Fingernail on 22/12/2008 at 14:53
I'll admit, it was a while ago, and I am exaggerating slightly, but it really didn't get on with me.
van HellSing on 22/12/2008 at 15:22
Anything by Mamoru Oshii (well, except for Avalon, since that's actually in Polish :P)
Anything by Satoshi Kon
Das Leben den Anderen
Lola Rennt
Delicatessen
La Cite des Enfants Perdus
Il Labitynto del Fauno
Europa (this one's both in German and English)
Toxicfluff on 22/12/2008 at 15:29
Quote Posted by Fingernail
This was one of the most boring films I have ever seen.
I thought that the first time I saw a Kurosawa. I watched one exhausted on the morning after an unbroken night out - not the best mental condition in which to see a film, granted - and I put it on with the hope of it lulling me to sleep. Bad choice to pick a film with subtitles which you can't follow with your eyes closed, also.
So I settle back on the bed and start watching it. Not much has rolled by before I start to get a nasty nagging feeling that I can't quite place. I mull it for a minute, get nowhere and watch on, on, and a bit further as the feeling simmers. One scene, it starts to swell, it moves upwards and POP -- FUCKING MACBETH. OH GOD. At school, under the tutelage of a real boredom, it felt like pushing an ugly great grey boulder up a hill keeping on with it and here I was having my vow to never touch the cursed story again violated by the supposed greatest Japanese director of all time.
I was that exhausted, I literally couldn't even muster up the energy to struggle to the PC and turn it off. Yet I couldn't sleep or recede much into my own thoughts either. Resigned to my fate, I ended up watching the entire film in a state of violent boredom with what felt like my sanity hanging on a fraying thread.
So, any time I see a black and white film with guys in Samurai suits.. I bolt like a terrified animal. Never touched Kurosawa again.
Muzman on 22/12/2008 at 15:41
I thought Brotherhood of the Wolf was hilarious. Also there's more cuts of it than Bladerunner and Army of Darkness put together. I doubt all of us have seen the same film (not that they're likely to be vastly different in tone or anything). Really though I thought it was great that they took this weird French mystery, turned it up to eleven and crammed in every way out conspiracy theory it's got short of having aliens show up then threw in kung fu and bone swords. Every country should do this at least once.
Anyway, since everything else that springs to mind has been mentioned, I was on a bit of Korean thing recently. Mostly Chanwook Park's stuff like JSA (A tale of friendship across the 43rd parallel that turns, expectedly, tragic. But it's mockingly satirical as well when you realise it is really Romeo and Juliet, but with soldiers and no brokeback mountaineering)
His stuff is like that a lot actually, mixing genuine pathos with really black humour without doing much damage to either, in my experience. His 'revenge trilogy' is quite amusing. I really don't think it's much of a trilogy though. It's just a convenient auterish grouping someone came up with.
Anyway, there's Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and (Sympathy for) Lady Vengeance (which is really called 'The Kindly Mrs somethingorother' in Korean). Oldboy was a bit of a rental favourite among nerds a few years ago. I actually found the other two better on the whole. They have this really madcap style that doesn't really care about that sort of straight noirish narrative and action that Oldboy has. Chan-wook seems more at home in those cases (Oldboy was adapted, which might explain it).
The first one in particular really piles on the tragic circumstances until it seems like the saddest thing in the world and then it clunks over the rail into the next groove and is wincesomely funny.
Lady Vengeance isn't even all that dark compared to the other two. I'd describe it sort of as if Amelie was put in jail for a crime she didn't commit, serves her time and gets out determined to put things right (Ok, so Amelie has added murder and GBH to her list of social fixing skills. But hey (I still don't understand the bit with the dog though))
And, of course, The Host is quite different as monster movies go.
Matthew on 22/12/2008 at 15:46
Quote Posted by Muzman
Lady Vengeance isn't even all that dark compared to the other two. I'd describe it sort of as if Amelie was put in jail for a crime she didn't commit, serves her time and gets out determined to put things right (Ok, so Amelie has added murder and GBH to her list of social fixing skills. But hey)
Can I just say that this description makes me want to find a copy today?
Ajare on 22/12/2008 at 16:01
Quote Posted by Matthew
Can I just say that this description makes me want to find a copy today?
Can I recommend
Girls' Rebel Force Of Competitive Swimmers instead? It covers essentially the same themes, but does so in a much more satisfying way.
You probably think I'm joking.Matthew on 22/12/2008 at 16:03
I believe you, but I'm still waiting until I get home before I google it.
Nameless Voice on 22/12/2008 at 17:17
Vidocq (or Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq for the English dubbed version). A dark supernatural action/detective story set in a steampunk Paris in 1830.
It's French, but I first saw it in German and later in English.
Mr.Duck on 22/12/2008 at 17:33
I could write an impressively extensive list, considering I've been recieving and watching US films most of my life down in Mexico, and since English isn't my mother tongue, it would take a while to finish -just- the gringo list of films.
Now...movies outside of the US and Mexico...many that have been mentioned here I adore too, but I sure can name the last three that I saw that I adored:
In The Mood For Love by Kar Wai Wong (Chinese - HK).
Roman de Gare by Claude Lelouch (French).
Un Secret by Claude Miller.
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Say...anyone knows the name of a russian (I think it was russian) film that was about some concentration camp (gulag, to be precise, methinks) or somesuch?
Vive la cinema!
