Story based on the series of the untidy and always scratching detective Kindaichi Yousuke written by the revered master of suspense Yokomizo Seishi. 400 hundred years ago the inhabitants of the village of Yatsuhaka murdered 8 samurai rebels, whom they were actually helping to hide away, afraid of what the Shogunate would do to them. Before dying one the samurai puts a curse on the village. Strange things start to happen so the villagers decided to erect 8 graves for the murdered samurai to appease their anger. Then four hundred years later the head of Tajimi family and head of the village goes mad and starts killing almost everyone in the village. 25 years later his eldest son is poisoned. Kindaichi Yousuke detective is hired by the family?s lawyer as everyone in the village believes is the curse of the samurai again. The film looks great, fantastic dark and creepy interior shots in stunning locations. Filmed with the Ichikawa usual panache as the grained black & white shots at the beginning mixed with gushes of gaudy red blood. The cast is quite interesting. It includes two of my favourite Japanese actors: Renji Ishibashi and Ittoku Kishibe and some other familiar faces such as Kyôko Kishida (Woman of the Dunes) or Hisako Manda miss Japan 1978 and now NHK morning talk show presenter. But they don?t save the film from being quite dull and slow going; there is lack of tension and mystery. Etsushi Toyokawa?s unconvincing performance of the unkempt detective (he is far too pretty and cool) doesn?t help either. In fact the film looks like some sort of family entertainment movie with the exception of the extremely gory slaughter of the villagers worth of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, a fine touch from Ichikawa in a film which quite below his standard.
Reviews
28 Reviews
Guns & Talks
(2001)
unimaginative
28 May 2002
Funny but rather forgettable film centred in the lives of 4 hired killers. We know about their domestic habits, their shared platonic love, their difficulties in carrying a normal life when not working and also their difficulties in doing their job... sometimes... sometimes they would do their job for love rather than money .... but what is new?. It is quite interesting how this format (mix of comedy and violence featuring similar characters such as gangsters & hitmen and so on) has shifted from one side of the globe to another. The starting point being possibly USA with Tarantino & co, then followed UK with Ritchie & co and some appearances in Spain (Airbag and so on) and France (Doberman...). The Korean audience (specially the young one) loved it. You know is their own language, own charismatic actors and drawing on their own cultural themes. Maybe for foreign audiences like me much will get lost in the subtitles and some cultural subtleties unnoticed. But I've got to say I had enough of these sort films so it's just come a bit too late for me to fully appreciate. Don't misunderstand me... it's quite entertaining... Something that did picked up just as a curiosity, and after seeing quite a lot of South Korean films recently, is how similar in many aspects Korean and Japanese culture are, they like or not. Here I am talking about the joke on blood types.
Public Enemy
(2002)
Dirty Harry Korean style
8 May 2002
During a stakeout a corrupt cop, under investigation by Internal Affairs, has his face slashed by a mysterious character wearing a raincoat. A connection is made between a brutally murdered elderly couple not far away from the previous incident and this rain coated man. The cop believes the couple's son might have involved in the murder and decides to investigate him.
So you have here two characters in supposedly respectable occupations (one a cop, the other a fund manager) who ain't angels. This is more obvious in the cop's physical appearance, his drug dealing and his sharing a hot bath with Korean sort of yakuza, even though the introduction of the manager character played by Lee Sung-jae (a familiar face now in the West starring in films such as Attack the Gas Station, Barking Dogs Never Bite & Art Museum by the Zoo) is quite revealing too. Masturbating and swearing in the shower in an interesting shot that completely isolates him, then we see him sharing a breakfast and playing with his wife and son in the warmth of a comfortable house. I have to say that the first 20 minutes of the film are rather interesting because the character's ambiguity still play an important role. Then all falls apart simply because of the cop's sort of rediscovery of his duty after seeing the dead bodies of the elderly couple (or is it he is only jealous at the manager's lifestyle). It all becomes a bit of a farce that w e're supposed to take seriously as the film has to make serious compromises after such a bleak beginning. "Nobody does something like that to somebody's parent without any motive" he says "for me they are public enemies". I hate to judge films by comparing them to others but Public Enemy has a too much of a Dirty Harry influence (this really put me off), a too cliché supportive boss, who is got to deal with the more bureacratic and politically correct higher hierarchies of the police department, and a array of weird characters, all criminals, that helps the cop to catch his so-called Public Enemy. The cop's trademark speech when confronting criminals really got on my nerves and not many in the audience found it funny anyway.
So you have here two characters in supposedly respectable occupations (one a cop, the other a fund manager) who ain't angels. This is more obvious in the cop's physical appearance, his drug dealing and his sharing a hot bath with Korean sort of yakuza, even though the introduction of the manager character played by Lee Sung-jae (a familiar face now in the West starring in films such as Attack the Gas Station, Barking Dogs Never Bite & Art Museum by the Zoo) is quite revealing too. Masturbating and swearing in the shower in an interesting shot that completely isolates him, then we see him sharing a breakfast and playing with his wife and son in the warmth of a comfortable house. I have to say that the first 20 minutes of the film are rather interesting because the character's ambiguity still play an important role. Then all falls apart simply because of the cop's sort of rediscovery of his duty after seeing the dead bodies of the elderly couple (or is it he is only jealous at the manager's lifestyle). It all becomes a bit of a farce that w e're supposed to take seriously as the film has to make serious compromises after such a bleak beginning. "Nobody does something like that to somebody's parent without any motive" he says "for me they are public enemies". I hate to judge films by comparing them to others but Public Enemy has a too much of a Dirty Harry influence (this really put me off), a too cliché supportive boss, who is got to deal with the more bureacratic and politically correct higher hierarchies of the police department, and a array of weird characters, all criminals, that helps the cop to catch his so-called Public Enemy. The cop's trademark speech when confronting criminals really got on my nerves and not many in the audience found it funny anyway.
Sorum
(2001)
*Spoiler Warning* A GREAT WORK DISGUISED AS GHOST MOVIE
3 May 2002
Warning: Spoilers
************CONTAINS SPOILERS**************
Sorum has been advertised as ghost story and on the surface that is what it appears to be. But there is more about it and that is what makes this film so interesting. Other categories such as social drama or psycho thriller could also be applied to it. As a social comment on parent's behaviour works with some difficulties but it's a nice try. It is economically but brilliantly shot. Somebody has pointed out some similarities with the Sixth Sense, and probably the story is not the most original of all (somehow Barton Fink popped into my mind for its use of the building). Still it has really nice touches such as the story being the source of a novel in progress or is it the other way round?, exposing the dark side of every single character in the film. The supposed hero, the taxi driver, appearing to be the most sane and innocent of all of the characters who just had the misfortune of stumbling across a weird group of characters reveals itself as the craziest of all. The interconnections between the characters might have seemed a bit confusing specially the ending which many couldn't grasped (and here avoids the ultimate flaw of the Sixth Sense which makes use of flashbacks for everybody in the audience to understand what happened to Willis). Not really a scary film I still felt quite shocked by the climatic scene where the taxi driver kills his, yet unknown, half-sister by struggling her with the scarf she bought for him. A scene that under my view is the best of the film and moves this film away from the usual trickery of ghost movies. It is a one shot sequence played in hotel room which follows the development of a row between both characters that ends tragically. The discovery he makes later about his sister and the possibility he might be a ghost or not a real person at all or character from a novel has this sense of futility and not being able to control your own fate that makes the film a gripping experience. A reoccurring motif is water, in the shape of rain, lake, shower, toilet sink and functions not just a substitute for the lack of music in the film but also to create tension as when the beaten up woman opens the wardrobe, where we later discovered her son died suffocated, while we can still hear the sound of water going down a half blocked pipe.
Sorum has been advertised as ghost story and on the surface that is what it appears to be. But there is more about it and that is what makes this film so interesting. Other categories such as social drama or psycho thriller could also be applied to it. As a social comment on parent's behaviour works with some difficulties but it's a nice try. It is economically but brilliantly shot. Somebody has pointed out some similarities with the Sixth Sense, and probably the story is not the most original of all (somehow Barton Fink popped into my mind for its use of the building). Still it has really nice touches such as the story being the source of a novel in progress or is it the other way round?, exposing the dark side of every single character in the film. The supposed hero, the taxi driver, appearing to be the most sane and innocent of all of the characters who just had the misfortune of stumbling across a weird group of characters reveals itself as the craziest of all. The interconnections between the characters might have seemed a bit confusing specially the ending which many couldn't grasped (and here avoids the ultimate flaw of the Sixth Sense which makes use of flashbacks for everybody in the audience to understand what happened to Willis). Not really a scary film I still felt quite shocked by the climatic scene where the taxi driver kills his, yet unknown, half-sister by struggling her with the scarf she bought for him. A scene that under my view is the best of the film and moves this film away from the usual trickery of ghost movies. It is a one shot sequence played in hotel room which follows the development of a row between both characters that ends tragically. The discovery he makes later about his sister and the possibility he might be a ghost or not a real person at all or character from a novel has this sense of futility and not being able to control your own fate that makes the film a gripping experience. A reoccurring motif is water, in the shape of rain, lake, shower, toilet sink and functions not just a substitute for the lack of music in the film but also to create tension as when the beaten up woman opens the wardrobe, where we later discovered her son died suffocated, while we can still hear the sound of water going down a half blocked pipe.
The Lower Depths
(1957)
LEFT INDIFFERENT
3 May 2002
Even though based on Maxim Gorky's play but set in Japan at the end of the Tokugawa period (it's in fact the first Kurosawa jidai-geki not dealing with samurai), Kurosawa's version of The Lower Depths left me quite indifferent. This might be due to, even though with a fantastic use of compositions in a limited visual space, its still very much theatrical nature. Maybe the whole film was in fact a dark comedy on the human nature which I could not understand. I could still appreciate its extremely dark but comical ending: As the whole group is singing and enjoying themselves news that the actor has hung himself arrive. The gambler quite annoyed replies: `The idiot... just as the fun was beginning' and the film ends. Or the irony of Mifune's yakuza character love for Kagawa Kyoko and her final betrayal sending him to prison. The musical soundtrack is astounding and very imaginative. It is entirely made of the human voices of the characters and one small drum. It is also quite enjoyable seeing the characters performing these sort of musical numbers. As said before Kurosawa shows again how great a technician he was using the constrictions of the studio to create amazing compositions to forward the story. The beginning of the film starts with a medium shot of the gambler and the actor with the sound of a pot being banged by somebody else. A 180 degree cut shows the tinker working on his pots and for every other cut another character, who until then were sort of lurking outside the frame, is thus introduced into the action.
