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A Chinese Ghost Story

Let me start off by saying that I am not, in any way, an expert on Asian Cinema. In the mid to late 80s, as the Laser Disc was becoming a 'thing,' people were more easily able to see foreign movies as regional protection wasn't as big a thing then as it is now. Either that, or it was just easier to buy an Asian Laser Disc Player in the States. In Boston, there was on enterprising young gentleman who nearly single-handedly fanned the flames of interest in Hong Kong cinema. He would wander about in a long, leather trench coat, even in the hottest weather with VHS copies of the latest Chow Yun Fat film, or Tsui Hark masterpiece tucked into pockets like a watch salesman in New York City. At one point, he told me that he had three Laser Disc machines running day and night to keep up with demand for these tapes. When local arthouse theaters, such as the Brattle, would show some of these films, this young gent would wander up and down the line of folks waiting to get inside, offering these movies for sale. He was utterly breaking international copyright law but who was to know? I always thought he'd get caught as he was so brazen but, to the best of my knowledge, he never was.

That brings me to the movie that's the subject of this post, 1987's "A Chinese Ghost Story." My memories tell me that the copy I acquired of this film had no subtitles, though that memory might be wrong. I think, instead, they just weren't very good. The story then seemed muddled and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the goofiness and pathos of this movie. Like many films out of Hong Kong then, and possibly now, it has moments of going over the top. There is quite a bit of wire-fu, spell casting and swordsmanship. This all comes hand in hand with demons of the underworld that make our Western Zombies look pale in comparison. This film manages to tread three narrow lines at the same time; it is equal parts romance, comedy and horror. I recently re-watched this, thanks to YouTube and can say that the film held up quite well.

The plot revolves around a young debt-collector who is rather meek and bad at his job. When he gets to the town that's the focus of his efforts, he can't even collect enough money to put himself up for the night. He's directed to the nearby Orchid Temple, which is known by the locals to be haunted. There he runs into two swordsmen in the midst of a duel. One is driven away, only to be seduced by the lovely ghost of the temple who, in the middle of The Act, calls out to the local ancient evil tree demon/demoness who sucks the life juices from the hapless swordsman. The other leaves the story for now. When the young debt collector sets himself up for sleep, the ghost returns. Her appearance isn't at all ghost-like so the young debt collector mistakes her for a real young woman. Unlike all her other victims, he doesn't look for sex with her and turns aside her advances. When he thinks she might be in danger, he tries to protect her. This causes the ghost to start to fall in love, a condition soon shared by the young debt collector.

From there, the plot generally wanders towards the idea of saving the ghost from her fate while destroying the ancient evil whose major power is her/his amazing extendable tongue. Just when the movie seems to be getting too serious, some form of comedy slides in to bring it around, or we get an exciting fight scene with folks flying all about, tossing off curses and charms, chants that fend of evil powers or a giant tongue that wraps itself around the temple, the fighters or anything it can get itself around.

The ending, too is not the usual Hollywood, happily-ever-after affair though it does seem to be open enough to two sequels. I don't remember them nearly as well, and haven't watched them, partially as this film stands just fine on its own.
The young debt collector

is played by Hong Kong Pop star Leslie Cheung. His was a huge career, being one of the biggest stars of that kind of music in all Asia. Sadly, he died by committing suicide when 46 due to clinical depression. He was also a rarity in that he was a self-declared bi-sexual, something one does not do in that culture.This is the lovely young woman/ghost at the center of the plot:

And this, the male/female tongue-lashing tree demon:

For fans of cinema that wanders outside the usual boundaries, who love to see people flying about unabashedly on wires, latex effects that range from decent to ridiculous, this is a great entry into Hong Kong movies. Luckily, the film is easily available on YouTube. There are surely some cultural bits and pieces that don't translate but I think these obstacles are easily overlooked. This is a film that will make you smile, question and perhaps even tear up a little in equal parts. Enjoy!

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

The film studio alike is by far the most innovative animation studio around these days. Previous films, Coraline, Paranormal and Box Trolls are all great films and in many ways expand on who animated films are aimed at and have stories no other studio is telling. They are all done primarily with puppet animation with a smattering of CGI for practicality and enhancement.

The story of this film is maybe the weakest point of this film. My husband got detached from it about 15 minutes in but I can't say that's normal. I thought ti was a little weak but it kept my attention the entire way through. Some of the plot elements arrive WAY too easily... there is a quest to find magical armour elements, a sword, a helmet, armoured suit... but this aspect is over taken by all the other elements and gets puts the background and pretty much forgotten by the end of the film. None of the searched for elements make a notable diffference in the story.

