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Red Sonja makes a bloody comeback with Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan

sonnydragon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:51:27 +0000

By Karina Longworth on July 24, 2008 at 5:17 pm

Liveblogging RED SONJA interview and Q&A with Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan at Comic-Con 2008.

Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan answer questions on upcoming Red Sonja with director, Doug Aarniokoski.

Highlights:

Rodriguez is planning to restart the Conan franchise.
RR apparently fell for Rose after she called him “Count Fuckula”
Machete will be made starring Danny Trejo and it will be the first “Mexploitation” flick
Sin City 2 & 3 have scripts
Red Sonja will be so bloody, it will introduce the “Double R”

Read the liveblogging transcript after the jump.

3:00 – Wrapping up

Q: Are you gonna have piles of bodies like they had in the B & W comics?

RR: Oh, we got to, right? That’s the set dressing!

Q: Booth babes. last year there was a Cherry Darling booth babe. How did you feel?

Rose: I loved it! I thought she was so awesome. I watched it about 5 times on YouTube and sent it to my mom and dad.

Q: On video game

Rose: Video game for Red Sonja? I hope so.

2:57 – Machete is on and Heavy Metal Magazine

RR: Heavy Metal Magazine, that’s why I leaned towards Barbarella. I thought, finally, I have a justification for all these years and money on Heavy Metal Magazine.

Q: More zombie movies?

Rose: Only if he does Jane Austen.

RR: When we do Machete, I do want to add a trailer at the front that’s a sequel for Cherry Darling, the sequel to Planet Terror, showing some things I wanted to do that I couldn’t do.

RR: Back in 1993 when I first met Danny Trejo, I wrote a script from Machete, and I borrowed scenes from it. It’s one of those really backwards things, where I wrote the script, made the trailer, now people love the trailer and now I have to shoot the movie. There’s going to be two sequels: Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again.

“I have a Machete script, and it’s just a matter of locking down this next couple of months.”

“I’ve just dreamt about Machete too long. We need our own Mexploitation character.”

Q: With so many franchises going PG 13, are you guys going hard R?

RR: My name is “Double R.”

(Huge cheers)

“We’re gonna give you a double R, baby!” (Rose makes a pirate noise.)

2:51 -Meeting Rose and making RS

RR: I met Rose at the Cannes film festival. I started talking to her, and she would just brutally cut me down to size, and she would call me “Count Fuckula.” I was like, “Who are you, and where you been?”

I just found her arresting, and I kind of wrote a lot of [the Cherry Darling] character around her. It was just quite a force.

So having seen her really pull that off, and seeing the parts that were out there, the lack of, we knew we had to find something where she could step up and top that. And there was nothing. It had to be Red Sonja.

Q: Will you shoot RS in 3D so we can have blood thrown in our faces?

A: And other stuff, too. You’re really wanting cleavage, right?

(RR takes credit for “bringing 3D back” with Spy Kids 3.)

RR: I shot [Spy Kids 3] on a stage, to go out in the field is tougher. There is a new system, where you shoot and do the 3D in post. I might go that route instead.

Q: what else is in your private collection that might lead to a movie?

RR: I cant say now, because then you would know.

2:45 – More Q&A

Rose: I think I saw CHUD, was the first movie I saw in America. I saw a lot of movies I shouldn’t have.

If I announced I was doing a movie where I just stared at a teapot there’d be 400,000 people on the Internet saying “blahblahblah.” For some reason, it’s much easier to say things that are negative. So, with that in mind, with every thrust of my sword, I’ll be thinking of people like that.”

Q: About villains in RS

Villains? “We can’t say right now.”

Issues 9-12 are sort of the origin of her…but we’re not really saying until it leaks.

Q: About Conan casting

Conan casting? “Danny Trejo!” (Huge cheers)

RR: I’m surprised nobody’s asked about Machete yet! My phone’s gonna be ringing in a sec (does Danny Trejo’s voice) “Robert! When are we gonna make Machete? Hurry up, holmes!”

