Symbol

Title: Symbol

Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto

Released: 2009

Starring: Hitoshi Matsumoto, David Quintero, Luis Accinelli, Lilian Tapia, Adriana Fricke, Carlos C. Torres, Ivana Wong, Arkangel De La Muerte, Matcho Panpu, Dick Togo, Salam Diagne

Plot: A Japanese man wakes up in a plain white room covered with phallus like switches which cause random events to happen within the room, while I attempts to find a way out. At the same a Mexican luchadore called Escargot Man prepares for his match despite being concerned that the fact his opponent is much younger than him. At the same time the worlds of these two men are surprisingly connected.

Review: Director Hitoshi Matsumoto might be a director whose work I never intend to seek out and yet our paths for some reason keep crossing, first with the Kaiju parody “Big Man Japan” and later the delightfully perverted “R100”. This time though its a lighter tone that Matsumoto brings to this film of two randomly interconnected tales even though from the start they couldn’t seem to be further part.

Of course surreal worlds have always been one of the trademarks of the comedian turned director and here that’s certainly the case for at least one half of this film as Matsumoto plays the unnamed man who wakes up in the plain room devoid of any colour bar his garish poka-dot pajamas. He has no idea how he got there or why he’s there and certainly by the end of the film we are arguably none the wiser, but it certainly doesn’t stop it being fun to see him being put through the slapstick ringer like your watching “Saw” with jokes.

The main humour of the film comes from him trying to figure out his new surrounding which seem to have designed to purposely test him at all times. The main one of these challenges being the phallus like switches which at one point turn into cherubs which emerge from the wall before disappearing again. Each switch causes something to happen or appear in the room, be it a plate of sushi, a pair of chopsticks or even cause a Zulu warrior to run through the room and this is the challenge which he is faced with let alone the fact that they all look identical.

Just seeing Matsumoto try and find a solution of each problem as he encounters is facinating to watch and his background in comedy only helps further sell even the simplest of jokes such as counsuming a small pile of sushi after resigning himself to the fact that there is no soy sauce only for the next switch he presses to produce the much desired soy sauce. Often these problem solving sections are presented with comic book storyboards while he stares at the viewer just clicking his fingers and the trail and error of the situation is designed so that you want to see him succeed yet at the same time the pay off for each failed plan is so amusing your equally wanting to see him crash and burn aswell.

The second story involving our ageing masked Mexican wrester is a much gentler far and works well running parallel to Matsumoto’s tale. Escargot Man loves his craft as a wrester yet at the same time he’s worried that his age is meaning that he is almost out of the game, especially when faced with competing against a pair of wrestlers half his age. Seeing him permanently wearing his mask regardless of if he is wrestling or not felt like a fun throw back to the likes of “Santo” while at the same time keeping in with the traditions of Lucha Libre. Over the course of his story we see the impact it has on family, including his son who is see defending his father’s in ring ability when two of his classmates make fun of Escargot Man.

Compared to my previous encounters with Matsumoto’s work this one surprisingly didn’t have a darker edge to it, or even go anywhere remotely downbeat in its tone. True instead the finale is a random mish-mash of ideas which includes a Kiss tribute act, ascension and a rather unique ending to Escargot Man’s match. True by the end of the film I might not have been any the wiser as to what I was watching than I was at the start but the ride is so unquestionably fun you really don’t care, while for those willing to take a few risks with their movie watching then this is certainly worth checking out, especially as a more gentle introduction to Matsumoto’s work.

The Nutcracker In 3D

Title: The Nutcracker In 3D

Director: Andrei Konchalovsky

Released: 2009

Starring: Elle Fanning, Charlie Rowe, John Turturro, Frances De La Tour, Aaron Michael Drozin, Nathan Lane, Richard E. Grant, Julie Vysotskaya

 

Plot: Set in 1920s Vienna where nine-year old Mary (Fanning) is given a Nutcracker doll by her uncle Albert (Lane) which is brought to life via her imagination. Together they travel to a magical dimension were toys are human and where the evil Rat King (Turturro) and his army threaten to overthrow humanity.

