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"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen"
Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui returned for this sequel to The Heroic Trio from the same year. While The Heroic Trio was campy and fun, Executioners was dark with an erratic script and zero fun.Wonder Woman aka Tung (Anita Mui) is now married with a daughter. Her husband, Commissioner Lau, is rarely home as he is dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear strike that has left the people without clean water for several years. An entrepreneur named Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong) has figured out how to clean the radiation out of the water and sells small shipments at premium prices. Invisible Girl* aka Sandy Ching (Michelle Yeoh) turned over a new leaf after the first movie and is helping transport medical supplies. Thief Catcher Chat (Maggie Cheung) is still doing whatever she can to make a buck. Religious leader Chung Hon and a military colonel are both in cahoots with Mr. Kim. The president is vulnerable as well as the government in general with Kim and the Colonel both gunning to take over the country. Somehow the Heroic Trio must find a way to save themselves and the people from the evil men’s machinations.
The budget must have been miniscule for this film. In order to make the cheap sets appear post-apocalyptic they turned down the lights and turned up the fog machine. The strength of the first film was the relationship between the three women. Here, they were rarely together. The main exception being a gratuitous bubble bath scene at the beginning of the film as they played a game of grab and tickle. If there was a Sapphic subplot it might have made more sense but here it seemed to be designed to titillate 15-year-old boys. There weren’t many action scenes and most weren’t memorable. The plot seemed to be focused on the women fighting in skirts or short shorts and having as many people killed as possible. If they had ever planned a third film those characters eliminated should have counted themselves lucky.
It is no secret that I love the beautiful and talented Michelle Yeoh and will watch anything she is in. I also adore Maggie Cheung. The three women combined could not save this movie, actually if they’d had scenes together it might have helped. Anthony Wong as the villain was hampered by having to wear heavily scarred facial prosthetics and a mask on top of that. Kaneshiro Takeshi’s religious leader seemed to be a prominent role until he lost his head early on. Lau Ching Wan’s character had possibilities but ended up all wet. One of the characters that dragged this movie down considerably for me was the daughter. She was always getting lost or making a scene or diving into danger. It didn’t help that the dubbed voice was equally annoying as the character.
Executioners had a wealth of talent and wasted all of it on a dreary, convoluted story. When the three women were together fighting it was exciting. The trouble was the director forgot that key piece and squandered his cast and my time.
5 December 2024
Trigger warning: Rats and drinking of rat’s blood
* In the first film, Michelle Yeoh’s character wore an invisible cloak, but not in this film.
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"Run towards the angry sea"
Boat People aka Run Towards the Angry Sea dealt with the brutal years directly following the end of the US/Vietnam War when Ho Chi Min and his party reunified Vietnam. This was the third film Ann Hui directed focusing on Vietnam resulting from stories she had heard while making the previous two. This film told the story of a Japanese reporter and the impoverished children he befriended.Akutagawa Shiomi had reported favorably on Ho Chi Min’s government previously so he was invited three years later to see the country’s progress. His visit to a New Economic Zone is highlighted by happy children singing and greeting him. Not long afterwards he sees people being forcefully removed from their homes. Troops beat first and ask questions later when he photographs horrific scenes. He follows a girl who scooped up noodles from the street and meets her family who are fearful of him. The oldest son tells him he can photograph them on the street for a price. As Akutagawa explores the city and NEZs without his escorts he comes to find that his initial introduction had been a show and that numerous people were willing to risk anything to flee their fates.
I’m old enough to remember the humanitarian crisis of the Boat People when nearly 300,000 people died at sea. This film did not focus on the boat people but rather the circumstances that drove people to make such a dire decision. The New Economic Zones were home to “bad elements” which could simply mean having been a capitalist or having contact with western countries or having wrong ideas by virtue of living in the south. Clearing land mines or farming in remote, inhospitable conditions was not a future many people had envisioned.
