World Sci-Fi Cinema

2012-01-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

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 . . .

Well, adios.

Keep watching science fiction cinema, in all languages.

God Bless everyone in the new year.

2011-12-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

Metropolis (1927)

GERMANY --- science fiction

Dir: Fritz Lang

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 short film "A Trip to the Moon"/"Le voyage dans la Lune", the ambitious "Metropolis" took painstaking strides in technical achievement.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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:

"Club of the Sons" - Heaven?

"Eternal Gardens" - Garden of Eden?

Moloch - ancient pagan god
The Tower of Babel

Maria - Mary?

Babylon

The Flood- Noah

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.

2011-12-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

El Orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)
SPAIN/ MEXICO --- horror

Dir: J.A. Bayona

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-12-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

Excalibur (1981)

UK --- fantasy

Dir: John Boorman

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973)
FRANCE --- science fiction

Dir: René Laloux

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-12-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Kaidan (2007)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Hideo Nakata

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-11-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Time Bandits (1980)
UK --- fantasy

Dir: Terry Gilliam

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

2011-11-18T11:02:00.000-08:00

Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) (1981)
AUSTRALIA --- science fiction

Dir: George Miller

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-11-11T02:40:00.000-08:00

Bakjwi (Thirst) (2009)

SOUTH KOREA --- horror

Dir: Chan-Wook Park

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.

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 "Thérèse Raquin", 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.

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.

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.

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.

- Just like Christ, the vampire was once alive and he rises from the dead.

- Just like Christ, the vampire becomes makes followers.

- Just like Christ, the vampire's "spirit", by bite, is passed on to others, often exponentially.

- Just like Christ, many Christian's profess to be "saved", by his blood.

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.

2011-11-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) (2005)

RUSSIA --- fantasy

Dir: Timur Bekamambetov

“Sorcerers in Moscow . . . silly.” Anton Gorodestsky

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: http://www.lightordark.com/ A sequel was made, but as of this writing, the trilogy is incomplete.

2011-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Videodrome (1983)

CANADA --- science fiction

Dir: David Cronenberg

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

"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.

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.

2011-10-21T00:37:00.000-07:00

Ju-On (The Grudge) (2003)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Takashi Shimizu

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-10-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) (1959)

BRAZIL --- fantasy

Dir: Marcel Camus

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.

"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.

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.

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.

"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. 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.

2011-10-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Сталкер (Stalker) (1979)

RUSSIA --- science fiction

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011-09-30T04:14:00.000-07:00

Geung si sin Sang (Mr. Vampire) (1985)

HONG KONG --- horror

Dir: Ricky Lau

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 gyonshi or jiang shi. 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.

So, with that said, this film follows a unibrowed mortician/ Taoist priest named Master Kau (played by Lam Ching Ying, who appears in the gyonshi 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.

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.

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.

"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.

2011-09-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

The Secret of Kells (2009)

IRELAND/ FRANCE/ BELGIUM --- animation/ fantasy

Dir: Tomm Moore

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

2011-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Delicatessen (1991)

FRANCE --- science fiction

Dir: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

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 "La Cité des Enfants Perdus" (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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

2011-09-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Sakebi (Retribution) (2006)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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. 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.

2011-09-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Něco z Alenky (Alice/ Something From Alice) (1988)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA --- fantasy

Dir: Jan Švankmajer

Yet another take on the timeless story of "Alice in Wonderland". Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", was an advanced fairy tale written for children and adults alike. 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.

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.

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.

2011-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Los Cronocrímenes (Time Crimes) (2007)

SPAIN --- science fiction

Dir: Nacho Vigalondo

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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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 in and out of it for the majority of the film.

2011-08-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Вий (Viy: Spirit of Evil) (1967)

RUSSIA --- horror

Dir: Georgi Kropachyov, Konstantin Yershov, Alexander Ptushko

"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

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

2011-08-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946)
FRANCE --- fantasy

Dir: Jean Cocteau

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

2011-08-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

Cube (1997)
CANADA --- science fiction/ horror

Dir: Vincenzo Natali

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".

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.

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.

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.

2011-07-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Innocents (1961)

UK --- horror

Dir: Jack Clayton

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

2011-07-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Jajantaram Mamantaram (Land of the Little People) (2003)
INDIA --- fantasy

Dir: Soumitra Ranade

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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 Daitya. "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.

2011-07-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (1981)

UK --- science fiction

Dir: Alan J.W. Bell

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Many many many many years later, he created a man who would be named Douglas Adams, who in turn would create a radio program he would title, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide the Galaxy”. Adams was a sort of lost member of the Monty Python comedy troupe who finally found success with the writing of the six-part radio show for BBC Radio 4 in the spring of 1978. The radio series became a cult hit and eventually was made into records, books, stage plays, and of course a theatrical film. Before the film though, there was this BBC produced miniseries adaptation, which I originally remember as a child from the heyday of PBS, which had brought me Sesame Street and Doctor Who among other things.

For anyone not in the know, the story revolves primarily around a contemporary mild-mannered British man named Arthur Dent, who one day tries to save his house from being bulldozed by the city for the building of a highway. The only problem is it won’t matter, because as his friend Ford Prefect comes to tell him, the world will soon come to an end. A race of aliens named Vogons, have a constructor fleet also coincidentally about to destroy the earth to make way for an intergalactic highway. Dressed only in pajamas and a robe, Dent is whisked away from the earth by his friend Prefect as they literally hitch hike across the galaxy. As it turns out, Prefect reveals he’s an alien stuck on earth for the last 15 years. He’s been here researching the planet for the electronic book known as “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for a new edition including an update on Earth (which turns out is not just “harmless” but “mostly harmless”). The duo gets into a series of hilarious adventures and misadventures that involve everything from torture by listening to Vogon poetry (only the third worse in the galaxy according to H2G2), to a manic depressive robot named Marvin, and even the mind-boggling answer to the 7.5 million old question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

High on satire, the miniseries stuck to Douglas Adams’ wry British humor when it aired in 1981 and even used original cast members from the radio show including Peter Jones (as the narrator and voice of the book), Simon Jones (as Arthur Dent), Mark Wing-Davey (as Zaphod), and a few others. Some diehard fans of course complained about its not keeping the spirit of the books, but this miniseries predates the books. Some people completely are oblivious of the original radio show too. It also brought a unique addition to the story by successfully visualizing the narration and Adams sense of humor through Rod Lords’ animation sequences. Shot on 16mm, and suffering from cheap special effects like the nearly inanimate second head of Prefects second cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox. This version however keeps to Adams keen, often brutally honest reflection of the human race, as he oversaw the production from start to finish.

I have not seen the 2005 feature film with Mos Def, but I have always wanted a film directed by Terry Gilliam and starring some of the Python troupe. I suspect the Python guys respected their friend Adams’ work, but weren’t that into it. I don’t know what Gilliam ever thought of it, but of course I don’t think he could direct something where his imagination was restricted. Still it might be interesting to see. Anyone who’s a fan of British sci-fi like "Dr. Who" or "Blake’s Seven" should definitely consider the original miniseries of “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” a must see.

2011-07-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

Honogaurai Mizu no Soko Kara (Dark Water) (2002)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Hideo Nakata

Japanese director Hideo Nakata returned to the world of horror author Koji Suzuki, with his adaptation of the short story “Floating Water”. The simplistic story revolves around a woman named Yoshimi Matsubara and her young daughter Ikuko, going through a turbulent divorce. The husband, Kunio Hamada, seems manipulative and unrelenting about his commitment to gain full custody of their five-year-old daughter. Yoshimi tries to convince their legal councils that she is capable of taking care of Ikuko, seeing how she’s already marred herself having gone through therapy over her job. She was a proofreader, and she claims that some of the books would sometimes give her anxiety and nightmares. Now, unemployed, she finds a way to convince them she can take care of her daughter.

The two move into a less than stellar apartment tenement plagued with plumbing problems and an untrustworthy landlord and worthless old janitor. The apartment they move into looks like it could be an unkempt relic of another time, including a foreboding water stain on the bedroom ceiling. Yoshimi learns that a young girl had disappeared from the building a year before, which doesn’t make her living there with her young girl any more pleasing. To make matters more interesting, Ikuko seems to repeatedly find a child’s red bag, one Yoshimi comes to discover is identical to the missing girl’s bag. The water issues are far more than plumbing problems, as puddles are found in the apartment building, a glass of water from the faucet contains hair, and that leaky ceiling doesn’t seem to cease.

After successfully landing a job, and getting Ikuko back into school at the local kindergarten. Her ex-husband begins playing games with her in an effort to gain custody of Ikuko. Meanwhile, just as Yoshimi and Ikuko begin to fortify their relationship, Yoshimi comes discover the little girl who disappeared may be haunting the building. Yoshimi finds conclusive evidence of this, when she learns that the girl lived right upstairs from their apartment, attended the same school that Ikuko is, and that the little red bag did indeed belong to her. All of this leads to a surprising yet melancholy climax, revealing just what truly did happen to the missing little girl and what her connection is to the water.

"Honogaurai Mizu no Soko Kara" is one of Hideo Nakata’s most atmospheric efforts, possibly better than Ringu. It evokes the dreariness of rain soaked streets, be it outside or indoors. The moody shots are tinged to a sickly yellowish filter to focus on flashbacks, and it’s effective. Nakata even takes use again of the videotape look of he utilized in Ringu with a security camera shot of the elevator, something that always made me wonder in a building that couldn’t seem to afford such a luxury. All in all, this film’s underlying story isn’t necessarily about the ghosts of children or the key signs of bad plumbing, it more or less is a sad cautionary tale about family or moreover the relationship between mother and daughter. The movie reminded me of John Mayer’s sappy Grammy winning song “Daughters” in that regard. However, it is a compelling ghost story, as most great ghost stories are primarily there for emotional exposition that the main characters must be guided through whether they know it or not.

2011-07-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

The Secret of Roan Inish (1995)
IRELAND/ USA --- fantasy

Dir: John Sayles

Mysteries of the ocean has enchanted mankind for centuries. The aquatic visions of another world beneath our earth is replete for storytellers to imagine wondrous creatures. Celtic myths and legends have successfully had a beautiful and long-lasting history on the world's cultures. We're all familiar with the leprechauns, banshees, will-o'-the-wisps, and faerie folk from these distant lands. The legends of mermaids are not exclusive to the Celtic, but they have had a unique signature and tradition from that part of the world. We are familiar with the sirens of Greco-Roman mythology and the cryptid Loch Ness monster of Scotland. The most famous tale we have is the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Danish children's author Hans Christian Anderson, but the selkies is a different breed.

Based on a 1959 novel titled "The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry" by children's author Rosalie K. Fry, "The Secret of Roan Inish" delves into the legends of selkies and the traditions and beliefs that some Irish natives do not let go of. American indie filmmaker John Sayles (The Brother From Another Planet, Eight Men Out), transferred the book's locale of Scotland to the coast of western Ireland for the film adaptation. Taking place in the 1940's, this cordial family film is about a young girl named Fiona, who's mother has just passed away. Fiona's alcoholic father heads out to find work in the city and he sends his young daughter to live with her grandparents. She arrives to the shores of Roan Inish, a small village that seems untouched by the passage of time as many would have it be. Once there, she is regaled with tales of the old country and her ancestors by her grandfather.

He tells her of her own missing younger brother, Jamie, and how he was swept away in a cradle by the tide and given to the care of the seals. She then meets her older cousin Eamon, who gets in on the storytelling himself. They tell her of her own ancestry, and how they're great-great grandfather married a woman who was a selkie (a seal turned into a woman), and how she too returned to the sea. On these tall tales alone, Fiona begins to believe. She is egged on further by another relative who fills in more blanks in the story of exactly what happened. When Fiona decides upon herself to find Jamie, she goes out on her own adventure seeking out the mysteries of her own family lineage, and stumbling into her younger brother alive and stark naked. Her grand parents do not believe her, but upon her own faith and determination she convinces Eamon to help her build up the old cottage on Roan Inish for Jamie to return to. Eventually, once they fix up the cottage and with the looming threat of their own home being taken by landowners, her grand parents begin to come to terms that Fiona's belief may not be all imaginary, and that Jamie is truly alive and well, and that the sea has brought him back to them.

A whimsical children's film at it's innocent best. Sayles' almost precise documentarian style of direction makes the film's fantastic elements float through the realism seamlessly. Legendary cinematographer, Haskell Wexler, teams with Sayles again (They worked on "Matewan" and would re-team twice more) perfectly in this one, and not only portraying a very lush and mesmerizing Ireland, but pulling the audience into a world that feels outside of time. Director pet and composer Mason Daring utilizes classic ethnic Celtic themes in this, moving the film along with a haunting feeling like an old-time storytelling bard with an instrument.

2011-06-24T23:17:00.000-07:00

Scanners (1981)
CANADA --- science fiction/ horror

Dir: David Cronenberg

We are well aware that most of us lowly humans are only using 10% of our brain power. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, and well most of our minds are wasting away anyway. There are beliefs that some ancient cultures did indeed tap into psychic power and astral planes. Ancient "lost" societies like the ancient Atlanteans and Lemurians (or land of Mu) supposedly utilized their psychic abilities in their infrastructure through psychokinesis. Ideas of psychic abilities helping mankind even stemmed into a secret covert groups during the cold war. Some people will take this phenomenon serious, others will not.

The "doctor" of genre cinema returns with "Scanners", his B-movie follow-up to "The Brood". A film that up until that point was his most successful. In this film, Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) is a self-proclaimed psycho pharmacist working for a shady corporation known as Consec. On the outside looking in, they are a security systems corporations, but behind the scenes, they are up to far more than that. They have been devoted to the use of individuals with telepathic and telekinetic powers known as "Scanners". Dr. Ruth in fact has a homeless man named Cameron Vale (played by a very wooden Stephen Lack) picked up and brought to a warehouse for safe keeping. He happens to be a vagabond "scanner", and Dr. Ruth recruits him for Consec's own purposes. Ruth also gives him a drug called Ephemerol, which allows "scanners" to suppress the invading thoughts of too many people.

Consec holds a conference with interested parties showing the abilities of what "scanners" are capable of. One of the audience members is a man named Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) who volunteers himself to be "scanned" by the representative "scanner" of Consec. Unfortunately, he doesn't know Revok is a rogue "scanner" himself, and in the most famous scene of this film, explodes his head before the audience. The officials grab Revok and detain him, but he eventually escapes. In light of this, Consec appoints a new director in charge of security, as they know through Dr. Ruth that Revok is an assassin and intentionally killed the representative "scanner". Dr. Ruth suggests that his new recruit, Vale, may be the only way to finding and killing Revok.

Dr. Ruth then shows Vale footage of Revok from the past, and trains him to be more focused into his powers, and sends him to another "scanner" named Benjamin Pierce (played by director pet Robert Silverman) for help. The guy's living as an eccentric artist, but is soon attacked by assassins under the control of Revok. After the attack, Pierce sends Vale to a small group of other "scanners" who are living in hiding. Among them is a powerful "scanner" named Kim Obrist, who after meeting up with Vale, her group is brutally attacked as well, leaving only her and Vale alive to fend for themselves. When yet another assassin is sent after them, Vale probes the mind of this one, and gets a clue to the whereabouts of Revok through a vial of Ephemerol the assassin is carrying. It leads Vale to infiltrate the labs of the company that produces it, which is run by none other than Revok. When Vale and Obrist return to Consec with this information, they quickly realize there's a mole in the corporation working for Revok and that their only resort to confront Revok head on. Ultimately, this does lead Revok to capture Vale and the conclusion does indeed lead to a face off of horrific proportions.

"Scanners" was an interesting concept back in the 80's. After all, we were just coming out of the very introspective state of the 70's. Besides that, this was coming off of the successful Stephen King vehicle "Carrie", which really launched the whole modern horrific "ESP" sub-genre. Well, unless you want to count "Village of the Damned" and it's lackluster sequel "Children of the Damned". Cronenberg kinda misstepped a little with this vehicle, though it continues the theme of most of his "body horror" films, the story is not what it could be. My personal opinion, Vale probably should have been a little younger, like a teenager. For the most part this was a kinda live action X-Men film, well before they came to the silver screen. The film spawned more than a few sequels and spin offs throughout the decade and into the 90's, mostly taking advantage of the billowing Home Video market. Cronenberg may have based his Ephemerol drug on a real-life drug called Thalidomide, which was used in the 50's for pregnant women and caused severe birth defects for most of the children born.

2011-06-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Rinne (Reincarnation) (2005)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Takashi Shimizu

From the filmmaker that pretty much single-handedly jump started the onryō (J-Horror) sub-genre of horror films, comes a slight variation on your traditional ghost story film. The film opens with a series of strange events happening to a select few people which include a school girl, a business man at lunch, and a truck driver. In Shimizu's style of making the freaky random scare tactics work, the beginning probably sets the tone for the film, but as we find out more of the story, it really doesn't matter to the crux of the film.

"Rinne" is the third entry in the J-Horror film series headlined by producer Takashige Ichise. The film proper begins with an audition for a horror film by a famed director named Matsumura. In a room full of actresses, one of them tries to convince the filmmakers she's fit for a role because she feels she has lived before and this horror film is familiar territory to her. Matsumura glares at another actress in the room, Nagisa Sugiura (Yûka) and dismisses them. Later on, Nagisa and her agent discuss her chances in the film on a train, when she notices a little girl with a doll. The train opens to the platform, and when Nagisa rushes toward her, she next sees her underneath the platform before the train leaves.

Not long later, Nagisa's agent tells her that the events of the film are based on a true story. Back in the 1970s a Professor named Kazuya Omori (Shun Oguri) murdered eleven people in the "Ono Kanaka Hotel", including his own wife and two kids; a son and a daughter. He even recorded the murder spree with an 8mm camera. Meanwhile, the director meets with an old woman, who gives him a box apparently connected to the real life murders. When he opens the box, he is visited by the mysterious little girl as well, though unknowingly, and quickly sends off a copy of the script to Nagisa. The next day, her agent gives Nagisa a copy of the script, and the ghostly girl with the doll once again appears to her. At a pre-production meeting for the film, the filmmakers discuss their plans with the cast and crew, and hand out the roles to the cast explaining who their real life counterparts were. The director gives Nagisa the part of the professor's own daughter, Chisato Omori, which is the exact same little ghostly girl Nagisa has been having visions of.

