Sansho the Bailiff, Nothing Special

    Sansho the Bailiff is a Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It's highly regarded as a great piece of Japanese cinema, but I have to be honest, I did not enjoy it. The film certainly has some great things going for it such as the plot and direction, but man is it too long at only two hours and twelve minutes.
    I have adored all expect for one of Akira Kurosawa's films that I have seen, and yes sometimes the length gets irritating, but never to the point of true noticeability. Seven Samurai for example is fantastic, and it runs a whopping three hours and twenty-seven minutes. I haveno problem with Kurosawa's grand length because everything is interesting, Sansho the Bailiff not so much. The first thirty minutes could have easily been cut down. There were several scenes of just prolonged sequences of a character walking. Seriously, who thought that a thirty second take of a person moving slower than a worm would be good? It makes no sense to me.
    Overall I did think Sansho the Bailiff was an average movie, and for having 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, that shouldn't be the case. I personally think that this film just hasn't aged well, and because of that it has lost a lot of what has made it great.

I Loved Spirited Away Once

    Spirited Away is a fantastic film, never should one forget that. Hayao Miyazaki truly hit it out of the park with his story of a girl who forget her identity, and it certainly deserved the Oscar back in 2002. However, I've seen the film about four times fully throughout the years and I have to admit that this time I wasn't blown away as I have been in the past.
    The first time I saw the film I must have been around ten, so about 2005. I absolutely adored it and considered it one of my favorites. I watched it again somewhere around 2008 and I had a similar reaction. The next time I viewed the film was 2012, and even then I still loved it, even if my opinion was heavily influenced by nostalgia, it still was grand. Well, the most recent viewing was in Signs & Wonders and I was not blown away. Yes, the film is still fantastic, but compared to Princess Mononoke and The Wind Rises, it's not as strong. I suppose I should keep in mind that Spirited Away is more of a children's film than the other two, but Toy Story is, and I consider that one of the best films of the 21st century. At this point in time I cannot really put my finger on why Spirited Away has disappointed me the fourth time around, but I promise that I'll be trying to figure such a thing out in the future. Regardless though, Miyazaki will always be one of my favorite filmmakers.

The Lunchbox Review

The Lunchbox is a wonderfully simple tale of two people who connect through a lunchbox exchange. I really enjoyed this film because it felt very fresh and original. Usually with stories like this, two people meet in an unexpected way and get to know each other through various coincidental circumstances and “fall in love” by the end of the movie, but not this film. I enjoyed that this film was purely about the friendship of these two people learning about each other’s lives through short notes exchanged through a lunchbox that wasn't even brought to the right location. The visuals were very simple, but were completely focused around the lunchbox that served as an emotional element to the film. Every time you see the lunchbox on screen you observe how each character is reacting to it and their emotional state. For example, at the beginning when the main character receives the lunchbox, he is confused but as the film continues on, you see the excitement in his face when he receives the lunchbox because he knows it means that he gets to communicate to his new friend. I enjoyed the relationship conflict the characters had in their own lives of feeling lonely in some way. The man was living alone and was depressed while the woman felt neglected and unappreciated by her husband, thus they immediately bonded and helped each other through difficult times without ever really seeing each other. I felt the film ended on a very satisfying note, where both characters were confidently independent with their choices as the women decided to leave her husband and live a new life and the man comes out of his depression states and enjoys life more. What a beautiful film! 

The Trip Took a Chance

    The Trip starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon is a road trip film that doesn't really have a strong food element, but that's irrelevant because it's a film that takes a chance.
    Coogan and Brydon, coworkers rather than friends, take a trip in attempt to taste some wonderful food. A trip originally intended for Coogan and his girlfriend becomes one funny ride. Now, it's true that the film can be quite funny, but no matter how funny it is there is always an underlying theme of darkness prevalent throughout the film. Coogan, the one the darkness belongs to, seems to always have a grouchy attitude due to his struggle as an actor and an undetermined relationship with his girlfriend. Long story short, the film ends on a dark note of Coogan going back to his empty apartment still grouchy despite the great fun the trip provided, while Brydon returns to his happy family. This film, being a comedy, ends on a not so happy ending as I just said. Sure, other comedies have ended on sadness, but the film's ending makes the point of the film completely useless. A trip meant for fun, which includes fun, ends on sadness and that's why it takes a chance. I remember after the film ended everyone seemed to be puzzled by the darkness, as I was, but if one thing is for sure it's that I really want to see the sequel. The film took a chance with the audience, which typically isn't too rewarding, but this film came out on top.
    The Trip is an interesting film that I wouldn't necessarily say I loved, but I enjoy discussing it. It'll be even more interesting to see where the sequel, The Trip to Italy takes viewers.

After Life, One Of the More Realistic Films Out There

    Hirokazu Koreeda's After Life is truly the oddest film I viewed this semester here at Signs and Wonders. I knew absolutely nothing about this film except for the good reviews it got, so I figured I'd go. I can't say whether I loved it or hated it, but it certainly deserves a discussion.

