2011 Horror Part Eleven

KOTOKO

Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto

Overall: MEH

Another ultra low-budget slab of disturbed weirdness with aggravatingly awful cinematography from fringe filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, Kotoko finds him collaborating with J-pop artist Cocco on a harrowing journey into a single mother's severe mental illness.  Both Tsukamoto and Cocco share many of the production duties as well as having the most substantial roles on screen, concocting a psychological nightmare that is presented as straight-forward as such a thing can be, with little of the director's usual body horror elements thrown in to freak up the experience.  As a woman whose emotional anguish is never explained in any kind of backstory, Cocco is still captivating as she suffers a never-ending series of violent hallucinations, to the point where any audience member will be questioning every event that we see, including the existence of Tsukamoto's character who falls inexplicably in love with her singing voice to the point where he willfully undergoes body mutilation and violent outbursts.  Cocco's struggling mama may not even be a mama for all we know, but the vagueness of her particularly unnerving ailments is not so much of a problem as is some of the movie's awkard moments, tonal inconsistencies, and the aforementioned out of focus, hand-held camerawork.  Singing segments go on for ages and there are dark humor beats thrown in that jive oddly with moments such as Cocco strangling her toddler son and said son having his brains blown out by a machine gun blast.

JUAN OF THE DEAD

Dir - Alejandro Brugués

Overall: GOOD

 

Riding the line of crass stupidity and clever political commentary, Alejandro Brugués' sophomore full-length Juan of the Dead, (Juan de los Muertos), is a mixed bag of zombie apocalypse high-jinks, yet for another goddamn movie about such a thing, it skirts by with what its got.  Done on a lousy enough budget that is forced to rely on horrendous CGI effects and sub-par undead makeup, the Cuban setting is wonderfully utilized and serves as the primary focus where a walking corpse outbreak is treated as just some more bullshit for the socialist state to deal with; a state that seems to breed slackers and misfits who are all too familiar with not trusting their government and fending for themselves.  This gives it enough of an edge over other zombie comedies out there, as does the hilarious disregard for human life all around.  The title character and his rag-tag group of losers are not a likeable bunch, taking capitalist advantage of their situation, murdering non-zombies either accidentally or purposely if they owe them money at least, and remaining degenerate schlubs through and through.  Still, Brugués interjects some heart underneath all of the gay jokes, naked escapades, slapstick, and references to other horror flicks, leading to a final act that miraculously has some sincere character moments to root for.

 

GUILTY OF ROMANCE

Dir - Sion Sono

Overall: MEH

Inspired loosely by the 1997 murder of Yasuko Watanabe who was an economic researcher that moonlit as a prostitute, Guilty of Romance, (Koi no Tsumi), reveals itself to be an ugly and tragic look into Japan's love hotel district and the women who are drawn to it by various means.  Two different versions exist, with the original Japanese cut running a whopping hundred and forty-four minutes, which could push the provocative subject matter too far into redundant terrain for most viewer's tastes.  Sensationalized as only a Sion Sono movie could be, it explores the docile Japanese housewife stereotype, spending a good amount of time explaining why Miki Mizuno's mild-mannered protagonist would gradually embrace the sexually liberating side of her femininity.  Mizuno narrates the film at various intervals while a flash-forward interjects and broadcasts the inevitable tragedy, letting the viewer in on where the characters are heading so that we can never fully embrace the sexual awakening of an otherwise complacent woman who genuinely loves her well-respected husband even if he treats her more as a docile maid than an equal.  It plays as a part cautionary tale and part feminist calamity, with much of Sono's usual depraved strangeness in place to keep the exploitation value where it belongs.

