Zeiram (1991)

Zeiram (1991)
Aka: Zeram

Starring: Yuko Moriyama, Kunihiro Ida, Yukijiro Hotaru, Masakazu Handa, Mizuho Yoshido
Director: Keita Amemiya
Action Director: Mitsuo Abe
Special FX Director: Hajime Matsumoto, Hiroshi Onodera

This one of those films that I caught on TV at the tail-end and wondered just what it was I was watching. It was cable TV back in the mid-1990s when I was channel surfing and happened upon a Japanese movie I was unfamiliar with (despite being a huge Godzilla fan at the time) and watched the last ten or fifteen minutes, which was full of action and monsters. A year or so later, I came across it again, probably on the Sci-Fi Channel (back when it was still cool) and watched all of it. It was neat. Then, when the Sci-Fi Channel did their Saturday Anime cycle, I noticed that the anime adaptation of this movie was on and taped it (over the course of two Saturdays). It is one of my favorite animes of all time. I eventually got this movie (and its sequel) on VHS from Video Daikaiju near the end of the 1990s (or early 2000s).

The movie opens with some high contrast black-and-white photography of a strange, mushroom-headed being walking through a corridor, viciously slaughtering all the soldiers standing in its way. Enter: Zeiram.

Switch to our Earth, where we meet our two main male protagonists: Kamiya (Yukijiro Hotaru, Gamera, Guardian of the Universe and Deep Sea Monster Reigo) and Teppei (Kunihiro Ida, of Weather Girl and Moon Over Tao). Both men work for an electronics company and seem to specialize mainly in equipment repairs. They’re working on a Sunday, which both men resent for differing reasons: Kamiya has scored high on his latest race bet and wants to celebrate with his friends; Teppei has a date with one of his female co-workers (whom we’ll never meet). Their last job of the day is to investigate a claim of someone stealing power from the grid. I would think that would be the job for the power company and not an electronics company, but maybe it’s a Japanese thing.

They show up at the apartment in question, which is inhabited by a mysterious woman named Iria (Yuko Moriyama, of Kunoichi Lady Ninja and Tokyo Raiders) and her talking computer, Bob (voiced by Masakazu Handa). Before our heroes’ arrival, we had met Iria and Bob, who were talking about setting up “the Zone” and earning money from their latest job. Yes, they are intergalactic bounty hunters and their next target is Zeiram, whom we saw in the opening scene. “The Zone” refers to a temporary pocket dimension which can mimic the surrounding area up to a certain radius and thus can be used to carry out jobs without endangering the locals. Zeiram is on its way to Earth and Iria wants to capture him. So, she creates a version of the Zone to resemble to the industrial zone of Tokyo and sets up a portal for Zeiram’s travel pod to land directly in it. Unfortunately, when Kamiya and Teppei show up to find out why she’s stealing power—we learn that the Earth has been evaluated as being naturally unfriendly and uncooperative to outsiders from space (even friendly ones), so she’s working on the sly—they are accidentally transported into the Zone. That means that Iria will have to work twice as hard to fight Zeiram and protect the two humans (the dialog suggests that she and Bob will lose their bounty hunter license if any of the locals dies on the job, probably something about the “prime directive”).

From there on out, we have martial arts battles with monsters, gunplay and explosions, lots of slimy special effects (Zeiram can create little monsters from the DNA of other organisms it has assimilated), more gunplay and fighting, and even a scene of Teppei eating a space cockroach. At one point, Iria is transported out of the Zone and has to direct Teppei and Kamiya while she fixes the transporter. And Zeiram is not just powerful, he has several different forms he takes on whenever it looks like the humans are going to defeat him.

Zeiram is a highly entertaining Tokusatsu film from Keita Amemiya, an artist an effects man who became a director of some renown in Japan. This is one of his earlier films and he shows a good eye for monster designs and action sequences. These days, Amemiya is probably most well known for his work on the “Garo” TV series/franchise, which is sort of a more adult-oriented Tokusatsu series. He also directed Mechanical Violator Hakaider and Cyber Ninja, the latter of which was available to rent at places like Blockbuster Video back in the 1990s. He also directed an episode of “Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger,” which corresponds with the first season of the “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” (specifically the episode with the Terror Toad villain).

