Why am I sullying my eyes with this??....*sighs*...oh well, lets get on with it....
The Left Behind trilogy of films is a series of Christian action movies (yes, you read that right....whoda thunk it?, mind you, at least it makes a change from the usual "supernatural horror" fayre), based on the first two of the bestselling (seriously) series of books written by evangelical christian authors Tim Lalley and Jerry Jenkins (theres 16 books in all, written betwixt 1995 and 2007, guess there must be a big demand for this sort of thing).
Made by Canadian production company "Cloud 10 Productions", a film company specialising in christian movies, the first film enjoyed a cinematic release, although the sequels only managed direct to DVD releases.
The films were all given scathing reviews on their release, described in such terms as "a shambling mess" and "..being full of ridiculous dialogue and hammy acting" and "bargain basement special effects", they even attracted criticism from Christians, as the films, as well as the books they are based on, lean towards anti Catholicism, xenophobia and in some cases, outright racism due to them being presented from the viewpoint that all other religions and alldenominations of Christianity apart from protestant dispensationalist evangelism are inherently evil.
There was also widespread condemnation of the films due to their staunchly US/Israel centric political message, as well as pandering to "illuminati-esque/New World Order" conspiracy theorists.
Evangelical christian apologist Kirk Cameron stars as Cameron "Buck" Williams, an intrepid reporter who earned the nickname "Buck" due to his tendency to "buck the conventions" of reporters keeping themselves out of harms way. Over the course of the films, Buck goes from being agnostic/atheist to becoming a born again christian after witnessing the "rapture" event and the beginning of the "tribulation". He later becomes a founding member of the "Tribulation Force", a group of christian preachers determined to convert as many people to christianity in order for their souls to be allowed into heaven after the final battle between Jesus and the antichrist.
Plot Synopsies:
Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
"Buck" Cameron is filming a story in Israel when a ridiculously massive ground and air attack force launches an all out attack on Jerusalem from across the Syrian border. As he rushes out into the maelstrom with his camera to film a live report, all the attacking enemy aircraft begin exploding and falling from the sky, despite the Israeli defence forces being completely taken by surprise and unable to make any kind of counter attack.
Later, as he flies to London, the Rapture event takes place and one third of the earths adult population (mostly nice, white protestant christians by the way) and all of the worlds children simply vanish, causing much concern and calamity worldwide.
In the Chaos, a Romainian politician, Nicolae Carpathia (oh yeah cos like thats not a reference to Dracula right?) is elected to the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, and, building on his previous efforts to unite Europe under one flag, he proceeds to do the same with the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Buck has learned of a secret multi national plan to rebuild the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the completion of which would mark the second coming of Jesus, because as it turns out, everything that has happened thus far is in fact a sign of the end times, as foretold in the bible.
Upon learning this, and learning that Mr. Carpathia is in fact the antichrist, who has come to bring about seven years of tribulation upon those not deemed worthy of entry to heaven, Buck becomes a born again christian, and alongside his love interest and a few other people, including a formerly faithless preacher, forms the "Tribulation Force", A group of militant evangelical preachers who are determined to save those who were not deemed worthy to enter heaven by God during the rapture by converting them to christianity.
Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force (2002)
One week has passed since the rapture event, and the world has descended into chaos.
Most of the US is under martial law due to wide scale rioting and looting, and the suicide rate has increased dramatically.
Over the course of this film, Buck manages to infiltrate the antichrists organisation using his position as a well respected journalist to work his way into Carpathias confidence, where he learns more about his plans for world domination.
The "Trib Force" works in secret to promote christian worship amongst the remaining peoples of earth by distributing bibles and giving sermons telling the truth about Carpathia, their cause is given a boost through the assistance of a Jewish holy man named Ben-Judah.
The film climaxes with both Carpathia and Ben-Judah giving sermons to the world at Temple mount in Israel, however as Carpathia tries to interfere with Ben-Judahs sermon, Buck stops him by damaging his jamming equipment.
