議論が必要アジア映画 (Asian film needs discussion)

[Stay Puft]

Yeah, my fingers are crossed that Flying Swords will get distribution of some kind over here and pop up in Toronto because I really want to watch a Tsui Hark film in a theatrical 3D presentation (I won't hold out hope for an IMAX 3D screening but that would be sublime).

Well, this has just recently been confirmed for a US IMAX theatrical release in September. Cool! No specific mention of Canada but I'm going to assume it'll pop up here as well since the IMAX screens are always playing the same stuff. Glad I held off on watching my copy.

[D_Davis]

Well, this has just recently been confirmed for a US IMAX theatrical release in September. Cool! No specific mention of Canada but I'm going to assume it'll pop up here as well since the IMAX screens are always playing the same stuff. Glad I held off on watching my copy.

Nice.

[soitgoes...]

Spoilers below, if you haven't seen Kobayashi's Harakiri.

I was extremely interested in Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, especially after he killed 13 Assassins, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned of his handling of the source material from which Kobayashi created one of my absolute favorite films. Through the opening, until Tsugomo starts to retell the story of his son-in-law Motome, Miike had me completely drawn in. And then everything started to unravel. Small choices by Miike snowballed into me being left indifferent by the end. Through the entire back story section, Miike does away with the cross-cutting back to the present where Tsugomo tries to relate his story to the clan leader, Saito. The tension that he worked so hard to build up is completely forgotten, as he presents an hour long story of the past. Kobayashi's film continually flashed back to the present, as Tsugomo fought to be able to tell his story before his end, keeping the tension alive. We're left with a film in three parts: the thrilling beginning, a long languid middle that saps the films strength and momentum, and then what should be the ultimate Miike scene at the end (especially after the amazing end to 13 Assassins). I knew I at least had that ending sequence that Miike would nail, but he fucking cheated me out of it. In a ballsy move, Miike chooses to give Tsugomo a bamboo sword, mirroring the short sword that Motome had to use to dispatch himself with. The idea is somewhat smart, allowing Tsugomo a chance to humiliate the Iyi clan before dying himself, but lets be honest, this is a Miike film. There's a certain expectation going into one of his films, and it's as if he played those expectations against the viewer.

Miike and Kobayashi each made a film based off the same material, yet Kobayashi's is far more brutal, far more alive. Miike's film is cold. The music, when there, is subdued. Scenes are shot from a distance, and cutting is kept to a minimum, leaving the film so restrained as it becomes almost boring. There are some positive changes, especially with his handling of the daimyo. Miike's daimyo isn't the cold leader of Kobayashi's film. His shows some compassion and understanding which I thought was beautifully handled. The outcome is the same as Saito has no choice in order to save his clan's honor. The film contains beautifully composed shots, Miike's framing is impeccable, but that only has me thinking that this film could have been so much more, if only Miike made better choices. Sure my love of Kobayashi's film really sets Miike at a disadvantage, but I honestly think that this could have been a great interpretation of the story with a handful of changes, while still being a very different telling of that story.

Also, no Nakadai.

[EyesWideOpen]

Once I finish my collection of US released Miike stuff (which I'm getting close to completing) I'm gonna watch them all from the beginning. Maybe make a Miike thread.

[Li Lili]

I finally saw "The day he arrives" by Hong Sang-soo, and perhaps it's because it was a fair amount of time that I haven't seen his films, but surpringly enough I enjoyed it. I remember that the last film I saw by him started to bore me, as it's same filmagain and again. The day he arrives is also the same kind of films, simple, minimalist, realistic, amusing.. depicting the relationships between the characters, often in restaurant, drinking, eating, wandering around the streets...
I'm glad I saw it.

Also watched Inseparable by Dayyang Eng with Daniel Wu and Kevin Spacey...
I guess it was the reason why I watched it, I was curious what the film could be with them two together. I knew nothing about the film, and I think it's best that way, so I won't say what it's about, only that it's comedy, set in Guangzhou, with some good and funny parts, and it makes a change from the big production China has been recently produced.

[Russ]

I saw another really good Kinoshita film, A Japanese Tragedy - pro (-), though perhaps a bit too 'epic' an approach for the material; making newreel ties to postwar social and economic issues part of the narrative wasn't really incorporated as seamlessly as I would have liked to have seen. Although an occasional lack of focus hardly detracted from a terrific melodrama of a mother who did whatever it took to bring up a pair of ungrateful offspring, culminating in a startlingly tragic climax. Yûko Mochizuki is superb as the cast-aside mother and alone makes the film worthwhile viewing. There are several wonderful scenes, out of which I'd highlight these two: Mochizuki's daughter is confronted by her English teacher's wife, ostensibly to make a dress for their daughter, but also to determine if she is interested in her husband; and, a despondent Mochizuki paying a street singer with what little money she has, to basically fill a large void in her life by singing to her on the banks of a river overlooking the town. Magical. Rating likely to go up on a rewatch.

[soitgoes...]

I saw another really good Kinoshita film, A Japanese Tragedy - pro (-), though perhaps a bit too 'epic' an approach for the material; making newreel ties to postwar social and economic issues part of the narrative wasn't really incorporated as seamlessly as I would have liked to have seen. Although an occasional lack of focus hardly detracted from a terrific melodrama of a mother who did whatever it took to bring up a pair of ungrateful offspring, culminating in a startlingly tragic climax. Yûko Mochizuki is superb as the cast-aside mother and alone makes the film worthwhile viewing. There are several wonderful scenes, out of which I'd highlight these two: Mochizuki's daughter is confronted by her English teacher's wife, ostensibly to make a dress for their daughter, but also to determine if she is interested in her husband; and, a despondent Mochizuki paying a street singer with what little money she has, to basically fill a large void in her life by singing to her on the banks of a river overlooking the town. Magical. Rating likely to go up on a rewatch.

Check out The Fuefuki River. Successful or not, it's unlike anything you've seen.

[Irish]

Questions for your all:

- Seems to be a Korean remake of A Better Tomorrow from 2010. Any good?

- I'm trying to remember the title of a Korean film from several years back. Basic plot revolves around two detectives? government agents? in an alternate universe where Japan won WWII. Slowly, they realize things are out of whack. It's sorta an Asian version of PKD's The Man in the High Castle. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Russ]

Check out The Fuefuki River. Successful or not, it's unlike anything you've seen.
I will. I become more and more impressed with Kinoshita the further I explore his filmography. It seems like he gets short shrift, I guess because of all the other more well-known Japanese directors, but he's very close to top-tier.

[number8]

- I'm trying to remember the title of a Korean film from several years back. Basic plot revolves around two detectives? government agents? in an alternate universe where Japan won WWII. Slowly, they realize things are out of whack. It's sorta an Asian version of PKD's The Man in the High Castle. Any ideas?

2009: Lost Memories.

[soitgoes...]

I will. I become more and more impressed with Kinoshita the further I explore his filmography. It seems like he gets short shrift, I guess because of all the other more well-known Japanese directors, but he's very close to top-tier.
I'm gonna have to disagree. I don't even think he'd be in my second tier. So many awesome directors to choose from, and as solid and interesting as he is, he's yet to blow me away.

[Irish]

2009: Lost Memories.

Fantastic! Thank you!

[Russ]

I'm gonna have to disagree. I don't even think he'd be in my second tier. So many awesome directors to choose from, and as solid and interesting as he is, he's yet to blow me away.
One thing I really like is his diversity -- not just amongst genre, but within genre -- witness the two Carmen films with Hideko Takamine: the first one was the very first Japanese film in color, a bit of a screwball comedy mixed with traditional Japanese culture, followed (albeit, less successfully) by a b&w sequel, that replaced the parody of American influence with the full-fledged portrait of post-war Japanese culture, turning the satire sharply inward. Viewed together, it makes for a disarming cinematic juxtapostion, and further builds on Kinoshita's reputation for increasingly experimental fare (the sequel is filled with so many Dutch-angled shots that you'd be well served to stock up on Dramamine).

Of course, no one (including me) is ever going to confuse his body of work with the more artistic films of the greats (Naruse, Ozu, Mizoguchi, etc). But he's definitely a cut above the other standard studio directors of his time.

It's cool to disagree, tho. But I'm a fan.

[transmogrifier]

Speaking of Korean movies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499666/), should you get the chance to see Castaway on the Moon (2009), do. Twee comedy/drama done right.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qu8wF8LVkek/T3J7LMU1H9I/AAAAAAAACLw/YUKlt7l36g0/s1600/castawayonthemoon.jpg

[Irish]

Speaking of Korean movies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499666/), should you get the chance to see Castaway on the Moon (2009), do. Twee comedy/drama done right.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qu8wF8LVkek/T3J7LMU1H9I/AAAAAAAACLw/YUKlt7l36g0/s1600/castawayonthemoon.jpg

Put in my Netflix queue. I'd watch it right now, but there's a Beat Takeshi gangster thing calling my name.

Got any other recommendations? I swear, the best movies I've seen in the last couple of years have all come out of Korea, but it's tricky trying to figure out what to watch.

[transmogrifier]

Actually, I've only just come back to Korea after 4 years away, so I don't have any others yet past 2008. Castaway on the Moon was the first movie I have seen that wowed me since I've been back.

Don't watch Woochi (2009), The Client (2011) or Over My Dead Body (2012).

[Irish]

Actually, I've only just come back to Korea after 4 years away, so I don't have any others yet past 2008. Castaway on the Moon was the first movie I have seen that wowed me since I've been back.

Don't watch Woochi (2009), The Client (2011) or Over My Dead Body (2012).

Heh, ok, cool, thanks. If you see anything good down the line, throw me a heads up. :P

[Russ]

Hey, soitgoes...you familiar with Heinosuke Gosho? I sure like what I've seen so far.

[soitgoes...]

Hey, soitgoes...you familiar with Heinosuke Gosho? I sure like what I've seen so far.I've seen two, Burden of Life and The Neighbor's Wife and Mine. I like them both, preferring the latter one, but apparently I didn't like them enough to keep delving into his work. I do have Where Chimneys Are Seen with Miss Takamine, so that one will be next someday.

[Russ]

I've seen two, Burden of Life and The Neighbor's Wife and Mine. I like them both, preferring the latter one, but apparently I didn't like them enough to keep delving into his work. I do have Where Chimneys Are Seen with Miss Takamine, so that one will be next someday.
Chimneys is supposed to be his best, and I've got that one lined up. I've also seen Burden of Life, which I liked well enough, but the one I recently saw that really blew me away was Dispersed Clouds. I recommend you use your sources to find that one. Watch it and tell me if..

my gaydar is malfunctioning, because it sure seemed like one of the subplots quietly, and almost evasively, dealt with a character's latent homosexual tendencies. It seemed pretty obvious to me, but I could be way off.

[Russ]

Some brief thoughts on recently rated films of Heinosuke Gosho and Keisuke Kinoshita

Burden of Life (Gosho, 1935) pro
Dispersed Clouds (Gosho, 1951) PRO
Where Chimneys Are Seen (Gosho, 1953) PRO
Banka (Gosho, 1957) mixed

A Japanese Tragedy (Kinoshita, 1954) pro (-)
Danger Stalks Near (Kinoshita, 1957) pro
Legend of a Duel to the Death (Kinoshita, 1963) PRO

Heinosuke Gosho is an actor’s director. He isn’t quite as technically polished as Keisuke Kinoshita, though he is quite competent, especially in his exterior filming. Gosho’s main strength lies in the rich characterizations he brings to the screen, and in his innate understanding of humanity. Burden of Life portrays, with a little lighter touch than that of his closest contemporary, Mikio Naruse, the plight of a middle-aged couple who, after marrying off the last of their daughters, disagree about the remaining parental obligation to their (very) young son. The mother’s strong bond and sense of responsibility to her son’s education is in conflict with the father’s desire to allow his offspring to become a common laborer (so as to give the parents a much needed break from parenting). Gosho spends an inordinate amount of time on the various relationships so that we can see all the points of view. Even the young son has ample opportunity and screen time to offer his opinions of his parents. Gosho’s approach is refined to subtle perfection in both Dispersed Clouds and Where Chimneys are Seen. Both films are, like Burden, very light on plot, choosing to focus instead on the fragile dynamics of evolving relationships. Clouds features a central character whose sudden illness, while on holiday with her schoolmates, may or may not be serious and may or may not be psychosomatic. Forced to stay behind to recover at a remote village inn, the young woman, who is still learning to cope with her father’s recent remarriage, is nursed back to health by a concerned inn-worker and the local village doctor. She learns a lot about life and her selfish feelings, but all as a result of self-discovery (as opposed to harsh lecturing).

Where Chimneys Are Seen is the strongest Gosho effort that I’ve seen to date and, similar to Dispersed Clouds, it spends the majority of its time breaking down and examining fragile relationships, against the bleak backdrop of post-war Japan. The recurring motif of the four chimneys (and, depending on a character's relative location, are sometimes viewed as three, two, or even one) is a rather obvious metaphor for perspective, as each character’s actions and reactions constantly change based on a different way of viewing an event. An abandoned baby that is hesitantly taken in by a woman and is initially shunned by her husband soon becomes an integral part of their family as it quickly fills a void in their life. In this film, as well as the earlier ones, Gosho seems to excel when he works from his own material, or when the adapted material does not constrain him with excessive plotting. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens with Gosho’s film, Banka (written by Toshio Yasumi), in which a young woman falls for a man whose marriage in on the rocks. Here, Gosho doesn’t seem comfortable adhering to a rather densely plotted drama with soap opera-ish trappings; the pacing is off and many scenes end abruptly, and it disrupts the flow of the film. It’s not a complete failure, as it begins to take hold during the second half, when a foreshadowed tragedy comes to fruition. However, Gosho has done himself no favors with his choice of lead actress here – Yoshika Kuga is shrill and rather unpleasant as the young flirt (especially if she was intended to be a sympathetic character, which she apparently was). soitogoes..., obviously your mileage will vary, and this film does have an epic scope to it. I would like to hear your thoughts on this on if it ever comes your way.

