Posts with tag akira kurosawa
Posted Mar 15th 2008 12:32PM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Foreign Language, Oscar Watch, Columns, 400 Screens, 400 Blows
Okay. It's time to get down to brass tacks. I'm going to get up on my soapbox and hope that the right Academy members read the column this week, because it's time to re-do the rules of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category. Do you know how long it has been since a great film, a truly great film, won in this category? I'm talking about a film made by a genuinely great artist of the cinema, a film for the ages, and not just a perfectly good film, or a film about one of the great world wars. Here's your answer: twenty-five years ago. Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1983) was the last great one. That leaves 25 years of pretty good, just OK, forgettable, or flat-out awful winners (mostly forgettable). This year's winner, The Counterfeiters (41 screens) had to be one of the worst movies I saw all year; at it's center is a perfectly good (true) WWII concentration camp story, but it's warped by an entirely inept director, responsible for one of the worst movies I've ever seen, All the Queen's Men (2001). How did it win? How did it get past all the truly great films of 2007?
Continue reading Jeffrey M. Anderson's 400 Screens, 400 Blows - Foreign Reform
Posted Nov 27th 2007 7:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Action, Animation, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Noir, New on DVD, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Cinematical Indie
Do you want to look forward or backward? Out on DVD this week are two Japanese films separated by more than half a century. Animation director
Satoshi Kon first made his mark with
Perfect Blue (1997), a trippy journey into a pop singer's psyche that transcended time and space. He reversed course with
Millennium Actress (2001), which crossed decades to tell the story of of a reclusive movie star, and slid into the mainstream with the much more straightforward
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) before returning to more familiar territory with the made for television multi-episode series
Paranoia Agent (2003).
His most recent film,
Paprika, is a "visually rich tale,"
wrote Kim Voynar, "about a group of private scientists at a research facility who have invented a device called the DC Mini that allows 'dream detectives' to enter other people's dreams." The DVD includes a "making of" documentary, several featurettes and a filmmaker commentary.
Is it possible to summarize the career of
Akira Kurosawa? Suffice it to say that his 1948 noir
Drunken Angel was his first step into personal filmmaking and his first collaboration with the great actor
Toshirô Mifune. As is their custom, The Criterion Collection has
produced a DVD that features a new, restored high definition transfer, audio commentary by Japanese film expert Donald Richie, a "making of" documentary, a new "video piece" on the challenges that faced Kurosawa, and more.
Quite frankly, Wilson Yip's
Dragon Tiger Gate is an unholy mess that tries to pretend 40-something
Donnie Yen is about half his age -- and that's just the starting point for the foolishness unleashed. It could be argued that the action and the dramatics are
intended to be over the top, since it's based on a popular
manga, but I think that's probably insulting to the source material, which I haven't read. If you're a glutton for punishment -- or just a sucker for any kind of martial arts action and/or pretty boys
Nicholas Tse and
Shawn Yue -- you might like this more than I did. The DVD includes an audio commentary by Ric Meyers, a "making of" featurette and deleted scenes.
Posted Nov 5th 2007 2:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Obits, Cinematical Indie
Stanley S. Canter (1932-2007) - Producer of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and its sequel, Tarzan and the Lost City. He also produced St. Ives, starring Charles Bronson, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, starring Burt Reynolds, and Hornet's Nest, starring Rock Hudson. He died of cardiovascular complications October 12, in Santa Monica, California. (Variety) - Robert Goulet (1933-2007) - Singer and actor who appears in Beetlejuice, Scrooged, Atlantic City and The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. He also provided the singing voice for Wheezy the Penguin in Toy Story 2. Read Patrick's full post here.
- Ray Gravell (1951-2007) - Actor and rugby pro who appears in Damage and Darklands. He died of diabetes October 31, in Spain. (BBC)
- Evelyn Hamann (1942-2007) - German actress who starred in Ödipussi, Pappa ante Portas and Piratensender Powerplay. She died of lymphoma October 29, in Hamburg. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Continue reading RIP: Reel Important People -- November 4, 2007
Posted Oct 31st 2007 6:05PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Classics, Foreign Language, Casting, The Weinstein Co., George Lucas, Remakes and Sequels, Cinematical Indie
As much as I disapprove of most remakes, I don't really have an issue with Akira Kurosawa's films being redone. The thing is, Kurosawa was a master of remakes, having continually reworked John Ford and Shakespeare. And in turn, his films have been remade as or have influenced later classics, like The Magnificent Seven and Star Wars. Sure, it's worth complaining about The Weinstein Co. remaking The Seven Samurai, because, well, it's The Weinstein Co. But I see little issue with the news, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, that Japanese studio Toho, which produced the original, is working on a redo of The Hidden Fortress. This is the film, after all, that is constantly cited as the basis for Star Wars, and if it's good enough in the hands of George Lucas, it could be good enough in the hands of special effects wizard-turned-director Shinji Higuchi (The Sinking of Japan). Cast as General Makabe, the part originated by the legendary Toshirô Mifune, is super-tall (for his country) actor Hiroshi Abe (Godzilla 2000). The part of Princess Uehara will be played by Masami Nagasawa (Godzilla: Final Wars).
