The Boy from Hell

The Boy from Hell
AKA Jigoku Kozo
Directed by Mari Asato
Released: 2004
Starring Mirai Yamamoto, Mitsuru Akaboshi, Baku Numata, Hanae Shoji, Shota Someya
Running Time: 50 minutes
Country of Origin: Japan



Dr. Setsu Emma (played by Mirai Yamamoto) is a famous surgeon but all that really matters to her is her son, Daio (Shota Someya). In a tragic (read as: hilarious) traffic accident, Daio’s head is severed by a passing truck while her servant (Baku Numata) is driving them home one day. Stricken by her grief, Setsu takes the advice of a madwoman and sacrifices a boy the same age as Daio over his grave in order to resurrect him. Daio (now played by Mitsuru Akaboshi) comes back possessed by the spirit of a creature from hell and immediately begins killing and devouring anyone unlucky enough to cross his path.



Meanwhile, a snooping detective, Hanamizu (played by Hanae Shoji), who has an impossibly huge nose, shows up to investigate the recent rash of cannibal murders. His nose can detect criminals and his sneezing leads him to believe this is all connected to Setsu and her family somehow. You see, his nose can smell a criminal and she’s got him sneezing up a storm. Setsu comes up with a brilliant plan to fix her crazed son: give him a brain transplant! She takes to kidnapping neighborhood boys to find a suitable donor. Kooky hijinks ensue.



Adapting Hideshi Hino’s magnificent horror manga to the screen isn’t easy. For starters, his art is very stylized and everything from the characters to the gore is way, way over the top. Director Mari Asato attempts to give us a glimpse into Hino’s mad world and is surprisingly successful. With a very small budget, The Boy from Hell’s crew relies on their imaginations and a tongue-in-cheek attitude to bring this story to life. Having Daio played by a dwarf when he returns from hell is genius and the wildly plagiarized Deep Red soundtrack is also pretty darn awesome. The Boy from Hell is a lot of fun and its short running time and campy aesthetic help its watchability immensely. I now have a crush on Mirai Yamamoto. What a woman!



The Boy from Hell is one of the 6 films in the Theater of Horror boxset. So far, I have seen Death Train which is all right and Occult Detective Club: The Doll Cemetery which is boring and terrible. Let's hope the rest are as deliriously entertaining as The Boy from Hell. And by all means, check out Hideshi Hino's manga. It's good times!

Doomed Moviethon Vlog of Doom #0003: Horror Manga

I think I'm getting worse at these.

Innocent W

Makoto is a witch who puts his powers to good use as a private eye. One day, he gets a lucrative offer from a client to travel on a certain bus to a certain location in order to uncover the identity of a witch. This easy assignment sounds too good to be true and it is. It seems that everyone on the bus is a witch and someone has arranged for this bus to crash in a remote place in the woods. Within moments, gangs of witch-hunters show up intent on destroying the survivors of the crash. Makoto and his new friends must fight for their lives using their magical talents to make it out alive.

Innocent W by Kei Kusunoki is a decent little 3 volume horror manga series. My only complaint about Kusunoki's style is her action sequences are a little confusing. There were several occasions where it felt like frames were missing and I just got lost. Another issue I have: I think that TOKYOPOP, who published Innocent W back in 2006/7, kind of screwed up the translation. This might be poor writing on Kusunoki's part but to me it just reads like awkwardly translated text.

I'm very forgiving when it comes to horror manga so I got a great deal of enjoyment out of Innocent W. The story is convoluted but I was drawn in by the backstories of the witches and the excellent art. There's also some disgusting gore and a little nudity thrown in to make things nice and trashy. Another cool thing is that it's only 3 volumes. Had this been a long series, say 10+ volumes, I definitely would have gotten burned out before its end. So I kind of half-recommend Innocent W. If you see it cheap somewhere, pick it up.

Love Ghost

Love Ghost AKA Lovesick Dead, based on the manga by horror manga master Junji Ito, the creator of Tomie. There is a legend that if you go to a certain shrine in the middle of town, cover your face, and ask the first stranger who comes by if you will be lucky in love that you will receive some honest to goodness love advice. But some say that the shrine is cursed and a vengeful spirit will appear out of the fog and say you will be unlucky in love. This unwanted news is much more than just a bummer, man, it will lead you to commit suicide.