The observation has been made before that Keisuke Kinoshita has produced a very diverse body of work, and nothing could be truer. As I delve further into his filmography (especially the later years), it appears that Kinoshita can accurately be described as a cinematic chameleon. He hops from genre to genre with the efficiency of a M.A.S.H. unit, and his desire to formally experiment within the confines of mainstream cinema is unparalleled. I’ve already spoken about A Japanese Tragedy and, of the three recent Kinoshita films I’ve seen, it’s the most traditional of the bunch. Danger Stalks Near is a comedy starring Hideko Takamine. This one is an odd bird in that it’s a one joke film (the joke is fairly funny) and the premise (a trio of youths decide to rob a home, but never get the opportunity due to the constant parade of people entering and exiting said home) allows for the introduction of a number of devious types who seek to separate Takamine and her husband from their first prize winnings of a local contest – the irony being that friends, relatives and strangers are all out to target the couple, but everyone seems be getting in each others’ way. Ultimately, this is a rather funny and cute work, but somewhat slight and inconsequential. The continued growth of Kinoshita as a filmmaker who liked to push boundaries was readily apparent even with this film. However, it also highlights a deficiency that I’ve noticed in the director’s work before: Kinoshita’s films aren’t always fully explored and fleshed-out (not always as evident in the comedies) as they sometimes deserve to be. I’ve wondered if the amount of care and planning in technical aspects (along with the stereotypical Kinoshita experimentation) came at the sacrifice of other aspects of the films. Too often I’ve seen characters who, in another director’s films, might be fully realized creations, whereas in Kinoshita’s films, they’re just as likely to be caricatures in the service of a narrative.

I’m saving the best for last. Kinoshita’s stellar effort, Legend of a Duel to the Death, may ultimately become my favorite of his films (and contrary to the title, it is NOT a samurai film). There are a number of really interesting things about this film (available on Hulu, folks!): First, is the directors's decision to bookend the black and white body of the film with a color prologue and epilogue (the color sequences represent current day life of a village, while the b&w part represents the flashback post-war section). Next, is Kinoshita’s harsh criticism of the direct effects of the war on the Japanese psyche. The film plays out during the war’s final days, just after the bombs have decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tensions were at a fever pitch, and chaos seemed to be imminent. In this setting, Kinoshita tells a story that he opines could only have happened during a time when the Japanese national consciousness had been so severely damaged (contrast this to Gosho’s post-war film, Chimneys, where the effects of the war merely served as context for the narrative, as opposed to the narrative overtly making a harsh statement against the war). The setting is a country village, its factions separated into two camps: the longtime residents of the village, and the wartime evacuees who had set up homes just outside the village. The village mayor’s son, who is home from the war, wants to marry the daughter of one of the evacuees, but her brother, who has also returned home from the war, persuades her against the marriage, because of his observance of wartime atrocities instigated by the mayor’s son.

The film is divided into two halves: The first half, detailing the relationship of the villagers and the evacuees and the rejection of the marriage proposal, plays out over an period of time and sets up the second half. The second half begins with an absoluetely brilliant sequence where the girl is pursued by the mayor’s son in a light rain, and initiates the start of an escalating sequence of tragic events that play out in real time. It’s backed by a fascinating score composed of the main theme (best ever use of a jew’s harp) along with classical music interludes. The entire second half of the film left me feeling giddy and breathless. Equally impressive, even masterful, was the 2:35 aspect ratio, the absolutely gorgeous b&w cinematography, and the amazing on-location filming (seems like 90% of the film was exteriors). If I had even a tiny criticism, it would be to echo earlier thoughts that this rather rushed narrative could have easily been expanded. Although, it’s such an impressive film that, on reflection, maybe he shouldn’t touch a thing. Out of the seven films listed above, this was my favorite, and the one I’m most looking forward to a rewatch.

I view Gosho and Kinoshita as two second-tier Japanese directors, each have their own strengths, and each are capable of producing top-tier work. Deficiencies in their overall game, however, probably prevent them from rising to the stature of their more well-known peers.

[KK2.0]

never heard about this until now, it's a short film collaboration between Evangelion creator and Studio Ghibli, a sort of homage to tokusatsus, all made with miniatures and man in suit!

ae71q_3yqqs

According to Anime News Network It translates to something like 'God Warrior Appears in Tokyo' and looks like it's about the Nausicaa gods arrival on earth.

:eek:

i want to watch this so bad it hurts

[Li Lili]

2 HK films seen recently :

Love in the Buff by Pang Ho-Cheung (2012), the following of Love in the Puff with the same couple Miriam Yeung/Shawn Yue, mostly set in Beijing this time. It's a good romantic comedy but I think I still prefer Love in the Puff (perhaps it's the smoking!!! :P).
The second woman by Carol Lai (2012) with Shu Qi and Shawn Yue. A kind of love/thriller film in which Shu Qi plays 2 characters (2 twin sisters). It could have been better.

[Li Lili]

It's been a long time that I haven't seen a very good quality HK film! And I highly recommend it:
A Simple Life by Ann Hui
with Andy Lau, Deanie Ip (who got an awand for best actress in the Venise Mostra 2011), many famous Chinese stars appear (Anthony Wong, Ning Hao, Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark...).
Cinematographer : Nelson Yu Lik-wai; Sound Designer : Tu Duu-Chih

Deanie Ip plays a servant who has been with the Leung family for 60 years (4 generations). Now she works for Roger (Andy Lau), the only Leung left as the rest of the family have been moved to San Francisco. One day, she has a stroke and decides to retire and go to an old people's home...
The film is very touching without any sentimentalism, delicate, anecdotal, with all humility and quite distant in the way it's shot, the film depicts many things with details of the everyday (simple) life and the human relationships

http://www.moviexclusive.com/Files/Simpleposter.jpg

http://www.sentieriselvaggi.it/public/articoli/45572/Images/a-simple-life-ann-hui-tutte-le-foto.jpg

[Stay Puft]

It's been a long time that I haven't seen a very good quality HK film! And I highly recommend it:
A Simple Life by Ann Hui

Yes, one of my favorites of the year!

I made a thread for it in the 2012 forum but to date appear to have been the only person on Match Cut who had seen it.
http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=3982

[Li Lili]

I've just added my vote ! :)
Glad to see someone else who liked it !

[Sycophant]

The only Ann Hui I've seen is Jade Goddess of Mercy, which didn't leave a very strong impression. I've got a copy of The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, but never got around to it. I'll be trying to see A Simple Life when I can. Anything else essential?

There can also never be enough Andy Lau in my life.

[Li Lili]

Night and Fog is also very good, Simon Yam is a different role. Andy Lau has already played in another Ann Hui's film (I even think it was his first film), it's also a very good film : Boat People

[D_Davis]

Night and Fog is also very good, Simon Yam is a different role. Andy Lau has already played in another Ann Hui's film (I even think it was his first film), it's also a very good film : Boat People

Yep - Boat People. Very good.

I need to see more by her. The newest sounds great.

[Li Lili]

Well, Just watched another To's film : Love with All Seasons a romantic comedy with Sammy Cheng and Louis Koo. This adds to the list of To's films I've seen so far (I surely have to rewatch a couple of them), in order of preference, this would be something like that :


Election 1 (2005)
Running on Karma (2003)
Election 2 (2006)
Mad Detective (2007)
Running Out of Time (1999)
Sparrow (2008)
The Mission (1999)
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002)
Triangle (2007) co-director
Exiled (2006)
Fulltime Killer (2001)
Don't Go Breaking My Heart (2011)
PTU (2003)
Where a Good Man Goes (1999)
A Hero Never Dies (1998)
Life without Principle (2011)
Lifeline (1997)
Justice, My Foot (1992)
Mad Monk (1993)
Breaking News (2004)
Love for All Seasons (2003)
Needing You... (2000)
Loving You (1995)
Turn Left, Turn Right (2003)
Yesterday Once More (2004)
Fat Choi Spirit (2002)
Love On a Diet (2001)
Wu Yen (2000)
The Enigmatic Case (1980)
The Heroic Trio (1993)
Executioners (1993)

[Li Lili]

Also watched recently Overheard 2 (Derek Yee, with Daniel Wu, Louis Koo and Lau Ching Wan) and The Detective 2 (Oxide Pang with Aaron Kwok). Well, I kind of remember liking Overheard 1 and Detective 1 a couple of years back, but Detective 2 and especially even more Overheard 2 were a real disappointment!

[Dukefrukem]

Black Cat from the Grove was pretty great. Loved the story but the film dragged a bit and then sorta ended abruptly. I wish there was more interaction between the lovers before the tragedy.

[Dukefrukem]

Anyone have any thoughts on Kaidan 1964 — a.k.a. Ghost Stories ?

[D_Davis]

Anyone have any thoughts on Kaidan 1964 — a.k.a. Ghost Stories ?

About 1/2 of it is excellent, it has beautiful opening credits, and great atmosphere, but it can be, at times, dull. However, as a mood piece it is overall very good.

[D_Davis]

Well, Just watched another To's film : Love with All Seasons a romantic comedy with Sammy Cheng and Louis Koo. This adds to the list of To's films I've seen so far (I surely have to rewatch a couple of them), in order of preference, this would be something like that :



I need to catch up with To's films. I've seen just about everything up through Vengeance.

[Russ]

Autumn Has Already Started (Mikio Naruse, 1960) PRO -
A Woman’s Place (Mikio Naruse, 1962) pro
Poignant Story (Mikio Naruse, 1962) pro +

This trio of late-period Naruse films don’t deviate much from his usual themes of hard times and harsh realities, and the extended family backdrop in which they usually play out. 1962 was a good year for Naruse and his frequent collaborator, Hideko Takamine: A Woman’s Place is one of those epic, sprawling family dramas featuring Takamine in a nearly identical role to the one she played in Yearning. It’s a little too sprawling for my tastes, as countless daughters, son-in-laws, wives and husbands take turns exhibiting selfish behavior in illustrating a cynical viewpoint of an ungrateful and self-entitled extended family, with only the parents, and the reserved Takamine’s martyr-like character rising above the pettiness and in-fighting. Poignant Story is a much different film, with Takamine as a long-suffering mistress and Ginza manager whose children are being raised by her lover and his long-suffering wife. Takamine and her adversary, played by Chikage Awashima, give showy, tour-de-force performances, each actress trumping the other with each successive monologue in the explosive climax. Both films are very much recommended for fans of Ms. Takamine.

The best of the bunch, Autumn Has Already Started, only features adults in supporting roles. The bulk of the film is viewed through eyes of 12 year old Hideo and his 10 year old friend Junko. Hideo has just moved to Tokyo from Nagano with his mother, who promptly abandons him to live with his uncle. Junko is an upper class girl he meets soon after arriving. The film balances itself between the typical slice-of-life film at which Naruse is so adept, and one in which the children are constantly reacting to each other and the adversities that inevitably come their way. There are wonderful moments of happiness and self-discovery that offset the sadness and melancholy that seems inescapable for each of them. This film features probably one of the finest sequences Naruse ever shot, rivaling the train climax and the end of Yearning: Hideo and Junko decide to fulfill Hideo’s wish of visiting the ocean and the little girl cons a chauffeur to drive them there, unbeknownst to any of the parents or guardians. The extended sequence when they first reach the ocean's shore, represented by an industrialized landscape, until the journey on foot leads them to an unspoiled stretch of beach is a masterful piece of filmmaking by Naruse. The ending is bittersweet and shan’t be spoiled by me, but suffice to say it’s very typical for a Naruse film. I really think this is one of his great ones.

[Russ]

Harikomi / The Chase / Stakeout (Yoshitaro Nomura, 1958) pro +

Tokyo police (Minoru Oki, Seiji Miyaguchi) are hot on the trail of an accomplice (Takahiro Tamura) accused in the murder of a pawn shop owner, which leads them to the small town of Kyushu, the home of his former lover (Hideko Takamine), who is now married and raising step-children in her new life of domestic servitude. This noir-ish mystery owes a heavy debt to Hitchcock's Rear Window, as Takamine is the subject of a stakeout to catch the murder suspect. Over the course of several days, the detectives learn that Takamine is an innocent victim trapped in a loveless marriage and, desperate to escape, looks to reconnect with Tamura, but oblivious of the crime for which he is being sought. Now sympathetic to her plight, the detectives have second thoughts about their task. The film boasts an appropriately jazzy soundtrack with loads of fluid camerwork and impressive tracking shots. The film seems shorter than the nearly two hour running time, with 3/4 of that focusing on the surviellance of Takamine's everyday domestic routine. Recommended.

[Russ]

For those interested, compare Kinema Junpo's 2009 list of greatest Japanese films (http://wildgrounds.com/2010/02/26/kinema-junpos-top-japanese-films-2009-version/)...

