Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

[Jeff]

Anyone know what's up with the wacky aspect ratios quoted on the packaging? I haven't had a chance to put these in yet to see if they're accurate.

The X From Outer Space - 2.24:1
The Living Skeleton - 2.50:1
Genocide - 2.47:1

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell is listed as 2.35, which is what I thought these all were.

[Saturnome]

It seems to match the DVDbeaver screencaps. X is a bit taller, while the two last titles are a bit letterboxed. Strange.

[Yojimbo]

Anyone know what's up with the wacky aspect ratios quoted on the packaging? I haven't had a chance to put these in yet to see if they're accurate.

The X From Outer Space - 2.24:1
The Living Skeleton - 2.50:1
Genocide - 2.47:1

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell is listed as 2.35, which is what I thought these all were.

Funny, I was just rooting around for a DVD an hour or so back and I came across a Roger Corman set which includes 'X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes'
I can feel a double-bill coming on!
(I've never actually seen the Corman)

[CSM126]

Having finally received this package I eagerly dug right into The X from Outer Space for the first time in a long time. Dear God what a delight. As the liner notes describe it "idiotic and irresistable". I'm hard pressed to think of films as stupid and hilarious as this - well, aside from The Room I suppose. It's pretty hilarious right from the start but forty minutes in, when the monster finally shows up, it accelerates into side splittling, tear-inducing, laugh-til-you-puke insanity. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as when watching Guilala blindly stumble and trip through a cardboard city as the actor struggles to see through the constantly flapping mouth. Or when the model planes accidentally fly right into it's head because the guy forgot to swat them out of the air. Or when the puppet strings operating the beak show up clear as day (all the time). Or when Lisa's legs get crushed under a nuclear reactor and she walks away unscathed when they lift it off of her. Or...

I could go on all day. This is the kind of movie that is right up my alley: disastrous, cheesy and totally non-self aware. I'm glad to have bought this set just for this one movie.

[JonasEB]

Anyone know what's up with the wacky aspect ratios quoted on the packaging? I haven't had a chance to put these in yet to see if they're accurate.

I'd assume it's just the standard variation in the mastering of the CinemaScope ratio. Like how a lot of American CinemaScope films (such as Bigger Than Life) were, until recently, scaled down to 2.35:1 instead of their full 2.55:1 shape.

[Yojimbo]

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as when watching Guilala blindly stumble and trip through a cardboard city as the actor struggles to see through the constantly flapping mouth. Or when the model planes accidentally fly right into it's head because the guy forgot to swat them out of the air. Or...

I could go on all day. This is the kind of movie that is right up my alley: disastrous, cheesy and totally non-self aware. I'm glad to have bought this set just for this one movie.

I can't wait
(hopefully at least one of the notifications of attempted delivery I've received from my postman will be for this set!)

[colinr0380]

(I've never actually seen the Corman)

Well, you simply must pluck it out! Of your DVD pile, that is.

[Yojimbo]

(I've never actually seen the Corman)

Well, you simply must pluck it out! Of your DVD pile, that is.

Will co, sarn't major, sahr!

[MichaelB]

The Corman film is magnificent - right up there with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man when it comes to the gulf between the schlocky title and the probing intelligence of the actual film.

[Yojimbo]

The Corman film is magnificent - right up there with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man when it comes to the gulf between the schlocky title and the probing intelligence of the actual film.

I only finally caught up with The Incredible Shrinking Man within the past year; that ending completely blew me away.
Its not just a Sci-Fi Masterpiece, but a great film

[knives]

The Corman film is magnificent - right up there with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man when it comes to the gulf between the schlocky title and the probing intelligence of the actual film.

Also has one of Milland's very best performances. That entire last act is just heartbreaking on every level.

[Yojimbo]

Just received my set today from Importcds.com, which I see has the same signature on the Customs declaration as for Deep Discount
(and similar packaging, also; which I guess can only mean one thing)

This will have to take a backseat, though, as I'm currently being bowled over by Volume Three of the (British) Edgar Wallace Mysteries series, - which deserves a topic of its own, - and I've also just today received Volume Three of the (German) Edgar Wallace Mysteries series, one of which features a young and callow-looking Klaus Kinski, and I'll be again comparing with its British counterpart.
Either way, mucho fun viewing over the next week or so!
(and I've got 3 more British, and 1 more German EWM sets on the way)

[knives]

Criterion have been getting pretty erratic with the eclipses lately though unlike the Mailer set the two terrible films here are at least amusing in a 'how did this get made' sort of way. Genocide in particular is marvelously transgressive and grotesque in a way that is altogether amusing like a psychedelic John Milius film. Just the idea of casting the WASPiest woman in the world as a Holocaust victim is jaw dropping in a way I can't get offended by even though by all logic I should. The film comes across as really conservative and xenophobic even by Japanese monster movie standards and yet it features a plot point straight from Quantum Leap and ends in a nuclear holocaust.

