Taking Inventory as of July 4

In my last post (which was my longest ever), despite throwing in the kitchen sink, I still forgot two worthwhile films.

I saw Love and Honor tonight at the Roxie. This film was directed by Yôji Yamada and is the final part of his samurai trilogy. A few years back, I saw Hidden Blade, the second film in the series. I didn't think too highly of that one. The film I really want to see is Twilight Samurai, the first in the series.

Love and Honor was nominated for many Japanese film awards but I am ambivalent. At its core, it is a melodrama with a horrible happy ending tacked on. Shinnojo is a low level samurai and food taster for the local bigwig. He hates his job and is pretty obnoxious to his wife, Kayo. One day, he tastes some bad shellfish and is rendered blind. His loving wife stands by him even though his future is uncertain. Circumstances conspire to force her to ask Shimada, a high level samurai, to intercede with the castle lord to get Shinnojo an annual stipend, a sort of disability pay. Shimada agrees to help but not for free. Interestingly, the stipend is measured in pounds of rice and Shimada wants a pound of flesh in exchange. So Kayo whores herself, Shinnojo gets his rice allowance, and they settle into their new lives...until Shinnojo's loudmouth aunt says she's heard Kayo is about town with an unknown man. When Shinnojo uncovers the truth, he divorces Kayo and starts training to challenge Shimada to a duel. Up until this point, the film was mildly enjoyable but the film descends into predictability during the last third. First, Shinnojo beats Shimada in the sword fight. This despite being blind and a low level samurai while Shimada trained at a prestigious dojo in Tokyo. Not only that but Shinnojo doesn't even have a scratch. Finally, after telegraphing the ending 10 minutes in advance, Kayo returns as "the scullery maid." Of course, Shinnojo's heightened senses identify Kayo immediately by the taste of her cooking.

I have been planning on seeing Love and Honor for the past few weeks. Its had a long run at the Roxie but I forgot to mention it in my last post. Before I forget again, Viva (starring and directed by Anna Biller) gets a long 5 day run at the Red Vic from July 11 to 15. I saw Viva at the 2007 IndieFest and loved it. I don't get out to the Red Vic often even though it has great programming. It's not convenient compared to the Roxie and the Castro. Of course, PFA is a 15 minute walk from BART.

I've seen four films since my last inventory.

Tokyo Gore Police, Japanese with subtitles; (2008) - Hole in the Head
Lizzie with Richard Boone; (1957) - part of a Joan Blondell retrospective at PFA
Mad Detective directed by Johnny To; Cantonese with subtitles; (2007)
Love and Honor, Japanese with subtitles; (2006) - Official Site

2008 Hole in the Head

I have completed most of this year's Hole in the Head festival at the Roxie. Hole in the Head is self-described as "two weeks of horror, sci-fi and fantasy." I'm glad they didn't use the term "fantastic films" which irks me for some reason.

I saw 15 films but the festival isn't over even though the closing night film has screened. I guess some background is necessary. Most film festivals open on a Thursday night and close on a Sunday night. They run for 4 or 11 days. Why open on a Thursday? I don't know. Maybe they figure people will come out on a Friday without any encouragement so they line up the opening night film and party on a Thursday to attract more people. Indiefest followed this pattern for the first few years I attended. However, the problem with closing on a Sunday is that theaters like to program their regular films from Friday through Thursday. If there is a festival that ends on Sunday, it makes it difficult to program a single screen theater that week. Maybe for a true rep house, it is not as bad because they show a different film every day. However, the Roxie programs its two screens on a weekly schedule.

A few years ago, Indiefest started showing two days of extra screenings after the closing night. Originally, I believe they said they would show encore screenings of films that rated high in the audience choice balloting. In reality, I think they showed films that they could keep the prints for a few extra days. Striking a 35 mm or even a 16 mm print is expensive for independent film makers. Typically, they would only strike one print and if the film was scheduled for another festival screening, they would have to take the print after the last showing at Indiefest. However, if the film was not needed elsewhere, the filmmaker would allow it to be shown again on the Monday or Tuesday after closing night. Now, most films are digital and burned onto a DVD. In fact, I believe The Gene Generation was shown from the producer's laptop this year.

Indiefest (who are the same people as Hole in the Head and Docfest) have turned the closing night concept on its head. HoleHead "closed" on Thursday, June 12 but continues showing films until Thursday, June 19 and then in conjunction with the Primitive Screwheads, sponsor a live play until June 21, and finally show an additional two films on June 22. Even more strange is that Festival Passes were only valid for films through June 12. Typically, Festival Passes are good for all showing with the possible exception of Opening and Closing night.

