Arthur wants loot: he’s deep in debt to a fence. But he also wants to find Beniamina, his lost love, who might be dead or simply lying low. So he’s scouring the small towns and the big house on the hill. He’s searching the graves in the woods and the tombs near the beach. It’s as though his dowsing rod is a thread that somehow connects his hand to hers. “Yes,” Rohrwacher says. “Like the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice." - Xan Brooks in The Guardian.
"During the Tokugawa era, some effort was made to control revenges which could easily spiral out of control among Samurai, whose intense conceptions of honor meant that vengeance for each group of avengers could continue in an unending line until entire families or clans would be wiped out. This would eventually become the adauchi, an officially sanctioned revenge which was legally approved, announced, and witnessed by the public and a government official, all of which would officially bring the sequence of further revenge to an end. In its way, it was simply a form of public execution modified to satisfy the honor of all participants and not leading to any heads on spikes. However, to make sure the adauchi was effective, that the right person died, the avengers were allowed to bring in “helpers,” which on occasion could number in the dozens." [Japanonfilm.wordpress]
The film Stalin is said to have loved more than any other was the 1938 Hollywood production Boys Town, starring Spencer Tracy as Father Edward J. Flanagan, a real-life character who ran a home for delinquent boys. He enjoyed one scene so much that he would “grab the arm of the person sitting next to him, squeeze and say ‘Look at that, look at that!’” whenever it came on-screen. He apparently watched the film 256 times.
This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi.
Set in the 16th century, the film depicts the preparations for the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima and the battle itself. Unusually, it focuses on the trials and tribulations of the men of the huge supply train needed for the army and its hundreds of horses. Hasegawa plays Hyakuzo, one of these men, while Isuzu Yamada is a travelling woman with whom he builds a relationship. Shingen Takeda (played by Denjiro Okochi) and Kenshin Uesugi (Ennosuke Ichikawa) lead the rival armies. The film builds up to the dramatically-filmed battle with hundreds of extras. The famous attack by Uesugi who penetrates the enemy headquarters and wields his sword against Takeda who fends him off with his battle fan, is just one of the incidents shown.
This is an important film for three reasons. 1. it is an almost perfectly well preserved copy of one of only a few full-length movies still available of the first superstar in Japanese cinema history, the very famous Onoe Matsunosuke. 2. it uses a method that was common in the silent era, the dyeing/tinting of film to mark given moments of day (for ex., blue for night-time) or given situations (for ex., red for fire) – and even though most films that used this technique have been redeveloped in straight b&w, this one is available in its original form. 3. it is an early SFX (special effects) movie that uses the basic tools of the trade - a great action movie full of swordsmanship and monsters (bakemono).
Trashy movie with a lot of T and A. The scenes were very redundant. There were 3 basic scenes that repeated throughtout the movie; 1) trashy naked girls dancing onstage; 2) trashy naked girls partying with wealthy businessmen while they secretly drug them to take them for large credit card purchases; and 3) scenes of trashy girls shopping in high end stores spending the money they stole. That is basically it in a nutshell. These 3 scenes are repeated throughout the movie and once you see each of these scenes the movie is over. Nothing more to see. Big snoozefest if you ask me.
A young ronin who stares at his sword with ardor.
This was the germ of an idea that I'd first had years ago.
How will I kill another person with this sword? How can I?
Some samurai must have thought that.
Even if it's my master's order, how can I bring myself to do it?
Wouldn't some of them have thought so?
Since no samurai remain, I went to the next best thing, a WWII veteran and asked him if he'd encountered any conscientious objectors. Did he know anyone who'd quit because he didn't want to kill or be killed? His answer: "Becoming a soldier wasn't questioned as it is today. Even if you didn't want to join up, there was no escaping it. War was such an ordinary part of everyone's life that it was simply inevitable. People today must find such a story of samurai incomprehensible."
The weight of his words contextualized that single line, "A young ronin who stares at his sword with ardor" for and stayed with me.
In Fires on the Plain I explored the ultimate horror of war so this time I wanted an entirely different theme for my movie. Then that line that had been floating in my head, became the kernel for this movie. As I inhaled the current state of the world I had an urge to let it out like a scream. The single line inflated into a story and with an incredible cast of performers and a dependable crew, I had a movie. A movie that is simple, relevant, and gives voice to my scream.
Travelling back in time from the 1940s of Fires on the Plain and condensing all the firearms into one sword drew me a little closer to the essence of man.
Just a single reel of this film survives - some 12 minutes of the most glorious samurai fighting ever. Recently it was digitally restored by the National Film Center of Japan.
The title is a word borrowed from the Chinese, meaning “the grudge that one cannot forget.”
When he was still an assistant director, one day [Akira] Kurosawa visited the open set where Sadao Yamanaka was shooting Humanity and Paper Balloons (Ninjo Kamifusen, 1937). It was the scene where the unemployed ronin (masterless samurai) Matajuro, played by Chojuro Kawarazaki, tries to hand over a letter of entreaty to a senior official. What Kurosawa never forgot about that day was that even though the weather was perfectly fine, everybody was just standing around idly, peering up at the sky. He learned that they were waiting for a cloud to waft over a warehouse on the set.
- Teruyo Nogami, Waiting on the Weather , p. 17
One of the great Mexican box office hits of all time! Based on the International hit song and brilliantly acted by Andrés García and directed by Alfonso Rosas Priego, Pedro Navaja
(Peter the Knife) is the story of the coolest, street smart hustler ever to walk the streets of Mexico City. The police are after him, his rivals are after him, and all the while the most beautiful women of Mexico are in the cup of his hand. Pedro Navaja is one of the great cinematic icons from Mexican cinema.
Raoul Peck's 52-minute political documentary ''Profit and Nothing But!'' is a disappointingly flat, hectoring film from the gifted Haitian filmmaker.
Mr. Peck appears to have recently made the discovery that the dominant economic system on this planet is capitalism.
As the title of his film suggests, he has also discovered that capitalism is not a system primarily driven by a selfless quest for social justice.
An unusual blending of elements comes together in this crime story drawn from Japanese history. During the early Meiji period a number of “Dokufu” (Poison Women) committed a significant number of murders. These crimes were most often committed by wives on their husbands in order to be together with their lovers. At that time women were executed in the same manner as men, to wit: by being decapitated. This is the story of the most notorious of all, Takahashi Oden who, in 1879, was the last woman executed by decapitation in Japan. The blending in this film was done by utilizing characteristics of a popular manga about the executioner known as Head-Chopper Asaemon (a hereditary post, all of whom had the same name) and giving him a history with Oden which surfaces on the execution grounds when her hood is removed and they see each other. This particular story has been used both in the “Samurai Executioner” manga as the second Volume: “Yoshitsugu-Yamada Asaemon the Third” and in history books, most notably Hillsborough’s “Samurai Sketches.”
Comments 1 - 25 of 1329
Movie comment on La chimera
monty
Arthur wants loot: he’s deep in debt to a fence. But he also wants to find Beniamina, his lost love, who might be dead or simply lying low. So he’s scouring the small towns and the big house on the hill. He’s searching the graves in the woods and the tombs near the beach. It’s as though his dowsing rod is a thread that somehow connects his hand to hers. “Yes,” Rohrwacher says. “Like the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice." - Xan Brooks in The Guardian.Movie comment on Adauchi
monty
"During the Tokugawa era, some effort was made to control revenges which could easily spiral out of control among Samurai, whose intense conceptions of honor meant that vengeance for each group of avengers could continue in an unending line until entire families or clans would be wiped out. This would eventually become the adauchi, an officially sanctioned revenge which was legally approved, announced, and witnessed by the public and a government official, all of which would officially bring the sequence of further revenge to an end. In its way, it was simply a form of public execution modified to satisfy the honor of all participants and not leading to any heads on spikes. However, to make sure the adauchi was effective, that the right person died, the avengers were allowed to bring in “helpers,” which on occasion could number in the dozens." [Japanonfilm.wordpress]Movie comment on Boys Town
monty
The film Stalin is said to have loved more than any other was the 1938 Hollywood production Boys Town, starring Spencer Tracy as Father Edward J. Flanagan, a real-life character who ran a home for delinquent boys. He enjoyed one scene so much that he would “grab the arm of the person sitting next to him, squeeze and say ‘Look at that, look at that!’” whenever it came on-screen. He apparently watched the film 256 times.Movie comment on Play for Today: Dinner at the Sporting Club
monty
Two thumbs upMovie comment on Screen Two: The Grass Arena
monty
Good stuffMovie comment on Kawanakajima kassen
monty
This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi.Set in the 16th century, the film depicts the preparations for the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima and the battle itself. Unusually, it focuses on the trials and tribulations of the men of the huge supply train needed for the army and its hundreds of horses. Hasegawa plays Hyakuzo, one of these men, while Isuzu Yamada is a travelling woman with whom he builds a relationship. Shingen Takeda (played by Denjiro Okochi) and Kenshin Uesugi (Ennosuke Ichikawa) lead the rival armies. The film builds up to the dramatically-filmed battle with hundreds of extras. The famous attack by Uesugi who penetrates the enemy headquarters and wields his sword against Takeda who fends him off with his battle fan, is just one of the incidents shown.
Movie comment on Army of the Dead
monty
A real turd.Movie comment on Shibukawa Bangorô
monty
This is an important film for three reasons. 1. it is an almost perfectly well preserved copy of one of only a few full-length movies still available of the first superstar in Japanese cinema history, the very famous Onoe Matsunosuke. 2. it uses a method that was common in the silent era, the dyeing/tinting of film to mark given moments of day (for ex., blue for night-time) or given situations (for ex., red for fire) – and even though most films that used this technique have been redeveloped in straight b&w, this one is available in its original form. 3. it is an early SFX (special effects) movie that uses the basic tools of the trade - a great action movie full of swordsmanship and monsters (bakemono).Movie comment on Hustlers
monty
Movie comment on Zan
monty
Director's StatementA young ronin who stares at his sword with ardor.
This was the germ of an idea that I'd first had years ago.
How will I kill another person with this sword? How can I?
Some samurai must have thought that.
Even if it's my master's order, how can I bring myself to do it?
Wouldn't some of them have thought so?
Since no samurai remain, I went to the next best thing, a WWII veteran and asked him if he'd encountered any conscientious objectors. Did he know anyone who'd quit because he didn't want to kill or be killed? His answer: "Becoming a soldier wasn't questioned as it is today. Even if you didn't want to join up, there was no escaping it. War was such an ordinary part of everyone's life that it was simply inevitable. People today must find such a story of samurai incomprehensible."
The weight of his words contextualized that single line, "A young ronin who stares at his sword with ardor" for and stayed with me.
In Fires on the Plain I explored the ultimate horror of war so this time I wanted an entirely different theme for my movie. Then that line that had been floating in my head, became the kernel for this movie. As I inhaled the current state of the world I had an urge to let it out like a scream. The single line inflated into a story and with an incredible cast of performers and a dependable crew, I had a movie. A movie that is simple, relevant, and gives voice to my scream.
Travelling back in time from the 1940s of Fires on the Plain and condensing all the firearms into one sword drew me a little closer to the essence of man.
Movie comment on Chokon
monty
Just a single reel of this film survives - some 12 minutes of the most glorious samurai fighting ever. Recently it was digitally restored by the National Film Center of Japan.The title is a word borrowed from the Chinese, meaning “the grudge that one cannot forget.”
Movie comment on Maximilian
monty
Good stuff!Movie comment on Ninjô kami fûsen
monty
Movie comment on Aknyeo
monty
There are lots of great Korean films - this, however, ain't one of them. Awful, just plain awful!Movie comment on Yagyû bugeichô: Yoru zakura hiken
monty
AKA Yagyu Chronicles 2: The Secret SwordMovie comment on Pedro Navaja
monty
Movie comment on Profit & Nothing But! Or Impolite Thoughts on the Class Struggle
monty
- Dave Kehr (The New York Times)Movie comment on The Terror
monty
Pretty good stuff!Movie comment on Gunro no keifu
monty
AKA Tale of a ScarfaceMovie comment on Banba no Chûtarô
monty
Based on the play ”Mabuta no Haha” by famed author Hasegawa Shin, this is the first major starring role for Wakayama Tomisaburo.Movie comment on Dokufu oden kubikiri asa
monty
An unusual blending of elements comes together in this crime story drawn from Japanese history. During the early Meiji period a number of “Dokufu” (Poison Women) committed a significant number of murders. These crimes were most often committed by wives on their husbands in order to be together with their lovers. At that time women were executed in the same manner as men, to wit: by being decapitated. This is the story of the most notorious of all, Takahashi Oden who, in 1879, was the last woman executed by decapitation in Japan. The blending in this film was done by utilizing characteristics of a popular manga about the executioner known as Head-Chopper Asaemon (a hereditary post, all of whom had the same name) and giving him a history with Oden which surfaces on the execution grounds when her hood is removed and they see each other. This particular story has been used both in the “Samurai Executioner” manga as the second Volume: “Yoshitsugu-Yamada Asaemon the Third” and in history books, most notably Hillsborough’s “Samurai Sketches.”Movie comment on Rônin-gai
monty
Please note that this is Shintaro Katsu's last acting performance in a film. Also, Takashi Miike worked on this film as assistant director.Movie comment on Teki wa honnoji ni ari
monty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honn%C5%8D-ji_incidentMovie comment on Shingo juban shobu dai nibu
monty
AKA The Ten Battles of Shingo, Part IIMovie comment on Hitokiri
monty
Hitokiri (literally: “man cutter”).Showing items 1 – 25 of 1329