One issue that Kurosawa fans may have with this remake, and The Hollywood Reporter already points this out, is that the two comical peasant characters, Tahei and Matashichi, are being condensed into one character called "Takezo". The character will still serve the same function, with his point of view being the film's perspective, but unless he talks to himself a lot, he just won't be the same. Aside from inspiring R2-D2 and C-3PO, Tahei and Matashichi have obviously influenced other pairings, including the recent characters Ragetti and Pintel from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Perhaps Toho believes we've seen enough of such duos? The new singular version, "Takezo", will be played by Jun Matsumoto, best known as a member of the boy band Arashi.
Posted Aug 13th 2007 11:06AM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Fandom, Cinematical Indie
I've heard of people learning English from watching movies and television shows -- usually friends of friends, as the stories went -- but I didn't realize it was such a cottage industry until I typed "Learning English from movies" into a search engine. (Go ahead, try it. I'll wait.) The
search results from Google show that a lot of people have put a lot of thought into this idea, far beyond teaching somehow how to say "I'll be back" with a menacing Teutonic air that might one day vault you into the California governor's mansion.
In a similar way, some movie buffs have learned French or Italian in hopes of better appreciating their favorite auteurs, while even I have picked up a couple of Cantonese phrases just from watching movies -- though when I've tried them out on native Cantonese speakers, they look at me as though I'm speaking Martian. So why not try to learn Japanese by watching
Akira Kurosawa movies?
The folks at
Mahalo.com have assembled what is, in effect,
a lesson plan based on the notion that "listening to Japanese in a dramatic setting can provide an emotional and contextual background absent in textbooks." They outline activities for watching and learning from the Kurosawa classics
Rashomon, Ikiru, Yojimbo, and
Drunken Angel. In
Rashomon, for example, it suggests noticing the difference between how an old man and a young girl might say "I don't understand," which might be a very useful phrase for a new Japanese speaker. Personally, I'd like to learn this quote from
Ikiru: "I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time." That might be helpful if I get drunk in a karaoke bar and insult a yakuza. How about you? Have you ever learned any helpful foreign-language words from watching a movie?
Posted May 28th 2007 5:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Obits
Edward Behr (c.1926-2007) - British writer of Half Moon Street, starring Sigourney Weaver. He also appears as himself in Otto Preminger's doc Rosebud. (International Herald Tribune) - Jo Durden-Smith (1941-2007) - Documentary filmmaker who wrote and directed A Horse Called Nijinski, which was narrated by Orson Welles, and produced the rock docs The Stones in the Park, The Doors Are Open and Johnny Cash in San Quentin. He died following a stroke May 10, in the UK. (Guardian)
- Kei Kumai (1930-2007) - Japanese filmmaker who directed The Sea Is Watching (pictured), which was written by Akira Kurosawa. He also directed Tunnel to the Sun, Lady Ogin and Death of a Sea Monster, all starring Toshiro Mifune, and The Sea and Poison, which won the Silver Bear at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival. He died of a brain hemorrhage May 18, in Tokyo. (Variety)
- Bruno Mattei (1931-2007) - Italian cult filmmaker who directed Hell of the Living Dead (aka Zombie Creeping Flesh), Womens Prison Massacre, Violence in a Woman's Prison, Rats: Night of Terror and Zombie 3. He was also the co-editor of Jesus Franco's 99 Women, for which he also directed the hardcore sequences, and Count Dracula. He died of cancer May 21, in Rome. (Contact Music)
- Bud Molin (1925-2007) - Editor on all of Carl Reiner's films between 1970 (Where's Poppa?) and 1993 (Fatal Instinct). He also edited They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, The Man With One Red Shoe and Up the Academy, for which he was also the second unit director. He died May 21 in Rancho Mirage, California. (Variety)
- Charles Nelson Reilly (1931-2007) - Actor and television personality who played "Don Don Canneloni" in Cannonball Run II and appears in an uncredited role in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. He also voiced characters in Don Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven, Rock-A-Doodle and A Troll in Central Park. He died of complications from pneumonia May 25, in Los Angeles. (NY Times)
- G. Srinivasan (c.1958-2007) - Indian producer of Mani Ratnam's last four films, including the director's latest, Guru, which stars Aishwarya Rai. He died May 27 when he fell into a 50-foot gorge near Halan, India. (Earthtimes.org)
- Robert Sully (1918-2007) - Actor who appears in Meet Me in St. Louis, A Guy Named Joe and When Worlds Collide. He died May 15 in Santa Barbara, California. (Santa Barbara News-Press)
- Alberto Verso (1941-2007) - Italian costume designer for Ripley's Game and The Truce and assistant costume designer for The Night Porter, Waterloo and Visconti's L'Innocente. He died May 16 in Rome. (IMDb)
- Ben Weisman (1921-2007) - Composer of the scores to Andy Warhol's L'Amour and Ed Wood's short Crossroads of Laredo. He also wrote tunes for many of Elvis' movies, including Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, Clambake, Blue Hawaii and Roustabout. He died May 20 in Los Angeles. (Variety)
- Gretchen Wyler (1932-2007) - Actress who played one of the few female characters in The Devil's Brigade and "Aunt Kissy" in Private Benjamin. She died of complications from breast cancer May 27, in Fresno, California. (FresnoBee.com)
Posted Oct 27th 2006 6:32PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, New Releases, Distribution, Newsstand, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
Everyone has a different opinion regarding the greatest films in history. Since half the fun is in the arguing, pity the poor cinephile who thinks they've got it all figured out. A new DVD box set from Criterion and Janus may not claim to have finally compiled the greatest films ever, but they've gotten off to a pretty good start.
