All genres of suspense, terror, and horror will be reviewed by Richard Gary. His address to send preview copies supplied upon request to rbf55@msn.com.
There
is a place in the heart for certain people like myself when it comes to really
bad films. I grew up with the likes of those directed by Ed Wood Jr., TheCape
Canaveral Monsters (1960), and Robot
Monster (1953), all of which could be seen on television. In the 1980s,
with the advent of VHS cheapies and television shows like Elvira’s Move Macabre (1981-85) and Rhonda Sheer’s
USA Up All Night (1989), another
layer of bad films was leveled on an audience that either enjoyed the
experience or just didn’t get it.
Now there
is a new generation of bad cinema that has come to light with the medium of
digital filmmaking, giving us some pretty awful releases, like The Room (2003), which have achieved
cult status and are regular screened for adoring fans.
This
film is a bit different. Even though it was officially released in 2005, it was
shot on film with Rad’s own money over 22 years (starting in 1984), which would
certainly explain the jumpiness of the story, what there is of it. It has
gained fame over the years since 2007, finally being released digitally to the
public now. Sadly, the director, a Persian named Jahangir Salehi Yenganehrad
who self-penned himself John Rad, died in 2007, never seeing its success.
Melody Wiggins as Mina
Perhaps
because it took over two decades to make, it’s no surprise that a character
that is central to one part is not the focus of another. This happens a lot in
here. In the first half, it’s sort of a revenge narrative as a cute and petite
woman, Mira (Melody Wiggins, who is a physician now), whose fiancée is murdered
by a couple of bikers, sets off on a Ms.
45/ I Spit on Your Grave man-killing
spree. The second half is more about the fiancée’s brother, a police detective who
is also out to bring down some bikers; evil motorcyclers are the largest
percentage of “dangerous men” in the film, though not the only ones. The gang
is led by an almost albino surfer-type dude, known as – wait for it – Black Pepper
(Brian Jenkins, an actual surfing teacher; d. 2013).
The very
end is both a head scratcher and guaranteed to make you do one of those confused-dog-head-tilting-to-the-side
motions. Not that goals aren’t narratively necessarily completed, but…hunh? One
of the things I find interesting is how Rad manages to squeeze in some
unconnected Iranian aspects to the film, such as the wife of one of the main
characters being Persian (the first face the audience sees), and the
inexplicableness of having an actual belly dancer (Roohi) at a particularly odd
moment.
Brian Jenkins as Black Pepper
The
acting is pretty inconsistent. For example, sometimes Wiggins is spot on
emotionally, and others her emoting is terrifyingly unintentionally amusing,
which makes it all the more disturbing. For example, before her first kill, you
can see her face is full of rage, but it was more disturbing than anything
else. But when she smiles, she brightens up the scene. Some of the other actors
are just terrible: the bartender at the biker bar, the woman playing darts (who
has a large role than just that), Jenkins, for example. It’s actually the
bikers that come across as most genuine. And for once, they’re more realistic as bikers than, say, the romanticized
versions by Marlon Brando or Peter Fonda, or even Jack Nicholson.
Also,
there isn’t any gore, really, though some blood. Considering the number of
stabbings and shooting, as there is a nice sized body count, there is relatively
just a smidgen of blood. But nudity is another story. There’s plenty of female bodies
shown (and a few close-ups of the belly dancer’s upper torso shaking),
including one full frontal, and even some male nudity from the rear, not to
mention an obvious genital grab. Certainly enough to keep it interesting for everybody.
John S. Rad
The
extras include some of this and other film’s trailers (including Ms. 45), a 30-min documentary called “That’s
So John Rad,” a road trip about searching for things John Rad and ends up with
interviewing his daughter and grandkids; a 10-minute interview with the
Director of Cinematography of all 22 years named Pater Palian (also Iranian);
and a local access television show called “Queer Edge” where the loquacious and
stupefying John Rad is interviewed sorta-kinda by the host and Sandra Burnhart.
There is also a full-length commentary by genre authors Zach Carlson and Bryan
Connolly. Most of it is good, as they tend to discuss what you are seeing more
than behind the scenes goings-on. The only negative really is that the sound of
the film is turned on too high and sometimes interferes with what they’re
saying (though I’ll take that over when the film soundtrack is completely
turned off on commentaries).There is also a really nice booklet included, with
a reprint of a 2006 interview with Rad from the LA Weekly.
A
reason this film is so honored, considering it really is a terribly made albeit
extremely entertaining one, is because it is a prime example of (a) never
giving up dream, and (b) a pure example of DIY workmanship. Sure it’s rough
around the edges (and the middle, and the sides…), but you can see the
dedication, sweat, personal money and in the case of the wrecking of his
daughter’s car, personal property, in every frame. It could be considered an
anti-masterpiece.
Just
like there is the “Outsider” genre of music, meaning untalented musicians who
believe so much that they are creating important music (e.g., Wildman Fischer, Legendary
Stardust Cowboy, Drake) that it actually gives the songs credibility, this is
also true of Outsider cinema (such as Richard Kern and most of the
Transgressive subgenre). It goes beyond the “so bad that it’s good,” to the
level of “so bad that’s it’s just bad, and thereby it’s so good.”
Honestly,
I would only recommend it for those with an understanding of this kind of
thing, and you may be surprised how many there are considering it tends to sell
out some shows by those in the know.
If you are one of those, you may believe that it can give even the classic
Outsider film The World Greatest Sinner
(1962) a run for its money.
