Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is an unusual double-bill for Whisky Galore. Well, one is about Scotch and the other is the Japanese remake of the Scottish play. That's about as far as I'll take the comparison.
Throne of Blood is, essentially, a movie of Macbeth done as Kabuki. It is extremely stylized. Toshiro Mifune, in the Macbeth role, grimaces and shouts, his face contorted into a demon mask. The settings are wrapped in mist, or the bare wooden walls of castles and barracks. Some walls feature murals, like a theater backdrop. Some feature bloodstains. The music is stark and haunting. Mifune's descent into madness is captivating.
The visual imagery is striking, for such a bare set. The Japanese title is "Spiderweb Castle", and web imagery abounds. The witch (only one in this version) gives her prophecy spinning silk. The paths in the forest around the castle are called a spiderweb. And Mifune ends up hemmed in by long arrows, as if caught in a web.
Some scenes were a little repetitious - Mifune lost in the woods rides of into mist, we hear the horse whinny, he rides back into view. Then repeat, in a different direction. Then repeat 3 or 4 times more. This may have been an artistic decision to emphasize through repetition. Maybe my modern, Western sensibility can't understand this culturally. Or maybe Kurosawa just misjudged the effect.
This is not a "chambara" (samurai swashbuckler) or a historical drama (we call them cheesecloth dramas, for the cheesecloth you can see at the edge of the samurai wigs). It is more of an art film, almost experimental. One of Kurosawa's first films, They Who Step on Tiger's Tail, is also Kabuki inspired. The Japanese tradition doesn't let him down.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Whiskey, no Guinness
Keeping the Ealing comedy festival going, I watched Whisky Galore last night. Unlike The Horse's Mouth or A Run for Your Money, it did not feature Alec Guinness. In many ways, however, it was very similar to A Run for Your Money - a celebration of Scottishness, instead of Welshitude. Yes, Highland flings are danced, bagpipes are played and whiskey is drunk. I did not notice any kilts.
On the Scottish isle of Todday during WWII, the whiskey rations have run out. When all looks bleak, a ship runs aground with 50,000 cases onboard (for export only). The islanders set out to salvage it, but the church clock strikes midnight. It is now the Sabbath, when none may work, not even to rescue whiskey. The Home Guard major (a mainlander, surely) plans to prevent the islanders from looting the whiskey, even if it all goes to the bottom. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.
This is a sweet little comedy, without many laughs, but lots of smiles. It was filmed on location with many locals as extra, with lots of craggy scenery and craggier faces. The accents are thick, and sometimes may drop into Gaelic (it's hard to tell). If you are immune to Brigadoon-like enchantments, give it a miss. If you have a spark of that in your soul, you'll love this.
On the Scottish isle of Todday during WWII, the whiskey rations have run out. When all looks bleak, a ship runs aground with 50,000 cases onboard (for export only). The islanders set out to salvage it, but the church clock strikes midnight. It is now the Sabbath, when none may work, not even to rescue whiskey. The Home Guard major (a mainlander, surely) plans to prevent the islanders from looting the whiskey, even if it all goes to the bottom. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.
This is a sweet little comedy, without many laughs, but lots of smiles. It was filmed on location with many locals as extra, with lots of craggy scenery and craggier faces. The accents are thick, and sometimes may drop into Gaelic (it's hard to tell). If you are immune to Brigadoon-like enchantments, give it a miss. If you have a spark of that in your soul, you'll love this.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
To die for
I'm not sure why Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill was in our queue. I've barely heard of him. Now that I've seen this film of his stand-up act, I know:
- He wears makeup and women's clothes (though he fancies girls)
- He's British
- He can't do imitations, except James Mason
- He's hilarious
His chief weapon is surprise. He starts out relatively sane, lets his story go way, way out into the beyond, and long after you have lost any hope of figuring it out, comes back to his point. When the audience laughs at one of these jokes, he congratulates them: "Well remembered."
Maybe not life-changing, but certainly sidesplitting - not to mention cross-dressing. I'm glad I rented it.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Another Guinness?
As an Ealing Studios/Alec Guinness follow up to The Horse's Mouth, I watched A Run for Your Money. This is a very different movie. The Horse's Mouth is dark. A Run for Your Money is, more than anything, sweet.
Two young Welsh miners, Tom and Dy Jones, win a newspaper prize. They will go to London, where newspaper columnist Alec Guinness will show them London, take them to a rugby match and give them 100 pounds each. This is not how it works out. One miner, the handsome Dy (short for David), falls in with a pretty confidence woman, out for the money. Tom is left with both of their hats, and finds an old friend, a drunken Welsh harper. They can't find each other, and Alec Guinness can't find either of them, most of the time. As they say in the TV Guide, "Hilarity ensues".