George Lam played reporter Akutagawa. He gave a strong performance as a left leaning reporter whose eyes were gradually opened to the horrors around him. A young Andy Lau played a former translator sentenced to a NEZ who was determined to leave the country before being blown up by a land mine. Newcomer Season Ma was believable as Cam Nuong who did what she needed to do to help her family and also had dreams of her own.
The biggest drawback for me was the lack of a language barrier. For the most part, everyone spoke Cantonese. And while there was a segment of the society that was ethnic Chinese, the Hao, who suffered greatly under the new regime, that didn’t seem to be the case here. Lam and his buddy Inoue’s Japanese didn’t sound very authentic, but I’m hardly an expert. I also had a hard time watching Akutagawa use his camera in the pouring rain. Not sure his camera would have survived the punishment he put it through.
While Ann Hui attempted to be apolitical, this time in Vietnam’s history could easily have been a criticism of any totalitarian regime that shut down free thinking and punished those who were seen as suspicious or disloyal. The terrible conditions left from decades at war were also visible. Land mines and unexploded ordinances took their toll as much as the unsympathetic party in control. The film was not an indictment on Vietnam in our present but on a specific time in its turbulent history and the price some people paid for not being on the winning side.
Boat People won numerous Hong Kong Film Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. The transformation of Akutagawa as he went from the idealized version of events to the harsh reality was poignant. The asexual friendship that developed between him and Cam Nuong which went from caution and suspicion to acceptance and compassion also hit the right notes. Without any spoilers, Boat People was tragic and heartbreaking on many levels yet also showed the determination and resiliency of the human spirit.
28 November 2024
Triggers: Deaths from many different graphic sources. Sexual content was alluded to but not shown.
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Love in the time of Covid
I Want Us to Be Together was a sweet age gap romance starring Qin Lan and Fan Cheng Cheng. Cupid, in this instance, turned out to be Covid. When many people were figuring out they couldn’t live together anymore after quarantining in the early days of the novel virus, others found love.Yu Ge is going home for the New Year celebration to be with her parents and extended family. She says her parents are cool with her being single, but other relatives are more bothersome about it. Yu Ge auditions several men to play her boyfriend and ends up with Lin Bu Mian, a younger man who works at the same restaurant. Lin is nine years younger than her but beggars can’t be choosers. Her parents are overjoyed with the handsome young man and cannot contain their excitement. As the family prepares to travel to the gathering, they are told no one can leave. Everyone is going to learn a lot more about each other in the small apartment.
Qin Lan is a delightful actress who the very next year would have another age gap romance in the drama The Rational Life with Dylan Wang that was quite entertaining. In this short film the age gap was supposed to be nine years while in real life it was closer to twenty.
IWUtBT brought back memories of the early days of the pandemic. No one really knew how to deal with Covid or the best way to treat it or prevent it. Scary times with masks and quarantining. With all the fear and deaths the invisible enemy caused it was nice that something good came out of those dark times, even if it was a fictional romance.
19 November 2024
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This story was on thin ice
Donnie Yen took a dramatic turn without the benefit of his martial arts skills in Comeback Home aka Polar Rescue. This family thriller about a lost child set in a beautiful snowy wilderness was marred by poor storytelling.A De and his family are on their last day of vacation having a blast playing in the snow at a resort. He has promised his son a trip to Lake Tian to see the monster living there. Finding the road closed due to inclement weather they take an alternate route where their car ends up stuck in a snowy pothole. A De and his wife manage to dislodge the car but their son Lele throws a fit and nearly gets everyone injured when another car comes up the road. When the eight-year-old’s temper tantrum escalates, A De leaves him there to teach him a lesson while he drives his wife and daughter to a nearby store. When A De returns, his son is nowhere to be seen.
I was looking forward to watching Yen in a non-martial arts film and he did fine here as the worried and hotheaded father. The winter scenery was gorgeous. The music while melodramatic fit the film. Where Polar Rescue slipped and fell was in the writing. A De’s initial response seemed utterly unbelievable for a caring father. At times the search and rescue teams were portrayed with all the propaganda they could fit in. At other times they were incompetent, unprofessional, and petty. If only perfect people were worthy of rescue, no one would ever be rescued. I found most of the characters’ actions baffling and at times infuriating.