Eddie
Murphy was correct in Delirious (1983): some people just don’t know when to “get the fuck out,” even when it’s not because
of ghosts.
After
a nicely done and creepy opening prologue, we meet young and in love couple Sam
(Lauren Watson) and Jason (Jamie Temple), who are on their way to her sister’s
family’s house in the woods. In real life, this is fun, in a horror movie, it
only leads to trouble.
Lauren Watson
When
they get there, the relations are missing, and the couple go for a swim on a hot
day in a cool pond. Again, normally fine, but in cinema world, watch out. He gets either bit by
something and now has a wormy thingy get inside his calf. Over the next 24
hours, it gets infected and worse. And they never do not the area around the house.
In the real world, we recently found a tick attached to my wife’s side, so we
went to Emerg at the local hospital to get it taken off cleanly. Not this
couple, no, they stay because it is dark outside and they don’t want to get
lost. With that and complications that follow, I would have been out the door
and taken the chance on the road. But, again, some people never know when to
leave. By the time they do, more than a day later, the car is disabled, natch. .
You
and I know it’s only going to get worse over time, and it progresses quickly,
but they still don’t leave as whatever it is from the water starts taking over
Jason; apparently, it only takes over males from the storyline. What, is it
because women are actually more logical and less macho, so whatever it is, is
attracted to stubbornness?
While
only taking place over a few short days that we never see them eat anything,
the film time seems a bit longer, as this is essentially is a two-person story.
After a year-long relationship, he is still stereotypically commitment-phobic,
and yet she stays with him, even during his decent into…whatever it is inside
of him making him become.
As
always, I’m not going to give too much of the story away, but its conclusion is
basically a train track leading in a single direction. And the coda doesn’t
really make much sense, as there is no intimacy between the couple in the time
we know them. You want details? See the film.
Most
of the movie is filmed well, with a some cinematic themes that recur, such as
zooming in during a series of jarring shots with each one a bit closer than the
previous: bam-bam-bam (not sure if I’m explaining this well). It’s effective
and not overdone, thankfully. Perhaps because much of it is shot at night in
low light or a florescent light is used, or perhaps for effect, the image tends
to be heavily on a yellowish hue side. Nothing wrong with that, just sayin’.
One nice aspect is how the sound is split, with the two main characters mainly
heard in either the left or right channel.
The
creature SFX is okay, though shown extremely sparingly (budgetary, I am going
to suppose), and the make-up effects are mostly good. The sores look extremely
well done, yet the vein lines that emanate from the wounds look like, well,
make-up.
The
acting is…decent (Watson fares much better than Temple), though it’s the
writing that is a bit on the weak side, honestly. It’s hard to feel empathy for
the characters, though not for anything they do or don’t do, and that’s where
the story line is lacking. It’s a conundrum of being both wordy (i.e., dialogue
heavy) without investing the viewer into it (well, this one, anyway). Part of
that is due to the characters stay past the point of reality. There are just
too many times when credulity is past, jumping
the shark past the willingness of suspension of disbelief tipping point.
The
extras are a 13-minute meh gag reel
called “A Peek Between the Takes” that mainly focuses on the errors behind the
camera more than in front, a too-long at (23 minutes) one-camera interview with
the Director, Doucette, and producer (and seems like co-director) Ashe Morrison,
two trailers, and some other company trailers as well. Rather than the
interview part, listen to the audio commentary track with both Doucette and
Morrison, which is a bit more interesting.
Did
I enjoy the experience. Yeah, it was a fun 82 minutes. It’s important to note
that it’s the director’s first feature, and often those are the “learning
moments” releases. Remember, even Francis Ford Coppola started with Dementia 13 (1963). Perhaps his next
will be that much better!
Of
all the strange exploitation subgenres that have arisen (e.g., girl gangs,
women forced into a life of crime), one of the weirdest and most violent
towards them is the girl-in-prison one. While there are such films that predate
modern exploitation/sexploitation, it came to popularity in the late ‘50s after
the birth of rock’n’roll brought the fear of a world of juvenile delinquents,
and showed the degradation of the sex. That being said, the bar was upped a
notch in the ‘70s with the popularizing of the next level up, women in prison camps. They had lovely titles like The Big Bird Cage (1972), Love Camp 7 (1969), and the most
infamous being Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS
(1975), which led to a series with essentially the same character played by the
powerful Amazonian screen presence of Dyanne Thorne.
The
formula for the genre is exceedingly similar: women get physically and mentally
abused (men get tortured and/or emasculated), and at the end, usually with the
outside help of men, the prisoners rise up and kill their tormentors. If you’re
familiar with this kind of film, I am really not giving anything away. Even if you are not, it’s pretty obvious early on.
Malisa Longa is Helga
Taking
place in a South American dictatorship, this is actually a French production,
with Patrice Rhomm at the helm, using the pseudonym Alain Garnier; he directed
genre films under a few different names during the 1970s. The hand is played
heavily from the start, as the country’s dictator condescendingly proclaims to redheaded
Helga (Italian actress Malisa Longo) that she is a woman, so naturally she
doesn’t understand politics (ironically I am watching this as the
Hillary/Bernie race narrows down). He is also massaged by the only other woman
in the room, who is also the only Black person present, as he smokes his stogie
(no, his cigar...Jeez!).
But
then again, Helga is administered to in a full frontal shower (she is nude
often). But her male lover is a Che-looking wannabe. The love scenes are solid
soft-core porn, and are shot like the Euro style of the harder version, replete
with cheesy music consisting mostly of horns. No surprise as Rhomm also did
some hardcore directing under the name Homer Bingo (kid you not).
The
locus moves to the castle/camp for political prisoners at about 15 minutes in,
and all the captives are not only women, but quite lovely, of course. It is
there that the brutality begins with a kind of nondescript rape scene where the
woman tries to fight off the attacker by mostly keeping her arms stretched out
to her sides and throws her head back and forth.. She later complains to her
compadres, who blame her for it (can you tell this was directed by a man?),
that they are being forced to “let those stinking swine make love to us.” Whaaaaaa?
One
of the women has a dubbed thick (fake sounding) New York accent: “Shut yer
trap! You beddah not tawk,” she says in a high-pitched, nasal voice. Later one,
the one black woman of the group will show to have a very deep, Southern
accent, y’all. Their “uniforms” are
overcoats with nothing underneath, and knee-high leather boots, some with high
heels, obviously all the better for doing hard labor. Helga also has a set
series of clothing, such as a thin blue bathrobe, and a combo silk red top and
tight leather pants. Sure there is sometimes a random lingerie item, but it’s
pretty steady.
Patrizia Gori as Elisabeth
Joining
the crew is the redheaded daughter of the rebel leader, Elisabeth (the lovely
Patrizia Gori), who naturally is surly and you know is going to lead an
uprising, if her character lives that long (I’m not saying).
There
definitely are some questionable moments of illogic, such as when we see a
guard pacing in front of the six feet of caged door to the room where the (naked)
prisoners sleep, yet one walks over to another bed to ask about Elisabeth, who
has been selected by Helga as her new lover. Where is the guard in all this? It’s
not like he has much to do other than watch for movement. Also, while this is
supposed to be the subtropical South American back-territory, it’s obviously European
woods, and castle (supposedly built by a French landowner). This is typical of
these films, where you have to suspend a few gold coin of disbelief, but then again,
noticing these kinds of things are part of the fun.
After
a gang rape and thrashing, Elisabeth quickly falls for one of the guards (Richard
Allen, aka French adult actor Richard Lemieuvre), who is a friend of her
father. A relationship develops quickly and sends Helga into jealous rage.
Compared
to Ilsa, Helga is hardly as fearsome, as she is often talked back to by her
soldiers, lovers, and even prisoners. Longo is attractive, yes, but she is not
as intimidating a presence as the wild-eyed Thorne. Sure there are whippings
(clothed), manacles, and some rapes (all but one off-sceen), but the sheer
torture porn and castrations of Ilsa are
not present (nor is Uschi Digard, but I digress…).
I
won’t press the point about the ending, which is left on a curious freeze-frame,
but it had me truly laughing that it lasted for about two minutes, while theatrical
Wurlitzer music swirled. Talk about a dichotomy!
After
the film, wait a bit as there are some deleted scenes from the original print,
mostly due to either restrictions by censors or just bad quality negatives. The
only other extra is the film in its original French (which I did not watch).
As
these kinds of films go, while harsh to the naïve viewer, compared to many of
its subgenre mates, it’s actually quite mild. The Linda Blair 1974 television
film Born Innocent was more shocking.
Yeah, this is vile and violent, but in a matter of degrees, it’s not as
hardcore as many of the others.
But
was it fun to watch? Well, honestly, rape scenarios have never been a fave, though
quite prevalent in this oeuvre to justify the actions of the last act, but as a
whole, this was a good viewing. As this is the first time this film has been
released on DVD in North America, adding this to the canon is the historically
right thing to do, as well.
To
be honest, I don’t watch much mainstream television, but I did see the pilot of
a program called “The 100” where a group of teens who grew up on a giant
spaceship are sent down to an abandoned Earth as punishment, and have adventures,
often horrific. Despite this, however, it was more soap opera than sci-fi, with
terrible writing and not exactly outstanding acting.
This
film is a minimalist version (i.e., micro-budget) of a similar story, but taking
only the journey itself as its motif. At some previous point in history, Mars
was colonized by the Earth, and everyone left the Earth (as far as we know;
there is little in backstory). Now, three 30-year-olds are chosen to go back
and join previous trios to help rescue the planet, with a load of cargo, some
Mars stuff like ores, and a lot of questions to them, as Earth is a mystery as
far as our travelers go.
Greg Earnest
Marshall
(Greg Earnest) is a family man with an expectant wife at home on Mars, and
definitely a macho man who does push-ups for stress, a need to deem himself as
a “leader” and inflicted with some masculinist bullshit (haven’t they figured that
out by whatever year this is supposed to be?). In today’s world, he would be a
Republican.
Vivian
(Casey Dillard) is a more feminist model, being strong and caring, but focused.
Last is the more emotionally fragile Dawn (Meaghin Burke), who comes from the
same district as Vivian; if I read the subtext correctly, she and Vivian are lovers.
In addition, as Just neither here nor there informational FYI, in real life Burke
is married to Earnest.
Casey Dillard
There
are various timelines used and intertwined. The first is before the mission, in
the form of the stated application videos; that’s probably not the correct term
for their time, but as all futuristic sci-fi is really about the present, I’ll
go with it; it looks like they’re sitting in front of a camera, answering questions.
