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 MOTM #116 "Red Angel (1966) is an integral cut of meat...in this amazing stew of genres, sexual obsession, and misanthropic élan. Set in 1939 during the Japanese siege of China—a cataclysmic eight-year massacre mission in which at least 23 million Chinese died and which Japan, then and now, struggles to rationalize—Masumura's film stays close to the ground, following the dire path of young nurse Nishi (Ayako Wakao), as she is introduced to maniacal, primitive combat medicine and its human fallout. It's difficult to recall any American war film as horrified and cynical about the ripple effects of imperial war, or as nearly suicidal with cultural guilt." -Michael Atkinson "Japanese director Yasuzo Masumura is perhaps less known than his contemporaries Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa because of the extreme nature of his lurid, pulpy potboilers. Set during the Japanese war against China in the late 1930s, Red Angel tells the story of Nurse Nishi (Ayako Wakao), stationed at varying degrees of frontline hellholes. Between Nishi's adventures, attachments and separations...Masumura gives one of the most brutal portraits of war ever filmed, leveling his finger not at the war itself, but at the mentality of the people who wage it. Red Angel has a savage energy unique in films." -Jeffrey M. Anderson Raw, powerful and brutal begin to describe what this one encapsulates. A fresh slap to the face for a medium filled with sleek, glossy, silly films that claim to cover WAR but actually only cursorily delve into the topic. It's always a treat when a film leaves an impression. It's even better when it's relatively obscure (merely ~900 votes on IMDb at the moment). Sakura Nishi is a Japanese nurse living a nightmarish vocation. She's one of the more interesting characters I've seen in a long while. Not only is she pulling bullets out of people continuously and holding down casualties as limbs are being graphically cut off but she's raped and abused by soldiers who have lost their minds. She considers it necessary to become a sexual outlet for some of the limbless and damaged soldiers in the hospitals. Even after all of this she harbors guilt for three people she feels she's inadvertently led to death. Doctor Okabe is the other main character of interest. While being a competent doctor he feels limited and muses that things are upside down in wartime. He's impotent due to a morphine addiction. He's eventually called deeper into mainland China to work at an important outpost (Nishi follows him). It's suspected that the Chinese have infected some of the villagers with cholera so that the whole encampment will eventually be infected. Things don't progress well and by the end even the nurses and surgeons are picking up weapons as death approaches. If you've watched MASH (1970) or A Farewell to Arms (1932) and thought they were watered down then this could be a film to your liking. MPAA Rating: Unrated Language: Japanese with English subtitles It's available on Youtube in its proper 2.35:1 Daieiscope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZaoBKZNIk The Complete Movie of the Month Listing: 1776 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 24 Hour Party People | 8 1/2 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | Aguirre: The Wrath of God | All That Jazz |American Movie | A Midnight Clear | The Babadook | Baraka | The Battle of Algiers | Being There | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Bicycle Thief | Black Hawk Down | Blade | Branded to Kill | The Brave Little Toaster | Breaking Away | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Brief Encounter | Bullet in the Head | Charade | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Close-Up | The Conversation | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover | Day For Night | The Court Jester | Death Race 2000 | Dead Man | Darkman | Detour | Devils on the Doorstep | Do the Right Thing | Double Indemnity | Downfall | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | El Topo | Falling Down | A Face In The Crowd | Fanny and Alexander | Fat City | Funny Bones | Galaxy Quest | Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai | Glengarry Glen Ross | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Horor of Dracula | La Haine | The Ice Storm | The Intruder | It's a Wonderful Life | Judgement at Nuremberg | Jumanji | The King of Comedy | Last Train From Gun Hill | The Leopard | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Little Shop of Horrors | Living in Oblivion | The Long Goodbye | Love & Death | M | Masculin Féminin | Man on Fire | The Man Who Would Be King | Modern Times | The Monster Squad | Mousehunt | Mulholland Drive | My Best Friend's Wedding | My Darling Clementine | My Own Private Idaho | Naked | Outland | The Panic in Needle Park | Peeping Tom | Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Play Time | The Proposition | Punishment Park | The Pusher Trilogy | Rififi/Rashômon | The Ref | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Ronin | The Rules of the Game | Safe | Schizopolis | Son of Frankenstein | The Squid and the Whale | Stop Making Sense | The Super Inframan | Sunset Boulevard | Surviving The Game | The Sweet Hereafter | The Third Man | Titicut Follies | Vampyr | The Vanishing | Videodrome | The Wild Bunch | Wit | Withnail & I | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Zardoz
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Feb 26, 2016 07:00
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 00:25 |
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I haven't seen this movie, but, uh,  at everything past the third paragraph.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:41
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Jesus, this is a bleak film, but it's also fantastic. It takes a different spin from many war movies, focusing on the sexual side that's prompted by the nihilism of never again seeing your home, your loved ones, or even tomorrow. There's also the helplessness of trying your best to stem the tide of the unstoppable horrors of war, and having to sacrifice what's best for a person in order to help treat as many people as possible. Really great stuff.
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Mar 3, 2016 04:49
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X-Ray Pecs posted:Jesus, this is a bleak film, but it's also fantastic. It takes a different spin from many war movies, focusing on the sexual side that's prompted by the nihilism of never again seeing your home, your loved ones, or even tomorrow. There's also the helplessness of trying your best to stem the tide of the unstoppable horrors of war, and having to sacrifice what's best for a person in order to help treat as many people as possible. Really great stuff. I'm glad you liked it. It appears that this movie left CD speechless or perhaps repelled in horror? I gave it a rewatch recently and it was even more relentlessly brutal than I'd remembered.
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Mar 28, 2016 23:28
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Well I'm months behind but I finally watched it, thanks for bringing it to my attention. That was seriously bleak, I once tried picturing what a film version of Johnny Got his Gun would like and it was very close to the scenes with the amputees. I find this take on war quite refreshing in a way, it depicts a soul crushing grind were you either become a selfish animal or worn down to the point of barely functioning. Also quite surprised to see a Japanese film bluntly state that a war with China is brutal ignoble and potentially futile. Not at all what I expect from a black and white WWII (well sort of) film.
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Jun 25, 2016 11:31
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 00:25 |
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Baka-nin posted:Well I'm months behind but I finally watched it, thanks for bringing it to my attention. That was seriously bleak, I once tried picturing what a film version of Johnny Got his Gun would like and it was very close to the scenes with the amputees. I find this take on war quite refreshing in a way, it depicts a soul crushing grind were you either become a selfish animal or worn down to the point of barely functioning. Also quite surprised to see a Japanese film bluntly state that a war with China is brutal ignoble and potentially futile. Johnny Got His Gun is an even greater one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA0IlDhITkQ
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Jun 27, 2016 00:33
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