Basically a young mother has saved her son from// something and hides him from the night near a small village. She and her son have magic powers which at fort consist of him making origami come to life to tell a story, his story it turns out. His evil grandfather sends his scary aunts to get him when he accidentally stays out too late and the adventure begins. This is not a children's tale,I'd recommend it to young teenagers and about... there is killing and death and main character die and do not come back despite having magical story elements. I can't speak to the voice talent quality as I saw it in French. The only voice in the English version I wish I had heard was George Takei, who is amazing in anything he does.

One thing anyone watching the film can not ignore is the visuals. They are more than AMAZING. I am a little biased towards this sort of technique as I used to de-rig (take out the supports and wires) of the puppets in these sort of projects, so I am well aware of the effort it takes to pull them off. As with their other films, the end credits have some behind the scenes clips off people working on the puppets. This really adds to the experience as you get not only an idea of how time consuming it is but also the skill it take sot making the puppets and set.. which are enormous in some cases. The giant skeleton is about 10 feet tall and animated frame by frame.



*note
the Slammer seems empty these days and abandoned by all the writers, including me. I just haven't had time or money to see anything but I hoped hat will change in the fall. I have a LONG list of thing to catch up on.

Crumb (1994)

It took me forever to finally see this documentary (and some prodding from a friend). I have never been big fan of Robert Crumb's work but I had read Fritz the Cat and some of his comics and seen the Ralph Bakshi film over the years.

Te documentary is very good overall. It's more an intimate portrait of Crumb's family than an overview of his art, although there is plenty of depth to his art history in here as well.

Crumb's work is VERY personal. It's also not a little misogynist, racist and violent. How much is sort of an open question. Personally he is a somewhat charming guy with a family so screwed up he is by far the most normal member of it (that we know of - his sisters refused to be interviewed for the film so we know nothing of them). His art outside comics is extremely good. His portraitures in pen and ink are amazing to look at. The film does not shy away from people who find his work repulsive or even dangerous but it does not pass judgement on it and leaves that to you. Me, I found I could look at in many ways. H e could easily be exposing the worst in our subconscious and throwing it in our faces. Or he is an immature douche bag with stunted emotional development and great drawing ability.

Hard to say which is the "real" Robert Crumb.

Godzilla 1956 and 2014

The new Godzilla film has arrived with years of speculation, promises and history behind it. It was touted as a return to the original Godzilla format not the 60s and 70s children oriented films. So as with most reboots these days, we were to expect a grittier more serious, adult oriented presentation. 

In some ways we got what was promised. The giant creature itself is pretty awesome to see and ginormous even by city crushing monster standards. Visually there isn’t much to gripe about in this film. But how does it compare to the original version?

The 1956 film Gojira (not the re-edited American version with Raymond Burr) is a classic and for good reason. If you have never seen it, do so now. Made a mere 10 years after the nuclear attack on Japan, it states in no uncertain terms the horror of nuclear warfare. There are several integrated stories which come together with the touching suicide of the scientist who has developed a weapon to kill the giant monster so this new deadlier technology will not be used again. The Godzilla is this film is a walking H-bomb of sorts and some of the scenes of destruction are reproductions of real city neighbourhoods post nuclear blast. 

The new film downplays any human responsibility for the creature.. it is now a giant predator from another time that lived on radiation somehow and all those American nuclear tests were cover ups trying to kill it. (Critics point out that Russians and others were also doing tests at the same time, but I have feeling this plot weakness could be used to say they were fighting their own monsters which can now appear in sequels). The film follows one family, the father who has lost his wife in a mysterious power plant disaster and his son’s family who years later think grandpa is a little nuts. Sadly, while grandpa’s story is the compelling one and cut short, the son’s family is dull as dish water. This film suffers from the same boring human elements that occurred through most of the Godzilla sequels over the years. It is in many ways structured like almost any one of the 30 or so of them, not the classic original. 

In both films the behemoth remains somewhat of a mystery until well into the film. The difference is, in the Japanese movie he (or she - who knows?) is truly scary, a force of nature. The new film could have built the full reveal in a way where the audience was terrified to see it towering over the city but doesn’t. Visually the elements are all there but because the dialog and characters are so stock and weak, and because no one seems all that afraid of giant city size monsters in this film… we can’t be either. In a lot of areas this movie plays like a sequel to a film they never made. Too many things are assumed. 

