I’ve only seen The World sadly, and subsequently had to write a paper on it back when I was in undergrad. For the most part though, I found it very similar in style to early Hou Hsiao-hsien and Gus Van Sant. Almost a certain degree of cinema verite juxtaposed with complete moments of animated fantasy.
I sort of forgot about it til now, but hes definitely someone I need to check out now that Ive been reminded of him…
For a change of pace, Bird People Of China although not a great film, is a good demonstration of what Miike can do cinematically when he actually takes himself seriously.
I’ve never actually walked out since if I paid for it, Im getting my money’s worth. With that said though, I have come close. Tideland was probably the closest I ever got to simply walking away. I probably stuck through it though simply hoping it would get redeemed for me but it simply never did.
In retrospect, Tideland wasn’t a terribly horrible film. Nothing about it was really jarring in a specific matter. I dont know….its one of those cases where I just have an unexplainable repulsion to it.
I blind many, but I did buy Equinox when it was first released knowing nothing about it. I would have probably regretted if it wasn’t for the fact I watched it with people who could enjoy it for what it was and laugh at all its cheesy glory.
that reminds me of back in highschool, an English teacher I had made the whole class make a list of what they considered to be the top 10 films ever made. Some of the films that people came up with with downright appalling, but in the end it was a good demonstration of the difference between a film merely being a “favorite” as opposed to holding cinematic and cultural merit.
Needless to say, the oldest film mentioned on any of these lists aside from me and my friends was God Father. No Welles, Kurosawa, Eisenstein, etc…
almost dozed off recently during “Repo: The Genetic Opera” which was ironic since I was the one who wanted to see it out of the party of people I went with.
I actually liked the original comic but its completely different then the film. Honestly, I wouldn’t dwell to heavily on the possibility of a remake. My money is on that it will never see the light of day…
I actually liked the original comic but its completely different then the film. Honestly, I wouldn’t dwell to heavily on the possibility of a remake. My money is on that it will never see the light of day…
Hes talented but I find him to be ignorant of much of the material he is supposedly paying “homage” to. I have to give him credit for his skill with writing good conversational dialogue.
I’m not sure if this is what you want to hear but personally on a holistic scale, I find that in today’s climate TV may possibly be more important then film. I don’t mean this from a cultural or critical standpoint, but the realities of markets and commercial interests. When we boil it down, film has been dominated by TV in both general public interests and revenue streams. I think the general consensus by most people today is, they’d rather stay home and watch an episode of say….CSI then go out and pay 10 dollars for a movie they may or may not enjoy. TV offers consistency, and without a good demand, the medium suffers.
Now none of this by itself detracts from the quality of film per se in a direct relationship but it does mean that both the industry and its subsequent viewing populations are paying more attention towards the TV medium. This is increasingly in recent years led to a distinction between the two to blur. For the most part, those prominent in film are doing TV, and vice versa. A quick example is that of JJ Abrams who went from TV to now directing the upcoming Star Trek film.
So in the end, I think one should be cautious when dismissing a director’s TV work. Eraserhead already mentioned Tarantino doing TV work, and I would honestly say his direction at least on CSI is as important as anything of his shown in a theater. Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog also comes to mind as something in equal importance to his normal film output.
I bought a region-free player from a Korean video place, but nowadays I just watch discs off my comp since I lack a good TV setup….in which case VLC or AnyDVD works fine to get around region encoding.
I find its a classic example of people judging film by different standards based upon its country of origin. I’m not saying analysis should have a certain universal protocol, but I couldn’t help feeling that the selling point of this and subsequent films to follow was its exaggerated orientalism and sense of exoticism. Its only saving grace was Christopher Doyle, but he has never failed to surprise.
And Paya, you need to bust out the ganja and give 2001 another shot…
I agree with Daniel, given that films like Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause were steeped in issues of a “feminized” masculinity and a loss of clear identity in both the war and emerging generations, its hard to draw an exact contemporary match.Identity conflict and isolation are definitely still prevalent issues, as is a wide generational gap which could produce a “rebel” character but its not exactly the same. We don’t really have the precursor of a World War and a looming threat of nuclear annihilation coupled with familial tensions created by both a returning male population from overseas, and that of the large women populations getting kicked out of the workforce with nothing more then a simple pat on the back.
So all in all, similar but not quite the same. Interesting question nonetheless. I’d say the following could possibly fall under this:
Tadanobu Asano
Johnny Depp
Leslie Cheung
Asia Argento
In all honesty, the question of originality in this day and age is a troubling one. For the most part, many would argue that originality no longer really exists. Also as much as I’m not a fan of QT myself, I find that he is often judged with a double standard. Point in question, he receives criticism for basing elements of his movies off of pre-existing films. For example in Kill Bill, a portion of the House of Blue Leaves fight sequence is taken directly from A New Swordsman in addition to a character in Volume 2 taken directly from another pre-existing film, that of Pai-Mei.
In comparison, Scorsese used the “vertigo effect” in Goodfellas which as its name implies was originally used in Hitchcocks Vertigo, another pre-existing film. Another example would be the tracking shot at the beginning of The Player that is directly referencing Touch of Evil. And in TV, the fictional world of CSI takes some of its plot and setting from the world already established in Scorsese’s Casino.
