Movies (discuss, list, etc.)

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:21 pm

I trust that it's pretty well-known by now that I know jack shit about movies, but is Unchain the movie about a boxer? I think Soul Flower Union plays in the soundtrack for that one.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

Yeah it's the one that follows 4 boxers over the span of 5 years (or something like that) while they go through trials and tribulations and (I'm guessing) eventually end up as washed-up, brain-damaged unemployed people.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:54 pm

Neuroretardant wrote:

I quite enjoy Toshiaki Toyoda's movies as well: I own Pornostar (under its craptacular R1 title "Tokyo Rampage") and Nine Souls, and if/when Unchain comes out in North America (fuck, Zip.ca, you best not be lying to me) I will probably snag that as well.

In order of preference I would have to stay Pornostar>>>>>Nine Souls>Blue Spring>Hanging Garden. They're all good though. Hanging Garden, (which was sort of in limbo for a while because Toyoda got arrested for possession of methamphetamines) is quite a departure from his previous movies: it doesn't have the same intense, violent energy that Pornostar, Blue Spring or 9 Souls did, but it's still an interesting movie.

In fact I've loved all of the Little More-produced line of movies that I've managed to get my hands on (including the aforementioned Toyoda movies and Loved Gun): I wish they would license more of their earlier indie titles.

I have yet to get my hands on Hanging Garden; but aside from that I'd have to say Blue Spring is still my favorite (maybe because it was my first, maybe not), followed by Pornostar.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:36 pm

Right now new Korean cinema is ruling my world, particuarlly Joon-ho Bong. Saw "The Host" as some ricketty Korean film festival, which was brilliant and ridiculously fun; sort of like Little Miss Sunshine meets Godzilla with political satire. Still doesn't reach the level of his second film, "Memories of Murder," which might be the best "detective" movie I've ever seen. Somehow it takes a story about a brutal serial killer and manages to inject humanity and humor in it (its funnier than most comedies) without compromising the dark atmoshphere and haunting power of the story at all. The guy is just a ridiculously talented director, probobly even more so than the Korean who gets the most attention here in the west, Chan-Wook Park (not to put down Park though).

Also finally saw "Farewell My Concubine," which was quite good though problematic. Like most Chinese films from that group of directors there's a shitload of matterial/symbolism to look at, and alot of it is masterfully directed, but its a bit long in the tooth and the steriotypical melodrama is often odd, particuarlly the parts during the Japanese occupation. Ironic that it won the Golden Palm when the superior "To Live" (which also chronicles 20th century China/criticizes communism) had to settle for second place a year later (I don't think I'd give that the award over Pulp Fiction though). That's kind of expected though, because even if he doesn't get the same recognition as Kaige does, Zang Yimou has always been the better director, even at mainstream films (compare "Hero" with "The Promise")

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:46 pm

rewatched El Topo recently. think i still like the holy mountain better, but el topo is pretty bizarre too.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:04 pm

Rented The Belly of An Architect yesterday. Saw Zodiac today.

'Belly' was decent, felt like a more commercial effort by Greenaway (who's superior film, A Zed and Two Noughts I also saw fairly recently). Nyman didn't do the music for this one, unfortunately. I've been listening to his stuff a lot on it's own lately.

Zodiac was great. So much better than Se7en and liked it better than Fight Club too.

Also rented A Prairie Home Companion which I will hopefully get to watch at some point this week, but all month long is a Shohei Imamura retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (20 movies) and tomorrow I'm going to go there to see the first two: Vengeance is Mine (1979) and Nishi Ginza Station (1958). Friday/Saturday is Pigs and Battleships (1961).

myanimelist profile · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:48 am

Better than Se7en and Fight Club? Wow, thats really hard to imagine.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

This is sort of going off on a slant but I'm stoked that Manufactured Landscapes is coming out on DVD soon: I'll be sure to rent it. (And possibly buy it if's good)

Scoundrel Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 403

I'd be surprised at better than Se7en and Fight Club as well.. though I haven't watched Se7en in its entirety.. the people I talked to seem to think it was a bit of a plodder and while good definitely wasn't on the level of Se7en.

Scoundrel Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 403

Also, yeah whatever Korean cinema. Have you ever seen My Wife is a Gangster? The Host was not a quality film. You actually were impresed by the opening scene where some white dude is telling his korean minion to go ahead and dump shit into the water? I absolutely hate it when asian filmmakers find it necessary to have an outsider (Typically white people) portray the villian. For other examples see Ongbak (Yeah Thai films are even worse off in this). I mean, sure, as an Asian living amongst many white people I agree that the white man is the devil. But given that intra-cultural atrocities are the norm... portraying anything else without any historical basis just makes you lose all credibility imo!

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:20 pm

The British dvd edition of Once Upon a Time in China has a somewhat interesting commentary track with the white guy who played the villian, some of it basically whining about how much it sucks being a white actor in Hong Kong.

re Se7en/Fightclub vs. Zodiac, I guess my main reasoning is Zodiac is less gimmicky. It's slow and doesn't have a twist ending. Also, it may be an unfair comparison since they're from seemingly different worlds, and when I say I like it better I'm also pretty much stating a preference for one type of film over another. I guess in their respective types of storytelling Zodiac and Fightclub are both excellent, I just liked that in the most recent one Fincher's seemed to rely less on plot twists and distracting romance.

