Unreported Films

For whatever reason, I have found writing up comments on films an almost impossible burden for the past few months. My backlog of undiscussed films simply grows and grows. So -- for what its worth -- I am going to simply list everything I've seen (or, at least, that I still remember seeing). Perhaps this will motivate me to get to work writing (and screen capturing) -- but probably not.

Without further ado ...

Topio stin omichli / Landscape in the Mist (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1988)

Sad Vacation (Shinji Aoyama, 2007)

Dharmaga tongjoguro kan kkadalgun / Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (BAE Yong-kyun, 1989)

Dom na Trubnoy / The House on Trubnaya Street (Boris Barnet, 1928)

Shchedroye leto / Bountiful Summer (Boris Barnet, 1950)

Himala / Miracle (Ishmael Bernal, 1982)

Insiang (Lino Brocka, 1976)

Una mujer sin amor / A Woman Without Love (Luis Buñuel, 1952)

Uzak / Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)

Les Raquetteurs / The Snowshoers (Gilles Groulx & Michel Brault, 1958)

La France sur un caillou / France on a Pebble (Gilles Groulx & Claude Fournier, 1960)

Normetal (Gilles Groulx, 1960)

Golden Gloves (Gilles Groulx, 1961)

Voir Miami / To See Miami (Gilles Groulx, 1962)

Un jeu si simple / A Game so Simple (Gilles Groulx, 1963)

Le Chat dans le sac / The Cat in the Bag (Gilles Groulx, 1964)

Où êtes-vous donc? / Where Are You Then? (Gilles Groulx, 1970)

Entre tu et vous (Gilles Groulx, 1970)

24 heures ou plus... (Gilles Groulx, 1977)

Santa Gertrudis, la première question sur le bonheur (Gilles Groulx, 1978)

Au pays de Zom (Gilles Groulx, 1983)

Yuki Yukite shingun / The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara, 1987)

Where the Green Ants Dream (Werner Herzog, 1984)

Le Voyage du ballon rouge / Flight of the Red Balloon (HOU Hsiao Hsien, 2007)

Da zui xia / Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

Tau ban no hoi / Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982)

Hengbok / Happiness (HUR Jin-ho, 2007)

Kiku to Isamu / Kiku and Isamu (Tadashi Imai, 1959)

En to iu onna / A Woman Called En (Tadashi Imai, 1971)

Tai yang zhao chang sheng qi / The Sun Also Rises (JIANG Wen, 2007)

How To Meet a Perfect Neighbor (JO Nam-kook, 2007)

Subarashiki nichiyobi / One Wonderful Sunday (Akira Kurosawa, 1947)

Rashômon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

Ikimono no kiroku / I Live in Fear / Record of a Living Being (Akira Kurosawa, 1955)

Emil und die Detektive / Emil and the Detectives (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1931)

Help! (Richard Lester, 1965)

Orizuru Osen / The Downfall of Osen (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1935)

Naniwa erejî / Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)

Joyû Sumako no koi / The Love of Sumako the Actress (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1947)

Gion bayashi / Gion Festival Music / A Geisha (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

Uasa no onna / The Woman in the Rumor (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)

Chikamatsu monogatari / A Story from Chikamatsu / Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)

Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage / Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

Megane / Glasses (Naoko Ogigami, 2007)

Mushishi / Bugmaster (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 2006)

Saibogujiman kwenchana / I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (PARK Chan-wook, 2006)

Neoneun nae unmyeong / You Are My Sunshine (PARK Jin-pyo, 2005)

Ne touchez pas la hache / Don't Touch the Axe / The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette, 2007)

Minato no nihon musume / Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933)

Arigato-san / Mr. Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936)

Anma to onna (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1938)

Utsukushisa to kanashimi to / With Beauty and Sorrow (Masahiro Shinoda, 1965)

Ruten no ouhi / The Wandering Princess (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1960)

