Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561573 times)

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2350 on: January 22, 2017, 04:00:41 PM »
I don't mind seeing Sleeping Man put to sleep. Nice write up. :)

Teproc

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2351 on: February 04, 2017, 05:21:51 PM »

Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian / A Brighter Summer Day
(Edward Yang, 1991)
Round 1 review by worm@work
Round 2 review by Melvil
Round 3 review by 1SO
Round 3 resurrection by pixote

               VS               

M/Other
(Nobuhiro Suwa, 1999)
Round 1 review by edgarchaput
Round 2 review by worm@work
Round 3 review by Bondo




A Brighter Summer Day


A Brighter Summer Day is an ambitious film, seemingly trying to paint a full picture of Taiwanese society in the 60s, with a true ensemble cast of dozens over the course of its 4-hour runtime. While it does have a lead character - especially in its second half - it's not shy on seemingly random detours focusing on other characters.

My problem with this film was that I didn't particularly care about any of them. I'm not entirely sure why, either... they're all relatively complex, fully realized, and the acting is generally decent. I think my problem lies in Yang's direction : he certainly has an eye for composition and framing, and the film is generally interesting to look at... but there's a coldness to it, a certain flatness, an indifference. I'd describe this film as 4 hours of things happening, and none of them really stand out aside from one near the end. There's a whole section involving a character who has been talked about a lot and finally appears, and clearly he's supposed to stand out : the way he's dressed, the way he acts... but the film doesn't really follow the script, it stays firmly on the ground when it should be lifting off, especially given the things that happen with this character. This pattern is repeated again and again throughout the film, with plot developments and character evolutions being severly undercut by the direction and the editing, to the point where I have to assume it's intentional, and somewhat infurating.

In the end this strikes me as a deeply misanthropic film, and I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to. Maybe it's just because of the runtime : any film that long is going to get worse as it gets along if it doesn't grab you, and I did feel a growing resentment towards certain characters asthe film went along... but it's not just that : most of them are just unpleasant people. As a result, when the film turns tragic, I could only appreciate that from a distance : I was glad to see that the film had a certain purpose, but I was too far gone for it to redeem the film in my eyes.



M/Other


From the first few frames alone, it's clear that M/Other fits in the naturalistic side of Japanese cinema, with Suwa clearly following in Ozu's footsteps, creating his own, distinct brand of quiet naturalism. When I had to review Tokyo Story, I kept coming back to the idea that it worked as much as a sociological case study observing Japanese society at a crucial time, and I can certainly say the same thing here, though the core conflict being explored here certainly isn't unique to Japan.

The heavy-handed title might indicate that the film focuses on the child in this situation, having to deal with this new mother figure, but the film is much more focused on the woman in question. It is a very simple situation that is extraordinarily complex emotionally for all involved, without even accounting for the actual mother who stays entirely off-screen. Where A Brighter Summer Day seeks to depict society by having a wide ensemble, this is a tight, focused film : three characters, you don't need more to explore the vast issue of family life in contemporary Japan.

Anything I can say about its themes will feel reductive, because this is a very deep, complex, and subtle film. It doesn't judge its characters, it doesn't point to easy solutions, it simple observes and lets the actors do the work. Instead I'll point out another detail which reminded me of Ozu (and specifically Tokyo Story) : almost all the conversations between the couple feature apologies, a sure sign of people who care for each other but aren't quite comfortable with the situation they're in.

Ultimately, this is a "small" film, which does overstay its welcome a bit and lack the kind of transcendental quality that would let me love it rather than like it (to continue the Tokyo Story parallel, that would be Setsuko Hara's breakdown at the end of that film), but it is a very solid, affecting drama with excellent performances.



Verdict: Obviously M/Other is advancing, which means A Brighter Summer Day is out of the bracket... I suppose that's one of the features of this bracket : no film is entirely safe from getting unlucky pairings... sorry, Yang fans. Worth noting that M/Other has garnered its share of enthusiastic responses in this bracket as well though.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2017, 05:31:46 PM by Teproc »
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BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2352 on: February 04, 2017, 06:17:21 PM »
Nicely done Teproc! I knew this outcome was coming from your Letterboxd activity-- I was looking forward to the writeups.

I almost took 'A Brighter Summer Day' for a matchup. From your reaction, I'm glad I didn't!
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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2353 on: February 05, 2017, 12:14:12 AM »
I trust this verdict! :)

Teproc

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2354 on: February 05, 2017, 02:50:01 AM »
Thanks guys. I suspect others will be less pleased, but I'll take the support I can get. :)
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Jared

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2355 on: February 05, 2017, 01:23:15 PM »
Thanks guys. I suspect others will be less pleased, but I'll take the support I can get. :)

It's ok to be wrong when the write ups are so good.  :)

Not that I'd know....haven't seen M/Other yet though, so I'm looking forward to catching up with it now.

