Turk Trek

Turk Trek
[Aka: Turkish Star Trek, aka; Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek]
Original Title: Tourist Ömer Uzay Yolunda
Directed by: Hulki Saner, Turkey, 1973
Comedy / Sci-fi, 75min
Distributed by: BijouFlix Releases [www.bijouflix.com]

Story:
Finding himself in quite a tight spot facing a shotgun wedding, Ömer [Sadri Alisik] is miraculously rescued when he is beamed onboard The Enterprise. Pretty soon he becomes part of an investigatory party consisting of himself, Mr Spak, [Erol Amaç], Doktor McCoy [Ferdi Merter] and two red-sweater-guys (and we all know what happens to the red sweater guys in Star Trek don’t we!) who are beamed down onto a mysterious planet to find out what the sinister Professor Krater [Kayhan Yildizouglu] and his army of femme fatales are up to. Things get pretty crazy for a while until Kapitain Kirk [Chemil Sahbaz] beams down to the planet to help Mr. Spak and Ömer sort things out.

Me:
Well if you’re looking for a freaky and hilarious fun filled movie from Turkey, then I’ve got to recommend this one to you. As far as space parodies go this one hit the nail right on the head and makes an impression even if you don’t get much of the Turkish dialogue. Frequently referred to as the Turkish Star Trek rip off, you have to be fair and point out that Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek is in fact the final part in a series of six Ömer the Tourist movies that Hulki Saner directed starring Sadri Alisik in the lead role as the “out of place” but loveable dope Ömer. And even though you probably sit down to laugh at the cheap “rip-off” you will quite soon be blown away by the impressive opening title sequences and the amazing sets that make up the Enterprise Bridge and locations used for the “alien“planet. Loosely based on the first Star Trek “Man-Trap” episode from the first season which aired in 1966 the plot finds Ömer being beamed right into the heart of the action. On the mysterious planet Professor Krater has found a shape shifting alien that sucks the salt out of its victims, and now Ömer is part of the Enterprise gang trying to escape from Professor Krater and at the same time figure out which of the sexy miniskirted dames and loin clothed male androids is the salt monster. Just for good measure Saner throws in a few memorable homage’s to other classic Star Trek episodes like the Kirk vs. Spock fight from the "Amok Time" episode. So if you what to see a rather decent Star Trek parody complete with cast of Turkish look-a-like Star Trek characters , fake pointy ears, scantily clad babes, sinister foes, and an overweight Turkish tourist completely out of place then this movie is definitely something that you want to check out as soon as possible.

A fun note to wrap things up with is that Tourist Ömer Uzay Yolunda shot in 1973 with it’s 75 minute run could actually be considered the first Star Trek Motion Picture as it took another six years before Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture was first seen on the screen in 1979, and apparently the movie did so well in Turkey that it even was sold to Germany with the Turkish communities there in mind.

Image:
Full screen 4:3. The material is obviously taken from a VHS source, but just the sheer cult value of this movie makes up for the few disturbances to the film. Unfortunately there are not any subtitles available, but honestly you don’t really need them. If you’ve seen enough Star Trek you’ll easily figure out what they are going on about, and Ömer’s comedy is all visual.

Audio:
With it’s origins from VHS the audio is only 2.0 Stereo.

Extras:
The releasers of this movie, BijouFlix could have easily just put the film on a DVD-R and left it at that, but fortunately they have decided to fill out the disc with a few interesting items, that have nothing to do with the main feature, but are enjoyable to watch all the same. Three trailers for other BijouFlix releases, Anton Giulio Majano’s 1960 shocker Atom Age Vampire, Jason Griscom’s low budget Zombie flick Come Get Some! from 2003, and Ishirô Honda’s amazing 1963 Sci-Fi thriller Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). There’s also “The Bulleteers” an almost eight minute episode of Max Fleischer’s 1942 animated Superman series. Finally there are two fifties/sixties drive-in commercials, one for “Tastee Treet” and an infomercial reminding customers to hang their speakers back before leaving the drive in.

The Ghost of Kasane

Ghost of Kasane, The
Original Title: Kaidan Kasane-ge-fuchi
Directed by: Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan, 1957 Horror / Drama, 66 min, Black and White Distributed by: Beam Entertainment / Eclipse Films

Story:
Blind masseur Soetsu leaves his loving wife and infant daughter Rui one night and goes to collect a debt from a neighbour samurai. But the samurai is arrogant and refuses to pay up, and when Soetsu pushes him harder to repay the debt, the samurai nonchalantly swipes out his sword and murders Soetsu. Realising what he has done in his outburst of anger, the samurai drags Soetsu’s body to the nearby swamp where he buries it deep in the waters. Later the same night the ghost of Soetsu appears in front of the killer and scares him into madness. In his rage of fear and fury the samurai accidentally killing his wife. Which leaves the samurai with no choice but to take his own life. Twenty years later the now grown daughter or Soetsu, Rui [Kazuko Wakasugi], has fallen in love with a young man called Shinkichi [Takashi Wada], but she could never have known that he actually is the son of her father’s murderer.

Where their innocent love should bloom and evolve it quite rapidly becomes evident that Soetsu’s curse will continue for many generations and pretty soon everyone connected to the curse find them selves face to face with ghosts and terrifying death.

Me:
Based on author Enchô San'yuutei’s traditional horror novel Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi from 1859, which quickly became a popular favourite in Japan due to it’s what goes around comes around approach not to far from the eastern way of karmic philosophies. To date there have been some seven different versions of Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi spanning from 1928 to the early seventies, and there was also three TV serials based on the novel. Ghost of Kasane is an early Nakagawa film in many aspects, and his version of San'yuutei’s tale of humanity and revenge from beyond the grave is a wonderful early piece of cinema from in my opinion on of the really great Japanese “Horror” directors. Ok so it’s kind of wrong to label Nakagawa as a horror director as he directed some thirty plus films, but it’s his creepy low paced horror films of the later part of his career that he has come to be mostly know for. There are not too many shocks as we have grown accustomed to them during the last few years of Asian horror, but there are still a few very good moments. The effects are often quite few but when Nakagawa brings them on they work. You have to remember that this film was shot in 57, and being of that time period it’s very well crafted. The sudden shocking transformation of Kazuko Wakasugi from sombre Rui to the hideously deformed monster is very effective, and the restrained way that Nakagawa shows her to us, at first reflected in the waters, is a very good build up to the climactic finale.
The tale unravels in a nice controlled pace, the opening murders and death, the love plot between Rui and Shinkichi, and this is where Nakagawa chooses to focus on the empathy between the two and the people who know them and their forbidden feelings for each other. Obviously they are from different families and classes so their love doesn’t come without social complications. It’s Nakagawa’s focus on the empathy that makes this movie stick out. It’s honestly really a love story with a ghost curse delicately woven in to create a sad and spooky tale where the fate of the main characters has already been decided through the sins of their ancestors.

I probably wouldn’t recommend this movie for anyone trying to find “new” treats within the world of Asian horror, for that I’d probably tell you to check out The Ghost of Yotsuya from 1959 or the masterful Jigoku from 1960, but if you’ve been around the block a few times and want something you haven’t seen then this one might just be right up your street.

Image:
Black and White 4:3, Optional English Subtitles.

