Category Archives: Film

Coda

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  • Coda

2/6/22 (Sun)

An entertaining if by-the-book feel-good story about the only hearing child of deaf adults (= CODA). Ruby (a superb Emilia Jones) is literally the ears and mouth of her parents and deaf elder brother, who run a fishing boat. Interpreting for them in their business dealings and accompanying them on the boat, she makes it possible for them to maintain their independence. But it also deprives her of a normal life. Their idea of family experiences includes farts and dating-site photos, which engage senses that they can share. She joins the choir at school on the spur of the moment when she notices a certain boy putting his name in. There she finds that she has talent, discovering her own voice in a way. She wants to break free and become a singer, especially when she gets an offer to audition for a major music university, but that would mean leaving the family without a voice of their own just as they are attempting to rally other fisherman to oppose the greedy fish brokers. The story is thus not only about her need to break free but theirs as well.

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Dinner at Eight

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  • Dinner at Eight

8/27/21 (Fri)

George Cukor’s all-star 1933 comedy based on the Kaufman/Ferber stage play of the previous year. It seemed odd to see a play set among the rich and their swanky dinner party at the height of the Depression. But it turns out that there was more than meets the eye.

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Gohatto (御法度)

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  • 御法度 (Gohatto)

1/27/21 (Tues)

Oshima Nagisa’s fictional 1999 film conjures up a story of nanshoku (male-on-male sex) in the famed Shinsengumi samurai corps in 1865, just three years before the collapse of the shogunate. A certain amount of fooling around can be expected among samurai given the not-unknown phenomenon throughout Japanese history of male-on-male sex (not exactly homosexuality) as documented in novels, popular Kabuki plays and shunga prints. Within the Shinsengumi, at least as portrayed here, boy love was looked down upon not because of morals but from concerns over discipline and was basically ignored if held in check. The film is also known in English as Taboo, but something like Forbidden would be more accurate; gohatto literally means “against the law” or in this case “against the samurai code”. Putting historical figures like Hijikata Toshizo and Kondo Isami in this context seems unfair to their memories, but I guess that’s Hollywood (well, the Japanese equivalent).

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West Side Story (2021)

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  • West Side Story (2021)

2/12/22 (Sat)

I was equally excited by and wary of the idea of a new film version of West Side Story (see here). The 1961 film, as with the original stage show four years earlier, was portraying contemporary events by people who were there. Any remake would necessarily involve a reinterpretation of the story filtered through a modern sensibility, and it was hardly a comfort that it was being led by the ever-woke team of director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner. The original show, which portrays a turf war between Polish-American and Puerto Rican social outcasts, has been criticized by some as an outmoded, semi-racist piece by four Jewish white guys (choreographer, writer, composer, lyricist), though you could also say four gay guys if that helps. The last Broadway revival in 2020, which I did not see, was reportedly an extreme makeover with a distinctly modern perspective, including references to Black Lives Matters, extensive use of video screens, and modern dance in place of Jerome Robbins’ iconic ballet-inspired choreography. That closed quickly due to the pandemic but did not subsequently reopen, suggesting that the producers didn’t have much confidence in its commercial prospects. It was hard to say what to expect with Spielberg, though the previews encouragingly looked like a more traditional approach.

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Carmen Jones (1954 film)

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  • Carmen Jones

2/19/22 (Sat)

Otto Preminger’s 1954 film was based on Oscar Hammerstein II’s transformation of Carmen into an all-black Broadway musical that had enjoyed a healthy run back in 1943 (just after the opening of his blockbuster Oklahoma!). He had reset the show from a tobacco factory in 19th-century Seville to a Chicago parachute factory during WWII, with the story otherwise closely paralleling the original in an adept English translation. A fabulous off Broadway production in 2018 ended far too soon without transferring, which is Broadway’s loss, but it did demonstrate that the material (other than its unfortunate “black” vernacular, which can easily be stripped away) remains vital today. I wish the Encores! series had chosen this as their black-oriented piece in this year’s lineup instead of the vastly inferior Tap Dance Kid and The Life. How great would it be to hear Bizet’s score in this Americanized setting with the full Encores orchestra?

Preminger did not simply re-stage the musical but substantially rewrote the book, eliminating a good deal of the music along the way in apparent hope of creating a drama with occasional music as opposed to a musical. Not sure he succeeded at that, but he did a terrific job of making the material work for the screen. Continue reading →

An Inn in Tokyo (東京の宿)

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  • 東京の宿 (An Inn in Tokyo)

2/20/21 (Sat)

A superior film. Ozu’s 1935 work is his last surviving silent film, made well into the sound era. The jobless Kihachi (a wonderful Sakamoto Takeshi) wanders around a barren landscape with his two young sons looking for work, often having to choose between dinner and shelter. The kids help out by catching dogs and turning them into the pound for a small reward. Kihachi eventually runs into an old friend (Iida Choko, also terrific) who helps find him a job. Kihachi then runs into a woman he had met at the shelter, who has a young daughter. He starts falling for the woman and helping as best he can. When the daughter becomes sick, he turns to stealing to help. In the end, he asks the old friend to take care of the children as he prepares to turn himself in. The friend is devastated at not lending him money earlier, not realizing his noble intentions. We see him at the end walking in the empty landscape, presumably toward the police.

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Sound of the Mountain (山の音)

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  • 山の音 (Sound of the Mountain)

1/16/21 (Sat)

Naruse’s bleak 1954 film about failed marriages, based on Kawabata’s novel. Continue reading →

I Was Born, But… (生まれてはみたけれど)

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  • 生まれてはみたけれど (I Was Born, But…)

11/19/20 (Thurs)

Ozu honed his craft in the silent era, and this 1932 film, coming at the tail end of that period, is one of the most lauded of all his works. Highly acclaimed from the start – it won the prestigious Kinema Junpo Award as the year’s Best Film – it remains a critical favorite.

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A Balance (由宇子の天秤)

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  • 由宇子の天秤 (A Balance)

9/25/21 (Sat), Tokyo

The second feature by 40-something director/writer Harumoto Yujiro. The English title is lame: the “balance” (tenbin) in the Japanese title (literally Yuko’s Tenbin) refers to a set of scales like those held by Lady Justice. Here, documentary filmmaker Yuko is forced to weigh her values when the tables turn on her and the subject becomes the prey.

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