2009 list:

1. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
2. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
3. Floating Clouds (1955, Mikio Naruse)
4. The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era (1957, Y. Kawashima)
5. Battles Without Honour & Humanity (1973, Kinji Fukasaku)
6. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita)
7. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
8. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935, S. Yamanaka)
9. The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979, Kazuhiko Hasegawa) (trailer)
10. Family game (1983, Yoshimitsu Morita)

11. Stray Dog (1949, Akira Kurosawa)
12. Typhoon Club (1984, Shinji Somai)
13. Ikiru (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
14. Suzaki Paradise Red Light (1956, Y. Kawashima)
15. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
16. A Fugitive from the Past (1965, Tomu Uchida)
17. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
18. Intentions of Murder (1964, Shohei Imamura)
19. Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Kon Ichikawa)
20. The Castle of Sand (1974, Yoshitaro Nomura)

21. Failed Youth (1974, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
22. Nausicaa (1984, Hayao Miyazaki)
23. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)
24. Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
25. Fighting Elegy (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
26. Fall Guy (1982, Kinji Fukasaku)
27. Boiling Point (1990, Takeshi Kitano)
28. Tales of Ugetsu (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
29. The Crucified Lovers (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
30. She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955, Keisuke Kinoshita)

31. Flowing (1956, Mikio Naruse)
32. Samurai Vendetta (1959, Kazu Mori) (trailer)
33. Branded to Kill (1967, Seijun Suzuki)
34. Vengeance is mine (1979, Shohei Imamura)
35. Zigeunerweisen (1980, Seijun Suzuki)
36. Here’s to the Girls (1949, Keisuke Kinoshita)
37. Ball at the Anjo House (1947, Kozaburo Yoshimura)
38. Late Spring (1949, Yasujiro Ozu) (new)
39. Till We Meet Again (1950, Tadashi Imai)
40. The Life Of Oharu (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)

41. A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955, Tomu Uchida)
42. The Lower Depths (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
43. The Chaser (1958, Yoshitaru Nomura) (trailer)
44. Floating Weeds (1959, Yasujiro Ozu)
45. Good Morning (1959, Yasujiro Ozu)
46. Desperate Outpost (1959, Kihachi Okamoto) (trailer)
47. Her Brother (1960, Kon Ichikawa) (trailer)
48. Cruel Story of Youth (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
49. The Graceful Brute (1962, Yuzo Kawashima)
50. Proxy War (1973, Kinji Fukasaku)

51. The Wanderers (1973, Kon Ichikawa)
52. The Youth Killer (1976, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
53. Muddy River (1981, Kohei Oguri)
54. The Funeral (1984, Juzo Itami)
55. Himatsuri (1985, Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
56. My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
57. Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
58. Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005, Sion Sono)
59. I was born, but… (1932, Yasujiro Ozu)
60. What did the lady forget? (1937, Yasujiro Ozu)

61. Singing Lovebirds (1939, Masahiro Makino)
62. The Live of Matsu the Untamed (1943, Hiroshi Inagaki)
63. Carmen comes home (1951, Keisuke Kinoshita)
64. The Human Condition (1959-61, Masaki Kobayashi)
65. The Human Vapor (1960, Ishiro Honda)
66. Sanjuro (1962, Akira Kurosawa)
67. The Insect Woman (1963, Shohei Imamura)
68. Pale Flower (1964, Masahiro Shinoda)
69. Yearning (1964, Mikio Naruse)
70. Tokyo Drifter (1966, Seijun Suzuki)

71. Japan’s Longest Day (1967, Kihachi Okamoto)
72. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968, S. Imamura) (trailer)
73. The Human Bullet (1968, Kihachi Okamoto) (trailer)
74. Big Time Gambling Boss (1968, Kosaku Yamashita)
75. I, The Executioner (1968, Tai Kato)
76. Boy (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
77. Double Suicide (1969, Masahiro Shinoda)
78. Tora-san (1969-95, Yoji Yamada)
79. Take Care, Red Riding Hood (1970, Shori Moritani)
80. Red Peony Gambles Her Life (1970, Tai Kato)

81. Kaoyaku (1971, Shintaro Katsu)
82. Wet Sand in August (1971, Toshiya Fujita)
83. Three Mad Dog Brothers (1972, Kinji Fukasaku)
84. Confidential: Secret Market (1974, Noboru Tanaka)
85. Castle of Gagliostro (1979, Hayao Miyazaki)
86. Kagemusha (1980, Akira Kurosawa)
87. Crazy Thunder Road (1980, Sogo Ishii)
88. Crazed Fruit (1981, Kichitaro Negishi)
89. A Japanese Village, Furuyashikimura (1982, Shinsuke Ogawa)
90. P. P. Rider (1983, Shinji Somai)

91. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)
92. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983, Nobuhiko Obayashi)
93. Love Hotel (1985, Shinji Somai)
94. Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa)
95. No More Comics (1986, Yojiro Takita) (trailer)
96. Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki)
97. Tetsuo (1989, Shinya Tsukamoto)
98. Moving (1993, Shinji Somai)
99. Sonatine (1993, Takeshi Kitano)
100. Kids Return (1996, Takeshi Kitano)

101. Crazyon Shin-chan (2001, Tsutomu Mizushima)
102. The Twilight Samurai (2002, Yoji Yamada)
103. Bright Future (2003, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
104. Rambler (2003, Nobuhiro Yamashita)
105. Summer Days With Coo (2007, Keiichi Hara)
106. A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (1927, Daisuke Ito)
107. Capricious Young Man (1936, Mansaku Itami)
108. Sisters of the Gion (1936, Kenji Mizoguchi)
109. Story of the Last Chrysantemum (1939, Kenji Mizoguchi)
110. Sanshiro Sugata (1943, Akira Kurosawa)

111. Ware Maboroshi No Sakana O Mitari (1950, Daisuke Ito)
112. Early Summer (1951, Yasujiro Ozu)
113. Lightning (1952, Mikio Naruse)
114. Mother (1952, Mikio Naruse)
115. Jirocho Sangokuchi (1952-54, Masahiro Makino)
116. Godzilla (1954, Ishiro Honda)
117. Street of Shame (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi)
118. Crazed Fruit (1956, Ko Nakahira)
119. Throne of Blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
120. Tokyo Twilight (1957, Yasujiro Ozu)

121. Washi to Taka (1957, Umetsugu Inoue)
122. Enjo (1958, Kon Ichikawa)
123. The Hidden Fortress (1958, Akira Kurosawa)
124. Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa)
125. Late Autumn (1960, Yasujiro Ozu)
126. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Mikio Naruse)
127. Hito Mo Arukeba (1960, Yuzo Kawashima)
128. Ten Dark Woman (1961, Kon Ichikawa)
129. The Last War (1961, Shue Matsubayashi)
130. A Wife Confesses (1961, Yasuzo Masumura

131. Foundry Town (1962, Kiriro Urayama)
132. Destiny’s Son (1962, Kenji Misumi)
133. The Outcast (1962, Kon Ichikawa)
134. The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (1963, Kihachi Okamoto)
135. The Thirteen Assassins (1963, Eiichi Kudo) (trailer)
136. Woman In The Dunes (1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
137. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
138. Seisaku’s Wife (1965, Yasuzo Masumura)
139. Story of a Prostitute (1965, Seijun Suzuki)
140. The Hitman (1967, Kazuo Mori)

141. Like a Shooting Star (1967, Toshio Masuda)
142. A Colt Is My Passport (1967, Takashi Nomura)
143. Tora-san: It’s Tough Being A Man (1969, Yoji Yamada)
144. Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969, Koji Wakamatsu) (soundtrack)
145. Violence Without a Cause (1969, Koji Wakamatsu)
146. Dodes’ka-den (1970, Akira Kurosawa)
147. Hakucyu No Syugeki (1970, Kiyoshi Noshimura)
148. Minata (1972, Noriaki Tsuchimoto)
149. The Morning Schedule (1972, Susumu Hani)
150. Night of the Felines (1972, Noboru Tanaka)

151. Akai Tori Nigeta? (1973, Toshiya Fujita)
152. Tora-san’s Forget Me Not (1973, Yoji Yamada)
153. Narita: Heta Village (1973, Shinsuke Ogawa)
154. Street of Joy (1974, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
155. Shiranui Sea (1975, Noriaki Tsuchimoto)
156. Graveyard of Honor (1975, Kinji Fukasaku)
157. Preparation for the Festival (1975, Kazuo Kuroki)
158. In The Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima)
159. Lullaby of the Earth (1976, Yasuzo Masumura)
160. House (1970, Nobuhiko Obayashi)

161. The Devil’s Boucing Ball Song (1977, Kon Ichikawa)
162. Shinjuku midaregai: Ikumade matte (1977, Chusei Sone)
163. Mount Hakkoda (1977, Shiro Moritani)
164. Rape! 13th Hour (1977, Yasuharu Hasebe)
165. Third Base (1978, Yoichi Higashi) (trailer)
166. Path of the Beast (1980, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
167. Station (1981, Yasuo Furuhata)
168. Attacked Women (1981, Banmei Takahash)
169. Angel Guts: Red Prono (1981, Toshiharu Ikeda)
170. Something Like It (1981, Yoshimitsu Morita)

171. The Imperial Navy (1981, Shue Matsubayashi)
172. Transfer Student (1982, Nobuhiko Obayashi)
173. Burst City (1982, Sogo Ishii)
174. The Makioka Sister (1983, Kon Ichikawa)
175. Inujini Sesi Mono (1986, Kazuyuki Izutsu)
176. The Sea and Poison (1986, Kei Kumai)
177. Violent Cop (1989, Takeshi Kitano)
178. The Sting of Death (1990, Kohei Oguri)
179. A Scene at the Sea (1991, Takeshi Kitano)
180. The Rocking Horsemen (1992, Nobuhiko Obayashi)

181. Tetsuo 2 (1992, Shinya Tsukamoto)
182. Where is the Moon? (1993, Yoichi Sai)
183. Shall We Dance? (1996, Masayuki Suo)
184. Tokiwa: The Manga Apartment (1996, Jun Ichikawa)
185. Gakko 3: The New Voyage (1998, Yoji Yamada)
186. Face (2000, Jun Sakamoto)
187. Kaza-Hana (2000, Shinji Somai)
188. Swing Girls (2004, Shinobu Yaguchi)
189. Nobody Knows (2004, Hirokazu Koreeda)
190. The Reason (2004, Nobuhiko Obayashi)

191. Break Through! (2004, Kazuyuki Izutsu)
192. Who’s Camus Anyway? (2005, Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
193. Memories of Matsuko (2006, Tetsuya Nakashima)
194. Hula Girls (2006, Sang-il Lee)
195. What the Snow Brings (2005, Kichitaro Negishi)
196. Departures (2008, Yojiro Takita)
197. All Around Us (2008, Ryosuke Hashiguchi)
198. Children of the Dark (2008, Junji Sakamoto)


...with their 1999 list:

1. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
2. Floating Clouds (1955, Mikio Naruse)
3. A Fugitive from the Past (1965, Tomu Uchida)
4. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
5. The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era (1957, Y. Kawashima)
6. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
7. Intentions of Murder (1964, Shohei Imamura)
8. Battles Without Honour & Humanity (1973, Kinji Fukasaku)
9. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita)
10. Tales of Ugetsu (1953, K. Mizoguchi)

11. To Live (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
12. The Life Of Oharu (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
13. Vacuum Zone (1952, Satsuo Yamamoto)
14. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
15. The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
16. My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
17. Muddy River (1981, Kohei Oguri)
18. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)
19. The Rickshaw Man (1958, Hiroshi Inagaki)
20. Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)

21. Fall Guy (1982, Kinji Fukasaku)
22. Boy (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
23. All Under the Moon (1993, Yoichi Sai)
24. Early Summer (1951, Yasujiro Ozu)
25. Vengeance is mine (1979, Shohei Imamura)
26. Family game (1983, Yoshimitsu Morita)
27. The castle of sand (1974, Yoshitaro Nomura)
28. Cruel Story of Youth (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
29. The Human Condition (1959-61, Masaki Kobayashi)
30. Till We Meet Again (1950, Tadashi Imai)

31. Ichijo Sayuri (1972, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
32. Cupola (1962, Kiriro Urayama)
33. Fighting Elegy (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
34. The Yellow Handkerchief (1977, Yoji Yamada)
35. Shall we Dance? (1995, Masayuki Suo)
36. The Insect Woman (1963, Shohei Imamura)
37. Marital Relations (1955, Shiro Toyoda)
38. Begging for Love (1998, Hideyuki Hirayama)
39. A Woman With Red Hair (1979, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
40. Distant Thunder (1981, Negishi Kichitaro)

41. Graveyard of Honor (1975, Kinji Fukasaku)
42. Sonatine (1993, Takeshi Kitano)
43. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
44. Japan’s Longest Day (1967, Kihachi Okamoto)
45. Night and Fog in Japan (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
46. Emperor’s Naked Army Marches on (1987, Kazuo Hara)
47. Ryuji (1983, Toru Kawashima)
48. Ball at the Anjo House (1947, Kozaburo Yoshimura)
49. Young Brother (1960, Kon Ichikawa)
50. The Hidden Fortress (1958, Akira Kurosawa)

51. The Thirteen Assassins (1963, Eiichi Kudo)
52. The Crucified Lovers (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
53. Princess Mononoke (1995, Hayao Miyazaki)
54. Beyond the Green Hills (1963, Katsumi Nishikawa)
55. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968, Shohei Imamura)
56. Kids Return (1996, Takeshi Kitano)
57. The Cherry Orchard (1990, Shun Nakahara)
58. The Youth Killer (1976, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
59. Typhoon Club (1984, Shinji Somai)
60. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935, S. Yamanaka)

61. Angel Guts Red Classroom (1979, Chusei Sone)
62. Ballad of Narayama (1958, Keisuke Kinoshita)
63. She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955, Keisuke Kinoshita)
64. Miyamoto Musashi (1961-65, Tomu Uchida)
65. Ryoma Assassination (1974, Kazuo Kuroki)
66. Street of Shame (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi)
67. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
68. Station (1981, Yasuo Furuhata)
69. Twisted Path of Youth (1973, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
70. Sado (1978, Yoichi Higashi)

71. The Makioka Sisters (1983, Kon Ichikawa)
72. Narita：Heta Village (1973, Shinsuke Ogawa)
73. Failed Youth (1974, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
74. A Japanese Tragedy (1953, Keisuke Kinoshita)
75. Something Like It (1981, Yoshimitsu Morita)
76. The Naked Island (1960, Kaneto Shindo)
77. Stake Out (1957, Yoshitaro Nomura)
78. Scattered Clouds (1967, Mikio Naruse)
79. The Rendezvou (1972, Koichi Saito)
80. The Beast to Die (1980, Toru Murakawa)

81. In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima)
82. Red Lantern (1974, Toshiya Fujita)
83. Capricious Young Man (1936, Mansaku Itami)
84. The Devil’s Ballad (1977, Kon Ichikawa)
85. Lightning (1952, Mikio Naruse)
86. Singing Lovebirds (1939, Masahiro Makino)
87. The Funeral (1984, Juzo Itami)
88. Kagemusha (1980, Akira Kurosawa)
89. House on Fire (1986, Kinji Fukasaku)
90. Carmen comes home (1951, Keisuke Kinoshita)

91. Listen to the roar of the ocean (1950, Hideo Sekigawa)
92. Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
93. One Man of the Gambler’s Code (1966, Tai Kato)
94. Throne of blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
95. Crazed Fruit (1956, Ko Nakahira)
96. A Last Note (1995, Kaneto Shindo)
97. An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Yasujiro Ozu)
98. Jirochô sangokushi (1953, Masahiro Makino)
99. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
100. Woman in the Dunes (1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara)

And:
101. One Wonderful Sunday (1947, Akira Kurosawa)
102. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)
103. W’s Tragedy (1984, Shinichiro Sawai)
104. A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (1927, Daisuke Ito)
105. Zigeunerweisen (1980, Seijun Suzuki)
106. Sanjuro (1962, Akira Kurosawa)
107. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa)
108. Knockout (1989, Junji Sakamoto)
109. Nikudan (1969, Kihachi Okamoto)
110. A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs (1967, N. Oshima)

111. A Man Vanishes (1967, Shohei Imamura)
112. Wet Sand in August (1971, Toshiya Fujita)
113. The River Fuefuki (1960, Keisuke Kinoshita)
114. Pigs and Battleships (1961, Shohei Imamura)
115. Darkness at Midnight (1956, Tadashi Imai)
116. Repast (1951, Mikio Naruse)
117. Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
118. The Girl I Abandoned (1969, Kiriro Urayama)


I only mention this because I see that the film I just watched (Harikomi) is apparently the same film that ranked on these two most recent Kinema Junpo polls: at # 77 (as Stakeout) on the 1999 poll, and rising 34 places to nab #43 (as The Chaser) on the 2009 poll.