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0

Extras:
Biograpies and Filmograpies, but in Japanese
This since long out of print version of The Ghost of Kasane, can be purchased through SASORI-41

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Directed by: Russ Meyer, 1965, USA
Action / Drama, 83Min
Distributed by: RM Films/Nordisk Film

Story:
Three well endowed female kick-ass hell raisers who spend their time off from the strip joint they work at racing their cars in the desert, kidnap stuck-up preppy girl Linda [Susan Bernard] after gang leader Varla [Tura Satana] fights Linda’s boyfriend to the death. After a short stop at a desert gas station they set their sights on an old man [Stuart Lancaster] and his two sons. According to rumour the old man has a fortune hidden away at his home in the desert. Billie [Lori Williams] falls head over heels for the old mans semi-retarded, but incredibly well built son “the vegetable” [Dennis Busch] and after she decides that it might be time to leave the gang, becomes a obstacle for Rosie [Haji] and Varla’s plans.

Me:
This is a fantastic movie and one of my personal favourite Meyer movies ever. It has everything working for it; the amazing trio of Tura Satana, Haji and Williams is probably the best constellation that Meyer ever put together. The way Satana snaps the girls into order, beats the living crap out of anyone that gets in her way, the subliminal lesbian romance between Satana & Haji, the ever provocative Williams, who you always feel is the outsider in the trio, the three male characters, Lancaster’s vile old man taking his revenge on every woman who gets close to his ranch, the retarded hunk-o-muscle who when it all comes around knows that he is doing wrong by helping his father in his rape and murder revenges, and the goody two shoes older brother Kirk [Paul Trinka] who at first lusts for Varla and falls for her female charm before he has a rude awakening and turns to the dark side, it’s all just so brilliantly done. Mayer based his story on frequent co-writer and old wartime buddy Jack Moran’s screenplay, and it’s easily the best movie the two made together. Fast paced editing, screeching soundtrack, fast cars, beautiful women, the whole opening sequence where the tension builds as the narrator [John Furlong, who provided the voice for several other Meyer movies] explains the danger of what we are about to see “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Violence!” before cutting over to the explosive burlesque dance routine that the girls pull off, the always as witty and sharp dialogue that Meyer frequently used to have in his movies (Definitely an influence on Taratino’s way of writing dialogue!) “Breast of thigh, darlin?” said to some of the most stunning women ever on screen. The exagerated violenThe tongue in cheek campiness that became Meyer’s signature mark, it’s all there, it all had to be there, the movie would have been a complete turkey without it, and it’s all these elements that you come to expect when you watch a Meyer movie. Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Just happens to be one of the best pieces of mid sixties exploitation sinema that you’ll ever see. Check it out A.S.A.P.

Unfortunately this DVD was probably one of the lousiest, cheap and exploitative in all the wrong ways that I’ve seen in a long time. The print was a disgrace, there must be a better one around than this one, heck, even the clips in the featurette found on the disc where much better quality than the movie it’s self. And even the featurette isn’t complete, in mid sentence Tura Satana is cut off and we’re returned to the menu screen. Nope, this disc is an outrage, and after reading Jimmy McDonough's Big Bosoms and Square Jaws biography over Meyer, I’m sad to have bought this disc as the money is definitely not going where I would have liked to see it go, and the quality is so poor that I regret ever letting those French VHS tapes go. Meyer himself used to hold all rights to his movie negatives, making sure that he and no one else pocketed the profits from his movies, and knowing how his company was taken over by ass monkeys in his last years of life there’s a bitter after taste in my mouth after enjoying this fantastic movie in such a pitiful state.

Image:
Full frame 4:3, 1.33:1, black and white. As mentioned above, the print isn’t in the best shape.
Optional subtitles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish are available

Audio:
1.0 Mono, no frills here either.

Extras:
None mentioned on the sleeve, but there’s a neat featurette where the ladies (Satana, Haji, Williams and Bernard] now in their late sixties, early seventies reminiscence about the movie, its impact, and their buddy Russ Meyer. But like I also mentioned above, it breaks off before it is finished making it an extremely annoying feature on an already disappointing disc.

Black Lizard

Black Lizard
Original title: Kurotokage
Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku, Japan, 1968
Crime / Comedy, 86min
Distributed by: Cinevista Video
(DVD-R available from SASORI-41)

Story:
Japan’s top private investigator, Detective Akechi [Isao Kimura] goes head to head with the sneaky female jewel thief who goes under the name Black Lizard [Akihiro Miwa]. The Black Lizard has her eyes set on the world’s largest diamond, The Star of Egypt, in the possession of renowned jeweller Shobei Iwasa [Junya Usami]. To get her hands on the star Black Lizard has worked out a series of cunning plans to kidnap Iwasa’s daughter Sanyae [Kikko Matsuoka] to trade for her painfully desired Star of Egypt.

Me:
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, you can’t go wrong with a Fukasaku movie. Black Lizard is a perfect example of Fukasaku at his best, but instead of the hard edge Yakuza style that he perfected in so many movies, Black Lizard plays it with a suave campy edge where the two leads, Kimura and Miwa, act out a cat and mouse game with sudden twists to the plot to show how they constantly are one step ahead of each other all the time. When you think that Detective Akechi has a good grip on the situation, Black Lizard quickly pulls her next move which has cunningly predicted what Akechi’s move would be and sets a complete new scenario in play, and every time Black Lizard thinks she’s one step ahead, Akechi is already there to surprise her with his countermove, and that’s how the movie plays. Fukasaku has probably made this structure deliberately and it works with the film instead of against, because even though you may already know that there’s going to be a twist, it just keeps dragging you in as you try to anticipate how they will outdo each other in each step they take. The grand finale is brilliant with it’s many plot twists and sudden revelations when Black Lizard reveals the final details of her fiendish plans for Sanaye and shows off her gallery of life-sized mummified dolls, the panic and fear that Sanaye shows and the sudden twist she’s confronted with as she thinks Amamiaya [Yuksue Kawazu] has come to save her, and then surprise a new twist that you definitely didn’t see coming and at the same time you’re awaiting Akechi to turn up and save the day… It’s an amazing blend of ingredients that make up one hell of a great movie that you’ll want to watch over and over again.

Black Lizard is based on Yukio Mishima’s stage adaptation, Mishimia who two years later committed seppuku, and was eternalized in Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, who also can be briefly seen as one of the human statues in Black Lizards evil lair, anyhow, the movie is based on Mishimas stage adaptation of Rampo Edogawa’s book (who frequently has Detective Korogo Akechi as a main character) and it is an amazing movie with a fantastic aura, great sets, wonderful locations and style that could possibly be called pop-art chic. Quite a few times I find myself thinking of Mario Bava’s Diabolik 1968, or some of Franco’s sexy/kitschy spy spoofs Sadist Erotica & Kiss Me Monster both from 1969 in particular, or even Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter 1966 and Branded to Kill 1967, which is no surprise really, the style, tone and attitude of the movies are very much in the same vain. Tongue in cheek, full of strong visuals, devoted criminals, focused heros , hot chicks and smooth soundtracks. The acting is on a terrific campy level, and the fact that Black Lizard is portrayed by the transvestite Akihiro Miwa, which is never discussed or mentioned in the movie, it’s just the way it is, just adds to the weird atmosphere of the movie, and spices up the passionate thrill between the two leads. (It's worth pointing out that Akihiro Miwa also supplied her/his voice talent to Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke 1997 and Howl's Moving Castle 2004)

Image:
Widescreen 16:9, with burned in English subtitles. Apart from three distortions in the source material the print is immaculate. I can’t dream of what a top notch company could do with a digital restoration of this movie.

