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The Horse in Tears posted:I'd recommend not watching Grudge Song back to back with Shunya Ito's trilogy. Maybe come back to it later if you're curious. Meantime if you wanna see Yasuharu Hasebe direct Meiko Kaji check out Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter, which isn't great but is super cool. (And for that series the Arrow release was good.) Were the other films in the Stray Cat Rock series any good? I've seen Sex Hunter which was, to my mind, disappointing. Never bothered with the others as a consequence. I really liked the Wandering Ginza Butterfly films (which a lot of people seem to pan), so that's a probable yardstick for where I'm coming from.
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Sep 4, 2018 20:16
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Spatulater bro! posted:Thanks for the tips. Sad to know that Arrow botched the transfer. I mean it was almost certainly Toei's fault for providing poor prints, Arrow must've done their best with them. But it might be a long time before someone has another go. Spectral Elvis posted:Were the other films in the Stray Cat Rock series any good? I've seen Sex Hunter which was, to my mind, disappointing. Never bothered with the others as a consequence. I really liked the Wandering Ginza Butterfly films (which a lot of people seem to pan), so that's a probable yardstick for where I'm coming from. Not as good as Sex Hunter, no. It's kind of two series - the three Hasabe ones are midway between 60s Nikkatsu action and 70s Toei girl gang movies, and have Meiko Kaji developing her star persona. The two Fujita ones (the guy who did Lady Snowblood) are very loose with more of a hippie/counterculture vibe. They just wanted to goof around for the two weeks it took to shoot these things. Kaji plays supporting parts more like she did before she got her stage name. I dig the first Wandering Ginza Butterfly. That billiards sequence really set the template for Meiko Kaji eye/hair porn. I also enjoy Yamaguchi's Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess as a lighter alternative to a full-on Pinky Violence exploitation flick. Plus he's the one who suggested Kaji should play Scorpion so dude's alright in my book.
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Sep 5, 2018 06:29
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I promise this isn't dead again. Barring emergencies, I'm gonna get The Human Condition Part 3 done on Monday. Same ol' excuse, work's been crazy and all.
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Oct 11, 2018 05:38
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So with the Arrow Female Prisoner box set nearly OOP, and the fact that it's on Amazon uk for about $42 USD, I'm tempted to grab it. Is the transfer bad enough to skip it entirely and hope for a better future release?
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Oct 21, 2018 22:19
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 The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer Released January 28 1961. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi Right off the bat, Prayer launches in to showing us what's changed about Kaji since the beginning of the trilogy. We open with him having to brutally stab someone to death. Its arguably a necessary killing...but seeing him do it really cements how much he's changed over the last 6 hours or so of run time. Another interesting thing about this first act...we repeatedly see Kaji trudging along lost in an internal monologue and presumably alone...only for a reveal of the fact that he's still travelling with other soldiers, the civilians, etc. We're really seeing how much Kaji is checking out of his situation, only to get dragged back to reality by his accepted responsibility of those he's leading. This whole first part reminds me quite a bit of parts of the first movie; Kaji desperately trying to maintain order and civility among a group of people who either are just in it for themselves, or actively are trying to get his goat by flaunting his wishes. Just another day in the soul-crushing grind for Kaji, I suppose. Honestly, Part 5 kinda dragged a bit for me. Moreso than every other part it just felt like the same theme over and over again. I mentioned this in a previous Human Condition review part, but that is part of the appeal, really hammering home the misery, but it just falls a little bit flat from a narrative perspective for me. Part 6, though...man...that was the most brutal and crushing arc of them all. Kaji has been reduced to a mere husk of himself, stuck in a labor camp, watching people slowly starve and freeze around him...and yet he still tries to improve the lives of people just a tiny little bit at a time. Unfortunately, not only is the at the mercy of a cruel and uncaring bureaucracy like he was waaaaay back in part 1, now there's a language barrier that he can't surmount, complete with actively hostile translators. And then there's the ending. When I first started this trilogy, I was expecting Kaji to make it home at the end, bitter and broken. Maybe to find his wife having left him, or died while he was away or something. Never would have I expected him wander out into the frigid wilderness and just die. That said...this really is the way this had to end. The end point of the human condition and The Human Condition is death. This was a brutal, heart wrenching, beautiful, terrible, awe inspiring slog. Truly a landmark achievement of cinema. Up Next: My Neighbors the Yamadas Released July 17 1999. Directed by Isao Takahata
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Nov 12, 2018 23:50
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Truly... worth the ellipses...
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Nov 13, 2018 10:02
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Truly... worth the ellipses... gently caress off.
