The Eko Eko Azarak Films
Eko Eko
Azarak: The Wizard of Darkness (1995) - 7.0
You can't outrun the devil, especially if
you are wearing high heels as one panic-stricken woman finds out when her
head is crushed into the street like a pumpkin the day after Halloween. This
and the follow-up films are based on a manga that ran for three years in
Japan and was a huge hit. So, though many might sensibly compare Misa the
Witch to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, her precedents go back much further. A
good witch. In a school uniform. She knows that evil is lurking in a high
school and transfers to it. After as one administration person says leaving
a lot of dead bodies at her last school. And the one before that. But make
her welcome.
This is just your average Japanese school
- an official Mr. Numata checks all the girls entering through the school
gates to be sure they are meeting school standards - which may not explain
his copping a feel of their breasts and legs. The students also gather together
to put a spell on Numata with a straw doll and pins. And one female teacher
Miss Shirai (Mio Takaki) is having a torrid lesbian affair with one of her
female students. During school hours. Another student into the occult is
explaining that all the recent deaths around the school form a pentagram
to bring the Devil back. Ah, school days. How I miss them.
Surprisingly, he is correct. A group of
Satan worshippers in red hoods and cloaks chant "On the night of the full
moon, thirteen must be sacrificed to use their blood to cleanse their sanctuary
and bring the Big Boss back". Misa (Kimika Yoshino) shows up for her
first day of classes and is shown around by Mizuki (Miho Kanno) and almost
immediately things begin to get devilish. Mizuki begins to suffocate and
Misa finds a room with lit candles and a straw doll with Mizuki's hair surrounding
it. Things get worse and astonishingly bloody. Miss Shirai gives them a test
and tells them not to leave till she is back. A few hours pass and they find
out that they literally cannot get out - the windows are closed, the doors
locked and when they find one window that seems to open, it shuts and cuts
the head off the girl looking out. It turns deliciously into sort of And
Then There Were None plot as the students - 13 of them - get it in gruesome
imaginative ways. One girl drowns in a bathroom stall. This may seem like
it fits into the J-Horror trend but this came out a couple years before The
Ring kicked it all off. Low-budget and shot on video, it is quite fun.
Eko Eko Azarak
II - The Birth of the Wizard (1996) - 5.5
The second feature in the Eko Eko Azarak
trilogy came out one year after the first but instead of pushing the story
forward, it is a prequel. The origin story of Misa. It again stars Kimika
Yoshino and obviously none of the actors in the first film are in this one
but the director Shimako Sato (K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces) remains
the same. I found it a bit confusing but managed to hitch along. It has much
less gore than the first one, which is a shame. I am not a gore hound but
it livened up the first film. This one has some stretches in which not much
happens.
Misa is just an ordinary schoolgirl whose
parents are rarely around and so her home is party central after school.
The kids play video games and drink beer. When she and her girlfriend Shoko
go on a beer run, she tells Shoko that a man is following them. But he isn't
the danger. While she is out a man barges into her home and kills all three
of her friends. One of them had a crush on Misa. Now the only crush he has
is his head. Don't get attached to her friends. As she says in the first
film, everyone close to me dies. The man who was following her, grabs her
hand and takes her to safety - after first running over the killer in forward
and reverse. But he isn't easy to kill. Other reviewers have compared this
to The Terminator. No one said Misa was smart as she keeps trying to escape
from the man who saved her, Saiga (Wataru Shihôdô) and then running
into the killer again.
Saiga later explains - and this is where
I kind of lost the thread - that Kirie is trying to not just kill her but
take away her powers. Misa rightfully goes, huh? What powers. Well, you see
Kirie was dead but came back to life and wants you. You are the most powerful
wizard in the world. I have been watching you and protecting you since you
were born. He has powers as well but tells Misa that his are nothing compared
to hers. Now this is a bit surprising after watching the first film in which
she basically did nothing with her powers because they were bound by a few
of her stands of hair. She is a quick learner and by the end can summon a
creature from hell. Always useful in a pinch. Now why didn't you try doing
that in the first film? Oh ya, the hair. There is a third film as there
usually are in trilogies titled Misa: The Dark Angel that came out in 1998.
