Between this blog and my previous one, Professor Damian’s Public Domain Treasure Chest, I’ve been writing about movies for quite a while now. Because of that, there are a lot of posts that have simply gotten lost to the mists of time. So, I figured I’d use the idea of “Throwback Thursday” to spotlight some of those older posts, re-presenting them pretty much exactly as they first appeared except for updating links where necessary or possible, and doing just a bit of re-formatting to help them fit better into the style of this blog. Hope you enjoy these looks back.
Since we took a look at The Story Lady for this week’s OTR Tuesday, this seemed like a good time to revisit one of the great documentaries about the man whose company was behind that production, Mr. Mel Blanc. This was first posted in 2013.
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The Voices In His Head – Mel Blanc: The Man of 1000 Voices
Mel Blanc is a man who entertained millions of people both during his lifetime and after, and though his name is well known in certain circles, for most people he did so largely anonymously. Fortunately, the documentary Mel Blanc: The Man of 1000 Voices goes a long way towards bringing this wonderfully talented man, who provided the voices for most of the characters of the Warner Brothers cartoons (you know, characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, and literally countless others), out of the recording studio and giving him the spotlight he so richly deserved.
For those unfamiliar with the man, or who don’t understand just how important he is in popular culture, here’s a short clip of him being interviewed on the David Letterman show in 1981:
Watching that, seeing how seamlessly he is able to move from voice to voice, from character to character, he makes someone much more renowned like Robin Williams seem like a manic piker. Anyway, for those fascinated by the man, his characters, or even simply the history of animation, this documentary is well worth watching, as it gives a great sense of the man who not only gave thousands of characters a voice, but really, gave them life.
Trust me, four minutes in, and you’ll know whether Sion Sono’s 2015 film Tag,
A couple of weeks ago for Throwback Thursday I re-presented an article about Sono’s 2013 completely over the top gangster comedy Why Don’t You Play In Hell?. At the time I didn’t realize that Netflix had picked up Tag.
Anyway, I’m not going to go into the story at all, because I really don’t want to give away anything at all about the film. But like I said, it’s only going to take four or five minutes of your time to figure out whether it’s for you or not.
What I will tell you at this point is that the movie opens with a bus full of Japanese school girls on a field trip. It’s a beautiful day, and most of the kids on the bus are feeling pretty rowdy. The lone exception is Mitsuko, who is passing her time writing poetry. In the mist of all the hubbub she drops her pen, and when she reaches down to get it…
Yep, I’m stopping right there. As a matter of fact, this is one of those rare occasions where I’m not even going to throw in a trailer, for fear that it will give too much away. Instead I’m simply going to say if you have a Netflix account, go check the film out now. And if you don’t, well, the movie is available on disk, and it is also streaming on Amazon.
Again, like Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, Tag is not going to be for everyone. But if you’re feeling adventurous and looking for something well beyond the usual mainstream fare, then I say you should check it out. After all, it’ll only take five minutes.
Between this blog and my previous one, Professor Damian’s Public Domain Treasure Chest, I’ve been writing about movies for quite a while now. Because of that, there are a lot of posts that have simply gotten lost to the mists of time. So, I figured I’d use the idea of “Throwback Thursday” to spotlight some of those older posts, re-presenting them pretty much exactly as they first appeared except for updating links where necessary or possible, and doing just a bit of re-formatting to help them fit better into the style of this blog. Hope you enjoy these looks back.
Ya say you’re looking for a movie that’s off the beaten path? Something that’s more than just a little outrageous but a whole lot of fun? Then why don’t we time warp just a way back to 2013 for a flick that really caught me off guard.
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Playing Can Be A Hell Of A Lot Of Fun – Why Don’t You Play In Hell (2013)
If you imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie yanked through the kind of Chinese film-making filter that gave us some of the more off-kilter Shaw Brothers movies then add on a layer of Godfather-wannabe Japanese Yakuza film stylings, toss some Three Stooges slapstick on top and finally drench the entire thing with a lot of mostly CGI blood, you might come somewhere close to Sion Sono‘s Why Don’t You Play In Hell?
But you’d still only be close.
If you read the above and think “Sounds like kind of a hot mess of a movie”, then I have to admit that yeah, it is. But it’s also quite a fun mess.
I could probably spend as long trying to outline the plot of the film to you as it takes to watch it, and even then I’d probably be doing both you and the movie a disservice, because the plot here is certainly not wholly irrelevant, but definitely secondary to the tone of the thing which -beyond what I wrote in the opening paragraph – I suspect is impossible to convey through writing. This is one of those movies akin to Hausu or The Room that really has to be experienced rather than described, and preferably experienced in a theater full of people who are there ready to simply go along for the ride and have a good time, and like those two movies, I predict that WDYPIH is going to have quite the afterlife on the midnight movie circuit.
At least I hope I’m right on that, because it’s certainly a film that deserves a chance to be found by a core audience of cult-movie followers rather than to simply wind up on a few shelves and be largely forgotten in the long run.
