RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD review by porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 2/15/10

 

 

It's not every day you get to watch a kung fu movie that's as much pure, hyperkinetic fun as RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER (1980), a thrilling fists 'n' feet comedy from the Shaw Brothers that's a sequel to the classic THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN.

The story opens with the shady boss of a fabric mill hiring some Manchurian thugs to intimidate his employees into working harder while giving them a pay cut. Horse-faced worker Chao (sporting a set of buck teeth that would embarrass Mortimer Snerd) enlists his con artist pal Chou Jen Chieh (Gordon Liu, who's most widely-known these days from the KILL BILL movies) to pose as revered Shaolin monk San Te in order to frighten Boss Wong and his men. The ruse works at first, but when the suspicious Wong challenges Chieh to demonstrate his skills, the result is a humiliating defeat that sends him fleeing for his life as the hapless workers are thrashed into submission.

Vowing to help his friends somehow, Chieh resolves to learn kung fu for real and bluffs his way into the Shaolin temple only to come face-to-face with the real San Te (Ching Chia, in the role originated by Gordon Liu himself in the first film). Thus begins the middle section of the film which is a non-stop slapstick delight, with Chien bumbling around like a dervish amidst the solemn monks and apprentices and comically mimicking their training.

When San Te orders him to construct bamboo scaffolding around the entire temple in preparation for its renovation, which will take years, Chien thinks he's being shunted aside. As he labors at his task he observes the trainees going through their paces and applies their movements to his own work, thereby eventually learning kung fu without even realizing it. This lengthy sequence is incredibly inventive and endlessly fun, and Gordon Liu displays a boundless energy and natural comic ability that's downright infectious.

His task completed, Chien is expelled from the temple and returns home in defeat, believing himself a failure. But it doesn't take long for him to realize that he's not only inadvertently learned kung fu but has also created his own variation--"Scaffolding Style"! His final confrontation with Mr. Wong and the Manchurians leads to a frenetic 20-minute action sequence that beats the hell out of MATRIX: RELOADED's CGI-laden "Burly Brawl", with no special effects and little or no wirework in sight. The action doesn't let up for a second and the fighting style is dazzlingly inventive, building to the final showdown between Chieh and Mr. Wong on--what else?--a scaffold.

The direction (by Liu Chia-Liang), camerawork, and editing are all first-rate for this kind of film, with fight choreography that doesn't always look totally realistic but is lots of fun anyway. The ways in which Chieh's "Scaffolding Style" is worked into the final battle is almost cartoonishly effective as he leaves his opponents hogtied to bamboo poles or wrapped together in bunches with lightning-fast moves. In some ways, the film is wonderfully cheesy and the castmembers overact their roles with abandon, which, in this case, is entirely appropriate.

With his amazing feats of dexterity and comedy timing, Gordon Liu carries the story with a full-throttle performance that never lets up. Pretending to be an experienced kung fu master, he blunders his way through one obstacle course with such artless abandon that one monk marvels, "Your kung fu is incredible! I could hardly follow it." Low comedy rears its head as he tricks another pupil into drinking some laxative-laced tea and then calls after him, "Better find a place to take a dump!" My favorite line, though, comes during the final battle with the evil boss, when Chieh brings things to a sudden halt and states magnanimously, "That's it, Mr. Wong. I will hurt you if we continue."

The single-disc DVD from Dragon Dynasty and Celestial Pictures is in widescreen with Mandarin, Cantonese, and English mono. Subtitles are in English and Spanish. With naught but a few trailers at the start, this is surprisingly barebones for a Dragon Dynasty release.

A fast-moving, fun, and colorful romp with lots of old-fashioned kung fu-movie charm, RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER is a must-see for Shaw Brothers fans and anyone else who's in the mood for a hefty dose of thrills and laughs. I had a ball watching it.

Read our review of  DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER

RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD review by porfle

THE LAST DROP -- movie review by porfle

 

Originally posted in 2005 at Bumscorner.com

 

No, it's not a feature-length commercial for Maxwell House coffee, although if it were, it would probably be a lot more entertaining.

THE LAST DROP (2005) starts out as though it might actually be worth watching, as we see a swarm of British bomber planes towing gliders filled with soldiers on their way to German-occupied Holland during the final days of WWII.  The CGI effects in this sequence are pretty good, giving the impression that the film we're about to see is a quality product, at least visually. 

But things go downhill from there as we discover that nothing else from this point will be anywhere near as impressive.  Camerawork and editing that are sloppy and choppy, respectively, combine with an often silly script, performances that range from bland to ridiculous, and a curiously underpopulated Europe to give THE LAST DROP the cheap aura of a made-for-TV movie that is reaching beyond its means to look like a "real" war film.

One of the gliders is shot down short of its landing zone and the soldiers, who are on a mission so top secret that only one of them knows what it is and he's not telling, are forced to make their way on foot toward their destination.  It turns out that they've been sent to protect a cache of priceless works of art stolen by the Nazis and stored beneath an old mill somewhere in rural Holland.  And they must get there before the goose-stepping kraut-snarfers come back and cart the treasure trove away for good. 

When the details of their mission finally become known to our heroes, a plan to snatch the loot for themselves pops into their sneaky little heads.  But they're not the only ones drooling for dollars -- there are also three greedy renegade Nazis on their way to grab summa dat booty, too.  

And as if that weren't enough, they're being hunted by a company of American G.I.'s led by "guest star" Michael Madsen, who has stumbled onto the fact that something's up and can't wait to stick his big nose right in the middle of it.

This might've been a passable flick if only the scriptwriters could've decided whether they wanted to give us a realistic war thriller like THE GUNS OF NAVARONE or THE WILD GEESE (on a considerably smaller scale, that is) or a grab-the-money-and-run knock-off of KELLY'S HEROES. 

In trying to combine the two, they've merely presented us with a cringe-inducing mess that doesn't add up to much of anything -- and the score mirrors this thematic indecisiveness by juxtaposing traditional orchestral music with, of all things, heavy metal. 

Some good actors such as Sean Pertwee (SOLDIER), Karel Roden (the lawyer from BLADE II), and Tommy Flanagan (the Irish mercenary who liked to make things explode in SIN CITY) struggle to bring underwritten characters to life, while TITANIC's Billy Zane wanders around in a role that gives him practically nothing to do. 

Michael Madsen, unfortunately, contributes his not-quite-A-list presence and nothing more (as he usually does in small films such as this), doing just enough to justify a paycheck while taking it about as seriously as he would mugging for home movies.  (His mug, of course, is plastered nice and big on the DVD cover as though he played a major role.)

Eventually, all of these sub-par shenanigans lead to a big -- ehh, not that big -- shootout as everyone tries to get to the plane that's been loaded with the art treasures and fly away.  It's not a very well-done or thrilling conclusion, and the tacked-on "gotcha" ending that's supposed to leave us with a smile sorta made me throw up in my mouth a little. 

