KWAIDAN:
Kwaidan is a Japanese film with subtitles directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The title comes from a collection of short Japanese tales translated by Lafcadio Hearn . The film includes four stories from the book. The photography is beautiful and the colors vibrant, and it is hard to believe the film came out in 1965. It must have been reworked to bring back the original colors.
The four tales include the following:
A woodcutter's life is spared by the Snow Woman who killed his comrade on condition that he never speak of what happened to anyone at any time. However, humans being human . . .
Hoichi is a young, blind Buddhist monk who is also talented musician and singer. One night a man comes to guiide him to the court of a noble who wishes him to sing about the last great battle his clan lost to the Genji. Since he is blind, he doesn't know who comprises his audience. His attempt at freedom, aided by his fellow monks, costs him dearly.
A samurai leaves his wife to marry a rich woman in order to escape their poverty and his insignificance. Over the years, he learns that this was a bad decision. Finally he leaves his rich wife and his comfortable position with her father and returns to his former wife. Unfortunately he learns that not only one can't go back, but that it is far better that one never even tries.
A samurai upon pouring himself a bowl of tea discovers a strange face inside the bowl staring out at him. Each time he empties the bowl without drinking it, the face becomes clearer and more ominous. Finally he drinks the tea in spite of the face--a very poor decision. Unfortunately, the reader never finds out what eventually happens to the samurai because every time a writer attempts to finish the story, he or she disappears, leaving it unfinished. What would happen if someone tried to adapt this tale for film?
If there's a moral to the stories, it is that it doesn't pay to get involved with spirits and demons.
POLAR EXPLORATIONS
The film is a collaboration, a fruitful one, between the Teaching Company and the National Geographic Society was first shown in 2015. The lecturers are obviously knowledgeable, which is what I would expect of a Teaching Company production, and the photography is stunning, again something I would expect from National Geographic.
It is a boxed set, which I got from the local library, consisting of 4 DVDs, each DVD with six 30 minute lectures. The first set of lectures focuses on the various expeditions to the North and South Poles, the men who went on them and the many who did not return. Subsequent lectures then centured on the geology, the geography, the climate, and the inhabitants of both regions, along with commentary on the present situation at the Poles, which has been declared off-limits to resource development and territorial claims by countries.
The last set detailed the changes now taking place at the Poles. In 2014, aerial photography disclosed a large crack in the Larson C ice shelf. The lecturer discussed the possibility that the shelf might actually break from from the continent. Several weeks after I viewed the DVDs, I read that the Larson C ice shelf had broken away from Antarctica.
A WALK IN THE WOODS:
A Walk in the Woods is based on the book by Bill Bryson about his walk with a friend along the Appalachian Trail, a marked trail that stretches through the Appalachian Mountains some 2200 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.
It is really a buddy film as Bryson is joined by Stepen Katz, a longtime friend he hasn't seen or talked to in many years. The film is not a travelogue, and those viewing it for the scenery will be disappointed. While there are some shots of scenery, the real focus is on the reconnecting between the two friends, Bil Bryson played by Robert Redford and Nick Nolte as Stephen Katz. Actually that was my reason for watching the film; I wanted to see Redford and Nolte for I just couldn't picture them together in a film. It turned out to be a great pairing.
Showing posts with label Japanese film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese film. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The Face of Another
The Face of Another
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
1966
black-and-white film
Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
This film is based on the novel of the same name by Kobo Abe, who also served as screenwriter for the film. I haven't read the novel yet as I wanted to see the film first. I find that reading the novel first will prejudice me against the film as I then focus on the film's correspondence to the novel, which is really only one of the criteria for judging a film. Since Abe is the screen writer, it should be interesting to see what he does with his novel in adapting it for film.
Okuyama is a business man whose face has been horribly scarred in a laboratory accident. He is having considerable difficulty in handling his situation. He has decided to keep his head completely covered in bandages, which reminded me very strongly of films of H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man. I wonder if Abe or the director did this deliberately.
Okuyama is seeing a psychiatrist, hoping that this might help him. His relationship with his wife is deteriorating, as is his work on his job. The psychiatrist suggests, rather tentatively, that there's a possible solution. He knows of an amazing synthetic fabric that looks very much like skin. He might be able to create a mask which Okuyama might be able to wear in public. While the psychiatrist has considerable ethical and moral problems with this procedure, Okuyama is desperate enough to try it. They find a man whose has a nice face, not extraordinarily handsome but a pleasant face, and pay him for the opportunity to make a mold of it.
The psychiatrist is concerned about the consequences of creating a mask for Okuyama and for society if the process proves successful and is made available to the public. One major question is that of identity: does our identity come from inside or outside? Would we be a different person if we had a different face? What would happen to society if we never knew the real faces of people, but only the masks they chose to wear?
Some might argue that we already wear a mask. One is Paul Lawrence Dunbar whose poem I have already posted here, but "We Wear the Mask" deserves another reading in conjunction with this film:
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be otherwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar --
In 1966 this film was considered SF, but recent articles regarding at least two face transplants suggest that this issue now requires some discussion. Also, in Europe there is considerable turmoil regarding the Moslem custom of veils for women's faces. A mask or a veil is worn to hide or conceal one's identity from others, even though, paradoxically, wearing one in public makes one stand out among others whose faces are open for all to see. In a sense, a mask or a veil makes it obvious that one wishes to remain anonymous.
The film has some surrealistic elements that occasionally become confusing. The psychiatrist's laboratory is a bizarre room with glass and strange diagrams and, frankly, it seems to change each time we visit it. There are also quick changes between the major plot with Okuyama and the secondary plot of a young woman with radiation scars on one side of her face. She covers the scars with her long hair combed forward, while her hair is combed back on the other side of her face. She mentions Nagasaki once when she asks her brother if he remembers the sea there when they were children, perhaps a hint as to the cause of her scarred face.
The theme of the double or the doppelganger is also strongly brought out in the film. Okuyama himself is the most obvious example as he is wearing a mask of someone else's face. Some conversations seem to be repetitions of previous encounters, as well as doubling depicted in the early and late scenes in the film. After he gets the mask, Okuyama supposedly leaves town but actually remains. He rents two suites in an apartment building, once wearing his bandages and the second wearing his mask.
