Dora-Heita

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2000 Director: Kon Ichikawa Netflix Link IMDb Link

Something in the opening credits caught my eye: screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa and Masaki Kobayashi. Four of Japan’s greatest and most prolific directors collaborated on a single screenplay and the story does not disappoint.

It is an elaborate tale of corruption and double-crosses, with a little bit of fighting and a whole lot of intrigue. Dora-Heita, expertly played by Koji Yakusho, is pitted between corrupt officials and corrupt yakuza bosses, all of whom would like nothing better than for him to go away by any means necessary. The character of Dora-Heita actually reminds me a little bit of Kurosawa’s character, Yojimbo, in the sense that he is blustery and gruff, places little value on authority, and will get the job done how he wants to, not how they tell him to. The samurai in this film are not the typical variety you see in jidaigeki who go about fighting in wars or slashing up bad guys, but rather, they are officials. Dora-Heita is a magistrate, akin to a police officer and a judge rolled into one, brought in to clean up a certain troublesome neighborhood.

That being said, in typical Ichikawa fashion, the film does drag a bit in spots and it’s not altogether as tight as it could have been. Still, this is a pretty entertaining story, made even more so by Koji Yakusho’s performance. Recommended to fans of the samurai genre.

Tora-San: Our Lovable Tramp

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Otoko wa tsurai yo / It’s Tough Being A Man Japanese: 男はつらいよ Release Date: 1969 Director: Yôji Yamada Netflix Link IMDb Link

Tora-San: Our Lovable Tramp is a new AnimEigo release of a Yôji Yamada film. First of all, I love AnimEigo. Not only are their transfers golden, but their subtitles actually explain the nuances of the cultural references and language. And secondly, I’m a big fan of Yôji Yamada. If you haven’t seen his Samurai trilogy, The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, and Love & Honor, you should go watch those right now.

As to the film, I think calling the main character “lovable” is a bit of a misnomer. I started out disliking Tora-San and my opinion of him didn’t go anywhere near “love” as the film progressed. He’s like a Japanese Jack Tripper from Three’s Company; misunderstanding everything, meddling and trying his best to make things better, but only making them worse. And I hated Three’s Company. Maybe if I could tolerate stupid people doing stupid things a little better, I might have enjoyed Tora-San, too, but he just came off as selfish, stupid and generally thoughtless. As much as I love Yamada, I don’t think I’ll be watching the rest of the 48-film series anytime soon.

Soo

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Korean: 수 Release Date: 2007 Director: Yoichi Sai Netflix Link IMDb Link

The most discouraging kind of film, for me, is the kind that has a lot of potential, but just never makes the best use of it. That is the case with Soo. There are a great number of things I liked about it – the cinematography, the cast, the sound effects, the incredibly raw and powerful violence – but I found the sum total of its parts to be lacking. First of all, it’s over 2 hours long when it doesn’t really need to be. If they had chopped at least a half an hour out of it, it would have made for a much tighter story. Secondly, the plot was a little bit what the fuck? I won’t go into detail for the sake of spoilers, but some of the actions by the character made me wonder if they weren’t a little off in the head or maybe not even human.

And finally, even though the fight scenes in this film are supremely badass, they furthered the concept that maybe this wasn’t a story about humans after all, but about robots; battle robots who have seen a few movies about humans and are doing their best impersonation of what they think they are, but fail. In John Woo style, Soo teaches us that nobody ever runs out of ammo unless it’s integral to the plot, you can get stabbed at least 15 times and still fight back, and body parts, like ears, are surprisingly easy to rip off with your bare hands. If you’re the main character, you can can get repeatedly stabbed, shot at least three times, beaten with baseball bats, crowbars, fists, feet and whatever other bludgeoning tools are at hand, and you can still fight until you get retribution. See? Robots.

Unfortunately, Soo makes the cinema cardinal sin of not being bad or good, but of simply being mediocre. It’s not entirely unwatchable and worth a shot if you like violent revenge films, but it’s not anything I would strongly recommend.

Red Sun

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Soleil Rouge Release Date: 1971 Director: Terence Young Netflix Link IMDb Link

I avoided this movie for forever. I am really not a fan of westerns (without Clint Eastwood), but Red Sun happens to be one of the last readily-available Toshiro Mifune movies I hadn’t seen. I bit the bullet only to find out that, as an added bonus, Red Sun also stars Alain Delon. Wait, What?! Toshiro Mifune, Charles Bronson and Alain Delon in the same movie? A French version of a spaghetti western with Comanche indians, samurai and Charles Bronson? How the hell did that happen? Seriously, how did this movie ever get made? Anyway, I’m glad it did since it’s not half as bad as I was expecting. It has an unusual story, loosely based on historical fact, but I wouldn’t exactly call it historical. If nothing else, it’s certainly entertaining to see Mifune traipsing through the American west in full samurai gear next to Bronson in search of Delon. I also enjoyed watching Mifune kick Bronson’s ass. It’s a mindfuck to see Delon and Mifune speaking English (and not too badly either). Because of my adoration of Mifune, I have waded through more mediocre to terrible films than I thought possible, especially films from his later years (e.g. The Bushido Blade), but Red Sun is better than most.