Or maybe that was just my accumulated response to this entire movie, which I looked forward to seeing because I like a good war movie, and then regretted watching because I don't like a war movie that's boring, pointless, and just plain dumb.

 

 

THE LAST DROP -- movie review by porfle

BLUE SEDUCTION -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/6/09

 

Sometimes a movie is so bad it's perversely amusing, and sometimes it's just plain bad. Hovering between the two is the suspense-thriller BLUE SEDUCTION (2009), a Canadian TV-movie which, unsurprisingly, looks like a Canadian TV-movie but, unsurprisingly, bears little resemblance to the better films it's modeled upon.

As Mikey Taylor, a washed-up rock star struggling to record a comeback album, Billy Zane appears to have prepared himself for the role by sleeping under his couch cushions for a month. There can't have been much preparation or thought behind his totally lackadaisical performance, which he obviously doesn't take seriously.

Much of it looks as though he's still rehearsing, unaware the cameras are rolling. There are several instances, in fact, when he stumbles so awkwardly through a scene that you find it hard to believe the director settled for that particular take. At other times, Zane seems to be preoccupied with wistful thoughts of leaping into the nearest lifeboat and abandoning ship.

Estella Warren (PLANET OF THE APES) isn't much better as Matty, a conniving singer-songwriter who weasels her way into Mikey's recording sessions and gradually begins to take over his life for her own purposes. Some of her dialogue scenes with Billy Zane resemble screen test footage. But at least she adds some energy to the lethargic proceedings along with considerable visual interest (translation: she's hot). And it's somewhat interesting to observe the utter brazenness with which her character begins to engineer Mikey's lapse back into alcoholism and drug abuse and the ruination of his marriage to Joyce (Jane Wheeler), his long-suffering wife.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby surround 5.1 and English subtitles. No extras except for a trailer.

BLUE SEDUCTION is a stale leftover from the FATAL ATTRACTION psycho-bitch era--even the awful songs that Estella Warren sings sound like cheesy 80s power ballads. When things, as they say, "take a deadly turn" a la PLAY MISTY FOR ME, there's a last-minute plot twist that comes as a surprise (to me, anyway) and manages to make the film even more unpleasant. Warren's character is so over-the-top nutty and Zane's is such a somnambulistic nothing that I eventually began to suspect this film to be an unintentionally unfunny attempt at being unintentionally funny.

 

BLUE SEDUCTION -- DVD review by porfle

KILL ZONE -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/4/09

 

"God is fair--evil deeds must pay a price" is the tagline in the trailer for KILL ZONE, aka "SPL", aka "SAAT PO LONG/SHA PO LANG" (2005), which proves true for both the bad guys and the cops who cross the line trying to bring them down. Another theme of the film is father-son relationships--most of the action takes place on Father's Day, most of the characters are fathers or sons and the events we see in their lives are in many ways influenced by this, right up to the shattering conclusion.

Detective Chan (Simon Yam) runs a task force that is dedicated to taking down the fearsome Triad boss Wong Po (Sammo Hung) by any means possible. The fact that he's about to retire makes a quick resolution to the matter even more urgent, and the tough, rule-breaking cops under his command are equally anxious to see Wong Po behind bars or dead. But Chan is about to be replaced by Inspector Ma Kwan (Donnie Yen), whom the team fears will hamper their efforts with his more by-the-book attitude, although he once deliberately left a bad guy permanently brain-damaged with a single punch. And although Ma doesn't officially start his duties until midnight, he tags along and is shocked by the extent to which Chan's team will go in order to see their own brand of justice done.

When they receive a videotape showing Wong Po assisting in the assassination of an undercover cop, they doctor the tape to suggest that Wong Po did the actual killing. This backfires when the truth comes out and Wong Po is released, swearing that Chan and his men won't leave the station house alive. To make good on his threat, he calls in his chief assassin, a young, weasel-faced martial arts expert named Jack (Jacky Wu) who enjoys killing people in messy ways. Of course, Chan's men all end up leaving the station house for one reason or another, and each has an appointment with Jack that they'll wish they'd missed. With all of this, even Inspector Ma Kwan is finally pushed beyond the limits of the law and decides that Wong Po must be stopped no matter what it takes.

Although there's plenty of action in KILL ZONE, the human drama is essential and well-wrought by director Wilson Yip (THE WHITE DRAGON, JULIET IN LOVE), whose classical style is refreshingly free of the usual MTV-type overuse of shaky camerawork and rapid-fire editing, which he uses only sparingly to evoke disorientation or chaos, and his occasional use of crane shots adds an epic sweep to several scenes. There's no style-for-style's-sake here, and the use of cinematic language (split screens, slow motion, etc.) is only for advancing the plot and not just to show off.

We're given time to get to know and care about the characters: Detective Chan is shown caring for his adopted daughter, whose parents were killed on their way to testify against Wong Po, even though his days are numbered due to a brain tumor; Detective Kwok (Danny Summer) anxiously awaits a Father's Day reunion with his formerly estranged daughter; and Detective Lok (Kai Chi Liu) is seen tearfully attempting a doomed reconciliation with his dying father over the phone. Even the evil Wong Po has a beloved wife and infant daughter to whom he is deeply devoted, which humanizes his character beyond the standard stereotype and makes him all the more interesting. The fact that all of the performances in this movie are excellent doesn't hurt, either.

The first display of martial arts doesn't even take place until half an hour into the film, but there's no shortage of action. We get several demolition derby-style car crashes, an intense police raid on one of Wong Po's crews, and other assorted events that keep things humming along until finally the chop-socky kicks in with Wong Po's initial arrest in the lobby of the hospital where his wife just gave birth. With a large, stuffed Pink Panther under one arm, he proves quite difficult to apprehend, and we get our first incredible display of mixed martial arts fighting as he takes on Donnie Yen's Ma Kwan for the first time in the film.

The fight scenes blend seamlessly with the drama thanks to the cooperation of Wilson Yip and action director Donnie Yen, who knows just what he wants to see on the screen and how to shoot it. Yen's philosophy is that if the fight choreography is performed by experts who know what they're doing, there's no need for quick cuts and flashy, distracting camerawork, and wirework and CGI can be kept to a minimum. This results in several amazing sequences in which the combatants go at it in long, wide-angle takes, with a realism and intensity rarely seen in Hollywood action flicks. The alleyway battle between Ma Kwan and Jack the assassin, one wielding a police baton and the other a long knife, is surely one of the greatest hand-to-hand combat scenes ever filmed, with Donnie Yen and Jacky Wu engaging in one long series of perfectly-choreographed moves after another. It's a thrilling sequence.

But even this is outdone by the final confrontation between Ma Kwan and Wong Po in the bad guy's lair. Using a huge, insanely-ornate real-life nightclub as the backdrop, Donnie Yen has devised a breathtaking free-for-all that takes advantage of Sammo Hung's unique size and skill (it's cool to see such a big guy displaying such dexterity in contrast with Yen's own look and style), to give Hong Kong action fans the match-up they've been waiting for. Again, many of the moves are played out in long takes because these guys know what they're doing and don't require special camerawork or editing to help put it across. Yen has also incorporated mixed fighting styles here, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which is composed mainly of close-quarters grappling moves that add a lot of excitement and visual interest. Wirework is used sparingly and in imaginative ways, but without the unreal look it tends to have in most films. And, of course, lots of stuff gets smashed up in cool ways.

