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"Why are you trying to kill me?"
Legend of the Bat teamed up Ti Lung, director Chor Yuen, and Gu Long’s source material once again. Typical of these films, there was a huge cast list, betrayals, and hidden identities galore. The fights took place on the ancient version of yachts, dungeons, and of course, a villain’s lair fit for a drama queen.Famous swordsmen Chu Liu Hsiang and Yi Tien Hung come across a massacre of heroes on their trip. One thing leads to another and Chu is headed to Bat Island to help out a couple who tried to murder him. Yi ends up on the boat to Bat Island for his own professional reasons. They are joined by others who have their own incentives for going to a place where anything is for sale. On their journey, they face death repeatedly with some not escaping the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
Legend of the Bat was a sequel to Clans of Intrigue. If there is one thing to be sure of in these loosely related films, the cast will be bloated and the bodies will stack high. You know to brace yourself for numerous characters when the actors' names pop up on the screen as everyone is introduced. Characters revealed their courage and integrity, while others revealed their nefarious motives. There were actually a couple of touching moments of personal sacrifice, even if the reasons stretched the boundaries of believability. Like a good soap opera, several characters came back from the dead.
Ti Lung was back as the fan carrying hero. Ling Yun yet again donned his big hat and moral ambiguity. Yueh Hua and Ching Li played a devoted married couple. Ching Miao took on two completely different characters who were unrelated hoping the audience wouldn’t notice. This time Yuen Wah had a fairly significant role as a loyal bodyguard which I was happy to see. Many of the same actors and stuntmen from previous films were in this film as well though as different characters.
Tang Chia and Huang Pei Chih designed fast, creative fight scenes for the time. Whether on floating houses, yachts, or in the villain’s lair, the swords flashed and the blood flowed. The heroes had to make their way through caves filled with deadly traps with only each other to rely on…and their trusty secret weapons.
Legend of the Bat was wonderfully convoluted with betrayals, family secrets, revenge, unusual characters, and elaborate traps. Billionaires would envy the floating palaces where murder and mayhem took place, minus the murder and mayhem, I guess. Who knows what happens on those yachts. In the previous film in this collection, there were daddy issues. This time around grown-ass children had mommy issues. Instead of murder and crime, couldn’t these people go in together and ask for a discount on group therapy? As always, rated on a curve.
5 March 2026
Mammal note: No bats in the film
Trigger warnings: A rather long scene of four nude “dead” women. Suicide and a person suicided.
Tiny spoilerish comment: The lightbulb gimmick near the end was hilarious!
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"We're heading to Ghostly Village, not hell!"
Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman was not actually a sequel to the previous two Sentimental Swordsmen despite Chor Yuen and Ti Lung teaming up for it again. Similar to the last film there was a huge cast and numerous flyby guest appearances.General Chu Liu Hsiang attempts to murder the 8th Prince and escapes to the Ghostly Village with the help of an old man who had just murdered much of his extended family. The mist hidden village run by Old Hawk is filled with criminals who would be hunted down and executed if they ever left. Chu befriends an inveterate gambler who is terrified of ghosts. In the village there are people who hold grudges against Chu and others testing his loyalty. It was hard to invest in any of the characters as they swooped in and either swooped back out or were carried feet first out. Ti Lung’s sentimental swordsman wasn’t that sentimental. Fortunately, he was not nearly as gloomy as the other two films. Lo Lieh gave the film a boost of humor with his strip dice gambling and gravitas when it was called for. Aside from vets Ku Feng and Yang Chi Ching, the rest of the main cast was underwhelming.
The sword and wild weapon fights were solid for the most part. It was funny watching the guys in gold costumes in the back looking like they were line dancing by themselves to give the big fights depth. Interspersed with fast action there was also kung fu dancing almost bordering on kung fu posing. The wire work and trampolines while primitive carved out creative moments. The fights might not be memorable, but Yuen Wah, Yuen Bun, and Huang Pei Chih acquitted themselves well as the martial arts choreographers.
The Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman kept the action and double-crosses coming along with hidden identities---even a “who’s your daddy moment?”! I didn’t enjoy it as much as the last two but it was still entertaining in that convoluted manner that only old kung fu flicks can offer. As always, rated on a curve.
4 March 2026
Trigger warnings: Violence though considering the genre, nothing too gorey.
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"If men are human, then women are, too!"
The last place I was expecting to find such a delightfully feminist film was a 1949 Mizoguchi film titled Flame of My Love. Set during the late 1800s as the Liberal Party sought to expand human rights, our heroine Hirayama Eiko fought for women to be included in those equal rights. The patriarchy doesn’t fold that easy, even with “progressive” males supposedly working for those rights.Hirayama Eiko is sad to see her boyfriend, Hayase Ryuzo, leave for Tokyo to more fully immerse himself in the Liberal Party. Eiko desperately wants to join him but he dissuades her. The maid she grew up with, Chiyo, is also leaving for Tokyo, having sold herself to help her family financially. After fighting with her father and her school being closed down, Eiko packs her bags and lands on Hayase’s doorstep, something he is not too happy about. Fortunately, his boss, Omoi Kentaro, finds her a place to live and a job at their newspaper. Betrayal, good times, hard times, and more betrayals await Eiko as she fights the good fight for women’s rights.
(I won’t be going into the historical setting much because all I know of this time period and the people involved are what I gleaned from a cursory glance at Wikipedia. Several characters represented real people from the Meiji government and Liberal Party though their names were changed.)
Tanaka Kinuyo seemed a little long in the tooth at 40 to be playing Eiko, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s to either mentally age or de-age actresses. Eiko was a female character to be proud of. She worked tirelessly and fearlessly for the party’s cause and for women. Along the way she learned that subjugation and exploitation ran deeper than she’d thought. She also discovered that women were brainwashed from birth to accept their secondary role and to believe that they absolutely needed a man in their life. Attempting to change the status quo would be daunting. She, however, had the heroic Omoi on her side and by her side. Together they would set the world aright. ***(spoilery comment below)
Eiko was one of the strongest, most committed female characters from this time period that I’ve seen. She didn’t let men completely limit her, despite society’s cage around women. And for sure she didn’t let anyone tell her that she or other women were less than, regardless of economic class. No one could convince her that her self worth was tied to being a wife and mother. She refused to capitulate no matter the dire circumstances. I seriously loved this character. She may not have been able to conquer the world, but she worked to improve the lives and minds of women around her. While women have made great strides in the last nearly 80 years, there are always those people who want to revert to the “good old days” and strip women of the rights and progress we’ve made. While I can never forgive Mizoguchi for betraying Tanaka in real life, I can grudgingly respect this film he created.
“It will be a hard journey and we may not reach our goal. But if no one makes the first step, women will never know freedom!”
23 February 2026
Trigger Warnings: Rape and attempted rape-several times. The film didn’t shy away from women’s vulnerability at work, in prison, in private situations with men they should have been able to trust, or being “filial” by selling themselves into prostitution. Infidelity: “Whether I have one woman or two doesn’t change anything.” That’s what you think buddy. Does it work both ways?
Spoilery comment below:
***Omoi was all about women’s equal rights and using Eiko’s gifts. That is, until he Stepford Wifed her in a moment of utter betrayal. To her credit, Eiko refused to be cowed or gaslighted. Good woman. If everyone isn’t free and equal, no one is. You preach, girl!
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"We are connected. I'll be seeing you in hell!"