For those of you still sitting there reading this instead of simply rushing to your nearest arthouse cinema – if you’re lucky enough to have one like the Belcourt Theater here in Nashville where the film is getting a weekend-long run – to see it for yourself and asking “Okay, but really, what’s it about?’, I’ll give you Drafthouse Film’s official plot synopsis:
There’s a war going on, but that won’t stop the inexperienced but eager wannabe film crew The F@ck Bombers from following their dreams of making the ultimate action epic. Ten years ago, yakuza mid-boss Ikegami led an assault against rival don Muto. Now, on the eve of his revenge, all Muto wants to do is complete his masterpiece, a feature film with his daughter in the starring role, before his wife is released from prison. And The F@ck Bombers are standing by with the chance of a lifetime: to film a real, live yakuza battle to the death…on 35mm!
Okay, yeah, sure, as a straightforward plot description that fits the bill as well as anything, and tells you just enough going in that you may not get lost as to what is going on, but it does absolutely nothing to convey either the tone of the flick or the sensory assault of the images that it brings to the screen.
It doesn’t mention the spectacular slide that an eight-year-old makes through a blood-flooded (seriously, the blood here appears to be somewhere around a couple of inches deep) living room into a kitchen filled with mostly dead yakuza (don’t worry, she’s not traumatized by this slide, and it’s later revealed that she goes on to entertain the only mobster left living in the kitchen with a cute little dance accompanied by the singing of the jingle for the tooothpaste commercial she has made.
It doesn’t mention the possibly Exorcist-green-pea-soup-inspired vomit torrent that reveals a message from the movie gods.
It doesn’t mention the psychedelic cocaine-induced vision which transforms the mob boss’s daughter’s slicing and dicing of multiple foes into a rainbow of color amidst a field of flowers.
(Nor, for that matter, does it mention her subsequent decimation of ten mobsters who have surrounded her with one balletic swoosh of her sword.)
It doesn’t mention… well, let’s just say there’s an awful lot of images that it doesn’t mention and that I won’t either, because they really should be left as surprises for the viewer.
Nor does it mention another aspect of this film that is central to it, and that keeps all of the outre imagery from being purely weirdness for weirdness’ sake.
It doesn’t mention that in the end, this is a movie about love.
Yeah, you read that right… at its core this movie is a love story. Love, passion, and the way that they can turn to obsession, are really what drives everything else in this movie.
It’s love for her husband and child that drives Muto’s wife to spend ten years in prison when she easily could have escaped. It’s love that motivates the gang boss to pull out all the stops to complete his film in the ten days that remain before his wife is released. It’s a passion for film making that keeps the F@ck Brothers together for ten years and ultimately drives them to team up with the gang bosses to get their film made. Its his obsession with Muto’s daughter Mitsuko that causes the rival gang boss to agree to participate in Muto’s movie.
And it’s an obvious love for cinema that has driven Sion Sono himself to make this film in the first place.
No, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is not a film for everyone. As a matter of fact, if you’re the kind of person who really only wants to see the latest multiplex blockbuster or chick flick or even low-key indy film, I’d advise you to simply stay away and not waste your time or money because you’re probably not going to like this film. If, on the other hand, you’re of the more adventurous sort who wants something different, who has, yes, a love for the strange and more out-there fare that usually has to be sought out and comes along every so often, then I predict that you, too will find the fun that’s to be had from a little playtime in hell.
If you imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie yanked through the kind of Chinese film-making filter that gave us some of the more off-kilter Shaw Brothers movies then add on a layer of Godfather-wannabe Japanese Yakuza film stylings, toss some Three Stooges slapstick on top and finally drench the entire thing with a lot of mostly CGI blood, you might come somewhere close to Sion Sono‘s Why Don’t You Play In Hell?
But you’d still only be close.
If you read the above and think “Sounds like kind of a hot mess of a movie”, then I have to admit that yeah, it is. But it’s also quite a fun mess.
I could probably spend as long trying to outline the plot of the film to you as it takes to watch it, and even then I’d probably be doing both you and the movie a disservice, because the plot here is certainly not wholly irrelevant, but definitely secondary to the tone of the thing which -beyond what I wrote in the opening paragraph – I suspect is impossible to convey through writing. This is one of those movies akin to Hausu or The Room that really has to be experienced rather than described, and preferably experienced in a theater full of people who are there ready to simply go along for the ride and have a good time, and like those two movies, I predict that WDYPIH is going to have quite the afterlife on the midnight movie circuit.
At least I hope I’m right on that, because it’s certainly a film that deserves a chance to be found by a core audience of cult-movie followers rather than to simply wind up on a few shelves and be largely forgotten in the long run.