Regardless of these scheduling irregularities, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the films.

Exte: Hair Extentsion; Japanese with subtitles; (2007) - Official Site
The Gene Generation with Bai Ling; (2007) - Official Site
The Machine Girl; Japanese with subtitles; (2008)
Mutant Vampires Zombies from the 'Hood with C. Thomas Howell; (2008) - Official Site
Summer Scars; (2007)
Homeworld; (2008) - Official Site
Trailer Park of Terror; (2008) - Official Site
Yaji and Kita; Japanese with subtitles; (2005) - Official Site
Wicked Lake; (2008) - Official Site
The Vanguard; (2008) - Official Site
Brain Dead; (2007) - Official Site
The Wild Man of Navidad; (2008) - Official Site
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer; (2007) - Official Site
Wasting Away; (2007) - Official Site
Tunnel Rats with Michael Paré and directed by Uwe Boll; (2008)

My favorite film by far was The Machine Girl. Honorable mentions are Exte: Hair Extentsion, The Wild Man of Navidad, and Wasting Away.

The Machine Girl was full of references to Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Or is it referencing the original Japanese material that Tarantino, in particular, pays homage to. Machine Girl is a tale of revenge. A boy is killed by a bully and his teenage sister (in plaid skirt and knee socks) avenges his death. So much more is added to that simple plot - the bully is the son of a Yakuza gangster and psychopathic mother. The girl is captured by the gangsters and has her left arm cut off. With the help of the mother of another victim of the bully, she obtains a machine gun prosthesis and wreaks havoc. That is very similar to Rose Magowan's character in Robert Rodriguez's half of Grind House. The Yakuza ganglord is named Hatori Hanzo which is the name of the swordmaker (Sonny Chiba) in Kill Bill Vol. 1 as well as a yakuza character Chiba played in Japanese films in the 70's and 80's. This description may give the impression that The Machine Girl is played straight up but it's a comedy as the violence is over the top and the character's so outrageous that you can't help but laugh. Among the loonier moments are the hero getting her arm burned with oil and tempura mix by a demure housewife, a Jean Paul Gaultier inspired brassiere with drills bits, a ritual where the boy has to drink copious amounts of his father's blood, and necrophilia. According to IMDB, Asami (the lead actress) used to be a porn star.

Choosing the runner-up film is a little more difficult.

As long as I mentioned Kill Bill Vol. 1, Exte: Hair Extentsion starred Chiaki Kuriyama (Gogo Yubari, Lucy Liu's mace-wielding protégé). Her role here couldn't be more different. She plays a happy-go-lucky, apprentice hairdresser. Things are going well for her until her ne'er-do-well sister abandons her daughter with her. The girl is the victim of child abuse and has some behavioral problems but aunt and niece become very devoted to each other. That story has probably been made several times (didn't Catherine Zeta Jone make a film similar to that a year or two ago?) but I've never seen one where the hair of a murder victim becomes possessed. Add in a creepy janitor with a hair obsession that works at the morgue who steals the body and things are looking good for a cult classic. The corpse's hair continues to grow at an incredible pace. The janitor clips the hair and sells them to beauty parlors as hair extensions but they (the extensions) are possessed by the spirit of the woman. The extensions kill the people that wear them. The janitor takes a vaguely pedophilic interest in the little girl and to make the circle complete he gives Gogo some extension which she attached to her niece. This is one weird film but not so weird that the plot is incomprehensible. The scenes with the marauding hair are fun and Kuriyama shows surprising versatility for young actress.

The Wild Man of Navidad was produced by one of the producers of Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Wild Man has the cinematography of a 1970's low budget film and it is set in the rural Texas town of Sublime on the Navidad River in Lavaca County. Based on an actual legend, the film revolves around a man who opens his land up for deer hunting. He knows that a creature lives down by the river but he needs the money to care of his invalid wife (who is being abused by his glass-eyed, Mexican, live-in caretaker). As the deer hunters disappear, the sheriff begins to suspect the truth. The sheriff leads a posse to kill the beast. This film is all about the mood which was surprisingly understated for a horror film. The taciturn husband shows every flavor of introverted angst as he confronts the various situations. That tubby, little Mexican keeps the bizarre factor high. It was a nice touch that the two converse in Spanish while the husband speaks English with a slight Texas drawl. The beast's costume is laughable. It looks to have deer antlers for hands and wears pelts that look a rabbit skin jacket. At the end, they show a close up of its face but technical difficulties made the video skip so I could really get a good gander. It had tusks but I can't recall much else.

