Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995)

Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995)

Starring: Jiro Okamoto, Yuji Kishimoto, Toshiyuki Kikuchi, Mai Hosho
Director: Keita Amemiya

So, in the early 1970s, one of the popular Tokusatsu series in the midst of more than a dozen was Android Kikaider, about a half-blue, half-red robot who fights the forces of evil. One of the supporting characters was a black-clad robot named Hakaider, who seemed to jump back and forth between antagonist and uncomfortable ally. Director-artist-FX man Keita Amemiya, best known these days for his "Garo" series, was on a roll in the 1990s, starting with Zeiram. Right before he made that film's sequel, he made this movie, sort of a retelling of the Hakaider story.

A group of treasure hunters are snooping around a series of underground tunnels looking for hidden treasure, as per the local urban legends. They eventually find a secret vault, which they blow up. Instead of treasure, however, they find a human-faced cyborg (Jiro Okamoto), whom they immediately recognize as Hakaider. The treasure hunters try to destroy it, but Hakaider comes back online, takes on his tokusatsu persona, and straight-up murders them all. He then hops on a motorcycle (with his trusty shotgun in tow) and heads over to Jesus Town.

What is Jesus Town? Well, think of it as the Japanese tokusatsu version of the alternate future of the Flanders Dystopia from "Time and Punishment" from the Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror V. A white-clad angelic being named Ryo (Yuji Kishimoto) runs a "peaceful" city through fear and lobotomies (well, they are microchips inserted into brains, but the effect is the same). His main enforcer is a winged, white-painted robot named Michael (Toshiyuki Kikuchi). Well, Hakaider arrives in town and immediately starts picking fights with Ryo's security force while falling in with a group of rebels, including a woman named Kaoru (Mai Hosho), who has been dreaming of a black knight saving her from a demon in angel's clothing. FORESHADOWING!!!

The plot is pretty simple: Hakaider shows up, doesn't talk a lot, and just gets into an escalating series of gunfights (and some fist fights) until he finally has to throw down with Ryo and Michael (get it? Michael the Archangel?). There is some interesting religious iconography and I liked the visuals of Kaoru's dreams. There is a brief moment when the rebels are talking about what they'd do if they managed to overthrow Ryo, to which Hakaider points out that if they did the things they fantasize about, they would ultimately be no better than the current leaders--a common theme of left-wing revolutions overthrowing right-wing dictatorships. I didn't understand the entire story--the death of one character is handled in a rather odd manner--and some of the mechanics of Ryo's armed guard weren't explained well.

But there is a lot of gunplay and people who don't need John Woo (or John Wick) stylistics do enjoy constant machine gun fire should enjoy this. There is a robot battle at the end, followed by a typical Keita Amemiya climatic monster escalation (see his Zeiram movies) which is realized almost completely in stop motion animation. AWESOME! 

2 Capsule Reviews - Taiwanese oddities

Turbo Dragon (1985)
aka Dragon Gate Fighter; Dragon Rascal -
Director: Ke Cheng-Lin

This obscure oddity is essentially a Brucesploitation comedy made a couple of years after both Dragon Lee and Bruce Le had moved away from the sub-genre. It doesn't really have an actual plot, and about every 20 minutes or so, it becomes a completely different movie in terms of stuff that goes on onscreen.

Lung Tse (Pan Rui-Li, of Kung Fu Emperor and To Catch a Thief) is a talented martial artist who has a hard time landing and keeping a job. When we meet him, he's working as a priest (!?) who officiates weddings. He loses his job after he beats up the groom in order for the bride to run off with her paramour, some borderline idiot fellow. His next job is to work as a janitor for a fat rich guy (Lin Kuang-Chin, of Tiger Love and Deadly Strike). On his first day of work, he rescues the guy's daughter (Fu Chuen, of Chaste Virgin and Madam Yu Ching) from kidnappers. The boss gives him a job as the stuntman on a cheap Brucesploitation flick (with Wei Ping-Ao in the cast, no less). Lung Tse then gets a normal job at the guy's company doing...construction(?)...different things, while he cavorts around with the daughter.

Just as Lung Tse and the daughter are going to elope, the boss shows up with a present for him: a trip to Thailand...because...uh...reasons? I guess it was to give the boss time to think before Lung could run off with his daughter. Anyway, Lung Tse's martial brother is having some problems with the local crime boss, who is pressuring him to take the fall for gambling reasons. After refusing twice to intentionally lose, the brother is beaten up by the gang boss's secret weapon fighter (Chen Te-Wei, of The Idiot Swordsman) in retaliation and the guy, his promotor/girlfriend (Chang Hoi-Lun), her flunkies, and Lung Tse are forced to flee into the jungle and go into hiding. After an interlude involving cannibals, Lung Tse takes on the boss's hyper-muscular fighter as a means of shoring up accounts.