 

 

Review: A favourite of my good friend Emily, who it seems is on a one woman campaign to champion the hell out of this movie, not because it is any good but more because of how spectacularly awful it is, as she highlighted when she came on the podcast recently for the "Alt. Christmas Special" so really it was only a question of time before I gave in to temptation and watched it. One of the equally fascinating aspects of this film is that it was a pet project of Director Konchalovsky who is best known for “Runaway Train” and “Tango and Cash” and would spend over 20 years trying to get it developed though having seen the end results there is an overwhelming feeling that you kind of wished he hadn’t bothered.

 

One of the main problems with this film (and there are certainly more than a few) is that its tone is so confused it’s hard to tell if Konchalovsky had anyone else in mind other than himself when it came to his target audience, as here we have scenes of childlike fantasy slotted alongside holocaust and fascist imagery, which only becomes more confusing when the plotting is so sporadic and loosly strung together that your never quite sure what it is your watching, much less if the script actually existed to begin with or were the actors just being given notes on how to play things.

 

Of course things take a turn for the strange pretty early on, as the traditional setting is mixed up with the introduction of Uncle Albert who is none other than the world renown physicist Albert Einstein. Why him? Who knows as like so many aspects of this film it is never explained, but here he is and atleast played by Lane with some element of fun and perhaps a hint of Mary Poppins. Randomly breaking the fourth wall when the urge grabs him for no reason other than to seemingly highlight well nothing it would seem he is also the most interesting character in the film especially when bursting into a song about his theories of relativity… I mean who knew he was so musical?

 

Rivalling him though has to be the truly insane rat king portrayal by Turturro who equally seems to also be having the most fun here, whose fascist regime comes with some worrying comparisons to the Nazi’s especially as he commands his creates pyres of toys to burn in his factories to block out the sun as part of his great plans for world domination. At the same he emphases his evil nature by bursting into “Cabaret” inspired song and dance inspired routines, including one which climaxes in him electrocuting his own pet shark! Still not sure about the logic of this move whether it was to lose the Bond villain comparisons or generally just further emphasise his evil nature. As such it ends up yet another random plot point and one of the shopping list of things which is never explained so done with any kind of rational reasoning.

 

Still if this wasn’t bad enough his face also warps into a demonic rat head when he gets angry which was kind of shocking to myself so god knows what the kids made of those scenes, as after all this is supposed to be a family film. This is of course only topped by him random decapitating the Jamaican drummer boy before tossing the head around in a warped game of catch. Okay the Jamaican boy is supposed to be a toy brought to life like the rest of this world inhabitants, but seeing how they don’t resemble anything toy like, its hard to see this as anything other abit of gratuitous (yet blood free) violence.

 

The majority of the music is taken from Tchaikovsky’s original music for “The Nutcracker” which then have lyrics added by none other than Broadway legend Tim Rice. That’s right kids the same guy who is responsible for giving us the likes of Evita and The Lion King was also involved in this creative car crash. Clearly he never saw the “Star Wars Holiday Special” as he would have known have that adding words to popular classics never turns out well, I mean who could forget Carrie Fisher warbling about life day to the Star Wars theme?!? Still regardless of his song writing credentials the songs here vary between forgettable and annoying with some even managing to straddle the two.

 

Too weird for mass consumption and too tedious for the most part for the open minded, this is the kind of movie that you watch with the intention of generally tearing it apart and making your own amusement from as to watch it in a more traditional sense is just sheer madness as this is one dream project which is just more of a nightmare while leaving you no doubt feeling that the twenty plus years he waited to make it weren’t nearly long enough!

