Random Thoughts

So political!

This is pretty odd structurally, in that it doesn’t really seem to have any structure. Instead it moves from scene to scene in a way that feels true to life (and it was apparently based on a real-life woman pilot).

It’s interesting… and it’s amusing… but it’s not really gripping?

It’s a movie that almost works, I think. It’s got some great and lovable characters, is moving now and then, amusing now and again, and has an inspiring storyline. It just lacked a bit zip, I think?

I’m totally open to it being just me, because I’m rather sleepy and I’m going to bed RIGHT NOW.

The Woman Who Dared. Jean Grémillon. 1944.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

Oooh! An evil… American?

He’s so evil!

OK, now he’s getting his comeuppance! Judo power to the rescue!

Wow.

Wow. I didn’t know that it was possible for a Kurosawa movie to get a rating this low on imdb!

Anyway, this was made in the last days of WWII, and is set in the late 1800s. So it’s about the martial arts guy from the first movie beating up cowardly, nefarious Americans around town, I guess?

It looks like it was made under very restrictive circumstances — I mean, Japan was losing badly, and Japanese society in general was suffering hard.

I’m just wondering where they got all these European-looking actors from. Prisoners of war? Hm… oh! Perhaps they’re all German? That’d make thing easier…

Yeah! That presenter guy in the middle is mouthing off something that sounds more German than English? Or perhaps it’s Japanese… the sound quality here is very uneven…

Man, this movie is chatty… it feels like Kurosawa is padding the run time.

Awkward!!!

Yeah! Fuck karate!

Did Kurusawa just invent Mixed Martial Arts?

Could be German, I guess…

Kurosawa made them fight barefoot in the snow.

Anyway, this movie is awful. There’s a couple of scenes that are amusing, but…

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two. Akira Kurosawa. 1945.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

This blog series is winding down soon — I think I’m on schedule to watch the final movie early next week. And then I can finally watch something else!

(Yes, I know, I know.)

Again with the blind masseurs — was this filmed back-to-back with the previous movie, The Masseurs and a Woman?

I think Kant wrote a treatise about that? The Categorical Masseur?

This is amusing, but so weird. The movie seems to be poking gently fun at all the characters, and the plot is so light as to almost not exist at all.

Man, Shimizu is making do with very little — this scene with this Dramatic Bridge has been going on for ten minutes now… very dangerous!

I really like this movie — it’s witty and kind. Very relaxing. But also wistful and sad. In a good way.

Ornamental Hairpin. Hiroshi Shimizu. 1941.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

The first movie on the Shimizu was unrestored and barely watchable. The second looked very nice indeed, and was kinda brilliant. This one looks rather dodgy? Perhaps there’s a correlation between whether somebody’s found it worth their time to restore a film and how memorable it is, because it doesn’t really look promising either way.

It’s a comedy based on two blind guys stumbling around a lot?

That looks like the worst massage ever.

OK, this is pretty amusing. But…

The Masseurs and a Woman. Hiroshi Shimizu. 1938.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

OK, I’m getting confused now. Ozu uses the same actors in film after film (which isn’t unusual), but he also sets the films in very similar sets — often reusing the same offices and homes when shooting, apparently. So I’m finding myself going “oh, she’s the daughter of… oh, was that this film or the previous one”?

I’m sure if I’d seen these when they originally were released, that wouldn’t have been that much of a problem, but seeing all these films in the span of a week makes things more confusing.

Tihi.

I like this, but… Ozu’s previous two movies had a lot more going on. This is funny, too, but I guess it’s all heading towards a horrible tragedy (it’s got that feeling), so it’s more subdued? Less silly?

I think I see what Ozu is going for (Dave Berg’s The Lighter Side of… Dying Undramatically of Old Age), but it doesn’t quite work. Instead it’s just lightly wistful.

It’s a good film, but compared to a couple of other films on this box set, it’s very slight. So:

The End of Summer. Yasujirô Ozu. 1961.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.