Ran

Ran (1985)

Runtime: 162 minutes

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada

From: Greenwich Film Productions/Herald Ace/Nippon Herald Films 

Of course Ran is a film I've seen before... but that run was before Letterboxd was ever a glimmer in anyone's eye. This month seemed like the right time to see what isn't my favorite or best Kurosawa, but is probably his last great motion picture, like most people say it is.

Akira must have liked Shakespeare; Throne of Blood was his version of Macbeth, The Bad Sleep Well was inspired by Hamlet and Ran is a samurai-era Japan take on King Lear. I will operate under the assumption that many are familiar with it whether it be other film adaptations or even high school English class. Thus, no time needs to be spent explaining how it's someone who relinquishes power to his children and due to various machinations, this decision becomes tragic. It did not take too much in the way of changes to make it fit to this era; however, the changes that WERE made helped made some of Lear's subtleties more pronounced, to this movie's benefit.

Besides a strong story with universal themes that have made it a favorite on stage & screen, it of course looked tremendous in how it was framed and shot. Both the score from Toru Takemitsu and the Emi Wada costumes are aces; in fact, the latter won an Academy Award for it. The movie was colorful (literally, at times) and with a strong cast & some graphic moments, it was not a long sit despite being over 2 ½ hours long and featuring long static shots throughout. As people seem to like my shorter reviews & many others have waxed poetic about this better than I could, Ran is a must-see motion picture for people like us.

Vampire

Vampire (1979)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: The all-timer name of E.W. SWACKHAMER

Starring: Jason Miller, Richard Lynch, E.G. Marshall, Kathryn Harrold, Michael Tucker

From: Believe it or not, one of the companies was Mary Tyler Moore's!

In the first of two reviews I'll be posting today, here is a random television movie, the existence of which I only discovered a few days ago-long story. The people involved did intrigue me; after all, it's a failed pilot (which is why one of the writers was legend in that medium Steven Bochco) which starred Jason Miller-and get this, he played a character who at one point struggles with his faith-E.G. Marshall and Richard Lynch, who played the titular character and was the most memorable aspect w/ his performance. There's also Jessica Walter and unfortunately for just one scene, Joe Spinell.

Lynch was buried underground a few decades ago; he was arisen as a church was constructed right by his makeshift tomb. He gets involved with art theft (!), Miller rats him out, he gets revenge, so Miller wants revenge of his own... and Marshall is an old foe of the bloodsucker. Now, in '79 it managed to be a popular year for vampire pictures. An obvious comparison can be made with Salem's Lot... and this is no Salem's Lot.

But for me that was alright. It is on the dry side and because they were hoping this would be a television series, an open-ended conclusion happens. What are assets: the famous faces in the cast getting the chance to act. There's no graphic moments or anything that could be considered “pants-soiling” terrifying; there's still some creepy moments and the biggest names do elevate the material with their talent. The San Fran setting and a creepy score from Fred Karlin also helps. This obscure oddity is not a must-see but was not the worst way to spend an hour and a half. At least there was a short scene in a discotheque.

Furie

Furie (Hai Phuong) (2019)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Le Van Kiet

Starring: Veronica Ngo, Mai Cat Vi, Thanh Nhien Phan, Kim Long Thach, Khanh Ngoc Mai

From: Quite a few Vietnamese companies

Good buzz since this was released two years ago plus this being foreign movie month meant that last night was the time to finally give this a shot. It's no The Raid by any means but for action films of the past decade from the Pacific Rim Asian region of the world, it was fine as I have seen worse.

The plot is simple... it's a mom and daughter, only she was formerly a gangland boss in Saigon and now she is a debt collector in a rural town-which provides nice scenery. Their relationship is rocky and daughter gets kidnapped, so mom tracks her down-and of course she knows martial arts. The plot at times has its ups and downs; some of the mom and daughter drama I did not love. Thankfully the action is more rock-solid and delivers the adequate amount of thrills that genre fans are looking for.

