THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

"I believe anything that doesn't kill you makes you stranger."-- The Joker, THE DARK KNIGHT.

It's quite appropriate that Christopher Nolan, who had his version of Ra's Al Ghul make vaguely Nietzschean statements in BATMAN BEGINS, should deliberately misquote Nietzsche's famous line. The Joker doesn't care about becoming stronger, though in some ways he's stronger than the often vacillating Bruce Wayne. The Maniac of  Mirth wants to be estranged from the needs of common humanity, to be the guy who values money so little he can set fire to a veritable fortune and think nothing about it. (It does raise questions as to what the evildoer does for operating expenses, though, since there's no evidence he, unlike his foe, is independently wealthy.)

But despite all the daylight scenes and the action-thriller tropes with which Nolan lumbers his second journey into the Bat-mythos, this time the esteemed writer-director does come closer to achieving a myth of sorts, though not one that any other creator could profit from. Nolan may have derived his Bat-myth in part from a work he claims to have influenced him: 1996's THE LONG HALLOWEEN, which as I argued shows Batman's costumed rogues as being far less of a threat to Gotham than its quotidian career crooks. But when HALLOWEEN's three crusaders-- Batman, Commissioner Gordon and D.A. Harvey Dent-- attempt to bring down Gotham's crime lords, they aren't seen chasing after the mob's money all the time, as do the analogues of those characters in KNIGHT.

In BATMAN BEGINS Nolan shows a Marxist revulsion to the accumulation of money under any circumstances, even those with philanthropic ends. In KNIGHT, it's implied that Batman (Christian Bale) has made significant inroads against the mob, but not so much from preventing specific crimes as from hitting the bosses in their pocketbooks. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and his cops pursue an even more direct assault upon criminal coffers, almost managing to seize the mob's holdings from a crooked bank. But an equally crooked Chinese accountant spirits the filthy lucre away, and for a time the accountant plays a minor role in getting the goods on the bosses. But the money is what matters, except to Heath Ledger's Joker.

Now, in HALLOWEEN, organized criminals are the ever-present menace. But in the lockup, Joker tells Batman, "Those mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things were"-- in other words, crime as a regular, money-making business. Joker considers both Batman and himself to be above the common breed of "civilized men," telling him, "Don't talk like you're one of them. You're not, even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak." I guess I'm fortunate Nolan didn't work in any mentions of Ubermenschen, possibly counting on audiences to interpolate the (false) idea that Nietzsche's supermen were simply strong men who ignored society's rules. 

As Batman, Bruce Wayne ignores a lot of rules, except for his rule against killing-- a stricture that's at least partly the legacy of his time with Ra's Al Ghul, who tried and failed to get Wayne to become an unquestioning assassin. Joker, as much as Ra's, wants Wayne to be Batman, but not as a servant, but as a divine opponent. Yet Wayne seethes with guilt about his every transgression, feeling that he has "blood on his hands" for the acts of others. And in KNIGHT the Hairshirt Crusader acquires a new chink in his armor; romantic competition for Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who's apparently the great love of Bruce Wayne's life, even if we have no evidence that they've even slept together.

In BEGINS Wayne is trammeled by father-images, but in KNIGHT, his greatest challenge is that of a same-age romantic competitor, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent might not be Wayne's brother from another mother and father, but they share an identical obsession with cleaning up Gotham (though we never really know why Dent is so passionate on the subject). But Wayne envies Dent for being "one of them," the regular civilians, and in his identity as Batman he tells Dent that "Gotham needs a hero with a face." At the same time, like a lot of Wayne's actions, this sentiment too may be underpinned not by recognition of a fellow crusader, but by a desire to compete for the woman he and Dent both love. 

Wayne, ever moved by the exigencies of negative compensation, pins his hope on a statement by Rachel -- who knows of his Batman-identity-- to the effect that they could be together if he could hang up his cowl for good, But not only does Rachel die at Joker's hands, she leaves behind a psychologically emasculating note with the words, "I'm sure the day won't come when you no longer need Batman," though she also hedges her bet by stating that if he does, he can take joy in occupying the "friend zone." In essence, Rachel believes in Harvey Dent, but not in Bruce Wayne, who will always need to be Batman, and this enables Rachel to justify devoting all her love to Harvey Dent. The fact that faithful Alfred spares Wayne from reading the note does nothing to change the status of the hero as a sacrifice to a writer's concept of normality.

Ironically, though, when Dent is tested in the crucible of trauma, he doesn't manage to acquit himself as well as Wayne. Joker is also responsible for Dent being maimed over half of his body, which is the prelude to his becoming the criminal Two-Face. However, Dent also dies in this movie, becoming a "noble lie" instead of a recurring Bat-rogue. Joker, who often excels in the role of the tempter, even comes to Dent's bedside to celebrate his creation, and later gloats to Batman that he succeeded in corrupting Dent even if he didn't sway the hero from his investment in the world of freakishness.

Similarly, Joker conducts various experiments on the citizens of Gotham to see if he can make them "eat" one another. The fact that he doesn't succeed in some cases doesn't really invalidate his main point, that sometimes one can drive people to become animals. He tells Dent that his whole purpose is to make people with "plans" realize how pathetic their desire for control is, but this is not Nietzschean. It is, however, Nolanesque, the self-insertion of a writer who's overturning the safe world of superheroes with his supposedly sophisticated message of anarchy. I suspect that Nolan's Joker had a tangential effect upon the majority of the MCU movies, with their passionate championing of mass murderers like Thanos and Killmonger.

Of course, like Joker Nolan doesn't know when to get off the stage, so the last half hour drags with yet another Joker experiment in mass psychology. On top of that, Batman's finally able to track down Joker, but only by using a spy-device to tap into cell phones, which Wayne's allegedly principled tech-guy calls "unethical." 

I would be remiss that there are a lot of well-choreographed action-scenes in KNIGHT, though no particular sequences stand out for me. Of the three Nolan Bat-flicks, this one is the only one to sustain a myth, albeit very intellectualized, with respect to human dependence on controlling the world, and how the endless battle of Batman and Joker somehow transcends all that jazz.

BLEEDING STEEL (2017)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

I don't know what led to Leo Zhang to direct and co-write a cyberpunk thriller starring Jackie Chan. But I like to fantasize that he had just watched John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and complained, "there was too much exposition."

For whatever reason, almost all the exposition in STEEL is shoved into the last half hour of this hyperkinetic sci-fi flick. I got the impression that it took place in the near future, given that "special forces agent" Lin Dong (Chan) doesn't even bat an eye when he's told there's an out-of-control "bioroid" on the loose. And this leads to a big fight with Andre the Cyborg and his soldiers that takes place thirteen years BEFORE the main action of the story.

The prologue is there mostly to establish that Lin lost his daughter to leukemia, though he doesn't know that that a mad scientist, the creator of Andre, somehow got hold of the body of Lin's dead daughter and resurrected it as a young woman with no memory of her past, Nancy (Ouyang Nana). While on stakeout Lin observes Nancy and sees the resemblance (the same actress played both original daughter and reborn daughter). He plays helicopter parent, trying to learn more about Nancy in between investigating the mysterious killing of an author whose bestseller book displayed inside knowledge of the deceased mad scientist's projects. By the usual set of coincidences, a young fellow named Li is not only mixed up in the author's murder, he's paying court to Lin Dong's reborn offspring, which brings out the Angry Dad in the generally peaceful Lin. Possibly because of the author's revelations, Andre the Cyborg and his pocket army find out that Nancy has "enhanced blood" that Andre needs to continue his own existence.

I wasn't precisely bored with BLEEDING STEEL, but not being able to follow the action without a Wiki-page didn't help much. Chan plays his usual amiable tough cop, but the element of paternal concern doesn't add much to the mix. The actors playing Li and Nancy aren't particularly beguiling, though I'll admit I've seen worse, and Andre the Cyborg is a one-dimensional villain. Only his female enforcer The Woman in Black (Aussie actress Tess Haubrich) projects a good evil vibe, and her kung-fu stunts are solid, particularly since she doesn't seem to have been a real-life practitioner of martial arts. Chan has certainly made worse films, even discounting the femme fatale appeal of Haubrich, but I'm not sure he made any that were more confusing.

THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER (2016)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, sociological*

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I sample some streaming movie I've heard nothing about, the best I can hope for is competently executed but unexciting formula-fiction. But THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER, adapted for British TV from a YA fantasy book by Jasper Fforde, is that one happy exception to the rule.

Preteen Jennifer Strange is liberated from an orphanage by a quirky but lovable magician, Zambini (Andrew Buchan) to become his assistant. Through Jennifer's eyes we see the higglety pigglety word of the Jasper Fforde series: a modern-day England in which magic is still practiced even though the people have cars, guns, and television, and people wear a wild melange of modern and medieval attire. Because technology is so much easier, magic users have fallen on hard times, and Zambini himself runs an employment agency that sets up witches and wizards with mundane jobs like rewiring electrical systems.

When Jennifer turns 16 (and begins being played by Ellise Chappell), Zambini mysteriously disappears. Jennifer suspects some magical scheme, but she has no leads, so all she can do is keep running her surrogate father's agency. Various seers begin predicting that the Official Dragonslayer is destined to slay Maltcassion, the last dragon. Ever since a long-ago pact confined all dragons to their own lands, totally separate from human dominions, the dragon-race has been dying out. If Maltcassion dies, all of the dragon-lands will become open for human colonization, which is great news to the realm's grasping king (Matt "THE IT CROWD" Berry) and all of his court-sycophants. The common folk of the town adjoining Maltcassion's realm are no better; one lady hopes to claim free land and put up a parking lot.

Jennifer suspects that if the last dragon dies, the power of magic, which is already behaving erratically for the wizards, will also perish, and she'll never find Zambini. She journeys to the dwelling-place of the Official Dragonslayer, intending to talk him out of killing Maltcassion. Instead, the fellow thrusts the Dragonslayer's sword into Jennifer's hands, tells her she's the destined heir to the office, and perishes. Now everyone, from the dotty king to the howling mobs to annoying TV newscasters, expects the young woman to enter the dragon-lands on the prophesied date and slay Maltcassion, even though the creature has done nothing to break the truce between human and dragon. Jennifer even attempts to communicate with Maltcassion, but the dragon seems to regard their impending battle as set in stone.

I've not read the original novel, but I tend to believe writer Tom Edge (co-scripter of the 2019 biofilm JUDY) must have faithfully adapted the many complicated subplots of the book, particularly one involving how the pact between dragon and human came to be. Edge's script keeps revealing interesting things about the world at a breakneck pace, sort of like BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA with an actual plot. Director Jamie Stone keeps things visually interesting, seeking to compensate for the inexpensive TV-CGI with strong visuals. I knew none of the British actors except Berry, but no one sounds a bad note, and that's partly because the script, unlike so many dull fantasy-films, gives all the actors defining moments. I suppose for some viewers it might be a minus that the telefilm ends with a few unresolved plotlines, which is certainly because the Jasper Fforde book was the first in a series of four novels. I'm sorry the same crew didn't get the chance to adapt the other three parts of the story, but at least the whole story is out there.

Though Jennifer only has two short fights, they're enough to make this a combative film. Still, the emphasis is on comedy: on the attempt of a noble young woman to navigate a society of fools and knaves. The dominant comic mood doesn't prevent some sad moments, but the ending carries a rousing HUNGER GAMES vibe.

HELLBOY (2004)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

The first adaptation of Dark Horse's HELLBOY franchise is loosely based on HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION, a rough "origin-story" produced by creator/artist Mike Mignola and writer John Byrne. The movie script by Peter Briggs and director Guillermo Del Toro improves on the original in many ways, improving on the dramatic dynamics of the principal characters. 

The titular character is a humanoid demon with horns and a tail, discovered in child-form by his adoptive father Professor Broom in 1944. Sixty years later, the adult Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is a big, swaggering fellow who, due to his not blending well with common humanity, has devoted his life to the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Broom is at once the director of the agency and a nurturing but demanding father. In addition to various human agents, the BPRD, dedicated to investigating paranormal phenomena on Planet Earth, are two other super-powered individuals: pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and amphibious Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). 

As it happens, in 2004 one of the occultists responsible for Hellboy's presence on Earth-- none other than a very long-lived Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden)-- is bringing about a plot to unleash a world-destroying demon, the Ogdru Jahad. This involves having a lesser demon, who looks like a cross between The Alien and The Predator (but bulkier than the "Predalien" of three years later). This demon, Sammael by name, also lays eggs to produce duplicates of itself, though I think the only real function Sammael serves is to give Hellboy a heavy-duty sparring partner.

Nevertheless, precisely because of the rough family dynamics of the Briggs-Del Toro script-- which includes a possible romantic relationship between Liz and Hellboy-- the rock-em-sock-em battles possess good human context, as well as some lively humor. (The "no tongue" line is among the best.) Though given a lot of support by the other actors-- Jeffrey Tambor as a fussy managerial type, Rupert Evans as a human agent who might offer Hellboy some romantic competition-- HELLBOY is largely Ron Perlman's show. Once or twice he verges on scenery-chewing, but it's somewhat inevitable given all the intensive makeup effects. Possibly it helps that here he could play an ass-kicking hero miles away from his soulful incarnation of the similarly makeup-heavy Vincent of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

The film was successful enough to spawn a sequel with essentially the same cast, more on which anon.

