Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561735 times)

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1920 on: June 03, 2013, 03:16:56 AM »
pixote, excited for another resurrection review opportunity?

Very! Updating my Netflix queue as we speak.

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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1921 on: June 03, 2013, 12:13:01 PM »
A Scene at the Sea (1991) vs. Festival (1996)



These two films are polar opposites. A Scene at the Sea is filled with lots of wordless long takes where the characters simply inhabit and exist in a place and time. Festival constantly has characters narrating, talking, reminiscing and arguing. A Scene at the Sea centers on two characters spending a lot of time at the beach. He surfs, she watches.  Festival is an ensemble piece about an entire family coming together after their grandmother dies.

While it is true that one film is much closer to my person tastes in film, it just so happens that it’s also the film that does a much better job at being what it sets out to be. A Scene at the Sea goes all out with its commitment to an aesthetic and the idea, so much so that both characters are mute. It is their actions that speak of their affections, fears, mistrusts and devotions. Plenty of characters talk around them, both in terms of being around them and not quite understanding them, but they never feel the need to explain themselves to others.

Meanwhile, Festival can never fully commit to anything. The voiceover appears and wanes as the film feels it needs to drop information on the audience, the film follows the family members, then it follows an outside reporter (another hackney tool to present information to the audience), then it follows the family members again. There are flashbacks, but they lack cohesion of purpose. Are these to paint a portrait of the dying grandmother or are they trying to demonstrate the nature of the family?



And then there is the whole upbeat nature of the family that seems to keep forgetting that they’ve come together because of the grandmother’s death. Drinking and partying happens until someone remembers and hushes everyone to represent the proper amount of grief. This, too, fails to lack clarity.

Festival tries to be more, but the purity and simplicity of A Scene at the Sea is so much better. Some might say this is because it is less ambitious, and it is, but I think it’s just as hard, if not harder, to make a film as simple as compelling as it ends up being. Festival is sloppy, using lazy techniques to deliver an overabundance of information that doesn’t feel like it adds up to anything. A Scene at the Sea gives the audience just enough to remain interested and invest in the characters, which is always a hard thing to achieve in this style of film.

Above all else, A Scene at the Sea ended up being a lot more enjoyable. Watching the boy slowly acclimate to surfing while the girl wordlessly watches on is a much more low-key, relaxing affair. It feels like taking a vacation with these characters, experiencing moments of reprieve in their lives. The almost constant soundscape of the rolling waves is soothing and relaxing. In contrast, Festival feels cluttered, noisy, obnoxious and overbearing.

Verdict



A Scene at the Sea moves up to the next bracket. Yes, I’m partial to this style of film, but it’s also much better at realizing its style than Festival is at realizing its style. How long it will last will probably live or die with the disposition of whoever covers it next, which is fine. It’s not a film for everyone, I can’t see this film making it into the final sixteen, but it will probably be one of my favorites of the bracket by the time we get to the end.

Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1922 on: June 03, 2013, 12:17:45 PM »
WOOHOO! :D

Too bad that Festival wasn't better, but I'm very relieved that A Scene at the Sea is sticking around. Still one of my best bracket discoveries.

1SO

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1923 on: June 03, 2013, 02:00:18 PM »
A Scene at the Sea is where filmmaker Takeshi Kitano strips away the violence that he's known for and showed me real range as an artist. This was a discovery that put him well above many filmmakers working today. If you're interested, Dolls is another of his films working in a similar style.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1924 on: June 03, 2013, 03:16:04 PM »
I'm definitely going to watch more of his stuff, I believe Dolls was one of the films that caught my eye.

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1925 on: June 04, 2013, 08:39:31 PM »

Fist of Legend
(Gordon Chan, 1994)
Round 1 review by Edgar
Round 2 review by ProperCharlie
                    VS                   

Tokyo Fist
(Shin'ya Tsukamoto, 1995)
Round 1 review by Wilson
Round 2 review by roujin




Fist of Legend

The title promises much, but does this fist have what it takes to become a bad Halloween costume?


Not really.

The one-note fights in this film had me longing for something with more weapons and props. The punching and kicking began to repeat itself. Jet Li's character, who I assumed was the possessor of the titular fist, didn't even have a signature move. The film hints at him having learned some boxing at some point, and you occasionally see that influence his style, but for the most part it's pretty generic.

