Reviews (101)

Heartbreaking, Soulful Science Fiction
Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris," offered in an absolutely stunning digital transfer from the talented folks at Criterion, is an acquired taste. It's long, incredibly slow in its pacing, and oddly moderate in tone despite its subject matter (the main character, Kris, played by Donatas Banionis, seems too restrained at times, given what he experiences). It contains some idiosyncratic, perhaps even questionable, narrative and aesthetic choices. And it balances the intellectual and the emotional very precariously; even though Tarkovsky wanted to make a film that was more humane and emotional than Kubrick's "2001" (which he found to be cold and sterile), "Solaris" is still a film about abstract ideas, making one wonder if Tarkosvky succeeded in his aims. These elements can get in the way of the film's wonder and beauty if viewers aren't deliberately open to its possibilities.

For all of its techno-scienctific and philosophical approach to its themes of love, life, memory, grief, humanity, reality, and perception, "Solaris" is, at its core, a heartbreaking, soulful mystery that renders its deepest meanings not through space travel or planetary exploration or battles between good and evil, but through a touching, mystical relationship between a grieving widower and the dream-like, tangible apparition of his dead wife. Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, travels to a Russian space station hovering above the planet Solaris to investigate trouble and determine if the station should remain operational. In the process, he gets trapped by Solaris's mystery, the ability of its conscious, sentient life force to probe his memories and consciousness. His late wife Hari (magnificently played by Natalya Bondarchuk) appears and reappears and struggles to understand who (or what) she is, while Kelvin must struggle to understand his grief, his memory, and the proper uses of science and technology.

The remarkability of "Solaris" as a cinematic experience lies not only in the intrigue of its central event, but also in Tarkosvky's subtle, respectful, and appropriate emotional touch. If it takes a seemingly lengthy amount of time before Kelvin (and we) experience Solaris and its mysteries, the methodical pace makes the emotional impact all the more significant. Hari's and Kelvin's struggles are heartbreaking, and precisely because Tarkovsky needn't spell them out; he gives them the time and space they require. In addition, Tarkovsky's visuals are perfectly attuned to his intelletcual and emotional themes. In that stunningly beautiful, dreamlike, famous brief moment when Hari and Kris experience weightlessness in the space station, the film becomes viscerally alive, and you momentarily wonder if you have ever seen anything more beautiful.

"Solaris" is demanding, no doubt, and just when it seems that you have come to understand what it means, Tarkovsky makes it more mysterious by offering an ending that will force you to rethink the entire film. It's also a unique cinematic experience, a testament to Tarkovsky's powerful artistry, and proof that the most demanding of works tend to offer the most lasting rewards.

2001 Anti-Matter...A Different Vision
Made in the Soviet Union a few years after Kubrick's 2001, Solaris is maddening, enigmatic, sometimes illogical and frustrating, but in the end an engrossing, moody, eliptical meditation on science and morality, conscience and guilt, love and indifference.

The director, Andrei Tarkovsky, had seen 2001 prior to filming Solaris, and was determined to go in a different direction from the meticulous & detailed technologic bent of Kubrick's masterpiece. Special effects here are minimal, but adequate for Tarkovsky to tell his story. His is a messy, humanistic affair, with a trashed and lived-in space station as its setting, quite the oppposite of the coldly logical, icy brilliance of Kubrick's vision. Both films are concerned with the reason and meaning of being and mankind's fate or destiny, but while Kubrick's is related with minimal dialogue, Tarkovsky's people talk and talk.

I found the Solaris dialogue at times intriguing, often ungraspable and opague, enigmatic in interesting ways, and sometimes unnecessarily enigmatic at other times. The great similarity between the two films is the fantastic visual feast both directors bring to their very different stories. Kubrick's film captures the cold emptiness and vast isolation of space, and the tremendous amount of technology required to put fragile humans in that hostile environment. Tarkovky's space station is messy, used, lived-in and familiar, i.e., a human habitat.

The two films have a couple of other things in common: in both films the most "human" character in the story is "non-human", HAL in 2001, and Hari in Solaris; and, both the central characters eventually are taken on a mind-bending journey within themselves and without to a somewhere other than the world they know.

The Tarkovsky film is a 70's film. That means long takes and tracking shots, with a slow narrative that doesn't have jump cuts and the razzle-dazzle of today's editing. It requires patience and probably more than one viewing to absorb. Even at that, it will be open to interpretation, because for all the dialogue, Tarkovsky doesn't explain a lot, and in some instances, refutes the inner logic of this own story. This won't matter to many viewers who will be content with the visual treats and the wonderful evocation of mood and mystery, and a story of the emphemeral nature of love and existence, so easily slipping from one's grasp. Others may find it too confusing and slow and lose patience.

Considering the conditions and restrictions Andrei Tarkovsky was working under , both financially and politically, his achievement here is as impressive as Kubrick's daring and innovative film. Except for a few scenes that may be oblique comments on the Soviet system, you would not know this film had arisen from under the weight of that regime. Although sometimes a bit heavy-handed, Solaris is a film about the nature and meaning of being human, and how that fits in an increasingly cold and technological world. If you aren't in a hurry, it may be worth your while. 4-1/2 stars.

Learning one's place
We find a creature who seems far more advanced than we are. Who we might like to destroy but hardly know if we can. Who can seemingly turn our minds against us. For whom we don't seem to be a priority at all. Of whom our best minds manage only feeble speculations.

I saw this movie first and only recently read Lem's story. Tarkovsky got a great start from Lem. It's difficult to compare text and movie. Tarkovsky seemed to have been reasonably faithful to the contents of the book, but added a long introduction as well as his own ending. Both works are impressive. Tarkovsky seems to linger often so a good deal of patience is a prerequisite for enjoying this film.

Now that I've read Lem's "Solaris", I'm less satisfied with Tarkovsky's "Solaris". Lem's book moved along well. Tarkovskky's added introduction (including moving up the inquiry of Burton) accomplishes little and the ending may be more explicit than is needed: hasn't Solaris already done enough to impress? On the other hand, Tarkovsky's cast is excellent (I especially enjoyed Hari and Snow) and visually the movie is a treat.

A movie of Promethean scope
Tarkvosky's "Solaris" takes on so many deep seated philosophical questions at once that by the end of the film, the casual viewer may feel overwhelmed. It is a madness trip, an intellectual exercise, a visual piece, absurdism, a dramatic catharsis and an uncomfortable probing of the human self all at once. This is not "shut off your mind" stuff. The long and short of it: three scientists visit Solaris, a planet which seems to be an alternate reality, and suffer the consequences. Chris (really the main focus of the film), a scientist, is warned repeatedly by a colleague who suffered a mental breakdown on the station about how dangerous it is, but pays no heed. One commits suicide before the unfortunate Chris arrives. Hari, his wife who committed suicide when he left her years ago, appears and despite Chris' initial attempt to blast her in the space, is seemingly there to stay. Chris is warned by both men (a ruthless scientist and a drunk) that he is being deceived, and that she is not his real wife, but Hari seems to have feelings which are genuinely human despite being an illusion. There are awful scenes in which she splits apart, re-emerges painfully back into 'life', etc. All the while Chris engages in philosophical discussions about the worthy or unworthy nature of mankind, quoting Tolstoy and, of course, Dostoevsky. Some of it is drop dead funny, perhaps without intending to be: an air of absurdity overshadows everything taking place. When the two men on the ship with him decide that itss time Chris gave up the ghost and destroy Hari, he returns home and still seems to be a million miles away. We are not sure if he is sane in the last scene, which is frighteningly reminiscent. He is in slow motion, behaving like a man high on LSD. Will he ever regain his sanity? Was a part, at least, of Hari real? When she viewed his home videos with the 'original' Hari (among the scariest sequences in the film), why did she respond as if she knew? Tarkovsky skillfully keeps us dangling from his parapet. This is a kickass, disturbing movie.

