Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.
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Logan's Run was popular among my peers when I was in junior high school. I hadn't seen the movie, but I did watch the television show spin-off (sometime between Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica). It wasn't very good (as I recall), but I wasn't about to let that stop me. Before too long I did get the opportunity to see the movie (on TV), but I haven't seen it for 50 years. It's not exactly hard science fiction (although I hear the novel it's based on is quite different), but it's a great movie for a 12-year-old to see. (Farrah Fawcett is in it, too, which also added to its cachet at the time.) Back then I probably identified with Michael York's character (if I identified with any at all), but today I gravitate toward Peter Ustinov's. I was quite surprised to see that the climatic scene is set in the Fort Worth Water Gardens (which I wouldn't have known about in 1970-something), transported to Washington, D.C. and filmed against a matte painting.
I also might have asked myself, in "1970-something," what happened to the reflecting pool, but now we know.
JD DeLuzio > Jeff of Earth-JJuly 30, 2026 at 7:45am
I've watched this movie at least four times in my life, including one horrible tv edit (back in the days of tv edits) that censored the hell out of the scene where we learn the truth about Sanctuary, because there are nude/ish bodies visible in the background, thus reducing the movie to nonsense.
Ustinov was still great.
It was a bit of a bonding moment when my wife and I (while dating) realized that we both had fond memories of this very 70s, lowish-budget, but still appealing film. Among other things, I admire seeing the ways they were able to make this on a relatively small budget. The filmmakers used soundstages, yes, but they relied heavily on actual "futuristic"-looking locations in California and Texas, including a new shopping mall.
You didn't miss much. It's basically a "man-on-the-run" type show, with Logan and Jessica barely staying a step ahead of Francis each time. It lasted 14 episodes. There is one exchange remember that I thought was from the movie but may have been from the TV show. Logan (or Jessica) asks the Old Man if he's much past 30, and he chuckles, "I'm twice 30 and then some." (I don't know why that line has stuck in my head all these years but it has.)
...one horrible tv edit (back in the days of tv edits) that censored the hell out of the scene where we learn the truth about Sanctuary, because there are nude/ish bodies visible in the background...
Having seen only a 'horrible tv edit," the (brief, tasteful) nudity came as a surprise to me (albeit a pleasant one).
I admire seeing the ways they were able to make this on a relatively small budget.
According to Wikipedia: "The film won a Special Acadamy Award for its visual effects and six Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film.
I didn't know they spent that much! That granted, compare it to current SF films, even with adjustments for inflation. And both Star Wars, a year later, and Space Odyssey, made in '68, cost more. Of course, successful movies made for $1 million were still a thing in the 1970s.
When I re-watched Logan's Run a few years ago, I was really taken with how the movie basically invented the concept of Tindr and Grindr with a hologram/teleporter extension to get the date underway right away!
I've been reading about the Logan's Run books and the TV show online, and was reminded of the fact that Logan was played by Gregory Harrison, who later went on to play Gonzo Gates on Trapper John, M.D. (It occurs to me there was a time I would have remembered that off the top of my head, but that information had been pushed out of my head by something more important else.)
SPIRITS OF BRUCE LEE (1980): "Two brothers own a jade importing business and when one brother disappears on a buying trip to Thailand, the other sets out to find him. When he arrives in the village his brother was last near, he helps a stranger defeat a band of thugs harassing the locals. Deciding to partner up to find the missing man, the brother and the stranger soon discover the missing brother was killed by a local gangster so the two men decide to seek revenge."
This is potentially the most boring movie Tracy and I have ever seen. It is bad actors reciting banal dialogue. [Perhaps I am being unfair. Maybe it suffers in translation, and only the voice actors are bad. In Chinese, it may be the most brilliant cinema ever recorded. Nah...] The first half of the movie is the one brother asking everyione he encounters about his missing sibling. The second half of the movie has more fights, but it's no less boring. The capsule summary doesn't mention it, but he also teams up with a family consiting an old man, his hot daughter and his overweight, comic relief son. That's an hour and a half we'll never get back. The title is a blatant (and dishonest) attempt to put butts in seats.
This SCENE will give you an idea. This is the gang who killed the brother a year earlier. The guy who appears at 1:39 is the stranger, the guy at 2:15 is the other brother.
CITY NINJA (1986): "During World War II, a valuable pendant was taken into holding to protect it from those who would use it for evil. Years later, men are still trying to retrieve the pendant, now separaterd into two parts for safekeeping, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. A young tournament fighter who is traveling to a big event unwittingly becomes involved in the recovery of the mysterious pendant."
City Ninja is no less boring than Spirits of Bruce Lee, but it is much more violent and has a ton of gratuitous sex and nudity. In fact, the scenes alternate pretty much back and forth between violence and sex (including two back-to-back shower scenes), with little more dialogue than your average Fleisher Popeye cartoon.
This SCENE (the only one I could find) is merely the opening antecedant action and is not representative of the movie.