The 2-disc DVD from Dragon Dynasty is a lot of fun. Hong Kong Cinema expert Bey Logan contributes a commentary track that is very informative and enthusiastic, without a single dead spot. The alleyway and nightclub fights are thoroughly examined with commentary from both Logan and Donnie Yen. There's also a "making of" featurette and extensive interviews with Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Jacky Wu, and Wilson Yip, plus trailers and TV spots. So even when the movie's over, there's a lot of cool stuff to explore.

I can't recommend this movie enough. It's an impressive, thrilling piece of action cinema that fires on all cylinders from start to finish. Both the action and dramatic elements are well-served throughout, and all of it is done with meticulous care and filmmaking skill. And the fact that the story is given such prominence instead of merely serving as a vehicle for the fight scenes results in an ending that should stay with you long after the fade-out.

KILL ZONE -- DVD review by porfle

THE KILLER -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/24/10

 

I wasn't that impressed with THE KILLER (1989) the first time I saw it back in the 90s. Then again, I was watching a choppy pan-and-scan VHS copy that was badly-dubbed and looked awful. Plus, I'd just been blown away by HARD BOILED (still my favorite John Woo film), and THE KILLER seemed rather tame in comparison with that insanely action-packed epic. But with the new 2-disc Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER on the Dragon Dynasty label, I'm finally getting to see it in all its uncut pictorial glory and appreciate it as one of the finest action films ever made.

I think it was an episode of the great TV series "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that first got me interested in the films of John Woo, Tsui Hark, and other hot Hong Kong directors. I found the innovative and extremely rapid-fire editing in the film clips to be a new and exhilarating visual experience. Just as the Beatles interpreted American rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues and played it back to us in exciting new ways, Hong Kong cinema was assimilating the methods of Sam Peckinpah and others and using this as a starting point for creating a super-charged cinematic style that would, in turn, have an overwhelming effect on the future of American action cinema.

Woo himself credits many influences, among them French director Jean-Pierre Melville, certain Japanese films, and classical American cinema. Unsurprisingly, Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorcese are key figures in the development of his film style, in addition to the old Hollywood musicals. Woo calls THE KILLER an "action-musical", and it's easy to see how his shoot-em-up sequences are often inspired by the spirit of that genre's more dazzling and dynamic production numbers. (I'm guessing Woo is an admirer of Gene Kelly and films such as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and ON THE TOWN.)


There's even a little bit of Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, I think, in the relationship between ace hitman Ah Jong (the great Chow Yun-Fat) and Jennie (Sally Yeh), the pretty young cabaret singer who was blinded during one of his hits. The guilt-ridden Ah Jong befriends Jennie with the hope of helping her regain her eyesight with a cornea transplant, but to pay for the operation he will have to postpone his plans to retire and perform one last hit. Complicating matters is the fact that the evil Triad boss for whom he works has just put out the order for Ah Jong himself to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Inspector Li Ying (Danny Lee), a renegade cop who has the same "hate-hate" relationship with his boss as countless other renegade cops before him, is hot on Ah Jong's trail and has traced him to Jennie. In a strange turn of events, cop and hitman become grudging allies as Li Ying sympathizes with Ah Jong's desire to help Jennie and decides to back him up when the Triad kill squad comes a-callin'. This leads to a blazing shoot-out in a church with the fate of our unlikely heroes in the balance.

Unlike the usual stoic, repressed action figure, Chow Yun Fat's character is a man of deep feelings whose code of killing only bad guys is compromised not only by Jennie's injury but by the shooting of a little girl during an exciting escape from the police. Ah Jong risks his freedom to race the girl to a hospital, where he and Li Ying have one of many Mexican standoffs (Woo really loves these) just a few feet away from where doctors are struggling to save the girl's life.

Here, and in Ah Jong's scenes with Jennie, Woo's penchant for melodrama and sentimentality come to the fore. Such unrestrained romanticism may be off-putting to more hardcore action fans who prefer their mayhem untainted by mush. Although it gets a little thick at times, I think this gives an interesting added dimension to Woo's passages of gun-blazing carnage, as does the underlying religious tone (Woo describes himself as a Christian) which makes Ah Jong such a conflicted character seeking redemption.


Also interesting is the fact that Li Ying begins to identify with and even admire him for his honorable qualities--Woo points out their similarities in a nice parallel-image sequence--as their mutual concern for Jennie has them pretending to be and eventually becoming friends. Woo's humor comes to the fore when they initially hold each other at gunpoint while assuring the blind Jenny that all is well, even giving each other affectionate nicknames "Small B" and "Shrimp Head" (or "Mickey Mouse" and "Dumbo" in the English dub). By the end of the movie, they're as close as brothers and willing to die for each other.

More than anything else, however, THE KILLER is a feast for action connoisseurs as Woo stages one astounding shoot-out after another. His trademarks are all here, from the rapid-fire two-gun approach (his heroes never seem to run out of bullets) which has since been adopted by, well, everybody, to the sliding-backward-on-the-floor-while firing method, to everything else in-between. Innovations abound, with Woo's distinctive use of slow-motion and freeze-frames mixed with the regular action as his artistic sensibility sees fit, all creatively edited into a barrage of explosive images that bombard the viewer in waves of kinetic visual sensation.

Some of the action borders on the surreal, with scores of bad guys swarming non-stop into the line of fire only to be mowed down in twisting, jerking, blood-spewing (yet strangely balletic) death throes. Echoes of the famous shoot-outs from Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH pervade the climactic battle in the church, while the melodrama of the story weaves its way through the hail of bullets and fiery explosions toward a starkly emotional conclusion. It bears noting that Woo improvised much of the story and dialogue on-set, shooting from a treatment rather than a finished script, yet considers this to be one of his most "complete" films.


The Dragon Dynasty DVD is in the original widescreen with Dolby Digital sound. Languages are Cantonese and dubbed English, both mono, with English and Spanish subtitles. The second disc includes an intimate interview with John Woo, two audience Q & A's with Woo which accompanied screenings of THE KILLER and HARD BOILED, a look at the locations of THE KILLER then and now, and a John Woo trailer gallery. Missing in action is a commentary track.

Whether you're a long-time fan or just seeing it for the first time, Dragon Dynasty's Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER is a great way to experience this dazzling Hong Kong action classic.

THE KILLER -- DVD review by porfle

RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 9/10/10

 

A sequel in name only, the retitled RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS (1978) is better described by its original title, CRIPPLED AVENGERS.  But by any name, it's classic Shaw Brothers fun that's loaded with interesting characters and hugely entertaining fight sequences. 

