Kyoufu no Eigashi part 2

[M Arnold]

A couple of hours ago I got back from the "Horror Movie History" talk with 
Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Shinozaki Makoto and Higuchi Yasuhito at Athenee Francais. 
  It was pretty interesting.  There were about forty people in the audience. 
  The event started at 1:30 p.m., and they began by showing a pan-n-scan 
video of one of Kurosawa's favorite horror films, "Mill of the Stone Women" 
a.k.a. "Ikichi wo Suu Onna" (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960), in its entirety, in 
English with no Japanese subtitles.  [According to the IMDB this movie is 
Italian.  "Il Mulino delle donne di pietra."  No video is currently 
available, it seems.]  After that there was a short break and then the two 
directors talked and talked and talked.

They discussed the Ferroni film and talked about Kurosawa's meeting with 
Tobe Hooper when he went to Los Angeles in July.  Kurosawa said that he had 
been talking with the people who made Hooper's "The Mangler" (1995) in 
regards to a possible U.S. version remake of "Kairo," but after the terror 
attack in New York the U.S. industry isn't really in the mood to make horror 
films, so it'll probably have to wait.  Kurosawa bragged about eating out 
with Hooper, and explained how surprised he was to find out that the 
director of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was a friend of people like Udo Kier 
and Bernardo Bertolucci.  A 'koshi no hikui interi'.  Kurosawa and Shinozaki 
both said that they cried at the end of "Spontaneous Combustion."

Kurosawa brought in a tape with scenes from various horror films like "The 
Mangler" (a movie about a killer laundry-folding machine, in case you hadn't 
guessed), "Snake Woman" (1961), "The Gorgon" (1963) and others, and 
Shinozaki brought in some video clips comparing specific scenes from 
Kurosawa films with scenes from western horror movies such as "Jaws," "The 
Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Funhouse," "The Fog," and "The Boston Strangler." 
  "Strangler" ("Kousatsuma" in Japan) in particular looked like a very 
interesting film but it too is unavailable on video.  
http://www.athenee.net/DATABASE/cinedate/t_a/k/kousatuma.html

Kurosawa kept saying he was embarrassed having his videos compared 
back-to-back with a lot of these, and said he never intentionally copied 
this or that, but there were some interesting similarities.  Kurosawa 
suggested that they try the same thing with Shinozaki's "Wasurerarenu 
Hitobito."

The talk started to wind to a close a little after 7:00.  Shinozaki said 
that he had several more clips to show but they'd have to cover them next 
time.  The last video clip they played was from "The Exorcist III," a long 
scene in the hospital hallway that ends with a shock.  Shinozaki said that 
before we go, he had a quick quiz for the audience.  Whoever gives the right 
answer wins a prize.  "Who directed The Exorcist III?"  I looked around and 
nobody even twitched, so I raised my hand and tried to remember how to 
pronounce the guy's name in katakana.  "William Fureedokin."  "Uh, nope, 
that was the first movie, this is three."  Damn, that's right, part three.  
Aha, then it must be...  He asked again, "anyone else?"  I waited a second 
to give everyone a fair chance but nobody moved, so tried a second time.  
"William Burattee."  "Uh... yes, Blatty, who was the author of the original 
book too.  You just won a nice poster for Jigoku no Keibiin that was 
autographed by Kurosawa himself just a few minutes ago.  Come and get it."

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with that poster, but the talk 
itself was very interesting and it shed a lot of light on Kurosawa's horror 
'technique.'  I wish I could find some of those movies on video though.

Did Kurosawa complete a new film?  There was some talk about it playing at a 
recent film festival and a few of the audience members said they had seen 
it.  Does anyone know what it's about?

Michael Arnold

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