Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 3125 Location: S.F. Bay Area Country:
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:50 pm Post subject:
Pistol Opera
What do you get when Seijun Suzuki, the god of Japanese B gangster movies, remakes what used to be one of my favorite guilty pleasures (Branded to Kill) and casts Makiko Esumi as the no. 3 Killer?
You get a DVD that I jumped to get the day Tokyo Shock released it about a year and a half ago.
No one ever looked hotter in a kimono than Makiko does in this odd little movie. (There's something about a beautiful woman, in a black kimono, wearing Dr. Martens.)
Suzuki movies aren't for everyone, I guess. But I've been a fan ever since I found them in the back of the little mom and pop video store in my neighborhood. _________________
What do you get when Seijun Suzuki, the god of Japanese B gangster movies, remakes what used to be one of my favorite guilty pleasures (Branded to Kill) and casts Makiko Esumi as the no. 3 Killer?
You get a DVD that I jumped to get the day Tokyo Shock released it about a year and a half ago.
No one ever looked hotter in a kimono than Makiko does in this odd little movie. (There's something about a beautiful woman, in a black kimono, wearing Dr. Martens.)
Suzuki movies aren't for everyone, I guess. But I've been a fan ever since I found them in the back of the little mom and pop video store in my neighborhood.
So do you have all of Suzuki's films?
Haven't seen any of his works.... Any recommendations for a Suzuki novice?
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 3125 Location: S.F. Bay Area Country:
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject:
Dang! I just wiped out my Suzuki post!
Okay, the short version.
No, I don't have all of his stuff. The guy turned out 3 or 4 movies a year for decades. Hell, he's still making them.
My two favorites are probably Tokyo Drifter -an amazing experiment in style- and Branded to Kill.
But "Youth of the Beast" and "Tattooed life", are great.
I wasn't a big fan of "Fighting Elegy", but other Suzuki fans that I know think it's great.
The guy made movies rather than films. He loved to play with people's ideas about gangsters.
The two images that come into my head right away when I think of Suzuki's movies are Jo Shishido (Suzuki's favorite actor) and his massive cheeks, and Japanese gangsters in their short sleeved white shirts, and pork pie hats.
I saw Shishido a while ago talking about some of the movies, and he admitted, that yeah, he did have plastic surgery to pump up his cheeks. He thought it would make him look beautiful (his word).
In fact, it just made it look like he'd just had multiple root canal surgeries.
He's since had his cheek implants removed, but the removal left two long, pronounced scars down the sides of his face, from just under each eye, to his jaw line. _________________
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 3125 Location: S.F. Bay Area Country:
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:38 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute
are both good examples of Suzuki's movies. But if your looking for something that might have been rated R or X, forget it.
In fact, at the end of the 60's Suzuki's studio went almost completely over to porn. They were very hot for him to do soft core... but he said he wasn't interested.
They waved his contract saying he couldn't make movies for any other studio... so he moved to TV for almost 20 years.
He was one of the first of the big time professional directors to leave the Japanese movie industry and find a home working on TV. _________________
are both good examples of Suzuki's movies. But if your looking for something that might have been rated R or X, forget it.
In fact, at the end of the 60's Suzuki's studio went almost completely over to porn. They were very hot for him to do soft core... but he said he wasn't interested.
They waved his contract saying he couldn't make movies for any other studio... so he moved to TV for almost 20 years.
He was one of the first of the big time professional directors to leave the Japanese movie industry and find a home working on TV.
Wow, you must be quite a fan: you've got his bio down pat.
I'm blanking on the title. I tend to think of Westlake books as Dortmunder books, or Not Dortmunder books.
It doesn't have to be a Dortmunder book for me to like it. But seeing that name on the back cover just makes me happier.
The guy is... prolific.
He is credited with over 90 titles under his name and five pseudonyms he has used.
Being a Dortmunder fan, you must be awfully happy since his last two novels were both Dortmunder books. I read where he previously had a policy of not publishing consecutive Dortmunder novels, but I guess that's no longer in effect.
Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Posts: 456 Location: Finland Country:
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:04 pm Post subject:
Have you guys seen Godzilla: Final Wars yet?. I got the jp dvd and loved it, even without subs. 75% of the movie is pure action, so I don't think I missed much. Besides, the story is simple and one of the main characters (Don Frye) speaks english. Just enjoy the action (some average, mostly great, especially the bazooka battle at the beginning)
The film is kind of campy, but that's why I love it. Some cgi look really bad, but luckily it's only used in a couple of scenes. Otherwise special effects look great. I haven't seen the previous Godzilla films (just ordered the original film, though) but this seems to be more of a Kitamura film than a godzilla film. Everything we've come to expect from Kitamura is here: katanas, kung-fu fights, leather jackets, motor-cycle chases...
Don Frye probably made some sort of record by being the first american actor to give A GOOD performance in a asian movie. And he's got more great dialogue than Arnold Schwarzenegger in his golden days. Aside from some bad cgi, I can't find any bad things to say about this film. Go watch it in a movie theater if possible, that way it should be even more fun that watching it home.
8/10
Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Posts: 456 Location: Finland Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:32 am Post subject:
Geezer wrote:
My two favorites are probably Tokyo Drifter -an amazing experiment in style- and Branded to Kill.
bmwracer wrote:
Heh, I have been eyeing those two Criterion releases for some time now...
Those are both quite poor releases. Criterion is doing good job nowadays, but many of their early releases aren't that good. But I guess there isn't any better releases with english subs. Personally I'm gonna get the french releases of these films (three box sets, three films in each, presented with almost perfect picture quality). But I'll get some of Criterions better releases as I don't have time to sub all those great french dvds.
Has anyone seen a film called Demon Spies? It's some sort of japanese 70's ninja exploitation film. It was just released on R1 dvd by Animeigo. I'm hoping it would offer some Lone Wolf & Cub style of bloodshed. I took a risk and ordered it (with Criterions Sword of Doom).
Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Posts: 456 Location: Finland Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:04 am Post subject:
krim wrote:
Im curious to know what would have made Branded To Kill a better release... I didn't find any problems with the transfer or the sub timing.
From dvdbeaver:
"But this very early non-anamorphic Criterion DVD looks very poor. One of their worst - no question. It is quite hazy with shallow contrast."
"The Criterion image is both severely cropped by 26.22%: 56px left and right (7.78%) and 16px top and bottom (5.33%), and approx. stretched 5% horizontally. "
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