Sayonara Cinema

THE CITY OF VIOLENCE (2006)When retired gang leader Wang-Jae is murdered, detective Tae-Soo returns to his hometown for the first time in ten years after leaving to become a detective in Seoul. Tae-Soo reunites with his old high school friends to say farewell to Wang-Jae, but feels that something is not right about his death. With his fists and temper at his side, Tae-Soo uses the power of the law to stir up a few hornet nests trying to figure out just what happened. For his troubles, Tae-Soo is beset by multiple gangs, all trying to keep Tae-Soo from finding out too much. But with his friend Seok-Hwan at his side, whose fists are just as merciless, Tae-Soo starts tearing through the lies, deceptions, and criminal activity setting up shop in the tourist district. And when he finally gets someone to talk, he learns that it may just be their mutual friend Pil-Ho behind the murder.

The domestic release of The City Of Violence comes courtesy of Dragon Dynasty, a genre label under the newly formed Weinstein Company. The Weinsteins, who were once the targets of the seething wrath of Hong Kong fans for their Dimension releases of Jet Li and Jackie Chan films, which only featured English dubs and shortened versions of the movie, have finally come around and given the fans just what they want — original dialogue and subtitles, the uncut film, and plenty of extras. A quick look at the original CJ Entertainment extras looks like they’ve ported over the entire Region 3 release. As well as a Dolby Digital and DTS Korean soundtrack, an English dub is also made available on this DVD, for those that can’t deal with “reading” a movie. [Read My Full Review at Geeks Of Doom]

ALONE (2007) When Pim’s mother falls fatally ill, she is forced to return to Thailand from Korea to oversee her care. Along with her is her Thai boyfriend Wee. Pim (Masha Wattanapanich), who is the sole survivor of conjoined twins, is thrown face first into her old life as both painful and beautiful memories resurface when she and Wee move into her old house. In Pim’s old room, her and her sister Ploy’s clothes still hang, each set lovingly hand-sewed together by their mother.

But Pim’s return brings back not just distant memories, but it seems as if Ploy’s spirit has also returned to seek revenge against Pim. But Pim is the only one who has seen the face of Ploy in mirrors and reflections, and Wee believes that it is merely stress which are bringing upon these hallucinations. Pim visits Wee’s psychologist friend, who comes to the same conclusion as Wee, but with Pim’s visions become more frequent and more violent, she is utterly convinced that Ploy is after her. Has Ploy truly returned from the dead, or is Pim merely falling down a spiral staircase of madness? [Read My Full Review at Geeks Of Doom]

THE UNTOLD STORY (1993) In Macau, the discovery of some severed limbs in the bay begin an investigation by the local inept police department. Through sheer luck, they discover clues that lead them to the Eight Immortals Restaurant, and the cook/owner Wong Chi-Hang (Anthony Wong). They believe that Wong may be guilty of killing the family, and when they discover the shred of evidence they need, they arrest him, and through unrelenting police beatings, Wong finally submits and tells his tale. But what he tells them, which includes the horrific murders of the family, and what he did with the bodies, is beyond anything they are prepared to hear.

Deftly mixing extreme gore, shocking brutality, the blackest of humor, and lowbrow comedy that can only come from Hong Kong, writer/director Herman Yau cooks up a dish that is the perfect recipe for cult status. Most shocking of all, though, is that the tale of Wong Chi-Hang is based on a true story, which Yau investigated extensively to stay as true to the real events as possible. With the then newly created “Category III” movie rating in Hong Kong (the equivalent of NC-17), Yau was able to push his shocks further than any director previously could, and portray Wong’s psychopathic acts without much fear of censoring. The results could make the unsuspecting queasy, nauseous , disgusted, and maybe even all three at once.

Yau, though, in his wisdom, realized that these vile actions need to be balanced, and so he concocted a bumbling, moronic and sex-crazed police force to act as a relief. The result is a little jarring to those unaccustomed with the Hong Kong comedy style, but it does make the film a little easier to swallow (no pun intended) and does make for some great bits. Try to think Beavis, Butt-Head, Jim Carrey and John Belushi all trying to work together to catch Ted Bundy or Ed Gein. It is a blend that inconceivably works, as if this were the rule to crime-horror writing, rather than the exception.

Upon its release, THE UNTOLD STORY was taken quite seriously. While such a film would have been relegated to some obscure direct-to-DVD release if made in America, in Hong Kong it was given praise, and even netted Anthony Wong a Best Actor Award for 1994. His complete metamorphosis into the deranged killer is mesmerizing, and the cruelty his is able to conjure up, while over-the-top, seems natural amongst the unbelievable things that happens during the course of the film.

For the horror fans out there, the blood and guts delivered in here are enough for two films, and rest assured, realism is attempted as much as possible (pig flesh stood in for the human close-ups). This can really only be recommended for those that want to get a physical reaction out of your cinematic viewings, or for those whose taste in comedy is so twisted and demented that the likes of SEVEN and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS made you laugh. If even a little of this review has given you pause (it is even more disgusting than the review implies), skip this one and head on to the next. Don’t feel bad about it. But for those of uneasily turned stomachs and seekers of the bizarre, see for yourself just what has been told. Rest assured, after viewing, you’ll never forget what you’ve just witnessed. Oh, and you may never eat Chinese food again.

THE UNTOLD STORY is currently available uncut on VCD from Bloodwave DVD. It features the original aspect ratio, Cantonese audio and English/Chinese subtitles. The print used is a little beat up but is quite watchable, and the subtitles, even though burned in, are usually very easy to read.

THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI (2003)After being shot in the head, prostitute Sachiko awakens to find herself consumed to learn and digest the works of the great philosophers and thinkers from Socrates to Nietzsche. And on top of that, whenever she begins to explore these thoughts in her head, she becomes compelled to have sex with the closest person, or merely satisfy herself if no one is in arm reach. At first this works out just fine, as she moves in with professor and his wife under the false pretense that she is there to tutor their son. But when she discovers that she is also in possession of a cloned finger of George W. Bush, whose fingerprint can be used to launch a nuclear assault, and that spies from North Korea are after it, her simple life as a sex worker is about to reach metaphysical proportions!

Lulled in by a psychedelic poster with an irrestistable pose and costume worn by main actress Emi Kuroda (which she doesn’t even wear!), I was quite disappointed to find that this movie was nothing more than a bland Japanese softcore “pink movie” with an infinite disgust for Bush and the power that he wields. [Read The Full Review at Movies At Midnight]

EXILED (2006)When Wo is discovered to be living in Macao, Boss Fay orders Blaze to kill him. Wo once attempted to assassinate Fay, and now he must pay the price. But Blaze and Wo were once friends, and Blaze is unable to pull off the job. Even more so, his friend Tai has pleaded for Blaze to spare Wo’s life. These three, along with their gangster friends Cat and Fat, conspire to pull off a highly risky assassination job of Boss Keung, and intend to give the money they earn from it to hide away Wo and his family. Their plot to kill Keung is quite tricky, and even the slightest deviation from their plan will alert Fay, and bring his henchmen down on them. And on top of all this, the clock is slowly counting down to the handover of Macao to the Chinese government, their lives and fates are up in the air as to what the future holds.

For fans of Hong Kong action with knowledge that goes past John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat, you have only to look at the laundry list of talent attached to this film to know that it will succeed on every level. Johnnie To directs, through his Milky Way Image production company. The script comes from the pen of two writers whose previous scripts include EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, A HERO NEVER DIES, and BREAKING NEWS. And the cast is a perfect assortment of Hong Kong’s classic gangster actors including Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Francis Ng, Lam Suet, and Roy Cheung, which coincidentally is most of the main cast for Johnnie To’s classic THE MISSION. [Read My Full Review at Geeks Of Doom]

I’ve been waiting for a chance to write about this movie for sometime, but the inavailability stateside has always held me back. But with Mondo Macabro’s US DVDebut coming up on October 2nd, it is finally time to talk about…

MYSTICS IN BALI (1981) American student Cathy has come to Indonesia to investigate and learn the black magic of the Leyak, the masters of the oldest and more powerful of the black arts. Her friend, a local named Mahendra, uses his connections to get her a meeting with one of the reclusive masters, who decides to take Cathy as a student. Cathy soon learns, through dance, hypnosis and meditation the spells of the Leyak, including transformation. But when Cathy thinks she has learned it all and attempts to leave the old woman, the Leyak master puts Cathy under a possession spell so that she can use her to collect the blood of newborns. The Leyak master literally “borrows” Cathy’s head as her head detaches from her body - with her lungs, heart and organs still attached! - and flies off into the night to bring the Leyak her blood.

