I went to the Cinema Village during the Hong Kong film festival a few months ago, and John Zorn sat down in the seat next to me for ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA and SWORDSMAN 2 (both excellent of course). I took the opportunity to clear up a question that may be of interest to some of you folks: the Naked City album HERETIC JEUX DES DAMES CRUELLES (Avant 1) was not a sountrack to an actual film -- not when it was recorded anyway. But subsequently a film was in fact made that used the album as its soundtrack. I think Zorn said that it was by some friend of his, a Japanese porn director. He also indicated that it would be virtually impossible for me to find it. Probably true.
I also asked Zorn about SHOJO NO HARAWATA [GUTS OF A VIRGIN] (the film after which the first Painkiller album was named). It is indeed available for rental at Kim's Video on St. Marks between 2nd and 3rd, NYC, along with about ten other Japanese videos. These are in a series called "Dark Side of the Sun", which Zorn appears to have put together. Some of the films are really cool {a few titles: "Graveyard of the Brotherhood", "Branded To Kill" (Suzuki Seijun), "Women's Prison Cell 701: The Scorpion" (the poster for this was on display at the Knitting Factory), "Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands", "When the Fetus Goes Poaching" (or something like that...), "Blind Beast"}. However, since they are all in Japanese with no subtitles, the less visually interesting ones are hard to get into... But GUTS OF A VIRGIN is one of the most accessible -- and it's great too. Actually, it wasn't as disgusting or gory as I had been led to believe {mainly by a review in "Monster! Interational" #2}.
This movie can probably be obtained on video from Mystic Fire Video, Inc., PO Box 1202, Montauk, NY 11954, (800) 727-8433. I bought it at Kim's Video in NYC (on St. Marks around the corner from 2nd Ave).
There is an article on Harry Smith in "Chemical Imbalance" v2 n3 (their address is Box 1656 Cooper Staation, NYC, NY 10276 USA). Here's an excerpt which might be of interest here:
``Many of Smith's animated films employ overt magical symbolism and allude to drugs, two favorite preoccupations. He described 'Film No. 10' as "an exposition of Buddhism and the Kabbalah in the form of a collage. The final scene shows Agaric mushrooms growing on the moon while the hero and heroine row by on a cerebrum." This film was a study for a more ambitious collaboration with Thelonius Monk, 'Film #11', _Mirror Animations_. This carried out the methodology of his jazz paintings in film, thightly synchronizing the animation to Monk's "Misterioso". His black-and-white _Heaven and Earth Magic_ ('Film No. 12') was created in the late 1950s and early '60s by using sortilege to animate cut-outs from old department store catalogs and books. Originally six hours, it survives only in a one-hour version, with "musique concrete" soundtrack by Smith that uses sound effects in an analogous manner to the cut-up images. In its graphic depiction of spiritual transport and trasformation, this film is the true American _Book of the Dead_.''
A movie I saw recently that I enjoyed was "Temptation of a Monk". This is a Hong Kong film directed by Clara Law. It is a bit similar in some ways to "Romance of Book and Sword" (Ann Hui), which I raved about the other day. I highly recommend this movie as well! An intense story, with some great themes. And very well executed.
One of the noteworthy scenes was an intense small-scale battle, with much slow-motion, maiming and killing, weird sound design. Screaming, drumming, etc. As I watched it I was strongly reminded of John Zorn's Naked City piece "Leng Tche" (available on CD on Toy's Factory, a Japanese label). I'll have to ask him about whether there is a possible connection! It is a known fact that Zorn is into Hong Kong cinema...