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Kahuna-6
Reviews
Hamon (2023)
kudo to the director
Definitely won't call this a comedy but a hard hitting critique of the status of woman in Japan.
It may be slow in the beginning, almost formulaic in the plot development. A woman is expected to be subservient, polite and tolerant; even to the extend of being sexually harass by both the husband and father in law. In society, she has to conform to the cultural norms, serving the community as and when required. This movie also shows why pseudo-religions and cults are still very much big business in Japan catering to the emotional isolation of the individuals.
The patience required in gardening, like raking pebbles into imaginary landscape, helps relieve some of the loneliness.
But everything gets undone when a runaway husband returned on a terminal illness diagnosis. The son insisting on marrying an older woman against her wish drove our lead actress to her wit's end.
When the last scene of her now dead falling out of his coffin onto her well mannered yard broke the last straw. Or maybe liberate her from her misery.
The flamenco in the rain as the close scene is poignant and brilliantly shot.
Kudo to the director for taking this difficult subject and handle it delicately.
The Garden of Evening Mists (2019)
An ernest effort
This movie should be lauded for ambition. Tackling an issue like comfort women isn't going to be easy. Compound it with other heavy weights like loyalty, independence, then adding intrigues like the gold of Yamashita and trying to present them in a digestible package under 2 hours, the problem is obvious. The central love theme could not be developed convincingly. In a more assured hand like Ozu, the quiet scenes could have been really evocative. With some one like Kurosawa, the tension of the hanging, violence of rape or unstated pressure of recall etc would have been palpable. Instead it is presented rather without emotion. Even the pain of the tattoo just could not lift beyond the screen.
But credit must be given to the producers and director for their attempt. Sufficient time has passed for the history of WW2 to be visited with an objective eye. Hope HBO would continue to put their resources into making such movies.
Maesutoro! (2015)
Listen
When we pick up a stick and tap on a cup, a bowl or an oil drum, can we stop at that one and singular sound? Not to my knowledge. No, we must try putting another one next to the first. Slightly different pitch, slightly different rhythm. So it is, across all tribes, all cultures, all over the world. And before we know it, we are combining sounds to produce beautiful forms of expression.
With the advent of modern technology, music has become infinitely accessible. It is played on your phone, in the mall and even within the elevator. It has, in fact, become unavoidable. Bombarded by such excesses, we hear so much that we lose the ability to listen.
Thanks goodness, this movie makes us give pause. What exactly is music? How does it co-exist with our physical needs to make a living? Or to love? To believe?
Maybe as a compensation to their formalised way of life, Japanese movies tend to exaggerate. This one is no exception. Imagine a European director portraying a classical music conductor using a hammer as a baton. Or bullying the Berlin Philharmonic players like they did in this movie. Simply set aside your prejudice and enjoy the movie for all its little quirks. Vive le difference.
After the movie, I listen again, with renewed attention, to various recordings of Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Why didn't Schubert finish No. 8? How did he even manage to write what little remained knowing he had syphilis?
Music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann in one of the earliest review of Beethoven's Fifth described it as "radiant beams shoot through this region's deep night, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy everything within us except the pain of endless longing". From a man going deaf? Was this his "Fate"?
Rippu Van Winkuru no hanayome (2016)
Sex, love, marriage and all of the above
Porn sells. Yet it is treated with shame. Every one wants love. And it is fraught with all sorts of expectations. This movie doesn't provide any clarity on sex, marriage, friendship and kinship. But it sure asks us to look at them from another point of view.
Arirang (2011)
a self-portrait of Kim Ki-duk
What exactly is this? A movie? A documentary? A video diary? If you are looking for entertainment, then this is definitely not it. As with most of his work, Kim Ki-Duk is not into mass market Hollywood style.
Watching this piece is like an inspection of a self-portrait of Rembrandt or van Gogh. The artist goes into seclusion. He takes a long hard look in the mirror, preens himself, then strips away his id bit by bit. He examines the parts in minutiae, bewildered. He wails as he could not make any sense of it. He creates an alter ego, a shadow. He cross examines himself; playing both the cool detachment as well as the devil's advocate. In between, he consoles himself by singing the Korean folk song Arirang as a wolf would bray at the full moon. During his lucid moments, he is the calm director / editor in post-production. He checks each take critically, wondering how he can put it back together into a singular entity again. Bit by bit, splice by splice, over three years, he came out with this "movie".
