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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
That first one is just plain wrong. 
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Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound=  |
Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:28 pm |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
Anyone seen Battle Royale? Not strictly a horror movie, though it is horrific (and Japanese). It's one of those films that works on a totally superficial level as an action-packed exploitation flick, and also as a fairly effective social commentary, without either aspect getting in the way of the other (so you can enjoy it fully if you're in one mood or t'other). It's nasty, but good. |
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Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:26 pm |
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RPG Frog
Blade Runner
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 748
Location: the Matrix |
quote:
Originally posted by xSamhainx
Ive always been a fan of asian martial arts movies, but I didnt even notice the Japanese horror boom that has produced such cool films as "Uzmaki","Tomie" and great cult-style "Stacy" and "Wild Zero". The Japanese language in itself is well-suited to horror in my opinion, and the asian "horror music" accompanying is equally capable oftentimes.
I just saw Uzemaki last week. KILLER FLICK!!! This movie was waaaaaaaaay more Lovecraft than any of the HP Lovecraft influenced movies from the US or UK.
Versus is also a killer movie.
Do you know of any other Japanese horror flicks that are as trippy as Uzemaki? If so hook a brutha up!!!
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Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities…there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars…Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand…to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet. - Robert E. Howard |
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Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:34 pm |
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Amelia
City Guard
Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 141
Location: Ong's Hat, New Jersey |
I saw Ju-on The Grudge the other day and it was pretty good. I liked the imagery. I heard that the same director is directing the US release with just a bit better budget and more linearity as opposed to the more pseudo-Tarantino presentation of the Japanese theatrical release. Supposedly he's even using some of the same Japanese actors. I guess we'll see.
quote:
Originally posted by piln
Anyone seen Battle Royale? Not strictly a horror movie, though it is horrific (and Japanese). It's one of those films that works on a totally superficial level as an action-packed exploitation flick, and also as a fairly effective social commentary, without either aspect getting in the way of the other (so you can enjoy it fully if you're in one mood or t'other). It's nasty, but good.
Battle Royale is great. Kitano wails. BR2 is not so much wailage. I advise to not view.
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The real secret of magick is that the world is made of words. And that if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish. -Terence Mckenna |
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Sat Oct 16, 2004 6:23 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
quote:
Originally posted by Amelia
Battle Royale is great. Kitano wails. BR2 is not so much wailage. I advise to not view.
lol, I've heard it's not great, and I'd love to take your advice... but my friend has it on DVD and morbid curiosity will probably get the better of me in the end! But I'm prepared. 
I have the Tartan special edition of BR, which has the director's cut of the movie - and I honestly prefer the studio cut. A lot. I think it's the first film I've seen that I can say that about (I certainly couldn't say it about Blade Runner or Brazil!). Nevertheless, the DVD package is great, it has tons of special features. It was director Fukasaku's 70th birthday during the shoot, and one of the special features is a mock-up of the instructional video. It's pretty much the same as in the film, but here we have that crazy girl telling Fukasaku not to let the shoot run on after deadline, otherwise his collar will go BOOM!... "so promise not to, OK?" - it's hilarious, but I guess this'll mean nothing to those who haven't seen the film.  |
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Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:17 pm |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
I've seen Uzumaki and was quite annoyed by it... not because it's a bad film, quite the opposite. I thoroughly enjoyed it until the end, when it doesn't actually end, it just stops. It does conclude the story in a way, but the simplicity and abruptness of the final moments, IMO, just didn't do justice to the brilliant scenes and slowly-unfolding story throughout the rest of the film. I'd still say it's worth watching, because the vast majority of the film is very, very good.
SciFi Channel in the UK is showing some Japanese horror movies from 5-7 Nov (ie, this weekend). All three "Ring" (or "Ringu") movies back-to-back, including Ring 0, which I've heard is a bit poor, but the other two are great. Audition, Bangkok Haunted and Bangkok Dangerous (which ain't a horror film, afaik). Bizarrely, this is in association with the new American remake of The Grudge, but they aren't showing the original version.  |
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Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:39 am |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
I rented Audition a few days ago, but didnt get around to watching it til like 12:30 last night. I now know that the time of day when you watch something really does truly matter, and it has nothing to do with the actual darkness itself. Audition scared the hell out of me like twice!
The first time was right after the actual audition itself, and she is sitting by the phone waiting for hime to call. She's kinda grinning weird, looking psycho, and suddenly that thing in the burlap bag or whatever quickly spasms and lets out that hideous cry. I jumped about a foot off the bed!
Then, towards the end where the thing in the bag shows up again, and starts to come out of it. I was practically looking thru my paws! It was after 1 am, and I was pretty tripped out by the whole thing..
I know I dissed Takashi Miike before, and my opinion of Ichi the Clown hasnt changed one bit, but I gotta take my hat off to him when it comes to Audition.
It wasnt a masterpiece, and it was not the type of movie everyone will like, but it was pretty darn good in my opinion. I like his style of fast-cut to snippets of the past, sorta Oliver Stone-ish at times. He doesnt do the Rob Zombie fast-cut to something completely irrelevant to the story, all Miikes fast cuts have to do with the story in some way. The sorta bluish darkness he uses in alot of the dark scenes really serves him well, at one point the main char flashes back to an image of his dead wife sitting up in her bed, freakin creepY!
I was overjoyed when I saw Ju-On at Best Buy today, picked that up for 20 bucks and Reefer Madness for 4.99 ='.'=
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:26 am |
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Amelia
City Guard
Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 141
Location: Ong's Hat, New Jersey |
Hmm... Ichi the Clown you say? Sounds like a class film! Will have to investigate..
_________________
The real secret of magick is that the world is made of words. And that if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish. -Terence Mckenna |
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Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:00 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
Glad you enjoyed Audition, Sam, like you say it's not perfect but it's a lot better than some of his other films. He's very hard to pin down, good and bad films are scattered throughout his filmography seemingly at random. Bird People In China is about 6-7 years old, Happiness Of The Katakuris is one of his more recent ones, but they are his best two that I've seen. I also saw another of his gangster flicks, Rainy Dog, recently. It's not great, but not bad either... kind of like a Japanese Get Carter, but it's really nothing special. It is, however, far better than what I've seen so far of Ichi The Killer and Dead Or Alive (nope, still haven't forced myself to watch them yet  )
quote:
Originally posted by Amelia
Hmm... Ichi the Clown you say? Sounds like a class film! Will have to investigate..
I can just imagine the children's parties...  [shudder] |
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Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:47 am |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
I watched Ju-On last night, and Im sorta disappointed!
I have a feeling that it's a victim of such heightened expectations, than when it didnt just blow me totally away and scare the crap out of me I was bummed.
I even made sure I watched it after midnight, still, for some reason that little boy ghost didnt seem to scare me really. In fact the girl scared me far more than he did, and only really right at the almost end of the movie. I think also, I fell victim to the actual movie trailers I had seen for it, basically seeing some of the better spooky parts several times before I saw the film.
It's like when I saw all the funny gags in one of the "Naked Gun" movies several times on tv commercials, then went to the film and barely cracked a smile. And that's unusual because I love Leslie Neilsen. But after you see him flip backward off the boat with his scuba gear onto the dock for the tenth time in a month, it just isnt that funny anymore. Ju-on unfortunately reminded me of that situation, for instance, that part where she wakes up and both ghosts are staring at her would have normally kinda chilled me had I not seen it 3 times already. I'm going to make sure to not look at trailers anymore because it really spoiled it for me big time..
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:00 pm |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
lol, I'm getting worse all the time when it comes to knowing stuff before seeing the film... I'm on the verge of putting my hands over my ears and singing "la la la, I'm not listening" once the conversation goes beyond the title. I've bought quite a lot of DVDs from China recently, and boy do they overdo it with the case blurb! There's basically an entire plot synopsis on the back of some cases. It's actually a blessing when there's no English on there, so I can't even accidentally read something I don't want to. |
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Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:57 am |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
Ive been collecting all of Vincent Price's movies, he has always been one of my favorite actors. Ive pretty much got all his great Poe performances and some of the not-so-great such as the Dr Phibes films  But I tell ya, if you watch practically any of the theatrical trailers that are common extras on any DVD's of older films, they literally let just about every cat out of the bag they possibly can! Oftentimes, showing even the death of main characters, and either the hero or the villan themselves are shown either in defeat, saving the day, or issuing their final death rattle. What's the point of even seeing it after that?
