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jivjov posted:And suddenly there's another film on my list. Oh, and Takashi Shimura is also featured in Snow Trail. You've already seen him several times in a variety of roles at this point (Sato in Stray Dog is his most prominent Kurosawa role through The Idiot; the films where he played a more central character aren't as significant as the ones where he played a side one, so far). He's given the lead in Ikiru. Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 02:12
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If you're looking to add another film onto your list, you can also check out Runaway Train. It's an American 80s action movie that happened to be based off of a Kurosawa script he never shot. You can definitely tell how the leads are from Kurosawa. They are both down on their luck, offbeat characters that he loved to make into heroes. There's one speech the older convict gives that you could tell sounds like something Kurosawa would write.
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Feb 22, 2016 05:12
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jivjov posted:I don't know a drat thing about Russian literature; I take it his works are considered worldwide classics, then? Saying Dostoyevsky's works are part of world literature is like saying Walt Disney dabbled in cartoons.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:38
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Has anyone here read Donald Richie's book on Kurosawa? I've been looking through it and dude has some kind of odd opinions, especially for our modern times Like he has a relatively lengthy chapter on No Regrets For Our Youth full of praise that borders on nonsensical, comparing Hara in the movie to performances like Jeanne Moreau's in Jules and Jim. There's also this weird point he tries to make where the poor characters in the movie represent liberals (Because we leftists think of the poor as "our heroes" it seems), as apparently Hara's character has to reject both conservatism and liberalism to find her true "self" or something. I don't really get the reading, and Kurosawa's films have never struck me as political in that kind of way.
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Feb 23, 2016 02:24
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I haven't read the book, but that sounds pretty weird. Kurosawa's works are often political, but they tend to reflect Japanese post-war society. I don't think there's much to be gained by trying to fit his films into the liberalism vs. conservatism framework of the US.
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Feb 23, 2016 02:29
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Raxivace posted:Has anyone here read Donald Richie's book on Kurosawa? I've been looking through it and dude has some kind of odd opinions, especially for our modern times Like he has a relatively lengthy chapter on No Regrets For Our Youth full of praise that borders on nonsensical, comparing Hara in the movie to performances like Jeanne Moreau's in Jules and Jim. There's also this weird point he tries to make where the poor characters in the movie represent liberals (Because we leftists think of the poor as "our heroes" it seems), as apparently Hara's character has to reject both conservatism and liberalism to find her true "self" or something. I don't really get the reading, and Kurosawa's films have never struck me as political in that kind of way. I can kind of see that argument since Hara's life was dicked over by the nationalist/conservative factions and then she rejected the new liberalism of the immediate post-war to establish a rural life. I don't agree with it since I think it reflects more of the humanism themes in Kurosawa where Hara does her part by supporting her husband's family, but there's a case to be made there. Kurosawa definitely got political, particularly with his modern set films and especially in his post-war period. They're not heavy-handedly political, but One Wonderful Sunday and Scandal definitely are anchored in the political realities of the day. And then moving further into his oeuvre, there's Ikiru and The Bad Sleep Well which are explicitly political (and I think thematically linked in their view on politics, though I'll save that for The Bad Sleep Well discussion). I wouldn't be shocked if someone found a political reading in Throne of Blood or Ran either given the themes of the movies.
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Feb 23, 2016 03:18
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It's not that I disagree that Kurosawa ever got political, I just am not sure he was political in the way Richie seems to argue in a kind left/right divide, like Samuel Clemens was saying (Great username btw). With movies like Scandal (And Ikiru and The Bad Sleep Well and even Seven Samurai and Ran) he seems to tackle specific issues that I'm not sure fall so neatly into that kind of broader, American-style dichotomy.
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Feb 23, 2016 15:54
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genesplicer posted:Saying Dostoyevsky's works are part of world literature is like saying Walt Disney dabbled in cartoons. Duly noted! (My literature consumption tended toward the same lines as a lot of my film consumption; a lot of fluff genre fiction)
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Feb 23, 2016 16:12
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Hey guys I watched the Nikkatsu noir I Am Waiting today, and I have a question about how it relates to Kurosawa's I Live In Fear. Spoiler tagging this just in case jiv doesn't want to know the general premise of I Live in Fear. So both movies revolve around characters that wanted to go to Brazil and be farmers. I Live In Fear came out in 1955 and I Am Waiting was 1957. Apparently director Koreyoshi Kurahara was friends with Kurosawa, so is it likely that this weirdly specific plot point was some kind of tribute in the latter film? Or was "going to Brazil to be a farmer" some odd meme or something in Japan in the 1950's that audiences would understand to mean something specific that I'm somehow missing? These two movies are otherwise totally unalike, but this really stuck out to me. Even the booklet for the Eclipse DVD for I Am Waiting points out the similarity, but doesn't really elaborate any further on it. Movie was good by the way, though I personally preferred the craziness of Take Aim at the Police Van. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 23:00
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So, I just got home from the theater where we had the most...eclectic double feature of all time. We saw the special presentation of My Neighbor Totoro and then ran down straight into a showing of Deadpool. The Totoro showing was almost completely sold out, lots of families and kids, all of whom seemed to be having a great time. They were giving away super cute buttons at the door, I took the one on the left, my wife picked the one on the right (despite the fact that she's seen more Miyazaki than I have!) The pre-show stuff was wacky; when we first arrived, they were showing this weird claymation thing that reminded me of a less grotesque version of that YouTube series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Then there was a lot of footage of Catbus and Totoro cosplays from various conventions, a smattering of Japanese commercials, clips from the Miyazaki homage episode of The Simpsons, and the English release trailers for Kiki's Delivery Service (reeeeeeeeally glad I watched subbed; that dub sounded terrible), Castle in the Sky (even the trailer was dull...), and Spirited Away (I am now even more excited to get to that one). Once again, I'm absolutely thrilled by Alamo's pre-show efforts. The food menu, sadly, didn't have a whole lot a Miyazaki theming. They had a whole page of February Specials covering all the releases; but the only relevant things to Miyazaki were a Howl's Moving Castle themed pizza, and some Spirited Away art at the bottom:  I sadly did not get a picture of my wife in her Totoro kigurumi; but she did wear it to the theater, prompting comments from other patrons and theater staff.
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Feb 24, 2016 07:01
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Raxivace posted:Hey guys I watched the Nikkatsu noir I Am Waiting today, and I have a question about how it relates to Kurosawa's I Live In Fear. Spoiler tagging this just in case jiv doesn't want to know the general premise of I Live in Fear. There was a huge South American exodus from Japan in the 1950's. Big enough that the child of one of those families actually became President of Peru.
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Feb 24, 2016 12:37
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Random Stranger posted:There was a huge South American exodus from Japan in the 1950's. Big enough that the child of one of those families actually became President of Peru. Interesting. What motivated this, exactly? Post-war anxiety that was still lingering?
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Feb 24, 2016 15:51
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Raxivace posted:Interesting. What motivated this, exactly? Post-war anxiety that was still lingering? Pretty much. Remember that Japan was in political turmoil at the time and they were being used as a staging area for the US in the cold war. Everyone figured that as soon as the war started, Japan would be the first to go.
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Feb 26, 2016 12:37
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Raxivace posted:Has anyone here read Donald Richie's book on Kurosawa? I've been looking through it and dude has some kind of odd opinions, especially for our modern times Like he has a relatively lengthy chapter on No Regrets For Our Youth full of praise that borders on nonsensical, comparing Hara in the movie to performances like Jeanne Moreau's in Jules and Jim. There's also this weird point he tries to make where the poor characters in the movie represent liberals (Because we leftists think of the poor as "our heroes" it seems), as apparently Hara's character has to reject both conservatism and liberalism to find her true "self" or something. I don't really get the reading, and Kurosawa's films have never struck me as political in that kind of way. They're political, it's just not as obvious. His films are definitely to the right of Mizoguchi's, Kobayashi's, and Oshima's. Of all the canonical Japanese filmmakers that I can think of, he's probably the most Western and the most individualistic too.
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Feb 26, 2016 23:32
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Not dead, just dealing with real life. Ikiru coming either tonight or early next week. I've got a week of vacation time coming up, I'm going to try to squeeze in a couple movies.