The another timeline is soon after takeoff, and another is further along the long journey from Mars to Earth, which
will take a whole week. A week! To get from Mars to Earth! In actuality, if they
could do this in a week, there’d probably be weekly shuttles. The distance is 249
million miles, which means they would have to average 1.5 million miles an
hour. But I digress… Sometimes it’s a bit confusing to distinguish which is
which time zone, so there are clever ways they keep the viewer in on it, be it
a limp or a head Band-Aid. That was a good choice.
While
this is more of a psychological study, there is still a sinister element, in
that thanks to some of the cargo, three astronauts are having very vivid
hallucinations, usually playing on their fears of the loneliness of their
situation, ego, creatures, or fear of something going wrong with the ship in
the middle of nowhere.
Meaghin Burke
I
understand the suspension of disbelief, and I’m okay with that, especially when
confined to a micro-budget. That being said, there are a few things that made
me go “hummm.” For example, those audition videos. If the population was
limited and living under a dome, especially in a time in the future that was
supposed to be that advanced, odds are the government would probably be much stricter,
and there would probably not be any aspect of the applicants’ lives the
government would not know about. The NSA now is keeping tabs on the multitudes
through communications systems, and there are CCTV cameras in abundance.
Imagine in a confined space where any disruptive action could cause a hole in
the dome and instant death for everyone. There would be extreme monitoring, and
lack of democratic ideals, most likely. The Mars-based government is not
discussed at all, though the project coordinators seems devious and creepy.
For me,
my interest was strong in the duality of technology. For example, one of the
characters has an actual book and the other two tease her for not using digital
(I find it hard to believe that books would be permitted on whatever spacecraft
took the population that far, when digital books are no weight). Also,
considering the advancement of the future, the only computers we see are what look
like mini-iPads. Yes, characters say “close lights” rather than physically turning
them off, but there doesn’t seem to be much technology around, other than a
computerized voice giving information, usually as a background or in times of
danger (“Warning Will Robinson! Warning!”).
There
are a lot of questions I have, and actually I think not having them answered is
the correct thing. For example, how large is the colony on Mars, a smaller
planet than Earth; what kind of government is there; how many people have gone
back to Earth before them and how many people are now on our planet (obviously
more than a few). As for the condition of the Earth that they are reaching? Not
gonna give a clue, but my imagination went wild while watching, which is good.
The
acting is actually quite good for an indie film of this calibre, and I was
bemused at the occasional slipping in of Southern accents – they all do it – as
this was filmed in West Point and Tupelo, Mississippi.
While
there are other flashes of characters, mostly through tapes of people who have supposedly
gone before them (I worked for large corporations, and I am suspicious of all official
company communicates, quite honestly), basically this is a three-person story
(and some hallucinogenic ones), and it holds together well. It is not as much
an action packed Star Wars-level kind
of thing, but there is some well-paced moments, more along the timing of
something like Alien (actually, I
found the first Alien kind of slow
moving, with the occasional excellent moments).
The
extras are a decent commentary with director Payne and actor Dillard (who lets
her accent ease in more) and the film’s trailer. Payne comments that there are
more featurettes at the Facebook page.
So I
guessed the ending in about three minutes. Happily, I was wrong, even though I
still like my idea, I’m glad they went in a different direction. That’s a good
sign about this Boston-based production.
What
I especially like about the film is the dichotomy of what makes a monster. Is
the possibility that a man is a werewolf and slicing-and-dicing people (mostly
women, it seems), a person who is a womanizer to the level of workplace
harassment, or the people who are convinced someone is a creature and then goes
about abusing that individual?
Let
me back up and do some ‘splainin’. Todd
(Laurence Mullaney) is a middle management douche office drone who is not
exactly dedicated to his wife Nicole (Jamie Lyn Bagley) or two kids, but is
more of a philanderer as is evidenced by the creepy opening scene. He gets no
stars for sympathy at this point, though that’s also questionable at any time.
He
is kidnapped by a punk rock band (!?) and brought to a closed warehouse. How
can you tell they’re a punk rock band? The leader wears a leather jacket over a
black hoodie, a studded belt, and one of those ‘70s-‘80s swinging chain things
hanging from his belt to his pants pocket. It isn’t until near the very end
that we find out actually they are a singing group, when they try to talk to a
security guard and they say they have the band’s equipment set up.
The hoodied
ringleader of this little excursion is Schafer (Michael Schantz). He knows Todd
from high school days, and in a previous full moon his younger sis was
butchered by what seems like a large animal. She was having an affair with
Todd, and now Schafer is convinced that Todd is the wolfman in sheep’s
clothing.
Helping
Schafer out is his band, the Brutalizers, including unpredictable and impetuously
hotheaded and violent Boston Clive (named for his accent; Zach Gillette), the
scared and out of his league Marcus (Bryan Manley Davis), and Schafer’s
girlfriend and lead singer, Dylan (Ria Burns-Wilder, who is also the singer for
the band In Rod in real life). With most of them, even though they are the “bad
guys,” they garner a lot of sympathy, especially Marcus and Schafer (okay, so
let’s call them anti-heroes),
The
warehouse set, filled with a chair and clear plastic dropcloths, looks more
like it could be from American Guinea Pig
(2014), A Serbian Film (2010), or perhaps
even Reservoir Dogs (1992), for which
there is a certain kinship of elements. Its simplicity helps the viewer
concentrate more on the story than on the surroundings, which is a nice change.