Japanese film. It needs more love!!

[Qrazy]

Anyone have any thoughts on Kaidan 1964 — a.k.a. Ghost Stories ?

It's very good. Kobayashi was one of the best.

[Russ]

Suna no utsuwa / The Castle of Sand (Yoshitaro Nomura, 1974) PRO

This film is said to be Nomura’s masterpiece and indeed, one can see that it was designed to be a real crowd-pleaser. On that level, in 1974, it succeeded wildly, scoring big with both audiences and Japanese critics, and to this day it remains a beloved film (it landed at #20 on the most recent Kinema Junpo poll). I can’t help but think that the qualities that have made it such an endearing classic to Japanese audiences may have the opposite effect on Western audiences. On the surface, the film seems to be a standard murder mystery/police procedural. And while the detective work comprises the bulk of the film’s nearly 2 ½ hour runtime, there are other stories that take place in the film, whose relevance become clear in the devastating climax. I’ll tread carefully from this point as I would recommend going into this with as little information about the film as possible. There is a Region 1 DVD available on Amazon, but it sounds like the same film that I viewed: ie., it suffers from very poor and sporadic subtitle translation; however it doesn’t prevent a solid comprehension of the events and overall narrative.

Surely what made the film so popular were the many disparate themes that were tackled, which seem to reside far outside the realm of standard murder mysteries. While it’s not unusual to bring such diverse elements as unbreakable family ties, strong, personal ambition and drive, and an overall love of Japanese culture and country to any Japanese film, it’s highly unusual to include them in the context in which they are presented in this film. Audacious is the word that comes to mind. You will come away feeling like you’ve seen two distinctly different films. The payoff of the massive investigation, which begins with only the most threadbare of clues, comes in the culmination of painstakingly tedious and meticulous work that has taken the detectives to virtually every remote countryside locale in Japan, and far, far away from the Tokyo-based center of operations. When the big shift in tone comes, and you’ll know it when you see it, be prepared for some shameless tear-jerking manipulation. And yes, this film earns every tear it evokes. It will also become quickly apparent how big a role music plays in the transition.

I’ll just say if you’re one of those who really likes a good cry at the movies, you need to add this film to your list. Because you are in for a treat.

[dreamdead]

Park Chan-ok's Paju is masterful. It covers personal ground as a woman's coming-of-age, but it is thoroughly invested in the political and social upheaval as well. It uses a disjointed narrative and various perspectives to further explore how a man and a woman come to feel so alone, but it resonates so strongly precisely because it retains a healthy ambiguity. It engages with forgiveness, betrayal, integrity, desire, and all sorts of other themes, but it does so elegantly and within the reality of the characters. There's a breathtaking moment where Eun-mo (fantastically played by Seo Woo) walks into a bureaucratic conflict, and Park frames it beautifully in slow-motion, letting us see both how moral and how disingenuous these characters are in their fight against gangster-controlled workmen.

And that closing shot is great, casting new doubts and pains in Eun-mo's imagination. Paju's on InstantView and is recommended for anyone who appreciates seeing where Korean cinema can go...

[dreamdead]

Ren-ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves seems like it's a a minor key throughout much of its length. The gestation period of its plot, which is narratively jumbled up, is structured so that it almost appears like a wisp of one. Yet the performances (Asano's remains appealingly understated as a lead) and especially the gliding camerawork of Christopher Doyle secure the film's staying power. And while the film has Kyoji on a boat, there's a real treasure chest of screwball-esque moments (beds that won't stay down, shower heads that spray immediately, doors locked from the inside). There's one sequence that's marvelously juxtaposed--Kyoji vomits into a toilet and Tom cuts immediately to an "earlier" scene of a woman gagging to death. Because of how the latter shot is sustained, the sensation becomes one of eerieness rather than outright laughter, undermining genre tags seamlessly.

When placed side-by-side with his other work that I've seen (Last Life in the Universe, Headshot), this one seems less weighty. But thematically, there's a thorough line in how all of his endings are fatalistic (save for LLitU, which uses dream logic to arrive at something opposite fatalism, in some respects).

[Russ]

The Naked Island (Kaneto Shindo, 1960) PRO

Shindo’s independently-produced effort, The Naked Island, is a richly rewarding experience that demands to be taken on its own terms – one that uses mundane repetition to emphasize the exceedingly hard life that a family of four must endure in order to secure a living on an arid, rocky island located in Japan’s Setonaikai archipelago on which they are the sole inhabitants. Over the course of a year, seasons change to reveal the life-cycle that barely provides their daily sustenance. Multiple boat trips (laboriously rowed) per day to the mainland provide their requirements for fresh water for their crops and to take their oldest child to school. The contrast between the lifestyles of mainland inhabitants and the family provides an allegorical backdrop against which societal and political critiques can be drawn.

Shindo employs no dialogue in the film. Filming on the mountainous terrain looks to have been as demanding (and dangerous) as Vittorio De Seta’s Bandits of Orgosolo, which was filmed the following year. Shindo expertly uses music (Hikaru Hayashi’s brilliantly realized score) along with some achingly gorgeous shot compositions to create, in his words, a “cinematic poem.� The result of his success in achieving that goal is a masterpiece of minimalist filmmaking.


http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/NakedIsland_zps852c07fb.jpg

[transmogrifier]

Repost from Lettrboxed:

The Neighbors (Korea, 2012) - 26

Utter mess of a film that is probably best taken by any audience unlucky enough to encounter it as a darkly comic story of the world's most inept serial killer (e.g. paying people with blood stained notes; buying distinctive suitcases for body disposal and then returning to the same small shop to buy some more after said suitcase has been all over the news; stalking your next victim in your car, in daylight, in front of everyone; acting like the stereotypical serial killer in every single remark you make and action you take etc, etc).


Unfortunately, the filmmakers seem to be treating the whole preposterous thing dead straight, with a raft of poorly drawn characters behaving as if they are lobotomised. Hoo, boy.

Marebito (Japan, 2004) - 49

Alternately vague and over-explanatory, it provides the skeleton of a good idea (Peeping Tom for the internet age, though it's only intermittently used throughout the film) but seems to wander aimlessly through some effective individual scenes and annoyingly redundant vampire tropes. The ugly look of the film is of a piece with the narrative I guess, but still ugly.

Mind Game (Japan, 2004) - 73

Not being a fan of screeching, I wouldn't have figured myself to be a fan of this, given the sheer avalanche of shrill noise issuing from the mouths of the characters (yes, I'm shallow like that). But there is no denying the imagination behind the chaos, and more importantly, out of the chaos comes tangible emotion, a celebration of the shared community that is life (weird, given the outbursts of violence it contains), and it says something that the seemingly endless final escape sequence is as gripping as any I have seen in a long, long time.


Here's to more animated collages of random life events, because they rock too.

Cure (Japan, 1997) - 63

Undeniably intellectually engaging, while still conforming to the stereotypical elements of art-minded genre deconstruction - deliberately muted emotions, purposefully vague plotting, taciturn protagonist; this sort of film is a prisoner of form as much as any mainstream four-quadrant Hollywood comedy, and in my opinion it becomes tiring and hackneyed, knowing that your natural inclination to sate your curiosity is going to deliberately go unrewarded.


But, luckily, the ideas on show are worthy of the time and effort, though I can't help feeling it would be more resonant if I knew more about Japanese society. But still, the final shot, and the repeated refrain of "Tell me about yourself...." etc.

Uzumaki (Japan, 2000) - 50

Amusingly rag-tag film-making, an avalanche of distracting effects, angles, cuts and poor acting, but with an undercurrent of melancholy and some affecting scenes. Annoyingly anticlimatic ending as well. Singular, at the very least.

All About My Wife (Korea, 2012) - 39

Typically unstructured, ill-disciplined Korean comedy/drama/melodrama that does not have any real grasp on character (apart from the wife character, who actually seems to follow a logical progression) nor in pacing (so many scenes are stretched out beyond all comprehension, as if they were contractually obliged to get this over two hours). It's biggest crime is that unlike other Korean films of this Frankenstein genre, it is uncommonly ungenerous to the supporting characters, none of which stand out in any way

Go, Go, Second Time Virgin (Japan, 1969) - 66

I generally find it difficult to get on board films that are centered around blank-faced protagonists speaking in monotonous declarations. It's self-consciously artificial, which is the point most of the time, but it has always struck me as supremely lazy ("Eh, couldn't be bothered thinking up believable characters, motivations or plot developments, and my actors aren't all that good anyway...").


Still, when the film craft on show around it is so strong, and the message so confrontational and thought-provoking, you can forgive it, as is the case here. The wide-screen B & W lensing, stark and bold, the flashes of color, a confrontational montage near the end that has you wondering what the film is trying to actually say...there is a restless energy behind the camera that makes up for the catatonia in front of it. It's an interesting contrast.

Happy End (Korea, 1999) - 67

Two-thirds of the way to a powerful look at infidelity and how destructive inertia can be in terms of self-worth, personal relationships and knowing when to just cut your losses and start anew.


The characters spend so much time pushing against the clingfilm of social respectability, trying to reconcile that with their own desires, it seems to be building up to something truthful....but instead cops out and decides to make somewhat of an ironic joke of its title, trading character insight for a prelude to your typical Law and Order episode.


Still, it works for a long time, and Jeon Do-Yeon again proves to be Korea's best actress.

[Li Lili]

I read your reviews on Letterboxd, and I saw Cure, Uzumaki, Go Go Second Time Virgin, quite a long time ago, so I didn't comment.

[Li Lili]

Also a repost from Letterboxd :

New Year Sacrifice is a film adapted from the novel by the famous writer Lu Xun.
The film is made in 1956, a fruitful year for Chinese cinema (Mother, Family, to name the famous ones). The director is Sang Hu is from Zhejiang province, where the film is set and he started writing films in the 40s, before directing them in the 50s. It was made to memorize the 20th anniversary of Lu Xun's death.
The film starts by one of his quotes, which I had to write down : "After mourning for the dead, we will swear to be pure, wise, brave and progressive, we must tear off every false mask and do away with stupidity and tyranny which injure people. After mourning for the dead, we will swear to get rid of the meaningless suffering in life that create unawareness and violence. Moreove, we will swear, let all mankind have proper happiness."
The film denounces the hardships and the woes of the labour people in the old society, due to the feudal and old traditional system.
It is set during the time just before the Revolution of 1911, in a remote village in Zhejiang province.
The landscape, very dominant and very well enhanced by numerous shots, shows a luxurious, but also dangerous and harsch nature, with green mountains and clear rivers and lakes. The film also pays particularly attention to the character's facial expressions & gestures in a subtle way. The story is told like a tale. We follow a young widow who had to escape from her step mother who wanted to sell her by marrying her. She manages to get a work as a servant in a rich family, but she is found and finally gets married. Her husband turns out to be a good person and takes well care of her but the happiness won't last...
Time passes without noticing (like a time absent in the memories of the young), the misfortune and the affliction of this woman who becomes margilized, an outcast, underline the tragic aspect of the film, which ends with a voice over reminding us that this story happened 40 years ago (in the 10s) and saying that these times are gone for good....

[Li Lili]

And I have a question : What do you think of Asian film production of today (I mean now, in the present day, 2010s) ?

[Sycophant]

Donald Richie died in Tokyo yesterday. Anybody in the west (or at least America) who's ever enjoyed a Japanese film is probably indebted to him in some way.

[dreamdead]

Donald Richie died in Tokyo yesterday. Anybody in the west (or at least America) who's ever enjoyed a Japanese film is probably indebted to him in some way.

Man, I was worried that you meant Ritchie instead of the first name listed here. That's just devastating for film historians. His readings of the masters of Japanese cinema are still the most often read and responded to, and any book-length study of his immediately made me believe in the worth of that filmmaker. It's gonna be surreal watching his appearances on The Story of Film now...

[Rowland]

So I took my first chance watching a Ching Siu-Tung movie yesterday with his debut, Duel to the Death, which I was very impressed with. Looking up what else of his available streaming on Netflix, I discovered Butterfly Sword, Swordsman 2 (should I see the original first?), and surprisingly enough, a DTV Steven Seagal movie titled Belly of the Beast. Which of his films should I prioritize?

[Rowland]

So I discovered that Ching's Seagal flick was the subject of one of my favorite chapters from Seagal-scholar Outlaw Vern's epic tome, Seagalogy, which convinced me to watch it, and while it shares many flaws common to these DTV productions, it's a very solid effort for what it is, thanks in large part to Ching's influence.

The most insightful (and obviously the funniest) review I could find for this was the chapter Vern devotes to it in his book, so I'm going to quote liberally from it:

"It's the closest [Seagal] gets to Van Damme's legendary surrealist period with Tsui Hark. He gets to fight a transvestite, shoot a flying arrow with a gun, use classic kung fu sound effects, watch a guy get killed by a tomato, defeat an evil wizard - I mean, what's not to like?"

"[Ching Siu-tung] directed all three of the A Chinese Ghost Story series, which explains the mystical voodoo vs. praying monk battle at the end of this one. He also did the Swordsman trilogy, in which a sacred scroll leads a man to castrate himself and become a woman ... so that sort of explains the fight against a transvestite in a warehouse."

