Kairo (Pulse) (2001)

JAPAN --- horror

Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Since the information super highway invaded our homes for good about a little over a decade ago, it was never predicted that people would become further disenchanted from each other, but rather they would become closer. After all, a technology that takes a person from his or her bedroom in Denver, Colorado to talk to someone from Melbourne, Australia in an Internet café seems to be the ideal tool for those who would never be fortunate to travel. In this age of Facebook, MySpace, and every other kind of social networking, are we really connecting to each other? In director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s insightfully spooky social commentary "Kairo" (Pulse), we see that that very same technology could have much darker ramifications than anyone would have predicted.

The film starts with a girl named Kudo Michi, who works in a floral shop and whose coworker and friend has been missing for days. She gets to the guys apartment only to find he’s committed suicide, within a few minutes of her being there, as he was alive when she arrived. She does however recover a computer disk from the apartment, one that her friend takes a look at, which leads him to a strange website. The website shows him a picture of his deceased friend standing in the shadows of his apartment, and then leads to the picture going back into infinity. This freaks him out and he goes to investigate, being lead to a room in the building where he confronts a mysterious woman in the shadows. He too goes missing for days and eventually ends up like his friend, dead.

While this is going on we’re also introduced to a new character, Ryosuke Kawashima who is a university student and a virgin to the internet. The character is not computer savvy and shows he has trouble getting connected, which is what makes it so eerie once he gets on for the first time and finds the exact same weird website that Michi’s coworker encountered. This time however, it’s another room but there are figures standing in the shadows, and finally a message appears: “Would you like to meet a ghost?”. Kawashima immediately shuts the computer off from fear. Later, the PC comes back on by itself connecting to the net and returning to the strange site on its own, which leads Kawashima to get some help into what’s going on. He seeks the assistance of someone from his university Computer Science department. He meets a beautiful IT student named Karasawa Harue, who listens to his problem and instructs him how to track down the source of the website.

Michi and her friend are freaked out by the events occurring to their friends and seemingly to people all over Toyko. People are missing all over town, and she and her coworker investigate their friend only to find the same taped up room. This time Michi sees her friend suffer from the room’s affects first hand, as her friend slips into a state of depression and loneliness for no apparent reason, eventually turning into a black ashy stain on the wall. Meanwhile, Kawashima and Harue investigate the origin of the website, until Harue’s partner in the lab reveals to Kawashima, it’s plausible, strange, and seemingly ominous origin. All this ultimately leads to an apocalyptic ending.

I warn those looking for a technophobic essay to stay clear of this one. Nor does it simply objectify supernatural goings on with a technological device like other J-horror films have done to death. Kurosawa makes a bold intelligent horror film, layered with many levels of thought. Characters are seen wearing yellow mostly before they’re lonely and red seems to be the fashion of choice for those who’ve been to the “forbidden room”. The film seems to be one of those in a crop of doomy late 90’s era parables foretelling Y2K or the end-of-the-world. Kairo tells two parallel stories of people who stumble upon a dark service of the Internet that inhabits the undead souls. It’s the last stop for the celestial search for a place to belong as it would seem that George Romero was right, when there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. Except in this case, they’ve found a unique way to do that instead of coming back in the same old decayed mortal coils. Don’t let me steer you wrong, this isn’t a zombie epic, nor is it a ghost story set in a haunted house. It’s much more sophisticated and introspective. It’s more so about isolation and loneliness, the very thing that technology was supposed to attempt to end. The moral message I gather from the film is that we are all really alone in this world and in the next. It is an unfortunate truth, that every one of us is an individual spirit, and no matter how much we attempt to reach out and touch someone, we will still only be ourselves, alone.

La Decima Vittima (The Tenth Victim) (1965)

ITALY --- science fiction

Dir: Elio Petri

In the last couple of years, we have been inundated with a series of science fiction films that go behind-the-camera, if you will, of shocking futuristic televised game shows. We've had "The Condemned", "Death Race" (the remake of "Death Race 2000"), and "Gamer". This is a trend that most could aliken to social commentaries surrounding the phenomenon of the so-called "Reality T.V." boom in the last decade or so. It goes back a lot farther than that, say to ancient Rome, where the bread & circuses ruled with ruthless gladiatorial sports to appease the masses.

