tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62599590307682380112024-03-13T09:25:30.001-07:00World Sci-Fi CinemaScience Fiction, Fantasy, and Supernatural Horrorbadmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-53821892252029467532012-01-03T21:00:00.000-08:002012-01-04T01:53:10.289-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ts6qENrJoE/TwPc4BaSp7I/AAAAAAAAAzs/2R6BprYQajs/s1600/2087901619_fcb959b8e8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" rea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ts6qENrJoE/TwPc4BaSp7I/AAAAAAAAAzs/2R6BprYQajs/s320/2087901619_fcb959b8e8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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I'm afraid I have to close up shop here. I considered keeping this in case I want to drop in and continue, but ultimately I just can't do it. So many films I wanted to get to, but alas . . .<br />
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Well, adios.<br />
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Keep watching science fiction cinema, in all languages.<br />
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God Bless everyone in the new year.badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-4565533477656271932011-12-30T07:04:00.000-08:002011-12-31T05:27:45.218-08:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkO9EUZxiXI/TsjkuKMVxkI/AAAAAAAAAxk/qJ0JTfeQlVk/s1600/b70-4724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkO9EUZxiXI/TsjkuKMVxkI/AAAAAAAAAxk/qJ0JTfeQlVk/s640/b70-4724.jpg" width="212" /></a><strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Metropolis (1927)</span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>GERMANY</strong> --- science fiction</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Dir: Fritz Lang</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">German director Fritz Lang seemed to be the first to showcase a strong directorial vision in his body of work. His was a unique combination of expertise in editing and production design, mixed with simplistic stories. Lang even helped along the career of Alfred Hitchcock and Karl Freund, back when he was an assistant. He should be credited for making the best effort of early science fiction fiction cinema with the "Metropolis". Going above and beyond pioneering French magician/ filmmaker Georges Méliès<em> </em>short film "A Trip to the Moon"/"Le voyage dans la Lune", the ambitious "Metropolis" took painstaking strides in technical achievement.</div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tcj1rh0tN9g/Tuxmz2rdMPI/AAAAAAAAAzU/Xvv8-hPCgoU/s1600/1424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" oda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tcj1rh0tN9g/Tuxmz2rdMPI/AAAAAAAAAzU/Xvv8-hPCgoU/s320/1424.jpg" width="320" /></a>Set in an indeterminate future city, this iconic science fiction film is about a privileged young man named Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) who is the son Metropolis' ruler Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel, who worked with Lang, Murnau, Lubitsch, and Hitchcock). The city is divided between the simple haves and have-nots, those who frolic in the Olympus-esque sky-scraping Tower of Babel, and those who toil beneath the city operating the machinery that help the city run. One day, a prophetess (Brigette Helm) visits the Eternal Gardens and with Freder looking on she proclaims with a large collection of boys from the lower depths that the men in the Club of the Sons are their brethren as well. Freder is more than entranced with her saying, he falls in love. Going so far as to depart his idyllic surroundings to search for her down below. Instead he finds his brethren below sweating in an industrial environment on the M-Machine, which explodes killing some of the workers. He even has a vision of them being sacrificed to the ancient god of child sacrifice, Moloch. Freder assists one of the workers and gives him a calling card. When one of Fredersen's trusted assistants fails in a task, he is fired, which means he must go below to the depths with the other workers. As an attempted suicide attempt shows, it must be a fate worse than death for the upper echelon of Metropolis, but Freder convinces him to live as he decends down with him to see how the other half live. </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Meanwhile, Fredersen visits an old friend in Dr. Rotwang, your typical mad scientist complete with a Frankentstein-esque laboratory. Fredersen laments at a shrine for his late wife, Hel (named after a Norse mythological goddess of the dead), who apparently died giving birth to Freder and was also a lover of Rotwang as well. However, Rotwang boasts about an invention that is the next best thing to Hel, a Machine-Man in the shape of an android woman in the likeness of Hel. Rotwang also shows Fredersen a map of 2,000 year old catacombs (similar to the kind early Christians were in), where the underground workers congregate. They actually go down from beneath Rotwang's house and through a hole in the rocks observe the beautiful prophetess Maria give a sermon about the ancient Tower of Babel and the coming of the Mediator; one who will be the bridge between the workers below and the eloquent rich above; and once Freder realizes he is that man, the true battle of good evil begins. As Rotwang plots to capture Maria for his Machine-Man image to kill Fredersen, ultimately setting a series of events that leads to an all out revolution of the workers that will destroy the city or allow for a bonding.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Shot for a remarkable five million dollars, "Metropolis" was the biggest European film ever made back then; and unfortunately its biggest failure. Because of this failure, investors made Lang trim back the two-hour-and-27-minute version for global release. It's important to note that Hollywood was a new-kid-in-town when it came to the film industry. Germany, France, Japan, and the then USSR were the big fish in the water, and Germany was in a kinda artistic Renaissance with their German Expressionism movement.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g2VzFJeZh5Q/Tsjk7OsvexI/AAAAAAAAAxs/_BAAVUj_WHc/s1600/metropolis-e1294948908783.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="196" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g2VzFJeZh5Q/Tsjk7OsvexI/AAAAAAAAAxs/_BAAVUj_WHc/s320/metropolis-e1294948908783.jpg" width="320" /></a>Of Lang's work, "Metropolis", a silent film made in 1927, is still a masterpiece. I would say a recurrent element in Lang's films is visual metaphor or the fact that he could use just images to say something. No music. No dialogue. Just the image. In "Metropolis", he's able to use the elevator scenes with the workers going down to the depths to show they are descending in more than one way. The panoramic shots Metropolis' everyday city bustle have been used repeatedly since, as in "Blade Runner" or "Minority Report". These shots, by the way, are almost the only real establishing shots in the film. The other scenes are almost staged set pieces that don't create a futuristic atmosphere. For what it's worth, the acting is good., particularly Brigette Helm, and though most acting in silent films is strong and overt, the performances are less realistic. However, with the setting of this film being in the science fiction genre, this is forgivable and doesn't matter. I love how Lang sets up shots. They are just choreographed beautifully in this film, particularly when they are going to burn Maria at the stake.</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The sets and the special effects are dazzling enough to ward off any criticism of the acting. The editing ( if you can call it that since they usually "cut-in-camera" back then) however, is something that is starkly different from a "talkie". It can distract a viewer when someone is saying something and there's a cut to a title card, and then to the person they're speaking to for a reaction shot. I think Lang knew how to handle this though, at least in the version I saw, he only used dialogue where he needed and even at this point I've noticed that all his shots where dialogue is spliced in. These shots are beautifully rendered, as when Rotwang obsesses how his mechanical hand has built the robot "Maria" and his arms are up with "Maria" behind him. This is punctuated with a title card. In this film, there are many shots like that where the title card helps the visual and is not just there like many modern subtitles. Also, the title cards in this film, were usually designed correctly to the emotion of the characters in the moment. But, the editing of the scene "The Dance of the Whore of Babylon" is close to something Eisenstein did in "Battleship Potemkin".<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The problem I originally found with properly critiquing Metropolis is that I wasn't certain with what I was seeing was what I was supposed to see (as there were many re-edited versions of the film out there). Fortunately, the impossible happened. Back in 2008, a duplicate print of the film was discovered in Buenos Aires, and was eventually restored with the original missing 25 minutes of the film. Along with other silent classic films like "Nosferatu" and "The Cabinet of Caligari" helped push the German Expressionism movement in cinema. The film has a less than subtle message on religion as Lang and Harbou have multiple references and allusions to the bible including:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Club of the Sons" - Heaven?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Eternal Gardens" - Garden of Eden?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Moloch - ancient pagan god <br />
The Tower of Babel</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Maria - Mary?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Babylon</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The Flood- Noah</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Like the greatest science fiction films it evokes the audience to see the message of social commentary through the fictional lens of a fantastic environment. This is the dystopian future told from the distant past. "Metropolis" doesn't just survive because of its innovative and visionary glimpse into the future, but because its message is timeless. It has been told before the film and will be told after. A tale of humanity in a constant struggle between good and evil, rich and poor, man and his inventions, and most of all love versus hate. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iG82DGRgT6I/Tsjqoht-WDI/AAAAAAAAAx0/lYw_CAsa-b8/s1600/ssf_metropolis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="217" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iG82DGRgT6I/Tsjqoht-WDI/AAAAAAAAAx0/lYw_CAsa-b8/s400/ssf_metropolis.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-48458052248997831502011-12-23T18:34:00.000-08:002011-12-23T18:34:00.204-08:00<div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<div><strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">El Orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>SPAIN/ MEXICO</strong> --- horror</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Dir: J.A. Bayona</span></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<div><span style="color: red;">The ghost story goes back countless centuries and throughout nearly all cultures. But the one mainstay in the genre that has successfully worked on audiences is a woman in an old dark house. This particularly goes back to our psychological fears of the dark and the unknown, and using a female gets more empathy than a male. It is refreshing to see new takes on this timeless fright fest, even if it does seem all too familiar. "El Orfanato" explores the sub genre one more time, with the added depth of the indestructible bond of love between a mother and her child.</span><br />
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<div><span style="color: red;">Laura returns to her childhood home at the seaside Good Shepherd Orphanage. With her husband Carlos and their imaginative son Simon staying with her, they plan to have more special needs children stay with them in their new home. They have been keeping a secret from Simon, who is actually their adopted child and is HIV positive; unbeknownst to him. One day, while walking along the cavernous seashore, Laura and Simon enter a cave when Simon claims to have met a new invisible friend.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">This friend named Tomas has been sharing secrets with Simon. All too disturbing to Laura, that they happen to be true. Tomas reveals to Simon that his parents have kept his adoption and illness hidden from him. When he reveals this to Laura through means of well-thought out scavenger hunt, she becomes even more disturbed by this Tomas.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TK6dZW-m8YI/AAAAAAAAATI/W5CprW_UB5Q/s1600/orfan.bmp"><span style="color: red;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525526851820646786" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TK6dZW-m8YI/AAAAAAAAATI/W5CprW_UB5Q/s320/orfan.bmp" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 216px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="color: red;">She is soon visited by a mysterious woman named Benigna Escobedo (an interesting name that when translated suggests an ambiguous hint to the intent of this character). She inquires about her plans for the home, and has information on Simon. This Benigna shows up again one night on the property with a shovel in hand, further escalating the intent of this mysterious woman. Later, Laura and Carlos throw a party to invite local special needs kids to see the house. Simon, having his new-found information and foreknowledge given him by Tomas, begins to become a little bit more rebellious and unruly toward Laura. Hiding in a burlap mask, Simon seemingly plays a trick on a Laura by locking her in the bathroom. When she escapes, Simon is nowhere to be found. Laura and Carlos soon cancel all plans and go on an all out search for their missing son, desperate to find him soon as he needs to take his medicine periodically. Their search, however is fruitless, but does begin to unearth some history from Laura's past involving the Good Shepherd Orphanage, and answers to her son's disappearance from beyond the grave.</span></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">To explain more in depth about this complex film would spoil the many twists and turns that it has to offer. It's too good to ruin. The legendary Geraldine Chaplin makes an appearance as a medium who, with her team of para-psychologists set-up something out of "Poltergeist" to commune with the spirits in the house. "El Orfanato" is a heartbreaking testament to what can sometimes deter us from the many gifts that life has to offer. The film of course has echoes of classics such as "The Innocents" and "The Haunting", fused with the very real horror of the psychological ramifications of a missing child. This bittersweet ghost story of love, loss, and circumstance is a welcome addition to the pantheons of the genre and will hold up as a classic of its own.</span><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TK2H-dOhuGI/AAAAAAAAATA/Ts4m76SQqCA/s1600/orfanato.bmp"><span style="color: red;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525221824920664162" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TK2H-dOhuGI/AAAAAAAAATA/Ts4m76SQqCA/s320/orfanato.bmp" style="cursor: hand; height: 214px; width: 320px;" /></span></a></div></div></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-63690798991713937092011-12-16T00:36:00.000-08:002011-12-16T00:36:00.455-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWUAAXvGWSs/Ts9TSzXyNXI/AAAAAAAAAyE/XtR5Sd90W5s/s1600/The_Boy_s_King_Arthur-74.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="281" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWUAAXvGWSs/Ts9TSzXyNXI/AAAAAAAAAyE/XtR5Sd90W5s/s400/The_Boy_s_King_Arthur-74.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Excalibur (1981)</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><strong>UK</strong> --- fantasy</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Dir: John Boorman</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">This is, for me, the absolute quintessential film of any film dealing with Arthurian legend. Besides the fact it is almost strictly and painstakingly accurate to the source material of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", the very combination of Boorman's keen atmospheric attention to detail, sprint-paced editing, simplistic special effects, and the dedicated performances of Shakespearean trained thespians makes for an entertaining epic fantasy film. Coming on the heels of Hollywood's "Star Wars" mania, which sent producers in search of any and all science fiction and fantasy property they could get their hands on, the legend of King Arthur was bound for a serious special effects-laden film adaptation. In decades before, we had stuff like "Camelot", "Lancelot and Guinevere", and Disney's animated "The Sword in the Stone" (actually based on a book by T.H. White), but never an adaptation capable of effectively capturing the mysticism, beauty, and magic of the legend. Director John Boorman (Deliverance, Zardoz), set out to do just that.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--XQ-U3Sez1k/TtIyXNOiYhI/AAAAAAAAAys/OnS-21k2TzM/s1600/excalibur.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--XQ-U3Sez1k/TtIyXNOiYhI/AAAAAAAAAys/OnS-21k2TzM/s400/excalibur.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="color: lime;">Owing some inspiration to Roger Christian's now lost short film "Black Angel", Boorman set out to create an updated true-to-form Arthurian film directly based on Malory's epic tale. Shot entirely on location in Boorman's home of Ireland and utilizing the pick of the litter of both English and Irish film communities, "Excalibur" weaves the mythologic tale of Arthur Pendragon. In true fantasy tradition, it opens on the violence of his own father Uther (debut film role for Gabriel Byrne) in battle with a warring faction. In his possession is the legendary sword, Excalibur, but his use of it displeases the wizard Merlin (played by Nicol Williamson), whom it was gifted from. Uther was given the sword to form an alliance with Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. However, Uther soon has designs on Gorlois' wife Ingrayne. He beseeches Merlin to have Ingrayne for his wife, using the<span class="mw-headline" id="The_Charm_of_Making"> Charm of Making spell, which would disguise Uther for a time as Gorlois in appearance. Merlin begrudgingly agrees under the condition that whatever becomes of his lustful affair would belong to him. What becomes of the affair is the boy child Arthur, in which Merlin soon after the birth comes to collect. Uther is angered and follows Merlin into the woods, but is ambushed and stabs the mystical sword of Excalibur into a rock. Merlin then proclaims the only one would will be able to release it will be the one to be king - it is only meant for Arthur.</span></span><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Years later, when Arthur is but a squire, he comes across the sword himself. This after a tourney between several knights vying to pull the sword from it's enchanted locked state. When his knights sword comes up missing, the boy Arthur easily pulls the sword out to replace his knights. Merlin, then appears to them to tell all who witnessed that the boy is to be the king as he promised. Arthur's first action as leader is to rescue Leondegrance's (Guenevere's father) castle from an invading seige. After leading a successful attack against the invaders, they too join the boy king as he sets the stage for his knights of the round. Arthur takes Guenevere as a wife and celebrates with his knights. First, however, he must get one more respectable gifted knight on his side, Lancelot, who has beaten most all of the knights in his army. In fact, in a one-on-one battle, he is only able to defeat Lancelot with the power of Excalibur, and even going so far as to misuse the weapon causing it to break in two. The lady of the lake restores Arthur the enchanted sword and Lancelot gladly joins his army as Arthur's trusted second in command.