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Nov 13, 2018 21:10
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 My Neighbors the Yamadas Released July 17 1999. Directed by Isao Takahata We're finally out of "extra" territory and back into the core thrust of this review project! And boy howdy did I really need something like My Neighbors the Yamadas after making it through The Human Condition. There are two big things to note about The Yamadas right off the bat -- first, this has a vastly different animation style than one would expect from a Studio Ghibli film; and secondly this is not a film with a traditional narrative, instead taking the form of a series of short vignettes. This is due to the source material for this one being a serialized 4-panel manga series. This sort of "slice of life, laid back" style of film seems to be par for the course for the non-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli films of this period. Its similar in this way to Ocean Waves and Only Yesterday. As such, I have a bit less to dig into than I would in a more fantastic narrative..but I'll give it my best shot. I'm reminded in a lot of ways of some of the children's books I had back in elementary school. Things like Ramona Quimby, Judy Blume's Fudge series, etc. Tiny little slices of every day life with a small, easily digestible moral in the end of each one. There's a lot of focus on maintaining a family unit, how to deal with internal conflict among family members, and presentations of various problems encountered in different stages of life. Much like the aforementioned kid's books, there's never any real peril or expectation of actual lasting harm; everything is played very safe and most vignettes end with everyone involved having a good laugh over the situation or everything working out just fine. This is in a solid contrast to something like My Neighbor Totoro in which at the end of the film the mother still has her illness. From my research into this film, I learned that the manga ended up focusing primarily on the young daughter, Nonoko (to the point of the strip itself being renamed from My Neighbors the Yamadas to Nono-chan), but the film devotes various segments to the entire family. One complaint I could potentially level at the film is the reinforcement of solidly stereotypical gender and age roles for every member of the family, but that I think is a product of when the manga was written and when the film was produced. I didn't get a sense of malice out of, for example, the father being the prime decision maker and bread winner or the grandmother being occasionally a nag. The only reason I mention this as a criticism at all is simply because in this review there have been very few opportunities to point at things that don't follow the common stereotypes. At the end of the day, this is really just a charming series of short situations involving a charming Japanese family. While there certainly is plenty of nuance in their relationships, none of it is particularly complicated to grasp; its all really comfortable and recognizable, even if only from tropes rather than one's personal experiences. Coming up next, however, is a long-overdue return to the works of Akira Kurosawa! Up Next: The Bad Sleep Well Released September 18 1960. Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Nov 19, 2018 20:19
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Hey after you watch The Bad Sleep Well I highly recommend reading this article. It's still the best bit of writing I've seen on that particular movie.
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Nov 20, 2018 00:50
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Does anyone have an answer as to why, particularly in Kurosawa's films, panning shots following action seem...overcranked? I've only ever noticed it on the Criterion copies I have of the films (as it's the only way I've seen them), but a lot of the time it just seems as though there's a lack of motion blur, almost as if the film is being poo poo at a different frame rate, akin to old silent comedies. I'm fairly certain it's not my player or TV settings, but I'm not sure if I'm crazy seeing it.
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Dec 5, 2018 02:04
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I, Butthole posted:Does anyone have an answer as to why, particularly in Kurosawa's films, panning shots following action seem...overcranked? I've only ever noticed it on the Criterion copies I have of the films (as it's the only way I've seen them), but a lot of the time it just seems as though there's a lack of motion blur,
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Dec 5, 2018 02:33
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Llamadeus posted:I think what you're describing is a result of a tighter shutter angle? Yep, that's probably it. I'm confusing frame rate/HFR with vidyagames frame rates for equation to motion blur, but the equivalent is shutter speed/angle. There's an explanatory article about how it was used in Saving Private Ryan here: https://cinemashock.org/2012/07/30/45-degree-shutter-in-saving-private-ryan/ All the examples I can think of in Kurosawa films are Mifune running around outdoors, so I'm guessing it's a 'hack' of sorts ensuring that they weren't stuffing around with different film on location etc to keep to Toho's insane scheduling of releases and actors. I can't find anything specifically relating to Kurosawa, but I'm gonna keep looking.
