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My strongest Soviet recs would be: Stalker Andrei Rublev Battleship Potemkin The Cranes Are Flying (I'd suggest starting with this; I think of it as the Casablanca of USSR) Letter Never Sent Ivan the Terrible Mirror I Am Cuba Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Hedgehog in the Fog Man with a Movie Camera If you get through that, there's still: Alexander Nevsky Ballad of a Soldier Come and See Ivan's Childhood Steamroller and the Violin Nostalghia Salt for Svanetia Siberiade Solaris Strike
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Dec 28, 2015 01:27
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I'd look up Loves of a Blonde, and The Red and the White as well.
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Dec 28, 2015 01:49
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 Stray Dog Released October 17th 1949, Directed by Akira Kurosawa After a two and a half week holiday break, I'm back with Seriously though, I really got a kick out of the police procedural bits. Detective Murakami matching a crime scene bullet to one of his own misfires at the shooting range was not only a clever sequence I'd expect to see in a modern crime show (we even got the microscope view of matching bullet grooves together), but just a really smart but of thinking on the character's part (and as a credit to the writing; the misfired bullet was set up in an excellently casual manner earlier on in the film). My only complaint about the procedural stuff is the montage of Murakami scouring the back alleys looking for a black market gun dealer went on just a little too long; I had gotten the point of it being a soul-crushingly tedious task about halfway through. Something that I was really focusing on in my viewing was the debate between Murakami and senior detective Sato on the nature of Murakami's responsibility for actions committed with his stolen handgun. Housemate and fellow goon Krysmphoenix pointed out to me that there are definitely legal concerns (at least in the US) for a police weapon being stolen...but the real core of the issue of one of overall morality. Murakami feels through most of the film that had he not carelessly been carrying his weapon unsecured in a pocket on a crowded bus, it wouldn't have been stolen and used for crime. Sato pragmatically points out that had the criminal in question not gotten ahold of Murakami's gun, he would have just been using a different weapon. That and the theft of Murakami's gun led to the seizure of a bunch of other guns from a black market source. The thing that it takes Murakami longest to accept is that it ultimately is not his responsibility to bear guilt for the choices made by other people. He made a mistake, and is responsible for that mistake, but nothing more. In addition to the police procedural stuff, Stray Dog hits a lot of proto-Buddy Cop beats too. Sato is continually having to tell Murakami to slow down, calm down, think things through, focus on facts. Sato even gets shot for his trouble, although I don't think he was a mere two days from retirement. Murakami newness to the force is also communicated very well throughout the film. We're not just told he's a rookie; he's shown having a hard time at the shooting range, he tries to resign on the spot for his gun blunder, is very self-critical, and he does need Sato's calming hand throughout the investigation. And at the end of the case, he and Sato discuss how to move on from the rather dramatic events, and he seems to finally have a measure of peace about it; especially after Sato confirms that yes, it is possible to move on. Murakami's journey is, in typical Kurosawa fashion, incredibly human. Speaking of 'things well communicated over the course of the film'; I was told a while back in the thread to keep my eyes open for the use of weather in Kurosawa's films, and I was really starting to feel it here. The movie takes place during a nasty heat wave, and this shows up casually and overtly all over this movie. The police lieutenant is always repositioning a desk fan to keep cool, Murakami and Sato both are constantly mopping themselves with handkerchiefs, incidental dialog mentions the heat, every passerby extra is carrying a paper fan. And then a late-movie thunderstorm is played to great effect as well. Excellent incorporation of the elements into a story. One place where the movie fell a bit flat for me was with Yusa, the criminal in possession of Murakami's gun. The exposition about his backstory, about being a morose war veteran, just didn't really resonate too much with me; and the parts where the detectives were investigating Yusa's story really struggled to keep my full attention. I don't want to lay the fault of this at the feet of the film or Kurosawa; I'm willing to bet that right on the heels of WWII it played a whole lot better. I haven't spoken a whole lot about Harumi, Yusa's girlfriend. With one exception, I didn't get a whole lot out of her either. The one exchange I really did like her in was her debate with Murakami on the nature of crime. She presents the argument