CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES FROM DEEP BELOW (2011)

Makoto Shinkai's next film after the wonderful 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND concerns a young girl, Asuna, who spends her spare time climbing a hill near her house so she can listen to a strange musical sound on her crystal radio.  One day while walking towards the hill she encounters a mysterious creature that kinda looks like a bear.  She's saved my an equally mysterious boy.  They spend the afternoon together and he mentions a place called Agartha.  Stuff happens and before you know it Asuna has traveled to the strange world of Agartha.  All of things that happen there might not be exciting, but they're all beautiful thanks to the animation. 

Not as good as 5CPS, but it's still a nice story and the animation is so breathtaking that honestly I could've watched it with the subtitles turned off and liked it just as well.

PUNISHED (2011)

Disappointing.  The story here is Anthony Wong is a rich dude who's daughter is kidnapped and now he's out to kick ass.  Holy shit, that's an awesome idea cause we all know Anthony Wong knows how to kick ass with the best of 'em.  Unfortunately the writer of this turkey must have made a bet to "take an kick ass idea and totally fuck it up" cause PUNISHED is boring as fook.  First off, in the beginning of the film they tell us in a flashback that the daughter is dead.  Really?  Why would you do that?!  Secondly, once we finally get to meet the daughter she's in her early 20's and a complete asshole.  I mean honestly there is not one single redeeming quality about her: she's a hardcore drug addict, she drives like a maniac, she's abusive towards her step-mother who seems to be a nice person and she's nonstop taking/stealing from her father to buy coke.  Wong should have counted it as a blessing that she got kidnapped, but instead he actually believes that she's faking it.  That's how fucked up this kid is. 

Anyway, stuff happens and she dies so now Wong is all angry, but instead of doing anything about it himself he has his bodyguard go out and hunt down the kidnappers.  But even that is boring.  The biggest highlight of the film was laughing about how shitty Wong's kid and the bodyguard's kid is.  At one point the bodyguard calls his son (who lives with his ex-wife) and tells him "Hey, I'm moving to Moscow and I'll be away for a few years."  The kid replies with "Alright, well call me when you get back.  I got another call, gotta go!"  *click* then puts the phone in his pocket.  Hahahahaha!  What a little shit! 

Unoriginal story, weak revenge scenes, some of the worst shooting by a professional bodyguard ever, Anthony Wong never once kicks ass, stupid overly emotional ending that is predictable as fuck, non-threatening kidnappers, unsympathetic victim.  Skip it.  If you need me I'll be watching COMMANDO and I SAW THE DEVIL.

GOZU (2003)

This film is probably more brilliant than my little brain can comprehend.

Yakuza Ozaki clearly has a screw loose, so his crew decides to kill him.  To make things easier they send him, with fellow brother Minami, to another town under the false pretense that he's to check in on some crew members there.  Once at the location he's to be killed and his body disposed of in an rather unusual way.  While still on the road some bizarre stuff happens (including an incident at a river which I'm sure somehow signifies Death or a gateway to Hell) and Ozaki disappears.  Minami, terrified that he's failed his job, looks around frantically for Ozaki, but all he finds are bizarre and repulsive characters that don't even seem real.  What the Hell is going on around here?!  Literally.

The story of GOZU is quite strange and maybe impossible to interpret, but clearly Ozaki dies towards the beginning of the film and somehow Minami is pulled (if that's even the right word) into this strange purgatory between Life and Hell.  I'm not a film scholar or a expert on the Buddhist afterlife or Greek Mythology, but it looks to me that there is a lot going on beneath the surface.  A theory off the top of my head is at the beginning of the film we know that Minami is innocent since he's still a virgin, but Ozaki is not innocent (killing the white dog).  The river signifies Death(?) and the town must be a gateway to Hell(?).  The characters signify different things (I won't waste your time with it all) and maybe the female signifies repressed homosexuality tendencies (you'll understand when you see the movie).  Minami is still a virgin, but the voice from inside the girl is calling to him.  He eventually looses his innocent (pop sound) and Ozaki has returned.  There's also the thing about the hidden room at the Inn, could that signified inner happiness?  Who knows?  Or maybe the entire film is all just a red herring full of weird imagery.  Either way GOZU is a fun film and one of my absolute favorite Miike films.  The ladle scene alone is worth the price of admission.  Hell, Renji Ishibashi's facial expressions in the ladle scene alone are worth buying this movie!

Scratching away at the white (innocence)?