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  1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266</id><updated>2024-03-18T09:41:30.461-04:00</updated><category term="Filipino"/><category term="Drama"/><category term="adaptation"/><category term="Comedy"/><category term="Science Fiction"/><category term="Period"/><category term="Horror"/><category term="Fantasy"/><category term="Independent"/><category term="Action"/><category term="Animated"/><category term="Digital"/><category term="Film Festival"/><category term="CGI Effects"/><category term="Thriller"/><category term="Comic book"/><category term="Mario O&#39;Hara"/><category term="Political"/><category term="Hollywood"/><category term="photos"/><category term="Crime"/><category term="Japan"/><category term="Noir"/><category term="RIP"/><category term="French"/><category term="Biographical"/><category term="Television"/><category term="Lav Diaz"/><category term="sequel"/><category term="British"/><category term="World War 2"/><category term="Filipino Film Industry"/><category term="Lino Brocka"/><category term="Documentary"/><category term="Film Criticism"/><category term="musical"/><category term="remake"/><category term="Franchise"/><category term="Religious"/><category term="Blogathon"/><category term="Western"/><category term="Travel"/><category term="Mike de Leon"/><category term="Steven Spielberg"/><category term="Disney"/><category term="Italy"/><category term="korean"/><category term="war"/><category term="Nora Aunor"/><category term="Stage Adaptation"/><category term="Gerardo de Leon"/><category term="Jeonju"/><category term="Tikoy Aguiluz"/><category term="writers"/><category term="3-D"/><category term="Chinese cinema"/><category term="Oscars"/><category term="DVD"/><category term="Dr. Who"/><category term="Food"/><category term="Gay"/><category term="New York"/><category term="book"/><category term="Martin Scorsese"/><category term="Steven Moffat"/><category term="African-American"/><category term="Guillermo del Toro"/><category term="Philippines"/><category term="Pixar"/><category term="racism"/><category term="Awards"/><category term="Cinemalaya"/><category term="Experimental"/><category term="Jose Rizal"/><category term="Quentin Tarantino"/><category term="Studio Ghibli"/><category term="Alfred Hitchcock"/><category term="Christopher Nolan"/><category term="England"/><category term="Hayao Miyazaki"/><category term="Ishmael Bernal"/><category term="Psychological"/><category term="Brillante Mendoza"/><category term="Cinema One Originals"/><category term="David Lynch"/><category term="Hong Kong"/><category term="India"/><category term="Isao Takahata"/><category term="James Gray"/><category term="Lamberto Avellana"/><category term="Monster"/><category term="Netflix"/><category term="Orson Welles"/><category term="Peter Jackson"/><category term="Serial Killer"/><category term="Silent"/><category term="Tim Burton"/><category term="George Lucas"/><category term="Mel Gibson"/><category term="Robert Bresson"/><category term="Shakespeare"/><category term="Stanley Kubrick"/><category term="Bong Joon-ho"/><category term="Celso Ad Castillo"/><category term="David Cronenberg"/><category term="David Fincher"/><category term="Johnnie To"/><category term="LVN Studios"/><category term="Ridley Scott"/><category term="Sam Raimi"/><category term="Sweden"/><category term="Akira Kurosawa"/><category term="Cannes"/><category term="Clint Eastwood"/><category term="David Gordon Green"/><category term="Iraq War"/><category term="J.R.R. 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Hunter"/><category term="Sarah Polley"/><category term="Scott Cooper"/><category term="Scott Derrickson"/><category term="Sean Baker"/><category term="Sebastian Junger"/><category term="Seijun Suzuki"/><category term="Senegal"/><category term="Sergio Corbucci"/><category term="Setsuko Hara"/><category term="Severin Fiala"/><category term="Shane Black"/><category term="Shane Carruth"/><category term="Sherad Anthony Sanchez"/><category term="Shinichiro Watanabe"/><category term="Sigrid Andrea Bernardo"/><category term="Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"/><category term="Spike Jonze"/><category term="Stefano Odoardi"/><category term="Stephen Frears"/><category term="Stephen Hawking"/><category term="Stephen Hopkins"/><category term="Stephen J. Anderson"/><category term="Stephen Sondheim"/><category term="Steve DeKnight"/><category term="Steve Gordon"/><category term="Steven Knight"/><category term="Steven Shainberg"/><category term="Stuart Gordon"/><category term="Studio Ponoc"/><category term="Sylvain Chomet"/><category term="T&#39;Boli"/><category term="Taiwan"/><category term="Takashi Miike"/><category term="Takashi Yamazaki"/><category term="Ted Chiang"/><category term="Terence Rattigan"/><category term="Terry Jones"/><category term="Tetsuro Araki"/><category term="The Hague"/><category term="Theodore Sturgeon"/><category term="Thomas Hardy"/><category term="Thomas M. Disch"/><category term="Tian Zhuangzhuang"/><category term="Tim Hetherington"/><category term="Tim Miller"/><category term="Timur Bekmambetov"/><category term="Todd Haynes"/><category term="Todd Philips"/><category term="Tom Holland"/><category term="Tom McCarthy"/><category term="Tom Six"/><category term="Tom Tykwer"/><category term="Tomm Moore"/><category term="Tony Kushner"/><category term="Travis Knight"/><category term="Treb Monteras II"/><category term="Truman Capote"/><category term="Tsugumi Oba"/><category term="Venezuela"/><category term="Venice Film Festival"/><category term="Veronica Velasco"/><category term="Veronika Franz"/><category term="Victor Erice"/><category term="Victor Sjostrom"/><category term="Victor Villanueva"/><category term="Vincent Minnelli"/><category term="Vincenzo Natali"/><category term="Walter Hill"/><category term="Walter Keane"/><category term="Wes Craven"/><category term="Whit Stillman"/><category term="William Pascual"/><category term="Woody Allen"/><category term="Xavier Gens"/><category term="Yasim Ostaoglu"/><category term="Yeon Sang-ho"/><category term="Yilmaz Guney"/><category term="Ying Liang"/><category term="Yoji Yamada"/><category term="Yoko Kanno"/><category term="Yuen Bun"/><category term="Zacharias Kunuk"/><category term="Zeki Demirkubuz"/><category term="alternate version"/><category term="art"/><category term="blood diamond"/><category term="fant"/><category term="jacques Audiard"/><category term="jake Kasdan"/><title type='text'>Critic After Dark</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default?redirect=false'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25&amp;redirect=false'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>1198</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4579363174558567735</id><published>2024-03-18T09:39:00.001-04:00</published><updated>2024-03-18T09:40:58.316-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Action"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Independent"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Mario O&#39;Hara"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="musical"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Nora Aunor"/><title type='text'>Gaano Kita Kamahal (Mario O&#39;Hara, 1981)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Bh4xmH2F4RwhSJvHsWbfL4IRLFtA-rrOy81u3roClzK8dUsgQRpNzjIWwxDziPJ6U9SQ9Ha3EALLp_n16RjXrdN-pud-J0EcIel1_BOVgELQkFubL_ScaQtFo1InDbIoJNALjnGiemk6GdVwq-kqCtylaWGCS2ucsAPEaCp7vaxH6-gVB5KO/s2514/1710766789002.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1885&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2514&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Bh4xmH2F4RwhSJvHsWbfL4IRLFtA-rrOy81u3roClzK8dUsgQRpNzjIWwxDziPJ6U9SQ9Ha3EALLp_n16RjXrdN-pud-J0EcIel1_BOVgELQkFubL_ScaQtFo1InDbIoJNALjnGiemk6GdVwq-kqCtylaWGCS2ucsAPEaCp7vaxH6-gVB5KO/w400-h300/1710766789002.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Eternity and a day&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Coming off the commercial and critical success of &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/05/kastilyong-buhangin-castle-of-sand.html&quot;&gt;Kastilyong Buhangin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Castle of Sand&lt;/i&gt;, 1980), Nora Aunor, Lito Lapid, and Mario O&#39;Hara put their heads together once more to present &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0445386/&quot;&gt;Gaano Kita Kamahal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;How Much I Love You&lt;/i&gt;, 1981), a more ambitious more lavish production.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Mely Tagasa and Mario O&#39;Hara&#39;s script for &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;told their story in fairy-tale terms-- Nora and Lito&#39;s Laura and Oscar growing up as childhood playmates, Laura tormented by her ogre foster-father, brave Oscar defending her and paying a heavy price. The die was cast long before they knew anything: Oscar was Laura&#39;s friend-- brother, almost-- before falling in love with him; Oscar grew up not under his mother&#39;s care but in the prison system-- when released he walks about with a convict&#39;s mentality (strike back when struck; stick to your friends no matter what; fight hard play rough die young). Laura, blessed by Oscar&#39;s sacrifice, knew better-- she had the talent and drive to succeed at a singing career. They were fated to follow their respective trajectories, she an uninterrupted ascent him a downward spiral.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;i&gt;Gaano&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(script by Daniel Martin, Greg Tadeo, Jerry O&#39;Hara, Mario O&#39;Hara) the tone is set by the film&#39;s opening image, of a man in ballerina drag dancing a clumsy pas de duh while Melissa Manchester croons &quot;Through the Eyes of Love&quot; on the soundtrack-- the dissonance between romantic ballad and graceless slapstick at once funny ugly somehow poignant. We meet the lovers as strong independent-minded adults pursuing separate if parallel careers: Lito as swordmaster Hector, Nora as songstress Pilar. Presumably they met in a show and fell in love; presumably Hector with his strong, rugged physique felt the need to expend surplus energy not just on Pilar but on any statuesque beauty who happens to walk past-- in this case singer Lucy Alba (Geraldine), daughter of veteran director Bernardo Alba (Mario Escudero), who happens to be Hector&#39;s mentor. When Lucy gets pregnant, Hector is stuck.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Obvious why &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong&lt;/i&gt; was such a box office smash-- nothing hits harder than a pair of starcrossed lovers (ask Shakespeare), especially when you&#39;ve followed them from childhood. Asked to repeat &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong&lt;/i&gt;&#39;s winning recipe O&#39;Hara fiddles with the formula, and the result is more complicated with a hidden agenda-- to pay tribute to Filipino vaudeville.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You see that agenda everywhere: the ballads, the dance numbers, the comedy skits. Senor Alba has big plans for Hector to star in his latest film production (vaudeville is dying, has been dying for years, and the jackpot is an offer to make a movie of what you&#39;ve been performing all this time onstage). Alba playfully challenges Hector to a duel wherein the former easily disarms the latter, the director reminding Hector that he taught him everything he knows. When Hector defies Lucy&#39;s demands to marry her, he should have known better-- or does when Senor Alba sets the record straight (I can make or break you). The result is grotesque comedy with O&#39;Hara planting the camera before the chapel altar, turning it into an impromptu stage where priest blesses the couple&#39;s union, well-wishers shake hands, and the camera once in a while freezes on Hector&#39;s face to show what he thinks of the farce.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Offered a bit of sugar and you can take or leave it depending on how you feel at the moment; prohibited from ever having sugar for the rest of your life and you develop a craving, as if to crystal meth-- now Hector can&#39;t stay away from Pilar, who doesn&#39;t for a moment encourage him but can&#39;t help being responsive. Early on O&#39;Hara showed us the lovers&#39; normal interaction (long takes of the two bickering); once the rampart of matrimony rises between them the interactions suddenly become wordless, bitterly exchanged glances and gestures, and what starts out as a funny sketch darkens into a deeply felt passion play.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nora is best known for her roles as dusky provinciana either being threatened by a tyrannical employer or abusive husband or drunken Japanese officer; not as well known but should be are her films as reluctant &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/07/caridad-from-fe-esperanza-caridad.html&quot;&gt;adulterer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;, who falls into a love affair not entirely of her own volition, pulled into it by feelings she can&#39;t express in words (but can, eloquently, with her eyes). One remembers that moment in &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong Buhangin&lt;/i&gt; when Oscar pulls at Laura&#39;s hand and the audience swoons; there&#39;s similar moment in &lt;i&gt;Gaano&lt;/i&gt; where Hector seizes Pilar-- Nora looks surprised, not just by Hector&#39;s gesture but by her own feelings on the matter. O&#39;Hara does capture lightning in a bottle a second time, at least in this moment, a gift if you like to Nora&#39;s fans.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And sometimes it&#39;s not the script, sometimes it&#39;s the details enhancing the drama. O&#39;Hara began with a sarcastic interpretation of &quot;Through the Eyes of Love&quot; (we meet a pair of not exactly graceful lovers), along the way quotes lines from Alan Jay Lerner&#39;s &quot;I&#39;ve Grown Accustomed to (His) Face&quot; (which Pilar sings with rueful affection while O&#39;Hara inserts shots of Hector in bed with Lucy), and so on. O&#39;Hara is operating in full-on musical mode, the numbers commenting, sometimes cynically, on the story. When we reach the eponymous song&#39;s onscreen performance we&#39;re primed to soar as Nora negotiates the ladder of consonants and vowels (&lt;i&gt;Mag. Pa. Kai. Lan. Man!&lt;/i&gt;) that is the song&#39;s key term (roughly put: forevermore).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or not. Nora and Lito as adulterers? Lito as an unrepentant asshole? Where&#39;s the mix of action and song numbers? And what&#39;s this vaudeville shit? Audience and critics alike expected a &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong 2&lt;/i&gt; and got a more adult, more clear-eyed melodrama where both lovers do wrong and &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; they&#39;re doing wrong (in &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong&lt;/i&gt; you get the sense it&#39;s the alcohol and anxiety of living in the world outside prison) but can&#39;t help themselves anyway (the film recalls the startling conclusion to Mike Nichols&#39; &lt;i&gt;The Graduate &lt;/i&gt;only here Dustin Hoffman can kick ass and Katherine Ross can actually act and sing). Most of the film is wall to wall song numbers with a sprinkling of action (the play-fencing between Hector and Senor Abla; an outdoor brawl-- shot handheld with only one cut mid-sequence-- where Hector defends his father)-- dry slog for Lito Lapid fight fans until the closing minutes. The film was savaged by critics and bombed at the boxoffice.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which is a pity; thanks to the success of &lt;i&gt;Kastilyong&lt;/i&gt;, O&#39;Hara managed to put together a dream team of talents: production designer Benjie de Guzman, who conceived the massively elaborately kitschy sets evoking the age of vaudeville (the musical numbers coming across as George Cukor with a trace-- just a trace-- of deadpan Ken Russell); cinematographer Conrado Baltazar, who gave the film a brooding melancholic grandeur; and Efren Jarlego-- of the Jarlego family of film editors-- who did the understated but precise cutting. Producer Peter Gan has a taste for risky fare-- he produced O&#39;Hara&#39;s action noir &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2009/12/three-by-nora-merika-gil-portes.html&quot;&gt;Condemned&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; and gloriously understated drama&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-court-of-public-opinion-mario.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bakit Bugkhaw ang Langit?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Why is the Sky Blue?&lt;/i&gt;) and one was a hit (the action noir) and at least two failed to perform financially (the drama and this action-musical). Bitter consolation I&#39;m guessing that his work is much admired, by a precious few.