Onibaba

Director: Kaneto Shindo
Country: Japan
Date: 1964
Runtime: 1h 42min
Format: .avi with .srt subtitles

Here's a movie that's a bit hard to define and it's not exactly Christmas material but whatever. Some say it's a period drama, some say it's a horror movie and some say it's an erotic horror. I'd say it's a period drama first and a subtle horror flick second.

The movie is set during the Nanboku-cho period (which is like mid medieval times in ol' Europa) but this is no movie of samurai bravery or acts of just vengeance. The movie is about two women who live by sneakily killing soldiers and looting their equipment (as you would in any normal RPG). Their lives are very basic and they are very poor so it's something that the movie displays really well through character interactions and sets. This is where the "horror" part comes because there is no supernatural force here, the people are the horror and their deeds are atrocious no matter what they do. In contrast to human ugliness the scenes of nature (the whole movie is in a dense tall grass field) are beautiful to behold. Beautiful and sort of menacing or even indifferent to humans that run around it.

This might be a bit too slow for everyone to watch. It is kinda samey but I like the feeling and the atmosphere that the movie delivers. There's something in here that I really like but I can't really put my finger on it. I guess I just like this sort of thing for its macabre theme and feel.

You can read a more comprehensible review here.

Or you can download it and see for yourself: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Memories Of Matsuko

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Country: Japan
Date: 2006
Runtime: 2 hours and 10 minutes
Format: .avi and with .sub English subtitles

I've been going through my film and animated film posts and I noticed a pattern which is: most of them are either:

a) depressive as fvck
b) melancholic as fvck

I guess I like those the best. But! There's still hope! I might like some movies that present the other spectrum of emotions. Emotions like physical abuse, drug abuse, torture and, uhh, happiness? I heard of that somewhere, people even make movies about it. About happiness. Why don't I check a movie out that's happy? I looked around and this is what I ended up liking. But the problem is that despite the really colorful tones and delightful merry characters this is depressing as fvck. So we're back to square one. Eh, who gives a fuck anyway.

Memories of Matsuko is a story about a guy who has an aunt called Matsuko. He doesn't know very much about her but she died and he has to clean her apartment and crap like that. Through this cleaning he gets to know her aunt and how she lived through her life. He slowly but gradually pieces together her painful life into one big mosaic. So the story is actually focused around Matsuko but from the perspective of memories and interpretations by other characters. This is what generally makes the movie work and it works well for the most part. Since they are memories the scenes and events are highly stylized which gives a lot of room for social commentary and general Japanese weirdness. You know, the usual things they do.


The problem with all this is when the movie does something bad it gets really awkward and ruins the immersion of the story. Some of the singing musical bits were tedious for me to watch. But that's maybe because I don't like singing in movies. Because this doesn't happen that much often it kinda magnifies the effect when it does happen so it makes it that much worse. Aside from that there's really not that much to complain about. The acting is fairly good but it's still in that kinda strange Japanese way of acting. I'm not sure I can pinpoint what's so strange about it. It's just different.


Overall this is a very nice long film. It's not perfect and it might not click with you due to the over the top stylizing and you might miss some jokes/things if you're not that familiar with the culture. But those points should not ruin the whole film. Not in the least. In it's core the story is very universal.

Have fun: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

Jûsan-nin no shikaku aka Thirteen Assassins

Director: Eiichi Kudo
Country: Japan
Date: 1963
Runtime: 2 hours
Format: .avi and with .srt English subtitles

Eiichi Kudo isn't exactly a known director, his Wiki page has maybe two sentences and this movie has like three reviews on Imdb. Those two sentences wouldn't even be there if Takashi Miike didn't remake one of his films (this one as it turns out) but that doesn't necessary mean he made bad movies. He's just not that known outside of Japan.

Thirteen Assassins is the first installment of the so called Samurai Revolution trilogy. It's one of those trilogies that aren't really connected by plot but by ideas or concept. The concept here is fighting for justice and telling feudal lords to go fuck themselves. I watched all three of movies and I have to say this is my favorite one. If anyone would like to (really, really) see the other ones I could upload them since they appear so scarce on the web.

The plot itself is pretty basic in structure. There's this colossal douchebag that did some really bad things and a group of people (samurais in this case) decide to do something about it. The plot is actually done really well when you look at its details. There's always something going on and it doesn't really get boring; maybe the plot goes a bit slow (the movie is 2 hours after all) but Japanese movies are kinda like that. Probably the only gripe I had with the characters and with this movie as a whole is that it has too much characters sometimes. You can get lost with all the names, motives and positions if you don't follow real close to what's currently going on and what's being discussed. Despite that it all resolves itself at the end and it's not really that hard to connect the dots. There are a lot of subtle hints and critiques of (then) Japanese society thrown out throughout conversations that are in the movie which I thought was a nice touch.

As far as cinematography goes the movie looks really nice. It was made during the golden era of samurai movies and it really shows in its design, locations and costumes. What I like about this the most is probably that it's far more realistic in its style. There are no one man armies here. Everyone is very human here which is a nice change from the: Mifune's beard kills everything in one hit.

If you're into these kind of movies I highly recommend you watch this, you won't regret it. If you don't like slow, black and white Japanese movies: feel free to pass this up.

Parts: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

9 Souls

Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
Year: 2003
Runtime: 1h 59min
Format: .avi
Lagnguage/Subtitles: Japanese with soft English subtitles

It has been a while since I posted a full feature movie. Actually it has been relatively long since I posted anything but that's not the point. Two sentences in and I'm already derailing, how nice. And now I'm talking to myself by typing. What the hell brain.

9 Souls is a story about nine prisoners that somehow managed to run away from prison. At first it might be a little overwhelming to follow nine characters but as the story progresses you really get to know them and dislike/like them so it's only momentarily that you'll be lost in this endless barrage of characters. They are all convicts for different reasons but they all manage to stick together by this loose idea that there might be some money hidden somewhere and so they hijack a convenient truck and go on a adventure.

The magic of this movie is that it starts as your usual (but a bit unusual) prison break movie which is followed by a pursuit and so on, you know the cliche. Actually this setting is only the building block for the rest of the movie that has much more to offer. The center of this movie are the prisoners and their lives and what they want to do with it. At moments it's a cheery road trip sodomy and a little later it's a sad story about a doomed restaurant worker. Many stories intervened and held by the common goal of getting away from your troubles. They all try to miserably fit back into society but they ultimately can't because the society itself has written them off long ago. They're trash now, most of them anyway.

Overall this is one of the best movies that I watched this year so far therefore I can't really give it any real subjective analysis but I can direct you to a much better review that might shed some more light on this film if my description is (as usually) vague. Just follow it here.

Links:

One, two, three, four, five and six.

Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu

Well this is a bit awkward. Last time I read this was in high school and I was all about "man I need to post this on the blog". Good thing I remembered to post it - right? I guess it's never late for love so here goes.

Actually I did post this in one small fragment which was The Crows, the Girl and the Yakuza but I had no idea that it was part of a compilation that contains several short stories by Hiroki Endo. Now after all this time I gave this another read and yes, it's still as awesome as ever. Calling them short stories would be a stretch though since most of them are 80+ pages long.

The stories are generally very melancholic so the comic is mainly maintaining this serious vibe about life, death, meaning and the usual things people like to ponder about. Stories themselves aren't really existing plot wise, it's more about characters and how they perceive their lives and relationships. Hiroki does his thing very well overall, the characters are fleshed out and don't act superficially like most mainstream manga characters. "Do good because we must!" and shit like that is nonexistent which is a refreshing change for me at least. They do what they must and struggle with their existence in a sadly happy way (but also murder).

If I could sum up this whole book in once sentence it would be: people are fucked up but they have good intentions, sometimes.

Recommended.

Download.