Village of Doom 「丑三つの村」
This article was originally published at Eiga-Bouei, a short-lived Japanese cinema project of mine that has long-since bit the dust. It is republished here, with minimal alterations, to coincide with…
Emergency! Emergency! Accident on module Antares!
In the opening act of Bruno Mattei’s oft-maligned 1980 zombie opus Hell of the Living Dead (né Night of the Zombies né Zombie Creeping Flesh né Virus) a cell of violent eco-terrorists…
Cleans and shines, then dries in five minutes!
An unnamed housewife is expecting a few friends over for bridge, but her floors are scuffed and time is short! Such is the dilemma presented by ‘Nick of Time, a…
Film Scanning, Fool’s errands and Flying Turtles
Sometime over the holidays I acquired a 35mm film print. Sometime over the holidays I decided to scan it. I did not decide to have it scanned, mind. No. That…
A Storm Zone 「暴風圏」
After the unexpected death of her father in an automobile accident, care-free Misako (Junko KANŌ) is appointed the unlikely president of the family’s prominent shipping company. Despite her inexperience Misako…
Forgotten artifacts of the Space-Age: ‘The X From Outer Space’ in the Philippines
Presented today are a set of curiosities; five lobby cards dating from the theatrical release of Shochiku’s perennial kaiju cash-in The X From Outer Space. Details are scarce, unfortunately. X…
Short Story: So long as I be fed
Author note: The short story that follows is a horror of roughly 2400 words, finished in March of this year. It has sat in storage since then in proper submission…
Gamera vs. Barugon – Motion Picture Herald back cover ad (April 27, 1966)
This full-page ad, which appears as the back cover for the industry publication Motion Picture Herald’s April 27th 1966 issue, dates from just a few days after Gamera vs. Barugon‘s…
Godzilla Minus One 「ゴジラ -1.0」
For the thirtieth time in nearly seven decades* Toho’s greatest contract player has risen from the murky depths of the western Pacific to haunt not only the domestic Japanese market,…
Where coast guard crews still take their leave
quite listless in the sun…
“Great record, a lot of angst in it. We were certainly feeling a lot of pressure to come up with the second installment in our saga. It was written around…
After Last Season (dir. Mark Region, 2009)
A murdered medical student returns from beyond the grave to stop a serial killer from murdering again during a psychology experiment held by two current medical students on the grounds…
Double Target (dir. Bruno Mattei, 1987)
I suppose this would qualify as one of the lesser works to emerge from Bruno Mattei’s first Philippines period, which would peak the following year with the nigh-pornographic bicep-rippling gunplay…