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April 28, 2016
Mojin: The Lost Legend
Wuershan - 2015
Well Go USA Entertainment BD Region A
I'm not sure what a non-Chinese audience will make of Mojin. The basic story of a trio of tomb raiders seeking a lost treasure, in a film laden with special effects, can't help but make an audience think of Steven Spielberg and the Indiana Jones series. With special effects being computer generated, there is nothing special about the effects, as anything imagined can now be rendered with enough sense of realism that any sense of magic is lost.
There is an unexpected aspect to Mojin that raises questions about content and context, based on what is allowed in a film made primarily for a mainland Chinese audience. The film initial takes place in 1988, with a flashback to 1968. The two male lead characters, Hu and Wang, are lured into returning to Mongolia to seek out the Equinox Flower. The reason these two men are sought is because they encountered the Equinox Flower as Red Guard youths. The flashback involves the two, part of a truckload of youths traveling in Mongolia, singing the praises of Chairman Mao. The truck is stuck. The youth see people in the dark that turn out to be statues. There is a debate regarding whether the statues should be left alone as they represent the proletariat of the past, or if they should be destroyed as symbols of feudalism. A young woman, Ding, indicates knowledge of the site as being spiritually significant. The majority of the kids decide to knock over one of the statues, which opens up a pathway to a cave.
Here's where the cultural aspects go into overdrive. There are more statues in the cave, and as far as these young believers in the "Little Red Book" are concerned, more artifacts of the past to be destroyed. The cave also is revealed to have held an underground bunker for Japanese soldiers from World War II. The bones of the soldiers are lying around. Disturbing the statues awakens dead spirits, and the Red Guard youth discover that real battle with zombies is a greater threat than imagined imperialists.
The idea of presenting anything considered supernatural has been, if not banned, at least extremely limited in mainland Chinese films, to be found in those works that take place in a mythical past. Maybe it has to do with three major Chinese production companies banding together here, or a possible acquiescence to popular tastes by the censors, but we have Japanese zombies and other apparitions taking place in a not so distant past. That this key scene takes place during the height of the Cultural Revolution is not simply a gimmick. A summery of the Cultural Revolution includes the concept of "sweeping away monsters and demons", symbolically those representatives of Confucianism or anyone else considered anti-revolutionary. Not only are there monsters and demons found in the underground cave, but it should not be considered a stretch to think that the filmmakers are also setting out to exorcise the monsters and demons from a notorious era of fifty years ago in China.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 05:39 PM
April 24, 2016
Coffee Break
Laura Soveral in Tabu (Miguel Gomes - 2012)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 11:36 AM
April 21, 2016
Los Punks: We are All We Have
Angela Boatwright - 2015
Vans Off the Wall, Fusion, AOP Production
Taking a brief turn away from my usual beat.
My interest piqued here mostly because of my own interest interest in punk rock, living in New York City, and seeing a few shows at CBGBs in 1975 and 1976. I moved back to Denver in early 1977 where the people I knew thought this music was weird. I went to a very small club where the Ramones played in Denver. Ray Manzarek, keyboard player of the Doors, sat next to me during the Ramones first set. He was there with his band, Nite City. I'd like to think that Manzarek saw the light during that set as he later produced the first four albums of the Los Angeles punk band X. My introduction to X was Penelope Spheeris' documentary on the L.A. punk rock scene of 1980, The Decline of Western Civilization, which introduced me to another band, Black Flag.
All this is a roundabout way of acknowledging that every band in Los Punks sounds like a variation of Black Flag. That is to say that you have fast, heavy beats, thrashing guitar, and words shouted out to the audience. I'm not sure why that is because historically punk rock has embraced a certain amount of variety. Maybe there's an orthodoxy I'm unaware of in the Los Angeles music scene.
What is intriguing about Los Punks is listening to the stories of the musicians and the music promoters. Concerts are set up in back yards or in the few venues available, set up by enterprising teenagers or younger adults in their Twenties. These are concerts by and for Hispanic youth in the poorer parts of metro Los Angeles. For the musicians and most of their audience, it's a way of expressing their anger, their frustration with a life that offers limited options.