Left Behind 3: World at War (2005)
18 months have passed since Ben-Judahs sermon on the mount, and Carpathia has consolidated his power and created the "Global Community" as a successor to the United Nations, with himself as "Supreme Potentate".
The Trib force has continued working in secret to oppose his rule, but they are powerless to prevent the start of world war 3, which had been engineered by the Antichrist in order to cleanse the world of any remaining threats to his power.
To try and put a stop to this, the Trib force attempts to assassinate Nicolae Carpathia, however his position as Antichrist prevents any of their attempts to kill him from succeeding.
The film ends with the GC building lying in ruins, and Carpathia walking away from it completely unharmed.
As "Action films", the Left Behind trilogy is pretty bad, mostly hampered by low budget effects, but as films in general, the whole trilogy is an unholy triumvirate of horrible acting, plot holes, convenient events and many, many cringe worthy scenes, mostly involving peoples conversions to christianity, especially Bucks conversion, which takes place in a toilet as he sits on the floor sobbing and begins begging for divine guidance, which he gets simply by looking in a mirror.
I cant say i recommend these films in any way, shape or form, and thats not me talking as an atheist, thats me talking as someone who likes to actually be entertained by media, as opposed to actually feeling physical pain induced by having faeces forcefully rammed into my eyes and ears.
The worst thing about these films is that quite literally the entire plot development simply revolves around random events that the main protagonists react to, and then credit it to God in their self righteous smug manner.
You can also tell that Kirk Cameron felt a lot more comfortable in his role after his characters toilet conversion, as it allowed him to extrude his normal air of smugness like what he usually does whenever he and his chum Ray comfort appear on TV together to preach the good word and make bizarre and highly dubious claims about bananas.
I must say though, that actor Gordon Currie's portrayal of the Antichrist is a real pleasure to watch, as he makes the character really feel like the supremely evil Machiavellian villain that he is supposed to be , albeit one with supernatural powers.
All in all, the Left Behind movies feel like little more than a series of low budget TV movies, if you're a bit of a masochist you could watch them, but don't be expecting to get much by way of enjoyment out of them.
I give them 3 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Dystopiarama! 2 - Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film based on Ray Bradburys 1953 dystopian sci-fi novel of the same name.
The film, although not a direct translation of the book, manages to take the storyline as a whole and improve on it in some places.
One particularly clever bit of cinematography is that at no point during the film, other than the occasional glimpses of books found by the firemen, do you see anything in written form, even the films titles and credits are spoken by an off screen narrator, and on the odd occasion where any of the characters read from books, they always speak the words out loud.
Set in an unspecified future time (which looks remarkably like what people in the 60s view of what the world would look like in the 21st century, with futuristic monorail trains being there alongside big clunky 60s pieces of electronic equipment) the film stars German actor Oskar Werner in the role of Guy Montag, a "Fireman" who unlike the fire fighters (theres no political correctness in this future time either...thank fuck) of today, actually start fires rather than put them out.
You see, in this bizarre pseudo futuristic world of tomorrow, all books and forms of written communication have been outlawed by a oppressive government, simply because they can be used to promote ideas about rebellion or contain information which in contrary to the carefully crafted propaganda and revisionist history they allow.
For entertainment, the state actively encourages people to watch mind numbingly banal television programs, inviting friends round to watch TV together, not only that but the people are allowed access to a staggering array of harmful recreational drugs, many of which they don't even know the names for, simply referring to them by the colour the tablets are.
Guy is quite happy in his job, and his station master has him tipped for promotion because he has been doing such a good job in burning books and rooting out people who collect and preserve illegal libraries, however all this contentedness gets turned on its head when one day whilst riding the train home from work he strikes up a conversation with Clarisse, a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to his wife (Julie Christie in a dual role), except that unlike his wife, Clarisse actually has the zest of life about her, where his wife is content to just laze around their home all day watching TV and taking various drugs.
