Roslindale Monogatari

More collected capsule comments, scavenged mostly from IMDB postings earlier this year (pre-cellulitis). ;~} Tonari no Totoro / Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) We finally got to watch (for the first time in at least 10 viewings) this animated treasure (involving two little sisters) along with two young girls (sisters aged 6 and 3½ years old). Their parents being adventurous, we watched this in Japanese (with subtitles). Even so, the girls were mesmerized -- and rarely wondered about what was being said -- mostly they understood this pretty intuitively. All had a wonderful time. (When it was over, the girls asked (nicely -- but in vain) for an immediate re-watch). Chilsu wa Mansu / Chil-su and Man-su (PARK Kwang-su, 1988) Pretty much the film that kicked off the Korean New Wave. 1988 was the year of the Seoul Olympics and of Korea's first democratic election (alas, the opponents of the former military dictatorship split the vote, allowing the election of the former dictator's h...

An assemblage of (mostly) short notes on films seen earlier this year. This post collects comments on older films (with comments on a newer version of one older film). My next post will aggregate remarks on some newer films. Gyakuryu / Backward Flow (Buntaro Futagawa, 1924) Like Futagawa's later Orochi (see below), this features silent super-star Tsumasaburo Bando as a wronged hero, pushed into seeking vengeance. In this case, the protagonist is even more floridly dysfunctional as the result of his mistreatment. Interestingly over the top. Orochi (Buntaro Futagawa, 1925) A silent chambara starring Tsumasaburo Bando (one of Japan's first great action stars). One of the few nearly complete films from this era. Bando plays a mistreated samurai who falls into bad company after escaping from prison (he was framed). When he encounters his lost love, he is forced to choose between loyalty to his crooked patron and love (though she is now married to another samurai, who seems...

Koina no Ginpei -- Yuki no wataridori / Migatory Waterbirds (Tomokazu Miyata, 1931) Mainly this is a showcase for super-star Tsumasaburo Bando, who plays Ginpei, a rural yakuza underling in love with the pretty daughter of the local innkeeper (a semi-retired gang member). Two problems, another gang boss wants to take over the territory held by Ginpei's boss -- and the innkeeper's daughter (though fond of Ginpei) is actually in love with one of Ginpei's colleagues. After doing his duty of defending his boss's turf, Ginpei becomes a wanderer. When he returns, several years later, times have changed for the worse in his old town. Some decent fights, but overall less of a visual feast than most of the other old silent chambara I've seen. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) Having recently enjoyed Gondry's third of a recent omnibus film ( Tokyo! ), I decided to check out this earlier movie. Alas, unlike his recent short film, I found it visu...

Sakasu gonin-gumi / Five Men in a Circus (Mikio Naruse, 1935) The fourth (and lightest weight) of the five films Naruse made for PCL (later part of Toho) in his first year after his departure from Shochiku. Perhaps inspired (a bit) by Ozu's Story of Floating Weeds (made in 1934), this depicts two sets of wandering performers -- a five man band of itinerant musicians (playing Western instruments) and a small-time circus run by a grumpy old tyrant (with two lovely daughters). When all the male circus performers go on strike, the circus hires the five musicians to fill in. Even if "minor" Naruse, the film is charming, visually lovely and sociologically fascinating -- showing an immense amount of westernization in the midst of rural Japan -- classical music, ballet, cabaret, etc. Bushidô zankoku monogatari / Cruel Story of the Samurai's Way (Tadashi Imai, 1963) Adauchi / Revenge (Tadashi Imai, 1964) In Bushido , Imai seems to have taken on more thematically) than he...

Oatsurae Jirokichi goshi / Jirokichi the Rat (Daisuke Ito, 1931) Denjiro OKochi plays the title character -- a master thief from Tokyo on the lam in Osaka. He gets entangled there with the travails of two women -- the sister of a thuggish barber (and yakuza boss) and the daughter of a disgraced (and dying) samurai. The action sequences are stunning -- and the perforances and story are equaly fine. A masterpiece.. Kochiyama Soshun (Sadao Yamanaka, 1936) Another masterpiece -- this one featuring Chojuro Kawarasaki as an ultimately noble criminal, Soshun Kochiyama -- a sort of urban Robin Hood in 18th century Tokyo. Kochiyama gets into trouble trying to protect an innocent street vendor (Setsuko Hara in her first major role, 15 or 16 years old) who is imperiled due to the misdeeds of her juvenile delinquent brother. Muhomatsu no issho / The Life of Matsu the Untamed (Hiroshi Inagaki, 1943) Tsumasaburo Bando (one of Japan's first grat action movie stars) appears as a good-hearted (i...

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 ...

McDull, prince de la bun (Toe Yuen, 2004) McDull is an anthropomorphic piglet who lives with his mother in an older section of Hong Kong. His mother, believing in the importance of education, sends him to a rather peculiar kindergarten (staffed by humans but seemingly dedicated solely to the instruction of various other cute anthropomorphic creatures). McDull's mother (clearly a single parent) worries about finances -- but sees no reason why she should be any less able to write bestsellers for children than J. K. Rowling. Sadly, young McDull has little interest in hearing his mother's literary efforts recounted as bedtime stories, much preferring Harry Potter. Even sadder, although McDull doesn't realize it, the story he rejects (about McBing, the Prince de la Bun) is actually a (presumably rather embroidered) tale about his own absent father's adventures. Always thinking ahead, McDull's mother is scouting out a suitable family plot, visiting a lovely seaside,...

So far as i can determine, Fue no shiratama is Hiroshi Shimizu's oldest surviving film. According to the JMDB, however, this was actually the fifty-sixth film he directed. So not surprisingly, this is the work of a film maker who had already mastered his craft. While the story the film tells might appear rather conventional, visual presentation is fairly striking. The central character here is Toshie (played by Emiko Yagumo, who also starred in a number of early Ozu films), a young woman who works as a secretary-typist, but wears a kimono and is relatively reserved and old-fashioned. She has fallen in love with Shozo Narita (Minoru Takada), a young man she has met through her work. Alas, once Narita meets Toshie's vivacious sister Reiko (Michiko Oikawa), Toshie is relegated to the status of little more than a friendly confidante. Toshie selflessly hides her true feelings, and promotes a marriage between Narita and Reiko. But Reiko is so enamored of partying and nightclubbin...

Novyy Vavilon / New Babylon (Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg, 1929) Kozintsev and Trauberg had been working together for 8 years by the time the two made New Babylon . After several years collaborating in experimental theater, they made their first foray into film making in 1924. Having worked with Dmitri Shostakovich in some of their theater productions, they turned to him for their first attempt at making a film with an integral (live) musical score (albeit without dialog). The film suffered from government interference even before its formal premiere. The government approved version was cut by 20 percent from its original length, and the synchronization of the music apparently no longer fully matched the creators' original intentions. These synchronization problems, together with the inability of the theater's orchestra to cope with Shostakovich's musical demands, helped ensure a less than rapturous initial reception. While the longer version has been recons...