Audio:
This DVD-R originates from a vhs master so the sound is Stereo 2.0

Extras:
None apart from the two page chapter sub-screen, but doesn’t really qualify as an extra does it.

Survive Style 5+

Survive Style 5+
Directed by: Gen Sukiguchi, Japan, 2004
Thriller/Comedy/Drama, 120min
Distributed by: Geneon


Story:
Five constellations of people and how their lives are interwoven in a fast paced blend of Guy Ritchie, Wes Anderson and Takashi Miike. There’s Yoko [Kyôko Koizumi] the self centred AD who is constantly trying to sell her abstract ideas to friends and customers, Aman [Tadanobu Asano] who is desperately trying to get away from his wife [Reika Hashimoto], but every time he succeeds in killing her and buries her, she mysteriously is resurrected by the time he gets home and the fight starts all over again. Sombre businessman Mr. Kobayashi [Shihori Kanjiya] and his family who find themselves stuck in a strange state a hypnotism goes terribly wrong, the three burglars Tsuda [Kanji Tsuda], Morishita [Yoshiyuki Morishita] and J [Jai West] where Tsuda is secretly in love with J, and finally the contract-killer-agent [Yosiyosi Arakawa] who has flown in a philosophical killer [Vinnie Jones] to help him out with a few cases.

Me:
I was in doubt a few times under the first fifteen minutes, as I thought Sukiguchi’s almost two hour debut feature would be a typical “first time feature film with a past in music videos” kind of movie and just rely heavily on fast editing fancy colourful sets and pacing to substitute plot and likeable characters but then something started to happen and I was slowly drawn in to the flow of the movie. Characters start to develop, obstacles for the five constellations are set in motion, music cues are introduced (like the “come Baby, come, come baby” Erasure-ish cues every time Tsuda starts to fantasize about J.) and the five individual tales are kicked into motion. One by one the paths cross into each other and have a varied effect on the cast. As soon as the five groups are introduced Sukiguchi starts of his magic, and one of the characters that I thought was going to be a lead character, Aoyoma the Hypnotist [Hiroshi Abe], after interacting with Mr. Kobayashi is violently killed off by Vinnie Jones hit man. This is how it continues to play through out, each set interacting with the others in one way or another. The moods that Sukiguchi tries to put on screen work like a charm, at the end of it all you end up believing the characters and rooting for their inner battles, The Homo-erotic tension between Tsuda and J, Aman and his wife battling it out and the wonderfully poetic twist that comes out of it, and even the surprise ending of Mr. Kobayashi, how unbelievable it still is, works and you feel satisfied with the conclusions. All of this isn’t depending on the fact that there’s loads of music, fast editing and some great sets and costume design, that’s just the two hour music video style and form coming though, No it all boils down to the well written stories and how the group of characters evolve, and the cast is really good, they do a great job of portraying all these fragile characters. The majority of the acting is great, Kanjiya is truly believable as the hypnotised father who now goes on living his life under hypnosis (I won’t tell you how, as it’s a hilarious story in the film), Koizumi sways from happy pitcher to misunderstood creative genius, which I’ve seen happen so many times in reality that I truly believe her. There’s even a great cameo by Sonny Chiba as Koizumi’s boss. It’s always a joy to watch Tadanobu Asano who always manages to wear his characters most inner feelings by only using very small measures; his Aman character is no exception. There’s almost no dialogue at all between Asano and Reika Hashimoto in their scenes, but still they manage to make the larges impression as their tale moves from so many extremes (fighting to the death, to reconciliation and happiness, to finally end up with saddens and despair). The only person that actually feels like he’s completely out of place is Vinnie Jones. His hard-as-a-rock jargon “What’s your function in life?” doesn’t quite work for me, or it could just be the sickness of him sticking to the same type of roles that he’s become accustomed to, like Ritchie’s Lock Stock, and Snatch. A loudmouthed hit man with no sense of remorse anywhere.

So to summarize, Survive Style 5+ truly is a kickass fun fest of a rollercoaster where Sekiguchi skilfully blends his music video and commercial trademarks of vibrant colours and surreal situations with well plotted storylines that make for a great movie which in the end didn’t felt way shorter than the two hours it plays, which is a good thing. Definitely worth checking out. Unfortunately this is the only movie to date that Sekigushi has directed, and that’s a shame, it’s these kinds of young in-your-face directors that we need to keep the Asian film scene from becoming synonymous with Samurai, Yakuza and pale subtle ghosts.

Image:
16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen. Subtitles in Japanese, and English optional

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 & Dolby Digital 2.0

Extras:
Promotional films for the movie, TV trailers and the Theatrical trailer. There could easily have been a lot more on this disc.

PULSE

PULSE
Directed by: Jim Sonzero, USA, 2006
Horror / Thriller / Sci-Fi, 90 min.
Distributed by: Dimension Films

Story:
When Mattie's [Kristen Bell] computer hacker boyfriend Josh [Jonathan Tucker] starts ignoring her she goes to visit him after a mysterious phone call left on her answering machine. When she gets there Josh is obviously disturbed by something and proceeds to take his life in front of her eyes. Three days later Mattie receives an email from Josh begging her to help him. This is just the start of a series of strange events that seem to be triggered by the wireless technology that we take for granted as a strange ghost like figure glitches it's way into Mattie and her friends life scaring them beyond belief as they one by one fall for the curse that makes them want to take their own lives...

Me:
What a load of bollocks. Honestly, what a waste of time. Based on the far superior movie Kairo by Kioshi Kurosawa, this movie is just another in the way to long line of piss poor US remakes. The acting is appalling, when Mattie finds her hung boy friend the best she can do is blurt out an "Oh My God" which could just as easily have been in reference to the price of her cell bill. It just doesn't work. It's flat and even though they try to make it scary it isn't. In one of the many "featurettes" in the special features they claim to have taken a scary movie and enhanced it so that it's even scarier... Duh, listen here all you remakers, the originals work because they take a low key no frills approach to the spectres, ghosts and scary little white ghosts. They just appear, or they are already part of the scene. When Josh first appears in his flat they use this to perfection just like in the original, he's already there and just stands up. No soundtrack key, no glitchy sound effect, just natural and raw. But after that and Kristen Bell's worst line every delivery "Oh My God.", it just goes down hill. Musical keys all the time, I know that something is going to happen because all the classic Hollywood keys tell me to get ready for a shock, that's what turned me off western horror and made me start watching Asian horror instead. Nope, for me this movie did nothing, nothing at all, and the only thing that made me sit though it was the fact that they at least had carbon copied key scenes from the movie they are trying to outdo. It's also very obvious that Sonzero comes from the music video side of the spectrum. Because there's a feeling to the movie that I can't put my finger on it, but sometimes a movie is all look and no feeling (or acting] and that's a good sign that it's a music director trying to pull off something he can't. Niespel's TCM [2003] remake works in some ways, Tarsem's eye popping The Cell [2000] work's, they have great visuals, rather good acting and the movies have a storyline that create an interest. The last I heard of Sonzero is that he's helming Clive Barker's Hellraiser remake. That is one hell of an original movie to try to remake, and it's more than likely going to be one of the last nails hammered into the last few years remake craze. But perhaps this is a good thing; at least we'll not have to see favourite movies desecrated again and again until the next wave hit's us.

So stay away from this movie, and put your money on buying the original there's a very obvious reason why this film bombed at the theaters.