Like any self-portrait, this "movie" does not show Kim Ki-duk, the entire person. It is just a fleeting capture of the artist at that moment; as a Picasso in his Blue Period is not a summation of Picasso the person.
A portrait has no meaning, relevance, if you have not seen any of the artist's endeavours. But once you have been touched by their struggle, curiosity will be pipped. Why did he do the things he does? Where did he gets it? How did he do it?
After many soul searching encounters with the numerous self- portraits of Rembrandt and van Gogh, I now look forward to another Arirang moment with Kim Ki-duk. It may not be pleasant but I am sure it will be an experience.
Song jia huang chao (1997)
History in a movie
Showing history accurately with all its complexities in a movie under a couple of hours will always be challenging. Mabel Cheung should be commended for trying.
Her attempt to tell the story of the birth of the Chinese Republic through the three Soong sisters succeeded as a engaging watchable movie. But unfortunately it fails to be a masterpiece that the material demands.
Here is a drama of a vast nation struggling to come to terms with itself and with the rest of the world (which was either benign or well meaning). Yet the story was told more like a soap opera of three rich but rather spoiled girls. The argument between the wife of Sun Yat- Sen, Ching Ling, and wife of Chiang Kai Shek, Mei King, at one point was presented as a sibling rivalry as who gets to be the First Lady of China.
For the technically inclined, the film editing can be better. While trying to juxtapose a Peking opera performance with the escape of Soong Ching Ling from hostility, instead of emphasizing the drama, the cut & jump seem to be disjointed. The action sequences also lack authenticity and pace.
Watch this movie as entertainment, you will be rewarded with beautiful art direction, good photography and overall superb acting (with a very convincing performance by Jiang Wen as Charlie Soong).
Haywire (2011)
How to make a thriller un-thrilling
Having read some of the mixed reviews on IMDb, I watched this movie with an open mind. For someone who averages more than a movie a day across many genres and languages, that is not a particularly difficult demand.
I had enjoyed many of Steven Soderbergh works like Traffic and Ocean's Eleven; even his more artsy one like Sex, Lies, and Videotape. With a sterling supporting cast that include Michael Douglas，Antonio Banderas，Ewan McGregor，Michael Fassbender，this could not be a total disaster, right?
Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the most convoluted, unconvincing "action" movie I had ever seen. Don't get me wrong, some of the action sequences were expertly done. The roof top chase of Dublin deserved a mention. But beyond that, what was the movie all about?
Is this an "emotional" piece? I believe Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional (1994) had that patted down.
Is this an "intellectual" puzzle? John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998) got me watching it a few times. And will probably so again when it comes around on cable.
It is definitely not a flat out action movie like the Bourne franchise. Nor plain old no brainer entertainment like the long running James Bond series.
So Haywire, if you would excuse the pun, simply went haywire. The romance doesn't sizzle, the plot makes not sense, and even the action itself fails to excite.
I would not try to dissuade you from watching this movie. From director wannabe, it may be an essential lesson on how NOT to blow a big budget. And if you do manage to stay till the very end, maybe you could tell me what it is all about.
Fau sai luen kuk (1992)
So Where Is Home? The Chinese Paradox
This is undoubtedly one of the most insightful movies being made about the Chinese paradox. Even though this movie was centered on the fight or flight situation Hong Kong residents faced back in 1992, the issues nevertheless remain relevant today.
So what were the issues then? It wasn't too long ago that USA retreated from South Vietnam ignominiously; creating a flood of refugees that Hong Kong had tried nobly to accommodate. Then Hong Kong, though secured as a British colony, was right at the doorstep as China convoluted through a Cultural Revolution and the TianAnMen suppression on June 04 1989. Come 1997, Hong Kong would be reverted back to Communist Chinese rule. These residents had to decide if they should remain; trusting the Communist assurance of 50 years without change. Or they should flee at the first opportune moment.
Director, Evans Chan, artfully laid out the various pros and cons through his players. And the cast, consisting of relative unknowns to the mainstream Hong Kong cinema, did a good job portraying the wide diversity of life in Hong Kong. Credit must be given to this director for his courage in taking the examination to a higher intellectual level by quoting sources that may be alien to a commercial audience. Surely he must be aware that reference to Baudelaire and van Gogh would only discourage box office taking. (In case you miss it, the title of this movie is a play on the name on the actress Liv Ullmann and the human existence.)