2000s Asian Horror Part Twenty-One - (Shinya Tsukamoto Editon)

A SNAKE OF JUNE

(2002)
Overall: MEH

A typically stylistic yet exhaustively one-note indulgence in strangeness from filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, A Snake of June, (Rokugatsu no hebi), has an erotic agenda that is meant to upheave domestic complacency when it comes to the bedroom. Presented in blue monochrome and done in the director's usual jittery, shaky-cam, montage style, it concerns a mild-mannered suicide hotline worker in an agreeable yet passionless marriage who undergoes a sexual awakening after one of her previous call-ins blackmails her. Kinky without being disturbingly perverse, Asuka Kurosawa's protagonist embracing her stalker's demands is more icky than any of the actual acts that he makes her do, which involve wearing a short skirt in public, buying a dildo, using it in a restroom, and eventually posing in a horny haze with her clothes off in the rain. The first two acts are comparatively more straightforward in Kurosawa's naughty arc, but the last several minutes switch to her husband and the perpetrator of her newfound horniness, resulting in a confused mess that loses its steamy steam and comes off as just weird for the sake of being weird.

 

NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE
(2006)
Overall: MEH

 

Another unflinching work from filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, Nightmare Detective, (Akumu Tantei), has an inventive enough premise to be of interest, yet it is ruined by some atrociously aggressive cinematography that is disorienting even by Tsukamoto's busy standards.  Shot on location in Adachi, Tokyo with a limited budget, (nothing new for Tsukamoto), the director's insistence on utilizing handheld cameras exclusively while frantically crosscutting already haphazardly framed footage in a schizophrenic manner renders large portions of the movie unwatchable.  This includes all of the graphic dream sequences and kill scenes which instead of being viscerally disturbing, end up as a frustratingly mess that become a chore to sit through.  The movie is also sluggish in its nihilistic monotony, with all of the main characters stuck in a dreary, zero-energy, suicidal daze that fuels the mysterious coma patient, (played by Tsukamoto himself), who murders people in the dreams after they dial his cell phone number.  Not that the unsettling material would have benefited completely from a more conventional approach, but fusing cinéma vérité aesthetics with surreal brutality simply works against the final product in this case.

 

NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE 2

(2008)

Overall: GOOD

 

A stand-alone sequel to his 2006 thriller Nightmare Detective, Shinya Tsukamoto's apply-titled Nightmare Detective 2, (Akumu Tantei 2), goes in an interestingly singular route from its predecessor.  Not at all the police procedural/serial killer manhunt that the first movie was, this one finds Ryuhei Matsuda's endlessly mopey title character in an unshakable bout of despair as he spends his days plagued by his own troubled backstory while wallowing on the floor of his old house.  A prequel of sorts then, Tsukamoto and Hisakatsu Kuroki's script delves into what has made Matsuda's protagonist the mysterious anti-hero that he is, doing so in a challenging way that gradually morphs with the side plot of a teenage girl who is suffering from a more bog-standard vengeful spirit situation.  Though it is still shot in indecipherable, shaky-hand close-ups at times, such moments are gratefully far less frequent than in its predecessor, with a strong emphasis on horrific and surreal set pieces taking center stage.  Best of all, the climax is powerfully barren and more like a devastating outpouring of grief than a refreshing break from the array of supernatural events that came before it.  Tsukamoto says more within these calm, final moments than he does with the ninety-plus minutes that came before it, yet thankfully those ninety-plus minutes are still enticing in their disturbed ambiguity.

TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN

(2009)

Overall: MEH

Boasting another aggressive overload of painful cinematography and editing, Shinya Tsukamoto's third entry in his Tesuo series Testuo: The Bullet Man steps the furthest away from the initial cyberpunk nightmare that kicked everything off.  Shot in English and following some semblance of a conventional be it messy narrative, it further differentiates itself from its predecessors by providing an explanation as to this particular man's transformation into machine with a corporate government backdrop.  This turns the whole thing into an action movie of sorts instead of a surreal, body horror fever dream as had been previously established, which may not satisfy the tastes of those who championed Testuo: The Iron Man or, (to a lesser extent), Testuo II : Body Hammer.  Performance wise, this is a weak offering, partly due to several of the actors not speaking in their native tongue, but even the Caucasian ones seem wooden and aloof at times.  If one was to look at individual stills from the finished product, it would appear to have some nasty visual flare, but when viewed as the actual motion picture that it is, good luck trying to decipher anything that you are seeing on screen during the jacked-up action and transformation sequences.  With a bombardment of lighting-fast editing and shots that looks as if whoever was holding the camera was in the middle of a mosh pit, it makes for an impenetrable viewing experience to say the least.

