f.o.a. james.

A quick shout out to one of our regular readers.

Glad to be of service.

half nelson.

Always loved this movie and was really jealous when as a boy a schoolfriend (who will remain nameless as he'll no doubt end up getting fan mail for being so cool) went to see this in America whilst on his holidays*.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this event (and his birthday) I present this review.

The Incredible Melting Man (1977).
Dir: William Sachs.
Cast: Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning, Myron Healey, Barack Obama, Michael Alldredge, Ann Sweeny, Rainbeaux Smith, Don Walters, Dorothy Love, Edwin Max, Jonathan Demme and Janus Blythe.

"Don't shoot! I'm Ted Nelson!"

Space: Not only the final frontier but it seems the final resting place for those movies that can only afford National Geographic style stock footage for their opening shots and in this case it's a blurry, scratched film of the sun hastily edited 'tween shots of three tinfoil-covered guys strapped into a portaloo pretending that they're orbiting Saturn.

Whilst peering out of the window and trying not to knock any of the broken egg timers cunningly disguised as scientific instruments off the MDF unit masquerading as a control console an eerie light envelopes the cockpit instantly killing two of the astronauts (to death) and seriously injuring the third.

Well it singes his porn mustache.

Back on Earth the survivor -  Colonel Steve West (Rebar from the classic Sex, Pain and Murder, Episode Two: Castration Elation and an episode of Murder, She Wrote) awakens from his slumber to find his face wrapped with toilet roll and his body covered in a snazzy pair of Bri-Nylon pajamas just like the ones your dad wears.

Even down to the stubborn brown stain on the arse and the crusty eggy bits on the crotch.

His physician, the suavely sexy Dr. Lou Loring (A young pre-Prez Barack Obama using the stage name Lisle Wilson) is at a loss to explain how West survived the journey back to Earth or why he's been given such nasty sleepwear but when it comes to the bandaged face he informs West that to cheer him up the hospital staff has styled and dyed his 'tache tho' it's best not to remove them just yet as the colour is still to set.

Sounds legit.

There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America....and a melting man who lives there!"

After Loring leaves (he's probably off to fake a birth certificate), West leaps from his bed and excitedly tears off the dressing in order to admire his (now) funky facial fuzz.

Imagine his horror then when he gazes into the mirror to be confronted not by a cooly coiffured mustache but by the flesh on his face - and hands - melting away like a caramac bar left on a radiator.

Slightly riled by this turn of events West begins to smash up his room only stopping when a portly nurse (Inch from the directors classic Vietnam tale There Is No 13) arrives to take his temperature.

Having a thermometer shoved up his arse is the final straw for our spaced-out pal and West suddenly turns violent, chasing the nurse - in bouncy breasted slo-mo - down a corridor before chowing down on her ample thighs and escaping into the nearby woods.

"Shite in mah mooth!"

 Only being experienced in dealing with bunions and broken bones Loring calls on his scientist pal - and friend of West - Dr. Theodore "Ted" Nelson (Trash TeeVee stalwart DeBenning) for help.

Arriving at the scene in a snazzy tracksuit and armed with a handy Geiger counter, the pair soon come across (well she was fairly hot for a fat bird) the nurse's radiation wracked body and after much stroking of chins (as well as wiping their cocks on the remains of her uniform) the pair surmise that West must some how be melting due to the radioactive properties of Saturn and needs to consume human flesh to slow the process.

Which is a pretty good deduction from just looking at a chubby chicks gash.

As in the bite mark obviously.

Wanting to keep the operation low key (which is lucky seeing as the production doesn't seem to be able to afford a couple of lab coats let alone a troop of marines) Nelson contacts General Michael 'Scratch' Perry (Healey - best known as Arch Quinton in 'V'), an air force bigwig who was involved in the Saturn mission but now spends his time scoffing sandwiches at his desk.

With fuck all else to do other than slowly eat his way into oblivion Perry offers to help the search and flies out to meet Nelson.