To the Starry Island
(1993)
an amazing cinematic experience
18 April 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*** SPOILERS ***
An outstanding piece of work that marked the beginning of Korean cinema renaissance of the end of the 90s A terrific film that grabs your attention from the very first scene. A first scene that gives meaning to the feeling of the whole film (the sense of wandering, for not being able to return to you hometown due to the still division of the country and specially the inability to forgive). In an absolutely breathtaking way it shows how common people are being thrown into war against their will. How they are forced to take sides even though, as the teacher of the island points out, they don't know which side is which and don't have any idea about politics. This is a film about war that avoids any sort of extreme violent scenes. Still it becomes quite painful to watch as some of the inhabitants of the island start using the new state of affair as an excuse to settle their petty internal conflicts and as an opportunity to seek revenge (as had happened in the Bosnian War). Shocking is the death of the most innocent and harmless people in the village (Ok-nim the retarded girl), a moment that signifies the absolute futility and savagery of the war, a war that does not stop to think who is worth killing, a war that does not make distinctions between innocent and guilty. The sequence ending with her being killed by the Government troops becomes even more ironic since she is the less able to take any sides. Therefore she becomes the first and most undeserved victim of the war. The film is brilliantly constructed. It switches from past to present by using smooth time transitions. These are so subtle that for a while past and present are not longer recognisable. The fact that the same actors are used to play the roles of fathers and their descendent helps to the confusion. The island itself is far from being a paradise as the film shows the complete subjugation of the women, and even women hostility to other women. The main character when a child was told by Ok-nim that a dead person's spirit goes to heaven and becomes a star. Those dead during the war have become the stars of the island
An outstanding piece of work that marked the beginning of Korean cinema renaissance of the end of the 90s A terrific film that grabs your attention from the very first scene. A first scene that gives meaning to the feeling of the whole film (the sense of wandering, for not being able to return to you hometown due to the still division of the country and specially the inability to forgive). In an absolutely breathtaking way it shows how common people are being thrown into war against their will. How they are forced to take sides even though, as the teacher of the island points out, they don't know which side is which and don't have any idea about politics. This is a film about war that avoids any sort of extreme violent scenes. Still it becomes quite painful to watch as some of the inhabitants of the island start using the new state of affair as an excuse to settle their petty internal conflicts and as an opportunity to seek revenge (as had happened in the Bosnian War). Shocking is the death of the most innocent and harmless people in the village (Ok-nim the retarded girl), a moment that signifies the absolute futility and savagery of the war, a war that does not stop to think who is worth killing, a war that does not make distinctions between innocent and guilty. The sequence ending with her being killed by the Government troops becomes even more ironic since she is the less able to take any sides. Therefore she becomes the first and most undeserved victim of the war. The film is brilliantly constructed. It switches from past to present by using smooth time transitions. These are so subtle that for a while past and present are not longer recognisable. The fact that the same actors are used to play the roles of fathers and their descendent helps to the confusion. The island itself is far from being a paradise as the film shows the complete subjugation of the women, and even women hostility to other women. The main character when a child was told by Ok-nim that a dead person's spirit goes to heaven and becomes a star. Those dead during the war have become the stars of the island
Munekata shimai
(1950)
a nice little film
18 April 2002
Warning: Spoilers
MILD SPOILERS
This is Ozu's first film produced outside Shochiku. That might the reason why the story is rather unconventional for an Ozu's film, too melodramatic and romantic (rather sickly is Mariko's insistence on marrying Hiroshi and asking her sister to divorce her husband). Also, never before or after generational differences have been so overtly exposed as well as there are too many, for an Ozu film, references to the war. Ryu , playing the sister's father, acts as a mediator (Ozu's alter-ego?) between the two, and tries to be just, even though his preferences are for old Japan. Whoever believes that Ozu's films philosophy isn't essentially Buddhist should pay more attention to Ryu's words of accepting different ways of life and Tanaka final's refusal to marry Uehara (sign of transcending the material world and personal desires or just pure old fashion?) and the ultimate death of Yamamura right after he gets his long sought job (Karma in action). Takamine Hideko ( a Naruse's regular) ,playing the role of Munekata Mariko, is extremely funny at some points. Her outrageous (specially when she visits Hiroshi 's girlfriend Yoriko or her habit of sticking out her tongue, bodily ticks are essential elements of the characterisation of Ozu's film actors) behaviour reminded me of my shock when I first saw I Was Born But Nevertheless her character gets a bit boring with her parody of some sort of Noh narrator (the joke just goes for too long). Also Setsuko Munekata might not be a suitable role for Tanaka Kinuyo, in particular when she's got to keep smiling (something typical in actresses working with Ozu) while telling her sister that she decided not to marry Hiroshi. Technically is what you'd expect from Ozu, interesting matching cuts, even though I have to say that some shots were very predictable (cut on action shots) and not as perfect as for example the ones in Tokyo Story (technically an almost perfect film). Quite unusual for Ozu's work, at least during this period, are some tracking shots of Hiroshi and Setsuko walking down the street ending in a beautiful long shot of her disappearing around a corner. Specially weird is an unmotivated tracking shot to the right, moving away from the sisters at the entrance of a Kyoto temple that essentially goes nowhere and then stops suddenly, the image framed by two trees . What I found really amusing was(probably an Ozu's trick to confuse audiences) the way in which the film begins with news of the sisters' father (played by Chisu Ryu) diagnosed with cancer. Given only 6 months of life, nevertheless he remains alive and kicking throughout the whole film with no signs of departing this world. Funnily enough is somebody else who dies first. Also the way in which ends, when everybody was hoping for a final reunion between Uherara and Tanaka she decides to dump him, and so breaking any expectations. I thought it was brilliant (a bit reactionary though).
The Munekata Sisters might not be the very best of Ozu but I found it intriguing and funny enough to watch again.
This is Ozu's first film produced outside Shochiku. That might the reason why the story is rather unconventional for an Ozu's film, too melodramatic and romantic (rather sickly is Mariko's insistence on marrying Hiroshi and asking her sister to divorce her husband). Also, never before or after generational differences have been so overtly exposed as well as there are too many, for an Ozu film, references to the war. Ryu , playing the sister's father, acts as a mediator (Ozu's alter-ego?) between the two, and tries to be just, even though his preferences are for old Japan. Whoever believes that Ozu's films philosophy isn't essentially Buddhist should pay more attention to Ryu's words of accepting different ways of life and Tanaka final's refusal to marry Uehara (sign of transcending the material world and personal desires or just pure old fashion?) and the ultimate death of Yamamura right after he gets his long sought job (Karma in action). Takamine Hideko ( a Naruse's regular) ,playing the role of Munekata Mariko, is extremely funny at some points. Her outrageous (specially when she visits Hiroshi 's girlfriend Yoriko or her habit of sticking out her tongue, bodily ticks are essential elements of the characterisation of Ozu's film actors) behaviour reminded me of my shock when I first saw I Was Born But Nevertheless her character gets a bit boring with her parody of some sort of Noh narrator (the joke just goes for too long). Also Setsuko Munekata might not be a suitable role for Tanaka Kinuyo, in particular when she's got to keep smiling (something typical in actresses working with Ozu) while telling her sister that she decided not to marry Hiroshi. Technically is what you'd expect from Ozu, interesting matching cuts, even though I have to say that some shots were very predictable (cut on action shots) and not as perfect as for example the ones in Tokyo Story (technically an almost perfect film). Quite unusual for Ozu's work, at least during this period, are some tracking shots of Hiroshi and Setsuko walking down the street ending in a beautiful long shot of her disappearing around a corner. Specially weird is an unmotivated tracking shot to the right, moving away from the sisters at the entrance of a Kyoto temple that essentially goes nowhere and then stops suddenly, the image framed by two trees . What I found really amusing was(probably an Ozu's trick to confuse audiences) the way in which the film begins with news of the sisters' father (played by Chisu Ryu) diagnosed with cancer. Given only 6 months of life, nevertheless he remains alive and kicking throughout the whole film with no signs of departing this world. Funnily enough is somebody else who dies first. Also the way in which ends, when everybody was hoping for a final reunion between Uherara and Tanaka she decides to dump him, and so breaking any expectations. I thought it was brilliant (a bit reactionary though).
The Munekata Sisters might not be the very best of Ozu but I found it intriguing and funny enough to watch again.
Wasurerarenu hitobito
(2000)
a film that shouldn't be forgotten
8 April 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***
Not Forgotten touches on three important issues in modern Japan. First the increasing appearance of bogus religious cults (a subject already dealt with in Happy Returns but in a more comical way). Second the increasing alienation of the Japanese youth, their growing dehumanisation and disregard for the elderly. Third the Japanese elderly precarious situation and vulnerability in a careless modern Japan. The main characters in the film are war veterans. Nevertheless its title does not carry any patriotic subtext. The film does not try to glamorise the war effort but deals with "real" problems in Japanese society. Not Forgotten might also refer to the way in which those old men where brainwashed and cheated into helping, the high ranks of the Japanese government, to build a Japanese Empire in Asia. And how young people now are again cheated and brainwashed into helping, Utopia the religious cult-cum-corporation and its leader, to build an economic Japanese empire. The leader of the cult can then be seen as the next generation of those who took Japan into the war. The bond between the old men created during the war does not bring anything new to the understanding of the horrors of the war, which depictions are rather mild. As a curiosity the film does not show the faces of the enemy. This follows the tradition of older Japanese war films in which the enemy is not seen at all (like Five Scouts or Mud and Soldiers both by Tomotaka Tasaka). In some parts the film falls into sentimentality and some scenes are rather cliched (The main character carries the guilt of not being able to save his best friend). On the other hand sequences showing the training undergo by Utopia's new recruits (that's the name of the corporation-cum-religious cult) are dealt with in a very different way. Shown in a crude, de-dramatise way, young people are being controlled by the corporation (led by a survivor of the war) that uses the war and the economic recovery effort as a pretext to manipulate them and cheat old people (other war survivors). Conversations between the leader and the newcomer are also presented in an almost objective and ambiguous way which is even more frightening as you are left, sometimes, unable to disagree (so convincing he appears) with some of the leader's arguments. Quite ironic is the way in which Utopia fools the elderly by telling them that they have to appease their ancestors' spirits. The ending comes as a big shock and so unexpected that leaves one shivering. It is also shot in a deadpan way without music or any increase of suspense. It just terrifying. The old man is pushed to be confronted with his past and does something that he should done in the past: kill the germ of the disease. Also the relationship built between the son of black American soldier and the old man points to a brighter future of Japan.
Not Forgotten touches on three important issues in modern Japan. First the increasing appearance of bogus religious cults (a subject already dealt with in Happy Returns but in a more comical way). Second the increasing alienation of the Japanese youth, their growing dehumanisation and disregard for the elderly. Third the Japanese elderly precarious situation and vulnerability in a careless modern Japan. The main characters in the film are war veterans. Nevertheless its title does not carry any patriotic subtext. The film does not try to glamorise the war effort but deals with "real" problems in Japanese society. Not Forgotten might also refer to the way in which those old men where brainwashed and cheated into helping, the high ranks of the Japanese government, to build a Japanese Empire in Asia. And how young people now are again cheated and brainwashed into helping, Utopia the religious cult-cum-corporation and its leader, to build an economic Japanese empire. The leader of the cult can then be seen as the next generation of those who took Japan into the war. The bond between the old men created during the war does not bring anything new to the understanding of the horrors of the war, which depictions are rather mild. As a curiosity the film does not show the faces of the enemy. This follows the tradition of older Japanese war films in which the enemy is not seen at all (like Five Scouts or Mud and Soldiers both by Tomotaka Tasaka). In some parts the film falls into sentimentality and some scenes are rather cliched (The main character carries the guilt of not being able to save his best friend). On the other hand sequences showing the training undergo by Utopia's new recruits (that's the name of the corporation-cum-religious cult) are dealt with in a very different way. Shown in a crude, de-dramatise way, young people are being controlled by the corporation (led by a survivor of the war) that uses the war and the economic recovery effort as a pretext to manipulate them and cheat old people (other war survivors). Conversations between the leader and the newcomer are also presented in an almost objective and ambiguous way which is even more frightening as you are left, sometimes, unable to disagree (so convincing he appears) with some of the leader's arguments. Quite ironic is the way in which Utopia fools the elderly by telling them that they have to appease their ancestors' spirits. The ending comes as a big shock and so unexpected that leaves one shivering. It is also shot in a deadpan way without music or any increase of suspense. It just terrifying. The old man is pushed to be confronted with his past and does something that he should done in the past: kill the germ of the disease. Also the relationship built between the son of black American soldier and the old man points to a brighter future of Japan.
Madadayo
(1993)
LAST BUT NOT GREATEST
8 April 2002
In Madadayo Kurosawa reaches the pinnacle of one's of his most constant and dearest themes: the relationship between mentor-pupils. Even though an admirer of Kurosawa's work I believe this his last film is rather inconsistent and sometimes falls close into sentimentality As in Dodesukaden the story is a collection of anecdotes and like Dosesukaden its most important flaw is its inconsistency. But it is its lack of subtlety and ambiguity which I find more damaging. For example the character of the teacher is quite obviously an extraordinary and remarkable man , yet Kurosawa is so much identified with the character that does not spare any scene where the teacher is praised by his students and told how great he is to the point of embarrassment and sentimentality. This reaches absurd levels in the rather overlong story of the teacher's lost cat. Initially startled by the teacher's attachment to Nora, two of his closest students agree that the teacher's feelings are at a deeper level than theirs and that's why they cannot comprehend him. Even though the film has some very comical moments, as some reviewer has already commented, some other sequences are far from hilarious as it seems that the characters in the film are the only ones who are laughing at the teacher's jokes and tricks (particularly the one where the teacher comes out with an idea to keep burglars away from his home). Yet the film holds some very remarkable scenes. The first teacher's celebration party is a good example of Kurosawa's masterful editing techniques and ability to keep an almost half an hour long scene interesting and funny. The finale is just amazing. Some sort of duel between the teacher and the students where the student shout at the teacher "Mahda-kai?" (not yet? in this case literally are you not yet ready to die) and the teacher answers them back Madadayo!!! (Not yet). This display of energy contrasts very clearly with the last one of these ceremonies where the teacher, very old now, still tries to defy death. Also absolutely beautiful is the sequence where the teacher and his wife contemplate and enjoy the passing of seasons. As the production of the film lasted for more a year, the beauty of this scene was achieved by shooting on location and using the real passing of seasons. Many jokes and puns, in the Rakugo tradition (a traditional Japanese comedy where the narrator dressed in a kimono sits on a kazubon and tells jokes) will be better appreciated, of course, if one understands Japanese. For example, next to his third house the teacher builds a sort of temple. At its entrance there is a sign which says "Kinkakuji", (golden temple) just like the famous Golden Pavilion in Kyoto but the written characters actually mean "guests forbidding or unwelcome" An exception to the film's lack of subtlety comes in the first housewarming party. While teacher and students are all singing, the scene cuts to outside the house. Then we hear the sound of air raids sirens and the street lights being cut off while the singing still goes on. This simple cut shows the intense friendship between teacher and students, so strong that they forget that a war is going on.
Wild Zero
(1999)
"rock & roll has no boundaries, race or gender" (Guitar Wolf)
11 March 2002
This is a mess of a film. Tackiness impersonated and completely unoriginal. YET rather than by its gore I was most impressed (almost moved) by some of its infantile ideas about love. Such as the love after death story of a couple who become zombies or Guitar's Wolf reproach to Ace (who just found out that Tobio, a girl? he just met, is in fact a boy) that Rock & Roll has no boundaries, race or gender. So he then decides to go and rescue her/him from the zombies and live together happily. This is a breath of fresh air from the always-homophobic macho-minded components on these sorts of films The real fun, though, comes from the creepy and weird music producer character and his interesting selection of clothing. Guitar Wolf on the hand cannot act or played (stick to Thee Michelle Gun Elephant instead).
