Thursday, 20 October 2011
Friday, 14 October 2011
FUCK ME MY COMPUTER IS BACK
YES. FINALLY.
I CAN RETURN TO WORKING ON THIS, I NO LONGER HAVE TO WRITE ON MY TINY SCREENED LAPTOP.
YES.
-James
I CAN RETURN TO WORKING ON THIS, I NO LONGER HAVE TO WRITE ON MY TINY SCREENED LAPTOP.
YES.
-James
Friday, 9 September 2011
Cross Mission
(It's been a while, screenshots and videos to follow shortly once I get on a computer that can do those two things)
Cross Mission is a sorry excuse for an action film that plods along as if it doesn't even want to; lambast various other B-grade directors such as Lamberto Bava, Mattei and Fragasso all you want, at least they weren't Al Bresica, who cut so many corners his films were just a few milimetres away from being totally one-dimensional. Taking place in an ambiguous Latin American country (in this film's favour, it makes a change to the painfully similar setting of Filipino jungles), Cross Mission focuses on General Romero's corrupt business as a politician; to the UN he is removing his country's marijuana crops, in secret he is still growing them and shipping them off. His right hand man William is turned to the good side by an investigative reporter called Helen who he finds himself overwhelmingly attracted to after knowing each other for such a short amount of time, and soon the two are waging war alongside rebel forces against Romero's oppressive and sly rule. The relatively confused and standstill plot is spiced up just a bit by the classically exploitative inclusion of Ratman star Nelson de la Rosa (famed for his extremely small height) as a supernatually-powered dwarf called Astaroth, but his presence is simply to make stand out what is unfortunately a very non-daring expedition into familiar territory.
While indeed slick-looking in some instances, with semi-decent acting and a catchy synth score, Cross Mission's flair is limited and its action sequences are neither exciting or explosive, consisting mostly of very still scenes of simple machinegun spraying and some small explosions. The nadir of which is a final beach battle that is shot in day-for-night and consists of not a lot going on (the film slips up and shows the beach at day time when shown one of Romero's monitors, even though it's meant to be at night). Of course, much of the entertainment is going to come from picking this one apart, but don't expect anything to throw itself at you like many other titles will, this one is very reserved and even goes so far to culling footage from Umberto Lenzi stinker Bridge to Hell. The romance subplot in this one deserves a footnote in how appalling it is, only here could the hero declare his love for the woman he wants to save and then promptly dive at another woman he's been talking to. That, and the many little snippets of sexism make for unusual laughs, otherwise, the majority of the dialogue is unnoticeable.
What could have been an exciting and slightly original little title of heated battles in untouched land for Italian filmmakers and a fight against a voodoo dictator and his magical midget (Nelson de la Rosa is woefully underused) is really something for completionists of this sort of thing only. Mildly interesting, but General Romero and his sparkling telekinetic lie detector is not going to win fans easily for this title.
Cross Mission is a sorry excuse for an action film that plods along as if it doesn't even want to; lambast various other B-grade directors such as Lamberto Bava, Mattei and Fragasso all you want, at least they weren't Al Bresica, who cut so many corners his films were just a few milimetres away from being totally one-dimensional. Taking place in an ambiguous Latin American country (in this film's favour, it makes a change to the painfully similar setting of Filipino jungles), Cross Mission focuses on General Romero's corrupt business as a politician; to the UN he is removing his country's marijuana crops, in secret he is still growing them and shipping them off. His right hand man William is turned to the good side by an investigative reporter called Helen who he finds himself overwhelmingly attracted to after knowing each other for such a short amount of time, and soon the two are waging war alongside rebel forces against Romero's oppressive and sly rule. The relatively confused and standstill plot is spiced up just a bit by the classically exploitative inclusion of Ratman star Nelson de la Rosa (famed for his extremely small height) as a supernatually-powered dwarf called Astaroth, but his presence is simply to make stand out what is unfortunately a very non-daring expedition into familiar territory.
