A Fortnight of Terror: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
I thought I would throw a couple of live tweet reviews in this Fortnight of Terror to mix things up a bit. After The IPC suggested it would be “greatness” if I did a live tweet review of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), I thought that was a pretty good place to start. Here is how it turned out. Share your thoughts on the film in the comments section below.
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror: Sixty Second Slashers
I recently stumbled across the Sixty Second Slashers Youtube account and have been having some fun checking out their work. So I thought I would share the love with you guys, thought some of you might get a kick out of it.
Many (but by no means all) great short films are just a single idea executed really well. Sixty Second Slashers takes that notion as far as it will go by delivering, you guessed it, slasher films that take place in a single minute. It is a great concept, to strip away all the artifice and just get these genre flicks right back to their core. I am not really sure who the folks behind the series of films are, but they really know their stuff cause the production values are pretty spot on.
Occasionally it does not entirely work. That is to be expected when you pin all your hopes on a single idea. When that one idea is not as sharp as it could be the film obviously suffers. There is a comedic slant to most of the films, which occasionally hits but definitely misses on occasions. But more often than not, these guys pull their concept off pretty well and there is some fun to be had watching these.
Enough of my rambling, here are my top three Sixty Second Slashers (there are currently 11 of these up on their Youtube account as well as a longer, The ABCs of Death 2 entry). Let me know what you think of these in the comments section below.
#3: Final Girl – This one actually manages to pack a fair bit of story into a very short package.
#2: Broken Fantasy – There is a cool tone to this one. It is light, but doesn’t feel the need to go OTT with the comedy.
#1: Back to the Post-Apocalypse – My favourite of the lot, and a good illustration of the power of a single good idea – in this case, a skype slasher.
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw. Check out all the details here.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror Guest Post: James Wan… Boo!
The first guest post for this week comes from Jon Fisher, a very good friend of mine. Here he turns his focus onto the fantastic young Australian horror director James Wan.
Horror has always enjoyed a love/hate relationship with movie audiences. Because of their cost-effectiveness and inbuilt audience (hardcore fans and teenagers), in any given year there’s guaranteed to be a dozen or more horror titles. Most of them are made on autopilot, with plots and characters cobbled together from any number of clichés. Some are more memorable, tapping into humans’ natural trepidation with things that fall into the Uncanny Valley – events or beings that confuse our brain as to whether or not danger is present or not. The most enjoyable and interesting horror films try to present the supernatural as living exclusively in the Uncanny Valley. Inanimate objects that appear to move of their own accord, malevolent demons that come from somewhere… else, with dubious motivations; bumps in the night, in short, spook the hell out of us.
In the era before movies (and certainly before the era of modern Western hyper-rationality), ghost stories were widely believed, and even specific locations avoided by communities because of the supernatural mischief-makers supposedly lurking within. (I once stayed in a country town in which seemingly all of the town’s 3,000-strong population would change their route to avoid walking past an old mansion in which they swear any entrant would receive what they called a ‘ghost-massage’).
Rationality, of course, ruins the fun. Every time any thinking person hears a so-called ‘expert’ in a horror movie babble on about the occult as if there was a body of empirical evidence to back up what they’re saying, the illusion is busted. Think of the ghost hunter in Paranormal Activity (2007), who floats in and out of the haunted house with the air of a prize-winning economist. The challenge of making a really good horror movie is to present material that is, innately, completely irrational, and yet still manage to convince audiences that it’s creepy.
The films of James Wan are informed by all of this – a deep familiarity with the Uncanny Valley, an appreciation for the schlock and inherent silliness of the horror genre, as well as an understanding that such subject material, if treated the right way, can engage audiences as well as creep them out. And that is, truly, what Wan’s films try to do – give us the creeps. It’s regrettable that his breakthrough hit Saw (2004) is seen as the film that ushered in the filthy torture-porn renaissance of the middle of last decade, because Saw relied far more on manipulation of the human psyche than on explicit torture.