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Mar 6, 2016 12:30
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Ikiru is probably my second-favorite Kurosawa, and we won't hit my favorite until very close to the end. Excited for this one.
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Mar 8, 2016 19:31
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LORD OF BUTT posted:Ikiru is probably my second-favorite Kurosawa, and we won't hit my favorite until very close to the end. Excited for this one. Out of curiosity, what's your favorite?
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Mar 8, 2016 20:00
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I'm not a huge fan of Ebert, but I have always loved his review of Ikiru. I'd recommend giving it a read after you watch the movie.
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Mar 8, 2016 20:11
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jivjov posted:Out of curiosity, what's your favorite? Ran. Like I said, we've got a good while. 
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Mar 8, 2016 20:12
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You know jiv if you time this out properly you could do Throne of Blood for the upcoming 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on April 23rd!
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Mar 8, 2016 20:18
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LORD OF BUTT posted:Ran. Like I said, we've got a good while. I'd give anything for three or four more color films by Kurosawa, its a shame he started working with it so late in his career.
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Mar 8, 2016 20:22
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Me, it's Kagemusha. God, I loving love Kagemusha.
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Mar 8, 2016 20:33
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MonsieurChoc posted:God, I loving love Kagemusha. Can't wait to re-watch that, my copy of the Criterion blu ray just arrived yesterday. I saw it a few years ago but I think this blu ray will probably look a lot better than the version I had then.
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Mar 8, 2016 20:37
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Raxivace posted:You know jiv if you time this out properly you could do Throne of Blood for the upcoming 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on April 23rd! Ah yes, because my film watching happens on a precise schedule!
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Mar 8, 2016 20:38
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 Ikiru Released October 9th 1952, Directed by Akira Kurosawa I feel like this film needs a checklist of 'Kurosawa-isms'. Someone suffering from terminal illness, check. Hiding said illness from close family or friends, check. Growing self-awareness in light of a bad situation, check. Inventive, well framed camera shots, check. Somber moments without becoming oppressively dreary, check. Series of wipes, check. This by no means should be taken to mean that Ikiru is rote, or bad, or even average. I merely mean to say that Ikiru is incredibly representative of Kurosawa's talents. Anyone with a passing familiarity with his works could identify this film as one of his from pretty much any random 2 minute clip lifted out it. Several shots in particular that appealed to me. These include a sequence at the beginning where the camera switches back and forth from facing Watanabe to looking out over his subordinates at the city office. Traditionally, I don't think a shot like this would include the back of Watanabe's head on the reverse angle, but Kurosawa takes the opportunity to frame Watanabe as "central" to the office environment. Even at his most disengaged and listless, he's still sitting in the important chair. The next favorite shot set comes in the same early office sequence, when the neighborhood wives and mothers come to present their complaint about an unsanitary runoff ditch. The series of wipes as the group is shunted from one subdepartment to the next is pure Kurosawa passage-of-time. The sequence itself is really dark comedy; it starts off straight comedy as this simple complaint passes through over a dozen different people...but then the sneaking realization sets in that this is a scarily accurate representation of how governmental bureaucracy really can give someone the runaround. The last discreet shot that stood out to me was during the 'night on the town sequence' when the camera focuses for a bit on the inner workings of a piano, followed by shots of the mirror above the piano reflecting the player and the instrument. Not sure what this one is supposed to represent...but it just really stood out to me. As for characters, the one star performance here is obviously Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe. I've been a bit down of some of Shimura's performances in the past, so I am quite glad to have truly enjoyed him here. His journey from apathy to excitement is masterful and very realistic. I really appreciate that he didn't go straight from "dead inside" to "building playgrounds for children". He had to go through a period of growth; a hedonistic phase of blowing exorbitant sums on drink, clubs, and pachinko; a greedy phase where he devotes all his time and attention to a single woman (I couldn't quite get a read on if there was supposed to be at least some level of attraction there; I know Watanabe wasn't seriously planning on romancing Toyo, but the relationship between the two of them certainly had a hint of tension to it. At the end, Watanabe clearly realizes that his love for her is platonic...but the ambiguity is still there; and appreciated); and then into the selfless phase where he devotes the very last of his life and effort to that complaint from the beginning of the movie. In an interesting choice, the movie does not end when Watanabe dies, nor shortly thereafter. The entire third act of the film takes place at his wake, with frequent flashbacks to that selfless phase. In my personal opinion, this segment drags on just a hair too long. I love the concept of tracking the influence of Watanabe's life and how that influence will long outlive him...but it breaks the flow for the entirety of Watanabe's selfless phase to be told in flashback. I would have liked to see the process of fixing the cesspool begin and then jump forward to his death. That said, seeing various people discuss Watanabe's life and start to put together the full story of how much he knew of his own illness was fascinating; particularly Watanabe's son's staunch refusal to admit that his father was aware of his impending death. In true Kurosawa fashion, though, the film does not end on a perfectly happy note. All of Watanabe's government coworkers profess to have been deeply moved by Watanabe's story, and vow to be just like him....but come work time the next day things progress such as they always did. It took a special person to actually make those choices and live that life. That in particular really spoke to me...I myself am guilty of being moved by a story, or fascinated by a potential project, or motivated to make some meaningful life changes; only to squander it away the next morning when my own apathy catches up to me. I'm tempted to say that this film has inspired me to live my life more fully...but I don't know how true that would be. Instead, I will just end with a piece of advice given to me by my high school creative writing teacher that dovetails in quite nicely...."Never pass up the opportunity for a new experience". Watanabe spent 30 years in a government job ignoring everything, and it took a terminal illness to shock him into living a little. Hopefully it need not be so dramatic for all of us. Up Next: Ikiru Criterion DVD Bonus Features I mentioned before that I had a hard copy DVD of this film, picked up for $0.50 at a local Japanese culture festival, so I plan on checking out the Disc 2 bonuses next, followed by Snow Trail (on recommendation of poster Random Stranger), then finally back to Studio Ghibli for Ocean Waves.
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Mar 9, 2016 02:16
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I've got a lot to say about Ikiru but I need to sleep so I'm going to stick to two points to start with and I'll come back with more. First, this is the capstone of Kurosawa's post-war filmmaking. Think of how many times the fetid swamps in the middle of devastated neighborhoods have been featured in Kurosawa films since the end of World War 2. And in Ikiru he closes that out by taking that symbol of the broken, poisoned remains of Japanese society and builds a park on it. Remember that 1952 was the end of the US occupation of Japan. Ikiru comes at the moment when Japan the old Japan has finally died and the new Japan is born, the new government has rebuilt Japan, and people are moving on. Kurosawa will return to the imagery of post-War Japan, but Ikiru feels like the themes of that time are being put to rest. Second, Ikiru is a very mature film. While anyone can connect with Watanabe's story, as life goes on the connection grows deeper. I feel that this happens a lot with Kurosawa's modern set films; they are all about life in a way that living more of it brings a deeper appreciation of them. I think it's because of how heartfelt the emotions presented in the film are.
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Mar 9, 2016 04:05
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Sorry for radio silence! Went to an anime convention over the weekend, been busy catching up on life and work since then!
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Mar 16, 2016 20:28
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I have a dilemma; the Alamo Drafthouse near me is showing Ran on April 24th. Unless I start doing something like 3 Kurosawas a week, there's no way my own retrospective will be caught up to that point by then...should I go see it anyway, just to have the experience of seeing a Kurosawa film in a theater?
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Mar 18, 2016 01:08
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I'd say yes, go see it, and then watch it again for this thread.
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Mar 18, 2016 01:10
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Raxivace posted:I'd say yes, go see it, and then watch it again for this thread. Aaaaaaaand sold! To the man with the Evangelion avatar.
