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Miyazaki - Spirited Away

There are few films that exist that can be described as truly magical, yet magic is the legacy of Miyazaki’s work. Miyazaki’s works with studio Ghibli include such standouts in the film industry as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and, of course, the ever ubiquitous Spirited Away. At it’s core, Spirited Away is a love story. The choices that Chihiro/Sen made throughout her journey in the spirit world were informed solely by her love for Haku and for her parents. Although at the outset of the film, Chihiro is a nervous and timid child, in pursuing her goal of saving Haku and her parents from the control of the witch Yubaba, Chihiro draws upon her inner strength and develops the confidence to fulfill her quest in restoring Haku and her parents. All the while, the film is colored with themes of environmentalism and the harm of greed. Chihiro’s parents are turned into pigs for greedily and mindlessly stealing huge amounts of the spirit’s food. The stink spirit the Chihiro cleans is actually an ancient river spirit that has been poisoned by human pollution while Haku is a river spirit who can never return to his river as it has been completely destroyed through human intervention. Even the spirits are not free of greed, and it is the greed and gluttony of the bath house staff that corrupts No Face. A large part of Chihiro’s journey is spent making amends for and cleaning up the harm caused by greed.

While the film features thematic depth in its story as well as a rich cast of complex and unique characters, Spirited Away and the works of Studio Ghibli can best be described as sensory experiences. The food is so richly colored and textured that the audience can almost taste it while the while the physical scenery is so well textured and defined that the audience can almost feel what it is like to be within the realm of the spirits. The score is absolutely timeless and captivates the audience’s spirits and emotions. Above all else, Spirited Away is a visual masterpiece. The animation is smooth yet highly stylized in such a way to give the characters and scenery a unique level of emotiveness and expressiveness. The world is vibrantly colored while the scenery is diverse and expansive. Despite the massive scale of the set-pieces, careful attention has been paid to the most minute detail down to the individual drop of water or insignificant background character. So many times during my viewing of this film I found myself ignoring the focus of the scenes and just admiring the small details from Chihiro’s reflection in the glass window of the train to the way the shadows and lighting seamlessly combined to give physical depth to what should’ve been a two dimensional world. The film comes to life in front of the audience’s very eyes and brings the magic to life too. It really is no wonder why Studio Ghibli has an exclusive dubbing and distribution deal with the magic mongers themselves over at the house of mouse.

Normally at this point in my reviews I give my final opinion on how a film made me feel and whether or not I would recommend the film to anyone or watch it again. This time and this time alone I truly feel that I should not need to recommend Spirited Away, or any Ghibli film for that matter, to anyone. Miyazaki is timeless. Ghibli is timeless. Spirited Away is timeless, and I can give it no other final review than this: Japanese film, as we have discussed for this course, tends to be defined by films directed in Japan that are informed by Japanese culture, history, society, and social trends. Japanese film, then, is infused with and captures the spirit of Japan. The films of Hayao Miyazaki, the films of Studio Ghibli, and the film Spirited Away perfectly capture, in its purest form, the spirit of humanity.

bigsconesjones

I was also enamored by the sheer detail in each frame! It seems Studio Ghibli works so hard on each shot that it really is a sensory experience. I don't know if I would call the animation smooth, because sometimes they like to hold shots for longer than a frame, but overall it's a beautiful piece of work.

Great Post!

Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a heartwarming tale about a girl’s adventure into the spirit world, full of ripe commentary on themes of capitalism and Westernization. I haven’t seen this movie since I first watched it as a four-year old, so it was interesting to see that No-Face was not nearly as scary as he was in my preschool mind.

Initial Reactions

This movie was crafted beautifully, and each frame looked like it was painstakingly labored upon to get the minute details in each shot. There is no motion blur to stitch together frames, and this causes the viewer to be able to key in on how artistic this whole thing is. You can probably pause at any moment in this movie and not see any weird motion or anatomically wonky people.

However, something interesting to also note that adds onto this is the framerate and how Studio Ghibli sometimes will hold frames. Something I noticed in the movie, especially when comparing it to other anime films (Akira, I’m looking at you), is that it felt sort of rigid at some points, especially since the lack of motion blur made it harder to connect each frame. Doing a little research, I found that some Japanese companies will employ what is called “Koma-uchi” (example video below, and spelled コマ打ち for all you little weebs who want to dig deeper), where they will hold an image for two or three frames instead of the usual one. This was originally done as a cost-saving measure, but over time it grew appeal as feeling more artistic and also sometimes giving a more natural feel than higher framerates. Studio Ghibli employs this variable timing, and as a consequence Spirited Away drops into lower framerates, getting as low as 8fps. Not that I’m complaining, I don’t mind looking at these beautiful images for an extra fraction of a second.

Themes/Analysis

The major message in this film is a critique on modern-day capitalism and the greed that stems from it. For starters, the whole reason Chihiro and her family got into this mess is because her parents decided to indulge themselves on food that wasn’t their own and assuring that they’d be fine because the dad has “credit cards.” Adding on to this, No-Face absorbs the emotions of the people around him, and when he enters the bathhouse he absorbs the greed that everyone has to the point where he starts eating other people. Something interesting to think about as well is how Zeniba contrasts against Yubaba, and how the latter became so embroiled in money. This leads me to believe the major antagonist film is not Yubaba, but instead the system that put her at the top and perpetuates this culture of monetary gain at the expense of others.

