PLANET OF THE VAMPIRE WOMEN (2011)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

Imagine that in the sleaziest era of Roger Corman's career-- I'll say the eighties, just for fun-- someone gave Corman, free and clear, the script to Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. Of course Corman would monetize the gift by making his own version of PLANET, with not only vampires but lots of tits and blood, and a few scenes swiped from his 1981 New World messterpiece, GALAXY OF TERROR.

That's what writer-director Darin Wood put together with PLANET OF THE VAMPIRE WOMEN, with numerous STAR TREK in-jokes as well. Surprisingly, I liked this goofy thing despite its extremely derivative nature. It's crap, but it's lively crap, and the quantity of cute actresses willing to provide upper-body nudity didn't hurt.

Quick summary: a crew of colorful space-pirates led by Capt, Richards (Paquita Estrada) raid a mammoth space-mall and escape with their booty. Space cop Falco in his own ship pursues the pirate craft, so Richards steers her ship onto a mysterious forbidden planet. Richards pays for her rashness, for some sort of energy-beings infect her, and she becomes a fanged space-vampire. She kills a couple of her crewmates and sabotages the ship. After she flees, the other pirates do recon on the planet. They find it's inhabited by such weird creatures as flying stinger-bugs and bipedal boar-people. Cop Falco also lands on the planet, but though he wants to arrest the pirates, he soon realizes that the vampire is creating more creatures like herself and thus is the greater cosmic danger. The cop and the pirates-- those don't get vampirized-- make a truce to get away in his ship, which proves extremely necessary because there's an ancient computer system on the planet that comes alive, attempting to destroy the whole planet to keep the vampire beings from escaping. However, Richards and her allies escape in the other ship and head for the space-mall, where they begin randomly killing people. The cop and the pirates join forces to save the day, but alas-- saving the day is not in the cards.

In addition to boobs and blood, there's a lot of fighting in the film, and though none of it is well-done, Wood and his costumers make the whole thing look super-colorful, not unlike the day-glo look of Sixties Batman. It's such a pleasure to see a cheapo SF-film that looks fairly pleasing to the senses-- even not counting the nudity--that I give PLANET extra mythicity points just for getting across the look of a PLAYBOY style future full of cheerful degeneracy. And besides-- who can hate a movie that shows space vampires shooting lightning from their eyes?             

SWORDSMAN II (1992)

 

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

It's a minor puzzle to me that the 1990 Swordsman is so mediocre next to its sequel. They used the same characters (though barely any of the same actors) and the same source material. Two of the credited directors for S2, Tsui Hark and Ching Sui-Ting, had forged major pathways for Hong Kong cinema of the late eighties, particularly with the stylish, wonder-filled CHINESE GHOST STORY trilogy. I mentioned that the 1990 film had some mixed backstage history, in that original director King Hu departed the project, but why weren't Hark and Ching able to pull the 1990 film together? 

Whatever the reasons for the first film's failures, S2 finds an admirable way to provide some dramatic compass for the movie, even though this movie like S1 still focuses upon the often-confusing interplay between various kung-fu clans. During the Ming dynasty the generals of a Japanese militia, expelled from their own country, land in China and conspire to usurp the rule of the Emperor. These invaders, at least some of whom are ninjas, join forces with a kung-fu clan seen in the first film, the Sun Moon Clan. This alliance is made possible when the "good" masters of the Clan, one of whom is Ren Yingying (Rosamund Kwan), get expelled by a new master, Invincible Dawn (Brigitte Lin). Though Dawn is male and speaks with a deep voice, he underwent one of those many mystical transformations possible in wuxia movies, becoming female in terms of outward appearance-- though only his courtiers know his true nature. 

After this conspiracy is detailed, the script focuses upon the same two main characters of the first film, Ling (Jet Li) and Kiddo (Michelle Reis). Though both are still young albeit skilled members of the Hua sect, they're thinking about ditching the constant strife of the martial arts world. Kiddo, secretly in love with Ling, wishes that he could see her as a woman, though I have no idea why she constantly runs around in men's attire in the first place. Ling for his part has some romantic attachment to the aforementioned Ren. I confess I barely remember Ren from the first film, but she's a more interesting character this time, having some fun badinage with her serving-woman Blue Phoenix (Fennie Yuen, returning from the 1990 film). 

The assault of Dawn's forces on Ren's Sun Moon court provides one of the film's most memorable scenes, as ninjas ride into battle on their own flying nunchakus and toss scorpions at the guardians, who in turn toss snakes back at the invaders. Ren has to flee. Slightly later, Ling and Kiddo show up at the Hua pavilion and almost get into a fatal fight with their own young colleagues. Once they recognize one another, the martial artists-- all of whom plan to foreswear the martial life-- nevertheless enjoy their old camaraderie, though Kiddo finds herself not embracing being "one of the boys" so much. The youths all get a false message that Ren is being held by Dawn's forces, so they attempt to rescue her, only to get directed to the real location of the exiled Sun Moon luminaries. 

Somewhat later Ling makes a solo assault on Dawn's stronghold, but when he meets the "master," he mistakes him for a female prisoner and tries to shield Dawn from his own guards. Ling apparently falls for Dawn, who remains silent to conceal her deep voice. (Later the evil martial master learns how to modulate his voice into a feminine register, allowing Brigitte Lin to use her own speech.) Later, during a fractious encounter with Woxing, the father of Ren-- who's secretly colluding with Dawn-- Ling refuses to marry Ren, clearly breaking her heart (but giving Kiddo new hope).