While indeed slick-looking in some instances, with semi-decent acting and a catchy synth score, Cross Mission's flair is limited and its action sequences are neither exciting or explosive, consisting mostly of very still scenes of simple machinegun spraying and some small explosions. The nadir of which is a final beach battle that is shot in day-for-night and consists of not a lot going on (the film slips up and shows the beach at day time when shown one of Romero's monitors, even though it's meant to be at night). Of course, much of the entertainment is going to come from picking this one apart, but don't expect anything to throw itself at you like many other titles will, this one is very reserved and even goes so far to culling footage from Umberto Lenzi stinker Bridge to Hell. The romance subplot in this one deserves a footnote in how appalling it is, only here could the hero declare his love for the woman he wants to save and then promptly dive at another woman he's been talking to. That, and the many little snippets of sexism make for unusual laughs, otherwise, the majority of the dialogue is unnoticeable.
What could have been an exciting and slightly original little title of heated battles in untouched land for Italian filmmakers and a fight against a voodoo dictator and his magical midget (Nelson de la Rosa is woefully underused) is really something for completionists of this sort of thing only. Mildly interesting, but General Romero and his sparkling telekinetic lie detector is not going to win fans easily for this title.
- Midgetsploitation: 2/5
- Music: 3/5
- Being a wasted opportunity: 5/5
-James
Review source: Japanese VHS
Title information
- Production company: AM Trading International SRL
- Year of release: 1988
Alternative titles:
- Missão Mortífera <Lethal Mission> (Brazil)
- Mafia Power (France)
- Combat Attack (West Germany)
- 追跡大陸グレート・ミッション "Tsuiseki tairiku gureeto misshon" <Continent track: Great Mission> (Japan)
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
So, what happened?
It's been nearly a month since the last update, do not despair, Forgotten Junk is not falling into the previous trap of being on hiatus for nearly a year. There are some important factors in this though... I now work, this cuts down my time a little bit more, and right now as I'm sure you're all aware, England is in a state of panic because of several kids with no education and because England has always been a nation easily controlled by fear. I am due to down in London in two days as well, so here's hoping I don't get mugged or shot, and actually come from. Things are on their way, but they have had to be obstructed for the meantime.
-James
-James
Friday, 15 July 2011
A definitive re-write
M.D. Geist itself is a 40-minute outing by then-rookie Koichi Ohata, a mechanical designer first and a storyteller second, concerning the reawakening of a super-soldier on the war-torn planet Jerra. The proceeding events in Geist's misadventures on a planet much unlike the earth in Fist of the North Star feature commonplace mistreatings of the English language (frankly standard for anime) and acts of violence against the entire human form. The 'story' that was ultimately decided upon for the feature is really a springboard for Ohata to show off his drawings, animation is ropey throughout and fragmentary plot-expanding dialogue is ultimately bombastic and adds to the incoherence. Ohata, a man whose voice is unfortunately not often heard on the topic of his creations, said in the commentary of the thankfully fruitful US DVD that the original version of M.D. Geist is pretty damn poor, but hey, he was young and at the end of the day him and writer Riku Sanjo are still in the business, Hironobu Kageyama launched his singing career through appearing on the soundtrack to M.D. Geist and Norio Wakamoto walked away with a bit more money in his back pocket from voicing a character with not many lines. M.D. Geist's poor qualities stem from Ohata's youthful arrogance back then; his relatively low-budgeted animation team were often at odds with him over his mercilessly complex designs, which he refused to tone down because this project was his baby.