He tried to mesh the macro political considerations with the more intimate social needs. The complex parent-children relationship was very nicely accentuated by the mother; brilliantly played by the most recognised member of the cast, Ha Ping. The age difference in a love affair was suitably examined through the younger son with an older divorcée girlfriend. So where is home? A boat refugee must be wondering in his or her hostile transit camp. Whereas the well to do weighs up the cost vs benefit of each locale like a travel destination. Ironically, the movie showed an ex British missionary finding it Hong Kong at the expense of losing her faith as well as her husband.
While this film was made 20 years ago, these very issues have still remained. During this time Mainland China may have grown economically stronger by leaps and bound, but the dreary sense of insecurity with its institutions has not been dissipated; much less dispelled. Until then, this movie should still be watched by all ethnic Chinese. As a matter of reference, it should be watched by anyone considering migration.
Le dernier souffle (1999)
gone south
got off to an intriguing start. next a very convoluted family set up: the lead is a cop with a leftist father and a rightist/fascist brother; wife left him for his partner. then came an improbable story line. together with all the cardboard caricatures. plutonium stealing Russians. rotten red neck cops. corrupt FBI. revolutionaries. terrorists. whore with a heart of gold. naked women. naked male victims. did we miss anybody else? of course we have to make everybody going thru the motions. the bad guys sneer, the third degree, kids pining for absent dad etc etc. and in the midst of a supposedly climax, our hero and his dad lay in bed inside hostile territory - bonding? watch this if you wanna learn how not to make a movie!
Nijûshi no hitomi (1954)
The Pursuit of Happiness
It just so happened that I watched this 1954 movie right after a newer big budget work - the 2001 Uprising.
Both movie centered around WWII and the havoc it caused. Told from the victims' perspective, both dealt with the issues of living and dying in the most horrendous circumstances.
While Jon Avnet tells the Warsaw Jewish uprising through vivid action scenes, director Kinoshite did not even fire a single shot. The closest he got to any kind of violence was the lead actress falling into a sandpit.
Yet the pain of war came through stronger in this almost pastoral movie. It is almost excruciating to watch her slowly losing her brood of students to the cruelty of war.
Hideko Takamine played the part of teacher beautifully. From a brash young innocent before the war to a wizened survivor, she did it with great sensitivity. If ever anyone needs a portrait of Japanese stoicism, she must surely be the first choice. You will surely grieve with her at the loss of her young daughter - falling to her death trying to pluck a persimmon to ease her hunger.
156 minutes may seems a long time by modern movie standard. But at the end of this movie, you could almost be there at the little inn, sipping a little sake, looking at a old school photo through a blind man's eyes, celebrating life.
Le président (1961)
What's wrong with Euro?
Here is a film made in 1961. Yet, it could have been made yesterday.
The issues surrounding the European Union, very clearly illustrated in this movie, are still reverberating around the world today. Idealism vs realpolitik. Vested interested vs the 99%. Can politicians be both moral & pragmatic? Can there be compromise without sacrificing principles? Can power be exercise decently?
The screenplay written by Michel Audiard is outstanding. Complex issues are presented effectively and clearly. It is no wonder that he is much proclaimed amongst the French literati.
This film has no fancy effects or fast cuts. There is no easy Hollywood style resolution. But watch if you want a little illumination in a muddy world.
Sono toki wa kare ni yoroshiku (2007)
Love & the fear of loss
What is love? Where does it comes from? If it is the primal drive that Freud said it is, why then would we not consummate it at the first possible instance? Why is there a need for a courtship ritual?
While this is a close study on the subject, it unfortunately shies away from many tough questions. Painted with beautiful camera work, it grosses over issues like the difficulty of sustaining a relationship, why people abandon their children? This would have been a great melodramatic 3 hankies if the director had ended the movie earlier. With a neat Hollywood style resolution, the director had simply dumped reality for a happy ending.
3 jours en juin (2005)
sincere effort
This is an unusual French movie that addresses the complexity of war especially the differing French positions during the Second World War. Here is an universal dilemma. Face with a threat, what shall we do? Fight? Or Flee? Is there a way to resolve the issue without violence? Can violence be used honorably? Confine to the time allowed for a movie, many of the issues are not not given enough space to develop. The director could have done better by not raising some of the sub plots e.g. colonialism. Still kudos to the people for bringing up such a difficult subject. Green lighting this project must have been wrenching. But it deserves to be made. And it deserve our attention. As long as we have conflicts, this movie will always remain relevant.
