One movie I keep going back to time and again is Yasuharu Hasebe's Assault! Jack The Ripper (Boko Kirisaki Jakku). It's one of those films that I really get drawn into from start to end, as the storyline IMHO is so much more than the standard Pink Violence fare. Setting aside the assaults and murder it really is a bit of a romance. Meeting each other while employed together at a French themed coffee house, the tiny yet comforting apartment, spaghetti dinner and watching B&W telly....and oh how I miss Coca Cola in the hourglass bottles! Dunno, maybe it's just daily life during the late Showa era that holds so much fascination for me. But the film is so very much 'atmospheric' in other ways as well. The rainstorm during the drive home (along with the memorable squeal and chatter of wet drum brakes and distinct whir of a Datsun gearbox in reverse), hanging the wash out with a light evening breeze rustling through the balcony doorway, picnic and lovemaking on the invitingly lush grass-plot of a....um....cemetery, and at the plaza overpass you can practically feel the cool night air mixing with the remaining warmth rising up from the asphalt and traffic below. This truly is a visually beautiful film and one that stirs many nostalgic memories of 1970s Japan. There's such a connection drawn with the two main characters portrayed that they have my affinity throughout, irregardless of their savage calling. I take delight in how their individual personalities clash yet blend so well at times. Opposites can attract (23 years with my lovely missus will attest to that). Yutaka Hayashi and Tamaki Katsura were the perfect pair for this film both in presence and appearance. Even the busty but rather plain Tamaki is especially cute with her 'poodle' hair cut! Needless to say further this is very possibly my favourite film, whether part of an all day movie marathon or just on in the background while milling about with household chores =^.^=
Assault! Jack the Ripper
(1976)
Perhaps not the most ideal way to begin a relationship
10 February 2014