The final battle shows the original Sun Moon acolytes and their Hua allies taking on Dawn's forces, and this results in Dawn's apparent death (though Lin returns as the character in the final sequel). In a nice if acrimonious scene between Ling and Woxing, Woxing mocks the younger man's naivete, saying it's impossible to really leave the martial world. "As long as there are people, there will be grievances. Where there are grievances, there is the martial arts world." I found that such realistic assessments of the Nature of Man acted as a pleasing counterpoint to the many wild wuxia wonders--- killing opponents with thrown needles, uprooting trees when opponents hide inside them. Additionally, though often I think that "queer theory" proponents overstate the significance of male characters masquerading as women, or even transforming magically into women, here t Ahe screenwriters might've had some "genderfluid" ideas going on in their conception of Dawn, though it should be noted that he is still an unregenerate villain as a woman.  At the end of the film, Ling and Kiddo depart the Sun Moon Sect and don't return for the sequel. This may imply that Kiddo's constancy may finally be reciprocated once they leave behind the world of senseless strife.                   

HOLOGRAM MAN (1995)

 

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

No one goes to PM Entertainment for well-conceived science-fiction societies, and HOLOGRAM MAN is in essence another near-future, low-budget flick derived from movies like ROBOCOP and TERMINATOR. However, the society in HOLOGRAM at least makes more sense than the one in the two CYBER TRACKER films.  

To be sure, anything one learns about this near-future world has to be acquired in the midst of running gun-battles. We're apparently in future-California, but we don't know anything of the rest of the world except that somehow, humans caused the destruction of the ozone layer. This put a repressive government under the control of one Jameson (Michael Nouri). In reaction to that repression, anarchist Slash Gallagher (Evan Lurie) organizes a small band of similar terrorists devoted to violent overthrow of the government. However, tough cop Decoda (Joe Lara) manages to stymie Gallagher and send him to prison. But in this future world, the government places convicts' bodies into statis while computers seek to reprogram the sinners into useful citizens.   

Years pass, and it's time for the prison parole board to review whether or not the reprogramming had the desired effect. Decoda, who would have preferred seeing Gallagher put down like the mad dog he is, attends the hearing, while both his girlfriend Natalie and her father serve as technicians in the process. However, elsewhere Gallagher's old gang engages a hacker to interfere with the computers. Bingo: not only has Gallagher not been reformed, he becomes a being of pure energy, a "phantom terminator" who can't be harmed by bullets or bombs. 

A little past the middle mark, Gallagher corners Decoda and Natalie at the computer building, shoots Decoda fatally, and leaves both cop and technician behind to be annihilated by a bomb. But Natalie apparently figured out what rogue process created the energy-Gallagher, so she puts the dying body of her boyfriend through the same treatment, making him into an energy-creature too. This leads to a big battle between cop and criminal, as well as getting rid of the tyrant who fomented the toxic situation.

For me the most interesting thing is that even though the hero becomes a super-powered being like the villain, I'm not sure Decoda counts as the main character. Aside from the rage the cop expresses at the callousness of both Gallagher and Jameson, Decoda is even more of a cipher than most action-heroes in flicks like this one. In contrast, Gallagher's psychotic persona gets much more attention, and though nothing he says is overly witty, the movie seems far more predicated on what happens when a hologram-- intended to be a neutral representation of a human psyche-- becomes infused with the evil of the psyche's owner. True, by the end of the story Decoda is the only surviving "hologram man," and I suppose he might go on crusading against evil a la the inhuman Robocop. But when his girlfriend asks what they should do in the wake of Jameson's demise, Decoda ends the film by throwing the power back to the people with one word: "Vote."

Not much humor in HOLOGRAM, but I did like it when one of the goons calls the hacker a "chip shit."

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2010)

 

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

This telefilm certainly can’t be accused of imitating any film-adaptation of the venerable literary folktale, since hardly any of the familiar “Beauty and the Beast” tropes even appear in it. There is a young woman who falls in love with a man despite his beastly appearance, and there is a conclusion in which the Beast’s curse is allayed and he regains his normal human appearance. But the bulk of the film owes more to fairy stories like “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty,” but told from the perspective of a prince denied his inheritance.

While the villain of the original story is a nugatory figure, here two nasty schemers get the action going. The ailing old king of a fairy-tale kingdom is about to die without a clear heir, and one schemer, Count Rudolph, plans to gain the throne by any means necessary. He even considers making a marriage-contract with a witch named Helen, who addresses him as “cousin” though no familial relationship is ever explained. Rudolph sees a new way to popularize himself when a local beauty named Belle (Estelle Warren) testifies to meeting a forest-wanderer with a beast’s face (Victor Parascos). Because reports of a mysterious beast-man have long haunted the kingdom, Rudolph thinks he can gain fame by killing the creature.

However, Helen reveals that the Beast is more threat than opportunity. Long ago Helen herself was the lover of the old king, but he kicked her to the curb due to her cruelty and sorcery. Like every good evil stepmother of traditional tales, Helen reacts by cursing the king’s child by another mother, so that from childhood the potential prince possesses an animalistic visage. The old king gives the order to have the unsightly child killed, but a beneficent groom spares the boy and raises him in the forest.

Helen and Rudolph decide to frame the inoffensive Beast by sending a troll to kill the Beauty. Belle doesn’t happen to be home, though, and the monster slays her mother. Rudolph’s men capture the Beast and plan to put him on trial and execute him. However, the old groom is still around to convince Belle of the Beast’s innocence. After she helps free the Beast from prison, the two of them team up to hunt down the witch and to expose Rudolph—which also eventually leads to the Beast’s rebirth as a handsome prince.

