Last movie you watched

[erilaz]

The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ) (2013) — Miyazaki's latest expression of his love of airplanes, based on the life of Horikoshi Jirō, the Mitsubishi engineer who designed the A6M "Zero" and other Japanese fighter aircraft used in World War II. Stunning. Go see it.

[esm]

^ saw that tonight! It's great.

[rikkikow]

(In black and white) Samurai period dramas.

Yojimbo (1961)

Sanjuro (1962)

"Children shouldn't play with swords. Go home to your mother and live a long life eating gruel."

[erilaz]

^ The collaboration of Kurosawa and Mifune always results in a great film, and those are two of the best.

The last movie I saw is also a jidaigeki from the 1960s: Gosha Hideo's Hitokiri (人斬り) from 1969. Set amid the political turmoil of the early 1860s, it stars Katsu Shintarō of Zatoichi fame as a skilled but rather dimwitted assassin.

[rikkikow]

Man On The Moon (1999)


Tony Danza remembers Andy Kaufman.

[erilaz]

I saw The Great Passage (舟を編む) at CAAMFest at the Pacific Film Archive today. There were technical problems near the beginning, and the image unfortunately ended up with a greenish tinge for the rest of the screening. At least it wasn't at the wrong aspect ratio, which really would have annoyed the crap out of me.

The film itself was excellent. The story begins in 1995, when a socially awkward bookworm (Matsuda Ryūhei) joins the editorial staff of The Great Passage (大渡海), a new dictionary of the living Japanese language. He falls in love with his landlady's granddaughter (Miyazaki Aoi ), and the story continues through the dictionary's 15-year gestation.

A movie about lexicography, and a critically acclaimed, award-winning movie at that. That's just too cool.

[esm]

Finally watched The Hunt (Jagten). It's intense and disturbing, but it's definitely a great film. Another Scandinavian film about small town mentality.

[erilaz]

^ Speaking of Scandinavian films about small town mentality, have you seen The Seagull's Laughter (Mávahlátur) and Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål)?

[esm]

^ Yup, seen both of them! I like them a lot.

[erilaz]

I just saw Une ravissante idiote, a silly spy comedy from 1964. It's set entirely in England, but since it's a French film, everybody is speaking French (with dreadful English subtitles on the DVD). That includes Anthony Perkins (!) as Harry Compton, who is really an inept Soviet agent on a mission to steal NATO defense plans. He falls in love with a dimwitted blonde named Penelope Lightfeather (Brigitte Bardot) and learns that she is both a Communist and a seamstress working for the lady of the house where he is supposed to steal the files.