News|Movies|BD & DVD|Writings|Other

Original title: Wonderful Days
South Korea: Moon-Saeng Kim, 2003

IMDB reference

Original title: Lo Squartatore di New York
Italy: Lucio Fulci, 1982

The New York Ripper is not a brilliant film, but it is certainly significantly better than some reviews had previously led me to believe. The film has something of a reputation for being excessively misogynistic, and it's difficult to completely refute that accusation, but underneath all the brutality is, in my opinion, a half-decent giallo with a unique atmosphere.

Of all the gialli I've seen, this is undoubtedly the most nihilistic. Fulci portrays a New York wracked by pain and indifference, without a single bright spot in its 93-minute running time. The protagonist, Lt. Fred Williams (Jack Hedley), is a cynical, bad-tempered grouch whose private life is chaotic, while the maniacal killer is a sadist who inflicts pain for the sake of pain itself. The New York they inhabit is harsh and claustrophobic, and the people that surround them seem to have little interest in the plight of the victims caught in the crossfire. Fulci had already shown his cynicism in earlier films like Don't Torture a Duckling, but here you get the impression that he really despairs of the whole human race. A lot of people are repulsed by the violence, and it is unpleasant, I grant you, but I think that the overriding atmosphere of negativity is far more depressing than all of Fulci's brazen gore shots.

The motive of the killer, and the fact that he/she talks like Donald Duck, are both a little silly, it has to be said, and the fact that there are practically no likeable characters (the closest we get is Fay, who manages to survive an attack by the Ripper), mean there is no real point of empathy for the audience, but overall I was quite impressed by this effort. It has the look and feel of a 70s US cop show (with the addition of a large amount of blood and nudity), marking it apart from the other gialli Fulci directed. Think of this as his Opera: a cynical study of sadism in the harsh new world of the 1980s. It's not as good as Argento's 80s masterpiece, but it is further proof to me that Fulci was a significantly better filmmaker than most are willing to admit.

IMDB reference

More posts