There are no enchanting beauties in this BEAST, but it is a fast-moving adventure with a lot of plot-threads and a smattering of low-budget gore. The Beast’s face is mediocre even compared with the average film-adaptation of the story, but Parascos, despite being deprived of facial expression, puts across a fair amount of melodramatic emotion through his voice alone. Warren’s Belle often seems too contemporary in tone, not to mention being dressed in clothes too skimpy for the period, but she’s both comely and spunky. “Intrigue over the throne” shoves out almost all potential for the expected romance of the principals, which the script must shoehorn in where possible. Helen isn’t a great example of the bad stepmother-type, but as played by Vanessa Gray she’s certainly witty and resourceful, even if the script does have her call on such “evil” forces as Ahura Mazda (a beneficent Persian deity). The writer works in at least five references to beheadings, even where they’re not strictly necessary. One might wonder if all the head-chopping references herald a Freudian interpretation, where the “evil mother” takes out her rage against her former lover by giving the king’s son a face that no woman ought to love, thus effectively “castrating” him. But though the writer does work in two separate bits of dialogue about Helen having made the Beast into the man he is, Helen’s still a flat stereotype, and the couple’s triumph over the bad mother and the Bad Brother Rudolph is no more competent melodrama. It’s a decent time-killer, no more.

LUPIN III: FUJIKO'S LIE (2020)

  

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

Technically, the final entry in Takashi Koike's trio of LUPIN III projects continues the plotline in which Lupin and his gang find themselves targeted by assassins-- though not in the usual fashion, since no assassins chase the thieves this time. Instead, by a far-fetched coincidence, one of Fujiko's many moneymaking gambits coincidentally leads the gang to a middleman responsible for abetting, and in some cases, creating specialized assassins. Fair warning: though the Lupin gang naturally comes out on top in dealing with the middleman, his henchmen and his assassin, the mastermind is not disclosed, apart from the vague allusion seen at the end of JIGEN'S GRAVESTONE. Given that allusion, it's possible that Koike never had any intention of executing a final story with said mastermind. Koike may have meant to imply that the brains behind the assassins meets his fate at the end of this film, which *may* take place chronologically after these three short films, as well as Koike's teleseries A WOMAN NAMED FUJIKO MINE At any event, in the four years there has been no news of more Lupin III projects by Koike, so FUJIKO'S LIE-- which was completed slightly after the death of Lupin-creator Monkey Punch-- may be Koike's last word on the franchise.

In any case, LIE is also one of the best Lupin iterations thus far.

Fujiko's caper this time is like many others she's pursued separately from Lupin, Jigen and Goemon. (Indeed, Goemon is entirely absent, and no one speaks of him, though logically the only possible outcome of the samurai's confrontation with Zenigata at the end of BLOOD SPRAY would have consisted of Goemon stunning the cop and escaping.) For a period that must be over the course of months, Fujiko works as a maid to Randy, an accountant who works for the firm of rich CEO Codfrey. Fujiko apparently learned somehow that Randy was embezzling huge sums of money from his employer, which the accountant then funneled into a Swiss bank account. In many previous incidents Fujiko ingratiates herself with a mark in order to seduce him and take his riches. But that's not possible this time, because Randy's motive for embezzling is to pay for a heart operation to save the life of his ten-year-old son Gene. Therefore, Fujiko successfully wins the trust of both Randy and Gene (who never knew his deceased birth mother) -- so much so that when Randy learns that Codfrey's henchmen are coming to get their money back, he charges Fujiko with protecting Gene. 

Fujiko and Gene escape Randy's house just before it blows up, and Gene realizes he's just become an orphan. Fujiko then finds out that Codfrey has a unique assassin in his employ: Bincam, a gangly, gray-skinned individual who can't be harmed by bullets and can hurl what looks like clouds of dust from his hands; clouds that can stun or even mesmerize those that breathe in their contents. Fujiko has a brief fight with Bincam and is defeated. However, Lupin and Jigen, who have been investigating Codfrey for their own reasons, show up and help Fujiko escape with Gene-- who, incidentally, is the only one who can access the Swiss bank account now that his father is gone.

Fujiko temporarily holes up with Lupin and Jigen, and Gene, still tormented by the loss of his father, offers to give Lupin the entire fortune if Lupin avenges the death of Randy. Lupin respects the child's attempt to honor his parent, and when Fujiko protests, Lupin wonders if her only reason for helping the child is to make sure she gets her hands on the money.

Lupin, suspecting that Bincam is similar to the assassins sent after his gang (which will be indirectly confirmed), tries to lure Codfrey into a trap, but the affair goes south. Fujiko takes Gene to a cheap motel to hide out. 

The script skillfully plays Fujiko down the middle. At times she seems genuinely concerned with Gene's fate, both because of his bereavement and his medical issues. At other times, she seems totally focused on wheedling the account information out of him. Some reviewers didn't like a scene in which Fujiko bathes with the young boy in a tub. But as far as I can tell, the idea of a mother bathing a child in this way would be entirely appropriate in Japan, even if Fujiko is seeking to play on Gene's need for maternal care. Gene finally does disclose the account number. Fujiko then leaves, claiming that she plans to come back. Gene is left alone in the room, wondering if he made a big mistake.

Fujiko does come back, for reasons not entirely clear until the story's end. However, Japanese police discovered Gene alone, took him away, and (very improbably) remanded him to the custody of Randy's former boss Codfrey. Fujiko infiltrates the CEO's HQ and is captured by Bincam, though she does have the chance to use her sexual attractiveness to confuse the zombie-like specter. Lupin and Jigen show up, battle Codfrey's henchmen, and liberate Fujiko and Gene. But Bincam is still on the loose-- and what happens to the money?