Such is the case with "The 10th Victim", an Italian sci-fi film based on a short story by author Robert Sheckley. The story takes us into a not-too-distant future where the world has replaced fighting massive costly wars by allowing individuals to participate in a new form of popular entertainment called The Big Hunt. The hunters must adhere to the following rules:

RULE # 1: All members must carry out ten hunts, five as hunters and five as prey or victims and will be chosen based on a computer generated lot.

RULE # 2: Hunters know everything about the victims.

RULE # 3: Victims know nothing of their hunters.

RULE # 4: The winner of each hunt will receive a prize. After the tenth hunt, they'll be declared a decathlete, and will receive (place pinky to side of mouth) one million dollars.

The film opens on a man in hot pursuit of a woman (played by Bond girl Ursulla Andress) on an open city street in New York. The casually dressed Asian man fires off shots at the woman, as they eventually converge in the Masoch Club, where she's poised on stage in a silver bikini for a strip tease. Miss Caroline Meredith, however, turns the table as she shoots her would-be assassin dead with a fully-loaded bra (Austin Powers style). T.V. cameras and paparazzi are there to celebrate Miss Meredith as the huntress is now ready for her tenth victim.

Her victim turns out to be Marcello Polletti (played by legendary Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni), who has enough problems with his ex-wife and his girlfriend Olga. Caroline then travels to Rome to take him out, by luring him with her feminine wiles. Soon though, in the midst of their deadly cat-and-mouse game, both Caroline and Marcello find themselves becoming more romantically involved than either one of them planned.

If the future looks this groovy, we'd all want a time machine, and right now. With a clear influence of the zeitgeist of its era, Mod fashion, kitschy art aestethic, and tongue-in-cheek spy movie tropes, the film sets you in this visionary future. The swinging 60's vision of the future was always full of high technology Jetsons-esque gadgetry and often coupled with a slightly sinister dystopian society (as opposed to the nuke-wary desolation nightmares of the 80's). So, besides the social political commentary that the film garners, it successfully predicts a future of societal disarray due to media influence and control and the lust and greed of everyone in search of their own celebrity.

Ulisse (Ulysses) (1954)
ITALY --- fantasy/Greek Myth

Dir: Mario Camerini/ (uncredited Mario Bava)

Based on Homer's epic poem, "The Odyssey", this Italian production from legendary Dino De Laurentis is one of the better sword & sandal films of its time. The Italian film industry was still a few years away from their spaghetti western influx. There were plenty of classic myth tales to adapt, most starring Steve Reeves as Hercules.

This one, as mentioned, is the cream that rises slightly above the rest. It seems that performance and story is more paramount than that of production value and loin cloth. In a similar situation to Russell Crowe's Gladiator turn that ended up making him action material from then on, thespian turned beefcake, Kirk Douglas stars as Ulysses, king of Ithaca. His wife Penelope (Played by Silvana Mangano who pulls in a dual role in the film) is introduced to tell the tale of her husband's fateful voyage, as her many suitiors surround her door and mock her and her son for waiting for the king to return.

The film uses flashbacks as a device to frame the story of Ulysses' long strange trip and wanderlust. We go from his victory from the battle in Troy, challenging the power of Poseidon (Neptune in this film) and causing him and his crew to become shipwrecked. Finding him struck with amnesia and in the arms of a princess Nausicaa to which she makes him heir of the kingdom. Soon, however, he comes to his wits and regains his memory, and he's off again to the open sea bound for home, but not before a few more stops. This includes, of course, an encounter with the Cyclops, being tricked by the goddess Circe (also Silvano Mangano), and his men being seduced by the mellifluous-voiced Sirens.

Anthony Quinn also puts in a excellent performance as vain suitor of Penelope, Antinoos, who unlike others, wants the kingdom with an entitled unquenchable thirst and will take it by force if need be. Once Ithaca's prodigal king returns in secret, he must prove his identity by a test of archery designed so that only he can be the victor. As it goes, Penelope offers the suitors each a chance to wield Ulyssess magic bow, that is until its true bearer decides to take a turn at the contest.

The Odyssey is a classic of early literature, and this film version done in the setting of its creation, and as mentioned performed by stellar actors of the time, is a landmark adaptation. It will come to pave the way for Pal and Harryhausen epics to come in the following decade. Surely just another paycheck for Douglas who (knowing his method background) would likely put his experience here to good use in the Kubrick masterpiece Spartacus a few years later.

