Ikiru never dragged for me. My issues, if any, were with the basic story construction: local government never gets anything done, the world of politics hand-in-hand with gangsters, etc. which might've been saying something in a world recently ravaged by war but now simply feeds into everyone's cynicism these days. But the film had this (surely, even now) combination of hard iron laughs and fighting back the tears moments (I failed at this).
The switching of straight melodrama to recounting the struggle after Watanabe's death, using the tricks in Rashomon, suggesting that Watanabe wasn't -- just maybe -- as heroic really lifted the whole thing to some place else.
The acting as well...I don't have much of an appreciation of it, but recounting all I've seen I enjoyed almost every performance.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 18:52 (sixteen years ago) link
I only saw Black Rain at this particular NFT JPfest, wish I'd seen some of the others now. I did see Death Note 1&2 at the ICA to make up for it though.
Every time this thread is revived I seethe inwardly at the stupidity of the thread title.
― Matt #2, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Ikiru is great!
Saw the Seven Samurai the other day, but my two favourite samurai both got killed - the cool one and the crazy one. I thought this was unnecessary.
Stray Dog is also good!
― jel --, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Ha Matt! The thread starter was there last night at the same screening :-)
I think the two Ichikawa films were disappointing. Really Actor's Revenge is pretty incredible but I wonder if its a one off. The one Imamura flick I saw was nice but next to Oshima and Kurosawa its a lot of meh. Missed the Suzuki yakuza stuff.
That is probably the one really great season the NFT have got on now for the next 2-3 months. August looks a bit lame.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Miracle Fortress is another good Kurosawa movie.
(But Ikiru is my favourite, even though i agree it dragged at the end)
― Ludo, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
heh Miracle Fortress.. it's Hidden Fortress)
― Ludo, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Anyone have any thoughts on Marebito? Just saw it, and thought it was spectacular, oddly terrifying and contemplative at the same time.
Netflix has made finding these films so much easier, which in some strange way almost diminishes their impact. I doubt I would have been quite so amazed by Tetsuo if I hadn't watched it after finding it shoved behind other stuff in a shitty small town video store.
― BLACK BEYONCE, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:45 (sixteen years ago) link
It's interesting that Japan has produced the greatest film ever made (Ran) as well as the worst (Pinch Runner).
― shieldforyoureyes, Thursday, 31 July 2008 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link
The bits of Ran I saw put me off Kurosawa until recently.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:38 (sixteen years ago) link
anyone seen Kaneto Shindo's The Island?
http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/kawakita/theislandakanakedisland.html
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 11 August 2008 16:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Kiyoshi Kurosawa really should be on this thread more. Just watched Doppleganger and it was fantastic.
― CHARMING LMAO (John Justen), Friday, 21 November 2008 07:56 (fifteen years ago) link
so is Charisma, on the Kurosawa tip.
I also got around to Funky Forest: The First Contact a few weeks ago. It's about twice as long as it needs to be but totally worthwhile for the cronenberg gross-outs and bjorkish sequences. Haven't seen Taste of Tea yet, which I've heard is Katsuhito Ishii's best.
― Cosmo Vitelli, Friday, 21 November 2008 09:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Londoners! Check out the Pink Films season at the BFI next month : http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/december_seasons/wild_japan
During the 1960s and 1970s Japanese film-makers produced a series of films of unprecedented sexual candour. Returning to this legendary period of 'pink films', Matt Palmer and Jasper Sharp celebrate the aesthetic achievements of these erotic masterpieces.
The inclusion of Koji Wakamatsu's Secrets Behind the Wall in the 1965 Berlin International Film Festival sparked widespread indignation from the Japanese authorities. Softcore, independent, low-budget films of its type came to be known as pink films and these movies, although enormously popular in Japan, were deemed totally unsuitable for export. International exposure of Wakamatsu's film, with its lurid sexual content, was considered to be nationally shaming.
In truth, the sexual preoccupations of Wakamatsu's movie were indicative of a rising and unstoppable tide. The first Japanese screen kiss came late (in 1946) but only a decade later a cycle of taiyozoku (or 'Sun Tribe Films'), which centred around the decadent generation of post-war Japanese teens, would push the boundaries of screen eroticism beyond anything seen in American cinema of the same period. In the mid-1960s, against a backdrop of ever-increasing independent pink film production, highly regarded film-makers Kaneto Shindo and Hiroshi Teshigahara would produce two masterpieces - Onibaba and Woman of the Dunes - which shocked international audiences with their sexual candour.
Later in the 1960s, as independent sex film production threatened to swamp the Japanese film market entirely, the Nikkatsu studio launched its glorious roman porno (softcore 'romantic pornography') strand of movies. A slew of highly talented directors - Noboru Tanaka, Masaru Konuma and Tatsumi Kumashiro included - used reasonable budgets and Nikkatsu studio stars to create some of the most memorable and artistic sex films in cinema history.
