in which Bowie Damage proves non-fatal

Back to the Northwest Film Forum to see Kill! and Labyrinth. Kill! stars Tatsuya Nakadai as the most (only?) charming samurai I've ever seen. Quite a change from his character in the same director's Sword of Doom (screening beginning tomorrow). I had trouble with the plot--could never figure out exactly why all the skullduggery was going on--but visually it was all pleasure. I loved his sidekick, a farmer who wants to be a samurai, who, in a brothel, demands he be brought a woman who smells like the earth. When he wakes up after a bender to find just another "painted monster" by his side, he begins to throw a tantrum, only to notice that her hands have clearly held a hoe! He scrubs her face with tea and discovers a ruddy worker's complexion, which causes him to throw her full-length into the air where the frame freezes. Ecstatic love at first sight. There's also a fine dance sequence in the brothel, with rhythmic slapping.
Final shot: the protagonists walking down the road, seen from above.
Labyrinth shares a scene with Kill! : Multiple characters with rumbling stomachs. I don't know how I missed this when it was released. I had plenty of Bowie Damage in the 70s. And it's written by Terry Jones (I had plenty of Python Damage, too). Of course, by 1986, Bowie was firmly in 80s-cheese mode, so his music had less appeal. Still, I'd always been a great proponent of his movie star appeal. But the music is pretty bad: the Goblin Ball song is vaguely appealing, but mostly because it sounds like it's almost ready to turn into a chorus of "Soul Love". Jennifer Connelly makes a fine Fierce Girl, although she hadn't yet learned how to deliver a line with much conviction. It almost becomes a The Company of Wolves style goodbye-childhood/hello-puberty story, but quickly backtracks into just replacing old toys with new toys--which I guess is what everyone who has the option does, anyway.
6 people in the audience. I guess the cult for this one never developed. The samurai film had a packed house (for a small theatre).
Final shot: aerial shot of house, antagonist flies offscreen.