Sword of the Beast was one of Gosha Hideo’s earliest directorial efforts. While it could feel clunky at times, there was enough action, betrayal, revenge, and double-dealings to fuel a film twice as long.Yuuki Gennosuke is on the run after he killed his clan’s counselor. Hot on his trail are the man’s daughter, her fiancé, and a gaggle of samurai. A petty criminal he helps joins him as they head toward the mountain where gold has been found. The only trouble? Aside from the posse on his trail, panning for gold is a crime punishable by execution. Along with the shogunate’s patrols, there are bandits and also a samurai guarding a pile of gold like a dragon. Gennosuke has his hands full, sometimes literally, as nearly every woman throws herself at him.
“I’m a cornered and wounded beast. I can’t afford to live by my conscience.” The funny thing is, aside from the initial murder, Gennosuke was the conscience of the film. Set during the twilight of the samurai era, Beast highlighted the corruption running rampant through the clans, and how poorly some of the samurai were treated. Gennosuke had hoped to see reforms implemented in his clan that would have provided men like himself with a path toward promotion and a livable wage. He and the other low-level samurai discovered that their superiors demanded unquestioning loyalty and honor from them, while those in charge had zero qualms about lying, betrayal, and being utterly duplicitous. Low ranking men and women were expendable, especially if it meant promotion or gold for the more nobly born.
The sword fighting was average for 1965 with poor Gennusuke being outnumbered most of the time. The hunting party told him to die like a samurai, but he told his friend in the deadly group that they weren’t planning a death befitting a samurai---they were planning butchery. Much of the film was shot in a beautiful mountainous and forested region, a stunning backdrop for betrayal and revenge. Gosha knew how to get the most out of each frame. The story flowed well for the most part, but felt underbaked at times. I will never understand the male movie fantasy of women meeting a man and instantly start trying to take their clothes off. Because that's just what women do. Really should have been a clue Gennosuke was being set up whenever it happened.
Sword of the Beast was fun and Hira Mikijiro did a fine job as the least beastly of the characters. I enjoyed Gosha’s first film, Three Outlaw Samurai more, but this film kept my attention with each new person Gennosuke saved or threatened. Numerous characters discovered the hard way that the wealthy get that way and stay that way by not sharing the wealth. If you enjoy these old samurai films, this is certainly one worth trying.
14 February 2026
Trigger warnings: Sexual assault and attempted sexual assault. Nothing overtly graphic, just disturbing.
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"I could stop playing a horse and become one"
Travelling Actors was a comedy by Naruse Mikio centered on a troupe of travelling actors (duh), primarily the two men who portrayed the horse. Hyoroku takes his job very seriously as the head of the horse and when the costume is desecrated, things go awry.Hyoroku and his protégé Senpai work very hard to bring the horse costume they inhabit to life. Hyoroku studies how horses look and move, even absent-mindedly stomping or walking like a horse off stage. He’s not always an easy man to get along with as his pride can get the better of him, especially when their new patron accidentally destroys part of their costume. His boss decides to use a real horse to replace Hyoroku and Senpai which leads to problems.
I had no issue with the premise of this simple film about stubborn men with too much pride. Where my attention wandered were all the drunken ramblings by different characters. It took a long time to get to the point and even then, I didn’t find the resolution very humorous. Humor is such a subjective thing, so I know others will find the actors’ antics hilarious. If you are a fan of Naruse Mikio, and would like to see one of his efforts at comedy, this shorter film (70 min) would be one to try.
7 February 2026
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"A mother has to be strong"
Naruse Mikio created a compelling film about the Fukuhara family anchored by a loving and tenacious Mother. Dealing with the aftermath financially and emotionally following WWII, friends and family made the most of their lives and meager incomes.Fukuhara Toshiko introduces her family-Masako, her mother whom she adores, her father Ryosuke aka Papa Popeye, her little sister Chako, her brother Susumu, and her young cousin Tetsu. Susumu is chronically ill after breathing in dangerous materials at work and is bed bound. Her beloved father is planning to open a laundry service. Her mother sells items out of cart and has taken in her sister’s little boy. The two youngest squabble and play like siblings. And Toshiko helps with a snack shop where the local baker often stops by for food and to share his latest book. Money is tight but everyone finds joy as they face each day and each crisis head on.
