Lost In Translation

The Headless Woman

The Headless Woman (2008) directed by Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel. It is a curious film that suggest much while giving away very little. The prevailing sense of unease reminds me of another classic from the same period, Michale Handeke's Cache. In this film a woman from an upper class, moneyed background, Vero (Maria Onetto) has a car accident on a rural road, but she doesn't stop and get out or even look to see what she has hit. This will haunt her throughout the film, a sense of foreboding that she may have hit a person. This is all very subtly played out as Vero goes about her daily business with her family. It is a slow film with little action or plot, a typical art film if you will and feels longer than the lean 87 minutes in which this story is played out. Apparently it was booed at the Cannes film festival, I can see how this could be a divisive film. I would guess more viewers would expect a more explicit message in a film. However, it is unsettling and keeps the viewer guessing about Vero's culpability. It has been suggested this guilt can represent the silence of and complicity with the brutal dictators of Argentina's recent past or the guilt that "the haves" gain in relation to the growing gap between them and "the have nots."

The Warped Ones

The second film by Koreyoshi Kurahara in the Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara, is The Warped Ones (1960). This films seems as though it owes something to Jean-luc Goddard's Breathless, which came out the same year. The soundtrack has a hard driving jazz score and there is a lot of hand held camera work that seems innovative for the time in which it was used. It is a tale of delinquent youths who engage in petty theft, prostitution, and run around looking for kicks by stealing cars and heading out to the beach. On this trip Akira (Tamio Kawachi) stumbles on the journalist that saw to him getting arrested for a robbery and knocks him down and abducts his girlfriend, Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto) and rapes her. His best friend Masaru (Eiji Go) and his trick turning girlfriend Yuki (Yuko Chishiro) ride along for kicks. It is a film full of energy and must have been ground breaking at the time and has a very distinct style. It does not seem like the same director that made the genre picture, Intimidation in the same year.

Zatoichi Challenged

The 17th edition in the Zatoichi series is Zatoichi Challenged (1967) and was directed by one of the more dynamic directors in the series, Kenji Musumi. There are several impressive locations scenes in this episode as well as some funky modern music and an theme song sung by star Shintaro Katsu at the beginning. There is a comic scene where Zatoichi outsmarts a carpenter in a gambling guessing game. His impressive swordsman act results in a yakuza henchman losing his eyebrows after threatening a theatrical group befriended by Zatoichi and the young boy whom he is returning to his father. There is an interesting subplot where an artist is imprisoned and forced to make shunga (erotic art as prints and on plates), while an official is dispatched to destroy the subversive art.There are some cinematic set pieces throughout the film, for example, an escape scene in the fog, a fight on a bridge, and a final duel in snow that must have been inspiration for the sword fight in snow in The Lady Snowblood film.

Ebisu Kitchen By Ku

I found a new bistro-like Thai themed restaurant in Ebisu, Ebisu Kitchen by Ku. There were some nice fusion menu items.

Tom Yum flavored gyoza with coriander.

Chang Mai style sausage with ginger and cucumbers.

Red curry with pork and shrimp.

Pasta with coriander.

Of Love And Other Demons

I guess it goes without saying that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a modern master and Of Love And Other Demons (1994) reflects this mastery. It reads like a classic, it is a story of love, faith, ignorance, and reflects the history of the new world in the shadow of Europe. As I read it, it felt as if it was a classic text passed down from generation to generation-it seems curious that such a novel could have been written in modern times. Marquez creates a time machine that takes us back to a time that was more focused on religion and heresy than science, but also creates a timeless love story in the process. Stylistically it is such a pleasure to make one's way through the prose. Another classic form a modern master.

Spring In A Small Town

Fei Mu's Spring In A Small Town (1948) has long been considered one of the greatest Chinese language films of all-time. I previously have seen Tian Zhungzhung's 2002 remake, Springtime in a Small Town, which was generally a faithful adaptation of the original. It is the story of a man in poor health condition, Dai Liyan (Shi Yu), which result in being in ill-humor most of the time which causes a rift between himself and his long suffering wife, Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei). They live with Lao's vivacious younger sister,  Meimei (Hongmei Zhang) who keeps the household lively despite the oppressive atmosphere of the decaying house in the small town. The household is turned upside down at the arrival of Dai Liyan's childhood friend, Zhang Zhichen (Cui Chaoming), who unbeknownst to him was also his wife's former lover. Melodrama ensues as a love triangle forms, but no action is taken-it is a subtle film that prefigures a similar unrequited love in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love. it is unfortunate that the only surviving print is damaged so the visual and audio experience isn't what it should be. It's lucky that it survived at all since it was filmed one year before the Chinese revolution and Mao took over the government and culture took aback seat to economic and social policies of communism.