"If you see only one movie from Seagal's DTV era ... it should probably be this one. It has the best action and production values ... but also best exemplifies the craziness of the era, while also being the rare Seagal picture where a director manages to put his unique imprint on the proceedings."

[Li Lili]

So I took my first chance watching a Ching Siu-Tung movie yesterday with his debut, Duel to the Death, which I was very impressed with. Looking up what else of his available streaming on Netflix, I discovered Butterfly Sword, Swordsman 2 (should I see the original first?), and surprisingly enough, a DTV Steven Seagal movie titled Belly of the Beast. Which of his films should I prioritize?
I saw Duel to Death too, long time ago though. As for Swordsman 2 - it's not necessary to see the first one - it's quite different to the other films you mentioned. Swordsman 2 is one of my favourite wu xia pian, especially of the 90s. There is a great cast : Jet Li, Brigit Lin (one of my favourite HK actresses), Michelle Reis, Rosamund Kwan... A must see.

[Rowland]

Jackie Chan as a director has really surprised me with the infectiously exuberant Armour of God, which is mostly known to international audiences as the dubbed and edited Operation Condor 2, but I watched the uncut version in Cantonese. I'm now even more enthused to dig deeper into his directorial body of work.

[Stay Puft]

Jackie Chan is a great director. I wish he'd work behind the camera more.

[Stay Puft]

I haven't written anything about the huge Japanese film retrospective happening in Toronto (Spotlight Japan: http://tiff.net/spotlightjapan), mostly because I haven't been able to see much (work, work, work), but I've seen three films so far from the Japanese Divas program, as follows:

Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara) - I loved this one. Wasn't sure what to make of its overtly allegorical story at first (a basic plot summary makes it sound naff), but it won me over with its impressive performances and compelling images (I loved that one shot early on of the superimposition of the character's memory of his wife against the dunes). The film's atmopshere is thick, engrossing and memorable, from the breezy, relaxed opening to the ambiguous, desperate eroticism (those close-ups, oh man... best close-ups ever) and the almost abstract, terrifying oppression of the farmers slash prison wardens (the drumming and dancing ritual they perform when they demand their prisoners to have sex for their voyeuristic pleasure... holy shit wtf). A great film that ultimately worked for me even on the surface level (it's still compelling as a portrait of the mental effects of literal imprisonment).

Yearning (Mikio Naruse) - Only the second Naruse I've seen after Wife! Be Like a Rose. Not as good as that one, as it lacks the emotional whallop of that film's conclusion, but still an impressive film in its deftly rendered minutia and sensitive portrayal of the characters's emotions and desires. It's heavy on plot, as such, but successfully oscillates between the personal lives of the two main characters, the larger family structure, the culture that dictates its structure, and the economic hardships of the markets, and the politics that govern their business dealings. All of it coalesces nicely as a portrait of desire complicated and thwarted by the social webbings Reiko and Koji find themselves trapped in. Recommended.

A Wife Confesses (Yasuzô Masumura) - An interesting film if not an entirely successful one. I liked what the film was trying to portray with regards to its central moral dilemma, however clumsy and heavy handed it was rendered, and I loved the cinematography, the juxtaposition of the large vistas of the mountains and the small, enclosed space of the courthouse. I'm more positive than negative on the film for these reasons, but still found it frustrating in the end for some of its questionable artistic choices, e.g. certain choices the actors make (or were directed to make), how clumsily written much of it is, and one particularly useless sequence depicting the literal death of the husband, which is just a mannequin being tossed down a cliff, hilariously bouncing around the only way a mannequin can, one of its legs even breaking off at one point and flying away, details which of course contradict what we've already seen (i.e. police photos of the body presented in an earlier scene in the courthouse). Not great but worth a look.

[Russ]

Yearning (Mikio Naruse) - Only the second Naruse I've seen after Wife! Be Like a Rose. Not as good as that one, as it lacks the emotional whallop of that film's conclusion, but still an impressive film in its deftly rendered minutia and sensitive portrayal of the characters's emotions and desires. It's heavy on plot, as such, but successfully oscillates between the personal lives of the two main characters, the larger family structure, the culture that dictates its structure, and the economic hardships of the markets, and the politics that govern their business dealings. All of it coalesces nicely as a portrait of desire complicated and thwarted by the social webbings Reiko and Koji find themselves trapped in. Recommended.
Wow.

I bolded the portion of the review that I would take issue with -- and I'm a fan of Wife! Be Like a Rose: The ending of Yearning (from the sublime train ride sequence all the way through to its bittersweet conclusion) is quite likely the most emotionally-charged 15 minutes of cinema I've ever seen. I'm just surprised it doesn't strike everyone this way.

Btw, kudos on the Woman in the Dunes love, an amazing film.

[Stay Puft]

I love the train sequence. When Reiko is watching Koji sleep, maybe the best scene in the film. It tugged the heart strings a bit. But the subsequent events actually sort of baffled me (emotionally, not in terms of its plot). I guess I didn't expect the film to end up there and it threw me off (particularly with the ending being so sudden, I thought there was going to be more fallout). I'll have to watch it again with a better idea of what to expect/what it's about.

[D_Davis]

So I took my first chance watching a Ching Siu-Tung movie yesterday with his debut, Duel to the Death, which I was very impressed with. Looking up what else of his available streaming on Netflix, I discovered Butterfly Sword, Swordsman 2 (should I see the original first?), and surprisingly enough, a DTV Steven Seagal movie titled Belly of the Beast. Which of his films should I prioritize?


Nice! I've been talking him up for years on MC, what kept you so long? ;)

Swordsman 2 is great, if totally convoluted; has one of the greatest finales ever filmed.. You don't have to see the original, but you should because its amazing, and very different in tone (King Hu was involved before he got pissed at Tsui Hark, or before he got sick, depending on which rumor you believe). The third part - The East is Red, is also great.

A Chinese Ghost Story is where it's at. The whole trilogy is fantastic, but the first is the best.

[D_Davis]

Jackie Chan as a director has really surprised me with the infectiously exuberant Armour of God, which is mostly known to international audiences as the dubbed and edited Operation Condor 2, but I watched the uncut version in Cantonese. I'm now even more enthused to dig deeper into his directorial body of work.

Project A, FTW! Chan and Sammo working together behind the camera. One of the all-time classics.

[D_Davis]

My favorite film Ching Siu Tung was involved in is Monkey Kung Fu. He starred in it and did the choreography. It's a fantastic old school kung fu flick.

http://www.hkcinemagic.com/en/movie.asp?id=920

I actually like him as an action choreographer more than a director.

These are also highly recommneded:

Peking Opera Blues
The Master Strikes
The Raid
Royal Tramp
Royal Tramp 2
The Mad Monk
Holy Weapon
Flying Dagger

Along with Tsui Hark, Ching Siu Tung practically defined the '90s era of wuxia cinema.

[Winston*]

A Chinese Ghost Story is where it's at.

It rocks.

[Rowland]

Shit, where were you guys a few weeks ago? :)

Since then, I watched a bunch of stuff:

Swordsman II [B+/A-] I was lost at the beginning, but it comes together in grand fashion, building up to a potent emotional crescendo that caught me off guard. The filmmaking can be rough around the edges, but that is made up for by all the gonzo personality, kinky eroticism, formal dynamism, special effects tactility, and swooning romanticism that is featured in such abundance.

A Chinese Ghost Story [B+] Ditto as the above, though my viewing experience was hampered by lousy subtitles. I can imagine my ratings for both of these going up under improved conditions.

Time and Tide [B+] A rewatch, up from something like a C+ several years back. It runs out of steam a bit towards the end, but the first two-thirds dazzle with loads of bravura kineticism and inventive storytelling. What I wrote at Letterboxd:

"This was largely inscrutable to me some years back, being my first exposure to Hark and one of my first stabs at Hong Kong cinema. It has become increasingly obvious to me that Hark is one of the chief architects of what is now commonly dubbed chaos cinema, and this film represents for me one of the ideal expressions of this technique. Hark even seems to address this with the narrations that bookend the film, at the beginning:

"It is said in the beginning there was nothing. Everything was pitch black. The one in charge said that wouldn’t do. Then there was light. Light is good. It lets you see the world around you. The next day, sky appeared. That same sky has rainbows. And lightning too. Very interesting. On the third day, there was water. Water brought plants and animals. Then began the game of survival of the fittest. On the sixth day, He created man. Most imperfect. After that woman. He thought such a big world could accommodate one more. But this was not the case. It turned out this combination was uncontrollable indeed. On the seventh day, He’d planned to rest. But He had to start all over again. He’s not the only one to start all over. The whole world has to do it with him too."

And the end:

"They say in the beginning there was nothing. So the Boss created many things. Actually, He created many problems and contradictions. Even he can’t solve them. So in the end, He created one last thing. It was hope. With hope everything can start all over again."

This angle acquires further resonance when considered within the context of Hark's career following the handover of Hong Kong to China in '97."

Police Story [B/B+] From Letterboxd: "This is half of a great action movie, the remainder being comprised of comedy bits that range from passably amusing to embarrassingly strained, with the usual issues concerning sexual politics and puerility. The first act has some smart details, but the narrative grows more simple-minded and muddled as it goes. But holy shit, those action scenes and stunts! And now I know the source of that hillside shanty town chase from Bad Boys II, only divorced from that film's ugly jingoism."

Also:

Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain [B]
The Blade [B-/B]
Armour of God 2: Operation Condor [B-]
Twin Dragons [C+]

[Li Lili]

Talking about Jackie Chan, I just saw his latest Chinese Zodiac, aka Armour of God 3, well, so disappointing, I mean story, acting, humour, pace are badly done, so only a few action scenes (not as much as he used to of course) are worth watching, and even then...
Concerning Tsui Hark, I've always prefered his 90s films - but I think it's even in general, I prefer the 90s for HK films than the HK cinema of after.
Chinese Ghost Story is a classic, and I've always loved Leslie Cheung (Tony Leung was ok in the latter but Leslie was perferct in the role).

[Li Lili]

Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara) - I loved this one. Wasn't sure what to make of its overtly allegorical story at first (a basic plot summary makes it sound naff), but it won me over with its impressive performances and compelling images (I loved that one shot early on of the superimposition of the character's memory of his wife against the dunes). The film's atmopshere is thick, engrossing and memorable, from the breezy, relaxed opening to the ambiguous, desperate eroticism (those close-ups, oh man... best close-ups ever) and the almost abstract, terrifying oppression of the farmers slash prison wardens (the drumming and dancing ritual they perform when they demand their prisoners to have sex for their voyeuristic pleasure... holy shit wtf). A great film that ultimately worked for me even on the surface level (it's still compelling as a portrait of the mental effects of literal imprisonment).

A Wife Confesses (Yasuzô Masumura) - An interesting film if not an entirely successful one. I liked what the film was trying to portray with regards to its central moral dilemma, however clumsy and heavy handed it was rendered, and I loved the cinematography, the juxtaposition of the large vistas of the mountains and the small, enclosed space of the courthouse. I'm more positive than negative on the film for these reasons, but still found it frustrating in the end for some of its questionable artistic choices, e.g. certain choices the actors make (or were directed to make), how clumsily written much of it is, and one particularly useless sequence depicting the literal death of the husband, which is just a mannequin being tossed down a cliff, hilariously bouncing around the only way a mannequin can, one of its legs even breaking off at one point and flying away, details which of course contradict what we've already seen (i.e. police photos of the body presented in an earlier scene in the courthouse). Not great but worth a look.
yes, Woman is the Dunes is amazing, if you haven't seen, The Face of Another is also an outstanding film, I saw it years ago, yet, I still remember most of the images, very powerful, beautiful at all level.
As for Masumura, I haven't seen that one, but some others, including Blind Beast and Manji that were quite particular (actually that just reminds me that I've got the DVD of Red Angel, and still haven't watched it!!!).

[Li Lili]

At the moment I'm in my old 50s, 60s, beginning of 70s HK mood, but not the martial arts films (even if I still watch some of them every now and then), but musical, thriller movies. I've posted most of them on letterboxd, but will post something in general here once I've seen a couple of more.

Otherwise, other Asian films I recently watched :

Lethal Hostage (2012, Cheng Er, China) : It's quite interesting to notice that before HK was the place for good, solid crime, gangster films... well that was before, because now the quality of HK production is lowered down. However, perhaps it's going to be more from the Mainland which may renew the genre.
Lethal Hostage is quite of an original crime Mainland Chinese film, directed, wrote and edited by Cheng Er.
It is set in southern Yunnan province, on the border with Burma. The film starts with several images with different characters and only sparse dialogues that at first we don't get, but as the film, divided into 4 chapters, goes on, the story takes form and is more developed and the characters are more built. The cast is a very solid cast : Sun Honglei, Ni Dahong are very famous actors... The sound, and particularly the music (even if a bit odd sometimes) are well used, the way of filming is interesting with a good use of lights and colours which creates a special ambiance. So... a good surprise. Recommended.

Starry is the Night (Ann Hui, 1988, HK) : One of the early Ann Hui's films (late 80s) and an SB production, I personaly think that the film is worth for Brigitte Lin, as usual great. The film is too long, too soapy and naive. The political elements are awkwardly added (and have no link with the character's stories), it's a pity because it could have been an interesting input.

Nymph (Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2009, Thailand) : I must admit that the opening sequence is awesome and quite outstanding (a great one sequence shot and a sophisticated work of sound), but then after that, it doesn't really follow the level. I first thought of Charisma and Tropical Malady, due to the location - a forest, a special tree - and also due to the kind of mystical approach of nature, but that's about it.

Poetry ( Lee Chang-dong, 2011, South Korea) : My only complaint would be that it's a bit too long, it kind of drags on a little bit towards the end, but the tone is very delicate and the film displays various feelings, the pace is slow (which makes us close to the main character's perception of time) and there is no soundtracks.
I guess Poetry is not far from Oasis, but there are more rich and interesting themes in this one, the main character (greatly played) is quite complex, and carries a heavy burden on her, yet she's so light. Recommended.

