Dreams

Akira Kurosawa's dreams are a great cinematic interpretation of 8 dreams of the director. Each film is a visual journey through the mind of Kurosawa. Each film lacks personal narrative, but makes up for it in great cinematography. While Dreams is filled with great costumes, effects, lighting throughout. It also holds deeper meaning under the beautiful visuals.

Sunshine Through The Rain

  A beautiful film about nature, Japanese myth, and traditional value of  obedience. It tells the story of a young boy who disobeys his mother to go see the foxes wedding processions. The foxes wedding processions are sacred and do not want anyone seeing them, interrupting the processional is punishable by death. So when the boy gets caught he runs back home only to find that his mother basically disowns him until he gets forgiveness from the foxes. He runs through a flower filled meadow to ask for forgiveness and the film ends. 

 Sunshine is long, and drawn out with very little dialogue or music. The beauty is all in the visuals, during the processional the foxes costumes are colorful, and uniquely Japanese with the Noh masks and classic robes. The interplay of the smoke and lights only amplify the beauty of the scene more. The meadow scene is beautiful. As Kurosawa cuts to a wide shot of the meadow, we see the great rainbow juxtaposed with the flowers of the meadow signifying the start of this young boy's journey.

Peach Orchard

The Peach Orchard is a tale about the conservation of nature and traditional innocence. It involves another little boy who brings one too many treats to his sisters party on "Doll Day" swearing he saw another girl, he follows the girl onto a hill where the spirits of nature confront him for cutting down the orchard trees. He says that it was his family's fault and not his for he loved the Peach Orchard dearly. The spirits understand him and allow the boy to see The Peach Orchard one more time in all its former glory.

This particularly whimsical piece comes complete with a stunning musical number. The costumes of the nature spirits are bright, colorful, and just delightful. And Kurosawa's staging is that of a Broadway play. The music carries the film, as it switches from eastern music to western music one identifys with the beauty of nature and the innocence of the child. The main theme of this film is that the magic of innocence is something that we should not take for granted.

The Blizzard 

  A traditional film with the values of leadership and perseverance, The Blizzard tells the story of group of mountain climbers climbing Mt. Everest. A giant snow storm hits the group and they are ready to give up. The leader tries to convince them to push forward to the next camp because if they dont they will freeze to death. but the energy is sucked out of them and they decide to take a short break. As they take a break the snow slowly begins to consume them, out of nowhere a snow spirit appears and attempts to take the life of the leader by wrapping him in the warm embrace of death. The leader realizes what is happening and decides he must resist, he pushes the snow spirit away and tries to rally the group up. After he resists the temptations of the snow spirit the storm stops and the next camp appears directly in front of them. It was because the leader was able to persevere the group survived to live another day.

  The scene with the snow spirit is particularly beautiful with it's abstract vocal music and beautiful cloth flowing in the wind.This is another film where music carries the piece. Because the snow spirit represents death, Kurosawa cuts back and forth from the sounds of the snow storm to the beautiful music of death as the leader struggles to survive. And as the leader rallies the group classical music plays to represent the triumph of the group. The snow effects are particularly good and it makes you think as you were on the mountain with them. The Blizzard is a short piece of traditional leadership and perseverance in the face of huge odds. 

The Tunnel 

  The Tunnel is a film with the traditional value of responsibility. As a Japanese officer returns home he must make his way through a tunnel, which represents life/the journey. Before entering he meets a watchdog with red eyes and a nasty growl. Whether its a warning or just a hallucination, the soldier walks through the tunnel anyway.

As he reaches the end he meets one of his former friends who died in the war, the friend swears he's alive and it pains the officer to tell him he isn't. As the soldier leaves he returns with the whole regiment. The whole regiment are ghosts as their faces are painted white, during this scene the officer takes full responsibility for getting them all killed, instead of blaming the horrors of war which is very noble. This guilt is hard on the officer and he falls to his knees almost breaking into tears. As the regiment marches on back into the tunnel the watchdog comes out again and encourages the officer to return home back to his family. 

