Rhapsodies

I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do for my theme this week. So in a desperate act of a creative approach to scraping the barrel, I googled “obscure sub-genres”. What I found in a list of possibilities with something the page called “aquatic sports”. Which, in this context, seems to mean people fighting marine life… So don’t go expecting high art here.

The first on my list, Minoru Kawasaki’s The Calamari Wrestler, takes us to the world of Japanese pro wrestling where wrestler Koji Taguchi (Akira Nogami) has just about one the championship. Just as he’s about to accept his prize, a giant squid in wrestling boots (Osamu Nishimura) appears on the ring easily taking out anyone who tries to throw it out and taking the championship belt from Koji. 

Now in order to keep his belt, you have to be about against the Calimari Wrestler… And what’s this about the wrestler being a reincarnation of former champion, Kanichi Iwata who had allegedly died of a terminal illness?

This movie was really stupid.  New with the main character looking like a recycled Kaiju. But it’s still fun and sweet in its own really strange way. I think it works because it takes itself way too seriously. (Also there’s something cute about a squid monster shopping for groceries)

The next on my list Mark Locke’s Crust, tells the tale of Bill, a bartender who spends his life savings on a giant boxing shrimp with a killer punch, and then travels to London with his friends to use the shrimp to make their fortune.  

This movie was mostly… Meh. For the most part, it was Dale and uninspiring, though the shrimp running amok at the end meet up for some of the tedium.