Saw A City of Sadness. I did not understand it. It followed four brothers living in Taiwan during the tumultuous period after WW2. Japan has surrendered the island to China but the people are restless and want independance. This is my understanding anyway. I don't know the history of Taiwan and according to a quick scan of wikipedia, discussion of this period was (is?) actively suppressed. At any rate in this film there's much upheaval.
The four brothers are used to explore different parts of the Taiwanese subjugation. One gets involved in organized crime, the other remains a small businessman. One brother is deaf and a photographer. This is a clever concept and suggests great depths that I'm not seeing here. As a photographer, he understands the importance of images - what is included in frame and off. In this film we often cut away just before the final gunshot or before the confrontation turns ugly. Sometimes we jump to one of the brothers being brought to a hospital but other times we cut to the rest of the family peacefully eating. The lack of definite answers forces us to guess and infer the proceedings which is very true to what I imagine a post-war chaos would feel like. It is frustrating however and makes the film feel unfinished or censored to me.
I did not understand it however since it deals intimately with a time and place I know nothing about. The symbolic cleverness of the photographer and the excellent visuals lead me to believe that this is a serious, well-thought-out film but lacking even a cursory understanding of the period its commenting on, I'm left sort of in the dark. An interesting film nonetheless.
Nov 25, 2017
Nov 24, 2017
The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!
Saw The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad! a goofy, genial comedy from Leslie Nielsen's tv show. This film is low-stakes, goofball comedy. It has the sweet old-fashioned word-play, sex jokes, and slapstick. It contains many a gag that's perfectly gif-sized. The absolute best gag I thought was when Leslie "refreshes" a stoolie's memory with a few 20s and then, becoming suddenly absentminded, get his memory "refreshed" in kind. Delicious. The rest of the film left me a tad cold because (as I say) it has no stakes and of course because I am fundamentally humorless. The best unintentional gag is the prominent bit-part played by up-and-coming athlete-cum-actor OJ Simpson! The 80s were a wacky time!
The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey
Saw The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey, a film about a band of medieval villagers who follow a young boy's visions into a hole in the earth which brings them to modern New Zealand. I assumed it was going to be a comedy, full of culture clashes and confused medieval dudes reacting to billboards and punks and so on. It is that sort of, but it takes itself way more seriously than I'd thought. There's moments when the medieval dudes react with horror to cars of course, but we're always looking over the shoulders of the protagonists. The cars are indeed frightening.
It feels like a Tarkovsky film, full of abstract visions and tight close-ups. The film itself has a wild, medieval feel, focusing on timeless parts of our society and on dreams and visions. I may be taking it more seriously that I'm supposed to but I thought it was tremendously moving for its premise. It also has Tarkovsky's deep ambiguity. The ending especially casts the whole film in doubt, muddying both what happened in the film and what the film is trying to achieve. Very interesting!
It feels like a Tarkovsky film, full of abstract visions and tight close-ups. The film itself has a wild, medieval feel, focusing on timeless parts of our society and on dreams and visions. I may be taking it more seriously that I'm supposed to but I thought it was tremendously moving for its premise. It also has Tarkovsky's deep ambiguity. The ending especially casts the whole film in doubt, muddying both what happened in the film and what the film is trying to achieve. Very interesting!
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Saw Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, the first in a trilogy of samurai films about this guy becoming a super-cool samurai. The film starts with the protagonist (who is at this point known as Takezo) hungering for glory in the nearby wars. He runs off with his friend to join them but arrives too late. The friend runs off with some shady battle-field corpse-looting woman and her daughter. Our hero returns to his village where he is hunted down like a dog, being suspected of being a deserter or something. The bulk of the film takes place here, with Takezo living like an animal, stealing food and beating up random people he comes across, to save himself from being turned in. We start in these mean surroundings to provide contrast for the alter films, when the noble greatness of samurai-hood happens.
The film was sort of confusing. It's short on explanations and often jumps forwards in time without any helpful "3 years later" subtitle. It is seemingly always a sweltering summer. A character who we met earlier is now in the imperial palace. How has this happened? Some of my confusion is also cultural. It's unclear to me why a kindly monk turns torturer at one point. There's a harsh, didactic feel to much of the proceedings that I think is just due to the nature of epic tales like this. We're meant to see some tough guy get humbled, achieve enlightenment, become a man. How can we convey that this is important if it's not counterintuitive and hard-won? Like many already-adult-becomes-man stories, I found this a bit dour, but it's enjoyable in its self-serious solemnity anyway.