After a dodgy middle period (including Dead Silence (2007) which bordered on self-parody), James Wan has been active again over the last two years, with Insidious (2011) and The Conjuring (2013) arriving in relatively quick succession. The films act as sort of companion pieces to each other. Both are about a young family moving into a classic haunted house, full of high-ceilinged bedrooms, secret passageways, ominous basements and an endless supply of nooks and crannies. Both movies linger ever-so-slightly on the ‘technical’ gibberish that surrounds ghost whispering and paranormal investigation (the sombre lectures given by Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjurer, the humorous squirting machine methodically employed by Leigh Whanell’s character in Insidious). The Conjuring even discloses to us, in the pre-credits, that it is ‘based on the true story’, although it’s not clear if it means that in a Coen Brothers Fargo sense or a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sense.
I’m not aware of whether James Wan believes in ghosts or if he just believes in ghost movies. Regardless, he approaches the material with a plethora of enthusiasm and verve. His manipulation of the Uncanny Valley is first-rate – the weird prologue of The Conjuring about a possessed doll; a game of ‘hide-and-clap’ in which a poltergeist decides to mess with the homeowner.
Occasionally Wan’s work is amusingly derivative (i.e. the toothless crone waiting on top of a dresser), other times it is outstandingly stylish – the final shot of The Conjuring, for instance, is tense, suspenseful, and beautifully timed. Much of the set-up of Insidious is artfully crafted. Sometimes, though, Wan almost ratchets the tension up too high; so high that the scene can’t be resolved satisfactorily. Take, for instance, the slow-burning scene in The Conjuring in which a child wakes up his sibling, insisting that something is standing next to the door. The scene builds and builds beautifully, but how does it end? With nothing more than the slam of a door.
Which highlights another issue with Wan’s films; the repetition. Maybe there just isn’t enough meat on the bones of his screenplays to warrant a two-hour feature. Wan injects both Insidious and The Conjurer with at least the semblance of an emotional arc, but usually the relationships between the characters are suggested rather than explored. We understand the sentiment in The Conjurer when Ed tells Lorraine he can’t let her join him in an exorcism because of the danger posed, but only in an abstract sense. Ditto the pain that Josh Lambert feels in Insidious about his family’s crumbling dynamics, so much so to the point he returns late at night just to avoid them.
In the midst of all that, there are sequences in Insidious and The Conjuring that work on their own terms so well. Are such moments worth the price of admission? Do our expectations of how much movies can achieve emotionally automatically lower simply because they belong to the genre of horror?
Viewers probably know if they are likely to enjoy a James Wan movie. Those who won’t find anything to enjoy in his work are probably the sort of person who hates any sort of horror film. But for those that are willing to suspend some disbelief, to give the material a chance and who have a relatively firm constitution, movies like Insidious and The Conjuring are a breath of fresh air compared to the dreck of horror movies normally shoved down the general public’s collective throat. All else aside, it is fair to state that if you are a squeamish person, James Wan makes movies that are likely to make you squeam.
Jon formerly wrote The Film Brief website and hosted a podcast of the same name (with me as his co-host). You can now find Jon’s latest work at Wide Angle Iris, a site he runs with the talented Rollie Schott. Be sure to check out their stuff over at that site.
Also don’t forget that over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw. Check out all the details here.
A Fortnight of Terror Trailer for your Weekend: Patrick
In a strange way, I really wish that I was not sharing this trailer this week. Patrick, a remake of an Ozploitation classic from 1978 opened this week so I was going to check it out and review it. Inexplicably though, the film is not showing in any of Canberra’s cinemas. So I will have to make do with the trailer. The original is perhaps the most famous of the iconic range of classic Australian genre films made famous by the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, a film which got a lot of impetus from having a gushing Tarantino as one of the interview subjects.Ironically, that film did exceptionally well here, but audiences continually shun new and fantastic Aussie genre films.
