films: the king and the clown, godzilla, the bad sleep well, nausicca

Films I have recently watched:

The King and the Clown. This is a terrific Korean movie set in 16th century Korea and released in 2005. It is very well acted and the art direction is really beautiful. It depicts the fortunes of a group of performers who get caught up in the machinations of the court of a mentally unbalanced king, his jealous concubine and machiavellian courtiers. What was fascinating about this movie is that it features many scenes of medieval Korean street theatre, and it is very interesting to see the style of performance Korean minstrels employed in those times. The minstrels perform satire directed at authority figures. Their main weapon in lampooning their targets is sexually graphic ribaldry. Acrobatics and circus skills are an important component of the performances, as are masks, drums and brightly coloured costumes. The film is structured so that it alternates between set pieces featuring the theatrical performances of the minstrels and then scenes depicting life outside of the performances. The theatrical performances featured are entertaining and a curiosity in their own right, and give the film great zest and appeal. However, these set pieces also further the plot of the film overall, and reinforce the dynamics of the relationships between the minstrels and their audience. Although this film is not a martial arts film, I do believe that good chop sockies (of which I am a huge fan) work in the same way. The fight scenes (and martial arts films have been heavily influenced, after all, by Asian indigenous performative art forms like Chinese Opera) can be viewed as set pieces – gloriously entertaining in their own right. However, they also feed into and further the aims of the overall film. This makes these films layered and rich, and strengthens their impact.

Godzilla. I was curious to see the original Godzilla (1954). By today’s standards the special effects are, not unsurprisingly, not so special – a large rubber dolly stomps on various model trains and buildings. However, the director and cast have a good red hot go at building up the suspense and engaging the audience in the emotional lives of their characters. There is one sequence of images in the middle of the film showing injured people receiving medical treatment in makeshift first aid centers, and then images of a choir of schoolgirls. The soundtrack is that of the girls’ somber singing, their song being an expression of sorrow at the damages caused by the rampages of Godzilla. I was surprised to find that this moved me to tears. The film would have been released a mere 9 years after the end of World War 2. Perhaps the horror of mass destruction was resonating strongly in the cast and crew who made this film.

On the same DVD was the American version of this film. Basically, the Americans took the Japanese film, dubbed the major scenes in English and introduced an American character – a male journalist reporting from Tokyo. This character narrates much of the action and plot of the movie in voice over. As if this weren’t annoying enough, reaction shots of this lantern jawed and wooden faced man are interspersed into key scenes through out the film. The tedious recounting of the story and the unnecessary visuals superimposed onto the original film merely have a distancing effect and much of the sense of melodrama and tension of the original leaks away. Why could they not have just subtitled the original film and presented it to Western audiences untarnished? But apparently we westerners are (or were) incapable of taking on any story unless it is (or was) presented to us through a western filter.

The Bad Sleep Well directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. This is a stylishly directed and suspenseful tale of revenge. Kurosawa has greedy and morally bankrupt corporate Japan in his sights in this engrossing film.

Nausicca of the Valley of the Winds. Another delightful Japanese anime from Studio Ghibli. This film is a science fiction story with a strong environmental message.


Also:
Tony Takitani
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Henry Rollins – Live in the Conversation Pit
Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different
Joh’s Jury
Wonder Boys
Pirates of the Caribbean
Rhinoceros
Inside Deep Throat
The French Connection
This is Spinal Tap
White Zombie
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Volver
Revenge of the Pink Panther
Room Service
And the there were none
Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge
The Replacement Killers
House on Haunted Hill
The Bat
Shock
Robin Hood
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Black Narcissus
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back