Its Strengths Far Outweigh its Weaknesses
Though it suffers from a maudlin and morbid fascination with negative emotions, Solaris is a tremendous achievement. The achievement is in the extreme physical beauty of the film itself and the challenging intelligence of the ideas raised but not always explored. At issue is nothing less than the nature of humanity. Is a human defined by its conciousness, its memories, its emotions, its senses, its history, its origin, its desire to live or some combination of all or some of those traits. Be forewarned, the film is extremely slow and deliberate & its lacks any real plot. We americans tend to like our movies with plots. It many cultures, the ideas are more important than the plots but in America the plot is generally more important than the ideas. Consequently, idea driven movies like Solaris are seen as dull and boring because there is no forward momentum. Here in America, it is considered acceptable to respond to movies like Solaris by saying, "I don't watch movies to think. If I want to think, I'll read a book." This is what happens when you raise millions of people on television and fast food. ... Read more

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Shinya Tsukamoto draws on the marriage of flesh and technology that inspires so much of David Cronenberg's work and then twists it into a manga-influenced cyberpunk vision. A man (Tomoroh Taguchi) awakens from a nightmare in which his body is helplessly fusing with the metal objects around him, only to find it happening to him in real life... or is it? Haunted by memories of a hit and run (eerily prophetic of Cronenberg's Crash), the man knows this ordeal could be a dream, a fantastic form ofdivine retribution, or perhaps technological mutation born of guilt and rage. Shot in bracing black and white on a small budget, Tsukamoto puts a demented conceptual twist on good old-fashioned stop-motion effects and simple wire work, giving his film the surreal quality of a waking dream with a psychosexual edge (resulting in the film's most disturbing scene). The story ultimately takes on an abstract quality enhanced by the grungy look and increasingly wild images as they take to the streets in a mad chase of technological speed demons. This first entry in his self-titled "Regular Sized Monster Series" is followed by a full-color sequel, Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer, which trades the muddy experimental atmosphere for a big-budget sheen but can't top the cybershock to the system this movie packs. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (43)

A feast for the eyes
I gave this film 4 stars mainly because I don't like to say anything is perfect. This is one film that anyone interested in disturbing cinema should see. Unlike any post Erasure Head film by David Lynch, this film is not wierd for wierds sake.

With very little dialogue this Black and White film is a visual overload. Simple to follow, and at times almost unwatchable. It is a halucinatory trip through the mind of a madman slowly and involuntarily turning into a machine. A must for anyone interested in the strange side of Asian Cinema.

Thank goodness the movie is only 60 min long. It will leave you with a gut punch that you will not soon forget. I wish they still had drive through theaters so that it could be a double feature with Erasure Head.

Beware of the Sequel Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer. Its not as good of a story and it loses something with the addition of the color. The VHS version comes with a short entitled Drum Struck, another delightful little gem. Highly recomended for those who like this sort of thing. Kinda like a Nine Inch Nails video but without the...soundtrack.

violence is a little over the top, but a real experience
let me start out by saying that most people should not see this movie or even try to. if you think that you can just turn it off when it gets disturbing and forget about it, you're sadly mistaken, because when you've seen just one sick part you'll be pretty revolted for a good amount of time even if you shut it off that second. this is only for people who enjoy art that is basically a shot at convention and a sort of revelry in surreal and disturbing imagery without necessarily needing a coherent or logical storyline, and if you're not among those people, stay far, faaaaaar away. for film students and people inclined to surrealistic/philosophical/absurdist art, this is an absolute necessity. the thing i loved about 'tetsuo' is that after the whole admittedly odd film, i came away with a feeling of having really aesthetically experienced something:a descent into the bizarre and the taboo that i felt concluded on a note of vitality and defiance that is touching. "we can put an end to this...world!", one of the 'metal men' screams to the other. it is not a pointless exercise in gore or depravity, but a frantic and urgent exhortation to fight against the dehumanization that is inevitable in a mechanistic, nightmarish, high-tech civilization. in a sense these two unfortunate victims of an insane and impersonal society do something positive with their horrendous fates, in that they set aside their petty personal battle and heroically turn what has destroyed and mutilated them against itself and thereby become more human than when they were both simply flesh and blood. of course, this is only my individual interpretation, but i feel pretty certain that the message of this movie is along those lines. one the other hand, i did feel some of the scenes were needlessly disgusting and that the director inadvertently made a lot of the movie so repugnant that what could have been a real, universally recognized cult classic will only be accessible to the toughest and most philosophically sensitive people out there, which are few indeed--too few for 'tetsuo' to ever gain even the slightest notoriety or communicate it's worthy message to the majority of viewers. even lynch, who i also have a great deal of admiration for, knows that while he can get away with a great deal of scenes that are utterly perverse and sadomasochistic because of his incredible flair for the surreal and mysterious, he has to let his viewers come up for air every once in awhile and take that unfortunate but absolutely necessary reversion to the mundane without which the subtlety indispensable to a great film is lost. but for those who love the artistic creation of really disturbing but beautifully artificial realities, this movie will be a gem and certainly a must buy. so in that sense, 'tetsuo' is one of the best movies of our time.

Social commentary in its own right
Watching this film reminded me of The Thing by John Carpenter. In that sci-fi classic, the man's body, taken over by the thing, is hideously twisted and transformed beyond our wildest imagination, which imparts a certain sense of sexuality to the proceedings.
In Tetsuo by Shinya Tsukamoto, the body is taken over by iron. Again the question of sexuality is high on the agenda as is evident in the scene where you see a male sex organ shaped like a huge iron drill spinning ferociously, hinting that love in our day often consists in the realm of the senses generated by genitalia and that a man's sex organ is nothing but a machine in such a context. We are just as inorganic as the machines that surround us and the iron and metals that make up those machines. As the man slowly transforms into iron, he experiences excruciating pains, to which we have grown so much numb. It seems to me that Tsukamoto's primary concern is the recoverty of the body, which in his case is almost always expressed with the imagery of sex, violence and pain.

Surreal Mechanical Horror...
Tetsuo is a surreal horror film about a hit and run accident where the driver begins to grow metal objects on his face. The metal objects are physical reminisce from the accident and it begins to physically haunt him. This metal curse grows worse, and the driver seem incapable of escaping his faith as he becomes dangerous for those around him. Tetsuo is a daunting cinematic experience with an interesting story and at moments the cinematography is remarkable. However, the very same cinematography uses several still shots put together to a continuous shot in order to create movement, which becomes repetitive and clumsy. This visual awkwardness creates a music video atmosphere that lowers the overall cinematic experience.

Ok.......
Lemme see here. You have some weird guy shove a piece of metal in his leg, he sees maggots all over it (ICK) runs out into the street gets hit by a car, then thus the driver turns into.... An iron man basically while the dude who got hit by a car is planning his death or something. Man this film is one hell of an acid ride through his transformation into this iron man. Very bizarre and twisted with the constant slash off to the heavy pumped industrial score while you try to focus on what's going on, many times I thought this was to absurd and wanted to turn it off but I wanted to see where it was going. It's visually breathtaking and not a very pleasant thing to sit through, but I can't give this five stars because quite frankly I don't know who would. This is followed by equally messed up sequel "Body Hammer" but that one made no sense really.... This is made by Shinya Tsukamoto who is a very good director and actor as well, if you've seen Ichi The Killer he's in there as a character, I want to check out his movie Tokyo Fist but I'm kind of scared too...... This is worth checking out only if you handle it. ... Read more

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As the French New Wave was reaching its maturity and filmgoing had evolved as a favorite pastime of intellectuals and urban sophisticates, along came Jean-Luc Godard to shake up every convention and send highfalutin critics scrambling to their typewriters. 1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds on Godard's strictly low-budget terms, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. For most people Alphaville, like many of the director's films, will prove utterly baffling. For those inclined to dig deeper into Godard's artistic intentions, the words of critic Andrew Sarris (quoted from an essay that accompanies the Criterion Collection DVD) will ring true: "To understand and appreciate Alphaville is to understand Godard, and vice versa." --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (39)

the greatest sci-fi film ever: not a special effect in sight
'Alphaville' is Jean-Luc Cinema Godard's 'The Wizard of Oz', the story of an American stranded in a strange fantasy city, who must find its controlling wizard before he can return home, evading forces sent to destroy him. Eddie Constantine reprises the role of Lemmy Caution that made him famous in 1950s France, as the roughneck FBI agent who fisticuffed, dame-bothered and slang-winked his way through a series of simple-minded thrillers. here he has become Special Agent 003, sent by his superiors in the Outlands to assassinate Professor Von Braun, the brains behind Alphaville, a futuristic city controlled by a philosophical computer, and which bears more than a passing resemblance to Gaullist Paris.

