EDIT: Wrote this post up on the night of September 28th and described what was going on at the time. My plan was to schedule it to be published on the morning of October 1st with another post but changed my mind, for this one and not the other post which will be for Kana Nakada. September wasn't a good month for posts so wanted to squeeze at least one more in and not go three days again without anything. Hopefully October will be a busier month for my favorite gals and hope that's not wishful thinking! But these posts seem to be ones you readers enjoy, the other three for September have received a combined 800 views and that's a decent number to me for posts about movies. Didn't change anything I had written up below.
Did add in Was to the title for it's now October but did write this up on the evening of September 28th. Hope I don't sound too scatterbrained as half my mind is on what to write in this post, the other is on the NHL as I'm also doing a live draft! Summer just ended nine days ago yet soon hockey will be in full swing, one of the first things I ever did after I got my first laptop was to join a fantasy league. I do well at Baseball but it's the Hockey leagues where I excel at much more, bet I've won 40% of the leagues I've joined and won't reveal who I've drafted so far! Well, not so far as the draft begins in twenty minutes but hoping to get a lot of this done before my first pick. But this is a movie post and September was a film month for me as I put all dramas aside and only viewed movies. On another side note was checking out the upcoming Japanese dramas for the Fall season, shows have gone way downhill and none really interest me. Seems like it's the same recycled dramas season after season these days and originality is something lacking and I may never again view a show that's aired since 2020 or at least the non-Sentai or Tokusatsu series.
Maybe I'm a bit down on current dramas for these older shows and movies are so much better, it's hard to put those thoughts into exact words. But if you've viewed older movies you may know what I'm trying to say, I still have so many older films to view and will probably never see all in my lifetime so who cares if I never see anything recent for the rest of my life?! Hmmmm, say that now but sure something will arise that interests me. The goal was thirty movies for September's thirty days, will make it to 32 but was hoping for 35. There's two days to go after this and unsure what will be viewed but it's nice making a random choice. Did go three nights without viewing a movie which is why I fell a bit short of goal #2, wanted to finish an old American series and what that was will end the post. Most films I view are from Japan, perhaps 90+% of the time, but also am a fan of Korean flicks and especially horror movies. Did watch one last night, the 27th, and will get to another tonight after the Hockey draft and will talk about them further on down.
Below could be my second favorite actress and did review one film of hers though many years ago. She's Hideko Takamine who was such a star from 1946 to the late 1970's though she did do a few films prior to 1946. Hideko was born in 1924 and like so many actresses from Japan lived a long life, she passed away at the age of 86 in 2010. She hadn't done much acting past 1979 when she was 55 in age but her career by then had lasted for forty years and isn't that long enough? Don't know if these photos do Hideko justice for she was such a classy and attractive woman, bet I'm in the vast minority but think women from the period of 1950-70 looked the best. I've viewed a dozen of Hideko's films but there's so many more to get to, have started on that as I've just gotten another five and once that increases to ten will be having a marathon of her films.... all are welcome to join me! The first film I saw Hideko in was the 1941 flick "Hideko the Bus Conductress" and the bottom pic is from it. At the time she was seventeen in age and Japan hadn't gone to war with America yet but you could tell war was in the air and seemed so many people back then lived in poverty though sure didn't go hungry. That's what happens when an economy is based upon war and I'm not one for social discussions but the film so interesting. Surprised the government allowed such a movie to be released and it was a semi-documentary of the times.
This was third movie of the series I've viewed, you can tell the budgets weren't high but they don't need to be if the acting and story are superb which was usually the case for these older semi-classics. Bannai was a private detective who moonlighted as a taxi driver, that way he can roam the streets of Tokyo without looking suspicious. He often helps the police out and even they don't know what the highly esteemed yet unknown Bannai looks like. For as the movie title says he's a man of many faces and in the series had about fifty different disguises. In this movie Bannai had seven disguises, my favorite was of an elderly millionaire who owned a South Pacific island and wanted to buy a cache of guns from a smuggling gang! In the previous segment mentioned how I would be doing upcoming reviews for the three "Nanairo Kamen" movies and this series was an inspiration for it. Hmmmm, hadn't thought about it until now but can get more of these movies so perhaps should do a few reviews for this 1950's series. None had any trailers so the video below is from one of those movies so you can see what I'm talking about.
Got my first DVD player in late 2007, was still a teen then and for some reason immediately got hooked on Japanese movies, then a year or so later dramas. Also around that time took a chance and bought my first Korean film, what a wise decision that was and I still think their horror movies since 1998 are better than the ones from Japan! "Whispering Corridors" was that first film and it's been almost impossible to top it, think only two other films from Korea have done so! This was considered the first Korean film to have modern day success outside the country but have noticed the reviews aren't overly flattering for it but not from me as I give it my highest recommendation!
"Tale of Two Sisters" from 2003 was a better film but wouldn't call that it a horror one, it did have plenty of creepiness and suspense in it and would call that my #1 Korean movie. This film I would consider to be my number one horror flick from the country and seventeen years later I still haven't tired of the movie. It wasn't wall to wall action but the horrifying scenes were all so terrific, as I read once the horror about this movie was the Korean school system! That's where the location was, at an all girls high school and think so weren't all of the sequels. There's been five of them, one is just below and I've only seen the first three of the six movies. Can't give a good reason why I haven't checked out the others so guess doing that will be another mini project for me. Would like to concentrate more on movies again this month so will work on that, have reviewed a few other Korean horror films which were all good and any other recommendations from you viewers? While this is my #1 horror film a few others weren't too far behind such as "Phone" from 2002, "Cello" from 2005 was also quite eerie and as far as slashers go hard to top the two "Death Bell" films.
