Category Archives: Japanese Horror Films
GODZILLA OR GOJIRA: NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL HIM HE’S STILL STOMPING THE SHIT OUT OF TOKYO!
Alright!! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am pretty damned stoked about the fact that there’s going to be a new Godzilla film coming in 2014. Seriously, feel these nipples! That’s how excited I am! Anyway, now that I’ve gotten the Too Much Information part of this post over with I thought I would share some posters with you. These are some of the Japanese posters for the countless Godzilla films that have been released since 1954 when the Big G first rose from the depths of Tokyo Bay. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed posting them. Take care and stay scared!
Japanese Title: Gojira
English Title: Godzilla, King of the Monsters
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Japanese Title: Gojira no Gyakushu
English Title(s): Godzilla Raids Again, Gigantis the Fire Monster
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Japanese Title: Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira
English Title: King Kong vs. Godzilla
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Japanese Title: Mothra vs. Godzilla
English Title: Godzilla vs. The Thing
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Japanese Title: Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth
English Title: Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster
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Japanese Title: Great Monster War
English Title: Monster Zero
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Japanese Title: Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas
English Title: Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster
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Japanese Title: Monster Island‘s Decisive Battle: Godzilla’s Son
English Title: Son of Godzilla
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Japanese Title: Charge of the Monsters
English Title: Destroy All Monsters
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Japanese Title: Godzilla, Minilla, Gabara: All Monsters Giant Attack
English Title: Godzilla’s Revenge
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Japanese Title: Gojira tai Hedora
English Title: Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster
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Japanese Title: Chikyu Kogeki Meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan
English Title(s): Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla on Monster Island
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Japanese Title: Gojira tai Megaro
English Title: Godzilla vs. Megalon
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Japanese Title: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
English Title: Godzilla vs. The Cosmic Monster
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Japanese Title: Mechagodzilla’s Counterattack
English Title: Terror of Mechagodzilla
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Japanese Title: Gojira
English Title(s): Godzilla 1985, The Return of Godzilla
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Japanese Title: Gojira vs Biorante
English Title: Godzilla vs. Biollante
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Japanese Title: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
English Title: Godzilla vs. King Ghidora
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Japanese Title: Godzilla vs. Mothra
English Title: Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth
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Japanese Title: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
English Title: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
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Japanese Title: Gojira vs. Supesugojira
English Title: Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
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Japanese Title: Godzilla vs Destoroyah
English Title: Godzilla vs. Destroyer
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Japanese Title: Godzilla 2000: Millennium
English Title: Godzilla 2000
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Japanese Title: Godzilla X Megaguirus: G Extermination Strategy
English Title: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
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Japanese Title: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
English Title: Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
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Japanese Title: Godzilla X Mechagodzilla
English Title: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
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Japanese Title: Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
English Title: Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
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Japanese Title: Godzilla: Final Wars
English Title: Godzilla: Final Wars
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MASTERS OF HORROR SEASON ONE, EPISODE THIRTEEN: IMPRINT
MASTERS OF HORROR SEASON ONE, EPISODE THIRTEEN: IMPRINT-United States/Japan-2006
Billy Drago as Christopher
Directed by Takashi Miike
Teleplay by Dasuke Tengan
Based on the novel “Bokkê, kyôtê” by Shimako Iwai
Takashi Miike’s Imprint is a story that is so disturbing and that leaves such horrific images riding shotgun in your brain that a move to something more peaceful is immediately required. So that’s why as I sit here writing this review that the voice of the Kinks front-man Ray Davies drifts sweetly from my speakers. This is not to say that Imprint is horrible in its execution; it is far from that; if a film disturbs you to the point that in the same breath you call it a masterpiece and the most disgusting thing you’ve ever witnessed then it must be doing something right.
I first saw Imprint in 2006. I had heard the stories of how it had been banned by Showtime just before broadcast. Of course my brain was thinking ‘whoa, this must be some fucked up shit to be banned from a cable broadcast’. So, my initial viewing of the episode was through gore-colored glasses. I paid little attention to story and the horrific finesse (there’s an oxymoron for you) in which Miike wove his tale. This banned episode of Masters of Horror demanded a repeat viewing that did not come until six years later in the final days of 2012. This time I had to look past the gore and the horror to see if there indeed was a worthy tale being told. Indeed, there is.
