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Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561659 times)

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1240 on: July 05, 2010, 12:06:34 AM »
Love the formatting, Bondo.

Perhaps your next matchups shouldn't include one of the very top seeds.  Then again, you did love After Life.

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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1241 on: July 05, 2010, 07:36:56 AM »
Heh, with people adding links and then quotes to round one verdicts I thought I had to up my game so I used the screen-shot/imdb link part of the formatting I stole from Smirnoff (I don't know how to do that table stuff) and just swap in the quote.

Anyway, I did think I was setting it up to be a favorable situation for Happy Together; it just didn't work out. It is one I hope will be resurrected because I don't want its fate to be left up to my whims given its immense popularity.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1242 on: July 05, 2010, 08:45:09 AM »
Yay for controversy! Although, I'm sure HT will get resurrected so it doesn't really matter.

Still, yay for controversy!

worm@work

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1243 on: July 05, 2010, 11:39:49 AM »
vs.

M/Other (Nobuhiro Suwa, 1999) vs. The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (Hong Sang-Soo, 1996)



I don't really know what I can say about this film that edgar hasn't already articulated in his two articulately written reviews for the first round of this bracket. How awesome is this bracket that it leads to the discovery of a film with only 127 votes and one review on IMDB that will most likely make my Top 20 Discoveries of the year.

Plotwise, it's a really simple film. It focuses on a divorced restaurateur and his live-in girlfriend who seem to share a warm and affectionate relationship albeit one that seems to avoid the issue of commitment. Early in the film, the delicate balance of this relationship is disturbed when Tetsuro is forced to bring his young son, Shun, into the house he shares with Aki when his ex-wife is hospitalized following a car accident. Like edgar says, this film masterfully avoids the formulaic Hollywood plot progression that one tends to expect given the premise. What really really works in this film is not so much what the story is about but the way the story is told.

The film reminded me of Cassavetes in that a lot of the film feels improvised and relies extensively on the actors fleshing out dialogues and possibly even plot details. It wasn't at all surprising to see that the two leads get screenwriting credits on the film. The other thing that really stands out about the film is also the visual style. The film feels a little voyeuristic as though we are secretly peeking into the very private lives of these characters. Suwa also seems to love shooting people through doorways and windows or in reflection and that just adds to this feeling. As edgar already pointed out, the camera doesn't really move around a whole lot. It often stays static for several minutes at a time with the characters walking in and out of frame and the film mostly avoids any sort of traditional blocking. This just adds to the realism that the improvised dialogue already brings to the film. Wikipedia tells me that Suwa started his film career making television documentaries and that background definitely shows through in this film.

Somehow Suwa has succeeded in making a film that despite it's length feels constantly engaging and is rigorously formal and deliberate in its pacing while still feeling spontaneous and realistic. Plus, without relying on too many plot points or backstory, it manages to make these characters feel incredibly human and complex. The lead actress in particular delivers a really brilliant and yet subtle performance managing to embody Aki's an entire tapestry of emotions - the growing affection towards Shun, a mixture of love and repressed frustration towards Tetsuro, her own insecurities regarding her choice to not live up to the traditional role of a Japanese housewife.

It's a really quiet and intimate film that packs so much emotional punch. There are so many moments in the film where see two people make a connection and these moments are so naturalistic and yet filled with such warmth and joy. Such a perfect ending too.



Quote from: Bluevoid
"What did I just watch?".  Those were my thoughts immediately after watching Hong Sangsoo's debut feature film.
I think it helped that I had read Bluevoid's first round review of this film and was prepared for a complex narrative structure. The structure is definitely unconventional and challenging. The film basically follows four characters - a struggling writer, a young woman who seems to be one of his multiple lovers, a housewife who is also in a relationship with the writer and her husband who is a businessman who is often away from home on business. The film follows an episodic structure with each episode seemingly focused on merely describing a day in the life of each of these characters but then gradually goes on to reveal how these characters and their lives are connected.