A big asset is the movie being anchored around the solid lead performance of Veronica Ngo, who in the duration acts both like a badass and a vulnerable mother. I understand she was in The Old Guard but gets zero fight scenes (lame) and was also in The Last Jedi... besides having no memory of that, let's not get re-litigate my thoughts on the movie! The aesthetics are nice, also: in the beginning it is a lovely rural village they are in... once they reach the big city, plenty of neon colors are shown. Organ harvesting is probably far overblown in terms of how often it actually happens... but it does make for good movie villains.

Naturally it does not reinvent the wheel; that said, it was a slice of action I did not mind consuming.

Close-Up

Close-Up (Nema-Ye Nazdik) (1990)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami

Starring: Various Iranian people starring as themselves

From: Several Iranian companies

As stated before, these March Around the World events can at times give me a kick in the keister to see some things I've been putting off, or try out something from a country whose product I've barely scratched the surface on. In this case it is perhaps the most highly regarded film from Iran. It just happens to be the sort of movie I can't reveal much about, thus a not as lengthy review.

That is because it's a documentary of sorts where a real life case (a man impersonates a famous Iranian director to try and swindle a rich family) is followed, and the family does recreations of those past events. Sounds simple yet through this device the movie presents much information and many ideas concerning a number of topics, from cinema itself (the impersonator-Hossein Sabzian-was more than happy to be filmed) to life in Iran. As I did not know as much as I should concerning Persian life, that was informative. Also came the realization that I perhaps do not want to ever get arrested in that country as their legal system is for certain different than in the US. Also, tape recorders-at least at the time-were not that common.

Close Up is not something I love as strongly as I've seen many movie fans proclaim. That is not a slight, though-it is still a very good motion picture and one that was rewarding for me due to its unique properties as it takes the viewer on an enriching journey.

After Hours

After Hours (1985)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Griffin Dunne, Patricia Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Verna Bloom, John Heard

From: Geffen

Here's another hot take from me; in a few hours I'll post another review, that one most assuredly less controversial: 

I'd rather see a movie chronicling Linda Fiorentino in real life.

During March, I won't be exclusively seeing foreign films; at times will be ones from America. What a coincidence that shortly after I decided to see this for the first time, there'd be discourse on a familiar stomping ground for me-a movie messageboard-concerning Ms. Fiorentino. There's still plenty of mystery as to why she in essence has vanished from the world of motion pictures in the 21st century; of course there's conjecture that she is “difficult to work with” but only Kevin Smith has directly made that accusation and I am sure the entire topic of “actors or actresses that have the difficult to work with and actresses are the ones punished for that attitude” is a giant can of worms I probably don't want to open. But it is odd that she retired w/ little fanfare oh so long ago. Fair or not I imagine her having a wacky life; an anecdote shared in that aforementioned thread is that about a decade ago she was dating an FBI agent and a past beau was a PI. She created a cockamamie story to FBI agent to get info that she then passed along to her ex's legal team!

While her role in that scandal was more memorable than the one she had here, that is not a stinging criticism as she was fine with the oddball sculptor character she portrayed. Beforehand I presume that my opinion would be typical of the average Letterboxd user. After all, great director, getting to see the Crappy New York City of Old, there's no aversion on my part to seeing a dark comedy. Regrettably, though... after the fastest opening credits in cinematic history, was a whole lot of awkward humor and quite frankly that usually isn't to my tastes. There weren't too many laughs, especially after some horrifying moments and bits of dialogue happened.

If that was not enough of a deterrence to me, I grew to really not like lead character Paul Hackett. Even if this was supposed to take the piss out of Yuppie culture, eventually I just did not care about all the preposterous things going on. Of course, it's been called “surreal” and the direct namedrop of The Wizard of Oz does make that clear. But again, when you don't care... this tale of that yuppie who has a horrible night after meeting a random woman in a coffee shop just did not work for me. No one is more disappointed than me that I can't share in the near unanimous praise of After Hours; however, I do have to be honest here.

