Hirokazu Kore-Eda Thread

I found The Third Murder a disappointment in its last hour. I don't think it's up to the ambiguities in Kore-eda's script. But it's worth a watch.

Shoplifters is soooosososo good

Hosono smanged the soundtrack

yep

it's brilliant yes, v much a crying in cinema film

i didn’t find it sad actually! kind of had a happy ending imo?

ambiguous ending. but the last bit with the 'father' and the 'son' i mean

i loved that it was a movie about poor people but not about /poverty/. no hamfisted attempt at structural critique, no sad-but-hopeful swelling string score, no triumphing over adversity. it was like, actually humanizing. the state as represented by the social workers was also somewhat sympathetic and nuanced, in the interview scenes

Lin going back to her barely out of adolescence negligent parents was the saddest part for me

Ando's rubbing her face moment in the last fifteen minutes is worthy of Liv Ullmann in intensity.

Tokyo is so beautiful

which Hirokazu should i watch next? Shoplifters was my first

i figure the answer is 'all, in any order' but just in case

After Life is still his masterpiece, but if you want something more recent After the Storm was very good as well.

he's been so damn prolific in the last five years that you should watch'em all, even The Third Murder.

Air Doll is...not great tho

i loved that it was a movie about poor people but not about /poverty/. no hamfisted attempt at structural critique, no sad-but-hopeful swelling string score, no triumphing over adversity. it was like, actually humanizing. the state as represented by the social workers was also somewhat sympathetic and nuanced, in the interview scenes

― flopson, Friday, 28 December 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You should see Nobody Knows next. Its the one film of his Shoplifters builds on.

haven't seen Shoplifters yet, but my favorite Kore-eda film so far is Nobody Knows

thx!

i saw Maborosi (his first non-documentary) on 35mm at the rep cinema earlier this week. i could have easily watched a week-long version of it

That's top 2/3 from him. Should be re-issued.

the reel(?) was pretty damaged

some of the long sustained shots in it are still burned in my brain. two in particular i can't stop thinking about
- pitch dark room, light very slowly enters, after maybe a minute you can make out a white comforter, eventually someone opens a window
- funeral procession along a beach with the light above the horizon just above their heads

one of the most threadbare plots (young mother's grandmother disappears, then partner commits suicide, then she moves to the countryside with new lover and raises her children with him, then they just kind of... live a normal life?) i've ever seen in a slow arty film but i didn't even want anything to happen, was how beautiful and perfect it was

A number of people in the Lincoln Center audience couldn't follow the plot of Shoplifters at all. Stupidity rather than age, I think.

It was fine, liked some of the other recent stuff more.

I think it's a masterpiece.

the discourse!

Kirin Kiki, Sakura Ando and Mayu Matsuoko were great in Shoplifters. also the two kids

I loved the casual but deep immersion into everyday life in so many of the scenes, it feels like it’s a filmmaking quality that Kore-eda is really is good at

BFI Southbank season starts tomorrow

Yeah can't wait to see Maburosi on the big screen. Gonna catch some of the early ones too.

excited about seeing maborosi for the first time at the phoenix on sunday. was annoyed that i missed our little sister when it was on the iplayer

just got sent the BFI boxed set (= mabarosi, after life, nobody knows, still walking): quid pro quo for them reproducing my 1996 s&s review of mabarosi in the booklet

so this is something nice to look forward to -- mabarosi is one of my favourite ever films but i haven't ever seen nobody knows or still walking

orthography note: bfi now goes with koreeda not kore-eda

Wow, two absolute crackers in waiting for you then! Still Walking deserves its reputation but it’s Storm that kills me. As for Nobody Knows - I’ve never seen anything like it and hope I don’t again, despite loving it.

Finally saw this, iirc my first Kore-eda since "After Life" (which was, jeez, 20 years ago ?!). I absolutely loved the direction and acting, but the movie/story I thought was only OK. Some surprising parallels to "Parasite," which I also finally just saw (but liked more).

He's got an English-language one with Catherine Deneuve making the rounds.

Just watched Air Doll, and I truly hope it's the worst film he ever makes because I wouldn't like to think he'll direct anything else as poor as this. Haven't read the manga it's based on so maybe the tonal oddness worked better on the page, but it takes itself far too seriously for what is essentially a ludicrous premise (latex sex doll becomes sentient and seeks life's meaning in modern-day Tokyo). Might have worked as a black comedy-horror I guess, and there were a handful of scenes that were pretty compelling, but when you find yourself praying for a film to end you know you're in trouble. Korean actor Bae Doona (she was the archery-expert sister in Bong Joon-Ho's The Host) does a great job in the title role, and the cinematography is beautiful, but the whole thing is scuppered by the shitty script so what's the point?

I think it's his worst, yeah.

Gee, I see I've missed a lot. Nobody Knows and Still Walking seemed like possibly the best things ever at the time, but Air Doll and I Wish...didn't. Then I fell out of the loop altogether film-wise and now there's a full 6 (?) consecutive HK features I know little about?

Guess I should I scroll up for views on those innit...

Things turned around after I Wish. Like Father, Like Son and Sisters are still pretty feel good, but much better. After the Storm is just great, my favorite HK film probably since the earliest ones. And Shoplifters won the Golden Palm and is also good, though not quite as good as AtS. Then there's a French one, which got bad reviews

Great! I just made moves to procure AtS and Shoplifters, for starters. I should really stumble across from ILM more often!

Watching The Truth tonight.

Haha. I did watch it that night, my last new film before quarantine. I watched it again this morning. A real departure: Kore-eda imitating Assayas. Familiar but also rather charming, and Deneuve is superb playing an incarnation of herself.

Good Binoche interview: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-mothers-daughters-and-the-truth-a-conversation-with-juliette-binoche/

Ethan Hawke, muffled 'yikes'

the truth was remarkably french

otm

as a film about children I enjoyed "I Wish". It was not as great as Nobody Knows though

Monster is middling Kore-eda, i.e. better than most directors' peaks, but does get bogged down a little in plot contrivances and melodrama. The script plays around with the viewers' sympathy towards various characters to an alarming degree. Stars Sakura Ando from Shoplifters who's even better in this film, one of the most watchable performers around.

Saddest moment was in the final credits when I realised the score was by Ryuichi Sakamoto, in fact his final piece of film work.

4/5

Yes the Sakamoto moment was a sickener. I ended up loving this, but would have happily watched a film just from the two kids' perspective.

Yeah, the final part is so good it made the first two parts annoy me.

The thread has skipped Broker, which is pretty wonderful and teams HK once again with Bae Doona of Air Doll, could not be a more different role for her!
I’m looking forward to Monster because it’s a Korēda film, how could I not.
My all-time will forever be After the Storm.