Saw A Bittersweet Life, a Korean gangster film. It follows an emotionless attack-dog bodyguard of some kind of gangster. He's sent to tail the gangster's girlfriend to see if she's cheating. The girlfriend is sweet and adorable and (as you might be able to predict) awakens the protagonist's long-dormant emotions. If she is not cheating on the gangster, we know, she soon will be. So, the film toddles along. There's some interesting stuff at the beginning involving wind and trees and causality and perception, but this is window-dressing to the real business at hand which is to watch guys in suits fire handguns.
To the film's credit, the gunfights and kick-boxing scenes are spaced out nicely and very sumptuously presented to the viewer. One fight, for instance, takes place in a fur coat warehouse, which allows the hero to lay out a spread of guns on gorgeous white fur. There's the predictable Korean super-melodrama of course, but I felt it meshed nicely with the story of a bodyguard feeling feelings for possibly the first time. This is a nice little film. It didn't hit me in any emotional or intellectual way, but it's a crime flick, so what do you expect?
Sep 26, 2015
Sep 20, 2015
Floating Clouds
Saw Floating Clouds, a black-n-white Japanese film from the 50s about a woman who returns to Japan from French Indochina, following WW2. She cannot find a job and defaults to drifting (in an almost cloud-like manner) between different men. There are two mainstays that she keeps returning to, one Don Juan-ishly infuriating and romantic but chronically unable to keep a job, the other stable but cruel. To complicate matters, the stable man is already married and the Don Juan has a wandering eye. Other women, even delivery-girls, always arouse the protagonist's jealousy and understandably so. The protagonist is almost constantly in a state of flux. Even when her life is relatively stable, we get close-ups of her face looking pained, her eyes glancing sideways, ever suspicious of the sand her life is built on.
The film gives us a bit of cheat-sheet for the state of things with the brightness of the picture. The most idyllic days, when she is in French Indochina, are bright and sunny. When she first meets the cruel man, he insults her causing her to run into a hallway full of plants and venetian blinds, striating her body with shadows. That evening, in the dark of night, she is raped. Later on in the film she is planning a likely-sounding future with her current boyfriend and all seems well until a shadow moves across their faces as they're talking and we know trouble's brewing. There are also rays of hopeful sunlight and cheerful maids in white kimonos.
It's an interesting film but it ultimately is not very optimistic about this refugee woman's chances. She talks of herself as drifting and being rootless. Her fellow-travellers/sufferers are similarly displaced, changing jobs, moving, dying. I was not really in the mood for this sort of film and anyway I prefer the attitude that life is change (so get used to it!) To compound this, my subtitles (oh hated enemy!) were borked in some strange way: all of the 'b's were replaced by 'd's. This lead to some unintentional comedy as everyone bemoans being unable to find a 'jod' or one man telling the protagonist that he's left his 'jod' at the 'dank.' One character mournfully cries about his wife dying of 'tuderculosis' and another cheerfully announces that she has 'drought your dar dill.' Silliness.
The film gives us a bit of cheat-sheet for the state of things with the brightness of the picture. The most idyllic days, when she is in French Indochina, are bright and sunny. When she first meets the cruel man, he insults her causing her to run into a hallway full of plants and venetian blinds, striating her body with shadows. That evening, in the dark of night, she is raped. Later on in the film she is planning a likely-sounding future with her current boyfriend and all seems well until a shadow moves across their faces as they're talking and we know trouble's brewing. There are also rays of hopeful sunlight and cheerful maids in white kimonos.
It's an interesting film but it ultimately is not very optimistic about this refugee woman's chances. She talks of herself as drifting and being rootless. Her fellow-travellers/sufferers are similarly displaced, changing jobs, moving, dying. I was not really in the mood for this sort of film and anyway I prefer the attitude that life is change (so get used to it!) To compound this, my subtitles (oh hated enemy!) were borked in some strange way: all of the 'b's were replaced by 'd's. This lead to some unintentional comedy as everyone bemoans being unable to find a 'jod' or one man telling the protagonist that he's left his 'jod' at the 'dank.' One character mournfully cries about his wife dying of 'tuderculosis' and another cheerfully announces that she has 'drought your dar dill.' Silliness.
Sep 19, 2015
Objectified
Saw Objectified, a documentary about design. It opens with a winning bit of design trivia: that some toothpicks with serrated ends are intended to have those ends broken off and used as toothpick stands. This is a neat little tidbit that suggests a whole secret world of life-hacks and shortcuts that is, of course, bad design. Design, we are told, should be as unobtrusive as possible, as clear as possible. It should produce products that are completely disposable but also much stand the test of time. It must be all things to all men just like (for instance) Apple products are. Let's talk about the iPhone.
Based on the title, I sort of assumed this would be an anti-consumerist message film. I was sort of relieved to find that it is instead a sort of evocative and scattershot series of interviews with famous product designers. They briefly briefly hit upon software user interface design, but just as quickly as it is brought up, it's shied away from and we're watching an old man revving the engine of his vintage, spotless teal truck. They also briefly touch on 3D printers, the emergence of maker culture, and more broadly the way that electronics have revolutionized our lives and our products. It's all very thrilling.
There's not many surprises here however and I frankly enjoyed listening to the absurd and delightful designers talk about their lives and their philosophies. We talk surprisingly little about how things are designed and more about the virtues of the final designs. Japan is fetishized, Apple is praised, environmentalism is brought up like it can be helped by mass-producing more objects. I personally prefer a utilitarian and durable quality to my products (I'm typing this on a desktop my parents got me when I graduated from high school.) During a montage of derelict vacuum-tube monitors and coffee makers sitting on the curb in the rain, I wondered how many of those were broken and how many were just old. I would rather have a plain ceramic mug than one 3D printed out of fibers.
But here I am talking about design, so perhaps this documentary interested me more than I'm willing to admit. It's an interesting conversation-starter and an interesting look into an industry I know little about, just don't expect to see the manufacture of anything, not even designs.
Based on the title, I sort of assumed this would be an anti-consumerist message film. I was sort of relieved to find that it is instead a sort of evocative and scattershot series of interviews with famous product designers. They briefly briefly hit upon software user interface design, but just as quickly as it is brought up, it's shied away from and we're watching an old man revving the engine of his vintage, spotless teal truck. They also briefly touch on 3D printers, the emergence of maker culture, and more broadly the way that electronics have revolutionized our lives and our products. It's all very thrilling.
There's not many surprises here however and I frankly enjoyed listening to the absurd and delightful designers talk about their lives and their philosophies. We talk surprisingly little about how things are designed and more about the virtues of the final designs. Japan is fetishized, Apple is praised, environmentalism is brought up like it can be helped by mass-producing more objects. I personally prefer a utilitarian and durable quality to my products (I'm typing this on a desktop my parents got me when I graduated from high school.) During a montage of derelict vacuum-tube monitors and coffee makers sitting on the curb in the rain, I wondered how many of those were broken and how many were just old. I would rather have a plain ceramic mug than one 3D printed out of fibers.
But here I am talking about design, so perhaps this documentary interested me more than I'm willing to admit. It's an interesting conversation-starter and an interesting look into an industry I know little about, just don't expect to see the manufacture of anything, not even designs.
Dumb and Dumber
Saw Dumb and Dumber (thanks, Chris!) It was the extremely-well-known-if-not-classic tale of two penniless alcoholics who track down a rich woman to bumblingly return her suitcase to her. Along the way, they unwittingly foil a kidnapping scheme, kill a hitman, and beat up a mean ol' bully. The film is half road-trip and half snobs vs slobs comedy. During the roadtrip part, they are trying to get to Aspen without knowing where Aspen is. This bit gets us acquainted with their personalities and also reassures us of their inability to fail into success. When they arrive in Aspen and stumble into wealth, they get to fight over the romantic interests of the suitcase-owning woman by showing up at hotels so ritzy, presidents and kings stay there. To the film's credit, they do not trash those places.
The protagonists are the sort of cartoon idiots who mean no harm. They are miraculously able to function in society despite having apparently no impulse control. They aren't so dumb that they don't know what rain and snow is, for example, or what death is, but when they're down to their last dollar they just can't help buying a giant foam novelty cowboy hat. They're endearing. They do of course kill a hitman, but they only do it with the poison he was going to slip them. If he hadn't meant them any harm, their encounter might have been harmless. Anyway, the film lets them get off more-or-less scot-free ethically speaking.
I didn't find the film hilarious, but neither did I find it tedious or offensive (which is my reaction to a lot of comedies.) It's a charming little film. I get the feeling that I would hate to be in the company of these jokers, but they're entertaining to watch. There's something guileless and sweet about a pair of guys who cry at kodak camera commercials.
The protagonists are the sort of cartoon idiots who mean no harm. They are miraculously able to function in society despite having apparently no impulse control. They aren't so dumb that they don't know what rain and snow is, for example, or what death is, but when they're down to their last dollar they just can't help buying a giant foam novelty cowboy hat. They're endearing. They do of course kill a hitman, but they only do it with the poison he was going to slip them. If he hadn't meant them any harm, their encounter might have been harmless. Anyway, the film lets them get off more-or-less scot-free ethically speaking.