Geist is a product of a time long gone by in Japanese animation, and this is one reason why his popularity persists; if anything, Ohata created Geist to be antithetical, and antithetical he was. Appearing on a different end of the anime format spectrum for one, Geist was a protagonist designed to go against the grain of teenage heroes in shows coming out in the success of Mobile Suit Gundam, he was designed as being someone who took total glee in battle and the whole production has a somewhat nihilistic touch in that nothing nice EVER happens. However, we follow from Geist's side with his theme songs and background guitar solos highlighting his destruction. With this in mind, the overall unpolished quality of the production can be factored in as well. Being a representation of all of the above, the character and the title are now only more of an antithesis in today's anime industry, in which new fans have sprung up to defend Geist as someone and something fairly atypical of anime. Granted, there are still many naysayers, in which case, how has M.D. Geist's widely-known negative reception come to be? Aside from everything about it pissing off the highest elite of anime snobs from the 1990s, CPM's saturated promotion of the title is essentially what did people in. President John O'Donnell became infatuated with the title and it led to him licensing the character as his company's mascot for their U.S. Manga Corps division, meaning that every tape, Laserdisc and DVD under them greeted their viewers with a stiffly-animated CGI Geist The constant ballyhooing certainly garnered the title its interest as something new and exciting, but as time went on the propaganda became tedious, with great emphasis placed on how Geist was somehow a particularly artistic and deadly serious title, in reality it was a cartoon about a lot of people dying because the director thought his country had too many fictional lead heroes.
Without John O'Donnell though, the title would just be a relic dug up only by animation enthusiasts and regarded with a "hey, look at this" attitude. O'Donnell's love may have been for better or for worse, but through his actions he was able to publish a prequel comic to the original OVA and even gathered the money to fund a director's cut of the original and a sequel. The funds were raised from a customised Harley Davidson being bought off Marvel in their promotion of their Ghost Rider franchise and being used in motor shows to promote M.D. Geist and CPM; with "Geist" meaning 'ghost' in German, it was an amusing tactic. The director's cut touches up on several animation errors seen in the original (while rather frustratingly, inserting diabolical digital zooms that blur the image), adds several new short sequences and features an entirely new audio track. This cut doesn't so much add to the story (it slightly expands the opening sequence primarily, and in a flashback of stills draws a parallel to the prior prequel comic) as it does increase the gore quota. The sequel on the other hand, being made ten years after the original for one, is seemingly made with an entirely different mindset and focuses less on Geist, offering a fairly more serious and sombre story (that works to an extent), its biggest flaw however is that the animation in it is intensely limited. Regardless, despite what CPM had launched Geist into, their (or at least O'Donnell's) efforts have to be thanked for boosting the title's longevity.
Perhaps Geist is just unfortunate for being stuck in the harshly critical anime community, never entirely getting the dues he deserves. While the overall title is something very flawed it's not something I would regard with venom because of its bad qualities, nor would I really call it so "so bad it's good". However way you watch it though, all three animated incarnations of the character are entertaining, or at the very least feature some fantastic artwork and have incredibly good soundtracks, something which is oddly overlooked in many reviews of this anime. This writer would also like to stress that viewers perhaps try watching the director's cut and the sequel in the Japanese audio if possible; both of these audio tracks feature incredibly good VA work that has been sadly overlooked in favour of the 'entertaining' (to me, it's unbearably atrocious) English dub. Yeah, it makes it so bad it's good bla bla but the original production should be entertaining enough, so try enjoying it with the Japanese audio track. Ohata has been lucky getting the recognition he has gotten as a mechanical designer who began his career by working on some fairly unknown shows, and it's a damn shame he no longer seems to release things fully overseen by him. His fanbase is small, but dedicated; the fact that Ohata himself has seen a customised Revoltech figure of Geist is testament to this.
On that note, I have to come own the original title's soundtrack on vinyl, have framed the poster that came with it, I also own the OVA in book form, the Japanese complete works book, the UK and US DVDs, the sequel's soundtrack on CD, an autographed copy of the US graphic novel and the jewel in the obsessive crown would be two sketches of Geist himself signed by Ohata, with one of them sent to me by him. Writing my umpteenth take on the production is only further indication of my infatuation with this anomaly of an anime. If I had the option to fund Ohata for a full-fledged reboot of M.D. Geist though with the right money, you can beat your intestines I would.
Some trivia about M.D. Geist...
Those guys have names!
