Ghost Story Of Yotsuya Review

There is a tradition in Japan to present ghost stories during the warm summer months. An 18th century kabuki play by Nanboku Tsuruya provided the most popular and durable storyline – that of an ambitious, would-be samurai named Iemon who marries and then murders Iwa, whose ghost returns to wreak revenge on her faithless husband.The story has been filmed numerous times; director Nobuo Nakagawa’s 1959 version THE GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan) is, many feel, the best filmed adaptation of this classic Japanese tale.Iemon, realizing that murdering his intended bride’s father will not endear him to her – not to mention how the constabulary is likely to react to multiple homicides – conspires with his partner-in-crime Naosuke (Shuntaro Emi) to lay the blame on a local bandit Usaburo, claiming that they valiantly fought a band of ruffians who got away. Iemon promises Iwa (Kazuko Wakasugi) that he will avenge her father’s murder, securing her hand in marriage and her fortune for himself.
Naosuke becomes attracted to Iwa’s sister Osode, and threatens to expose Iemon if he will not assist in eliminating the sisters’ suspicious brother. When the brother goes to a sacred waterfall to pray for justice, the rogues stab him in the back and push him off the cliff. They return to town with a story about how they were attacked by the same bandits as before, and the pair split up to seek the non-existent bandits.
Iemon and Iwa have a child, but Iemon proves a poor husband, spending most of his nights out drinking, while Iwa begins to suffer from ill health. Iemon gambles most of his wife’s money away, but one night he inadvertently foils a mugging, causing the robbers to flee and the nobles to thank him effulsively, while Iemon instantly falls for the nobleman’s lovely daughter Ume (Junko Ikeuchi). The nobleman offers Iemon a reward, and Iemon ironically responds with the same speech about honor that Samon had given him right before Iemon had murdered him.
Meanwhile, Naosuke is frustrated that Osode refuses to marry or sleep with him until he makes good his promise to avenge her father’s death. When Iemon happens to bump into Naosuke, Naosuke wonders whether he can pull off the murdering bandits gimmick a third time, but resolves that he’ll need another plan. Naosuke comes up with the idea of procuring some poison to kill Iwa to make way for Iemon to marry Ume. Because the portly village massues Takuetsu (Jun Otomo) is constantly coming by to see the ailing Iwa, a rumor has sprung up that the pair are having an affair. Naosuke sees how Iemon can claim to have caught the pair in flagrante to justify the murder of his wife. Dishonorable to the core, Iemon readily agrees to the plan and conspires to make Takuetsu his patsy.
In a telling scene, Iwa cries tears of joy that her husband has started treating her kindly for a change, apparently attempting to see to her happiness rather than being thoroughly selfish all the time. Little does she realize that his thoughtfulness in giving her the medicine she requires is simply a ruse to provide poison in her cup of tea. Takuetsu comes to give her a massage and starts coming on to her because Iemon has suggested that she fancies the doctor: however, Iwa, innocent and loyal to her faithless husband, is shocked by Takuetsu’s behavior.

Cursed (2005) – Film Review

What can you say about a horror film when its spookiest cast member plays the innocent victim? You can say that it’s only one of many obvious missteps in this misbegotten attempt by writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven to apply their patented SCREAM-style approach to the familiar werewolf clichés.
Of course, the SCREAM films were never quite all they were cracked up to be. Their chief cleverness lay in openly acknowledging the slasher genre they were mining: this gave them a license to trot out all the established tropes, while critics who normally would not be caught dead in a horror film, could sing hymns of praise to their self-referential, post-modern sensibility. It’s a one-trick approach with little scope, so it’s no surprise that its application in CURSED suffers from the law of diminishing returns. What is surprising is that Williamson and Craven could have miscalculated so badly that the film entirely failed to click with audiences when it was released in theatres.
The story begins with a pair of women receiving a dire warning from a gypsy woman (like in THE WOLF MAN, get it?) Soon thereafter, brother and sister Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) and Ellie (Christian Ricci) see one of the women (Shannon Elizabeth) killed by a wolf-like monster after they ram into her car. Both Jimmy and Ellie are bitten and/or scratched in the struggle, and gradually come to realize that they are “cursed” with the Mark of the Beast; that is, they are turning into werewolves.
Unfortunately, this “curse” turns out to be a mild annoyance at most: the central dilemma never registers, because they never really seem in danger of turning into animals or losing their humanity. Instead, the film stumbles through a jumble of ideas: Being a wolf helps you get girls in high school like in TEEN WOLF; it gives you increased sensory awareness in your dog-eat-dog workplace like in WOLF; it gives you a craving for blood and sexual charisma (a detail more appropriate for vampire films like THE LOST BOYS); but never fear, as in the TV show WEREWOLF and the movie AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, you can save yourself by severing the bloodline — i.e., killing your werewolf progenitor.
Despite Jimmy’s reading from a few mythology books, we never really learn the “rules” by which these lycanthropes abide. Do they transform at will or involuntarily? Only at night and during the full moon, or anytime they get mad? And how long do Jimmy and Ellie have before their condition becomes irreversible? Without these plot points clarified, the story becomes just a pointless exercise, never generating any real suspense or mystery.
Another part of the problem is the attempt to integrate Ellie’s love life into the story. Her sputtering relationship with boyfriend Jake (Joshua Jackson) seems entirely gratuitous (not to mention dull), but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that it wouldn’t be in the film if it weren’t going to tie-in with the plot’s big mystery: who is the Top Dog — or, in this case, the Alpha Wolf? In order to hide the all-too-obvious answer to this question, Williamson’s script not only throws in a character who acts suspicious for no good reason (refusing to show evidence that would exonerate him) but also adds a second werewolf (just like SCREAM created a “surprise twist” with its two killers). As is too often the case with Williamson’s scripts, the revelation of the culprit is a disappointment because the killer is not particularly interesting. The story-telling rational seems to be: “Well, it had to be somebody, so why not this character?”
The story is hardly enlivened by its cast, most of whom would seem more comfortable on a television show like DAWSON’S CREEK. The sole exception is Ricci, who clearly deserves to be better utilized here. Her dark and moody attractiveness (she’s ready to graduate from Wednesday to Morticia Addams) makes her look like a Vampire Queen who could round up these mangy werewolves into a slave-herd forced to do her bidding — but the film gives her a hapless victim role while decidedly unscary actors are cast as the monsters.