I didn't find the film hilarious, but neither did I find it tedious or offensive (which is my reaction to a lot of comedies.) It's a charming little film. I get the feeling that I would hate to be in the company of these jokers, but they're entertaining to watch. There's something guileless and sweet about a pair of guys who cry at kodak camera commercials.
Sep 13, 2015
Beginners
Saw Beginners, a sophisticated relationship movie of the melancholy, whimsical, Woody Allen variety. The film follows Oliver, a boy raised by parents in a lovely but loveless relationship. After his mother dies Oliver's father comes out as gay and begins to really live and enjoy his life just before dying himself. The film is emphatically not about his father's crazy gay sex life however, but about Oliver who has no idea how relationships with love included actually work. Despite being an artist, Oliver is restrained and bottled up, fearing subtly that he's inherited something from his father that has left him unable to love. Perhaps he's gay, perhaps he was just emotionally neglected, whatever.
He inherits an adorably scruffy Jack Russell terrier who talks to him via subtitles and who symbolizes his father's love. Pathetic and needy, the dog whines when left alone but is also full of surprises. At a party someone asks if the dog does tricks. Oliver gruffly says no, but the dog reacts to sit, speak, shake. Clearly, there are unplumbed depths here. Anyway, at this party Oliver meets a French actress who has similar troubles connecting to people. Being an actress, she is keenly aware that who people are is not the same as what they appear to be. She talks about how much she used to love hopping from fancy hotel room to fancy hotel room but that now they just seem like a long succession of empty rooms, waiting for her. Her father, by the way, only calls her up to talk about killing himself. Nice.
So, the film is really interested in finding out what's making Oliver so sad and finding out if he can ever prove himself wrong and have a serious, strong relationship. The film is cute and melancholy, sophisticated and complex. Everyone's fairly wealthy and if I were in a grumpier mood I would lambaste it for dwelling on the relationship troubles of the rich and comfy. I liked this film. I'm not the most emotionally intelligent person, but I was able to understand its beats and its points. A small, pleasant film, and well done.
He inherits an adorably scruffy Jack Russell terrier who talks to him via subtitles and who symbolizes his father's love. Pathetic and needy, the dog whines when left alone but is also full of surprises. At a party someone asks if the dog does tricks. Oliver gruffly says no, but the dog reacts to sit, speak, shake. Clearly, there are unplumbed depths here. Anyway, at this party Oliver meets a French actress who has similar troubles connecting to people. Being an actress, she is keenly aware that who people are is not the same as what they appear to be. She talks about how much she used to love hopping from fancy hotel room to fancy hotel room but that now they just seem like a long succession of empty rooms, waiting for her. Her father, by the way, only calls her up to talk about killing himself. Nice.
So, the film is really interested in finding out what's making Oliver so sad and finding out if he can ever prove himself wrong and have a serious, strong relationship. The film is cute and melancholy, sophisticated and complex. Everyone's fairly wealthy and if I were in a grumpier mood I would lambaste it for dwelling on the relationship troubles of the rich and comfy. I liked this film. I'm not the most emotionally intelligent person, but I was able to understand its beats and its points. A small, pleasant film, and well done.
Sep 12, 2015
The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Saw The Good, The Bad, The Weird, a Korean take on the Good/Bad/Ugly western film. Like that film, it too is set in the middle of a civil war, this one the war for Korean independence. We follow three dudes (the titular good, bad, and weird guy) who are hunting for a treasure map. The good dude is an American-style cowboy, complete with stetson and six-shooter. The bad guy is a gangster, with starched suit and hair fetchingly combed over one eye. The "weird" guy most closely resembles a mongolian bandit (though I'm probably misinterpreting things.) This anarchic, collage-ish mixture of genres and styles mirrors the entire film, which merrily bounces along from town-wide shootout to tense standoff to jolly train robbery. Even the nature of the central treasure map is confusing. Does it show the way to Japanese war treasure or to Qin-dynasty riches? Or is it actually a map of military positions? Does it really matter?
the film is a lot of fun, always upping the ante and trying to top itself. Somewhere near the climax of the film, the three protagonists are chasing each other, each with their associated gang of mongolians, gangsters, and sheriffs trailing behind, and behind them, the entirety of the Japanese army, and behind them artillery. Amazing bullshit. This is not a film to take tremendously seriously, but it's a lot of freewheeling, mashed-up fun.
the film is a lot of fun, always upping the ante and trying to top itself. Somewhere near the climax of the film, the three protagonists are chasing each other, each with their associated gang of mongolians, gangsters, and sheriffs trailing behind, and behind them, the entirety of the Japanese army, and behind them artillery. Amazing bullshit. This is not a film to take tremendously seriously, but it's a lot of freewheeling, mashed-up fun.
