Rampo - 1994 - Japan

Rampo - 1994 - 8/10
AKA - The Mystery Of Rampo // 奥山バージョン

 
Wonderful Japanese arthouse/mystery/detective/erotic/ D: all of the above.
Knowledgeable viewers will note Rampo, as in Edogawa Rampo, and anticipate a wild ride.
Film opens as pre WWII official censors Rampo’s latest story (wife smothers invalid husband) as subversive.  
Rampo’s agent, points out actual news article of woman whose husband died in exact manner as story.
The writer investigates, stalks, imagines a new story, merging fantasy with reality in the process.
Eventually his alter-ego, Detective Akechi, takes over and trails the woman to the castle of a mad marquis.
Lush score, gorgeous costumes, fabulous sets.  Brilliant film that is constantly inventive and imaginative.

 
Note:  Available on laserdisc and DVD, but both have issues.
Video on LD is soft.  Subs on LD, however, were minimal and matched the theatrical release.
The MGM DVD is over-subbed, so one winds up constantly reading, rather than feasting on images.
Hopefully, this gets remastered one day.

Parker - 2013 - USA

Parker - 2013 - 6/10

 
Two caper heists bookend Parker, who is a professional thief, hitman. career criminal.
After a successful job, events turn murderous and Parker is left for dead.
Donald Westlake's character is hard to kill, though (see Payback, Point Blank, et al).
Modern version, set in sleek Palm Beach, targets an impossible prize.
Jason Statham alright as the taciturn Parker, absurd as a Texan.  J Lo fine as uneasy accomplice.
He is ingenious, resourceful, capable of involving others, yet he is no an invincible machine.
Hollywood product.  Well paced, tight, and fairly faithful to the character.

Black Hair - 1964 - S Korea

Black Hair - 1964 - 5/10
AKA - Geomeun Meori  // 검은 머리

The gang boss’s wife had been raped.
Per rules, the men disfigure her face, force the leader to throw her out.
To survive, she becomes a hooker.
That is early on, in a sordid backstory.
The look is dark and bleak, and could pass for a Nikkatsu yakuza tale.

 
Unfortunately, the narrative is a maudlin affair.
The separated couple live with regret and barely function.
Meanwhile, the thugs want change, but they are indecisive.
Japan filmmakers would have had a field day with this story.

We Are What We Are - 2013 - USA

We Are What We Are - 2013 - 5/10

 
Marketed as a horror film, though it really isn’t (unless you are a vegan).
Reclusive family, living in a tiny Catskill community, fasts during the weekend.
They are waiting for Lambs Day, a celebration of their own, peculiar religion.
Constant rains and flooding make everything difficult, and early on, the mother, clearly ill, drops dead in a ditch.
Nevertheless, the two daughters have to carry on with tradition.
Dark, dreary mood piece, lacking gushers for gorehounds.
Barely recognizable Kelly McGillis, Cruise’s hot babe in Top Gun, plays trailer park neighbor.
Viewers of a certain age will recognize Michael Parks as suspicious village doctor. 

Edo Porn - 1981 - Japan

Edo Porn - 1981 - 6/10
AKA - Hokusai Manga // 北斎漫画

Stylized history of woodblock artist Hokusai will interest some, bore more.
He is a failure and wannabe Utamaro copyist until he discovers his muse in a young prostitute.

 
Even then, he cannot render her and he departs to walk the countryside.
This results in his masterpiece series, 36 views of Mount Fuji.
For hentai enthusiasts, Hokusai's lascivious shunga of the congress of
human female and octopus is shown in a highly suggestive drawing session.

 
Despite that, the movie overall is ponderously slow, the final section numbingly so.

It Was A Wonderful Life - 1992 - USA

It Was A Wonderful Life - 1992 - 6/10

 
Documentary profiling six women in Los Angeles, homeless.
How they are living / surviving.  Where to find food, showers.
Sleeping at night, most in their cars.  Hassles with “the system” that would rather move them along.
Who had they been before, and how did they fall?  How did they lose everything?
Doc goes into that, too.  The women are painfully honest, a few try to stay optimistic.
After all, this is America.  Sunny California, no less.
As someone who lived out of his car for a month, however, I know firsthand how quickly your life can unravel.
Film leaves a sour taste.  Not toward the participants, but producers.  Those who profited, but did not assist.

Strangers From Hell - 2019 - S Korea

Strangers From Hell - 2019 - 7/10
AKA - Hell Is Other People  // Taineun Jiokida  // 타인은 지옥이다

“At what point did everything go wrong?
“If I hadn't come to this horrible place ...”

 
Jong Woo moves from Buson to Seoul.
Everything is terribly expensive:  meals, repairs, taxis, accommodations.
Especially accommodations.
Eventually he moves far out, to a run-down place called Eden Studio.
Empty, save for a gregarious manager, and a group of disreputable types.
Except ... it's worse, far worse.
Warning!!  Subplot involves a serial cat killer.