It is a simple tale of a man (Billy Drago, The Untouchables, The Hills Have Eyes) in Japan in the 1800′s in desperate search of a prostitute named Komomo (Michié), whom he fell in love with and plans to start a new life in America with. He meets a deformed prostitute (Youki Kudoh) who tells him that Komomo is dead. She then tells the man, Christopher, three versions of the same story of the fate that Komomo suffered, each one more horrifying than the last. Prostitution, torture, suicide, incest and aborted fetuses are all a part of the hell she sends him into with each story. Will he ever know the truth; and when he does will the truth be what he wants to hear or what he needs to hear?
So, I’ve now seen Imprint twice. I do not wish to see it again. Takashi Miike (Audition, One Missed Call) has crafted that rarest of tales. It is easy to make an un-watchable piece of garbage. It is nearly impossible to make an un-watchable masterpiece. Miike pulls it off like just another day at the office.
TRIVIA
This episode was originally going to be shown on Showtime in January 2006, but the station banned it shortly before the broadcast. It debuted in America on DVD on September 26, 2006.
Shimako Iwai, the author of the novel on which the film is based, appears as the sadistic torturer.
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BATTLE ROYALE
BATTLE ROYALE-Japan-2000
Aki Maeda as Noriko Nakagawa
Taro Yamamoto as Shogo Kawada
Kou Shibasaki as Mitsuko Souma
Masanobu Ando as Kazuo Kiriyama
Beat Takeshi as Kitano-sensei
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Screenplay by Kenta Fukasaku
Based on the novel by Koushan Takami
If there is anyone out there who knows Chris Jericho personally would you please tell him that I said thank you? Five or so years ago I was reading his commentary on his web site and he mentioned two films. The first was Takashi Miike’s psychopathic masterpiece “Audition”; a film that was everything “Fatal Attraction” could only dream of being. The other was “Battle Royale”; a film that “The Hunger Games” owes a great deal of gratitude to.
The plot of this Japanese tour-de-force is as simple as it gets; everything has gone to shit and the grownups blame the youth for all their troubles. So, every year they randomly select one 9th grade class out of thousands to participate in the Battle Royale; a game of kill or be killed that makes the TV show “Survivor” look like an episode of “Gilligan’s Island.” The object of the game is this: each student must fight to the death to be the last person standing at the end of three days. They are given supplies befitting their genders; in other words the girls get tampons and stuff like that, and each of them is given a weapon that may or may not be beneficial to them. In addition, each student has a remote collar around their neck that will explode if they are in a danger zone or if they try to forcibly remove it. At the end of three days if there is no sole winner then the surviving students are irreversibly screwed because that will also cause their collars will explode. There can be only one Battle Royale survivor.
The first thing to grab me by the balls about this film was the beautiful brutality of the whole thing. Each kill is a danse macabre that surpasses the one before it. Guns, knives, crossbows, stun guns and poison all come into play and none of them seems ridiculous or mundane. The other thing that I loved about the film was the way the hierarchy stayed in place outside the confines of the school. All the cliques and friendships and rivalries that were a part of school are a part of the Battle Royale pecking order. Had that not remained the case it would have lessened the impact of the film.
To put it mildly, “Battle Royale” is a film that should never be re-made by any studio, American or not. You can’t improve on perfection and this is as close to perfect as you’re going to get. I still intend to see “The Hunger Games”; but I will tell you it has some mighty big shoes to fill.
Oh, and thank you, Chris Jericho.
TRIVIA
Kiriyama, the film’s main villain, does not utter one word throughout the entire film. He does, however, make a noise through a megaphone at one point.
The magazine containing bomb-making instructions that is used by Shinji Mimura and his gang is titled “Hara Hara Tokei” (“The Ticking Clock”). This magazine is a real bomb-making magazine published by an anti-Japanese-Government activist group called Higashi Ajia Hannichi Buso Sensen (East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front) from the 1970s.
One of the top-10 highest-grossing films in Japan.
Despite the belief that this film was banned in the United States, it is not the case. There are, however, several conflicting if plausible explanations as to why it hasn’t been released there as of yet. The first is that Toei refuses to license the movie for North American distribution and has already rejected offers from several American companies. The second is that Toei’s licensing fee is unusually high for this kind of film, so smaller independent distributors can’t afford it and larger distributors that can afford it refuse to pay it. A third story was that no distributor was willing to pick the film up after the Columbine school shootings, due to the plot line of high school students killing each other.
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GAMERA:GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE
GAMERA:GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE-Japan-1995
Directed by Shûseke Kaneko
Dialogue by Matt Greenfield
Written by Kazunori Itô
Starring
Akira Onodera
BLOOD LIGHT PRESENTS REAL MONSTERS OF GENIUS
Real Monsters of Genius
Today we salute you, Mr. Giant flying Japanese turtle.
