Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561665 times)

duder

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #680 on: June 18, 2009, 10:20:54 PM »
obviously the lead actor, blanking on the name, is fantastic,

The director is pretty versatile and shows a wonderful mastery of the craft without getting too experimental

They're the same person :)
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FLYmeatwad

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #681 on: June 18, 2009, 10:24:43 PM »
obviously the lead actor, blanking on the name, is fantastic,

The director is pretty versatile and shows a wonderful mastery of the craft without getting too experimental

They're the same person :)

I hadn't checked, but as I was typing I thought, 'it would be kind of cool if they were the same person.' Obviously he communications this through the film somehow. What a visionary!

duder

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #682 on: June 18, 2009, 10:28:33 PM »
obviously the lead actor, blanking on the name, is fantastic,

The director is pretty versatile and shows a wonderful mastery of the craft without getting too experimental

They're the same person :)

I hadn't checked, but as I was typing I thought, 'it would be kind of cool if they were the same person.' Obviously he communications this through the film somehow. What a visionary!

He's one of my favorites, and he already had two other movies on the second round, yay!
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Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #683 on: June 18, 2009, 11:39:01 PM »
Stephen Chow is awesome, glad to hear he's got another movie in the second round. It'll be on my list of movies to try and check out in the upcoming rounds.

sdedalus

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #684 on: June 19, 2009, 03:03:29 AM »
He'll have at least two more when I get around to finishing my verdicts.
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Thor

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #685 on: June 19, 2009, 09:00:48 AM »
He'll have at least two more when I get around to finishing my verdicts.

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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #686 on: June 19, 2009, 09:26:35 AM »
Intriguing!

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #687 on: June 19, 2009, 07:33:33 PM »
Dr. Akagi

I wasn't able to make heads nor tails of this film at first. I stopped about 45 minutes in to do a little internet research. I was hoping to figure out what, if anything, I was missing. This isn't something I'd usually do, but I suspected that if I just continued on for the last 90 minutes I would only become more frustrated and bitter.

From what I gather this movie is typical of director Shohei Imamura. A director who has said himself that he likes to make messy films. One critic describes this characteristic as useful, in that it mimics the disorderly nature of life. I didn't find that the fractured style did much more than distract me. But mostly it was the stories told within these fragments that I had a problem with. They just weren't very interesting. We follow a handful of misfits around through a variety of escapades that are just as odd as they are. There's a lot of dark humour in these tales, but it was so goofy it made me roll my eyes. Actually, a lot of the movie made me roll my eyes. My research didn't end up helping me enjoy the movie. It probably made me even more frustrated. I discovered it wasn't so much that I was missing anything, it was just that I didn't feel the same way about it as most.

Too quixotic and silly for my tastes I think. Except the ending, which was excellent. Why couldn't the rest of the movie be that great? Also, I felt it was much too long.





Samurai Fiction

This movie was all kinds of cool. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. The black & white cinematography has a wonderful comic-book feel that lends itself perfectly to the action. On top of that most of the swordplay is backed by electric guitar. It sounds weird I know, but it works!

The trailer gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o914FQUaB1M#

It's just too bad the rest of the movie isn't as good as it looks and sounds. The acting is so crumby that it wasn't long before I was asking myself whether I was watching a real samurai flick or just a parody. Actually I think it is suppose to be a comedy of sorts, but it's more goofy than it is funny. The plot isn't much to behold either. Something about a lost sword, and a foolhardy official's son on a quest to recover it. It's got all of the usual characters. An old wise master, his beautiful daughter, and a brooding villain. It's a very uneven movie. At times it takes itself waaaay to seriously, and wastes a lot of time trying to add depth to the story with heavy dialogue. At other times it's a farce. I was more or less nodding off during any scene that wasn't accompanied by electric guitar.

I was certain that I was going to push this film on to round 2 after the first couple minutes, and by the end I wanted nothing to do with it.



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« Last Edit: June 18, 2016, 11:29:01 PM by smirnoff »

worm@work

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #688 on: June 19, 2009, 08:04:48 PM »
Awww. nice verdict smirnoff :). I was v. curious about the Imamura but now not so much. Pity neither of them impressed you much :-\. This spate of verdicts is totally making me feel guilty about sitting on my own matchup for so long.

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #689 on: June 19, 2009, 08:13:04 PM »
Awww. nice verdict smirnoff :). I was v. curious about the Imamura but now not so much. Pity neither of them impressed you much :-\. This spate of verdicts is totally making me feel guilty about sitting on my own matchup for so long.

Thanks worm. I know I tend to sit on these far east films for a while too. For me part of it is that I don't have any idea what I'm going to be sitting down to most of the time. It can be hard to get in the mood.  :-\

Also, I am adding spate to my vocabulary. thanks :)