Nippon Connection 2020 - Day 1

Let us try something new this year!
We now have less time to watch movies and even less to go to Film Festivals. On top of that, travels are restricted in this COVID-19 period so attending movie Festivals is out of the question anyway.
Some of them have moved online for this year's edition, which is for us a renewed opportunity to attend at our pace and from home. We are thus here today to cover the Nippon Connection 2020 Online Festival specialized in, you guess, Japanese Cinema. We have always wanted to visit it and never could. It seems a nice alternative to our beloved Udine Far East Film Festival, which will also be online this year and which we also plan to cover.
We will post reviews about the movies we see as usual when we attend Festivals, and maybe publish a report at the end, but we also wanted to try and report on the Festival on a daily basis. Here we go for our first report!

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

	Also Known As: Tôkyô nagaremono (original)
	Year of first release: 1966
	Director: Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon)
	Actors: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani
	Country: J
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 04.06.2020, Arte, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: The former head of a Yakuza gang dismantles his clan and is left with his closest henchman. When a formal rival gang tries to scam him of his property, they are both struggling to not reply with violence.
Review: In preparation to a month with not one but two Online Asian film festivals (the Nippon Connection and the FEFF), we found proposed on the Arte channel a series of Asian movies in different genres: A Touch of Zen, Blind Woman's Curse, Mr. Long, Ichi (the samurai woman) and this Tokyo Drifter (no relationship with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, although...). As I am those days in the mood to watch movies from the 70's I chose this one from 1966. I knew a little about the Japanese Cinema of that period (I have been to many FEFFs!), but I was still surprised by the quality of some parts of the movie, the ideas in composition and music, and the modernity of the cities at that time, in par with their American counterpart. Japan was in fact on its way to becoming the synonym of High-Tech it will be in the 80's. It is a bit hard to follow at start, having read the synopsis before helped, and then it became obvious it was not only because of me that the film was hard to follow, this is how it is done. A quick research after watching the movie (see its Wikipedia page) clarifies things: the director Seijun Suzuki, in fact already known on this blog for Branded to Kill, was known by its studio (the famous Nikkatsu) for his style getting crazier with time, so they kept on reducing his budgets, which in turn forced him to go for more and more abstraction. It is funny to think that I have always the feeling that Japanese studios have no control or overview over their directors as often shown by the too long final product. Note that this director is responsible for five more movies in 1966 alone! Those were crazy times. This conflict with his studio explains what I saw in the movie: confusing ellipses, brutal editing (it feels like the movie was edited to half its lengths to please Western audiences), confrontations coming out of nowhere... It also helped reading that the movie is intended as a parody of other genres and of the Japanese Cinema system. I am not trained enough to catch that. On the other hand, the movie includes some great ideas: first the story of a Yakuza gang being dismantled, then the jazzy soundtrack and the Surf Rock playing in the discotheque scenes, the colorful palette throughout the movie, the setting in different towns (even though we see only little of them) reminding me of my own Japan train-trip, some artistic fight scenes, and the final theatrical confrontation. All in all it has some feeling of French New Wave. Not an easy watch, but pleasant and interesting nonetheless.
Rating: 4 /10

Rick and Morty - Season 4 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Creators: Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland
	Actors (voices): Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, SF, Black Comedy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: December 2019 - May 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Teenager Morty and his genius alcoholic grand-pa Rick continue with their intergalactic multi-dimensional adventures.
Review: I am less crazy about this season than I was about the first three. Maybe partly because this time I watched the episodes as they went out, and I had time to watch each of them several times before the next was released. This is even more true between the two halves of the seasons which were released months apart. But it may also be that the series has lost its edge. It doesn't appear so because the stories and animations and frantic pace are still all present, and the Universe keeps on expanding, but on a sub-consistent level I may feel the series repetitive, in need for fresh air. Again this is not by lack of trying, and the episodes are more crazy one than the other, between the heist movie parody in S4E3 One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty, the Dungeon&Dragons adventure in S4E4 Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty, the unexpected side story in S4E8 The Vat of Acid Episode, or finally a time travel story (with snakes) in S4E5 Rattlestar Ricklactica, the show is bursting with ideas more than ever. A second viewing is in fact mandatory to catch more references and visual details in episodes which are denser than in the first seasons, and I even recommend aid form the YouTube channel NewRockstars which dissects the episodes for you. This may be part of the problem I have in fact, that I have to pause and rewind the episodes several time to understand what's going on, instead of watching more relaxed jokes that have time to sink in. And if the show apparently doesn't follow up on stories the fans would like to see (like Evil Morty), it does on the last episode S4E10 Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri which is one of the best of the season. Not so thrilled by this series like I used to, but still very satisfied by the best adult series available for me today. More seasons are confirmed to be coming, and with less wait between each.
Rating: 7 /10