The endings of both plots are clear and unambiguous: we know what happened. However, the rationale for the Okuyama plot is not. Just why did Okuyama do what he did? The ending of the second plot is much more understandable.
I would recommend this film strongly with one warning. It is in Japanese, so if you don't understand Japanese, you will have to rely on subtitles. Occasionally I found myself pausing the film and backtracking because the subtitles appeared and disappeared so quickly I had trouble reading them. Aside from this minor inconvenience, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I now intend to read the novel and then rent the film again.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
1966
black-and-white film
Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
This film is based on the novel of the same name by Kobo Abe, who also served as screenwriter for the film. I haven't read the novel yet as I wanted to see the film first. I find that reading the novel first will prejudice me against the film as I then focus on the film's correspondence to the novel, which is really only one of the criteria for judging a film. Since Abe is the screen writer, it should be interesting to see what he does with his novel in adapting it for film.
Okuyama is a business man whose face has been horribly scarred in a laboratory accident. He is having considerable difficulty in handling his situation. He has decided to keep his head completely covered in bandages, which reminded me very strongly of films of H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man. I wonder if Abe or the director did this deliberately.
Okuyama is seeing a psychiatrist, hoping that this might help him. His relationship with his wife is deteriorating, as is his work on his job. The psychiatrist suggests, rather tentatively, that there's a possible solution. He knows of an amazing synthetic fabric that looks very much like skin. He might be able to create a mask which Okuyama might be able to wear in public. While the psychiatrist has considerable ethical and moral problems with this procedure, Okuyama is desperate enough to try it. They find a man whose has a nice face, not extraordinarily handsome but a pleasant face, and pay him for the opportunity to make a mold of it.
The psychiatrist is concerned about the consequences of creating a mask for Okuyama and for society if the process proves successful and is made available to the public. One major question is that of identity: does our identity come from inside or outside? Would we be a different person if we had a different face? What would happen to society if we never knew the real faces of people, but only the masks they chose to wear?
Some might argue that we already wear a mask. One is Paul Lawrence Dunbar whose poem I have already posted here, but "We Wear the Mask" deserves another reading in conjunction with this film:
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be otherwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar --
In 1966 this film was considered SF, but recent articles regarding at least two face transplants suggest that this issue now requires some discussion. Also, in Europe there is considerable turmoil regarding the Moslem custom of veils for women's faces. A mask or a veil is worn to hide or conceal one's identity from others, even though, paradoxically, wearing one in public makes one stand out among others whose faces are open for all to see. In a sense, a mask or a veil makes it obvious that one wishes to remain anonymous.
The film has some surrealistic elements that occasionally become confusing. The psychiatrist's laboratory is a bizarre room with glass and strange diagrams and, frankly, it seems to change each time we visit it. There are also quick changes between the major plot with Okuyama and the secondary plot of a young woman with radiation scars on one side of her face. She covers the scars with her long hair combed forward, while her hair is combed back on the other side of her face. She mentions Nagasaki once when she asks her brother if he remembers the sea there when they were children, perhaps a hint as to the cause of her scarred face.
The theme of the double or the doppelganger is also strongly brought out in the film. Okuyama himself is the most obvious example as he is wearing a mask of someone else's face. Some conversations seem to be repetitions of previous encounters, as well as doubling depicted in the early and late scenes in the film. After he gets the mask, Okuyama supposedly leaves town but actually remains. He rents two suites in an apartment building, once wearing his bandages and the second wearing his mask.
The endings of both plots are clear and unambiguous: we know what happened. However, the rationale for the Okuyama plot is not. Just why did Okuyama do what he did? The ending of the second plot is much more understandable.
I would recommend this film strongly with one warning. It is in Japanese, so if you don't understand Japanese, you will have to rely on subtitles. Occasionally I found myself pausing the film and backtracking because the subtitles appeared and disappeared so quickly I had trouble reading them. Aside from this minor inconvenience, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I now intend to read the novel and then rent the film again.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Koushun Takami: Battle Royale, the novel
Koushun Takami's novel, Battle Royale, was first published in Japan in 1999 and translated into English in 2003. The film version came out in 2000. As I mentioned in my post about the film, I hadn't known of either the novel or the film until someone made a comment on my post about Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which was first published in 2008. The commenter suggested that I should see Battle Royale for it was superior to Collins' novel. My curiosity aroused, I watched the film and discovered it was based on the novel by Koushun Takami.
I am intrigued, as one can tell from previous posts, by the relationship between the prose tale and the film inspired by it. I have now read Battle Royale and, frankly, hadn't intended to do a post on it. However, I keep thinking about the novel, and so I decided to comment on it also, hoping, I suspect, to exorcise it.
The core of the novel has been closely followed by the film's director, Kinji Fukasaku. The major changes occur in the background or setting of the film.
The novel is set in an alternate universe, one in which The Republic of Greater East Asia (Japan), is ruled by a dictator, in fact the 318th dictator, which suggests that this government has lasted a long time. That this is not true is an example of distorting the Past (see 1984 for the rationale) in order to maintain control of the population.
In the novel, one of the characters says that he's uncovered documents that suggest the dictatorship has probably lasted not more than 70 years, which, assuming the novel is set around the beginning of the 21st century, would put the beginning of the dictatorship in the 1930s. That would correspond to the increasing control of Japan by the military in the real world. And, the name echoes the actual creation of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere by Japan at the beginning of World War II. Moreover, the US is seen as the great enemy of the Republic, which also takes us back to the 30s and 40s in the real world.
Takami, the author, in the new postscript to the novel says that he had taken most of the language of the government diatribes against the US and also the government propaganda regarding the paradise it has created for the people from governmental communiques by the North Korean government.
There is no economic collapse in the novel as there is in the film which brings about the battle royale as an emergency measure; instead it is the established policy of the government to conduct such programs as a means of maintaining control of the population through terror and intimidation. And, in the novel, it isn't just one class that's selected, it is one of fifty such junior high classes. The toll, therefore, is around two thousand junior high school students.
