Day: July 10, 2015

By Joe Bendel. Texarkana is hard to figure. Is it Texas or Arkansas? One town or two? Either way, you would think it was far too heavily armed to have a serial killer problem. Nevertheless, the “Phantom Killer” really did terrorize Texarkana for several months in 1946. There must have been a post-war shortage of ammunition. Eventually, the murders stopped, but strictly speaking, the case was never solved. In 1976, the so-called “Moonlight Murders” were rather controversially dramatized in Charles B. Pierce’s cult favorite slasher movie. The fascination and the killings continue in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s meta-homage pseudo-sequel (don’t call it a reboot) The Town that Dreaded Sundown, a Blumhouse production, which releases today on regular DVD.

So maybe the killer is still walking the streets of Texarkana. If so, what would he make of the burg’s annual Halloween drive-in screening of Pierce’s original Town that Dreaded Sunrise? Apparently, he rather resents it, judging from comments made to Jami Lerner and Corey Holland when he viciously attacks them during a moment of parked privacy. Holland quickly exits the picture, but the Phantom lets Lerner live in order to torment her like a cat with a mouse.

The killer quickly starts working his way through the murders in the 1976 film. However, Lerner is convinced she also must look to the archival case files from 1946 to discover the identity of the current murder. Of course, the local cops on both the Texas and Arkansas sides are clueless, but at least Texas Ranger Lone Wolf Morales inspires some confidence, just like Ben Johnson’s J.D. Morales, who was molded after the historical M.T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas.

There are times when the 2014 Town is surprisingly clever in the ways it engages with both the previous film and the real life Moonlight Murders. Unfortunately, a lot of good set-up is essentially wasted on a third act revelation that feels like no big deal. We are primed for something uber-meta, but get watered-down Scream elements instead.

Still, there is a vivid sense of place (much of the film was shot in Louisiana, but that’s close enough). Gomez-Rejon is often quite visually inventive in his approach to the material and cinematographer Michael Goi gives is all a dark glow that is eerie and somewhat Carpenter-esque. There is also plenty of fan service for Pierce partisans, including a trombone murder. Indeed, the film is often quite brutal, matching the tone set by its predecessor, so sensitive viewers should be warned.

Perhaps due to producer Ryan “American Horror Story” Murphy’s involvement, the new Town features an unusually accomplished cast for a slasher flick. Frankly, it is a pity Anthony Anderson does not have more screen time, because he is a drolly entertaining as the flamboyant Morales. In one of his final screen appearances, the late great Ed Lauter is also frustratingly under-employed as Sheriff Underwood. Addison Timlin is perfectly fine as Lerner, but it is not exactly a deep, empowering role. However, Denis O’Hare undeniably steals his scenes as the meta Charles Pierce, Jr.

It is easy to see why Pierce’s film freaked people out in 1976. It came out when many residents still recalled the Moonlight Murders and it predated the masked Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise by over three years. Pierce’s hooded Phantom might have also had further historical resonance for viewers, especially in Texas and Arkansas. Gomez-Rejon’s take starts out quite creepily, but it deflates late in the third act. (Still, it is a good deal more uplifting than his latest film: Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Oh, the horror. Oh, the humanity.) Recommended for hardcore slasher fans and Pierce loyalists, The Town that Dreaded Sundown releases this week on DVD.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on July 10th, 2015 at 3:57pm.

By Joe Bendel. Lee Hwan will confirm all your suspicions about closers who choke in the ninth inning. He really was taking payoffs from gamblers. Once the scandal broke, the only work he can find is with the loan-sharking gangsters whom his accomplice owed big time. It turns out the kid can throw a punch as well as he can hurl a baseball (he never really had any control problems, mind you). However, when the outfit known as Emperor Capital expands into waterfront real estate, the double-crosses start coming like Mariano fastball-cutters in Park Sang-jun’s For the Emperor, which releases this week on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms from Well Go USA.

Lee Hwan happened to be picking up his take from his latest blown save in a seedy gambling den right when the cops raided it. Although he was let off with a wrist-slapping, he reputation is shot. He also forfeited a large bag of illicit cash. To pay off a debt he inherited from his front-man, Lee Hwan collects from a hard-headed has-been gangster for Jung Sang-ha, Emperor Capital’s CEO. As we know from the fantastically violent prologue, Lee Hwan has a knack for this kind of work.

A one-off quickly turns into a full time gig for Lee Hwan, with his tenacious street-fighting chops and knowledge of sports betting propelling him up the ladder. Soon, he secretly takes up with Madame Cha, the hostess of the Emperor’s private club, who is up to her eye-lashes in debt to the group. Jung is not exactly thrilled with their relationship and his lieutenants are even less enthusiastic about all the slack he cuts Lee Hwan. However, the former jock is in over his head trying to navigate the schemes Jung and Han-deuk, the sinister chairman are hatching between them.

There is also a whole lot of knife fighting. We are talking mega-gritty, super-bloody street brawling and some of the best tenement hallway melees since the original The Raid. For action fans, these extended sequences are like watching ballet, but for the squeamish, they could cause blackouts and short-term memory loss.

Lee Min-ki (who finished work on Emperor six months before commencing his mandatory military service) brings an erratic, slightly unstable sensibility to Lee Hwan that works well in context. He also generates some heat with the otherwise ice cold Lee Tae-im in sex scenes that are unusually steamy for mainstream Korean cinema. However, character actor Park Sung-woong (Tabloid Truth, Man on High Heels, etc.) just towers over the film as the smooth but ruthless Jung.

