Thursday, July 15, 2021

Thursday Movie Picks: Non-English Movies

Alright, it's like this. There are three movies in this post. Are they good? That depends on your definition of good. I mean, they're movies. That's good enough, ain't it? Well, one thing's for sure. Nobody in these movies is speaking English. And that, my friends, is all that's required of us folks taking part in this week's edition of Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. それでは、道路上でこのショーを取得してみましょう。 

Oh, don't mind me. That's just Japanese for "So, let's get this show on the road."


A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn

(Japanese, 2003)

As far as premises go, this has to be one of the weirdest ever for a kitchen sink drama. We meet Noriko, a young lady who's husband has passed away and goes to live with his dad, her father-in-law. Nothing too odd about that, right? He's a hard working farmer that's getting up in age, possibly going senile, and probably blind, though I don't think it's ever mentioned. Still with me? He gets up at the crack of dawn every morning and goes to milk his beloved cows. He always saves his favorite cow for last. Here's where I might lose ya. That cow died some time ago. To keep from breaking his heart, Noriko gets up a little before him, hustles down to the barn, gets butt booty ball nekkid, and drops to all fours so the old man can milk her. And he doesn't notice she's not an actual cow. Yup, that's what I said.


Cold Fish

(Japanese, 2010)

Mitsuko is a troubled teen who gets shoplifting. The place she's stealing from happens to be a much more successful version of the store her dad owns, an exotic fish store. Her dad comes to get her and hits it off with the shop owner and his wife, so much so that he lets Mitsuko move in with them. I guess he figures since he can't do anything with her anyway, might as well let someone else have a crack at raising her. Predictably, but still unpredictably, things get real dark, real fast. Let's just say that if you wanted a graphic tutorial on how to properly dispose of a body, or wanted to see how hard it is to murder someone with a ballpoint pen, this is your movie.


Gun Woman

(Japanese, 2014)

Revenge movies are a dime a dozen, but there ain't many like this one. The general plot of a man wanting to get revenge against the man who murdered his wife is pretty typical. How this movie goes about telling that story is anything but. Our...um...avenger(!) is also a psychopath. To get his revenge he doesn't just go after the guy himself. Instead, he abducts a drug addict, gets her sober, terrorizes and brutalizes her, gets her trained in hand to hand combat, and makes her a weapons expert. Thanks to the strangest case of Stockholm Syndrome of all-time, as confirmed by a rather bizarre sex scene. He then has her shove the magazine of a gun in her lady parts and has her play dead to infiltrate the bad guy's lair since that even creepier dude is also a necrophiliac. Oh, did I mention retrieving the gun that the magazine goes into will require her to perform surgery on herself? Sounds like a great plan, don't it?


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12 comments:

  1. That first pick sounds like...something. Cold Fish has been on my radar for a while but I haven't gotten to it yet. The last one sounds a bit too much for me.

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    1. It's definitely something. Cold Fish is quite the experience, as well.

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  2. Umm these sound special Dell. Based on your descriptions I think the only one I'd consider watching is the first and that would only be if the chance presented itself. I was a bit intrigued by the second until the whole body disposal thing (I'm guessing it's too graphic for me). Kudos to having your last sentence in Japanese!

    I see it's only two days until your milestone birthday, are you planning a special post to celebrate?

    I also went with a pick from Japan (it's the one I think you'd like best of my choices as well-just a heads up the star of the film looks like a chipmunk!-it's distracting at first but you get use to it). My other two are recent watches from other countries that I watched recently and liked.

    Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)-An Italian police inspector (Gian Maria Volonte) held in high regard within the department and community murders his mistress and then insinuates himself into the homicide investigation that follows. Believing he is above suspicion he takes it as a game to plant clues at the crime scene to test the competence and integrity of Italian law enforcement. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

    A Colt is My Passport (1967)-Hitman Shuji Kamimura (Joe Shishido) and his partner Shun Shiozaki (Jerry Fujio) are hired by yakuza boss Senzaki to kill a rival whose greed has become a problem. The job comes off but then the pair runs into complications that seem to be headed in a deadly direction. This pastiche of noir/yakuza/spaghetti Western takes you on a wild ride.

    Orpheus (1950)-During an altercation in a Parisian Cafe involving the poet Orphée (Jean Marais) rival poet Cègeste (Edouard Dermithe) is killed. A mysterious princess (María Casares) appears and insists on taking Orpheus and the body away in her Rolls-Royce. Orphée soon finds himself in the underworld, where the Princess announces that she is, in fact, Death. Orpheus escapes in the Rolls back to the land of the living but at a cost. Jean Cocteau directed this surrealistic updating of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

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    1. Yes! Special! That's a great way to describe them.

      I might. Working on something, but not sure I'll have time to pull it all together.

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  3. A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn sounds like a lot... I wish I had stopped reading after the cow died haha.

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  4. Yikes! These sound like very strange, weirdly sexual films that I think I will pass on.

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    1. Two of them get strange in that area. Surprisingly, Cold Fish really doesn't, but it's plenty graphic.

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  5. Yeah, I'd like to see all of these films.

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  6. Don't know if you're posting something later Dell but since I don't see anything yet I'll just post Happy Birthday wishes here!! Hope it's been a great one! It's hot as blazes where I am hopefully its more temperate where you are. :-)

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