Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco!

I Kant Ginko, Satisfaction

Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco!
aka Diabolik - Ginko Attacks!
Italy 2022 Eagle Pictures
Directed by Antonio & Marco Manetti
Blu Ray Zone B/DVD Region 2 set

Warning: Spoilers alluded to throughout.

Okay, so Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco! is the sequel to the previous year’s reboot of Diabolik (reviewed by me here) and the second of the new trilogy directed by the Manetti Brothers. Once again I got the the limited edition deluxe dual DVD/Blu Ray set imported over from Italy (with English subtitles on the movie... sadly not on the extras) because I’m just not sure when, if ever, these movies will get any kind of cinematic or home video release on these shores. The set also includes a facsimile edition of the particular fumetto that this second movie was based on, Diabolik Issue 16 from 10th April 1964 - Ginko All'attacco! but, just as in the deluxe edition of the prior movie, the comic is in Italian so, I am unable to read it myself. Two months ago it was announced that Kino Lorber have acquired the rights to release the new trilogy on a home video format in the US but, I suspect they’ll wait until the third film gets released (in Italian cinemas in November 2023 if the release pattern of these previous two are anything to go by) before they let these loose on the American public.

I’m also not sure if the modern US or UK audiences would rake in the cash for these movies either, to be fair, since they’re not the kind of action-heavy oriented movies that are generally attended multiple times over by teenage audiences. A cursory glance over the nine (at time of writing) user reviews on the IMDB suggests that many of the reviewers might well be in that age group because, yeah, the verdict is not good on this one. And I’d have to say that, of the Diabolik movies, the original 1960s version, Danger Diabolik (reviewed here), as directed by the late, great Mario Bava, is still pretty much the most fun and best of the batch, although I found the first of the Manetti Brothers’ movies to be pretty solid, for the most part. Again, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is a bit of a mixed bag but with a heck of a lot of positives... offset by the huge negative of the progressing story.

Okay... so one of the positives can be found in the quite good performances by the three leads... none of them quite so iconic as in Bava’s version but still, pretty strong for modern day movies. We have Miriam Leone returning to the role of Diabolik’s girlfriend/accomplice Eva Kant and she’s pretty great. We also have Valerio Mastandrea returning to the role of Inspector Ginko, the arch nemesis of super criminal Diabolik and, yeah, he’s got a pretty strong presence in this which is just as well because his ‘love interest’/rich jewellery criminal bait, the Duchess, is played by none other than Monica Bellucci, who does a brilliant job and looks absolutely stunning, it has to be said.

And then there’s Diabolik himself. Due to scheduling difficulties created when the Covid pandemic stalled production of the second and third movies, Luca Marinelli was not able to reprise his role as the titular supervillain in this one. Instead, he’s been replaced by Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti but, yeah, he does an okay job in this, filling in Diabolik’s shoes very nicely.

Once again, the other big positive is the design and look of the film. It has beautiful cinematography and captures the stylistic milieu of the 1960s period when it’s set in a beautifully flamboyant way. The directors choose to use things like moving, hidden wipes as people move past the camera to transition from some scenes and there’s even a nice penchant to slip in and segue between split screen sequences with double wipes on double splits throwing us back into a single shot, for example. This, coupled by a nice score by Aldo De Scalzi really makes the film shine and dazzle where it might seem duller in the hands of another director. And, following a pre-credits heist scene, there’s an absolutely wonderful sequence where a choreographed show put on for an audience becomes an integrated part of a Bond-like title sequence for the movie which, wow, wish I’d had the opportunity to see this one at the cinema.

So all well and good and it’s another fun romp turned caper, which sees Diabolik under attack with Ginko almost capturing him but, certainly, discovering his hideouts and depriving him of all his wealth and main hideaways. He even has to abandon Eva who, spends the rest of the movie aiding Ginko as revenge... or does she?

Okay then, this leads us all nicely into the really big negative of the film which is... there are absolutely no surprises in this one. We were already prepared by the previous movie that, due to the nature of Diabolik’s Mission Impossible style mask technology, he and Eva can be anybody else at any point of the film and this, coupled with some really obviously writing, means the audience doesn’t miss a single trick... even when the so called ‘plot twists’ don’t hinge on the use of swapped identities. For instance, when the dancers from the credits are kidnapped by Diabolik and forced to abandon the jewellery it seemed pretty obvious to me that the whole thing was an elaborate set up by Ginko to trap Diabolik. Specifically, it turns out, to plant radioactive jewellery that could be picked up by the super criminal and tracked by Geiger counter... so it was no surprise when the dancers turned out to be from a division of trained police officers.

Similarly, the direction for the performances made it so obvious who Diabolik was impersonating for the majority of the film that, I even doubted myself for a little while as it just seemed too obvious and I thought the directors were toying with me. It’s just so unsurprising as to what’s going on. And even the woman who Eva Kant is posing as is obvious. I said to my dad, who was watching with me, that character is really Eva Kant in disguise and he argued with me saying the shape of the face is wrong. But that’s entirely the point with those magical masks... it’s supposed to confuse you and, therefore and alas, it doesn’t.

So, yeah, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is not the best plotted affair and I suspect the reveals in the original fumetto were much less telegraphed than what we have in this movie. So I can kinda see why all the negative reviews but, honestly, this didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie as a nice piece of ‘1960s retro homage’ cinema... in other words, I loved it. I wouldn’t recommend this one to everybody, for sure but, fans of the Diabolik character and his long legacy will no doubt be grateful of his current presence on cinema screens for sure (even if those cinemas are only in Italy, alas). Looking forward to the third part.