Well, it took me donkey ears, but I finally saw my first Ozu movie Tokyo Story (東京物語 tokyo monogatari). A long time ago, after being taken to see the fresh-from-Cannes Taxi Driver in a København cinema, I ran across Paul Schrader’s The Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, and Dreyer. I read it, but not having seen any of the films of any of the three filmmmakers made for an abstract exercise. A decade or so later, I saw Bresson’s Au Hazard, Balthazar, and some things clicked. Now, after watching Tokyo Story on an overcast Sunday afternoon, I finally see what Schrader was on about. Back when I first started to get serious about motion pictures, I went through a longish phase of distaining the merely entertaining product that Hollywood spewed forth. Later, like so many, I began to develop a taste in guilty pleasures. But these days, I’ve become less tolerant of big budget flicks with lots of explosions and CGI-driven plots, instead of the character-driven subtler ones I cut my æsthetic eyeteeth on.
kon ban wa! that's an amazing movie. if you like Japanese film, one director I really enjoyed was Fukusaku Kinji. He directed Battle Royale, a gruesome violent depiction of the harshness and competitiveness in Japanese society. But I'm warning you, when I first saw it, I was physically sick and I didn't like it - it's only in retrospect, with a full stomach and a beer, that I really started to appreciate the film.... sore wa dokoka hen da!(http://reve.sans.fin.free.fr/)
Posted by: emilie on October 17, 2004 07:24 PMHi. I've heard of Battle Royale. I'll check it out. Thanks.
Posted by: jim on October 17, 2004 08:51 PM