Once again, Tanaka Tatsuyo was the center of a film. Masako’s family orbited around her and depended on her strength and insight. Death visited their doorstep not once, but twice and still Masako straightened her spine and carried on. Masako wasn’t maudlin nor the film depressing. She shed her tears and then summoned her smile for her children. The synopsis says that Toshiko was a rebellious teenager. She was far from that. Kagawa Kyoko gave Toshiko a ray of sunshine smile regardless of the never-ending work the teenager faced. Gradually falling in love couldn’t keep Toshiko from helping her family. She had only one stumbling block that was understandable after a loss. Even the younger daughter understood the sacrifice that was required when the dwindling family’s back was up against the wall. What I liked about this film is that the family dealt with loss and sacrifice in a pragmatic and loving way. They did what needed to be done without much complaining.
Mother gave a small view into women’s lives after the war. Unlike Ozu’s middle-class families, these were people on the lower end of the economic scale. Nearly everyone had been touched by the loss of a husband or son. Life went on and each person had to find a way to survive. While the survivors lived with their grief and financial insecurity, they still discovered ways to be content and laughter was always close by. Friends and family rallied to bolster those who were suffering or in need. Mother was not a profound film but I found myself deeply invested in these loyal and likeable people’s struggle to keep moving forward and maintain their love for each other.
3 February 2026
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"Deep is the dark"
A vigilante mad dog is roped into becoming an undercover agent. In the powerful and ruthless world of the yakuza he teams up with another mad dog teetering on the brink of sanity to become members of the feared Hell Dogs.Kanetaka Shogo aka Idezuki Goro was a young cop on the beat when several people were murdered in a robbery. When justice is not served Goro spends 10 years hunting down the perpetrators and executing them. After the last one he turns himself in and is quickly recruited to become an undercover agent as a yakuza in a notoriously dangerous and powerful gang. He takes the name Kanetaka “Tak” Shogo and teams up with the unstable Muro. The two make a name for themselves as assassins. Goro has to watch his back as he is continually tested all while he attempts to climb the ranks and move closer to the crime family’s boss.
This film was a familiar take on the tight rope UCs must balance. Goro was called upon to do heinous deeds to keep his cover with the end game of taking down the crime family. The money and adrenaline could be enticing, a real temptation when the police department proved itself to be scarcely better than the yakuza. There were of course, the double dealings and big “reveals” as the story progressed. Will any of them be shocking? Not particularly if you’ve watched many crime films. Despite the lack of innovation, Harada Masato pulled me into the world he created, no small feat when there were few characters to care about.
The acting was strong for the most part relying heavily on Okada Junichi’s massive screen presence despite being surrounded by much taller men. Goro’s personality was such that he was not intimidated by anyone. Being based on a book there were enough characters and plot elements that they could have made this into a short drama to expand on the different players. As it was, it ran a little long for a yakuza film.
For the most part, Hell Dogs balanced narrative with action with more of the former in case you are expecting non-stop thrills. The ending rushed through at breakneck (pun intended) speed dissolving much of the built-up tension. Yet I still enjoyed this film largely due to Okada’s performance and Goro’s ability to hammer, slice, and shoot his way to the top.
18 December 2025
Trigger warnings: There was lots of slicing and dicing, shooting, and other blood spattering activities. Sexual content.
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A new group of cadets begin the rigorous training to become police officers. The system is designed to filter out those who do not make the cut. No nonsense Kazama Kimichika takes over as one group’s instructor. The students literally quake in their shoes in his stern presence.
Kazama often appeared to be more of an exorcist than instructor as one by one the students’ inner demons were revealed. His methods were decidedly unconventional, bordering on illegal. Can’t say I agree with his mantra, "Those who hurt people can save people." By graduation, I wasn’t sure all of the ones who made it through should have. There was some seriously poor decision-making being done that didn’t bode well for stressful situations in the field. The criminal element will sleep better at night knowing these puppies are on the job.
