Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561534 times)

edgar00

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #460 on: February 28, 2009, 01:41:36 PM »
Pikunikku (1996, Shunji Iwai) against Love in the Time of Twilight (1995, Hark Tsui)

Pikunikku

Three young mentally challenged people, 2 boys and 1 girl, all patients at an institute, confuse the publication date of a bible copy to be the deadline for the end of the world. They set out in an attempt to find the perfect spot to view the spectacle. They do not take roads or sidewalks but rather stroll on ramps, walls and the rails of bridges to make it to their destination.

Combining drama, some laughs, dynamic camera movement and editing, strong acting and an impressive score, Pikunniku challenged me like few movies can. I was very impressed with the film as a whole, its story and how the latter played out in the end. I was unsure of what to expect when I chose the film for this current verdict. The result was a very pleasant surprise. It is a strong story with characters that I grew very found of by the end.

I don’t know what to say about this film. I just really like it. It finds a balance between character development and storyline within a very particular context, that of having three mentally ill characters as protagonists as opposed to secondary characters. Here there is no choice but to have them as layered people rather than cardboard crazy cut outs. It is an intriguing premise and the end product rewarded me with dividends I won’t soon forget. A good example of a film that has interesting potential but doesn’t squander it. Rather, it finds continuous inspiration from it.






Love in the Time of Twilight

Fooled by an attractive title, I yet again subjected myself to a film that, much like Justice My Foot! And Out of the Dark, sends more time offering gags on a level of humour that my funny bone is heavily shielded against.

A young woman who is a member of a dance theatre group, and a young male bank clerk stumble upon each other early in the film in rather bumbling fashion and take a great disliking to each other. Desperate to find a lover, the bank clerk hooks up with a complete stranger that same night. The stranger presses him to deposit some jewels at the bank the next day. It turns out she handed him pistols, as she was merely part of a scheme with a band of thieves to rob the bank in question. The bank clerk perishes in the process and, for reasons I’m not entirely clear on, returns as a spirit to the theatre dancer he hated at the beginning to help him rewrite history and prevent his death.

As mentioned above, the elastic face, ‘shit ghost’, intentional funny voices, slapstick humour rarely, if ever, earns any warm reception from me. I tend to go into these Far East matchups ‘cold’ as they say, which is a strategy I’ll need to change since 30% of my matchups so far have involved movies like this. I did begin to have fun once the theatre dancer and the bank clerk travel into the past in a wild attempt to rewrite history. As one can guess, there is a BTTF II vibe, with both characters trying to avoid contact with the past versions of themselves. It makes for some clever moments. Another sequence as both characters stuck on each other’s bodies, with their fronts sticking out on both sides (no backsides basically. I won’t explain how. If anyone is curious enough they can check the movie out). That also is funny, but the story shoots itself in the foot immediately afterwards with an overly dramatic romance twist. All in all, good moments, but just not the kind of film I like.

Verdict: Pikunikku
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worm@work

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #461 on: February 28, 2009, 02:07:05 PM »
Nice verdict, edgar and you really made me want to watch Pikunikku! Plus, I loved All About Lily Chou-Chou. I think I might try and snag either April Story (if it gets resurrected) or Pikunikku in the next round and Pikunikku definitely sounds like the better choice :).

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #462 on: February 28, 2009, 02:09:36 PM »
April Story (if it gets resurrected)

...which edgar hated!  There's just no telling with this Iwai character!

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

worm@work

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #463 on: February 28, 2009, 02:14:58 PM »
April Story (if it gets resurrected)

...which edgar hated!  There's just no telling with this Iwai character!

pixote

Yeah, which is sorta why i'm so curious :).

sdedalus

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #464 on: February 28, 2009, 02:16:16 PM »
It's so good.
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Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #465 on: February 28, 2009, 02:27:05 PM »
Nice verdict, edgar, Pikunikku sounds awesome!

roujin

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #466 on: February 28, 2009, 04:54:00 PM »
Black Jack is awesome.

duder

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #467 on: March 07, 2009, 09:29:08 PM »
Undo

Clocking in at a mere 47 minutes, Undo doesn't offer much in the way of plot. Basically, it tells the story of a young couple, Yukio and Moemi, and their struggle in dealing with the latter's increasingly problematic knot tying obsession. Not terribly interesting until about two thirds in, when Yukio gives up on trying to understand Moemi's condition and decides to start indulging her whims, at which point the movie devolves into a sort of pseudo-'bondage erotica' with increasingly high stakes, as Yukio keeps tying Moemi tighter and tighter and Moemi keeps saying it's not tight enough.



Cute, eh? :)

It's Iwai's treatment of image and sound that sets the movie apart, however. Plenty of sensuous close-ups of teeth licking...



...and water splashing...



...and drills going into turtle shells...



...as well as generally beautiful images.




 
Yes?


The Underground Banker

Ehm, no.



Truth. I can't even figure out what it is they're going for ("welcome to CAT III, duder!"). I mean, it plays like a sex comedy, but rape is not very funny — especially not when it's supposed to double as erotica — , and neither is this:



This excerpt from my comments on From Beijing With Love applies here:

Something like this is necessary, because it's what springs the dumb-looking butchertruck driver-turned-spycrazy psycho into action but CINECAST! it, it was pretty tasteless.

And this one from my comments on The Quiet Family applies as well:

I guess it's supposed to be a 'dark comedy' or whatever, but I wasn't laughing. And if you're not laughing, there's really not much else to hang on to. It's just kind of sadistic and unpleasant.

I need to do a better job of picking my movies from now on. Is there anything on the list with flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate where the children dance and laugh and play with gumdrop smiles? Because that's what I need right now  :-\

...

roujin

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #468 on: March 07, 2009, 09:36:26 PM »
erotica!

edgar00

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #469 on: March 07, 2009, 09:47:50 PM »
You could have merely posted those 3 screen caps from The Underground Banker with no text at all and I'd still say Undo should move on.
-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/