Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561538 times)

BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1960 on: June 13, 2013, 12:31:33 AM »
VS.


Ring (Ringu)
Hideo Nakata
1998
Japan
Clovis's round 1 write up
Bondo's round 2 write up




Given that 'Ringu' is one of the most revered Japanese horror film ever made and has spawned a US remake and sequels, I had high expectations for it. The story has a fantastic camp fire ghost story feel to it. There is a tape which when watched causes the viewer to be killed one week later. It's a good hook and it sets up this horror mystery perfectly.

The movie delivers on the creepiness. There are moments of genuine terror which are phenominal. Where it runs into problems is that the story makes no sense. Granted, it's a horror movie and it gets some leeway, but the protagonist's utter stupidity and the completely nonsensical plot details detract from it. I mentioned that this felt like a childhood ghost story, and unfortunately its about as deep. It doesn't take too much thinking to start poking holes in the plot.

'Ringu' is effective in giving a good scare, but really doesn't hold up as a fantastic movie. It has its moments, but unfortunately it feels too artificial to really stand out as a great in the genre. The premise is good, but it needs a bit of a facelift.  It did intrigue me enough to want to check out the remake. Maybe some of my issues with it have been worked out on the second iteration.
 



Maborosi (Maboroshi no hikari)
Hirokazu Koreeda
1995
Japan
Smirnoff's round 1 verdict
Pixote's res review
Verite's round 2 verdict




I really enjoyed Koreeda's 'After Life', which is why I choose to watch 'Maborosi' despite knowing its slow style has closely been compared to Ozu. I struggle with this minimalist, static style and didn't care for Ozu's 'Tokyo Story', despite respecting it for its place in movie history. I figured that Koreeda had proven enough to me with 'After Life' that even if the pacing was slow, there would be enough interesting shots to keep me invested. I was wrong. I was bored out of my mind.

Again, I'm not slamming this movie as a bad film. It's not my style, and its my fault for choosing to watch it knowing this. The story involves a young woman with a child whose husband suddenly dies, perhaps by suicide. She remarries a widower by an arranged marriage, but the anguish of her loss sticks with her. That's about it. Thats the plot. Even though this movie isn't too long (under two hours), it felt like an eternity. Every shot felt like it lingered for minutes on static, unmoving scenes. The pacing isn't slow, its glacier. To make things worse, very little happens plot or character wise. Even the mood is fairly static. If anything what this film gives is an impression. Just a glimpse into the despair of loss. 

I'm not going to rate this movie well. Again, I have the utmost respect for Koreeda, and I'm not saying this is a poorly executed movie. However, before this movie was even half over I was pacing back and forth willing it to end. It wasn't for me, and it was never meant for me. Some movies are just like that.




Verdict: After watching 'Ringu' I thought for sure I was going to send it home. I didn't enjoy it much, and it was against a Koreeda. It was going to have to take a really poor showing for it to triumph. Well, that's exactly what happened. Ringu moves on. I think it's a fine round 4 film. 'Maborosi' I think will work really well for some people. It's unfortunate its already been resurrected, since I'd like Pixote's view on it. I'd really hate to be sending home a hidden gem just because it wasn't my style. But that's the way things work I guess.
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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1961 on: June 13, 2013, 01:26:13 AM »
I was a bit underwhelmed by Ringu as well...felt The Ring did the premise better. Still, good verdict because even though I'm a big fan of Koreeda (go After Life!), Maborosi was just a dreadful experience for me.

Verite

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1962 on: June 13, 2013, 01:58:58 AM »
I really enjoyed Koreeda's 'After Life', which is why I choose to watch 'Maborosi' despite knowing its slow style has closely been compared to Ozu.

Maborosi is more Theo Angelopoulos (e.g. Landscape in the Mist) and a little 80s-90s Hou Hsiao-hsien (without the actor movement among other things) than Ozu.  I don't begrudge your verdict.  It's not one of the Bracket's top tier films.
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1SO

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1963 on: June 18, 2013, 07:18:45 PM »
The King of Comedy vs. Eagle Shooting Heroes

This turned out to be a tough matchup, and for all the wrong reasons. I can understand why both films have advanced this far, but one was aggressively mean in a way I believe was not intended and the other was very, very stupid.

So first up is The King of Comedy, and I like Stephen Chow. Not just the 2 that everyone likes but also From Beijing with Love. This is a pretty ambitious mix of HK filmmaking satire, and love story. Ambitious because the two subjects are given very different tones. The moviemaking stuff is inside baseball (extras as zombies, the all important box lunch defined by status), but I'm an insider so I appreciated it. There's a hilarious running gag about Chow's lunch being tossed to the dogs, only it's not some vicious hound. Each time, an adorable little puppy comes in for the food.

The love story is really sweet, surprisingly strong. Perhaps more effective that was believed on the page. It clashes with a lot of the film's broader humor. Reading the past verdicts, everyone loves the sequence with the triad kid and the naked boy whose penis fascinates Chow. I wasn't offended, I just didn't think it was funny. At all. Later on is another moment with Chow having a runny nose during a romantic audition and the snot is hanging out like putty. It got the same reaction. Not offensive, just a kind of body humor I don't laugh at.