Ichi the Killer
(2001)
something more than just violence
26 February 2002
Everything has been said about the extreme violence and sadism displayed in this film. The fact that many only talk of this violence is not not surprising, it is right in your face. This seems to have irritated some though. Contradicting a reviewer there is something else you could talk about this film apart from its violence and I'll try to do so. So whether you like it or not Ichi the Killer forms part of the yakuza genre and it will be study in Japanese film studies as a variation of this particular genre. Why?, because Miike (by the way pronounced Meeke) Takashi likes subverting and playing with genres conventions. Yakuza genre conventions are used in this film too but taken to radical extremes as for example the homosexual overtones of oyabun- kobun (father-child or senior-boss & junior) common in yakuza films. This kind of relationship is not at the same level as heterosexual relationships. Women cannot compete with the oyabun. In Ichi the killer this is made clear in the scene when Karen, the Hong-Kong Chinese prostitute and Kakihara's girlfriend, is trying to take up the role of Kahikara's boss by beating him up, but as Kahihara tells she is not as good as his boss, there is no love in her beating. Sado-masochist and homoerotic elements have always been implicit in yakuza films (take as example Takakura Ken series of Shin Abashiri Bangaichi). In Ichi the Killer these elements are the main drive of its narrative. Even though Ichi is far from being Takashi's best film I still felt intrigued by some of its elements. For example, why Karen speaks mainly in English. All Takashi's followers should know by now about his interest in Chinese culture and people. Several of his films were shot in China. Chinese is spoken in many of his films, Rainy Dog for example, shot in Taiwan, Chinese (Cantonese) is the main language in this film. Can Ichi's obsession with video games and being bullied at school (a common problem in Japan) explain the why of his violence?( this seems to be a pretty thin explanation though). More interesting and mysterious is the character played by Tsukamoto Shinya, Jijii, who manipulates Ichi into slaughtering rival yakuza. Jijii sets up CCTV cameras to show Ichi which guys he wants him to kill. As Ichi watches the monitor, Jijii sort of hypnotises him and convinces Ichi that those guys on the screen are actually the ones who bullied him in the past. Tsukamoto is himself a director of rather violent films too (Testuo I & II, Tokyo Fist...) Some reviewers have talked of not taking too seriously the violence in the film, as it is sort of comical. I wouldn't call comical the sequence where a rival yakuza played by Terajima Susumu hangs from meat hooks while Kakihara is torturing him. Notwithstanding the comical gory scenes Takashi cannot help but end the film with a bleak note. Ichi has been used for killing worthless yakuza and that maybe the reason why the director turns the killings into gory comedy. But once an innocent boy, the son of the policeman- turned-yakuza played by Sabu, is killed the mood changes. In the final scene of the film Jijii is seen hanging dead from a tree in the foreground and in the background Ichi following a group of schoolchildren ready, for what it seems, to slaughter them. Ichi has eventually found his real bullies: children not yakuza. After killing Sabu's character Ichi's beaten up (to Ichi's weak mind this could just be a re-enactment or reminder of his bullying paranoia) by the boy. Ichi reacts by chopping his head off. Jijii realises that, this is just an assumption, he has created a monster. Takashi seems to be more sympathetic towards children than women (see for example DOA 2: birds). I'm a bit wary of Takashi's treatment of women on this film, something that some reviewers have already pointed out. I've been suspicious about this since I first saw Shinjuku Triad Society where a prostitute falls in love with the main character, a Japanese-Chinese policeman, who had previously anally raped her. The reason: nobody else had ever made her to come until then... Uhmm... Dodgy stuff... In an interview Takashi has said that the reason why he gets rid of women so violently and quickly is because women tend to rationalise everything and he's no time for providing a rational and coherent explanation for his films. Well, nobody is perfect. Nevertheless Miike Takashi seems to be moving away from the straight to videos films (v-movies as they are called in Japan) he made on the first part of his career (all of them chinpira (wannabe yakuza) films rather than yakuza as I've been told). In the last 3 years he's done comedies, musicals, social satires, horror films and of course still yakuza movies. Let's see if his attitude toward women changes too.
I.K.U.
(2000)
cyber pinku-eiga becomes a multimedia exercise
14 February 2002
The initial concept of I.K.U. is rather interesting and promising. The GENOM Corporation sends female replicants around Tokyo to collect data from their different sexual encounters to then download this information on I.K.U. chips to be sold in vending machines. But the film somehow fails to go any deeper than that: a concept. First it relies too much on a technology that helps business to take over personal pleasure, this being the film's main critique (modern techno-crazed society loss of feelings as one replicant says: "It's sex, not love"). The director claims that the story develops like doing net surfing. This also means that as when you surf the net you also get overloaded with information which it mostly useless. For example the sex scenes lasts for ages but you are unable to skip them just as pop-up banners. The reason for their length is unclear (well, maybe if you consider it as a cyber-porno film(or cyber-pinku-eiga film) and their meaning is rather confused as sometimes they appeared to be titillating (sex scene in the limo or in the fish tank) and others being made fun of (as the scene in the homeless' tent with dolls). Also the overrated "Pussy point of view shots" which viewed after a couple of times become repetitive and tiresome. The film's production team itself indulges in the film's hype by creating, in the film's website, some sort of mythology backing the film's story and adding some more information to explain in words what it could not be achieved in images even though the world of the future, and to some extent the present world, is a world of images. Nevertheless the film's visual style deserves special mention. Shot on DV camera it achieves amazing light and colour effects worthy of film cinematography. Again this is a good example, for filmmakers lacking in money but with plenty of ideas, of the use of digital equipment.
The film's dealing with sexual issues is quite challenging due, maybe, to the fact that is directed by a woman. Sex is shown quite explicitly. This includes homosexual sex to the disgust of the male audience who sat uncomfortably in their seats as they were watching on the screen two guys performing oral sex. And the amazing scene where one of the replicants is having sex with her boss who turns out to be a female transsexual. The films also has its funny moments coming from the unintelligible dialogue from the Japanese cast and scenes such as the one in which a replicant and her sex partner appeared to be having sex inside a fish tank where koi (carps) seem to be floating around them.
The film's dealing with sexual issues is quite challenging due, maybe, to the fact that is directed by a woman. Sex is shown quite explicitly. This includes homosexual sex to the disgust of the male audience who sat uncomfortably in their seats as they were watching on the screen two guys performing oral sex. And the amazing scene where one of the replicants is having sex with her boss who turns out to be a female transsexual. The films also has its funny moments coming from the unintelligible dialogue from the Japanese cast and scenes such as the one in which a replicant and her sex partner appeared to be having sex inside a fish tank where koi (carps) seem to be floating around them.
I Live in Fear
(1955)
SEE IT AND BE SCARED: GREAT FILM!!!
6 February 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***
Record of a Living Being (or I Live in Fear) is an amazing film, sometimes even disturbing. The first scenes, set at the judge's office, have almost a comical tone. They tell of the confrontation between Nakajima Kiichi (Mifune Toshiro) and his family. This confrontation is beautifully highlighted in the oppressive environment created by cramming members of the family, the judge and counsellors into the frame. The tension created is so strong that it would not be too long before the scene burst out into violence. When that happens characters are propelled out of the frame but with Kurosawa's use of several cameras filming simultaneously these actions are caught brilliantly given the sequence an essence of cinema verite. The comical mood of the starting sequences changes when the setting moves to Kiichi third mistress' house Asako (Negishi Akemi). Here in a fast motion and silent (apart from the sound of thunder) shot Kiichi jumps at the sight of lightning and sound of thunder and rushes to cover with his body Asako's baby. The scene lasts only for a few seconds but it is enough to leave a strong impression of Kiichi's fears. It also shifts the mood of the film into a more serious dimension. Some Western film critics have mentioned the film uncertainties on its moral and political stance and criticise its supposedly weak ending. Some other have talked about its flawed script and the uncomfortable acting of Mifune playing a character twice his age. Here I am particularly referring to Rod McShane's review in Time Out. First I just wonder how anyone can talk of uncertainties in a script by just relying on subtitles and second, speak to any Japanese, who have seen the film, about Mifune acting and they would say that apart from the heavy makeup he is pretty convincing as an old man. Kiichi's character is far from being a model patriarch and far from providing a convincing and argumentative political message against nuclear power. He's got three mistresses, one of them dead, and 3 illegitimate children. His is an animal behaviour, therefore his irrational actions, who is fighting for survival. This is in sharp contrast with his family position. They are more down to earth, are they?. They think calmly about the consequences of his father's action. They know the law, at one point the mother scolds Jiro, the second son, for sounding just like a lawyer. They all have dreams for the future, they are all greedy that is why they can risk their lives. They would rather die than risk to lose all they have. Greed is one the major themes in Kurosawa's films and one of the causes that pushes Japan into chaos. Yojimbo, High and Low, Throne of Blood and Ran are good examples of this. Greed is epitomised by most of the members of the family, with the exception of Kiichi's wife, Asako and his youngest daughter Sue, but most subtlety by Kiichi's first son wife Kimie (Sengoku Noriko). She remains silent for most of the film, always keeping herself in the background. At one point when all the family is discussing what to do with the patriarch she looks out the window at the factory looming out of darkness before she draws the curtains. Later after Kiichi had set fire to the factory we see a crowd surrounding him and Kimie again in the background. She starts moving away from the crowd followed by the camera, approaches the rubble, falls on her knees and bursts into tears. In another sequence Kiichi's mistresses and their families feeling that he might die want to be included in his will and are seen negotiating with Kiichi's blood family. Kurosawa very cleverly pans the camera following Kimie who silently moves from side of the room to the other eavesdropping all the conversations. Kurosawa became a master in editing. In Record of a Living a Being several cameras were used simultaneously. This technique was meant to be used to enhance action sequences and Kurosawa had done that in his previous Seven Samurai for the battle scene in the rain. So it came as a surprise to use that technique for such a static film as this one. Nevertheless one of the most powerful sequences in the film is actually a static one. It happens when Kiichi is begging to his family for the last time to accompany him to Brazil. In a frontal medium shot of the family sitting in a semicircle, Kiichi is seen at its bottom right corner. After his request a silence follows, the camera unmoved, which is only broken by the crying of his wife and Sue. The tension increases and eventually the youngest son says something that enrages Kiichi who starts beating him up.
The final shot of the film is a vindication of Kiichi crusade. From his cell at the mental house Kiichi looks out of the window to the blazing sun, which he believes it is the Earth on fire hit by a nuclear bomb. Harada (Shimura Takeshi), who has always supported his cause, is with him. Kiichi tells him how happy he is that Harada had left the Earth and saved his life. As Harada leaves the hospital he comes across Asako carrying her baby. In Kiichi's eyes they have also escaped destruction unlike Kiichi's family who was seen leaving the hospital as Harada was coming in just before the Earth started to burn. Kiichi's final wish, after bowing to his family refusal of leaving Japan, was to save the baby. He is the future of Japan, born of a mother who was the only one who offered him money. The greedy family went down to Earth to meet its own destruction.
Record of a Living Being (or I Live in Fear) is an amazing film, sometimes even disturbing. The first scenes, set at the judge's office, have almost a comical tone. They tell of the confrontation between Nakajima Kiichi (Mifune Toshiro) and his family. This confrontation is beautifully highlighted in the oppressive environment created by cramming members of the family, the judge and counsellors into the frame. The tension created is so strong that it would not be too long before the scene burst out into violence. When that happens characters are propelled out of the frame but with Kurosawa's use of several cameras filming simultaneously these actions are caught brilliantly given the sequence an essence of cinema verite. The comical mood of the starting sequences changes when the setting moves to Kiichi third mistress' house Asako (Negishi Akemi). Here in a fast motion and silent (apart from the sound of thunder) shot Kiichi jumps at the sight of lightning and sound of thunder and rushes to cover with his body Asako's baby. The scene lasts only for a few seconds but it is enough to leave a strong impression of Kiichi's fears. It also shifts the mood of the film into a more serious dimension. Some Western film critics have mentioned the film uncertainties on its moral and political stance and criticise its supposedly weak ending. Some other have talked about its flawed script and the uncomfortable acting of Mifune playing a character twice his age. Here I am particularly referring to Rod McShane's review in Time Out. First I just wonder how anyone can talk of uncertainties in a script by just relying on subtitles and second, speak to any Japanese, who have seen the film, about Mifune acting and they would say that apart from the heavy makeup he is pretty convincing as an old man. Kiichi's character is far from being a model patriarch and far from providing a convincing and argumentative political message against nuclear power. He's got three mistresses, one of them dead, and 3 illegitimate children. His is an animal behaviour, therefore his irrational actions, who is fighting for survival. This is in sharp contrast with his family position. They are more down to earth, are they?. They think calmly about the consequences of his father's action. They know the law, at one point the mother scolds Jiro, the second son, for sounding just like a lawyer. They all have dreams for the future, they are all greedy that is why they can risk their lives. They would rather die than risk to lose all they have. Greed is one the major themes in Kurosawa's films and one of the causes that pushes Japan into chaos. Yojimbo, High and Low, Throne of Blood and Ran are good examples of this. Greed is epitomised by most of the members of the family, with the exception of Kiichi's wife, Asako and his youngest daughter Sue, but most subtlety by Kiichi's first son wife Kimie (Sengoku Noriko). She remains silent for most of the film, always keeping herself in the background. At one point when all the family is discussing what to do with the patriarch she looks out the window at the factory looming out of darkness before she draws the curtains. Later after Kiichi had set fire to the factory we see a crowd surrounding him and Kimie again in the background. She starts moving away from the crowd followed by the camera, approaches the rubble, falls on her knees and bursts into tears. In another sequence Kiichi's mistresses and their families feeling that he might die want to be included in his will and are seen negotiating with Kiichi's blood family. Kurosawa very cleverly pans the camera following Kimie who silently moves from side of the room to the other eavesdropping all the conversations. Kurosawa became a master in editing. In Record of a Living a Being several cameras were used simultaneously. This technique was meant to be used to enhance action sequences and Kurosawa had done that in his previous Seven Samurai for the battle scene in the rain. So it came as a surprise to use that technique for such a static film as this one. Nevertheless one of the most powerful sequences in the film is actually a static one. It happens when Kiichi is begging to his family for the last time to accompany him to Brazil. In a frontal medium shot of the family sitting in a semicircle, Kiichi is seen at its bottom right corner. After his request a silence follows, the camera unmoved, which is only broken by the crying of his wife and Sue. The tension increases and eventually the youngest son says something that enrages Kiichi who starts beating him up.
