Sweatin' to the Moldys

     This week- a quaternion of films selected by the composer of our new theme, Linus Fitness-Centre.

     When an amnesiac sex slave cyborg can't do his job, he gets discarded in the street. Soon he is taken under the wing of a girl who draws maps for other memory-wiped people. Hunted by his manufacture and undergoing an unprecedented transformation in the tunnels beneath Tokyo. One of the crowning works of the Japanese underground cyberpunk genre, 964 Pinocchio.
     Crossley, a hungry traveler, forces himself upon the hospitality of  an experimental musician, Anthony Fielding, and his wife, Rachel. Soon the couple are drawn into Crossley's strange world and stranger claim of being able to produce a powerful sound that can kill. As Crossley insinuates himself sinisterly deeper into their life, Anthony finds indecision at an unexpected crossroad, and Rachel becomes the plaything of forces outside the norm. Winner of the 1978 Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, The Shout.

     While dealing with the traumatic fallout from a car accident which has stirred up trauma from her childhood, Jane is disconnected from everything. Her sister insists she seek psychiatric help, despite her boyfriend's firm disbelief in it. Desperate for a way out of her personal hell, Jane turns to her new neighbor and the Satanic cult she is a member of. The fourth feature by giallo master, Sergio Martino, All the Colors of the Dark (Tutti i colori del buio).
     In Hong Kong there is a raging conflict between humanity and the supernatural shapeshifting Raptors (or Reptoids). The special police unit tasked with Raptor crimes is deep into an investigation of a drug called Happiness which drives Raptors to violence. A whirlwind of high octane action and stylish horror sci-fi noir adaption of a classic Japanese franchise, The Wicked City.
     All that and Dave has a real hard time keeping track of things, Craig stares into a cultural divide, Kevin gathers seed for his army, and Tyler is the only one who still knows what we did last summer. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 423- Sweatin' to the Moldys

Criminal Activities

     This week multiple masterminds make mischievous misfortune for moral masses and mobbed moneylenders.

     Now that his son is getting to the point of fleeing the nest, widower Shigeharu looks to connect with a woman in hopes of wifing a nice younger woman. Instead of turning to the normal methods of bars and matchmakers and online profiles, he and his producer friend decide to hold a fake casting call. Because nothing says "I am looking for love" like a light Weinstein session. His eye is caught by Asami and he worms his way in.... unfortunately he doesn't notice the corpses strewn about. Takashi Miike's first international breakthrough film, which lead the early 2000s J-horror boom and inspired the Hostel style US body horror trend, based on a novel by Ryu Murakami... Audition.

     Underground black and white Japanese cyberpunk from cult filmmaker Shozin Fukui shows how much you can do with nothing but determination and stuff stolen from your neighbor's garage band. A pair of rogue scientists perform psychic drug experiments on people grabbed off the street. Subjecting them to brutal tortures that end in horrible deaths and failure... until their final project yields even more terrifying results. Sex, drugs, Speedos, and a whole lot of high concept insanity are crammed in Rubber's Lover.
     One of the best action film directors to ever command a set, one of the most unlikely romantic heroes of the 1970s, a bank robbery gone wrong, a hitman on their trail, and only one way out. Don Siegel delivers another tough and cynical film with a stellar cast, anchored by the great Walter Matthau, in the mostly overlooked gem that is Charley Varrick.
     All that and Kevin moves his command center to a new underground bunker, Dave knows that two actors in that movie were in popular ST roles but he wanted to go easy on them, and Tyler loves like only loving lovers love. Join us, won't you?

Episode 188- Criminal Activities