Japanese Cinema Thread

[Thulian]

big trouble in little china

[Jibartik]

These are my favorite funfacts about japanese cinima!

1. Bloodspray samurai was an accident.

2. Some teenage intern on Nausuca Valley of the Wind came up with an idea to have a pause before an explosion, for the first time in an anime. Hideaki Anno went on to create Evangelion!

[imperiouskitten]

Originally Posted by Thulian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

big trouble in little china

that's an incredible film

[imperiouskitten]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

These are my favorite funfacts about japanese cinima!

1. Bloodspray samurai was an accident.

2. Some teenage intern on Nausuca Valley of the Wind came up with an idea to have a pause before an explosion, for the first time in an anime. Hideaki Anno went on to create Evangelion!

Wow that bloodspray was an accident? We just watched that movie a few days ago

[Jibartik]

haha awesome timing!

edit: oh god have to edit in this pun "Which is also what hayo miazaki said when he saw the animation dailies for that explosion!"

[imperiouskitten]

Double Suicide aka Ten no Amijima - 1969

OK, this one was good. But people on this board probably shouldn't watch it because it promotes suicidality pretty intensely. A very avant-garde, semi-unreal film.

Opens with a modern director on the phone, staging a filming of a 1700s Chikamatsu Monzaemon puppet play. After a minute or two, the movie fades into real actors playing the puppets. The film is based on this play, which i'm not familiar with. A sort of "romeo and juliet" deal about a married man who falls in desperate love like a degenerate gambler with a courtesan, locked by debt in a pleasure house. She is a very sweet girl and loves him back, but others conspire to besmirch her motivations.

The cinematography is really brilliantly pretty, and the sets are sort of impressionistic -- for instance, the house the protag lives in is rendered in all-white, with kanji written all over the floor and walls, and the walls sometimes rotate out to be soaked with blood. There are strange theatrical features, like stagehands dressed in all black running around the set who occasionally "freeze time" (every actor stands dead still) and narrate, or silently help actors achieve tasks, or hand them a knife. Very artsy movie, reminds me of French film.

In the end, it's about deranged lunatics, and the leading man who "lives for love" sure does not treat his wife and children very well. There is a very epically shot and soundtracked double suicide (not rly a spoiler, it's foreshadowed in the 1st shot). One of the last shots of the film is the protagonist hanging himself with psychedelic jappy hand drum music. It would be a good movie to watch to fuel a macabre obsession, but in the end, the total unrelatability and unlovability of the male character, who destroys the lives of two beautiful women, means i pan this one even as I endorse it. DEPRESSING and DISTRESSING, who wants to watch a film to suffer, but yet I would lie if I said it weren't very evocative.

[imperiouskitten]

Castle of Owls aka Ninja Hichō Fukuro no Shiro - 1963

Much more lighthearted than that last one!! This is a ninja movie, the first in this genre I've watched. This may be a genre feature, but to my mind it crosses up the samurai genre with the mysticality and superpowers of chinese kung fu films.

It's about a man from Iga whose province is sacked by Hideyoshi and his parents killed, and sister "violated ... by many, many of them" before taking her own life. He lives his life seeking a ninja's vengeance against Hideyoshi with the remnants of his clan. Spy games ensue, including an Iga traitor and the rival Koga ninjas conducting counterespionage for Hideyoshi.

It's a pretty, pastoral Japanese film like most samurai movies, with unremarkable but sound cinematography for the genre. Combat is super cool and unique, involving lots of zipping around quickly, throwing clouds of dust, finding cover, throwing poisoned darts wicked-fast, slicing down bamboo trees to cover the battlefield, feigned retreats and dudes popping out of camouflage to stab you in the back after you walk over them. There are a few wire scenes where the ultra-powerful guys catapult horizontally like superman.

There's also a really great romance arc for a Jap movie, where the swoony beefcake protag meets an opposing Ninjesse who is quite lethal and dedicated to her work, but she can't help but fall for the Ultimate Warrior. Ultimately it's a quite cheery movie where forgiveness and life reigns -- and because most Japanese films are very bitter, a bit of warmth in one is actually meaningful and feels very nice in contrast to the same-iness of Western cinema's guaranteed happy endings. The 13yo girl who gets played by a 35 year old man doesn't even talk about suicide over her loss of honor or whatever.

There's emphasis on how Ninja are free people compared with samurai, and that for them the real dishonor is death itself. So, no obsessing on honor killings, and relatable modern characters. Fun movie.

[BiG SiP]

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>episode 01 x 01
>Jerry is preparing his play for the emperor, while George is lameting about being a Ronin
>Jerry can't focus on his harmonious dancing while George is worried that he is bad luck - every Lord he has worked for has died due to assassination
>B Plot is Elaine becoming obsessed with a client of hers, who only comes to her to hear her sing and dance, never to make Love
>Kramer interrupts due to his feud with Satoshi Hamayana, 3rd Lord of the Obiju Prefecture who he feels dishonored him by copying his armor style
>George becomes indebted to Lord Hamayana, angering Kramer and relieving Jerry
>Elaine's John is Lord Hamayana who it turns out is about to get assassinated at Jerry's performance
>Elaine tries to warn George upon finding out, tells Kramer to tell George
>Kramer forgets and Lord Hamayana dies before Jerry can deliver his punch line
>ending phrase from George the 5-time Ronin "MAYBE THEN, I AM JUST UNLUCKY!!!"
>harp music

[BiG SiP]

>Episode 01 x 02
>Kramer and George have 'found' this guy living in the mountains who can fold steel 5,000 times to make a perfect Katana
>Jerry warns them that this is dumb and they should just purchase weapons from the local blacksmith
>Jerry is also falling in love with another Geisha from Elaine's brothel, angering Elaine as she feels it's distracting at work to have Jerry singing poetry while they are fucking clients
>George gets a bill from the mountain man for 200 barrels of rice, which George refuses to pay and assumes Kramer will do the same - so he doesn't get his new katana
>Jerry discovers Elaine's friend is actually a newhalf, freaks out and contemplates killing himself
>Elaine is relieved by this, marvels at Kramer's new sword
>George is annoyed Kramer paid for the sword, except Kramer reveals he killed the blacksmith so no one else would have these swords
>George asked what happened to his
>turns out Kramer gave this sword to Newman
>Jerry writes poetry about his conflicted love of the Newhalf Geisha, only to break it off when he sees the Geisha without makeup and decides to break it off
>episode closes out with Newman and Kramer's swords breaking in a duel with the gay Puerto Rican guys

[imperiouskitten]

excellent posts, what can I say.

I want to hear seinfeld theme on shamisen soo bad