Eko eko azaraku III

This has got to be one of the DUMBEST movies I've ever seen! Even for a cheesy Japanese splatter-flick it's bad! And it's not even a splatter flick - it sells itself on the "Maximum Gore Dangerous Little Gal" ticket but for all of its boasting I've seen bloodier episodes of Mattlock.

In a nut-shell: Mix two parts Buffy The Vampire Slayer, one part Sailor Moon and a splash of IMPLIED oh-so-chic girl-on-girl action. Add a deserted school dorm, someone's overgrown garden and seven young gals who should have been in school that day and BINGO - you've got Misa: Dark Waste of Time.

It's horribly shot. The music is dreadful. There isn't a character in the script. The plot is non-existent. And the 'actors' (and I use that term loosely) should go back to their day jobs.

Basically a movie made to cater to Japanese salary-men and their unending desire to see girls in high school uniforms. If that's what butters your toast, go for it. If you expect something more - forget it!!

This excellent film is visually very similar to the works of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. It is creepy, and I love the use of the Elder Gods from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. In addition to being involving and genuinely scary, it has that certain undefinable "cool," just the right dynamic camera angles and groovy exaggerated sound effects, a few good blasts of blood, all mixed together in just the right proportions.

This movie is based on 70's famous comic EKOEKO AZARAK by Shinichi Koga, as well as the T.V. series of the same title in 1997. The movie is basically the movie version of the T.V. show, so it is more joyful if you watch EKOEKO AZARAK The Series and EKOEKO AZARAK The Second before you watch this movie. The movie itself is, however, overwhelmed by the charm of Hinako Saeki, the young actress who played the role of Misa Kuroi, the most formidable high school witch, while the motif of Cthulhu Mythos (originally constructed by H. P. Lovecraft) and other elements are losing its power due to its low production cost. So it's the best to enjoy Hinako Saeki's atractiveness rather than waiting for a flashing SFX or CG effects.  The story line of the movie is focusing on the traumatic events of the young girls who are killed for the dark ritual. Then Misa Kuroi, the most powerful high school witch (also called Misa The Dark Angel), has to fight with her black magic power to protect her friends. So the story line is not truly matching with the motif of Cthulhu Mythos, so the image is simply used as another force of darkness that tries to devour the dark power of Misa, rather than the dry and mindless terror that Lovecraft has meaned. This is certainly watched as Another Tragedy of Misa, so it should be watched rather as a superheroine's tragedy than horror. This became the very last movie of Bang-Ho Chou, who played the role of Satoru Kuroi, the uncle of Misa and the master of surgery by magic. His serious and sometimes comical act has deepened the emotional side of the movie, as he portraited a hospitable uncle for Misa. The original comic by Shinichi Koga also has featured the surgeon uncle, since the character has been a loving one for the author. In conclusion, this movie is a good chance for the U.S. and European fans to watch a heroine figure that is totally different from Ripley in Alian series or Bond Girls in 007.

ZUMMUD (Ji-Mudou)

I saw the other two movies and while neither was super great, they were interesting films nonetheless. This one started out in interesting fashion as a mysterious corpse turns up in the middle of the street uttering Misa's name. Misa's uncle gets a hold of this corpse, they find out it is infested with a parasite or something from another dimension and this soon will lead Misa to another school where the girls there are going to be in the most boring play ever and they are going to show lots of rehearsal. I like it when the uncle is looking over the play and says it has no plot and would not hold an audience's attention. I liked the uncle character he added some humor to the film, to bad he all but disappears once the girls end up at this strange house where they start dying in very boring ways. Yes, there are killings, but nothing is as gruesome as the beginning scene with the uncle performing an autopsy. The best death during the time they are at the mysterious house is the first one involving a girl being killed by vines. I thought it was really going to pick up once they arrived at this place as these things started chasing the girls, but it is short lived in the action department as we are soon to girls just acting stupid and crying and stuff like this. Misa is more effective here than in the first film, but she still kind of sucks as far as protecting others. The first film had some good kills and some erotic elements, the second film was fast paced and full of action, this one sadly is not really all that horror oriented, there are no erotic elements and all the fast paced action of the second is nowhere to be found. What we are left with is a film that a lot of times I could not tell what was going on.

I got the first three of these films in a set and thought this the big finale, but apparently more episodes have come out - I'm not sure why....

Although the word "homoerotic" ought to include art concerning lesbians as well as gay men, it is usually used for the latter, so we will have to coin a new word here, "lesbo-erotic".

The "Eko Eko" series is a lesbo-erotic witch story about a young white which battling the dark forces of Satan and his kin. Earlier entries had explicitly sapphic material, this operates a little more implicitly and will be more accessible for main-stream audiences.

I also found the story easier to follow and easier to bear here. The series as a whole is amusing at best, but let's face facts - it's trash. Considerable effort has been made to duplicate the old Hammer Vampire films of the early 1970s. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, that's why this series is amusing; but "art"? The best horror film you're likely to see in quite a while? Afraid - not.

Although the story is tighter than the other entries, the fundamental problem with these films altogether is their lack of coherence. You will get confused here - very confused.

What the hell is Satan doing in Japan anyway? And how did H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu suddenly pop out of nowhere here? And why am I watching a Japanese direct-to-video remake of Hammer horror films from the early '70s?

well, I had a couple hours to waste....

well, that's about it, folks; you could probably do worse, you can certainly do better.