Janus was a distribution company founded in 1956 by Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey. They had been showing foreign films in their Massachusetts theater for a few years before becoming the premiere distributors of foreign films in the US. Janus has teamed with their sister company Criterion to create
Essential Art House: 50 Years Of Janus Film. This whopper of a collection is now available and includes films from directors like
Federico Fellini,
Ingmar Bergman,
Luis Bunuel and
Akira Kurosawa -- you can read about Criterion's remastered
Seven Samurai here. In total, this box set contains 50 different films, numerous extras, and a 240-page book with an introduction written by
Martin Scorsese. Most of these films have been available through Criterion for years, but not in one collection.
All of this film history doesn't come cheap though, the set has a retail price of $850. If that seems a little excessive, don't worry; Criterion is also planning on releasing individual discs from the series as well.
[via
CNN Entertainment]
Posted Sep 24th 2006 12:00PM by James Rocchi
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Newsstand, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
If you thought that DVD's effect on film preservation and restoration was minimal -- or only for hard-core film nerds -- think again:
CNN.com is running an
excellent piece (including before-and-after comparisons of individual frames) about the restoration of
Criterion's new Seven Samurai DVD that does a great job of articulating the challenges of repairing a classic -- without completely altering it, or falling into the abyss where the
perfect becomes the enemy of the
good. Criterion Technical director Lee Kline is quoted as saying "For the most part, you wish you had a few more weeks ... people are used to pristine. But if we did that, we'd never get it out." Has DVD made people expect perfection? And can you make an older film 'perfect' without losing its soul? I for one love the Criterion
Samurai, right down to the flaws and scratches that remain -- but are there film fans out there who, in this bit-heavy, high-def day and age, would turn off a film that offered anything less than perfect image quality, regardless of how great the story is?
Posted Aug 18th 2006 8:03AM by Jette Kernion
Filed under: News From Slackerwood
Several new indie films have found their way to Austin this week: Lower City and The Oh in Ohio open at Dobie, while Jailbait plays at Arbor. In addition, the IMAX/3D version of Superman Returns will screen this week at the Texas State History Museum. If you want to see that trendy new movie with the reptiles on aircraft, Alamo Drafthouse is offering "Snakes on a Plate" as a special menu item.
- H.P. Lovecraft's birthday is on Sunday. You can celebrate the horror author's special day with a film marathon at Alamo Downtown, which includes the silent film Call to Cthulhu, a Night Gallery episode called "Pickman's Model," a number of short films, and the made-for-HBO film Cast a Deadly Spell. What, no Re-Animator?
- Irvine Welsh, author of the book Trainspotting, will attend a screening of the movie adaptation on Sunday night at Alamo Downtown. If you buy his latest book, admission to the movie is free.
Continue reading News from Slackerwood: Lovecraft and Shakespeare
Posted Jul 14th 2006 3:35PM by Martha Fischer
Filed under: Action, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Casting, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels, Cinematical Indie
I did a lot of whining here when the
news broke that The Weinstein Company was planning a remake of
Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, so it's only right that the latest Kurosawa remake receive the same treatment: Powerful (and wildly misguided) Japanese producer
Haruki Kadokawa has announced plans to make a new version of
Sanjuro. Granted, the fact that this one is being made by a Japanese studio with Japanese actors -- it will be directed by
Yoshimitsu Morita and star
Yuji Oda as
Toshirô Mifune's unnamed ronin -- automatically makes its better than an American
Seven Samurai starring
George Clooney, but still. For the love of God, why?