[Yojimbo]

Criterion have been getting pretty erratic with the eclipses lately though unlike the Mailer set the two terrible films here are at least amusing in a 'how did this get made' sort of way. Genocide in particular is marvelously transgressive and grotesque in a way that is altogether amusing like a psychedelic John Milius film. Just the idea of casting the WASPiest woman in the world as a Holocaust victim is jaw dropping in a way I can't get offended by even though by all logic I should. The film comes across as really conservative and xenophobic even by Japanese monster movie standards and yet it features a plot point straight from Quantum Leap and ends in a nuclear holocaust.

Speaking of terrible films I've just been watching one of the films in the German Edgar Wallace series (set 3)
The film is a lot of fun but the English language dub is hilarious and almost worth the price of admission alone

[med]

I'd have to go back and check, but, in Genocide, I'm certain Annabelle's concentration-camp tattoo wasn't there in her earlier bikini scenes!

Speaking of which, I've never been of the mind that the Holocaust shouldn't ever be used in the dramatic form, but yeesh, the allusion to Nazi atrocities didn't sit well with me.

[d-less]

The liner notes for The Living Skeleton compare the film to Hirokazu Kore-eda's debut feature Maborosi. Does Maborosi have a good home video release? I couldn't answer the question for myself on the Internet.

[knives]

There's an OOP New Yorker release otherwise it doesn't seem to have an english friendly release.

[zedz]

I never owned it, but I believe the New Yorker release was notoriously bad - poor transfer of a projection print with burnt in subs. There was a much superior Japanese release (maybe even with English subs?), but it was very expensive and may now also be OOP.

[d-less]

Thanks, I was afraid of that.

[joshua]

The Japanese Disc is still available over at Yesasia. There used to be a Korean port of the Japanese disc that ran significantly cheaper but it looks like it's long out of print. Over in the Milestone thread there was some news about it coming out through them some time in the future.

[Michael Kerpan]

The Japanese DVD release of Maborosi looks very very good. Back when the yen-dollar exchange rate was more reasonable, the price was actually pretty affordable (as Japanese DVDs then went).

[JonasEB]

The Japanese Disc is still available over at Yesasia. There used to be a Korean port of the Japanese disc that ran significantly cheaper but it looks like it's long out of print. Over in the Milestone thread there was some news about it coming out through them some time in the future.

Yep, it's getting a Blu-ray sometime in the near future - http://milestonefilms.com/collections/l ... s/maborosi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Yojimbo]

Having finally received this package I eagerly dug right into The X from Outer Space for the first time in a long time. Dear God what a delight. As the liner notes describe it "idiotic and irresistable". I'm hard pressed to think of films as stupid and hilarious as this - well, aside from The Room I suppose. It's pretty hilarious right from the start but forty minutes in, when the monster finally shows up, it accelerates into side splittling, tear-inducing, laugh-til-you-puke insanity. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as when watching Guilala blindly stumble and trip through a cardboard city as the actor struggles to see through the constantly flapping mouth. Or when the model planes accidentally fly right into it's head because the guy forgot to swat them out of the air. Or when the puppet strings operating the beak show up clear as day (all the time). Or when Lisa's legs get crushed under a nuclear reactor and she walks away unscathed when they lift it off of her. Or...

I could go on all day. This is the kind of movie that is right up my alley: disastrous, cheesy and totally non-self aware. I'm glad to have bought this set just for this one movie.

Finally caught up with this last night. The monster was, of course, hilarious, but I thought the film took far too long to, as it were, 'get off the ground': far too much talk, and not just jargon, and some repetition of plot. I loved all of the model work, though, and the cheesy space-travel shots.
Where it really 'took off', for me, though was that last twenty minutes, starting with when they all rushed to rescue Lisa (when it resembled the Marx Brothers 'state-room' scene, the way they all crowded in and looked like they were getting in each other's way); then when the two lads in the jeep decided to draw the monster away from the built up areas.
And you had to love those final 'romantic' scenes!

Not quite top-rank Japanese 60s sci-fi, but much to love, and it left me with a cheesy grin on my face from ear to ear.
So that can't be bad.

Can't wait to watch the others

[Yojimbo]

Just watched 'The Living Skeleton', and what a surprise after the cheesiness of 'X': this is a highly effective, and efficient piece of film-making, which even if it uses a whole clutch of familiar horror-film tropes, uses them in a well-balanced way.
Nicely paced, well-acted, and with a suitably spare, - even haunting, - soundtrack, with particularly effective harmonica and flute solos, this one certainly belongs, at the very least, among the top rank of second division horror films, and indeed is not flattered by comparisons with the Val Lewton RKO horror films
('Skeleton' is certainly superior to 'Ghost Ship', the Lewton which it perhaps bears most comparison with)

Now I can't wait to watch the remaining two films in the set, even if I don't expect this one to be topped

[knives]

The Living Skeleton is indeed the superior film of this set, though I personally prefer the Lewton you referenced. Goke is very good and seems to have been an inspiration for Miike while, as I already mentioned, Genocide is awful is a really fascinating way like some of the more offensive '80s Italian horrors.