Hey people, and welcome again to Flawed Each Time. With the summer season anime season already commencing, we’ve acquired an absurd bounty of promising new productions to look into, from Naoko Yamada’s A Witch in Mongolia to the brand new Ghost within the Shell, dazzling aesthetic throwback Goodbye Lara, and even a model new adaptation from Kyoto Animation. Typically I’ve to scramble to fill out my 12 months in overview posts, however between this season’s contenders, Witch Hat Atelier, and Journal With Witch (it’s clearly a very witchy 12 months), 2026 is trying to be one of many strongest years in anime for fairly a while. In the meantime, my very own home simply completed up the unique Bubblegum Disaster, leaving me wavering between Magic Knight Rayearth and Galaxy Categorical 999 as our subsequent legacy viewing. I’ll allow you to all know the way that shakes out quickly sufficient, however within the meantime, let’s run down the week in movies!
First up this week was Dragon Inn, a ‘67 wuxia function directed by the legendary King Hu (Come Drink With Me, A Contact of Zen). The movie is about throughout the Ming Dynasty, whereby the Struggle Minister Yu Qian has simply been falsely accused of treason, and sentenced to demise by the eunuch Cao Shaoqin. Cao then units his sights on Yu’s fleeing youngsters, who’ve made their strategy to the distant Dragon Inn – nevertheless, the Yu household have allies of their very own, and Cao’s minions will quickly discover themselves going through off with a trio of legendary warriors.
Primarily based on my expertise with the extraordinary A Contact of Zen, I used to be sorta anticipating Dragon Inn to be a bit extra contemplative and immune to style classification. However because it seems, King Hu had a fairly particular concept in thoughts right here – Dragon Inn is actually a Seven Samurai-esque holdout mission, attending to the motion virtually instantly and by no means relenting thereafter.
A Contact of Zen’s bumbling Chun Shih right here stars because the effortlessly assured Xiao Shaozi, a grasp of the martial arts who introduces himself by terrifying a roomful of warriors, deliberately consuming poison, and catching and returning an murderer’s blade with chopsticks alone. That ought to provide you with some indication of the fashion of heroism employed by Dragon Inn’s stars, who make terrific use of the movie’s titular stage as they soar, slash, and deploy carefree one-liners in protection of their fees. With extra outright, lovingly choreographed motion than the wuxia customary, Dragon Inn serves as each an exemplary demonstration of the style and likewise an quick access level to its treasures; King Hu is a grasp, and Dragon Inn a transparent product of a grasp at work.
Our subsequent screening was the latest horror function Whistle, directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow, The Nun). The movie facilities on Chrys Willet (Dafne Eager), a latest highschool switch who discovers a wierd, skull-shaped whistle in her new locker. Whereas assembly up with some new acquaintances after college, one in every of them has the intense concept of really blowing on the terribly cursed-looking artifact, thereby instigating a sequence of occasions that mainly anybody who’d taken one take a look at the rattling factor might see coming a mile away.
Whistle is a medley of some teen horror staples – we’ve acquired some I Know What You Did Final Summer season, a contact of Remaining Vacation spot, and that “I’m drawing a line within the sand, don’t learn the fucking Latin” premise proper from Cabin within the Woods. I really feel just like the exact menace embodied by the Whistle labored a bit higher conceptually than in observe – the thought of “your destined demise catching as much as you” doesn’t actually facilitate as many novel chase sequences or scares as you would possibly anticipate, and a good variety of the movie’s main sequences fall flat in consequence. That stated, the second half picks up with a one-two punch of really grotesque kills, and I’ve to present the movie some begrudging credit score for sneaking in Chvrches “Remaining Woman” as its victory anthem. Nothing distinctive, however a watchable sufficient horror flick.
We then hopped again to our ‘50s horror grind, screening the aptly tilted Earth vs the Flying Saucers. Directed by Fred F. Sears, the movie facilities on the newly married couple Russell and Carol Marvin, who’re engaged on “Mission Skyhook,” a mission supposed to deploy ten analysis satellites into earth orbit. Sadly, these satellites are all instantly shot down by a cavalry of alien craft, who proceed to explode the Skyhook base of operations and inflict all method of calamities on the individuals of earth.
Earth vs the Flying Saucers is a effective instance of the basic “boardroom kaiju” style, whereby some supernatural menace is countered by a bunch of grave-looking officers holding conferences and discussing numerous plans of motion. A few of my favourite Godzilla movies fall on this style, and Shin Godzilla is virtually a parody of the shape, although Flying Saucers performs it pretty straight. Typically it’s simply good to observe a bunch of competent individuals make rational choices; in gentle of our present “governance by uncooked id” paradigm, it seems like a valuable luxurious to think about our rulers have any ideas of their heads in any respect. There are some imprecise thematic gestures in the direction of humanity’s inclination in the direction of violence in Flying Saucers’ first half, however for probably the most half it’s a good mixture of grim-faced discussions and Harryhausen-animated saucer battles; clearly removed from the sultan of stop-motion’s finest work, however nonetheless a welcome effort.
Final up for the week was the 1980 adaptation of Flash Gordon, tailored by Mike Hodges from the comedian strips by Alex Raymond. Sam J. Jones stars as our titular soccer star, who finally ends up roped into an interstellar battle when the earth is threatened by the malevolent Ming the Cruel (Max von Sidow, when you can imagine it). Working alongside his captured fellow earthlings, Flash should exploit each angle in an effort to foment a rise up in opposition to the hateful Ming, and ultimately deliver peace to the galaxy.
Flash Gordon is an altogether charming journey, providing colourful manufacturing design, dedicated performances, and loads of dramatic feats of derring-do. The movie’s biggest power is its dedication to tone; it performs as neither self-parody nor self-serious reinvention, as an alternative operating by means of its camp drama with complete sincerity (very similar to the live-action One Piece adaptation). Such an strategy essentially requires the solid’s full dramatic dedication, and Flash Gordon is thankfully blessed with a robust one; Max von Sidow is clearly incredible, however I used to be additionally fairly impressed with the performances of the movie’s dueling princes Timothy Dalton and Brian Blessed.
Blessed particularly mainly runs away with the function, providing a booming, exceedingly lovable efficiency all by means of the movie’s again half. Whether or not he’s sentencing Gordon to trial by fight or directing his legions of winged vikings into battle, he at all times looks as if he’s having the time of his life, and his pleasure is extraordinarily infectious. Lavish units, plentiful swashbuckling, and an incredible solid to swash these buckles – Flash Gordon’s merely a effective time on the films.
