The Bigger and Badder Halloween Top 13:#1- Gojira (1954)

Here we are, finally. It’s Halloween night, and after 31 posts in 31 days capped off with The Bigger and Badder Halloween Top 13, we've finally arrived at the end of the month and the countdown. While all the little kiddies are out trick and/or treating and ghouls, ghosts, and goblins come out to play, why not kick back for a while at The LBL with me and let’s get our giant monster obsession rockin’ one last time. Yesterday, I practically fell all over myself giving King Kong accolades for starting the popularity of the giant monster, but while the giant ape made some splash in 1933, it was during its 1952 release that it really caused major waves. One of those waves ended up lapping the shores of Japan, a country still reeling in the post-WWII era as they tried to find closure, purpose, and direction for their country. No other place in the world has known the true horrors and devastation of a directed, intentional nuclear blast save for Japan. So is it any wonder that the same year American filmmakers released their first nuclear powered monster movie with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, that the Japanese did them one better and created a monster that was a walking nuclear incident with Gojira (and I don't mean Godzilla, King of the Monsters, but more on that later.) It is Halloween, and a discussion of Gojira could get pretty heavy, pretty quick, but I’m going to try to keep it on the lighter side. After all of these films in The B&B H13 about fear, of nature, of man, of nukes and science, Gojira is a film that certainly touches on a number of fears, but it is really a story of hope.

The Bigger and Badder Halloween Top 13: #7: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Snakes, bunnies, crocs, teenagers, rats and dinosaurs have made it to The Bigger & Badder Halloween Top 13 in the past six days, but I bet quite a few of you are wondering when I was going to pull out the big guns and talk about a kaiju film. Now, a few of you are wondering what a kaiju film is. Literally translated as “strange beast” for the Japanese, the term refers to any movie that features a monster, hopping vampire, mummy, zombie or other assorted monster, but the word has come to mean something more specific to American audiences. Stateside it is a descriptive used to talk about giant monster movies from Japan, and frequently it is thrown around when discussing Godzilla movies. That’s right, I'm finally including a feature with The King of the Monsters on this list, but he’s not the only one on board. I’m talking about Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga, Manda, Baragon, Varan, and the big man himself. (Not Clarence Clemmons, but rather Godzilla) In other words the all star giant monster cast of the finale of the Godzilla franchise, Destroy All Monsters!

Bloodsport (1988): Put Up Yer Dux, Put Up Yer Dux

They say the body is a temple, and that may well be true. If it is, then my temple is a kind of run down, ramshackle type of affair that someone has converted into a funky eatery. Jean-Claude Van Damme's body on the other hand is a lavish, ornate place with all the bells and whistles, gold leaf, bas reliefs, and tapestries galore.  There's no greater example of Van Damme's temple in action than 1988's Bloodsport, the movie that established JCVD as a major action star and catapulted him into the vaulted category with Stallone, Arnold, and Segal. As Jean-Claude stretched, punched, and kicked his way to the top of an underground fighting tournament, the Muscles from Brussels is far from the vulnerable actor he portrayed in the self titled JCVD. This is the young Van Damme who would just as well punch you in the face as impress you with his painful looking splits. Paired with the "true life" story of Frank Dux (pronounced Dookes), Jean-Claude made one of his best action features ever, and a great addition to National Blood Donation Month.

Frank Dux (Van Damme) goes AWOL from the Army in order to travel to Japan to take part in the Kumite, an underground full contact fighting tournament. He travels there to honor his teacher, Senso Tanaka (Roy Chiao), who taught him the way of martial arts after the Senso's own son tragically died. Once in Japan, Frank finds himself to be one of the few Western fighters, and he soon makes friends with Ray (Donald Gibb), a rough and tumble redneck looking to start trouble at the Kumite. Ray taunts champion Cong Li (Bolo Yeung), a decision he would come to regret, and one that pits Frank and Cong Li on a collision course. As the tournament progresses, Frank continues to climb through the single elimination bouts while romancing a journalist and being pursued by American agents sent to bring him back to uncle Sam. Needless to say, he's a busy fellow, but he has time enough for a few montages, a chase sequence to one of the worst songs ever, and to bring his whole body and face into the performance.

