The Blind Wolf in Interrogation: An Interview with Kurando Mitsutake

It's been a while since Macabresque was updated, but we return with a killer interview with Kurando Mitsutake, writer, director, actor of Samurai Avenger: Blind Wolf, whom our devoted (!) readers would remember from Macabresque diaries of Fantastic Planet. Kurando, who recently moved to Japan from L.A. to continue his film career there, has kindly taken the time in his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.

How did you start your film career? Could you tell us about the films you have been involved in?

After film school, my first job in the film industry was to assistant produce DVD extras for New Line Cinema. I worked with one producer on behind the scene documentaries and audio commentaries for many films including Rush Hour, Lost in Space, and Blade.

Then I worked for a Japanese TV production company in Los Angeles as a production manager during which time I made a directorial debut with a Japanese TV program called @TV.

After a few years I was able to make my first feature film called Monsters Don't Get to Cry.

Around that same time, I worked as a visual effect assistant for The Grudge 2 and was the Assistant Director for the film’s reshoot sequence in Chicago.

I was also the director's assistant on 20^th Century Fox's Shutter as well.

You also took part in several projects as an actor, including the popular TV series, Heroes and Ugly Betty according to IMDB. Could you tell us about your acting career? How do you find time to act in other projects while you also work on your own films?

My acting career started as an accident. After I finished my first feature, my friends and I made a short film called Samurai Avenger: Lone Wolf Blood. We did this short film to raise money for the feature version which evolved into Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf.

Since we had no budget for the short, I cast myself as a side character. When the short was done, one of my friends who is a working professional actor told me he wanted to introduce me to his agent. From there one thing led to another and I signed with that agent and got very, very lucky with my run as an actor in Hollywood.

But when I launched “Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf”, I had to stop taking auditions because I had to dedicate all of myself to the picture.

How did Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf come about? What were your inspirations? Could you also tell us a bit about the production process? How did you decide to write, direct and star in the film?

I always wanted to do a samurai movie, especially with a good kick ass revenge storyline. So the concept for LONE WOLF – THE SAMURAI AVENGER was with me for almost a decade.

I love classic samurai chambara films but they are so expensive to do them right. Costumes, wigs, props, and locations... So I decided to create a parallel world - Wild West meets Samurai East. In this world, I could tell a classic tale of revenge which I always wanted to tell but with a small budget, it was “everything is possible”.

In the low budget independent film making world, one must wear as many hats as possible. This is the reason why I ended up doing so much for this movie.
 The decision for me to play the lead character was purely an economical one too. It is very difficult to secure an actor who can commit to a long feature film shoot with a very small budget. So I thought since I'm there on the set everyday anyway, why not play the main character. Also the fact I had a very lucky career as an actor helped my decision.

Were you influenced by the revival of/homage to old exploitation films popularized by Quentin Tarantino?

I have always been a huge fan of those genre pictures from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I am happy to see the revival, but was already influenced by those films.

Do you think Samurai Avenger is an homage to exploitation/martial arts/spaghetti western films or does it parody them?

I guess it's both. But more homage with all my love and respect to those films, especially spaghetti western and Japanese chambara films.

Would it be safe to say there were some references to Jodorowsky’s El Topo aside from all the other exploitation film references? Is there a surreal/underground cinema influence in the film?

I love Mr. Jodorowsky's work but I'm a bigger fan of Santa Sangre than El Topo, if I had to choose.

Many people have seen influences from El Topo in Samurai Avenger, but it wasn't intentionally done. Samurai Avenger was influenced by such filmmakers like Kenji Musumi and Sergio Corrbucci.

How has the film been received? What is it like to make an exploitation film in an age mostly driven by political correctness?

Samurai Avenger has been received really well by the genre film fans from all over the world. I guess because mainstream films have gone very politically correct, there is a huge demand for edgier more exploitative films.

Samurai Avenger was screened at 9 film festivals in 5 countries in 2009. We received best picture awards from Fantastic Planet film festival in Sydney Australia and Indie Fest USA in Anaheim California. So far, we have secured distribution in several countries with many more hopefully to come.

Can you tell us about your future projects? It looks like there might be a sequel to Samurai Avenger…

My next picture might be a "Mondo" style fake documentary on Japan. Another homage to the exploitation genre film.

Another picture that's in the works is a hard boiled gun action movie. After a sword fighting movie like Samurai Avenger, I really want to do a gun fight movie.

I am hoping to do a sequel to Samurai Avenger too. We have to see how well it does commercially in the world first. If it does well, I'm sure we can raise money for the sequel.

Any advice to aspiring filmmakers?

The life of both a commercial or independent filmmaker isn't an easy one. So I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But if you must make a movie, do a feature not a short film. If you plan well and execute the plan well, you might get lucky and the film might be distributed. That won't happen for short films.

Any last words?

Please find and watch Samurai Avenger. If you enjoyed it, recommend it to your friends. With the strong word of mouth, it might ultimately lead us to make the sequel. Thank you!

PS: To find out more about Samurai Avenger and Kurando's work, visit http://www.kurandomitsutake.com/

Fantastic Planet Sydney Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Festival, Diary #3

On November 5 Thursday (when we all remember, remembered!), I went to see two sessions of the fantastic Fantastic Planet film festival. The first of these was the Shorts Program # 4: Future attacks, and the other one was the “sushi western” Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf, directed by Kurando Mitsutake.

The shorts program included seven films, all of which were, I think, quite good, but some more so than the others. The first film of the session, Burden (http://www.burdenthemovie.com/) (Michael David Lynch, 2009 – 10 minutes), was one of the most visually stunning films in the festival (and won the best visual effects award in the festival). The film tells the story of a ‘watcher’ with super powers called Calik, who decides to take action when the earth is invaded by aliens. Michael David Lynch (that’s a killer name for the film industry, I reckon) was there to present his film and answer some questions at the end. We’ve learnt that this was a student project and it cost around 50.000 USD to make and that he’s hoping to turn it into a feature length film.

Burden was followed by Spaceman on Earth (Shant Hamassian, 2009), which was a live action/animation parody of 50s sci fi films, and particularly their main characters. Next, we watched Marooned? (Ryan Nagata, 2009), which had a similar approach to 1950s sci fi, as it was shot in b&w and featured two space traveler characters in marooned (?) on a planet with savage inhabitants, it had a twist which turned into a terrorizing tale of amnesia, murder, and geekery!

After the first three films, which were all from the US, we watched the 26 minute long short from Taiwan: Intoxicant by John Hsu (2008). The film re-imagines the internet forum setting as an actual room where the real life people put notices in a board where their actions are controlled by moderators, then turns this into a setting for a tale of mystery, in which the forum is under threat of an attack by a hacker. Intoxicant won the best short film award, and probably deserved it, too!

The Un-gone (Simon Bovey, 2006) hailed from the UK and was set in a future when molecular transportation is possible. However, there is a dark secret behind this form of transportation, which Julian Salinger, the protagonist, finds out to his utter displeasure. The Un-gone was followed by the Australian short Oxygen (David Norris, 2008) was a dystopia, in which the world’s oxygen supplies are in shortage, and people live in airtight houses, in which air is supplied by the government. Xavier, a maintenance worker, is free to get out of his house with a special suit and fix people’s oxygen supply machines. Gradually, he finds out about a terrible plot to keep the society under control. I thought it was really well-made and the costume and set design was really successful. (It can be watched in its entirety on imdb)

The last film of the session was The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5 (Chema García Ibarra, 2008) was short little film from Spain, about a disabled young man, and his fixed belief in an imminent attack by

Robots from Nebula-5, for which he tries to warn his parents, to no avail.

After the shorts session, I went on to see Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf (Kurando Mitsutake, 2009), which I have been looking forward to after reading the blurb in the festival program – “imagine a Kill Bill on steroids!”. The film has a basic storyline, in which a nameless Japanese man, sets out to kill the man, Nathan Flesher, who has blinded him and killed his wife (after raping her) and his daughter. While Nathan Flesher is in prison, the nameless man (Kurando Mitsutake) learns the ways of the samurai and becomes a swordsmaster despite his blindness. On his way to kill flesher upon his release from prison, he learns that he’ll have to encounter seven deadly assasins and kill them. In his quest, he meets an American swordsman who calls himself the Drifter and who decides to help the “Blind Wolf’s” cause. So they start killing the assasins one by one, till they reach Nathan Flesher.

The writer/director/star Kurando Mitsutake defines the film as a sushi western, drawing its influences from the martial arts and spaghetti western films as well as 70s exploitation films. He cited films/series like Lone Wolf and Cub and Django among the films that inspired him to make this films during the Q&A. It’s easy to compare his films to Quentin Tarantino’s homage films like Kill Bill and Death Proof, as with the martial arts/western mixture in the formula and with the ‘restored grindhouse film’ aesthetic he is going for. However, Mitsutake made a short film called Samurai Avenger Lone Wolf Blood – Episode 24 as early as 2004, which formed the basis of the Blind Wolf and he claims he had thought about the “restored look” prior to the release of Grindhouse, and was worried upon hearing that Tarantino was making a film like the one he had in mind. Setting the questions of originality aside, Samurai Avenger provides a good 90 minutes of fun for the exploitation film aficionado, with its over the top violence (including a scene which involves a c section with a samurai sword!), litres of gushing/spraying blood, zombies, witches, and flashback explanations of several martial arts sword techniques, cheesy acting and one-liners etc. Although Mitsutake didn’t mention it among his influences, I thought the film also had an El Topo vibe going on with the Blind Wolf’s costume, the desert setting, and the general surreal mood.

It was surprising to find out that the budget was “way way way below half a million USD” (Mitsutake didn’t disclose the actual budget) as the special effects looked really good, but Mitsutake informed us that there were quite a number of volunteers and interns involved, so that kind of explains it. The film won the best film award and best special effects awards, quite deservingly. I got to have a chat to Kurando Mitsutake and had my picture taken with him too!

The diary will be concluded with the closing night of the festival. Coming soon!

Drag Me To Hell - Sam Raimi (2009)

!!SPOILERS!!

Continuing our “gypsies” run with a review of the recent Sam Raimi film, Drag Me to Hell. It is Raimi’s first horror film in a long time – I’m aware I’m disregarding The Gift, here, which was an all right film, but not as much fun as a big Evil Dead fan like me would like it to be, and was more of a paranormal thriller than a horror film – one in which he goes back to his roots as the director of the Evil Dead trilogy. We should note that a fourth installation of the Evil Dead series is to be released in 2010.

Drag Me to Hell, written by Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan (who also co-wrote Army of Darkness), tells the story of Christine Brown, a southerner living in California, and trying to fit in by working on her accent and by trying to get a promotion in the bank she’s working as a loan officer. The assistant manager position is to go to either her, or her co-worker Stu. Christine’s boss advices her to prove herself by making tough decisions, which she does by denying an old Eastern European woman, Sylvia Ganush, a third extension on her mortgage. Sylvia begs Christine to help her in a forceful manner, and Christine has to call security to take her out.

When Christine leaves work in the evening, she gets attacked by Sylvia. Unable to beat Christine physically, Sylvia takes a button from her coat and curses her. Later that night, after Christine told the police about the incident, she and her boyfriend, Clay, go into fortuneteller’s store, to Clay’s protest. The fortuneteller tells her she is haunted by an evil spirit called Lamia, which will come to claim her soul in three days.

Christine is attacked by invisible forces for the next couple of days. She goes to talk to Sylvia but finds out she died from her daughter. She tries to get rid of the curse by sacrificing her cat, which doesn’t work. Neither does a 10.000$ séance. As a last resort, Christine tries to give the button to someone else, as Lamia will come for the owner of the cursed object. She decides to give it to Stu first, but she can’t get herself to do it. So she opens up Sylvia’s grave and puts the button (which is in an envelope) in her hand and goes to meet her boyfriend, only to realise, she gave the wrong envelope to Sylvia. It is the third day, and as she falls onto the railroad in panic, the ground opens and she is dragged into a pit of hellfire.

As much as The Wolf Man was ahead of its time in its treatment to gypsies, Drag Me to Hell goes back to the image of gypsies as source of evil. In the opening scene of the film, we see a Mexican family in late 1960s California, whose son is cursed by gypsies for stealing a necklace. The boy ends up dragged into hell, and dies a horrible death. Then, when the film moves onto present day, Christine is cursed by a “gypsy” woman, for doing her job. The film treats gypsies as the exotic, uncanny ‘other’.

There is a small scene in Drag Me to Hell, where the gypsies are portrayed in their celebratory mood during Sylvia’s funeral. Christine’s disturbance by this scene is quite apparent, as the laughter and the “beastly” appetite of Sylvia’s friends and relatives are emphasized in a grotesque way, and Christine’s face goes immediately sour. Sylvia, in true witch fashion (!), gives Christine trouble even in her death, her dead fingers pulling her hair out. Sylvia’s daughter has no sympathy for Christine either.

On the other hand, the gypsy characters aren’t the absolute evil in the text. Or rather, Christine is not the absolute good. Christine acknowledges she could have given Sylvia another extension but she didn’t do it for the sake of getting the promotion she wanted. She doesn’t refrain from sacrificing her cat, or considering condemning someone else to hell to save herself. In the end, she ends up being dragged into hell, and as the audience, we vaguely derive some pleasure from that.

What makes it all all right is that, there is kind of a tongue-in-cheek attitude in the film. Drag Me to Hell is a good old fashioned horror film in a modern make up. The special effects, with scenes featuring eyes popping, blood splattering, and green puke gashing are a tip of the hat to the Evil Dead films and all the gore films of the 1980s. In that regard, the gypsy curse might be regarded as an homage to another old horror film tradition.

Overall, I can say that I enjoyed watching this film in the cinema and I’m looking forward to seeing Evil Dead 4.

Pervert! - Interview with Jonathan Yudis and Mike Davis

Pervert! is an American indie movie for the fans of cult sexploitation films, made by the fans themselves. It is an homage to Russ Meyer films, but the producers call it rather a “love letter”. The movie can be defined as Russ Meyer meets H. G. Lewis meets The Hand and Kondom Des Grauens. It has been received with praise by the cult movie community and it won the Best Feature Award at the 2006 Coney Island Film Festival. I did an interview with the creators of the film in 2006 for Sonic Splendour# 5, which was unfortunately never published. So without further ado, here is a peek at the world of Pervert! through the eyes of the writer/co-producer Mike Davis and the director Jonathan Yudis.

Hello, Mike and Jonathan. First of all, can you tell us about your background on filmmaking? How did you decide to make “Pervert!”?

Mike Davis: I studied screenwriting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, optioned my first screenplay (it was never made) and have been writing scripts ever since. Jonathan and I have been working together creatively since I moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and had varying degrees of success trying to work within the Hollywood system, but weren't able to get our work produced. We did "Pervert!" outside the system, and it is my first experience with film production. For me, co-producing Pervert! was better than going to film school.

Jonathan Yudis: I've always loved movies. I grew up on 70's and 80's movies and TV. My directorial influences are all over the place, from Kubrick to Spike Lee to Ron Frike (Baraka) to Coppola to - of course Russ Meyer. Like Mike said- we really just wanted to MAKE a movie and stop developing and pitching ideas to other people. After nearly 10 years in the game and many award winning shorts and some TV gigs, I was still paying the bills working as an office PA at Paramount when we created the opportunity to direct PERVERT! The goal was to make something outrageous and funny for very little money.


Who and what are your influences?

M: I love classic directors and cult directors. I am inspired by the amazing work of Fellini, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Herschell Gordon Lewis, John Waters and Roger Corman. As for Pervert!, the most important influence was unquestionably the late Russ Meyer.

J: Russ Meyer catalogue/ 70's exploitation/ Outrageous Comedy in general

How was the movie received generally? And how was it received in terms of political (in)correctness?

M: The reception to Pervert! has been incredible. It was made for a specific audience which is outside of the mainstream, and that audience has embraced the movie as the 'modern cult classic' we wanted it to be. Fans of cult, exploitation, sexploitation can be very picky (including myself) about new movies, and the general reaction we get is "You guys got it right." That is a huge compliment. But above anything else, Pervert! is a comedy, and the laughter from the audience always warms our hearts. We did not take ourselves seriously in the creation of Pervert! (except on a technical production level) and I think the fans appreciate that. It's hard to hate and be offended by a movie that is meant as one big joke.