I won't give away all the beats of the ending. Yet any experienced Lupin-watcher should know that all four of the tricky thieves have at times been capable of acting altruistically, though rarely without losing sight of their own monetary bottom-line, so the conclusion won't be a total surprise. Nevertheless, as Lupin himself points out, Fujiko undertakes a mission-- totally unrelated to her scam-- to research Bincam's strange power and to take him down, for no reason but to keep him from ever getting back on Gene's trail. In other words, her act of playing "mother" may have awakened a "mama bear" instinct in her that runs counter to her acquisitive nature. Bincam's supernatural-seeming power is explained as something akin to the old Persian story of "poison maidens" whose bodies get saturated with poisons so as to make them lethal to normal humans. But Fujiko only relates this observation during her solo fight with Bincam-- which is fairly long in comparison to most of the lady thief's blink-and-miss-them combat-scenes. She does triumph mostly through her feminine wiles, but that seems entirely in line with her normal proclivities.

Since I've already referenced THE MYSTERY OF MAMO above, I should add that one of the technical accomplishments of the villain there was cloning, and it's strongly implied that Bincam was a clone, who from childhood has been altered by some technology into a "poison man" killer.

EROTIC GHOST STORY 2 (1991)

 

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

EROTIC GHOST STORY made money, so it got two sequels, though I've yet to see the third. But for GHOST 2 the former main characters, the three fairy sisters, are dropped and the story focuses more on stopping the new rampages of the sex-demon Wutung. His main foes, however, are once again a trio of characters, this time consisting of a brother, a sister, and the brother's fiancee.

There are some minor references to the events of the first film but on the whole the new director and new writers drop the fairly linear plot of GHOST 1. GHOST 2 provides only the sliver of a basic concept and then piles on even more exotic gyrations than GHOST 1 ever thought of, with the lascivious demon played this time out by fan-favorite Anthony Wong (who must have been paid by the grimace).

The plot-sliver is the assertion that at some point Wutung fell in real love with the mortal girl Hsiao-Yen. Some celestial spoilsports don't approve of this union, killing the girl, but her spirit is later reborn in another body. During her absence, though, Wutung ravages many villages, and some if not all of them sacrifice their nubile maidens to keep the sex demon at bay.

Frankly, though I just finished watching the film I couldn't say just who Wutung's three opponents are, though one of them, the fiancee I believe, is the reincarnation of Hsiao-Yen. I only know this because at the culminating battle scene (in which the sister throws a mean magical boomerang), Wutung strikes the fiancee on the shoulder. Out comes an outpouring of energy over which the face of Hsiao-Yen is superimposed. She appeals to the sex demon to choose love over lust, and such is the power of love that even a lust-demon gives in before its might-- and thus the two of them vapor off, ending Wutung's threat to humankind.

The camera-angles depicting all the sex positions are at least more imaginative than they were in GHOST 1. But the last-minute appeal to righteousness strikes a false note, given that the whole movie has been all about depicting as much lust as its makers could conceive, for an audience that wanted just that. So no, a final coda about the power of love just doesn't hold water.

LUPIN III: A WOMAN CALLED FUJIKO MINE (2012)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, psychological*

What determines any individual's identity? Is each person just the sum total of his experiences and influences, or is there something more, a tertium quid that transcends experience and influence? Most of us would like to think that we are more than the sum of our parts. But then, why do we so often feel as if we can only know people-- real or fictional-- if they are given an "origin story," a chronicle of who the character is and how he/she came to be?

Most anime-adaptations of Monkey Punch's famed "Lupin III" manga emphasize either daredevil adventure or raucous comedy, with only touches of drama or irony. The emphasis surely arose from the context of Lupin's genesis in seinen manga, aimed at the interests of young men. Most if not all manga-adventures concentrate on the wild criminal activities of a trio of super-thieves, Lupin and his uneasy allies, gunslinger Jigen and samurai Goemon. Yet their boys' club is occasionally invaded by the elusive enchantress Fujiko Mine, a super-thief in her own right. Sometimes she works with the Lupin gang, but she's just as likely to double-cross the guys and steal their loot away. Lupin, usually a canny thinker who can outmaneuver any other opponent, often gets rooked by Fujiko because he's besotted with her, and this often results in his having quarrels with his more practical-minded partners. 

As my knowledge of the manga is spotty I don't know whether or not there were ever any "origin stories" for how all four characters met one another. However, one of the aims of showrunner Sayo Yamamoto for this thirteen-episode TV show, A WOMAN NAMED FUJIKO MINE, was that of depicting how each of the Lupin gang-members separately encountered Fujiko before they even became a gang. Thus Yamamoto and his crew sought to invert the normal structure of a Lupin III adventure. This time Fujiko is in all of the episodes and the three men come and go as needed to tell her story. All three men, as well as their nemesis Inspector Zenigata, fall victim to the femme fatale's charms.

Prior to WOMAN, Fujiko seems to have had even less background than the Lupin gang. She's the epitome of feminine allure, as skilled with guns and karate as with the art of seduction, but she must have been a child before she was any sort of woman. What experiences, what influences, proved the crucible of Fujiko?

Though the final episode of the series undermines all apparent revelations, Yamamoto crafts an origin-story of which any heroine (or villainess) could be proud. In the first episode, Fujiko meets Lupin for the first time when both of them are trying to rip off a cult that uses a bizarre memory-drug to enslave its adherents. But the agents of the cult, led by the mysterious Count Almeida, insinuate themselves into Fujiko's life, and it seems as if the Count may have some quasi-paternal interest in her. The drug, which manifests as crystalline tear-shaped droplets, foments hallucinations in the minds of Fujiko and all the nascent Lupin gang-members, so that none of them entirely know what's real. The apparent revelations of Almeida, who wears a creepy owl-mask (as do some of his chief aides), suggest that Fujiko's good-but-weak real father, the creator of the hallucinogen, surrendered his own daughter to the tender mercies of "bad father" Almeida. But what does it mean, that all the owl-symbolism is glossed by the Roman myth of Minerva, goddess of wisdom? And how does the Freudian paradigm change when one learns that one of the "fathers" is really a "mother?"

