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Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561585 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #180 on: December 18, 2008, 10:46:58 AM »
I'm Baaack! ;D

I'm gonna keep this short, sweet and simple.

Good Men, Good Women



Hou Hsiao-hsien, from what I've seen so far, is probably one of the greatest living visual directors. He knows how to manipulate each scene in such a way that it is visually engaging and distinct. However, as a storyteller, at least in this film, I think he need some work. The main problem is that the film never fully bridges the two parallel storylines, one in modern times, another during a war in Japan (which one I could never figure out). There's a difference from being ambiguous and unclear and I think this film falls into the second category. I also never really cared much for the story set in modern times mainly because the film never really gave me a reason to care about the characters. But this film looks absolutely amazing and fans of Hou Hsiao-hsien will probably love it on that level alone. I just wanted more of a story.

V.S.

Lifetimes (or To Live)
(We really need to change the title in the bracket for this film to Lifetimes. It's a title that makes much more sense than To Live after seeing the movie.)



Lifetimes is akin to the storyline of societal turmoil in Good Men, Good Women in that it follows an Chinese family through the period in which China shifted from Feudalism into Communism. I don't really want to get into specifics of the plots because as the title suggests this is more of a big picuter film, following the overall lifetimes of a married couple. From their early years as a couple to their last days Lifetimes captures something rarely seen on film: the joys of living. This film is vibrant, joyous and alive, capturing the sheer ecstasy of being alive and being part of a family, no matter how tough the hardships ahead. And the hardships are harsh. Lifetimes pulls no punches. What this family goes through is brutal and more than once it got a little dusty in the room. Yet even in the face of hardships the family finds time to reach out to those around them, sometimes to their detriment. And there's one scene in this film that will forever be etched into my mind as a scene so unexpectedly bittersweet that I wasn't sure whether to laugh with joy or cry in pain. Lifetimes captures both emotions as well as capturing life, a feat not to be taken lightly.

Verdict:

Before entering these brackets I didn't have a film I was pulling for, but now I do. Lifetimes is a film I'm really excited to revisit and really have a desire to share with my friend and family. If you haven't seen it put it up on your queue high. It's an amazing film that I can honestly say is one of the rare films I think everyone should watch.

roujin

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #181 on: December 18, 2008, 10:50:21 AM »
Good to see you back, sammy. Stick around!

I have no opinion on this matchup but Hou is great so we'll see.

Anyway, where is your Do the Right Thing review?

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #182 on: December 18, 2008, 10:51:37 AM »
Lifetimes (or To Live)
(We really need to change the title in the bracket for this film to Lifetimes. It's a title that makes much more sense than To Live after seeing the movie.)

I tried to use the DVD titles so that there wouldn't be too much confusion tracking down the films.  Where'd you see the title "Lifelines", by the way?  That's new to me.  I've only seen this movie referred to as To Live before.

Anyway, so glad you found a movie to champion.  That's awesome.  :D

pixote
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Thor

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #183 on: December 18, 2008, 10:55:13 AM »
Nice one Sam.
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worm@work

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #184 on: December 18, 2008, 11:01:24 AM »
Very nice writeups sammy and welcome back :). I haven't heard it referred to as Lifetimes either but regardless of title, the movie sounds fantastic. pix, I call dibs on this one for the second round (May I?) since I'll either love it like sammy does or I'll get a chance to bug Sam .. eitherways, I can't lose :p.

jbissell

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #185 on: December 18, 2008, 11:30:25 AM »

Anyway, where is your Do the Right Thing review?

YOU OWE ME.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #186 on: December 18, 2008, 03:38:45 PM »

Anyway, where is your Do the Right Thing review?

YOU OWE ME.
Sorry. Just know it is coming. Probably tomorrow morning.

Lifetimes (or To Live)
(We really need to change the title in the bracket for this film to Lifetimes. It's a title that makes much more sense than To Live after seeing the movie.)