The director of Not Quite Hollywood Mark Hartley is actually the director of this film in what I believe is his fiction debut. Sharni Vinson, who has burst on to the international scene this year with You’re Next is one of the stars, joined by some quality Aussie actors such as Rachel Griffiths and Damon Gameau. Overall I think the trailer looks promising and the film, whilst perhaps not doing anything too hugely innovative, should hopefully be a slice of genre fun. It looks decidedly atmospheric that’s for sure. Just a shame then that I will have to wait until I can catch it on blu-ray to confirm.
What do you dudes think of the trailer?
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw. Check out all the details here.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror: The ABCs of Death
Anthology films are a strange beast. They allow for short sharp bursts of inspiration, but are also at the mercy of their weakest parts.
As far as ideas for anthology films go, the one for The ABCs of Death (2012) is pretty exceptional. 26 different directors were each given a letter of the alphabet and a $5,000 budget (so when you think of it, this is an exceptionally cheap feature length film that I suspect has made its budget back many times over). They were then given the artistic freedom to come up with a form of death starting with their assigned letter.
The end result is perhaps unsurprisingly, patchy. I thought with this review, I would institute a highly innovative and new patented rating system for each short of Awesome, Decent and Rubbish. After the short individual reviews, I will give some thoughts on how I feel the film functions as a whole. Here we go.
- A is for Apocalypse (Nacho Vigalondo) – A relatively funny little experience with unfortunately terrible special effects. A silly final twist that falls flat is unfortunately the first of quite a few. Decent
- B is for Bigfoot (Adrian Garcia Bogliano) – Cool old school conceit of telling a child a scary story to make them go to sleep (for the purposes of having a youthful root rather than getting them to sleep on Christmas Eve though). Story is really wordy and the ending of this one is not just stupid, it fails to connect the film to the title. Rubbish
- C is for Cycle (Ernesto Diaz Espinoza) – One of the more experimental films in form is also one of the better ones. None of the other 25 build tension as well as this one. Plus any film with a mysterious portal is more than fine with me. Awesome
- D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento) – This takes place in a nicely shot (all slow-mo) underground fighting ring. This is a personal thing, but I really don’t like films that present animals in this way and I thought it was a bit nasty. A nice little twist ending doesn’t hide the fact there is no ability to fashion a story here. Rubbish
- E is for Exterminate (Angela Bettis) – An interesting look at the passage of time is wasted by an annoyingly CGI spider and poor acting all round. Rubbish
- F is for Fart (Noboru Iguchi) – Surprisingly this is actually even more crass and immature than the title suggests. A sprinkling of lesbian desire is thrown in to add to the feeling that a 14 year old boy made this. Disgusting. Rubbish
- G is for Gravity (Andrew Traucki) – The Aussie Traucki gets things back on track with one of the artier shorts. Shot from a cool first person point of view and making use of some beautiful beach scenery more than cancels out an oblique ending. Awesome
- H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion (Thomas Malling) – It is hard to hate something this absurdist. It is also hard to make something this absurdist truly work and connect. A gentleman’s club for dogs. Featuring a cat… and Nazis. This shit is both whack and whimsical. Decent
- I is for Ingrown (Jorge Michel Grau) – No absurdist fun here, this is dark, troubling and atmospheric. Whilst it is hard to watch it is also really nicely put together and thought provoking (the latter attribute is something quite lacking in these shorts, even amongst the ones I enjoyed). Awesome
- J is for Jidai-geki (Samurai Movie) (Yûdai Yamaguchi) – This is really quite funny and does not go all out stupid on the comedy like some of the others. The very cool effects don’t hurt either. Decent
- K is for Klutz (Anders Morgenthaler) – Oh excellent, some constipation and shit to go along with the earlier farting. An annoying cartoon with poor animation. Rubbish
- L is for Libido (Timo Tjahjanto) – And this is where the film as a whole really lost me. I generally am not offended by films, but I found this short to be offensive. It wasn’t just enough that I had real issues with the way it approaches notions of beauty and desire. The use of paedophilia here makes it one of the most confronting things I have seen on film. When you shock, you need to be incisive in some way or you are just being manipulative and tasteless. That is what this one is, and I just wanted it to be over. Rubbish