that so many bad people take advantage of the world and lie and steal and kill to get whatever they want, and that there's no point being a good person...but Murakami calls her bluff and asks why she doesn't fall to a full life of crime. Her dramatic crying afterwards is a bit much, but (much like the earlier debates on responsibility) I really enjoyed the moral conundrum. Overall I would recommend Stray Dog. Much like Quiet Duel, I found myself very attracted to the more subtle undertones as opposed to the overt plot. Moral debates are tricky to represent on film, but Kurosawa does a good job weaving that sort of thing in 'underneath' the story of a cop searching for his stolen gun. Up Next: Only Yesterday Released July 20th 1991, Directed by Isao Takahata jivjov fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Jan 8, 2016 |
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Dec 31, 2015 06:07
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Stray Dog is the moment that Kurosawa becomes Kurosawa. The next fifteen years of his work consists mainly of some of the greatest films ever made, with a few missteps (and even then I think some of those missteps are still drat good movies). Stray Dog obviously grew out of the noir genre and I think Scandal, his next movie, does as well. Though there's it's noir as if directed by... well, I'll save that so you can go in cold on that film. The oppressive climate of the downtrodden city. The flatfoot working a case that he's told he shouldn't pursue. The threat of violence hanging over everything. Although, it's a bit more... heroic, for lack of a better word, than noir generally is given the nature of the characters. I love the train station sequence in this film for the way it's shot so that you can see the process. In my view, the biggest part of Kurosawa's genius is in how he structures shots and that was a good example of it. Mifune tends to play very broad characters in Kurosawa films, initially coming from his tough guy roles and later reflecting his most iconic performance. In Stray Dog, though, I think he gives one of his better performances. Its intense, but also very understated compared to how he usually acts.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:08
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Is it really true that Stray Dog invented the "buddy cop" genre? As much as I love the movie I do wonder if that is giving it perhaps slightly too much credit, since to me it resembles more of a master/apprentice type of story than what we might think of as "buddy cop" movies today. Or maybe I just haven't seen enough of them, haha. Either way Stray Dog is still amazing. Still one of the best post-war movies out there. EDIT: Grammar. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 15:52
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Raxivace posted:Is it really true that Stray Dog invented the "buddy cop" genre? As much as I love the movie I do wonder if that is giving it perhaps slightly too much credit, since to me it resembles more of a master/apprentice type of story than what we might think of as "buddy cop" movies today. Or maybe I just haven't seen enough of them, haha. I always hate to credit anything with "inventing" a genre unless there's documented proof. From what research I did though, Stray Dog is credited with at least popularizing some of the tropes that ended up forming the backbone the "buddy cop" genre. Overwhelming proof? No; but that's how history is choosing to remember it at least.
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Jan 1, 2016 16:18
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I've read that too, though anytime I've seen it described that way, it's usually just written as kind of a given. I guess I just wonder if maybe some of the other noirs made in the 1940's shouldn't be considered proto-buddy cop movies as well, even if they don't literally feature cops or whatever. The Maltese Falcon comes to mind even though one of the "buddies" dies five minutes in (And Spade and Archer weren't even friends really). There's also the film Laura, which seems reminiscent of these types of stories to a degree until the ending.
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Jan 1, 2016 17:15
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Raxivace posted:Is it really true that Stray Dog invented the "buddy cop" genre? As much as I love the movie I do wonder if that is giving it perhaps slightly too much credit, since to me it resembles more of a master/apprentice type of story than what we might think of as "buddy cop" movies today. Or maybe I just haven't seen enough of them, haha. I agree and that was my reading of the relationship between Sato and Murakami. It fits with Japanese organizational relationships as well, too, where seniority rather than position defines if someone is your peer. Personally, I see buddy cop movies growing out of detective fiction in general where you always need someone to bounce the detective off of. Once you start making those two characters more equals, the whole thing kind of snaps into place.