Breathless (Yang Ik-June, 2008, South Korea) : First feature from this writer, director, lead actor and producer, Breathless (the original title has nothing to do with the English title, here it means dung fly refering to the marginal people, people trying to desesperately joint or fit in a group, but the others automatically reject) is a crude, raw, furious and bitter film, but with also some kind of humour, which gives a portray of violence (physical and verbal), especially violence in family. Shot in digital, with a quite fast camera and with lots of close-ups on the characters, giving a rather realistic effect, the film adds a couple of quite wandering sequences without sounds (the only tender, quiet moments when the main character, the girl, and sometimes the little boy are wandering in other places, quite crowded, outside from their area, quite empty). Aside from the big Korean production, the film is also quite singular in the independent Korean scene. Recommended.

[D_Davis]

Good stuff all around, Rowland. Although your rating for The Blade is far too low ;). That's a masterpiece. Although, to be fair, I didn't fully jive with it until my 2nd or 3rd watch, but after each viewing it reveals more of its genius. It's the wuxia film that Wong Kar Wai wished he had made with Ashes of Time. But at least you're thinking in terms of politics when it comes to Tsui's films - just about everything he's made is couched in political allegory and metaphor. Yes, even Knock Off. Heck, Knock Off may be his most politically charged film

Glad your rating for Time and Tide went up - it's a marvelous film.

Also, do whatever you can to track down a copy of Don't Play With Fire - Tsui's first film. Mind blowing.


And as far as what I've learned in my travels, you won't find good or better subtitles, unless the film has been remastered in the west, but you will get used to bad subs (often white subs on white backgrounds!), and you will learn to further translate the meaning of the bad subs, and soon won't even notice them.

[number8]

Hey D did I ever tell you that I was at the last ever theatrical screening of The Blade in the US?

[D_Davis]

Hey D did I ever tell you that I was at the last ever theatrical screening of The Blade in the US?

I think so. With Tsui in attendance?

I have a "theatrical" screening at my house with my projector once a year. :)

[Stay Puft]

yes, Woman is the Dunes is amazing, if you haven't seen, The Face of Another is also an outstanding film, I saw it years ago, yet, I still remember most of the images, very powerful, beautiful at all level.

The Face of Another is playing next weekend. I'll try to see it.

Another of Masumura's films is also playing next weekend, Seisaku's Wife. Seen that one?

[number8]

Pfthhh but are your screenings scratched up and missing frames like my amazingly beat up 35mm viewing?!!

[D_Davis]

Pfthhh but are your screenings scratched up and missing frames like my amazingly beat up 35mm viewing?!!

No.

But they are from the only anamorphic, subbed, bootleg DVD available! ;)

[Li Lili]

The Face of Another is playing next weekend. I'll try to see it.

Another of Masumura's films is also playing next weekend, Seisaku's Wife. Seen that one?
Yeah, I saw it, at the cinema but so long ago, that I don't remember very well, but I know it's worth watching it.
Don't miss The Face of Another !

[dreamdead]

Hur Jin-ho's One Fine Spring Day is tremendous. I wasn't the biggest fan of his melodrama Christmas in August, which was just too melancholy. This one better approximates the rhythms of everyday life, where one's profession, past, and family all help shape and reinforce how the central couple responds to the union and break-up. Hur's decision to have both the man and woman engaged in field recording (and reporting) allows the film at least four or five stellar scenes where we see them bond through their attention to the landscape around them. Those moments are phenomenal and undercut the typical melodramatic score that occasionally overpowers other scenes here.

This film ultimately reads as an antithesis to Hong Sang-soo's filmmaking--it has all of the hallmarks, booze, coupling, and then voyeurism after the coupling has ended, but there's a central grace to the film that Hong seldom achieves. That's no slight to Hong, since I do value his sustained study of masculinity, but this was fascinating and had me grinning from ear to ear at how confidently and specifically it painted the relationship.

[dreamdead]

Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy is probably the messiest of his films that I've seen. In many ways, it's so hallucinatory that the messiness works. The sexual excursions with the bartender and maid seem to mean the least, but they offer a particular counterpoint to the dislocation offered by the main couple. And I like how familial the Wit/Ploy relationship ends up being; the refusal to position Wit's interest as longing enables this to feel different. Ultimately, then, the oddity lies in Dang's excursion outside of the hotel, which feel so clipped that they (pleasantly?) destabilize what surrounds them. Although the plot is technically more slight than other of his films, the ending feels significant.

I've read good things about Monrak Transistor (one critic still considers it his best), so I'll give that one a look sometime this summer.

[number8]

http://subwaycinema.com/oldschool13/

YESSSSSSSS.

I know exactly what that secret screening movie is, too.

[D_Davis]

The Odd Couple - what a masterpiece. One of the very best Lau-family films.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Has anybody seen Sogo Ishii's August in the Water? I have been listening to the soundtrack and I love it, it sounds heavily influenced by Kate Bush. Wondering if the film is worthwhile.

[Li Lili]

Here are some interesting Asian films I saw (a copy/paste from letterboxd) and I recommend :

Paper Airplane (Zhao Liang, China, 2001)
Paper Airplane is the second documenary directed by Zhao Liang (one of the leading Chinese documentary filmmakers of today). I discovered his documentary "Crime and Punishment" in 2007 in a film festival, a documentary which made him more known.
Paper Airplane follows a group of friends, living on the outskirt of Beijing, who are taken heroin. Zhao Liang filmed them from 1998 until 2001. They are young, idle, jobless, with a kind of "no future" spirit, some play in music punk/rock bands, but most of the time, they are only working out of how to get money to buy their drug, and they're talking about to get off drugs, but never arrive (only one will succeed) - and so on... the usual drug addict stuff. Sometimes we don't see them for a while (they had to move out, or got arrested and sent to a "reeducation-detox center" or to prison or went to the hospital after an overdose).
We can feel that there is a very close and trustful relationship between the group and Zhao Liang, so much that it seems that the camera doesn't exist most of the time, and Zhao Liang doesn't take part in the film, he's only like an observer, without any judgement nor any comment at all (like in Crime and Punishment). This non intrusive camera and the narrative editing could almost make the documentary like a real fiction.
The film opens and ends with Wang Yi Nong (I won't say the end but it delivers a rather sad, gloomy and depressing taste) who gives the title of the film, he says : "a paper airplane is a bit of folded paper, sometimes it flies very high, but never for a long time, it always ends up crashing on the ground, from where it left. It only flies once, but at what prize does it have to pay for this only chance to fly!".

Sun Spots (Yang Heng, China, 2009)
This is the second film by Yang Heng, an independant Chinese filmmaker. I saw his first film, Betelnut (which won the New Current Award at Pusan International Film Festival), at a film festival in 2006 and also met him. He also made an installation, called Nirvana, a portrayal of the Buddhist view of life and death at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2008.
Sun Spots, made in 2009, won the Golden Digital Award in the secion Asian Digital at the international film festival of Hong Kong.
Sun Spots could demand quite a lot of patience from most of the viewers, and it's surely not a film that everyone will like. It's even more minimalistic and radical than Betelnut, with such a vague story (but clearly, the story isn't the purpose here), and the film could almost be resumed as a succession of long shots with no camera movements at all (the last shot lasts over 10 minutes), needless to say that there are hardly any dialogue, no music & added sounds (the only music we hear twice is from the radio on the bike's boy). Not only that but there are no close-ups and most of the characters (I could almost say "figures") are distant, most of the time seen from the back or profile, however it's hard to distinguish their faces. So we have plenty of time to appreciate the landscape (it's shot in Hunan province where he comes from), here very essential (sometimes we can think of some inspiration from Chinese paintings), and the shots or photographies themselves, as it's very well framed, he uses perspective very well with always some convergence lines and the colours, very soft, go from green to blue-grey.
Sun Spots is better achieved than Betelnut, I really hope to see his next film.

Suzaku (Naomi Kawase, Japan,1997)
This is the first long feature directed by Naomi Kawase (she won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1997 for this film). It's the second film I watched by her (I saw Shara, which I recommend).
After watching these two films, I can easily notice her main recurrent subjects (family links, relationships between modernity and tradition, the importance of Nature...) and her unique way of filming.
Like Shara, Suzaku deals with the family and describes the relations in a subtle way. A grand-mother, a father, a mother, their young daughter and their nephew live all together in this remote village surrounded by luxurious, green vegetation. But because of lack of work and the recession, more and more people leave the village, and the family is altered by this.
Naomi Kawase depicts the rural life and this changing, in a very intimate and nostalgic way, between photography (there are several portrays of people like photographies), different formats of films (8mm like "home video", also 16 to 35 mm) and documentary. The dialogue is rare, at its minimum and is only present to tell the essential of the story, the emotion, feelings are more in the unsaid.
The film is quite slow and contemplative, it gives out a bitter, melancholy tone but also a sweet, tender taste at the same time.

Before we Fall in Love Again (James Lee, Malaysia, 2006)
Before we Fall in Love Again is the second part of the trilogy about Love, directed by James Lee.
James Lee is one of the leaders of the Malaysian Digital Film movement, he formed with other filmmakers, such as Amir Muhammad and Tan Chui Mui the Da Huang Pictures. The producer credits named at the end are those of the Malaysian new wave : Amir Muhammad, Yasmin Ahmad, Tan Chui Mui, Ho Yuhang. I saw only a couple of their films.
My first film by James Lee was The Beautiful Washing Machine, I found quite it original, then the first of the trilogy Things We Do When We Fall in Love, both of them seen at film festivals and needed to be revisited.
Before we Fall in Love Again (Chinese title is more of remembering the past) is a black and white DV fiction, mixes languages, mostly in Mandarin, but some characters speak in Cantonese and even Japanese. It starts with Chang, an empty married man, quite depressed since his wife, Ling Yue, has dispeared for a month, he's so depressed that his boss (who doesn't seem to be that cheerful either) asks him to take some hollydays... He bumps into Tong, who is also looking for Ling Yue, in fact Tong is her lover. The two of them remember their past with her. Several flashbacks nourish the story...
Chang and Tong are like double, they look alike, dress alike, have the same glasses, sometimes even have the same posture, the same of way of talking (very monotonous), they are double, mirror to each others. Several interesting shots underline very well this, often seen both of them, geometrically opposite, sitting on a chair, a table between them. They seem so awkward with their body, so stiff and rigid, they don't show much expressions, hardly make any big gestures, as if they were empty by the missing, the absence of the woman.
However the film has also some kind of humour (very light), a bit absurd or awkward. If the first part seems a bit stagnant, slow, the second (shorter) is a bit more dynamic.

[Li Lili]

Has anybody seen Sogo Ishii's August in the Water? I have been listening to the soundtrack and I love it, it sounds heavily influenced by Kate Bush. Wondering if the film is worthwhile.
I haven't seen that one, but recently saw Mirrored Mind, and it was disappointed & quite boring!

[EyesWideOpen]

It's 2013 and I'm still baffled by the treatment most Asian films (especially genre stuff) gets in their US releases. I was looking at two yesterday. The film Wu-Xia gets released in the US with 20 minutes cut out of it and gets named "Dragon" which is the blandest name I imagine they could come up with. The Jet Li film "The Emperor and the White Snake" gets 10 minutes cut out of it and renamed "The Sorcerer and the White Snake" because I'm assuming a committee figured American audiences would have a negative association with Emperor and Sorcerer sounds cooler.

[number8]

Oh my god, I had forgotten how hilariously shitty the Dragon Dynasty translation of Hard Boiled is. :lol:

In the film's climactic moment, when the hospital is about to blow up and Chow Yun Fat tries to get Tony Leung to leave, Leung refuses and goes back in, but he turns around and dramatically goes:

Tony Leung: I'm still a cop too.
[Explosion separates them]
Chow Yun Fat: Nooooooooo!

In the Dragon Dynasty subtitles, it goes like this:

Tony Leung: I need to do this.
[Explosion separates them]
Chow Yun Fat: Bullshiiiiiiiiiiiit!

[dreamdead]

Man, Isabelle Huppert plays three incredibly flighty characters in Hong's In Another Country. It largely works because it feels so breezy of a construct (a writer imagines three different scenarios for a foreign woman to go through), but I think it'd resonate if one of the tripartite segments had allowed Huppert's Ann character to display a bit more intellect. That said, a few of the misconstruing issues of language (at least half the film's in English) are uproarious. And there's less of Hong's trademark zooming, which is a good thing.

I was reading the following site (http://www.film.com/movies/best-films-not-on-dvd), which suggests that Hahaha is his masterpiece. That film remains strong in my memory (although I wouldn't go that far), with Tale of Cinema, Virgin Stripped Bare..., and Hahaha splitting hairs as my favorite. Moon So-ri makes everything better.

Still need to see The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs9-rFDlt6E&wide=1&has_verified=1) and Night and Day...

[D_Davis]

Is this a remake of the HK film, 2002?

http://i.imgur.com/xw5vABX.jpg

[number8]

Nope.

http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/12/12391.jpg

Different premise, too. Both Reynolds and Bridges are dead and work for God, not part of an actual police department like 2002.

[D_Davis]

Ah, cool. I just saw the poster and some stills and thought it looked similar.

[Sycophant]

Hosoda Mamoru's Wolf Children sits better with me than Summer Wars did. It's a decidedly different, much more grounded approach to dealing with the fantastical than his last two features, and it has a slow, deliberate tempo to match. It possesses wonderful and exhilarating moments on par with anything in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and it wears its Miyazaki influence on its sleeve, though engaging certain themes that are rare or nonexistent in Miyazaki's work. I'm not sure when this will be released for the English-speaking world, but I'd recommend it heartily.

[Russ]

Gonna watch the Zu Warriors remake tonight (the 104 min. cut, and my first Tsui Hark, tho I'd been wanting to see Green Snake for awhile). Looks like goofy, kinetic superhero-like fun. I'm psyched.

[D_Davis]

Gonna watch the Zu Warriors remake tonight (the 104 min. cut, and my first Tsui Hark, tho I'd been wanting to see Green Snake for awhile). Looks like goofy, kinetic superhero-like fun. I'm psyched.

Dont let this turn you off of Hark. It's not one of his best, and while I think it is ok, many people consider it one of his worst. Green Snake on the other hand is fantastic.

I see you really liking his early films: The Butterfly Murders, Don't Play With Fire, We're Going to Eat You, along with a mid-period selection, Peking Oper Blues.