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flaws? O&#39;Hara inserts one too many melodramatic incidents (a jar of flung acid, an improbably timed car accident) while trying to maneuver his chess pieces to their inevitable conclusion, a confrontation between Hector and his mentor, Senor Alba. That, and perhaps the ambition of reaching too far, presenting something newer more different for the audience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I remember in an interview O&#39;Hara citing Michael Curtiz&#39;s &lt;i&gt;The Adventures of Robin Hood&lt;/i&gt; as a formative childhood experience and I can see that wide-eyed child at work here, shooting the intricate swordplay in long takes, taking care to show the footwork (almost always a neglected aspect in action sequences) and how balance is always a swordsman&#39;s concern. I wondered at the choreography-- how did Lito Lapid manage to teach his adversary fencing, and how did the older Mario Escudero keep up? Turns out Escudero was the fencing master-- he taught Fernando Poe Jr. how to use the sword-- and Lito Lapid the pupil, having an infernal time keeping up. Art imitates life, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Critics flinched at the prospect of a cheesy swordfight and Lapid fans were presumably disappointed he didn&#39;t get to use his fists, but this is O&#39;Hara again and without shame expressing his love for yet another dying art-- the fight takes place on a stage littered with stage props, loose curtains, fallen light fixtures, continues backstage and up (of course) to the balcony. with a finale straight out of Hitchcock. Critics may have flinched and audiences failed to follow, but I had the time of my life, fashion trends in action and filmmaking be damned. Highly recommended.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Thanks to Jojo De Vera for support and valuable information&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published in &lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2024/03/15/581828/eternity-and-a-day/&quot;&gt;Businessworld&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt; 3.15.24&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6kvfXooSiXn8uzVOdfwFnjdL5aDGdUFDCWDTok0Y7s6HL35OpqadmItHd7fMab2oyIzAKKcIlB60CWG-Kt5gVW5N4uHTRM2vVpPWIr70BkcZDfwWfMSVLP_I19vxyc8OoMyfxBNQL8EC8dDiAOLVTd3TrJHXNvUYZeCuEPOtTvfoD3E2X-rIX/s3840/1710767237411.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;2880&quot; data-original-width=&quot;3840&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6kvfXooSiXn8uzVOdfwFnjdL5aDGdUFDCWDTok0Y7s6HL35OpqadmItHd7fMab2oyIzAKKcIlB60CWG-Kt5gVW5N4uHTRM2vVpPWIr70BkcZDfwWfMSVLP_I19vxyc8OoMyfxBNQL8EC8dDiAOLVTd3TrJHXNvUYZeCuEPOtTvfoD3E2X-rIX/w400-h300/1710767237411.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4579363174558567735/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4579363174558567735' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4579363174558567735'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4579363174558567735'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/03/gaano-kita-kamahal-mario-ohara-1981.html' title='Gaano Kita Kamahal (Mario O&#39;Hara, 1981)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Bh4xmH2F4RwhSJvHsWbfL4IRLFtA-rrOy81u3roClzK8dUsgQRpNzjIWwxDziPJ6U9SQ9Ha3EALLp_n16RjXrdN-pud-J0EcIel1_BOVgELQkFubL_ScaQtFo1InDbIoJNALjnGiemk6GdVwq-kqCtylaWGCS2ucsAPEaCp7vaxH6-gVB5KO/s72-w400-h300-c/1710766789002.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2790663747571744962</id><published>2024-03-06T15:54:00.005-05:00</published><updated>2024-03-08T16:22:45.692-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="book"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="David Lynch"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Denis Villeneuve"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Frank Herbert"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Science Fiction"/><title type='text'>Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024) </title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfEvGvV_5ZNlWtcrzj1xlB5gy0_QfGDKg9CkaTUz3sD3SnGx2Vdjs1MOEzRJXL-kTlNpLp0Mk1Q8NxHYHmTZm-NfiFDl8n8qpEe2A_B_bM7nUBLXnUhKeuvr7Ur7BuufdZCLTU9ZCNe0PuNmCsPEKEOZ-Vp4Os_VuUi_TaTzCk4v1pRafE01s/s500/MV5BZWE1MDU3ZmMtZWY3Yy00MDBlLWFkMDMtMmIwNTZkNWUyZWU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;281&quot; data-original-width=&quot;500&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfEvGvV_5ZNlWtcrzj1xlB5gy0_QfGDKg9CkaTUz3sD3SnGx2Vdjs1MOEzRJXL-kTlNpLp0Mk1Q8NxHYHmTZm-NfiFDl8n8qpEe2A_B_bM7nUBLXnUhKeuvr7Ur7BuufdZCLTU9ZCNe0PuNmCsPEKEOZ-Vp4Os_VuUi_TaTzCk4v1pRafE01s/w400-h225/MV5BZWE1MDU3ZmMtZWY3Yy00MDBlLWFkMDMtMmIwNTZkNWUyZWU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Done again&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Warning: details of both &#39;84, &#39;21, &#39;24 films and &#39;65 book discussed in freewheelingly explicit detail&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Denis Villeneuve finishing his two-part&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15239678/&quot;&gt;adaptation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; of Frank Herbert&#39;s classic science fiction novel and you want to ask: was it worth the wait? Was it worth the hype? Was it worth sitting through the first movie?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pretty much said all I needed to say &lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2021/10/dune-denis-villeneuve-2021-david-lynch.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;in my first article&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; save to confirm yes Villeneuve will continue his holier than thou ultrarespectful approach to the Herbert books, enshrining them in crystal atop marble pedestals.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And yes some additional fiddling was done to bring the books in line with our more politically correct times: the bombing of Arrakeen calls to mind the Palestinian attack on the Israelis and later the Israeli shelling of Gaza (never mind that it&#39;s the Fremen committing both acts, the visual metaphor is established and your brain isn&#39;t fast enough to recognize important differences). Zendaya&#39;s Chani has been jiggered to take on a more significant and active role, as the human face reacting to Paul Muad&#39;Dib&#39;s (Timothee Chalamet&#39;s) ascension from cute boyfriend to early messiahood and as a voice speaking out for indigenous communities.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Careful distinction made between the more fanatical Southern Fremen (who have been indoctrinated by the Bene Gesserit) and the more skeptical Northern* folk--&amp;nbsp; a bit like distinguishing between &#39;bad&#39; Palestinians and &#39;good&#39; Palestinians. Every so often we have Paul remembering a nightmare he had of jihad (a word never once uttered on film), of billions dying because he starts a holy war; he follows a figure-- is it his sister Alya (who tasted of The Water of Life while still&amp;nbsp; in her womb?), or some cast member freshly wandered off a Terence Malick set?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*(&lt;i&gt;You&#39;d think the North being geographically closer and easier to penetrate the Bene Gesserit would do better-- but apparently Southerners are more receptive to this kind of faith seeding. Secular north vs religious south-- yet another hamfisted attempt at relevance&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve noted that Lynch&#39;s adaptation doesn&#39;t put things so baldly, and one can interpret the Atreides&#39; victory two ways: as an unqualified success, so successful that science becomes magic and rain comes to Dune for the first time; or as Paul&#39;s slide into fanaticism and fascism, his sister Alya poised orgiastically with bloodied knife in one hand, his soldiers assembled like the stormtroopers in &lt;i&gt;Triumph of the Will&lt;/i&gt;, and rain falling on Dune for the first time, a miracle to sanction his holy war.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this version Chani&#39;s expression is all too clear and we&#39;re being prepared for the darker passages of &lt;i&gt;Dune Messiah&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;when things really go sideways. Not sure Villeneuve was right to telegraph the events of &lt;i&gt;Messiah&lt;/i&gt; so loudly in &lt;i&gt;Part Two&lt;/i&gt;-- if he believed in Herbert he should trust Herbert&#39;s instinct to make the doomsaying less strident and more like background noise, ultimately rising up in volume to take over in the last installment.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Harkonnens continue to inspire yawns. Stellan Skarsgard&#39;s Baron looks more lost than loathsome (admittedly he was like that in the book&#39;s final chapters) and Austin Butler as the much-hyped Feyd-Rautha comes disappointingly across like Sting on quaaludes, or a more chill Jared Leto.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Zendaya gives the film&#39;s best performance as Paul&#39;s love interest-- if there are any human stakes involved in this picture (god knows how precious little there actually is) they can be found written on her wary later loving later bewildered later embittered face. Javier Bardem plays the Anthony Quinn role of loud and entertaining savage in this big screen version of &lt;i&gt;Lawrence of Arabia&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(Zendaya could be this movie&#39;s Omar Sharif). Timothee Chalamet may be the credited hero and especially in &lt;i&gt;Part One&lt;/i&gt;, when he&#39;s clearly outmatched by all the forces arrayed against, he makes for a persuasively hapless victim; in &lt;i&gt;Part Two&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;where he&#39;s asked to play dangerous fanatical messiah he comes off as dangerous as Spongebob Squarepants. **&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;**(&lt;i&gt;And the animated series actually pay tribute to Herbert&#39;s creatures, in the episode where Spongebob and his friend Sandy deal with an Alaskan Bull Worm&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Overall the movie... feels like a Denis Villeneuve movie. Take a famous franchise (&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2017/10/blade-runner-vs-blade-runner-2049.html&quot;&gt;Blade Runner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; or&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2017/02/arrival-denis-villeneuve.html&quot;&gt;2001&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; anyone?), pluck out all that&#39;s unique and eccentric, update it closer to what&#39;s acceptable in these politically correct times, grind thoroughly till matte black featureless. Music either droned or loudly banged by Hans Zimmer (as opposed to Toto&#39;s rock-opera score back in &#39;84). Hand to hand combat photographed too close in to see clearly-- I&#39;m guessing Chalamet failed to keep up with training and Villeneuve had to cover with jerky footage and frenetic editing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The climax feels anticlimactic-- no silly downpour of course but no dramatic equivalent either, just the vague promise of a part 3. Will I be there a third time? I guess, though more reluctant than ever-- Villenueve&#39;s projects are about as inspiring as a sandbox and not as much fun; give me a beach blanket and umbrella and a good book and maybe I won&#39;t feel like I wasted time (once managed to finish &lt;i&gt;One Hundred Years of Solitude &lt;/i&gt;that way). Meanwhile I don&#39;t have my hopes up.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA6IcFYBzt0czHygZBp1CvHaxXiaPtCmLOkkgaBBdcNxQxsHWPv_8miny0HI2bccNs4yYSm8uR2cMNfXqS03wEZyyXfjcL322RpsamoIgcs0eM3ViOS2ovOOHy4V4qodV5oZX5xFR4rV_9LOA-pnr4fClyNV1Tg9SjmyCYQ6m9DyltWtTRCU6/s1200/xbDCf6FqdCYVvPWuvUDCJD-1200-80.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;675&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA6IcFYBzt0czHygZBp1CvHaxXiaPtCmLOkkgaBBdcNxQxsHWPv_8miny0HI2bccNs4yYSm8uR2cMNfXqS03wEZyyXfjcL322RpsamoIgcs0eM3ViOS2ovOOHy4V4qodV5oZX5xFR4rV_9LOA-pnr4fClyNV1Tg9SjmyCYQ6m9DyltWtTRCU6/w400-h225/xbDCf6FqdCYVvPWuvUDCJD-1200-80.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/2790663747571744962/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=2790663747571744962' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2790663747571744962'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2790663747571744962'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/03/dune-part-two-denis-villeneuve-2024.html' title='Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024) '/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfEvGvV_5ZNlWtcrzj1xlB5gy0_QfGDKg9CkaTUz3sD3SnGx2Vdjs1MOEzRJXL-kTlNpLp0Mk1Q8NxHYHmTZm-NfiFDl8n8qpEe2A_B_bM7nUBLXnUhKeuvr7Ur7BuufdZCLTU9ZCNe0PuNmCsPEKEOZ-Vp4Os_VuUi_TaTzCk4v1pRafE01s/s72-w400-h225-c/MV5BZWE1MDU3ZmMtZWY3Yy00MDBlLWFkMDMtMmIwNTZkNWUyZWU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6643375718605204837</id><published>2024-03-05T03:10:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2024-03-05T11:29:35.734-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comic book"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="S J Clarkson"/><title type='text'>Madame Web (SJ Clarkson, 2024)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1kFhLbHJfsC2JfNU0wfrEPIZpxFh2nHOgUbDBuSMn_xWf867psuhrP3oayLHNcsb3F_MAmG_Ygt_lbL8Q-E2XEZPWXYSVocoqlq29CJO-bky9xc6porTSF-JXAyX372WcWc5JnMf9FS2XyIPtNLHuA5XfNcDBJDLi66P1hX2lgN_HJ-S64Xt/s1200/Madame-Web_Dakota-Johnson-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;675&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1kFhLbHJfsC2JfNU0wfrEPIZpxFh2nHOgUbDBuSMn_xWf867psuhrP3oayLHNcsb3F_MAmG_Ygt_lbL8Q-E2XEZPWXYSVocoqlq29CJO-bky9xc6porTSF-JXAyX372WcWc5JnMf9FS2XyIPtNLHuA5XfNcDBJDLi66P1hX2lgN_HJ-S64Xt/w400-h225/Madame-Web_Dakota-Johnson-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Thread softly&lt;/b&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11057302/&quot;&gt;Madame Web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;is&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;mostly awful but not as bad as y&#39;all say. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes it&#39;s confusing-- throws too many characters at you too quickly to easily assimilate. Yes it has a fairly complex premise that needs a more deliberate pace and visual clarity. Yes the frenetically handheld visual style adds confusion on top of confusion and makes everything worse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes a prep school complete with uniforms, turn-of-the-century architecture, and wrought iron fencing would not likely be facing a major New York avenue shaded by an elevated rail. Yes there&#39;s such a thing as &lt;i&gt;too&lt;/i&gt; many Pepsi commercials (which I can forgive if they were funny but the movie keeps sneaking them in as if we wouldn&#39;t notice). No if I knew three sullen kids were so important I&#39;d sit in the same room as they and watch them, not run off to this library or that South American country trusting them to not move.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And nowhere in the movie or any number of recent horrors have I seen a more terrifying sequence than Dakota Johnson (as veteran paramedic and out-of-her-depth protagonist Cassie Webb) behind the wheels of a moving vehicle. She looks everywhere except the road, reaches back to slams a taxi&#39;s speaking hole shut, conducts extended conversations with her passengers while glaring at them from her front seat. Actors can emote facing forward every bit as well as they can facing back; why act in a way that frightens the audience for your safety?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ms. Clarkson may glide her camera a tad too much in the name of style and cut too often for the sake of clarity but when it comes to narrative and emotional beats she shows some ability. Johnson&#39;s Cassie is fairly well sketched, a social klutz made that way because (presumably) she had no parent to help develop her interaction skills; the three girls (played by Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O&#39;Connor respectively) that Cassie has taken under wing have charisma and charm-- O&#39;Connor in particular stands out as prospective rebel-in-training-- but given the reception and box-office inspired so far they may want to keep this particular title out of their respective resumes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A few mildly surprising plot twists, a few flashbacks into Cassie&#39;s past, a few action sequences showing Cassie growing into her role as all-around superhero precog (term from the Philip K. Dick &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Minority_Report&quot;&gt;short story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;) and mother hen figure, and O&#39;Connor, Sweeney, and Merced developing rapport with each other and Johnson. It&#39;s actually not bad, a girl-power, lets-pull-together inspirational where you&#39;ve got such low expectations going in you just might feel better-than-expected stepping out.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Might have helped if Clarkson had the visual snap crackle and pop to bring the chase sequences to life (for a well-shot crisply staged-and-edited example involving a prescient quarry, check out Spielberg&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Minority Report&lt;/i&gt;). Might help if bad guy Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) were given juicier lines and a more compelling motive for stealing the super-spider-- some funny repartee between him and Johnson might have helped carry the picture to the finish line-- but we got what we got and that&#39;s all we&#39;re gonna get. Is it just my imagination or is Marvel actually putting out&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;better&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;less formulaic work on its way to total collapse?