Cinematic Distractions

[dulcedemon]

When I began these movie lists about fifteen years ago, I posted them to LiveJournal. Those lists are probably still there. I used the same handle then as I do now.
Back then, I had a few fussy, kind of silly rules as to how they were done. They had to be written in situ, off the top of my head without notes or internet searches. The only exceptions to the internet search rule were for verifying actors' names and performing spelling and grammar checks.
Each movie was limited to three lines. I borrowed that rule from the wonderful person who persuaded me to join LiveJournal. It was also the first rule I threw out.
Once LiveJournal went full Russian, I moved the lists to Tumblr. When Tumblr had its little dust-up over adult content, I stormed off in a huff over to LiveJournal doppelgänger Dreamwidth. I still post the lists to Dreamwidth. I wish more people used it. It's like a sad cross between a broom closet and a morgue for bloggers. Recently, I began posting them to Medium. I'm not sure what I think of that place just yet other than I really like that it has an audio option.
The unofficial theme of this second installment of my three-part kiss-off to Netflix's DVD service is: Change Over Time
Each of the titles listed below reflects that theme in at least some small way. Not every movie was the one I wanted. Availability became contentious near the end. A few of them are more like first and second runners-up to the titles I would have preferred, but they still serve the purpose.
Evolution can be described as change over time. Species evolve over time as does knowledge. Tastes change. Opinions shift. Understanding grows. Bodies age. I'm not as in love with certain titles and genres as I used to be. Others that I wouldn't even have considered fifteen years ago are now appreciated and given high praise.
I'm so old and have been doing this for so long that my brain defaults to "foreign films", and I have to correct myself. That phrasing has fallen out of favor. International movies have changed me. They have shaped and influenced the person I am today. There was a time, even as late as my early twenties, when I actively avoided movies with subtitles. If I didn't make all the jokes about non-English movies back then, I certainly laughed at them. I laughed along with the rest of the ignorant, unsophisticated hicks and bigots.
My experience at that time consisted of a few cheesy, poorly dubbed martial arts flicks with clunky subtitles full of unintentionally hilarious mistranslations, and snooty French art films. Not that I had actually seen any French art films, I had only seen American comedy show sketches that made fun of French art films. Movies like that didn't play in Podunk. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was the only non-English movie that made it to a cinema near me.
Subscribing to Netflix in 2004, changed all that. Technically, it was Netflix combined with my fond recollection of the movie reviews that appeared in Details magazine back when it was a publication aimed at club kids and denizens of NYC's avant-garde art scene. I was still a subscriber when it became just another derpy men's magazine. Now it no longer exists. Kagemusha (1980) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991) were two of the titles that I recalled from the magazine.
It is my sincere belief that short of travel, movies are the best way to learn about another culture. The things people value, who and how they love, what frightens or angers them, what makes them laugh, their history and traditions from their point of view are all right there on the screen. We are more the same than we are different. In the end, we all want to feel safe and loved. It's a small cinematic world after all.
Note: It's pure coincidence that a movie starring Shintarō Katsu appears on this list. Katsu was originally cast in the title role of Kagemusha, but he had a major falling out with Kurosawa immediately after production began. As much as I like Shintarō Katsu, I can't imagine him as Kagemusha just as I can't imagine Tatsuya Nakadai as Hanzo the Razor.

Fantastic Planet (La planéte sauvage - 1973):
I wish this animation masterpiece wasn't so pertinent to now. Then, now, and for all time, Fantastic Planet depicts the absurdity and horror of life in the grip of a much larger and more powerful adversary. It's the primitive human Oms versus the gigantic, technologically astute, astral traveling, humanoid Traags. At best, the Traags regard Oms as amusing pets or service animals. At worst, they view them as vermin to be eradicated. Parts of this movie have been seared into my memory ever since I saw it on Night Flight sometime back in the 1980s. It offers a distinctive style of animation that is as eerie and transcendent as its subject matter.