"It's CCCCCHHHHHRRRIIISSSTTTMMMAAASSSS!!!"

Whilst we're waiting for our heroes to get their arses into gear West is busying himself causing all manner of trouble for the local populace, firstly beheading a local fisherman before turning his attentions to a group of buck-toothed pre-teens playing hide and seek.

Unfortunately the kids escape unharmed.

Realizing that the film is lacking some skin (obviously the fact that it's also lacking any good actors and a halfway decent plot isn't that important) we're suddenly introduced to the 'lovely' - if a wee bit undernourished wannabe fashion model Mavis (Ex-member of The Runaways and B movie babe Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) and her sleazy photographer pal Clive (legendary porn producer/ director Walters) who is desperate to get Mavis to flash her boobs for his camera.

Anyone here aware of Smith's career wont be too surprised to find that this happens quite quickly but as she - feebly - attempts to fight of Clive's creepy advances our bony elbowed blonde trips over the fisherman's severed hand denying them (and us) any chance of some harshly lit loving.

We should be thankful for small mercies.

Steffi Graf, up the casino, Blackpool, 1985.....YESCH!

Armed with his handy Geiger counter - and a brass neck - whilst dressed in a fetching scoop-necked polyester jumper Nelson wanders the woods aimlessly pointing his high tech device at things in the hope of persuading himself that the paycheck is worth the effort but his intellectual musings are cut short when he finds West's ear stuck to a tree branch.

Meanwhile back at the other plot we're entertained by a 15 minute segment featuring FX god Rick Baker's fake fisherman head (I'm assuming it's fake) floating down a stream before falling down a waterfall and bursting like a melon whilst a crappy Bontempi score jauntily plays in the background.

With the film almost at the halfway point the director realizes that he has to get things moving so Perry finally arrives at the main plot, accompanying Nelson to the crime scene where the fisherman's body was found.

Hoping to avoid telling anyone about the mad, melty maniac stomping about the woods our dynamic duo desperately try to convince the peachy arsed Sheriff Blake Severn (Alldredge from everything you've ever seen including The Entity, Scarface and Iron Eagle. See how many others you can find.) that it was wolves what done it but he suspects that Nelson is lying.

Torn between telling the truth or continuing with his frankly shite lies Nelson heads home to berate his pregnant, straw haired wife Judy (M.A.S.H's Nurse Carrie Donovan herself Sweeny - no me neither) for not buying any cream crackers.

No really.

His hopes of a nice cheeseboard feast dashed Nelson's evening goes from bad to worse when Judy informs him that her whorish mother Helen (Love from Caged Heat and your Granddad's darkest dreams) and her 'boyfriend' Harold (Max who once guest starred on the radio drama Nightbeat with Frank Lovejoy fact fans) are coming over for dinner and the promise of a foursome.

Luckily on their way the pair are cruelly murdered by West.

Which may sound a wee bit harsh but anything that puts paid to their frankly arse destroying 'comedy' car antics is a blessing.

The Ronko Wankotron 2000 proved a hit with Jessica Tandy.

Off out looking for whores to murder Blake soon discovers the couples abandoned car and half-chewed bodies, quickly calling Nelson to come and identify them.

Poking about in Helen's innards Nelson quickly surmises that West is somehow getting stronger the more his body melts.

"Then he is surely an incredible melting man" Blake doesn't exclaim.

Back at Nelson's house, Judy has gone to bed leaving an - ever - peckish Perry to raid the fridge giving the director ample opportunity to share a horrendous amount of close-ups of the fat faced fucker greasily stuffing his face with chicken wings and pork sausages as congealed lumps of fat and gristle collect in the corners of his toilet-like mouth.

Beautiful.
His gluttonous gastronomic gobblings are cut short tho' when West turns up unexpectedly and brutally slays Perry before stealing a bag of frozen peas and disappearing into the night.
Realizing that (an incredible melting) man cannot live on frozen peas alone, West breaks into the nearby home of newlyweds Terry and June  (director Demme and owner of the world's peachiest arse and smoothest of smooth thighs Blythe from The Hills Have Eyes and Eaten Alive) in the hope of finding some potatoes and maybe a small portion of fish.

