FadedBlue_net

Title: Strange Circus
Director: Sion Sono
Year: 2005
Genre: Horror
Format Reviewed: DVD

Whether you’re coming to this film a newcomer to Sion Sono’s work or having seen Suicide Club or Noriko’s Dinner Table, you may have heard it classified a horror movie.  But if you know either of those movies, it’s hard to say they were horrifying in a typical horror sense.  There were no ghosts or demons in either of them.  In fact, if you watch all of Sion Sono’s work, you begin to wonder: just what is horror?

The most horrifying aspect of Sono’s movies are the characters.  What’s curious about them is their duality of being super realistic, yet so far from the norm.  Each one has a main character who is trying to find their place in the world.  This is certainly a huge theme Sono’s movies, but for most other directors “trying to find your place” is a premise for a happy or bittersweet ending.  Strange Circus is the ultimate and complete opposite.  What lies underneath the characters of Strange Circus is indeed horrifying.

The story has a lot of plot twists… think Audition.  Unless you were really paying attention, you might not know what is real and what is fake.  This all adds to Sono’s objective as a story-teller to make the audience question their perception.  The characters are unique and have genuine motives.  They could care less if their story was being told, as they are serious about accomplishing what they put out to do.  What’s the point of doing it if you don’t go all the way.  Clearly Sono has taken his own piece of advice in making horror film!

While it certainly can be accessible to a wider (emphasis on the “er“) audience, you have to be able to tolerate some taboo themes (to Americans – which isn’t saying much) and some slightly gross-out moments.  I’ve seen worse in a horror film.  But if you can do that and really pay attention, you will certainly be rewarded at the end of this film.  It is rich, deep, powerful, and at it’s best, horrifying.

Rating: 4 /5

Title: Uzumaki
Director: Higuchinsky
Year: 2000
Genre: Horror
Format Reviewed: DVD

Uzumaki is quite an old horror movie in the context of J-horror that has made it’s way to North America.  In fact, it was in theaters years before Ringu, Ju-on, or even Kairo came out.  So you can’t very easily say Uzumaki rips off other J-horror movies or their styles.  As a cult film, Uzumaki is quite unique among Japanese horror and is somewhat refreshing to watch for those sick of scary little kids.

Although it doesn’t necessarily follow J-horror conventions, Uzumaki has a style similar to Tetsuya Nakashima’s seen in Memories of Matsuko: off-the-wall close-ups and poor acting in some parts.  This was my biggest complaint of the movie.  Uzumaki certainly isn’t going for the straight horror, but rather a weird and almost quirky feeling.  Often times gruesome, but still not too heavy.

The horror aspect of Uzumaki is fine and it’s plot is interesting enough to hold your attention.  If not, then snail people will.  Let’s just say that some images in Uzumaki may very well be never duplicated again.  That’s probably the biggest reason to watch this movie.  It’s so strange that you’ll never forget it, although it’s probably best suited  for hardcore fans of asian horror.

Rating: 2 /5

Title: Onibaba
Director: Kaneto Shindo
Year: 1964
Genre: Horror
Format Reviewed: Film

The rich history of Japanese film can be overlooked these days, due to the prevalence of remade 90’s and 00’s J-horror movies which have over-saturated the American market.  It may seem that Japanese film has only had one type of horror: your long-haired little girl, or pale-paced boy that seems to teleport to the scariest location right behind you.  Although I believe a lot of this imagery stem from more ancient Japanese folk ghost stories, which can be seen on scrolls in some Japanese museum, there is a lot of original stuff out there, old and new.  Onibaba is a great example of a very unique horror movie with a straightforward plot, a deeper message, and haunting silent imagery.

To even start to talk about the plot in Onibaba would tell you most of the story.  Not too much happens in the movie overall, though this isn’t to be meant as a fault.  A mother and daughter live in a field of tall grass (seen in the poster) during wartime between samurai, and they live by trading dead samurai’s equipment for food.  Along comes a neighbor who is looking for company from the daughter, but the mother doesn’t want him to split up the mother-daughter living arrangement.  She has to find some way of keeping her daughter from running away to him.

Like most Japanese horror, the horror of Onibaba doesn’t come from thrills of killing, but rather from a chilling atmospheric presence of inhumanity.  This is really where the black & white color scheme actually is a complement to the film.  Silent, still shots of scenes by the river contrast with sloppy and frantic close up shots of running through the fields.  Slow-motion, flowing grass seems to characterize some sort of unknown life in the night.

The simple and slow-moving horror that builds through the night scenes climaxes with a horrific realization about the mother.  Themes of sin and punishment, as well as war and humanity run throughout the plot, and the audience is left with a situation where one ultimately decides their own fate.  Onibaba is a commentary on how little one often understands those consequences.