He’s a turtle, not a tortoise!!
You’re the go-to guy when it comes to getting rid of those pesky cannibalistic birds known as the Gyaos.
It’s a giant flying big bird cannibal holocaust crunch and munch!!
Not only can you fly like an eagle, you can shoot mighty flames out of your mouth that look like big giant gas balls.
Ooooooooowwwwww, the big turtle’s got gas so you better stand back!!
But above all that, you managed to form a psychic bond with a really hot teenage girl.
She’s Steven Seagal‘s daughter, but she doesn’t have her daddy’s looks oh thank you, Lord!!
So lift up your flipper, roar that roar you roar so well and take a big Japanese monster flying turtle bow.
You saved us all, you big guy!!
And grab yourself an ice cold BLOOD LIGHT.
You deserve it, big fella!!
All joking aside I’m sure you’re probably asking why I would bother reviewing a Japanese giant monster film. The best answer I can give you is a deceptively simple one; I review it because it’s fun. After reviewing films like “Deadgirl” and “Antichrist” I began to feel down. Neither one of those films could be described as ‘touch me feel me’ films. In fact, they can be downright depressing if you let them. So I knew that I needed a change. That’s where Gamera comes into play. Sometimes you need to review a film that has no hidden social message, no famous big name actors and that makes you feel like a complete and total kid again. Sure, Gamera is a giant flying turtle. Sure, he can fly and shoot giant fireballs and form psychic bonds with teenage girls played by Steven Seagal’s daughter. What’s the big fucking deal about that? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
TRIVIA
The gayos creature was performed by a female actress so that it would convey more ‘feminine’ like behavior. Apparently this was the first time a kaiju was ever performed by a woman.
The film’s Japanese poster is a nearly identical recreation of the Japanese poster of the first film in which Gamera fought Gyaos, Daikaijû kûchûsen: Gamera tai Gyaosu.
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GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK
GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK-Japan-2001
Gojira as Godzilla
Mosura as Mothra
Kingu Ghidoru as King GhidorahBarugan as Baragon
How many of you have ever met Godzilla? Anybody? Anybody? I met him once. It was back in South Carolina just after 1998. He was feeling pretty damn bummed out about the way (Roland) Emmerich and (Dean) Devlin treated him in the remake. I took him to a bar and he poured out his troubles over those drinks with the little umbrellas in them. With a tear in his eye he told me, “John, I was a star once. I was the biggest star in Japan. But now, look at me. Those two assholes Emmerich and Devlin have turned me into a parody, a shell of my former self.” I kept my mouth shut and let him get it all out. I knew this was what he needed to do. He took a sip of his drink and continued. “But, you know what, screw this shit!” He threw his drink across the room where it came that close to hitting the bartender in the back of the head. I thought for sure we were going to get kicked out of there, but the bartender just gave us a dirty look and went about his business. I figured it was because he never had a star of ‘Zilla’s magnitude in his two bit watered down, piece of shit bar before. Anyways, back to the big guy. He had already knocked back about a hundred of those little frou-frou drinks and was getting pretty damn wound up.
“I’m a star! I’ve made 25 movies! Has James Bond made 25 movies? Nooooooooooo!!! But now look at me! Look at me!!!” It broke my heart to hear the poor guy go on like that. I felt bad that I too had laughed at him in the Emmerich and Devlin remake. I gave the old boy a pat on the back and told him that it was all going to be okay. He grabbed me and hugged me just like Bitch-tits Bob did to Edward Norton in Fight Club. He needed to. He needed to know that someone believed in him and supported him.
“Big guy, I told him, you’re going to be a star again. I know it, deep down in my heart, I know it. In the next couple of years I’m going to be seeing big things from you, you just wait and see.” I could tell that I was getting through to him. The look of the old Godzilla was coming back into his eyes. We paid the tab and left the bar. We went to a pay phone where he pretended to be from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He called Emmerich and Devlin and told them that they had been chosen to receive an Honorary Oscar for their contributions to the motion picture industry. I could barely keep from laughing when Emmerich started crying and saying that this was the moment he had dreamed of all his life. It was good to have the old Godzilla back.