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaqSKkIB_pmR7AzgJmzAKWOFbUJYhIU0IixbJgnzi0VI_PK_6SXj0FEWXoBrdkdn5KLjWOSm9qbmB-_6LaHrG3oGlyvJA7E4IYI0P60oiUR6rN07oeZESG9ao-GK4q89wZXRNqc58GP9vOR5hF_HAB7A2unYo-xqvgw7jW045_-PpNQWraqkN/s2560/GettyImages-1432889804-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1440&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2560&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaqSKkIB_pmR7AzgJmzAKWOFbUJYhIU0IixbJgnzi0VI_PK_6SXj0FEWXoBrdkdn5KLjWOSm9qbmB-_6LaHrG3oGlyvJA7E4IYI0P60oiUR6rN07oeZESG9ao-GK4q89wZXRNqc58GP9vOR5hF_HAB7A2unYo-xqvgw7jW045_-PpNQWraqkN/w400-h225/GettyImages-1432889804-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/6643375718605204837/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=6643375718605204837' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6643375718605204837'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6643375718605204837'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/03/madame-web-sj-clarkson-2024.html' title='Madame Web (SJ Clarkson, 2024)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1kFhLbHJfsC2JfNU0wfrEPIZpxFh2nHOgUbDBuSMn_xWf867psuhrP3oayLHNcsb3F_MAmG_Ygt_lbL8Q-E2XEZPWXYSVocoqlq29CJO-bky9xc6porTSF-JXAyX372WcWc5JnMf9FS2XyIPtNLHuA5XfNcDBJDLi66P1hX2lgN_HJ-S64Xt/s72-w400-h225-c/Madame-Web_Dakota-Johnson-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4288185726104629476</id><published>2024-03-01T16:49:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2024-03-12T21:44:25.223-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Chinese cinema"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="David Bordwell"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Film Criticism"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hong Kong"/><title type='text'>David Bordwell (1947 - 2024)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHVv5X0EMxQI5aByLQQ3EnzmQfYYoMco3Y-oHwy4TwzDpTgWT09ayo5QK5uiV4C8y0oBRQ0QTOcF157dzqg6Ti3izCfX3bs39HSLhjk22AWpYcXEUgYlTiYaTPnLENuNV5z5mVTdNonwnKZjPLE28kaCKSdEabj9C22pk6BpUI10A1kKO19-f/s600/Book-and-Stark-600.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;325&quot; data-original-width=&quot;600&quot; height=&quot;216&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHVv5X0EMxQI5aByLQQ3EnzmQfYYoMco3Y-oHwy4TwzDpTgWT09ayo5QK5uiV4C8y0oBRQ0QTOcF157dzqg6Ti3izCfX3bs39HSLhjk22AWpYcXEUgYlTiYaTPnLENuNV5z5mVTdNonwnKZjPLE28kaCKSdEabj9C22pk6BpUI10A1kKO19-f/w400-h216/Book-and-Stark-600.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiewire.com/news/obituary/david-bordwell-dead-film-scholar-1234959386/&quot;&gt;David Bordwell&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; (1947 - 2024) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a&quot; style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;&quot;&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I remember him in the Hong Kong Film Festival, always at his preferred spot: first row, at the exact center, the screen filling his eyes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a&quot; style=&quot;color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;&quot;&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot; style=&quot;background-color: white;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I remember talking to him in between screenings, and on the ferry between Hong Kong and Kowloon: when I mentioned that 30s Hollywood films lost their visual dexterity thanks to the advent of sound he took exception; turns out he was right because he&#39;s seen practically every film ever made, or at least more than I &lt;a style=&quot;color: #385898; cursor: pointer;&quot; tabindex=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;ever did.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot; style=&quot;background-color: white;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; white-space-collapse: collapse;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;And while I&#39;m trying to catch the latest and hottest films he&#39;s running off to some far-flung theater to catch the screening of a rare Hong Kong or Chinese film I&#39;ve never heard of. If I was smart I&#39;d have been trailing him.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; white-space-collapse: collapse;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; white-space-collapse: collapse;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I remember &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://cambridgebookreview.com/tag/planet-hong-kong/&quot;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; about his book &lt;i&gt;Planet Hong Kong&lt;/i&gt; and having fun not just reading it but writing about it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; white-space-collapse: collapse;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; white-space-collapse: collapse;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I still read his &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;, an encyclopedic and authoritative resource for detailed analysis on everything from &lt;i&gt;The Dark Knight&lt;/i&gt; (he hated it) to Hou Hsiaou Hsien (loved him) to &lt;i&gt;Hunt for Red October&lt;/i&gt; (loved it).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a&quot; style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;&quot;&gt;&lt;div dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I remember helping him access a few Filipino films, and him sending me in turn a copy of his book Poetics of Cinema. He was wonderful company, and an amazing (and amazingly thorough) film writer&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4288185726104629476/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4288185726104629476' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4288185726104629476'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4288185726104629476'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/03/david-bordwell-1947-2024.html' title='David Bordwell (1947 - 2024)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHVv5X0EMxQI5aByLQQ3EnzmQfYYoMco3Y-oHwy4TwzDpTgWT09ayo5QK5uiV4C8y0oBRQ0QTOcF157dzqg6Ti3izCfX3bs39HSLhjk22AWpYcXEUgYlTiYaTPnLENuNV5z5mVTdNonwnKZjPLE28kaCKSdEabj9C22pk6BpUI10A1kKO19-f/s72-w400-h216-c/Book-and-Stark-600.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1718603112014106039</id><published>2024-02-29T12:32:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2024-02-29T12:54:13.218-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comic book"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Filipino"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Laurice Guillen"/><title type='text'>Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap (Should the Skies Clear, Laurice Guillen, 1984)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GbGvNg4S89Bt517CTk6O-2hJVkINv9Oa-v-tQkgy0ll4wF0CR_F60miVRXQ7XkEHeOv9NB0Lklsx0gU62QQ6EiRrMBRRosmUd8j5o7qwrmpZoCyAnmLABLxkRCFsWNxw3q3-Unxz0Qk2aV_2UNav2bCMIuKYWB7b5iJdnPqQGpdltKVqqGkA/s1723/271632330_4477712782337114_8328019504726772278_n.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;969&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1723&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GbGvNg4S89Bt517CTk6O-2hJVkINv9Oa-v-tQkgy0ll4wF0CR_F60miVRXQ7XkEHeOv9NB0Lklsx0gU62QQ6EiRrMBRRosmUd8j5o7qwrmpZoCyAnmLABLxkRCFsWNxw3q3-Unxz0Qk2aV_2UNav2bCMIuKYWB7b5iJdnPqQGpdltKVqqGkA/w400-h225/271632330_4477712782337114_8328019504726772278_n.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Family planning&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  2. (&lt;i&gt;WARNING: storyline and plot twists discussed in detail&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  3.  
  4. Laurice Guillen&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408978/&quot;&gt;Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Should the Skies Clear&lt;/i&gt;, 1984) is yet another popular komiks series (adapted by Orlando Nadres and Lualhati Bautista from a serial by Gilda Olvidado) about young Catherine Clemente (Hilda Koronel), upset that her mother Minda (Gloria Romero) has fallen for newcomer Pablo Acuesta (Eddie Garcia). Catherine&#39;s boyfriend Rustan (Christopher de Leon, almost a required name for middle-class melodramas) scoffs at her fears but Catherine won&#39;t be placated; she knows Pablo and his progeny-- Chona (Isabel Rivas), Rita (Amy Austria), Jojo (Michael de Mesa)-- are up to no good. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
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  7. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Instructive to compare this to Mike de Leon&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/11/hindi-nahahati-ang-langit-heavens.html&quot;&gt;Hindi Nahahati ang Langit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;The Heavens Indivisible&lt;/i&gt;, 1984) his crystalline take on a komiks series: where de Leon&#39;s is climate-controlled to within an inch of its life, Guillen&#39;s veers wildly from the implausibly confrontational (Catherine outside of Minda and Pablo&#39;s bedroom, demanding that they explain Pablo&#39;s P30,000 personal loan) to the sublimely melodramatic (Rustan in the rain begging for forgiveness while Catherine huddles in her bedroom, weeping). De Leon&#39;s film is of a piece; the plot is logical, the details authentic (loved it that when the characters talk about the construction business, it&#39;s really about construction, complete with technical jargon and involved accounting concepts). Guillen doesn&#39;t have that kind of precision--when Pablo starts beating women and children, you wonder where his violent streak comes from (he earlier showed himself craven when Rustan pulls out a gun); later developments-- a mother&#39;s demise, a child&#39;s suffering at the hands of relatives-- aren&#39;t excessively outrageous, but the tone is so insistently despairing you have to suppress a giggle: there&#39;s such a thing as too melodramatic, and this crosses the line once, twice, several times.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  8. About midway into the film Guillen stages a sexual assault, and the scene is&amp;nbsp; dragged-out brutal, so bruisingly realistic the giggles fall away like rain. Later comes the trial, and while the usual practice in Filipino dramas is to cast real lawyers or cheap extras to play prosecutor or defense attorney woodenly (we&#39;re not talking professional thespians here), this time we have veteran character actor Tommy Abuel as prosecutor, and he&#39;s magnificent: sly, sarcastic, even cunningly gentle when questioning Catherine (never pays to browbeat a rape victim), he sells the possibility that a clear-cut case of self-defense will be waylaid into a manslaughter conviction (only one problematic detail: the door was clearly forced-- wouldn&#39;t this have been taken into account?). Again breakdowns and lamentations-- it&#39;s a komiks serial after all-- but Catherine&#39;s final cry for help and Minda&#39;s anguished response (Guillen&#39;s camera capturing all in a series of extended shots) feels harrowingly honest. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  9.  
  10. The second half, much of which is set in prison, feels like an altogether different (and better) picture. At one point Catherine stands tall amongst the dried grass in her convict orange uniform, Guillen&#39;s camera regarding her from a low-angle shot-- with not a little awe, a monument to martyred women everywhere-- her knees buckle, her hands clutch her belly, her face tilts heavenwards in agony as labor pains begin. Later her child (now three years old) screams as he&#39;s being abused; Guillen cuts to Catherine sitting on her bunk, the screams like a haunting reminder echoing in her head. Mike de Leon for all his precision and intellect would never attempt anything this directly elemental. He makes no major mistakes; he also fails to achieve anything so improbably intense--for that you need to take risks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
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  12. The film might also recall Mario O&#39;Hara&#39;s classic women-in-prison film &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2019/11/bulaklak-sa-city-jail-flowers-of-city.html&quot;&gt;Bulaklak sa City Jail&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Flowers of the City Jail&lt;/i&gt;) done that same year. Where O&#39;Hara&#39;s is a portrait of the urban prison as one of the lower circles of hell, Guillen&#39;s is relatively innocuous (the food looks bad, the guards stern but not violently abusive); where O&#39;Hara&#39;s Angela (Nora Aunor) hardens her resolve in the forge of incarceration, Guillen&#39;s Catherine remains one vast open throbbing wound--more passive perhaps, but also more vulnerable to the pain of loss.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
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  14. Interesting to compare Koronel&#39;s performance here to one of her most famous early roles, as the eponymous &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/04/insiang-lino-brocka-1976.html&quot;&gt;Insiang&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; in Lino Brocka&#39;s classic film--there she seemed as French critics would famously say &quot;too beautiful for the slums&quot; (Brocka&#39;s reply being equally well-known (she &quot;is from the slums!&quot;)); here her beauty seems more developed, more complexly flavored. Can&#39;t make the case that Guillen&#39;s melodrama is better than Brocka&#39;s masterpiece (it isn&#39;t) but I think I can make the case that Koronel back then was raw and inexperienced, her performance rather callow; here the girl is now a woman grown, and her suffering seems to come straight from experience, and not a director&#39;s insistent coaxing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
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  16. The rest of the cast is generally fine, with the villains enjoying a distinct advantage in the fun department: I&#39;ve mentioned Mr. Abuel but there&#39;s also drop-dead sexy Amy Austria, the only Acuesta willing to use her brain (she doesn&#39;t get very far--you wonder why she never realized her sob story to Rustan would be easy to fact-check--but at least she got somewhere); Eddie Garcia is deliciously unscrupulous as the spineless Pablo, and enjoys one great moment--when Catherine strides into the sagging old mansion she once lived in to confront Pablo in his sickbed (shades of Pip confronting Mrs. Havisham, with the sexes reversed). Not a great film by any measure, but Guillen&#39;s ability to add such grace moments helps make the picture at the very least a memorable entertainment. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
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  18. First published in &lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/&quot;&gt;Businessworld&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt; 12.18.14&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8hlnkHsq7AKAzXjI4LzDWS995zD-QRt68XUpIO_H2FHbSqp1ako8dkmRcp9kkAeEz49fg0EVGvslRuX3uPH3uOod4TapAl8NDSwUJr2M3F-0VTLJvEZWoT4vGoiJSoGuyPexZmTgX7Gd85tRiQbQ_PXqwc3roFY833EV_w0bA0D1St0BNZbT1/s550/Kung_Mahawi_Man_Ang_Ulap--S_eb041fd6-e582-4c51-90db-4d374d598d47.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;237&quot; data-original-width=&quot;550&quot; height=&quot;173&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8hlnkHsq7AKAzXjI4LzDWS995zD-QRt68XUpIO_H2FHbSqp1ako8dkmRcp9kkAeEz49fg0EVGvslRuX3uPH3uOod4TapAl8NDSwUJr2M3F-0VTLJvEZWoT4vGoiJSoGuyPexZmTgX7Gd85tRiQbQ_PXqwc3roFY833EV_w0bA0D1St0BNZbT1/w400-h173/Kung_Mahawi_Man_Ang_Ulap--S_eb041fd6-e582-4c51-90db-4d374d598d47.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnYNkqH-AlHqrSX-44j1lNtbN3QqdF8b5iju60ZWVb-vLi1HvPNXo3A7MH7ci7BDA6BxRbIdQfa8CpnO2Nx7tRUMdgh5wrL28E9QiY622XjaHFAW33YJE-1jonSz6abDVf4wx0dmrYX-LzQ-BQJ2CUMHKIUNhxo5o0-p_xNsfLTh3KwJY8w9w/s400/Kung%20Mahawi%20man%20ang%20Ulap-84-HildaK-Boyet-LauriceG-sf.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;400&quot; data-original-width=&quot;274&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnYNkqH-AlHqrSX-44j1lNtbN3QqdF8b5iju60ZWVb-vLi1HvPNXo3A7MH7ci7BDA6BxRbIdQfa8CpnO2Nx7tRUMdgh5wrL28E9QiY622XjaHFAW33YJE-1jonSz6abDVf4wx0dmrYX-LzQ-BQJ2CUMHKIUNhxo5o0-p_xNsfLTh3KwJY8w9w/w274-h400/Kung%20Mahawi%20man%20ang%20Ulap-84-HildaK-Boyet-LauriceG-sf.jpg&quot; width=&quot;274&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/1718603112014106039/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=1718603112014106039' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1718603112014106039'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1718603112014106039'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/12/kung-mahawi-man-ang-ulap-should-skies.html' title='Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap (Should the Skies Clear, Laurice Guillen, 1984)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GbGvNg4S89Bt517CTk6O-2hJVkINv9Oa-v-tQkgy0ll4wF0CR_F60miVRXQ7XkEHeOv9NB0Lklsx0gU62QQ6EiRrMBRRosmUd8j5o7qwrmpZoCyAnmLABLxkRCFsWNxw3q3-Unxz0Qk2aV_2UNav2bCMIuKYWB7b5iJdnPqQGpdltKVqqGkA/s72-w400-h225-c/271632330_4477712782337114_8328019504726772278_n.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1520356150242687858</id><published>2024-02-28T19:54:00.012-05:00</published><updated>2024-03-04T18:14:43.006-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biographical"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Documentary"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Filipino"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Filipino Film Industry"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Jose F. Lacaba"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Jose Rizal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Noir"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Thriller"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tikoy Aguiluz"/><title type='text'>Tikoy Aguiluz (1947 - 2024)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLNXmo8CmOaI3WhLGmep1ljSbuUOQQJ0swzUG394K8OvrPNYOeqzT2Mw2ZzV1a0hZvpvVZ2CM72FkNsMMlO9M6ndjP8F0blLtUi0lsWg_GM4TbvUTXkJxh7pUAQRbHC24sLGN1XWPR-xt2ldhOEqL5F6daqKoSnRqSBAw19cw99YZp7BIvlAI/s748/tikoy.jpeg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;536&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLNXmo8CmOaI3WhLGmep1ljSbuUOQQJ0swzUG394K8OvrPNYOeqzT2Mw2ZzV1a0hZvpvVZ2CM72FkNsMMlO9M6ndjP8F0blLtUi0lsWg_GM4TbvUTXkJxh7pUAQRbHC24sLGN1XWPR-xt2ldhOEqL5F6daqKoSnRqSBAw19cw99YZp7BIvlAI/w286-h400/tikoy.