Not really hilarity, but a great amount of good humor. There are sweet Welsh accents, songs and jokes. One running gag involves the number of Tom and David Jones in Wales. As a result, Tom and Dy are called Tom and Dy #9. Many Welsh sport nicknames like this to distinguish them from others of the same name, and in one scene, Tom and David Jones are paged. All the Toms and Davids respond as "Tom Ice Cream" and "Davey the Fish".
Our heroes make it out of London with honor dignity and most of the prize money intact. They are portrayed as innocents, but not saps. They were never in much peril, and they end up on top. This much niceness will not appeal to everyone. Not everyone wants to hear a Welsh tenor singing to a harp, or a drunk Welshman orating a blessing and a curse. Not everybody will find the comparative study of English accents delightful.
As for me, I loved it. I'm going to watch another Ealing comedy (without Guinness) next week: Whiskey Galore.
Two young Welsh miners, Tom and Dy Jones, win a newspaper prize. They will go to London, where newspaper columnist Alec Guinness will show them London, take them to a rugby match and give them 100 pounds each. This is not how it works out. One miner, the handsome Dy (short for David), falls in with a pretty confidence woman, out for the money. Tom is left with both of their hats, and finds an old friend, a drunken Welsh harper. They can't find each other, and Alec Guinness can't find either of them, most of the time. As they say in the TV Guide, "Hilarity ensues".
Not really hilarity, but a great amount of good humor. There are sweet Welsh accents, songs and jokes. One running gag involves the number of Tom and David Jones in Wales. As a result, Tom and Dy are called Tom and Dy #9. Many Welsh sport nicknames like this to distinguish them from others of the same name, and in one scene, Tom and David Jones are paged. All the Toms and Davids respond as "Tom Ice Cream" and "Davey the Fish".
Our heroes make it out of London with honor dignity and most of the prize money intact. They are portrayed as innocents, but not saps. They were never in much peril, and they end up on top. This much niceness will not appeal to everyone. Not everyone wants to hear a Welsh tenor singing to a harp, or a drunk Welshman orating a blessing and a curse. Not everybody will find the comparative study of English accents delightful.
As for me, I loved it. I'm going to watch another Ealing comedy (without Guinness) next week: Whiskey Galore.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Name this drink!
Our brother-in-law, Bert, made this one up. It is his standard after-work cocktail, at least for last summer:
Fill a 20-oz pint glass with ice. Add:
Double shot of dark rum (Gosling's for ex)
Almost enough grapefruit juice to fill the glass
Splash of tonic water
Stir.
The sweetness of the rum goes great with the bitter grapefruit juice, and the tonic adds just enough bite. We've been calling this a Bitter Bert, Tall Dark and Bitter, Bert of Paradise and the Flaming Bert. None really fits. Any ideas?
Update: Bert didn't have a name for this, but he thought of adding a float of pomegranate juice and calling it a Cut Lip.
Fill a 20-oz pint glass with ice. Add:
Double shot of dark rum (Gosling's for ex)
Almost enough grapefruit juice to fill the glass
Splash of tonic water
Stir.
The sweetness of the rum goes great with the bitter grapefruit juice, and the tonic adds just enough bite. We've been calling this a Bitter Bert, Tall Dark and Bitter, Bert of Paradise and the Flaming Bert. None really fits. Any ideas?
Update: Bert didn't have a name for this, but he thought of adding a float of pomegranate juice and calling it a Cut Lip.
Blind following the blind
The Blind Swordman: Zatoichi makes a great double bill with Kill! It is also a serious samurai action film, a comedy and a revisionist parody. But mostly, a samurai action film.
It is a remake of the classic Shintaro Katsu Zatoichi series. In 30-odd movies, made from 1962-1989, the blind, chubby, sloppy, gambling, rambling masseur Zatoichi fights injustice and rights wrongs done by the powerful. He can do this because, though blind, chubby, etc., he is the greatest swordsman alive.
Now Beat Takeshi, popular Japanese comic and director has decided to do a remake. Takeshi-san is known in the US for his tv show Raid on Takeshi Castle and for speaking the title line in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, or possibly for his recent yakuza movies, like Sonatine. Since he can be pretty wacky, I was expecting something in a revisionist vein.
Instead, Zatoichi is played almost perfectly straight. The plot, as usual, concerns some greedy crime bosses messing things up for ordinary citizens and gentler criminals. There is a noble bodyguard (yojimbo) who does bad things because he needs the money. There are comic gamblers and a pair of geisha girls who are brother and sister. As in Kill!, I couldn't follow the plot after a while. I've found that this is typical of a traditional samurai film. I don't know if I'm missing clues that a Japanese native would get, or if they just like their movies puzzling. I don't let it bother me anymore.
Takeshi does add a few twists on the tradition. He gives Zatoichi bleached blonde hair (supposed to be turned white from age or fright, or?). There is a lunatic neighbor who charges around screaming with a spear in armor and a diaper, playing samurai. There is a final twist that is severely non-canonical, but you expect that from remakes. He needs to put his stamp on the franchise.
