Kanazawa Film Festival 2012

If the world ends this year, it won't be because of the whole "2012: End of Days" thing. It will have nothing to do with the Mayan calendar, the Aztecs, Egyptians or any other ancient mystical prophecies. It will be because of the 2012 Kanazawa Film Festival.

The program was released about a month ago, and it is pretty unbelievable. Last year's festival theme was Filmageddon, and showcased a formidable line up of horror, crime and war oriented films from all over the world. This year the theme is Eros. A new website (it's pink, of course) has been launched, and the line up is absolutely overflowing with erotica, in what promises to be the most outrageous and unashamed celebration of trash ever publicly held.

The website has split the films into specific categories/genres including but certainly not limited to "Horror Queen" "Way of Love" and "Abnormal" with Paul Verhoeven's big budget sleaze-fest Showgirls set for the free outdoor opening night screening (how is this even allowed??). The centrepiece of the program is definitely the Christina Lindberg retrospective. A cult figure of 1970s sexploitation cinema, it looks as though every film she starred in from that era will be included. From the erotic films of her Swedish homeland to the incredibly nasty Thriller: A Cruel Picture and also her brief foray into Japanese sexploitation cinema with Sex & Fury. Lindberg's naked figure circa 1970 is everywhere, adorning the official program, website, tickets AND T-shirts! But if that wasn't enough, she will also be visiting the festival as a guest! Wow.

Add to this Sadao Nakajima, a director known for his Yakuza films from the 60s and 70s, who will also be visiting, and you have a festival that Tarantino would absolutely lose his lunch over. Facebook updates showing local business owners clutching the program and offering recommendations are making it clear that the town is in a buzz of anticipation for the festival, which is really quite fascinating, given the relatively small size of Kanazawa versus the explicit content of the films scheduled for screening. It runs for one week from September 14 to 21. Unfortunately I will not be attending due to uni (the workload and the not having money thing), but it looks like it's going to be an absolute riot.

check out the website at http://www.eiganokai.com/event/filmfes2012/index.html
and on facebook http://www.facebook.com/eiganokai 

Sex and Fury

不良姐御伝 猪の鹿お蝶 Norifumi Suzuki, 1973

Last time I went to Japan I had the good fortune to meet a very interesting man who was a director of the Kanazawa film festival. After talking at length about our favourite films, we ended up on the topic of 1970s grindhouse/exploitation films, which it quickly became apparent he was a die hard fan/expert. His immediate response to my request for recommendations of that era was Norifumi Suzuki’s Sex and Fury. At that time I had already seen his 1974 School of the Holy Beast, which was undoubtedly the most outrageous movie I had seen to date, and after watching the equally subversive and delirious Sex and Fury, I realised Suzuki’s importance as an auteur of Japanese cinema of the 70s, not just for his ludicrous stories or cult influence (Tarantino is a fan) but also for his flat out gorgeous visual style.

Set during the Meiji era, Japan’s period of rapid economic growth and Westernisation due to the acceptance of European influence, Sex and Fury follows the exploits (quite literally) of a female gambler/pickpocket Ocho, played by Japanese erotic film/sexploitation superstar Reiko Ike. A wanderer whose father was killed when she was a child, she is embroiled into a plot of international political intrigue when she witnesses an assassination at a gambling house. It seems that those darn Americans are planning to get on Japan’s good side in order to set the scene for a profitable drug war. If that wasn’t enough, they have Christina Lindberg on their side, a Scandinavian porn actress playing a world class gambler/dancer who has gone undercover (quite literally) as a spy to curry favour with important Japanese politicians. However, her heart is not entirely in the right place, as she has a long lost Japanese lover, Shunosuke, fighting against the corrupt individuals she has shacked up with (quite literally). Still she hopes to reunite with him, all the while speaking hilariously broken Japanese AND English. But I’m forgetting about our heroine Ocho. After realising the people who killed her father are also in cahoots with this whole political operation, Ocho sets out for revenge, her only information on who she is after being their tattoos: Boar, Deer and Butterly.

Sex? Check. Fury? Check.

The film certainly lives up to its name, with Ike and Lindberg using everything their mammas gave ‘em and then some in order to get exactly what they want. Seriously though, this film has a ridiculous number of gratuitous sex scenes, including a cross-cultural lesbian interlude and the rape of a young virgin. On the other hand, we have generous doses of bloody violence. The award for best scene in the entire film goes to the much written about bath scene, in which a completely starkers Reiko Ike dispatches a gang of assassins in the snow with a sword, after being ambushed in the bath. The scene is in slow motion, with a soundtrack of a distinct Wild West/Flamenco guitar flavour; in other words, a pulpy, artistic triumph. Bright red blood is sprayed by the bucketful, and an obligatory woman chained and tortured scene is included. I think I’ve seen one in every Norifumi Suzuki movie so far.

The film was made in 1973, and as such, is a sensory feast. Even the opening credits, making great use of colourful Japanese Hanafuda cards (something of a plot device throughout the film) and kaleidoscope effect are dizzyingly enjoyable. Expect in no particular order: plenty of extreme back and forth close ups of people staring intently at each other, pop art visuals, garish coloured lighting, funky music, a hilariously overblown death scene set to supermarket muzak and seemingly shot in a wind tunnel, and YES even a gang of Nuns armed with knives. Whatever stars that preside over the production of completely bonkers cult films were well and truly aligned for this wild ride.

I like to watch films in order to see things I wouldn’t normally. To be challenged. This is why I particularly enjoy horror and exploitation films. Every one of Suzuki’s movies that I have seen succeeds in delivering this kind of challenge, in that I often find myself laughing in disbelief, mouth hanging open and just generally not believing what I’m seeing. This is the thrill of cinema that so many people can’t bear! Sure, there might be a little too much sex and not quite enough fury and the acting is pretty woeful throughout, but this movie is fun, fun, fun. Imbued with the energy and spirit of the 70s, Sex and Fury is, like all of Suzuki’s best work, wonderfully subversive, attacking notions of good taste and high art by creating unashamed TRASH. It is this trash however, that continues to grow in reputation, influence and popularity, and armed with Suzuki’s powerful, almost hallucinatory visual style, Sex and Fury takes the term “cult film” to a whole new freaky level.

Note: This film is NOT a porno. It is a legitimate subgenre of Japanese cinema known as the Pink Film (Erotic film), however this one contains much more violence, “Pinky Violence” as it is now known. Yes there is nudity and plenty of sex, but it is strictly softcore, with no actors’ junk on display at any time, as dictated by Japanese censorship laws of the time (pubic hair wasn’t even allowed). Just thought I’d make it clear that I’m not COMPLETELY perverted.