There is no getting around how incredible special effects are in 2014 compared to 1956, no one can fault this present version for bad effects. Some budget cutting measures were noticeable however. When giant monsters fight, more times than not we only see it on a television set somewhere and the new creatures Godzilla is « hunting » are not very detailed and seem deliberately made to render faster and easier. They don’t seem to be from the same world as the big guy. The storyline is another problem. No one is going to a film like this without expecting to suspend their disbelief to a massive extent but even in the film’s context it’s hard to believe that anyone would hide the egg of an enormous destructive creature that feeds off radiation in a nuclear waste dump. What bad could possible come of that? 

Is the new film worth seeing? Yes, despite it all. The end battle is worth the price of admission alone and Godzilla is very impressive visually. I saw it in Imax 3D and while I like Imax, 3D as usual adds nothing to the movie. See it on a regular screen and avoid the 20$ + I paid for a ticket and you’ll be fine. 

Zardoz

John Boorman's 1974 film seems to be in the zeitgeist lately and getting attention from film critiques and cult film lovers. Long lauded as a terrible film, a fresh look reveals a movie that isn't any worse than others with similar subject matter. That is not to say it isn't weird as fuck. 

The film's bad reputation might stem from star Sean Connery's outfit. It can not be unseen once seen and a Vegas stripper would be embarrassed to be seen in it. This is unfair since we don't really see much full body shots and he does eventually get a proper pair of pants. Besides, everything else about this film is at least as bizarre. Plus, he also wears a wedding dress.

The film starts with a floating head wearing a napkin Egyptian style identifying itself as Zardoz as it moves around the screen never blinking. Then we are treated to a bunch of male Barbarella warriors taking orders from a giant flying stone head that tells them "the penis is bad, the gun is good!" As it vomits rifles all over them like some sort NRA wet dream. Connery hides inside, which is filled with people in giant condoms, and eventually he finds and shoots Zardoz who has been hiding(?) up until then. The head lands in a secluded area where a superior race with psychic powers and superior technology lives, and lives and lives. Apparently they are all immortal and bored even with charlotte ramplings breasts to entertain them. The men are all super feminized since they don't have sex any more and rebels are punished by aging them a few years with each infraction. How the earth was divided into barbarians and magic hippies is never explained or even hinted at. Our hero is of course some sort of chosen one, destined to free them from the boredom of eternal life and restart the human race, or something. Oddly from the dialog, none of the never dying hippies is really all that old, most seem to be around 140 which doesn't seem nearly long enough to develop magic powers, lose your sex drive and force men into bad wigs and roman tunics. It certainly isn't long enough for all the bitching they do about not being able to die. 

Of course there are plenty of other elements, plot lines and psychedelic sequences with films projected over the actor's faces and bodies but I wont spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it.     

The surprising thing is, none of this makes a truly bad movie. The basic plot is standard dystopian low budget sci-fi of the era and some of the cinematography is pretty good. Even the flying stone head head is very well done. It does drag in parts, but no more than many films from the time compared to our frantic low attention span editing of today. It would no doubt have benefited from a better attempt at world building, giving at least a hint of how the world got to where it ended up but it's not boring, just confusing. And weird. Very weird. 

The Masque of the Red Death 1964

• Vincent Price as Prince Prospero
• Hazel Court as Juliana, his mistress
• Jane Asher as Francesca, a peasant girl
• David Weston as Gino, Francesca's lover

As it is one of the later films in Roger Corman’s series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptions, this film suffers from the cumulative excesses of those before it. The story is kind of confusing mess with no real central character at the centre for the audience to follow and it’s really hard to identify with anyone on this movie. 

This is not to say it doesn’t have it’s moments. Vincent Price sleeps walks through his performance, but even so, he’s pretty fun to watch as the cruel Prospero who is one big jaded mess of a man. No matter how horrible an event is, he seems to have a quip ready at hand to say about it and delivers them all in a bored, matter of fact tone. 

The romantic couple, who have very little chemistry to start with, are the typical stereotyped «common people» we are supposed to root for but really don’t care much about. they are simply to underdeveloped and overwhelmed by set pieces and Price. 

The plot is fairly simple on the surface, the evil ruler of the province, after seeing the red death has arrived in town decides to protect the upper class members of society in his huge castle and wait out the disease as it ravages the outside world. The price for his protection is to be subjected to his every cruel whim, suffer torture and humiliation and eventually dress in funny costumes to amuse him. 

