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Is it okay to talk about our own viewing experiences here? I can't find a dedicated ghibli thread and I'd like to talk about princess mononoke because I just watched it and it is fantastic.
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Aug 11, 2017 15:19
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Arcsquad12 posted:Is it okay to talk about our own viewing experiences here? I can't find a dedicated ghibli thread and I'd like to talk about princess mononoke because I just watched it and it is fantastic. Go for it! I just ask that you spoiler tag anything I haven't reviewed yet.
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Aug 11, 2017 15:24
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Please use more ellipses, your essays are unrecognizable otherwise. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 11, 2017 16:08
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Okay then. Well, to say this film is visually stunning does not do it justice. Princess Mononoke is hands down one of the best looking films I have ever seen, animated or otherwise. I've seen slightly better animation in other places, but as an overall package this film is almost unmatched in its detail and aesthetic. It also helps that I was engrossed in the story as well. I love how the film makes its messages and themes clear without needing to repeat the obvious. It is an environmental message used to mask a deeper message about mutual cooperation and pacifism. None of the violence in the film is taken lightly, and it is horrific looking while also being achingly sad. This is a film where I didn't want anybody (except for the externally viewed Emperor and his armies) to get hurt, and watching them go at each other just has this palpable feeling of failure cast over every frame. The Boars and the Humans and the pride that drives both of them to mutual destruction is sad yet inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch the boar god succumb to madness after his failure. Setting the film in the highly unstable muromachi period was also a great touch, as the whole movie focuses on the violent transition from the old way of life to something new and unknown. The Emishi and the forest spirits represent the last of their kind in the face of the Emperor's conquests and the expansion of Irontown, respectively. Jigo is a buddhist monk introducing a new religion to Japan. Eboshi brings gunpowder that creates a paradigm shift in the war between man and nature. And Irontown and the empire of Japan represent the encroaching, inevitable rise of industrialization. When the film ends, and the forest spirit dies restoring the blackened world, it's not a peaceful resolution for all involved. Regardless of the new peace, nature has lost this battle, and lost hard. Eboshi and Ashitaka promise to rebuild Irontown and make it better and more in harmony with nature, but that is only a promise and not a fact. Ashitaka and San cannot be together, as they both represent two sides that cannot be reconciled. The past still happened, and forgiveness doesn't always come. I think what really sells this movie is the protagonist. Ashitaka is all around a perfect person. He is always the voice of reason, and he is willing to sacrifice himself for others, as he has given up his humanity, his family and his home in order to protect the balance between humanity and nature. In any other context this character could be seen as a mary sue all-too-perfect bore, but good lord does Ashitaka go through hell to uphold his beliefs. He reminds me a lot of Vash from Trigun, where he puts his body through endless harm and suffering to not compromise on his morals. Ashitaka gets cursed, shot, and generally has the crap kicked out of him, and he bears it all. San represents a great counter to him, being driven by hate and loyalty to her wolf tribe, who don't view the world in black and white. Moro the wolf goddess is fascinating in how she remains distant from the conflict and yet highly personal. She is wise where Okkoko is stubborn, and yet even she abandons her vengeance against Eboshi to save her daughter. Her decapitated head still gets its revenge, but Moro still gave up her chance for a maternal instinct. I watched the Mirimax dub, that was doctored up by Neil Gaiman to better fit the mouth flaps, and apart from one stumble near the end, it is excellent. Billy Crudup and Claire Danes are both great, and Billy Bob Thornton was surprisingly good as Jigo. Minnie Driver was fine, and John DiMaggio does great voice work no matter what he's in. The only part where it stumbles is during Ashitaka's final talk with San before they part ways, where his dialogue sounds like a forced whisper rather than a soft reaffirmation of Ashitaka's beliefs. As far as high profile celebrity voice dubs go, this is about as good as you can get. THE MUSIC IN THIS FILM IS loving PHENOMENAL Joe Hisaishi's music makes you feel nostalgic even if it is your first time watching the film. I can't put into words how good the score is, so just go listen for yourself. I'd probably have more to say later after I think about the movie some more, but those are my initial thoughts. I loved this movie and at the risk of sounding like a weeb, screw Disney for not marketing it better. Imagine what the anime landscape would look like in North America if Princess Mononoke had become a big hit at the box office. I imagine it would be pretty similar to the deluge of crap anime titles that cropped up after Spirited Away won its Oscar, but since I'm in the hypothetical, I am curious how it would have affected Japanese ideas on importing and marketing their content to other countries.
