Why are Japanese films so terrible?

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Japan easily has the highest ratio of Dinosaur vs Robot films in their arsenal and yet they always seem a little bit lacklustre. Apart from Emma's ex who else would be scared or even convinced of the fairness of the fight between Godzilla and Mothra.

And what about that Beat Takeshi. He's all po-faced moody yakuza shite. Has Japanese cinema got anything worth offering?

― Pete, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

It is indeed an enduring mystery that despite the formula of Dinosaur fighting Robot being the scientifically proven best use of cinema, films where it happens are a bit rubbish. I conclude that film is still an art form in its infancy.

― Tom, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

sorry Pete, but i love the japanese monster films of (what, late 60s i guess). the best bits though, are the extended bits where there are no monsters, and everything looks like one of Martin Parr's Boring Postcards and earnest Japanese men in orange boiler suits speak excitedly. having said that, the bits with the monsters are cool too. my fave today is Rodan.

― gareth, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Well Mothra was the biz, remember those weird little girls with their mesmeric siren song, hey were kick ass. & Gojira = o'course KLASSICK w/ 2 Ks. I don't know any modern jap fillums tho, i am the least movie-enthusiast-like creature on these 10 planets.

― duane, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Mabarosi = gratest film of all time (abt how losing yr loved ones to death equals OK really and no big deal)

Gojira movie feat.Smog Monster (Jap version) = second gratest film of all time. At one point they convene a MAJOR ROCK CONCERT ATOP A MOUNTAIN to dispel the demons of pollution, you think ver kidz are going to save the universe god that's lame, but ROCK CONCERT FAILS!! Only a jumping man in a rubbish rubber suit will do!!

― mark s, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

weird little girls = THE PEANUTS!!

― mark s, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

what do you people think of Akira Kurosawa?

― lady die, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Sonatine is a classic. Ring is pretty good too.

― tom, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

But Ring 2 really drops the ball. Time Out are so wrong about the Ring films. The first one is a good idea, and executed pretty well - albeit the entire middle section being pointless fluff. That's a one hell of a scary eye.

Ring 2 fails to capitalise on the idea of the first film, and ends up in some sort of no mans land of schlocky pseudo horror. Pity. I hear Ring 0 (the prequel) is appalling too.

I of course rather like some Japanese films - and think After-Life is genius. I am looking forward to Battle Royale with more than a bit of interest.

― Pete, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Kurasowa - classic until he entered venerable old age and got told too often he was a genius by US movie brats (eg 'Ran'. 'Kagemusha' etc. = ponderous guff). Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Nagisa Oshima the true kings of Japanese art cinema. Also, 'Babycart' series (aka 'Lone Wolf and Cub' or 'Shogun Assassin') the best ultraviolence ever.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Violent Cop = true nihilistic poem.

Tokyo Fist = best.film.ever

followed by 7 Samurai

― Omar, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Were the Gamera films Japanese or Korean?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Well, I like Ran a lot. Some people might say I'm into ponderous guff (I like Koyaanisqatsi and 2001 a lot) but I think Ran has a lot of beautiful shots (ex. the burning castle), tension, and unpredictability for something that I knew ahead of time was based on King Lear. The couple of 60s Kurosawa films I've seen, Yojimbo and Sanjuro, are friggin Classic. Great, *fun*, not-stupid action/adventure. I believe his last film was called Dreams; watched some of it, looked like ponderous guff...didn't watch much, though, admittedly. I also watched Ingmar Bergman's Dreams, which was prob the *least* ponderous guff of his...

Didn't get much outta Violent Cop at all. He was a violent cop though, truth in titling there...

Godzilla vs Smog Monster, liked that one a bunch back in the day. The kids on the mountain were playing surf music on psychedelic Fenders, right?

― Chris, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Yes, the pore deluded fools. US version = not as totally way out odd as Japanese version, however. The Smog Monster and his sexy sister Judy star in Gary Panter's comic Jimbo.

― mark s, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Great Japanese films: "Akira", any Kurosawa film I've seen, "Audition" (the scariest film ever made)

Quite Good: "Ghost In The Shell", "Branded to Kill" (or is it "Branded to Thrill"? I mean the one with the hitman who is sexually aroused by the smell of cooking rice), "Violent Cop" (if only for the ending), "Ring" (not as scarey as people say, especially not on my tiny computer screen)

Pants, but bizarre non western pants (and therefore nevertheless interesting): "Roujin-Z" (see robotic beds fight!)

― The Dirty Vicar, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Have to see Gohatto when I get back from France. After-Life is the bomb and I'm totally immune to the horror genre.

― suzy, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Perfect Blue is great too, if I remember correctly. Haven't seen Ring 2 yet, but loved the first one because it was so silly.

― Paul Strange, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Tampopo by Juzo Itami has to be seen to be believed. I hate to use the word meditation about a movie (coz it's so pretentious), but hey it's a meditation on cooking noodles, sex and the pursuit of an ideal. If nothing else it's the best movie I know about noodle cooking.

― Billy Dods, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Ikinai is easily the wittiest mass-suicide attempt I've seen in a while.

What about when Godzilla does the highland fling? That was funny! Ha ha ha!

― He's Not Here, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Anyone here seen Eureka? Surely the best thing I've seen in years, and the best 4-hour film I can think of. Plus -- even if you don't like Jim O'Rourke -- contains one of the most effective film/song convergences I've ever come across.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

the eel

― anthony, Friday, 3 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Tampopo was [mildly] notorious for the kiss-the-egg-gloop scene, no? That fillum was generally considered (generally = me) to be the Japanese 9-1/2 Weeks. ('Cept obv. better cuz didn't feature twunts Mickey Rourke & Kim Basinger. Or Joe Cocker.)

― AP, Friday, 3 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

Nit*uh - Eureka possibly the greatest film ever? Well, close. Close to Ratcatcher for beautiful cinematography. If I wasn't starting work tomorrow (no thanks to you Alang) I'd go and watch it right now. I wish I could say something more interesting - you ever feel so strongly about something that you wish people who you admire would go see it? Well I feel this way about Eureka. (And all those Scottish books on that old thread I revived.)

You've made my day Ni*tsuh.

― david h(0wie), Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

And - The Eel is good too. Quite like Eureka in its second half sombre introspection. Also good: In The Realm of the Senses.

― david h(0wie), Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yep, lots of good suggestions here, except no one has mentioned Kon Ichikawa. An Actor's Revenge is a masterpiece. Annoyingly, after seeing this maybe ten years ago I have kept an eye open for a chance to see more by him, without luck.

― Martin Skidmore, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Battle royale! Come on!

― Matt, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Just saw Rintaro's "Metropolis" at the IFF, & I haven't felt like glomping a movie in years (well, two). One of the best cities-as- protagonist, & I have a weak spot for at least four of the characters. Also, the obligatory apocalypse was very, very pretty. & so sad, (cry).

Kurosawa a stunning director - I think I've sought out & seen more films by him than anyone else. "Ikiru"'s my favourite - heh, it's a shame the west tends to get fixated on his period pieces (which are also amazing, but still) . . .

I'm surprised that Yasujiro Ozu isn't more well known (well, he's known but he's revered at home) outside Japan- "Tokyo Story" & "Umarete Wa Mita Keredo" (usually translated as either "Although I Was Born . . . " or "I Was Born But . . .") convey some vague, terrifying humanity (& the latter is the best film-from-perspective- of-small-child made, probably).

(& the usual suspects - "Akira", "Princess Mononoke", "Ghost In The Shell", & the two "Tetsuo" films seethe).

― Ess Kay, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Martin, you are in luck since in August the NFT are running a Kon Ichikawa season - pretty much all his films. I'll certainly be picking up a couple.

― Pete, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

what did david h mean about no thanks to me?? (sorry, if i've forgotten something terribly important)

I STILL HAVEN'T SEEN PRINCESS MONONOKE. Is there/has there been showings of his new film yet? (something like "wandering spirits" - can't recall right now)

― Alan T, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Haha, sorry Alan - just I'm starting at Bishopbriggs HarperCollins distribution division and I remember vaguely jokingly chiding you into harrying internals into rushing my application through. Nothing serious meant by it obv.

― david h(0wie), Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ooh, thanks Pete - I shall look into this ASAP.

And Ozu makes it hard for me to remember if I've seen a particular film, since every other one is called 'Late Spring' or 'Early Autumn' or 'That Bit Just Before Winter When All The Leaves Have Finally Fallen But It's Not That Cold Yet' or something like that.

― Martin Skidmore, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

have you ever seen mizoguchi´s 'sansho dayu', "street of shame' or 'life of oharu'? what about naruse´s 'when a woman ascends the stairs' or ozu´s 'tokyo story'? are you familiar with shindo´s 'robo no ishii' or kitano´s 'kids return'?
calling japanese films terrible is terrible wrong!

― michael zZzz, Sunday, 6 October 2002 06:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

By the way, I saw 8 or 9 of the Ichikawa films in that season. None of them was as magnificent as An Actor's Revenge, but all of them were strange and wonderful films. Ten Dark Women may have been the pick of the bunch, I think.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 6 October 2002 09:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

Takeshi's films i like. haven't seen any works from any other directors.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 6 October 2002 10:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

Were the Gamera films Japanese or Korean?

I dunno, but it's kinda irrelevant, considering the universality of their wonderful theme song:

You are groovy Gamera
groovy, groovy Gamera

Betcha that Rock concert to stop pollution would've worked if they'd played that!

― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 6 October 2002 13:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

Kurasawa's Dode'skaden = classic
Is Rashomon Kurasawa? i think so, well another great one there.

is anyone familiar with Terayama's cinematic output?
(Emperor Tomatoketchup, where children rule the world and have grown ups as there slaves, and Throw away your books, go out into the streets! which is like a japanese Brecht protest film)

― erik, Sunday, 6 October 2002 14:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

Gamera is really neat, he is full of turtle meat, we've been eating GA-ME-RA!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 6 October 2002 14:17 (10 years ago) Permalink

Rashomon was the Kurosawa that brought him to the attention of the west, for whatever that is worth. Still the best rain scenes ever.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 6 October 2002 14:56 (10 years ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

I saw Gohatto last night and loved it. I think I love Takeshi for all the reasons most people hate him (see Pete's initial post). I have Cruel Story Of Youth to watch tonight. *excited*

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Monday, 28 April 2003 11:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Zaticoichi, The Blind Samurai film series are quite fun. IFC has been showing one every Saturday morning for months and I check out one from time to time.

Nothing like eating cornflakes and watching a blind masseuse take out a dozen people in a few seconds with a katana hidden in a cane.

― earlnash, Monday, 28 April 2003 12:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

Is the pacing annoyingly slow in english-dubbed anime films' dialogue sequences because japanese speech takes longer than english or am I imagining things?

― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 28 April 2003 15:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

Cruel Story of Youth is fucking incredible. Watch for the scene with the apple.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 28 April 2003 16:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

have you ever seen mizoguchi´s 'sansho dayu', "street of shame' or 'life of oharu'?

Yes! Mizoguchi is less known than he should be. Other good films of his are "Sisters of the Gion", "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums", "Women of the Night", "Miss Oyû", "Tales of Ugetsu", "Gion Festival Music", "The Woman of Rumour" and "The Tale of the Crucified Lovers".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 06:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

;; I saw SPIRITED AWAY yesterday. finally.

― Erik, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 06:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

what everyone else said + kiyoshi kurosawa.

― brian badword (badwords), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 07:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

Can someone name a particularly good japanese monster
movie I watched once that starred a giant human
that battled monsters? "Adventures of" may have
been in the title, and the power rangers bit his look.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:08 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mizoguchi is the greatest director ever to walk the earth -- don't get me started.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

I thought I was a Mizoguchi fan, a bit, but I confess I've not seen his giant monster movies.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 18:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

The poignant tale of Mothra's young daughter, who is forced to become the mistress of a petty-bourgeois shop owner to support her younger sister. Soon, the shop owner dies and Mothrita is taken in by a brutal pimp. After she is beaten by the pimp, she returns to her sister and despairs of the plight of female Mothrites.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ah, yeah, of course. I saw that years ago, before any of you. I just forgot it for a minute.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

Some of my fave Japanese movies:

Toky Decadence
Tetsuo
Tampopo
Akira
Audition

Spirited Away hasn't had its official release in Belgium. Waiting.

Jan

― Jan Geerinck (jahsonic), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

i love japanese films

Search: Ugetsu, Onibaba, Kwaidan, Audition, DeadorAlive, Battle Royale, Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, Electric Dragon 80000, Angel Dust, Ringu, Blind Beast, Tokyo Drifter, Sonatine, Hana-bi, Afterlife, Hole in the Sky, In the Realm of the Senses, Tampopo, Throne of Blood, Bullet Ballet, Uzumaki, and random Godzilla films i liked as a child.

there should be more Kurosawa, Miyazaki and Ozu and stuff but they somehow don't fall as much into my "canon". maybe i am just being contrarian.

Still must see: Dark Water, Love & Pop, Gemini, Happiness of the Katakuris, A Snake of June, Juon, Eureka, Cure, Tokyo Decadence, Branded to Kill

― Honda (Honda), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 22:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

Iron Man Tetsuo owns this thread for sucking and being totally awesome at the same time.

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 22:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

"All About Lily Chou-Chou" is good.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 23:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

What????

Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time! The 'Baby Cart' series are AMAZING! The Godzilla films from the 60s (especially) are great fun with tremendous scope photography and set design and modern Japanese cinema has belched out such instant classics as 'Audition', 'Tokyo Fist', 'Uzumaki', 'Hypnosis' and 'Dark Water'. I saw 'Inugami' last week and it has style for sale! Man, they know how to make a film look good in Japan.

Kill this thread. I mean, whatever next - Hong Kong cinema, a load of shit or wot???!!!???!!!

― Calum, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 23:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

"All About Lily Chou Chou" IS good.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 5 January 2004 19:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

I didn't like it

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 04:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ugh, I just saw "Ichi the Killer" and it was terrible.

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 05:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

I enjoy much Japanese cinema. Takeshi Kitano is one of my faves; search "Kids Return", "Sonatine", and "Kikujiro" for sure, also "Metropolis", "Grave of the Fireflies", and "Spirited Away" for anime. "The Eel" was good, I also liked "Shall we Dance?". I'm far from the toughest critic though; I don't require that films be the pinnacle of their respective genres for me to admit to liking them. I consider the above to be entertaining and interesting, with fairly unique storylines, and a refreshing change from the usual mainstream American garbage I'm exposed to here in the States.

― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 16:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

There are plenty of other threads in this series to collect.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

Phil, where did you see Ichi at?

― dean gulberry (deangulberry), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

they had the DVD of Ichi at Kim's Video here in New York... Don't bother though. It was really really bad. The story was stupid/confusing and the gore was pretty silly.

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've got the DVD of Ichi, one of the very few freebies I got last year. Nasty.

Note for people who haven't seen Afterlife, the Ritzy is showing as its world cinema matinee all week from Friday. 1-ish I think, £3 a pop. I am ver ver tempted to go see again.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 10:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

I agree that Ichi was quite bad, the plot was muddled and the sick humour wasn't as funny as in other films of Miike, for example Visitor Q.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 11:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

kazuki tomokawa is in the new miike movie (with beat takeshi). i probably still won't see it.

"bright future" was pretty good.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 13:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

My downstairs neighbor, who is big on such types of films, showed me Ichi The Killer last night. I couldn't really concentrate on it but at the very least I thought it's sadomasochistc take on the whole Batman vs. Joker concept was intriguing. I might not have noticed it unless he pointed it out (the bad guy's grin, his purple and green clothes, etc.). Did anyone else catch that element?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 24 January 2004 01:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

I couldn't really concentrate on it

because we were yammering about stuff and it was really, really gross.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 24 January 2004 01:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

He also showed me Battle Royale, which I hadn't seen yet. I found that more horrifying than Ichi in its own way, and definitely superior.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 24 January 2004 01:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

As pete mentioned on another thread Ozu's tokyo story is being shown daily at the NFT till next thursday. I caught it yesterday and it was some of the most moving cinema I've ever seen.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 24 January 2004 10:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

:-D

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 January 2004 13:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

i saw Ktano's Zaitochi yesterday as opening film to the Rotterdam Film Festival. Samurai turns to Riverdance.

― Eriik, Saturday, 24 January 2004 13:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

yeah but just for the last three minutes which felt like a cheat to me

although i guess the dancing is foreshadowed a few times

that film left me pretty cold overall

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 26 January 2004 11:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

bump

anyone for Hiroshi Teshigahara?

http://www.bfi.org.uk/showing/nft/teshigahara/calendar/index.php

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 18 July 2004 18:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm going to three of them, Julio - Pitfall on Tuesday, Face Of Another on Thursday, then Rikyu on the Wednesday or Friday of the following week. An old friend is coming to the first two with me (no one you know) but you're obviously more than welcome to come along too - and I'm currently on my own for Rikyu, so if you fancy either showing of that say the word.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 18 July 2004 20:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

cool, I'm seeing 'woman of the dunes' tomorrow. won't be there on tue, will try and make it to thurs.

Will def see 'rikyu' the following week.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 18 July 2004 21:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

Anyone seen Suicide Club?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 18 July 2004 21:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

I love Japanese cinema. Audition, Gate of Flesh, Spirited Away and the rest of the anime films, Naked Blood, Stacy etc... Sure some of it is tacky, but it's good fun. Trying to say that Japanese cinema is all about giant monsters attacking cities is like trying to say American movies are all about cowboys and indians.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 18 July 2004 21:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

Contemporary Japanese cinema has it's own clichés, and once you get used to them they can be as irritating as their Hollywood counterparts. This applies especially to anime, which is fun for awhile, but gets really boring once you've seen enough of it. There are gems there, like Miyazaki's flicks, but a lot of the stuff that's imported to the West is mediocre shite aimed at the fanboy market.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 18 July 2004 21:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

We rented "Suicide Club" last week - really good, albeit disturbing. Much graphic violence, much mystery, much schoolgirls leaping to their deaths on the subway track. What more can you want?

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Sunday, 18 July 2004 23:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

Has anyone seen the three most recent Seijun Suzuki films released on DVD (Underworld Beauty, Kanto Wanderer, Tattooed Life)? The first is a yakuza noir and the latter two are period yakuza films in color, I believe.

I found UB at Borders this weekend, but haven't had a chance to watch it.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 18 July 2004 23:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

Julio (and any other interested parties): I saw Pitfall tonight, and it was GREAT! I'm really looking forward to the next two now.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah, saw 'woman...' and almost certain to see it again, I did a thread on ilm abt toru takemitsu just after seeing it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

So is anyone on for Rikyu on Wednesday (8.20) or Friday (8.40) night? I'm definitely going.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

DVDs of the two Ju-on TV movies (predating the Ju-on:Grudge two theatrical versions) arrived this morning, hopefully I'll get the chance to watch at least one tonight. Are they really better than the 'remakes', as I've read?

