Thinking Things Through

There are always lots of things to think about. My mind has been mostly full of one of them for the last few weeks.

In just over a week I'll embarking on one of the biggest trips of my life. No exaggeration! I'm leaving L.A. for two and half weeks and what's more, I'm leaving the COUNTRY for 10 days. This is huge guys. I'm 26-years-old and I've never left the country. Maybe it's my socio-economic place in this world, but from where I'm coming from this is not really normal. Almost everyone I know has at least been to Mexico or maybe Canada. I never have. Up until two days ago I didn't even have a passport.

Needless to say, I'm very excited. Excited and nervous as heck. Mostly emphasis on the excited though. My plan for the weekend involves lots of last minute shopping and packing. I don't need to get much but there are few items that need to be purchased. I've already picked up my shoes.

I'm also not planning on bringing my computer with me so this means that as of a week from Saturday I will be offline. No blogging, no Facebook, no Twitter once I leave the states... no more online timesuck. I will have my ipod with me so I could potentially be updating from there when wireless makes itself available. But that's about it.

I have to admit that I'm almost as excited about the prospect of disconnecting as I am about the trip itself. I love the internet and what it does for me but sometimes... I just need a break. This sure is going to be a big one.

In the meantime, there are still other things to occupy my brainspace with.

Roman Polanksi. Okay, not going to say much more about this but I think I can better articulate my thoughts on it all after reading more and talking to folks and thinking about it. Here's what I think. Looking at the crime - reprehensible. There's no excusing it, plain and simple. Looking at the reactions to the story - ridiculous. On the one hand, we have people yelling for his head. People who up until a week ago couldn't have cared less. 33 years and you get offended now? Come on. On the other hand, this petition to free him? No matter what else, he's still guilty. Whatever other absurdity is going on, how can you justify signing a petition to release someone guilty of the crime? And Woody Allen signing in support? Seriously? I feel like I'm watching a satire, not real life. It's all absurd.

And I'm done. That's all I'm going to say about it. I didn't much care about what Polanski was doing last week beyond a passing interest in what his newest film might be and I think it's probably best to stick to that. There's all ready enough hypocrisy to go around.

More fun things!

For the Vegans: Came across this site thanks to @ecovegangirl. Curious if your beer/wine/liquor is vegan friendly? Check out Barnivore! Happy to see that some of my favorites like Stone and Abita are on the list.

Also on the vegan front is Vegan Oktoberfest  at Verdugo Bar on Sunday. I probably won't make it since I'll be at the book fair all day but it looks tasty!

And how many times can I link to the book fair? Really?

Rashomon is playing at the Nuart! I have so much going on and I've seen this movie not just a few times but still. A nice new 35mm print? Tempting...

Thom Yorke is doing a surprise show tonight but good luck getting tickets to that! And if you did get tickets, don't tell me. I don't want to know. You jerks.

Adam P. Knave has an interview up about Stays Crunchy in Milk. It's good! Go read it! And then read his book that my favorite grammarmonkey edited.

That's all I got at the moment. This work thing is actually requiring me to work. So back to that!

Trailers: The Sky Crawlers

It may be really long, but this trailer looks incredible. The Sky Crawlers is the latest film from director Mamoru Oshii (known for the epic "Ghost in the Shell"). The animation looks fantastic, even in this not great res version of the teaser.

Ghost in the Shell was one of the first anime films to peak my interest. It opened me up to a new world of animation. I'm definitely excited to see what this new flick has to offer.

This is shaping up to be a very good year for animation.

Thoughts: My Weekend in Film 6/16

I feel like I have a lot of updating to do. I watched more movies this weekend than I have the last few weeks. I've also been so busy with work that I have a backlog of things I want to write about. I won't say exactly what though since I don't know how much time I'll have to get to it all and I don't want to disappoint anyone when something gets left out.

Before I talk about my weekend I do want to share these to interviews though. The first is an absolutely fantastic one with Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of Pixar's Wall-E. I have told you guys I'm extremely excited about this movie, haven't I? Anyway, you can find the interview here. It pretty much just reaffirms all of the reasons I love Pixar.