This was not Jean-Claude's first film. He had appeared in a number of small parts, sometimes un-credited,  in movies like Breakin' and Missing in Action. Bloodsport is really the movie that made JCVD a household name, and it also should have brought his facial acting skills to the fore of every conversation. I don't know that I can even adequately explain how expressive Van Damme is with his face, and I'm not just talking about when he'd fighting. Surely then he makes tons of grimaces and Bruce Lee-eque poses, but what I'm talking about is in his downtime. Before he even starts a line, he contorts his face into the emotion he's about to deliver. This is very handy if you're watching the film with the sound off, and you might as well. Bloodsport is an action packed film that fun to watch, but if you signed on for plot advancement that doesn't involve someone getting smacked around, then you're going to run into some difficulty here. The lack of plot really doesn't hinder Bloodsport, but it is very interesting to see how bare bones the plot (and Jean-Claude's acting) was compared to later films in his oeuvre.

Bloodsport was the last film directed by Newt Arnold. He was primarily a second unit or assistant director for films like The Goonies, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Alien Nation, and he had not directed his own feature since 1971's Blood Thrist, a Manila based horror tale. I found the style of capturing the action filmed by Arnold and cinematographer David Worth (Never Too Young To Die) to be perfect for actually seeing the fights. One of my big criticisms of modern action films is that the violence is always films from so close up that it is impossible to tell what is going on. Arnold fills his movie with wife shots and well placed close-ups. Sure there were a number of occasions where the angles didn't do the choreography any favors, but the blows that look like they landed home convinced me well enough that I don't want to do any full contact fighting. It also made me long for the olden days of MMA before that became all about sweaty dudes laying on a mat. Back then you could see a Sumo go up against a Muey Thai fighter, and it was awesome. That's truly one of the best parts of Bloodsport. Who doesn't want to see the guy fighting like a monkey get bear hugged til he passes out? Who doesn't want to see a Kung Fu fighter brawl with a redneck? Commies, that's who.

Donald Gibb is perhaps known best to folks as Ogre from the Revenge of the Nerds films, but I really enjoyed seeing him take on a character with a bit more personality. Plus, in his first scene, he plays the old school Karate Champ game with Van Damme, and that is just cool. I wish I could be as enthusiastic about Leah Ayres as Frank's journalist gal pal. The love story is extremely wedged into the story, and Ms. Ayres makes no impression in her few scenes. Other than the fact that she's just about the only woman in the movie, I couldn't see a reason that Frank's character would go for her. I needed her to be a bit more Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall in Big Touble in Little China) and less of a wan love interest. The two other actors who really make an impression are Bolo Yeung and Ken Siu. Yeung looms large, literally, over the proceedings as Chong Li, and his presence gives the film some real teeth. Ken Siu has only a minor role as Victor Lin, but his giant glasses and Asian mullet are hard to forget. I should also mention that Forrest Whitaker also has a small role as one of the agents sent to get Frank Dux back. He's barely in the film, but anytime he was, I couldn't help but think about a throw-down between JCVD and Ghost Dog.

Bloodsport is a great example of where '80's action went right. It wasn't convoluted with jingoistic anthems like many of the Chuck Norris movies. It wasn't teeming with guns like Stallone's flicks. It didn't take a science fiction or supernatural bent like Arnold favored. It was a straight up flick about a martial arts tournament done right. It had that same headlong feeling that I get watching Enter the Dragon. From stem to stern, Bloodsport goes for the jugular, rips it out bare handed, lets it spray all over the room, and it dares you to not have a good time. While much of Van Damme's other movies are hit and miss, these early movies like Bloodsport and Kickboxer show a martial artist who is desperate to show the world what he can do. Now that often seems to mean the splits, but it also means some very real kicking ass.

Bugg Rating

Throne of Blood (1957) Mifune Watches the Throne (Without Kanye's Help)

When I set out to present a month of movies with 'blood' drenched titles for National Blood Donation Month, I didn't consider it would also be an injection of films that have been on my mind to watch for sometime. A couple days back, I viewed my very first Jean Rollin movie Lips of Blood, and while today's director, Akira Kurosawa, was not unknown to me, I had seen as much as the next guy. That is if the next guy watched The Seven Samurai to see how The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars stack up as remakes. What I didn't know going into today's selection, 1957's Throne of Blood, was that it was a remake of sorts. It seems that at its core Kurosawa's movie has something to do with a play written by some joker called William Shakespeare. More on that later. Right now, I'm trying to get a damn spot out. So check out the synopsis and I'll be back to talk more on the double (double, toil and trouble).

Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are two warriors in the service of the Great Lord Tsuzuki who rules from his fortified castle in thick of the Spider Web forest. On their way to report to him, they encounter an evil spirit in the woods that foretells their future. The spirit says that Washizu is destined to rule of over Spider Web Castle while his friend Miki would become a great general and his son would someday sit on the throne. After Washizu relays this knowledge to his wife Asaji (Isizu Yamada), she seeks for him to take destiny in his own hands. When the Great Lord visits Washizu's garrison, Asaji drugs the leader's guards and convinces her husband to murder Tsuzuki. After Washizu forces the spirit's predictions to come true, he becomes Great Lord of Spider Web Castle, but he also begins to go helplessly mad in the face of his actions.

If you haven't surmised it from my wan attempts at humor at the end of the first paragraph of the synopsis, Throne of Blood is a version of Willie Shakespeare's MacBeth. While there are a number of liberties taken with the Bard of Avon's play, many hail Throne of Blood as the greatest film adaptation of the play, and it has even been reported that it was a favorite of literary great T.S. Elliot. Kurosawa's taut adaptation gains much of its strength from long, lingering shots of the actors which hammer home the emotional resonance of their actions. The greatest example comes when Washizu dispatches the Great Lord. While the warrior, spear in hand, goes to do the dirty deed, the camera doesn't follow him. Instead it lingers on Isizu Yamada's Asaji, the Lady Macbeth if you will, and the look of intense anticipation of the murder goes much further than seeing the act would have done. The film is chock full of moments like these that enhance what might otherwise be a familiar and common tale of the lust for power.

It's almost impossible to think about Kurosawa without thinking about his frequent leading man Toshiro Mifune. Over the course of their careers, they made sixteen films together in one of the most fruitful actor-director partnerships of all time. Throne of Blood was their tenth collaboration, and the two could not have been more in synch. They really had to be. In the final scene, Washizu is pelted with arrows, and Kurosawa used real archers with only Mifune's motions to remind the shooters which way he would move next. Now that is trust in your director. Mifune gives a powerhouse performance, but it really comes alive as Washizu unravels. The madness in his eyes seems clear as day, and it is a sight to behold. Just as stunning is the performance given by Isizu Yamada. She truly got to the heart of the treacherous nature of her character and proves that Asaji is no woman to cross. While all the actors give solid performances, the film belonged to Mifune and Yamada. A special mention should also go to Chieko Naniwa as the evil wood spirit. With only a couple intensely unnerving scenes, he imparted everything that comes after with a sense of dread that three witches around a cauldron could only dream of brewing up.

Kurosawa never did anything small, and Throne of Blood was no exception. Building his sets atop Mt. Fuji because, "it has precisely the stunted landscape that I wanted. And it is usually foggy. I had decided that I wanted lots of fog for this film.", he makes the setting just as compelling as the scenario. That may be why Throne of Blood is such as wonderful film. Top to bottom, it is a story in full with every shot, scene, and nuance bringing something into the film's events. There is no wasted time or filler. At a tight hundred minutes, Kurosawa tells Shakespeare's tale of the doomed Prince of Denmark with incredible precision,  an emotional depth, and a masterwork of film making. Now I must get back to this spot. Does anyone have any club soda? Will that take blood off a throne? Well, if I find out, you'll hear all about it when we reconvene here in a day or two as National Blood Donation Month continues!

Bugg Rating

Halloween Top 13: The Remake- #7: The Ring (2002)

Hello everyone. If I can get serious with you folks for just a moment. There is a very real and important reason that I put this film, The Ring, the one and only remake of a Japanese film that appears on this list, in the number seven position. First and foremost is that it belongs there. I’ve never been a massive fan of Japanese style horror no matter if remakes or originals were the subject at hand, but The Ring was the first of its kind to hit the States. It contained a very creepy and atmospheric ghost story without all the double jointed, pale, Japanese girls with flippancy for the laws of gravity that so plagued later entries in the genre. The second reason The Ring comes in at number 7 is that since I saw it I must only have seven days to live, and that will give me just enough time to finish this countdown. I realize I’ve seen the film before and didn’t die, and I don’t know how I got away with it. Maybe someone else was watching it at the same time and I got lucky, but no matter the reason, I’m a man on a schedule now so let’s get into this one, shall we?