Wasting Away injects an original idea into the moribund zombie movie formula. The premise of the film is showing the action from the zombies' point of view. Four young people are hanging out a bowling alley. Nearby an Army facility is testing biological weapons. They test a drug by injecting it into a subject and he promptly turns into a zombie. Cut to the chase - that drug gets mixed into the ice cream maker at the bowling alley and the four people eat the ice cream. They get the worse ice cream headache ever. They think they are normal but in fact they are zombies. They view each other as unchanged in appearance but the rest of society see them as George Romero standard issue zombies. They run into a soldier who has been exposed to the drug and the five of them try to work their way through Los Angeles even though "everyone else" has been infected by the drug. At this point, the film milks the reverse perspective for everything it is worth. This film is a comedy and it gets off a few zingers. My favorite is towards the end of the film after the zombies realize they are zombies. They discuss their options. One person suggests that they can get night jobs and blend in the fringes of society. The response is "We're zombies not illegal immigrants." The film was low budget but inventive and funny. One of the main characters looked a lot like Seann William Scott.

I also enjoyed Trailer Park of Terror and Tunnel Rats. Trailer Park is one of those horror films where an area is haunted and some kids wander in. The ghosts can kill the kids but at the end of the film, the site is an old abandoned site. In this case, the ghosts are the trashiest poor white trash ever portrayed and the kids are troubled youngsters coming back from a Christian retreat. The has some gusto and the beautiful Nichole Hiltz to raise it a notch above the norm. Tunnel Rats is a dark combat film set in the tunnels under the Vietnam jungle. Most of the film takes place in dark tunnels with US soldiers and Charlies crawling around trying to kill each other. It gets confusing but there are enough grisly death scenes to satisfy anyone - hanging, punji sticks, drowning, sharp stick through the neck, and a particulary effective suffocation scene finale. Jane Le as the VC woman raising her kids in the tunnel delivers the standout performance; maybe because she is the only woman.

Yaji and Kita is about a pair of gay samurai that jumps through time and reality. It was way too incomprehensible for me. Wicked Lake was boring and unoriginal. Somehow it made scenes with beautiful, naked, women engaged in lesbian antics boring. It did have the obligatory felatio emasculation scene. I don't know much about rape but my guess is that putting your penis into an unwilling partner's mouth is not a good idea. Horror films have taught me that if nothing else.

On June 22, Hole in the Head is presenting Tokyo Gore Police by the same director as The Machine Girl. I'm going to try to make it. As I mentioned, Primitive Screwheads is producing Kentucky Jones and the Carpet of Doom - a live spoof on Indiana Jones.

Taking Inventory as of June 14, Hole in the Head, & Citizen Kane

The Hole in the Head Festival ran June 1 to 14. I saw 11 programs; some good, some bad. All showings were at the Roxie.

Hole in the Head Film Festival:
Stagknight; (2007) - Official Website
Blood Car; (2007) - Official Website
Aachi & Ssipak; Anime; Korean with subtitles; (2006) - Official Website
Hazard; Directed by Sion Sono; Japanese with subtitles; (2005) - Official Website
The Thirst; (2006) - Official Website
El Muerto; Starring Wilmer Valderrama; (2005)
Special; Starring Michael Rapaport; (2006) - Official Website
Bad Bugs Bunny; Curated by Dennis Nyback; - Compilation of Warner Brother Cartoons
Murder Party; (2007) - Official Website
The Man from Earth; (2007) - Official Website
Automation Transfusion; (2006) - Official Website

Hole in the Head Film Festival Short Films (shown before some of the main features):
Night of the Hell Hamsters; 16 minute short film; (2006) - Official Website
Of Darkness; 21 minute short film; (2006) - Official Website
Splitting Hairs; 16 minute short film; (2007) - Official Website

In case you are curious, El Muerto has an official website at www.elmuertomovie.com but it's down whenever I visit it. If you are interested, you can visit the official website of El Muerto (the comic book version).

Bad Bugs Bunny was a program that included 10 uncensored cartoons that were modified or pulled from distribution due to their original racist, sexist or otherwise offensive comment.

Let's see if I can remember all ten. Some of the synopses are from Nyback's homepage.

Hare Ribbin (Bob Clampett 1946) This is the original version of this cartoon with the homicide ending that was changed to suicide a month or so after it came out. - Wikipedia Entry

He Was Her Man (Friz Freleng 1937) A long suppressed cartoon due to it's extreme violence toward women.