Compliance

Title: Compliance

Director: Craig Zobel
Released: 2012
Starring: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Phillip Ettinger, James McCaffrey, Ashlie Atkinson

Plot: When a prank caller (Healy) claiming to be a police officer investigating a theft at a fast food restaurant, the manager Sandra (Dowd) is convinced to interrogate one of her employees Becky (Walker) as the caller gives instructions over the phone.

Review: Based on the real life events of April 9, 2004 when a prank caller managed to convince the manger of a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky that they were a police officer. At the same time the film also references the controversial Milgram experiment carried out by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram and which was designed to look at participant’s willingness to obey an authority figure instructing them to perform acts which would conflict with the personal conscience, which Milgram achieved by asking participants to administer electric shocks of increasing voltage to another subject every time they made a mistake. What they didn’t know was that the person who they were supposedly shocking was an actor and not actually receiving any of the shocks the participant was lead to believe they were giving.

Like its inspiration this film proved to be non the less controversial with its premier at Sundance being greeted with Walkouts and shouting matches erupting during the Q&A session though since its release it has pretty much sunk under the radar, which is surprising as normally if anything is guaranteed to help the promotion of your film its controversy.

An intriguing plot made even more so because of the real world elements being a lot truer than the majority of so called movies “Inspired by real life events”, it is also a fascinating look at how different people respond to orders given by those in position of authority and while the film might centre around the situation that Sandra and Becky find themselves in, the real focus here is on how Sandra is manipulated and what she is willing to take as standard protocol based on nothing but the fact that she assumes she is being given the correct advice by a police officer.

Interestingly director Zobel has followed the events of the case in question remarkably closely, while at the same time bringing in other characters into the twisted games of the caller and perhaps in a way linking the events even more to the Milgram experiment as he shows how different staff members react to the orders being given, with some proving to be unquestionably compliant while Sandra’s friend Kevin (Ettinger) aggressively refuses to take part. Equally at the same time there is a curiosity about how far the caller will take things, which for those of you familiar with the case will come as no surprise while providing grim shocks for the rest of us.

Shot on a shoe string budget Zobel works around his limitations by keeping the majority of the film within the confines of the restaurant back office which helps add to the tension, only breaking away to show the caller as he works through his plan or to show one of the numerous hallway conversations between the staff regarding the escalating situation, which helps reassure us that they aren’t all of the same mind set and furthering reinforcing the different mind sets regarding the commands they are being given by the supposed officer.

While the majority of critics have raved about Dowd’s performance as the coerced restaurant manager which earned her the National Board of Review award for for Best Supporting Actress, which for myself as the film goes on proved to be source of increasing frustration especially as she continues to agree to the ever more invasive requests, even recruiting her own boyfriend Van (Camp) to watch Becky which only leading to some of the more shocking moments of the film. For myself the real standout here is Dreama Walker who while no doubt best known for her comedic talents in the sitcom “Don’t Trust The Bitch In Apartment 23” really proves her dramatic abilities here, which equally taking on no doubt one of her most challenging roles to date. More so when you look at what she is forced to endure over the course of the film and while also spending the majority of the film naked bar an apron, but this is in no way fun nudity.

My main gripe with this film though is the caller. Mainly because there is never any clear reason given for why he chooses to do what he does. Clearly it’s not for sexual satisfaction, while his meticulous note taking he makes over the course of the call only hints at a greater obsession which is frustratingly never explored further, with Zobel seemingly happy to just give us the fact and leave us to draw our own conclusions.

While it is a fascinating case which Zobel has chosen to highlight it is really a no thrills style which he chooses to shoot it in, while his focus purely on the events as they played out, with only a passing glance paid to the actual investigation and aftermath the film ends feels as if something is lacking, while the grim later portions combined with the lacking areas highlighted, especially in terms of the psychology of the caller means that it doesn’t stand up to repeat viewings. Still for those with any interest in the true case its worth giving a watch.