Or a little bit of chicken in a box.

"Put it in me!"

Unfortunately West's search for scran is disturbed by the couple returning home and our space-fairing freak responds in the only way he knows how - by bludgeoning Terry to death this a tube of Pringles before menacing poor June thru' a broken kitchen door.

June is made of sterner stuff than her hubbie tho' and viciously slices West's arm off with a kitchen knife before sliding sexily around he goo covered lino and phoning Blake for help.

Thank you Ms Blythe for bringing some much needed eroticism to the proceedings.

Following the ever stronger radioactive trail left by West the pair soon arrive at the local power plant to find West on the roof trying to build a makeshift hammock out of the electrical cables.

All that killing must be hard work.

Nelson and Blake soon realize that if West harnesses the plant's electrical power he will become invincible.

Will our heroes defeat the sticky space slasher?

And will the director cut back to Janus Blythe who by this point is (hopefully) taking a long, lingering shower to clean all that fake blood and goo from her smooth, lily white skin?

 

From William Sachs - Manuel in Fawlty Towers (probably) and the man who gave us Galaxina and Spooky House (but not alas the man who gave your mum VD - that was your uncle George) comes a movie that takes all the best bits of  The Night of the Living Dead, First Man into Space and The Quatermass Xperiment (amongst others) and mixes them into a threadbare 50's throwback thriller of inane dialogue, poverty row production values, one note performances and a tone that veers wildly from exploitation shocker to TeeVee sitcom farce like a drunken man trying to find his way home after a particularly heavy drinking session.

And that's just how it makes the audience feel. 

Bizarrely enough Sachs original screenplay was written as a parody of a typical sci-fi horror shocker but producer Samuel W. Gelfman - allegedly - cut most of the comedic elements before adding more scenes of gore and gruesomeness (thanks to a young Rick Baker) during editing claiming that a 'straight horror film' would make more cash.

On viewing you have to ask that if this is the movie with the comedy completely removed then what the fuck did they deem to funny to keep?

I mean the whole endeavor comes across like some sub-Crackerjack version of Torchwood.

Which actually means exactly like a normal episode if you think about it. 

If only Saddam had thought to wave the white flag rather than snort it maybe ISIS wouldn't exist.

The scariest thing about it tho' was the fact that the film actually became a massive commercial hit - thanks mainly to Baker's aforementioned makeup effects tho' critics unanimously derided it for being utter shite.

To a modern cinema-going audience this may seem true but let's be honest here - given the choice I'd rather spend 90 minutes in the company of creepy Colonel Steve than with the fucking whiny wee shite in the Babadook.

The perfect Friday night film and screaming out for a midnight showing alongside Contamination.

Which may sound like damning with faint praise but heyho.

So any brave cinema's up for it?

Answers to the normal email address.














































*Tho' there's a chance he may have been lying - tho' not as much as Andrew Colley who told us all he'd seen Return of The Jedi in America and that during the film's climax Darth Vader gained robot wings and chased Luke  around the still under construction Death Star interior whilst it was revealed that Boba Fett was Han Solo's evil twin brother.

maiden japan.

Certain readers have been saying that there's way too much violence on this blog and not enough love and romance.

So dear friends I've taken it upon myself to change all that.

Break out the Champagne and strawberries, dim the lights and snuggle up to a loved one as I give you the perfect Valentines Day movie....

Maid Droid (2009).
Dir: Naoyuki Tomomatsu
Cast: Anri Suzuki, Akiho Yoshizawa, Mari Yamaguchi, a few other folk and introducing Roger the randy robot shag hound.

Welcome to Tokyo of the future where the worlds most successful company Maidlord Development have cornered the market in realistic looking, custom built robot maids and pets for the discerning consumer.

So far so Blade Runner.

But don't forget that this is a Japanese straight to DVD presentation featuring young giggly AV stars so there's bound to be a big bad rapist stalking the street too, chasing short skirted, white panted young girls before tripping them up and shagging them senseless.

