The Week In Movies 25/7/11 - 31/7/11

I spent the best part of this week either in bed with manflu throatyitis or forcing myself to go back to work due to the manflu throatyitis epidemic that has swept Perth leaving our stores massively understaffed. These two states combined to leave me viewing a measly four movies this week.

I've been quite looking forward to Scream 4 for a while, the problem being that Leah just won't watch horror movies and so I have to find time to watch alone. I know the majority of people disliked it and my expectations were pretty low after Scream 3 stinking up my screen as it did but I give it at least one thumb up. Kevin Williamson's script was so much fun but the scariest thing about the movie was Courtney Cox's plastic surgery/botox leaving her looking more like Ghostface than the actual mask. Whether it was the script not containing too many horror elements for Craven to play up or just that Craven put in a half assed job and forgot that the film was supposed to be scary I'm not sure.

And then it ended. I didn't write a review, everyone else did and I apologise to you all for not reading them yet but I wanted to know nothing about the final Harry Potter movie. I hadn't read any of the books and have lived this story solely through the 8 films. What's to be said? I'm glad it's over. I remember find the first 4 quite magical, all of them featuring moments that gave me that seeing the dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park feeling but the longer the series went on the less there was. I am blaming David Yates. This one was a billion times better than the snorefest that 7.1 was though. Leah tells me that the epilogue was actually in the book too. That was so unnecessary and for me detracted from the entire 8 movies.

The Smell of Success starring Billy Bob and David Duchovny's wife was directed by The Polish Brothers who created the quite bizarre and beautiful Northfork and it was another quite bizarre movie only this time not so beautiful and filled with many puns and word games all related to poo. This movie is about manure salesmen in the America in the 60's and yeah, not great but not terrible either.

Then I finally got my ass around to seeing Sonatine as part of the research in to my yakuza movie post. This was probably my favourite film of the week and the capsule review of it was submitted to Duke & The Movies new Sunday feature The Best Is Yet To Come, if you're not yet involved send him some words quick smart like.

blah me blah me blah me baby til I lose control.

5 Yakuza Movies for Custard (a blahblahblahgay list)

So, Custard of frontroomcinema fame asks and Custard gets! My review of Outrage prompted a question on what Yakuza movies to watch and this happened in my head. Go blahblahblahhead.

5 Yakuza Movies to Watch Before Autoreiji

1. Yojimbo (1961) Akira Kuroswa


No list of Yakuza movies would be complete without a Kurosawa/Mifune film and this one is fantastic. I see no need to tell you about the wonder of Kurosawa.

A ronin without a name plays two warring crime lords off against each other in a small town in need of protection and then stuff happens but I don't want to give spoilers.

A beautiful looking film heavily influenced by hard boiled film noir and westerns and was notably remade as the Clint Eastwood classic A Fistful of Dollars.

2. Tokyo Drifter (1966) Seijun Suzuki


Seijun Suzuki was the significant director in the 'Romantic Gangster Films' movement in the 1960's. Tired of the formulaic plots and he began to portray the yakuza and their code of conduct as similar in world outlook to the salaryman working for the good of the country. In Suzuki's films, the yakuza consume each other in bizarre rituals; attempts to gain total power or climb the ranks of hitmen.

A gang tries to recruit a ronin, he refuses and assassins are sent for him, crosses and double-crosses abound.

The film seems to delight in its mayhem and is highly stylised in its violence, bringing to mind 60's European cinema.

3. Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973) Kinji Fukasaku


Groundbreaking ultra-violent, documentary style film set in post war Hiroshima from the director of Battle Royale as part of the 1970's move towards brutal realism in yakuza films.

Spanning a period of ten years it follows the tribulations of a minor street thug through the futility of the yakuza lifestyle of constant power struggles and feuds.

Bleak, violent and chaotic this one has been called The Japanese Godfather and is a MUST WATCH. Also called The Yakuza Papers.

4. The Yakuza (1975) Sydney Pollack


Written by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Mitchum. The Yakuza is a study of a culture clash, Eastern philosophy vs a modernised West and features an intelligent plot for an American actioner of the 70's.

A retired American detective is called to Japan to help an old friend resolve a business conflict with the yakuza and rescue the daughter they've taken hostage.

A fun inclusion, strangely this is the one I think of when I think of yakuza movies despite it being an American movie starring Robert Mitchum that I wasn't overly thrilled with when I first saw it.

5. Sonatine (1993) Takeshi Kitano


Takeshi Kitano almost single handedly revived the yakuza genre in the 1990's with a series of stylised minimalist movies, with Sonatine perhaps his best despite the beauty of Hana-bi.

A world-weary yakuza in Tokyo is assigned to take his clan to Okinawa to help settle a dispute between two factions. Over time, it becomes clear he's been set up, sent to Okinawa so that others can take over his lucrative territory. As his clan dwindles, he plans a revenge.

Sonatine draws the viewer in from the beginning, evokes the whole range of emotions, and whilst its characters are yakuza, it's by no means merely a yakuza film, it's so much more.

There you have it Custard and friends. 5 yakuza movies you should see instead of Autoreiji. Let me know what you think in the blahs.