Bikini Bandits Experience

Title: Bikini Bandits Experience

Director: Steve Grasse

Released: 2002

Starring: Maynard James Keenan, Dee Dee Ramone, Jello Biafra, Corey Feldman, Peter Grasse, Larry McGearty, Bret Reilly, Heather-Victoria Ray, Heather McDonnell, Betty San Luis, Cynthia Diaz, Robyn Bird, Clark O’Donnel

Plot: Following the Bikini Bandits a four strong gang of bikini loving, muscle car driving and machine gun welding bad asses, as they embark on a series of ever more random adventures, which see them being sent to hell and even traveling though time.

Okay I couldn't find a trailer, but this is pretty much what the whole film is like

Review: Honestly I originally had zero plans to review this film, happy to write it off as another zero which failed to turn out more. However since that original viewing something strange happened as I found myself still thinking about the film and frequently finding myself talking about it to other cult cinema fans, about this film which is honestly largely a horrible mess, yet at the same time projects an aura that somewhere in this hour long jumble of ideas and random plots there was something special lurking under the titillating and confused surface.

Originally the Bikini Bandits were launched as a series of short films via the now defunct Atomfilms.com and would be there that the series slowly gained a cult following of sorts as the girls embarked on a series of increasingly random adventures the majority of which have now been edited into this film. At the same time they have also been padded out with new shorts which see director Grasse taking stabs at American consumerism via home shopping commericals for the fictional conglomerate Gmart, aswell as going off on further random tangents with the beyond creepy “Morning Yoga” and the seemingly shot on the cuff “Zembo” segments were a fez wearing Zembo basically harasses unsuspecting members of the public about if they know who the Bikini Bandits are. Needless to say with the exception of the Gmart segments which also features a John Waters Alike who along with his fellow host stop them from seeing like yet more filler thanks to their tone perfect performances.

Due to the film essentially being a best of collection of those original shorts loosely tied together with increasingly random filler, the film is unquestionably disjoined to say the least and makes for an experience similar to watching TV while your ADD suffering friend frequently flicks through the channels. At the same time the various misadventures the bandits find themselves on haven’t been developed beyond their original shorts so hence most of the adventures revolve around the girls finding themselves in an interesting situation before Grasse turns it into yet another excuse for cheap thrills as the stories are often suddenly ended with the girls engaging in some form of Andy Sidaris inspired slap and tickle or tormenting whatever male character happens to be nearby. Of course such antics are not only kept to the Bandit segments as they also make up a series of mock adverts for muscle cars, which generally consist of bikini clad ladies welding guns and draping themselves over the car. Still if this wasn’t enough titillation for you already, we also get the “Imports Suck” segement which consists solely of bikini clad ladies taking sledgehammers to a car….still whatever floats your boat right. How much of the film was inspired by the films of Andy Sidaris who essentially pioneered the Girls and guns film with the likes of “Return to Savage Beach” and “Hard Ticket To Hawai” its hard to say especially when it also seems to be a questionable homage to as well as grindhouse cinema, if perhaps with none of the style that Rodriguez and Tarantino brought with their own homages which kick-started the Neo-grindhouse genre.

The only developed story we do get being “Bikini Bandits Go To Hell” thanks to its original multipart structure which sees the girls being the girls being tasked by Giant penis codpiece wearing Satan (Keenan) to deflower the Virgin Mary or face being forced to watch 80’s favourite Corey Feldman dance for all eternity. It is probably around this point were most people will choose if they stick with this film or not, especially when Grasse doesn’t seem to give much a damn about who he offends, as he frequently it would seem is aiming to offend whenever possible. This in turns leads me to my main peeve with the this film in its frequent use of the word retard, with the apparent thinking that the mental handicapped make for the best source of amusement, especially with two of the stories revolving around such characters. The film though is always at its strongest when playing things straight and not aiming for such crude stabs at comedy, while these misfire attempts at comedy can't help but bring to mind "The Underground Comedy Movie" which was yet another underground series turned into a feature with equally questionable results.

