Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 479 Location: up hill and down dale Country:
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:02 pm Post subject:
Recently watched J-flicks:
K20: LEGEND OF THE MASK (2008)
ZORRO meets V FOR VENDETTA in an alternate (and still feudal) Japan. Matsu Takako (who happens to be my fave J-actress!!!) is Takeshi Kaneshiro's love interest, and anyone who's seen Nakamura Toru in NEMURERU MORI can bet their bottom dollar what sort of role he plays here. I think I bought the DVD not just for the Takeshi Factor but also because Matsu and Nakamura Toro had worked with Kimura before, haha. (When worlds collide... *ka-boom!*) The CGI effects and set pieces are pretty impressive, but... story-wise, the film feels a bit... derivative, like I'd seen bits and pieces from countless other movies of the same masked-vigilante genre. Nothing special, in other words. And there are too many quick-fix plot developments that would have made more narrative sense in an animated film. Still, Takeshi is Takeshi, and Takeshi is looooove.
*************************
DEPARTURES (2008)
I watched this because A., I was curious what kind of movie trounced Israel's Waltz with Bashir, touted as the front runner in the 2009 Oscars' Foreign Film category, and B., it's.... from Japan, hihihi... (and so perhaps I thought I could play Six Degrees of Separation between the main cast and... Kimura, ehehe). DEPARTURES is such a quiet little film--no dramatic fireworks here, no earth-shattering social issues to grapple with--but that's precisely what I love about it. There's a certain stillness in the dialogue and in how the shots are framed, that finds its own strange symmetry in the quietude (and quietus) of the bodies that the protagonist, Daigo (Motoki Masahiro) prepares for funeral rites. The grief of the bereaved that Daigo witnesses in his course of work is genuine, and the loss of a loved one so acute, but the treatment is never overly sentimental, nor is it in any way irreverent or unsympathetic. On the contrary, the writing has great compassion for the characters and what they go through, and yet Death is neither glorified nor downplayed--it is simply seen for what it is: a passage, a crossing, just another part of the journey we all must take. But there's humor and irony and unexpected warmth that help the story toe the fine line between the funny and the funereal, and the characters--Daigo, who goes through his own personal rebirth, his wife, his boss, his female co-worker, even the minor characters like the old lady who owns the bathhouse--stay with you long after the movie ends.
You realize that this film is more of a celebration of Life amid the inescapable reality of Death--whatever your views on the Afterlife may be. Also, the hauntingly beautiful score by Joe Hisaishi (SPIRITED AWAY!!!!!!) is reason enough to watch this film, and the cello solos in particular strike a chord in the viewer's heart that is as potent and deep-rooted as love and grief themselves.
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BUSHI NO ICHIBUN (2006)
<SPOILERS JUST AROUND THE BEND!!! *toot! toot!*>
Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:
Hmmm... Well... <how do I say this?> I think I came into this movie expecting two hours of swordplay and bloodshed and spewed guts and decapitated corpses littering the wayside. What I didn't expect was a domestic drama with just 9 minutes of kendo training and one short duel near the end. I told my best friend (who'd also seen BUSHI NO ICHIBUN) about it and she was like, "Oh don't be silly, that's exactly what Yoji Yamada is known for in Japan, his movies don't glamorize the samurai, he shows them as real, ordinary folk."
Oh, all right, whatever, so maybe not ALL samurai life is about killing people, lol. Fine, I get that now, that this film is supposed to depict the mundaneness of their everyday existence. But I dunno... the plot still seemed a little too thin for me, and the rising action was just too... slow... Was that what those samurai did all day, taste-test their liege lord's meals? How boooring! No wonder they'd slit their bellies, just to spice things up, lol. Bad joke. Sorry. I just wish the movie had shown more of that daily reality, just to prove that their everyday struggles could still be pretty interesting--with or without the bloodshed. And the film sure could have benefited from a little more complexity. That's why I felt the story had such a narrow, tunnel-vision focus on Kimura and the Wifey's domestic ordeal, that watching the movie left me strangely underwhelmed and even somewhat dissatisfied. The editing was also too... static for my taste. Maybe the story and overall treatment would have been more appropriate for a stage play. BUSHI NO ICHIBUN may have been adapted from a book, but with a story so sparse, the source material may well have been a frikkin' HAIKU, hyukhyukhyuk.
And so I give you:
Love & Honor: The Haiku
Don't eat the shellfish!
Too late, samurai's gone blind!
How will he live now?
Be brave, samurai!
Neurotoxins ate your brain,
But your wife loves you!
She'll do anything,
Even if it all leads to...