J: Mainstream Hollywood has completely dissed PERVERT! I have collegues that no longer return my phone calls and others that avoid talking about Pervert! completely. Still other producers and people I know say that if I had any sense at all or ever want to work in Hollywood- I should remove my name from Pervert!

On the other hand, the cult movie community (which is who we made Pervert! for) has completely embraced PERVERT! and seems to not only "Get it" but celebrate it for what it is- a silly sexploitation comedy that pays its respects to Russ Meyer, 70's Drive-In classics, the horror /exploitation genre and movies that are created to push some buttons and make you laugh. I think it's also safe to say that anyone who appreciates big boobs will dig Pervert!

What do you think about the rise of exploitation/trash movies during the recent years?

M: I love it. I'm happy to see these sickos coming out of the woodwork. I just hope the quality stays high (I mean low) and that the genre continues to evolve and be updated, not retreads of what's already been done.

J: It Rocks.

Mike also runs an independent film company called Stag Films. So, what is your motivation to produce and promote independent, cult, exploitation films?

M: Like any great underground movement, I feel like the twisted souls who get off on this kind of stuff need a venue to get themselves heard. It's very exciting to me whenever the existing system of power gets lazy and little punks come along and kick it in the ass. If enough of us do it, then things may actually change!

Can you talk a little bit about future Stag Films projects? Are you guys planning to make another movie together?

M: Stag Films/Infinite Entertainment is planning on making a follow up to Pervert entitled "The Corpse Corps." It is an homage to 60's biker flicks about an outlaw motorcycle gang that reunites only to find that someone is trying to wipe them out. It will be different from Pervert! but equally outrageous!

J: Yes- THE CORPSE CORPS which Mike described (and we also have several other scripts I'd like to see produced including an Alien Comedy )

“Pervert!” has an overt tongue-in-cheek attitude – one which is reminiscent of parody - which is another common characteristic among the new exploitation films. What do you think separates you from Scary Movie series?

M: Pervert! does not take itself seriously in any way, even as a 'parody.' We homage bits and pieces of many different types of movies and mix them together into a soup. This time the overriding flavor was Russ Meyer, the next movie will be biker gang movies. We don't recreate scenes of other films with a funny twist, we just want the audience to know who inspired us and make the whole damn thing twisted. I guess it's more like the Quentin Tarantino technique than Scary Movie. I like to think of Pervert! not as a parody or an homage, but as 'a love letter.'

J: I agree with Mike’s response on this.

The movie derives a lot from comic book aesthetics, especially at the beginning and at the end. Do you like comics? The style used in the comic book cover of “Pervert!” reminded me of the works of underground comix artists. Was this a conscious choice? Do you think you have anything in common with them?

M: I'll defer this to Jonathan since it was his idea. But I will say it helps establish that this movie is meant to be viewed like a cartoon.

J: I always thought of PERVERT! as a live action cartoon- so I thought the comic book opening and closing could be a simple but effective way of telling the audience - "Hey- this is just a COMIC world, none of this or these characters are meant to be taken too seriously". And yes, I am a comic fan myself and loved the techniques used in movies like American Splendour or all the Ralph Bakshi catalogue (which interconnects the live action and animated worlds on film)

What kind of equipment did you use while making the film?

J: We were committed to shooting PERVERT! on film. I thought that given the subject matter and nudity in the script, if we shot on any Video format, it would subconsciously connect the viewer to PORN as opposed to the 70's sexploitation movies which were all shot on film. Though I wanted to use 35MM, we could only afford super 16MM which turned out to look amazing. We were going for the BRIGHT Colors of the Russ Meyer films which also lend to the Cartoon aesthetic. we shot with a great 16MM ARRI camera.

What would you like to say to those who want to make their own films?

M: The technology exists now that almost anyone can make their own film (or at least video). I hope that everyone will, and that each person will attempt to do something that has never been done before.

J: Do it. Go for it. The world needs to see your visions and films. Don't let all the nay sayers or Hollywood nonsense get you down. You could never imagine ALL the people in this world that might really be moved, inspired, or transformed by your film (no matter how crazy or absurd it might be)- but they can only be inspired by it if you actually MAKE it.

Any last words?

M: Russ Meyer lives.

J: Thanks for the support. Live long, Laugh loud, and Embrace your inner Pervert!



PS: Check out http://www.pervertthemovie.com/ to order the DVD and for more information

A Night of Horror International Film Festival Diary, Entry # 5

The last event of the festival, featuring Toby Wilkins’ feature film Splinter and the awards ceremony, was on April 3rd, Friday.

Splinter was one of the best films I watched in the festival, and was duly awarded with Best Feature Film and Best Feature Film special effects. It told the story of two young couples, Seth and Polly, who want to spend their anniversary camping in the woods, and Deke and Lacey, who, take Seth and Polly as their hostages along with their car in their attempt to avoid going to prison. When they stop at a gas station to refill their tank and stomachs, they come face to face with a monster unlike any we’ve seen. A parasite that spreads via its splinters and takes over bodies of its victims, only to break their bones inside and control them like puppets in its search for food. In the tradition of films like Dawn of the Dead, Splinter then becomes a film, in which a group of unlikely people take shelter within the confinements of a small space, and unite against the threat that surrounds them.

As Stephen King says in Danse Macabre, “humor and horror lie side by side, and to deny one is to deny the other.” Splinter became a festival favourite with its comic moments as well as gory scenes. The response of the audience to such scenes as an arm amputation with a box cutter knife and a concrete brick was, to say the least, joyously disgusted. The fact that its original monster concept, with echoes of John Carpenter’s The Thing, was mostly created with practical effects rather than CGI made the film all the more real and stronger. Director Toby Wilkins, knowing well that mediocre computer generated effects act to a horror film’s disadvantage chose to employ practical ones as much as possible and the result is a film that resonates with An American Werewolf in London with its transformation scenes (rather than, say, An American Werewolf in Paris).

For more information on Splinter and to see the trailer, visit the website

The screening was followed by the awards ceremony, and festival organizers, judges, and previous award winners presented this year’s competitors with their specially designed A Night of Horror Awards. As I mentioned earlier Splinter got the best feature film award along with best special effects. The best Australian feature award went to I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer, which I had unfortunately missed. Three of my favourite short films in the festival, Treevenge, AM 1200 and A Break in the Monotony all returned with awards. In an example of terribly irresponsible journalism, I neglected to take notes of all the winners; however, such categories as Non-English feature film, Independent Spirit, Australian Independent Spirit made it possible for almost everyone to get an award, I should say! Joking aside, the Festival should be applauded for its recognition of Independent filmmaking, and providing a venue for independent horror cinema in Australia.

All in all, the festival gave us a wonderful couple of weeks of horror, thrills, laughter, tears – in short, a bloody good time, and I guess I’m not alone in wishing them a long life and prosperity.

Next: Macabresque gets lost in the dungeons of academia…

Cabin Fever – Eli Roth (2003)

When this movie is under discussion, people tend to argue about how scary or not scary it is, as it is labeled a “horror movie”. I think, if a label is so desperately needed, we can call it a gore/comedy, even if there are not enough funny moments to call it so.

Apart from being one of the latest films in the school of “a-group-of-youngsters-go-to-a-cabin-in-the-woods-and-die”, it also belongs to another tradition, which started with H. G. Lewis’s 2000 Maniacs!, a movie depicting how a group of “yankees” are butchered by the inhabitants of a southern town in America. The fear against southerners has long disturbed the northern psyche in the United States, who in return employed this fear to make similar blood red movies. Going to one of those towns meant that you might be chainsawed, eaten or at best hung on a butcher’s hook alive.

Cabin Fever has a convention breaking function. Eli Roth plays with the preconceptions and prejudices of both the characters and the audience. The old guy in the ‘yokel’ shop and Deputy Winston are characters who turn all expectations upside down. The leg shaving scene, the guy who swallows a harmonica and the finale are among the highlights of the movie. Plus all the blood-puking, and devoured flesh you grindcore/gore fans out there need!

From Sonic Splendour #4