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;286&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzblsuIGmVZjGTbn4nJFvJ7nOyc11CeejZn-yGiwUkUG9Hf0-YQQYIyhyphenhyphenX2v3T4wgxM9tIr5Ut3PFdnQvim5XLBKyfZnTYkd7vEdV7uayu1cV_cVIEJdbV0NLJBFskx4EPhXnsxhBkpv78AqzLO8suyFOJOcR5ICMB0qKNiQpvTxkpWVAQBai3/s670/bagong%20bayani.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;377&quot; data-original-width=&quot;670&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzblsuIGmVZjGTbn4nJFvJ7nOyc11CeejZn-yGiwUkUG9Hf0-YQQYIyhyphenhyphenX2v3T4wgxM9tIr5Ut3PFdnQvim5XLBKyfZnTYkd7vEdV7uayu1cV_cVIEJdbV0NLJBFskx4EPhXnsxhBkpv78AqzLO8suyFOJOcR5ICMB0qKNiQpvTxkpWVAQBai3/w400-h225/bagong%20bayani.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGPkFdb3PyaG41pyP7RCzvK0F9lTzg-VI0qqQnPvFVsdRPQMGfKliDWHCmKbl7Ogo30-8a4H6GoIymLAeufF5vIsmUbArD_b5XQqwHNTAm_zc0pRY_w4uHWPJ8NkfGXJMnttmAa4QHqME68zcvtUj9zqNOJZQNwjyVux3BovWqqZR9jewxl-C/s800/ezgif-5-baae2791f8.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;450&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGPkFdb3PyaG41pyP7RCzvK0F9lTzg-VI0qqQnPvFVsdRPQMGfKliDWHCmKbl7Ogo30-8a4H6GoIymLAeufF5vIsmUbArD_b5XQqwHNTAm_zc0pRY_w4uHWPJ8NkfGXJMnttmAa4QHqME68zcvtUj9zqNOJZQNwjyVux3BovWqqZR9jewxl-C/w400-h225/ezgif-5-baae2791f8.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Pugilist&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tattooed gangster&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Tikoy put it he grew up in a penitentiary (the Davao Penal Colony, or Depacol, where his father was prison auditor) learning how to box from one of the veteran convicts. With his six other brothers, all of them wearing shorts instead of long pants and speaking in a funny Tagalog accent instead of everyday Visayan, they attracted the attention and ridicule of all the other kids, not necessarily starting fights but finishing them wherever they went. Tikoy&#39;s ambition in life was simple: to get a tattoo, and be a gangster; he ended up working briefly in Hollywood, then coming back to the Philippines to become one of the finest filmmakers in the industry.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;You might say his youth in Davao was the root of Tikoy&#39;s take-no-prisoners attitude. He played the game of kiss-ass poorly; he could be charming when he wanted, but had little patience for the incompetent or mediocre. When his debut feature &lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt; (1984) became a smash hit, in the one theater in the Philippines that could screen the film without cuts (the infamous Manila Film Center that Imelda Marcos quickly erected, at the expense of construction workers still buried in its concrete), the offers came right and left to make &lt;i&gt;Boatman 2&lt;/i&gt;. Tikoy dug in his heels and said no; he wanted to do something completely different-- a series of well-written well-directed low-budget productions that would make their money back in cable. He looked for projects; did a documentary on Balweg (&lt;i&gt;Father Balweg, Rebel Priest&lt;/i&gt;); after the 1986 EDSA Revolution tried to develop a biopic on Ninoy Aquino.&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First film I ever saw from the filmmaker was&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Boatman &lt;/i&gt;(1984). I remember how the whole film seemed to take place at night; how the &lt;i&gt;toreros&lt;/i&gt;-- live performers-- fucking on a low cushioned platform with the audience sitting within arm&#39;s reach; how unbelievably beautiful Sarsi Emmanuelle was (toreros were usually prostitutes too old or worn to make their living on the street) yet how effortlessly natural. I remember the circular narrative-- how the film opens with the tip of Felipe&#39;s (Felipe Paningbayan&#39;s) cock trimmed in a rite of passage (chewing guava leaves for anesthetic), traces the youth&#39;s rise from Pagsanjan rapids tour guide (now played by Ronnie Lazaro) to &lt;i&gt;torero&lt;/i&gt; to lover of a powerful ganglord&#39;s mistress-- and closes with altogether more radical surgery. I was eighteen, barely of legal age, in a standing-room only crowd (might have been standing myself, or perched on the aisle steps); afterwards I stepped out of the cool dark into the broiling Manila Bay sun thoroughly shaken-- could they just do that to people? Of course they could, and worse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/05/bagong-bayani-unsung-heroine-tikoy.html&quot;&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (1995)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For almost ten years I didn&#39;t hear anything about the neophyte filmmaker; then the Flor Contemplacion case-- a Filipina maid arrested in Singapore for murder-- broke, and a docudrama (&lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Unsung Heroine&lt;/i&gt;)) made on her life. I&#39;d started writing for The Manila Chronicle and attended a screening (in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)). The film impressed me: the low-budget aesthetic, the unfussy unactorly cast (Helen Gamboa as a very human Flor, Chanda Romero as an intense Delia Maga, Irma Adlawan as a warm supportive Virginia Parumog)-- documentary footage rounded out the story and gave the film wider context.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy initially planned a drama based on footage he shot-- interviews of Flor&#39;s family, demonstrations demanding Flor&#39;s release-- but events leaped ahead of him; Flor had been hanged. Viva Films announced a big movie on Flor&#39;s life and recruited the Contemplacion family, who promptly shut Tikoy out; he had little beyond the interviews and demonstration footage. &quot;Finishing that film was one of the most difficult things I ever did,&quot; he said. &quot;Whenever I have a hard time on a project now, I tell myself &#39;No matter how bad things get, they can&#39;t be as bad as when I made &lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So he shot what he could from what little he scraped together, and when he stepped into the editing room he &quot;didn&#39;t have a main character... didn&#39;t have a script... didn&#39;t have half the scenes needed to tell the story properly. So I decided to base the film&#39;s structure on &lt;i&gt;The Meaning of Life&lt;/i&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I thought I misheard. &quot;You mean Monty Python? &lt;i&gt;And Now For Something Completely Different?&lt;/i&gt;&quot; Tikoy grinned: &quot;Dramatizations connected by documentary footage and the occasional video clip. I finished the film&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wrote on the film and recommended it to the Hong Kong International Film Festival. By this point Tikoy was at a low ebb; he had sold property, taken out loans, hocked everything he could; he finished first but because Viva&#39;s was a multimillionpeso studio production (with no less than superstar Nora Aunor as Flor) and Tikoy&#39;s was a no-budget docudrama, every theater in Metro Manila refused the latter because they wanted the former (which surprise surprise did big boxoffice). Tikoy managed to arrange screenings at the CCP and the University of the Philippines but that was it; he was stuck with a film that cost a good chunk of his personal finances with zero prospects. The Hong Kong Film Festival invite felt like a godsent opportunity.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Or so Tikoy said; of course it&#39;s possible he was being kind, as the film screened in Fribourg the week before Hong Kong (tho invitations and screenings tend to follow a schedule all their own) but in lieu of stronger contrary evidence I&#39;ll go with what he told me&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/04/p-margin-bottom-0.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Segurista&lt;/a&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;(1996)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Call it a pivot, or an offer Tikoy couldn&#39;t refuse, but the filmmaker&#39;s next project was with the aforementioned Viva Films. &lt;i&gt;Segurista&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Dead Sure&lt;/i&gt;) is an erotic noir about an insurance saleswoman who at night doubled as a GRO (Guest Relations Officer) at a high-class karaoke bar. Aspiring capitalist, Karen (Michelle Aldana) applying the concept of synergy uses her late-night job to meet wealthy men, selling them life insurance and collecting fat commissions-- throwing in her body to fatten said commissions. Brilliant concept, and so logical one wonders why it hasn&#39;t been done before (turns out it has: the story is based on a case that reportedly happened in Hong Kong).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy often maintained that his films combine two stories in one: &lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;was about &lt;i&gt;toreros&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;and the men guiding canoes down the Pagsanjan rapids;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Segurista&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;was about 90s Asian prosperity complete with greenglassed skyscrapers and pastel nightclubs, and about the survivors of the 1992 Mt. Pinatubo eruption. The latter calamity is what drives Karen to venture into the big city and do what she needs to do-- again Tikoy uncovering stories no one else cared about, and retelling them as genre melodramas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Collaborators&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy has worked with talented people over the years-- Nap Jamir, Yadi Sugandi, Jun Dalawis, Ely Cruz, Romulo Araojo, and Romy Vitug to name some cinematographers; Jesse Lasaten, Nonong Buencamino, Noel Espenida, Jaime Fabregas, and Joey &#39;Pepe&#39; Smith to name some musicians/composers. He approached Jose &#39;Pete&#39; Lacaba to write five of his features, presumably because he liked Lacaba&#39;s lean and focused approach. The director seemed to go out of his way to find writers: Alfred Yuson, Rafael Ma. Guerrero, Amado Lacuesta, Ricky Lee, Lualhati Bautista, Rey Ventura, Roy Iglesias have all at one point or another written for him-- even me, at one point (much to my surprise). More on that later.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arguably Tikoy&#39;s secret weapon was his editor, Mirana Medina, who has been with him since &lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;. It&#39;s a unique relationship: Mirana is involved as early as the script development stage, helping clarify what&#39;s crucial to the story and what, if things don&#39;t work, can be cut out. Checking her filmography she&#39;s directed shorts and documentaries but edits only for Tikoy, which is both interesting and a pity; call her Tikoy&#39;s Thelma Schoonmaker-- I consider Mirana one of the best editors alive-- and wonder what influence she might have had if she were ever willing to work with anyone else.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Rizal sa Dapitan&lt;/i&gt; (1997)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The year 1998 was the centennial of the Filipino proclamation of independence, and the question on folks&#39; mind was: where was the biopic of Jose Rizal? Rizal looms over Philippine history, a combination Victor Hugo and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, by turns intellectual, novelist, political activist, and educator. Also heretic and dangerous subversive, according to Spanish colonial administration, who executed him by firing squad in Bagumbayan Field in 1896.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy approached me with a proposal: a film on Rizal&#39;s years of exile in Dapitan, with Albert Martinez as Rizal. Tikoy thought of it as an exercise in historical mythmaking, not unlike what Tsui Hark did with Wong Fei-hung-- a &lt;i&gt;Once Upon a Time in Dapitan&lt;/i&gt; if you like. The idea excited me (Tikoy had that effect on people); I did what research I could, drew up a timeline, and actually hammered out a complete script where Rizal establishes a clinic and a school for boys, disarms a would-be assassin with arnis sticks, meets and falls for Josephine Bracken (Amanda Page) who&#39;s being menaced by her lecherous guardian George Taufer (Paul Holmes), attempts to exorcise a boy possessed by a demon (he insists the child is a victim of hypnotic suggestion and uses counter-suggestion to treat him).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;d like to think it a wild and crazy script worthy of Tsui Hark and Jet Li and not some clumsy attempt at epic moviemaking but-- Tikoy must have taken a look at it, noted the awkward Tagalog, tallied up the budget involved, and asked Pete Lacaba for a rewrite.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ah well. I got partial credit (story and additional dialogue). A handful of lines survive-- mostly involving Josephine Bracken and George Taufer (beautifully delivered by Page and Holmes)-- plus a portion of the film&#39;s closing titles. Here endeth my screenwriting career.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was barely involved on the production side-- well, I visited one set where they shot some indoor scenes, and made a brief cameo as one of Rizal&#39;s patients (you can spot me around the twelve minute mark clutching my injured hand, waiting to be treated). I did hear Tikoy talking about the &lt;i&gt;other&lt;/i&gt; Rizal production, the P100 million biopic financed by GMA Studios and directed by Mike de Leon, starring Philippine heartthrob Aga Mulach. If that production finished first it would dominate the theater screens and shut out ours, same thing that happened to &lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy continued filming; the GMA production kept a tight lid on its own production, lifting said lid long enough to present a three-minute trailer. The footage looked spectacular: Mulach in bowler and long coat, the camera gliding through the perfectly lit forests of Dapitan--&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dapitan? Not just Tikoy, all of us were beside ourselves. Was de Leon going to tell the story of Rizal&#39;s Dapitan exile-- &lt;i&gt;our&lt;/i&gt; story we like to think of it, tho we knew better-- as well? He certainly had the money and resources.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Tikoy&#39;s production was too far along to stop or even pause. Rumor has it that de Leon didn&#39;t like wrestling with a P100 million production and left; that the three or so minutes&amp;nbsp; used in the trailer was the&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;only&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;footage that was actually shot. Tikoy won the race again, and again it was a mixed victory-- it screened at the Manila Film Festival in June but an unspoken practice of theaters is that they often dropped a poorly performing film in favor of a more popular one and this, not being a comedy a softcore flick or a big-name star vehicle, was not an immediate draw.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The film did earn more after winning big in the local awards, and had a second life in schools and the foreign festival circuit, eventually becoming a staple during Independence Day holidays.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for the film itself-- hard to judge objectively due to my proximity but I thought Lacaba did a fine job telling the story of Rizal&#39;s exile in a sober logical manner, while Romy Vitug and Nap Jamir deftly employed island light (Tikoy insisted on location shooting) and seaside air for lyricism. Albert Martinez was an intense Rizal and Amanda Page an understated ultimately poignant Bracken; I can imagine the ideal epic production with Rizal swinging an arnis stick in one hand, spraying a bottle of holy water in the other-- but this was the straightforward indie Rizal that the Philippines needed first, before more fanciful versions can follow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That was the high point of my involvement in Tikoy&#39;s&amp;nbsp;films. He went on to do the intriguing &lt;i&gt;Tatsulok &lt;/i&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Triangle&lt;/i&gt;, 1998), basically &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/04/insiang-lino-brocka-1976.html&quot;&gt;Insiang&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; told from the mother&#39;s point of view; the incomplete yet fascinating &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2022/05/biyaheng-langit-paradise-express-tikoy.html&quot;&gt;Biyaheng Langit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Paradise Express&lt;/i&gt;, 2000), another double narrative involving both high-stakes gamblers and street-level pickpockets; and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2020/09/tatarin-summer-solstice-2001.html&quot;&gt;Tatarin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(Summer Solstice, 2001) a stylish adaptation of the Nick Joaquin story-- but by then I&#39;d gone on to play the admittedly more comfortable role of outsider looking in, sussing out the filmmaker&#39;s moves and motives not from insider anecdotes but from evidence on the big screen.