The Ring and the Japanese original film Ringu from 1998 have many similarities. They were based on the same book, Ring by Koji Suzuki, both features killer videotapes, and keep to the same basic storyline. A journalist, Rachel (Naomi Watts), is drawn into investigating the mysterious death of her niece who was very close to her young son Aiden (David Dorfman). From all accounts, the seventeen year old girl’s heart just stopped, but when Rachel hears about a cursed videotape that kills, she begins searching for it. It all leads her to a group of cabins in the woods, and there she finds the tape. After watching the bizarre collection of images, just as she has been warned, the phone rings and a voice whispers “seven days”. Rachel, being none too happy with having an expiration, throws herself fully into the investigation with a little help from baby daddy and audio visual expert Noah (Martin Henderson). The closer she gets to finding answers, the weirder her life becomes, but when Aiden watches the tape, Rachel knows she must find some way to stop the forces at work.

Anyone who had watched Ringu knows that there are also a lot of differences between it and its American counterpart. First and foremost is the tape. In Ringu it  is a short, almost cogent, series of images, but American director Gore Verbinski beefs up The Ring's footage considerably while still taking the notes from the original film. The result gave Verbinski more mystery to unfold, but also the film’s biggest stumbling block. While Ringu is easier with answers and running time, Verbinski’s film runs almost thirty minutes longer and most of that is spent uncovering the extra layers of mystery that the director and screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Scream 3, Reindeer Games) piled onto the original plot. That being said, Verbinski saturates the film with a sense of dread that permeates every frame. Verbinski, who is not a well loved director thanks to his Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, worked with cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, who is making his second appearance on the countdown (the first was #8 Body Snatchers), and really crafted a film that relied on some pretty tame imagery (The Ring was PG-13) to scare its audience. For my money, it worked.

While I know the Japanese series of films (and TV shows) has gone into a massive amount of detail regarding how the specter, Samara, was able to imprint herself on the VHS as well as her other powers, The Ring unfolds the mystery of her life without really delving into how she did what she did after she died. As an avid watcher of ghost hunting shows, The Ring always brought to mind the “stone tape” theory to which many paranormal investigators subscribe. It basically states that inanimate objects have electromagnetic fields, and just like how a VCR records a program onto a tape, a traumatic or harrowing event in a person’s life (or death) could cause their personal electromagnetic field to be absorbed by the object making a “recording”. While never explored in the film, this makes as much sense to me as to how Samara got her curse imprinted on the tape. I can’t really go further into my theory without spoiling major portions of the film, but I find that interesting to think about anytime I watch The Ring.

Though there are a small number of main characters, really only three unless you count the ghostly Samara, what really sell the film are the performances. Naomi Watts (King Kong, I Heart Huckabees) has been criticized as lacking a defined character, but I am hard pressed to see that. To me, she seemed like a determined and resourceful career woman who feels a great deal of guilt for the near abandonment of her son Aiden. Speaking of Aiden, plenty of people have given him grief for being the “creepy kid” a la “The Sixth Sense”. To those people I say, “Bah”. Creepy kids had been around long before Haley Joel Osment, and they will be in horror flicks long after everyone forgets who he hell Osment is anyway. I thought David Dorfman (Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Drillbit Taylor) gave a beautifully strange performance which didn’t even disturb my limited tolerance for child actors. Noah (Martin Henderson) has the least screen time of the three leads, but I found him both to be an affable character and the source of some badly needed lightheartedness in the film. However, if you want to go for best and shortest performance in The Ring, that honor has to go to veteran actor Brian Cox for his brief role as Samara’s father. In total, I doubt he has more than five or six minutes of screen time, but she surely knew how to make an impact in that allotted space.

The Ring was certainly the film that brought the J-horror invasion to American soil, but more than that, it was easily, by far, the best. (When the appearance of Sarah Michelle Geller can’t save The Grudge then nothing can.) Its success brought two other things with it, a weak sequel helmed by the original Japanese director and a myriad of imitators hoping for the same box office magic. Neither of which did anything to enhance the reputation of The Ring. With some years between the J-horror boom and now, I can finally take the film as an entity unto itself, but I think I also might be cursed now. So maybe since I gave The Ring a good review Samara will spare my life or perhaps if I could just get someone else to watch it. Anyone need a copy?

