Best movies you've never heard of on DVD

[Disco Stu]

Last night Sara and I saw this absolutely astounding 1970's Japanese women-in-prison flick called "Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41". It was reccommended to me by the author of the book Tokyo Shock. From the title, it appears to be a cheesy WIP flick, but is in fact a searing feminist film about the evils of a patriarchal society, in the guise of something much sleazier. Amazing camerawork, top notch directing, and incredible acting, especially by the lead who puts in a near silent performance on the level of Maria Falconetti in "The Passion of Joan of Arc" or Vincent Price in "The Abominable Dr. Phibes." Not the inept exploitation film it appears to be. Image put out a pretty good disc, considering it's C movie status at the time. It's a nice anamorphic print with some fairly accurate burned in subtitles. As Sara said, it makes "Thelma & Louise" look like a pussy movie.


Others:

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (amazing mixture of live action, claymation, and stop motion)
An Affair of Love (best movie about sex, ever)

[Chris in OC]

Originally posted by Disco Stu
As Sara said, it makes "Thelma & Louise" look like a pussy movie.

Well, ....no, I'm sorry, that's just too easy!

I'll toss in a vote for The Brother From Another Planet. John Sayles' second film is a low-budget oddball about an alien who lands on earth after fleeing his own world. He ends up in Harlem and fits right in because he looks like an African-American human, but he can't talk, so everyone makes assumptions for him. It's sort of like an inner-city Being There, but with a sci-fi twist, more balls-out humor, and a darker sub-plot. Joe Morton (among other parts, the "inventor" of terminator technology in T2) turns in a wonderful performance without saying a word.

This is an odd DVD release, being made on the cheap and looking like a home-brewed bootleg. The quality isn't great and the picture is full-frame, but it was more than worth the $7 I paid for it.

[Disco Stu]

Originally posted by Chris in OC


Well, ....no, I'm sorry, that's just too easy!

I'll toss in a vote for The Brother From Another Planet. John Sayles' second film is a low-budget oddball about an alien who lands on earth after fleeing his own world. He ends up in Harlem and fits right in because he looks like an African-American human, but he can't talk, so everyone makes assumptions for him. It's sort of like an inner-city Being There, but with a sci-fi twist, more balls-out humor, and a darker sub-plot. Joe Morton (among other parts, the "inventor" of terminator technology in T2) turns in a wonderful performance without saying a word.

This is an odd DVD release, being made on the cheap and looking like a home-brewed bootleg. The quality isn't great and the picture is full-frame, but it was more than worth the $7 I paid for it.

This is a very good movie (I wrote a paper in college on its sociological ideas), but I saw the DVD and I hoped for a better release. Perhaps Sayles has to make another movie on the exposure level of Lone Star for the public to demand more of his stuff. If it worked for Peter Jackson, perhaps Sayles can get lucky, and we can see Brother From Another Planet, and his masterpiece City of Hope on disc (which is in 2.35 as well, the LD was cropped!). On top of that, where's Men With Guns, Lianna, Return of the Seacaucus Seven, and Baby It's You?


No one else has any other hidden treasures for the rest of us to discover?