    Now I will admit that I drifted into a brief slumber at one point during the film, but it certainly wasn't enough to detract from the film. I've seen other films that flirt with the idea of going somewhere in between life on earth and life in either heaven or hell, but this film seemed the most interesting for a few simple reasons. The first reason is the incredible lack of music in the film. I honestly can't even remember a single song from the film, and because of that it added so much more to the very realistic nature of the film, which brings me to my second reason, the documentary-like setup. Towards the later half of the film the film stops the interviews where people try to think of one's favorite memories, but when those interviews occur with no music to accompany, it feels as if the audience is sitting in on this interview alongside the entire cast and crew. The camera, my third reason, that these interviews, as well as the rest of the film, are shot on also adds to the realistic nature. The cameras were digital, very primitive digital cameras, and because of that they have that distinct "home video" look. So, with the collection of those three reasons; lack of music, interviews, and type of camera, this film felt extremely realistic even though the subject material was, well most likely, very unrealistic.

    As I said, I can't say if I liked the film, but there is truly something special about it that deserves attention. If one enjoyed this film based on the realistic nature I've displayed then I highly recommend David Lynch's Inland Empire. Sure, it's ten times weirder, but the same observances I made are in that film as well.

The Wind Rises and All Seven Deadly Sins

    The last few blogposts that I have written has revolved around certain characters and the various vices that seem to plague them in films. It’s not too often that a good film comes around with a central character that is entirely free of vices, and isn’t medicated to be that way. For, without things such as vices there typically isn’t any conflict, the one thing a film must have.

    The Wind Rises is Hayao Miyazaki’s last film as he heads out to finally retire, and it’s gorgeous. The story follows the life of a Japanese man named Jirô during the times of World War II. He’s an aircraft engineer, in fact one of the brightest. However, he doesn’t let vainglory take over, the first of seven to be completely nonexistent with Jirô. As he travels most of Europe and Asia visiting different airports and airstrips he encounters an earthquake. Jirô, being the calm guy he is does not get upset over the fact that this earthquake will mess up his travel plans, he instead allows any ounce of lurking wrath he possibly had to transform into curiosity as he finds a girl his age named Nahoko that he likes very much. These two eventually return back to their homes and Jirô, being the man he is, repressed any sexual urges, aka lust, ten fold. As Jirô becomes older and smarter he starts gaining more work around the globe, and instead of being greedy and prioritizing his work above all else, he rather prioritizes finding Nahoko again, and he ensures that his work, or a bit of sloth, won’t take over if he does find her. A little later in the film the two finally meet again, but she reveals some bad news that she has a medical disorder that is slowly killing her. Perhaps people in Jirô’s situation would be envious of normal couples, but certainly not Jirô. He loves this girl and would do anything to switch places with her. To finish my post I feel I do not have to explain the ending, plus I really don’t want to spoil it for the few that missed out, so I’ll just end on the fact that he’s not a glutton either. Jirô is far from large and only eats the traditional meals like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At one point in the film there’s even a question of whether he ate when working so hard, so he most certainly is no glutton.

    The film really has nothing to do with the seven vices in Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices, but I find it remarkable that none of them are apparent in such a great story. It's a shame this film didn't take home the Oscar...

Chef and Sloth

    I have already written a blogpost on the vice of sloth, but following my viewing of the 2014 film Chef directed by Jon Favreau, it is impossible not to write one more on sloth. The film follows the life of an extremely prestigious chef who goes by the name El Jefe. He truly is a fantastic chef, but he really hits an obstacle pertaining to creative differences and an overall emotion of happiness. On behalf, and/or because of these two bland feelings sloth is represented in a traditional sense as well as Rebecca DeYoung’s sense in Glittering Vices.

    El Jefe has been working at the same popular restaurant in Los Angeles for the last few years because he was scouted in Miami, but he begins to have the need and want to branch out of the restaurant’s menu’s comfort zone. In order to be happy and impress the biggest critic in town, as he did in Miami, he has to cook some new and delicious dishes. However, the owner of the restaurant is a stubborn man and refuses to allow his restaurant to be changed for fear of losing business. El Jefe, as hard as he works, is forced to quit and wallow in despair. Now, this is where sloth comes in. While El Jefe was working as hard as he could to get new results out of the same dishes he was finding that he never had time to do anything but attempt to impress the critic in a nearly impossible fashion. By being consistently busy with work El Jefe neglected his son Percy’s happiness by always failing to perform on promises, otherwise known by DeYoung as being slothful. Once El Jefe quits his job one would anticipate his slothful attitude to be taken care of, but that’s most certainly not the case. After he quits, as I said, he wallows in despair not knowing what to do with his life at this point and falls into the act of being slothful in a traditional sense. He’s a forty-something year old divorced man and he feels his life has ended, so he decides to smoke weed and cook for either himself or his ex fellow employee, aka the traditional definition of being slothful. 

    The film does indeed turn things around in a complete and satisfying manner, even though I haven't in this blogpost, but there is absolutely no doubting that El Jefe was the poster child for sloth during the majority of the film. It sure does sound depressing, but after one sees this film I guarantee he/she will love it as I did.