Survive Style 5+

The sound of spade on flesh fills a cold winter night as a man rectifies a simple mistake, trying to bury his victim while she was still alive. The man played by a mesmerising Tadanabou Asano, heads back home, day of the dead dolls dangling from his car's mirror, and discovers his recently deceased wife waiting for him patiently at the dinner table.

Thus begins Gen Sekiguchi’s series of five interconnected vignettes which focus primarily on Asano’s attempts to kill his seemingly immortal wife, a trio of robbers who like each other a little too much, a narcissistic commercial maker, a salaryman hypnotised into thinking he is a bird and a hitman who growls through his interpreter a simple, but often fatal, question: What is your function in life?

These five stories, told in segments throughout the whole film, cross and collide at several key junctures with characters from different arcs being used in a variety of situations. An example would be the English hitman, played by a scarily convincing Vinnie Jones, who doesn’t actually have his own story, but acts as a catalyst for one story, murdering a hypnotist before he can reverse his hypnotism, and serving as end points for two of the other stories.

In a lot of ways it’s like Magnolia if Magnolia was technicolour and demented. It’s probably a little lazy calling a film ‘insane’, ‘demented’ or ‘crazy’ but Survive Style 5+ is almost dependant on those verbs. Coming from an advertising background Gen Sekiguchi creates a film that is positively buzzing with surreal energy.

What is impressive however is that amidst crazy commercials involving kappa and men with upside down faces, esoteric hit men, reincarnated murder victims with powers relating to how they were previously dispatched, a primary school teacher admonishing children for making boring paintings, Sonny Chiba as an electronics president instructing his wife how to change a light bulb during a meeting, and a father trying to teach himself how to fly there are moments of tenderness.



Survive Style 5+ is truly an anarchic movie but is also craftily designed so that even if characters are little more than ciphers you end up empathising with them by the end of the film. One perfect example of this is Asano’s unnamed character who rarely speaks and frequently murders his wife and yet becomes almost sympathetic by the end of the film. This is of course largely due to another excellent performance by Asano who has the gift of being a perfect physical actor. He can tell you more with the furrow of a brow and the dart of an eye than any other actor could with a 12 page soliloquy.

In fact Survive Style 5+ is blessed with actors who seem to know exactly how to treat the material. While no one will win awards, except maybe Asano, the cast gives the hugely surrealistic film a thematic grounding by playing everything big. The hypnotist Aoyama is a cock thrusting truly over the top monstrosity who is played with such gusto that it’s hard not to connect with him, and the same can be said for all the actors whom just inhabit their characters perfectly.

The movie seems to be what the medium of film was made for. I don’t think I have seen a film that was as meticulously designed or impeccably sound tracked as Survive Style 5+. The sets and costume designs are simply fantastic with every aspect of the production undergoing the same hyper stylised approach as the story, the standout being Asano’s home a mansion with rooms of various colours and tones which seems to morph, like his reoccurring wife, to suit the situation.

Combined with a soundtrack that is at times overbearingly hilarious, the tale of the three robbers would be monumentally dull if not for the thumping electro pop song that blasts whenever two of them make eye contact, but always perfectly serves the moment, one of the last Asano scenes has a song which perfectly demonstrates his characters desperation and the futility of his efforts to avert the impending situation.

In all Survive Style 5+ is one of the most stylish films of the new millennium which does have an emotional undercurrent which while not pervasive gives the movie just enough weight to make it a sure fire modern classic.

9/10

Notes on the DVD

I watched Survive Style at the cinema first and subsequently ordered the version below

Survive Style 5+

The DVD comes with the movie and a 2nd disc jam packed with features, which are unfortunately not subbed.

The picture quality is stunning, matching the impeccable print I saw at the cinema, and the sound quality is fantastic. While there are occasional glitches with regards to subtitles they are infrequent and amount to little more than “It’s is”.

In all it’s a fantastic package and if you’re thinking of getting a copy I’d go with that.

Tokyo Drifter

Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter is one of those movies which is all about the experience. A stunningly shot, vibrantly designed gangster movie which like Goddard’s ‘À bout de soufflé’ perfectly reflect the revolution that was occurring in cinema at the time. In fact in many ways Tokyo Drifter epitomises the cool that is often associated with the French New Wave.

Tetsu and his boss Kurata are ex-gangsters looking to put their life of crime behind them and go straight. When a rival gang, not convinced of their intentions, sabotages Kurata’s loan Tetsu is drawn back into the underworld. Following a bloody confrontation Tetsu finds himself fleeing from Tokyo for his life.