Betrayal and lies!
Will their love survive?
Oh no, samurai found out!
Wifey is banished!
Samurai's training!
To defend Wifey's honor!
Can a blind guy win?
Oh yes! He defeats
That Dirty Old Samurai!
And takes Wifey back!
Now they are happy!
He can eat nice food again.
(But no more shellfish!)
THE END.
Kimura was really good here, though--one of his best performances that I've seen. You could really feel the rankling despondency and the bitterness over his impotence, and the grief over his own wife's betrayal--all festering inside of him, like a wound that wouldn't heal. I think my favorite scene was when he refused to tell his old kendo sensei why he was so hell-bent on training for revenge, because he still loved his wife and couldn't bear to cause her more dishonor. Throughout the film, his sightless eyes were pools of emotion I could just drown in, and I looooved all those close-ups of his face, despite the stubble and the bloodshot eyes and the disheveled topknot. (Oh, yuck, that hideous topknot! What were those samurai dudes thinkin'??? Bald-patedness does NOT become Kimura! Give him back his hair, I don't care if it's fried and orange and weird!!!) I was also extremely relieved that he and the Wifey reunite in the end (thereby proving that "Love is blind," literally! ) and here I was thinking, oh crap, it ain't gonna end well, Kimura's gonna get himself killed by the Dirty Old Samurai's treachery and then the Wifey's gonna commit jigai using a bamboo peg beside her husband's broken, lifeless body..... But I guess not => Happy ending, yay!
Maybe I'm still not a sophisticated enough viewer (and jidaegeki connoisseur) to appreciate the deglamorized, quieter side of the warrior class in feudal Japan. Maybe I'll always be THAT kind of viewer, the one that pops a chanbara movie into their DVD player and beats their chest, bellowing, "I want my savagery and gore! I want my katana blades gleaming crimson with blood! I want my epic duels to the death! I want my spewed guts and decapitated corpses littering the wayside! For love, for daimyo, for courage, for honor!" Hahaha. If I had wanted to see a bunch of samurai sitting around all day and talking about the weather or how many kokus of rice they were getting this year, I would have watched a frikkin' History Channel documentary instead, durrr.
(Off-topic: That being said, I've gotten started on the CHUUSHINGURA 1/47 tanpatsu, which thankfully sees more swordfight action than BUSHI NO ICHIBUN. Here Kimura is an Angry Young Samurai (with his kick-a$$ kendo swordplay! pretty nifty moves--for a TV production!), which sounds a helluva lot more interesting than Angry Blind Samurai Who Sits on His Porch All-Day Listening to the Crickets, lol. Kimura is younger and cuter in CHUUSHINGURA 1/47 (although his skin here is atrooooocioussss!!!!!), but I still can't get past that shaved scalp! )
His scores for Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke are top-notch as well... His two best, IMO.
Hisaishi and Miyazaki have had a long and successful collaboration. My favorite Hisaishi score is Tonari no Totoro which begins with an irresistibly infectious opening theme. Totoro, btw, is one of only a few Japanese films and the only anime to make it on Kurosawa Akira's list of favorite movies.
Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 479 Location: up hill and down dale Country:
Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:
bmwracer wrote:
Could he have forgotten his biweekly visits to the local Clinique counter?
Well, the world knows that great skin was never his main selling point, but this (CHUUSHINGURA 1/47) is the worst complexion of his I've ever seen! You could ride a moon buggy all over it and stuff. (Oh--yay! Yay! A moon-landing reference! Happy 40th anniversary, Apollo 11 mission!!! *prostrates self*)
bmwracer wrote:
His scores for Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke are top-notch as well... His two best, IMO.
I have yet to watch KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (but I will! I will!!!), and MONONOKE HIME is a distant memory, lol. (I think the environmentalist message of MONONOKE was a bit too... heavy-handed for my taste, which is why I didn't really focus on the other aspects of the film, such as the score.) But thanks for the info, I didn't know Joe Hisaishi scored these movies and I'll be sure to keep that in mind during my next Ghibli jaunt.
shin2 wrote:
Hisaishi and Miyazaki have had a long and successful collaboration. My favorite Hisaishi score is Tonari no Totoro which begins with an irresistibly infectious opening theme. Totoro, btw, is one of only a few Japanese films and the only anime to make it on Kurosawa Akira's list of favorite movies.
Ohhh, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO did have a great score! But of course, the whole Totoro OST experience ain't complete without singing along to that delightfully infectious "To-to-ro, To-to-rooo... To-to-ro, To-to-rooo..." refrain while lurching clumsily from side to side and bobbing your head as the credits are rolling. Ahhh... Totoro. Good times, good times... *wipes away tear*
Could he have forgotten his biweekly visits to the local Clinique counter?