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
A koan on life
If you need a movie to show the absurdities of life, then "Don't Come Knocking" will be the perfect choice. Right off the bat, we have a proposition - the ultimate icon of male virility, a big, strong cowboy, running away. He is not escaping hardship. He is leaving a movie shoot filled with creature comfort, sex and all the drugs he can use. In his first act of atonement (or is it castration?), he gave up his horse, boots and even his spurs. Then he walked in his socks out into the desert.
Surely a man suffering a mid-to-late life crisis should deserve some sympathy? But Sam Shepard, who co-wrote the script, didn't cut him any slack. In fact he had done such a good job playing this character, it is strange he wasn't even considered for an Oscar.
So he went for a little walkabout in the wilderness. Did he have any vision? From the back of a bus, he saw a man in an electric blue suit wandering along the highway carrying a set of golf clubs.
He decided to go home to mum; except for a little inconvenience of not having even called his mother for the last 30 years. In another piece of excellent casting, we see Eva Marie Saint as the forgiving mother. Of course, this is a Wim Wenders movie and mum isn't always as sweet as apple pie.
Now in the sanctuary of his mother's home, our cowboy looked back at the follies of his life. The director arranged this in the form of a scrapbook of tabloid's clippings. We are left wondering like the hero on what is true and what is not.
But the ranch he had known as a boy is no more. Instead, his hometown had been turned into a frontier casino. He didn't even recognize someone who claimed to be his high school classmate. Disillusioned, our hero fell again. In his movie, he would have ridden off or die in a hail of bullets "Just Like Jesse James". But he was ignominiously arrested and sent home like an errant teenager.
In the midst of sorting out what left of his life, his mother let on that he may have had a son out of a movie set fling. Off he went in search.
And hot on his heel is a bondsman who had underwritten the movie. The Hollywood template would be a tough muscle man in an action packed chase. Nope, we have Tim Roth in yet another brilliant performance. Just like our hero, our bondsman is a loner. While he may be comfortable in his own cocoon filling out crossword puzzles, he does make feeble attempt to connect. He just yelled out loud into the desert asking if anybody is out there.
Into the last third, we have all the players coming in for the showdown.
Kiss and make up? Got two. One, in front of a gym with guys on their exercise bikes looking on. The other, a hilarious swipe at the classic screen finale.
Gunplay? Yeah, a single shot. In a scene that starts off with a wonderful time lapsed photography of a car in a deserted parking lot, the usual cowboy / Indian drama is inverted onto its head.
Don't watch this movie if you can't afford to have it haunting you. It is like a Zen koan, it will just keep buzzing around your brain. Don't believe me, I'm writing this at 5 in the morning.
The Matador (2005)
a mucho macho that has lost his mojo...
Pierce Brosnan has been trying to subvert his James Bond persona ever since he went into retirement from Her Majesty Service. And he did this successful in many occasions. His role as Julian Noble in the Matador was particularly good. Charming but with a hint of latent malice. Controlled yet teetering just on the edge. Greg Kinnear was the perfect foil; earnest, trusting, just about gullible enough. This could have been a classic black comedy - a mucho macho that has lost his mojo. But the director played it safe and delivered pop corn instead. He would have done better following the lead of Robert Rodriguez in his 1992 El Mariachi or Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill series. Ditching the HEA (happy ever after) ending, Richard Shepard should have gone the whole hog with the hit man setting off his last firework.
Holy Man (1998)
A Hollywood Cheesecake
This movie has the potential to be a classic. But like most Hollywood production, this turned out to be a piece of their usual cheesecake - a tasty snack but really deficient in substance. The subject of hero worship had been better handled by Peter Sellers in his 1979 classic "Being There". The director, Stephen Herek, had a hard time trying to make up his mind whether to deliver a critique on excessive consumerism or to celebrate free market capitalism. Its sugar loaded happy ending felt just like having one cheesecake too many. "Holy Man" is entertaining in part. Its cast did a pretty good job making the cardboard stereotypes somewhat believable. Jeff Goldblum showed why he can still get top billing without the glamour boy look. Eddie Murphy, while still showing the over the top comic hold over from his TV days, also demonstrates his considerable talent. By restraining his urge to steal every scene, his ability is in fact better showcased as in his more recent performance in "Dreamgirls".
