Karappo City Blues
This is a Super 8 short film by Sukho made for Flicker LA’s annual Attack of the 50 Foot Reels in 2006. Attack… is a crazy film festival wherein the filmmakers receive a roll of Super 8 film, shoot it, editing in camera as they go, then return the roll with a soundtrack. No one sees their film until the night of the festival. Editing in camera means no editing after it’s shot, which means every shot has to be perfect – no 2nd takes. The cut you see here was re-edited later to fix a few things but mostly is unchanged.
Karappo City Blues stars Lun*na Menoh of Jean Paul Yamamoto and the main song is performed by her. Big thanks to the entire cast and crew for all their hard work and patience. In case it isn’t obvious, Lun*na is a big fan of Japanese 70s B-Movie star Meiko Kaji and this is pretty much a tribute to her and the type of exploitation cinema she was famous for. There was a recent U.S. feature that also borrowed heavily from her films – it even used a song from one of them – but consider this perhaps a bit more sincere and heartfelt than that feature.