All show from his point of view of course.

Which is nice if a little disconcerting if you're watching with your mum.

Meanwhile back at the (other, non-forced sex) plot:

Enter young, basin haired Ueno (I'm begging you to, it might cheer him up), a geeky wee boy whose parents happen to work at Maidlord developing the aforementioned new technology meaning that their poor son is left alone most of the time with only his Transform Pandon toys and a shelf full of tentacle porn DVD's for company.

I think we're meant to feel sorry for him but frankly that situation sounds like heaven to me.

No caption needed.

Anyway, his folks, deducing that they've not been spending enough 'quality time' with the boy (and noticing how many boxes of tissues he's getting thru' in a week) decide to bring home a brand new prototype maid droid -model name: Maria- (played to wooden skittle styled perfection by Mari Yamaguchi, star of the popular At the Mercy of the Darkness: Ayano's Bizarre Delusions and Uncle's Paradise) they've been working on to look after him.

Cue a funny and heartwarming housework montage featuring Maria tripping over the vacuum cleaner lead, burning cakes and getting stuck in the fridge - which I'll admit is fairly amusing and a nice break from all that sexual assualt stuff  earlier - but even this happiness is short lived as it's not long before Ueno’s parents are killed in a bizarre accident involving a dodgy furnace and a giant inflatable Hello Kitty, leaving the teen boy in the guardianship of Maria.

Cliff Richard gave 'pin the santa
beard on the whore' his best shot.

As Ueno grows older (and his hormones kick in) he becomes more and more interested in ladies  - and having sweaty sex with them whilst Maria sits in the corner - but soon comes (and comes to realize) that real girls are all dirty whores only interested in his money.

Oh, and his massive cock based on the silhouette we see during the films only human on human sex scene.

Really, I was so impressed I had to watch it twice.

Luckily I had the remote in my free hand.

Sitting dejected on his bed and wallowing in the damp patch, Ueno quietly contemplates why his relationships never work, wondering if he'll ever meet his soulmate.

Slowly his looks across at Maria and realizes that he actually found true love many years ago.

Yup, he's effectively got the hots for the hoover.

Detective Yuri Akag: Tokyo's
answer to Juliet Bravo.

As they say tho', the path of true love never runs smooth and this relationship is no different.

You see because Maria was an early prototype maid droid her designers decided that there wasn't any point fitting her with genitalia.

Which you can kinda understand, it'd be like your Aquavac having a fanny bolted to the side.

Luckily for both parties, Ueno's love for Maria is pure-hearted and untainted with carnal thoughts meaning he's happy to sit about in the nude giving her a good wash occasionally whilst desperately trying not to look at her gloriously soapy breasts.

Maria however can't help but notice how Ueno spends the rest of the afternoon wandering about with a pillow clutched to his crotch and offers to give him a blow job if he fancies it.

Which he does.

So he's obviously not that pure hearted and sweet, the dirty droid shagging pervert.

Or maybe I'm just jealous.

Talking of droids and shagging that evil rapist is still on the loose in the city and hard boiled, harsh faced Detective Yuri Akagi (ex bikini model and star of Chain Gang Girls Suzuki) suspects that a rogue robot could be responsible.

Heading off to the Maidlord offices in an attempt to get to the bottom of all this forced sex business Akagi is introduced to the head of the company, a 107 year old man who's had his mind transferred into the body of a wizened wooden doll.

Sounds legit.

"You're fired! And by the way, I'm shagging your weans!"

Between chats covering such wide ranging subjects as the futility of being and what constitutes free will we're entertained by a tour of the factories robot building faculties, specifically the area given over to 'testing' the newest wave of Pornbots giving the viewer plenty of opportunity to watch a blonde haired, red panted Japanese girl being probed, poked and pinched in every orifice by two sweaty fat men with porn moustaches wearing horrible checked shirts.

For about a quarter of an hour.