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Filmmaker&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I moved to the United States in 2003 I only heard of the later productions-- &lt;i&gt;www.XXX.com&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Manila Kingpin&lt;/i&gt; (with accompanying stories of production issues, upshot of which final cut had been taken away from Tikoy); and &lt;i&gt;Tragic Theater&lt;/i&gt;, about (of all things) the unquiet dead that haunted the Manila Film Center, where Tikoy started his career.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I can&#39;t judge the post-2003 films, not having seen them for one reason or another; of the three previous (1998 - 2001) I loved the output but can&#39;t in good conscious say they were better than his first four (1985 - 1997) when he covered a wide range of genres and visual styles, from erotic noir (&lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Segurista&lt;/i&gt;) to docudrama (&lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt;) to historical (&lt;i&gt;Rizal sa Dapitan&lt;/i&gt;).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Along with Lino Brocka, Tikoy did socially conscious melodramas stiffened by lowkey noir camerawork and a strong verite feel. In a cinema notorious for its slack and arrhythmic films he (with the help of Mirana in both the writing and editing) insisted on keeping his briskly paced-- of the great Filipino filmmakers only Celso ad Castillo, Mike de Leon, Mario O&#39;Hara, and Gerry de Leon featured comparably taut editing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Dreams&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy was a restless soul, ever in search for the next great Filipino story to be told, often with others following in his wake: when&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;told the story of&lt;i&gt; toreros&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Private Show&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Live Show&lt;/i&gt; soon followed; after &lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt; came&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;The Flor Contemplacion Story&lt;/i&gt;; after &lt;i&gt;Rizal sa Dapitan&lt;/i&gt; came&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/06/ambitious-failures-part-2.html&quot;&gt;Jose Rizal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2011/06/bayaning-third-world-third-world-hero.html&quot;&gt;Bayaning Third World&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/i&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Third World Hero&lt;/i&gt;), and &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/06/ambitious-failures.html&quot;&gt;Sisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;. He would tell me of projects he dreamt of doing: not just the biopic on Ninoy Aquino but on first Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo; a picaresque tragicomedy on Pedro Flores, inventor of the yo-yo; a &lt;i&gt;mananangal&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(batwinged vampire) nanny caring for children in upper-class Los Angeles (the film would be titled &lt;i&gt;Dark Maid&lt;/i&gt;); a project involving Dolphy-- the Philippines&#39; King of Comedy-- working as a housekeeper in the Marcos household (a satire, of course).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy dreamed of a thriving independent filmmaking industry and film-literate viewing public, and founded the Cinemanila Film Festival to develop both. Named after Brocka&#39;s short-lived production outfit, the festival showcased films from around the world and promoted local independent filmmakers-- it ran from 1999 to around 2013, outlasting its namesake by years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy also dreamed of nurturing independent filmmakers not just in Metro Manila but in provincial cities like Tacloban, Cebu, Davao. The festival conducted outreach programs and singled out films with this in mind, and judging from some of the titles honored-- Brillante Mendoza&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2008/10/cinemanila-2008.html&quot;&gt;Manoro&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;; Remton Siega Zuasola&#39;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(&lt;i&gt;Eleuteria&#39;s Dream&lt;/i&gt;); Sherad Anthony Sanchez&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Imburnal&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;--&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;provincial filmmaking has come a long way in realizing that dream.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tikoy at first glance was a rough-looking man full of rough talk but like his films the abrasive surface belied a sensitive heart-- his works (&lt;i&gt;Biyaheng Langit&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Rizal sa Dapitan&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;) often featured marginalized protagonists but some of his best (&lt;i&gt;Tatarin&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Tatsulok&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Segurista&lt;/i&gt;, and above all &lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt;) featured women. It was as if in his eternal struggle to champion the underdog-- both in film and in real life-- he recognized women as the ultimate underdogs, and paid tribute to their strength and endurance. Thinking of that young boy in shorts and funny accent loudly challenging all comers, I like to imagine the boy learning despite himself to become a nurturer and defender-- that because he knew how to stand up for himself he made a deliberate choice to stand up for others, tell their story, help them develop the skills to tell stories of their own. Paalam Tikoy; you will be missed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46A-QxclXzcIekqPskysCB5q8RvppXHp_TuwT8bOvGdSxw7zNedjCGCrM3t8A2Sy3YWoFcwCpZmV0iTu-rGPhlajsnrcF3akFCGzT7nh1EQIZtTkgeBJgLZAQ-L0BT7Nnwpp-IPk-Pa4xS_6pBFbGz5P9KDXKaNf37EnW9i6DpR2fT6evptDF/s600/Segurista.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;513&quot; data-original-width=&quot;600&quot; height=&quot;343&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46A-QxclXzcIekqPskysCB5q8RvppXHp_TuwT8bOvGdSxw7zNedjCGCrM3t8A2Sy3YWoFcwCpZmV0iTu-rGPhlajsnrcF3akFCGzT7nh1EQIZtTkgeBJgLZAQ-L0BT7Nnwpp-IPk-Pa4xS_6pBFbGz5P9KDXKaNf37EnW9i6DpR2fT6evptDF/w400-h343/Segurista.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2aF4CUQ8AIDVrL_sr62fgOKJ3jaGNge4rCpgQHuIpvVO_B4IO0njswo7GqA10K7RINTwPVnlVnFIdhp_1Hd-fCFO8M8bO_UBoFw-55wBAmVl5xKIjXuST7z5u0N_RXLmp2PirnfZ2qTS2YT0AzlyEZK7cOWgppwwbJBIhI0bv_R_jaO-bWiw3/s1408/32-na-mas-makulay-at-maunlad.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1056&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1408&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2aF4CUQ8AIDVrL_sr62fgOKJ3jaGNge4rCpgQHuIpvVO_B4IO0njswo7GqA10K7RINTwPVnlVnFIdhp_1Hd-fCFO8M8bO_UBoFw-55wBAmVl5xKIjXuST7z5u0N_RXLmp2PirnfZ2qTS2YT0AzlyEZK7cOWgppwwbJBIhI0bv_R_jaO-bWiw3/w400-h300/32-na-mas-makulay-at-maunlad.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/1520356150242687858/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=1520356150242687858' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1520356150242687858'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1520356150242687858'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/02/tikoy-aguiluz-1952-2024.html' title='Tikoy Aguiluz (1947 - 2024)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLNXmo8CmOaI3WhLGmep1ljSbuUOQQJ0swzUG394K8OvrPNYOeqzT2Mw2ZzV1a0hZvpvVZ2CM72FkNsMMlO9M6ndjP8F0blLtUi0lsWg_GM4TbvUTXkJxh7pUAQRbHC24sLGN1XWPR-xt2ldhOEqL5F6daqKoSnRqSBAw19cw99YZp7BIvlAI/s72-w286-h400-c/tikoy.jpeg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6957756240381635204</id><published>2024-02-18T12:56:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2024-02-18T12:56:33.711-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Documentary"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Filipino"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tikoy Aguiluz"/><title type='text'>Bagong Bayani (Unsung Heroine, Tikoy Aguiluz, 1995)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  19. &lt;/div&gt;
  20. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  21. &lt;/div&gt;
  22. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  23. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIIASQZQJgmbVWH8bVCHOuHj_-0aVHH0oeIcXlF_4o-8IUdOKhRu22YTHqjeJ7n6I-KWFmQIiFAChbWIrREI9onZhnvruLdWRoZta3-q9T53bTUaKlBEU5gMmrrGdW-xOPnCy/s1600/bagongbayani1+f.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;291&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIIASQZQJgmbVWH8bVCHOuHj_-0aVHH0oeIcXlF_4o-8IUdOKhRu22YTHqjeJ7n6I-KWFmQIiFAChbWIrREI9onZhnvruLdWRoZta3-q9T53bTUaKlBEU5gMmrrGdW-xOPnCy/w400-h291/bagongbayani1+f.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  24. &lt;br /&gt;
  25. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Proxy mother&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  26. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;style type=&quot;text/css&quot;&gt;P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }&lt;/style&gt;
  27.  
  28.  
  29. &lt;br /&gt;
  30. &lt;div style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  31. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Tikoy Aguiluz&#39;s &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159263/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was &lt;/span&gt;made
  32. in two months on a shoestring budget, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;has&lt;/span&gt; been plagued by
  33. unaccountable production delays (due to pressure from Viva Studios,
  34. perhaps?)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; s&lt;/span&gt;o far no theater has agreed to release it, so the
  35. closest you might get&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;is this &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;article&lt;/span&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  36. &lt;br /&gt;
  37. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Which is a filthy
  38. shame: &lt;i&gt;Bagong Bayani&lt;/i&gt; is the best Filipino film of the
  39. year. &quot;But the year&#39;s only half over,&quot; you might &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;point out&lt;/span&gt;;
  40. actually I think this is the best Filipino film since &lt;i&gt;Orapronobis&lt;/i&gt;
  41. in the late 1980&#39;s.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  42. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  43. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Aguiluz
  44. as probably no one can remember did &lt;i&gt;Boatman&lt;/i&gt;: Ronnie
  45. Lazaro and Sarsi Emmanuelle
  46. gave&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;unsentimental performances as a pair of &lt;i&gt;toreros&lt;/i&gt;-- live sex performers. As a portrait of two lonely
  47. people living at the edge of the hell that is urban Manila, it was
  48. one of the finest films-- erotic or otherwise-- made during the late
  49. Marcos years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  50. &lt;br /&gt;
  51. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Aguiluz
  52. also &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;did the documentary &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Balweg&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;the Rebel Priest&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (not
  53. the action flick with Philip Salvador)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and &lt;/span&gt;pour&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ed&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;his &lt;/span&gt;experience making that into this. Actual interviews
  54. mixed with dramatizations; the outside and inside
  55. of Changi prison were captured with hidden cameras (Aguiluz reportedly
  56. dressed as a turbaned Indian to film the prison gates; when a guard
  57. spotted him, he had to run to save the film footage).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  58. &lt;br /&gt;
  59. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;From
  60. first frame onwards it&#39;s obvious that this is not going to be your
  61. usual &lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2009/08/carlos-j-caparas-national-artist.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Carlos J. Caparas massacre flick&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. Flor Contemplacion (Helen
  62. Gamboa) is led barefooted to the gallows, followed by a
  63. restless camera seeking her out from every angle-- handheld, tilted,
  64. low-angled, panning; the execution itself happens in a series
  65. of shots so fluidly cut they have the smoothness of a
  66. hanged man&#39;s dying emissions.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  67. &lt;br /&gt;
  68. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The
  69. film shifts backwards to Flor&#39;s initial interrogation: she is forced
  70. to stand for hours, deprived of food and water, while the CID officer
  71. (a&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;n electric&lt;/span&gt; Pen Medina) repeatedly &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;slaps&lt;/span&gt; her. Gamboa shows Flor&#39;s exhaustion &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;without&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;resorting to standard hysterics&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, a nicely understated performance&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  72. &lt;br /&gt;
  73. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;It&#39;s
  74. said that Chanda Romero wants to sue the makers because
  75. the part of Flor was promised to her. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;H&lt;/span&gt;er performance (as alleged victim Delia Maga) is no disappointment however; she&#39;s always been a
  76. talented actress and&amp;nbsp;has never felt more honest. The scene where she discovers her ward&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;drowned is especially fine; having an idea as
  77. to what her employer might do she picks up the phone and
  78. literally has to force herself to &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;punch his number&lt;/span&gt;. But her best moments are spent with her fellow
  79. domestic and best friend&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: &lt;/span&gt;the two have&lt;/span&gt; an easy rapport&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, and &lt;/span&gt;we sense the
  80. loneliness that draws them together&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (t&lt;/span&gt;hat their employers restrict them to seeing each other once a week only strengthens the tie).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  81. &lt;br /&gt;
  82. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Aguiluz &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;suggests&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; Flor&#39;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;meager existence&lt;/span&gt; by showing&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; her &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;room: a tiny
  83. cubicle filled with a cot, a TV that
  84. must have cost a month&#39;s wages sitting&amp;nbsp;on the one folding
  85. chair. Flor&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;on being convicted&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;had merely exchanged one prison for
  86. another, traded a living death for a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;literal&lt;/span&gt; one. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;A &lt;/span&gt;shot alludes to this &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;equivalence&lt;/span&gt;: as Flor climbs the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sta&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;irway&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; to meet Delia for
  87. the last time the camera follows her past darkened &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hall&lt;/span&gt; and
  88. bright window, darkened hall and bright window as if her &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hold on life was that&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; tenuous, as if &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;she &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;were&lt;/span&gt; already fading in and out of existence.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  89. &lt;br /&gt;
  90. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;One
  91. of the film&#39;s finest sequences takes place inside Changi prison,
  92. where Flor meets fellow Filipina Virginia Parumog (Irma
  93. Adlawan)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: t&lt;/span&gt;heir early scenes have a tentative feel, as Virginia tries
  94. to draw Flor out of her torture-and-drug-induced shell. Adlawan
  95. as Virginia &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is&lt;/span&gt; a warm, intelligent&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; presence&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;he senses Flor&#39;s isolation, her innate strength r&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ing&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;accordingly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. In one scene Virginia reads to Flor&#39;s family&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;a smu&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ggled &lt;/span&gt;note; while Gamboa narrates Flor&#39;s suffering,
  96. Adlawan suggests-- by the inwardness of her crouch the bend of her
  97. neck-- how deeply she feels &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the&lt;/span&gt; words. Aguiluz clothes &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Virginia &lt;/span&gt;in
  98. shadows, implying total immersion in &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;her friend&#39;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;despair&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; i&lt;/span&gt;t&#39;s a tribute to director and actresses
  99. that with the simplest of devices-- a cramped posture, a bit of
  100. darkness-- they &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;man&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;age to&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;give us a glimpse &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;into&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;these two
  101. women.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  102. &lt;br /&gt;
  103. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;W&lt;/span&gt;hen the children
  104. visit their mother&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; they see her through &lt;/span&gt;a cramped barred
  105. window similar to what actually exists in Changi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; t&lt;/span&gt;his forces &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;them into uncomfortable contortions,&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;you think: they
  106. aren&#39;t even allowed a good look at their mother. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;They &lt;/span&gt;talk as people talk: greetings, then
  107. important business, then small talk, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;then&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;silence&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Having &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;nothing &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;left to discuss&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Flor
  108. and her children can only&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;press &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;palms through the security glass&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  109. &lt;br /&gt;
  110. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The film has&lt;/span&gt; flaws&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. T&lt;/span&gt;he execution music&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;is too &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;emphatic;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Aguiluz lessens the impact of the children&#39;s&#39;
  111. prison visit by repeating it&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; &lt;/span&gt;Pete Lac&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ab&lt;/span&gt;a&#39;s otherwise excellent
  112. script sometimes tends to speechifying, sometimes &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;feels too expository&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  113. &lt;br /&gt;
  114. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The
  115. mix of dramatization and documentary recalls Errol Morris&#39; &lt;i&gt;The
  116. Thin Blue Line&lt;/i&gt;, about the arrest and conviction of an innocent
  117. man for murder. &lt;i&gt;Line&lt;/i&gt; however attempt&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ed&lt;/span&gt;
  118. to deconstruct events, repeating them over and over till you
  119. see the contradictions in the prosecution&#39;s case; &lt;i&gt;Bayani&lt;/i&gt; assumes Flor&#39;s innocence, giving the Singaporean
  120. version only a token glance&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; i&lt;/span&gt;t might have helped&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; the film &lt;/span&gt;to adopt a more objective tone (but
  121. then we wouldn&#39;t have all these wonderful performances). As is&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bayani&lt;/i&gt; doesn&#39;t seem as concerned with the question of guilt
  122. as with &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;capturing the flavor of&lt;/span&gt; Flor&#39;s life&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; t&lt;/span&gt;he use of&amp;nbsp;footage of other overseas workers broadens the implications, turning &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;her story&lt;/span&gt; into the story of all overseas contract workers (OCWs) abroad.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  123. &lt;br /&gt;
  124. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Th&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e&lt;/span&gt; footage includes a pair of Singaporean youths speaking to
  125. the camera: &quot;I think that Filipinos are overreacting,&quot; one says. &quot;How can they feel sorry for a murderer who killed
  126. a child and a fellow Filipina?&quot; The camera stays silent as we watch
  127. them smile. Then Aguiluz complicates our anger
  128. by showing us Filipina OCWs still left in Singapore. &quot;If
  129. Singapore is wrong, it&#39;s too late--she&#39;s already dead,&quot; an
  130. office worker pleads, as if nervous her boss might &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;be watching&lt;/span&gt;. &quot;Hello Philippines!&quot; a maid waves gaily, striking a
  131. pose. &quot;I&#39;ve been here seven years,&quot; she adds. Her position on the issue is summed up in a sentence: &quot;if the
  132. findings show that Flor is innocent I&#39;ll go home. If Flor is really
  133. guilty then I hope I can stay and keep working.&quot; In other
  134. words: can&#39;t help what happens in the larger world but in the meantime,
  135. let me feed my family.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  136. &lt;br /&gt;
  137. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;June
  138. 12 is Independence Day, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hence &lt;/span&gt;the question: was
  139. Flor a hero? Yes, according to &lt;i&gt;Bagong
  140. Bayani&lt;/i&gt;: a frightened woman with little idea of what &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was happening&lt;/span&gt; to her and why, who later found a
  141. dignity and humanity she never had as a domestic helper. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Arguably filmmaker A&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;guiluz&#39;s masterpiece, and one of the best films ever on the Filipino oversea worker&#39;s &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;epic tragic &lt;/span&gt;story.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  142. &lt;br /&gt;
  143. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Manila
  144. Chronicle, 6.12.95; edited 9.7.15, then 2.18.24&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  145. &lt;br /&gt;
  146. &lt;div style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  147. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  148. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglmdBBPkTAifqFvgOmYglo9SW6cuJkh9d5hdYZRnKSuuj8lB2r5BzpFBrFLs5j2kJfyxg8SKypBdDmGNHLhvzZwOD3UgzUV18vSJEJlJSXolmUFtDmHIT2av2LGoW6JFv0oVav/s1600/bagongbayani2+e.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;288&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglmdBBPkTAifqFvgOmYglo9SW6cuJkh9d5hdYZRnKSuuj8lB2r5BzpFBrFLs5j2kJfyxg8SKypBdDmGNHLhvzZwOD3UgzUV18vSJEJlJSXolmUFtDmHIT2av2LGoW6JFv0oVav/w400-h288/bagongbayani2+e.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  149. &lt;/div&gt;
  150. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  151. &lt;/div&gt;
  152. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  153. &lt;/div&gt;
  154. &lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/6957756240381635204/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=6957756240381635204' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6957756240381635204'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6957756240381635204'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/05/bagong-bayani-unsung-heroine-tikoy.html' title='Bagong Bayani (Unsung Heroine, Tikoy Aguiluz, 1995)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIIASQZQJgmbVWH8bVCHOuHj_-0aVHH0oeIcXlF_4o-8IUdOKhRu22YTHqjeJ7n6I-KWFmQIiFAChbWIrREI9onZhnvruLdWRoZta3-q9T53bTUaKlBEU5gMmrrGdW-xOPnCy/s72-w400-h291-c/bagongbayani1+f.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2980366945665976764</id><published>2024-02-12T19:49:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2024-02-12T19:49:42.289-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Chile"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fantasy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Horror"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Pablo Larrain"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Political"/><title type='text'>El Conde (Pablo Larrain, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNaW-_W92f5dTAZuiQGifYhcvOZx0obn-m3BiSuqyeqh7n8u4xBNRZS6DABP6I9D2n4UjHg7qAQvgkB336UTG-UhVriZwipSH3kxSPAQKUHHCbeMro_T0pBsQYfagEqUO4nMQ8yFmEANkoOUiHDJu2mTC5KWg8TUJ-V-SDs_-LybL5XEoh1TFw/s1280/AAAABTtLK1KQPUMy76rzH6bdmiwFyEugzZ6_-6nHwl7MUMl15nuJS1Bvx44YHmAf_wf4eIl_VgIWQ_nGLh1MpX974qVHXlx4K4ngChXg.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;720&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNaW-_W92f5dTAZuiQGifYhcvOZx0obn-m3BiSuqyeqh7n8u4xBNRZS6DABP6I9D2n4UjHg7qAQvgkB336UTG-UhVriZwipSH3kxSPAQKUHHCbeMro_T0pBsQYfagEqUO4nMQ8yFmEANkoOUiHDJu2mTC5KWg8TUJ-V-SDs_-LybL5XEoh1TFw/w400-h225/AAAABTtLK1KQPUMy76rzH6bdmiwFyEugzZ6_-6nHwl7MUMl15nuJS1Bvx44YHmAf_wf4eIl_VgIWQ_nGLh1MpX974qVHXlx4K4ngChXg.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bloodsucker&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I remember mentioning a notable name in the Filipino film industry to one of our better filmmakers, who declared him &quot;an &lt;i&gt;impakto&lt;/i&gt;&quot; --Tagalog for &#39;bloodsucker.&#39;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I looked at him. &quot;Really? How about--&quot; and mentioned someone else. &quot;Another &lt;i&gt;impakto&lt;/i&gt;.&quot; &quot;And--?&quot; &quot;Yet another &lt;i&gt;impakto&lt;/i&gt;!&quot; I tossed off several more names and all he could say was &quot;&lt;i&gt;impakto&lt;/i&gt;, the lot of them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which conversation I remember while watching Pablo Larrain&#39;s latest feature, a rather obvious high concept horror comedy that answers the question: what if Augusto Pinochet was a vampire? Not a political or metaphoric monster draining Chile of its economic prosperity but a literal supernatural leech?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Starts off intriguingly enough: Pinochet (longtime Larrain collaborator Jaime Vadell) has faked his death and is living in an isolated farm (actually an abandoned sheep ranch in Patagonia). Stories of folk found with their hearts cut out have been circulating lately, and Pinochet&#39;s children are alarmed: their father is attracting attention, and besides he&#39;s lived far too long-- time for him to move on and allow them their chance to enjoy his hidden wealth. So as all good children of wealthy families tend to do, his progeny make a pilgrimage to the patriarch&#39;s home hoping to see some of that wealth, hiring along the way a nun named Carmen (Paula Luchsinger), overtly to audit the money (he claims he&#39;s forgotten where he hid it), covertly to employ her case of vampire-killing accessories wood stake and mallet and all to kill the old man.&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Premise is rich with possibilities and I suppose Larrain can&#39;t be faulted for not exploiting all of them. This is labeled a horror film but its moments of true horror lie not in the sight of pulsing hearts freshly torn from chests but in the interviews Carmen conducts of the various family members including El Conde (&#39;The Count,&#39; as Pinochet insists on calling himself, possibly a reference to Bram Stoker&#39;s novel)-- many of the details seem to have been taken from historical account, and are all the more chilling for being so casually mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the film isn&#39;t concerned with the former regime&#39;s atrocities so much as it is with the legacy they represent: the real Pinochet escaped accountability by dying (some 300 cases remain pending); Larrain adds insult to injury by supposing Pinochet staged his demise and is living in relative comfort, tho the director does complicate matters by suggesting that 1) the former president isn&#39;t happy with his present reputation in history books and 2) he&#39;s so tired of life he wants to die.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;d liked to have seen more of the kids-- their father may not have converted them but they seem vampiric all the same, gathered round their pater like vultures round a dying ox, and I&#39;d welcome more scenes of them squabbling over which bit of flesh would be tastiest and who gets to sample first. Would love to learn more about Pinochet&#39;s wife Lucia (Gloria Munchmeyer), who&#39;s tired of her husband (apparently the feeling is mutual) and is having an affair with loyal butler and former top butcher Fyodor (Alfredo Castro)-- longtime enablers who now feel some kind of way about their traditional roles. The film is a trim 110 minutes but another ten or twenty adding extra detail to the characters and their difficult relationship with the old man might have uncovered a few more comic nuggets.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;d even like to learn more about El Conde and Carmen&#39;s spiraling pas de deux-- the attraction is understandable (Luchsinger is a striking presence) but beyond the flirting and lingering looks what do they think and feel about each other? Especially when they get to better know each other? Certainly wordless imagery is best but some dialogue-- a small sample even, to suggest the interplay of minds-- would have been appreciated.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some more hiccups-- I kept getting thrown by the sight of a human heart in a blender; one pound of tough fibrous muscle won&#39;t just turn into protein shake at the touch of a button, you have to chop it up first. That, or show the blender&#39;s container juddering as if undergoing a seizure, with plenty of poking down the sticky results with a spatula-- the fail is minor but disturbing, and suggests Larrain hasn&#39;t thought all the physical details through.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Carmen&#39;s interviews-- some of her comments are so blatantly sarcastic you wonder if she isn&#39;t trying to provoke them to attack her. I understand dictators and their people can sometimes be either unaware or willfully tone deaf to the morality of their actions but there&#39;s deaf and there&#39;s downright dense-- I kept expecting the family to throw Carmen out of the house for her effrontery; that they don&#39;t feels unacceptably unrealistic and (again) suggests Larrain hasn&#39;t thought things through.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I did in the end enjoy the film, mainly for the moody visual texture. Edward Lachman&#39;s cinematography captures the wild desolation of Patagonia, and the black and white imagery helps sell the eerie special effects: of Pinochet in his familiar cape rising to the air like a more malevolent superman, of said figure gliding amongst the buildings of Santiago seeking prey. Later in the film when a character is finally converted their fumbling first attempts at flying are captured, legs cycling over corrugated roofs and grasslands and wetlands, at one point arms joyously outstretched as they fling themselves into a flat spin over rocky terrain and strings strum thrillingly in the background. It&#39;s the film&#39;s high point, tho unfortunately it also upstages much of what comes after, including a belated plot twist linking the film&#39;s narrator to the narrative and tying conservatism to fascism as the latter&#39;s more palatable face (and while I would have liked more words exchanged between the film&#39;s two chief lovers, I&#39;d have preferred less exposition from this late-entry character).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also wonder at the Catholic Church&#39;s involvement-- amusing to see that the church is so desperate for funds they&#39;d try finagle a despot of his, disturbed that the very mention of the institution brings to mind their own sins and Pinochet&#39;s involvement, none of which are mentioned (tho Larrain does touch on said sins in a previous film).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Might as well note that the final form of Pinochet&#39;s secreted wealth comes as an uncomfortable surprise, a reminder of Anthony Burgess&#39; warning in &lt;i&gt;A Clockwork Orange&lt;/i&gt;, that appreciation of the finer things in life-- of music, art, literature-- doesn&#39;t guarantee an appreciation of finer nuances in morality (tho one wonder&#39;s at the true value of some of the items-- would a first edition of &lt;i&gt;Mein Kampf&lt;/i&gt; fetch that much money?).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Might also note that one of Pinochet&#39;s sons by way of excuse points out Ferdinand Marcos as being a far bigger thief, having stolen thirty billion dollars to the Chilean strongman&#39;s measly thirty million, and once more the Philippines distinguishes itself on the world stage, tho not in a manner that would allow it to hold its head very high.