Varied Celluloid

	The Big Racket (1976)

Director:	Enzo G. Castellari
Writers:	Enzo G. Castellari, Massimo De Rita and Arduino Maiuri
Starring:	Fabio Testi, Vincent Gardenia and Joshua Sinclair

The Plot: Nico (Fabio Testi) is a plain-clothed detective along who is placed on a dangerous assignment to help bust up a young gang of criminals who are extorting all of the local business owners. Nico tracks them down to a meeting with their boss, a foreign mastermind named Rudy (Joshua Sinclair), but this only leads him to a great amount of pain as the group pushes his car off of a mountainside. Nico survives the ordeal, but now the fight has become personal for him. As he wrangles up these punks one by one, he finds that they are protected by the political system that he attempts to uphold. Their lawyers quickly help these punks come up with various stories that inevitably lead them right back to the streets. Rudy, their Englishman leader, is independently wealthy and Nico intends to see him put behind bars. Along the way, he will have to team up with all of the honest people who have been run over by these psychotic punks. You would be safe to assume that a violent showdown is soon to come.

	The Review

The Big Racket is one of those seminal Italian crime films that I have been meaning to get around to watching for almost as long as I have been a fan of the genre. Directed by the incomparable Enzo G. Castellari, and starring the ridiculously handsome Fabio Testi, this is a film that certainly seems to have a lot going for it. It is a movie that is often referred to as a nice introduction to the genre, because it is high on thrills and delivers many of the elements that have made the genre famous (or, semi-famous). However, I am of two minds when I contemplate this idea. The Big Racket is not a sleazy movie, unlike some titles one might find in this genre. Fabio Testi has always seemed like the sort of leading man who would avoid projects that fall into that category. However, that doesn’t mean that this is a movie that pulls any punches, because it does not. A study on vigilantism as well as a nightmarish vision of urban violence during seventies-era Italy, The Big Racket is a relatively rough and tumble entry point for the genre. For those who have tested these waters before, however, it is a punch in the gut that they may very well enjoy. A powerful piece of cinema (really!) that uses brains and brawn, The Big Racket is a flick that has certainly earned its notoriety.

Starting off with a bit of sadistic violence inflicted upon a fancy fragrance store, where a group of hooligans look to gather up some collection money, the film immediately throws its audience into an atmosphere that is very similar to the Death Wish films. Essentially, these punks are running amuck on an entire neighborhood of assorted business owners, and we watch as they helplessly try to muster up the courage to defend themselves. What I “like” about this introductory sequence is how Castellari uses this horrible situation in order to manipulate his audience. We know that Fabio Testi is just outside of these shops, watching and waiting for this group to do something REALLY nasty, but this safety net doesn’t provide the audience much in terms of help. We watch and we hope for the best, but the cruelty simply seems to stack up higher and higher. Then, when Testi finally follows these punks back to their meeting place, he is actually battered by the gang and has his car flipped. This is Castellari playing with his audience and purposefully tormenting them, but he does this only for the reward, that will culminate in the final act, to seem all the more pleasing when it does come. To truly make the audience know and understand why these evil characters must eventually pay for their crimes, he at first shows them to be lower than human. Over the next sixty or seventy minutes, Castellari shows us this in scene after arduous scene.

Very similar to Castellari’s earlier film Street Law, The Big Racket finds him once again covering the vigilante genre. This film, when paired with the earlier High Crime and Street Law, could be seen as a progressive trilogy studying the world of vigilantism. High Crime is obviously the weakest film of the three. It is a movie that focuses on a police officer who takes his vendetta very serious, but he actually continues to work within the confines of the law for the most part. Street Law ramps things up and shows an everyday man fighting back against the horrors of criminal violence. This character is a figure who lives outside of the legal system, and shows the direction that this “trilogy” would be heading in. The Big Racket, though, may be the bleakest of the group as it inevitably focuses on a group of men who are all left distraught due to the actions performed by a gang of psychotic young people. The violence that is unleashed throughout The Big Racket becomes unsettling as the movie rolls along. A harsh look at the criminal element itself, Fabio Testi’s group of vigilante superheros that are compiled during the final thirty minutes of the movie makes this one a sort of Rogues Gallery study on the subject. While I won’t argue that this is the best of the bunch, it certainly packs a punch that the previous films did not.

