Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle)
(2002, Shion Sono, 150)
Unless you're like Chip -- and now me -- and like Japanese weird-horror, this one may not be for you. Roll Call!
- 54 school girls jump in front of a train.
- Bag with a roll of sewn together skin.
- A classic Japan-mullet.
- Lady cutting off her own fingers (above).
- Blood spraying everywhere.
- Japanese police getting way too effected by their gorey work.
- Uniformed do-nothings getting freaked out.
- Computers and cell phones.
What this movie is missing is utter freak-out mode: like kids meowing and ghosts being solid to the touch with scary ass glowing eyes. Maybe if our man "K.K." had done this one we'd have some haunting moments like those...like a blurry guy with a black hood just sitting in the middle of a room on a computer screen...man, still creepy!
But, as you can see from the above roll call, it's pretty good stuff if you've seen all the horror/gore movies and want something else. There's even a subliminal message (sub?) plot.
To be honest, I don't really "get it" beyond the typical "oh, I'm so sad that people are no longer 'connected' to each other like they were in my far off fantasy land of the past where people died at 30, while the rich and powerful treated everyone like dogs! Oh, if only I could be connected to other people, like when my ancestors collected cow shit together in the War Lords fields. Oh, I might just kill myself instead." (I'm a little cynical about all that hooey.)
Once again, I'm going to have to do some serious aruspicy with The Apple Dumpling Gang, and see if Mr. Limpet or that miniature-golf fella can help me figure this shit out.
Fahrenheit 9/11
(Michael Moore, 2004, 200)
The first 2/3 are very funny due almost purely to genius editing. The last 1/3 felt like I was being beaten with a dead horse. Guess what, folks-- I don't have to hear over and over how terrible it is that civilians and servicemen are dead. I got it the first time. If you want to hear what I think content-wise, talk to mr. chippy.
Dodgeball
(2004, Rawson Marshall Thurber, 270)
Matt: "So, you'll have to tell us: was Dodgeball worth it?"
Cote': "Sure..."
Matt: "Really?"
Cote': "Oh yeah."
Everyone will be excited to learn that Rawson Marshall Thurber also directed and wrote the beloved Terry Tate, Office Linebacker series.
The movie was quite good. I'd go see it. I mean, like I said, the directory did the Terry Tate stuff. 'Nuff said.
Update: apparently, Dodgeball kicked everyone's ass this weekend:
The Jackie Chan (news) remake "Around the World in 80 Days," reportedly budgeted at $110 million, opened at No. 9 with just $6.8 million for the weekend. The film was financed by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz as part of a plan to make family-friendly projects. Unfortunately for him and domestic distributor Walt Disney Co., the low-concept antics of "Dodgeball" held more appeal. The $20 million sports satire stars Vaughn and Stiller as leaders of rival teams vying for a $50,000 prize.Too bad on your birthday for "family-friendly projects."
Pulse/Swimming Pool/Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald/Chaos/Evil Dead Trap
Pulse
(2001, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 290)
Swimming Pool
(2003, Francois Ozon, 190)
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald
(1997, Koki Mitani, 190)
Chaos
(1999, Hideo Nagata, 190)
Evil Dead Trap
(1988, Toshiharu Ikeda, 140)
Here's the skinny: See Pulse. It progresses from loosely connected creep-out vignettes to a full blown ghost apocalypse. The spooky stuff is pretty spooky, but as usual with KK's stuff it's just a way to get the point where he can grind his axe on the real issue: personal isolation and societal decay. Toward the end, the ghosts become less scary than the posited hypothesis: what if we (or Japan, at least) have arrived at the point where the depersonalization created or demanded by the information age is actually viral in nature and is past the turning point? Is further connectivity that is not borne of human contact (internet, mass media) only a source of knowing the despair of others with no chance of relieving it? Does this exacerbate the problem, threatening to spiral into an epidemic of soullessness?
Otherwise, Evil Dead Trap is pretty gory standard slasher stuff up until the last 20 or 30 minutes which are too weird to describe. If that's your bag, go for it.