Comeback Home had interesting moments and many that strained credulity. If you are a fan of Donnie Yen or family dramas where a member is in danger you might want to give this a try. Or if you are simply in need of a film with snow continuously falling. If you’ve ever known someone who has worked search and rescue or you need your thrillers to make a modicum of sense, you’ll want to avoid this one.
19 November 2024
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The two female day clerks man the desk dutifully standing as guests enter the hotel and leave. One talks constantly about horror movies she’s seen as the other passively listens. Kai Lin, the quiet maid, follows her daily routine cleaning the rooms and general areas. The boss introduces Da Guan who will be handling the desk at night and tells him to familiarize himself with the hotel. When Da Guan is wandering around he notices Kai Lin doing one of her routines that is not quite normal.
The Wish Hotel is quite busy at lunch time when customers rent rooms for “romantic” meetings. The meetings keep Kai Lin busy and also reveal her proclivities to Da Guan. The maid doesn’t like change, but also doesn’t like her life. Only the “travels” of the guests perk her interest as do her actions for Da Guan.
Nothing overtly exciting happens in Wish Hotel, yet short films often reveal subtle rhythms and changes in the lives of those peered at. The daily routines run from the mundane to slightly out of the normal range, yet judgements aren’t made on the workers who cater to the customers who use the hotel for rest and recreation.
11 November 2024
Trigger Warnings: References to sexual activity but nothing shown.
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"The roar of the dark sea is so far away yet I can still hear it"
Just when I thought I’d already seen Obayashi’s strangest film, he said, “Hold my beer.” I watched the short film, Emotion, twice and am still not sure I understand it. The acting was okay, the story surreal. What was amazing was the maddeningly creative editing Obayashi concocted like a sorcerer who had inhaled too many mushrooms in his dark laboratory.Emi is a young woman who lives by the sea and yearns to see more of the world. When she moves to the big city she meets mysterious Sari. They become fast friends until the day the man Sari loves falls in love with Emi. Sari gives in to the dark nature of her family…a family descended from vampires. At least I think that’s what happened. Lol
I cannot fathom how many editing cuts and splices were made for this film. Obayashi used every camera angle and trick available at the time. I caught more of the special effects the second time I watched it. Much like a silent film, the characters rarely spoke out loud. A voiceover in English and Japanese narrated the film. Intertitles occasionally appeared with the speed of a subliminal mind-altering torture. Poetry was spouted almost continually which elaborated more on emotions than plot. Different frames were bathed in solitary colors or simply black and white. Swirling, rocking scenes could be nausea inducing. You never knew what might appear next-bubbles, a random dog passing through, a dancing vampire with an umbrella, or a wild west shoot-out. Contemporary 1960’s music alternated with traditional music which added to the fanciful atmosphere.
To top everything off, behind the scenes footage was also used.
Much of the film could have been a dream or a young woman’s descent into madness. Coming of age, sexual awakening, friendship, desire, heartbreak, and jealousy all made an appearance. I’m not sure if incest or passing along the vampiric “gift” was shown. And whether a couple of scenes were about losing one’s innocence or rape.
Emotion was a complete mood film even if I wasn’t always sure what mood was being evoked at breakneck speed. It was an intriguing work of art more than compelling story. The short running time worked to the film’s advantage as it could be dizzyingly exhausting. Obayashi wasn’t afraid to inject humor throughout---never thought I’d see a vampire drink someone’s blood with a straw. If you are looking for something strange and different, Emotion qualifies on both counts.
"Do you like the sound of footsteps on the fallen leaves? Come. Night is falling."
26 October 2024
Trigger warnings: Suicide. Partial nudity.
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"We're all sick of Baker's vampires and bullying!"