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Dec 5, 2018 02:52
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 Modest Heroes Released August 24 2018. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Yoshiyuki Momose, and Akihiko Yamashita We're right back into "extra review" land, as I found out about 6 hours before the showing that a local theater was showing this Studio Ponoc short film anthology today! First off, some general thoughts. This type of short film anthology might just be my preferred way to consume animated features. I love the diversity of types of stories, animation styles, and themes. I just also found it much easier to stay engaged with such a limited time format. This might also have something to do with something producer Yoshiaki Nishimura said in the post-film featurette; that the short film format was specifically chosen to be a challenge to the directors and animators, and that their goal was not to just keep making the same type of animated features that dominate the current film market in Japan. Kanini & Kanino Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi This was my favorite looking of the three features; the blend of CGI and hand-drawn animation was very well done, and the flowing river effects in particular were very impressive. I also really appreciated the choice to go with VERY minimal dialog. Other than names and generic vocalizations, this short had no dialog. The only subtitles that came up were for the title and director's name. I was really reminded of either an opening cutscene for a JRPG or adventure game or the first episode of a short anime series. If Studio Ponoc had wanted to, this short in particular could have been a springboard for an ongoing series of underwater adventures. It may be a bit of a cliche in those other types of media...but I do like seeing the story structure of children having to step up and be the protectors for the family. Its a nice inversion on the way we'd normally look at a family unit. Life Ain't Gonna Lose Directed by Yoshiyuki Momose Far and away my favorite story of the three. To paraphrase my own meme...there was quite a lot of tension wrapped up in a 15 minute runtime here. Food allergies are often presented as quirky or as a method of attention seeking...but this film more than any other piece of media has really driven home to me just how terrifying and life-altering an allergy like this can be, not just to the sufferer, but the parents as well. I also really liked how the mother's day-to-day life and activities wove through the film. Her wanting to be a dancer would have either been played for comedy or excised completely in other productions, but here it served to really flesh out the world and the story. The post-film featurette had the mother's English dub actress, Maggie Q, touch briefly on the mother-son relationship depicted here, and how the two really interacted not just as a parent and child, but also as two people who really did enjoy each other's company. I'd never heard a relationship of that nature described aloud before, and and upon reflection it really does stand out as a hallmark of the piece. Invisible Directed by Yasutaka Nakata This one left me a little cold. While beautifully animated, the setting was just a little too real-world for me to take the concept of an invisible man losing tangibility with the world at face value. I kept waiting for some kind of reveal or explanation that never came. I didn't really connect with this one until the post-film featurette where Yoshiaki Nishimura emphasized the allegorical nature of going through life not really interacting with much of the world around. Up Next: The Bad Sleep Well Released September 18 1960. Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Jan 11, 2019 04:50
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 The Bad Sleep Well Released September 18 1960. Directed by Akira Kurosawa Well I'm gonna lead this off by saying that I've never seen a production of Hamlet, nor read the original play, so my basis of comparison with a movie that's supposedly based on/inspired by it is non-existent. On the other hand, just watching this as the tale of some corporate corruption leading to vast personal consequence....that's some really good stuff. This film had fewer of the standard "Kurosawa-isms" that I could spot in the cinematography...but it still absolutely felt like a Kurosawa piece. Especially the conversation where Nishi (Toshiro Mifune's character) lays out just how much seeking revenge turns you into a bad/evil person...but he's still going to do it anyway because he feels like the targets of his revenge absolutely deserve it. Unfortunately, another Kurosawa-ism that made the leap into The Bad Sleep Well is that of the female lead being used more as a prop than a character. Nishi marries her to gain access to her family, Wada brings her to the secret hideout to try to get through to Nishi, her father drugs her to keep her from exposing her corruption...she doesn't really have any of her own agency, and the fact that she's physically disabled isn't used for anything other than a call-out at the wedding that "Oh Nishi must have an ulterior motive because why else would he marry a cripple?" Just as an aside, I really REALLY enjoyed the continual references to the office building window that Nishi's father jumped out of to commit suicide. A giant wedding cake in the shape of the building with a black flower sticking out of the window in question? EXCELLENT cinematic device, and lends itself really well to the Criterion collection cover of the movie. In the end, I was much more attached to the psychological explorations of the lengths someone will go to for revenge (and secondarily to expose corruption) than the actual nuts and bolts of the plot. A recommend, but not a highly glowing one or a film I see myself frequently revisiting. Up Next: 2019 Kansas City Japanese Film Festival Yep, its that time of year again, tomorrow is the annual Kansas City Japanese Film Fest, and once again it'll be 3 animated features and 1 live action, with 1 film I've seen before; for this thread's retrospective, no less! I'll toss up mini reviews as I go. The next feature in the retrospective-proper will be Spirited Away, one that I've really been meaning to see for years; ever since I was stuck alone on an elevator with a No Face cosplayer at an anime convention.
