Slash And Burn

47 Reasons To Love Japanese Film

One for each of the loyal 47 retainers, in no particular order.

1. Chiaki Kuriyama stabbing that guy in the nuts. "Every inch of me will resist you!" (Battle Royale)
2. The final battle in the rain. (Seven Samurai)
3. Setsuko Hara's smiling face. (Late Spring)
4. Dragon Eye Morrison Vs. Thunderbolt Buddha. (Electric Dragon 80000V)
5. Chiaki Kuriyama in cute mod dresses. (Last Quarter)
6. Kyoko Fukada as a lolita. (Kamikaze Girls)
7. Mekazawa! (Cromartie High: The Movie)
8. Trying to decide who's cuter, Aoi Miyazaki or Mika Nakashima. (Nana)
9. Tadanobu Asano cracking ribs like he was eating good in the neighborhood. (Vital)
10. Stellar lighting and frame composition. (Pale Flower)
11. The utterly charming acting of Mansai Nomura. (Onmyoji)
12. Eriko Sato. Bra and panties. Splits. (Cutie Honey)
13. Death of a German. Achtung! (Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs)
14. Best ending ever. (Survive Style 5+)
15. You've heard of wife-swapping, well, how about head-swapping? (Ninja Wars)
16. Even though I had to cover my eyes… (Audition)
17. Giant snake hugging. (Legend of the Eight Samurai)
18. Feudal Japan kaiju. (The Magic Serpent)
19. How he got the name Hoichi-The-Earless. (Kwaidan)
20. 54 smiling school girls + oncoming train = best opening scene ever. (Suicide Club)
21. The too-cute Sunekosuri getting the stuffing smacked out of it by Chiaki Kuriyama (looking mighty fine with the bleached-blonde beehive). (Great Yokai War)
22. Taking down a helicopter with a steel yo-yo. (Sukebandeka The Movie)
23. When Riki Takeuchi picks up the bazooka. (Deadly Outlaw: Rekka)
24. Whenever a kid in shorts screams Gamera's name, and Gamera looks at him sideways like, "Shut up, kid." (Any Gamera film)
25. The scent of boiling rice. (Branded To Kill)
26. The first day of school. (24 Eyes)
27. Kabuki meets exploitation. (Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41)
28. Cosmic sword battle! (Gojoe)
29. The Drunk Godzilla Theme. (Godzilla Vs. Hedorah)
30. Descent into hell. (Jigoku)
31. Never-ending opponents. (The Sword Of Doom)
32. Picnic with a ghost. (Ugetsu)
33. No. 13 saying, "Ittai, itaii, ittai, ittai," in that weird-ass voice. (The Neighbor No. 13)
34. The cinematography, which has no right to be that beautiful in a movie like that. (School of the Holy Beast)
35. Three and a half hours of near silence. (Eureka)
36. Yukie Nakama. (Shinobi, but really any film she's in is a reason to celebrate)
37. The epic riot at the end, which seemingly lasts half the film's runtime. (Burst City)
38. Hanzo's interrogation technique. Don't tell N.O.W. (Hanzo the Razor)
39. Skiing ninjas! (Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven In Hell)
40. Steppin Fetchit live. (Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?)
41. Duel in the snow. (Goyokin)
42. Zhang Ziyi in a kimono, singing! (Princess Raccoon)
43. Words of wisdom from the noodle vendor. (Ronin Gai)
44. That Chewbacca-looking thing with the horns and the battle axe. (War In Space)
45. Hiding in the closet. (Moonlight Whispers)
46. Bathtub electrocution. (2LDK)
47. Walking through the streets of Edo, proudly carrying the head of Kira. (Chushingura)

Erotic DVDs OK!

Twitch has been kicking ass lately. Articles on both Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective and Sion Sono's (sort of) sequel to Suicide Club, Noriko's Dinner Table have appeared recently, and both sound amazing, but I've been too busy with school and work to write about them properly. What has got me excited, however, is an announcement about a little erotic DVD called Sukepan Deka: Baijin Nemu = Moromie Saki ("Sukepan Deka: Virgin Name = Moromie Saki").

