A House of Delirium

The story goes, producer Shinya Kawai made a drunken challenge to his director friends Ryuhei Kitamura and Yukihiko Tsutsumi.  Who could make the better film starring only 2 battling principal characters, in 1 set, and filming for only a week.  The two films that resulted Aragami by Ryuhei Kitamura and 2LDK by Yukihiko Tsutsumi are very different but an equally special result as could ever be hoped for from a night of drinking.

Aragami finds two badly wounded samurai arriving at a small temple only to be brought back to health by a mysterious swordsman.  As per the rules you can see where this is going, more so if you’re familiar with Ryuhei Kitamura.  His films range from spectacular crap like Versus and Azumi to spectacularly crap like Godzilla: Final Wars, which makes Aragami actually the classiest work of his I’ve seen.  There’s a great element of mystery and while the twists might not be so shocking when they come brilliantly choreographed fights and some barbed dialogue make this far more interesting than you may suspect.  There are a couple of occasions where Kitamura’s affection for crap shine through (I could’ve done without the epilogue) but this was an enjoyable surprise.

2LDK is a very different beast indeed, two aspiring actresses seemingly alike in only profession are chasing a crucial role that will either entirely validate their chosen life choices or crush their dreams, oh and they share an apartment.  When they separately arrive home from the audition petty arguments about shampoo and food develop into a much deeper assassination of each other’s character.  This is no tense drama and soon enough the house becomes full of prospective weapons.  I am completely unfamiliar with Yukihiko Tsutsumi but on this form I’ll be on the lookout for other films.  Please stick any recommendations in the comments.

Amazon will sell you the double-pack for a mere £9.

Aragami 7/10

2lDK 8/10

I’ve been reading an interesting paper by Nick Bostrom the Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University in which he considers the possibility that we’re not real.  That we are living in a computer simulation developed by a future evolution of the human species studying their own origins.

It’s a subject that has to have crossed the mind of every amateur self-psychoanalysist sci-fi fan.  Anyway, the whole subject got me to thinking how long it’s been since I last saw a sci-fi movie that really made me consider my existence.  Blade Runner, The Matrix, Open Your Eyes, even a film I reckon I might the only person anywhere to like AI.  I have a review round-up coming at the end of the month in which you’ll hear my thoughts on Wall:E.  It’s a film I loved and in the tradition of all of the best sci-fi gets you to consider how you live your own life, albiet in basic terms that can be understood by children.

I do like a film that really has my mind racing in an academic sense something modern sci-fi has almost entirely abandoned.  The last film to really do that to me was the amazing Primer.  Anyone care to recommend another film that sent you in loops?

Update:  There is also a reverse point of view The Truman Show disorder (via BoingBoing)

Some talented chappies were given the chance to create original movie posters for some classic cult films in their own vision.  Unfortunately the London exhibition is finished only running till 13th June, but a flickr gallery collects many highlights of the show.  It also offers those with a good chunk of extra cash a chance to pickup a very nice print.  Some of the highlights include Wild Zero, Soylent Green, Metropolis, Logan’s Run, and Rear Window.

via Neatorama

A selection of the posters can be seen here
Exhibition Site here

Gordon Liu returns to the Shaolin Temple again, but this time rather than playing the legendary monk San Te he plays a con-man trying to impersonate him.  This works to great success when he conspires with the workers at a dye factory to get their pay back from an oppressive boss.  Of course it backfires and our hero must learn how to become a man of substance.  He travels to Shaolin and starts the task of persuading the monks to train him.

There is a more comical theme to this than other Liu films I’ve seen and the Kung-fu is not exactly prompt in making it’s appearance.  Your patience will of course be rewarded though.  When it comes in a Mr. Miyagi style revelation the kung-fu is fantastically entertaining and you can be sure that “scaffolding kung-fu” is unlike any style you’re familiar with.

A touch more original (if in tone and style rather than plot) than many of it’s peers this is an impressive classic.
8/10

Jason Copser has managed to create an impressive single thumbnail of the entire Big Lebowski film by taking 1 screenshot every second.  The original Brendan Dawes project that inspired it can be seen here with similar fingerprints for Vertigo, The French Connection, and others.

Via Boing Boing

Link

OK, yes I did go see the Mist, unfortunately I have no way to tell you whether it is worth seeing or not.  I have never had a film so comprehensively ruined in all my years.  A pair of nattering young women sat beside me in the theatre and subjected me to literally non-stop chat about who needs to die, who needs to stop talking (why I resisted to telling them so I don’t know), whatever..

Anyway, the film was in theory quite decent, a mysterious mist appears and something strange within brings death to a group of smalltown folk trapped in a supermarket.  It quickly goes Lord of the Flies as people break into factions of believers in science, religious zealots, and the pragmatists.  I liked how it played out but I spent most of my viewing in a rage.  No verdict this time, or possibly ever a ruined film for me I’m afraid.

Maybe The Fog will cheer me up.

I disappeared for an awesome week in Budapest but I haven’t been igonoring this place.  I’m off to see the Mist tonight but I’ve also completed the huge task of porting over my many review archives.  Check out my rejigged archive page with a rundown of my full-reviews.

That’s not the end of my forever updating reviewing past.  There’s many more live music reviews, old best of lists, and many many mini-reviews to be added.

Anywho enough about the past, the reviewing future will see prompt reviews of Stephen King and Frank Darabont’s The Mist and in the interests of fairness John Carpenter’s The Fog.

Directors John Landis, Joe Dante, Edgar Wright, Allison Anders, Eli Roth, and Mick Garris give commentary on various classic and not so classic cult trailers.  Seems like a cool project we shall see what comes out of it.

It already introduced me to the wonderful Danger Diabolik.

Here’s some other quality highlights.

Michael Lehman on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Dan Ireland on Bad Day at Black Rock
Edgar Wright on the American and International Suspiria trailers

And of course you can watch all of these with or without commentaries.

http://trailersfromhell.com

I’m taking a quick jaunt to Budapest this week and my film time has already been consumed by a music festival at the weekend (no not Glastonbury but on a lovely beach instead) and the football.  So instead I have posted up an enormous batch of old reviews and movie posts, check them out below.

While Diary of the Dead was not quite the step forward we were hoping from George Romero, it had its charm.  A new 2 disc release re-enforces the missed opportunity that was.  You can read my original review of the film here.

Strange after the film’s less than stellar reception it would receive such a complete DVD release.  The disc is styled on youtube complete with star ratings for each segment.  It contains an array of documentaries and revealing interviews with Romero made before the film was released.  It makes for especially interesting viewing regardless of the end product.

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