The second interview is with director M. Night Shyamalan. Okay, so I may be the only person ever to actually like The Happening. Really the only movie of his that I can straight up say I don't like is Signs. I'm a fan and if nothing else I have to respect his love of movie making. Say what you will about this guy, his love of film seems genuine and that right there makes him a lot more respectable than a lot of directors out there. He does what he does and leaves it up to you to decide if you like. Either way he doesn't compromise his vision, even if that vision may be highly flawed.

Anyway, I'll talk a bit more about The Happening in a minute. You can find his interview here.

Now that that stuff is out of the way let's move on to my weekend shall we?

Friday PM:

A picture from the set of my short "Tomorrow's Party"

Rather than watching other people's work, I actually made a bit of progress on my own. I spent the night working with the guy who is potentially going to be providing me with music for my short. I'm now way past my April goal of finishing but I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised. The picture editing I finished more or less when I hoped to. I just completely underestimated how much time the music was going to take me.

One thing about me: I'm a complete perfectionist. Especially when it comes to anything remotely creative. When I was younger I used to do this thing where if I didn't think I could get something as perfect as I wanted it, I just wouldn't do it. A fear of failure or some such thing. I've grown past that bit but sometimes it can take me a really, really long time to finish something.

In this case, I could have settled on a couple of music options earlier. They just weren't quite right for my film. And if I settle on less than perfect music, well, what was the point of putting all of this time and energy into something that I'm just going to give up on in the final act? Instead, the process has dragged out two months longer than I hoped it would. I think the time will be worth it though. From the progress made Friday night I feel like what I'll be getting is music that fits the story and the emotions that I'm attempting to convey. Every little detail is so important; the more details I get right the better my final film will be. This film means so much. I want it to be as close to perfection as it humanely possible to get.

It's also been a huge learning process. I can add this music experience to the list of other things I now know. It's all to make the next one that much easier to do ;)

Saturday Afternoon:

I was so incredibly lazy all weekend. Saturday started with breakfast (huevos rancheros from a little Mexican joint nearby. Delicious!), moved on to hanging out in my front yard, and finally made its way to film. That wonderful marine layer we're all so used to out of the westside maybe Saturday a bit chilly. A slightly overcast, chilly Saturday? Perfect time to go to a movie!



So here's where I'll talk more about The Happening. See, the thing is, I really enjoyed it. Yes, it's flawed. Yes, there's a lot wrong with it. The acting is stiff, the dialog can be absolutely atrocious, stylistically I don't think it's as strong as M. Night's other films. However, emotionally it hit all of the right notes for me and while I can't really argue that it's a good film I can confidently say that it is an enjoyable one. If you're a fan of his previous works then I definitely recommend you go see The Happening. If you're not? Then you may want to wait for video. I don't regret seeing it in the theater (especially since I went to a cheaper matinee show) but it's not necessarily something that absolutely has to be seen on the big screen.

I also have to mention that I really do appreciate the restraint they showed in releasing a film that runs only about an hour and half long. When there are so many films with ridiculously inflated running times, it is so incredibly nice to get a film that doesn't run too long. Hollywood just doesn't seem to know when to say "Stop, it's time to CUT now" anymore. A movie doesn't have to be over two hours long in order to be good. In fact, a too long running time has frequently been my biggest complaint about a lot of films in the recent past. Shorter can most definitely be better.

I'm really hoping to write a full review on The Happening in the next couple of days so I won't write anymore now. I think I've really said enough at this point anyway.

Saturday PM:

After going to the local park with a few people and throwing a baseball around until it was too dark to see, we came home and just kind of hung out for a while. There was a bit of channel surfing going on that I didn't pay much attention to.

Finally the channels stopped changing and we were left watching 2003's Ben Affleck vehicle Paycheck.



I never actually saw Paycheck when it came out. At the time I was working part time at a video store and even the free rental didn't convince me that watching Paycheck was a good idea. I mean, John Woo is a cool director, he's made some awesome films. However he's not exactly someone I would pick to direct an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. (Honestly the only Philip K. Dick adaptation I've ever liked is Ridley Scott's Bladerunner. Possibly a "duh" statement. And even that departs quite a bit from the story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.)

Ben Affleck? Yeah, I'm not really a fan. So Paycheck I skipped.

Finally watching it this weekend what I have to say is this: It's not a good movie. But. It's an ALMOST good movie. It has a lot going for it and it certainly keeps my interest. In the end it doesn't quite work as well as I would have liked but it's fun. I'm sticking with my original opinion of John Woo being the wrong choice for this film though. The focus is too much on making it a standard action flick rather than taking advantage of all of the cool things the story offers.