Q: Has the sword been designed?

Doug: Being designed as we speak, in a country far, far away.

Q: Rose, chance you might be involved in future Sin City?

Rose prevaricates.

2:41 – On leaving the DGA and collaborating

RR: It was very freeing to leave the DGA. They have a rulebook that says you can only have one director. They want the illusion that there’s only one voice, one vision, and that isn’t always true. People are always like “you do so many jobs yourself, don’t you like to collaborate?” I love to collaborate, and I got penalized for it.

So, I said, “Just to really stick it to them, I’ll add Quentin.” So, I added a special title for Quentin that doesn’t really exist. But that’s why I’m only producing in name on this one, and Doug’s directing. I don’t have any regrets. If I want to do a studio movie I just do Financial Core, which is where you just fall into the rules of the DGA.

Q: Are you directing a scene in Inglorious Bastards?

RR: I don’t know..it would probably be music again, or maybe he wants me to get blown up.

Q (11 year old girl): I like Planet Terror a lot… (Crowd cheers to hear that she’s 11!) “I also enjoyed the Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.”

2:36 – On Rose’s stunts and scripts for Sin City:

Rose has been working out 3 hours a day for Red Sonja and is about to start sword training with the Wachowskis’ guy on Monday. Rose will do her own stunts in RS. “In Death Proof, the face being slammed against the plexi was mine. I smashed my cheekbone and almost had a concussion, but it wouldn’t look right otherwise. I’m gonna end up like a boxer at 38, but I do as much as I can.”

RR: It was fun seeing her a couple of months ago, she broke a couple of toes and had a black cast, and it was just like in Planet Terror.

Sin City 2 and 3 — They have a script, waiting for Frank Miller to be done with The Spirit.

2:33 – Taking questions:

RR: “Anyone who asks a really great question gets a tshirt.”

Q: I know your going for something different visually, but tonally are you trying to match the DeLaurentis films?

RR: No, totally different. Darker, more like the book, and the actual comics. Not anything to do with the other movie that was made in the 80’s.

Rose: I will not have a mullet.

RR: We’re still discussing that…

Q: Real locations or greenscreen?

Doug: A complement of both.

Q: I’ve been eating your breakfast tacos from Sin City for a long time. When are you gonna do another 10 minute cooking school?

RR: it’s gonna be Texas BBQ. It’s gonna be on the Grindhouse double disc DVD.

2:26 – On Doug Aarniokoski as director (2nd unit director, Resident Evil 3)

Doug was RR’s first Assistant Director since Four Rooms. RR talks for awhile about how great, tenacious, brave Doug is as a director.

RR: I have a director’s comitment with the Weinsteins. (He says Miramax first then corrects himself.) Where I owe them another picture, so I can’t direct this, but if I produce, I can do it as my next picture. So, it will be more like a co-director thing, I’m definitely going to get my hands dirty, but not officially, because Doug’s DGA (union) and I’m not.

RR says he’s in talks unofficially to direct a Conan film. It’s something to integrate the world and keep the vision of Senor Howard going.

Doug: People ask what my film background is, and I say I went to the school of Robert Rodriguez filmmaking. I remember one day we were at your house, and we went behind the secret bookcase into the room, and there were all these mockettes up there and you had Red Sonja. And we were like, “This is such an amazing character.”

And then one day I got the call, and he was like “Red Sonja” and I was like “Oh, absolutely!” We’re gonna shake it up here folks, I hope your ready for it.

They’re location scouting right now…

Doug: We’re gonna kick some backside– I have this thing that says I have to be careful because members of your audience may be 18 or under…

RR: I like finding different looks for a movie. This time I’ll patent it.

2:20 – Rose McGowan: It was very difficult [after Planet Terror] to do anything. I would read these scripts and be like, “Well, I guess I could make this kind of funny, if the guy didn’t talk too much.”

