View Poll Results: Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

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Thread: Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

  1. #1
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
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    Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

    BEFORE WE VANISH
    Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa



    IMDb page
    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
    Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
    The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
    Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
    Night Hunter (David Raymond) *

  2. #2
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
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    The A plot in this starts strong, with a great "in media res" opening as Narumi picks up her husband, Shinji, from the hospital, trying to piece together how he got there and what happened to him. The doctor says he's in shock, and Narumi drags him out in disbelief, convinced something about him has fundamentally changed. Ryuhei Matsuda is great in these moments as Shinji, stumbling around like he's Dougie Jones after Coop travelled through an electrical socket. The movie is surprisingly funny, too, and Kurosawa employs his strong command of mis-en-scene to great comedic effect, getting ridiculous mileage out of a simple gag like Shinji falling over because he doesn't know how to walk. It doesn't take too long for exposition to start pouring in, however, and we quickly learn that Shinji, and two other characters in the B plot, are humans whose bodies may have been hijacked by aliens to recon our planet ahead of a planned invasion.

    My big problem here is that the A and B plots feel like two completely different movies, like Kurosawa couldn't figure out which direction to go, or what kind of movie he wanted to make. Ultimately, he doesn't do a good job reconciling these different threads. The A plot is funny, endearing, and takes a philosophical approach to its themes, at times feeling a lot like his earlier effort, Journey to the Shore. The B plot is basically a B movie, with dumb action and bad special effects and scavenger hunts and radio signals and government conspiracies. It's trash. It's well directed, as you would expect from Kurosawa (there's a oner in here that, much like the climax of Real, suggests that Kurosawa could do some great things with a big budget, if somebody was crazy enough to give him money). But it's trash, and it takes away so much screen time from the A plot that eventually the A plot suffers. Instead of going anywhere interesting, the film's philosophical inquiries amount to trite garbage about love.

    Before We Vanish has all of the ponderous plotting of Journey to the Shore, without managing to stumble on any compelling ideas. It has all of the genre-bending antics of a film like Real, but with a noticeable lack of plesiosaurs. It's not even as focused or atmospheric as Daguerrotype, and that's not really a good movie, either. It is, by far, the most interesting premise Kurosawa has cooked up recently, with some of the biggest promise in that first act, but he squanders the fuck out of it bad. I think this officially makes it a decade since Kurosawa has hit one out of the park. That's rough.
    Last edited by Stay Puft; 03-06-2018 at 03:01 AM.
    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
    Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
    The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
    Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
    Night Hunter (David Raymond) *

  3. #3
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    This is dispiriting. I liked Creepy very much and thought maybe the guy was on an upswing.

  4. #4
    Evil mind, evil sword. Ivan Drago's Avatar
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    Fuuuuuuuuck I'm disappointed this isn't good, if only because I saw the trailer and it looks incredible.
    Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)

    The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
    Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
    Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
    M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
    Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
    Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5

    615 Film
    Letterboxd

  5. #5
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    I didn’t realize he was still making movie.

    You know what didn’t hold up on a recent review? Pulse.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

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