DaViD´82

Hollywood is once again jerking off in a moronic routine rip-off of a moronic line with a moronic attack on the White House from the moronic seventh season of 24. However, as much as it is stupid (and it is stupid), it is also unintentionally funny (and it is funny).

I can’t remember seeing a movie which was be so likable, while at the same time undermining itself so much. The “good honest" thriller style of the 90’s has gone out of fashion, so every attempt to revive it is nice to see. Reacher has the advantage that despite being serious it doesn’t take itself too seriously which is even more admirable if we take into account the casting of Cruise who is certainly not the right person for the role of charismatic guys reeking of testosterone. Also worth mentioning is the cool directing (and that’s not just because of the opening eight minute taciturn sequence) and the emphasis on action scenes which aren’t over the top and involving cheating using CGI effects. Against that, it’s needlessly long. Not that there are unnecessary scenes, but many are longer that they should be and would be more suitable in the cut scenes section on the DVD/Blu-ray. Then there is the predictability of the plot which shifts the meaning of that word onto a completely new level (and it’s nothing to do with the fact that, for some weird reason, we know from the opening scene that this time Barr is innocent). The “who and how" is clear from the very beginning and very soon the “why" becomes apparent too, but the characters find out only after a good seventy minutes. And the biggest mistake you can make is to hire a (non)actor with one of the most charismatic voices on the planet for the role of arch villain, and then to use him as no more than an extra and in just two scenes. Otherwise I was satisfied and hopefully for number two the authors will learn from their mistakes.

The backstage of a kitchen in a posh restaurant run by a self-centered chef with a divine talent. Quite a rare topic amongst mainstream sitcoms. So in the end it’s hard to understand why the supporting and rewarding part of a special world in itself has been so blatantly ignored (even though whenever pursued it makes for the most memorable moments of the series) and overwhelming majority of humor is based on simple American “who’s fucking who" relationship (non)humor and pondering about life with a moralizing lesson at the end of each episode. It’s basically identical to HIMYM. Just that it’s happening in a kitchen instead of a flat/pub, but it could be happening in offices of an accountant company or in the drains with homeless people; there wouldn’t be much of a difference. It’s a waste of a good theme and the cast as both of them deserve better than a trivial result seen a hundred times before.

All bad in documentary terms. Manipulation with facts as it suits the authors, annoying editing (the cuts are noticeable, and that is always a problem in editing), not addressing obvious issues and, conversely, frequent lingering on less important subtopics. And it isn’t even clear what the creators wanted to get across for all chaotic information. In the end (unfortunately) it isn’t about Rodriguez at all, but if it’s about anything, it’s the incredible story behind his two albums. But even so, I would recommend this to each and everybody. But not as a documentary, but as the best sincerely moving modern fairytale for miles around.

The game of games. A meeting of bosses and professional card players that takes its name from the Yakuza. A game involving betting, where other things are much more important than just a few thousand yen on the table. All this with an atmosphere of scorching heat waves and plans for personal revenge. Gosha found his way into the world of professional Yakuza gamblers and, as he tends to, he filmed a fascinating insight “behind the scenes" (the formal introductions and training how to draw a card without visible muscle reaction are the most powerful). The disadvantage for someone less familiar with the game are the games themselves, where you are fully aware of the tense atmosphere, but without knowing the rules, it’s hard to enjoy the game to the full. It’s like watching a movie about poker without knowing anything about it. You can, but it’s a bit heavy. A much more fundamental fault comes up during the spectacular Lady Snowblood style finale which in itself is outstanding, but in the context of a movie full of intrigue, unspoken threats and silence before the storm, it’s just wrong here. It’s like Schwarzenegger just walked in. Especially when it leads to a rather empty and unsatisfying ending.