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Jan 1, 2016 19:10
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Random Stranger posted:Personally, I see buddy cop movies growing out of detective fiction in general where you always need someone to bounce the detective off of. Once you start making those two characters more equals, the whole thing kind of snaps into place. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Honestly you could probably trace the "buddy cop" origins all the way back to Holmes and Watson (The actual Doyle stories at least, and not the movies that made Watson a complete idiot or whatever). Stray Dog getting the credit just seems a little arbitrary. Speaking of Japanese noir, I watched Take Aim at the Police Van for the first time the other day and holy poo poo it is crazy. It's like noir on adrenaline- people can't even go outside for five minutes without somebody driving up to them and beating the poo poo out of them. One dude is thrown over a cliff. There's some King Joffrey poo poo going on too when one woman is shot in the bare breast with an arrow of all things. Movie isn't even 80 minutes long, and is insane. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 20:15
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Something that gets taken for granted (by viewers) in a lot of fiction is the audience stand-in. Obviously it's nigh-impossible to just tell a story of a professional of a craft or trade just doing their job. The methods and reasons will be opaque and some combination of boring or frustrating for the viewer. Someone or something has to convey to the audience what the methodology, the reasonings, are. This can be something as blatant as "the new guy" that's as fresh to the situation as the audience at home is, or something along the lines of the buddy cop formula where two differing viewpoints have an in-universe excuse to have to explain their thought processes aloud to the each other, and thus the audience.
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Jan 1, 2016 20:26
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jivjov posted:Something that gets taken for granted (by viewers) in a lot of fiction is the audience stand-in. Obviously it's nigh-impossible to just tell a story of a professional of a craft or trade just doing their job. The methods and reasons will be opaque and some combination of boring or frustrating for the viewer. Someone or something has to convey to the audience what the methodology, the reasonings, are. This can be something as blatant as "the new guy" that's as fresh to the situation as the audience at home is, or something along the lines of the buddy cop formula where two differing viewpoints have an in-universe excuse to have to explain their thought processes aloud to the each other, and thus the audience. Yeah, people do take it for granted, and it is hard to pull off well. The worst is when these audience stand-in characters do not actually feel like characters. Ellen Page in Inception comes to mind- she only exists (for the audience) to be narrated at for like half an hour.
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Jan 1, 2016 20:39
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Raxivace posted:Speaking of Japanese noir, I watched Take Aim at the Police Van for the first time the other day and holy poo poo it is crazy. It's like noir on adrenaline- people can't even go outside for five minutes without somebody driving up to them and beating the poo poo out of them. One dude is thrown over a cliff. There's some King Joffrey poo poo going on too when one woman is shot in the bare breast with an arrow of all things. Movie isn't even 80 minutes long, and is insane. I was lucky enough to catch a few Suzuki noirs at the Freer|Sackler Galleries in Washington D.C. during their Seijun Suzuki retrospective. The noirs he directed are incredibly goofy, but really enjoyable. I was able to see Passport to Darkness, The Sleeping Beast Within, and Smashing the O-Line, all of which I enjoyed even more than Take Aim at the Police Van. I think that retrospective was supposed to tour several cities in the US, so any fans of Japanese noir should see if it's still going on anywhere near them. As far as I know, there's no good way to see some of Suzuki's older noir stuff.
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Jan 1, 2016 22:03
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So I'm planning on reading Kurosawa's memoir, Something Like an Autobiography...should I post a book review in the thread?
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Jan 3, 2016 02:55
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Anyone here ever seen the Japanese silent Orochi (1925)? It's got one of the coolest action climaxes I've ever seen in a silent. The main plot I could take or leave, but this action scene feels like it predicts Kurosawa by a good 25 years. It's on YouTube with benshi accompaniment (For some reason there are two benshi going at once), though personally I just muted the video and put the subtitles on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FhTOBq9sJc jivjov posted:So I'm planning on reading Kurosawa's memoir, Something Like an Autobiography...should I post a book review in the thread? Sure, why not? I'd like to read that myself one day...