Tetsu, an ice cool hitman in a pastel blue suit, isn’t your typical amoral gangster. He follows a samurai’s code of honour and has undying loyalty to Kurata even when offered an incredible position within the rival gang. He is just the personification of cool unflinching and determined to carry out whatever task he is handed.

The film is simply a joy to look at with Suzuki’s eye for visual design proving to be consistently astonishing. While the film open’s in grainy black and white, with a scene where Tetsu gets roughed up, it soon develops into a pastel coloured flurry of wild and vivid set design.

Everything bursts with life and vitality from the crisp red of the baddies suit, to the purple glow of the nightclubs and luscious whites of the snow-capped mountains where Tetsu makes his retreat.

It’s a shame then that with all of these wonderful design elements that the story at best fails to engage and at worst is outright boring. The main problem lies in the fact that not many of the scenes connect very well and it soon starts to feel like a series of set pieces which all form together to create one basic narrative. While the individual scenes are engaging enough and the concepts throughout the movie varied and interesting the overall package doesn’t gel together as well as Suzuki’s later masterpiece Branded to Kill.

That’s not to say the film is terrible, in fact it has some moments that are pure cinematic moments and some truly inventive ideas. The assault on the snowy yakuza headquarters in the 2nd act of the film is a truly wonderful piece of action and the final confrontation is a moment of pure celluloid magic.

It comes down to the fact that this film is very much style over substance. What is interesting is that while Branded to Kill inspired a large amount of western directors, look at Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai for evidence, Tokyo Drifter seems to have resonated far more with Japanese directors.

Certainly Takashi Miike fuses the sheer abusive violence of Kinji Fukasaku with the more surrealistic elements of Suzuki; Tetsu constantly whistling his own theme tune is a device that perfectly demonstrates the internal logic of Tokyo Drifter. Beat Takeshi also seems to have taken composition and plotting elements from Suzuki, in fact Tetsu can be seen as beta version of the characters that will appear in films such as Hana-Bi.

What Suzuki ultimately accomplishes is a film which while uneven has moments of pure genius and which has tangible influences even today.

I would recommend this as a curio for people interested in seeing where contemporary Japanese directors got their inspiration. For anyone wanting a film which is pure entertainment then Suzuki’s Branded to Kill, a film which eventually ended his studio career, is a far safer bet.

7/10

Once Upon A Time In China 2

Once Upon A Time in China was an incredible movie, mixing interesting human characters (played by Kung Fu legends) with wondrous cinematography and incredible fight choreography. How do you follow up such a film?

Apparently you enlist Wushu wonderkid Donnie Yen and master action director Yuen Woo Ping and combine with a very strong plot, complete with added sprinkling of Temple of Doom.

Once Upon a Time In China 2 opens in the bowels of a temple as a young girl chants the chorus of the White Lotus group. The White Lotus is a fanatically xenophobic sect who follows their leader on a brutal purge of all western influences. We are introduced to the leader right at the start of the film as he and his followers eat fire, roll around in fire, and take gunshots to the chest.

While it’s easy to assume at this point that the temple leader is going to be another shade of grey villain in a series that is fervently nationalistic it becomes quickly clear that the White Lotus are just straight villains, a fact proved within minutes when a Dalmatian is ordered to be immolated for the simple crime of being western.

While there are a few moments of symmetry between Fei Hung and the White Lotus group, the famous Wong Fei Hung theme actually fades in and uses the same basic beat as the White Lotus groups theme, it is apparent that The White Lotus group are bad guys.

The main plot structure is once again fairly simple. Wong Fei Hung, 13th Aunt and new apprentice Foon (no longer played by Yuen Biao despite the character actually having things to do this time round) arrive in Canton to attend a medical seminar and attract the unwanted attention of the White Lotus group during a march. Despite his efforts to not get involved Fei Hung finds himself drawn into the conflict and ultimately galvanised to act after witnessing a massacre at a school for learning foreign languages.

While the central plot is relatively straightforward the secondary plot involving General Lan’s (Donnie Yen) plot to find and detain a duo of revolutionaries seems to be added to just give the film a second climactic fight. In fact the second plot’s relation to the main film is quite suspect in that it seems entirely separate from everything else that is happening, barring perhaps a few scenes involving the revolutionaries.

