Review: Yakuza Hunters: The Ultimate Battle Royale - 2010

Yakuza Hunters: The Ultimate Battle Royale

Director: Kazushi Nakadaira

2010

Action

Asami, leader of the Girl Gang, is found several years after she’s thought to be dead and brought back to her peers. She’s in poor condition but she hasn’t forgotten who sis it to her. In fact it’s a former member of the gang which once was her friend – Junko. She’s betrayed them all and gone to work with the Yakuza and seems to be totally without empathy for the victims her actions has reaped. Her plan to kill the girls one by one and use their bodies as vessels for smuggling drugs was a heartless one. But she secured her position in the Yakuza and even taken control of the leader by performing sexual favors of a quite perverse kind to him.

At first I thought this reminded me of one of my all time favorite cult movies – Golden Queens Commando. It was certainly the women fighting in the way that they do that gave me this feeling. The two pictures really has anything in common, it was just a quick thought. There’s no prison here and there’s no escape from it. But there is a search after the bad guy and there is a connection in the Girl Gang similar to that of The Three Musketeers – All for one and one for all just like in Golden Queens Commando. They’re also both quite violent movies but this, being the newer and most modern of the two contains more blood, guts and intestines without any doubt.

This is the kind of movie where you invite your friends over, pop some popcorn and drink a few beers. You watch the film and have a few laughs. I don’t think it’s really intended to be taken serious. There are too many silly scenes in it for that. It’s intentionally funny I think. For my own personal preferences I think there’s a bit too much of the splatter effects but I know that there are a lot of people out there who likes them. I feel it’s a little bit silly…

But despite that, this is really a cool flick at least on a sexual level. There are loads of low angel shots almost showing what girls got between their legs. And the girls are hot, they’re beautiful and they’re sexy. They’re dressed in sexy clothes like leather skirts, suspenders and stockings even if it’s far from silk. These are tough girl that’ll stop at nothing when it comes to reaching their goal.

As this is a Yakuza film of sorts there’s plenty of cutting of finger scenes in it. They’re off camera but I still think they’re uncomfortable. There are a few body parts I have trouble seeing getting molested and eyes, feet and hands are among them. Although I cannot help being a bit impressed by strength of will it must take to mutilate your own body. Just the thought of cutting my own fingers off… yuck!

Images: © 2012 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)

Review: Easter Bunny Kill! Kill! - 2006

Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!

Director: Chad Ferrin

2006

Horror

Cine Du Monde

Remington claims that Mindy is his true love in life but he’s obviously a grafter luring his way into the family for whatever reason. Mindy also has a son, sixteen years old with Easter as his favorite holiday. Actually the kid is somewhat retarded and cannot really cops with reality. His greatest hero in life is his father and the Easter Bunny. When he gets a rabbit from a complete stranger he really starts to shine. Remington, only in for using Mindy, hates the boy – Nicholas, and the boy hate him back. Using threats Remington means to fool Mindy to believe that they can be on happy family. But when Mindy needs to get to work, Remington phoned a perverted man trying to sell Nicholas to him. No marks and no memory are the rules. In the meantime Remington goes out to get some prostitutes for the Easter party. But the party doesn’t go as he thinks, soon there’s a deranged killer on the loose killing of the people one by one…

It’s pretty obvious that this picture didn’t have a massive budget and the cinematography betrays its underground origin. I like underground cinema though and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it being obvious either. Especially when it’s done as nicely as here, it feels like you’re in the movie sitting like a fly on the wall rather than just seeing a picture on the TV. That’s always a good and intersecting thing in my home. I wouldn’t say that it’s exciting but it is somewhat suspenseful at times!

It takes a while for the movie to really get going but the characters are interesting and the acting is surprisingly good! I have some trouble believing the retarded kid as I think he overacts quite a bit but you can’t have everything and I don’t really know how retards talk anyway, it might be very accurate after all.

The intro shot (in a double sense) is quite disturbing and in your face. You get to see someone in an Easter Bunny mask robbing and killing a store clerk. It’s not a secret who did it for long though and we get to follow Remington on his was getting in to the family. At first we get the feeling that he’s only wants Mindy for sex, and she is rather good looking, but later, when he tries to sell Nicholas to a perverted bloke that seems ecstatic over getting the chance to abuse a retarded kid. At this point I thought this was the true meaning of the movie, an exploitation of perverted abuse of the boy. It really builds a tension but I was wrong. The next thing happening is that the Easter Bunny comes along and starts to kill people. It’s of course not the true Easter Bunny, just someone in the initial Easter Bunny mask and you can guess who it is, or at least try to guess. It seems obvious, but it’s not!

At this time Remington goes out hoping to get some pussy for his party. No problem since he knows his way around and picks up a couple of prostitutes. Here’s where the first nudity in the film takes place and I thought it would become somewhat sleazy. But there’s really no more than a few tits to be exposed. Not that I complain but I thought it would be a little bit more in that department!

Now the film takes its final turn and becomes what it’s been all along really. I wouldn’t call it a full scale slasher but it’s sure the main theme of the film. There’s also a lot more commenting on the nuclear family issues and mental disturbances. I had my doubts when watching it but when it’s finished I can see that this was a really good movie and well made with some thought put into it. It gives me so much more than just a basic exposition film and as for the killings; they’re done with some unusual tool. Well, at least it isn’t just knives and axes and things like that. We get to see drills, circular saws and stuff like that! And yeah, the ending took me by surprise and that’s unusual! Good Movie!

Bilder: © 2006 Crappy World Films © 2011 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)

Review: Re-Cycle - 2006

Re-cycle
Aka: Gwai Wik

Director: Danny & Oxide Pang

2006

Horror/Fantasy

Tsui Ting-Yin has written three bestselling novels with love stories which are all based upon her own experiences. Now she’s wringing a horror novel – Re-Cycle, but lacks all inspiration to continue to work with it. Strange events take place and an old boyfriend from eight years ago turns up. He tells her that he’s recently divorced his wife and wants to start over with Tsui-Yin. She won’t listen to it. At the same time a long haired girl from the new book appears and when she follows her, she’s suddenly in a world of nightmares. She doesn’t know what to do but meets a little girl that she starts to like. The girl doesn’t have a name and doesn’t know who she is. Ting-Yin gives the girls the name Ting–Yu. They both seek a way back to the real world but there is a price to be paid before any escape can be made. And the little girl has a secret, what might it be?

The original Chinese title apparently translates into something like ghost land. This makes sense when watching it but I feel it’s a little to easy a way to describe the film. There are nightmarish landscapes and nasty zombies but this isn’t a regular ghost flick and I don’t think you should treat it as such, there are far too many clever turns in the plot, multiple layers of storytelling and so on. I really appreciate that the Pang Brothers put some effort into it.

But even if there’s quite a lot of thought put into the story, it’s still scary – very scary! There are very few movies that I‘d consider to be genuinely scary but this get my vote on the matter! In addition to that, I would also like to claim that the suspense is top-notch and you can hardy wait to get the answers. Maybe some of the twists and surprises can be seen coming fairly easy, but they have a great timing that makes them work anyway.

Some scenes are pompous and beautiful and some makes you feel very concerned about Ting-Yin. The thin line between horror and fantasy is blurred out and that suits me like hand in glove! I feel this makes room for an ever broader story and understandable morals, the bottom line of the movie if you wish. You are even tricked to tremble by some unexpected sound effects. Speaking of that, the music is very good and is unusual prominent for an Asian horror film.

The main actress Angelica Lee is brilliant! She carries much of the movie on her shoulders. Everything revolves around her and there only a few smaller roles to give the illusion of a much larger cast. Apart from that this is a very visual movie. There are patterns that might be made in a computer but the look great anyway. The landscape obviously comes from the main characters subconscious. They look kind of magical, grand and thrills the imagination. They could really originate from any dark tale and they set the tone for all the suspense. There are riddles, zombies and powerful symbolism as clues for Ting-Yins return to reality.

It’s not my thing to praise movies with loads of superlatives but in this case I believe I have to! So as a complement to the above text I would like to add that this film almost scared the crap out of me!

Images: © 2006 Universe Entertainment © 2012 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)

Review: Unspeakable - 2000

Unspeakable

Director: Chad Ferrin

2000

Horror

James and Alice doesn’t have a great relationship and it doesn’t get better when they’re in a car accident, leaving her crippled and their daughter dead. James grief has no end and Alice, well… she’s more or less a vegetable. That doesn’t mean that she’s not sexually molested by her nurse – she is! In the worst possible way! James on the other hand goes out and meets up with some hookers to take out his frustration on. Soon we learn that he had a more than normal relationship with the daughter and that it might be the reason for the lousy relationship with Alice.

This might very well be the most demented film I’ve ever seen! The character clearly do unspeakable things to shock us and the script is so twisted it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t written by a lunatic imprisoned in the quiet room. It’s Chad Ferrins first feature film. Whom I have reviewed once before – Easter Bunny Kill! Kill! which was made after this. They have a lot in common and the development as a filmmaker is obvious.

The actors are awful. Well, most of them anyway. Some of the smaller parts are in fact decent but what does that help when the main actors suck? But I can live with that, the main thing about it is the sickness and the madness the main character goes through. You could say it’s more of a portrait of metal sickness than a horror movie. But there are lots of death scenes where people die violently and the dementia helps to make this a very wicked film.

To fill things up besides the main story there is also a part of the film about a pimp and drug dealer. He loses some of his girls which turn up murdered (by James). But that’s just a minor thing. The main story about James is more in the style of Driller Killer or so where the murderer really snaps and can’t deal with reality anymore!

As I said it’s very demented and I could have left the review saying that since it’s the most describing word for the entire film! But is it entertaining? Well, I wouldn’t see it again in quite a while. There’s quite a lot of blood but the feel of it is a bit to amateurish for me at this time. Yet I can’t let go of it, my thoughts keep returning to it and I ask myself what’s really attracting with it. Beats me… Strange feeling. But it is dirty and the title really says it all – it’s unspeakable!

Images: © 2000 Crappy World Films © 2011 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)

Review:Yakuza Hunters 2 - 2010

Yakuza Hunters 2

Aka: Yakuza Hunters: The Revenge Duel in Hell

Director Shinichi Okuda

2010

Action

Three years after the final battle of the first film Asami comes to town. There are a lot of injustices and it’s ruled by a Yakuza gang, they´re planning to build a casino on the spot so everyone else has to leave. Those who refuse are tortured and killed by the Yakuza. Asami stands in the way to get the last few people to move and the Yakuza plays their final card – the summit Akira – a beautiful assassin who seems unbeatable. But Asami trains for the task and the final battle is soon upon her.

You can´t argue with the fact that this film doesn’t have much in common with the first. This isn’t a girl-gang movie at all like the first was. There isn’t nearly the same amount of action and gruesome scenes in it either. The story is simpler and it’s rather slow paced. Oh, and it’s far more enjoyable than the first one!

The reason for this is partly that I can understand the drama in this one. It’s not as strange as the first one and I think it works better actor wise. It´s a slow build-up for the final scenes and as the movie itself is about 70 minutes you never get bored. Sure, there are a few clichés along the way but what the heck – this is entertainment!

I can’t really figure out the logic in making a sequel like this (or a sequel to the first film at all really) but I guess it’s possible to ignore all the events in the first movie and just see this as a totally different story. That’s the way it works for me! I see this as a standalone film, as I usually do with remakes and sequels. It´s a good way of letting the movies own qualities been seen rather than some imaginative comparisons.

There are some cool action sequences in it but for the most part it’s just a feel-good film for me. I can watch it with a smile on my face and not worry about any holes in the plot or anything else that might have disturbed me with a more complex idea of the sequel.

Images: © 2012 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)

Review: ICE - 2008

ICE

Director: Makoto Kobayashi

2008

Animated

In another world, or our world but another dimension, or even another time, there are only women. The last man died 2012 and all reproducing of mankind were halted. However, experiments are being made to reproduce children in an artificial way with a substance called ICE. There are several severe side effects to the method, such as the creation of great monsters in the process and the rulers may not disclose all of the information to the people. What are becoming of the world? Is this the end?

I have not had much experience with this kind of adult animated films. Well, it's not an adult film in that sense but there are a few scenes where lesbianism is insinuated. It would be hard not to, since the entire male population is gone. Also, the movie starts with a girl in a thong and since I had no idea what this movie was about I kind of expected it to be semi pornographic. It’s not though, and you’ll have to do with a few naked breasts and they aren’t that plentiful!

I think the tagline Yesterday, Today and No Future, captures the true spirit of the movie perfectly but I did not realize it until I finished watching it. The story is told in three parts – with a prolog and an epilog but don’t jump to conclusions, there’s not one episode for each time segment. Instead the story is told by telling the background first, then the meaning of it all and finally the bottom line. I thought it was very confusing and I had a hard time following it at times. There’s not a very obvious storyline and several plots are weaved together. There’s fantasy, war, treason, science fiction, monsters and an evil queen – or is she?

All evil are manmade, and I really mean man made. The women who survived the male population cannot resort to the kind of violence that the males did before they perished, without being cursed. Guns are evil but swords are not! I can’t really figure this out but there may be some Japanese cultural differences that make sense. But even if all things are not a clash of the cultures; from a western point of view it’s hard to comprehend the story. With that I mean that Asian films in general are more difficult to comprehend than western flicks, at least they are for me. They tend to have more depth I think. That is at least true for me when it comes to Japanese movies, as Japan has a traditional movie industry not influences so much by Hollywood.

This is a picture where the whole is actually more potent than the parts. The fact is usually the opposite but here the different stories make a great conclusion without that the parts are that entertaining. I had a difficult time focusing at times but when the movie ends there’s a lot to think about. The Past, The Present and No Future becomes the real riddle to solve and it’s not that easy to do! There you have the real strength of the movie and it’s something I didn’t expect from an animated movie. There’s a serious and important message to be found!

Images: © 2008 E.Net Frontier / Eleven Arts © 2011 Cine du Monde (UK Licence)