Shabondama Elegy
aka Tokyo Elegy
dir. Ian Kerkhof
1999

Thy rod and thy staff will bumfuck me. Thy will be done, thy kingdom come in my ass, forever and ever. Anus.

The above pseudo-biblical quote from one of the many graphic (but censored)* sex scenes in Shabondama Elegy pretty much sums up this masturbatory exercise in art-house experimental film.

The film is marginally poetic and sometimes clever as South African director Ian Kerkhof mixes sex and violence to explore what happens when a Dutch criminal (legitimate actor Thom Hoffman) meets a Japanese pornstar (real-life bukkake babe Mai Hoshino). Kerkhof then adds lube and bullets into the mix and the result is not at all surprising:

• pornstar + lube = semen
• criminal + bullets = blood
• semen + blood = sticky mess of red & white bodily fluids

The film opens with a figurative blood bath as the tragic hero murders two Japanese police officers, and predictably (as if ripped from the pages of a textbook about experimental filmmaking) one of the final images of the film combines fluids with the colors red and white to depict the heroine washingly herself clean (both inside and out) of her slain lover in, quite literally, a blood bath:

Clever, and yet amateurishly cliched.

* NOTE: I'm not sure if the version I saw was censored to meet strict Japanese porn laws or domestic art-house policies, but I doubt seeing an uncensored version (if it even exists) would improve my reaction to this film. The director intentionally superimposed enough other images, like the floating head seen above, that the blotches over genitals hardly corrupted his artistic vision.

Funeral Parade of Roses
dir. Toshio Matsumoto
1969

Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses is a gender-bending retelling of a classic Greek myth mixed with psychedelic meta-filmic metaphor.

Matsumoto occasionally breaks the fourth wall and disrupts the already nonlinear narative to interview the actors about their on-camera and real-world roles as drag queens and druggies.

I'd bet money that Stanley Kubrick saw this film while he was developing A Clockwork Orange because the use of frantic cheesy music over sped-up action is just too perfect to be coincidental.

Even after 35+ years, Funeral Parade of Roses is still avant-garde and very shocking. It will forever be etched into my memory as "the film with a rose sticking out of the butt of a man in a bare-assed lineup."

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Current Mood:
Current Music: Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle

My Sassy Girl
엽기적인 그녀
dir. Jae-young Kwak
2001

I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies, but My Sassy Girl is as hilarious as it is cute.

Speaking of cute, Ji-hyun Jun is adorable as the hot-headed easily-intoxicated alpha-female title character.

[watched with Sam, Lisa DelVillar, Angela & Randy]

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Current Mood: :wave:
Currently listening to: Rubber Factory by The Black Keys

Worst Kidnapper Ever:

[from toothpaste for dinner]

Even though I'd already seen it (recently ), I convinced Kurt and Sam to join me to see Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance at the NuArt.

The film has been getting some really bad reviews as critics (wrongly) attack the film for being violent merely for shock value. Entertainment Weekly rants that "the hideousness serves no dramatic purpose" but I totally disagree.

First off, most of the violent acts in Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance appear OFF-SCREEN, ala the ear-severing torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, or are obscured from the audience's view. By cutting away from the violent act itself, director Park Chan-wook forces his audience to face the consequences of that violent action head on. We don't actually see Ryu stick a screwdriver in a black-marketeer's neck, but we do indeed see it in all its blood-spurting glory when the badguy pulls the screwdriver out of his throat, but only after we see the terror in his eyes as he realizes that he's going to die.

Whereas most kidnapping / revenge films build their tension upon the action-packed drama of solving a mystery, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is all about the motivations and consequences of the characters' actions, rather than actions themselves. Park Chan-wook doesn't even show us the pivotal kidnapping itself. He provides his characters with strong motivations for kidnapping a little girl and he portrays the inner emotional turmoil the characters face as they weigh the potential consequences of such a violent act. Any Hollywood film would have milked a kidnapping scene for all it's worth but Park doesn't even show it. Park simply cuts to the next scene where the kidnapping has already taken place and then proceeds to demostrate the horribly unexpected consequences of the act.

Park also withholds many of the facts about how the father unravels the mystery and finds his daughter's kidnappers. All that matters is that the father has more than enough reason to hunt them down, and that he is willing to face the consequences of his own equally horrible actions once he finds them. The "hideousness" that the EW critic claims "serves no dramatic purpose" is not about shock value at all, but rather, it serves as motivation for the father's own subsequent actions. While I concede that the act depicted is indeed hideous, it is oozing with emotional import. Park immediately cuts away from the bloody scalpel to gaze upon the father's face where he fixes his camera for the entire duration of the autopsy, because the autopsy itself is not nearly as important as the father's emotional reaction to it. This hideous autopsy is the launchpad for his quest for vengeance. It hardens his heart and makes him capable of doing evil things. He quickly becomes so desensitized to blood and guts that he actually yawns while watching another autopsy, because this time it's the rotting corpse a kidnapper.

