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Asian Cinema Watch Day 16!
Ley Lines (Nihon Kuroshakai: Ley Lines [日本 黒社会 LEY LINES]) is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Takashi Miike and the final installment of the Black Society Trilogy. The film continues the theme of including Taiwanese characters and Triads in the world of Japan. We follow two teenagers who have Chinese descent going to try and have a new life. This film has been quite well-received among many and seems to be everyone's favourite of the whole trilogy. Personally, I did find the characters to be interesting at times and the struggles they go through, but in terms of story, it's not my favourite of the trilogy. In fact, one of the two brothers is actually kinda unlikeable at times which doesn't help. I think overall it's a good film but I would say Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War is my favourite story while Rainy Dog is my favourite in terms of character relationships.
Ley Lines is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Video as part of the Black Society Trilogy collection.
3/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Ley Lines (Nihon Kuroshakai: Ley Lines [日本 黒社会 LEY LINES]) is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Takashi Miike and the final installment of the Black Society Trilogy. The film continues the theme of including Taiwanese characters and Triads in the world of Japan. We follow two teenagers who have Chinese descent going to try and have a new life. This film has been quite well-received among many and seems to be everyone's favourite of the whole trilogy. Personally, I did find the characters to be interesting at times and the struggles they go through, but in terms of story, it's not my favourite of the trilogy. In fact, one of the two brothers is actually kinda unlikeable at times which doesn't help. I think overall it's a good film but I would say Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War is my favourite story while Rainy Dog is my favourite in terms of character relationships.
Ley Lines is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Video as part of the Black Society Trilogy collection.
3/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
To Watch:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
To Watch:
- Dreams
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Lady Vengeance
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- Tale of Cinema
- Woman is the Future of Man
- Yakuza Law
Asian Cinema Watch Day 17!
Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan geumjassi [친절한 금자씨]) is a 2005 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook and the final installment of the Vengeance Trilogy. Also known as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, this film continues the theme of vengeance or revenge for the main characters of the story, and this one stood out to me a lot more than I had imagined, more so than the other two installments. For instance, the story was really good and it's structured pretty well with a final act that is presented in a unique style and how it ends caught me off guard since you would think it would go the usual trope path like other films have done (what I mean by this is that this film's final act focuses on the relatives of the killer's victims all take a share at their revenge against the killer rather than the main vengeance character herself doing it, considering that in other stories the main character tends to do the final blow themselves or ends up losing with consequence). Overall a very good and solid conclusion to the Vengeance trilogy and one worth checking out even on its own. I found the pacing to be pretty good for its storytelling though the final act's epilogue does feel like it had ended like multiple times and there are segments where they switch between English and Korean which can be a bit messy but outside of that I thought this was worth a watch.
Lady Vengeance is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Palisades Tartan and soon to be available from Arrow Video.
4.25/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan geumjassi [친절한 금자씨]) is a 2005 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook and the final installment of the Vengeance Trilogy. Also known as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, this film continues the theme of vengeance or revenge for the main characters of the story, and this one stood out to me a lot more than I had imagined, more so than the other two installments. For instance, the story was really good and it's structured pretty well with a final act that is presented in a unique style and how it ends caught me off guard since you would think it would go the usual trope path like other films have done (what I mean by this is that this film's final act focuses on the relatives of the killer's victims all take a share at their revenge against the killer rather than the main vengeance character herself doing it, considering that in other stories the main character tends to do the final blow themselves or ends up losing with consequence). Overall a very good and solid conclusion to the Vengeance trilogy and one worth checking out even on its own. I found the pacing to be pretty good for its storytelling though the final act's epilogue does feel like it had ended like multiple times and there are segments where they switch between English and Korean which can be a bit messy but outside of that I thought this was worth a watch.
Lady Vengeance is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Palisades Tartan and soon to be available from Arrow Video.
4.25/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
To Watch:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
To Watch:
- After the Storm
- Dreams
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- Tale of Cinema
- The Third Murder
- Woman is the Future of Man
- Yakuza Law
Asian Cinema Watch Day 18!
Dreams (Yume [夢]) is a 1990 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. So this is the first film I have watched from the director's catalog and it's quite something. It's an anthology that explores eight different stories that the director presumably had in his dreams. Each one has recurring themes of life, death, spirituality and humanity's treatment on nature including pollution and the environment. It's quite heavy stuff if you think about it, especially in current times where we have governments ignoring the global warming situation which is clearly something that needs to be sorted sooner than later (which interestingly though in one segment the governmental people turned into demons who are immortal and suffer in pain due to their demonic horns). I think my favourite segment is the Crow which has a Japanese artist wind up visiting the world of Vincent Van Gogh and it's actually well-presented thanks to the assistance of George Lucas and his special effects team at Industrial Light & Magic. Martin Scorsese also guest stars in this segment. Overall it's a solid film in terms of presentation and story-telling. I did think that the Blizzard segment was probably the weakest and the first segment could have been a bit longer as I was curious to see how that one was going to turn out story-wise (the child's fate was left ambiguous).