Well, the world knows that great skin was never his main selling point, but this (CHUUSHINGURA 1/47) is the worst complexion of his I've ever seen! You could ride a moon buggy all over it and stuff.
Would that part of the moon be "Kimutaku Mare?"
Quote:
bmwracer wrote:
His scores for Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke are top-notch as well... His two best, IMO.
I have yet to watch KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (but I will! I will!!!)
You should... There's a great airy, atmosphere to the film and Hisaishi's score has a lot to do with that... It's a little gem of a movie.
Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 158 Location: New York City Country:
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 9:47 am Post subject:
ralphm1999 wrote:
Finished Christmas On July 24th Avenue.
If it were not for the nice Christmas music theme, it would be very dull.
However, Miki Nakatani is gorgeous enough to retain my interest.
The story is a light romantic comedy. The comedy may have been to subtle for me to be aware of.
On the plus side, I enjoyed the bright colorful city street sets.
it's an OK movie to just kick back and relax without looking for a serious plot. 7/10
Yeah it's a fun movie to sit back and watch! I loved the characters they were all cute!
Ender's Girl wrote:
Quote:
I have yet to watch KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE
Oh please do watch this movie! I remeber watching it in like 2nd or 3rd grade I still have th VHS tape! I remeber me and my friend Lacey could just watch it over and over.
Today I watched Kamome Diner I liked it alot! The characters are very likable and the story is a really feel good story. It was also cool to see finland!
Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 479 Location: up hill and down dale Country:
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:43 am Post subject:
^ Oooh, KAGEMUSHA!!! I must dig up and re-watch that old movie, I must I must! Last I saw of it was in my past life (aka high school), eons ago.
@ Taira-Panku: Oh lol, I remember those days when VHS, Betamax tapes and Laser Discs ruled the earth... Tsk, kids these days have it WAY too easy! I remember a public speaker who told a predominantly young audience, "You know what a cassette recorder is? That's just an iPod, with wheels in it."
All right, all right, I promise to go watch KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE later, y'all happy now???
@ bmwracer: Hahahaha! Ooohhh, harsh! *twirls away warbling "The Dark Side of the Moon"*
Last edited by Ender's Girl on Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:32 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 581 Location: United States Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:27 am Post subject:
I'm not much of a fan of Japanese animation (prefer Pixar's) ... yet Miyazaki is definitely one of the exceptions for me. I believe most of his work is hand-drawn without CG..... even more impressive nowadays.
Ender's Girl wrote:
Ohhh, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO did have a great score! But of course, the whole Totoro OST experience ain't complete without singing along to that delightfully infectious "To-to-ro, To-to-rooo... To-to-ro, To-to-rooo..." refrain while lurching clumsily from side to side and bobbing your head as the credits are rolling. Ahhh... Totoro. Good times, good times... *wipes away tear*
I absolutely loved Tonari no Totoro ... my favorite!! It was cute, heart-warming, yet kinda spooky.
Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were my other favs. I couldn't get into Miyazaki's other shorts and full films, but nevertheless the animation was always topnotch.
Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 822 Location: England Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:35 am Post subject:
My favourite was 'Howl's Moving Castle' ... I like happy endings and I LOVE Calcifer ZOMG I WANT ONE! XD
I wanna watch Sho's new movie 'Yatterman' it looks cheesy and laughable and I'm willing to watch it for that, though I have read several good reviews so maybe I will be surprised by the dodgy looking giant metalic dinosaur villain XD... we shall see _________________
Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 479 Location: up hill and down dale Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:23 am Post subject:
adub2adub wrote:
I'm not much of a fan of Japanese animation (prefer Pixar's) ... yet Miyazaki is definitely one of the exceptions for me. I believe most of his work is hand-drawn without CG..... even more impressive nowadays.
Miyazaki is a G-E-N-I-U-SSSSSS... (Have you watched 1988's GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, by Miyazaki's Ghibli colleague and BFF (), Isao Takahata? That film just... destroyed me. )
I got into Ghibli/J-animation relatively late in life, having been weaned on Disney films practically since birth. My disenchantment with Hollywood animation (by Disney or any other studio) was a slow progression as I got older, I suppose. Gone are those days when animated films came out every two, three years or so--giving the studios more time to make sure they got great writing, with characters you would love and actually remember, moral values that sweetly grew on you instead of getting rammed down your trachea, and OSTs that kept you singing along for months to come. Now, Hollywood animated films are a dime a dozen, with a few real gems here and there (MONSTERS, INC.!). Tsk, tsk. What are kids getting fed on these days??? It's deplorable, really. Or mebbe, as one who's seen better days <was a: kid in the '80s, a teen in the '90s, and a crotchety 20-sumthin' in the 2000s, heh>, I'm just measuring everything against my own personal yardstick, while looking back on the past with more nostalgia than I ought to. *shrugs*
adub2adub wrote:
Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were my other favs. I couldn't get into Miyazaki's other shorts and full films, but nevertheless the animation was always topnotch.