Bugg Rating

Hey, hey, today’s reader list is from the second soul to have braved The Halloween Top 13, The Halloween Top 13: The Sequel, and The Halloween Top 13: The Remake. I’m talking about my good friend Ryan from The Realm of Ryan and frequent contributor to The Black Gate. Ryan is a great fellow with excellent taste in movies, books, and music, and I am pleased as hell that he’s contributing to this event for the third time. So take it away, Ryan……

King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005) I know some folks find Peter Jackson’s remake of the 1933 classic a bit too extreme and over-the-top. For me, that’s the only way this could have possibly worked. Jackson is essentially saluting his favorite movie of all time by restaging it and minutely examining everything about it that he loves. The result: nonstop 1930s adventure with dinosaurs and gore and mass destruction. Nothing will beat the 1933 original, but the 2005 version is one helluva great giant monster ride. (The 1976 version is astonishing awful. Forget I mentioned it. You already have? Good. Uh, what were we talking about?)

The Return of Godzilla (Koji Hasimoto, 1984) Released in the U.S. as a hacked-up monstrosity called Godzilla 1985, this supposed sequel to the classic 1954 Gojira is really a re-make/re-boot, and it was the first Godzilla film to appear in nine years. The film has many problems—no monster-on-monster action, very pedestrian human interaction, a quick-fix for the climax—but it restores the Big-G to being a furious icon of destruction instead of lightweight kid’s matinee fluff. This carried on to some amazing later films in the 1990s and 2000s, and for that I thank it.

One Million Years B.C. (Don Chaffey, 1966) Here’s a remake a million years better than it’s original. The 1940 film One Million B.C. is a true turkey, with a few bad-suit dinosaurs and a pig in a Triceratops outfit. The re-make has Ray Harryhausen and Raquel Welch. ‘Nuff said.

Cat People (Paul Schrader, 1982) The Val Lewton 1942 film is one of my favorite horror movies ever, but I have to give credit to Schrader for crafting a film that goes the opposite direction of the original for the sake of exploration. Schrader can more overtly explore the sexual overtones, which makes up somewhat for the film’s big lack: it isn’t anywhere near as scary as the first. Still, it taught me to put out fires with gasoline, if you know what I mean.

Mark of the Vampire (Tod Browning, 1935) I’m cheating here. I haven’t seen the original. In fact, almost nobody alive has seen the original, London after Midnight, the silent 1927 movie starring Lon Chaney Sr. and also directed by Browning. It’s one of the most famous of all “lost” films, but to judge from the memories of those who saw it, it isn’t as great as the mystery around it would make it seem. But Browning tackled the material in the sound era and came up with this atmospheric masterpiece, which I think is far better than his more famous Dracula. I don’t even find the ending a disappointment—it only makes the whole film more interesting.

The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) I imagine this is on everyone’s list, so I’ll shut up now.

The Wolfman (Joe Johnston, 2010) Yeah, I liked it. Honestly. It surprised me. But it feels like a good-old-fashioned creature show, has respect for its material, and contains some awesome wolf-attack scenes. So there.

You’re right, Ryan. The Thing is on just about everyone’s list, but you know what’s not? Just about everything else on yours,and I love ya for it. Thanks for all the great picks, Ryan, and I might just have to give The Wolfman a chance after all! That about wraps it up for today, but I’ll be back tomorrow (and for the next 6 days at least) with more remakes and more Halloween fun!

Ladies Night Presents Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)

 Once a Month, T.L. Bugg takes a day off and hands the keys of the Lair over to his lovely wife, Miss Directed, and best friend, Fran Goria. The Ladies of the Lair take this chance to shine a spotlight on some of the best and worst films out there, and you never know what might happen when it's Ladies Night! Take it away Fran....

Ricki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) Director: Ngai Kai Lam Writers: Tetsya Sarauwatas (manga), Ngai Kai Lam Starring: Siu- Wong Fan, Mei Sheng Fan, Yukari Oshima, and Ka-Kui-Hu

Ricky-Oh is a martial artist with super human strength. Ricky-Oh will only fight if words will not resolve the situation. After his girlfriend, Ying, witnesses a drug deal, she is held captive by the gang. She becomes so terrified that she jumps out of a window and falls to her death. Ricky-Oh seeks vengeance for his girl’s death, and he kills the crime boss responsible. As a result, he receives a ten year prison sentence for manslaughter.     Way back in 2001, prisons became privatized. Ricky-Oh is serving his sentence at Warden Sugiyama’s prison. Ricky-Oh must now overthrow the tyrannical warden and his pornaholic assistant, defeat the dreaded Gang of Four, stop an illegal opium farm, rally the inmates, and save the day. Did I mention the ass-kicking? Ricky-Oh must also kick ass.