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Aug 12, 2017 00:24
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Arcsquad12 posted:Okay then. Well, to say this film is visually stunning does not do it justice. Princess Mononoke is hands down one of the best looking films I have ever seen, animated or otherwise. I've seen slightly better animation in other places, but as an overall package this film is almost unmatched in its detail and aesthetic. It also helps that I was engrossed in the story as well. It's by far my favourite Miyazaki movie and one of my top movies all time. The realistic motivations and characters, the epic scope, the soundtrack, the use of gods and spirits, the greenness of it all, all wonderful. As a westerner it feels so imaginative to me. I do feel like it is his best and most profound work. I was always disappointed by all his subsequent efforts. I do have issues with some of it though Why does Jigo lie that he has never seen a bullet before? He has no reason to lie, especially so convincingly. It makes his shady character too shady, if that makes sense? The ape tribe feel a little... racist to me. Even when I first saw it in 98 or 99 or whatever. I really don't like Gillian Anderson's voice work in this. But I like they made Moro female in the English dub. I was going to comment that guns in that period feel out of place but I just learned that wiki says guns like that may be been in Japan in the 13th century. So I guess not. If you are in Australia, Hoyt's and Dendy are doing Miyazaki showings in the coming months. Go see this on the big screen!
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Aug 15, 2017 11:25
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Jigo doesn't trust anyone and is looking for a pardon from the emperor in return for the forest spirit's head. He doesn't know Ashitaka's intentions when he brings up the bullet so it is easier for him to feign ignorance than play his hand to a potentially disruptive stranger. The Ape tribe felt underdeveloped rather than racist to me. If they had been the boars rather than a third party observer then the whole point about Nago and his relation to Okkoko could have been expanded. I didn't mind Gillian Anderson. She still pulls off the enigmatic yet wise and maternal angle of Moro quite well. The weakest voice performance is Billy Crudup and Claire Danes, and they both only stumble a few times.
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Aug 15, 2017 18:24
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I guess this is a good a place as any for this.   The Hidden Fortress is set in the aftermath of a war between Japanese feudal clans. Two peasants are lost in occupied land and stumble upon a hidden treasure of gold, which a fugitive princess and general intend to smuggle away in order to rebuild their destroyed clan. Travelling through enemy territory and elemental landscapes, the characters find their natures tested and reaffirmed by their trials. Mostly known as the thing that heavily influenced Star Wars, Kurosawa’s film is a far superior work, compared to which Lucas’s series has always been a step backwards. The grand adventure movie is practically a dead art, and grand adventure movies that are also moral and social epics like Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress even more so. What would be a straight-forward adventure is complicated by Kurosawa’s handling of two irreconcilable duos, one comical and the other heroic and tragic.   What the movie presents is a strangely two-sided narrative. The two opposing halves of the traveling quartet never meet each other as equals. The aristocrats see the peasants as tools, and the peasants do not see anything beyond their instincts and immediate needs. Rokuroba and princess Yuki are nobly heroic, but they are also bullying, deceptive, and aristocratic. Their cause is just, but entangled in distant feudal politicking. Tahei and Matashichi are short-sighted, greedy, and even would-be rapists – and they are movie’s face of humanity. This interplay culminates in the supremely ironic ending when they discover the identities of their traveling companions: the first time that the two parties understand each other and see eye-to-eye is when one side is grovelling before the other and is left completely mollified by what amounts to a pittance compared to the prize they helped smuggle. Kurosawa’s accomplishment is thus foregrounding the fundamental disjuncture of feudalism while at the same time presenting a rousing adventure movie. We see two overlapping worlds that subvert and reinforce each other: the comic peasant world, and the heroic-tragic aristocratic world. We both see that there is more to these figures than their respective spheres of society, but also how completely they are defined by these social contexts. This is not all inimical with the flat, exaggerated characters of the story, because it’s their simplicity that makes them easy to perceive as types like peasant, servant, retainer, or aristocrat. This social awareness adds great nuance to the movie’s nominally straight-forward story. An unappreciated and unnoticed aspect of cinema is the ability to characterize figures in a tightly-knit social context. The Hidden Fortress rarely features characters alone, let alone for any extended period, and when they act they act in relation to each other. Their flatness makes them simultaneously highly understandable but impenetrable: while we are privy to the heroes’ simple and sympathetic natures, we are also kept at a certain distance as we perceive them in relation to their fellow characters. Empathetic close-ups are noticeable for their sparseness, and also never escape that societal/group context, such as a character's desperate shock when he cannot find his travelling companions. This gives them a special dramatic intensity upon which their actors build: the audience almost sees these figures as they see each other. This may sound unremarkable, and it’s indeed exceedingly common in older cinema, but is something of a lost art in a more inward-turned age prone to introspection and parasocial pop-culture obsession.   