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하녀 [Hanyeo / The Housemaid] (Kim Ki-young, 1960)
Nov
13
Adding one more ingredient. DP: Deok-jin Kim.
A memorable kitchen or cooking scene*
“Look at us. We're almost totally dependent on our maid. She cooks and washes for us, and is the first person to greet me when I come home from work. She is entirely at our service.”
– Dong-sik Kim
A housemaid works her way into a middle-class household and takes over the wife's tasks – cleaning, cooking, child rearing.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for November is, again, not date-based, but follows a sloppy schmaltzy all-American Thanksgiving-y narrative. Trying to make it work my way.
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Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936)
Oct
26
1936
A distraught Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy ) in the sheriff's office. DP: Joseph Ruttenberg.
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Smrt si říká Engelchen [Death Is Called Engelchen] (Ján Kadár + Elmar Klos, 1963)
Sep
19
ER – 1994
Pavel (Jan Kačer) recovering face-down in his hospital bed. DP: RudolfMilič.
An emergency room: ER debuts on this date in 1994.
A paralysed Czechoslovak partisan recovering from a shot in the back in an emergency ward, feverishly remembers the events that brought him to that moment. He particularly remembers Engelchen, the SS Sturmbannführer who killed his best friend and massacred the local villagers.
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Jaider, der einsame Jäger [Jaider, the Lonely Hunter] (Volker Vogeler, 1971)
Sep
5
Mother Teresa
Gottfried John as Jaider (via). DP: Gérard Vandenberg.
“Denn auf den Bergen, ja da ist die Freiheit,
denn auf den Bergen ist es doch so schön,
dort wo auf grauenhafte Weise
der Jennerwein zugrund mußt gehn.”
Jennerwein-Lied, 19th c.
Jaider, just returned home from the Franco-Prussian War and incapable to find work, turns to poaching to feed himself and his impoverished town. Soon he leads a gang of poachers, who in their turn are hunted by Bavarian soldiers and state-sanctioned hunters. Loosely based on legendary “Jaider” (“hunter”) and poacher Georg Jennerwein.
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海底から来た女 [Kaitei kara kita onna / Woman from the Sea] (Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1959)
Sep
4
The mysterious sea woman (Hisako Tsukuba, who under the name Chako van Leeuwen went on to produce the Jawsploitation franchise Piranha) and a bewitched Toshio (Tamio Kawachi). Note how the boat's sail resembles a shark's dorsal fin. DP: Yoshihiro Yamazaki.
A strange woman appears in the life of a young man. He falls in love with her, but the fishermen know. She's the wife of a shark killed years ago. And she's out for revenge.
Doing Hooptober parallel to Bales. Expect some contamination of the September/October posts.
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藪の中の黒猫 [Yabu no naka no kuroneko / A Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove] (Kaneto Shindō, 1968)
Jun
19
Garfield the Cat Day
A young woman in white, strangely resembling a cat, seemingly lapping a drink from a bowl. DP: Kiyomi Kuroda.
A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.
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The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1982)
May
14
Tue
A schoolgirl with long brown hair seen from the back. She's taking the popular shortcut through the fields. DP: Brian West.
“Subject, Sandy Fremont. The last positive sighting of the child was on her way home from a school orchestra rehearsal. This was on Tuesday May 14th at approximately 6:30 in the evening.”
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みな殺しの霊歌 [Minagoroshi no reika / I, the Executioner] (Tai Katō, 1968)
Apr
3
1968
A newspaper headline for April 3, 1968: “COMPANY DIRECTOR'S WIFE NEWEST VICTIM”. DP: Keiji Maruyama.
“With bar hostesses, there's a type who are likely to be murdered.”
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Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)
Dec
11
1952
Gina (Céline Lomez) stripping in front of a silver tinsel curtain. The silhouette of a woman is visible in the foreground. DP: Alain Dostie.
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Gina [Stone Cold Revenge] (Denys Arcand, 1975)
Dec
5
فَاطِمَة بِنْت مُحَمَّد
Gina (Céline Lomez) waiting at an airport. DP: Alain Dostie.