Pulpmovies Reviews

When Sally (Gemma Deerfield) has a run-in with a local pub bully she is helped out by Jay (Simon Phillips), a slightly wet character who means well. Then it becomes Sally’s turn to help Jay, whose full name turns out to be Jesus.

When Sally returns to the pub the following day to retrieve Jay’s wallet, she runs into a large and dangerous cowboy dude (Danny Idollor) who is looking for Jay. And if Jay is Jesus, then the Messiah is here to make sure that he finally goes through with his crucifixion.

Of course, none of this is immediately apparent to Sally – who also has her own reasons for not wanting to be found – and she and Jay head north.

Although Sally is a very well grounded character, there is a deliberate element of uncertainty about both Jay and the Messiah. Writer/director, Alan Ronald has been very careful to avoid giving any clear indication as to whether the two men really are who they think they are or whether Sally has managed to get herself caught up in someone else’s delusion. That said, I found it very easy to buy into Jay as Jesus on the run and I had no problem accepting The Messiah as, well, The Messiah.

This probably says something about me, but it also says a lot about how well written the main characters are. All three of these individuals are very well drawn, completely rounded, and thoroughly believable. All of this makes for some very engaging characters who very quickly draw you in to their world and keep you wanting to know how things are going to pan out.

It helps, of course, that the acting is so strong throughout. All three of the main cast – and the more minor characters, for that matter – put in excellent performances and really do bring their characters consistently to life.

Jesus Versus the Messiah is a very character centred film, and this approach allows the plot to flow in a very natural manner. Nothing is forced and, by allowing the story to emerge from the developing relationships between the characters, Alan Ronald manages to maintain a narrative that remains consistent, believable and utterly enthralling.

When all of this is combined with a collection of great one-liners, and a genuinely moving ending you have a film that is well worth tracking down.

Lance (Gabriel Leon) wants to be a ninja. He also, desperately, wants a girlfriend and this is quite excruciatingly apparent to every woman he meets in the course of his job – a pizza delivery boy for Ninja Pizza. Well, where else would you expect him to be working?

Unfortunately for Lance, his desperation to meet women lands him in trouble – repeatedly – until he finally hits rock bottom and loses his job. And it’s now, while alone and pondering his options that he – rather improbably – encounters a real-life ninja, Takeshi Banzai (Seiji Kakizaki). Banzai is getting on a bit, and being hunted by another group of ninjas, but also considers himself to be in debt to Lance who accidentally rescued him from his enemies.

Consequently, he agrees to take the younger man on as a student. This is a decision that Banzai quickly begins to regret as he becomes aware of just how eccentric Lance really is. Still, the student does learn – slowly – and over the course of the training Takeshi starts to rediscover his own long-suppressed ambitions.

Inevitably enough, once Lance starts to pick up some ninja skills his attention returns to his amorous ambitions and, once again, his dorkiness lands him in trouble, this time putting both Takashi’s and his own life in danger…

The Ninja Always Rings Once is a very funny film. Obviously, it is a ninja film and it is both a spoof of and a homage to the many direct to video examples of this genre that were churned out in the 1980s.

We have the cod philosophy, the manic chases and the over-the top fight scenes, all of which are very well choreographed. Although there is a jokey sense of humour present throughout the film, director Christopher Genovese clearly knows and appreciates the genre for what it is.

Part of the appreciation of the ninja genre, of course, includes recognising the absurdity of many of the elements in these films. And Genovese not only recognises this, but takes full advantage of it to deliver a deft and very funny comedy which works well even if you have never seen a ninja film before.

The acting in this film is very strong throughout and both Leon and Kakizaki do a great job of bringing their characters to life and generating some real sympathy for both. Also worth mentioning is the soundtrack which, as with everything else, really fits the spirit of the film. And I loved the Ninja Pizza uniform.

Overall, The Ninja Always Rings Once is a solidly entertaining film that has plenty to fans of both action films and comedies. But it goes beyond that and also has a great deal of fun with the ninja genre, making it doubly entertaining to anyone who remembers the films it’s spoofing.

Burned out war photographer, Yuji Nishizaki (Takao Osawa) is camping out in the mountains when he sees – and photographs – a plane crash. And then things get interesting…

As the film gets going, we are also introduced to Yuji’s sister in law, Keiko (Yuko Takeuchi) and Ochiai (Hiroshi Tamaki), both of whom happen to be journalists. Both of them sense a story brewing and Yuji quickly finds himself drawn into their investigations – especially in the case of Ochiai.

The story, as it emerges, is quite a major one, to say the lease. It turns out that some euphemistically referred to “Northern agents” have broken into a nearby Air Force base and sabotaged one of the American B52 bombers flying out of there. This is the plane that Yuji saw crash and it is carrying something that the Japanese government are both desperate to recover and very keen to keep from the public.

While Keiko finds herself investigating the incident at the US base, Ochiai manages to talk Yuji into going into the mountains with him to try and locate the crashed plane. And it’s in the mountains that the action gets going.

As well as the journalist and photographer, there are also two units from Japan’s self-defence force also trying to converge on the plane. And, to make matters difficult, the mountains are also heavily infiltrated with the aforementioned “Northern agents.”

The main problem that I had with Midnight Eagle is that the film seems to be quite uncertain as to whether it’s an action film or a conspiracy thriller. We do have a conspiracy, centring on what was on the crashed plane and why the Japanese government are so desperate not only to recover the plane, but also to keep the whole affair under wraps. But it’s not much of a conspiracy and figuring out what is going on is far from difficult which makes the reveal a bit of a let-down.

So on to the action and here the film suffers by being quite slow. The action sequences are competently done, but there is a limit to the number of ways that you can film a couple of men trudging through snowy mountains while avoiding various white-clad villains hiding in the snow. Consequently, we have a very high dialogue to action ratio.

Perversely, though, it’s in the dialogue that the film scores most strongly. There is a great deal of discussion in the film about Japan’s military and foreign policies and, while some of this probably does assume a greater understanding of the country’s politics than the average Westerner has, none of it is so intricate as to lose you and the broad themes are understandable to all.

There is also much said about the nature of journalistic integrity, the value of truth and – although not explored as fully as I’d have liked – the question of what happens when reporters uncover explosive secrets.

All of this comes together in a very powerful and genuinely moving climactic scene which very effectively pulls together the films themes of sacrifice and loyalty and which – on it’s own – makes Midnight Eagle a film well worth seeing.