The rules of the battle royale game are simple. The winner is the last person alive. If no one dies during any twenty-four hour period, then the collars, fixed around the neck of each student, will explode, thereby ending the game. The killing must continue. In the map provided the students, the island, where the game takes place, is set in a grid pattern. One of the sections will be become off-limits regularly. The collars of those found in an off-limit area will explode. This forces the students out of their hiding places and also reduces the territory that they can occupy, which increases the likelihood of encounters among the students. The students must kill or be killed.
The core of the novel consists of chapters that alternate between the struggle of the three main characters, Shogo, Shuya, and Noriko, to survive in this hell on earth, and the fates of the other students. One chapter would be about the three mentioned above, and that would be followed by a chapter in which we would read about the events that led up to a meeting and the eventual death of one of the other students. Since there were 42 students in the class, there are many such chapters depicting the death or deaths of one or more of the junior high students.
Most of the conflicts and deaths were the results of accidental meetings of the terrified students. In some cases some would attempt to show they didn't want to fight, but the fear and mistrust had grown so that few trusted anybody at this point. That they had been friends, fellow classmates, confidants, and even lovers in some cases, only a few hours earlier, made no difference at this point. They felt they could trust no one. Some were so paralyzed by fear that they offered no resistance to any that they met or who stumbled upon them in their hiding places.
Several of the students became predators. They would pretend to be friendly and peaceful until they got close enough to kill their prey. One of the predators listened for signs of conflict and then head in that direction, intending to remain hidden during the fight and then kill the survivor(s) when given the opportunity.
I'm not sure how to characterize this novel; perhaps SF/Horror might be the most accurate description. It's an excellent translation, with none of the awkwardness that frequently appears when rendering a tale into a different language.
Can I recommend it? It's a powerful novel, one that will stay with the reader for some time and I speak from personal experience here. Right now, having just finished it a few days ago, I am very ambivalent about it. I'm not sure that I should have finished it, nor do I completely understand why I finished it. I can understand those who decide to neither read the novel nor see the film.
I am intrigued, as one can tell from previous posts, by the relationship between the prose tale and the film inspired by it. I have now read Battle Royale and, frankly, hadn't intended to do a post on it. However, I keep thinking about the novel, and so I decided to comment on it also, hoping, I suspect, to exorcise it.
The core of the novel has been closely followed by the film's director, Kinji Fukasaku. The major changes occur in the background or setting of the film.
The novel is set in an alternate universe, one in which The Republic of Greater East Asia (Japan), is ruled by a dictator, in fact the 318th dictator, which suggests that this government has lasted a long time. That this is not true is an example of distorting the Past (see 1984 for the rationale) in order to maintain control of the population.
In the novel, one of the characters says that he's uncovered documents that suggest the dictatorship has probably lasted not more than 70 years, which, assuming the novel is set around the beginning of the 21st century, would put the beginning of the dictatorship in the 1930s. That would correspond to the increasing control of Japan by the military in the real world. And, the name echoes the actual creation of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere by Japan at the beginning of World War II. Moreover, the US is seen as the great enemy of the Republic, which also takes us back to the 30s and 40s in the real world.
Takami, the author, in the new postscript to the novel says that he had taken most of the language of the government diatribes against the US and also the government propaganda regarding the paradise it has created for the people from governmental communiques by the North Korean government.
There is no economic collapse in the novel as there is in the film which brings about the battle royale as an emergency measure; instead it is the established policy of the government to conduct such programs as a means of maintaining control of the population through terror and intimidation. And, in the novel, it isn't just one class that's selected, it is one of fifty such junior high classes. The toll, therefore, is around two thousand junior high school students.
The rules of the battle royale game are simple. The winner is the last person alive. If no one dies during any twenty-four hour period, then the collars, fixed around the neck of each student, will explode, thereby ending the game. The killing must continue. In the map provided the students, the island, where the game takes place, is set in a grid pattern. One of the sections will be become off-limits regularly. The collars of those found in an off-limit area will explode. This forces the students out of their hiding places and also reduces the territory that they can occupy, which increases the likelihood of encounters among the students. The students must kill or be killed.
The core of the novel consists of chapters that alternate between the struggle of the three main characters, Shogo, Shuya, and Noriko, to survive in this hell on earth, and the fates of the other students. One chapter would be about the three mentioned above, and that would be followed by a chapter in which we would read about the events that led up to a meeting and the eventual death of one of the other students. Since there were 42 students in the class, there are many such chapters depicting the death or deaths of one or more of the junior high students.
Most of the conflicts and deaths were the results of accidental meetings of the terrified students. In some cases some would attempt to show they didn't want to fight, but the fear and mistrust had grown so that few trusted anybody at this point. That they had been friends, fellow classmates, confidants, and even lovers in some cases, only a few hours earlier, made no difference at this point. They felt they could trust no one. Some were so paralyzed by fear that they offered no resistance to any that they met or who stumbled upon them in their hiding places.
Several of the students became predators. They would pretend to be friendly and peaceful until they got close enough to kill their prey. One of the predators listened for signs of conflict and then head in that direction, intending to remain hidden during the fight and then kill the survivor(s) when given the opportunity.
I'm not sure how to characterize this novel; perhaps SF/Horror might be the most accurate description. It's an excellent translation, with none of the awkwardness that frequently appears when rendering a tale into a different language.
Can I recommend it? It's a powerful novel, one that will stay with the reader for some time and I speak from personal experience here. Right now, having just finished it a few days ago, I am very ambivalent about it. I'm not sure that I should have finished it, nor do I completely understand why I finished it. I can understand those who decide to neither read the novel nor see the film.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Battle Royale, a Japanese SF film
A battle royale, according to my dictionary, is defined as a battle which could be one in which numerous combatants participate or a fight to the finish or an intense altercation. Battle Royale actually fits all three definitions.
I came across this film, as I have done so many others, by chance, for I had never heard of it until a short time ago. The SF book discussion group that I belong to scheduled Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games a few months ago. After the discussion, I heard that a film was being made of it and would be out soon. I checked up on it to see what the general reaction to it was. The reviews were, as usual, mixed, but one comment interested me the most. Essentially the comment was that Battle Royale was a much better film. So, off to Netflix I went.