The jist being, everyone does it, and in some of the latter cases, are even sometimes praised. People shouldn’t get caught up on the small elements in this context, but should consider the film holistically. In that case, I would definitely argue that Pulp Fiction, Kil Bill and his other works are unique in their own right.
I have a love/hate thing with him. Hes definitely not the most attractive man in the world, both in regards to his looks or his acting talent. But I continuously find that I enjoy seeing him on screen, or at least the films he happens to star in.
In all seriousness I admit to loving both National Treasures, they sit proudly in my DVD Library alongside my Criterions.
Oh and for those that haven’t seen Wicker Man, fukken epic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo
Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s City of Sadness
Edward Yang’s Terrorizers
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What was the first Criterion movie you watched? over 3 years ago
Like many others, for me it was Seven Samurai, shortly followed by the rest of the Kurosawa canon.
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TOP BERGMAN over 3 years ago
Haven’t seen enough Bergman sadly, but its easily Wild Strawberries as it stands now.
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the best young film makers over 3 years ago
I’ve only seen The World sadly, and subsequently had to write a paper on it back when I was in undergrad. For the most part though, I found it very similar in style to early Hou Hsiao-hsien and Gus Van Sant. Almost a certain degree of cinema verite juxtaposed with complete moments of animated fantasy.
I sort of forgot about it til now, but hes definitely someone I need to check out now that Ive been reminded of him…
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tsai ming-liang over 3 years ago
The guy does wonders with mise en scene, I dont think Ive ever seen Taiwan look as gritty and wet as it does in the Hole.
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You put Visitor Q in the DVD player to clear a room. over 3 years ago
For a change of pace, Bird People Of China although not a great film, is a good demonstration of what Miike can do cinematically when he actually takes himself seriously.
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I'm curious, do auteurs watch the Super Bowl? over 3 years ago
I didnt even know the Super Bowl was today…until today, so no I dont at least…
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What films have you walked out on and why ? over 3 years ago
I’ve never actually walked out since if I paid for it, Im getting my money’s worth. With that said though, I have come close. Tideland was probably the closest I ever got to simply walking away. I probably stuck through it though simply hoping it would get redeemed for me but it simply never did.
In retrospect, Tideland wasn’t a terribly horrible film. Nothing about it was really jarring in a specific matter. I dont know….its one of those cases where I just have an unexplainable repulsion to it.
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3 Favourite Movies From 5 Favourite Directors over 3 years ago
My list is somewhat Eastern-centric….
SERGIO LEONE
1. Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
2. Once Upon A Time In The West
3. For A Few Dollars More
SEIJUN SUZUKI
1. Gate of Flesh
2. Youth of the Beast
3. Branded To Kill
KIM KI DUK
1. 3-Iron
2. Bad Guy
3. Coast Guard
INGMAR BERGMAN
1. Wild Strawberries
2. Persona
3. The Seventh Seal
SHINYA TSUKAMOTO
1. Tetsuo
2. Vital
3. Bullet Ballet
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You put Visitor Q in the DVD player to clear a room. over 3 years ago
Honestly, I had no idea what Izo was about but I did find it to be a whole lot of senseless violent fun.
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Blind buys over 3 years ago
I blind many, but I did buy Equinox when it was first released knowing nothing about it. I would have probably regretted if it wasn’t for the fact I watched it with people who could enjoy it for what it was and laugh at all its cheesy glory.
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YOUR FAVORITE SILENT FILM, PLEASE. over 3 years ago
Keatons General most likely….
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Funniest thing I've every heard about movies over 3 years ago
that reminds me of back in highschool, an English teacher I had made the whole class make a list of what they considered to be the top 10 films ever made. Some of the films that people came up with with downright appalling, but in the end it was a good demonstration of the difference between a film merely being a “favorite” as opposed to holding cinematic and cultural merit.
Needless to say, the oldest film mentioned on any of these lists aside from me and my friends was God Father. No Welles, Kurosawa, Eisenstein, etc…
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Your favorite title sequence over 3 years ago
always like the title seq to good bad & the ugly
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Favourite Movie About Music. over 3 years ago
Gimme Shelter and not sure if this counts but Oh Brother Where Art Thou
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MOMENT OF TRUTH: HAVE YOU EVER GONE TO THE MOVIES AND FALLEN ASLEEP DURING THE FILM? over 3 years ago
almost dozed off recently during “Repo: The Genetic Opera” which was ironic since I was the one who wanted to see it out of the party of people I went with.
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Oldboy remake - Good idea or sacrilege over 3 years ago
I actually liked the original comic but its completely different then the film. Honestly, I wouldn’t dwell to heavily on the possibility of a remake. My money is on that it will never see the light of day…
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Oldboy remake - Good idea or sacrilege over 3 years ago
I actually liked the original comic but its completely different then the film. Honestly, I wouldn’t dwell to heavily on the possibility of a remake. My money is on that it will never see the light of day…
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Age / Level of education? (An informal poll) over 3 years ago
23, BA in history, only minored in film studies sadly.
