Asian Film Hall of Fame

Don't know what you're trying to prove with that Kagemusha clip lmao.

Great shots that blow modern cinematography out of the f*****g water! I don't even know what you are referring to.

Re 1st video: Obviously, cinematographers are not bound to use deep-focus shots everywhere, especially when they are not required to in a given scene. Varying depth of field is an artistic choice just like any other.

Re 2nd & 3rd video: Dunno what's wrong with that and what you're trying to prove.

Obviously, the quality of all these clips is less than good and YouTube is partially to blame, but even with bad quality, you can tell these shots are above average, especially the Rashomon sequence. Just compare it to any random digital-shot modern film.

If only all cinematography students shot like this... I mean it's one thing to like Miyagawa the least out of all Kurosawa cinematographers. It's a completely different thing to claim he's a bad cinematographer. As a matter of fact, Kazuo Miyagawa is seen as one of the best and most influential cinematographers in Japanese film history. He shot Sansho the Bailiff and Floating Weeds, for Pete's sake!

Well, at least you somewhat enjoyed Rashomon, which isn't a surprise. Kurosawa is very accessible. Hanagatami, on the other hand, even though seemingly easy, is in fact much more demanding than any Kurosawa films.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

Well the action is actually in frame and you have edits...it's not three people playing around in the sand....moving on.

Mother (2009)


Hey look a film that's actually in focus, tells a clear story and gives us a great performance in Kim Hye-Ja. Mother is one of these stories where it's a long winding road so I don't want to get into too many spoilers. The film centers around an elderly woman who takes care of her disabled son. The son gets in trouble with the law and the mother has to go on a long journey to find the truth.


It's very similar structurally to Joon-ho's other works. I admire how crime isn't really sensationalized in the films but more so important plot points. The film really touches on the responsibility that parents have for their children and often times I myself felt conflicted with the choices of the characters.



The film is shot incredibly well, this might be the best looking of all of Joon-ho's work. I could also tell the characters apart and everyone felt real. One of the things I really like about films like this is the casting is perfect, you don't feel like you are watching "stars" playing the roles. I think the excellent casting really grounds Kim Hye-Ja's performance.


great nomination.

could use a link to Black Rain

Sent.

Ok, watching Black Rain shortly, then Daimajin afterward

watched the first third of Hanagatami before going into work today. WILD visuals in this, but I'm enjoying what I've seen so far

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Black Rain

Wow.......I was not prepared. Not for this.
The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are dark moments in the history of the US. It ended the war, sure. But at what cost? Imumara pulls no punches in showing what that cost was. The loss of human life is one thing. But the resulting tragedy was much worse as the toll had a greater impact many years later.

It starts with what was an ordinary day in Japan. Mere moments later, that peaceful, idyllic day would be shattered. We see burnt bodies, charred to an ash, strewn along the ruins. We see melted bodies, flesh barely hanging on those unlucky enough to have survived. There’s even a scene of a woman holding the charred body of her baby, and it’s here that I’m reminded of Schindler’s List. The devastation is also viewed in black and white.

The greatest tragedy would be those who were unlucky enough to survive unscathed, but were bathed in the “black rain”, nuclear fall out that fell upon many unfortunate survivors. It is these effects, of which it took years to fully understand the ramifications, and the result was to be ostracized.

It made marriage prospects grim, as well. And Black Rain shows how a uncle tries to convince others that his niece is healthy, in an attempt to marry her off. Rumors about her whereabouts during the bombing don’t help. The uncle refuses to accept her possible fate, but the niece accepts her fate and is content to stay by her guardians side.

Along the way, we see other effects of the war. A former soldier suffering from PTSD, who attempts to put an imaginary bomb under any approaching vehicle under the illusion that they’re enemy tanks. His story is a grim reminder that not all victims were from the bomb.
It loses a bit of focus in the third act, and there’s this awful scene that involves a psychic that does nothing for this film, but those are minor quibbles.

It’s a really good film, and I have had it “watchlisted” for quite some time, as Imumara ha along been a director I’ve wanted to watch for some time now. Hopefully I’ll be able to see more of his stuff soon enough.

I believe it's a quite common opinion that those bombs saved lives. Not everyone agrees, of course, but many believe that the traditional war against Japan would have caused way more casualties.

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Anyone have a link to Tears of the Black Tiger and Mother?

Can I get a link for Hanagatami?

Yeah I got you Wyldesyde

Sure thing, I'll PM you.

Too late

I had a link for Mother but Hashtag might still need a link for Tears of the Black Tiger...Can anyone send him one?

If I don't get one then I can just get a VPN so that I can use Tubi, but I'll be grateful for any help I get.

Black Rain (1989)


Black Rain tells the story of a family that survives the bombing of Hiroshima and deals with the post war ramifications. It's a powerful well done story, I enjoy how the director shoots the film like a 50s/60's Japanese New Wave style. The characters are well defined and the story is compelling. It's a good film...though not a great one.



Some of the performances during the post war blast are almost comical. A woman breastfeeding an blackened child (how would that even work), a little boy walking up to a man covered in burns and apparently not in any pain, a guy blind falling one story that wouldn't kill anyone. It was pretty silly, focusing on melodrama instead of what practically would have happened during an explosion. But even though it had a certain degree of silliness 90% of the film is about postwar life and that was very well done.



I like how we got the slow burn of people dying, the mental breakdowns of several characters who have to live this life, and the director did a fair job aging the actors.

I'm going to finish everything tomorrow cause I have nothing else on my schedule.

Happy watching!