Final Thoughts

This is a great movie. Not my personal favorite anime (hats off to Akira for being tooo good) but the message, the worldbuilding, and the whimsicality of it all leads this to be, at minimum, on the Mt. Rushmore of animated films.

#Youtube

Sukiyaki Western Django

Takashi Miike must have been an Eagle Scout because this movie is a masterclass in camp. Paralleled in goofiness only by Tampopo, Sukiyaki Western Django is a love letter to the Spaghetti Western highlighted by absurd action scenes and dragged down by Quentin Tarantino’s disgustingly weird accent.

Initial Reactions

My god I cannot stress how much Quentin Tarantino sucked in this film. This film started off pretty good, and Quentin Tarantino’s western accent was alright, if not funny, but when he switched into the faux-Asian accent, it displayed a clear lack of never having even studied the Japanese language because it was off in all the wrong places. Also why did he do it? It’s not like it added anything to the film other than a visceral gut reaction.

A contentious decision that could either be insanely funny or incredibly cringey was the final reveal that Heihachi becomes Django. I don’t know if Takashi Miike was serious about this, and if he was, then it might’ve taken the “Ode to Westerns” a bit too far and changed the tone of this movie into a gross origin story. HOWEVER, if this was some prank, then this would be a stroke of genius because something I get tired of seeing at the end of the movies is the “Where are they now?” sections, and seeing a dumb joke akin to the “This person grew up to be Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk” memes you see on the internet was a fun touch.

Other than that, this film was amazing, and mainly because everything was so goofy. Going back to the opening scene, the blood spattering on the backdrop and the dumb gritty dialogue made this feel like a parody of a scene building up to a shootout. Adding onto this, the gunfighting scenes are so much fun to watch, especially the scene where Yoshitsune (big bad dude in white) adjusts for the wind and proceeds to shoot Kiyomori (big bad dude in red). Yoshitsune having to point his gun like 40° to the left of Kiyomori, and then Kiyomori reacting like he was getting shot by an airsoft gun was comedic genius.

Deeper Thoughts/Analysis

The biggest thing that crossed my mind was how meta this whole movie was. One of the Heike boys compared the Gunman to a similar character in the movie Yojimbo, which reminded me that this movie is inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, which are in turn inspired by old Japanese samurai movies. This kind of reminds me of Jean Baudrillard’s idea of different stages of simulacra, where Spaghetti Westerns are an unfaithful copy (or second-order simulacra) of samurai movies, and Sukiyaki Western Django is an unfaithful copy of an unfaithful copy. I’m fairly certain this doesn’t mean it transcends to third-order simulacra, but it is interesting how removed Sukiyaki Western Django is from the original source material of Yojimbo.

Final Thoughts

This movie is too much fun. It reminds me of another favorite campy movie, Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses in that it just exudes a specific genre and does a loving parody to it.

Sweet Bean

A touching story about the relationship of three people in different stages of life but with the same general struggle, Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean uses the discrimination of those with leprosy and ties it into an overall struggle of ostracization. I don’t generally have a strong reaction toward dramas, usually thinking they’re boring, but something about old women dying absolutely slaughters my emotions every time, and this one left me in tears.

Initial Reactions

I was afraid that this would have been another slog-fest, with how slow everything moved initially, but this was not the case. The scenes were so dense and full of elements later touched on in the film, that there was so much to think about. For example, in the scene where Wakana is back home, the lack of care from her mother, the spilt beer on the book, and the introduction of the problem with the canary were all necessary elements of this story, but jampacked into a tight five-minute window. Kawase’s meticulous construction of each scene made this movie much more interesting than others, where usually a scene only motivates one part of the story or is completely omittable.

It’s interesting that we watched this movie right after we watched Pulse, since a topic that was brought up was Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s distaste for natural elements and the idea of the eternality of nature, because this movie looooved nature shots. I don’t really mind though, I’m in the same camp as Tokue because I think cherry blossoms are incredibly beautiful.

Themes

This film has two major themes: ostracization and the pursuit of joy. Speaking on the former, this is primarily motivated by Tokue’s character: as a person with leprosy, she’s been in a sanatorium for most of her life, devoid of much contact with the outside world, and then further faces discrimination when Sentaro is forced to fire her due to declining business, a consequence of stigma around her affliction. However, this feeling of ostracization is experienced not just by her, but the other two central characters for varying reasons: Sentaro, having lost his mother while he was in prison and forced to work for a loan shark, feels ostracized and directionless, while Wakana, as mentioned earlier, is neglected by her mother, and to an extent by her classmates as she doesn’t go to cram school.

However, despite all this, Tokue finds joy. She enjoys life in each moment, whether it be passing under the cherry trees or working in the small dorayaki shop. She then passes this lesson on to both Wakana and Sentaro, the latter choosing to forgo the reconstructing shop to sell his own dorayaki at the park, taking in the full experience of being there.

Final Thoughts

Top tier film. There’s so much that’s going on here that I’m probably going to throw this one on my list of yearly rewatches. Despite all this praise though, the inner-critic and former restaurant employee of me does have one thing to say: In the interest of food-safety, as well as diffusing the conflict that was had, she (and Sentaro too!) should’ve worn gloves. But we might’ve not gotten such a beautiful story, so who am I to judge.

JPT3391 Tier List

Hey guys! Just made a tier list template for the movies we've been watching for class. Here's the link for it, I'd love to see what thoughts you guys have about these films.

eigakan-no-neko

Pulse - Kurosawa

I really did enjoy this movie until the ending. The last 30 minutes should have just been cut or at least after the Harue kills herself in the abandoned factory (also when she shoots herself there’s no blood so it just looked like she shot herself with a fake gun and died somehow). It was another horror movie we watched which I thought the horror aspect of it was fine. When people die or disappear in the film all that is left of them is a black outline of their body which looks like black mold. That to me is pretty terrifying since the unexplained is more scary to me than any jump scare or body horror will ever be. In the university the computer program with the dots was really interesting and I thought it would have more to do with the plot than it really did. The beginning of the movie primarily uses technology as a medium for which the ghosts use to haunt the characters. I was really disappointed when they just abandoned that towards the middle of the movie. It was also really confusing to me as well since I thought the movie was going to focus more on “the ghosts are in the internet ooo scary” kind of plot. Through out the movie I did notice that there were less background characters and I did not take that as them dying from whatever was ultimately killing everyone. I thought that this indicated the loneliness is a terrifying feeling and the isolation that comes with it makes it seem like you are the only person left in the world. Oh my god did the ending just throw this out of the window. The end of the movie just turns into the movie “Left Behind” which is just really funny honestly. I’m pretty sure that movie came out before this one so it might have influenced this movie a little bit. Again, I really wish it did not end like this. I could get around the part where the friend disappears into a weird flurry of cgi ashes that really did not age well but when the US military plane crashed into a building I just thought the movie was just too silly. Another thing that took me out of the whole horror aspect of the movie was when the first guy who walks through the red tape is scared by the woman. Also on the note of the red tape, I took that as a reference to the lambs blood in Exodus during Passover which was really neat to me. Back to the woman, the woman’s arms and weird dance combined with the strange choice in music just totally took the scary out of it. Like, she just dances towards him slowly and he’s scared of that? This movie started out really strong for me which really let me down because it could have been a really scary movie about the internet and computers but the end just totally ruined it for me.

bigsconesjones

Interesting point paralleling the red tape and the lambs blood! I didn't think about it but the symbolism of quarantining is definitely striking.

I also hated the ending of this movie. The fact that it ended so weirdly and completely switch up the tone kind of ruined it for me too. The CGI also did not age very well; I'm sure there could've been some practical means to get the ashy effect Kurosawa was striving for.

Great post!

Pulse

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse hits on horror tropes incredibly well in the beginning but falls off really hard in the end. In addition to this, I feel like the idea of ghosts invading the world, specifically through the internet, to be a bit too confusing and full of missteps.

Initial Reactions

If this movie had ended thirty minutes earlier, my opinion about this would have been a lot different. The post-apocalyptic feel of this movie in the last half-hour strayed away from the creepy atmosphere that was present throughout the other parts, and kind of ruined it as a horror movie in my opinion. The shot of the cargo plane crashing into the city was a bit dumb and reeked of a desire to fit into action films, which this movie was most definitely not.

I also do not understand the concept of the ghosts and their powers. In the movie, Harue says that since the ghosts are being overcrowded in their own dimension, they were pouring over into ours and trying to claim it, and because of this, the ghosts weren’t trying to kill us but trap us in our loneliness. This 100% makes sense as a concept, and I thought that this was a great and original idea for the danger in the movie, but we never got closure as to what happens to the people who turn to ashes. As it stands, it appears as if the ghosts do lead them to death, since their ghosts are also present, but doesn’t this defeat the whole purpose of the ghosts invading the world, since the recently killed are now ghosts and take up space in whatever dimension they’re cramped in? The only rationalization I can make is that they get lead to some other pocket dimension of their loneliness (which would have been amazing if Kurosawa could’ve visualized that in the movie), but I that’s too much of a stretch for me to make, as well as a weird solution for the ghosts to make, since they could’ve just gone and inhabited those dimensions instead of invading ours.

Themes/Analysis

The major theme in this movie is about loneliness: the victims all have a sense of loneliness, and the ghosts trap people in their loneliness. However, I think this theme was strayed from (again) in the final thirty minutes in the decision to recognize this whole thing as a global phenomenon. The fact that this is being recognized and experienced by the entire world kind of takes away from the loneliness aspect, because there’s now an implicit understanding that “Hey, everybody’s going through the same thing as I am, I’m not alone.” There’s a feeling of unity in struggle, which detracts from the theme. It can be occurring worldwide, I just think that it would’ve been better if it was a silent killer, which could have also touched on a theme of failure in not recognizing depression as something serious.

Final Thoughts

I just wish this movie concluded earlier; the last half-hour really mucked it up for me. Amazing concept, insanely creepy atmosphere for the first ninety minutes, but then it turned into I Am Legend and completely turned me off.

autumntank

Ringu

“Ringu” is a film that I never want to watch and will never watch unless you were to kill me if I didn’t. Instead of watching the film, I read a lot of synopses to grasp what “Ringu” was about and what goes on during the film. So if my analysis is incorrect due to my fear of watching horror films please understand.