After a few conversations with her, Clarisse asks Guy about his opinion on books, which at first he dismisses as being "just so much rubbish that we don't need any more", but he soon becomes curious, and from that point on he finds himself keeping one or two books whenever he finds any while he is at work, but he finally comes to love the written word when he sees a woman immolate herself after he and his fire crew raid her home and find it packed to the rafters with illegal reading materials, thus he begins to lose interest in his boring life and begins expanding his mind by reading various pieces of philosophy, poetry and fiction.
As I said, the film is very cleverly made, and uses familiar cinematic techniques in new and bizarre ways, such as rewinding the film so the firemen slide UP the fireman's pole instead of down it, which would normally look silly but for some reason in this film it works so well with the bizarre and surreal world the film creates.
They would never be able to make a film like this now, simply because it would quickly degenerate into a series of CGI explosions and hidden messages about terrorism, and Guy Montag, would be some sort of confused emo-esque character with some defining element of tragedy tacked into his back story, rather than the quiet unassuming man he is as played by Werner.
This is a very, very good film which contains a lot of commentary which is still relevant today about such matters as the "dumbing down" of western culture, the almost militant rise of anti-intellectualism in recent years and the problems with simply obeying what someone else says without question.
The film, although not a direct translation of the book, manages to take the storyline as a whole and improve on it in some places.
One particularly clever bit of cinematography is that at no point during the film, other than the occasional glimpses of books found by the firemen, do you see anything in written form, even the films titles and credits are spoken by an off screen narrator, and on the odd occasion where any of the characters read from books, they always speak the words out loud.
Set in an unspecified future time (which looks remarkably like what people in the 60s view of what the world would look like in the 21st century, with futuristic monorail trains being there alongside big clunky 60s pieces of electronic equipment) the film stars German actor Oskar Werner in the role of Guy Montag, a "Fireman" who unlike the fire fighters (theres no political correctness in this future time either...thank fuck) of today, actually start fires rather than put them out.
You see, in this bizarre pseudo futuristic world of tomorrow, all books and forms of written communication have been outlawed by a oppressive government, simply because they can be used to promote ideas about rebellion or contain information which in contrary to the carefully crafted propaganda and revisionist history they allow.
For entertainment, the state actively encourages people to watch mind numbingly banal television programs, inviting friends round to watch TV together, not only that but the people are allowed access to a staggering array of harmful recreational drugs, many of which they don't even know the names for, simply referring to them by the colour the tablets are.
Guy is quite happy in his job, and his station master has him tipped for promotion because he has been doing such a good job in burning books and rooting out people who collect and preserve illegal libraries, however all this contentedness gets turned on its head when one day whilst riding the train home from work he strikes up a conversation with Clarisse, a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to his wife (Julie Christie in a dual role), except that unlike his wife, Clarisse actually has the zest of life about her, where his wife is content to just laze around their home all day watching TV and taking various drugs.
After a few conversations with her, Clarisse asks Guy about his opinion on books, which at first he dismisses as being "just so much rubbish that we don't need any more", but he soon becomes curious, and from that point on he finds himself keeping one or two books whenever he finds any while he is at work, but he finally comes to love the written word when he sees a woman immolate herself after he and his fire crew raid her home and find it packed to the rafters with illegal reading materials, thus he begins to lose interest in his boring life and begins expanding his mind by reading various pieces of philosophy, poetry and fiction.
As I said, the film is very cleverly made, and uses familiar cinematic techniques in new and bizarre ways, such as rewinding the film so the firemen slide UP the fireman's pole instead of down it, which would normally look silly but for some reason in this film it works so well with the bizarre and surreal world the film creates.
They would never be able to make a film like this now, simply because it would quickly degenerate into a series of CGI explosions and hidden messages about terrorism, and Guy Montag, would be some sort of confused emo-esque character with some defining element of tragedy tacked into his back story, rather than the quiet unassuming man he is as played by Werner.
