Youth of the Beast, Requiem for a Heavyweight, & The Castle of Caglistro

Youth of the Beast is actually somewhat more normal than I was expecting. No crazy scenes based entirely around outstanding colors or insane plots. The plot was crazy, and scenes were insane, but it was actually easy to follow. And there are great scenes like the scene in the club near the beginning with the soundproof one-way mirror, every scene with the drug addicted prostitute, the beating in the dust storm, and the knife-throwing cat fanatic. Plus, there're the couple of black and white with bits of color scenes which were very nice touches. And, of course, Jo Shishido is a total badass, as he is in every film of his I've seen. While it isn't nearly as insane as Suzuki's later films, it messes with the genre cliches and does have more than enough technical skills to make it very worthwhile.

Requiem for a Heavyweight probably would have been somewhat better had I been able to understand more of Anthony Quinn's dialogue. Or if I... I don't know. I can see why this movie was praised, but I don't really like boxing movies. Or boxing. Good movie, but not my kind of movie.

The Castle of Cagliostro is Miyazaki's first hit film, and it's nowhere near as good as his later masterpieces. It's still a very enjoyable romp. Plus, there's the guard who does a bad Schwarzenegger impression. And there was quite a bit more squishing of people than I was expecting. In that there was some. It's a little goofy, gravity is completely ignored, some things clearly needed familiarity with other parts of the manga or other movies, but if you just go with the flow, it's an enjoyable 100 minutes.