The previously mentioned Fabio Testi is maybe the least expected action star within all of Italian cinema. During a time where most cinematic heroes had very hard faces that reflected a toughguy sensibility, Testi was always well known for his babyface good looks. Although he didn’t have a toughguy appearance, he was more than capable as both a action star and a leading man. Sure, he may have looked more at home on a soap opera, but he was a very convincing and daring action hero. In a film such as this, he displays his ability to jump back and forth between the necessary charisma required for any “tough” police character, but he also brings his acting talents to the role which separates him from some others who could have attempted the role. Although Franco Nero might display more versatility as an actor, he is one of the few actors I could actually picture bringing more layers to a role such as this one. Unfortunately, within The Big Racket, I think Testi missed out on taking his character in some more diverse directions. For the most part, the character of Nico simply has everything under control and carries a stoic face that never regales the horrors and traumas that this character has been forced to endure thanks to this group of hardened punks. It would have been nice to see Testi stretch out and play a character pushed to his limits, and maybe take the character of Nico into some interesting dramatic waters. Such is life, however, and Testi is most assuredly solid here.

	The Conclusion

While The Big Racket may be a film that divides its audience, I must say that I was very impressed with it. It is more visual than many of Castellari’s films, it features all of his requisite action and it also has some relatively disturbing rape/murders throughout its running time. If you like your vigilante films with some rough edges, this one is certainly for you. I give it a four out of five.

Things have been quite busy here in Varied Celluloid-land, so please pardon the small break between updates. Reviews have been finished and images have been uploaded, but it simply takes a little free time to actually finish the process off. Today, however, we deliver a relatively new title for you good folks to check out! Today we review the South Korean remake of A Better Tomorrow! I actually liked it quite a bit, and I’m not sure if that is technically heresy or not…

The Plot: Hyuk (Ju Jin-Mo) is a North Korean ex-patriot who has moved to South Korea in order to find his riches via the gun smuggling business. His intentions are actually earnest, as he hopes to make enough money to help save his family from the despotic North, but he is quickly caught up in the criminal element. When he finds immense success, he begins the search for his only surviving relative… his brother. When he finds his brother, Chul (Kim Kang-woo), it turns out that the young man had actually been searching for Hyuk as well. However, he searches for him with the intentions of killing him. Chul feels that Hyuk abandoned the family, and inevitably lead to their mother’s death. When Chul is found in an internment camp, Hyuk manages to have his brother released. However, Chul still resents his only brother. While this is going on, Hyuk and his partner Lee Young-Choon (Song Seung-hun) run into some trouble due to a snitch within their organization. The young and seemingly naive Jung Tae-Min (Jo Han-sun) is the snitch, and it turns out that his naivety is nothing more than a ruse to place Young-Choon and Hyuk in a compromising situation. When Hyuk is abandoned by by Tae-Min, he is imprisoned for two years. During this time, Chul manages to become a police detective and must face up to his brother’s past. With Hyuk hitting the streets again, what will become of this sordid situation?

	A Better Tomorrow (2010)

Director:	Song Hae-sung
Writers:	Hyo-seok Kim, Taek-kyung Lee, Geun-mo Choi, Hae-gon Kim, Hing-Ka Chan, Suk-Wah Leung
Starring:	Ju Jin-mo, Song Seung-heon, Kim Kang-woo and Jo Han Sun

The Plot: Hyuk (Ju Jin-Mo) is a North Korean ex-patriot who has moved to South Korea in order to find his riches via the gun smuggling business. His intentions are actually earnest, as he hopes to make enough money to help save his family from the despotic North, but he is quickly caught up in the criminal element. When he finds immense success, he begins the search for his only surviving relative… his brother. When he finds his brother, Chul (Kim Kang-woo), it turns out that the young man had actually been searching for Hyuk as well. However, he searches for him with the intentions of killing him. Chul feels that Hyuk abandoned the family, and inevitably lead to their mother’s death. When Chul is found in an internment camp, Hyuk manages to have his brother released. However, Chul still resents his only brother. While this is going on, Hyuk and his partner Lee Young-Choon (Song Seung-hun) run into some trouble due to a snitch within their organization. The young and seemingly naive Jung Tae-Min (Jo Han-sun) is the snitch, and it turns out that his naivety is nothing more than a ruse to place Young-Choon and Hyuk in a compromising situation. When Hyuk is abandoned by by Tae-Min, he is imprisoned for two years. During this time, Chul manages to become a police detective and must face up to his brother’s past. With Hyuk hitting the streets again, what will become of this sordid situation?