These layers blend together empathy with irony and the feeling of “being there” with alienating distance, and this is what give the movie that aspect of genuine art: insight. It would of course not be possible without Kurosawa’s direction. The same interplay of intimacy and distance can be perceived in the movie’s milieu. Nature is felt throughout the movie, which is very literal sentiment: every environment is presented with a subtle sense of tactility and confinement, whether bleak hills, gravelly mountains, thick groves, country roads, or mist-covered forests. Sweeping vistas are reserved for only when the characters are directly observing them. This gives The Hidden Fortress a modestly realist aspect that helps ground its figures and story. The secretive and tense scenery of nature is contrasted with sparse but suffocating crowd scenes. The screen is not simply a window into action, but like with any good cinematographer, is in itself a field of action. This effect is perhaps best illustrated at the beginning of the movie, when Tahei’s and Matashichi’s bickering is interrupted by a bloodied warrior who shockingly and almost inexplicably enters the foreground, followed by mounted pursuers. Effects like this heighten the audience’s sense of artifice while also being exciting, which maintains that combination of closeness and distance that leads to insight. Characters and action are staged with an eye for different layers of action, underlining the screen's nature as a field of action instead of a field for action.   e: vvv sure BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Sep 7, 2017 |
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Sep 3, 2017 14:58
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Could you spoiler tag that please? I haven't gotten to The Hidden Fortress yet.
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Sep 3, 2017 15:33
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I watched Hidden Fortress a week or so ago. I enjoyed it, but apart from two bumbling peasants, a princess and a general it shouldn't keep being brought up in relation to Star Wars because they're barely anything alike.
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Sep 4, 2017 01:58
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That awkward moment when you get called in to work on movie day...I'm honestly tempted to start loading films for this thread onto my phone...but I think that would be doing the cinematography a grave disservice, even on a phablet.
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Oct 12, 2017 03:13
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 Throne of Blood Released January 15 1957. Directed by Akira Kurosawa To crib a bit from the Wikipedia article for this film...this is widely regarded as one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth of all time. High praise for a movie that's not set anywhere near Scotland. There's not much to be said about the basic plot, even more true than with most films in this retrospective, that hasn't already been said by Shakespeare scholars or Kurosawa aficionados; so this particular review is going to focus a LOT more on the sights and sounds than the plotting. The inspiration of stage play is plainly obvious in the majority of this film. Other than a handful of outdoor scenes, this movie takes place in fairly limited space; with actors moving up and down and across a small surface area, sometimes stepping just off camera or just past a partition only to return moments later as a continuation.This lent an air of intimacy to the film for me. I found myself leaning forward, drawing physically closer to the actions I was seeing on screen. In contrast, something I greatly enjoyed in the aforementioned outdoor scenes was the oft-obscuring foliage. Whenever characters are riding around on horseback or walking through the forest they are often obscured from clear view by the branches and leaves and brush. I'm adding that to the long, long list of Kurosawa employing the natural elements in visually stimulating ways. (Also featured in this film, rain and lightning, fog). This film also had something I've found lacking in other Kurosawa features...a strong female! However, I can't give full credit to Kurosawa for this, given that he was adapting the character of Asaji from Lady Macbeth. I regrettably don't have much more to say on this film, as I've experienced the same thing with Throne of Blood that I have with much other Shakespeare...it just sorta washed over me. Both on stage on on film, I've found the Bard's work to just sweep me along like a storytelling river. That's by no means a bad thing..but it sure makes talking about the production afterwards a bit difficult. The best summation is thus: if you like Kurosawa, you'll like this. If you like Shakespeare, you'll like this. If you like both, you'll find Throne of Blood to be incredibly good. Up Next: Whisper of the Heart Released July 15 1995. Directed by Yoshifumi Kondō
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Dec 2, 2017 03:56
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I love Throne of Blood. Kurosawa is so good he makes Shakespeare watchable.