 The tunnel is probably the most powerful film in this compilation.There is no music and the strong silences only add to the intensity. Kurosawa's use of red lighting to represent hell or the underworld, and the way Kurosawa almost sucked all the color out of the film to represent the bleakness is amazing. The tunnel is a piece of film making where less is more applies. There are no special visual effects or grand music like in the last two. The Tunnel is Kurosawa's quiet, solemn parable of taking responsibility for your actions. 

Crows

Crows is a segment of an art student studying one of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings when he is suddenly he is transported into the scene of one of his paintings. He asks a woman where he can find Van Gogh, but he is warned that Van Gogh is in a lunatic asylum. The man finds Van Gogh(Martin Scorcese) and tries to ask him about painting, but Van Gogh has no time to that he must paint, he is inspired by everything around him and must waste no time. Soon Van Gogh leaves the man, and the man begins to see everything as a Van Gogh painting. As he walks back through a village, he walks through some of Van Gogh's paintings and at the end is he back at the museum. 

Let's get one thing straight. The way Kurosawa created the worlds of Van Gogh is amazing, and is one of the reasons he is considered such a legendary director. Kurosawa's sets and effects are still way of ahead of his time and it makes Crows a visual feast for the eyes. A particular point that stands out is the giant painted sun in the background that illuminates everything and represents Van Gogh's creative energy, his need to paint.

Crow's is unlike any other of the films in Dreams. It doesn't have to do with Japanese values or the environment, but it has to do with the creative spirit of an artist. Which is why, in this reviewers humble opinion it is most reflect of Kurosawa himself. The way Van Gogh devotes himself to his paintings is the same way Kurosawa devotes himself to his films. There is that drive in both of these men to keep creating great art. The main message behind Crows is that great art comes from people who devote themselves entirely to their craft. Their works are a reflection of their artistic inertia or how far they are willing to go. And for Van Gogh and Kurosawa, the sky was the limit.

Mt. Fuji In Red

 

Mt. Fuji In Red starts off with a sense of total chaos, people are running everywhere carrying their belongings or as much as they can take. It appears as Mt. Fuji is about to erupt but the truth is that the nuclear power plant behind the mountain is having a castostrophic meltdown. The powerplant meltdown paints the sky a sickly red and causes radiation to be strewn across the landscape. One man meets up with man II and a woman and her children. The women thought that nuclear power was supposed to be safe and man I says he was responsible for the meltdown and kills himself, then Man II tries to protect the woman and her children as clouds of radiation envelop them. 

Mt. Fuji In Red is modern theme of the environment and just how harmful nuclear energy is. The human race has so much power to destroy the only home we have, Planet Earth. With all this new technology, Kurosawa warns us that we must be careful in what we use or this technology can come back to hurt us. Just look at Japan right now with it's nuclear reactor situation and tell me it isn't eerily similar. 

The Weeping Demon

  The Weeping Demon is another cautionary tale, warning us against the horrors of nuclear energy. The film starts off with a man wondering the black, desecrated wasteland when he meets a man in tattered clothes. The man in tattered clothes was turned in to a demon when he survived the nuclear war. The fallout caused the land to turn to black rocks and the plants to mutate along with humans and animals too. There is no food so the demons worked out a hierarchy - the demons with more horns eat the demons with less and serve their punishment of immortality. The more horns a demon has, the more pain it feels and the more it has to deserve it. The demon's horn starts to hurt and approaches the man to become a demon also. 

  This bleak tale of nuclear fallout is a dramatized warning of what could happen in the near future. Kurosawa displays the wasteland with such bleak colors and props. The giant flowers grow taller than the demons, the sky is a bright blood red, and there is nothing but charred rocks for miles. The scene where the traveler is shown the demons crying in pain is dragged out for dramatic effect, almost to the point where it is excruciating. The Weeping Demon, just like Mt. Fuji in red are Kurosawa's modern takes of nuclear energy and the power it has. Since the demons made the Earth this way they are made to suffer in it for eternity.

 

Village of the Watermills 

  A cheerful, peaceful little film about enjoying the beauty of nature. It is my personal favorite out of all the pieces and a great way to end the film. A young traveler wonders into a village along a river with tons of watermills. Enticed by this village, he wonders around until he meets an old man who tells him about the village. This village has no name, no electricity, and is very close to nature. The old man explains the customs of the village and how people today treat the environment with no respect, which will be their demise. As the two keep on talking they hear music approaching and the old man explains its a funeral, the town celebrates hard work and living to old age which nearly everyone does in the village. The old man then goes off to join the ceremony making a remark how he will be celebrated soon. The traveler observes the ceremony which such enthusiasm and then takes a flower and puts in on a stone to preserve the villages custom and walks off to new adventures.

  The message in Village of the Watermills, is a modern one. This film explains how people don't treat the environment with the respect it deserves. One must appreciate nature to fully appreciate life. The message here is the conservation of nature and traditional customs. The village is teeming with life. Flowers, birds, and trees grow abundantly while a calm river flows lazily along. Kurosawa captures this village so beautifully that the colors of the flowers and the people are so vibrant, they pop out at you. The funeral procession which is a custom in the village is somewhat similar to that in sunshine in the fact that it is more like a staged play than a film. This procession is happy which shows that these people love life and are not afraid to die for they have experienced the best of what nature has to offer. The land gives them everything and have no need for anything extra. A beautiful ending piece, Village of the Watermills is clear in its message of preserving the environment and traditional customs for that is all we truly have. 

  Visually, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is a masterpiece. The sets, composition and use of color are all breathtaking. The pace of some of the stories is a bit slow, but this is still a great and very underrated film. It is Kurosawa's most personal film because he reveals more of himself in this piece than in any other. Dreams is great if you are studying great cinematography. The stories lack substance but the messages are there, hidden in every single film you just have to look hard. From the sets, composition, color, costumes, use of music Dreams is one of Kurosawa's greatest films and will be studied by cinematographers, directors, and visual artists for years to come. 

Danger: Diabolik!

  Welcome to the coolest spy movie ever made. The late great Italian director Mario Bava usually known for his Giallo and Gothic Horror films has taken his talents to the new realm of the comic book movie, before comic book movies we're ever really popular. His set designs and atmospheric visual style takes this low budget b movie to a respected work of art. Diabolik is the tale of an internation criminal Diabolik(John Phillip Law) and his partner in crime, the beautiful Eva Kent(Marissa Mell). Diabolik is your true anti hero, who is only out for himself. His adventure throughout the film takes him across the Italian countryside and his amazing safehouse. I won't spoil anything, for my futile attempt at describing what it looks like would only pale in comparison to seeing it yourself. Bava has taken fresh, new, ambitious ideas and executed with as little money as possible. His atmospheric, psychedelic visuals set the tone of this 60s spy film perfectly. And his set designs in scenes are second to none.

  The music is done by none other than Ennio Morricone, possibly the most famous film composer of all time. His psychedelic score fits perfectly with the visuals Bava provides while never overpowering the scene. Morricone's music is known to take an okay film to another level, but with Bava's superior directing combined the film skyrockets into a level all it's own, a unique film never quite seen before.

  Overall, Danger: Diabolik is not only a great movie, but an exercise in style. Every scene comes with visual flair, something to make it interesting. And there is not shortage of that here. From the colorful sets, creative designs, awesome costumes, great lighting, and cool closeups it is a film that should be studied by directors, set designers, cinematographers alike. It is a work of art made on a budget, unlike some directors which require millions and millions of dollars with all the time in the world. Bava creates this little gem in such a short amount of time it would make Kubrick's head spin. Sure it's campy sometimes but there are so many little visual tricks and ideas to discover in this film, and this is why Diabolik is not only a great comic book adaptation but one of the best undiscovered films ever.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

  Set in the deep depression South. O Brother, Where Art Thou is an homage to the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. Joel and Ethan Cohen cite the poem as the main influence of this film, even though they have never even read it. There are many similarities that present themselves throughout the course of this film that shows influences of The Odyssey. We have our Oracle played in the form of a blind negro railroad worker. Our Cyclops in the form of Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) and Everett Mcgill(George Clooney) as Odysseus himself. Everett and his 2 friends, Pete (John Turro) and Delmar(Tim Blake Nelson) escape a prison chain gang and chase after a huge treasure. Throughout their chase for this treasure the gang (Sort of reminiscent of Odysseus's journey) get into many crazy and life threatening situations including meeting bank robbers, sirens, and their own cyclops Big Dan Teague. This film combines classic myths with the pop culture of the time including Tommy Johnson a Robert Johnson knockoff who in classic southern myth speaks of selling his soul to the devil.

  The gang of Everett, Pete, and Delmar have such chemistry together, and throughout the viewing of this film you begin to realize that O Brother is just a road movie and the commeradery that develops through it is genuine. Even though this band of brothers have to be some of the foolish people to ever break out of a chain gang they provide satisfying entertainment with snappy one liners, slapstick humor, and classic Cohen comedy.

  The cinematography of Roger Deakins is reminiscent of old movies from that era. The countryside is rich with different colors of amber, gold, and brown. Deakins manages to show off the Mississippi countryside in all its backwards glory with ranging environments that is sure to please. Everything from the costumes with the inmates in the classic black and white stripes, the ladies in their summer dresses and men in suits and hats all give an accurate sense of the Depression era. Scenes like the Baptism, the Sirens and, the KKK Clan meeting all stand out because of Deakins attention to detail and his fine eye for the Mississippi countryside.

  The music of O Brother, is one of the strongest soundtracks ever put in a film. The bluegrass and country stylings of composer T Bone Burrnett perfectly amplify the setting, story, and characters. The backwoods of Mississippi come to life with old time bluegrass, country, and blues songs taking us to a place we have all heard of the magical South, with it's chain gangs, train hobos, dusty roads, and general stores. Also if you like George Clooney singing then you're in for a treat.

 Is O Brother, Where Art Thou a great movie?

 Yes.

 Is it polished enough, sophisticated enough to be considered a real work of cinematic "art"?

 Sadly not in my opinion.

 O Brother's southern homefried treatment of the Odyssey is a unique take on a classic story. A risk that paid off for The Cohen Brothers. It's southern musings, combined with great cast, and great folk music breathe new life into a dead horse. And takes us on a journey I can guarantee none of us have ever seen before. But great art makes you think, it makes you feel; and this is no different in the film world. Great movies are timeless and unforgettable. The Cohen Brothers take us on an entertaining romp through the south, but once the journey is finished there is nothing to reflect on, or nothing to really remember. Don't get me wrong though, O Brother, is a fantastic film. Beautifully produced, smartly casted, and cleverly written. The regular movie watcher me loves it very much; but the critic me looks pasts its charms to find an incomplete movie with flaws. It is a known fact that some Cohen films are not received well with critics but respond very strongly with the regular movie watcher. This is because the Cohens unique brand of filmmaking is something that entertains more than it makes you think. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Blade Runner

(All images Copyright of their respective owners. Thanks to TheFilmFrames.com for the high quality images)

 Is it morally right to make lifelike androids with human needs and feelings just to keep them your slave? Who's to say that androids don't feel the need to be free? Blade Runner asks many of those questions and more. Based of the Philip K Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Blade Runner is set in a not so distant Los Angeles, where nuclear war and pollution have ravaged the Earth leaving behind only a few livable pieces of land. To combat this problem humans decided to expand into space or "The Outerworld Colonies." To do this they needed some help and created genetically engineered robots or replicates for slave labor. But these replicants have been causing revolts and have since then been banned on Earth. When four Nexus 6 replicants commandeer a space shuttle to Earth, and Deckard (Harrison Ford) is sent to "retire" them.