While the secondary plot does seem somewhat shoehorned in it does allow for the inclusion of two of the finest fights in the film, and perhaps in the series. The two encounters between Fei Hung and Lan are both explosive and precise showcasing the raw energy and charisma that both stars have. In fact the climactic battle while lacking the sheer poetry of the ladder fight from its predecessor is a raw and visceral experience which has its own fair share of tricks. While at times it seemed that Fei Hung and Iron Robe Yim were merely sparring with each other the fatal intent in the Lan/Fei Hung duels is never less than clear.

Yuen Woo Ping does a fine job in crafting fights which are both intricate and heavy hitting. In fact the penultimate duel handled by anyone else could have been a mess of wire fu antics. But in Yuen Woo Ping’s hand the rather esoteric fight, Fei Hung and the White Lotus leader battle for dominance of a series of impromptu altars, is granted a near poetic feel. While it transcends the barriers of believability there is something awe inspiring about the sheer ingenuity to create the fight using little more than practical effects and two able martial artists.

Despite some seriously impressive fight choreography where Once Upon A Time In China 2 shines is in Tsui Hark’s desire to experiment as a filmmaker. While he has always been good at conveying grandeur and emotion in this film he starts to experiment with ideas not seen before in his movies. The most noticeable thing is the montage sequence that takes place near the end of the first act which demonstrates the White Lotus attacks throughout the city. However there are other things which are refreshingly different such as Aunt Yee’s shadow dancing during a training session, the way the camera moves instead of keeping the stately but stoic stance of the previous film, and the use of unnatural lighting (such as in the temple scenes at the end).

In the end Once Upon A Time in China 2 is probably a far more accessible film than its predecessor simply because the line between good and evil is more distinct. The foreigners are still an effete bunch of ne’er-do-wells but the bad guys are definitely evil and lack any of the sympathy Iron Robe Yim was given. The movie is good fun, has an interesting plot, some incredible action scenes, and a good dose of humour (probably the best integrated in all the series). The only problem for me lies with the fact that Fei Hung is not as likeable in this film as he was in Once Upon A Time In China.

In many ways it surpasses the original and is far more inventive but a lack of emotional resonance in the conflict means that Once Upon A Time In China 2 is an equal to its prequel. Which still makes it a fantastic movie

8.5/10

Once Upon A Time In China

Wong Fei Hung was born in 1847 and his century spanning life would earn him a place in the Chinese national identity as well as immortality in the hearts and minds of all fans of Kung Fu cinema. Fictional versions of Wong Fei Hung have appeared in over a hundred movies including undisputed classics such as Drunken Master, The Magnificent Butcher, Iron Monkey and of course Last Hero in China. But the standout Wong Fei Hung films are Tsui Hark’s Once Upon A Time In China Series.

Tellingly these films are simply known as Wong Fei Hung in China and that is fitting as the series probably offers what can only be viewed as the definitive fictional Wong Fei Hung experience.

Starting off with a lion dance which is saved from ruin by Fei Hung the pace of the film is stately. While there is a wealth of spectacular fight scenes a lot of the films two and a bit hour running time is given over to character moments.

Jet Li, just returning from a disastrous first attempt at cracking the overseas market, was something of a strange choice for the major role of Fei Hung. But the three time Wushu champion proved that the gamble was one of Tsui Hark’s wisest moves as he personified the role completely.

Indeed even if it weren’t for Li’s incredible prowess as a martial artist he would have still seemed a natural choice given how much raw charisma and charm he gave to a character who often was played a little too harsh. He gave Fei Hung the discipline and conviction he needed without the austere edge some of his predecessors had given the role and ultimately created a character that had a wonderful vibrancy and humanity.

The plot of Once Upon A Time in China is rather simple and yet very rewarding. China has effectively been invaded by westerners who have been granted immunity by the government. As China slowly becomes more westernised Wong Fei Hung finds himself increasingly powerless against the guns of the new visitors. Kung Fu is no match for bullets and old masters are reduced to performing in the streets for scraps.

Aside from a plot involving slave trading and a vicious gang the story is centred almost entirely around the conflict between new and old, and later the conflict between Wong Fei Hung and Iron Robe Yim (a masterful performance from Yee Kwan Yan).



Fei Hung is joined by a cadre of supporters who are probably the film’s weakest elements. The two members of his school the film focuses on Butcher Wing and Buck Tooth So while adding something to the narrative, So propelling the narrative Wing demonstrating Fei Hung’s respect amongst his students, seem underdeveloped.