Finally, in 1976, Nagisa Oshima would go hardcore for In the Realm of the Senses, a film that represented a direct attack on the values and censorship policies of the Japanese state itself. This aspect of Oshima's masterpiece was, in fact, representative of a political dimension that had underpinned a large number of the Japanese sex films produced in the preceding years.
This political element was allied to a staggering consistency of aesthetic quality and further complemented by the unprecedented involvement of a high number of talented and respected directors working within the sex-film field. The result of these factors was, between 1964 and 1976, the most sustained output of high quality erotic cinema from any country in any era.
This season offers a provocative, challenging and thrilling journey straight back into the heart of this legendary period of Japanese sex film production.
Black Rose Ascension Sun 7 Dec 20:30 NFT3 Fri 12 Dec 21:00 NFT1 The Japanese softcore equivalent of Boogie Nights.
Blue Film Woman Wed 17 Dec 18:20 NFT2 Sat 20 Dec 20:50 NFT2 Infamously rare, psychedelic portrait of swinging Tokyo.
Crazed Fruit Tue 2 Dec 20:40 NFT3 Fri 5 Dec 20:40 NFT2 Groundbreaking rediscovered classic rich in breezy cinematic style and raging passions.
Gushing Prayer Sat 6 Dec 20:45 NFT1 A jaded young woman embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery.
In the Realm of the Senses Thu 4 Dec 20:40 NFT1 Sun 7 Dec 18:10 NFT3 Tue 9 Dec 20:40 NFT1 The most famous Japanese sex film in history.
Japanese Cinema for Busy People II Special: The History and Development of Japanese Pink Film Wed 3 Dec 18:30 The Japan Foundation, London Don't miss this special lecture, a supplement to the successful series Japanese Cinema for Busy People II.
Onibaba Tue 16 Dec 20:45 NFT1 Sun 21 Dec 18:30 NFT1 Kaneto Shindo's dark, sensual epic remains excessive, hypnotic cinema.
The Pornographers Mon 22 Dec 20:30 NFT3 Tue 30 Dec 20:30 NFT2 Shohei Imamura's pitch-black absurdist comedy.
Secrets Behind the Wall Tue 23 Dec 20:50 NFT2 Sun 28 Dec 20:50 NFT2 Claustrophobic thriller from the 'Godfather of Pink Film'.
The Softcore Auteur Tue 2 Dec 18:00 NFT3 Discussion of art-house and erotic cinema's intriguingly open relationship.
Watcher in the Attic Sun 21 Dec 20:50 NFT1 Sat 27 Dec 18:30 NFT1 A voyeuristic landlord observes the encounters taking place in his Tokyo boarding house.
Wife To Be Sacrificed Mon 8 Dec 20:40 NFT2 Sun 14 Dec 18:20 NFT2 Highly disturbing and gorgeously shot hallucinatory tour-de-force.
A Woman Called Sada Abe Mon 1 Dec 18:40 NFT2 Wed 10 Dec 20:30 NFT3 Handsomely mounted, intense precursor to In the Realm of the Senses.
Woman of the Dunes Thu 18 Dec 20:30 NFT1 Sat 27 Dec 20:20 NFT2 Mon 29 Dec 20:30 NFT1 Established masterpiece of world cinema possessing a palpable, astounding physicality.
Woods are Wet Sun 14 Dec 20:50 NFT1 Wed 17 Dec 20:45 NFT1 A rare chance to see Tatsumi Kumashiro's jaw-droppingly extreme film.
― Matt #2, Friday, 21 November 2008 10:22 (fifteen years ago) link
just watched taste of tea again
so amazing
katsuhito ishii is the noizest director
especially funky forest
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 04:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Been watching a lot lately: Kiju Yoshida has been one of my late-2011 discoveries, due to Eros Plus Massacre. Just not heard of the guy before. The story - two students in 60s Tokyo research on former anarcho agitator who is killed on the back of chaos post-earthquake in 20s Japan - seems thin, but actually this is what cinema was surely invented for. Great use of continous backwards-and-forwards chronology, the framing where people are seen at the edge actually fits the whole narrative of characters on the margin trying to carve a 'space' for themselves, and some incredible staging, highlight is 5-10 min row between Sakae and one of his lovers in the house, culminating in the attempted murder.
Won't be to everyone's tastes, its long (but the meandering is integral to its effect) - and it is anti-Ozu, so doubt there will be any revivals soon, but have a go sometime.