Before reading about “Ringu” all I knew about this film was that it fit into the horror genre and in one of its famous scenes it has a girl with long black hair in a white dress crawl out of a t.v whose name is Sadako.

However, I do think I have a better grasp of the film now, as the synopses I read helped me grab a better understanding of what was going on. Since I don’t watch any horror films, I thought the plot would follow the girls at the beginning. Learning that they died and passing the main role of the film to the aunt was surprising. I honestly thought that Reiko would die, but it turns out she survived in the end.

Speaking of her survival, I found the method that she unintentionally uses to survive to be weird, as it seems it can be heavily exploited to fit the needs of whoever wields the copied video. You can even see her use the copied tape to save her son at the end of the film.

I do think that the use of the video is interesting. It sets up a pattern, and it can foreshadow what happens next to characters that see it. More and more characters get pulled into the plot, it slowly reveals more and more about the tape. In the end, it is revealed how the video of the girl came to be. Sadako was sadly beaten and put in a well, and her body comes out of a TV for the other characters because she was stuck in the well.

One interesting thought I had after reading the synopsis was how Sadako was used to represent the past. Sadako could be used to represent past grievances, used as a reminder to others about the mistakes they made. People constantly try to move away from the mistakes they make, but remnants of those mistakes remain in the memories of others. Sadako may be a representation of that memory, especially since she is no longer alive to share those grievances. “Ringu” is like an otherworldly way of someone’s hatred seeping into the lives of other people who stumble across it.

Some aspects of this film are unique, but I still will not watch it. I understand that there are interesting elements that make it popular for viewers and it is cool how film directors approach the horror genre as with other genres.

bigsconesjones

Interesting analysis of what Sadako represents! Horror movies usually portray larger issues as monsters, and it makes sense that that Sadako could represent regret in that instance. It's unfortunate that you don't want to watch the movie, since I think it's by far one of the best ones we've seen so far.

I also found the method to be weird, but I think it's supposed to be viral in some sense, but at the discretion of the viewer. In that case, it makes an interesting case as to whether you'd willingly partake in the spread of this video for fear of your own individual life, but at the cost of others.

Ring

I am a BIG fan of horror movies. However, for some reason I’ve only watched American remakes of Japanese horror films like Ring or The Grudge, and not the original movies themselves. This made me excited to finally watch Ringu, an excitement that was not let down as this was one of the best movies we’ve watched. It was tight, it was creepy, and most of all, it was interesting.

Initial Reactions

For starters, the pacing in this movie was insanely good. With a runtime of only 90 minutes, Nakata manages to pack so much in there that there isn’t a single moment where I felt bored and was waiting for the next scene to roll around. Some of the movies we’ve had to watch have been slogs, but this one kept you on your toes at all moments.

One thing I especially liked about this movie is that we don’t really see Sadako or how she kills her victims until the end. I think the touch of mystery really elevates this, adding a heightened tension that wasn’t seen in earlier movies, especially in the typical slasher films that preceded this one. Plus, something that was lost in the American remake was that they decided to show Sadako’s (or in the film, Samara’s) face in the end, which was just a Linda Blair, The Exorcist rip-off, and I think just leaving it to just Sadako’s eye made it a bit scarier, since I don’t think I would have been frightened by a sneering fourteen-year-old.

Themes/Analysis

One of the major motifs in this movie is technology. Sadako’s curse is motivated through the viewing of a VHS tape, and the video must be spread in order to avert death. However, I don’t think this a critique on the influence of media in our lives, but instead the movie is showing the television as a gateway to something much deeper, much akin to the power of the sea also seen in this movie.

A good way of interpreting horror movies is looking at what the monsters symbolize within the movie, like how in Babadook, the titular monster is representative of the mother’s struggles in raising her son. In this vein, Sadako can also represent this: Reiko’s struggles with raising Yoichi. Yoichi is constantly forced to live independently, despite being a literal child, and is constantly disconnected from his mother. This is further added on to as Reiko becomes obsessed over the tape and the mystery, and it seems that the only way Yoichi could connect with her is by watching the tape himself, putting his life at risk (albeit unknowingly) just for his mother’s attention. Reiko never really does anything for Yoichi until the tape forces her to.

Final Thoughts

This is a great movie. I think the part that makes it stand out to me when compared to other movies is that it was incredibly engaging, as most horror movies are since they’re built to keep you on your toes. However, this one takes it up a notch by keeping the truly scary part (how they die) under wraps until the end.

Swallowtail

This movie is what people should think about when they think of a “rollercoaster of emotions.” Swallowtail is a long drama about a group of disenfranchised people referred to as “Yentowns” that ranges from bringing you to tears to making you laugh from absurdity. Overall, I’d probably put this movie right outside my top-ten, it was pretty good but seemed a bit long, especially with a subplot that I think was completely unnecessary and filled with plot holes.

Initial Reactions

This movie is a trip and a half. I wasn’t really invested in the character of Fei Hong, even during his weird redemption arc because it seemed too little too late, especially since selling Glico out felt so long ago in the context of the story (and plus, Glico wanted to be in the music industry? Exclusivity is a weird thing to sell when she’s not exclusive). I did however, pretty much like everybody else in the movie: Glico finding her footing as a music idol was uplifting, and the scene where Ageha finally gets her namesake butterfly tattooed on her was emotionally compelling.

