Movies From Mars

One thing that I have noticed over the years is that its pretty normal for Samurai films to be heavy on politics. Many times it seems that the film itself serves as a coverup for a political message. The films of Akira Kurosawa are often about political power and the destruction of systems. While Kurosawa's films always keep the viewer interested some Samurai movies can get confusing and boring with this subject matter. As wise men say, never speak religion or politics at the diner table. I can't help but think that many of these movies, especially the more exploitative titles would have worked better without such a heavy political subtext. The Hanzo : The Razor series for instance. Some of those would have clearly been better off without the political mumbo-jumbo.

 This follow up to Lady Snowblood sports the same director and of course the same leading lady. It still manages to entertain with its excessive violence and bloodshed but it gets way to political for its own good. This one starts off with Yuki a.k.a. Lady Snowblood on the run from the police. She rips thru dozens of them with he Samurai sword but is eventually captured and sentenced to death. She is ultimately rescued by some political types who in return want her to assassinate an anarchist. From here the movie gets pretty confusing with to much governmental talky talk. Lucky for us the gore and carnage continues throughout the films entirety.

   The overkill on politics is not the only problem with the sequel. The choreography in the fight scenes doesn't seem as well planned as the original film and the cinematography doesn't hold up either. The truth is that Lady Snowblood 2 is still fun and worth a watch for fans of the first film but I don't think there is anyone out there who would prefer this to the original. Then again its hard to hold up to such high standards. After all Lady Snowblood is one of the best exploitation Samurai films ever made.

This movie is awesome! If you are new to the Samurai genre Lady Snowblood is usually one of the first you would come by, due to its huge cult following. I would say Shogun Assassin and then this one are probably the two most popular and rightfully so.

Lady Snowblood is a classic Japanese tale of  revenge. The film opens up in a female prison with a dying woman giving birth to a baby girl named Yuki. Yuki's mother was done great wrong in life and decides that Yuki will dedicate her life to vengeance. The newborns fate is already sealed. She will walk the path of revenge and kill the scum who murdered her father and raped her mother. Yuki is raised by a mean-hearted gray haired dude who teaches her to be tough. Similar to so many Hong Kong Kung Fu Films, Yuki goes through a long painful training period and many of the techniques seem quite ridiculous. Especially this one scene where she is put in a barrel and kicked down a hill. I'm not quite sure exactly what that does to train someone in martial arts but it does happen more than once in this movie. Anyway as Yuki becomes an adult she seeks out the bastards that destroyed her family and rips through them one by one with her samurai sword.

Yuki is played by the great Meiko Kaji who you might remember from the Female Prisoner # 701 : Scorpion movies. She is just as bad-ass in this one and sheds enough blood to keep the average gore-hound happy. When it comes to the blood & guts department we have plenty of Japanese style blood spraying, severed hands go flying, a very brutal scene in which a Yakuza gang violently takes turns stabbing a man to death and a very gratuitous scene in which a woman hangs herself and then has her torso cut in half, complete with buckets of pouring blood. On the other hand oddly enough Lady Snowblood does not offer any nudity. That is of course with the exception of a very uncomfortable moment when we see a prepubescent Yuki striped down nude. Although it is the furthest thing from kiddie-porn or anything like that, the scene might feel a bit wrong to Americans.

Lady Snowblood would go on to spawn a sequel in the following year which many don't think holds up to the first films standards. None the less the follow up is still entertaining and action packed. Quentin Tarantino would be heavily influenced by this movie and steal large chunks of it for Kill Bill. What else is new? Lady Snowblood is of course far superior to Kill Bill or anything else that fan-boy Tarantino has ever done. If you dig movies about strong women who fuck shit up and take no prisoners Lady Snowblood is perfect for you. There is nothing negative to say about this movie. Its a masterpiece!

Akira Kurosawa is often thought of to have been influenced by American film makers, John Ford especially. While I do not have any doubt of this in my mind I find it strange that nobody ever makes a connection between Kurosawa and Alfred Hitchcok. There is a genius simplicity that runs through the films of Kurosawa which I can only relate back to Hitchcock. Its not that the films themselves are simple. They are quite genius but they play more as a giant set piece. The story itself is simple but the way it is told is not for the simple minded.

The Hidden Fortress is told from the point of view of two moronic cowards. These piss-poor peasants have no back bone at all and fear everything but each other. The two cowards attempt to get home but are stuck between enemy boarders in a time of war. They pussy-foot around until they come across a legendary Samurai named General Rokurota Makabe played by the great Toshirô Mifune (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne Of Blood) and nearly two hundred other titles. The Samurai plays off the greed and arrogance of the two cowardly peasants to help pass a sixteen year old princess over enemy lines.

Bribed with gold the peasants fall right into the scheme of things. Of course they have no idea that the young beauty is a princess. The princess humiliates her self for the benefit of her people and poses as a mute and the two cowards take every chance possible to try to get their greedy little hands on her nubile body.

There is this twisted sense of humor that flows throughout The Hidden Fortress which Kurosawa fans should be familiar with. There is almost a sort of Three Stooges thing going on in here. Its almost as if you threw the Stooges into a Hitchcocks Rope or Rear Window. It really has to be seen to be understood.