1990s Asian Horror Part Twelve

TOKYO FIST

(1995)

Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto

Overall: GOOD

As was the case with his renowned debut Tetsuo: The Iron Man and its 1992 sequel, filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto once again channels the escape from corporate servitude via extreme body mutilation in Tokyo Fist.  A gleefully violent and ridiculous boxing movie of sorts, it is as kinetically surreal as most of the director's work.  Tsukamoto appears as one of three leads, (joined by Kahori Fujii and his brother Kōji Tsukamoto), who are caught up in a love triangle where suppressed trauma and sexuality overcomes all of them with the most bloody of results.  The film has a elevated aggression to it that is equal parts bizarre and humorous, with explosive gore sequences thrown in where character's faces are spewing the red stuff and rendered unrecognizable under face-pummeling bruises.  While the men take out their testosterone-ridden rage against each other, Fujii turns to extreme body piercing, possibly in an attempt to either match her pursuer's overblown masculinity or to claim her own identity through the most extreme form of self-expression available to her.  The thematic details can be endlessly debated, but the wacky, cinematic ride is stylistically engrossing.

 

SPIRAL
(1998)
Dir - George Iida
Overall: MEH
 
An adaptation of Koji Suzuki novel Spiral, (Rasen), the resulting film serves as a direct sequel to Ringu which was released on the very same day in its native Japan.  Though a few of the same characters return and each movie had Suzuki's source material as reference, this one is thematically on a different planet than its rightfully more popular companion piece.  For one, it introduces convoluted science fiction elements in place of supernatural ones, thus undermining all of the skin-crawling appeal of the first film.  Trying to explain the video tape curse as some sort of smallpox-adjacent, tumor-growing virus, (or something), is lame enough, yet the finale here throws in an even more ridiculous twist involving Sadako's restless spirit that is not so much out for unbiased vengeance, but actually has some cockamamie scheme to repopulate the earth with people's loved ones via sexually transmitted DNA, (or something).  The whole affair would be head-scratching and silly enough as its own stand-alone genre hybrid, but in this particular franchise, the results are exponentially more awkard.  Worse yet, director George Iida goes for a sluggish, low-key pace that particularly falls apart during the second act which will probably make most people check out before they get to the daft conclusion.

 

SAIMIN
(1999)
Dir - Masayuki Ochiai
Overall: GOOD

For his first of many theatrical works in the horror genre, filmmaker Masayuki Ochiai adapted Keisuke Matsuoka's novel Saimin, (Hypnosis, The Hypnotist), which brings the author's source material to life with head-scratching gusto.  In this sense, the movie is more bizarre than frightening, yet this easily allows for it to stand out amongst the herd of other vengeful spirit works in J-horror.  Though Matsuoka's initial inspiration was taken from the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, the script by Ochiai and Yasushi Fukuda murks up the supernatural details so that the nature of the malevolent entity is left vague, as it is gleefully hellbent on warping people's minds through hypnosis in order to get them to kill themselves in extravagant matters.  One woman literally runs herself to death, some guy washes his face with the fire from a gas-lit stove, another chokes himself with his own tie during his wedding ceremony, and yet another slams his head into a coat hanger, to name but a few.  Performance wise, everyone indulges in melodramatic mannerisms to a possibly intentional extent, giving the film an unshakably odd tone that is equal parts absurd and freaky.  Some dated visual effects, cryptic dialog, and increasingly bonkers scenes that open and close the proceedings only intensify such a challenging watch that if anything, is likely to make viewers think twice about allowing themselves to hear subtle metallic noises.  Long story.