The third most interesting character of the film is Foon (played by martial arts legend Yuen Biao) an actor who finds himself in the service of Iron Robe Yim even though his respect lies with Fei Hung and his heart with Fei Hung’s 13th Aunt (Rosamund Kwan).

Speaking of 13th Aunt while on first appraisal I found her character to be a little shoe horned in to provide Fei Hung with the hint of a romance I have grown to like her character more in recent viewings. She effectively serves as another counterpoint between Fei Hung and modern china and her scene with Fei Hung just before the first fight with Yim is strikingly powerful.

The film is beautiful to look at with handsome cinematography, incredible sets, and some expertly staged fights. In fact Once Upon A Time In China has two of my favourite celluloid fights. The two encounters between Fei Hung and Yim are incredible works of choreography and showcase the aesthetic sensibility that makes Tsui Hark one of my favourite directors.

The first fight shot in the pouring rain is just a fantastical exchange of blows between the two masters is stunning to watch and even the more unbelievable elements are granted a grounding in reality simply due to the intensity and emotion of the battle.

The second battle is much more of a showy piece and is essentially one protracted duel, with a small intermission in the middle, which uses ladders to take the fight vertically as well as horizontally. The fight is again mind blowing to watch, the perfect combination of natural psychical prowess and newer wire methods.

But what makes Once Upon A Time in China so special are not the fights but the way the characters are handled. Despite taking a role as antagonist Iron Robe Yim is a very sympathetic character, an honourable man driven to desperation when his masterful skills become outdated.

Once Upon A Time in China is probably one of the greatest Kung Fu films ever made and is probably one of the greatest Chinese films ever made.

9/10

Memories of Murder

Memories of Murder opens in a ponderous mood as a small town detective named Park Doo-Man (played by Mr. Vengeance himself Kang-ho Song) discovers the body of a murdered girl stuffed into a stone partition of a ditch.

Her hands are bound and her mouth gagged; she will soon be joined by many more.

The year is 1986 and South Korea’s police force is ultimately ill equipped to deal with the onslaught they are about to face.

Giving a plot summary would be both crippling dull, pointless and would probably ruin the movie for people so instead I am just going to talk about the way the movie works with reference to whatever scenes come to mind.

Original Park Chan-wook was going to make Memories of Murder and Joon-ho Bong was going to film Oldboy. And while it would be easy to see how the directors could have adapted the films, Memories is in a lot of ways very similar to Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance while Oldboy is stylistically much closer to Joon-ho Bong’s earlier film Barking Dogs Never Bite.

If the directors had continued in this vein we would have wound up with two excellent films, as it was the swapping of material produced two of the finest films to ever come out of Korea and arguably two of the finest films of this century.

In a lot of ways Memories of Murder is an attack on the brutal way that the police dealt the murder suspects. What Joon-ho Bong does which cements this film as a classic is make the three lead police officers deeply flawed individuals who have moments of incredible charm and incredible cruelty.

Detective Park is a man who allows a mentally challenged boy to get beaten up by his subordinate, tries to frame said boy, and attempts to beat the confession out of another innocent suspect. And yet the other elements of his character make him seem ultimately conflicted. What is more interesting is the descent of the more rational Detective Seo Tae-Yoon a police officer from Seoul, who is at first the only member of the team willing to use scientific method and whom saves two of the suspects from wrongful imprisonment.

As the case goes on and more women are found dead with increasingly bizarre twists on the murder’s modus operandi, including segments of peach, pencils and corsets, the younger detective finds himself becoming more and more like those he looks down upon convincing himself that one suspect is the killer no matter what the evidence says.

What makes Memories of Murder so special is that most serial killer films serve a near fetishistic function in that they lionise the killer. No matter how much of a bastard he is there is an undoubted pleasure in waiting to see how the killer will elude the cops and what he will do next.

Memories of Murder has none of this, each and every death has a meaning and the killer himself is a character to be feared and loathed. In fact the refusal of the film to name the killer, seen as the film is based on a real life unsolved crime it’s the only way it could be done, he retains a shadow like quality.


The film is visually stunning and once again highlights a distinctive talent for cinematography that even the most mundane Korean directors seem blessed with. It is a hauntingly beautiful set off by an evocative score, a genuine sense of dread and characters who are imperfect but utterly compelling.