GOTHAM: SEASON THREE (2016-17)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

In my review of Season 2, I wrote that "the injection of super-villains forced the writers to use the violence more carefully." However, Season Three shows a marked tendency to revert to the extremes of Season One, in which Gotham becomes a danse macabre, and citizens start dropping like flies in response to the new Big Bad-- or at least, the villain who dominates the first half of the third season.

Despite the unleashing of various "monsters" from Arkham Asylum, there wasn't nearly as much incidental death as in Season One's gangland wars. As if to make up for the underwhelming menace of  the Arkham monsters, the first half of Three introduces GOTHAM's version of the Mad Hatter (Benedict Samuel). Like the eighties comics-version, this one trades more in mind-games. However, in keeping with his connection to Lewis Carroll's motifs of madness, this Hatter's weapon of choice is an insidious virus that unleashes the Hyde in every workaday Jekyll. He reaches out to Jim Gordon-- who at season's opening has resigned from the GCPD to become a bounty hunter. The Hatter wants Gordon to find his sister, predictably named Alice, but soon Gordon finds that the demented fellow is filled with a love not quite brotherly. Alice dies, Hatter blames Gordon, Hatter unleashes the virus-- in small increments at first, affecting only particular individuals. One of those so affected is Gordon's former GCPD boss Captain Barnes, who eventually becomes a full-fledged original-to-TV super-foe, The Executioner.

Though Samuel provides a flamboyant madman, good in small doses, he ends up seeming like an objective correlate for the producers' desire to ratchet up multiple deaths and traumas. Parallel to this development, Bruce discovers that Hugo Strange created a clone of him, sometimes known as "Five," and he's a good enough doppelganger to fool both Bruce's butler and his sorta-kinda girlfriend Selina. Gordon's former flame Lee becomes engaged to another man, who just happens to be related to gang-boss Carmine Falcone. With the help of Riddler, Penguin successfully runs for mayor of Gotham, a promising idea that never really gels. But that development leads to a new plotline, in which Penguin forms a man-crush on Riddler. This results in a protracted feud between the two villains, making for some of the season's best acting as Robin Lord Taylor and Cory Michael Smith exchange verbal barbs and insidious death-plots.

The most interesting Bat-myth to be articulated in Season Three is somewhat derived from Christopher Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS. Nolan, no respecter of the Batmythos, decided that he would attribute the hero's rise to an improbable association with a band of vigilantes, "the League of Shadows," led by the mysterious Ra's Al Ghul. The second half of GOTHAM THREE is fittingly entitled "Hero's Rise," and stems from the attempt of the Court of Owls to suborn young Bruce Wayne. The gambit fails but the Court puts Bruce in the hands of the League. The logic that Nolan bollixed is better executed here; Young Bruce as yet has no clear idea as to what he wants to do to make his parents' deaths meaningful. But the League, commanded by a briefly seen Ra's Al Ghul, utilize brainwashing techniques with an aim toward making Young Bruce become an avatar of their lust for destruction. Toward the close of the season the writers even manage to take the League's desire to annihilate Gotham-- also seen in BEGINS-- and dovetail it with the Mad Hatter's viral menace.

There are a lot of minor plot-threads too, of course. The worst is probably one in which Lee Tompkins, tormented by her desire for loose cannon Gordon, willingly exposes herself to the virus so that she can, like her old rival Barbara Kean, take a walk on the Hyde Side. The Court of Owls story is wrapped up too quickly, and even though Michael Chiklis is entertaining, his character of Barnes is a dead weight. Selina connects with two aspects of her Cat-persona, taking a big fall like the BATMAN RETURNS version and getting hold of her signature weapon, a whip (though NOT a cat-o-nine-tails). The murders of Gotham citizens gets wearying after a while, but it's still fun to see the show's versions of Firefly, Mister Freeze, Poison Ivy (who has some fun scenes vexing Penguin), and the always insidious Hugo Strange. The psuedo-Joker returns, but only for a few episodes, though he does have the honor of being the first Bat-villain to get beat up by Bruce Wayne. Oh, and Alfred almost dies, but he gets better.

My recollection is that the next two seasons maintain this same overheated level of storytelling. The arc with the most mythic resonance is surely the one involving Young Bruce's brainwashing, but the actual episodes don't sustain mythic concrescence. Still, it's a good step, since the brainwashing fails in its original purpose, but still serves to set the hero on his pre-destined path.

HURRICANE SWORD (1969)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

One online review compared this South Korean swordplay flick-- supposedly one of the first of its kind from that nation-- to a Zatoichi imitation called "Crimson Bat," in that the main character is a blind swordswoman. However, I've seen a couple of the "Bat" films, and SWORD is better, at least as good as an average-level ZATOICHI film.

For convenience I'll use the names applied to the characters from the English dub, since I haven't found Korean credits online. Elaine (Sa Mi-Ja) is the young blind heroine whose sword-skills are not very well explained. At some point in her younger years, Elaine's father died somehow, possibly as the result of Elaine's mother running off with another man. Elaine is raised by her Uncle Louie, but when she reaches young womanhood, Louie is slain by gangsters for some past offence.

The backstory is related after a "media res" opening, in which another older man is being chased by sword-wielding thugs. The thugs come across Elaine and give her some lip, so she kills them all. Only afterward does she find that the thugs' quarry was an old fellow she eventually calls Uncle Hong, whom she clearly substitutes for the real relative she lost.

However, Hong has some problems into which Elaine is soon drawn. Twenty years ago Hong, a single father, left his infant daughter Su Ann with another family for raising. Unfortunately, once Su Ann was older-- about the same age as Elaine-- the family sold Su Ann to a brothel run by a madame named (I think) Fa Something. Hong found out and wants to liberate the daughter he's never known.

Elaine tries to help by gathering enough money to buy Su Ann's contract. The blind heroine does so by betting on a cockfight administered by Mistress Fa, and seeing through Fa's fixing the fight. Elaine gets lots of money but her action angers Fa, who sends men (and one woman, armed with a bladed mace) to kill Elaine. Hong tries to free Su Anne on his own but things don't work out well for either of them.

In the grand tradition of Victorian melodrama, it's revealed that Fa is the bad mother who left Elaine behind, but the mistress deeply regrets her deed upon seeing her grown child. This fortunate coincidence works out because Fa's current lover is also the man who both stole Fa from her family and had Uncle Louie killed. Elaine manages to gain vengeance for all of her injuries, though total tragedy is averted. Fa is wounded but not killed, and the film ends with the suggestion that Poor Elaine may still have a chance at some sort of family.

