A much longer segment this time.
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| From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5W9GrVlgQl8xXFofCtl6Eeg_tMbwXdjd0sJLNP5VCbaDcDE9BWQI4lGELF73ThmjFsUSUFI6pD4JW9RlJRMtets6irZcThbDiubJ7mL4qIno6Rm8nsEf4KGeeNbQJxu6VX1fy1QwrVS7v/s1600/black+Jack.jpg |
12th December 2012: Black Jack (Osamu Dezaki, 1996)
Joe Carol Brain attempts to hire Dr. Black Jack on a breed of
superhumans that have the strength, intellectual, athletic, and artistic skills
with great excel in different fields, only to later find out that they start
deteriorating after some period of time and causing an untimely death. Joe
needs Dr. Black Jack's help on finding a cure. (Anime News Network)
Based on a famous manga by Osamu Tezuka, this is the only animated
medical thriller I know exists and is exceptionally good. Like Tezuka himself, a doctor before he
became the most influential manga artist in Japan but also a creator of very
fantastical content, this is a film that combines detailed realism, with
medical consultants in the credits, with intentionally unrealistic concepts to
heighten the drama. The animation is incredible, not as abstract as some of the
work the late Osamu Dezaki and his
reoccurring character designer Akio Sugino
I have seen have been, but it is just as full of detail and experimentation
with its look and tone, making it far from the stereotype of anime and more of
a playful yet pulpy story.
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| From http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4343/vlcsnap12005.jpg |
13th December 2012: Central Bazaar (Stephen Dwoskin, 1975)
Consult the review I did for Halloween 31 For 31 here – http://regionincognito.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-candid-eye-central-bazaar-1976.html?zx=d3d69718dfd73a6e. It
still lives up to the positive review I gave it two months ago.
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| From http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/protectedimage.php?image=JohnWhite/lupin1.jpg_12072008 |
14th December 2012: Lupin The Third – The Secret of Mamo
(Soji Yoshikawa, 1978)
Lupin risks death to learn the secret and intentions of a wealthy and
seemingly immortal, but certainly ruthless, recluse. (IMDB)
[Taken from a review I wrote on
MUBI.com - http://mubi.com/users/227381/filmography]
‘Watching this and the late Osamu
Dezaki’s 1996 adaptation of the manga Black
Jack, I feel both sad at how a lot of anime made now, after the transition
from hand drawn to digital animation, has lost its courage to be experimental
and braver in its content, with only the film Redline as of yet standing out*,
but grateful that, once in a while, works this strange, hilarious and
imaginative get released on DVD by companies like Manga Entertainment. Its gender politics is of the times of its
original source material, but this is a film that is fun and surreal, a term I
can use fully because actual Surrealist paintings get incorporated into the
scenery in one of the many inspired pieces of the films. The director Soji Yoshikawa, who sadly never made
another theatrical film, brings a uniquely abstract tone to a story far more
rambunctious, and sexually explicit, than the equally great The Castle of Cagliostro by Hayao Miyazaki. The screen writer Atsushi Yamatoya deserves credit too
though as he also wrote Seijun Suzuki's
Branded To Kill, which explains
completely why this film is as wonderfully insane as it is. Even in the late
nineties, with the infamous Neon Genesis
Evangelion: The End of Evnagelion, and Rintaro’s
equally infamous (but beautiful) adaptation of X, there were some startling visions made in anime, a lot of which
are sadly lost by pandering to otaku and unerotic fanservice, but looking back
at films like The Secret of Mamo, it
shows just how much of an artform anime is while the creators of this animation
were gleefully and willingly able to make things as demented as this Lupin film
for hell of it. It feels less like the insidiously and dubious idea that the
Japanese are inherently weird, like many Westerners paint the culture as, but
that their pop culture creators, like Soji
Yoshikawa, are given free rein to indulge in whatever ideas they want, far
more so than in the West, as long as it can be marketed to an audience in some
way.’
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| From http://horrornews.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Body-Count-1987-Movie-4.jpg |
15th December 2012: Bodycount aka. Camping del terrore
(Ruggero Deodato, 1986)
A bodybuilder, a junk-food addict and a wild blonde nymph and their
friends are stalked by a terrifying figure. An horrific tale of murder as a
fun-loving group of college students explore the Colorado wilderness.
(IMDB)
Not watched in the best version
possible, but this is pretty much a slasher film at its most generic. Slasher
films are one of my least favourite subgenres, but what annoys me with Bodycount is that it starts off as an
interesting and amusingly cheesy movie, only to suddenly drop in quality half
way through, where it seems to be procrastinating for no reason and not really
making the repeated plotting from other slasher films interesting at all.