Asyl: Park and Love Hotel

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Japanese: パーク アンド ラブホテル Release Date: 2007 Director: Izuru Kumasaka IMDb Link AsianMediaWiki Link

Another austere Japanese slice of life drama revolving around a public park built, incongruously, on the rooftop of a love motel. Since space is at a premium in Japan, love motels are rooms you can rent by the hour. We have them here in the United States, too, but they’re big business in Japan. The plot follows several people involved with the park in some way from a young runaway to a lonely housewife to the widowed owner of the love hotel. Like Ain’t No Tomorrows, it feels like a documentary and has no soundtrack to speak of. The plot, what little there is of one, rolls around without really going anywhere. I tend to like these kinds of films since they stick with you for a while. Asyl doesn’t seem like much of anything while you’re watching it, but it is one of those films that you think about from time to time long after you’ve seen it. It sneaks up and ambushes you after it’s over. It is certainly original, if nothing else.

Ain’t No Tomorrows

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Oretachi ni asu wa naissu Japanese: 俺たちに明日はないッス Release Date: 2008 Director: Yuki Tanada IMDb Link AsianMediaWiki Link

A fairly graphic and quite bizarre look at teen sex through the eyes of teenagers. It has no soundtrack, it looks more like a documentary than a feature film and it’s chock full of odd characters doing very odd things. The plot isn’t wacky, in that typically Japanese way; it’s more on the strange side. Still, incomprehensibly, I liked it. Ain’t No Tommorows reminds me of the austere Korean film, In Between Days, but this one has slightly more comedy and strangeness, and it’s a little less quasi-documentary style. Still, it’s about people trying to belong in the confusing and tumultuous teenage years. I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone, but if you like sparse coming of age tales, this one is worth a watch.

Fires On The Plain

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Nobi Japanese: 野火 Release Date: 1959 Director: Kon Ichikawa Netflix Link IMDb Link

I just finished reading the book, so I watched the movie. I’m really torn as to which I prefer. The book is packed with subtle humor and delectable phrasing which is mostly lost in the movie. However, I love the fact that Ichikawa toned down a lot of the religious references in the book and I really liked his ending better. The ending of the book drags on for a chapter or two where it doesn’t need to. Granted, the book is a supposedly true story so it couldn’t have ended the same way as the film. As usual with movies adapted from books I’ve just read, I’m not sure it would be as clear having not read the book first. I think it probably would be since it’s a rather straight forward, linear narrative. Either way, it’s a good read and a good watch. It’s one of Ichikawa’s finest films.

Zombies of Mass Destruction

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Release Date: 2009 Director: Kevin Hamedani Netflix Link IMDb Link

Zombies of Mass Destruction definitely had potential, but it didn’t quite make it there. Unfortunately, it tried to cover too much ground, especially for a zombie movie. Sexual orientation, politics, racism, ignorance and religion are all covered. Romero was known for throwing social commentary in his films, but Kevin Hamedani is no Romero. Not to mention that Romero’s commentary was a lot more subtle. You can’t try to be a serious political/social issues drama AND a comedy at the same time. Pick one. At best, the acting seemed very high school drama class with the exception of the Iranian girl, played by Janette Armand. I didn’t dislike it, but I found it mildly disappointing. Strangely, for a low-budget film, the best thing about it were the effects.

I Sell The Dead

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2008 Director: Glenn McQuaid Netflix Link IMDb Link

I Sell The Dead was not quite as good as I had hoped it would be. It was disjointed at best, deadly dull at worst. It’s a period piece, yet, incongruously, it features such items as vampires, zombies and aliens. To its credit, it does have a fairly entertaining and unique story with a really good cast. Honestly though, I felt like I had seen it before. I didn’t dislike it, but it could have been a whole lot better. Normally, I’d give this 3 stars, but in comparison to all the claptrap to come out of Hollywood in the last few years, I’ll give it 4 stars for at least attempting to be original and for being the most original American movie I’ve seen in a while.

Hard Revenge, Milly Double Feature

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Hâdo ribenji, Mirî / Hâdo ribenji, Mirî: Buraddi batoru Japanese: ハード・リベンジ、ミリー Release Date: 2008 / 2009 Director: Takanori Tsujimoto Netflix Link IMDb Link: Part 1, Part 2

Hard Revenge, Milly has a double feature on one disc; Hard Revenge, Milly and Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle. The first movie is only about 45 minutes long though, and the the second is just over an hour. It actually might have been more effective had they boiled it down to only one movie. Hard Revenge, Milly was what Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay was trying to be and failed. It features a very capable lead heroine in Miki Mizuno, awesomely bad special effects, cheesy dialog, waaaaaaaay over the top fight scenes and more gore than you ever thought possible. Weeeeee! It’s not as good as The Machine Girl or Tokyo Gore Police in the same genre, but it’s worth a watch if you love high-octane splatter and your expectations aren’t all that high. Actually, I would recommend watching it right after Battle Girl and it will seem like the most awesome movie(s) ever in comparison.