OLDBOY
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| do it do it [hits desk with fists] do i t doitd o i t do i t! |
I must iterate here, at the beginning of my splurging about Oldboy, that I'm only forever going to speak positively about it's original Korean adaptation from 2003 and act like that xenophobic modern American-atrocity never happened.
Okay, sweet. Yeah, this movie rocks. As you might have learned about me, through casual conversation, in-depth conversation, idling conversation, workplace banter, obsessive text-messages, weird phone backgrounds, scary voicemails, I'm a really big fan of The Count of Monte Cristo. In my opinion, the original novel is probably the best revenge narrative we'll ever have--the Form of Revenge, I'll even say. I'll die for that, that's something I'd die for, yup. But... in the year of our lord 2015 I had some serious stumblings when, from a close friend's advice, I watched Oldboy (2003) (the Korean one) (not the American one) (the good one) (the Actual Film) (not that masturbatory action flick, the american one) (I don't like that one (the American one)). A terrifying tale about [Stuff That Would Spoil The Whole Movie], you are thoroughly engaged like........ the whole time. The cinematography is great (yeah, I know what cinematopgraohghtu is..), use of color off the chartsssss, and the music with its synthy absurdity only helps to plug you into the spiralling insanity.
Though, what I liked most about this film was how much it appealed to me as a creator—this is the sort of movie that I really would hope you'd watch and go, "haha... zach's pretty messed up, but this is totally something that he'd like/want to make". It's currently on Netflix and I sincerely hope you check it out after my vague fangirling, but this is one of those movies that really begs you to know absolutely nothing going in for you to fully enjoy it. It's a risky tale to tell (thus the weird/awful/terrible/[vomit noises] American adaptation that sought to downplay the absurdity in favor of action-porn), but I think it's a beautiful gem that you've probably never seen anything like before (unless you've forced yourself to sit through I Come with the Rain, in which case... man why did you do that).
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
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| bestttt best best bebstbs tbs tbe tbs tbe sbte character, for sure |
Who would have thought that my favorite Sergio Leone spaghetti western would be one without Clint Eastwood? About 7 years ago I sat down to watch this and turned it off after like 20 minutes when I didn't see Clint (thinking it was For A Few Dollars More), and turned on For A Few Dollars More. Which, was, a tragic mistake,,,
Don't get me wrong, the Man With No Name trilogy is fun and great and good, but it's nothing compared to Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West. That's great, good, wonderful, superb. Characters, sets, plot, dialogue, lack of dialogue... the best part of this movie, in truth, is whenever there's nothing to be said. Such care went into every shot, every line, every crescendo, and it all shows. Similar to Kurosawa's method of having actors pick a gesticulation for the audience to identify them by, Leone is able to masterfully do the same, though obviously more subtly. This isn't kabuki.
I would loooove to see film return to long-form storytelling again, but I think we've phased that out for the convenience of the "television series" and Netflix binging (which, to be fair, isn't evil, and is, in fact, p great, if you do so with good stuff (stay tuned for my television post)). We can easily stop and walk away, allowing us to eventually sink in more than a few hours for a usually 8/10 storyline, making it seem a better alternative to planting yourself for several hours in this high velocity culture. But I'm probably only one of a few that would love to abscond with the silver screen for several hours. If you're like me, or wanna feel what it's like to fall in love with Film, check this out.
Also: there's an incredible Morricone soundtrack, which should be justification enough.
RAN
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| bae: come over me: i'm busy allocating this kingdom amongst my sons bae: my parents aren't home me: [just throws my kingdom to my sons] |
I watched a loooot of Kurosawa in 2015. I know I'm really late to the party, but you'll thank me for sparing your more blubbering about Seven Samurai. That one's nice, sure. But have you seen his other stuff??
"Ran" is great. It's based on King Lear, a Shakespeare I never had the pleasure to read, which made for a pretty thrilling movie. If you know the story of King Lear, then yeah, it's pretty much that set in the Sengoku era. And if you're like "zach..... i've already read that.......... and if it's not a straight-exact-adaptation, why would i wanna watch" and that's when i say "man it looks incredible". That opening is in my top 3 film openings of alllll time. Check this out. Tell me you're not like "WHAT! GRASS????" after watching this.
What's most interesting to me about this Kurosawa film compared to the other works I'd seen is its use of color. The picture I picked for the post is a pretty good example, if I do say so myself (I do). Primary colors (each representing one of his sons) are bold and defined by obvious shapes, while Ichimongi's white clothing causes him, by contrast, to remain set apart from the rest of the scenes (usually dark, covered in smoke, soot, shadow, etc.).
I worry about treading too far into plot discussion since I know people who like Kurosawa and Shakespeare and I would only create a torrent for myself to get beat up in, but suffice it to say: it good. It's also a really long movie, so, set some time aside for one of the better reimaginings of Shakespeare you'll ever see. Probably. Idk.
THE ELEPHANT MAN
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| i wanna make a joke real bad but this part is too sad, so instead i'll say an unrelated joke: donald trump |
For anyone that's seen a movie with me, they know I'm a crier. I cry at like any sign of intimacy or innocence or anything Good, so you're probably going "of course you cried, you crier, you baby man, you glorified sprinkler head". At several points in the movie I had spilled over, feeling incredible sadness for this tortured character, but the ending caused me to do those dry heave things and my eyes hurt throughout the next day because of how much crying I did. This is that sort of movie that you can probably use to test people to see if they're actual human beings with actual feelings or not, it's that bad. A surefire litmus—if you watch this with a friend who doesn't cry during the bathroom scene (or at least kinda gets freaked out), then they are probably a demon sent to tempt and eventually devour you.
Watch The Elephant Man, but do it with a box of tissues, please.
THE HIDDEN FORTRESS
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| these are the droids you're lookin for |
That knuckle-headed, dragged-along-for-the-ride humor is the centerpiece of this film with Tahei and Matashichi, two lowly peasants who find themselves caught up in a civil war of sorts between two tribes. Princess Leia is there, sure, and Toshiro Mifune (Lucas' original target for Darth Vader/Obi Wan) is there too. All your Star War is there. But, thankfully, this story doesn't take three films to tell.
What made this Kurosawa film so much more enjoyable to me than others that I watched was how the characters developed and played off of one another. The loyalty of Mifune's character to the princess and the dead-beats that follow him make for a pretty wholesome adventure movie, filled with its share of hijinks and moments of awe (the battle scene and honorable death come to mind). It might not be the most exciting to some, but I sure as heck had a good time with it. And, though I'm loathe to mention it any more, if you're really interested in checking out what inspired George Lucas when drafting the original Star Wars trilogy, you'll notice a lot of little things that went into the series from this film.
~ ~ ~
Some Honorable Mentions:
MAD MAX - this was the first film i ever went to see in the theater all by myself. it only took me until i was 23 to experience how cool that feeling was. and it was a great movie to do that with.
WAKING NED DEVINE - an irish black comedy that is just really really really good.'
YOJIMBO - i don't need to talk about kurosawa anymore
NORTH BY NORTHWEST - this was a really good hitchcock film, and i recommend it if you wanna know more behind kanye west's nomenclature methods.
JURRASIC WORLD - i want to be a dinosaur
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