Riki-Oh was a lovely film about fighting the establishment with super human strength and good old-fashioned kung fu. I quite liked watching the film. It is a must see for anyone who likes martial arts films mixed with pure campy goodness. From Ricky-Oh tying the tendons in his arm together with his teeth, to him punching an opponent’s lower jaw off, I was hooked. With that being said, this is turning out to be a difficult review for me to write. On the one hand, I adored the film, and on the other, I just don’t know what to say about it. Ricky-Oh shows up and kicks lots of glorious ass. The blood is beautiful and plentiful, and the English dubbing is a good time to be had by all. However, this alone does not make for a passable review. So I’m just going to jump in and see what does, or does not, happen.

When the film was originally released in Hong Kong, it received the dreaded Category III rating, due to its violence. Riki-Oh was the first non pornographic film to receive the rating. I have to say that I am a bit surprised by this. Okay, yes, there is some violence. Yes, there is blood and gore, but the effects are not great. I’m not sure if anyone else knows this or not, but in a porn film, the sex is real. Those actors are really having sex with each other. At no point in Riki-Oh did I think it was real. I did not believe, or even suspect, that the actor playing Riki-Oh could actually punch his fist through a dude’s chest. Nor did I think he could crush a skull with only his deadly, deadly hands. The point is, it is a shame that such a fun film got such a severe rating upon release. Although, the rating caused poor box office sales, it did not keep Riki-Oh from gaining a cult following. One good thing that has come from the Category III rating is that without it, this paragraph would have never happened.

Riki-Oh was a super fun film. I had seen clips of it here and there, but never knew the title. I was pleasantly surprised when T.L. presented it for Ladies Night. Now I can’t speak for Ms. Directed, but I had a great time watching it. The special effects were cheesy, the dubbing was bad, the action was way over the top, and it was AWESOME! I loved every bit of it. I look forward to watching it again, and I’m sure I will love it just as much as I do now. I cannot think of a single part of the film that brought me down. It started strong, stayed consistent, and finished strong. I should warn every one now, that the fun I had watching Riki-Oh has affected my rating by at least 1.

Fist Rating

We all have very strange talents. Some woman can put a cherry stem in their mouth and tie it into a little bow. I’ve tried that trick, and all I ever spit out is a bent up cherry stem. What I can do is remember very stupid things I have seen on T.V. I never thought this would come in handy until I started writing for the The Lair. Now it is, believe it or not, one of my most treasured skills. I’ll get back to that later. We take turns picking films for Ladies Night with it rotating between Fran, me, and the Bugg.  I always get a little scared with it’s his turn. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he watches some crazy crap. Some months he has been overruled. After all, it’s called Ladies Night. Today’s film was the Bugg’s pick, and I was relieved when he told us we would be reviewing Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. 

I had never seen Riki-Oh, but I had heard lots about it. Sometimes when I watch a movie that has been hyped to me, it’s just not as impressive as everyone made it out to be. Thankfully The Story of Ricky was all it claimed to be and a bag of chips.  The movie took everything that is awesome about anime, made it live action, and they left the creepy tentacles at home.  There’s so much great about Riki-Oh that it’s hard to know where to start. First off, it’s a story set in a prison, something I more often than not enjoy. I have always found prison is a great setting for action movies because it is the ultimate fight against authority.  The bad guys run the prison, the warden runs the bad guys, and the poor inmates have to take the scraps. These are some super special bad guys though.  Think marital arts super villains that are named after old movie serial characters, my favorite being Tarzan.  

Ricky gets sent to jail because he was avenging his girlfriend’s death by drug lords. In all the flash backs, she seemed to be a real wet blanket, but a Riki has to do what a Riki has to do.  Here’s where the tone of the movie gets messed up in fantastic way. On one hand you have our hero fighting of hordes of anime-esque super villains. On the other hand, Riki becomes more of a sissy with every scene. For heavens sake, playing a flute wasn’t enough, he had to play a leaf. It was like someone in Japan said, “I like that High Plains Drifter movie. You know what would be badass, lets make a similar movie but instead of Clint playing a harmonica, we’ll give our guy a leaf.“ All I can say is thank you Japan. 