 
This will especially resonate with anyone who has / had the ghastly apartment. *
Cramped rooms, little to no maintenance, intrusive, creepy neighbors.
The home environment mirrors / bleeds into the workplace.
Yes, this takes a toll.  Jong Woo grows angrier, stymied, and resentment simmers.
How much does the environment poison you?  How much is innate?

*   When I first moved to Los Angeles, my abode was the Bluebird Motel.
A dark room with a bed and a lamp.  Along with trash on the floor.
No sheets, no towels in the bathroom, only a used bar of soap.
This was a hot sheets joint, renting for afternoons or nights, to prostitutes, workplace affairs, or horny teenagers.
I only stayed one week, orientating, until I found a more respectable apartment.
Once I saw the Eden Studio, memories flooded back, after decades of being forgotten.

Eric Clapton: A Life In Twelve Bars - 2015 - UK

Eric Clapton: A Life In Twelve Bars - 2015 - 6/10

 
Hit n miss biography of Slowhand, the first half being the best.
Clapton's childhood, the stability of life with his grandmother, jeopardized whenever his wayward mother arrives.
The latter seems a particularly poisonous and enduring influence.
In short order, Roosters, Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith.
(Delaney and Bonnie forgotten in the narrative jump to Derek And The Dominoes.)
Alcohol abuse and a string of albums, crap, mediocre, now and then decent.
By and large, chart pop hits of the 70's and 80's - and he enjoyed many - went unmentioned.
Also unmentioned were many other, widely covered, abuses.  Alcohol is covered.
Again, the first half is enthralling.  Once key omissions begin, the sugar coat thickens.

Innkeepers - 2011 - USA

Innkeepers - 2011 - 5/10

 
Last days of famed New England inn/hotel.
Only a few rooms are rented, and a two person skeleton staff tag-team seven hour shifts.
Employees also spend free time searching for the famous ghost, said to haunt the premises.
I watched the female desk clerk huff her inhaler twice in fifteen minutes.  Straight off I figure,  “you in trouble, girlfriend.”
Barely recognizable Kelly McGillis (above), Cruise’s hot babe in Top Gun, plays late arriving, ex-actress, now occult dabbler.
Competent low budget production, though predictable and slow paced.

The Devil Strikes At Night - 1957 - Germany

The Devil Strikes At Night - 1957 - 7/10
AKA - Nachts, Wenn Der Teufel Kam

 
1944.  German is pressed by the Soviet military on the east, Allied bombers from the skies.
To complicate matters, a serial killer is increasing his murder frequency.
Local police, overwhelmed, receive unasked for assistance.  The SS.
Dark, cynical, spoilt film still leaves a rotten taste.
Dwindling survivors work the black market, while corrupt officials shrug, drink, try to maintain the thousand year Reich.
Gallows humor clashes with bureaucratic tape in this bleak doppelganger of the police procedural.

Don Jon - 2013 - USA

Don Jon - 2013 - 5/10

 
Poor Jon, decisions, decisions.
Whether to slide the sausage into an endless feast of voluptuous club girls, or whank the weasel while watching online porn, with no yakking afterwards.
First third of this jewel was mercilessly funny.
Then hero Jon drifted into - aarrgghh - relationship with smokin’ hot, gum chompin’ Scarlett.
From relationship into redemption.  Wasted moment of what could have been a fratboy classic.

WARNING!
I made a comment about a repeated scene and drew howls from the whole room.
Consider yourself warned.
Every time Jon concludes an online “moment” he grabs a tissue (Kleenex, Scotties, Puffs, whatever).
Next, the wad rattles into a metal wastebasket.
“Hey,”  I said,  “no tissue would make that noise.  What did he do, wait till it dried hard?”

All About Eve - 2019 - UK

All About Eve - 2019 - 7/10

Theatre junkies, column right!
During the Covid lockdown, the National Theatre began limited airing of stage classics.
Besotted fan Eve attends every performance of the great Margo.
Eve is spotted once and is invited backstage.
Where she begins to ingratiate herself, make herself useful.  Indispensable.
Until the bud of ambition begins to swell.

 
Tart observation of the world of theatre.  Drama.  The boards.
Rivalries, buried misdeeds, petty tongues, the elbow of self-advancement.
Production use of a super-screen to show secondary events is disconcerting initially, but one gets accustomed to it.
Stellar acting from all in bile bitter journey.

Turtle Vision - 1991 - Japan

Turtle Vision - 1991 - 6/10
AKA - Tôsatsu repooto: Insha!  // となりの女子高生 ウリと覗き
AKA - Hidden Video Report: Dark Shot!

Eiji’s videos are popular with a hardcore fringe.
He prowls parks and alleys at night, sneaks into warehouses, and takes peep videos.
Groping teenagers, seasoned prostitutes, the desperate troubled by their own demons.

 
Then he starts to focus on a schoolgirl, who reacts to molestation as if in a catatonic daze.
The men pawing her, distracted by nubile flesh, fail to see the razor in her hand.
An extremely dark and disturbing tale by Hisayasu Satō.

