A pointer toward Art Kabuki (2021)

This is a filmed record of a live performance of a live show in Japan that was canceled when covid locked everything down. Instead of giving up the performers filmed the show and the result is a magnificent filmed record. 

If you like traditional Japanese style theater with a modern twinge this film will delight you. I absolutely loved the film and replayed several sections because it just amazed me. 

Forgive me for not saying more, this is more a filmed performance than a straight film. Yes it takes advantage of the film  medium but if you don't like watching live shows on a screen this won't work for you, on the other hand if you want to see something really cool give it a shot.

Brief word on RÖCKËT STÄHR'S DEATH OF A ROCKSTAR (2020) Fantaspoa 2021

 

In the future when rock and roll is banned, a scientist clones a rockstar in the hope of sparking a revolution but things go wrong.

I'll give writer director Rocket Stahr points for trying but I won't give him much more because while DEATH OF A ROCKSTAR isn't DOA it really doesn't work. A rock musical, where the music really is heavy metal rock the film suffers from the fact that the vocals are of often of the screaming variety. The result is it is often difficult to know what exactly is being sung, a fact Stahr seems to acknowledge by having most of the lyrics appear on screen in cartoon balloons. It grows tiring fast and coupled with the limited animation style the film never really connects.

While I find bits of the plotting interesting and the visuals often arresting, there just isn't enough here to make it worth seeing unless you are an animation junkie.

Brief thoughts on KONTORA (2020) Fantaspoa 2021

 

After her grandfather dies a young girl is sent on a quest to find a hidden treasure in the nearby woods. At the same time she tries to reconnect with her fractured family and to make sense of the strange man who only travels backward.

This is a good, is a bit over long (it runs just shy of two and a half hours) coming of age/ fractured family drama.  It is a film that manages to create some very real moments despite  some odd  moments and the weird backwards walking man. It is a satisfying blend of real and magically real

I suspect that one of the reasons the film works, and manages to stay out of cliched territory is the fact the film was largely improvised by the cast of on-actors and theater people. Not being paid storytellers allowed them to move freely with in the framework they were given.

Worth a look for anyone who doesn't want a stereotypical drama.

Cemetery of the Lost Souls (2020) Fantaspoa 2021

 

A blind monk is writing a book at the request of Satan. The Inquisition takes the book and tortures the monk to death for good measure. A Jesuit priest kills the inquisitor and steals the book high tailing it to the new world. When the ship is caught in a bad storm the Jesuit uses the power of the book to save himself and the sailors everyone on the boat. However it is a bargain made in hell and they need blood every full moon. From there the Jesuit and the sailors come into conflict with the locals and a traveling band of performers.

Violence happens, blood flows, monsters walk the earth and all is right with the world.

An insane and often balls to the wall horror film this is a ride that manages to delight for most of it’s running time. This film is largely a grand trip into the supernatural monster territory, sure the film can wander about a bit but when the film is firing on all cylinders its a blast.

What I love about this film is that it is clear that the filmmakers are clearly having a good time. They are telling a wild and crazy horror comic book story and enjoying the hell out of it. Normally the flashy “look at me” style of filmmaking gets in the way of my enjoying a film, but here the style marries perfectly with everything else and I just went along with the ride. It reminds me of some the great Spanish Horror films of the 70’s and some of the Joe Coffin films but with it’s own spin.

I had a blast.

As I said above the film isn’t perfect but the films joys far and away out weigh the problems.

Recommended, especially for anyone who love supernatural horror.

History of the Occult (2020) Fantaspoa 2021

In the style of the famous photo of Alister Crowley

 Let me start by saying that if you want blood and guts and everything up front with jump scares every five minutes look else where. If you want a slow building horror film that sets a mood and then turns it into a pressure cooker this film is for you.

Sixty Minutes Before Midnight, a lived lived late night news program is going off the air. They have made too many enemies and all their advertisers have pulled out. They have one more show to go, this time showing how witchcraft and dark forces are behind the current president. The trouble is they don't have all the pieces and even as the show airs they are scrambling to put them together...which may not be such a good thing.

Moody black and white (except when it's not)  film uses the Academy ratio (except when it doesn't)  to put us in a specific time and place. Watching HISTORY OF THE OCCULT we are some where else at a time not so long ago, or so it seems. This film wants us to feel the shadows and nightmares of midnight and it does so pretty much from the opening frames. This film creates a mood that hangs with you. I watched this film on a sunny afternoon but it was a pitch black midnight when it was done. In all honesty I can not imagine what it would be like to see this film late at night and walking out of a theater on to an empty street. I would probably run to my car or hail a cab. 

The story spins out in subtle ways. It knows we know it's all going to go to hell and it teases us with little things that seem like throwaways to the characters on screen, but which we know mean doom is coming. I found myself talking to the screen a couple of times trying to get someone not to do the thing they are doing. Tension is created by the addition of the little details, many of which only we notice since we are seeing what the scattered characters are experiencing, which is a luxury no one on screen has.

And the fact that this film is, for most of it's running time, all in the details is something that is going to divide audiences. This is a film more akin to the original version of THE HAUNTING, then say SAW or FRIDAY THE 13TH. This is a film that rewards the patient viewer and one that is paying attention to the details and not the set pieces.

I adore this film. 