Alphaville is a classic dystopia, its minions brainwashed, dehumanised and branded; photographs of its leader on every available wall; the surveilling computer present in every room. dissidents are tortured or murdered in elaborate rituals (e.g. diving-board firing-squads in swimming pools before a gallery of socialites). Double-talk couched in the complexities of dialectic numb the brain; dictionaries are censored daily.

Much of the fun in Godard films of this period lies in their playfulness with familiar cinematic genres; and the trappings of the gangster and spy genres, the detective story and sci-fi adventure (brawls, shoot-outs, car-chases, interrogations, (literal) femmes fatales etc.) are made ridiculous by their slapstick treatment, comic exagerration and over-emphatic music. 'Alphaville' may be a pulp adventure, but the world Lemmy must negotiate is not one of genre, but of ideas, about reality, history, politics, freedom, love, poetry, dreams, the mind, logic, conformity, escape, all reverberating in an environment based on One Big Idea.

'Alphaville', like Chris Marker's similar 'La Jetee', is less a futuristic satire than a reflection of contemporary France (its dark and dense mise-en-scene like a negative photograph of the familiar city; with its extraordinary modern architecture reconfigured as a giant prison), with memories of the recent Nazi Occupation. But, as its name suggests, Alphaville is also the first (cinematic) city of post-modernity, where meaning and authority is decentred, where language ceases to have any shared value, where time ceases to exist, the past and future are abolished, and the mindless live in an eternal present, unable to learn from mistakes or hope for improvement, unable to acknowledge the value of culture. Lemmy seems to be set up as a very 'human' interloper, a repository of 'our' feelings and values in a culture that would seek to suppress them. But Godard called him a Martian', and he is a stranger to Alphaville, which, after all, is our world: he is a figure from pulp fiction , a risible set of signifiers who can only offer Natasha a choice between who gives her orders.

Most dystopias, like '1984' and 'Blade Runner', ultimately fail, because they are as cold and inhuman as the worlds they portray. 'Alphaville', especially in its visionary climactic half hour, shares more with Nabokov's novel 'Bend Sinister' - positing whimsy, idiosyncrasy, gags, Surrealism (Eluard, Bellmer), pop art, the absurd, the unexpected, the daft, the poetic, the aesthetic, the cinematic (especially Melville's 'Deux Hommes Dans Manhattan'), Anna Karina's gorgeous coats against the Brave New World.

But we shouldn't get too comfortable in this ''us vs. them', anti-totalitarian model: Professor Von Braun, with dark, impenetrable shades permenantly welded, is the clean-cut image of the director; he too forces Anna Karina (his daughter, Godard's wife) to perform for strangers and suppress her personality; he, like Godard, is the creator of Alphaville.

The Beauty of Individuality Exemplified
It is a rare thing to see a film that not only shows one what life is, but espouses a concrete vision of what life should be. Even more rare is a film which does this by situating characters in a world where one would not want to live thereby isolating the very essence of what makes on human. Godard's Alfaville not only accomplishes this feet but it creates an artistic embodiment of all that true individuality stands for. More potent than 1984 and just as beautiful as novels such as Atlas Shrugged, Alfaville shows one who is willing to watch and listen the true value and purpose of freedom and the ominous results when that freedom is removed from their lives. The music, cinematography and overall directing could only be done by an individual who's sense of life is majestic and bordering on, if not completely genius. This is not only great science fiction but it is art at its highest ideal, a work that makes me proud to be human.

a weird film and quite interesting
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film which is one of several involving the character Lemmy Caution remains popular to this day as one of the few science fiction films with no special effects. It is a good view of a technocratic society an has elements which at the time seemed like fantasy but in our computer age seems more feasible.

The film also has a voice over that is really deep and raspy that sounds very interesting.

The DVD does not have any special features but still is a good one to buy.

The Eternal Theme of the Individual VS The State
It should not surprise anyone that a film from Jean-Luc Godard will invariably attract the usual assortment of Post-Modernist, ethically and politically retarded, anti-Western afficionados. Some of that can be seen in the reviews for this film, both on this page and throughout the Internet. The truth however, is that while Godard was a borderline socialist and critical of the supposed decadence of "America", he was more of a heroic individualist than anything else and his pre-1970 films all demonstrate this fact.

Alphavile is without a doubt, his greatest achievement and it is a work that speaks of an artistic sensibility all but lost in the France of today, which is overun with rampant anti-intellectualism and a worship of un-reason.

Godard takes the Bogart-like "Lemmy Caution" character out of his former slew of 40/50's French spy thrillers and puts the very same character into a future where a technocratic dictatorship exists. In doing so, the very best idealism of American pulp-fiction is given back its soul by a French director, Godard, who truly was interested in the world of ideas.

This film not only shows why a totalitarian state must be destroyed, it also demonstrates some key philosophical concepts in the process. Through Godard, we learn that it is language that first must be assaulted before one can enslave man, then mathematics, then history and finally, the human mind itself. We can see parallels to this line of thinking through the world today and yet, how ironic that it is today's France that probably best embodies Godard's nightmare come to life (for a Western democracy of course).

The cinematography of Alphaville is superb, as is the musical score by Paul Misraki which is one of the finest I have experienced, for it reaches its crescendo with the most important line in the film, almost as an answer to a question. The theme of Alphaville is simple enough - the Individual against the State, but the soul of Alphaville reaches higher to a level where Man is sanctified against all intrusions on his life, liberty and happiness.

Anna Karina plays the part of the Ideal Woman still capable of feeling and understanding the value of love and that immortal word that may still one day save humanity - "I". It is a rare thing to find a work of art that speaks so eloquently to the sublime beauty of Man, Humanity and Individualism. Godard does this and more in Alphaville and for that, he should go down in history as one of Europe's finest artists.

Note - One would need to watch this film about 3 times to completely grasp every important nuance. Also, Anthem and 1984 are good reads along the same vain.

An Analysis of Genre
As usual with Godard moments stand out. In this film the most absurd sequence involves a diving platform in what looks to be an eastern bloc recreational center and a number of black sweatered and bereted revolutionaries with sub-machine guns standing on the pool deck spraying the divers as they dive. Whats it all mean? Well I suppose you could say its Godards way of commenting on the wests ability to turn even political oppression into mass entertainment.

I like a number of Godard films: Breathless, My Life To Live, Contempt, Pierrot Le Fou, First Name: Carmen, Hail Mary, In Praise of Love --still Alphaville remains kind of a hard one for me to get into. Perhaps because I am not too keen on science fiction. It seems the people who like this film are the ones who like science fiction in general. To me science fiction is full of cliches and so is film noir and so to me it seems Godard is using these genres to address cultural cliches -- and yet he is also making pointed comments on modern culture as he does so. You can always count on a Godard film to be smart and even though its not one of my favorites Alphaville is no exception to that rule.

Anna Karina looks great as always. Unfortunately for Lemmy Caution she is the daughter of Alphaville's overlord. No one really believes the future will look like a parking garage nor that a super-computer will run our lives and that people will become vacant automatons. Only a handful of early twentieth-century authors thought the future was leading us toward Alphaville. In the context of the swinging sixties sci fi just looks campy and noir even campier. Whats going on in Godards head? Hard to say in this film. To me its funny, but a surprising amount of people seem to take this sci fi stuff seriously.

I think the new wave band of outsiders enjoyed genre hopping because it gave them a chance to flex their movie knowledge. Plus genres come loaded with rules which the new wavers can then subvert -- so that is the fun of Alphaville, subversion of genre and in this case its a double dose of subversion because Godards subverting two genres, sci fi and noir. I think its interesting to note that in both of these genres men and women relate in steretypical and fatalistic ways -- and the new wave was about being hyper-conscious of these film conventions. Perhaps what Godard is really saying is that in order to invent life anew we must break free of these conventions. This is of course something his characters often fail to do although in some films they try. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Sleepy Eyes Of Death - Sword Of Fire
Sleepy Eyes Of Death - Sword Of Fire - While traveling through the countryside Kyoshiro is forced to defend himself against an angry samurai trying to kill an apparently innocent woman. He is soon to find out that the woman is far from innocent and he unwittingly becomes ensnared in a convoluted plot kill off a band of smugglers that have been siphoning off loot from the shogun's treasury and giving it to one of the local (and very corrupt) officials. True to form, Kyoshiro sides with the underdogs and uses his blade to make things right. The sword battles in this film are very good and Kyoshiro dispenses his dark humor with the same flair as he wields his blade. As with the other films in this series, the camerawork and widescreen format are a treat and the acting and overall production values make this one a joy to watch. Oh yes, Kyoshiro takes special care of the "innocent" woman from the start of the film. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very good
This is the second film in this series that I have purchased. The first one was Full Circle Killing. I enjoyed this film as well as the first one. A great story and plot with some excellent martial arts action with the sword. Kyoshiro is a great character and you certainly don't want to be on his bad side. Excellent film work and subtitles as well. If you like Samurai movies check these films out.

Sleepy Eyes Of Death - Sword Of Satan
Sleepy Eyes Of Death - Sword Of Satan - Probably one of the best films in the series, Kyoshiro is begged by several strangers to save the life of a virgin saint. He reluctantly agrees and encounters several who wish to stop him at sword point. He expertly dispatches them with his masterful bladework before he finally meets up with the saintly one. But this is just where the plot really gets good. Kyoshiro's past and origins are finally revealed and the climactic moments are truly memorable. As with the other Sleepy Eyes films, this one is presented in widescreen format with great subtitling and color. Acting is great, with Nemuri Kyoshiro probably at his darkest. Great sword fighting and one on one duels. This film is one of the reasons that this series has been referred to as the most popular samurai film series in Japan - and that's saying a lot with competition like the Lone Wolf and Cub series and Zatoichi. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An outcast swordsman in old Japan
SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH: SWORD OF ADVENTURE, 1964 (aka SHOWDOWN) is the 5th entry in the Kyoshiro Nemuri/"Son of the Black Mass" series of Japanese swordplay films about a wandering outcast red-haired swordsman whose mother was Japanese and whose father was a European missionary.

In this one, Nemuri meets a local Finance Commissioner who runs afoul of the Shogun's high-living daughter when he cuts off her allowance. Nemuri is impressed by the old man's integrity and saves his life, thus making himself a target of assassins. It's an interesting tale relating the delicate dilemmas faced by public officials in old Japan trying to maintain public order yet not offend powerful interests. However, it gets quite convoluted as it involves a growing cast of characters, including at least five men who want to kill Nemuri, all for varying reasons, including one who just wants to test his swordplay skill against Nemuri's "Full Moon Cut" technique. Unfortunately, there's surprisingly little action until the big fight at the end, where Nemuri takes on all of his opponents.

It's all very well acted and beautifully photographed in color and widescreen (showcased well in this sharp letter-boxed video transfer). It's a proficient work by director Kenji Misumi, whose later films, most notably the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series, are less polished and less formal, but leaner, bloodier and more action-packed and more memorable to fans of the genre. ... Read more

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Jean-Luc Godard and Luis Buñuel enjoyed an ardent misanthropicduel in the '60s and '70s, but who won is anyone's call. Godard's Weekend lays down the trump in a harrowing and darkly funny allegory in which social mores fray along political lines. Played out in a metafilm in which characters question their own reality, a morally bankrupt Parisian couple tries to leave the city on a much-loathed country holiday with the wife's parents. Along the way, endless traffic jams, sudden violence, and vistas of gory car crashes underscore their corrupted values. Their lethal encounter with the in-laws and kidnap by an anarchic band of radical cannibals finds the couple--and presumably "decent" society with them--reverting to a nasty primitivism. The idea is of course that the bored, apathetic heart of the bourgeoisie is never far from acting out its most homicidal fantasies. --Alan E. Rapp ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Spectacular film, embarrassing subtitles
I'm not sure who's idea it was to insert "arsehole," "collect my father from the clinic," and "he licked my arse" into the subtitles, and who it was that repeatedly forgot to translate "gens" into "people," but I really wish the French would get over their disdain for Americans and let someone who actually speaks English do the subtitles. In a way, the poor quality of the subtitles actually added to my enjoyment of the film, because it made it all the more ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, let's talk about this film. Perhaps the ultimate expression of the New Wave in France, this film by Jean-Luc Godard is like a primitive cross between PULP FICTION and THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Essentially, a couple that hates each other goes on a journey to kill the husband's parents and take his estate. On the way, they encounter traffic jams, car crashes, cannibals, historical figures, Black militants, murderers, and hippies armed with automatic weapons.

I'm tempted to give away some of the funniest moments of the film... Basically, every situation the couple encounters is completely absurd, and sexual, social, and political commentary runs through every scene. I'll never forget the scene when the couple lights Emily Bronte on fire, or the lines, "If you'd like, you can screw her before you eat her!" and "Who would you rather screw, Johnson or Mao?" This movie is just ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Godard's courage and brilliant sense of humor is evident throughout the film, and his ability to weave well-conceived philosophical dialogue with slapstick comedy is a skill directors have been trying to emulate for years.

For people who don't need Hollywood to enjoy a movie, the French New Wave is fertile ground for experimentation and wild enjoyment. This isn't one of those films with a "good plot" or "profound dialogue." This is one of those films that's filled with scenes that you can't believe you just witnessed. "Did they really just slaughter a pig on film?" "Did they really just gun down a picnic for no reason?"

This film is filled with absurd scenes involving sex, violence, and class conflict that will delight you and make you hoot with laughter. The film's French perspective adds a subtly foreign character to the humor, which makes the film all the more dazzling - it's like eating a strange and exquisite delicacy - it's not just another funny American movie.

Skip MR. BEAN and order WEEKEND. This is one of the best weird movies in the history of film, and certainly one of the most important. And enjoy those awful subtitles :)

Godard's best
An utterly brilliant pastiche from Godard. JLG gives us a nightmarish vision of contemporary bourgeois society in which the apocalypse takes on the form of a series of bloody car wrecks and cannibalistic revolutionaries running wild. Even the scenes that don't work, like the bizarre encounter with Emily Bronte and Louis Carroll and the 18th-century French revolutionary reading a political tract, are forgiveable simply because they only add to the anarchic nature of the film. How many other movies have you seen that feature a woman screaming before a horrific car accident because she left her handbag inside, or a speech on Hitlerism and African slavery intercut with clips of traffic jams?