Some movies are so bad they are good. Some movies are so bad they are bad. And then there is Ninja the Violent Sorcerer that is so bad it is WTF? Spliced and diced from The Stunning Gambling (1982) with new footage added for a story told in English, assumed director Godfrey Ho created a Frankenstein film of gambling, ninjas, a vengeful ghost, and hopping vampires.Gambling pro Mr. Myer, is tricked into killing himself during a gambling bet with the evil Mr. Baker. Myer’s dead wife appears in ghostly form to his brother Roger and tells him he must avenge her husband. Baker cheated by using hopping vampires…somehow. Collins works for Baker by shaking down people who owe the baddie money and using the invulnerable hoppers as muscle. What Baker and Collins don’t know is that Roger is secretly a ninja (white). His buddy, Ken, is also a ninja (green) and amateur Taoist. They have Myer’s son contact Webber, an incredible gambler who has turned into a drunk. Webber is the only man who has a chance at beating Baker. Roger and Ken gear up to take on Collins and his jianshi hitmen while Webber attempts to bring down Baker.
I was lured into watching this film with the promise of Angela Mao and hopping vampires. It was false advertising in regards to Angela. She appeared briefly in one scene where she handed Webber, who was suffering from the shakes, a bottle of booze. The hopping vampires did appear fairly often. And I actually bumped my score up for the actors’ commitment to their craft. Despite two ninjas attacking them, they kept their arms in front of them and continued to hop. The ninjas were at a loss as to how to stop the hoppers. Where’s Lam Ching Ying when you need him?
Godfrey Ho had 40 different pseudonyms and most people are convinced Bruce Lambert was one of them. If you enjoy his patented form of theatrical chaos and mania, you might want to try this. Of if you are curious how not very good ninjas would stack up against hopping vampires, you might want to try this. Otherwise, best to hop on by.
23 October 2024
Trigger warnings: Brief nudity. Really bad acting.
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"What ghost would dare hate us?"
“Strange things happen in a war-torn land.” Do they ever in Kuroneko's ghostly story of revenge. The problem with revenge is that it’s a double-edged sword that can wound both ways.Yone and Shige are home alone having dinner when a group of 16 samurai come upon their hut. The samurai lay claim to everything in it. When they are done, the women are dead, and their hut goes up in flames. A black cat lingers over the bodies in the smoldering ruins. Not long after, samurai traveling through the Rajomon Gate at night are lured to their deaths by a beautiful woman. Tragedy is at hand when Yone’s son and Shige’s husband returns from the war a successful samurai and the women’s vows must be kept.
“Who cares about peasants or even considers them human?”
This was a strange story about the consequences of revenge. The vengeful ghosts had plenty to be resentful of regarding the world the warring men had created. Hachi loved his mother and his wife, but would he be immune to the rancorous entitlement vented by so many? It also showed the utter disregard for the lives of the peasants, the people hit the hardest by war. The lazy samurai leader Raiko couldn't understand anyone hating the samurai believing they were beloved by all. The suffering peasants' feelings didn't count as they weren't really human. A samurai lured into the women’s house said, “Fighting allows us to eat our fill and have whatever we want.” Not the words one should say to ghosts who had everything stolen by samurai including their lives. The offending samurai faces bore the greed and lust of crazed animals, fitting irony that they died in similar fashion.
The 1960’s special effects were rudimentary, created with darkness and light, fog and shadows. Makeup and hairy cat limbs gave the illusion of feline ghosts. A few wires and even their shadows slipped through the editing process. The greater fear in this film resulted from the ghosts required to fulfill their vows and Hachi who had his own vows to fulfill which put the loved ones on a hellish collision course. I gave this old horror film a small rating’s bump due to its age, but despite that it was a well made film about the costs of war and revenge.
20 October 2024
Triggers: Sexual assault and some nudity
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Ring the bell, the paranormal fight is ready to begin!
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman was a light, entertaining shaman fantasy. It was more humorous than scary, goofier than ghoulish. Not an outright comedy but not a horror either. Kang Dong Won’s screen presence helped tie together the dark backstory with the action-packed present.Dr. Cheon and his assistant Kang In Bae take on shamanic jobs across Korea. Because Kang is in charge of the special effects to sell their show, he believes Dr. Cheon is a fake. Cheon does fleece his wealthy clients and has become a YouTube celebrity. While Cheon makes a living exorcising “ghosts” and “demons” from people what he’s really doing is solving clients’ problems psychologically. At every job he tests his bell which will only ring if ghosts or the supernatural are nearby. He is on the hunt for a dangerous demonic force that destroyed his family. When a young woman hires him claiming she can see ghosts, the bell of fate is set to ring.