- M is for Miscarriage (Ti West) – My above comment about being incisive rings true for this as well. Miscarriage is such a sensitive topic for so many people and I don’t think this is respectful of that. At this point, the reliance on body style horror was really getting tiresome. Rubbish
- N is for Nuptials (Banjong Pisanthanakun) – Starting with a super sweet proposal, this one is actually pretty funny and manages to embrace sex in a humorous way. I’m not sure it’s a horror film though. Decent
- O is for Orgasm (Bruno Forzani & Héléne Cattet) – So beautifully shot it could be the Terrence Malick entry. O is also for obscure as shit though. Decent
- P is for Pressure (Simon Rumley) – This has a really gritty, ‘street’ feel to it. A prostitute looking to provide for her family. This is another really confronting one, but at least here there is a semblance of commentary. And the way that the film represents the title is the best of the lot. Decent
- Q is for Quack (Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett) – This is a really quite hilarious and meta entry into the anthology. Analyses the process that goes into making one of these segments. Very clever and incisive. My favourite of them all. Awesome
- R is for Removed (Srdjan Spasojevic) – This is a really graphic entry that is one of many to tap into the whole notion of spectatorship. Combining gross body horror with allusions to film and managing to look really great for the budget, it is just a little let down by the rubbish effects shot that concludes the film. Decent
- S is for Speed (Jake West) – Woah the acting in this is terrible. However this actually ends up having one of the most powerful stories of the lot, delivered through a really well crafted narrative. Decent
- T is for Toilet (Lee Hardcastle) – Not sure you can go wrong with a claymation short about a killer toilet. The animation looks great and it is awesomely graphic. The only thing it really has going for it is the animation. But that one thing is really fantastic. Awesome
This one has also been posted on Youtube by the director so check it out here:
- U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley) – This is another that uses a first person shooting style to great effect. The style really adds to the action and sense of mystery, whilst also probably helping to keep the budget down. Decent
- V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby) (Kaare Andrews) – Very high concept (for the budget at least) sci-fi entry. A bummer then that the story is just severely lacking for what they were aiming for. Rubbish
- W is for WTF! (Jon Schnepp) – Another self-reflexive one sees different W ideas being tossed around. To be reflexive like that without being pretentious is tough to do, but this manages it. Does get a little too all over the shop though. Decent
- X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) – With its very visceral scenes of overeating this is another challenging one. The main performance is very good. And the bloody and brutal approach does not stop the film having some pertinent things to say about body image. Decent
- Y is for Youngbuck (Jason Eisener) – A Klaus Kinski rip-off in something looking like a music video. But a really fucked up and crap one from the 80s. Rubbish
- Z is for Zetsumetsu (Yoshihiro Nishimura) – More of this notion of the spectator on voyeur. But this one is overwhelmed buy being nonsensical and graphic. Boobs, dildos and lesbian pashing to appeal to the teens. Rubbish
Overall I think it is fair to label The ABCs of Death as a pretty big disappointment. Whilst the early entries were definitely lacking on occasions, there was actually enough wit, originality and fun in the ideas to win me over. However after the nastiness of L is for Libido and to a lesser extent M is for Miscarriage, the film lost a lot of goodwill with me. There is a lot to like here. If you are able to find the films individually, then I would really recommend that you seek out the films I rated as Awesome or even Decent. Save yourself the trouble on the others though which are really quite poor and at times offensive. Which is a shame, because even for all its faults there is a lot to applaud here. Not the least of which is a relatively global list of directors, locations and cultures captured, which is a really pleasant surprise and helps to add some texture to the film as a whole. Hopefully The ABCs of Death 2, which is due next year, can improve some of the quality control issues this film has.