Granted, For the Emperor does not have the sweep of Nameless Gangster or New World, but it has hundreds of thugs getting hacked and slashed. The character of Jung also offers a few interesting wrinkles to distinguish him from the pack. Regardless, the action is most definitely the reason to see Emperor. Recommended for genre fans with all due meathead approval, For the Emperor is now available for home viewing from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 10th, 2015 at 3:57pm.

By Joe Bendel. The Japanese dirty movie business has a reputation for being more extreme than its American counterparts, but its boundaries with the legit entertainment world are more porous. Many Japanese pornstars become national celebrities and some even crossover to the mainstream. After helming who knows how many adult features, director Kei Morikawa has done just that with Makeup Room, a mainstream film about the porn industry that screenedas part of the 2015 Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film.

By Japanese Adult Video (AV) standards, this will be a large-scale shoot. Kyoko will have five actresses to makeup and periodically retouch. There will also be some guys in the video, but nobody seems to care what they look like. She is supposed to have an assistant, but the flake never makes it to the set. It is just one of many things that will go wrong, but somehow Kyoko keeps it all together.

We first meet Sugar and Saki, two dependable “specialty” players, who are distressed by the number of lines they must memorize. To further complicate matters, they must switch parts when Sugar’s conspicuous back tattoo disqualifies her from playing the “Lolita” role. Eventually, the star attraction Masami arrives, immediately crashing in the makeup chair. Later, they are joined by the enthusiastic veteran Masako, and a shy ingénue known as Matsuko until the studio comes up with her permanent stage name.

Adapting his stage play, Morikawa keeps the action anchored solely in the makeup room, but he makes a point of letting us hear what happens on the set. He embraces the inherent staginess to emphasize the extreme difference between the two rooms. When the actresses are on-camera, they are sex objects, but when they sit in Kyoko’s chair, they are real women, with their own very particular insecurities and neuroses.

The actresses are all played by real life AV stars and they are each terrific in very different ways. Regardless of the quality of their prior film work, they can act. In fact, Beni Ito and Kanami Osako are shockingly moving as Saki (a part-time prostitute struggling to catch on in the AV business) and Masami (the young diva dealing with the repercussions of her notoriety), respectively. Nanami Kawakami also displays first rate comedic chops as the brash (and still very keen) Masako. Nobody takes it over the top or resorts to shtick, least of all mainstream indie thesp Aki Morita as Kyoko. She gives a wonderfully sensitive and suggestive performance that reveals so little about her character in practical terms, it will have viewers creating their own backstories for her.

Makeup Room compellingly humanizes the AV actresses, but it does not glamorize their business. Except for maybe Masako, nobody is enjoying this career. Some seem to think it is a “sex-positive” film or whatever, but if this empowering, you wouldn’t want to see exploitative. However, it is all quite honest, and messy, and very human. Even though you never see, you will clearly hear, so viewer discretion is advised. Recommended surprisingly highly for mature audiences, Makeup Room screened as part of this year’s Japan Cuts.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 10th, 2015 at 3:57pm.

By Joe Bendel. Coffee is the one drink that goes equally well with first dates and break-ups. As the setting for a Taiwanese rom com, a coffeehouse is inviting, accessible, and not too expensive to render on-screen. Best of all, if the film is a hit, the fictional brand can be licensed to a brick-and-mortar establishment. Such was the case with Chiang Chin-lin’s Café. Waiting. Love., which screened as part of the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival.

You might think you do not like rom-coms, but CWL, will still charm you silly. It all starts with the relentlessly cute Siying, a college freshman, who is nearly flattened by a bus, but is saved by a handsome mystery man. Naturally quite smitten with him, she takes a part-time job at the titular coffeehouse he frequently patronizes, usually with a bored looking bombshell. Much to her frustration, Siying inadvertently catches the eye of A-Tuo, a seven-year senior, who has developed a scandalous reputation due to all the outrageous bets he has lost. He will soon be liberated from the roller-skates and bikinis that have made him such a sight on campus, but he must still carry around a well preserved head of cabbage.

Adapting his own novel for the screen, Giddens Ko assembles an eccentric cast of dozens, including Brother Bao, a former actor known for gangster movies who now mediates mob disputes, Siying’s roommate A Zhu, who aspires to join the Iron Head Kung Fu club (which is exactly what you suspect it is), and A Bu-si, the sardonic barista who once dated A-Tuo, before coming out of the closet. In addition, there are frequent flashbacks, generous helpings of magical realism, and demitasse cup after demitasse cup of delicious looking coffee confections.

Evidently, Taiwan is the place to go for romantic comedies. Like Hou Chi-jan’s When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep, CWL notches all the rom-com boxes, but it is wildly inventive visually and its narrative is considerably more sophisticated than the boy-meets-girl-botches-it-up-and-then-patches-things-up Hollywood formula.

CWL also boasts an infrequent screen appearance from the technically-still-retired-unless-she-feels-like-making-a-film Vivian Chow, who is absolutely smoldering and heartbreaking as the café proprietress. She is also perfectly matched by Yuan Chen as her younger self in flashbacks. As our POV character, Siying, Vivian Sung is enormously earnest and expressive. Happily, there is nothing shticky or clichéd about Megan Lai’s turn as the acerbic and reserved A Bu-si. In contrast, Bruce Lu-si Bu relentlessly tries to endear himself to the audience, much like a lovesick puppy, but his A-Tuo probably works better for the women in the audience.

CWL is propelled by a goofy sense of humor and a highly caffeinated energy level, but when Chiang and Chow lower the emotional boom, you will find yourself blubbering like a baby. Maybe the most satisfying “pure” romantic comedy since Hou’s Sheep, Café. Waiting. Love. is highly recommended for romantics and sentimental java drinkers when it screens this Thursday (7/9) at the SVA Theatre, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 10th, 2015 at 3:17pm.