One of the most fascinating of Godard's new wave efforts
Jean-Luc Godard's film Week End is loaded with his obsessions with outrageous characters, political and philosophical ideas, and so on, and many viewers have claimed this to be a full on political film. From what I could gather after seeing a poor yet manageable copy of this film, I saw that this is possibly his best effort in terms of abrasive, surreal though bravura directing. He leaves the camera on his characters, with their flaws almost shining off them (which serves as an asset in some scenes), and yet most of the time it feels like he's directing a comedy of these events- comedy of errors.

Consider the scene where the woman has the monologue in her panties and bra, how she leads up such telling, informatory details to a payoff that gives as a reminder of the Walken scene in Pulp Fiction (though he is the better actor). Or in other times the comedy is in the sense of a Godard satire of his past work - the traffic set piece(s) gets the viewer to feel in the mood of the car he so pacingly follows, even as it becomes relentlessly obnoxious and tense, and acts like every other driver on the streets of the cities of America.

However that, and a moment of argument over a corpse in the passenger seat (he cuts to the faces of the onlookers who happen to find such dialogue rather amusing), show by the time Godard reached this stage in his career he wasn't taking himself and his work 100 % seriously, though that's not to say that the element of the woman's path to guerilla-hood isn't a serious topic. For his art film die-hards he also uses a peculiar, non-linear style in story-telling- an added advantage for a week-end timepiece.

I'm reminded of Fellini (as I was while watching another Godard film of recent, Contempt) in one aspect of the picture, in terms of how he portrays his women- he can love them, ignore them, belittle them, or even glorify them in the most drastic of measures, but he can't control them. One also wonders if this is how he just makes it for his films, or if in real life the women of his life were really this (how do I put it) out-there.

The script occasionally veers off on it's tale of a couple going on a disastrous week-end out for stretches of poetry, discussion, things that don't have much to do with the story, and yet there's a catching, eccentric, melodic aura to these scenes and passages. These kinds of scenes make it perfectly clear that Godard has created an original work here, one that may put off audience members who "don't get it" or expect total sense in the outcomes. Certainly a movie made for it's time, country of origin, and target group.

To sum up my review let me put it this way - this is the kind of picture that would've heavily influenced The Doors.

Foolishness on film
This film is easy to describe:
Sophomoric speechifying and utterly foolish.

The dangers of French Bank Holidays!
With influences ranging from Freud to Marx, De Sade and Eisenstein having walk-on roles and the Parisian weekend transformed into an allegorical bourgeois hell,
Week-End is one of the defining films of the 20th Century. Born out of the nouvelle vague cinema (French New Wave), this is the terrible birth that is brought to light from J.L.Godard's obsession with prophesising the destruction and decline of the West. Even after taking into account his overt political messages, Weekend still exist as one of the most technically revolutionary pieces of cinema to emerge from his studios into a blinding glare of publicity and hostility.

Not content with depicting the destruction of western commercial values, Godard disrupts the visual narrative by interspersing film titles, book titles and music onto a background of patriotic red, white and blue colours. From a personal perspective, one of the most impressive sequences is an eight minute long tracking-shot of the Parisian highway which progresses from straightforward traffic jams to car-wrecks and the inevitable symbol of multinational Capitalism, a Shell oil truck. Essentially Week-End marks the 'Maoist period' of Godard's film-making career, during which he declared that 'the only way to be a revolutionary intellectual is to give up being an intellectual.'

Starring Mireille Darc and Jean Yanne, Week-End's fabular narrative is a weekend journey from Paris to Normandy which slowly becomes an apocalyptic struggle against the French peasant revolutionaries who continually intervene to prevent the couple meeting Darc's mother in order to find out whether they have successfully poisoned her father. This emblematic quest for the Capitalist Grail is hindered by a philosophising character from Dumas, two rebels (African and Algerian) masquerading as refuse collectors and Saint-Juste, before the couple are captured on their return to Paris by the Seine-et-Loise Liberation Front, a group of cannibalistic freedom fighters.

Godard's continued affinity with politics can be witnessed in his other Maoist films, Les Chinoise (1967), Le Gai Savoir and Tout Va Bien (1972). Despite accusations of pretension, he still remains one of the most provocative and influential film makers of his and future generations, whilst his immense cinematic output can be regarded as a Marxist biography of the previous century.

What was an initially ground-breaking piece of cinema has evolved into an essential European film. Heralded by Pauline Kael in the New Yorker as 'Godard's Vision of Hell, and it ranks with the visions of the greatest' and 'somewhere between Swift and Samuel Beckett, alternatively violent and tender, humorous and cruel' (Jan Dawson, Sight and Sound) Week-end is a film that must be seen to be believed and to miss this is to miss out on one of the spectacles of 20th Century cinema. ... Read more

Description

Woody and Bee are a pair of young punks working at a DVD store.Out for a joy ride, the two hit a pedestrian and end up with a dead body in their trunk! Un-fortunately for Woody and Bee, this is just the beginning. The dead body is infected with a strange biochemical formula, which transforms the hapless mall goers into an army of blood-hungry zombies! ... Read more

Reviews (15)

What a ride.
DVD begins.
Zombie kills some guy.
Then tons of goofy non zombie related stuff happens.
You forget you are even watching a zombie movie.
It becomes a HK slacker comedy.
You kinda get into the characters.
Then all hell breaks loose.
Suddenly this Abbot and Costello episode is Abbot and Costello meet Zombies, and then people start dying left and right. And this silly movie suddenly gets hardcore and turns into a real zombie movie with really silly looking FX, yet it's too late.
Like how Giant Robo started of all innocent and fun and suddenly became hardcore and heartbreaking, the same happens here.
Some interesting zombie ideas. Some truly funny moments.
And one of the best endings I've ever seen.
One of those hidden gems you'll never forget.

one of the best zombie movies I`ve ever seen!
I bought Bio Zombie not knowing what to expect, and it ended up being one of the best investments I ever made. This movie is pretty high-quality for a Hong-Kong/zombie film, two genres which I love but know fall short in the quality dept. This film has comedy, action, cool music, and a good amnt. of gore also the mall it takes place in is awesome. the zombies are pretty cool looking, especially the guy they run over in the beginning. And the decapitation scenes are gross, and hilarious because they beat up the head afterwards. Also this movie has a great ending. It has many references towards videogames such as House of the Dead. I love this film and recommend it to lovers of zombie films and Resident Evil games. If you dont like subtitles beware they go rather quickly.

Silly fun
Bio-Zombie is one of those movies that surprised the pants off of me. I'm a zombie completist so any movie that features the undead I will want to watch, whether the movie has a reputation as being a stinkbomb or not. Well let me tell you Bio-Zombie is one of the most pleasureable experiences I've ever had watching a dead dude film.

The two central characters are a couple of young punks who go by the names "Crazy Bee" and "Woody Invincible". The two own a small DVD counter in a shopping mall. While driving a car on an errand for a friend, the guys accidentally hit a man who was standing in the middle of the road. The man survives and while trying to help him up, our two heroes feed him a soft drink that happens to be a biochemical experiment engineered by some Mafioso types. The two guys drive the man back to the mall in an effort to clean him up, but then of course the man soon turns into a zombie. Soon, the contagion spreads and the mall is overrun by hordes of the undead.

Anyone sitting down to watch Bio-Zombie should not expect a horror movie. It's a zombie movie but not a horror movie. Huh? Well imagine if Kevin Smith had decided to add packs of zombies into his movie "Mallrats" and that will give you a pretty good idea of the tone of this film. Witty dialogue, vanguard youth, clever pop culture references all of it done Hong-Kong style. Even though more of a comedy than a horror film, this certainly doesn't disappoint in the gore department. Lots of arterial sprayings and gut-munching Romero-style.