Again, I'm kind of hoping to be able to write a full review so I'm going to move on to the next one now. Don't want to blow my load to early now, do I? Er, is that I bad phrase to use? I think maybe it is...

On to Sunday!

Sunday PM:

One of my favorite animated films ever was on Sunday night. Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I've talked about my love of Miyazaki in my reviews of Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle.



Spirited Away is possibly his best film. Character design, story, writing, animation, I can not think of one thing I wish was better. I love it all. So much time and care obviously goes into his films. The results are beautifully crafted films that far surpass most of what we see America producing. His films are always kid friendly and yet challenging for the adult viewer as well. There is always a strong moral center but his themes never come across as preachy.

I love this movie so much. I highly recommend you all watch it. There's a good chance you'll fall in love as well.

After Spirited Away, K and I managed to once again leave to couch and get out of the house. We had somewhere we needed to be. After all, The Incredible Hulk opened this week.



I've gotta say, the rumors are true. Marvel managed to deliver us TWO excellent comic book movies this summer. It gives me hope for their future adaptation plans. I'm not sure I liked the Hulk more than Iron Man but I enjoyed it at least as much. It's really well done. Edward Norton continues to earn my love. He and Liv Tyler are also great together. She's not always my favorite actress but I've liked her more than I haven't. I guess I can't completely blame her for Armageddon. She's not the worst part of that movie. (I'm looking at you animal crackers! Worst. Scene. Ever.)

She's good in The Incredible Hulk though. As is the rest of the cast. And the CGI. Sure the Hulk still looks like CGI. But dude, he's a giant green guy. How realistic are we really expecting him to look? The action is one thing that I would say Hulk does better than Iron Man. Where the final fight in Iron Man leaves me wanting more, it's a bit anti-climactic, all of the action in Hulk is great. It's well paced, it's explosive, and all of the build up comes together in one kick ass finale.

And thank you Marvel. First Robert Downey Jr. and now Ed Norton in all of their male shirtless glory. I am one happy lady right now. Damn but do they both look good. I've never been one to put up pictures of celebrities on my walls. But these movies are really making me reconsider that decorating decision. There are worse things to stare at than Ed Norton in torn up jeans. Mmmm... I would tear those pants up myself, I tell you what!

Is it just me or is this post getting increasingly inappropriate?

Again. Moving on.

On the Slate:

Lifeforce - In from Netflix. Hopefully I'll have time to give it a go.

The Tripletts of Bellville - It's been a while since I've watched this one. I'm all in the mood for it so maybe I'll make that happen this week.

Mongol - I really need to see it!

Medicine For Melancholy - Playing as part of the LA Film Festival I'm planning on going to the Friday PM showing. For more info check out the LA Film Fest's website.

Review: Entrails of a Beautiful Woman

Originally posted at Epinions



If you’ve read some of my earlier reviews (like my horror movie top ten list or my Zombie movie list) then you may know that I’m huge fan of horror and gore and the ridiculous. This usually leads me to titles like the ones you’ll find on those lists, a variety of films from all different countries, all falling under the category of Horror. Gore, blood, violence, death and mayhem. I love it.

Of course, on my search for more gore, on my quest to find that perfect fountain of blood, I’ve unfortunately encountered films that are little too much even for me. For example, I do not like the rape/revenge sub-genre. While I can enjoy something like Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer or Visitor Q, I’m completely turned off by Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left.

Which leads me to director Gaira. My first encounter with him came about in a little video store in Atlanta, GA. A friend and I were perusing the foreign horror section, this store had an absurdly impressive selection, and we came across this bizarre looking VHS titled Entrails of a Virgin. Well. Knowing absolutely nothing about Gaira (yes, he goes by one name. His full name is something like Kazuo Komizu) my friend and I decided that Entrails of a Virgin combined with a bottle of Riesling were just what the evening needed.

Not so much. We ended up hitting the fast forward button a lot…

So Entrails of a Virgin was a bit of a bust for us. There were some all right parts but mostly, a little too much with the soft-core porn for our tastes.

Why then did I decide to add Entrails of a Beautiful Woman to my Netflix queue? I have no idea. I guess I never learn.