</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZU-nKEiv2YI/Tti5mTBsdlI/AAAAAAAAAy8/pcfrjlFt6xo/s1600/excalibur-mordred-300x169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZU-nKEiv2YI/Tti5mTBsdlI/AAAAAAAAAy8/pcfrjlFt6xo/s320/excalibur-mordred-300x169.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: lime;">All is well, in the newly founded Camelot, so Merlin sees his fate to step into the shadows and allow the lot of man to fall where it may. However, he espies deception and ruin on the horizon as Morganna Le Fay (played by Helen Mirren), Arthur's half-sister, begins to have designs on Merlin's power with her own selfish ambitions. She soon enacts her own plot to uncover the affair between Lancelot and Guenevere, trap Merlin, and seduce Arthur to give birth to her own child for the throne. Before long, Arthur realizes the only way to restore life to himself and the kingdom is to find the Holy Grail. He sends his knights out in search of the Grail, and some of the knights fall victim to the son of enchantress Morganna, Modred (wearing a "Zardoz" mask?). Perceval too succumbs to the wiles of Morganna's trap, but is the one knight to escape and finally reach the Holy Grail, realizing that Arthur and the land are one. He returns to Arthur with the Grail and life is restored to the land, as Arthur prepares one final battle with his own "sinful" illegitimate son, Modred.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">King Arthur has always been an allegory of both King David and of course Jesus Christ and his disciples. Having been written in the time of the Crusades, it very easy to see the influence and of course the very fact that the characters too search for the Holy Grail. Even though this is a mythic Dark Ages, the film's setting comes off the heels of the Crusades and the hope of a future in the Lord. The Christian symbolism is everywhere from the idea that the "king" is the land and the land is the "king", representing spiritual Jerusalem, to the visual cues of Perceval submerged/ baptised in water to find the Grail.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Can you imagine a "Lord of the Rings" film like this? Well, this film had it's origin somewhat in that when the studio at the time (United Artists) wanted Boorman to helm an adaptation of that. Luckily, Boorman stuck to his guns for a 3 hour epic film in the script stages, chronicling Merlin, King Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table. Though the only versions out there are a </span><span style="color: lime;">140 minute R-rated cut and a 119 minute PG-rated cut, apparently Boorman did shoot 3 hours of footage but the rest are deleted scenes properly awaiting arrival of a possible Blu-ray director's cut or something. The sets, however, were designed to with "Lord of the Rings" as inspiration.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Tpx-HvZ3Wc/TtX83SadykI/AAAAAAAAAy0/L_m0KJIgNuc/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Tpx-HvZ3Wc/TtX83SadykI/AAAAAAAAAy0/L_m0KJIgNuc/s400/untitled.bmp" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Though I feel Boorman should have consulted the guys at ILM or other special effects wizards at the time to accentuate the mysticism in the film, he did a good credible job. He took certain liberties that the passerby Arthurian fan would not notice anyway, yet for the world of the film they are accepted only in the fact that the story is told so concisely well. Nigel Terry should be commended for playing both the adolescent and adult Arthur with success and believability in both stages. A rare feat that I have ever seen in cinema. Nicol Williamson's Merlin is interesting to watch as he goes a little too schizo in scenes. I'm sure he was trying to stay away from being too "Obi-Wan Kenobi", but his character could have used more grounding. The costuming is perfect, and the production design is excellent throughout. "Excalibur" also features the epic sweeping score of composer Trevor Jones and spotlight's Wagner's original classical pieces as well. If you have to see one Arthurian film, start here as anything else is pretty much bland compared to this one.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1YPy4i9C5c/Ts9WkHQiB6I/AAAAAAAAAyM/nsWJanXZIoU/s1600/Excalibur_movie_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1YPy4i9C5c/Ts9WkHQiB6I/AAAAAAAAAyM/nsWJanXZIoU/s400/Excalibur_movie_poster.jpg" width="255" /></span></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-68772228525237935522011-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:002011-12-10T05:01:40.260-08:00<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5sBNuBWTZq8/Ts-CsftN9YI/AAAAAAAAAyU/55S_z-BjeYQ/s1600/la_planete_sauvage%252C0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5sBNuBWTZq8/Ts-CsftN9YI/AAAAAAAAAyU/55S_z-BjeYQ/s400/la_planete_sauvage%252C0.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973)</span></strong><br />
<strong>FRANCE</strong> --- science fiction<br />
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Dir: René Laloux<br />
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Many films have juxtaposed a subjugated human race under the heels of some alien (or other creatures) rule to stress some social commentary about slavery, religion, or just simply social class systems in general. We've seen this conceit in a myriad of forms such as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter of Mars" series of books, L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth", or "Planet of the Apes". In the film "La Planète Sauvage" (Fantastic Planet) we are shown a similar visionary nightmare in the package of a science fiction tale on these dark aspects of humanity's greatest failings.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn0WdcdWgF0/TtDVyv8UFgI/AAAAAAAAAyc/IBdE3FGoJos/s1600/imagesCA4ZCXS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn0WdcdWgF0/TtDVyv8UFgI/AAAAAAAAAyc/IBdE3FGoJos/s1600/imagesCA4ZCXS2.jpg" /></a>Based on the 1957 book "Oms en série" by French science fiction novelist Stefan Wul, the film follows a young human boy called an "Om" (french word "Hommes" that means "man") who is left orphaned after alien children accidentally kill his mother while playing with her. The aliens are called Draags, who are giant red-eyed blue-skinned beings with webbed ears, yet are highly civilized. Immediately after the boy is left alone crying, a Draag dignitary's young daughter, Tiva, finds him and adopts him as her personal pet. She eventually names him Terr. He observes the strange alien landscape, as he grows up confined to a specially created collar complete with a wristband controller belonging to Tiva. Tiva truly treats Terr as a favored pet, and even has him with her during her learning sessions through the use of an encyclopedic computerized headband which trains her by feeding information directly into her mind. When her parents begin to notice that Terr has been using the headband with and without Tiva, they ban her allowing him to be present while she is learning with it. However, as she begins to grow out of adolescence, Terr becomes more dependent on educating himself from the computer headband and ultimately escapes out on his own.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Terr drags the headband with him as he is out in the alien wilderness. He eventually meets up with an Om woman of the "savage" Oms. When Tiva tries to recall Terr through the collar, the woman help him get set free from it. She takes Terr to her tribe located in a tree and they instantly label him as a domesticated Om. When he observes that they too could use the information from the learning headband, some of the tribe of course outright disdain Terr's gift of Draag knowledge. Eventually learning of a "fantastic planet". They force him into a combat ritual, in which he prevails as the victor. The tribal elders allow Terr to join their tribe. Terr observes the Oms living condition and how they have adapted to life in Draag world. He even is introduced to a band of evil Om bandits who live in their own tree and steal of the Om tribe he has befriended.<br />
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Later some of the educated Oms uncovers the Draag plan to "de-Omised" their local village based on seeing some graffiti they were able to interpret. Terr takes it upon himself to warn the tribe of Om bandits, but they do not heed his warning, and their leader, an old woman, has him locked away. Soon after, the Draags do strike using gas pellets, killing a high majority of Oms. The old woman frees Terr, as they all narrowly escape with a remnant of the people. One of the Draags witness them escaping and goes after them crushing them like insects. The Oms fight back as they actually take down and kill the Draag. The old woman leads the remnant group out to a safe haven, namely an old rocket depot, and eventually Terr leads the very large tribe on a mission to the fantastic planet. After the death of one of their own, the Draags have another council meeting, and they are not far behind the Oms, as they discover the secret behind just what the fantastic planet is.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Although I certainly wouldn't recommend "Fantastic Planet" to just anyone, it is something interesting to watch. The film is animated in a slightly strange cutout animation style reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's interstitials in "Monty Python". There is also the unavoidable phallic and organic imagery throughout the film of the alien landscape, successfully creating an uneasy surreal atmosphere. Laloux collaborated with famed French artist/ writer Roland Topor for this feature length film. Personally, this film is far overdue for a live-action adaptation with the right director. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v2KIzoqml4I/TtHzroqYohI/AAAAAAAAAyk/kRcijLDGrZ0/s1600/1231456533_fantasticplanet2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v2KIzoqml4I/TtHzroqYohI/AAAAAAAAAyk/kRcijLDGrZ0/s320/1231456533_fantasticplanet2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-61892013251455183742011-12-02T08:02:00.000-08:002011-12-02T08:02:00.242-08:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W5cg0faIGVQ/Tpfrs7cbPVI/AAAAAAAAAuM/PS7G9YlVfpM/s1600/kaidan-movie-poster-1966-1020440018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="400" oda="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W5cg0faIGVQ/Tpfrs7cbPVI/AAAAAAAAAuM/PS7G9YlVfpM/s400/kaidan-movie-poster-1966-1020440018.jpg" width="282" /></span></a><strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Kaidan (2007)</span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>JAPAN</strong> --- horror</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Dir: Hideo Nakata</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Well, I had reached the penultimate entry of the J-Horror series with the film "Kaidan" and I will safely say it is one of the best of the series, but THE best still belongs to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Sakebi/ Retribution". As of this writing I have not seen "Kyōfu", but from some reviews I read online, I hear it doesn't get better. With this film, "Ringu", and "Dark Water" director Hideo Nakata takes us back in time with a period piece to weave a Kaidan tale. Just what is a Kaidan? Kaidan or Kwaidan is a term that translates as "supernatural tale" that takes place in ancient Edo era of Japan (1603-1868) and has it's origins in party-goers sitting around telling these spooky tales. There have been many films made of this kind since the silent era, most famous the 1964 portmanteau film "Kwaidan" which was honored with a Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Vengeance from beyond the grave is the bread and butter of most classic ghost stories, even quite possibly enough to garner being in it's own little sub-genre. Being a progenitor to the typical J-Horror tale, "Kaidan" is based on a very old Japanese ghost story called "Kaida-Banashi, Shinkei Kasane-Ga-Fuchi" by author San'yūtei Enchō from the 19th Century. </span></div></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q-UIJhaE27U/Tp-h3kAiGfI/AAAAAAAAAuk/T9a6b5MiYwc/s1600/kaidan-movie-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="203" rda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q-UIJhaE27U/Tp-h3kAiGfI/AAAAAAAAAuk/T9a6b5MiYwc/s320/kaidan-movie-5.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: red;">"Kaidan" begins on a black-and-white tinged opening with a narrator telling the audience a tale of an acupuncturist/ moneylender named Soetsu Minagawa, who was a widower raising two daughters and has lent a fair amount of money to a unscrupulous samurai named Shinzaemon Fukai. When Soetsu demands the Fukai pay him his due, because the amount has gotten too large, the samurai murders him in cold blood. First slashing him over his left eye, and then outright finishing the job. Soetsu's daughters are left fatherless, as Fukai has the body thrown in a deep pool nearby called Kasanega-Fuchi, which is named after a woman named Kasane who was killed there by her husband. They believe their spirits still dwell there and swallows anyone who steps in the pool. Soon, the Fukai family met a series of strange misfortunes, beginning with Fukai himself losing his mind and subsequently murdering his wife and ultimately himself. He left behind, however, a baby son named Shinkichi. Bringing us into the film proper.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">25 years later, Shinkichi is now living with his uncle as a seller of tobacco. The daughters of Soetsu Minagawa are still around as well, as the eldest, Oshiga (Hitomi Kuroki of "Dark Water"), is a shamisen teacher (bringing that j-horror trope full circle) for young girls and lives with her sister Osono. One fortuitous day, Shinkichi comes through town selling his tobacco while coming upon Oshiga in the street. They have no idea of their connection, and yet fall in love with each other, going so far as to carry on a relationship. Soon, however, one of Oshiga's students, Ohisa, begins to fall for Shinkichi. Oshiga's jealousy drives a wedge between her and her young students. Shinkichi confronts her on it and suggests that he leave. During the conversation they get in a lover's quarrel which eerily ends with Oshiga accidentally wounding herself with her own bachi (or plectrum) above her left eye, just like her father. Shinkichi feels obligated to stay. However, while the injury of Oshiga grows malignant and has her bedridden, a much deeper relationship between Shinkichi and her former student Ohisa grows. Ohisa confides in Shinkichi that she wishes to leave their village for Hanyu (coincidentally Shinkichi's birth home), because her family is very harsh towards her. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Alqvj8uFcdQ/TqElKzoYYYI/AAAAAAAAAus/TRKxdKGH9GI/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="223" rda="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Alqvj8uFcdQ/TqElKzoYYYI/AAAAAAAAAus/TRKxdKGH9GI/s400/14.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Shinkichi and Ohisa bond while Oshiga is in utter pain from her wound, which ultimately taking her life. The way Shinkichi finds out about her death however, is the beginning of his nightmare spiral into a series of her supernatural hauntings. Just as he looks over her death ceremony, she leaves him a note promising him that if he marries another woman, he'll kill her. When Shinkichi finally does leave town with Ohisa, the run into a torrential storm, and even Ohisa feels threatened by the ghost of Oshiga while the lovers are in the woods. She too sees the ghost of Oshiga and runs from it, causing her to accidentally scrape her leg on a short farmer's scythe; the very weapon Soetsu used to defend himself against Fukai, which places them at the Kasane-Fuchi. When in a burst of hallucinatory conniption, Shinkichi no longer sees Ohisa, but Oshiga and when she begins to strangle him, he grabs the scythe and strikes her. Only realizing too late he has killed Ohisa. Local villagers find him and nurse him back to health, and ironically it's assumed that Ohisa's uncle's family are the ones who find him, as they say they are missing a family member on the way into town.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">There, Shinkichi is nursed back to health by the uncle's daughter Orui (in some translations of this very story, this is the name of the character for Oshiga), who has fallen in love with him. Shinkichi decides to leave town, even turning down the family's wish for him to marry Orui, that is until he runs into Osono, Oshiga's sister. Osono finds Shinkichi work on the docks and he eventually agrees to marry Orui, which will ultimately lead to a child and eventually his own destruction, just as Oshiga had promised. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Besides the fact that Nakata continues his theme of death by water in this film (see "Ringu" and "Dark Water") Nakata seems to fill the film with homages to classic Japanese storytelling traditions. The very opening with a lone storyteller weaving this tale, is based on Rakugo, which is a Japanese form of play that is similar to stand up comedy or a one-man play. It doesn't end there, because the very style of the film (at least in the opening) is a tribute to the films of horror director Nakagawa Nobuo and the aforementioned film "Kwaidan" with its stage play-esque set pieces. Interestingly, some of the characters names in the story have significant meaning, such as Soetsu meaning "Restless" and Fukai meaning "Discomfort". Hmmmm. A play on names on behalf of San'yūtei Enchō. "Kaidan" is a slow burner for sure, as the first half of the film is mostly melodramatic at best, and to be honest with you even when the horror does kick in throughout the film, it isn't up to par on what the contemporary-set J-horror pieces have to offer. </span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WwfXhhAelRc/TqElNOI3_LI/AAAAAAAAAu0/IDzM9-d8DfE/s1600/6500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="266" rda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WwfXhhAelRc/TqElNOI3_LI/AAAAAAAAAu0/IDzM9-d8DfE/s400/6500.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-31096764722504354272011-11-25T06:55:00.000-08:002011-11-26T03:31:06.017-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T4ZwG3_e_G4/TqqMZFUn1pI/AAAAAAAAAvc/3G5pljfcS4o/s1600/time_bandits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="400" ida="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T4ZwG3_e_G4/TqqMZFUn1pI/AAAAAAAAAvc/3G5pljfcS4o/s400/time_bandits.jpg" width="253" /></span></a></div><br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"><strong>Time Bandits (1980)</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: lime;"><strong>UK</strong> --- fantasy</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Dir: Terry Gilliam</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">This is one of my top 5 all-time favorite films. I have fond memories of watching this in the theaters, the holiday season of 1981. I was the perfect age to watch a movie like this, a children's film that didn't quite speak down to its intended audience, yet could totally entertain the adult. I'm amazed at how it stands up, and how much more I see in it as an adult, something only the Looney Tunes cartoons did for me. The film that probably gave Terry Gilliam more leeway into Hollywood, with cementing his rather odd cartoonish style of film making, "Time Bandits", was a welcome addition in a time replete of science fiction and fantasy movies. Hollywood was surfing on "Star Wars" mania, and churning out any and every kind of potential film of the ilk, including "Conan the Barbarian", "Blade Runner", "Tron", "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", "The Road Warrior", "Escape From New York", et cetera. Yeah, "Time Bandits" could have easily gotten lost in that shuffle, had it not been so unique and came as the first in a string of Gilliam favorites.</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UcDeShzj3MQ/Trufcsj5U9I/AAAAAAAAAw4/gYJhqTXQQM0/s1600/time-bandits-original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="180" ida="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UcDeShzj3MQ/Trufcsj5U9I/AAAAAAAAAw4/gYJhqTXQQM0/s320/time-bandits-original.