Films: Yakuza Eiga / Still Walking / Film ist. A Girl & A Gun et al

Films I have recently watched:
(Please note: films that I have watched that are part of the Melbourne International Film Festival have been prefaced with MIFF)

MIFF Yakuza Eiga, France, 2008, directed by Yves Montmayeur. Stylish and interesting documentary on Japanese Yakuza films structured around a series of comments from directors, actors, writers, a fight director and some real life members of Yakuza gangs and families. Yakuza films are not my very favourite genre of films – I find them to be too blokey and testosterone drenched, plus I have never understood the attraction in glamourising thugs. Recently here in Melbourne the media have been avidly following the trials of various organized crime families and their networks. I don’t understand why we should be expected to care if these hideous people knock each other off – not to the extent of reading inches and inches of newspaper column space about it anyway. And I am not hugely interested in watching one tattooed gangster beating up another in a Yakuza film. But I do watch some Yakuza films, and I did go and see this documentary because of that. Why? First of all, I lived in Japan for 2 years (where I did NOT encounter any Yakuza) and I currently study Japanese (beginner level – watashi wa nihongo o sukoshi wakarimasu) so I have an interest in Japanese culture. As an aid to my Japanese studies I will watch most Japanese films just to enhance my comprehension skills. Yakuza Eiga did reveal some interesting things about Japanese culture and history such as the desperate struggle that most ordinary Japanese had to find food after World War 2. This led to the formation of a thriving black market and a rise in prominence for the Yakuza gangs who ran it.

The second reason I went to see this documentary is that I adore Hong Kong chop socky movies, and I am aware that Hong Kong film makers have always been heavily influenced by Japanese film makers (and vice versa). In order to better understand my current favourite genre of films I like to watch the films that influenced this genre, and this means Japanese Samurai and Yakuza films. Overall, what I admired about this documentary was how well balanced and even handed it was in its treatment of the Yakuza. There is a good mix of people who admired, distrusted or felt ambivalent about the Yakuza and the way they are portrayed in these films. This gives the audience a good insight into the place the Yakuza have held in Japanese society, and how Yakuza eiga (or films) have contributed to this.

MIFF Still Walking, Japan, 2008, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. This family drama is likened to Ozu’s films in the MIFF programme and, having seen it, I can understand why. Both this film and the Ozu films I have seen focus on the commonplace existence of a family and the dynamics between its members. Similar to Ozu’s films is also the feeling that the director intends to take all the time in the world to tell his story. The tensions, loyalties and love between the family members are teased slowly out and gently revealed, and it is a testament to both Kore-eda and Ozu and their actors that, when watching these films, the viewer never feels impatient or bored with the everyday happenings on the screen but rather fully engaged with and moved by them. Another quality of these films is that a quiet humour is allowed to insert itself into the dialogue. The acting in this film was excellent from the whole cast, especially from the actors portraying the parents and very especially from the woman portraying the mother. The roles of the parents would have been difficult to sell to the audience. A central plot device is that the extended family has gathered to commemorate the untimely death of a revered son. As a result of unresolved grief the parents have become quite toxic, but the direction and interpretation of these characters ensure that the audience feels great sympathy for these particular characters. Good, assured film making.

MIFF Film is. A Girl & A Gun, Austria, 2009, directed by Gustav Deustch. The title of this film has been adapted from a quote from D.W. Griffith – “A film is a girl and a gun”. In order to describe this film to you I will quote from the MIFF programme (page 10):
“Weaving together a hypnotic mash-up of archival film from the first five decades of cinema, Deutsch splices together ethnographic films, war footage, science documentaries, explicit pornography and 1930s feature films to concoct a kaleidescope visual essay in five parts about love, sex, violence and death.”

This was a very powerful film to view. Extracts from films from the aforementioned genres are cleverly juxtaposed against each other while being aptly accompanied by a soundtrack made up of contemporary and classical music as well as music from some of the original 1930s films used. The sometimes surprising grouping of various film extracts threw certain qualities of those films into stark relief – the beautiful grainy quality of the monocoloured films, the charged quality of the performances of the actors, the sensuality inherent in natural images such as ferns unfurling or lava flowing. A word of warning – this is not a film for the sexually squeamish or prudish. The pornography shown is hard core and extremely explicit footage of penetration is shown. There is even a mercifully fleeting glimpse of bestiality. This is not meant to be a criticism of the film – I just mention it because not everyone is comfortable with viewing sex in public. I don’t think that the film maker intended the porn to make anyone overly horny or disgusting – he uses this pornographic footage to show other facets of the human condition (vulnerability, abuse of power, intimacy for example). The film is erotic, but, for me, the erotic charge came from footage showing actors performing scenes of flirtation fully clothed. The only minor quibble I had was that the film felt a little too long. However, over all, I thought that this was a pretty spectacular cinematic experience.

British Intelligence starring Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay. A black and white war time spy thriller with an entertainingly intricate plot.

A Tattooed Life. The editing seems to have been a bit brutal – I kept getting the impression that scenes were missing, as the plot would jump abruptly from one incident to the next without any of the usual plot explication to help the audience follow the story. The final fight scene is a humdinger and contains some very elegant images, including one where our Yakuza hero is shot from behind, his body leaning at a graceful angle to denote fatigue or pain, his back covered in tattoos, and his clothing draped from his hips.

The Killing Machine usual macho Sonny Chiba fare

Also:
Mystery Men
Stardust
The King and the Clown
Godzilla
The Bad Sleep Well
Nausicca of the Valley of the Winds
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