HOODLUM SOLDIER or SADISM MEETS ITS MATCH

Did director Yasuzo Masumura have a personal interest in s & m or did he simply find it metaphorical for the Japanese psyche? Moju (Blind Beast), based on an Edogawa Rampo story, was a cinematic treatise on sado-masochistic desire and its ramifications. Heitai Yakuza (Hoodlum Soldier) (1965) examines Japanese social hierarchy and its s & m leanings through a story of a yakuza serving in the Japanese army, stationed in Manchuria. The yakuza (played by Zatoichi himself, Katsu Shintaro) ends up being a punching bag for almost every senior officer, all who seem to have some kind of chip on their soldier. Because of rank he's not allowed to hit back. But you know that won't last for too long. It must be tough growing up in a country where you always have to answer to someone; where concepts of seniority and superiority are so ingrained in everyday life, from family to school to the workplace and so on, that the subconcious is built for abuse or to dish it out if the chance arises. The screenplay allows Masumura to question this behavior, seemingly di rigeur for the society as a whole (imagine CEOs verbally lambasting sallarymen and senpai - kohai ijime). A subversive voice emerges through the relationship between the yakuza and an idealistic conscientious objector officer that befriends and protects him. There are Lots of beatings and fights, because the yakuza naturally is a real scrapper and takes on several men at the same time. Quite compelling and it spawned several sequels. We can thank Ian Buruma for selecting it for Asia Society's yakuza film series, which you can read more about in my article here. The whole idea of getting beaten on and then fighting back reminds me of that 70's kung fu trailer that had the tag line "he takes a licking and keeps on kicking." And I think the voice over artist on that was Adolph Caeser.

DYNAMITE OPENINGS KNOCKOUT ENDINGS

The opening and ending of a film are arguably the most crucial moments. They contain the power to express the entirety of the story in a single sequence. There is also a potential for poetry if they merge together symmetrically or harmoniously. Here are some prime examples of great openings:

Midnight Cowboy A nice complex mix of sound and visual design. The opening becomes an intricate visual metaphor for the aboutness of the movie, summed up in about 10 seconds. The sounds of a cowboy & Indians shoot em up give way to the reality of a lonely child amusing himself in an abandoned drive-in.


The Wild Angels Another succinct visual metaphor, which features a kid on a big wheel imprisoned by a white picket fence, while the appearance of motorcycle rebel Peter Fonda signifies the threat of 'otherness.'


Enter the Dragon Hey, it opens with Bruce Lee cleaning up the mat with Sammo Hung. Ok, Sammo is fat and Bruce is buff but still, Sammo can flip and kick, they're outdoors surrounded by kung fu monks, the music is cool, Bruce is bad-ass - visceral action in its purest form.


Now, without giving too much a way, let's talk about some terrific endings:

The 400 Blows This pretty much sums up pangs of adolescence and juvenile angst to a tee. Nice use of the freeze frame. Sends quivers up my spine every time as Antoine finds himself at the edge of the earth.

Stroszek This is an incredibly powerful blend of documentary and narrative. The finale captures Americana in its most crude and pure form; a moment full of truth, if you consider the New York Chinatown arcade, which for years featured a dancing chicken.
The Harder They Come The visual storytelling in this antihero ballad triumphs over its low budget. All that has passed before in the story of Ivan the outlaw reggae singer comes together in the devastating climax as he asks for one man to come out and draw, a la the Italian western Django.

Two Lane Blacktop Possibly the greatest ending of all. It's metaphoric and incredibly powerful; formally complex and simple at the same time. Sheer genius.


Please suggest more examples...

Now I'm thinking of the greatest opening sequence ever. What is it? First one right gets a prize.

