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 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
Sono deserves some love, guys!
Five of you have voted for some of the most off-beat and difficult to follow movies ever made. After the reactions last week I'm convinced you're going to get nosebleeds.
Unfortunately, my DVD drive crapped out, so we can't watch the three movies by Seijun Suzuki that won this week's #Scarefest poll.
Undaunted, we will instead be streaming three RINGU movies (since they're on Shudder). There is also the possibility we may still watch BRANDED TO KILL (my favorite Suzuki) on Sunday, because I found it on YouTube (I have ad-free Youtube Premium). Once the DVD drive is fixed, sometime in the coming months, we'll revisit Suzuki. 👍
P.S., here's the YouTube link to BRANDED TO KILL in full: https://youtu.be/gR3nXqEzGAo
P.P.S., I've made some further alterations to my Discord server. It's a no-stress place for friends to hang out. An island oasis, if you will. Those who've visited before, see if you can spot the differences!
P.P.P.S., I vet everyone who joins the server. This vetting takes the form of me sending you a DM asking you how you found our invite link (the vast majority of the time it’s via CoSo, but there are a couple of frens from Twitter and other Discord servers) and identifying your other screen names where applicable. Then I will follow-up with you on those spaces to make sure you’re who you said you were.
Failure to respond or being a disrespectful dickhead to anyone else will result in a ban.👍
Hey Apocryphiliacs! #Scarefest is getting pushed back to 8:00 PM US CST tonight, FYI!
@ 8:00 CST RINGU (1998) dir. Hideo Nakata
~9:30 CST RINGU 2 (1999) dir. Hideo Nakata
~11:00 CST RINGU 0 (2000) dir. Norio Tsuruta
@Apocryphiliac Thanks! I wasn't familiar with any of these. (I have some serious gaps in my knowledge of non-US horror movies.)
@Myana I hope you'll check out whatever ends up winning the poll with us. :) Sono is particularly a favorite of mine.
@Apocryphiliac
Are you going to show Prince of Darkness sometime?
@strummerdub I definitely want to show Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy" at some point! It's very high on the list!
@Apocryphiliac
The Thing?
@strummerdub In fact, if you want to commit to coming to watch, I'll take that as an official request and put it next on the docket. The Thing, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness. 👍
@Apocryphiliac
Never saw In the Mouth of Madness.
Commit?! What is this commit business?!
@strummerdub Lol. It'll be a little while. At least a few weeks, because I haven't even set up wifi for my new place yet. Who knows how long it'll take them to get it installed once I choose a place. Until then I'll be using my phone as a hotspot and I kind of doubt it'll be reliable in my basement.
@Apocryphiliac
I don’t know how you do it.
I can barely focus for one movie!
@strummerdub I do other stuff while I'm watching. Like tomorrow I'll be shredding documents and packing. 😂
@Apocryphiliac
Get rid of the evidence!!
@Apocryphiliac
Got a link for me?
@strummerdub Butt of course! discord.gg/ZWBTHb6HXg
@Apocryphiliac
Not working. Maybe I need to jump on the laptop
@strummerdub if that doesn’t work for you then let me know.
@Apocryphiliac
I’m in!!
@strummerdub So what kind of computer did you use the first time? I don’t get what could’ve made the difference. 🤔
@Apocryphiliac
I was on my phone actually. I thought I could just tap the link but I had to copy and paste it. 🤪
@Apocryphiliac excellent choices!!! 💓 💕 💞
@Apocryphiliac two of the ringu movies i see there are faves of mine.
namely Ringu and ringu 0.
@Horrrflmlvr RINGU is amazing! And I think I’ve seen RINGU 2, but this is the first time I’ll be watching 0 (and I haven’t seen RINGU: SPIRAL yet, either).
@Apocryphiliac ringu and juon got me liking asian horror
@Horrrflmlvr For sure! The gateway drugs! 😂
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
#Scarefest