The film was sort of confusing. It's short on explanations and often jumps forwards in time without any helpful "3 years later" subtitle. It is seemingly always a sweltering summer. A character who we met earlier is now in the imperial palace. How has this happened? Some of my confusion is also cultural. It's unclear to me why a kindly monk turns torturer at one point. There's a harsh, didactic feel to much of the proceedings that I think is just due to the nature of epic tales like this. We're meant to see some tough guy get humbled, achieve enlightenment, become a man. How can we convey that this is important if it's not counterintuitive and hard-won? Like many already-adult-becomes-man stories, I found this a bit dour, but it's enjoyable in its self-serious solemnity anyway.
Nov 13, 2017
The Wedding March
Saw The Wedding March, a silent film from the 20s about the prince of an impoverished aristocracy who falls in love with a musician's daughter. Unfortunately, his family intends to marry him off to a wealthy businessman's daughter. C'est la vie. It was fairly slow and uninteresting to me, save for a few things I'll point out here. Silent films in general are slower I think. Their establishing shots are fade-ins/fade-outs. Their characters say words, the words appear, and then they finish saying words. I had to re-caffeinate myself mid-way through.
The interesting bits: There's a color sequence part-way through that must have been a special-effects extravaganza for the time. The colors are nowhere near Gone With The Wind of course, but you can differentiate red from grey, which is nice. Interesting to see what real people in the 20 looked like. Also interesting is the use of medieval knights as a symbol for cold, unfeeling political intrigue. Nowadays we regard knights as romantic figures, saving princesses and nobly loving from afar. Back then though, I suppose the reality was a bit fresher in people's minds. Maybe, I dunno.
Anyway, this movie was homework for me. The story is not uninteresting but it drags on forever and the ultimate message (marry the person you love, dumb dumb) is so done to death. As I say, it's not without merit, and there's some interesting bits near the end, but it was not worth the slog for me. Too late in the day for this stuffy, dreary stuff.
The interesting bits: There's a color sequence part-way through that must have been a special-effects extravaganza for the time. The colors are nowhere near Gone With The Wind of course, but you can differentiate red from grey, which is nice. Interesting to see what real people in the 20 looked like. Also interesting is the use of medieval knights as a symbol for cold, unfeeling political intrigue. Nowadays we regard knights as romantic figures, saving princesses and nobly loving from afar. Back then though, I suppose the reality was a bit fresher in people's minds. Maybe, I dunno.
Anyway, this movie was homework for me. The story is not uninteresting but it drags on forever and the ultimate message (marry the person you love, dumb dumb) is so done to death. As I say, it's not without merit, and there's some interesting bits near the end, but it was not worth the slog for me. Too late in the day for this stuffy, dreary stuff.
Hot Shots! Part Deux
Saw Hot Shots! Part Deux, another wacky action-comedy, this time a parody of the later Rambo films. The first Hot Shots(!) film focussed more on air-force-specific gags, along with the slapstick and gross-out gags. This film doubles-down on the goofy humor, making use of a literal rubber chicken and a lisping Saddam Hussein. It's a very full-throated comedy. Because the stakes are so low, there's not much drama at all and there's basically never any doubt that the heroes will win in the end. As a consequence, it's pretty goofy but fairly insubstantial.
I'm not a huge fan of comedy. I prefer melodrama to gags. This one didn't overcome my internal comedy-shield, but if you like the goofy, no-stakes comedies of the 80s/90s, you'll like this.
I'm not a huge fan of comedy. I prefer melodrama to gags. This one didn't overcome my internal comedy-shield, but if you like the goofy, no-stakes comedies of the 80s/90s, you'll like this.
Momo
Saw Momo, a kid's film about a little homeless girl who befriends an entire sleepy village. She spends her time playing elaborate games with the other children and fixing people's problems in slightly mystical ways (she makes a bird sing again by sitting quietly by it, for instance.) Disaster strikes when men in grey suits from the Time Bank begin demanding efficiency and faster results. Everyone is rushing madly about and it's up to the semi-mystical Momo to fix it again.
The film is cute and whimsical. There's some great pre-CGI special effects on display and some nice sinister business on behalf of the grey suit guys. The film is most comfortable being cute however, and we spend a lot of time watching Momo and the other characters simper at each other. It's a very nice film however and could be some family's little-known, secret favorite.
The film is sort of confusing in parts however. It was produced by Italian filmmakers but the characters are all speaking German. The original book was in German (and written by the same guy who wrote Neverending Story which this film feels very similar to.) Momo herself lives in a cave next to some Colosseum-like ruins. She comes off like a sort of Oracle of Delphi, fixing people's problems and giving life advice. Later on there's a turtle called Cassiopeia. This feels very Italian, however the men in grey suits feel much more German, with their grim efficiency and shaved heads. To confuse matters further, much of the written words in the film are in English. Also (though this may only be my copy) there's a framing story of a guy on a train being told this story by one of the characters which gets completely forgotten once the film ends. Odd.
This is an interesting film. It's message is simple but good and it's fantastical and creative. Go see it!
The film is cute and whimsical. There's some great pre-CGI special effects on display and some nice sinister business on behalf of the grey suit guys. The film is most comfortable being cute however, and we spend a lot of time watching Momo and the other characters simper at each other. It's a very nice film however and could be some family's little-known, secret favorite.
The film is sort of confusing in parts however. It was produced by Italian filmmakers but the characters are all speaking German. The original book was in German (and written by the same guy who wrote Neverending Story which this film feels very similar to.) Momo herself lives in a cave next to some Colosseum-like ruins. She comes off like a sort of Oracle of Delphi, fixing people's problems and giving life advice. Later on there's a turtle called Cassiopeia. This feels very Italian, however the men in grey suits feel much more German, with their grim efficiency and shaved heads. To confuse matters further, much of the written words in the film are in English. Also (though this may only be my copy) there's a framing story of a guy on a train being told this story by one of the characters which gets completely forgotten once the film ends. Odd.
This is an interesting film. It's message is simple but good and it's fantastical and creative. Go see it!
Nov 5, 2017
Lady Snowblood
Saw Lady Snowblood, a Japanese revenge drama about a woman who is hunting for the four gangsters who killed her mother. It's also very clearly the inspiration for Kill Bill. It's extremely theatrical and pretty to look at. Every death is marked with spraying gallons of glistening red paint, usually spraying the titular Lady across the face or something. There's flashbacks to her brutal training regimen with a harsh old master. There's a lot of Kill Bill reference spotting to be done.
This film is very visually splendid. There's not a lot going on emotionally or philosophically, apart from some grim meditations on the nature of revenge. Mostly it's just a badass woman killing a bunch of dudes. It's all in good fun and leads to a satisfying denouement. The image of pristine white snow stained with blood is recurrent, beautiful, and obvious. This film is great, kick-ass fun!
This film is very visually splendid. There's not a lot going on emotionally or philosophically, apart from some grim meditations on the nature of revenge. Mostly it's just a badass woman killing a bunch of dudes. It's all in good fun and leads to a satisfying denouement. The image of pristine white snow stained with blood is recurrent, beautiful, and obvious. This film is great, kick-ass fun!
Nov 4, 2017
The Navigator
Saw The Navigator, a Buster Keaton silent film. It was alright however it did sort of put me to sleep. In this one Buster Keaton is a pampered, rich idiot who sets sail on an abandoned boat after his girlfriend dumps him. The girlfriend is also a rich idiot and is also aboard for fairly thin reasons. They do their best to take care of themselves and lots of comic mischief ensues.
The film was deeply frustrating at parts. We watch them be comically unable to boil an egg, for example. It's very silly but I found myself getting really annoyed at their blithering attempts to do very simple tasks. Later on cannibals get involved (ugh.)
It's not a bad film, just very old and dusty. It has not aged as well as some of Keaton's better work. Either that or I'm just grumpier now. Either way, I didn't like this much.
The film was deeply frustrating at parts. We watch them be comically unable to boil an egg, for example. It's very silly but I found myself getting really annoyed at their blithering attempts to do very simple tasks. Later on cannibals get involved (ugh.)
It's not a bad film, just very old and dusty. It has not aged as well as some of Keaton's better work. Either that or I'm just grumpier now. Either way, I didn't like this much.
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