Suicide Circle/Club is genius, yes - but is it any better than Uzumaki? I think not, although for non-horror material Wild Zero is about as good as it gets.

Someone on this thread might know... I've managed to pick up a fantran of the second Ringu TV series (Saishuushou/'The Final Chapter') - has anyone ever seen a subbed version of either the first (Ring: Kanzenban, admittedly only a one-off rather than a series) or third series (Rasen: The Series)?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 07:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

the new sarah michelle gellar movie (remake of ju-on) is directed by takashi shimizu!!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 14:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

I should be going on friday martin.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 14:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

Great! I'll go on Friday too!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

cool, see you there.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

revive!

director mentioned upthread:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7943-1342630,00.html

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 4 November 2004 21:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

I am about to watch Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure". What should I expect?

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 21:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

it is um... extreme

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 4 November 2004 21:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

I do not know if I will enjoy it, then. Is it like Takashi Miike? The jacket promises noir. I want noir.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 21:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah, it's kind of Noir. The most famous movie it's like is Seven, but more noir than that.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 4 November 2004 21:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

anybody see "Thirteen Consecutive Slaughter" ?
The entire plot consists of this guy killing 13 women one after the other while free-jazz sax wails in the background. It was ok.

― Loose Translation: Sexy Dancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

i have Visitor Q because someone loaned it to me and I never got around to watching it. Is it good? Will it unnerve me?

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

No, haven't seen that one!

xpost

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

Visitor Q is great if you're in the right mood. It's attempts to disturb you are pretty hilarious.

― Dan Quisenberry (deangulberry), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:38 (8 years ago) Permalink

You just like it because it's Japanese.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

it's good. if you can make it past the opening scene (which is disturbing, the sense of humor becomes more apparent.

it's just a nice story about the modern japanese every-family.

― (Jon L), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

Visitor Q is a very odd movie, really unpleasant to watch in places, but also hugely entertaining.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 4 November 2004 22:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

I am about to watch Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure". What should I expect?

the best movie ever!! well second best. but certianly the scariest. hook up your player to your stereo if you can because the soundtrakc is crazy like eraserhead.

― :| (....), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

I watched akira kurosawa's 'throne of blood' today, strangely apposite that he should change the ending of macbeth so that the army do not advance on the fort and kill the macbeth character but (haha naively hopeful? idealistic?! sigh) he has the mad crazy tyrant's own troops revolt and gun him down in a hail of arrows, eventually (haha holy figurative guacamole batman!) being speared through the throat (or voice-box) literally 'silenced'. would that republicans watched kurosawa.

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

I thought the film ok by the way and I'm not normally trapped into such ropey reductive mathematical nuts bolts brass tacks addition and subtraction analysis of films but I thought it kinda apt just this once to say. you know, it stuck in my craw.

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

you've changed.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

I can change back.

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

damn we should have watched that on halloween rather than the comparatively unfrightening albeit good The Dead Zone

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

It wasn't as good as I remembered, frankly.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

you've changed.

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

a private eye who is flamboyantly gay in a prussian way

I wish I understood what this meant.

xpost I know

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 23:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

imagine john banner from hogans heroes channelign alan cumming and youre almost there. have you seen cure already?

― :| (....), Friday, 5 November 2004 00:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

No, still at work.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Friday, 5 November 2004 00:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 5 November 2004 00:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

I just watched Kinji Fukasaku's Blackmail Is My Life, it was a lot of fun, even if a couple of parts didn't make sense (which I think was a problem with the subtitling). I need to get the other two DVDs of his that just got released.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 7 November 2004 08:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

Late Spring is just sooooo good. I can understand why younger directors rebeled against Ozu because he was very *tranquil* but still Ozu rules! :-)

We also saw Audition which wasn't perfect but still very good. Also about Japanese society.

― jesus nathalie (nathalie), Sunday, 7 November 2004 10:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Pulse" has been released from Miramax Purgatory -- playing in a few cities, DVD shortly. I saw it 3 years ago, and a couple shots in particular haunts me still.

Prob'ly off to see Mizoguchi's "Sansho the Bailiff" tonight...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 20:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

I just sprung for the Criterion Ugetsu the other day.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 20:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

sansho is so great

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

The 47 Ronin was on recently, but I didn't get around to watching it.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

Koji Wakamatsu's 'Go Go Second-Time Virgin' from 1969 is harsh stuff but worth tracking down if you like Miike's 'Audition' and 'Visitor Q'

I've been overdosing on the 3 DVD set of Toshio Matsumoto's Experimental Film Works 1961-1987. I can't believe I didn't know about this guy, utterly beautiful abstract film & video works all set to blazing period electronic scores -- expensive but worth it -- if you're only getting one, get Volume 2

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

Wild Zero is endlessly classic.

― kingfish hobo juckie (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

haven't seen Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses yet though

Black Lizard, one of my favorite films. not on this thread yet. I think there are very few people on this thread who wouldn't love that film.

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Go Go Second-Time Virgin" is OK, but the Wakamatsu interview included on the DVD is golden!

Wild Zero is amazing!

"LOVE KNOWS NO NATIONALITIES, BOUNDARIES OR GENDER! ROCKNROLL!"

― Polysix Bad Battery (cprek), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Companion threads:

Why are the French such lousy cooks?

Jews got no sense of humor. Am I right?

Why is our president so damn smart?

― M. V. (M.V.), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 01:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

Why are Brazilians so bad at soccer?

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 03:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

have we done a why are american films so terrible?

we should

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

anyone seen any imai tadashi?

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

Not I.

I watched Mizoguchi's Sisters of the Gion last night... short, bleak and grim. I prefer his '30s visual palette to Ozu's or Naruse's.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

Swa Kobayashi's Harakiri the other night -- yow, that early bamboo sword scene...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

"Vital" convinced me that Tsukamoto is the best director since Tarkovsky.

― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:21 (6 years ago) Permalink

Morbz, Sleep and I are going to go see this Sunday:

http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff06_yokai.htm

$9 + $1 if you buy online

― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:26 (6 years ago) Permalink

Dave - that's the guy who did Tetsuo, yes (I think Netflix messed up the Romanization of his name)?

― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:30 (6 years ago) Permalink

responding to haterz upthread

Was Ichi the Killer that hard to follow? I didn't think so. The special effects in it were silly/bad but it was fairly easy to follow if you don't let the ambiguity about Ichi's past get your panties in a bunch.

― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, Tsukamoto directed Tetsuo. He also acts in most of his films (he's
the metal-fetishist they hit with the car in Tetsuo) as well as others
(he plays Ichi's handler in Ichi the Killer). He also does all his own
camera work.

― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:54 (6 years ago) Permalink

Jon, I was only tempted by It's Only Talk, and dint even get to that. Miike's been kinda silly and below-par lately.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 26 June 2006 12:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

i forgot to go :(

― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:04 (6 years ago) Permalink

^^ best and most truthful post on an ile film thread ever

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

I received a birthday gift from overseas this weekend:

A Taxing Woman 2xDVD edition
Tanpopo 2xDVD edition
Eureka DVD
Seishun Dendekedekedeke (The Rocking Horsemen?) DVD

The Itami special editions came out in celebration of his death (!?!), the Eureka DVD is an aspect remaster from the crummy version from a few years ago, and the last one is one of my favorite movies that hasn't been exported (no subtitles, eek)... starring an 18y/o Tadanobu Asano in his first studio role for all you Miike nuts.

I'm open to any drama/comedy/thriller (non-monster, non-horror, non-samurai, non-yakuza, non-anime please!) recommendations.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:40 (6 years ago) Permalink

will any mizoguchi besides ugetsu ever get a dvd reissue? i really want to see sansho.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:44 (6 years ago) Permalink

i watched Ping Pong over the weekend. which was about table tennis and not to be confused, like whoever did the tivo listings, with the 1986 film about a chinese lawyer. contained no monsters.

― koogy wonderland (koogs), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

some films i've seen recently & enjoyed:
Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls) - comedy about the friendship that develops between a biker girl and a girl who's obsessed with 18th century rococo fashion. very funny, quite surreal in parts.
Love Letter - girl is looking through the high school book of her dead fiance, and finds his old address. she sends him a "i miss you" letter - and receives a reply. slow but very moving, i'm dreading the day hollywood buys the script & butchers it.
Tokyo gomi onna (Tokyo Garbage Girl) - girl is obsessed with the guy who lives upstairs, goes through his trash every day. be warned, this is very slow moving & not a lot happens - i loved it though.
i want more Mizoguchi as well, i've only seen Ugetsu & Sansho which are awesome.
also : wrongest thread title ever.

― zappi (joni), Monday, 26 June 2006 15:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

Since Shinya Tsukamoto and "Ichi the Killer" have been mentioned in the same thread...

I just wanted to point out the simply wonderful fact that the blob of rape-fetishist-peeping-top semen in which the title credit for "Ichi the Killer" appears is, in fact, REAL HUMAN SEMEN.

And Tsukamoto "donated" it.

Just, you know, FYI...

― fuckfuckingfuckedfucker (fuckfuckingfuckedfucker), Monday, 26 June 2006 19:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

I've seen PLENTY of movies with real human semen.

― Werner Herzog Netflix Quine (ex machina), Monday, 26 June 2006 20:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

Dandy.