It’s also roomy enough to give both a feeling of claustrophobia and yet a false
sense of freedom, without restricting the crew to a corner.
If
you’re worried about me giving anything way, rest assured I’m not one to offer
much towards spoiler alerts, even when I want to discuss them badly. Suffice it
to say that things go unanticipatedly bumpily, as they tend to do in any film
where there one group holds a person or persons hostage.
Most
of this film is more of a psychological thriller, as alliances dally, fear and
anger is a constant on both sides of the action, and as I said, the viewer
begins to wonder who is the true monster(s). Rest assured all will be known. Without
giving away anything, the ending reminded me a bit of a story from an old Eerie or Creepy magazine with a similar story ending, which often relied on
a Richard Matheson-esque twist.
Most
of the acting in the film is quite good. I’ve said in previous blogs that I am
a fan of Bagley, who has a good sense of line reading and a keen way of
expressing “Are you outta yer fuckin’ mind?” sentiments. Her role is more of an
extended cameo, but she makes her scenes stand out. Mullaney does an excellent
job as the focus of this group of amateur vigilantes, making the audience
wonder whether to hate him or pity him, but he definitely makes it hard,
because whether this band of outlaws is right or wrong, Todd’s a tool.
The
standout for me, though, was Schantz. As the situation spirals further and
further out of control, the intensity he projects come off as real, rather than
cartoonishly over the top, even when the action is extreme. Nice job.
The
effects are… well, here is where I don’t want to give anything away. The blood
and gore look great, and it does please. That they use appliances rather than
digital is a nice touch and earns bonus points. Let’s leave it at that for now.
The
music by Yuppicide is excellent, of course, but the standout for me was the
music over the final credits by the Dick Punchers, in actuality Ria
Burns-Wilder and her band, In Rod. They do a hysterical song called “The Dick
Punchers’ Anthem” that is straight out of old school punk, and is guaranteed to
make you both gird your loins and laugh throughout (e.g., “If you eat my
falafel / I’ll punch you in the dick… / Oi! Oi! Oi!”).
Lots
of extras are included, such as a decent director’s commentary (also one of the
executive producers, Nicholas Papazoglou, who unfortunately is hard to hear as
he’s not close enough to the mic), a deleted/trimmed scene that I’m glad they
too out because it gives too much information, “Tearing Back the Skin: A Look
at the Making of Sheep Skin” which is
11-minute featurette about the SFX and is interesting, and the 12 minute 2007
short with the same name on which the film is based (also by Spieler; only
Mullaney appears in both, in the same role) that is worth the watch. Also
included is a second version of the film, but this time in Black and White,
including an intro by Spieler to explain why. The only thing missing is the
usually included long list of trailers of Unearthed Films, but probably due to
lack of space considering how much is already included.
This
is a meat and potatoes kind of film that is well written and shot on a
shoestring budget, a decent cast, and well pace and put together. To be honest,
I felt a bit impatient watching it through to the end because I wanted to know if
my guess at the ending was correct. When I realized I was wrong, I sat down and
watched it again (yes, this time in monochrome), and then I heard the
commentary, which is only available in the color version. After spending over
three hours in this film and its extras, it was still enjoyable.
Rumour is that Roger Corman based his
motorcycle films on this one, though there is also a strong indication that DGB was influenced by the likes of Riot on Sunset Strip (1967). However, I
question that, considering he directed The
Wild Angles in 1966, four years before this one. The mixture of topical
music artists and the independent crime/drug genres are blended seamlessly,
with one of the main characters being the throaty Ako played by pop star Akiko
Wadda. She stands nearly a head taller than most of the rest of the female
cast.
Mei (Meiko Kaji), who would become
the star of the rest of the series, is the leader of a bunch of tough women
called the Stray Cats (or Alleycats, depending on your translation). She
dresses what you might imagine Peggy Lipton wearing on “The Mod Squad,” (1968-73)
or Pam Grier in Foxy Brown (1974), such
as a loose fitting brown suede pants suit. In other fashions, there are a lot
of multi-colored sunglass lenses, including blue, yellow and tan. Speaking of
which, I ask this as an honest cultural question, as I simply don’t know. Do
gangsters or motorcycle riders tend to wear tan pants in Japan? Or is it
supposed to reflect the uniformed worn by the film’s crime syndicate? More on
that later, but, ah, makes me wonder…
The exception in this crowd is Ako,
who dresses in leather as she drives a motorcycle, yet she still joins up with
the group. I’m not sure if the title refers to her or Mei, honestly, but then
again, I’m more concerned about the story in general than any specific thing
like that. When one is watching a foreign film, especially from an Asian
country, you have to accept that the translation into English is not going to
be exactly accurate, so you go with the action.
A right wing nationalist syndicate
comes into town (they dress like soldiers), and joins up with a male motorcycle
gang since their leader of the hog riders is the brother of the crime group capo.
The Don, as it were, looked familiar and then I realized it is Tadao Nakamaru:
he played Shephard Wong, in What’s Up
Tiger Lily? (1966). As in most Japanese gangster films, they are up to no
good. For example, they try to buy off a boxer to throw a fight, but thanks to
Ako egging him on, as well as Mei’s boyfriend being the one who convinced him
to throw it in the first place, he KOs the opponent. This leads to trouble since
the syndicate lost a lot of smackeroos, so they take it out on the b/f.