I haven't seen The Hunger Games yet, so I can't really compare them, but I will say this: if The Hunger Games is more violent and bloody than Battle Royale, then I don't want to watch it.
BR's plot is simple and probably somewhat familiar to those who either read and/or watched T he Hunger Games. It is set in Japan in the near future when the economy has collapsed and unemployment is over 15%. Violence has become routine, especially among young people. The Battle Royale Act is passed which allows the government to take any 9th grade class at random and transport them to an island. There they are issued, randomly, weapons, of varying usefulness. Some get automatic weapons while others get a GPS tracking device. Some get swords or knives while others get large pot lids.
In the film, the class selected is 49-B, mostly 15-year-old boys and girls. They are told that this session will last three days, and at the end of three days, the one person alive is the winner and will be returned to Japan. They are also fitted with collars that can't be removed and have a small explosive charge, sufficient to kill the wearer. Attempting to remove the collar without the proper tools will also cause an explosion. The person doing the briefing, actually a former teacher of this class who had left after one of the students had stabbed him, demonstrates the collar's effectiveness by detonating the collar of one of the more obstreperous youths (it may even have been the one who stabbed him). If more than one person is alive at the end of the three days, all collars will be detonated, and there will be no winner. Reports are broadcast regularly informing the students of how many are left and who are the latest to die. One can imagine the psychological effect of that on the survivors.
The definition of battle royale::
numerous combatants: There are 43 students in the class. After the briefing, only 41 remain, 40 of whom must die within the next three days.
a fight to the finish: only one person can be alive at the end, or to borrow the title of another film--last student standing.
intense altercation: These are not strangers trying to survive by killing each other. These are fellow classmates, some of whom may be their best friends or their worst enemy. These are young people who know each other and trusted some of them. Now? Each hand is turned against the other. Some try to form self-defense groups, while realizing that only one can be alive at the end. Some seem to enjoy the opportunity to revenge themselves for real or imagined slights. Others are paralyzed by the situation. "Intense" is an understatement. I found it far more intense than the novel The Hunger Games, but that just might be the effect of a visual presentation in comparison to a verbal one. I shall have to see The Hunger Games film before I can come to a decision.
For those interested, here are the relevant dates:
Battle Royale: the film came out in 2000. The sequel, Battle Royale II, came out in 2003. BRII, from what I've read, is the story of one of the survivors who formed a "terrorist" group whose goal was to bring down the government that conducts the battles. Sound familiar?
The Hunger Games: the novel was published in 2008, with sequels arriving within the next 2-3 years.
The Hunger Games: the film came out in 2012.
So, if one influenced the other, it's fairly easy to see who influenced whom.
Overall Comments: the focus of the BR film and the Hunger Games novel differs. In BR, we see a number of characters all acting with varying motives, whereas in THG, we follow only one character: the rest are strangers mostly and are there to provide the danger to the main character and to die when their time comes. This was not true in BR, for the viewer comes to know a number of them, so these are not strangers who die, but characters about whom we know something.
It is a violent film, definitely something to consider when deciding to see the film..
I came across this film, as I have done so many others, by chance, for I had never heard of it until a short time ago. The SF book discussion group that I belong to scheduled Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games a few months ago. After the discussion, I heard that a film was being made of it and would be out soon. I checked up on it to see what the general reaction to it was. The reviews were, as usual, mixed, but one comment interested me the most. Essentially the comment was that Battle Royale was a much better film. So, off to Netflix I went.
I haven't seen The Hunger Games yet, so I can't really compare them, but I will say this: if The Hunger Games is more violent and bloody than Battle Royale, then I don't want to watch it.
BR's plot is simple and probably somewhat familiar to those who either read and/or watched T he Hunger Games. It is set in Japan in the near future when the economy has collapsed and unemployment is over 15%. Violence has become routine, especially among young people. The Battle Royale Act is passed which allows the government to take any 9th grade class at random and transport them to an island. There they are issued, randomly, weapons, of varying usefulness. Some get automatic weapons while others get a GPS tracking device. Some get swords or knives while others get large pot lids.
In the film, the class selected is 49-B, mostly 15-year-old boys and girls. They are told that this session will last three days, and at the end of three days, the one person alive is the winner and will be returned to Japan. They are also fitted with collars that can't be removed and have a small explosive charge, sufficient to kill the wearer. Attempting to remove the collar without the proper tools will also cause an explosion. The person doing the briefing, actually a former teacher of this class who had left after one of the students had stabbed him, demonstrates the collar's effectiveness by detonating the collar of one of the more obstreperous youths (it may even have been the one who stabbed him). If more than one person is alive at the end of the three days, all collars will be detonated, and there will be no winner. Reports are broadcast regularly informing the students of how many are left and who are the latest to die. One can imagine the psychological effect of that on the survivors.
The definition of battle royale::
numerous combatants: There are 43 students in the class. After the briefing, only 41 remain, 40 of whom must die within the next three days.
a fight to the finish: only one person can be alive at the end, or to borrow the title of another film--last student standing.
intense altercation: These are not strangers trying to survive by killing each other. These are fellow classmates, some of whom may be their best friends or their worst enemy. These are young people who know each other and trusted some of them. Now? Each hand is turned against the other. Some try to form self-defense groups, while realizing that only one can be alive at the end. Some seem to enjoy the opportunity to revenge themselves for real or imagined slights. Others are paralyzed by the situation. "Intense" is an understatement. I found it far more intense than the novel The Hunger Games, but that just might be the effect of a visual presentation in comparison to a verbal one. I shall have to see The Hunger Games film before I can come to a decision.
For those interested, here are the relevant dates:
Battle Royale: the film came out in 2000. The sequel, Battle Royale II, came out in 2003. BRII, from what I've read, is the story of one of the survivors who formed a "terrorist" group whose goal was to bring down the government that conducts the battles. Sound familiar?
The Hunger Games: the novel was published in 2008, with sequels arriving within the next 2-3 years.
