Nao Kanzaki: September is.... 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉!!!!

 

 Am going to take it easy for a few more days, when you think about it I've taken so few days off the last fourteen years except for some health issues or laptop problems. Knock on wood as neither has been an issue for a while but on occasion do need to clear my head and think that's what I will continue doing for a few more days. Did work on a few things that'll make it easier for when I return, it's only been two days since the last post but may stretch this out until Sunday. More than dramas, gravure models and/or J-Pop Idols what I enjoy the most are old time Japanese films, mainly ones before 1980.From 1950 until then was their 'Golden Age' to me, movies were still quite good from 1981 to 2000 but I prefer quite ancient films and especially those in Black and White. Didn't plan it but on September 1st did view a movie and after thought 'Why not make it one a night for the whole month?'. That's a very reachable goal so am already up to ten days, eleven will happen tonight. When I view a movie at night it's on a DVD that I have bought, don't do much of that these days but have purchased over 2,000 of them(!) and you know what my walls are lined with! A sub-goal is to make that forty movies in thirty days so will watch ten on my laptop and most of those are films I have never seen. Will end up reviewing about six of them or perhaps all ten, did just watch one from 1958 titled "Moonlight Mask 1" and what a fun movie that was!

 Have done eight of these kinds of posts over the years where I very quickly go over five recent films that have been viewed. Keep saying that I will make this a (bi)monthly series but for some reason it never works out but seeing as how I have at least twenty more films to watch for September will have another one or two of these. Another reason is trying to connect with some viewers, sure there's some other fans out there of older movies or TV dramas, if you are one would be nice to hear from you. The female at the top here is my all time #1 woman who is Meiko Kaji 😍 and I'm in the midst of a mini marathon of her films. Have just watched three and have many other terrific ones so unsure what will be up next, will look at two of her films in this post. Meiko was born in 1947 and is now 78 in age but is still quite spry and active, she was at an event last week and for her age still looks decent. She is one revered actress and was the Queen of movies from 1970-78, mainly action ones though in a way all were so different. She's also one overly sultry woman with the best EYES in history, I have quite a few books on Japanese Cinema and she has a feature in all of them, the only woman to do so! I should do some sort of regular post for Meiko though sure it wouldn't be too popular but who cares about that, the problem I have found out is it's so tough finding things of an actress, singer or movies from 50+ years ago.

 Well as begin off with a pair of Meiko movies, will give a very brief rundown of a film plus a few photos from it and also include a trailer. At times they can be difficult to find too but not for Meiko's films, I also recommend checking out her older albums which were all very popular during the 1970's. I have two Greatest Hits albums and she even released some new songs between 2018-21, Meiko mainly sings in the Enka genre but some of those newer tunes had a Rock vibe to them. 

 First up is my last movie to be viewed which was the third in my Meiko marathon, "Blind Woman's Curse". I hadn't seen this movie in about four years and of the 25+ films I've seen her in this is by far the oddest one. It was a combination Action/Yakuza/Mystery/Horror flick that was set around the year 1900, didn't see any autos but phones were used. Of those 25+ films this is my least liked though it is a good film but not compared to her others. This was released in June 1970 and may have been Meiko's first leading role but the problem was she didn't have as much screentime as she deserved. The ending was quite terrific and it almost seemed as though a sequel may have been planned but didn't happen. So while not my favorite Meiko film it was still a decent watch and think it would be a better movie to me if I watched it a few more times. Could talk more about this movie and the others too but want to keep things short and this was an unplanned post coming into today, for a grade will give it a 8.2/10 or a B-.

 

 

 A much better flick and perhaps my favorite Meiko movie is the first of two "Wandering Ginza Butterfly" films. It came out in 1972, five months later the sequel came out and for a long time didn't care that much for it. However my opinion has changed and it's one terrific movie that also starred Sonny Chiba, watched that two nights ago. Three nights ago watched the first Ginza movie, Meiko played Nami and it had nothing do do with her four movie Scorpion series. Nami was released from prison after serving three years for killing a Yakuza thug, she met a few oddball yet interesting men along the way and ended up becoming a popular hostess in  Ginza.

