The Nosebleed Section V 2.0

364 Days To Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. 364 Days to Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

I know this is late for the holiday, but I am a firm believer in the ethos learned in the Ministry song, "Everyday is Halloween"

For a movie I have claimed to dislike for over twenty years, I have an unhealthy fascination with Halloween III: Season of the Witch. My initial dislike goes back to the age of nine, when as a young horror enthusiast, I decided to throw a Halloween party. The centerpiece of which would be the viewing of a horror movie. Since my parents were divorced, procuring a horror film would not be an easy task, my dad was the one that would allow me watch scary movie, but he was no longer living with us, and I knew I would be unable to convince my mom to rent a Halloween themed film, or at least one that didn't involve Mickey Mouse in some way. Fortunately for myself, I was a bit of a electronic guru at that young age and knew how to program the family's sole VCR. A few nights before the holiday, Channel 2 (KTVU, in the years when they were an independent, before becoming the local FOX affiliate) aired Halloween III and I recorded it. I knew a little bit about the series, while I hadn't seen either of the first two films, my dad often would tell me plots of horror films as little ghost stories, so of course, I assumed I would be showing to my friends the latest exploits of one Michael Myers, serial killer extraordinare of Haddonfield, Il. Disappointed abounded when Michael Meyers never shows up in the third installment, which instead revolves around a madman bent on killing the children of the world by manufacturing masks through his corporation, Silver Shamrock, that will eventually kill all who wear them on Halloween while they watch a catchy jingle infused advertisement.

While I went back to the film once, probably at the age of 16 when I would rent entire horror series in bulk, I have not watched the film in its entirety for over a decade. However, AMC, the channel formerly known as American Movie Classics, now known as the channel that will air anything they can get for cheap, had been showing it frequently prior to Halloween as part of its Horrorfest programming. I caught a good chunk of the movie a couple of times and plan on rewatching the film in its entirety on DVD in the near future (or at least by next Halloween).

Still, I find myself asking why the fascination with the film? Well, here's a few things I do know I find interesting, bullet pointed for your pleasure:

* With no shame whatsoever, I love the poster design (to the left). The eerie melting pumpkin face, the red dawn sky and the elongated silhouettes of children. It oh so 1980s, but in a good way. I prefer it over the Miramax horror poster style of the late 90s where they put their good looking cast members in a row behind some image of danger culled from the film (the Scream series and Halloween: H20) and the current Lionsgate style of showing some abstract gruesome detail, usually not actually in the film itself. (Saw and its sequels, Hostel, and even the more clever The Descent poster being prime examples)

* I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but John Carpenter's original intent for continuing the Halloween series was commendable. Instead of the rehashing of the original and resurrecting Michael Myers each episode, he decided that beginning with part 3 each Halloween sequel would have an entirely different plot, pertaining to some sort of horror taking place on Halloween. In a way I guess he foresaw The Simpson's Treehouse of Terror conceit. However after part 3 bombed, they never continued with that line of think and Universal would lose the title rights and in 1988, Michael Myers would return once more in the aptly titled: Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers.

* The insanely, and some say, annoyingly catchy Silver Shamrock jingle and the idea that kids would willingly watch a television commercial on Halloween is a pretty clever indictment of the wave of consumerism aimed at youth that was and has been prevalent since the Reagan era.

* Something that I found kind of ridiculous, but in an enjoyable way, below is a picture of your leading man of Halloween III, one Tom Atkins :

So here's the thing, its not the most indicative photo of him, but basically you get the point, not the most attractive guy, even of his day (no Tom Selleck, he). Anyway, basically he plays a doctor in the film, a doctor who decides to skip work and town to go investigate the death of one of his patient with the aid of the patient's daughter, a nubile early twenty something. Not only does he leave work, probably causing some poor guy who was probably looking forward to the time off to cover for him and possibly endangering various ill and injured persons, he also lies to his wife and children, and ends up sleeping with the hottie. I repeat, he is our hero in the film. Only in the eighties, huh?  (Don't get my wrong I like Mr. Atkins, and thought he was particularly great in the still MIA on DVD cult horror film, Night of the Creeps)

* Early meta. The characters in Halloween III watch the original Halloween on television throughout the film. (In blow your mind trivia, in the original film, Jamie Lee Curtis and the kids she babysit watch Howard Hawks' The Thing From Another Planet, which Jon Carpenter would remake in 1982, the same year Season of the Witch was released).