As I said, Turbo Dragon doesn't really have a story. It doesn't really have an ending, either. Stuff just happens until the main opponent is defeated, at which point the film simply just stops. And the movie just jumps around from genre to another: it stars as a modern action-comedy; becomes a send-up of Brucesploitation; a sappy romance; then something about corrupt ring fights; then jungle adventure; and the last reel becomes borderline science fiction as it's revealed that the Thai crime boss has a supercomputer that he uses to train his secret weapon fighter, not too unlike the apparatus that Eric Roberts uses in DOA: Dead or Alive--the subtitles disappear when they're explaining device, but it looks like it analyzes the opponents moves and it's implied that it downloads information into the person's brain during the fight...I think.

There is some fighting here and there. Pan Rui-Li is in Bruce Lee imitator mode in his fights, although he's not as fast or crisp as the real thing. The fight on the movie set is basically a recreation of the earlier fights from Way of the Dragon (the entire movie looks like a remake of that film). The Muay Thai fights are played more or less realistically, as is the case of these films. There is a fight between Lung Tse and the top warrior of the cannibal tribe that involves them chained to each other--how do Stone Age tribes have metal chains--and wailing on each with iron axes and rattan shields. And the final fight feels like a combination of traditional shapes and more modern sensibilities. The fighting on the whole is okay, but the movie is so nonsensical that it's hard to enjoy.

Evil Hits Evil (1983/1985) 
Director: Nam Ki-nam, Lucifer Lai

At first I wondered if this was a cash-in on Mr. Vampire from that same year, but the release date is early enough in the year that I think it was more of a belated cash-in on the likes of Kung Fu Zombie or Encounter of the Spooky Kind. It is also not very good, with its notability mainly being that it was Doris Lung's last role (ignoring cut n' splice films that reused footage from her movies).

The movie opens with the slaughter of Chen Fu (Kwon Yung-moon) and his family by a group of killers working for the evil Mr. Hung (Chan Sing). Mr. Hung is the richest man in the village and has no problem torturing and murdering anyone who displeases him, which was Chen Fu's downfall: Chen Fu was a groundskeeper at Mr. Hung's house and was guilty of ollygagging so he could listen to Hung's daughter (Doris Lung Jun-Ehr) playing the lute. That barbarian.

Some months later, the ghost of Chen Fu possesses the body of Lee Yao (Alan Liu), a woodcutter in Mr. Hung's employ. Meanwhile, Mr. Hung starts getting haunted by ravens. And the local night watchman has visions of ghosts. And some random passerby gets in a fight with a pair of nunchaku-wielding numbskull bandits who take orders from their pet dog. And Mr. Hung randomly tortures a couple to death. And a Taoist Priest (Robert Tai), tries to exorcise the ghost from Lee Yao. And when that doesn't work, they have a sorcerer's battle. And Lee Yao starts killing off the killers who murdered Chen Fu.

If you look at that last paragraph, you'll notice that it feels a little random. That is exactly how this movie feels: random. It never feels like it settles on a main character or plot line. It just jumps back and forth between different characters until the climax. Heck, the film kills off some of the main characters right before the climax, one of whom I thought was the viewpoint character. I thought Robert Tai's Taoist priest was going to be important, but he dies about halfway through and is replaced with some random female Exorcist and a pair of charlatan priests whom the film spends way too much time with. And I still don't know what was up with the passerby and the bandits: he disappears from the narrative, only to show up as a ghost at the end.

There is nothing to really be gained from it. The action choreography was supplied by Peng Gang of Shaolin vs. Lama fame, but this is definitely his weakest work. Kwon Yung-moon throws a few kicks here and there, including a scene where he kicks a monk's head off. But the rest of the fighting is not lit very well (typical Taiwanese movie problem) and just not very interesting. And most of the climax is Doris Lung getting ghost raped, The Entity style. That is NOT a fitting end to the career of one of the major kung fu divas. 

3 Capsule Reviews - Non cut-and-splice IFD films

Raiders of the Doomed Kingdom (1983)
aka: Cobra Man (or แหกนรกเวียดนาม)
Director: Toranong Srichua

A more-or-less straight-forward Vietnam War action-adventure made in Thailand, but later picked up by IFD films for international distribution. And although the usual practice of inserting the familiar names (Godfrey Ho, etc.) into the opening credits, the actual film more or less remained untouched.