The battles are pure sword-play with no hand-to-hand fighting at all, and I found them adequate if unremarkable, while Sa Mi-Ja did a good job charting her character's emotional tumult. Compared to the many piecemeal chopsockies I've encountered, SWORD is refreshingly linear in its melodramatic basics.

HONOR ROLL #226

SA MI-JA may be blind, but she's not in the control of a blind fate.

Thanks to ROBIN LORD TAYLOR, this time Penguin gets more attention than that other big Bat-foe.

SELMA BLAIR, a heroic monster who knows how to set hearts afire.

No dragon around for ELLISE CHAPPELL.

You can't get blood out of a turnip, but you can get a good perf by TESS HAUBRICH out of "Bleeding Steel."

The ledger containing all the best Jokers will have to include HEATH LEDGER.

OGON BAT (1966)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

I don't know the conditions under which the streaming version of OGON BAT was produced, so that both the English title and the subtitles refer to this venerable (dating back to 1930) hero as "Golden Ninja." Since there are no ninjas of any kind herein, why didn't the transcribers just use the direct translation of the hero's name, "Golden Bat?" 

To be sure, Ogon had a rather unique origin in terms of his medium: in the Japanese medium of kamishibai (paper theater). Thus Ogon's adventures weren't formally copyrighted, and so many different hands contributed to the hero's mythos. Only the most exacting expert in Japanese pop culture might know whether Toei Studios borrowed from this or that narrative when the studio produced this 1966 black-and-white "origin story."

Twenty-something amateur astronomer Akira, the film's initial viewpoint character, charts the path of a rogue planet, significantly named "Icarus," and observes with horror that this heavenly body is on a collision course with Earth. Akira tries to inform a couple of sedate older astronomers and they brush him off as a non-expert. However, someone takes Akira seriously, for a quartet of "men in black" seize the young man and take him to their leaders.

Happily, Akira is recruited by a benevolent organization, the U.N.-sponsored Pearl Institute. In quick succession the youth meets the four key members of the group: twenty-something Naomi, middle-schooler Emily (who I think was a relative of someone), Doctor Yamatone (a pre-STREET FIGHTER Sonny Chiba), and Doctor Pearl (played by the movie's only non-Japanese actor). Akira is clearly there to provide the audience with a gateway character, the means by which the other characters explain their raison d'etre of defending the Earth from evil forces. However, once that explication is done, Akira just becomes another face in the crowd. It's slightly ironic that Middle-Schooler Emily (Emiri Takami) will become the new "spirit of youth" that can bring an ancient hero to life.

Out in space, presumably a little while back, we see the entities who caused Icarus to plummet toward Earth: Lord Nazo and his army of black-clad humanoids. Since their ship is out in space one might presume that they're all aliens, though no one says so outright, and Nazo looks markedly different from his humanoid henchmen: some sort of lop-eared, four-eyed creature with a metal claw for a right hand. (The claw-hand reminded me slightly of the villain from 1937's BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD.) And the ship-- which Nazo uses to impel the planetoid into its collision course-- looks like a big rotary drill, topped by a pointy head with two eyes. (One critic calls the head "squid-like" and I don't disagree.) If I didn't see the ship in space, I might have assumed that Nazo's weird race came from some underground kingdom. In fact the movie includes two quick scenes where the drill-ship is seen tunneling up from beneath the earth's crust for no stated reason. Maybe this striking image was borrowed from a story in which the drill-ship had some more practical function.

Back at the Pearl Institute, Yamatone informs Akira that Pearl has a super-laser with which they can disintegrate Icarus when it gets close enough. However, the scientists need a special, unnamed mineral to make the gun work. They've sent out at least one reconnaissance team to look for this key element. And no sooner does Akira agree to join Pearl than Yamatome gets a distress message from the away team. Into a flying "super car" climb the uniformed heroes, including Young Emily, and they're off.

The distress signal guides the team to an uncharted island. Landing, the Pearl team finds the dead bodies of their comrades, and they also behold a number of archaic monoliths around; structures that Yamatone believes to be Atlantean. Nazo's drill ship pops out of the ocean and the fiend sends his minions, armed with ray-guns, to kill the explorers. The Pearl operatives take refuge in a vast underground labyrinth.

The heroes stumble across a sarcophagus with Egyptian glyphs and the symbol of a bat. Yamatone reads an inscription that indicates that if someone places water on the skeletal figure inside the coffin, a great defender will come to their aid. Yamatone is more preoccupied with a crystal held by the mummy, for it's the very mineral the team came looking for. The henchmen attack, and in desperation Little Emily follows the inscription's instruction. Ogon Bat-- skull-headed, long-caped, and utilizing a cane that can sometimes shoot ray-beams-- comes to life, disposes of all the minions (who can't seem to use their guns against his superb athleticism), and drives off the drill-ship. Ogon Bat then tells Emily that because she revived him, she alone can summon him by speaking his name, He also instructs the Pearl Team to get back in their ship and depart, because the Atlantean island is about to sink back into the ocean. (There's a slight impression that the island, which contained both the key element and an avenging hero, may have risen specifically to save Earth from planetary doom.) The good guys pile into their super car and return to base, while the island sinks and Ogon Bat disappears.

None of the rest of the film equals the pulpy goodness of the origin-section. Nazo witnesses the Pearl-scientists testing the super-laser and sends his minions (along with three named hench-persons, one female) to attack the institute. The assailants manage not only to steal the laser device (though not the vital key element), they manage to kidnap Naomi and Doctor Pearl, leaving duplicates in their place. This comes in handy when Nazo needs spies to find the missing element, so I guess he was pretty far-sighted. Emily calls Ogon Bat a couple of times, but he doesn't stick around between victories. He apparently shows up first in the form of a very small bat, because in one sequence the bad guys manage to trap the bat before it can become Ogon. Eventually, after various seesaw battles, it comes down to a face-off between Ogon and Nazo, and Icarus is destroyed with minutes to spare.

I've found no credit for the stuntman in the Ogon costume, whose voice was supplied by another actor. The fights are passable but nothing special, and Ogon's use of his cane is somewhat less than awe-inspiring. However, his skull-like visage-- which may or may not be his real face-- bears some resemblance to the "Red Death" mask utilized by the Phantom of the Opera in the 1925 movie. No one can prove this, but if true it would stand as one of the more interesting cross-cultural influences in the days of early superheroes. Most previous starring heroes (and some villains) in costumes were "uncanny" types with no super-powers, while those that boasted either personal physical powers (John Carter) or super-weapons (Fu Manchu) were not costumed. Whatever influence or influences guided the original creators of Ogon Bat will never be known positively. But maybe some world-wide archetype was springing forth just like sunken Atlantis, given that a Japanese crusader appeared the same year as the technical debut of The Shadow, first of a long line of American costumed crimefighters.

