the ninja trilogy: enter the ninja

enter the ninja follows cole (franco nero), an american army veteran who has spent years training to be a ninja in japan. on graduating ninja school he decides to visit his friend frank who owns a farm in the phillipines. there he finds that frank and his wife are being harassed by a local organisation intent on taking all the oil-rich land in the area for themselves, and this gives cole the perfect opportunity to put his ninja skills to good use.

the opening of this film is a ten-minute sequence in which cole, a ninja in a white outfit, takes on a bunch of red ninjas and one ninja in a black outfit (sho kosugi) who seems to be some kind of super-ninja. cole beats them all and beheads his master, at which point it is revealed that it was all part of his training, even down to the fake beheading.

i came away from this sequence with a bunch of questions. what do the different colour outfits mean? is franco nero allowed to be a ninja? there are so many ninjas in this sequence, is this film set in ninjaland? why is his moustache so huge? are ninjas allowed moustaches? you can see it through his mask! how and why do you fake a beheading? do ninjas really need a ninja licence? what are ninjas anyway?

so i asked a couple of these questions on twitter (thanks to everyone who responded!) and apparently ninjas were a real thing, not just something invented by movies. in real life, however, they dressed like civilians to blend in, which makes much more sense. ninjas were mercenaries, hired for covert work like espionage and assassination and there's evidence of this in the film when the bad guys hire the black ninja to take on cole. i wassurprised the head of the ninja school wasn’t more concerned with who he was hiring out his ninjas too, but i suppose if you're a mercenary it doesn't really matter.

in between ninja battles, the film actually has quite a sombre tone with occasional moments of ridiculousness. there is one interesting juxtapositon in the film where frank recruiting farmers for his land is contrasted with the bad guy recruiting his thugs, and that part actually works quite well, but otherwise the underlying themes of the film are mostly to do with masculinity. there’s a subplot about frank’s impotence and failed masculinity in comparison with cole’s uber-alpha male that seems directly related to killing and the ability to kill. frank was in the army with cole and even saved his life, but whereas cole trained himself to become a super-assassin, frank has seemingly lost the will to fight and the film makes a clear connection between this and his inability to perform in the bedroom.

it almost seems like the power of the ninja is somehow connected to masculinity, with the black ninja being masculinity gone too far; with great manliness comes great responsibility. worryingly, both ninjas have a similar reaction when the first encounter frank's wife, the only woman in the film. when cole first meets her he wrestles a gun from her hands in a moment that’s one grope away from a sexual assault, and then when the black ninja first encounters her he cackles like a crazy person and takes great pleasure in manhandling her. this presents a troubling theme of women as playthings for men in stupid costumes; something that continues to happen in superhero movies today.

all you really need to know about this film is that the ninja stuff, which probably makes up about thirty minutes of its running time, is all pretty cool. i mean it’s insane and ninjas certainly use some bizarre tactics to get the job done, but because of that it all feels a bit different and interesting. the fight scenes are actually pretty good in places and there’s a satisfying amount of bloodshed, particularly in the final assault. it’s worth seeing for that, but be prepared for some dubious gender politics and dull plotlines along the way.

enter the ninja will be released by eureka entertainment as part of a 5-disc dual format (blu-ray & dvd) edition on 18th january 2016

superbob

superbob is a comedy about a british superhero and his efforts to find love on his day off. on one hand it’s a film about what would really happen if there was a superhero in the real world and all the inevitable bureaucracy and politics that this would necessitate. at the same time it’s also a film about how even the most incredible people are like everyone else when they’re off work.

brett goldstein does a fantastic job in the lead, making bob feel very much like an overworked civil servant but also giving him enough humanity and humour for us to care. natalia tena is also really good as his columbian cleaner, doris, the only person not impressed by bob’s superpowers. while the romance plot that drives the film is a little predictable at times, the actors really make it work and it feels genuine and real, which is impressive in a comedy about a superhero. speaking of the tone, there is actually one really dark moment in the film where superbob confronts genuine tragedy and it shouldn't work, but somehow they pull it off. it’s incredibly brave to risk the tone of your whole piece on a moment like that but again, because the acting and jon drever’s direction are so strong it really just adds to what makes this film so much more than a throwaway comedy.