From a really early age, being into empowerment, being a feminist, and loving the underdog, and really, in my life, being one. So, I brought it home and said, “I’m really interested in female vengeance!” And then I’m like, “Oh god, therapist…”

This movie is going to be hard, its gonna be cold, its gonna be dirty, bloody. But I’m up for it. (Crowd cheers.)

I keep thinking Ill do a Jane Austen movie, and I said, “Would you ever do a Jane Austen movie?” and Robert said, “Could there be a dead body in it?”

When I was really little, I saw La Femme Nikita, and that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think Nikita would be proud.

[On Robert Rodriguez:]

He’s always saying, make your own destiny. I had been in the mode for so long of I’ll just wait and see what they send me. But for 2 years now, I’ve really been firing on all engines and it’s all because of him. He’s so good at telling people to just do it. (Man, this whole panel is like a tribute to their relationship.)

So, what I’ve been able to “just do” is take a giant sword and kill a lot of people. And I think that explains my attraction. (To both Robert and Red Sonja, apparently.)

2:15 – Robert Rodriguez comes out. “We don’t have anything to show — we haven’t shot anything yet.”

They’re giving away T-shirts of the main poster, of Rose licking a blade.

Rose McGowan, ladies and gentleman. (Are they still dating? She’s wearing a ridiculous strapless green metallic dress. He doesn’t seem terribly excited to see her.)

RR: I’ve been a Robert E Howards fan since a long time ago.

He bought a Concan comic at the grocery store, at the magazine stand.

RR: With 10 kids, there wasn’t a lot of money for comics, but this was with all the other magazines, and it was black and white, and bloody and there were women in it.”

Savage Sword of Conan. I would read that same magazine over and over again @ 11 or 12 years old. There would be an ad for a subscription that would show Red Sonja holding up a severed head to Conan, and saying “Get ahead in life!”

I would think, “Wow, this is my fantasy of the perfect woman… even Conan’s looking up at her!”

Where Robert E Howard was born was the same place my father was born, in the same border town near Mexico city. I felt a real kinship to this freak. So, in my little writing room, I have a collecton of Sin City stuff, and I finally made that movie. I have a collection of Conan stuff, a collection of Heavy Metal Magazines, and Robert E Howards stuff.

I tried to write Conan stuff, but the wrong studio owns it. So Rose and I, we’re trying to figure out something to do together after doing Planet Terror. In that film she was so strong, and you know you’ll see a woman be in a film like that and the next film, they’ll play a girlfriend. You want her to do something that lets her take advantage of her strengths and talents.

We tried to do Barbarella, and that didnt work. She came into the kitchen with a script for Red Sonja and said, “I really like this script, don’t know if you’ve heard of it…” (Crowd likes this.) She was like, “They want to meet me, Do you think its a good property?”

And I was like –does spit take?

It’s geek’s dream to immerse her in this world that I’ve been collecting secretly since adolescence.
(I guess they are still dating, or want us to think they are.)

We decided to do this instead of Barbarella, which we did have funding for, we were gonna do it for $70 million in Germany, but there were other projects…

Rose: “if anybody would like to bottle Robert’s DNA, I think you can just swab the side of the podium there.”

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Jackie Chan to star in Hollywood spy comedy

sonnydragon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:46:17 +0000

All AP Movie News

AP Photo

More Photos…

Thursday August 7 7:48 AM ET

Jackie Chan’s next Hollywood project is an action comedy about a Chinese spy working undercover in the U.S. whose cover is blown, the movie’s producer said Thursday.

“The Spy Next Door” will start shooting in mid-October, producer Robert Simonds told The Associated Press.

Simonds said no one else had been cast.

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In an e-mail message, he described the film as a cross between “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Big Daddy.”

Chan plays a Chinese agent working undercover while on loan to the U.S. government. His cover is blown when he looks after the children of his neighbor, a beautiful single mother, and one of them accidentally downloads secret codes off his computer.

Solon So, the chief executive of Chan’s company JC Group, confirmed the project on Tuesday but declined to give details. He said the movie may be delayed if the Screen Actors Guild fails to reach a new contract with Hollywood studios and goes on strike. Chan is a SAG member.

