When Horror Came to Shochiku: Eclipse Series 37 (The Criterion Collection)

I've been waiting years and years for 3 of the 4 of these films to be released domestically. Now, not only has that happened, it's via Criterion, the films are NOT dubbed (hooray) and THEY LOOK ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.

LIVING SKELETON in particular benefits SO much from the treatment here. My goodness... the black-&-white cinematography is GORGEOUS. I'd only seen a 4th generation video of it. Once. And while that whet my appetite it in no way prepared me for this. Mind you, the stunning, restored, crisp print showcases the less-than-stunning, rubber and plastic skeletons and bats which appear throughout the movie. However, the whole film is so, so like a sleepwalking trance, that the very Japanese fantasy elements, which are still, on one level, laughable, are, in my opinion, forgiveable. Wacky, dream-logic maze of strangeness and self-destruction. And the lead actress is HAUNTINGLY beautiful.

GENOCIDE, too, looks marvelous and captivates despite its curious tone, banal message and at times questionable execution. I think it will take only 5 minutes of viewing to see if you will find yourself along for the ride or not. NOTE- I had a hard time with the presentation of the only black character in this film. To be specific, at times it was cringe-inducing, and, at the least- jarring. Is it just over-acting in trying to portray paranoid drug addiction, or are there distasteful subtexts here and to a lesser degree with the allegedly Eastern European Blonde? Also, and this applies to at least two of the other films, non-Japanese actors appear to be speaking in English but were post-dubbed into Japanese. I actually preferred this to the alternative, but, it was a bit distracting during crucial, close-up monologues.

Words cannot adequately describe GOKE. It left me speechless and impressed. To be a bit crude-but-concise- this one piles one WTF? visual on top of another and hardly ever lets up.

X is fun. Love that groovy music. Incredibly light and the spectacle of the so-ridiculous-its-fascinating monster coughing and stomping and smashing about. Bright and kooky and swinging.

ALL of the films here also SOUND great. This is important. The odd music and eerie sound effects and voices are nearly as important as the mind-bending visuals. The despondent harmonica and crying ghosts of SKELETON. The wacky guitars and themes in the others.

Now, VERY IMPORTANT here. The whole idea of these ECLIPSE sets are making obscure, related films available, beautiful and restored to original language tracks with subtitles. THERE ARE NO EXTRAS HERE. That's what makes it about $10 or less per disc. If you want discussion, each film has LOTS of online attention from film scholars.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as long as you leave any expectations of logical narrative at the door.

This series is not for everyone. Actually it is probably going to appeal to about 1% of movie watchers. Maybe less.

I will just sum up the collection, the actual listing shows a brief synopsis about each film. But this is an amazing collection at an amazing price. You will notice that I do not have the 'Amazon verified purchase' and that is because my amazing local library picked this set up. Instantly it was requested by dozens of folks in the system, luckily I was first on the list!

These four films are not what I would call great. I would say the experience, however, is great. One really should not watch these and critique things such as the disproportionate skeletons in the ocean, or other little trivial nuances. Instead, the budget driven filming is one of the delights of this collection. Modern film has given the average viewer too much eye candy and not enough substance. With these films, the eye candy is removed, and instead we have some very subtle meanings, and very interesting, low budget effects. If you enjoyed House (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray], then you will most likely enjoy this collection.

I won't spoil things, but if you watch the films through completion, there are some very interesting metaphors. Such as one film where you are so caught up in the struggles of a few people that you will be surprised at what happens after the manage to extricate themselves from said situation. Shocked really.

I would say that Goke is rather fun and weird, but it is probably the most profound of the films in it's rather tongue in cheek style. There are several moments where the director bashes corruption, greed, and the rampant capitalist system, all in a rather amusing alien-body snatcher film. (He's not from Hell sadly... and that's not a spoiler, you see the UFO right away).

The other three films are also very good. Living skeleton is the least campy until the finale. Then it gets super-camp-tastic. And recognize the 'doctor' near end? He was a Kurosawa regular (The Bad Sleep Well was a bigger role of his).

The collection is ideal for those who enjoy this style of film. If you can't get past the B-movie style of these films, then you probably won't enjoy them much. They're not gory or bloody, but they really ushered in a new era of campy, budget, cerebral horror films that found their stride in the 60s and 70s and were quickly overshadowed by the 80s American horror genre which sadly continues to this day. Don't worry. No teenagers camping at night in these films!

I have only seen two these before X From Outer Space & Goke and have waiting a long time for them to come because they are both fantastic, but I was amazed that the other two are just as great too. WOW is all I can say if you enjoy japanese sci-fi horror you really need to scoop these up. ProgMark