For those of you still sitting there reading this instead of simply rushing to your nearest arthouse cinema – if you’re lucky enough to have one like the Belcourt Theater here in Nashville where the film is getting a weekend-long run – to see it for yourself and asking “Okay, but really, what’s it about?’, I’ll give you Drafthouse Film’s official plot synopsis:
There’s a war going on, but that won’t stop the inexperienced but eager wannabe film crew The F@ck Bombers from following their dreams of making the ultimate action epic. Ten years ago, yakuza mid-boss Ikegami led an assault against rival don Muto. Now, on the eve of his revenge, all Muto wants to do is complete his masterpiece, a feature film with his daughter in the starring role, before his wife is released from prison. And The F@ck Bombers are standing by with the chance of a lifetime: to film a real, live yakuza battle to the death…on 35mm!
Okay, yeah, sure, as a straightforward plot description that fits the bill as well as anything, and tells you just enough going in that you may not get lost as to what is going on, but it does absolutely nothing to convey either the tone of the flick or the sensory assault of the images that it brings to the screen.
It doesn’t mention the spectacular slide that an eight-year-old makes through a blood-flooded (seriously, the blood here appears to be somewhere around a couple of inches deep) living room into a kitchen filled with mostly dead yakuza (don’t worry, she’s not traumatized by this slide, and it’s later revealed that she goes on to entertain the only mobster left living in the kitchen with a cute little dance accompanied by the singing of the jingle for the tooothpaste commercial she has made.
It doesn’t mention the possibly Exorcist-green-pea-soup-inspired vomit torrent that reveals a message from the movie gods.
It doesn’t mention the psychedelic cocaine-induced vision which transforms the mob boss’s daughter’s slicing and dicing of multiple foes into a rainbow of color amidst a field of flowers.
(Nor, for that matter, does it mention her subsequent decimation of ten mobsters who have surrounded her with one balletic swoosh of her sword.)
It doesn’t mention… well, let’s just say there’s an awful lot of images that it doesn’t mention and that I won’t either, because they really should be left as surprises for the viewer.
Nor does it mention another aspect of this film that is central to it, and that keeps all of the outre imagery from being purely weirdness for weirdness’ sake.
It doesn’t mention that in the end, this is a movie about love.
Yeah, you read that right… at its core this movie is a love story. Love, passion, and the way that they can turn to obsession, are really what drives everything else in this movie.
It’s love for her husband and child that drives Muto’s wife to spend ten years in prison when she easily could have escaped. It’s love that motivates the gang boss to pull out all the stops to complete his film in the ten days that remain before his wife is released. It’s a passion for film making that keeps the F@ck Brothers together for ten years and ultimately drives them to team up with the gang bosses to get their film made. Its his obsession with Muto’s daughter Mitsuko that causes the rival gang boss to agree to participate in Muto’s movie.
And it’s an obvious love for cinema that has driven Sion Sono himself to make this film in the first place.
No, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is not a film for everyone. As a matter of fact, if you’re the kind of person who really only wants to see the latest multiplex blockbuster or chick flick or even low-key indy film, I’d advise you to simply stay away and not waste your time or money because you’re probably not going to like this film. If, on the other hand, you’re of the more adventurous sort who wants something different, who has, yes, a love for the strange and more out-there fare that usually has to be sought out and comes along every so often, then I predict that you, too will find the fun that’s to be had from a little playtime in hell.
I finally got around to seeing Birdman at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater yesterday, and in front of it were a couple of trailers for films that will soon be showing there (and if you’re lucky enough, theaters near you also) that really caught my eye.
First up is the film Why Don’t You Play In Hell?. Here’s the description, from the Belcourt’s website:
Filmmaker Sion Sono (LOVE EXPOSURE) describes his frenzied, gleeful new work as “an action film about the love of 35mm.” There’s a war going on. Ten years ago, yakuza mid-boss Ikegami led an assault against rival don Muto. Now, on the eve of his revenge, all Muto wants to do is complete his masterpiece, a feature film with his daughter in the starring role, before his wife is released from prison. And an inexperienced but eager wannabe film crew are standing by with the chance of a lifetime: to film a real, live yakuza battle to the death…on 35mm! Endlessly irreverent and wildly, hilariously visceral, this Tarantino-esque ode to the yakuza films of yore features an over-the-top, blood-soaked finale for the ages.
And here’s that trailer:
The second trailer that really intrigued me is for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Again, the description from the Belcourt’s website:
Strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps and other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity and hopelessness where a lonely vampire stalks its most unsavory inhabitants. But when boy meets girl, an unusual love story begins to blossom…blood red.
And the trailer:
The film has been described as the first-ever Iranian Vampire Western. Yeah, I think I’m gonna be going to see that.
So what do you think? Do either of these trailers intrigue you?
Five minutes.
What I will tell you at this point is that the movie opens with a bus full of Japanese school girls on a field trip. It’s a beautiful day, and most of the kids on the bus are feeling pretty rowdy. The lone exception is Mitsuko, who is passing her time writing poetry. In the mist of all the hubbub she drops her pen, and when she reaches down to get it…
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