9/10

In a decades time I reckon this will go down as one of my favourite movies

Azumi

Ryuhei Kitamura made a movie called Versus. It was an ultra low budget debut that played like a cross between The Evil Dead and Hard Target. Surprisingly it worked really well, partially thanks to Kitamura’s unique skills as a director and his gleeful sense of humour. Two weeks after Versus opened Kitamura was approached to do a movie version of the long running Manga series Azumi. He agreed to direct the movie and in doing so would produce the definition of guilty pleasure movies during a near war behind the scenes.

The plot of Azumi concerns a group of teen assassins raised as infants by an ex-soldier who had lost his son to the last Great War. These children, orphaned during the war, were trained in the elite ways of swordsmanship. After a harrowing final test the remaining assassins set off for the rest of Japan to complete their ultimate mission, the elimination of all those who would start wars.

Essentially the story is about the assassinations of the lords who are plotting wars and the measures that one of the victim’s takes to keep himself alive. Nevertheless, this is not a movie built on plot but rather darkly comic and at times impeccable cool fight scenes. The easiest way to describe it would be the Japanese equivalent of a superhero movie. You just have to leave your analytical brain at the door and marvel as Kitamura manages to grasp the spirit and energy of the mad max films that has evaded so many other directors.

That isn’t to say that Azumi is a post apocalyptic but it captures perfectly the angry kinetic violence and general anarchy of those classic Australian road movies. It also does something that truly is a blast from the past. Like those old 80s, movies it manages to make violence both horrifying and also extremely fun without ever seeming over flippant. That’s not to say the characters crack wise during their fights, in fact all the confrontations are very serious but they exist in a world where everything has a certain tongue in cheek quality to it.

What really stands out about the movie aside from the swordplay and sumptuous explosions are the array of brilliant characters. The main heroes themselves are pure ciphers, all that you really know about them is that they are kids who can fight real good. However the opponents they are facing all bustle with energy and vibrancy whether it be irritable monkey ninja Saru, dour sword master and gunslinger General Kanbei, the hilarious Sagawa brothers or the wonderfully psychotic Bijomaru. In particular, the Sagawa brothers despite an easy dispatch early on in the film are very memorable villains due to their meat headed loopiness and a classic death line for the elder brother.

Bijomaru, played with seeming relish by Jo Odagari, is a truly wonderful villain who makes a great impression with only limited screen time. He is completely over the top and not in the slight bit menacing but he has a presence that makes his overly energetic portrayal enrapturing. The real star of the show however is the exceedingly stylised violence.

Kitamura really has a flair for action sequences and this movie is definitely a showcase for his rare talents. He may not make ground-shattering movies like Takashi, Pek-Ek, or Tsukamoto but it is hard to disparage his eye for wanton destruction. There is a real style to his directing which masks a lot of his lack of substance. There are scenes where the action becomes almost poetic and this is all down to Kitamura who turns the slaughter of ninjas into an experimental freeze frame montage as Azumi weaves her sword faster than ever before and her victims fall in jilted slow motion behind her.



This is not a deep movie or a realistic movie, none of the actors save for the Sagawa brothers are believable when sword swinging. But it is an immensely enjoyable piece which ends with a half hour action sequence which is pure movie magic and has one of the best camera shots ever in it, which was subsequently nicked by I-Robot. If you can avoid being a movie snob then you will probably love this little gem.

Miller's Crossing

Miller’s Crossing is a handsome movie about men in hats. So speaketh the directors, so be the truth. Directed by the Coen brothers in the 1990s Miller’s Crossing has become something of a lost gem. Despite the Coen’s incredible body of work I personally think this is there best film.

The story takes place in an unnamed East American city in the 20s/30s. It concerns a man called Tom Reagen (played by Gabriel Byrne) who is the right hand man of Irish Mobster Leo (Albert Finney).

When Leo refuses to play ball with the head of a rival Italian gang Johnny Casper, Tom find himself failing to keep the peace between the two factions. After getting disowned by Leo over a woman Tom starts to play the escalating mob war to his benefit.

While all that may sound like your average gangster the Coen's inject the decidedly genre movie with a pure distillation of what makes their movies so magical. For a start the plot is suitably Machiavellian, and requires a few rewatches to understand what is going on, and aided by some of the Coen’s best dialogue delivered by the finest set of actors they have ever assembled.