Rating: 4 /5

Title: One Missed Call 2 (Chaku-shin ari 2)
Director: Renpei Tsukamoto
Year: 2005
Genre: Horror
Format Reviewed: DVD

Oh great, another sequel to a J-horror flick, right?  While One Missed Call 2 is obviously the successor to the hit and well-liked One Missed Call, it actually departs from the formula in the first movie quite a bit.  Rather than being a gory anticipation game, OMC2 is actually more of a detective movie.  There really aren’t any gross-out moments, and deaths are quick, fairly bloodless, and not very inspired.

So whether or not the movie is enjoyable is up to your open-mindedness.  At first, I was turned off by the fact that not many people bite it in interesting ways (one of the most important parts of an asian horror movie), but after I started to see the direction OMC2 goes, I changed my mind.  You can’t blame the writers to go in a different direction, since J-horror sequels and spin offs have become so ubiquitous that a straight-forward sequel would get lost in the mix.

What’s good about this new direction?  Well not really that much.  I mean the acting is sub-par to the point of being a little annoying, and the emotions are a little cliche.  That said, I still found myself caught up in the story.  I think the never-ending anticipation of the premise that OMC has built around killer cell phone messages is legit and it goes to show how interesting an idea it really is.  So to keep the same basic principles and change the audiences’ vantage point allows for a sequel that is less dull than some others, considering the arguable over-saturation of the J-horror market.  I guess it’s more the pace of the story that is different, since we are still following a main character who is trying to solve her own case of living longer than her voicemail.

The step from OMC to OMC2 is very similar to Ju-On to Ju-On 2.  The first was very fresh, interesting, and viewable to non J-horror fans, but the sequel is really only going to be liked by close followers to the genre.  To end on a positive note, the ending of OMC2 is satisfying for viewers who make it that far and makes up for a lot of its faults.

Rating: 2 /5

Title: The Great Yokai War (aka. Yokai Daisensou)
Director: Takashi Miike
Year: 2005
Genre: Children’s Movie/Fantasy/Adventure
Format Reviewed: TV (Sundance Channel)

Let’s get it out of the way first: this is going to be a love/hate review.  If you have ever seen a Miike (pronounced: “mii-kay”) film before, you probably either thought he was insane, awesome, and most likely both.  Unfortunately, it’s a little harder to see the awesome side in The Great Yokai War.  It’s hard to judge this, though, since it is so obviously meant for a child similarly aged as the protagonist.  There are certainly good elements in the film, but the average movie goer (and especially for the Western audience) isn’t going to enjoy it at all.  It’s so bizarre and cheesy at points, at times I was just laughing at the fact that this was even a movie.

So what’s up with this movie?  It’s got an incredibly talented director.  Most of the actors do a fine job, though they tend to purposefully stick to their superficial role in the movie.  Probably a choice made to simplify things for its younger audience.  Speaking of young, there’s no denying Chiaki Kuriyama (you’ll know her from Kill Bill or Battle Royale) taking on yet another semi-evil, semi-awesome role.  I think fans of Kuriyama already have enough to see this film.  She doesn’t disappoint with her usual type of character and spot in the story, as well as some sexy poses.

The story itself is kind of what makes the movie blow up.  The formula for this film is a little bit of Japanese folk lore, a little bit of obviously evil guy, a kid who has to swing a sword, a million absolutely bizarre creatures, and a puppet cat that is probably left-over from Labyrinth.  Specificially, our hero is chosen at a Japanese festival and is hesitant to participate in some great battle, which may or may not be linked to some guy in a business suit?  Yeah, we really don’t get too much of the pieces to fit it all together, but there are a few things we do know:  cats need to be saved, swords can apparantly be broken and mended perfectly, and the bad guys need to bite it before things get too out of hand. Not too crazy for a child’s fantasy movie, right?  Even for a child, this movie may be a bit too scary and gory, though.  Again, it’s a touch of Miike, but nothing like what you’re used to with his work.

On paper, The Great Yokai War, might have been alright, if you forgive it’s dumbing down and slap-stick humor.  But no.  Yokai suffers from horrible special effects (though really, this is standard for mainstream Japanese movies), useless characters, and a lack of focus.  All-in-all, I don’t think anything actually changed from the beginning to the end of the movie.  On the other hand, Miike has a select few scenes where you can really see his great use of camera, horror, off-beat comedy, and seductive villians.  These are great for the fans of his work, but I just don’t think it’s enough to label Yokai even worth watching for them.  It looks as if Miike is making a very slight message about environmentalism and garbage waste, but it is so dilluted and set aside the minute it comes up that there is no focus for it either.  If you’ve got to see everything Miike has made or Kuriyama is in, then go right ahead… but don’t expect anything that makes the film itself good.  Because in the end, it’s just a superficial children’s story with a lot of make-up, costume, and a handful of laughs; though, you may be laughing at the movie, and not with it.