To begin with, I think I liked this film a fair bit more than Bluevoid did. That being said, i can totally understand Bluevoid's frustration with the film. The film initially seems to be focused on quotidian everyday events but as the film progresses, these are punctured by scenes that don't seem to quite fit into the narrative. There's a dream sequence (or at least that's what I think it is) that's not clearly marked as one. The changes in the focus from one protagonist to the other makes it difficult to build an emotional connection with any of the characters. These changes also lead to ellipses in the narrative that makes it harder to keep track of the plot. But where my reaction differs from Bluevoid's response to the film is that having gone along for the ride and given in to this complex structure, I found the structure to be my favorite thing about the film.

The film is basically one of alienation and a sense of disconnect that all of these characters are plagued with and the structure somehow served to really bring that sense of disconnect to life for me. The film is also shot mostly inside cramped spaces making the sense of claustrophobia physically palpable. So despite these narrative ellipses and the shifting focus, the film did end up being resonating emotionally for me.

The characters in this film are amongst the most pathetic characters ever written. They all seem to be stuck in this spiral of self-destructive behavior that they can't seem to get out of. Normally, I have a hard time watching films with completely despicable characters but there's something about the image of Dong-woo sitting on the motel bed with his head down and his body shaking uncontrollably that was completely harrowing to watch.

Quote from: Bluevoid
There are shots that are absolutely inconsequential.  Even after the second viewing, they had nothing at all to do with anything in the movie, and were in no way interesting.  It baffles me why they were included.  It would have been excusable if this was only a couple scenes, but it seemed it was more like every other scene.
I had a different response to these scenes. These seemingly useless scenes that seem to make up the mundane lives of these characters seem necessary to establish that sense of emptiness and vacuity that ails these people. And by the end, I felt like these seemingly random scenes and pieces of dialogue are essential to the larger narrative. I rewatched several parts of the film this morning and certainly feel that one gets a lot more from the film on rewatching it.

Quote from: Bluevoid
the movie was just completely plain visually.  There were no shots which were visually interesting, and the cinematography made me want to take a nap.
Here I am in complete agreement with Bluevoid. I think Hong is deliberately choosing a  stripped down, flat visual style but the film really does end up looking rather ugly.

Verdict: I appreciate what Hong is doing in The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well and ultimately think it's pretty successful at drawing these connections between disconnection and violence and this sense of alienation and hopelessness as a malady suffered by modern men. But ultimately, the film just left me feeling really depressed and dirty (which I guess is the point). I also don't think that I necessarily like all of the directorial choices that Hong makes, especially the visual style (or lack thereof).
M/Other on the other hand felt pretty perfect to me. It's engaging, perfectly paced, well-acted and left me itching to watch more Suwa and more movies in general.
M/Other moves on and will hopefully go deep in this bracket.

Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1244 on: July 05, 2010, 01:31:59 PM »
tiny, I'm so glad to hear how much you liked Whisper of the Heart. Just makes me that much more excited to check it out myself.

Bondo, didn't see that coming! I'm glad you enjoyed Supermarket Woman though. I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of Minbo, and how they compare.

worm, great writeup! I really want to see M/Other now. Sounds awesome.

Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1245 on: July 05, 2010, 01:49:01 PM »
Bondo, didn't see that coming! I'm glad you enjoyed Supermarket Woman though. I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of Minbo, and how they compare.

Yeah, I'm excited to see, since they star the same actress. Though the Yakuza angle may be less fertile ground than a supermarket for me. We'll see. And Jin-Roh should have a good shot too since I am big on animation generally. Looking forward to both.

BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1246 on: July 06, 2010, 06:30:18 AM »
Nice verdict W@W.  I'm happy you got more out of Pig than I did.  I knew there was something there, it just didn't work for me.
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BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1247 on: July 06, 2010, 10:14:36 PM »
Audition
Takashi Miike
1999
Japan

VS.