The subplot I didn’t like that was referred to earlier though was the interaction between the reporter and Glico. For starters, why would the reporter initially trust someone clearly cracked out and not in the right mental state? On top of that, how did the prostitute and reporter know it was Sado (or whatever his name was) who was killed? It’s not like his body was reported in the news with a name since it was buried with no indication of being found. And why wasn’t Glico’s room cleaned out in that timespan? That scene occurred so early in the movie that the room being in the exact same state seems to be impossible; someone should have cleared it out for the sake of destroying evidence.

And to top it all off: What was the whole point of this? The only thing that this whole subplot established that couldn’t be written around was the introduction of the reporter character, who is completely useless in the larger context of the story. This added unnecessary time to a two-and-a-half-hour movie that really hurt its overall enjoyment.

Themes/Analysis

I think the major theme of this story is metamorphosis. This is best seen in the characters of Glico and Ageha: Glico goes from a hooker scrapping for extra cash to a music star, and Ageha’s transformation can be visually seen, as she goes from having a caterpillar drawn on her chest to a Swallowtail Butterfly tattoo, emblematic of her growth into a Yentown. However, one thing to note is that despite these transformations, they don’t forget their roots. Glico ends the movie back in the junkyard, and Ageha, in the process of getting her tattoo, has a flashback of her times when her mom was alive.

Final Thoughts

One last thing to write about the movie was how fun the standoff/bazooka scene was. It was incredibly over-the-top, and drew me back into the film. With that being said, I still feel that this movie was too long and could have been cut in many areas that would’ve metamorphosed this movie into a much better one.

homonecans

Hana-bi (1997)

Reading the description of this movie, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I actually didn’t start liking the movie until about halfway when they left for their trip. For a movie so full of violence and fight scenes, I didn’t expect to find the scenes of Nishi enjoying himself on the trip with his wife to be the most interesting and exhilarating. The music throughout the movie was super beautiful, which I guess contrasted the over the top violence. (Side note about the violence: Maybe it’s because I’m not a medical professional but the blood seemed a little excessive for some of the injuries suffered).

Something that was really interesting was how Horibe’s art sort of told the story of Nishi and his wife. The art at times depicted items we would see in Nishi’s storyline (like all the flowers), showed activities Nishi would do with his wife (the fireworks and stargazing), or sometimes art that mimicked Horibe’s style showed up in the background (like Horibe’s pointillism style being mirrored in the painting behind Nishi’s wife when she got her photo taken). The constant connection of Horibe’s pieces with Nishi’s story made the last painting with ‘Suicide’ written on it a clear indication of how the story would end. There was a point where I thought the suicide wouldn’t actually happen because of the paint Horibe threw on the painting, but alas…

The music was intense and almost hauntingly beautiful throughout the entire film, but the clearest instance of the music being registered in my mind was when Nishi decided that he would kill himself and his wife. The music was extremely lively and upbeat so I took the decision to do so as something that would be a new beginning and a better existence for the both of them. The ending was particularly heart wrenching because it’s the only time we hear Nishi’s wife speak clearly. She says “Thank you” and “Sorry” which I interpreted as her showing gratitude that her husband would go through all of this for her. I think she knew or asked Nishi to kill her after this trip was over. I couldn’t think of any other reason why she would say “Sorry” other than her expressing how she knows that killing her is something painful for Nishi to do. The couple clearly love each other and the trip felt like a trip made with the intent to complete all the things on her bucket list.

In contrast to all the bloodshed we see previously in the film, the death of the two are concealed from the audience’s eyes as the camera pans to a view of the bright day sky, making the sound of the following pops indisputably those of gunshots. It’s a moment of privacy and dignity given to the two in their final moments. Overall, this was a surprisingly great film.

bigsconesjones

I 100% agree with how you thought the blood seemed a bit excessive, but I think it was a way to make it look similar to the red paint, so that when Horibe spilled the paint on that one piece, we were made to believe that he offed himself initially.

I didn't think about the lack of bloodshed in the final suicide scene, but I do think you are correct in saying that it gave them a final moment of dignity, although the inclusion of the young girl kinda robs her of her innocence.

Great post!

Hana-bi

Takeshi Kitano’s Hana-bi had an interesting story, but I felt some artistic choices made by the director leads the film to fall short in some spots and lose its luster. There were great scenes and stunning shots, but the inconsistency of them throughout the film made this movie a very average watch.

Initial Reactions

This movie is defined by its ups and downs. Every good decision made by this film is paralleled in a bad way, and it’s so frequent that it almost seems symbolic. For starters, Horibe’s venture into art and pointillism led to some incredible pieces (especially the Suicide one) but was mirrored in some incredibly poor animal-flower pieces that looked like they were drawn by a fourteen-year-old. This is not to say that the message behind those pieces were bad; in fact, I think this hybridization of flora and fauna could lend itself to some poignant commentary, it’s just that it’s hard to think about that message when you’re forced to look at orcas drawn with shaky lines.

