Episode 58. Samurai Swordplay: Onibaba

Demon Woman, Demon Hag. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. However, you slice
it up, it comes up Onibaba every time. But before we get lost in
the flowing miscanthus, stumble into a pit and plummet to our
deaths, only to have our clothes and valuables scavenged, and
also have some frank depictions of sex, we have to talk about
what we watched this week.

Goodman knocked out seasons 1 & 2 of Netflix's Lupin starring
everyone's favorite caretaker from the 2011 French hit, The
Intouchables, Omar Sy.

He also watched a couple movies that Dre also saw, including the
new Steven Soderbergh ensemble noir on HBO Max, No Sudden Move,
starring Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Brendan Fraser, David
Harbour, Kieran Culkin, Amy Seimetz, Julia Fox, Ray Liotta and
Noah Jupe (who's in everything these days); and the 2nd movie in
the Lone Wolf and Cub series: Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the
River Styx, which Goodman thinks surpasses the first movie and
Dre thinks is equally ass-kicking.

Dre surpassed Goodman, however, because he also watched the Lone
Wolf and Cub mash-up for the US/UK markets: Shogun Assassin (in
the dubbed, as it was intended).

Then Dre watched Lynne Ramsey's 2012 short film, Swimmer, which
is available on YouTube; a John Cassavetes flick starring Gena
Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Minnie and Moskowitz, about a museum
curator who falls in love with a parking attendant (as happens);
the 2019 horror movie, Saint Maud (which didn't come out until
2021) directed by Rose Glass; Bo Burnham's comedy special: Bo
Burnham: Inside; and the Bob Odenkirk John Wick-styled film,
Nobody, which Dre plunked down the rental money for.

Dre also read Quentin Tarantino's novelization of Once Upon a
Time in Hollywood, which goes beyond the movie's storyline and
has a lot of fun stuff to sink your teeth into.

Then Goodman remembered that he went back to the theaters for the
first time since the pandemic (how could he forget?) to see the
only movie that could bring him back, F9: The Fast Saga.
#thebusterbroughtmeback

Finally, we shift gears and get into Onibaba, the 1964 film by
Shindo Kaneto, a masterful, spellbinding, creepy, sensual
samurai-adjacent film with a questionable/silly tagline: The most
daring film import ever...from Japan! We talk the story, the
cast, quote and trivia.

Next week we go full-blown Rza with his film score and cameo
in the Jim Jarmusch-directed Ghost Dog: The Way of the
Samurai.
SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert