Fantasia '05 beginneth
Jul. 10th, 2005 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaSaw Ashura on Thursday with Erin, and Izo tonight with Golitzinsky and a couple of his friends. If I hadn't bought the ticket in advance he could indeed have gotten me in free on a judge's pass, but... eh. Scored coupons exchangeable against tickets, so that's another half-dozen random showings on top of the movies I'd specifically determined to see. Time is more the issue. ^^;
Afterward G said he could've summed Izo up in ten minutes. Actually you can sum it up in one sentence: you can never really beat the system, because God will smack you down at the end. It's just that the brevity of the truism doesn't encompass the quantity of exegesis one can milk the thing for. You could compile a lengthy and eye-opening list just on who all the characters were and why they were cast as they were (God, it transpires, is Matsuda Ryuhei wearing a boa[1]. As G said, "Somehow I'm not too surprised."). Then there's the socio-historical commentary. For a samurai gore flick that feels like a narrative cross between The Matrix and Shoujo Kakumei Utena it's really obvious. In fact the movie doesn't so much make its point as brutally pummel the viewer into submission with it, what with Izo being a portrait of cyclical unending Buddhist Hell and all. In a way it reminded me a lot of those Maria Kannon statues. XD Ponderous medieval-mystery-play anthropomorphic-personification allegory is a Western form, Western and Christian whereupon we note duly that Izo died on a cross, went on a pilgrimage for meaning and found God, just that Miike switched out all the characters and settings for Japanese ones like it was a themed Tarot deck. The interest is in seeing what the representation turns out to be. Matsuda Ryuhei isn't really God, he'sAmaterasu Emperor of the Universe, and so forth.
Was definitely over-long. XD A few less senseless murders and musical interludes would've done the experience good. Not that the music wasn't interesting in its own right: definition of freak folk as it were.
[1] As in an actual boa constrictor, not a feather boa.
Afterward G said he could've summed Izo up in ten minutes. Actually you can sum it up in one sentence: you can never really beat the system, because God will smack you down at the end. It's just that the brevity of the truism doesn't encompass the quantity of exegesis one can milk the thing for. You could compile a lengthy and eye-opening list just on who all the characters were and why they were cast as they were (God, it transpires, is Matsuda Ryuhei wearing a boa[1]. As G said, "Somehow I'm not too surprised."). Then there's the socio-historical commentary. For a samurai gore flick that feels like a narrative cross between The Matrix and Shoujo Kakumei Utena it's really obvious. In fact the movie doesn't so much make its point as brutally pummel the viewer into submission with it, what with Izo being a portrait of cyclical unending Buddhist Hell and all. In a way it reminded me a lot of those Maria Kannon statues. XD Ponderous medieval-mystery-play anthropomorphic-personification allegory is a Western form, Western and Christian whereupon we note duly that Izo died on a cross, went on a pilgrimage for meaning and found God, just that Miike switched out all the characters and settings for Japanese ones like it was a themed Tarot deck. The interest is in seeing what the representation turns out to be. Matsuda Ryuhei isn't really God, he's
Was definitely over-long. XD A few less senseless murders and musical interludes would've done the experience good. Not that the music wasn't interesting in its own right: definition of freak folk as it were.
[1] As in an actual boa constrictor, not a feather boa.
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Date: 2005-07-10 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-10 07:01 pm (UTC)