Looking beyond the exaggerated mohawk hair cuts, pierced noses and tattoos, the participants in this documentary articulate why they are attracted to the music, and what it has meant for their respective lives. One of the brightest, Gary Alvarez, is taking time between graduating college and going to law school, performing with his band, Rhythmic Asylum. If there is a star, that would be Nacho, a beefy young man who promotes shows with his older sister, Natalie, and performs with his band, Corrupted Youth. As a promoter, Nacho has to also mediate between concert goers who get into fights, as well as keeping the peace within the neighborhood when the police are called in on occasion.
The documentary takes place in the minority neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The musicians here are motivated by the opportunity to express themselves, a form of artistic expression, or at the very least, a constructive vent for anger. Even if the music played is of limited appeal, the film is worth checking out for the portraits of the musicians, promoters and fans. As one twenty year old punk put it back in 1965, "the kids are alright".
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 02:41 PM
April 19, 2016
File of the Golden Goose
Sam Wanamaker - 1969
KL Studio Classics BD Region A
The attempt was made to update T-Men, Anthony Mann's 1947 film to a (then) contemporary setting. The classic film noir filmed in and around the dark streets of Los Angeles was transposed primarily to "swinging" London. What the two films share is the same producer, with File of the Golden Goose as the second to last film from Edward Small. Seeing the two films back to back, it is the older film that remains entertaining, while the newer film looks painfully dated.
The story of two U.S. treasury agents going undercover to infiltrate a counterfeit ring now has Yul Brynner as a U.S. agent joining with an undercover detective from Scotland Yard, working to get the goods on a British gang known as The Golden Goose. Starting in New York City, Brynner's character is introduced as a prig who is too upright to spend the night with his very young looking girlfriend. It's a date night that ends badly when a car with some gunmen shoot the girlfriend and miss Brynner. Then it's off to London, based on some clues, where Brynner is teamed up with the still relatively unknown Edward Woodward, as his partner from Scotland Yard. A side trip to Liverpool directs the pair to a character known as "the Owl", played by future Bond villain Charles Gray. The Owl is described as a "queer queer", yet the only thing we see that some might find objectionable is that he hosts very loud parties attended by this film's idea of hippies.
The new version repeats the use of off-screen narration from the original, and some of the bridging footage between scenes has a vague cinema verite feel. Longtime Edward Small collaborator, Robert Kent, credited here with his pseudonym of James B. Gordon, gets screenplay credit with John Higgins, who wrote the screenplay for T-Men. Those who have seen both films will recognize the variations on the original film. Considering the new screen freedom allowed when the new version was made, very little is taken advantage of considering how much of the first version takes place in bath houses. The one element that works in the new film is the character of a hired killer, played by Graham Crowden, tall, with red hair sticking out from under his bowler hat.
File of the Golden Goose was the first of four theatrical films as a director for hire by Sam Wanamaker. The Globe Theater was Wanamaker's passion project, and the directorial gigs were a way to secure funding. I've seen Wanamaker's other films, and while none of his films are visually distinguished, he did improve his handling of action. Yul Brynner must have been pleased with Wanamaker as a director as the two worked together on the western, Catlow, two years later. The professional relationship between Wanamaker and Brynner dates back at least seven years earlier, when Wanamaker played a significant supporting role in Taras Bulba, starring Brynner.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 05:45 AM
April 17, 2016
Coffee Break
Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher (Christopher McQuarrie - 2012)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 12:47 PM
April 14, 2016
Schramm
Jörg Buttgereit - 1993
Cult Epics BD Region A
The chances are that if the films by Jorg Buttgereit were nothing more than the sum of their many body parts, I wouldn't bother writing about any of his work. Taking away some of the more horrific moments in Schramm, one can observe a very careful use of color and composition. The opening sequence is composed of abstract use of color, mostly blue, initially out of focus images that eventually are revealed to be the legs of runners on a track. There are some later scenes of the serial killer, Lothar Schramm, running in a race in Berlin, as well as running alone. If Schramm's running has any kind of symbolic meaning, it's not indicated in any way other than that at one point, he hurts his leg, and requires a leg brace. No longer running, Schramm's life appears reduced to staying within his dumpy apartment.
