Monday, October 23, 2006

[1980] SHOGUN ASSASSIN: 160 minutes of stylized violence edited down to 80 minutes gives you....80 minutes of stylized violence. Really, the Baby Cart movies don't lose much in translation because they never had much to begin with, so if you just want a best-of comp of the first two films than this is perfectly fine. It gives you the swordplay without the superfluous plot--plus you get to here Sandra Bernhard voice the Supreme Ninja with a terrible Japanese accent! I think I don't get too much out of them (or this) for the same reason I don't get into Bond movies: I never have the sense that our (anti-)hero is in any danger. He's indestructable, the baby's indestructable, so let's go slaughter some ninjas! And they do. If these movies were more fun that would make up for them being not very good--but they go down the path of being incredibly grim instead. PASS. (Note that this is technically a Kill Bill movie, but Tarantino doesn't actually homage it--it's the movie the Bride watches with her daughter as they fall asleep. So it's basically Baby's First Sleaze & Exploitation film within the Kill Bill universe, which it sort of is in ours too--something to get you into Asian pulp cinema but also something you throw away when you throw away the childish things.)

No comments: