Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561649 times)

worm@work

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7445
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #130 on: November 26, 2008, 09:29:21 AM »
Phew, I'm not sure I'd have survived an upset on this one. I think I see why you had a problem with the ending and remember finding it a bit odd as well but in an amusing way. I wasn't really annoyed by it at all. I really love this movie and am saddened by the fact that you didn't find it special. The whole idea of not knowing what it is you are really good at and trying to figure it all out really resonated with me. I fell in love with these characters and was really rooting for Shizuku to figure out what she wants to do with her life. I loved all the little details like the fact that her apartment felt so real and lived in to me, the relationship that Shizuku and her sister share with their dad, the magic and beauty of the antique store and just everything. The ending scene when she sees Seiji from the window and the following scene is just so great (barring the one thing that I agree doesn't work in that scene). Love this movie and am glad to see it move on.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2008, 09:57:22 AM by worm@work »

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #131 on: November 26, 2008, 09:38:17 AM »
Second all of what worm said.

I love, love, love this movie.

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #132 on: November 26, 2008, 09:58:47 AM »
I love, love, love this movie.

Have you seen Memories, too?  If so, did you have a similar response to Magnetic Rose?

Nice verdict, FifthCityMuse.  Hope your video store comes through so i get to read more from you.  :)

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #133 on: November 26, 2008, 10:02:17 AM »
I love, love, love this movie.

Have you seen Memories, too?  If so, did you have a similar response to Magnetic Rose?

Nice verdict, FifthCityMuse.  Hope your video store comes through so i get to read more from you.  :)

I haven't seen Memories but I have it right here and I've wanted to watch it for a while now cuz of the Koji Morimoto connection.

worm@work

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7445
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #134 on: November 26, 2008, 11:28:02 AM »
The Peony Pavilion (Kuo-fu Chen, 1995) vs. Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring (Stan Lai, 1992)

The Peony Pavilion

This film is, apparently, a modern take on a classical Chinese play about an official's young daughter who falls in love with a man she sees in her dreams. In this version, we instead have a modern day Chinese schoolgirl who keeps having the same dream where she sees an actor from a Chinese Opera that she can't seem to forget and perhaps falls in love with. The entire first half of the movie sets up the angst-ridden life of these two teenage girls. Unfortunately, nothing from this episode worked for me. I found the silly conversations between the girls mostly uninteresting and the gravity of the issues faced by the girl just didn't ring true for me. Consequently, the first half, which I think is supposed to be tragic and affecting left me mostly bored :(. In the second half, the movie turns into a more psychological ghost story of sorts. This features an entirely new protagonist in the form of a young pop singer who ends up living in the same apartment that the young girl used to live in. No points for guessing what goes down after that. Most of this stuff didn't really improve the movie for me either. I don't understand why anyone would leave an apartment untouched for a few years (at least I thought it was a few years later). Overall, the movie fell completely flat for me. I have to add a disclaimer here. One of the reasons I picked this matchup is because my library had a DVD copy of the movie which I believe is extremely hard to find. However, the subtitles on the dvd were appallingly bad. There were lots of subs missing including situations where two characters would be having a conversation and only one side of the conversation would have subs! This was really frustrating but sadly, I don't really think perfect subs would have helped improve this movie for me. On a related note, either the existing subs were really bad as well or the movie just has a lot of really random innuendo. For instance:

This is a conversation between two apparently virginal schoolgirls where they are discussing a boy form a neighboring school:

Girl 1: So how would you rate him?

Girl 2: 68

Girl 3: That low? But..... he has so much stamina!

 ???  ???  ???

In another scene, this woman is sitting in her bedroom looking really pensive when her boyfriend comes into the room and says "How can you be so out of it? What if a rapist comes in?"

HUH?
Anyway, pretty odd movie overall. On the good side, I quite liked the Chinese Opera scenes that she kept dreaming about!

Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring

When pixote and me were picking movies for my matchup, we picked this pair based on the fact that I had access to Peony Pavilion and peonies and peach blossoms sounded good together! I was really pleased to find that this matchup was appropriate for more reasons than that. Like Peony Pavilion, this film too features both a Chinese play and Chinese Opera. The premise of the movie is really promising. Two plays (a tragedy and a comedy) are rehearsing simultaneously on the same stage and after an initial period of conflict, the two plays find it increasingly hard to stay separate and end up drawing from one another. Frankly, I think I mostly like this movie in theory rather than execution. A large part of the movie is just scenes from these two plays both of which are really rather melodramatic. Consequently, it was rather hard for me to separate the over-the-top acting in the play from the actual performances in the movie. Secondly, I didn't find the situational comedy of the two troupes each trying to assert their rights over the stage very funny either. What I did like about this movie though is the way the two plays gradually blend into one another. This was done pretty creatively and I enjoyed seeing that blending of comedy and tragedy, traditional and modern. There are two strange women wearing sunglasses who appear intermittently in the movie and I am not sure I know what their role is supposed to be. It is entirely possible that I didn't get some major political metaphor in the movie though.