Clearly there is nothing "flamboyant" about Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (as the EW review suggests). There is no hero of the film. Every character has sympathetic movitations for committing evil acts, but sympathy does not justify vengeance, and Park Chan-wook punishes his characters severely for their misdeeds.

Onion AV club review:
http://avclub.com/content/node/25634
(this is the best review I've read so far)

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Current Mood: )-o Tired
Currently listening to: Avalon Original Soundtrack
by Kenji Kawai

After months of waiting and several failed attempts, I finally got to see 2046 on the big screen.

Sam and I had already seen it on video, but we convinced Shahab, Kurt and Tripp to join us at the NuArt.

Tripp fell asleep (like he did during Steamboy), and Kurt and Shahab weren't very enthused either.

I, however, love the film even more the second time around. I feel like now I've got a better understanding of how Tony Leung's character could've turned so cold and cynical since the events depicted in In the Mood for Love. However bitter he is though, the man is insane for jilting a woman as mind-boggling sexy as Zhang Ziyi 8|

Tripp had to meet Rachel after the movie, but Shahab, Kurt, Sam and I went to California Vegan, where we coincidentally ran into Navid (Negin's brother and Greg's new in-law) and his girlfriend, Sarah. They had just ordered so they joined us for dinner, which was excellent.

All in all, a cool night out with friends, which I don't get to do as much I'd like.

Ikiru
dir. Akira Kurosawa
1952

Both a scathing indictment of bureaucracy and an inspirational parable about living life to its fullest, Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru is bursting with unforgettable images of aesthetic beauty and emotional impact:

• the opening X-ray of Watanabe's cancer-infested stomach
• Watanabe emerging from a dark alley after puking his guts out during an all-night bender
• a small group of grateful village women interrupting bureacratic masturbatory back-patting to mourn Watanabe at his wake
• Watanabe silhouetted in black as he reflects upon the sunset only to remember the urgency of his mission to park a village park
• Watanabe swinging peacefully in the newly-completed snow-covered park as he sings "Life is Short" moments before his death

:`(:`(:`(

Review:
Roger Ebert

Bright Future
dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
2003

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) has made a name for himself as a director of horror/suspense/thrillers, but he departed from his previous work to create Bright Future, an enigmatic exploration of slacker youths.

Most reviews that I've read (see links below) have been quite unfavorable, but there is something about this film that really resonates with me. Maybe it's because I myself am a huge slacker searching for that "pet" project to spark my motivation, or maybe it's cuz I'm a huge a Tadanobu Asano fan.

Reviews:
Midnight Eye
Onion A.V.

Hana and Alice
dir. Shunji Iwai
2004

Arakimentari
dir. Travis Klose
2004

Arakimentari is a fascinating documentary about groundbreaking Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, who continues to blur the line between art and pornography.

The film features interviews with Björk, Takeshi Kintano, and several of Akari's nude models, but the real star is Araki himself. The man is a roly-poly ball of vibrant energy. He's been called many unflattering things over the decades, like "monster," "pervert," "criminal," "misogynist," but most people around the world who truly know and understand his work will recognize Araki as a "genius."

Arakimentari gives a behind-the-scenes look at the artist at work as he grooms pubic hair and waxes philisophical about the social implications of his craft. The film also showcases many of Araki's photographs in several "slideshow" sequences set to original music by DJ Krush. Araki is so incredibly prolific that director Travis Klose probably could have made several feature-length slideshows of just Araki's nudes, not to mention his photos of Japanese faces, cats, flowers, clouds, and other less erotic but equally beautiful images. Some of the most beautiful and emotionally engaging are the photos of his late wife Yoko.

Official Film Website:
http://www.arakimentari.com/

Araki's website (Japanese):
http://www.arakinobuyoshi.com/

Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu
dir. Takashi Miike
2003

Takashi Miike has directed some of the weirdest films I have ever seen, and Gozu is his most surreal film to date. The film is very reminiscent of David Lynch's work, particularly Lost Highway, and after watching the special features on the DVD, I now know Miike was intentially eliciting such allusions.

Reviews:
Midnight Eye
Onion A.V. Club