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">For me "Time Bandits" is simply about the unlimited imagination of a child's mind. It is a snapshot taken from a child's perspective, from beginning to end. Though Gilliam very clearly paints his films with precision, this one is DaVinci using crayons. As Gilliam is stated to having based it on an idea about thieves who rob stuff from the past and take it to the future. The very fact it's a time travel film loosened from the confines of strict scientific rules is just refreshing as all get out. It shares in part of the films appeal, I believe. Python alum Michael Palin returns to acting duty and also helped sculpt the script. Essentially, the film is about a young boy named Kevin, who is neglected by couch potato parents who seem to barely acknowledge his existence. Kevin however, is a very imaginative kid, based simply on what's in his room. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">At first, he imagines a shining knight on horse back galloping out of his closet and straight through his bedroom, or what becomes a forest and his bed in it. The very next night, Kevin awaits whatever else could possibly emerge from the wardrobe, and he is barraged by a group of midgets who appear right out of his own closet. They at first mistake him, and his glaring flashlight, for someone else, someone important. That is until they realize, he's not who they thought. They go after him and quickly realize he's just a boy, and in the scuffle happen to push one of the walls of his bedroom out. Just in time too, as the one they mistake him for, the Supreme Being, comes looking for them demanding the return of his time map. Kevin runs along with them in his bathrobe (a homage to "Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?), and they fall into the time hole taking them to the time of the French revolution. They quickly happen upon Napoleon (played by great genre actor Ian Holm) himself, and mistaken for a troupe of performers. Napoleon is enamored with people shorter than himself, and befriends them, while the gang steal him blind. While the gang make off with the loot, they find the time portal to medieval times, and run into none-other-than some of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Meanwhile, Kevin begins to become none-too impressed with the gang of incredulous little people and their self-proposed leader Randall. Hood (played excellently by John Cleese) of course, secures their stolen goods for himself to distribute to the poor.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WkGn6OLRHmk/TsTZw7rQ02I/AAAAAAAAAxc/roif2jCgqds/s1600/TimeBanditsMap2_jpg_scaled1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="241" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WkGn6OLRHmk/TsTZw7rQ02I/AAAAAAAAAxc/roif2jCgqds/s400/TimeBanditsMap2_jpg_scaled1000.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="color: lime;">At this point, their arch-nemesis, Evil Genius (Utilizing Sam Peckinpah alum David Warner at his high-browed Brit-accented evil best), is seen watching the diminutive gang quarrel among themselves over the map, an item he covets for himself. Confined to the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, Evil Genius seizes an opportunity to get them to his own location, so he can obtain the map for himself. He hypnotizes one of the gang, namely Og, to convince the gang that within the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness lies "The most fabulous object in the world". However, the Supreme Being makes another appearance beseeching them for the return of the map. They find not one, but two time portals open up at the same time, and Kevin goes in the wrong one, sending him to back to ancient Greece. Now separated from the time bandits, he comes across the mythological King Agamemnon (played by Sean Connery), whom he quickly befriends as a father figure. Before long, though, the time bandits do catch up with him determined to spirit him away on their next journey, much to the reluctantance of Kevin. They end up on the SS Titanic (of course THAT Titanic),where Randall explains to Kevin his desire to seek out the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness for the aforementioned object. The problem lies in the fact the Fortress is not located on the map. When the Titanic sinks and the gang is out on the ocean, Randall surmises the only way to reach it is to simply believe, and sure enough a whirlpool opens (caused by Evil Genius) sending them into the time of legends where they come upon giants, trolls, and eventually the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness. The confrontation between Kevin and the time bandits ends up with them losing the map to Evil Genius, and needing to relie on their wits to escape the clutches of Evil. </span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">"Time Bandits", in my opinion, is the film that probably put Terry Gilliam (pardon the pun) on the map. He cemented his visual style of low camera angles, shot in wide screen, multiple celebrity appearances, and a protagonist that the viewer may not feel all that comfortable in trusting by the time the credits roll. Though Gilliam would return to the sub genre of time travel with 1995's "Twelve Monkey's" starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, this film didn't quite take the scientific aspect so serious. It even features ex-Beatle, George Harrison's theme song on the end credits, which has his usual catchy guitar riffs and some interesting lyrics if you pay attention.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4OHPB0kYSo/Tr-vbMFOE9I/AAAAAAAAAxA/Ys5MeRuZH4M/s1600/tb_051EvilMap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="217" nda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4OHPB0kYSo/Tr-vbMFOE9I/AAAAAAAAAxA/Ys5MeRuZH4M/s400/tb_051EvilMap.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Gilliam has since claimed "Time Bandits" as the first in his trilogy of ages as "Time Bandits" is about childhood, "Brazil" is about middle-aged, and "The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen" is about old age. For me, one of the little enjoyable little tidbits I noticed about the film is David Warner. An actor who, back then was taking many villainous roles just because. I had first seen him in this film. Later on, I had seen him in "Time After Time" when it aired on television, and then of course "Tron". What's significant about these roles is he went from playing Jack the Ripper in "Time After Time" which resulted in him being stuck in "infinity", then going to play Evil Genius in "Time Bandits", in which his character states at one point the need to master computers, in which he will in "Tron" as Dillinger/ Master Controller. Hmmmm. Yeah, I leave it up to interpretation. Taking cues from legends, myths, fairy tales, and children's literature, Terry Gilliam evokes everything from "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe", "The Wizard of Oz", and "Alice in Wonderland". With all that added there are full touches of humor that can be enjoyed by the child and the adult, and a non-scientific, care-free journey throughout time, "Time Bandits" is an enjoyable family film.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSM-L3ept3A/Tr-voayRVBI/AAAAAAAAAxI/g4semFGIFGA/s1600/timebandits1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="213" nda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSM-L3ept3A/Tr-voayRVBI/AAAAAAAAAxI/g4semFGIFGA/s400/timebandits1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-39977496460786679912011-11-18T11:02:00.000-08:002011-11-18T11:02:00.275-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pfuHH1iZ61E/TgWBzrZAgkI/AAAAAAAAAqg/i8hmHGfL-N0/s1600/Mad_Max_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" i$="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pfuHH1iZ61E/TgWBzrZAgkI/AAAAAAAAAqg/i8hmHGfL-N0/s400/Mad_Max_2.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) (1981)</span></strong><br />
<strong>AUSTRALIA</strong> --- science fiction<br />
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Has humanity ever been optimistic of the future? My answer is a resounding NO. Utopian futures in all sparks of imagination has never really been explored in literature, film, or even religious beliefs. Most religions don't view this earth as a place that can be redeemed. Most revolutionaries and dictators with Utopian ideologies were bent on bringing their reigns about through devastation. Wherever a idealistic future is depicted their is still another darker side to it. Logically speaking, for every utopia must be a dystopia for someone. In the "Mad Max" series, the only ones enjoying the desolate future are the ones of complete moral decay.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UhKJiMnZZTE/TqjTVG6OvpI/AAAAAAAAAvE/tqrInsGOMsQ/s1600/madmax-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" ida="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UhKJiMnZZTE/TqjTVG6OvpI/AAAAAAAAAvE/tqrInsGOMsQ/s400/madmax-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Quite possibly one of cinemas very best sequels, writer/ director George Miller's "The Road Warrior" doesn't just repeat the same old story from the original film, it extrapolates on the theme of the dystopian future that eventually deteriorates into a completely blasted wasteland. In the previous film, "Mad Max", we had a glimpse into an uncertain future that clearly wasn't very comely, and was in such disrepair our hero became something of an anti-hero just to survive. Now catching up with him after the horrific life-altering events of the last film, we find Max Rockatansky a lone drifter and a shadow of the man he was. His only companions is a loyal Shepherd dog (I believe may have been the puppy from the last film), a two-gauge sawed-off shotgun, and of course his suped-up Interceptor which is no longer the shiny black vehicle of the last film but a dusty sun-bleached vehicle that looks just as worn-out as its owner. He isn't alone for too long, however, as his ever-present biker adversaries appear very early on in the film, and are just as much a threat as they were in the last film.<br />
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He has a very short confrontation with the biker gang when he scavenges some fuel from a wrecked vehicle, but the encounter ends in peace. To add to the collection of allies, the film throws in another player. When Max spots a one-man gyro copter on the side of the road, he approaches it in hopes of siphoning some fuel. A quirky drifter (played by veteran Australian character actor Bruce Spence) gets the drop on him, but Max quickly turns the tables. The gyro captain reveals that he knows where to find an entire refinery of gasoline in a fortified compound of men and women fighting of the biker gangs. Max agrees to let him live if he leads him to the compound. When they arrive on a mountaintop overlooking the makeshift fort held up with around thirty individuals, Max stakes out the area to observe an opportune time to get to the oil without alerting the gangs. He and the gyro captain witness the biker gang ruthlessly kill some of the inhabitants who tried to escape, Max heads out to save just one as his entry into the compound. They obviously distrust him and see him as a threat, until the marauders and their muscles-bound leader Humongous gives them an ultimatum. Max sees the makeshift community, which includes a resourceful burrowing feral child with a razor-sharp boomerang could use some assistance. He offers to help the group in exchange for a full tank of gas for his car and whatever he can haul with him.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">He goes on a night-bound mission to get them a truck to haul an oil tanker out of the compound, and meets up with the gyro copter captain again. On a very dangerous and breakneck drive back to the compound, due to him being atacked by the marauders just miles within destination, Max makes good on his deal. He then later goes back on the road on his lonesome, and is once again attacked by Humungous' ruthless biker gang, destroying his car, and leaving him for dead in a scene which mirrors the ending of the first film complete with a biker gang member adorned in a highway police uniform. The gyro captain rescues him, and takes him back to the compound, where they come up with a last ditch effort with their gasoline, and Max comes in as a good Samaritan one last time.<br />
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In this film, Mad Max becomes more of a mythic hero than a one-dimensional vengeance seeking man above the law. The law clearly has failed him, and in this film, George Miller clearly takes his cues from American Westerns such as "Shane", "Fort Apache", and of course "Fistful of Dollars" and it's Samurai progenitor "Yojimbo". No such flavor is wasted in this film, as Miller raises the mythic level by adding inspiration from Joseph Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces" (a book Miller says he read between filming Mad Max and this film). Multiple storytelling techniques are added to make the character of Max Rockatansky much more fleshed out, if by only fleshing out the characters surounding him such as the gyro captain, the feral child, and the community within the compound. George Miller continued his "Mad Max" trilogy with "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", which concentrated specifically on what the first two films had been hinting at, the future is in the children. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Though, the entire trilogy has one giant flaw in the fact they have nary a hint of Aborignines. Oh sure, the children in the third film even look like they're painted to be Aborigine, but they are not. So, it makes you look at the films with another eye, in wondering if the film is about the fears and regrets of Anglo-Colonization rather than a fear of nuclear destruction as other films. Interestingly enough, John Carpenter's "Escape From New York" was released the same year, but "The Road Warrior" kinda had a chance to be about more than that. In one of the undercurrent themes of the film, Max represents a lone anti-hero, cynical enough to not really want to get involved in the last vestiges of what appears like the human race or a decent community. On the outside is everything that goes against community; men on motorcycles (since "The Wild One" and "Easy Rider" a symbol of rebellion), men with men as sexual partners (homosexuality, this was actually brought out in the first film but has even been alluded to more bluntly in copycat films like "Warriors of the Wasteland"), and the lack of starvation not so much of food but gasoline, (the precious juice as the narrator once put it), which fuels our crutch of machines. Miller is supposed to return to the Mad Max universe with "Mad Max: Fury Road", which we will wait and see what Max will get into this time.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wQ4uGZJVS8A/TqpTtrmDE8I/AAAAAAAAAvU/svTsRHgPDrA/s1600/2998003188_8c1790be13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" ida="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wQ4uGZJVS8A/TqpTtrmDE8I/AAAAAAAAAvU/svTsRHgPDrA/s400/2998003188_8c1790be13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-30376888067373305072011-11-11T02:40:00.000-08:002011-11-11T02:40:00.314-08:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aKhI3gF38IE/TfR7n_8M05I/AAAAAAAAApU/f5GEz511lbw/s1600/THIRST+0053c28s%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aKhI3gF38IE/TfR7n_8M05I/AAAAAAAAApU/f5GEz511lbw/s400/THIRST+0053c28s%255B1%255D.jpg" t8="true" width="278" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Bakjwi (Thirst) (2009)</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>SOUTH KOREA</strong> --- horror</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Vampire films nowadays are dime a dozen. Over the decades of films' existence, there have been a myriad of interpretations for audience consumption ranging from genre-bending mash-ups of everything from comedy to animation. The key vampire movies that usually keep the genre fresh are the ones that return to the core issues of just what a vampire is, a dead immortal suffering to stay alive. I had first saw "Bakjwi" (translated as "bat") aka "Thirst" within just a few months of watching Sweden's "Let the Right One In", and realized I had just gotten hit with a double whammy of fresh new visions of our favorite kind of nocturnal blood-suckers.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wu2IUG07wkE/TrEFFf81UAI/AAAAAAAAAvk/_9_14-M8mkI/s1600/thirst-bakjwi3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="266" ida="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wu2IUG07wkE/TrEFFf81UAI/AAAAAAAAAvk/_9_14-M8mkI/s400/thirst-bakjwi3.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="color: red;">This South Korean film, from director Chan-Wook Park, (of Old Boy fame) takes a strikingly evocative peek into what it is to become a vampire. However, it also looks at the insatiable desire of lust, love, adultery, and the destruction it ultimately brings to one Catholic priest cursed with the infamous disease. Loosely based on an 1867 French novel titled "<em>Thérèse Raquin</em>", Bakjwi (Thirst) explores the tale of Sang-hyun (played by the hardest working Korean actor in the world, Song Kang-ho), a young Catholic priest, who becomes disenchanted with his duties as a faithful servant to God. His visit with a hospitalized obese patient, Hyo-sung, pushes him into disbelief when the man goes comatose. He asks a superior blind wheelchair-bound priest, who has looked over him since he was an orphaned child, to send him to the Emmanuel Labs in Africa. Sang-hyun volunteers himself as a subject to an experimental virus called the Emmanuel Virus, which has the patients to a process of slow degenerative state of boils and blisters, which infect the internal organs ultimately killing them. Sang-hyun, however miraculously survives.</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Sang-hyun becomes something of a saint, and many come from afar just to have his prayers over them. when an old woman, Lady Ra, comes to him, begging him to pray for her cancer-stricken son Kang-woo, he respectfully pays the man a visit in the hospital. He soon discovers that he and Kang-woo (played by Park director pet Shin Ha-kyun) are old childhood friends, as the mother reminds him he used to come over for noodles. He reunites with the family over a game of mahjong and a young woman named Tae-ju, who appears a sheltered repressed young housewife (once raised as a sister) to Kang-woo. Sang-hyun visits their home and catches up on their lives, finding out about Kang-woo and Tae-ju, who is stuck with the over-bearing mother and the "Baby Huey" husband and mistreated by the whole family. Sang-hyun frequently visits and when he suddenly has an adverse reaction to sunlight and the symptoms of the EV virus returns to him, he quickly realizes he has become a vampire. Sang-hyu develops a deep attraction for her, and they do carry on a torrid adulterous affair. Eventually Sang-hyun reveals what he truly is to her as they sneak into the hospital room of the comatose Hyo-sung, the man he has been siphoning blood from. At first, Tae-ju is of course frightened, but she soon requests from Sang-hyun for him to turn her into a vampire as well. His backsliding, of course, begins to worsen.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Soon, Tae-ju requests to be turned into a vampire as well. Not long after, Chang-Hyun's own surrogate father, the blind priest also requests to be turned, leaving him with no choice but to step down from the priesthood. This begins his downward slide into sin, as his affair leads to murdering Kang-woo. Both he and Tae-ju's tragic love story goes from a lustful affair to absolute mayhem as they go on a murdering spree which will ultimately cost them their lives.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Chan-Wook Park's "Thirst" isn't a fantastic vampire film, but it most certainly brings yet another fresh take on the most famous horror sub genre ever. Chan-Wook Park direction is very smart and meticulous, overlapping dialogue with other scenes, and subtle moments of suspense and black comedy like Sang-hyu getting sick from the smell of garlic and saying he had a whiff of blood, sending Tae-ju running to the bathroom to look for a tampon.Kudos for the young Kim Ok-bin, whose slippery performance as Tae-ju keeps the audience engaged with her demure beauty and her eventual manic femme fatale actions. The key factors into this film besides the ethnic South Korean flavor, is the infusion of faith and a man of faith's battle with a very sinful disease. It is almost an essay on that alone, but if anyone is interested in seeking a film with a better take on that aspect of the vampire, watch the anit-blaxploition film "Ganja & Hess". The vampire has always been an inverse of Jesus Christ, with many references to his legendary existence.</span></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">- Just like Christ, the vampire was once alive and he rises from the dead. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">- Just like Christ, the vampire becomes makes followers. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">- Just like Christ, the vampire's "spirit", by bite, is passed on to others, often exponentially.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">- Just like Christ, many Christian's profess to be "saved", by his blood.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Many believe that the vampire lore was partly created as an anti-Christian allegory anyway. It can be no mistake that the crucifix is a key weapon against the creature of the night, but that rule apparently does not apply to the universe in this film. "Thirst" is definitely a great addition to the vampire sub genre. Unlike Christ, however, they are not as immortal. Eventually, like all men they are dust in the wind.</span><br />