Other good things I've seen are Toshio Matsumoto (as Milton talks about above, all of the shorts are on Ubu btw, although I only really liked 'for the damaged right eye', a companion piece to Funeral Parade of Roses)
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 7 January 2012 11:03 (twelve years ago) link
Making my way through the films of Masahiro Shinoda
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 7 January 2012 11:05 (twelve years ago) link
Watched this last night, fantastic:
http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/harakiri/
The samurai duel near the end, shot amongst grass swaying in the wind, is a sequence of pure cinema, image/sound/performance all working together. The anti-hierachy politics and complicating of the samurai code is typical of that early sixties quasi-Marxist strain of Japanese cinema (eg Onibaba, Pitfall) that I find so intense, and so inspiring.
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 9 January 2012 08:55 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah that's a classic, love Kobayashi's Kwaidan as well. Some great staging and sets on it. The song in the third story is just some of the best music set to film that I've seen lately.
Get that inspired feeling from the booklet that comes w/the DVD, which has a good interview w/Kobayashi, talking about his films but most of it devoted to Harakiri. A few comments that show a lot of integrity and humility (his insistence that his films are really collaborative) and his debt to Takemitsu's scores.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 January 2012 21:52 (twelve years ago) link
'for the damaged right eye'
that's a great one. though I like 'Atman' as a study, and 'White Hole' is incredible for the electronic music by Yuasa, and 'KI or BREATHING' is a little slow but ends up working because of the Takemitsu score. I still haven't seen 'Funeral Parade of Roses' yet -- it looks so amazing
julio, have you seen Shinoda's 'Petrified Forest'? That one has such a great Takemitsu I'm thinking of hunting it down
― Milton Parker, Monday, 9 January 2012 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
Not seen that. I was just looking at his Samurai Spy and the credits have this really spiky theme by Takemitsu. It is something like spy music, if spy films were creation of medieval Japan, if you see what I mean.
I'm finding one delight after another with Toru. Great to actually hear these with the images they were designed for (and they really feel designed, not tacked on). Wish I could get that w/Morricone but I don't think I ever come across any of the films he soundtracked in the 70s, so only the Leone/spaghetti stuff for the moment, but it reminds me I have to see those films.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 January 2012 22:57 (twelve years ago) link
my favorite Takemitsu = his scores, the fusion with his sources go so deep that by the end you nearly feel that Monteverdi or Bach or John Barry or Ligeti or the Shadows or whatever must have been Japanese
Morricone's weirder 70's scores were mostly for bad films like 'Exorcist II', where he just clearly felt free to do whatever without repercussion but it does mean limited rewards when hunting down the films to see the music in context. Have a feeling that is not true of Toru. I'm saving 'Rikyu' for some special night, that is my favorite score of his
― Milton Parker, Monday, 9 January 2012 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, you really feel he's delved deep into his sources, so skillful he is at adapting them for whatever scene.
Someone needs to write about these soundtracks, good opportunity now that the films themselves are more available (not sure if this ws the case 5 years ago). And he is fairly unique in that many people would then say he wasn't ignored at all, that his orchestral works get a fair hearing. The argument needs to be made that the works for the hall don't have as much pay-off.
Bet Morricone is jealous tho'. He's always tried to say that he really is a COMPOSER. When, no, I'd say he's written incredible music, as orig as anybody's in the 20th century, its just that the space for these happen to be shared with the images.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:42 (twelve years ago) link
as orig as anybody's in the 20th century
uhm
― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
japanese new wave is quite widely available now, there was almost nothing a few years ago when i was interested in this stuff
funeral parade is v interesting, possibly not 'great' but more than a historical curiosity
― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:48 (twelve years ago) link
What are you talking about, man? Funeral Parade of Roses is most definitely 'great'. In fact, even that I would say was an understatement.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:57 (twelve years ago) link
no it isn't
― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 20:58 (twelve years ago) link
i think ichikawa was maybe the 'greatest' filmmaker of this period but he was temperamentally from an older generation
― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 21:00 (twelve years ago) link
oh and seijun suzuki was brilliant and needs defending from the unfortunate patronage tarantino and that ilk
― hegel-lacan girl (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
Accrding to wiki Ichikawa made no films from '67 till '71, which is the period Matsumoto was active in as a feature filmmaker.
Not sure about scaling the er, greatness of FPR but there were few films made in '69 that were better. You can put it in another way: its a better adaptation of Oedipus Rex than that made by Pasolini.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 22:28 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone seen 'Pitfall'? I want it but it's 'spensive on Amazon.
― Yeah Yeah Bohney (Craigo Boingo), Friday, 13 January 2012 12:30 (twelve years ago) link
Pitfall is gd - excellent commentary track on the Masters of Cinema DVD by Tony Ryans - but a bit more socially realist than either Face of Another or Woman of the Dunes
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:35 (twelve years ago) link
is £12 here: http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/dvd/Pitfall-Masters-Of-Cinema/
(which isn't dirt cheap, but also isn't the £50 it is on amazon)
― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:47 (twelve years ago) link
It is not worth £50. Is it OOP?
