Genocide - War of the Insects (1968)

aka KONCHU DAISENSO aka GENOCIDE aka WAR OF THE INSECTS

Directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu



One of the more intriguing responses to the monster movie (kaiju-eiga) boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s was the one undertaken by Shochiku. The studio was more commonly associated with the prestigious and formally precise productions of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, and the burgeoning formal experimentation of the politically motivated Japanese new wave. But in the late 1960’s the studio produced four science-fiction/horror/fantasy productions in quick succession in order to reap the fertile and profitable soil sown by the likes of Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, King Kong and Ghidorah. 

Black Magic 2 (1976)

BLACK MAGIC 2 aka REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES aka ANG WAN GONG TAU

Directed by Ho Meng Hua

Doctor Zhong Ping moves into a spacious home nestled within a Southeast Asian city where his medical colleague, Zheng Sheng resides. Bizarre, unexplainable maladies have gripped the city and all the clues lead to a frightening brand of black magic, the Tame Head Sorcery. As soon as Zheng and his wife get settled into their home, a mysterious man named Kang spies them at a night club. He then sets about inoculating them into his hellish cult of zombie followers and sex slaves. Those who resist or betray the deadly wizard suffer a horrible death.

Black Magic (1975)

 
BLACK MAGIC aka GONG TAU

Directed by Ho Meng Hua

Shan Jian Mi, an evil magician, earns a living by casting love spells for the heart-broken and death spells for the vindictive. Despite paying for his services, no one is truly free of Shan's black magic. Luo Yin (played by erotica starlet Tanny), a wealthy and horny young widow, lusts after Xu Nuo, a hunky construction worker (played by HK mega star Ti Lung) who happens to already be dating a pretty young lady (played by Lily Li). Meanwhile, a greasy playboy named Jia Jie (essayed by Lo Lieh) desires the naked body of the sultry Luo Yin, but she wants nothing to do with him. With Shan's aid, Xu Nuo leaves his bride-to-be at the altar and begins a sex-filled affair with the financially well off Luo Yin. Xu's betrothed is soon put in mortal danger with a death spell and Shan himself lusts for Luo's affections, bewitching her with his magic so as to have his way with her body. After thwarting the death spell, an old sorcerer well versed in white magic challenge Shan's wicked wizardry once again.

The Beasts (1980)



aka SHAN KOU

Directed by Dennis Yu

A group of young people on a camping trip are terrorized by a band of psycho's. When a young girl is raped and her boyfriend killed, the gang is arrested, but get off on a technicality. Enraged, the father of the defiled girl decides to take matters into his own hands by hunting down the cruel thugs, killing them off in brutal fashion.

I Saw the Devil (2010)

aka AKMARUEL BOATDA

Directed by Jee-woon Kim

South Korean filmmaker Jee-woon Kim continues to enjoy a remarkable level of distribution in the West. His latest film I Saw the Devil was paraded around the festival circuit, before receiving relatively wide distribution in the both the US and the UK. Kim first emerged as a name of note with his debut film The Quiet Family (1998) a comedy/horror film which was loosely remade in typically excessive fashion by Takashi Miike under the moniker The Happiness of the Katakuris (2002). Although interesting, his debut film was left in the dust with the release of A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), a stylish psychological horror film clearly inspired by the popularity of J-horror. This excellent film was remade in America as The Uninvited (2009). The result was a predictably desultory and pathetic re-imagining bled dry of all the aspects that made the original so engaging. Kim confirmed his generic utility with A Bittersweet Life (2005) and The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008). The former a wonderfully energetic, but incredibly violent gangster movie, and the latter a sprawling western adventure inspired by Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. All of these films have received above average distribution for South Korean films, which is a testament to Kim’s ability to craft generically satisfying material that still manages to push the boundaries of the form. In comparison to his previous films, I Saw the Devil is significantly less interesting. It is not a failure, but it is perhaps Kim’s first stumble, in a career that has thus far been very impressive.

Visitor Q (2001)

aka BIJITA Q aka LOVE CINEMA VOL.6

Directed by Takashi Miike

When prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike was invited to contribute to the Love Cinema series, few could have predicted the outcome would be the highly controversial Visitor Q. Love Cinema was a series of six direct to rental films from independent filmmakers, which were all shot on digital video for ultra low budgets. Of the six films, five vanished without trace into the abyss of celluloid history, but the sheer outrageousness of Visitor Q, and the increasing cult reputation of its director, ensured a limited theatrical run beyond the confines of the series for which it was intended. Miike was no stranger to controversy at this point in time. His cinema marked by excessive violence, bizarre sexual perversity, and a refreshingly rebellious attitude toward past traditions. Miike embodied a punk ethic, and a particular gift for offensive grotesquery, the like of which had rarely been distributed in the west. In many ways Visitor Q is Miike’s ultimate work of transgression, a vile cocktail featuring one abhorrent event after another. The challenge to social taboo is nothing new, even if Miike piles it on with typical exaggerated relish. The problem with Visitor Q lies in the fact that for much of its brief running time it is uproariously funny.

Onibaba (1964)

aka DEVIL WOMAN aka THE HOLE

Directed by Kaneto Shindô

Legendary Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindô directed his 45th feature film Ichimai no Hagaki in 2010 at the tender age of 98. Born in Hiroshima in 1912 Shindô has also written some 158 screenplays, making him easily one of the most prolific filmmakers in world cinema. Shindô’s failure to secure the type of distribution enjoyed by Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu remains a mystery. His early films are slightly more visible in the West. In recent times we have enjoyed pristine DVD presentations of The Naked Island (1960), Onibaba (1964) and Kuroneko (1968) and they have afforded us a glimpse into a highly stylised and expressive formal style that is both challenging and invigorating. The latter two titles have also illustrated Shindô’s ability to meld this formal eloquence with popular genres and past theatrical traditions. However the unavailability of Children of Hiroshima (1952) still remains a mystifying aberration. It is certainly the case that as the 1960’s wore on Shindô’s work became less distinctive and his interest in social purpose took a back seat to explorations of sexuality. But as we saw in Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976), sex in its purest form can be a potent political and social weapon. The success of his quasi historical horror film Onibaba isn’t particularly surprising as it retains just enough generic signifiers to satisfy western audiences, and possessed the added draw of an unusually frank exploration of frustrated sexuality.

