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

 

EDIT: Was going to have this as the last post of the month but pushed the publication date ahead by two days as there was nothing else to post for today. Keep thinking that a month is going to be so much better than the previous one but that's rarely worked out this year. There are about five posts I can do but those women have had so many posts recently and trying to space those out.

 This woman at the top is a newbie and you may never see her again! Who she is will be in the next section and did view a film starring her, nice to have new blood but it's a shame it'll be a one and done deal. This makes to three posts for my October movie watches and seventh since I revived this series in early September. In the future there won't be seven posts in two months but think four in that stretch of time is doable and it does make me view more (mainly older) movies which I enjoy so much more than dramas. I do have a slew of American boxsets of older shows I need to get to but will make an effort to watch at least ten films a month and have mini posts such as this to talk about them. Seems you viewers enjoy these types of posts as the previous six have garnered 1,560 views or an average of 260 views for each one. That's higher than regular drama or movie posts plus it doesn't take me as long to write these up so those are two reasons these will continue for a while.

 What I would like to do is have these kinds of posts for drama recaps as those can take so long to write up. Once you add up the time it takes to view an episode of say 25 minutes, take screenshots, jot down notes, search for some info and then write the recap up the total time spent on it could be around eighty minutes. Multiply that by a thirty episode series and it takes forty hours to write up a series, longer if shows are close to an hour which many Korean ones are. So my goal is to somehow condense four episodes into one post such as this one and just have two or three paragraphs per episode. It wouldn't be easy to do but others who write up drama reviews can do so why should it be difficult for me? Would probably attempt doing so in January as there's one more long series I want to tackle first which is the third season of "Taxi Driver". I love that show immensely and did recap the first two seasons, the new one begins on November 21st. Those episodes are 60+ minutes in length but I enjoy the series so much it doesn't bother me at all when it seemingly takes eons to write up a recap. So after that's complete will work on doing some sort of posts for dramas with this kind of format, it may sound hard to believe but have written up 2,050 recaps/reviews to date..... wowowowow!!!!

 Starting off this post is a woman I had heard of but that was many moons ago and had forgotten all about her. Rina Akiyama is her name and she hit the age of forty exactly a month ago, at one time she was a semi-popular actress who also did a lot of gravure modeling. One of today's films had Rina as the main actress and it was one her final films that came out in 2011. Rina retired in 2013 and got married two years later, she now has a pair of children. So odds are high we may never see her again and if anyone is interested I can obtain her older photobooks and pictorials so let me know if she has any fans out there. Right around the time Rina retired was a little after this blog started so never knew much about her until recently or if I had known some things about her forgot all about them. Rina was in a pair of 'Kamen Rider' series and also a bunch of the spinoff movies, she's been in so many things it's surprising that I can't recall her.

 Have quickly gotten into a routine for these mini movie posts and I really enjoy doing them as they are a nice change of pace and have gotten me back into viewing films. Started off by having five movies in a post but for October have been having seven which will be the amount for today. Began this post off two days ago and watched the first four movies, later on tonight will watch two more which won't be a chore as both just total 140 minutes. The last film I try to view on Halloween as the final forty minutes are set on that semi-holiday, we'll see if I can hold off until then. Of the seven movies five I had never seen before and that's a huge positive to me as I watch too many movies over and over and over..... Did watch five other movies but won't discuss any of them in this post, all were from the late 60's and that's my top era for American movies, all were in black and white. For the movies have a bunch of photos for it along with a trailer plus a very mini synopsis and some of my opinions, wish you viewers would also add in more of your opinions and whatever else pops into your mind such as some recommendations of some older and not too well known films.

 Here's a real unknown films and one that turned out to be such a fun watch, not a must see film but one that was unknown to me a week ago. The three American films for today are ones I had never viewed before along with two Japanese films. "Hand of Death" leads off the final Horror post for October, it's the oldest of today's movies as it was released in 1962. The lead role was played by John Agar who starred in so many of these B-Horror flicks from the 1950's and 60's, in this film he played the role of a scientist named Alex March. Who was working on developing a hypnotic nerve gas for the military which did shock his comrades and friends as it was very controversial and if used for the wrong purposes could be devastating. It was for Marsh who while alone in his lab had spilled some of the gas and it got on his hands, soon he looked like the above creature!

 His condition did go from bad to worse overnight and even his mentor professor had no cures for Marsh. Besides his body the brain of Marsh also deteriorated rapidly, soon the police were called in and Marsh did meet his dismal fate. This was only an hour long movie so the action was non-stop, I enjoyed this short film quite a bit but I am a sucker for these old black and white horror flicks!!!! The lead female role featured Paula Raymond who was 38 in age for this film. A decade earlier she was in "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" and also had the lead female role in that film, bring that up for it was one of my favorite films of the 1950's and was a big influence for the creation of Godzilla!

