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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BLACK COBRA 3: Manila Connection (1990): "Detective Robert Malone is a tough cop that trouble always seems to find. A group of high tech international criminals ar wreaking havoc upon the world and their seems to be no hope of stopping them. Interpol is looking for someone to stop the tide of terror and think that Detective Malone is the man for the job."
Malone is working for the Chicago police as the movie opens, but I missed Black Cobra 2 so I have no idea how or why he's there instead of New York City. Apparently, "Black Cobra" is a five-film series. (Who knew?) It's funny... I was alive in the late '80s/early '90s, but I have no recollection of this film series whatsoever. Ostensibly, "Black Cobra" was the name of the motorcycle gang in the first, but now I suppose it applies to Malone himdelf (although no one calls him that). There an actualy martial arts Black Cobra movies (2012), and I was wondering if that's what the compilers of this set were hoping purchasers would think this was.
STAR WARS - "Star Wars" - "The Empire Strikes Back" - "Return of the Jedi"
It's been a while since I've seen these (although not as long as I thought). I just finished re-reading the novelizations, so I thought I'd re-watch the movies themselves while the books are still fresh in my mind. I have a boxed set of the original version trilogy (i.e., without the special effects added in the '90s) on widescreen VHS. I didn't think Tracy and I had ever watched them together before, but she assured me that we had. She also said, "At least you don't have to spent too much time writing these up on the board."
CHASE STEP BY STEP (1982): "A box of gold intended for drought relief in a far province is being transported through dangerous territory by a man and woman with remarkable martial arts skills. Word of the shipment gets out to all sorts of nefarious charactes, who intent on stopping the shipment and taking the gold for themselves. As each grouop attempts to take the gold, the amazing duo fights them off."
The "man and woman with remarkable martial arts skills" are actually acrobats, hired from a troup of performers. They stumble into one situation after another. The woman is somewhat jealous of the man although they are not a couple. When they finally do deliver the gold to the intended recipients, there are still 20 minutes left in the film. They are eager to get the gold off their hands, and fail to immediately get a receipt at first because they want to visit friends at a nearby acrobatic school. It's a good thing (I guess) that they stayed on an extra day, because they then must save the gold from unscrupulous officials before they can get their receipt. (This must be the lightest gold ever; it's obviously an empty box which the push aropund on a wheelbarrow-like cart.) This movie could really have benefitted from a "Dr. Monkey."
DEADLY DUO (1971): "A prince of the Sung Dynasty has been taken prisoner by Ching invaders and is being held in an impenetrable fortress by elite men of the Ching. A group of fighters loyal to the Sung set out on a treacherous journey to the fortress in order to free the prince. A mysterious stranger is recruited to accompany the fighters to help them gain access to the fortress."
Is that what this movie was about? Because Tracy and I just watched it for an hour and a half and neither one of us could make head nor tail of it.
Holy crap! I just realized when I went to pull the trailer: that is the movie described in the capsule summary, but it is not the movie we just watched!
THIS is the movie we just watched (another "bait and switch").
NINJA CHAMPION (1985): "A woman is savagely attacked by three men while on a camping trip and she seeks revenge for the assault. Finding out the men were diamond smugglers, the woman goes undercover as a dealer of stolen goods in order to track her attackers down. Seeking some assistance in her search, she enlists the help of her ex-husband, an Interpol agent, to help on the case."
That summary is not exactly what happens... but it's close to what we are supposed to think is happening. For one thing, the Interpol agent is not her ex-husband, it's her ex-lover. After she is raped, he abandons her, marries someone else, then decides he wants her back. And she didn't exactly seek out his help; he found her and offered it. She accepted, but tells him up front that she plans to kill him for abandoning her after she kills the three rapists. It's a pretty convoluted plot (there's also an identical twin involved), yet it's easier to follow than whatever happened in Deadly Duo. Toward the very end, there is a fight between two opposing ninja masters who explain all of the backstory in an expository fight scene. It's entertaining, and so bad it's good.