It's like watching your dad and his best pal shagging the papergirl.

Again.

"I still can't find 6 Music!"

As interesting as all this robo-rutting is, Akagi is in the middle of a quite interesting discussion as to why the market is dominated by female pleasure droids and not male ones, reckoning that women are more complex than men when choosing a lover whereas guys just want somewhere to stick their cocks.

Puppet man disagrees informing her that men that enjoy cuddling, romance and girly stuff but just aren't attractive to real women, who because of their shallow personalities, prefer hunky abusive guys that beat them up before forcing themselves on them.

Well I'm glad he's made that clear, not at all a sweeping (and oh so misogynistic) statement guaranteed to raise the hackles of any self respecting feminist watching.

And scarily the script was written by a women.

No really.

"Not even the sonic screwdriver
can get me out of this one!"

Just to prove his point the little old puppet man uses his scary - and until now never mentioned - psychic powers to 'mind shag' Akagi and in a sweaty, grunting scene of schoolboy masturbation heaven manages to cleanse  her mind of such foolish feminist notions giving her the strength to catch the robot rapist.

Which I guess makes it OK then.

Meanwhile Ueno (remember him?) is sitting in his pants gazing lovingly at Maria who, since her batteries have died has been sitting happily in the broom cupboard.

Aw, ain't love sweet?

As it happens, now that he's an old man with terrible penile dysfunction the sex doesn't matter anymore and he's decided that he and Maria should get married.

Don't worry tho' before it can get too soppy we're back with the short of skirt yet long of leg Akagi who's taken to searching the dimly lit dirty backstreet's of Tokyo to finally nail (tho' she's more likely to get nailed if the rest of the film's anything to go by) the rapist.

Without warning (well except for the loud clanking and whirring sound) the sex-beast is finally revealed in all it's mid-eighties sub Doctor Who glory.

You see, Akagi was only half right when she guessed the rapist was a robot, it is in fact a rogue robot dog (complete with a floppy wet tongue and rotating day-glo penis) that has built himself a bigger and stronger body from discarded robot parts.

And the reason for his reign of wanton rape and pantie ripping?

It appears that his (female) owner threw him out when she got bored looking after him and all he really wants to do is make ladies happy in the only way he knows how.

By having sex with them.

Fair enough.

Akagi: fancies a bit of "Ruff!" obviously.

Realizing that the creepy wooden man was right about all woman wanting rough sex, Akagi decides that the only way to curb the dogs randy ways is to slowly strip off her undies and allow him have sex with her before turning the poor pooch off at the point of orgasm.

We really should have more community police like this.

As the moaning gets louder and the sweat stinkier we head back over to Ueno's house, where the old man has finally managed to put Maria's finger in his diamond encrusted ring....

Will Maria agree to the marriage?

Will Akagi end up getting bored and faking it?

And will randy rover really care as long as he's getting his jollies?

A rare, non nude, non dog mounted
Anri Suzuki yesterday.

From the director and writer team that gave us the sublime Stacy – Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies, Zombie Self-Defense Force and Eat The Schoolgirl, Mr. Naoyuki Tomomatsu and Ms. Chisato Ogawara comes this heartbreaking and sensitive tale exploring the ideology of - both physical and spiritual - love and the inherent misogyny that can occur in some otaku culture via bestiality and forced full colour sex.

Tho' I'm assuming it's more about the aforementioned sex if I'm honest.

Playing out like a sniggering schoolboy softcore version of Electric (wet) Dreams, Maid Droid bravely raises some interesting moral and intellectual questions regarding it's basic premise before quickly ditching them like so many hot Pop Tarts to concentrate on the more pressing issue of entertaining those sad, lonely men that live in their parents garage.

Fair enough.

Which, while I must admit is a good cause in itself it's not one I really want to think about whilst watching a stern Japanese actress getting shagged by a huge cardboard and MDF dog.

Saying that tho', the kids enjoyed it a damn sight more than they did Pinnochio, which is great for me cos it's a helluva lot shorter.