A college girl, Kinoshita, has very similar hallucinations, and confides in her boyfriend about having a recurring dream in a hotel she's never been to before. When researching her paper on the phenomenon of cryptomnesia, her boyfriend hooks her up with another girl (named interestingly enough Yûka, the actress who talked of reincarnation in the beginning of the film) who has been experiencing reincarnation episodes herself. Meanwhile, filming begins on the horror film "Memories", and during a scene Nagisa sees the ghost of the murderous professor. The filmmakers also decide to film the movie at the actual "Ono Kanaka Hotel" where the murders occurred. Nagisa's hallucinations begin to worsen as she not only observes the ghosts, but they reenact the tragic events. When the director actually finds the ball of the murdered son, he goes looking for Nagisa himself.

At this point, Yûka explains to Kinoshita how she gets information of her memories and possible memories of a past life. Yûka takes her to the library where she has done research on her past life, revealing she was a victim in the hotel murders. Kinoshita instantly discovers the "Ono Kanaka Hotel" is the very same location of her own recurring dreams. Unfortunately, Yûka becomes another victim of Chisato's doll, which now appears to have become animated on its own. Meanwhile, Nagisa continues to be tormented by her visions of Chisato and her doll, which are becoming one and the same. Nagisa questions Matsumura on his reasons for doing the film and he only shows her the doll that the old woman gave him as research for his film. Kinoshita, however, visits the old woman herself, and finds out that the professor may not have been insane, but was conducting a study of his own on the possibility of reincarnation. Thus, kinda explaining the purpose of him going on a murder spree, because of his strong belief that they would return, which goes on to explain the opening of the film. All the random people seen in the opening are the eleven spirits returning inside new bodies. Both Nagisa and Kinoshita discover the horrific ramifications first hand of the professor's experiment.

According to Shimizu, he deliberately wanted to make a film that was different from other J-Horror films, and he most certainly did so. The idea is original, but in that it is not a horrific as one conditioned to the genre would expect. This film kinda takes its inspiration from Stephen King's (or more specifically Kubrick's film version) "The Shining" with a little bit of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series entry "New Nightmare". For me it kinda feels more like Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" which King drew inspiration for "The Shining" in the first place. This is one of the better entries of the J-Horror series as it completely attempts to reinvent the horror sub-genre. Shimizu also appears to have developed a style and verve to his film making powers, and I like the use of changing film stock in scenes where the Nagisa character goes into a hallucinatory flashback. Keep a look out for a fun little cameo, as J-Horror director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa "Kairo" (Pulse) plays a professor in one scene. The hotel is interestingly enough named "Ono Kanaka", which by my very rough translation is interpreted "eternity sight-seeing". A nice summation of the film's theme, and let's hope Shimizu improves as a director.

2011-06-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

Tiě shàn gōngzhǔ (Princess Iron Fan) (1941)

CHINA --- fantasy

Dir: Wan Guchan, Wan Laiming

Every nation has their own famous fairy tales and legends passed down throughout time. These tales usually are held in high regard because of their connection to the national identity. "Journey to the West" is a classic of Chinese literature and has gone on to be a retold for each generation. "Princess Iron Fan" is one of the very first cinema adaptations of the tale and was produced in the midst of World War Two. Besides that, it was really one of the very first full-length Chinese animated films.

"Journey to the West" is a 16th century novel which was based partly on Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha)'s flight to the west in search of himself, Buddhist monk Xuanzang, Taoist philosophy, and Chinese mythology. Being an amalgam of these, the tale, uses a group of four heroes who must make their way through a long pilgrimage through mountainous terrain to obtain the Buddhist scriptures.

"Princess Iron Fan" has an opening explanation about how the film is not to be viewed as a fairy tale, but a life lesson. The tale is about the fiery mountain blocking the path of Tang Seng and is to be seen as a metaphor for the difficulties we all find in life. Our four heroes are Tripitaka or Xuanzang (basically meant to be Buddha), Zhu Bajie (a pig), Sun Wukong (the monkey king), and Shā Wùjìng. During their journey through the fiery mountains, they must find a way to reduce the heat, with the help of the palm leaf fan. The magical iron palm leaf fan is in the possession of a princess who lives nearby with her husband the Bull Demon King. If they get the fan from the princess, they can use it to not only put out the fires, but bring rain upon the land.

In their first attempt to obtain the fan from the princess, Sun Wukong creates a powerful gust with the fan and blows him away. He lands on a mountaintop monastery where he is given a wind pearl by a monk. The pearl will enable him to become unmovable by the force of the palm leaf fan. When the Monkey King returns, he is indeed invulnerable to the palm leaf fan, and is able to slip inside the princess' house by turning into a bug. When he gets inside, he lands on a tea cup and dives in. The princess, of course drinks the tea and a the bug straight down, allowing the Sun Wukong to threaten her from inside her stomach in order to get the fan. The Monkey King escapes with the fan. When the Monkey King returns to the fiery mountain and uses the fan, he discovers it a fake.

Zhu Bajie reluctantly offers to go find the Bull Demon King, who is a friend of his. In the next scene, we see a princess in another form, that of a fox creature. Anyone familiar with the Chinese myth of a Fox spirit will be familiar that this does not bode well (as opposed to the Japanese Fox spirit which is benevolent). Outside in the forest, she runs into Zhu Bajie, thinking he's her lover the Bull Demon King. She runs back to the Emerald Cave where she blames her husband for bullying her. Zhu Bajie gets to the cave and begs his old friend for the palm leaf fan, but he refuses, blaming Sun Wukong & Tang Seng for his son's death. Zhu Bajie then transforms into a frog and sneaks into the cave where he encounters a dragon. He transforms again, this time into the image of the Bull Demon King, and rides atop the dragon to get to the Palm Leaf cave himself. In the guise of the Bull Demon King, Zhu Bajie charms princess iron fan into giving him the palm leaf fan. He steals it from her, and gloats about him being able to fool her. On his way back to the fiery mountain, Zhu Bajie is also fooled by a dose of his own medicine, as the Bull Demon King transforms into the Monkey King and steals the palm leaf fan back from him. When Zhu Bajie returns to his companions empty handed, the travelers realize that the only way to defeat the Bull Demon King is their combined efforts in order to extinguish the flames of the fiery mountain.

"Princess Iron Fan" took three years to make by brothers Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming. Some things are confusing like the difference between the Bull Demon King's wives, and which exactly is the princess. There's even some mention of his infidelity, which is interesting. There's a very fluid movement of the characters which was achieved through rotoscope techniques, which was used most of the time in animated films of this era. The voice direction and camera movement is very off at times in this film, and sometimes you can't tell who is saying what. The film's score can also be distracting in most spots of the film, but has some interesting spots like a musical interlude complete with a sing-a-long bouncing ball over the lyrics. So the film is by no means perfect, but this is a historical achievement based on the fact it was made during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Though the film is directly inspired by "Journey to the West", it's also clearly influenced by the war, being the moutain as a metaphor for the Japanese.

2011-06-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

Zardoz (1974)
UK --- science fiction / fantasy

Dir: John Boorman

The science fiction films of the 60's and 70's were all quite boring. Though they had great aestethic and often strong original introspective messages about . . . whatever, they often lacked the maschismo and child-like fun that later came in the wake of George Lucas' Star Wars movies. John Boorman's "Zardoz" is no exception from this trend. Made immediately after his controversial hicksploitation hit "Deliverance", Boorman delved into this more thought-provoking sci-fi adventure in a futuristic setting. Though the results are very mixed to say the least. "Zardoz" opens with a prologue of sorts of the floating head of a man named Arthur Frayn, who claims to be the titular character. With a penciled in mustache and beard, he proclaims to be immortal. We then see the beautiful mountains and a giant hovering sculpture-like head who is the god of a people called Exterminators, who are charged to kill the Brutals. They are a group of Anglo-Saxon men dressed only in orange straps and adorned with two-sided masks with the very same visage of Zardoz. From the head giant floating head, comes the voice of Zardoz who commands them to kill and to abstain from sex, and soon it emits guns and bullets.

Set in the year 2293, Sean Connery stars as one of these Exterminators, named Zed. He arises from some grain within the stone head, where he finds Arthur Frayn and shoots him dead. The stone head lands and Zed leaves searching his new surroundings. Zed stumbles upon Arthur Frayn's home, Vortex 4, where he finds a ring with images of Arthur and a computerized voice emaniting from it. He is soon found by a woman named May (Sara Kesteleman) who wishes to learn how he came to get inside the stone head. He claims to not remember, and he soon ends up on a table being mentally probed by May and another 'Eternal' woman named Consuella (Charlotte Rampling). We learn that Zed is basically a lower lifeform, and that those who live in the vortex are higher species called homo eternals. They are also a matrichal society where the women have more say than men, and while they all possess a psychic power and an erudite mentality, they lack many things. May takes on the task of keeping the Zed for scientific experimentation, while Consuella strongly adheres to its presence in the vortex. Zed, however gets a male guide through the vortex named Friend. Sarcastically calling him monster, Friend shows Zed that even their utopian society has its class system. He shows him the different parts of the Vortex, including the apethetic women devoid of feeling and the renegades, who much like Jonathan Swift's immortal struldbrug's grow ever older but never die, as a punishment. It's clear that Friend is becoming unhinged by the appearance of Zed, as he despises his own immortality and the female dominant society. Bringing a raw machoismo, Friend becomes envious of Zed's lack of not only immortality, but of a sensual freedom. The matrichial society is disturbed by Zed's presence, but Friend is more ambiguously inspired.