at risk of making this too personal, the underlying theme of the film really resonated with me, as i’m sure it will with most people. this is ultimately a story about a guy with an incredibly demanding job that is killing his private life. bob is someone who understands why his job is important and enjoys aspects of it, but he fell into it; it wasn’t the thing he always wanted to do. so when he’s on his day off and his employers expect him to drop everything to resolve an international incident, that’s not so different to having to cancel your holiday because there’s suddenly something so fucking important at work that you have to come in, even though someone else could easily cover for you (not that i’m speaking from experience or anything). there’s a moment that really sums this up, where doris says to him ‘what did they do before they had you?'.

this is what i thought really made superbob work; this juxtaposition between the small, real life problem and the big, overblown work problem. in the end, sorting out his gas bill is as important to the character and the story as shaking hands with the u.s. president, and for the first time in a lifetime of reading comics and watching comicbook movies i found myself being able to truly relate to a superhero.

also there's totally a reference to house of leaves in this film. house of leaves is one of the most amazing books ever written. i'll make a video about it one day, but any film that references house of leaves is pretty cool as far as i'm concerned. so yeah, superbob is really good, it’s available on dvd and on a bunch of vod platforms, you should definitely check it out.

everything right with the dark knight rises...

i love all the nolan batman movies, particularly the last one. i think the dark knight rises is one of the most interesting and exciting films ever made. i know not everyone agrees, so i made this video to explain why i'm right and everyone else is wrong.



i had help from these wonderful individuals. please subscribe to their youtube channels and follow them on twitter and stuff -



bruce wayne - george reece

@georgereece

https://www.youtube.com/user/iamGeorgetown

https://iamgeorgetown.bandcamp.com/



the joker - ed stockham

@edstockham

https://www.youtube.com/user/smilinglimpet

http://edstockham.com



bane - scott tumilty

@El_Pinata

https://www.youtube.com/user/Scottplaysbadgames



music by daniel dolby

@DD_Composer

danieldolby.audio[at]gmail.com



if you'd like to follow me on twitter i'm @pazvsstuff



also i have a blog where i review stuff - http://pazvsstuff.blogspot.co.uk/



intro music by camellia -

https://soundcloud.com/camelliamusic

https://camellia.bandcamp.com/track/a...

used with permission

merry christmas...

sorry for the short video this week, it's like christmas and stuff so i'm suddenly really busy. i am working on something a bit special for the next video so hopefully that will make up for it. if i'm honest saying 'see you next week' may have been a bit optimistic too as i'll be in devon with jack and my dad, but you never know...



hope you all have a fantastic christmas and thanks to everyone who has been watching this year! i have some exciting things planned for 2016!

nekromantik 2

nekromantik 2 is jorg buttgereit’s more measured and somehow classier sequel to his cult hit nekromantik, if you can describe a film that uses a rotting penis on a plate as a plot device as classy.

the film opens with a ted bundy quote and then replays the final moments of the first film between the titles. i'm still not going to explain what happens to bob, the main character, at the end of the first film, you really need to see that for yourself. this time the story focuses on a young woman called monika (played by monika m.) who digs up bob’s body for sex, but things don’t really work out the way she hopes. infatuated with bob, she keeps his corpse around while she tries to figure out what’s missing. around the same time she meets a young man, mark, who dubs porn films for a living. they start a relationship, but mark soon begins to suspect that monika may be hiding something.

it’s really hard to describe the plot of nekromantik 2, because it could be argued that there almost isn’t one. certainly for the first half of the film i  t feels like this is more a series of moments than a story, but as the film progresses it becomes apparent that this is what buttgereit’s style has evolved into. nekromantik felt like being constantly slapped in the face, usually with something sticky and rotten. it was loud, brash and shocking, both in what was on screen and the way those images were presented. of course, it had its slow-moving, naturalistic moments too, there was a hint of how buttgereit would develop, but the style of film matched the shocking nature of the subject matter.

nekromantik 2 almost feels like it was made by another director. there these incredible camera moves, where the camera travels the length of a table in a smooth arc, for example, and there are also moments of extreme naturalism, where we watch characters go about their business in minute detail rather than cutting for pace. this naturalism carries over into the more disturbing scenes, and as a result dismembering a human corpse begins to feel like carving up a chicken or something equally mundane. it seems buttgereit wants us to feel like these people and this world are the most normal they can be, and by extension so is what they are doing. it’s slow-moving at first, but the film does have a rhythm to it that kind of works, so much so that when the pace does pick up at the end the speed of what is happening is almost as shocking as what we are watching. there is also very little dialogue in the film, and buttgereit does a great job of showing the development of a complex romance without words.

like the first film, there is a theme running throughout the piece of desensitisation. mark mentions at one point the ‘monotony of pornography’ because his day job has completely desensitised him to it. there is also a sequence in a cinema like the one in the first film, but while that film seemed more concerned with showing how desensitised the audience were to gore and horror, this time the characters are watching a kind of parody of an art film. the scene almost plays in exactly the same way as the scene in nekromantik, except mark and monika are clearly enjoying themselves. like bob in the first film, monika is not desensitised; she is open to everything and anything, it's just that the thing she really needs is just out of reach. there are times when it feels like monika genuinely likes mark, and that mark may even understand her secret, but then there are times when it feels like mark never stood a chance. their relationship has a reality and a heart to it that really makes it work.

while i missed the frenetic, punk energy of the first film, nekromantik 2 is still an engaging and fascinating work. despite the slow-pace of the film, there is a complexity to it that will hold your interest as well as moments of real beauty. this is my favourite type of horror film, because like dans ma peau or eraserhead it explores the horror of being human; the horror of living. monika is not presented as being particularly depraved, she’s simply one of us and how many of us have had thoughts and perhaps urges that we would rather the rest of the world didn’t know about? there is a bit of monika in all of us, and we should be thankful to buttgereit for showing us that.

it's also worth pointing out that the blu-ray is full of fantastic extras, including some really insightful interviews with buttgereit and his team in which they all come across as warm, lovely creative people. in case you hadn’t gathered, i really liked this film so if you haven’t seen it you should probably check it out.

nekromantik 2 is available now from arrow video on blu-ray and dvd in a 3-disc set that includes the cd soundtrack

nekromantik

i'm supposed to be reviewing the blu-ray of nekromantik 2, but i hadn't seen nekromantik so i thought i'd try to watch both. here's what i thought of the first one.

i had a bit of an idea of what i was in for. a few years ago, i realised i was about to spend the night of my twenty-second birthday alone, so i decided to watch der todesking. der todesking is a kind of portanteau horror film about suicide and violent death, so perfect for watching alone on your birthday. it includes a segment in which a man kills himself by bashing his head repeatedly into his bedroom wall. it's great.

nekromantic is by the same filmmaker, jorg buttregeit. it's also a film about death. it's about bob, a guy who works for a cleaning firm that specialises in disposing of dead bodies. bob steals a corpse from a crime scene, takes it home to his girlfriend, betty, and together they fuck with it, literally. but when bob loses his job and betty leaves him, he is forced to seek other ways to satisfy his urges.

it's a film about necrophilia, obviously. except, it's more than that. it's about sex, and the relationship between sex and love and dependency. bob seems to need betty to be involved in the necrophilia for it to work, whereas the film makes it quite clear that betty doesn't need bob, only a corpse. it's about nature and the fact that really we're all just rotting meat. at the same time it's about the miracle of nature and of being alive and at times is actually kind of life affirming.

it also had a bit about jesus that i didn't get. and there's a moment in which it seems to be either criticising horror movies or challenging them. that was the thing, the tone bounces around all over the place and i could never tell whether buttgereit wants us to take this seriously or not. there are definitely comedic moments, and contrasting moments of depravity and horror, and yet at the same time some of the sex scenes are filmed in a way that suggests what is happening is supposed to be beautiful. is this a filmmaker fucking with his audience? or is he making the point that whatever we do in the bedroom, it's all the same at the end of the day. would he be laughing at me right now for over-thinking it? or cursing me for not looking into it deeply enough?

