Hooptober... And Then There Were Nine

5th Kill

One of the unique delights of Japanese film - of Japanese pop culture in general, actually - is how, every now and again, something will pop up which is just so ineffably fucking weird, you just have to marvel at the bizarre wonder of the Japanese imagination. May I present to you the Umbrella Monster. I mean, what the fuck is an Umbrella Monster? (Say it like Eddie Murphy said "What the fuck is goony-goo-goo?") It's not a very fearsome thing - it just seems to hop around on its single (rather shapely) leg and play with the halfwitted manchild who somehow summons it in this movie, but that just adds to the hallucinogenic what-the-fuckery of the whole thing.

Regardless - it's one small element of this movie and it really is a non-sequitur - it follows logically from nothing else in the film and nothing else in the film follows logically from it. In fact, a great deal of this film takes the form of a straightforward story of corrupt officialdom exploiting its power to oppress and victimise the virtuous Edo villagers, but they happen to make the mistake of tearing down an obscure shrine to shinto animist spirits - a veritable cornucopia of weird monsters who slowly make their presence felt before we finally get a cavalcade of the things in the final ten minutes (it reminded me a lot of the ending of Viy - if anything, a little less bonkers).

Although there is no sign of any of the traditional western iconography of Halloween, this feels like such a perfect Halloween movie. It really is very creepy at certain points, even if some of the lo-fi creature effects are borderline comical. My daughter crashed out of this movie after only a couple of minutes, but it might have been a good thing, because that opening vignette where the dude gets lost in the forest and then stumbles into the arms of a big hairy one-eyed sasquatch or whatever the fuck it is might actually have freaked her out in big way.

Also, not that I have any issue with black and white movies, but I really hate it when the banner image on Letterboxd is a black-and-white photo when the movie was filmed in colour - gloriously so, in this case. It just gives such a wrong impression of the aesthetic experience, and this is an example of that beautiful colour we get a lot in late 60's Japanese films, which is like crack to me.

Best Kill (may contain traces of spoiler)

It might seem weird for the old "died of fright" thing to ever get a "best kill" vote, but the way in which these two guys are frightened to death is the best scene in the movie. It just involves a monster who takes the form of a young woman who suddenly stretches her neck out like a huge python. The way this is done on screen, all in-camera effects using some puppetry, but also just clever costuming and props with the actress' real head, is really remarkable. And it looks super creepy too. Awesome stuff! This movie is really a lot of fun.