2 manly men, 1 geisha, lots of brooding and a bloody finish

Asia Society kicked off their yakuza film series, Gamblers, Gangsters and other Anti-heroes, with Tomu Uchida's 1968 version of Koyo Ozaki's oft filmed novel Jinsei Gekijo or Theatre of Life. The complete title of this version is Jinsei Gekijo: Hishakaku to Kiratsune - those are the names of the two protagonists at the end, thus the English translated title of A Tale of Two Yakuza. Series curator Ian Buruma gave an informative introduction, explaining how this was an example of the classical ninkyo yakuza films that were popular in the 60's. He mentioned discovering these films while living in Japan in the 70's and sometimes attending all night yakuza movie marathons. He also related how even the sanctuary seeking audience members who had dozed off would awake at every predictable climactic finale to urge on stars like Ken Takakura. One interesting word of encouragement he said was 'shine' (pronounced 'she nay') or 'die.' These cries weren't fueled by pure blood lust, but since the hero's death was inevitable they wanted him to die beautifully, as Mr. Buruma explained.

The movie is well constructed with meticulous plotting and structural devices, though a little bogged down dramatically. The majority of time is spent on a deliberately paced love triangle. Thankfully there's a stylish explosion of violent action at the end. This is metaphoric and cathartic for the emotional turmoil brought upon the characters by the giri ninjo dilema. Uchida frames interestingly enough on this sound stage production, adding a dash of theatrical and emotional vibrancy while remaining comfortably inside the formula. He also brings out strong performances from the all star cast, which included yakuza film icons Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta in the leads. Junko Fuji, who would go on to her own yakuza star turn in the Red Peony series, plays the geisha of their affections.

Watch out for that fork Lee!

Film Forum is giving this Richard Fleischer b-grade, color heist film, Violent Saturday a week run. Most of the time is spent on suburban soap opera, but all of it with an element of perversion lying beneath a happy Americana exterior. The nebbish bank manager is a peeping tom. When he finally confesses to the hot nurse who he's been spying on while she undresses, she flippantly laughs it off and says with a smile, 'we both learned something. From now on I'll pull down the window shade' . Lee Marvin plays one of the hold-up men and is creepy and sinister with his jittery behavior and obsessive use of a nasal inhaler. J. Carol Naish is another good villainous show-stealer who gets a great line when they rob the bank. He give a meddlesome little kid some candy and says 'put that in your kisser and suck on it.' Victor Mature is likable enough as the near flawless pedestrian hero. In a way this reminded me of Fritz Lang's Big Heat, which also features Lee Marvin - this time as a baddie who finds a sadistic use for hot coffee. The similarities are the balance of cornball Americana background and simmering angst and perversion. Neither film is a total success but each have their moments. And boy does Ernest Borgnine look well-cast as an Amish farmer. Fleishcer directs competently and predictably. Establishing shot, shot/reverse shot, pan in and pan out to emphasize the melodrama, etc. and not too much hysteria from the actors. Great title though. It will go in my festival of provocative titles, though maybe they should have saved this moniker for a more feisty heist film, like Charley Varrick.

The return of Walker

I interviewed Alex Cox on Thursday, 2/28/08. He was very gracious as we talked a lot about spaghetti westerns and the like. He was in town for Film Scoiety of Lincoln Center's Film Comment selects series. The closing night featured a screening of his 1987 political allegory Walker, his latest microfeature Searchers 2.0, and q & a with Alex and also Walker screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. Walker, which was pretty much buried on its initial theatrical release by Universal, has had something of a comeuppance with its recent Criterion DVD. It's a pretty anarchic film with Alex's loony sense of humor underlining the absurdity of the subject matter - imperialism, colonialism, and the random violence that ensues therein. There are some anachronisms thrown in for good measure too.

Attack of the rock and roll polar bear?

The Shemps are playing this extravaganza and then one more show after that and POOF! We become a new band. Same members, different group. Weird, huh? So goes the wacky antics of rock and roll. I'm excited to play with my old pals The Candy Snatchers. They're named after an obscure 70's exploitation film and have often been called the most dangerous band alive. In their heyday sets included breaking glass, flying fish, nudity and full throttle, balls out punk rock and roll. They've just recorded a new album and what I've heard so far is awesome, very Stooges inspired.

Candy Snatchers video here.

The Shemps live video here.