Hitting him with Aikido sticks, the
women come in and rescue him, and now the syndicate is after the ladies, as
well. One of the vehicles the syndicate drives, a Fellow Buggy, has an Ohio
plate, perhaps a nod towards Kent State University, which was still fresh on
the news? Okay, I won’t talk about that the plate is from 1961, especially since
on the back are two plates, from Florida and another from Texas. Perhaps they
were predicting the bushwhacking Bush brothers’ 2000 election. A bigger
question is why would a vehicle belonging to a nationalistic Japanese gang have
US plates?
Music has a much to do with the film,
mostly indirectly. For example, there is a Lot of jazzy sax playing over the
action, like many cool movies did in the States in early-to-mid-1960s to indicate
toughness, sexiness or socially Outsider action. Also Akiko gets to sing a
couple of numbers, one from a club’s stage, and the other in a more musical
film way, singing about how “girls are girls.” Another band at the club, which
is nowhere near as raucous as the Chocolate Watchband, is called Ox; no, there
wasn’t any sign of John Entwistle.
And in the realm of the senses of
stream of consciousness, here are some quick thoughts: there is a chase scene
in here, through subways and over walkways, and I must say it’s one of the more
silly ones I’ve seen , though not anywhere near as purposefully bizarre as The Blues Brothers (1980). The Ako character
is very butch, but this is 1970, so in one scene they have her drooling over
pretty dresses in a storefront window; gender politics, indeed. The ending,
especially the final shots, is right out of an Alan Ladd Western.
Overall, it was very ’60-‘70s Corman,
or more accurately reminded me of Jack Hill’s Pit Stop (1969), though not as gritty nor noir. It was a good ride,
and a fine place to start on the quintuple series.
Five minutes into this second in the
series, and I can already see four commonalities. First, there is, of course,
Meiko Kaji; second is disenfranchised
youth at a crossroads; third a Buggy, though different from the first film,
and; fourth is an almost immediate Coke product placement (in both films, pop
singer Akiko Wadda plays a female motorcycle rider; in this one it’s a cameo, where
she drinks a bottle at the beginning).
The gaggle group of early
20-year-old-or-so are poor and call themselves the Pelican Club, and share a
room in a poor, industrial part of the city; the junk yards and debris is
another element in common with the first film. Even though they like jazz, as
evidenced by the album covers that cover the walls of their second-floor shack,
they are less likeable than the Alleycats. They think nothing of driving dangerously
with an overcrowded Buggy cab, or shooting out the tires and kidnapping the
driver of a mysterious religious group (a stand in for the right wing nationals
in the first film).
At the core of the film is social
inequity, however. Our poor shackrats have a serious rivalry going with a group
of rich kids. They run each other off the road, or go to their abodes and wreck
it. The rich kids are pricks, no doubt, as is often portrayed in films from his
era, but so are the poor ones, and it’s hard to take either side (at the time,
most likely, the viewer would probably identify with whichever social strata
s/he was in).
One of the Pelicans is a gun nut, and
finds a treasure trove of two handguns and machine gun from World War II hidden
in a school yard (oy), and the machos of the group go try out their new toys
(to keep their heads expanding, as Lene Lovich may have said). One of them, the
hot headed one, dresses loosely like Clint Eastwood in his Spaghetti Western
mode.
And then one of the crew, who falls
for the equally mysterious driver, starts dressing smartly, and moves all the
Pelicans to a resort beach to train them for... Well, I ain’t gonna tell ya,
you’ll have to see it.
This one is a bit more imaginative as
far as theatrics go, with fancy (for that time) graphics, artistic editing in
little pieces, and even some “Pow” kind of overlay, like in the Batman series (1966). However, this one
moves at a much slower pace than the first, possibly because it is hard to
identify with these young’uns. They’re sort of like a mild version of the
groups from Lady in a Cage (1964) or
especially Hot Rods to Hell (1967).
When all hell breaks loose by the end, even then it is more the music that
makes one feel any emotion than the action.
Though I wasn’t crazy about this one,
it does fit in well for the canon of youth out of control genre that was
popular from the beginning of rock and roll, right up until the early 1970s
(arguably brought back again for 1995’s Kids,
if not 1979’s Rock and Roll High
School). It is okay for a laugh, as is much of the genre, and it fit
somewhat comfortably into the formula. That being said, I envisioned a
different ending, so in that way it made me happy.
Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (aka Nora-neko rokku: Sekkusu
hantaa)
Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe
85 minutes, 1970 / 2015
While we once again are introduced to
a variation of the female Alleycats girl gang in opposition to the male Eagles
group, this film tackles the social schema of race relations. Taking place in
Yokosuka, there a U.S. Naval base is located there since post-WWII, and
especially because both China and Russia are right around the corner (“I can
see Russia from my house!” said Tina posing as Sarah). The end result was a lot
of mixed race Japanese with both Caucasian and Black American fathers. These
offspring were treated about as well as Blacks were treated in the Deep South
in the 1950s, seen as unpure.
As we meet the two gangs, they both
start out somewhat on the same team, with Mako (Mieko Kaji) leading the ‘Cats,
and Baron (Tatsuya Fuji, who would star in In
the Realm of the Senses in just six years) heading the uber-macho Eagles.
Despite some co-mingling (i.e., sex) and sharing of drugs (hash and pot, from
what I could see), one of the ‘Cats turns down advances from an Eagle because
she is in love with one of the Japanese / Black sires. This infuriates the birdbrain
because (a) her love interest is mixed,
and especially (b) it isn’t him.