Director and co-writer Chang Cheh starts the deadly action from the first seconds when a group of bad guys, the Tian Nan Tigers, invade Du Tain Dao's house and dispatch his guards.  Then they cut his wife's legs off and chop off his young son Du Chang's hands.  Du Tain Dao shows up and wastes them with his Three Tigers fighting method, then vows to get the best blacksmith available to create some iron hands for his son.  Years later, we see the older Du Chang becoming a kung fu master with his father's teaching, and is quite adept at using his iron hands.

But just as we're thinking that this father-son team are the good guys, we learn that they've become cruel tyrants who rule the town through violence and fear, and enjoy crippling people for minor offenses.  A traveling peddler named Chen Shun is blinded by Du Chang, who also chops off the legs of a passing stranger, Wu Gui, for bumping into him.  Du Tain Dao, meanwhile, turns the local blacksmith, Wei, into a deaf-mute, and when a heroic warrior named Wang Yi tries to intervene, his skull is crushed in a viselike device until he's turned into an addlebrained idiot.

As you might guess, the four victims of the dastardly Dus get together and plan their revenge.  Training for the next three years with Wang Yi's elder teacher Li Zheng Yin at his secluded Eagle Mansion, they learn to overcome their handicaps and become a fierce fighting team.  These training scenes are a lot of fun, especially when the childlike Wang Yi's constant desire to play becomes part of the routine.  His sessions with the blind Chen Shun involving the use of large iron rings become an integral part of the climactic battle. 

Returning to the village on the eve of Du Tain Dao's elaborate birthday celebration, they immediately find themselves wading through one brawl after another with various guards, henchmen, and relatives.  Du's right hand man, Mr. Wan, devises various means of thwarting our heroes' abilities, such as arming his guards with gong-shields that keep Chen Shun from hearing their movements or blinding blacksmith Wei with mirrors. 

Wu Gui, meanwhile, makes good use of his new iron legs when the group is challenged by Du's brother Ju Gao Feng, a musclebound superman who arrives for the birthday bash and starts throwing his massive pecs around.  There's also a bad guy named Mr. Luo, known for his light-footed movements, and his associate Mr. Lin, who fires deadly steel balls with a bow-shaped slingshot.

The second half of the film is a thrilling succession of showdowns and free-for-alls with endless combinations of opponents.  With a simple story free of needless complications, things move at a brisk pace with lots of dynamic action.  Aside from Chang Cheh's trademark whiplash pans and zooms, there's no fancy editing or flashy camerawork--long takes are filled with intricate choreography that's impressively performed. 

When Chen Shun and the eternally playful Wang Yi take on Du Chang in the final minutes, the sequence is such a sustained display of dazzling acrobatics that the effect is sheer amazement.  This extended action setpiece avoids monotony by being endlessly creative and fun.  Finally, after a solid fifteen minutes of non-stop action, a decisive battle with the vile Du Tain Dao ends the film with a bang.

The DVD from Vivendi's Dragon Dynasty label is in widescreen with Mandarin and English mono sound.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  No extras.

Whether you're a Shaw Brothers fan already or just looking to sample some classic kung fu action, RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS is loaded with fist-flying beat-em-up fun all the way.  Just as long as you don't spend the whole time wondering where the heck those five deadly venoms are. 

Read our review of THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS

RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS -- DVD review by porfle

THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/4/11

 

A genuine cult classic among Shaw Brothers devotees in particular and martial arts fans in general, the influential THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS (1978) is a colorful tale that, while a little slow at times, is a lot of fun thanks to cool characters, rich atmosphere, and some wild and fanciful fight sequences.

Five martial arts masters whose identities are unknown have emerged from the Five Venoms house, each proficient in a particular animal-related fighting style. Now, a former disciple in possession of the school's vast fortune is in danger from the less scrupulous of the five. The House's founder, who is dying, sends his final student Yang De on a quest to discover which of his predecessors can be trusted and enlist them to help him fight the bad ones. Since Yang De has been partially trained in all five skills but is a master of none, he must always battle the enemy in conjuction with one of the masters.

Yang De (Sheng Chiang) is one of those likably humorous characters whose natural skill and cunning are mixed with a flippant attitude and somewhat childlike naivete. He's just about the only lighthearted element in this somber story in which two evil Venoms, Centipede (Feng Lu) and Snake (Pai Wei), murder the old disciple and his family in search of the treasure, while one of the good Venoms, Toad (Meng Lo), is found guilty of the crime by a corrupt court that's been paid off.

Yang De eventually learns the secret identity of Gecko (Philip Kwok), who can walk on walls, and teams up with him against Centipede and Snake, while the mysterious Scorpion remains a wild card until the very end. While often exhilarating thanks to the action scenes, the film is also dishearteningly tragic and downbeat at times.

This was one of the first Hong Kong kung fu movies to feature the furious over-the-top fight scenes that we've become accustomed to over the years. While watching it, it's easy to recognize elements that would show up in both Asian films and homages such as BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and, of course, Tarantino's KILL BILL movies.

Here, the choreography is so well-planned that shots go on for several moments without a cut. It may look a little unrefined compared to today's fight scenes, but one can see how awesome this stuff must've looked to viewers yet to grow jaded by such things. Combining meticulously choreographed combat moves with gymnastics and some wirework, not to mention a few endearingly cheesy special effects, these scenes are especially fun to watch--especially the climactic showdown involving Yang De and the four remaining Venoms in a frenetic free-for-all.

Chang Cheh's direction is lean and unobtrusive with occasional flashes of style and fluid camerawork, and gives the action plenty of breathing room without a lot of fancy angles or rapid-fire editing. While the budget is relatively modest, the period set design and costumes look great. The library music fits the action well, and Monty Python fans will recognize one particular passage as the main titles theme from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL.

The Dragon Dynasty DVD is a single disc in 2.35:1 widesreen format and Dolby Digital sound. Languages are Mandarin mono and English mono with English and Spanish subtitles. The sole bonus feature is a commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan, who gives his usual enthusiastic and informative analysis.

Admittedly, I found the story to be pretty slow going the first time around, especially while trying to keep all the characters, their various skills and motives, and relationships to one another straight. With a second viewing, however, I was able to forget all that and concentrate on what turned out to be a pretty intriguing and well-acted tale of mystery, corruption, betrayal, and heroism. And considering that THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS is just about the first film of its kind, whose strong influence is still being felt throughout various areas of pop culture, then, overall, it must be regarded as a pretty stunning achievement.



Read our review of RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS

 

THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS -- DVD review by porfle

HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/11/16

 

Making just about every other movie in the world seem slow-moving and mundane in comparison, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD (1983) is about as close to a total cinematic freak-out as you could imagine.

Wan Ching Chung and his wife are killed by white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed Grand Master Jing Yin (Leanne Lau) and her associate Monster Yu (Jason Pai Piao) after they're forced to reveal the location of the Creed of the Holy Flame.  The Phantom (Philip Kwok) swoops in and rescues the dead couple's baby boy Wan Tien Sau, pledging that in 18 years the boy will return to get revenge.  Jing Yin takes their baby girl Dan Fung and raises her as a warrior in the all-female Er Mei clan, telling her that the Phantom killed her parents.