Both Friend and May defend Zed's presence in the Vortex as scientific research. However, Friend's impure thoughts and rebellious behavior lead him to being ostracized from the Vortex and marked a 'Renegade', to which the left side of him ages rapidly. May continues to probe Zed to find out what happened to Arthur Frayn. She eventually finds that he murdered Frayn, and that Frayn allowed him into the secret of how the outlands came to be. Frayn, however, is not dead, but has been regenerated and reveals that Zed is actually a superior "Brutal" through Frayn's eugnenics experimentation. It is also revealed through May's probing that Zed has learned the truth of the his god "Zardoz", being named after the L. Frank Baum book "The Wonderful WiZARD of OZ".

Confused? I won't ruin the ending, if you can call it an ending. Though the film is strange a little too heavy on its preaching and gratuitious nudity, it is a cult classic. "Zardoz", as Boorman admits on his dvd commentary, was much more ambitious than the budget allowed. The message was and is also lost. Though the film is an original piece, it features a hodgepodge of different myth references, but it's all too cerebral to catch in this package. The idea of genetic engineering was clearly ahead of its time. "Zardoz" is unique, as it is one of the very few scifi films you find an actual working utopia. However, as many utopian fiction, that is quickly unmasked as a dystopia.

2011-05-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

La Momia Azteca (The Aztec Mummy) (1957)
MEXICO --- horror

Dir: Rafael Portillo

In this B-grade Mexican horror film by director Rafael Portillo, we explore the unknown possibilities of life after death; particularly reincarnation. While that doesn't sound so horrific, the filmmakers decide to go the route of actually making it interesting, by throwing in some mummies and a notorious gangster/mad scientist.

In the opening, we see a shootout between police and gangsters, setting up the films antagonist, "The Bat". What's interesting here is they also reveal that this bandit at large is a kinda mad scientist in his own right, who experiments with creatures and humans. Esteemed Dr. Eduardo Almada has made advances in his studies of hypnotherapy. He suggests before a board of scientists about his experiment to use hypnosis to reveal a persons past lives. The board, being outright dismissive of the idea. He claims it could be very dangerous to the subject and that he has yet to find someone he can use. The board, realizing his studies to be incomplete without a subject, basically does not show approval. Later, Eduardo discusses the dilemma with colleagues like his flighty assistant Pinacate, and Dr. Sepulvada; the father of his fiancee Flor (played by Mexican scream queen Rosita Arenas). It is Flora who eventually encourages Eduardo to move forward with his project. She even offers herself as the guinea pig for the project. Meanwhile, we see a masked man (The Bat) creeping around a window of Almada's home.

As Dr. Almada puts Flor under his hypnosis, "The Bat" looks on intently. Alamada begins his questioning Flor and soon gets her to go back in her memory to a past life. In flashback, she reveals that she is in the ancient Mexican city Tenoxtitlan (The Native American name for Mexico City). Her name was Xochi, a sacrificial virgin for a pagan deity named Tezkatlipoka. Alamada takes her memory to the time of her sacrifice. At this point, she reveals an Aztec warrior named Popoca, who's in love with her. She fears the desecration of her body by even kissing will be found out by the priests, and they will both be killed. They are found out and both are sentenced to death. They force Popoca to drink a sacred elixir that will drive him insane. The priests bury him alive with a breastplate and arm band, and the film spends quite some time showing the ritualistic details of the sacrificial ceremony.

When Xochi dies, Flor dies, as she actually loses a pulse and Alamada rushes to revitalize her. Almada's experiment was a success, but he realizes he needs concrete evidence to present to the board of skeptical scientists. His only solution to find his evidence in the temple of Tezkatlopoka. Meanwhile, having witnessed the experiment himself, "The Bat" contacts his gang to keep close tabs on Dr. Alamada as he sees potential in his findings. When Almada and his team arrive at the temple ruins, one of them sees "The Bat" sneaking around, but mistakes him for a ghost. Later, Almada uncovers the lower temple where they find the remains of Popoca and the breastplate. Alamda against Flor's warnings takes the breastplate as evidence, but unbeknownst to them, they awaken the mummy of Popoca. Almada returns his findings to the board of scientists, but unfortunately Almada's research is incomplete as he needs the arm band to decipher the breastplate's hieroglyph.

When Almada and team return for the arm band, they come face to face with the mummy. They escape with their lives, closing up the temple entrance behind them. It isn't before long the mummy goes after his keepsakes. The mummy of Popoca gets to Almada's home and abducts Flor. Soon, it's Almada goes on breakneck chase to the rescue, and even unmaskes "The Bat" as none other than Dr. Krupp (who will figure in the sequels), one of the board members of the science council.

"La Momia Azteca" is a mummy film, but much different than the tired old Egyptian mummy films we're used to. South American mummies have the history of these brutal rituals, even much worse than this film even scratched the surface of. The addition of adding Pinacate as comic relief is fine, but unfortunately, it's sad to say Pinacate is a racial slur in spanish. It is actually used as a name for "black" beetle stink bug. So using this character as a minstrelsy buffoon kinda takes the film down a notch for me. The use of the name "The Bat" as the villain has been used before in cinema. This character was possibly based on the famous play and film versions of "The Bat" by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Taking it's cue from Frankenstein as well as the mummy films, the Aztec Mummy trilogy is slightly more entertaining than one would give credit. Don't expect great cinematography or score here. A Saturday afternoon time-waster indeed.

2011-05-20T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Last Wave (1977)

AUSTRALIA --- fantasy

Dir: Peter Weir

Peter Weir’s “The Last Wave” is a laconic explorative fantasy with very mild supernatural elements. Like Richard Stanley’s “Dust Devil”, another white male director living in a foreign land delves into the dark side of the indigenous culture of his homeland, in this case the Australian aborigines. The film involves a Sydney lawyer, David Burton, (played by the melancholic yet philosophic Richard Chamberlain at the height of his career) who takes on a case involving “city dwelling” Aborigines who are accused of the murder of one of their own. Their own tribal laws do not apply within city limits, and anything that seems deemed as such will be subjected to new law of the land. The thing is; the death is somewhat mysterious as it looks like it was a tribal situation (no tribes are allowed in the city). The mystery lies in the fact that the victim died of drowning on land. The aborigines remain mum and are completely uncooperative about everything, whether they are tribal or whether they know anything about the murder. The other thing is, there’s been an unusual amount of rain as of late, so much so that even those who don’t believe in Australian aboriginal myths or prophecies, which foretell the apocalypse happening, are skeptic.

What’s happening to the city, however, is nothing compared to what’s happening to David. He’s having strange delusional visions. Nightmares and haunting hallucinatory blackouts remain unexplainable, until he delves further into the fact that the city dwelling aborigines on trial are indeed tribal. He even dreams of one of his clients that he has yet to meet. Chris (played by probably the most famous working aboriginal actor David Gulpilil) , who’s a younger member of the tribe, was envisioned by David holding a tribal stone with blood on it while standing in his dining room. To make matters worse, at a dinner meeting with Charlie (who’s the leader of the tribe) and Chris, David learns that he himself may be the reincarnation of an aboriginal sun god, called Mulkurul. David becomes all too interested in this strange probability. Knowing something of his own ancestral background and his current affair with not knowing dream from reality, David knows full well the defendants did murder one of their own in a ritual.

His only friend in all of this ends up becoming Chris, who warns David that Charlie is not only the tribal elder, but also a powerful sorcerer. The vision was a warning, David eventually learns, as all the answers are given to him in one way or another. The rain continues to come down from torrential spells to black soot. It’s this that David has to question his own identity. David ultimately is lead by Chris to a sacred tribal area belonging to Charlie’s tribe. The sacred grounds can be found under Sydney’s water system as David discovers the prophecy of “the last wave” written on the walls and confronts Charlie the tribal shaman.

Weir’s “The Last Wave” is a very heady film, as it really is one of those films you don’t take on face value. It’s a lot in relation to one of Weir’s later films, “The Truman Show” (Not to mention the subject matter of Witness), where coincidentally water also seems to be a pivotal story element. The Australian Aborigine myth about the “dreamtime” states this was the time of earth’s creation, done by a rainbow serpent. The apocalyptic prophecy states that there will be a massive tidal wave from the Pacific Ocean that will wipe out the entire continent of Australia. Ponder Thailand and more recently Japan’s deadly tsunamis and earthquakes for a moment? There’s a reason for the characters interpretation of each other in this film that is the most important facet of all. As they deal with the duality within themselves. They are up against the greatest challenge any individual must face, the simple quest of self-identity, as Charlie in the film does ask David, “Who are you?”. I look forward to a Peter Weir film as most of the time they deal with a man challenging something bigger than just another man or some bad relationship, they deal with challenges that we all would have to question our own path.