10 November 2025
Trigger warning: Attempted murder-suicide
Slightly spoilery comments:
The mystery behind Kazama’s odd eye and dour disposition was never truly revealed. Perhaps in another installment.
I am a huge advocate for women in the police force, but it boggled my mind when one female cadet worried that weight training would make her arms “thick”. As tiny as she was, she could use a little thickness aka muscle when dealing with belligerent drunks and garden variety thugs. It won’t be her partner’s job to protect her. Oh, and drawing a nekkid pic of a fellow female classmate should have disqualified one student from being in the academy. Sexist jerk.
Very spoilery comments below:
Miyasaka should never have graduated when he did not turn the student in who threatened him with a gun. That’s not being a spy, that’s being a good cop and protecting not only himself but the class in general as the student was decidedly unstable. And hopefully, the other student who threatened him earlier was arrested for attempted murder and not just kicked out. Kazama secretly preemptively saving Miyasaka didn't obscure the murderous intent. Despite having such a tough instructor, the cadets who threatened, harmed, and/or attempted to murder other students didn’t appear to suffer any legal consequences.
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Jiangshi Fu!
The Spiritual Boxer II aka The Shadow Boxing wasn’t a sequel to the original Spiritual Boxer. Wong Yu starred in both and there was some cross-over cast playing different characters, but that was about the extent of it. This one was a must watch for me because of---jiangshi/hopping vampires.Fan Zheng Yuan and his gambling addict master, Chen Wu, are corpse herders. As they lead a parade of 9 hopping vampires through the countryside they run afoul of a local warlord and his criminal minions. The bad guys are on the hunt for Zhang Jie whom they framed for various crimes and had thrown in jail. Zhang managed to escape and has seemingly disappeared. When Master Chen is injured, Fan and hanger-on Fei Fei are called upon to lead the hoppers home which is complicated when it turns out one of their wards is not what he appears to be.
I was not a fan of the original Spiritual Boxer. This film benefited from Gordon Liu and Lau Kar Wing helping Wong Yu carry the show. Lee Hoi San and Wilson Tong were properly threatening baddies. Norman Chu even made an appearance as one of the villains. Cecilia Wong’s Fei Fei was written to be annoying and she fulfilled the job perfectly. And of course, the hoppers contributed their fair share of entertainment. Filmed 6 years before Mr. Vampire, this was a lighter version of the coming vampire franchise.
Lau Kar Leung was both the director and the martial arts director ensuring that the fights were high quality. Wong’s Jiangshi kung fu style was slower, but humorous. Lee had to slow his moves to counter the hopping vampire inspired style. Gordon and Wilson brought the speed and pain with their fighting styles.
The Shadow Boxing’s story was uneven and often ridiculous, with not too bright characters, but with jiangshi bunny hopping around and well- choregraphed fights it was a mostly entertaining flick for the genre. Only for fans of these old martial arts movies. As usual, graded on a curve.
31 October 2024
Triggers: brief bare breasts and buttocks.
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"In the end, all must die"
Jigoku aka The Sinners of Hell was one trippy, surreal tale of the afterlife. Even stranger were the events that caused people to be thrown into the Eight Hells of Fire and the Eight Hells of Ice.Late one night Tamura and Shiro are driving home when a drunken pedestrian steps out in front of them. Tamura refuses to go back and check on the man believing no one has seen them. He would be wrong. Two women plot their murderous vengeance in the shadows. Shiro’s conscience gets the best of him and he decides to turn himself in. This decision leads to more deaths and a boatload of people forced to cross the River Styx or in this case, the River Sanzu. Enma, the King of Hell, was far from benevolent.
I thought during the first half of this film that Shiro was already in The Bad Place because the number of murders grew hilariously exponentially. I tried writing the names down of the dearly departed and realized it was a futile effort. The writer seemed to be showing the many ways people are complicit with murder without actually driving a knife through someone’s heart. The perpetrators just all happened to converge at the same place and time. The clues about Tamura led in the wrong direction without ever making sense. For me, the first half was frustratingly bad.
