The Golden Buddha (1966)

Bond Fever struck in the early 1960s and soon Bond-esque spy movies were made everywhere. It’s hardly surprising that in 1966 Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers Studio decided to get on on the act with a series of spy films, beginning with the Wei Lo-directed The Golden Buddha.

This is not quite the Bond formula since the hero is an ordinary guy caught up in intrigue against his will rather than a professional spy like Bond.

Paul Cheung is just a very ordinary businessman. He’s also an enthusiastic amateur student of both judo and karate.

On a flight to Bangkok he meets an old friend, Chan Chung Cheung. Paul gets off the plane carrying his friend’s briefcase by mistake. The briefcase contains a small golden Buddha statue.

He then finds his friend dead. Murdered. The little statue is worthless in itself but it is the key to something very very important. Something that the bad guys will kill for, the bad guys being the infamous Skeleton Gang.

Paul was in possession of the statuette in the briefcase. It has been stolen from him but he already knows the secret it conceals.

There are three of these little statuettes. Chan Chung Cheung’s brother Chan Chung Tai has one. His sister Chan Mei-nan has the other.

Paul is determined to solve the mystery of the statuettes because his friend was murdered and it is therefore a matter of honour.

Paul and Mei-nan have the Skeleton Gang after them and the police figure in the story as well.

The plot is not dazzling but it’s perfectly adequate.

Paul Chang Chung makes an effective hero. He doesn’t have the charisma of a Connery but he’s playing an amateur rather than a professional spy and he has that everyman vibe which works.

Of course a film like this needs beautiful women and The Golden Buddha is well supplied on that count. At least one of the women needs to be sexy, bad and dangerous. And the voluptuous Fanny Fan (promoted at the time as the Chinese Bardot) fits the bill admirably.

The chief villain has a whole bevy of bodacious babes to serve him and they’re all as dangerous as they are gorgeous. And this movie has a cute adorable heroine.

Shaw Brothers movies always had high production values and magnificent sets and that’s the case here as well. The secret lair of the Skelton Gang is a triumph of crazy pop art-inspired production design.

There’s plenty of great location shooting in Thailand which adds the necessary touch of the exotic.

The fact that the hero is an expert in judo and karate makes this a martial arts movie as well as a Bond-style movie.

Surprisingly there is some nudity.

The action is non-stop but the violence is not in the least graphic. This is a movie with the emphasis on fast-moving fun and adventure.

It doesn’t have the spectacular action set-pieces of a Bond movie nor does it have the inspired lunacy of the best eurospy movies but it has an engaging distinctive flavour. The Golden Buddha offers fine entertainment and it’s highly recommended.

It’s included in Eureka’s three-movie Shaw Brothers Super Spies and Secret Lies Blu-Ray boxed set. The transfer looks great (the movie was shot in ShawScope and in colour).

The Naked Zoo (1970)

William Grefé made some fun ultra low budget horror films but with The Naked Zoo he switched his attention to the counterculture.

It’s most notable for being one of Rita Hayworth’s last films and she’s by far the best thing in this movie.

Terry Shaw (Steve Oliver) aspires to be a great writer but earns his living as a gigolo. One of his clients is Helen Golden (Hayworth). She’s married to a very rich guy who is confined to a wheelchair which is why she turns to Terry to satisfy her physical needs.

Terry is a total creep and he spends his time hopping from one woman’s bed to another.

He hangs out with a bunch of hippies although they look more like beatniks from a decade earlier. 

Like so many movies from this era dealing with the counterculture it was clearly made by people who just thought beatniks and hippies were pretty much the same thing.

Terry and Helen are caught in the act by her husband and he has a gun and it all gets messy. Terry is worried that the cops will be after him but he doesn’t do anything about it.

The plot is almost non-existent and what there is is an incoherent mess.

Terry beds a few more women and lots of controlled substances get consumed. It’s all a big freak-out.

Eventually Grefé decides that maybe he needs to wrap up the plot but the way he does so is rather feeble.

The music sounds like it’s a decade out of date and reinforces the beatnik vibe.

There’s lot of acid-trip psychedelic stuff which is amusing enough.

There’s plenty of grooving and bed-hopping but it’s all rather tame.

There’s very little violence but the wheelchair guy with the gun going after the guilty couple is entertainingly goofy.

Hayworth is excellent. Steve Oliver is quite good, bearing in mind that he’s playing a thoroughly loathsome human being.

This is not a movie that is sympathetic to hippies. Mostly they’re portrayed as ridiculous but let’s face it it’s not easy to make hippies look anything but ridiculous. They also come across as slightly sinister.

There really aren’t any wholly admirable characters in this film. We feel that if bad stuff happens to them they have at least to some extent brought it on themselves.

The Naked Zoo doesn’t quite work. It’s just too much of a mess and it’s not a sufficiently entertaining mess. It’s recommended only if you really like hippies being awful movies.

The Naked Zoo is included on the four-disc Blu-Ray collection He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection. Two versions of the film are provided. There’s the director’s cut (which is the one I watched) and an alternative version, supposedly spicier.