Though some Lupin III stories are mythic, most of them don't attempt to be consciously poetic in their uses of imagery and elaborate verbal references. Poetic diction is rare in serial television shows, and it's easy to whip out some high-flown phrases that approximate the cadence of poetry. But psuedo-poetry never achieves the quality of mystery. And even though Fujiko doesn't really get an origin story, her mystery is enhanced just by her illusion of having a finite background. And so, even though we aren't getting either her experiences or her influences-- not even within the sphere of her narrative, given that as a fictional character she has neither in reality-- there's no doubt that Fujiko Mine's identity is comprised by the "third thing" that connotes true identity.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2019)

 

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

One of the best things about bad movies is that they sometimes engender good ones. For instance, I gave the 2016 SUICIDE SQUAD movie a positive review on the basis of its being a summer popcorn movie that managed to be moderately diverting, though I made no bones about the fact that it was largely a bad rendering of a generally above-average comics-original. At the time the film's greatest asset was the vivacious portrayal of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, though this virtue was largely cancelled by the lame rendition of another strong comics-character, Deadshot, by an apparently lazy and disinterested Will Smith. Now, however, I would say that the best thing about the 2016 film was that, for whatever reasons, it pleased its audience enough to make fair money-- and without that earlier success, there might not have been a 2019 SUICIDE SQUAD, though ironically, this one did not enjoy good box office for a host of exigent reasons.

Gunn's title THE SUICIDE SQUAD suggests something of a soft reboot away from the earlier film, though this might have been harder to sell had Will Smith been available to reprise his shitty Deadshot. His happy absence made certain that all of the performers got equal treatment in the ensemble. Said ensemble ranged from the "old guard" (Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as "villain-wrangler" Rick Flag) to such newbies as Idris Elba's Bloodsport (more or less a Deadshot "type"), Daniela Melchior's Ratcatcher, David Dastmalchian's Polka-Dot Man, John Cena's Peacemaker, and King Shark, played by a combination of CGI and the voice of Sylvester Stallone. Also returning was the devious Amanda Wallace (Viola Davis), who sends her unwilling pawns into the field for yet another "black ops" mission. 

This time the mission requires the characters to infiltrate the government of a Caribbean island, Corto Maltese, which is now controlled by a ruthless dictator hostile to the United States. A separate contingent of Squad members (including Jai Courtney's Captain Boomerang) are sent to the island to be slaughtered by soldiers, purely to distract from the real operation, which by itself shows that we're not dealing with some benign MISSION IMPOSSIBLE scenario. In fact, when the real operatives make their way into the wilderness of Corto Maltese, they encounter a force of armed men and wipe them out-- only to learn that the dead men were members of a revolutionary group that the Squad was supposed to contact.

James Gunn, who both wrote and directed SQUAD, includes a lot of moments of black comedy like this one. Polka-Dot Man gained his "dot-powers" because his mother experimented on him to give him super-powers, so that the miserable super-villain frequently sees his mother's image superimposed on anyone he fights. Ratcatcher, whose motif is controlling hordes of rats, clearly relates to rodents better than to people, again thanks to parental issues. Yet Gunn avoids the smug irony of an anti-superhero screed like Amazon's THE BOYS. Whereas the 2016 film shoved the characters together and faked forming an "esprit d'corps," Gunn succeeds in making these disparate characters relate to one another. A particular favorite scene involves Harley Quinn escaping the dictator's prison, only to witness Flag and Bloodsport about to enter the prison to break her out. Deeply touched, she offers to go back inside so they can rescue her.

But it wouldn't be Suicide Squad if there wasn't double-dealing, and Waller has her own double-agent inside the group, ready to protect the interests of her intelligence agency. More importantly, though, the ostensible point of the mission-- to investigate a hidden weapon inside a Corto Maltese complex-- turns out to be a real threat based on one of the weirder DC Comics villains: Starro, a gargantuan starfish-alien. Whereas the first SQUAD movie had the villains unite against a common threat in a phony manner, Gunn's malcontents make believable saviors, precisely because they are outsiders starved for empathy, and so the villains become temporary heroes. Ratcatcher's role in defeating Starro with her rat-army might even be said to offer an apologia for rodents. The one exception is Peacemaker, who betrays the group and is slain for it, though a last-minute "save" preserves him for his own HBO series.

Though Gunn works in some shots against conniving American intelligence, SUICIDE SQUAD only uses politics as an motive to play a couple dozen bizarre comics characters off one another. In that, Gunn's film is more true to the history of the American comics-medium than Hollywood's brief vogue for the superficial "realism" of the Nolan/Snyder-verse.

TEMPTRESS OF A THOUSAND FACES (1969)

 

 

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

I've assigned this lightweight super-crook outing the "psychological" function because its writer seems to be borrowing from the playbook of the 1960s FANTOMAS film series by having the same actor play both the devious criminal and the crusading hero. 

As the film begins, we witness a major jewel theft by a respected Hong Kong citizen, who is actually the disguised super-thief The Temptress of a Thousand Faces. Apparently the Temptress has been bamboozling the local cops for a long time, but female officer Ji Ying (Tina Chin-Fei) publicly challenges the Temptress to a confrontation. (If the screenwriter saw the first entry in the French FANTOMAS series, this opening gambit might well be derived from a similar one, in which the film's reporter-hero falsifies an encounter with Fantomas and gets dragged to the villain's lair.)

Quick as a bunny, the Temptress's minions capture Ji Ying and take her to their underground hideout, in which bare cave walls alternate with various technical devices. Ji Ying meets the Temptress, albeit with a veil over the latter's face, and defies the villain. The Temptress sics her henchmen and henchwomen on Ji Ying, who gives a good account of herself before being beaten. However, for some reason the Temptress doesn't just kill the pesky cop, but decides she's going to humiliate Ji Ying in a variety of ways-- including subjecting the lady officer to what looks like electroshock. (Unlike some of the Fantomas entries, the Temptress's arsenal remains fairly low-tech and therefore uncanny in phenomenality.)

The Temptress then pulls off a major crime disguised as Ji Ying, and for some reason Ji's fellow cops don't believe in her innocence despite the well documented incidents of the super-crook's other impostures. But of course if the HK police believed Ji, she wouldn't get the pleasure of playing a "lone hand" in her quest to bring the Temptress and her (mostly female) gang to justice. I say "lone" advisedly, for Ji does have a cop-boyfriend, but he only renders martial aid once or twice. In fact, at one amusing point the Temptress, still dressed as Ji, seduces and sleeps with the guy, moments before the real thing bursts in and catches the couple in flagrante, leading to a rousing battle of the Tinas.

Given that this isn't a straight kung-fu film, the fight-choreography is stellar, and Tina Chin-Fei makes an admirable heroine and villainess. In fact, this is one of those films where it's difficult to determine which of the two is the star, though I lean toward the titular character. However, unlike Fantomas the Temptress meets a bad end and never returned for any sequels known to me.

ELFEN LIED (2004)

 

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

I rated the original 2002-2005 manga ELFEN LIED as one of the most impressive manga serials in terms of its pervading mythicity. The 2004 TV adaptation lasted just one season, consisting of thirteen episodes, meaning that the show wrapped up long before mangaka Lynn Okamoto was even close to finishing his opus. So, given that the storyline of the anime had to be shortened with a generally arbitrary conclusion, is it as mythic as the original story?

The answer probably won't be the same for every uncompleted adaptation, but ELFEN LIED has the advantage that, as noted in my manga review, of not being "densely plotted." Two ordinary school kids, Kouta and Yuka, give shelter to Nyu, a strange young woman with horns, little realizing that she's a member of a race, the Diaclonii, that evolved parallel with human beings. Though Nyu seems childish and innocent, she has a second persona, Lucy, who is filled with bitterness against humanity for years of ill treatment. Lucy-- capable of slaughtering people with her powers-- has escaped from a nearby scientific installation, and the agents of that installation are willing to move heaven and earth to imprison her once more. Thus the Japanese youngsters and their small coterie of friends are plunged into a world of ultraviolent assassins and monsters. 

The thirteen episodes just barely have time to introduce all of the principals, and a couple of minor villains (both killed by the series' end) before the aforementioned climax. One episode does allude to a new "Big Bad," whose function in the manga was to raise the stakes of the ongoing conflict. This villain's presence suggests that the anime's producers may have been hedging their bets in case they were granted a second season. However, at least the third evildoer remains on the sidelines and doesn't generate a plotline of his own, so there's no great loss when he fades from the narrative.

My concept of mythicity depends on a process I call concrescence, which is generally defined as a "growing together of separate parts." Mythic concrescence appears in narratives where the "parts" we generally call "symbols," and which I call "correlations," join so as to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This isn't always possible with a plot-heavy narrative. However, because both the manga of ELFEN LIED and the anime adaptation focus largely upon characters, both are able to illustrate the tribulations of the freakish Diaclonii, monsters who fiercely desire the pleasures of humanity but who are denied them by their very nature. The conclusion of the anime bears some broad similarities to that of the manga, so it may be that Okamoto was consulted about the general direction of his concept so that the climax would possess some of the manga's general resonance. All that said, the anime's chief virtue is its potential to introduce audiences to the manga's terrible beauties.

Note: after the conclusion of the series, a thirty-minute ELFEN LIED OVA was marketed. I have not seen this, as it was not included with the streamed series, but my understanding is that its events remained within the span of the timeline for the thirteen episodes, which suggests that the OVA did not advance the existing narrative further.

ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

Though ALIEN RESURRECTION was the least successful of the "Ellen Ripley series" at the box office, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and writer Joss Whedon put together a film far superior to ALIEN 3, albeit nowhere good enough to rate with ALIEN or ALIENS. Though Whedon leaves open the possibility that the reborn Ripley might have gone on to further exploits, the lack of direct cinematic sequels had the effect of giving the tortured heroine a "happy ending" of sorts. To date Weaver has not reprised the role except in a few video games, and RESURRECTION certainly brings her association with the Xenomorphs full circle.

Two hundred years pass following the events of ALIEN 3, in which Ripley and her Alien spawn perished together in a smelting furnace. I'm not sure why Whedon thought that such a long interval was necessary, given that Ripley was already alienated from the Earth-culture into which she was delivered at the onset of ALIENS. Was the interval needed for Earth-people to perfect a form of cloning so radical that it could clone new Aliens from the bio-matter left behind in the foundry? Moreover, for some reason the scientists-- who are still working for the same corporation that menaced Ripley in ALIEN 3-- couldn't separate the genetic material of Ripley from the genetic material of the Xenomorph inside her. This selective expertise results in Clone-Ripley-- who possesses many memories of the dead original-- being a hybrid of a human and an Alien. Thus Clone-Ripley has greater physical strength and an intuitive awareness of the Xenomorphs.

Clone-Ripley receives a deliverance of sorts when a gang of space mercenaries dock their ship with the scientists' own experimental vessel, dropping off a quantity of abducted humans in whom the technicians breed new Aliens. The mercenaries recall the raffish marines of ALIENS, even to the extent of having a synthetic member in their group, Call (Winona Ryder). When the captive Aliens break free and decimate the scientific team, Clone-Ripely convinces the mercenaries to help her destroy the vessel with the Aliens aboard. To further complicate things, the Alien whose genetic info was taken from Ripley's body cells is another Queen, though when the Queen gives birth, she spawns a human-Alien hybrid in whom the Alien aspects are dominant. For reasons I did not follow, this new being does not represent its real mother as its sire, but bonds with Ripley as its maternal unit. 

