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Random Stranger posted:What I want to know with Earthsea is who read Le Guin's absolutely godawful attempt to revive her glory days and said, "Yes, this is the perfect aspect of this fantasy world to turn into a film." Sorry, but the latter three Earthsea books are very good - just very different from the first three.
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Jul 15, 2016 05:55
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Not that I've posted a whole lot recently anyway...but this project is on official hiatus for the duration of the Summer Olympics. I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the games.
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Aug 8, 2016 15:54
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In the hullabaloo surrounding the Olympics, I missed celebrating the one-year anniversary of this thread/project! Progress has been much slower than I anticipated, but I'm still committed to finishing up what I've started. Can't say the same for goon Neowyrm, despite his claims of: Neowyrm posted:I'll post my thoughts as well, as I am going to be sitting right next to Jivjov on his moving picture journey. But that's okay! He, if nothing else, contributed me watching Akira to the project! Anyway, Monday or Wednesday will see me resuming regularly scheduled programming with Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
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Aug 22, 2016 03:16
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Jesus has it really been over a year since you started? Feels just like yesterday.
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Aug 24, 2016 20:47
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Thread went up on August 17th, 2015, first review the day after. I remember being so naive to think that I could keep to a 1-2 per week schedule perpetually. Hell, I have Samurai I open on Hulu right now and I'm busy playing Lego Marvel instead!
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Aug 24, 2016 21:05
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jivjov posted:Thread went up on August 17th, 2015, first review the day after. It took me almost a year to watch every Kurosawa film in order and I squeezed in at eleven months mainly because I decided I wanted to finish before a film course I was taking finished. Now I've got a bunch of Ozu films to watch (I'm not doing all of his films in order) but I've been so overwhelmed that I haven't been able to even look at them. Such is life.
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Aug 24, 2016 23:01
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I'm still not done with Kurosawa myself, and I started three or so years ago. Been a good ride though, only his last two left for me. Ozu is good but I've been spacing his films out even harder since they can feel a bit samey. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Aug 24, 2016 |
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Aug 24, 2016 23:31
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With me I think it's just a case of having too many other claims on my time. Other films and TV shows and game nights and whatnot.
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Aug 24, 2016 23:42
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Raxivace posted:I'm still not done with Kurosawa myself, and I started three or so years ago. Been a good ride though, only his last two left for me. Ouch. Madadayo isn't great Kurosawa but it's a nice ending for his career. Rhapsody in August, however, is pretty much an ode to conservative Japanese politics. It is one of those things that you have to know a bit about the politics to get that aspect of the film, though, so a casual viewer might only walk away with a ham handed anti-nuclear message.
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Aug 25, 2016 00:15
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Random Stranger posted:Rhapsody in August, however, is pretty much an ode to conservative Japanese politics. It is one of those things that you have to know a bit about the politics to get that aspect of the film, though, so a casual viewer might only walk away with a ham handed anti-nuclear message. Can you expand on this any? My assumption when I hear "conservative Japanese politics" is "apologia for Imperial Japan," and holy gently caress do I not have time for that.
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Aug 25, 2016 01:57
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I also started on a chronological watch through inspired by this thread. I'm currently up to Red Beard, which I'm holding off watching because I don't want to have no more Kurosawa/Mifune films to watch  . The end of that collaboration seems like an interesting story in itself, does anyone know much about it?
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Aug 25, 2016 02:14
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:Can you expand on this any? My assumption when I hear "conservative Japanese politics" is "apologia for Imperial Japan," and holy gently caress do I not have time for that. (We're talking about Rhapsody in August here.) There's a little bit of that in Rhapsody in August, enough to make it a clear background element. The stronger underlying theme is that western influences are weakening Japan and if they'd just turn back to the good old days (Imperial Japan being the last time that the "good old days" existed, of course) then everyone would be better off. Most people react more to the US shaming for the Nagasaki atomic bomb since it's blatant, pandering to the film's Japanese audience, and completely ham fisted regardless of your views on the situation (let's not start that debate, especially when we'd have to do it in spoiler coverage; I'm sure that we'll be doing that when jivjov gets to this movie anyway). I find that conservatism of the film much more unpleasant.