The second half of the film delved into the excruciating and vile punishments inflicted on humans who had not been kind or who had committed murder. Or who had apparently been physically adjacent or knew of the actions. Too many of the damned didn’t make sense to me. Babies being tortured or family members who didn’t commit the egregious action. And why does being in a car crash make you responsible for another passenger’s death when you weren’t the driver or dying in the car crash is enough to send you south? The trials made The Good Place’s “bees with teeth” and “penis flatteners” seem tame. Modern horror fans may laugh at the simple techniques, but I still found different tortures stomach churning.
Jigoku took a pessimistic view of humankind and all the ways people’s selfish actions lead to the deaths of others. And also, the inventive ways those same people were tortured for their transgressions. A highly stylized film, it was artistically interesting to watch. As far as enjoyment, it could be painful and as memorable as a swim in a pool of gurgling filth.
30 October 2025
Trigger warnings: Impalements, dismemberments, fire, snakes, and an assortment of other tortures.
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Fifteen years ago, a man fell under a tram and lost his head. The old death haunts the present as the ghost possesses various people to exact his revenge. June (Wong Siu Kam) is able to see the dead out of her left eye. She and Peter (Wong Choi) hook up one night and become engulfed in the vengeful apparition’s plans.
Shu Qi was luminescent in the role of the young woman who could see the dead. Eason’s character was all over the place, never sure if June was supporting him or part of the malevolent ghost’s plans. Sam Lee was Eason’s best bud Simon who tried to keep Peter employed. Kara Hui played a mother possessed by not one, but two ghosts and gave a thrilling performance.
Visible Secret wasn’t a scary film in the classic horror style. It ended up being a story where the living and the dead inhabited the same spaces with little in the way of telling them apart. People were often possessed, sometimes for nefarious purposes and sometimes because they wanted to see old friends. The film’s vengeful headless debt collector didn’t quite match up even with Washington Irving’s tame Sleepy Hollow. The titular secret was highly visible and not so secret. Unfortunately, the unevenness of the story encumbered what could have been an interesting tale of entwined spooky, if not scary, lives lost and filled with regret.
29 October 2025
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Bee Minus movie
Killer Bee Invasion was a low budget creature feature lacking any creativity and weighed down by dreadful dialogue. It’s only redeeming quality was the near constant action mostly dominated by Dobermans on steroids.A “rescue” squad is dispatched to the Island of Death after a distress call from the scientists working there. The mercenaries are heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades. One woman wields a bow. Aside from the snarling creatures lurking in the jungle, swarms of killer bees with deadly poison threaten the squad. The rescuers find four scientists alive but are far more concerned with laying their hands on a chunk of amber with an ancient bee inside called N17. The bee’s DNA holds the possibility for extending life expectancy. The island is not keen on them taking the treasure, and sends its security team of hellhounds and bees after them.
The characters were poorly and thinly drawn. Their motivations were even sketchier. The voiceover work just muddled up the story. The dialogue was painfully bad as were the stock character reactions. Bad editing created more confusion by bouncing back and forth. I’ve watched my share of cheap creature films, but this one really began to annoy me. Last but not least, whenever a character died, overly dramatic music cued up like we were supposed to care they died. I didn’t even know most of the names until people started screaming their names repeatedly as they died. “Jaaaaaaaaason!” Jason was a self-serving jerk, let him go.
I don’t usually write such negative reviews because I know everyone has different tastes and this movie might be bee-utiful for someone else. This film just aggravated me with its cardboard characters saying cardboard words with cardboard acting with overly dramatic music wailing with each death. The bad CGI bees also played second fiddle to the CGI enhanced hellhounds. I will say something positive, the action was prolific and the running time was thankfully short.