This is a movie you will want tell you will want to tell your friends about.  The mix of the crazy story, and the over the top practical effects make this one of the most entertaining films I have seen in a while. Now, back to my special talent. While watching the Riki-Oh, there is a scene where a fellow smashes the head off an unfortunate gentleman, and I knew I had seen it somewhere before. Then it occurred to me, that cut was used in the opening of the 5 Questions segment on the Daily Show back when it was hosted by Craig Kilborn. So even if you haven’t seen the film, if you’re a Comedy Central fan there’s a good chance that you’ve seen that clip somewhere along the line. Down below the trailer, I’m going to embed the clip of the head explosion right under it. Overall, I thought Riki-Oh was really entertaining, and it was just the type of film that you want to invite your friends over to watch. 

Fist Rating

Terrifying Tuesday: The Eye (2002)

With one year behind me and zero J-horror titles reviewed, I probably don’t have to tell you that I am not a big fan of the genre. No matter if you are talking Japanese originals or the American remakes, I have never had much interest in horror from the Land of the Rising Sun. However, lately I’ve been wondering if I unfairly judged the whole panorama of Japanese horror from the lackluster response that films like Ringu or Ju-On elicited from me. So this week I thought I would give it another try and check out a film that sounded pretty interesting to me, The Pang Brother’s 2002 film The Eye.

It’s got a pretty basic story that reads a bit like The Hands of Orloc crossed with The Sixth Sense with a dash of Stir of Echoes thrown in as well. Mun has been blind since she was two years old, but now a donor has been found and Mun will receive a cornea transplant. After getting her new set of peepers, things are strange from the start with blurry figures confounding her vision. She is taken to Dr. Wan, a dashing young psychoanalyst, who will help Mun acclimate her brain to her newfound sight. Unfortunately, what he can’t help her with are all the strange sights she continues to encounter. Soon it becomes clear that the people she keeps seeing are the tortured deceased, and so with the help of Wan she travels to Thailand to find out who her donor really was.

The Eye was the second feature for The Pang Brothers following their 1999 Thai action film Bangkok Dangerous, and it was their first foray into the horror genre. What begins as an elegantly filmed and atmospheric film stumbles along the way ending up only delivering on some of the promise of the opening act. What really struck me most about the opening of the film was the deft use of focus to draw the viewer into the world of the newly sighted Mun. The spectral appearances happen on the edge of her vision, and like Mun, the audience is sufficiently creeped out by what lies just outside the realm of sight. By the time Mun encounters a woman eerily floating as she whips around the young woman dizzily, I was firmly entrenched in the world the Pangs had set up.

I was drawn in further by the excellent performance of Angelica Lee as Mun. This was the fourth film for Lee, a Malaysian born pop star, and her portrayal of the newly sighted girl is the integral component to enhance the cinematography. Throughout the film Lee projects such a wonderful balance of innocence and strength that she became quite the compelling character. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the film’s other main character, Laurence Chou as Dr. Wan. I won’t be the first to say it or the last, but Chou was way to young and perfectly coiffed to be believable as a Doctor of any sort. In addition, his acting was wooden at best, and the scenes that he shares with Lee only serve to make his faults more obvious. His performance is the first bad mark against the film, but much worse mistakes remain.

Unfortunately, I can’t really go too far into it because it would quickly lead into spoiler territory, but I will say what I can. The third act of the film in which Mun travels to Thailand to find out more about the cornea donor changes the entire tone of the film. The creepy ghosts floating around, asking for their report card, or making elevator rides more uncomfortable than ever are sidelined in favor of the tiniest of mysteries and a finale that is built around a massive CG sequence that seems very out of place with the rest of the film. Even the emotional scenes involving the donor’s mother are devoid of tension. The film had me on the edge of my seat right up until their bus ride into Thailand, and from that point on it felt like some other movie, one devoid of the artistic or atmospheric notes the film hit in its early moments.

I don’t know that The Eye changed my mind about J-horror, but it surely did not have the stereotypical moments that I expected to see. After all, there were zero creepy little girls and no one crawled on a ceiling. For two thirds of its running time, I really thought that it might bring me around, but the ending caused me to entirely lose interested in the scenario and the character that had been built up so well. I have no idea how the American remake stacks up, and I doubt I will ever find out. If The Eye had remained the same movie from beginning to end, then it surely would have gotten a place on a list of my favorite supernatural films. Instead it just ended up being a bunch of ghosts in a film that was completely busted.