	The Review

It probably doesn’t take much for readers to realize that I am a pretty big fan of John Woo’s Hong Kong work. Although I haven’t reviewed any of his films in years, I have seen all of his heroic bloodshed titles and nearly everything he has made outside of Hollywood. For those of you who don’t keep up with foreign cinema, however, allow me to explain the “heroic bloodshed” genre for you. At the climax of the eighties, Hong Kong action films were moving away from the classic period-setting Kung Fu movies of the past and were finally escaping into the modern era. Audiences liked seeing modern Hong Kong, and they wanted to see modern action. John Woo, along with Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam, helped instigate a new wave of Hong Kong cinema by delivering a new breed of action cinema. Creating a new style of “gun fighting” that the world had never seen before, John Woo showed that the specialized choreography that had made the Kung Fu genre so special, could very well be adapted to a more contemporary form of combat. Later co-opted by Hollywood and The Matrix, Hong Kong saw a torrent of John Woo clones popping up during his formative years, but for the most part his films remained the best. The original A Better Tomorrow marked the arrival of both John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat, and the two would become superstars in their respected fields afterward. Although it may have had some weaknesses, it can generally be seen as one of the best showcases for John Woo’s ballistic style of action and also his adoration for thick melodrama. This South Korean remake, A Better Tomorrow (2010), does as fair a job as any film possibly could when given the reputation of the original movie. This new take on the classic film attempts to take the melodrama and try and make it seem less over-the-top, and manages to craft a fairly tight familial drama. Although the action takes a backseat this time around, the filmmakers generally craft a movie that is worthy as a piece of entertainment but will suffer due to its constant comparisons to the original.

South Korea has proven itself to be a country that doesn’t fully shy away from prospective remakes. Although the notion is much more alive in Hollywood than in any other nation, the Koreans have never been bashful about reinterpreting popular trends for their own demographic. When they quickly remade the Japanese film Ringu as Rasen, many heads were left spinning. The choice to remake Patrick Swayze’s Ghost may been even more baffling, some twenty years after the release of the original. However, the choice to remake A Better Tomorrow seems even more surprising, because it is hard to imagine a relatively obscure genre film from the eighties being heralded enough to actually warrant the budget that is required to create something like this. Still, the filmmakers and producers felt it was viable and their remake certainly doesn’t strive to completely separate itself from what had come previous. There is a definite adoration felt for the original film, and there are numerous winks and nods to the original movie throughout this modern retelling of the story. When Song Seung-hun shows up wearing a trenchcoat very similar to the one that Chow Yun-Fat wore in the original film, fans of the original shouldn’t be able to help but smirk a tiny bit.

Ultimately, the film shares many of the same beats as the original A Better Tomorrow, but it differentiates itself in some important areas. With a film such as this one, the main obstacle that it must overcome is the comparisons that fans will make to the original. As a reviewer, watching the movie with a critical eye, I find it hard not to continually think of John Woo’s masterpiece. How does one not? It is as if someone were to remake Goodfellas. Scorsese’s movie may be much more famous, but the point is that it’s an extremely popular and iconic title within the world of crime cinema. The same is true for John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, and its legacy is something that honestly cannot be ignored while watching any attempted remake. Although I do enjoy those previously mentioned winks to the audience throughout the movie, there are times where the movie simply seems content to rehash complete sequences from the original film in a nearly shot-for-shot basis. The moments where the movie attempts to be something different are probably the aspects that I most thoroughly enjoyed. The changes made to the character of Chul, a role originally played by Leslie Cheung, are probably the most prominent. The other two lead roles, however, also feature some fairly dramatic changes as well.

Part of me likes what the film does with the Chul character. I like the concept of Hyuk having abandoned his family before the credits even roll, and early into the movie the differences between North and South are felt between these characters. It makes for some intense drama, but the changes that this character makes now seem drastic and all too quick moving. To become a cop after illegally crossing the border seems to be a rather large step, and to do so (and make detective) in only three years comes across as a bit on the extreme. If you can forgive the logical gaps, however, the movie does do some interesting things with this character. In the original film Leslie Cheung’s character always seemed a bit demure, and maybe even naive, in comparison to his older and wiser brother. In this retelling of the story, this character may be even more hardened than his gun-smuggling older brother. While the original film always had a emphasis on the older brother character, played by Ti lung, this remake takes the interesting choice of placing much more focus on the younger brother. In many ways, I think this comes across as the more poignant and dynamic approach to the drama. Whith the writers also throwing in the theme of abandonment on top of everything else, the conclusion to the film becomes that much more powerful. Even if it is almost too downbeat for a movie such as this one.