Sioux Me (Ben Hardaway, 1939) Native American stereotypes galore. The rainmaker must produce rain or the chief will slit his throat.

Let It Be Me (Friz Freleng, 1936) Caricature of Bing Crosby as a woman abusing cad. He successfully sued Warner's to stop the showing of this cartoon.

Ali Baba Bound (Bob Clampett, 1940) Porky Pig battles stereotyped Arabs. This includes a tasteless joke about a suicide bomber.

Tin Pan Alley Cats (Bob Clampett, 1943) An all black character cartoon starring a caricature of Fats Waller. - Wikipedia Entry

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (Friz Freleng, 1944) Japanese bashing from WW II - Wikipedia Entry

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (Bob Clampett, 1943) Snow White set in Harlem with a bebop soundtrack - Wikipedia Entry

Wise Quackers (Friz Freleng, 1949) Daffy Duck becomes Elmer Fudd's "slave."

Wholly Smoke (Frank Tashlin, 1938) Porky Pig has hallucinations after smoking a cigar. Exactly what was in that cigar?

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Tin Pan Alley Cat were pulled from distribution in 1968 but I distinctly recall seeing Tin Pan Alley Cat in the mid-70's on Saturday morning TV when I was a kid. Actually, I remember 9 out 10 of the cartoons from my childhood. I can't with certainty that I saw Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs before but seemed familiar to me.

Nyback was present to introduce his program and take questions after the show. He mentioned the URL for a site that catalogs the edits and cuts from the Looney Tunes. The URL is www.looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/. By the way, note that the official title is Looney Tunes and not Looney Toons.

Out of those 11 programs, I can only recommend four. I recommend:

Hazard - Great Japanese film about a dissatisfied Japanese college student that drops out and goes to New York City because it is one of "the most dangerous places in the world"; i.e for some excitement. He falls in with another Japanese expat and a Japanese-Chinese drug dealer that sells snowballs (ice cream laced with ecstasy). The three of them become modern day cowboys before meeting a tragic end. The protagonist returns to Japan a changed man. The black comedy reminded me of Peckinpah.

Blood Car - Hilarious film about a (not to distant) future where gasoline is $30/gallon and no one can afford to drive. Archie (an earnest, vegan, school teacher) spends his nights tinkering on an engine that will run on wheat grass juice. He is unsuccessful until he accidentally cuts himself and some blood gets mixed with the juice. Eureka! Denise runs a "meat stick" stand next to the place where Archie buys his wheat grass. When he drives up in his car, Denise goes into full gold-digger mode. She gets so excited by riding in his car that she gives him a blowjob within minutes of getting in the car - while he is driving! That is just a precursor because Denise is a full-on sex freak that would make Rick James blush. Her sexual deviance awakens a dark side in Archie. To slake his sexual desires, Archie needs to feed the blood car so that Denise will remain interested. Archie progresses from killing small animals to making use of the recently deceased to killing people. All the while, the Feds are monitoring Archie and his blood car. The film is low budget but audacious as only independent film can be. Two gags made me laugh out loud. Anna Chlumsky (best known for her role in 1991's My Girl with Dan Aykroyd, Macaulay Culkin, and Jamie Lee Curtis) plays the wheat grass vendor that lusts after oblivious Archie. She is so desperate she draws her fantasies on paper which include her performing fellatio on Archie with the thought balloon "Your cum tastes like tofu." The other joke is when crass Denise rebuffs Archie's attempts to get closer to her. She says to Archie "Imagine me with a taco in my mouth. Think about that while you write haikus about my box."

Murder Party - Christopher is a lonely guy that sees an advertisement for a "murder party" on Halloween. He bakes a pumpkin loaf and heads over to the warehouse the "party" is being held. What he encounters is five artists that have planned the ultimate performance art piece - the murder of the anonymous guest of honor. He's bound & gagged while awaiting his execution. His fate would be sealed except for the dysfunctional quintet that have captured him. Sidenote - two of the artists are dressed as characters from two of my favorite movies. Lexi is dressed as Pris (Darryl Hannah's character) from Blade Runner. Another character (I cannot recall his name) was dressed as a baseball gang member from Walter Hill's The Warriors - "Can you dig it?!" Although a black comedy, slasher film, Murder Party is, at its core, an indictment of the pretentiousness, pettiness, and absurdity of the modern-day art world.