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Jeff Fowler
	Actors: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden (X-men 1-3, Superman Returns, Hairspray), Jim Carrey (The Mask, The Truman Show)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 29.05.2020, VOD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: The space hedgehog Sonic (voiced by Schwartz) hides on Earth to escape pursuing enemies. There he admires the local sheriff (Marsden), but an unexpected display of his power will attract the Military and in particular the Dr. Robotnik (Carrey).
Review: This movie is out of time. The character of Sonic is known by many, but isn't as popular as it was when its first video games were released in the 80's. SEGA doesn't even make house entertainment anymore for crying out loud. The competition didn't wait so long to produce Super Mario Bros. in 1993 (I have to watch it for comparison). Surely that one didn't get the sophisticated Special Effects now available but I am curious to compare both objectively to underline the importance of a good timeless story rather than the latest gimmicks. By the way did you hear about the whole character re-design that costed millions of dollars? Check this Youtube video to know more. There are many things to dislike in Sonic the Hedgehog: the jokes are not funny, the opening scene showing you some big finale action as flashback with narration before the real story starts (I usually don't like this but this time I really hated it), the super-annoying language censorship that happens not once but at least four times, the rip-off of a modular car tuning motorbike from The Dark Knight, the other rip-off of the slow-motion scenes by Quicksilver from X-men: Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, the fact that the movie uses almost no music or sound effect from the original game (just some designs), and last but not least a Jim Carrey straight out of The Mask for more anachronisms. What is left? As I wrote, some designs reminding me of my childhood, and the last scene with Robotnik where he takes the more familiar form we know him from. Given the World-building and the mid-credit scene, are they really planning a sequel to that??
Rating: 2 /10

The Pelican Brief (1993)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1993
	Director: Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men)
	Actors: Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman), Denzel Washington (The Book of Eli, Deja Vu), Sam Shepard
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 26.05.2020, VOD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: When law student Darby Shaw (Roberts) theorizes about the assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices, she is put in danger and turns to a reporter (Washington) for help.
Review: The four years between 1993 and 1996 delivered the four most-known adaptation to novels by John Grisham, very trendy at that time: The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Client and The Pelican Brief. No wonder that I was expecting more time spent in court in this movie and got none. I had forgotten many details of the 2h30 story but enjoyed very much watching it again. In particular, I had forgotten that it was a conspiracy movie going as high as the President himself. It is refreshing to watch a movie shot almost 40 years ago, once you pass the shock of seeing wired phones and people researching for hours for something we now find in two clicks. Indeed compared to more recent movies, this one takes its time to properly introduce the characters one at a time, and leaves its actors room to show their talent. Sometimes it feels like Julia Roberts is over-acting but in fact no, she just plays very well someone legitimately traumatized by the loss of a loved one. And the same goes for all the other actors, many of them A-list. The choice of the director, responsible for All the President's Men, is a bit obvious but I find pretty good more for his innate talent and long experience than for his previous success in that precise sub-genre. And such experience was needed to depict a pretty complex story. In a more recent movie you would have some simplifications and flashbacks to keep the modern distracted audience in the game. I am having a hard time finding reasons not to give this movie a higher rating; maybe it is sometimes too slow and theatrical (in the appearances of the hired killer). The fact that I like it very much after all those years speaks for itself. Easy to watch but not in a bad sense, this is probably one of my favorite movies from the 90's, a Cinema decade which excelled at Thrillers, if at nothing else.
Rating: 8 /10