Dreams is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Criterion.
4/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Dreams (Yume [夢]) is a 1990 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. So this is the first film I have watched from the director's catalog and it's quite something. It's an anthology that explores eight different stories that the director presumably had in his dreams. Each one has recurring themes of life, death, spirituality and humanity's treatment on nature including pollution and the environment. It's quite heavy stuff if you think about it, especially in current times where we have governments ignoring the global warming situation which is clearly something that needs to be sorted sooner than later (which interestingly though in one segment the governmental people turned into demons who are immortal and suffer in pain due to their demonic horns). I think my favourite segment is the Crow which has a Japanese artist wind up visiting the world of Vincent Van Gogh and it's actually well-presented thanks to the assistance of George Lucas and his special effects team at Industrial Light & Magic. Martin Scorsese also guest stars in this segment. Overall it's a solid film in terms of presentation and story-telling. I did think that the Blizzard segment was probably the weakest and the first segment could have been a bit longer as I was curious to see how that one was going to turn out story-wise (the child's fate was left ambiguous).
Dreams is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Criterion.
4/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
To Watch:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
To Watch:
- After the Storm
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- Tale of Cinema
- The Third Murder
- Woman is the Future of Man
- Yakuza Law
Patient-X
Railgun
Your first Kurosawa!!! Hang your head in shameAsian Cinema Watch Day 18!
Dreams (Yume [夢]) is a 1990 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. So this is the first film I have watched from the director's catalog and it's quite something. It's an anthology that explores eight different stories that the director presumably had in his dreams. Each one has recurring themes of life, death, spirituality and humanity's treatment on nature including pollution and the environment. It's quite heavy stuff if you think about it, especially in current times where we have governments ignoring the global warming situation which is clearly something that needs to be sorted sooner than later (which interestingly though in one segment the governmental people turned into demons who are immortal and suffer in pain due to their demonic horns). I think my favourite segment is the Crow which has a Japanese artist wind up visiting the world of Vincent Van Gogh and it's actually well-presented thanks to the assistance of George Lucas and his special effects team at Industrial Light & Magic. Martin Scorsese also guest stars in this segment. Overall it's a solid film in terms of presentation and story-telling. I did think that the Blizzard segment was probably the weakest and the first segment could have been a bit longer as I was curious to see how that one was going to turn out story-wise (the child's fate was left ambiguous).
Dreams is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Criterion.
4/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
To Watch:
- After the Storm
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- Tale of Cinema
- The Third Murder
- Woman is the Future of Man
- Yakuza Law
(pouts)Your first Kurosawa!!! Hang your head in shame
Liking the set up you have here @NormanicGrav, may have to adopt it to a lesser extent when I do my 31 days of Halloween month in October.
WMD
Guild Member
They are great films. Interesting what you say about the endings. This video changed my whole perspective on them. It's really interesting to see the discussion of plot vs story.
I still have yet to watch the Extended Version for The Lord of the Rings (pouts before Patient-X does the shame)
But yeah Shin Godzilla is really good. I loved it more than Godzilla: King of the Monsters (US 2019 ver.) because of how menacing Godzilla was throughout the film and I really dug the human side of the situation. Sure it's a whole bunch of exposition but it was entertaining none the less. I think if I had to rate it now it'll be 4.5/5.
Exactly! The recent Hollywood films lacked passion so when I watched the 2019 film I was not that excited when the fights happened on the screen. Not to mention the human characters were terrible (except for Watanabe). They actually delayed Godzilla vs Kong pretty much because of how bad the 2019 film was.Then I shall shame you for not watching the EE of them! lol
I think it was nice to see that kind of situation in a Godzilla film, more or less because I've just watched the 1998 and 2014 versions. Those two felt a lot like plain destruction movies, in Shin we actually get so see behind that.
I do also like the design of Godzilla in it, felt very scary, and I dug the emotionless face it had lol.
Patient-X
Railgun
He's not listening because he's busy directing the next Venom film (which I am quite looking forward to watching).
Random note: He did one on Brexit.
WMD
Guild Member
It's a really well made video. Tbh I reccomend the whole channel. Most of his videos are really informative and look into different aspects of storytelling and film making.
Adam-M
Stand User
The Godzilla films have always been a creature feature but that's a good thing. They've never really been about the humans - they were always just a way of getting from one scene to another. People usually just want to see the monster fights.
Some fights were pretty good like with Mothra.
Asian Cinema Watch Day 19!
Woman is the Future of Man (Yeojaneun namjaui miraeda [여자는 남자의 미래다]) is a 2004 South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo. This film is alright overall. It has a relatively simple premise but I found the story structure to be rather confusing during its first half because I didn't realise they were flashbacks (the only way you could tell was by the weather and that's about it). And then the second half happens which I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I mean one of the main guys of the two basically is unlikeable if you think about it - you know that he has a wife and child, and yet in the second half, he cheats on them for his ex-girlfriend and then eventually a Uni student. He gets more screentime than the other person did and his character didn't develop as much as I had hoped which is a shame since technically he should have had the longer spotlight out of the two. Overall as I mentioned it's an alright film and the runtime is about right for what it offers. I just think that it could have been much better.