Eighteen years later, Wan Tien Sau (Max Mok) is sent off to seek the Holy Flame.  Along the way, he rescues the beautiful Juan Er (Mary Jean Reimer) from the evil Blood Sucking Clan and she inadvertently gains great power in her index finger after touching an enchanted snake's bladder. 

Meanwhile, Jing Yin, who possesses a Yin version of the Holy Flame, sends Dan Fung to avenge herself against the Phantom and retrieve the Holy Flame's Yang counterpart, which will give Jing Yin great power.  This sets the stage for a series of battles like you wouldn't believe between Wan Tien Sau, Dan Fung, Jing Yin and Monster Yu, Monster Yu's impetuous young apprentice Duan, Golden Snake Boy, the wacky Eight Righteous Clans, and Juan Er's Mighty Finger.

I just don't know what to think about this movie.  It's like taking an acid trip on a rollercoaster.  I'd call it cartoonish, but I doubt if even Tex Avery ever made a cartoon with such a breakneck pace and rapid-fire editing, nor such a dizzying, non-stop bombardment of bizarre images. 

Director Tony Liu Jun-guk couldn't be less concerned with how realistic the wirework is, which doesn't matter anyway because characters continuously zip around all over the place in fast-motion like a bunch of flying speed freaks.  In addition to this is the precision fight choreography that is quite impressive, and lots of colorful FX animation.

The characters also display a wonderful variety of super-powers.  The Phantom's main weapon is his "Ghostly Laugh"--he sits crosslegged and convulses with broad, forced laughter, creating a deadly cyclone all around him which terrifies Jing Yin and Monster Yu until they learn how to make their ears close up by themselves. 

In return, they attack with the horrific Bone Incineration By Fire and Merry-Go-Round techniques.  Wan Tien Sau is able to make his Devil Sword fly around as though he were operating it with an invisible remote control.

Blaring music and an endless cacophony of sound effects bombard the viewer along with the freakish visuals.  One of the best sequences is when a 1,000-year-old corpse, which Lam May Heung brought home from a trip out West, comes to life spouting English phrases such as "I KILL YOU!" and, sure enough, decides to kill him. 

Another is Wan Tien Sau's search for the Holy Flame inside the Moon Cavern, where he's attacked by cool cartoon ghosts and giant Chinese text that pops off the floor and flies around trying to do him in.

From the moment this utterly kooky film bursts out of the gate it just doesn't stop, plunging headlong through a rapid-fire succession of breathtakingly off-the-wall scenes until the hilarious conclusion.  Possibly the downright nuttiest movie I've ever seen, ever, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD is funny, exciting, stupefying, and wonderfully endearing.

Read our review of the SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION VOL.II

HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD -- Movie Review by Porfle

A NEW LEAF -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/5/17

 

Two of my favorite "grown-up" comedies as a kid were THE GRADUATE (1967) and THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), both cockeyed modern relationship tales that embodied a new kind of droll, deadpan satire which I found deeply appealing. 

Common to these films was Elaine May.  The former film, in which she played a bit role, was directed by her sometime performing partner Mike Nichols (with whom she helped form Second City), and she herself would direct her own daughter Jeannie Berlin in the hilarious THE HEARTBREAK KID in 1972.

It's no wonder, then, that I found Elaine May's 1971 directing and co-starring effort A NEW LEAF (Olive Signature Films) so irresistibly entertaining.  The expert combination of borderline farce with a restrained, achingly dry deadpan delivery and reined-in directorial approach makes it the kind of comedy that's intellectually stimulating one moment and laugh-out-loud hilarious the next.

Walter Matthau contributes to much of this with his pitch-perfect performance as spoiled, self-centered rich person Henry Graham, who can't believe it when his flagrant overspending wipes out his trust fund and leaves him a pauper. 

His only alternative to suicide, it seems, is to marry a wealthy woman before his funds are totally depleted and then discreetly murder her.  His loyal butler Harold (George Rose) consents out of self-interest to help him in the first part of his plan, but expresses misgivings about the second.

Enter Elaine May as Henrietta Lowell, an enormously well-endowed (financially, that is) spinster who's also one of the most endearingly clumsy and innocent characters you could ever meet.  Mousey, anxious, dreadfully insecure, and as coordinated as a newborn calf, she can't even sit still without calamitous results.  She's perfect for Henry's plans--he meets her, woos her, proposes, and, in no time, they're married.

The scene in which Henry tries to help Henrietta sort out her fancy new Grecian nightgown (she has her head in the armhole) on their honeymoon night is a slowburn delight of extended but controlled frustration.  I also love wine connoisseur Henry's suppressed horror when introduced to Henrietta's favorite drink, Mogen David Extra Heavy Malaga with soda and lemon, which he must pretend to savor. 

May's slapstick incompetent is the perfect, trusting foil to Matthau's fussy, sociopathic snob and their scenes together are like comedy confections wrapped in gold foil.  Her instincts for directing comedy to its best advantage are dead on the mark at every turn, bringing out the best of both stars and their supporting cast.

This includes stalwarts Jack Weston as Henrietta's manipulative lawyer, James Coco as Henry's spiteful uncle, Doris Roberts as the embezzling manager of gullible Henrietta's household staff, William Redfield as Henry's harried financial adviser, and several other familiar names of the era. 

The leads play it all with a sort of overt subtlety that makes one look forward to the next scene and their next bit together.  I love Matthau's casually methodical cad, reading up on various poisons and gaining access to Henrietta's finances even as he finds himself increasingly fussing over her physical appearance and well-being. 

And May's Henrietta, a botanist whose dream is to find a new strain of fern that she can name herself, is one of the most lovable klutzes to ever fumble her way into my heart.  So much so, in fact, that even Henry can't help but be touched--in his own comically nonplussed way--by some of her childlike foibles. 

Even the stereotypically romantic music is richly satirical, with nary a single "isn't this funny?" note in the entire score.  With a brilliant screenplay to match (written by May from the Jack Ritchie short story), A NEW LEAF is one of cinema's most low-key and tastefully restrained comic delights.  After Henry's final attempt to murder Henrietta during a botany field trip, the fern turns and leaves us with a somewhat abrupt but just-right ending. 


Bonus Features:

New restoration from 4K scan of original camera negative
Audio commentary by film scholar Maya Montanez Smukler
“The Cutting Room Floor: Editing A New Leaf” – interview with A New Leaf assistant editor Angelo Corrao
“Women in Hollywood: A Tragedy of Comic Proportions” – with director Amy Heckerling
Essay by critic, editor & film programmer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
“The Green Heart” by Jack Ritchie, the source material for Elaine May’s script
Trailer

Languages: english
Video: 1.85:1 aspect ratio; color
Runtime: 102 minutes
Year: 1971

A NEW LEAF -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

WARM NIGHTS HOT PLEASURES (1964) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/21/18

 

Another of Joe Sarno's delectable early black-and-white melodramas, 1964's WARM NIGHTS HOT PLEASURES is the torrid tale of three smalltown girls who drop out of college and head to the Big Apple with fervent (but slim) hopes of making it in showbiz.