This is a very, very good film which contains a lot of commentary which is still relevant today about such matters as the "dumbing down" of western culture, the almost militant rise of anti-intellectualism in recent years and the problems with simply obeying what someone else says without question.
God Only Knows!:- Constantine (2005)
Constantine is a 2005 supernatural horror flick based on the popular DC/Vertigo comic "Hellblazer".
Centred around the exploits of the demon hunter/exorcist John Constantine, the film tells the story of a plot by supernatural beings to bring about the end of the world or something along those lines (the story itself is actually based on a few different story arcs from the comic which have been amalgamated together to form a new but similar plot line).
Keanu Reeves, still basking in his post Matrix glory, stars as Constantine himself, bringing to the role his usual wooden performance style which oddly enough seems to fit this role somewhat well, being as that Constantine is a bit standoffish with anyone he meets and always operates according to his own agenda.
Shia LeBeouf provides some sidekick action in the form of Chas Kramer, and once again old Shia manages to play him in the exact same way he has played every other character he has ever been cast as, namely as a goofy pseudo-teenager with a bag full of wisecracks and over the top over reactions to things (but hey,the kids can relate to that!- KER-CHING!).
Tilda Swinton does her usual aloof performance in the role of Gabriel, an androgynous half demon/angel whose only real role in the plot is to basically be a complete asshole (and show the world her hideous bunions).
Rachel Weisz manages to cram in TWO roles in this film, firstly as Isabella, a devout catholic woman incarcerated in a mental hospital because she hears voices and sees things (SPOILER - she dies right at the beginning) and secondly as Angela, Isabelles twin sister and a hard nosed bible thumping cop who eventually ends up being both a love interest (That ones for the girls, cos you gots to make it a date movie) and a third leg in Constantines attempts to destroy all evil.
Yeah, its not sounding good thus far is it?, well, oddly enough, I do actually like this film, mainly because the story is quite entertaining once you get into it. There are other characters in the film, including a memorable and brilliantly acted appearance by Peter Stromare as Satan, but other than that all the secondary characters end up falling straight into the category of "exposition generators" or "cannon fodder" (mostly cannon fodder).
The plot itself is the usual "Good v Evil" type affair, but given the modern slant in which none of the characters fit into the usual "hero" or "villain" archetypes because as we all know, everyone has feels and wants to be hugged/get on better with their parents/wants to get laid etc...
Constantine spends the entire film trying to unravel a plot by a mysterious supernatural being who intends to bring about hell on earth by breaking "the rules" (an agreement set up between God and Satan which expressly forbid supernatural beings from direct interference in human affairs, you know, because he works in mysterious ways and all that shit) and directly influencing events which will lead to a doorway to hell being opened allowing the demon armies of hell to pour forth on to the earth and do horrid things to humans and so on.
Curiously enough, although Satan gets off his rotund red backside and makes an appearance in the plot, the almighty himself phones his contribution in (our God is an awesome God!...*sigh*, although apologists would probably say that as God is perfect, he refuses to break the rules of engagement, the theocractical arguments against that pertaining to this work of celluloid fiction are a discussion for another time).
So to sum up, Constantine is not very good on the first watch, as the intertwining plot lines can make for some difficulty in enjoyment, however on subsequent watches the film starts to grow on you, and not in a bad way because at heart is is nothing more than a simple but enjoyable enough action film with some religious elements thrown in to make the story more interesting and relatable.
One thing i will note of this film though, and this also applies to most films with religious overtones that are set in the modern age, is that they all seem to assume that Catholicism is the only interpretation of Christianity worth a damn...jus sayin' :)
I give it 7 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Centred around the exploits of the demon hunter/exorcist John Constantine, the film tells the story of a plot by supernatural beings to bring about the end of the world or something along those lines (the story itself is actually based on a few different story arcs from the comic which have been amalgamated together to form a new but similar plot line).