The final shot of the film is a vindication of Kiichi crusade. From his cell at the mental house Kiichi looks out of the window to the blazing sun, which he believes it is the Earth on fire hit by a nuclear bomb. Harada (Shimura Takeshi), who has always supported his cause, is with him. Kiichi tells him how happy he is that Harada had left the Earth and saved his life. As Harada leaves the hospital he comes across Asako carrying her baby. In Kiichi's eyes they have also escaped destruction unlike Kiichi's family who was seen leaving the hospital as Harada was coming in just before the Earth started to burn. Kiichi's final wish, after bowing to his family refusal of leaving Japan, was to save the baby. He is the future of Japan, born of a mother who was the only one who offered him money. The greedy family went down to Earth to meet its own destruction.
IT'S CERTAINLY AN IMAMURA'S FILM BUT NOT AS HE USED TO MAKE THEM
31 January 2002
In many ways this is a distinctively Imamura's film. It contains many of the themes characteristic of his oeuvre: His obsession with sex, women and Japanese mythology. WWURB's story somehow mirrors Unagi. The main character of both films, a salariman, for different reasons end up leaving the city for the countryside and establish a relationship with strange women and with the peculiar villagers. But these similarities can also be applied to any of his other films. With a persistent disregard for a clear and logical narrative, many of his films amount to anecdotes and observations made by the characters, some of them appearing and disappearing inexplicably. Take as example the Insect Woman or The Pornographers in the 60s or the historical films Zegen and Eijanaika that he made in the 80s. Imamura has portrayed sex, in most of his films, as something positive even beneficial and in several ones he has acknowledged incest (Insect Woman, The Pornographers and The Profound Desired of the Gods) as part of traditional rural Japan without criticising it. In WWURB Taro (Kitamura Kazuo), the homeless who Yosuke (Yakusho Koji), recently unemployed, befriends seems to be Imamura's alter ego. He advises Yosuke to have sex as much as he can as long as he can keep his instrument up and explains of the beneficial (physically and mentally) qualities of sex and its importance throughout the history of humanity. Sex is closely linked with nature and being suggested as the main essence of life. The film also points to the power of women, so the enormous amount of water produced by Saeko (Shimizu Misa), when having sex with Yosuke, that falls in the river seems to be so rich that attracts fish and seagulls. Saeko's body fluids can also the solution for the purification of the contaminated river. An attempt to cure the river was made by her mother, the village's shaman but was ostracised by the villagers for her use of unscientific methods. Eventually she drowned in the river when trying to perform a ritual. Saeko's grandmother Mitsu (Mitsuko Baisho) seems to possess some sort of clairvoyant power. The conflict between, and eventual loss of, ancestral beliefs (pre-Shinto and pre-Buddhist culture) and modern Japan is also another important characteristic of Imamura's work. In early Japan women, as some were actually shamans, took an active role in religious, social and political matters. Things changed with the advent of Buddhism (religion) and Confucianism (politics and social ethics).
Yosuke is warned by some villagers that he will dry up and lose his vital essence if he keeps on having his sexual encounters with Saeko. He is an outsider from modern Japan, Tokyo, who gets involved with women that represent primitive Japan, a Japan of sexual freedom, finally accepting their customs and beliefs. As Taro tells Yosuke "Drown yourself in a woman's arms, be faithful to your desires without worrying about daily cares." In this sense he is like Kariya, an engineer from Tokyo, who goes to Kurage, a Southern island of Japan, in "The Profound 'Desire' of the Gods". He is believed to be a "god from overseas" by the island's community. After showing little concern for local customs and traditions he marries Toriko, a retarded young woman who epitomised primitive Japan, all sexual freedom, and sister of the island's shaman. So WWURB is certainly a charming, sometimes funny, sometimes kinky film but that lacks the power, challenge and innovation of Imamura's previous films. Certainly the ones made before Black Rain (Kuroi Ame). Still it is worth pointing out that the issue of sex doesn't seem to be a major concern for younger Japanese filmmakers with the exception of Miike Takashi (with his special way of dealing with the subject) and I cannot remember of any sex scene in any of the films I have seen by these directors.
Yosuke is warned by some villagers that he will dry up and lose his vital essence if he keeps on having his sexual encounters with Saeko. He is an outsider from modern Japan, Tokyo, who gets involved with women that represent primitive Japan, a Japan of sexual freedom, finally accepting their customs and beliefs. As Taro tells Yosuke "Drown yourself in a woman's arms, be faithful to your desires without worrying about daily cares." In this sense he is like Kariya, an engineer from Tokyo, who goes to Kurage, a Southern island of Japan, in "The Profound 'Desire' of the Gods". He is believed to be a "god from overseas" by the island's community. After showing little concern for local customs and traditions he marries Toriko, a retarded young woman who epitomised primitive Japan, all sexual freedom, and sister of the island's shaman. So WWURB is certainly a charming, sometimes funny, sometimes kinky film but that lacks the power, challenge and innovation of Imamura's previous films. Certainly the ones made before Black Rain (Kuroi Ame). Still it is worth pointing out that the issue of sex doesn't seem to be a major concern for younger Japanese filmmakers with the exception of Miike Takashi (with his special way of dealing with the subject) and I cannot remember of any sex scene in any of the films I have seen by these directors.
The Girl of Your Dreams
(1998)
GREAT FUN (BUT NOT FOR EVERYONE)
17 January 2002
Without trying to offend anybody I have to agree with another reviewer in that an explanation for the bad reception of this film among the non-Spanish speakers reviewers was exactly that: Spanish is not their first language and this is sometimes, as another reviewer has pointed out, a difficult film to understand if you are not a native speaker. A full understanding of the dialogue would help to clarify some of the bizarre scenes in the film. It might not be the best script written by Rafael Azcona, without any doubt one of the best scriptwriters in the history of Spanish cinema, but at times it is hilarious. A better grasp of Spanish history and culture would also come quite handy. So what else can you say about Penelope Cruz in the scene where she dances and sings for Goebbels?. As one her shoe is missing, she unintentionally imitates Goebbles, as she approaches him in a frontal shot, who is lame.
Jokes on the Spanish fascist are more than just clichés. For example the cuckold Spanish ambassador played by Juan Luis Galiardo and his nymphomaniac wife, played by Maria Barranco. And the wisecracking remark made by the pro-fascist Spanish troupe leading man, Jorge Sanz, wooded by his German counterpart "Yo doy todo por mi patria menos mi culo", he would give anything for his country except his ass. They are both an amusing pisstaking on fascist patriotic macho culture. This subject of patriotism being a hot issue right now in Spain where the right-wing government of Aznar is endorsing the notion of "Patriotismo Constitucional" or Constitutional Patriotism developed by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Unashamedly, the film upholds the necessity to produce espanoladas. As the film director Blas Fontiveros, played by Antonio Resines, remarks that the life of a Spanish hero has more relevance to Spanish audiences, as they feel more identified, than for example Al Capone's. 5 Spanish (espanoladas) films were, in fact, made in Nazi Germany. Two starred by Imperio Argentina and another 2 by Estrellita Castro both stars of the "cine folclorico espanol".
As already remarked by some reviewers the film copies scenes from other films, the most obvious being its final sequence, which is a rip off of the end of Casablanca, but to suggest that it is a carbon copy of such and such a film is pure overstatement and a rather facile critique of the film. Yet its politics are not at all convincing, not to say rather naïve. The introduction of the Russian Jewish character signals the fall of the film into sentimental humanism and vacuous romantic trifle from where the film does not recover. Nevertheless La Nina de tus Ojos has its charms too and I found it extremely funny. The cast is excellent (Penelope Cruz playing an andalusian, a role she had already done in Almodovar's "Todo Sobre mi Madre" as a prostitute). Resines and Sanz are a surprise as well as Santiago Segura. But special mention deserves Miroslav Táborský, playing Vaclav the interpreter. Subtle looks at Macarena tell of his unrequited love for her. His increasing fascination with Macarena moves him away from his non-interventionist stand to resignedly accept his fate by the end of the film, along with Fontiveros who is Macarena's lover, at the hands of the Nazi. Yet this is never overdone as the change of views underwent by the other characters towards the Nazi regime, in particular the case of Julian Torralba. This little subplot of the film is quite moving rather sentimental and its quiet essence contrast sharply with the bombardment of dialogue coming from the rest of the cast.
Jokes on the Spanish fascist are more than just clichés. For example the cuckold Spanish ambassador played by Juan Luis Galiardo and his nymphomaniac wife, played by Maria Barranco. And the wisecracking remark made by the pro-fascist Spanish troupe leading man, Jorge Sanz, wooded by his German counterpart "Yo doy todo por mi patria menos mi culo", he would give anything for his country except his ass. They are both an amusing pisstaking on fascist patriotic macho culture. This subject of patriotism being a hot issue right now in Spain where the right-wing government of Aznar is endorsing the notion of "Patriotismo Constitucional" or Constitutional Patriotism developed by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Unashamedly, the film upholds the necessity to produce espanoladas. As the film director Blas Fontiveros, played by Antonio Resines, remarks that the life of a Spanish hero has more relevance to Spanish audiences, as they feel more identified, than for example Al Capone's. 5 Spanish (espanoladas) films were, in fact, made in Nazi Germany. Two starred by Imperio Argentina and another 2 by Estrellita Castro both stars of the "cine folclorico espanol".
As already remarked by some reviewers the film copies scenes from other films, the most obvious being its final sequence, which is a rip off of the end of Casablanca, but to suggest that it is a carbon copy of such and such a film is pure overstatement and a rather facile critique of the film. Yet its politics are not at all convincing, not to say rather naïve. The introduction of the Russian Jewish character signals the fall of the film into sentimental humanism and vacuous romantic trifle from where the film does not recover. Nevertheless La Nina de tus Ojos has its charms too and I found it extremely funny. The cast is excellent (Penelope Cruz playing an andalusian, a role she had already done in Almodovar's "Todo Sobre mi Madre" as a prostitute). Resines and Sanz are a surprise as well as Santiago Segura. But special mention deserves Miroslav Táborský, playing Vaclav the interpreter. Subtle looks at Macarena tell of his unrequited love for her. His increasing fascination with Macarena moves him away from his non-interventionist stand to resignedly accept his fate by the end of the film, along with Fontiveros who is Macarena's lover, at the hands of the Nazi. Yet this is never overdone as the change of views underwent by the other characters towards the Nazi regime, in particular the case of Julian Torralba. This little subplot of the film is quite moving rather sentimental and its quiet essence contrast sharply with the bombardment of dialogue coming from the rest of the cast.
Aru tantei no yûutsu
(1998)
A very intriguing film worth WATCHING
12 January 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*** SPOILER WARNING ***
A young detective is assigned by a mysterious old man to stake out the apartment of an elderly woman, possibly his wife. He sets up his video camera and monitor in an empty room opposite her flat and watches. He is prohibited from following her when she goes out, and from investigating her identity. His job is simply to watch, to record her domestic routine. The work becomes immensely boring and he starts to go a little stir-crazy, withdrawing himself from the world outside and even broken up with his girlfriend. Suddenly another person appears in the apartment opposite: an attractive young woman. The newcomer haunts his thoughts, day and night. Worse, she sometimes seems to be aware of his furtive gaze. The old lady also notices his presence. Unable to bear it any longer, he determines to break into the old woman's apartment. This is a surprisingly interesting film about watching and being watched. It is absolutely intriguing and suggests that being watched is also being alive or if you prefer to be perceived is to exist. The film does not give any sort of concession to narrative clarity as all is rather suggested than explained. One concession comes right at the end of the film when the detective enters the apartment and sleeps with the young lady. The blue soft lighting gives the impression that he might in some sort of trance. As he wakes up he finds the old woman lying dead next to him and men's clothes, the old men's clothes, in a wardrobe. Now completely out of his mind the detective wanders the wet streets. He picks up a newspaper and reads an article that tells of the old woman's death who was in fact an actress who had lost her voice and subsequently her career and went into reclusion. She wore man's clothes and performed the old man's as part of her conspiracy to trick the detective into surveying her activities. At all times she was always aware of the detective's gaze and was playing out her last role for him. For her to be alive is to be acknowledged. The detective's growing boredom and fall into insanity are conveyed through relentlessly slow diagonal panning shots of the detective as he watches over the apartment. The camera as it was floating in the air metaphors his fragile state of mind which wanders between reality and unreality. The young woman he sees appearing in the apartment could just be an illusion. As he starts feeling curious about the old woman and as she is the only person he sees, an obsession for her develops. His fantasising with the old woman gives creation to the young one. So what we see even though a creation of our imagination becomes real.
