Nao Kanzaki: October is the month for a slew of ghastly and haunting movies!!!! part one

 

 

 Had never done so until last month which was to follow through on a series of posts for my latest movie watches. Tried doing so twice many years ago and both times aborted the project but not this time around. Did four posts in September for many movies I recently viewed, didn't talk about all of them and that will also be the case for October. While they haven't been overly popular those four posts already have over a thousand combined views so there are fans out there of Japanese films, I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to them! For October will do three posts ten days apart and of course the theme for the month will be horror flicks which is my favorite genre. In the posts will look at 5-7 films, have some pics and info from it plus a trailer. I won't do reviews for the film and try to keep these posts shortish as no segment will have more than two medium sized paragraphs.

 Whew, bet you're wondering who the scorching women above is? She's not a household name but was one of my early favorites and a film she had the lead role in will end off the post. But to satisfy your curiosity and so you don't zoom to the end of the post missing the other movies her name is Sayaka Yoshino and she was quite popular when I began this blog but never have mentioned her until now. Sayaka was born in May 1982 so is now 43 in age and was seventeen when she filmed this post's final movie. She was in so many movies, dramas and stage plays until 2015, like so many other woman retired when she got married and has one child. Use her kanji characters and check out her Ja.wiki page to see how many activities she had done up until the age of 33 and it's impossible to count them all! Sayaka had four sizzling photobooks and these above pics are from them, in her last two books she left zero to the imagination.

 What is it about shorter Japanese women and how voluptuous they are as her height is just 152 cm.... gulp.... gulp again, whew! On to some more serious matters and am taking a break from dramas as my first love is movies and have almost two thousand DVD's! But haven't bought any for a while, one reason is that I may have enough(!) but also most stores don't carry nearly as many Japanese movies as they once did. So for this month am also planning on viewing some American horror films and none of them I've seen but the boxsets were so inexpensive so had to grab a few of them. For the next October horror movie post which should be around the 20th will make it an 'International Film Festival' and will have movies from six different countries. Some will be old, some new and of course ones that fall in the middle so that next post may be slightly larger and would like to hear from any of you horror or Japanese movie fans as I'm sure there must be a few that visit this blog.

 First up are the above two films and watched them in one night, they were only 75 minutes each so I didn't nod off. But actually it was one long 150 minute movie and it was just chopped in half! As you can see the two films are titled "Corpse Prison" parts one and two, they came out in June 2017 but never viewed them until two nights ago. The pair starred a long time fave of mine who is Moemi Katayama, though she was billed as the star seemed her role wasn't larger than anyone else until the end. Did a post a few days ago about Moemi and someone did comment about another film, the commentor said something about her being in another film of Koreeda's but haven't found out which one it is yet.

 My favorite character in this film was Sagiri who played by Reimi Fujishiro, she's the one below with an arrow in her shoulder! Don't know much about her but she got my blood boiling and she appears in too many stage plays to count! Have said often that Horror is my top genre for films which is true but in an oddity(is it?) is that I much prefer these kinds of B-movies or ones with lower budgets. There's something so unique about those kinds of films and "Corpse Prison" was no different. It was about six people, five women, who traveled to a very remote Japanese village and the place consisted of zero women! A curse had haunted this village for generations and the men hoped to grab at least one of the girls, perhaps all, to be their wives and repopulate the village! Which never happened as four of the six were killed plus almost all of the village's men, the second half had so much gore and though not a classic it is a film I would recommend.

 

 

 When you talk about gore to the Nth level it's hard not to include "Stacy" from 2001, it's one of my favorites but until last night hadn't viewed it in about two years. That happens often when you have such a massive DVD collection and glad I'm doing this two month movie marathon as a few oldies yet goldies have had the dust wiped off them! I discovered this movie in a very odd way sixteen years ago as at the end of October my local cinema which often has cult and foreign movies had a Japanese Zombie night! The other film was "Junk" which was good but not nearly as terrific as "Stacy"! Which I enjoyed so much I even bought the DVD, if you love gore and/or Zombies this film gets a very high recommendation.

 The whole world isn't turning Zombie sand just sixteen year old girls, you have to see it to believe it! There's certain ways you have to kill one of these Zombies which have been named Stacy and think this was happening only in Japan. You can see some screenshots below and the goriness level is at an all time high yet it was done in a slightly lighthearted way. No big stars were in this movie but there were a few familiar faces and the best way to kill a Stacy is with a Bruce Campbell chainsaw! That was a takeoff from the first "Evil Dead" movie and he's one of the few American actors who I do like and has appeared in so many horror movies.

 

 

 

I'm no spokesperson for Walmart and am not trying to promote them but have to admit you can get some excellent bargains there on DVD boxsets, have bought so many over the last year. Except for animes you never see any foreign films there but was able to find some older TV series that I had never seen and for the most part my blind stabs in the dark have worked out. But hadn't bought any movies and did need to find some new ones as I do too many rewatches of movies I already have. So have bought three movie boxsets which are above, those seventeen films only set me back $47 and to me that sounds like quite a good deal. I had heard of these movie franchises but had never seen any of the films, most American movies and TV series are unknown to me. Three days ago bought the top two sets and am a bit excited about the "Chucky" series, obviously all above are horror flicks. Will start on that and the "Final Destination" movies after the next October movie post which will be on the 20th.

