DVD
ANIME
HEAT GUY J (12) 200min (Manga DVD retail) 0..
Although this latest animation to emerge from the Manga stable isn't groundbreaking by any means. director Kazuki Akane's VIVId. conCIse adoption of just
about every modern sci-
fi genre staple gOing makes it a whole lot of fun.
Pairing brash young Special Services agent Daisuke Aurora with hulking android J (imagine Arnie's Terminator with the appearance of Marv from Sin City and a fine line in concise kung fu philosophy). Heat Guy J sees the duo taking on all manner of gangsters. vampires and crazed bombers with bullets and bionic brawn.
The animation is only as impressive as your average console game. but the storytelling is sharply paced and each characterisation vivid. It's a strength rather than a flaw that you can detect recurring hints of such disparate Western films as The Godfather. Blade Runner and Blade. and even more pleasing that spotting these influences doesn't detract from this vibrantly imagined future-noir scenario. Two-disc edition with eight episodes. no extras. (David Pollock)
KUNG FU/COMEDY KING OF BEGGARS
(1 5) 98min (Hong Kong Legends
DVD retail) 0”
If Bruce Lee and Goofy had a Iovechild it would
46 THE LIST 13—27 Apr 2006
KUHG FU COMEDY
“(Hill
probably be a lot like . Steven Chow. He has been reinventing and
parodying the kung fu genre for well over a decade with his exaggerated. cartoony and mildly camp style. Having only recently received recognition and box office returns in the West with 2001 's Shao/in Soccer and 2004's Kung Fu Hustle. several companies are falling over themselves to re-release his large back catalogue.
Made in 1992. King of the Beggars is a take on the Chinese folktale of Beggar So. Unlike his later work Beggars is not written and directed by Chow (chop socky veterans Gordon Lam and David Chan are at the helm) but the key elements of the templates he would later work to are all here (self-deprecation, impressive wirework, vibrant cinematography and striking backdrops). The story moves impossibly fast. racing madly from love at first sight to paraplegia to mysterious ‘sleep fighting' — all executed with a satisfactory level of projectile blood spraying and decapitation. Extras include Rags to Riches. a filmed interview with director Chan and an interactive Stephen Chow biography. (Tracey Fisher)
HORROR
DAY OF THE DEAD
(18) 97min
(Arrow Films DVD retail)
With a big budget remake on the cards. it's perhaps time to reacquaint yourself with this oft-neglected entry in George A Romero‘s
stunning Dead SCHBS. In many ways Day . . offers the best flat-out gore-soaked entertainment of the series (and is Romero's fav0urite entry in the seriesi it's set in an underground military bunker. where a rag tag collection of survwors eek out a deSperate eXIstence while the marauding once dead continually enCIrcle their encampment. There is some level of sooal commentary on the military vs scrence and the fall of somety but
with the final zombie apocalypse. as the undead infiltrate the bunker. the gore is some of the most skilfully executed Splatter in cinema history from the masterful Tom Savini. A technical masterpiece. No one makes zombie movies like Romero. and this is another slice of intelligent blood and guts from a true master — if not inventor — of the genre. The second disc contains documentaries. trailers and photo galleries.
(Henry NOrthmore)
SILENT
THE BUSTER
KEATON
CHRONICLES/
A HARD ACT TO
FOLLOW
(U) 1190min / 150min
(Network DVD retail) /OOOO
Buster Keaton was arguably the greatest slapstick comedian who ever lived. and this 28 film compendium containing the majority of his finest work has bizarrely been a long time coming. Over six precious. cherishable discs. Chronic/es follows young Paleface's brilliant trajectory from
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MISTRESS OF CULT Actress, director and writer ASIA ARGENTO talks about her adaptation of JT Leroy’s autobiographical book, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
INTERVIEW
‘lt’s very easy to moralise, to make everything black or white. This fascinating book is not like that, and I wanted to make the movie as close to the book as possible. But it was very hard for me to play the character that way, to look at this child without love. I tried with the film to make the woman more human, the way that I think JT Leroy really felt in his heart towards his mum. I added little things that are not in the book. In the book, for example, she never really touches Jeremiah. The ending I modified, because after this tough journey you needed something. So at the end I had them leaving the hospital together. Maybe it’s a dream, maybe it's not, anyway it’s not in the book, but for me it’s a happy ending because it’s all that Jeremiah wants, to win his
mother’s love.
‘I wanted to have JT’s trust. I wanted him to participate in every aspect of the movie. He wasn’t so much on set. I don’t know if I’d have felt comfortable with that. But he came twice to visit during filming in Tennessee. This was the first time he’d been back to those places since he was a kid. He arrived during the scene with Sarah, his mother [played by Argento in the film] in which she had just turned a trick with a trucker; she was at her best and worst. It was strange. Sometimes he would call me Sarah. It was a bizarre feeling for both of us.
‘At first the established critics were pissed off at this movie made by an Italian. Then the younger crowd, the festival crowd, liked it more. Americans don’t like criticism, especially from foreigners. Also, in American movies they tend to make things very simple, the good guy and the bad guy. In this movie there’s no conclusion. They would have loved for Sarah to die and the child 90 back to the foster parents. But life is not like that; it’s a bit more complicated.’ (Interview by Miles Fielder)
I The Heart is Deceitfu/ above all Things (Tartan) is out now on DVD.
1920 to 1928. It is a line that goes from his wonderfully funny debut feature The Saphead to the ridiculously inspired heights of shorts The Frozen NOrth. The Love Nest and irrefutable masterpieces - Our Hospitality. Sherlock Junior. Seven Chances and of course The General - and that is just for starters. Extras include illuminating 1968 documentary The
QUALITY Hl-Fl AND HOME CINEMA WWW.lOUD-CI.EAR.CO.UK
.IJ\ .
Great Stone Face and an introductory booklet With contributions from
Edward McPherson author of Buster Keaton, Tempest in a Flat Hat (Faber) and British film jOurnalist. presenter and Keaton fan. Paul Ross.
If you are new to Keaton's work an excellent companion investment is DaVId Gill and Kevin Brownlow's definitive documentary of this most humane. gifted and gentle of comedians. (Paul Dale)