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Jan 6, 2016 01:45
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 Only Yesterday Released July 20th 1991, Directed by Isao Takahata First off, we've hit a pair of milestones. Not including my 'bonus' review of Atlantis (that was fueled by my dislike of Castle in the Sky), this is the first film I've reviewed that was released after I was born. Not sure if that really means anything..but I found it notable. Also, this is my first film review of 2016! Also not particularly important...but worth mentioning. Anyway, as for Only Yesterday, I'm really not sure what I was expecting but this sure wasn't it. Takahata's last directorial outing nearly crushed my soul, so with that in my memory I steeled myself before pressing play on this one. And instead of the grim inevitability of death, I was instead presented with the not-quite-as-grim inevitability of the passage of time, and the ending of childhood. This movie takes a good hard look at the concepts of remembrance and nostalgia and then runs with them, exploring Taeko Okajima's present life (circa 1982) as compared with her 10 year old self (circa 1966). I honestly had more difficulty being invested with Taeko's present day story until the very end when she starts examining how she feels about prospective partner Toshio. Her vacations out to a rural farm were quaint, the interactions she has with a young teen that reminds her of herself were moderately insightful, but I honestly took a lot more out of Young Taeko's experiences. It is not often that media deconstructs the concepts of how a young child views her life experiences versus the reality of them plus the benefit of hindsight; either you're following a movie through the eyes of a child where everything is VERY IMPORTANT to them, or you're following the story through the eyes of an adult and childish fancies are either not present or dismissed out of hand. Only Yesterday, on the other hand, has Taeko reflect on things she experienced as a child. When she was 10, the concept of girls getting periods was terrifying, and the boys in her school tormented her and her friends endlessly about it. As a 27 year old, a menstrual cycle is incredibly mundane. Her first childhood crush left her dizzy and in a heart-filled dream daze. Looking back on that time, Taeko fondly laughs, but her budding relationship with Toshio is based on true exchanges of emotion. A school play and a potential acting career cut short were virtually the end of the world at 10, but at 27 it was easy to see that the fine arts were really nothing more than a hobby. Its a strange sentiment; to look back on childhood and realize that not a whole lot of it really mattered in the long term...but at the same time Taeko realizes that it really did matter to her development and her personality. I found myself reflecting back on school happenings from my own childhood and seeing similar parallels. The fights I got in really didn't matter...but I learned to not let myself get bullied, to find my own friends when the 'popular' cliques shunned me, etc. From an art standpoint, I noticed that all the past scenes had very sparse backgrounds. Anything not directly involved with the scene was either very pale or washed out entirely to white. This is really in keeping with childhood memories. Other than very important locales, the scenery didn't matter; the people and events did. Whereas as an adult, more a a long view is taken. Landscapes, winding roads, farming communities, it all is more important due to a decrease in the importance of self and an increase in the importance of the community. Only Yesterday is beautifully animated, faces especially. Upon concluding my viewing, I was left with an odd bittersweet melancholy feeling. I've always been a nostalgic sort, remembering old faces and places and feeling sad about being unable to revisit them. This movie exacerbated that, but the ending scenes (set to a Japanese-translated version of The Rose) of Toshio and Taeko starting a relationship left me with an ultimately positive outlook on this film. This is not what I would call a traditional Studio Ghibli product, or even a typical anime film...but it's certainly worth a look. Up Next: Scandal Released April 30th 1950, Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Jan 8, 2016 05:40
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Just as an aside, if anyone is noticing very recent edits on my older reviews, I'm not adding anything new. I've just been reading back through my old stuff and fixing the odd typo here and there.
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Jan 8, 2016 07:03
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jivjov posted:So I'm planning on reading Kurosawa's memoir, Something Like an Autobiography...should I post a book review in the thread? hell yeah, i've been wanting to read that for a while
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Jan 8, 2016 13:55
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Nice to see a review of probably my all-time favorite animated film.
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Jan 9, 2016 07:55
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Zerilan posted:Nice to see a review of probably my all-time favorite animated film. Only Yesterday is your favorite? Well, I'm glad I got to it for you! It's so...unique among anything animated I've ever seen. It just tells a story. No real fantasy or crazy elements to it. Just a woman's life.
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Jan 9, 2016 08:10
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Are you reviewing Ocean Waves as a part of the Ghibli section, jiv? I'm kind of curious about what you'll think of that one now.
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Jan 9, 2016 08:12
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Raxivace posted:Are you reviewing Ocean Waves as a part of the Ghibli section, jiv? I'm kind of curious about what you'll think of that one now. Yep, that's 2 Ghibli films away. I'll get to it.
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Jan 9, 2016 08:16
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I'll be interested also to hear your thoughts on Whisper of the Heart. It's another slice of life story with very few fantastic elements, but for some reason it's really stuck with me.