The movie takes a little while to get going, but once the characters enter the Zone, the pace picks up considerably. My main complaint is the interval in which Iria is temporarily trapped outside the Zone, leaving our clumsy heroes to fend for themselves. It’s a good way of upping the ante and the stakes, since the two men have no skills and have to improvise to not die, but Yuko Moriyama is so compelling as Iria that watching her just hang around doing nothing is a bit of a letdown. Thankfully, she eventually finds her way back into the film, which sets up a triple-climax for the movie. And director Amemiya is really good at drawing out the suspense and upping the stakes so that deliverance really comes at the last possible second.

Most people will never forget the design of Zeiram, with its hulking green body, mushroom-shaped head, and a tiny, white, humanoid face in its head that can extend, much like the secondary mouth of the Xenomorph. Zeiram can engage in hand-to-hand combat, wield a gun, and produce clones of its victims to use as his minions. The effects are attributed to Hajime Matsumoto and Hiroshi Onodera. The former is best known for his work on Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and later Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. Onodera, on the other hand, worked on the FX teams for all of the Heisei Godzilla and Mothra movies, plus some of the early 2000s Ultraman movies. Their job is to give life to Keito Amemiya’s monster designs, which they do handily, mixing rod puppets, man-in-suit techniques, and even some stop motion animation.

The martial arts is a little limited, and its clear that Yuko Moriyama is doubled for the flashier moves. Japanese cinema was not the place to turn to for quality martial arts in the 1990s, but watching a beautiful woman like Moriyama (and her stunt double) karate-kicking a giant, four-legged stop-motion skeleton is just the epitome of entertainment.

 

Brave Young Girls (1990)

Brave Brave Young Girls (1990)
Aka: Blood Sisters
Chinese Title: 黑海霸王花
Translation: Black Sea Queen Flower

Starring: Yukari Oshima, Margaret Lee Din-Long, Jo Jo Ngan Lai-Yue, Ha Chi-Chun, Shing Fui-On, Leung Kar-Yan, Pak Yan, Chan Pooi-Kei, Kara Hui Ying-Hung
Director: Luk Bong
Action Director: Chiang Tao

Brave Young Girls is a lesser-known entry in both the Girls n’ Guns genre and Yukari Oshima’s filmography. It is notable as the final film of director Luk Bong, who had been in the director’s chair since the early 1950s. Luk Bong’s wasn’t particularly distinguished among fans, with his notable martial arts films being Blind Fist of Bruce and Rocky’s Love Affairs, of which he was producer. The film is more of a(n) (unfocused) melodrama, revolving around three girls who are more or less compelled to enter the prostitution business.

The three girls are connected by Cheng Ga (Shing Fui-On, of City Cops and The Killer), a mid-level criminal who runs a handful of small rackets: a hotel for prostitution, a hostess club (which often ends in prostitution), and a loan shark business. He also tries to get into the parking lot extortion racket, which results in a random fight between his men and Kara Hui (My Young Auntie and Lady is the Boss).

Anyway, first their Hong (The Centipede Horror’s Margaret Lee), a fugitive from the Mainland. Hong and her brother need to raise money for a sick relative back in the PRC and is on the lam after getting in a shootout with the police. She eventually runs into Cheng Ga, who offers her 20,000 HKD in exchange for a year’s worth of turning tricks.

Next we have Li (JoJo Ngan, of Fury in Red and City Warrior), who appears to the daughter of Cheng Ga’s borrowers (Gam Biu, of The Lama Avenger and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold). The old man owes a lot of money and has asked for a second loan, so Li is given as collateral to work at the hostess club. But soon she learns that it is assumed that she’ll have to service clients at Cheng’s hotel, too. And that is something she did not sign up for.