Verdict: Schooner of Carlton Draught
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror: Intro & Comp Details
October means Halloween for many people. I am not really one of those people. Being an Aussie, the holiday is, well not really a holiday here. Having said that, I have gotten increasingly into horror films over recent years, so any excuse to watch a buttload of horror flicks is a good one in my book. So over the next 14 days in the lead up to Halloween, I am going to be covering a huge range of horror films here on the site, hopefully capturing everything from iconic classics to the latest releases.
To go along with my usual ranting and reviews, I also have 4 or 5 great guest posts lined up as well, from some awesome writers. The first of these should hit the site tomorrow with others to follow regularly over the fortnight.
There will be a DVD prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment on offer as well. I have not confirmed the exact prize as yet, but will keep you all updated. In any case, rest assure it will be awesome.
Entries to the comp will be open to all readers worldwide. To enter, do any/all of the following for each of the posts over the next 14 days:
- Like the post on Facebook for one entry
- Comment on the post on Facebook for two entries
- Share the post on Facebook for two entries
- Retweet the post on Twitter for two entries
- Like the post on this site for one entry
- Comment on the post on this site for two entries
To kick things off, give me your top 3 horror flicks of all time in the comments section below.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
Worth Watching September 2013
Hey folks. So this one is a little late. My focus on Japanese cinema ran overtime, I have been madly prepping for a bit of a Halloween countdown and also attended a film festival. In any case, here is Worth Watching for September. A mixed month, with a couple of cracking docos counterbalanced by probably my biggest disappointment of the year so far, in a rare month where my not worth watchings outnumber my recommendations (possibly only the second month this has happened in the past three years I have been doing this). Read on and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Worth Watching:
- The Woman Who Wasn’t There (2012), Angelo Guglielmo – This brings an aspect of 9/11 to the screen that I have rarely seen examined, namely the survivors of the attacks, their guilt and experiences. It is an incredible tale. A woman purports to be a survivor of the attacks even though she was not even in the country. Mind boggling stuff. Really stylishly done, with cool art work of what supposedly happened utilised. Well worth a watch.
- Russian Ark (2002), Alexander Sokurov – This is a good film, but for me not the all out classic that it is for some people. At over 90 minutes long and only one take, it is possibly the ultimate example of style over substance. As a sheer technical marvel, it does need to be seen to be believed, and it is utterly beautiful. I have to say though, it is pretty dry, getting by a little bit on the idea rather than the execution. See it, but once will be enough.
- The Tillman Story (2010), Amir Bar-Lev – The second really interesting doco of the month is an incredible story focusing on Pat Tillman who gave up an NFL career to go to war. His eventual death and the story surrounding it is all about the cult of military heroism. The way his passing was adopted by the public and taken away from his family is reprehensible. But awesomely his family pushed back at that and at least in part exposed a horrific cover up. Another example if you needed one of both the evil of war and the current state of militarism.
Not Worth Watching:
- Kick Ass 2 (2013), Jeff Wadlow – Wow what a shattering disappointment. This sequel to my favourite film of 2012 is not just a let-down in comparison, but simply a terrible film. The lessened involvement of Matthew Vaughn hurts, because no one is in control of this material. The repeated and shockingly bad projectile vomit joke is simply not what these films are about. In addition the realism that was so important in grounding the action of the first film is completely abandoned. Not to mention that the film looks terrible, with a befuddling reliance on CGI, made all the worse by the fact most of it is early 90s standard.
- We’re the Millers (2013), Rawson Marshall Thurber – A bloody terrible film. I cannot recall a more utterly predictable and lacking in edge film experience this year. Aside from the stunt casting of Jennifer Aniston as a stripper, the cast manage to be decent, in particular Emma Roberts and Will Poulter. But the material is so bland and weak that they cannot elevate this whatsoever.