I didn't mind Love Ghost though it definitely encouraged me to doze off several times. Unfortunately, the budget couldn't handle the unbridled insanity that Ito's original storyline devolves into. The filmmakers also forgot to exploit what makes the manga so good: it's freakin' scary! What's worse is that instead of keeping things simple story wise, the movie shoots itself in the foot with a major plot twist that makes the confused conclusion anything but satisfying. First time director Kazuyuki Shibuya does a pretty good job with the film even with the screenplay problems but this is a tough flick to recommend. Some arterial spray and pretty girls in schoolgirl uniforms just aren't enough to make Love Ghost worth checking out. If you're going to watch every Japanese horror movie ever made you could certainly do worse but that's not saying much now is it?



Because Americans are lame, Lovesick Dead has not been published over here just yet. However, there are kind bilingual folks out in internetland who have been nice enough to do fan translations. It's worth the search, y'all. Trust me.

Akira, Domu and My Dumb Brain

I've been rereading Akira lately and thinking, "hey, they should make this into an animated series!" Now don't get me wrong, I freakin' love the film version of Akira; it was the gateway drug into a world of nerdery that I have never looked back from. One thing that you may find amusing (or just pathetic) is that when I read Katsuhiro Otomo's manga, I was kind of disappointed. I was like 'wow this is really long and who are all these characters I don't care about?' Can you believe that shit? Don't worry, the me that had lame thoughts like that is dead, I promise.

Anyway, now that I have finally pried my head out of my dang butt, I think that with a 12 or 13 episode run (at an hour apiece), there would be plenty of room to stay true to the original manga. And with CGI going the direction that it's going in, I'm sure Akira could be done live action. As long as the good old US of A doesn't have anything to do with it, it might have some promise.



One of Otomo's other masterpieces that I would like to see on the big or the small screen is Domu: A Child's Dream. This is one freaky and genuinely chilling book that has the makings for an incredible animated adaptation. Come to think of it, Domu is a much smaller scale deal than Akira so it could work as live action as well.

Now here's something weird I did not know existed: World Apartment Horror, a horror/comedy directed by Otomo (one of his very few forays into live action). It definitely looks like it is more comedy and political statement about race relations in Japan than horror. But I'm still quite curious. Here's the trailer:

Ladies of Giallo # 5 (and more)

The weekend is over and I am not pleased about that. However, I am please to announce that Ladies of Giallo #5 is up at The Daily Tourniquet. It is about Marilù Tolo and Carla Brait. Check it out and report back as soon as you can.

Bluebeard Trailer

My only regret is not watching Bluebeard before I wrote this one just so I could see Marilù Tolo kick Richard Burton in the balls. Amazing! Too bad about all the dang animal violence. It was pretty much the most gratuitous bunch of bullshit I've ever seen (except for the wild boar (that thing freaked me out)). Other than the hunting scene, I pretty much loved Bluebeard.



Yesterday, the wife and I watched Topper starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett. I have vague memories of trying to watch this as a kid and being bored out of my skull. Boy, was I a dumb kid or what? Topper is awesome. I have no idea if any of the sequels are worth checking out.

We did our bookstore hopping this weekend and visited Borders, Barnes & Noble and Mojo Books & Music. I picked up the new Rue Morgue and the seventh volume of MPD Psycho at Borders. Neither of us could find anything at Barnes & Noble so we headed home by way of Mojo where I picked up a used copy of Marvel's Essential Tales of the Zombie (for $8.99) which looks promising.

Reiko the Zombie Shop

It’s not a crush! I’m in love! Reiko the Zombie Shop from Dark Horse is my new favorite horror manga. I’m only up to volume 4 (out of 11) of this gore-drenched and sexy series from artist Rei Mikamoto. A ‘zombie shop’ by the way, is another term for a necromancer, a person who raises the dead, and Reiko Himezono just happens to be the best. By invoking the power of Satan, this enterprising high schooler will return life to a corpse for a substantial fee, of course. Unfortunately, most of the cases Reiko takes involve murder and mayhem so the zombies she raises are usually very pissed off.

Laced with a sick, sardonic sense of humor and a healthy dose of nihilism, Reiko the Zombie Shop appeals to a reader’s darker side and always goes for the gusto when it comes to blood and carnage. The series is mostly short stories of Reiko’s adventures but bigger storylines do develop including a battle with her older sister, Riruka. That’s right, kids; this super-hot zombie shop has an evil sister who also happens to be a necromancer bent on world domination. Let’s all collectively pray (to the devil) that this wicked manga will eventually becomes a major motion picture or an anime series.





UPDATE 01/25/10:

Sons a bitches! Looks like Dark Horse has dropped this title. Out of 11 volumes, only 6 have come out so far. Volume 6 came out in April of 2007 and there are no signs of volume 7 coming out anytime soon. Please write to the nice people of Dark Horse and ask them to finish releasing this amazing series.