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Posted on 10.20.08 by David @ 9:23 am
AKA: Porno Jidaigeki: Bohachi bushido Review By: David Austin  Bohachi Bushido is proof that, while Teruo Ishii might not always have brought the most disciplined and sophisticated visual sense to the table, when focused he was capable of some gorgeous work. Indeed, with Bohachi Bushido, Ishii shows he could be a match for the formal rigor of his colleague Norifumi Suzuki, usually by far the greater visual stylist as demonstrated in films like School of the Holy Beast and Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom. Those familiar only with The Executioner series, where Ishii killed time by having Sonny Chiba pick his nose and put it in people’s drinks, will be shocked to learn that Bohachi Bushido comes from the same director. Ishii’s works have always been stagy, but here his direction tips over the line into full-blown theatrical. Characters scheme and declaim their lines as if in a Kabuki drama. Even his images of the classic Yoshiwara red light district of Edo (pre-Meiji restoration Tokyo) are drawn as if from an old ukiyoe print, with crowded horizontal planes filled with bars, theaters, and pleasure-seekers. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Teruo Ishii and Studios: Toei and People: Tetsuro Tamba Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 09.10.07 by David @ 9:49 am
AKA: Yi boh laai beng duk; Yibola bing du Review By: David Austin  Ebola Syndrome is so loathsome, so truly foul, yet so spirited and fun, that I can’t help but love it. To my mind, what’s not to like about a movie that features Anthony Wong running through the streets of Hong Kong spitting on people and yelling “Ebola!” Apparently though, at least judging by his reaction when CSB’s Charlie brought it up during a recent interview, Anthony Wong doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, in his commentary track included in this release, he talks about how little he enjoys doing this kind of film, and asks rhetorically why anyone would want to watch it. Nevertheless, even though Anthony would rather forget this one, we are extremely happy that it is finally available to a wider audience. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Hong Kong and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 05.30.07 by David @ 11:45 am
AKA: Kaidan nobori ryu; Rising Dragon Ghost Story; Black Cat’s Revenge; The Tattooed Swordswoman Review By: David Austin  Blind Woman’s Curse starts in media res as a blade-wielding Meiko Kaji leads her yakuza clan to bloody victory over the boss who killed her father, the oyabun of the Tachibana clan. It’s a stupendous sequence, set in the rain with umbrellas, and introduces the film’s greatest conceit – the Tachibana family dragon tattoo. As even neophytes to the genre know, yakuza generally sport elaborate back tattoos (many public and hot springs in Japan have rules against tattoos as a means of keeping gangsters out). The Tachibanas go one step further – each member of the clan has a section of one mighty dragon inked on their back, while the clan leader bears the head. Repeatedly during the film, the dragon is completed as the Tachibanas assume fighting formation. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Teruo Ishii and People: Meiko Kaji Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 01.23.07 by David @ 10:24 am
AKA: Bye Bye Jupiter Review By: David Austin  The scamps behind Mystery Science Theater once described the perfect sort of movie for their show. It wasn’t enough that a movie be bad, or stupid, or cheap. All those elements were necessary but not sufficient. The key was that the movie not only be unaware that it is bad, but that it have aspirations not only to be good but to be great, to be meaningful. Anyone can goof on ‘50s sci-fi or Ed Wood films, but not every film can perfectly marry delusions of grandeur with utter incompetence. Sayonara Jupiter is such a movie. It is truly as lovely a piece of early 80s camp as one could ask for. Almost every aspect of the film, from the acting, to the dialogue, to the plotting, is simultaneously mind-bogglingly silly and deadly serious. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Studios: Toho Company Ltd. and DVD Companies: Discotek Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 09.12.06 by David @ 9:31 pm
Discotek has subtly let slip the news that they’ve purchased the rights to two Hong Kong Category III classics to Region 1 DVD. Both are produced by the infamous Wong Jing (the Samuel Z. Arkoff or Roger Corman of HK) and both are favorites of the team here at CSB.
Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Hong Kong and DVD News and DVD News: Hong Kong and DVD Companies: Discotek Comments: None |
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story (Mun ching sap daai huk ying, 1995, Dir. Bosco Lam) - This manic sex/horror comedy is probably best known for a clip which made the rounds as a viral video, featuring a deadly duel of sexual wire fu between HK’s sleaze king Elvis Tsui and queen Julie Lee. While the rest of the film may not quite live up to the highs and lows of this mindboggling set piece, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a lot of fun. Yvonne Yung Hung stars as Little Cabbage, an innocent caught up in the lusty power games of a scholar and his trampy wife. It’s a great nasty little movie, the likes of which HK, and even Wong Jing, simply do not make any more (Slim til Dead, I’m looking at you). It also features the best parody of Ghost ever, to the tune of Unchained Melody.|
Posted on 07.14.06 by David @ 7:37 am
Country and Year: Japan (2001) Review By: David Austin
Electric Dragon 80,000 V almost completely does away with plot, dialogue, reducing film to its audio-visual essence. The editing, the music and sound design are as much the stars of the film as Tadanobu Asano and Masatoshi Nagase. It’s an audacious punk masterpiece that would fit in as comfortably as an installation in any museum as it does as a narrative film. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Great ★★★★ and People: Tadanobu Asano and DVD Companies: Discotek Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.27.06 by David @ 1:38 pm
Genre film fans should be drooling. This week sees the release of an amazing assortment of wild films, including some long-absent classics and some newly-discovered gems. Let’s take a look. Two Sogo Ishii films – BURST CITY and ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 VOLTS  New company Discotek has had some solid releases so far, but this time they hit one out of the park. Sogo Ishii has remained criminally underserved by DVD in America, with only his so-so samurai epic Gojoe receiving a proper release until now. Ishii was essentially the Jean-Luc Godard of the Japanese punk scene, creating cyberpunk masterpieces that focused on bosozoku biker gangs, punk rockers and freaks of all kinds. His influence stretches far, from Shinya Tsukamoto to more recent indie punk films like Wild Zero. Filed under: General and Movie News and DVD News and Contributors: David and DVD Companies: Media Blasters and DVD Companies: NoShame Films and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and DVD Companies: Panik House and DVD Companies: Discotek and DVD News: This Week in DVD Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.21.06 by David @ 9:44 am
::: Our obituary of Teruo Ishii ::: Trailer for Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf (not even remotely safe for work) Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and DVD News and DVD News: Japan and DVD Companies: Panik House and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Teruo Ishii Comments: Comments Off |
Panik House is giving Screwed and Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf, two of cinematic madman Teruo Ishii’s last films, a release on July 25, 2006. Be warned - Ishii was a devotee of famous ero-guro (erotic-grotesque) author Edogawa Rampo (say it quickly to see his literary influences) and his works are not for the faint of heart. It should be a big year for Ishii, as Discotek is also releasing Ishii’s Blind Woman’s Curse with Meiko Kaji in the end of 2006, and Panik House President Matt Kennedy has informally announced Ishii’s classic Horror of Malformed Men as well.|
Posted on 02.28.06 by David @ 10:21 am
AKA: Rupan sansei: Nenrikichan sakusen Review By: David Austin
Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy (based on the light-hearted popular Japanese anime series about a gang of goofy international thieves) is a live-action cartoon. Not merely a cartoon films, or a silly one, but one that simulates, with live-action and special effects, the world of a cartoon. And not the grim, stylized world of a Sin City or Spawn, but the anything-goes wacky world of a Looney Tune. Lupin III is not the first film to try this – The Mask is a good example, as are Lemonade Joe and Kung Fu Hustle. As special effects have gotten more advanced, it’s become easier to twist bodies and reality in order to mimic the cartoon world (if not easier to actually make a good movie using this technique, see Son of the Mask). Lupin III comes from a time well before CGI made a lot of these techniques possible, so the film does things the old-fashioned way – tricks and acting. Yuki Meguro, playing Lupin, doesn’t have the aid of CGI that can stretch his face and distort his expressions, so instead he mugs like crazy and does double takes, using all the exaggerated acting techniques common to Japanese film and then some. Lupin can’t really jump up a wall, or run 5,000 miles an hour (like in the brilliant Bugs Bunny chase from Kung Fu Hustle), so in-camera editing tricks come to his aid. Traditional animation, Benny Hill-style camera speed-up, and good, old-fashioned dummies come in handy also. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek Comments: None |
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Posted on 10.18.05 by David @ 8:28 am
AKA: Zeroka no Onna: Akai wappa Review By: David Austin
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs is the latest in a recent series of releases of old Toei Pinky Violence films, long unavailable in the US (see also my reviews of Toei’s Sex and Fury and Female Yakuza Tale). The film at hand is the inspiration for a series of recent direct-to-video sleazefests, all going under the “Zero Woman” name. Don’t confuse the original with its imitators though – Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs is a piece of prime-grade, gritty ‘70s exploitation, more on the same wavelength as Coffy and Female Convict Scorpion. Unfortunately, the film fails to live up to the promise of its fantastic opening. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD News and DVD News: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Tetsuro Tamba Comments: None |
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