ADDENDUM: Another candidate for "first costumed superhero," albeit without powers, is The Laughing Mask, who appeared in the mostly lost Pearl White serial THE IRON CLAW, issued three years before Johnston McCulley published the first ZORRO story.

STARGIRL,SEASON TWO (2021)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

Late in Season Two, Shiv/Cindy (Meg DeLacy) asserts, "You have to do bad to fight evil." Given that's she's meant to stand as a dark reflection of linchpin hero Stargirl (Brec Bassinger), it's a given that Shiv will be proven wrong.

As it happens, one of the reasons for the downfall of the original Justice Society was because they bought into the logic of "the end justifies the means." Before the ISA-battle that took most of the heroes' lives, they encountered the menace of Eclipso, an incarnation of pure evil only able to operate on Earth through a human pawn. (The original comics-conception for Eclipso was sort of "what if Doctor Jekyll transformed into an insidious master villain every night?") The majority of the superheroes are faced with a relentless monster willing to kill all of the heroes' loved ones for spite, and become convinced that the only way to end the menace is to kill the monster's host. A minority of the heroes oppose the slaying of an innocent, including both Stargirl's stepfather Stripesy (Luke Wilson) and Doctor Mid-Nite, the crusader whom Beth Chapel (Anjelika Washington) takes as her model. 

As it happens, Season One concludes the battle of the New JSA with their ISA foes by causing two of the young heroes to confront their own "hearts of darkness." Hourman/Rick (Cameron Gellman) spends most of Season One obsessing about getting the chance to execute the killer of his parents, Solomon Grundy, only to find, given the chance to do so, that he can't murder a creature barely more than a trained animal. In contrast, Wildcat/Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) is faced the specter of her dead boyfriend, but, sensing that it's a trick, she claws open the throat of the illusion-maker, Brain Wave. Despite being fully justified by the exigencies of self-defense, Yolanda's guilt causes her to abandon her superheroic persona. Further, even members not confronted with the possibility of taking life, like Courtney and Beth, soon find their weaknesses exploited by Eclipso, whose power is unleashed by old foe Cindy Burman-- though Cindy too ends up getting betrayed by the evil being, and later becomes an ally to the Young JSA.

Though Stargirl, being the moral center of the team, does not give in to the logic of committing evil to stop evil, she does find herself using darkness against darkness. The Shade (Jonathan Cake)-- a former member of the ISA, though not one guilty of murdering the older heroes-- returns to Blue Valley. Though his power like Eclipso's makes copious use of darkness, he returns with the purpose of neutralizing an evil far greater than anything of which he's capable. And just as Stargirl must accept a villain's aid to destroy a greater villain-- well, the aid of two villains, counting Shiv-- Rick reaps an indirect reward for having spared Solomon Grundy.

Two other heroes return from the past. One is the original Starman, whose presence raises Courtney's concerns that he may reclaim the cosmic staff with which she bonded. Another is the aforementioned Doctor Mid-Nite, who was not slain in the JSA's last battle but was preserved in a nightmare-filled limbo-land-- and to a lesser extent, Beth worries about the hero's possible desire to reclaim his mantle. And another teen hero makes the scene: the daughter of the original Green Lantern-- though she's somewhat shoehorned into this narrative to make way for her greater role in Season Three. 

Though all of the soap opera elements are well done, Season Two's best aspect is its ability to concoct terrifying scenarios to torment almost all of the main characters-- even Pat, whose protectiveness toward his children is rooted in his maltreatment by his own father. Happily, there is some humor to leaven the mix. Season One's subplot about Mike Dugan wanting to be a member of the Young JSA-- easily that season's lamest element-- is redeemed when Mike and his friend Jakeem gain joint control of an unpredictable genie, The Thunderbolt. (There's also a killer joke involving Beth and her parents in the last episode.) There's also a short-lived "Young ISA" subplot, in which Shiv recruits Artemis and the son of The Fiddler for revenge on the clean teens. 

Of the performers this time, Jonathan Cake, shall we say, takes the cake, while Bassinger, Monreal, Wilson and Gellman contribute equally strong performances. Prior to any Season Three re-watch, I tend to think Season Two will prove the cream of this short-lived crop.

TARZAN IN MANHATTAN (1989)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

This TV-movie may be the only time that a version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' ape-man, rather than some unreasonable facsimile, was used for purposes of light romantic comedy. Judging MANHATTAN as a comedy allows me to forgive the film's shortcomings in the thrills department. 

The hero's origins are partly rewritten to give him slightly greater cognizance of the world outside his jungle upbringing. This time Tarzan (Joe Lara) was a very young boy when a plane carrying him and his parents crashed in the African jungle, resulting in the deaths of his parents (still English lords) and his adoption by an ape named Kala. There's just one line in the whole film where it matters that Tarzan has some childhood memories, and since it's not a very important line, I suspect the film's makers wanted to play down the sense of Tarzan as a pure product of savage life.

Nothing else from the origins of Book-Tarzan apply to the film, except that Kala is still alive as the movie opens. In the novel, Kala is slain by a tribesman hunting for food, which sets up Tarzan's antipathy with said tribe. Here, however, a group of hunters from America kill Kala and abduct Tarzan's chimp friend Cheetah (essentially identical to all the other chimp-buddies of Movie-Tarzan). Tarzan finds clues that indicate the hunters went back to some part of New York, and he makes it his business to rescue his chimp-friend and avenge his ape-mother.

Despite putting his best semi-civilized foot forward, the ape man gets detained upon entering the U.S, for reasons the script doesn't bother to clarify. He breaks out of jail (this Tarzan shows off his supernormal strength more than most do) and wanders through Manhattan in his loinclothed getup. By chance he engages a cab being driven by feisty Brooklyn girl Jane Porter (Kim Crosby), and a friendship of mismatched backgrounds is born. 

As was the case for the Jane in the first Weissmuller film, this heroine's budding romance with Tarzan is counterpointed by her struggles to separate herself from her father's protective aegis. MANHATTAN's father (Tony Curtis) is even given the first name "Archimedes" like the fussy professor of the book, though in this incarnation Jane's dad is a hard-boiled ex-cop with the unfortunate habit of kicking down the apartment door of his grown daughter when he thinks she may be in over her head. He also wants her to join him working as a private eye, but Jane would rather find her own identity, though arguably she just transfers her father-imago to the mysterious half-naked guy from the jungle.

