This is not a love song,

Okay as this blog is also meant to be about films, I include a review of a film I rented from those lovely robots at Lovefilm.com:

Yakuza Graveyard

Directed by Kinji Fukasaki, who also directed Battle Royale and The Green Slime, Yakuza Graveyard is a 70’s Japanese gangsta flick about the blurry boundaries between cop and criminal. Kuroiwa is a low-level cop who enjoys smacking around criminals for a living. Nevertheless, he soon allies himself with a Yakuza gang when he finds out that the High Brass in the Japanese police force are corrupt as hell and working with another Yakuza faction.

In this film there are no good guys. Kuroiwa, the character we follow, is no better than the corrupt cops who beat him up. He believes in things like honour and loyalty, but still betrays the yakuza whom he has sworn brotherhood to. In the end, the only action he can think of to redeem himself is to walk into Police HQ and start shooting at his bosses. Of course this leads to a bullet in the back, from his former partner, for his troubles.

The setting for this film is a moral no-man’s-land, casting up a number of variations on the theme of corrupt men who are striving to be honourable. Low-level yakuza, trying to be honourable when they’re superiors cave in to the corrupt police become paired with low-level cops, trying to be honourable when they’re superiors are bought by the yakuza. The only thing that separates Kuroiwa from his antagonists is his attempts at redemption, as misguided and flawed as they may be.

This is a great film, well written with great characters. Visually, it is frenetic, a hand-held camera that lunges from horizontal to vertical when violence ensues, mirroring the topsy-turvy, unstable world these characters reside in, where at any moment their allegiances may turn. Beautiful mise-en-scene frames Kuroiwa when he interacts with other characters. His placement in the frame becomes a visual metaphor for his relationship with the other characters. The acting is from that 70s hardboiled school of Japanese Gangsta Flicks, plenty of cigarettes hanging from lips and palms being punched in angst. Overall a great piece of Japanese Cinema.

Recommended!

Also read Luke Cage Hero for Hire issue 2 on the bus this morning. This issue recaps the origin from issue 1 (a little too much of a recap for my liking) and concludes the vengeance scheme of Luke Cage against his former friend, now arch-enemy Willis Stryker a.k.a. Diamondback!!!!! This issue still stays in the realm of blaxpoitation, with Cage acting as a super powered Shaft. The origin is also explored in more detail, something I was glad of, as parts seem to be glossed over in the 1st issue, such as why Luke Cage would finally start to wear a gaudy yellow costume, with a big metal chain as a belt (those must be some heavy pants, Luke!) and where he got his outfit from.

The idea of a superhero who expects to get paid for his good deeds, and motivated by revenge is a refreshing change from the idealistic superheroes who came before him, who as soon as they received powers decided to fight crime, often with no motivation. And that more than anything is what is keeping me interested in the exploits of Mr Cage. I’m dreading/expecting the issue where Luke veers off into standard superhero territory but until then, Luke baby, I’m all yours.

This is not a test, this is a fanboy rambling...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m back. I’ve just returned from an exhausting, extended weekend in sunny London; where I went to the London Film and Comic Con, visited friends and saw Coldplay perform at Crystal Palace. And I managed to get sunburn, huzzah!

Yep, for the first time in a decade, I went to a Film/Comic convention, and it was fun. Got to shake hands and get a photo with Warwick Davies (he of Willow/Star Wars/Leprechaun fame), who has normal man-sized hands. And Lou Ferigno (he of Incredible Hulk fame), who has giganto hands, which could have encircled my head and crushed it like a grape, if I had looked at him funny. But he didn’t, I gave him a look of fear, and he seemed content.

Both were perfect gents, unlike Val f**king Kilmer, who was too busy doing whores and crack and then hiding the OD’ed whores’ bodies, to turn up. (This may not have been the reason for his non-appearance, but it’s the only one I’ll accept.) Yes, I was going to queue and pay money for an autograph of Val. Not for any great love of the man, but as a present for my Mum, who is the only person I know that loved the movie version of The Saint. It was the first DVD she bought when my folks finally got a DVD player.

Yes, I know.
The Saint.
Val Kilmer, The Saint.

But now my Mum will have to make-do with a lesser gift; any suggestions, let me know. Anyway I took my Val-money and spent it on the entire run of Brodie’s Law, a new mini-series published by Pulp Theatre. They had a stall at the Comic Con, where the two artists DALEY OSIYEMI and DAVID BIRCHAM were signing copies of the comic and giving away posters. The comic caught my eye as it was written by Alan Grant, whose run on Batman and Detective Comics was the Batman I grew up with and for me, one of the definitive takes on the character. When talking about current comics he loved, Bircham mentioned the recent Age of Apocalypse (sheesh) but as he was talking about Chris Bachalo’s artwork, I guess I could forgive him. He was also trying hard to boost the book, by saying that Renny Harlin (director of Die Hard 2 and that shit The Haunting remake) had written the introduction for the trade paperback. Again, something I’d probably keep quiet, but different strokes for different folks. As I’m only halfway through Brodie’s Law, I’ll leave reviewing it ‘til I’m finished.

I also spent my hard-earned money on a giant Brian Bolland print of Batgirl swinging into action, which I then had the hassle of transporting across London via the tube and eventually the coach back home.

Also while in the Big Smoke, I visited Forbidden Planet London, and picked up Essential Luke Cage Vol.1. Reading the first issue, it’s great to see Marvel jumping on the Blaxpoitation bandwagon so readily. The origin issue starts as a rip-off of The Slams, the Jim Brown prison flick and then mutates into a story of mad scientists using Luke Cage as a guinea pig. Its good ‘70s fun, which is why I prefer the Essential Collections that start in the 70s, rather than the traditional silver age Stan Lee-penned 60s tales. Essential X-Men, Punisher and Howard the Duck are much easier and entertaining reads for me than the traditional Essential FF/Avengers fare. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concepts and the fun of the Silver Age, but the writing and dialogue of the time always sets my teeth on edge.