Believe it or not, the bikers have names. Aside from Mash, there is Golem, who Geist promptly kills, Gista who promptly dies on his motorcycle, and Beast, who possibly dies after hurtling off his bike when Geist jumps aboard a mech (he returns momentarily in the Director's Cut). Their names are all in the credits, but only Golem is referred to by name in the US comic, the rest are only named in production materials.
She also has a name!
And it's not "Vaiya", it's "Paiya". It's seems that for all this time, CPM mistakenly used the name Vaiya without correcting it. To be fair though, it's an easy mistake to make; the katakana characters for ba (what can be interchanged as 'va') and pa look similar but are not identical. A simple oversight is all, it's just that it persisted for so long.
At the same time, she doesn't have a name...
Just like the bikers, Paiya is never actually referred to by name in the original Japanese audio. If you listen closely, she is referred to as "nesan", which means "big sister". CPM tried to do the good thing by helping create familiarity by inserting her name anyway, but the truth is the only way you would be able to tell she was called Paiya is through the credits! On a similar note...
All the names of the 'big players' are from the horror genre
Geist is from poltergeist, Paiya is from vampire, Golem is from (what else?) golem, Crutes is the Japanese pronunication of the Spanish word cruz, which means cross, as in holy cross. The associations are obvious, but only Geist and Crutes actually have meaning, Paiya and Golem are mostly named that way for aesthetic value.
That also has a name
The robot Geist fights at the end is called the Final Striker, and manages to be referenced that in the concept art book and in the sequel. Interestingly, the CPM comic calls it the "Final Terminator".
Confusing credits
Ohata was never initially billed as the director M.D. Geist in 1986, that billing went to Hayato Ikeda, someone who seemed to help out with some of the production. His name was used as it was feared a first-time director (who was really a mechanical designer) would look bad. Hayato Ikedia makes a cameo in M.D. Geist, he is the President Ryan character, who is dead.
Further reading...
- Defending the Indefensible: In Defense of the Previously Undefended M.D. Geist
- The Truth About M.D. Geist
-James
Monday, 11 July 2011
Final Score
With that in mind, this 1986 Indonesian flick is probably a closer sequel to the original Exterminator than its real sequel ever was, especially if you wanna go by the exploitation standard of branding a sequel; if a movie has come out and has more than a few themes similar to a previous low-budget movie (Mattei's Terminator 2 not being counted), then it can be considered a sequel. The plot to Final Score follows Richard Brown (Christopher Mitchum), a Vietnam war veteran (seeing the similarities already?) living peacefully in Indonesia with his family, having made his wealth from being involved in a computer business. On the day of his son's eighth birthday though, just as Richard goes out to buy him a toy gun of all things(!), his home is invaded, and his son and servants are murdered while his wife is gangraped and then added to the bodycount. Utterly distraught, Brown takes the law into his hands as he brings back his skills as a soldier to track down each of the men who ruined his life (taking out of all their gangs too). He learns that their leader is a corrupt business rival called Mr. Hawk (Mike Abbott with eyes that stare bullets into you), who has enough evil in his mustache and range of suits to make Mr. White, of similarly-excessive wacko Indonesian revenge adventure The Intruder, to quake in his shoes. With Hawk in his sights, Brown is joined by Julia, a woman also seeking revenge for what Hawk has done to her, as their fight becomes ever-more personal.
- Action: 5/5
- Convincing me 'explosion' is a second Indonesian language: 4/5
- Bodycount: 7/5
-James, 20 August 2010 (original date)
Review source: Japanese VHS
Screenshot source: Japanese VHS
Title information
- Production company: Rapi Films
- Year of release: 1986
- Strike Commando (West Germany)
- 皆殺しの挽歌 "Minagoroshi no banka" <Funeral song massacre> (Japan)
Monday, 4 July 2011
The lyrics to "Violence of the Flames"
The lyrics to the end credits song from M.D. Geist have actually been scarcely reproduced in Japanese over the Internet, while the lyrics can be found in English if you look hard enough. To my knowledge a partial translation exists in the CPM release of the original OVA, as well as a non-professional translation seen in an AMV, and an entirely different translation in the official CPM releases of both soundtracks. I took the time today to write up the lyrics completely in Japanese using the original lyric sheet that came with the soundtrack as a guide, and my own translation to boot. My translation is slightly liberal, opting to try and sound close to the song without losing any meaning. Below are the lyrics, followed by them in English as translated by me, and finally in romaji...
Original Japanese:
世界は永遠の戦場さ
Never, never, never... 止まらない
聴こえる破滅への あのメロデイー
Come on! Come on! Come on! もう戻れなり
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
気がつけば 逃げられない おまえも...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
あのときふりむいた肩越しに
Lover, lover, lover... 呼んでいた
冷たくひびわれた 胸の奥
Come on! Come on! Come on! 今よみがえれ
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
この腕て 抱ましのてもやれずに
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
何もかも 滅びるだけさ
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
Translated English:
This world we have always known, is an endless war
Never, never, never... Ceasing never
It's in all that pain and death, I listen to that melody...
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" No! We cannot flee
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Just coming to, in a place where you cannot flee, you've got to be...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
It was in the middle of all of that, that I chose to glance behind me
"Lover", "lover", "lover'... I heard it called
This frozen heart of mine, it is cracked and split
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Now, return to life!
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
Affection cannot hold me back, my skills as a killer have got to be...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Everything you know, is going to completely die!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
Romaji:
Sekai wa eien no senjou sa
Never, never, never... Tomaranai
Kikoeru hametsu e no ano merodeii
Come on! Come on! Come on! Mou modorenari
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Kigatsukeba nige rarenai omae mo...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
Ano toki furimuita katagoshi ni
Lover, lover, lover... Yonde ita
Tsumetaku hibiwareta mune no oku
Come on! Come on! Come on! Ima yomigaere
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
Kono ude te daku mashi note mo yarezu ni
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Nanimokamo horobiru dake sa
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
Original Japanese:
世界は永遠の戦場さ
Never, never, never... 止まらない
聴こえる破滅への あのメロデイー
Come on! Come on! Come on! もう戻れなり
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
気がつけば 逃げられない おまえも...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
あのときふりむいた肩越しに
Lover, lover, lover... 呼んでいた
冷たくひびわれた 胸の奥
Come on! Come on! Come on! 今よみがえれ
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
この腕て 抱ましのてもやれずに
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
何もかも 滅びるだけさ
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
燃やせ! 炎のバイオレンス
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
地獄に堕ちた 戦士たち
Translated English:
This world we have always known, is an endless war
Never, never, never... Ceasing never
It's in all that pain and death, I listen to that melody...
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" No! We cannot flee
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Just coming to, in a place where you cannot flee, you've got to be...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
It was in the middle of all of that, that I chose to glance behind me
"Lover", "lover", "lover'... I heard it called
This frozen heart of mine, it is cracked and split
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Now, return to life!
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
Affection cannot hold me back, my skills as a killer have got to be...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Everything you know, is going to completely die!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Raging fires of violence!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
These warriors have plummeted to hades
Romaji:
Sekai wa eien no senjou sa
Never, never, never... Tomaranai
Kikoeru hametsu e no ano merodeii
Come on! Come on! Come on! Mou modorenari
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Kigatsukeba nige rarenai omae mo...!
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
Ano toki furimuita katagoshi ni
Lover, lover, lover... Yonde ita
Tsumetaku hibiwareta mune no oku
Come on! Come on! Come on! Ima yomigaere
It's the only crazy dream
It's the only foolish dream
Kono ude te daku mashi note mo yarezu ni
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
It's the only crazy game
It's the only foolish game
Nanimokamo horobiru dake sa
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Moyase! Honoo no baiorensu
DANGEROUS! MOST DANGEROUS!
Jigoku ni ochita senshi-tachi
-James
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