Eko Eko Azarak:
The Dark Angel (1998) - 6.0
Misa returns to fight more supernatural
evil but with a change of actress and director from the first two films.
That (I have been informed) is because it is a spinoff from the Eko Eko Azarak
TV series that began in 1997 with the same actress who plays Misa here (Hinako
Saeki). Even so, Misa is up to sniffing out trouble and trying to stop it.
This begins with a body being found that has had all of the cells in the
body collapse. The coroner is Misa's uncle and he brings her in for a show
and tell as he cuts through the body like a cow at a butcher. His finding
is an odd one - it was a parasite from another dimension eating the flesh.
Then it pops out of the body before Misa puts it in its place with a snazzy
spell. Outside in the hallway two cops are wondering if Misa will show up.
She is an urban legend and we could use her help, says one.
Once again, she transfers to a new school
in her sailor school uniform where trouble is brewing. She joins a drama
club of all female students in which everyone is cuter than the next. Hints
of lesbianism are on the edge of the film. Oh, oh. If the first two films
are anything to go by many of them will not be making it till the closing
credits. In horrible ways. Does Misa bring death or does she just know bad
things are coming. The girls are putting on a play that sounds medieval and
dreadful as they worship a tree and chant their lines. Misa joins up and
they are all put in a dorm all by themselves. This definitely doesn't sound
good. And sure enough the shit hits the fan in no time. The building seems
to go into some other dimension and thorny plants encircle and kill, revengeful
forgotten dolls and cannibal creatures that are hungry and one of the girls
is not what she pretends to be.
To create the perfect Homunculus seven young
girls need to be sacrificed in cruel ways. A Homunculus you say. Or at least
I did, so I looked it up. Back in the 1600s there was an effort by the best
and brightest alchemists to create a human being out of nothing. Later in
literature Frankenstein was an offshoot of this and the idea showed up in
various fictional writing. The things you learn from Japanese horror films.
It is fairly decent - some solid grotesque deaths - girls who go running
in fright and find that running doesn't get you anywhere but dead and Misa
scrambling to save as many of the girls as she can.
Eko Eko Azarak:
The Awakening (2001) - 5.0
It turns out that there was a fourth film
in the Eko Eko Azarak series. All four were produced by the Gaga Company,
but where this one fits in the chronology of the other films makes no sense.
Almost better to take it as a standalone film and not try to figure it out.
The beginning of this one is usually where the Misa films end - with a bunch
of dead bodies scattered around - and Misa still alive. Three men and two
women. With their organs missing and Misa doesn't remember anything. You
see, she doesn't realize that she is a witch - so, so much for the second
origin film in the series. Bad things just seem to happen around her. In
a sense she is a witch on training-wheels and accidents happen. Don't say
this at home but from somewhere inside of her comes the chant "Eko Eko Azarak,
Eko Eko Zamilak, Eko Eko Cernunnos, Eko Eko Aradia," which translates as
"Hail, hail force of fire; Hail, hail to the glory; Hail, hail Cernunnos;
Hail, hail Aradia." And people die. Now what I didn't know is that this chant
was not just made up by the manga or the film but has its place in the real
world.
It is derived from a Wiccan chant - the
Wiccan's are a pagan religion that only began in the middle of the last century
and is still going on. So still time for you to join. You may get the discount
rate if you apply now. The chant is also referred to as the Witch's Chant.
It shows up in other cultural places - songs, films, TV. So be careful.
Misa (Natsuki Katô) ends up in the hospital in a coma and when she
comes to she has no memory of the events. The film - mistakenly in my opinion
- brings the cops and the media into the story and it just gets messy. Especially
with one of the TV reporters (Ken'ichi Endô) making up stories and
even bringing on a fake Misa to tell her story. Misa is not pleased. She
keeps telling her friend Hitomi that she is not a witch, but you are what
you eat. The beginning and end of this are pretty good but the mid-section
is all over the place without much happening. By this time the J-Horror phenomenon
was in full swing and this sort of fell by the wayside. Now I need to go
to my room, turn off the lights, light a few candles and begin the chant.
My neighbor has been playing his music too loud. Let's see if I can do something
about that. Eko Eko Azarak.