The curtain closer sort of sums up the mixture of tradition and modernity - like the western music in Kill!. The peasants have a festival (like at the end of Kill!) and start dancing to the traditional drumming in traditional costume. They stamp their feet in their wooden sandals, the rhythms become more western, and the stamping gives way to - a tap recital.
It is a remake of the classic Shintaro Katsu Zatoichi series. In 30-odd movies, made from 1962-1989, the blind, chubby, sloppy, gambling, rambling masseur Zatoichi fights injustice and rights wrongs done by the powerful. He can do this because, though blind, chubby, etc., he is the greatest swordsman alive.
Now Beat Takeshi, popular Japanese comic and director has decided to do a remake. Takeshi-san is known in the US for his tv show Raid on Takeshi Castle and for speaking the title line in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, or possibly for his recent yakuza movies, like Sonatine. Since he can be pretty wacky, I was expecting something in a revisionist vein.
Instead, Zatoichi is played almost perfectly straight. The plot, as usual, concerns some greedy crime bosses messing things up for ordinary citizens and gentler criminals. There is a noble bodyguard (yojimbo) who does bad things because he needs the money. There are comic gamblers and a pair of geisha girls who are brother and sister. As in Kill!, I couldn't follow the plot after a while. I've found that this is typical of a traditional samurai film. I don't know if I'm missing clues that a Japanese native would get, or if they just like their movies puzzling. I don't let it bother me anymore.
Takeshi does add a few twists on the tradition. He gives Zatoichi bleached blonde hair (supposed to be turned white from age or fright, or?). There is a lunatic neighbor who charges around screaming with a spear in armor and a diaper, playing samurai. There is a final twist that is severely non-canonical, but you expect that from remakes. He needs to put his stamp on the franchise.
The curtain closer sort of sums up the mixture of tradition and modernity - like the western music in Kill!. The peasants have a festival (like at the end of Kill!) and start dancing to the traditional drumming in traditional costume. They stamp their feet in their wooden sandals, the rhythms become more western, and the stamping gives way to - a tap recital.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Kill!
Kill! is both a samurai cut-em-up (chambara, in Japanese) and a parody of the same. There are samurai, masterless samurai, yakuza gamblers, good chamberlains, bad chamberlains, assassins and a town destroyed by gang warfare.
It starts like Yojimbo or A Fistful of Dollars . A stranger comes to town. He hasn't eaten in days, and is willing to fight for a living. This is Etsushi Takahashi, a farmer who sold his land to buy a sword. He is soon joined by another hungry man with a sword, played by Tetsuya Nakadai. They witness a political assassination and wind up on different sides of the conflict (an "internal clan matter").
The plot gets very complicated and fuzzy. At one point, the bad chamberlain sends a band of yakuza to kill the squad of ronin he had sent to kill the group of samurai he had sent to kill the other bad chamberlain. Hence, the title of the movie.
I frankly couldn't follow the plot. I don't think the characters, possibly even the director could either. The joy is in the two masterless samurai. Takahashi, the strong, stubborn farmboy turned fighter who is willing to do anything to be made a samurai, but isn't quite dishonorable enough. He visits a brothel but want a woman who smells like earth and has held a plow. Nakadai gave up his clan affiliation out of shame for the deeds he did for them. He wants nothing to do with samurai, except a pretty woman needs some help, so... Nakadai has a beautiful sad, philosophical face.
Then spike this with some great slapstick and add a soundtrack straight out of a spaghetti western. Can't miss.
It starts like Yojimbo or A Fistful of Dollars . A stranger comes to town. He hasn't eaten in days, and is willing to fight for a living. This is Etsushi Takahashi, a farmer who sold his land to buy a sword. He is soon joined by another hungry man with a sword, played by Tetsuya Nakadai. They witness a political assassination and wind up on different sides of the conflict (an "internal clan matter").
The plot gets very complicated and fuzzy. At one point, the bad chamberlain sends a band of yakuza to kill the squad of ronin he had sent to kill the group of samurai he had sent to kill the other bad chamberlain. Hence, the title of the movie.
I frankly couldn't follow the plot. I don't think the characters, possibly even the director could either. The joy is in the two masterless samurai. Takahashi, the strong, stubborn farmboy turned fighter who is willing to do anything to be made a samurai, but isn't quite dishonorable enough. He visits a brothel but want a woman who smells like earth and has held a plow. Nakadai gave up his clan affiliation out of shame for the deeds he did for them. He wants nothing to do with samurai, except a pretty woman needs some help, so... Nakadai has a beautiful sad, philosophical face.
Then spike this with some great slapstick and add a soundtrack straight out of a spaghetti western. Can't miss.
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