If the title sounds familiar, it should. It's a direct play on Kenta Fukasaku's new Sukeban Deka: Kodo Nemu = Asamiya Saki ("Sukeban Deka: Code Name = Asamiya Saki"), or Yo-Yo Girl Cop, itself a remake of (or at least a continuation of) Sukebandeka The Movie. Normally I wouldn't write about something like porn, but when it's a parody of this movie, and it stars Mihiro, well, I just can't help myself.

What better pairing than schoolgirls who fight with steel yo-yos and Mihiro, perhaps the most beautiful girl in Japanese A/V (adult video)? Not that I'm an expert or anything, but pick up any porn mag at any conbini in Japan and you're bound to see Mihiro in there somewhere. Here's the site for the movie (warning: hot nakedness). Want to buy it? Try YesAsia.com.

In other silly erotic DVD news, Japundit has run an article on a language DVD set to teach Japanese men how to pick up blondes in English. As originally posted on the Mainichi Daily News site, English By The DTM Method (that's Direct Translation Method), contains such gems as, "What's your favorite position," "I'm going to take you to heaven," and, "I'm cumming." Because these phrases will obviously only work on blondes.

Beginner- and intermediate-level DVDs sell as a set for 19,800 yen, or about $200.

Vital

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki
Year Released: 2004
Genre: Drama
See Also: Tetsuo: The Iron Man, EM: Embalming, Angel Dust

I have to admit that the films of Shinya Tsukamoto have somehow managed to stay off my viewing schedule. Not because of any conscious decision, mind you. I saw Tetsuo: The Iron Man when it came out in the late '80s and was suitably impressed, and then filed it away in my mind with other "cult" films like Eraserhead and Holy Mountain. I've since picked up and looked at the backs of other Tsukamoto DVDs like A Snake of June, Bullet Ballet, and Vital, but I always end up putting them back in favor of something else. Maybe I just wasn't ready to be challenged like that again. My loss, because Vital is incredible and has me gagging to see the rest of Tsukamoto's body of work.

"Body of work" is an especially appropriate way to describe Tsukamoto's oeuvre because the man is obviously fascinated with the human form. Tetsuo saw a man's body transform into metal. Vital is a little more subtle yet no less body-obsessed; this time it's what's inside our bodies that gets the attention.

Hiroshi Takagi (Tadanobu Asano) has lost his memory in a car accident, which has also killed his girlfriend, the shockingly lithe Ryoko (dancer Nami Tsukamoto). He discovers that he was a medical student before the accident so he re-enters medical college, focusing on nothing else but studying. Izumi (Kiki), a fellow student with absolutely no business being that beautiful, begins to court Hiroshi but he's unresponsive, distracted by images in his head of Ryoko, scenes that are not quite memory, not quite waking life.

As it wouldn't be a Tsukamoto film without body work, we're soon accompanying Hiroshi into the dissection theater, where he begins cutting and exploring with gusto. Other students, still squeamish, hang back while Hiroshi cuts through skin, cracks apart ribs, and makes detailed anatomical drawings. The further into the body he gets, the more his thoughts turn to Ryoko and he begins to suspect that not only is the body he's dissecting Ryoko's but that she consciously placed herself there for him.

Despite the cracking bones and exposed muscle, Vital is ultimately less about the meat of our bodies than the less tangible elements locked within. Memory, the nature of consciousness, grief: these are the things that Tsukamoto is dissecting. For Hiroshi to finally return to himself and grieve, he must first completely explore Ryoko's ruined body. He cannot know himself until he has completely explored her, inside and out.

That this is all accomplished confidently and beautifully exposes Tsukamoto as the accomplished filmmaker that he is. Few films of late have been as visually exquisite as Vital, and it's this that pushes the film into the realm of the exceptional. The artistry of the cinematography asks us to contemplate the dissected human body not as something horrible but as something beautiful—as beautiful as memory, consciousness, and a love that endures after death.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Both female leads were first-time film actresses.

New Nakashima Tetsuya Film Previewed

Twitch has a preview up for Memories of Matsuko, the latest from Nakashima Tetsuya, director of Kamikaze Girls. The preview calls Memories, which just played at the Hawaii International Film festival, "visually stunning and visually poignant." Stars Miki Nakatani of Densha Otoko fame. Thanks, Twitch.