MANHATTAN never gets tired of the "fish out of water" schtick, and to the film's credit a few of the jokes are funny, and the script doesn't ever totally forget Tarzan's main reason for his New York sojourn. The alliance of ape-man, cab driver and New York cop does ferret out an organization doing brain-experiments on captive jungle animals, headed by a nasty pseudo-Nietzchean plotter (Jan-Michael Vincent, in one of his few meaty post-AIRWOLF roles). The tone gets more serious when Archimedes is injured, and Jane wants to seek her own vengeance, though this Brooklyn broad never displays any real toughness. Tarzan still saves the day, and he even displays a new skill, being able to subtly communicate with trained dogs the way other versions of the hero could commune with elephants. In an atypical ending for a Tarzan movie, not only does Jane resign herself to working with her dad at his agency, they both talk Tarzan into sticking around for more New York adventures. This conclusion invites the suspicion that MANHATTAN might have been conceived as a potential pilot for a TV show, though nothing materialized.

Tony Curtis hams things up, but almost all of his movie-roles were hammed-up anyway. Crosby, much more of a theater-thespian than a performer in movies and TV, does her level best with the thinly written Jane character, but I'm afraid no one's going to nominate her as one of the great Janes, even for the small screen. Oddly, though neither of the telefilm's two writers had ever before written anything remotely fantasy-oriented for film or TV, William Gough went on to work on a handful of episodes for the 1991-92 TARZAN series starring Wolf Larson (which series was sometimes dubbed "Tree-Hugger Tarzan").

Though Joe Lara won't be remembered as a great Tarzan, he does consistently imbue the hero with a staunch dignity and an occasional sense of humor. Even though funny things happen around his Tarzan, his ape-man is never the butt of the jokes, and he carries out the few action-scenes with aplomb. This role almost certainly led to his being cast as a very different ape-man in the single season of the syndicated series TARZAN: THE EPIC ADVENTURES. Though EPIC had its moments of pure cheese, I appreciated its attempt to do a television Tarzan who kept getting pulled into all sorts of wild pulp-adventures, like his prose forbear.

HERCULES IN THE UNDERWORLD (1994)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

Discounting the final telefilm in this series, which is essentially a "clip show," UNDERWORLD is the weakest of the HERCULES pilot-movies-- and this despite the fact that it's based on one of the best known archaic stories about the hero. 

The original tale hinges on an element of infidelity impossible to duplicate in a squeaky-clean adventure-show. Archaic Hercules, married to Deianeira, saves her from a rape-happy centaur named Nessus by shooting the beast-man dead with an arrow. As Nessus perishes, he convinces the gullible woman that his centaur-blood, when applied to a garment, can be used to keep her husband faithful. Sure enough, Hercules' affections stray to a new love, Iole. Deianeira innocently gives Hercules a robe soaked in centaur-blood, and upon donning the garment, the hero feels as if he's burning alive. He dies upon a pyre but his spirit ascends to Olympus, while Deianeira commits suicide.

In UNDERWORLD, Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) has been married to Deianeira (Tawny Kitaen) for several years, since they have three small children. Zeus (Anthony Quinn) comes by every once in a while to play Grandpa.

As for Hera, she finally does mount a two-pronged attack, one overt and one subtle. She manipulates a brutal boxer into slaying some of the men of Hercules' village, so that the hero must fight and slay the boxer. When Hercules learns of Hera's involvement, he demolishes her local temple, though Zeus warns that this will only enrage her further.

But it appears that Hera's been working for some time on Nessus, a centaur who works at Hercules' side at a smithy. Nessus covets Deianeira, and he's rash enough to even proposition her in private. Then a fetching young woman, Iole, comes to Hercules, needing his help in her town, where a pit leading to the Land of Death menaces the populace. Agents of Hera play upon Deianeira's insecurity as to her husband's fidelity. Nessus then tries to rape the young woman in clear sight of Hercules, who shoots the centaur dead. As Nessus expires, he completes his mission for Hera by deceiving Deianeira-- who, in contrast to her earlier depiction, becomes a complete dummy.

Hercules pursues his mission to Iole's town. He meets Iole's old boyfriend, who tries to kill him. Iole thinks there's some prophecy linking her to Hercules romantically, though this prophecy doesn't add up to much. The hero reaches the Underworld-fissure, but since he can't descend without dying, he actually does plan to withdraw from battle to protect his own family. Through a series of contrivances he dons the poisoned garment and plunges into the abyss anyway, but he doesn't die for some reason. Meanwhile, a messenger informs Deianeira that he saw Hercules plunge into the abyss. Deianeria does not kill herself in grief, but Hera manipulates her into stepping off a cliff to a fatal end.

Hercules finds himself contending with an assortment of monsters and dead specters in the Land of Death, while Deianeira ends up in the peaceful Elysian Fields. Hades refuses to release Deianeira, since she is rightfully dead. However, to Hercules' good fortune, the three-headed dog Cerberus has got loose, and Hades will bargain for his capture. Eventually, all the right romantic partners are placed together, and the script never really establishes who opened the fissure into the death-world in the first place. This time, the writers' attempt to rework old myths just turns into a myth-take.

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2021)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

For years the Wachowskis, co-creators and co-directors of the original MATRIX, resisted many overtures to return to their creation after the conclusion of its two sequels. This third sequel, eighteen years after their last collaboration, indicates that their initial instinct was a good one. 

I gave the original movie a high mythicity rating based on these criteria:

the Wachowskis produced a script layered with constant references to the symbolic/cultural realities in which humans exist in addition to their physical presences. The aforementioned name for the real-world human conclave is the same as that of a Jewish name for a paradisical city. Morpheus is the Greek god of sleep, while Trinity is the Christian term for the interlinked religious concepts of heavenly father, earthly Son and a spirit that in various ways mediates between those realms. Most famously, Morpheus offers Anderson a choice between two pills, one that will allow him to forget everything and return to the Matrix simulation, and the other which will enhance his understanding of his existence in both real and simulated worlds. And he glosses the pills with references to Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

However, the two sequels concentrated on a superficial "ticking clock" menace to animate the heroes' journeys through cyberspace, and the Wachowskis seemed to forget a lot of the plot-threads they themselves put out there, such as Neo (Keanu Reeves) manifesting psychic powers in the real world in MATRIX RELOADED. The Wachowskis wound up MATRIX REVOLUTIONS with a neat bow, forging a rapprochement between the human world and that of the AI. But the fact that the filmmakers kept over-emphasizing the fate of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) suggested to me that they weren't able to follow through on the promise of the first film.

RESURRECTIONS confirms as much, though technically only Lana Wachowski was involved here, both directing and co-writing. And once again, the main theme is that of "resurrection." Though both Neo and Trinity's mortal bodies died, they're apparently resurrected in the sixty years that take place between REVOLUTIONS and this story. I *think* the idea is that an evil program in the Matrix, the Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris), creates new AI programs for both Neo and Trinity, and that these forms are later able to transition into the real world by some unexplained X-factor. 