Juliana is Prospero’s mistress and like him wants to gain favour of Satan to save them for the plague and give them places of power in hell, or immortality... it’s not really clear. While Prospero tries to gain favour by being a complete self righteous douche bag, she goes another route and take a potion, burns a cross into her boobs and has some sort of fever dream where stereotypes throughout the ages do dance numbers and then stab her. When she awakens from her trance she is convinced Satan is now her husband and gets immediately attacked, for no good reason, by a falcon who pecks her to death. 

There is a quick sub plot involving the dwarf jester and a little girl who later on we discover is also supposed to be a dwarf (they dub an adult women’s voice over hers). One of the guests, having slapped the little girl dancer earlier, is humiliated and horribly burned alive in front of the guests in revenge by the jester (easily the best actor in this production). No one is as horrified as they should be and Mr. Price, as his custom by now, makes a quip and orders the mess cleaned up. 

The story also has scenes of the captured lovers and the girl’s father escaping the dungeon only to be caught in the act by Prospero himself. It should be noted that he seems to be everywhere at once. He just appears places, in completely different outfits whenever it suits the storyline. It very hard to tell how long the the events presented takes place over... a night? a week? 

Throughout this mess,  a red cloaked figure sits by trees, gives nebulous predictions and eventually comes to the party where he is revealed to be the red death itself and, true to form, kills everyone by spraying them with blood and making them do modern dance. He spares the two young lovers (who he reunited, but we never see that - or them- again), a girl that for some reason Prospero decided to let live, the jester and the dancer and some random guy in the village who we’ve never heard of before. The film ends with him having some sort of telly-tubby inspired meeting of deathly diseases who all moan about how many people they’ve had to kill recently and then march off in their red, blue, green etc robes. 

Poe, who’s work is referenced during the film, but as with all Corman’s Poe inspired movies, not very faithfully and the titles run. 

I can't say I’d recommend this production very highly, even as camp. It’s slow and tedious and Price does seem to be phoning in his lines. The set design is pretty amazing and the size of the castle is well represented with minimal sets which sometimes shake a bit it you hit a wall too hard. This is one film that would greatly improve with a Mystery Science Theatre 300 treatment. I now some people really love this film and I can’t say I hate it but it doesn’t come close to the more inspired Corman adaptions like «Fall of the House of Usher».

Deep End

Deep End

1970

Jerzy Skolimowski, director

As I try to see a series of cult films I’ve missed over the years, Deep End kept coming up in conversations and in searches online. I finally got to see it and while it’s a film definitely of it’s time, I’m not as enamoured of it as others have been. 

Warning: contains spoilers

A sometimes funny, certainly tragic story, this film follows the life of 15 year old Mike and his obsession with his older co-worker Susan in a sleazy bath house in swinging London. We never do see a swinging side of London, just the underside of it which in this case is a plus for the story telling. Another high point of the production is the actor who plays Mike looks 15 years old and not like in most films, a 20 years old playing a teenager. 

No one in this film is very likeable... including Mike who we are supposed to identify with.  Sure he’s a typical kid with a crush but he’s as creepy as the gym teacher his love interest (who is engaged) is having an affair with. The clients of the bath house are not the most normal of people as you might imagine either but they do provide comic relief and a little pity depending on your point of view. 

The performances are appropriately awkward and all the minor characters pull in solid performances. I didn’t find anything special with the photography. I should say i saw an old copy of the film and not a restored version. I’ve seen stills form a cleaner, better print and they looks 100 times better than the print I viewed. 

I did the find the ending... odd. To say the least. The very least. In a nutshell, the two principals have sex in the empty pool which means everything to Mike but nothing to Susan. In his rage and as the pool fills with water after a custodian starts to fill it not realizing people are in the pool, Mike swings a heavy light into Susan... cracking open her head. She slides into the water unconscious and he fucks her dead or dying body. So the character we are meant to sympathize with is a killer necrophiliac. He makes no effort to save her life at all. 

Not a bad film by any means and has it’s interesting points but I found the whole thing very hard to relate to on any level. Maybe that was the point.. this characters can’t really even relate to themselves, but the end seen was more confusing than anything in my view. 

Ice-T's One-Word Movie Reviews

I follow Ice's twitter (and of course Coco's.) He just posted this review:

Here's hoping he makes this a regular thing.