Doing Time

Japanese Title: Keimusho no naka
Director: Yoichi Sai
Actors: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Teruyuki Kagawa, Tomorowo Taguchi
Year Released: 2002
Genre: Drama, Comedy
See Also: 9 Souls, Blood And Bones

The Japanese title of Doing Time, Keimusho no naka, is especially apt. It translates simply as "Inside Prison." Free of any idiomatic overtones and stylistic embellishments, "Inside Prison" promises exactly what it delivers: men inside prison. While not a documentary (but based on the experiences of manga artist Kazuichi Hanawa), the film focuses on the minutia of the lives of men while keimusho no naka, inside prison. That it does so poignantly and ever-so-comedically makes Doing Time an unmitigated success.

Hanawa, played with perfect understatement by veteran actor Tsutomu Yamazaki (the cowboy truck driver in Tanpopo) is sent to jail for illegal arms possession, the same as the real-life Hanawa. He's no career criminal, he just finds happiness in harmlessly discharging firearms into bottles of water. In America he could be president. In Japan, he's a criminal. Hanawa lives in a studio-apartment-sized cell with four other men. This is not a maximum security prison: there's tatami on the floors, men are allowed needles and thread to sew missing buttons, and they're allowed to keep soy and vegetable sauce bottles in their cells, as food is served not in a cafeteria but off carts in the hallways.

Food, in the absence of precious little stimuli, becomes the main focus of the prisoners. Talk often turns to what will be served for the next meal, and pre-printed menus are consulted and fantasized over. In one sequence, a commercial for sweets comes on while the five are watching TV in their cell. Close-ups of watering mouths and licking lips reveal just how important this has become to them. It's not sex that they miss (although they are men, and masturbation is alluded to) but something sweet, which has become a stand-in for freedom, a symbol of the outside world. They may not be in a maximum security prison but they're in prison nonetheless.

Were this a typical prison film, it would undoubtedly devolve into gang wars, shower rapes, exercise-yard shankings. Doing Time instead shows us, episodically, just what life is like for the men inside. Much of their time is spent staying on the good side of the guards, who control every aspect of their lives, down to bodily functions. God forbid you do a crossword puzzle in the magazine without copying it out first, for that will get you dragged to solitary confinement. Hanawa eventually goes to solitary but instead of loneliness finds there a small amount of peace, free from the annoyances of communal living.

Director Yoichi Sai has been making films for over 20 years in Japan. That experience really shows in Doing Time, which is directed with extreme confidence and control. Sai is relatively unknown in the US but that is bound to change due to his obvious talent. Blood and Bones, Sai's epic Korean-Japanese gangster biopic, was also well received in Japan and will hopefully get a US release like Doing Time.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Screenwriter Wui Sin Chong, who's worked on a number of Yoichi Sai films, appeared in Sogo Ishii's Gojoe as an actor.

Gojira

Director: Ishiro Honda
Actors: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Takashi Shimura
Year Released: 1954
Genre: Kaiju
See Also: Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Godzilla Final Wars

It's hard not to think of Godzilla as the cuddly, loveable critter he eventually became in the late-'70s but the monster in Gojira (the original Japanese title) is a far cry from what we grew up with in the Godzilla Power Hour. Rarely seen outside Japan until recently, the original, uncut Gojira is something of a revelation. While the US version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, only hinted at the connection between the monster and the atomic bomb, Gojira makes this extremely plain. Gojira is Japan's anger and pain at being bombed made into cinematic flesh, and witnessing it is a harrowing, moving experience.

Fishing boats are being routinely sunk in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo. Inhabitants of Odo Island say it's Gojira, a god to whom in the past they appeased with female sacrifices. It is indeed Gojira who's causing all the trouble, but it's not female sacrifices he's after this time. Radiation from atomic testing has mutated him and he's understandably pissed off. He wrecks Odo Island with the force of a hurricane and then heads for Tokyo.

The monster in Gojira is terrifying and feral, entirely different from what he would later become. Director Ishiro Honda, who would go on to helm many more Godzilla films, shoots the monster from far away, keeping distance between us and this terrifying force of nature. There's no personality in him except rage, and this distancing effect highlights this. There are few close-ups, and when we are brought in close we see only crazed eyes and a snapping jaw. He is anger: psychotic, uncontrollable anger.