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Jan 9, 2016 13:27
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jivjov posted:Only Yesterday is your favorite? Well, I'm glad I got to it for you! Yeah, the story really struck a personal chord with me. I also loved that it's a story that could have just as easily been told live-action, yet it still makes full use of being in an animated medium. You touched well on the use of color and backgrounds between the present and past scenes. I also like how the character animations were different as well. The past scenes were done in the traditional animated style of doing the animating first with simpler faces mouth movements, and dubbing over it. The present scenes had the dialogue recorded first and had the animation more closely match lip-syncing and "real" facial expressions, such as the indentations on their cheeks when they smile.
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Jan 9, 2016 18:16
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jivjov posted:Upon concluding my viewing, I was left with an odd bittersweet melancholy feeling. I've always been a nostalgic sort, remembering old faces and places and feeling sad about being unable to revisit them. This movie exacerbated that, but the ending scenes (set to a Japanese-translated version of The Rose) of Toshio and Taeko starting a relationship left me with an ultimately positive outlook on this film. This is not what I would call a traditional Studio Ghibli product, or even a typical anime film...but it's certainly worth a look.
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Jan 10, 2016 12:32
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Ali Alkali posted:The feelings of time passing and the bitter-sweetness of nostalgia are actually present in all of Takahata's Ghibli films(grave of the fireflies is just bitter though), also in a lot of Miyazaki's(Porco Rosso, The Wind Rises etc.) and they are there in From up on Poppy Hill(Miyazaki Goro); so one could actually say that this film is a very typical Ghibli production! Sometimes they are themes, sometimes they are just there. It is common in a lot of anime though. Yeah, now that you mention it, I can really see the whole "time passing, childhood moves on" in Totoro and Kiki's...it's just not nearly as prevalent as the 'primary' theme.
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Jan 10, 2016 12:45
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I think that's because those two movies have an epic journey and whatnot going on. And you grow with the journey but with Only Yesterday, it's like the movie starts off reflecting, and already grown up.
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Jan 11, 2016 18:10
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The Alamo Drafthouse is doing Miyazaki February. My wife and I are gonna go see Totoro for her birthday; and I may try to go to some of the other films I haven't seen yet too!
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Jan 14, 2016 02:05
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 Scandal Released April 30th 1950, Directed by Akira Kurosawa My only knowledge of Japan's legal system comes from the Phoenix Wright video games...so imagine my disappointment when the courtroom scenes of this movie played out over far more than three days, and nobody stood up and dramatically shouted "Objection!" accompanied by an accusatory finger. In any case; this was certainly a Kurosawa feature. I'm noticing an odd trend; between this, Quiet Duel and Drunken Angel Kurosawa loves stories about someone having a serious illness and the moral dilemmas that come from it. In this case, its Takashi Shimura's lawyer character, Hiruta, making immoral decisions due to his daughter's terminal TB infection. All of these stories are different enough that it by no means feels like he's drawing too much water from the same well...but it is a noticeable trend nonetheless. I took great notice of Toshirō Mifune this time around as well. His final courtroom speech before his lawyer confesses really highlighted his resonant voice and commanding presence. His character, artist Ichirō Aoye, reminds me a lot of myself in some ways. when confronted with the scandal that he is being considered the 'secret lover' of a famous singer, Aoye doesn't keep his head down and wait for it to blow over...no, he immediately demands a retraction be published, goes so far as to punch out the tabloid editor, and then sues the company when nothing changes. He's a proud man, who is not willing to compromise his integrity even at the expense of a media circus and time and money tied up in court proceedings. He also takes an acute interest in Hiruta's family. He finds out that Hiruta's daughter Masako is sick the first day he tries to visit his lawyer at home, and from that point forward becomes committed to helping keep her in good spirits. He figures out fairly early on that Hiruta is not on the level, but he relies on him anyway, trusting that his conscience and their ultimate innocence will prevail. It's a very humanizing touch to what very easily could have been an arrogant and potentially unlikeable character. On the other hand, Shirley Yamaguchi's famous singer character Miyako Saijo falls back into Kurosawa's occasional trap of not having particularly strong or interesting female characters. There's nothing horrible or offensive about her...she just ultimately doesn't do a whole lot. She is initially reluctant to get involved with the lawsuit against the tabloid, she's upset that her mother doesn't take her side and suspects the incriminating article might be true, and she also assists Aoye in making Masako's last days more pleasant. But she really feels like a background character compared to Aoye and Hiruta. Slightly counterbalancing Saijo's non-importance are the performances from the two other women in the film. One is Noriko Sengoku, playing Sumie, one of Aoye's painting models. She only has a couple of scenes, but she is more than willing to speak out of turn in court to protest Aoye's innocence and non-involvement with Saijo. She's also involved in an odd bit of social commentary about nude paintings that seems to serve no purpose beyond establishing Aoye as not being a lecher. Wikipedia informs me that Kurosawa himself briefly entertained the notion of being a painter, so this may just be him taking an opportunity to insert a bit of social commentary about painting and broader Japanese attitudes toward nudity and sexuality. The other female involved with the plot is the aforementioned TB-stricken Masako Hiruta. She also only has a couple of major scenes, but she is a major driving force behind Hiruta's eventual confession. She continually expresses her faith that her father will do the right thing and that Aoye and Saijo will win their case. Not the strongest character in her own right, but she has more to do with the progression of the plot than Saijo does. Hiruta himself is a bit of a contradiction. I find him to be both an interesting and bland character. The general concept of a down-on-his-luck lawyer is fine, but then you find out that he has a penchant for betting on races, which removes a lot of sympathy from his plight. His office is an outbuilding on the roof; optimistically called the 5th floor. A bit of quiet comedy lightens the situation. Then you find out that he has a sick daughter. He keeps trying to do nice things for Masako...but then overindulges in drink, takes bribes, and comes very close to throwing a court case. All these contrasts feel like they should add up to a really rich and dynamic character...but I just wasn't 100% sold on the performance. His initial introduction at Aoye's house was just way too broad and overdone for my tastes, and his frequent bouts of mournful self-recrimination just felt too big to be believed. Every other scene he would be complaining about how horrible of a person he is for taking bribes and whatnot, but then he'd be right back to doing it again. I feel like I'm supposed to be taking it as a man stuck in what he sees as a hopeless, no-win scenario but, for me, Shimura's performance is strikes me as a bit of a misstep. Ultimately, while I enjoyed watching Scandal, I find it hard to give it a glowing recommendation. It is by no means a bad film...but I feel bad for calling it "mediocre". That word has a rather negative connotation that I really don't want to imply. It was fine. It told a story, it was well filmed (I didn't really have a chance to mention it in the review-proper, but I noticed quite a few trademark Kurosawa wipes. The ones between each of the witnesses for the defense during the trial stood out to me.) but ultimately didn't strike me as anything particularly special. This film does mark one minor milestone; I am one-third of the way through Kurosawa's filmography. We are clearly out of the phase of his early work and (depending on your perspective) either in or about to enter the era of his best and most well renowned films. Up Next: Porco Rosso Released July 28th 1992, Directed by Hayao Miyazaki jivjov fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 05:49
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More like Porco Ownso.
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Jan 14, 2016 06:03
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Zerilan posted:Yeah, the story really struck a personal chord with me. I also loved that it's a story that could have just as easily been told live-action, yet it still makes full use of being in an animated medium. I think it'd have lost something if it had been live action. Real actors obviously have a big advantage in being able to emote and express subtlety over someone animated, but there's a lack of roughness to the medium (especially in films as well crafted as Ghibli ones) that makes it way easier to project ourselves onto animated characters. I'm sure I'd have still been invested in the characters regardless, but it resonated hugely (with me as well) on a personal level which I think I may have found a lot harder had I been watching an actual middle aged Japanese woman. also Jivjov I was about getting ready to bite your head off when you said you didn't like Castle in the Sky, but reading your criticisms I can't really disagree. It does drag on a whole lot, now that you mention it. I guess I still get invested in it regardless. I think it still maintains just enough momentum to stay interesting though, unlike Nausicaa which I can barely bring myself to watch these days.
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Jan 15, 2016 07:06
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Scandal is often described as a poor effort on Kurosawa's part but I genuinely enjoy the film. It feels like a Frank Capra movie to me with the themes of the nobler aspects of humanity overcoming the corruption of the world. There's a lot of wonderful touches in the movie, too. I like the pettiness of the villain and how at the end of the day he's just an rear end in a top hat; it grounds the movie. I love the montage sequences where it swings back and forth between the different sides of the story for being so well shot. Same for the courtroom sequences. Regarding the tuberculosis, Kurosawa is still addressing the state of post-war Tokyo. He loved putting those disease ridden cesspits into his movies (at least until he brings that theme to it's own natural conclusion).