Keanu Reeves, still basking in his post Matrix glory, stars as Constantine himself, bringing to the role his usual wooden performance style which oddly enough seems to fit this role somewhat well, being as that Constantine is a bit standoffish with anyone he meets and always operates according to his own agenda.
Shia LeBeouf provides some sidekick action in the form of Chas Kramer, and once again old Shia manages to play him in the exact same way he has played every other character he has ever been cast as, namely as a goofy pseudo-teenager with a bag full of wisecracks and over the top over reactions to things (but hey,the kids can relate to that!- KER-CHING!).
Tilda Swinton does her usual aloof performance in the role of Gabriel, an androgynous half demon/angel whose only real role in the plot is to basically be a complete asshole (and show the world her hideous bunions).
Rachel Weisz manages to cram in TWO roles in this film, firstly as Isabella, a devout catholic woman incarcerated in a mental hospital because she hears voices and sees things (SPOILER - she dies right at the beginning) and secondly as Angela, Isabelles twin sister and a hard nosed bible thumping cop who eventually ends up being both a love interest (That ones for the girls, cos you gots to make it a date movie) and a third leg in Constantines attempts to destroy all evil.
Yeah, its not sounding good thus far is it?, well, oddly enough, I do actually like this film, mainly because the story is quite entertaining once you get into it. There are other characters in the film, including a memorable and brilliantly acted appearance by Peter Stromare as Satan, but other than that all the secondary characters end up falling straight into the category of "exposition generators" or "cannon fodder" (mostly cannon fodder).
The plot itself is the usual "Good v Evil" type affair, but given the modern slant in which none of the characters fit into the usual "hero" or "villain" archetypes because as we all know, everyone has feels and wants to be hugged/get on better with their parents/wants to get laid etc...
Constantine spends the entire film trying to unravel a plot by a mysterious supernatural being who intends to bring about hell on earth by breaking "the rules" (an agreement set up between God and Satan which expressly forbid supernatural beings from direct interference in human affairs, you know, because he works in mysterious ways and all that shit) and directly influencing events which will lead to a doorway to hell being opened allowing the demon armies of hell to pour forth on to the earth and do horrid things to humans and so on.
Curiously enough, although Satan gets off his rotund red backside and makes an appearance in the plot, the almighty himself phones his contribution in (our God is an awesome God!...*sigh*, although apologists would probably say that as God is perfect, he refuses to break the rules of engagement, the theocractical arguments against that pertaining to this work of celluloid fiction are a discussion for another time).
So to sum up, Constantine is not very good on the first watch, as the intertwining plot lines can make for some difficulty in enjoyment, however on subsequent watches the film starts to grow on you, and not in a bad way because at heart is is nothing more than a simple but enjoyable enough action film with some religious elements thrown in to make the story more interesting and relatable.
One thing i will note of this film though, and this also applies to most films with religious overtones that are set in the modern age, is that they all seem to assume that Catholicism is the only interpretation of Christianity worth a damn...jus sayin' :)
I give it 7 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Monday, 15 July 2013
God Only Knows!:- Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 film based off of the book of the same name which was published in 1967.
A Horror/Mystery film at heart (its surprising how most films with a religious theme tend to fall in to either mystery, horror , or a combination of the two catagories) , the story of an ordinary young married couple just starting out in life takes a few rather sinister twists as the plot advances, culminating in a rather disturbing and not terribly happy ending.
Mia Farrow stars as Rosemary Woodhouse, a pretty but somewhat naive young woman who alongside her husband, moves into an apartment block in downtown New York.
Rosemary's husband, Guy (played by John Cassavetes) is a struggling young actor who is waiting for his big break, and thus as a couple they don't really have much money between them, but, they decide to settle down and start a family nonetheless.
The other residents of the apartment block, mostly elderly couples, seem to take great delight in having the young couple living there, and busy themselves with "helping" the newlyweds out in any way they can, which annoys Rosemary as she sees their help as interference. Guy dismisses her concerns and says that the old folk are just being friendly, and points out that in all fairness, they could use the help.