Sha Tan-Zi yu Zhou Shih-Nai /Royal Scoundrel (Johnnie To & CHIK Ki Yee, 1991)

Heung joh chow heung yau chow / Turn Left, Turn Right (Johnnie To & WAI Ka Fai, 2003)

Tie saam gok / Triangle (Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Johnnie To, 2007)

Sun taam / Mad Detective (Johnnie To & WAI Ka Fai, 2007)

Hu die fei / Linger (Johnnie To, 2008)

Das doppelte Lottchen / Two Times Lotte (Josef von Báky, 1950)

Nikai no tanin / The Stranger Upstairs (Yoji Yamada, 1961)

Tôku no sora ni kieta / Into the Faraway Sky (Isao Yukisada, 2007)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well, let's talk about some of them!

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?.

I found it good, an introspective movie and so is the direction, but I think it had to be a little shorter...

The House on Trubnaya Street -
Bountiful Summer


Recently, I've had the pleasure to watch some Barnet works, and I must say they were all wonderful, except for... The House on Trubnaya. Don't know, but it seems to me an attempt to amalgamate comedy and drama, but not perfectly. I've watched another Barnet silent work and I think the silent wasn't for him. Not a really BAD film!, but imperfect. The other Barnet, instead, is to me one of his best works!

Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) The best Ceylan, director I love deeply. I'm dying, waiting for the last work at Cannes Festival!

The Sun Also Rises (JIANG Wen)
Very bizarre movie... I gave it ***1/2 stars after the sight, but I felt unsatisfied. I hope Jiang Wen leaves as soon as possible that kind of direction, that I found studied...

A Geisha (Kenji Mizoguchi)
Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi)


Two of my all times favorite. It's a fortune that Eureka is publishing some of Mizoguchi works!

Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)
My favorite Murnau with The Last Laugh.

Mad Detective
A big surprise for me, I love paranormal To!

Linger
Quite the opposite of Mad Detective, the worst To I've seen in years.

Sorry if are some errors, but to write in a foreign language isn't the same to read a foreign language, and most of all, write about arts! (:D)

A curio: where did you watch the Groulx and Tanaka Kikuyo movies?
Addendum 1

Already remembered some films I forgot to list.

À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo, 1930)

L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?

Not really certain I would want this shorter. Not much shorter, in any event. There is a lovely animated Korean film called Oseam that makes a nice companion piece.

The House on Trubnaya Street -
Bountiful Summer


I liked House better than Summer, despite a couple of mis-steps here and there. My favorite Barnets so far are Bluest of Seas and Girl With a Hatbox -- but I have yet to see a disappointing film by Barnet.

Distant

My introduction to Turkish cinema. A good start... ;~}

The Sun Also Rises

I liked this (in all except a few minor respects). Probably my favorite film by him overall.

A Geisha / Crucified Lovers

Two of my (very) favorite Mizoguchi films as well (out of 30 or so Mizoguchi films. seen). Masters of Cinema are true benefactors to fans of Japanese cinema -- between this and their Naruse set (among others).

Faust

I liked this better in its newest incarnation (from MOC) -- but I still like Nosferatu and Last Laugh more.

Mad Detective / Linger

I loved the first of these To films -- and liked the second moderately well. Much better than Royal Scoundrel in any event (and even that was mildly enjoyable, and featured fine work byJaqueline Wu).

The National Film Board of Canada issued a box set dedicated to Gilles Groulx several years ago -- but it was unsubbed and prohibitively expensive. At long last, this excellent set has dropped in price to a much more affordable level. So, despite the lack of subtitles (still), I decided to get it. If one has any familiarity with French, it is a fine set (with great booklets).

The Tanaka film (her next to last) was apparently broadcast on Japanese TV way back in 1989 or so -- and someone let me see a copy (complete with very cheesy commercials).

You write quite well in English -- and I can't write at all in Italian.