Entrails of a Beautiful Woman is a sort of sequel to Entrails of a Virgin. There are actually three movies in the series; I believe the third is called Naked Blood (that one I WON’T be watching). The plot doesn’t really follow the plot of the first movie at all. Really they have nothing to do with each other beyond the titles. And the director. And weird monsters who like to do horrible, perverse things to people. And have really disturbing bits of anatomy.

Beautiful Woman begins in a factory where a Yakuza gang is holding a young girl captive. After being gang raped and drugged up, the girl escapes and finds her way to a female doctor. The girl tells the doctor who has attacked her and then swan dives off of the roof. The doctor tracks down the Yakuza members, there’s a bit of revenge, more rape, drugs, and then… a giant gooey monster? And possibly the most disturbing Alien reference I’ve ever seen.

Beautiful Woman is advertised as being about this monster. It’s not really. The monster shows up maybe fifteen minutes before the end of the movie. Up until that happens Beautiful Woman actually does have a real plot. That plot just happens to be an excuse to make a soft-core snuff film.

Why did I forget to hit the fast forward button??

There’s really nothing redeeming about Entrails of a Beautiful Woman. If you like this particular sub-genre you might want to check it out. Or if you’re hugely curious about the gooey entrails monster. Did I mention the monster is also a transforming transvestite? Don’t ask me how that one comes about. It’s really silly.

Beyond that though. I don’t even recommend watching it for the sake of completion. Mostly it’s just long and boring with a mediocre plot and soft-core sex. I know, talking about sex is probably just going to encourage a lot people. Geez, just download some porn. You don’t need to watch this movie.

There’s not even a point in talking about the direction or acting or anything else. That’s not what this movie is about. It’s about putting beautiful women in demeaning situations designed to excite the audience and then throwing in a few gross out moments to make people go “Ew.”

I just have to note here, that when I say go “Ew,” what I mean is this: it had me squeeing rather loudly. Saying things like “Holy S***”, “What the F*…”, “They are not…”, “EEEEEEEWWW”. My roommate and her boyfriend, who were in the other room with the door closed, were very amused.

Those “Ew” moments are effective, I’m forced to admit, but not worth the time it takes to get to them. So if you’re really curious and I can’t discourage you, hit it up on Netflix and keep your remote in hand. I recommend the x8 button at least.

The DVD actually does include an interview with Gaira, which was interesting for about five minutes before I got really bored by his self-congratulatory pretentious monologue. That had nothing to with Entrails of a Beautiful Woman.

At least at that point I had the presence of mind to hit stop.

Bijo no harawata
Entrails of a Beautiful Woman
1986
68 min
Japanese with English Subtitles

Review: When A Woman Ascends The Stairs

Originally posted at Epinions



There are times when the academic in me comes out and I really want to talk about a film in the context of something greater than itself. That context may be the director’s body of work, a genre, a time period, or possibly a national cinema. Mikio Naruse’s When A Woman Ascends the Stairs is one of those films.

Why do I want to discuss it in relation to other films? Perhaps it’s the assertion that Naruse is one of Japan’s great directors; it is not unthinkable for his name to come up alongside the names of Ozu and Mizoguchi. He also has an extensive body of work spanning the decades from the early thirties to the late sixties. And while his work has been discussed in terms of his early experimental period and his later
post-war work, the themes have remained consistent throughout.

These are the reasons I would like to talk about When A Woman Ascends the Stairs beyond the experience of a single viewing.

However, there is one very good reason why I cannot. Simply, I’ve never seen another Naruse film. What I know about him, I know from reading. Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, these directors I know, I love, and I’ve seen a number of their films. There is a lot that I can talk about. Why is Naruse different? One reason: his films are not widely available in the west. Occasionally there will be a screening, a retrospective, something of that sort, but for the most part our choices are limited. In the US we
have access to all of one of his films, When A Woman Ascends the Stairs, on DVD. If you’re lucky you may be able to find another film, Lady Chrysanthemums, on VHS. Your choices are slightly less limited in Europe but not by much.

I can’t tell you why Naruse’s films are so hard to see in the West but I can tell you that it is a shame. This is another point where I would like to discuss him in the context of his contemporaries. Since I can’t I will skip all of that and discuss When A Woman Ascends the Stairs in more limited terms.