 

 

 In the last post talked about how I had recently purchased the seven film "Conjuring" boxset, it was only $20 and sets these days are so inexpensive. Had never seen any of the films and didn't know much about them, have now viewed all seven and will definitely watch them all again, perhaps more many more times. The series is loosely based upon the lives of Ed and Lorraine Warren who were ghost and/or spirit hunters, the movies are based upon some of their cases though some experts called them frauds though others believed every thrilling case they were involved with. Most stories took place from the 1960's to the eighties, I could go either way as far as believing these stories go. When you view these movies don't go in order of their release date, "The Conjuring 2" was the second film in the franchise but it should be seen sixth as the other movies took place before this one which began off in 1976 and of all places in Amityville NY but just for the first scene. **** Before I forget this was the best of the seven movies and also the longest at 134 minutes, but it zipped right by as the action was so intense and had a few plot changes so I will give this movie a high recommendation but of course you need to see the others first.

 The setting for most of this film was in Enfield, England and the action took place in 1977. This was based upon a one of England's most known ghost cases and think most people at the time believed a family was haunted, mainly a twelve year old girl. The family became well known at the time but then their story was debunked and they were left on their own to ward odd a pack of vicious demons. The story being debunked was because of the demon haunting the family! Even Ed and Lorraine Warren had abandoned the family and were ready to return to America but had second thoughts and soon returned to save the Hodgson family who were on the verge of being destroyed by demons! Naturally so much more happened than that but it's hard to describe so many details in less than a paragraph. But if you enjoy intense scenes to the Nth level plus a compelling story and many frights then you need to see this film but as mentioned it's key to watch the first five films to enjoy it more. There was one more "Conjuring" movie and that's next up in this post.

 

 

 

 To wrap up the seven movie boxset we had "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" which was a decent movie but a slight comedown from the previous film. My favorite movies have been when Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga as his wife Lorraine have been the two leads in a movie, that happened three times. Did mention before that Vera had the starring role in the "Bates Motel" horror TV series and that I will be viewing soon. This movie was released in 2021 and think two more in the franchise have come out since, don't know much about them yet and if the series continues will wait for a second boxset of the next round of movies but will I be around then?

 The last movie was set in England, this time around the action took place in Connecticut which was the state the Warrens truly did reside in. The year was 1981 and a man named Arne had killed a man, he wasn't denying that. But he claimed that at the time of the killing which Ed later backed him up on that in court was that Arne had been possessed by a demon which caused him to commit the murder. That was the first time that line of defense had been used in an American court, Arne was found guilty but was only sentenced to a five year term. In their efforts to prove the man's innocence the Warrens did encounter their share of demons and such, perhaps more than in any other movie. Looking back on this it was one fine horror flick and shouldn't have watched it the day after viewing the above movie as that was the best of the seven movies. So to make it brief do recommend all of the seven movies in this set, the three 'Annabelle' flicks were also terrific and think up next for a movie franchise will be the seven 'Chucky' films, hard to believe I've never seen one of them.

 

 

 The first three films for this post and the next two were ones I had never viewed before but not this movie which I've now seen about a dozen times. But this latest viewing was my first time seeing it in about five years even though it's among my favorite horror films from the last twenty years. It was one of those DVD's which kind of got lost for a while and then forgot all about it, did find it just in time for Halloween and have a few other newer Korean horror films I'll be viewing soon. "Cello" was released in 2005 and I got the DVD about five years later, I'm still old fashioned when it comes to those things. The star of this film was Sung Hyun-Ah who I've seen in a few other films which were decent though none topped this one. She's had one unbelievable career, some highs and her lows were lower than most others. But do have to say not many women top Hyun-Ah's attractiveness and did I have such a crush on her, she turned fifty in age back in July and in 1994 was the runner-up for the Miss Korea pageant.

 In this movie she played the role of Hong Mi-Ju who had been such a talented cello player but quit when her best friend was murdered a few years earlier. Mi-Ju was married with two young daughters, she never did get rid of her cellos and that would prove to be a problem! For those instruments were somehow haunted, a spirit didn't live in them but used them as a passage to get to Mi-Ju's oldest daughter Yoon-Jin who tried to kill her younger sister and appeared was successful in killing Mi-Ju's sister-in-law! The first half may have been a bit slow but it was building up to a frantic final forty minutes, I was surprised at how much gore there was but it did prove to make this movie that much more scary. Think the reviews for this were just so-so but I enjoyed it immensely which is why I've viewed it about a dozen times, can't think of any other films that had a cursed musical instrument.

