Wow, that movie sounds like an interesting ride 
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I started this show last night! I meant to just watch one episode before bed but it was so compelling that I couldn’t stop myself from one more afterward 
I’m excited to watch more later. I’m honestly so pleasantly surprised at how well Ansel Elgort is speaking Japanese, I heard in the past that he “learned Japanese extremely fast for this role” but I’d shrugged it off as probably just passable for the average foreign audience. His accent isn’t perfect but his hard work really shows and it makes the storyline way more believable 
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Well just happened to watch a Kore-eda movie today
It was 三度目の殺人. I enjoyed it a lot language-learning wise because they talked a lot, loved the acting too, but as for the story and plot found it a bit meh. Found it too predictable, never got any surprise.
Now that I looked at the list of movies he made, I have also seen 海よりもまだ深く which I found OK but nothing special.
Really enjoyed 海街 and 万引き家族 though, so it’s 2 hit 2 miss so far 
I have also 怪物, La Vérité (a French movie!) and Broker (a Korean movie) of his on my library’s website, we’ll see how they fare! (and some time in the future I want to subscribe to Netflix to watch The Makanai, as I’ve read all the manga already)
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Sorry to hear those two didn’t work for you, but… that’s okay. It’d be a bland world if all of us had the exact same tastes
I liked them quite a bit and commented on them here and here.
Couldn’t say much about the language used because I watched them in March and April, respectively - back then I had just started with WK at the beginning of March with no prior knowledge of Japanese so… it all just washed over me 
La vérité I watched at the cinema back when it released. I thought it was fine, but not really impressive. Before it I hadn’t seen any of his films and I wouldn’t follow it with any other until this February. Maybe I should give it another try soon but it’s not a priority The Korean one… dunno. Maaaybe at some point 
Yesterday I watched what I thought was going to be an Icelandic movie, but I think the Universe, like the Crabigator’s Wall of Shame, may have been trying to tell me something, because it turned out to have a strong Japanese connection.
I went in knowing only the IMDb blurb and the director’s name, didn’t bother to look at the cast. Imagine my surprise when I found out the love interest is a Japanese woman 
It was a decent film but that 7.7 average on IMDb is a little overrated - unless, of course, one is a sucker for this type of romance movies in which case it may even be a little underrated
The Japanese dialogue is (relatively) simple - and that’s from me, it’ll likely be fully understandable for anyone more advanced in their studies.
What annoyed me (immensely!) was that the young lad seems to have learned the language in a matter of days. Yeah… right! 
Also, on other tidbit: after over 100 films now, this was the first time I heard 愛してる and it was coming from the Japanese lady not from the Icelandic guy 
(Weeell okay, I also heard it used to death in ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン but the context there was different )
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Aaand… I’m back to Japanese films
Flowers (2010)
Stories of six women from three generations over a 70 years span.
In 1936, Rin is a young woman facing a marriage arranged by her family. In 2009, Kana and Kai, Rin’s granddaughters attending her funeral; Kana is single having prioritized her work/passion (piano) and now faces an uncertain future, Kai is happily married and has a son. In the 60s and 70s, Kaoru, Midori and Sato are Rin’s daughters; Kaoru is on her own due to circumstances, Midori faces hardship at work in the publishing business and is still not married, Sato is Kana’s mother, and pregnant with Kai.
It may sound like the setting for a feminist film or the reverse, a man’s distorted view of feminist issues, but it’s neither, really. Just a love letter to women but also to family and descendance.
Each period is filmed in its own distinct style and corresponding colour toning - or lack of colour, as is the case for the 30s. Having watched recently other films from those periods I would say they managed to reproduce quite well the cinematography, acting style and feel of the times for each setting - in a way, it’s yet one more love letter, to Japanese cinema.
Also, the periods correspond to the seasons of the year: 30s - spring, 60s - summer, 70s - autumn, 00s - winter (the latter is actually spread out over a longer period but the key point from it is in winter). And, of course, flowers feature in each, to complement the metaphorical ones [image]
The life stories of the women are nice and credible, a couple of them quite moving, making for a rather lovely film. Maybe having so many leads and threads sounds convoluted, but it does work well on-screen - they’ve tied them up nicely; sure, we get some hints about what may come next due to how the film progresses (30s → 00s → 60s → 70s → 00s → 30s) but it’s really not a problem.
