Dead Like Me, Gate of Flesh, Story of a Prostitute, & The Yakuza Papers

Dead Like Me was Showtime trying to do Six Feet Under but without the pot. Well, a lot less pot. It's quite fun, and probably would have gone to a very interesting finish, had it really been allowed to finish. That was sort of frustrating, because I wanted to know what happened to these characters. They're pretty interesting, because just when you think one's gone too far, they are able to do something interesting with them. Without resorting to something that completely changes their entire character randomly. Which I hate. I really did just associate myself with George, showing that Bryan Fuller can create great female characters (Crap, I didn't even realize he was working on Heroes... Damnit, gotta start watching). Man, I miss Wonderfalls. And I would have missed Dead Like Me if I had Showtime and would have watched it. I do wish they had taken a little more advantage of having Mandy Patinkin, with maybe a silly Spanish accent, or more than just one song. Drunkeoke! And I know the producers were upset with Rebecca Gayheart, but they couldn't have brought her back for an episode or something to explain what the hell was up with that? I mean, what a dropped plot thread right there. I wish that they'd figure out what was going to happen and then let me know.

Gate of Flesh begins a Japanese prostitute minifest. Well, a Seijun Suzuki prostitute minifest. Don't get to have too many of those. Unless I were to rerent the same films. Gate of Flesh was a typically abnormal film, focusing on five prostitutes and the soldier who comes in between them. Plus, there's a rape of a priest, black market penicillin, and did I mention that it was filmed on huge indoor sets that were interconnected and the four main prostitutes wore clothes of the same color. It's insane, although not as good as Suzuki's more famous films, but it's one of those films that no one else could have made. The use of color presages what would come in Tokyo Drifter, but he still kept it somewhat under wraps, even if the women generally weren't. Although there was only one actual nude scene, there were many artfully staged scenes. I enjoyed the canned pineapple bits, but that's entirely due to my love for Wong Kar-Wai.

Story of a Prostitute is a film about comfort women (the Japanese Joy Division) in Manchuria. One falls for a soldier and tries to get him to become less of a typical Japanese soldier, kowtowing to the adjutant with whom the comfort woman was forced to sleep. There's some philosophical aspects, along with a bit of Suzuki-madness, but overall, it felt more conventional to me. That it delt so clearly with some of the bad aspects of the Japanese wartime experience does make it noteworthy for that. The anti-militarism of the film is also striking, as clearly Suzuki had this on his mind, pointing out the absurdity of war both here and, far more obviously, in Fighting Elegy. The Suzuki touches were mainly plotwise, although the scene where Harumi runs for Mikami during the battle was just impressive no matter who had directed it. The tracking shot of her running among the tracers and explosions worked beautifully. Interestingly, this was a remake of an earlier film written by Akira Kurosawa, but that one was more of a romance, plus the comfort woman were "entertainers". Doesn't entirely make me interested in watching it. This film is a typical melodrama made great by the artistic decisions. Which could describe pretty much all of his famous films.

The Yakuza Papers were five Yakuza films made in 1973-4 by Kinji Fukasaku. It's fairly hard to keep the extremely complex loyalties clear, even if there are recaps at the beginning of each film, along with introductory graphics for most people, along with when they inevitably die. Because there's an insane amount of death in the films. The overarching plot thread of a group of former soldiers starting in the Yakuza right after World War II and then going through the post-war years works as a sort of Japanese history of the same time. The single movie plots work to a varying degree, with my personal favorite being the second one with Meiko Kaji as the niece of a Yakuza boss and the man who she loves, which is heartbreaking. Each boss, subboss, and footsoldier shows that they will do anything to survive, even as they attempt to keep up the idea of "honor". Of course, none of them have any honor, although Hirono Shozo has some, and is, for what it's worth, the Michael Corleone character. The Godfather analogy is intentional, considering it was made so soon afterwards, even if it is far more complex and very Japanese. It feels more like a miniseries rather than a series of films, although there is more violence and occasional sexuality. Not that much, though. The third part, The Proxy War, is a metaphor for Vietnam and the Cold War, while the choice of locating the series in Hiroshima never really seems to be mentioned within the films themselves, except for the opening shot of the Atomic bomb, the opening of the last film, and the final shot of each film of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. The self-destructive nature of the gangs, though, suggests the choice of location was intentional, with the title of the first one (Battles without Honor and Humanity) clearly showing just how Fukasaku feels about the Yakuza. The series is outstanding, even if the last film feels a little too much like they were talking far too much and had too many plot threads hanging. The constant need to introduce new characters to replace the old ones detracts more as the films continue. I do have to appreciate the movement away from pure Yakuza towards dealing with the police and the political parties though. It allowed the series to keep my interest, even as I had to pay attention due to my lack of Japanese knowledge. I might need to find a copy of the box just to marvel over the family tree and see if I missed anything.