Things take a strange turn when not long after Guy finally gets his break by securing a part in a big budget Broadway production. On the night that Guy and Rosemary attempt to conceive the baby that they had planned for, Rosemary has a vivid dream in which she finds herself being raped by a horrifying monster. She wakes up screaming but Guy manages to calm her down.
Not long after, Rosemary finds that she is pregnant, and once again, the elderly residents clamour round to provide assistance by giving her "vitamin drinks" and advice about coping with pregnancy, and, although she initially follows their advice, she begins to get worried when she starts feeling ill so on the advice of her doctor, she stops taking any of the vitamins etc that the elderly folk give her, although things suddenly begin to get more sinister when Rosemary's doctor dies in mysterious circumstances and is replaced by a doctor who advises her the exact opposite of the previous one.
Rosemary eventually gives birth but unfortunately for her, the baby is far from what she was expecting....
Mia Farrow delivers a brilliant performance as the young and naive Rosemary, and it is a pleasure to see her character rapidly learn the harsh truths of the world that surrounds her.
The other characters of the film, who are pretty much nothing but interchangeable support characters, John Cassavetes included, provide the much needed and numerous "prods" required to advance the story, although special mention has to go to the characters of Minnie and Roman Castavete, whose eccentric performances bely their sinister motives throughout the piece.
To sum up, Rosemary's Baby is a finely crafted piece of film which has often been imitated but rarely bettered, and although both the original book and this film did spawn sequels, none of them were as popular or as well liked as the original.
I give this film 9 sacrificial lambs out of 10
Sunday, 14 July 2013
God Only Knows!:- "The Sin Eater" (2003)
Kicking off a short season of films with a religious theme:-
"The Sin Eater" , also released under the rather ambiguous title "The Order", Is a 2003 Religious/Mystery/Horror film Starring the late Heath Ledger, Peter Weller, Mark Addy and a slew of other people, none of which Ive ever heard of.
The film itself is strangely categorised as a "mystery-horror" type film, although I'm not quite sure where the horror element comes into it, and as for the mystery portion, well, its not a very good or surprising one is all I'm going to say, just to spare those of you that haven't seen it from moaning about spoilers.
The plot is fairly simplistic, a young priest from a dying priestly order which concerns itself with banishing ghosts, demons and other such things that the Catholic Church now considers embarrassing finds that his mentor and surrogate father figure has died under mysterious circumstances, and during the course of his investigations, he finds out that a conspiracy involving the upper echelons of the holy see has a lot to answer for, especially when he runs across something thought only to exist in times past turns up in the 21st century.
Heath Ledger stars as Alex Bernier, the principal character of the piece , and he pulls it off quite well, sure, Alex ain't no Joker, but at this point in his career, old Heath hadn't really been in too many films, much less where he was the headliner.
Peter Weller puts in a good performance as the enigmatic Cardinal Driscoll, proving that even though he generally doesn't appear in many films, he can still deliver a good performance.
Mark Addy provides a good effort as Alex's sidekick, the Irish priest "Thomas Garrett", although for some really odd reason the scriptwriters decided to permeate his dialogue with the phrase "spaghetti-O", which although intended to act as a friendly nickname for Alex, instead ends up just being annoying and sticking out like a sore thumb.
The storyline, to me at least, seems to be a little rushed in places, but does manage to remain coherent enough so that you don't get lost along the way, although some elements of plot development seem to be a bit extraneous, for example the exposition about Mara's background, seem like they are leftovers from an earlier and much more ambitious script draft that were somehow missed when the dialogue was being trimmed down.
Dialogue wise, some of the scenes, particularly ones featuring the character Mara, are very wooden, its clear that Ledger and the actress playing Mara didn't have much chemistry as they exchange pieces of romantic speech in a very awkward manner.
