J-Movie Roundup!
Sep. 13th, 2015 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenlingsIt's been a while since I watched some of these, but I don't think I've posted about them yet!
Ningen Shikkaku
My overwhelming memory of this film is us repeatedly yelling at the screen for Toma to "Get a job!!!" This review pretty much sums up the problems with it. It's the tone of the main character's portrayal that makes it so impossible to sympathize with him - and I'm not sure whom to blame for that. I think the script needed to show his pain and past trauma incidents more so that we knew why he was depressed/self-medicating. And Toma could also have worked harder to convey how suicidal he felt all the time - think of how Domoto Tsuyoshi would play it. In fact, when that director Mitani Koki came on Domoto Kyoudai, he said he would want Tsuyoshi to play Nakahara Chuya, a doomed poet similar to Osamu Dazai (the author of Ningen Shikkaku). So I think a combination of casting and script issues were to blame.
Nou Otoko
An impressive turn by Toma as a psychopath, with a fairly convoluted plot. I was intrigued by the lesbian murderers, but everyone's motivations were kind of ??? Definitely worth watching, however.
Bokura ga Ita
My god, so boring. There were definitely not two films' worth of material here. After part 1, when we were getting ready to watch part 2, my friend exclaimed in dismay, "Wait, there's more?" This film is very good for MST-ing, I must say, and we got a lot of entertainment out of it that way. The part about Toma's mother was touching though, and Toma played that suffering well.
Hanamizuki
Honestly, it's hard for me to separate Bokura ga Ita and Hanamizuki in my memory, because they're both just like, pointlessly unhappy high school romances? I kind of found Toma sympathetic because he was a poor fisherman, but I honestly couldn't care about any of the main characters. And the parts in New York and Canada were fairly painful with the Engrish and the western actors.
Mole Song
What a fun ride. Takashi Miike has outdone himself in this frenzied and hilarious romp. Toma plays an incompetent police rookie who goes undercover in the yakuza. Tsutsumi has a hilarious role as a yakuza obsessed with butterflies. KudoKan wrote the screenplay, and you get all his best wordplay, Miike's directorial prowess, and Toma and Tsutsumi's comedic chops. Some of the fantasy sequences reminded me of Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris, one of my favorite films.
Hana Yori mo Naho
This is a truly excellent movie, and everyone should watch it. Okada plays a samurai who is intent on revenge for his father's death, but gradually learns the value of daily life. This may be my favorite Okada movie, although it has stiff competition. Okada is perfect casting for a "reluctant samurai." It is well written, well directed, and honestly beautiful. I should have expected that since it was written/directed by Koreeda Hirokazu, who wrote/directed one of my favorite movies "After Life."
Ningen Shikkaku
My overwhelming memory of this film is us repeatedly yelling at the screen for Toma to "Get a job!!!" This review pretty much sums up the problems with it. It's the tone of the main character's portrayal that makes it so impossible to sympathize with him - and I'm not sure whom to blame for that. I think the script needed to show his pain and past trauma incidents more so that we knew why he was depressed/self-medicating. And Toma could also have worked harder to convey how suicidal he felt all the time - think of how Domoto Tsuyoshi would play it. In fact, when that director Mitani Koki came on Domoto Kyoudai, he said he would want Tsuyoshi to play Nakahara Chuya, a doomed poet similar to Osamu Dazai (the author of Ningen Shikkaku). So I think a combination of casting and script issues were to blame.
Nou Otoko
An impressive turn by Toma as a psychopath, with a fairly convoluted plot. I was intrigued by the lesbian murderers, but everyone's motivations were kind of ??? Definitely worth watching, however.
Bokura ga Ita
My god, so boring. There were definitely not two films' worth of material here. After part 1, when we were getting ready to watch part 2, my friend exclaimed in dismay, "Wait, there's more?" This film is very good for MST-ing, I must say, and we got a lot of entertainment out of it that way. The part about Toma's mother was touching though, and Toma played that suffering well.
Hanamizuki
Honestly, it's hard for me to separate Bokura ga Ita and Hanamizuki in my memory, because they're both just like, pointlessly unhappy high school romances? I kind of found Toma sympathetic because he was a poor fisherman, but I honestly couldn't care about any of the main characters. And the parts in New York and Canada were fairly painful with the Engrish and the western actors.
Mole Song
What a fun ride. Takashi Miike has outdone himself in this frenzied and hilarious romp. Toma plays an incompetent police rookie who goes undercover in the yakuza. Tsutsumi has a hilarious role as a yakuza obsessed with butterflies. KudoKan wrote the screenplay, and you get all his best wordplay, Miike's directorial prowess, and Toma and Tsutsumi's comedic chops. Some of the fantasy sequences reminded me of Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris, one of my favorite films.
Hana Yori mo Naho
This is a truly excellent movie, and everyone should watch it. Okada plays a samurai who is intent on revenge for his father's death, but gradually learns the value of daily life. This may be my favorite Okada movie, although it has stiff competition. Okada is perfect casting for a "reluctant samurai." It is well written, well directed, and honestly beautiful. I should have expected that since it was written/directed by Koreeda Hirokazu, who wrote/directed one of my favorite movies "After Life."