Finally we have Jenny (Ha Chi-Chun, of Eastern Condors and Aces Go Places V), who is a veteran prostitute at this point. She’s pretty good at what she does, but soon finds herself in trouble with the law. Her savior, so to speak, is “Lady Overlord” (Yukari Oshima), a Japanese policewoman who has arrived in Hong Kong in order to arrest Cheng Ga’s boss (Leung Kar-Yan, of The Thundering Mantis and Cantonen Iron Kung Fu).

The film mainly goes back and forth between Hong’s and Li’s stories, with frequent intervals of Cheng Ga running things like the scuzzbucket we the viewer expect from Shing Fui-On. Jenny’s character has less to do until the final half hour, when they team up to find dirt on Leung Kar-Yan’s character. It all leads up to a final battle royale, with Yukari Oshima trading blows with Beardy, while the other girls just blow away Shing Fui-On…because of course, they do. Despite dealing with forced prostitution, the film is quite chaste (at least the cut I watched was) and may feel sleazy, but never is sleazy.

There are four action sequences in this film, the first of which starts out the movie and the others coming in intervals of 20 minutes or so. The opening sequence is a drug deal in which Cheng Ga’s men buy drugs and then ambush the vendors so as to get their money back. It is mainly gunplay, but at one point they engage in fisticuffs, too. That is followed the aforementioned scene with Kara Hui, who is only in the film for that one scene. Her fight scene is with Cheng Ga’s men at a parking garage, much like her big fight in the previous year’s Burning Ambition. Later on, Yukari Oshima is introduced and gets in a fight with the same guys at a pier. And finally, Yukari gets to beat up Shing Fui-On’s men again at a mansion before squaring off with Leung Kar-Yan. Yukari does some fine work, especially in the extended one-on-one fight with Beardy, and the sequence may be one of Oshima’s better one-on-one duels. Ha Chi-Chun gets to show off some bootwork, too, despite never having been established as a fighter up to that point. But that’s the thing we love about vintage HK action: any character will suddenly start throwing down with the kickboxing, even those whom we least expect.

Stage Door Johnny (1990)

Stage Door Johnny (1990)
Chinese Title: 舞台姊妹
Translation: Stage Sisters

Starring: Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Ann Mui Oi-Fong, Eva Lai Yin-Shan, Ida Chan Yuk-Lin, Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan, Wu Ma, Waise Lee, Lam Ching-Ying, Lau Siu-Ming, Chung Fat, Mars, Ken Lo, Lee Jun-Git
Director: Wu Ma
Action Director: Jackie Chan’s Stuntman Association

Stage Door Johnny is an interesting film from director Wu Ma. Apparently filmed on sets leftover from Mr. Canton and Lady Rose, it is a melodramatic tale of sisterhood among female Peking Opera performers set around the 1920s. It demonstrates a lot of Wu Ma’s strengths as a filmmaker, but it ultimately held back from being “Very Good,” let alone “Great,” by a tad too much melodrama and a needlessly bleak finale.

The movie opens at a train station in China where Peking Opera star Tsui Yen-Hsieh (Kara Hui, of Burning Ambition and Widow Warriors) is waiting for her lover. Unfortunately, the man is too attached to his rich family to be willing to elope, thus leaving her and their unborn child to their own devices. Watch for a great scene of a depressed Tsui approaching a group of reporters with her head bowed in shame, only to lift it up and reveal a million-dollar smile for the cameras. Great acting from Kara Hui.

Somewhere in Shanghai, there is an all-female Peking Opera company led by Pops (Wu Ma, of Mr. Canton and Lady Rose and Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards) and Boss Shen (Ann Mui, older sister of Anita, who had a small role in Police Story 2). This troupe is going through hard times, mainly because of a mixture of Shen’s insistence on performing pure dramas (as opposed to stories with martial arts in them) and the general chaste representation of the same—were there China Operas that revealed a bit of skin back in the 1920s?