2011-05-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Village of the Damned (1960)

UK --- science fiction/ horror

Dir: Wolf Rilla

Just what is it with cinema’s long sad history of antagonizing young children? Maybe it’s because we see them as so innocent, no wrong can be done from their precious little minds. Or perhaps there is a deep dark fear that with everything our forefathers and we have built and strived to create in our world, the next generation could easily rip down everything and destroy it.

Somewhere around the mid 1950's and on into the present, there has been a quaint little sub-genre of horror cinema that specifically involves evil children. I'm not sure anyone has pin-pointed when it started, but I would suggest it began with the 1956 Leroy Mervyn film "The Bad Seed". Along with that movie, "Village of the Damned" appears to be a post-World War II commentary on what exactly lies in the future minds of our youth. It's apparent to note other films of a similar ilk like "Blackboard Jungle", "The Wild One" and "Rebel Without a Cause" which focused more specifically with rebellious teenagers. But I digress, this "evil children" phenomenon seemed to deal specifically with the unnerving feeling of having birthed an almost demonic force that adults fear. Television even picked up on this when "The Twilight Zone" adapted Jerome Bixby's tale "It's A Good Life" to the airwaves. So there is definitely something to this. I suppose one can simply find the origin of this in a reversal of the immaculate conception of Jesus Christ. Instead, of course this is probably pointing to (as the film "The Omen" did) specifically the anti-Christ.

Based on science fiction novelist John Wyndam's 1957 novel "The Midwich Cuckoos", the film "Village of the Damned" weaves a terrifying tale of a town that is slowly destroyed from within, by a new found breed of peculiar children. When Maj. Alan Bernard (Michael Gwynn of "Revenge of Frankenstein") places a phone call to his brother-in-law Professor Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders), he loses him. We see him and everyone else in the small town of Midwich pass out. We then see that it's not just him, but the entire town including animals has passed out. For several hours the residents of Midwich are secluded within a mysterious "time out", that has no scientific explanation.

Upon investigation, Maj. Bernard finds that it is only the town from a certain perimeter that has experienced this phenomenon. They set up a quarantine around the town with the town doctor standing by to discern just what has happened. With no real signs of anything malignant, everyone eventually does awaken. Professor Zellaby and his wife wake up hours later with odd effects such as a chill and numbness. However, not too long later, all the women of child-bearing age who experienced the "time-out" discover that they are mysteriously pregnant, including Mrs. Zellaby. The doctor and town parishioner find that they have no explanation whatsoever for this event. When the children come on the scene, the townsfolk realize they are all related by strange eyes, platinum blonder hair, an apathetic demeanor, a shared high intellect, and most of all they exhibit the capacity for Extrasensory Perception and even mind control.

At the rapid pace of these children's aging, Professor Zellaby, the town doctor, and Maj. Bernard realize they may need to study these children more closely. In a meeting with some scientific minds and the military, they also learn that the same "time-out" occurred in other countries, including the Soviet Union, Australia, and an Inuit tribe in Canada which killed their children. With the exception of the Soviet Union who were training their children, most of the other children did not survive, which leads Zellaby to a sympathetic stance, feeling there could be unexplored assets to studying them further. He bargains with this small council to keep them under close watch for one year under his watch. They all agree, and thus trouble begins.

The Zellaby child, David, seems to position himself as the ringleader of the children, which makes the Professor even more eager to explore their prowess. However, when they begin to kill some of the villagers out of self-defense and then just plain old eliminating anyone of a threat, things become more hairy. When news comes that the Soviets destroyed their children in one village like Hiroshima, the Professor has become aware that drastic actions must be taken one way or another.

"Village of the Damned" is an excellent science fiction film. Unfortunately, over the years it has, as mentioned, turned into a horror cliche, and all remnants of sci-fi are gone. In fact the only mention of aliens is in one scene in the film. Clocks figure prominently in the theme of "Village of the Damned" appropriately. The novel is called "The Midwich Cuckoos", as in the cuckoo bird which we associate with the cuckoo clock. However, the title is insinuating more than that, as the nature of the cuckoo bird is to lay its eggs in the nest of another birds species. The mother will feed the the young cuckoo birds unbeknownst of their lineage. Interestingly, the spooky eyes used in the film, look strikingly similar to the cuckoo birds eyes.

There was a remake of the film in 1995 by horror master John Carpenter. The film transported Midwich to New England, America, and concentrated more on the horror aspect of the story, and threw in a government conspiracy. In fact the only mention of extraterrestrial possibility is in a classroom scene in the original film where Professor Zellaby asked the children about life on other planets. The idea of abortion was brought up in this version of the film, which is interesting since the original film sparked controversy from Catholic anti-abortion groups, even though there was no mention or hints about the subject. "Village of the Damned" is a classic science fiction film that goes beyond the Cold War nightmares of science gone wrong, and hits more at the heart of our own psyche. As opposed to nuclear threats, there's the threat of the minds behind those who could potentially hit that button in the first place. The look of the children is a clear homage to Hitler's ideologies of an Aryan Übermensch (translated "Super Man"). The Nazis actually recruited Aryan women for a program called Lebensborn and impregnated them for this purpose. They also kidnapped thousands of blonde-haired blue-eyed children. It's safe to say, John Wyndam was definitely inspired by these true events when putting "The Midwich Cuckoos" to paper.

2011-05-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: Symphony of Horrors) (1922)
GERMANY --- horror

Dir: F.W. Murnau

When it comes to the quintessential vampire story, all roads lead to Bram Stoker's 1897 literary masterpiece "Dracula". The success of this Gothic tale spurred interest in other media from stage to eventually film. The first adaptation would actually be a 1921 Hungarian film titled "Drakula Halála" (Dracula's Death), which is now thought to be lost. The true first would be German director, F.W. Murnau's classic silent film "Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens".

The film opens with Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) and his wife Ellen (Greta Schroeder) at home, and soon Hutter meets with his employer Knock (Alexander Grannach), who offers him the opportunity to go to Transylvania for a stay at Count Orlok's castle. Hutter takes the offer, and leaves his wife, departing for the Count's abode. Soon arriving at an inn, the habitue warn him not to travel by night. In this scene, it's important to note the much used cliche of a foreigner entering a bar where upon mention of the evil (depending on the film) stops everything in cricket-induced silence. Murnau should be credited for that much. Anyway, Hutter decides to stay the night and finds a book about vampires (or Nosferatu as they're translated), which has ominous warnings he pays no attention to. In the morning, he rises to continue his trek, but even the coach driver will not take him but so far.

So Hutter takes his belongings and hoofs it alone, until he meets a stranger (played by Max Shreck) with a swift horse buggy who takes him directly to his destination. He finally meets the Count late at night (though in the film it is clearly still daylight), though in some cuts of the film, it is colorized blue tint to give the intentional time of day. During dinner, Hutter accidentally cuts his finger, which of course brings out the thirst in his beady-eyed host. Orlok then tells Hutter they have much to discuss through the night. In the morning, Hutter rises and when looking in the mirror finds two bite marks on his neck. He writes a letter to his wife, describing his strange stay so far. Hutter, however, finds the Nosferatu lying in a coffin filled with dirt, having already sensed the vampyr had somehow visited Ellen back in his hometown of Bremen. Frightened still, Hutter espies a worker board up and remove the coffin and take it out on a carriage. They take the coffin down river and to the docks to the ship called the Demeter. Once there, they open the cargo to find it filled with rats, yet Orlok is on his way to the Hutter's place of residence.

We are next introduced to Professor Bulwer, as he teaches a class on carnivorous plants , comparing a venus flytrap to a vampire. Next we revisit Knock, who's locked in an asylum for being mad, but who is in actualality under the influence of Count Orlok. Ellen has also become distant and unusual in her behavior as well, even upon receiving a good tidings letter from Hutter. The sailors aboard the Demeter become infected with an "unknown" deadly plague; taking them out one by one. One of them inspects the cargo particularly the coffin and discovers the body of Count Orlok. Tempted to see "The Book of Vampires" Hutter forbid her from, Ellen reads something about the willful offering of a woman of purity to the Nosferatu. Many townspeople become victims of the plague. Adhering to the book, that night Ellen decides to sacrifice herself to Count Orlok, and to rid them of the Nosferatu. Nearing the dawn, she pretends to become sickened, as Hutter rushes out to get Bulwer for help. Meanwhile, Count Orlok is stalking her from a window nearby. His shadow looms over her, and when he finally sinks his teeth into her, the cock crows and Orlok is defeated by the dawn's morning light.