Image:
Widescreen 1.66:1. For some reason the creators of this movie thought that giving the "ghost scenes" and the "other side" a washed out grey scale look would help the movie, but in my opinion it didn't. It just adds to the fakeness that wasn't anywhere to be found in the original.
Subtitles in English [H.O.H.] and Spanish are optional.

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 & French Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1

Extra:
A bunch of deleted/additional scenes, including a totally anticlimactic death of Dexter scene that is so lame I'm lost for words. Creating the Fear a making of and featurettes focusing on the visual effects and one on the paranormal phenomenons found in Pulse. Two commentaries that I'm sure never to endure listening too, and the theatrical trailer.

Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Directed by: Larry Charles, USA, 2006 Comedy, 84min Distributed by: SF / Fox

Story:
Kazakhi journalist Borat Sagdiyev [Sacha Baron Cohen] takes a trip to the US and A to learn stuff for the benefit of his homeland. During his learnings he sees an old Baywatch re-run on TV and falls head over heels for Pamela Anderson who now becomes his new quest. Together with his producer Azamat Bagatov [Ken Davitian] they take to the road in a desperate journey from New York to Los Angeles.

Me:
Is Borat really a funny movie? Well Ok, so I did laugh out loud a quite a few times. Sometimes over old skits in new settings, old skits taken one step further and obviously some of the new skits and wraparound scenes created for the flow of the movie. But at the same time there's a way too familiar feeling to the movie that makes it feel tiresome, even for its short run of 84 minutes. Sure the gags work, but being an avid fan of Cohen's Borat since he first started hitting the air some ten years ago as part of the Ali G show we've seen the most of it before, we know where there going, and we already know what sort of a pay off we're in for. We've seen the two US seasons and we already know that the yanks are arrogant, racist bigots so I don't really know if we actually needed this movie. That's where I somehow feel that the 2002 movie Ali G Inadahouse, directed by Mark Mylod is in some ways a better film. Cohen uses his writing to set Ali G in his home town of Staines where his life outside of the TV-studios and bad interviewing take a new level, and Ali G has an adventure unlike anything that we have ever seen the character in before. (There's even a Borat cameo in the movie) Unfortunately that's where Borat is sort of a let down. The opening sequences in Kazakhstan as Borat shows us round his village and it's complex gallery of personalities is great stuff, predictable, but amusing, the new "candid" skits like the driving instructor & the ghetto boys before Borat wiggers himself into begging thrown out of a hotel also makes me giggle just writing about them, but by far the best are the scenes with Davitian which mostly work like a charm and have the fresh element that I was asking for earlier. I mean who will ever forget the naked wrestling? So yes, Borat is a funny movie even if it in fact only is a greatest hits package with some new material thrown in, but it works and is an entertaining movie.

Image:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic. Removable subtitles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish are optional

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 & Dolby Digital dts.

Extras:
This is the rental version and has nothing apart from a few trailers for other SF / Fox movies.

Kitami

Kitami
Aka Muscle, aka Lunatic Theatre
Original Title: Kurutta Butokai
Directed by: Hisayasu Sato, Japan, 1989
Thriller, 60min.

Story:
Young and good looking art director Ryuzaki [Takeshi Ito] who works for a magazine called Muscle, a pale excuse to be around well built body builders, starts an affair with Kitami [Simon Kumai] but their sexual games rapidly get dangerous as Kitami’s sadistic tendencies start to torture Ryuzaki more than he’s ready for. In a desperate attempt to escape Kitami’s sadistic games, Ryuzaki cuts off Kitami’s arm during a photo shoot. Several years later Ryuzaki is released from prison for his crime but he can’t get Kitami out of his mind and soon starts searching the back streets and underbelly of society for the man he longs to be reunited with, Kitami

Me:
I remember seeing this movie way back in the early nineties, and it definitely made an impression as I was starting to explore the wilder sides of Asian cinema. Now almost twenty years later Sato’s Kuruta Butokai still is a mind expanding piece of Japanese Pinkku cinema. Usually Pinkku is soft core male-female sexual exploits, but what makes Kurutta disturbing is the strong solid gay theme, although nothing is too explicit or hard core, I’m sure that most people would find the underpants licking and the semi nude blokes fondling each others bodies to be quite uncomfortable. Not to forget the violence, even if it is quite timid and far a part. But be assured, if you see this movie you will never forget it; the male nudity, Ryuzaki running around with Kitami’s arm in formaldehyde, the Lunatic Cinema (Where you pay after viewing the movie, if you like it pay, if not don’t), the frequent Pasolini references; the cinema showing Pigsty or Ryuzaki’s desperate quest to view Pasolini’s final movie Salo, and even the use of Coil’s awesome Ostia (The Death of Pasolini) on the soundtrack. It’s a great movie, even if it is Pinkku master Sato’s less explicitmovies, but and if you like your movies weird, provocative and unpredictable then Kuratta Butokai is definitely for you.

Image:
16x9, English subtitles burned into print.

Audio:
Japanese 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
Nothing on this VHS to DVD-R conversion.

He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not

He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not
Original Title: À la folie… pas du tout
Directed by: Laetitia Colombani, France, 2002
Thriller / Drama 92min
Distributed by: Scanbox Entertainment

Story:
Young, pretty Angelique [Audrey Tautou] finds herself being taunted by her lover Loïc [Samuel Le Bihan]. But when he starts ignoring her Angelique's world starts falling apart, or is it his world?

Me:
An odd little movie that after a quite dull first third takes a sudden unexpected twist, pulls you in and becomes really very interresting. The first third of the movie tells Angelique’s tale of torment as she pines for the final proof that Loïc loves her, who ironically is a heart specialist too. Angelique impatiently waits for Loïc to leave his pregnant wife and go to Florence for a romantic weekend with her… But her wait is long, and painful. The unique twist to this movie is that nothing is what it seems to be, and it’s done in a very creative way after the first third is completed. Obviously there isn’t an affair between Angelique and Loïc, it’s all in her head, which is what we learn as the second third unfolds and we see how Loïc in fact the one being tormented by Angelique and her severe case of erotomania. À la folie… is surprising, in many ways both because it gets off to such a slow start, ad then that it takes such a completely different road after the first third. The final part is all about the two lives of Angelique and Loïc as they patch their now shattered lives together again. There is a twist ending too, not a surprise but a small twist that you should see coming, but the way that Colombani pulls it off is brilliant. A very good debut feature that definitely can be highly recommended and for certain viewed again.

Image:
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. Wonderful colours and watch the colour scheme alter as we go through the movie! Nice details there.

Audio:
French Audio, 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Dolby Digital. Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish Subtitles are optional.

Extras:
Quite a few for this little oddity, a few deleted scenes, three alternative endings, which you quickly understand why they didn’t use them, Cast Biographies, Production notes and a commentary track by the director Laetitia Colombani. Finally the theatrical trailer and a few promos for other titles on Scanbox.

Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre
Directed by: Jared Hess, USA, 2006
Comedy, 92min
Distributed by: Paramount Home Entertainment.

Story:
Overweight monk Nacho [Jack Black] has dedicated his life to serving the lord. He works at an orphanage where his main tasks are preparing the food for the parentless kids, but without the proper funding the meals are of very poor quality. In a complex plan to gain recognition from the pretty nun Sister Encarnación [Ana de la Reguera] and provide the kids with better meals he takes a huge step into the wrestling ring as the masked hero Nacho Libre. But wrestling is a sin according to the bible and soon he faces a real dilemma. Fight for the lord and be banished from his home at the orphanage or give up his childhood dream of becoming the greatest wrestler of all time.