While the script lacks the sheer outlandishness of films like Hudsucker, or the vibrant wit of The Big Lebowski, it all feels wonderfully natural and relies more on the performance given than the quality of the quotage. There is also the fact that the dialouge is a reflection of the nature of the film, a heightend but gentle spoof of the genre as a whole

The film is also blessed with stunning cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld and a beautiful score by Carter Burwell. There are several excellent set pieces. In fact one set piece involving an attempt on Leo’s life was recently referenced in Quentin Tarantion’s Kill Bill.


Miller’s Crossing is a beautiful movie, as stated before the cinematography especially in the forest scenes is stunning, blessed with lyrical dialogue and nuanced performances.

In a lot of ways it is like watching a folktale being told. It has an ethereal charm and moments which are wonderfully Absurdist, such as the Sam Raimi’s cameo, which give it a distinct tall tale feel.

Well worth a watch and for the discerning Coen fan this is absolutely vital cinema

10/10

Zatoichi

I am talking about the Takeshi Kitano versions here not the utterly awesome series of films that preceeded it...

Dismemberments

Geisha Assassins

A gang of evil crooks

A blind swordsman with a tack for spilling the claret

And a kickass song and dance number at the end...

Ah Zatoichi where would I be without you.

Samurai films are an oddity in that they have wild and varied periods of popularity and then disappear from cinema again.It is interesting charting Samurai films from the early 50s...were films like The Samurai Trilogy painted these old masters of feudal japan as almost legendary figures. The heroes of these films always rightous and always highly skilled.

In the 60s if a samurai in film was a good warrior he was either slightly loony (Sword of Doom)...or an anti establishment figure of sorts (Samurai Assassin, Samurai Rebellion).In the 70s had been stripped to their most base level. The chambara films fading in place of (very popular) brutal films such as Lone Wolf and Cub. It is interesting to note that post September 11th just as super hero films in the west have had a major resurgance so Samurai films in the orient have become the order of the day. Zatoichi being one of several spectacular new films focused on the ancient order.

What is interesting is that while some of the other films have adopted something of an odd style in creating samurai who bridge the ideals of the Tokugawa and the modern world, Zatoichi was just a straight balls to the wall old school samurai film...shot in a very modern way.Zatoichi follows a simple plot (it actually appears to be something of a conglomeration of several plots from the older movies) but in doing so crafts a richness in character not often seen in asian cinema. The central characters are largely people you care about, people who you sympathise with, respect, or at the very least find humourus. Which makes the battles far more substansial.

To say more about the plot would do the movie a disturbance, needless to say Zatoichi essentially stumbles across a particularly nasty gambling ring in town and cleans house.This is a movie built on the technical aspects, on the photography, ambience and mise en scene.From the delicatessen inspired opening walk, to the slightly slapstick but breathlessly paced fight in the gambling den, to the final wordless encounter between Zatoichi and his nemesis the film just exudes a sense of style and wonder of its own.





It pokes fun at some aspects of the old movies, one of the thugs lopping his friends arm off by accident in the first battle for example, but also seems to have a certain amount of respect and so while the battles may occasionally have a hint of comedy they are never anything less than enrapturing.In all Zatoichi is a samurai film only Kitano could make, I feel no other production would dare end the film with a tap dance number, and due to this is far more entertaining and accessible than the eulogising When the Last Sword is Drawn and ponderous Twilight Samurai which are its current stablemates.This is a film that is immensley rewarding even for those who have never seen a samurai film.

9/10

Seven Swords

Tsui Hark is all that is great about Chinese cinema. Tsui Hark is all that is wrong with Chinese cinema. He has a miraculous eye for action, a stunning visual style, an ability to create iconic imagery and a healthy respect for the art of wire fu. He is also lumbered with the inability to properly pace his story, a tendency to over populate his movies, and a plotting shorthand which gives only the frailest skeleton of a story.

After making superb films such as Once Upon A Time In China, Peking Opera and Zu Warriors as well as producing wonders such as Iron Monkey and Time and Tide, Tsui Hark suffered a series of missteps following a pretty disastrous attempt to make an American movie.

The Seven Swords while not perfect signals a return of the Hark who made Once Upon A Time In China. Tsui Hark has often told of his love for the old swordplay novels in interviews and finally working on a Wu Xia epic of his own seems to have revitalised the director.

