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Reviews
Rokugatsu no hebi (2002)
more of this kind of thing !
Another absolute stormer from the man who melted my brain with the excellence of Tetsuo as a teenager to such an extent that I had to pull it out and iron it and put it back in again. Then I went and saw Hiruko The Goblin. Ow....then Shinya popped up acting in Ichi The Killer a couple of years ago and I was reminded once more what a sick, deep and utterly vital gentleman he is. This is his take on the erotic thriller, and is fairly restrained by his standards and all the better for it. OK he does strangle a man with a metal penis at one stage, but one would feel let down without at least a touch of the old body horror. Actually this film has plenty of that, but it's more acutely concerned with a (sadly) more everyday disease that the fetishishic, grim techno porn of his earlier work. interesting performances, utterly compulsive storyline and busy, atmospheric camera-work would recommend this film to anyone fond of the director, and to a wider audience too one hopes.
Hotel (2001)
awful...awful 4th rate shaming luvvie junk
Not fit to even exist in the same universe as Visitor Q as an example of what can be done with the digital video medium. Just.....grrrr ! Shocking. The most irritating, talentless junkyard of a cast. Rhys Ifans ! Jesus ! It was just....I'm speechless....head spinning. Timecode was a dud also, but at least the interactive DVD features were interesting. I'm very very pro-experimentalism, but this was just like watching the worst kind of amateur dramatic brainless show off rubbish. The script was improvised, which might be fine if you had remotely intelligent, inventive actors who could have made it work..not the hammy shame-ghouls we have on display here. Julian Sands is the least annoying...THAT'S how annoying this is.
Brrrrr...........
The Grudge (2004)
Financially astute ! Also..Not nearly as bad as "The" Ring
Not bad at all, in fact. Like a great many people, I'm always suspicious of the artistic motivation behind re-makes, but Shimizu's been hacking away at this little gem for a few years, so the guy should certainly be allowed his big US cash-in on the very finest horror movie of all time. This is essentially a greatest hits compilation from the 2 TV movies and Japanese theatrical releases with the bland (but financially astute) addition of Buffy to pull the mainstream punters. The plot will possibly (?) confuse first timers a little bit as,despite being more conventionally linear than Ju:on , the story is shifted around so that there is only a limited exposition of what actually happened in Kayako's family near the end.
Still, nice to see one wonderful scene re-instated from the earliest incarnation of the series (I'll just say the word "jaw" here), and the other bits done reasonably well, although the climatic moments and the shower scene just don't quite seem to have the oomph of the real Ju:on. Kayako is as frightening and compulsive as ever (has her voice got deeper in this one though ????) and the American characters are just as silly as the ones they replaced in the original with the famously daft "hiding in bed" scene re-done here for example....
Hopefully this classy "summary" film will encourage more people to seek out the originals (ideally to demand them back in theaters), although I suspect that, as with "The" Ring, some will prefer the mildly processed cheese cover version.
Grudge 04 is a worth addition to the series (though buy no means the best) and should provide a great deal of well deserved coinage for all involved to continue scaring the Kayako out of us for a good while to come. 8/10
Jigoku (1999)
hell-arious, bizarre amateur theatre style re-make of dark cinema classic
First up, I haven't yet got round to seeing the original 1960 Jigoku, but I imagine it's something like The Holy Mountain crossed with Kaidan, which sounds great to me, and I'll be picking it up as soon as I can. What I did get was this freakish thing, the 1999 remake, which you will adore if a lightly pornographic old-testament remix of Monkey Magic sounds in any way appealing. I don't think there is a plot spoiler in this, as there isn't a great deal of plot to spoil, but just in case i do, I excuse myself here. It loosely follows what I understand to be the story of the first Jigoku : sinners go to hell and are tormented and tortured for their crimes on earth. In this version, the sinners are based on real-life criminals from Japan's recent past, most prominently the cult behind the Tokyo subway gas attack in 1995. Also, the woman who poisoned her family with curry !
However, in this dayglo remix, the hell they go to is, frankly, hilarious and looks like a hugely endearing place to be. Populated by naked interpretive dance girls (!?), puppets of dragons, living He-man figures, a likable matriarch representing Satan and a cute winking guide in a shimmering dress. The backdrop looks like something you might see at a local drama group version of the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe, which this also somehow reminds me of. Having spent all the minuscule budget on the costumes, the gore in the punishments are highly amusing in a DIY "Story Of Ricky" kind of way rather than at all disturbing. This is no Itchi The Killer, so if you're looking for something extreme this isn't your chap, but it is great fun (main criticism is that the Cult's story goes on way too long), silly, inventive, sexy and completely bargain basement. The more I think about it, them more I love it to bits !