Surprisingly for such a T&A focused film the performances aren't overly bad, even if the girls are hardly being forced to do anything overly challenging performance wise, which can’t be said for most of the male cast, who often end up coming off like crude and overplayed but then the majority are played by Grasse’s brother Peter so chances are that Grasse was saving budget by having him play so many roles. Rounding out the cast though we do also get a number of interesting musical cameos with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan really giving a standout performance as Satan, while Dee Dee Ramone makes for an interesting choice to play the pope, especially as he doesn’t exactly seem to know where he is as he bumbles from through his lines. Elsewhere we also get Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra appearing as a sleazy porn producer which sadly sees him majorly underused.

The most interesting casting choice here though is Corey Feldman appearing here as, well err…himself. What makes his appearance here so interesting is just how clear it is that he had no clue what he was signing up for, which is only made the clearer when Grasse includes what appears to be footage of an unsuspecting Feldman slagging off the film and making comments about what a piece of trash it is and how he’s been made to look like a joke. True it’s hard to fault his reasoning especially when his contributions are so random and range from him busting some Michael Jackson style movies to having a drag race with an overweight Mexican masked wrestler. However when combined with the rest of the film it hardly seems out of place especially with the logic that this film runs on. On the whole though it is hard to tell if his casting was out of an obsession with his 80's glory days and that having cast him realised that they had nothing for him to do, of if it was to truly see what they could get away making his current career stalled self do.

Despite running for a mere 60 minutes the experience does feel a lot longer, yet it is hard to fault that there is still something about this film, in much the same way that there is with films like “The Room” and “Boardinghouse”. True it might seem like it is intentionally trying to emulate the so bad its good style of those films, but this film has enough weird ideas and general titillation to make it the sort of film that’s fun to dig out and maybe freak out your friends with.

Hobo With A Shotgun

Title: Hobo With A Shotgun

Director: Jason Eisener
Released: 2011
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Pasha Ebrahimi, Jeremy Akerman, Peter Simas

Plot: A nameless Hobo (Hauer) arrives in Hope Town via a freight train box car with plans of buying a lawnmower and to start a new life for himself. However when he soon discovers that Hope Town has long since decended into lawless chaos, with the locals now referring to it as “Scum Town” while being ruled by the ruthless crime lord “The Drake” (Downey). Now arming himself with a pump action shotgun the Hobo sets out to dish out his own brand of vigilante justice.

Review: It’s true I might be alittle behind the bandwagon for this one, seeing how it was greeted with much excitement upon its release as it marked the start of the second wave of Neo-grindhouse movies being released in the wake of “Grindhouse”, a film I’ve already commented on numerous times previously due to its distribution being screwed up by the Weinstein’s figuring that British audiences (and pretty much everywhere outside of the states) were too dumb to get the format and split it into its individual films, rather than give us the true experience. Still it the legacy of the film and the Neo-Grindhouse genre it kick startednnot only gave us the trailer which spawned “Machette” aswell as “Machette Kills”, but also gave the world the first glimpse of this film as it appeared as one of the fake trailers on some prints of “Grindhouse”.

Right from the start director Eisener who makes his feature directorial debut here clearly likes to wear his influences on his sleeve, which in this case would seem to be largely gained from the OTT style of Troma Studios while mixing it up with the splatter and social satire style of Paul Verhoeven, all of which is clear from the opening scenes, which includes a barbwire decapitation and fountains of blood while the crime ridden streets of the streets of scum town seem to have been transplanted from Verhoeven’s classic “Robocop”. Still even the briefest of looks at the trailer alone highlights that like his inspirations, Eisener is not the sort of director who does anything subtly making the Neo-Grindhouse genre the perfect playground for his style, especially as its audience come expecting violence and splatter and here Eisener delivers both in spades.