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2356 on: February 07, 2017, 05:59:12 AM »
Round Four Resurrection Review



Eagle Shooting Heroes  (Jeffrey Lau, 1993)
Won over Fong Sai Yuk II (verdict by sdedalus)
Won over Shall We Dance? (verdict by Bill Thompson)
Won over The King of Comedy (verdict by 1SO)
Lost to Hana-bi (verdict by BlueVoid)

This bracket has yielded a fantastic collection of reviews for Eagle Shooting Heroes (I always want to type Eagle Shooting Horses instead), covering the film from all angles. sdedalus' verdict provides a perfect overall description of the film, BlueVoid's rant captures the experience I expected to have, and 1SO's measured take reflects the experience I actually had (especially, "It's like a film based on a SNL sketch, a series of kind of funny but overlong SNL sketches."). I confess that the use of Asian titles in Bill Thompson's verdict created a barrier to my appreciation, especially when Ashes of Time was mentioned: "I don’t know much about the correlation between Se Diu Ying Hung Ji Dung Sing Sai Jau and Dung Che Sai Duk." Anyway, Lau's commitment to sustained silliness is ultimately pretty endearing, and I admire the anything-goes comedic approaches that ranges from a laughably costumed dinosaur, gorilla, and eagle living together in a cave and adopting one of the Tony Leung's as a duck; to the anachronistic New Year's wish, "May the Sino-British Joint Declaration bring peace to all!" There's some great Sammo Hung fight choreography here, too, way better than you might expect in a film with this tone. The all-star cast is really fun to watch, despite presenting a great challenge to someone with my lack of facial recognition skills. Jacky Cheung has improved every film in this bracket that he's been a part of, and that's again the case here. All the "gay panic" humor walks a fine line between being progressive and being insulting, but it definitely made me cringe when one character (played my openly gay actor Leslie Cheung) throws up at the thought of kissing one of the Tony Leung's. (It's funnier in concept here on paper than it is in the movie.) All told, I enjoyed Eagle Shooting Heroes much more than I expected to (with Lau's Out of the Dark still a bracket lowlight for me), but you could have trimmed a full half of its running time without lessening my enjoyment at all.


Resurrection Standings (the top three films will earn resurrection)

Up next: The Wedding Banquet.

pixote
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2357 on: February 08, 2017, 01:22:38 AM »
Round Four Resurrection Review



The Wedding Banquet  (Ang Lee, 1993)
Won over The Chinese Feast (verdict by Sam the Cinema Snob)
Won over The Strange Tale of Oyuki (verdict by Bondo)
Won over Green Fish (verdict by Jared)
Lost to Days of Being Wild (verdict by Sandy)

The basic premise of The Wedding Banquet — gay man marries green-card-needing girl to maintain heterosexual illusion for visiting parents — is the stuff of classic screwball comedy. Lee's film takes its story much more seriously than that, however, balancing a more mild-mannered style of comedy with genuine character drama. All the previous verdict seem to cite this balance as the film's main virtue. I don't think it really works at all, though. In striving equally for comedy and drama, the film too often gets caught between the two. Much of the first act is wasted taking the far-fetched premise too seriously, even though all effort to make it credible goes for naught. It's a relief to get to the second act, with the stage finally set for hilarity (or perhaps dramatic fireworks), but the screenplay never really twists the screws one way or another. The story just lays there, tepidly, too careful to go to either extreme. Only in the third act does the script finally make a choice — opting for heartfelt drama over comedy — but it's predicated on two more story twists that are too silly and predictable to sustain the emotional beats. They'd have worked well in a screwball comedy, but they undercut the attempt at drama. It's by no means an awful film, but I think it falls short of success. Richard Curtis should film a remake.


Resurrection Standings (the top three films will earn resurrection)

Up next: Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.

pixote
« Last Edit: February 08, 2017, 01:24:46 AM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2358 on: February 08, 2017, 01:36:15 AM »
Round Four Resurrection Review



Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade  (Okiura Hiroyuki, 1999)
Won over Dreams (verdict by THATguy)
Won over Minbo - or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (verdict by Bondo)
Won over Swordsman II (verdict by 1SO)
Lost to Sonatine (verdict by Beavermoose)

I've already expressed by disappointment with this film in my Animation Marathon (which was really a 1999 Retrospots review). I won't bother to rehash those thoughts here. Instead I'll just call out the best quotes from the verdicts for this film. THATguy: "Overall, it stradles the line between action and contemplation piece, much like the Ghost in the Shell types, but in my opinion, it might just pull it off better than both." Bondo: "That said, they don’t do a lot to justify the cause of the protestors/terrorists, which of course suits me just fine because I get to cheer for the authoritarians." 1SO: "There's a dream sequence here that horrifying in a way only animation can effectively pull off with the right kind of emotional distance." Beavermoose: "There is too much voice-over dialogue that seems unnatural, the script unnecessarily pushes the Red Riding Hood allegory so far down our throats with every word the characters speak when it is already so obvious from the movie's title and the character designs." pixote: "I just have issues."

Resurrection Standings (the top three films will earn resurrection)

Up next: Bonus review.

pixote
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BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2359 on: February 08, 2017, 06:53:54 AM »
Great writeups Pix! Happy that you enjoyed ESH more than me. Also happy that it likely won't be resurrected. :)
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