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Aug 25, 2016 04:11
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Random Stranger posted:Ouch. Madadayo isn't great Kurosawa but it's a nice ending for his career. Rhapsody in August, however, is pretty much an ode to conservative Japanese politics. It is one of those things that you have to know a bit about the politics to get that aspect of the film, though, so a casual viewer might only walk away with a ham handed anti-nuclear message. Wouldn't be the first time a filmmaker I love has fallen back on being regressive, particularly in old age. ozza posted:I also started on a chronological watch through inspired by this thread. I'm currently up to Red Beard, which I'm holding off watching because I don't want to have no more Kurosawa/Mifune films to watch From what I heard Kurosawa was also offended that Mifune worked on a film called Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo made a few years after Red Beard in 1970, which was an unofficial kind of sequel to Sanjuro in the Zaotichi series that Kurosawa himself had nothing to do with. He apparently didn't respect many of the other acting jobs Mifune took around this period, seeing it as some kind of betrayal. I'm not sure there was a single reason for the split, really. It's sort of like how people don't usually just leave their boyfriends or girlfriends for just one or two reasons. Someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to tell us more. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Aug 25, 2016 |
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Aug 25, 2016 07:02
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Random Stranger posted:(We're talking about Rhapsody in August here.) Yeah, I wasn't meaning to start a big debate until we get there (if even then), just curious on whether I was taking the right assumption away from what you said, since that movie's one of my Kurosawa blind spots.
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Aug 25, 2016 07:23
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A lost short film by Yasujiro Ozu has been rediscovered. http://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/AJ201609070060.html
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Sep 7, 2016 23:59
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Raxivace posted:A lost short film by Yasujiro Ozu has been rediscovered. Nice! It's always great when something thought lost is rediscovered. In other news: http://www.firstshowing.net/2016/travel-back-to-japan-in-1814-in-us-trailer-for-animated-miss-hokusai/ An animated movie about the daughter of the artist who did this:  Its been out in Japan since last year, but I'm gonna try to see it when it hits US theaters.
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Sep 8, 2016 00:12
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Raxivace posted:A lost short film by Yasujiro Ozu has been rediscovered. So I guess this means they finally discovered the Secret of the Ozu.
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Sep 8, 2016 01:24
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Mantis42 posted:So I guess this means they finally discovered the Secret of the Ozu.
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Sep 8, 2016 01:29
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I wonder how many people in the world have seen both TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze, and an Ozu film. Probably not too many.
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Sep 8, 2016 01:32
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Basebf555 posted:I wonder how many people in the world have seen both TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze, and an Ozu film. Probably not too many. I am a member of an exclusive club.
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Sep 8, 2016 01:40
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Well, I finally got around to watching Red Beard. (Spoilers for jivjov's benefit) I thought it was a thoroughly average film. It was oddly paced, tonally all over the place, and - probably worst of all - Mifune was absolutely wasted. Pacing-wise, though I appreciate that the plot came from a mishmash of short stories and a scoop of Dostoyevsky, it was far, far too episodic. After Yasumoto shed his arrogance and embraced the humble life of helping those in need 1/3 of the way into the film, there was no central arc at all. It meandered, reaching several climaxes along the way, and then, in the end, went out with a shrug. I couldn't help but think that it would have made a decent TV series rather than a three hour (!) film. Tonally the film seemed not to know what it wanted to be. The scene with the mad woman seducing and almost murdering Yasumoto was delicate and brutal, but a few scenes later Red Beard is flipping around and bashing up bad guys like a comic book superhero. And then his martial arts powers are just never mentioned again. Very weird. The film also fell victim to the worst of Kurosawa's sentimentalism. The 'otherwise emotionless man weeping over the purity of a little girl' trope was laughable in Scandal, and here it was interminable. As far as Mifune goes, to be fair I can't tell whether it was the writing or his performance that didn't work. Essentially, the biggest problem was that the character of Red Beard is never given any time to develop. I think the idea is that he is initially gruff and seemingly unfair, but as the film goes on the viewer realises he actually has a heart of gold. Unfortunately that's not the character on screen: from the beginning he was warm and patient, even when dealing with the haughty Yasumoto. Could it be that Mifune just exudes so much charisma that he couldn't sell the 'stern master' character? Maybe. It's more likely though I think that the writing just stunk. Finally, as much as I thought Mifune's talents were squandered here, I appreciated that (despite the title) Red Beard wasn't really the central figure of the film - it felt as if Mifune himself was shifting to the periphery and bowing out of Kurosawa's world. In that way I think it was a fitting, though odd, end to the collaboration. In the final tally of Mifune-Kurosawa collabs, I think the best the two did was Yojimbo, though The Hidden Fortress was also excellent. Now, on with the era of Colour-sawa! ozza fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 15, 2016 13:53
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Prepare to be blown away by Ran, and probably Kagemusha too. I say this all the time but I really wish we had 3 or 4 more Kurosawa films in color, he did things with it that very few other directors have done.