An ongoing energy crisis is responsible for the breakdown of the detente between humans and AI, but the Analyst is the power broker in the equation. There's some sort of great psychic energy generated by both the Neo and Trinity programs, but only when they're kept apart. (The Analyst must have been strongly influenced by the two sequels, since that's almost all they're about.) So the two programs are kept apart within the Matrix, believing themselves to have two separate existences, even though they "coincidentally" encounter one another from time to time, presumably to generate yet more psychic energy.

But in the real world, a hacker named Bugs (Jessica Henwick) unleashes a new version of Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and what we soon get is a replay of the original film, in which Morpheus releases the slumbering tiger that is the real Neo from his mundane persona. Meanwhile, Agent Smith (now played by Jonathan Groff) has survived as well, as once again threatening both the human and machine worlds. There are copious battles of cyber-fu and crashing cars to fill in time before Neo and Trinity both assume their godlike forms and trash the Analyst's plans. The series ends, hopefully for good, on the reunited lovers planning to retool the Matrix into some form that will not be used to subvert human and AI will. I frankly don't remember if they managed to solve the real-world energy crisis.

By the way, Zion-- the city of human refugees that the two sequels labored so hard to protect-- did fall during the sixty years of Neo's down-time, but it was replaced by "Io." The movie didn't offer any reasons for naming this second city after one of Zeus's many conquests, though I suppose the key might be that the Greek myth-figure was the ancestress of various famous heroes. An aged Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith), whose myth-name didn't mean much either, is in charge of Io the city, but she's as dull here as she was in the other sequels.

RESURRECTIONS underperformed at the theatrical box office, so there's not a strong chance for another sequel. The best thing I can say about the movie is that its script hinted at some identity politics once or twice, but didn't go down that particular rabbit-hole. Oh, and all the "jokes" about the merchandising of the MATRIX franchise-- that is, the game that exists within the fictional reality of the Matrix proper-- are seriously lame.

THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (1979)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*


In terms of phenomenality, the franchise LUPIN III is all over the map.  Some of the manga stories are zany erotic adventure-tales published for a PLAYBOY-like demographic audience in Japan, but which have no metaphenomenality.  The first animated film is outright marvelous, pitting the wild Japanese thief (named for his grandfather, famed French thief Arsene Lupin) against a mad scientist seeking the all-powerful philosopher's stone.  CASTLE, the second animated feature starring Lupin, best fits the "uncanny" category given that most of the peculiar devices used by or against Lupin are not quite marvelous-- automatic laser-beams, for example-- but carry the vibe of the metaphenomenal.  On a related note, Lupin is aided by two formidable henchmen: Jigen and Goemon.  Jigen is simply a skilled marksman, but Goemon is a samurai possessed of such "outre skills" that he can cut clothes right off of his opponents-- which usually discourages them from making further attacks.

CASTLE was one of the best-known anime feature in the United States during the first anime boom, possibly because by the time it reached American shores, its director Hayao Miyazaki had already garnered considerable fame for his later, more personalized works, such as 1984's NAUSICAA.  Miyazaki has stated publicly that he would have preferred to do another story for this film, but that time-constraints forced him to use CASTLE instead.  Still, much of Miyazaki's fondness for strong sentiment-- diametrically opposed to the cavalier attitude of the original manga from author "Monkey Punch"-- informs the structure of CASTLE.

Following a rousing burglary of a casino, Lupin and his aide Jigen find that they've ripped off counterfeit money.  This inspires Lupin to seek out the source of the operation-- for the thieves' monetary benefit, of course-- in the postage-stamp nation of Cagliostro.  However, Lupin's mercenary motives take a back seat to rescuing a fair damsel named Clarisse, seen initially as a literal "runaway bride," fleeing a group of soldiers in a car.  Despite Lupin's efforts Clarisse is re-captured by the soldiers and taken back to the castle of Count Cagliostro, who plans to force Clarisse to wed him and join the fortunes of the "two houses of Cagliostro."

Lupin figures out that the Count is the one behind the massive counterfeiting scheme, but he later confesses an even more involved motive for combating the villain.  He eventually reveals to Jigen that as a young man Lupin made a previous assault on the Castle, again to steal the counterfeiting plates.  He was shot and almost killed, only to be saved from death by a young school-girl. Perhaps ten years later, he recognizes that Clarisse is that schoolgirl grown to young womanhood, though she never recognizes him as the thief of yesteryear.

The action-kinetics between Lupin's group and the Count's men are always above-average, particularly a climactic duel between hero and villain in a clock-tower.  However, the psychological subtext is most interesting.  At one point in the Japanese subbing, Lupin calls the Count a pedophile for wanting to marry a girl much younger than himself, though Clarisse is no longer a child.  So on one level Lupin seeks to prevent a dirty old "playboy" (like the readers of Monkey Punch?) from despoiling a virgin girl.  However, Clarisse falls in love with Lupin-- despite a similar age-difference-- and it's strongly suggested that Lupin is tempted, though in the end he does the right thing and forswears her.

However, after killing the villain he still does escape with a lot of filthy lucre, so there's some compensations to be had, after all.

HONOR ROLL #225

Roguish Lupin plays cavalier, literally crossing swords with COUNT CAGLIOSTRO.

JESSICA HENWICK provides some of the best moments in the low-wattage MATRIX 4.

Despite her name, TAWNY KITAEN isn't always a bundle of fun.

JOE LARA takes a bite out of the Big Apple.

YVETTE MONREAL takes a walk on the Wildcat side.

Since I can't find a name for the guy wearing the costume, I'll have to use the character's name for this entry on the live-action OGON BAT.

BLUE DEMON: DEATH NIGHT (1975)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

This is the only solo Blue Demon film I've seen translated into English, and there's not that much to say about it. 

The opening scenes are moderately bracing, as a thief dressed like the superhero-wrestler Blue Demon kills a diamond courier and beats down a hotel bellboy. The script calls a little attention to the fact that the thief could have killed both victims but didn't-- but it seems like the writer just forgot this point and went on to other things.

The cops don't entirely disbelieve the possibility that the real Blue Demon might have gone crooked, but they allow him to continue his own investigations. Whereas the prototypical Santo mostly played a lone hand, Blue Demon in this entry has one male and one female assistant, which may or may not have been a regular thing in his solo movie series.

There are actually two villains behind the imposture, whom the wrestler-hero sent to jail years ago (though, again, I've no idea if they actually appeared in an earlier film). The mastermind is named The Count, though he doesn't do much, and the bulky guy who impersonated the Demon is an ex-wrestler named The Cossack. Eventually the two Demons square off for the film's best fight, though for some reason the Cossack gets away and shows up in another disguise to attempt conquering his foe in the ring. Not the most sensible plan-- even if he'd killed the Blue Demon, he would've been trying to escape in front of dozens of people.