Sep 7, 2015
The Life of Oharu
Saw The Life of Oharu, a fairly depressing Japanese film from the 50s. It follows Oharu, now a 50-year-old prostitute, as she recalls her entire life up to that point. She began life as the daughter of a samurai in the court and falls precipitously from there to nobleman's courtesan to shopkeeper's wife to servant to prostitute. Her life is punctuated by an almost absurd degree of bad luck and misfortune. Every time she narrowly escapes a bad situation, people from her past come bubbling up, ruining her all over again. The is a sad film and, like most sad films, wants to change your mind about something. In this film that something is class divisions.
There is a theme of bridges, walls, and gates. The first lines in the film are spoken by giggling whore, rebuking a john for coming to this side of the city gates. We first see Oharu warming herself by a fire under a bridge. In her past, when she is first expelled from the palace, she is walking across a bridge. The camera shifts and peers at her from under the bridge, optically placing the bridge above her. This is a foreshadowing of things to come and an illustration of the film's interests. There are those who walk above the bridge, and there is the muck beneath it, but these distinctions are completely arbitrary. We do not know what placed the beggar on the street corner and thus shouldn't judge. Of course we do though because it flatters us and allows us to feel deserving of our own comfort. Similarly to the bridge symbol, many walls in the film stand broken, and all gates are open.
In Oharu's case her sexual history in particular is used to discredit her. Pre-emptive jealousy of women and the lust of men are her frequent undoing. At one point, a rich farmer takes an interest in her because she alone is not grovelling for his money. He asks her to marry him and, after reasoning that this might be the best she can do, he gloatingly crows that even she has her price. This is the film at its most frank. We are all corruptible. We are all looking for comfort and respect. We are all trying to stay alive. This levelling of the human race echoes the teachings of many religions and indeed the film ends with a soulful song about Buddha, but the film doesn't let organized religion off either. At one point near the end, Oharu is exhibited to a bunch of young monks to show them the folly of earthly desires, to scare them into a life of celibacy. By this point her dignity is so eroded that she is at least relieved that she didn't have to sleep with anyone. A sad, ponderous film about man's inhumanity to man.
There is a theme of bridges, walls, and gates. The first lines in the film are spoken by giggling whore, rebuking a john for coming to this side of the city gates. We first see Oharu warming herself by a fire under a bridge. In her past, when she is first expelled from the palace, she is walking across a bridge. The camera shifts and peers at her from under the bridge, optically placing the bridge above her. This is a foreshadowing of things to come and an illustration of the film's interests. There are those who walk above the bridge, and there is the muck beneath it, but these distinctions are completely arbitrary. We do not know what placed the beggar on the street corner and thus shouldn't judge. Of course we do though because it flatters us and allows us to feel deserving of our own comfort. Similarly to the bridge symbol, many walls in the film stand broken, and all gates are open.
In Oharu's case her sexual history in particular is used to discredit her. Pre-emptive jealousy of women and the lust of men are her frequent undoing. At one point, a rich farmer takes an interest in her because she alone is not grovelling for his money. He asks her to marry him and, after reasoning that this might be the best she can do, he gloatingly crows that even she has her price. This is the film at its most frank. We are all corruptible. We are all looking for comfort and respect. We are all trying to stay alive. This levelling of the human race echoes the teachings of many religions and indeed the film ends with a soulful song about Buddha, but the film doesn't let organized religion off either. At one point near the end, Oharu is exhibited to a bunch of young monks to show them the folly of earthly desires, to scare them into a life of celibacy. By this point her dignity is so eroded that she is at least relieved that she didn't have to sleep with anyone. A sad, ponderous film about man's inhumanity to man.
Sep 6, 2015
American Movie
Saw American Movie, a documentary about the eternal, three-year quest to make a 34-minute film and the eternal, nine-years-and-counting quest to make a full-length film called Northwestern. The man behind this is Mark, a man in his late 20s who delivers newspapers and begs money from everyone he knows. He bemoans his father's stinginess but reveals later that he is 36k in debt to him already. He presses on, Ed Wood-esque, in the face of incompetence and roadblocks. At one point his long-time friend Mike (who is clearly reeling from some kind of harrowing, youthful drug adventures (some of which he talks about)) calls a halt to the filming because his soda is going to freeze if it's sitting there on the snow like that.