Coming out of Indonesia at the height of their exploitation film exporting craze, which utilized the small country’s wealth of folklore, legends, and magic to bring to the screen unique sleazy movies to satiate the filmgoers around the world with sex, violence, and the bizarre. MYSTICS IN BALI has become one of the champion examples of this period of Indonesian Cinema, of which the entire movement was basically funded by the government for tax breaks and to create a small job community. The result was hundreds of micro-budget releases with an eager excitement that helped the films to overcome their technical limitations.

Director H. Tjut Djalil (who would go on to bring the world LADY TERMINATOR) goes native in this black magic filled horror film that pulls from specific regional folklore to bring to the world images they’ve never seen before. His approach to black magic and native superstitions is so over the top that if one did not know it was made by local, one would decry the stereotyping and almost racist depiction of the practitioners. Djalil fills the movie’s soundtrack with rumbling tribal beats and rhythms to punctuate the atmosphere and to remind foreign audiences they are in a strange and new world.

Although there are obvious budget restrictions on screen, Djalil overcomes these limitations with an energetic assortment of special effects. The highlight is of course is Cathy’s flying head, and the first time Djalil lets her head loose is an out-of-nowhere sucker-punch to the collective horror stomach. Unless you’ve grown up on Indonesia folklore, you’ve never ever seen something or heard of something like this before. Djalil incorporates a variety of cheap effects to bring this legend to life, from blue-screen layering and split-screens for close ups to literally flying a mannequin head with some guts attached around on string for the wide shots. The result is ludicrous but somehow hypnotically appealing. Djalil keeps the hooky effects coming as he shows transformations with a cheap WOLFMAN-style fades as more and more make up is applied with each shot, and a fifteen foot tongue that comes out of the woods in which you can almost imagine the poor sod behind a tree trying to keep control over it.

Part of the charm of any East Asia import is of course the English Dub. MYSTICS IN BALI may hold the record for one of the most stilted and blatant exposition dialogue tracks to ever be recorded. And while classic Hong Kong kung-fu flicks were usually given their audio dub by professionals in a studio, this track seems to be recorded by the first people Djalil could find on the street that spoke English, and told to read the script on the spot. Several main characters ever sound like they were dubbed by the same person! To top it all off, Djalil doesn’t ever try to get the actors lips and the dialogue to match up.

Take a look into a world of cinema mostly overlooked save for the most experimental moviegoer with this wildly amusing and entertaining tale that will be sure to put a smile on your face and serve as an introduction to the world of Indonesian sleaze. There’s plenty more where this one came from!

Today I claim a small victory for myself as I am now officially a writer for one of my favorite sites, Gorezone.net! Gorezone is a great one stop shop to get all sorts of daily horror news tidbits, with proper source notation for further information.

SODOM THE KILLER (2004) Three hundred years ago, Sodomu fell from the grace of God when he mistakenly kills two innocent girls after his bride-to-be dies on their wedding night. Sodomu’s descendant Sodom becomes cursed by Sodomu’s sins on his wedding night, becoming blind in the process and developing a insane bloodlust. He sets out to bring chaos and anarchy to Japan, as he brings about economic turmoil with his henchmen, and then focuses his energy on the citizens themselves, when he uses a scientist’s experiments to take over the nervous system with an injection. Meanwhile, obsessed cop Therese, whose ancestor is none other than one of Sodomu’s victims, is on Sodom’s trail and will stop at nothing to end his murderous reign.

