Logs

The last time I watched a Kurosawa film was in March of last year (High and Low rewatch), and the year before that I watched another (Ikiru rewatch), but before that there was a big gap. I had gotten into watching Kurosawa in high school but at some point I just kinda stopped. I don’t really remember why but I did. Watching this film after being deprived of Kurosawa for so long feels like a breath of fresh air after having lived in a poorly-lit bunker with too much bokeh. The performances are great, and I feel like every frame and camera movement was given hours of thought in order to serve the story. I like how the first set was filled with the train drawings, I think it was a great opener for Kurosawa’s first color film. Compared to Kurosawa’s previous works I’ve seen I thought this was pretty average, meaning compared to the modern film industry this is spectacular. Despite this, I definitely won’t forget being able to gasp for air after who knows how many years.

Randecdote (a random anecdote): The wikipedia page for this movie mentions that Kurosawa told the crew that “he wanted to make a film that is “sunny, light, and endearing.”“, which uhhh… At least they got the sunny part in. (although you could argue for endearing)

Right after watching this my initial thought was that the writing was really rough but it has a good premise. After thinking for a bit I think the problem is only the comedy. Obviously part of this is that most of the comedy just isn’t my type of comedy that makes me laugh, but a lot of the time the comedy destroys any emotional weight a scene has, it feels like a flyer-for-20%-OFF-at-Jimbo-Jim’s-Zinc-Plated-Door-Emporium stapled to an apple tree that someone had put 5 years of effort into making sure it survived. Although, even if the comedy was removed I still wouldn’t like the ending, it felt very overcooked.

this felt purely emotional. everything came together. everything fell apart. it was total, complete.

loved it

I think this was basically most of my favorite elements of sci-fi put into one movie. I love the slow kind of sci-fi that puts pretentious music over shots of spaceships (the intro to Star Trek I being a good example). I thought it was very deliberate in its space politics and pacing. I would’ve wanted a full 90 minute movie of this, but If I’m being honest I think 60 minutes was perfect.

From what I’ve read so far in the book series (5 chapters into the 1st) there doesn’t seem to be any visual description of how the ships dock with a space port. So the movie decided to go with the coolest fucking thing ever. The ships lower themselves into their reflection, and once they completely enveloped they’re on the side of the space port. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be some giant cloaking device or they filmmakers just decided to not skimp out on visuals, but it was so great.

Does a great job as a mystery film. I thought it was kinda easy to guess the kind of ending that was going to happen, but I think it kept its cards close enough (but not so close) to its chest that it still felt satisfying. Other than it being a good mystery film, it doesn’t have much going for it.

With Dezaki’s shows that I’ve seen that came before this, there would be these small abstract parts added to very grounded stories, but it wouldn’t happen all the time. With a movie budget, though I feel like Dezaki gets to do this as much as he wants and its great. It definitely doesn’t get overdone as well, which is nice.

Other than that its mostly just a simple action movie with not much going for it. Re-explanation of exposition happening all the time, with a less interesting second half.

More SABU crime stuff, but he keeps things different. I like the premise of the main character getting with the group, and the group leaving over time. It serves the movie well both in comedy and story. I’m glad I got a different ending compared to the last 3 movies of SABU that I watched as well.

I think this movie also counts toward what I’m simply going to call The Theme from now on (read previous log for more context). I’ll also start the tally I mentioned. I don’t feel like going through my old logs right now so I’ll simply start the tally at 1 (one) with this movie.

Munich is complicated. Honestly, I came on a recommendation for the cinematography. But the portrayal of PTSD with that final sex scene was a jaw-breaker, god.

Spielberg lets you spectate a fellow human being slowly graduate to complete moral bankruptcy, leaving you with this sinking awful feeling of shame

A great slow movie about a guy coming back to his hometown and reflecting on what’s changed. I feel like most of the mainland China films I’ve seen are all very similar in pacing. Which is nice, I enjoy slow movies. I think this movie would make a great diptych with Taipei Story since they both have a guy coming back to a changed place.

This also continues the same theme I talked about in my Eva 3.0+1.0 log of not being able to change who you are, which I see a lot in East Asian movies. Maybe I should keep a tally of when I see it.

Much more drama focused compared to Itami’s previous 2 films. I found the style more subtle and was more so found in the editing. Its a little disappointing since I did go in with the expectation that things were going to be similar to The Funeral or Tampopo, but that expectation was entirely manufactured by me so I really shouldn’t.

what a damn treat of a movie

i liked the random people doing reenactment stuff a lot.

i simultaneously hated and loved it

mmm brad dourif

Knowing the prestige of Katsuhiro Otomo this was a little disappointing. The premise of a yakuza man getting mad at tenants that don’t understand him is good and funny, but I don’t feel like it was worked through very well. He mostly does the same stuff, just waiting on the tenants to react. I think it would’ve worked better for him to try weirder things, and the tenants still not giving a shit. I found it kinda slow to a fault, I felt like nothing was happening for half the movie and I didn’t really feel like the movie was taking advantage of that well enough. The ending was cute though.

p good

Lots of really annoying Hollywood-isms. Random quips that come out of no where, adding nothing. The first ~20 minutes could’ve easily been cut, its entirely exposition and is all reexplained later. There will be these brief 1-second flashbacks to something that was already shown in the movie, which I find pretty insulting. I didn’t fall asleep you don’t need to add a blinking red sign to say THIS IS THE PART WHERE THIS THING PAYS OFF.

Before watching this I would’ve answered yes to the question “Do you consider yourself a movie guy?”. But after watching and thinking a bit I don’t think I would. If I were to have watched every theatrically screened movie ever, I would most definitely dislike more movies than like. I’d think a ‘movie guy’ would end up liking significantly more than me. My definition has changed from “a movie guy is a person who likes movies” to “a movie guy is a person who likes movies for the sake of them being movies”. I think a lot of the ‘great’ American directors that talk about how much they “want to create a great film experience” are just making movies for the sake of being movies. I feel like that’s soulless. I want to watch a movie made for the sake of being art.

christopher nolan’s illustrative film-making is lovely, however much it seems to fly right over my head. Oppenheimer is a man of strong will, and the seemingly-modern way the characters talk was tantalizing to my brain.. If it was not 3 hours I would rewatch it to understand more, but sometimes the surface is enough.

it’s good