"Nosferatu" became infamous for many reasons. First and foremost, it really is a creepy horror film, silent or not. Max Schreck's (Even his name is intrepreted as Fright or Horror) performance is perfect. This is a very different Count Dracula than what we would see later with the very regal Bela Lugosi and the seductive Christopher Lee. The visual interepretation of Count Orlok in "Nosferatu" distinctly resembles a rodent. By no indication can this be a coincidence. Though some have gleaned an anti-semetic cariacture from this, which was of course rising in Germany at this time, I see it differently. This could be a comparison of the plague of vampirism caused by Count Orlok and how the bubonic plague was caused by rats throughout Europe in the 14th century. This film introduced the world to vampires, going by the book with this nightmarish interpretation. Murnau helped innovate the German Expressionist cinema movement, with high contrast light and shadow. The names in Nosferatu were changed in order to avoid legality issues with the Stoker's estate; namely Stoker's widow Florence. So, Jonathan Harker was changed to Hutter, Dr. Van Helsing to Professor Bulwer, Dracula was renamed Count Orlok, and Renfield was renamed Knock. Murnau's adaptation has become legendary, and has allowed Dracula's presence to sink his teeth in film ever since.

2011-04-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

Valerie a Týden Divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) (1970)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA --- fantasy/ horror

Dir: Jaromil Jires

There have been more than a few films that have explored the connection of fairy tales to a young woman's sexual awakening. You get plenty of male coming-of-age films, but seldom well-told female-centric films that show us a progression of growing up. The few we often do get are usually love stories, and they are usually told through fairy tale devices. It's safe to say, this film is none of the above, at least not to the status quo.

"Valerie a Týden Divů" is one of those films that doesn't particularly need to tell a coherent story, but just has the capacity to look like a beautiful work of art. It is an experimental film of sorts, but shows us through the rose-colored glasses of a young girls early youth, how she begins to awaken to the subtle change into a woman.

The opening has 13 year-old Valerie asleep (Jaroslava Schallerovà, who was really 14 years old at the time of filming), while a boy sneaks in the barn she's in and steals her earrings. The boy, Eagle, is scolded by a pasty looking man adorned in all black, with a cape and hat, and answers to constable. Symbolic visuals suggests, that Valerie is just at the age of losing her innocence. The earrings are returned to her. In the morning, after observing some women frolicking intimately among themselves, she goes to her pale creepy grandmother (in lieu of the evil stepmother), who is a bit domineering in her wishes that Valerie concentrate on the things of the church. Most certainly not playing with her mothers earrings. She states, missionaries are visiting and will be staying in their house. Curiously, most of them are portrayed as ghastly, Max Shreck-looking vampires cloaked in black.

By the time you get to the middle of the film, you realize everything is bent on stealing young Valerie's purity and innocence. Mostly sexual, but deeper than even that. The grandmother seemed to force her belief on fräulein Valerie, one of the missionaries tries to take advantage of her, and yet the town parson seems to want to protect her. Confusing? A little, but the Catholic symbolism is pretty much speckled throughout the film in it's defense of staying pure and holy for God. Even mmarriage is portrayed in a pessimistic light, as Valerie observes a bride who seemingly enjoys her honeymoon with more than one lover, but yet begins to change in appearance. Also, Valerie's own love interest is revealed to be her brother, and lest we forget the vampires of the "church". Always a symbol of forbidden lust. Most films from the early 70's had vestiges of the free-loving sentiments of the ‘60s, and this film was seemingly being a harbinger of the introspective soul-searching films that would appear later in the decade.

All throughout the film, we see recurring themes such as Valerie being framed like a painting or even like an image in a mirror. Just another reason the film is art house masterpiece, filled to the brim with subtle expository shots one could pause and study. The composition, cinematography, and ethereal production design is gorgeous, and ten minutes into the film you almost get the feeling that you're watching someone's dreams like in the film "Who Wants to Kill Jessi?". Released in the same year as another surreal classic of experimental cinema, Alejandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo", "Valerie" has mesmerized many with a cult following for decades since it was discovered. It's theme has inspired films even to this day with Stephanie Meyers "Twilight" or author Angela Carter's short story collection "The Bloody Chamber"; which was adapted to film as "A Company of Wolves". In that, "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" is inspired by the classic fairy tales like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Both which have since become known for having underlying psychological themes of a young woman's sexual awakening.

2011-04-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Solyaris (Solaris) (1972)

RUSSIA --- science fiction

Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky

Fifty years ago, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to reach earth's orbit. Prior to that, in 1957, the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite, sparking an intercontinental space race. However, the mysteries of space are still veiled by the seemingly endless fabric of the universe. No matter how far we go, we will still have to face the inner depths of the human soul. I believe this is the message of Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris". It seemed only fitting to explore this filmmaker's popular sci-fi thesis on the human conscience what can happen when those deepest thoughts and memories manifest themselves.

Based on reknown Polish sci-fi novelist Stanisław Lem's 1961 novel (coincidentally the same year Gagarin took to the stars) of the same name, "Solaris", opens on a shot of running stream of water, with flowing green grass; a very familiar signature Tarkovsky shot. We see research psychologist Kris Kelvin looking on the beauty of nature longingly. We're then introduced to his father and a vistor named Burton who has a young boy in tow. It's clear Burton and his father are former colleagues, and it's revealed Kris is about to take a voyage into outerspace himself. Burton has brought with him footage of some kind of scientific council debriefing, where we see a much younger Burton being questioned about his own voyage to an aquatic planet called Solaris. As Kris and his family watch the investigative proceedings, Burton looks on with disdain. Kris comments that the beareaucracy of the council has not changed. On the footage, the younger Burton describes an alien lifeform took shape from the planet's waters, attempting to become humanoid in appearance. It's then revealed later that his own mission is to check in on the scientists. Kris discusses the politics of space exploration with Burton, basically dengrating it to daydreaming. He tells Burton he will just as soon destroy the oceanic surface of Solaris than to continue fruitless research. Burton insists there is more going on there than they have knowledge of, possibly extraterrestial life. After he leaves in a fit of contempt, he calls Kris on a videophone from his car to warn him of what can happen out there, and that he should not think himself mad. With that, Kris does leave for the toroidal shaped space station orbiting Solaris.

Kris arrives with no welcoming party at all, and is left to seek out the remaining researchers. He gets to Snaut, who is surprised to see him and standoffish. When questioned on the other researchers, Snaut reveals Santorious is a hermit and Gibarian has committed suicide. Snaut tells Kris to return in the morning, but to not let anything he sees bother him. Upon departing Snaut, Kris notices he's not alone, as he sees someone in his quarters, besides the fact that it appears someone else is around on the station. He finds Gibarian's room, where he notices on the door a child's crayon drawing with the backwards notation for the russian word for man. He gets inside and a note is left for him on a screen, from Gibarian. It's a recorded video message with Gibarian telling Kris something similar to Burton's warning, about keeping his sanity. While watching this, Kris hears someone at the door, we instantly get that foreboding clue that all is not right in this space station.

Kris eventually seeks out Santorious (played by director pet Anatoly Solonitsyn), who is secluding himself in his room, even reluctant to talk to Kris. It's also clear he too has someone in his room. When he returns to Gibarian's room to finish watching the message, he sees a girl in the background of his recorded message. This same girl appears in the corridor in a turquoise dress and leads Kris to a freezer room where Gibarian's body is on ice. Exhausted, and probably quite perplexed at what is going on, Kris dozes off to sleep in his quarters. He does, however, awaken to the appearance of his dead wife Hari. We also begin to notice the oceans of Solaris are in movement, possibly over the psychological formations of new beings. She acts as if nothing is unordinary, and Kris quickly devises a plan to get rid of the shape by rocketing her off the station. This however fails.

When she does return, Dr. Snaut gives Kris a little advice about the very corporeal apparitions, and that the oceans of Solaris have the capacity to tap into their memories to create these shapes. His warning, however, is to not become too attached, because "they" can never leave Solaris. Hari however is like attached to Kris, as evidence when he tries to leave her in his chambers alone, she busts through the metal door even cutting herself up to shreds to do so. Of course, she heals almost instantly. Toward the end of the film, the doctors have a sort of meeting about what to do, involving a brain probe into Kris' mind to expell Hari, but it too fails. It fails because as the doctors begin to notice, she has not only come into being more and more like Hari, but a new creation capable of her own decisions and free will. She too realizes this, and ultimately tries to rid herself of the guilt by drinking liquid oxygen. Interestingly, she is wearing a turquiose dress similar to the girl that lead Kris to Gibarian's body. Expectedly, she becomes resurrected. The ending is very ambiguous as Dr. Kelvin decides to leave and return home. We see him home, but this too is out of place from when we saw it in the beginning of the film, leaving us to believe many interpretations.

Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is one of the great science fiction films of our time. Wrongfully termed "A Russian 2001", the film didn't quite hit international audiences like Kubrick's film. There is no technical innovations or fear of technology, but like all of Tarkovsky's films, is about our human soul. To use the old axiom used by "Buckaroo Banzai", "No matter where go, there you are". The idea of sentient planets was not created solely by Lem. From a 1928 Arthur Conan Doyle story "When the World Screamed" to the recent James Cameron film "Avatar", the idea has never gone out of style. Many ecologists will argue that the Earth, in some manner, is a living being.

