More Realism than Phantom Killer No. 1
With worth and worthless...

I swear to God that I spend entirely too much time reading articles about the legal difficulties of idiots. You know, guys who leave 80 bags of heroin in a rental car, and then are dumb enough to meet up with the "anonymous" employee who'll return it for a profit. Or the guy in Florida who brought an all new weapon into the domestic violence scene: a three foot alligator. Can you even imagine be pimp-smacked? Now, can you imagine being pimp-smacked by a three foot long alligator?

These aren't even your day-to-day @$holes either, but the fact that they exist is just as annoying. Let's face it: sure in the news it's always happening to someone else, but eventually you or someone you know could be in the path of one of these morons.

Anyhow, this sort of anger and frustration was pretty well reflected in the two flicks I took in this weekend.

The first was Yasuharu Hasebe's Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (1970), the third of five films about Japanese street gangs.

The Story: A gang of girls runs afoul of their male counterparts when they side with a group of mixed race teens that the boys are trying to run out of town.

The Review: That's the story. Read it. It's one sentence, and it pretty well sums it up. But you don't have to have a complicated story to have complexity. You certainly don't have to have one to have lots of sex and violence either.

In many ways this film came across as the exploitation continuation of Oshima's The Sun's Burial, which came ten years earlier. Both deal to some degree with the complicated issue whether it was Hirohito's failed quest for glory, or Japan's occupation by American forces following their defeat that led to a certain part of it's soul that resulted in the rise in power of the yakuza, prostitution, and youth street gangs. Oshima's movie never comes right out and says that's what it's doing, but is certainly more direct with its social commentary than Hasebe's.

Nevertheless, it's there. Hasebe's story involves the "half-breed" children of American soldiers and Japanese women. The Eagles, the gang of fellas, all drive around in leftover military jeeps, and frequent an abandoned American airforce base. More subtle is the frequent framing of American products in the background. The Eagles' leader, Baron, enjoys partaking in the American influences and leftovers as much as he enjoys hurting the human leftovers. Even the film's biggest confrontation is not born out of any traditional Japanese sense of right or honor as much as it is an obsession with acting out the finale of an American Western. (Keep in mind, early samurai films were based on earlier Hollywood Westerns, and then later were adapted back into Amercian films.) On a human side, Hasebe definitely generates sympathy against the racism against the mixed race kids, but it's clear that the generation after World War II have lost their way.

Much like the Blaxploitation films of the late 60's and early 70's, a lot of the social message can be easily swept aside by the sensationalism that keeps the movie moving. The movie is filled with regular @$whooping. It's got some drug scenes. It's got some rock 'n roll in wild clubs. It's got some sex, including a couple of near orgies. Ultimately, what subverts it most, though, is the fact that the proceedings all look so cool. Unlike The Sun's Burial, which was gritty and nasty from frame one, these kids seem to be doing too well and having too much fun for being so bad. Despite the frequent nastiness, it almost seems like it would be fun to spend an evening with these kids.

What made the film so frustrating was it's resemblance to real life. After a while, you want the Eagle's to be swatted down movie-world style for ganging up on these mixed race kids. The film keeps going, they keep getting nastier, and no one's gonna make them pay. Ok, it's not fair to say real life. Obviously, I wouldn't be reading these articles about these morons getting caught if they always got away with it. On the other hand, there's some social injustices that just go on and on and no one's ever finally nailed for them. Either their ignored, or the anger is all misdirected.

In all a cool film, if rendered ineffective by it's own nature. (This is the total Catch-22 of many of these movies. If they weren't full of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, they'd have a clearer better defined message, but without those things to attract audiences, they also wouldn't get made.)

The second movie I watched was subverted in a wholly different way: pure surreality. What else would you call it when three candy companies go to war in Yasuzo Masamura's Giants and Toys (1958).

The Story: World Caramel's aspiring promotions manager and his assistant come up with a new campaign of spacesuits and a girl with rotten teeth in order to beat out their two rivals during their annual sales push. What follows has more veiled interests and double-crosses than a spy novel all in the name of the almighty dollar.

The Review: I'll just say that I loved this movie straight up from the opening credits, and those of you who read this tripe probably think it's redundant I should even say that if you read my little story synopsis.

First, though, I did have one problem with the movie, that like above, couldn't be avoided. Because this is a movie about candy companies at war, that does elimnate just how serious many viewers would take it. I could see where it would lead some viewers to think "No real corporation really acts like that," while if you read enough business stuff and you look at cases like Enron, you'll see that they do far worse things. Not only far worse, but much more destructive than just rotting your teeth. Like I said though, these are candy companies, and what they do is far too simplistic in scope compared to the megalith coporations today. And despite it's dark gooey center, the movie presents a bright, cheery and colorful face.

What did work?

I'm not going to say that all corporations are evil and all people who work for them are soulless whores. Nevertheless, when it comes to ambition and success, it can be pretty easy to lose one's soul. Our promtions director, at first, seems like a cool and controlled man with an eye for his business, but soon enough he shows his ulcerated, underhanded, overworked colors. His assistant, Nishi, hangs in the balance. He wants the success, but doesn't want to kill himself or cross others to get it. On the other side of him is his girlfriend who works for one of the rival companies. Her motto seems to be: 1) do what you have to, 2) you can't uncross a line you've gone over, and 3) keep your job as a job. I think these three are fairly archetypal models for the paths of the businessman.

One of the most telling moments comes when one of the rival's factory is destroyed in an accident, and the other is lagging in sales. Most of the executives are ready to pounce and obliterate the competition. Only one old-school director asks why kick anyone while they're down. He's immediately ridiculed. World ups it's production...and inevitably saturates the market, causing their deathblow to back fire on them.

The other strong thread of this film was the rise of World's spokeswoman, Kyoko. Granted, as some reviewers have pointed out, it's not uncommon for cute Japanese girls to go from being models to also being singers and actresses merely because of their popularity and not because they can sing or act. That's all well and good, but Kyoko's not all that cute to begin with. Even the characters point out that her looks are rather plain, and if anything are completely dragged down by her rotten teeth. However, the way I saw it play out was that because she appeared in a magazine, the public accepted her as beautiful. Their rationale: she has to be beautiful if she's in a magazine.

This a phenomenon everywhere to me. Pamela Anderson was a cute girl when she first showed up in Playboy, but after the forty cosmetic procedures and the overworked trash look, she lost all of that. Still, she continued to be the standard of beauty. I heard it over and over again: "You're with the world's like hottest girl, like Pam Anderson..." To me it was like "yecchhh!" Anyhow, Kyoko sort of works in reverse, her makeover does make her look quite attractive by the end of the film, but it eliminates what made her unique. Interestingly, though she loses all her youthful innoncence, her embrace of fame is not all complete as she seems to be happy with waiting for her fifteen minutes to be over. Interesting.

In the end the movie was a loud and colorful joyride that no realistic depiction of coporate life could've ever been. One thing I must agree with that multiple others have pointed out is that this movie does appear to be even more relevant than when it emerged at the end of the 50's. I suggest you take it out for a spin and see what you think.

Ok. That's enough. Go home. And if you're home: Go out!

Cheers.