* And last, but certainly not least, it certainly cannot be titled the worst film to carry the Halloween moniker. No, that would go to Halloween: Resurrection the post-respected Halloween: H20 sequel, where they not only bring Myers back once again, this time after decapitation, kill off Jamie Lee Curtis, feature a lame cyber-web reality show based plot, and ends with Busta Ryhmes going all Jackie Chan on Mikey's ass. It's probably better than parts 4-6 too, put that would require further research (aka new viewings)

If and when I get to a new viewing, I'll try and let you know my feelings about the film after a reviewing of the actual entire film.

If this entry has helped to satiate your Halloween III jones, here's some handy links for you:

The Halloween III page on Wikipedia, surprisingly full of interesting details.

The Halloween III teaser trailer on Youtube.

The Halloween III theatrical trailer on Youtube.

And last and certainly not least:

One of the Silver Shamrock commercials on Youtube.

Please don't blame me when this song is stuck in your head until next Halloween.

On DVD from your Living Room, its...

Cool DVD announcement news: The first season of Saturday Night Live will be released on December 5th. According to this (link) the set will include all 24 episodes in their entirety. Meaning yes, there will be musical performances included. And all for the (somewhat) reasonable suggested retail price of $69.98. This announcement comes as somewhat surprising, little fanfare, a quick release, and the copyright of the musical performances always being a large obstacle. As someone who has dabbled in sketch comedy writing, I am excited to finally see the complete series, not just compilations that cut bits in half and repeatedly show the same "classic sketches" over and over.  Now we can finally see if the monologue has always felt strained, if even the original cast created filler after the 12:30am point and the Albert Brooks shorts!

Truth be told, I haven't really watched Saturday Night Live weekly since...uh, when did Phil Hartman leave? I have caught it from time to time in the last twelve plus years, but can't think of many episodes that were consistent throughout (one notable exception, a 1997 episode with Kevin Spacey as host and Beck as musical guest). I've felt in the last dozen seasons they have tried too hard to manufacture recurring characters instead of letting them gain popularity organically. Despite the fact I love Anchorman and Talladega Nights, I even found Will Ferrell wanting during his tenure. Obviously he's a gifted comedian, but the material I saw him in always felt forced (I am thinking the Cheerleaders, the Roxbury guys, etc) and he seemed to overcompensate for the poor material with extreme energy, which could sometimes be a burden. I give him credit for trying hard, and from time to time he shone through (the More Cowbell sketch being the obvious highlight), but I found the series spinning its wheels with the above mentioned lame characters and falling back on impersonation for its own sake without any commentary. And I am still wondering if I am ever going to find someone who agrees with me on Tina Fey being the Emperor's New Clothes of comedy the last five years running. Yes, its great SNL finally hired a lead female writer, and yeah she's cute, and dude, what up with the scar? Seriously though I think the show has become readymade for the TRL set during her time there rather than anything resembling biting satire.

I've always found it frustrating that despite the fact Lorne Michaels seems currently intent on not rocking the boat and grasps onto control of every facet of the show, he has done a really shoddy job of historically preserving his legacy. I remember when Nick at Night began airing classic SNL reruns in the late 80s, instead of the entire show, they were sketches cut together willy-nilly into a half hour. I didn't realize until much later that Chevy Chase and Bill Murray were never castmates at the same time until much later thanks to that. In the nineties Comedy Central started airing edited hour long episodes, usually with one of the musical guest's normal two performances and Weekend Update intact, but only with episodes from the '80-81 season and after. So yeah, I've probably seen more of the Charles Rocket/Joe Piscopo era than the Akroyd/Belushi/Radner/et al. time period. Lately, Michaels have been editing together "Best of ______(fill in cast member or regular guest host here)" compilations. Again giving us mainly the recurring characters and favorite bits, but little depth into what made these cast members, like Hartman, such diverse and strong personalities. Though I must admit, I want to pick this up.

So is the original season overrated thanks to it being there first? Do the 30 year old sketches hold up now? Are there any unsung sketches that have been overshadowed for decades in favor of Samurai Baker, the Blues Brothers, Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford impersonation and Julia Child bleeding? Finally a definitive answer can be assessed.

What's The Opposite of BOOOIIINNGG?

A while ago I publicly wondered aloud what happened to the Mike Judge written and directed film, Idiocracy. You can read that post here. It had been in the can for over a year, and I wondered why FOX hadn't bothered to release it. Well, they finally bothered. Very feebly. Idiocracy opens....September 1st. Yes, tomorrow. Of course, you probably had no idea, since there is absolutely zero publicity, and they didn't even bother to cut a trailer. Oh, and do you live in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles or Chicago? If not, tough luck, buddy, because those are the only cities it will play in. Here's the Austin Chronicle's article.

So one of the immediate questions is, is the movie really bad? I would say that that is a conceivable possibility, but man, its Mike Judge. I think Office Space, Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill at least demand that I go in with positivity. And seriously, looking at the slate of films FOX has released so far this year, quality control seems to be the least of their concerns. Want to see a list of crappy titles, how about: Date Movie, Aquamarie, John Tucker Must Die, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Sentinel and the creme de la creme of the 2006 release calender, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.

So since I feel a bit of an obligation to see this Idiocracy investigation to some sort of conclusion, and seeing how I live in Los Angeles, one of the six cities the film will open in, I will see it this weekend and let you know my thoughts next week, so you can catch it or avoid it when it hits DVD in a couple of months.

The Descent (2005, Neil Marshall)

One of the better attributes a horror film director can have is the ability to be completely and utterly untrustable. Think Stanley Kubrick and The Shining. Towards the end of the film, Scatman Crothers, who shares the ability to telekinetically communicate with little boy Danny, makes a trek across country to save him from his axe wielding father. The audience has seen this scene before, he's going to come and save the day. But at the moment he enters the hotel, he is greeted with an axe right in the stomach and our expectations are blown to shit, the audience knows it is no longer safe, and anything can happen. In the British import The Descent, currently in theatrical release here in the states, there is a great moment, about midway through, where one character makes an entirely understandable (bearing in mind the state of her psyche at that point) mistake and well, I don't want to give it away because part of the joy of the film is knowing as little as possible going in, but needless to say, the audience will be unable to rely on cliches from there on in.

Like I said before, I recommend going into this knowing as little as possible, but if you'd like a plot synopsis, here are the details: its about a woman, still reeling from a horrible accident that claimed her husband and child, who decides to embark on a cave dwelling expedition with a group of her female friends, and things go awry, you could arguably say "horribly awry", but I guess that's in the eye of the beholder, but yeah, its pretty horrible, lets just say creatures that look like blind albino Gollums are involved.

The film is not without its flaws. I have never seen an all women horror film that didn't involve scantily cladness of said women in some form, so thats appreciated, but at the same time the women all pretty much either conform to some sort of stereotype (IE the girl with a short cropped haircut is the most masculine) or are completely anonymous from one another. The horrible accident at the beginning that claims the husband and child seems a little unnecessary, its almost as if Marshall wanted to distance himself from another horror export, Wolf Creek, and make sure something gruesome happens early to keep people interested. Sure, you will argue that this shapes the persona of main character Sarah (Sissy Spacek doppelganger Shauna MacDonald) and that it plot-wise plays a big dividend in the end, explaining her most severe action, but again, it kind of boils down to another dramatic female stereotype (infidelity).

Still, this film is more brutal than 98% of horror films that are made today, including the two films the ads name drop The Descent as being from the same studio as, Hostel and Saw. Please, somebody explain the allure of these goddamn Saw films to me. They are uniformly poorly acted, look like a shitty Seven wannabe and are laughably edited. The first film had one of the most ridiculous twists ever and the whole morally superior serial killer is an utter bullshit notion, and one that has already been done to death. I vent just because there was a trailer for part 3 in front of the film and a couple of people cheered, and I just thought, "wow it looks exactly like the first film". As for Hostel, The Descent is the film Eli Roth wishes he could make, its able to push its audience to an extreme position of dread with relative ease and maintain it throughout the entire film, hell, The Descent is more frightening in the scenes in the cave, before the shit really hits the fan, then any single moment in Hostel. The only other horror film that have been released recently that I think holds a candle to this is the remake of The Hills Have Eyes which lost some credibility by being a.) a remake (though I think its a better film than the Wes Craven original); b.) for scenes of the crazy hillbillies being a little too crazy; and c.) the whole room full of clipped articles that perfectly tell the whole backstory, sheesh, I hate that shit.

So if you haven't seen The Descent yet and are in the mood for a good horror film that is going to make you uneasy and on edge for a few hours after watching it, then by all means, get yourself to the theatre. Now for some MAJOR SPOILERS CONCERNING THE END, DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE FILM OR YOU HAVE NO DESIRE TO SEE IT AND WANT THE ENDING RUINED FOR YOU.

So as you may know, for the American release, Lionsgate decided to change the ending from the original version that played in England. Technically it didn't alter or add any scenes, but it basically ended the film before a pretty major revelation. Here is the original ending.

Now obviously I think the film should end the way the filmmaker wanted it to end, and I already foresee the DVD release where they will tout in all advertisements: "The ending too frightening for America!" as a marketing strategy. But as far as it goes, I don't think the change is entirely awful. People have been slamming the change saying it shows how stupid the studio think Americans are. But you know what, its not like its an entirely happy ending. Sure Sarah escapes the cave, but things aren't rainbows and puppy dogs. Now instead of envisioning, hearing or seeing her dead daughter all the time, she will see and hear the spirit of Juno, the woman she left to die in the cave. She will be living with not only that but grief that she has no one left, no friends, no husband, no daughter. On top of that, now whenever she sees an albino, she's totally going to freak the fuck out.

As for the original ending, yeah, I consider it slightly more "pure" and works within the style and context of the film. She is still in the cave, she will die. But in the British ending, I think its a little silly to have the "Juno shock" at the end and then reveal her true fate. Its the whole wanting your cake and eating it too notion. Either shock us or reveal a big twist, doing both is a little desperate. So basically what I am saying is both endings could use a little work and I am looking for the third, never before seen anywhere ending, where its revealed that none of this ever happened and it was a dream she had while falling asleep in the car from her river rafting trip at the beginning.

I Think That People Are the Greatest Fun

Arthur Lee (1945-2006)

I know I've been gone for a while, and I plan on more updates soon, but I just wanted to give a appreciative nod to Arthur Lee, vocalist and guitarist for one of the great band of the 60s, Love, who passed away today after a long bout with cancer. By coincidence the last few weeks I have been playing their seminal third album Forever Changes again and continue to be amazed years after discovering it how it still surprises with the complexity and ingenuity of the lyrics and instrumentation. Its a shame that they are still kind of known mostly by major music aficionados and not so much the general public. They deserve to be spoken in the same breath as such stalwarts as The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys. If you do not own any of their albums, especially Forever Changes, do yourself a favor and run to your local record shop or Itunes and pick it up. Your record collection is officially incomplete without it.

I'll leave this with a famous passage from the song "You Set The Scene":

This is the time and life that I am living

and I'll face each day with a smile

For the time that I've been given's

such a little while

and the things I must do

consists of more than style"

Lazy Summer Bloggin'

The next two weeks will be a little busy around here, both work-wise and socially (Radiohead tomorrow night!!!) so I thought I'd make a links-heavy post of some noteworthy websites and other general news that have struck my fancy.

* In the sad music news department, Sleater-Kinney have broken up, okay technically they're on an "indefinite hiatus". Over the last ten or so years they have been releasing nothing but solid work. I got into them in 1997 and the Dig Me Out record, which to this day is still my favorite. Had I known that there was a possibility of them disbanding, I would have made more of an effort to see them live in the past few years. I've seen them live 3 times and they killed each time, but its been six years. Thanks for the good music, ladies, and enjoy the respite from anymore condescending "Women in Rock" articles in rock magazines.

* In the happy music news department, The Arcade Fire are hard at work on their sophomore effort. Since not only do I think they transcend the hype, but consider their debut work, Funeral, the best album of the aughts, or whatever we are calling this decade, I cannot wait to hear any and all new material. Too bad about the whole Neutral Milk Hotel working on a new album being b.s. though.

* I will probably not see Superman Returns until this weekend or probably next week, but I have seen the Spider-Man 3 trailer that is attached to the prints. Looks like Raimi will end the dreaded part 3 of the comic book series curse. X-Men 3 is just the latest of this trend. It seems in most comic book series, the third entry lack of inspiration leads to the first ringing of franchises' death knolls. Superman 3 forwent continuity to become an unfunny Richard Pryor vehicle and Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever killed Tim Burton's dark vision and introduced butt-shots, awful dialogue, revolving door Batmen portrayals and lame mise-en-scene culmunating in his opus, Batman and Robin. The only thing that gives possible pause about Spiderman 3 (or 3 as its labelled in the trailer), is word that there will be four villains (only three have been announced so far: The Sandman, Venom and Green Goblin II and/or Hobogoblin), come on, you saw what that did the above mentioned Batman series. Guiltly, I have to admit that I started reading comic books when Spidey was sporting the black and white costume, so I have always held a soft spot for it and the Todd McFarlane penned days.

* Speaking of movies coming out in 2007, the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double bill, Grind House is still in pre-production, but Entertainment Weekly sat down with the filmmakers to discuss the going's on.

* Two websites I am digging right now: Score Baby Annex offers out-of-print exploitation soundtracks from the 60's and 70's for free download. The site has become quite addictive, its full of jazzy and/or psychedelic scores from little seen American and foreign films. And while you wait for me to update my trailer blog go over here (be forewarned, it takes a while to load), they have a slew of what they refer to as "historically significant trailers from the history of film", the selection ranges from the Silent Era to 2004, though I would debate the "historic significance" of some of their more modern selections like The Day After Tomorrow, Thirteen, De-Lovely, King Arthur, and Windtalkers.

I should be back in a little over a week (if I have time, I may post a Radiohead show review, but no promises), enjoy the summer weather, or do like me, and find the nearest air-conditioned room.

And because I love my readers so, I leave you with this:

Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973, Shunya Ito)

In the opening scene of the third Female Convict Scorpion film, Beast Stable, our heroine (or anti-heroine) Matsui is discovered by two detectives on a subway train, a brief chase ensues, and the melee concludes with Matsui on the track, handcuffed to one of the detectives who is still inside the train, the doors closed between the two arms. Matsui does what I'm sure most of us would, she cuts off the detective's arm and runs out of the station with his severed arm handcuffed to her. I mean who hasn't found themselves in that position once or twice in life? But what I truly love about this series is that while most films would end the scene there or immediately cut to Matsui in a warehouse with an axe cutting off the handcuffs, the film delves a little deeper and goes into certain peculiarities of the situation. The entire credit sequence consists of Matsui running through the streets of a busy urban Japanese town (Tokyo?) handcuffed to the arm as onlookers stare perplexed (no audio commentary on the DVD, but I hope I find out this was done guerrilla style!). And after the credits, she's left to scrape the handcuff off against a concrete pillar.

However, even with the awesome opening, this is my least favorite of the three so far. I like it a lot, but there are two deficiencies: a.) Matsui is less pro-active here, often time getting her enemies to kill off one another instead of doing the deed herself and a large chunk of the film finds her drugged up and caged in a giant birdcage. b.) stylistically, its the least adventurous of the films. That's not to say its poorly directed or boring to look at, but save the opening and one scene at a party where director Shunya Ito takes frames out of shots, this one lacks the over-the-top comic book quality that the first two films shared.

That said, I still dig the movie and like some of the changes the character is undergoing, while its strange to see her play a kind of Svengali of violence instead of the harbinger, she very similar to Clint Eastwood's character in A Fistful of Dollars, its an interesting turn. She also appears to becoming a little more human here. She gives mercy to the retarded brother of her prostitute friend, who tries to rape her, even refusing to kill him at her friend's desperate request (her friend is pregnant with her retarded brother's child, again, another situation we all find ourselves in frequently). There is one more episode left in the series, it will be interesting to see if the character is given the chance to become human after all or if her brutalities will be her undoing.

Meanwhile....over at my trailer blog, you can see one of the two (couldn't track down the other)bootleg trailers that Quentin Tarantino made for his partially Female Convict Scorpion inspired film (s) Kill Bill.

Kevin's Trailer Park

Since I was a child, one of my favorite aspects of going to the movies was watching the trailers for upcoming releases. Remember Annie Hall, when Alvie Singer tells Annie that he refuses to watch The Sorrow and the Pity because its already a minute into the film, despite that he's already seen it multiple times? That's kind of the way I am with trailers. I consider them one of the essential components of the movie watching routine and will get upset if my viewing companion leads me to miss them.

Over recent years two factors have dampened the trailer experience: the addition of commercials before trailers and their on-line availability. The commercials are depressing because adding an additional ten minutes before ten minutes of trailers creates a general antsiness to just get on with the damn movie and while I am as guilty as anyone of watching trailers on-line before I see them theatrically, there's no denying that the scope of a computer screen, no matter how nice just can't compare to the scope of a screen designed specifically for film. Still trailers have a power, as displayed with the bewitching Brick preview which catapulted a film I knew next to nothing about when I saw the trailer for the first time in January to one of my most anticipated films of the year, and now my favorite film of the year thus far (uh, did I promise to write a review of that, oh).

So I thought it would be a great idea if I start a weekly feature where I shared trailers I thought of particular interest. One problem, YouTube, the site where I am retrieving these trailers is not compatible with Typepad. While I am sure most people could find a solution, I am admittedly somewhat Netarded. YouTube does however allow Blogger sites to stream videos. So I decided to create a new website committed solely to sharing cool trailers with you.

kevinstrailers.blogspot.com is the site. I have already posted two trailers. One for Female Convict Prisoner 701: Scorpion, one of the Meiko Kaji starring films I discussed a couple of weeks ago at this site. The other is the original banned teaser trailer for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. In case you are not aware of why this teaser was banned, let's just say if I gave you the date it was pulled from screens, you could probably figured it out for yourself. September 12th, 2001.

I hope you enjoy this new venture and let me know of any suggestions of improvements or trailers you would like me to try and track down for you. I will add a permanent link to the trailer blog on my sidebar for your convenience.

Talkies? They're a phase, I say!

I have been to the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles a total of three times. Of those, only once has been since I actually moved to LA, and that was back in 2002, about two months into my residency in Southern California. The programming went from every weekend (before I moved) to once a month (shortly after I had moved) to basically whenever the hell they felt like it (mainly holiday weekends). The theatre was spending most of the time serving as a banquet room for weddings, bar mitzvahs or the occasional concert rather than showing silent movies. Still, when I opened today's Los Angeles Times to the news that the theatre had been sold to a pair of twentysomething year old brothers (article here) I was depressed. Then I actually got to reading the damn thing, and it sounds like a possible fantastic improvement at the best and an interesting experiment at the least.