That was 13 years ago. Godzilla made several films in Japan after the debacle that was the American remake. I remember telling him that I was going to be seeing big things from him; in 2001 those words rang true. He, along with his buddies Mothra and King Ghidorah were the stars of Shusuke Kaneko’s “Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.” It featured the Godzilla we are familiar with from his days with Ishiro Honda, except this time there are some new twists. For one, King Ghidorah is not a bad guy in the film like he has been in previous films he has starred in with ‘Zilla. Mothra is a little smaller, too, and the twin fairies are gone. The biggest change comes from the Big G himself. He’s still the same Godzilla we have all come to know and love, but this time his eyes are white, without pupils, like a zombie. It may have to do with his new origin story that the screenwriters have come up with. Instead of being the result of man’s folly in playing around with atomic weapons, this Godzilla is the embodiment of the tortured souls who gave their lives in World War II. I guess those souls are pretty damn pissed off if they use Godzilla to take out their aggressions. This is not your American remake Godzilla that runs from a fight and goes down after getting hit with a few piss-ant missiles. This is the bad-ass Godzilla that carries a wallet that says BAD MOFO on it in big black letters. This is the bad-ass Godzilla that gets annoyed with a bunch of screaming, running people and lets them have it with a blast of his radioactive breath. It takes the combined efforts of Baragon, Mothra and King Ghidorah to put a stop to his reign of terror. Will the giant monsters defeat the mighty Godzilla? Will Sookie decide between Bill and Eric? Will the sixth season of Dexter be as good as the last five? My friends, you’re just going to have to watch the movie. We are just going to have to wait and see.
Trivia
½GOJIRA
Image via Wikipedia
GOJIRA-Japan-1954
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Written by Ishiro Honda and Takeo Murata
Story by Shigeru Kayama
Starring
Akira Takarada as Hideto Ogata
Momoko Kochi as Emiko Yamane
Akihiko Hirata as Daisuke Serizawa-hakase
In 1954, only nine years after the bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar dropped the first weapons of mass atomic destruction on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a similar force of devastation was unleashed on Japanese movie-goers. It’s name was Gojira, and it would become the poster child of the atomic age.
As Gojira cuts a path of destruction across Tokyo, people were reminiscent of those horrible days merely nine years passed. Scenes of scores of victims either dead or dying from radiation burns recalled horrific images of their loved ones as they suffered in all too real fashion in 1945. Japanese schoolchildren can be heard singing a song that pleads for peace. But peace does not come. There is only Gojira.
Gojira is a masterpiece of film making that arguably deserves a spot right alongside the great films of Akira Kurosawa. Without this landmark film and it’s monster as metaphor for mass destruction, there would be no Cloverfield with its own brutal reminder of September 11, 2001. Both films feature a creature that literally appears out of nowhere to wreak havoc on a sleepy unsuspecting city. Both films were also released at a time that they reflected real life tragedies. Gojira has an established place in movie history. Time will tell if the same will be true for Cloverfield.
Gojira is a combination of the words gorira, meaning gorilla; and kujira, meaning whale.
The name means ‘ape-whale’. Director Ishiro Honda never helmed anything that was even remotely close to the achievement of this film. It would be released to American audiences in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Scenes of Raymond Burr as reporter Steve Martin narrating the destruction of Tokyo from his hotel room window were added in. Nearly 40 minutes of footage were taken out of the film. This was done with good intentions. Americans did not want to be reminded of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The less Japanese faces they saw on their movie screens, the better. It’s a shame. The excised footage kills the momentum of the film and makes it into just another man in a monster suit movie. But the original cut of Gojira is much more than that. 28 films later, the monster has become a pop-culture icon and synonymous with destruction and devastation. Gojira is a masterwork and deservedly so.
JU-ON
Written and Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Starring
Megumi Okina as Rika Nishina
Misaki Ito as Hitomi Tokunaga
Yuya Ozeki as Toshio
To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t quite understand the film Ju-on when I first watched it. I knew that it was about a curse that was put upon a person who has died while under extreme sorrow or rage. I knew that the curse stayed in the area where the person died and that it killed those it came into contact with, thereby carrying on the curse. What I didn’t really understand was how were the people, whose names appeared before each vignette, connected to each other. Then I thought about it for a while and I realized that they really aren’t. Ju-on is not so much about the living as it is about the dead. It is about the ghosts who haunt the living and the house where most of those haunting/deaths take place. The vignettes guide through the haunting like a dark ride at an amusement park. Each person has a story, an experience with the dead. This is not a film for the faint of heart. It has images of pure terror and it is evident that the director has it in his mind to scare the pants off his audience. He succeeds for the most part. The ghosts in the film are wide-eyed and terrifying and the characters react to them accordingly. But I personally think that he might have benefited from a more linear storyline. I felt sometimes like I was watching an anthology. All in all, though, Ju-on is definitely one of the finer examples of J-Horror.