Rating: 1 /5

Alright, another year of free, great Japanese cinema courtesy of yours truly’s alma mater. I’ve been going to these series (summer and fall) for several years, since I took a Japanese Cinema course at UofMichigan. I highly recommend viewing of any and all of these if you happen to be in the area. I’ve seen half of the films on the list for this summer, and will include my rating for them on the side.

I will really be looking forward to seeing the ones that I haven’t seen yet, and am always up for seeing Kairo again. Don’t be fooled… it’s not the junky American version of Pulse! Retribution was not bad, and Audition is a must-see for any serious fan of film, horror, or Japanese film.

===========================================

Summer 2008 Film Series: “Summer Chills: Japanese Horror Films”

Friday, July 18th ~ PULSE (KAIRO) – Rating: 5/5
Friday, July 25th ~ ONIBABA
Friday, August 1st ~ KWAIDAN (KAIDAN)
Friday, August 8th ~ HELL (JIGOKU)
Friday, August 15th ~ RETRIBUTION (SAKEBI) – Rating: 3/5
Friday, August 22nd ~ AUDITION (ODISHON) – Ratin: 5/5
Link: UofM Ann Arbor – Center for Japanese Studies

Title: Curse of the Golden Flower
Director: Zhang Yimou
Year: 2006
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: TV (Encore-Act)

Zhang Yimou has been well received by Americans like myself over the last few years. Hero turned into a kind of cult hit and introduced a lot of people to Chinese film. House of Flying Daggers even reached so far as mainstream theaters in my area. Personally, I loved Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, and thought it was his most emotional and best film of these three. Unlike it, Zhang Yimou returns to an action-infused (though you really can’t call this an action film) and much more fantasy-like setting for Curse of the Golden Flower, more similar in style to Hero if anything. Even the plot in reminiscent of Hero in it’s purposefully slowly paced story with extreme emphasis on the characters’ hierarchal status. But this is both the key point of the film as well as it’s fault.

The first half-hour to hour of the film is slow… dreadfully slow. For a minute I almost stopped watching, though luckily I was lazy enough this day to continue watching, and I’m glad I did. Although this part is slow, it really does serve a purpose in defining the characters and the setting. Especially for a Westerner like myself, it may have been impossible for me to really feel the last half of the film without understanding its seemingly unrealistic politics. There is an emperor, who in all definitions of the term, controls his land, people, and family. His wife, the empress, is living with a long-term illness which she suspects is caused by her own husband, who is also hiding some secrets in his own past. There are three sons, the oldest of which is to become the heir eventually, but he is fooling around with the doctor’s daughter. And just about every emotion and conflict possible arises.

One might expect this to be an action film. After all, it’s directed by the guy who did Hero, right? Obviously, it is, but someone looking for “just” an action packed, choreographed martial acts flick, Jet Li style, will be disappointed. Indeed, there is an epic battle toward the end of this movie, and it does have more emotional pulse than most action flicks because of the background in the family drama, but that’s about it.  There are a few escape and execution scenes as well.  But this action isn’t quite as polished or flashy as Yimou’s earlier work. There are a lot of “holy crap!” moments and it is a blast to watch, though.

Once again, this isn’t a film to be judged in the first half hour. It is quite long and deserves a full viewing. Curse of the Golden Flower never quite reaches the dramatic summit that Riding Alone did, but it not a bad film altogether.

Rating: 3 /5

Title: Bright Future (aka Akarui Mirai)
Director: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Year: 2003
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: TV (Sundance Channel)

Is there no wrong that Kiyoshi Kurosawa can do? Certainly there has to be one movie in his past that doesn’t live up to the hype. Or so I thought going back to this lesser praised (but still praised) work. In the Kurosawa filmography, Bright Future is placed between Kairo (I’ve seen) and Doppleganger (haven’t seen). It’s fun to watch an auteur like Kiyoshi, because you can see different sides of the same world that his mind must work in. Clearly Bright Future builds upon the social loneliness and meaninglessness of life, or so is felt by the main characters, that is present in his other movies, but it is not quite as polished or apocalyptic as Kairo. But since I view Kairo as possibly the best horror movie ever… I won’t judge it solely on it being worse than that!