The Hunger Games: the film came out in 2012.
So, if one influenced the other, it's fairly easy to see who influenced whom.
Overall Comments: the focus of the BR film and the Hunger Games novel differs. In BR, we see a number of characters all acting with varying motives, whereas in THG, we follow only one character: the rest are strangers mostly and are there to provide the danger to the main character and to die when their time comes. This was not true in BR, for the viewer comes to know a number of them, so these are not strangers who die, but characters about whom we know something.
It is a violent film, definitely something to consider when deciding to see the film..
Monday, December 14, 2009
IKIRU: a film by Kurosawa (1952)
Ikiru (to live) may not be the first foreign film I ever saw, but it's certainly the first one I remember seeing. I watched it over 40 years ago in a small movie theatre on the far north side of Chicago and now have viewed it twice since retiring several years ago. It was also several decades later that I discovered that it was directed by Kurosawa. Ikiru is just one of those films that I rent again and again. I'm now thinking about getting my own copy for my very small DVD collection. Christmas is coming....hmmm. Perhaps a subtle or not so subtle hint?
Watanabe learns that he has stomach cancer and might have six months to live. The shock of his impending death forces him to take a long clear look at himself. His son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, see him as someone to be used. They have decided to get their own apartment and have no qualms about asking Watanabe to deplete his retirement annuity to finance it. At work, his greatest accomplishment is having worked for almost 30 years without a taking single day of sick leave. That doesn't say much about his presence in an organization for three decades if the best one can say is that he was there every day.
Watanabe looks back and decides he hasn't lived and is going to make up for it now. He samples the night life of Tokyo and discovers this is not for him. He then tries to recapture his youth by associating with a young woman who had worked in his section, for he sees that she has youth and life. Perhaps she may influence him. This doesn't work either.
His third idea is to do something that would make a difference, one that would say he really had existed. It was then that he decided that he could make a difference--not by trying to become what he wasn't but by becoming what he was to the fullest extent possible. He was a public servant, but he had never really served the public. He had been a time-server, one who spent his days, like so many of his colleagues, doing his best to avoid doing anything but the minimum required to keep his position.
He remembered a problem brought to his section by a neighborhood group. There was an empty lot that was being used as a trash dump. It was unhealthy and dangerous for the children who played there for they had nowhere else to go. All that the people wanted was to have the place cleaned up and kept safe for the children. They had been getting the usual runaround--it was a problem for the parks dept--see engineering--see the health dept--see their local city council representative. Watanabe now decides to do something about it.
Warning: I will bring up important plot elements and the endings for both the film and Tolstoy's novella.
The second part of the film takes us forward to shortly after Watanabe's death. It takes place at the memorial for Watanabe, at which we see the deputy mayor, various members of the city government, the employees in Watanabe's section, and his son and daughter-in-law. We learn that, in spite of all opposition and with no help from any others, Watanabe not only succeeded in getting the empty lot cleaned up but also in having it turned into a park with playground equipment for the children.
The park has been so successful and popular with the people that everybody is now busy scurrying about, claiming credit for it, and dismissing Watanabe's own role. At the opening ceremony for the park, Watanabe had sat in the back row of the section for city employees and wasn't even mentioned by any of the speakers. All, including the deputy mayor, have forgotten their own initial rejection of Watanabe's plans and now insist that only the parks dept., the engineering dept., the health dept., or the deputy mayor's office could have been responsible for the park.
Kurosawa, in a stroke of genius, then brings in the people of the neighborhood, and their honest grief and respect for Watanabe provides the great possible contrast between them and the hypocrisy of the self-serving city officials and politicians. When I first watched the film, I focused, of course, on Watanabe and his struggles and accomplishments. It was only while watching it several days ago that I realized that Kurosawa had also strongly and effectively indicted the wastefulness and the indifference of the city government employees and officials.
Kurosawa had commented in an interview that Tolstoy's novella "The Death of Ivan Ilych" was the inspiration for the film. "Inspiration" is probably the best term for it certainly is not an attempt to transfer Tolstoy's novella to film. There are similarities: both Ivan Ilych and Watanabe Kanji are government employees--Ilych in the Russian judicial system and Watanabe in city government in Japan. Both learn that they have a short time to live, even though both are lied to by their physicians. Moreover, both are perceived by their respective families as obstacles to their families' happiness. And, both are forced to face the truth about themselves: they have wasted their lives in trivialities and the deadening routine of work.
However, there is a most significant difference between the two, one that may reflect differences between the East and the West.
Ilych's struggles after he realizes that he is dying are singular and solitary. He must accept that his life has not been a good life. His salvation comes at the end when he finally admits to himself that his life has essentially been a failure. Once he accepts this, he is able to die at peace with himself. His insight is singular, known only to himself, and affects no one else. On the other hand, Watanabe's salvation comes through helping others, by standing up for the people and getting the park built. His salvation benefits not only him but also the neighborhood residents and their children.
Does this difference suggest the more individualistic aspect of Western society and the group oriented Eastern society?
I'm not certain about this, for I sometimes wonder if Kurosawa had been "inspired" by two of Tolstoy's works--"The Death of Ivan Ilych" and Resurrection.
If one puts together the two stories, one then gets a much closer approximation of Ikiru. In Resurrection, Nekhlyudov, a nobleman, decides to help a woman whom he had, years ago, seduced and abandoned. She is in prison awaiting transportation to Siberia. He visits her, and, while there, is asked for help by another prisoner. He agrees and visits various government agencies where he is shocked to learn of the cruelty and indifference of the officials. On each subsequent visit to the prison, another prisoner asks for help, and much of the novel is spent following Nekhlyudov as he visits various government officials and discovers the extent of corruption and cruelty and indifference that exists. This is similar to the way Kurosawa portrays Watanabe as he goes from office to office and encounters, and therefore exposes, the same attitudes among various city officials.
I wonder if Kurosawa combined the death sentence and struggle for salvation found in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and the attempt to right a wrong which results in exposing the indifference and corruption of high officials in various governmental agencies in Tolstoy's novel, Resurrection.