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</span></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-81001655113107511842011-11-04T01:05:00.000-07:002011-11-04T21:09:16.188-07:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNJiidMRvWc/TfR0x5ZDVQI/AAAAAAAAApI/LWHrRv2I7ZM/s1600/poster+Night+Watch.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNJiidMRvWc/TfR0x5ZDVQI/AAAAAAAAApI/LWHrRv2I7ZM/s400/poster+Night+Watch.bmp" t8="true" width="292" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) (2005) </span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><strong>RUSSIA</strong> --- fantasy</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Dir: Timur Bekamambetov </span></div><span style="color: lime;"><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">“Sorcerers in Moscow . . . silly.” Anton Gorodestsky</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">The anemic Russian cinema movement has returned, with a bang. "Nochoi Dozor" (or Night Watch) was the top grossing film in Russia in 2004, making it the first blockbuster in post Soviet Union Russia. When I first read about Night Watch in the papers glaring at the riveting movie poster, I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued when I found out it was the first of a trilogy. I didn’t get a chance to see it in its limited U.S. release, so I had to wait for the DVD. The wait was well worth it. I was at once astounded at not only its unique premise, but as a film, in its innovative visual amalgam of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the “Blade” films, with a little bit of the vibe of “Underworld” and “Ghostbusters” thrown in for good measure. I finished the movie and I wanted more from this world. I immediately went scouring the net for info on who came up with this terrific cinematic wonder.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rpC6GmBtO-M/TfR28WClI-I/AAAAAAAAApM/fD3k2ZejYK4/s1600/antonvamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rpC6GmBtO-M/TfR28WClI-I/AAAAAAAAApM/fD3k2ZejYK4/s320/antonvamp.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Nochnoi Dozor is definitely no Ptushko or Tarkovsky film. Director Timur Bekamambetov gives an adrenaline shot to this film in every frame with stunning visual effects that are not used like condiments on a bland burger like some of Hollywood’s films, but are used to tell the story. The 1998 novel, by science fiction/fantasy author Sergey Lukyanenko, is slightly different from the fim in story structure. The 2004 film unweaves the existence of two powerful forces among us; the “Others”. One is light and the other is dark. They control the day and the night. But many years ago, they came to a truce. Geser (according to the author is named after Gesser the Tibetan hero of legend), the lord of light, and Zavulon, the general of darkness agree to never give any new “Others” the right to freewill – to be what they want. Be that good, or evil. Hmmm, yes, I detect some post communist controlled USSR inspiration there. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">They also set up two separate mystical factions that exist in the world, still until today, complete with rules. Basically they were set up to make sure neither breaks the truce. The light forces became known as the Night Watch, while the dark became Day Watch. Our hero in the story is Anton Gorodetsky, who in the film we see him try to win his ex-lover back through the assistance of a witch. The witch is an Other and has just broken a rule of the Nightwatch. But in the process, we find out Anton happens to be an Other. He becomes a Light Mage, as he is a magician.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E1cJchdlHbo/TfR0C0U7OlI/AAAAAAAAApE/IkZfipOxclg/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E1cJchdlHbo/TfR0C0U7OlI/AAAAAAAAApE/IkZfipOxclg/s400/7.jpg" t8="true" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Fast forward years later, we find that Anton is indeed working for the Night Watch, and his latest mission is to find a vampire who has broken the truce. A vampire has bitten a woman, turning her into one of them. But she must feed, and the vampire has her lure a young boy for her consumption. Anton seeks the assistance of his neighbors who happen to be vampires too. He must think and behave like a vampire in order to find and track down the boy. This is considered to be field work by the Night Watch, and Anton dislikes it. In the subway, Anton runs into another problem; a woman he believes is an Other, but he lets it go in order to complete his current mission with the boy. Upon finding the vampire, his attempt to apprehend the vampires goes sideways as one of them is killed and the chick escapes. This doesn’t make things good for the truce any better, on either side. Anton returns to Geser mortally wounded and on top of this, Geser takes a look into Anton’s mind finding the woman on the train. He discovers that this woman is about to bring about the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Zavulon is designing an elaborate plot to take advantage of an ancient prophecy that tells of a Great One, that will choose to become an Other that will either destroy the light within or battle the surrounding darkness. It is that choice that will decide the fate of the world.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">The film is intriguing with its plot, and it’s at once jaw-dropping to watch the special effects utilized to the hilt. Timur Bekamambetov has created an ultra-slick and highly stylized "New Weird" film. I can watch the movie over and over. What’s even more exciting is that Fox Searchlight funneled (of course) an American appeasing version, and that there is an original Russian cut out there to be had. KOOL! I also have to track down the Region 0 PAL 3-discer set available, and maybe even the novel at some point. This website is an English ready fan site and is pretty informative of the Night Watch saga: </span><a href="http://www.lightordark.com/"><span style="color: lime;">http://www.lightordark.com/</span></a><span style="color: lime;"> A sequel was made, but as of this writing, the trilogy is incomplete. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QpObICvTqrU/TfR2-WjPrII/AAAAAAAAApQ/0wRJMykr-MQ/s1600/nightwatch_photo06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QpObICvTqrU/TfR2-WjPrII/AAAAAAAAApQ/0wRJMykr-MQ/s400/nightwatch_photo06.jpg" t8="true" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-30631490540194132382011-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:002011-10-28T06:43:00.886-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZrtjIrJwb_g/Towev2s-wUI/AAAAAAAAAts/lN1EAs3cbxQ/s1600/videodrome_m_p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZrtjIrJwb_g/Towev2s-wUI/AAAAAAAAAts/lN1EAs3cbxQ/s400/videodrome_m_p.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Videodrome (1983)</strong></span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>CANADA</strong> --- science fiction</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Dir: David Cronenberg<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Technology has vastly expanded our horizons and imagination in the late 20th Century and on into the 21st Century. The industrial revolution had nothing on the computer age. What was birthed through incremental thoughts of vast communication in the current space age, has become a massive link-line to being able to create a dimension as knowledgeable as the ancient library of Alexandria to man's first doomed accordance of a mission to reach the heavens with the tower of Babel. Now we have the power to link with each other by the swift press of a button, be it by picture, words, and voice. The accelerated rate of technology is somewhat disconcerting to many. Some recent psychologists theorize by bringing us closer together, it actually distances us. An interesting concept. However, having a separate identity in a completely virtual setting is something relatively new to the world. Through the use of video games and alternative identities on the Internet in various forms, the idea of having a new virtual life has come to pass.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sS6I8H8peJM/To1qFntr5oI/AAAAAAAAAtw/VRdjuLeE-7c/s1600/Videodrome-2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" kca="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sS6I8H8peJM/To1qFntr5oI/AAAAAAAAAtw/VRdjuLeE-7c/s320/Videodrome-2.gif" width="320" /></a>David Cronenberg is mostly known for his body horror masterpieces in unique art house science fiction and horror films. He did, however, step into the world of science fiction when it became necessary to compose an essay on a subject matter that tied into his main theme of horrors of the body. Back in the early eighties everyone who was anyone began to notice that technology was beginning to become more and more advanced than they had ever dreamed. The preordained year of "1984" was fast approaching, and it seemed that, while Orwell's dark dystopian novel hadn't quite come to fruition, the foundation for such a future existed. Cronenberg as well as other filmmakers (Terry Gilliam with "Brazil"), found ways to incorporate the idea of "1984" in their own films. "Videodrome" is loosely cut from that vine.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Taking place in contemporary Toronto, the film is about a kinda Al Goldstein-esque cable access television producer, Max Renn, who's always in search for the next bit of sleaze to push on his network for ratings. His CIVIC-TV Channel 83 Cable 12 needs something new, and the soft core porn they do televise isn't enough to keep the viewers. Thanks to a nerdy cohort of his named Harlan, he comes upon a show called "Videodrome" via a snowy satellite transmission from "Pitts"burgh in the U.S. of A. The show features masked men beating and torturing unknown persons in a red room covered in clay. Renn is instantly hooked and has a producer friend of his try to track it down. Meanwhile, he meets the lovely radio talk-show psychiatrist Nicki Brand (played by Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry), who has her own counter-culture demons that, much like "Videodrome", Renn becomes instantly hooked on her too. They meet at the taping of a televised talk show discussing media with a media guru named Prof. Brian O'Blivion (a character based on media theorist Marshall McLuhan); who happens to appear via a television on the set of the show. Max and Nicki later hook up when she reveals she's into BDSM, and later she tells Max she's taking a vacation to Pittsburgh to check out Videodrome herself. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Not long after, Max' producer friend tracks down some info on Videodrome, and she reveals it is not just a show but real. She gives him a lead with naming Brian O'Blivion as a direct contact. Max heads to a place called Cathode Ray Mission, where homeless derelicts can come in and watch television. Prof. O'Blivion's daughter Bianca runs the place, and Max inquires about meeting the professor to discuss Videodrome, but she insists he will only send him a taped message. Soon later, he does get a tape from O'Blivion, and this is where, as they say "the fun begins".</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The rest of the film swings into a high speed technological nightmare for Max Renn, as he witnesses O'Blivion murdered by Nicki Brand. She, however, seduces him through the tape as his television set comes alive and is almost physical in nature as Renn presses his face into the image of Brand's lips on the screen, a scene that would later inspire the "tv witch" Sadako from "Ringu". Max ultimately realizes through O'Blivion's message that Videodrome has caused a physical tumor in the brain which causes him to hallucinate. The hallucinations increase, but to add fire to the gas a corporation named Spectacular Optical are the ones responsible for Videodrome in the first place, and soon Max is drawn into a web of technological conspiracy that will cause him to risk his life "in this world" to survive.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Videodrome" was and is a cyberpunk masterpiece. It's predictions of cyberspace and even video game interactivity are unnervingly accurate. On the outside looking in, the film is an essay on violence and sex and the result of such on personal reflections on the populace who consume them. However, at the same time, the film managed to go a step further, by predicting through the science fiction elements that pornography and violence could be so interactive that the media would ultimately consume the viewers. Through the use of the Internet, pornography has reigned as king. However, that is only one facet. The communication of being able to have another life through the cyberspace or through games such as "World of Worldcraft" or "Second Life" allows for much much more than that. What began as entertainment is capable of becoming a lifestyle. Cronenberg would return to the notion of video games specifically with his film "Existenz", but "Videodrome" laid the foundation for correctly advising us through cautionary social commentary the dangers of such media consumption on a society that feeds on animalistic nature. </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Such tiny predictions such as the use of "windows" throughout the film cement the theme. This actually predated Microsoft's popular program, but other there are other hints such as the characters being bathed in blue light as such we can be from the television sets or computer monitors. Max is subjected to being used like a walking videocassette player, which the villains insert a "program" to utilize him as an assassin. This is more than a little preachy of the times when media was blamed for vigilantism, but looking around in the 21st Century, the programming seems to have continued. No coincidence that Nicki Brand first meets Renn in a red dress, which she calls "stimulating"; as stimulating as the "red" room featured on "Videodrome". She also becomes the sensual commodity of Videodrome to seduce Max into their will, how telling of the "American Idols" or "Top Models" of this generation. Let alone the rampant pornography of the Internet. "Videodrome" has become a quintessential cyberpunk cult classic for many reasons. Much like its predecessor like "Alphaville", it inspired such films as "Tron", "Blade Runner" or "The Matrix". Cronenberg managed to invoke a theme from his first film "Shivers" about "New Flesh", which must be somewhat inspired by the bible. Surely, in this film Bianca O'Blivion even paraphrases the bible in talking about "the word becomes flesh", a passage specifically talking about Jesus Christ. This ultimately reprograms Max Renn as the cyberpunk hero destroy the rising Orwellian power of Videodrome before it's too late.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jNGM6do7_-I/Tpq-g3UrBuI/AAAAAAAAAuU/ktZrWnyJswE/s1600/videodrome5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" oda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jNGM6do7_-I/Tpq-g3UrBuI/AAAAAAAAAuU/ktZrWnyJswE/s400/videodrome5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-88727992620755964532011-10-21T00:37:00.000-07:002011-10-21T00:37:00.160-07:00<div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMepq4WMsxI/AAAAAAAAAU4/35FWgcKe59A/s1600/ju-on+poster.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532577221393036050" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMepq4WMsxI/AAAAAAAAAU4/35FWgcKe59A/s400/ju-on+poster.bmp" style="height: 320px; width: 228px;" width="285" /></a><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Ju-On (The Grudge) (2003)</span></strong></div></div><span style="color: red;"><strong>JAPAN</strong> --- horror</span><br />
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<div><span style="color: red;">Dir: Takashi Shimizu</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The malevolent mother and child spirits continue their vengeance fueled haunting of Tokyo in this bigger budget theatrical sequel to the Ju-On television and video films. In the first film we saw the origin of the horror, as well as in the follow-up. The body count and victims increased, creating more and more horrific circumstances in a small vicinity that no one will be able to stop. The difference in this film, it seems to focus on one woman's encounter with the Ju-on Onryō spirits, creating a familiar vibe in the haunted house sub genre.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMeoeZullzI/AAAAAAAAAUg/NC0mtXoqlFI/s1600/ju-on+1.bmp" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532575907503773490" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMeoeZullzI/AAAAAAAAAUg/NC0mtXoqlFI/s320/ju-on+1.bmp" style="float: left; height: 183px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The feature film "Ju-On" expands the universe and attempts to give us some form of explanation of the exponential nature of the ghosts, while scaring the heck out of us. Keeping form of its predecessors, the film is told in non-linear construction, which makes us even more unnerved; adding to the suspense. In the opening, we get a short abstract visual to key events that set up the horrors of the film, though we don't know it yet. First off we find a young volunteer welfare worker named Rika assigned to visit an old woman home alone. Setting us smack bang in the very familiar ghost story trope of "the woman in a haunted house tale". She finds the house in absolute shambles, and the old woman shes' to check on, sitting in a room of the house alone. As she goes about cleaning up around the house, Rika eventually has an encounter with Toshio, the ghost child (except here he curiously appears in human form). She contacts the welfare department but when she goes to check in on the old woman, she finds a black figure hovering above her; the other ghostly resident of the house, Toshio's Yūrei mother Kayako.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The next sequence titled "Katsuya", takes us back in time with the old woman's son Katsuya Tokunaga and his wife (the old woman's daughter-in-law) Kazumi. We meet Katsuya as it appears they have just recently moved into the home looking after their elderly mother. When Katsuya goes off to work, Kazumi is left home alone with her elderly mother-in-law, but soon discovers it isn't just the two of them. Later that day, Katsuya gets home from work and looking for Kazumi he runs into the ghost of Toshio. After finding Kazumi in a catatonic state she dies, and he is soon possessed by an evil spirit. I presume based on the dialogue he later mutters to his sister, that he is possessed by the spirit of Takeo Saeki. Soon when his sister Hitomi comes home for a visit, she confronts him and is quickly kicked out of the house, until Katsuya takes Kazumi's dead body up to the attic.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The following vignette features Katsuya's sister, titled "Hitomi". The beautiful young woman becomes haunted by the ghosts. She contacts her brother from work and has what would normally be a mundane way back home, turned into a living nightmare. We even see the abilities of the Onryō spirit somehow transcends just the physical in being able to control or affect electronics, something which I'm sure was possibly inspired by "Ringu". Next up, in "Toyama" another welfare worker (Hashini; the worker who originally assigned Rika) visits the Tokunaga residence. He finds the old woman dead and Rika in a state of shock. The police are brought in on the case, and they end up finding the corpses of Katsuya and Kazumi Tokunaga in the attic. When one of the detectives question Rika about what happened, she reveals finding a boy named Toshio, which was reported a missing child. The police bring in a retired detective named Yuji Toyama, who was assigned to the case of the house Saeki family. He is seen with his daughter Izumi (here shown at a young age as opposed to the following segment), and soon joins the detective to help on their investigation. Toyama goes to the police station to watch the video camera footage of the Hitomi's last whereabouts in her building. The security guard is shown checking the ladies restroom, she had him check. Toyama checks the video footage and finds that he sees the same black spirit that Hitomi saw. As mentioned, the Onryō spirit is no longer bound by space, as she comes through the television screen Toyama is watching. Meanwhile, the film continues to follow Rika, who is still being haunted by the ghosts. By the end of the segment, Toyama decides to burn the house of Saeki down, but ends up apparently looking into the future as he witnesses his daughter as a teenager leaving the house after chickening out on the bet to stay in the house. Ultimately, it is all a ploy to lure him upstairs as the Yūrei Kayako gurgling and creeping like a spider, ends up chasing him. The police detectives happen upon him too, but run into the ghost themselves, and succumb to it.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">The horror continues, as we follow some schoolgirls in the chapter titled "Izumi". We are now either a year or two later, as we discover Toyama is dead and his now older daughter is distraught over the haunted house of Saeki. Somewhere between her father dying and this episode, she went into the house with her three friends and they never made it out. This was the seen in the last episode, where her father actually saw her. When her school photograph comes out distorted her friends try to console her. It's already too late, as she knows that her number is up. In the final chapter, "Kayako", we find Rika must rescue her co-worker who has unknowingly went to the haunted house to check on Toshio. Rika, however arrives too late, as she realizes the spirits have taken her friend and Kayako's Onryō spirit taps into her psyche. This allows Rika to see, and in a sense relive, all that Kayako has been through (at least in this film). By the end of the film, we realize, somehow Kayako has possibly been reincarnated in Rika as, Takeo Saeki, the third and final member of this preternatural family continues his violent legacy.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The events in "Ju-On: The Grudge" have been seen and done before in film. For Americans, it is not so dissimilar from "The Amityville Horror", the difference being the latter is based on reality. The film series, however does have a few roots in classic Japanese horror cinema. For those interested, the tale seems to throw in the use of the black cat which does not quite fit into the Onryō spirit legend. There was a film in 1958 called "Borei Kaibyo Yashiki" (Mansion of the Ghost Cat aka Black Cat Mansion) by 50's horror maven filmmaker Nakagawa Nobuo, which seems to be a progenitor to the Ju-On film series in some way. This theatrical entry of the "Ju-On" series of films is a classic in the subgenre of "J-Horror". For Japanese horror films, sound design is essential. This has pretty much always been the case in all ghost stories, going back to the campfire. It is probably the most psychologically robust cinema genre one can watch, working on the parts of your mind you really don't want to explore. Visually, they rely less on gore and place more emphasis on creeping you out. For this entry in the series, director Shimizu really elevated his filmmaking prowess making not only a great horror film with more texture and characterization, but even allowed for humor and simple entertainment. Shimizu also remade this very film for American audiences with "The Grudge" and sequels continue to this day.</span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMeqO648dmI/AAAAAAAAAVA/oKhy42oA3Z0/s1600/ju-on+2.bmp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532577840550934114" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RTh60MAQIas/TMeqO648dmI/AAAAAAAAAVA/oKhy42oA3Z0/s320/ju-on+2.bmp" style="float: left; height: 211px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-70314165978043783192011-10-14T06:30:00.000-07:002011-10-15T21:46:42.080-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) (1959)</span></strong></div><span style="color: lime;"><strong>BRAZIL</strong> --- fantasy</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Dir: Marcel Camus</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">This fine entry of a fantasy film comes from the country responsible for Cidade de Deus (City of God) and the old Coffin Joe horror films; you guessed it Brazil. Except this is quite some time before the drug wars and such. In what is quite possibly the oldest of all tragically beautiful love stories, "Orfeu Negro" weaves a tale of music and the power of love. In the Greek myth Orpheus was the son of muse Calliope who married a woman named Eurydice. His wife was being taunted by a satyr one day and fell into a vipers nest. When Orpheus found her, he played music for her that made the gods weep on end. Eventually they advised him to travel to the underworld where he played the music for Hades. being overwhelmed by his music, they allowed him to return to earth with his wife, under the condition she was to follow behind him and that he may not look back until they arrived. However, when they do reach the upperworld, he hurriedly looks back, but she had not stepped foot yet and she is lost forever.</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">"Orfeu Negro" transplants this classic love story from ancient Greece to contemporary Rio de Janiero. Orfeu (Breno Mello) is a trolley conductor, who has a gift for playing the guitar. He's due to marry his beautiful, yet (for lack of a better word) bitchy fiancee Mira. However, he comes across Euridice (Marpessa Dawn) who rides to the last stop on the trolley in search for her cousin. She is directed by another conductor, appropriately named Hermes, to her destination. Meanwhile, Orfeu and Mira go to get the official paperwork for their marriage license. Orfeu even gets somewhat of a premonition of things to come, when the clerk asks Mira if her name is Euridice, like the old, old tale of tragic romance, he says. He admits to just joking to Mira, and she's so consumed with herself, the upcoming marriage, and Carnaval, she blows it off, but keeps an eye on him from then on out.</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtlSIlcXIf4/Tl23arW1cRI/AAAAAAAAAs0/S7GcXAn-Ogs/s1600/black-orpheus-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtlSIlcXIf4/Tl23arW1cRI/AAAAAAAAAs0/S7GcXAn-Ogs/s400/black-orpheus-4.jpg" width="400" xaa="true" /></span></a><span style="color: lime;">Euridice arrives atop the hillside of town to meet up with her cousin Serafina, who has just spent her savings on a costume for Carnaval. They discuss what she's doing there, when Euridice confides she ran away from home from fear of a man who is attempting to kill her; death. Serafina says she is perfectly safe now. When Orfeu gets his guitar out of the pawn shop, he escapes the arm of his fiancee and begins to play with the local children who believe he can wake up the sun with his music. During his child-like time with them and teaching one of them how to play guitar, unbeknownst to him he's serenading Euridice who is listening on from the neighboring shack belonging to Serafina. When he ducks out to hide from Mira's girlfriends, Orfeu's plans quickly change when he discovers the pretty new visitor is named Euridice, his destined lover.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">He spends most of the film protecting her from death (the satyr), a man who appears clad in an abstract skull mask and black costume. However, fate finds them out, as the tale begins to weave out exactly as the ancient legend did. She eventually tries to escape the man and ultimately falls victim to him under her own circumstance. Orpheus loses her, but is given one final chance during a religious ceremony. </span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">"Orfeu Negro" is a classic and beautiful love story, the best of which usually don't always end in happily ever after. The film uniquely pays careful attention to the homages to the greek legend with familiar characters such as the Satyr, Hermes, Cerebus, and Charon the ferryman of the river Styx. Like most films made in the 50's it features the ubiquitous musical sequence. The cinematography is vibrant and colorful. Even the scenes of Euridice's death is bathed in red light. In fact one of my favorite images in the film is with Orfeu and the janitor decending a long spiral staircase, in which the bottom is again bathed in bright red light. </span><span style="color: lime;">Many film critics loved "Orfeu Negro", but deemed it a French film made in Brazil. Fair enough. However, I'm certain 3/4 of the product including the mostly Afro-Latin cast, the boss nova bumping soundtrack from Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Floriano Bonfá, and local film crew contributed to its success. I can't see much French influence, especially new wave, on this film. Though I'm sure if made on the nickels and dimes of Brazilian money it wouldn't look and feel nearly as polished as it is. According to Barack Obama, via his book "Dreams of My Father", he wasn't so impressed with the film either. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LcfUBAN5qkw/Tl31Sp4FcPI/AAAAAAAAAs4/qweXWa30W8w/s1600/orfeu_negro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LcfUBAN5qkw/Tl31Sp4FcPI/AAAAAAAAAs4/qweXWa30W8w/s400/orfeu_negro.jpg" width="400" xaa="true" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-11172393403396615322011-10-07T06:23:00.000-07:002011-10-07T06:23:00.742-07:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lobmgYEFLkw/TfxqM1YdXtI/AAAAAAAAAqE/sVhn8wdDeXg/s1600/373px-Stalker_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" i$="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lobmgYEFLkw/TfxqM1YdXtI/AAAAAAAAAqE/sVhn8wdDeXg/s320/373px-Stalker_poster.jpg" width="199" /></a><strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Сталкер (Stalker) (1979)</span></strong> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>RUSSIA</strong> --- science fiction</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 science fiction film, “Stalker”, is based on a novella called “Roadside Picnic” written by sci-fi Russian novelists Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The original story deals with aliens having visited earth and left behind various equipment and such of advanced technological nature. The places these things reside in have become danger zones, as some are affected by the alien’s visitation. People have begun straggling around the areas around the “Zone” and some venture within illegally to recover these alien artifacts; they are called “Stalkers”. One in particular is called the “golden sphere”, which is rumored to be able to grant anyone his or her greatest desires.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AyKNaUOng_c/TfxqQsV92ZI/AAAAAAAAAqM/r8XByPdJKaw/s1600/stalker3c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AyKNaUOng_c/TfxqQsV92ZI/AAAAAAAAAqM/r8XByPdJKaw/s1600/stalker3c.jpg" /></a>The film adaptation changes things a little, as it follows three men in search of a room that will grant their greatest wishes. They are led by a “stalker”, one who illegally traverses the “Zone” on a regular basis and hires himself out as an escort to the “room”. He tries to provide for his wife and child named Monkey who has no legs. We meet the “stalker” in his humble abode with his wife and child as he prepares yet another trip into the “Zone”. He is hired by a scientist and a writer to journey into the “Zone” in search of the room, meeting them in a bar and from there they evade the police constantly patrolling the vicinity around the “Zone. After finally crossing into the “Zone”, the “stalker” warns them to be careful and to respect the It, for It can kill them. He throws out metallic nuts to test areas for safety on their journey, when they finally do reach the room the scientist and the writer begin to disbelieve in its power to grant anyone anything, and the scientist reveals he plans to destroy it with a bomb for the simple logic that if it can will anyone their greatest desires, then in the wrong hands it would be detrimental to all of mankind. The writer agrees with the scientists, but the “stalker” tries to stop them, for the “Zone” and the room itself are literally all he has in the world to live for. It is his livelihood. In the end, they decide to leave it alone.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Like any Tarkovsky film, this is a very long drawn out sci-fi epic, not suited for impatient audiences. The film remains a prophetic sci-fi cautionary tale for Russian society, as it predates the Chernobyl disaster by about seven years. Tarkovsky is a master craftsman of cinema, as he doesn’t just make films, he makes thought-provoking works of art. The first time it was filmed the original negatives were destroyed in a lab, so the whole film was shot all over again. It features amazing poetic fluid shots of desolate landscapes, the most unsanitary water ever to be photographed, and gritty sepia-toned passes into the post-apocalyptic world outside of the “Zone”. He captures a distant life of contemporary society with songs like “Ode to Joy” billowing from a passing train. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There aren’t actually any conclusive science fiction ideas in the film like alien visitors, but you are left, as the director wants to leave you, questioning whether it was ever real or not. Andrei Tarkovsky had a recurring theme in his films that show men searching for God or meaning of life. With that rationale, you can see perhaps what his message with this film was. As I look at it, it is layered to mean many things to many different people, but the simplest approach is to see the “stalker” as a believer in faith, and the writer and scientist as many of us in society are cruel realists too much in this world. As the ending may seem to prove, even a little beacon of hope remains vitally important.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9c6W9lbw34w/TfxqSZhDXFI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/1_rwcV1AoIw/s1600/Stalkerleads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" i$="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9c6W9lbw34w/TfxqSZhDXFI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/1_rwcV1AoIw/s320/Stalkerleads.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-40274569969948684862011-09-30T04:14:00.000-07:002011-09-30T04:14:04.082-07:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BGppbkLo7YA/TnQh5u9qQOI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/jVXBVCQ54Mo/s1600/MrVampirePoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" rba="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BGppbkLo7YA/TnQh5u9qQOI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/jVXBVCQ54Mo/s400/MrVampirePoster.jpg" width="261" /></a><strong></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Geung si sin Sang (Mr. Vampire) (1985)</span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>HONG KONG</strong> --- horror</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Dir: Ricky Lau</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Yet another Chinese horror comedy. I know, I know. This one is actually pretty good though. The reason being, it gets a lot more into the Chinese rituals and checks and balances of those rituals. So first let's get a little schooled into what just what's in store in this film, specifically the issue with "hopping vampires". They are technically called <em>gyonshi</em> or <em>jiang shi.</em> These vampires, however, are not quite what we expect from our western vampires. They are quite considerably different, and are more like the "George Romero" zombie than the Bram Stoker blood-suckers who follow a strict list of rules. Having said that, they do have some rules that apply of course. They usually stab their victims with very long fingernails, they're blind and can only find victims through the sense of smell, and are defeated with black magic and a healthy serving of good old kung fu. As I mentioned once before about vampire films, each film can have certain rules that exist only in the universe of the film you're watching.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n50Lom6We90/TnXdwbkpu-I/AAAAAAAAAtc/vaAGyxz17WA/s1600/MV16_jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="187" rba="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n50Lom6We90/TnXdwbkpu-I/AAAAAAAAAtc/vaAGyxz17WA/s320/MV16_jpg.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">So, with that said, this film follows a unibrowed mortician/ Taoist priest named Master Kau (played by Lam Ching Ying, who appears in the <em>gyonshi</em> sub genre multiple times throughout his career) and his bumbling assistants named Man Choi (played by veteran comedic relief Ricky Hui) and Chou (played by martial artists Chin Siu-ho, and yet another vet of this sub genre). Master Kau is hired to overlook and perform a reburial ceremony for the father of a wealthy businessman named Mr. Yam. He and Man Choi meet up with Yam and his niece Ting Ting for tea. Yam, on the advice of a so-called fortune teller, believes his father is to be buried vertically. When they dig him up, they realize he may have to be cremated so as to no longer leave his soul in unrest. His body, also begins to look somewhat revitalized and after twenty years, this is clearly a bad omen to Master Kau. So he orders his assistants to place incense around the graves of the cemetary, possibly to keep them at rest, that is until Chou hears the voice of woman of the dead; a ghost.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Back at the mortuary, Master Kau orders them to spiritually tie up the coffin as he performs a ritual to on some twine and they mark the coffin to keep the body dormant. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as the body begins to break out of the coffin. So Mr. Yam's own grandfather kills him later that night. Unfortunately, Yam's relative, a Barney Fife-esque local police officer blames Master Kau when he notices (thanks to Kau himself trying to alert him of a hopping vampire) his long finger nails and the puncture wounds in his Uncle Yam. Kau is arrested and as he sends Man Choi and Chou out to get ingredients for his ritual potions to stop not only the vampire on the loose, but Mr. Yam himself. Chou delivers the goods to the jail house to Master Kau as the have to battle Mr. Yam. No sooner than defeating him, Man Choi must defend Ting Ting from her grandfather and in the porcess is infected by the corpse until Kau and Chou come to the rescue. Kau wisely realizes the town is in danger and sends Chou to get more sticky rice; a prime ingredient to fighting off hopping vampires.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">However, Chou, runs into an enchanting female ghost in the next village. Chou is bewitched by her beauty and literally under her spell, he narrowly escapes her grasp. Just as soon as he returns, Kau can see he has been "haunted" by a ghost. Under her spell, Master Kau bounds Chou to a chair to keep the ghost from snatching him away. In probably the best scene of the film, Master Kau battles against the love-hungry ghost and the blood-thirsty Man Choi at the same time. A testament to the genre itself and to the actors martial arts choreography. Soon they must eventually deal with a horde of hopping vampires and one that comes out of nowhere that gives the trio their greatest challenge.