Chan usually juggles Hollywood and Chinese-language projects. His last film was the American kung fu movie “The Forbidden Kingdom” which marked his first on-screen collaboration with action star Jet Li.

He will next be seen in the Chinese-language “Shinjuku Incident,” reportedly about Chinese immigrants living in Tokyo’s Shinjuku shopping and entertainment district.

Simonds’ producer credits include “The Pink Panther,” “Big Daddy,” “The Wedding Singer” and “The Waterboy“

Ernie Reyes Jr. battles Indiana Jones

sonnydragon — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:15:18 +0000

Indiana Jones and The KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL – Cemetary Warrior ..[ Hasbro ] { Ernie Reyes Jr.’s Character in Indy 4 } (( 2008 )) [[ Courtesy of Entertainment Earth ]]F.decorate(_ge(‘button_bar’), F._photo_button_bar).bar_go_go_go(2536149712, 0);

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View tOkKa’s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

♥ ♥
–>> This is Ernie’s character in Indy 4.

Tho’ he is a bad guy, tho not necessarily evil. They are protecting the surroundings from invaders. However they are lethal. Their skull masks and shoddy clothing allow them to blend in with the dead surroundings and sneak up and catch those that dare seek to disrupt the sleeping Temple.
Mutt & Indy barely escape the Guard’s poison darts, and they do manage to ‘ unmask ‘ one of their “undead” assailants. One of the Warrior’s darts is ultimately turned against him !!

First Look: Justin Chatwin as Goku in Dragonball

sonnydragon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:33:58 +0000

by: Peter Sciretta

DBlive has posted what appears to be the first possibly official photo of Justin Chatwin as Goku from 20th Century Foxâ€™s upcoming DragonBall live-action movie. The scan was said to be taken from the Japanese magazine Shonen Jump #24. Updated with a higher quality image. As always, click to enlarge.

via: DBthemovie

Trivia: George Lucas’s Daughter is an MMA Fighter

sonnydragon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:32:18 +0000

Use the force!

Posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm by: Peter Sciretta

Amanda Lucas, the 27-year-old daughter of George Lucas, made her mixed martial arts debut in Auckland New Zealand on Saturday night under the stage name Amanda “Powerhouse” Lucas. The billionaire filmmaker’s daughter took on Australian kickboxer Nicole Kavanagh in a 73kg MMA contest at the Auckland Boxing Association Stadium. Apparently Amanda, who appeared in minor cameo roles in the three Star Wars prequels, was a hip-hop teacher in San Francisco but had years of martial arts training including kickboxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian ju-jitsu. In the Star Wars films, Amanda appeared as a dancer in The Phantom Menace, an Outlander Club patron in Attack of the Clones, and Senator Terr Taneel in Revenge of the Sith. The fight will be part of a new reality television series planned around the formation of this new all-woman MMA league.

sources: stuff, Star Wars Wikia

Korean Pop Star Rain to Star in Wachowski Duo’s Ninja Assassin

sonnydragon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:29:54 +0000

Ninja Assassin Starts Production in Berlin

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

Filming is underway on Ninja Assassin, being directed by James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) from a screenplay by Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski. Joel Silver, Grant Hill, Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski are producing, with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and William Fay serving as executive producers.

Ninja Assassin stars Korean pop star Rain (Speed Racer) as the central character, Raizo; Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) as Europol researcher Mika Coretti; Ben Miles (V For Vendetta) as Europol Agent Ryan Maslow; legendary martial arts performer Sho Kosugi (Revenge of the Ninja) as the ruthless leader of the Ozunu Clan; and Rick Yune (Die Another Day) as Raizo’s rival, Takeshi.

Principal photography is taking place at Babelsberg Studios and on location in various parts of Berlin.

Ninja Assassin follows Raizo (Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them… and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.

In Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders. Her investigation makes her a target, and the Ozunu Clan sends a team of killers, led by the lethal Takeshi (Rick Yune), to silence her forever. Raizo saves Mika from her attackers, but he knows that the Clan will not rest until they are both eliminated. Now, entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe, Raizo and Mika must trust one another if they hope to survive…and finally bring down the elusive Ozunu Clan.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Graham “Grace” Walker, costume designer Carlo Poggioli and editor Giancarlo Ganziano. The Wachowski brothers’ longtime stunt coordinators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are also on board as second unit co-directors.

Ninja Assassin is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation in association with Legendary Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment.

Superhero’s who can’t have Sex

sonnydragon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:54:49 +0000

Two of this summer’s biggest movies star superheroes who can’t get laid — or terrible things will happen. (We won’t reveal which movies here, since it’s a minor spoiler.) But in any case, these heroes aren’t alone — a vow of chastity has been part of the “great responsibility” that has come with superheroes’ great power for years now. Here’s a list of great superheroes who can never get any. Ever. (Spoilers ahead!)

This summer’s superheroic vows of chastity:

Okay, now that you’ve consented to be spoiled, our two abstinent heroes are the Hulk and Hancock. Actually, in the case of Hancock, it’s not strictly true that he can’t have sex — according to early screening reports, he simply has to be very, very careful where, and how, he ejaculates. In one scene from Hancock (which had the original title of Tonight, He Comes) Hancock has brought a cute young thing back to his trailer, and they’re getting busy. But then Hancock gets close to his climax, and warns the woman to back way, way up. Hancock gets off — and we see his semen riddle his ceiling with holes, almost like bullet holes. (Comics afficionados will not be surprised to learn this scene is ripped off from a Garth Ennis comic.)

As for the Hulk, there’s a scene in Friday’s new movie where Bruce Banner is in a motel room with Betty. They start to do what the young people do in motel rooms, and Bruce’s heart-rate monitor gets more and more bleepy. His heart is pounding with the excitement of making out with a vacant-eyed Liv Tyler, it’s too much for him, he’s losing his shit, he’s going to, oh my god, he’s going to… he’s going to… Bruce pulls away from Betty just in time to keep from becoming the Hulk. Yes, he can’t get sexually aroused without Hulking out. (And I am not going to make any jokes about whether you would like him when he’s horny. I’m better that that.)

A digression: Can the Hulk really not get laid?

I’ll get to the list of other sexually frustrated heroes in a second. Since I’ve read almost every Hulk comic ever published (except I admit Bruce Jones lost me after a while) I should stick in a little dissertation about the Hulk’s sexual history. Can the comics version of the Hulk really never have sex? We know that the Hulk is Incredibly, perhaps Unfeasibly, well-hung, because the Hulk gets naked in Incredible Hulk #400 and his arch-enemy The Leader remarks on how well-endowed he is. But it’s strongly implied, during the “gray Hulk” period, that the gray Hulk — who’s working as a Las Vegas leg-breaker — is getting laid on a fairly regular basis.

Bruce and Betty have sex at least twice that I can think of. Once when they first get married, after Bruce has been “cured” of being the Hulk (so there’s no danger of Bruce Hulking out.) And once when Bruce gets his pathology backwards, so he’s either a peaceful Hulk or a savage, rampaging puny human. In his “savage Banner” form, Betty has sex with him and this calms him down.

There’s also the famous sequence in Hulk #300, where the Hulk has gone completely berzerk and Bruce’s influence is all gone. The Hulk is trashing New York, and Eros, “the creepiest Avenger” tries to subdue the Hulk using his psychic abilities to generate “waves of pleasure.” He learns the hard way that you shouldn’t try to pleasure the Hulk in the middle of his rampage. Still more evidence, I guess, that the Hulk and sex don’t usually mix. Unless he’s gray.