At this point, Pops is so desperate for money that he’s pawning his own old costumes just to keep the troupe paid. The company has four star players: Shen; Boss Ching (Ida Chan, of Shaolin and Wu Tang and On the Run), who is resigned to see the company go out of business; Boss Hsiao (Pauline Wong, but not the pretty one from Mr. Vampire, but the evil one from Mr. Vampire Part 3), who is “dating” a mid-level Triad named Pin San (Lee Jun-Git, of A Better Tomorrow II and Police Story 2); and Boss Sai (Eva Lai, who played the evil demon girl in Burning Sensation). There is also the troupe musician, Mr. Liu, played by Lam Ching-Ying (of The Prodigal Son and Eastern Condors).

Boss Sai becomes the object of affection of Pin San’s boss, Chang (Lau Siu-Ming, of Royal Warriors and A Chinese Ghost Story). Chang really wants to get into her trousers, but before that happens, we have to meet some more characters. While out making purchases one day, Sai witnesses a gunfight between Chang’s gang another a group of gunman led by “benevolent” crime boss Lu (Waise Lee, of Wing Chun and Bullet in the Head). It’s suggested that Lu is one of those good crime bosses who doesn’t have a problem with extortion and prostitution, but drugs are a complete no-no. Lu and Sai sorta become enamored with each other during the fire fight.

While that’s going on, Pops decides to hire Tsui Yen-Hsieh to boost sales and direct the troupe’s repertoire to more action-oriented stories. That creates a lot of tension between the girls, especially when the gamble pays off and Pops pays Tsui a higher share of the profits than the other girls—these scenes definitely feel like the Peking Opera equivalent of the Caitlyn Clark controversy: all-girl’s association is just eking out a living, a new girl shows up and starts filling seats, the other girls feel jealous that their hard work had gone unnoticed until then, the same girls are equally angry that the person who is making them profitable for once is making more money than they are…

So, there is this conflict between the girls, plus each girl has her own issues (eg., Tsui is still pregnant and is considering an abortion; Hsiao is seriously considering marrying the scuzzy Pin San), some moments of unrequited love (like the rickshaw puller Kui, played by Mars, who is secretly in love with Boss Shen), and there’s the external conflict of the bad blood between Chang and Lu coming to a boil within the walls of the opera hall.

Stage Door Johnny is a very melodramatic film. There are lots of overwrought emotions, especially in the second half as the film reaches its emotional crescendo. It gets so over-the-top near the end that I was wishing it kept the subtlety of that opening scene with Kara Hui. Probably the worst example is the scene where Mars’s rickshaw puller character breaks curfew in order to fetch a doctor for Boss Shen, who has lost her voice for some reason. He basically gets himself shot to death by the police in order get her medical attention, but she refuses to take the medicine. But in the same scene, Tsui is about to take a medicine that would induce abortion. The scene ends with Shen overcoming her severe laryngitis by screaming, “Mommy, don’t do it,” which causes Tsui to reject her medicine. What the heck? It completely invalidates Mars’s sacrifice. That said, the film benefits from strong performances around the board.

The Sing Ga Ban—aka Jackie Chan’s Stuntman Association—handled the action, which pops up sporadically throughout the movie. There are three major set pieces and two smaller action scenes. There is a short gunfight early on when Lu’s Men (including Ken Lo) are trying to stop Chang’s men (led by Chung Fat) from smuggling opium. Near the end, there is a fight scene between Ken Lo and Pin San’s men, which has some of his kicking (although it is a bit over-edited). The first big sequence is a fight during a performance at Chang’s house, where Lu’s men team up with the Opera performers to fight Chang’s men when he tries to kidnap Boss Sai. Later on, some rude men at a restaurant (including former Jet Li doubles Xiong Xin-Xin and Mak Wai-Cheung) start picking on Pops until the five leading ladies step up and beat the hell out of them. Then you get the big finale, in which five women in full Peking Opera regalia take on an entire Triad—spears and pole-arms versus choppers and hatchets. It’s a really well-staged fight sequence and should satisfy most fans of the genre.

I would recommend that most Hong Kong cinephiles and fight fans at least check out Stage Door Johnny. There is a nice pristine copy of the film uploaded to YouTube via the Cinema No.8 - HK Movie channel. It’s one of Wu Ma’s better movies, all things considered.