Hiroshi Takahashi, best known to horror audiences for his screenplays for the three Japanese RINGU films, makes his directorial debut with this ludicrously low-budget film whose shoe-string effects are only matched by the over-the-top acting. In an attempt to break out of his horror label, Hiroshi Takahashi eschews any sort of genre label with this picture as he wildly mixes horror, low-brow comedy, parody, and a V-Cinema ethos into a horribly strange yet oddly tasty stew. [Read The Full Review At Gorezone]

SEX AND FURY (1973)  It is the turn of the twentieth century. Legendary gambler and master thief Ocho (Reiko Ike) has been wandering and hunting for the unknown killers of her detective father for twenty years now. When a request by a dying card dealer brings her back to Tokyo, she finds herself partnering with Shinosuke, a leftist anarchist who has been fighting against a powerful right wing group with yakuza origins. As Ocho watched her father die as a child, he gave her a clue to the identities of the killer - a deer, a boar, and a butterfly. When Shinosuke reveals that one of the political leaders, a lecherous man with a fetish for virgins, has a deer tattooed on his back, Ocho is certain that this is one of the men she is searching for. But these yakuza politicians have several cards up their sleeve. One of which is several British agents, including the beautiful Christina (Christina Lindberg of THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE) who secretly has ties to Shinosuke.  The other is a much more personal connection to Ocho than she could realize!

Click on Reiko Ike below to read the full review on Movies At Midnight!

DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS:
WORTHLESS TO CONFESS (1971)

When Rika is finally released from reform school, she tracks down Midori’s home to visit the girl she shared a room with. She learns that Midori and her father are on the outs, and Midori’s father offers Rika a room and a job. Rika gladly accepts, as she has nowhere else to go in Shinjuku. Rika soon learns that Midori’s boyfriend is using his control over her to pay off his gambling debts using her father’s money. Rika also discovers the rest of her “street sisters” are trying to scrape by with whatever jobs they can find - and in Shinjuku that means working in hostess bars as paid dates for male clients. The local yakuza are also after the garage that Rika now works in, and when they turn to treachery that can no longer be tolerated, Rika and her gang once again reunite for a midnight strike of vengeance!

In the late sixties and early seventies, Japan’s main production studios began pushing the limits of acceptable cinema and filled the screens with tales of the yakuza, period samurai films, and what became known as “pinky violence”, an exploitative blend of softcore sex and sensational violence which often employed girl gangs and women in prison as the main protagonist. These film often featured a dizzy array of lowbrow comedy, gratuitous nudity, over-the-top bloodshed, morals, and redemptions, cutting back and forth in an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style that would pogo from one extreme to the other. The soundtracks frequently featured hyper-jazzy pop songs with opening and closing soulful ballads that would reflect on the themes of the movie. These were usually sang by the main actor or actress of the movie.

Now, WORTHLESS TO CONFESS, the fourth and final film in the DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS series (don’t worry, they’re by sequels by theme and for marketing, and do not need to be seen in order) is one of the more lighthearted in the pinky violence sub-genre. It is an good stepping stone to reach some of the more mean spirited and extreme films in the genre and get a taste for the themes that are prevalent throughout many of the movies. The film is slightly comic book-esque in its style, and many of the scenes are played for their comedic nature. The main themes deal with trying to find a home and being accepted, and the heartbreaking reality that whenever something good happens or happiness is found, something much worse is going to happen. The screen is filled with the archetypes that are often found in these films - from the main girl gangs that find unity in their orphan status to dimwits for comedy relief, reformed yakuza who are the most dangerous of all to sly and cowardly bosses who trick others to do the dirty work

What WORTHLESS TO CONFESS lacks that many others pinky violence films have an abundance of is action scenes. Instead, the first seventy-five minutes are filled with a multitude of subplots and exposition scenes that hurtle the film to its violent crescendo of a finale. The finale here is worth the admission alone, and while the lead up is worth paying attention to, it is the ending that will stay in your mind. Here, Rika and her four gang members dress in matching orange red dusters and walk side by side through the neon filled alleyways to the yakuza club, with a Japanese-influence western instrumental playing beneath. It is a incredible build-up that leads you to believe that the yakuza don’t stand a chance. Once the battle begins, in which everyone fights with swords on the main dance floor of the club amidst a florescent colored decour, anything goes. Director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi unleashes himself from the film’s earlier restraint as he lets the blood spray, the camera go frantic, and a quick yet highly-imaginative shot of the boss’s demise which is worthy of Seijun Suzuki.

