AN ACTOR'S REVENGE (1963, JAPAN), THEATER OF BLOOD (1973)

The Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) onstage in

An Actor's Revenge

An Actor's Revenge is Kom Ichicawa's film about a Kabuki actor named Yukitaro who as a youth had his parents led to suicide by three men. The film depicts his infiltration of these men's lives in later years with the intention of  extracting a little payback on them.  His plan is complicated by his feelings for one of the men's daughters, who in turn has fallen in love with Yukitaro. I tend to like these Japanese films with Kabuki actors: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, Ballad of Narayma, Late Spring among others. 

The character of Yamitaro is most interesting. He appears in feminine form onstage...and has the same persona offstage. This persona is what the daughter of one of the revenge targets falls in love with. She is originally just a vehicle for Yamitaro to help with his plan, but he does begin to have real feelings for her. But what exactly are the extent of these feelings? Whatever they are, they do complicate his plan. I do think their relationship is the heart of the film.

The world's a stage for Vincent Price

in Theater of Blood

I tried to think of another actor's revenge themed movie to team An Actor's Revenge with and the obvious choice for me is the 1973 film Theater of Blood featuring Vincent Price as a hammy Shakespearean actor named Edward Lionheart who takes revenge on his critics by killing them one by one by methods adapted directly from his Shakespearean roles.I first saw this on late night telly at my Aunt's house forty years ago! So a revisit was interesting.

There is a lot of good here. Price is appropriately over the top with his Shakespeare soliloquies and also the administering of his murders. For example, he gets one of his critics to kill his wife in a jealous rage like in Othello or tries to gauge out the eyes of another a la King Lear. The film also has the plus of a young Diana Rigg as his complicit daughter.

However, there are problems with the plot. Chief among them is the fact that there is a police investigation into the killings and they figure out that Lionheart is committing the murders and have the targeted critics under police surveillance. However, the police are so casual with watching the critics, they allow several of the critics to be murdered right under their noses! Oh, well. It's still a nice watch for Price fans. 

TOKYO OLYMPIAD (1965, JAPAN), MUNICH (2005)

Tokyo Olympiad

Tokyo Olympiad, Kom Inchikawa's documentary of the 1964 Olympic Games, isn't your typical sports highlight reel. What we have here is more of the feeling and atmosphere of the games whether than who won or lost. I suppose that's why some who watch the film aren't that pleased with it. Those of a more artistic bent seem more prone to like it.

We have a Japan that is not yet two decades removed from World War II, but clearly embracing the world and the spirit of competition. It is interesting the sports that are highlighted, as we get more of fencing than we get of basketball (less than 10 seconds for basketball). Perhaps Ichikawa's method is the best frame to see watch this now, as we can appreciate the artistry of as opposed to who won.

The highlight for me was the Marathon (won by Ethiopian Abebe Bikila) which successfully highlights the individual drama of the competition with little or no commentary.

Munich

The 1972 Munich Olympics were the first Olympics that I can remember. Those involved will always be stuck in my memory because they seemed bigger than life to a nine-year-old. Among the athletes:

· Seven gold medal winner Mark Spitz, who used the Olympics as a stepping stone to appear in a Bob Hope special, at least that’s the only other thing I can remember him doing afterwards.

· Frank Shorter, who won the Marathon despite an imposter running in front of him when he entered the stadium for his final laps. (Featuring Jim McKay’s commentary on the imposter. “That man is getting applause that belongs to Shorter!” Or something like that. It’s just not the Olympics without the commentary of Jim McKay.)

· Dave Wottle, Gold medal sprinter (who looked nothing like a sprinter) and his unforgettable golf hat.

· Long distance runner Jim Ryun getting tripped during a race he was favored to win-though I still admire his futile, hopeless attempt to get back in the race.

· Vince Matthews and Wayne Collete, 400m medalists, who talked during the playing of National Anthem at the award presentation. (Not as memorable as the medalists giving the black power salute, but that was a different Olympics, a different time.)

· Olga Korbut, the greatest Olympic gymnast ever until four years later when Nadia Commenci became the greatest Olympic gymnast ever.

· The Men’s basketball final where the U. S. got screwed over

by the refs in the final game against the Russians. (Editorial note: We should still field a team of college players no matter what them other countries do.)

Other names of note: Kip Keino, Lasse Viren, Shane Gould, Steve Prefontaine, Rodney Milburn, Sugar Ray Seales, Duane Bobick, Dan Gable, Dwight Stones, Teofilo Stevenson et al., etc…etc.

Sadly, what the Munich Olympic Games will mostly be remembered for is the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists. I'll never forget Jim McKay's dramatic commentary as the events unfolded ("They are no more").

This clip of Jim McKay is used in the beginning of Stephen Spielberg’s film

Munich. This film is more about the covert operation by the Israeli government to find (and kill) those responsible for the murders than the actual murders.Those murders are just the prelude here, but are smartly interspersed throughout the movie, so the viewer gets a greater understanding of what happened, or at least the films version of what happened.

Though the movie wasn't what I was expecting, it did have a lot to say about the difficulties involved in tracking, identifying, and killing terrorists.I like the way this is summed up by one of the movie’s characters:

The drunk Americans could have been CIA, for all we know Louis is CIA. They work both sides, everyone does. Or Louis is Mossad, now maybe he isn’t, but they’re using him to feed us information. There’s no direct link. Or Mossad’s giving it to the CIA, which is giving it to Louis and Ephraim’s demanding we give him Louis because we expect him to do…

How can you kill evildoers when you can’t even determine who they are?

For more fanatical fans of the Olympic Games, The Criterion Collection offers on Blu-Ray and DVD 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012, which features 53 films from 41 Olympic films. It isn't cheap to purchase, but it looks like a great collection.