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
UK --- horror/science fiction

Dir: Terence Fischer

Riding on the success to 1957's 'Curse of Frankenstein', Hammer Studios produced a follow-up that is on par with its original. Peter Cushing reprises his role as Dr. Baron Von Frankenstein; mad scientist extraordinaire.

We pick up from the guillotine, where Frankenstein is seemingly on his way to damnation. Skip ahead to two graverobbers, who decide to rob Baron Frankenstein's final resting place, when its revealed he is not buried there, but very much alive. We soon learn that the Baron has relocated to the hamlet of Carlsbruck and assumed the alternative identity of Dr. Stein, assisted by his crippled dwarf (Ygor counterpart) Karl. He has assumed this personage of a philathropic doctor who helps the downtrodden, as well as incalls from the wealthy. One wealthy doctor who recognizes him, Dr. Hans Kleve, knows full well what he is all about, and volunteers to help the baron on whatever he needs.

Hans learns that Frankenstein has been recycling certain body parts from his ward patients. His newest plot this time is to implant the brain of Karl into the working constructed body of his latest creation. Karl, who longs for a normal looking body with properly working limbs. Once Karl's brain is successfully inserted into the new creation, however, things soon go awry.

Dr. Frankenstein and Kleve also get a new candystriper in Margret Conrad; a naive young woman who Karl falls for. She assists in his escape from the lab, and soon the now more humane Frankenstein's monster is unleashed. Not only do the monster's bodyparts begin to revert back to the deformities of Karl's affliction, the monster also has a new horrific taste for human blood.

This film takes the Hammer Frankenstein series into a new direction, focusing less on the monster and more and more on the banal exploits of Dr. Frankenstein himself. Though a lot less gory and violent than the other entries, "The Revenge of Frankenstein" again showcases Frankenstein as the villian. Even in one scene where the doctor denies to assist a pleading monster help him, which only further allows us empathy for the creature.

Jiang Tou (Black Magic) (1975)
HONG KONG --- horror

Dir: Ho Meng-Hua

All societies on the earth have pretty much dabbled in some form of the dark arts or another. Whether it be the infamous voodoo of the caribbean islands or the wiccan practices of Eastern Europe, being in league with the devil has no borders. In this such case, we turn our attention to the shores of Hong Kong.

Known primarily for the nigh endless droves of chop-socky forays such as "The 36 Chambers of Shaolin" and "The Five Deadly Venoms", the Shaw Bros. studio decided to expand out of the martial arts genre. Jiang Tou "Black Magic" is one of these efforts. A rich sexy widower, named Luo Yin who owns her late-husbands construction business, has designs on a young engineer named Xu Nuo. Xu Nuo has a fiance, while Luo Yin makes her intentions known to him, only to be denied a relationship.

Meanwhile, Luo Yin also has a suitor, in Mr. Liang Jiaje (played by Five Fingers of Death star Lo Lieh). A man struck with puppy love so bad, he goes to all ends to get the woman of his dreams, unfortunately his motives are ruled not of love but of lust, and worse off greed. He goes to the shady sorcerer-for-hire, San Kan-Mi, where he is told to gather some materials for the spell to work, for sinister love potion. After gaining the items, Liang returns to Luo Yin later on, and the potion mixed in a drink works for a night, but that is all. Realizing, she has been used, Yin coerces an answer out of Jiaje, and plots to use this black magic magician for her own purposes, such as gaining the love of Xu Nuo.

While Xu Nuo and his fiance plan marriage all the while, Liang gets his just desserts 'Tales From the Crypt' style and Luo Yin pays San Kan-Mi to put a powerful spell on her hearts desire. It all leads to a climatic confrontation between a benign wizard named Master Furong and San Kan-Mi. The film features, throughout some seemingly step-by-step instructions for the process of San Kan-Mi's potions and spells. Complete with gratuitous nudity, graphic violence and gore, Jiang Tou (Black Magic) is one of the better genre pieces from the Shaw Bros. studio.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

UK --- horror/ science fiction

Dir: Terence Fisher

Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus" changed the world of literature forever. The tale of a mad scientist bent on the prospect of creating new life from his bare hands has had long-lasting ruminations. The ideas of the basic storytelling conflicts are all here, be it in man -vs- nature, man -vs- society, or man -vs- himself. They're all right there in FRANKENSTEIN. The story has been put to film ever since film was invented, going back as far as Thomas Edison's foray into film production. Though many of the adaptations haven't come anywhere near to being 75%-100% faithful to its literary counterpart, including the famous Universal James Whale feature, some at least has brought some of the novel's gothic spirit.

