Goke, Bodysnatcher From Hell

Written by Joe D on November 30th, 2012

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What a Cool Double Bill!

This is a supercool mashup of a movie. First it’s kind of an airplane drama, a group of characters on a doomed flight, a genre I like. Then it switches gears to an Alien UFO scifi story,including Alien Blob creature that speaks! Then it morphs into a Vampire/Zombie situation.

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This culminates in a depressing end of the world Nihilist tale. There’s something unique about films that show the end of life on Earth, like 5, On The Beach, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, The Noah, even Target Earth and in a way the end of The Incredible Shrinking Man. A depressing spin on the mortality of humanity, something they don’t deal with in films anymore. Anyway Goke is pretty out there, the model plane work was inspirational to Quentin Tarantino and he referenced it in Kill Bill, a plane flying against a red sky. We even had some cockpit scenes just like Goke but they got cut out of the film.

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Check this one out, you can see it on Hulu Plus, and Criterion has released it as part of a Japanese Horror Box Set.

Legend Of The Poisoned Seductress, Female Demon Ohyaku

Written by Joe D on December 13th, 2007

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Check this out! A crazy Pinky Violence type film from Japan, in B&W Scope no less! A smoking hot chick out for revenge, gore galore, a pit and the pendulum type finale, what more could you ask for! These Japanese genre films never cease to amaze me! They are so well made, the rest of the world cranks this stuff out on a shoestring budget with ketchup blood effects, shot in Uncle Louie’s butcher shop with a camera mounted in a shopping cart and starring whoever didn’t get a job that summer. This stuff looks like Yojimbo! I guess they had a big homegrown market for this genre cause it sure as hell didn’t make it out of the country! They made a profit strictly on a one country theatrical run! Those were the days! If you’d like more info on this series click the magic link below and be transported to The Outcast Cinema Blog!
A World Of Wacky Wonder Awaits!

The H-Man, Ishiro Honda

Written by Joe D on October 11th, 2007

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Ishiro Honda cops a feel off a Mysterian

Ishiro Honda created some of the most memorable images of my childhood. Rodan is an amazingly made film. Every shot looks like it was designed in the camera and the flashback sequence is one of the most powerful in Cinema. It’s an operatic monster movie. Ishiro was good friends with mega-director Akira Kurosawa and he directed 2nd unit on some of his epic battle scenes.

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Look what a little radiation can do

The H-Man is another cool movie.I was lucky enough to see it projected in Technicolor at Film Forum in NYC, let me tell you, that is the way to see that film! The eye popping color and design. Delicious!. It has an incredible sexiness to it. The gangsters, their babes, the nightclub complete with Japanese Jazz and wild dance numbers. The super slick clothes everyone wears and the monster.

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It’s a radioactive slime that slithers through storm sewers and dissolves people leaving only their clothes piled in a heap where they were taken. At one point a gangster kidnaps a woman and takes her into the sewer, he makes her strip and he gets naked so the police can find their clothes and think they were dissolvd into the collective radioactive slime that is The H-Man .

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Slime in the Sewer
It slithers into the nightclub office during a rain storm and threatens a performer. Sometimes it assumes a humanoid shape, rearing up on two gelatinous legs maybe some kind of sense memory of when it was a human. The best sequence of the film takes place on an abandoned ship. A trawler finds a ship adrift at sea, the crew board the ghost ship and look for survivors but they can’t find anyone. Unfortunately for them they find The H-Man.

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AKA- Beauty and The Liquid People
So open up a bottle of Nigori unfiltered Sake and checkout The H-Man, just remember you need someone to pour your Sake for you and you do the same for them, otherwise Bad Luck and you could wind up slithering in a sewer.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Written by Joe D on September 28th, 2007

Here’s a trailer for a new Samurai/Spaghetti Western Opus:Sukiayki Western Django. It looks pretty crazy, I’ll have to check it out. Also it features a guest appearance by the Crown Prince of Genre Art House Kick Ass Cinema: Quentin Tarantino!

Female Yakuza = Pinky Violence

Written by Joe D on August 16th, 2007

Once Upon A Time in Japan there was a sub genre of movies that came to be known as Pinky Violence. Back in the Late 60’s, early 70’s people in Japan weren’t flocking to the theaters so filmmakers upped the ante with nudity, violence, killer chick gangs , rampant crime,etc.
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Reiko Ike fights bare breasted

The first installment Sex and Fury was a huge hit, packing them in like gangbusters so within no time flat they started rolling on this epic Female Yakuza Tale. It starred the same bare breasted , samurai sword swinging kick ass chick, Reiko Ike.
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Super Cool Overhead shot on a street set in the studio

These films were made for a strictly theatrical release in Japan, they didn’t come to the States for quite some time. They had pretty good production value and were obviously made by talented people, the aesthetics are high caliber.
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Red Sky at Night, Yakuza’s Delight

The music is way out there too, bizarre instrumentation, finger cymbals, wah wah guitar, analogue synth. Very Groovy! There’s also a killer nun- “When I Pray, I Kill!”
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Praying Mantis

The story is insane , drug smuggling up the hoochie coo , revenge for Yakuza finger chopping gambling debts, wacko to say the least. Our heroine seduces the toadlike sweating pig of a Boss, just to lull him into a sense of complacency, I hope she was well paid.
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Are the Krugerrands in my Swiss Bank account? You may proceed.

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Excellent Erotic Imagery

Then there’s a battle royal with an army of naked sword swinging chicks taking on the Yakuza gang.
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Attack those chauvinist Pigs!

There’s another brand of Pinky Violence that deals with Tough Girl Gang Leaders, I’ve seen a few of them and they’re good too. These films are very well made, a lot of fun to watch and they give a kind of insider view to 1970’s Japanese culture. I recommend them.
P.S. Kimberly over at Cinebeats has just done a super cool piece on Pinky Violence, her blog is killer, check it out! http://www.cinebeats.com/