This film had numerous supernatural chase scenes which were creative. Kang Dong Won made for a compelling shaman as he searched for the source of the paranormal events. With his ghost revealing bell and sword of destiny he was prepared to face the forces of evil. I much preferred this film to his previous wizardly turn in Jeon Woo Chi: The Taoist Wizard. For the most part this was an entertaining story, it just felt like the characters were thinly drawn. The Big Bad’s motivations were hazy. Did he want to take over the world or destroy it? There were a few loose narrative ends tied up by a trip to the Celestial Maiden for an informational exposition dump.
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman benefited from its short run time. While the characters weren’t fleshed out the film moved at a solid pace, never becoming boring. The CGI was adequate and for the most part didn’t distract from the story. It was a 90-minute fantasy romp that while forgettable was enjoyable.
20 October2024
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"Why am I here?"
Mad Cats was a low budget flick with an interesting concept. Cats had taken human form and were wreaking havoc on bad pet shop owners and breeders. These women had cat-itude and were not kitten around!Drunken, unemployed Taka receives an audio recording from a woman telling him where he could find his missing brother. There was also a wooden box he had to steal where his brother was being held. Mune was an archaeologist who had discovered an ancient and forbidden catnip. The catnip supercharged cat monsters who looked like women making them more violent. Taka finds his brother and the catnip but is unable to spring Mune from his prison. While on the run, Taka is helped by a homeless man named Takezo. They both end up being the target of fur-midable feline assassins stalking them! Luck favors the totally inept male leads when a furrocious young woman arrives and protects them from the killers. Ayane whiskers them away to an abandoned amusement park and attempts to train the two impawsibly untrainable men.
This film was as crazy as a bag of cats. Strangely enough, everyone ate Yum Yum Catness cat food, even the humans. The production values were as low as the budget although I really enjoyed the mewsic. Most of the comedy was hiss or miss. The film was littered with cat puns (the nerve!). A prime example, the license plate on the car the guys stole was “hissatu” (hiss at you). The acting was actually pretty good from the main characters and I thought Ayane played the cat turned human purrfectly. Ayane kneaded all nine lives to save her new fur-iends. Mineo Sho and Matsuura Yuya as the bumbling heroes and in-fur-ior creatures managed to pull off some of the purr-plexing slapstick as they fought the murderous glamourpusses.
Mad Cats was a cautionary tale for those who mistreat cats. You would not want to face The Executioner. Fur-tunately, the boys had a cat goddess on their side. Both brothers developed felines for Ayane who was completely devoted to her purr-sons. If you are in the mewd for something purrhaps not claw-some but also not a cat-astrophe, Mad Cats might be something to pounce on.
18 October 2024
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Numerous demon hunters descend on the small town of Baihe, the 100 Demon Town. Friends Tian Jiao and Shui Ling work with inventor Mo Lian Huan. Tian Jiao’s father, herbologist Zi Zhong Bai, joins them as does Shui Ling’s mom, San Niang the expert of Ghost Needles. Buddhist monks Liao Yin and Liao Guo come to help save humanity. And officers Tian Can and Di Que bring the might of the Ministry of Demon Suppression. They amass at Bai Ling Long’s Inn, the owner who possesses foxlike abilities. Two bumbling samurai and 3 vengeful demon sellers also appear at the inn for other reasons. Differences of opinions arise over the dispatching of all demons as some are helpful to humanity. The problem is muddled because Hua Man Teng has turned good Buddhist animals evil against their will.