[Russ]

Dont let this turn you off of Hark. It's not one of his best, and while I think it is ok, many people consider it one of his worst. Green Snake on the other hand is fantastic.

I see you really liking his early films: The Butterfly Murders, Don't Play With Fire, We're Going to Eat You, along with a mid-period selection, Peking Oper Blues.
Yeah, not a great film. What surprised me was the non-stop, 24-7, wall-to-wall constant barrage of special effects (and not very good ones at that). That being said, it was definitely one of the more entertaining bad movies I've seen in awhile. A decent amount of humor helped too -- esp. that Hollow character. Film needed more of him.

I shall keep an eye peeled for Hark's early films.

[D_Davis]

I like it for its creative art direction, but that's about it.

You'll love the earlier films I listed - totally up your alley.

Pretty much everything he touched (produced/co-directed/directed) up until the Zu remake is worth watching. The Zu remake basically signified his downfall.

[number8]

Oh man, so much good stuff at this year's NYAFF.

http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/nyaff-reveals-full-to-bursting-lineup-of-asian-cinema

I have got to see that Sion Sono film.

[ledfloyd]

I threw together a Top Ten of the Last Decade (http://letterboxd.com/jwier85/list/top-movies-of-the-2000s/) together for a letterboxd poll. I like Asian film even more than I thought I did. It comprises 2/5 of the list.

[Grouchy]

I saw Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion last night. Totally awesome. Most of the violence looked fake (constant punching the air accompanied by a sound effect) and yet there's a heightened intensity about the film that makes it work. Meiko Kaji's eyes are fantastic.

Is the rest of the 701 saga any good? It's by the same director/actress, so it'll at least follow the tone of this one, I guess.

[Sycophant]

I've lately been watching films from Yamada Yoji's massive 48-film Tora-san (or 男はつらいよ - "It's Tough Being a Man") series, renting them from the local video store. Since I only have two more months to take advantage of this, I've been skipping forward a bit to get a greater overview of the series, and then I'll fill them in as I watch them in the future, selecting them at random or if there's anything particularly interesting I want to see.

So far, I've seen:

#1 - "It's Tough Being a Man"/"Tora-San, Our Lovable Tramp"
#2 - "Tora-San's Beloved Mother"
#4 - "Tora-San's Grand Scheme"
#6 - "Tora-San's Shattered Romance"
#12 - "Tora-San Loves an Artist"
#17 - "Tora-San's Sunrise and Sunset"

This covers 1969 to 1976. I'll be watching film #22 in the next couple days.

The Tora-san formula is infamous for its repetition, but so far--and maybe this is partly the effect of watching two a week from slightly different eras--it's working well for me. Thus far, my favorite is still Tora-san's Beloved Mother for its deviation from the formula and its giving Tora-san a different set of motivations (coming to terms with his past by searching for his mother), but even though the romantic plot (each film has a woman who Tora-san will fall in love with only to be disappointed for one reason or another) is fairly predictable, I've been impressed with the other conflicts that exist within the story (#17 did this remarkably well, integrating both with each other thoroughly), and the individual character given to these failed romances. Further, the romance plot doesn't usually pick up until the second half hour. Still, even the conflicts within the family are somewhat predictable, and I'd imagine if I tried to shotgun all 48, I'd be exhausted.

Watching these films is comfortable and delightful, even when dealing unflinchingly with some of the hardships and disappointments of life (debt, death, personal failure, lost love). I've been a big fan of (typically television) series that give the audience the feeling of visiting friends or relatives in a familiar space, and the semi-annual visits to Tora's hometown of Shibamata (visits we share as Tora comes in, but only get fleeting glimpses of his life outside these) and the characters who live there. Tora, as wonderfully played by Kiyoshi through all 48 installments, is at once something of a scoundrel with a narrow perspective and a man with an impossibly big heart, a lovesick, exuberant teenager and a hardened middle-aged man.

Kind of a trip to see film #17 open with a (kinda cheap but surprisingly graphic) Jaws parody dream sequence.

I'm looking forward to seeing the series reach the mid-1990s. The films are an impressive document for watching things change and watching things stay the same.

I also recently got to visit Shibamata, the setting of Tora-San's hometown in Tokyo. There's a statue of Atsumi Kiyoshi by the station. In 1969, Yamada and company chose Shibamata partially because it still retained the old Tokyo feeling better than many of the other shitamachi areas. A Toraya storefront sells the green, grass-flavored Japanese sweets on the walkway leading up to the temple, looking just as it does in all of the films. It even has a Tora-san fortune-telling machine that repeats the opening notes of the series theme song endlessly.

Also, visited the Tora-san memorial hall, which, more than just a stop for fans, does a lot to focus on the production process for the movies, which was neat to see, including video footage, seemingly from the early 90s, of all of the Yamada company's personnel prepping the set or doing other jobs. Replicas and models of sets are present, and a lot of artifacts from the series' timespan are preserved. It's nicely dense, with a lot of fan-servicey type stuff alongside some slightly deeper material. There's a new annex called the Yamada Yoji Museum that tracks the director's half-century career, and especially his working relationship with Atsumi. It also seems to exist half as promotional material for his Tokyo Story remake Tokyo Family. Yamada's medal for cultural merit is kept there (or a good-looking replica of it). There's a comment from the director about the end of the age of celluloid film, something he never expected when he entered the industry, and a large stack of film canisters in the middle of the museum.

Anyway, there's some slapdash thoughts no one asked for. Has anyone else besides Qrazy dived into this series at all?

[transmogrifier]

I still can't believe that more people haven't checked out Confessions yet. I keep saying how great this film is, but I can't seem to get any takers.

Hey, KF, did you ever make time to watch it?


xlcRg-1a1f8

(and yes, the Radiohead song is prominently used in the film)

I second Russ here; it's certainly worth checking out. Nothing quite like anything I've seen before, at least in terms of executing a typical genre story). For all it's pulpy excess, it's almost unbearably sad....

[Stay Puft]

There's a huge Chinese film festival happening in Toronto atm (runs for over two months, features hundreds of films) and unfortunately I haven't been able to see anything until this weekend (tho that's also because I was out of town for a whole week last week, meaning I had to miss the archive print screening of A Touch of Zen... Toronto, y u do dis).

Anyways, I saw The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on the big screen with a hugely receptive audience. It was amazing. You could tell who hadn't seen the film before, too, because they were losing their minds during some of the training sequences (one of the best moments is the abbott just suddenly walking out from behind a pillar after San Te finally crosses the log pool, and a bunch of people just start screaming with laughter).

Best part of watching it again for me was realizing Hou Hsiao is in the film. Hadn't noticed him before. He doesn't have any lines, but you see him alongside Gordon Liu throughout the film, also working his way through the chambers. Makes for a nice little "hey it's that guy" subplot. Also forgot how amazing the "head chamber" sequence is... during the panning shot, I never noticed the guy who tries to make his incense offering but misses the table by a good foot and faceplants. Lots of fun details like that in the film. And of course the location shooting they did for a few scenes really shines on the big screen.

Next weekend is the Canada Day long weekend, and looks to be pretty good with Tian Zhaungzhuang's The Horse Thief, a back-to-back screening of Jeffrey Lau's A Chinese Odyssey films, Cheh Chang's One Armed Swordsman, Wang Xiaoshuai's The Days, Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Time to Live and the Time to Die, and finally on Canada Day itself, the big event: a restored print of Edward Yang's The Terrorizers. Which reminds me I need to get tickets for that like right now so I don't miss out.

[Stay Puft]

Anyways, I saw The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on the big screen with a hugely receptive audience. It was amazing.

And three days later, Lau Kar Leung passes on... :cry:

[number8]

And three days later, Lau Kar Leung passes on... :cry:

They're showing Drunken Master II here on Thursday for a Jackie Chan retrospective at the Lincoln Center. Might take the day off for that.

[D_Davis]

"hey it's that guy" subplot.

I do that in almost every Shaw Brothers film.

[D_Davis]

And three days later, Lau Kar Leung passes on... :cry:

An all time great. The real deal - it just doesn't get any better than LKL.

[D_Davis]

It's safe to say that LKL had as much an impact on my life as any other pop-culture icon or artist ever did. Maybe third only to the Eno/Lanois collaboration for my music and George Lucas for my childhood.

At least he left us with insane amounts of quality material.

[Stay Puft]

Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief is the most dreary, bleak film I've sat through in recent memory. It's 90 minutes of hardship and death, compounded by large stretches of emotionally impenetrable drama (I'm specifically thinking of the stretch of film from when the son falls sick up until the clan's "catastrophe" - it's elliptical to the point of making the characters look emotionally flippant. But there's a cultural barrier as well, given how little I understand the spiritual context of these scenes.).

I'd say the first third, maybe first half of the film is pretty much perfect. I was totally on board up until the aforementioned stretch of the film. But even in the latter half, there's a lot to admire: the cinematography is excellent throughout, and two of my favorite segments occur in this half (Norbu discovering the clan's dead animals, and the religious ceremony). I enjoyed the overall story, too. Norbu's arc in the film, and the way the narrative wraps around on itself, echoing events in different contexts, provides some moral ambiguity to complicate the more traditionalist beliefs that influence the clan's decisions throughout the film (but, truth be told, I'm still not really sure what comment Tian Zhuangzhuang is making about the tribes and their religious beliefs, if any - or I'm just supposed to absorb this as a lyrical, cinematic expression of hardship and death on the Tibetan plateau.)

Of course, that may not be the point: I was reading an interesting discussion about how the film functions as an allegory for socioeconomic hardships in China, so Tian Zhuangzhuang got to make a film criticizing China without actually making a film about China's socioeconomic hardships proper. Seems legit. Now that I think about it, the film resembles a neo-realist film like Bicycle Thieves in terms of its themes, the way that desperation forces the main characters to make fateful decisions (I went back and re-read the previous paragraph when proofreading this post, and yeah, I could have been describing the De Sica film there, too, with the repetition of events and shifting context, moral ambiguity, and empathy for the criminal Other).

[Stay Puft]

At least he left us with insane amounts of quality material.

The screening of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was a restored print from Celestial Pictures. Totally awesome. (They're doing God's work!)

I still need to get upgrades for some of his films. I've still only seen Dirty Ho on a terrible VHS quality pan-and-scan bootleg.

[MadMan]

Oh my god, I had forgotten how hilariously shitty the Dragon Dynasty translation of Hard Boiled is. :lol:

In the film's climactic moment, when the hospital is about to blow up and Chow Yun Fat tries to get Tony Leung to leave, Leung refuses and goes back in, but he turns around and dramatically goes:

Tony Leung: I'm still a cop too.
[Explosion separates them]
Chow Yun Fat: Nooooooooo!

In the Dragon Dynasty subtitles, it goes like this:

Tony Leung: I need to do this.
[Explosion separates them]
Chow Yun Fat: Bullshiiiiiiiiiiiit!Hah I remember that. I believe that is the copy I have. A guy who used to be a friend of mine gave it to me a couple years back.

[number8]

So I wrote a 2000 word essay about Lau Kar-Leung. (http://www.artboiled.com/2013/drunken-master-ii-and-lau-kar-leungs-legacy-in-american-pop-culture/)

[transmogrifier]

So imagine if someone remade Au Hasard Balthazar with a Japanese prostitute instead of a donkey and filmed it in a tone approximating Grease.

There, you now know what Memories of Matsuko is like. You're welcome.

http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee. com/archives/memories%20of%20matsuko%201.jp g

[D_Davis]

I still need to get upgrades for some of his films. I've still only seen Dirty Ho on a terrible VHS quality pan-and-scan bootleg.

Most of my Shaw Brothers remasters are on VCD. Back when I was buying these, the VCDs looked great on my SD television, and I could get 2 for the price of 1 DVD.

I think I have about 100 SB movies - about 40 VCDs, another 30 of the Celestial/IVL DVDs, and another 30 bootleg DVDs from various sources.

[dreamdead]

Man, Satoshi Miki's Adrift in Tokyo was delightful. By turns melancholy and uproarious, it's a madcap study on alienation and the pursuit of two equally lost men who bond and effectively become the father/son that neither had. Miki stages at least three moments that are glorious in how they do an about-face regarding tone, and the two leads command the screen. Wonderful, and with it streaming on Netflix, people should check it out.

[Irish]

D_Davis: Thoughts on "Prison on Fire"?

[D_Davis]

D_Davis: Thoughts on "Prison on Fire"?

It's...OK?

One of the ones I haven't revisited since the early '90s, but I don't remember loving it.

[Dukefrukem]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hAwbhrqSPgk

[Sycophant]

Re: Tora-San


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCmG4te9Ff0

[Grouchy]

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/aj6293/survive_style_5.jpg

Survive Style 5+ is a great "what the fuck did I just watch" movie. Only the Japanese, man. To try to summarize the various crossing storylines would be an exercise in futility, but I think there's an overarching theme of characters learning to live with themselves by accepting personality traits they felt more comfortable hiding. Besides that, it's just insanity and some of the most complicated set pieces I've ever seen. Vinnie Jones and Sonny Chiba are in this. Very recommended. This guy should direct some movies. The story about the advertising creative woman lacked a good resolution, though.

[Russ]

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/aj6293/survive_style_5.jpg

Survive Style 5+ is a great "what the fuck did I just watch" movie. Only the Japanese, man. To try to summarize the various crossing storylines would be an exercise in futility, but I think there's an overarching theme of characters learning to live with themselves by accepting personality traits they felt more comfortable hiding. Besides that, it's just insanity and some of the most complicated set pieces I've ever seen. Vinnie Jones and Sonny Chiba are in this. Very recommended. This guy should direct some movies. The story about the advertising creative woman lacked a good resolution, though.

Such a terrific film, plus it contains my favorite performance by Tadanobu Asano. The art design of the house in which he and his wife continuously "fight" employs the most insane use of color I think I've ever seen. Totally agree with your thoughts, can't recommend it highly enough.

I could never understand why this hasn't received a legit release stateside; turns out it was a music rights issue. From an article I found:


Apparently, since the film only received its music rights for release in Japan, it's not likely to be found in Region 1 anytime soon. There are buckets of song snippets and other pieces of music woven into the film and integrated with its scenes that would likely cost a great deal of money to secure for wider release. It's bordering on criminal that the film is not more widely available, but it would be even worse if they sacrificed any of the music in order to keep distribution costs down. I couldn't think of the film without Cake's slippery cover of "I Will Survive" closing things out.