Both the hero and the villain have a comely blonde helper who does a second or two of fighting, so DEATH NIGHT scores a couple of points in the "girl power" category, not at all that common in a luchador film.

LUPIN III: GREEN VS. RED (2008)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

GREEN VS. RED has one good joke toward the opening, when we see a few dozen Lupin impersonators gathered together. Instead of the impostors all looking exactly like Lupin does in other iterations of this OVA series, each one emulates one of the many "animation models" used in various Lupin projects since the anime franchise was launched in the 1970s. 

This visual in-joke was created to celebrate the impending 40th anniversary of Lupin's manga debut in 1967, just as the title refers to variations in the Lupin cartoons, as to whether the master thief dominantly wears a red jacket or a green one. GREEN takes the metafictional joke a bit further in that by the end of the OVA, one isn't quite sure which Lupin is the real one, or even if the question means anything.

The only sure thing is that one of the Lupin impersonators, Yasuo, doesn't look at all like any of the "on-model" imitators. Yet he nurtures some quixotic desire to become the new Lupin III. Can Yasuo tap into the archetype of Lupin? Even the great thief's best buds-- Goemon, Jigen and Fujiko-- won't take a position, but are content to watch things play out. But there's no real plot, just a lot of posturing and running around, with Inspector Zenigata in his "serious mode" getting more screen time than the Lupin Gang.

This OVA registers as a "bizarre crime" thanks to all the Lupin-doubles, while a lesser crime involving some diamond-theft barely can hold the same stage. There's far less combative action here than in the usual Lupin tales, but since there is at least the promise of a duel between "Green Lupin" and "Red Lupin," I'll include this entry in the combative mode even if there isn't a big payoff. 

THE SISTER STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Though the trio of films starring a character called (in the English dub) "Tina Long" are given the rubric "Sister Street Figher," there's no actual connection between this series and that of Sonny Chiba's STREET FIGHTER series. Chiba, who worked with star Etsuko Shihomi on several projects, does contribute a minor support-role, but he's in no way compared with his "Terry Tsurugi" character. There's also no attempt to give the Tina character any psychological depth; she's just a loose cannon that the authorities unleash upon a band of evil drug-smugglers.

Tina's a private citizen, renowned as a martial arts champion, and when her undercover cop brother Lee goes missing, the Hong Kong cops assign Tina to go find him, because I guess that's what HK police do in those situations. The thin thread of logic relates to the fact that drug-boss Kakuzaki keeps around a stable of killers with disparate kung-fu styles (the gangster considers it his hobby, the way other rich guys keep stables of horses). Thus Tina can use her fame to infiltrate various kung-fu haunts-- though, truth to tell, the bad guys obligingly come looking for her. By the way, though most drug-lords just kill off undercover cops, Kakuzaki keeps Lee a prisoner and pumps him full of heroin, just to be a sadist.

That's all the plot one gets, as the rest of the film is wall-to-wall action. All of the uncanny content comes from the gangsters. One group of female karate-killers dresses up with face-masks and jaguar-pelt costumes and weird devices include a spear-pistol, a blowgun, and a metal claw-hand that Kakuzaki wears in his final fight with Tina. The latter is almost certainly a callback to ENTER THE DRAGON, whose main villain sports a similar weapon. In essence, Kazuzaki is just a reprise of that character, switching his venue of operations from an island-tournament to the mean streets of a big city.

When SISTER was a hit, the company rushed out a sequel, subtitled HANGING BY A THREAD, and the new boss of Tina's enemies, Osone, is once again both a drug-smuggler and a collector of exotic killers. This time an official asks Tina to take on the smugglers to save the official's daughter, with whom Tina is also friends. However, in case a family friend doesn't seem like enough-- and since the cop-brother died in the first film-- this time Tina has a sister who gets mixed up in the drug trade. And though there's no Sonny Chiba this time, Tina gets help from another prominent male fighter, played by well regarded performer Yasuaki Kurata.

There aren't nearly as many wild gimmicks in this film, though there are enough to keep up the uncanny phenomenality. There's another spear-pistol and a woman who has poisoned fingernails, but they don't poise major threats. I thought I saw something like a shuriken that spurted acid demonstrated, but nothing like that was ever used against Tina. Osone doesn't seem as formidable a villain as Kakuzaki, though the script gives Osone a weird fetish for putting out the eyes of his enemies-- which almost guarantees the method of his demise.

The trilogy wrapped up with RETURN OF THE SISTER STREET FIGHTER the next year. Curiously, Tina is asked for help to find the missing sister of a cop named Cho (played by Sonny Chiba's brother Jiro), but he perishes early on. This leaves Tina to both go looking for the missing woman, one Shurei, while also playing nursemaid to Shurei's grade-schooler daughter Rika.

Again Tina encounters the inevitable gang with lots of martial artist thugs, though at least this time, they're smuggling gold instead of drugs. The main evildoer this time is the wheelchair-bound Mister Oh, and once again in deference to the model of evil Master Han of ENTER THE DRAGON, this villain stages a mini-tournament for eight prospective bodyguards, to whittle the applicants down to four. (This sequence is the only one to use really exotic costumes.) Once Oh has his four bodyguards, a late entry named Kurosaki (Yasuaki Kurata) horns in, kills one of the four, and claims he's the only one able to kill Tina.

Kurosaki comes close to doing so, but when he fails, Oh has Rika kidnapped to lure Tina into a trap, Supposedly the idea is to have Tina cornered by Kurosaki in a wooden building, but whether it's Oh's idea or that of the bodyguards, the henchmen fire the building, intending to trap Kurosaki, Tina and Rika inside. Kurosaki enables Tina and Rika to escape but seemingly perishes in the blaze. (However, he turns up at the climax with no explanation.) 

Oh proves himself the stupidest fiend in the series. After gratuitously shooting Shurei in front of her little daughter, Oh has Tina strung up by her heels from an A-frame that's just standing out in the open for some reason, and then-- leaves her behind to starve and be picked over by crows. Tina of course escapes and she and Kurosaki join forces to thrash all the villains. Incidentally, Kurosaki reveals some hard-to-follow info about Oh being a Japanese WWII officer who absconded with the gold somehow, but how he knew this, no one knows. This end-battle is the only decent fight in this, the least of the trilogy, and it also contains the only uncanny device. Calling out to Master Han AGAIN, Oh reveals that he's not only not crippled and doesn't need his wheelchair, one of his hands is solid gold and capable to crushing skulls. Of course he still loses and dies clutching at his illicitly-acquired gold bars. Kurosaki disappears, so his agenda remains up for grabs, while Tina ends her adventures by becoming a new mother to orphaned Rika. A fourth film with the "Sister" moniker came out but in it Shihomi played a different character.