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| From http://www.artificial-eye.com/database/dvd/ART461DVD/images/01.jpg |
16th December 2012: La Pointe Courte (Agnes Varda, 1955)
There are two parts to this film: sequences of life in the fishing
village of La Pointe Courte (a government inspector's visit, the death of a
child) alternate with others following a couple - He is from La Pointe Courte,
she is Parisian - coming to terms with their changing relationship. (IMDB)
While I have seen only a few
films by her, I can say nonetheless that Agnes
Varda is one of best discoveries in terms of directors I never saw any
films from before this year. Her debut is a little rawer and flawed compared to
the other films I have seen, but it is still impressive. Split into two sides,
the main one with the couple is a bit too arch in places, but is still
striking, weaved into the other side of the film, an overview of a coastal
community, to create a fascinating feature. Visually, La Pointe Courte is incredible in terms of camera work and how Varda shows the environment onscreen. I
would recommend Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
first for anyone who hasn’t seen a Varda
film, but this is still a great work and an even better way to debut as a film
director.
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| From http://i2.listal.com/image/1864747/500full.jpg |
17th December 2012: Escape From The Bronx (Enzo G.
Castellari, 1983)
A ragtag group of people have to fight extermination squads amid their
ruined city. (IMDB)
I didn’t put a review up on Castellari’s 1990, The Bronx Warriors, although one by me can be found here as
well - http://mubi.com/users/227381/filmography
- but both of the films are very solid, underrated Italian genre films for what
they are. Yes they are trashy, fitting considering the main character for both is
called Trash, ridiculous, and a filtering of American films blatantly put
together, but like great Italian exploitation cinema, or any country’s genre
cinema that borrows ideas from popular Hollywood films, there is a love and
desire from those who make the films, if just the director, to make something
for an audience to enjoy and to try to be as creative with the material as
possible. The first film was great in terms of its look and the world it
depicted, but Escape From The Bronx
improves on the biggest issue from the film that, for a director loved for his
action scenes, it felt lacking in the area. Escape From The Bronx more than compensates for this, while continuing
the lovably cheesy charm of the first film, and is very well directed and made
too like the prequel. Also having Henry Silva
as villain who, despite being one dimensional, still has moments in the
spotlight to be charismatic in his evilness adds to the film too, especially when
you consider that many potentially great genre films just get slapdashidly put
together.
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| From http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/dyd/StreetLaw_2.jpg |
18th December 2012: Street Law (Enzo G. Castellari, 1974)
Carlo Antonelli, an engineer from Genoa, gets mugged and decides to
take justice into his own hands. At first the muggers seem to get the upper
hand, but then he's helped by Tommy, a young robber who takes his side.
(IMDB)
More love for Castellari from myself, delving into my
second poliziotteschi film; I have only started to watch his films in
succession within this month, but I am probably going to put him on the list of
underrated directors I properly delved into this year. The version I saw of
this film was an abomination - a ripped from videotape release from a Z-grade
DVD company, bizarrely renamed Revenge
and with a print that, while acceptable within this situation until I can get
hold of the American disc, had night scenes that were completely drowned out by
the colour blue - but the film still shined despite this problem. It is a
simplistic, B-movie crime film, intentionally pulpy in content, but it’s very
well made, distinct and moody with its psychedelic rock score that intercuts
between scenes and put together greatly by Castellari.
It could be dismissed as a simplistic vigilante film but the film’s ace in its
sleeve is that, within its B-movie plot, it still scrutinises the idea of
vigilantism, despite its plot, by showing it to be a morally grey concept and
by having a protagonist whose physical vulnerability is as large as his
courage. Whether he dubbed his own voice in the English or not, Franco Nero is such a distinct
personality, finally seeing him in a lead role, with his piercing blue eyes and
battered face, and in how he moves and gestures in each scene. That the
character is such a vulnerable individual even in the final act, helped greatly
by Nero’s physical performance, is
such a virtue for the film.
* I realise that the late Satoshi Kon and an occasional
experimental work like Cat Soup (2001)
shows that experimentation in anime can still happen and be a breath of fresh
air, but these films to my knowledge have the fan bases they deserve that
praise them whenever they can (including myself). Then there are a lot of films
and works, such as Studio Ghibli films, that I’ve yet to see and need to create
an opinion on.“Mainstream” anime is pretty diabolical however in how bland and
uncreative looking most of the content looks and turns out to be, making the
rare work like Redline so
desperately needed.
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