But me, I've even seen it a few times IN REAL LIFE.

Top that, tough guy...

― fuckfuckingfuckedfucker (fuckfuckingfuckedfucker), Monday, 26 June 2006 20:15 (6 years ago) Permalink

What's that, a reality show or something?

― dr lulu (dr lulu), Monday, 26 June 2006 22:43 (6 years ago) Permalink

i just saw the 'new' yamada film the hidden blade the other night. somewhat garden variety and ponderous, but enough samurai to make it worthwhile, especially the "don't move him-- he's probably a sea of blood inside" maneuver..

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 05:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

A lot of foreign film afficionados tend to get miffed that Kurosawa gets
discussed endlessly, while many other great Japanese directors are ignored.
But Kurosawa's so damn good it's hard to find fault with him.

They're all so good, in different ways. _Ikiru_'s dying bueauracrat, with
his last redemptive quest to build a playground for inner city children,
really exemplifies the idea that any ordinary person can find it in
themselves to struggle against injustice, and win a personal victory
against the night.

Or how about _Seven Samurai_'s vagabond warriors, lovable, stern, mostly
over-the-hill men who find it in themselves to fight for a cause not their
own, against suicidal odds. In the hands of another director, it would just
be another action-adventure. But leave it to Kurosawa to keenly zoom in
on the human element, the internal struggles that will strike a chord with
anyone that has a pulse, in any country, any era. Witness the youngest
samurai, determined to make a name for himself, fearless in battle;
yet totally uncertain and confused when faced with the lust of a village
waif.

Kurosawa Movies I Haven't Seen:
Madadayo (1993)
Dodesukaden
Red Beard
High And Low
Scandal
The Quiet Duel
I Live In Fear (also Record Of A Living Being)
Drunken Angel

which one of these should I watch first?

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 23:01 (6 years ago) Permalink

I haven't seen them all, but High and Low is fucking great.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 23:06 (6 years ago) Permalink

i own ugetsu and still haven't watched it :(

― joseph (joseph), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 04:42 (6 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

This thread neds more Kiyoshi Kurosawa, because Pulse and Retribution are awesome and I really want to see Cure.

― Will M., Thursday, 1 November 2007 16:11 (5 years ago) Permalink

err, "needs." Apologies to Ned.

― Will M., Thursday, 1 November 2007 16:12 (5 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

anyone know an Ichikawa film based on Mishima, called Conflagration? May see tonight.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 16 July 2008 20:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

I really enjoyed Miike's The Bird People in China. I'm not really even sure if it's a good movie or if the concepts just resonate w/ me. Lots of great suggestions on this thread. Will bookmark!

― rockapads, Thursday, 17 July 2008 06:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

well, Voice is underwhelmed by this 10-hour revival:

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006393.html

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 17 July 2008 15:46 (4 years ago) Permalink

Seen a few films on NFT's Japanese Gems season, which is now near its end.

Conflagration was one of them. I found Oshima's Ceremony to be a far more faithful expression of Mishima's dissatisfaction with the way Japan went after WWII (even if politically they are at polar opposites of the spectrum). Ichikawa's film is too literal, with its moments.

Other highlights => Kurosawa's Ikiru, feeling drained this morning.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 07:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ikiru was good but it dragged at the end.

― ledge, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 09:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ikiru never dragged for me. My issues, if any, were with the basic story construction: local government never gets anything done, the world of politics hand-in-hand with gangsters, etc. which might've been saying something in a world recently ravaged by war but now simply feeds into everyone's cynicism these days. But the film had this (surely, even now) combination of hard iron laughs and fighting back the tears moments (I failed at this).

The switching of straight melodrama to recounting the struggle after Watanabe's death, using the tricks in Rashomon, suggesting that Watanabe wasn't -- just maybe -- as heroic really lifted the whole thing to some place else.

The acting as well...I don't have much of an appreciation of it, but recounting all I've seen I enjoyed almost every performance.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 18:52 (4 years ago) Permalink

I only saw Black Rain at this particular NFT JPfest, wish I'd seen some of the others now. I did see Death Note 1&2 at the ICA to make up for it though.

Every time this thread is revived I seethe inwardly at the stupidity of the thread title.

― Matt #2, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ikiru is great!

Saw the Seven Samurai the other day, but my two favourite samurai both got killed - the cool one and the crazy one. I thought this was unnecessary.

Stray Dog is also good!

― jel --, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ha Matt! The thread starter was there last night at the same screening :-)

I think the two Ichikawa films were disappointing. Really Actor's Revenge is pretty incredible but I wonder if its a one off. The one Imamura flick I saw was nice but next to Oshima and Kurosawa its a lot of meh. Missed the Suzuki yakuza stuff.

That is probably the one really great season the NFT have got on now for the next 2-3 months. August looks a bit lame.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:17 (4 years ago) Permalink

Miracle Fortress is another good Kurosawa movie.

(But Ikiru is my favourite, even though i agree it dragged at the end)

― Ludo, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

heh Miracle Fortress.. it's Hidden Fortress)

― Ludo, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

Anyone have any thoughts on Marebito? Just saw it, and thought it was spectacular, oddly terrifying and contemplative at the same time.

Netflix has made finding these films so much easier, which in some strange way almost diminishes their impact. I doubt I would have been quite so amazed by Tetsuo if I hadn't watched it after finding it shoved behind other stuff in a shitty small town video store.

― BLACK BEYONCE, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

It's interesting that Japan has produced the greatest film ever made (Ran) as well as the worst (Pinch Runner).

― shieldforyoureyes, Thursday, 31 July 2008 16:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

The bits of Ran I saw put me off Kurosawa until recently.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:38 (4 years ago) Permalink

anyone seen Kaneto Shindo's The Island?

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/kawakita/theislandakanakedisland.html

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 11 August 2008 16:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa really should be on this thread more. Just watched Doppleganger and it was fantastic.

― CHARMING LMAO (John Justen), Friday, 21 November 2008 07:56 (4 years ago) Permalink

so is Charisma, on the Kurosawa tip.

I also got around to Funky Forest: The First Contact a few weeks ago. It's about twice as long as it needs to be but totally worthwhile for the cronenberg gross-outs and bjorkish sequences. Haven't seen Taste of Tea yet, which I've heard is Katsuhito Ishii's best.

― Cosmo Vitelli, Friday, 21 November 2008 09:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

Londoners! Check out the Pink Films season at the BFI next month : http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/december_seasons/wild_japan

During the 1960s and 1970s Japanese film-makers produced a series of films of unprecedented sexual candour. Returning to this legendary period of 'pink films', Matt Palmer and Jasper Sharp celebrate the aesthetic achievements of these erotic masterpieces.

The inclusion of Koji Wakamatsu's Secrets Behind the Wall in the 1965 Berlin International Film Festival sparked widespread indignation from the Japanese authorities. Softcore, independent, low-budget films of its type came to be known as pink films and these movies, although enormously popular in Japan, were deemed totally unsuitable for export. International exposure of Wakamatsu's film, with its lurid sexual content, was considered to be nationally shaming.

In truth, the sexual preoccupations of Wakamatsu's movie were indicative of a rising and unstoppable tide. The first Japanese screen kiss came late (in 1946) but only a decade later a cycle of taiyozoku (or 'Sun Tribe Films'), which centred around the decadent generation of post-war Japanese teens, would push the boundaries of screen eroticism beyond anything seen in American cinema of the same period. In the mid-1960s, against a backdrop of ever-increasing independent pink film production, highly regarded film-makers Kaneto Shindo and Hiroshi Teshigahara would produce two masterpieces - Onibaba and Woman of the Dunes - which shocked international audiences with their sexual candour.

Later in the 1960s, as independent sex film production threatened to swamp the Japanese film market entirely, the Nikkatsu studio launched its glorious roman porno (softcore 'romantic pornography') strand of movies. A slew of highly talented directors - Noboru Tanaka, Masaru Konuma and Tatsumi Kumashiro included - used reasonable budgets and Nikkatsu studio stars to create some of the most memorable and artistic sex films in cinema history.

Finally, in 1976, Nagisa Oshima would go hardcore for In the Realm of the Senses, a film that represented a direct attack on the values and censorship policies of the Japanese state itself. This aspect of Oshima's masterpiece was, in fact, representative of a political dimension that had underpinned a large number of the Japanese sex films produced in the preceding years.

This political element was allied to a staggering consistency of aesthetic quality and further complemented by the unprecedented involvement of a high number of talented and respected directors working within the sex-film field. The result of these factors was, between 1964 and 1976, the most sustained output of high quality erotic cinema from any country in any era.

This season offers a provocative, challenging and thrilling journey straight back into the heart of this legendary period of Japanese sex film production.

Black Rose Ascension
Sun 7 Dec 20:30 NFT3
Fri 12 Dec 21:00 NFT1
The Japanese softcore equivalent of Boogie Nights.

Blue Film Woman
Wed 17 Dec 18:20 NFT2
Sat 20 Dec 20:50 NFT2
Infamously rare, psychedelic portrait of swinging Tokyo.

Crazed Fruit
Tue 2 Dec 20:40 NFT3
Fri 5 Dec 20:40 NFT2
Groundbreaking rediscovered classic rich in breezy cinematic style and raging passions.

Gushing Prayer
Sat 6 Dec 20:45 NFT1
A jaded young woman embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery.

In the Realm of the Senses
Thu 4 Dec 20:40 NFT1
Sun 7 Dec 18:10 NFT3
Tue 9 Dec 20:40 NFT1
The most famous Japanese sex film in history.

Japanese Cinema for Busy People II Special: The History and Development of Japanese Pink Film
Wed 3 Dec 18:30 The Japan Foundation, London
Don't miss this special lecture, a supplement to the successful series Japanese Cinema for Busy People II.

Onibaba
Tue 16 Dec 20:45 NFT1
Sun 21 Dec 18:30 NFT1
Kaneto Shindo's dark, sensual epic remains excessive, hypnotic cinema.

The Pornographers
Mon 22 Dec 20:30 NFT3
Tue 30 Dec 20:30 NFT2
Shohei Imamura's pitch-black absurdist comedy.

Secrets Behind the Wall
Tue 23 Dec 20:50 NFT2
Sun 28 Dec 20:50 NFT2
Claustrophobic thriller from the 'Godfather of Pink Film'.

The Softcore Auteur
Tue 2 Dec 18:00 NFT3
Discussion of art-house and erotic cinema's intriguingly open relationship.

Watcher in the Attic
Sun 21 Dec 20:50 NFT1
Sat 27 Dec 18:30 NFT1
A voyeuristic landlord observes the encounters taking place in his Tokyo boarding house.

Wife To Be Sacrificed
Mon 8 Dec 20:40 NFT2
Sun 14 Dec 18:20 NFT2
Highly disturbing and gorgeously shot hallucinatory tour-de-force.

A Woman Called Sada Abe
Mon 1 Dec 18:40 NFT2
Wed 10 Dec 20:30 NFT3
Handsomely mounted, intense precursor to In the Realm of the Senses.

Woman of the Dunes
Thu 18 Dec 20:30 NFT1
Sat 27 Dec 20:20 NFT2
Mon 29 Dec 20:30 NFT1
Established masterpiece of world cinema possessing a palpable, astounding physicality.

Woods are Wet
Sun 14 Dec 20:50 NFT1
Wed 17 Dec 20:45 NFT1
A rare chance to see Tatsumi Kumashiro's jaw-droppingly extreme film.

― Matt #2, Friday, 21 November 2008 10:22 (4 years ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

just watched taste of tea again

so amazing

katsuhito ishii is the noizest director

especially funky forest

― s1ocki, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 04:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

Been watching a lot lately: Kiju Yoshida has been one of my late-2011 discoveries, due to Eros Plus Massacre. Just not heard of the guy before. The story - two students in 60s Tokyo research on former anarcho agitator who is killed on the back of chaos post-earthquake in 20s Japan - seems thin, but actually this is what cinema was surely invented for. Great use of continous backwards-and-forwards chronology, the framing where people are seen at the edge actually fits the whole narrative of characters on the margin trying to carve a 'space' for themselves, and some incredible staging, highlight is 5-10 min row between Sakae and one of his lovers in the house, culminating in the attempted murder.

Won't be to everyone's tastes, its long (but the meandering is integral to its effect) - and it is anti-Ozu, so doubt there will be any revivals soon, but have a go sometime.

Other good things I've seen are Toshio Matsumoto (as Milton talks about above, all of the shorts are on Ubu btw, although I only really liked 'for the damaged right eye', a companion piece to Funeral Parade of Roses)

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 7 January 2012 11:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

Making my way through the films of Masahiro Shinoda

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 7 January 2012 11:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

Watched this last night, fantastic:

http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/harakiri/

The samurai duel near the end, shot amongst grass swaying in the wind, is a sequence of pure cinema, image/sound/performance all working together. The anti-hierachy politics and complicating of the samurai code is typical of that early sixties quasi-Marxist strain of Japanese cinema (eg Onibaba, Pitfall) that I find so intense, and so inspiring.

― Ward Fowler, Monday, 9 January 2012 08:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah that's a classic, love Kobayashi's Kwaidan as well. Some great staging and sets on it. The song in the third story is just some of the best music set to film that I've seen lately.

Get that inspired feeling from the booklet that comes w/the DVD, which has a good interview w/Kobayashi, talking about his films but most of it devoted to Harakiri. A few comments that show a lot of integrity and humility (his insistence that his films are really collaborative) and his debt to Takemitsu's scores.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 January 2012 21:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

'for the damaged right eye'

that's a great one. though I like 'Atman' as a study, and 'White Hole' is incredible for the electronic music by Yuasa, and 'KI or BREATHING' is a little slow but ends up working because of the Takemitsu score. I still haven't seen 'Funeral Parade of Roses' yet -- it looks so amazing

julio, have you seen Shinoda's 'Petrified Forest'? That one has such a great Takemitsu I'm thinking of hunting it down

― Milton Parker, Monday, 9 January 2012 22:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

Not seen that. I was just looking at his Samurai Spy and the credits have this really spiky theme by Takemitsu. It is something like spy music, if spy films were creation of medieval Japan, if you see what I mean.

I'm finding one delight after another with Toru. Great to actually hear these with the images they were designed for (and they really feel designed, not tacked on). Wish I could get that w/Morricone but I don't think I ever come across any of the films he soundtracked in the 70s, so only the Leone/spaghetti stuff for the moment, but it reminds me I have to see those films.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 January 2012 22:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

my favorite Takemitsu = his scores, the fusion with his sources go so deep that by the end you nearly feel that Monteverdi or Bach or John Barry or Ligeti or the Shadows or whatever must have been Japanese

Morricone's weirder 70's scores were mostly for bad films like 'Exorcist II', where he just clearly felt free to do whatever without repercussion but it does mean limited rewards when hunting down the films to see the music in context. Have a feeling that is not true of Toru. I'm saving 'Rikyu' for some special night, that is my favorite score of his

― Milton Parker, Monday, 9 January 2012 23:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, you really feel he's delved deep into his sources, so skillful he is at adapting them for whatever scene.

Someone needs to write about these soundtracks, good opportunity now that the films themselves are more available (not sure if this ws the case 5 years ago). And he is fairly unique in that many people would then say he wasn't ignored at all, that his orchestral works get a fair hearing. The argument needs to be made that the works for the hall don't have as much pay-off.

Bet Morricone is jealous tho'. He's always tried to say that he really is a COMPOSER. When, no, I'd say he's written incredible music, as orig as anybody's in the 20th century, its just that the space for these happen to be shared with the images.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

as orig as anybody's in the 20th century

uhm

― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

japanese new wave is quite widely available now, there was almost nothing a few years ago when i was interested in this stuff

funeral parade is v interesting, possibly not 'great' but more than a historical curiosity

― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

What are you talking about, man? Funeral Parade of Roses is most definitely 'great'. In fact, even that I would say was an understatement.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

no it isn't

― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

i think ichikawa was maybe the 'greatest' filmmaker of this period but he was temperamentally from an older generation

― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 21:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

oh and seijun suzuki was brilliant and needs defending from the unfortunate patronage tarantino and that ilk

― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 21:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

Accrding to wiki Ichikawa made no films from '67 till '71, which is the period Matsumoto was active in as a feature filmmaker.

Not sure about scaling the er, greatness of FPR but there were few films made in '69 that were better. You can put it in another way: its a better adaptation of Oedipus Rex than that made by Pasolini.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 22:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

Anyone seen 'Pitfall'? I want it but it's 'spensive on Amazon.

― Yeah Yeah Bohney (Craigo Boingo), Friday, 13 January 2012 12:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

Pitfall is gd - excellent commentary track on the Masters of Cinema DVD by Tony Ryans - but a bit more socially realist than either Face of Another or Woman of the Dunes

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

is £12 here: http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/dvd/Pitfall-Masters-Of-Cinema/

(which isn't dirt cheap, but also isn't the £50 it is on amazon)

― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

It is not worth £50. Is it OOP?

You can rent it from I Love Film, of course.

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

yes, oop i think. Eureka were victims of the sony warehouse fire and lost a lot of their stock. i can imagine them not re-pressing the older titles in their catalogue (and this was one of the first 10).

(no guarantee that it's available from moviemail either tbh. they are quoting a 2 week delivery time...)

not seen pitfall but woman of the dunes is great, as is oni baba (all in a similar vein). thought Face Of Another lacked a certain something though. that said, the shots in the surgery were stunning...

am currently working my way through Eureka's 8dvd box of Mizoguchi films. Ugetsu Monogatari was latest. think i prefer his work to Ozu's (which is comparing chalk and cheese, i realise).

― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

mizoguchi was better than everyone

― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

think i'd take at least some of kurosawa's samurai stuff over the best of mizoguchi. they are just bigger in scope if nothing else.

― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

idk

they have more extras & spectacular scenarism

― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

nobody cld give you a tracking shot like mizoguchi, nobody

talking of whom, this looks p tasty, and a gd compliment to the MOC box:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mizoguchi-Collection-DVD-Minosuke-Band%C3%B4/dp/B004SXSRS2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2VE3G809MNXZK&colid=J68FNACBJQ61

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

also, Eureka/MOC slowly seem to be transferring their titles to Blu-Ray, or Dual-Format editions, so maybe that will happen w Pitfall

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

awesome

ive been waiting to see those films for ages

― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

have mizoguchi's "story of late chrysanthemums" queued up to watch soon

― tanuki, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

their end of 2011 editorial has a few words to say on the subject of BR only releases if you didn't see that. they do specifically say "Work immediately focused on getting our entire catalogue back in print." which is promising. (the late mizoguchi box was £100 on amazon for a time but has come back down to the previous price)

new AE mizoguchi box is on my wishlist, yes 8) and the early kurosawa (which was down to £14 earlier in the week) is in the post...

must also pick up Harakiri...

― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

doc films is doing a naruse retrospective but it's really a pain to get there across town

― tanuki, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

Mizoguchi and Renoir are my blind spots! I mean, they've made some really good films but it hasn't hit me yet in a way that keeps me awake at night. Which happens, could be something to do with not seeing any of Mizoguchi's films on the big screen where you can never miss a great tracking shot.

A bit underwhelmed by Pitfall, although its possible one of the best attempts to do something Kafka-like, which is why I don't see much of a socialist realist dimension.

The ICA are running a ton of Japanese dramas in Feb, looking fwd to catching up on a couple of them by researching the terrific midnighteye webzine.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 13 January 2012 21:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

Saw Harakiri this weekend. Wow. Kwaidan was wonderful but this one really just worked me over, just powerful and satisfying on every level, from the tableaux to the politics to the final battle scenes

Eyes bugged out in the first ten seconds when the ronin introduces himself as belonging to the Fukushima Clan from Hiroshima.

― Milton Parker, Sunday, 15 January 2012 23:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Oshima's Death by Hanging is a film I'm still recovering from. Might be his best, although I have much to see.

Season of recent Japanese film coming up and I just didn't do it could be a good on, following from Oshima.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 5 February 2012 12:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

watch Akasen Chitai (Street Of Shame) yesterday, another of mizoguchi's brothel dramas (and his last film). was much of a muchness.

what do people reckon is the most famous japanese film? (i ask because someone accused me of being obscure by saying someone looked like kyuzo from seven samurai)(i think that must be in the top 3, along with godzilla and maybe ringu)

― koogs, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

spirited away prob.

― get ready for the banter (NotEnough), Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

I suspect that its not so much you mentioned the film but that you named one of the characters from it.

I'd add some anime - can't say I care for any of it, but Miyazaki and the like wd be the black hole in this thread. xp

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

just saw a breakdown of Miyazaki's films by earnings & Spirited Away is by far the biggest - Spirited Away 32%, Totoro 13%, Howl's 11%, Mononoke 11% etc

― zappi, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

i did have to look up the name...

think the real answer may also include Pokemon The Movie. various internet lists mention Akira, which i'd overlooked. and tokyo story, which i think way fewer people have seen compared to SS.

i will ask my mum 8)

― koogs, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

also Miyazaki's films have generated nearly 4 times as much money as his nearest anime directing rival, including TV series - anime market outside Japan is lot smaller than internet nerdz would have you believe

― zappi, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

Godzilla must be the most famous character but the Americanized version of the original film may be more famous.

― Chris L, Sunday, 5 February 2012 14:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

watch Akasen Chitai (Street Of Shame) yesterday, another of mizoguchi's brothel dramas (and his last film). was much of a muchness. ― koogs, Sunday, February 5, 2012 11:17 PM (Yesterday)

Eyah. Would you be so condescending to another one of ford's western dramas? Most of Mizoguchi's films were geisha films not brothel films. The distinction is important, to both the characters and the film's vulgar/fresh execution, with Mizoguchi completely abandoning his long take style (contrast with his preceding Princess Yang Kwei-Fei) and foregrounding Toshiro Mayuzymi's perverse score (one of his best). Easy to see as proto-New Wave, and the last shot of the debutante prostitute nervously attempting to seduce passing men is as devastating as any of Mizoguchi's shots.

― Jedmond, Monday, 6 February 2012 00:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

Gearing up to watch Kobayashi's Human Condition over the next two weeks, all 10 hours of it. Anyone seen it? Avoided finishing the slate article comparing it to Berlin Alexanderplatz as it was dropping too many spoilers

― Milton Parker, Monday, 6 February 2012 00:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

Xp that mayuzumi score is crazy! Carl Stalling-level disjunctiveness

― Milton Parker, Monday, 6 February 2012 00:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

Xpost tried getting thru it a couple of years back but there's something about Tatsuya Nakadai's unchanging bug-eyed "I'm about to cry" expression throughout the entire thing that really irked me.

― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 6 February 2012 03:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Better not watch "The Sword of Doom" then.

― tanuki, Monday, 6 February 2012 03:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ha! Thing is I've watched him and thought he was great in a bunch of other films including "SOD" but he was just *too much* in "The Human Condition".

― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 6 February 2012 04:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

XP Yep, Stalling is a perfect point of comparison - it gives Street of Shame its cartoonish swagger* and provides a real statement of intent to the opening of the film.

* Cartoonish swagger by Mizoguchi standards obviously.

― Jedmond, Monday, 6 February 2012 05:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

> Eyah

sorry to sound so dismissive. i've seen a few of them now and this just wasn't the best of those i've seen.

but yes, you did pick out my two favourite bits - the electronic score and that last shot, which was stunning

(there's another film where the debutante is paraded through the red line* district in her finery and that's my favourite scene of that film)

i didn't like machiko kyo's westernised Mickey, i think that's the reason for a lot of my dislike of the film. she's been great in everything else i've seen (oharu and rashomon especially. ugetsu most recently) but all those parts have been more traditional.

("red line district" being the literal translation of "Akasen Chitai", and a slightly different term to that we'd use in the west)

― koogs, Monday, 6 February 2012 09:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

> oharu

gah! this wasn't her.

― koogs, Monday, 6 February 2012 09:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

Street of Shame is really really good, I don't think I've ever seen any movie about prostitution (even among Mizoguchi's oeuvre) that would deal with the subject with such complexity and care, and it was made in the 1950s. Easily my favourite movie by Mizoguchi.

It's a pretty important detail (as Koogs) that then name of the movie was changed from "Red Light District" (the literal translation) to "Street of Shame". The English title actually misrepresents what the movie is about, as Mizoguci tried to present a broader, more understanding view on prostitutes than just the "shame" aspect, even if he was critical on the exploitation of women. In some of his earlier geisha movies (like the 1930s version of "Sisters of Gion") the shame aspect and straightforward condemnation of the profession are more obvious, but by the 1950s Mizoguchi's take on these issues had become more rounded and humanist. It's sad that he died after making his (in my opinion) best movie, I think he stull would have had a lot to say.

― Tuomas, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

"as Koogs points out"

― Tuomas, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

the whole geisha thing itself changes so much between 30s and the 50s though. in the 30s it was transitioning from the courtesan to the more deregulated prostitution. and the american control in the postwar period was trying to move it into the shameful (which the japanese people weren't really feeling). i think he captures this well in his various films. (i think his sister was involved, which is why he feels such an affinity)

i did think the action of the women in this film, specifically how they were dragging people in from the streets, was a bit o_O

^ all this gleemed from several short intros on the MoC dvds i've been watching, is not a very detailed knowledge, i admit.

not seen sisters of gion, but it's part of the new box that's out at the end of the month so i'll see it soon. it also appears on amazon that those 4 double packs of later films are out soon on dual format bluray. oddly the secondary titles aren't shown in the cover shots but "Number of discs: 3" would suggest they are still pairs of titles.

― koogs, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

(actually, the second film is mentioned on the cover, on a simulated sticker, in white on grey, easy to miss in the thumbnail) (and the one that's paired with Sansho is, i think the one with the debutante i mentioned above in it, Gion Bayashi (Gion Musical Festival? / just "A Geisha" according to imdb))

― koogs, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

His sister was sold into geishadom - partly to help pay for his education. But he still patronised geishas and, as I think Rayns points out, one of his geisha's scandalised him by slicing him from neck to his lower back after discovering he was a patron of another geisha.

― Jedmond, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

In other words he understood the moral horror of geishadom, but he also lived in a society that normalised them - geishas fascinated him, he picked at them like a sore.

And yes I was equally irritable. I do think Akasen Chitai is one of his greater films, and it is frustrating to know he died just as he was striking out in a new direction away from the ossification of Princess Yang Kwei-Fei (which I like, but I can't deny it has the qualities you'd expect of a film made mainly to see how a particular film stock handles plum purple).

― Jedmond, Monday, 6 February 2012 10:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

> Princess Yang Kwei-Fei

watched this tonight but probably need to revisit the last 30 minutes again. so many pastel colours... was pretty, but slight.

and tony rayns points out in his introduction that it's not Princess in the title but Royal Concubine. and it was called 'Yokihi' on the Moc dvds.

think the MoC booklets that come with the films are almost an encumbrance rather than an extra. don't think i've managed to read a single one. must get around to that next time i'm between books.

― koogs, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 21:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

Watched The Crucified Lovers last night. So great.

― tanuki, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 21:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

(i asked my mum, she had nothing. told me about having talked to someone in the pub who'd watched 'the last samurai' recently. and did recognise 'seven samurai' when i mentioned it.)

― koogs, Monday, 13 February 2012 09:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

Sisters of the Gion — excellent.

― tanuki, Friday, 24 February 2012 05:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

(the new mizoguchi box set with that in has been delayed a couple of weeks)

but i watched Equinox Flower, ozu's first colour film, and it was obvious he was playing with it a bit - bright red objects in nearly every frame. story all very familiar though.

― koogs, Friday, 24 February 2012 08:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Don't think any documentaries have been mentioned:

Kazuo Hara - Extreme Private Eros

Noriaki Tsuchimoto - Minimata: The Victims and Their World. This one is something - follows the victims 10+ year fight to have a chemical company bought to account for their pollution and destruction of lives, families and communities leading to the victims storming the shareholders meeting. It is VERY cleverly put together - Tsuchimoto actually isolates the woman's distressed cries and speech and scream at the president of the company and it totally works - one of the most manipulative and yet powerful sequences in cinema I can think of, an effective (to say the least) climax to all the testimonies of physical pain, mental anguish, social discrimination and government's failure to act.

Never has the traditional bowing motion been cast in a more disgusting light - its all these suits want to do!

I speak of Tsuchimoto's manipulation, but just in the sense that all film/documentary is a manipulation in the first place - and how you can harness that. Aesthetically its quite striking; the print I watched was awful but a restoration will surely bring back the elegance of those sunsets and fishing scenes. He is overall exemplary when leaving scenes of burnt and severely crippled flesh, insanity, paralysis he is truly unflinching as the best of 'em; but also respectful and he never stoops to the personal observation or (god forbid) Micheal Moore style clowning.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 February 2012 22:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Kazuo Hara is v barmy - just talked about it on some other thread. Seeing these back-to-back you think 70s cinema really was the most incredible thing. That is said of film, but rarely of documentaries.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 February 2012 22:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'll be hunting for some Shinsuke Ogawa.

The New God also looks p good.

More Japanese doc recommendations would be welcome.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 February 2012 23:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

Kazuo Hara - Extreme Private Eros

^^ thanks for recommending this, really can't say I've ever seen anything like it. profound film.

― Milton Parker, Friday, 24 February 2012 23:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

No probs: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On is also incredible btw (saw it on TV years ago).

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 February 2012 23:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

'emperor's naked army' is on some dateline shit, it's p good
im intrigued by the 'extreme private eros' rec also

― johnny crunch, Friday, 24 February 2012 23:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Looking fwd to some Terayama:

http://beta.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/film/shuji-terayama-programme-2-mothers

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 17 March 2012 09:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

This ws worth a watch, Terayama has an eye for composition for a scene -- one where he is playing chess with the character representing his 13 year old self, somewhere in the country with people moving about in a pleasing yet enigmatic way (it is dreamland), sudden switches from colour to one colour filters depending on the bit of dialogue, then an appearance and 'mad' speech by Japanese singer Kan Mikami (this ws great to see, as someone who heard his music years ago, need to pull out the recs I have after I fire this off). REally good 10 min scene.

Tate did kind of fuck up the context -- it ws meant to be a dbl bill aroudn mothers, and while the film is about Terayama's relationship w/his mother at times the dominant theme is the strong childhood memories you attain and cannot shake off -- despite trying to re-order them in fiction and film-time. The landscape of the memory cannot be altered -- and this programme ws orig titled Landscape Theories of the Past). They've taken it off the site but originally it ws a dbl bill w/Oshima's The Man Who Left his Will on Film, which makes sense. This ws a not-quite Mothers Day thing -- v fkn art gallery, unfortunately.

The booklet is good, making my way through an exchange between T and Mishima.

Back to Terayama -- which is a tick from me, need to see some more features.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 17 March 2012 23:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

re: Terayama. On the minus side there ws a bit made of his taboo breaking blah and I'm not sure that really registers, which is fair enough, its bound to age. Some of the songs don't quite work, sadly. More pluses in that I really liked some of his poetry and -- quite a big theme from the booklet I picked up -- his desire for a theatre in/from/of the streets and open spaces was well communicated. The last shot is a manifesto for that.

I watcched Ogawa, quoted pulled from the article above:

But first, a quick overview of the Ogawa story: After a couple of films cataloguing issues relating to the student and civil unrest that was occurring in Tokyo following the extension of the Japan-America Joint Security Pact (or Anpo treaty), Ogawa Pro's filmography falls fairly neatly into two halves. The first consists of the monumental seven-title series released between 1968-73 and beginning with The Battle Front for the Liberation of Japan -Summer in Sanrizuka, which chronicled in gargantuan detail the struggle between local farmers against the government's decision to build Tokyo's new Narita international airport on their land, a time described by Nornes as "one of the most traumatic social struggles in modern Japanese history." The peak of the protests, captured in the film Sanrizuka - Peasants of the Second Fortress (1971) ("the Seven Samurai of social protest documentaries") saw the farmers' ranks swelled by hordes of sympathetic students and members from radical leftist groups; a grand total of some 20,000 protesters amassed against 30,000 police. It's no exaggeration to say that Japan was effectively in a state of near civil war at the peak of the Narita protests.

Watched Peasants of the Second Fortress. I can see the Seven Samurai thing as they are defending their space, just that the peasants digged tunnels and tied themselves to trees!! And, of course, no one saves the day. The copy I had was on its last legs, the subtitles were therefore hard to read at times, and what ws there in itself was incomplete but there was enough visual meat -- in one of he conversations between the peasants there is a bit about how 'mundane' protests scenes are and I think that is where the comparisons to film depart. This film revelled in mundaity and grit: thing looked like, well...at times like last summer's riots in London -- a carnival of mundane destruction ('cept it wasn't summer, and here the sympathies are with people fighting for the right not to be moved). Not sure it felt like civil war, like the quote says, but when peasants who admit they aren't 'educated' have suddenly seemed to learn almost all they need to about power and politics through their experiences it felt equally seismic somehow.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 18 March 2012 00:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

watched Chikamatsu Monogatari and Uwasa No Onna. both for the second time. just Sansho and Gion Bayashi left to watch from the late mizoguchi box.

new mid-period Artifical Eye Mizoguchi box has arrived too. oh, artificial eye, why you print the titles on the sides of your dvds the wrong way around? and whilst the Eureka! dvds all have lavish booklets the AE came with nothing. (but maybe there are extras on the discs.)

― koogs, Sunday, 18 March 2012 09:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

http://www.ica.org.uk/32288/Film/Sansho-Dayu-Sansho-the-Bailiff.html

Couple of MIzoguchi films at the ICA in Apr -- haven't seen Sansho so will wait to check out those tracking shots on the big screen next month.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 18 March 2012 09:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

kurosawa crime drama box set has arrived. not seen any of them. am a bit fearful tbh, don't really know what to expect. but all the kurosawa boxes are cheap on amazon at the moment. £15 for the samurai box is a bargain.

haven't watched any of the aforementioned mid-period mizoguchi either.

bought the new miike yesterday, his remake of Hara Kiri. bought it in the supermarket, because i could.

― koogs, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Shindo obit from the guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/30/kaneto-shindo

― koogs, Sunday, 3 June 2012 09:11 (11 months ago) Permalink

Sight and Sound tribute

Looking forward to the season.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 3 June 2012 09:26 (11 months ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

There are a bunch of not-so-terrible Japanese films up on yt at the moment.

― Muschiaufstand (CONGO, M.D.), Monday, 10 September 2012 23:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Yup, watched four of Mizoguchi's films this week, and more to come.

Koji Wakamatsu passed away after being hit by a taxi!

Whatever you think of their rough-and-ready quality (and I've only seen a couple) (either in the way they were made, or their politics) I really liked his shit-stirring ways.

He helped get In the Realm of the Senses made, too!

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 October 2012 19:16 (7 months ago) Permalink

Is When a Woman Ascends the Stairs? anywhere on yt?

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 October 2012 19:38 (7 months ago) Permalink

So been watching loads of Mizoguchi:

Five Women Around Utamaro (1946)
A Geisha (1953)
The Crucified Lovers (1954)
A Story of Late Chrysanthemums (1939)

Five Women... is a good counterpart to a story of late chrysanthemums, in its depiction of (male) artists as a vampiric species.

A Geisha is a side of Mizoguchi I'm hoping to explore more this coming week -- i.e., more contemporary: the way men use women outright by their bodies, and his outrage that Geishas weren't seen as prostitutes (Prostitution was made illegal in '57, a year after M's death). You could say the others are offset by an 'its all kinda of ok if the art is good'; not saying this is the case but its far more conflicted, as oposed to the Geisha dramas which involve a businessman groping a woman 30 years younger than him (and when you watch these back-to-back the flesh crawls as you see repeatedly the way men touch and avail themselves to women).

For all of the above I'll go w/The Crucified Lovers as something he possibly may not improve upon, for my eye. Maybe its the feeling of relief after watching tale after tale depicting a complete failure of relations between men and women that he is able to bring to conjure up an adaptation of a story of the organic growth of such utter love and devotion in such a convincing manner. It even tops ...Crysanthemums in the way the relationship turns to something cordial and master-and-servant (here it helps the story is set at an earlier era in Japanese history) to a partnership of equals in an instant. The music is punctuating: best moment is the strings beginning as the fugitives in their first night together discuss whether they should sleep in the same room.

And The acting really makes this, the way the two of them express their love with enough measure of suffocation to bliss, to switch seamlessly to utter sadness, and then to surpise w/the look of pleased evil in their faces as they march to their deaths. Perhaps revelling in the scandal and the fuck-you to family and duty they were somehow meant to follow (to know your place and serve your disgusting master) but just pleasure and contentedness that they are able to die together. Really great moment in cinema.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 October 2012 22:18 (7 months ago) Permalink

> his outrage that Geishas weren't seen as prostitutes

mizoguchi's outrage? that not the impression i got from the various intros to the dvds i've seen which seemed to say he was sympathetic. i think we covered this upthread.

― koogs, Saturday, 20 October 2012 09:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

Just went back to the posts. That article I linked to he calls hs last film Red Light District. My impression is enforced by watching his non-Geisha films, so in the Crucified Lovers the male lover stresses that he would never spend money on a Geisha. Not that he was utterly "correct" as in later on, when discussing the random lovers as they are paraded for their punishment he responds to accusations that the law is on the side of men by saying they broke the law.

From the posts upthread he might have been conflicted but all I saw were bits of not too subtle rage: Geishas were a relic of the past that somehow survived for the pleasures of men, and for tourism (the head former Geisha (in A Geisha compares their partic form of Geishadom to the Japenese tea ceremony). And I observed that disgust Mizoguchi manages to insert in many of his films in the way (usually older) men grope women.

I've yet to find any sympathy but as I said I'll watch a few more of these..

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 October 2012 10:38 (7 months ago) Permalink

afaik mizoguchi's sister was a geisha and helped pay for his education (or some such)

― bryan "radical" ferry (clouds), Saturday, 20 October 2012 12:17 (7 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

any of these titles familiar?

Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960–1984

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1337

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 16:39 (5 months ago) Permalink

Pitfall and Death by Hanging both pretty well-known, tho I haven't seen either.

― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 16:47 (5 months ago) Permalink

Oh yeah, Oshima -- may have seen that, in fact. Also have read about The Man Who Left His Will on Film.

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 16:52 (5 months ago) Permalink

FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES and PITFALL are perhaps slightly better known in Europe than in the US, thanks to their release on Region 2 DVD. The former is properly kaleidoscopic and polymorphously peverse, and allegedly influenced some of the decor in Clockwork Orange; the latter is the first collaboration between Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kobo Abe (and Takemitsu) before they went on to make Woman of the Dunes, and is a bit more 'leftist' (socially realist) than the Matsumoto. Both are well worth catching, imho (as are lots of the others, I'm sure - Oshima, Shindo and Imamura are normally pretty reliable, no? )

― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 16:53 (5 months ago) Permalink

thx. I also missed that they just have the first 2 weeks of titles posted....

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:04 (5 months ago) Permalink

Missed that the nutty Funeral Parade is part of the lineup.

― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:08 (5 months ago) Permalink

that Mishima film is kinda disturbing to watch if you know how he died later on

― ばかざっぴ (zappi), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:14 (5 months ago) Permalink

I think that's the first thing most ppl know about him...

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:29 (5 months ago) Permalink

There was an ATG season at the BFI last year, but this is a different slice, w/a short-film prog and a couple of films from the 80s, past the point at which the ATG is seem to be a significant force (but hey it was tough for everybody in the 80s so I've heard)

Anyway I saw Pandemonium and if Funeral Parade... will always be the Matsumoto film this overlong-ish adaptation of this Kabuki play has a lot of style and verve to go along with the violence. Love the shots of people running around with those lanterns late at night.

Seen both of the Oshima films: Death by Hanging is a must, takes his whole rage at the xenophobic treatment of Korean citizens by the Japanese authorities to a peak (he made a couple of other films on that subject) by also aligning it with an attack at the Japanses judiciary and the conformist mindset. The Man Who Left his Will.. is one you can look at as Oshima's lament for cinema as revolutionary/the confusion of youth in '68, so in some ways a sad film.

Masao Adachi is an interestinng figure. He joined the Palestinian camps in 1970 (shortly after that film was completed, I think it was after the Cannes film fest) and stayed in and around for years, only returning to Japan and any filmmaking a few years ago. Spent time in jail for all sorts of er activites. I could watch his film right now tbh.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:35 (5 months ago) Permalink

Just to correct the above he left Japan around '74.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 17:47 (5 months ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

Ikiru (1952). superb.

― koogs, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:22 (5 months ago) Permalink

i would really like to see some more recent japanese films

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:25 (5 months ago) Permalink

new aoyama seems to be some MOR drama thing

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:26 (5 months ago) Permalink

new kore-eda bluray is on the internet but no subtitles

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:26 (5 months ago) Permalink

(also, and this is possibly an aside, hmv have a bunch of cheap anime at the moment, for £3 and up. 2 different Dead Space (the video game) things, Appleseed, Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Origin, Van Helsing, a Ghost in the Shell thing?, er, Astro Boy)

― koogs, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:38 (5 months ago) Permalink

i have hulu plus and am regularly daunted by the amount of japanese films they have. would love to spend a weekend just plowing through some random ones

― GAY HIPSTER BATMAN ON HIS WAY TO A CIRCUIT PARTY (donna rouge), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:42 (5 months ago) Permalink

Satoshi Miki has a new film out soon, Ore Ore (It's Me, It's Me), i'm a fan so hoping its good
a film based on Tokyo Story is coming out next month, looks as rubbish as you'd expect :/ http://youtu.be/VQjiqxx3rNw

― ばかざっぴ (zappi), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:50 (5 months ago) Permalink

new kore-eda bluray is on the internet but no subtitles

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 15:26 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wish, or one of the others? i can't keep track w/kore-eda, he seems to make a lot, some of which become canonical & the others which are just "oh yeah he made a film about a sex doll you can get it on import nbd"

― what is google (schlump), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:51 (5 months ago) Permalink

i wish

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:54 (5 months ago) Permalink

the only one of his i have seen is nobody knows iirc

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 19:54 (5 months ago) Permalink

i'm the same, i've only seen after life & spend most days feeling guilt at not having got to nobody knows or marborosi (i figure still walking will be sorta easier than those?, & so/somehow it's less alluring). nobody knows sounds really great, i think i'm gonna try to squeeze it in over the holidays. after life is classic fwiw.

― what is google (schlump), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 20:01 (5 months ago) Permalink

i was going to do a double bill of 'distant' and that film about the japanese red army

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 20:03 (5 months ago) Permalink

"still walking" is great, obv ozu comparisons will be made but it's a quiet japanese generational family drama what can you do

― horse motivator (clouds), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 20:29 (5 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

so the MoMA series continues... more on Wakamatsu and 'pink cinema'?

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/17267

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Friday, 4 January 2013 12:51 (4 months ago) Permalink

Saw Ecstasy..., its very rough around the edges (that's the way he likes it), a very different side to Japanese film (even compared to Oshima), he likes to initiate conversation around other underground(s) (Japanese free jazz, deals w/The Red Army), doesn't flinch at the seedy Shinjuku side of life etc.

Don't enough about 'pink cinema' though...

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 4 January 2013 13:15 (4 months ago) Permalink

Would really like to see that. Got the Ozu Student Comedies box for Christmas, haven't dug in yet but will soon.

The title of this thread is kinda depressing, wish we could change it.

― MaresNest, Friday, 4 January 2013 13:29 (4 months ago) Permalink

pisses me off every time it pops up. Pete you are a bad man.

― ばかザッピ (zappi), Friday, 4 January 2013 13:35 (4 months ago) Permalink

worst and wrongest thread title on ilx?

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 4 January 2013 14:17 (4 months ago) Permalink

it was a 'thing':

French films are shit. Porquoi?

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 4 January 2013 14:19 (4 months ago) Permalink

A mod title change is in order. May I suggest

Japanese films are kuso. Doshite?

― Pauper Management Improved (Sanpaku), Friday, 4 January 2013 14:41 (4 months ago) Permalink

lol

― silver pozole (clouds), Friday, 4 January 2013 16:14 (4 months ago) Permalink

(my copy of rashomon has just arrived, but is missing the slipcase and the booklet. boo)

am now onto the Kurosawa Classics box. but only managed 30 minutes of The Lower Depths at the weekend. should branch out a bit, i think...

― koogs, Friday, 4 January 2013 16:49 (4 months ago) Permalink

The title of this thread is kinda depressing, wish we could change it.
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 January 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
pisses me off every time it pops up. Pete you are a bad man.
― ばかザッピ (zappi), Friday, 4 January 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
worst and wrongest thread title on ilx?
― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 4 January 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YOU GUYS

I need to remind myself to tell Pete about this when I run into him again.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 4 January 2013 17:23 (4 months ago) Permalink

you know it's a good troll when it's still aggravating people eleven years down the line.

― c sharp major, Friday, 4 January 2013 17:44 (4 months ago) Permalink

The Living Koheiji?

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/17290

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 January 2013 18:44 (4 months ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

Susumu Hani films at MoMA this weekend (he'll be present too). Bad Boys and what else?

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 21:01 (3 months ago) Permalink

Only seen Nanami: Inferno of First Love but oh my if it isn't one for all of you new wavers out there.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 January 2013 22:11 (3 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

― shouting in a bucket blues (MaresNest), Monday, 25 February 2013 16:47 (3 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Kwaidan, 1964, colour, 183 minutes (4 separate stories). looks lovely and i think the audio would work on its own, just don't listen after dark.

― koogs, Thursday, 18 April 2013 21:04 (1 month ago) Permalink

one of the greats

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 April 2013 21:23 (1 month ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

coming back to kwaidan i have a question. the answer is probably 'of course, you idiot' but hey. the first segment, 'the black hair', at the end the music and sound effects bear no relation to his stumbling around. is it meant to be like that? makes the whole thing feel horribly disconcerting, which i guess is the point.

― koogs, Monday, 6 May 2013 10:43 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

yes

― clouds, Monday, 6 May 2013 12:57 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

coincidently, i found this, from the same week i watch kwaidan, talking about the music by toru takemitsu, mostly of the third part, hoichi the earless. http://www.20jazzfunkgreats.co.uk/wordpress/2013/04/kwaidan/

― koogs, Monday, 6 May 2013 15:42 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

and the music appears to be available here: http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/AGP24/index.htm

― koogs, Monday, 6 May 2013 15:45 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

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