Taking his inspiration from a novel Seven Swords is the first in a planned series of movies which deals with seven warriors entrusted with swords forged by an ancient master and endowed with special abilities. The story while slight is often quite engaging but ultimately confused and a lot of the time despite the sheer charisma of the main villain feels like a warm up for the main act. Essentially the emperor has ordered that all practitioners of Kung Fu be executed with a fair price being put on the head of any one taught in the disciplines and a man by the name of Fire-Wind is determined to profit from the decree.

At its core is a confrontation between Fire-Wind and his old master, and defacto head of the swords, Fu Qingzhu. What this means is that there is quite an emphasis on tactics as Fu, knowing he cannot defeat Fire Wind through force alone, seeks to undermine his foes position within his own group. Despite the simplicity of this plot things are complicated somewhat by a lot of interaction between the swords, the villagers and other key characters. In fact the film is positively overcrowded with the seven swords, Fire Wind, a Korean slave girl, and a plethora of villagers all getting their own plots and subplots within the main narrative.

The problem being that the movie was intended to be four hours long and in an attempt to condense things down to 2 and half hours the already quite airy Tsui Hark makes his plot points even more ethereal until it gets to the point where you identify with characters due to other movies you have seen them in.

A key example of this is Donnie Yen who burns up the screen as an enigmatic Korean swordsman, it’s quite clear he is a major member of the group but you only get a feel for his presence if you can identify with his other powerful roles such as OUATIC II and Iron Monkey.

That paints a bad picture as the plot is fairly engrossing but suffers from a lot of jumping, especially at the beginning. However there are enough plus points to make this an excellent movie. To start with the movie is absolutely gorgeous aided by stunning cinematography, a keen eye for mise-en-scene, and some truly wonderful design aesthetics, Fire Wind’s thugs in particular are all wonderful to look at if a little lacking when it comes to doing anything.

The action is also suitably well handled and although it can be a bit jumpy, with some head scratching uses of slow motion, there are enough good ideas to make each fight interesting. Indeed in this movie you’ll see a duel involving a sword getting juggled into the air, a clash of blades which is literally ripping the surroundings apart, a beautifully shot raid on Fire Wind’s fortress, and a final duel which, in keeping with Hark tradition, flows vertically as well as horizontally.

Calling this film Wu-Xia, in the current western sense, is like calling Lord of the Rings a historical epic. While it has swordplay in it the subject matter makes it far more of an action fantasy than a Wu-Xia epic. While it suffers from being cut down and for being the first in an intended series, one of the most interesting scenes concerns a very cool sword that is unearthed and never seen again, it is a movie that buzzes with energy and magic and is well worth a watch.

Tsui Hark may not be back to full strength, but this delve into his favourite genre shows he has more in his future than Van Damme films.

8/10

The Great Yokai War

Also known as the Big Spook War. The Great Yokai War is Miike’s attempt at a family film and damn fine job he does as well. The problem is that I can’t imagine many parents wanting to subject their children to this movie. The best kids movies are the ones that are scary or have mildly disturbing imagery, Neverending Story and Return to Oz spring to mind, but in the case of the Great Yokai War Miike probably takes things a little too far. In fact at the screening I was at the person introducing the movie reiterated to the two families there that it was probably not very suitable.

The film kicks off with the young hero of the piece introducing himself and explaining about his current family problems. This brief moment of mundanity is sharply broken as a cow gives birth to a calf with the face of a human whom screams that something horrendous is coming before falling dead like the abomination it is (it is quite possible that the sheer hideousness of the creature is some bizarre Quato homage).

Following an incredible introduction for main baddie Kato, and his henchwoman Agi (a surprisingly attractive Chiaki Kuriyami), by way of an apocalyptic army raising. The story reverts to normal for a while, but it doesn’t take long before any and all logic goes down the drain and the young boy teams up with a group of Miyazaki rejects to take out the evil sorcerer.

The plot of the movie is fairly basic and surprisingly hackneyed at times, the entire chosen one just seems completely out of place in a movie which so regularly breaks clichés, but is aided by a simple awe inspiring vision of a magical world. This really is a Miyazaki movie made into a live action movie, albeit a much seedier and more vicious than usual Miyazaki movie.


The film is simply a joy to look at the designs of the Yokai is colourful, and largely practical, while the evil robotic monstrosities while not displaying the best CGI in the world have a practicality and menace to them which gives them far more of a palpable threat than you would imagine.

The cast is uniformly excellent, they just make their characters seem perfectly natural which is commendable when you consider that most of them are in full body makeup or latex suits. Even Agi lumbered with a ridiculous beehive comes across as sultry and deadly thanks to surprisingly excellent acting from Kuriyami.