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published in &lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2024/02/09/574532/bloodsucker/&quot;&gt;Businessworld&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt; 2.9.24&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpkN1GluA6dTGNRT6EAKg6icYnb7w9etun9CfJE9aeXyMlmFbHMFicvSMeXoj2M7obBrCUS4FSznv2ziH_b8KaYErjtHgFi-tODBz-p-fd2s95oDTzeuVBZeGMkDP7RLXV1uIqOzuTdPCQfOxyTS4umGCD3wwZ_-jmyaZdBYvKSm3baDUvpUYP/s640/onscreen1-1-178bb628d65c8ebd.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;387&quot; data-original-width=&quot;640&quot; height=&quot;243&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpkN1GluA6dTGNRT6EAKg6icYnb7w9etun9CfJE9aeXyMlmFbHMFicvSMeXoj2M7obBrCUS4FSznv2ziH_b8KaYErjtHgFi-tODBz-p-fd2s95oDTzeuVBZeGMkDP7RLXV1uIqOzuTdPCQfOxyTS4umGCD3wwZ_-jmyaZdBYvKSm3baDUvpUYP/w400-h243/onscreen1-1-178bb628d65c8ebd.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/2980366945665976764/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=2980366945665976764' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2980366945665976764'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2980366945665976764'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/02/el-conde-pablo-larrain-2023.html' title='El Conde (Pablo Larrain, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNaW-_W92f5dTAZuiQGifYhcvOZx0obn-m3BiSuqyeqh7n8u4xBNRZS6DABP6I9D2n4UjHg7qAQvgkB336UTG-UhVriZwipSH3kxSPAQKUHHCbeMro_T0pBsQYfagEqUO4nMQ8yFmEANkoOUiHDJu2mTC5KWg8TUJ-V-SDs_-LybL5XEoh1TFw/s72-w400-h225-c/AAAABTtLK1KQPUMy76rzH6bdmiwFyEugzZ6_-6nHwl7MUMl15nuJS1Bvx44YHmAf_wf4eIl_VgIWQ_nGLh1MpX974qVHXlx4K4ngChXg.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6308964123099747759</id><published>2024-02-12T00:51:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2024-02-12T00:51:28.779-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="David Lynch"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Denis Villeneuve"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Frank Herbert"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="remake"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Science Fiction"/><title type='text'>Dune (Denis Villeneuve 2021; David Lynch 1984; Frank Herbert 1965) </title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenBfDg6fLtmTAAWJsNWux7gXge4TbxKhtibcL9jRdLUC5n2IWcbxfDL_nmO-UFPtffzm1uTxD9_VmtuggXPFqS7HlnjgMY77QXOS0nuzJwPBhR5A-EmQMS5lYNkexChCaqt6nY4QGzixdBr9gHqrUjs9p9rHkFUMJ7FvJ3uFpkXRo9K-Kwh4Z/s3576/MV5BYWEwOGM1M2YtZmRiYi00MzAzLTg2NGYtOTU3NDYxNjE3YjZkXkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;2141&quot; data-original-width=&quot;3576&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenBfDg6fLtmTAAWJsNWux7gXge4TbxKhtibcL9jRdLUC5n2IWcbxfDL_nmO-UFPtffzm1uTxD9_VmtuggXPFqS7HlnjgMY77QXOS0nuzJwPBhR5A-EmQMS5lYNkexChCaqt6nY4QGzixdBr9gHqrUjs9p9rHkFUMJ7FvJ3uFpkXRo9K-Kwh4Z/w400-h240/MV5BYWEwOGM1M2YtZmRiYi00MzAzLTg2NGYtOTU3NDYxNjE3YjZkXkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Done&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Warning: plot details for the 2021 remake the 1984 adaptation and the 1965 original discussed in explicit detail&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Denis Villeneuve&#39;s long-delayed&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160419/&quot;&gt;Dune&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(initiated 2016; shot in 2019; released 2021) does this much right: it tells Frank Herbert&#39;s story-- the societal complexity (Great Houses and Guilds), the skullduggery (plans within plans within plans within plans), Paul Atreides&#39; meteoric ascent-- coherently. Villeneuve carefully hands over with both hands what Lynch in his &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087182/&quot;&gt;1984 version&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; threw at us wholesale, not so much an info dump as explosive diarrhea. With Villeneuve you feel a touch overwhelmed; with Lynch it swirls past your eyebrows, climbing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Villeneuve is a self-professed devotee of Herbert&#39;s science fiction epic but cannily reworks the material for today&#39;s sensibilities: where Herbert starts with a quote from Princess Irulan (the Padishah Emperor&#39;s daughter) and Lynch opens with Irulan&#39;s face huge onscreen (a very young Virginia Madsen), Villeneuve begins from the Fremen point of view, with Chani (Zendaya) taking over the task of opening narrator. Where Herbert implies that the Baron Harkonnen is an evil degenerate imperialist (because gay) and Lynch doubles down on the implication with a jawdropping scene involving bloodletting and rape, Villeneuve sidesteps the issue by having Stellan Skarsgard channel Marlon Brando in &lt;i&gt;Apocalypse Now&lt;/i&gt; down to the massive bald pate rubbed smooth by fat fingers. Villeneuve&#39;s casting is more inclusive, with authentically Middle Eastern faces populating the screen, albeit at the margins; he even flips Dr. Liet-Kynes&#39; sex by choosing Sharon Duncan-Brewster for the role (Lynch had Max Von Sydow-- yes Jesus Christ and Ming the Merciless and&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Arrakis&#39; planetologist).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Villeneuve takes the time to tell a human story, inserting early on a little Vito/Michael Corleone tete a tete a la &lt;i&gt;The Godfather &lt;/i&gt;(for all I know tapping Robert Towne for the rewrite); at one point Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) discussing succession with his son Paul (Timothee Chalamet) generously declares &quot;-- if your answer is no you&#39;ll still be the only thing I ever needed you to be: my son.&quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Well maybe not Towne; only the writer of &lt;i&gt;Forrest Gump&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;can come up with that kind of overripe cheddar (and even if I&#39;m wrong it&#39;s still the kind of dialogue Eric &#39;&lt;i&gt;Life is like a box of chocolates&lt;/i&gt;&#39; Roth would write).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;More moving in my book is when Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) challenges Paul to a duel to the death and Paul slips a knife in his liver. Herbert has Jessica mocking her son Paul to deflate any pleasure he might feel from his first kill; Villeneuve plays the scene wordlessly, cutting from Chani&#39;s mournful face to Jessica&#39;s (Rebecca Ferguson) watchful eyes to Paul, stricken, stretching out a hand to Jamis-- no enjoyment in the man&#39;s passing here. The two look at each other and a connection is forged before Jamis&#39; eyes turn away to gaze at a vaster mystery.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;You see the skill and care with which Villeneuve has fashioned his tribute, the affection for a book he has loved since he was fourteen. As an action movie an epic production an adaptation of a complex novel, Villeneuve&#39;s is so clearly superior to the 1984 misfire the difference is like noirish night to desert day. So why do I insist on preferring the Lynch?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Because Lynch is the last person in the world one can imagine adapting &lt;i&gt;Dune&lt;/i&gt; (well there&#39;s Jodorowsky, but we only have a documentary suggesting what might have been). Because Lynch in taking on what is so clearly a science-fiction reworking of &lt;i&gt;Lawrence of Arabia&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(or rather its source material, Lawrence&#39;s autobiographical &lt;i&gt;The&amp;nbsp;Seven Pillars of Wisdom&lt;/i&gt;) tosses out practically everything suggesting the Middle East and fashions his own more gothic world. Lean captured heat haze and pointed his camera lens straight at the sun; Lynch gives us a baleful moon and slow-motion footage of waterdrops plunking in a pool. Villeneuve shoots in the UAE and the Wadi Rum in Jordan (where Lean shot his film and Lawrence himself visited); Lynch shoots in elaborate studio sets that don&#39;t just look dark but subterranean-- Alan Splet&#39;s sound design suggests the distant hum of large machinery, of a network of ventilation ducts exhaling cold air. When Lynch&#39;s film does go reluctantly outdoors-- the Samalayuca Dune Fields in Mexico-- the desert light has a burnished copper glow as if filtered through a sandstorm, or lit by Vittorio Storaro sunlamps.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;And the little touches-- ornithopter cabins lined with tacked leather, spice factories that resemble giant Egyptian scarabs, Jessica&#39;s rubber bondage mouth gag. Villeneuve sends sleek glowglobes gliding across a room, his spaceships and equipment a careful selection from the Black &amp;amp; Decker website; Lynch tips those same globes with gilded wings, the combination of giddy camp and baroque intricacy keeping you humming with pleasure.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Heartplugs that when pulled cause the body to bleed out; poisons that corrupt the flesh and need freshly milked cat (strap-on rat included) to obtain the antidote; a sonic weapon turns spoken words into ammunition that burst your organs and break your bones. Lynch stuffs his picture with so much demented details Herbert&#39;s imagination feels a little cramped by comparison; you find yourself gawking, almost not caring that the characters are paper-thin, the plot densely opaque.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Arguably Lynch&#39;s worst stumble involves his hero-- as Kyle Maclachlan plays him, Paul is as straightforward as Jeffrey Beaumont or Agent Dale Cooper but infinitely more powerful, more potentially destructive. Lynch even blesses his ascension with a rainshower-- never mind that there hasn&#39;t been precipitation on Arrakis in centuries&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, Paul needs the miracle to confirm his messiah status (and kick the film&#39;s genre from science fiction into interstellar fantasy). Chalamet&#39;s (and the book&#39;s) Paul loudly reject the offer of jihad; if Lynch nurses any doubts as to the righteousness of Paul&#39;s cause he only gives us visual cues-- the demented gleam in Paul&#39;s eyes matching the gleam in the Baron&#39;s; the Fremen assembled before Paul in perfect array a la&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Triumph of the Will&lt;/i&gt;; Paul&#39;s younger sister Alia (Alicia Witt) standing in the midst of a massacre knife in hand and writhing in slow motion, her expression one of utter ecstasy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Villeneuve&#39;s movie stays faithful to an important science-fiction novel, perhaps the most popular to ever evoke the science of ecology (tho not the earliest-- that honor arguably goes to George Stewart&#39;s monumental &lt;i&gt;Earth Abides&lt;/i&gt;). It&#39;s a fun read, not quite profound-- the character of Paul Atreides is basically T.E. Lawrence with the rough edges sanded away. Paul feels ambivalent about playing savior and liberator (not to mention exploiter and mass-murderer); he admires the Fremen&#39;s fighting skills, the purity of their spirit. Lawrence felt similarly about the Arabs, only he expresses contempt for their tribalist tendencies (&quot;-- they were a limited, narrow-minded people&quot;).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I miss the rough edges; I find Lawrence&#39;s contradictory self-portrait more fascinating than Herbert&#39;s more conventional hero. Also a writer who can turn out a passage like this (a description of the aforementioned Wadi Rum):&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The crags were capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than the body of the hills; rather grey and shallow. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place: this processional way greater than imagination. The Arab armies would have been lost in the length and breadth of it, and within the walls a squadron of aeroplanes could have wheeled in formation. Our little caravan grew self-conscious, and fell dead quiet, afraid and ashamed to flaunt its smallness in the presence of the stupendous hills.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;-- cannot be easily dismissed. Lawrence&#39;s prose-- the distinct cadences, the precision, the poetry softly singing throughout-- makes Herbert&#39;s &#39;classic&#39; read like a &quot;What I Did Last Summer&quot; essay.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Also miss what I feel is a crucial quality when writing great science fiction or even great literature: the stench of genuine madness*, the reek of ambition breaking boundaries to achieve a new truth or failing precipitously in the attempt.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;*(Yes there&#39;s a lot of drug use and rather creaky dream imagery in Herbert&#39;s book, used mainly to advance the plot; give me the hallucinations of Philip K Dick in&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;A Scanner Darkly&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch&lt;/i&gt; anytime)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;That&#39;s what Lynch brings to the party, that stench; he may fail at breaking anything (well the rules of epic filmmaking) but he fails spectacularly. And watching his version for the umpteenth time I can&#39;t help thinking his attempt wasn&#39;t a complete miss-- that interiority, the characters talking to themselves as much as to others, the sense of claustrophobic intimacy enforced not just by sets (that Riefenstahllike crowd of Fremen crammed into a hallway narrower longer taller than Albert Speer&#39;s wettest dreams) but by the film frame squeezing faces together, by images linked through associative editing (repeated and superimposed imagery; synchronized nosebleeds; the very fabric of space torn apart). Lynch in his own lunatic way realizes Herbert&#39;s subconscious aspirations better than most book fans realize, better I&#39;d say than the book actually deserves; Villeneuve has everything else-- ho hum-- covered.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIcNzqvYDf55pGtSNpwibAWNeyHoA3sJEZrZfLVeGpmI1UEGksBltlbdyQD4mCRxUV-UGuedBozBXeXHnEOU_Oi-dy_KBw77_S5TlSZmdc1lrudj8dwCzcO-9nr6rIb6U9U2HzNTNGpWAmrBxTVT5ggK6fQWgt_2Q4aonOSea4MeqAozc0KTGm/s1920/MV5BMTczOTg0NTQ4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTY3MzgxMTI@._V1_.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1080&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1920&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIcNzqvYDf55pGtSNpwibAWNeyHoA3sJEZrZfLVeGpmI1UEGksBltlbdyQD4mCRxUV-UGuedBozBXeXHnEOU_Oi-dy_KBw77_S5TlSZmdc1lrudj8dwCzcO-9nr6rIb6U9U2HzNTNGpWAmrBxTVT5ggK6fQWgt_2Q4aonOSea4MeqAozc0KTGm/w400-h225/MV5BMTczOTg0NTQ4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTY3MzgxMTI@._V1_.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/6308964123099747759/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=6308964123099747759' title='6 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6308964123099747759'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6308964123099747759'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2021/10/dune-denis-villeneuve-2021-david-lynch.html' title='Dune (Denis Villeneuve 2021; David Lynch 1984; Frank Herbert 1965) '/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenBfDg6fLtmTAAWJsNWux7gXge4TbxKhtibcL9jRdLUC5n2IWcbxfDL_nmO-UFPtffzm1uTxD9_VmtuggXPFqS7HlnjgMY77QXOS0nuzJwPBhR5A-EmQMS5lYNkexChCaqt6nY4QGzixdBr9gHqrUjs9p9rHkFUMJ7FvJ3uFpkXRo9K-Kwh4Z/s72-w400-h240-c/MV5BYWEwOGM1M2YtZmRiYi00MzAzLTg2NGYtOTU3NDYxNjE3YjZkXkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8@._V1_.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>6</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6247438263824528042</id><published>2024-02-05T13:46:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2024-02-07T09:37:35.092-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Anthony Shafer"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Horror"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Neil LaBute"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="remake"/><title type='text'>The Wicker Man </title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyF1E8VvfKuM8f4G55dOfHVMV8PiQ0D7j5gmFymm_c_cnff_FnNdYEwdhtCAHrVDcz-SNp2amQhvoOO3aF-ETAZfrjfuTwdy6p9BhsHiZxkbw7jL5_oiBJq4b9H4DRkmqRXK57mdDFdtJpE6CrJx7R8cXfPI3hJEpL-bRsoWdxV1P0AQaY9fv/s305/images%20(14).jpeg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;165&quot; data-original-width=&quot;305&quot; height=&quot;216&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyF1E8VvfKuM8f4G55dOfHVMV8PiQ0D7j5gmFymm_c_cnff_FnNdYEwdhtCAHrVDcz-SNp2amQhvoOO3aF-ETAZfrjfuTwdy6p9BhsHiZxkbw7jL5_oiBJq4b9H4DRkmqRXK57mdDFdtJpE6CrJx7R8cXfPI3hJEpL-bRsoWdxV1P0AQaY9fv/w400-h216/images%20(14).jpeg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Snicker man&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  155.  
  156. Difficult to understand why anyone thought a &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450345/&quot;&gt;remake&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; of &lt;i&gt;The Wicker Man&lt;/i&gt;-- the classic horror mood piece about a police officer who lands on a far island in search of a missing child-- would be a good idea: the film has a plot twist that once revealed was basically it for the audience; only thing left was to pick up your coat and look for the exit. Audiences who saw the 1973 production would know; those who haven&#39;t are advised not to bother.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  157.  
  158. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Actually, the twist isn&#39;t the be-all and end-all of the film but does provide a visually satisfying climax to seventy minutes of careful buildup-- the kind of all-embracing dread hardcore fans treasure more than the easy scares found in horror movie nowadays.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  159.  