Popular Thai actor Sorapong Chatri plays Cobra, a Thai soldier working for the American forces in Vietnam. The film opens as the South Vietnamese--those that supported the Viet Cong--are about to storm the American embassy during the Fall of Saigon. Cobra is given the opportunity to flee along with the American diplomats, but he stays behind because he has been given a mission: rescue a South Vietnamese general, Chu (Peter Ramwa), and smuggle him (or his body) into Thailand. He gets together his commando group to rescue Chu, who has already been captured, and move him. The commando team eventually finds themselves on an island serving as a Leper's Colony, where they have to make a stand against the Viet Cong.

The film starts off as a pretty standard wartime action movie. There is a gun battle at the prison camp. Another gun battle on a bridge--where our heroes ruthlessly mow down female Viet Cong members, although one of them happens to be the General's daughter (Suriwan Suriyong) in disguise. One member of the team stays behind to keep the Viet Cong busy while the others escape alongside thousands of Boat People (whom are fired upon by the Viet Cong). Once they reach the Leper's Island, the commandos start succumbing to battle fatigue while the some of the refugees they picked up start thinking about turning in Cobra and his men in exchange for their lives. Things get graphic is the last half hour, as the Viet Cong murders and butchers the lepers and individual members of the commando squad.

I didn't think the film was bad, it was decent overall. Nonetheless, a remastered version would probably make it easier to enjoy. The film is notable for a random, lengthy, and graphic scene of cunnilingus that pops up out of nowhere while Cobra is wandering the streets of a fallen Saigon. As the version uploaded to Youtube is taken from a Japanese VHS, the full frontal shots (of which there are many) are all pixelated. A second, Thai-language version is uploaded to Youtube if you search for the Thai title. That version just cuts out the sequence entirely.


Commando Fury (Taiwan, 1983)
aka: Training Camp; Women Prison 1991

An IFD release of a Taiwanese WiP (Women in Prison) film that is surprisingly brutal, but without the rampant nudity and lesbianism that defines its European counterparts. The film is set in...I don't know...in the year...I don't know. I mean, one of the guards walks around in a U.S. Air Force outfit, so I'm guessing they did the typical Taiwanese thing of using whatever costumes they could cobble together. As for the location...I guess it's set in generic Asia-land.

The film is about a bunch of women who are in a prison and are routinely brutalized by the guards and the vicious warden (Richard Cui, billed as "Bernard Tsui"). The first 50 minutes revolve around the women being tortured, whipped, murdered, burned at the stake (!), stabbed, shot, worked to death, etc. In one scene, two women are forced into small cages and have iron bars stuck in said cages to force them into a compromising position and stay there for 24 hours. After that, the same women are loosed and made to fight for their food. Eventually, an inmate named Terry Yu (Juliet Chen) and the prison Queen Bee (Chiang Ching-Yen) team up to lead a breakout. Several of the girls go with them, including a political prisoner named Donna (Nancy Wen) who is supposedly in possession of some McGuffin microfilm. They flee into the jungle and are hunted by the guards, including a sadistic female guard named Helen (Liu Chia-Fen).

The entire film is just one long parade of violence against women and general brutality. And until we get to the scenes leading up the breakout, we never really know who the main character is. It turns out to be Terry Yu, who was hired by some mercenary to free Donna from the warden's custody. The last 25 minutes has some hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, ending with a huge betrayal and some major character sacrifices. Whether or not it is cathartic enough to make up for the other hour of general unpleasantness is up to you.


Pink Force Warriors (1985)
aka Women Warriors of Kinmen
Director: Karen Yang

Taiwanese army propaganda film about a contingent of female soldiers being trained in a fishing community off the coast of Taiwan--the English dub (courtesy of IFD Films) makes it clear that they are not on the island of Taiwan. The film focuses on four characters: Mary (Lu Hsiao-Fen, of Black Rose: The Hong Kong Tigress), the serious one whose fisherman father disapproves of her relationship with a frogman (Don Wong Tao, of Secret Rivals); Susan (Shirley Lui, of Devil Fetus), who wants to date the captain of the male platoon, but is stopped by her asshole, overprotective brother; Angela (Ying Hsiao, of Girl with a Gun), the goof-off who is hit on by a daddy's boy rich kid soldier named Peter (Wong Fook-Sat); and Captain Joy (Teresa Tsui, of Pink Force Commando), the hard-as-nails squad leader.

Most of the movie is soap opera revolving around the girls' relationships. Early in the second half, Mary's father is murdered by Chinese spies, causing her to go crazy about finding and killing "Communists." She eventually confronts a pair of Mainland frogman spies and fights them. At the end, there are some war games and Susan and Angela finally take their jobs seriously. The fighting is limited to a couple of friendly scuffles between Lu Hsiao-Fen and Wong Tao, who teaches her how to knife fight. Then she gets to fight the frogmen, ending in a tragic sacrifice. The action is a mixture of Judo and knife-fighting, but nothing special here. Everything else is annoying soap opera and melodrama, plus some mock battles in the last 15 minutes.