Ronin (1998)
What kind of audience are you?
When IMDB gets 295 comments posted on a movie, you know this one is going to be controversial. What you are going to get from this movie is very much dependent on what kind of audience you are.
At the most basic level, this movie has one of the best car chase scene ever shot. If they can only make this chase into a VR ride.
If you are a casual cross puzzle fan but won't do the tough clues, then you are in for a hard time. This is not a movie to watch with your brain in the `off' position. If you like the hourly detective show on TV with everything neatly tie up in 50 minutes, forget it. Don't bother with this film. You will get all steam up by `what's in the suitcase? what's in the suitcase?'
But if you are tired of all the run of the mills junk on TV, and you are willing to put in a little brain time, then this one may appeal to you. If you are an aficionados who is knowledgeable of movie intricacies, then you will really go crazy over stuff like plot devices, reference and inside jokes.
The casting in this movie is solid. Most of the stars were reprising characters they had played before; such as Jean Reno `in the Professional' or Jonathan Pryce in `Tomorrow Never Dies'. Robert De Niro again shows why he is in such demand. He is both star and team player. The scene he had with Michael Lonsdale is a gem. Set among little figurines of ancient samurais, both men quietly discoursed about the heart of the movie. What drives men to kill others? Or even themselves? Can the pursuit of an ideal (loyalty) allow some room for deviation (betrayal)? Morality at its simplest, at its most ambiguous.
Of course a movie with only two men having a dialogue in a study full of Japanese dolls will bore even the most hard core audience to tears. So the use of the action / adventure sequences to dramatize the dilemma of the individuals in extreme situations was very effective.
The entire film was very well crafted from smoky evocative entrance to explosive gunfight. Aerial shot of a drive through southern France to hostage taking in an ancient coliseum. Of course the car chase through the streets of Paris should be rank as a classic in cinematography.
So if you just want a good thriller, just fast forward to all the action parts. If you like to savor a thought provoking work, once will not be enough. Bet you are going to hit the replay button again and again and again.
Funny Farm (1988)
George Roy Hill can do better, much better
Here is the director that had put so much zest and sparkle in movies like "The Sting" & "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid". And here is a movie that any "made for TV" kind of director can put together. Of course George Roy Hill was tied down by a banal script and with banal actors (does Chevy Chase play to a Mid West audience only?). So sad for a great director.
Poppoya (1999)
Cry your heart out...
Must had cried for a thousand miles. Watching a movie on a 6" screen trapped in a coach seat at 30,000 ft high is usually a diversion not a pleasurable entertainment. But strangely enough, this simple 3 hankie movie is both engaging and moving.
A railway man works at the end of a desolated railway line, at the end of his career, at the end of his life. Nothing much happens. He does his job at the one man station faithfully. He greets the old familiar commuters with the station name, shovels snow off the platform, sends the train off with a ritualistic check list. He did this almost all his life with the same mechanical precision. He had a family once. His daughter died at a very young age and more recently his wife died.
The lonely widower had a few visitors on New Year Eve. And the news were not feastive. The little town, with the younger population migrating to bigger places, would probably die of old age. The rail line, facing declining traffic and increasing loss, will be closed. And he would have to vacate the station which was also his home for most of his life.
The director, Yasuo Furuhata, handles the story with sensitivity and humility. The occasional high camera or wide angle shots only accentuates the isolation. Cutting is excellent. Scenes are allowed to sustain poignancy without allowing distraction. Quick cuts are used to enforce the ritual routine with precision. The bare story line & minimal dialogue was not a handicap. The use of flashbacks in fact creates beautiful characterisation without unnecessary ornamentation. The old method of using colour tone to delineate time events was very effective here. In one particular scene shot from a static camera position flowed with a continuous action shifted over time just by the use of colour. Seamless, masterly.
How did veteran lead Ken Takakura win so much empathy for his part is really a mystery. No strut, quiet body and very little facial expression. Yet he involves us in the internal conflicts of the character. When he said "no regrets" over the choices he had made in his career, the price he had to pay and the sadness he felt is palpable.
Don't believe a word I say. Just go watch the movie.