The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (1962) – Exactly what it says on the tin. Zatoichi, the blind wandering masseur/swordsman, is called upon to give a massage to a lord who’s apparently loony with early-onset dementia; then, so that Zatoichi won’t spill the beans about their master’s condition, the retainers pay to have him killed. Plus people from the first movie still want him dead, so the new crew contracts with the old crew. On top of that, Zatoichi is being hunted by a one-armed swordsman who turned out to be his brother; their feud revolves around the woman who first loved Zatoichi, then transferred her affections to the brother, then buggered off.
On top of it all, once again, women of ill repute but golden hearts are drawn to him. I guess a soft-spoken guy who’s never pushy, has a marketable skill, and can whip out his sword but can’t tell you if your butt looks big in that kimono is quite the catch.
Despite the description, the Zatoichi series doesn’t immediately veer into the soap-opera territory which turned me off from the Sleepy Eyes of Death series with the second installment.
(Sorry, no trailer.)
Age of Heroes (2011) – This touts itself as “The true story of the formation of Ian Fleming’s 30 Commando unit,” although Fleming’s character is secondary and not really involved in the commando stuff. Instead, this is the story of Sean Bean hand-picking and training a British team for a mission to Norway to sabotage a Nazi radar installation and steal their technology. Most of the commandos are soldiers he’s worked with before; one was from a military stockage and effected an escape by taking Sean Bean himself as hostage — you can’t let balls like that go to waste in wartime!
It’s solidly in the Dirty Dozen tradition of WWII movies, and what was desperately innovative when it happened — the formation of a covert commando squad to undertake secret missions — is now a standard for action and war movies, reality-based or not. There’s nothing wrong with this movie, but it’s not uniquely right in anything.
No, I’m not going to tell you if Sean Bean dies.
Fractured (2019) – A father whose young daughter gets injured on their long drive back from Thanksgiving stops into the nearest country hospital. Then the wife and daughter disappear, and the hospital staff deny they ever existed…
As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m always drawn to those high-concept impossible premises, even though they so often fall apart in trying to construct a story which makes sense from that premise. This one doesn’t fall apart; it stays both plausible and suspenseful as it progresses, and feints enough so that viewers who say, “Okay, NOW I know what’s really going on,” end up having to backtrack five minutes later. Warning: Don’t watch this if you have a bad reaction to suckerpunches.
Speaking of movies like Fractured, did you ever see “Breakdown” with Kurt Russell or “Flight Plan” with Jody Foster? If so, do you remember anything about them?
Nope, haven’t seen either yet.
Missed opportunity to deny either of those movies even exist, Nathan.
My favorite concept of what I’ll call the “something is missing that only the protagonist remembers” genre is a French film called La Moustache. It’s about a French man who has had a mustache his entire adult life. He finally shaves it, only for none of his acquaintances to notice. When he finally starts pointing out the mustache is gone, his friends and family claim he never had a mustache. Though I liked the concept, I didn’t much care for the execution. The premise was played completely straight, and the movie ended up being a bit too ponderous for my taste.
I’m holding out hope for a comedic remake starring Sam Elliott as a fictionalized version of himself. You could have a lot of fun going back and digitally erasing his mustache in his old film roles. Then adding a mustache in when he finally gets to re-watching Frogs.
Leave it to the French to make a serious existential movie about ‘staches.