 

 

 What I've noticed is how different Japanese horror films are from American movies, it's been that way for a while but noticed it much more for today's films. "The Conjuring" films had so much action, violence and intensity, the same can be said for "Cello". Those films could be considered In your face movies, some from Japan are in that vein but not nearly as many as from other countries. Japanese fright films tend to be so much more eerie with a creepy atmosphere and I do prefer those types of movies. There are some jump out of your seat moments which are more effective when there's fewer of them, this film was one on the slower side but did have such a horrific ending.

 Rina Akiyama played the lead role of Ryoko who appeared to be about 24 in age, she did have a college degree but was only working part time as a cleaner at a small movie office. Which made their own horror DVD's so of course those films were very low budget ones, after a year of being their office cleaner Ryoko was hired as a secretary. Her manager Fujido did have some other motives for hiring Ryoko(!) but in the end did get what he deserved! Kashima was supposedly an urban legend that was told to Ryoko by her new friend and office mate Midori. However the curse was real, the only way to lift it was by answering three questions this spirit Kashima would ask you or else you would lose a body limb! That's how the human form of Kashima died as her body was torn apart in a train accident, did say that the office manager Fujido was killed and it was by Kashima, soon Midori was torn apart in front of a disbelieving Ryoko! Who did manage to stop the curse from affecting her or did she? When the movie ended Ryoko had been promoted to being the office manager(!), right at the end she was interviewing candidates for a new opening and sitting across from her was Kashima! That's how the film ended and it was only a 62 minute movie so much had to be crammed in plus there wasn't enough time to explain everything. But all in all I thought this film was darn good and would recommend it to fans of B-Horror movies and I'm one of those. Rina looked super duper in the film and she's that rare female who looks better dressed as a normal woman versus doing gravure photo shoots. **** This was the first movie I was unable to find a trailer for or even a scene on YT, hope to have better luck with the next film.

 Both of these films came out at almost the same time back in 2011, not sure what the circumstances were but the Amumo98 studio released about half a dozen of these short horror flicks back in the Summer of 2011. At 76 minutes in length "Reikai no Tobira Street View" was fourteen minutes longer than the above film but didn't have nearly as many frightening scenes. All in all it was worth watching but the story was just so-so and seemed as though it could have been such a better flick. The story revolved around college student Ako who lived with her mother and grandfather, six months before her younger sister Mana had disappeared and no one had a clue what had happened. Disappearing without a trace was also the case for many other local residents, as it turned out it appeared there may have been a second world where people have disappeared to and that scenario was brought up but not explained well enough.

 The whole key to certain people disappearing may have been Google's street view, that could be the portal into this other world or dimension. But why were only certain people whisked away(?) and while the story had such potential in the end run that potential wasn't reached. But it was a good enough movie for me and I don't have high standards when it comes to low budget horror films, very few that I've seen haven't been all that good. This only gets a lukewarm recommendation from me, not much action or scares but the time flew right by. In the third screenshot down is the character Sachi on the left, she was one attractive woman buy can't find out who played that role and can anyone help? Did find a trailer for this film, often they make a movie seem so much better than it really is.

 

 

 For the finale have a film I won't be watching until Halloween night as it's become a tradition. Have other films I tend to watch on a certain day such as "Uchoten Hotel" which takes place on New Year's Eve so make that the final film I view for a year. Sure many have heard of 'Cowboy Bebop' which was an anime, have seen that a few times and while superb the movie just blew the anime away.... it actually blew most other films away! "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" aka Knockin' on Heaven's Door was released in Japan in 2001, then in America the following year. This is truly one of my top ten movies of all time(!), when you're viewing it you quickly forget it's an anime movie you're viewing. The action is nonstop plus the characters are rather likable and also the story is second to no other! Spike Spiegel is a bounty hunter along with his mates Jet, Faye and Ein, what a quartet of misfits they are. The setting is on Mars and the year is 2071, Spike and his team are the best bounty hunters around but they've fallen upon hard times and their cache of cash is dwindling rapidly.

 The scene near the opening may have been the best when Spike and Jet thwart a robbery at a convenience store but that's no job for such elite hunters! Soon they would be in over their heads as a mysterious organization has developed a Pathogen which there is no cure for but it had been stolen by a man named Vincent who is immune to this poisonous gas and how? Because of the danger he could inflict onto the people of Mars a bounty of 300 million Woolong will be paid for his capture, of course Spike and his mates jumped into action. That word action describes the movie so accurately but there was also such an interesting story that was very intense and how I hated to see the movie end! The final forty minutes took place on Halloween evening, Vincent was set to release the gas to an unsuspecting public and there was an epic final showdown on Tokyo Tower between him and Spike. I can't give many things a higher recommendation than this movie and have viewed it at least forty times, it's one that I'll never get tired off and think I enjoy it more with each viewing! The DVD is so packed with special features too, the movie is 115 minutes and there's another two hours of features! Oooops, almost forgot to add in that the soundtrack to this movie gets a grade of A++++ from me!