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1987
	Director: J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7, Death Wish 1-5), Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Action, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 02.06.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Paul Kersey (Bronson), ex-Vigilante, now has his own Architect studio in Los Angeles and a new love interest. When her daughter overdoses, Kersey's instincts come back to the surface.
Review: After the best movie of the series Death Wish and the most memorable Death Wish 3, the prospect of watching this one made me feel like they were stretching the concept a bit too long. but when you watch it to the end, it is in fact a valid addition to the franchise, if there is such thing. Exit the punks stealing and murdering for kicks, Kersey now goes against organized crime. The story justifies quite well his return to the streets, and the coincidence that plagues the beginning of the movie like the previous two is cleverly put back into context at the end. The way he returns to the streets is however different, as he has at his disposal a full arsenal of gadgets that he uses to decimate the two rival gangs. This often feels too much, culminating with the explosive bottle of wine, one reducing in particular to ashes the future star debuting in that movie: Danny "Machete" Trejo. As usual we follow in parallel the Police investigation, one of the better shown and including a nice twist. The whole story is in fact well written with the right balance of Action and twists and suspense... and it is well shot by a renowned director. Among the more annoying things are the big ellipse in the side story with Kersey's girl, and the Acting in general but what did you expect? I totally forgot it but I think I have seen this movie once because I was half-expecting the third act. Or I have seen the same story structure in another movie: (spoiler, highlight to read) the hero is tricked into eliminating two rival gangs by a third. Anyway, much better than I was expecting.
Rating: 6 /10

Death Wish 3 (1985)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1985
	Director: Michael Winner (Death Wish 1-2, Scorpio)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7), Deborah Raffin, Ed Lauter
	Country: USA, CDN
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 27.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: Paul Kersey (Bronson) is back to New York after losing his wife here and his daughter in Los Angeles. While visiting an old friend, he quickly dives back into the world of street punks and night Vigilantes...
Review: This movie is the whole reason why I watched the 2018 Death Wish with Bruce Willis and went on to watch the whole original series. It may be the reason for other things in my life as well, since I remember vividly seeing it several times on TV when I was young, far younger than I should have been to ingest concepts like rape, revenge, torture, bad cops, violence, etc as they are shown in 80's Action movies, especially in this one. It may indeed explain my later taste for Action and Horror films... Taken alone, Death Wish 3 is all I remembered. Straight to the point, Kersey is cleaning up the streets with the benediction of the Police, in a succession of brutal yet orchestrated executions, until the whole block burns and he gets a full revenge in a very satisfying ending. Watching it after Death Wish and Death Wish 2 makes you notice some details, and appreciate better the character's background, his mental state and his reactions. But it also makes the series repetitive, albeit for the new generation of ultra-caricatured punks, straight out of Mad Max 2. The murder at the beginning, this movie's motivation for the massacre, is too much of a coincidence, and the death of (spoiler, highlight to read) his love interest close to the end is quite useless. Just to introduce a female character in this very male movie. And in all honesty the actors are not very good and are really showing off, including Bronson. Still, I jiggled at several moments which I had forgotten but which are classics like the arrival of Kersey's friend Wildey or the final team-up with the cop. Objectively a purely exploitation not so good movie, but for me one of my first strong cinema memories, a movie I will never forget.
Rating: 6 /10

Scorpio (1973)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1973
	Director: Michael Winner (Death Wish 1-3)
	Actors: Burt Lancaster (Airport, The Island of Dr. Moreau), Alain Delon (3 hommes à abattre, Pour la peau d'un flic), Paul Scofield
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 24.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Back from a mission in Paris, CIA operative Cross (Lancaster) and his partner Scorpio (Delon) are trailed, but don't want to report to the Agency.
Review: I am currently in the mood for 70's movies after watching Death Wish with Charles Bronson. The same director led me to this Scorpio which I thought I had heard about. Its peculiarity is that it stars two monsters of Cinema at the time, like there were in that period: Burt Lancaster in the USA and Alain Delon in France and a bit abroad. It is interesting that like their characters, one is at the end of his career while the other is about to reach the top. This cast doesn't lead to a fight of egos like I was expecting, although they do get all the screen time. The story is one like we don't see nowadays, one taking place during the Cold War and when the memory of WWII was still warm. And the depiction of spies from that time was not the same as we see now in any Mission: Impossible. In this movie the CIA seems all-powerful, while leaving a lot of freedom to mini-leaders in the Organization to fight their own wars, like is the case with this McLeod who wants the main characters dead. The motivation of everybody is a bit obscure, making the movie hard to follow (also because of many names not well introduced). The movie is ambitious, taking place in as many locations as Paris, Washington and Vienna. And it tries to make the characters relatable. It is good-looking in general, but in the end I found it too confused to me. Scorpio leaves many things unexplained to strengthen the Mystery, but this left me uninterested.
Rating: 4 /10