The fact that there's no zombie action until the midway point did nothing to curb my interest, the first half of the film was very good at providing laughs and setting the tone. Even the two central dweebs, who were extremely annoying at first and who aren't much smarter than a couple of ten watt lightbulbs, really grew on me after a while. Other great characters are "Sushi Boy" who becomes a zombie with feelings and compassion, and "Rolls" one of the cutest girls I've ever seen in an Asian movie. Sure, Bio-Zombie is dumb as all get out but the filmmakers KNOW this. Bottom line is that Bio-Zombie scores humongous points in the fun department and that is why you should watch it.

A NICE MOVIE
OK,The first time i watched the movie i didnt like it that much because i wasnt used to japanese movie styles,but the second time i liked it more.
The movie has some quite good action and nice little comedy it gets alittle scary at the end.
The ending was alittle depressing.It ends tracing to the two survivors contamination.
This movie has alittle similarity to resident evil.You should see it,its quite nice.

So stupid, it's good
Totally B-rate zombie flick with an absurd plot and barely better acting. However, while it'll never be critically good.. if you watch it to be entertained and get a few chuckles, this one would work. The movie is about 3 stars, but I give another star for Rolls. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Fun movie, faithful to the manga
What a great, great movie. I've been getting back into samurai flicks after a long hiatus. I wanted to see this after having seen Kill Bill v.1 -- you can see the influence after watching Lone Wolf and Cub -- and boy, this movie and its vol. 2 sequel (baby cart on river styx) -- great!

Clean picture, clean sounds. This is an awesome DVD. I also read the manga before the DVD and can say: it is very faithful to the manga, doing a wonderful job of bringing the Kojima's artwork to the screen. Readers of Dark Horse's manga series, vol. 1 will recognize the care taken to adapt the manga.

I showed this film to a bunch of friends and they hooted and hollered. Great fun.

The film is excellent, the DVD transfer is...brilliant!
The DVD transfer is trash? Um, yeah...For everyone who owns an old VHS copy of the film, throw it out the window and purchase this version. The movie has NEVER looked and sounded better than it has on this brillant DVD transfer. You can't tell the film was made over 30 years ago. Animeigo did a great job restoring the film. The sound is great, the colors are vibrant, the subtitles are improved and easier to read; complaints do not apply here. You also get trailers for other LWC films and some Zatoichi films. And the liner notes are very long, but informative. You'll learn a lot about the setting of this film from the liner notes.

Lone wolf and cub fans need not hesitate to pick this one up. If you've never seen the series before, you're in for a treat. Any lover of samurai films, gorehounds (blood shoots out geyser style), or if you just want to see great action films with a great story and a lot of depth (style AND substance) you need to see these films. Pick it up before the rumored remake is released, although really the film has been "remade" several times ("Shogun Assassin," "Road to Peredition," "Kill Bill" etc.). But nothing beats the original. The "Lone Wolf and Cub" series takes "homage" films like "Kill Bill" to school.

(At the time of this writing Amazon doesn't offer the series, so check out Animeigo's website for even more samurai titles.)

Subtitles different than the VHS
The subtitles for the DVDs part with all established format for subtitles. The subtitles are placed higher on the screen, in the actual film image (!). On the tapes the subtitles are as they should be, in the black lower portion of the widescreen matte. Also, the subtitles' typeface has black borders, therefore increasing the amount of image intruded upon, and making the subtitles an irritating distraction. For some reason this company has completely trashed their excellent product. The graphic design of the DVD packaging makes the films look like B-movie rubbish.

LW&C DVDs are full widescreen
Just so there is no confusion, the AnimEigo LW&C DVDs (and all our samurai DVDs) are full widescreen in the original aspect ratio. NOTHING has been chopped off or pan and scanned.

NOTHING!

The DVDs are 16:9 anamorphic encoded, and since the original films are have higher aspect ratios than this, they are letterboxed.

The confusion arises from the fact that if your haven't configured your DVD player and TV correctly (in particular, widescreen TVs), the image can appear either squashed (the Toho logo at the start will be oval) or have the sides clipped off.

What you have to do to get the best video quality is

1) if you have a widescreen TV, configure the DVD player so that it knows this, and configure the TV so it knows it is getting widescreen video. Be careful about TV modes where it displays a 16:9 image in 4:3 with the edges clipped.

2) If you have a regular 4:3 TV, make sure the DVD player is configured this way, otherwise it'll send out a 16:9 signal which will appear squashed on the TV.

Excellent quality - but not Shogun Assassin
This must be one of the best quality DVD transfers I've ever seen for an "old school" martial arts movie. The picture is crisp and excellent.

"Sword of Vengeance" is part one of the "Shogun Assassin" version of the Lone Wolf and Cub movie that was released back in the 1980's and may be the version that most of us are familiar with. Shogun Assassin was dubbed in English, was faster paced, had a nice, energetic soundtrack and was frankly more entertaining. Sword of Vengeance is of course the Japanese original and is a great movie by itself. However, for those of you out there who are hoping to have "Shogun Assassin" on DVD will be disappointed. Sword of Vengeance is much slower paced and I found myself skipping ahead to the fighting scenes. Still a classic and a must have for any martial arts library. ... Read more

Description

Finishing up an important case, the beautiful bounty hunter Iria returns to Earth. Along with her computer, Bob, and her assistant, Fujicrow, she is also assigned an android trainee. The research team charged with building the combat android decided to implant the android's brain with the most cunning combat life form in the universe, a vicious Zeiram unit! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

That Robot Just Ate Your Dog...
This is probably the first time that an anime series has inspired me to watch the original film. Zeiram, the animation is actually a prequel to this film in which director Keita Amemiya tells the story of bounty hunter Iria's origins. Zeiram and Zeiram 2 occur later and are reprises of Iria's running battles with the cyborg-like Zeiram - robots powered by weird creatures that look like Noh masks and will eat anything including your dog.

In Zeiram 2, Iria and her 'assistant' Fujikuro are tracking down an ancient artifact called the Carmarite. Fujikuro betrays Iria knocks out her faithful computer friend Bob, leaving her facing some 50 combatants with only the help of an experimental cyborg helper who looks an awful lot like - you guessed it - Zeiram. After literally mowing down the bad guys, Zeiram goes out of control (bad programming, of course). Also involved are two of Iria's old friend, Kiyama and Tepphei, who are the Abbott and Costello of the electronic repair business.

What follows is the kind of delightful silliness that Amemiya is noted for - a hectic action plot that is full of comic crises and heroic stunts. Everyone, including Zeiram, get to ham it up with Power Ranger class stunts as the action shifts from temple to factory to shrine with impunity. If all you have seen before this film is the animation, which has a much more serious plot, it will take you a while to realize that all this vaudeville is intentional rather than bad acting.

Special effects, costumes, and sets are truly imaginative, reminiscent of Escher and Giger. The Zeiram cyborg in particular has as many tricks as a Swiss army knife. The truth is that the film is well crafted, even though its unconscionable silliness frequently obscures Amemiya's better moments. Zeiram 2 is purely a confection, it's hard not to like as long as you are careful not to take it seriously.

It's Fun
This is the sequel to the live action "Zeiram" (or "Zeram"). The special effects, fights, and costumes are better than the last movie, but the plot and characters (or lack of both) are kind of a let-down.

Now when comparing both live action "Zeiram" movies to the anime "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" I find the live action severely lacking in just about everything possible. Iria's reason's for going after Zeiram in the live action are reduced to money and survival, the whole revenge thing from the anime is left out. Fujikuro is turned into nothing but a bumbling, double-crossing kid. Also left out are Iria's computer partner Bob's origins, multiple characters, and any other planets besides Earth (Earth wasn't even in the anime).

However, the live action movies do have a plus side. Zeiram looks [good], especially in the first movie. And you can watch them half asleep and not miss much of a plot.