BTW -- Kore'eda's Distant is one of my favorite films of the past decade or so. Too bad this film has been so shunned in the West (just like another of my top favorites, Shiota's Gaichu /Harmful Insect).
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the info!
And:
BTW -- Kore'eda's Distant is one of my favorite films of the past decade or so. Too bad this film has been so shunned in the West (just like another of my top favorites, Shiota's Gaichu /Harmful Insect).
Indeed! Koreeda is one of my favourite, really! I have "After Life" ready to be watched. So far, I prefer "Maboroshi no hikari" and "Nobody Knows", two masterpieces, to my mind. And another great movie - an alienation metaphor, too - as you say, is Harmufl Insect.
Kore'eda's Hana yori mo naho is also wonderful -- but his less open-minded fans seem to have gotten angry at the fact that he made a film akin to Yoji Yamada's splendid Twilight Samurai. I thought this did a remarkable job of evoking not yust Yamada's work but Sadao Yamanaka's 1930s masterpieces. I have yet to be disappointed by a film by Kore'eda.
Anonymous said…
Yes, I read about the last Koreeda, and also here, there were lots of fans disappointed...
(Note: In Italy, a considerable number of Asian cinema fans didn't like even Twilight Samurai, that is simply incredible; I couldn't believe that. Nowadays, a handful of movie are on a par of Twilight Samuai, that is a masterpiece, to me...)
Sophisticated movie fans seem to have great difficulties with contemporary "mass market" movies that happen to be works of genius. Yamada's (non-Tora-san) films are very artistic but they are definitely not "art films" )of course, neither were the films of Ozu or Naruse).
Dan Sallitt said…
Michael - I'd enjoy hearing your reactions to the Imai films: I've liked some of his movies (Yoru no tsuzumi [Night Drum] is one of them) but have never gotten the measure of him. Because Donald Richie was the only English-language voice on the classic Japanese cinema for so many years, the directors he didn't love have a hard time getting attention, to this day.

Am also curious about the von Baky: have seen only Munchhausen, and wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a good director in general.
Until "Woman Named En", I was able to say I hadn't seen any Imai film that hadn't impressed me. "En", alas, fell flat -- and having now read the book (highly recommended, by the way), I see why. It is a very subjective narration, mostly concerned with memories and reflections on memories. No way to present this in a straightforward cinematic fashion.

I have yet to see "Night Drum" (it's on my most wanted list). My favorite Imai film, to date, is "Nigorie" (Troubled Waters), with "Till We Meet Again" and "Dokkoi ikiteru" not too far behind. I really need to re-visit his "Blue Mountains" (which I haven't seen for at least 5 years). "Kiku and Isamu" is a fascinating film, dealing with exactly the sort of social problems most Japanese preferred to ignore.

As far as I can tell, Donald Richie really liked Imai's least political work a great deal -- but rejected out of hand almost any of the films that had any tinge of leftism. I wonder if it was Richie or Anderson who penned the most hostile anti-Imai rhetoric in the 1959 book (which alternately praised and damned Imai). Audie Bock was far more hostile to Imai than Anderson and Richie, however -- writing him off as essentially worthless.

Von Baky's "Lotte" stands head and shoulders above the Disney adaptations of the same book. It would be interesting to see more of his work (preferably with subtitles).
Jake Savage said…
What did you think of Megane? Oddly enough, I forgot to review that too but I wouldn't be able to say much beyond the fact that it's a very charming, slightly silly but downplayed film.

Speaking of Yamada, finally got my hands on the Japanese disc of Home By Sea. Looks great; I'll probably never bother with the Panorama discs.
I probably would agree that "Megane" is "silly" -- but only in a very good way. I would happily watch plenty of films of this sort. The principal actresses are quite engaging -- and Hiroko Yakushimaru is a hoot in her cameo part.

I've only seen the Panorama Home By the Sea -- which is one of the better Yamada releases by Panorama (or so I recall).

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