It's true in todays movies as well to some degree, but it seems like they really made a real effort in older film's trailers to completely and utterly spoil the flim in it's entirety in a 20 second spot.
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:19 am |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
Watched "Shikoku" last night, and for the most part I really enjoyed it.. up until the completely idiotic ending! I'm serious, I really truly couldnt believe what I was seeing. I'll go into it in the end of this post, because it is a spoiler of sorts, tho I don’t know how you could not be curious about this total mind-blower of an ending after all my blabbing about it.
Anyway, the first thing you'll notice about Shikoku is that Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill is on the cover, and she is the by now the standard central ghostly figure that seems to universally haunt the Asian horror world in general. But ghosts, demons, evil spirits, etc are what Asian horror is generally about, so you’d better get used to it. Certainly don’t get your hopes up for “An American Werewolf in Tokyo” anytime soon.
But anyway, Gogo is a sort of a vengeful spirit, and quite frankly just a mean little wench in general even when she was drawing breath. She makes everyone’s life hell when her former classmate returns to Shikoku for a visit to her old neighborhood, and basically goes steady, for the lack of a better phrase, with Gogo’s old boyfriend. To make matters worse, her loco mother is doing all she can to officially bring her physically back to life, along with everyone else currently residing in the Land of The Dead. She has been basically doing the 88 temple Shikoku pilgrimage backwards, and after her 16th run, supposedly the barrier between the Living and Dead worlds will open.
Thru just really good timing or the hand of fate, a woman “comes home” to her former childhood stomping grounds of Shikoku and with Gogo’s former boyfriend, attempts to stop her crazy mom from opening up the portal between worlds. There is a few good eerie parts, such as ghostly figures behind windows and appearing in dreams, but actually they miss as much as they strike a nerve. Gogo just isn’t scary, nor would any little girl ghost who isn’t filmed right. Come on, we have to admit some basics here, little girls just aren’t scary. Filmed right, such as the young girls in The Shining, The Ring, etc, yes they indeed have to potential to be, but just on their own they just arent threatening or frightening, at least not to me anyway. What Im beating to death here is the fact that a ghostly white Gogo looking on menacingly elicited a couple strange chuckles from me during the film. I felt like saying “ooo, you soo scawwy!”, it just wasn’t very effective on a horror level. When she’s behind smoked glass or rattling around in the shadows or something (not present but implied), she’s at her most effective. To me, this was not so much a horror movie as it was a supernatural drama, or an almost religious sort of film than anything.
I liked the movie alot, even tho it wasn’t what I expected it to be at all. Above all, it is a love story, a spiritual tale of enduring love after death. A religious movie in a way as well, youre liable to learn a little something you didn’t know about Buddhism by watching it, or at least spark your interest in learning more about it. The Japanese island of Shikoku is an actual place where the actual 88 temple pilgrimage takes place, and has for quite some time, look it up on the net, it is quite interesting.
Anyway, time is short so here’s the ending-
*snickers into huge paws*
Spoiler below--
Ok, Mama Gogo succeeds in doing the pilgrimage in reverse 16 times, the age of Gogo when she shrugged off this mortal coil. Thus, the gate between worlds open, and out steps a naked, disoriented, and slightly slimy Gogo. Mom takes her home, and gets down to some good old family traditions they used to enjoy. It’s at this time that a loving and thankful Gogo embraces Mom, and literally breaks her back, killing her instantly. This apparently because she has some sort of supernatural strength or something? It isn’t made any clearer than what I stated, and Gogo seems to be like “oops!” so she didn’t do it purposefully. Even further baffling when its fairly obvious that the girl can barely walk, or for that matter even hold her head up, but she basically breaks someones spine with an overzealous hug. My jaw dropped. My brother’s jaw dropped. My brother’s wife’s jaw dropped. We were all suddenly slackjawed one second, then laughing our heads off the next, it was the strangest thing.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gogo’s old boyfriend who always loved her even after death separated them, leaves his new-style Tokyo girlfriend for his long lost love from beyond the grave and she does the same thing to him. That’s right, a catfight between this guy's living girl and living dead girl is about to go down, and he de-facto dumps his Tokyo gal on the spot ending it before it ever begins. He walks over to Gogo for a nice welcome home hug, and SnAp CrAcKle PoP there goes his spine as well!