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Feb 23, 2019 21:51
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Doing the same thing I did last year, mini-reviews between films! Kiki's Delivery Service Released July 29th 1989, Directed by Hayao Miyazaki Still a really adorable film. I really connected with the whole "growing up" theme even harder this time around. I love the general setting fact that "witches exist" is just a basic fact of life in the world of this film. Also I can't believe it's been over 3 years since I watched this last. Crazy stuff; time flies.  Patema Inverted Released November 9th 2013, Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura This one has some really neat imagery, and the interplay of two groups of people with inverted gravity plays really well...but other than the main gimmick, I found the story itself to be really rote. That said, at least the gravity Nazis were wrong all along.  One Piece Film: Gold Released July 23rd 2016, Directed by Hiroaki Miyamoto I don't know a darn thing about One Piece...but sure seems like standard goofy shonen fare. Loved the aesthetic of the casino boat, liked that everyone had a diverse (if a bit rear end-pull-y) power set. Could have done without literally every female character being a huge sex object though.  Ju-On: The Grudge Released October 18th 2002, Directed by Takashi Shimizu This was, uh, very well made....but I do NOT like horror, guys. Up Next: Spirited Away Released July 27th 2001, Directed by Hayao Miyazaki jivjov fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Feb 25, 2019 |
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Feb 24, 2019 19:49
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 Spirited Away Released July 27th 2001, Directed by Hayao Miyazaki This was one of the more deeply interesting films directed by Miyazaki. Many of his other works I've seen so far are a little more up front with theme and message, but this one just struck me as a bit more closed off. Not in the sense of Miyazaki or anyone else at Studio Ghibli trying to obfuscate a message...but almost like I was looking in at this film through a pane of metaphorical frosted glass. Part of this may be due to my own personal unfamiliarity with a lot of Japanese spiritual folklore, outside of basic stereotypes and trivia bits. On the strictly plot end of things, a lot of the resolution of this movie really hinges on "Being kind to river spirits" (tied in with a familiar "consumerism and pollution isn't great" message as well). Its not like extrapolating that out to recognize that being kind and cleaning up after yourself are good things is hard or anything, I just didn't really connect with this one as easily as I have previous Miyazaki works. I think part of my hardship with connecting with this movie comes from having read the interpretation of Spirited Away being all about child prostitution beforehand. I don't even recall where I first saw it, but having foreknowledge of that reading I think tainted my ability to draw my own interpretations and conclusions from the film. Anyway, I don't mean to sound so down on Spirited Away, I did enjoy watching it, and it was just as beautifully animated as any other Ghibli feature. I got some Breath of the Wild vibes off the light piano score and grassy fields of the opening act. Up Next: Yojimbo Released April 25th 1961, Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Apr 8, 2019 18:18
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jivjov posted:Up Next: Yojimbo Released April 25th 1961, Directed by Akira Kurosawa Hell yeah
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Apr 9, 2019 02:04
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All I can hear right now is Sylvester Stallone addressing someone named Jimbo.
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Apr 9, 2019 03:00
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The child prostitution reading is slightly gross, but also kinda makes sense on the surface level.
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Apr 9, 2019 03:09
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Vegetable posted:The child prostitution reading is slightly gross, but also kinda makes sense on the surface level. Yeah, that's kinda what I thought of it too. I get exactly where that interpretation is coming from...but man does it ever make what should be a fairly family friendly, heartwarming film uncomfortable.
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Apr 9, 2019 03:10
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e: double post
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Apr 9, 2019 03:24
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 Yojimbo Released April 25th 1961, Directed by Akira Kurosawa Surprise! I'm on vacation this week, so I decided to do two movies in one day! Also, a PSA to everyone; The Criterion Channel is live as of today! When this thread started I was watching Kurosawa flicks on Hulu, my how time flies! This was an absolute joy and delight to watch. Toshiro Mifune is on top form, and so is director Akira Kurosawa. I think I honestly prefer Kurosawa's shorter features to his epics; the sub 2-hour run time felt perfect for this story of a, shall I say it...man with no name who rolls into town and puts two warring gangs out of their misery. One of the biggest things I noticed about this film was its score. It felt more...modern than I would have expected. There's period appropriate shamisens and drums that are played diegetically, but the rest of the score really feels almost like a modern (for the time) gangster piece. Which I guess is appropriate, given the subject matter, but not a touch I would have called in advance of watching the film. It just feels a bit off-kilter to the setting of the film, and while not in the same style at all, I'm reminded a bit of the hip hop/samurai juxtaposition of Samurai Champloo. The nameless ronin, (well..not really nameless, but can I really call "30 year old mulberry field" a proper name?) as played by Mifune is a much more interesting character than I was expecting going in. In my mind, I was anticipating stoicism and some understated sword prowess. Instead the character is played as a much more cunning and devious figure. The bulk of the plot revolves around pitting the two rival factions against each other, rather than pure strength of arms; though swordsmanship does play a part for specific key setpieces. I was also expecting a bit more moral ambiguity than I ended up getting. The ronin isn't a paragon of virtue...but its clear that he has a good heart, given that he goes out of his way to reunite a broken family and set them up with a fistful of dollars...I mean ryo. Overall it's clear that I'm still very much in the golden age of Kurosawa. I'm a bit worried about getting a direct sequel to this movie in the form of Sanjuro, but hopefully we're far enough along from Sugata Sanshiro Part II that this is a decision embraced by Kurosawa rather than a nigh-mandated propaganda piece. If you haven't been able to tell by the couple of bad jokes, I do plan on checking out the spaghetti western remake of this film that got caught up for a few years in legal hell being sued for copying Yojimbo too closely without licensing it. Up Next: A Fistfull of Dollars Released September 12th 1964, Directed by Sergio Leone
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Apr 9, 2019 04:02
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IIRC Sanjuro is less a direct sequel as much as Mifune's character just having another adventure. It's also waaaaaaaaaaay better than Sanshiro Sugata Part II.
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Apr 9, 2019 04:39
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Now we're into the good stuff(I know, I know, it's all good stuff). I'm probably gonna watch along with you for these, I hardly need another excuse to rewatch Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars. I don't think you'll be disappointed by Sanjuro. Maybe it's not quite as good as Yojimbo overall but it makes up for it with a fantastic ending.
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Apr 9, 2019 15:28
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Re-watched Yojimbo last night and one thing that I really took notice of this time due to jivjov's comments was the score. It really does a lot to support the overall weirdness going on in the film. Like, opening the movie with a dog trotting down the street with a severed hand in it's mouth would probably lose some of it's intended absurdity with a more traditional score accompanying it. And it fits perfectly with Mifune's performance, as he's not exactly playing the traditional stoic samurai character, he's meant to be a bit strange.
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Apr 10, 2019 16:14
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Are you going to follow up with the Bruce Willis movie Last Man Standing? A remake of the novel Red Harvest, which was the noir story that Yojimbo was based on.
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Apr 11, 2019 00:32
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SimonCat posted:Are you going to follow up with the Bruce Willis movie Last Man Standing? Yep; I've got my upcoming itinerary in the OP, I'm gonna do the whole Man With No Name trilogy (even though only the first is lifted from Kurosawa), and then Last Man Standing after that. Basebf555 posted:Re-watched Yojimbo last night and one thing that I really took notice of this time due to jivjov's comments was the score. It really does a lot to support the overall weirdness going on in the film. Like, opening the movie with a dog trotting down the street with a severed hand in it's mouth would probably lose some of it's intended absurdity with a more traditional score accompanying it. And it fits perfectly with Mifune's performance, as he's not exactly playing the traditional stoic samurai character, he's meant to be a bit strange. Yeah, the score was REALLY standing out to me in the movie and I kinda wish I had devoted more discussion to it in my post. I've not generally paid too terribly much attention to Kurosawa scores; to me they just kinda vanish into the worldbuilding (arguably this is really high praise), but I never stopped being aware of Yojimbo's score. EDIT: This is the 666th reply to the thread. Spooky. jivjov fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 00:47
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 A Fistful of Dollars Released September 12th 1964, Directed by Sergio Leone Much like my review of The Magnificent Seven, my primary focus here is comparing this movie to its Kurosawa roots. Unlike my Magnificent Seven review, I'm not walking in to this with my head spinning about how the pacing and runtime was trimmed down so hard. Fistful of Dollars isn't all that much shorter than Yojimbo, and the pacing feels about the same. There a hair less contemplation, and just by the nature of how gunpowder works the action scenes have a bit more pop to them than Kurosawa's. Clint Eastwood also feels a little less ambiguous in his role than Toshiro Mifune did in his. Maybe its the perpetual scowl or my own preconceived notions of Eastwood...but despite hitting the same general plot beats, The Man With No Name (nicknamed Joe here, much easier to say than Kuwabatake Sanjuro/Thirty Year Old Mulberry Field) just feels much more grimy. This movie also has much more a sense of visual flair and style to it than Magnificent Seven. Not to besmirch that film too hard...but it felt rather rote to me; whereas Leone does some interesting work with framing dramatic closeups that help this movie stand much more alongside Yojimbo than it its shadow. The score, on the other hand, isn't as juxtaposed as hard as in the Japanese source. This felt like bog-standard spaghetti Western fare (not that that's a bad thing, Ennio Morricone does great work!), which is in sharp contrast to the jaunty mood imparted to Yojimbo by its score. Overall this is a really well done remake/reinterpretation of Yojimbo, and I guess the audiences and studios agreed, because The Man With No Name goes on to have some more adventures! I know For a Few Dollars More isn't a remake of Sanjuro, but I'm still going to finish out the Dollars trilogy. I've never seen the second one, and I'll take a solid excuse to rewatch The Good, the Bad and the Ugly again. Up Next: For a Few Dollars More Released November 18th 1965, Directed by Sergio Leone jivjov fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Apr 24, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 21:12
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Go ahead and besmirch The Magnificent Seven all you want. I think it's extremely overrated.
