Daimajin: Film Trilogy (1966)

Daimajin (aka Majin): Film Trilogy (1966)

Dirs. Various (see below)

A kaijū trilogy produced by Daiei, which is the studio that gave us the original Gamera franchise. The 'Majin' features in all three films, but their stories are otherwise unconnected.

01. The first entry, Daimajin (1966); aka Majin / Majin, the Monster of Terror / Majin, the Hideous Idol [Dir. Kimiyoshi Yasuda], is an altogether more sophisticated breed of film than the big turtle got. It's a quality jidaigeki about clans, control, and a merciless militaristic coup. It's a male dominated tale, but the few women that do feature wield the kind of power that matters.

The creature is like a crushing force of nature or an angry god's retribution personified, punishing the evils of mankind. It takes a long time for its 'kaijū' aspect to appear onscreen, but in all probability you won't miss it because the drama that occupies the remainder of the running time is excellent and holds its own. It keeps colours naturalistic but still manages to look beautiful.

Godzilla: Shōwa Era Films (1954-74)

01. Godzilla (1954) 

Dir. Ishirō Honda

NOTE: for simplicity's sake I've used English language titles for each of my Godzilla reviews, but it's always the original Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

The monstrous growl that's heard over the film's opening credits foreshadows what's to come, which can be summed up as the Japanese people facing a monstrous terror that the rest of the world has never seen. It begins at sea and then moves inland.

The creature responsible for the inhuman roar — the monarch of kaijū eiga — is a force to be reckoned with, for sure, and is more than just an excuse to have a guy in a rubber suit trash tiny models. You don't need to be a history scholar to pick out the many wartime parallels: nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, irradiated wells, air raid sirens, and footfalls that sound like distant bombs impacting and exploding are all highlighted.

The HAMMER Collection: Part 2 of 3 (1966-68)

The HAMMER Collection:
DVD Box Set - Part 2 of 3 (1966-68)

A twenty-one disc DVD box set containing some of the best and worst films that the legendary HAMMER studio made before it succumbed to financial trouble and was forced to put away the costumes and close its doors.

I'm splitting the collection into three parts with seven films apiece and in chronological order.

That's not the order they're arranged in the box, but it makes sense to me, more so than the unusual order they're presented in the actual collection, and means that the post for each of the three parts will be roughly equal in size.

Thoughts on the second lot of seven films can be found below the cut. Part 1 of the collection can be found HERE, while Part 3 is HERE.

The HAMMER Collection: Part 1 of 3 (1965-66)

The HAMMER Collection:
DVD Box Set - Part 1 of 3 (1965-66)

A twenty-one disc DVD box set containing some of the best and worst films that the legendary HAMMER studio made before it succumbed to financial trouble and was forced to put away the costumes and close its doors.

It's a tidy package that takes up very little space on a shelf. It's roughly about the size of a cube made from standard size CD jewel cases. The discs are housed securely in four multi-disc digi tray booklets. I dislike digi trays, usually, but they're better than crappy card wallets, which is what I feared the discs would be presented in.

I'm splitting the collection into three parts with seven films apiece and in chronological order.

That's not the order they're arranged in the box, but it means that the post for each of the three parts will be roughly equal in size (besides this one, which has a slightly longer intro). As for putting them in chronological order - it makes sense to me, more so than the unusual order they're presented in the actual box. Part 2 of the collection is HERE, while Part 3 is HERE.

Django (1966)

Django (1966)

Dir. Sergio Corbucci

Corbucci's notorious Spaghetti Western is surprisingly less violent than its history of classification in the UK implies, but BBFC decisions being 'partially reactionary' shouldn't really be news to anyone, right?

Franco Nero is the charismatic anti-hero dressed in black coat and hat, dragging a full-sized coffin behind him. The mysterious figure and his deathly cargo arrive in a mostly abandoned town that's under siege from a gang of Mexican bandits and a racist ex-Civil War Confederate Major (Eduardo Fajardo) who kills Mexicans for sport, a situation that was no doubt inspired by Yojimbo (1961).

Django stands up for the abused when it suits him, including coming to the aid of a beautiful prostitute named Maria (Loredana Nusciak).

Doctor Who: Peter Cushing (1965-66)

Doctor Who: Peter Cushing (1965-66)

Non-canon Doctor | 2 films, approx 83 mins each.

01. Director Gordon Flemyng's Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965) is the first feature-length outing for the time-hopping Time Lord, Doctor Who. Except, he's not a Time Lord yet because his Gallifreyan origins had yet to be invented or explored in 1965.

Peter Cushing stars as the titular traveller, his version of which is a dithering grandpa-type that I suspect may have been a high-school physics teacher at one point in his life, because how else could he build an actual working time machine in his spare room?

The script is based on a seven-part TV serial by Terry Nation and starring First Doctor William Hartnell, simply titled The Daleks in home media releases. [1]

The Magnificent Seven: Films (1960-72)

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Dir. John Sturges

Hollywood swapped east for west, B+W for colour and katanas for guns in their reworking of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954).

Despite being pushed for time behind the scenes they managed to come up trumps in every way with the first film in the series.

The John Ford-esque clique; the men beholden to nothing but their own moral code; recurring good and bad guy themes (by Elmer Bernstein); and even the timely split between the recruit, preparation and battle phases are all instantly recognisable pre-existing elements to fans of both the Western and Chanbara genre but it's still indelibly iconic in its own way.

Gamera: Shōwa Era Films: Part One (1965-68)

Gamera (1965)

Dir. Noriaki Yuasa

All eight of the original Shōwa era Gamera films are available on Blu-ray for a very affordable price thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment. They're split over two volumes, of which this is the first, with each release containing four remastered Japanese originals on one Blu-ray disc. Four films on one disc would ordinarily make me cringe, but the truth is they look just fine. What's equally important is that, even though it states on the reverse that they're Region A, they are in fact Region FREE.

Created to cash in on the success of Toho's Gojira (Godzilla) franchise, the first Gamera movie contains within it enough unique elements to differentiate it from Godzilla.

Videodrome (1983) : Arrow Video Limited Edition (2015)

Videodrome (1983)

Dir. David Cronenberg

Seeing is believing. Until we see something in its physical aspect then its reality is questionable.

What then of television? The device is visible but the transmission invisible. The pictures enter our mind the same way as everything else, but their 'reality' can be entirely fictitious. Sure, we're programmed to know the difference, but what if the programming changes or the difference slips away? Is seeing really believing, then?

By the same token, at what point does violent sex become sexual violence? When does flesh and distinction cease to follow the accepted rules?

Torture. Murder. Mutilation. Videodrome.

Director David Cronenberg's masterpiece.

HAMMER: Dracula Films (1958-74)

Dracula (1958)

aka Horror of Dracula (in the US)

Dir. Terence Fisher

It took huge liberties with Bram Stoker's original story, but otherwise Hammer's first flirtation with the Dracula figure is the best vampire film they ever made.

The elaborate sets are beautifully lit. The creeping strings and timely crashing cymbals of James Bernard's score lift everything from routinely dramatic to legendary heights.

What gets the most attention, deservedly so, is the addition of Christopher Lee in the lead role and Peter Cushing as his nemesis, the pursuant Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. Pitting those two against each other is like having mountains collide amid a thunderstorm.

The ending is the most memorable of any vampire film I've ever seen.