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Dec 2, 2017 05:41
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Started in on Whisper of the Heart....I dunno what I was expecting, but a John Denver cover was not it.
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Jan 8, 2018 22:47
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 Whisper of the Heart Released July 15 1995. Directed by Yoshifumi Kondō Man, I sure do make slow progress, don't I? I'm back to review another Studio Ghibli film after a year and a half away from those! This movie gave me a bit of whiplash...from the poster, I was expecting something along the lines of Kiki's Delivery Service, with fantastical elements blending with a character's story. But instead, I got something a lot more akin to Ocean Waves or Only Yesterday; a more or less completely grounded-in-reality tale. Not that I'm complaining...I sung the praises of those films in my reviews for them. But for sequences of the film that take up make 3 or 4 minutes of runtime, devoting the poster to the fictionalized Baron flying with Shizuku seems an odd stylistic choice. Speaking of slightly odd choices, I next thought that the theme of the film was going to go into some environmentalist concerns, given Shizuku's "Concrete Roads" lyrics to her cover of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads...but the film didn't really dwell there either...even when that version of the lyrics is referenced later, the environmentalist connection goes unmentioned. Although maybe that's just one of a series of Studio Ghibli cameos sprinkled throughout the film? Porco Rosso and Kiki's Delivery Service have some very literal nods; maybe Concrete Roads was a subtle allusion to Pom Poko and Grandpa Shiro's tale of going off to war sorta ties to Grave of the Fireflies? Or perhaps I'm justs overthinking the whole thing! Anyway, as to the plot of the film, I was definitely feeling quite of bit of Ocean Waves, what with various characters having unrequited love triangles, crushes, etc...but this didn't at all feel derivative. I really liked that Seiji and Shizuku both had some clearly defined plans for their lives...but Shizuku discovering her's was a major development. Far too often in stories like these, the principle characters are at mostly-identical points in their journeys. The stock outline for this sort of tale would probably have opened with Shizuku being an aspiring novelist/poet/lyricist, getting discouraged, and then having to re-find her way, possibly taking inspiration from Seiji's desire to be a luthier along the way...I liked that Shizuku's inspiration from Seiji was instead a more realistic "wow, he knows what he wants to do with his life...why don't I?" The ending marriage proposal was a bit saccharine...but I can forgive the film that when the entire run-time was more or less devoted to these two characters slowly circling each other. And hey...these are middle schoolers...they may not ever reach that promised marriage, and that wouldn't be the end of the world for either of them. Overall, a solid recommend, and once again a welcome surprise from Studio Ghibli. Up Next: The Lower Depths Released September 17 1957. Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Jan 9, 2018 01:30
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jivjov posted:
I remember it as being good . It's essentially a one-room drama based on a Maxim Gorky play if you want to read it first (Kurosawa loves his Shakespeare and loves his 19th-Century Russian writers).
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Jan 9, 2018 02:05
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If you get the Criterion DVD of The Lower Depths, the Renoir version is worth a watch for comparison too.
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Jan 9, 2018 02:32
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Seriously, what is it with movies and John Denver?
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Jan 9, 2018 23:51
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:Seriously, what is it with movies and John Denver? Country Roads in particular. I just saw the 2nd Kingsman the other day, and there it was too. jivjov fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Feb 26, 2018 |
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Jan 10, 2018 02:16
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Curve-ball bonus suggestion: House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977). Why? Obayashi posted:“If Kurosawa or Ozu were to see it, what kind of direction would offend them most,” he recalled. ” ‘That’s how I’ll do it!’ That was my thinking as I made ‘House.’ “  Obayashi also directed the making-of documentary for Kurosawa's Dreams.
sean10mm fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 10, 2018 16:27
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Figure this is as good a thread to ask as anywhere but does anyone here know where I might be able to purchase Joe Hisaishi's film albums online?
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Jan 26, 2018 19:39
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I'm going to a Japanese Film Festival today, which should be pretty fun. Interesting lineup; three animated features (Mary and the Witch's Flower, Your Name, and Napping Princess) followed by Shin Godzilla which I already reviewed for the thread and loved!
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Feb 25, 2018 15:24
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Figured I'd drop some mini-reviews in the breaks between films; I'll come back through and put in my usual formatting and such tonight when I get home.  Mary and the Witch's Flower Released July 8 2017. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi The plot itself followed a fairly predictable pattern, but it's very well told and beautifully animated. In particular I'd like to compliment the use of color, and all the environmental effects (mist, lightning, clouds, etc). Felt very much like a latter Ghibli film, I want to look up and see if Studio Ponoc has some Ghibli alumni working for them. I also really liked that the Magic college didn't ened up being a strictly evil place. It would have been easy for the whole organization to be bad...but it felt like now that the whole fly-by-night crisis is over, it can actually go back to being an educational institution.  Your Name Released August 26 2016. Directed by Makoto Shinkai Holy cow, I was absolutely not expecting this to go where it did. Not only was this gorgeously animated, but it was really touching. There was maybe a hair too much "lol a guy trapped in a girl's body won't leave her tits alone" humor...but other than that, I really can't find a fault here. I loved that everyone around the couple recognized that something was amiss...but they all were willing to dismiss it when they went "back to normal" the next day.  Napping Princess Released March 18 2017. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama I liked the interlinking between the dream world and the real world; though I feel that the strict line of the plot kinda got lost a little bit toward the end. Animation quality also was not quite as solid in some scenes.  Shin Godzilla Released July 29th 2016, Directed by Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi I am again astounded at the incredible destruction scenes, as well as the brutal deconstruction of Japanese bureaucracy jivjov fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Feb 26, 2018 |
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Feb 25, 2018 20:17
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 The Lower Depths Released September 17 1957. Directed by Akira Kurosawa About 10 minutes into this film, I could see exactly what drew Kurosawa to adapt this Russian play into a film. Its alllll about broken people. People with illnesses, drunks, adulterers, the willfully deluded. All the character traits Kurosawa loves to spotlight, all crammed together into a one-room, dilapidated tenement house. The rather...loose flow of the plot was rather intriguing. While there was a clear through-line of Toshiro Mifune's character of Sutekichi involved in what amounted to a love triangle + affair with a pair of sisters, much of the film focused on the slow, crumbling, inexorable decline of the other characters stuck in this living situation. In particular was a rather enigmatic old priest character...who I never quite could get a handle on. Is he supposed to represent the goodness of mankind? Making the best of a bad situation? The internal conscience of each other character in turn? Kahei the pilgrim is certainly a mystery; and he quietly exits the story just as suddenly as he entered it. Its no surprise that everyone's lives go even further downhill once he's gone. Overall, this film is one of those that's more of an experience rather than a strict narrative tale; and feels almost experimental. Only a few scenes out-of-doors keep this from being an actual one-room production...and even the outside segments are all in the yard or the neighboring home of the tenement's landlords. I was actually rather reminded of The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail in how contained the production was. There's also ample Kurosawa-isms in the presence of wind and rain and sleet; as the situation devolves the weather gets worse. Overall a really solid production. Up Next: Princess Mononoke Released July 12 1997. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
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Feb 26, 2018 21:42
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For anyone still following along with this thread and my progress, here's my schedule for the next few films: Princess Mononoke The Hidden Fortress Star Wars (Specifically the laser-disc cut included on the 2005 DVD release; to try to get as close to the 1977 presentation as possible) - With as much focus as I can muster on why this film gets compared to The Hidden Fortress so much The Human Condition (Still trying to decide if I watch the 9+ hr single film cut, or as a trilogy) My Neighbors the Yamadas jivjov fucked around with this message at 22:50 on May 21, 2018 |
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Feb 26, 2018 21:46
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I watched Mary and the Witch's flower at one of those fathom events, and after the movie they had interviews with the director and another creator of it. Basically as you suspected, they are indeed Ghibili alumni. They stated that after Ghibili went on hitatus, they wanted to create more films so they went and made their own studio. They talked a lot about working with Miyazaki and what they learned from him. To me, this movie was almost a Ghibili greatest hits of scenes. Obviously a lot of Kiki influences, but there was some totoro and Howl's moving castle and Spirited away in there also. Laupta too with the monster going wild at the end. Really her aunt and cook (?) were like the characters from Kiki who baked her the cake. Will be interesting to see what their next film is.
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Mar 6, 2018 05:42
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Yeah; I read up on them and they're literally setting themselves up to be a new Ghibli. I'm all for it if they keep the quality high. Though at this rate Miyazaki is just never going to retire for real, and we'll just have two Ghiblis.
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Mar 6, 2018 13:19
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jivjov posted:The Hidden Fortress I expect you'll come away a bit disappointed, which seems to happen with most people. Not in Hidden Fortress as a film, it's fantastic, but there really isn't a 1 to 1 relationship between it and Star Wars anywhere outside of the opening scenes. It's not like you can sit there just calling out Star Wars references in scene after scene. There's probably just as much Hidden Fortress in something like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg and Lucas have talked about how much the way Kurosawa shot action scenes influenced them.
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Mar 6, 2018 15:25
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Basebf555 posted:I expect you'll come away a bit disappointed, which seems to happen with most people. Not in Hidden Fortress as a film, it's fantastic, but there really isn't a 1 to 1 relationship between it and Star Wars anywhere outside of the opening scenes. It's not like you can sit there just calling out Star Wars references in scene after scene. Yeah; people have been telling me this since like...Day 3 of this thread. But my first true film love is Star Wars, so I'll take any excuse, no matter how thin, to rewatch it.
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Mar 6, 2018 15:28
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It's true, he will watch it for any and no reason.
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Mar 6, 2018 18:47
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I think I brought this up in the Criterion thread at some point, but the Japanese title being something like "Three Bad Men in The Hidden Fortress" still makes little sense to me.
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Mar 7, 2018 01:00
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One interpretation I've heard is that the title's a reference to John Ford's 3 Bad Men. No idea if it's true, but Ford was a huge influence on Kurosawa, so it doesn't seem that far-fetched.
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Mar 7, 2018 03:38
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Isao Takahata has passed away. 
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Apr 6, 2018 05:18
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Raxivace posted:Isao Takahata has passed away. That's a drat shame.
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Apr 6, 2018 05:46
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 Princess Mononoke Released July 12 1997. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki I've got some interesting feelings on this one. The overall plot of Princess Mononoke can be boiled down to "Hey, don't exploit the environment and don't mistreat wildlife", and that's a fairly decent stab at its theme...I think its much more interesting ot look more at the characters rather than the situation. Nobody in this movie is easily pigeonholed into a stock archetype. Even Lady Eboshi, whose actions lead to a majority of the problems of the plot, is presented with sympathetic attributes (employing former prostitutes, wanting to care for those afflicted with the cancerous 'curse'). The various animal tribes also have less-than-sympathetic elements to them; despite being presented as in the right when standing in defense of the forests. I wish I had a greater knowledge of Japanese folklore so I could better appreciate the depictions of the various gods and spirits. Its interesting to see that the Deer God of the forest, when attacked, takes actions that harm the forests and animals within. I'm curious how much of that was meant to be blind lashing out, how much was a "consequence" for the attackers, and how much was just a standard depiction of the actions of Japanese nature spirits. All in all; the ambiguity of character actions and motivations made this a much more interesting film to watch that I was expecting based of the synopsis and my initial impressions of the setup. As far as presentation, this film is probably my favorite-looking of Studio Ghibli works to date. The computer-animated corruption and rot counterpoints perfectly with the traditional hand-drawn characters and backgrounds. Seeing Ghibli films embrace and integrate new forms of animation while still making use of traditional drawn anime makes me really excited to see further films from them. Up Next: The Hidden Fortress Released December 28 1958. Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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May 21, 2018 22:40
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jivjov posted:The overall plot of Princess Mononoke can be boiled down to "Hey, don't exploit the environment and don't mistreat wildlife", and that's a fairly decent stab at its theme... Well that's a terrible summary... e: Nowhere does the movie boil down to an imperative... it just shows people pursuing their own agendas. BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 10:47 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 10:22
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 The Hidden Fortress Released December 28 1958. Directed by Akira Kurosawa This movie might be my favorite Kurosawa thus far. It hits all the marks I think of when I hear "Kurosawa"; noble samurai, hapless protagonists, misdirections, incredible camerawork, use of the enviroment...everything comes together into a film that makes a two-and-a-quarter hour run time seem fleet. Toshiro Mifune is in fine form here; I think this may be my favorite performance of his as well. Not quite as over the top as his Seven Samurai role, but still containing glimpses of that sort of fire and passion. General Makabe gets the somewhat thankless task of trying to wrangle a headstrong princess as well as two self-interested peasants, and he manages to do all of that while remaining clearly a noble figure. The side trip reuniting him with an old war rival seemed a tad contrived to me, especially when that meeting ended up being critical to the ultimately happy resolution of the plot...but ah well. It wasn't entirely unbelievable, and lent a rather 'fateful' air to the resolution. Misa Uehara as Yuki was something I'd been wanting to see in a Kurosawa film for a long time...a female lead with well-represented agency. Of particular note, she immediately sees through Makabe's ham-handed reverse psychology attempt as manipulation...but also recognizes the wisdom of his plan. (Side note: Accepting good advice from unlikely sources is a bit of a recurring motif here in the film...I like it) She also takes it upon herself to rescue a nameless woman from her homeland, despite the risks in doing so. Tahei and Matashichi the peasants are, to me, the biggest source of Star Wars comparisons this movie has. The two bumble through situations, bickering all the way, just like R2-D2 and C-3PO. The biggest points of divergence from the Star Wars droid duo comes with the pair's overall greed (which honestly ends up working out for them in the end), and a lack of one of the pair becoming more committed to the cause of the course of the film. (Threepio is consistently wanting to get out of town, while Artoo is, from moment one, committed to carrying out his mission). Overall, I think having the peasants around gave this film a more distinct feel from other Japanese period pieces. Having our POV characters being people wanting to keep their heads down and not get involved is a bit of a change from the dramatic tone that most samurai films I've seen end up taking. This is an incredibly solid entry in my Kurosawa retrospective, and a clear contender for a curated list of 'most likely to rewatch'! Up Next: Star Wars Released May 25 1977. Directed by George Lucas
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May 23, 2018 18:40
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Hidden Fortress really is endlessly rewatchable, much like I think you'll find with Yojimbo and Sanjuro. His later films like Ran and Kagemusha, while masterpieces in their own right, are longer and more complex, and therefore tougher to rewatch. I really have to be in that Kurosawa mood to invest the time for something like Ran, whereas Hidden Fortress is a throw on anytime kind of movie. I like putting it on when I'm in and out of the kitchen, I catch a scene here, maybe miss one while I stir the pot, it's a fun film to watch casually.
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May 23, 2018 18:51
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Basebf555 posted:Hidden Fortress really is endlessly rewatchable, much like I think you'll find with Yojimbo and Sanjuro. His later films like Ran and Kagemusha, while masterpieces in their own right, are longer and more complex, and therefore tougher to rewatch. I really have to be in that Kurosawa mood to invest the time for something like Ran, whereas Hidden Fortress is a throw on anytime kind of movie. I like putting it on when I'm in and out of the kitchen, I catch a scene here, maybe miss one while I stir the pot, it's a fun film to watch casually. Yeah..I'm both dreading and anticipating my rewatch of Ran. I caught it during its theatrical re-release a couple years ago, and while I loved it and am excited to rewatch it...I know watching it at my desk isn't going to have nearly the same impact as the theatrical presentation.
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May 23, 2018 20:29
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jivjov posted:Tahei and Matashichi the peasants are, to me, the biggest source of Star Wars comparisons this movie has. When I was writing that review of the movie I posted earlier, I changed the line about it being known as the thing that influenced Star Wars because I thought the original was too harsh. Good movie though, The Hidden Fortress. You kind of skipped over the intriguing class and social dynamics at play, where both halves of the traveling party have sympathetic motivations undercut by their treatment of each other.
