Movie Details
| Title: | The Warped Ones | |
| Director: | Koreyoshi Kurahara | |
| Year: | 1960 | |
| Genre: | Reprobate | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.25.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.25.07 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2007 After the Moebius doc I kinda sorta gave Retribution a chance but the Japanese horror movie seemed very by-the-numbers. Granted I'm not a fan of the genre (it felt tired to me after the second one I saw) but this one seemed in a coma. I guess if I was really into them this could've been like Wrong Turn 2 - completely delivering on the execution even if there isn't much innocation - but... whatever. So I hopped into the end of Timecrimes' second screening to see Nacho's Q&A (which was hilarious. In describing why Hector 2's bandages were pink, he said it was a mix of the red blood and white bukkake. He said it so casually and quick that Tim had to back him up, triggering Nacho's little song about how the world is united under one word. Oh man, what a character. The Warped Ones is the second in the Nikkatsu retrospective, this one representing a MUCH different vibe than last night's stellar A Colt is My Passport. Instead of hard boiled crime, this is a juvenile delinquent story obssessed with jazz, the New Wave (Breathless in particular) and rebelling against Morality. Once again, it felt to me like the Japanese take on Rebel Without A Cause was so potent that it wound up being more human than human. Very extreme not to mention great. While the genre kept me from liking it as much as last night's film (I'm a sucker for crime movies), there was still plenty of awesomality to go around. The main kid's tendency to grip his cigarette with his teeth while he flared his lips out was great, not to mention how he walked around like a beat icon stuck in a world of pretension, literally just standing there looking up at the ceiling while the bougeouis commented on his angst. Then he rapes a girl and there's a whole story about her ruined virtue and eventual pregnancy and all that stuff. I think my favorite character was not this punk or his friend that hooks up with a gang but the friend's prostitute girlfriend. She reminded me a lot of Ann Savage in Detour in that her laugh is a cackle capable of cooling the warmest of hearts and she's so aggressive in her a-morality. Right before the rape scene, when the three of them have the girl unconsciouss in a sand dune, she says "I wish i were a man" and stomps off. Who wouldn't love a woman like that? There were actually several great lines. "Only people who don't listen to jazz get into fights", "Are you having an abortion too?", and the immortal "I ate a chiken, I'm horny." Commit them to memory, people. Start using them today! So I felt pretty special to get to see this movie (again with the makeshift screen for the manual subtitles) and to have author Mark Schilling here to explain its historical context and place in Nikkatsu history. For a series I initially wasn't too hot on I sure am winding up loving it a lot. I can't wait for tomorrow's Velvet Hustler: a film which Lars says is a perfect synthesis of the hard-boiled crime of A Colt is My passport and the New Wave freedom of The Warped Ones. MAN! |