26 October 2025
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"The universe is filled with things of which mankind knows nothing"
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell is a misleading title, the Gokemidoro were not from hell, but rather outer space. To be fair, the surreal orange and blood red sky they conjured did resemble a hellscape.A plane carrying passengers to Osaka appears to be cursed. Birds splatter against the passenger windows (how fast and high were those birds flying?). An assassin AND a suicide bomber are on the plane. A corrupt politician is being wooed with bribery by a defense contractor in the form of money and his wife’s services. A grieving American widow is on route to claim her husband’s remains. Rounding out the passengers are a space biology professor and a psychiatrist. When a glowing ball of light passes over the plane the instruments stop working and the plane crashes on a remote island. The only crew that survives are the co-pilot and a flight attendant. The assassin/hijacker takes the flight attendant hostage, leaves the plane and gets more than he bargained for when they stumble across the spaceship.
This film reminded me of the equally bizarre Matango (1963), except Matango’s stranded passengers kept their veneer of civilization longer than this cabin of miscreants. Immediately upon crashing the passengers began to turn on each other. Only the crew, Sugisaka and Asakura, were worth rooting for and even then Asakura was constantly fainting or screaming.
The space creatures and the special effects for them were on par with similar B movies. The pulsing mercury Blobs that inhabited the humans through a slit on the foreheads they created turned the bodies into mindless, blood sucking creatures. Similar to the phallic shaped mushroom creatures in Matango, Goke’s inhabited humans had giant female genitalia shaped creases on their foreheads. More frightening than the aliens were the way the humans betrayed each other.
Unusual for a creature feature from the mid-1960s, was the oft mentioned Vietnam war and war atrocity images highlighted in bright orange-red. There was a strong anti-war sentiment. Man’s senseless wars against each other was why the aliens were able to invade. Instead of working together against a possible invasion, people preferred to kill each other off themselves. I was reminded of the T2 quote: “We’re not going to make it are we?” “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” Wars, political corruption, terrorism, assassinations, and utter selfishness coupled with a lack of compassion were real fears about the state of the world and humanity’s lack of humanity. This film was around a 6.50 for me, but director Sato Hajime’s disturbing ending driven by the hopelessness and despair permeating the previous 80 minutes followed through with the theme, so I bumped it up. Only for fans of the genre and the era, it’s effects and acting are dated.
22 October 2025
Triggers: for the squeamish-the alien possession was a little gross, but tame by today’s standards. The vampires drew no visible blood if you are concerned about that.
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"The face is the door to the soul. When the face is closed off, so too it the soul"
The Face of Another explored the masks that we wear and how some of them lead to social isolation. And whether it’s more personally efficacious to be seen or to engage in banal invisibility.Okuyama suffered a disfiguring accident at the factory where he worked leaving his face unrecognizable. His wife attempts to lift his spirits but he accuses her of patronizing him. When she spurns an awkward advance, he becomes enraged. He visits Dr. Hori, a psychiatrist and scientist, who is capable of making natural looking human masks. Hori develops a mask for Okuyama but warns the new face could cause his personality to change.
Nakadai Tatsuya gave a subtly nuanced performance as the deeply scarred man. At times he wore the burned skin or had his head completely swaddled in bandages. At other times his face was buried beneath Hori’s concoctions which had to be claustrophobic. And ultimately, he had a mish-mash of the different masks he wore. In all these iterations he was unable to use his expressive eyes and yet still gave a compelling performance. Kyo Machiko as Okuyama’s nameless wife hit all the right notes as a woman who strove to help her husband and was also deeply hurt from his emotional taunts. Hira Mikijiro as Dr. Hori was the epitome of a mad scientist, constantly pushing Okuyama’s emotional buttons, seeing how far the mask would transform his patient’s personality.
The film’s dialogue was heavy handed in describing the masks we wear. Masks that help us fit in, masks that set us apart, masks that enslave us and masks that set us free. Dr. Hori kept telling Okuyama that the mask was changing him. I’m not so sure about that. Okuyama was an unlikeable and manipulative character before the mask. The mask just emboldened him to act on his baser impulses. I didn’t comprehend Hiro’s declaration that if everyone wore one of his masks that there would be true freedom with no crime and there would be no need for trust or betrayal. No one would have a home so there would be no home to escape from. There was also a secondary story that never overlapped with Okuyama’s. A beautiful (nameless) young woman who suffered with scars on the side of her face due to the bombing in Nagasaki appeared periodically. Like Okuyama, she received unwanted negative attention for being different. She worked at a mental hospital populated by WWII soldiers. Desperately afraid that another war would hit the country, she seemed to represent the traumatic scars marring the beauty of Japan. Or she was a random character. This film had a lot of symbolism.
Director Teshigahara Hiroshi created a surreal world complete with a German beer garden and a hallucination inducing mad scientist laboratory. His use of different effects bordered on the gimmicky but I quite enjoyed his style. The acting was exemplary and the darkly lilting music perfectly enhanced the story. The story, however, was difficult for me as it wallowed in hopelessness and despair. Despite everyone wearing different masks, there were some that were unacceptable. Disfigurement meant exile, the crushing pain of rejection, or invisibility. Okuyama and the scarred young woman faced the price of a society unable to see past their scars, both physical and psychological. Death or madness was all that awaited them. Fair warning, The Face of Another was unrelentingly dark. Pass the popcorn and the Tylenol.
12 October 2025
Trigger warning: brief nudity and a brief incestuous situation
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"Pearls have hidden powers"
With a title like Ninja vs Shark, there was no way I was not going to watch this bloody camp fest. It was more creepy ninjas and horrid townspeople than malevolent sharks, but there were a few key scenes with some really bad CGI sharks and a shark ninja (sorta).After female pearl divers have repeatedly been found chewed up and handsome male villagers have disappeared, the villagers blame beautiful “cursed” Sayo. Only Shinsuke who loves her stands up for her. In reality, the village chief knows that their problems are caused by the Crimson Devil Clan. He goes to a sword for hire, Kotaro, to have the lone swordsman protect the village for a price. Kotaro saves Sayo from a shark, and she in return saves him from a vengeful female ninja. Lurking in a nearby cave lives the Crimson Devil Clan whose leader has special, gruesome powers given to him by magic and pearls.
This is one of those movies that’s so bad it’s almost good. Almost. Introducing the village savior or at least Sayo’s in the aftermath of him having raped a woman was not a great start. Then brutally murdering the woman’s husband was the rotting cherry on top. After that Kotaro was a ninja pussycat. The villager, Shinsuke, adored Sayo in a second lead clingy sort of manner. Poor “cursed” Sayo is what happens when someone breaks society’s rigid norms and is used as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong and loses all protection. She was nearly gang raped twice and close to being murdered at least twice more.
The crazy elements of this film made it interesting. The jealous, unhinged female ninja, Kikuma, had magical powers and the ability to command corpses. The leader of the Crimson Devil Clan could change form and had a shark mouth when he needed it. He also had a special chant that called in a shark to sic on the villagers when they ventured into the water. And in the last 15 minutes he summoned the big daddy megalodon that had supernatural abilities. The CGI was abysmal for the shark and the nearly continual spraying of blood. Heads and body parts flew everywhere with people living long enough afterwards to talk. Lol
I would have rated Ninja vs Shark slightly higher if they had refrained from the sexual assaults. No matter how good-looking Kotaro was and how much he sacrificed for Sayo, he was forever tainted by his actions in the opening minutes. Too bad, because this was a ridiculous ride that got sillier by the minute without trying to be funny. There were just too many ick factors that they could have avoided.
6 October 2025
Trigger warnings: Numerous spewing beheadings, arms, legs flying about, chewed up body parts, spewing blood, vomiting, and one post sexual assault and at least two other attempted sexual assaults.
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