And it doesn't feature a bloody singing cricket.

Family fun all round then I guess.

turning japanese.

Been mixing some music and visuals for an upcoming Tokyo A Go-Go night here (see? I do have a social life) and Mrs Lamont and myself got talking about the very wonderful Saiko Exciting.

For those of you too young (or too non-resident in the UK) to know what I'm ranting about, Saiko Exciting was a weekly two-hour Saturday & Sunday morning entertainment show from The Sci-Fi Channel focusing on all things Japanese presented by the very wonderful Seera (Sarah Backhouse, later to be seen on the Star Trek movie re-releases as the galaxies sexiest Starfleet Science Officer waxing lyrically on such subjects as V'Ger, Thalaron Radiation and Khan) aided and abetted by Jonathan Clements (no me neither) and with games reviews from Emily Newton-Dunn of Bitz fame.

Mixed between segments on how to order pints of lager in Japanese, uncomfortable  J-Pop pogo-ing and small children screaming were full episodes of Neon Genesis Evengelion and possibly THE greatest anime of all time the sublime Martian Successor Nadesico, a show so brilliant that even just hearing it's theme tune - You Get To Burning performed by Yumi Matsuzawa - was enough to banish any signs of a hangover.

Best of all tho' these shows aired uncut.

So let's take a moment to remember those heady days - by clicking this handy link - but most of all to bathe in the beauteous loveliness of  Sarah Backhouse.

お げんき で！

people you fancy but shouldn't (part 67).

  Fortitude's PC Ingrid as played by Mia Jexen.

It's the hat obviously.

another undeck plug

yo gabba baba!

Someone once asked if I ever watch any good movies.

The answer is yes.

Tho' I rarely review them as it's really difficult to take the piss.

Case in point.....

Onibaba (鬼婆, 1964).
Dir: Kaneto Shindo.
Cast: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satō, Taiji Tonoyama and
Jūkichi Uno.

I'm not a demon! I'm a human being!

The place: Japan, the time: round about the Battle of Minatogawa during the Nanboku-chō period - and probably around lunchtime on a Wednesday by the look of it.

And yes I can tell that just by the height of the reeds and the angle of the sun I'm that good.

Anyway rushing thru' the aforementioned reeds are two wounded warriors fleeing from a group of soldiers on horseback in a scene so well staged that Franklin J. Schaffner would steal it wholesale from Planet Of The Apes four years later.

Hiding in the big bushes till their hunters have passed our unlucky twosome are fairly surprised when out of nowhere - well out from behind some tall grass but you know what I mean - two women spear the pair to death and stealing their armour and weapons before dropping the bodies in a nearby hole.

Which is nice.

The women - fright-browed Brenda (movie star cum mistress to the director Otowa) and her boyish and bouncy daughter-in-law Betty (Pigs and Battleships and Dodes'ka-den star Yoshimura) return to their tiny, ramshackle hut and settle down for the evening.

Well cold blooded killing does take it out of you.

"私は彼らのうちの1人が私のお尻を泳いで欲しくない！"

The next morn the pair take their ill-gotten booty to the local tomb-toothed merchant Jeff Ushi (Tonoyama star of almost every Japanese film made between 1939 and 1989 including the fantastic Katsushika Hokusai biopic Hokusai Manga) to trade for food.

Tho' not soap or washing powder judging by the black rings round their necks.

Seriously you can smell the stale sweat, egg and yeast thru' the screen.

Offering them a measly two bags of rice for the lot the pair begrudgingly accept, complaining as they pack their bags about his lack of compassion and general greediness.

Ushi agrees that he's maybe been a wee bit tight so offers an extra bag if he's allowed to touch Brenda's thighs.

Unimpressed she angrily storms off in a huff.

Which is a shame because they're quite breath-taking for an old girl.

Heading home the mismatched maidens pass the time by discussing the war raging around them, it seems that Brenda's son Tony left to fight years back so the pair have been looking out for each other ever since.

