I did go home, showered, and changed first. Had I not it would've been a stinky 4 movie night (I hadn't showered or changed clothes in 60 hours when I landed. You're welcome, everyone at the Roxie last night). As it is, just three movies.
Oh yeah, and South Africa was a blast! But that's another story.
Holehead, aka Another Hole in the Head, aka SF Indiefest's fantasy, horror, sci-fi film festival, aka one of the High Holy Days of genre film watching in the Bay Area...actually started while I was somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. But I should still be able to see nearly everything (depending on how much of the SF Silent Film Festival I do). Anyway, here were the movies last night:
First up, SYMBOL, by Hitoshi Matsumoto (BIG MAN JAPAN). I have to struggle a bit with spoilers here, but I will say it has offered a glimpse into a religion that I could actually believe in--that the world is the result of the random actions of a frightened, confused Japanese man locked in a room whose walls are covered in cherub penes that he presses almost randomly. I think I just failed to not give out spoilers. Oh well, at least if you see the movie and see that it starts off with a story about a Mexican wrestler named Escargot Man and his loving family, you'll be thoroughly confused. But trust me, it all makes sense and is definitely worth sticking with.
SYMBOL plays again 7/14 at 7:00 pm at the Roxie and 7/24 at 5:00 pm at the VIZ Cinema
Next up was ROBOGEISHA, and it's exactly what you'd expect from the title, director Noboru Iguchi (MACHINE GIRL) and special effects expert Yoshiro Nishimura (MACHINE GIRL, TOKYO GORE POLICE, as well as SAMURAI PRINCESS and VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL from this year's Holehead). Two sisters, one an aspiring geisha and her little sister who serves (and is abused by) her, are brought into a steel magnate's geisha army. They train, they are surgically modified (boob guns, armpit swords, ass swords, wigs that shoot napalm, etc.) But the younger one turns good and fights their evil plan to drop a bomb into Mt. Fuji and destroy Japan. Not much of it makes sense, not much is supposed to, and a good time was had by all.
ROBOGEISHA plays again 7/15 at 9:00 pm and 7/20 at 7:00 pm, both at the Roxie.
It's a testament to the strength of the schedule (so far) that ROBOGEISHA was actually the least interesting movie I saw last night (mostly because after seeing MACHINE GIRL and TOKYO GORE POLICE it was kind of more-of-the-same). But the late show was a certified hit that has apparently been getting all kinds of buzz online (it might surprise you to learn I don't really follow stuff like that) and might be getting a theatrical release if the buzz is loud enough (so here's me adding my bit: buzz buzz buzz)--TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL. Tucker (Alan Tudyk of "Firefly") and Dale (Tyler Labine of...a lot of stuff I haven't actually seen, but is awesome here) are a couple of hillbillies in West Virginia who just realized their dream--owning a vacation home. Okay, it's a run-down cabin by a lake where apparently some horrific things happened 20 years ago, but it's a place where they can go be alone and do some fishing. Only problem (other than the place is falling apart and kind of a death trap) is a bunch of college kids who are going camping by the very same lake. And the college kids are a little bit bigoted against hillbillies. So when they see Allison (Katrina Bowden) fall into the lake Dale jumps in to rescue her. The college kids think he's kidnapping her (maybe to torture her?), and set out to rescue her. And wacky hijinx ensue. Something as innocent as sawing into a log with a beehive makes Tucker look like a chainsaw waving maniac, and college kids start dying in freak accidents, making Tucker and Dale look like psychos when they're really innocent. Yeah, I've already said too much, and I suppose I could say something about the message of tolerance and getting to know people. But really it's not about that, it's about the fun of watching "educated" idiots die in hilarious ways. Here's hoping it gets a release, and if it does I'm telling all of you to go see it then. Unfortunately, this was the one show at Holehead that only plays once.
Total Running Time: 285 minutes
My Total Minutes: 188,034
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