	The Conclusion

While I won’t try to convince anyone that this is a remake that achieves the same power that the original had, I can’t help but admit that I liked the movie quite a bit. Clocking in at two hours in length, the film still remains brisk and delivers a decent amount of action and many strong performances. Kim Kang-woo (Chul) may actually outshine the Chow Yun-Fat character, who most assuredly stole the show in the original film. Having no per-disposition to dislike the film, I found myself enjoying it immensely. I give it a four out of five. This might be a controversial rating, but I can’t help but recommend it to other potential viewers. This is solid stuff.

	The Avenging Quartet (1992)

Director:	Stanley Siu Wing
Writers:	Stanley Siu Wing (?)
Starring:	Moon Lee, Waise Lee, Cynthia Khan, Chin Kar-lok and Yukari Oshima

The Plot: In ancient China a majestic painting was crafted that was the envy of all the land. When the Japanese conquered China, they took this painting back home with them. During the second World War, the new owner of this painting secretly hid the results of numerous bio-warfare experiments inside of this very painting. Over time, the painting found its way back home to China, but several prideful Japanese, who know about the painting and its secrets, will do anything to get it back. So, we skip forward and are introduced to Feng (Moon Lee) whose brother has recently passed away. She runs into Chin (Cynthia Khan), a young woman in desperate search for her lover who abandoned her back in mainland China. Moon tries to help, but there is only so much that she can do with very little to go on. When Feng finds that her sister-in-law is trying to sell all of her brother’s assets, she steps in to stop the madness. Unfortunately, her former sister-in-law has mob connections and this throws Feng and Chin into a life & death struggle with some nefarious thugs. While this is going on, the sale of the aforementioned painting is being set up by a man that Moon Lee has secret affections for, and the Japanese are edging closer to attaining it. The Japanese are inevitably sending their very best agent, played by Yukario Oshima, to retrieve it.

	The Review

The “girls with guns” genre, within Hong Kong cinema, is something that I had breezily glossed over throughout my years of searching around the cinematic world library. Very different from the American b-movie version of this genre that we had here in the states during the nineties, the Hong Kong equivalent has no focus on T&A or intentional camp. Instead, these are movies that strived very hard to top their male competitors in what was surely the action-film-capital of the world. She Shoots Straight and Kickboxer’s Tears were both interesting developments within the genre, but there are still many more films to try and cycle through as I learn more about these films. The Avenging Quartet is another title in the long list of films to pair Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima opposite to one another, but if you come into this one expecting to see four tough-women “avenging” all over the place, you are bound to leave disappointed. Retitled for distribution, it seems that The Avenging Quartet was something that simply “sounded good” to whoever had the money. As it stands, this is a movie about two “good girls” who take on a bunch of guys, as well as two gals who don’t factor heavily into the plot. Still, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a solid movie by itself, because it really is!

Although you might come into a movie such as this expecting nothing but non-stop action and fun, The Avenging Quartet tries to do things a bit different. Although the movie starts with a bang, as we watch Chin (Cynthia Khan) fight with a few baddies who lob grenades in her direction, the movie quickly changes its pace. The movie actually opens with a rather somber note, to tell the truth. We see a lot of Feng (Moon Lee) walking along the dark streets of Hong Kong whil wishing that she were still with her former lover, a lover that we later find out is Hsiong (played by a rapidly aging Waise Lee). Then we are formally introduced to the character of Chin, who is also looking for her former boyfriend. The film plays this very depressing sort of music while all of this goes on, giving the movie an extremely dramatic atmosphere that sticks out like a sore thumb. After watching the introduction, with all of its explosions and machineguns, this rather sad story about women having been abandoned just seems depressing in comparison. Although it wouldn’t normally be considered a “good” thing, it is a blessing that the movie is fairly erratic in its style and mood. After this relatively slow start, once Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan team up the comedy really starts to stack up. The action remains surprisingly sparse, but it always of a fine quality. Fight scenes are to be expected, but there is also a decent amount of gunplay, swordplay and even a couple of excellent car chases to top everything off.

Much of the comedy within the film is provided by the character of Paul (Chin Kar-lok), who is a rather baffoonish police officer placed in charge of protecting the two ladies. He continually tries to “woo” the girls, but unfortunately his brain is apparently made of diced carrots. Although Hong Kong comedy is almost always a mixed bag that leans towards the lowest-commond-denominator, I have to admit that I did quite like his performance. While Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan both present very solid dramatic performances (Moon even sheds a few tears), they are this way in order to provide straight characters to play off of the craziness that Chin Kar-lok brings to the table. He brings a certain amount of good cheer to the movie, and his presence is readily felt once he is introduced. As the movie went on, I became more and more thankful for Chin Kar-lok’s character. Although this may be considered an action-comedy in terms of genre, it is much more “comedy” than it is “action.” This isn’t a terrible thing, it just puts far more emphasis on other aspects of the movie. If the film didn’t have Chin Kar-lok hamming it up, or if Moon Lee wasn’t being her regular adorable little self, this might have been a very different sort of movie.

