Intolerance Intolerance
Apr
14
2006

The Guard From Underground Review

Posted by Todd Brown at 7:53pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Horror, Asia.

guardfromunderground.jpg

Though Kiyoshi Kurosawa is now one of Japan’s most respected film makers this was not always the case. Like most Japanese directors Kurosawa cut his teeth in the straight-to-video market, doing contract work for different studios cranking out low grade genre flicks on tight shooting schedules and even tighter budgets. The idea is to have a director prove himself able to work efficiently before putting them in charge of theatrical work and most good directors work their way through the ranks quickly. But not Kurosawa. After a highly public blow up with an older, better known and well respected director who had altered his work without permission, Kurosawa was locked in a v-cinema hell. Considered risky and hard to control he had to scrabble for work and spent much longer in the v-cinema world than most directors of his obvious skill would ever have to. If not for a screenwriting award from the Sundance Institute Kurosawa would likely never have had the chance to make Cure, the breakout film that got him out of v-cinema for good.

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Reader Comments

  1. Caterpillar 04/14/2006 @ 10:33pm

    I appreciated the history lesson, actually. But who was this “older, better known and well respected director”?

  2. Nova 04/14/2006 @ 11:23pm

    I don’t understand how people can like this movie. i really liked some other kiyoshi’s other movies but not this one. i just wasn’t able to see it all because it was to bad and looked too much like a very bad B movie.

  3. logboy 04/15/2006 @ 2:14am

    at first glance, this film certainly doesnt seem to be the familiar kurosawa of the post-Cure movies most this way know… its almost a bridge between the world of v-cinema compromise and those later movies, so the elements were more familiar with are much more subtle but still on display. personally, i dont really like the film much, but if youve a taste for his later style and the time / inclination / money plus the ability to let it dwell and ferment in your mind youll being to pick out a lot more worthwhile memories of it that you might initial fear when the film begins. very very odd movie.

  4. Fabool 04/15/2006 @ 4:21am

    Caterpillar. I believe Todd was referring to Juzo Itami and what went on with the movie Sweet home.

  5. Yojimbo 04/15/2006 @ 7:00am

    Thanks for the review on this! I have been really wondering what this title was all about and what the quality of the DVD will be.

    Thanks again!!

  6. nitty 04/15/2006 @ 2:53pm

    I for one would love to see Sweet Home released.I know Kurosawa doesn’t care for it as I’ve read in interviews but I hear the fx are really well done.Which is really no suprise since Dick Smith is one of the best in the business.

  7. Todd Brown 04/15/2006 @ 5:54pm

    Logboy is correct, Sweet Home is the one ... Kurosawa’s career very nearly ended there.

  8. logboy 04/16/2006 @ 3:27am

    that was fabool that pointed out the sweet home thing.... not me. smile
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