The first half of the film was slow as the above characters were introduced. Each of their abilities varied from the others. Finally, on the night of the Great Demon Hunt, Man Teng made her dramatic entrance with a cauldron of demonic bats. At that point the fight was on and the body count went up. The CGI creatures and weapons ranged from good to poor as did the different actors’ responses to the CGI creatures and vines. For an epic fight, the low production values diminished my enjoyment. As did the focus on Tian Jiao in the latter part as she wasn’t a very likeable character. I was pleased that there were several competent women warriors instead of the usual one token female. Mika Wang’s evil Man Teng did the best she could as most of the time she was rooted in one place with vines extending from her. In truth, I started this film because Yuen Wah played the herbologist father. He and Yuen Qiu made a fun sparring not-couple couple.
The Book of Mythical Beasts had entertaining moments and several compelling characters. This two-hour movie tried to give sixteen characters screen time with mixed results. So many people on screen at any given moment meant that some were going to be sidelined and the main thrust of the story would be bogged down. And the main thrust of the story was confusing at times. There were good demons, good demons who were forced to be evil, and then evil demons. Some demon hunters differentiated and others did not, calling into question humanity’s propensity for evil as well. The film ended with a new threat to humanity crawling over the mountains so the filmmakers might have other questions they want to raise.
16 October 2024
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"It's about trying or giving up"
Samurai Swordfish is a heartwarming time traveling samurai story packed into a 25-minute short film. There wasn’t time to fill in a lot of story gaps but most drama and film watchers will know how to fill in the blanks.In 1863, Eisuke and Toramaru are best friends and samurai training partners. Toramaru is selected to the Shogun’s special unit though Eisuke is not as Eisuke is blind. Toramaru asks Eisuke to take care of his son should anything happen to him. One day while training the son, Toramaru’s practice sword with the words, “Knock and it shall be opened unto you” falls into the river and Eisuke goes in to save it. He surfaces in a modern Tokyo pool with no one else there except for coincidentally his great-great-great-grandson Ryusei. Through Ryusei he is introduced to Toramaru’s descendent who is in need of his help in learning the samurai spirit. Taiga was a competitive swimmer until he recently lost his leg in an accident. Eisuke shows him his disability can’t stop him from being a competitor by training with Ryusei and learning how to swim.
The story skipped over Eisuke coming to terms with being in the future-he just accepts it. It skipped over Ryusei and Taiga questioning whether he’s from the past-they just accepted it. The story skipped over the intricacies of learning how to properly swim freestyle-Eisuke seemed to know how. And while the synopsis maintained that Eisuke drown, he never died. As I said, most viewers who have watched time travel dramas/films will understand the steps glossed over due to the lack of time. The central focus was Eisuke’s sense of duty to Toramaru’s descendent, a surrogate for Toramaru’s son. Eisuke was willing to do whatever was needed to help Taiga succeed and regain his spirit. In the process of doing that, he was also helping Ryusei who had given up swimming when Taiga could no longer compete.
This short film could easily have been made into a full-length film. I liked how it highlighted the Paralympics by introducing two medalists who served as motivation for Taiga. Eisuke was able to show Taiga some of the Bushido principles of loyalty, bravery, and honor. Taiga and Ryusei discovered their inner samurai spirits through the efforts of a blind samurai who never gave up. Definitely worth 25 minutes of your time if you are in need of something uplifting.
15 October 2024
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It's bananas!!!
What happens when you add the quirky 1970’s with one of Japan’s quirkiest directors? You get an insanely creative film like House. Obayashi Nobuhiko took old elements that go bump in the night and used surrealistic effects to create something new for the time. When Obayashi is in the driver’s seat, hold on because it is going to be one wild ride!Seven school girls travel to spend some time with Gorgeous’ aunt in her huge mansion on a hill. Gorgeous, Fantasy, Professor, Mac, Kung Fu, Sweet, and Melody descend upon the old woman living in her cobweb infested house. One by one the girls go missing as more and more bizarre incidents begin to take place.
