Pizza with arterial spray

[randy_byers]

holyoutlaw came over last night with the DVD of Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance, and we ordered a large Agog from Pagliacci and sat back to watch the carnage. I can see that the image of a samurai pushing a pram has a built in frisson. The bit where he has to have sex with the prostitute to save her life was a masterstroke of something or another. Not wish-fulfillment exactly -- or perhaps it is that exactly, but it's so odd and unexpected. I mean, did Clint Eastwood ever have to do that? The movie is full of odd little details like that, amidst the more formulaic business of vengeance and limb-lopping. I enjoyed it. And I immediately started thinking about which exploitation samurai film I should shower on Luke in return. I'm thinking Samurai Reincarnation, which features a Yagyu in a different role. (The Yagyu Clan are the bad guys in Lone Wolf and Cub.)

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if I'd made it clear I have all six of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies. But I'd happily see other samurai films, I haven't seen many of them.

The Agog pizza was wonderful. I was left wanting more tomato sauce for some reason. Just kidding.

I wonder if having the Yagyu be bad guys in LWAC is an inversion of the usual trope, like having the good guy wear a black hat in High Noon.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

No, you hadn't made it clear that you have all six films! Well, we can continue working our way through the series, then. Perhaps we can do a double feature at some point, although I can't remember how long Samurai Reincarnation is. It's a wonderful gothic fantasy samurai story, with an evil undead Christian bad guy (who has a right to be evil).

Could be you're right on the Yagyu reversal. Jubei Yagyu seems to be a major character in Japanese history and legend, and he's the hero of Samurai Reincarnation. I also have another film by Kenji Fukasaku called Yagyu Conspiracy or Intrigue of the Yagyu Clan that's more historical in tone and is about a succession struggle in the Tokugawa Shogunate in which Jubei and his father play a big role. They aren't necessarily good or evil in that, but just working toward a particular (cynical, or at least self-interested and deceptive) political end. That's more in line with their portrayal in Lone Wolf and Cub, I suppose.

Dixieland Daimyo

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

One of the weirdest movies I have ever seen went by the title of Dixieland Daimyo. It must have been twenty years ago, and I have no idea what other names it might have, or who made it.
It begins in the American South, immediately after the Civil War. A half-dozen newly freed slaves decide they'll go back to Africa. Being such total naifs, they end up sailing out into the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic.
The shi is wrecked off the coast of Japan, and they are the only survivors. This is all the overall intro, and so far, it's historically correct. From here, the movie goes gradually, acceleratingly off-track.
The guys are in the territory of a minor daimyo whose lands include s stretch oof the royual road which connects Japan. That's really his only importance in large-scale politics. But this is the eve of the Meiji Restoration, so a bunch of foreigners are a real problem for him, and foreigners of a color no one has ever seen are only worse.
So the guys are in the dungeon while he wonders what to do. Since they have nothing to do, they make music, and gradually teach the entire court to play Dixieland.
When the bog political blowup comes (again, portrayed reasonably accurately), the court simply dismantles the paper walls and retires en mass to the dungeon for a tremendous jam session while the various armies and factions race in ho9t pursuit back and forth over their heads.

If anyone can trace this little gem of absurdity, I would be grateful.
WHOOPS! cancel that. I just Googled, and it has finally hit the web.

http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/2761_DIXIELAND_DAIMYO.html

Re: Dixieland Daimyo

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiousity, do I know you? I've looked at your user info and can't identify you from that. We have Friends in common, so I suspect I'd at least know *of* you.

That movie sounds genuinely weird. IMDb also has it as Jazz Daimyo. How the hell did you manage to see it? Was it in the theater?

Re: Dixieland Daimyo

[(Anonymous)]

Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago

They're w*a*y out there.

Chicago is not a great movie town, but there is an undisputed handful of great, first-rate venues. The Film Center is all by itself, though.

Personal example -- (just checked. it's really five years?) One time we went out to see a movie. Suzy's taste is strongly oriented to mainstream escapism, and so we saw Barbershop (excellent. I was startled later that her son had also spotted Cosby in his cameo.).
But
a couple of generations ago, there was an entire segregated parallel movie industry making "race movies. Several years ago, someone discovered half a barnful (literally) of old movies from, I guess, mostly the Forties, and some of them have been restored. I saw a few at the Film Center.
So here we were, almost the only whites in the audience (d'oh! not like it's a problem, just I hadn't really thought about it) and I know more about the roots of this movie about roots than almost anyone else in the theater.
odd


But not as odd as Dixieland Daimyo. If you can find it, grab it. It's not a pinnacle of the cinematic art, but you _will_ remember it, and talk about it.

Re: Dixieland Daimyo

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'll certainly keep an eye out for it. I'm somewhat aware of race movies only because Edgar Ulmer made a few of them, including Moon over Harlem, which is available on DVD, and at least one Yiddish film, Grine Felder.

I saw Barbershop when my nephew played it for me, but I didn't spot the Cosby cameo. Was he wearing an Eddie Murphy bodysuit?