The story of When A Woman follows Keiko, an aging bar hostess working in the Ginza district. She has reached a point in her life where she must decide between her options of marriage and the opening of her own place.Keiko is a unique woman in her world of liquor, men, geisha, family responsibility, and, those ideas that are always just out of reach, love and happiness. She tries to stay above the world around her, she never gives in to the men, but in the end, how long can a woman hold out when all of the tides are against her? And when her choice is between virtue and love, can we really blame her for giving in to either option?

When A Woman Ascends the Stairs is a melodrama. It is a sensitive exploration of the choices given to women trapped in Japan’s class system. The choices become a matter of survival. But even death does not bring freedom.Keiko is never given the option of making the right decision. Whatever path she follows, it will be wrong for someone and she has obligations to all.

While the visuals of When A Woman never moved me as much as, for example, those found in an Ozu film and while I never felt quite as invested in the fate of Keiko as I did in Mizoguchi’s heroine of Osaka Elegy, When A Woman touched me. Naruse’s Keiko becomes a sympathetic character and the themes he explores are just as important and relevant as anything found in any of our other favorite Japanese films.Naruse shows his social consciousness. We care about Keiko. There is a point to be made and by the end of the film, we get it.

Keiko is trapped in her life by the demands and social strictures of the world she lives in. Repeatedly she performs the action described by the title of the film, but her ascension is not one to be envied. She is not ascending to something greater, she finds at the top of her stairs the dead end that she can never hope to escape. Her climb is an exercise in futility. She will continue to travel up and up, finding at
the end only the same dingy bars and the same groping men.

Perhaps one day I will be able to tell you more about Naruse and his films. Until that point comes, all I can say is When A Woman Ascends the Stairs is worth your time. It’s a sad, poignant story that is still relevant for today’s audience. It may not be the greatest Japanese film I’ve ever seen but I am glad that I have seen it. And I look forward to the opportunity to discover more of Mikio Naruse.

A hint for those of you who are curious: it’s available on Netflix.

When A Woman Ascends the Stairs
1960
Japanese with English Subtitles
111 minute

Analysis: After Life

Frederick Jameson has written that one symptom of the post-modern is the nostalgia film; people have lost the ability to connect with the past and present and look to film to make those connections for them. A stream of the recently deceased pass through a way station and must look back on their lives and choose one memory to take with them into eternity. When watching Kore-Eda’s film After life, a post-modern reading is not far away. However, reading the film simply in terms of post-modernism does it a disservice. Kore-Eda has layered After life in meta-filmic moments that on one level suggest a post-modern meaning but on another show that film may still have the power to be meaningful.

The film introduces a variety of characters who reminisce over their lives, searching for their one perfect memory. Once the memory is found it is recreated on film. The person then watches the film of their memory and immediately moves on. In this moment, film is made absolutely necessary for people to reach peace and rest. On one level, this necessity can be read as people’s failure to connect with their pasts on their own, they need mediation. It is not truly their memories they are reliving but a simulacrum of life. One of these people, Watanabe, is an old man who cannot choose. He is looking for an evidence of life but is unable to remember anything. He on his own is unable to connect with his past and only through the use of videotapes can he remember it. These meta-filmic moments, the recreation of memories on film and the videos of a person’s life, reveal films use as a connective tool and leave room for a cynical reading of After life: we are trapped in a post-modern moment and the only escape is through false memories and into an eternity of simulacra, there is no hope.

Of course, Kore-Eda refuses to make his film so simple. In fact, he does offer hope. For example, with Watanabe, while it’s true he needs the videos to remember the past, these representations of memories do not actually help him choose. It is through two conversations, one with Iseya who refuses to choose and one with his counselor who was actually his wife’s fiancé before being killed in WWII, that Watanabe is finally able to choose. He is offered the easy solution of a false connection by randomly choosing a memory off of the tapes, but it is through real connections with other people that his choice is actually made. Another moment of Kore-Eda’s denial of post-modernism is through the girl Yoshino. Originally, she wants to choose a memory of Disneyland (the ultimate example of simulacra) but after a conversation with Shiori, one of the counselors, Yoshino changes her choice to a vague memory of her mother’s lap from when she was a little girl. She turns her back on simulacra and chooses something real.

