A Story Of Yonosuke

I got to watch one of my favorite modern Japanese films last night, A Story Of Yonosuke. I'm someone that loves all things Japan, and all aspects of Japanese culture, so a film like this right up my alley. It's a story about a somewhat naive college freshman named Yonosuke, and the people he meets during this time of his life, and what effect it has on them. It's a film with a lot of heart, that is frequently silly, but always engaging.

The director, Shuichi Okita, has directed five films, with a sixth on the way. Unfortunately I've only been able to locate one other, The Woodsman and The Rain, with English subtitles. Such is the problem with Asian cinema sometimes. The Woodsman and The Rain isn't as good as A Story of Yonosuke, but it does feature Koji Yakusho, who is one of the best actors working in Japan today.

Weekend Viewing

I've managed to get in a few films this weekend ahead of what looks to be a busy Sunday. The films were a mixed bag for the most part.

First up is Goyokin, which is i believe the third collaboration between director Hideo Gosha and actor Tatsuya Nakadai. I love samurai films in general, and Tatsuya Nakadai specifically, so i figured this would be a good film for me. I liked it, but i was surprised that i didn't enjoy it as much as the last Samurai Gosha film i watched, Three Outlaw Samurai. The film wasn't bad, i just assumed that since this one was more recent and included Nakadai, that it would have been a little better. It probably didn't help that the US DVD from Tokyo Shock that i own appears to be a less than stellar copy of the film.

Next up was a just released on Blu-ray western featuring Mads Mikkelsen called The Salvation. I'll watch pretty much anything if it has Mikkelsen in it, so when i saw this was being released I picked it up right away. Unfortunately, i found it be a fairly uninspired western, which had WAY too much CGI in it for my liking. There was a scene that had a fire the size of a large bonfire in it, where the entire fire portion was CGI. Is it really cheaper to CG some fire, rather than just lighting an actual fire? Did the director think it looked just as good as real fire? I found it puzzling, and it certainly detracted from the film. Mikkelsen was great as always, but in the end the film was a bit of a waste of his considerable talents.

Last up was actually a film in a theatre. I don't go the theatre as often as I'd like for a variety of reasons, but it's always nice when i get chance. Tonight the wife and I snuck out to catch Phoenix. Phoenix reminded me a little bit of one of my favorite recent films, Ida, in the sense that it dealt with the period after the end of World War II, and explored the difficulties of people who survived (especially Jews) trying to put things back together and find their place in the world (The style of the film is not similar to Ida of course, just the general topic). While it's not something that blew me away like Ida did, it was a well done and fascinating look at that period, with a tremendous performance put in by Nina Hoss, who i had recently seen act for the first time in Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man. If Phoenix is playing in an art house type theatre near you, i certainly recommend it.

Film Collection: Beyond The Films

I'm a collector by nature, so my enjoyment of films has led to healthy film collection. My film collection however is not just composed of the films themselves. When an individual film or director makes a strong impression upon, there is a good chance I'll seek out things to add to my collection that go beyond the films themselves. This could include, but is not limited to, things like posters, books, programs, stamps.... whatever. From time to time i'll share some details and photos of the things that have made their way into my collection.

My favorite director is Yasujiro Ozu, so I'm always looking for new Ozu items to add to my collection. I'm sure there are people with much larger collections of Ozu items, but I'm pretty proud of what I've managed to acquire. Here is a program from an exhibition they had at The Kamakura Museum Of Literature in 2003. Some information about the exhibition as well as this program can be found here. I'm glad i picked it up when i did, since it was reasonably priced, and i haven't seen one up for sale since. As you can imagine i get pretty excited when i find a new Ozu thing to add to the collection!

2014 - 419 Films

When people see my film collection, i always tell them that's it's lot easier to acquire films, than it is to watch the films you acquire. I can buy 10 films in 5 minutes (and have more times than i can count), but i still need to find 2-3 hours if i actually want to watch a film. Between work, things around the house, and family/social commitments, that time isn't always easy to find.

Last year I challenged myself to watch 400 films. As I've said previously, i feel like i started to truly appreciate film later in life than most, so i felt i was behind on seeing films i wanted to see. Mostly classic, art house, and foreign films were the ones i was short on, since i had spent my life watching modern Hollywood films. I gave myself a few parameters. I wanted to make sure that 90% of what i watched were films that i hadn't seen previously, and i didn't want more than 10% of the total number to be short films. I believe short films are valuable and wanted them to be part of the equation, but too many felt like "cheating" since their length is is a bit easier to get through. I ended 2014 watching my 419th film (which randomly ending up being The Making Of The Shining), so the project was a huge success.