The convolutions of the Alien plot interested me less than Whedon's ability to give a little personality to the mercenaries, which I found as effective as the cannon fodder from the 1979 original. To be sure, there is one dull doll in the group: the aforementioned Call, played listlessly by Winona Ryder. But Ron Perlman and Michael Wincott provide some good moments, particularly the basketball duel between Clone-Ripley and Perlman's character.

Once again, since the Xenomorphs are nearly invulnerable, the plot-thrust once more consists of "get out and blow up the ship behind us." Jeunet's direction is more sensitive to the mythic potential of the Alien franchise, but RESURRECTION never quite brings the potential into the actual. In one scene, Clone-Ripley and her Xenomorph "son" are loosely intertwined, which may remind one of the perverse sexuality seen in the original 1979 film. But this level of resonance is not sustained, and so what we have is just a decent thriller, noteworthy largely for the redemption of Ripley, who's at least able to put the vile E.T.'s behind her and seek a new life.

LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE (1997)

 

For all the comedy lines liberally strewn throughout the first three films, I still consider them essentially *dramas,* in that the viewer in theory should want the leads, no matter how dorky they are, to survive the viridian villain's victimizations.  LEPRECHAUN 4, however, plays more fast and loose with the viewer's sensibilities, so that I label it a comedy.  It's also a combative comedy, given that there are extensive scenes in which Lubdan matches his malevolent magicks against the high-tech weapons of a group of outer space mercenaries.

Since Part 4 shares the same director and most of the same producers as the execrable Part 3, I have to believe that Part 4 is more tolerable because the writing-team is better.  To be sure, even though IN SPACE is more bearable, it's still corny, derivative humor.  But at least there's a little life in it, as when the film opens with the space marines preparing to assault an "alien" base and reciting the slogan, "Semper fi! Do or die! Kill kill kill!" The film might be seen as anticipating Jason Voorhees' slightly later journey to outer space, but the real template followed here is the ALIEN franchise.

The backstory makes no sense whatsoever.  The viewer only knows that the mercenaries work for a weird cyborg doctor named "Doctor Mittenhand," which is patently a spoof on "Doctor Strangelove," since the actor playing Mittenhand essays a German accent as thick as strudel.  The "alien base" is some lair cooked up by Lubdan the Leprechaun, but one never knows what if anything either Mittenhand or the mercenaries know about him.  Lubdan-- having shifted back to sex again after making money his obsession in the third film-- has brought to his lair Zarina, princess of the empire of Dominia, in order to woo her.  Zarina is repulsed by Lubdan but intrigued by his promises of vast wealth, while for his part Lubdan wants to marry her so that he can kill her father and become the lord of the empire. 

The marines break in and manage to blow Lubdan into pieces.  However, in a nasty spoof of ALIEN's face-grabber scene, one of the marines pisses on Lubdan's remains-- and the evil elf sends his glittering essence into the man's dick.  Cute line from another marine: "I'd give you a round of applause, but I see you already got the clap!"  Later, back on the mercenaries' ship, the Leprechaun re- births himself from his "daddy's" member-- not coincidentally, while the marine is trying to have sex.  Nevertheless, IN SPACE wisely cuts away and does not try, on its budget, to emulate the ALIEN scene which supplied the seminal (hah) inspiration.

After that, Lubdan starts slaughtering marines, while mysterious Mittenhand-- who seems to have had some idea of Zarina's presence at Lubdan's base, though he has no idea what the Leprechaun is-- tries to use Zarina's DNA to clone himself a new body.  Lubdan interferes and turns the good doctor into a slimy spider-creature.

What most differentiates IN SPACE from the other three films is that now all of the characters, at one time or another, are mouthing the same cornball lines as Lubdan.  Most of the mercenaries have Earth-names-- as does the female lead, the Acerbic Female Doctor, name of "Tina"-- yet they appear to inhabit a far-future civilization.  However, the Black Guy Marine makes jokes about "superstitious black" stereotypes from the twentieth century.  No one has the slightest idea what a leprechaun is, though, and the mercenaries continually identify Lubdan as an "alien"-- and indeed, the villain "dies" the same way the original Alien died.  Yet, if one takes it as an intentional comedy, where nothing is at stake, the inconsistencies take on a certain comic logic.

PREDATORS (2010)

 

PREDATORS, though it's not any more interested in real-world politics than its progenitor, takes a different approach to the idea of "commandos vs. aliens."  Director Nimrod Antal and his scripters reverse the situation of the 1987 film by having a group of Predators abduct selected humans-- all experienced warriors or at least killers-- to an off-planet game reserve.  Just as the original Predator or one of his congeners had come back to Earth many times to hunt, the humans invited to the preserve in this narrative are not the first to be so abducted.  The narrative begins with Black Ops American soldier Royce plunging from some flying vessel at a jungle below him, obliging him to fight to open the parachute with which he's been supplied.  Seven others, all from different parts of Earth and all experienced in killing, also fall to the planet in the same way.  Eventually they come to terms with having been snatched from their world to be the Predators' "most dangerous game," and seek allies against the alien hunters-- first, another alien of a species related to the hunters, and second, another human who has survived in the preserve by going underground.

There's absolutely no appeal to 1980s body culture here: all the characters dress drably and practically, and there are no over-the-top moments about not having time to bleed.  In their place the scriptes offer an almost Nietzschean indictment-- though also an acceptance-- of the lengths to which humans will go to survive.  Royce, the de facto leader, is also a loner who wants no ties, but semi-predictably ends up forming them anyway.  The other victims are not as heroic as those of McTiernan's film and so are not particularly missed when they're picked off.