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Quentin Tarantino over 3 years ago
Hes talented but I find him to be ignorant of much of the material he is supposedly paying “homage” to. I have to give him credit for his skill with writing good conversational dialogue.
Go to Comment
Do you consider a director's work for television as significant as his work for the big screen? over 3 years ago
I’m not sure if this is what you want to hear but personally on a holistic scale, I find that in today’s climate TV may possibly be more important then film. I don’t mean this from a cultural or critical standpoint, but the realities of markets and commercial interests. When we boil it down, film has been dominated by TV in both general public interests and revenue streams. I think the general consensus by most people today is, they’d rather stay home and watch an episode of say….CSI then go out and pay 10 dollars for a movie they may or may not enjoy. TV offers consistency, and without a good demand, the medium suffers.
Now none of this by itself detracts from the quality of film per se in a direct relationship but it does mean that both the industry and its subsequent viewing populations are paying more attention towards the TV medium. This is increasingly in recent years led to a distinction between the two to blur. For the most part, those prominent in film are doing TV, and vice versa. A quick example is that of JJ Abrams who went from TV to now directing the upcoming Star Trek film.
So in the end, I think one should be cautious when dismissing a director’s TV work. Eraserhead already mentioned Tarantino doing TV work, and I would honestly say his direction at least on CSI is as important as anything of his shown in a theater. Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog also comes to mind as something in equal importance to his normal film output.
Go to Comment
DVD Region Coding over 3 years ago
I bought a region-free player from a Korean video place, but nowadays I just watch discs off my comp since I lack a good TV setup….in which case VLC or AnyDVD works fine to get around region encoding.
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Importance of Seeing a Film in Theatres? over 3 years ago
Its definitely preferred but the question of money, time and availability makes it so that I almost never go.
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FAST & FURIOUS: WHO'S EXCITED over 3 years ago
Dude in all honesty, I’ll be seeing this. I mean….it has Vin Diesel, how could I not watch it?
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What films do you always catch shit for for not liking? over 3 years ago
For me its Hero.
I find its a classic example of people judging film by different standards based upon its country of origin. I’m not saying analysis should have a certain universal protocol, but I couldn’t help feeling that the selling point of this and subsequent films to follow was its exaggerated orientalism and sense of exoticism. Its only saving grace was Christopher Doyle, but he has never failed to surprise.
And Paya, you need to bust out the ganja and give 2001 another shot…
Go to Comment
A TOAST TO THE REBEL IN FILM - WHO ARE THE GREATEST ON-SCREEN REBELS? over 3 years ago
I agree with Daniel, given that films like Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause were steeped in issues of a “feminized” masculinity and a loss of clear identity in both the war and emerging generations, its hard to draw an exact contemporary match.Identity conflict and isolation are definitely still prevalent issues, as is a wide generational gap which could produce a “rebel” character but its not exactly the same. We don’t really have the precursor of a World War and a looming threat of nuclear annihilation coupled with familial tensions created by both a returning male population from overseas, and that of the large women populations getting kicked out of the workforce with nothing more then a simple pat on the back.
So all in all, similar but not quite the same. Interesting question nonetheless. I’d say the following could possibly fall under this:
Tadanobu Asano
Johnny Depp
Leslie Cheung
Asia Argento
Go to Comment
Quentin Tarantino over 3 years ago
In all honesty, the question of originality in this day and age is a troubling one. For the most part, many would argue that originality no longer really exists. Also as much as I’m not a fan of QT myself, I find that he is often judged with a double standard. Point in question, he receives criticism for basing elements of his movies off of pre-existing films. For example in Kill Bill, a portion of the House of Blue Leaves fight sequence is taken directly from A New Swordsman in addition to a character in Volume 2 taken directly from another pre-existing film, that of Pai-Mei.
In comparison, Scorsese used the “vertigo effect” in Goodfellas which as its name implies was originally used in Hitchcocks Vertigo, another pre-existing film. Another example would be the tracking shot at the beginning of The Player that is directly referencing Touch of Evil. And in TV, the fictional world of CSI takes some of its plot and setting from the world already established in Scorsese’s Casino.
The jist being, everyone does it, and in some of the latter cases, are even sometimes praised. People shouldn’t get caught up on the small elements in this context, but should consider the film holistically. In that case, I would definitely argue that Pulp Fiction, Kil Bill and his other works are unique in their own right.
Go to Comment
Answer This Awesome Question I Am About to Ask over 3 years ago
just give me the worst movie imaginable, maybe some Ed Wood. then death will be something to look forward to.
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FAST & FURIOUS: WHO'S EXCITED over 3 years ago
wow….talk about a thread derailment….
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Who else dislikes Nicolas Cage? over 3 years ago
I have a love/hate thing with him. Hes definitely not the most attractive man in the world, both in regards to his looks or his acting talent. But I continuously find that I enjoy seeing him on screen, or at least the films he happens to star in.
In all seriousness I admit to loving both National Treasures, they sit proudly in my DVD Library alongside my Criterions.
Oh and for those that haven’t seen Wicker Man, fukken epic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo
Go to Comment