But all that is about to change with the return of their next door neighbour - the local wide-boy and best pal of her son, Brian Hachi (Satō, star of Kuroneko and Seven Samurai) who after scoffing most of their supper informs Brenda that her son is dead.

But the food isn't the only thing he has his - milky- eye on for it seems he has a soft (oh go on then semi-soft and getting harder) spot for Betty.

And it appears that she may feel the same.

Saucy.

あなたは緊張を感じることができます....または、チーズとタマネギのモンスターが狂っていますか？

One day as the ladies are washing their pants in the stream as Brian lazily catches fish a pair of angry samurai (are there any other kind?) ride by having a massive fight.

In any other movie this would be unusual but not here.

Oh no.

Leaping from their horses and into the water the pair continue fighting, oblivious to the trio watching them from the river's edge.

As one of the shouty samurai approaches them for help, Hachi drops his fishing rod and violently stabs him with his spear whilst the ladies drown his adversary, taking the still wet armour to sell to stinky Jeff.

Whilst Brenda is away cutting a deal tho' horny Hachi finally seduces Betty and from then on the young woman sneaks from her hut every night to indulge in 'the  sex' with him.

Lucky sod.

It's not long before Brenda learns of their relationship and begins to formulate a plan to keep Betty for herself.

あなたは2回...

Unfortunately the plan involves standing astride him as he's trying to sunbathe and licking her lips whilst gyrating wildly to One Direction which has the effect of Hachi telling her in no uncertain terms to "性交する".

 

Despondent, depressed and feeling tres dowdy Brenda heads home alone.

私はあなたを愛しています...それは魔法でもいいですか？

That  night, while Hachi and Betty are together, a lost samurai (Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset's Uno) in a terrifying Hannya mask appears at Brenda's window, threatening to kill the woman if she refuses to guide him safely thru the reeds.

Walking at swordpoint (well it's the nearest she's gonna get to having a guy stick something in her) thru' the swaying reeds Brenda becomes bored with the samurai's constant chat and tales of how handsome, daring and bold he is so in a fit of pique tricks him into falling into the pit where her and Betty dispose of their victims.

Climbing down herself she steals his armour and possessions before attempting to remove his mask.

Tugging and pulling away (well she is very lonely) it finally comes free revealing the fallen samurai's hideous scarred visage.

Returning home with her spoils Brenda sits alone gazing at the mask and suddenly realizes it may come in useful if she wishes to 'save' Bettie from Hachi's lustful embrace.....

 



No idea what to say about Onibaba that hasn't been said a thousand times before and by folk who can actually write but fuck it I'll do my best.


One of the greatest - and most influential - movies of all time, Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba is a beautifully shot, starkly realized waking nightmare of a movie that's as darkly disturbing as it is icily erotic.


Based on a Shin Buddhist parable the director heard as a child, Shindo transforms the tale from one of Brothers Grimm-style child-based cannibalism into a darkly disturbing story of sex, death and random acts of violence that spiral uncontrollably to a climax laced with supernatural tendencies and a foreboding, ever more suffocating sense of paranoia.


Cast to perfection and with cinematography to die for from the genius of longtime Shindo collaborator Kiyomi Kuroda, Onibaba is one of those rare films that transcends mere cinema to become a work of art.


A wee bit like Zombie Lake obviously.


Onibaba's richly ravishing darkness can be seen in everything from Nagisa Oshima's In The Realm Of The Senses to Takashi Miike's Audition via the aforementioned Planet of The Apes, Hideo Nakata's Ringu, David Lynch's Blue Velvet and even The Force Awakens (Rey's occupation on Jakku, her 'awakening' - as a Force user as opposed to sexually when confronting Kylo Ren in his 'demon' mask for example) amongst others, cementing it's place as quite possibly the greatest - and sexiest - psychological horror not just to come out of Japan but probably of all time.


Utter unadulterated genius.


Oh yeah and Nobuko Otowa gives probably the most scarily sexual eyebrow based performance ever captured on celluloid.


Just saying.


Don't worry I'll be back to watching shite before you know it.