in the process. There's also a scumbag drifter (Shintaro Katsu), who wants the glory for his own lascivious purposes. The film is generally well-acted and the black-and-white cinematography is quite sharp. It's an interesting tale of obsession and lust, about people who throw away their lives for a single thing, without considering the consequences of their actions on others. The whale is played by a full-scale mock-up, giving the film a slight kaiju taste. The finale is surprisingly gory at the end, with geysers of blood erupting from the whale as the protagonist hacks at it with a knife. Featuring a low-key score from Akira Ifukube.

[ShaOW!linDude]

11 hours ago, DrNgor said:

#160 - The Golden Bat (1966) - Produced by Toei Studios. 

The story here is that an evil alien emperor wants to destroy the Earth so that he and his followers will be the only sentient beings in the universe...jerk-off.

That line is owning me.

[DrNgor]

#162 - Brother (2000) - This is actually something of a Japanese-American co-production, probably more American than Japanese, but Takeshi Kitano wrote, edited and directed, and his production company put their stamp on it, so I'm including it. Takeshi Kitano plays "Aniki" Yamamoto, a high-ranking Yakuza enforcer whose boss has just been murdered by a rival family. At the request of the police, the members of the family are assimilated into the rival family in order to maintain peace. Yamamoto refuses and heads to LA to stay with his younger brother (Claude Maki), whom he sent there to study. He finds his brother working as a low-level drug pusher and, instead of berating him for not studying, helps the business grow by killing off the mid-level dealers and local Mexican families. Yamamoto establishes something of a "mixed-race" Yakuza in Los Angeles, and eventually merges families with another gang, led by Shirase (Masaya Kato, in a non-fighting role, obviously). Things go to hell once the Italian mafia gets involved and demands their share of the action. Oh, and while all this is going on, Yamamoto builds a wordless friendship with one of his brother's friends, an African-American young man named Denny (Omar Epps).

Being a Takeshi Kitano Yakuza film, you can expect a lot of violence. And this film is ultraviolent. Lots of people are shot dead, with half a gallon of blood splattering against the wall with each shot. One character disembowels himself to prove to his bosses that he's faithful, and there are a few severed fingers and even a severed head. And Kitano's character is a badass, beating people with his fists, stabbing them with bottles, or taking them out with his expert marksman skills. He was considered one of the important action filmmakers in the second half of the 90s, a time when HK was losing its way, although his style is far more methodical and subtle. It may not suit adrenaline junkies looking for John Wick style mayhem.

My main complaint is that once the Italian mafia gets involved, the film loses a bit of steam. Despite the characters saying that war is breaking out, it's more of a mass slaughter by the Italians. I don't know what Kitano wanted to say. Was he saying that the family had expanded to fast to have the structure to deal with the Italians? Or were they too bound by honor to fight back against such a vicious rival? Or was it Yamamoto's growing indifference that allowed it all to happen? I enjoyed the film, but I wish the movie had been a little more Hollywood in those last 40 minutes or so.

Highlight: Susumo Terajima, who plays Takeshi's right-hand man, trying to play American sports.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

On 7/9/2018 at 1:42 PM, DrNgor said:

There's a strong Enter the Dragon influence here, between Yamashita's fighting style, the presence of Bolo Yeung, and the fact that the main villain has a metal hand. The fighting is pretty good and there are some interesting moments of graphic violence. The film is also bereft of the sleazy (sex, nudity, rape) that shows up in many 70s karate movies. Fans of the genre will easily find something to enjoy here.

 

Is this movie absent from Bolo Yeung's HKMDB filmography?, I know he got some work in Japan via G-Men75 and Soul Of Chiba.

 

This movie was new to me at least. I never knew about Bolo's appearance in this Japanese production, until reading your review.

Edited July 4, 2019 by DragonClaws

[One Armed Boxer]

16 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Is this movie absent from Bolo Yeung's HKMDB filmography?, I know he got some work in Japan via G-Men75 and Soul Of Chiba.

Generally speaking, the HKMDB only lists flicks from Hong Kong & China, so it's not a source to refer to for Japanese productions (same reason why Sonny China only has 8 credits to his name in his HKMDB entry).

Bolo did quite a bit of work on Japanese productions, I remember him popping up in a few episodes of Yasuaki Kurata's 'Fight! Dragon' series (he was also billed as co-star on the Region 1 DVD box-set artwork!).