Karmaloop rep BLACKPOWER

ourafrica:

If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.

Thank you, beautiful African mothers, words alone cannot explain the appreciation we have for you.

We are forever grateful.

This is Africa, our Africa

Happy Mother’s Day.

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

In Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wallstreet” on the evening of May 31 1921, a race riot erupts.

“During one of the worst race riots in American history, Tulsa, Oklahoma became the first U.S. city to be bombed from the air…  Mostly Blacks were killed… . Tulsa Blacks were so successful that their business district was called ‘The Negro’s Wall Street.’ Envy bred hatred of the Blacks… . A White female elevator operator accused Dick Rowland, a 19–year–old Black who worked at a shoeshine stand, of attacking her… . The Tulsa Tribune ran a sensational account of the incident the next day, and a white lynch mob soon gathered at the jail. Armed Blacks, seeking to protect Rowland, also showed up… . Whites invaded the Black district, burning, looting and killing … the police commandeered private planes and dropped dynamite. Eventually … martial law [was] declared. The police arrested more than 4,000 Blacks and interned them in three camps. All Blacks were forced to carry green ID cards” (Irving Wallace et al., Significa, 1983).(via Your History Online VII)

“The nights carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead, and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system.”

This event serves as one of the first records of Black Americans being placed in detention camps and also of “pass laws.” Similiar laws would be duplicated in South Africa under the Apartheid regime a few years later.

Learn more about Black Wallstreet here: “A Black Holocaust in America.”

deepbreathsanddeath:

Movie: 4.5/5
What drives an ordinary man to murder?

Cold fish is the second installment in Sion Sono’s ‘Hate Trilogy’, with the first being Love Exposure and the final being Guilty of Romance (which I’ll be reviewing next). I’ve been wanting to review this film for quite some time but I’ve been holding off because I wanted to review all 3 films in Sono’s Hate trilogy together, however it’s been taking far too long for Love Exposure to get a blu-ray release. I decided to just review this film since none of the three films in the trilogy are even connected by much of anything so it’s not like you need to of seen either for this film to make sense, and I won’t be spoiling anything from the first in the trilogy if you haven’t seen it.

Shamoko, a quiet and unambitious man runs a small fish shop together with his sexually frustrated second wife Taeko, who is constantly at odds with his daughter Mitsuko. One day, Mitsuko is caught stealing in an upscale supermarket. Before the manager can call the police, the friendly owner of another fish shop, Murata (Denden, Cure, Eureka), settles the issue. Later on, he takes Shamoko, Taeko and Mitsuko to his shop and shows them his collection of exotic and tropical fish.

Shamoko and Murata become friends - and then partners. Mitsuko also begins working for Murata and even living in his house, while Taeko has a quick rendezvous with him. Energized and feeling good about the future, Shamoko and Taeko also warm up to each other again.  

But after another business partner angers Murata, Shamoko witnesses something that profoundly changes his life. Together with his beautiful wife Aiko, Murata makes the man “invisible” (pretty horrific stuff). Realizing that his partner and his wife are insane, Shamoko attempts to walk away but is immediately warned that if he talks his daughter and wife would also become “invisible”. Unable to cope with the pressure, Shamoto slowly begins losing his mind the deeper he gets sucked into Murata’s sick and demented world.

Cold Fish is based on the early 90’s ‘Saitama Dog Lovers Serial Murders’ case, and according to Jake Adelstein, an American reporter living in Japan, the first 2/3 of the film is very accurate with the last 1/3 of the movie being fictional. He wrote all about the real case in his book ‘Tokyo Vice’ and reported about it back in the early 90’s. He even met Gen Sekine on a couple of occasions, knowing full well what was going on. Some time after meeting Gen in his pet store and being charmed by this man, he met him once more in a public area and this time he flat out told Gen that he heard that he’s killed multiple people, in which Gen’s goofy smile quickly changed to a cold, blank expression and he responded with “That is not true. But I could, I could start with you.”
And Mr. Adelstein knew, then and there that this man was a murderer from the look in his eyes when he said this.

The fact that the last 1/3 of the film is fictional is not a bad thing at all. This is afterall a film, and as a film maker naturally he wanted to make it his own and not make it a mere documentary. There are some things that were changed, with the main change being that the real life serial killer couple Gen Sekine and Hiroko Kazama were breeders of rare and exotic dogs, not fishes.

It’s a wonder why he even bothered calling them his hate trilogy. Sure there is violence and sadness in all 3 but that doesn’t feel like enough to warrant the title of a trilogy. I spent some time thinking about it and after a while I came to the conclusion that ‘Hate Trilogy’ just sounds really cool. I’m sure there is infact some kind of reasoning behind the title, but for now I’m satisfied with that.

The acting is important, obviously and it must be said that all main characters put in a wonderful performance. Mitsuru Fukikoshi does a great job with the timid Shamoto (especially in the later scenes), but it’s really Denden who steals the show. His version of Murata is essential to the success of the film, as he takes you on a ride that’s quite hard to stomach altogether. But in the end it’s his character that glues everything together, and it’s the believability of his character that will tow you through most of the second half of the film.