Still there is thankfully a brain behind the splatter (if a delightfully sleazy one) as while he has certainly crafted one of the more splatter heavy films of recent years, Eisener still bothers to craft a half decent tale before getting distracted with unleashing carnage. On the downside his approaches to the material is with so excitable and frenzied, it can feel at times like you’re watching the product of a kid with ADD while on a sugar binge. At the same time he frequently stumbles when faced with the slower paced sequences as seen during the more tender moments between the hobo and aspiring school teacher turned prostitute Abby (Dunsworth) who despite seemingly having nothing in common, the Hobo recognises her innocence despite the world around them which continually threatens to corrupt her innocence.

Unsurprisingly the film is far from the deepest of viewing experiences with Eisener having a good eye for characterisation as he crafts some truly memorable characters, who are truly brought to life here with some great casting choices, with Hauer as the nameless hobo full of pure grit and snarl while Downey makes a perfect counter as the ruthless and sadistic Drake, whose love of showmanship and theatrics makes him the perfect centre piece in the collection of villainy and scum that Eisener has filled the streets of Scum town with. Oh and what a collection of scumbags it is, for like “The Toxic Crusader” these streets lined with the likes of the paedophile Santa and the director making bum fights style movies, all of which soon find themselves soon enough on the business end of the hobo’s shotgun as he sets about cleaning up the town and with such a black and white devide behind good and evil, there is no real moral questions raised regarding the hobos methods. Even more so when The Drake responds to the Hobo’s actions by carring out a mass hobo genocide in one of the films splatter centrepieces. Sadly he does miss a trick by underusing “The Plague” a pair of hired gun and full blown psycho’s hired by The Drake, who also dress like the medieval version of Daft Punk. However they are only introduced in the final quarter, leaving kind of disappointed that they are not used more, especially when they are such a unique and fun creation and generally hoping that Eisener finds some way of reusing them.

While most of the film is generally a care free exploitation throw back with Eisener generally flipping the bird to the censors and mainstream Hollywood, there are however a few moments were I felt the film perhaps overstepped the mark perhaps slightly too much and these were in the few scenes which saw children being openly threatened, while a school bus of kids being incinerated by a flame thrower to the strains of Disco Inferno just comes off as tasteless, even if it does makes a suitable setup for the death of one character whose soul we seeing being metaphorically dragged to hell in the same burning school bus.

As always the case with any film junkie who uses their expansive film knowledge in their film making the need to draw comparisons between them and Tarantino seems almost inevitable like Adam Green, but here Eisener seems only concerned with using the films which influenced this film as a reference point for his shooting style especially as he shoots the film in saturated and shifted colours rather than trying to reimagine scenes from the films he draws inspiration from. The soundtrack itself is also a throwback while also baffling including Lisa Lougheed’s “Run With Us” which let’s not forget was memorably also used on the 80’s childhood favourite “The Racoons” yet surprisingly it works rather well here.

A frequently grimy and hyperactive debut feature, but a noteworthy addition to the Neo-grindhouse genre, while were Eisener will go next is till unclear but providing he can dial back his over brimming enthusiasm slightly he could certainly be an interesting director to follow, especially if this debut is anything to go off.

Six Truly WTF? Moments

So many times I have been left astounded by some of the choices made by directors on just what they expect and audience to buy into, even more so when these moments leave you no choice but to question what the f**k? you have just seen? So to celebrate these shall we say questionable directing choices here are my personal top 6.

Godzilla flies (Godzilla Vs. Hedorah)



Over the years since the Godzilla first took a stroll through Tokyo, there have been a number of questionable moments which have appeared throughout the series, from attempts to give Godzilla a voice (Godzilla Vs. Gigan), lumbering him with a son who strangely resembles grey lumpy mash, let alone the meddling and inserting of random plot devices (let alone reusing Raymound Blurr) which several films saw on the US release. Still what makes this one stand out is the sheer randomness of watching Godzilla use his radioactive fire breath to enable him to fly, a moment so surreal that even the DVD chapter title has it marked as “Something You Don’t See Everyday” though it would be also be something that we never saw again…unlike Minila who continues to frequently blight the series and delight my wife.