The film roughly follows the memories and nightmares of Lothar Schramm in the days leading up to his accidental death. Save for occasional conversations with the hooker next door, Schramm's life is one of isolation. The injury to his leg is the prelude to his body seeming to rebel against him. Schramm imagines himself with his leg suddenly amputated. To say he may be sexually uncomfortable with himself is putting it in the most polite terms as in one scene Schramm punishes himself in a way that will make most viewers wince. It's no surprise that Schramm masturbates not with an inflatable doll, but with a torso, essentially a female reduced to breasts and a vagina.
Some of the queasiness might be induced by the moments of body horror may be softened by the sometimes very funny "Making of . . . " supplement, featuring Buttgereit, producer-cinematographer Manfred Jelinski, and cast and crew members. Revealed are how some of the very graphic special effects were created, including prosthetic foreskin, as well as hand made rigging for some dazzling overhead cinematography. While veteran Buttgereit star Monika M. cheerfully admits to being up appearing in future productions, it does appear that playing the title character as taken a toll on Florian Koerner von Gustorf. I would assume that von Gustorf has found greater comfort behind the scenes, notably for producing several films by Christian Petzold.
While no hyperbole exists on the packaging, one could safely call this the "Ultimate Edition". In addition to an introduction by Buttgereit, the blu-ray comes with two commentary tracks, one by Buttgereit and co-writer Franz Rodenkirchen, the other by stars von Gustorf and Monika M. Additionally, there are three early short films by Jorg Buttgereit. Horror Heaven, dedicated to Boris Karloff, includes no-budget pastiches of The Mummy and Frankenstein, while in Bloody Excess in the Leader's Bunker, Hitler's plans for a new Reich are literally ripped apart. Made up of photographs and some home movies, My Father presents a brief portrait of Jorg Buttgereit's father, suggesting that some of the more exploitive elements of Buttgereit's film have some very personal roots.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 06:49 AM
April 12, 2016
Shadows in an Empty Room
Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta / Strange Shadows in an Empty Room / Blazing Magnum
Alberto De Martino - 1976
Kino Lorber / Scorpion Releasing BD Region A
A film known by several titles, from an Italian director credited here as Martin Herbert, is enjoyable if you don't let things like logic and credibility get in the way. The U.S release poster, with a blind woman stepping into a dark room with a hanged man, and title, might suggest giallo, but this is really poliziotteschi, the Italian genre featuring cops who essentially break to law in the name of justice, or plain old revenge. While the Italian genre films, which often had a lower level Hollywood star or two, were normally seen stateside with a post-dubbed English soundtrack, De Martino has made a film directly in English. I don't know if the original script had the action taking place in Italy, but those familiar with other Italian genre films of the era will recognize this as having just about everything except for the product placement of J & B Scotch.
Shot in Canada, the film begins with a bank robbery in progress, with lots of shooting, and lots of broken glass, introducing Stuart Whitman as the very active Ottawa police chief, Tony Saitta, who has no problem taking the law into his own hands, efficiently shooting the robbers who are clearly mismatched and, unlike Dirty Harry, has no time for chitchat.
Whitman travels to Montreal to investigate the death of his young, college student sister, played by French-Canadian Carole Laure. Aside from the considerable age difference, kind of like Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in Rain Man, Laure's accented English gets in the way of thinking that these two people are related. Whitman is aided by local cop John Saxon. Out of town cop investigating the death of his sister instead of leaving it to the Montreal police? No problem here. We've got Martin Landau as a doctor under suspicion, and Gayle Hunnicutt as the wife of the guy who runs university, who may know something. Tisa Farrow is Laure's college roommate, a blind girl who always is walking into trouble.