SPIRITED AWAY -- Oh my goodness, don't let me get started on this one!!!! <TOO LATE!!! TOO LATE!!!>
I think I just tried this little-known film (at least, in my corner of the world) because I was curious as to what kind of movie *gasp!!!* stole the 2003 Oscar for "Best Animated Feature" from its more mainstream, Hollywood-spawned competition!!! Que horror!!! So I watched it, and it literally took my breath away. Both eerie and phantasmagorical, it's a heady mix of down-the-rabbit-hole adventures, Shinto mythology, and the elements of a non-traditional love story. (If the original Grimm brothers--with their dark and oftentimes bleak stories--were Japanese, this probably would have been the result.) Heartbreakingly beautiful, with a soundtrack as haunting as the story itself, and written with such an acute understanding of the human psyche, this film is a keeper for the ages. I've probably seen it a dozen times, and still counting. And as fond as I'll always be of the Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar/etc. flicks from my childhood, this one wiped the floor with every single one of them.
To quote from my sister's blog entry:
Quote:
"Spirited Away" always brings out my sister's inner child (who, like the rest of ours when unbidden, hides in a closet of adulthood and responsibilities). She absolutely loves this fantastic masterpiece of moving drawings and never fails to cry at the ending, when
Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:
Haku and Chihiro finally go their separate ways.
Never before had I looked at an animated film as anything more than a "mere cartoon." This film, devoid of the "cutesy" trappings of its Hollywood counterparts, reveals the truest calling of a film, animated or not: to tell a story. Not to babysit toddlers when mommy's on the phone with auntie, not to make school girls feel warm and fuzzy and break into song during recess, and certainly not to oil the wheels of a billion-dollar industry that merchandises coloring-book and lunchbox spin-offs. This film does not pander to the patronizing school of thought that "cartoons" are "just for children." In fact, it's as if this film didn't give a cr@p that it was in animated, hand-drawn, 2-D format. Instead, it elevated its own genre to dizzying new heights, smashing sterotypes and re-aligning mindsets in the process, so much that I am without a doubt it shall remain unsurpassed for years to come.
ScrappedShinigami wrote:
My favourite was 'Howl's Moving Castle' ... I like happy endings and I LOVE Calcifer ZOMG I WANT ONE! XD
Lollllllll Calciferrr is looooove!!!!!!
Try reading the original book (by Diana Wynne Jones). Miyazaki obviously changed some things, but the book is a fun experience in itself. (So is the book's sequel "Castle in the Air," in which our favorite ornery fire-demon takes on a... different form. )
When I watched HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE a few years ago, I sorta knew some "big J-actor" did the voice of Howl, but back then I had NOOOO IDEEEEAAAA who he was (and what he was to Japan). Hehe, I can still remember my best friend and I talking about it when news first broke about this film:
Best friend: Hey, have you heard that Takuya Kimura's doing the voice of Howl? Cool, huh? Me: Mmm. (face=blank; eyes=glazing over)
Best friend: (a bit louder) Kimura. Takuya KIMURA. Japanese movie star. He's doing Howl. HOWL. Me: Heyyyy... let's do another re-watch of WINTER SONATA, yesss...?
"Hahahahaha stooopid li'l yoooouuuu!!!! Just you wait--you'll be worshipping Kimura's fried orange split-ends starting April 2009!!!!!!!"
-- Said Future Ender's Girl to Past Ender's Girl
I usually steer clear of English-dubbed J-animated flicks (Daveigh Chase as Chihiro????? ya freakin' kidding me?????), but I've always wanted to watch HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE with its American cast, I only never got around to it. Were the voice actors any good? I just think of Christian Bale as Howl and Billy Crystal as Calcifer, and my brain explodes! Me want to see this!11!!!!1
Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 11363 Location: �I�[�X�g�����A Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:58 am Post subject:
Ender's Girl wrote:
I usually steer clear of English-dubbed J-animated flicks (Daveigh Chase as Chihiro????? ya freakin' kidding me?????), but I've always wanted to watch HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE with its American cast, I only never got around to it. Were the voice actors any good? I just think of Christian Bale as Howl and Billy Crystal as Calcifer, and my brain explodes! Me want to see this!11!!!!1
Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 11363 Location: �I�[�X�g�����A Country:
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:37 am Post subject:
bmwracer wrote:
Oh man.
