JAPANESE MOVIES - ANY OTHER FANS ?

[Mr. Arkadin]

I'm not a fan of Seven Samurai either, preferring the western film it inspired (The Magnificent Seven [1960]) instead. Heresy, I know, but the film just did not touch me on a personal level. I have a much deeper connection with Magnificent Seven that comes with its own crazy story. I do prefer Yojimbo to Fist Full of Dollars though.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've not seen the American remakes of those two works, hubby is a fan though. I liked Yojimbo. It's not just Kurosawa, I really like Toshiro Mifune as an actor, he has a great deal of charisma, whoever he is on screen with my eyes are drawn to him.

[charliechaplinfan]

I left this on the What have you seen lately thread

I watched The Road Home the next film on my list of Yimou Zhang films. I liked this more than Red Sorghum, the photography is stunning as always and the evocation of rural China. A city dweller comes back home because his father, the schoolmaster has died. His mother wants his father carried home to the village but the village hasn't enough young men to carry the body back. The son pays the mayor to get men to carry his father but the men won't accept the money such was the reputation of the teacher. Interwoven with this is the story of the mother and father's love. Ziyi Zhang is lovely as the woman who waits and longs for her love.

Raise the Red Lantern came today, I'm hoping to watch it tonight.

[Mr. Arkadin]

I have not seen The Road Home (so many films to get to!), but reading your synopsis has piqued my interest! I'll see if I can find a copy from my local library. Thanks for letting me know more about it.

P.S. Let me know how it goes with Raise the Red Lantern.

[bryce]

I love both Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven, but I'll take Kurosawa's work over Sturges's - if only just barely. To be honest, though, Kurosawa didn't get around to his best work until he was old, fragile and blind. Ran isn't just the best interpretation of a Shakespeare work ever, it's also one of the most beautifully shot and expertly acted films in history. Kurosawa's use of color is stunning, especially considering he basically had to storyboard the whole damn movie before shooting because he wasn't capable of working the set visually. The intensity with which the actors portray feudal Japan was never seen before and will never be seen again. They put other Shakespearean actors like Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh to shame - not that that is too hard in Branagh's case, mind you.

A co-worker recently watched Raise the Red Lantern for the first time and asked me if I'd seen it. I played naive, saying I hadn't, but that I would soon, and asked if he had watched To Live and Shanghai Triad yet. A bit underhanded, maybe, but I find that if someone thinks you're ignorant of something, they're more than willing to share their thoughts with you. I can't wait for his honest comparison of Yimou Zhang's three best films.

[charliechaplinfan]

I loved Raise The Red Lantern I was completely gripped by the story and it wasn't predictable, I'm sure Hollywood would have had 4th mistress triumphing over the other three. The mistresses trapped in their very beautiful gilded cages, prisons, playing one up manship and employing underhand methods to be favoured by the master. Gong Li gave a brilliant performance, her face is almost unscrutable and so beautiful. The costumes she was given to wear are worthy of a mention along with the decor and set. I got a terrific sense of isolation from this film and beauty, particularly mistress number three singing opera arias at dawn.

The print was gorgeous, I bought a MGM World Classic version which was cheaper than Razorlight. I'm sure without the lovely depth to the colours and without the crispness of a proper transfer the film would disappoint greatly.

Bryce, I agree about Ran, I've watched many Shakespeare adaptations but this is the best. Throne of Blood is a close second.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it CCF. It's an amazing film that I felt should have been included in the TCM's recent Asian festival, but was not. This was the first Yimou/Gong Li film I saw and quickly sent me hunting though his back catalog for the first two films. Ju Dou, To Live, and Shanghai Triad are equally impressive. Like you, I feel that Red Sorghum is probably their least impressive effort, which is not to say that it's a bad film (it grows quite a bit on repeated viewings), but rather that the other films are so good!



Bryce, totally agree on Ran (I also dig Throne as well). I would suggest that Welles' Macbeth (1948) and Chimes at Midnight (1965) are equally impressive at the other end of the scale which proves you don't need expansive sets, color, or lots of cash to pull off a great work of art. Macbeth itself is mostly light and shadow ( Noir Shakespeare?) with hardly any props at all!

[charliechaplinfan]

Lovely shot of Gong Li. I think I'll get more from Red Sorghum on a repeat viewing. I'm looking forward to the other three I ordered, one of them being To Live

Last night I watched my last Kurosawa film Hidden Fortress. It wasn't until afterwards I learnt that this film had provided George Lucas with inspiration for his own film Star Wars. With the risk of being shot down in flames I much preferred Hidden Fortress. I thought Toshiro Mifune was more charismatic than any of the later films lead stars. The appeal of Star Wars is that appeals to young and old alike, Hidden Fortress might not go over too well with the young but it has a superior plot with it's twists and turns.

I feel lost now I've finished all my Kurosawa, I guess I'll just have to start at the beginning again.

[bdp]

I love The Road Home and To Live as well, excellent films.

Seven Samurai is one of the ten, if not five, best films ever made. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.

[charliechaplinfan]

Well, with that I suppose I'll just have to give it another chance

[bryce]

Seven Samurai is one of the ten, if not five, best films ever made. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.

01. Citizen Kane
02. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West (take your pick)
03. 2001 or Dr. Strangelove (again, take your pick)
04. Blade Runner
05. Ikiru or Ran

or

01. Citizen Kane
02. 8 1/2
03. Hiroshima, mon Amour
04. Hard Boiled
05. Network

or


01. Fight Club
02. Aliens
03. Die Hard
04. Chinatown
05. M

or...


01. Ran
02. Vengeance is Mine
03. Branded to Kill
04. Tokyo Twilight
05. Godzilla

I could go on.