For what it is though, "The Sin Eater" isn't a bad film, but its by no means a good one. At the box office it performed badly, and reviews of it generally tend towards the middling, its only real point of notoriety came from complaints received by 20th Century Fox about its content and depiction of the Catholic Church.
I give it 7 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Urotsukidoji V: The Final Chapter
Urotsukidoji V: The Final Chapter (1 episode, OAV, 1996)
This single episode OAV pretty much marks the end of the "original" Urotsukidoji saga, however due to various problems with production, it really doesnt do it very well at all.
100 years have passed since Osaka castle was consecrated as the place for the rebirth of the Chojin into our world, however 75 years ago, Amano Jyaku was tricked into believing the Chojin had come early in response to the birth of the Kyo-O. In fact, the Chojin that sent Amano Jyaku to Tokyo was in fact a normal demon in disguise (all of this is explained in flashback) , and when the Kyo-O was brought to it, it attempted to rape her,in order to bring her under its control, but was destroyed after the Kyo-O realised it was a fake.
The real Chojin is reborn and assumes the form of an androgynous human, possessing characteristics and genitalia of both, which it changes at will, and it sets about destroying the world, starting with resurrecting its father Nagumo in his destructor Demon form (him having been killed at the end of the third part when the Kyo-O released its full power) .
Amano Jyaku, Megumi and the now released Akemi all try and stop the Chojin from destroying everything, but the Chojin proves it is every bit the super being by thwarting their every attempt.
This film is a pretty horrid mish-mash of bits of unused footage left over from Urotsukidoji III, as well as reused footage from the first two films, as well as some hastily made and really low quality bits of "filler", all jammed in together alongside some original animation created for this film before its original production was halted. As such, the film is little more than one massive plot hole which sort of brings the saga to an end, but then fucks this up by having it end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which has to date not been resolved, and more than likely never will be.
There are only really two scenes which stand out in this film, both of which were newly created.
the first one is the birth of the Chojin, in which Akemi basically masturbates herself until she gives birth, and the second scene in which the Chojin rapes Megumi, using both its male and female sex organs to complete a spell which it uses to resurrect Nagumo.
This is easilly the most forgettable part of the Urotsukidoji saga, unfortunately though as it forms the last entry in the "classic" series, it is all we will be getting.
1 very limp tentacle up, which really took a hell of a lot of effort.
This single episode OAV pretty much marks the end of the "original" Urotsukidoji saga, however due to various problems with production, it really doesnt do it very well at all.
100 years have passed since Osaka castle was consecrated as the place for the rebirth of the Chojin into our world, however 75 years ago, Amano Jyaku was tricked into believing the Chojin had come early in response to the birth of the Kyo-O. In fact, the Chojin that sent Amano Jyaku to Tokyo was in fact a normal demon in disguise (all of this is explained in flashback) , and when the Kyo-O was brought to it, it attempted to rape her,in order to bring her under its control, but was destroyed after the Kyo-O realised it was a fake.
The real Chojin is reborn and assumes the form of an androgynous human, possessing characteristics and genitalia of both, which it changes at will, and it sets about destroying the world, starting with resurrecting its father Nagumo in his destructor Demon form (him having been killed at the end of the third part when the Kyo-O released its full power) .
Amano Jyaku, Megumi and the now released Akemi all try and stop the Chojin from destroying everything, but the Chojin proves it is every bit the super being by thwarting their every attempt.
This film is a pretty horrid mish-mash of bits of unused footage left over from Urotsukidoji III, as well as reused footage from the first two films, as well as some hastily made and really low quality bits of "filler", all jammed in together alongside some original animation created for this film before its original production was halted. As such, the film is little more than one massive plot hole which sort of brings the saga to an end, but then fucks this up by having it end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which has to date not been resolved, and more than likely never will be.
There are only really two scenes which stand out in this film, both of which were newly created.
the first one is the birth of the Chojin, in which Akemi basically masturbates herself until she gives birth, and the second scene in which the Chojin rapes Megumi, using both its male and female sex organs to complete a spell which it uses to resurrect Nagumo.
