Now This Is Funny!

GETTING ANY?-1995-Poor Asao! All he wants to do is have sex with a woman in a car. His efforts to make this come to pass eventually involve him in robbery, murder, impersonating a Yakuza hit man and getting blown up several times. This absurd and hysterical comedy was written and directed by Takeshi “Beat” Kitano better known to western audiences for his violent action films like VIOLENT COP and the incredible HANA-BI. But Kitano started out as a comedian (in a duo called “The Two Beats”) so it’s not too unusual. Take-offs on Kirosawa, Zaitochi (which he would later remake), Mothra and many other subjects are featured. At the end Asao becomes a giant fly and terrorizes Tokyo! Kitano plays a bumbling scientist working on an invisibility formula. Deadpan lead actor Dankan had been in Kitano’s BOILING POINT and was later in Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE 3.

"Behind every successful man is a woman and behind her is his wife"-Groucho Marx

Happy Friday! Thanks for reading!

Different Stuff

IKINAI-1998-11 men agree to commit group suicide by staging a bus accident so the insurance money can go to their families. Aragaki (Screenwriter Dankan from GETTING ANY?) is their unsmiling leader. A young girl accidentally winds up on the doomed bus and complicates things. This is an unusual black comedy from Japan that’s serious, funny and poignant. Director Hiroshi Shimizu was an assistant director to Beat Takeshi on several films.



GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON-1960-Strongman Goliath (American Mark Forest) fights a variety of creatures (a giant bat, 3 headed fire breathing dragon, etc) in his quest to rid his land of the evil King Eurystheus (Academy Award Winner Broderick Crawford with dubbed voice). There’s a lot of sub-plot in this mostly involving Goliath’s younger brother who’s in love with a woman who Goliath thinks killed his parents (or something like that). The dialogue is very funny and the effects very cheesy but the Alpha Video DVD letterboxed print I saw looked terrific. Laughable but great for “the sword & isandal “ fans!

(Thanks to my friend Mike for lending me this)



THE CHINESE GODS-1980-Very strange animated fantasy from Hong Kong. Ancient gods of legend battle evil demons. When the going gets tough they enlist Bruce Lee (with a third eye) to help! He turns into a dinosaur at one point and makes a lot of Bruce Lee like noises when he fights but sounds more like Curly Howard! It’s goofy but kind of entertaining. Strangely the animation itself seems geared toward kids yet it features much violence and a little nudity.

Thanks for reading!