I give PREDATORS a fair rating for having at least grappled, if only in a superficial way, with the problems inherent in the old saying, "Man is a wolf to man"-- which in this case, may be extended to men of other worlds as well.  Refreshingly, there's no Rod Serling moaning about man's inhumanity, but a need for human connection is acknowledged, though it's always rendered conditional on the fact of survival.  Oh, and the action's pretty good, though at no time do any of the characters or situations manage to capture the "mythic feel" of this movie's period as PREDATOR did for its era.

AVENGER X (1967)

 

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

The original title to this Italian supercriminal film was MISTER X, after a popular Italian comic book of the same name. Possibly the American version stuck “Avenger” in the title just to make clearer that this wasn’t a mundane mystery, though even the English dub uses the name “Mister X” for the protagonist.

Like his predecessors Fantomas and Diabolik, Mister X has been robbing rich people for years without being apprehended by the law-dogs. Despite, or maybe because of, this reputation, a schemer named Lamarro decided to frame Mister X for one of his own crimes, the better to divert the police from Lamarro’s big operation: that of smuggling drugs into Europe under the cover of a reputable pharmaceuticals enterprise. X, however, doesn’t like being framed, and over the course of the film the super-crook makes it his business to chastise these lesser felons. Sometimes, like Fantomas, X assumes disguises to execute his schemes, and a couple of times he dons a black catsuit with a hood and a domino mask. Still, most of the time the master criminal runs around in ordinary clothes. One online review claimed that X uses “gadgets,” but all I saw was a mundane smoke bomb. X receives assistance from his girl Friday, a lady with the odd name of “Timmy,” who shows off a little judo-skill in one scene.

It’s rare that I’ve seen native Italian actors pull off the charming qualities necessary for this sort of roguish character, but Pier Paolo Coppoli—billed with the name “Norman Clark”—acquits himself well in the charm department, as well as pulling off the brief action-scenes well. For fans of sixties Euro-flicks the best-known name in the cast is surely Helga Line, playing a secondary villain. However, in the version I saw, she’s last seen heaping scorn upon the captive Timmy—but though X frees Timmy, Line’s character just disappears from the story.

WONDER WOMEN (1973)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

Due to the DC Comics character, this Phillipines-lensed oddity often circulated under other names, most often sold to TV as THE DEADLY AND THE BEAUTIFUL. I choose to review it with the name I saw it under, not least because one of the film’s best features is a bouncy little theme song with the same title.

To be sure, one can count those “best features” on the fingers of one hand. I suspect the screenwriter had seen at least one of the two “Sumuru” movies then extant, since the ruler of the wonder women not only sports a similar name, “Doctor Tsu,” but also has her own private island from which she operates her all-girl army. But in one sense Tsu (former A-lister Nancy Kwan) resembles Sumuru less than the many cinematic incarnations of Doctor Moreau. She pays her bills by having her girls abduct prominent athletes, whose organs she transplants to wealthy recipients. But Tsu’s true passion appears to be coming up with all sorts of freakish Frankensteinian abhumans. If she plans to conquer the world, she hides it well.

Tsu’s girl commandos—always dressed in form-flattering costumes—evince the attitude of classic supervillains: when you want to kidnap someone, do it out in the open so that you’ll be able to stomp any cops or public-spirited citizens who try to interfere. Such scenes might have been more appealing, had the dimestore production given the actresses any lessons in good fake-fighting. When I saw the film in my twenties, I thought the stuntwork was pretty good, but now most of the action-scenes look pretty phony, even from Roberta Collins, the girl who beat Pam Grier in THE BIG DOLL HOJSE. Still, the general hottitude of the women does inspire a certain amount of “wonder” anyway.

Insurance investigator Harben (a dreary Ross Hagen) comes to the Phillipines looking for a missing jai alai player. Probably if Tsu’s agents had just stayed away from him, he would have chased his tail from then on, but Tsu sends one of her lady assassins, Linda (Maria d’Aragone) to seduce and kill Harben. Linda succeeds at the first, but though she and Harben have a good cheap fight, Linda finally has to run. Harben is captured and taken to “Transplant Island” by other members of the seduction squad. There, in addition to showing off her vivisected victims, Tsu has “brain sex” with Harben. This comedic scene is probably the film’s highlight, in that Tsu gets mildly stimulated by the experience while Harben dissolves into a figurative puddle—though neither has touched the other’s body.

Tsu makes her main mistake by trying to punish Linda for her failure, for Linda foments a rebellion against Tsu, setting free both Harben and the monster-men. Yet Tsu escapes the forces of the law despite the ruination of her island-enclave, and in a coda, the triumphant hero loses out to the empowerment of women. In addition to this rare turnaround ending, WONDER WOMEN’s only noteworthy aspect is that it’s one of the few times that a starring Asian villain was actually played by someone of Asian ancestry.

BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN (2017)

 

Sam Liu directed BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN, but the script by Bruce Timm and Jim Kreig emulates the style and content of Timm's signature animated series BATMAN (1992-95). Given that Timm concocted Harley Quinn for this series, it's a given that she has the same appearance and verbal characterization, as well as her "ambiguously lesbian" relationship with gal-pal Poison Ivy.

Batman and his former sidekick Nightwing team up once more when they learn that Ivy has joined forces with the Floronic Man, and that the villains plan to obliterate humanity in order to give the world back to the Plant Kingdom. But the heroes need the expertise of Harley to find her old buddy, and thus, amid much prickliness, Harley is enlisted to fight on the side of the angels.

BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN is an enjoyable romp, though some of the action-scenes prove repetitive, as do the inevitable conflicts between uptight Batman and his clownish co-star. On the good side, Harley and Ivy have a really nice girl-fight, and Harley gets some really good lines, though not as many as the scriptwriters may've thought. The character "Swamp Thing" makes a cameo appearance for the sake of a rather lame joke.