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May 25, 2018 20:30
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 Star Wars Released May 25 1977. Directed by George Lucas Oh Star Wars...I could go for HOURS about this film, this saga, this franchise. Star Wars is the first movie I have conscious memory of sitting in a theater to watch, the first movie I cared about as a discrete 'thing' rather than just noises as entertainment, and still one of my favorite movies of all time. Not my favorite of the saga overall...but without this film, we wouldn't have all the others. But I'm not here to wax nostalgic about Dad taking me to the Special Edition release in January of 1997...I'm here to compare this movie to the Kurosawa films I've been watching through for the past few years; specifically The HIdden Fortress, which is often compared to Star Wars, or cited as a major inspiration by not only writer/director George Lucas but other contemporary and modern film scholars. So let's jump right in...what's the first, biggest, and most obvious comparison to be drawn between Star Wars and The Hidden Fortress? Clearly its our initial point-of-view characters. Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. Much like Tahei and Matashichi, these two characters of the lowly peasant/servant class guide us through the beginning of the film and remain a constant presence for the rest of the run-time. Like Tahei and Matashichi, the droids are seen as "lowly"; they can't even enter the cantina, they can bluff their way past stormtroopers because they don't suspect droids of even being capable of duplicity, when Artoo is badly damaged at the end of the film only Threepio shows heavy concern (though true to their word, the Rebel technicians DO repair him promptly) with Luke tossing a passing "he'll be alright" before moving on to celebrate with Chewie, Han and Leia. Like Tahei and Matashichi, the droids end up being integral to the plot. Artoo is carrying the literal plot macguffin around with him, and Threepio is vital for communications tasks. Like Tahei and Matashichi, the droids bicker between themselves constantly; but ultimately are shown to truly care about each other. This dynamic, I feel, is why out of all of Kurosawa's work to this point (and its astounding to me that there are still 5 more Kurosawa films to be released at this point in time) The Hidden Fortress is cited most often as the most similar to Star Wars. That said, I want to detour briefly to 1999's The Phantom Menace. A member of royalty in exile, travelling undercover as a commoner, seeking to be reunited with her people who are suffering after a military engagement, restored to power by the end of the film...sure sounds familiar to me. As for comparing Star Wars to Kurosawa in general...that sure is a whole lot easier. Wipes, some environmental effects, noble characters fallen from grace or living in exile...one of the only major Kurosawa hallmarks that I can't point out a parallel of is someone dealing with some manner of malady or illness. And to take things the other way around, I feel that the original Star Wars lifts much more from Kurosawa than any of the further movies in the franchise. Sure, there's always the samurai-like Jedi Knights, camera wipes, etc...but Star Wars feels a bit more grounded in the language and style of traditional filmmaking and Kurosawa than further installments. Possibly because Star Wars did not have any other installments in the franchise to build off of; whereas The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, the Prequel Trilogy and the myriad of Disney-era films have been upon building their own, more fantastical, base. I do want to point to what I see as a bit of a departure from Kurosawa-influence. The end battle. Kurosawa films have had fight scenes both big and small...but the Battle of Yavin is a lift from a much different source than Kurosawa's samurai battles; World War II dogfights. In production, actual footage of dogfights was used as a rough guide for the look-and-feel Lucas was aiming for, and the final cut of the battle draws inspiration (and apparently even some lines of dialog) from the films The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron. This is not to say that Kurosawa had no influence on the physical conflicts in Star Wars; Ben's disarming of a cantina assailant as well as his duel with the Lord Darth Vader both resemble something Kurosawa might have dreamed up. The duel with Vader in particular has a calm and stately feel to it, even in the more dynamic moments. Overall, its incredibly clear to see why Kurosawa in general and The Hidden Fortress in particular get cited as inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars, but (as I have been told many times over) its a bit of a fool's errand to try to draw too many one-to-one comparisons between the two. Up Next: The Human Condition I: No Greater Love Released January 15 1959. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
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May 26, 2018 04:46
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