Seven Samurai might be one of the five best films ever made, but that still means there could be four other films better than it. What's the point in making that argument? I love the film, for a long time it was on my shortlist, but it finally was surpassed by Ikiru and Ran. Likewise, I think Citizen Kane is the best film ever made, but my favorite is (was) Fight Club, recently replaced by Benjamin Button, and boy have I taken a lot of flack for that one.

I say let people think of Seven Samurai what they will. No one's said they don't admire, respect and love it. They've merely stated a preference of other incredible films, many Kurosawa's own, over it. To me, saying you like The Hidden Fortress more than Seven Samurai is a lot like saying you'd rather drink a bottle of 18 year old Highland scotch than an 18 year old bottle of Lowland scotch. Or maybe an 18 year old Speyside. Exceptional taste is still on display however which way you look at it.

[charliechaplinfan]

At least you can come up with five, fifty five maybe. Hidden Fortress, High and Low and Red Beard have been three films I've been fortunate enough to view close together, all very good, all different but I couldn't chose a favorite between them.

I've watched a movie that moved me profoundly. The Ballad of Narayama directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, I'd read about this film and the plot fascinated me. Shot in colour in 1958 and styled in part like a Kabuki theatre piece scenes faded out into darkness and the new scene faded in. The story is about a village that is on the edge of starvation and to deal with it's starvation problems when the villagers reach the age of 70 they are carried to the top of their sacred mountain and left to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70 and is putting her house in order before she makes her journey, a fellow villager has passed his 70th birthday but refuses to go, his family kicks him out and he resorts to begging. Granny treats her impending desertion and death as a spiritual experience having faith that she will meet with the Gods of the mountains.

The last quarter of the movie is concerned with her son carrying her up the mountain, he is heartbroken and once up there is not allowed to speak to her, it's incredibly moving as he leaves her in the snow. On returning home his new wife consoles him and tells him that is their destiny when they reach 70, his son rejoices that his grandmother has gone, there will be more food for him and that is the attitude of the village.

I went out on a limb a little for this one, it was brought to DVD by Tartan video and I'd never heard of them, thankfully the transfer was very good.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've been trying to shake off whatever ails me by watching Japanese movies. I revisited one of the first ones I saw The Life of Oharu and got far more out of it than I did first time. Then I watched in random order, Equinox Flower, Tokyo Twilight, Floating Weeds and Good Morning after reading a book about Japanese movies I knew I had to revisit Ozu. All were superb apart from perhaps Floating Weeds which was very good.

The treasure of all these movies was Tokyo Story, I've seen it before but this time it resonanted even deeper. The first time I watched I comdemned the children for not having the time for their parents but my life gets busier and busier it doesn't seem as clear cut. It's hard to know how such gentle parents came to give birth to Shige the eldest daughter who is as hard as nails but they are children to be proud of, a doctor, a self employed beautician and a journalist . They have two other children, a daughter who is still at home and a son who died during the war. When the grandparents travel to Tokyo it is their daughter in law who has the most time for them. Unlike her brothers and sister in law, she has known death and lonliness having been widowed for 8 years, she is able to enjoy the parents whilst they are in Tokyo, the others being unable or unwilling to take leave of their day to day lives. The parents are shuttled backward and forwards, feeling especially unwelcome at their daughters. The children pay to send them away but the resort is noisy and they return early and upset daughter's plans, so father gets drunk with an old friend and causes a commotion when he finds his way back and mother goes to her daughter in laws. On the return home the mother falls ill and on reaching home telegrams are sent to the children in Tokyo to tell them that their mother is critically ill, they all make the overnight trip to her bedside and she dies without recovering consciousness. The eldest children have thought ahead and brought mourning clothes but the daughter in law and youngest daughter have to borrow theirs. The funeral is arranged and soon after eldest daughter picks what she wants of her mothers and departs with the other children. This leaves the daughter in law and youngest daughter at home with father. Daughter in law learns how mother enjoyed her company, the youngest daughter speaks what we feel, how can the elder children be so heartless but they live lives far away and have already started going back to their own lives.

There are many, many little lessons in this movie, it is a subtle and masterful piece of filmmaking. If I sat here editing my post for the next 24 hours I could not do the film justice. It really is a must see film for any film lover.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Tokyo Story is a beautiful film (but then you knew I liked it!). I find new things every time I watch.

[ChiO]

I saw WOMEN OF THE NIGHT (Mizoguchi, 1948) last week and was shocked. The tone is so unlike any other Mizoguchi film I've seen. At first I thought I was watching an Italian neo-realist (with, perhaps, a dash of Jules Dassin) movie with Japanese actors. Then it suddenly became the prototype for Samuel Fuller's mid-'50s to mid-'60s films. Mizoguchi follows the lives of three women: a war widow who turns to prostitution to survive; her younger sister who is a club singer and who stole the physical affections of her sister's boss prior to her sister becoming a prostitute; and, a young niece who becomes a prostitute after running away from home and being raped.

Although the narrative is a blunt, but sympathetic, expose on the plight of women in post-war Japan, the subtext is anger over the devastation of Japanese society and accompanying Western cultural imperialism. Over the opening credits, the music is based on the opening figure from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and it recurs throughout, but most obviously in the final scene. Jazz is heard, often at unexpected times. The only music that one would associate with Japanese music occurs when the women sing together, alone in an apartment. In the final scene, a gang of prostitutes beat a prostitute who wants to leave the business. It occurs in the only clearly artificial studio set in the movie, a bombed out Christian church that has only two stained glass windows surviving, one of which is the Madonna looking down on the beating.

There are still Mizoguchi touches such as action in the background of a frame that has no apparent connection with the narrative, but which adds a depth and naturalism. This, however, may be in many respects the least "Mizoguchi" of his movies.