I despise dubbing in anything... I see it as being unjust to the actors/voice actors.
I couldn't handle anything live-action dubbed, that would just be weird but with animated stuff, as long as the VA's are good, it doesn't bother me. Hey, I would rather watch ANYTHING without subs if I could.. but my Japanese isn't good enough for that with Jdramas and Jmovies
I couldn't handle anything live-action dubbed, that would just be weird but with animated stuff, as long as the VA's are good, it doesn't bother me. Hey, I would rather watch ANYTHING without subs if I could.. but my Japanese isn't good enough for that with Jdramas and Jmovies
I gotcha... I felt that way for a while, but after the disappointing English dub for Kiki's Delivery Service, I swore "never again."
And the reverse is true as well: the Japanese dubs in the Nodame SP are disappointing as well.
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I think I bought the DVD not just for the Takeshi Factor but also because Matsu and Nakamura Toro had worked with Kimura before, haha. (When worlds collide... *ka-boom!*) The CGI effects and set pieces are pretty impressive, but... story-wise, the film feels a bit... derivative, like I'd seen bits and pieces from countless other movies of the same masked-vigilante genre. Nothing special, in other words. And there are too many quick-fix plot developments that would have made more narrative sense in an 
What I 
I told my best friend (who'd also seen 
No wonder they'd slit their bellies, just to spice things up, lol. Bad joke. Sorry. 
I just wish the movie had shown more of that daily reality, just to prove that their everyday struggles could still be pretty interesting--with or without the bloodshed. And the film sure could have benefited from a little more complexity. That's why I felt the story had such a narrow, tunnel-vision focus on Kimura and the Wifey's domestic ordeal, that watching the movie left me strangely underwhelmed and even somewhat dissatisfied. 
The editing was also too... static for my taste. Maybe the story and overall treatment would have been more appropriate for a stage play. 
You could really feel the rankling despondency and the bitterness over his impotence, and the grief over his own wife's betrayal--all festering inside of him, like a wound that wouldn't heal. I think my favorite scene was when he refused to tell his old kendo sensei why he was so hell-bent on training for revenge, because he still loved his wife and couldn't bear to cause her more dishonor. 
Throughout the film, his sightless eyes were pools of emotion I could just drown in, and I looooved all those close-ups of his face, despite the stubble and the bloodshot eyes and the disheveled topknot. (Oh, yuck, that hideous topknot! What were those samurai dudes thinkin'??? 
Bald-patedness does NOT become Kimura! Give him back his hair, I don't care if it's fried and orange and weird!!!) I was also extremely relieved that he and the Wifey reunite in the end (thereby proving that "Love is blind," literally! 
) and here I was thinking, oh crap, it ain't gonna end well, Kimura's gonna get himself killed by the Dirty Old Samurai's treachery and then the Wifey's gonna commit jigai using a bamboo peg beside her husband's broken, lifeless body..... But I guess not => Happy ending, yay! 
Hahaha. If I had wanted to see a bunch of samurai sitting around all day and talking about the weather or how many kokus of rice they were getting this year, I would have watched a frikkin' History Channel documentary instead, durrr. 
) 
*prostrates self*)
But of course, the whole Totoro OST experience ain't complete without singing along to that delightfully infectious "To-to-ro, To-to-rooo... To-to-ro, To-to-rooo..." refrain while lurching clumsily from side to side and bobbing your head as the credits are rolling. 
Ahhh... Totoro. Good times, good times... *wipes away tear* 
), Isao Takahata? That film just... destroyed me. 
)
<TOO LATE!!! TOO LATE!!!> 
So I watched it, and it literally took my breath away. Both eerie and phantasmagorical, it's a heady mix of down-the-rabbit-hole adventures, Shinto mythology, and the elements of a non-traditional love story. (If the original Grimm brothers--with their dark and oftentimes bleak stories--were Japanese, this probably would have been the result.) Heartbreakingly beautiful, with a soundtrack as haunting as the story itself, and written with such an acute understanding of the human psyche, 
And as fond as I'll always be of the Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar/etc. flicks from my childhood, 
Not to babysit toddlers when mommy's on the phone with auntie, not to make school girls feel warm and fuzzy and break into song during recess, and certainly 
Hehe, I can still remember my best friend and I talking about it when news first broke about this film:
