The only apes I grew up with was Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp!

And yeah, I’d love to hear the theme! I have a thing for music from old Japanese shows.

I can email you the theme if you want.

Ed

(forgive me father for i have bad taste)

i haven’t seen battle royale yet. i want to, however, because it also seems funny.

A few years back (or possibly just one! I can’t recall time well) I was in the manga section of Barnes & Nobel just browsing and I see an odd shaped item stuck in there: Battle Royale. The cover is nice and spartan, which instantly appealed to me, and my brain said: “hey, this is that book that the ‘OMG totally awesome’ movie is based on that everyone talks about.” So I picked it up. About a week later I had consumed the book, once or twice getting very little sleep because of it (I usually only read a little at night before I go to sleep, so being enthralled I kept reading).

Bonus Pain: US remake of Battle Royale will induce brain hemorrhaging

Audition will always be my favorite. Its the only film I’ve seen in among a “hardcore” NYC movie-going audience where people couldn’t take it and they had to walk out.

I actually like Gozu better than most of the films he is re-hashing. I looked at it more as him sharpening his tools, homing in more. Also going overboard. Really, the only films of his that are “miss” categories for me are IZO and Ichi. I know that Ichi is probably his most famous and what is considered his “best film” by many, but I completely disagree. I think it not only has the wrong emphasis, but that the impact of the horror is lost because of it in most places.

Also, I agree with you on the children thing. Going back and watching movies that I loved as a kid they all contain things that would net them a young adult audience now. The *big* one is Ghostbusters. It has drinking and smoking and crude language, but that never stopped my parents nor did it stop me from watching it hundreds of times. I still keep around the unwatchable VHS tape as a bit of memories and childhood. That aside, I think the main problem is not the content, it is the parents. Too often are parents not willing to be parents, they just want to be people with kids. They are not willing to watch movies with them, or TV, or the internet. The want the candy coated crap so they can safely put them on auto-drive while they get on with their lives. Again! Off topic.

The best child actor ever is probably the kid who played Ivan in Ivan’s Childhood. If you track it down get the full length version, not the US release. It is a Russian film, but man can that kid emote. Aside from one small hammy scene he captures things beyond his years and the directorial skill of it all helps tremendously.

BONUS FAKE EDIT: Watching Eli Roth gush over Miike is pretty sick. I mean, it is kinda cute to see him gush like a true fan? but I mean, take yourself seriously and quit sucking his dick. Hostel was bad Eli, get over yourself, you can?t copy Miike.

(Also, the child actors in Taste of Tea kicked nine kinds of ass in any language– how many teenagers can pull off a go-stone flinging fight scene against… subtitles?)

As for what’s okay or not for kids, as someone one writes for children, its a constant frustration when you know something will connect to kids, but you have to hold back due to angry parents groups. People, parents in particular, have become so alarmist in this country that its almost sickening. If there’s one universal truth which I wish everyone fully comprehended, it would be that kids are not stupid (its something I stress strongly in my class actually) and they are far smarter, even more sophisticated, than most adults are willing to realize. But by feeding crap to their kids, they’re dumbing them down, and I’m afraid of the consequences. Just imagine in the near future, a whole generation of that were both overly coddled and given a steady stream of shitty direct to DVD Disney sequels to keep them occupied during a f’n car ride while growing up.

As for acting in foreign films, its always a touchy subject. I personally cannot stand when folks make bold assumptions about foreign movies being automatically superior, such as the acting since, if one can’t understand what they are saying, how can one really say? Hence why for me, it all comes down to the emoting, the actor’s ability to get the emotion across without just the dialogue. But then again, I’ve always found child actors outside of the US to be far superior, precisely due to their ability to convey emotion without just words, unless you count pouting, which is what most American child actors seem to do in movies. But then again, all the blame could be placed on the filmmakers.