i don't know. i think jorg buttgereit is perhaps the german lars von trier. i can never tell whether von trier is fucking with me either.

whatever it all means, it has to be said that nekromantic features one of the greatest endings of all time. never before have i been so gloriously shocked by a moment in a film. it's the kind of moment that you can't stop watching even though you really want to turn away from the screen. i loved it.

onto the second one...

a new leaf

a new leaf is a kind of alternative romantic comedy that on the surface seems completely innocent but underneath feels more than a little subversive.

walter matthau plays henry graham, a trust fund playboy who only exists to spend money, until he discovers he’s broke. when he confesses as much to his butler, harold (george rose), he is advised to seek a wife, preferably a rich one, so that harold may continue to be employed and henry can go along living the life he has become accustomed to. henry’s search leads him to henrietta lowell (played by the writer and director of the film, elaine may), a geeky, socially awkward botanist with a huge inheritance. henry decides that she is the one, he just has to figure out a way to marry her and then kill her so he can take her money.

a new leaf is based on the short story a green heart by jack ritchie, which was originally published in alfred hitchcock’s mystery magazine. i haven’t read the story and don’t know whether it’s similar in tone to the film, but there is something almost poe-esque about henry’s determination to kill henrietta. there is a darkness to this film that you kind of miss while watching it, because it all seems so light and absurd. and yet this is a film about a man who so can’t bear to live without money that he’s prepared to kill the most innocent, unassuming, inoffensive human being he can find. on the surface, however, this is a fun romantic comedy and there is something spectacular about the way the tone and the subject matter are so perfectly balanced.

the film was the writing and directing debut of elaine may, who had previously been part of a stand-up comedy duo with mike nichols. may would later direct three more features and worked on the scripts for films like heaven can wait, reds and primary colors. it’s amazing to think that here, with her first feature as a writer, she had the confidence not only to direct for the first time as well but also to star in the film. that the result is so unconventional and subversive is therefore doubly impressive.

what’s interesting is that for a film made by a woman in the 1970s, this is really a film about men. women don’t feature in henry graham’s life at all, and he makes it very clear that this is through choice. despite the lack of female characters in the film, the men do not come off particularly well. while may’s character is awkward and gullible, she is also depicted as incredibly intelligent when it comes to her profession, plus there’s a suggestion towards the end that perhaps she’s aware of more than she lets on. by comparison, matthau’s character is vain, shallow and heartless, and the other men in the film don’t come off much better. the sequence that opens this film perfectly sums this up, with henry talking about the problems with his vintage sports car with a friend who has similar problems with his vintage airplane. these are not the men who rule the world, but rather they are the sons of the men who ruled the world and they have nothing of value to add to society as a result. at the same time, henrietta comes off as something of an anomaly and the other women in the film are as obsessed with wealth as henry. i wonder if perhaps gender was not a huge part of the discussion when may was working on a new leaf; maybe it is simply a film about wealth, but it’s hard for me to disassociate the gender politics of the 1970s from a work by a female director making films in that period.

the only issue with the above set up is that it does occasionally make henry really difficult to sympathise with. obviously we’re not supposed to sympathise with him, especially when he coldly researches methods of killing henrietta, but i think we are supposed to care enough to want him to change. that does work eventually, and where it does is down to matthau’s performance. matthau doesn’t play henry as particularly likable or charming but manages to make him appear as both anyway. aside from the ending, the way henry develops as a character is incredibly subtle, which is a bold move because we're forced to spend time with him in every scene and it's not always clear that he is going to develop.

while the blu-ray is a little short on extras there is a nice visual essay on the film that contains a lot of background information on may how the project came together. for all its silliness and comedic set pieces, a new leaf is a film that challenges the audience. from the casting of matthau in a lead role to asking the audience to sympathise with the motivations of a psychopath, in some ways it feels as challenging now as it must have been on its original release. it's hard to believe anyone would get away with having a character like henry graham leading a romantic comedy today, so a new leaf really stands out as something of an anomaly.

a new leaf is available now on dual format blu-ray/dvd from eureka entertainment