One thing that stood out (and not in a good way) was the use of an Olivia Newton-John song at the end over the closing montage. Just felt out of place for me… the end credits Japanese song seemed perfectly adequate, or I’m sure they could have found another.
Anyways, with or without that song, I’d still put it firmly in the 8-8.5/10 range.
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Watched Happy Flight from the JFF Theater, can be seen for free until 2024/10/31.
Enjoyed the movie, relaxing and fun, and was super interesting to see so much about what it takes for planes to flight! (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg probably)
Reminded me of Wedding High a lot. They both have in common people with a stressful job working hard to try to satisfy customers and avoid disasters.
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Watched a few more centered around women in Japan. I went with some of the post-war classics, this time around.
**Repast / めし** (1951)
Michiyo married for love and followed her husband from Tokyo to Osaka. But after five years living on modest means in a poor suburb, the dreams she had of a happy life haven’t exactly come true. All she does is cook and clean and wash. When a niece of her husband comes visit and he seems to be giving her way more attention than to his wife, Michiyo decides she’s had enough and returns to Tokyo to live with her mother and look for a job… only to find out it’s not as simple as she thought.
I liked and didn’t like this one, at the same time - or better said, I liked the journey but didn’t quite like the destination. It’s hard to agree with the film’s conclusion with today’s eyes, but then again, looking at it on the whole and considering the situation in post-war Japan… it does make sense.
Not going to score it because of these conflicting feelings.
However, I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out for anyone interested. It’s maybe not as accomplished as the other two films below, but it does give a good glimpse into Japan’s first few years following WW2 and Hara is great at portraying her character as she goes through a range of emotions.
And besides, it also stars a lovely mangy cat with only half a tail
**Late Spring / 晩春** (1949)
The first of the so-called “Noriko trilogy”.
This Noriko is a 27yo living with her widowed father. Pretty much everyone wants her to marry, but she is perfectly happy with her life and wants nothing else but to carry on looking for her father. Eventually, even the father goes to extreme lengths so as to break through his daughter’s stubborness.
The story is simple and perhaps even verging on the mundane, but Ozu delivers it with a certain elegance that makes it fully worthwhile.
It’s only four years after the war but we don’t get to see any of the destruction or hardship left in its wake.
Still, there are hints of the American presence (a Coca-Cola ad in the middle of nowhere being the most obvious one) but also of the “Westernization” of the country (someone says of a never-seen Japanese male to be a lookalike for Gary Cooper… or well, maybe just his mouth).
Yet these are only sprinkled on top of a wide traditional base - tea ceremonies, the serving of food and sake, classic theatre - perhaps suggesting that change may be coming and some of it is worthy of being embraced, yet Japan will always remain Japanese at its core?
Hara is lovely throughout, effortlessly going from joy to disappointment and back, from traditional to modern and back.
Her character evolves throughout the film and although here we have a (somewhat) similar outcome to that of Repast, it’s somehow easier to accept it here - maybe because of Ozu’s gentler approach.
I would put this one at the “bottom” of the Noriko trilogy, but it’s still an easy 8/10.
**Early Summer / 麦秋** (1951)
Second in the trilogy.
Here Noriko is 28 and again unmarried. Relatives and friends again want her to marry and find her a suitor, a well positioned older man. This Noriko isn’t against marriage, but she wants to do on her own terms, yet her pick isn’t to the liking of the family. Will she stick to her guns, so to say, or will she cave in to their demands?
This time Ozu goes for comedy to balance out the drama, and the end result was (to me) surprisingly good. It has a certain charm that takes it a notch above the other two and yes, I liked it better than even Tokyo Story. Maybe also because Noriko here isn’t the angelic figure we see in the third film, nor the stubborn one from the first - she’s emotionally mature, independent and… perfectly normal.