Bugg Rating

The Grab Bag: Executive Koala (2005)

To state the obvious, the Japanese are responsible for some of the most fucked up shit ever. I tortured myself for a less vulgar way of expressing that sentiment, but there just isn’t one. From Hello Kitty Vibrators (oh, yes they exist) , to toilet paper inscribed with poetry, to virtual bubble wrap you can pop over and over, when it comes to the strange, the Japanese have a corner on the market. So it came as no surprise to me when I heard about a Japanese director who filled his movies with anthropomorphic animals. All I knew is that I had to see one, and how could I resist a title like…..

Executive Koala (2005) starring Lee Ho, Eiichi Kikuchi, and Arthur Kuroda. Directed by Minoru Kawasaki. 

Mr. Tamura (Ho) is your average executive at Japan’s number one pickled food company. He works long days, he pitches kimchi deals to his boss, and he happens to be a koala. All seems to be going right in Mr. Tamura’s life until one day a couple of detectives show up to talk to him. It seems his girlfriend, Yoko, has been murdered, and after discovering Tamura’s wife had been missing for the last 3 years, they begin to suspect him. At first the furry businessman is sure he is innocent, but as he delves into a world filled with repressed memories, sinister Bunny bosses, and strange unsettling nightmares, he finds out the world is often not black and white, but grey… like a koala. 

The Bugg Picture

I must admit the joke at the end of the synopsis is not my own. It’s a line delivered by a cop who doubt’s the titular koala’s guilt with the actual line being “This case is not black and white. It’s grey like a koala. “. These kind passing references are the closest you are going to get in this film to anyone making a big deal about Mr. Tamura being a koala. While it is an important part of the film, it is not the main focus, and from what I understand that’s director Kawasaki’s thing. 

He’s made films featuring a Calamari Wrestler, a Crab soccer player (Kani Goalkeeper), and a cop who uses his toupee as a lethal weapon (The Rug Cop). Needless to say Kawasaki has something of a strange sense of humor. In reading a bit about Executive Koala, I’ve noticed that some people think this film is totally devoid of humor and a complete waste of time, but the sagest advice came from a reviewer on Netflix which I will paraphrase. If the idea of a koala in a business suit being sucked into a murder mystery seems interesting to you, then you’ll probably enjoy this film. 

One of the problems with reviewing this film is how do you critique the acting of someone in a koala costume. The answer I came up with is that you don’t. You just say that, for a guy with a koala head on, somehow Lee Ho managed to bring emotion though in his performance. It’s easy to get emotionally involved with the character, and I have to admit that much of that possibly comes from Mr. Tamura being so damn cute. The other actors in the film (who were not listed by character on the DVD or IMDB so I’m not sure who was who) all did fine jobs, and you have to give it up to them for being able to keep a straight face in some of the more intense scenes they had to share with Ho’s Tamura. I also really enjoyed the addition of 2 other animal characters in the Bunny boss and a Frog convenience store worker. The latter of the two I would love to see in a sequel. Third Shift Clerk Frog anyone?

The major props have to go to director Kawasaki, who also co-wrote the picture, and Yasutaka Nagano, the cinematographer who also worked on the much lauded Machine Girl. In the old USA if a film with such a low brow concept was made (see Peter Rottentail or any of the Teen Ape movies from Chris Seaver), it would come at the cost of professionalism and technique. That’s just not so here. There are some incredible shots in the film, and the camera is used effectively to create mood as the story moves along. While it starts very standard and flat, like an executive’s world would be, as the mystery thickens, the camera angles become strange, the cuts come faster, and the lighting becomes more intense. Kawasaki might have started with what was a laughable concept, but the film he turned in was adept and interesting throughout.

However, it does have a problem being consistent. While the first two acts are fairly easy to follow, the last third of the film becomes somewhat disjointed as twist after twist is thrown at the audience. I assume this was meant to satirize the “gotcha” ending of so many thrillers, but having the ending being so cluttered and messy really took away from what the movie did so well, have fun. Anyone who goes into this movie taking it seriously is asking for a bad time. Instead, if you take Executive Koala for what it is, bizarre and funny with its tongue firmly fitted in its cheek, then I can assure you that you will have a good time, you will never have seen anything like it, and you wonder what the Japanese will come up with next. 

Bugg Rating