A choice that I think started off well but fell short was the suicide at the end. It seemed fitting that Nishi and his wife would die at the end of the movie on their own terms, as Nishi was consistently lashing out against the world and his wife was losing her battle with leukemia, and it was incredibly emotional with the music and the backdrop of the ocean, but letting the little girl see them die lost it for me. This whole movie is about the reaction to an unexpected death and the resulting trauma and choosing to let this cycle of trauma continue because you let a young girl watch you kill yourself is in poor taste.

Themes/Analysis

The central theme of this movie that was alluded to earlier in my post is the reaction to trauma. This is best exemplified through the actions of Nishi, especially when contrasted against that of Horibe. Nishi lashes out against the world in response to his struggles, robbing a bank, killing countless Yakuza members, and ultimately committing suicide. Contrast this with the actions of Horibe, who instead decides that instead of lashing out like Nishi, it would be best to turn inward and turn to art instead. This is best exemplified in the Suicide piece that he created; the fact that he could express his previously suicidal thoughts onto a beautiful canvas exhibits growth and an ability to get past such trauma, as well as the dropping of paint on it can be seen as a rejection of suicide. These two contrasting responses to trauma speaks to how much a life can be changed through a singular event, especially with how you pick up the pieces afterward.

Final Thoughts

This is a great movie in terms of storyline and themes, but the inconsistency with the direction that Takeshi Kitano took with this movie turned it from a top tier movie to a middle of the pack one. It is worth a rewatch, but it wasn’t as impactful a movie as I had hoped.

GO!

Yukisada’s GO! is an interesting look into the discrimination Korean-Japanese citizens experienced stemming back to post-war Japan, but felt like a generic coming-of-age story. Despite all the fun action scenes, I still felt the runtime of just over 2 hours was a bit too long, and the story could have progressed a bit quicker. It’s a good movie, but I don’t think it’s necessary in the great pantheon of impactful Japanese movies if we look at it from a thematic standpoint.

Initial Reactions

For starters, I think the parallelism with Romeo and Juliet was neat. In fact, this movie reminded me of my favorite rendition of this tale: Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo + Juliet. The jumpy shots and the goofy action scenes, as well as the lighting gave this movie a very campy feel, and it was much appreciated. Also, the “rose by any other name would smell as sweet” motif was very appropriate, as it really harked back to this general idea that discrimination primarily runs through labels, especially since Sakurai had no idea Sugihara was Korean until he said so.

However, I do feel that this movie was a bit long outside of the action scenes. I can’t pinpoint a specific scene that made me feel this way, but I think it’s because Sugihara always talked in this dull, bored tone that made me feel the same way. I understand the reasoning behind this narrative choice, but that doesn’t discount the fact that if there weren’t punches being thrown, this movie was kind of a slog.

Themes/Critiques

A major theme in this film is identity and overcoming discrimination. Throughout the story, Sugihara has to overcome the discrimination hurled toward him as a Zainichi, from the tension brought on by his girlfriend, to the insults of “selling his soul” from his own Korean acquaintances. The way he rejects both these identities to forge his own really speaks to this idea that identity is much more than just a label, that a “rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

However, hot take incoming: I think this theme is a bit overplayed, making this movie kind of a non-factor. It’s an incredibly important message, that you aren’t your label, but there are so many of these films that you can watch with this exact theme that I don’t think this one was needed. I will concede however, that many of these movies that I think about were made after GO!, so this might have been a pioneer in that sense. All in all, I think it’s just that I feel a bit fatigued watching movies like this, so it didn’t feel fresh in that sense.

Final Thoughts

GO! was a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but I think it was because of the atmosphere of the film and not actually the message it was sending, which I found boring. Because of this, I would only recommend this movie in the context of the composition, but if you want a good movie about identity, I would instead recommend something like “Funeral Parade of Roses”.

NOTE: I made some tweaks to this post, specifically that I changed my recommendation from “Moonlight” to “Funeral Parade of Roses” because I feel it’s more relevant to the class. Somebody already reblogged my post and commented on the choice of “Moonlight”, however, so this note is just to make sure context is not lost in their post.

eclectichottubnut

Tampopo

First Impressions/Thoughts:

Tampopo is now my favorite movie from the ones that we have watched, hands down. Let’s get something straight. Ramen is my favorite food. Period. I eat, sleep, and breathe ramen, so what is there not to love about a movie that is about making ramen. Side Note: I love the way that this film is advertised as a “Ramen Western.” I love all of the characters, even the random side characters. Before getting further into the details of the plot and characters, let me discuss the film itself. The cinematography and shots were great. Honestly, I think the film seems almost dream-like in some of the shots, and I really appreciated this as it added to the comedy and surreal reality of the film. The music was also pretty good. The plot of Tampopo on paper is that two truckers help a single mother save her ramen shop and make some great ramen, but so much other crazy shit happens. In the main plot, there is the truck driver Goro and his sidekick, Gun. Goro is the older, more grizzled badass trucker who first steps up to help Tampopo. Gun is younger and doesn’t have as much to do in the story, but he is also a badass. First off, his name is Gun. I don’t even need to say more about that. Second, he is Ken Watanabe. Other characters include Pisken, Shohei, and the homeless, old master that Goro knows. These side characters are recruited in various scenarios throughout the story to aid Tampopo in her efforts to improve, and I really enjoyed the comradery between the whole group in fixing up the restaurant. It was really wholesome. Eventually by the end, Tampopo achieves her goal as her restaurant is bustling with customers, and the group members all go their separate ways, but there are other stories sprinkled into the movie that are food related. They are like little vignettes within the larger plot. It is like in a music album where there are little skits or spoken parts, but when this type of thing happens in movies, it can be a little jarring. I thoroughly enjoyed all the little stories, but they are a little jarring when they interrupt the main story, at least to me. There are a couple like the business man going to lunch with his superiors and con man getting caught at the restaurant, but my favorite two were the food porn mobster and the mother cooking her last meal. The food porn mobster sections just came out of nowhere and they were so uncomfortable to watch at times, but I would be lying if I said I was not dying laughing. They were just so weird and surreal that all I could do to cope was laugh. The food porn mobster was such as strange character, but he was also kind of charming in a way right from the intro scene of the movie. I was kind of sad when he eventually died, but not before divulging his recipe for boar sausages, of course! I also remember one story about a man working at a grocery store alone and he has to chase this weird old lady running around the store and touching the food. That was so strange and out of left field that I thought it was funny. I consider this scene as sort of a mini vignette that related back to the plot, but the gourmet food savvy homeless people that were hanging around the old master were really funny to me. They just sneak into a building to cook gourmet Oyakodon and have knowledge of vintage wines! I love that group of characters. Finally, there was the mom who cooked her family one last meal before dying, and this one was just really touching to me. She uses the last of her strength to make sure that her husband and kids are fed. The scene was so heartfelt, but so damn sad at the same time.

Interpretation/ Themes:

The message that I get from Tampopo is that food is pretty universal. Ramen is my personal favorite, but the movie doesn’t really discriminate. All foods permeate every facet of life, and while food is the basis for the main plotline of Tampopo, I think that the vignettes demonstrate this message more effectively. Each vignette is a drastically different scenario, but food is a common theme in all of them. Food also means something different in each scenario. For instance, I interpret the food in the food porn mobster bits as representing love and passion. Living life on your terms and to the fullest, you know? There are also the based homeless people who don’t have much, but find simple happiness in any food that they can get. So wholesome! In the vignette where the mom dies, the food can represent selfless sacrifice on the mom’s part, and it also brings the family together for dinner at probably one of the darkest times in their lives. Food is necessary in life! You need to eat! To many people, food can mean many different things, and each vignette shows this beautifully! As for the main plot line, I think the message is to try to improve yourself to be the best you can be. Don’t be complacent with something in life if it is average or just sufficient. Like Tampopo, step up and live life to your fullest potential! Actively work to improve yourself even if it is challenging and seems daunting initially. I love this movie so much!

Final Thoughts:

In conclusion, this is the best movie. If you disagree, you are objectively wrong. I win. Bye bye.

bigsconesjones

I'm glad you liked this movie so much! I have to agree that the food porn mobster was one of the stand-out characters in the film, especially his fixation on his last words being about yam sausages, and the viewing that food is universal is an interesting way to tie in all those outside stories into the main plotline!

Great Post!

Tampopo

Tampopo was a fun watch for me, but I’m glad we did not have to watch it with the rest of the class because there were some saucy bits in there I would not feel comfortable watching with a group of 20+ people. Tampopo is a comedy movie about a struggling widow trying to perfect the perfect ramen recipe in order to build a successful shop, and with how boring that plot sounds, it was crazy to see what Itami Juzo did to keep us on our seats.

Initial Reactions

For starters, it was interesting to see a young Ken Watanabe playing the role of Gun in the movie. It seems that in American cinema, there isn’t a large number of Japanese/Japanese-American superstars in the acting field, and so seeing Ken Watanabe made me feel glad that someone was able to break through that mold.

I also liked the irony in the beginning of the movie, where the “Man in the Suit” (for lack of a better term) chastises others for eating loud foods during a movie, despite the fact that the movie we’re about to watch is about ramen, a notoriously slurpy food. This character also has some of the best and strangest scenes, although I do hold some reservations about his morality, as the weird oyster scene with the young girl seems like he’s grooming her, which was kind of disgusting.

An interesting part of the movie that hopefully we might see in subsequent films is the inspiration it took from other films we have already seen. This is most notable in the formation of a ragtag ensemble of ramen experts being Seven Samurai-esque, and the whole film having a Western feel to it, with Goro’s cowboy outfit being the focal point of this. This really reinforces the impact of the old films we watched, and I much enjoyed it.

Themes/Analysis

To be completely honest, I couldn’t really pinpoint any themes that I felt were worth writing about. The determination of Tampopo to be the very best ramen cook (that no one ever was) might be the clearest theme to look at, but I feel as if analysis about that has been written into the ground already, as that’s a central plotline in so many movies. However, I feel something that might be worth writing about for this movie might be the that we don’t need themes to enjoy films, especially comedies. I didn’t go watch Ghostbustersto learn a deep lesson, and I don’t think Tampopo needs this level of analysis either; it’s just a fun movie with unique shots and stories that make it enjoyable to watch.

