Reviews
SR: Saitama no rappâ (2009)
A nice surprise
This little movie was a pleasant surprise. I went into it with zero expectations, having randomly selected it looking for Japanese movies streaming on Netflix, and its informality, humor, quirky characters and unambitious storyline added up to an experience that was entertaining and charming, in a low-key way.
The hapless hero, if you can call him that, is a small-town, overweight, probably under- talented NEET (not in employment, education or training) who dreams of being a rapper and is maybe in love with a girl he knows from high school who's worked in AV (adult video, aka porn). His humiliating journey -- getting beaten up, jeered at by the girl he likes, performing hip hop to "represent youth" in front of a roomful of polite city council members -- isn't really all that much of a journey. But he and the supporting characters are so naturalistically and modestly portrayed that they somehow come to be endearingly real and sympathetic.
Anyway, this may not be the greatest movie of all time or anything, but it reminded me of other indies about 20-somethings I've enjoyed over the years: Repo Man, She's Gotta Have It, Clerks and Bottle Rocket spring to mind. Like them, 8000 Miles is understated, fresh and funny, unpredictable and unsentimental. A nice surprise.
note: the English subtitles leave quite a bit to be desired, spelling- and punctuation-wise, but they kind of fit the offhand feel of the film and they're adequate.
Angmareul boatda (2010)
a movie to endure, not enjoy
A Bittersweet Life is one of my favorite films of all time and The Good The Bad and The Weird is one of the funnest, coolest looking movies ever so I scoffed when I heard this film referred to as "torture porn," thinking someone is probably just not used to Korean violence.
But I think torture porn pretty much sums it up. Yes it is beautifully filmed, yes there are amazing, imaginative set piece fight/car chase scenes. But where is the humor, where is the humanity of the director's previous films?
If the point is supposed to be that vengeance turns you into the kind of beast you are avenging, the point gets pounded into you, and not in the interesting/challenging way it was in The Vengeance Trilogy, but in a tedious and extremely unpleasant way.
I love Byung-hun Lee, but every other man in this movies was offensively ugly to have to watch and every woman was a plot device, not a character. It was at least 40 minutes too long. I guess the soundtrack was pretty good, other than that I can't wait until this movie fades from my memory.
His Way (2011)
how so interesting?
I recognized the name Jerry Weintraub but was not familiar with one detail of his life. Thanks to this documentary I feel I've met a fascinating and influential individual to whom I am, at the least, eternally grateful for believing in/producing one of my favorite films of all time, Diner.
Also, I'm not an Oceans fan or a huge Clooney fan, but OK, I get it now, the guy is hilarious and he and "Pitt" and "Cheadle" etc. must have had a complete boysclub blast making those movies and I gotta love them for just wanting to have fun. Fun is under-appreciated in today's world imo.
And another thing: Weintraub, his wife, and his girlfriend...in this era of idiotic self-centered TV hoes screaming and ripping each other's hair out over stupid and vapid child-men, it is refreshingly civilized to see three classy and mature individuals respect and admire each other enough to say "fvck it" to societal conventions and live as they please.