Memoirs of Japanese Assassins (1969) review

 

MEMOIRS OF JAPANESE ASSASSINS (NIPPON ANSATSU HIROKU)

Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba (Onuma 'Shichiro' Tadashi), Tamiya Jiro (Fuji), Kataoka Chiezo (Inoue Nissho), (Kiyama), Fuji Junko (Taka-chan), Sugawara Bunta (Asahi Heigo), Wakayama Tomisaburo, Yoshida Teruo, Takakura Ken (Aizawa Saburo), Tsuruta Koji (Isobe), Takahashi Choei (Furuta Daijiro), Machida Kyosuke, Mimasu Aiko

Directed by Nakajima Sadao

The Short Version: Nine historical assassinations from the 19th and 20th centuries are cinematically documented in this sprawling, doom and gloom epic from Toei Studios starring many of Chambara's big swords in roles of various shapes and sizes. The politics are thick as molasses, and no doubt this movie -- quite different from Toei's more familiar (on these shores, anyways) comic book exploitation -- was highly controversial back in the day. Sonny Chiba no doubt helped cement his enormously successful career with a strikingly poignant, non-fighting, dramatic performance here. Yes, The Street Fighter engages in a different sort of battle as a young, bewildered terrorist in training.

"Terrorism is the rightful measure to fight against the ruling class."



Onuma Tadashi, a confused 18 year old eking out a living surrounded by poverty, corruption and dissidents is torn between making an honest living during economic strife, and joining a secret band of ultra-nationalists with dreams of governmental reform. Experiencing a succession of emotional and financial set backs pushes him to reluctantly side with the anti-establishment reformists led by a priest named Inoue Nissho. Initially it's decided they will all die through the bloodshed they will bring, but a series of events and failed plots lead to the eventual failure, arrest and execution of this group of terrorists consisting of civilians and young, rebellious military men.

Nakajima Sadao is likely most familiar in America for his fantasy works such as WATARI NINJA BOY (1966) and RENEGADE NINJAS ([1976]SANADA YUKIMURA NO BOURYAKU). His larger body of work --largely unseen outside of Japan -- seems to center comfortably around Yakuza and Chambara movies. MEMOIRS OF JAPANESE ASSASSINS is taken from Japanese history, adapted for the screen by Nakajima (from an original story by Suzuki Tadashi) as per the works of men who lived during the tumultuous 20th century period that the bulk of the film takes place in.




The film jumps around from one decade to the next documenting various assassinations and their historical context within the extremist political turmoil during three of Japan's periods of socio-political change -- Meiji, Taisho and Showa. We begin in 1860 Edo with the assassination of Grand Elder Naosuke Tairo. This is the only time MEMOIRS OF JAPANESE ASSASSINS caters to jidai-geki conventions; the remaining two plus hours occupying the film fall into the gendai-geki style of Nipponese cinema, those being modern day dramas. So those expecting this to be a sword-slinger might wish to stop reading now.

From there the narrator takes us through the earliest portions of the 20th century where industrialization may have taken hold, but man's propensity for violence remains unchanged. It's here where the politics mercilessly hammer the viewer over the head. Both sides of the spectrum are explored, although Nakajima's treatment of the material, at times, seems to be an indictment towards this sort of anarchist thinking that to get what you want, one must kill for it. Such as a sequence early in the picture described below.

Furuta Daijiro is a 26 year old anarchist. Like others in the film, he's taken from history. He founded the Osaka Guillotine Terrorist Group in the early 1920s. He wishes to blow himself up to assassinate the Regent. He has an acquaintance with a bomb, but Furuta hasn't the money to pay for it. He tries to coax his more reasonable friend into loaning him the money, but he refuses. Instead, Furuta's friend tries to pacify his violent intentions by passing along advice to a more logical solution to achieve the alleged change that is needed, or the change that Furuta feels is in order. 



This sort of extremist thinking, that wealth and success are evil needed to be stamped out, is reflective of the current, and ever weakening state of America that teeters more and more towards a Socialist system with high unemployment and little hope for achievement. Why work for what you want when you can take it by force? Rich or poor, corruption is everywhere. In the case of Daijiro, he murders for it. Upon his capture for killing a banker, Daijiro is sentenced to death. Two years later, he walks to do his doom while he thinks to himself all the wonderful things he took for granted in life, that he will never again get to enjoy. It's this sequence, and this sequence alone that foreshadows what will come after we're introduced to Sonny Chiba's character.

The bulk of the story concerns an incident that took place in 1932. Onuma Tadashi (Sonny Chiba) is in court and details the crime he committed that put him there. Through flashbacks, we follow the spirited and seemingly honorable Onuma Tadashi. He despises his lowly job as a delivery boy for a dyeing mill. An offer is soon made to him for a better job at a bakery. But the naive boss is inexperienced, falls prey to loan sharks and is unable to make the proper changes to his factory ordered of him by inspectors.