One last comment about the film: the most striking scene in the film is Watanabe, sitting on a swing in the park, with the snow falling about him, quietly singing his favorite song. While one character said that it was terrible that he should die there alone like that, freezing in the snow, it seems obvious that Watanabe himself chose this death, with his monument about him.
Overall Rating: One of the best.
Watanabe learns that he has stomach cancer and might have six months to live. The shock of his impending death forces him to take a long clear look at himself. His son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, see him as someone to be used. They have decided to get their own apartment and have no qualms about asking Watanabe to deplete his retirement annuity to finance it. At work, his greatest accomplishment is having worked for almost 30 years without a taking single day of sick leave. That doesn't say much about his presence in an organization for three decades if the best one can say is that he was there every day.
Watanabe looks back and decides he hasn't lived and is going to make up for it now. He samples the night life of Tokyo and discovers this is not for him. He then tries to recapture his youth by associating with a young woman who had worked in his section, for he sees that she has youth and life. Perhaps she may influence him. This doesn't work either.
His third idea is to do something that would make a difference, one that would say he really had existed. It was then that he decided that he could make a difference--not by trying to become what he wasn't but by becoming what he was to the fullest extent possible. He was a public servant, but he had never really served the public. He had been a time-server, one who spent his days, like so many of his colleagues, doing his best to avoid doing anything but the minimum required to keep his position.
He remembered a problem brought to his section by a neighborhood group. There was an empty lot that was being used as a trash dump. It was unhealthy and dangerous for the children who played there for they had nowhere else to go. All that the people wanted was to have the place cleaned up and kept safe for the children. They had been getting the usual runaround--it was a problem for the parks dept--see engineering--see the health dept--see their local city council representative. Watanabe now decides to do something about it.
Warning: I will bring up important plot elements and the endings for both the film and Tolstoy's novella.
The second part of the film takes us forward to shortly after Watanabe's death. It takes place at the memorial for Watanabe, at which we see the deputy mayor, various members of the city government, the employees in Watanabe's section, and his son and daughter-in-law. We learn that, in spite of all opposition and with no help from any others, Watanabe not only succeeded in getting the empty lot cleaned up but also in having it turned into a park with playground equipment for the children.
The park has been so successful and popular with the people that everybody is now busy scurrying about, claiming credit for it, and dismissing Watanabe's own role. At the opening ceremony for the park, Watanabe had sat in the back row of the section for city employees and wasn't even mentioned by any of the speakers. All, including the deputy mayor, have forgotten their own initial rejection of Watanabe's plans and now insist that only the parks dept., the engineering dept., the health dept., or the deputy mayor's office could have been responsible for the park.
Kurosawa, in a stroke of genius, then brings in the people of the neighborhood, and their honest grief and respect for Watanabe provides the great possible contrast between them and the hypocrisy of the self-serving city officials and politicians. When I first watched the film, I focused, of course, on Watanabe and his struggles and accomplishments. It was only while watching it several days ago that I realized that Kurosawa had also strongly and effectively indicted the wastefulness and the indifference of the city government employees and officials.
Kurosawa had commented in an interview that Tolstoy's novella "The Death of Ivan Ilych" was the inspiration for the film. "Inspiration" is probably the best term for it certainly is not an attempt to transfer Tolstoy's novella to film. There are similarities: both Ivan Ilych and Watanabe Kanji are government employees--Ilych in the Russian judicial system and Watanabe in city government in Japan. Both learn that they have a short time to live, even though both are lied to by their physicians. Moreover, both are perceived by their respective families as obstacles to their families' happiness. And, both are forced to face the truth about themselves: they have wasted their lives in trivialities and the deadening routine of work.
However, there is a most significant difference between the two, one that may reflect differences between the East and the West.
Ilych's struggles after he realizes that he is dying are singular and solitary. He must accept that his life has not been a good life. His salvation comes at the end when he finally admits to himself that his life has essentially been a failure. Once he accepts this, he is able to die at peace with himself. His insight is singular, known only to himself, and affects no one else. On the other hand, Watanabe's salvation comes through helping others, by standing up for the people and getting the park built. His salvation benefits not only him but also the neighborhood residents and their children.
Does this difference suggest the more individualistic aspect of Western society and the group oriented Eastern society?
I'm not certain about this, for I sometimes wonder if Kurosawa had been "inspired" by two of Tolstoy's works--"The Death of Ivan Ilych" and Resurrection.
If one puts together the two stories, one then gets a much closer approximation of Ikiru. In Resurrection, Nekhlyudov, a nobleman, decides to help a woman whom he had, years ago, seduced and abandoned. She is in prison awaiting transportation to Siberia. He visits her, and, while there, is asked for help by another prisoner. He agrees and visits various government agencies where he is shocked to learn of the cruelty and indifference of the officials. On each subsequent visit to the prison, another prisoner asks for help, and much of the novel is spent following Nekhlyudov as he visits various government officials and discovers the extent of corruption and cruelty and indifference that exists. This is similar to the way Kurosawa portrays Watanabe as he goes from office to office and encounters, and therefore exposes, the same attitudes among various city officials.
I wonder if Kurosawa combined the death sentence and struggle for salvation found in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and the attempt to right a wrong which results in exposing the indifference and corruption of high officials in various governmental agencies in Tolstoy's novel, Resurrection.
One last comment about the film: the most striking scene in the film is Watanabe, sitting on a swing in the park, with the snow falling about him, quietly singing his favorite song. While one character said that it was terrible that he should die there alone like that, freezing in the snow, it seems obvious that Watanabe himself chose this death, with his monument about him.
Overall Rating: One of the best.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
AFTER LIFE: A Film
A strange film that I just recently viewed is After Life--perhaps puzzling would be a better term. It's a quiet film, a Japanese production, with no car chases or shootouts or violence of any kind. I'm still not sure what to make of it, but it definitely is staying with me. The Japanese title is Wandafuru raifu, which, translated, means "wonderful life." Perhaps the one who selected the English title didn't want viewers to confuse it with It's A Wonderful Life, the Christmas standby with Jimmy Stewart. Hirokazu Koreeda both wrote and directed the film which came out in 1998.