An interesting debut from an assistant to Takeshi Kitano that it worth WATCHING.
A young detective is assigned by a mysterious old man to stake out the apartment of an elderly woman, possibly his wife. He sets up his video camera and monitor in an empty room opposite her flat and watches. He is prohibited from following her when she goes out, and from investigating her identity. His job is simply to watch, to record her domestic routine. The work becomes immensely boring and he starts to go a little stir-crazy, withdrawing himself from the world outside and even broken up with his girlfriend. Suddenly another person appears in the apartment opposite: an attractive young woman. The newcomer haunts his thoughts, day and night. Worse, she sometimes seems to be aware of his furtive gaze. The old lady also notices his presence. Unable to bear it any longer, he determines to break into the old woman's apartment. This is a surprisingly interesting film about watching and being watched. It is absolutely intriguing and suggests that being watched is also being alive or if you prefer to be perceived is to exist. The film does not give any sort of concession to narrative clarity as all is rather suggested than explained. One concession comes right at the end of the film when the detective enters the apartment and sleeps with the young lady. The blue soft lighting gives the impression that he might in some sort of trance. As he wakes up he finds the old woman lying dead next to him and men's clothes, the old men's clothes, in a wardrobe. Now completely out of his mind the detective wanders the wet streets. He picks up a newspaper and reads an article that tells of the old woman's death who was in fact an actress who had lost her voice and subsequently her career and went into reclusion. She wore man's clothes and performed the old man's as part of her conspiracy to trick the detective into surveying her activities. At all times she was always aware of the detective's gaze and was playing out her last role for him. For her to be alive is to be acknowledged. The detective's growing boredom and fall into insanity are conveyed through relentlessly slow diagonal panning shots of the detective as he watches over the apartment. The camera as it was floating in the air metaphors his fragile state of mind which wanders between reality and unreality. The young woman he sees appearing in the apartment could just be an illusion. As he starts feeling curious about the old woman and as she is the only person he sees, an obsession for her develops. His fantasising with the old woman gives creation to the young one. So what we see even though a creation of our imagination becomes real.
An interesting debut from an assistant to Takeshi Kitano that it worth WATCHING.
Sumo Do, Sumo Don't
(1992)
EXTREMELY SATISFYING FILM
21 December 2001
Warning: Spoilers
*** SPOILERS ***
In many ways this is a film in the tradition of Hollywood comedy traditional narrative (a goal orientated story, a peculiar group of characters, mainly outsiders and stereotyped (their physical appearance is a source of jokes), who work together to achieve some sort of goal or recognition.
Yet, unlike many American comedies, it has loads of sincere humanity and unexpected touching moments from these characters (especially Mamiya Masako, an overweight woman played by Umemoto Ritsuko) avoiding falling into sentimentality. Unrequited love pervades the film (between Kawamura, the sumo's club manager and Haruo, Shuhei's brother and to some extend between Haruo and Masako), so that typical sugary kissing scenes culminating these sort of films are scrapped from the story. And the humour, worth of films such as There Is Something About Mary, borders in the scatological.
To some extent it works as social comedy as we are offered a funny glimpse at Japanese society. For example: Professor Anayama points out the anomalous fact that even though the attendance sheet says that Shuhei was present at every class, he'd never set eyes on him (Shuhei) before. So he blackmails Shuhei into joining the sumo club if he wants to graduate. Japanese students' most difficult academic period in their lives is at high school and before the University entrance exams period called "examination hell" (Juken jigoku). Once they get access to University they treat this period rather as a holiday before they enter the labour market. As well as in many American Universities sports scholarships are offered to the less brilliant students but highly talented athletes. Kawamura, played by Shimizu Misa leading character in the latest three films by Imamura's Shohei, is writing a thesis on manipulation of the media and manages to get the team on TV.
The British student, Smiley, highlights some of the inconsistencies of Japanese culture (Japanese people rather laid-back (or flexible) attitude towards religion and the stereotype that they don't delve in things). He asks the Japanese members of the sumo club why a Christian University has statues of Shinto gods or kami in the training ring (dohyo). Aoki (played by the always interesting Takenaka Naoto) and Shuhei's ignorance of Sumo tradition is emphasised as they are unable to explain Smiley some of Sumo's traditional characteristics, for example why sumo wrestlers need to wear mawashi, which everybody keeps it calling jock strap upsetting Aoki.
Jokes, even though scatological, are not out of context as they help to understand some of the peculiarities of Sumo .For example how you manage to pee wearing a mawashi or how the mawashi is never washed and the group don't know which one belongs to whom. This is made even more gruesome by the fact that Aoki always s**** on his mawashi before an important match.
There are some interesting deviations from the conventions mentioned above. A love story between the supposedly hero of the film, Shuhei, and the heroine, Kawamura, does not occur within the time-space frame of the film. It is suggested that something of a relationship could start at the very end of the film but it seems unlikely as Kawamura tells Haruo that she is not interested in love. It is also worth pointing out that Shuhei's last gaze, before the definitive fight, is directed at Masako. As Masako, in fact, becomes the hero and inspiration for the rest of the group. Initially a cleaner and cook for the group she decides to fight when Haruo, whom she is in love with, gets injured. This decision becomes the most emotional, not sentimental, and moving scene of the whole film as well as the most challenging, and it is played brilliantly subtle by Shimizu Misa and Mamiya Masako with the minimum of dialogue. By doing so a monolithic rule of sumo is challenged, that women are not allowed inside the dohyo. Secondly, her action is in sharp contrast with Smiley's reluctance to fight without wearing shorts under his mawashi (he does not see the point of having his buttocks uncovered and does not want to show them to the crowd) and therefore loses his matches by default. Masako does not even hesitate to fight even though she will have to show her breast. It is quite curious that once Smiley decides to fight without his shorts on, the fights are shot from behind him so we get a good glance at his backside and all this works as probably the subtlest joke in the film.
So, a highly recommended film for its humour and humanity.
In many ways this is a film in the tradition of Hollywood comedy traditional narrative (a goal orientated story, a peculiar group of characters, mainly outsiders and stereotyped (their physical appearance is a source of jokes), who work together to achieve some sort of goal or recognition.
Yet, unlike many American comedies, it has loads of sincere humanity and unexpected touching moments from these characters (especially Mamiya Masako, an overweight woman played by Umemoto Ritsuko) avoiding falling into sentimentality. Unrequited love pervades the film (between Kawamura, the sumo's club manager and Haruo, Shuhei's brother and to some extend between Haruo and Masako), so that typical sugary kissing scenes culminating these sort of films are scrapped from the story. And the humour, worth of films such as There Is Something About Mary, borders in the scatological.
To some extent it works as social comedy as we are offered a funny glimpse at Japanese society. For example: Professor Anayama points out the anomalous fact that even though the attendance sheet says that Shuhei was present at every class, he'd never set eyes on him (Shuhei) before. So he blackmails Shuhei into joining the sumo club if he wants to graduate. Japanese students' most difficult academic period in their lives is at high school and before the University entrance exams period called "examination hell" (Juken jigoku). Once they get access to University they treat this period rather as a holiday before they enter the labour market. As well as in many American Universities sports scholarships are offered to the less brilliant students but highly talented athletes. Kawamura, played by Shimizu Misa leading character in the latest three films by Imamura's Shohei, is writing a thesis on manipulation of the media and manages to get the team on TV.
The British student, Smiley, highlights some of the inconsistencies of Japanese culture (Japanese people rather laid-back (or flexible) attitude towards religion and the stereotype that they don't delve in things). He asks the Japanese members of the sumo club why a Christian University has statues of Shinto gods or kami in the training ring (dohyo). Aoki (played by the always interesting Takenaka Naoto) and Shuhei's ignorance of Sumo tradition is emphasised as they are unable to explain Smiley some of Sumo's traditional characteristics, for example why sumo wrestlers need to wear mawashi, which everybody keeps it calling jock strap upsetting Aoki.
Jokes, even though scatological, are not out of context as they help to understand some of the peculiarities of Sumo .For example how you manage to pee wearing a mawashi or how the mawashi is never washed and the group don't know which one belongs to whom. This is made even more gruesome by the fact that Aoki always s**** on his mawashi before an important match.
There are some interesting deviations from the conventions mentioned above. A love story between the supposedly hero of the film, Shuhei, and the heroine, Kawamura, does not occur within the time-space frame of the film. It is suggested that something of a relationship could start at the very end of the film but it seems unlikely as Kawamura tells Haruo that she is not interested in love. It is also worth pointing out that Shuhei's last gaze, before the definitive fight, is directed at Masako. As Masako, in fact, becomes the hero and inspiration for the rest of the group. Initially a cleaner and cook for the group she decides to fight when Haruo, whom she is in love with, gets injured. This decision becomes the most emotional, not sentimental, and moving scene of the whole film as well as the most challenging, and it is played brilliantly subtle by Shimizu Misa and Mamiya Masako with the minimum of dialogue. By doing so a monolithic rule of sumo is challenged, that women are not allowed inside the dohyo. Secondly, her action is in sharp contrast with Smiley's reluctance to fight without wearing shorts under his mawashi (he does not see the point of having his buttocks uncovered and does not want to show them to the crowd) and therefore loses his matches by default. Masako does not even hesitate to fight even though she will have to show her breast. It is quite curious that once Smiley decides to fight without his shorts on, the fights are shot from behind him so we get a good glance at his backside and all this works as probably the subtlest joke in the film.
So, a highly recommended film for its humour and humanity.
Keiho
(1999)
quite enjoyable and intriguing
17 December 2001
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
"The action of a person who has lost soundness of mind should not be punished" "The penalty for the actions of someone impaired health of mind and body should be reduced" From Article 39 of the Japanese criminal law.
-SPOILER WARNING-
Osamu Hatada and his wife are murdered apparently by actor Masaki Shibata. During a mental assessment a psychiatrist, played by Toru Emori, diagnoses him as having split personality, the other part of his personality having committed the crime. His assistant, Kafka Ogawa played by Kyoka Suzuki, thinks otherwise and decides to conduct her own investigation with the help of inspector Nagoshi, played by the excellent Ittoku Kishibe. She discovers that Osamu Hatada had himself killed a young girl when he was fifteen years old but was declared mentally incapacitated and released under the article 39. Masaki Shibata is then found to be the murdered girl's brother looking for revenge on the judicial system that let him down exposing its faults.
This is a rather complicated psychological thriller with multiple twists in the story. It works as a harsh criticism of the above-mentioned article 39. It also puts in doubt psychiatrists' accuracy and reliability when assessing criminals. As inspector Nagoshi tells Kafka the police arrest the criminals, justice sentence them and psychiatrists release them alleging mental disorders. The name Kafka is a clear metaphor of a woman lost in the bureaucratic world of law and its secret deals and to some extend a metaphor of the intricacy of the plot. She is aware of her mentor's incompetence, who uses the same standard psychiatric questionnaire for all the patients he assesses. Kafka decided to study psychiatry to try to understand why her father left her and her mother when he killed a man his wife had said didn't like. Kafka resolves both mysteries and comes to the conclusion that psychiatric proceedings (and the mastering of psychiatry as a whole) by accumulating data is not enough to understand and explain people's behaviour. A more subjective approach is also necessary. The film has some really chilly moments when Shibata transforms into his other personality and tries to strangle Kafka. Here there is an interesting use of extreme camera angles, fast motion, fast editing and other film techniques to convey this transformation. There is also a clever use of flashbacks of Shibata's past during the first part of the film. This, in a way sets the film in motion but, as Kafka progresses in her private own investigation, it starts to emerge that everybody, with the exception of inspector Nagoshi, has been tricked. I say clever because, in more run-of-the-mill films, flashbacks are used as a definitive and reliable proof, or to help to confirm, that something had happened in the past. Less satisfying is his flashbacks used at the end of the film during his trial, which are seen as unquestionably reliable. It could have been more interesting if these flashbacks were used more ambiguously, but by this time the film wants to reach a definitive and clear conclusion and especially wants to clear Shibata of any responsibility in the murders. It is clear that the film wants us to sympathise with Shibata's crusade against the legal system. Rather clumsily the films points out Shibata's long time companion as the murderer and the mastermind of the whole plot. We can hear her voice in Shibata's head telling him to kill Kafka. The flashbacks show that Hatada's wife was already dead when Shibata enters their apartment and that the murder of Hatada was in self-defence.
