Another Heaven

Eastern Cult Cinema, a branch of Artsmagic, Ltd, emerges out of all places, Ebbw Vale, Wales! Known primarily as distributors of such cheesy tourist video consumables as British Rail Journeys: Around the Lake District, Eastern Cult Cinema is their newly expanded collection of extreme Japanese action cinema. And quite the line it is!

One of their Eastern Cult Cinema titles is Jôji ('George') Iida's 2000 Sci-Fi thriller Another Heaven. The film begins promisingly enough: Detective Manabu Hayase (Yosuke Eguchi) and Inspector Tobitaka (Yoshio Harada) are called to a bizarre murder scene where the victim's neck was broken before his brain was completely removed. A strange case to be sure, but complicated even further by the wonderful stew cooking at the murder scene, believe to be the handiwork of the killer. Before you can say 'Hannibal', the missing brain pops up in said stew and in a high comic moment, all the hardened police officers run out of the flat puking their guts out. So far, so good. This grisly little thriller, has not only grabbed my attention, but greatly impressed me with cinematic style and a nasty streak worthy of Takeshi Miike. More murders follow, using similar methods - neck broken, brain removed but found prepared in some kind of foods at the crime scene. In one of my favourite lines of the film, Manabu seems particularly distressed at the brain having been cooked into a spaghetti sauce, since he admits to being particularly fond of spaghetti.

The killer's identity is revealed early on in the film: a young woman, Chizuru (Yukiko Okamoto), who cries blood tears, has been raping men who try to seduce her, breaking their necks with supernatural strength, and then removing and cooking their brains. By this point, the film is firmly established within the fine tradition of Japanese femmes fatales, and Chizuru is clearly related to Asami (Eihi Shiina) in Miike's Oodishon, Chihiro (Harumi Inoue) in Ishii's Freezer, and my personal favourite evil lady, Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) in Kurosawa's Ran.

But once Chizuru has been identified as the killer, the film takes a turn for the X-Files: it seems that Chizuru has been possessed by an alien parasite which can move from body to body when its host has been all but depleted (hence the bloody tears Chizuru sheds, as this is a sign the body is not longer useful to the parasite). While the police are satisfied the killer is now dead (Chizuru), a new series of murders begins occurring which appear to be the work of a copycat killer, but is in fact merely the new body the alien parasite is embodying.

If this had been an episode of the X-Files, it would have been a cracker! There is just enough material here to fill 44 minutes of action, or maybe, in a push, 88 minutes of a two-parter. But Iida is just too in love with his own story to know when enough is enough: not only did the director write his own screenplay, but it is also based on his own novel. The film just goes on way too long, with a whopping running time of 132 minutes. After about an hour and a half, Iida really has nothing more to say, or to show us, but like a novelist, needs to tie up all his loose ends and offers, what I'm sure at some point in the development process seemed like a good idea, a moralising ending.

However, credit to the boys from Ebbw Vale for offering us this mediocre film in a pristine digitally enhanced anamorphic widescreen format, with clear subtitles and a good digital soundtrack. This is a nice looking film, even if the content is on the slow side.

As first class as the transfer is, the extras Artsmagic offers are diametrically opposite. First, there is a lengthy (36 minute!) interview with director Iida, but shoddily filmed with a camcorder in someone's living room. The soundtrack on the interview is not in sync: the 'voice of the director' has been dubbed, seemingly by an actor, in Japanese, with subtitles which don't match the sound. Artsmagic have put their own name on the production of this interview, so they need to take the blame for this shit. So sloppy is the production that after the end credits for the interview, they've left a previous piece of an earlier edit still on the original tape. I know a little something about analogue editing, and boys, you're supposed to 'black' a tape before you do your final edit, to prevent slippages like this. In terms of 'trailers' offered on the disc, we are given seriously cheesy two to two-and-a-half minute excerpts from their 'Lone Wolf and Cub' series. Again, the video transfers look good, but these trailers are all but destroyed by the seriously inept attempt at turning these clips into a trailer. To the staff of Artsmagic: you've got good and high quality product in your hands. Don't end up looking like a bunch of amateur cowboys with sloppy production and crappy art design. Take a design course, learn how to do analogue editing - this investment in staff development will result in a much greater respect for your product in the future.

Another Heaven is a mediocre movie, particularly as it feels like an hour's worth of plot stretched, badly, to two and a quarter hours. That being said, the first 45 minutes or so are absolutely first rate.

Review by Mikel J. Koven