I was not familiar with jidaigeki but I’ve seen a few of them without knowing it. It’s possible that what I’m going to say about this film only makes sense in western genres and not in jidaigeki but, given that I’ve only a few of these films, I have no idea.
Tag: Tragedy
The Banshees of Innisherin (2022, Martin McDonagh)
This is an extremely funny dark comedy that takes a turn for the tragic. It was introduced to us as a fable, and I think it has to be viewed that way given the basically inexplicable behaviour of Brendan Gleeson’s character. SPOILERS
A Separation [Jodaeiye Nader az Simin] (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
The is an unrelentingly bleak tragedy about the dissolution of a marriage in Iran that leads to a misunderstanding that compounds into a destructive feud between two families. It is well shot, well constructed, and well acted and it was a chore to watch as a result. (I mean that as a compliment.)
Ugetsu (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
This is another Japanese film (another downer) from decades ago that is ranked by some among the best ten films of all time. I don’t really know how you narrow down literally millions of movies to 10 but I guess some people feel they can. The issue with so many of these lists which include …
The Secret Agent (1907) by Joseph Conrad
This is a rather remarkable book where Conrad manages to combine suspense with satire/social comment and some fairly modernist construction. SPOILERS so let me just say if you like Conrad read it.
Sansho dayu [Sansho the Bailiff] (1954), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
There’s a high standard to meet “The Greatest Film of All Time.” Though it’s sometimes not #1 on lists, Sansho the Bailiff has been called “The Greatest Film of All Time,” “Perfect” and many other things and when it’s not considered the single greatest, it’s often on a very short list. It’s even harder for …
Zana (2019, Antoneta Kastrati)
This is, I believe, the first Kosovar film I’ve ever seen. However, it’s far from the first “woman loses a child and goes batshit crazy” film I’ve seen. In fact, I’ve seen so many of those movies, that the torp feels like a sexist cliche to me. This film was directed and cowritten by a …
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival
Once again I only saw 5 movies this year. As with previous years, the reason for that will become apparent in a month or so. But, as usual, we managed to do a pretty good job picking movies and only saw movie I wouldn’t recommend seeing, which is a pretty good ratio.
Mano de obra [aka Workforce] (2019, David Zonana)
This a very well-made, fascinating drama about manual labourers in Mexico City which threatens to become a thriller but consistently subverts your expectations and ends up having more in common with classical tragedy. It’s a debut, so I was very wary of choosing to see it, but this is a remarkably self-assured film. I strongly …
Chikamatsu monogatari (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
Aka The Crucified Lovers aka A Story by Chikamatsu This is one of those Japanese tragedies where two lovers are prevented from living happily ever after by the strictures of society. Yes, this is a universal story, but the Japanese have a lot of these stories and there is a particular tenor to the Japanese …
Brideshead Revisited (1981)
This is a nearly unprecedented 700 minute TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. It is about as good as it gets for these British “chamber” TV shows, and is a reminder (when you watch it) that we are seriously missing out because more classic literature isn’t adapted into TV miniseries.
Southcliffe (2013)
Well someone really hates British small towns…
The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck
It just so happens that I started to watch Ken Burns’ The Dustbowl just as I finished this book, and contrasting the two approaches is illustrative. It’s interesting that Steinbeck makes no mention of the man-made nature of the disaster, even though he knew it was man-made. I suspect this is to help further create …