Woman is the Future of Man is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Academy as part of the Two Films by Hong Sang-soo collection.
2.5/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Woman is the Future of Man (Yeojaneun namjaui miraeda [여자는 남자의 미래다]) is a 2004 South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo. This film is alright overall. It has a relatively simple premise but I found the story structure to be rather confusing during its first half because I didn't realise they were flashbacks (the only way you could tell was by the weather and that's about it). And then the second half happens which I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I mean one of the main guys of the two basically is unlikeable if you think about it - you know that he has a wife and child, and yet in the second half, he cheats on them for his ex-girlfriend and then eventually a Uni student. He gets more screentime than the other person did and his character didn't develop as much as I had hoped which is a shame since technically he should have had the longer spotlight out of the two. Overall as I mentioned it's an alright film and the runtime is about right for what it offers. I just think that it could have been much better.
Woman is the Future of Man is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Academy as part of the Two Films by Hong Sang-soo collection.
2.5/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
#19 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Woman is the Future of Man
To Watch:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
#19 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Woman is the Future of Man
To Watch:
- After the Storm
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- Tale of Cinema
- The Third Murder
- Yakuza Law
Asian Cinema Watch Day 20!
Tale of Cinema (Geukjangjeon [극장전]) is a 2005 South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo. This film has two different acts and it's an interesting structure. Without going into spoilers basically, the second half focuses on events that had occurred in the first half that reflect a different main character and you see his character progress in an awkward way. I have a hard time judging his character because it's both cringe in places but also kinda real in a sense that you can expect that to actually happen in real life. I found his conclusion to be okay overall. The first act was alright though some parts could have expanded a bit more to cover more about the main character's situation (he wants to take his own life because of his relationship with his mother which is honestly hard to understand without trying to offend). Overall the film was decent and I found it to be better than the other film included in the collection though not by much.
Tale of Cinema is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Academy as part of the Two Films by Hong Sang-soo collection.
3/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Tale of Cinema (Geukjangjeon [극장전]) is a 2005 South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo. This film has two different acts and it's an interesting structure. Without going into spoilers basically, the second half focuses on events that had occurred in the first half that reflect a different main character and you see his character progress in an awkward way. I have a hard time judging his character because it's both cringe in places but also kinda real in a sense that you can expect that to actually happen in real life. I found his conclusion to be okay overall. The first act was alright though some parts could have expanded a bit more to cover more about the main character's situation (he wants to take his own life because of his relationship with his mother which is honestly hard to understand without trying to offend). Overall the film was decent and I found it to be better than the other film included in the collection though not by much.
Tale of Cinema is available to own on Blu-ray from distributor Arrow Academy as part of the Two Films by Hong Sang-soo collection.
3/5
Here's a brief look at what films I'll try and check out throughout this month:
Watched:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
#19 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Woman is the Future of Man
#20 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Tale of Cinema
To Watch:
#01 - Japan - Yōjirō Takita's Departures
#02 - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish
#03 - Japan - Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring
#04 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
#05 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Terra Formars
#06 - Japan - Hideo Nakata's Dark Water
#07 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive
#08 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds
#09 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Final
#10 - Japan - Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris
#11 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Thirst
#12 - Japan - Kinji Fukasaku's Street Mobster
#13 - Japan - Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope
#14 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War
#15 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Rainy Dog
#16 - Japan - Takashi Miike's Ley Lines
#17 - Korea - Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance
#18 - Japan - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
#19 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Woman is the Future of Man
#20 - Korea - Hong Sang-soo's Tale of Cinema
To Watch:
- After the Storm
- The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
- The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
- The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer
- Love Exposure
- Orgies of Edo
- Retaliation
- Shoplifters
- The Third Murder
- Yakuza Law
D1tchd1gger
Shrine Maiden
All films from Japan or Korea. No films from elsewhere in Asia? China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, etc.
I mentioned it on Twitter but basically, I actually don't have any films from other regions in my backlog. Part of this reason was that all of the films I had acquired were through the sales over the past few months (Arrow Video and Arrow Academy). This is basically me dealing with those titles before going for more. I have 10 films left now so I'm almost there, but rest easy as I do intend on covering films from other parts of Asia especially with China/Taiwan/Hong Kong films since Enter the Dragon and Infernal Affairs were one of the first films I had watched from the Asian Cinema catalog.
To provide examples of the other regions of films I intend to get:
- Criterion: A Brighter Summer Day, YI YI
- Eureka: Iron Monkey, Jackie Chan's Police Story 1 & 2
- Manga: Monster Hunt
- Misc: Bruce Lee's final four films before his death (The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, Game of Death), the Ip Man series