I tried to use the DVD titles so that there wouldn't be too much confusion tracking down the films.  Where'd you see the title "Lifelines", by the way?  That's new to me.  I've only seen this movie referred to as To Live before.
Both IMDB and Cricketer have it listed that way. I'm just saying after seeing the movie Lifetimes makes more sense. 

edgar00

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #187 on: December 18, 2008, 04:41:56 PM »
That was an enjoyable verdict sam. Despite your reservations about Good Men, Good Women, I think I may still watch that movie sometime in the future.

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Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #188 on: December 18, 2008, 06:36:30 PM »
Heya, sam, nice having you back. I'm really interested in checking out To Live / Lifetimes now, sounds great.

Colleen

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #189 on: December 18, 2008, 07:02:49 PM »
The Soong Sisters vs. Bounce KO Gals

Interesting pairing.  The Soong Sisters is an oh-so-careful telling of the heady days of Chinese revolution between the 1900s-1930s and the role played by three sisters in a wealthy and powerful family.  The family were Methodists and the daughters all went to school in the United States, returning as cultured ladies at home in China and in the West.   One of the sisters married the wealthiest banker in China, who helped finance the various revolutionary movements; one married Sun Yat Sen and the other married Chiang Kai Shek.   The movie focuses on the ways that the alliances and fallings-out in the political movements (particularly between Sun Yat Sen's and Chiang Kai-Shek's political priorities) affected relationships within the family.

If you don't have a rudimentary knowledge of the history of that period in China, it will be very hard to know what's going on.  I had studied it a long time ago in college but still had to stop the movie and go read the Wikipedia article to refresh my memory.  It helped. 

The movie is one of those glossy, beautifully shot historical epics where the costumes and settings are fabulous, but the story itself becomes a bit stiff and stilted.  Gorgeous to look at but a little dull and the characters turn into mannequins.  I imagine that it was partly a function of the genre (I can think of a lot of historical costume dramas that have similar problems) and partly a function of how oh-so-carefully the story had to be structured and slanted to be approved by the current-day Chinese government.  I think a documentary about how the requirements of the Chinese government affected the making of the movie would be 10 times as interesting as this turned out to be.

From the story of women with important political power and abilities in the early 20th century, we move to an utterly different movie about a whole 'nother kind of "girl power."  Bounce KO Gals is a "ripped from the headlines" topical movie made in the mid 1990s in Japan, about the practice of "enjo-kosai" wherein older men pay high school girls in cash and/or expensive gifts to spend time with them.  Sometimes there is actual sex, sometimes just companionship (and karaoke!), and sometimes things are somewhere in the middle.   The story follows several of these girls, two of whom are old hands at the exchange (although they have different standards for what they will and won't do) and one who tries it "just the once" to get some extra cash before she leaves to go live and study in New York.  Instead she is taken advantage of and loses the nest egg she had carefully saved to take with her.  The rest of the plot follows her and the other girls through a night in which they try in various ways to get her money back or earn some to replace it. 

The most boring part of the movie is the actual relationship between the girls which is filled with scenes of giggling and otherwise bonding together.  While the plot is pulled this way and that to work in illustrations of various activities the girls engage in (here they are filming an erotic video!  here's one selling her panties!) and the dangers they face (here they nearly get raped!  here they are threatened by yakuza!) it is an enlightening look into the way that the total sexualization/fetishization of young girls intersects with the unaffordable material desires of actual flesh-and-blood young girls.  They are constantly ogled, groped and propositioned whether they participate in enjo-kosai or not--why shouldn't they get some compensation for it?  Like many other movies that try to show all the shocking things going on out there in the world, Bounce KO Gals has its cake and eats it--the plot clearly demonstrates disapproval of this practice and is supposed to show the dangers to the girls and the skeeviness of the men participating in it--but at the same time those men can rent this movie and see those poor exploited girls giggling, flashing their panties and oh-so-slowly pulling up those sexy loose socks over and over and over again...

In the end I wasn't blown away by either movie and wouldn't really recommend either of them, but Bounce KO Gals at least had some life to it.  The Soong Sisters was much prettier but ultimately flat and bloodless....send Bounce KO Gals through to the next round.