The Movie Immortals – Review (2)

One of the beauties of a film by Tarsem Singh is that you’re guaranteed to get some impressive visuals in a film. Alongside Zack Snyder, Singh’s one of the best in the business at maximizing a film’s look. You can’t help but watch the man at work in his films as he never ceases to impress in his composition of shots, his use of scoring and how he designs a scene. And in terms of visually impressive films, Immortals is an even better put together film than either The Fall or The Cell.
The problem with it is that there’s nothing behind it.
Immortals is a grand epic set in ancient Greece following Theseus (Henry Cavill), caught up in the middle of a power struggle between man and gods. Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is a king hell-bent on releasing ancient evils onto the world using the power of a magical bow of legend. Zeus (Luke Evans) has chosen him to prevent this but prevented the Gods from helping out; armed with a thief sidekick (Stephen Dorff) and a virginal prophet (Freida Pinto), it’s up to Theseus to lead humanity against Hyperion and thereby save the world from its destruction by a king gone mad.
And as a visually arresting spectacle, it’s hard to undersell Singh’s latest. This is a brilliantly put together film if you look at solely from an audio/visual perspective. There’s always something interesting happening and the film’s battle scenes are amongst some of the best of the year. Singh has outdone himself with this film but he also has a significantly larger budget, too, than he’s ever had so it’s easy to say he’s put it all on the screen. Considering he had slightly more than 1/3 of the budget Michael Bay did for the third Transformers film, to boot, he’s put together the year’s best film on a pure spectacle basis.
The problem is that he didn’t bring a good story alongside it.
This is a generic period action piece, a homeless man’s version of 300 at best. It makes sure to hit all the signature type moments and bring out some strong slow-motion piece but it’s odd to think that Tarsem Singh would make a similar film that Brett Ratner would in this situation. And that’s exactly what he’s done; he’s taken a 300 level type swords and sandals film, complete with the sort of cheesy lines of dialogue that could elevate themselves into excellence with the right tone, and just focused on the visual and not the emotional.

Drag Me to Hell

There was a time on the big screen when old crones and evil wizards terrorized movie goers with spells, and I don’t mean the cute and cuddly curse of Shrek, I mean heavy hexes like the Maloika and Voodoo juju.
In 1996 a film based on a novel from Stephen King’s alter ego Richard Bachman called Thinner offered a supernatural alternative to Weight Watchers. The story centred on Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke), a sleazebag lawyer charged with vehicular manslaughter after running down an old woman.
The obese legal wiz beats the charge in court, but a far worse verdict awaits him outside the courtroom. Minutes after he is set free a 106-year-old gypsy named Tadzu Lemke (Michael Constantine) touches him, whispering the word “thinner” in his ear.
From then on, Halleck sheds pounds faster than you can say “Jenny Craig.” Using all his lawyerly skills of persuasion he convinces Lemke to lift the curse, but the resolution has tragic consequences for those around him.
A different kind of curse was unleashed in the 2003 Japanese J-Horror film Ju-on: The Grudge. The movie is only occasionally scary, but the idea of a curse, born of great violence, that continues to grow like a virus and visit terror on everyone who comes into contact with it, is undeniably creepy.
Probably the only curse film to be deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States National Film Registry is Walt Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast. The story begins with an old beggar woman asking a handsome but spoiled prince for shelter against the bitter cold.
Repulsed by her appearance he refuses her request and payment of a rose. She warns the prince not to judge people by their appearances but he is unmoved. Unmoved, that is until she lays the kavorka on him, turning him into a hideous beast.
The curse, she says, can only be lifted if “he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return” by the time his twenty-first birthday came around and the last petal of woman’s enchanted rose fell to the ground.
Despite their differences in topic and setting these movies all boil down to one universal theme: Lack of respect has consequences. Think of that the next time a 106 year-old witch asks for a favour.

New Dark Knight Rises Teaser

Someone clearly designated this weekend to be the official Superhero Teaser Poster Release Season, because hot on the heels of the latest Amazing Spider-Man image comes this fresh look at The Dark Knight Rises, which Warners has been kind enough to supply directly to us. Click on the gallery image below to embiggen it and get a proper look.
Focusing naturally on Tom Hardy’s Bane, the big villain of Chris Nolan’s next – and, as driven home by the tagline here – final Batventure, the poster is a moody, atmospheric piece featuring the brute himself walking away from a shattered Bat mask. Suggesting, as you might suspect, that the movie features a plot which means it should really have been called The Dark Knight Has A Bad Time Of It And Gets The Living Snot Beaten Out Of Him At Regular Intervals. But we’re not sure that would fit on most marquees.
With Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Michael Caine and Nestor Carbonell in the cast, The Dark Knight Rises will finally arrive here on July 20. You can head here to see what we thought of the prologue, and check out the latest issue for some exclusive, set-visiting coverage of the film.
Barry served as mayor of the city between 1979 and 1991 and then again between 1995 and 1999, with the two terms broken up by a six-month jail term after he was videotaped smoking crack cocaine. To this day, he’s still a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, which proves there are some cities where you really have to do bad things not to get re-elected.
HBO planned a version years ago with Jamie Foxx in the Barry role and Chris Rock as a producer, but it stalled in development. There’s no word on when this might get started, but it certainly sounds like a meaty subject for all three to tackle.

Cursed Films Review

If the film is cursed, has it returned with the death of the original director for the The Beginning? And will it continue to plague the cast and crew of the prequel?
After this movie's release in 1994, "The Crow" became an instant cult favorite. Based, on a comic book and starring Brandon Lee, the film is about Eric Draven and his fiancee who are brutally murdered one night. Then, a year later, the Crow brings his soul back to seek vengeance and earn his eternal rest.
During rumors that "The Crow" set was cursed, many accidents happened. A carpenter was severely burned after the crane in which he was riding struck high-power lines; then a disgruntled sculptor who had worked on the set drove his car through the studio's plaster shop, doing extensive damage. Later, another crew member slipped and drove a screwdriver through his hand and a lorry full of equipment mysteriously went on fire.
And there's also Brandon Lee's (Eric Draven) mysterious death during filming. They were filming a flashback scene to show how he really died. He was going to be shot with .44 Magnum which was not a prop, but a fully functioning firearm. The gun was loaded with blanks, they are as loud as real bullets, but whe fired only the harmless cardboard wadding which they are packed is ejected from the gun. But when the gun was fired, Lee fell to the floor with a wound the size of a quarter in his left abdomin. Apparently, the metal tip of one of the dummy bullets had somehow pulled loose from its brass casing and killed Brandon Lee.
Even the T.V series, "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" could not escape the curse of tragedy. Veteran stunt co-ordinator Marc Akerstream was killed while working on an explosive stunt involving a rowboat near a shoreline. Everything was working fine but when the stunt exploded a piece of debris shot up into the air, cleared a tree and struck Akerstream on the head. He was flown to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
Perhaps the Crow was working during the production of the film and the series, and maybe it will continue to work in the following years.

Cursed Film

In 1976, "The Omen" was released which was a hit. It follows the story of an American ambassador who learns that his son is actualy the antichrist.
On the first day of filming, a crew member was in a car accident which destroyed a company car. Harvey Bernhard was driving Richard Donner to his apartment, as Donner was getting out of the car, another came round the corner, tore the door off of the car and trapped Donner between the two. The crew shot a scene at Windsor Safari Park including lions, that was eventually cut. The day they finished shooting with lions, a guard was killed by two of them. A flight from LA to London with Gregory Peck on it was hit by lightning, and an engine was knocked out. Then eight hours later, a plane with the screenwriter, David Seltzer, on board was also hit by lightning. The crew had hired a private jet, which they would use to some ground scenes. However, the charter company had become booked, and so the Omen's crew flight was canceled. It took off with business men on board. The jet crashed onto a road, crashing into another car, which crashed into another car, killing all which included the wife and child of the jet's pilot who were in the second car.
Then, after "The Omen", the special effects director John Richardson, went to Holland to make "A Bridge Too Far", with his girlfriend. He was involved in a car crash, and his girlfriend was beheaded, just like David Warner was
In "Damien Omen II", the curse continued. The best friend of William Holden was stabbed while they were on holiday. Also, the entire cast came down with a rare form of influenza, even though no outbreaks had been reported.
Were these deaths and accidents coincidences? Or were they an omen for the filming to stop?
Whether they were deaths or accidents, these supposedly cursed movies may make you think a little. Despite the fact that some of the rumors have been proven false, there are still questions concerning the ones that haven't. So if you're an upcoming filmmaker, think twice before doing horror.