I love hw the film manipulates the color and images. It starts widescreen then compresses before exploding again at a certain point. Its's all black and white until the red seeps in, almost imperceptibly at first and then more boldly.

HISTORY OF THE OCCULT got under my skin and stayed there. 

HISTORY OF THE OCCULT  is playing Fantaspoa through the 18th and is highly recommended.

A brief look at One Grave For Three Men (2021) Fantasposa 2021 (Brief because you just need to see it)

ONE GRAVE FOR THREE MEN is a blast.

I knew nothing about the film before watching it and I am so glad. This is a twisty crime comedy cum a few things I can't mention lest I give stuff away that goes off in all sorts of unexpected directions. Trust me on this one, the less you know the better.

The basic plot has a mob soldier getting pulled out of bed by two compatriots. The boss wants him to clean up a mess (ie remove someone) ASAP. The trouble is he is on vacation, or was. He goes off with his friends to take care of the problem and then it all goes horribly wrong. Every turn causes ripples and complications

I laughed uncomfortably at every turn of the screws. I also delighted at every unexpected turn of the plot. I had no clue where this was going. I only had a sense that it was going to get worse  before it ended.

What an absolute joy.

This is one of the films I am always hoping to find- something coming out of nowhere and surprising the hell out of me. This is why I continue  doing Unseen Films.

One of the great finds of the year.

Highly recommended.

(And no I am not going to say more because you have to see the twists for yourself)

The Great Leap (2021) Fantaspoa 2021

THE GREAT LEAP haunts me. It is the first film in a very long time that when it ended had me staring at the screen wondering what the hell I had just seen and itching to see it again. It is a film that I didn’t have any sort of an opinion of, however I was absolutely delighted that the film that I had encountered a film that challenged me and forced me to not only work with it but also to consider what it was trying to tell me. I adored that here was a film that was the best of all possible films, one that plays by its own rules and shakes up what I think of as cinema.

The plot of the film has a woman contacted by the brother of her ex-husband. It seems that ten years earlier she had given birth to a deformed child with a big head. Everyone thought there was something wrong but the hospital wouldn’t kill the sickly infant. The father and his brother then took the baby into the desert with the intention of burying it alive. However they couldn’t find it in themselves to do so and gave the child to an old woman, sending her money for his care. Now the woman has died and no one wants to care for the child. Heading off with her ex-brother in law the woman goes to find the child she thought was dead.

What follows is a mystical journey that is largely unlike anything you’ve seen before. Sure there are echoes of other road films and quest films but filmmaker Karim Lakzadeh bends things for his own purposes. The result is a film that feels one of a kind. In trying to describe the film I keep wanting to say that “it is kind of like X, but not really”. What ever X I come up with is only a poor approximation of the way things really are.

The bitch about THE GREAT LEAP is I am still processing it but I need to get a review up because the film is playing right now at the Fantaspoa Film Festival. I am torn between being able to write the film up and do it justice but at the same time waiting until I have the correct words might prevent you from seeing the film before the festival ends. If you love off the beaten path films you NEED to see this film.

Right now I know  I definitely like the film, hell I watched it twice in twelve hours, however I am still unpacking it. I’m desperately trying to get distance from it but I can’t seem to do that. The final sequence is playing over and over in my brain. I don’t know why.  At a time when so many films are things that I watch, then write up before completely forgetting, THE GREAT LEAP is a film I can’t shake- hell I’ve watched it twice more or less in a row. I rarely do that.

Ultimately I highly recommend THE GREAT LEAP to anyone who wants a film that is unlike any other, which is most of the regular readers of Unseen Films. I also recommend it to adventurous film goers and anyone who doesn’t want all the answers or a Hollywood style film.

THE GREAT LEAP is streaming for free at the Fantaspoa Film Festival (which is geo-locked for Brazil)

Dancing Mary (2020) Fantaspoa 2021

Sabu comes through yet again with one the  truly great films of 2020. 

This time out Sabu returns to two sorts of stories that he is really good at portraying, notions of Karma and destiny (look at his early body of work) and romances (look at Chasuke's Journey). However this time out he mixes things up with horror, comedy, gangster films and a few other things as well. The result is a film that delighted the hell out of me and explains why Sabu is one of my favorite directors working in the world.

Mixing Romance and philosophy with horror comedy yakuza films and a touch of samurai, Dancing Mary is about a haunted dance hall that everyone is afraid to tear down. The ghost won’t let anyone work on demolishing the place and psychics who try to get to the bottom of it end up in the hospital. A low level guy in the construction company is tasked with sorting it out before his bosses have the yakuza destroy the building for them. Finding the right psychic he discovers Mary refuses to leave because she is waiting for her lost love. The pair then has to run down the missing lover if they want to put Mary to rest.

This film is a joy. From start to finish, top to bottom this film just delights with each turn. Sabu, a master of the mash up does what he does, which is tell his story, his way with out worrying if it’s crossing genres. Having spoken with the director on several occasions he has made it clear genre doesn’t matter, the story does. He tells the story and lets it go where and how it has to. As with most of his films this always results in something magical and glorious.

Frankly films like this are the reason I love the movies. Film directors and artists like Sabu are the reason that I still hold out hope for mankind, because through their work they show the true nature of the human condition.

Highly recommended, this was one of favorite films of 2020