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Reviews
Always san-chôme no yûhi (2005)
A little too precious
This is a very touching and well-made film, but someone sprinkled it with a little too much fairy dust. I was with it every step of the way, handkerchief in hand for the clockwork gushes that punctuate virtually every dramatic segment with almost pornographic regularity. But this is not a very honest picture of life in Tokyo in 1958, in spite of the insistence that the construction of the city (the bigger picture of society, economy, etc represented by the gradual erecting of Tokyo Tower in the background) is of a piece with the micro-narratives of small individuals going about life on an inconsequential block somewhere in the urban sprawl. Still, whatever project this Disney-esquire nostalgia is serving, I can't discount the film's magic too much. I'm one to prefer a little dark cynicism over what strikes me as a kind of Tinkerbell fraudulence, but I have to admit that this movie is pretty good at what it does.
Death Note: Desu nôto (2006)
Less a filmed manga than a "manga-ed" film
I didn't know this film was based on a manga before seeing it, but it makes a lot more sense to me with that information as background. Honestly I thought the concept was pretty weak, and also rather weakly executed (I found myself comparing the movie to a made-for-TV after school special), but the weird mixture of horror/nihilism, comedic cuteness, stilted genre types, and idol fascination really resolves into something like the kind of affect that seems to characterize so much boy manga and maybe explain its popularity. I don't fully understand that affect personally (where it comes from or its appeal), but this thought has helped Death Note to grow on me after my initial negative reaction. I resisted the absurd stentorian posturing of the detective/father and the self-conscious gorgeousness of the sugar-tooth teenage mastermind crime analyst/idol every step of the way, but strangely enough, these are now the things that emerge in my mind as what make this movie (slightly) special. Even the lazy, unfinished feel of the CGI at which I initially groaned now seems to have its place. To me, this movie is not so much concerned with bringing fantasy to life in a believable, realistic, "cinematic" way (the low-grade CGI is a case in point), but in bending the realistic properties of film toward the world of manga.
Iki-jigoku (2000)
Irritating!
I wouldn't waste my time writing about this dumb little movie except for the fact that it hasn't received any negative comments yet, and it well deserves them. You have to respect the effort and enthusiasm that went into making this very low-budget feature (if they spent a penny over $100,000 it certainly doesn't show). The Japanese DVD even comes with (bad) English subtitles, which is a rarety in Japan. Nevertheless, it is one of the worst movies I have seen in recent memory. The story and imagery are very much manga-style, but none of it seems to work onscreen, partly because it is all so repulsively stupid, and partly because the filmmaking is so unskillfully executed. Everything aside, the indescribably irritating performance of the actor playing the whiny wheelchair- bound (mentally retarded?) brother is reason enough NEVER to see this movie.
It surpasses even Satoshi Tsumabuki's performance in the idiotic "Dragonhead," where the plot is repeatedly stalled because he can't seem to stop falling over (I was screaming at my TV...) At least Satoshi (of Waterboys fame) is cute. Iki- Jigoku offers no such rewards for your endurance.
28 Days Later... (2002)
Day of the Triffids minus the triffids
**Possible spoilers**
This movie would have been so much more fun with the triffids. After all, it preserves almost every other character, locale and plot twist from the John Wyndham novel (without attribution). Rage as a disease transmitted through blood and bodily fluids is the menace here, and an enthralling premise. But it disintegrates when our hero goes native to defend his womenfolk. What are we to think as our gentle, boyish leading man half-nakedly pounces on a would-be defiler and gouges his eyeballs with his bare thumbs? Perhaps that rage is part of the human condition, and that it can be put to productive use when administered by slender, handsome boys with an accute sense of justice and chastity. It's not a message that resonates with me. This is one of those movies where, halfway through, I start rooting for the monsters. The characters are cool kids wandering through an appocalypse like advertisements for the Trainspotting generation, totally unaware of their own glamour. They elicit about as much sympathy as Tanqueray models (with the exception of the father character, who should have been the one to survive, but who could not have been in this movie since he's over thirty). I will say that there are some lovely cinematic moments, particularly in the first half of the film and the sequences of a deserted London. There are moments where the narrative pauses so that the lens can make leisurely poetry. But ultimately Boyle and company have failed to take into account the lesson of previous apocalypse films, including one of the greatest, Dr. Strangelove: that you cannot tell such stories without a sense of humor. Even George Romero knew that.
Batoru rowaiaru (2000)
The Soul of Japan (^o^)/
Most of the overseas criticism, as well as praise of this movie revolve around its merits as an action film, which I think is the wrong angle. This is not a great action film in spite of the low standards of the genre. That's not so much the point. In suggesting that this film is exceptional and endearing as a Japan- specific parody, I think I am supported by the fact that it has not had a significant international release (at least not in the US) in spite of its huge popularity at home, the provocative subject matter, and the presence of an international star.
This movie is about school uniforms, club, homeroom teachers, school trips, perms (male and female), cute, cute boys and girls...and all of this is destroying itself against its will, forced to do so by the society that created it, punished for being too cute... It uses the language of the ultraviolent Asian action cinema, but it often feels more like hyperactive primetime Japanese television. The humor would certainly be right at home on Fuji TV, if they had a few more characters screaming passionately about tasty ramen amidst the slaughter.
Then there is Beat Takeshi, perfectly cast as Everyone's homeroom teacher, the man whose resume includes 5 simultaneous regular television variety shows at any one time, juice commercials, car commercials, and films ranging from The Summer of Kikujiro to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence or Taboo. This is what can be said about the film-making, if anything: that it effectively uses the pacing of television and constellations of popular culture to eliminate sympathy and attribute the abundant perversity. All the better for a film about Japan, where the media, including film, cross-fertilize more than anywhere else.