Gojira's destruction of Tokyo is slow, methodic, and terrible. Making his way across the cityscape, the 50-meter-tall behemoth topples any and all buildings in his path. Fleeing citizens are crushed under rubble. When Gojira unleashes his radioactive breath, people are incinerated in a flash. If there was any lingering doubt as to what Gojira really is, it's been blown away in a hot flash of fire. When the monster finally heads back out to sea, Tokyo is left engulfed in flames. It's devastating, and only nine years after the fire-bombing of Tokyo, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The aftermath of Gojira's rampage is given equal weight. Rows upon rows of patients, living and dead, crowd a hospital as the film's stars, Akira Takarada and Momoko Kochi, tend to the wounded. A girl cries as her dead mother is taken away. Another girl is so radiated, she sends a Geiger counter into a tizzy. This is not your usual monster movie. It's catharsis for a nation.

While watching Gojira I couldn't help but think of the current situation with North Korea. With its proximity to, and hatred for, Japan, the fear of nuclear attack is once again a reality. Japanese politicians have recently made comments to the effect of, "Countries with nuclear weapons don't get attacked," statements that have been stifled by new prime minister Shinzo Abe but are still cause for nervousness. Given Gojira's anti-atomic message, maybe it's time to organize a screening for the Diet, the Japanese parliament. Ishiro Honda would approve: before his death he stated that he hoped Gojira would bring an end to nuclear testing and arms proliferation. Maybe that's a lot to ask from a guy in a rubber suit but really, can we afford to take any chances?

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Haruo Nakajima, the man inside the incredibly heavy Gojira suit, reportedly lost 20 pounds during the shoot.

Tartan Update: Fuck Wal-Mart

I just came home from my local Wal-Mart (Mountain View, CA), empty-handed. I went to check out the deals they had on Tartan DVDs ($9 was what I posted from second-hand information). I probably should have called first. Fair enough if a certain store in a chain doesn't have whatever sale other stores may have, but I had such a terrible experience that I just had to post about it.

Terrible experience: First off, there was no one available to help me find what I was looking for. Anyone I could flag down either didn't work in that department or didn't know what I was talking about and was too busy to find someone that did. Secondly, it was really hot in the electronics department. Stiflingly hot. Thirdly, it smelled overpoweringly of body odor.

As I ran out the door, I thought, this is what's putting America out of business? I thought about my own place of employment, Tower Records, and its customer service. We may not have always had enough employees on the floor to help, but at least we tried our best. Wal-Mart doesn't even care, it seems.

This is my first real experience at a Wal-Mart. They're new to the Bay Area. I will never go to Wal-Mart again, no matter how low the prices on Japanese DVDs. And you can hold me to that. Please, hold me to that.

Tartan On The Cheap

Kaiju Shakedown has posted that from now until Halloween, Wal-Mart is selling Tartan titles for $9. That means flicks like Doppelganger and Marebito (as well as non-Japanese titles like Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori) can now be had on the cheap. Provided you can deal with shooping at Wal-Mart.

The Neighbor No. Thirteen

Director: Yasuo Inoue
Actors: Shido Nakamura, Shun Oguri, Hirofumi Akai
Year Released: 2005
Genre: Thriller
See Also: Synesthesia, Vengeance Is Mine

Having acid poured on your face by school bullies does something to a boy. According to The Neighbor No. Thirteen, a stylish thriller by first-time filmmaker and music video director Yasuo Inoue, a humiliating experience like that is perfect justification for murder. At least, it's justified if those murders are carried out by your alter ego.

Juzo Murasaki is new in his apartment building, and new on the job at a construction site. His foreman, Toru Akai, is a violent jerk who never seems to tire of bullying people. Juzo is new, ergo he's the perfect target for Toru's violence. Things go from bad to worse when Juzo realizes that Toru has moved in right above him. And, as it's a movie and these kinds of coincidences are part and parcel of the experience, Toru turns out to be the same bully who scarred Juzo's face in school.

Except Juzo's face is no longer scarred. Although the scar is gone—it's never mentioned if plastic surgery took care of this or not—it obviously still runs deep, right down to Juzo's unconscious, where No. 13 lives. No. 13 (Shido Nakamura) is Juzo's terrifying alter-ego, the manifestation of all of Juzo's pain and anger. No. 13 bears the scar so Juzo can go about his life. But with Toru back in his life, No. 13 is growing more powerful by the day.

What's particularly interesting about Neighbor No. Thirteen is that it feels less like a Japanese film than a Korean film. The Oldboy comparisons are certainly apt. Neighbor No. Thirteen isn't nearly as complex as Chan-wook Park's operatic masterpiece, but the childhood trauma, the psychological element, even the steely look of the films are strikingly similar.

Inoue may never have made a film before but he's certainly got the technique down pat. He displays a mastery of mood in Neighbor No. Thirteen, a mood that successfully carries the film through to its end.

The Neighbor No. Thirteen is a more-than-satisfying take on the revenge genre. It will be exciting to see what Yasuo Inoue does next.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Toru's wife, Nozomi, is played by Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi fame. And yes, that's Takashi Miike as Jozu's packrat neighbor Kaneda.

Cutie Honey

Director: Hideaki Anno
Actors: Eriko Sato, Jun Murakami, Mikako Ichikawa
Year Released: 2004
Genre: Action, Comedy
See Also: Kamikaze Girls, Lupin The Third: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

I'm not sure how other people find out about certain Japanese movies. There are sites like Midnight Eye and Kaiju Shakedown, from which I've picked up quite a few recommendations. If you're an anime fan (which I'm really not), you may hear of a live-action version of a favorite series and go out of your way to find it. Such as Cutie Honey, which was originally a manga and anime series in the early '70s. How did I happen to see Cutie Honey? I was looking for DVDs with English subtitles at a Japanese video store in San Francisco's Japantown and rented it because it had a hot girl on the cover.

"Because it had a hot girl on the cover." How many of my reviews have that sentence (or some equivalent) in them? I'd hate to count them. But really, the amount of films I've picked up because of the actresses in the film, rather than the fact that they're manga adaptations, is pretty silly. But this is Cutie Honey and Eriko Sato we're talking about here. I mean, have you seen her? My God, man, she's unbelievable.

I first discovered Eriko Sato (not to be confused with the A/V star Erika Sato) while watching the Densha Otoko TV show. If ever there was a woman to pull my eyes away from Misaki Ito, it's Eriko Sato, who played her co-worker/confidante. Those lips! Those bangs! Those chubby cheeks! When I realized that the girl running around in nothing but bra and panties in Cutie Honey was my girl Eriko, you can imagine my delight. And bank account, which was instantly hit for $10 to purchase a copy of Cutie Honey for my very own.

So right, the movie. You know, it's actually pretty good. Cutie Honey (for those unfamiliar with the back story) is an extremely hot robot, whose scientist creator/father was killed by a mysterious group of outlandish costume-wearing villains called Panther Claw. Now they've kidnapped her uncle in the hopes of gaining technology to keep the body of their immortal leader, Sister Jill, from decaying. A journalist, Seiji (Jun Murakami), and a tightly wound police woman, Natsuko (Mikako Ichikawa), become involved in Honey's quest to save her uncle.

Cutie Honey succeeds where other anime adaptations have faltered (Lupin The Third: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy comes to mind) because it so effectively recreates that anime style with flesh-and-blood actors. Traditional animation, computer effects, and good old cardboard cutouts are all combined into a unique whole that, when paired with an overall infectious manicness, makes for a satisfyingly good movie. And Eriko Sato is hot. I mean, she does the splits in bra and panties. Come on!

The movie actually has a lot of heart, which goes a long way in making Cutie Honey more than just an excuse to parade Eriko Sato around in her skivvies. Credit is due to former anime director Hideako Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion), who's taken the best of anime and live action and combined them into a movie that bears repeated viewing. Well, the aforementioned splits scene does anyway.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: That's Cutie Honey creator Go Nagai in the car who gets an eyeful of Honey's backside as it breaks his windshield.

Availability Note: Import only. Region-free copies available on the Internet and through specialist shops. I have to say, the translation on the version I saw was really annoying. The text appears only after the character has finished talking. It can get really confusing. But hey, just relax and stare at Eriko Sato and it will all feel better.