The film is an odd mix of sad, funny, and inspiring. I am interested in the idea of pursuing bad dreams and was smugly folding my arms through most of this, content to consign his film to a pipe dream, but then his actual film is shown and it's clearly amateur but it's not terrible by any means. It looks almost downright intriguing (heck, I added it to my to-see list.) When he talks about his films it's evocative and stirring but then he starts raving about how sitting around, getting drunk and dreaming is what the American dream is all about. At one point, drunk, he hurls a stream of invective at the factory-workers of the world. Of course though, a factory job would really not be that bad for him, it would just require giving up his dream.
The film fed into my interests and I think his dream is not bad per se, it's just that Mark isn't rich enough to actually pull it off and wasn't born in a time when digital film and editing software was cheap and ubiquitous. We are left with a huge dose of delusion keeping what is ultimately a small dream afloat. It's fairly depressing but then the mood is kept light by the gloriously absent Mike and Mark's hilariously dour and dodderingly ancient relatives (whom he lectures for not having ambitious dreams, naturally.) The whole thing is kind of a freak show which turns out to be the best hour-long trailer for a 30-minute short ever.
The film is an odd mix of sad, funny, and inspiring. I am interested in the idea of pursuing bad dreams and was smugly folding my arms through most of this, content to consign his film to a pipe dream, but then his actual film is shown and it's clearly amateur but it's not terrible by any means. It looks almost downright intriguing (heck, I added it to my to-see list.) When he talks about his films it's evocative and stirring but then he starts raving about how sitting around, getting drunk and dreaming is what the American dream is all about. At one point, drunk, he hurls a stream of invective at the factory-workers of the world. Of course though, a factory job would really not be that bad for him, it would just require giving up his dream.
The film fed into my interests and I think his dream is not bad per se, it's just that Mark isn't rich enough to actually pull it off and wasn't born in a time when digital film and editing software was cheap and ubiquitous. We are left with a huge dose of delusion keeping what is ultimately a small dream afloat. It's fairly depressing but then the mood is kept light by the gloriously absent Mike and Mark's hilariously dour and dodderingly ancient relatives (whom he lectures for not having ambitious dreams, naturally.) The whole thing is kind of a freak show which turns out to be the best hour-long trailer for a 30-minute short ever.
Sep 5, 2015
Ida
Saw Ida (thanks, Timp!) It was a black and white Polish film. Rather austere, the film follows the titular character Ida who is a novice nun. Before she takes her vows, she must visit her only relative, a female judge of some kind, named Wanda. Ida expresses a desire to see her family's grave and Wanda reveals that she and Ida's family are jewish, so that's going to be tricky. This kicks off a quest for the two women to find their past and put that past to bed.
Whereas Ida is always sitting silently, observing the world through giant, mouse-like eyes, Wanda is aggressive and troubled, proudly talking about her days as a prosecution lawyer, and about how many people she sent to death. "Red Wanda, that's me." Lacking faith in a just god, she seeks vengeance and closure. She is doing this for justified but selfish reasons. Ida meanwhile is removed from the situation and wants to help the clearly troubled Wanda but does not know how to. She also has her own troubles involving her upcoming vow. Exposed to the secular world for the first time ever, she finds it full of moral ambiguities and cute saxophone players.
The film is subtly shot and subtly acted. The characters both hold their emotions close to their chests and often us poor audience-members can only tell what they're feeling by what they're not doing. Example: when Ida and Wanda finally find the grave, Wanda moves stiffly and does not make any display of emotion. I feel like I haven't quite got the feel of the the film yet. There's probably much more to be said about the Polish holocaust and about victimhood being used as a weapon, but I'm much more interested in the oblique, obscure characters. This is not an easy film but it's interesting and sincere.
Whereas Ida is always sitting silently, observing the world through giant, mouse-like eyes, Wanda is aggressive and troubled, proudly talking about her days as a prosecution lawyer, and about how many people she sent to death. "Red Wanda, that's me." Lacking faith in a just god, she seeks vengeance and closure. She is doing this for justified but selfish reasons. Ida meanwhile is removed from the situation and wants to help the clearly troubled Wanda but does not know how to. She also has her own troubles involving her upcoming vow. Exposed to the secular world for the first time ever, she finds it full of moral ambiguities and cute saxophone players.
The film is subtly shot and subtly acted. The characters both hold their emotions close to their chests and often us poor audience-members can only tell what they're feeling by what they're not doing. Example: when Ida and Wanda finally find the grave, Wanda moves stiffly and does not make any display of emotion. I feel like I haven't quite got the feel of the the film yet. There's probably much more to be said about the Polish holocaust and about victimhood being used as a weapon, but I'm much more interested in the oblique, obscure characters. This is not an easy film but it's interesting and sincere.
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