One one hand, I suppose you've got to admire Kadokawa for striking while the iron is hot: His
Yamoto was a massive hit last year, and he knows he's pretty much able to do anything he wants right now (he's also behind that
Genghis Kahn biopic). On the other hand, however, I just cannot comprehend the balls of directors and actors willing to step into the shoes of masters like Kurosawa and Mifune -- the amount of money on offer must be impressive indeed, since it has the power to make normally sensible people lose their minds entirely.
The film will hit Japanese theaters next year.
Posted Jul 11th 2006 11:04AM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Cinematical Seven
There's bad casting and good casting, to be sure, and sometimes there's strange casting. But sometimes, out of left field, someone agrees to act in a movie with a certain director, and you just can't see the connection. Sometimes this works out, and other times it does not.
1. D.W. Griffith & W.C. Fields, Sally of the Sawdust (1925)
Yes, the great, curmudgeonly comic with the bulbous nose, the penchant for booze and a curdling disdain for children and animals found himself working with the famously Victorian silent-era film pioneer. Griffith's career was on the way down, and Fields' was on the way up, and they met in the middle for this actually rather delightful comedy-drama. Fields occupies the co-starring role (opposite Carol Dempster) as a carnival cardsharp.
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Oddest Director/Actor Combos
Posted Jun 11th 2006 7:07PM by Martha Fischer
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Fandom, Cinematical Indie
Thanks to the epic power of the internet, we all now know about the appearances Hollywood stars make in Japanese ads. No matter what they're shilling for,
Brad Pitt,
Bruce Willis,
George Clooney and dozens of others can earn piles of obscenely easy money by simply lending their mugs to an advertising campaign or 12. This is not, however, a new phenomenon. For example, way back in the dark ages of 1980,
Francis Ford Coppola joined
Akira Kurosawa (whose
Kagemusha he was then producing) in spots for Suntory whiskey, a product Kurosawa had been endorsing for at least a decade.
Happily, a bunch of the spots -- both with and without Coppola, and directed by Kurosawa himself -- have been
uploaded to YouTube for our viewing pleasure. My favorites are actually the latter group, particularly the first one in which only Kurosawa appears. For most of the 15-second-ish spot, it appears we're watching a documentary about the making of
Kagemusha. And then, suddenly, a bottle of whiskey appears, and a very serious voice-over intones "Suntory Reserve." Alrighty then. If nothing else, I suppose it's nice to know that totally illogical alcohol ads are nothing new. (And yes,
Heineken-Pussycat Dolls ad, I'm looking at you.)
Posted May 20th 2006 10:31AM by Martha Fischer
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Newsstand, Cinematical Indie
Just last month, we
reported on the opening of the Kurosawa Film Academy, a school founded by the son of legendary Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa, dedicated to "[raising] the talent in [the] Japanese film industry, based on the spirit" of his father. The school has been accepting applications for classes that were to begin in the fall, taught by the master's associates. Unfortunately, however,
Variety reported today that the school had closed, due to differences between administrators and management.
It's unclear exactly why he left, but the end of the school seems to have started with the May 1 resignation of
Teruyo Nogami, a long-time Kurosawa associate who had been filling the role of administrator. Nogami stepped down either to "to take responsibility for actions by two school staffers" that brought the school into disrepute, or because he disagreed with the teaching of digital techniques in place of traditional filmmaking. Either way, his resignation was quickly followed by that of
Tatsuya Nakadai, a Kurosawa actor who had been the school's dean; shortly thereafter the school closed.
Though the closing is theoretically temporary -- a "radical restructuring" is underway -- given the paltry number of applications (the freshman class, expected to be about 110 students, had only 10 enrollees as of the closing), it wouldn't be surprising if this was the last we heard of the Academy.
Posted Apr 15th 2006 9:06PM by Martha Fischer
Filed under: Foreign Language, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Cinematical Indie
The son of legendary Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa has opened a private
film academy dedicated to "[raising] the talent in [the] Japanese film industry, based on the Kurosawa
spirit." The school, which will offer two year courses in production and acting, is staffed by many of the
director's former collaborators, including head of instruction
Teruyo
Nogami, who served as script supervisor and production manager on nearly all of Kurosawa films.
Tatsuya Nakadai, who starred in both
Ran and
Kagemusha
for Kurosawa, is serving as dean.
Though the school is currently under construction, it is expected to
welcome its first class this fall, with 80 students studying production, and 30 learning acting -- if you're
interested, they're now
accepting applications. (And don't come
complaining that the link is in Japanese. If you can't read it, you need to slowly step away from your dream of
applying.)