This is easilly the most forgettable part of the Urotsukidoji saga, unfortunately though as it forms the last entry in the "classic" series, it is all we will be getting.
1 very limp tentacle up, which really took a hell of a lot of effort.
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Urotsukidoji IV: Inferno Road.
Urotsukidoji IV: Inferno Road. (3 parts, OAV, 1993-1995)
The fourth part in the saga continues more or less from where the previous OAV ended.
At the end of the third part, Buju pledged to escort the Kyo-O, who has now fully manifested in the form of a young girl after unwittingly releasing her full powers at the end of part III. Buju is joined by a small group of other Makemono, as well as the demon-cyborg D9, who drives their transport tank.
It is thought that should the Chojin and the Kyo-O meet, they would cancel each other out and thus stop either side from destroying the world, or at the very least, stop the Chojins destruction and reshaping of it.
The first 2 parts of this OAV take place in a seemingly abandoned city block which rests at the bottom of a crater and is perpetually shrouded in fog, in which the children who live there all have ridiculously powerful psychic abilities and use them to make the adults bend to their will. This town is seemingly ruled over by a pair of boys, the youthful Ellis, and his disfigured twin brother Fallis, however not all is as it seems and Amano Jyaku suspects the Chojins interference.
The final part deals with the gangs eventual arrival in Osaka, and Amano Jyakus eventual final defeat of Munchausen and his new lackey, Suikakujus sister, who has sworn revenge on him for killing her brother in the first and second films...
Overall, the first and second parts serve little to no purpose in the overall storyline, and again exist merely as a platform to bombard the viewer with horrific scenes of a sexual nature, although most of them were trimmed, cut or obscured for western release. The storyline itself is half decent though, so its not all bad.
The final part acts merely to "wrap up" the plot line introduced in part III which, in all honesty, didnt really go anywhere fast and just kind of clogged up the nice smooth flow of the story with the addition of characters that no one gave two shits about and didnt miss one bit when they had gone. It does however nicely round off the story line though, albeit in a rather disjointed and cack handed manner.
My final verdict is "watchable but forgetable"
5 tentacles up.
The fourth part in the saga continues more or less from where the previous OAV ended.
At the end of the third part, Buju pledged to escort the Kyo-O, who has now fully manifested in the form of a young girl after unwittingly releasing her full powers at the end of part III. Buju is joined by a small group of other Makemono, as well as the demon-cyborg D9, who drives their transport tank.
It is thought that should the Chojin and the Kyo-O meet, they would cancel each other out and thus stop either side from destroying the world, or at the very least, stop the Chojins destruction and reshaping of it.
The first 2 parts of this OAV take place in a seemingly abandoned city block which rests at the bottom of a crater and is perpetually shrouded in fog, in which the children who live there all have ridiculously powerful psychic abilities and use them to make the adults bend to their will. This town is seemingly ruled over by a pair of boys, the youthful Ellis, and his disfigured twin brother Fallis, however not all is as it seems and Amano Jyaku suspects the Chojins interference.
The final part deals with the gangs eventual arrival in Osaka, and Amano Jyakus eventual final defeat of Munchausen and his new lackey, Suikakujus sister, who has sworn revenge on him for killing her brother in the first and second films...
Overall, the first and second parts serve little to no purpose in the overall storyline, and again exist merely as a platform to bombard the viewer with horrific scenes of a sexual nature, although most of them were trimmed, cut or obscured for western release. The storyline itself is half decent though, so its not all bad.
The final part acts merely to "wrap up" the plot line introduced in part III which, in all honesty, didnt really go anywhere fast and just kind of clogged up the nice smooth flow of the story with the addition of characters that no one gave two shits about and didnt miss one bit when they had gone. It does however nicely round off the story line though, albeit in a rather disjointed and cack handed manner.
My final verdict is "watchable but forgetable"
5 tentacles up.
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