[You'll hear a few notes from John Williams' Star Wars in that opeing fanfare, but not enough to be sued over, I guess (if Lucasfilms was even aware). Similarly, the soundtrack also samples some Pink Floyd from Dark Side of the Moon at one point.]
AntiDiva: The Carole Pope Confessions (2026): A profile of the queer/Canadian/musical/punk icon, still active with various art forms as she heads into her eightieth year. I had three of Rough Trade's albums in the 1980s. Despite one of their songs becoming a hit in the U.S. and a brief time opening for David Bowie, the band and its notorious singer/songwriter mostly remained famous in Canada. The influence-- and Carole's international cult following-- has proven more pervasive.
The Pig Farm (2011): a rather average documentary on Canada's most prolific serial killer, which gives us a sense of the investigation, its pitfalls, and the number of people who knew something was up, but very little insight into Pickton himself. He may be ultimately incomprehensible, but what we do know, as with the Green River Killer, demolishes the notion of serial killers as disturbed geniuses. These were dull, inadequate men. They remained undetected for years because they lack understandable motives, and because society often disregards the people on whom they preyed.
Silence aka Dead Silence aka The Lone Witness (2002)
Chasing a kitten, a nine-year-old girl accidentally witnesses a political murder in a parking garage. The killer is played by Vladimir Kulich (Vikings and The Beast in the Angel series). The leads are Kristy Swanson (the O.G. Buffy) and Vincent Spano. Also with Bruce Boxleitner and the great Tony Todd. The young girl witness was played by the recently deceased Daveigh Chase. All of the parts are well written, well cast and well acted.
Replies
Do police departments have special "Seems to Make Theirs Own Rules" tests that you have to pass in order to qualfy for that status?
BLACK COBRA 3: Manila Connection (1990): "Detective Robert Malone is a tough cop that trouble always seems to find. A group of high tech international criminals ar wreaking havoc upon the world and their seems to be no hope of stopping them. Interpol is looking for someone to stop the tide of terror and think that Detective Malone is the man for the job."
Malone is working for the Chicago police as the movie opens, but I missed Black Cobra 2 so I have no idea how or why he's there instead of New York City. Apparently, "Black Cobra" is a five-film series. (Who knew?) It's funny... I was alive in the late '80s/early '90s, but I have no recollection of this film series whatsoever. Ostensibly, "Black Cobra" was the name of the motorcycle gang in the first, but now I suppose it applies to Malone himdelf (although no one calls him that). There an actualy martial arts Black Cobra movies (2012), and I was wondering if that's what the compilers of this set were hoping purchasers would think this was.
STAR WARS - "Star Wars" - "The Empire Strikes Back" - "Return of the Jedi"
It's been a while since I've seen these (although not as long as I thought). I just finished re-reading the novelizations, so I thought I'd re-watch the movies themselves while the books are still fresh in my mind. I have a boxed set of the original version trilogy (i.e., without the special effects added in the '90s) on widescreen VHS. I didn't think Tracy and I had ever watched them together before, but she assured me that we had. She also said, "At least you don't have to spent too much time writing these up on the board."
Back in the day, me and a handful of my friends would watch these three movies every summer.
The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J July 19, 2026 at 9:59pm
Do police departments have special "Seems to Make Theirs Own Rules" tests that you have to pass in order to qualfy for that status?
QUALIFIED IMMUNITY OR ABSOLUTE SHIELD?
The Supreme Court Gives Police a Green Light to ‘Shoot First and Th...
Back to martial arts...
CHASE STEP BY STEP (1982): "A box of gold intended for drought relief in a far province is being transported through dangerous territory by a man and woman with remarkable martial arts skills. Word of the shipment gets out to all sorts of nefarious charactes, who intent on stopping the shipment and taking the gold for themselves. As each grouop attempts to take the gold, the amazing duo fights them off."