The film started out slow as the girls discussed their plans. Gorgeous discovered her dad was getting remarried which propelled her to make the fateful decision to visit her deceased mother’s sister. When the other girls’ plans fell through, they followed Gorgeous. The train and bus rides had almost picture book backgrounds that were obviously fake. Gorgeous told the sad story of her aunt’s lover being killed during WWII with her aunt vowing she would wait for him forever. The story was told in sepia form with the girls all being able to see it. It did not take long for the nightmare to begin once they crossed the mansion’s threshold. A scary old well, creepy clocks, dusty pianos, luminous chandeliers, a skeleton, and an abundance of cat pictures which might normally make the hair on a person’s neck raise took on deadly proportions as the night went on. Obayashi used the special effects of the day and created a few of his own. The special effects were primitive by today’s standards, but this was before George Lucas took effects a giant step forward with Star Wars. Strangely, as gruesome as some of the scenes were, many came across as grotesquely funny and rarely scary.
When Gorgeous was relating her aunt’s story, she and the other girls seemed almost unfamiliar with WWII and the terrible suffering associated with it. Only 30 years out from the war, the girls lived in a peaceful society completely unaware of the price paid for it. The aunt had been unable to let go of her loss and bitterness. Little by little she began to destroy the oblivious young people chaining them to her pain and insatiable hunger. The film turned on its head two common tropes---A man will save us! An adult will save them! This ravenous haunted house hidden in the fog under a full moon had no mercy on anyone.
House is a hard film to define. It was a horror film with a devilish sense of humor. Obayashi seemed to revel in creating a macabre world of the ghostly realm and the teenagers powerless against the inexorable pull of the inevitable. Experimental, weird, and totally bananas (sorry Togo!), House felt like a bad acid trip that shouldn’t have worked but did. Mostly. Screw black cats, I’ll never look at white cats the same.
15 October 2024
Trigger warnings: Dismemberment, so many body parts. Blood
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"War is fun when you're winning"
Casting Blossoms to the Sky is an anti-war film that took 2 hours and 30 minutes to try and make its point. Much was made of, “That which fills the gap is imagination.” Thus, characters spoke directly to the audience and ghosts walked about as if that was all very normal. This film was not what I expected after reading the synopsis. The victims of the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima disaster were almost an afterthought. Instead, the majority of screen time was dedicated to the 1945 bombing of Nagaoka a couple of weeks before the end of the war. The premise centered upon how fireworks and bombs are similarly made, both being explosives while one celebrates beauty and the other destroys it.Rieko Endo is a journalist who decides to go to Nagaoka for two reasons. She wants to find why the town opened its doors to refugees from the earthquake/tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster. Her ex-boyfriend also sent her a letter inviting her to a play at his high school. While in Nagaoka she meets numerous people connected to the bombing from 1945 and the making of fireworks.
This is the type of reflection and healing film I would normally love, but I did not love how it was pieced together. Characters speaking to the audience was distracting, though it dissipated as the film went on. There was repetition upon repetition. Some scenes from the bombing and making of the school play were replayed over and over and over and over. It began to dull the instrument of storytelling. The flashbacks almost gave me whiplash. The flashbacks would bounce around 2011, then to the 2006 earthquake, to 18 years ago when Reiko was with her boyfriend, flashbacks to another woman’s breakup, flashbacks to the Boshin War, along with the history of making fireworks and their use in the area, and flashbacks among numerous people and events leading up to, during, and after the Aug. 1, 1945 bombing. The bouncing around and circling back was headache inducing.
“We have nothing to do with war.”
I still have no idea what Rieko was talking about when she kept saying this regarding her broken relationship. The acting was serviceable though Matsuyuki Yasuko did more posing than emoting. All of the ex-boyfriends involved didn’t exactly evoke emotion as there were no interactions with the ex-girlfriends for the most part. Characters spoke fast and earnestly. There were unicycles everywhere, not quite sure what they symbolized. The real and surreal were often intermixed.