I also liked the cinematography here a little more - the carefully constructed tatami shots of characters sitting down on the floor, the slight lingering of the camera once characters leave the scene, that crane shot which apparently is the only time Ozu used this technique… all round up to a most excellent presentation.
And, of course, Setsuko Hara in full form. I saw a reference once of her being considered “the Ava Gardner of Japan” - after all these films, I think that’s a very apt comparison. Certainly going to hunt down more of hers.
Anyway, to conclude: if Late Spring is an 8 and Tokyo Story is a 9… Early Summer is a 10 for me
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Today being the 15th of August, over the last two evenings I watched something about the capitulation of Japan in WW2:
Japan’s Longest Day (1967) and The Emperor in August (2015)
Both have the same title in Japanese:
日本のいちばん長い日
Some blah-blah... :)
Now… my knowledge of the topia was limited to what we were taught in school: Japan wasn’t doing great in the war by mid-1945, then the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then they capitulated, tail between the legs - and that was about it. We were given ample info on the war in Europe, but very little on the Pacific war (understandable to an extent, I suppose).
So then these two films were quite informative… as I found out there was an attempted military coup driven by young army officers who all their lives were told that surrender is a horrible dishonour and couldn’t understand why it had come this.
The 1967 version spends some 20 minutes documentary-like going through the Potsdam declaration, Japan’s reaction to it and then the bombings, after which it concentrates for half the runtime on how the decision was made at the top level (it was NOT an easy decision - at one point some mad brass asks for 20 million kamikaze soldiers like it’s nothing) and the writing and recording of the Emperor’s public declaration, followed in the second half by the events between noon 14th and noon 15th. Throughout it still retains an almost-docudrama feel.
2015 follows broadly the same path, but with more care given to the months leading up to August (starts with April) and with more indication that Emperor Showa, Prime Minister Suzuki and even the Minister of the Army Anami were looking for a way to end the war as soon as possible.
The best parts of both films are in their depictions of Suzuki and Anami, I think.
I liked Chishu Ryu and Toshiro Mifune (the latter in particular) in the original better than Tsutomu Yamazaki and Koji Yakusho in the remake. However, the remake provides more background on their characters.
There’s more violence in the original, even with a scene clarifying that the swords officers wore were not just for show [image]
But there’s also some exaggerated acting in that version, mostly from side characters. 2015 is a modern, more conventional film-like take on the matter, and maybe easier to go with it.
1967 barely has any female presence, whereas 2015 “fixes” that shortcoming somewhat, giving us glimpses into the private lives of the two main characters and their wives. Not extensive, but it’s a good addition nonetheless.
Also, in the original we don’t really get to see the Emeperor’s face - perhaps to suggest that ordinary people never got to see him either, back then. The remake turns the Emperor into a “proper” on-screen character and again goes into a little bit of detail of his own life at the time - he’s played by Masahiro Motoki.
All this is to say each of them is really worth checking out, even though they may not be extraordinary films.
7.5-8/10 for the package from me.
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Watched another Yoji Yamada film with Chieko Baisho:
Home from the Sea / 故郷 (1972)
Seichi and Tamiko live on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, with their two kids and Seichi’s father. They own an old boat with which they transport rocks to construction sites. They’ve been there for generations, but rapid industrial growth and increases in the cost of living are forcing them to consider leaving the island and working for one of “The Big” (the industry giants).
This is a follow-up to Where Spring Comes Late / 家族 from some three weeks ago.
Same director and for the most part the same cast, but it’s not a sequel - the characters are different and it goes the other way: there a company man was moving North with his family to become farmers, here a family have to give up their own small “business” with the husband having to become one of many workers at a shipyard.
If in the 1970 film the social commentary was… restrained, in 1972 Yamada goes fully critical of industrialization and deplores the vanishing of an independent way of living for those of lesser means.
Acting and cinematogray are good, but for me the film suffers a bit from having some long sequences of “slice of life” as the couple go about their daily runs of hauling rocks in the old boat - the brooding nostalgia can be a bit too much, that time could have been better spent on more dialogue between the characters.