From there, Onuma (or Shichiro, as he's often called) moves from one dramatic downfall to the next; each life-altering experience shaping and molding him further into the tragic character he will ultimately become. After a failed suicide attempt, Onuma joins a religion based terrorist organization that is founded on the principals that Japan is totally corrupt and depraved and must be saved from this betrayal of their perception of the nations values. The leader of this group of patient anarchists, the priest Inoue Nissho devises a calculated plot of national reform that will culminate in the suicide of each member, whether their plan succeeds, or not.




After aligning with Manchurian forces in 1931, it is soon realized that corruption has seeped into the group. This then leads to their elaborate bloodshed bound revolution being exposed by the military. Onuma again loses confidence in himself wherein he resorts to prayer and fasting that leads to him becoming seriously ill. After a period of convalescence, Onuma makes the decision that he, and he alone will instigate this so-called revolution with the death of Japan's Finance Minister, Inoue Junnosuke.

Nakajima's film is loaded down with characters. It's almost impossible to keep up with them all with a single viewing; and at nearly two and a half hours, there's simply not enough time to soak them all in. It appears some editing may have played havoc with some of these characters, or else Nakajima's screenplay was too enormous to maintain focus to explore them all sufficiently. Editing seems the most likely choice. But one character serves as the focal point; a young actor who was about to break big as a martial arts action star. 




Sonny Chiba essays the role of Onuma Tadashi, the individual whom the bulk of the movie revolves around. With most of Chiba's earlier work unavailable to the mainstream masses, it's unusual to see him in such a role that isn't action related. Many of his fans will remember him from earlier science fiction films like TERROR BENEATH THE SEA and GOLDEN BAT (both 1966). He was already involved with KEY HUNTER, a wildly popular show that debuted in the late 1960s.

If you're more familiar with Chiba's Karate roles, you'll either be pleasantly surprised, or resoundingly bored by his performance. Chiba is stunning here, and nothing short of amazing. He never wields a sword, nor knows any martial arts. His emotional range runs the gamut from anger, to tearful sorrow, to hopelessness and finally a cold-blooded assassin. There's no hint of an action hero here. Chiba's character is unsure of himself and his ideals virtually the entire movie till towards the end.  It's really quite striking when compared with more well known works like THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) and THE EXECUTIONER (1974) among numerous others.




Since the bulk of his filmography and television work is unavailable in North America, it's unknown just how many similar roles Chiba did. Based on this one alone, he does a marvelous job while other big names such as Tomisaburo (SHOGUN ASSASSIN) Wakayama, Takakura (BULLET TRAIN) Ken and Sugawara (BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR & HUMANITY) Bunta all play assassins in what amounts to cameo roles, or guest starring roles.

Tomita Isao's score suits the depressing mood and by the end of the film, a recurring theme song may still be looming large in your head. Far from a movie that will leave you feeling refreshed when it's over, it's deadly serious and prime for post-viewing debates from a historical perspective. Die hard Chiba and Japanese cinema fans will find a lot to chew on here, but most others expecting frequent gore and bloodshed (it's here, but relegated to the beginning and ending) will likely give up about 40 minutes into these MEMOIRS.

This review is representative of a Fansubbed DVD which can be bought HERE.
 

Wild Beasts (1984) review

 

 WILD BEASTS 1984 aka BELVE FEROCI

Lorraine de Selle (Laura), John Aldrich (Rupert), Ugo Bologna (Inspector Braun), Louisa Lloyd (Suzy), John Stacy (Zookeeper)

Directed by Franco Prosperi

The Short Version: Italy's late entry in the 'Killer Animal' sweepstakes force-feeds us an eco-political message amidst scenes of rats devouring human breasts and faces, elephants squashing heads, and scenes of lions and tigers ecstatically ripping human bodies to pieces. It's often surreal, especially with the inclusion of jazz and metal cues infrequently accompanying the gory spectacle. It has a lot in common with Girdler's DAY OF THE ANIMALS (1977), but swaps out that films ozone depletion for an ambiguous explanation of PCP ending up first in a zoo's water supply before a citywide problem affecting humans is introduced during the conclusion. Prosperi's mix of eco-politics and gore is often well made, sometimes sloppy, but always an interesting piece of  trashy political exploitation.




A large quantity of PCP mysteriously finds its way into the water supply of a metropolitan zoo. The various wild animals become enraged, break out of their cages and proceed on a rampage of death and destruction within the concrete jungle of a thriving European city.

Franco Prosperi returns to his Mondo stomping grounds with a straight up horror film that contains subtle, if explicit nuances of the shockumentaries he and his former filmmaking partner, Gualtiero Jacopetti were doing over twenty years earlier with pictures like the enormously influential and controversial MONDO CANE (1962). Prosperi's script also manages to instill some glaring ecological and socio-political themes one often finds in Italian movies, just not always in brutally violent Italian blood splatterers such as this one.



The filmmakers provide a bridge between the hugely popular Disaster movies of the 1970s and the Nature Amuck films from the same decade; those films also posing political underpinnings and sometimes heavy-handed environmentalist propagandizing that still thrives in society today. Instead of earthquakes, or towering infernos, it's a city overrun with PCP plagued animals -- subway train passengers are attacked by tigers, a school is invaded by a polar bear, elephants rampage at an airport and more.



Along with the similar Made For Television movies like MANEATERS ARE LOOSE! and THE BEASTS ARE ON THE STREETS (both 1978), WILD BEASTS proved hauntingly prophetic when in October of 2011, a menagerie of wild animals escaped from a private zoo in Ohio, including lions and tigers. There were no human casualties, but most all of the various animals were killed.

As per the Italian Mondo and Cannibal antecedents, there's a bit of that all too real animal violence that clashes with the obviously fake attacks on mankind. The very beginning of the movie echoes Prosperi's passed successes and controversies from those infamous Shockumentaries. The opening credits consist of zookeepers chopping up horses heads and feeding them to hungry tigers. Granted, these animals are already dead (a later scene shows horses inside a slaughterhouse), but the credits begin with a close up of a horse's face. We see the eyes twitch a bit giving the impression the animal is alive. As the camera pans back, we see that the animal is not alive at all as a worker proceeds to split the head in half. The rest of the film never quite hits this level of geekshow barkership, but it's not for a lack of trying.

Later in the film, there's a scene where lions and hyenas attack horses, pigs and cattle inside a slaughterhouse just prior to a mass stampede down a city street. Another features rats being burned alive and stomped on after feasting on a young couple having sex in a car. It's also worth noting that the rat scenes are better than the entirety of the laughable excess of Mattei's RATS, NIGHT OF TERROR (1983).




The rat attack also features a cat being assaulted by dozens of the crazed rodents. It doesn't come off quite as graphic as the more exploitable sequence in Mou Tun Fei's MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1988); but while that scene has apparently been debunked as fake, this scene here is questionable. The camera doesn't linger on it long enough, but both rat and feline put in good performances biting and clawing at each other.




The animal sequences, such as the cheetah, elephant and polar bear sequences (among others) are nothing short of incredible, even though limitations of the day creep in at times. That Prosperi and his crew were able to pull off what they did with the sheer number of animals they had to work with is a feat unto itself. Judging by his own words regarding the making of the film, the behind the scenes was oftentimes harrowing, only not to the level of the fictional rampages that ended up onscreen.

Considering Prosperi's clout and past career, the budget is noticeably larger than the usual Euro-gore epic of the time period, at least it seems so. Shot in South Africa and Italy, the problems behind the scenes point to a troubled production; but you wouldn't be able to tell from how polished the whole enterprise is in what amounts to little more than a glossy, trashy exploitation picture. 

WILD BEASTS is one of a scant few Euro horror films from the mid 80s that showed a lot of promise for Italian genre movies without the credit, "Directed by Dario Argento" attached to them. Fulci was fumbling, Lenzi was becoming lackadaisical, and guys like Bruno Mattei were consistent in their horrifically enjoyable hackwork. DEMONS (1985) from Lamberto Bava and STAGE FRIGHT (1987) from Michele Soavi were prime examples of a ferocious new style for Italian horror that ultimately, by the 1990s, failed to materialize.




Prosperi's last directed film not only addresses what happens when a recreational drug inexplicably finds itself in a zoo's drinking water supply, but addresses a much bigger situation during the last 15 minutes when it becomes known the drug has gotten into the main water system of the city, yet again, we're never told just how this happened. It's here where the film briefly crosses over into another well explored horror sub-genre.

The performances are all decent, if unremarkable. It's dubbed, so difficult to gauge, but judging by the facial expressions, it's standard dialog delivery and the required screaming during attack sequences. 



Lorraine de Selle, a popular face among Euro cult film specialists, plays the main character, Laura Schwarz. The script gives her little to do here and her position is never pointedly defined. She's some sort of zoologist, but she never gives any input as to what started, or how to stop this animal outbreak. That's left up to John Aldrich, the lead actor who reminds me a lot of Edward Albert. Both characters work together and have some form of romantic relationship, but this is never expanded upon. Instead, both characters spend their time being put in harms way, or are on their way to clean up after the next attack. 

The score is mostly underwhelming, although a few cues successfully convey that signature Euro 80s rock sensibility. The jazz pieces seem woefully out of place, although the main theme heard at the start seems almost like a music video amidst quick cuts that aim to visualize the films plotline before the first line of dialog is uttered. 




WILD BEASTS is occasionally offensive, sometimes silly, but always entertaining. Franco Prosperi ended his directorial career on a high note. There's some wobbly moments here and there, but overall, the film impresses with some memorable scenes (sometimes aided by the FX work of Maurizio Trani) that would most definitely have been done with computerized imagery nowadays. 'Nature Amuck' movies were out of vogue at this point, but it's satisfying to see the Italian's take on the subject -- better late than never.

This review is representative of the Camera Obscura PAL R2 DVD.