Cinema dei Apocryphilia is moving! As a result, there will be no #Scarefest on Saturday, July 16 and perhaps not on the 23rd, either, so we're returning to the triple-feature format for July the 9th to hold the Apocryphiliacs over until we're back!
So let's go weird and wild! Nobody does that better than the four directors we've selected for this poll! There's a lot to discuss--more than we can do in one post--so I will be threading all the information about our options in reply to this post.
Option 1: Sion Sono's "Family Circle" trilogy.
This is a loose trilogy (that I've) coined as the "Family Circle" due to the themes the three films share involving family units and how cycles of love and abuse perpetuate themselves across generations and, eventually, entire societies.
Some of the most disquieting movies I've ever seen, but affecting on a level beyond the instinctual shock-value that they're known for.
a. Suicide Club
b. Noriko's Dinner Table
c. Strange Circuls
Option 2: Seijun Suzuki's "60's Assassins" trilogy.
Are these a known trilogy? Do they share characters or plot points? Ok, maybe not, but all of them star Jô Shishido as an assassin at odds with the Yakuza in these 60's slices of bizarre-o Nikkatsu noir!
a. Youth of the Beast
b. Tokyo Drifter
c. Branded to Kill
Option 3: Takashi Miike's "Dead or Alive" Trilogy.
It takes a greater mind than mine to grok what Takashi Miike was up to with these three disparate portraits of yakuza and cops at odds, each of them starring "V-Cinema" icons Riki Takeuchi and Shô Aikawa. Each of them displays the manic flair, ultra-violence and visceral gut-punches that Miike would come to be known for with such films as AUDITION (1999) and ICHI THE KILLER (2001).
a. DOA
b. DOA 2
c. DOA: Final
Option 4: Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" trilogy.
The only of our four options that is *not* Japanese--Park hails from South Korea--this triptych explores revenge across three different shocking and bloody tales. Starring such icons as Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho, these are three of the finest revenge movies ever made.
a. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
b. Old Boy
c. Lady Vengeance