It's the OCD

List of movies seen in 2008 (in no particular order, and not including repeat viewings)

1. Gangster V.I.P.
2. Robinson's Crusoe
3. Import Export
4. Betelnut Beauty
5. Kuro Neko
6. Woman on the Beach
7. 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
8. Flash Point
9. Power of Kangwon Province
10. The Silence Before Bach
11. Sad Vacation
12. Orochi
13. Red Handkerchief
14. Catch Us if you Can
15. Quai des Orfevres
16. Searchers 2.0
17. Violent Saturday
18. Withnail and I
19. Jinsei Gekijo: Hishakaku to Kiratsune (A Tale of Two Yakuza)
20. Lives of Others
21. Plains Wanderer
22. Hanyeo (The Housemaid)
23. Mr. Cinema
24. Dog Days
25. Death Proof
26. Planet Terror
27. Heitai Yakuza (Hoodlum Soldier )
28. Cocksucker Blues
    
29. La Ley de Herodes (Herod's Law)
30. Hula Girls
31. Wakeful Nights
32. Jar City
33. Ballast
34. Xing Xing, Yue Liang, Tai Yang (Sun, Moon and Star)
    
35. Gentleman Killer
36. The Mad Fox
37. Battle in Heaven
38. Fugitive from the Past
39. Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
40. Tokyo Chorus
41. Divergence
42. Green Fish
43. I Was Born But...
44. Passing Fancy
45. Secret Sunshine
46. Oasis
47. The Man Who Left His Will on Film
48. Roughneck (Arakure)
49. Fighter
50. Let the Right One In
51. Speed Racer
52. Eye in the Sky
53. Accuracy of Death
54. A Gentle Breeze in the Village
55. Adrift in Tokyo
56. Fine, Totally Fine
57. Dainipponjin
58. Mourning Forest
59. Company
60. Sakuran
61. Sukiyaki Western Django
62. Mother of Tears
63. Machine Girl
64. The Rebel
65. The Kon Ichikawa Story (A Filmful Life)
66. Pitfall
67. Coyote
68. I Shot Jessie James
69. Out of Bounds
70. Nothing Else Matters
71. Klass
72. The Fix
73. Cactus
74. Mad Detective
75. Gummi Chocolate Pine
76. Female Demon Ohyaku
77. Violent Streets
78. There Was a Father
79. Cash Calls Hell
80. Dororo
81. Death Sentence
82. Shootout at Lokhandwala
83. Kala
84. Onimasa
85. Perfect Blue
86. Black Test Car
87. M (Lee Myung Se not Fritz Lang)
88. Age of Assassins
89. Black River
90. Isabella
91. Tenchu
92. Untamed
93. The Inugami Family (1976)
    
94. Murder of the Inugami Clan (2006)
95. Kisaragi
    
96. Odd Obsession
97. Gemini
98. Chocolate
99. The Human Condition part 1
100. Mr. Untouchable
101. Pusher
102. The Band's Visit
103. Cloverfield
104. Pusher 2
105. Pusher 3
106. Graveyard of Honor (New Graveyard of Honor - Takashi Miike)
107. Yellow Handkerchief
108. Great World of Sound
     
109. Onna Kyuketsuki (Lady Vampire)
110. Death Row Woman
111. What We Do is Secret
112. Dracula Saga
113. Who's Camus Anyway?
     

Guns are for sissies!

When Ryo introduced Gangster V.I.P. (Burai Yori Daikanbu) last night she mentioned that the print was not as in good condition as the other films in the series had been. Although we've been blessed with near pristine presentations so far, this print turned out to better than she implied. While the color was a little faded, it didn't impede the cinematic bravura director Toshio Masuda injected into the yakuza potboiler formula. The first ten minutes alone were a super high for a retro action addict like myself. A b & w montage flashback tells the sad sack back-story of orphan Goro (played by Nikkatsu superstar Tetsuya Watari - and I swear he was called Goro in Velvet Hustler, plus the protagonist of Branded to Kill is named Goro) then segues into color and a high-pitched action sequence that includes gun play, face-offs and a tandem flip over a banister. Masuda deftly sets a moody tone, peppering the requisite melodrama of the script with terse action. Masuda's craftsmanship is exemplified by kinetic camera work and vibrant staging, as he delivers a serious action flick that retains a sense of humor. While the nature of the genre might seem a little cheesy today, this one still boasts its fair share of cool, playing up the tropes without degenerating into self-parody. It's about a bad-ass coming to terms with his tender side. Watari's Goro character is like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz - he's got a rough exterior but doesn't realize just what a softie he is and that he really does have a heart after all. The ending follows the noir paradigm but allows room for sequels. In fact this was the first of the Burai series. View the trailer here.

The night before I saw another film in the Lin Zheng Sheng series at Anthology (see below) called Robinson's Crusoe. It was not as interesting as the other one, I have to say. Still, it's great to be able to see Taiwanese films, let alone have the director present for a q & a.

Sardonic Austria

Tonight I saw Import Export at the Film Comment selects series. Now, as Jonathan said, I'm one of the initiated when it comes to the films of Ulrich Seidl. This Austrian filmmaker proves that there's something in the water over there, judging by this and the work of Michael Haneke, at least. The mise en scene was gaudy on top of drab effecting a transcendent beauty that was at once deliriously absurd and engrossingly hilarious. Set pieces were incredible, including a security guard training session, a visit to a gypsy slum in Ukraine, a web-cam sex center, all of which became evocative abstractions of an unsettling reality. Indeed, Seidl's gift was to turn an often unseen truth into art. His is a disturbing yet amusing style. He leaves you uncertain as whether to take him seriously or not, though there are moments that feel decidedly sentimental (however those moments don't feel trite nor do they betray the bleak nature of the film's content).
Before the movie I introduced Jonathan, my fellow burger club member, to Burger Joint , inside the Parker Meridian hotel on 57th St. How great is that, a greasy spoon inside a 5 star hotel?

Lin Zheng Sheng

I just saw Betelnut Beauty (Ai Ni Ai Wo) Part of the Lin Zheng Sheng retrospective at Anthology. The cool thing is the director is here all week so he appeared for q & a after the film. This was the first film of his I've seen. Despite some commercial intentions it was decidedly bleak. Thats' a good thing. It's about one of those bing lang xi shi and another young lost soul who fall in love. Lin's documentary foundation shows through in what is an interesting social critique without being too heavy handed. Some of it was a little silly but forgivably so. Both the leads are idols but I thought they gave good performances - here's one of the silly parts though: the cute female lead is played by pop star Xin Jie. While working at the bin lang stand she gets scouted and than later does a singing audition. On her first try she sings like a pro. Duh! It's a cool scene if you enjoy mandarin pop and can let go of incredulity. She's playing up melancholic cuteness as opposed to the spooky angle she was given in The Eye. The male lead is Zhang Zhen who I felt did his best to bely idol trappings. His character, Xiao Feng, is a somewhat likable, if dimwitted loser, with impending doom telegraphed ala film noir. Xiao Feng takes a job as a baker, the profession that director Lin held for 11 years before falling into film making. The director himself spoke about casting two idols and said, 'of course, you'll never find a baker that good looking.' There was a lurking tension, especially with the gangster bits and a gritty neo-realist/early Scorcese feel at times.

So how many films is that now? Damn, Chris was there and he stayed for the second feature! Okay so I'm up to ELEVEN now. And that's not complete since I still don't recall all that I've seen so far. Oh wait...

Kuro Neko (Black Cat) by Kaneto Shindo, the director of Onibaba. Great, theatrical spookiness - ghosts flying across shadow laden rooms, etc. - mixed in with some atmospheric naturalism. The Mizoguchi influence is there (Ugetsu) but Kaneto expresses his own voice.

Deep End I finally saw this film that I read about over twenty years ago in Cult Movies a thousand times. It was worth the wait. Oh, but that was actually last fall.