The story interested me in a meta way. I don't need to look it up to tell you that I've had a higher success rate with the films from China in this bracket than those from Japan. And this movie is very much a China vs Japan story. Who's martial arts is better? Is it okay to intermarry? These are the issues this film bluntly uses to inject conflict into the story. For me it just got me thinking about the sensibilities of Chinese films from the 90's compared to Japanese films from the same time period. To generalize, my sense of 90's cinema from Japan is that it's artful, weird, brave and usually very hard to relate to. And Chinese cinema is a conventional crap shoot, much like how I think of Hollywood films from that same time. Safe, by the numbers, sometimes successful. Again, generally.

Fist of Legend is paint-by-numbers bad, unfortunately. But is it good enough to top its Japanese opponent?



Tokyo Fist

This is worse than City of the Rising Sun, because it's not very good and it's annoying.  :-\

The connection is that they're both about boxing and have really irritating training sequences. Tokyo Fist is the Grand Poobah of this. After the first of many leering montages feel free to grab a snack. I assure you, one is as ineffectual as the next.

The story is about a weak-willed paper shuffler who loses his girlfriend to a oafish fighter. It may sound like an injustice but both men are equally unlikable so you don't really care who gets the girl.

When the film isn't screaming at you during a montages it's presenting you with expressionless characters walking, sitting, or looking in mirrors. To keep yourself occupied during these parts I suggest you play a game of trying to predict when the characters will blink. It's quite challenging and it will keep you amused long enough to making it through the scene.

A contender for worst film I've seen in the bracket.



Verdict: Fist of Legend. It's now 3-0 on account of facing some pretty weak same-genre competition.

1SO

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1926 on: June 04, 2013, 09:39:59 PM »
Fist of Legend is better than you give it credit for, thanks to the fight choreography by Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix). This isn't as strong of a story as Donny Yuen's Ip Man, but the fight scenes are every bit as good.

I'm sure Tokyo Fist has soured you forever on Shin'ya Tsukamoto. He's actually a really good director who doesn't get much attention around here let alone love. Fist is his worst film. After the surprise early success of Tetsuo, Tsukamoto kind of went down a hole of cranking out similar, though thematically more shallow variations of the same style. He came back strong in 1999 with Gemini (Sôseiji) a mind-bending supernatural thriller. This was followed by the Lynchian A Snake of June. His filmography is hit and miss, but there are some memorable ones. Tokyo Fist is best forgotten.

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1927 on: June 05, 2013, 12:00:22 PM »
I believe that's the first failed matchup of the third round. Otherwise, we seem to have done a good job collectively of advancing the better films. For some reason, though, I'm still curious to check out Tokyo First, so this wasn't a total loss, from my selfish point of view. :)

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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1928 on: June 05, 2013, 08:42:44 PM »
Fist of Legend is better than you give it credit for, thanks to the fight choreography by Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix). This isn't as strong of a story as Donny Yuen's Ip Man, but the fight scenes are every bit as good.

Interesting. I watched the English dub and it had COMPLETELY different music. I watched that clip and it immediately knew something was off. The music in the English dub is much more ominous. It looks like the voice work in that youtube clip is also dubbed. I'm glad I happened to see the version I did.

I'm sure Tokyo Fist has soured you forever on Shin'ya Tsukamoto. He's actually a really good director who doesn't get much attention around here let alone love. Fist is his worst film. After the surprise early success of Tetsuo, Tsukamoto kind of went down a hole of cranking out similar, though thematically more shallow variations of the same style. He came back strong in 1999 with Gemini (Sôseiji) a mind-bending supernatural thriller. This was followed by the Lynchian A Snake of June. His filmography is hit and miss, but there are some memorable ones. Tokyo Fist is best forgotten.

I'm sure he's a capable director, but the sort of films he appears to favour working on aren't really my thing.



I believe that's the first failed matchup of the third round. Otherwise, we seem to have done a good job collectively of advancing the better films. For some reason, though, I'm still curious to check out Tokyo First, so this wasn't a total loss, from my selfish point of view. :)

Reminiscent of Talking Head. :-\

BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1929 on: June 06, 2013, 10:34:20 AM »
Loving all these great verdicts!

I haven't had time to respond to them all, but I read them as soon as they go up. This bracket is so great!

Sam: I had similar feelings towards Festival. I liked that you picked up Sopyonje next. I did the same thing after I watched Festival and I ended up sending them both to the losers circle, so it will be a good test to see if that happens again. I enjoyed Sopyonje more than Festival so there is a good shot that a Kwon-taek movie moves on. Excited to hear the verdict!
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