It can still be said that even with the choice of real memory, by recreating it on film a new simulacra is still being made. And the question of why these films are necessary is never really satisfactorily answered within the narrative but by reading them as a comment by Kore-Eda on the nature of filmmaking itself, it is still possible to move past the post-modern reading. The memory films are not giving a false sense of reality, they are actually making moments of perfection from people’s lives livable again, if only briefly. One noticeable aspect of these memory films is their low budgets (a parallel with the reality of independent filmmaking). These low budgets lead to a necessity of creativity and simplicity. As a result, these films do not focus on creating a false sense of reality through fancy tricks but instead focus on creating a glimpse of the truth of reality through a lack of style. It seems that Kore-Eda is disavowing post-modernism and it’s claim that the possibility of negation no longer exists. Instead, there is a claim that film still has the ability to function as art and that the power of negation is still present.

Kore-Eda wants us to feel that what we are watching is real; he wants us to connect with the film in a meaningful way. He uses the meta-filmic moments to allow us to recognize that we are watching a film and to from there make real connections to it. We are not allowed to mindlessly absorb what we are being presented with, the film engages us and is able to succeed in offering an alternative to the belief in post-modernism. As the counselors watch the moon, one comments that it’s shape never changes only the light reflecting off it makes it appear to. After life could be saying the same thing about the meaningfulness of film and the reality of art and life that lies beneath it, it’s not the shape and possibilities that are changing but only our perceptions.

Analysis: Cruel Story of Youth

Oshima argues that it is necessary for a filmmaker to be actively involved in his work; he needs to put himself into his work and make it a part of his external reality. This can only be accomplished through an absence of style, through self-negation. The function of art is to stand outside of culture and offer a criticism and this can only be accomplished through negation. If a filmmaker allows himself to develop a signature style then that style becomes a commodity, it is only by resisting that temptation can a filmmaker create truly radical films. Oshima indicates that he is attempting to achieve this self-negation and by examining the sound design of his film Cruel Story of Youth it is possible to see the tension that he has managed to create between his film and the audience, between art and reality.

Sound is an incredibly important part of film; no matter how good the visual component of a film may be, bad sound will make it seem amateurish. In Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth it is apparent that the sound was not recorded synchronously and was rather dubbed in. Throughout the film there is very little ambient sound and while the sound effects match the visuals they seem removed, the lack of ambient sound creates a hollowness behind any sound effect. For example, in the scene when Mako is first seduced, Kiyoshi throws her into the water. The only sound in that scene is the dialogue between the two actors and the splashing of water. There are no footsteps, no passing cars or boats, no water other than the splashing, no wind. It is apparent that the sound was not recorded on site but perhaps later, in a studio. The result is that we are made very aware that what we are watching is a film. A tension is created between the desire to lose oneself in the film world and the inability to do so because Oshima is subtly reminding us that what we are watching is not, in fact, reality.

The music of the film is also significant. The diegetic music that plays is almost completely jazz. It characterizes their rebellion against expectations. They are the dissatisfied youth and jazz is their anthem. This choice of jazz is significant because it frequently characterizes attempts at rebellion but fails in the act of negation. Jazz can easily be commodified and when people listen to it or play it they are lulled into a false sense of individuality. They think they are rebelling already so they do nothing to actually rebel. What is it that Oshima is attempting to say about the current youth culture then? If the New Wave film movement in Japan, which this film is supposed to be a part of, is not about what the film stands for but rather what it stands against, as was suggested in class, then what this film is about is the new standing against the old. The presence of Jazz is possibly not there to signify rebellion; it is there to signify the separation of the youth generation from the generation that came before. The one time in the film when a non-jazz piece of music is played diegetically, Kiyoshi says “Bah, Beethoven,” but he then listens to it. He doesn’t actively rebel by changing the radio station, taking the focus away from rebellion, but his comment does bring the focus to difference.

Review: Rashomon

X-posted at Epinions



When we watch a film, when we are a part of the audience, we take the role of the observer. We see what is presented to us and we make a judgment. In some films, the story is straightforward. We don’t have to work for understanding, it’s all laid out before us. In other films, there is ambiguity. Everything is not made clear, we have to take an active role in the observation and work to understand the information we are given. In either case, as an audience we trust in the fact that we are being presented with the truth.

What if it’s all a lie?

This issue of trust, truth, and ambiguity lies at the center of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Rashomon. One of Kurosawa’s most famous films, Rashomon tells one story four different times. Which version is true? Which teller do you trust?