A Year In The Dark

A couple of years ago I came across a copy of Renata Adler's A Year In The Dark: A Year in the Life of a Film Critic 1968-1969 (1969) in a cafe in Dalat, Vietnam. I liked the idea of reading about films that were released during the height of the Vietnam War and vowed to hunt down a copy once I got back home. I have read some of Pauline Kael's reviews and its interesting to see how some classic movies were received when they first were released. The Introduction explains the context of Adler replacing the dinosaur Bosley Crowthers and Adler's background in journalism. I was interested in her opinions on some films that have become classics or cult classic over the years as well as dissenting opinions on films that are well-regarded today. Near the beginning of her tenure, there is a take down of Norman Mailer's Wild 90:

"Norman Mailer's first film, Wild 90, is more or less continuous with the rest of his work. It runs on. It features Mailer. It leans quite heavily on the assumption that lack of form liberates-that time, impulse, spontaneity, a willingness to risk personal embarrassment, above all, a constant unrestricted play of energy will sooner or later yield a breakthrough into something fresh."

She is obviously not a fan of spaghetti westerns and says that the classic Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: "...must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its particular genre." Planet of the Apes is dismissed: "None of it is quite up to a single episode of "Star Trek," but it is all right." The Graduate gets high praise: ""and one is in the hands of the most brilliant, if rather unstable, movie in quite some time." She gives a positive review to a little known Albert Finney directed film, Charlie Bubbles as well as Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. She also has high praise for the Steve McQueen vehicle Bullitt. Adler also reviews a large number of foreign films from Czech New Wave features to films like Jean-Luc Goddard's Le Chinoise and Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf. She is also a champion of John Casavetes's art film, Faces, as well as Milos Forman's The Fireman's Ball. And there was also praise for an obscure French film L'Enfance Nue/ Naked Childhood directed by Maurice Pialat.

Here's her Top 10 for 1968 in no particular order: Charlie Bubbles, The Two Of Us directed by Claude Berri, Belle de Jour by Luis Bunuel, Faces, Les Carabiniers by Jean-Luc Goddard, The Bride Wore Black by Francious Trauffaut, The Fifth Horseman Is Fear by Zbynek Brynch, Petulia by Richard Lester, Rosemary's Baby, A Report on the Party and the Guests by Jan Nemec.

Throughout the book of reviews there are some reviews of Broadway productions (a production of  Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemon for example) in addition to films. Not to mention she intermittently writes think pieces on films she has seen recently or genres like horror. Curiously the last three pieces in the book are on culture and film in Cuba. There is a recurring acknowledgement of the riots, strikes, and discord over the course of this book and one can learn a lot about what was going on in the world in the late 60s and as well as understand much about Adler's own tastes and opinions on art and society.

Intimidation

I wasn't aware of Koreyoshi Kurahara until I was introduced to him via Criterion's Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir, which included his film I am Waiting (1957). It was an entertaining noirish vehicle for Yujiro Ishihara. Since then I have learned that he was a very commercially successful director and was active during the New Wave period, despite not being considered a member of that particular film movement. Criterion saw it fitting that he get his own series, Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara. The first film in the collection is another film noir gem, Intimidation (1960). This lean film, it clocks in at a mere 65 minutes, tells the story of an arrogant bank assistant manager, Takita (Nobuo Kaneko), who rides his success over a former school mate and subordinate, (Akira Nishimura who also starred in Kurosawa's High and Low in 1960) before coming face to face with a rude comeuppance. It is a well-plotted film with several reversals of fortune. It is an entertaining genre piece executed with precision and artistry-there are some well crafted set pieces and scenes throughout the film. As a result I am looking forward to seeing what Kurahara will do in his other four films in this series.

Zatoichi The Outlaw

Zatoichi The Outlaw (1967) is the first film in the series that was made by Shintaro Katsu's (Zatoichi) production company: second of three in 1967 and 16th overall. The director is Satsuo Yamamoto, known for anti-authoritain films and brings his subversive touch to the Zaotichi franchise in this film which champions the peasants over the exploitative yakuza bosses. The film opens with another round of impressive archery from Zatoichi at a fair. The usual body count of dispatched henchmen is realized, but halfway through the film we get a rendition of what is to become Zatoichi's themes song sung by Katsu. One of the bosses, Asagoro is played by Rentaro Mikuni (known for impressive films such as The Burmese Harp and Vengeance Is Mine). Zatoichi exposes a fixed dice game the usual way by cutting the in half to expose the ruse. There's an innovative montage scene of gambling late in the film as well. It ends in an emotional way as Zatocihi gets revenge with a yakuza boss that duped him into believing he was a good guy with the peasant's best interests in mind.

The Puppetmaster

The Puppetmaster (1993) is another contemplative Taiwanese historical film from master director Hsiao-Hsien Hou. This story is essentially dramatized flashback sequences from the life of a real-life master puppeteer, Li Tianlu. The period of the film is the Japanese occupation from 1895 until the end of the WWII. Throughout the film there are extended sequences that document the art of puppeteering as well as some early sequences with Chinese opera. Interspersed throughout the film are remembrances in a documentary style, talking-head scenes of Tianlu telling his life story. As per usual, there is impressive cinematography in the film. Throughout the film are long shot shots that are lengthy in duration that are quite artistic, see the still above that shows people crossing a rope bridge in the Taiwanese jungle. The pace is meditative and there are many long takes in this two hour and 26 minute long film-typical of Hou and art house movies in general. It is another impressive film from an auteur that won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.