 The bottom one I did start on nine days ago and viewed the first five films, will watch the other two next week. "The Conjuring" is the franchise, it was another I was clueless on but it looked so interesting plus the seven film set was only $17 so did splurge on myself again! This is the order to view the seven movies and the release date had nothing to do with it... the order from one to seven is "The Nun(2018), Annabelle Creation(2017), Annabelle(2014), The Conjuring one(2013), Annabelle Comes Home(2019), the Conjuring two(2016) and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It(2021)". The first film took place in 1952, then 1967 and by the fifth film I viewed the year was 1972. All of the films have been decent and will be viewing them again though wish there were more special features but for the price can't complain, the "Chucky" movies are packed with features. "Annabelle Creation" was the second film and would put in the fourth spot of the five movies I've viewed though one of the stars Lulu may become a future fave of mine and can't say that's ever happened before with an American actress....

 Gulp, when I saw the above pics and many others in that dress I was speechless and is it any wonder why? My top film of "The Conjuring" boxset to date is the first film that came out in 2013 and I highly recommend these movies. There is some gore but not too much as it relies more on a terrific story and it was based on real events or at least to an extent. Horror films that are are so creepy, eerie and also frightening without too much gore are my favorite kinds. There's so many reviews about this movie franchise on the internet so there really isn't much I could add in about the films. At times the reviews are a bit negative but I've enjoyed all five films immensely to date, watched them all in a row which may have helped.

 I can't stand big budget movies nor these modern day actors who think the Earth revolves around them and will never see any of their movies nor big budget ones. This franchise was filled on lowish budgets and don't think anyone could have predicted how popular these films would become. Having the lead roles in three of the seven movies in the boxset plus a appearing in a fourth are the two below and their performances got a grade of an A+ from me! Patrick Wilson played Ed Warren, Vera Farmiga played his wife Lorraine and it's based upon the adventures of a true demon hunting team. Now I am interested in the two Warrens and their daughter to see how much of the series is true and let me check out the library for any books about them, the movies were set in the 1960's and 70's when the couple were in their 'heyday'.

 

 

 Not far behind the first "Conjuring' movie was "Annabelle Comes Home" which was the sixth in the series. This one was set in 1972 and we only saw the two Warren ghost/demon hunters for about twenty minutes as they were off on a case and the main story was about their young daughter Judy. While they were away Judy, who was about twelve in age, had a babysitter named Mary Ellen to oversee her while the parents were gone. Soon they were joined by Mary Ellen's friend Daniela and that's when trouble began for she went into the Warren's 'ghost room' and unleashed the above doll Annabelle who is the key figure in most of these movies.

 The fourth pic below is what that evil room looked like, the most treacherous of all was the doll Annabelle and wonder if Chucky was an inspiration? Of the five films I've viewed this one had the most action and for the most part was just set during one night and somehow the three defeated the Annabelle monster where so many others had failed! Once again there's nothing I can add in about this film which hasn't been said before but it is one that is highly recommended. James Wan was one of two creators for this franchise, he also created the ten movie "Saw" series. I've never seen any of those and when I went to the store the other night my mission was to grab that boxset but it was sold out which is why I grabbed those other two.

 

 

 Once I finish most of the movies I discussed am planning on watching the above TV series and hopefully in time for Halloween! I bought that boxset four months but haven't watched any episodes yet but most reviewers think this is the best series from the past decade. So I'm looking forward to it and the problem has been I have too many other things to view so unfortunately some get put at the bottom of the pile and are forgotten about. It may seem as though I spend a lot of time watching DVD's but that's not the case, only for 2-3 hours at night so usually from about 9:00 pm or slightly later to bedtime/midnight.

 The above is a fifty episode horror series and perhaps a reason I out it aside was because the "Supernatural" series has bene so tremendous, have watched the first nine seasons. "Bates Motel" stars Vera Farmiga from the "Conjuring" movies and I like her immensely. She's a fine actress or has been in the three movies I've seen her in, plus she's quite attractive even though she hit the age of 52 back in August. Mentioned this series and was curious if anyone reading this has checked out this show or any others I've discussed in this post. The video below is a promo for the show's final episode.

 

 

 We've hit the end and this final film could be my biggest 'Guilty Pleasure' of all time! In the third September movie post said my most watched Japanese movie was the first "Stray Cat Rock" film from 1970, bet I've viewed it 125 times! Second would be "Ping Pong" from 2002 and sure I've seen that around eighty times. Third on the list would be this movie and what a shocker that would be to many as often I've said how the films from the 1950's until the end of the 70's is my favorite era of Japanese movies. "Boogiepop and Other's" was also an anime series plus a series of shortish books, do have the first four in the series and bought them because of the movie. This was about the 20th movie I bought and am now up to almost 2,000 DVD's, at first most of my purchases were blind stabs but most were hits and had very few misses. This was a semi-horror movie but also had some sci-fi and creepiness, I realize it's no award winning film but for some reason certain things you fall in love with and it's so difficult to explain why. This is my most prime example of any whether it's about a woman, movie or TV series which is why I said guilty pleasure.

 Leading off the post was the adorable Sayaka Yoshino who played two roles in the movie and was the key to the story. One character was of a normal seventeen year old high school student named Toka whose alter ego was Boogiepop and to Toka she was the savior of the world! Which wasn't the case but did save her high school and perhaps this demon could have grown more powerful so did Toka save the world? This demon was an unknown species, it was a clone from a lab experiment though it appears the original came from outer space. That's just the tip of the iceberg as so much more did happen. Things were slightly confusing at first so it would help to view it a few times but don't go overboard like me and watch it about seventy times! I give this cultish movie an extremely high recommendation and glad I discovered it when I did for this was a film that could have been easily overlooked. There are some reviews out there about the film that are mostly neither positive nor negative but besides those there isn't all that much info about the movie compared to the anime or books. So for the final batch of phots will have more of Sayaka and sure most won't complain.