PART TWO: HELL ON EARTH
Time for a few nightmare visions from the world of subtitled cinema. It would be impossible to avoid the topic on this particular blog after all. Some of these examples present ideas of life from alien planets, some include images of visitors from other dimensions, and some are simply your worst existential fears coming to true all at once. Each of them in this instance are part of rather different sub-genres, but all of them are strange and interesting in their own ways. Movies about flying saucers or demons might suggest one set of images in your mind's eye, but these approaches provide something else entirely. This selection also presents something a little unexpected from each respective studio, as well as films worth seeking out.
On the subject of something a little different, did you ever see The X From Outer Space? It's a little strange for a Japanese monster movie to say the least. But if you thought it was all going to be fun and games at Shochiku Studios then Goké, Body Snatcher From Hell is here to shake things up. What a title. Perhaps not one the film can ever live up to, as is usually the case, but a great title nonetheless. The UFO that lands might be familiar, and in fact it looks rather reminiscent of Toho's Invasion of Astro Monster. But this is a far darker affair right from the start. In fact there are a lot of other elements to the story before it even gets to the whole alien invader storyline.
To set the stage the whole thing begins with the passengers on a plane being searched after a bomb threat. There's also a sub-plot about an assassination. However before any kind of thriller plot can develop the journey is disrupted by a strange light in the sky. Soon this becomes a tale of survival as the plan is wrecked on a desert island. In some ways this means the whole thing shares more similarities with Matango, which used supernatural fungus as a way of showing desperate people falling apart at the seams. In this case there's a selection of characters including a the widow of an American soldier, a hijacker, and a man using his own wife to gain favours from a politician.
Seeing all these different figures crack under pressure, revealing their true colours, is the best part of the experience. Which means that the alien ooze turning people into vampires is kind of a secondary focus. Some of the effects tricks are neat, but there's just not that much to the situation besides a few near misses and failed escape attempts. It works best as a personal story rather than anything broader, but the latter is something which the shock finale doubles down on. I guess it's saying something about the war like nature of humanity leaving it open to eradication from outside forces. It's intriguing while it lasts but there's not that much to explore outside the initial crisis.
3/5
Taking things back to planet Earth for a moment, Michio Yamamoto's Terror in the Streets is a purely existential experience. His other directorial efforts are the Dracula-adjacent stories found in 'The Bloodthirsty Trilogy' which is more well known. I've covered those in another feature here. So it may come as a surprise that this isn't another supernatural tale, but a sinister psychological thriller. What it lacks in colour and sudden death it makes up for in terms of feelings of dread and unease. Which is odd for a film filled with so much light jazz and ocarina music. It shouldn't be such an anxiety filled experience based on these individual elements.
Yuri Ebara (no relation to the giant lobster) is losing her mind. Or is she? The laundry list of personal problems that just keeping coming suggest this is a waking nightmare. She's forced out of her job, and her apartment, then her apartment is burgled, and then a series of other weird problems compound the issue. It's got a very dream like structure as Yuri keeps trying to find light at the end of the tunnel, only to find yet another bizarre situation blocking her way. In one scene she tries to find work as a hostess and is accused of stealing, later she's bundled into a car and finds herself being married off to a total stranger. In some ways she takes it all surprisingly well, even when knives and guns start to be waved around.
It's a dark and shadowy affair filled with suspicious characters and mysterious twists. Nobody can be trusted as it becomes clear some of the antagonists are working together. Some kind of conspiracy is at work, but it's never clear exactly what when things are moving at such a break-neck pace. In one scene it seems as though Yuri has stepped into the nightclub from Godzilla vs. Hedorah, a movie which shares the same composer. Some elements of the conclusion are not totally convincing, but things do start to fall into place eventually. But this mixture of the totally relatable and the frequently surreal results in a taught thrill ride that's well worth seeking out.
4/5
Lastly let's take a look at a movie produced by Tsui Hark. From A Better Tomorrow to Iron Monkey, he's had a hand in many classic releases. But a live action adaptation of Wicked City, the ultra stylish animated sleaze fest by Yoshiaki Kawajiri? Surely that's a futile endeavour. The budgets are probably far too low, and even with all the money in the world it's still a film using technology from 1992. Which is before we even discuss the kinds of Category-III content that might have to be included. But the imaginatively titled The Wicked City takes things in a few new directions, which even seasoned anime fans may do a double take at. You'll certainly never think about the phrase Pinball Wizard the same way again.
In a near future Hong Kong in which humans find themselves living among 'Rapters' from the demon world, a drug called 'Happiness' arrives on the streets. As a result cops Taki (Leon Lai) and the half-human Ken (Jacky Cheung) are forced to co-operate with underworld agent Windy (Michelle Reis). There are constant double crosses, a lot of hostage situations, and a series of characters that wear prescription glasses only to throw them away for dramatic effect when the plot demands it. Somehow this is all a peace treaty movie too, or an allegory for the British handover of the island territory. To be honest the soap opera drama and the thin storyline are irrelevant. This is a first and foremost a fantasy spectacle like nothing else out there.
The seedy elements and nudity from the original version have been swapped out for lurid mechanical body horror and neon ghost effects. A lot of it doesn't resemble the source material at all, and it's all the better for it. One demonic character turns into both a living elevator and a motorcycle in the space of about five minutes. Supernatural powers seem to be invented on the fly as vehicles change size and mutants do battle on top of passenger jets. People are poisoned and haunted by visions, elsewhere the whole thing looks like an acid trip just for style alone. Some sequences cannot be described here because they need to be seen first hand. The coloured gel levels, the camera work energy levels and the levels of strange gooey madness make this essential viewing.
4/5
