ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

Japan

AKA Zero no shoten



From DVDVerdict.com:

A newlywed named Teiko (Yoshiko Kuga) sees her husband of one week, Kenichi (Koji Nabara), to the train station. He is handing the reins of his advertising agency's Kanazawa office to Mister Honda so that he can spend more time in Tokyo with his new wife. He tells her he'll return on the 12th. But that day comes and goes with no sign of Kenichi.

Teiko has scant experience with Kenichi's patterns of behavior, but even so she begins to worry. Calls to his home office and the Kanazawa branch indicate that he should have been home on the 12th as expected. Teiko speaks with Kenichi's brother, who becomes concerned and helps her investigate Kenichi's whereabouts.

The initial questions are obvious: Is Kenichi alive? Is he abandoning Teiko? If so, is it of his own free will? These questions will be answered, but they'll invite deeper questions about Kenichi and his acquaintances from the past. To answer those questions, Teiko will need self-reliance, perseverance, and a keen intellect.

[MaineWriter]

And now a round to challenge all of us...LOL

Here in Portland, ME at Videoport (our independent video rental store) they have a section called, "Incredibly Weird Cinema." In honor of that, let's all pretend we work at Videoport and are tasked with stocking the "Incredibly Weird Cinema" section. What would you choose?

Unplayed movies, from 1888-2013 are eligible. Have fun!

Leslie
GameMistress

[oilgun]

And now a round to challenge all of us...LOL

Here in Portland, ME at Videoport (our independent video rental store) they have a section called, "Incredibly Weird Cinema." In honor of that, let's all pretend we work at Videoport and are tasked with stocking the "Incredibly Weird Cinema" section. What would you choose?

Unplayed movies, from 1888-2013 are eligible. Have fun!

Leslie
GameMistress

Damn, I waste several good incredibly weird titles in other rounds rounds already!

[MaineWriter]

Damn, I waste several good incredibly weird titles in other rounds rounds already!

Hahahaha, I think there is enough other incredibly weird stuff out there to create a fun round!

PS, the archive is completely up-to-date for your searching pleasure!

[MaineWriter]

[oilgun]

IMDb Plot Synopsis: Ann Gentry is a social worker, whose husband has been involved in a car crash, and takes up the case of the twisted and mysterous Wadsworth family, and takes a special interest in a member only called "Baby", a mentally-ill twenty-something who still acts and is treated like an infant by his mother and sisters. Ann is interested in Baby and wants to have him for her own. The Wadsworth clan has been neglectful and abusive to Baby, but Mrs. Wadsworth has been extremely overprotective of him ever since his father left shortly after his birth, and isn't going to let another caregiver mess with her son...

A 7 min. clip
[youtube=425,350]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gS1qxSDrwHg[/youtube]

A fun review from Cinema de Merde:
http://www.cinemademerde.com/Baby.shtml



==Comment==
Yep, I changed titles from Bubble to The Baby, and believe me, this one qualifies! 

==ASIDE==
On the Cinema de Merde home page, there is a VERY funny video podcast review of Night of the Lepus, the killer bunny movie.  It's worth checking out..

[Fran]

From Answers.com:

The bizarre hallucinations of a heroin addict in withdrawal provide the basis for this unstructured, autobiographical film by director Conrad Rooks. It begins as he arrives strung-out in Paris for a sleep-cure. As the strange visions begin, the story jumps haphazardly between reality and his dream-world memories of growing up in Chappaqua, New York. The score was composed and played by sitarist Ravi Shankar.

Here's the trailer:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lRAvRQBwco[/youtube]

Time:  2:40

[MaineWriter]

I had a hard time choosing between this and its sequel, "Disco Godfather," but that may turn up in a future round I have in mind 

One of the strangest blaxploitation movies, "Dolemite" is a very funny spin on the genre. Based on comedian Rudy Ray Moore's stand up act, "Dolemite" tells the story of a pimp named Dolemite (Moore) who is released from prison after he agrees to help the police drive down the crime rate. He runs into many interesting characters while he's on his mission, including a corrupt preacher, a madam and racist cops.

What makes "Dolemite" such an enjoyable film is just how strange it is and how much energy was put into making it. Moore is a very talented comedian and the film is filed with colorful and interesting characters. In addition director D'Urville Martin keeps everything moving at a nice and lively pace. The script contains many quotable lines and it is just fun to listen to the characters read them. Overall a really fun little flick.

Apparently, it is one of David Lee Roth's (of Van Halen fame) favorite movies.

[oilgun]

From Bright Lights Film Journal:
The "political camp art musical" is a rare bird indeed, and perhaps justly so; as a movie's genres multiply, so surely must the problems. But Existo has so much manic energy it works, despite having the intermittent feel of a metastasizing performance piece. The title character is a hyper idiot-savant who looks like a demented janitor with greasy hair and a worn-out suit. In this bizarre post-apocalyptic world, the religious right has taken over but a pack of revolutionaries — artists and queens mostly, it seems — led by Existo stages "illegal" performance pieces and "drive-by art events." Song titles include such ditties as "Hegel's Navel," "I'm a White Bread Poodle," and the hummable "Fuckin' A," which features Existo bouncing up and down on a big beach ball screaming the title phrase to an audience of jaded scenesters. Existo is the multitalented (and quite mad-looking) Bruce Arnston, who also wrote the fun music. The cast appears to be a lot of performance artists and queens from Nashville, including the late Jim Varney of Ernest movies fame. There's lots of rude imagery, dildos every few minutes, snipes at the lunatic right wing, and plenty of drag, and the filmmakers ultimately keep the chaotic fun rolling right along with the cultural critique. Inexplicably, an early cut of the film featured a great opening number cut from the DVD release. It's the memorably vulgar "Just Do Me," warbled by a fat drag queen who looks like Jonathan Winters genetically spliced with Rae Bourbon. Don't believe Amazon or the Internet Movie Database. There is a DVD.

[Fran]

  

From Blockbuster.com:

Fando and Lis are a young couple who embark on a journey to the city of Tar. Lis is handicapped and is aided by Fando who pulls her along in a wagon or carries her in his arms as they encounter a series of offbeat characters and situations:  a man plays a burning piano in a dump surrounded by dancer; a girl eats a rose; and three men and a child huddle under an umbrella as someone cracks eggs over their heads. The couple frequently quarrels as they struggle to complete their symbolic journey.

As for the girl eating the rose, here you go:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM6x0ZolTGE[/youtube]
Time:  1:00