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">"Mr. Vampire" isn't a horror film that sets out to scare its audience. While producer Sammo Hung spent most of the early 80's attempting to make a successful horror comedy to appease Hong Kong audiences, it wasn't until "Mr. Vampire" came on the scene where he had a hit. The film is definitely a classic in the Hong Kong horror (specifically the hopping vampire subgenre) comedy genre, spawning many sequels. As where "Spooky Encounters" laid the foundation, "Mr. Vampire" is the cornerstone which eventually took over the entire sub genre of films for many years to follow. My personal issues with the film is the niece character, Ting Ting, is reduced to a girl servant halfway through the film and all but disappears. It would have been interesting to see her fight for the affections of Chou against the female ghost. Anyways, as I mentioned in my review for "Spooky Encounters", Western filmmakers were not blind to these films, particularly with the cult classic John Carpenter film "Big Trouble in Little China" which features many tropes from this sub genre of film. Sam Raimi also borrowed alot for his "Evil Dead" films. The legacy of films like "Mr. Vampire" continues on into today, even with so many sequels and spinoffs of this very film alone.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSjhsOs7RgE/TnXenr3exSI/AAAAAAAAAtg/TxHsGFzuhTQ/s1600/MV15_jpg-300x175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" rba="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSjhsOs7RgE/TnXenr3exSI/AAAAAAAAAtg/TxHsGFzuhTQ/s320/MV15_jpg-300x175.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-9768043043797099482011-09-23T01:35:00.000-07:002011-09-23T23:33:05.743-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s-MdWtUN8n0/Tbqf6j4DiTI/AAAAAAAAAng/fuSK-VNH3pI/s1600/kellsposter.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" j8="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s-MdWtUN8n0/Tbqf6j4DiTI/AAAAAAAAAng/fuSK-VNH3pI/s400/kellsposter.bmp" width="272" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: 130%;">The Secret of Kells (2009) </span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">IRELAND/ FRANCE/ BELGIUM --- animation/ fantasy</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Dir: Tomm Moore</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; yborder-bottom: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">A group of talented animators presented this Oscar nominated animated fantasy film from Ireland, spotlighting the creation of the Book of Kells. The "Book of Kells" is basically an illustrated interrpretation (Insular Art) of the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. John) from the Christian Bible. They are very old, dating back to the 8th century, and were painstakingly designed with various forms of ink, precious stones, and gold. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gd9RDThURVg/TcEXVPupyCI/AAAAAAAAAnk/FhOxJKUqu28/s1600/kell1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" height="225" j8="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gd9RDThURVg/TcEXVPupyCI/AAAAAAAAAnk/FhOxJKUqu28/s400/kell1.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Though fictionalized, the film tells the story fairly close to the historical legend, being set in middle ages of Ireland, as our young protagonist, Brendan, is an apprentice in an Abbey. The monks regale young Brendan with tales of the "magical" book of Iona, as he wishes himself to be an illuminator. As the multi cultural group of monks await the arrival of a brother Aidan of the island Iona. He is an illuminator, who has constructed a book of kells called "The Book of Iona". When the island of Iona was attacked by a band of ravaging vikings, Aidan had to protect the book from being destroyed, and fled the island with his white cat Pangur Bán. Meanwhile, Brendan's uncle, Abbott Cellach, has put all effort into the building of a wall to protect the Kells from the inevitable invasion of the vikings. If you want to see a truly graphic form of these kinds of invasions, watch Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev".</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Upon Aidan's arrival (who looks like a cross between Willie Nelson and George Carlin), Brendan inquires him of the book of Iona. When Abbott Cellach spirits Aidan away to work on the wall, he's tasked with feeding Pangur Bán. Brendan, however, accidentally overhears Cellach and Aidan in a heated discussion about the wall, in which Aidan admits the best solution when the Vikings get there, is to run. Abbott Cellach is determined to stand by the fortified Kells, and leaves Aidan to his illuminating. When Aidan returns to the scriptorium, he tasks Brendan with finding gall nuts for ink in the wilderness. Brendan gladly takes Pangur Bán along on his search.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Arriving alone in the woods, he finds himself surrounded by wolves, and is soon rescued by a forest spirit. She appears first as a white wolf, then as young girl named Aisling (or Ashley). Brendan tells her he's only there to find these gall nuts for ink, and she makes a deal to show him where to find them if he promises to never return. He agrees, and she guides him to what he needs. Before leaving, he encounters the Celtic pagan deity Crom Cruach, which puts fear into even Aisling. When he returns to the scriptorium with brother Aidan, he finds that Abbott Cellach has learned of his disappearing into the forest and forbids him from leaving the confines of Abbey Kells. Even still, Aidan teaches Brendan illumination, and they continue to work on the book until they come to the Chi-Rho page. Aidan confides in Brendan he needs his help in doing this page as he's getting too old to construct it himself, and it can only be done through the use of a crystal.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">He also tells him that the crystal was the eye of a pagan deity found in one of their caves. Brendan, having already found Crom Cruach assures Aidan he can get another crystal. In the meantime, we see that the vikings are certainly on their way. That night, Brendan sneaks out of the Abbey again, and meets Aisling in the forest. She pleads with him not to confront the deity, and reveals that it was Crom Cruach who destroyed her people. Brendan goes forth anyway, in what appears to be more of a spiritual battle against the deity for the crystal. This time when he returns to the Abbey, Abbott Cellach has locks Brendan up in a dungeon, and only Aisling can help him escape before the immenent vikings invade.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">"The Secret of the Kells" is a visually arresting film, but the story leaves you with much to be desired. Gotta admit the animators missed the mark with the blatant Negro cariacture of one of the monks. I will give them a very slight advocation by the possibility they were simply ignorant of what offense this would take in other countries. I also note that in the special features, they show an early version of the character which is less abrasive, but whatever. The film is certainly not perfect. The direction wasn't the greatest, as the characters actions didn't always seem to match the vocal performance. Also, I'm still unsure how Brendan could tell Aisling that Crom Cruach was an imaginary pagan diety, but yet he claims she is one as well earlier. </span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Steeped in a profound religious tradition, but bathed in stunning visual delights, "The Secret of Kells" weaves a tale of both faith and Celtic mythology. Aidan's white cat with one eye green and the other blue is based on a real life cat named Pangur Bán (which is translated "whiter than white"; a Christian reference), of which a poem was written by an anonymous monk in the 9th century. Aisling and Crom Cruach are loosely based on Celtic mythological deities. Aisling is based on Tuatha Dé Danann translated as "peoples of the goddess Danu". The film is an interesting tame children's story, but lacks the deep insight or storytelling to keep the interest of the adult audience. I felt the ending left me hanging somewhat.</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YFCbxngKnrc/TdOIptPUEUI/AAAAAAAAAn8/6iZPqwNJDOQ/s1600/kells4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" j8="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YFCbxngKnrc/TdOIptPUEUI/AAAAAAAAAn8/6iZPqwNJDOQ/s400/kells4.bmp" width="400" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-9672447220226544602011-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:002011-09-18T04:51:39.270-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P42UgiyhhJ4/TkOb1ZXjXtI/AAAAAAAAAsA/tLAI9GcYrMs/s1600/Delicatessen2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" naa="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P42UgiyhhJ4/TkOb1ZXjXtI/AAAAAAAAAsA/tLAI9GcYrMs/s400/Delicatessen2.jpg" width="275px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Delicatessen (1991)</span></strong></div><span style="color: blue;"><strong>FRANCE</strong> --- science fiction</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Dir: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: blue;">Quirky as quirky gets. This is the debut film for two very interesting French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Who, together, made some visually stunning science fiction and fantasy films, which eventually lead to their collaboration on the follow-up "<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Cité des Enfants Perdus"</span> (City of Lost Children). Having said that, it all began here with this black comedy full of whimsy, cartoonish verve, and a matter-of-fact macabre pessimism peppered throughout. Even that description is unable to do the film justice.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></div><span style="color: blue;">Taking place in an undisclosed post-apocalyptic future where the currency is divided among seeds, grain, and other food, the tale properly begins with a man named Louison (director pet Dominique Pinon) being dropped off in front of an isolated rundown tenement. He inquires about an ad looking for a building handyman with the owner and manager, a butcher of the delicatessen named Clapet. He is quickly blown off. However, Clapet, quickly changes his mind and takes on Louison anyway. From the opening we see that the butcher gets his meat from people, yet interestingly enough, no one seems to notice or ask questions in this dim future world. It's possible everyone (the few tenants left) is just turning a blind eye. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3K3xprealAg/TmHo5pCE9nI/AAAAAAAAAtA/xPKv_P7AqBY/s1600/delicatessen_M_627x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: blue;"><img border="0" height="164px" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3K3xprealAg/TmHo5pCE9nI/AAAAAAAAAtA/xPKv_P7AqBY/s320/delicatessen_M_627x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg" width="320px" xaa="true" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: blue;">The tenants consist of two guys who make those cow-mooing noisemaker cans, a suicidal wife who devises who believes she is hearing ghosts, the beautiful Ms. Plusse who happens to to be the mistress of Clapet, a married couple with children who the father makes condoms, and a man who has his apartment halfway a swamp complete with frogs and snails. While Louison works, he runs into a neighbor, the unassumingly beautiful daughter of the butcher, Julie Clapet. Louison is also hiding a slight secret about himself. He was apparently a well-known clown who performed with a monkey. In the meantime, a group of covert troglodytes, who in an almost cartoon-like manner, are running around in greasy wet suits through the sewers in search of food.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">The film is a basic love story between Louison and Clapet's daughter Julie. Throughout the film, we peek into the lives of the strange tenants of the building, while Louison goes to war with Clapet over his daughter. desI won't go into detail about the plot into this film, because I feel it will kinda ruin the fun little moments that make up the sum of its parts. I will say see this innovative sci-fi French film, and judge for yourself. For me, though, the film kinda comes off with a tinge of Popeye sentiment with Louison standing in for Popeye (Doesn't he look like Robin Williams a little), for Olive Oyl, and her brute butcher father for Bluto. The post-apocalyptic setting is so strange and credible, that you feel a little desensitized to the random bits of violence and threat that come upon the denizens.</span><br />
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</span></div><span style="color: blue;">"Delicatessen" is a somewhat delightful though quirky film to watch. I have enjoyed Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films so far, and it's always an interesting study to return to the fast and loose early days of his cinematic resume. This film in particular floats through a whimsical Bernard Hermann-esque score and a myriad collection of funny noises and music from that joyous kind of circus music to the a classic scene with bed springs in tune to Hawaiian ukulele music. I would also note that this film has a sense of inspiration from a classic Hong Kong film called "House of 72 Tenants", with a similar story set in contemporary times, but no sci-fi elements at all.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Sakebi (Retribution) (2006)</span></strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>JAPAN</strong> --- horror</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Some ghost stories are based on an relentless revenge from beyond the grave. Some are symbolic psychological character studies. Then others are meant to be a cautionary tale and a warning about mistakes done in life, and the idea that you may escape the past, but the past will not escape you. This kind of film is a well-beaten path for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and he's proven he knows how to make a thought-provoking horror film that doesn't just follow the traditional tropes.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">In the opening, we see a man forcefully drowning a woman dressed in red, face down in a shallow puddle in the midst of an empty lot. Police detective Yoshioka (played by Kiyoshi Kurosawa director pet Kôji Yakusho) and his girlfriend Harue wake up to a quick earthquake. Yoshioka is sent to a crime scene in an empty lot with a woman in red drowned face first in a puddle of salt water, also in an empty lot. when Yoshioka finds a button from a coat that may or may not personally belong to him at the crime scene, he begins to suspect himself. Even still, he turns the button in as evidence, and later the forensic team finds his fingerprints all over the woman's body.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KodMCOMZYO0/Tiqk0ktUvXI/AAAAAAAAArA/zN78SQKfciI/s1600/retribution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KodMCOMZYO0/Tiqk0ktUvXI/AAAAAAAAArA/zN78SQKfciI/s1600/retribution.jpg" t$="true" /></a><span style="color: red;">The next scene has teenager begging his father doctor Sakuma, for syringes, so he can get some money. The dad takes his son to a deserted industrial area, drugs him, and drowns the boy face first in a bucket of water. When the forensics team find evidence of the first victim having been bound in yellow cord, Yoshioka returns to the original crime scene. There he runs into Dr. Sakuma standing by smoking. Yoshioka chases him down and accuses Sakuma of somehow framing him. Yoshioka's partner, however, becomes increasingly aware that there are too many ties binding him to the murder of the unknown woman. Yoshioka interrogates Sakuma, but finds the doctor has become mentally unstable, as he clearly has outbursts of seeing the ghost of his son and running from him.Yoshioka begins to realize he is the prime suspect in the unidentified woman's murder. It's after this, that he has an encounter with the ghost of the woman in red, interestingly enough during another short earthquake. The woman has a nightmarish scream and coerces Yoshioka to continue looking for her killer.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The next scene brings us to yet another person, where an executive confides in his office mistress that he has divorced his wife and plans to marry her. She soon withdraws herself and goes to the river to draw buckets of water. Later at home, she fills the bathtub full of the salt water, and bludgeons her boyfriend, of course, drowning him in the water. The police find him and for Yoshioka, the murder becomes something of a burden to both he and his partner who practically accuses him straight out as being the suspect. That is until, they find that the parents of the unknown woman has identified her. They head out to meet the mother of the woman, where they discover she has been dealing with an bully of an old boyfriend of their daughter's. When they chase him down, they eventually get a confession out of him, and the murder of the woman in red is solved. The problem is, detective Yoshioka's truth has just begun, as he links all the suspects, including himself to a certain abandoned insane asylum on the route of a ferry. The ghost also has not left, as they have unfinished business.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">"Sakebi" is a twisty horror film to say the least. Kurosawa's style is effective throughout with his insightful use of visual and audible motifs in the film's overall theme. </span><span style="color: red;">Let me just say, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is probably one of my favorite Japanese directors. His style feels somewhat reminiscent of what I fell in love with in John Carpenter. Though I haven't seen all of his films, this one is one of his best. This film feels like what Carpenter may have made had he were trying to do a Hitchcockian noir. However, this ghost story has its roots in Japanese horror cinema as well. For anyone interested in its predecessors seek out "Kwaidan" (1964) which features a similar segment called "The Black Hair" and "Ugetsu Monogatari" (1953) which I already reviewed on this site. Apparently, this film is supposed to be considered the fourth part in the J horror theater series, but it is not official. If it is, I consider it the best entry of the series yet. Regardless, this film is highly evocative thriller, and shouldn't even be lumped into the category of J-horror. Do yourself a favor and check it out.</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tJfd6mEissA/Tiqn7Y5_oWI/AAAAAAAAArM/L2-_94l9tRo/s1600/sakebi+puddle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tJfd6mEissA/Tiqn7Y5_oWI/AAAAAAAAArM/L2-_94l9tRo/s1600/sakebi+puddle.jpg" t$="true" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-84016788886837431372011-09-02T04:02:00.000-07:002011-09-02T04:02:00.085-07:00<div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WkOQy_g8WhI/Tl9Jc_42OSI/AAAAAAAAAs8/Xl-2exyOt24/s1600/447px-Alicesadventuresinwonderland1898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WkOQy_g8WhI/Tl9Jc_42OSI/AAAAAAAAAs8/Xl-2exyOt24/s400/447px-Alicesadventuresinwonderland1898.jpg" width="297px" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
