Jivjov's Journey Through Film: Classic Japanese Cinema [Kurosawa/Miyazaki/Ghibli]

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Jivjov's Journey Through Film: Classic Japanese Cinema [Kurosawa/Miyazaki/Ghibli]

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

I'll post my thoughts as well, as I am going to be sitting right next to Jivjov on his moving picture journey.

And we're off!

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 02:17

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:55

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Don't touch Sanshiro
He'll get mad

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 02:57

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Sanshiro Sugata, 1943, dir. Akira Kurosawa

I thought this Kurosawa film was garbage, personally

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 03:39

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Random Stranger posted:

Yeah, there's a reason people have been saying that the early films aren't good. You haven't even hit the low point yet.

One thing to bear in mind is that for the first ten to fifteen years of his directorial career, Kurosawa was working under heavy government oversight; first the authoritarian Imperial Japanese regime and later the American occupational government. There's twenty minutes cut out of this movie by the censors. I don't think that an additional twenty minutes would have saved it, but it does make it hard to judge as an artistic work when it's inherently propagandist. (Super tiny spoiler for some the themes in part two that I'm covering up just in case jivjov wants to go in completely blind) And the second Sanshiro film is even more nationalistic.

The best thing in Sanshiro, in my view, is the cinematography. Kurosawa is the absolute master of it and even at this early point in his career his skill is showing up. Those early minutes of the film are identifiably Kurosawa with how incredibly well they're shot. The segment with the sandal, for example, or when he's clinging to the tree in the water. Unfortunately, once he gets inside and photographs the matches those qualities vanish.

My favorite shot of the film was Sanshiro and Gennosuke grappling, bookended by accelerated shots of passing clouds. The moment where Sanshiro acquires his second wind by first sort of losing himself (The shot of the single stationary cloud) and then thinking back to the flower he saw in the water was the strangest but most distinct shot in the entire piece for me.

Other than that, I found the plot, acting, cinematography and direction very dry.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 04:46

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

jivjov posted:

Gennosuke's apperance instantly sets him apart from other characters. Almost everyone else in the film is in very period-appropriate Japanese clothing, but he is dressed and groomed like a Westerner. I honestly think his appearance screams "evil villain" a bit more than it should. And then the final fight on the grassy foothills is visually and aurally stunning. The sound of the wind drowns out the fight, and the two men are often completely obscured by the waving grasses. Its almost seems to be saying that that the fight is ultimately both transient and epic. It cannot be seen or heard, but it takes place out among wild and untamed nature, not in a man-made dojo or even a back alley.

Nicely written. I will disagree with you on the depiction of Gennosuke. I don't think his outfit was meant to note villainy or depravity of any sort. I feel it was just meant to notate a difference. It just says "refined" and "force/power" to me, neither of which are inherently evil, much like Gennosuke himself.

edit: You're right on the money with the dramatic sensory reduction/obfuscation, though.

Neowyrm fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Aug 19, 2015

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 05:05

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Raxivace posted:

I'd go as far as saying One Wonderful Sunday and Sanshiro Sugata: Part II are genuinely bad films, and possibly the worst in Kurosawa's entire filmography.

Looking forward to it :getin:

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 05:10

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Raxivace posted:

I weep for you.

EDIT: Though after you get through this rough patch Kurosawa starts making masterpieces so it's not all bad.

I've never watched a filmmaker's entire feature filmography before (unless you count every time I've seen Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), so I've been trying to brace myself for the inevitability that most directors make one or two lovely films. When you have as many total films under your belt as Akira Kurosawa, the ratio stays the same, the volume just increases.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 05:33

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Vegetable posted:

This:

In addition, if your aim is to get a sense of classic Japanese cinema, watching every film of two directors is hardly the way to do it. Throwing in an Akira or Paprika or Grave of the Fireflies does more to enhance your intuition about Japanese cinema than doing all three of Mononoke, Nausicaa, and Laputa.

I tried to get him to watch Kon, too.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 20:17

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Random Stranger posted:

It was made in 1945. August 1945.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2015 01:34

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

We're presently watching The Most Beautiful.

I'm interested in this film for cultural reasons; usually, when we see a film from the perspective of "the enemy," it's still directed by someone who does not have that perspective.
This film, on the other hand, was created during wartime by the Japanese, so it's in that way it is distinct; it's actually created from the perspective it's trying to depict.

edit: That was awful.

Neowyrm fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Aug 22, 2015

# ¿ Aug 22, 2015 04:00

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Random Stranger posted:

Well, you hit the bottom of the Kurosawa barrel. It only goes up from here!

Propaganda films everywhere tend to be alike and The Most Beautiful isn't really any different. "If we all pull together and respect the men in charge then everything will turn out just fine." There's no real conflict, no questioning even if the conclusion is that the authority is right. "Why aren't you like the main character?" the films ask their audience. It reminds me a lot of modern Christian cinema which comes from a similar place of propaganda to an audience that's already receptive to it.

In another time and place, with other goals in mind, the factory managers would definitely be in an antagonistic role, but propaganda means that everyone is on the same side and paragons of virtue (or at least the virtues the propagandists want to extol). The exception is when you do get an easily knocked down, sneering strawman villain. Villains in propaganda can't be genuine threats because they might make people question those values. Imagine if there was a girl in the film who was a slacker and went around saying, "What's the point? The US has a dozen times our industrial base and we're constantly losing." Just expressing that thought is disruptive to the goals of the film so the most the slacker could do is say, "I don't wanna go to work today," and then be easily cowed by the virtuous heroine.

Good drat Post.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2015 17:16

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

I'm gonna do a Wes Anderson / Quentin Tarantino watch-along double-retrospective after this thread concludes.

I'm hoping for a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup scenario here

# ¿ Aug 22, 2015 19:02

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

jivjov posted:

Apologies for the delay on the next review, the last few days have been filled with computer troubles moste severe, which has been sucking up all of my free time.

Experiencing Classic American Movie Watching Habits

# ¿ Sep 3, 2015 02:32

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

I thought this Miyazaki film was garbage personally

# ¿ Sep 3, 2015 05:21

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

jivjov posted:

Don't worry, I am not dead. Current plan is to watch Castle in the Sky tomorrow evening.

He actually is dead. Don't believe jivjov's lies. I--jivjov's handsomest roommate--can confirm.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 03:46

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

I thought this Kurosawa film was garbage, personally.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 15:48

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:55

Neowyrm: Dec 23, 2011; It's not like I pack a lunch box full of missiles when I go to work!

Basebf555 posted:

Speaking only for myself here, but I don't think you need to explain this kind of thing. We realize you have a life outside of watching these movies. I appreciate the write-ups you're doing regardless of how long you need to take in between doing them.

# ¿ May 21, 2016 15:21

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Jivjov's Journey Through Film: Classic Japanese Cinema [Kurosawa/Miyazaki/Ghibli]