500 FILMS!

My cool friend Marc claims to have seen 500 films last year. It helps that his life involves programming a film festival and other such wonderful sundry activities that encourage his obsessive movie watching. He knows the number is over 500 because he keeps a list of everything he's seen. And that's only counting the features he sees from start to finish, forget about the walk-outs or episodes of the Wire and Deadwood, et. al. So I'm inspired. I'm not gonna set my sights that high but I'll start a list and see how long it takes before I stop maintaining it. First I have to try to recap what I've seen this year so far. Here goes:

Woman on the Beach (new Hong Sang Soo film that has no explicit sex this time but still follows his theme that Korean men are self centered womanizing dogs).
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days incredibly intense Romanian film that puts true grit in naturalism and is the perfect representational paradigm.
Flash Point Donnie Yen vehicle that was a fun throwback to my days at Music Palace, Rosemary, Sun Sing, etc. Looked great on the Walter Reade Screen - it was part of this years genre friendly Film Comment Selects series.
Power of Kanwon Province An earlier Hong Sang Soo film. Saw it on DVD courtesy of my co-worker and fellow fan of Asian cinema Cindi.
Silence of Bach Interesting exercise. I liked the truck driver playing Bach on harmonica.
(Straw Dogs, I don't know if second viewings count but I hadn't seen this for over a decade).

Okay, that's 6 so far. I know there's more. Ah yes...

Sad Vacation Saw this at the Tadanobu Asano series at the Freer in D.C. Speaking of Freer, the curator Tom is great. Get his book.
Orochi an early silent chanbara from 1925, part of Japan Society's dawn of animation series (although it's live action and stars Tsumasaburo Bando).
Also at Japan Society:
Red Handkerchief Part of the great Nikkatsu series that Marc engineered. Star Yujiro Ishihara sings the title song which has nothing to do with the narrative as far as I can tell.
In David Meyer's rock movies class I saw:
Catch Us if you Can featuring the Dave Clark 5 (though they never really appeared together like a normal band).
Viva Las Vegas I must have seen this Elvis vehicle before but it was surprisingly revelatory this time. Elvis and Ann Margaret changed costumes every 5 minutes. Kind of like how Etsuko Shiomi is fighting every 5 minutes in the Sister Street Fighter films which I caught bits of on late night cable this week, widescreen and in Japanese with subs. Last time I saw them was when I was in high school and they were English dubbed VHS tapes.

Children of Tomorrow World

Every year for the last few years I've always made the resolution to go catch as much of what's playing in the theatres as I can - a daunting task in NYC where amazing repertory shows are abundant and you get all the exclusive engagements as well. So far this year I'm hanging in there. I've seen Letters from Iwojima, Pan's Labrynth and Tears of the Black Tiger all this month. Last night we saw Children of Men. It's based on a novel by P.D. James and the story takes place in 2027 England. Women can't have babies anymore and the film opens with the murder of the world's youngest person (18 years old). It's a dystopian dillema if ever there was one but on top of that there's an overflow of illegal immigrant fugitives being brutalized and deported by the fascistic authorites. While I've heard mixed reactions, most were positive and all said it was worth seeing. As entertainment value yeah, there are some very intense sequences. Honestly for the first 15 minutes or so, while I was impressed with how they managed to relay this sort-of-contrived, semi-complex premise into the exposition, I still couldn't follow who this Clive Owen character was, what his job was or where he was headed. But once you get to that sequence with Julliane Moore and a few other pivotal characters in the car, WOW, what a cinematic wake-up. And from then on I was fairly riveted if not a little exhausted trying to keep up with the plot nuances - or more like the details of the premise again. Clive Owen plays it appropriately weary and is so suave that having him on screen almost the entire duration helps drive the film. Director Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien and one of the recent Harry Potter movies) works his 'magic' meaning he manipulates some heart strings, subtly enough not to completely undermine the film's message, though it is still a bit contrived. Michael Caine provides some comic relief as a reclusive hippie (he listens to rolling stones songs, sells strawberry flavored ganja and says 'pull my finger'). Was he channeling John Lennon (he sports long hair and glasses) or just channeling Michael Caine as a generic old British hippie?

SEMI-SPOILER: towards the conclusion the main characters escape on a row boat. This is reminiscent of two other dystopian films, Battle Royale and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse - I think that must be a natural instinct in the collective unsafe - Man = earth and the earth is unsafe so the sea is the only reasonable route of getaway.

Japan has translated the film's title into (the Japanese pronounciation of the English words) "Tomorrow World" (it seems the book is published in Japanese under this title also). Apparently Japanese marketing execs feel like that had to put a quasi-fantastic title instead of the potentially esoteric, yet evocative original title. This looks cool though.

The Underthings debut.

Finally Andy, Kris and Sam from the Spitoons decided to debut the new version of their band last Friday, September 6th. The Spittoons were great because they're all seasoned players and the nicest bunch of goofballs you'll ever meet. They played only covers but with a super fun spirit and just the right amount of finnesse. They began in the quintessential 60's garage band paradigm - playing hits - the early repertoire included Tossin' and Turnin' next to numbers by The Who, The Kinks and (slightly anachronistic with the rest of the material) The Ramones, etc. Apparently years of listening to CBS Oldies rubbed off on 'em. As gigs became more frequent song selections became more obscure. They added one of my all time favorites, Shake a Tail Feather by the Five Dutones as well as The Who's Circles - although thank goodness their version was based on Fleur De Ly's superior arrangement and performance. Now they've added Brett Wilder on bass, Sam has switched to second guitar and they're doing 95% originals under the moniker The Underthings . Brett was in The Vacant Lot but I know him mostly from when he worked at the junk store on 9th st which is now the home of Academy Records. At one point the junk store, I can't remember the name of the colorful character who owned it but I recall him smoking cigars and being married to the singer of the Trick Babies at the time - anyway, he had bought a whole mess of video cassettes from some Chinese guy. It was junk heaven for me because, while they were litterally beat up and some of them dirt encrusted, these cassettes contained obscure kung fu films: Enter the Fat Dragon, Mantis Fists and Tiger Claws of Shaolin , Roving Swordsman, and so forth. And he was selling them for a dollar a pop. I often bought them from Brett who was always super nice, friendly and fun to talk to. Low and behold some eleven years later Brett resurfaces in front of me on stage next to Andy, Kris and Sam...The show was at Cakeshop. It's a nice cozy basement space underneath a hipster cafe and an ever diminishing record store in the rear. The downstairs bar is beer, wine & sake only. I saw Dave the Spazz and Victoria, we talked a bit 'bout the upcoming Norton anniversary on his radio show, then I made a bee line for some inexpensive sake (turns out they serve the standard yet reliable Ozeki). I’m sippin sake, standing at the end of the bar, near the stage, when an attractive young woman taps me on the shoulder. I thought she wanted me to move because I was in her view path but then I realized it was J.K. saying hi. J.K. plays with Kris in the brilliantly retarded garage punk outfit The Plungers, one of the best bands in town (led by the brilliantly retarded Masayo). I down my carafe of sake and the Underthings take the stage with such laid back ease, then break into their first number. Genius – it’s power pop with just enough edge to keep it in garage territory. To be continued...

Shogun Assassin DVD

For over a year now I've been writing on film for Brooklyn Rail , a local arts monthly. So far I've written on such topics as Pinky Violence , Spaghetti Westerns , Film Noir , and Asian Films . Below is an excerpt from my Shogun Assassin DVD review that's current at the time of this blog post:

Shogun Assassin (AnimEigo)
In 1980 a couple of enterprising American filmmakers purchased rights to the first two films of the excessively violent Lone Wolf and Cub samurai series—a chronicle of a shogun’s executioner who, framed by his megalomaniacal boss, is on the run with his infant son in a baby cart equipped with secret weapons. The filmmakers, David Weisman (director of the Edie Sedgwick vehicle Ciao Manhattan) and Robert Houston, edited together all the super-violent parts (dismemberments, decapitations, naked female ninja, etc.), rewrote the script around their new edit, and brought in a then unknown Sandra Bernhard to dub all the female parts (for a flat $200 fee), plus Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders to provide the soundtrack. The poster and logo designer’s son did a voiceover as the kid, adding narration to hold together the patchwork story. The result, Shogun Assassin, was a big cult hit for Roger Corman’s New World and is an ultimate example of violent, mind-bending movie-making, a postmodern artifact that foretold the future of exploitation and world cinema...

That's me seizing the photo op with director Isshin Inudo.

Hi. I'm just getting my feet wet in the blog pool here. Let this photo serve as my profile identification for the time being. I'm looking to post lots of info on indie films, exploitation movies, obscure rock and soul music and so forth. Please bear with me while i get this up to speed.