Notwithstanding the ending, this film is never boring even though some people might find a bit too intricate. It is not a film for psychiatrists though, as it would hurt their ego.
"The action of a person who has lost soundness of mind should not be punished" "The penalty for the actions of someone impaired health of mind and body should be reduced" From Article 39 of the Japanese criminal law.
-SPOILER WARNING-
Osamu Hatada and his wife are murdered apparently by actor Masaki Shibata. During a mental assessment a psychiatrist, played by Toru Emori, diagnoses him as having split personality, the other part of his personality having committed the crime. His assistant, Kafka Ogawa played by Kyoka Suzuki, thinks otherwise and decides to conduct her own investigation with the help of inspector Nagoshi, played by the excellent Ittoku Kishibe. She discovers that Osamu Hatada had himself killed a young girl when he was fifteen years old but was declared mentally incapacitated and released under the article 39. Masaki Shibata is then found to be the murdered girl's brother looking for revenge on the judicial system that let him down exposing its faults.
This is a rather complicated psychological thriller with multiple twists in the story. It works as a harsh criticism of the above-mentioned article 39. It also puts in doubt psychiatrists' accuracy and reliability when assessing criminals. As inspector Nagoshi tells Kafka the police arrest the criminals, justice sentence them and psychiatrists release them alleging mental disorders. The name Kafka is a clear metaphor of a woman lost in the bureaucratic world of law and its secret deals and to some extend a metaphor of the intricacy of the plot. She is aware of her mentor's incompetence, who uses the same standard psychiatric questionnaire for all the patients he assesses. Kafka decided to study psychiatry to try to understand why her father left her and her mother when he killed a man his wife had said didn't like. Kafka resolves both mysteries and comes to the conclusion that psychiatric proceedings (and the mastering of psychiatry as a whole) by accumulating data is not enough to understand and explain people's behaviour. A more subjective approach is also necessary. The film has some really chilly moments when Shibata transforms into his other personality and tries to strangle Kafka. Here there is an interesting use of extreme camera angles, fast motion, fast editing and other film techniques to convey this transformation. There is also a clever use of flashbacks of Shibata's past during the first part of the film. This, in a way sets the film in motion but, as Kafka progresses in her private own investigation, it starts to emerge that everybody, with the exception of inspector Nagoshi, has been tricked. I say clever because, in more run-of-the-mill films, flashbacks are used as a definitive and reliable proof, or to help to confirm, that something had happened in the past. Less satisfying is his flashbacks used at the end of the film during his trial, which are seen as unquestionably reliable. It could have been more interesting if these flashbacks were used more ambiguously, but by this time the film wants to reach a definitive and clear conclusion and especially wants to clear Shibata of any responsibility in the murders. It is clear that the film wants us to sympathise with Shibata's crusade against the legal system. Rather clumsily the films points out Shibata's long time companion as the murderer and the mastermind of the whole plot. We can hear her voice in Shibata's head telling him to kill Kafka. The flashbacks show that Hatada's wife was already dead when Shibata enters their apartment and that the murder of Hatada was in self-defence.
Notwithstanding the ending, this film is never boring even though some people might find a bit too intricate. It is not a film for psychiatrists though, as it would hurt their ego.
Kyôso tanjô
(1993)
clever and nice film
11 December 2001
Warning: Spoilers
-SPOILER WARNING-
Based on a novel by Takeshi Kitaho, who also stars, this is a very ambiguous film satire on religious cults in Japan (an interesting subject since bogus religious cults seems to mushroom in that country, especially during its recent economic crisis). I say ambiguous because even though the first part of the film exposes the cult's fake nature and purpose, and its only concern for money (represented by the characters played by Takeshi, Shiba, and the always great Ittoke Kishibe, Go), it also acknowledges that they are genuine believers within the group, who are not interested in money and who show concern for other people (first represented by Komamura and to some extent the old healer and later by Takayama who becomes the new healer). Both factions clash in what the cult should teach to its followers, especially regarding money. Shiba too is an ambiguous character. There is a hint that he was once a true believer. Also his answers to Takayama's questions have some bits of truth and good nature. The film seems to endorse his view that bogus religious cults are even necessary. That there is nothing wrong in using God's name, even if He does not exist, or a bogus healer, if that helps people, who are weak and need to believe in something, to improve their lives and do good. Shiba is quite subtle in the way he manages to obtain money from potential members, so it appears that followers do want to make donations to the cult as in the scene of man dying of cancer. On the other hand a true believer like Takayama has also weakness. He, obviously tricked by Shiba, is found sleeping with a girl. He later decides to kill Shiba, who instead kills him, this representing Shiba's downfall from group's leadership. It is open to interpretation whether Takayama, after an exhaustive spiritual training, has really become a healer. He believes so and cures a member of the cult. But it seems to be a repetition of what he was told at the beginning of the film that the previous healer, a clear fake, had once cured this same member. This old healer also ended up believing he had real powers. The ending sequence of the film is even more disconcerting as it is not quite clear if the cult, now headed by Takayama, is going through a pure and new era or it is only a return to its maybe naïve origins and Takayama is only following in Shiba's footsteps. Takeshi Kitano character is funnier and more talkative than usual. He is involved in philosophical discussions about the existence of God and rationalises the right and necessity to lie to followers. Nevertheless we also get to see the Takeshi we are accustomed to when he beats up members of the cult who don't follow his orders. Beautifully shot, the film makes a clever use of wide-angle lens shots that add a comical effect to some of the situations involving the religious group (as the healer performing his act and when he kills the man suffering from cancer). Also nice use of long shots of the group travelling through the Japanese countryside. In short, this is an enjoyable film, more clever than what it appears at first and with an added ambiguity towards religious cults.
Based on a novel by Takeshi Kitaho, who also stars, this is a very ambiguous film satire on religious cults in Japan (an interesting subject since bogus religious cults seems to mushroom in that country, especially during its recent economic crisis). I say ambiguous because even though the first part of the film exposes the cult's fake nature and purpose, and its only concern for money (represented by the characters played by Takeshi, Shiba, and the always great Ittoke Kishibe, Go), it also acknowledges that they are genuine believers within the group, who are not interested in money and who show concern for other people (first represented by Komamura and to some extent the old healer and later by Takayama who becomes the new healer). Both factions clash in what the cult should teach to its followers, especially regarding money. Shiba too is an ambiguous character. There is a hint that he was once a true believer. Also his answers to Takayama's questions have some bits of truth and good nature. The film seems to endorse his view that bogus religious cults are even necessary. That there is nothing wrong in using God's name, even if He does not exist, or a bogus healer, if that helps people, who are weak and need to believe in something, to improve their lives and do good. Shiba is quite subtle in the way he manages to obtain money from potential members, so it appears that followers do want to make donations to the cult as in the scene of man dying of cancer. On the other hand a true believer like Takayama has also weakness. He, obviously tricked by Shiba, is found sleeping with a girl. He later decides to kill Shiba, who instead kills him, this representing Shiba's downfall from group's leadership. It is open to interpretation whether Takayama, after an exhaustive spiritual training, has really become a healer. He believes so and cures a member of the cult. But it seems to be a repetition of what he was told at the beginning of the film that the previous healer, a clear fake, had once cured this same member. This old healer also ended up believing he had real powers. The ending sequence of the film is even more disconcerting as it is not quite clear if the cult, now headed by Takayama, is going through a pure and new era or it is only a return to its maybe naïve origins and Takayama is only following in Shiba's footsteps. Takeshi Kitano character is funnier and more talkative than usual. He is involved in philosophical discussions about the existence of God and rationalises the right and necessity to lie to followers. Nevertheless we also get to see the Takeshi we are accustomed to when he beats up members of the cult who don't follow his orders. Beautifully shot, the film makes a clever use of wide-angle lens shots that add a comical effect to some of the situations involving the religious group (as the healer performing his act and when he kills the man suffering from cancer). Also nice use of long shots of the group travelling through the Japanese countryside. In short, this is an enjoyable film, more clever than what it appears at first and with an added ambiguity towards religious cults.
A Page of Madness
(1926)
A FORGOTTEN MASTERPIECE
3 December 2001
An old man works as a janitor in a mental hospital to be close to his wife who is a patient there and to try to get her out.
This is surely one of the most forgotten masterpieces of the silent era and an oddity in the history of Japanese cinema. Long thought lost, a print was found in the 70s and a music soundtrack added to it, which fits perfectly with the images. It might have been influenced by cabinet of doctor Caligary (director Kinugasa claimed he never saw the German film). However it surpasses it in style and in its more convincing (and chilly) portray of the inner mental state of the inmates in the asylum. To achieve this, the film makes use of every single film technique available at the time: multiple exposures and out of focus subjective point of view, tilted camera angles, fast and slow motion, expressionist lighting and superimpositions among others. It is also a very complicated film to follow, as it has not got intertitles.
The film opens with a montage of shots of rain hitting the windows of the hospital, wind shaking trees and of thunder. The unsettling weather metaphors the mental condition of the patients and introduces one of the them: a former dancer. The combination of sounds produced by rain, wind and thunder serves as the music that incites the dancer to get into a frantic, almost hypnotic dance. In another sequence involving the same patient engaged in another frenzied dance, she is being watched by other inmates. Multiple exposures of the dancer represent the patients' point of view and their confused "view" of the world.
These are just two examples from this amazing film trying to represent the patients' subconscious and view of the "sane" world.
In three words A MUST SEE.
This is surely one of the most forgotten masterpieces of the silent era and an oddity in the history of Japanese cinema. Long thought lost, a print was found in the 70s and a music soundtrack added to it, which fits perfectly with the images. It might have been influenced by cabinet of doctor Caligary (director Kinugasa claimed he never saw the German film). However it surpasses it in style and in its more convincing (and chilly) portray of the inner mental state of the inmates in the asylum. To achieve this, the film makes use of every single film technique available at the time: multiple exposures and out of focus subjective point of view, tilted camera angles, fast and slow motion, expressionist lighting and superimpositions among others. It is also a very complicated film to follow, as it has not got intertitles.
The film opens with a montage of shots of rain hitting the windows of the hospital, wind shaking trees and of thunder. The unsettling weather metaphors the mental condition of the patients and introduces one of the them: a former dancer. The combination of sounds produced by rain, wind and thunder serves as the music that incites the dancer to get into a frantic, almost hypnotic dance. In another sequence involving the same patient engaged in another frenzied dance, she is being watched by other inmates. Multiple exposures of the dancer represent the patients' point of view and their confused "view" of the world.
These are just two examples from this amazing film trying to represent the patients' subconscious and view of the "sane" world.
In three words A MUST SEE.
Dead or Alive 2: Birds
(2000)
Miike has done it again
29 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
-THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS-
Miike Takashi, once again, has surprised everyone. He has created a sequel that has nothing to do with its predecessor. The main characters are still played by the same actors, Aikawa So and Takeuchi Riki, but their roles are very different. Here they play long separated boyhood friends who meet again when Takeuchi assassinates a racketeer Aikawa has been hired to shoot. Wanted by the Japanese Yakuza and the Chinese Triad they returned to their hometown, an island in the South of Japan. There, they meet another long time friend Kohei, played Endo Kenichi, who is now married. Through flashbacks we get to know about their childhood, which was spent in the local orphanage run by Japanese Christian priest. Contact with the present children of the orphanage makes them take the decision of going back to the main island and work as professional killers. The money they will get will be used to buy vaccines for the children in the Third World.
There are only a couple of references to the first part. One happens when Aikawa, surrounded by Chinese gangsters, pulls out a brick from his back. The other during a play for the children of the orphanage where Aikawa, dressed up as a kappa (a mythical Japanese creature, a hybrid between a man and a tortoise) has a cyborg arm. These scenes recall the amazing ending of DOA.
Compared to its predecessor DOA 2: birds is quite a light film, to Miike Takashi's standards, in its dealing of violence. Violence, Miike Takashi's style, doesn't appear until the second half of the film. Takashi has become a cult figure for taking violence to extremes and mixing it with dark humour. In Europe he has become immensely popular thanks to films like Audition, the mention Dead Alive and pretty soon Ichi the Killer, which I am sure will become a cult film soon. Even though Miike Takashi has said in many interviews he doesn't give much thought to his films that doesn't mean that they are just purely entertainment. What many seem to overlook, maybe due to their fascination with violence, is that Miike Takashi's films contain some interesting themes, recognising the existence of certain attitudes. For example attitudes towards sex. In DOA was bestiality (actually the making of those sort of films), Shinjuku Triad Society abounds in gay sex, Ichi the Killer and Audition deal with sadomasochism. In DOA 2: Birds we get a quick glimpse at necrophilia. Takashi acknowledges the existence of these sexual practices without criticising them whether perverse, sexist or politically incorrect
Whereas the beginning of DOA is a relentless bombardment of images of drugs sex and violence DOA 2: BIRDS opts for a milder opening. Tsukamoto Shinya uses Chinese and Japanese (Mild Seven) packets of cigarettes to dramatise the struggle between Chinese and Japanese gangs. Tsukamoto crushes cigarettes representing gangsters being mowed down. That was certainly a blow to those who expected an opening similar to DOA. It is very funny though.