Don't Cry, Nanking
Wu Ziniu
1995
China



Audition

Bill's Round 1 Verdict

A brilliantly conceived and fearlessly executed horror film.  The set-up isn't anything too radical.  A middle aged man, Shigeharu Aoyama, has lost his wife to an illness and sometime later is urged by his teenage son to get remarried.  Aoyama's friend has a plan.  They hold an audition for a fake movie casting, where each candidate is actually auditioning to be Aoyama's wife.  The woman he picks seems perfect, only things start to go wrong.


Director Takashi Miike is renowned for his graphic, unflinching approach to filmmaking, and 'Audition' in particular has a reputation as being extremely difficult to watch.  To his credit Miike doesn't revel in gore.  There is much more here than gratuitous violence, and the parts that are difficult to watch do not make up a major part of the film.  It is a beautifully shot film, and every scene is there for a reason. 


Miike carefully sets up a complete story, full of emotional depth.  It starts off slow, taking its time to set up the premise and its characters.  There is no villain straight off.  This isn't your customary slasher film.  It goes at its own pace, and actually tells a compelling story.  Asami, the girl which Aoyama has picked, isn't merely a shallow murderer, but a complex individual.  Miike goes to great lengths to paint her in a sympathetic light, and as the audience you want her to be good.  It's this connection which makes the infamous torture scene work so well. It is a dark, twisted movie to be sure, but its earned and that is what ultimately makes it a great film.



Don't Cry, Nanking


Smirnoff's Round 1 Verdict

Brutal. Sickening. Inhumane.  These words are not nearly strong enough to describe the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre.  The film focuses on the Japanese overtaking and occupying the Chinese city of Nanking where hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed while thousands more women raped.  Guiding us on this harrowing depiction of the 'battle' is a Chinese man and his Japanese wife, their children and their struggle to survive the horrors of the event.


It is easy to be numbed by the sheer quantity of murders and rapes that take place over the course of the movie.  By taking a subset of this devastation, the family, and showing their intimate survival tale allows the magnitude of the horror to sink in.  The fact that the wife and her daughter are Japanese magnifies the absurdity of the brutality.  The Japanese and Chinese cultures are not so far removed that the soldiers can simply disregard their humanity.  Their own countrymen are among those that they blindly massacre.  On the flip side, it gives the Japanese a reprieve of sorts.  The Japanese are portrayed very harshly in the film as heartless beasts, which is accurate of the events.  Having the Japanese wife shows that this is not indicative of the entire Japanese population at the time, but of the soldiers. It serves as a useful tool to bridge the Japanese and Chinese sides without diminishing the focus of the film.


This is not an easy film to sit through.  I was full of emotion, ranging from sadness to rage, watching the relentless disregard for human life.  At one point a soldier comments that it was a shame that the person he just killed wasn't a pig so that they could eat it.  Pigs worth more than humans.  This is the sentiment that the film portrays.  There is a complete disregard for life and it is utterly heartbreaking to watch.  Its overwhelming to witness the large scale massacres and its mind boggling to think about how many extras it took to film.  By using such huge quantities of people it gives scope to how many people actually suffered during the battle.  Its a devastating and haunting look at an inhumane massacre and one that will stick in my mind for a long time.


Verdict: This is a tough one.  I thought for sure Audition was going to run away with this matchup.  I wasn't expecting Nanking to pack as big a punch as it did.  To tell the truth, it was the more disturbing film to watch.  That being said, I'm still moving Audition on, but its with a heavy heart that I leave Don't Cry, Nanking behind.
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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1248 on: July 06, 2010, 11:18:55 PM »
I did not like Audition. I felt it did revel in the gore. In my write up I even called it torture porn (Bill disagreed with me sharply with that designation, but I stand by it). Ah well, there's always next round to hope it loses. From the sound of it I'd like to see Don't Cry, Nanking resurrected, though I'm also not sure I really want to put myself through that.

Bill Thompson

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1249 on: July 07, 2010, 03:22:40 AM »
Any movie that limits its gore to about two minutes of over a two hour run time does not revel in its gore. But I digress, great write-ip BV, so happy to see Audition move on.