7/10 this time around, but as a companion piece to the other film, it does work well and watching them together is worth it.
They may be about circumstances from 50 years ago, but they still fit well in today’s soul destroying grind of giant corporations…
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Nice! I’m busy with reading those days but will probably watch next week one of the movies from Video list | JFF Theater
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Have fun!
With over 120 currently on my watchlist, none of those really seem enticing to me, but I’ll be keeping an eye on whatever else they might add in the future.
Watched another one yesterday, it was quite the perfect Sunday movie:
Railroad Man / 鉄道員 (1999)
Oto Sato is an elderly train station master in Horomai, a small village up North. He’s lost his infant daughter and later also his wife. At New Year, his oldest friend pays him a visit bearing bad news: the train station will be closed due to the line not being profitable. He is also visited by three mysterious girls.
After Station (1981) and Yasha (1985), this is another collaboration between director Yasuo Furuhata and actor Ken Takakura.
It’s again set in lovely snowy 北海道. Where else? Practically all five films I’ve seen so far with Takakura have been based at least partially in this region
It’s the touching story of a man who throughout his life has put duty ahead of family and everything else, even though he has regretted it.
The acting is good, however it’s a little hampered by the made-for-TV-family-audiences style of the film.
Also, the English subtitle I had felt… off, at times. I’m not sure this ever got a European or US release… a shame if that’s indeed the case, because it is a very nice film - when the reveal about who the mystery girls are comes and then also a bit later at the conclusion of the story, tissues may be needed
A solid 8.5/10 from me.
The Japanese apparently also loved it, because, per IMDb trivia:
Horomai is a fictional train station. Scenes were actually filmed at Ikutora Station, in Sorachi sub-prefecture, Hokkaido. This station - which still displays its fictitious, film name over the front entrance - is often visited by fans, who can see photos and props related to the making of the movie displayed in the waiting room and also board a preserved section of the train which featured prominently in the film.
EDIT - And… this morning WK has served me the lesson for 駅長
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I watched Battle Royale the other day, after reading the book (in english) recently, and the manga a while ago.
Don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, it’s just my kind of movie after all. I didn’t know that Takeshi Kitano was in it, that was a welcome surprise, he stole every scene he was in naturally.
For those who don’t know Takeshi Kitano, he’s an amazing actor that went from slapstick comedy to more dramatic roles. Some of his best films include Violent Cop and Sonatine.
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Not even Happy Flight? I really liked it!
Wow, in my head Battle Royale was a Chinese movie, no idea why 
I saw it a long long time ago, would love to re-watch it now, thanks for mentioning it!
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Erm… I am not… “attuned” to Japanese comedy. Well, to just-comedy in general, but JP humour is even worse.
I do like situational comedy sprinkled in here and there (and there’ve been plenty of those in what I’ve watched JP this year) but I usually stay away from those labeled with “comedy” tags on IMDb…
But… never say never I guess. Happy Flight is free after all, so I may at least check it out at some point
Oh and Battle Royale is another type of flick that doesn’t interest me… ooops!
It has 196k votes on IMDb!!!
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Nope, haven’t taken a break… It’s just that this week I went with anime which are outside the scope of this thread
(Ghost in the Shell, to be specific.Weird and sad timing really, as half-way through I found out that Atsuko Tanaka passed away last Tuesday at the age of 61 
)
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Oh, don’t know the anime or the person but always sad to hear about someone passing 
Haven’t watched anything this week in the end, maybe next week!
My score for the 1995 original (which is based on a successful manga series… that I haven’t read) is 11/10 :
It’s very sci-fi. Or better said, it was considerably more sci-fi 30 years ago than it is these days, what with the advent of AI, the Neuralink and whatnot
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You should post your comments in the anime thread, if you like. 
https://community.wanikani.com/t/general-anime-thread/18709/
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I might, I might… maybe when I’ll have finished going through the SAC titles (same characters, alternate timeline/universe - I’ve not watched any of these before).
But so far I’ve stayed away from that thread, not sure I want another distraction
10k posts already, I imagine it’s quite a little bit livelier than this one…
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