AUDITION
Image via Wikipedia
Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Ryu Murakami (Novel) and Daisuke Tengan
Starring
Ryo Ishibashi as Shigeharu Aoyama
Eihi Shiina as Asami Yamazaki
Audition is the film in which nightmares are made. A man who has been alone for the past seven years since his wife’s death is persuaded by his son to find a companion. He doesn’t like the idea of going off to college and leaving his father all alone. So the man and a producer friend of his come up with the idea to hold an audition. The women who attend the audition will be under the impression that they will be “playing” the man’s wife. In reality he is actually picking the woman who will be his real wife.
One girl, Asami, stands out from all the rest as special to the man. However his friend tells him that this woman is bad news. The man will not listen to him. He is blinded by his love for her and sees her as beautiful both inside and out.
So far this all sounds like something out of a soap opera, all melodramatic and full of emotion. Asami sits alone on the floor of her apartment one night. There is a telephone and…something…in a large sack there on the floor with her. She sits quietly as the phone rings…rings…rings…and suddenly the sack makes a noise between a gurgle and a belch and rolls over on the floor. It is then that we realize that there is more to Asami than meets the eye. It is then that this movie becomes the abyss which stares back at us. It is then that we nearly jump out of our seats.
Audition is a masterpiece of a horror film that only Takashi Miike could have pulled off. He lures the audience into Asami’s world with softness and a sense of security before revealing the razor wire and pulling the rug out from underneath our feet. With Asami, he shows us that that which is beautiful can be the deadliest thing of all to us. Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina give spectacular performances as the man Aoyoma and Asami. Shiina does not so much take over the film as she becomes a part of it. It wouldn’t be until Charlize Theron‘s performance in Monster that I have actually seen an actor get this deep into character.
Audition is a cautinary tale and therefore I warn you: see it with someone you love. But remember, they may not be the person you think they are.
REINCARNATION
Image via Wikipedia
REINCARNATION-Japan-2005
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Written by Takashi Shimizu and Masachi Adachi
Starring
Yuka as Nagisa Sugiura
Karina as Yayoi Kinoshita
Kippei Shiina as Ikuo Matsumura
Tetta Sugimoto as Tadashi Murakawa
Shun Oguri as Kazuya Omori
Reincarnation is a Japanese film released in the United States as part of the After Dark Horrorfest series. Each year a series of anywhere from seven to eight films is released on DVD under the collective title of either ‘Films to Die For’ or ’8 Films to Die For.’ The films are usually pretty good but there have been a few misses here and there and I hate to say it but I have to put Reincarnation in the ‘miss’ section.
The film is about a film crew that travels to a hotel where a college professor murdered his children and nine other people before committing suicide. The director wants to make a film about the victims and not the killer. He feels that if he makes the film and tells their story then they will be able to find peace in the world beyond. Yeah, not a good idea. Next thing you know they’re up to their ears in ghosts.
The main thing that I liked about this film is that it made you feel like it was a film within a film without making you feel like it was a film within a film. We are watching a film about a crew that is making a film about a murder that took place in a motel many years ago. The main thing I didn’t like is that the film tended to drag a bit and get bogged down. The story is good, the acting is very good (especially from Yuka as Nagisa Sugiura). There is also a doll in this film that has to be one of the creepiest dolls I have ever seen in a horror film. The film also tends to get a bit confusing at times. Are the actors the reincarnation of the murdered people? I never really understood if that was the case.
There are good parts to the film, yes. But the bad truly outweighs the good this time around.
Take care and stay scared.
Tokyo Gore Police
TOKYO GORE POLICE-Japan-2008
Directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura
Written by Kengo Kaji and Maki Mizui and Yoshihiro Nishimura
Starring
Eihi Shiina as Ruka
Itsuji Itao as Keyman
Yukihide Benny as Tokyo Police Chief
Jiji Bu as Barbara-Man
Ikuku Sawada as Bar Independent Diner
Tokyo Gore Police is an attack on the senses that never lets up from beginning to end. It attacks sight and sound simultaneously and without mercy. The Tokyo Police have become privatized and can pretty much do whatever they hell want in order to stop crime. One scene in the film shows them executing a child murderer presumably immediately after arrest. The main enemy of the Police are the engineers. They are criminals who have been genetically altered so that when ever they lose an appendage they can replace with a biomechanical weapon. Any appendage. Get my drift. There are gallons of blood in this film and enough dismemberments and decapitations to fill five or six horror films. However, the blood flow is more stylized than your average gore fest and is more reminiscent of an anime film come to life than a horror film.
I enjoyed this film. It was completely over the top and never once did it set out to take itself seriously. This is a B-movie and it’s damn proud of it.
NO TRIVIA
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