Grefé’s earlier horror offerings The Death Curse of Tartu (1966) and Sting of Death (1965) are much more fun.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a 2017 space opera blockbuster written and directed by Luc Besson.

It is based on a French science fiction comic book series, Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières. The comic book series ran from 1967 to 2010. Besson was a huge fan in his youth.

Many centuries into the future Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are elite security operatives of the United Human Federation. Their latest mission will take them to Alpha, a giant city in space inhabited by thousands of species from different planets.

We have already found out in the opening sequences that Alpha had been a space station orbiting the Earth but due to its growing size it was blasted into space.

And we also know that in the recent past the planet Mül was destroyed. It was home to a peaceful humanoid species. We know about Mül because of Valerian’s dream. Which might have been more than a dream.

Mül was also home a strange little animal with remarkable properties. We know this animal is important and we know the pearl is important but we don’t know why they’re important.

There is is something wrong on Alpha. An inexplicable radioactive dead zone is slowly expanding and threatens the city’s existence. Security personnel have sent to investigate. None have come back alive. That’s why Valérian and Laureline were sent there.

Aliens have attacked Alpha and taken its commander prisoner. Valérian and Laureline have to retrieve him. This will involve a great deal of action and excitement and danger, and also mystery. Part of the mystery is hidden in the files that nobody but the commander can access.

This film suffers from some of the same flaws as Besson’s earlier science fiction extravaganza, The Fifth Element. The plot loses direction as Besson focuses too much on visual coolness, and he just offers us too much visual coolness. He just keeps throwing too many new cool visual ideas at us.

The lengthy subplot involving pop diva Rihanna as a shape-shifting stripper is an unnecessary distraction should have been cut. She can’t act, it’s too silly and it slows things down. The movie ends up being half an hour too long.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets suffered from the same problem as Disney’s John Carter a few years earlier. Both movies did quite well at the box office but they were both so expensive that they still ended up losing a lot of money. It’s a broken financial model, that makes it too risky to make blockbusters that are in any way original.

I did like the two leads. They’re likeable and we care about them. I like that Valérian is allowed to be a brave masculine hero rather than inept male who needs a Strong Competent Woman to rescue him. I like the fact that for most part Laureline is an old-fashioned Feisty Heroine rather than a girlboss. Valérian is her commander and she doesn’t constantly undermine him. Laureline is also allowed at times to behave like a woman. She doesn’t come across as a female character who could just as easily have been written as a male character.

I liked their relationship. He wants to marry her. She isn’t sure. It’s increasingly obvious that she loves him but she needs to be convinced that he’s ready for marriage. Marriage is something she takes seriously.

This is a much more successful film than The Fifth Element, partly because Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker are not in it. It isn’t ruined by incredibly annoying characters.

The best thing about it is that it has no connection to Star Wars or Star Trek or Marvel comics.

While it needed to be trimmed just a little Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed some of the Valérian and Laureline comics - Valerian The Complete Collection vol 1. In the comics they travel through time a lot but for a standalone movie I think Besson made a wise decision in dropping that angle. The comics are fun!

And I've reviewed Besson's two great early movies, Léon: The Professional (1994) and La Femme Nikita (1990).

They're Playing with Fire (1984)

They're Playing with Fire is a 1984 erotic thriller directed and co-written by Howard Avedis. 

Its biggest selling point is unquestionably its star, Sybil Danning.

Jay Richard (Eric Brown) is a typical college student who has a major crush on his sexy English professor, Mrs Stevens (Sybil Danning). He is thrilled when she wants to hire him to do some work on her boat (a huge pleasure cruiser). She’s very friendly and tells him to call her Diane). He polishes the woodwork but she wants more than her woodwork polished. Before he knows what’s happening she’s got his trousers off and they’re having wild passionate sex.

She wants him to do another little job for her. And for her husband Michael (Andrew Prine). It’s a harmless prank they want him to play on Michael’s mother and grandmother. All he has to do is break into their mansion and scare them.

What Jay doesn’t know is that Diane and Michael don’t have a penny of their own. Michael’s mother and grandmother are fabulously rich. Diane and Michael want that money and they want it now and they have a plan to get it. 

Unfortunately Jay doesn’t know that he is part of that plan.

The plot does rely on Jay being incredibly gullible but it’s perfectly plausible - he’s young and I don’t think any male would be thinking straight after a steamy bedroom romp with Sybil Danning, especially if he figures there’s a chance she might want her woodwork waxed again in the future.

There’s murder and Jay is uncomfortably aware that he’s likely to be a suspect. He’s left footprints and fingerprints behind at the murder scene.

We, the audience, do not know exactly what happened. We have our suspicions but we can’t be sure. All we know for certain is that Jay didn’t do it. Jay also doesn’t know exactly what happened. He has his suspicions as well but no evidence.

Jay would like to trust Diane, because he’s obsessed by her. But he’s far from sure that he really can trust her. He also has at least some awareness that his lust for Diane might be clouding his judgment.

The plot has fairly decent twists and some good misdirection. It keeps us guessing.

The action finale is OK but probably needed just a bit more energy and imagination.

This was obviously a low-budget movie but the mansion and the yacht give it reasonably high production values.

The acting is pretty good. Andrew Prine is low-key menacing but with a touch of ambiguity. Eric Brown is very good as Jay - it’s a convincing picture of a young guy who cannot believe his luck that this amazingly hot babe wants his body. But he doesn’t make Jay too pathetic or stupid. Or annoying.

But the movie’s biggest asset is of course Sybil Danning and she also effectively keeps us  guessing about Diane. Is she the unscrupulous schemer she appears to be? Has she actually fallen for Jay? She admits that she’s not getting any bedroom action from her husband - maybe the hot sex with Jay is including her judgment as well. It’s a very fine performance. And Miss Danning takes her clothes off frequently and there are moderately steamy sex scenes. 

There’s not a huge amount violence but what there is is quite graphic. Despite what some people claim this is not really a slasher film but the rising popularity of that genre made it commercially advisable to add some moderately graphic stuff to other genres.

This is an erotic thriller, and an erotic thriller that is actually erotic.

Iraq-born Howard Avedis is usually dismissed as a director of cheap drive-in trash. Which is quite unfair. He did make mostly drive-in movies but they were often extremely interesting and rather offbeat. The Stepmother (1972) is an erotic thriller with an inverted mystery structure and it’s not bad. The Teacher (1974) is also an erotic thriller and it’s deliciously crazy and weird. The Fifth Floor (1978) is a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest rip-off and it’s top-tier psychiatric horror.

They're Playing with Fire is solid entertainment and Sybil Danning is reason enough to make this one highly recommended. And it looks great on Blu-Ray.

Ghost of Kasane Swamp (1970)

Ghost of Kasane Swamp is based on Encho Sanyutei’s 19th century ghost story Shinkei Kasanegafuchi although earlier (and rather different) versions of the story date back as far as 1690. There are still those who believe that the original was a true story.

Shinkei Kasanegafuchi has been filmed many times, the first version being a 1924 silent film. A famous version directed by Nobuo Nakagawa  was made in 1957.

Kimiyoshi Yasuda directed two versions for Daiei Studio, a black-and-white 1960 film and a colour 1970 version, Ghost of Kasane Swamp. 

It’s that 1970 version we’re concerned with here.

These events clearly take place during the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868).

A penniless samurai, Fukami, is heavily in debt to blind masseur and money-lender Soetsu. The samurai consoles himself by sleeping with the housemaid, Okuma. Then he comes up with a plan. He will offer Soetsu the use of his wife Sawano’s body in payment of the debt. He will then catch them in the act, play the outraged husband, and kill them both. This way he gets rid of a wife he’s grown tired of and he doesn’t have to pay the debt.

As a result of this murder a considerable amount of money belonging to Soetsu comes into circulation. Some of it falls into the hands of Soetsu’s daughter Oshiga. She’s a whore but she can now buy the brothel in which she works and set herself up as the madam.

The samurai’s son Shingoro has now shown up. He had been estranged from his father for years.

That initial double murder will set in motion a whole series of dramas. There are certainly ghosts seeking vengeance but it’s the dark motivations of the various characters that cause most of the trouble. Some are motivated by greed, some by revenge, some by lust. And some by a combination of all three.

It’s not just revenge but in many cases an obligation to seek revenge. An obligation which some of the characters carry out while others evade that duty.

There will be more murders, and many betrayals. There will be complex interlocking sexual relationships with plenty of potential for jealousy and mistrust.

Shingoro gets romantically involved with Oshiga. That later becomes a romantic triangle and in the meantime he encounters Okuma who is enraged that the money she stole has been stolen from her. Shingoro gets mixed up with Oshiga’s sister Osona as well. The possibilities for betrayal multiply.

While most of the characters’ woes stem from their own failings that does not mean that this is one of those movies in which there are no actual supernatural elements and characters are simply haunted by their own guilt. There are ghosts here although apparently earlier movie versions put more focus on the ghosts. 

In this version it would appear that the ghosts mostly exert their influence indirectly although they do appear to the various characters at various times. And by the end of the story there are more than just two ghosts.

By 1970 audience expectations were changing and this time around Kimiyoshi Yasuda decided to put more emphasis on gore (although it’s moderate gore by later standards) and sex. This works quite well since sex is always an effective motivation in a horror film. 

This is not a story in which the poor and downtrodden are exploited by the rich and powerful. There are no great feudal lords. Soetsu has money but no social status. Fukami clings to a semblance of social status but is penniless. Nobody has any money, unless they can get their hands on some of Soetsu’s money. They are all, male and female, just barely managing to survive.

This is a sordid tale and that gives it a nicely lurid feel.

Sadly a year after this film was released Daiei Studio went bankrupt. Television had had a devastating effect on the Japanese film industry.

Ghost of Kasane Swamp is fine rather sleazy gothic horror and it’s highly recommended.

The Radiance Films Blu-Ray transfer looks lovely. There are three movies in this set. The accompanying booklet includes a brief moderately interesting essay.

I’ve also reviewed The Demon of Mount Oe from this set.