Of course, the road to success is littered with just this kind of roadkill.  But singleminded Cathy (Marla Ellis) is too determined and blinded by ambition to be deterred even when every lead she follows turns out to be just one more horny, sleazy con man telling her to "show me what you got" before leading her to the casting couch.

Meanwhile, prim Vivian (Sheila Barnett) hooks up with Paul, a seemingly decent man who claims to have connections and assures her there are no strings attached.  (Paul is played by SIN IN THE SUBURBS's Richard Tatro, whom original-series Star Trek fans will recognize as the android Norman in the episode "I, Mudd.")

Paul's frustrated wife Ronnie (Carla Desmond) befriends simple, down-home girl Marsha (the cute-as-a-button Eve Harris) and offers to teach her some of the tricks to becoming a showgirl.  Ronnie will also develop a tragically one-sided infatuation with Marsha that adds to the story's substantial emotional gravitas.

The idea of a trio of naive girls striking out on their own into a world of fast sex and deceptive strangers seems a comfortably familiar one, and Sarno's lean, colorful screenplay, in addition to his endlessly inventive direction and expert handling of actors, allows us to settle back and enjoy the ride from one dramatic turn to the next.

Things get sleazy right away when Cathy's first surrender to a repugnant talent agent's sweaty sexual come-on leads only to one two-bit producer after another as she struggles to make her way up the food chain. She ends up dancing and hustling drinks in a bar run by Dick (played by familiar character actor Joe Santos in his film debut under the name "Joe Russell") who drags her sense of self-worth even further into the mud by also demanding dirty sex from her.

Welcome comedy touches enter the picture when the girls rent a room from a sassy, sultry nudie model who's constantly posing for fetish photos down the hall, in the apartment of a young Irving Klaw-like photographer.  While the big lug's constantly trying to get Marsha to pose nude for him, he's all business and becomes a valuable ally.

Fans of familiar vintage nudie model Alice Denham will be delighted to see her in the flesh (so to speak) as the landlady, who's equally adept at single-girl glamour pics or the kinkier bondage and S&M stuff.

As usual, the black-and-white photography is exquisite as the camerawork and staging consistently bring out the best in Sarno's typically expressive cast. The musical score is a cacophony of hepcat jazz, like one of Fred Katz's scores for Roger Corman, and I recognized at least one cue from the same library music used earlier in THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE.

Sarno admirers should scarf up this concoction of illicit sex, brief nudity, drama, tragedy, despair, debasement, disillusionment, and betrayal, with occasional bits of lighthearted fun to keep things from getting too heavy.  At least one of our our heroines will find a glimmer of hope that may lead to success, while the other girls' luck goes bad in ways that play heavily on our sympathy without ever getting maudlin.

The print used by Film Movement Classics has the usual wear and tear of these early Sarno films which we're lucky to have in any condition (this one has been lost since 1964) despite being cleaned up as much as possible for this Blu-ray release.

I think it looks great, and any imperfections only give it that unique grindhouse feel which, as I've stressed on numerous occasions, only adds to my nostalgic enjoyment of older films.  (I like a print that looks like it's been around the block a few times.)  No extras this time, but the film itself is its own reward.

WARM NIGHTS HOT PLEASURES finds the director continuing to wield his keen story sense and artist's eye to give us a nudie sex flick that feels as substantial and worthwhile as many Hollywood potboilers, but a lot more naughty, taboo-twisting fun.


Read our reviews of other Joe Sarno films HERE

WARM NIGHTS HOT PLEASURES (1964) -- Movie Review by Porfle

VENGEANCE TRILOGY (SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE/ OLDBOY/ LADY VENGEANCE) -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/21/10

 

As one who was eager to discover Korean director Park Chan-wook and his famed "Vengeance" trilogy, I found Palisade Tartan Asia Extreme's eight-disc VENGEANCE TRILOGY--containing SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, OLDBOY, and LADY VENGEANCE, and brimming with extras--to be a veritable treasure trove of fun. Not that the subject matter is fun, mind you, since this is hardly the kind of revenge flick where Charles Bronson blows away bad guys as we cheer through our popcorn. For these unfortunate characters, vengeance ain't necessarily good for what ails 'em.


SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) begins the trilogy with the old story of a "simple plan" that inevitably goes all to hell. Ha-kyun Shin plays Ryu, a green-haired deaf-mute who toils in a factory while desperately waiting for a donor kidney for his dying sister (Ji-Eun Lim). His attempt to purchase the necessary organ on the black market ends disastrously, as he loses not only all his money but one of his own kidneys as well. Then he gets laid off from his job just as the doctor informs him that a donor kidney, which he can no longer afford, is finally available.

Ryu's domineering girlfriend Yeong-mi (Du-na Bae), a radical political activist with terrorist ties, concocts a scheme to abduct the young daughter of wealthy businessman Park Dong-jin (Kang-ho Song) and hold her for ransom, with the naive confidence that it will be a benevolent kidnapping and result in happy endings for all involved. Her prediction goes horribly wrong, as does the kidnapping, and she and Ryu find themselves the targets of a vengeful father whose emotional devastation demands a payment in blood. Ryu, meanwhile, attempts to track down the illicit organ merchants and extract some lethal payback of his own. Both find the price of revenge distressingly high.


"I wanted to make something that felt too real," director Park Chan-wook explains in one of the bonus disc's interviews. "I wanted the audience to be tired when they finished the film." As opposed to the later OLDBOY'S flamboyant surrealism and absurdity, the bad things that happen during this film are disturbingly matter of fact, with no suspenseful music or editing, often occurring in the background of a shot. We're allowed to search the frame for information ourselves rather than have everything pointed out to us, which can be strangely unsettling.

"As a director, I think this unkind way of presenting the story makes the viewer a more active participant in the film," says Park. Lengthy wide-angle shots often place the characters far from the camera, punctuated by unexpected images from odd angles which tease us with brief snippets of information. One of the most important death scenes in the film occurs almost peripherally within the frame as the static camera lingers over a placid rural setting. Without the usual editing and camera angles leading the viewer through the scene, we're left to watch helplessly as the tragedy unfolds with dreadful inevitability.


Still, Park occasionally gets up close and personal, as in a brutal torture-by-electricity scene or a shocking knife murder of a man by a group of terrorists. Here, in a subtle bit of absurdity that's almost funny, the camera impassively observes the dying man as he strains to read the death warrant pinned to his own chest by a knife. Even in a sequence which in any other film might play out as a brisk action setpiece, such as Ryu's bloody final encounter with the organ merchants, Park tweaks our expectations by approaching the familiar scenario with a fresh and pleasingly odd perspective.

Disc one contains the film plus a commentary track with director Park and actor-filmmaker Ryoo Seong-wan. Disc two features lengthy interviews with the film's director and stars, behind-the-scenes featurettes, storyboards, trailer, and Johnathan Ross's 17-minute profile of Park for the BBC.

"When you set out for revenge, first dig two graves," someone told James Bond way back in 1981's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. With SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, Park Chan-wook takes that hoary old proverb and dramatizes it in dispiritingly downbeat and often heartrending new ways, focusing in almost clinical fashion on tragic details that linger in the mind. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this chain reaction of consequences is that there are two sides headed for a deadly collision, and our sympathies extend to both of them. This is a theme that will carry over into the next film in the series.


OLDBOY (2003) is very different from SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and might be seen as a stylistic evolution for Park. Where SYMPATHY was more lean and straightforward, OLDBOY is an explosion of cinematic expression that almost overwhelms the viewer with its aggressive intensity. SYMPATHY invites us to sit back and gaze attentively at characters gradually sliding into inevitable ruin; OLDBOY straps us in and takes us on a wildly disorienting bumper-car ride.


Min-sik Choi gives a brilliant, intense performance as Dae-su Oh, a workaday family man who, after drunkenly celebrating his young daughter's birthday, suddenly wakes up in a motel room-like prison cell where he will spend the next fifteen years. During that time, his wife is murdered and the crime scene is doctored to make him the suspect, while his daughter is placed in foster care. He learns of this on television, which is his only link to the outside world.

After his release back into a world that is now strange to him, Dae-su is understandably obsessed with finding out who imprisoned him and why. Thus begins a mysterious and violent odyssey that eventually takes him back to a single indiscretion in his youth which ignited a chain reaction of tragedy for the person now devoted to punishing him. Dae-su is aided in his quest by a sympathetic young sushi chef named Mido (the very cute Hye-jeong Kang), who becomes his lover and offers much-needed moral support and solace. As he gradually gets closer to the shocking truth, he finds that prison was only the beginning of a diabolical web of torment devised for him by his unknown nemesis.


In some ways, the incarceration has a beneficial effect on Dae-su Oh. Over the long years he builds his physique, becomes a fierce boxer by banging his fists against a figure he's drawn on the wall, hones his instincts and willpower, and develops the patience and determination of a caged animal. He also divests himself of the frivolity and childishness his character displays when we first meet him, becoming a ruthless force to be reckoned with.

His repressed rage later allows him to take on well over a dozen oppenents in a cramped hallway during what I feel is the film's most astounding sequence. Most of this furious fight is done in one incredible take with the camera slowly dollying along with the actors as they perform a dazzling series of choreographed fight moves with bone-crushing realism. (This surely ranks among the greatest long takes ever filmed.) Wielding a claw hammer and with a knife protruding from his back, Dae-su becomes one of the most thrilling action heroes in recent memory in a balls-out brawl that eschews fancy moves or wirework of any kind.

Violence punctuates the film at several points--a man is stabbed to death with a broken DVD, another has his teeth yanked out one by one, people are driven to suicide--culminating in an extended sequence within the mystery man's spacious penthouse suite which becomes an escalating ordeal of physical and emotional devastation. Each shot is carefully devised by Park for maximum effect as Min-sik Choi's performance reaches a peak that is stunning.


A wealth of special features begins on disc one with three separate commentary tracks subtitled in English, each with the director and various crewmembers. Disc two features cast and crew interviews in which they discuss the conception of the film and its characters beyond the usual sound bites doled out to the press. There's a brief phone interview in which the author of the original story, Tsuchiya Garon, offers his favorable impressions of the film while we get to see several pages from the graphic novel. The film's production design, music, and special effects are explored, along with deleted scenes. Of additional interest are a look at the film's success at Cannes and a thoughtful Q & A between director Park and a small gathering of fans.

In addition to some Palisades Tartan trailers, disc three boasts a three-and-a-half hour documentary entitled "The Autobiography of Old Boy Video Diary." An exhaustive record of the making of the film, it documents the shooting of virtually every scene in great detail, without narration, demonstrating not only the meticulousness of the director but also how grueling the shoot was for the actors. This is especially true for star Min-sik Choi, who did many of his own stunts and got banged up quite a bit. Good spirits generally prevail (although the difficult New Zealand shoot frayed some nerves) and the details of how some of the most memorable scenes were accomplished make for absorbing viewing.

Dense, complex storytelling that is anything but light viewing, OLDBOY demands viewer involvement on a much higher level than the usual revenge flick. Like SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, the complicated story presents two identifiable points of view in a conflict that goes beyond the usual heroes and villains and refuses to offer easy or clear-cut resolutions. Park Chan-wook's command over the language of film enables him to express all of this visually to a degree that's endlessly impressive. "They say you can't catch two rabbits at once," he reflects on his accomplishment. "I feel like we caught two rabbits, a deer, an otter, a badger, and many other animals."



I first thought LADY VENGEANCE, aka Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005), was going to be another hot-action-babe flick along the lines of MS. 45. So it came as a pleasant surprise to find that it's the most thoughtful, richly artistic and deeply introspective film in the trilogy. It's also the one in which Park Chan-wook seems to express his most heartfelt, poetic, and yes, sympathetic thoughts on the subject.

The story begins with Geum-ja Lee (Yeong-ae Lee) being released from prison after serving 13 years for the kidnap and murder of a little boy, Won-mo. Former cellmates with whom she reunites on the outside are shocked to find that the cheerful and loving "angel" they knew before now appears to be cold and emotionless. In reality, she's been gaining their allegiance in order to use them to help carry out a plan of revenge against Won-mo's actual killer, Mr. Baek (OLDBOY star Min-sik Choi), a serial child murderer who threatened to kill Geum-ja's infant daughter if she didn't confess to the crime. The fact that she aided in Won-mo's abduction (naively thinking it to be the same sort of "good" kidnapping as described in SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE) makes her desire for atonement and redemption all-consuming.


Geum-ja tracks down her now 14-year-old daughter Jenny (Yea-young Kwon), who thinks that her mother "dumped" her, and desperately tries to reconcile with her. In the meantime, she has found Mr. Baek, still working as a school teacher and preying on children. She summons the families of several murdered children to an abandoned school, shows them Baek's own videotapes of his gruesome deeds, and reveals to them that he is bound and gagged in the next room. Geum-ja then gives them all a choice--turn him over to the legal system, or deal with him themselves.

Flashbacks of the beatific image Geum-ja projected while in prison are starkly contrasted with her later zombie-like state, which reflects a deep self-loathing. These jarring impressions are often depicted with abrupt editing and off-kilter camera angles. Only when she reunites with Jenny does she allow her feelings to overwhelm her again, and as the story becomes more emotional Park Chan-wook's direction settles into a more stately and elegant style while remaining fluid and inventive. This is especially true of the protracted revenge sequence in the abandoned school, as Park lingers on the inner conflict and seething rage of the family members. As the film winds down to a wistful and almost dreamlike denouement, with Geum-ja grasping for a last fleeting chance at redemption, we're left with haunting, delicately-wrought images of serene beauty and sadness.