Which is one of the reasons I also bought Superman/Batman: Public Enemies by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness. This 1st collection of the series brings back the fun of the Silver Age (giant Superman/Batman robots, Krypto, Luthor in robot suit) and matches it with modern writing techniques. A good story, with great art by McGuiness which perfectly captures the exuberance of the Silver Age period. The writing is strong from Loeb, who avoids the typical “You are day and I am the night” clichés, that are usually rife in such World’s Finest scenarios. Instead he shows that Superman and Batman are both intelligent, fully formed characters.

Comics I’ll be buying next week:

A fairly average week for me:

Albion: Alan Moore via Leah Moore tackles British Superheroes. ‘Nuff Said.

Young Avengers: Allan Heinberg continues to respect the Avengers legacy, in this great series of new superheroes.

The Flash: Rogue War became my starting point on this series, and as it continues I’m intrigued by the story but wish there was a bit more Flash in his own title. May well drop after this arc.

JLA Classified: Again, feeling a bit disappointed with this run, usually a big fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLA, but think they may be running of steam. The past few issues have good ideas in them, but seem distinctly unfunny.

The OMAC Project: Big Brother in the DC universe, so far this hook has kept my attention.

7 Soldiers Shining Knight: My least favourite of Seven Soldiers crossover, but still better than 95% of other comics out there.

Very DC-centric this week, is this a sign of things to come?!?! Has this former Marvel Zombie switched sides, or does he just follow good comics?!?! Who knows? Who cares?

testing...

uh this is a test

Please allow me to introduce myself, (I’m a man of poor health and bad taste),woo woo, woo woo

First up, this blog will be primarily concerned with films and comics (although not necessarily in that order) as these are the two storytelling media that haunt my waking (and some sleeping) hours. Yep, another wannabe film-maker, who spends too much time/money watching/reading/writing about films and comics rather than making his own.

For those who haven’t been scared off, I’ll also be writing about various other pop-cultural-things and maybe even moaning about my real life!

Anybody left? Okay the format of this blog will be fairly rough and ready, originally I wanted to rip off another fine blog (Dave’s Long Box http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/) where Dave, if that is his real name, reviews the old comics in his collection) but then I realised that my back issues were mostly from that early 90’s period, where Jim Lee/Rob Liefeld were supreme overlords of the comic book world(and probably had characters called Supreme Overlord). And I really don’t feel like reading those again, for fear of actually making myself dumber (as if such a thing were possible!) So I’ll probably just talk about the stuff I pick up from now on.

When it comes to comics, I’ve got four people to thank/blame for my on again/off again addiction:

My Mum: Yes I do believe it was my mater who supplied me with my first dose of comic crack (for free, but then the first hit it always for free). I’ve still got that first comic somewhere, I think its an issue of the Defenders where Angel has been blinded. From then on I was hooked for a couple of years. I managed to shake of the effects until-

Biff Butler: Kid at school, and now lead singer of Apartment 26 (nu-metaaaal!) who weaned me back on to comic crack with the X-men, yes dammit, Jim Lee's dynamic art and attractive ladies was enough to warp my 10/11 year old mind. In that time I became a proper marvel zombie, with only a scant few issues of DC lining my collection and a few early Image titles now lining my cat's litter box. During this period, I also worked on my own rubbish comic characters, with such names as One-shot, Bodycount and Virus. Oh yes, I read Image. Anyway I finally managed to give up comics, when Marvel started their Age of Apocalypse crossover (the first time round) and I finally decided there was no way I could afford to buy that shit. Until-

Ed Knowles: Best Bud that he is, asks me when I’m 22 years old and working in IT support, if I’ve looked at the Marvel website recently. “No,” I say. “For I am a grown man and I have put away childish things. And those Movie Maniac Figurines don’t count cos they’re collector’s items!!” But I look at it anyway cos I’ve got hours and hours to kill in my job and limitless web-browsing capability. (ah when Broadband was a privilege, not a right.) So the Marvel website has free Flash-based samples of their recent comics (and an advert to have people dressed as superheroes come to your birthday, but Rogue looked my aunt…) and I start to check out what has happened to my favourite mutants in recent years. And y’know what, its good! Marvel Comics finally employed some decent writers, like Peter Milligan on X-Statix, Brian Michael Bendis on Daredevil and-

Grant Morrison: Writing the New X-men. Which blew apart my tiny little skull (ok my skull is fairly normal sized, but it is shaped like an egg). Morrison revolutionised the X-men with one issue, then re-examined all its previous motifs and made them seem like new, e.g. The Academy as a School, Magneto, Genosha, Imperial Guard. The idea of these new students, studying at the academy and saying to Professor X, “No, fuck you, baldy! You don’t know shit!” was a breath of fresh, if blue, air.

So that’s the culprits, if you like this blog, go up and shake their hands when you see them on the street (apart from Grant Morrison, he won’t have a fucking clue what you’re going on about). Or if you don’t like the blog, go up and punch them in the face (apart from my mum, dude its my mum! Oh and maybe Ed, nah, punch in the face, I can’t stop you.)

Next on Friends of James: Okay I’ll talk some more… about film and comics and stuff (promise).

Hallelujah!!

Let There be Light! (and music and dance...)

We're on!

Gotta go.... more soon (honest)