Me:
So this is definitely not in the same vain as Hess’ previous movie at all. Napoleon Dynamite has a more laid back subtle humour where Nacho Libre definitely has been fuelled with Jack Black to the hilt. It’s a decent movie with quite a few laughs. The pairing of Black with his fakey Spanish, tight perm hair and horrible moustache with the scrawny man-skeleton Esquelito [Héctor Jiménez] is hilarious. These guys cat fight to save their lives, but they soon realise that even the losers get paid which is a decent way to earn money. Obviously they set their eyes on the big league, and have to struggle to get there. This is what I liked about this movie. It wasn’t one of those, magic solution now we rock and win situations, well at least not until the very end, and that made it worth waiting for. Black struts his stuff, sings a few tunes and keeps the laughs coming, the setting in the wrestling world is great, and an old Santos fan like me just can’t stop enjoying the fights. Great stuff.

Image:
1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen.
Swedish, English, Dutch, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian subtitles are optional

Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
A commentary track by Hess, producer7script co-writer Mike White and Jack Black where they are eating dinner during the time adds something new to the usual commentary track. Two isolated clips of Black singing, three deleted scenes, trailers, still galleries, and a bunch of short featurettes promoting the movie are available.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation
Original title: Rinne
Directed by: Takashi Shimizu, Japan, 2005
Horror, 95min
Distributed by: ?

Story:
Young actress Yûka [Nagisa Sugiura] finally lands a major role in a movie. A horror movie to be directed by infamous gore director Matsumara [Kippel Shiina], based on violent true life murders that took place in a hotel some thirty five years ago. A deranged professor one day snaps and goes on a killing rampage murdering eleven people with his family and himself included. As the preparation for the film gets going Yûka finds that there’s more going on than just making a movie as she finds herself tormented by haunting visions of the professor’s daughter.

Me:
So it took me a while to overcome the struggle to stick this movie in the player, because I kept thinking, crap I just picked up another Shimizu movie, and in my opinion Shimizu’s first three Ju-On movies, especially the first J-Horror one, really brought something new to the table and where really atmospheric masterpieces. The creepiness, the non boom-flash-shock approach, just slowly and subtly built, the fact that the ghosts just where there almost naturally, and the terrifying sounds that the ghosts make and that kind of stuff just work perfectly. So obviously I was worried that this would just like the U.S. remakes of Ju-on (Grudge & Grudge2) just be ninety minutes of reusing the same old bag of tricks. After a rather predictable and lame opening sequence things take a nice firm pace, Yûka starts seeing the ghost here and there, and there’s some very effective moments, and even though they where very Ju-on-ish they actually had me jumping with the shocks, so obviously I was getting ready to rethink my take on Shimizu, perhaps he actually was more than a one trick monkey. Unfortunately he loses me in the final reel, perhaps I was expecting more after the promising build up, but I just didn’t like the ending. But before we get there he’s got some serious shit going on here. Spooky child ghost, haunted hotels, broken spooky dolls and a mysterious murder add to the mysterious blend. Don’t get me wrong although I find Shimizu to be taking an easy way out, with four Japanese instalments, two American remakes, and a fifth Japanese version on the go which will undoubtedly generate a third US remake, he’s not to be confused for a lazy guy. I have the greatest respect for him, and I can understand why he would want to helm his own remakes in the US, hell the foundation of one for them one for me has worked for plenty of other directors and actors through the years so why not. And if his US movies get him enough credit to keep experimenting back at home that’s just great. But I still wish that he’d come up with some new idea’s. The grey child meowing and scaring it’s victims to death is more than well done. Reincarnation on the other hand does prove that he’s doing his best, like I said it gets off to a promising start; concentrating around the parallel realms of the movie in production and the actual murders thirty five years ago, Shimizu has Yûka find herself wandering in-between the two time spaces. There are some very effective and wonderful shifts of time which are very clear and don’t try to trick the viewer. As the rather interesting plot starts to unravel it’s self it’s clear that the Professor’s murders all where part of a macabre experiment to re-unite all the victims many years later when they have been reincarnated as other people, yes you guessed it, the cast and crew of Matsumara’s movie. And when this becomes clear, the movie just goes flat. Shimizu gives no explanation to why or how, it’s just the way it is. Ok it’s a horror movie, and being a Japanese horror movie I should be accustomed to the fact that anything can happen and I’ll probably never get an explanation, but Shimizu is one of those guys up there with Miike, Kurosawa and Nakata, so I was expecting a better payoff than the one presented, and the asylum ending just annoyed me even more. So therefore I feel that he lost the ending, but up to that point I was entertained and very eager to find out what the hell was going on.

Reincarnation is so far the strongest of the so called J-Horror Theatre series created to bring the horror of the east to the west (something that I thought already had happened some ten year ago with the first wave of J-horror movies on import!), Masayuki Ochiai’s Infection and Norio Tsuruta’s Premonition, both 2004, are the two movies which predated Shimizu’s Reincarnation, and the fourth part, Retribution, to be directed by Kyoshi Kurosawa (who has a cameo in this one as a college teacher) is the one that I’ll be looking forward to the most.


Image:
16x9 widescreen

Audio:
Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English subtitles

Extras:
This version that I watched was a copy I got from a friend so it unfortunately had no extras at all.

The Doll

The Doll
Original Title; Vaxdockan
Directed; Arne Mattsson, Sweden, 1962
Drama / Thriller, 91min
Distributed by: Klubb Super 8 (OOP)

Story:
Lonley night watchman Lundgren [Per Oscarsson] spends all his free time dreaming about his dream woman. Then one night he stumbles into a robbery at a clothes shop, he wards off the burglars, calls the cops and steals a manequin [Gio Petré] the looks just like his dream woman. He smuggles the doll into his flat and finds happiness as their relationship evolves. Only he can see that she is a real person, until his neighbours start wondering who he is talking to up there in his lonely flat...

Me:
I caught the back end of this amazing movie on Swedish TV last week, and I had to dig out my old VHS to rewatch it. This is a great old Swedish movie, directed by one of Sweden's most underrated directors; Arne Mattsson. It's a creepy tale that unwinds rather slow, but the nosey and obnoxious neighbours and Oscarsson's fantastic performance as reclusive Lundgren with Petrés stiff & sexy portayal of the manequin, really make it worth the while. There's a few shocks and a surprise ending that suits this movie like a charm. If you like Mattsson and haven't seen this one, it should be next on your list of movies to see. If you've never seen a Mattsson movie, well then it's a great starting point. In my opinon it's far better than his "Hillman" series, which are more Hitchcockian and border on swedish "Pilsnerfilm" feeling.


Image:
Black & White, full frame 4:3

Audio:
Stereo

Extras:
Nope, it's one of those classic VHS tapes. Although there is a rather amusing reprint of an old TV review written by Kar de Mumma when it was first shown on tv in 1965.

Fear X

Fear X
Directed by; Nicolas Winding Renf, Denmark/Canada/UK/Brazil, 2003
Drama / Thriller, 91 min.
Distributed by: Nordisk Film

Story
Shopping mall security guard Harry [John Turturo] works all day and spends all day watching surveillance camera footage in the hunt for his wife’s murderer. One day he is approached by the police who have an image of the killer, but don’t know his identity. After being lead by the ghost of his wife in a dream to the house next door Harry finds a mysterious photograph of a woman. Harry jump to conclusions and sets out to find the woman on the photograph to see if she can help him find the identity of his wife killer.

Me
Gosh! First off, I really enjoyed Winding Renf’s previous Danish movies Pusher 1996, and Bleeder 1999 which both contain a variety of homage’s and tributes to European exploitation movies from the late eighties. Fear X is based on a novel by Hubert Shelby Jr. [Last Exit to Brooklyn 1989, Requiem for a Dream 2000], it is a dark haunting movie which plays with familliar Lynch-ian / Coen-ish undertones and themes, but I liked it. I liked it a lot. Unlike other movies with open endings that I’ve watched lately, this one engages and the possible off-screen endings generate many thoughts on possible scenarios. Did the climax take place in Harry’s head or is it just yet another part of the cover up operation that he stumbles across? I can’t really understand that this movie was received so lamely by audiences, Winding Renf already has a fan based following, but for this one they just weren’t there. His company Jang Go Star even went bankrupt because the audience failed this one. Like I said, it’s a mystery to me, because the story is good. It unfolds in a nice way, even though there are a bit too many coincidences that lead the way, but that’s part of the main root to this tale. His wife is killed by coincidence, and if we’re buying that, then the rest shouldn’t be too hard to accept. Turuturo is great as the frustrated Harry, haunted by the ghost of his late wife [Jacqueline Ramel] and not knowing why she was killed. But by far the movie belongs to James Remar’s Peter character. From the first frame you see him, you know that he’s the killer, and you want him brought to justice ASAP. But this position is delicately shifted as his remorse and vulnerability shines thorough the more he’s on screen. This isn’t a cold blooded killer as we initially thought, he’s just a man who by coincidence got drawn into a dark cover up operation to eliminate bad cops, and who accidentally happened to kill Harry’s wife. His dark secret and personal demons are starting to shatter his marriage to Kate [Deborah Kara-Unger] who by coincidence it the woman on the photograph that has led Harry to Peter. To add to the Lynchian feeling of the movie, the mixture of Peter De Neergards pale colour schemes, and the minimalist interior design of Harry’s suburban home to the dark hotel and its blood red corridors and Brian Eno’s haunting score work terrific. I feel that this movie is a gem that has been misunderstood and should immediately be watched by anyone waiting for the next Lynch or Coen brother movie. Ok it’s a fair bit lighter that those guys movies, but it’s well worth the ninety minutes that it plays.


Image:
2.35:2 Anamorphic Widescreen.

Audio:
English audio, Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or Finnish subtitles are available.

Extras:
A twenty five minute making of which documents the background and the shoot. Cast and crew talk about the movie and its creation. Eight trailers for other titles released by Nordisk Film.

Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers
Directed by; Jim Jarmusch, USA/France, 2005
Comedy / Drama, 106 min.
Distributed by: Nordisk Film

Story
An aging charmer, Don Johnston [Bill Murray], sits passively on the couch as his girlfriend Sherry [Julie Delphy] walks out the door in search of what she wants to make of life. Without interest Don just sits staring into nothingness until an anonymous mysterious pink letter tells him that he has a twenty something son who might be on the road trying to find him. With the aid of his next-door neighbour and friend Winston [Jeffrey Wright] he set’s off on a road trip though the states to visit lovers long lost to find out who could be the writer of the mysterious letter and the mother of his eventual son.

Me
A typical low key Jarmusch story that goes far with a fantastic performance from Murray, coming off almost like a blend of his character from Coffee and Cigarettes and Anderson’s Steve Zissou. I love the way he tries to play totally uninterested in the quest every time his friend Winston tries to get him activated, and the energy that he puts into it when Winston isn’t there. And the small details, like the checking out every young male that he sees after receiving the letter, and giving them a “could that be him” glance is brilliant. The photography by Jarmusch regular Frederic Elmes is wonderful; the colour scheme is somewhat pale, but still so deep that it looks amazing. The story is simple, one man on search of the woman who may have fathered his child, his search for meaning in his otherwise rather tepid life. But this is the simplicity that we have come accustomed to when you sit down to a Jarmusch film, a simplicity that is multifaceted and actually has more depth that meets the eye. No overacting, no out of place scenes, just a slow build as we investigate the human mind. There’s a wonderful play with Nabokov’s Lolita when past girlfriend, Laura’s [Sharon Stone] daughter Lolita [Alexis Dziena] playfully taunts Don and then shockingly walks into the room naked. Needless to say Don gets out of there in a flash of the eye. Every one of Don’s past girlfriends are played by high end actresses, like Sharon Stone, Julie Delphy, Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy and Tilda Swinton who looks amazing in her white trash outfit sporting a big black wig. I have to mention the supporting actors too, mainly Chloë Sevigny who manages to portray Lange’s lesbian lover/secretary with out even saying the word. Last but definately not least, Jeffrey Wright’s Winston, he's the kind of sympathetic friend that everyone would like to have, and I love the scene where he explains to his kids that he’s only smoking ‘erbs, and that there’s definitely not any tobacco in his cigarette that he’s secretively smoking behind the garage. Hilarious stuff.

The amazing soundtrack focusing mainly on Mulatu Astatqe’s Ethiopian Jazz (currently playing warm on my iPod and stereo at home) is a great addition, the smoothness and progressiveness of Tom Waite’s Night on Earth 1991 and Neil Young’s Dead Man 1995 scores springs to mind as the fair tones of Astatqe’s instrumental jazz just washes over the scenes interweaving the meetings with Murray’s former lovers without distracting anything from Jarmusch’s trademark formula. The road movie themes, the progressive soundtrack the low key acting, it’s all great stuff that will make this movie a beloved Jarmusch classic for the future.


Image:
Like mentioned previously, great looking film presented in 1.77:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional Swedish, Danish, Norwegian or Finnish subtitles.

Extras:
The crazy Start to Finnish, a fast paced collection of all the markers through out the entire movie interwoven with a few gags, and bloopers. A look at the outtakes of the two girls on the bus scene, where the two actors Jennifer Rapp & Nicole Abisinio adlib their way through a youthful discussion about life, friends and foes. A featurette on Jarmusch as he discusses his filmmaking and finally the domestic and international trailers for Broken Flowers.

The Moustache

The Moustache
Original Title: La Moustache
Directed by: Emmanuel Carrère, France, 2005
Drama / Mystery, 86min.
Distributed by: Triangel Film


Story:
One evening Marc Vincent Lindon] asks his wife Angès [Emmanuelle Devos] if he should shave off his moustache. Against her advice he does so anyhow. When nobody in his closest circle notice that he’s shaven it off he starts to get frustrated, but when Agnès claims that he has never had a moustache his world starts to crumble.