The "man and woman with remarkable martial arts skills" are actually acrobats, hired from a troup of performers. They stumble into one situation after another. The woman is somewhat jealous of the man although they are not a couple. When they finally do deliver the gold to the intended recipients, there are still 20 minutes left in the film. They are eager to get the gold off their hands, and fail to immediately get a receipt at first because they want to visit friends at a nearby acrobatic school. It's a good thing (I guess) that they stayed on an extra day, because they then must save the gold from unscrupulous officials before they can get their receipt. (This must be the lightest gold ever; it's obviously an empty box which the push aropund on a wheelbarrow-like cart.) This movie could really have benefitted from a "Dr. Monkey."
TRAILER
DEADLY DUO (1971): "A prince of the Sung Dynasty has been taken prisoner by Ching invaders and is being held in an impenetrable fortress by elite men of the Ching. A group of fighters loyal to the Sung set out on a treacherous journey to the fortress in order to free the prince. A mysterious stranger is recruited to accompany the fighters to help them gain access to the fortress."
Is that what this movie was about? Because Tracy and I just watched it for an hour and a half and neither one of us could make head nor tail of it.
TRAILER
Holy crap! I just realized when I went to pull the trailer: that is the movie described in the capsule summary, but it is not the movie we just watched!
THIS is the movie we just watched (another "bait and switch").
This is NOT the correct movie poster.
NINJA CHAMPION (1985): "A woman is savagely attacked by three men while on a camping trip and she seeks revenge for the assault. Finding out the men were diamond smugglers, the woman goes undercover as a dealer of stolen goods in order to track her attackers down. Seeking some assistance in her search, she enlists the help of her ex-husband, an Interpol agent, to help on the case."
That summary is not exactly what happens... but it's close to what we are supposed to think is happening. For one thing, the Interpol agent is not her ex-husband, it's her ex-lover. After she is raped, he abandons her, marries someone else, then decides he wants her back. And she didn't exactly seek out his help; he found her and offered it. She accepted, but tells him up front that she plans to kill him for abandoning her after she kills the three rapists. It's a pretty convoluted plot (there's also an identical twin involved), yet it's easier to follow than whatever happened in Deadly Duo. Toward the very end, there is a fight between two opposing ninja masters who explain all of the backstory in an expository fight scene. It's entertaining, and so bad it's good.
TRAILER
[You'll hear a few notes from John Williams' Star Wars in that opeing fanfare, but not enough to be sued over, I guess (if Lucasfilms was even aware). Similarly, the soundtrack also samples some Pink Floyd from Dark Side of the Moon at one point.]
Canadian Content Warning!
AntiDiva: The Carole Pope Confessions (2026): A profile of the queer/Canadian/musical/punk icon, still active with various art forms as she heads into her eightieth year. I had three of Rough Trade's albums in the 1980s. Despite one of their songs becoming a hit in the U.S. and a brief time opening for David Bowie, the band and its notorious singer/songwriter mostly remained famous in Canada. The influence-- and Carole's international cult following-- has proven more pervasive.
The Pig Farm (2011): a rather average documentary on Canada's most prolific serial killer, which gives us a sense of the investigation, its pitfalls, and the number of people who knew something was up, but very little insight into Pickton himself. He may be ultimately incomprehensible, but what we do know, as with the Green River Killer, demolishes the notion of serial killers as disturbed geniuses. These were dull, inadequate men. They remained undetected for years because they lack understandable motives, and because society often disregards the people on whom they preyed.
Silence aka Dead Silence aka The Lone Witness (2002)
Chasing a kitten, a nine-year-old girl accidentally witnesses a political murder in a parking garage. The killer is played by Vladimir Kulich (Vikings and The Beast in the Angel series). The leads are Kristy Swanson (the O.G. Buffy) and Vincent Spano. Also with Bruce Boxleitner and the great Tony Todd. The young girl witness was played by the recently deceased Daveigh Chase. All of the parts are well written, well cast and well acted.
TRAILER
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