The Bird People in China is probably one of the worst Takashi Miike films. It’s slow and boring as hell. The basic plot is of two foreigners in a different land forming a friendship. One of the men is a yakuza with a bloody past, the other is a quite business man. They go to a small village in the mountains of China and are trapped there. They both go a bit insane. In the interview in the special features, Miike says that the point of the film was the create a unique world, which is... Read Full Story

On my Netflix que I put all of the Takashi Miike films that I haven’t seen at the top. So if you aren’t into Miike you should probably not read this blog for the next couple of days. Yakuza Demon is a good film. Riki Takeuchi stars as Seiji a member of a small yakuza family trying to stay alive. But this film was directed by Takashi Miike so you know everything isn’t going to go well. The rival yakuza gang Tendo has crossed the lines and pissed off the Date family. He puts his boss in jail... Read Full Story

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai In The Mood For Love is an incredibly boring film. I had a hard time paying attention to it and it almost put me to sleep. It is about two people almost having an affair in Hong Kong in the 60’s. A man and a woman move in on the same day next to each other in a small apartment building. Both of their partners are away for long periods of time and they become close. I just simply couldn’t care about them or their situation. Cheating is not a subject that matters to... Read Full Story

I wish that I could have seen some of my favorite films in the theater. I think that a film that Audition or Ichi the Killer would be great to see on the big screen. i try to see as many films as I can in the theater but it doesn’t happen very often. Money is one of the main reasons. Time is another. I also lived in a small city in Ohio, and didn’t help much because nothing came to that pit. No one is going to bring cool cinema to the Midwest. It would just be waste of their time. I now live... Read Full Story

Imprint was directed by Takashi Miike for the Master’s of Horror series that runs on Showtime. It was banned from airing on television for being too graphic which it definitely is. But the Master’s of Horror series should have thought of that before they allowed Miike to direct one of their episodes if they were going to be so touchy about it. The main plot is about an American who goes back to Japan to find a woman but the story is a bit more complicated than that. The movie is drifting... Read Full Story

Kill Your Idols is a documentary about the no-wave music scene of late 70’s and early 80’s New York City. It’s cool film that anyone with an interest in music culture should see. It has interviews of people/bands like Lydia Lunch, J. G. thurwell, Glenn Branca, Yeah, Yeah Yeahs, and Sonic Youth. It doesn’t feel too long or go too far in depth with the subject. This wouldn’t be worth watching to the average music fan. Tags: , 70's NYC, films about music cultures, no wave This entry was... Read Full Story

Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the best loved horror films of the late seventies. It’s a great film that I always felt could have been perfect, if someone would have tweaked it a little. (This is a review of the original film, not the remake, for the slow folks who can’t follow along.) The story is basic but effective. Five friends on a road trip run into scary inbred cannibals and are hunted down. The gore is nice but the violence of the film is what makes it good... Read Full Story

Last night I watched I Can’t Sleep which I thought was an okay film. Not great but not bad either. It’s about the lives of three young people alienated and alone in a big city. The first is a young woman who has to depend on the kindness of her relatives to get by. The other two are a black musician with a young child and a flaky girlfriend and his cross-dressing brother. His brother is gay and a junkie. There’s also a subplot about the true story of the grammy killer of the 80’s mixed in... Read Full Story

Mobster Confessions is a fun yakuza film. Japanese director Rokuro Mochizuki has made a slow but violent film that is also rather funny. Jiro is small time conman who lives off of scaring small businesses out of there money. He gets involved in an abusive relationship with a damaged young woman who he is able to control. A yakuza gang decides to start taking Jiro’s money and he moves on to conning people with more cash and also pimping his girlfriend. This film is slow but still enjoyable... Read Full Story

In a Glass Cage is a savage film that I don’t think most people could take watching. It’s about a man named Klaus is an ex-Nazi, a doctor whose war-time post in a concentration camp enabled him to commit the most appalling sex crimes against boys. Not satisfied with just molesting his victims he loved to torture and kill the as well. He escapes capture and starts a new life in Spain but he can’t give up his sick urges and attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of his home. He lives and... Read Full Story