You can rent it from I Love Film, of course.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 12:51 (twelve years ago) link
yes, oop i think. Eureka were victims of the sony warehouse fire and lost a lot of their stock. i can imagine them not re-pressing the older titles in their catalogue (and this was one of the first 10).
(no guarantee that it's available from moviemail either tbh. they are quoting a 2 week delivery time...)
not seen pitfall but woman of the dunes is great, as is oni baba (all in a similar vein). thought Face Of Another lacked a certain something though. that said, the shots in the surgery were stunning...
am currently working my way through Eureka's 8dvd box of Mizoguchi films. Ugetsu Monogatari was latest. think i prefer his work to Ozu's (which is comparing chalk and cheese, i realise).
― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:03 (twelve years ago) link
mizoguchi was better than everyone
― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:10 (twelve years ago) link
think i'd take at least some of kurosawa's samurai stuff over the best of mizoguchi. they are just bigger in scope if nothing else.
― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:17 (twelve years ago) link
idk
they have more extras & spectacular scenarism
― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:20 (twelve years ago) link
nobody cld give you a tracking shot like mizoguchi, nobody
talking of whom, this looks p tasty, and a gd compliment to the MOC box:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mizoguchi-Collection-DVD-Minosuke-Band%C3%B4/dp/B004SXSRS2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2VE3G809MNXZK&colid=J68FNACBJQ61
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:46 (twelve years ago) link
also, Eureka/MOC slowly seem to be transferring their titles to Blu-Ray, or Dual-Format editions, so maybe that will happen w Pitfall
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:47 (twelve years ago) link
awesome
ive been waiting to see those films for ages
― nakhchivan, Friday, 13 January 2012 13:49 (twelve years ago) link
have mizoguchi's "story of late chrysanthemums" queued up to watch soon
― tanuki, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:28 (twelve years ago) link
their end of 2011 editorial has a few words to say on the subject of BR only releases if you didn't see that. they do specifically say "Work immediately focused on getting our entire catalogue back in print." which is promising. (the late mizoguchi box was £100 on amazon for a time but has come back down to the previous price)
new AE mizoguchi box is on my wishlist, yes 8) and the early kurosawa (which was down to £14 earlier in the week) is in the post...
must also pick up Harakiri...
― koogs, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:31 (twelve years ago) link
doc films is doing a naruse retrospective but it's really a pain to get there across town
― tanuki, Friday, 13 January 2012 14:37 (twelve years ago) link
Mizoguchi and Renoir are my blind spots! I mean, they've made some really good films but it hasn't hit me yet in a way that keeps me awake at night. Which happens, could be something to do with not seeing any of Mizoguchi's films on the big screen where you can never miss a great tracking shot.
A bit underwhelmed by Pitfall, although its possible one of the best attempts to do something Kafka-like, which is why I don't see much of a socialist realist dimension.
The ICA are running a ton of Japanese dramas in Feb, looking fwd to catching up on a couple of them by researching the terrific midnighteye webzine.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 13 January 2012 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
Saw Harakiri this weekend. Wow. Kwaidan was wonderful but this one really just worked me over, just powerful and satisfying on every level, from the tableaux to the politics to the final battle scenes
Eyes bugged out in the first ten seconds when the ronin introduces himself as belonging to the Fukushima Clan from Hiroshima.
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 15 January 2012 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
Oshima's Death by Hanging is a film I'm still recovering from. Might be his best, although I have much to see.
Season of recent Japanese film coming up and I just didn't do it could be a good on, following from Oshima.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 5 February 2012 12:51 (twelve years ago) link
watch Akasen Chitai (Street Of Shame) yesterday, another of mizoguchi's brothel dramas (and his last film). was much of a muchness.
what do people reckon is the most famous japanese film? (i ask because someone accused me of being obscure by saying someone looked like kyuzo from seven samurai)(i think that must be in the top 3, along with godzilla and maybe ringu)
― koogs, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:17 (twelve years ago) link
spirited away prob.
― get ready for the banter (NotEnough), Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:20 (twelve years ago) link
I suspect that its not so much you mentioned the film but that you named one of the characters from it.
I'd add some anime - can't say I care for any of it, but Miyazaki and the like wd be the black hole in this thread. xp
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
just saw a breakdown of Miyazaki's films by earnings & Spirited Away is by far the biggest - Spirited Away 32%, Totoro 13%, Howl's 11%, Mononoke 11% etc
― zappi, Sunday, 5 February 2012 13:27 (twelve years ago) link