If you like live action movies like "Hakaider" and shows like "Kikaida" and the other Japanese hero series, go and get (buy/rent whatever) "Zeiram". If you like it, then get "Zeiram 2". Otherwise, you'll probably be let down.

silly but still entertaining
For those of you who remember watching "Iria: Zeriam the animation" anime... LOOK OUT! for the sequal is here! and oddly enough... it's live action!

I leaped at the oppertunity to see this simply because i knew it was going to be bad. If you're expecting the same kind of action and plot from the anime, don't, cuz this is totally different.

Iria and Fujikuro have been staying on earth collecting bounty. When Iria is sent off to bring back a robot Zeriam assistant, Fujikuro destroys her transport system only to discover she took the item which would have given him good money. SO he hijacks a friend of iria's and goes searching for her to steal it. Meanwhile the robot Zeriam goes haywire and starts assasinating everything in site. Now iria, Fujikuro, a groom and an electritian have to defeat Zeriam before he closes a ZONE and obliterates them all. Sound confusing yet? it gets better!

Now the acting isn't the highlight of the film, nor is the action (several times you can see the string holding them in the air). But what i was really amazed at was how they build suspence. The writers obviously knew what they were doing because the movie just builds and builds with problems. And when you think you've overcome ONE problem 4 more arise to take it's place. Despite the little budget, this movie does have a certain appeal to it. The directors even got around the special fx here and there and instead of having explosions and rapid scene cuts, we actually get a chance to watch the characters be themselves. Good rest points to the action to soon ensue.

If you don't care about cheezy special FX and don't mind rubber monster costumes then this is a good movie for you. If not, go buy the anime and be happy. For the rest of you, ENJOY!

not worth watching
I liked the original.. The script was better and the acting was more realistic.. Zeiram II is better in the sense of special effects but the story line and characters are lacking... In fact, at one point, I thought it was the PowerRangers all over again... All in all, I would purchase this movie ONLY as a last resort... or if you wanted to support live ANIME funding.... Otherwise, stick with the ANIME version....

Noh Theatre Monster
Zeiram 2 is the sequel to Zeram, (I don't know why "i" was dropped in the Fox Lorber release of the original, but "Zeiram" is the correct transliteration of the Japanese spelling of the title monster's name) a low-budget, charming science fiction/monster-in-the-rubber suit film directed by Amamiya Keita and starring supercool Moriyama Yuko. Endowed with a slightly bigger budget, the sequel is even more of a delirious fun. Moriyama returns, of course, and so does Zeiram, now wrapped in layers of body armor and heavy artillery.

I have to say Zeiram is a great monster. Its design is obviously inspired by noh theatre aesthetics, including the ultra-creepy, pasty, rouge-lipped noh mask face attached to a long, snakelike neck that serves as a feeding mechanism. This part of Zeiram devours chunks of whatever organic creature it encounters and manufactures a "capsule monster" out of its genetic material: shades of Ultra Seven! Every time Zeiram makes appearance it is accompanied in the soundtrack by rumbling male chorus and percussion, as if it is a supernatural presence in a noh play. The relationship between two bumbling electricians and Iria, the rogue investigator and arch-enemy to Zeiram, is also highly unusual in a science fiction setting, in that it is a genuine friendship (between male and female) developed from mutual admiration for each others' abilities and resourcefulness. Although these two guys, Kamiya and Teppei, are inserted in the series as kyogen (comic noh) figures, here they get to reveal different shades of their characters. All these human dimensions are completely missing in the anime version. (Who (...)needs to know about Iria's brother?)

Media Blaster's DVD transfer is generally good. I suspect that the source material was Japanese laserdisc, which tends to have little depth in black levels, so the resolution does suffer a bit during nighttime sequences in the last 10 minutes of the movie. You may have to adjust brightness and contrast levels of your TV set to get the best picture. However, no compression noise or artifact problems seem to be present, at least overtly noticeable ones. Subtitles are much better than usual, and English dubbing is pretty well done as well. Far superior to the original Fox Lorber edition on this count. However, it is disappointing that the "Making of Zeiram 2" featurette, a very enjoyable and personable account of low-budget science fiction filmmaking, is not available as an extra. It came free with the Japanese VHS, never mind laserdisc! Don't stint on the extras please! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Only the japanese...
Hanzo the man made of steel (and I really mean the whole man). He fights evil and corruption in Edo-Japan in his own ways. Untouchable as Eliott Ness, but with the very strange habit of tortureing Women with his... well... real big schlong. And of course torture leads to pleasure because Hanzo the Blade knows how to use his tool right. Yes, this is political uncorrect japanese Trash at it's best. A kind of japanese Shaft (even the funky score reminded me a little of Shaft), just a little bit naughtier... Don't even try to take it serious or you'd have a problem watching these movies. 3 Parts to the series (every one an own movie for its self), part 2 (this one) and part 3 are the better. Don't look one after the other in too short time, because the buildup is pretty similar to every movie.

interrogation has many sides
I have been trying to find out just how many of these films exist. I've seen 3 of them.. They combine all the familiar elements of the midieval japanese samurai (I don't have my Alain Silver guide handy) drama.. with some funny and very welcome twists.. The main character is a constable with a kind of rogue ethic, a Ronin cop, if you will, who holds corruption over his bosses heads so he can get his way...He also has a kind of rogue aesthetic.. especially in his interrogation techniques.. the 3 films I have seen start with him "conditioning" his sexual organ with various techniques which could only be described as masochistic.. but you see, this uh, tool, is his interrogation device, and he uses sex to interrogate the females in the particular case.. These are not porno movies, but rather a very wonderful Bawdy Samurai/Comedy Action Thriller Hybrid.. The tone is totally serious.. but it comes off hilarious.. especially his rube-goldbergian security devices that protect his house.. Please if anybody knows tell me where to get more of these films.. I'm definitely a fan.. ... Read more

Reviews (56)

There is something frightful in our midst!
Filmed way back in 1921, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is perhaps one of the oldest horror films ever made. As a viewer, I see this film as a macabre, magnificent work of art. It was probably intended to be that way, since director Robert Wiene was heavily inspired by the German Expressionist movement. With its skewed and handpainted scenery, crooked angles, looming shadows, and ghostly aura, this feature film is an Edvard Munch painting brought to life. More importantly, its simple yet terrifying plotline helped give birth to early cinematic horror, which would forever place Lon Chaney, Bela Legosi, and Boris Karloff on pedestals.
Here is the synopsis: A young man named Francis (Friedrich Feher) plays the narrator, opening his story at a carnival sideshow that opened in the town of Holstenwall. Francis and his best friend Alan (Hans Heinrich Von Twardowski) attended the show to witness a truly strange attraction: An aging scientist named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) unveils to an astounded audience a ghoulish sleepwalker named Cesare (Conrad Veidt), who the Doctor solely commands through the power of hypnotism. Under his control, Cesare awakens from his coffin-like box to prophesise people's fates. When an excited Alan asks Cesare, "How long shall I live?" he grimly utters, "The time is short. You die at dawn!" Meanwhile, the town police investigate a string of bizarre murders. Not surprisingly, Alan would end up becoming the killer's next victim!