1990s Asian Horror Part Six

HIRUKO THE GOBLIN

(1991)

Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto

Overall: MEH

 

For his follow-up to the career-making, cyberpunk fever dream Tetsuo: The Iron Man, filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto adapted Daijiro Morohoshi's manga Yōkai Hunter, here titled Hiruko the Goblin, (Yōkai Hantā: Hiruko).  Comparatively more user-friendly than his previous movie, (which can be said about nearly every other movie), it has a fittingly wacky tone where a school hosts an underground lair of spider creatures with the heads of their victims attached to them.  Said spider goblin things also stick out their nasty, fat purple tongues which cause people to hallucinate sunny, pleasant memories of their loved ones, making it easier for them to commit violent suicide under such a spell.  The movie is ridiculously violent at times and the set pieces are inventively wacky, all of which is played for laughs as Kenji Sawada and Masaki Kudou run around like a bumbling, screaming Abbot and Costello duo.  Pacing wise, it loses momentum at several intervals and eventually runs in circles until the climax which offers more of the same instead of upping the stakes as was probably intended.  Such issues could be attributed to Tsukamoto apparently going over-budget and having issues with his cast during shooting as this was a considerably bigger production than his earlier, DIY freak-outs.

 

KOKKURI-SAN

(1997)

Dir - Takahisa Zeze

Overall: MEH

 

A rare work in ethereal horror from prominent pink filmmaker Takahisa Zeze, Kokkuri-san takes its stylistic cue from the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa in its deliberate pacing and emphasis on foreboding chills instead of aggressive jump scares and hacky genre tropes.  In this respect, the movie is atmospherically a triumph, even if the screenplay by Zeze and frequent collaborator Kishu Izuchi is too self-absorbed to properly grasp.  It concerns three teenagers who play the Ouija board style game of the title after being instructed to do so by a clandestine radio personality who hosts a strange, call-in show where people share sexual encounters and whatnot.  Things remain vague throughout as far as the both the plotting and the supernatural occurrences go, which bypass the usual vengeful spirit motif and instead offer up a world where these young women's parents are almost nowhere to be found and manipulation via past versions of oneself bring about repressed sexual anxieties.  While it deserves points for being narratively unique, it becomes frustratingly impenetrable like a cumbersome dream, which is likely intentional yet not as engaging as would be preferred.

 

SHIKOKU

(1999)

Dir - Shunichi Nagasaki

Overall: MEH

While it is overlong and stumbles through a clunky ending, Shunichi Nagasaki's Shikoku, (Land of the Dead), is impressive in its ambition and has a more profoundly thematic agenda than typical jump-scare-ridden J-horror.  Both Kunimi Manda and Takenori Sendo were first time screenwriters, adapting a story from author Masako Bandō which concerns a teenage girl who drowns at the age of sixteen with unfinished life goals and unrequited love beckoning her back, along with her Shinto priestess mother that concocts a long scheme to raise her from the dead.  All of the camera work appears to be handheld which is a unique juxtaposition to the otherwise conventional presentation that indulges in soaring, romantic music just as much as it lingers on deliberately downplayed moments.  The atmosphere is mostly thick and chilling as director Nagasaki only bothers with a few standard scare tactics and mostly lets things play out with intimate patience.  This unfortunately becomes a detriment in the final, sluggish act which makes some curious missteps such as one character spontaneously appearing in an unintentionally goofy manner and another one exhibiting absolutely no emotion whatsoever as her childhood friend and current love interest succumbs to his doom.

1980s Asian Horror Part Twelve

GHOST NURSING

(1982)

Dir - Wilson Tong

Overall: MEH

 

