Station

Station (Istasyon) (1977)

Runtime: 86 minutes

Directed by: Serif Goren

Starring: Cunyet Arkin (RIP), Hulya Kocyigit, Erol Tas, Huseyin Kutman, Ismail Hakki Sen

From: Gulsah Film

RIP Cunyet Arkin. I’ve only seen several of this late actor’s film during his quite prolific career; every film I had seen entertained me due to their bizarre lo-fi, low-budget charm. The film known in the West as Turkish Star Wars (but the translated title is actually The Man Who Saved the World) is his most (in)famous but the others I saw were similar in terms of entertainment. When I noticed that a YouTube channel full of obscure motion pictures I hadn’t even heard of put up this in 1080p subtitled quality, I couldn’t turn down that opportunity?

Unfortunately, the plot wasn’t for me. It’s Stockholm Syndrome and I am not a fan even in highly regarded films from beloved directors. Arkin plays a scoundrel who just wants to have fun (never play a drinking game based off of him saying he wants to have fun!) and he’s asked by a crime boss to kidnap a famous lady singer. Now, Arkin is a guy who has a German Shepherd-named SHEET-and plays soccer w/ young kids so you’d think you would want to root for him--but he casually kidnaps the lady and is not exactly sympathetic through the whole ordeal of holding her captive. Of course she falls in love with him and yeah… no thank you. No attempt at giving our lead a tragic backstory will work in this scenario. Lest you worry, at the end it is revealed why its title is translated as "Station".

This does have some charm, including its wacky disco-infused score, even if you hear a certain motif rather frequently. But Arkin barely does his TURK-FU version of martial arts; him shooting SOB’s is fine and all yet it’s not the same. There were moments I guffawed at, but the dog does; even worse, they lingered on it and if the movie ever had any chance to win me over—that went out the window. I’ll shrug my shoulders and instead be happy that the other films from Ol’ Cunyet I’ve experienced were a better time for me.