Devastated by the sudden loss of his friend, Francis seeks aid from the town police. Together, they find clues linking the cold-blooded killings with Dr. Caligari's priceless freak of nature. In the film's latter half, Francis and the authorities read through the Doctor's notes and discover his most fiendish, insane ambition: The old man gleefully named himself after an 11th century monk who once toured across Northern Italy with a somnanbulist at his side. Dr. Caligari's studies reveal how he recruited poor Cesare from an insane asylum and forced him to commit acts of murder and terrorize innocent people! After the awful truth is exposed, justice prevails as the wicked Doctor is bound in a straitjacket and dragged away. Or is he?
I really love how Conrad Veidt's Cesare character is both terrifying and sympathetic. Although he basically wears a black bodysuit, his figure somehow provides the illusion of inhuman strength, like he was carved out of stone. However, that changes later on when Cesare breaks into the bedroom of Francis's betrothed Jane (Lil Dagover). In a state of torment, he raises the knife over his head and stops himself from stabbing the sleeping woman. In that instance, a viewer can realize that Cesare is only human, and that the Doctor is the true monster. The way actor Werner Krauss portrays him, by the way, is quite marvelous. He's clearly the manipulator of the story; a dangerously clever individual who tries desperately not to get caught. Finally, Friedrich Feher's Francis is a not a typical hero, but rather a traumatized young man seeking the truth; it's obvious that he's overcome with grief and driven almost mad. Did I say almost? As a participant in the movie's main action, Francis is both horrified and curious about the Doctor's motives.
This is a movie I definitely recommend to the openly artistic. The DVD is the perfect gift for Tim Burton fans!

The classic German Expressionist horror film of 1919
When we talk about the history of the "movies" it is "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" ("Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari") that has almost always represented the first prime example of the "cinema," where we treat films as art. This is the best example of German Expressionism with angular sets and exaggerated performances by the actors that represented the dementia of the title character. Werner Krauss is the mad doctor, who uses his somnambulist Ceasar (Conrad Veidt) from his carnival sideshow to do his evil deeds, with Lil Dagover is the damsel in distress. The film is framed by a rather clever plot device that turns the narrative upside down in the end, as a young man (Friedrich Feher) tells the story of Dr. Caligari's visit to the small German town of Holstenwall to an older one, as they sit together on a park bench. There is also a strong sense of how the film serves as a metaphor for the destruction of post-war Germany.

Whatever the films shortcomings, the classic status of this 1919 film directed by Robert Wiene is assured by the striking art direction. The abstract, expressionists designs provide severely angled corners, crooked lines, and objects highlighted by decorative stripes. If "Then Battleship Potemkin" opens us up as students of cinema to the possibilities about montage, then "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" does the same for mise-en-scene. The film also establishes many of the conventions of the horror film (e.g., the mad scientist, beauty and the beast), although, surprisingly enough, the basic storyline has never been remade.

Brilliant film but an explanation for all!
It has been rumored for years that when the producers set out to make The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari they intended to end the film with Caligari getting captured and no framing story. Wrong! A first draft of the film's script shows there was always intended to be a framing story. But the one that was first intended was different than the one presented on film. Originally Francis and Jane were supposed to be at a picnic years later and reminiscing about their days in the town when murderer Caligari showed up. This was changed to the looney bin frame story probably so authority woudn't be depicted quite so negatively. Agreed the film is brilliant and powerfully scarey in it's final execution (no pun intended).

A gothic omen
The cabinet was one of the most remarkable films of the german expressionism.
The bitter gaze about a hollow-eyed sleepwalker (Cesare) who commits murders underthe influence of Dr. Caligary was a clear methapor about what's going on in that dark times. After watching this film , please get the famous Edward Munch's painting titled The scream and establish the underground roads.
The hopeless and the horror are depicted in this movie with a clear message behind the score. Beware about the hidden demons in your mind .
Twelve years before the rise of Hitler, Caligari means obviously the word hypnotist who changes to Cesare in a murder; the anlogy is more than obvious. Don't you?
The world evidently was in another mood , but this warning call from a bizarre film concerned to a few people. Today we are capable after eighty five years , of feel the message.
Robert Wiene established a real pattern around the new possibilities of expression for the movies. He made The hands of Orlac also with Conrad Viet a legendary actor , and won too with that.
But Caligari shocked the destiny of a whole generation of directors (Howard Hawks in Scarface , for instance , Freaks of Tod Browning , Edgar Ullmer, Andre de Toth , James Whale's Frankenstein , and more recently Werner Herzog , Roger Corman or Lars von Triers ) to name just a few , but specially to a young english film maker called Alfred Hitchcock and another giant Orson Welles . If you remember the chase sequence in The third man under the streets of Vienna , or countless sequences employed as dramatic visuals resources and narrative devices of the English master , remember that Caligari was the sparking light.
A cul movie and one of the pioneers jewels of the german expressionism!

"special" edition? - how so?
I am a very ticked off customer... This is an excellent movie indeed, and I'll let the other reviews speak for themselves in that respect. My question is... how is it that a SPECIAL EDITION of a DVD (and not a cheap one, by the way! It's not like it only costed five bucks or something; I paid 17.39 for it) does not even let you WATCH the original movie??? I just received it, and I haven't opened it yet, because I plan on returning it, since from what the back of the DVD says, I'm pretty sure that's it's in ENGLISH ONLY, even though this is a GERMAN film.

I am so sick of Americans being so full of themselves! Would it kill us to be a little cultural for once? My god - how hard is it to have an option to watch it either in the original german, or in English? It's a DVD, for cripes sake! DVDs can easily be dubbed or subtitled in a million languages, so why not the original language of the film? I've seen the film on VHS before, but I wanted to see the original german, so I figured a "special edition" DVD would be the way to go, but apparently not. For all the good (or lack thereof) that this DVD was worth, I might as well have made a copy, for free, from the library VHS! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Political correctness confronts conscience and reality. . .
...this film leans on humor as an anti-Do your own thing spoof film moreso than does, say BLOW UP, the other anti-Do Your Own Thing film of the 60s ...

Scandalous as BLOW UP in many ways, this film chronicles a coming of age. DONT MISS IT. It is truly as valid in our own age as then.

The 60s didn't monopolize the phenomena peculiar to itself, to iself. It appears to have had a sturdy half-life that persists, in its effects, to our own day.

The main character is a twenty-four-year-old drama student. Her name is Lena. Not surprisingly, she is a left-winger in politics. She moves through phases. These are of sex, activism, yoga, vegetarianiasm, and non-violence. The director documents her gradual disillusionment. She learns of life this way; of the hip, the cool, the bourgeois, the conventional. Yet she does it with more humor than the photographer in BLOW UP does!

One scene in particualar seems to capture the humor and essence of the theme of the entire film. Lena is in the middle of a chat with a female friend. It is about politics. Wittily enough, the conversation changes abruptly. It turns into a conversation about masturbating with shower sprayers and vacuum cleaners.

I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW) was a controversial film in the 60s. It endured an obscenity trial here. The director was called in from Sweden to defend his piece.

When it was finally released it was a let down for some viewers. All expeted a sizzling sex film. Instead they got humor. It also featured anti-vietnam demonstrations. No doubt part some expected an anti-establishment film. The director had a different idea. He wanted to show Lena growing up, and learning about both sides of the coin, about different points of view. He ventures to show the follies of college-aged leftism, not just the pruderies and pigheadedness of right-wing fascism.

Lena gradually becomes some kind of enlightened , though she may resent it. She comes to see, no doubt, a few points of view besides her own, by the end of the film.

The movie itself was a milestone. It broke taboos. After I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW), the movies changed. Film actors took their clothes off more often in mainline Hollywood films. They had sex on the screen: so what. Is this necessarily a virtue ? Such a trend may only serve prurient interests and drives : even the most liberal among us must be honest enough, open-minded enough to admit that. Did this film do any more than THAT?

I think so.

I think it did do more. It broke more important taboos. IT SHOWED TO THE YOUNG THAT IT MAY NOT BE THE ESTABLISHMENT THAT NEEDS ALL THE EXAMINING. Would that things could be so simple!
Perhaps the generation of LSD suicides needed to become more introspective. They needed to examine themselves as much as they examined their 'leaders' and the bourgeois complacency around them.

This film broke the assumption that new blood always knows all things. I began to understand why I never heard leftists discussing this film, in spite of its alleged slant. Why would a left-wing leader, say, recommend or discuss this film? A film that suggests young, college-aged lef