 The first thing you notice when you watch Blade Runner, is the massive, immersing world the story is set in. This futuristic cyberpunk version of Los Angeles is visually stunning and is complete with everything you'd expect to find. Giant clouds of pollution? Yes. Crowded Streets? Yes. Japanese ladies swallowing pills on billboards? Surprisingly, yes. Everything from robots to flying cars can be found, and when this movie was made in 1982 that was no easy feat. One of the cool things about Blade Runner is the tint of Noir that gets thrown in. The dragging monologue by Harrison Ford combined with the abstract music and raining city streets combine together to form almost a noir story in the future. Whether is was the studio's nervousness about the audience not getting the story, or if it was intended to be like that, the monologue by Deckard helped set the mood of the film tremendously. Too bad Ridley Scott cut out the monologue in The Final Cut.

Blowing Minds since 1982

This noir theme stays with us throughout the whole movie. If you watched noir movies before you know that it almost usually involves a detective trying to figure out a case, his love interest, sparse music, close ups, and the use of shadows and smoke. In Blade Runner, the use of shadows and dark light can be seen everywhere from the interrogation room to the city streets. There are more close up shots than a makeup model photoshoot. The use of close ups and wide angled shots provide good contrast. The score by Vangelis is haunting and beautiful, never upfront in the action but always supporting the scene. The direction of Ridley Scott and cinematography of Jordan Cronenweth have succeeded in not only reaching the standard of what could be done in a movie; but by surpassing it, creating a totally new style.

(Looks like a Noir tribute to me.)

 The characters of Blade Runner are an interesting group of people and replicants. You have Roy Batty ( Rutger Hauer) the replicant leader of the Nexus 6 group who is determined to live longer than 4 years. Pris (Darryl Hannah) the femme fatale replicant of the group. J.F Sebastian (William Sanderson) the genetic engineer who takes them in. And Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) the detective that takes them out. There is not a single bad performance in the cast, and that is saying something. Hauer plays his role with a devoted fire, and a devotion that you can really feel. Hannah is a classic femme fatale using Sebastian for her own gain. Sanderson plays the role of Sebastian with such solidarity, that it's just creepy. And what is there to say about Harrison Ford. Besides being one of the most famous and successful actors of all time, his performance in Blade Runner is great and his complex of his job and personal life is something we all can feel. Harrison Ford has this ability as of all great actors do to take a thing fictional or not, and make us relate to it, to invoke emotion out of us. This is something in Blade Runner that drives the film over the top. The world may be stunning, but it's the characters and the problems they face inside this world that are the true draw.

(Roy Batty)

 Overall, Blade Runner is a phenomenal movie, everything flows together to create one solid work of art. The pacing is great, and the action is never over the top. Every scene flows and transitions beautifully into one another with cuts and fades to satisfy even the most hardcore editor. I would like to say that Blade Runner can be defined as a noir film set in the future, but it is so much more than that. It raises questions that are still relevant today and will be in the near future. While it masquerades as a detective story it is really a forewarning of what could happen to us soon if we aren't careful. Blade Runner joins an elite group of films, that are not only entertaining but makes you think; and has become a classic in film circles everywhere since its release.

(I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.)

42nd Street Forever

 

Let's take a break from works of art, and explore the other side of cinema. The trashy, campy, downright insane films. The ones that provide entertainment or shock to the general public and the ones that are forgotten only a few days later. These films are not works of art, nor do they have redeeming value; but what they lack in class they make up for in kicking ass.

The 42nd Street Forever series is the brain child behind the ladies and gentlemen of The Alamo Drafthouse and Synapse Films. This series aims to take old exploitation movie trailers who haven't seen the light of day seen they were made, and release them into the general public. The results are hilarious, historical, and very interesting. The 5 volumes pack a range of trailers from every exploitation genre you can think of. From Charleton Heston talking about the MPAA ratings to Pinnochio's Birthday Party. The genius of this series is to show the amount of freedom many filmmakers had at the time, and just how far they were willing to go(or not go) to execute them. No matter how bad they were. Through this ride you discover just how many movies have never really seen the light of day, and some that have the same premises of films today. Some of the trailers are entertaining and actually look good, which you must give many directors credit for. They take an idea and execute it on a limited budget. No matter how bad it may look, it deserves respect.