I can’t have sex, or I’ll steal your powers/life/money:

Poor Rogue from the X-men. She’s got the cool Susan Sontag hair, and the leather jumpsuit, and the hot boyfriend… but she can never touch anyone. Whenever she does touch another person, she absorbs their memories, strength and physical abilities. She also steals people’s superpowers with her touch. She’s tragically untouchable. The sexual frustration is so horrendous, it drives her to get rid of her powers in X-Men 3.

I can’t have sex because I’m a robot, with non-functioning sex parts:

Beautie is one of the members of the Honor Guard, one of the main superhero teams in Astro City, Kurt Busiek’s fictional superhero town. She’s always looked like a Barbie doll, but we’ve never known much about the robot girl — until Busiek published the Astro City Character Special: Beautie last February. There, we see some “pick-up artists” try to hit on Beautie, only to be told that she has no genitalia. None whatsoever.

Other robot or cyborg superheroes who can’t have sex include Robotman from the Doom Patrol and Vic Stone aka Cyborg from the Teen Titans. But this isn’t true for all robo-heroes, as Star Trek’s Data would tell us. The hordes of comic book sex-perverts are pretty certain that the Vision, the android member of the Avengers, did in fact get it on with the Scarlet Witch when the two of them were married.

I can’t have sex because my super-strength will end you:

Hancock sort of belongs in this category, since his sperm are deadly to human females. So, too, does Superman, according to Larry Niven, who famously thought way too much about the implications of Krypto-sperm. Besides the speeding-bullet properties of the sperm themselves, there’s the fact that Superman might cause an injury if he got too excited during intercourse — and according to the movie Mallrats, the sperm would probably tear Lois Lane’s fallopian tubes apart as well. Some self-proclaimed experts also believe Wonder Woman is incapable of having sex with a normal human, for similar reasons.

No sex, please, I’m dead.

There are a surprising number of superheroes who are dead, either undead or ghosts… and most of them never get laid. I’m thinking of Deadman, who’s insubstantial except for when he takes control over a living body. (And his ethics might prevent him from using someone else’s body as a vehicle for sex, I’m guessing.) And the Spectre, who’s basically the spirit of vengeance — he can become tangible, but I’m highly doubtful he ever gets any. (Although the Ostrander run on The Spectre did get a bit saucy at times.)

Basic incompatibilities:

And then finally there are a number of superheroes whose bodies are just not compatible with anybody else, for various reasons. Like Mogo, who’s an entire planet and a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Who can Mogo have sex with? Element Lad from the Legion of Superheroes was celibate for a long time because he was the last of his kind, but did finally find love with a member of the Science Police who took a sex-change drug. There’s Negative Man from the Doom Patrol, who’s basically a radioactive mummy who has to wear protective bandages at all times, and (I think) can never touch anybody without the bandages in the way.

Iron Man studies Kung Fu

sonnydragon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:45:43 +0000

Actor ROBERT DOWNEY JR has found two new ways of focusing his mind as he continues to battle his drug demons – wing chun kung fu and sage.

The former ALLY McBEAL star has been clean for two years after undergoing a spell in a lock-down rehab, and he’s found two new hobbies that are helping him become a better person.

For starters, he practices kung fu six times a week.

He says, “It just does so many things. You feel you’re part of something that you respect. To me, it’s really quite mystical.

“It’s primary purpose is to promote a sense of spiritual warrior-dom and to respect your society.”

And he also cleanses himself and his loved ones with a burning sage bush.

He adds, “It’s a Native American ritual. Essentially, if you look back a couple of centuries or further you’ll find everything you need to exist in the modern world.”

Ninja Turtles go Heavy Metal

sonnydragon — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:34:38 +0000

I’m glad to see Kevin Eastman is keeping the turtles raw metaltv.com

In Kevin Eastman’s last major work on the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” he teamed up with Simon Bisley to spin a “John Woo” inspired story featuring Raphael and Casey Jones.

In this one hundred page action packed adventure, often called the longest running gunfight in comics, Casey and Raphael find them selves caught-up in the middle of an international family murder revenge assassination plot, complete with gansters, thugs, secret agents, double agents, armies of Kevlar covered swat teams, resistance warriors, and more spent shell casings that the D-Day invasion.