For anyone familiar with the cinematic work of Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, it should come as no surprise "Solaris" is a slow-burner. The film almost operates on the level of a futuristic detective film, or having inklings to a mystery that builds and builds with choppy character depth and layered moody early electronic score. "Solaris" is a great poetic essay into the human soul, and that we are never really alone in our own minds. The people we know and love shape our conscious as well over time, and cannot escape our lives. This is not the kind of film you get up in the middle of and nuke some popcorn, it demands your complete and undivided attention.

2011-04-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

Ju-on: The Curse 2 (2000)
JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Takashi Shimizu

Following up on the horror hit Ju-on, the sequel keeps in the same vein as the original, but IMHO with added character development and scope. In fact, the first twenty minutes or so is essentially the end of part one. Also a television production, this film showcases the horrific events of the past and shows that those events has an infectious and exponential affect for all those unfortunate enough to be involved with the haunted house. The film opens with a segment titled "Kayako", which is basically an extended scene from the previous entry. We see the teacher, Kobayashi, visiting student Toshio and confronting the Onryō ghost of Kayako. This is almost indentical to the scene in the first movie. Though it embellishes a little more on Kayako's obsession of Kobayashi and serves as a good frightening refresher for the returning audience and passersby, it's skippable for those who've seen the first film. Kyoko Again this segment is an extended scene from its predecessor. Brother and sister, Tatsuya and Kyoko, visit the now haunted residence of Toshio and Kayako. Kyoko is psychic, so her real estate brother wants confirmation on the house. She does confirm it's haunted. In the middle of the segment, we get a new character; a boy named Nobuyuki, who we later learn is Kyoko's nephew. Kyoko begins a personal investigation into the house, and discovers the previous owner's mysterious deaths. When she goes to see her brother on it, she discovers his son has been attacked by the malevolent spirit. We soon learn the spirit has also moved into Kobayashi's old apartment, now belonging to Kyoko's brother.

The next part, titled "Tatsuya", introduces the unfortunate new residents of the cursed home. The mother gets a package in the mail which appears to be the manic writings of Kayako and Toshio's crayon art. When this woman gets in the house, it's apparent the package somehow possessed her with Kayako's spirit. Serving breakfast for her husband, she bludgeons him upside the skull with a frying pan, sits down, and eats breakfast without conscience. Next we see Kyoko's brother, Tatsuya, in a country house with his son. They are with Tatsuya's parents, and we see that Kyoko is with them, but seemingly appears to be possessed herself. He confers with his parents over his guilt of causing her apparent possession, as their father reveals, he too has psychic insight, and that Tatsuya must do something about the house before he is also possessed. He goes to the house to check on the new residents, and finds the horrifying revelation, they've been supernaturally evicted. At the parents house, the spirit appears to have found them as well.

Kamio

The next episode we witness two police detectives Kamio and Lizuka visiting the household of former detective Yoshikawa, who has clearly become a distubed individual. Kamio and Yoshikawa were on the original case with the family murders. They next follow a boy we recognize as Nobuyuki, as Kamio discusses the case or cases of the strange murders of Kayako and Kobayashi as well as the disappearance of Toshio and some other people. Back at the station, Kamio shows Lizuka before and after photographs of Kitada, and points at that she actually seemed to become Kayako. Kamio tells Lizuka he's off the case. Back at Yoshikawa's house, we see him on the floor and his wife sees Kayako's face on the ceiling. Next at the police station, Lizuka is told by one of the officers he has a visitor. He points out a photo of Kayako to the officer as she tells him that's she's the visitor, but soon Kamio comes running out of his office and has become the next victim.
"Nobuyuki" is the next segment, which involves the real estate agent's son. He is in school with his classmates who make fun of him for being strange. He's been staring out the window, but we see he's actually staring at the ghost of Kayako. Very soon, we see her go to the school window and get in, as her Onryō spirit torments Nobuyuki. A creepy little finale, if not a little bit over the top.

Saori

Back to the haunted house, with a 'For Sale' sign posted outside. This scene is audio only, with a still shot on the house, as we hear two girls who apparently have snuck into the property. This final episode ties into the next film; the theatrical "Ju-On: The Grudge".

2011-04-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Beowulf & Grendel (2005)

CANADA/ ICELAND/ UK --- fantasy

Dir: Sturla Gunnarsson

The battle between good and evil has been mulled over in myth, legend, religion, and history since before man could formulate a language. The tales of heroes have always found their place in our hearts and minds, and the ancient epic poem of "Beowulf" has had its lasting appeal for that very reason. In this loose adaptation of the poem, director Sturla Gunnarsson does a highly impressive attempt at retelling the legend.

"Beowulf & Grendel" opens with a segment of the poem and almost immediately, the film deviates from it by showing us the grendel's father (a character made up for the film). The scene depicts Hroðgar (or Hrothgar in this film), the king of Daneland, in his youth with a bunch of his soldiers chasing and killing the elder grendel on a mountaintop. However, Horothgar allows the young grendel to live, a mistake he will live to regret. When the soldiers leave, the boy grendel goes to the beach shore, where his father's body lain. Pining for his father, he takes a keepsake; his father's head.

Fast forward years later, we see the adult grendel in a cave with the mummified skull of his father. He beats himself upon the head with stones in a rage, clearly in a fit stirring vengeance against his father's murderers. We see that the grendel espies the warriors camp, and plots his violent one man war against them. The grendel kills twelve of Hrothgar's soldiers one night. We are next introduced to Beowulf, who arrives on the shores of Geatland after being shipwrecked out on the sea. Beowulf gathers a group of Geat soldiers to visit his kin, King Hrothgar, who they have heard is in peril with a troll. When Beowulf arrives to the shores of Denmark, he comes across the seahag first, in the ocean. Then he consults with the hermit witch Selma (Canadian actress Sarah Polley), who begins to help him unravel the mystery of the troll's campaign of bloody vengeance. This is another newly invented character to serve the films updated version of the tale. Soon, Beowulf begins to understand that his perspective in this little skirmage must change in order to defeat the creature on his turf. After some revelations about the grendel fathering a child from the witch Selma, who of course sleeps with Beowulf too, the deviations of the film turn confusing. The addition of the new characters are clearly not needed, and though they do bring some character development to the grendel.

The final battle with Beowulf and the Sea Hag is over way too quick. The performances are well done throughout "Beowulf & Grendel". Gerard Butler is here to fill the stoic hero role and does as well as he can, but not as good as he is in "300". Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård chews the scenery with relish, and that's not a bad thing as he puts in a brilliant portrayal as the fraught stricken King Hrothgar. Polley puts in a competent performance, but of course she's just a little too Western for the film in my opinion. Kudos to Iceland actor Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson for a down to earth performance as the other titular character. He plays the role with enough pathos and genuine primal nuance, you almost believe it's not a man. Gunnarson has a strikingly atmospheric direction. He has properly captured the cold yet beautiful landscape of the Iceland, which seems untouched by time. The major glaring mistake of this film is the use of curse words. It definitely feels completely out of place for these characters to be dropping the "F" bomb every couple of minutes. They could have used better make-up effects on the grendel. Albeit, the prosthetic effects they do use is very believable, and showing the monster in the beginning of the film prepares the audience for a credible version of the tale. Apparently they wanted to portray the grendel as more of a Sasquatch than a troll.

2011-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Uchū Kaisokusen (Invasion of the Neptune Men) (1961)

JAPAN --- science fiction

Dir: Koji Ota

I'm a Gen-Xer, not a baby-boomer. I did not grow up in the 1950's or 60's. So, looking back on the films and television properties of that era is always interesting for me. I guess my main attraction would be to see how the science fiction genre evolved. In Japan, Tokusatsu (which is loosely translated from meaning "special photography" or "special effects"), became a genre in the mid-1950's following the massive success and inspiration of the Gojira films. Theatres ran serials of a character called "Sūpā Jaiantsu" (Super Giant), which was a success. Of course, Japanese television began to air Tokusatsu shows, the first being "Gekkō Kamen" in 1958. Soon after this hit, a slew of copy cats invaded the airwaves for the children's television market. These shows inspired series that even came to America as late as the 90's with shows like "Ultraman" and "Power Rangers". Of course anything that gets too successful is going to have multiple knockoffs. This film is no exception. Uchū Kaisokusen (Invasion of the Neptune Men) is a pretty cheesy fun children's science fiction film from the cold war era.

This review is going to be biased because it's going off the dubbed American version, and not the original Japanese dialogue, though I doubt it would matter much. Featuring the debut of Shinichi Chiba (later to be named Sonny Chiba of The Streetfighter, Kill Bill fame), Uchū Kaisokusen involves a scientist, Tabana, who's alter-ego happens to be the superhero "Iron-Sharp" (or Space Chief in the English dub). When a group of boys mistake a UFO for a fallen satellite, they are attacked by bullet-helmeted alien beings; it's "Space Chief" to the rescue. After a quick defeat, the aliens rocket back into space and the hero "Space Chief" receives his name from the boys. Soon, a strange electronic band wave causes a series of odd events such as clocks running backwards and trains reversing. Scientists (including Tabana) learn that the wave is coming from the earth and emitted into space. Later, the kids find a left over piece of the alien ship, which eventually lead scientists to pinpoint the source of the wave is coming from Neptune. Of course, this means war, as the aliens plan to invade earth, and only "Space Chief" can save the day.