This is a pretty long movie, running at 144 minutes. I wouldn’t argue with anyone if they felt the movie was half an hour too long because I also felt that upon my first viewing of Cold Fish, and although I still feel as though it’s too long, I don’t consider that quite as much a negetive anymore. Sono’s films do tend to be pretty long though, and the overall product isn’t something you’ll find elsewhere, so I can’t help but appreciate it for what it is. The long run time doesn’t make for a large amount of repeat viewings, but in my opinion the film is more enjoyable upon your second viewing.

Sono’s films are often labeled as misogynistic and while the women in this film are definitely in need of some professional counseling, the men don’t really come out any better. The woman are selfish, soda-masochistic leeches while the men are beastly, arrogant and lying scumbags. It’s quite easy to come up with a whole lot opinions on Sono’s view of the world, but as he handles most of his films with an unmistakable rim of dark humor, it is difficult (if not impossible) to tell how much of his material is serious and how much of it is simple manipulative entertainment. As for Cold Fish, I would say that those who label it as misogynistic are probably a little too over-protective.

Cold fish kind of plays out like Miike Takashi’s Audition, where the first hour of the movie was really quite slow, but the build up leads to some pretty insane stuff. This film differs from Audition, in that while it starts off slow, it’s still interesting from beginning to end, whereas Audition bordered on boring through the first hour of the film. The entertainment level is spread pretty evenly throughout Cold Fish, but it certainly rises steadily as it progresses and gets better by the minute, even if those minutes feel a little drawn out at times.

Picture Quality: 4/5
The picture quality of Cold Fish is generally quite good. Well and truly an upgrade over the dvd but in saying that it’s still a little ugly by nature. Very gritty and machine noise is quite visable much of the time throughout the film. Darker scenes have very visable grain which can indeed be a little distracting, but in saying that, the gritty appearence can suit the subject matter, depending on what’s going on.

I owned this film on dvd prior to owning it on blu-ray, so I noticed a pretty substantial upgrade in crispness, clarity and depth, however if you’ve never seen this film and you were to just buy it on blu-ray, you probably wouldn’t be blown away. I can assure you it certainly looks quite a bit better though.

A good deal of this film is very dark, so the increase in clarity and brightness helps a lot.
Colours however look pretty damn strong whether it be blood reds, bright green neon lights within the shops or warm interiors of a home.

Audio Quality: 4/5
The audio impresses with a range of nuanced dynamics that add up to the film’s very unique atmosphere. The various random noises during some of the most chilling scenes, for instance, are very effective. Elsewhere, the bass comes alive with good intensity. The dialog is consistently crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow.

Extra’s: 4/5 
All of the bonus features are on a seperate dvd disc.

-Interview with co-writer Yoshiki Takahashi (51 minutes)
In this very long and very informative video interview, co-writer Yoshiki Takahashi explains how he got involved with Cold Fish and discusses his preparation of the script, the case that apparently inspired the film, the main characters, etc. The interview is conducted by filmmaker Norman England.

-Interview with Jake Adelstein (40 minutes)
In this video interview, Jake Adelstein (author of “Tokyo Vice” and the newspaper reports “Saitama Dog Lovers Serial Disappearances” and “Saitama Dog Lovers Serial Murders”) discusses the case that inspired Cold Fish.

-Cold Fish Original Japanese Poster (9 minutes)
A look at the creation It’s creations, influences of the original Japanese poster for Cold Fish. This interview is also conducted by filmmaker Norman England and again it’s with co-writer Yoshiki Takahashi. This is from the same interview also included on the disc and could have easily been included in that.

-Third Window Film Trailers
Theres actually quite a lot of trailers here. I completely forgot to count but from memory theres 18+ trailers

-Theatrical Trailer (3 minutes)
The original Japanese trailer for Cold Fish with english subtitles

-Weblink 

Overall:  
Cold Fish is a film that will sit well with those who appreciate awkward, cruel and excessive Japanese cinema. It’s a splendid descent into madness with the proper amount of dark humor, flawless performances from the entire cast, some interesting dramatic undercurrents and a solid audiovisual coating. 

While the dark humour melts into the violence quite brilliantly, leaving an often cartoonish feeling, the violence in Cold Fish is certainly intense. For those of you who can’t spot the humour in the terrifying, the violence in this may be a little too much to stomache. You guys may want to re-consider spending almost 2 and a half hours watching this.

For some viewers, theres probably just as much to love about this movie as there is to hate about it. It’s brilliant and frustrating. As previously mentioned, I feel it requires at least a second viewing to appreciate properly. I’m not sure why this is, I’m always recommending ‘love it or hate it’ movies which I’m sure most of you end up hating me for doing.

The blu-ray package is pretty damn good and worth the purchase. I wish to hell there was a little more in the way of special features, but that’s only because I find this movie, Sion Sono and the real case so damn fascinating. You’ll be very pleased with what is included here though. The interview with Jake Adelstein was the highlight for me. 

blasianxbri:

mrsmichellesmiles:

Kai Davis - Fuck I Look Like .

this video = my life.

(Source: )