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Film pimping
Because of Aliera's movie meme and the recently watched Lost in Translation, I'm pimping some gorgeous Japanese movies:
- Maborosi (Maboroshi no Hikari, the Phantom Light, kind of) and After Life (Wandafuru Raifu), both directed by Kore'eda Hirokazu. Two movies that have the same feel as Lost in Translation, a bit lost, not sure of one's direction in life, and with a very quiet, understated sense of the deeper things. Maborosi is about a widow who remarries and moves to a rural part of Japan, and how she tries to piece together her husband's death. After Life is based on the idea that what if after dying, people got a chance to film one memory of their lives? The movie talks with the dead people and with the filmmakers who help them realize their memories. Both are beautiful, although I'm particularly fond of After Life, for which the director went out and interviewed tons of people for their memories, and used quite a few of the people for actors in his almost documentary like movie.
- Tampopo, Itami Juuzo. A movie that is basically a love affair with food and a wonderfully zany comedy. Don't watch without something to munch on.
- Double Suicide, Shinoda Masahiro. Pomo plus bunraku, Japanese puppetry, and the tropes of old bunraku plays combine. Strange, uncomfortable, and very edgy feeling.
- Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), Takahata Isao. To be shown to anyone who thinks animation can only be cute, fuzzy Disney movies or anime porn and violence (going for stereotypes here, because have seen non-cute Disney movies, and obviously stereotypical with anime). Two children in WWII, with beautiful quiet moments (my favorite is the long shot of the brother trying to cheer up his sister on the monkey bars) and a turn into real grief. Saying it's sad doesn't even get close to it.
- Death by Hanging, Oshima Nagisa. From the avant garde movement, very conscious of narrative and of the side of WWII Grave of the Fireflies doesn't cover. Very political in nature, and feels quite Kafkaesque to me.
Got to watch these in my Japanese film class, and oh, what fun.
Not pimping Ozu, Kurosawa, or Miyazaki, because I figure those should be taken for granted. Also not pimping End of Evangelion because that's more part of the TV series than a movie in and of itself.
- Maborosi (Maboroshi no Hikari, the Phantom Light, kind of) and After Life (Wandafuru Raifu), both directed by Kore'eda Hirokazu. Two movies that have the same feel as Lost in Translation, a bit lost, not sure of one's direction in life, and with a very quiet, understated sense of the deeper things. Maborosi is about a widow who remarries and moves to a rural part of Japan, and how she tries to piece together her husband's death. After Life is based on the idea that what if after dying, people got a chance to film one memory of their lives? The movie talks with the dead people and with the filmmakers who help them realize their memories. Both are beautiful, although I'm particularly fond of After Life, for which the director went out and interviewed tons of people for their memories, and used quite a few of the people for actors in his almost documentary like movie.
- Tampopo, Itami Juuzo. A movie that is basically a love affair with food and a wonderfully zany comedy. Don't watch without something to munch on.
- Double Suicide, Shinoda Masahiro. Pomo plus bunraku, Japanese puppetry, and the tropes of old bunraku plays combine. Strange, uncomfortable, and very edgy feeling.
- Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), Takahata Isao. To be shown to anyone who thinks animation can only be cute, fuzzy Disney movies or anime porn and violence (going for stereotypes here, because have seen non-cute Disney movies, and obviously stereotypical with anime). Two children in WWII, with beautiful quiet moments (my favorite is the long shot of the brother trying to cheer up his sister on the monkey bars) and a turn into real grief. Saying it's sad doesn't even get close to it.
- Death by Hanging, Oshima Nagisa. From the avant garde movement, very conscious of narrative and of the side of WWII Grave of the Fireflies doesn't cover. Very political in nature, and feels quite Kafkaesque to me.
Got to watch these in my Japanese film class, and oh, what fun.
Not pimping Ozu, Kurosawa, or Miyazaki, because I figure those should be taken for granted. Also not pimping End of Evangelion because that's more part of the TV series than a movie in and of itself.
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And the usual thanks, of course!
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