Me:
What a promising movie this turned out to be. My wife has talked about it for quite some time, so we decided to give it a shot, and I’m not disappointed. Ok, somewhat disappointed because the movie losses itself in the latter part. But the build up to this last twenty minutes are brilliant. The basic idea of a guy shaving off his moustache and then having nobody notice, and finally claim that he never had one is brilliant. The way Carrère plays through this is very smart; small subtle changes in the relationship between Marc and Agnès, the way we keep loosing track of Marc’s sanity, the questioning of everything that we see and hear, it’s very effective and you constantly keep asking yourself is Marc really insane or is it his wife playing a really evil prank on him. The deeper in we get the more Kafka-esque the movie gets. We see what Marc sees images of him with his moustache, but then we start to believe that he’s insane again when Agnès claims that his evidence, the photographs of a moustache clad Marc taken when they where in Bali, don’t exist, they have never been to Bali. Small details like Marc’s father on the answering machine planning the meal for tomorrows get together, which if flipped over when Agnès explains to Marc that his father died a year ago. Great stuff and we are just as confused about what’s going on as Marc. When the penny falls down and Marc makes his escape the movie like I mentioned earlier, just gets lost in itself. The Hong Kong bit works until Agnès all of a sudden turns up and life goes on as if nothing ever happened. Nah, it just gets stupid from here and director Carrère’s explanation that it’s all a cyclic movement is just a load of bollocks. We are so accustomed to non-linear narrative in these days that we don’t even question the Hong Kong footage from the opening sequence, as we understand that this is Hong Kong the second Marc escapes there. We just assume that the story will continue from here and all before was leading us here, So to bring Agnès in here just annoyed me, especially as my theory is that she’s trying to dump Marc for his co-worker Bruno to start with, that’s why they are all in on the tormenting of Marc. Because the idea that it was all Marc and that he was temporarily insane and now mysteriously sane again as Agnès comes back into his life is just too shallow for me to accept. But up to this part the movie really rocks and is very effective. I have no better solution to the ending, but I can’t help felling let down when the movie ends even if there is a open question mark at the end or not.

Image:
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Anamorphic.

Audio:
French Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional subtitles in Swedish or Finnish

Extras:
A twenty minute making of where the cast and crew talk about the movie and what it means. An interview with Director Emmanuel Carrère and Editor Camille Cotte. The making of is decent, but the interview with Carrère and Cotte is so fucking pretentious that it almost made me want to put my foot through the TV screen, which is a pity as I quite enjoyed the film.

Jigoku

Jigoku
Directed by: Nobou Nakagawa, Japan, 1960
Horror / Drama, 101 minutes
Distributed by: Criterion Collection

Story:
Theology student Shiro [Shigeru Amachi] is tormented by the fact that he and his friend Tamura [Yoichi Numata] accidentally killed a man in a hit and run accident one night. His life turns to the worse when one freak accident after another kills off all the people around him until he himself passes over to the other side, Hell, where all sinners get there final punishment for all eternity.

Me:
Nabou Nakagawa’s Jigoku is one of those movies that you have to see to believe. It is probably the most extreme Kaidan movie of the early sixties and seventies, and I’d even go as far to claim that Jigoku could be the first splatter/gore movie as it was shot three years before Herschell Gordon Lewis’ landmark Blood Feast 1963 that often takes credit for starting the splatter movie genre. Jigoku has a fair share of severed hands, rivers of blood and gory mutilated corpses. Nakagawa was no stranger to the Kaidan genre as Jigoku was in fact the last of a string of nine very atmospherically and stylish genre movies that he had directed. Neither was the genre new either, as early as 1912 Shozo Makino directed the earliest version of Yotusya Kaidan [Yotsuya Ghost Story], also re-made in it’s finest version in 1959 by Nakagawa. The photography is stunning and considering the tight budget that this Shintoho Company production had it’s an amazing piece of cinema. Focusing on the Shiro we follow him though a very painful journey, his tormentor, the enigmatic Tamura who pops up when Shiro expects him the least, to poke fun at Shiro or provoke those around him. At a dinner with Shiro’s mother and father in law, when Shiro escapes to his home village to comfort his father after the death of his mother Tamura soon shows up. It’s Tamura who is in the car with Shiro as they run over the Yakuza man leaving him dead in the middle of the road, and this is the marker for Shiro's decent into the terrifying spiral that lands him in the dark pits of hell. There are many story lines running at the same time, there’s the sudden death of Shiro’s fiancé Yukkio [Utako Mitsuya] and the way Shiro’s relationship with her devastated parents evolves, then there’s the family of “Tiger” Kyoichi’s family planning and attempting to take their revenge for the hit and run accident, and the complex story of Shiro’s return to his home village where he meets neighbour girl Sachiko who is the double of his late fiancé, also played by Mitsuya in a double role. The acting is top notch Shigery Amachi and Yoichi Numata deliver memorable performances as the strangely linked Shiro and Tamura, and Mitsuya is very persuasive in her portrayal of Yukkio/Sachiko. Nakagawa’s works being an influence on later genre directors like Takashi Shimizu, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hideo Nakata is clearly noted as the tone of the movie is reminiscent of their works. It moves from a slow explanatory build up and works delicately up to the last climactic third in a manner that we are accustomed to with the later years wave of Asian horror flicks, slowly but surely.

After re-watching this movie, now in the stunning presentation Criterion have released, I realised during the opening montage, that there’s a lot of similarities to Adrian Lynne’s Jacob’s Ladder going on here. Not that I know if Lynne ever saw Jigoku, but it plays with the same themes, a dead man re-living his own personal hell. I’m sure that the opening sequence is an indicator that Shiro actually is already dead when the movie starts, and the entire movie is in fact his time in hell. Compared to the previously released, long out of print, Beam Entertainment DVD from Japan, I can't really say that there's much differance to the print more than some obvious reapairs that have been made to it, also the colours look better with the remastered Criterion editon. On the other hand the Beam edition has 2.0 sound where as Criterion have opted for 1.0 mono. The extras are the big bonus with the Criterion version. Definitely a must see movie for fans of the recent wave of Japanese horror movies.

Image:
2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Colour, shot in 35mm Shintohoscope

Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0

Extras:
Once again Criterion gives reason to buy this disc with the extra features. This time they have included an almost forty minute documentary called Building the Inferno which focuses on the movies of Nakagawa. Actor Yoichi Numata, screenwriter Ichiro Miyagawa, Nakagawa collaborators Chiho Katsura and Kensuke Suzuki, and director Kiyoshi Kurosawa all talk about Jigoku and the influence it had on them. Just this documentary is worth the price if you want to know more about the masterful movies of Nobou Nakagawa. An essay by Chuck Stephens, and two artwork galleries stills and posters. To round it all off there’s the theatrical trailer for Jigoku.

Scary Movie 4

Scary Movie 4
Directed by: David Zucker, USA, 2006
Comedy, 89min
Distributed by: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Story:
Fourth instalment to the Scary Movie franchise finds poor Cindy Campbell [Anna Farris] and her trusty companion Brenda [Regina Hall] fighting off Japanese child ghosts, an alien invasion end the enigmatic Jigsaw.

Me:
I love these movies; especially if you are a genre fan you can spot and appreciate all the spoofs that they are filling the movies with. The two first movies in the franchise, directed by the Wayans' brothers are great, the third one, also directed by Zucker was a disaster, but here he seems to have found his groove again. The main story is a weird blending of The Grudge, War of the Worlds, and Saw. You know what you are getting when you sit down to a Zucker movie, nothing is sacred and every thing is having the piss taken out of it. Farris is great as usual, and the main movie parodied this time is Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge and to be honest, after six instalments of Ju-on – The Grudge 2000-2006, these parodies are what make this movie for me. We all know exactly what should happen next and Zucker just gets crazy with it. I honestly laughed aloud several times watching these hilarious Grudge parodies. There’s even one real shock in the movie. I never would have guessed it but it’s in there and it really shocks you hard. Good job. Loaded with movie references out over the main three mentioned above like The Village, Bareback Mountain, and Million Dollar Baby. There’s even a Tom Cruise making an ass of himself on Oprah parody that is brilliant. There is also a cast full of great names like Charlie Sheen, Bill Pullman, Carmen Electra, Chris Elliot (yeah he’s back!), Molly Shannon, Leslie Nielsen, Michael Madsen, Shaquille O’Neal and even Dr. Phil. Regina Hall is also back as the sex crazed Brenda is still hilarious, especially in the Village and Saw sketches where she manages to twist everything to a sexual innuendo. No I have to hand it to Zucker, he’s rescued this series from a certain death after the third part. Good job, and thanks, it was a long time since I laughed so much.