Overall, I can't say that either of these films won me over completely but Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring was definitely the more interesting viewing experience and that's why it moves on to the second round.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2008, 11:54:48 AM by worm@work »

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #135 on: November 26, 2008, 10:33:45 PM »
Peony Pavillion sounds hilarious.  I can't wait to see it.  :)

Sorry these films weren't great discoveries for you.  They sound interesting on paper, anyway (the paper here being your writeups).

"How can you be so out of it? What if a rapist comes in?"

I'm determined to use this line in real life at least three times before the end of the year.

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #136 on: November 26, 2008, 11:20:05 PM »
Well, it turns out her reason for attending the school in question is an unfulfilled crush on a boy who was a year higher than her back in high school. She had adoring goo-goo eyes for the boy and, when she discovered that he went to Tokyo for his future studies, well, the logical solution was to follow suit.

I just kinda noticed this. This kinda shit turns up all the time in tv dramas and animes over in Japan. I don't know if it's just cuz I'm familiar with those tropes that it no longer bothers me... but it was funny that you brought it up. Anyway, the movie isn't good... unlike Iwai's Chou-Chou but something like that is the least of its problems.

I'm pretty excited about both my films but I can't watch them until after school ends. Oh well.

edgar00

  • 00 Agent
  • Objectively Awesome
  • *
  • Posts: 12131
  • corndogs are better than Die Another Day
    • Between The Seats
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #137 on: November 27, 2008, 07:55:40 AM »
That's what bothered me the most about the film because it's basically the entire set up. Now that you've pointed that such a plot point occurs frequently in Japanese movies and books, I'm beginning to wonder if my dismissive attitude towards the film was the result of the cultural divide (I'm born and raised in North America). If that is indeed the case, then I'll admit that I am perhaps beginning to feel a bit sorry for my treatment of the film in my write up. Still, where I come from that's good old fashioned stalking, not something I look upon very highly and certainly not a character trait that will get me rooting for the hero or heroine.
-Le Chiffre: You changed your shirt, Mr Bond. I hope our little game isn't causing you to perspire.

-James Bond: A little. But I won't consider myself to be in trouble until I start weeping blood.

https://twitter.com/Betweentheseats
http://crabkeyheadquarters.wordpress.com/

FifthCityMuse

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3375
  • Good work, sycophants!
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #138 on: December 02, 2008, 07:43:52 PM »
I'd just like to remind pix of my verdict of "Whisper of the Heart" winning out over "Memories".

I'll also say that my review of "Whisper of the Heart", looking back, doesn't entirely convey how I really felt. I liked it more than I let on there. And large parts did work.

Melvil

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 9977
  • Eek
Re: 1990s Far East Bracket - Verdicts
« Reply #139 on: December 02, 2008, 08:29:12 PM »

Village of Dreams (1996, Yoichi Higashi)

The story of troublesome nine-year-old twins, Seizo and Yukihiko, growing up in a country village in Japan.

The twins are first introduced as middle-aged men, collaborating on an illustrated story book of their childhood. Scenes from this time nicely bookend the film, but the rest is set 50 years in the past as a recollection of their childhood.

Growing up, they live with their mother and older sister, and attend school in the mornings. The story is, primarily, about ordinary life and the bond between the two brothers. The performances of the two boys are really worth watching for alone. I'm not sure how old they are, IMDB says 9, but that can't be right. I'd say 5 is closer. Anyways, they are completely natural on screen, and there are a few scenes that are so genuine I can't imagine how they could have been staged. They are a lot of fun to watch, and the supporting cast (including a few of the other children) are really good as well.

One aspect of the movie that didn't work for me is a supernatural element, primarily revolving around three spirits in the form of old, gossiping women. It seemed completely unnecessary, and I think I would have liked it more if it had stuck to being a strictly realistic portrayal. Or since the story is being told by the twins, they could have played the supernatural up more as a way to express the imagination of the kids at the time. There was a point where I thought that was the direction it was going, and I thought it might work really well, but as it is it's just kinda pointless.

But that's really a very small element of the film, and the rest was really enjoyable. 



Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996, Peter Chan)

Jun arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, hoping to be able to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend back home. He meets the streetwise Qiao and they become friends. As friendship turns into love, problems develop, and although they seem meant for each other they somehow keep missing out.

Almost? There's no almost about it, this is a love story. :)

It's appropriate that these two movies are facing each other, because both of their central themes deal with relationships (granted in two very different ways). The relationship between Jun and Qiao is the one that carries the film here, and it does it magnificently. They have amazing chemistry, and the story is just beautifully told. All of the characters feel genuine, and it treats them all very fairly, which a movie like this could have easily screwed up.

I don't want to go into detail on the story, which I would have to do to discuss it more, but I really loved this movie. When it wasn't getting a little dusty it had me grinning. Fantastic.



Verdict

I'm really glad I saw both movies, and I would recommend them both, but there's a clear winner here. Comrades, Almost a Love Story moves on.