 
Individuals are violated, traumatized souls, reduced from active participates to zombie observers.
Satō’s undercurrent of scopophobia (referenced in the interview) deepens the root fear.
Likely a film I won’t rewatch, but it will haunt me for a time.

Finding Your Feet - 2017 - UK

Finding Your Feet - 2017 - 6/10

 
During the housewarming party, wife discovers her husband has been having an affair with her best friend.
The wife, a snob and social climber, soon moves herself into her boho sister's flat.
What follows is the clash of class and cultures.
Oldsters predominate in this feel good fluff about finding one's true values and learning to dance!
Well cast and acted throughout, but story is a scroll of clichés, bordering on corn.
Should be a hit with your gran.

Cry Danger - 1951 - USA

Cry Danger - 1951 - 6/10

 
Solid B-film Noir with Dick Powell, William Conrad, Rhonda Fleming.
Lifer Powell released from the big house after five years.
He was the driver in a robbery, but caught the rap for the actual job.
Once out, he starts kicking the big dogs, demanding half the dough for his trouble.
The plot sours.
Film packed with hard men, fast broads, and dialogue drenched in acid.
Brisk 79 minutes.

Guide To The Flipside Of British Cinema - 2010 - UK

Guide To The Flipside Of British Cinema - 2010 - 7/10

Documentary short, but an essential one for outlier cinema fans.
Kim Newman provides a merry tour of 60's and 70's forgotten films.
Exploitation, pretentious arthouse, experimental, and erotica.
Most of the ones shown have been restored, visually they are excellent.
Of the ~20 films Newman mentions, (I had viewed 6-7) there were a handful I now must find!
Fast paced, fun, and reverent.
Watch for Helen Mirren in 67's Herostratus.

 

Sanz And The Secret Of His Art - 1918 - Spain

Sanz And The Secret Of His Art - 1918 - 6/10
AKA - Sanz y el Secreto de su Arte

 
Documentary / comedy set in the world of ventriloquist Francisco Sanz and his automats.
Most were staged in salons (likely for the well-heeled) or the stage.
At once you see Sanz interacting with his partners, usually with comedy.
Next, you observe behind the scenes.  How the foils work, their construction and operation.
One of the characters, Don Liborio, soon has enough, and he departs the troupe.
We then follow Don Liborio’s travels, adventures, and dalliances.
Creaky at times, but essential for anyone interested in puppets, mannikins, dummies or automata.

Online (2021) = https://ace-film.eu/a-season-of-classic-films-worldwide-screening-of-sanz-and-the-secret-of-his-art/

Good Ol’ Freda - 2013 - UK

Good Ol’ Freda - 2013 - 6/10

 
Feel good movie about one of the forgotten inner-circle members of The Beatles entourage.
Freda Kelly, Brian Epstein’s secretary and head of the official fan club.
What secrets Freda knows, she keeps.  This is not the doc for dirt or scandal.
Shows her early introduction to group via the Cavern Club, getting the job offer, being accepted by individual Beatles as well as their families.
Vintage photos, different speakers.  Perhaps better for older Beatles fans, particularly fan club members.

Ring Virus - 1999 - S Korea

Ring Virus - 1999 - 6/10
AKA - 링

 
S Korean remake of the J-Horror classic.
Watching cursed VHS tape leads to death in seven days.
This version filmed matter-of-fact, audio mix not very detailed.
The two protagonists were older, and unrelated.
Several sequences relied on viewer familiarity with the original.  Such as the young child explaining who “told her” to act accordingly.  Also, why the male protagonist, in this case a flawed surgeon, was drawn into the mystery to begin with.
Marketing claims aside, K version is not the “scariest version of them all."
Worth a view, but does not eclipse the original.

Confidentially Yours - 1983 - France

Confidentially Yours - 1983 - 7/10
AKA - Vivement Dimanche!  //  Finally Sunday

 
Final Truffaut film is an homage to Hitchcock.
After a hunter is murdered near the marsh, police investigate Mr. Vercel.
Vercel, a realtor, was also out hunting, his prints are found, and his wife was having an affair with the deceased.
Worse for Vercel, more damning evidence builds.
Who comes to his aid?  Why, his secretary, Barbara, whom he fired.
The plot has more twists than a monkey puzzle tree, and the pace is brisk.
Confusing at times, yes, but hold on and enjoy this last farewell.

Ringu - 1998 - Japan

Ringu - 1998 - 8/10
AKA - リング

 
Watershed moment for dead wet girls everywhere.
After her niece mysteriously dies, her aunt (reporter) hears whispers of the cursed VHS.
Discovers similar deaths of other students.  Enlists her ex (estranged) husband to help.  He has psychic abilities.
Immaculate composition throughout - every scene balanced and beautifully arranged.
Terrific sound editing, as well.  From moody score, to disconcerting effects in rear speakers.
Narrative at once enigmatic and logical.  A terrific after hours film, with all distractions switched off.
Launched numerous remakes and sequels, all inferior.