Los Angeles needs more repertory theatres, the

New Beverly is great and all, but those fucking seats, man! Watching a long movie or a double bill is literally a pain in the ass. And I know its no fault of theirs, but their prints have been poor and their calendar not as adventurous as in the past. Parking near the Egyptian is difficult and possibly pricey, and the Aero is not a convenient spur of the moment trip for someone residing in Silver Lake.

My reaction while reading the article went from mere relief that the buyers wouldn't be turning the theatre into a Quizno's or Jamba Juice to unadulterated enthusiasm for more cinematic treats in LA.

Godspeed!

The buyers', the Harkhams, first decision was a bold one. The Silent Movie Theatre is going to start showing films with sound! But they seem like generally enthusiastic film buffs and are treating this venture as kids in a candy store. Most importantly they will continue a silent movie night, every Monday. When that comes to fruition, they will be showing more silent movies per month then the old owners have been in the last couple of years. Their first few selections off the calender for August show a lot of promise of unique bookings: Two-Lane Blacktop, Straight Time, Basket Case, being amongst them.

Oh, Meiko!

You ever watch a movie or listen to an album for the first time and instantly fall in love with the actor, director or band and find yourself wondering "where the hell have they been all my life!" A few months ago I had that very revelation when I watched the 1972 Japanese cult classic Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 and its star, Ms. Meiko Kaji.

When I discovered the film was one of a series featuring the character, I added the only other title available on DVD, Female Prisoner Convict #701, to my Netflix queue. And then preceded to kind of forget about the film as it took the usual six or seven months to travel up to the top of my queue. I finally got around to watching it this week. Turns out I saw the second part first. But I just pretended that I watched it in the correct order, and Convict #701 was a prequel.

In the films, Kaji plays Nami Matsushima, aka Sasori, aka Matsu the Scorpion, which like another great Japanese exploitation series of the 70s, the Lone Wolf and Cub films, is based upon a manga comic series. Matsu is sent to prison by her scummy detective boyfriend, where she is beat, raped and harassed by the guards and other convicts. She escapes at any chance she can get and often starts prison wide riots.

What struck me most about Meiko is that for someone so beautiful, she is very convincing at playing an utterly remorseless, hellbent on vengeance, killer. With the exception of one cellmate in Convict #701 (who winds up killed) she has no friends or any human emotions. If you are escaping with her and can't keep up, well, sucks to be you. This is Clint Eastwood in the Dollars films or Lee Marvin in Point Blank. And like Clint, she speaks as little as possible, letting her actions and presence do her talking.

The films, besides featuring brutal violence and great performances by Meiko, are also stylistically impressive. I first heard of Jailhouse 41 from an online list of films that inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, and it definitely, along with Lone Wolf and Cub and the Leone westerns, tops the list in that department. Director Shunya Ito frequently experiments with exaggerated angles and color and instead of cutting to a flashback, he'll begin it along the lines of having Scorpion lying down in present time in the lower center third of the screen and have the flashback take place simultaneously in the upper 2/3s.

As for Meiko, she had quite the career in Japanese exploitation films. Along with the Scorpion series, she also appears in a series named Lady Snowblood (which based on the DVD cover alone appears to have inspired the snowy finale between Lucy Liu and Uma Thurman in Volume 1 of Kill Bill), I look forward to catching those in the near future. In addition to her acting career, she's had a solid singing career, including songs that play throughout the Scorpion series and during the credits of, that's right, Kill Bill Vol 1.

As I did research on Meiko Kaji, it appears that the third and fourth (and final) episodes of the series, Beast Stable & Grudge Song will be released on DVD next Tuesday. Oh Joy!

I know I promised a Brick, Art School Confidential, Lady Vengeance triple shot review in the last post, it's next.