Indeed, I like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s movies because they have a distinct realism of everyday life and a purposeful silence in conversation; a point where Bright Future excels. The protagonist is as well-rounded as you’re going to get from a Kurosawa film. That is to say that he doesn’t often work very hard to show background in his characters, or many of their motivations, and at least you see a few different sides of Nimura. Some other classic techniques of Kiyoshi present include the normal moving and looking post-death ghost, on screen in the first shot and invisible in the second. Suicide and general illegal activity is portrayed as the end result of being pushed into some limit by one’s situation, as well.

So what makes it different than a typical Kiyoshi film (if there were such a thing)? Well, for one, the ending. I feel that the ending is really quite satisfying compared to others that he has done. It kind of takes the feelings from throughout the movie and puts them aside… releasing your thoughts onto present life rather than pounding remorse or loneliness into the viewer, as I’ve found Kurosawa to do sometimes. I suppose Bright Future lives up to its name then, as it does seem to give hope in a world without any. And while it’s not as clear as the messages in his other films, he seems to provide some solutions for society, rather than just the cause of despair.

Rating: 4 /5

cultural note: there is a visual reference to the Japanese Obon festival in this movie. If you don’t know what that is… look it up first!

Title: Breath (aka Soom)
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: DVD

Who better to make a movie to convince that both there is something intrinsically good about saving life, no matter the cruelty that life may have brought, than Kim Ki-Duk? Breath is a distinctly Ki-Duk film, almost sharing enough elements to be called a spiritual successor, albeit in a much more confined setting, to Spring, Summer… Unfortunately for first-time Ki-Duk viewers, Breath probably won’t win you over on it’s own. In fact, it may be pretty hard to sit through if you aren’t a fan already.

This isn’t to say it’s a bad film or story. Certainly there’s something to be said about tastes in film, in that there are some that you can admit is a work of art, but may not enjoy. This makes it hard to review a movie in general. But relative to Ki-Duk’s past work it doesn’t live up to par (which is set very high to begin with). The story follows a woman whose discovered her husband is having an affair, and then takes to what is seemingly “getting back” at him by visiting a murderer on death’s row. She accomplishes something that just feels morally right by cheering him up and practically becoming his lover. By doing this, she keeps the inmate at peace and from committing suicide in his shared cell.

The setting is quite grim feeling, and the background music doesn’t uplift it much at all, save the protagonist’s seasonal songs which are a blast. I suppose one ought to think of the viewer as looking through the lens of the inmate, as many scenes at the start have obvious bars and a “looking from the inside” vibe. There’s a hint of black comedy in the inmate’s cell-mates and their antics. The woman’s background is quite interesting in that it reflects some of the feelings that the murderer’s victims may have felt. In this way, the inmate seems to review his life and becomes an anti-hero. But you could make an argument that every character in the film is an anti-hero. That’s just how Ki-Duk works.

So where should you go from here? I’d say if you are into meditations on life or are a fan of Ki-Duk’s other work, you should put this on your watch list. Otherwise, I would start with 3-Iron and see if you like that first.

Rating: 3 /5

Title: Dead Time (aka Kala)
Director: Joko Anwar
Year: 2007
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Format Reviewed: Film (CIFF ‘08)

Even among westerners who like asian film, they generally don’t see many films outside of the three “superpowers” of Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. The cinemas of other countries don’t quite have the prestige, and often times quality, of them.  In turn, what they lack in fluidity and polish, they must make up for in other places. Usually this means what most indie films add: creativity. Dead Time does this by blending the lines of genre, as well as injecting a dose of traditional storytelling.

At first, Dead Time seems like a mediocre horror film, because it’s never really scary or engaging. The effects are quite poor for today’s standards. Even looking past them, it is almost impossible to be scared if you are a fan of horror. We’ve already seen all of these things in horror: a ghost in the corner of the screen, a shock during silence. It’s been worked much better before. But don’t be fooled so quickly. Dead Time is not really a horror in this sense. It is a horror similar to the way that The Host is a monster movie. The story revolves around a set of events that lend itself to the given genre, but it isn’t meant to catch your full attention.

Move forward a half hour with no scares, and seemingly no plot development, and you will start to see the hidden beauty of the film. As the story starts to unfold, questions about the plot reveal themselves and turn it into a mystery with some dark & dirty action. And very awesome action at that. The characters are classic, even though they are too individualistic. This turns the entire movie from boring to fun and exciting. Add a satisfying ending tops it all off, and overall it is a great theater experience. Hopefully we will see more original movies like this to come.

Good: Action sequences, Story, Characters, Use of camera, Soundtrack, Awesome weapons, Cool deaths, Original Story
Bad: Boring middle, Horror aspects, Confusing at times

Overall: Definitely worth seeing, just don’t be too quick to judge this one. Like most asian film, the ending will make up for any poor qualities of the rest. Recommended for those who like supernatural mystery and original stories.

Rating: 3 /5