Death Wish 2 (1982)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1982
	Director: Michael Winner (Scorpio, Death Wish 1-3)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7), Jill Ireland (The Mechanic), Vincent Gardenia
	Country: USA, CDN
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 21.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: After his Vigilante actions in New York, Paul Kersey (Bronson) now lives in Los Angeles. Fate follows him when his house is attacked again and his daughter kidnapped.
Review: After the pleasant surprise of the first Death Wish movie, I waited a few days to watch this sequel because the first one made a strong impression on me and I feared that watching too many revenge/vigilante movies in a row would feel repetitive. Fortunately this didn't happen and I didn't have any nightmares after this one. Unfortunately, it is because the movie is pretty bad. It was released 8 years after the first one, comes from the same director but has all the characteristics of a sequel produced too late (see my discussion about that in the post about Bad Boys for Life) by a team not inspired. It is not as dark, it was lazily shot in L.A. close to Hollywood, the bad guys are not threatening but almost laughable (special mention to Laurence "Morpheus from The Matrix" Fishburne who is not so bad for one), the cinematography looks like the one of a tele-film (I had to look up to make sure it was not shot in a less wide format than the first), the music is too present and most of the time misplaced, the story totally predictable and boring and the characters as well. It gets slightly better in the second half with a more obsessed Paul Kersey behaving like I didn't expect. As I wrote, the soundtrack (by Jimmy Page, who did this one song with Puff Daddy for the 1998 Godzilla) is bad except for one theme (when Kersey is hunting) which I seem to know, likely not from the first movie but from the third. This is a bad action movie from the 80's playing on the success of the first and its main Actor. I predict that it will get better with the third movie which is the only one I knew, before it gets worse, or at least bad again.
Rating: 3 /10

Death Wish (1974)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1974
	Director: Michael Winner (Scorpio, Death Wish 2-3)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7), Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 17.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: New York City architect Paul Kersey (Bronson) sees his life changing when his home is attacked in his absence. Facing the inefficiency of the Justice system, he will start to take it in his own hands.
Review: I had to watch this classic movie right after discovering the 2018 remake with Bruce Willis. It shocks me that movies from the 70's, probably my favorite decade for Cinema, are now between 40 and 50 years old... like me. When I first saw them they were half that age, and me too. I thought I knew this movie but I learned that there are five in the series and I probably only know the third (from 1986), when he cleans up a whole city from gangs Robocop-style. This Death Wish, adapted from a best-seller novel by Brian Garfield, is much less extravagant but already sets the bases of the series of vigilante movies, in its story and themes but also style: many urban night scenes, rampant unpunished crime, background newscasts, almost post-apocalyptic settings... But it also has many deviations from what one would expect, like for example the trip to Tucson, the relationship with his son-in-law (who calls him Dad, that sounded strange to me), and the choices of his victims. Indeed in this movie he teases random people with his wallet or groceries, to simply execute them when they ask for it. Those are not even gang members or the worst criminals, but some guys who got tempted by easy money. This leaves a strange taste at the end of the movie, and put a different weight in the debate for or against his Vigilante Justice. Also the original crime happens so fast and is so gratuitous, and (spoiler, highlight to read) we never see the offenders again (including a young Jeff Goldblum) that it leaves you insecure at the end of the movie. I do not know if people felt that bad about safety in their cities in the 70's, but such movie doesn't paint a pretty picture of it. I found the acting to be not so good, Bronson plays a bit flat as the others, and the character's reactions are sometimes strange. But it may be normal for a movie from that period. The images however are stunning, from the first shot to the last. Be it beach, urban, interior or countryside, the sets are all beautifully detailed and the framing delicious. I really love that in the 70's and was delighted to see the movie in Full HD and uncompressed, not the soup that Netflix passed for HD. Definitely not a masterpiece, but Death Wish takes a stand that movies don't anymore nowadays, especially not his remake, and that leaves the audience with a strange feeling at the end, something that lingers for some hours. I like when movies do that and they are now all too rare. I am also looking forward to seeing more movies by Michael Winner like Scorpio.
Rating: 7 /10