The first supernatural film from actor-turned-director Wilson Tong, Ghost Nursing, (Yang gui), suffers from inadequate pacing, yet its barrage of Hong Kong exploitation cliches are occasionally riotous.  Set in Thailand and concerning a down-on-her-luck young woman who turns to a particularly bizarre form of black magic for help against the barrage of sexually harassing men in her life, the supernatural elements do not come in until the second act, though their ridiculousness is intensified from that point on.  In typical fashion from such low-budget silliness, there are many unintentionally goofy set pieces ranging from harmless ones like somebody karaoking "Greatest Love of All" twice in a row, to a fetus ghost ritual, a guy puking up maggots, possessed zombie bodyguards in the shower, a botched exorcism, and all manner of agile monks flipping around in mystical battle against the forces of wacky darkness.  Also, keen horror fans will recognize music piled on top of each other that is swiped from Psycho, Maniac, The Amityville Horror, and even Pink Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene".  The movie sounds more fun on paper than it is as Tong's direction is mostly flat outside of some atmospheric and colorful set dressing, Shirley Yim is dull in the lead, and even when it kicks up the silly in the final twenty-odd minutes, it still struggles to find its kinetic footing.

 

SATAN'S BED

(1986)

Dir - Tjut Djalil

Overall: MEH

Indonesian director Tjut Djahl continues his trajectory as one of the country's lousiest, (if not oddest), filmmakers with Satan's Bed, (Batas Impian Ranjang Setan, Ranjang Setan); yet another A Nightmare on Elm Street knock-offs to emerge in the wake of Wes Craven's original.  Similar to Djalil's Mystics in Bali and Lady Terminator, this one is loaded with zero production values and non-emotive performances, but unlike those unintentional nyuck-fests, there is hardly enough ridiculousness on display here to put it in the same league.  Set pieces from Elm Street come at the screen from left and right, with the sticky floor, the supernatural bad guy smiling while slicing off his fingers, the ghostly body bag victim, and the clawed-hand emerging out of the bathtub which miraculously turns into a swimming pool to name but a few.  The plot specifics are tweaked enough to not warrant a lawsuit since it concerns a family that was murdered on Christmas, the dad of which comes back as the Freddy Kruger stand-in except with none of the charisma, barely any screen time, and a whole lot more embarrassing of a make-up job.  Every other character is bland enough to not remember their names, faces, or what even happens to them and still after a finale with numerous holy men trying to exorcise the evilness that is afoot, it all ends with an anticlimactic, "wait, that's it?" whimper.

 

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN

(1989)

Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto

Overall: MEH

Shinya Tsukamoto's full-length debut Tetsuo: The Iron Man remains his most known cinematic work and is as gleefully absurd as any that sprung from the ashes of the midnight movie heyday.  A continuation of his early short films as well as his avant-garde theater productions, the black and white, sixty-seven minute, 16mm, conventionally plotless, cyberpunk nightmare is a bold achievement to come out of the gate with for Tsukamoto.  Exploring a disturbed yet comically bombastic fetishism of man and machine, it turns its characters into literal metal monsters which can be seen as anti-conformist since the people on screen are breaking out of their mundane urban existence and ultimately embracing their new grotesque yet liberating form.  Frantic to the point of art house parody, the film is also too much of a, (very), weird thing; quickly establishing its relentless aesthetic, perversely surreal visuals, and incoherent "story" which only grows more exhausting as it plows forward.  It is still an undeniably singular accomplishment and one that would not only set Tsukamoto off on his continually challenging career, yet also influence various other filmmakers who have infused some of its techno-mayhem into their own projects.

1990s Asian Horror Part Five

THE CAT

(1992)

Dir - Lam Ngai Kai

Overall: GOOD

 

With action scenes that would fit snugly at home in any Bollywood production and a premise that plays out as ridiculous on screen as it does on paper, The Cat, (Wai Si Li zhi Lao Mao) is quite anarchic and fun.  An adaptation of Ni Kuang's Old Cat novel as part of his Wisely Series, director Lam Ngia Kai from The Story of Ricky fame forgoes coherent plotting in favor of bizarre set pieces, utilizing over-the-top visual effects with hilariously absurd results.  There is a cat and dog kung fu battle in a junkyard, a scene where an indestructible, possessed alien cop mows down a gang of firearms dealers, another scene where he high-kicks a keg of beer before exploding it with a machine gun, and a cheap-looking tentacle blob creature likes to absorb buildings and rip people's flesh off and set them on fire.  Characters sometimes speak directly into the camera and flashback sequences recap moments that happened only two minutes earlier as well.  Outside of a slow first act, Ngai Kai keeps the rest of the proceedings moving nicely and whatever the hell the story is supposed to be about, who cares when so much violent, explody, and head-scratching nonsense is on screen?

