21 December 2005 – 10:38 am +0800
Since Martin Scorsese is releasing a remake of this next year, it’s time to put this gem into your viewing pile.
This is the best movie John Woo (Wu Yusen) never made. (And, as a fan of both, thank goodness that he didn’t.) The concept is so simple, obvious, maybe even primal, that it’s [...]
18 November 2005 – 10:20 am +0800
Let me prepare you right now, so that you are not scared away:
This is a Japanese cartoon.
It does take place in Japan.
It is set at about the time it was released, the early 1990s.
And yes, that opening song is Olivia Newton–John singing John Denver’s “Country Roads.”1 Relax, accept it, it [...]
28 December 2004 – 9:00 pm +0800
Rain in Taipei. A crosswalk. The light is red, and both corners are populated with umbrellas. All the umbrellas are black, save two. On one corner, at opposite sides of the cluster of black umbrellas, are one that is green and one that is red.
Under the red umbrella stands young woman, [...]
4 December 2004 – 1:37 pm +0800
After his first big international success with Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jackson made an astonishing discovery, which led to his collaboration in making a historical documentary about an all but forgotten giant of film history. This documentary aired on New Zealand television in 1995, and is available on DVD.
Born in 1888, New Zealander Colin McKenzie [...]
24 August 2003 – 11:10 pm +0800
Absence of Malice is one casting decision away from being great. It’s generally unremembered, coming in a bit of a slump in director Sydney Pollack’s career (does anybody outside of Hollywood enjoy The Electric Horseman?), but it is, for the most part, a deeply satisfying drama about corrupt bureaucracy and unprincipled media.
The movie [...]
27 June 2003 – 7:58 am +0800
One of these days, when I feel I have a better grasp on his career as a whole, I’ll include Robert Wise in my essays on Great Filmmakers. He’s one of the finest unacknowledged filmmakers ever, and worked, in one capacity or another, on many of the most influential films of all time, among [...]
15 June 2003 – 4:48 am +0800
I know I take an overly authoritative tone in many of my posts, and believe it or not, I try not to oversell anything to you, dear reader, but… it is difficult for me to express my love of this film without lapsing into endless superlatives. I shall do my best to refrain.
The [...]
4 June 2003 – 3:18 am +0800
(Sheesh, the last MYOTS I did was in March? Lazy bum.)
It seems, on the surface, to be arbitrary. It is based on no religion or mythology that I am aware of. Yet the question posed by the recent Japanese film After Life strikes a deep emotional chord and produces a quiet, [...]
13 March 2003 – 7:50 am +0800
The relationship of art to real life fascinates me. Ayn Rand called art fuel for the spirit. There are semi-regular campaigns against this or that children’s entertainment (yes, I am using “entertainment” as a noun; sue me) for poisoning children’s minds (Power Rangers, TeleTubbies).
Life obviously inspires art. Less obviously, to some [...]
22 February 2003 – 8:20 am +0800
So, minutes before the live broadcast, the lead actress in this Japanese radio drama decides that her character, a simple fisherman’s wife in a small town in Japan, ought to have the far more glamorous American name of “Mary–Jane.”
The lead actor accuses her of trying to glam up her role and demands that she [...]
11 February 2003 – 11:09 am +0800
I realize I haven’t posted much about movies per se, so I’m going to correct that and get on my soapbox at the same time.
This past week, I finally sat down and watched High Fidelity, starring and co-written by John Cusack. I had been urged to do so repeatedly by several friends, which [...]