The movie actually looks really good for this sort of project. Although one imagines Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima starring in dozens of movies in only a scant amount of time, The Avenging Quartet at least has the appearance of a film that had a decent amount of preparation behind it. There are a few really interesting tracking shots throughout the movie, as well as some atmospheric lighting. During one sequence, Chin Kar-lok, Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan actually visit a drug den known as “heaven,” and it almost resembles something out of Jacob’s Ladder. Blue strobe lights lighting long corridors mark our entrance into this hellish location, and we soon watch as the camera pans between numerous rooms that are filled with party-go’ers who are all busy getting stoned. The movie switches gears often, but it can be very visual when it is called for.

The sequences involving the painting-subplot, where we follow a few brief scenes from Yukari Oshima as well as numerous scenes of Waise Lee trying to escape Japanese assassins, almost seem entirely disconnected from the main crux of the film. The wild adventures of Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan are where the plot actually finds its teeth, and this entire Japanese-Chinese painting subplot can feel a bit tacked on at times. Despite the introduction for the film featuring some narration that tells us all about this mysterious painting that seems so dramatically important to the plot, all of these scenes seem secondary to the drama that unfolds when the girls are onscreen. While it is thrilling to see Yukari Oshima finally pop up, even if it is relatively late in the movie and for very little screen time, it is unfortunate that she isn’t spending her screen time with Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan. As Oshima gets closer to Moon Lee’s side of the story, things become progressively more interesting, but the movie misses the mark in presenting anything dynamic between these three.

The fight scenes are as A+ as you might expect from this caliber of talent. There is a fight scene set in a gym, during the latter part of the movie, that places Yukari Oshima against fellow Japanese actress Michiko Nishiwaki, and it turns out to be rather epic. Oshima shows up in her denim jacket and is quick to start laying down a beatdown. The great thing about Oshima in this film is how drastically she seems to change outfits throughout the movie, despite having a very limited role. The previously mentioned denim number seems to be her “Hong Kong” outfit, but when she is chasing people down with her dirtbike she prefers a leather combo. My personal favorite outfit of hers may be the kimono that she wears when back at home in Japan. It really makes no sense, as this story takes place in “modern” times, and this kimono scene looks like something out of a samurai film, but that zaniness is simply a part of what this movie delivers. The fight scenes, such as the gym one and the amazing conclusion set inside of a burning building, are fairly tremendous in their quality.

	The Conclusion

The movie can be a bit of a mixed bag, I suppose. I think that this title is far superior to Beauty Investigator, which was similar in having Oshima as the antagonist against Moon Lee in a rather comedic film, but that doesn’t make this a title without its fair share of issues. Still, The Avenging Quartet is quite a bit of fun and I would hate anyone to miss out on it. Overall, I give the movie a high three out of five. Although this isn’t so amazing that I feel the need to recommend it to all viewers, I still feel that it is a movie that I will come back and watch later on simply for the fun of the experience.

This may very well be the first Kinju Fukasaku picture to grace the Varied Celluloid online database, which is a tragedy. I can’t say why it has taken this long to feature one of his films, but his time is well overdue. Today we take a look at what turns out to be one of his finest yakuza pictures, Yakuza Graveyard. As always, click on the cover art to read the full review.

The Plot: Our film begins with a young man being hoisted out of a pachinko parlor after being hustled for some money by the Yakuza managers. While no one is looking, we are introduced to Kuroiwa (Tetsuya Watari) who grabs the young man’s pachinko balls. When Kuroiwa tries to cash them in, the gangsters start to hustle him in the same manner that they did the previous young punk. What they don’t know is that this is not a man to be trifled with. After giving up his money, Kuroiwa then follows the gangsters and shows them his badge and reveals that he is actually a cop. Kuroiwa places the punks under arrest, but is soon watching them hit the streets due to their yakuza ties. It turns out that Kuroiwa is a policeman with a haunted past. After a raid went down poorly, he found himself firing a bullet into the back of a yakuza after his partner had been shot in the shoulder. This landed Kuroiwa in a ton of hot water and has essentially ruined his career up until this point. Feeling indignant at his role in society, being a honest cop in a world of corruption, Kuroiwa is focused entirely on taking down the yakuza. However, as Kuroiwa ponders his life, he begins to find himself siding more with the yakuza than with the police department that he has swore his allegiance to.