The Hidden Fortress sports some epic Samurai action. Nothing overly bloody but epic none the less. We have casts of hundreds rioting through the fallen barren lands of a Japanese war zone. We also have a really cool chase scene on horse back where men are sawed into with Samurai swords. The sex appeal comes from the sexy princess who for some reason wears silly looking shorts and in the films sleaziest moment the camera peeks pretty close up those shorts. The dialogue is exceptionally funny in this one. "I hate your face" "I hate the way you look, you shit worm". "Shit-Worm" is used quite a bit in this one. I don't exactly know what a shit-worm is but I like the sound of it. I guess its like a maggot or something unless of course its one of those crazy bugs that you only see in Japanese movies.

For a good time with swords play, shit-worms, action and comedy check this one out. Like most Kurosawa films it can be a little slow at times but the set pieces are just to good to pass up.

Akira Kurosawa (Throne Of Blood, Seven Samurai) writes and directs this classic Samurai masterpiece. Do you like Spaghettie Westerns? How about A Fist Full Of Dollars or Django? All of which were heavily influenced by Yojimbo.

The Spag Western genre is just the start of films that would pay homage, ripoff or just plain remake this visual tale of the lone Samurai. Lucio Fulci would mimic the opening scene in the beginning of his 1982 Gialo The New York Ripper, which shows a dog running towards the camera with a severed human hand in its mouth and much more recently Takashi Miike (Audition, Fudoh) would do his own version of Yojimbo with Sukiyaki Western Django. So many film makers, mainstream and cult icons alike all owe a debt to the genius Akira Kurosawa.

The film follows a Samurai who I like to refer to as "the man with no name" who enters a desperate town which has been split in half with two big gangs controlling each side. The few towns folk who are not in the gangs have it worse then anybody. This would be the merchants, the brewers, the cooks etc. In a town with no law and nobody to protect them against the gangs these people are pretty much doomed. Now along comes this man with no name, carrying a sword. Will he save the people from this town which is about to self destruct or will he just help speed up the process of elimination. The answer is a little bit of both. The truth is that this lone Samurai only has his best interest in mind. He is an assassin. He gets payed to kill mother fuckers and he doesn't care who he kills. He will join the side with the most money and kill all of their rivals.

Personally not being an expert or even very familiar with Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) and his body of work, it is impossible for me to compare Throne Of Blood to the legendary directors other films. This however being the first Kurosawa film I have ever seen and the only one in my collection there is a soft spot in my heart for this eerie tale of ghosts, power, betrayal and death.

Throne Of Blood also known as The Castle Of Spiders Web is a adaption of Shakespeare Macbeth that takes place in medieval Japan.

Two brave and respected warriors encounter a ghost in the woods who will tell their future. The ghost although seemingly evil by its appearance seems to only bring good fortune. The soldiers are informed that they will become very important and powerful men. They will be emperors and rulers. Sure enough the fortune comes true for the two men almost immediately. However the men almost seem to be haunted by the memory of the spirit in the woods for years to come and it seems as if they almost expect bad fortune to come their way.

Throne Of Blood soon transforms into a tale of paranoia, madness and betrayal. One of them is manipulated by his power hungry wife. He becomes more and more paranoid until he sinks to the level of killing his friends and superiors. The other is betrayed by his son which changes the course of the fortune told by the ghost in the woods.

The film comes to an end with a tragic battle and our main characters being assassinated by their own men. One of them is showered in arrows in a unforgettable scene. I couldn't help but wonder if Brian De Palma was influenced by this scene for his climax of Scare Face.

The creepy imagery is really what makes Throne Of Blood so appealing. Horror fans will appreciate the cinematography and makeup used for the spirits and ghosts. We also have an awesome scene where the trees in the woods come to life and rise to attack and kill the emperor. It has to be seen to be believed. Its amazing to think that in America in 1957 we were making movies like Invasion Of The Saucer Men or I Was A Teenage Frankenstein and at the same time over in Japan Akira Kurosawa would come out with cinematic art like Throne Of Blood.

Check it out for creepy ghosts, arrows through the neck (complete with black & white blood), sword violence, spear violence, an insane drunk "I am terribly drunk" and one of the creepiest women to ever appear on screen.

Shogun Assassin is the reedited footage from two 70's samurai flicks in the Lone Wolf And Cub series. Basically all the weird, gory, and sleazy scenes were chopped into 85 minute spectacle of violence and it was done brilliantly.

For those unfamiliar with the Lone Wolf And Cub movies it is about a father and son who walk the path of vengeance. Shogun Assassin is dubbed over in English and though the stories are totally altered Shogun comes off way more entertaining and fast paced.

The story is told by a child who's father was a executioner for the Shogun. "My father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut off the heads of 131 lords." When the executioner's wife is murdered by the Shogun he makes a vow to make the Shogun and all of his Ninja "Pay in rivers of blood" and blood letting there is. People are chopped in half, decapitated and dismembered in any and every way possible. Ears are chopped off, fingers are chopped off, arms & legs (leaving rolling torsos), blades are shoved through throats (complete with bright red Japanese style, spraying blood), one guy uses a claw as a weapon of choice and buries it deep into enemies skulls, another uses a spiked club for some achy-breaky skull action, another uses gloves with nails on it and puts on a nice face-smashing show. The young child (who can't be any older then 5) takes part in the violent, vengeful, warpath. The kid has quite the arsenal of knives and swords and uses the gadgets to chop the feet off of the enemies. The kid also punches some bare breasts in one of the weirder scenes in the movie. The final battle is pretty amazing and has some amazing memorable lines. My personal favorite line in the film takes place on the 2nd to last murder in the film. Be sure to look for it "Its ridiculous".
Anyone who likes over the top violent cinema needs to check this one out. Its a bloodbath filled to the brim with spraying red stuff.