TETSUO II: BODY HAMMER

(1992)

Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto

Overall: MEH

 

Backed by a much larger budget and with a comparatively "conventional" approach, Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man sequel Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is more cyber punk action movie than wacked-out body horror.  At least to some extent, the man-to-machine transformations are even more extreme than in the previous film, though the emphasis on avant-garde body-morphing is less encompassing until the final act is reached which throws narrative coherency to the wind.  Here, the mythology is fleshed-out where now an entire society of cyborg terrorists exists and the seemingly mild-mannered protagonist is actually given a backstory, be it a still bizarre one involving his insane, human-weapon-building father.  The film is still far from user friendly as the largely hand-held camera work is once again grating on the senses, the gore prominent, and the tone is quite thoroughly disturbed.  The change in approach is welcome, but it still unmistakably proves that the franchise is an acquired taste that may baffle and annoy more than captivate.

YEUK JI LUEN

(1993)

Dir - Siu-Hung Chung

Overall: MEH

This somewhat typical Category III film from Hong Kong director Siu-Hung Chung, (aka Billy Chung), and producer Kirk Wong offers the usual uncomfortable sleaze for those willing to appreciate it.  Yeuk Ji Luen, (Love to Kill), also has Anthony Wong Chau-sang who has made a career largely out of playing despicable scumbags, something that he does quite explicitly here.  While it is appreciated that the film is so ridiculous in tone, the combination of perverse and disturbing rape, juvenile vulgarity, nerve-wracking suspense, and awkward comedy makes for a haphazard result.   Characters say things like "How can I help you if you don't tell me?", "You're my wife", and "You'll be in trouble" so much that it may just be part of the intended humor, but that coupled with the often agitated editing gives it a amatuerish feel as well.  Mostly though, it is primarily focused with women getting brutally and psychologically tortured and raped.  The final act drops the goofiness and settles itself more firmly into unpleasant terrain, for better or worse.  It is all part of the "charm" then and ultimately comes down to how comfortable the viewer is with such things.

2000s Asian Horror Shorts

COMEDY
(2002)
Dir - Kazuto Nakazawa
Overall: GOOD

Part of Studio 4°C's shorts collection Sweat Punch, Comedy, (Kigeki), was directed by Kazuto Nakazawa who Westerners might be familiar with as the guy that did the anime segment in Quintin Tarantino's Kill Bill as well as doing the animation for Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" video.  Essentially a vampire story though it deliberately does not come out and officially proclaim it, the presentation is that of a dark, mysterious fairytale that is told in flashback by a young woman.  Even with some massive bloodshed near the end, it is all beautifully done and mostly plays out to the tune of Franz Schurbert's famous "Ave Maria", giving it a highly romantic feel.

 

HAZE
(2005)
Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto
Overall: MEH

 

Two versions exist of Shinya Tsukamoto's Haze; a twenty-five minute one initially released and a more unforgiving forty-nine minute one that indulges in torture porn a bit more than is comfortable.  In fact there is very little comfort if any to be found here as it is one of the most brutally claustrophobic works in horror there is.  Tsukamoto's cinematography is relentlessly harsh; it rarely breaks from close-ups lit in a manner one notch above "complete blackness".  Because of this, it is irritatingly difficult to tell what is happening for large portions, though this is no doubt completely intentional.  The ending is curious in a different, less visceral fashion and if anything else, Tsukamoto stays the course for virtually all of his work in challenging his audience in an assuredly confident manner that is quite meritable if not altogether enjoyable.

 

CHAINSAW MAID

(2007)

Dir - Takena Nagao

Overall: GOOD

 

If anyone wanted to know what a scene in Peter Jackson's Braindead might look like if it was done in claymation, Chainsaw Maid would probably satisfy such curiosity.  Simple, silly, and gore-ridden, animator Takena Nagao's second short is exactly what the title suggest.  Some hanky-panky between the title character and the man of the house that she is taking care of, (whatever that is about), gets interrupted by zombies and as you would predict, bloody mayhem ensues.  Nagao's design work is quite crude yet stylized with stark, brightly painted paper sets and zombies getting hacked in half and puking up piles of intestines that look like Play-Doh.  The intertitles are another humorous touch as there is barely any need for dialog save one moment anyway; it is primarily just hacking and slashing at colorful corpses.

1990s Asian Horror Part Two

A CHINESE GHOST STORY II
(1990)
Dir - Ching Siu-tung
Overall: GOOD

Identically structured as the first A Chinese Ghost Story with most of the cast and creative team returning, the aptly named A Chinese Ghost Story II is a rudimentary sequel that tells a mere variation of the same story while trying to up the circumstances.  Leslie Cheung's Ning Choi San undergoes another arc where he starts at rock bottom, (this time being wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed), and through a series of characters being mistaken for other characters, then reunites with a woman who looks just like the ghostly one that he fell in love with before, whom he now falls in love with again of course.  Plus lots of kung-fu battles that defy the laws of physics, giant demons who make people gooey somehow, and one random musical number that is just as jarring as the one in the previous film.  Funnier and more inventive though, the characters are well-drafted, with actor Wu Ma even getting shoehorned back in and providing the movie with is most potent line "Good deeds fade like the wind.  No matter what you've done, it's soon forgotten".  So, just as this could be its own beginning apart from the entry proceeding it, the characters once again set off anew for another trial of ghost hunting shenanigans at the end of it that will leave the events here as a distant and romantic, supernatural-battling memory.

EBOLA SYNDROME
(1996)
Dir - Herman Yau
Overall: MEH

What stands out the most in Herman Yau's unapologetically exploitative Ebola Syndrome is how pokerfaced the presentation is.  Not once does the film give a knowing impression that it is in on its own ridiculousness, but the level of unwholesome sleaze displayed throughout can only be intentional.  From the opening, vile scene, it is clear that this is not going to be a virus outbreak movie in any conventional sense.  It ends up instead being a depraved look at Anthony Wong's deplorable antagonist who rapes and murders on repeat until going out in a Scarface-worthy manner that perfectly fits his unflinching wickedness.  The film makes a couple of plot mistakes like said main character randomly seeming interested in settling down with a former fling and her kid after he has been nothing but a reckless lunatic for a full hour beforehand.  Also the occasional English dubbing is even worse than it usually gets.  Besides that though, the film works with all of its trash components in place and the very unschlocky tone makes it all seem more horrific than silly, even if it is in actuality much more the latter.  It is still a bit too harsh of a watch to honestly recommend though, with more than several scenes being highly unnecessary for anyone but the most devout connoisseurs of bad taste.

GEMINI
(1999)
Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto
Overall: GOOD

Nearly everything going on in Shinya Tsukamoto's Gemini, (Sōseiji), works on an intriguing level.  This is in part because it is such an unmistakably different movie coming from the filmmaker behind the Tetsuo: The Iron Man series, but also because the director's unpredictable quirks still find their way into something that is otherwise calmly dark and gradual.  There are just as many slow, nearly silent, dread-building moments as there are outright disorienting hand-held camera ones being cut at a hectic pace.  Throw in some perplexing soundtrack choices at times and some characters even breaking into dance routines, and it is clear that Tsukamoto still favors the bizarre in place of conventional, movie-making mannerisms.  Helped by a strong, dual performance from former boy band-turned actor Masahiro Motoki, the story works either in spite of or because of the peculiar presentation as we get more insight through an increasing number of flashbacks about how one can become a monster depending on the circumstances granted them through a problematic class system.  Or that could be more of a secondary concern to just making a weird, clashingly atmospheric horror tale.  In any event, with the strangeness comparatively toned-down, (or at least recalibrated), it is still hard to tell where Tsukamoto is concerned.