Pre order this book now – Available end of May 2008. We are sorry for the delay – this book is still at the printers and will be available by the end of May.

Always a classic, kitch or not

sonnydragon — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:33:58 +0000

Shogun Assassin

		Country :	Japan / US
		Year:	1980
		Genre:	Swordplay
		Format:	DVD
		Running Time:	1h21
		Distributor:	Vipco
		Date reviewed:	02/05/2003

		Producer:	Shintaro Katsu, Hasaharu Matsubara, David Weisman
		Director:	Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston
		Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Ohki

Story: The Lone Wolf refuses to swear allegiance to the evil Shogun. The shogun has Lone Wolf’s family killed, except for his baby son. Lone Wolf swears revenge, and the father and son team become Ronin (masterless samurai), and travel across Japan working for whoever will pay them, but the Shogun’s men are everywhere, and the notorious ‘Masters of Death’ want blood. Review: As we all know, evil corporations are butchering Asian movies, forcing heavily edited and poorly dubbed versions of classics down our throats like Hentai demon rapists, and diluting the original visions of Asian directors. KFCCinema is certainly against these disrespectable practices, but in reviewing Shogun Assassin, it’s important to put the movie in context.

In 1980, Americans David Weisman (producer) and Robert Houston (director) stumbled upon the Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub films (in turn based on a hugely successful manga comic book), and realised that while Western Audiences at the time would lap up the violent battles, they might not be ready for the Chanbara genre’s comparatively slow pacing and period politics. They decided to take the best bits of Lone Wolf and Cub parts 1 and 2, and add their own dubbing and simplified plot. Shogun Assassin was born, and is probably responsible to this day for the Chanbara movie’s arrival in the West. Shogun Assassin certainly isn’t one for the purists, and could never take the place of the original Lone Wolf and Cub series, but if you like your action, then this is definitely worth a look, and stands out as quality viewing not only as a movie in its own right, but also as a film which played an important role in carrying Asian cinema from its home territories to the global audience it reaches today.

So, just for now, for a few minutes, let’s forget that we know about the Lone Wolf and Cub films, and pretend that Shogun Assassin is a ‘proper’ film. There are many ridiculous racial stereotypes with no basis in fact. If Shogun Assassin is to be believed, the Japanese have more blood than the rest of us. The arterial spurts in this movie are spectacular. Blood sprays in the air and onto the camera lens, drips from walls, and taints the sands of the Japanese deserts. It’s a glorious piece of artistic license, and those that like a bit of claret won’t be disappointed. People are sliced into pieces, stabbed, hacked, sliced, diced, cooked at gas mark 5 and left to simmer.

A special mention has to go to the sound. The dubbing is higher quality than most dubbed films of the period, and the specially written script throws a number of quotable catchphrases into the mix (“They shall pay. Rivers of blood!”). The music and sound effects are eerily kitsch. During battles, the clashing of swords is punctuated with periods of silence, before persistent and abstract 80’s synth sounds provide tension. The main theme music which plays in battle is also notable, and is best described as an up-tempo electronica, slightly reminiscent of John Carpenter’s ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ theme.
Characterisation is very good. Lone Wolf is stoic and dignified, despite the raging fury in his eyes. Daigoro (the ‘Cub’ of the title, only about four years old) is also a revelation. Sporting a Busta Rhymes haircut, he is adorable and innocent, yet capable of murder, and keeps count of how many his father has killed. The combination of these two characters is instantly memorable, and there is no wonder that they proved so popular.

So, Shogun Assassin is violent, gripping, broody, and definitely worth seeing. It’s a guilty pleasure, but probably best approached as an introduction to the Lone Wolf and Cub legend. See it, then go and buy the original movies, the manga, the TV series, the T-shirt, the keyring and the pyjamas. Then leap around the room shouting ‘Supreme Ninja!”, and “Ridiculous!”