This leads us to the 1957 Hammer Studios effort with "The Curse of Frankenstein". While it isn't the end-all/be-all of Frankenstein films, it is must definitely a shining hallmark for its graphic depiction of the iconic characters. Peter Cushing puts in an absolute pitch-perfect performance as a brazen power-mad (but no quite as loony as Colin Clive's) and downright evil bastard version of Baron Frankenstein.

The film is told in flashback, from the perspective of Baron Frankenstein, as he recites how he came to be imprisoned for the murders of several people. He pleads his innocense, stating that true monster is his creation, a reanimated corpse compiled of multiple body parts. The baron, assisted by the increasingly reluctant Dr. Paul Krempe, begins his strange experiments on animals first. Then forays into using human body parts. Whilst having an illicit affair with his maidservant, the baron is anticipating the arrival of his arranged wife to be Elizabeth. But all the while, he and Paul begin to collect body parts for the monster. Played by Christopher Lee, when Frankenstein's monster is finally given life, it is an insane creature that only knows murder, and the doctor is not above apeasing his creation's blood thirst. Frankenstein and assistant Paul eventually come to a rift in their beliefs, as Paul begins to show affection for Elizabeth and attempts to stop Frankenstein from his mad machinations.

The Hammer Studios has a long tradition of great horror films, being influential to Hollywood as well as the rest of the world. In hindsight, you can see parts of every great filmmaker from Mario Bava to Tim Burton in these early Hammer horror films. All worth exploring.

District 9 (2009)
SOUTH AFRICA --- science fiction

Dir: Neill Blomkamp

Immigration has become a hot button issue in the past decade. Most of it is due to two American incidents. One involving the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center with domestic planes. The other is a ripple effect of the first, being 911, when America turned its attention to the immigration issue of protecting our borders and "W" created the Homeland Security. Course, in my opinion it was just a rug over of the dirt, and didn't really do anything as we've seen in recent events.

In District 9, we get an allegory of sorts through the lens of director Neill Blomkamp. Shot in the style of a documentary entirely in Johannesburg, South Africa, but in actuality more of a mockumentary, we are taken into the world of beaucratic alien sympathizer Wikus Van De Merwe. He is a button-down Multinational United (MNU) (a private military corporation such as they really do have in South Africa) liaison between the extraterrestrial species and humanity. Merwe, however, is not a well-liked man for this reason, though his intentions on the outside appear decent, his job isn't all that great. He rides that thin line of being hated by both sides equally, kinda like a welfare or social worker.

While investigating the alien slums of District 9, he searches an alien home that appears to be hiding something. When nosing around, he then accidentally is infected by an alien serum, which happens to be a secret weapon. Besides instantly spitting up black fluid, over a short period of time, Merwe discovers his body is undergoing an abormal change. The biological weapon begins to transform him into a one of the aliens. After being admitted to the hospital to undergo tests, he is spirited away to a top secret (MNU) compound to undergo further tests. The scientists begin to conduct experiments on Merwe who now has one complete arm turned completely alien. They discover that the aliens' guns cannot be used by anything other than that species dna handling it, and this is confirmed thanks to the involuntary volunteer in Mr. Merwe.

Fearing for his life from both the humans and the aliens, he escapes the (MNU) compound and becomes a fugitive living in the shanty town of District 9. Eventually, he finds the answer to how he was infected when he joins with the creator of the bio-weapon. They come to a deal of sorts, that the alien will be allowed to return to his home planet and find a cure for Merwe and they soon launch a last ditch effort to resist the (MNU) and a crazed band of Nigerian gangsters.

District 9 has its roots in flavor to the videogame HALO. But the similarities end with alien designs as Blomkamp, actually based the film on a short film titled "Alive in Joburg". I think the thing that stands out about the film is, it's not afraid to go to absurd. A lot of scenes gave me flashbacks of "Futurama" jokes, and yet because of its successful blend of CGI and it's tongue-in-cheek yet realistic performances, it somehow doesn't become silly. The digital enhancement of the aliens is done in what Blomkamp describes as "Rotomation" which is a blend of rotoscope and motion capture. The very best part of the film is, it gets its point across. It is a clear parable about the prejudices and civil rights we deal with in our world. Like most great and poignant science fiction it is a social commentary that holds that mirror up to who we are.