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1, English, German, French or Spanish audio tracks are optional, Subtitles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, English, German, French, Spanish Islandic and Dutch are also available. And yes, they even subtitle the commentary track.

Extras:
Loads of extras round off this great disc. Commentary track by director Zucker, producer Robert K. Weiss and writer Craig Mazin, a bunch of deleted scenes, bloopers The Man Behind the Laugh focusing on David Zucker, Zany Spoof Humour – Zucker Style about his brand of comedy, The Visual Effects of Scary Movie about the impressive effects, a short featurette on all the rappers and actors who have cameos in the movie, a short bit about Craig Bierko’s Tom Cruise at Oprah skit, and to round it off a conversation with Zucker, Weiss and Mazin

New York Waiting

New York Waiting
Directed by: Joachim Hedén, Sweden, 2006
Romance / Drama, 88min
Distributed by: Pan Vision AB

Story:
Sidney [Chris Stewart] has sent his ex-girlfriend Coreen [Katrina Nelson] an airplane ticket and an invitation to meet him at the top of the Empire state building in three days to see if there is any way they can get back together again after their year apart. As he counts every day, hour, minutes and seconds left until the date deadline, he wonders around New York until Amy [Annie Woods], who has just walked out on her boyfriend, asks if she can sit next to him at a café. They spend the day together soon their first meeting may be the start of a second chance.

Me:
New York Waiting is a rather decent and sweet movie and although I’m not big fan of romantic dramas I quite enjoyed it. The acting is OK, but I found it a bit irritating that the flashback sequences are in black and white. That was somewhat insulting, as we are accustomed to destructed linear story telling since way back; there was no need for to make the past story so obvious. Director Hedén manages to keep three tales going at once her, Sidney’s back story with Coreen, his feelings for the upcoming meeting with her and his growing emotions for Amy, and Amy’s feelings for Sidney. Dialogue is well written but sometimes comes out a bit tame and could have been acted better. But it’s a decent movie which I enjoyed, even though it was a bit slow in some parts.

Image:
Widescreen 1.85:1

Audio:
Strangely only Dolby Digital 2.0. Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian subtitles are optional

Extras:
A short behind the scenes / making of where the actors and director talk about the movie. Biographies and trailers for other Sonet Film movies.

Dead Meat

Dead Meat
Directed by: Connor McMahon, Ireland, 2004
Horror, 80 min
Distributed by: Scanbox Entertainment Sweden AB

Story:
Helena [Marián Araújo] and her husband find themselves lost on the Irish landscape. After accidentally hitting a guy with their car they put him in the back to take him to a doctor. But before they get very far he bites a big chunk out of Martin’s [David Ryan] neck. This is just the start of Helena’s forty eight hours in hell as she soon learns that zombies have come back to life and are feeding on everyone they can put their hands on.

Me:
Honest to the genre and financed through funding from the Irish state, McMahon’s low budget zombie movie definitely delivers the goods. The opening is classic zombie movie formula. Along the way the Helena character meets new friends and foes who together try to outlive the zombies. The quiet but wise gravedigger Desmond [David Muyllaert] with his trusty shovel, the aggressive and strange Cathal Cheunt [Eoin Whelan] who acts as a composite of all the prejudices about Irishmen, and his wife Francie [Amy Redmond]. Towards the ending of the movie he shifts the focus from the zombies and has mad cows be the attackers, yes this has a humorous effect but the actors just take it for what it is and don’t go overboard with it, and he manages to squeeze in a great Jurassic Park 1993 homage in the scene too. There are several very scary scenes, especially when the four of them are surrounded by zombies in the pitch black as their car has stalled in the mud. Cheap but well made effects keep the gore on the right side for a zombie movie. Very much in the tone of George A Romero’s zombie movies dark, downbeat and not much time wasted on explaining the reason for the zombie invasion McMahon obviously has passion for his film. He uses conventional approaches but surprises by throwing in interesting scenes to his movie. There is one scene where Helena uses her high heel shoes as weapons, and after this is forced to walk around without shoes for a while. It could easily not have become an issue, but I like it because it adds to the character vulnerability that genre movies often seem to forget. There are a lot of references to movies within the genre, mostly the above mentioned George A. Romero’s movies obviously. There's an arm decapitation right out of Day of the Dead 1985, but that’s fine because even though he takes time to homage his hero’s McMahon manages to create a good movie and a respectful entry into a genre where many fail to bring something new to the table. Shot on location in Ireland the surroundings and atmosphere are great and the many abandoned castles make great creepy settings.

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1

Audio:
For an independent short movie like this the choices of Dolby Digital 5.1 or dts is fantastic. Subtitles in Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Norwegian are optional

Extras:
Here you will find, Mad Cows and Zombies, a twenty minute documentary on the making of the movie and how it came to be. McMahon’s earlier short movie Brain Eater, the original trailer and even there’s even an audio commentary by the director.

My Dear Killer

My Dear Killer
Original Title: Mio caro assassino
Directed by: Tonino Valerii, Italy/Spain, 1971
Giallo / Mystery, 102 min
Distributed by: Shriek Show

Story:
Inspector Luca Peretti [George Hilton] investigates a remarkable decapitation of an insurance officer, and when he finds the prime suspect hanged in an abandoned ware house it looks like the case is closed. But upon closer investigation, it shows that the suspected killer was in fact murdered! When he looks into the case the insurance officer was investigating it leads him into a family hiding a dark secret.

Me:
Yet another respectable title from Shriek Show’s Giallo Collection and it’s a rather decent movie too. This one stays away from the regular stalked female antagonist and focuses instead on Hilton’s rather down to earth detective, investigation the abduction and murder of a young girl and her father. Valerii, best known for directing the classic western My Name is Nobody 1973, manages to keep you guessing who the killer could be all the way trough. Typical to the genre he throws in a few red herrings here and there, some very effective murders and a vibrating score by Ennio Morricone. What I liked about this giallo is the fact that it’s the detective who always leads the killer to his next victim. When he finds a clue and investigates it, the killer is often the next person to be knocking on the door. When he realises that the kidnapped girl has left a revealing clue at the scene of the murder, he makes the mistake of telling the family and close friends about it as they visit the place where the bodies where found, hence giving away the final key to the killers identity Not until later that night does he realise that he’s just tipped off the killer, and the final race against time is on. Hilton is great the killings are quite few, but very effective. That Black and Decker tool murder is a classic. Morricone’s score is as usual haunting and vibrating at times when the hunt is on. Like I said earlier, it’s a rather decent giallo well worth checking out.

Image:
Widescreen 1.85: 1

Audio:
Unfortunately the English dubbed soundtrack is the only option here, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Extras:
Interviews with lead actor George Hilton, and director Tonino Valerii. Four trailers of other titles in Shriek Shows Giallo collection.