Movies watched in March 2011
Ordered and rated according to my affection for them.
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23 titles
- StarsYûto NakanoTravis WillinghamKôjun ItôGinko is an expert travelling around to investigate a primeval life-form, the "Mushi," and helping people with Mushi-related supernatural problems.(second viewing)
10/10
Still wonderful. I should really bring myself to write something about it some day. - DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsJane FondaDonald SutherlandCharles CioffiA small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.9/10
Not a 10 yet because I'm not sure it has made really *such* a big impact on me, time and a rewatch will tell. So far, Bree's testimony of love in front of her psychiatrist was one of the most beautiful and intimate things I saw on screen: the woman was terrified by what was happening to her, by the vulnerability she felt in spite of herself; this otherwise badass numbhearted love pro was talking about the feeling of love as if it was an unnamable affliction, I'm not even sure she knew what was happening to her. No springtime smiles, no butterflies in stomach, but a lot of vulnerability and apprehension. Maybe this is why we run away from love sometimes: not out of fear of being happy, but because it makes us feel so defenseless...
Donald Sutherland was also wonderful - low key and steady as a rock. Besides, I totally seem to have a soft spot for prostitutes in movies - first Jill McBain, then Mrs Miller, and now Bree Daniels... - DirectorCarol ReedStarsAlec GuinnessMaureen O'HaraBurl IvesJim Wormold, who is a vacuum cleaner salesman, participates as an Agent in the British Secret Service. But he soon realizes that his plans by lying are going to get him into trouble.8.5/10
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsAitana Sánchez-GijónDino AbbresciaGiorgio CarecciaA young boy accidentally discovers a deep hole in the ground, where another boy is kept prisoner.8/10
Really lovely main character, lovely movie, besides it made me miss my kid brother when he was 10 - DirectorShunji IwaiStarsHayato IchiharaShûgo OshinariAyumi ItoThe problematic lives of teenager students for whom the singer Lily Chou-Chou's dreamy music is the only way to escape an alienating, violent and insensitive society.AKA All About Lily Chou-Chou
8/10
At first, I was put off by the would-be quasi-philosophical random phrases that flashed on the screen, and in fact the habit of the internet talk to screen-flash in the middle of the story kept being tiresome; but the story turned out to be very good and intimately disturbing, and the mystical phrases ended up reminding me of my own habit to radicalize the artistic experiences and the illusion of intimacy with the artists as a teen. In fact I am still doing it, albeit in a much less emphatic manner. We take sh!t awfully seriously at that age. All in all, a very good movie about the sweet triviality and skin-crawling cruelty of modern-day adolescence. Japanese adolescence in particular. - DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsArata IuraErika OdaSusumu TerajimaAfter death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.8/10
Apart from the fact that Koreeda's simple, me-and-you people are much less interesting to look at than Eric Rohmer's, it was a startlingly matter-of-factly rendition of a weird story, a story that talks about many things at once (a few particular lives, happiness and memories, movie-making as a demiurgic device, albeit employed in a purely functional manner - although its function is connected to the infrastructure of our existence, and other stuff). Also, the "place" where the story "happens" did exude the required air of "beyond everything" (reminding me ever so slightly of the animated series Haibane Renmei), and the conclusion of the story was positively impressive. - StarsKozue KamadaEiji TakemotoSam VincentThe series is made up of three stories: "Yotsuya Ghost Story", an adaptation of the classic Japanese ghost story; "Goddess of the Dark Tower", and Goblin Cat.AKA Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror
8/10
The first story (Ghoststory of Yotsuya) was very well done, particularly the meta-narrative aspect. Besides, with this occasion I found out that the Yotsuya story was not a folk tale, like I used to believe, but a story with a specific author, who, under further investigation, turned out to be none other than the author of Shura... The second one was smooth, but a bit syrupy and containing stuff vaguely reminding one of the Sailor Moon transformation sequences; the third had an amazing animation style, and was surprisingly dark. I was quite impressed by the fact that, in spite of the somewhat comedic beginning, the story turned out to be very serious and dramatic. What I found a bit annoying was the fact that the main character needed to undergo a spectacular transformation sequence in the end (yes I do tend to find these transformation sequences annoying), the ditzy female character and the super-deformed-faces some characters pull in the beginning. - DirectorMichael AriasHiroaki AndôStarsKazunari NinomiyaYû AoiYûsuke IseyaTwo boys defend Treasure Town and Yakuza try to take over and clear it for new development.8/10
Sweet eerie and intimate. - DirectorGen SekiguchiStarsTadanobu AsanoReika HashimotoKyôko KoizumiFive bizarre stories with no apparent connection to one and other eventually become intertwined, resulting in surreal circumstances.8/10
With the kind of insane colourfulness that I do like, besides with Tadanobu Asano in a warmly warped version of Solaris! Only problem being that this was only one of the 5 plot segments contained in the movie, and the other 4 were much less interesting. But the first one was memorable enough to make me remember this movie very fondly. - DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsRentarô MikuniMichiyo AratamaMisako WatanabeA collection of four Japanese folk tales with supernatural themes.7.5/10
It was many kinds of nice, but back then it didn't make a very strong impression on me. A few months later, however, I remember particularly the second (about the snow lady) and third (Hoichi the Earless) fragments quite fondly. - DirectorMamoru OshiiStarsShigeru ChibaTomoko IshimuraFumihiko TachikiA revered director with an obscure style, Rei Maruwa, has gone missing during the production of his latest animated feature, Talking Head. With the deadline approaching and next to no progress made, the producer calls in a "shadow director" with the ability to mimic any director's style. Arriving at the studio, he begins meeting with the eccentric crew members in order to understand the project, but soon they begin dying in the same order that he met up with them.7/10
Interesting disclosures about movie making in general (animated movie in particular), but much less vivid and watchable than something like Welles' F for Fake. Yeah that ought to be the problem - I would have liked this movie a lot if it was a text. - DirectorDon MedfordStarsOliver ReedCandice BergenGene HackmanA ruthless rancher and his gang use extremely long range rifles to kill the men who kidnapped his infidel wife.7/10
The fact that it revealed increasingly complex and profound themes (a Western story, carrying inside a medieval story with stolen queens, carrying inside an ancient story of men messing with fate) was great, but it was also a flawed movie, in that the most immediate denotative level of the story was clumsy. - StarsMatt HillKelly SheridanDoris ChillcottAdapted from the famous samurai masterpiece, Hakkenden tells the tale of eight samurai brothers.AKA The Legend of the Dog Warriors: The Hakkenden
7/10
An animated series with a narrative line and universe much stronger than expected, and interesting animation, but over all very confusing (I have even rewatched the first two episodes after finishing the series, and they still felt confusing, so the first time it hadn't been me not paying enough attention). - DirectorMichael WinterbottomStarsTim RobbinsSamantha MortonOm PuriA futuristic Brief Encounter (1945), this is a love story in which the romance is doomed by genetic incompatibility.(second viewing)
7/10
As warm as I remembered it, with the SF elements introduced and used as casually as I like it, a typical example of a story using SciFi elements in order to magnify a real human plight. Not a very memorable experience, however. - DirectorShinobu YaguchiStarsJuri UenoYûta HiraokaShihori KanjiyaA tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up vitiating and replacing the schools brass band.AKA Swing Girls
7/10 - DirectorHiroshi TeshigaharaStarsRentarô MikuniYoshiko MitaTsutomu YamazakiLegendary tea master Sen no Rikyu is faced with his warmongering lord's unrealistic pretensions.7/10
- DirectorRyûhei KitamuraStarsHayato IchiharaAya UetoKane KosugiCollection of three 20-minute sci-fi anime films dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Yokohama city. On Planet Abel, human-like robot Apollo (Ichihara Hayato, Rookies) and robot-like human Mikaru (Ueto Aya, Azumi) come upon a stowaway robot with a mysterious "Cipher" chip. Not knowing Cipher's powers, Apollo takes the chip for fun, throwing both him and Mikaru headfirst into a mind-boggling mystery that affects the past, present, and future.7/10
Interesting, but felt unfinished. - DirectorGary NelsonStarsStacy KeachLindsay BloomDon StroudA high-stakes poker game is robbed and Pat intervenes as the thieves make their getaway. He is shot in the back and then framed as a drug dealer. Hammer makes it his job to clear Pat and find out who nearly killed him.5/10
Cheese galore, but the images with sax and huge NY buildings were lovely, and I was just in the mood for a modest but relaxed noirish story. - DirectorTom SchulmanStarsJoe PesciAndy ComeauKristy SwansonA mob bagman finds that his luggage, containing the proof of his gang's latest hit, has been switched.4/10
It was mostly what I consider a bad movie, but I couldn't stop smiling whenever I got an Alfredo Garcia reference, which were inserted in a rather tasteful manner; also, a few scenes with Joe Pesci were not bad; besides, the very idea of having a stupid romantic comedy of the nineties refer Alfredo Garcia is unexpected. - DirectorCheh ChangStarsJimmy Wang YuChiao ChiaoHsiang Chun LiYu is a two-armed swordsman who is betrayed by a jealous rival, but initially seeks a life of simple pleasures until an accidental meeting with another patriot sets him back on the road to bloody, brutal vengeance.AKA The Assassin
4/10
It could have been an interesting movie, hadn't the main character spent so much more time in tediously courteous good-bye parties, than actually fulfilling his dramatic mission; then again, I saw this right after Night Moves, so I was already bored out of my mind. - DirectorArthur PennStarsGene HackmanJennifer WarrenEdward BinnsLos Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter. Moseby tracks the daughter down, only to stumble upon something much more intriguing and sinister.4/10
I don't know what this movie did to me exactly, many people seem to love it, but it has bored me fiercely. It was sort of like Tavernier's In the Electric Mist without the quietly perplexing direction, the mysterious atmosphere, and without Tommy Lee Jones; hell even Gene Hackman was barely in this movie, I mean he may have played the main character, but on autopilot. I haven't seen something this lifeless and dull in a really long time. However, there were at least a few scenes I have appreciated, and I am aware that I was looking for something else when I decided to watch the movie in the first place (for one, a much more vivid and mean Gene Hackman). But something in me shrieks in terror at the idea of a rewatch. - DirectorAntonio CapuanoStarsFabrizio BentivoglioEmanuele GargiuloTonino TaiutiA young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to accuse the priest of sexual harassment and have his reputation destroyed?4/10
The movie was drenched in music very unpleasant for me, and focused on unpleasant characters; some images of the city looked warm and nice, but there was always something disagreeable in the air. - DirectorMamoru HosodaStarsRyunosuke KamikiNanami SakurabaMitsuki TanimuraA student tries to fix a problem he accidentally caused in OZ, a digital world, while pretending to be the fiancé of his friend at her grandmother's 90th birthday.AKA Summer Wars
3/10
Ugh. I loathed it consistently throughout the second half. It even contained a fully-fledged Sailor Moon transformation sequence, complete with the appearance of pretty earrings (x_x). A pity, because in the beginning it seemed interesting and intimate.