It all begins one rainy day when three men take shelter from a storm. As nature unleashes its fury two men, a woodcutter and a priest, recount the tale of a murder to the third man. Several days before, the woodcutter discovered the body of a murdered man in the wood. The woodcutter and the priest were then called before the police in an effort to discover the murderer. Also called to testify were an infamous bandit, the murdered man’s wife, and the murdered man himself through a medium. It is no simple case, as each witness tells a different version of events and all claim responsibility for the crime.

The story of the film evolves through the different characters. There is the frame story involving the men in the storm, there is the trial, and there is each person’s version of the events. The audience is brilliantly called as witness and judge through the trial segments. Each character is placed in the center of the frame and speaks to the camera. The police are silent observers; we sit in their place.

I feel that the film’s one real weakness is the frame story itself. I’m not convinced it’s completely necessary and I find its conclusion to be overly sentimental. I think the film would have worked just as well without it. As far as flaws go though, this is not a major one.

My personal favorite segment is the wife’s story. Machiko Kyo plays Masako, the wife. She is a beautiful and wonderfully talented actress (she also has a large role in one of my other favorite Japanese films, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu). Between her emotional recitation of the events of her husband’s murder and the flashback scene, I find her segment to be the most engaging. I also find her character to be the only one I feel any real sympathy for. Perhaps it’s because I’m a woman but I find that in every telling, even when she may be behaving reprehensibly by certain standards, I feel sorry for her. She is the one the bandit attacked, she was forced into the role of the victim, and no matter how she is cast I feel sympathy for her.

Rashomon also features the always wonderful Toshiro Mifune. One of the most well known Japanese actors, Mifune starred in hundreds of films and chances are if you’re a watcher of Japanese cinema you’ve seen him. However, while I love Mifune and always enjoy watching him, he can at times be a little too over the top. I do think he is fantastic and charismatic as the bandit. There are just moments when I wish he would have taken the role a little more seriously. Sometimes he’s just a little too goofy.

Its unique structure is what makes Rashomon a classic. Its craft is what makes it a masterpiece. The sound design is impeccable, the cinematography inspiring. Visually, Rashomon has left a definite impact on many filmmakers. The black and white photography is gorgeous. The way that cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa plays with the light is phenomenal. Sunlight dances through the trees, across the characters' faces. When the woodcutter first tells the tale of the murder, the camera ingeniously introduces the story. In a series of pans, tilts, tracking and handheld shots, the camera follows the woodcutter but it does more. The woodcutter is not always the visual focus, the trees are. The wood is introduced as an observer as well, the great ancient tress standing as silent witnesses. While men are overcome by lust, greed, and corruption, the trees watch. They know the truth but they cannot reveal it.

Rashomon truly is a great film just as Akira Kurosawa is a great director. It’s also a great introduction to Japanese filmmaking. Kurosawa is known as the great American Japanese director. His films are accessible, they are entertaining, and they are superbly crafted works that can be appreciated by both the serious and the casual viewer. If you’re not afraid of subtitles check out Kurosawa, the experience will be a rewarding one.

Rashomon (1950)
dir. Akira Kurosawa
B&W
Japanese w/ English subtitles

Thoughts: Suicide Club

Um... Huh?

I've watched a lot of movies, especially foreign horror, that make very little sense. This one was one of the, um, weirder maybe? I'm not really sure. I know part of it was shitty subtitles (a friend of mine who watched with me knows enough Japanese to be able to point that out). It was really hard to understand though, so if you're not keen on the Japanese horror films with subtitles to begin with, you might wanna stay away from this one.

It was definitely very, very bloody. Crazy Japanese school girls who are made of kool-aide... It was also really disturbing. I mean, it was lots of teenagers killing themselves. I guess I should have figured that it would be after reading the description on the box. Some of the scenes were creepy but others were just silly, like the guy in the hospital randomly running around in the dark when he could have just turned on the lights. The beginning was really good I though, in the really disturbing but well done sort of way.

So really, what I learned from this movie (as one of my friends so eloquently put it): cell phones, computers, and pop stars are all evil. Especially 12-year-old pop stars. Gotta watch out for them, they're tricky.

Ok, they started League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the other room. Long rant possibly coming soon.