Recently seen movies #23

Naked Island (Japan, 1960) – 2,5/5

95 minutes without dialogue or storyline. I can imagine how painful this could be for someone who doesn’t like slow movies and isn’t interested in the essence of Japan. The music however is beautiful, and the longer the movie gets the more captivating it becomes. Still, not the most exiting one and half hours in my life, but an interesting experience nevertheless. Abandoning plot driven storytelling is always a respectable move, too.

Recently seen movies #22

Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan, 2007) – 3/5

Takashi Miikes’s sukiyaki western is not a remake of the Sergio Corbucci original but has a slight connection to it. The new age eastern suffers from some irritating flaws such as unnecessary playing with colours and contrast, but manages to entertain as a whole. Shot fully in English the dialogue spoken by the Japanese cast can prove challenging to understand at times, but it’s not as bad as some people would let you understand. At 120 min the film feels long but not necessarily in a bad way. Nevertheless, the first 60 minutes could do with some tweaking as not all scenes are entirely successful. The second half is more enjoyable and also packs a very stylish finale. The new Djago theme is excellent but only used at the very end of the film (which is for a reason, though). On Miike’s career Django marks another mainstream effort, although there’s a handful of scenes that remind you of who exactly is sitting behind the camera.

Recently seen movies #21

Kyabare (Japan, 1986) – 3/5

Gangsters and jazz musicians meet in Haruki Kadokawa’s entertaining drama. The film turns too conventional every now and then, but also feels old fashioned and nostalgic in a very pleasing way. The greyish colour palette works well, and jazz tunes slowly become an inseparable part of the film. Hironobu Nomura, who plays the main character, gives a notably better performance than two years earlier in Main Theme. Junko Mihara, Hideo Murota and Takeshi Kaga give good support, but some scenes are weakened by unnecessary cameos. Hiroko Yakushimaru (has one line) and Sonny Chiba (has no lines) are only some of the numerous stars that make an appearance just for the sake of appearance.

Recently seen movies #20

Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964) – 4/5

Hiroshi Teshigahara’s desert drama is slow, occasionally frustrating, and more intense than 10 horror movies put together. Acting is excellent and the cinematography – black & white and with loads of extreme close-ups – works to the benefit of the film without feeling overly underlining. The sexual undertone, although only brought up in a couple of scenes, is extremely powerful. As an analysis of modern day psyche the film is not quite as intelligent as it would like to be, but it doesn’t really fail on that area either.

Recently seen movies #19

Kagero (Japan, 1991) – 3/5

Late Gosha’s yakuza film has more than a few similarities with the Red Peony Gambler films, although Kagero is hardly as remarkable. Kanako Higuchi stars as a female gambler looking for her father’s murderer. Gosha requlars Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Ken Ogata and Tetsuro Tamba appear in supporting roles. The storyline lacks originality, but the great cast compensates enough to keep the movie interesting from start to finish. The excellent ending credits sequence leaves a good aftertaste.

Recently seen movies #18

Watcher in the Attic (Japan, 1976) – 3/5

Hard to think of a better director to adapt Edogawa Rampo’s novels into high brow exploitation than Noboru Tanaka. The outcome doesn’t reach the level of excellence of the director’s best works, but it is still obvious right from the beginning – where we see Junko Miyashita having sex with a clown while the landlord (Renji Ishibashi) is spying on them from the attic – that this is no routine production in Nikkatsu’s Meisaku Roman series. The first half suffers from some occasional drifting but the film becomes more solid during the second half. The impressive last 20 minutes turns the piece into pure arthouse.

Recently seen movies #17

The Blue Light (Japan, 2003) – 4/5

This was a surprising find. Yukio Ninagawa’s slick drama thriller of a 17 year old schoolboy who starts planning on his stepfather’s murder isn’t half as bad as it ought to be. In fact, it’s next to terrific. The screenplay of course stumbles a bit here and there but the storyline remains interesting till the end. The audio-visual execution is extremely pleasing. Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya’s acting is okay, and the ever sweet Anne Suzuki appears in a small supporting role.

Recently seen movies #16

A Woman Called Sada Abe (Japan, 1975) – 1,5/5

Noboru Tanaka’s view of the famous true story is, unfortunately, rather bland. This despite the fact that it’s considered as one of the very best films in the genre by some. The visually talented director is trapped with a script that takes place almost fully in one room. Tanaka still manages to create some stylish images, but the music choises are weak. The lead role is played by genre legend Junko Miyashita, but her acting talent isn’t on the level this story requires. The characters feel distant, which partly the director’s fault. The little impact the film might have had in 1975 was all gone only one year later when Nagisa Oshima’s notoriously graphical but psychologically challenging adaptation of the same story hit the screens, under the title Ai no corrida.

Recently seen movies #15

Hunter in the Dark (Japan, 1979) – 4/5

Hideo Gosha’s late 70’s chambara flick reminds of his earlier film, Bandit vs. Samurai Squad, but avoids that film’s flaws. The storyline is less epic and quite simple in the end, but the characters’ backgrounds are handled skillfully. The cast is thoroughly impressive – Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Shinichi Chiba and Tetsuro Tamba, just to mention a few – but especially Yoshio Harada is amazingly good as an assassin without memory. Gosha’s direction is visually stylish, but also aims at certain degree of realism. The fights are intense but very brutal.

Recently seen movies #14

Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Japan, 2004) – 1,5/5

I recall Isao Yukisada’s earlier film, A Day on the Planet, being quite good, which unfortunately isn’t the case with Sekai no chushin de, ai wo sakebu. It features a couple of nice landscape shots and a cool Sano Motoharu song, but that’s pretty much it. The film tries very hard to be emotional but that only makes it harder to emphatize with. The screenplay has an okay start, if you ignore the first 10 minutes, but the second half makes you constantly wonder what were they thinking? Still, Sekai no chushin de wouldn’t be an especially bad film – in fact it would be just like all the others – if it wasn’t so exhaustingly overlong.