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Reviews
Nato per combattere (1989)
So bad it makes it good
Born to Fight by Bruno Mattei, 2.7 on IMDb. I remember watching this movie on an early afternoon, a few years ago. It was on television, and I just happened to catch it from the beginning. For an moment I thought I was watching The Deer Hunter, but the guy wasn't playing Russian roulette, but he was squeezing the venom out of a cobra into his glass, and drank it, bottom's up. The Vietnamese people around him were horrified. Yes, he was really some hard piece of sh-t. Following the angry man throughout the movie, searching for the guy who was responsible for the death of his platoon members. When he finally gets the bastard, he takes his M16, or whatever big ass gun he's got, and starts shooting at him. Here we have the best part of the movie, he starts shooting and the picture gets into slow-motion, probably to get some nice shaking Rambo-muscles effect. And then he starts talking... in slow motion. "This is foooorr Joooohhnnyyy, and thiiis is foooor Peeeeete... and he sums up all his platoon members in slow motion. The bad guy, still standing, hands up, and shaking in slow motion under the impact of the bullets. After seven names or so, probably for budget reasons, the rest of the platoon is summarized as ...aaaand aaalllll the ooooothheeerrrrrrs....! hilarious.
Gwoemul (2006)
Godzilla is back
Due to pollution with toxic material by an American scientist, a monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and attacks people.
It seems that these times of upcoming terrorism and political suspicion have created a new monster: Gwoemul. An American scientist (of course it's an American) orders his employee to throw old toxic material in the sink. This results into this mutated monster that ends up attacking people, and dumping them in a lost sewer under the bridge over the Han river. Because an ex US-marine officer almost gets killed - but saved by Gang-du, one of the main characters - US authorities get involved and soon they determine that this monster is the host of a potentially dangerous virus.
Gang-du is put in quarantine, after having seen his daughter being taken away by the monster. Gang-du and the rest of his family escape from the hospital, and there starts the great political metaphor of this movie: The poor family trying to rescue one of themselves from the real danger - the monster - is being chased by the authorities. The authorities completely loose focus, and the family becomes the subversive danger, instead of the monster itself. In the meantime they try to conceal the fact that there is absolutely no virus.
Besides the impressive special effects and the camera work totally in the line of the new generation Korean films, this blockbuster has a kind of black sense of humor. I loved the part where the family is hysterically agonizing over the loss of the little girl, an officer comes in reading out someone's license plate and announcing this person has to remove his car quickly, because it might be dangerous
Joshû sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô (1972)
A surreal masterpiece
This is one of my favorites in Japanese exploitation cinema, the second part out of four from the scorpion series created by Shunya Ito. I consider this movie as a masterpiece, because of its surrealism, color, camera angles, its intensity and its main character, played by Meiko Kaji (also known from Lady Snowblood).
Despite its simple plot, its exaggerated violence and eroticism and everything else related to exploitation cinema, Ito manages to create something poetical, original and captivating. Meiko Kaji's second appearance in the Scorpion series is in my opinion the best one. In the first part (Female prisoner 701), Matsu is a poor woman, betrayed by her lover, looking for revenge. In this episode the scorpion woman is more bitter, way more dangerous, and insanely mysterious
The plot is simple: the prison director, Inspector Goda, is mad at her (she stabbed out his eye in the first part), and wants to make her suffer and drive her crazy. He locks her up in the deepest, darkest prison cell available, where she lies tied up on the floor. Matsu is lying on the floor holding a spoon firmly clamped between her teeth and scraping it against the stone floor. She is preparing her revenge
What follows are Goda's desperate attempts trying to break Matsu, which make Matsu's determination even stronger. An escape from prison through dazzling landscapes, meeting the strangest people and experiencing surrealistic and hallucinatory events. A rape, a murder
And a final bloodthirsty, but very satisfying vengeance.
Meiko Kaji (also the singer of the original soundtrack song) is delivering an ecstatic performance playing Matsu's character so intensely with only 2(!) lines of text.
Azuloscurocasinegro (2006)
Delicate story with a smile and a tear
The blues, dark, almost black... That's Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's message in his new highly rewarded azuloscurocasinegro. It happens to be the same color as the suit Jorge (Quim Gutiérrez) is dreaming of. This suit represents his freedom. Jorge's father has suffered a stroke and Jorge himself has to take care of him and the janitor duties he is now unable to do. In the meantime Jorge's brother (Antonio De la Torre) - who is in jail, falls in love with a girl called Paula (Marta Etura) he meets in prison. Jorge's friend Israel (Raúl Arévalo) is discovering secrets about his father and himself.
The life Jorge lives withholds his self-development, and retains his freedom. He obtained his management degree with self-study, but it's impossible for him to get the job he wants, because of his duties: his father and the janitor-job. He's in love with his neighbor girl (Eva Pallarés), but thinks a true relationship is impossible, because she is free an he is stuck in there. The movie itself is set in the same dark blue color setting, but it never gets too moody. there is a nice balance between the emotions (there are some really funny parts with Israel and with Jorge's brother Antonio), joined by a very decent score. The story never gets into extremes: the emotions are subtle but real. The characters are well developed (especially Jorge's and Paula's), and deep enough to be able to feel with them. Newcomer Daniel Sánchez Arévalo brings us a delicate story with a smile and a tear.