The night after watching the above followed it up with "Wishing Stairs" from 2003, it's the third in the "Whispering Corridor" series of films. None of them have any connections to the others besides the fact they're set in girl's high schools and are horror flicks. The second one is "Memento Mori" and I have viewed that a few times but somehow lost the DVD some years back. That's okay as while a decent flick was a step down from the first movie, this was a slight rebound. Like the other films in the series it's set at a girl's high school but has a slight twist as it's a school for aspiring artists. Girls wanting to be ballerinas was the focus is this story and they'll do anything to top their rival!
The meaning of Stairs is that outside of the main school building is a set of stairs leading up a short hill, there's 28 steps. The legend is if you close your eyes while ascending the stairs and make a wish a 29th step will appear and your wish is granted but it's a rare occurrence. But it happened a few times in this movie and often what you wish doesn't turn out the way you expected, that's what happened in this movie and don't want to give away too many spoilers. So check out the trailer below and do it for the other films too, that quartet of students below may look so nice and innocent but they were anything but that when a 29th stair appeared!
Oooops, almost forgot this movie or should I say two of them! That boxset above was one stupendous deal, four films and a sixteen page booklet for only $15!!!! Bought it over a decade ago and bet I've viewed the four films a combined fifty times, the fourth is just so-so but still decent though not compared to the first three. Which are must watches, the first is so superb and then the second somehow even better, to top it off the third was the best of the bunch! But didn't view that recently but will in a week or two with the fourth one, "Sister Street Fighter" was the first which was followed by "Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread" and there was no more then a ten second gap of no martial arts fighting in that second film!!!!
Below have the trailer for the "Hanging by a Thread" movie from 1974 and as it shows the man in the bottom screenshot is named Yasuaki Kuruta. He's still alive today and is 79 in age so was 28 when this film was released. Yasuaki is still active as far as martial arts go, he owns many training locations in Japan and also in Hong Kong, Yasuaki even worked for a while with Bruce Lee! So of course Yasuaki could do most of his fighting in these kinds of films, in this second Sister Street Fighter movie he played the role of Tsubaki who all had thought was a gangster for hire. However at the end he turned the tables on everyone and helped the main star Koryu take down a ruthless gang of jewel smugglers. Etsuko Shihomi was the star of this four film series and she too was so talented in martial arts, she turned seventy this year. Etsuko trained at Sonny Chiba's 'Action Club' beginning in 1973, he was in the first film and will finally be starting on his "Street Fighter" trio of movies soon.... sigh, where can I find the time to view everything?!
On occasion do watch American dramas, I don't know much about them and have lucked out with the ones I randomly chose to buy. Most are older but do have some new ones such as "Supernatural", have completed the ninth season. While this boxset isn't my largest one will have to say it's my top one as far as quality goes, check out all those special features in the above pic which is from the back of the DVD set. A one hour TV show back in the 1960's would consist of 50+ minutes which meant 9-10 for commercials. These days an hour TV episode lasts for 42 minutes plus 2-3 for credits so that means an episode today is ten minutes less than one from a generation ago and barely last for forty minutes! That does make a huge difference with how the stories are played out and also TV shows back then had thirty or more episodes a season, these days it's 22 or less!
It's hard to talk about this classic series in one paragraph, perhaps I should do a post devoted to it? Just wrapped up the first season for the second time, in about four days will begin on the second season. A year ago finished the first season, needed a break so watched a few other things before starting on season two. That break went on for ten months and didn't plan on that happening but it wasn't a bad thing as viewing the first season again was so enjoyable. When I bought this boxset didn't have much clue about this series, had heard of it but never viewed any episodes nor knew much about it as this ended up being one of those Let me take a wild chance kind of purchases. Which to date has worked out well and that's the way it often is when I buy a boxset, rarely go to the store with a show in mind and hope there's something good which interests me. Which was the case for a year but my local store hasn't had many new things lately and as mentioned have lucked out with my stabs in the dark. This set was only $59 which is a lot but not for a set with 41 discs that have 104 fifty minute episodes and over ten hours of bonus features, almost 97 hours in all!
This wasn't a direct takeoff from James Bond but was of course highly influenced by it, Ian Fleming did help a bit with the show's creation. U.N.C.L.E. stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, they have offices all over the world with the main one being in NYC. Below are the agencies two top agents that keep the world safe(!), in the middle is Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo while his partner is a Russian named Illya Kuryakin played by David McCallum. The older man is their superior Alexander Waverly but the main focus is always on the two charismatic agents. The guest stars are also extremely important to the show and it's like a who's who of the popular actors of that era. Plus the stories are always top notch as it's action packed and also very witty, there is humor thrown in and for each show the U.N.C.L.E. agents battle the world's most even villains, the THRUSH group. The pictures below are all black and white for that's how the first season was which aired in 1964-65, the next three seasons were in color. Will talk more about this series in the future and that will be after I complete the second season, not sure whether in a post such as this or one dedicated to the show. Have two videos below from season one, the first I recommend as it was how an episode began off and is a nice intro to the characters. But halfway during the first season the intro changed and that's the second video, more exciting but I preferred the other intro. All episodes had titles which ended in the word Affair, there four 'acts' to each show.
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