To be frank, the main reasons why this has a “meh” rating instead of something lower is mostly due to all the talent & skill involved, including a quality cast full of familiar faces, including Catherine O'Hara at times resembling Jennifer Lawrence, of all people. This being a miss for me is disappointing; however, that won't weigh me down and instead I'll be excited to visit or revisit more of Marty's movies, those I am sure will be more to my tastes.

 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long) (2000)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Cheng Pei-Pei

From: Several companies from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and the USA

Recently, I purchased both a 4K TV and a 4K player; besides making me feel like I am properly in 2021, it allows me to check out top of the line streams from the likes of Amazon Prime. This was available in 4K for free-if you are a member of Prime-& I discovered how great the film looks in that format.

Presumably most are familiar with the basics, such as all the extensive wire-fu (a rare time where I actually enjoy seeing martial artists flying around as if they were superheroes), the leads and how the movie starts off as a tale over a sword being stolen-only for it to become a lot more complex-so I won't dwell too much on that. While it is not my favorite wuxia motion picture in terms of story or action or characters, it is still very good overall and having a great director helm it all was a huge asset.

With the big budget, it was a visual delight just from all the exotic locations they shot at... from lush woods to deserts with large dunes; it is divine in 4K and with HDR. And of course it's always nice seeing both Chow Yun-Fat & Michelle Yeoh. The action scenes-with or without the aerial moments-still impressed in 2021 between all the intricate movements, how fast they were, the camera movements/cuts & a component that can't be forgotten, the quality score... hearing those drums when business picked up was grand.

As there are interesting characters and situations-from the unrequited love between the lead pair to an older lady thief known as Jade Fox to young gal who is about to be married and wishes to be “an independent woman”... it's not a surprise in hindsight that this was a rare (at least for the time) non-English language picture that received many Academy Award nominations and winning for Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography for Peter Pal and Best Score for Tan Dun. Thank heavens this has aged like fine wine in the past two decades.

The Ascent

The Ascent (Voskhozhdenie) (1977)

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Larisa Shepitko

Starring: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev, Lyudmila Polyakova, Viktoriya Goldentul

From: Mosfilm

The past few years, March has become an eagerly anticipated month for me. This is due to the tradition of March Around the World on Letterboxd, where people watch foreign pictures for all 31 days. I have never officially participated but I still see more than a dozen pictures from all around the world. Besides getting to see what others have checked out, it has inspired me to give some films a shot and see works from less renowned countries. Via the Criterion Channel I went with the final film of Soviet director Larisa Shepitko, a motion picture which has gained more recognition in the West in recent times, undoubtedly due at least in part to Criterion releasing it on disc as part of their Eclipse series.

The plot is deceptively simple: during World War II, a pair of soldiers that are part of a small regiment are tasked to look for supplies and food in what is now Belarus and was at the time occupied by the Germans. Things go wrong and the two are separated; they each have to make an astoundingly difficult choice and the ramifications are felt the rest of the way. It'd be a crime to reveal more; an important aspect to mention is that this black and white picture is deliberately paced but never boring as the duo wrestles with horrible situations set in a snowy landscape, with frequent closeups, bold symbolism and what I've read described as “heightened sound design.”

The Ascent is bleak yet intriguing, full of philosophical thought, a searing look at such topics as the weakness of man and allegories of religion and Communism as the choices the two make in dire situations also has a direct impact on innocent parties, and not just their fellow soldiers. They have to wrestle with their choices and the complexities that each man has to deal with in the aftermath; what a devastating ending. Even more tragic than the events of The Ascent is that it was the last movie from director Larisa Shepitko before she passed away in 1979 after a traffic accident. I know she sometimes had struggles in her life, at times having stay in a sanitarium. She was only 41 when she died; who knows how many more classics she could have made and if there would have been others that won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, as this did. What is certain: she belongs in the discussion of “best women directors of all time” even if only a few feature films were made.