HCF Review - Rust

TETSUO II: BODY HAMMER (1992)

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine. Oh and welcome back Tsukamoto fans. It’s time to enjoy some zany action and some over-acting, in the first of two sequels to Tetsuo: The Ironman. The black and white photography has been replaced by harsh primary colours. The budget seems to be generally higher. And it’s not a continuation of the previous movie, so anything goes. However, there is also the problem with diminishing returns to consider. Being tied to an existing idea means that this is more of a redux than anything fresh and exciting. On paper it should be a kind of Evil Dead II scenario, but it doesn’t quite work out. Which is odd considering this is the film I’ve watched most often in the director’s catalogue. Let’s cut open the mechanical innards and see why.

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HCF Review - The Swordsman

KILLING (2019)

Welcome to the edge of the blade. And welcome back Tsukamoto fans. In some ways the culmination of what had come before, Killing includes further development of the themes of manhood and violence found in Tokyo Fist. The harsh, occasionally cheap looking, digital photography from Fires on the Plain has become appropriately muted and visually interesting. Tsukamoto himself delivers one of his best performances, as a mature authority figure instead of a confused younger leading man. And sadly this is the final film scored by Chu Ishikawa who died during production. The rapid percussion and hypnotic tones that accompanied so many fever dream narratives will be sorely missed. It’s a melancholy tale for this reason, but of course the contents of the story as a whole are pretty sombre.

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HCF Review - The Pacific

FIRES ON THE PLAIN (2014)

Welcome to the inferno. And welcome back Tsukamoto fans. Some might say there’s no such thing as a true anti-war film. After all, something is always lost when real life events are changed from a journal to a movie for our trivial entertainment. But the director and actor certainly gives it his best shot here, no pun intended. His films are hardly entertaining in the conventional sense to begin with, so him adapting a historical account is certainly an intriguing prospect. It was originally intended to be an expensive affair, rather than the independent feature which was produced. So it’s also interesting to see what was done with the lower budget. Which is of course nothing new for the film-maker and his company Kaiju Theatre. Let’s peer into the fog and see what horrors lie in wait.

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HCF Review - The Tomb

HAZE (2005)

The visceral nightmare that is Haze has limited appeal, but then again it’s only a limited running time. It’s a brisk forty-eight minute venture into the abyss that anyone can enjoy, surely? Even in this so-called ‘Long Version’ it’s a perfectly formed piece of extreme cinema. It sticks around to offer a few existential questions and zips away with few, if any, answers. Third Window Films offer it as part of a bundle, in which you can also enjoy two of the director’s other films. The zany but heartfelt sci-fi short Adventure of Denchu-Kozo, and the cold and bleak samurai drama Killing. For those looking for a few nightmares and dreamscapes beyond Tetsuo The Ironman, it’s a set worth having. But I digress, let’s take a look into the shadowy claustrophobia that the subject at hand has to offer.

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Scorecard

MAY

Film of the Month: Sexy Beast ☆☆☆☆