It is already known that Takashi likes challenging audiences and DOA 2, as said earlier, is a good example. Another challenging sequence is the above mentioned children's play which is intercut with shots of a fight between Chinese and Japanese gangs, this time for real. The play, even tough for children, is sexually explicit but absolutely hilarious too. The crosscutting between the fight and the play is so fast paced that you find yourself laughing at Aikawa displaying his penis-torch or Takeuchi, dressed up as lion, masturbating at the same as heads are chopped off and rolling on the floor or a dead woman being raped. Takashi seems to be teasing the audience as they realise they are laughing, and cannot stop, at the carnage on the screen. This makes it a very uncomfortable sequence to watch but very clever too.
Miike Takashi also seems to question the action of the hero when they decide to help children in the Third World and their recently gained status of angels (another Takashi's surprises in the film). Takeuchi vomits blood continually. The more he kills the more he vomits. To save children they have to kill gangsters (Aisakawa at one point says that the world is better off without them) who were once children too. This is done in a brilliant sequence at the end of the film. There is a showdown on a rooftop between Aikawa and Takeuchi and three gunmen. Both heroes, badly injured, are lying on the ground and see how the 3 gunmen changed into children pointing guns at them. Takeuchi stills has the strength to shot them death. The scene ends with a shot of five children laying dead on the rooftop covered in blood. This is a brilliant, persuasive, sad and poetic metaphor of why there should not be any killing for any reason.
Miike Takashi's films are not just entertaining but are loaded with ideas, which might no be fully developed due to his attitude to his material, but are nevertheless quite interesting and challenging.
Miike Takashi, once again, has surprised everyone. He has created a sequel that has nothing to do with its predecessor. The main characters are still played by the same actors, Aikawa So and Takeuchi Riki, but their roles are very different. Here they play long separated boyhood friends who meet again when Takeuchi assassinates a racketeer Aikawa has been hired to shoot. Wanted by the Japanese Yakuza and the Chinese Triad they returned to their hometown, an island in the South of Japan. There, they meet another long time friend Kohei, played Endo Kenichi, who is now married. Through flashbacks we get to know about their childhood, which was spent in the local orphanage run by Japanese Christian priest. Contact with the present children of the orphanage makes them take the decision of going back to the main island and work as professional killers. The money they will get will be used to buy vaccines for the children in the Third World.
There are only a couple of references to the first part. One happens when Aikawa, surrounded by Chinese gangsters, pulls out a brick from his back. The other during a play for the children of the orphanage where Aikawa, dressed up as a kappa (a mythical Japanese creature, a hybrid between a man and a tortoise) has a cyborg arm. These scenes recall the amazing ending of DOA.
Compared to its predecessor DOA 2: birds is quite a light film, to Miike Takashi's standards, in its dealing of violence. Violence, Miike Takashi's style, doesn't appear until the second half of the film. Takashi has become a cult figure for taking violence to extremes and mixing it with dark humour. In Europe he has become immensely popular thanks to films like Audition, the mention Dead Alive and pretty soon Ichi the Killer, which I am sure will become a cult film soon. Even though Miike Takashi has said in many interviews he doesn't give much thought to his films that doesn't mean that they are just purely entertainment. What many seem to overlook, maybe due to their fascination with violence, is that Miike Takashi's films contain some interesting themes, recognising the existence of certain attitudes. For example attitudes towards sex. In DOA was bestiality (actually the making of those sort of films), Shinjuku Triad Society abounds in gay sex, Ichi the Killer and Audition deal with sadomasochism. In DOA 2: Birds we get a quick glimpse at necrophilia. Takashi acknowledges the existence of these sexual practices without criticising them whether perverse, sexist or politically incorrect
Whereas the beginning of DOA is a relentless bombardment of images of drugs sex and violence DOA 2: BIRDS opts for a milder opening. Tsukamoto Shinya uses Chinese and Japanese (Mild Seven) packets of cigarettes to dramatise the struggle between Chinese and Japanese gangs. Tsukamoto crushes cigarettes representing gangsters being mowed down. That was certainly a blow to those who expected an opening similar to DOA. It is very funny though.
It is already known that Takashi likes challenging audiences and DOA 2, as said earlier, is a good example. Another challenging sequence is the above mentioned children's play which is intercut with shots of a fight between Chinese and Japanese gangs, this time for real. The play, even tough for children, is sexually explicit but absolutely hilarious too. The crosscutting between the fight and the play is so fast paced that you find yourself laughing at Aikawa displaying his penis-torch or Takeuchi, dressed up as lion, masturbating at the same as heads are chopped off and rolling on the floor or a dead woman being raped. Takashi seems to be teasing the audience as they realise they are laughing, and cannot stop, at the carnage on the screen. This makes it a very uncomfortable sequence to watch but very clever too.
Miike Takashi also seems to question the action of the hero when they decide to help children in the Third World and their recently gained status of angels (another Takashi's surprises in the film). Takeuchi vomits blood continually. The more he kills the more he vomits. To save children they have to kill gangsters (Aisakawa at one point says that the world is better off without them) who were once children too. This is done in a brilliant sequence at the end of the film. There is a showdown on a rooftop between Aikawa and Takeuchi and three gunmen. Both heroes, badly injured, are lying on the ground and see how the 3 gunmen changed into children pointing guns at them. Takeuchi stills has the strength to shot them death. The scene ends with a shot of five children laying dead on the rooftop covered in blood. This is a brilliant, persuasive, sad and poetic metaphor of why there should not be any killing for any reason.
Miike Takashi's films are not just entertaining but are loaded with ideas, which might no be fully developed due to his attitude to his material, but are nevertheless quite interesting and challenging.
Sanshiro Sugata
(1943)
AN EARLY MASTERPIECE? NOT QUITE BUT...
27 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
Kurosawa's first feature. It is an action film but not of the samurai genre. Nevertheless we can already notice Kurosawa's outstanding use of editing techniques that give an amazing sense of movement and speed to the judo fight sequences. He will later develop these techniques to greater effects in more famous films such as Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Yojimbo.
Two sequences are particularly remarkable. The first one occurs at the beginning of the film. Members of a rival jujitsu school, which Sanshiro had joined that night, ambush Yano, the founder of Judo. Even though outnumbered, Yano manages to throw all his opponents in the river nearby. Whereas the camera focusing on the gang pans continuously and is almost always in motion, the shots of Yano waiting for them to attack are always static. This contrast in shots suggests Yano's fighting skill superiority as well as a greater physical and mental control of himself. Sugata is impressed and rapidly helps Yano to pull the rickshaw left abandoned by its owner. For this, he gets rid of his geta shoes. They leave but the camera is fixed on the shoes. We see them getting worn out (bystanders kick them, a dog bites them, rain & snow fall on them). Eventually we see one of the shoes stuck on a grille. The next sequence starts with a crane shot of a narrow street where Sugata is seen surrounded by a threatening crowd. He moves frantically backs and forwards throwing people to the ground. He is now a judo master. We have not seen his training, but the shoes sequence has provided a metaphor of this achievement, suggesting that Sugata has been through a painful and tough training. Even though he is learned the judo techniques he has not achieved the mastery of Yano. He lacks the restraint and coolness of Yano. His fighting resembles that of the members of the jujitsu gang who had attacked his master previously. The next sequence shows Yano telling him that he lacks control over his emotions, he has achieved some a physical skill but not a spiritual one. The next sequence I would like to talk about occurs at the end of the film. Sugata is seen having dinner with Hansuke Murai, played by Shimura Takashi and whom Sugata had previously defeated in combat, and his daughter Sayo who is very fond of Sugata. The dinner is interrupted by the abrupt appearance of Gennosuke Higaki, a jujitsu fighter wearing western clothes and smoking cigarettes, who challenges Sugata to a duel to death. Higaki's entrance is accompanied by wind. Wind is used as a metaphor for the threatening West. This motif will be later used in Yojimbo for the arrival of Tatsuya Nakadai carrying a revolver to the town (a sign of Western power). This is the only suggestion made in the film pointing at Japan being at war, even though it was made for war propaganda. The scene then moves to the actual duel, which takes place on a hillside. The wind is still blowing and clouds are seen passing really fast above their heads. Kurosawa's use of weather to complement the feelings of the characters is outstanding and will become of his trademarks later in his career.
Two sequences are particularly remarkable. The first one occurs at the beginning of the film. Members of a rival jujitsu school, which Sanshiro had joined that night, ambush Yano, the founder of Judo. Even though outnumbered, Yano manages to throw all his opponents in the river nearby. Whereas the camera focusing on the gang pans continuously and is almost always in motion, the shots of Yano waiting for them to attack are always static. This contrast in shots suggests Yano's fighting skill superiority as well as a greater physical and mental control of himself. Sugata is impressed and rapidly helps Yano to pull the rickshaw left abandoned by its owner. For this, he gets rid of his geta shoes. They leave but the camera is fixed on the shoes. We see them getting worn out (bystanders kick them, a dog bites them, rain & snow fall on them). Eventually we see one of the shoes stuck on a grille. The next sequence starts with a crane shot of a narrow street where Sugata is seen surrounded by a threatening crowd. He moves frantically backs and forwards throwing people to the ground. He is now a judo master. We have not seen his training, but the shoes sequence has provided a metaphor of this achievement, suggesting that Sugata has been through a painful and tough training. Even though he is learned the judo techniques he has not achieved the mastery of Yano. He lacks the restraint and coolness of Yano. His fighting resembles that of the members of the jujitsu gang who had attacked his master previously. The next sequence shows Yano telling him that he lacks control over his emotions, he has achieved some a physical skill but not a spiritual one. The next sequence I would like to talk about occurs at the end of the film. Sugata is seen having dinner with Hansuke Murai, played by Shimura Takashi and whom Sugata had previously defeated in combat, and his daughter Sayo who is very fond of Sugata. The dinner is interrupted by the abrupt appearance of Gennosuke Higaki, a jujitsu fighter wearing western clothes and smoking cigarettes, who challenges Sugata to a duel to death. Higaki's entrance is accompanied by wind. Wind is used as a metaphor for the threatening West. This motif will be later used in Yojimbo for the arrival of Tatsuya Nakadai carrying a revolver to the town (a sign of Western power). This is the only suggestion made in the film pointing at Japan being at war, even though it was made for war propaganda. The scene then moves to the actual duel, which takes place on a hillside. The wind is still blowing and clouds are seen passing really fast above their heads. Kurosawa's use of weather to complement the feelings of the characters is outstanding and will become of his trademarks later in his career.
Spiral
(1998)
VERY DISAPPOINTING
26 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
To start with, the film is not frightening at all. Ring was not very frightening either but it had its moments. Second, the characterisation is very thin and unappealing so you never feel kind of connected in any way with the characters. Thirdly, and here is where the film fails completely, the story, which departs in many from the original Ring, wears very thin and it is overt-explanatory in trying to find scientific answers to the curse of Sadako. Ring 2, even though not a great film as the story does not live up the expectations created by Ring, is a better sequel because it follows events, which are directly connected to the first part. Here the film concentrates on Mitsuo Ando, Ryuji Takayama's friend. Takayama is Reiko Asakawa's ex-husband, the journalist investigating the videotape curse in Ring. Ando is traumatised by the death of his son who he could not save from drowning. He receives a call from the police notifying him of the death of Takayama. As he examines the body, Ando is a pathologist; we are given a shot of Takayama's open body. This sort of shot is what you would expect from a typical horror film but that does not fit in a film which is supposed to be a sequel of Ring, a film that avoided all sort of gory clichés. A piece of paper with a number is found in Takayama's body. After matching the numbers with the position of letters in the Western alphabet the message reads: DNA PRESENT. This subplot only works as some kind of joke but it is given too much importance than what it really needs.
Ando is given a copy of the cursed tape by Reiko Asakawa's boss. After watching the tape he is attacked by Sadako but somehow survives. This Sadako does not resemble at all to the child seen in Ring crawling out of the well and is far from scary. The most problematic thing is that we can take a good look at her, so the scary feeling of the unknown is lost. Meanwhile, Miki Nakatai, Takayama's assistant and girlfriend is trying to find out something more about Takayama's death. Like Takayama she is a bit psychic and understands Ando's suffering. Ando does not know that Sadako is inside him. So Miki is used as the vehicle for Sadako to be reborn after she has sex with Ando. Once reborn Sadako, fond of Takayama who was the only one who understood her suffering and the motives of her revenge, asks Ando to be impregnated with Takayama's DNA (that's where the joke comes from) so that he could be reborn as well. As everybody is so scared of videotapes another curse had to be created. This is done in a forceful way by having Reiko's diary being the trigger of a new and strange virus. Much time is spent on finding out the pathology of the virus, its effects ranging from smallpox to heart attack. All this stops the story from really taking off. Ando, helped by a colleague who had read the diary and carries the virus, in return for his help is having his son returned from death. At the end of the film Takayama, now reunited with Sadako, tells Ando that he is going to publish the diary so the virus will spread out. In Suzuki Koji's book there is a clear reference to the fact that whoever reads the actual book is helping to spread the virus, and also that a film called the Ring is in production and Sadako herself is being cast as Sadako. All this has not been added to the film's final script, making the ending very bland.