Of course, watching 419 films in 365 days means you have to watch a lot of films when you are not in the mood to watch a movie, it means you don't always have the time to really savor of think about the film you've just seen. It also meant that frequently i was watching 2-3 films a day on weekends when i didn't have other plans. It was something i had to discipline myself to do. I'm glad i did it, but I'm also glad I'm not doing it again this year. I'm still watching a lot of films, because i love them, but this year it's at a much more natural pace. This morning i watched #182 for 2015, which i imagine would put me at around 250 for the year. That seems like a good number moving forward.

Kurosawa Paintings

As might already be obvious, I'm a huge fan of Japanese Cinema. When it comes to classic Japanese cinema, one of the masters, especially when it comes to making films that were widely appreciated in the west, was Akira Kurosawa. He directed 30 films during his life, all of which are worth seeing. I should note that while i own all 30 films that he directed, I've only watched 28 so far. I still think that makes my opinion reasonably grounded.

One of my favorite things about Kurosawa was that in addition to his career as a film director, he was also an avid painter. This means that when he was doing storyboards for his films, he was able to paint scenes to show exactly what he wanted them to look like in vivid color. Below are some examples of his amazing work. All of these are featured in one of my most prized possessions, this book which is now out of print, that is a complete collection of Kurosawa's drawings are paintings. A less complete, and much smaller version is available here at a very friendly price.

The King And The Mockingbird

I got a chance to catch The King And The Mockingbird this morning at a local theatre here in town. It's loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Shepherdess and The Chimney Sweep. It's nice anytime i get a chance to see a non Japanese animated film that isn't Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks. Sometimes it seems that those films have such a similar style/formula that i'm always craving something different and unique when it comes to animation. As you can see from the design of the king, it definately doesn't look like the sometimes cookie cutter designs of a lot of popular American animation.

The King And The Mockingbird (rumored to be a favorite of Hayao Miyazaki) is a curious little film. Part fairy tale, part surreal, part science fiction. I wish i could have seen it in it's native French however, as this version was dubbed.

Another great French animated film to watch out for if you're looking for something different and more distinct is Ernest & Celestine. It's a very lighthearted film that would be appropriate for all ages, and the film has a distinctive style that almost looks water-colored.

My next off the beaten path animated film will hopefully be the Irish film The Song of The Sea. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and i'm always looking to support animation that steps from outside the usual sources. Just need to find the Blu-ray at a good price!

In The Mood For Love

Normally I'm very focused on watching movies i haven't seen before. The two main reasons for this are that i feel like i developed an appreciation for cinema later in life than most, and therefore have ground to make up, as well as having a large film collection that includes a lot of movies I've yet to watch.

Last night however i was worn from a long week of work and just wanted to enjoy something beautiful and perfect. The first thing i thought of was Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love, a film I could never see too many times. Kar-wai manged to take a 15 month shoot utilizing 2 different cinematographers (Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bin) and make one of most beautiful visual films. It doesn't hurt that he had two of the best and most visually appealing actors in the world to work with (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung), along with the vintage allure of 1960's Hong Kong, which sometimes feels like it's own character in the film (much like Tokyo in Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation).

If you want to get a sense of the style of film (although the poster is a great start), check out this great blog that chronicles Maggie's dresses throughout the film. As someone who is not generally interested in fashion, i still find myself mesmerized seeing dress after dress in the film as it progresses.

The film unfolds like a visual love letter to the 1960's Hong Kong. The plot unfolds in layered bursts of moments sometimes seemingly unconnected portions of dialogue and interaction, intermingled with lush slow motion shots of interiors or street level Hong Kong as the characters pass through. The nontraditional love story that unfolds as the film progresses is what you take from the experience of watching of the film, but the visuals and the amazing attention to detail with every shot are what cause this story to embed itself in your head.

The film is also the 2nd film of a trilogy of sorts (Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild is the first, and 2046 being the 3rd), but the film is not only the best of three, but can be well enjoyed even if you never seek out the other two. It goes without saying that i recommend this film, as it's one of my all time favorites. It's available readily in the US from The Criterion Collection on both Blu-ray and DVD. Feel free to let me know what you think if you check it out. I'll surely be mentioning it again in these parts.

Mikio Naruse

Happy belated birthday to Mikio Naruse, born on August 20, 1905.

Ozu At The Bar

Ozu with Okada Mariko and Tsukasa Yoko on the set of Late Autumn (1960).