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Sep 15, 2016 15:33
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I recently started going through the Akira catalogue too, starting with Rashomon and then taking a couple of days to get through Seven Samurai. I'm glad I've now seen Seven Samurai and I can see why so many times I've seen it cited as an all time great film. It feels to me much like a classic film like The Great Escape or Bridge over the River Kwai; an older, different type of movie making - the long sweeping epic with an emotional core. But it wasn't the extraordinary experience I was expecting, for years several of my friends had hyped up the third act battle scenes which to me felt like the weakest part of the film - I personally loved the beginning and middle sections with the emotional beats and unexpected comedy that surrounds Mifune's character. It's a great film but the years of hearing about it before I actually watched coloured my viewing experience in probably negative ways. But Rashomon... loving Rashomon. I more than loved this film, I was bowled over by it, swept along and enraptured. I thought this was an extraordinary piece of filmmaking, finally I was seeing the what I now know to be the "Rashomon effect" done extremely well as opposed to the many half-hearted attempts I'd seen on TV. Also it was really loving dark, like way darker than I was expecting for a black and white 50's film and so dark that I thought maybe it could be controversial while I was watching it, that maybe the subject matter and the events being portrayed should be criticised? But then of course you realise that that was simply my own reaction to one of the versions of events being told. I can't help but gush about this film, I thinks it is definitely one of the best films I've ever seen (though really, I suppose I haven't seen that many). Also as a little side-note: Nausicaa is my all-time favourite Miyazaki film, I don't know quite what it is about it but I think it's great.
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Sep 15, 2016 17:42
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Robutt posted:But it wasn't the extraordinary experience I was expecting, for years several of my friends had hyped up the third act battle scenes which to me felt like the weakest part of the film - I personally loved the beginning and middle sections with the emotional beats and unexpected comedy that surrounds Mifune's character. In terms of visuals, the final battle seems quite tame compared to contemporary action cinema (although I've always liked the way Kurosawa shot rain). I think the reason it's so well-regarded even to this day is because it feels like a perfect culmination of everything that transpired beforehand. By this point in the film, we've spent over two hours getting introduced to all the characters; we know everything about their emotional state and their reasons for fighting. This lends an emotional intensity to the battle scene because we aren't just watching a bunch of actors falling in the mud, we see the death of real people. It hits us way harder than it has any right to because Kurosawa did such a masterful job setting up these characters who are very different from each other, but still very relatable in their own way. Robutt posted:Also as a little side-note: Nausicaa is my all-time favourite Miyazaki film, I don't know quite what it is about it but I think it's great. My man.
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Sep 15, 2016 23:00
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I'm now a few films into colour Kurosawa and - wow. I did not expect such vibrancy and joy from Kurosawa (though reading a bit about his training as an artist and tendency to storyboard through painting it makes sense). Kagemusha, which was the most recent film I watched, in particular was visually amazing. The story itself I found ultimately underwhelming and the battle scenes nigh-on incomprehensible, but boy did it showcase a bold, bright, ingenious use of colour. It's been said before, but I wish he'd been making colour films from much earlier in his career - it really is a different (and elevated) experience, and obviously something he was intuitively good at.
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Sep 20, 2016 10:25
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The first time I saw Kagemusha, there was a bug with the tv or something and it was in black and white. It still looked amazing.