Final Thoughts

Tampopo is definitely up there in my rankings of movies for this class, despite the fact that it didn’t drive home a central message or have an overarching theme. It was a fun watch with wacky characters, even wackier hijinks, and beautiful food that made me hungry for some ramen.

eclectichottubnut

Family Game

Thoughts/First Impressions:

Compared to the past couple films that we have watched, I was a really big fan of Family Game. This movie is a far cry from the period pieces and more recent new wave, avant-garde films that we have been watching, but I think this sets the movie apart. Firstly, the color is finally back! I like black and white films in an artistic sense at times, but color is almost always better in my opinion. The plot of the movie seems somewhat straightforward with a family hiring a tutor to help their son ace an entrance exam for high school, but the movie gets kind of weird in a comedic, almost surreal way.

Themes/Interpretation:

It is pretty clear that this film is a critique on the nuclear family dynamic. The family doesn’t actually feel real, or at least this is what was going through my head while watching the film. The mother is a typical housewife/homemaker, the father is the breadwinner, Shinichi is the son who fulfilled his parents expectations, and Shigeyuki is the son who is a slacker. These characters just kind of fill their typical roles, but don’t seem to know or communicate with each other very well. For instance, the parents never really seem to know why Shigeyuki does poorly in school, and they just kind of get him a tutor to deal with the problem instead of dealing with it themselves. There is also the development of Shinichi wanting to possibly drop out and pursue other interests, which totally floors the parents as if they don’t really communicate with him on his thoughts and feelings. Yoshimoto, the tutor/best character in the entire film, is sort of the anomaly in this assignment of roles. He is Shigeyuki’s tutor, but he himself is from a pretty crappy university. Going by society’s assigned roles, this guy should a good tutor, but he turns Shigeyuki around and encourages him to shoot for a top high school. Other people’s roles change after Yoshimoto’s introduction too, such as Shinichi not wanting to continue being the perfect student, or the mother actually taking a rest for once instead of working tirelessly in the house at the end of the film. I guess Yoshimoto himself is sort of the critique on societal roles and the typical nuclear family dynamic, as he is the catalyst for the changing of roles within the household.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I really liked the film. A lot of the shots were colorful and vibrant! The characters were also really great and funny, especially Yoshimoto. While there were some weird scenes such as the dinner table scene, the movie was mostly grounded, and I liked that. The grounding of the film just made the more surreal elements even funnier. Overall, the movie is probably in my top 3!

bigsconesjones

I'm glad you enjoy the use of color as well! I 100% agree that despite the artistic merit in using black-and-white in some instances, a nice injection of color is sometimes needed.

Your analysis about the destruction of the nuclear family dynamic in this movie is also spot-on. It's interesting to see how Yoshimoto's action bring about this critique on family roles.

I wouldn't necessarily put this in my top 3, but it was an enjoyable movie to watch. Great Post!

The Family Game

Yoshimitsu Morita’s Family Game is a definite change of pace from the past two films, relying more on cinema as a medium of storytelling than as a medium of art, and I kind of already miss the avant-garde styles we’ve been analyzing the past week. With that being said, however, Family Game is still a great movie, analyzing traditional family roles in a way that breeds chaos and hilarity.

Initial Reactions

I’m mostly glad that we’re finally done with black-and-white films. There’s some artistic merit in portraying things in monochrome, but the vibrancy in every shot made this movie a pleasure to view.

There would be no discussion of this movie without the final scene where the tutor, Yoshimoto, wreaks havoc on a celebratory dinner. I would have liked to see a closer shot on the table, just to see how much destruction was actually being done, but I can also accept the fact that it’s best to leave it as one continuous shot, both as a means of maintaining continuity and an exercise for the actors not to break. With that being said, it was mighty impressive for the entire family not to break while Yoshimoto was spraying mayo all over the table, a true credit to them.

Themes/Analysis

It’s very clear that the central theme in this movie is family roles in contemporary Japan: the mother’s role is being a homemaker and a good neighbor, the children’s roles are to be aiming for a top school, and the father’s job is to bring the money home. However, the introduction of Yoshimoto destroys this concept of roles. For starters, Yoshimoto is from a low-rate university, but despite the notion that he shouldn’t be a great tutor because of this, he excels in his job and carries Shigeyuki all the way to Seibu High School. This in itself subverts the idea of his role in society, but he also changes family roles. Shigeyuki and Shinichi both throw away their roles: Shigeyuki doesn’t want to go to a top school, and Shinichi, already at Seibu, quits trying and considers dropping out. The mother also changes, in the sense that despite her busy role as a homemaker, she finally takes time for herself and rests.

I think the best visualization of this theme is actually the dinner table. It’s very strange for all of them to be sitting on one side of the table, à la DaVinci’s The Last Supper, but I think the reason Morita does this is to set the table as a stage. This oddity makes a small 4th wall break, allowing the audience to be reminded that the actors are carrying out their roles, just as their characters are doing the same in a family context. The final dinner scene can then be seen as Yusaku Matsuda(the actor)/Yoshimoto breaking out of his mold, condemning the notion of being put into a box like this.

Final Thoughts

This wasn’t as interesting or fun as the last two movies we’ve watched, but it’s definitely a bit above average in the current movie list. Morita’s use of color makes this a beautiful film, but it was a tad too boring for my taste. Interesting look at family, though.

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