HARAKIRI (1962)

"Who can fathom the depths of another man's heart?"

Japan 1630.  Masterless samurai Tatsuya Nakadai is way down on his luck, so he goes to the estate of a local samurai clan and requests to use their courtyard to commit seppuku.  They grant him entrance, but being suspicious of his intentions, they inform him of how there has been an increased amount of down-on-their-luck ronin going around recently claiming the desire to commit seppuku but are actually just looking for a handout.  In fact, they had one such young fellow in here not too long ago and seeing that he was being untruthful, they forced him to commit seppuku (with a bamboo sword!) even though he begged to be let go.  Tatsuya finds this story to be most interesting...

In the extras on the Criterion release, screenwriter Shinobu (THE SWORD OF DOOM, SEVEN SAMURAI) Hashimoto describes HARAKIRI as "A samurai's bitter ranting at his harakiri ceremony, that's it." and while that is true he neglects to mention that the samurai he's talking about (Tatsuya Nakadai) is one bad motherfucker!  I can't say how badass he is without ruining it for anybody unfortunate enough to have never seen HARAKIRI, but, trust me, he ain't no joke.

Exciting sword fights, massive amounts of talent both in front of and behind the camera, strong script that gives you a lot to think about even after the film is over, steady pace that keeps building the excitement, gravel that mysteriously re-sweeps itself after people walked on it, awesome lighting, believable ending.  Highly recommended.

Double-feature with 1966's THE SWORD OF DOOM.  Also, Tatsuya Nakadai and Tetsuro Tanba would face off again seven years later in GOYOKIN, but it's not nearly as exciting.

SKI PARTY (1965)

Shoehorned between the superior BEACH BLANKET BINGO and the lame HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI (all three were released within three months of each other!), SKI PARTY tells the completely nonsensical tale of two friends, Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman, who, instead of simply talking to the two girls they like, go through a ridiculous amount of trouble to try and hook up with them.

After a "failed" date at a drive-in, the two boys tag along on a school skiing trip that the girls are going on.  Nothing wrong with that.  Things seem to be going well, but then when the boys realize that they don't know how to ski...they, for whatever insane movie logic reason, decide to dress up like women!  And to compound the problem, the most popular boy in school now has the major hots for the female version of Dwayne!  It's actually kinda funny.  Also, Frankie Avalon enters a ski jumping contest in order to impress Bobbie Shaw, who he's been fake-flirting with in order to make the girl he secretly likes jealous!  That's right...instead of simply saying "I like you." to the the girl he likes, he follows her to another state, temporarily impersonates being a woman, fakes liking another girl and then enters a ski jumping contest to impress the girl he doesn't like.  With writing like that I guess it shouldn't surprise you that James Brown & The Famous Flames show up as a ski patrol.

Wacky story, some really good songs, beautiful locations in Sun Valley, Idaho and on Santa Monica Beach, California, humorous "breaking the 4th wall" moment, charmingly terrible special effects, Dick Miller in a small role as a taxi driver, lots of attractive girls in the background, brief Annette Funicello appearance as a college professor and the end credits promise of a "Cruise Party" movie that sadly never happened.

Attentive viewers will notice that in SKI PARTY Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman's characters are named Todd Armstrong and Craig Gamble, but in the same years DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman character's names are switched.  Meaning Frankie is Todd in this film, but Craig in DGATBM and Dwayne is Craig here, but Todd in DGATBM.