Pleasures of the Flesh

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: Etsuraku Release Date: 1965 Director: Nagisa Ôshima Netflix Link IMDb Link

Pleasures of the Flesh is part of the new Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties, which I’m slowly working my way through. I have a hard time mustering up the desire to watch a lot of the Eclipse sets since it seems that Criterion throws them anything they don’t really want to give the full Criterion treatment.

Pleasures of the Flesh might as well be called “Women Will Fuck Up Your Life” since that’s the basic premise. It’s a fairly unique story which is a mixture of Brewster’s Millions and any movie where a guy falls for a girl with disastrous results. It gets some points for originality, but otherwise, there’s not all that much here to recommend. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.

The Chaser

	Rating: 5 out of 5 Original Title: Chugyeogja Release Date: 2008 Director: Hong-jin Na Netflix Link IMDb Link

The Chaser is a Korean crime thriller which was really surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting all that much with it, but it surpassed my expectations by a long shot. Once it gets rolling, it just never stops. I had a few minor quibbles over two minor plot points and just a few of the scenes didn’t really seem to go anywhere, but all things considered, it’s a very small complaint compared to the overall film. The Koreans are making some excellent films and the Chaser is definitely one of them. I love how they don’t always follow the traditional Hollywood ending wrap up, but do things their own way. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Ip Man

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 2008 Director: Wilson Yip Netflix Link IMDb Link

Starring Donnie Yen with Sammo Hung choreographing; what’s not to love? This is a supposedly true biopic set before and during the Japanese occupation of China during WW2. The real message of the movie is that the Chinese are far superior martial artists and people in general than the Japanese. According to this film, the Japanese are evil, they will shoot you in the head for any reason and they suck at kung fu. But, all is well in the end since “the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to China and China won” (that’s actually in the closing text scroll). I always thought that the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allied forces because the US dropped two massive bombs on them, but what do I know. It was actually China that did all the heavy lifting. The main problem I have with Chinese cinema, other than their treatment of horses, is they sometimes try to pass things off as fact, when the facts they present are only half truths at best. 4 stars anyway for some killer martial arts.