petronia

Big Bang Love: a surprisingly straightforward police procedural, with a supernatural horror bent. XD Come to think of it I haven't been baffled by a Miike flick since Gozu; even Izo made sense to me at the time (I don't remember much of it now). Not sure if Miike's getting more transparent or if the Fantasia audience is getting better at parsing his visual language. It's magic realism, more or less, delivered with a sort of artless literalism I find endearing; like we're all overthinking and dude just shot whatever the hell the script girl handed him. "He reeled back, as if the ray of light had pierced his heart as well as his eye." Lots of ontology-of-theatre in this one as well. The inside of the prison is a theatrical paradigm; outside the prison is a cinematic paradigm. The electrified fence between the two is... animation. Apparently. XD

This is actually the second movie I've seen in which Matsuda Ryohei gets sent to jail for stabbing someone messily, and if it weren't for the other (9 Souls) I'd've assumed that concentric-spoke-shaped communal Japanese cell was invented by Miike's set designer. It's very... attractive isn't the word, I guess, but striking. Monastic. Lars Von Trier gets invoked a lot in reviews; justifiably with regard to an atmosphere of sobriety, if not in the details. Plus I guess it's Miike's take on Gohatto. XD;; Rumours, Lies, and Vicious Innuendo: Pedagogical Homoeroticism as a Conduit of Masculinity in Pre-Modern Cultures. Only more deconstructed. Love the dancer in the opening sequence (my response to that kind of music is now atavistic), though I was distracted by the thought that Hoshino Lily may actually have... yeah.

And this comment I made re: Yurusarezaru Mono back in 2003:

Well, the symbolism of the tattoo imagery is what it always is - neverending cycle of violence etched into the yakuza's body and soul, et cetera. The fact that the camera has to caress some comely backsides in the process is incidental, as it were.

This review is way less utilitarian than I thought it would be: I really meant to say it was Matsuda Ryohei and Ando Masanobu making soulful existentialist UST at each other for 85 minutes. XD Though the latter is the only member of the cast who pulls off that potato-sack Yohji Yamamoto look.

After This Our Exile: a brilliantly observed family drama of the depressing, kitchen-sink, two-and-a-half-hours-long variety. Aaron Kwok turns in a fine and convincing performance as a dude I began to wish halfway through would take a long walk off a short pier, as it was clearly the best turn he could have done himself, his family or society in general. But then I've never been known for my patience with this kind of storyline. XD; The boy who plays the son is utterly adorable.

I told Ced afterward I thought it would have made a good Brad Pitt vehicle as well as a good Aaron Kwok vehicle. The main character would have had to be played by someone with that inherent matinée-idol charm, because - under all the scruff and entitlement and desperation and poor impulse control - one had to believe in the character as someone who could wheedle women and small children into giving him multiple second chances. Someone who's gotten outrageous free passes in life without realising it, because it's always been like that, but who comes to rely on it too much.

The film is set in Malaysia, and while it's shot quite beautifully with an eye for the surroundings, it wouldn't have made the same visual sense to me if I hadn't visited Malaysia (even as briefly as I did). It's as if I need to mentally sketch in the remainder of the 360 degrees, instead of just the camera's field of vision, before I can experience "sense of place". Otherwise I see a shot of Berlin or Tokyo and... don't really register it, in the same way as I fail to register the physical environment if I'm following someone through an unfamiliar area and simultaneously carrying on a conversation with them. Which is actually what happens, in most films.

Two reviews pending: Ghosts of Cité Soleil, the documentary on Haitian Chimère from yesterday evening, and the new Harry Potter movie tonight. XD