Van Damme Vs. Ice Hockey Mascot (Sudden Death)



While Van Damme might not be renown for being the sanest of action heroes and prone the occasional random ramble as a quick glance at his interviews in the past only seem to provide further evidence to, while the films he choose to make towards the latter end of his career are frequently full of WTF?!? moments, though none are perhaps as special as this one. True this isn’t just some random mascot abuse but rather one of the terrorists disguised as the loveable mascot, but this doesn’t make it all the less comical let alone making you wonder how they ever thought that this fight scene would actually work. To his credit Van Damme does is best to try and work with such a clumsy opponent, showcasing a few favourites, but I would be hard pushed to say that you ever feel that he is ever threatened at any point and kind of highlighted the state of his career at this point.

Gamera gymnastics (Gamera vs. Guiron)

 

While Gamera might not be as instantly recognisable as fellow Kajiu legend Godzilla to most folks, there is no denying that the fire breathing space turtle still has his fans, so much so that many Kajiu fans are still holding out for a showdown between the two titans of the genre. Like Godzilla though Gamera has had his own share of random moments like Barugon’s rainbow attack (Gamera vs. Barugon) or the redneck voice over option which is bizarrely included as a bonus feature on the dvd for “Gamera 2: Attack of Legion”. Still the best of these has to be this classic and truly bonkers moment, which is only added to by the random dance Gamera seems to be doing when he gets hit in his paws by Guirons’ ninja star attack, but then it’s moments like this which remind me why I love this genre so much.

The Dead or Alive Opening (Dead or Alive)



It is said that a film needs to capture the attention of its audience and establish its tone with its first fifteen minutes, which its safe to say that director Miike Takashi has no problems doing with the first of his “Dead or Alive” trilogy, which throws more violence and shocking imagery into its opening that most films manage in their run time, as he truly sets the scene for his Triad drama and what is to come, which he does in a stunning montage of sex, violence, drugs, guns and noodles, all while showcasing his highly unique style which made him such a standout name during the revival of interest in Asian cinema. Even more so when western audiences were hit with the double punch of this film and “Audition” and certainly helped pave the way for the likes of Park Chan-Wook’s “Vengeance Trilogy” and the truly random films of Shinya Tsukamoto. True there are a number of more shocking scenes in the film itself which I won't spoil for anyone yet to watch it with the ending also being a contender for this list, but it’s the balls to hit his audience with this memorable and frequently shocking opening sequence, which is so self-contained that you can’t help but wonder what the hell it is that you have just witnessed.

Matrix Cockfight (The City of Lost Souls)



While it might not be one of his better films, this lesser seen film from Takashi Miike might be largely hit and miss, but one thing it does get right is this scene which seems to have been included almost as a random whim by Miike, especially when it seems to only be included for local colour and perhaps feeling that a real cockfight might be alittle extreme even for him, instead puts a fun spin on things in one of the better moments of the film.

Bulletproof huh? How about Rocketproof! (Death Wish 3)



After the original “Death Wish” it’s safe to say the series soon began to let the realism slip, while with part 3 it was just sheer thrown out of the window, as Charles Bronson returned for another round of vigilante justice despite now perhaps being older than he should be for such antics yet apparently not too old to follow it up with another two films. Still watched with a sense of humour there is a lot of fun to be had with film, especially as it escalates to its totally over the top shootout finale, were seemingly every one has a gun as the harassed (and mainly OAP) residents of the apartment block take up arms against the gang members. Director Michael Winner though still manages to top this madness with this jaw dropping WTF? moment which I love to show friends, especially the uninitiated just to see their reaction to this scene, somthing often followed by a need to rewind and watch it again, which I can’t really blame them for as it is such a great ending and the perfect footnote for Winner’s involvement in the series as he handed over the directorial reigns to J. Lee Thompson for part 4.

So there you have my choices, but what would make your own list?