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Apr 11, 2019 21:25
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Basebf555 posted:Go ahead and besmirch The Magnificent Seven all you want. I think it's extremely overrated.
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Apr 11, 2019 22:12
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I think I'm just holding on to some secondhand nostalgia about it. It apparently was one of my mom and dad's favorites; though I never watched it as a kid.
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Apr 11, 2019 22:32
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My dad loves westerns and refuses to believe me when I tell him his favorite westerns are based off of Japanese samurai movies. Like, he can't fathom how an American released Western was filmed in Italy by Italians based off of Japanese films. I like the original Magnificent Seven, but Seven Samurai is clearly the better movie.
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Apr 11, 2019 22:36
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Basebf555 posted:I was reading the booklet that comes with the Kagemusha Criterion, and one of the writers mentioned how Kurosawa was fired/replaced on Tora! Tora! Tora! I never really knew about that, how Kurosawa's career was already on thin ice and then that was very close to a death blow because it solidified his reputation as being difficult to work with and unwilling to work within normal production constraints. If you want more about Tora! Tora! Tora!, the book The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune is an incredible, exhaustively sourced and fleshed out book that covers everything Kurosawa and Mifune touched, even the late embarrassing stuff like Shatterer and Shadow of the Wolf. I feel really lucky to have gotten it when it came out and to still have it. I think it's kind of expensive now but if it's available digitally I'd grab it for sure because it rules. Speaking of stuff in it, regarding Fistful of Dollars, Kurosawa wrote Leone directly about it to express how, well, WTF, when it came out and was a hit. But in that letter even Kurosawa himself straight up says it's a good movie (just also pointing out that it was HIS good movie lol). Random trivia: The Magnificent Seven is titled such because Seven Samurai called Magnificent Seven when it was released in the US for some time. I still wish he got to direct Runaway Train because drat. :/ Sanjuro fuckin' owns. Great sense of humor about it plus it has like, THE instance of that thing in movies where someone gets slashed and they're frozen for a second and then blood explodes out of them and that it happened on accident because the mechanism for the blood clogged up causing the delay so the effects guy panicked and just started pumping out as much as fast as possible makes it even more amazing.  jivjov on the other end since you have Miyazaki in the title. The search indicates no but did you see Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind yet? That's gotta be one of my favorite movies ever made ever and was insanely influential on Japanese fantasy game design, visuals, and plot beats from Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy to Dark Souls. It's so awesome because it's just early enough that it's at time like a western 70s animation thing and an 80s anime at the same time. The manga of it Miyazaki did is like top five GOAT material too. I think anyone into any fantasy fiction from the late 70s/early 80s would at least get a kick out of it too.
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Apr 23, 2019 04:44
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 Okko's Inn Released September 21st 2018, Directed by Kitarō Kōsaka I had date night with Mrs. Jivjov, and we went to a Fathom Event screening of this little film...who's director turns out to be a Studio Ghibli alum, so a review seems appropriate for the thread. Okko's Inn, at its heart, follows the same general slice of life pattern of a lot of Studio Ghibli films and this one in particular is all about dealing with and processing loss. Oriko, Okko to her friends, lost her parents in a car accident and spends 94 minutes of run time coming to terms with that loss while working as the "Junior Innkeeper" of her grandmother's traditional-style inn. My mother passed away suddenly one night when I was 11 years old, and I see a lot of what I did to process grief in what Okko does over the course of this film. There's a definite sense of initial refusal to accept they're truly gone...she has recurring dreams of snuggling up with her parents in bed, or hearing them say they're still alive and around. My mom and I were in the middle of a board game the day she died, and it was several days before I let Dad pack it back up. I just wanted her to come back and finish her turn. There's also a period of avoidance, where Okko throws herself into work at the inn and studiously only defines herself in relation to what's still around rather than what's gone. I tried to go back to school the second day after Mom's death (key word is tried) just to latch on to some sense of normalcy. That and me and Dad started bonding in ways we hadn't really before...tried taking up golf and other hobbies. Finally, at the end of the film, Okko unexpectedly comes face to face with the man who was driving the truck that killed her parents (though we find out that it wasn't his fault either, he swerved to avoid another collision and jumped the median). It's not until this point that Okko finally really has to accept that her parents are gone and never coming back. I honestly can't remember what the inciting incident that got me to that point with my mom...but I do remember the crying in a ball on the floor. While the ultimate acceptance is important, it is not easy. Throughout all this process of grief, Okko is accompanied