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Mar 18, 2016 01:47
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jivjov posted:Aaaaaaaand sold! To the man with the Evangelion avatar. Yeah, seeing Ran on a big screen is a rare opportunity that should not be missed in general, doubly so if you're in the process of watching all the Kurosawa films. So more about Ikiru now that I'm not double posting. I love that early scene in the doctor's office. The mirrored conversations, the facial expressions, the way the characters are framed. It's a perfectly constructed scene in a movie with a lot of perfectly constructed scenes. The shift in the middle of the film feels a lot like a reaction to melodramas at the time. In the melodrama structure, there's the end of the second act shift where the downtrodden protagonist makes a determined shift in their situation. They've found their place and are now moving forward and the rest of the film is them resolving that. Ikiru says, "You know at this moment that he's going to get that park built, let's move ahead to something else." You don't get the emotional catharsis that the melodrama usually provides, but you get something richer than that as a new drama forms in the wake of the end of that drama.
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Mar 18, 2016 02:10
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Go loving see Ran
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Mar 18, 2016 16:47
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GonSmithe posted:Go loving see Ran Bought tickets for myself and everyone in my house while I was on lunch today!
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Mar 18, 2016 17:10
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You made the correct choice.
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Mar 18, 2016 17:13
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The best part is that I kinda feel like maybe I might have had something to do with this...I mentioned to Alamo Drafthouse on Facebook a couple months ago "hey maybe you guys could show a Kurosawa film or two?"
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Mar 18, 2016 17:16
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The only downside to seeing Ran in a theatre is you can't lower the volume when that court jester character screeches at a frequency only dogs should be able to hear.
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Mar 18, 2016 17:18
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jivjov posted:The best part is that I kinda feel like maybe I might have had something to do with this...I mentioned to Alamo Drafthouse on Facebook a couple months ago "hey maybe you guys could show a Kurosawa film or two?" Not to burst your bubble but it's actually doing an international tour of a new 4K restoration which was shown at Cannes last year to celebrate its 20th anniversary 
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Mar 18, 2016 19:00
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Allyn posted:Not to burst your bubble but it's actually doing an international tour of a new 4K restoration which was shown at Cannes last year to celebrate its 20th anniversary Well...that's still super cool
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Mar 18, 2016 19:04
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 Snow Trail Released August 5th 1947, Directed by Senkichi Taniguchi Well...despite not being directed by Akira Kurosawa, I could definitely see his influence and it was quite clear that he wrote the screenplay. Mifune's character in particular came straight out of the Kurosawa playbook (small wonder that those two men would work together so much in the future. For those who don't know, this is actually Mifune's first feature film role!) Much like a lot of my watching-experience in this thread, I had a bit of trouble getting really engaged with the first half of the film, but once they reached the mountain lodge I was hooked and riveted for the remainder. I think the story would have worked just as well without the third bank robber; I feel like he existed solely to up the stakes and demonstrate how dangerous the mountain was. I guess it's preferable to show the audience a deadly avalanche rather than just tell us about it...but the third robber (who's name I don't even remember) seemed to be pure red shirt. The interplay between the paranoid and violent Mifune and the reserved and sympathetic Shimura was excellently played. Shimura was perhaps a hair too sympathetic for a bank robber...but the bits of his backstory that are dropped throughout the film help keep this from feeling too strange. Mifune was an absolute delight to watch, and he played his part excellently. Part of the reason this film was recommended to me in the first place was the scenery. The snowy mountains of Japan are simply gorgeous, and any chance to see them explored on film is most welcome. Also on the aesthetic front, the final shot of the film; Shimura's face and the reflection of the mountain in the glass, is pure Kurosawa and I wouldn't be surprised if explicit directions for setting up that shot were part of his screenplay. Sorry for the scant review; I did really enjoy Snow Trail, I may edit in some further thoughts tomorrow when I'm a little less tired! Up Next: Ocean Waves Released May 5th 1993, Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki
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Mar 22, 2016 03:30
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Snow Trail is a cool little movie. What really stands out to me is how Mifune looks throughout the movie- it's like he's at his most male modelish looking here, especially compared to stuff he'd make just a year or two later like Rashomon. I half-expected him to leave the gangster lifestyle in the movie to lead one of those modern boybands or something. EDIT: I started watching Dreams and holy hell, Kurosawa really did need to work in color more often.  drat that is good. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Mar 22, 2016 |
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Mar 22, 2016 04:31
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