- This is 40 (2012), Judd Apatow – Why the fuck does this film need to be 2 hours and 10 minutes? Peter Jackson must have been a producer or something. I have real issues with the character played by Leslie Mann. A whiny, typically clichéd whinging woman with no depth to her. Indeed all the characters are utterly unlikeable. Not to mention this whole Apatow conceit of letting people sort of adlib lines has become so obvious and stale. Terribly, terribly written. Women are different to men. Lolz. I literally feel I lost IQ points watching this film.
- You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), Woody Allen – Immediately feels like a Woody Allen film and like all his contemporary work has a great cast. Their performances vary wildly though. Naomi Watts is really good, Frida Pinto is quite clunky whilst Josh Brolin gives a flatter performance than I have ever seen him deliver. It is basically just a bunch of interlinked stories of adultery. Is that meant to be romantic? Far from Woody’s best script as well.
If you only have time to watch one The Woman Who Wasn’t There
Avoid at all costs Kick Ass 2
Trailer for your Weekend: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Somewhat controversially, Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film was my least favourite of last year. Says a lot about him as a filmmaker and my love for his Lord of the Rings films that when a mate told me that there was a trailer up for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I felt the need to check it out ASAP.
My verdict? I’m just not sure. I really want it to be amazing. I still have this horrid fear that it will be bloated and plainly drawn out far too long. I definitely won’t be seeing it in the turgid 48 FPS that Jackson seems to love, but even so, the visuals look a little cartoonish just in this trailer. Let’s hope Jackson gets it right this time though. The teaser of Smaug in this trailer definitely leaves me wanting more.
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The Cinema of Japan: Yojimbo
Here we are with the final post in my week (and a bit) focus on the cinema of Japan. I hope you guys have enjoyed these posts and thanks to the guest bloggers that have helped me along the way. Don’t forget that you have a shot at winning three Japanese films from Madman and entries will close a week from this post going up.
It is a little surprising that Akira Kurosawa’s iconic Yojimbo (1961) does not feature on the 1001. I have seen a few of the great man’s films, but this is the first from what I guess you would call his really classic, samurai focused phase that I have managed to catch.
Apparently this film had a particular influence on (or even just supplied the entire plot for) a whole bunch of Western films. Even if you did not know that fact going in, it is pretty plain to see. A lone, violent man called Sanjuro saunters into town. He attracts the attention of the locals who are transfixed by this stranger. The town that Sanjuro wanders into is in the midst of a bloody and closely fought gang war. After showing his prowess by slicing and dicing a couple of hapless minions, he is courted by both sides looking to buy themselves some muscle. It is these really well scripted negotiations with both sides that take up a majority of the film’s running time. These elongated sequences of both sides bidding for his services are really interesting. They are quite detailed and multilayered, but the script is good enough not to need to get unnecessarily (or even at all) dense. Not get too concerned though. This isn’t Margin Call (2011) with everyone sitting around the boardroom table talking shop. There is plenty of quality sword fighting action to go around as well.
Sanjuro is actually a really interesting central character. He is I guess an anti-hero. For much of the film he is pretty unlikeable as he plays a bunch of (all admittedly unlikeable) people off against one another. Not exactly noble, he is content to sell himself to the highest paying crew, or preferably just rip them all off repeatedly, causing chaos in the town in the process. As such, it is a bit of an abrupt change where toward the end of the film, we as the audience are meant to now sympathise with this character, because up to that point he has done nothing in the slightest bit heroic. I kind of respected him as a dude who walked to the beat of his own drum the whole way through, but there is a definite jump from that to out and out sympathy. In the end though, after a fair dose of humility is beaten into him, it is hard not to feel the exact things for Sanjuro that Kurosawa was angling for the whole time. It just takes him to be literally beaten down so badly that it is borderline impossible not to feel sympathy for the man for this to happen. The character is played really well by Toshiro Mifune, one of Kurosawa’s creative muses throughout his career. He brings a searing, yet quiet intensity to the character of Sanjuro, keeping his motives hidden from the rest of the characters, but letting them know he definitely always means business.
I am not sure if there is folk source material behind Yojimbo that I don’t know about, but this pretty cool tale definitely did feel like an old fashioned fable to me. Bound by a single town and for much of it consisting of negotiations, it is lucky the script is so good. It is also refreshing in an age of ultra-seriousness in serious film, that this particular flick is not afraid to add in a rich sense of humour to the action. I am not sure if the soundtrack was influenced by classical Westerns or influenced them. But there is clearly some cross-pollination one way or the other which that just feeds into the notion that this is an Eastern Western of top class.
I can definitely see why Yojimbo is not just one of Kurosawa’s most famous films, but also a highly influential one in world cinema. As possibly the best samurai film I have ever seen, a distinctly Japanese genre if one exists, this is a highly apt way to finish off this look at the Japanese cinema.
Verdict: Pint of Kilkenny
This week thanks to Madman Entertainment, you have the chance to win a copy of AceAttorney, Black Belt and Yojimbo on DVD. Head here for all the details on how to enter.
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The Cinema of Japan: Black Belt
My week focusing on Japanese cinema has unfortunately blown out a little. That is due to me attending the Blue Mountains Film Festival (where I programmed the feature films) and having far too much fun to write as much as I planned. So the week will just be slightly elongated, with one more post to follow this one. Entries for the competition will close one week after that final post is published.
From the get-go, Black Belt (2007) attempts to ground itself in the history of karate. The film opens with black and white still photos bringing to life the historical background to the film. Whilst the film shifts into a conventional narrative, it still taps into the detail and nuance of the art of karate throughout. Whilst it branches out heavily from the narrative starting point, Black Belt is at its heart a story of succession. The sensei of a dojo dies, leaving his three main students to decide amongst themselves who should inherit his black belt. Alongside this there is another tale of a rather pantomime villainous general who interacts with these fighters, attempting to use their skills to close down dojos and replace them with brothels. This aspect of the film is perhaps less enjoyable than the conflict of fighting styles and philosophies between the sensei’s students, which kind of gets forgotten for large swathes of the film. The film can be a little wooden throughout, but there is no doubt that it utterly kicks ass once the action starts up. It promises high quality and authentic fight scenes and does not disappoint. Except for perhaps a final action sequence that is intentionally made to be a little sluggish. A risk that I did not think entirely paid off. But one that I can sort of let slide, because it is the kind of risk the rest of the film could have perhaps used a little more of, with some of it being a touch obvious and clichéd.
What sets this film apart from a myriad of others is the detailed exploration of the philosophy behind the art, or more precisely the differed philosophies behind the art. To see two different stylistic approaches to a single martial art in a single film is something really quite original to behold. The main conflict in the film comes from two of the students vying for the belt. One rigidly follows the teachings of their sensei and refuses to strike back at his opponent or utilise kicks, instead using defensive techniques only. This is contrasted with the differing approach of his peer who incorporates vicious attacking striking on top of the defensive skills that he learned from his sensei. This character is Taikan, who is easily manipulated and bought into doing the General’s bidding. However the change to become the General’s lackey is quite abrupt and could have used some more explanation straight off the bat. Acting wise, Black Belt is a mixed bag. The performances in the main parts are solid, though these parts are filled with actors probably chosen more for their fighting chops rather than their acting ones. It has to be said though that some of the performances in smaller roles are a little tepid.
This review has perhaps come off reading a little more negative than I had intended. Let me emphasise that the action sequences in this film are incredible – highly technical, vicious and smoothly pieced together. They also bring to life the two different philosophical approaches to karate that the film showcases, which is just such an interesting approach to take. The rest of the film is by no means bad; it just struggles to match up to this very high standard.
Verdict: Stubby of Reschs
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