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Yabu no naka no kuroneko, a review by Danae Cassandra

Yabu no naka no kuroneko  (Kuroneko)

Year of Release:  1968
Directed By:  Kaneto Shindo
Starring:  Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi, Kei Sato 
Rated:  Not Rated

Overview:
In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn feudal Japan, malevolent spirits are ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is dispatched to confront the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with personal demons as well. From Kaneto Shindo, director of the similarly terrifying Onibaba, Kuroneko (a.k.a. Black Cat) is a spectacularly eerie twilight tale, with a shocking feminist angle, evoked through ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.

My Thoughts:
What a magnificent film!  The cinematography is so perfect, so gorgeous, the unconventional use of lighting, the play of darkness and shadow in the film, the eerie fog that heralds entering the supernatural realm.  The look of the film and its atmosphere are so wonderfully done, the use of black and white so appropriate that I can't imagine what this would look like in color.  The actors are all great as well.  Poetic, tragic, symbolic, chilling, I would highly recommend this for any fan of classic or Japanese horror.  Avoid only if you can't watch a subtitled film (in which case, I feel sorry for you).  Any other horror film I watch this month has a high bar set by Kuroneko.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall:  4.75/5

(From Danae's 2012 Horror on October 8th, 2012)

Public Enemies, a review by Rich

Title: Public Enemies

Runtime:134
Certificate:15
Year:2009
Genres:Drama, Action

Plot:My Review:
My son fell asleep after an hour of this, I struggled through but it was excruciantly and unnecessarily long and drawn out, difficult to follow, full of mumbling poor accents, and generally disappointing after we built ourselves up to an expectant high of viewing a supposedly good movie.
The characterisations were totally underdeveloped, the action felt like it was plonked in to wake the viewer up, the plot noticeable by its absence, and the direction blatantly pointless. The 30's feel of the film, complete with the depression era, had obviously taken a lot of thought and was visually successful, but this appeal waned when you realised the film lacked any substance. And the music they used throughout the film, some kind of ill-fitting rock - why??
Christian Bale was simply dreadful, his accent made him nigh on impossible to understand, Depp was uncharacterisically hollow in passion for the role, the only actors who walked away with any justifiable plaudits would be Marion Cotillard as Dillingers girl, and John Hoogenacker as one of the drafted in specialist agents.
Give me the untouchables over this any day.


(From December Marathons - DISCUSSION AND REVIEW THREAD on December 12th, 2009)

The X-Files Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

9. Space
Original Air Date: November 12, 1993
A mysterious force sabotages the United States' Space Shuttle program and Scully and Mulder must stop it before the next shuttle launch.

Guest Stars:
Ed Lauter as Lt. Col. Marcus Aurelius Belt
Susanna Thompson as Michelle Generoo
Tom McBeath as Scientist
Terry David Mulligan as Mission Controller

My Thoughts:
Not so sure what I think about this one really. On one hand it had some cool effects and such. On the other... the story line really didn't interest me too much. I guess basically just a fair to average episode in my opinion.

My Rating:

(From The X-Files Marathon on March 29th, 2010)