A Good Day to Nakadai Hard

     This week a four film tribute to an actor whose career spanned seven decades, the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai.

     A penniless samurai leaves his wife for improved social status and the daughter of wealthy family. A young woodcutter, taking refuge from a blizzard, confronts a yuki-onna. A blind musician performs for a dead Emperor, who plans to keep him playing in his ghostly court forever. A lord sees a face he doesn't know reflected back in his cup of tea and soon is visited by their ghostly and murderous attendants. Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful films of all time and based on the legends collected by Yakumo Koizumi, whose work gave Western audiences their first look into Japanese culture- Kwaidan.
     An amoral master swordsman, with a habit of random street murders, has to leave his home after killing an opponent after a duel and takes his opponent's wife with him. Two years later, in Edo, he has joined a secret assassin squad to support the shogunate and his past begins to catch up with him. The first in a planned trilogy, never completed due to the amounts of violence in the first film, based on one of the longest books ever written over 41 volumes and published over 28 years, The Sword of Doom.
     Masagoro Kiryuin, a contradictor gang-boss who sees himself as a chivalric protector, adopts a daughter. Matsue is smart, has a thirst for knowledge, and struggles against the boundaries society has set for her. A yakuza melodrama that covers several decades of their lives- Onimasa (aka Kiryûin Hanako no shôgai).
     2,217 British and Australian prisoners of war had been forced to work on the Burma railway and build a bridge. Now they are being taken to Japan to fill in the increasing manpower shortage. Stuffed into the hold of a hell ship, without enough air, water, or food, it seems unlikely the majority will survive to their destination. Or will they all die at the hands of patrolling American submarines? Not a sequel to the similarly titled classic, Return from the River Kwai. 
All that and Kevin might never Returnal from his current obsession, Craig shares a pain Tyler knows well, and Dave might be napping in his chair. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 449- A Good Day to Nakadai Hard

SPOILER THINGS

     This week we arrive late as a party and finally close the on Hawkins Lab Sourcebook Unusual Contrivances Adventure Inverted Corporeal Supplement 5e.

     Anna rolls a nat20 saving throw, Kevin rethinks his Orc Wizard, Tyler misuses his Seduce Everything strategy, Dave gets his hand stuck in the dice tower... again... and the dice finally put an end to the tyrannical plans of the Illithid. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 448- SPOILER THINGS

Haunt Me Amadeus

     This week- two films about men with great destines.

     After attempting suicide, former court composer of Joseph II, Antonio Salieri confesses to having murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 49 years earlier, learning that Mozart was a childishly obscene reprobate with divine musical inspiration lead Salieri to renounce God and swear to take his revenge by destroying Mozart. Another masterwork by one of cinema's patron saints of nonconformity, Miloš Forman, with a screenplay by Peter Shaffer, based on his Tony Award winning play, and driven by one of the greatest villain performances ever put to film, Amadeus.
     In 2005, a seemingly random mass stabbing left two people dead and one injured before the assailant jumped off a cliff; his body was never found. Three years later, found footage horror filmmaker Koji Shiraishi sets out to make a documentary about the aftermath and interviews the survivors. Shohei Eno, whose wounds are in the shape of a strange symbol, claims that he is grateful and ever since has witnessed miracles nearly everyday. Before long, Eno begins to hint at another act of extreme violence will be happening soon and insists  Shiraishi has a part to play in it. A found footage by the director who literally wrote the Textbook of Fake Documentaries and made two of the first J-Horrors to breakout internationally, Koji Shiraishi's woefully overlooked Occult.
     All that and Dave describes his loungewear, Tyler suffers in Indiana, and Kevin makes friends with the little guy from Asobi. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 447- Haunt Me Amadeus

Beating A Dead Horse

     This week- a pair of films about men driven to extremes.

     Two Vietnam Vets begin having similar ultrarealistic dreams about a member of their fireteam who died in a POW camp. Soon they start waking up with actual injuries they received in their dreams. In a desperate effort to save their buddy and stop a sadistic traitor they gear up for one final nocturnal confrontation. A high concept action thrillers from VHS pioneer David A. Prior, Night Wars.
     Recently released from prison career criminal, Johnny Clay, has a plan to rob a racetrack with a potential take of $2 million. His heist plan is more than able to work with a small crew, assuming there are no leaks or unlucky breaks... The  third feature from legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, an expertly crafted and stylish late classic period Noir, The Killing.
     All that and Craig is unrepentant, Tyler fears the future, Dave goes unrestricted, and Kevin makes moves that would make Machiavelli blush. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 446- Beating A Dead Horse

Secret Satan 3

     This week- we spread peace on Earth and good will towards all humanity through painful cinematic suppositories specially chosen to mentally and emotionally break each other.

     Jack is an aging football hooligan. After a fight, Jack is arrested for possession of cocaine and gets sentenced to six weeks of couples' therapy. Jack's wife, Dani, is emotionally isolated, spending all her time just caring for Jack's son and home, long ago forced to give up on her artistic dreams so Jack wouldn't feel lesser. If you think that sounds like an interesting set up to a solid kitchen sink drama... it isn't. How far can Danny Dyer's charisma and attitude carry a feature? Why doesn't Stephanie Leonidas not have a good enough career to turn this down? Marching Powder.
     A dissection leads to an unsettling physiological anomaly. A young male narrator is obsessed with his sister. When she is revealed to be pregnant, the young man begins to farther detached, eventually choosing to commit the most vicious act he can imagine. An orgy with the planet. A man suffering from religious psychosis is a compulsively masturbating pornography addict. His guilt drives horrific sexual  nightmares. An experimental art horror anthology, filmed over a period of nearly 6 years, Subconscious Cruelty.
     In 2045, the population of the world take refuge from reality in a huge virtual reality sandbox created by the late James Halliday. When Halliday died, an Easter Egg hunt for three keys was kicked off with the ultimate prize being total control of the game. When Wade Watts finds the first key, he and his friends find themselves in the crosshairs of Nolan Sorrento, who will stop at nothing to win. Based on a once wildly popular novel and directed by a living legend who should be perfect for it, Ready Player One.
     A fantasy though an inflatable land of wonder and the 1964 Philadelphia Gimbles Thanksgiving Day Parade. Fun in Balloon Land.

     All that and Dave Yippie Ki-Yays, Kevin can't keep track of it all, and Tyler plots to throw a spanner in the works. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 445- Secret Satan 3

Corpus Delectus

     This week we learn a lessons on loneliness and self-improvement. 

     Sonya runs her family funeral parlor. She lives an isolated and routine life, above the parlor, with her distant father. The business is slowly going under and she is under a crushing amount of debt owed to a psychotic landlord. Sonya finds an unlikely companion in the unclaimed cadaver of an elderly woman. The third film by Dwein Baltazar and produced by Black Sheep Productions, the Philippine answer to A24, Oda sa Wala (English: Ode to Nothing).
     Susan finds no satisfaction with her working class life and yearns for an escape. When her husband and father start to really push her to have a baby, her fear of forever being shackled to the daily monotony drive her to start attending Open University courses on Literature. Her tutor, Dr. Frank Bryant, is jaded by the pretensions of university culture and drowns his misery in public alcoholism. Susan's verve rekindles Frank's passion for literature and Frank's teaching opens  doors to a bohemian life and newly discovered self-confidence for Susan. Lewis Gilbert's reverse Pygmalion with a pair of fantastic lead performances and based on screenwriter Willy Russell's play of the same title, Educating Rita.
     All that and Dave drops out, Kevin has a strange interlude, and Tyler stands alone in a neon fog. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 444- Corpus Delectus

Lets Do the Time Hop(per) Again

     This week we sneak through a military check point for the penultimate trip to a small Indiana town.

     A year after the ground split open life had found a new rhythm in Hawkins, Indiana. The military, being the fine upstanding and not at all suspicious or questionable industrial-complex it is, has slapped metal adhesive medical strips on the gaping pandimensional cracks and spends the rest of its time hunting a certain numerically named psychic. Kids go to school and read classic sci-fi/fantasy novels. Free roaming imaginary friends impart wisdom their playmates shouldn't know. And a confrontation is drawing close. Stranger Things Season 5 part 1.
     All that and we dust off Anna, Dave has feelings, Kevin embraces his nurturing instinct, and Tyler is only lightly drugged while tied to a chair. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 443- Lets Do the Time Hop(per) Again