On the other hand, I don't think that much of Se7en. That is, I liked it in that I was manipulated by the plot, didn't see the ending coming and so on, but the core of the movie just didn't do anything for me. The whole thing about the omnicient villian who has all these ridiculously convoluted machinations that never go wrong. It's an effective idea (which is why it's used so much), but there are way too many of these, going all the way back to sherlock holmes, for me to get too worked up about a given competent entry in the genre.

Or maybe I just don't like being made fun of ("ha! the entire point of the movie was just to trick you!") or something.

Anyway, I do like detective movies, and don't altogether mind being manipulated, but I kind of prefer the ones where the detection is muddled or interfered with in some more subtle or ambiguous, or simply less-well-trod way, like Zodiac, or Insomnia (the original one) or Memento. In those latter two, it's not just an evil genius that's against the hero, but their own perceptions, recollections, and other complicating factors. Zodiac on the other hand (hopefully without saying too much since you haven't seen it), simply goes into way more procedural detail, providing a lot of dead ends in the plot and caprices of fate, and I think makes it a bit more sinister and cool.

Scoundrel Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 403

Yeah I think the white devil villain thing is pretty much evident in any non-white culture's cinema and some of it is defnitely more justifiable than per usual... it's not even a moral/politically correctness issue for me personally. It's more of aesthetics. Like in that Once Upon a Time example it was fucking terrible as well the acting was totally cheesy and ridiculous as it almost always is... should just do realistic portrayals it can't be that fucking hard.

Ah. Yeah I think I personally tend to dig convoluted plots and gimmicky plot/film devices. Movies that challenge me to see if I will figure out wtf is going on before it is actually revealed. Afterwards, going back to see if the rest of the film was internally consistent with the direction the movie went is $$. Examining it to see if we were indeed given enough information to deduce what the hell happened if we were savvy to the subtleties.

If the plot is good then that is just a bonus. As long as it isn't overly ridiculous I'm game.

I'll definitely give Zodiac a shot since it does look appealing and your thoughts make it vaguely more so, but I must express doubt that it will surpass the fun that was Fight Club.

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:07 am

hyah213 wrote:

Also, yeah whatever Korean cinema. Have you ever seen My Wife is a Gangster? The Host was not a quality film. You actually were impresed by the opening scene where some white dude is telling his korean minion to go ahead and dump shit into the water? I absolutely hate it when asian filmmakers find it necessary to have an outsider (Typically white people) portray the villian. For other examples see Ongbak (Yeah Thai films are even worse off in this). I mean, sure, as an Asian living amongst many white people I agree that the white man is the devil. But given that intra-cultural atrocities are the norm... portraying anything else without any historical basis just makes you lose all credibility imo!

Is it really that diffrent than every American movie having the evil Eastern-European terriorist/arms dealer/mean person? In this case there actually was a point, as part of the film's point was a commentary on US-foreign policy. As for the cheese factor, that's expected. In addition to Joon-ho's excessive social commentary (which I thought was one of the film's weaker aspects) its more or less an ode to the monster movie, so of course the villians are going to be shallow and cheesy. I seriously doubt the director is just making them act that way because he hates all westerners. Despite the ridiculous amount of praise its getting from critics I don't think The Host is a perfect film by any means and it certianly isn't as good as Memories of Murder (which worked better both as a take on the police procedural and an attack on the militaristic Korean government of the 80's), but I found it to be alot of fun and certainly a confirmation of Joon-Ho's talent. As for other Korean movies, recently saw Ki-duk Kim's "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring," which was really quite beautiful even if I had to look up most of the Buddhist symbolism.

ion_ford is pretty much dead-on in his assessment of Zodiac. Easily Fincher's most accomplished film. I also really never got the hype around Seven; stylish and well-directed, but the gimmicky nature of the storytelling (as you pointed out) and the fact that it basically told the viewer "I'm a big important movie about modern society" diminished the surface appeal to me. I did like Fight Club alot, as it really fit his directing style and his tendancy to scream his message out worked better with satire, but Zodiac really suprised me with how good it was. I don't think its going to gain the kind of internet popularity that his other movies have simply because its so information heavy (I think someone discribed it as being locked in a file-cabinet for 2 1/2 hours), but definitally worth watching multiple times to pick up on all the details. And unlike the movies I mentioned above it really doesn't hit you over the head with its message about modern society. It can be enjoyed as a great police/reporter procedural, but I think the meat of the movie is in its portrayal of the modern information age. In any case, great movie.

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:09 am

just one last observation about zodiac, this time not about it being superior or anything. it's worth noting that the story relied pretty heavilly on period details (1960s SF) which would've probably been drowned out if Fincher had gone as over the top into his own ideosyncratic style as he has in the past.

last night i saw pigs and battleships and buffalo '66, liked them both a lot. also saw vengeance is mine, nishi ginza station (cheesy low budget romantic comedy. ironically imamura's later more depressing movies are also a lot funnier than this early studio film) and a prairie home companion.

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:52 pm

Quote:

just one last observation about zodiac, this time not about it being superior or anything. it's worth noting that the story relied pretty heavilly on period details (1960s SF) which would've probably been drowned out if Fincher had gone as over the top into his own ideosyncratic style as he has in the past.

Yeah, I also liked how he didn't point out hippies and drugs every five minutes like every other movie set in SF during that time tends to do.

I've wanted to see The Pornographers for a while but never got around to it. I should probobly just go ahead and rent it since its on DVD. I think Vengeance is being released by Criterion in a couple months too.