Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2013
Images from the Internet
These two films have some common threads. First, they are international cinema, from other sides of the world; second, they both deal with crime and punishment in the gangster genre; third, they are exceedingly graphic in their portrayal of violence and its aftermath, which you can tell from the titles alone. They make good companion pieces because they are so different in their approach and story, and yet have many overlapping themes.
Giallo Films / Jingai
78 minutes, 2010 / 2012
www.Giallofilms.com
www.MVDvisual.com
Both Friday and
The Cook, while unflinching looks at the mob for the time, they were
both relatively mainstream films that played in the theaters and though pushing
the envelope, had limits if they wanted to maintain a relationship with the
theaters. Day is 30 years later in
the post-torture porn era. The gloves are off, the appliances are on, and the
blood and body parts will separate.
Casino Crush / Five Star Productions
99 minutes, 2009 / 2012
www.MVDvisual.com
Images from the Internet
These two films have some common threads. First, they are international cinema, from other sides of the world; second, they both deal with crime and punishment in the gangster genre; third, they are exceedingly graphic in their portrayal of violence and its aftermath, which you can tell from the titles alone. They make good companion pieces because they are so different in their approach and story, and yet have many overlapping themes.
A
Day of Violence
Written and directed by Darren Ward Giallo Films / Jingai
78 minutes, 2010 / 2012
www.Giallofilms.com
www.MVDvisual.com
The Brits definitely have a history of ultra-violent
crime films, evident in the likes of The
Long Good Friday (1980) and The Cook,
the Thief, his Wife and Her Lover (1989). But there is a difference between
those and this one, other than those above both having Helen Mirren as the
female leads.
The story focuses on a very low-end gangster, Mitchell
Parker (Nick Rendell), who works for the mob as a collector of money owed. After
an extended sex scene with his wife, the next shot is of him on the morgue
table, still giving a Sunset Boulevard/William
Holden (1950) type of voice over. He had found an incredibly large sum of cash
held by one of his marks, Hopper (played by Giallo legend Giovanni Lombardo
Radice, who was in such classics as City of the Living Dead [1980], The Church
[1989] and Cannibal Ferox [1981], often under the pseudonym of John Morghen),
who he then murdered and took the cash. From there, things start falling around
him.
We watch as a number of people involved in the missing
money get beaten, tortured and… No, I’m not going to give too much away, but it
all shown in glorious and gruesome detail. This is to gangster behavior what Trainspotting (1996) was to addiction,
and Kids (1995) was to adolescence. If
the viewer is anywhere near squeamish, hopefully the title alone will inform
them, never mind the cover art shown above. The first two-thirds of the relatively
short film are hard to watch, even though there really aren’t many sympathetic
characters.
Keeping that in mind, the last third is a grand old
shoot-em-up with lots of collateral damage that everyone can enjoy who likes
these kinds of action things. Perhaps a bit more bloody than a Die Hard film, but it matches the
firearms.
If you’re taking anything I’m saying about the film as a
negative review, that is not how I mean it. Darren Ward does a great job of
directing in Guy Ritchie territory (without the humor). The camera angles are
sharp, as is the editing, and the color saturation is of earth tones, highlighting the oppressive and colorless
lives and to play up the “claret” as the blood is described more than once.
The story tries to justify Mitchell’s stealing of the
cash, hence the “redemption” in the catch phrase, but that does not reason out
his brutal killing of Hopper. For me it was one of the flaws of a very strong,
yet simple story at its core. There are no grand twists, no unexpected duplicities,
including the multiple double-crosses, just a grand meat and ‘taters tale.
Nuthin’ wrong with that.