For a taste of cinema that has not quite found the grasp it should have on fans of seventies crime action and exploitation, WORTHLESS TO CONFESS is an appetizer before the main course. While it does have a few “uncomfortable” moments that are par for course in the genre, the film never stoops to depraved gratuitousness found in many of the others. Recently a host of pinky violence flicks have found their way to domestic DVD releases making this previously hard to access genre much easier to find. Why not take a chance

The following additional titles should be within easy rental or purchasing grasp, and are the “main course” with the full-blown exploitation for those that enjoy the likes of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE, or the period revenge film LADY SNOWBLOOD:

Girl Boss Guerilla
Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom
Criminal Woman: Killing Melody
Sex and Fury (Christina Lindberg, of THRILLER, has vicious co-starring role)
Female Yakuza Tale (sequel to Sex and Fury)
Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

THE LAST SUPPER (2005) Doctor Yuji Kotorida is a charming and chanting plastic surgeon, who is known as “God’s hand” for his work he does on celebrities, and has recently been the subject of a TV expose. The expose coincidently enough, is even done by Saki, a former patient of his. But life wasn’t always grand for Yuji. At one time, he was an awkward and introverted student, taken in at his current job as a lowly assistant. But one night, when he took home a small pouch of a woman’s recently removed fat and cooked it up to eat, he felt something he had never felt before. He felt fulfilled.

Yuji quickly graduated to the eating the flesh of a woman, when he discovers a housewife in the woods who had recently hung herself. Yuji, using his expertise with a knife, creates meal sized portions and makes sure to eat part of her every night. His personality change to the suave gentleman he currently is grabs the attention of all the staff, who become infatuated with him. On a journey to Hong Kong for a convention, he discovers he is not alone, when he is drawn into a secret dinner society that dine on freshly killed women. Back home, Yuji takes Saki up on a dinner invitation, and breaks his rule about seeing patients. With his hunger growing more ravenous by the day, he must decide if Saki will become his guest of honor at dinner.

Snuggly planted deep between THE UNTOLD STORY and HANNIBAL, writer/director Osamu Fukutani adapts the book by Kei Oishi that some called “unfilmable.” Here, a sensuous and almost erotic element is added to the cannibal genre, that save for Thomas Harris’ novels and subsequent films, is usually regarded for its outrageous gore and exploitative traits. But don’t let the way that Yuji sees his cannibalistic ways - he sees his daily meals as the equivalent of having intercourse once a day - fool you. There is some grotesque and stomach churning violence here. Though the actual killings by decapitation are somewhat hokey, the dismemberment of the bodies are anything but. Fukutani’s dedication to realism here verges on material that would be at home in the GUINEA PIG series. Fukutani’s use of sound effects, especially the squishy sounds of entrails and the grinding of the bone saws, are down right hair raising.

There is also an element of humor found here. Granted, this is the darkest kind of humor that only coroners and crime scene investigators laugh at to keep from going insane, but it is there. The finest example is when Yuji on several occasions tells his soon to be victim that he wants to eat them. This is at the height of a sensual massage, and while Yuji is thinking one thing, his female companion is thinking something quite different. Several guests at Yuji’s apartment are also treated to his “special meat”. These scenes, which feature close up shots of his cooking and shows off the masterful presentation of the finished dish, are some of the best sequences in the film. The way that Fukutani sets up these scenes may have vegetarians in the audience particularly glad for the culinary choices, but carnivores watching may find themselves oddly attracted to the idea of sampling the forbidden.

As with any film that is essentially a single character study, the actor filling Yuji’s shoes has a great responsibility to carry the story. Masaya Kato, does a quite believable job as Yuji. Even as he performs the most inhuman and unspeakable crimes of modern society, he comes off as sympathetic and charming. The fact that his kills are instantaneous and without malice make the character more easy to stomach. He does not give off any sense of hatred toward woman. Quite the opposite, Yuji’s happiness and content as he dines is almost a salute to women, though in a most garish and twisted way. He feels empty and incomplete without a woman.

Though the climax of the film gets a bit out of hand, it seems out of character for the Yuji we have grown to know during the movie. This may be partially to blame for its transition from book to screen, which must condense the storyline to fit into a reasonable timeframe, and thus loses part of the evolution of Yuji. It is a little over the top, and comes too quick to fully enjoy as the main course it should be, as if the film needed to be over at that exact moment. It does however include a most satisfying brief scene that brings Fukutani’s power of suggestion to a delicious crescendo that will make you want to want to cook your own food for the rest of your life.