The premise is simple: after death, people go to a way station where they will spend a week. During the first three days, they go over their memories and decide which one memory they will keep to remember for all eternity. They will forget everything else, except for that one chosen memory. The following day or so is spent with the stage crew creating the scenery for the filming of the re-enactment of that memory. On the last day, they will view the film made of that re-enactment and leave immediately for wherever it is they will go, sans all memories except for that one.
The film opens with a bright white light-filled archway, which reminded me of many accounts given by people who had experienced a "near death experience" (NDE). The people emerge from the archway and report in at a desk. They are directed to a large room, and there are told what the schedule will be for the coming week. The new arrivals are assigned to a counselor who will help them decide on the memory they will choose and also work on getting as many of the details of that particular memory.
The style suggests a documentary about this particular way station and a group of people who just happen to be there at that time. The counselors are young men, in their twenties with perhaps one in his early thirties. That this is an all male staff of counselors appears to be an accident, for the counselor trainee is a young woman who is promoted to counselor at the end. The Boss is an older man.
The film follows the group of new arrivals as they attempt to decide which one memory they will choose. We see interactions among them as well as their sessions with their counselors. There are also flashbacks in some cases. In fact one man doesn't believe he has any happy memories, so, to aid him, he is given tapes of his life, one tape for every year of his life.
We also see the counselors "off duty" as they interact among themselves, for these are not angels or spirits but human beings, with all the faults of human beings. The counselors are those who have died and either could not or would not choose one memory. As a result, they must stay on as counselors until they themselves are ready to choose.
The way station appears to be a dilapidated school building, and all are wearing street clothing. It appears to be simply a group of people engaged in normal everyday activities. The only deviation from the mundane ordinariness of life is the light-filled archway they all come through.
One point I found puzzling was the ages of the counselors and the new arrivals. The ages of the new arrivals ranged from around 15 or 16 to at least 70 and possibly older. There were no children. Perhaps it was just coincidence that this group had no children in it. As I mentioned before, the counselors all seemed to be in their 20s. Was this also a coincidence or is the director suggesting that people in this age bracket have more difficulties choosing than those younger or older than them? One of the new arrivals simply refused to make a choice, saying he wanted to accept responsibility for his whole life, not just one small part of it. And, his counselor then told him that that's why he was a counselor, for he also refused to choose one memory.
Overall Rating: It's back in my queue, for I want to see it again, sometime in the near future, after I've thought about it for awhile.
The premise is simple: after death, people go to a way station where they will spend a week. During the first three days, they go over their memories and decide which one memory they will keep to remember for all eternity. They will forget everything else, except for that one chosen memory. The following day or so is spent with the stage crew creating the scenery for the filming of the re-enactment of that memory. On the last day, they will view the film made of that re-enactment and leave immediately for wherever it is they will go, sans all memories except for that one.
The film opens with a bright white light-filled archway, which reminded me of many accounts given by people who had experienced a "near death experience" (NDE). The people emerge from the archway and report in at a desk. They are directed to a large room, and there are told what the schedule will be for the coming week. The new arrivals are assigned to a counselor who will help them decide on the memory they will choose and also work on getting as many of the details of that particular memory.
The style suggests a documentary about this particular way station and a group of people who just happen to be there at that time. The counselors are young men, in their twenties with perhaps one in his early thirties. That this is an all male staff of counselors appears to be an accident, for the counselor trainee is a young woman who is promoted to counselor at the end. The Boss is an older man.
The film follows the group of new arrivals as they attempt to decide which one memory they will choose. We see interactions among them as well as their sessions with their counselors. There are also flashbacks in some cases. In fact one man doesn't believe he has any happy memories, so, to aid him, he is given tapes of his life, one tape for every year of his life.
We also see the counselors "off duty" as they interact among themselves, for these are not angels or spirits but human beings, with all the faults of human beings. The counselors are those who have died and either could not or would not choose one memory. As a result, they must stay on as counselors until they themselves are ready to choose.
The way station appears to be a dilapidated school building, and all are wearing street clothing. It appears to be simply a group of people engaged in normal everyday activities. The only deviation from the mundane ordinariness of life is the light-filled archway they all come through.
One point I found puzzling was the ages of the counselors and the new arrivals. The ages of the new arrivals ranged from around 15 or 16 to at least 70 and possibly older. There were no children. Perhaps it was just coincidence that this group had no children in it. As I mentioned before, the counselors all seemed to be in their 20s. Was this also a coincidence or is the director suggesting that people in this age bracket have more difficulties choosing than those younger or older than them? One of the new arrivals simply refused to make a choice, saying he wanted to accept responsibility for his whole life, not just one small part of it. And, his counselor then told him that that's why he was a counselor, for he also refused to choose one memory.
Overall Rating: It's back in my queue, for I want to see it again, sometime in the near future, after I've thought about it for awhile.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Kurosawa's _Rashomon_ and Martin Ritt's _The Outrage_
Warning: I have included considerable information about both films, including the endings.
As anyone who has visited Fred's Place might guess, I'm fascinated by Kurosawa's Rashomon, his great film that appeared in 1950. In two previous posts, on October 24, 2008 and December 12, 2008, I traced the ancestry of the film back to 12th century medieval Japan. Well, I finally caught up with its descendant, Martin Ritt's The Outrage, which appeared in 1964. As far as I can tell, this is the only descendant so far. If anyone knows of others, I'd appreciate the information.
Martin Ritt directed this remake of Rashomon. It is quite close to Kurosawa's version, with several significant revisions. One is the setting: The Outrage is moved from medieval Japan to post Civil War southwestern United States, near the mythical town of Silver Gulch. The setting is an abandoned railroad depot, at which trains seldom stop. One reference in the film is made to Tucson, so one might assume either southern Arizona or New Mexico. Silver Gulch is a dying town because the silver mines are played out. In southern New Mexico, one can find Silver City, a town that sprang up because of the silver mines, which are now shut down.
This is in keeping with previous remakes of Kurosawa's films, The Seven Samurai which became The Magnificent Seven, and Yojimbo which was remade as A Fistful of Dollars, with Clint Eastwood, and again as Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis, all of which were set in southwestern US or Mexico.
The samurai and his wife are now a Southern plantation owner and his wife, played by Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom, who have lost everything in the Civil War and are now looking for some place to start over again. Just what they are doing in a one-horse buggy out in the middle of the Sonoran desert with little or no luggage is beyond me. The bandit, of course, is now a Mexican bandit, Juan Carrasco, played by old blue eyes himself--Paul Newman. In the Japanese version, the husband's body is discovered by a woodcutter; this becomes a prospector, played by Howard Da Silva. The Buddhist priest has been transformed, naturally, into a Christian clergyman, and the actor selected for this part is probably best known for his role as the indomitable Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, a very young William Shattner. The thief becomes a con man, a swindler, a seller of patent medicines which are as likely to kill as the condition they are supposed to cure. Edward G. Robinson was selected for this role.
A second change is that of the role of the shaman. In the Japanese version, the shaman goes into a trance and contacts the spirit of the dead husband, who then can tell his version of the events leading up to his death. This would never be accepted in an US court, so the husband's story was told by a medicine man who came along just as the husband was dying and heard his version.
Ritt also changed the ending. In Akutagawa's short stories, the reader was left with the three opposing stories, indicating that several, if not all, were lying. Kurosawa added a fourth version, that of the woodcutter whose version came closest to the bandit's tale, death in a duel. Ritt then changed Kurosawa's ending, and the prospector's final version also focused on the duel, but the husband tripped while carrying a knife, obviously not holding it point downward, and fell and stabbed himself.
Major problem: in spite of the considerable talents of the cast, I couldn't find them convincing in their roles. I always knew it was Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom playing a part. I found Robinson's supposedly hearty and cynical laugh irritating and forced. The cast generally struck me as just walking through their lines. The only one who really came alive was Claire Bloom at the end when she taunts and goads her reluctant husband and the equally reluctant bandit to fight over her.
Overall Comment: Akutagawa took two medieval Japanese tales and a short story by Ambrose Bierce and created two short stories that went beyond the source material. One could see the seeds in his versions, but he added his own insight to the stories. Kurosawa did the same when he melded Akutagawa's short stories into his film. The germs of the originals are there, but again he took the material a step further. Ritt did not do this. His adaptation was a more or less faithful rendering into a western setting in which most of the changes were demanded by the new setting. The most significant change was not necessary and weakened the film--the ending, in which the prospector says the husband was killed by accident. There was no reason for that change.
As anyone who has visited Fred's Place might guess, I'm fascinated by Kurosawa's Rashomon, his great film that appeared in 1950. In two previous posts, on October 24, 2008 and December 12, 2008, I traced the ancestry of the film back to 12th century medieval Japan. Well, I finally caught up with its descendant, Martin Ritt's The Outrage, which appeared in 1964. As far as I can tell, this is the only descendant so far. If anyone knows of others, I'd appreciate the information.
Martin Ritt directed this remake of Rashomon. It is quite close to Kurosawa's version, with several significant revisions. One is the setting: The Outrage is moved from medieval Japan to post Civil War southwestern United States, near the mythical town of Silver Gulch. The setting is an abandoned railroad depot, at which trains seldom stop. One reference in the film is made to Tucson, so one might assume either southern Arizona or New Mexico. Silver Gulch is a dying town because the silver mines are played out. In southern New Mexico, one can find Silver City, a town that sprang up because of the silver mines, which are now shut down.
This is in keeping with previous remakes of Kurosawa's films, The Seven Samurai which became The Magnificent Seven, and Yojimbo which was remade as A Fistful of Dollars, with Clint Eastwood, and again as Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis, all of which were set in southwestern US or Mexico.
The samurai and his wife are now a Southern plantation owner and his wife, played by Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom, who have lost everything in the Civil War and are now looking for some place to start over again. Just what they are doing in a one-horse buggy out in the middle of the Sonoran desert with little or no luggage is beyond me. The bandit, of course, is now a Mexican bandit, Juan Carrasco, played by old blue eyes himself--Paul Newman. In the Japanese version, the husband's body is discovered by a woodcutter; this becomes a prospector, played by Howard Da Silva. The Buddhist priest has been transformed, naturally, into a Christian clergyman, and the actor selected for this part is probably best known for his role as the indomitable Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, a very young William Shattner. The thief becomes a con man, a swindler, a seller of patent medicines which are as likely to kill as the condition they are supposed to cure. Edward G. Robinson was selected for this role.
A second change is that of the role of the shaman. In the Japanese version, the shaman goes into a trance and contacts the spirit of the dead husband, who then can tell his version of the events leading up to his death. This would never be accepted in an US court, so the husband's story was told by a medicine man who came along just as the husband was dying and heard his version.
Ritt also changed the ending. In Akutagawa's short stories, the reader was left with the three opposing stories, indicating that several, if not all, were lying. Kurosawa added a fourth version, that of the woodcutter whose version came closest to the bandit's tale, death in a duel. Ritt then changed Kurosawa's ending, and the prospector's final version also focused on the duel, but the husband tripped while carrying a knife, obviously not holding it point downward, and fell and stabbed himself.
Major problem: in spite of the considerable talents of the cast, I couldn't find them convincing in their roles. I always knew it was Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom playing a part. I found Robinson's supposedly hearty and cynical laugh irritating and forced. The cast generally struck me as just walking through their lines. The only one who really came alive was Claire Bloom at the end when she taunts and goads her reluctant husband and the equally reluctant bandit to fight over her.
Overall Comment: Akutagawa took two medieval Japanese tales and a short story by Ambrose Bierce and created two short stories that went beyond the source material. One could see the seeds in his versions, but he added his own insight to the stories. Kurosawa did the same when he melded Akutagawa's short stories into his film. The germs of the originals are there, but again he took the material a step further. Ritt did not do this. His adaptation was a more or less faithful rendering into a western setting in which most of the changes were demanded by the new setting. The most significant change was not necessary and weakened the film--the ending, in which the prospector says the husband was killed by accident. There was no reason for that change.
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