by the spirits of others who have died. One is a childhood friend of her grandmother's, another is the elder sister of Okko's counterpart at a rival inn, and a third is a little mischievous oni spirit. Much like Jiji in Kiki's Delivery Service, a core part of Okko's growth over the course of the film is ceasing her reliance on these spirits and instead "growing up" into the world she currently lives in. At a local festival, on the anniversary of her parents' death, the spirits finally pass on into the next life and reincarnation as Okko completes (as much as such a thing is possible) the process of her grief. The film leaves unanswered such questions as "What will Okko do on a cold night a decade later when the loss of her parents weighs so heavily on her she just wants to die as well"....but that's less of a failing of the movie and really just outside its scope. On a technical level, Okko's Inn is very well made and animated. Madhouse, who I am familiar with from their work on One Punch Man is just as good at a more grounded setting as they are at over the top action, but they bring a stylized flair here and there to this more sedate piece. The various ghostly characters occasionally phase in and out of visibility or pass through walls or other characters with subtle but nice effects. There are a few really neat overhead shots early in the film that I thought was establishing kinda a "spirits' eye view" of proceedings, but I didn't really notice them throughout the film (Though I'm not sure if that was due to me getting too invested with the plot or if the shot composition just got a little more pedestrian overall). I felt that the character of Glory Suiryo wasn't quite as relevant to the proceedings as I wished she was. Her role as surrogate big sister or favorite aunt to Okko was a welcome one, and Okko's panic attack in the car was INCREDIBLY well done (and very real to me...it was storming the night my mom died, and for years I carried a deep hatred of thunder and lightning)...but unlike virtually everyone else Okko interacts with, Glory isn't touched by death. Her big trauma is a breakup. Not that that can't be traumatic..but it just felt a bit at odds with the rest of the film. That said, this film is adapted from an anime/manga/novel series, so I can't hold things completely against the film's writers and director; they did have source material to work with. Overall Okko's Inn really touched me on a personal level, and its a really nice Ghibli-esque film. The ghosts don't quite hit the same level of whimsy as, say, Jiji or Totoro, but I think the base subject matter is treated with a weight that makes that necessary. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled films later this weekend! Up Next: For a Few Dollars More Released November 18th 1965, Directed by Sergio Leone jivjov fucked around with this message at 22:28 on May 6, 2019 |
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Apr 24, 2019 04:00
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 Sanjuro Released January 1st 1962, Directed by Akira Kurosawa I know I said I was doing For a Few Dollars More next...but I wasn't feeling up to a 2 hour film this evening, so I just watched Sanjuro instead. For the second and final time in his directorial career, Kurosawa graces us with a direct sequel. But, as I suspected, it was not entirely his decision to do so. After the success of Yojimbo, the studio asked Kurosawa to make another movie starring the mostly-nameless ronin, and Kurosawa obliged by writing the character into what was originally a straight adaptation of a short story from author Shūgorō Yamamoto. While I don't have any hard evidence to back this up, I get the distinct impression that Kurosawa had no interest whatsoever in making sequels, preferring instead to move on to new projects...but he also was absolutely pragmatic enough to know who was signing the checks that let him make other films. As to the film itself, Sanjuro absolutely just plays as Another Adventure Of The Nameless Ronin (who this time gives the name Tsubaki Sanjūrō, even though he's still closing on 40 years old), wandering into town, stumbling straight on in to a situation full of intrigue and violence, recognizing a clear underdog faction, aligning himself with said faction, telling them they're all idiots and finally deviously outwitting the bad guys. The plot this time around involves nine young samurai seeking to confront a corrupt Chamberlain who refuses to take a stand against organized crime...except it turns out its other corrupt government officials (led by superintendent Hanbei) behind everything (This is about the point where Toshiro Mifune gets to tell everyone how wrong they are about everything). Quite a bit of the early plot actually happens without the direct involvement of our lead hero, there's a bit of back and forth involving the nine samurai watching from behind the bushes as various subterfuges occur and the actually-corrupt superintendent gets an army of horsemen. I wonder if this is the portion of the film most closely resembling the short story source, before Mifune gets involved in things. Once the film reaches it's midpoint, though, its back to business as usual as the ronin with no name carefully has to infiltrate and backstab, while mitigating the interference from his allies. While he never gets beat up and stuffed in a coffin like in the previous film, there's actually a more psychological toll being taken. Early in the film, the wife and mother of the not-actually-corrupt chamberlain get rescued from captivity and there's a bit of a scene of the mother psychoanalyzing Mifune's character, and telling him that reckless killing ins't really good for his well-being. This comes full circle at the end of the movie when (after being deposed) the superintendent and the ronin face off in a deadly duel, with Mifune's ronin trying to convince the