Gogo is equally baffled by the repeat incident, as is the viewer.
A friend of mine that I told this to said that perhaps since the movie was so heavy on symbolism, that it was meant to symbolically portray that once dead is always dead. You know, even if the gate is literally knocked down between worlds, the dead can never truly “return”. Well, I guess they can, but just don’t go hugging them or shaking hands and you’ll be ok ='.'=
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:35 pm |
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Amelia
City Guard
Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 141
Location: Ong's Hat, New Jersey |
I haven't heard of Shikoku. I resisted reading your spoiler so maybe I'll have to look into it. About a week ago I watched Gozu directed by Miike. It was very good. Completely absurd. It wasn't so much the crazed absurdity of Ichi, for instance the two detectives with all the jangles on their heads, but just plain weird. For example, there's a birthing scene. But! (Of course, ahaha) It's not just any kind of birthing scene. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
_________________
The real secret of magick is that the world is made of words. And that if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish. -Terence Mckenna |
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Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:28 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
Saw "Ju On" (the Grudge) last night. The Japanese original, not the recent American remake. Wasn't very impressed. It starts out intriguingly, but it just kind of plods along without really revealing much, and ends without telling you anything that you don't already know. It tries too hard to be scary, and some of the attempts are really good - sound-based creeps work well pretty much every time, and there are a few effective visual scares, but for every moment that worked and got my neck-hairs prickling, there seemed like half a dozen that just had no effect or worse, actually made me laugh. And, probably worst of all, there really isn't anything that hasn't come straight out of the Japanese horror textbook - especially the several obvious rip-offs directly from Ringu 1 and 2 and (to a lesser extent) Dark Water. The unoriginal scatter-gun approach cheapens the few scary moments that do work.
No spoilers here, but what it basically boils down to is a haunted house story. Quite early in the film, we find out everything there is to know (there is a brief detour as we learn about some schoolgirls' experiences in the house, but it has absolutely no bearing on what comes before or after; it hints that it might reveal some insight into the origins of the ghostly happenings, but turns out to be a seperate and, to be honest, pointless tale). So after some early exposition, effectivley the film consists of the same ghost "encounter" repeated many times with many different characters. It goes on like this, with no significant new developments, until the end. Then it ends. Rather disappointing. And it doesn't help matters that there is no real central character for the viewer to identify with.
Spoiler:
the one who comes closest, Rika, is rendered ineffective by two things: one is thats she's absent from the film for some time as we focus instead on a few police characters and then the schoolgirl diversion (none of these things add anything relevant to the proceedings, which only heightens the senselessness of Rika's lengthy absence); and secondly when she returns later, our ability to root for her (already made difficult by her lack of screen time) is crippled by the fact that we now know (via an overheard TV broadcast in the future, thanks to some non-linear storytelling) she ends up dead, and it is obvious we are watching her final undoing. Worked fine in Pulp Fiction , but that film traded on emotions other than fear - this film needed a spine-chilling finale, and it is difficult to illicit fear without some glimmer of hope, someone to root for - what we have here is not a strong central character, but the best of a rather sketchy and non-descript bunch, and someone who we know is going to her death. This makes the finale (which includes some rather pointless flashback-exposition of things we already know in a slightly different light, not an astonishing revelation by any standards) the flattest and least engaging sequence of all, followed by a rather corny and predictable final shot.
So, IMO, a sometimes effective, heavily flawed and ultimately average film that ends on a low note. |
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Wed Jan 12, 2005 1:40 am |
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