Replies
LOGAN'S RUN (1976):
Logan's Run was popular among my peers when I was in junior high school. I hadn't seen the movie, but I did watch the television show spin-off (sometime between Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica). It wasn't very good (as I recall), but I wasn't about to let that stop me. Before too long I did get the opportunity to see the movie (on TV), but I haven't seen it for 50 years. It's not exactly hard science fiction (although I hear the novel it's based on is quite different), but it's a great movie for a 12-year-old to see. (Farrah Fawcett is in it, too, which also added to its cachet at the time.) Back then I probably identified with Michael York's character (if I identified with any at all), but today I gravitate toward Peter Ustinov's. I was quite surprised to see that the climatic scene is set in the Fort Worth Water Gardens (which I wouldn't have known about in 1970-something), transported to Washington, D.C. and filmed against a matte painting.
I also might have asked myself, in "1970-something," what happened to the reflecting pool, but now we know.
I've watched this movie at least four times in my life, including one horrible tv edit (back in the days of tv edits) that censored the hell out of the scene where we learn the truth about Sanctuary, because there are nude/ish bodies visible in the background, thus reducing the movie to nonsense.
Ustinov was still great.
It was a bit of a bonding moment when my wife and I (while dating) realized that we both had fond memories of this very 70s, lowish-budget, but still appealing film. Among other things, I admire seeing the ways they were able to make this on a relatively small budget. The filmmakers used soundstages, yes, but they relied heavily on actual "futuristic"-looking locations in California and Texas, including a new shopping mall.
I knew there was a show, but never watched it.
I knew there was a show, but never watched it.
You didn't miss much. It's basically a "man-on-the-run" type show, with Logan and Jessica barely staying a step ahead of Francis each time. It lasted 14 episodes. There is one exchange remember that I thought was from the movie but may have been from the TV show. Logan (or Jessica) asks the Old Man if he's much past 30, and he chuckles, "I'm twice 30 and then some." (I don't know why that line has stuck in my head all these years but it has.)
...one horrible tv edit (back in the days of tv edits) that censored the hell out of the scene where we learn the truth about Sanctuary, because there are nude/ish bodies visible in the background...
Having seen only a 'horrible tv edit," the (brief, tasteful) nudity came as a surprise to me (albeit a pleasant one).
I admire seeing the ways they were able to make this on a relatively small budget.
According to Wikipedia: "The film won a Special Acadamy Award for its visual effects and six Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film.
Actually the film had a large budget. Here is what Google's AI had to say
The Carousel scene was very complicated to pull off
I didn't know they spent that much! That granted, compare it to current SF films, even with adjustments for inflation. And both Star Wars, a year later, and Space Odyssey, made in '68, cost more. Of course, successful movies made for $1 million were still a thing in the 1970s.
The TV show added a character, Rem who was an android ten years before Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Marvel published a seven issue Logan's Run comic in 1976-77, now remembered solely because #6 (Ju'77) had a Thanos backup though not by Jim Starlin.
When I re-watched Logan's Run a few years ago, I was really taken with how the movie basically invented the concept of Tindr and Grindr with a hologram/teleporter extension to get the date underway right away!
I've been reading about the Logan's Run books and the TV show online, and was reminded of the fact that Logan was played by Gregory Harrison, who later went on to play Gonzo Gates on Trapper John, M.D. (It occurs to me there was a time I would have remembered that off the top of my head, but that information had been pushed out of my head by something more important else.)
Back to the martial arts...
SPIRITS OF BRUCE LEE (1980): "Two brothers own a jade importing business and when one brother disappears on a buying trip to Thailand, the other sets out to find him. When he arrives in the village his brother was last near, he helps a stranger defeat a band of thugs harassing the locals. Deciding to partner up to find the missing man, the brother and the stranger soon discover the missing brother was killed by a local gangster so the two men decide to seek revenge."
This is potentially the most boring movie Tracy and I have ever seen. It is bad actors reciting banal dialogue. [Perhaps I am being unfair. Maybe it suffers in translation, and only the voice actors are bad. In Chinese, it may be the most brilliant cinema ever recorded. Nah...] The first half of the movie is the one brother asking everyione he encounters about his missing sibling. The second half of the movie has more fights, but it's no less boring. The capsule summary doesn't mention it, but he also teams up with a family consiting an old man, his hot daughter and his overweight, comic relief son. That's an hour and a half we'll never get back. The title is a blatant (and dishonest) attempt to put butts in seats.
This SCENE will give you an idea. This is the gang who killed the brother a year earlier. The guy who appears at 1:39 is the stranger, the guy at 2:15 is the other brother.
CITY NINJA (1986): "During World War II, a valuable pendant was taken into holding to protect it from those who would use it for evil. Years later, men are still trying to retrieve the pendant, now separaterd into two parts for safekeeping, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. A young tournament fighter who is traveling to a big event unwittingly becomes involved in the recovery of the mysterious pendant."
City Ninja is no less boring than Spirits of Bruce Lee, but it is much more violent and has a ton of gratuitous sex and nudity. In fact, the scenes alternate pretty much back and forth between violence and sex (including two back-to-back shower scenes), with little more dialogue than your average Fleisher Popeye cartoon.
This SCENE (the only one I could find) is merely the opening antecedant action and is not representative of the movie.
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