The extras are plentiful. The Making Of documentary is as
long as the film, broken up into four segments. About half it is fascinating,
the other half you may want to zoom through here and there. But let me digress
here for a second. Much of the added footage is about Radice, who essential has
an extended cameo. Yes, I know he is a “legend,” but he gets first name credit,
and so much of the footage in the extras is about him; setting up for his kill,
showing how they made the fake neck for it, and quite frankly boring interviews
with him (mixed with some interesting comments by him). It seems a bit
obsessive to me. Yeah, I love those old Giallo films too, but c’mon. Okay, back
on track: other shorts include some extended scenes which are mostly good and
enjoyable, but rightfully taken out, especially the car ride with the big boss
and the schmuck underling.
I’m not sure if this is a commentary about modern British
society, or the government (as The Cook
was back when), but even if it isn’t deeper than the Platte River, it gets the
job done, with little budget that looks much larger on the screen. If you can
take realistic violence (as opposed to “cartoon” aggression of a Steven Segal
type), odds are this will be worth your while, even with the sometimes incredibly
thick British accents, mate.
Slice
(original Thai title: Cheun)
Directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri Casino Crush / Five Star Productions
99 minutes, 2009 / 2012
www.MVDvisual.com
Tai is an assassin for an underworld boss. He gets set up
and sent to prison for 10 years for wounding a cop, and while in the joint,
he’s told who to kill in there. However, after a few high-profile and bizarre serial
slayings that angers a politician, he’s taken out of prison and sent to find
the possible killer, who may have been a childhood friend.
The killings, which we get to see in full detail, are
carried out in quick, brutal fashion by a figure in a full and flowing red cape
and hood, carrying a large red rolling suitcase that will eventually house the
cut-up bodies (which we also get to see; the corpses, that is). The victims
seem random, though they are all despicable, including child molesters (a big
industry in Thailand, and I’m sure this is a commentary on that subject) and
spoiled, oversexed political scions. Though you would think someone walking in
a flowing bright red full-body cape and hood with matching luggage would be
easy to spot… I’m just saying…
Now, Tai is no magical Jet Li / Bruce Willis character,
he is more human with deep emotions and a girl friend who wants him to get out
of the business. He is promised if he find the killer in 15 days, a deadline demanded
by the angry politico, he will have his record cleaned and become a police
officer, working with his dyed white (you can see the roots) and wild-haired
police acquaintance.
We follow through with Tai’s investigation of his friend
/ suspect back in the village in which he grew up. We also follow the
progression of his friendship with a fey neighbor, who is constantly being
picked on and called variations of the “fag” word. For a while Tai joins in
with the taunting, but a bonding occurs. It is a brutal childhood for both, but
especially for Nut, who becomes his only friend.
Some of the characters of the film, such as the Don
King-wannabe copper, are a bit, well, perhaps not stereotypical, but definitely
over the top. Tai seems pretty standardized as a person, though more Jack
Nicolson in Chinatown than Van Damme
in everything. There are no martial arts, not an excessive amount of shootings
in the street, nothing blown up, and yet the story remains riveting.
For parts of the film, there’s a level of expectation,
which is rewarded. However, I did not see the reveal coming, and kudos for
that. Many times I’d watch a cop show and within the first five minutes know
who was the baddie, but not this time.
While the killings are disturbing, we’ve seen it all
before as limbs get blown off, heads explode, and knives plunge. In a “realistic”
film setting rather than the cartoonish Saw
or Hostel franchises, the grittiness
gives the violence a certain further edge, even with some ridiculous characters
(e.g., the white-haired cop). What disturbed me more, however, were the
convincing looks of the bodies after, and the extreme level of gay bashing that
runs throughout.
This is an incredibly well-made film, and beautifully
shot, and yet exquisitely painful to watch, as are many Asian films of this
genre. The horror is in the everydayness of the brutality. Sometimes the viewer
doesn’t know whether to look or turn away, not because of fear of the “boo!”,
but rather the transcendence of what violence truly looks like. I’m willing to
bet the ones who would have the most trouble viewing this would be those who
work in hospitals, ambulance drivers and the police, because it is so accurate
to that humanist side of rage. That is a complement to this film.
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