I first thought the movie Frostbitten was a Swedish clone of 28 Nights, the American Arctic vampire tale.  As it was, Frostbitten did pre-date 28 Nights by a few years.  And they did share elements—aggressive arctic vampires and storyline gaps.  But 28 Nights is horror-romance.  Frostbitten is horror-comedy or comedy-horror. 

Now Scandinavian movies are still hard to come and not made in great quantity.  Besides ABBA DVDs, Frostbitten is the most prominent Swedish DVD I have.  And it is good. The production was very professional–it was shot in way northern Sweden.  And the plot was and is kinda neat—a vampire comedy that includes Nazis, teen rockers, and genetic testing.  The police are right out of Fargo or more likely Fargo was spot in Nordic impersonation.

The movie starts out like Cross of Iron. Slowly we catch up to the present day.  Here we have an arctic town filled with medical malfeasance, teenage drug use, and police way out of their league.  There is gore, but I found it pretty tame. Unofrtunately the movie ends just as the first night of horror gets started.

But there are great plot twists and a whole lot of one liners that make witty comedy.  One of the best features of the vampire disease is that animals talk to the vampire-humans.  No these vamps get spooked by animals spilling family secrets.  Unlike 28 Nights, Frostbitten slows at time, but the wait is worth it.  Rent it, buy it, or go to Sweden to see it.  It is the best comedy-horror since Young Frankenstein.

This is a Vietnam War movie set after the War.  Like Rambo movies, this has action, in fact more mayhem then even Rambo can mix-up.  Except for a brief cameo of white westerners at the start of the movie, the movie is Chinese American and female Cambodian guerrillas versus Vietnamese.  Only a few of Chinese are military, the rest are thugs trading field service for commution of sentence.

Basically it is a suicide mission with the object to blow-up an arsenal left behind, by mistake.  Humor, martial arts, and plenty of ordinance demonstrations…Eastern Condors is one giant meat grinder. Sammo Hung helps to build a creditable martial arts ensemble. (Sammo is a buddy of Jackie Chan–they both studied under the same master).

The Nazis are so hated that making “sympathetic” movies is a very delicate process. AFAMFWCM(an awkward title) is made in the vein of Das Boot and Stalingrad where the ordinary German puts on the uniform, goes to war, and suffers like countless other uniformed no matter the land.  AFAMFWCM goes straight from saying goodbye to the family at the station to riding the Russian prison train to deep Siberia.

Clement, the subject of the story, is determined to get home.  The coal mine where he works is pure hell.  Through grit, luck, and persistence he does break out.  Of course that is the easy part.  He is thousands of miles away from any even remotely friendly territory.  Germans are not exactly a popular group in 1945.  And beyond physical hurdles there are psychological barriers to cross.

Adding to the plot, there is a prison commandant who is just as determined to catch him.  The movie is long, sad, and epic in scope (despite focus on Clement). Flagged as a “we all were not hunting Jews” movie, it does have an angle to history rarely seen and sadly under understood.

Another movie I stumbled across via Netflix, Red Cherry is a movie along the lines of an epic—minor people swept up in major events.  In this case its two Chinese orphans (Communist kids whose parents were eliminated by the Nationalists).  They find refuge in Soviet Russia until the Germans invade in 1941.  The Chinese boy and girl get separated—one under Uncle Stalin, the other under Uncle Adolf.  Talk about a tough childhood.

The movie is produced by the Chinese Youth Film Institute.  And for a Red movie it has (beyond obvious political angles) some rather shocking cinematic given that is a feature film and a Chinese Communist at that.  Highly recommended and highly charged, it won’t please everyone and will disgust some.  But war and kids are tragic tragedies–to be faced or at least understood.

Czech cinema has the middle European continental flair that is similar to French, but with the exuberance of Italian.  Divided We Fall is an award winning World War 2 movie that is strangely suburban despite all that is going on in the world.  The story is about different neighbors facing different challenges and aspirations in a quirky (some would say staged) series of interconnected random events.  Loyalty and lust, propaganda and pregnancy, lies and forgiveness all interplay.  No high drama here.  This is almost comedic as mundane choices have life altering affects.  This is a cerebral movie–multiple watchings may be in order—but there is charm even in the darkest of times.  And that alone is inspiration enough to mark it for watching.

Produced at the insistence of Burton’s kid who wanted Pappy to do another adventure movie, Where Eagles Dare is the type of movie from the 60’s that is as good as it got back then.  There is a first rate cast–beyond Burton and Eastwood.  James Clavell and Alistair McLean developed the sharp script.  The film was shot on location and in winter.  The plot is cool, steadily developed with a top notch climax–Burton’s best in my opinion–and a fine postclimax.  Mary Ure and Ingrid Pitt are classy eye candy as well as smart ladies.  I still remember seeing it as a kid in the 1970’s for the first time.  Even in India (1987) I caught it—seeing snow was cool in the heat of Vizag.

The Italians got short shrift out of World War 2–they picked the losing side, they had an indifferent to depressing war record, and their homeland became a battlefield.  But that is far from the full story.  Many Italians fought bravely and with some flashes of brilliancy.  The intelligence services in some instances out did all others.  Finally many Italians had the moral compassion to protect Jews from the Nazi grip,

Anyway El Alamein is a recent movie of an Italian unit in the Western Desert with parallels to the movie Platoon.  These Italians know they are cannon fodder for the more prestigious Afrika Corp, yet dutifully go about their business despite heat, flies, poor food, lousy equipment and so on.  The story follows the path of history fairly well.  The most poignant scene comes at the end where an unnamed person walks through a mausoleum listing the war dead.  This movie is highly recommended as an anti-war war movie–showing the human cost of war.

This movie has movie greats Christopher Plummer and Gregory Peck.  They play opposites in a moral and ethical struggle set in Italy 1943-1944. Plummer the evil Gestapo police chief is attempting to round up Jews, POWs, and refugees.  Peck, playing an Irish activist priest at the Vatican, works for the opposite goals.  The role of the Vatican’s neutrality is explored.

Although the movie is in the “made for TV” format (with annoying fade-in and fade-outs), the historically accurate movie has fine acting and on location cinematography. This is must see for Plummer or Peck fans.  But it gets high marks for suspense, ethical tightrope walking, and all around classy product (some violence).

Yakuza is the equivalent of The Mafia in Japanese.  This is the story of the busting of one such Yakuza operation.  The violence and sexploitation are continuous.  There is also a jazzy trippy soundtrack that  runs the length of the movie.

Not for kids and for some adults, the  norms and rituals of the Japanese are well illustrated…graphically well illustrated.  The climax, though only a few short minutes in length, has some serious swordplay worthy of note.

Set in the closing days of World War 2, in a way mirroring the movie Cuckoo, again three very different people, from very distinct backgrounds, with prejudices and presumptions in hand, find themselves lost in the final fits of the horrific convulsions known as World War 2.  No clear lines here.  While adjusting to their new reality, they must face nature and the intrusive touch of the wider war.  This is a fine hidden gem.