The poor guy is beaten to a pulp by
the Eagles, and he is defended by Kazuma (Rikiya Yasuoka, d. 2012), another
mixed-race guy in one of the worst fight scenes I’ve seen in a while. I don’t
think I’m giving anything away in that the filmmaker is obviously setting up
Mako to become a love interest with him.
Baron and crew decide to war against
the “half-breeds” because he doesn’t want them touching “his women.” But you also know that there will be hell to pay with
Mako and crew. As the leader of the ‘Cats, this is by far the coolest Kaji has
looked to date with long, flowing pants and wide-brim hat (again, reminiscent
of Pam Grier, who apparently was the model for what is “cool” in this films).
Of course, in a perverse sense of irony, the guys all drive around in U.S.
jeeps.
Yeah, the Eagles are definitely winners in the gene pool, not only
picking on people, as gangs are wont to do, but it’s always the entire group of
a dozen guys picking on a single one. No balls at all, but typical of the
mentality of these kinds of films.
But as much as this film is about
race, it’s also about gender, with the men being possessive of the women,
dealing in human trafficking to the “Harrys” (Westerners and Europeans), and
assuming all women are “bitches” (again, taken from the language presented).
But obviously, they underestimate our dear Alleycats. And you know it is going
to lead to a showdown at the ol’ corral.
While this feels like the most
complete of the films so far in the series, it is also a very unsatisfying
ending for me. I was expecting more of it than some posturing macho stupidity.
There was so much more that could have been done to make it complete, but this
was 1970, not 2016; if this were made now, after a span of 45 years of ever-stronger
women, this certainly would (and should) have a more meaningful ending.
One last comment is that, thinking
collectively again, there are some elements that these three films had in
common: first, women who drive motorcycles (the only one that does not stand in all five, as the last one
women are on bicycles, but I jump ahead); second, a vehicle driving down steps;
and third, lots of Coca-Cola placements. Sure, there’s a Pepsi sign in there
too, but it’s mostly Coke. The last is music. Lots of then-modern music with an
acid rock or blues touch. For live sounds, there is the girl pop group Golden
Half, made of equally Eastern and Western members, all singing in Japanese.
Nice touch considering the divide between cultures in the rest of the story.
With her wide-brimmed
Clint-Eastward-No-Name cowboy hat hanging over her back, Maya (Meiko Kaji) is
the head of the Yokohama girl gang to whom we are introduced even before the
credits, revenging a near rape the night before by a group of foreign sailors.
Joining them is another male gang,
the Dragons, and they take off, only to stop and harass two guys from out of
town who are apparently having car trouble. You feel sorry for these two as maroons until we learn that they are
actually good guys trying to sell 500 hits of LSD to pay for a boat to get an
American ‘Nam deserter buddy (as well as themselves) on a boat and outta Japan to
Sweden. And that is where the clash of the male gangs begins, with our ladies
in the middle.
How do the ‘Cats get involved? First,
by stealing the car with the hits, and then becoming sympathetic to their
cause. Then it’s them against the bad boy Dragons, led by the sidecar riding Jerry
Lewis (sans funny) looking Sakura (Eiji Go). No one seems to be able to hold on
to the drugs very long as it either gets lost, stolen, taken, or sold out from
under. Then there is the real head of the Dragon gang, a purple-obsessed and
wheelchair bound woman named Yuri (Bunjaku Han; d. 2002). Will she take the
sisterly side of the women in the gang? Will the bi-gender-segregated gangs
sort it out? Will the drug sellers and “deserter” get on their boat?
Well, it’s Japanese cinema, the Game of Thrones of its time, and you
never know who is going to live and die. I will tell you, however, despite the
lack of Coke logos (though Honda is prominently mentioned), there is the
inevitable scooter chase through the back alleys, ship yards and factories (as
well as restaurants). My, how cell phones would have changed these stories.
Over jazzy music that reminds me,
again, of Hot Rods to Hell and other
youth exploitation films from the period play over scenes of people running
around, or in Easy Rider (1969) mode
of montages of the gangs riding cycles, cut with weird editing, like the screen
split horizontally to show concurrent actions, or wiping across. This is both
imaginative (even if borrowed) and in the pre-digital days, not an overly easy
process.
There is also a lot of music in this
film; with so many scenes taking place in a nightclub, it gives the audience a
chance to see some live groups and singers lip syncing their songs, and even a
character or breaks into a song at an emotional point, as does the angst-lyrics
number by Kaji as she philosophies with the LSD dealer, Nobo (Tatsuya Fuji; his
name is shortened from “Nobody”). He and his friends also want to escape to the
West from the ennui that has set in on post-WWII semi-occupied Japan.
The language (translation) of the
film is interesting, with lots of uses of the term “chicks” and “rednecks,” and
other terms that were then hip/now outdated. How accurate it is done, again, I’m
not sure. I mean, there could be a Japanese slang term for women that would
make no sense translated directly; after all, would Japanese terminology
understand that “a tomato” at one time was a slang term for females? My guess
is the translation from the film is more Western cultural than literal.
But there is also a political aspect
to this one, too. With the Viet Nam war coming around the bend to a conclusion
in just a few years, and the pressure on by the counterculture, the topic was –
er – topical and hot. Various characters have definite opinions on deserters,
even if it was by the Yanks, who were also coming to an end of their occupation
of Japan.
This film, like many of the others,
has obviously been influenced by both the realities of post-wartime occupation
and possibly the Italian Cinema of Realism, because typically in this genre of
film, you never know who is going to live or die, and there doesn’t necessarily
need to be a happy ending.
As the 1970s progressed, even though
in its early stages, the psychedelic counterculture and the cinema that
reflected it started appearing outside the borders of the contiguous United
States. This would also affect the releases of other countries, including the conclusion
of this series.
The hair is getting longer, and while
drugs are more discussed in in the previous film, with brief scenes of people
indulging, here it is a bit more prevalent. There is also quite a bit more of
the straight cultural hegemonic world meeting the equivalent of Japanese
hippies in a different clash of cultures, rather than Japanese vs. foreigners
(Yanks, etc.) in the earlier releases. Also added is an element of classism,
with our hippie troupe against the corporate entity mayor, and his loyal townsfolk
(though I wonder if it’s more loyal to the power, than the person, i.e., keeping
the status quo).
While on a romp in the city of Shinjuku
with her boyfriend, Furiko (Meiko Kaji) and Takaaki (nicknamed Ryumei; Takeo
Chii) are beset upon by a male biker gang, led by President (once again, Eiji
Go), and in the melee, the boyfriend stabs one of the bikers. He’s taken away
by a very straight capo, Ryumei’s father, who is the corrupt Mayor of a rural
town. Of course, Furiko is set up for the murder and is sent to prison, where
she escapes with her sister two months later (though it’s not explained why the sister was there). From the looks of
the fence, escaping from a women’s maximum security prison isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be, like presented in films like The Big Bird Cage (1972). Throughout the film, the police’s
presence is, to say the least, minimal, and usually laughable.
For me, it was interesting watching
their version of cool-meets-uncool, a general theme in much of the Roger
Corman-esque catalog at the time, such as The
Trip (1967). For example, a straight reporter interviews and photographs our
hippie anti-heroes in an abandoned VW bus, and he is played for laughs and
derision, rather than the counterculture subjects that are meant to attract the
audience demographic.
Though aiming for the youth crowd,
there is actually less music than in the previous four films. There is a MOR
band playing in a club at some point, and Kaji sings a mournful number acapella
in a cell, but there is one near-metal group that appears on the back of a
flatbed truck for some unexplained reason for one scene. They are called the
Mops in the story, though actually they are played by the Spiders, who sing in
English.
Our protagonists are not your stereotypical
hippies, though, full of sunshine and loving peace. These guys and gals are not
afraid to fight, or use knives and guns, as they are ready to use force to get
what they want, be it Furiko or vengence.
Furiko’s group, for once, is not
segregated by sex, but an equal number of men and women. However Gender
politics definitely have a hand; although the sexual revolution was in full
force, Feminism was in its nascent stages in the West, but hardly as much in
the East. As the earlier films showed, women could be strong and in charge, but
usually only if it involved other women (other than occasional bursts of
violence against Westerners). Here, we get to see the male leader of Furiko’s hippie
group, Piranha (Yoshio Harada) say about rescuing Furiko, “The men will think
it over tonight. Then we’ll decide.” Also, during an orgy scene put on for the
reporter and his photographer, the women get nude and the men wear shorts. Woof.
But getting back to the story, Ryumei,
who has renounced his hippie ways for the corporate entity of his father, is
none too pleased to see the escaped convict Furiko show up in his town of
Kurumi. While rejecting her, she gets kidnapped by the motorcycle gang that
attacked them in the first place, taking her to be locked in a barred cell at
the mayor’s palatial estate (of course, every mayor’s estate needs to have a
caged cell in the basement, donchaknow). While the series has moved away from
the tried-and-true motorcycle gang genre, it still has a prominent place in
this story, I’m assuming for consistency sake.
I found it amusing that the hippie group
(would it be fair to call them “gang” considering some of their actions?) hide
out at an old deserved mine area (ghost town) where, as is explained in the
story, Westerns are filmed – probably that is actually true – and you know at
some point there’ll be a shoot-out. Is it a spoiler alert when it seems so
obvious? Don’t worry, I won’t comment on the fallout, but again, being the
gritty ‘70s, with the Viet Nam war still raging just a few hundred miles away
and the Cold War around the corner, not to mention the complete
commercialization (again, lots of Coke, and even the name “Ryumei” is a product
brand that sells fancy tea sets, cups, and high-end tea itself) and
industrialization of Japan reaching point of no return, things are going to be
dire. The hippie lifestyle was viewed as a direction of “No Future” before the
Sex Pistols, so expectations were low and there was negativity worldwide just
beneath the day-go surface.
Meiko Kaji
Conclusion:
As for extras, there are mostly the trailers. However, what I found most interesting was a three-part program called ”Testimony of Outlaws: Faces of the ‘70s,” a Japanese documentary averaging 30 minutes apiece, one focusing on director Yasuharu Hasebe, and one apiece on actors Tatsuya Fuji and Yoshio Harada, all of whom talk about their collaboration on this series.
Yeah, this is an extremely enjoyable set
of films, and I am happy to have finally had the opportunity to see them, after
hearing about them all these years. They are also available in Blu-Ray, so you
know the images are crisp. Whether you are a fan of Japanese cinema (though I
would say more “crime drama” than “Samurai saga period piece” genres), that
period of angst-driven culture shock, or even as a film historian, there is a
lot to mull over. Besides, mostly they are entertaining stories, even with some
of the dated politics writ large.