 However Ginza was being controlled by a devilish man named Owada and the Bronco club Nami worked at could be lost to him. Before Nami entered prison she was an ace Billiards player and that's so different than regular Pool. To save her nightclub from falling into the hands of Owada Nami played his best player in a match which she ended up winning in an epic comeback! However Owada reneged on his deal which led Nami and her best mate Ryuki to settle the score, Owada and his gang were eliminated by the two of them!!!! I highly recommend this movie which I give a grade of 9.3/10 to, it also starred two of my favorite actors from that era who were Tsunehiko Watase and Tatsuo Umemiya. Those two were also in a few of the "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" films, next up for the 'Kaji Marathon' will be "Yakuza Graveyard" from 1976 which starred Watase's brother Watari and it's so easy to confuse the two.

 

 

 One of my all time fave directors is Yasujiro Ozu and above is a box set I have of his later films but not his last one. He's so difficult to describe as he was so unique, there was never any action, fighting, suspense, etc. in his films yet you are glued to the screen and the stories are second to none. They almost always deal with families and he's most known for "Tokyo Story" that came out in 1953. I have seen all of the films in this set at least ten times each and can never get tired of them, just watched the first four and will get to the other in a couple of days. "Equinox Flower" from 1958 was Ozu's first color film and because his style of filming is so different it's hard to put into words and it's better to view his movies. I ended up getting a nice deal with this set about a decade ago as it was just $30 and did I get my money's worth! The movie mentioned is right below and it starred a trio of my favorite older actresses such as Ineko Arima in the top screenshot, her best film was "Zero Focus" from 1961. The bottom two pics are of Fujiko Yamamoto and it's no exaggeration saying she may be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in a film, plus she's so classy! Fujiko is still alive and will be hitting the age of 94 in three months, a review coming up soon will be for her 1958 movie "The Precipice". That I have never seen and this film here will give a grade of 9.1/10 plus the other four would be right around that rating!

 

 

 Another 1958 film I just viewed was "H-Man" which is part of the "Icons of Sci-fi: Toho Collection" set that also has the original "Mothra". The third movie which I will be watching again in a few days is "Battle in Outer Space" which I have seen only once and that was at least five years ago. It's a slight sequel to "The Mysterians" and that I viewed for about the tenth time about a week ago. "The H-Man" is a part sci-fi, part horror and part police movie, the creature is a criminal who somehow was affected with radiation. The radiation part is common for older Japanese sci-fi films but because of being infected this criminal can turn into a vapor/gas and has been killing off many of his enemies, the story was just so-so but the special effects from the master Eiji Tsuburaya were of course second to none! The lead female role was played by Yumi Shirakawa in the first and last pics below, she also had the lead female role in "The Mysterians" plus was in "Rodan". This film also featured another of my top actors who was Kenji Sahara, no actor appeared in more of these 1950's/60's/70's horror or sci-fi flicks than him! Solid movie but I wasn't as crazy about it as most other fans, my grade would be 8.6/10 which is a B.

 

 

 Saved the best for last and it's in my top five of all time as far as Japanese films go, perhaps even number one!!!! That's the 1997 masterpiece from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa "Cure", he also writes most of his screenplays plus has produced many of them. I'm not going to give much of a breakdown of this classic movie as there are plenty of reviews out there already. The star of this movie is Koji Yakusho and he too is one of my all time favorite actors, he can do any kind of role but the intense characters he plays are Koji's best. This film deals with a serial killer yet not one who does the actual crimes, he hypnotizes others to do the killings and it's a film you have to watch at least 3-4 times to pick up on everything, there's so many small details that are easy to miss yet are so key to the film. As far as modern directors go Kurosawa is one of the top ones if not best, "Doppleganger" from 2003 is also one terrific movie and so isn't his V-Cinema series "Shoot Yourself or Suit Yourself" that came out in the years before this film. There's a few other trailers on YT plus some scenes from the movie which is truly so creepy and eerie, aren't those often more disturbing than a slasher film???? My grade will be a 9.7/10, nothing I have ever watched has gotten a perfect score. The last forty seconds left you clamoring for more, a waitress picked up a knife at her station while our hero Takabe sat a few tables away and would have loved to see what the outcome was....