other man to stand down, as the only result from their duel would be a corpse. He does end up having to kill Hanbei, which leads to another great moment of the nine samurai cheering the victory, only to be told off by the ronin for celebrating bloodshed. It's all a bit more explicitly and overtly aware than I would have expected by a story in this genre. On the technical side of things, this movie is much more toward the "competent" side of things...but coming from Kurosawa, that still means its an incredibly solid production. The score is, sadly, not as memorably jaunty as Yojimbo's, but there's still plenty of cool visuals; including flowers falling into streams, tips of spears peeking over rooftops, and some really well shot low angles that emphasize Mifune's smallness against the backdrop of horse riding soldiers and functionary palaces. The sparse actions scenes also demonstrate a neat economy of action; enemy combatants fall into the trap of "let's all attack one at a time so we can be struck down"....but the presentation is top notch, with the ronin's choreography really selling the idea of a highly trained man who still is very much an individual when it comes to a fight. Overall this is a solid, but not exemplary, entry from Kurosawa. I'll probably double feature it with Yojimbo if/when I rewatch that film in the future. Up Next: For a Few Dollars More Released November 18th 1965, Directed by Sergio Leone
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May 2, 2019 02:26
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 For a Few Dollars More Released November 18th 1965, Directed by Sergio Leone This one was honestly a bit of a surprise for me. After watching, I honestly kinda feel bad for this movie; its sandwiched between the first in the series (what with the infringement claims and all) and the one that gets all the acclaim. But this was a surprisingly powerful film for all that! Another surprising aspect was how much it focused on Lee Van Cleef's character over Eastwood's. That reminds me quite a bit of Yojimbo and Sanjuro; in that the "main" character is just a guy who gets mixed up in a situation that could easily have not involved him at all. Manco, as the Man With No Name is named here, could easily have taken a different bounty, or rolled in to town a few days earlier or later. Van Cleef's character of ex-Colonel Mortimer is the one with the real arc, the pathos of a dead family member, the real grudge against the villain. Speaking of the villain, Gian Volonté as El Indio is really quite vile. We see in flashback that he rapes a woman, she kills herself during the act...and then he feels bad about that? That act alone would firmly cement him as completely repugnant...and the movie just keeps on portraying him as completely amoral and potentially psychotic. Revenge flicks usually carry a message of "don't let yourself get blinded by hate"...but Col. Mortimer is pretty much 100% justified in his crusade here. I really liked the uneasy alliance and soft backstabs between Mortimer and Manco, and seeing the two men on screen together makes it really clear why Leone brought them back together for a third outing in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This movie deserves so much more than being the rarely-spoken of middle child in the Dollars trilogy, and probably would receive more acclaim had it been its own work rather than billed as a sequel to Fistful. Much like Sanjuro, there's not really any linking material back to the first installment. Really good stuff all around. Up Next: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Released December 23rd 1966, Directed by Sergio Leone
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May 29, 2019 20:31
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Good stuff ! keep 'em coming.
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Jun 18, 2019 05:49
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And now you hate me just enough.
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Jun 18, 2019 06:09
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Well I just saw Kurosawa's Ran going in relatively blind thinking it would be standard Kurosawa I've seen before: very classical themes of honor and family and war with a tinge of hope. There's no hope. This was the most beautiful meditation on nihilism that I've ever seen. The utter futility of good acts, the comeuppance of everyone for creating a world based on violence, the sheer dispair juxtaposed with gorgeous colour and score. It's the most damning indictment of the veneer of civilization I've ever seen, showing the chaotic unfair chaos of the world and the rot that hurts so much of humanity. But it does it so prettily. The costumes are gorgeous, the makeup and effects are wonderfully expressionistic, it revels in the goriness and repetition of the violence that you don't want to look away even as you're disgusted and overwhelmed. For me it's basically a dramatic companion piece to The Act of Killing. Both left me like a very well-placed gutpunch.
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Jun 24, 2019 02:40
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It's interesting because one of the biggest changes Kurosawa made from the source material actually turns the story less nihilistic. In Shakespeare, Lear is a genuinely benevolent king whose only flaw is falling for his wicked offspring. Whereas Hidetora in Ran used to be a brutal warlord who united the lands in a bloody conquest and now tries to leave that violent existence behind him. There's a strong undercurrent of "violence begets violence" in the text, while King Lear's moral seems closer to "being good doesn't pay because you'll only get screwed over by those less scrupulous than you".
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Jul 1, 2019 14:50
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