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Jan 15, 2016 07:23
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Koramei posted:also Jivjov I was about getting ready to bite your head off when you said you didn't like Castle in the Sky, but reading your criticisms I can't really disagree. It does drag on a whole lot, now that you mention it. I guess I still get invested in it regardless. I think it still maintains just enough momentum to stay interesting though, unlike Nausicaa which I can barely bring myself to watch these days. Yeah...Castle was beautiful, and there wasn't anything wrong with all the individual parts of the movie...it just went on too long. One more pass through editing, 15-20 minutes trimmed out, and maybe a bit more characterization for the villains and it would be a classic. Random Stranger posted:Regarding the tuberculosis, Kurosawa is still addressing the state of post-war Tokyo. He loved putting those disease ridden cesspits into his movies (at least until he brings that theme to it's own natural conclusion). I suppose "people having horrible diseases" is just Kurosawa staying true to life. And as I mentioned, he makes it all feel distinct enough that he doesn't (yet) feel like he's ripping himself off.
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Jan 15, 2016 12:04
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Castle (both in the sky and of Cagliostro) were really fun movies imo but Miyazaki's inexperience at the time still shines through a bit.
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Jan 15, 2016 19:20
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Cagliostro definitely feels like a freshman effort. Fun, to be sure. But I can see the lack of polish.
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Jan 15, 2016 19:23
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What I'll say about Shimura in Scandal is that I do think the performance is a bit underrated- he's somewhat playing against type as a flawed guy and the case is basically his attempt at redeeming himself. He strikes me as a cinematic ancestor of like, Saul Goodman (His Jimmy McGill era at least) and characters like that. Atticus Finch he ain't.
Raxivace fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jan 15, 2016 |
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Jan 15, 2016 19:32
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I started in on Kurosawa's autobiography on my lunch break today, and it's fascinating. I'll do a full writeup when I finish it, but only a couple dozen pages in and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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Jan 15, 2016 19:45
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jivjov posted:Cagliostro definitely feels like a freshman effort. Fun, to be sure. But I can see the lack of polish. Yeah. Its probably my favorite Miyazaki/Ghibli film to rewatch because I just love that kind of slapstick comedy/action, but I definitely wouldn't consider it done of their best films.
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Jan 15, 2016 19:49
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jivjov posted:I started in on Kurosawa's autobiography on my lunch break today, and it's fascinating. I'll do a full writeup when I finish it, but only a couple dozen pages in and I wholeheartedly recommend it. The worst part about that book is it stops at Rashomon. There's a second autobiography but it's never been translated into English. Well, one part of that second autobiography has been translated: the list of his one hundred favorite movies. It happens to include My Neighbor Totoro. The real challenge in making that list is not being able to include any Kurosawa films. 
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Jan 16, 2016 17:18
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Random Stranger posted:The worst part about that book is it stops at Rashomon. There's a second autobiography but it's never been translated into English. I shouldn't be surprised, but drat, what a good list. cool to see Hana-Bi on there.
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Jan 16, 2016 17:29
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It's a really intriguing list for a lot of reason, even just starting with the first film on there. Kurosawa probably respected D.W. Griffith's genius as a formalist, but I'd be very curious to know what he thought about the, uh, troubling aspects of his films and Broken Blossoms in particular. The John Ford influence on Kurosawa is obvious, but My Darling Clementine is a bit unlike Ford's typical westerns. It's kind of nice to see MASH on there since Robert Altman was a big Kurosawa fan, to the point where he introduces Rashomon on the Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray. Breathless is also surprising, since Jean-Luc Godard loving hated Kurosawa's movies and thought the man was a hack. The Birds is not the Hitchcock I would have expected Kurosawa to like the most. Barry Lyndon ftw. Kurosawa correctly acknowledges that The Godfather Part II is better than Part I. The King of Comedy is also an unusual pick for Scorsese, but it's a drat good movie that's under-appreciated. The Gold Rush has always been lesser Chaplin to me, and I've never been quite sure why people put it so far his other features. Same with Renoir and Grand Illusion. Whoever wrote the article is right- the lack of any Orson Welles is a bit surprising.
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Jan 16, 2016 18:03
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