Wizards (1977):
Here we have pretty much all of the elements of the fantasy-adventure genre. There are fairies, elves, halflings, ghouls, demons, and of course, wizards. It's a classic battle of light versus darkness within a framework of an extremely dysfunctional sibling rivalry. It's also a blunt illustration of how propaganda and disinformation can be used to foment bloodshed, chaos, and ruin.
For those not familiar with Ralph Bakshi's brilliant animation, Wizards is a fine place to start. I've seen it maybe ten times. The climax is satisfying every time. I'm sad for Peace every time.
It boasts some impressive voice talent. Bob Holt's characterization of Avatar the wizard and Susan Tyrrell's narration are superbly done. Mark Hamill voices a less prominent character for whom things do not end well.
There is a featurette included on the DVD: Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation. Two things that Bakshi says really stood out to me. One is that he claims it's a kids' film. I'm not sure what age range he had in mind. This is the same guy who made Fritz the Cat (1972). It's not really suitable for very young children. Parental discretion is definitely advised. The other thing that I took from that interview featurette is this quote: "Cartooning and heart is more important than slickness and lying to people. It's not so much how slick they are: It's how much heart they have.". If only that were true of everything in life, the world would be better for it.
Had it been available, Rankin and Bass's The Last Unicorn (1982) might have occupied this spot on the list. Christopher Lee was bound to be mentioned on here one way or the other. I think it's for the best that Wizards was the one.

My Love, Don't Cross That River (Nim-a, geu-gang-eul geon-neo-ji ma-o - 2014):
This was in our queue for several years. The couple featured in this documentary had a marriage that lasted for seventy-six years before time and mortal frailty brought it to a conclusion. I kept passing it over because I thought it would be too sad, and it was, but it's also quite beautiful. It was as comforting as it was distressing for me. At least they had family to step in and help them. Not everyone has that. It was refreshing to see the couple's adult children and grandchildren remain a cohesive, communicative, family unit despite their heated bickering over who had and hadn't done their fair share of caregiving.

Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966):
Do not expect much in the way of historical accuracy from this lavish Hammer production starring Christopher Lee. This is mystical, magical, legendary grifter and rock star of his time, pop culture meets pulp fiction Rasputin. Chistopher Lee gets to don some flashy fashions in this one, including a shiny red tunic, and a large furry hat.
The story begins with Rasputin getting kicked out of the monastery for being a lascivious drunk. He cures an innkeeper's fever-stricken wife in exchange for free room and board. It's a pretty sweet deal until he avails himself of the innkeeper's teenage daughter.
Much later, after he ingratiates himself with the tsarina, he gets set up with some posh digs in which to work his seemingly magical cures. The majority of his clients are noble ladies. They enter his private exam room, then later come out looking flushed and a tad disheveled. The audience is left outside in the waiting room. I imagine it's like a scene from Doctor Who (The Power of the Doctor - 2022) in there.
The extras on the DVD include a promotional spot for the original theatrical release that promised moviegoers a free Rasputin beard with each ticket purchase: "Disguise yourself from evil! Your only hope is to get your free "Rasputin" beard as you enter the theatre to see Rasputin the Mad Monk! (Given to guys and gals alike!)". There is also a commentary track with Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Francis Matthews, and Susan Farmer, plus the featurette World of Hammer: Christopher Lee.
I wanted there to be at least one Hammer film among the last of our DVD rentals from Netflix. Hammer films are the foundation of my love for old horror movies. The first time I saw Rasputin: The Mad Monk, I was younger than the innkeeper's daughter. I saw it on Saturday Night Dead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Dead. That show along with Uncle Ted's Ghoul School and Uncle Ted's Monstermania had a major impact on the impressionable youth that I was at the time. Read more about Edwin "Uncle Ted" Raub here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Raub.
As to why this particular Hammer film, I wanted one starring Christopher Lee because he is one of my favorite actors of all time. I also wanted one in which he does not play Dracula. I had rented Rasputin from Netflix at least once before, but that was many years ago. What I was taken by the most this time around was the intense physicality of Lee's role. He had an incredibly long and prolific career, working up until he died. By the end of it, he couldn't move around too well. His role as Old Joseph in Burk and Hare (2010) comes to mind. Many of his characters are possessed of a stately, quiet menace that it's rather astonishing to see him dancing and fighting with such vigor as he does here.