I only find one scary bit in the whole film, but scary is not the right word, and I should say weird. It occurs during one of Ando's nightmares. He returns home and is welcome by his wife. The camera is first placed by the entrance door with Ando's back in the foreground and his wife in the background in the middle of the corridor and approaching him. Then there is cut to a camera position at the other end of the corridor showing Ando and his wife by the door. The strange thing about this sequence is that the wife's face is not shown at any time and it seems to be done deliberately for some reason, which I cannot explain. Anyway I found it very weird.
To start with, the film is not frightening at all. Ring was not very frightening either but it had its moments. Second, the characterisation is very thin and unappealing so you never feel kind of connected in any way with the characters. Thirdly, and here is where the film fails completely, the story, which departs in many from the original Ring, wears very thin and it is overt-explanatory in trying to find scientific answers to the curse of Sadako. Ring 2, even though not a great film as the story does not live up the expectations created by Ring, is a better sequel because it follows events, which are directly connected to the first part. Here the film concentrates on Mitsuo Ando, Ryuji Takayama's friend. Takayama is Reiko Asakawa's ex-husband, the journalist investigating the videotape curse in Ring. Ando is traumatised by the death of his son who he could not save from drowning. He receives a call from the police notifying him of the death of Takayama. As he examines the body, Ando is a pathologist; we are given a shot of Takayama's open body. This sort of shot is what you would expect from a typical horror film but that does not fit in a film which is supposed to be a sequel of Ring, a film that avoided all sort of gory clichés. A piece of paper with a number is found in Takayama's body. After matching the numbers with the position of letters in the Western alphabet the message reads: DNA PRESENT. This subplot only works as some kind of joke but it is given too much importance than what it really needs.
Ando is given a copy of the cursed tape by Reiko Asakawa's boss. After watching the tape he is attacked by Sadako but somehow survives. This Sadako does not resemble at all to the child seen in Ring crawling out of the well and is far from scary. The most problematic thing is that we can take a good look at her, so the scary feeling of the unknown is lost. Meanwhile, Miki Nakatai, Takayama's assistant and girlfriend is trying to find out something more about Takayama's death. Like Takayama she is a bit psychic and understands Ando's suffering. Ando does not know that Sadako is inside him. So Miki is used as the vehicle for Sadako to be reborn after she has sex with Ando. Once reborn Sadako, fond of Takayama who was the only one who understood her suffering and the motives of her revenge, asks Ando to be impregnated with Takayama's DNA (that's where the joke comes from) so that he could be reborn as well. As everybody is so scared of videotapes another curse had to be created. This is done in a forceful way by having Reiko's diary being the trigger of a new and strange virus. Much time is spent on finding out the pathology of the virus, its effects ranging from smallpox to heart attack. All this stops the story from really taking off. Ando, helped by a colleague who had read the diary and carries the virus, in return for his help is having his son returned from death. At the end of the film Takayama, now reunited with Sadako, tells Ando that he is going to publish the diary so the virus will spread out. In Suzuki Koji's book there is a clear reference to the fact that whoever reads the actual book is helping to spread the virus, and also that a film called the Ring is in production and Sadako herself is being cast as Sadako. All this has not been added to the film's final script, making the ending very bland.
I only find one scary bit in the whole film, but scary is not the right word, and I should say weird. It occurs during one of Ando's nightmares. He returns home and is welcome by his wife. The camera is first placed by the entrance door with Ando's back in the foreground and his wife in the background in the middle of the corridor and approaching him. Then there is cut to a camera position at the other end of the corridor showing Ando and his wife by the door. The strange thing about this sequence is that the wife's face is not shown at any time and it seems to be done deliberately for some reason, which I cannot explain. Anyway I found it very weird.
Bean Cake
(2001)
A NOSTALGIC SHORT FILM FROM JAPAN?
22 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
-SPOILER WARNING-
The film is set in Japan in the 1930s. Taro, on his first day at a new school is faced with one of his most difficult decisions in life. Asked by his teacher what it is most important for him in this world he answers bean cakes (botamochi). In the 1930s, Japan was at the height of her militarist development and by 1936 had invaded Manchuria. Students were taught that the Emperor was a descendent from the gods and that they were all his sons. Soldiers were trained to fight and die for the Emperor.
Taro refuses to change his answer and is threaten with expulsion. The teacher, outraged, sent him out of the classroom and orders him to sit, in the traditional Japanese way that is on his knees, on the corridor until his changes his mind. A girl, feeling sorry for him, offers him a cushion (zabuton). His mother is called and he changes his mind after being asked by the teacher. After meeting the girl, he now has a powerful reason to stay in the school. Back at home he invites the girl for botamochi. Now, asked by the girl, he has to decide whether he loves botamochi more than her. This a little pearl that won the Palm d'Or for best short film at Cannes this year. The film was a collaboration between students of the University of Southern California and the director's, David Greenspan, thesis film for his Master of Arts degree in television and cinema. It can also be an inspiration for future filmmakers who find difficult to get their projects financed. The cinematography reminds you of classic Japanese films specially the ones made during the so-called Golden Age of Japanese cinema during the 1950s. Ozu seems to be a major inspiration, in particular the sequence in the school's corridor. Shots of corridors were constant in Ozu's films. Recently I learned that the film was not actually shot in Japan but in LA. It really fooled me, not just for the use of location but for the use of sound. At the beginning of the film we can hear the sound of cicadas (semi). This sound brings to mind one thing: Japan in summer. Every single Japanese film that I have seen has used this sound to suggest this season.
The film is set in Japan in the 1930s. Taro, on his first day at a new school is faced with one of his most difficult decisions in life. Asked by his teacher what it is most important for him in this world he answers bean cakes (botamochi). In the 1930s, Japan was at the height of her militarist development and by 1936 had invaded Manchuria. Students were taught that the Emperor was a descendent from the gods and that they were all his sons. Soldiers were trained to fight and die for the Emperor.
Taro refuses to change his answer and is threaten with expulsion. The teacher, outraged, sent him out of the classroom and orders him to sit, in the traditional Japanese way that is on his knees, on the corridor until his changes his mind. A girl, feeling sorry for him, offers him a cushion (zabuton). His mother is called and he changes his mind after being asked by the teacher. After meeting the girl, he now has a powerful reason to stay in the school. Back at home he invites the girl for botamochi. Now, asked by the girl, he has to decide whether he loves botamochi more than her. This a little pearl that won the Palm d'Or for best short film at Cannes this year. The film was a collaboration between students of the University of Southern California and the director's, David Greenspan, thesis film for his Master of Arts degree in television and cinema. It can also be an inspiration for future filmmakers who find difficult to get their projects financed. The cinematography reminds you of classic Japanese films specially the ones made during the so-called Golden Age of Japanese cinema during the 1950s. Ozu seems to be a major inspiration, in particular the sequence in the school's corridor. Shots of corridors were constant in Ozu's films. Recently I learned that the film was not actually shot in Japan but in LA. It really fooled me, not just for the use of location but for the use of sound. At the beginning of the film we can hear the sound of cicadas (semi). This sound brings to mind one thing: Japan in summer. Every single Japanese film that I have seen has used this sound to suggest this season.
Ley Lines
(1999)
A FUNNY AND THOUGHTFUL FILM FROM MIIKE TAKASHI
21 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
-SPOILER WARNING-
Ley Lines is the last part of Miike Takashi's Triad Society trilogy. It deals with one of the director's most constant themes: The Chinese community in Japan. Three first generation Japanese teenagers, born from Chinese parents, decide to leave their hometown, where they don't fit, for Tokyo. There, they meet several characters: a drug maker, played by Sho Aikawa a Takashi's regular, and his African mate, a Chinese born prostitute and a yakuza boss, also Chinese, played by the chameleonic actor Nakenaka Naoto also seen in films such as Gonin and Shall we dance?. It is lighter, funnier and less violent than the other two trilogy's films. Its main concern is to show the difficulties that these people have for integration in Japanese society, and their search for an identity. This is something that Takashi has already tackled in other films such as Dead or Alive and Shinjuku Triad Society. Their small countryside village, where they were born, is probably a too Japanese environment. Even the cosmopolitan city of Tokyo does not satisfy them and they start making plans to travel to Brazil. This is a very interesting and ironic choice as Brazil was the destination of many Japanese emigrants at the turn of the century, a subject explored by Tizuka Yamasaki in her film "Gaijin". Also, the main character in Kurosawa's "Record of a Living Being" plans to move to Brazil with his reluctant family for fear of a nuclear war. Furthermore, Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan.
The film raises questions about how Japan is responding to the influx of Asian immigrants and how these are taken over the Japanese yakuza illegal activities (the running of soapland clubs, pachinko shops and drugs). The area of Shinjuku, once a traditional yakuza feud, is now in the hands of the Chinese triads. Does this mean that proper jobs are only restricted to the Japanese? The Chinese yakuza boss is a clear example of this inability to integrate in Japanese society. His yearning for the motherland is too great. He only finds peace of mind when told Traditional Chinese children stories. He is ruthless if he believes these stories are not "authentic" Chinese stories by killing the storyteller. The last shot of the film is an impressive metaphor of this theme of identity search. Starting as close-up of one of the teenagers and the prostitute in a boat, the camera pulls back and flies away from them who are seen drifting in the middle of the ocean. Miike Takashi is a director that likes trying different film techniques. There is a brilliant hand-held camera sequence as the teenagers are trying to sell drugs in the middle of Shinjuku. This cinema-verity sequence shows to its full the exhilarating, bubbling street scene of this area as well as its growing ethnic diversity. It now ranks alongside other world's hot spots such as London's Soho, New York's Times Square, Paris' Latin Quarter and Barcelona's Barrio Chino. Also Takashi likes breaking with some sexual taboos. In all of his films I have seen he acknowledges the existence of people with a rather peculiar sexual taste, without making any judgement on them. So the prostitute shares a bed with the three teenagers and, out of compassion for one of them, has sex with all of them. This does not seem to cause any problems between the boys. Another sequence involves one the of prostitute's customer who likes to peek inside her vagina. For that purpose he uses some sort of surgical equipment to keep her vagina wide open while he is taking a look. Here, there is a hilarious point of view shot of her vagina showing the man's childish expression of amazement and awe.
Ley Lines is the last part of Miike Takashi's Triad Society trilogy. It deals with one of the director's most constant themes: The Chinese community in Japan. Three first generation Japanese teenagers, born from Chinese parents, decide to leave their hometown, where they don't fit, for Tokyo. There, they meet several characters: a drug maker, played by Sho Aikawa a Takashi's regular, and his African mate, a Chinese born prostitute and a yakuza boss, also Chinese, played by the chameleonic actor Nakenaka Naoto also seen in films such as Gonin and Shall we dance?. It is lighter, funnier and less violent than the other two trilogy's films. Its main concern is to show the difficulties that these people have for integration in Japanese society, and their search for an identity. This is something that Takashi has already tackled in other films such as Dead or Alive and Shinjuku Triad Society. Their small countryside village, where they were born, is probably a too Japanese environment. Even the cosmopolitan city of Tokyo does not satisfy them and they start making plans to travel to Brazil. This is a very interesting and ironic choice as Brazil was the destination of many Japanese emigrants at the turn of the century, a subject explored by Tizuka Yamasaki in her film "Gaijin". Also, the main character in Kurosawa's "Record of a Living Being" plans to move to Brazil with his reluctant family for fear of a nuclear war. Furthermore, Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan.
The film raises questions about how Japan is responding to the influx of Asian immigrants and how these are taken over the Japanese yakuza illegal activities (the running of soapland clubs, pachinko shops and drugs). The area of Shinjuku, once a traditional yakuza feud, is now in the hands of the Chinese triads. Does this mean that proper jobs are only restricted to the Japanese? The Chinese yakuza boss is a clear example of this inability to integrate in Japanese society. His yearning for the motherland is too great. He only finds peace of mind when told Traditional Chinese children stories. He is ruthless if he believes these stories are not "authentic" Chinese stories by killing the storyteller. The last shot of the film is an impressive metaphor of this theme of identity search. Starting as close-up of one of the teenagers and the prostitute in a boat, the camera pulls back and flies away from them who are seen drifting in the middle of the ocean. Miike Takashi is a director that likes trying different film techniques. There is a brilliant hand-held camera sequence as the teenagers are trying to sell drugs in the middle of Shinjuku. This cinema-verity sequence shows to its full the exhilarating, bubbling street scene of this area as well as its growing ethnic diversity. It now ranks alongside other world's hot spots such as London's Soho, New York's Times Square, Paris' Latin Quarter and Barcelona's Barrio Chino. Also Takashi likes breaking with some sexual taboos. In all of his films I have seen he acknowledges the existence of people with a rather peculiar sexual taste, without making any judgement on them. So the prostitute shares a bed with the three teenagers and, out of compassion for one of them, has sex with all of them. This does not seem to cause any problems between the boys. Another sequence involves one the of prostitute's customer who likes to peek inside her vagina. For that purpose he uses some sort of surgical equipment to keep her vagina wide open while he is taking a look. Here, there is a hilarious point of view shot of her vagina showing the man's childish expression of amazement and awe.
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