Goke, Bodysnatcher From Hell (1968)

aka KYUKETSUKI GOKEMIDORO aka BODYSNATCHER FROM HELL aka GOKE THE VAMPIRE

Directed by Hajime Sato

Ordered to return to Haneda Airport after a bomb is reported to be somewhere aboard a passenger plane, an assassin makes his presence known and demands they change course for Okinawa. Shortly after the sky turns a blood red color and a number of suicidal birds dive into the windows, the plane encounters a UFO. Crashing in a remote location, the varying personalities bicker over what to do till the assassin comes to and escapes into the night. Happening upon the glowing UFO, the hired killer is beckoned inside where his body is overtaken by a blobular creature. Now possessed by an alien force that thrives on the blood of its victims, this space vampire proceeds to stalk and suck the blood from the remaining survivors who wait desperately for a rescue party to arrive.

Kuroneko (1968)

THE BLACK CAT aka THE BLACK CAT FROM THE GROVE

Directed by Kaneto Shindô

Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo is best known to western audiences for his shattering and moving tribute to the survivors of atomic destruction in the drama Children of Hiroshima (1952) and his sultry and sensual historical horror film Onibaba (1964). The latter is an evocative and oppressive allegory of Japanese class and social divisions and the tragic effects of a corrosive sexual jealousy. For Kuroneko Shindo recycled the basic premise of Onibaba (in which two resourceful women lure samurai to their death for material gain) and retained the same historical setting, war torn landscape and aesthetics of hunger. Kuroneko is a more conventional horror film in the sense that it foregrounds aspects of the supernatural, demon curses, and the quasi-mythical image of the cat. It makes use of the Kaidan or avenging spirit motif which unites much traditional Japanese horror and is brought to atmospheric life by beautiful monochrome cinematography and a formal eloquence that marks it out as one of Shindo’s most visually elegant productions. Despite these familiar signifiers however the film is still strange and otherworldly, and in its attention to traditional theatrical modes of narrative address possesses an inherently alien quality which is eminently fascinating.

Evil Dead Trap (1988)

aka SHIRÔ NO WANA

Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda

Evil Dead Trap is an intriguing curiosity that draws on a myriad of western influences, and unusually for a Japanese horror film makes no reference too indigenous traditions. The fact that the screenplay by Takashi Ishii could have been set anywhere gives the film a strange lack of cultural specificity which only goes to emphasise the artifice of the whole proposition. Ishii went on to much more interesting things as a writer and director, films such as the Takeshi Kitano starring Gonin (1995) and the unusual rape/revenge thriller Freeze Me (2000). The director Toshiharu Ikeda remains something of an obscurity in the west, Evil Dead Trap being the only film of his that had reasonable trans-national distribution. It is incredibly easy to see why it achieved this. The title itself is a reference to Sam Raimi’s irreverent gore soaked debut, and the film abounds with the echoes of other filmmakers and films. Perhaps the most notable influence here is the hyper-stylised baroque fantasies of Dario Argento. This imitation includes maggots falling from the ceiling onto an unsuspecting woman’s head, the use of red, green, and blue filters, and the irritating repetition of a central musical theme courtesy of Tomohiko Kira. Unfortunately shoddy prints have lessened the effect of Ikeda’s colour schemes, but despite the derivative nature of the film, Evil Dead Trap is still highly inventive, and perhaps more importantly for cult enthusiasts, incredibly gory.

Uzumaki (2000)

aka SPIRAL aka VORTEX

Directed by Higuchinsky

The boom in the production of horror films in Japan at the end of the last millennium didn’t take long to degenerate into cliché, convention, and predictability. The Kaidan or avenging spirit motif had long been a staple of theatrical modes of address and had popped up sporadically throughout Japanese film history. But by 2000 I for one was sick of long haired phantoms exacting their revenge through modern technology. With the benefit of hindsight one can now see how few moments of originality there were. Even the South Korean examples were rarely anything other than pallid imitations. This makes Uzumaki all the more exceptional. There is a genuine spark of inventiveness and creativity in director Higuchinsky’s handling of Junjo Ito’s manga source material. This was Higuchinsky’s directorial debut and he brought to his feature films a visual sensibility honed from a career producing music videos.

Audition (1999)

aka ÔDISHON

Directed by Takashi Miike

Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike made his international breakthrough with this mischievous and beautifully controlled examination of spectatorship, generic expectation, and gender relationships. With its subtle hints that eventually lead to a nightmare world of sadism and torture Miike proves himself to be a filmmaker that audiences cannot trust. The slow burning narrative build up of the first half affords the male characters an opportunity to express their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. For widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) his emotional frailties centre on the persistence of his son in finding a replacement for the wife who perished several years before. Aoyama still loves his departed wife, but the idea of a sexual partner, and a housewife to keep everything in order is very attractive. Aoyama’s sexism is outmoded and old fashioned, but he is essentially an harmless individual. He doesn’t possess the same level of vitriol and spite his friends do at the rising number of women in the work place. Despite the dubious morality of holding a fake audition in order to find himself a suitable wife, Aoyama scarcely deserves the shocking punishment he suffers at the end of the film.