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<strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Něco z Alenky<em> </em>(Alice/ Something From Alice) (1988)</span></strong></div></div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><strong>CZECHOSLOVAKIA</strong> --- fantasy</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><div><span style="color: lime;"></span></div><div><span style="color: lime;"></span></div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Dir: Jan Švankmajer</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><div><span style="color: lime;"></span></div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Yet another take on the timeless story of "Alice in Wonderland". Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel, "<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: lime;">Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", was an advanced fairy tale written for children and adults alike.</span></span> This one is a mix of both stop-motion animation and live action. Alice in this one is played by a true curious little girl (the only human being in the film), who goes through the typical Alice routine of shrinking and growing while chasing the white rabbit. The director turns the rabbit hole into a desk drawer as well as transforming her into a doll in some scenes and has made the other characters highly abstract through very practical depictions. For instance the white rabbit and other characters almost come off as taxidermy looking, while others are simply socks like the caterpillar and dolls and puppets like the March Hare, even the Mad Hatter is a marionette.</span></div></div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">This being a very low budget film, the director seemed to take advantage of the idea that this entire film is happening from the perspective of Alice's own imagination. It feels like a very rudimentary home movie peaking into a girls bedroom as she plays tea with her dolls. The fact that Alice speaks all the lines in the film, with inter cut closeup shots of her lips speaking, cements the theme that this is all one very long and strange dream. However, having the actress speak the lines of all the characters ends up allowing Carroll's strange dialogue to lose its punch. </span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Jan Švankmajer had previously mastered a series of short films done in the same style with stop-motion effects. Taking this simplistic and familiar story and setting it on its head with highly stylized shots from a child's perspective is an interesting vision of the the tale that has never been done before. He also uses no music whatsoever, but completely ADR pronounced sound effects, which gives the film a kinda quiet eeriness. All the while, the director keeps the Lewis Carroll's often strange but dark vision intact. One thing I found odd, even though she's age appropriate, the Alice in this story isn't even wearing the typical Disney-fied blue dress; but that's a matter of choice opinion I guess. True to the book, the film is chock full of phallic imagery and strange dialogue.The film has to be seen, but it of course isn't the greatest adaptation of the story.</span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1-qMGmmzXZM/TlYQ5jlzWzI/AAAAAAAAAss/V4jOC2G5LJQ/s1600/pdvd_143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"></span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RVmCFJI7qfs/TlCGvQCGN_I/AAAAAAAAAsg/x2D4vvBmsg4/s1600/NecoZAlenky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" qaa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RVmCFJI7qfs/TlCGvQCGN_I/AAAAAAAAAsg/x2D4vvBmsg4/s400/NecoZAlenky.jpg" width="273px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-41874432977140697412011-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:002011-08-27T01:18:23.397-07:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CJarRw22qgc/Tfxm1sHhZVI/AAAAAAAAAps/gb07XgcjdBY/s1600/time-crimes-poster1%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" i$="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CJarRw22qgc/Tfxm1sHhZVI/AAAAAAAAAps/gb07XgcjdBY/s400/time-crimes-poster1%255B1%255D.jpg" width="282px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Los Cronocrímenes (Time Crimes) (2007)</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>SPAIN</strong> --- science fiction</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We all make mistakes. Whether we got into a car accident or ran a red light. Said something that escalated into an argument. Paid too much for something, when we didn’t really need it. We all have done something stupid and in hindsight had to wonder, what if? What if we turned left instead of right? What if we stayed silent, instead of speaking our mind? In these instances, some of us truly fancy the idea of just what would happen if we literally could go back in time and change those things? On the whole, we know it is impossible. For the man in this film, it isn't.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8v1R-wi2XZQ/Tfxm5ok9hcI/AAAAAAAAApw/xM_gkkM0mYU/s1600/1507708733%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218px" i$="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8v1R-wi2XZQ/Tfxm5ok9hcI/AAAAAAAAApw/xM_gkkM0mYU/s320/1507708733%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div>There have been many a tale of time travel in some form or another, whether it’s Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle", Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court", or HG Wells’ masterpiece "The Time Machine". "Los Cronocrímenes " from director Nacho Vigalondo continues in this tradition, and in great form. One of the issues I have always had with time travel films of any genre, is each film seems to be unto a universe of its own with its own rules about what can and cannot exist. Much like vampire films, where they disregard Bram Stoker’s rules and often branch out into ideas that really push the themes so far, they are no longer about vampires per se. The time travel genre is similar in this regard, and the complications are far more detrimental than vampire films. If you don‘t get it right in establishing the rules in time travel, you don‘t have a plausible story at all. Which may stand to explain why they are few and far between. This film appears to take on the task with unflinching bravado, and in every instance upon multiple viewings, pulls off its story perfectly. <br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Los Cronocrímenes" tells the story of a man named Hector who lives with his beautiful wife in a country home they seemingly have just bought and are in the midst of renovating. One day, he is sitting outside his home with a pair of binoculars, and as we've learned from Hitchcock, those are almost always a device of great trouble. Hector sees a woman in the woods just outside his house who seems to be getting unclothed, and as any man, his curiosity is greatly piqued be it through lust or concern. When his wife goes out to town, he ventures into the woods by himself to find out what's going on. Hector finds the young woman lying unconscious in the forest, he gets a little too close and is stabbed in the arm by a mysterious man in bandages and a trenchcoat, sending him in flight for his life. Hector runs until he finds a building to hide out. Hecleans his wounds and searches the place for somebody to help, and eventually comes across a walkie-talkie where he contacts someone for help. On the other end is a young man (played by the director himself Nacho Vigalondo) who works in the building, who comes to help Hector.<br />
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Soon Hector is brought into a lab by the man as he explains he's being chased by a crazy masked man. By this time, it's early evening, and eventually, the masked man catches up with Hector as the man tells Hector to get into a circlular pool-like (not a hot tub) machine that closes shut from the top. In seconds he is immersed in the liquid of the machine, and yet the machine opens once again. This time it is daylight outside. Hector stares in wonder as Hector stands by bewildered. he runs outside only to come to the realization it's not just daytime, it's the very same day he is about to live over again. The man explains to Hector that the machine is a time travel prototype, as the two of them try to put their heads together to avoid messing up Hector's life, let alone time itself. <br />
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"Los Cronocrímenes" (Time Crimes) is a low budget science fiction film that keeps its concept very simple. It manages to be that as well as a taut Hitchcockian thriller. The director was smart enough to isolate the characters. The less characters and locations involved in a time travel story, the better. The filmmakers create an interesting color scheme. Not so much through cinematography but through wardrobe and production design. Both Hector's wife and the nameless young woman are both wearing red and the van that hits Hector A causing his accident in the first place is . . . you guessed it; red. There's a play on this where Hector A's bandage and makeshift mask is pink from him getting in the milky liquid of the time machine. My suggestion is the red is trying to streamline the people caught in this time paradox, and Hector himself kinda weaves<span style="background-color: black;"> in</span><span style="background-color: black;"> </span>and out of it for the majority of the film.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-snYpkTwI9VI/TkzTIwd6OoI/AAAAAAAAAsc/Pl8kWgWtQ44/s1600/Still-from-Time-Crimes-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" qaa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-snYpkTwI9VI/TkzTIwd6OoI/AAAAAAAAAsc/Pl8kWgWtQ44/s400/Still-from-Time-Crimes-001.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-46191612892876863362011-08-19T12:24:00.000-07:002011-08-19T12:24:00.665-07:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VVLMb7TFnuE/Tkev8xPI2zI/AAAAAAAAAsI/p8Au6OpEREA/s1600/Viy__1967_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300px" naa="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VVLMb7TFnuE/Tkev8xPI2zI/AAAAAAAAAsI/p8Au6OpEREA/s400/Viy__1967_.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: red;"><span lang="ru" xml:lang="ru">Вий </span>(Viy: Spirit of Evil) (1967)</span></strong></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>RUSSIA</strong> --- horror</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Dir: Georgi Kropachyov, Konstantin Yershov, Alexander Ptushko</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"></span></div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: red;">"And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." King James Bible - MARK 9: 24</span></strong><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Some stories never go out of style. Some tales can be relevant for ages. Some legends just stay with us. It may be marked by some inkling of truth and a very powerful message about the human condition. Faith will always be a part of the human condition, and the struggle between good and evil isn't going anywhere anytime soon. </span></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">The film Viy is about this very matter, faith and the struggle between good and evil and what happens when one's faith is put to the test. Based on an 1835 Ukranian folk tale published as a short story by Nikolai Gogol, the film tales the story of a young priest named Khoma Brutus (translated Thomas Brutus), who is on leave from seminary. He and some other students all leave in a big group to go out into the villages and return to their respective homes, but three get separated. So Khoma, Khaliava, and Gorobets soon find themselves out in the countryside alone, when they come across an isolated farmhouse. They go there to seek shelter for the night, when a reluctant old woman puts them up for a night. She then separates them to different sleeping areas, and leaves Khoma in the barn. Later that night, the old woman goes into the barn awakening him, and at first Khoma thinks the old woman is just attempting to seduce him, that is until he sees that something is far more wrong with her than sexual advances. She wants to get on his back and ride him like a beast of burden, which eventually through some enchantment, she does. The witch rides Khoma all over the countryside even flying above the ground, and when he is released from her spell, he beats her, only to witness her transformation into a beautiful young woman. Startled, he flees for his life, and returns to the Monastery.</span></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Upon arrival, Khoma is soon told by the dean that the daughter of a rich Cossack has returned home beaten near to death, and is requesting for Khoma specifically to perform a vigil over her corpse for three nights after she dies. A bunch of cossacks are there to escort him, and to make sure he arrives in the village and does as promised, all Khoma wants is to go home. A short stop over at an inn with his escorts gets him drunk enough to brave the ride into the village. By the time they arrive, they learn the young woman has died. Khoma visits her the next day and her father begins to question him and his association with his daughter. Khoma is told, per her request to pray for her salvation for three nights and he will be richly rewarded. That day, they lay her body in an open coffin in a dank empty church, where he is to go and pray for her. The local Cossacks begin to tell Khoma of a huntsman who was fell in love with the girl. They tell a tale that sounds all too familiar to Khoma, about her riding on the huntsman's back. That night they lock Khoma in the church with the body, and as they say, the horror begins.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDGUdD00z8A/TkewCPoVBgI/AAAAAAAAAsM/5em9WtEVC7s/s1600/original%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="225px" naa="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDGUdD00z8A/TkewCPoVBgI/AAAAAAAAAsM/5em9WtEVC7s/s400/original%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400px" /></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Khoma's first night is spent in fervent prayer, as he sets up candles around the church, with peering Rublev-esque icon paintings surrounding him. This doesn't stop the body of the woman to be creep out of her open coffin, as she heads to Khoma. Khoma draws a chalk circle around him and again prays for the lord's holy protection from such a clearly demonic spirit of evil. The witch disappears when the cock crows. Khoma does indeed survive his first night in the chamber, but after some borsch for breakfast and questioning from the village men about his night, he's reluctant to return with getting drunk on some vodka. Night two, the witch takes flight in her coffin and begins once again to break Khoma's faithful circle. She fails again, but not before casting a spell on Khoma that turns his hair white as snow. That day Khoma has pretty much lost it, as he takes to drink and dance. He goes to the rich cossack begging him for release from his duties. The cossack promises him one thousand lashes instead of one thousand pieces of gold if he fails to pray for his daughter. Khoma tries to flee for fear that he may not survive his final night. He may not have been wrong in that, as his third and final night turns out to be his most terrifying.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">"Viy" is a witty and simplistic horror film that weaves its tale with simple suspense and a minimalist charming style. The film has a very gothic Hammer Studios-esque veneer. The filmmakers utilize very practical in-camera special effects. The gloomy but crisp analagous cinematography adds to set pieces, the actors all play their parts without a hitch, and the imagery of barnyard animals in all their noisy glory throughout the film lends to the toning down of the horror and suspense. What is "Viy" really trying to say? I believe it is about faith. The fact that this character is named Thomas can not be a coincidence, as we all know that the disciple/ apostle Thomas was remembered as being the one who doubted the appearance of the resurrected Jesus. The very idea that the town knows full well of this witch, and puts the student priest in the thick of danger is a testament of our own walks in faith. Notice the church was dank and desolate with cold candles, gloomy paintings of the dead saints, and no sign of any having been there for worship. The church was dead and Khoma's faith may have been as well. Whether Gogol was making a statement about the Russian church in his times, is up to the reader. This is a rare horror film from the once fully communist U.S.S.R., who sternly frowned upon such stories and this one actually marks the very first Russian horror film. The filmmakers were able to push it through because of its humourous take on the folktale and legendary Russian fantasy director, Alexander Ptushko, I'm sure put his visionary stamp on it besides contributing to the screenplay.</span> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x8RfLwe0nvE/TkezsnwlZuI/AAAAAAAAAsU/q7pZzr1eyC0/s1600/tumblr_lb8pmcRuzr1qz72v7o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295px" naa="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x8RfLwe0nvE/TkezsnwlZuI/AAAAAAAAAsU/q7pZzr1eyC0/s400/tumblr_lb8pmcRuzr1qz72v7o1_500.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-1339767595092424852011-08-12T12:28:00.000-07:002011-08-12T12:28:01.820-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAoZqge5-j0/TfnieP79JlI/AAAAAAAAApg/Ini1CBcI1DQ/s1600/La_Belle_et_la_B%2525C3%2525AAte_film.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAoZqge5-j0/TfnieP79JlI/AAAAAAAAApg/Ini1CBcI1DQ/s1600/La_Belle_et_la_B%2525C3%2525AAte_film.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><br />
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<strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946)</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: lime;"><strong>FRANCE</strong> <strong>---</strong> fantasy</span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Dir: Jean Cocteau</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Tale as old as time and such, the fact is this story never gets old. Many have seen the Academy Award nominated Disney take on the tale and possibly even the award-winning American television series, but a priveleged few have seen the story unfold in its original language and properly adapted for screen. Based on the original fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve written back in 1740 and then again by Madame LePrince de Beaumont, the tale of a monstrous creature with a kind, loving soul and the beautiful young damsel who learns to tame and love the beast, has larger than life implications that were just meant to be enacted either on stage or on film. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: lime; font-size: small;">Jean Cocteau was a regular renaissance man, besides being an auteur film director. In the midst of World War Two, he set out to make this fairy tale film that eventually became a truly evocative and haunting classic in its own right. This 1946 film version of "La Belle et la Bête" takes some liberties with the tale, but makes those liberties worthwhile.</span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">As the tale is told a rich merchant lives in a manor with his son Ludovic and three beautiful daughters, however only the youngest is appropriately named so; "Belle" (translated in French as Beauty). After losing most of his fortune at sea, he is forced to downgrade to a smaller farm house, but as they toil, the daughters still act entitled. All but the humble Belle. She is courted by a handsome young man named Avenant, a friend of her brother. Avenant is not exactly a Prince Charming, and Belle's brother is a drunkard who is running up a tab with a local moneylender; a tab on his father's belongings. One day, the merchant gets word of one of ships being found and his merchandise possibly restored. Before he rushes out in high hopes of finding his riches again, he asks his daughters what they would wish as a gift upon his return. One of them suggests a monkey and the other a parrot (interesting both being beasts/animals that mimic human behavior), but Belle only requests a rose. </span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-quan5HwF82U/TkS8QkCsVMI/AAAAAAAAAsE/p9RyD-D5yq0/s1600/belle+1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" naa="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-quan5HwF82U/TkS8QkCsVMI/AAAAAAAAAsE/p9RyD-D5yq0/s400/belle+1.bmp" width="400px" /></a><span style="color: lime;">Unfortunately, he is dismayed to learn his ships were not recovered and all his fortunes are gone. Penniless, he must venture back home that night during foggy weather conditions, that is until he happens upon a mysterious castle hidden in the woods. Sheltering his horse, and seeking out the owner, he is met with no one, but looks upon the empty castle with wonder as it surely appears enchanted with candlestick holders shaped like human hands and statues with eyes wide open and smoke emanating from their nostrils and mouths. Eventually he arrives at the dinner table with a plate of food prepared for a guest, and once again more human hand servants. He indulges himself with some wine and passes out. The merchant awakens and is still determined to find the owner of estate, until he comes across a rosebush, remembering his promise to his daughter Belle. Just then, he finds himself confronted by the owner, a grotesque creature dressed in fine attire. The beast is set to kill him for trespassing, but tells the merchant if he offers one of his daughters for his own life to come and live with him, he will spare his life. The merchant agrees and flees back home.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<span style="color: lime;">He tells his family what happened, and that the beast will send an enchanted horse to pick up the promised daughter. Belle rightfully takes the responsibilty because she was the one who wanted the rose. The enchanted horse does indeed come for the merchant's daughter, and Belle rides off. Belle arrives at the enchanted castle and comes upon her personal chambers. Within she finds a mirror, where she views her own father sick unto death. In despair, she decides to search around the castle, and runs into the beast where she passes out. From this point on the beast attempts to forge a relationship with her going so far as to ask her hand in marriage, which she politely declines due to her unwillingness to let go of her attraction to Avenant. The relationship is not without its complications, as Belle becomes slowly affectionate of the beast beyond his harsh appearance. Ultimately, as time goes on for the two, she longs to return home to see after her father, but her family has other plans as they desperately conspire to kill the beast and steal the fortunes for themselves. However, in this tale, true love will win out.</span><br />