I wouldn’t say that Gosha’s dernier is atypical in terms of his other movies. On the contrary, it’s a continuation of themes that interested him toward the end of his career. But this time he moved from stories of women from the red light district to bored, middleclass housewives. It certainly isn’t a crime movie; more a psychological thumbnail sketch of the dark side of social conventions of an austere society. And material obviously originating from the stage that is all the world. However, Gosha’s masterful directing cannot be subdued even in a toned-down interior picture. And we don’t have to go far to find an example of this; the introductory, one-shot scene at the scene of the crime proves this, setting the atmosphere, raising questions and an in-passing introduction to the work of an 18th medical examiner.

I was regretting for the entire movie that I hadn’t seen this at the right age, as a boy, because back then I would have loved this dumbly entertaining, straightforward mix of incongruous elements (wuxia samurais, fencing with katanas, the magnificent seven versus thousands of soldier sword-fodder, such bad to absolutely perfect over-acting from the shogun, the detailed gore, dislocated cuts during the action, to absurdly overdone sound effects, a burning and exploding horse, almost non-stop slow motion and repeats etc.). Anyway, now however hard I try, I just can’t get over some of this; particularly the crazy scene where, completely unexpectedly (and certainly uninvited), the craziest ear-splitting eighties Japanese pop-metal starts blaring, refusing to stop for like a whole ten minutes. And if all of this sounds to you like ideal material for a lifetime guilty pleasure love affair, you are absolutely right. But only if you see it first time when you are still fourteen at latest.

The large Yoshiwara district of Edo/Tokyo, which gave a completely new (and absolutely legal) meaning to the term red light district for almost three centuries. This self-sufficient town surrounded by walls with a magnificent entry portal, a gateway to hell for girls or, conversely, to paradise (of venereal diseases) for countless hordes of males. A place with its own police and a place hit by catastrophe (fires, earthquakes). So, logically, it’s also a place with no shortage of powerful stories and so a theme that, in his eighties “geisha" period, he simply had to film. And he did right, because whether you are interested in the day-to-day routine and behind-the-scenes of a posh brothel at the beginning of the twentieth century (recruitment, taming and training girls, hierarchy, morning prayers, “marketing", tricking clients, abortions etc.) or are “merely" seeking powerful stories about people, then you’re in the right place. You can’t really expect Gosha to put on rose-tinted glasses (on the contrary, he has spent his career tearing them off) and so despite the “picturesque" images, he gives us a very chilling insight into the fates of geishas for whom hope no longer exists and whom their environment shapes into an image of itself.

The first of three novels by Tomiko Miyao that Gosha adapted in the eighties. This historical fresco covering around twenty years offers an unusual glance behind the scenes of day-to-day life of “one big happy family" of a peculiar, self-centered Yakuza boss who likes to think of himself as a successor of the samurai tradition and his eventful struggle for a place in the sun against other clans, economic crisis, the changing times and his own family. It could easily have been titled Once Upon a Time in Japan, because if Gosha is (quite rightly and aptly) referred to as the Japanese Sergio Leone, this is his answer to Once Upon a Time in America. The only fault I can find is the length; it’s too short and often you can see that they had to cut it a lot; basically, the fates of all characters apart from the central duo Matsué/Onimasa are terribly short-hand and that is a crying shame. P.S.: Dog-lovers may have trouble stomaching the scene with the (un)symbolic dog fight; that certainly wouldn’t get Humane Society approval.

It would never have occurred to me that Gosha’s first movie hiccup would happen with such a rewarding theme as the famous adventures of Tange Sazen. Who cares that Gosha doesn’t give a damn about artistic ambition and that he filmed this one-watch nonsense? As he proved in the series about Kiba, he’s suits him really well. But several factors came together here that bring it down to the level of routine. On the one hand, stylization of the main character which is with all due respect ridiculous. Then there’s the story which, despite dealing with the director’s usual topics, is terribly slap-dash and it’s only purpose is to move the movie along to another “Tange versus countless ninjas" scene. And this is all highlighted by the fact that visually this is Gosha’s most interesting movie. As if he became so intoxicated by the pure presence of color that he completely ignores any attempt at visual ingenuity and precision that is otherwise so characteristic of him. The result is a dime-a-dozen, run-of-the-mill chanbara genre movie.