The spoiler is for the use of a particular song that closes the film. I would recommend you watch the film and let it take you by surprise.

[D_Davis]

Asano is brilliant in that.

Survive Style 5+ and Funky Forest First Contact, two of my favorite Japanese films.

[Grouchy]

http://www.azsiafilm.hu/images/stories/2008/fudoh.jpg

Fudoh: The New Generation is one of the earliest Miike films I've seen (from 1996) and, given how used I am to the technical perfection of his 2000s work, I was kind of taken aback by the low production values and the DTV feel of this. I soon forgot about that, though, as I became inmersed into this world of high school yakuza bosses and girls who throw blowdarts with their vaginas. There are many themes here that will come back later on Miike's filmography, despite this being based on a manga series. And, of course, there are gonzo murder scenes and gore galore.

[D_Davis]

One of my favorite Miike films. I miss old Miike. He was much better with a small budget, working quickly and messily.

[Grouchy]

One of my favorite Miike films. I miss old Miike. He was much better with a small budget, working quickly and messily.
Eh, I don't think the difference is entirely the budget. He still made three features in 2012 alone, more than any other director. It's the technical proficiency. His films, even the bad ones, are usually shot and edited to perfection and calculated to manipulate the audience in the best possible way.

Instead, the opening scene of Fudoh shows some obvious editing/continuity problems.

[D_Davis]

The passing of Sir Run Run Shaw just happened to coincide with me finding my spindle of Shaw Brothers DVDs which I thought I had lost at some point over the last few years. Going to be watching a bunch.

http://www.kungfuvision.com/images/item/1212image11301944676.jpg

The Boxer from Shantung is a film that is constantly battling to be my number one favorite film. It's easily the best rise and fall of a gangster film, and is a classic masterpiece by every definition of the words. Everything from the sets and location shots to the costumes, and from the cinematography to the music is world-class, and that it just happens to be a gripping, thrilling and exciting kung fu film is a bonus.

Chen Kuan Tai plays Brother Ma, a country bumpkin from Shantung who has moved to Shanghai for some kind of opportunity. He works his way up through the ranks of the common street thugs, gains patriotic support by defeating a Russian wrestler, and becomes a gang leader before learning the meaning of honor and the true cost of power. Chen Kuan Tai was always one of the best actors and best martial artists in the Shaw Brother's stables, and this performance is one of his very best. It's raw, emotional, and powerful - he uses his face and body to convey his character's strength and determination in masterful ways.

Chang Cheh's direction was never better. While he might have made more wildly entertaining films, I don't think he ever made a better film in pure cinematic terms. His years as a film critic and scholar pay off in a mastery of stage direction in both the dramatic scenes and action sequencers. Cheh's trademark voyeuristic visual style is on full display, and the viewer often feels as if he or she is eavesdropping and spying on the characters, secretly watching them as they go about their daily business. This quality lends a feeling of authenticity to the bigger than life story at hand, and creates a strong emotional bond between the audience and Brother Ma. And when that legendary final showdown comes to a close, we really feel as though we've witnessed something powerful.

[megladon8]

That's one I've wanted to see for years, D. Never been able to find that right combination of "good copy" and "decent price".

Jen and I watched one the other night that was...errr...a little less than good. The Battle Wizard. I especially loved the big red dragon shown in about 4 different places on the cover, which never appears in the movie.

[D_Davis]

Yes - I, too, was disappointed with Battle Wizard. Isn't that one also like 68 minutes long?

[megladon8]

Yes - I, too, was disappointed with Battle Wizard. Isn't that one also like 68 minutes long?


Yeah it barely hit the 70 minute mark.

It had a great, wacky opening - people shooting lasers from their fingers got a laugh from Jen and I, and then when they guy who lost his legs shows up with giant robotic chicken leg stilts, we thought we were in for something awesome.

But it ended up having very poor fight choreography and photography, and a story and characters that were wacky, yes, not also not interesting enough to hold our attention.

[D_Davis]

Yep. It's an inferior version of Holy Flame of the Martial World and Buddha's Palm.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvHgbq2RN4

[D_Davis]

Anyone see Young Detective Dee, yet?

[Stay Puft]

Anyone see Young Detective Dee, yet?

Just me. (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?5088-Young-Detective-Dee-Rise-of-the-Sea-Dragon-(Tsui-Hark))

[dreamdead]

Time Out's top 100 mainland Chinese films (http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/feature/1031/The-100-best-Mainland-Chinese-Films.html), compiled from a plethora of sources. Really feel like I need to rewatch Farewell my Concubine in order to understand its placement here--is this a bias toward the likely 30-40 year olds asked on the list, or does it truly outweigh Spring in a Small Town?

Meantime, is there any way to see Jia's Pickpocket? It's not on Netflix...

The Goddess, incidentally, was a mesmerizing watch last year. So good, and so under-discussed.

[D_Davis]

Peking Opera Blues > Farewell my Combine


Seriously though, I like FMC. Actually, it might be the only film on the list that I've seen in its entirety. Often I find mainland films too bleak or dull to hold my attention. I should look through this list and watch some. So thanks for the link.

[Stay Puft]

Haha that'd be my top two, too.

Both amazing films but yeah I'd give the edge to Chen. That could be a bit of a nostalgia pick since I saw it when I was a younger, budding cinephile, and the immensity of the film's scope, the blending of the personal and political, blew me away. But even today I'm still in awe of Leslie Cheung's performance (probably my favorite ever performance in a movie), so I'd give it the edge for that if nothing else.

I haven't seen The Goddess but I think I have a copy of it somewhere? Hard to remember these days, I used to just collect movies en masse and then barely watched any of them and now my collection is in disarray through neglect. I don't know where anything is and I stopped cataloguing everything.

[D_Davis]

I share a similar experience - Farewell my Concubine was one of the first "real" pieces of world cinema that I ever saw. Of course I had seen dozens of Hong Kong genre films before then, but I had never seen anything like FMC.

[D_Davis]

Who saw the 2011 remake of A Chinese Ghost Story?

I'm so disconnected from HK cinema these days that I didn't even know it existed!

[EyesWideOpen]

I watched the first Lone Wolf & Cub film for the first time today. Really good and definitely a different feel then Shogun Assassin. As much as it pains me to say (preferring a dubbed American version over an original) I think I still like Shogun better though. Shogun has a far better soundtrack and some fantastic lines where as Lone Wolf is a far quieter slower picture (owing a lot to the fact that Shogun is two films crammed into one) with a better story and more room for the plot to breathe.

[Qrazy]

I like Shanghai Blues a lot more than Peking Opera Blues.

[D_Davis]

Some seller on Amazon is selling the first collection of Lupin films (new) for $2k, and another is selling it for $900. Used range from $65 to $1300.

WTF?

http://www.amazon.com/Lupin-3rd-Movie-Pack-First/dp/B000FS2VYK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397234310&sr=8-1&keywords=Lupin+the+3rd+Movie+P ack%3A+First+Haul

2nd collection is going for almost as much.

http://www.amazon.com/Lupin-3rd-Movie-Pack-Final/dp/B000J3EAY0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1397234310&sr=8-2&keywords=Lupin+the+3rd+Movie+P ack%3A+First+Haul

Guess I should list mine.

[Sycophant]

It's worth noting that no one is going to pay the higher end of these prices. Though it might be worth it to turn them around for $200.

[D_Davis]

That's what I usually do. Undercut buy a lot so I actually sell it.

[D_Davis]

So the Wu Tang Collection is uploading their entire catalog to Youtube.

TONS of great classics here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtG36aNGHp_H0NNOFr-B-Qg

A few to start with:
7 Grandmasters
Born Invincible
18 Bronzemen
Dance of the Drunken Mantis

[D_Davis]

Corey Yuen's scene in 7 Grandmasters is the epitome of classic kung fu action.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaRSfNHEP1s

[D_Davis]

Wow.

Looks like the Shaw Brothers have put their entire catalog on Youtube. Tons of free trailers, and you can rent or buy for $1-5 bucks.

https://www.youtube.com/user/shawbrothersuniverse/videos

[baby doll]

Time Out's top 100 mainland Chinese films (http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/feature/1031/The-100-best-Mainland-Chinese-Films.html), compiled from a plethora of sources. Really feel like I need to rewatch Farewell my Concubine in order to understand its placement here--is this a bias toward the likely 30-40 year olds asked on the list, or does it truly outweigh Spring in a Small Town?

Meantime, is there any way to see Jia's Pickpocket? It's not on Netflix...

The Goddess, incidentally, was a mesmerizing watch last year. So good, and so under-discussed.Farewell, My Concubine is pretty overrated. I think it's only so high on the list because it was somewhat daring for China for having a gay protagonist, and because it was a big hit in the West. In many ways, I prefer Chen's subsequent Temptress Moon, even if it's not a totally successful movie.

Spring in a Small Town, Horse Thief, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Jiu, The Blue Kite, To Live, Devils on the Doorstep, Platform, Hero, Purple Butterfly, The World, Still Life, The Sun Also Rises, and 24 City are all pretty wonderful.

The Goddess is certainly worth seeing, though I'm not sure its reputation as a classic is entirely justified; it seemed to me a fairly straightforward "fallen woman" melodrama Ã* la G.W. Pabst. I much prefer Center Stage (aka Actress, aka Ruan Ling-yu), Stanley Kwan's biopic about Ruan.

Red Sorghum is pretty snazzy to look at but ultimately less than the sum of its parts, and The House of Flying Daggers bored me when I saw it in theatres. I liked Touch of Sin, but not nearly as much as some of Jia's other films. I don't think the humour of Let the Bullets Fly translates into English, but maybe that's just me. In any case, I found this pretty mechanical and dull as a spaghetti western (ramen eastern?). Also, I seem to be alone in finding Drug War a fairly routine crime thriller only slightly elevated by the terse narration (it's the Chinese equivalent of Haywire).

I was less interested in Black Snow (a kind of low-key noir set in Beijing at the end of the '80s) than the interview with Xie on the British DVD where he talks about his memories of the Cultural Revolution, which he remembers as the best time of his life. I remember liking Summer Palace when it came out but have little desire to see it again.

Blind Shaft (and Li's subsequent Blind Mountain) is pretty grim and unpleasant. But City of Life and Death (aka Nanking! Nanking!) is downright pornographic. Unknown Pleasures was the first Jia movie I tried to watch, but the storyline was so depressing (and the photography so cruddy) that I had to turn it off after an hour, though I suppose I should give it another look given my admiration for his other movies.

I liked Last Train Home but is it really a Chinese movie? And where's Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl?

I have Ju Dou, In the Heat of the Sun, Xiao Wu (aka Pickpocket), Beijing Bicycle, and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol on DVD, but haven't gotten around to watching them. Also, I haven't seen Winter Vacation but Li's earlier Routine Holiday is pretty hilarious in spots.

[Peng]

Only seen 6 out of the list, and 3 are from Zhang Yimou.

The other three are Farewell My Concubine (liked it well enough), Drug War (great thriller), and The Message. The last one is really fun. An Agatha Christie-flavored story set in modern spy thriller mode.

[KK2.0]

Although it's an english spoken movie is Snowpiercer allowed in the conversation? I mean it's asian to the core, no? Pretty much like a live action anime. Despite losing steam (sorry) near the end and a few scenes here and there that were stupid (Evans firing a machine gun as a sniper rifle.. wat), I was surprised with the overall surrealness of it all, it's b-movie charms won me over.

[Russ]

Time Out's top 100 mainland Chinese films (http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/feature/1031/The-100-best-Mainland-Chinese-Films.html), compiled from a plethora of sources. Really feel like I need to rewatch Farewell my Concubine in order to understand its placement here--is this a bias toward the likely 30-40 year olds asked on the list, or does it truly outweigh Spring in a Small Town?

Meantime, is there any way to see Jia's Pickpocket? It's not on Netflix...

The Goddess, incidentally, was a mesmerizing watch last year. So good, and so under-discussed.

Did I miss it? Is the "Mainland China" caveat in the title really the only reason they're ignoring Yang's A Brighter Summer Day?

Boo-urns...

[Peng]

Well, Yang and the film (including its setting) are Taiwanese.

[origami_mustache]

I watched 4/5 (Tag, Love & Peace, Shinjuku Swan, and The Virgin Psychics) of Sion Sono's 2015 films and they are all ridiculous as hell, but still fun I guess haha. The Whispering Star looks the most promising. Anyone seen it?

[Dukefrukem]

Any consensus with Hong-jin Na's the Chaser?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/reference

[Irish]

Any consensus with Hong-jin Na's the Chaser?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/reference

Loved it. I think it's one of the best thrillers of the last decade.

If you want to have a wild weekend, watch "The Chaser," "I Saw the Devil," and "Memories of Murder" as a triple-bill, in that order.

ETA: Throw "The Wailing" in there too (it's on Netflix).

[number8]

Just remembered that there was supposed to be a US remake but they never made it.

[D_Davis]

So that newest Godzilla film sure looks great, and damn is it ever dull.

[Grouchy]

Oh by the way, I saw The Wailing. What the fuck was all that about?

[D_Davis]

Sion Sono's Tag is...OK? Great opening, of course. About half way through the film, I said to myself please don't be some VR/video game nonsense...and it was. I liked a number of the set pieces, and a few of the actresses were good, but over all, it felt like someone trying to ape Mamoru Oshii, but with gore. There was a time in my life when that would have been an awesome premise. I prefer AVALON and Resurrection of the Little Match Girl for a somewhat similar offering.

[Skitch]

I need to finish that. I watched the opening and then had to toddle off with parenting duties and things...

[Dukefrukem]

Is Song Kang-ho the best Korean actor? He's incredible.

[Dukefrukem]

Loved it. I think it's one of the best thrillers of the last decade.

If you want to have a wild weekend, watch "The Chaser," "I Saw the Devil," and "Memories of Murder" as a triple-bill, in that order.

ETA: Throw "The Wailing" in there too (it's on Netflix).

Oh shit. Just reading back on this I just watched Memories of Murder which spurred my post above. I had already seen I Saw the Devil. I need to get on the Chaser now.