American producer Walter Manley snatched up this film along with the "Prince of Space" serials, which he edited together into films. The dubbed American actors over the Japanese dialogue has not aged well. Something that has become acceptably standard for the anime or Shaw Bros. kung-fu genre is not all that great here. Maybe it's just me. While this films progenitor, "Prince of Space" serials, had an over-the-top villainous Hitler-inspired Krankor and his minions, the aliens in this film are pretty lame. It also brings up the fact that using WWII file footage in a children's film is kinda strange.

2011-03-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yogen (Premonition) (2004)
JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Norio Tsuruta

Anyone who remembers the US television show "Early Edition" will be familiar with the plot and subject matter in this second entry of the J-Horror series of films. Fortunately, this film sticks a little bit more closely to the formula of the sub-genre without straying into some strange areas that fails to even entertain, let alone scare, the audience. Based on the 1973 manga "Kyoufu Shinbun" ("Newspaper of Terror") by Jiro Tsunoda, "Yogen" involves a high school professor (The J-Horror occupation of choice) who becomes involved with a haunted newspaper that foretells the future.

The film opens with a brief shot of an old newspaper obituary of Chizuko Mifune (the subtitles has her last name Kifune). This woman was a real-life self-proclaimed clairvoyant with psychic abilities in the Meiji dynasty (roughly around the mid 19th century to early 20th). According to this film, she killed herself and apparently foretold her own death from a newspaper article. Next we are shown a family driving on a road trip. Professor Hideki Satomi (played by Hiroshi Mikami) is finishing some business on his laptop in the backseat with his young daughter, Nana as his wife, Ayaka, (Noriko Sakai of Ju-On: the Grudge 2) drives them along. Hideki must pull over to a phone booth to urgently email his work. It's here he sees a crumpled piece of newspaper clipping with the headline "Young Girl Killed in Auto Wreck". He opens it further to see a picture of his own daughter. Meanwhile, his daughter is locked in the car seat, as Ayaka tries unsuccessfully to pull her out, she goes to get Hedeki. Out of nowhere, a huge truck slams into the car, and with the daughter trapped in the backseat the vehicle explodes. The couple rush over to the car, but realize it's already too late. Hedeki tries to find the newspaper, but it has blown away.

Three years later, we see Hedeki living alone, divorced from Ayaka, and he has become something of a paranoid distraught recluse. Ayaka on the other hand conducts research experiments with local psychics. She has been trying to collection information from these psychics through the use of nensha (thoughtography) about "the newspaper of terror". One of them, an older woman, expresses apprehension about recounting her own encounter with the phantom newspaper. She gets into a really metaphysical explanation of its possible origin, and confirms to Ayaka it is very real and very deadly. Ayaka brings up a man named Rei Kigata, who named the phenomenon, who will figure in the tale later.

Hedeki in the meantime finds himself having strange psychic episodes, one that even involves him experiencing a kind of deja vu moment. He also is involved with a morose female student of his, who suggests she has had an encounter with the newspaper herself. The paper begins to warn him about her as well, predicting her murder as a knifing victim. Meanwhile, Ayaka gets a strange and disturbing phone call from whom she believes is the old woman, prompting her to go out and check on her. Once there she goes through the house looking for clues of the woman's whereabouts and finds a scrapbook of past newspaper clippings accompanied by psychic photographs, as well as a phone number for Rei Kigata. When Ayaka gets upstairs, she finds the woman dead with a photo clutched in her hand. Ayaka calls Hedeki to set up a meeting.

Later, Hedeki is in class and goes to the student he believes is the next knifing victim, when she reveals she too has seen the phantom newspaper, and warns him it is best to do nothing. That night, Hedeki receives a visitation from the paper, as it slams against the window of his apartment. It contains the article with his student's death. Rushing out to the rescue, Hedeki realizes he's too late to save his student, as he confronts the killer but the girl ends up dead anyway. The next day he meets with Ayaka as she shows him the psychic photograph the woman had is of his face in a newspaper article. They both go to a mental institution where they see a man who had similar psychic predictions was driven insane. Soon, Hedeki's predictions begin to increase, and Ayaka goes to him as they go to find answers from Rei Kigata. They get to his place of residence, your typical shotgun shack in the boonies, and find it abandoned, but much like "Ringu" some clues were left behind via videotape. They watch old recordings of Kigata, as he describes his attempt to thwart the "dead zone" by changing the future. They find out Kigata ultimately became a ghostly figure and perished. Hedeki and Ayaka realize that he's in a catch-22, no matter what happens he cannot escape destiny.

"Yogen" is one of those psychological thriller/suspense forays into psychic phenomenon, with a decidedly horrific bent. I'm not so certain it can be called a horror film outside of some forced moments. IMHO, the story and emotional impact of the opening, may have kinda robbed the movie of allowing the audience to be in for some fun scares. We just witnessed an innocent little girl die for crying out loud. Though admittedly, there are plenty of very creepy moments peppered throughout the film. It feels like the director wants to take us on a melodramatic episodic trip with Hedeki, but realizes the story of Hedeki and his family must be resolved. All in all, this film raised the bar for the series a little.

2011-03-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

Jabberwocky (1977)
UK --- fantasy

Dir: Terry Gilliam

After his years being a part of the Monty Python troupe, Terry Gilliam took his first foray into solo film making. Having come from an animation background and co-directing some of the early Monty Python feature films with fellow alumni Terry Jones, he was well prepared. The evidence of things to come is here in the film "Jabberwocky". Gilliam pokes fun at the "dark ages" through the use of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Jabberwocky" from the book "Alice Through the Looking Glass".

The film opens a lot like a horror film, with a poacher (Terry Jones) in the woods stalked and killed by the Jabberwocky. We then follow our hapless hero Dennis Cooper (played by Python's go-to leading man Michael Palin), the son of a barrel maker, who instead aspires to be a stock taker. When his father passes away, practically cursing Dennis with his last breath, he goes off to the city for work. Before he leaves home, he stops to assure his fair love, a very crude rubenesque girl named Griselda Fishfinger and her uncouth family, that he will return to take her in marriage. With that, Dennis is off to find employment.

We next see the king in his bedchambers, and as Gilliam and the Python troupe are notorious for, they show the quite unsightly shady side of the powers that be to comedic and absurd effect. Though done in this very Brit humour style, it still rings all too true. King Bruno the Questionable, son of Olaf the Loud, et cetra, must not only contend with the common folks pining for food and work, but for the fear of a ravaging monster stalking the countryside. His chamberlain, Passelewe, suggest a tournament to the death for the hero to be tasked in finding a killing the monster. He goes to tell the princess with his plan to give her over in marriage to the champion. Meanwhile, Dennis can't even enter the city. Left out in the cold, rainy outskirts in the forest, Dennis sees some vagrants enjoying some soup. He offers to collect some firewood from the forest in exchange for a portion. However, Dennis runs into another vagrant (Gilliam himself) who was also kicked out of town earlier in the film, claiming to be in posession of a diamond, which is really just a rock. When the man nearly tries to bludgeon Dennis, he's suddenly rescued by none other than the Jabberwocky, which snatches up the vagrant. Dennis escapes with his life.

In the morning, Dennis manages to get into town. He arrives just in time to witness the formal announcement of the joust competition which will reward the victor the hand of the princess in marriage and half of the kingdom. Dennis stumbles upon a job with a squire of a knight participating in the tournament, which goes from bloody battle to hide-and-seek. Dennis goes from one crazy adventure to another. He is accused of adultery by his boss' landlord, almost burned alive by religious fanatics, and when the real squire goes to play hanky panky with his boss' wife, he sends Dennis in his stead.

As they depart on their quest, they happen to run into some bandits harassing the Fishfinger family. They rescue them from the bandits, but the Fishfinger family isn't all that grateful to Dennis. At this point, Gilliam also infuses some religious criticism as we see the church plotting to save the monster because it has been good business. They send their own Black Knight out to stop the champion knight from completing his task. The Black Knight easily kills the champion knight, leaving his squire, Dennis alone to fend for himself, that is until our titular character returns for a final appearance.

"Jabberwocky" is a silly comedy to say the least. Gilliam's film does somewhat stick close to Carroll's vision, as the poem is recited in certain scenes. There's also a scene during the knight's tournament where Passelewe asks his king something and addresses him as sire and they get into how they word should be used. This is something that Carroll addressed in his book as well. Special effects technician John Brown (Willow, Sleepy Hollow) and the uncredited work of Valerie Charlton (Dark Crystal, Temple of Doom) does an impressive job of creating the titular beast on a low budget. Though it doesn't favor the art of John Tenniel, I was actually quite surprised upon first viewing of this film that they did such a good job of it. Considering nowadays we're so used to pitiful CGI characters, it was refreshing to see just a guy in a creature suit with puppetry done correctly for once. That, of course doesn't look all that real, at least is interacting with the actors on screen. It helps to know Brown worked on the UK marionette classic show "Thunderbirds". I was expecting to see a better movie from Gilliam considering he had plenty of practice beforehand. Gilliam's visual style is all over the film, but the aesthetic one expects is not quite here. "Jabberwocky" is an okay first film effort from Gilliam, but in comparison to his following features, it pales.