The Title says it all.

Overall, if you like exploitation cinema, if you are a film history buff, or you just want to have a good time. This series is highly recommended. 42nd Street Forever provides us with a rare & interesting viewpoint of the possibilities of filmmaking at that time. As well as bringing unseen films to a new audience.

L.A Noire

 
  The latest creation from Rockstar Games and Team Bondi Studios out in Australia provides us with a fully recreated 8 by 8 square mile historically accurate version of 1947 Los Angeles. Rockstar and Team Bondi have set out to create a rich noir crime story and succeeded spectacularly. But Jake, you say. This is not a game blog, so why are you reviewing video games? Well i'll tell you. L.A Noire is not your typical mystery game, L.A Noire has something special about it, something no other video game has attempted before. Using a new technology called MotionScan (developed by Depth Analysis), Rockstar and Team Bondi have pushed the envelope of human qualities in a game. Every glance, twitch, nod is captured and transfered to an animated character to be used in the game, you will see no blank faces or any static characters, for all the acting and facial movements in this game are done by real actors.

Aaron Stanton reciting lines. ((Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times)

  Aaron Stanton from Mad Men plays a lead role, as he sits in a chair in his orange jumpsuit plastered with tiny balls in front of 32 cameras, he is made to recite lines just as he normally would on a hollywood set; but instead there are no co-stars or props, only his face. And only a few days later his image is recreated into his character in the game. Thanks to MotionScan technology, video games can now be given cinematic elements that are desperately missing, this opens up a new door in the world of interactive entertainment and L.A Noire is at the Frontline.

(Property of Rockstar Games/ Team Bondi)

L.A Noire is out right now, and is the only video game to be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Shogun Assassin

Shogun Assassin, the bloody, over the top romp through feudal Japan satisfies audiences with over the top maiming, bloodletting, and adventure. Shogun Assassin is a mash up compilation of "The Lone Wolf and Cub" series from Japan, only to be brought over to America and be cut and dubbed for western audiences. It was released in 1980 when the Samurai craze was just starting off in America, and it became a hit in major city grindhouses and drive ins.

  The story surrounds a lone samurai, a ronin, who travels around with his son in a cradle, only to be constantly attacked by warriors enlisted by a shogun who wishes him to be dead. This lone samurai is known as Lone Wolf and is one of the most skilled samurai who has ever lived of course. His demon blade easily kills almost any one he crosses, and the cradle his son travels in also functions as a weapons storage. Over his travels for revenge he meets many people (whom he soon kills) and most famous, the 3 masters of death. Which set the movie up for a great ending fight scene.

  The violence is over the top but highly stylized, with swords entering at interesting angles, and blood spurting out of bodies like garden hoses. The body count is impossible. But throughout the whole movie you do not get the campy b movie that you expected, what you do get it a serious meticulously re-edited, re-scored, re-dubbed version of a manga story in feudal Japan. The energy never dies down and The Shogun Assassin (Tomisaburo Wakayama) plays his role beautifully.

  The electronic music score is done by Mark Lindsay (a member of the 60s rock band Paul Revere and The Raiders) since the original films had little music, it gives the film the extra boost it needed to satisfy Western audiences; and gives fight scenes much more meaning. 

   Overall, this film is highly entertaining and a good reconstruction of feudal Japan. While the English    dubbing is always annoying in any movie, it manages to fit well here without taking away from the  original films. The highly stylized shots of Robert Houston combined with the editing of Lee Percy and Toshio Taniguchi and the cinematography of Chishi Makiura all come together to make a truly beautiful picture of blood and revenge that differ from your average hack and slash samurai movie. Since its release, Shogun Assassin has become a cult classic; and further more it helped confirm the Asian influence in Western society by setting the way for many other samurai, kung fu, and chopsocky films to come. If you are in for a good time and want to see over the top samurai action presented intensely and beautifully, then Shogun Assassin is the film for you.