Hanzo the Razor: The Snare (Goyōkiba: Kamisori Hanzō jigoku zeme - 1973):
There are two ways to consider police inspector Hanzo Itami:
--He is a man who will stop at nothing in the quest for justice.
--He is a dirty pig cop who uses torture and rape as interrogation tactics.
Hanzo uses his tremendous natural endowment (about the size of a loaf of French bread only much, much harder) to extract information from suspects, including but not limited to a nun here. The plot involves a number of botched illegal abortions, and parts of it are very graphic. The Snare is the second film in the Hanzo trilogy, starring Shintarō Katsu in the titular role. Katsu is best known for playing the blind swordsman Zatoichi in a slew of films of which I have seen but a small fraction.
I somewhat ashamedly admit that I prefer Hanzo to Zatoichi. For one thing, there is less ableism. I have watched the entire trilogy. I have a vague recollection of being partial to the third movie: Hanzo the Razor: Who's Got the Gold? (Goyōkiba: Oni no Hanzō yawahada koban - 1974), but it's been so long since I've seen the other two that I can't recall why.
If you notice a resemblance between Shintarō Katsu and Tomisaburō Wakayama of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, it's because they're brothers.

Black Magic 2 (Gou hun jiang tou - 1976):
Black Magic (Jiang tou -1975) was on the previous list, so it's only proper to follow-up with the sequel. It's another round of skullduggery, horndog sorcery, and twisted curses. The clients of the sorcerer from the first movie take over as the main antagonists. In the first movie, Lieh Lo played a lusty fool who skips out on paying the sorcerer after he gets what he wants, and he ends up cursed as a result. This time, he gets to be the big bad sorcerer who wreaks havoc with his spells and hexes. He shares his predecessor's breast milk fetish, so good news for anyone who didn't get enough of that from the first installment.
The protagonists consist of two couples. They are good friends whose professional backgrounds in medicine and science leave them with a lot of skepticism even after unusual, confounding, and unfortunate events begin to occur all around them. Initially, they are trying to figure out some alarming and baffling medical cases at a local hospital, but eventually, they become targets themselves. I really liked the chemistry of this quartet of actors.
In terms of style, Black Magic 2 is almost exactly the same as the first movie, but it's also one of those rare occasions when a sequel rivals and maybe even surpasses the original.

Sex and Lucía (Lucía y el sexo - 2001):
I rate this a solid meh. It's not terrible, but it's scarcely memorable. I squandered one of our final disc rentals on it because Netflix had been recommending it to me for over a decade. It was a regrettable choice for the most part. I could have easily done better, and so could the main character of this movie.
Lucía's (Paz Vega) partners range from quirky to melancholy, and they are enmeshed in each other's lives in implausible and unsettling ways. Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa) is kind of sloppy. Carlos (Daniel Freire) is kind of dishy.
When taken together with his other partner, Elena (Najwa Nimri), Carlos is one half of the We Saw You from Across the Bar and Really Dig Your Vibe meme.
The love scenes are better than average. That's compared to my average. I have seen some terrible ones. Read the last entry on August's list for a prime example. Thankfully, no one has sex with a chicken or any other animals in this one, but something unbelievable happens with a dog. There is also a nanny (Elena Anaya) involved. The most remarkable thing about the nanny character is how much she resembles Lucía. It's not a strong resemblance, but it's enough to add a bit of confusion as the story jumps around in time. The beautiful island scenery was the only thing in it for me by the end.