Special - Michael Rapaport plays Les, a loser who volunteers for a medical study for a test drug that will improve his confidence. Soon after starting the medication, he notices he has "super power" like his heroes in the comic books he reads. The only problem is that he doesn't have super powers; the drug is affecting his ability to comprehend reality. He thinks he is levitating or transporting himself through solid walls but everyone else sees falling on his face or running full speed into the wall. He even explains the blood and bruises as side effects of using his super power. The doctor prescribing the medication urges Les to stop taking the medication but Les knows the authorities have the office bugged and can communicate telepathically. He hears the doctor's real message - keep taking the pills to keep your new powers. As his superhero exploits (randon assaults and other bizarre behavior) begin making the nightly newscasts, the drug company gets nervous that Les' reaction will result in failure to get FDA approval. The two brothers that own the company will stop at nothing to protect their investment. This film is funny, bittersweet, & tragic.

Aachi and Ssipak wasn't my cup of tea but many people enjoy that kind of movie. It's an ultraviolent Korean anime about a society that uses human feces as their main fuel source. To monitor their fuel supply, they implant sensors in everyone's anus and keep them pliant with addictive popsicles. The Man from Earth gets an honorable mention. It's about a 14,000 year old man that tells his story to his friends. First, there is disbelief but eventually the conversation turns to existential, philosophical, historical, and anthropological matters. I enjoyed the film although some of the dialog was impossible to pull off. The final twist was one too many which downgraded it in my opinion. John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox from Enterprise), Tony Todd, and Nurse Lydia from ER co-star.

The Thirst should be avoided at all costs. This film about vampires near a college features dialog that is laughable, wooden performances, and a predictable plot. El Muerto was about an Aztec zombie that resists his evil impulses. I found it boring. Stagknight had a few laughs but was ultimately second rate and Automation Transfusion was nothing special - a predictable zombie flick that is most notable for its suprisingly good special effects given its ultralow budget.

In addition to all those films, I saw Citizen Kane which many people consider the greatest movie ever made. I won't write much about the film because so much has been written by others. A few pieces of trivia - early in the film, Charles Foster Kane's mother is played by Agnes Moorehead who 30 years later would play Endora, the mother-in-law in Bewitched. Bernard Herrmann who composed the original score for Citizen Kane at age 28 (his first film credit). He went on to compose original scores for Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, and several Hitchcock films including Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds, etc..

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival runs July 13 to 15 at the Castro.

Taking Inventory as of May 31

It was another slow month...since the last inventory, I have only seen three films.

Going Under; (2004) - Official Website
Waitress; (2007) - Official Website
The Prodigy; (2004) - Official Website

The Prodigy showed at the 2005 Hole in the Head but I didn't see it then. Dead Channels sponsored a director's cut at the Roxie last week.

Waitress is a sweet film from the late Adrienne Shelly which was fifth at the box office last week. I spoke a little about her death in the last post. The film is a small gem. I read a film review that said Waitress portended great things from Shelly. I don't necessarily agree with that statement but that shouldn't be interpreted as a negative opinion of the film.

The eponymous waitress is played by Keri Russell. She plays Jenna, a small-town waitress that is married to a lout and regretfully pregnant with his child. She impulsively jumps into a passionate affair with her obstetrician. As her pregnancy and ardor progress, Jenna becomes despondent as she faces her limited choices. Jenna's ultimate haven is baking pies. In voice-overs, she christens the pies with names like Abusive Husband Pie - start with bittersweet chocolate, crush it into the crust, etc. She also starts an open letter to her unborn child which makes clear her resentment of her baby because she is now permanently anchored to Earl, her possibly unstable husband. (Did I mention this film was a comedy?) I found the voice-overs to be mildly annoying but the rest of the audience seemed amused by them.

The strength of this movie is in the small scenes between the characters. In addition to Jenna (the reluctant mother-to-be), there are the two other waitress - Becky (married to an older invalid; vaguely slutty) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly as the mousy blonde who finds true love with a nebbish neurotic). Andy Griffith plays the cantankerous restaurant owner with a heart of gold that serves as Jenna's mentor. Nathan Fillion plays the awkward OB/GYN. Jeremy Sisto, as the husband, gives a tour de force performance that commands attention every minute he is on screen. The interactions between these characters are funny, painful, endearing, & illuminating. This film is a slice of life (pun intended). If you are looking for quick thumbnail description, call it deep fried Like Water for Chocolate with a strong surface similarity to Alice.

Speaking of Hole in the Head. The 2007 festival kicked off tonight at the Roxie with Stagknight.