Like South Korean films, there's an uneasy relationship between comedy and violence. There's a late scene where Chow's girl is being beaten by a guy and it isn't meant to be ugly, but her face is bleeding and I'm just thinking "too far". The film is ambitious to where I wanted to love it, but it's so off-putting at times I found it hard to even like.


Eagle Shooting Heroes actually would've matched up perfectly with Swordsman II. Both are zany, kung-fu adventures. The kind that ignore physics, reality, logic and barrel ahead with one ridiculous set-piece after another. This one isn't so heavy with the technical effects and much more reliant on characters and verbal comedy. It's like a film based on a SNL sketch, a series of kind of funny but overlong SNL sketches. For you fans of the 60s, it's Mad Monkeys Kung Fu, from the makers of The Banana Splits. (Yes there are even musical numbers.)

I went from worry over its Tommy Boy level of stupidity to kind of enjoying it, to feeling it was overlong. (Nearly all the bits go on way past the earned laughs). It's like an omnibus film. I like the Bird/Dino/Gorilla. Didn't care for head soccer. Loved the Flirting Sword Technique (great use of faked slow motion). Best of all was seeing the cast of familiar pros act all goofy. Not stupid goofy, but you know... for kids. Matched to that was the bright, pastel-colored world, an excellent decision that adds the right note of bounce house fun.


I hesitate giving the win to Eagle Shooting Heroes because I'm confident in a poll it would lose this battle. Reading the past verdicts made it even tougher, but I have to go with my head on this. I don't think Eagle Shooting Heroes will advance any further, but it gets the win here.

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1964 on: June 18, 2013, 08:06:50 PM »
Tough one, feeling that it's going to be dead in the next round. I guess that's inevitable at this stage.

Nice write up though.

BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1965 on: June 19, 2013, 12:15:18 AM »
Good job 1SO. In my very limited exposure to Stephen Chow, I'm not a fan. Judging by your write up of The King of Comedy I think that it would make me less of a fan. Just not my type of humor.
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1966 on: June 19, 2013, 11:11:08 AM »
From Beijing with Love (Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-Chi, 1994)
Lost to Forbidden City Cop (verdict by duder)
duder's review is spot-on, even if he almost talked himself out of it by the end. I went into the film hoping he was just in a humorless mood and couldn't appreciate Chow's genius here, but, sigh, the film isn't very funny. I laughed exactly five times: when Anita Yuen shoots herself with Chow's backwards-forwards gun for the second time in a row; "Magic box!"; Chow's reaction shot to the firing squad's competency; "Don't bother me anymore about killing and fighting. I'd rather watch my porn."; and I forget the other one. The joke-to-laugh ratio is especially bad in the first half hour, when about four gags a minute fall flat. The film settles down after that and stops trying so hard to be funny, focusing instead on being weirdly violent. I had the same reaction as duder to these tonal shifts, and would have highlighted the same moment: "...kinda hard to be in the mood for Chow's antics after a man gets shot in the head, execution-style, while holding his son in his arms." That said, the action in the movie is probably better than the comedy. It probably would have made for a more successful film if they'd just made it a straight-ahead spy movie, rather than trying to be all tongue-in-cheek about it — especially since the film loses its interest in being a James Bond parody after the opening credits and the first "man with the golden gun" reference. Oh well.

1SO, it's interesting that your struggle with The King of Comedy matches the struggle duder and I shared with From Beijing with Love, which is the one 90s Chow effort you cite as winning you over. How long has it been since you've seen it?

You are responsible for the only two upsets of the third round so far, by the way, and I thank you for that. Would've been happy to watch either film from your matchup, but especially excited to see the Chow film.

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« Last Edit: June 08, 2016, 03:00:45 PM by pixote »
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1SO

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1967 on: June 19, 2013, 12:22:10 PM »
I saw Beijing after Soccer and Hustle. (Around 2007.) It's more of a slapstick comedy than the other films, which feature heavy amounts of slapstick, but also more elaborate comedy gags and verbal humor. The joke to laugh ratio is fairly low, but the quantity of jokes is so extremely high that even 1 laugh out of 20 jokes is still a lot of laughs. I don't know the evolution of Chow from Beijing to Hustle. The addition of visual effects has been a big plus to his style. King of Comedy is like an awkward middle film between the slapstick of Beijing and the more creative later works. God of Cookery is the missing piece of the puzzle.

Which was the other upset? I don't think either of my other match-ups has a clear front runner. Both films I picked had the higher IMDB rating. I'll say this, having rewatched and better appreciating Peppermint Candy, Bondo has a tough fight ahead of head of him. Whoever wins will definitely be an upset over the other film.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2013, 12:31:09 PM by 1SO »

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1968 on: June 19, 2013, 12:34:09 PM »
Which was the other upset? I don't think either of my other match-ups has a clear front runner.

After the Rain (74) over Shower (30)
Eagle Shooting Heroes (65) over The King of Comedy (22)

The rankings are pretty fluid, given that some of these films have only been seen by a few people.

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1SO

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1969 on: June 19, 2013, 12:48:34 PM »
After the Rain is buried treasure, especially for fans of Samurai fiction. It's written by Akira Kurosawa.

Where are these rankings?

 

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