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Sep 20, 2016 12:42
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ozza posted:I'm now a few films into colour Kurosawa and - wow. I did not expect such vibrancy and joy from Kurosawa (though reading a bit about his training as an artist and tendency to storyboard through painting it makes sense). Kagemusha, which was the most recent film I watched, in particular was visually amazing. The story itself I found ultimately underwhelming and the battle scenes nigh-on incomprehensible, but boy did it showcase a bold, bright, ingenious use of colour. It's been said before, but I wish he'd been making colour films from much earlier in his career - it really is a different (and elevated) experience, and obviously something he was intuitively good at. If you haven't seen Ran yet, do so immediately. Its a better story than Kagemusha in my opinion and every bit as visually impressive. Probably more so.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:37
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Basebf555 posted:If you haven't seen Ran yet, do so immediately. Its a better story than Kagemusha in my opinion and every bit as visually impressive. Probably more so. I'm very much looking forward to Ran, but thought I'd hold off and watch the other remaining films first so I can finish my Kurosawa run with it.
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Sep 20, 2016 23:20
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jivjov posted:Anyone know anything about Sherlock Hound? Apparently Miyazaki directed 6 episodes of the series, 4 of which were edited down into a couple of movies. This spurred a memory in me: Miyazaki and Takahata directed the TV show Future Boy Conan in the late 1970s; you would probably be interested in that as well.
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Sep 26, 2016 04:59
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This is not dead! I'm seeing the new Toho Shin Godzilla on Tuesday, and plan on reviewing that for the thread, plus Samurai I is queued up for sometime this week as well. I did go see the dub of the first Digimon Adventure tri film as well. (Plus rewatched the sub)...was debating on whether or not to post it here in the thread though. Franchise anime tie ins are a rabbit hole I don't particularly want to go down...but tri is incredibly well made for tying in to a kid's toy and trading card property.
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Oct 10, 2016 05:54
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Mantis42 posted:So I guess this means they finally discovered the Secret of the Ozu. lmao
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Oct 10, 2016 05:58
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 Spoiler Warning!This is a bit of a rarity for the thread in that the movie I am reviewing is a very recent release. The Japanese release was just over two months ago, and American theatrical screenings have been occurring for less than a full calendar day as of the time of this writing.  Shin Godzilla Released July 29th 2016, Directed by Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi Note: I watched this film at a theatrical screening and was unable to take notes or pause the film; my thoughts may not be quite as well laid out as I'd like. This is a Godzilla film rather diametrically opposed to the American 2014 release. Much like the original (which I reviewed not quite a year ago now), Shin Godzilla focuses so much more on how people are dealing with and reacting to an unprecedented event; not so much on the monster itself. More time is spent in watching characters navigate Japanese bureaucracy to get things done than glamour shots of Godzilla himself. That's not to say the monster is ill-served by the film, however. Godzilla gets a few scenes of spotlight time, including one of the most amazing displays of city carnage I have ever seen. I was legitimately impressed by the effects (both in terms of CGI and in-universe effect) of Godzilla's nuclear breath and dorsal rays. The endless scenes of government officials never felt repetitious or dull, every scene had a purpose and a meaning, and the situation changed rapidly enough that each appearance of the Prime Minister, for example, was different than the one before. My only complaint is that the early bits of the film were an avalanche of names, titles, and locations popping up on screen in quick succession. Thankfully, the actual number of characters that really need to be remembered is quite manageable, but I'm certain that I lost a bit of nuance related to various department heads, conflicting statements, and the physical locations of meetings simply due to the sheer number of on-screen titles. Toward the end of the first act, Yaguchi spearheads the creation of a taskforce self described as a a bunch of misfits, troublemakers, and other people on the government's various 'pain in the neck' lists. I haven't seen enough modern Japanese cinema to know if this is as much of a trope there as it tends to be in American cinema, but I certainly appreciated the concept. And thankfully the film avoids having anyone playing broadly over the top for forced comedy; one tertiary character is prone to the occasional loud outburst, but this only occurs two or three times in total, and it never breaks the tone in a jarring fashion. I particularly enjoyed the general political situation of the film. Without bogging the movie down in excessive detail it is made plainly obvious that the internal situation in Japan is too mired in red tape, subcommittees, and mandatory meetings to immediately mount an effective response. Explicit mention is made of Japan's "post war tributary state" status, and the UN (spearheaded by the United States) aggressively tries to take control of the whole kaiju situation. The climax of the film hinges on the concept of "do what you want". The Japanese government, despite being cut off at the knees by the untimely death of the PM and most of the cabinet, is essentially forced to unilaterally implement an uncertain scientific plan in order to stop an imminent nuclear strike on Godzilla. There is a strong message of Japanese political independence contained here, but it's not so ham handed that it negatively impacts the film. And now for the potpourri paragraph; a handful of observations I made while watching that I want to be sure to mention, but without a lot of narrative to hang them off of in the main body of the review. I enjoyed that the film took a brief moment to address the whole "Gojira vs. Godzilla" thing, with the definitive answer being essentially identical to the out-of-universe reason. Gojira is written in Japanese characters, Godzilla was an handy English equivalent. Seeing Jun Kunimura was fun; I recently saw him in the live-action Attack on Titan films, and not so recently back in Godzilla Final Wars. The retro Toho studio logo was beautiful! Overall, this is probably my new favorite Godzilla film (out of the whopping 4 I have seen!), and I certainly plan on revisiting it on home media! Up Next: Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto Released September 26th 1954, Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki jivjov fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Dec 1, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 05:44
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It sounds like Shin Godzilla combines the early Evangelion episodes with the 1954 Godzilla, which is cool. I'll be seeing it tomorrow myself and am very excited.
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Oct 12, 2016 05:49
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Raxivace posted:It sounds like Shin Godzilla combines the early Evangelion episodes with the 1954 Godzilla, which is cool. I'll be seeing it tomorrow myself and am very excited. It really is SUPER good. Like, I didn't want to gush about it too much in my review, but some of the destruction effects are just absolutely mindblowing.
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Oct 12, 2016 05:57
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I just got to watch the new 4k restoration of Ran in a theater here tonight. The colors looked really great on the big screen, but man I forgot how tragic that movie is. It is definitely one of his more epic in scale movies though. Such a good movie.
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Oct 26, 2016 04:47
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So here I was about to restart my film reviewing...only to find out that the Criterion Collection got pulled from Hulu a couple weeks ago  EDIT: I have to sign up for yet another $10.99/month streaming service to get access to all those films again...I don't want to say "thread cancelled"...but I'm thinking about it.
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Nov 30, 2016 18:02
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jivjov posted:So here I was about to restart my film reviewing...only to find out that the Criterion Collection got pulled from Hulu a couple weeks ago Its a huge bummer. I'm in the middle of a move, but once I'm situated I'm definitely going to figure out a way to get FilmStruck. Right now I stream everything with a PS4 but maybe I'll grab one of those Amazon Fire sticks. Personally I'd recommend dropping Hulu unless there's some T.V. shows there you can't live without. Without Criterion its pretty poo poo as a movie service. Then just use that money to pay for Filmstruck. I've already spent $8 on two films that I could have seen for free on Hulu a month ago. There was just too much on my queue, I had no chance at getting through it all before the deadline. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 18:06
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Basebf555 posted:Its a huge bummer. I'm in the middle of a move, but once I'm situated I'm definitely going to figure out a way to get FilmStruck. Right now I stream everything with a PS4 but maybe I'll grab one of those Amazon Fire sticks. Personally I'd recommend dropping Hulu unless there's some T.V. shows there you can't live without. Without Criterion its pretty poo poo as a movie service. Then just use that money to pay for Filmstruck. I didn't even know there was a deadline approaching. I honestly would have made a stronger effort to get through more stuff before now had I known. My wife's the one paying for the Hulu; I think she still uses it for a lot of TV stuff...so I may just sign up for FilmStuck.
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Nov 30, 2016 19:23
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jivjov posted:So here I was about to restart my film reviewing...only to find out that the Criterion Collection got pulled from Hulu a couple weeks ago As a student, I have free access to another source for Criterion streaming, though since I can't output it to my television I haven't really used it. Getting free stuff is the best part of going back to school. Well, that and the education.
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Dec 1, 2016 00:35
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Random Stranger posted:As a student, I have free access to another source for Criterion streaming, though since I can't output it to my television I haven't really used it. I feel you. I really miss all the random fringe benefits of being a college student. It's the little things that add up; like the infinite hot water.
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Dec 1, 2016 00:53
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