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</div><span style="color: lime;">I have grew up thinking "La Belle et la Bête" was another Charles Perrault or Grimm Brothers fairy tale, because it bore some resemblance to many other famous fairy tales, however it may have been inspired by those but is a fresh work on its own. Though Jean Cocteau borrowed the evil sisters directly from Cinderella, as the original tale had two brothers. Jean Cocteau's visionary masterpiece took unique practical effects to create a world where one can truly believe in magic and the triumph of love. Cocteau succeeds in correctly contrasting the sunny yet drudgery-soaked real world full of bickering, back-stabbing sisters a father at the end of his rope, and a vain suitor who seems to mean well, but can't really offer Belle the true escape she deserves. It's a story that has gone on to inspire countless other classic tales such as "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Phantom of the Opera", and of course "King Kong".</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jF8FJ107GGk/TkIIg0M-fvI/AAAAAAAAAr8/YR9VB-oemHw/s1600/belle.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300px" naa="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jF8FJ107GGk/TkIIg0M-fvI/AAAAAAAAAr8/YR9VB-oemHw/s400/belle.bmp" width="400px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-74418227993063039802011-08-05T03:14:00.000-07:002011-08-05T03:53:48.116-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CIH1T7A7-k/TjU6cVU-E6I/AAAAAAAAArs/x68XO0P0c7Y/s1600/430651_1020_A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CIH1T7A7-k/TjU6cVU-E6I/AAAAAAAAArs/x68XO0P0c7Y/s400/430651_1020_A.jpg" t$="true" width="270px" /></a></div><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Cube (1997)</span></strong><br />
<strong>CANADA</strong> --- science fiction/ horror<br />
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Dir: Vincenzo Natali<br />
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We've all seen this kind of minimalist psychological character study. I usually notice most of them are based on stage play with a very small cast and contained space of people. Stuff akin to Samuel Beckett's work, but these are often very well done character pieces designed to get into the human psyche. Alfred Hitchcock gave us "Lifeboat", we also had the excellent "Twelve Angry Men", and even the johnny-come-lately gore porn horror films of the "Saw" series get in the act. I came name more, but one such entry took the inventive and cheap low budget idea and took it into a very creative direction in "Cube".<br />
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Canadian director Vincenzo Natali locks us in the "Cube". The opening teaser features a man who attempts to escape a cubical room and is suddenly sliced and diced to pieces. Next we see a group of individuals come together to one room, all trying to find their bearings as they admit to just waking up. They all are dressed in plain grey clothes with their name on them like prisoners. There's Quentin an ex-police officer, Leaven a student, Worth a mysterious young man, Holloway a female doctor, and Rennes a serial escaped convict. Rennes appears to be the veteran of the group as he knows how the place operates, explaining that some of the different rooms are booby-trapped. Quentin is the first to recognize that Rennes is in actuality "The Wren", a kinda Robert Stroud "birdman" of several prisons, so they follow his lead as he tosses boots. Soon, Leaven begins to notice that the rooms are numbered at the hatchways, and they can't be there for no reason.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S_A-d6mmYP8/TjofeFO_jXI/AAAAAAAAArw/2huKW3dr6cg/s1600/cube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172px" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S_A-d6mmYP8/TjofeFO_jXI/AAAAAAAAArw/2huKW3dr6cg/s320/cube.jpg" t$="true" width="320px" /></a>Ironically, Rennes ends up as the first to die, after jumping into a room that is booby-trapped. The group recover from the death and realize they have to find some kind of order, as Quentin quickly takes the reins as the leader of the group. He elects Leaven as their new guide to decipher the arithmetic meaning behind the serial numbers in the hatchways, and she does eventually discover a logic behind them. Just as they are ready to go forward with ease, a new member falls into their path, an autistic man named Kazan. Some of the group find him to be a burden and others are humane enough to realize it is their responsibility to help him out. As tempers shorten and time seems to be running short, they realize if they do not find the way, they'll all eventually die with no food or water. Quentin becomes increasingly abusive to the group, ultimately going so far as to be responsible for the death of one of them. While Quentin becomes a ticking time bomb, the remnants of the group must find a way to survive their Judas and escape the cube alive.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Clearly shot on a low budget, "Cube" is a tiny little thought-provoking sci-fi masterpiece. As mentioned earlier, it is done in the style of a small ensemble stage play, focusing on character study. This particular piece, however, appears to be directly influenced by a classic episode of the American TV series "Twilight Zone" titled "Five Characters In Search of An Exit" by Rod Serling based on a short story called "The Depository" by Marvin Petal which in turn was inspired by a philosophical play by Luigi Pirandello called "Six Characters in Search of an Author". It is not without it's own inventions, like the fact the characters are all named after prisons. Quentin is named after San Quentin, Leaven and Worth are collectively named after Leavenworth, Kazan after a Russian prison, Holloway is named after a female prison in England, as too is Rennes after a female prison in France. All in all, "Cube" is an interesting film full of suspense, character arcs, and even a little action. <br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UX9aAhZeGSQ/TjofiIui_II/AAAAAAAAAr0/98ZJB5MpPJY/s1600/Cube2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217px" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UX9aAhZeGSQ/TjofiIui_II/AAAAAAAAAr0/98ZJB5MpPJY/s320/Cube2.jpg" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-52085867009397844022011-07-29T21:06:00.000-07:002011-07-30T02:03:47.809-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2QFouCKm_FQ/TjODENbGzII/AAAAAAAAArg/S6v202lCuCE/s1600/turn-of-the-screw-by-henry-james.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2QFouCKm_FQ/TjODENbGzII/AAAAAAAAArg/S6v202lCuCE/s400/turn-of-the-screw-by-henry-james.jpg" t$="true" width="233" /></a></div><br />
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<strong><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">The Innocents (1961)</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>UK</strong> --- horror</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Dir: Jack Clayton</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Quite possibly one of the greatest ghost stories on film. I first encounterered this one, when I recorded this movie several years ago off of FOX MOVIE CHANNEL during one of their Halloween marathons. I waited a little later one evening to actually watch it fully, and it spooked the heck out of me. The images still haunt me, and the ending left me with a feeling that most great films leave me with, one of "what-did-I-just-see-here?". That's impressive, because you're not going to watch too many horror films that make you think afterwards. At the end of "The Innocents", you are left wondering if it was ever really a horror film at all.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c60Tfb8HVb0/TjOB1b7zXvI/AAAAAAAAArY/Rll7OIxbZF8/s1600/inno+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c60Tfb8HVb0/TjOB1b7zXvI/AAAAAAAAArY/Rll7OIxbZF8/s400/inno+2.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></span></a><span style="color: red;">Based on both the 1898 horror novella "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James and William Archibald's stage adaptation, "The Innocents" opens quite eerie with a young girl singing a moribund children's song "O'Willow Waly" over a pitch black screen, ambiguously setting the tone of the film. The credit sequence features Deborah Kerr (our Ms. Giddens) in prayer as we go into the her recounting the events of the film. A wealthy bachelor (played by Michael Redgrave) interviews Ms.Giddens as governess over his neice and nephew, Miles and Flora, in an isolated country estate. He demands she be fully independent and trusts her with full authority over the dealings with the children with the assistance of a kinda dotty housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. She accepts the job and is whisked away to the estate where she meets Flora playing outside by herself. Ms. Giddens soon befriends Mrs. Grose, but as they converse, revelations about the children and the past goings-on in the house come to light. Flora begins to rejoice in her brother Miles, coming home from school, even though the school term is still in session.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;">Soon, Ms. Giddens learns from a letter that Miles has been expelled from his school, and is expected to return home. When Miles (Martin Stephens of "Village of the Damned") arrives, things really begin to heat up for Ms. Giddens, as the supernatural paranoia in the home rises. Ms. Giddens soon claims to see a man and a woman around the estate. She's informed from photographs left behind the house that it's the old caretaker Peter Quint, and the woman is probably Ms. Jessel, the previous governness. Ms. Giddens learns that both Quint and Jessel died in or around the house. Both of them were very attached to the children as well. So, Ms. Giddens concludes that through careful observation of the children's peculiarly advanced behavior, that they either know about the ghosts of Quint and Jessel or are somehow possessed by their spirits. Curiously, her apparition sightings increase. Finally she confides in Mrs. Grose that she has seen the ghosts, and when Grose reveals that the two were in a torrid love affair, Ms. Giddens confronts the children on what they may have seen around the house. Unfortunately, her inference brings her to the absolute brink of obsession over what is truth and what is reality.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cVLX-IcH16s/TjOFj5k1NKI/AAAAAAAAAro/G8-m5e3RK-Q/s1600/Innocents-1961-Martin-Stephens-pic-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cVLX-IcH16s/TjOFj5k1NKI/AAAAAAAAAro/G8-m5e3RK-Q/s400/Innocents-1961-Martin-Stephens-pic-11.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: red;">"The Innocents" belongs in that kinda rare little subgenre of the ghost story, belonging to not only a haunted house film, but one involving a woman alone (or just in confronted) in a haunted house. I can't begin to find the origin of this, my first inkling is something like the fairy tale "Blue Beard" or any of them, really, that involve a little girl lost in the woods. This kind of film serves as a psychological character study. The film dredges up issues like Ms. Giddens repressed sexuality being a cause of her possible delusions. Nuances like Flora correcting herself during prayer, or Miles' ever-so-longingly seductive kiss on the lips to Ms. Giddens, make for the entire film to be wrapped in ambiguity; and it never misses a beat. We must always remember we are watching a first person perspective flashback of events that happened, which in hindsight can shed light on the film's narrative.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: red;"><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Deborah Kerr does an excellent job in this film, and is one of her best performances. Also, the young Martin Stephens is incredible for a child actor, who does a 180 degree performance from his "Village of the Damned" role playing lead alien David. Like most great horror films, this one utilizes sight and sound to mass effect, including a running theme of chirping birds, creepy statues, and deep focus widescreen shots that always allows the audience to check the background for something or someone that seems out of place. The score provided by George Auric is subtle and eerie, and it comes to no surprise he also worked on "Dead of Night". Also, Hammer horror vet Freddie Francis composes the gothic noir-esque cinematography, with deep blacks and appropriate blinding light when needed. A prequel of the story was made in 1971 called "The Nightcomers" starring Marlon Brando as Peter Quint.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dagdppoOV30/TjOB42vuI3I/AAAAAAAAArc/ZjMivVPTUZw/s1600/TheInnocentsPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dagdppoOV30/TjOB42vuI3I/AAAAAAAAArc/ZjMivVPTUZw/s320/TheInnocentsPoster.jpg" t$="true" width="264" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6259959030768238011.post-837602071437439202011-07-22T11:56:00.000-07:002011-07-23T01:06:26.060-07:00<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSJQZuhTOYA/TfnnOS4ulLI/AAAAAAAAApo/a_u6x0QJAy8/s1600/jajantaram_mamantaram_ver6_xlg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSJQZuhTOYA/TfnnOS4ulLI/AAAAAAAAApo/a_u6x0QJAy8/s640/jajantaram_mamantaram_ver6_xlg.jpg" t8="true" width="640px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Jajantaram Mamantaram (Land of the Little People) (2003)</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: lime;"><strong>INDIA</strong> --- fantasy</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Dir: Soumitra Ranade</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Diving into another Bollywood film, you never quite know what to expect, but odds are you will be entertained. This one also happens to be another Idian copycat film, but I decided to review this one because it has earmarks in Indian film and literature. I will explain that later. On the outside looking in, the film clearly steals its story from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", and like many adaptations focusing only on the first voyage to Lillput. However, this one blends in some more characters and action than what Swift ever put in his first chapter.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yPV66wYQ_-o/Tikn9iszt0I/AAAAAAAAAq8/l6ROOfJxX1w/s1600/05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: lime;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yPV66wYQ_-o/Tikn9iszt0I/AAAAAAAAAq8/l6ROOfJxX1w/s1600/05.jpg" t$="true" /></span></a><span style="color: lime;">In lieu of Gulliver, we have a shipwrecked Mumbai man named Aditya, who washes ashore the diminutive island of Shundi. When a young soldier named Jee Rang discovers the washed up giant, he returns to his village with the news, but they actually believe it's another giant named Jhamunda (whom we will meet later). They seek counsel from an oracle who conjures a mermaid, leading to the much-expected musical sequence. The king and his vizier/ sorcerer, Chattan Singh, arrive at the beach where they have Aditya tired up and bound. When Aditya awakes, Chattan orders the army to attack. Realizing their tiny weapons are useless, they soon retreat in fear, but the king overhears Aditya's request for water and returns to give him water, against the advice of vizier Singh. Soon Aditya and Jee Rang form a friendship as he reveals his feelings for the princess to the giant.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Meanwhile, vizier Singh is not happy with the giant Aditya's presence on the island, and he plots to destroy him with his own giant, a supernaturally conjured being called Jhamunda. He goes to an older sage with advice on the idea of conjuring Jhamunda, a spirit Singh apparently has been using during harvest season for human sacrifice. Singh kills the sage when he advises against it, and conjures the malevolent giant anyway. When Jhamunda goes to terrorize Shundi, Jee Rang convinces Aditya to fight Jhamunda, and he defeats him easy enough. Singh, however, orders Jhamunda to return to Shundi and face Aditya again, and Jhamunda is defeated again.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;">Frustrated, Singh then plots to kill Jee Rang, but when he espies him alone with the princess, he tells the king that Jee Rang has been plotting to take the kingdom from him. The king banishes him, and when Aditya tries to intercede for him, his words fall on deaf ears and is no longer welcome in Shundi. After a series of fights, Jhamunda finally manages to defeat Aditya with a supernatural sword. Singh uses the opportunity to usurp the throne for himself and force the princess to be his bride. Jee Rang gathers the villagers, children and all, to nurse Aditya back to health and forge for him a supernatural weapon of his own to combat Jhamunda. Ultimately, Jhamunda is conquered, Shundi is saved, Singh is defeated, and Aditya goes off to sea and they all live happily ever after.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Jajantaram Mamantaram" is a somewhat original take on the old Swift tale, and yet it still manages to have its roots in Indian history. Interestingly, Shundi is the creation of an author named Upendrakishore Ray, who happens to be the grandfather of Indian auteur filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Ray actually filmed a version of the story himself called "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne", one of his more celebrated films outside of the acclaimed Apu trilogy. Another interesting note is the name Aditya literally means "Sun", but sounds similar to the name of the Hindi giant gods <span style="color: black;"><span style="color: lime;">Daitya.</span> </span></span></span>"Jajantaram Mamantaram" doesn't have much going for it, but the cinematography is top notch, and really is one of the highlights of the film, even almost apologizing for the made-for-tv special effects. One thing I didn't get is there seems to be alot of mystical stuff afoot on the island, including a vizier Chattan Singh, an old sage he consults, and a mermaid and the oracle who conjures her up. Somehow, none of these people can stop the evil giant Jhumunda. Hmmm. Just take it as a harmless children's film, and all the logic will make sense.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nznFq3FSQ-s/TikiiLVQofI/AAAAAAAAAq4/DcNs-nORtz8/s1600/21sld3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219px" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nznFq3FSQ-s/TikiiLVQofI/AAAAAAAAAq4/DcNs-nORtz8/s320/21sld3.jpg" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div>badmutha77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09314809384227260205noreply@blogger.com