tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250324745932561231.post4054538035997326432..comments2023-11-19T10:38:36.512-06:00Comments on Film Walrus Reviews: Japanese Directorial History Part V: Embracing Postmodernism (1980s Onwards)FilmWalrushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822833888119348361noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250324745932561231.post-80496203059830441462007-04-04T20:39:00.000-05:002007-04-04T20:39:00.000-05:00Lots to respond to.Audition: Worth checking out in...Lots to respond to.<BR/><BR/>Audition: <BR/>Worth checking out in my opinion as it is one of the more famous, thoughtful and coherent Miike films. I am not generally a big fan of him. The gore is easily within your tolerance (I would guess) although there are a couple nasty moments.<BR/><BR/>Masaaki Yuasa:<BR/>I look forward to any of his works. You know how much I fell in love with "Cat Soup."<BR/><BR/>Oshii live-action trilogy:<BR/>You mentioned these earlier in the JDH series and I've also had lots of requests to watch them from my friend Dan. I think we are watching the first one tonight (4/4/07). I will have to discuss them with you either by posting a review or chatting on AIM/phone.FilmWalrushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14822833888119348361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250324745932561231.post-31420570179677499402007-04-03T02:54:00.000-05:002007-04-03T02:54:00.000-05:00A nice overview of the output from Japan, I have t...A nice overview of the output from Japan, I have to say. I've been a bit squeamish about checking out Audition. Is it really good enough to seek out, even with all the probable terrible gore? I heard about a nipple-slicing scene in Ichi the Killer and was never able to get the balls to check that out, either. Oddly enough, Ichi the Killer got an anime prequel. If you like the abrupt departure that Satoshi Kon has from his anime peers, you should check out more from the director Masaaki Yuasa, the guy that did Cat Soup. He has a few more titles under his belt now, with the movie Mind Game and the anime TV series Kemonozume. Mind Game is a movie about a guy that gets killed in a rather embarrassing and obscene way and all the metaphysical/philosophical stuff that occurs from it. I haven't seen it myself since I keep crossing my fingers for an American release, but fansubs are rampant on the Internet, and the illustrious Yoko Kanno even drops in for a track on the soundtrack. Kemonozume I've actually seen some of. It seems to be about two groups in modern Tokyo: man-eating monsters that can take the guise of humans and the monster hunters that oppose them. There seems to be a new type of monster that doesn't revert back to its monster form once killed and the hunters are getting all up in a tizzy about it. And then, of course, the heir to the mantle of leading the hunters finds a way to fall in love with one of the enemy, causing an appropriately Romeo and Juliet-type of reaction from their compatriots. Both of them have a much sketchier look than Cat Soup, and Kemonozume still has the spirit of experimentation that the director had in Cat Soup. The simple (sometimes even ugly) designs mean that more time can be put into animating them, so there's some scenes of fluid animation (one involving a pissed off monkey and a peach) that are able to both impress and amuse. I haven't finished it yet (I left it on the computer at home) so I can't vouch for how it turns out, but the two or three episodes I saw so far were rather solid. It seems that Masaaki Yuasa also has a talent for traditional direction as well, since the romantic scenes between the two leads feel remarkably natural and touching (not to mention the show's probable late-night timeslot means it can get a lot closer to showing sex than most other TV anime). I really wish there was more of a movement towards original animated feature films in Japan, though. Most feature films I seem to get wind of are adaptations of TV series (I think there's been a Pokemon/Detective Conan/One Piece/Doraemon movie every year since each series' premiere). If it's not an adaptation, it's a Ghibli film, and what is that studio going to do once Miyazaki kicks the bucket (more likely than retirement, at this point)? They've had a few features helmed by different directors, but nothing major. The last major departure from the Miyazaki/Takahata schedule of releases was Tales from Earthsea which got panned. Then the other type of animated movie that seems to get released over there are big animated epics like our summer blockbuster movies. The most recent of these being GONZO's (a studio known first and foremost for their abundant use of 3D CG) first feature film, Origin, which by all accounts is beautiful, preachy and vapid. Even Kon's off day (Tokyo Godfathers, IMO) is better than some of this stuff coming out. A glimmer on the horizon of animated movies not fitting any of these categories is the omnibus Genius Party, with contributors consisting of the freshest and most respected minds in the animation biz (Cowboy Bebop's Shinichiro Watanabe included) coming up with basically whatever they want. It comes out this year in Japan, but the first American showing isn't scheduled until 2008. I'm mostly interested in this to see if Watanabe can recover from the half-great/half-boring mish-mash that was Samurai Champloo and remind me why he's responsible for some of the best anime in the past decade (let's not forget Macross Plus). If you do a search for Genius Party, though, you can find their bilingual homepage and peruse some of the other directors attached to the project, some of which look very intriguing. Satoshi Kon alone can't save anime from its own conventions, after all.Mad Doghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10716883645607032782noreply@blogger.com