Roy Montgomery - And Now The Rain Sounds Like Life Is Falling Down Through It (1998)

Great instrumental track by Roy Montgomery, the sound and guitar tone reminds me of 90's era Swans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ShfrFl349Y

Mr. Airplane Man

http://moaninrecords.bandcamp.com/track/lay-my-burden-down

The Street Fighter (1974)

The street fighter is a film that where Sonny Chiba personifies Bad-ass-ness. There isn't really another way to describe what makes a character badass, there is no way to quantify or describe our anti-hero. This Sonny Chiba is meaner than any of the villains on the film. One must simply watch and be taken in by the character whose exposition is shown almost entirely through his idiosyncracies in each of the non-stop  fight scenes.  I can keep calling him one mean mother-fucker but those are stock words to describe such a character.

Tsurugi is a character that is shown to be without roots. Even the title of the film, "The Street Fighter" hints at this before we start the film.  Tsurugi is rooted in himself; in nothing but his personal sense of honour. In the opening scene upon meeting the prisoner (not Patrick Mcgoohan, although that would be rad if it was), there is an unspoken understanding based solely upon them glaring into each others eyes. The prisoner is the last of his school, tsurugi is of "of nothing". Tsurugi draws his strength from himself, the prisoner draws his from his school, and as he is the last, does not have the focus and strength of tsurugi. They are both the only of their kind. His character is furthured developed when we are introduced to the Dojo Master Kendo. Tsurugi respects this man, which may be one of the few things he respects in this film.  Kendo is the opposite of Tsurugi. He is a family man, with a large dojo, and carries a stoic calmness about him. His movements are sparce and rigid, which is contrasted with Tsurugi flying about and slithering across the room.

The Prisoners family hire tsurugi to break prisoner out, knowing that they cannot afford to pay tsurugi.  The fight is one of deseration; the two of them are no match for tsurugi, who notably dispatches both simply by quickly throwing them to the ground over and over again.  Tsurugi doesn't specfically want to hurt them, but his honour mut be payed.  When the brother dies, its effectively by his own hand, as Tsurugi simply gets out of the way. He sells the sister into sexual slavery to get his money.  The life debt must be paid with life, in absense of any morality. This is shortly to be contrasted with him saving the heiresses life. When he negotiates his terms with kendo, money is not mentioned.

The prisoner's discovery of the sister brings his charcter to a new motivation.  Notable, he is just sitting in the bar drinking, having discovered a man wo can best his school, and now trapped far from him in hong kong, and also, entrenched in an honourable debt to him as tsurugi saved him from death.  However, with the discovery of his sister, he gains a new motivation through family and revenge.

It is important to note that Tsurugi  gets dropped off a bridge from a crane in his car, and beats the shit out of two guys with a gun after.  He is so rad he breaks a guy's skull. To make special note of this we see his skull in x-ray vision breaking.


The partner betrays tsurugi by not trusting Tsurugi's word that he can escape and taking it upon himself in saving him.  Here Tsrugui's comiment to the mission is absolute and fully willing to risk his own life.  However the partner's loyalty and understanding is to tsurugi the person, not the honourable mission tsurugi has undertaken.  The partner waits for three clicks of the pistol, but at that point he can no longer wait for tsurugi to save himself or die, and so sacrifices the girl, and his honour, to save tsurugui, (to whom honour binds him with his life.)

Later, when the partner re-appears to aid tsurugi in fighting the blind swordsman (a reference to Zatoichi, a beloved character in japan who is another unorthodox fighter)  the partner sacrifices himself for tsurugi. Tsurugi is surprised to find him there.  the impression given is that the extent of the partner's will to aid tsurugi was something tsurugi himself was unaware of.  And also, the need to repay the life debt he owes to tsurugi for saving him in singapore. Tsurugi sheds his hard veneer, showing his humanity in a single tear (a great example of special effects).

The interconnected web of debt and honour is what motivates the characters in the film. The main "villain" of the film, Mr. Jadot, is simply there to drive the plot forward. His lack of honour ultimately causes his death.

The final scenes of the film are shown at the beginning of another film,  True Romance, of which Tarantino wrote the screenplay of. "He is, bar none, the greatest actor working in martial arts movies ever." is one of the opening lines. He would later cast Sonny Chiba in Kill bill as the master sword maker 'Hatori Hanzo'.

Master of the flying Guillotine

Master of the flying Guillotine 

Master of the flying Guillotine is a martial arts film like 'the street fighter', but beyond that,  is so far removed from any semblance of reality that existed in 'The Street Fighter'. This masterpiece of theatre starts off like no other film ever can. This movie can deliver on it's bad-ass-ness on it's opening scene alone. A blind old dude who is clearly a kung-fu master of some sort (because of the depth of his eyebrows), front flips in a rage out of his hut. He then decapitates a chicken, showing us the second ways he can decapitate a living being, and then blows his previous dwelling on fire with ninja bombs. This is significant because it shows he's a bad guy, but also really awesome. At this point I would like to defend against any attacks that I sound like I'm using my twelve year old voice, which I am most certainly not.

After this display, the most awesome music is most perfectly matched to what is going on screen. He did just front flip out of his hut, he then blows it up with ninja bombs, I reiterate this because it is important, and then, and then, and then, I reiterate this because it is imporant, and then he walks away from his burning cottage in the barren mountains, with the music of the kraut rock band Neu! playing, with a not-nazi swastika all over his chest. It has a heavier meaning because we are European, but it is obvious there is no pandering to western audiences in this film, and it adds an unintened gravitas to this bad bad dude.  Universally, throughout centuries and cultures, this dude must but bad, and not the good bad, the bad bad. 

Jimmy Wang directed, acted, and wrote this amazing film, reprising his role as the one armed boxer. He has two arms in real life, but found it comercially expedient, no, not because it was awesome to have a one armed dude beat the shit out of people, but because it was comercially exedient. He wasn't thinking that when he made this film, but that's how it would go today, which wouldn't happen. It would be mere coincidence, and the director and actor would not know how to handle such awesome skill, nor show it in any meaninful or awesome way. 

Again, this is all in the first 5 minutes of the film. Regardless of what happens next in the film, it doesn't really matter. This guy has just demostrated the limits of something. Just some limit, doesn't really matter what limit, he hit one here and made a new one, and no one is going to deny that. The blind guy then goes on a genocidal rampage against anyone with only one arm. His eyebrows do the talking from here on out, twitching up and down like the reactions of bat sonar.

Jimmy Wang, with his one arm, is not victim to this genocidal purging, purging similar to that which was carried out against disabled people under by the Nazi Party. This has no bearing on the film, but it unintendedly makes the bad guy just that much more bad ass, not bad ass in a good way, but bad ass in a bad way.  There isn't a whole lot more to say about this film, but one could go on for a few days on it. It's such a fun film to watch, every character is over the top. You just can't stop smiling at the film, and if you do just remember the first 5 minutes, and you'll smile again. In 100 years people will still view the film the same way, just call the bad dude just one bad ass dude, with a rad weapon that is totally implosable, but that doesn't matter because you are watching a film called "Master of the Flying Guillotine", so expect him to be awesome at the weapon, and people will smile and know that it is a true smile. Just enjoy this film because it's the only one of it's kind made, and it's a gem.