Jade Vine @jade-vine - Tumblr Blog

Hello all

I haven’t posted on this blog very often recently and am having some misgivings about it. I doubt I’ll abandon it in total, but I think I need to take a break from it and redefine exactly what I will do with it.

There are a few main reasons for that:

1. This blog needs a tighter structure than I feel Tumblr really allows 2. I’m not very in love with Tumblr as a community (don’t worry mutuals etc., you guys are all great) 3. I’m more interested in anime and video games than movies these days. Of course, I’ve been trying to integrate that into this blog, but I don’t feel like the way I interact with these mediums is similar enough for it to really be smoothly integrated yet. 4. Most importantly, this November is the first month in around 8 and a half years that I haven’t watched at least ten films in a month, so I sadly have to make a break with my monthly summaries. But I don’t feel bad about it. They were becoming something of a trap for me even if I always have fun picking out screencaps etc. I haven’t given up on movies at all but my relation to them will be rather different from hereon. I’ve reached a kind of overflow with them to the point where I’d rather take account of all the ones I’ve seen and allow them to come to my attention naturally rather than forcing myself to watch them.

I’ve started a blog on another platform that I’m enjoying messing around with, but most of the writing is in Japanese. Regardless, if you’re interested in me being a complete and utter weeb otaku with some movie stuff in there on occasion, I’d love your patronage: http://promiseofsnakes.blogspot.com/

Again, I’m sure I won’t abandon this site entirely, but this blog needs a break and a retooling if it will indeed continue to be my base of operation. I’ll probably also continue reblogging art shyt on http://promise-of-snakes.tumblr.com/

Thank you for all the love, moviefriends!!!

#personal

허수아비들의 땅 (2008) 노경태 - 8/10 Neon Productions, South Korea/France, 90 min.

Just when you think you’ve seen all the “contemplative cinema” essentials, one bites you on the ass. This has the same great color palate as all those Hong Sang-soo movies, but its imagery is something very different. More obviously set up and staged but beautiful and photographic because of it. The imagery far and away makes this movie what it is, but the rest isn’t exactly lagging either.

#land of scarecrows #roh gyeong-tae

Süt (2008) Semih Kaplanoğlu - 7.5/10 Arizona Films, Turkey/France/Germany, 102 min.

I put this off forever because I was afraid it would have no choice but to be a step down from Angel’s Fall and Yumurta. And it was, predictably. It just doesn’t have the same kind of “spark” in each and every shot that those films have. But I still think it’s really, really good.

#süt #semih kaplanoğlu

女番長ブルース牝蜂の逆襲 (1971) 鈴木則文 - 6.5/10 Toei Company, Japan, 87 min.

Pretty entertaining, but nothing like his best works.

#queen bee strikes again #noribumi suzuki

The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) Bob Rafelson - 7.5/10 BBS Productions, USA, 103 min.

AKA that OTHER time Jack Nicholson and Scatman Crothers were in the same movie. Very compelling and fascinating for being so “ordinary.” Simple and off-the-cuff but surprising in depth. I liked it a lot more than Five Easy Pieces.

#the king of marvin gardens #bob rafelson

Time and Tide (1998-2000) Peter Hutton - 9/10 USA, 35 min.

Magnificent. More mechanical somehow than his others, but much of the same. Not mechanical in a rigid or inhuman way either though. Somewhere between the early and late Benning, but with a much less subjective/limited eye.

#time and tide #peter hutton

La bocca del lupo (2009) Pietro Marcello - 7/10 Indigo Film, Italy/France, 68 min.

Second half got a bit too slow with the long interview but this was otherwise a nice surprise.

#la bocca del lupo #pietro marcello

二十才の微熱 (1993) 橋口亮輔 - 6/10 Pia, Japan, 114 min.

I wasn’t really a fan of the other movie by Hashiguchi I saw, but I liked this one, even though I think in the end it ran too long with too many uninteresting scenes. The first half or so of it deserves a higher score. Of course I’m trained from Satou Hisayasu and others to love anything with this early-90s Japanese VHS look.

#hatachi no binetsu #hashiguchi ryousuke

Applause (1929) Rouben Mamoulian - 8/10 Paramount Pictures, USA, 80 min.

A really spectacular film in how much it has a silent-level language of the cinematic. There are other sections that are more typical of a talkie than a silent, but those too are fascinating to me because they seem to be far ahead of their time in terms of modern pacing compared to other early talkies. So this is a film that is both ahead of and behind its time in the best ways.

#applause #rouben mamoulian

三德和尚与舂米六 (1977) 洪金寶 - 7/10 Hong Kong, 93 min.

Apparently Sammo’s debut film, which makes it unsurprising that it isn’t particularly exciting compared to his later works, but it’s a good film all the same. Surprisingly dark and sexy for him. Lots of hotties in the brothel scene with bare boobs.

#the iron-fisted monk #sammo hung

Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (1933) Lewis Milestone - 7/10 Lewis Milestone Productions, USA, 82 min.

Not mindblowing, but pretty unique and very very precode. It has all the precode roughness and lack of polish, but all the charm as well for just that reason.

#hallelujah i'm a bum #lewis milestone

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#school rumble #tv #special

十八般武藝 (1982) 劉家良 - 6.5/10 Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong, 109 min.

Ok, not his best. But some parts were siqq!

#legendary weapons of china #liu chia-liang

SEPTEMBER 2018

FILMS

L'Enfant de Paris (1913) Léonce Perret - 7.5/10 Moonrise (1948) Frank Borzage - 8.5/10 Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (1992) Craig Baldwin - 9/10 しいのみ学園 (1955) 清水宏 - 7/10 Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) Max Ophüls - 7/10 المنام (1987) محمد ملص - 7/10 양산도 (1955) 김기영 - 7.5/10 蜀山新蜀山劍俠 (1983) 徐克 - 6.5/10 La via della droga (1977) Enzo G. Castellari - 6.5/10 The Threat (1949) Felix E. Feist - 8/10 Sexy Cat (1973) Julio Pérez Tabernero - 5/10

TV SERIES

撲殺天使ドクロちゃん (2005) - 8/10 撲殺天使ドクロちゃん2[セカンド] (2007) - 7.5/10 宇宙家族カールビンソン (1988) - 4/10

BOOKS

GANTZ (2000-2013) - 6.5/10 [MANGA] A Course in Indian Philosophy (1998) Anthony Kennedy Warder - 7.5/10 La Civilisation chinoise. La vie publique et la vie privée (1929) Marcel Granet - 5.5/10 エイケン (2001-2004) - 5.5/10 [MANGA] Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990) Ray Monk - 8/10

#monthly summaries

The Threat (1949) Felix E. Feist - 8/10 RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 66 min.

Not sure if it’s just the worse quality, but this seems much more raw and rough around the edges in visuals, editing, and general style (in a good way) than Feist’s later more visually impressive works. So it’s different, but no less engaging. As simple and mean of a noir as I’ve seen.

#the threat #felix e. feist