There are several fascinating closeups of the remarkable Yeong-ae Lee as she runs the gamut of emotions with impressive depth. One that's particularly striking comes near the end, when her face twists into a masklike rictus of mindless, sadistic glee. Hardly the typical action heroine, her anger is expressed in messy, kinetic bursts. There is one thrilling sequence, however, in which she fights off two attackers hired by Mr. Baek (Ha-kyun Shin and Kang-ho Song of SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE) in a snowy alleyway at night, and for a brief moment is given full cinematic awesomeness by Park Chan-wook.

Disc one features two commentary tracks in which Park is joined by actress Yeong-ae Lee and his art director, and a third with film critic Richard Pena. Disc two is virtually identical to disc one, except that it contains what is described as the "Fade to White" version of the film. Here, after a brief introduction by the director, we see his original intent to slowly drain the color from the film during its running time until finally the last twenty minutes or so would be completely black-and-white. Park himself had trouble deciding whether or not to go with the idea, which he'd been considering as far back as the first film in the trilogy, so it's not exactly what I'd consider his "original vision" of the film. But it's an interesting "what-if."

Disc three begins with a "making of" featurette and an electronic press kit with various goodies. These are followed by technical featurettes, director and cast interviews, deleted scenes, a look at the film's successful showing at the Venice Film Festival, trailers and TV spots, and a poster gallery. "Get Together" shows how many of the actors from the first two "Vengeance" films returned to appear in this one.

All three films are in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 DTS and surround sound. Language is Korean with English and Spanish subtitles. In addition to the previously-mentioned extras, the set comes with a 32-page booklet of essays by Eli Roth, producer Don Murphy, stunt-coordinator John Kreng, Palisades Tartan's Rick Stelow, and filmmaker Susan Montford, and is richly illustrated with full-color photographs. All in all, this set turned me into a Park Chan-wook fan and continues to make me giddy with cinematic joy each time I rewatch these amazing films.


It's been said that LADY VENGEANCE lapses into the conventional by having a one-dimensional bad guy devoid of the usual shadings. I think it's good that Park ends the trilogy by finally giving us a bastard who clearly and richly deserves his punishment, which serves as an uneasy catharsis for the viewer as well as the story's participants. Still, their satisfaction is short-lived and brings not happiness, but merely another level of spiritual uncertainty that they must continue to deal with. If Park hadn't touched on this aspect of revenge and explored its consequences, the trilogy begun by SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and OLDBOY would have been incomplete.

VENGEANCE TRILOGY (SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE/ OLDBOY/ LADY VENGEANCE) -- DVD review by porfle

VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/23/17

 

It sounds like they put all their eggs-ploitation elements into one basket with the title VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST (aka "Vudú sangriento"), but this wonderfully awful 1974 Euro-horror potboiler, now available on Blu-ray from The Film Detective, is actually pretty short on exorcism (there isn't any) and black people (two of them are actually white actors in dark body makeup). I guess VOODOO WHITE NON-EXORCIST just didn't have the same ring to it.

They didn't skimp on the voodoo, though--the opening flashback sequence, which is revisited several times throughout the film, was filmed in real Caribbean locations such as Jamaica and Haiti, and there's a frenzied voodoo ceremony during which the beautiful Kenya (Eva León) is beheaded.  After everyone tosses her noggin around like a beach ball at a rock concert, her lover Gatanebo (Sergio Leone regular Aldo Sambrell) is entombed alive as punishment for their illicit love. 

Kenya turns up again centuries later, reincarnated (sans body makeup) as Silvia, assistant and mistress to archeologist Dr. Kessling (Alfred May).  As fate would have it, the newly-unearthed mummy they're traveling with via cruise ship is none other than the undead Gatanebo, who not only stalks the ship killing descendants of those who buried him alive, but discovers his lost love right there on board with a new identity and complexion.

 

It's pretty much a shipboard retelling of THE MUMMY but with voodoo instead of Egyptian curses.  The buff, bald, and now inexplicably Caucasian Gatanebo passes for normal most of the time but occasionally reverts back to mummy form with a makeup job that resembles crinkled papier-mache', whereupon he either murders people or pokes them with his golden asp-ring to make them his slaves. 

He kills a bartender descended from the man who beheaded Kenya, then leaves the guy's head on Silvia's pillow for her to find, Godfather-style, when she wakes up.  (He's like a cat bringing home a dead mouse to its master as a present.)  Later, he intercepts a visiting professor at the airport in order to assume his identity, squishing the poor sap under a steam roller.

Production values for this low-budget Spanish effort are fair to poor--direction and camerawork are slipshod at best (but with the odd flash of style now and then), the script is half-baked and filled with howlers ("In infinite time, what must happen happens"), and much of the acting and dubbing are below par.  SPFX and makeups are fake-looking but fun, including some man-to-mummy (and vice versa) transformations.

The Caribbean locations are nice, and the cruise ship is actually at sea during the on-deck exteriors, adding much to the film's ambience.  (Is it just me, or does the recurring island musical theme sound just like the first bars of "Ferry Cross the Mersey"?)  Animal lovers will find the killing of an actual chicken during the voodoo ceremony distressing.

The cast of characters can be a real hoot, especially an excitable lady named Mrs. Thorndyke who reads cards and tells the future (her visions about what's happening aboard the ship are totally accurate yet nobody takes her seriously).  Some of the exchanges between her and henpecked husband Alfred are hilarious:

"Alfred! I would like to get a sarcophagus like this to rest in eternally."
"I'll do my best, honey."

There's also an exotic dancer who's the very definition of "overripe" (I mean that in a really good way) constantly being courted by a world-famous hamburger tycoon, and a portly police inspector who makes like he's Hercule Poirot by deducing that since the first murder occurred at sea, then the culprit must be someone on board the ship.  "It's a shame," he opines after the hamburger guy is killed.  "The best hamburgers in the world."

After more mindnumbing mayhem, the finale has the inspector and his dangerously callow assistants tracking the mummy and the kidnapped Silvia to a cave where they manage to cause more chaos than they avert, leading to a startlingly abrupt ending that slams a sarcophagus lid on the whole shebang. 

The Blu-ray from The Film Detective is widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35 and Dolby digital sound.  English captions are available.  No extras.  The film itself is "in HD with a brand new 2K scan from a rare 35mm archival print.”  The picture quality is likely the best this film has seen since the 70s, although there's still a lot of blemishes here and there which I assume couldn't be helped. 

To be fair, many will find this film about as boring as...well, actually being a mummy.  But for those hardy souls who seek out bad movies to willingly subject themselves to, VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST may prove as pleasantly entertaining as it is woefully inept.



Release date: May 23, 2017

(Stills used are not taken from the Blu-ray disc)

VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle