Asian Giallo Weekend, Bruh

 

I did a deep dive into Hong Kong and Japanese giallo movies this weekend and I may have overdone it. I watched 14 films between Friday and Sunday. Woops! By the end of Sunday evening, I felt like I was going to puke but I did not, in fact, puke. Other than some confusing subtitles and bootleg shenanigans, my wife and I really had a great time. So, here's a short breakdown if you're looking to track down the films I watched.

 

The two films that had the most giallo goodness packed within them were Raw Passions (1969), which felt exactly like a late 60s Italian "everyone is blackmailing someone" movie with a black-gloved killer, and the other was Night Caller (1985). Night Caller is a wildly convoluted freak-fest that has all the imagery (the getup of the killer in particular), ludicrous plot twists, and tropes (fashion models!) of something akin to Nothing Underneath (1985).

Honorable mentions for their spicy giallo-ness:
He Lives By Night (1982)
The Red Panther (1983)
Murder in the Dollhouse (1979)

 

Films with some mild to moderate giallo sensations:
The 5 Billion Dollar Legacy (1970)
House of Terrors (1965)
The Queen Bee (1973)
Dark Rendezvous (1969)
Evil Dead Trap (1988)
Perfect Blue (1997)

And finally, a trilogy of murder-mystery kung-fu films who were legit whodunits but didn't give me the giallo vibe per se:
Bloody Parrot (1981)
The Butterfly Murders (1979)
Human Lanterns (1982)

 

You'll get to read about all of this marvelous moviethon experience and how much I enjoyed or didn't enjoy the films once I finish Giallo Meltdown volume 2. This was the 6th chapter, so I guess you could say that I'm actually writing the book. It's all true!