The Lords Burning Rain – 2014

This starts of as an extraordinary adventure and it’s equally beautiful. The environment is exactly how I picture the Irish countryside a few years back. Though out the movie the music’s marvelous too! In fact I can’t find much that isn’t perfection in this production. But of course, if you’re into action and horror flicks, this is not for you. This is a film that actually tells a story about people and about Ireland in particular.

To tell the story we follow a sixteen year old boy when he’s riding a horse home. He encounters some odd characters along the way. It’s almost mythological at times, at least if you see it from a metaphorical point of view. It never goes too far into fantasy and such though. At some point I found it almost surreal as far as the story telling technique goes but I’m not sure if this is intended of if it’s just me over interpreting it? In either case there is surely an interesting nerve to it.

As we follow the boy’s journey home, we also get to see some flashbacks in black and white. They are designed to “look old” and I guess they’re realistic as such but I found them a bit of the point. I think they stall the pace a bit and the pace is rather slow to begin with. It’s really slow. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it stays interesting all the way through. However, I don’t think it’s easy to understand the movie fully from watching it just once. It’s rather complex and you might miss a lot of details if you don’t pay enough attention.

The acting is really good. I actually think that all of it could be a more or less a documentary. It’s that realistic. This is the second film and the first feature I’ve seen from Maurice O’Callaghan (the first was the short A Day for theFire), and I’m really impressed! I want to see more!

9/10

Asian Monster Flick Week - Goliathon - 1977

Goliathon

Aka: The Mighty Peking Man, Xing Xing Wang

Director: Meng Hua Ho

1977

Adventure/Horror

There are rumors about a giant ape living in the jungle. It’s supposed to be as tall as a ten stories building. Such a discovery cannot be left alone since there could be loads of money to make on displaying such an ape! A expedition goes out to find it but quickly give up and return to Hong Kong. One man stays behind however and he finds bother the giant ape and a beautiful blonde who was raised by it. Soon the ape is chained on a transport ship going to Hong Kong. But what will happen once there? Will the ape behave just like it’s predicted?

First of all, of course this is a King Kong Rip off. There’s not much dividing the two films from each other. Of course this is Asian and the original King Kong was stop motioned by Willis O’Brien but in essence it’s the same. I believe that Fred Andersson mentioned the movie in his article about Kongsploitation in the Swedish fanzine Gory-Glory Magazine but just in a passing sentence of so. But I agree what’s said in that sentence – it’s a cheesy film!

But the cheezyness is part of the fun. Who cares if the miniatures looks fake or that the ape looks phony. Nobody’s interesting in that anyway, nobody would have thought anything different anyway. The most important thing about the movie is the beautiful Evelyne Kraft who plays the blonde Tarzan like woman. Her parents were killed in a plane accident and she was the sole survivor. Her best friends in the jungle, apart from the ape, are wild cats with which she can communicate. They protect her and she can pet them with no fear. In fact, these scenes are very impressive, I don’t know how it was made since it doesn’t seem to be tricked in any way. There’s a possible use of trained animals but it’s still impressive the way they can be treated while maintaining the actor’s safety. Oh, and there’s an elephant too!

Nothing is convincing in this movie but it’s still a lot of fun. The bad effects are surely a part of the entertainment and there are definite turkey qualities here. There’s city destruction and that’s one of the important things. Buildings are shattered and the giant ape is attacked by choppers on top of a tall building. Recognize it?

I won’t try to grade it since it wouldn’t be just anyway I could do it, but I can say that I got a blast out of this rip off – cheezyness and all!