Midnight Eye. 04 + Teruo Ishii.

Proving it's never too late for a best-of-last-year list as long as the list's a good one, the editors of and contributors to Midnight Eye even go half a dozen better with six good lists, all drenched in commentary and, naturally, very heavy on the Japanese titles. They're also inviting you to click your own choices and add your own comments.

There's nearly always a single personality at the center of each issue and this time around, it's Teruo Ishii. Tom Mes talks to the humble 80-year-old director about starting out in the 50s at the Shintoho studios, working with Ken Takakura, Tetsuro Tamba and Sonny Chiba and his adaptations of the writings of Edogawa Rampo. Mes also reviews The Horror of Malformed Men, "one of the most singular cinematic experiences not just in Ishii's history, but in all of Japan's."

This issue's Round-Up is a 70s exploitation special, another Mes compilation; shortish reviews of six guilty pleasures.

Also reviewed: Mes yet again, this time on Izo - he finds Takashi Miike growing increasingly experimental over the last three years or so - and on that film's inspiration, Hideo Gosha's Hitokiri, which "remains the ultimate portrayal of Izo Okada, but above all an enthralling film in its own right."

Posted by dwhudson at January 30, 2005 11:43 AM