Carmen 1945 (Japan, 1988) – 2/5
Underwhelming Gate of Flesh adaptation, directed by the late Hideo Gosha during his women-cinema period. It’s a solid effort in technical terms, but struggles to differentiate from the various other adaptations, including the magnificent 1964 Seijun Suzuki film. Gosha’s main input is the more realistic, bitchy female characters that don’t necessarily serve the cinematic aspect of the pic, but ought to please a few realism seeking viewers nevertheless. Yakuza stars Tsunehiko Watase and Jinpachi Nezu co-star.
The Executioner (Japan, 1974) – 3.5/5
Teruo Ishii was a born maniac, and a downright terrorist when forced to take directing gigs against his will. The Executioner falls into the latter category. Toei Studios wanted another karate actioner in the vein of The Street Fighter, Ishii delivered a mentally insane mercenary action comedy. It’s not one of Chiba’s action highlights (especially with Yasuaki Kurata stealing the spotlight), but it is one of his ugliest, most brutal and downright offending movies. The heroes are sadists and perverts, and the bad guys... well, the same but even worse. Humor is plenty and constantly sexist, body parts are ripped off, and most cast members are ugly enough to be modern art masterpieces. A nice movie despite some restless camerawork - and so popular Toei had Ishii direct a sequel, too.