Along the way, there are a couple of guys who deal with stolen goods, who start running as soon as Saxon and Whitman show up. In an attempt to get some information from a trio of cross dressers, Whitman shows up and immediately gets into a fight with the three. Even forty years, the characters and the attitude shown towards guys "found at a fruit stand" would have been considered crude.
But there is the car chase, filmed and choreographed by Remy Julienne. Almost ten minutes of muscle cars racing through the streets of Montreal is a thing of beauty. Two cars leap and plunge through hilly streets simultaneously in pursuit of the third car. Two of the cars fly over a passing train. Cars crash through store front windows, a hydrant gets knocked over, and people scatter through the streets to avoid the mayhem. This is ballet with a Buick Skylark and a Ford Mustang.
Armando Trovajoli wrote a lightly jazzy score which occasionally uses that mid-Seventies musical staple, the wah-wah guitar. Along with De Martino credited as Martin Herbert, cinematographer Anthony Ford is reportedly the controversial filmmaker, Joe D'Amato. Screenwriters Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfranco Clerici anglicized their named as Vincent Mann and Frank Clark. In addition to writing several screenplays for De Martino, the two also have several screenplays filmed by Lucio Fulci, And while there is very little written about De Martino, it is amusing to read that in college days, he was part of a jazz trio with future directors Fulci and Antonio Margheriti.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 10:46 AM
April 10, 2016
Coffee Break
James Gandolfini in Not Fade Away (David Chase - 2012)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 12:04 PM
April 05, 2016
The Great Hypnotist
Cui mian da shi
Leste Chen - 2014
Well Go USA Entertainment Region 1 DVD
Like many, I revere Hitchcock, and there are many shots in this film that were inspired by the way Hitchcock framed his suspense films. - Leste Chen
I'm not sure how much credit goes to Leste Chen or too his art director, Lo Shun-fu, but the office of the psychiatrist, where much of The Great Hypnotist takes place, is impressive in its own right, even without the suggestion of elements gleaned from several films by Alfred Hitchcock. Part of the narrative is devoted to the concept of perception, of what is seen, how it is seen, and how it is remembered. The office floor has a pattern of angled, colored rectangles that can fool the eye into thinking one is looking at a raised pattern. There is the office wall covered with multiple brain MRIs. Patterns also appear on specially carved doors, on coffee cups. There is also the multi-armed overhead lamp that hovers over everyone, resembling a very large spider. In the office foyer is a big, dark, wooden staircase that leads up to an unknown space - the kind of staircase that made me think of Cary Grant and the glass of milk in Suspicion.
The Great Hypnostist strikes me as a very welcomed throwback to the psychological thrillers that Hollywood use to make in Forties and Fifties, while taking advantage of current filmmaking technology. The premise is that Karen Mok plays a disturbed woman who claims to see dead people, and it's up to hypnotherapist Xu Zheng to see if he can uncover secrets and memories. Several critics who have reviewed The Great Hypnotist have done this film a disservice by being unable to get past the "I see dead people" line used to describe Mok's malady, and have labelled Chen's film as a rip-off of The Sixth Sense. Going back to Hitchcock, the real antecedent is Spellbound, minus the Dali inspired imagery. Without revealing too much for those who have not seen the older film, there are enough similarities to convince me that the basic plot was the inspiration for Chen. The younger filmmaker brings enough shuffling of space and time, dreams and nightmares resulting in several unexpected twists along the way.
Especially when the most visible mainstream Chinese films usually are elaborate martial arts or fantasy films, it's nice when a more modest production finds its way stateside. Leste Chan is one of the few Taiwanese filmmakers to have worked in mainland China, with a mainland star, Xu Zheng, and Hong Kong's Karen Mok, making this a pan-Chinese production. Due to mainland Chinese restrictions regarding films depicting supernatural elements, a scene near the end explains enough to wash away any shred of ambiguity. There is still enough here between a performance that serves as a nice showcase for Karen Mok, and a set design that provides a purely visual supplementary narrative.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 10:46 AM
April 03, 2016
Coffee Break
Molly Ringwald in Jem and the Holograms (Jon M. Chu - 2015)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 09:22 AM