wasteblock E17

There are a lot of Zatoichi movies. Zatoichi is the master swordsman who wanders around, killing everyone with little to no hassle. Thats what the old movies were like, and I did not enjoy them.
This movie is different. Sort of.
Zatoichi is blind. hes a decrepit old man, who gambles often and lives in a farmhouse with a kind family. when required to however, he unleashes incredible skill, enhanced by his honed senses due to his lack of eyesight. This never fails to catch his opponents off guard. while he has no real purpose, he finally decides to help a brother and sister avenge the murders of their parents.
This movie is extremely well done. From the artistic arcs of spurting blood, to the odd camera shots during fights that enhance the action, to the bizarre cast of characters, including the fat neighbor kid who only wants to be a samurai. The cast is made up of some fairly well known actors, as I recognized several of them from other various Asian movies. One of the things I liked most about this movie is the lack of useless dialog. it was very to the point and straightforward. The fights weren't drawn out, and are completed without hesitation. All this added together makes a really great, action packed, well done samurai movie.
nine out of ten.

Labels: 9, asian, samurai

Finally a movie worth talking about. Party 7 is a movie about the relationships between 7 people who end up in a hotel room, as a result of some very unrelated occurences. Miki steals 200 million yen from a mob boss, and visits a unknown hotel to hide. He then is visited by Kana, who wants money from him that we later find out is so that she can buy actors to play her parents at her upcoming wedding with Todohira, who shows up in pursuit of Kana and turns out to be a poor fraud. Miki's childhood friend and "brother" then shows up to get the money back for the mob boss, where he confronts the fact that the boss has no faith in him at all. During this time, they are being watched through a fake window by Captain Banana and Okita, veteran and novice peepers. Captain Banana reveals Okita's fathers peeping secret, and tries to get Okita to realize his destiny as Captian The Yellow Jr. The four, after resolving differences and lies, decide that they will keep the money and run. They are then confronted by Wakagashira, the crazy nostalgic hitman, and they combine forces to beat him. One of his bullets ricochets off of the breifcase with the money, shattering the fake window, revealing Captain Banana and Captain Polar, a man in a polar bear suit, trying to get the Captain The Yellow suit onto the reluctant Okita. Okita confesses his love for Kana, Miki wants to know who Captian banana is, Kana has gotten Wakagashira's gun and shot Captain Polar, Sanada is genuinely confused, the briefcase has spilled open revealing not money but magazines, causing Todohira to go into a panic, while wakagashira is knocked out on the floor after Kana smashed a cheap plated camera into his face. Ill stop there before I completely ruin it.
This was an interesting movie with great dialog exchange, similar to that of Fist Planet Trava, an anime series by the same director. This movie moves well and has great action shots, even in places you would not expect them to be. One of the things I loved the most was for the opening credits, there was an extremely well done animated introduction for each of the characters. The animation was extremely fluid and was sort of a combination of the styles of Aeon Flux and Trava Fist Planet. A really good movie.
8.5 out of 10.

Labels: 8.5, action, asian, comedy

Dead End Run is a movie about running away. No matter how you try to run away, you will always end up experiencing a bizarre and possibly ironic event. There are three stories in this movie. The first is a man running away from a killer after he is involved in a fight. He accidentally kills a random girl who was walking by, thinking that she was the killer. Before he has a chance to decide what to do, she comes alive, and initiates a musical number about how they were destined to meet and that she loves him. She is still, however, dead. The second story is about a Yakuza that is being chased by a hitman, who when confronted looks exactly the same as the Yakuza. The third is about a suspected criminal being chased, who takes a hostage on a rooftop that turns out to be suicidal. He then tries to convince her not to do it, even though he was considering that as his way out of the situation.
This movie was directed by Sogo Ishii, and is shot very similarly to another of his movies, Electric Dragon 80,000 volts. There is a lot of running shots, utilizing many camera angles and techniques, including a very fast close to the ground shot that came up several times in Electric Dragon. There are actually very many cyberpunk elements in this movie, despite it being almost more of a drama or thriller. This movie is much more of a mind-game movie rather than cyberpunk action, though it does have a lot of very similar scenery. The last story arc has a twist that I was not expecting, which is becoming a rarer and rarer thing for me. One of the best things about the strange events is that the movie makes no effort to explain them, leaving them up to imagination. An interesting and well done movie.

7 out of 10.

Labels: 7, action, asian