Random Thoughts

This is the final movie on the silent family comedy Ozu box set. And since it’s silent, I’m playing disco bangers while watching it.

“You know why your hand has five fingers? If it only had four, your glove would have one extra.”

There’s jokes here.

Anyway, this is a very amiable movie… it’s not quite clear what the movie is going to be about (but I bet there’s gonna be hi-jinx with that girl he picked up), and it has a very natural flow: One scene follows the next without too much overt plot.

Is that a recommended chopstick technique?

This is really good. I know, you’re all going “duh, it’s Ozu”, but it really is. It follows some melodrama conventions (like The Sick Child), but it’s otherwise amorphously strange, even if straightforward.

It’s really enjoyable to watch.

(Some of the scenes are very splotchy indeed.)

The Japanese have superior fever chilling techniques. I must get one of those hanging bag thingies.

… Oh! There’s a sountrack here! If I push `#’ I get somebody playing the pianner.

Oh well.

Passing Fancy. Yasujirô Ozu. 1933.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

This is a box set of three early Sam Fuller movies, and as such is an outlier in the Eclipse series — the films are mostly Japanese and French things where Janus Films had distribution rights.

And it’s odd that Criterion wouldn’t just release these movies as part of their regular series. I mean, Fuller’s a popular director. But I guess they know what they’re doing.

Anyway.

How er touching.

Oh yeah! I had forgotten that I had (started to) see The Assasinatetc, but it was terrible.

So this is an earlier version of the same story, but it has some of the same set pieces, like the bathing scene?

SPOILER ALERT Ford kills James.

It’s fascinating just how full on this is — the movie is like “of course Ford’s killing him” and then just gets on with it within the first twenty minutes.

It’s great.

This is really weird. I assume that this didn’t actually happen?

No, it’s apparently true:

This sentiment clashed with the general public opinion at the time of James’s death that it had been time for James to be stopped by any means. For a period, Bob earned money by posing for photographs as “the man who killed Jesse James” in dime museums. He also appeared on stage with his brother Charles, reenacting the murder in a touring stage show.

This looks really good. It apparently had a minuscule budget and shooting schedule, but you totally can’t tell.

But…

It’s just that the last half of the movie isn’t as good as it should be?

Good performances and all.

Some scenes zing and other scenes are just there.

John Ireland is kinda perfect here — he does dim well.

La nuit américaine.

I Shot Jesse James. Samuel Fuller. 1949.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

The previous Ozu movie was fantastic, and once again, the Eclipse DVD comes without any soundtrack. So I’m listening to reggae bangers.

Various: Harmony, Melody & Style (1)

This is really good… I have no idea where this is headed. Is it just gonna be about these kids?

This movie has the best featured review on imdb of all times:

Several days ago I saw a perfect print provided to the PFA by the Japan Foundation, with benshi Midori Sawato accompanying. The performance, of course, was exquisite, if sedate in keeping with the film and Ozu’s reputation. Whether by chance or ingenuity the PFA placed Sawato on a raised platform, so you couldn’t look at her face without also seeing the film, or the film without seeing her. Her male intonations, though with at least no obvious satire, rival those of Laurie Anderson or Lily Tomlin. But I’ve been wondering what on earth to say about Ozu. He hadn’t discovered yet his low camera angle, and the pacing’s not quite as slow as it would become. I’m afraid all that’s stayed with me that anyone else might not say, is that, perhaps oddly for a film about a typical family of four, Ozu’s camera again and again frames groups of three. I can’t remember whether he does this later. Maybe Ozu just liked an image size that makes three optimum. Already, without the formality to come, his frame was beginning to solidify. Don’t know. Something to think about is all.

Various: 300% Dynamite!

I don’t know what’s going on half of the time… the kids are apparently really shocked to find out their father have hairy ankles?

Those are long johns.

According to the liner notes on the DVD, this is the first Ozo film to “remain in circulation”. I’m not quite sure what that’s supposed to mean, but I guess they’re saying tat it was continued to be shown in Japan… until today? I ave no idea.

And it’s a compelling movie, but not as good as Tokyo Chorus. It’s all about the horrors of being a child, subject to any neighbourhood bully.

Various: This Is Reggae Music

I Was Born, But…. Yasujirô Ozu. 1932.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.