While the film does have many elements which put it firmly into family movie territory; cute creatures, junior heroes, a thoroughly evil villain, a sense of mischief and adventure, and a telling lack of violence. There are elements which make you question whether Miike should have directed such a movie.

The robot army is a genuinely terrifying menace everyday items warped into monstrous beasts that look like T-101 sans skin and with added chainsaws. These beasts rip characters to pieces; suck creatures into their blood stained mouths, and abduct children from their homes by swiping them right from under their parent’s nose before indulging in a little patricide.

The creation of the creature is equally arduous for young minds. The Yokai, essentially the heroes, are feed into a giant furnace full of a liquidised form of hate which corrodes the Yokai’s flesh and forces their angry souls to possess lumps of metal. If kids thought smouldering Anakin was bad wait til they see a man sized hedgehog burning to death in a vat of molten hatred for a minute before being turned into an abomination of a motorcycle. There is also limb severing, in one case a severed hand twitches in front of the camera dripping with blood, a fair amount of sexual energy (Agi wears one dress designed specifically for fan service and seems to only have sleeping with Kato as motivation, while the Princess of the Rivers wears next to nothing and gets her thighs groped by the young hero in several scenes), and general humour which will go right over the heads of the audience that this technicolour wonder was seemingly designed for.

At the end of the day The Great Yokai War is easily on of Miike’s stronger recent films. While it lacks some of the perverse charm of say Gozu or Ichi it is just continually pushing the audience down a road of general insanity. In fact this is easily Miike’s most deranged movie in that he embraces the sheer magic of the subject so wholeheartedly.

Well worth a watch just for the occasional flash of Gogo arse.

8/10

Happiness of the Katakuris

Happiness of the Katakuris

It is a sad fact that many people who love Takashi Miike films love the director not for his unique insight, his playful narratives, his genre busting, or his quirky sense of humour but for the visceral stomp that Miike has shown himself to be more than capable of providing.

I say this is a sad fact as in many ways one of the finest talents to have emerged from Japan is often times viewed as car crash movie making. His films seen as macabre theatres of blood, gore and general grossness. This is a real shame, as there are very few Miike films that don’t have something to say beyond the blood, semen and eviscerated guts.

The Happiness of the Katakuris in many ways has been his best received film over in Europe. Picking up plaudits that his other films missed out on due to their grotesque nature. It is easy to see why this film got so much attention. When you watch an average Miike film it is like watching a hyperactive David Lynch movie, when he is on form he is transcendental.

Happiness of the Katakuris is actually a remake of a fairly recent Korean film. The original was a dour, painfully unfunny satire about a family who set up a remote guesthouse and find that none of their guest’s can last the night. Faced with a growing number of corpses the family begin burying them out in the surrounding wasteland.

Happiness of the Katakuris follows this same basic story structure but charges the rather dull narrative with flashes of intense brilliance. While that may sound hyperbolic there is no denying that a film which starts with a little vignette about a goblin emerging from a bowl of soup, ripping out a girl’s tonsils, flying off and getting eaten by a crow which itself is mutilated by a steel clawed bear is playing by a whole new rule book.

There is no denying the absurdist charm of the movie especially when faced with characters like Richard Sagawa, played by controversial punk rocker Kiyoshiro Imawano, a half-British half-Japanese member of the US Air Force (no make that the Royal Navy) who is the secret lovechild of Queen Elizabeth’s younger half sister and whom regularly flies missions over Iraq. Sagawa is the main romantic interest for Shizoue Katakuri and in his limited screen time he directs a grand love song, flies into the air, gets poisoned, hit over the head, dropped off a cliff and much more.

The film is just jam packed with a cheeky exuberance which makes it both hard to take seriously and also unforgettable. The cast of characters is perfect from the determined husband and wife duo who lead the house, to the crotchety old granddad who steals every scene and musical number he appears in. Add to that a menageries of guests that include a singing suicide victim, a peppy schoolgirl and her gigantic sumo boyfriend, and a family who seem doomed from the moment they enter and it is almost impossible to get bored throughout the proceedings.

In the end Happiness of the Katakuris despite all the death, deceit, premature burials and zombie dance numbers is actually a really bright positive movie. It really is the feel good movie that Miike was hired to direct, just done in his own style.

Spike's Rating - 9/10
Rotten Tomatoes Avg. Rating 6.1/10