You will need a strong stomach for the vivid descriptions of what fire and bombs did to the human body. While I applaud the pacifist agenda, there were times it didn’t come across very realistically. “If they could see us, they wouldn’t bomb us.” The Japanese soldiers could see the civilians in Nanking and had no problem mowing them down. The comfort women were mentioned and then just as quickly dropped. The Japanese soldiers saw them and sexually abused them in every vile way possible. If every gruesome detail had to be described during the bombing repeatedly and in Soviet Union POW camps, maybe the lack of humanity for the other should have been equally described. There were plenty of atrocities to go around. And that would have made the argument stronger. During war, terrible things happen to real people. People with families, friends, jobs, children, and dreams. No one wants to suffer horrible deaths or imprisonment. No one wants to be forced to do things against their will. No one wants to see their town and home destroyed. No one wants to see their children starve to death. Why not treat everyone with respect and work through problems with words? Even if we got rid of bombs people would go back to killing each other the old-fashioned way with guns, swords, arrows, knives, spears, clubs, rocks, and/or fists. The problem lies within us, that thing that must be healed. It’s more important now than ever as we live in a world with diabolical weapons. Director Obayashi already had my attention and concurrence with, “Be friendly to each other.” Would that it were that easy.
“We have to use the pain caused by war for peace.”
The Nagaoka officials tied the fireworks into a healing and memoriam display though it was traumatizing for some of those who lived through the bombing. Many modern veterans of different wars and skirmishes have similar PTSD reactions to fireworks—the fireworks might be pretty but they sound too much like bombs. In 2011 and 2012 there were firework displays honoring both the victims of Nagaoka and Pearl Harbor in both places which was a nice reaching across the ocean in a display of peace.
“There’s Still Time Until a War.”
To stop the war? Or live life to the fullest? Casting Blossoms into the Sky was a bold, imaginative effort to show the horrors of war and why war must be avoided. The film could have been trimmed by an hour and had a stronger impact for me. I began to feel like I was stuck in a death loop watching the same gruesome events over and over again. Instead of convincing me that peace was possible it made me feel that war, like death, is inevitable.
8 October 2024
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What makes a monster?
Underground Monster’s poster looked like a cute kid’s movie. Don’t you believe it. Older children might be able to watch it but there were some scary creepy crawlies and two-legged monsters as well. This was a movie that couldn’t quite decide whether it wanted to take itself seriously or be a comedy so it threw a little of everything at the wall to see what would stick. It could be hard to tell what stuck with all of the trash heaps lying around.Construction workers digging a new tunnel come across a cave filled with giant piles of trash. It’s not long before they realize the trash is hiding an even more giant monster. Not everyone makes it out of the hole. On the surface and down the road Xiao Jie and his father He Chi are spending time together. He Chi makes his living collecting junk and is divorced from Xiao Jie’s mom. When the construction worker’s truck speeds by, a crate with a large green egg falls out. He Chi picks it up to see if it’s worth anything. Ex-wife Wu Lin Na is waiting at his home and not happy that Xiao Jie is spending time with his dad. Later that evening, the egg hatches and mama monster comes looking for her baby.
The Underground Monster looked like a combination of Disney Mermaid’s Ursala and The Simpson’s Kang. The CGI was okay but not great. They did give the monster a very expressive face, especially after it kidnapped Xiao Jie thinking he was her baby. The bond between the two was endearing. The trash cave became crowded as both parents, a mad scientist with a beard so fake you could see the tape holding it on and his kookier assistant, as well as a group of vengeful construction workers converged with different goals for the protective monster.
The slapstick scientist and assistant ruined the mood of the film for me. While I was happy to see The Snow Monster again and the snow sharks from that movie (Snow Monster 2019), it was not worth the over-the-top acting by the two while the devastated parents played their parts straight as did the murderous tunnel workers.
There were a few cute and emotional scenes in Underground Monster between the child and monster. There were also some disturbing ones. The film drove home the point that humans and their propensity to trash the planet might be the true monsters. They were also the ones who wanted to kill first and ask questions later. The movie reminded me of the song from Beauty and the Beast:
“We don't like
What we don't understand
In fact it scares us
And this monster is mysterious at least
Bring your guns!
Bring your knives!
Save your children and your wives
We'll save our village and our lives
We'll kill the Beast!”
7 October 2024
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