Being Film #23 for Hooptober 2025 I've never been one to revel in bad movies. I know folks that do, and dedicate copious amounts of time and words to the pursuit of the bad, the cheesy, and the exploitive. I need a little more, certainly more than a shirtless Leslie Nielsen wildly fighting a bear.... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 12.0 – Demon Pond (1979)
Being Film #22 for Hooptober 2025 I came away from Demon Pond with a lot of questions. Not about the plot: this is a relatively straightforward folktale about forest spirits, obligations and the ramifications of not obliging them. The film is made with an abundance of care and no small amount of visual flourish. But... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 12.0 – The Fifth Cord (1971)
Being Film #20 for Hooptober 2025 After seeing Luigi Bazzoni's debut film The Possessed earlier for this marathon, I was even more eager to check out The Fifth Cord, his second foray into giallo, particularly as that film straddled the line between dreamlike noir and paranoid Lynchian nightmare more than what we would come to... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: In the final Lone Wolf and Cub film, star Tomisaburo Wakayama decided to make the... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: Balancing physical action with Buddhist musings on life and death, the most spiritual... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: In this distinctly lowbrow entry in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Itto Ogami is... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: Unfolding in an idyllic countryside that contrasts sharply with the violence that occurs... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: In this exploitation-cinema classic, which took the action and graphic violence of the Lone... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: The inaugural film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series immediately thrust Itto Ogami into... Continue Reading →
Something Like a Filmography: Dersu Uzala (1975)
Something Like a Filmography takes a (brief) look at the filmography of Akira Kurosawa. Twice a month, Chris and Jon share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and in terms of Kurosawa's legacy and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: THERE IS MAN AND BEAST AT NATURE’S MERCY.... Continue Reading →