  160. Easy to compare original and remake: Edward Woodward&#39;s Edward Malus looks more formidable than slack-jawed Nicholas Cage&#39;s (giving Cage&#39;s Edward a recently tragic past doesn&#39;t help), and seeing Woodward&#39;s stony facade slowly crack under strain is far more unsettling than seeing the already neurotic Cage grow more hysterical than usual. Plus the Puritan self-righteousness one senses in Woodward (&quot;We are a deeply religious people.&quot; &quot;Religious? With ruined churches, no ministers, no priests--and children dancing naked!&quot;) contrasts nicely with the island&#39;s hedonism.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;LaBute with the help of Paul Sarossy has his island handsomely designed and photographed-- House and Garden meets &lt;i&gt;Rome&lt;/i&gt;-- but Harry Waxman shot the original with the matter-of-fact grittiness of a travelogue, as someplace exotic you could nevertheless believe you could visit if you traveled far enough. LaBute&#39;s screenplay sounds undistinguished compared to the barbed wit of Anthony Shaffer&#39;s loose adaptation from David Pinner&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Ritual&lt;/i&gt; (&quot;Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent.&quot; &quot;A small child is even better, but not nearly as effective as the right kind of adult.&quot; &quot;And what of the true god, whose glory, churches, and monasteries have been built on these islands for generations past? Now sir, what of him?&quot; &quot;He&#39;s dead. Can&#39;t complain, had his chance and, in modern parlance, blew it.&quot;) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  161.  
  162. LaBute does play one fairly daring card: he recasts the mysterious society as a matriarchy where men are mute and subservient and the women beautiful, blonde, treacherous-- drawing parallels with (and images from) bees and beehives. This plays into LaBute&#39;s strength as provocateur (some would say misogynist) in the field of sexual politics, but the cult is only sketchily realized; one wants to know what the men feel about it, how this all came about, why would the women need such an elaborate plan for-- well, for whatever it is they plan to do. Not an absolute requirement, of course, but with a miscast lead and LaBute&#39;s pointed lack of skill in creating anything even moderately suspenseful much less terrifying, there&#39;s really nothing else this picture can be about. A hundred minutes of LaBute lecturing on his paranoid vision of a female-dominated hive culture-- with digressions on how it developed and why it would be a bad thing-- would I think be more interesting than this feeble attempt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  163.  
  164. That said I can see this becoming a camp classic-- a male chauvinist&#39;s twist on a horror favorite. Leelee Sobieski and company make an attractive set of cultists blond tresses pert breasts and all; Ellen Burstyn (complete with &lt;i&gt;Braveheart &lt;/i&gt;face&amp;nbsp;makeup done in Toilet Duck Blue) never looked more serene and more confident, or more serenely confidently out of her mind. Wish they actually did something with James Franco (who seems to want to say something but never gets a chance); would have liked a word or two about bees (something both dull and deadpan comic, like &quot;bees are female, except for the drones,&quot; or &quot;bees are the first creatures ever to process food&quot;), and would love to learn more about the women&#39;s sexual mores (so few men amongst so many women must lead to some kinky fare or some strange relationship issues). On occasion (far too few alas) LaBute cuts loose and gives us something memorably irrational: a glimpse of a woman bearded by a swarm of bees, say, or Burstyn in her queen-sized bed, arrayed in queenly splendor and attended by maidservants. Cage, who can&#39;t be relied on to look even halfway menacing, can be relied on to flounder eloquently when given a nonsense character to play: I&#39;m sure the scene where he levels his gun at a woman on a bike and declares in his firmest attempt yet at bold and authoritative: &quot;Lady step away from the bicycle!&quot;-- will be parodied for years to come (if not it should be). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  165.  
  166. So is there a lesson here? Maybe, but Hollywood hasn&#39;t paid attention for years. More relevant is the question of what to do with a $40 million disaster that hasn&#39;t set itself up to be one (like &lt;i&gt;Snakes on a Plane&lt;/i&gt;): hold midnight shows maybe, with the audience smuggling jars of honey into the theater to slather on the screen and each other? The possibilities are endless. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published on &lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/&quot;&gt;Businessworld&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt; 09/08/06&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeFv5L5D51wWRtPq80yTYgAQvZdmtwXtNH2iB5tasw5V4ExgiJVwP-i5l5sPIEe7ZZafu6hmX0kwA1byqKI_kV2o9PlCUkcqmgvD5aQD2IP4hGRl6UaSECId6VDaPxPLuMic37f7krVtTiIeev5qvF0ST0F5lni8nSL91n4ULbmTIuPQ95-Y5i/s1200/Wicker-Man-e1556216964674.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;675&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeFv5L5D51wWRtPq80yTYgAQvZdmtwXtNH2iB5tasw5V4ExgiJVwP-i5l5sPIEe7ZZafu6hmX0kwA1byqKI_kV2o9PlCUkcqmgvD5aQD2IP4hGRl6UaSECId6VDaPxPLuMic37f7krVtTiIeev5qvF0ST0F5lni8nSL91n4ULbmTIuPQ95-Y5i/w400-h225/Wicker-Man-e1556216964674.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/6247438263824528042/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=6247438263824528042' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6247438263824528042'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6247438263824528042'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-wicker-man.html' title='The Wicker Man '/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyF1E8VvfKuM8f4G55dOfHVMV8PiQ0D7j5gmFymm_c_cnff_FnNdYEwdhtCAHrVDcz-SNp2amQhvoOO3aF-ETAZfrjfuTwdy6p9BhsHiZxkbw7jL5_oiBJq4b9H4DRkmqRXK57mdDFdtJpE6CrJx7R8cXfPI3hJEpL-bRsoWdxV1P0AQaY9fv/s72-w400-h216-c/images%20(14).jpeg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1733503834795059552</id><published>2024-01-30T14:25:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-30T14:25:31.875-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Cord Jefferson"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Percival Everett"/><title type='text'>American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1e-LUUmajPCJanwPqcsKLokJJ2Zp5cGQ-7RDz6CXHPQNi004gMf9SBVrbNbqjBRi1u_muUjJLvIJ38t7hhGABwYPsK0aoFMxLc5csb0ipxoxfsSdc1e-YErIhoBcR02FFI38-0bxQbZQaQtVSiNXicsKKgM34nJfOOgdR5JkITTiKjC05Pg9u/s800/GUG_AF_9-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;450&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1e-LUUmajPCJanwPqcsKLokJJ2Zp5cGQ-7RDz6CXHPQNi004gMf9SBVrbNbqjBRi1u_muUjJLvIJ38t7hhGABwYPsK0aoFMxLc5csb0ipxoxfsSdc1e-YErIhoBcR02FFI38-0bxQbZQaQtVSiNXicsKKgM34nJfOOgdR5JkITTiKjC05Pg9u/w400-h225/GUG_AF_9-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;His pafology&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cord Jefferson-- who penned an episode of the inventive (if somewhat reductive) sequel to Alan Moore&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2019/12/watchmen-damon-lindelof-2019.html&quot;&gt;Watchmen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;-- has settled into the director&#39;s chair, adapting for his debut directorial feature Percival Everett&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Erasure&lt;/i&gt;, and it&#39;s a treat of a film-- funny without being laugh out loud, intense without pratfalling into standard-issue melodrama, wry clear-eyed skeptical of whatever happens to be trending on socmed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Come to think of it, there &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; socmed in the picture-- I remember one or two folks pulling out a cellphone to make a call-- but no one stares into their screen for an ungodly amount of time, surfing or liking or posting comments. The novel was written in 2001, the film updated as minimally as possible; what pleasures can be had are mostly the old-fashioned kind, more character-driven chuckles than slapstick guffaws.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The more conventionally titled &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23561236/&quot;&gt;American Fiction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;follows one Thelonious &#39;Monk&#39; Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), a highly acclaimed modestly successful writer-- &#39;highly acclaimed&#39; because he cares about subtlety and structure and the well-turned phrase, &#39;modestly successful&#39; because he refuses to cater to what the public expects from an African-American novelist. Now he&#39;s entering the twilight of his career with little more to show than a few well-reviewed titles, a professorship on shaky terms (Monk tends to intimidate his more politically sensitive students), and a family he&#39;s managed to alienate over the years.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Doesn&#39;t help that Monk keeps seeing the dustcover of fellow black but younger (and far more attractive) writer Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) whose runaway bestseller &lt;i&gt;We&#39;s Lives in Da Ghetto&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;is drenched in black stereotypes, providing the final impetus for Monk to respond to what he feels is a parody of black writing by writing a parody of his own: &lt;i&gt;My Pafology&lt;/i&gt;, about a young buck fresh out of prison confronting his deadbeat dad, his drug addiction, and his gangsta past. He submits the manuscript to his previously unenthusiastic publishers, pleased at his own joke, only to have his bluff called: the publishers offer $750 thousand for the book.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now what? We get an excerpt of &lt;i&gt;Pafology&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(retitled &lt;i&gt;Fuck&lt;/i&gt; as a result of one of many attempts at self-sabotage) with the characters acting out their lines in front of Monk while he&#39;s transcribing their dialogue, and it&#39;s every bit as overwrought as Monk (or you) might imagine, a cross between &lt;i&gt;Oedipus Rex&lt;/i&gt; and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Boyz n the Hood&lt;/i&gt;. Monk has to deal with the suddenly more complex cross-currents of his life, negotiating between his newfound success, a sudden crisis within his family, and his own well-encrusted sense of self-respect.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The results are often insightful and honestly played, no small thanks to a wonderful cast-- Wright in what may be the role of his career; Sterling K. Brown as Monk&#39;s younger and often surprisingly smarter brother; Erika Alexander as the quietly beautiful Coraline; Myra Lucretia Taylor as the family&#39;s sweetheart housekeeper Lorraine. The plot doesn&#39;t so much surprise you as it does deftly sidestep cliches, or play into them in ways that pull one&#39;s lips into a rueful often involuntary smile.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Not sure we can call &lt;i&gt;American Fiction&lt;/i&gt; a great film tho. Haven&#39;t read &lt;i&gt;Erasure&lt;/i&gt;, but from what I can gather we get more of &lt;i&gt;Fuck&lt;/i&gt; in Everett&#39;s novel; the staging of &lt;i&gt;Fuck&lt;/i&gt; onscreen was nicely done, and I&#39;d like to have seen more of that as well-- in fact wondered if maybe Boots Riley could have directed, and lent it some of his wilder visual and comic inventions (probably not; Riley has strong ideas about the black experience, and I&#39;m not sure they synch well with Jefferson&#39;s or Everett&#39;s). I&#39;d like to have seen more of Monk&#39;s swaggering alter-ego Stagg R. Leigh, though what I&#39;ve seen of Monk&#39;s own accelerating personal trajectory seems entertainment enough. I think I understand the decisions made with the adaptation-- narratives within narratives are often easier to realize on paper than on the big screen (see &lt;i&gt;Cloud Atlas&lt;/i&gt;) and Jefferson opted to go the John Huston route-- just tell the story straight, and allow metaphors and symbols to form freely in the audience&#39;s heads.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;If there&#39;s a serious flaw to&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;American Fiction&lt;/i&gt; I&#39;d say it&#39;s in the lack of a style matching the script&#39;s humanely literate tone-- something full of long takes, perhaps mis-en-scene with a theatrical flair (briefly realized in the excerpt). Don&#39;t mean&amp;nbsp;fast editing and visual pyrotechnics; Jean Renoir in &lt;i&gt;Rules of the Game&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;used a camera gliding sideways to capture different layers of action happening along different layers of society (and on occasion between layers, adding to the chaos), much like a collection of ant farms assembled before the lens to take in all at once. Not asking for the resurrection of Renoir, just his reincarnation in more modern guise.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;But I&#39;m being greedy. An understated well-written well-realized script is wonder enough nowadays, and I&#39;m happy for this small miracle. One of the better films of the year.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiWNsG42rpOf4ulmecXaxz2IWXW5Gn44oOPJGvO_q-IYp5KKxwwTanTtHXKYGaclqSxpugViSB1FFSskAdCVXg1P5ywVRFz5pLR8O0tUMx7rrlVJg3IzxRf3uXWKtPKqpNtJgtF1U7knviiqYjbuXog6Nau0-lE6Y_KD2LFRX-XwgUo3tikMv/s1200/download%20(31).jpeg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;675&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiWNsG42rpOf4ulmecXaxz2IWXW5Gn44oOPJGvO_q-IYp5KKxwwTanTtHXKYGaclqSxpugViSB1FFSskAdCVXg1P5ywVRFz5pLR8O0tUMx7rrlVJg3IzxRf3uXWKtPKqpNtJgtF1U7knviiqYjbuXog6Nau0-lE6Y_KD2LFRX-XwgUo3tikMv/w400-h225/download%20(31).jpeg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/1733503834795059552/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=1733503834795059552' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1733503834795059552'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1733503834795059552'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/american-fiction-cord-jefferson-2023.html' title='American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1e-LUUmajPCJanwPqcsKLokJJ2Zp5cGQ-7RDz6CXHPQNi004gMf9SBVrbNbqjBRi1u_muUjJLvIJ38t7hhGABwYPsK0aoFMxLc5csb0ipxoxfsSdc1e-YErIhoBcR02FFI38-0bxQbZQaQtVSiNXicsKKgM34nJfOOgdR5JkITTiKjC05Pg9u/s72-w400-h225-c/GUG_AF_9-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1136706848915549532</id><published>2024-01-29T14:48:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-29T14:48:27.577-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="French"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Robert Bresson"/><title type='text'>L&#39;Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB8EbfjxgHIS4kyynCb8WynyKbYzufhxLszmPLRBNXu_4_eCEFcPga0bud2oYeBlBSDFERaJIYOWnVjVtH4R56QfKeaTZWMA3Kr-_qRbUPJalyMKKKO6jefHtMkE1_Gi0tXgDK62j-zXJH9-VcyGucp2ef-OUj6OGw14fhNZ8ls2a7Gc07ZG3/s900/l_argent_bd_1.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;900&quot; data-original-width=&quot;724&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB8EbfjxgHIS4kyynCb8WynyKbYzufhxLszmPLRBNXu_4_eCEFcPga0bud2oYeBlBSDFERaJIYOWnVjVtH4R56QfKeaTZWMA3Kr-_qRbUPJalyMKKKO6jefHtMkE1_Gi0tXgDK62j-zXJH9-VcyGucp2ef-OUj6OGw14fhNZ8ls2a7Gc07ZG3/w321-h400/l_argent_bd_1.jpg&quot; width=&quot;321&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  167. &lt;br /&gt;
  168. &lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Reprinting an old article Bresson because--well, because there&#39;s no good reason &lt;/i&gt;not&lt;i&gt; to read about Bresson (list of my posts on him as follows):&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  169. &lt;br /&gt;
  170. &lt;span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2009/03/au-hasard-balthazar-robert-bresson-1966.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Au hasard, Balthazar&lt;i&gt;, 1966)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2007/43/diary-country-priest/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Journal d&#39;un cure de campagne &lt;i&gt;(&lt;/i&gt;Diary of a Country Priest&lt;i&gt;, 1951)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/04/mouchette-robert-bresson-1967.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mouchette &lt;i&gt;(1967)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2006/11/un-condamn-mort-man-escaped-robert.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Un condamne a mort &lt;i&gt;(&lt;/i&gt;A Man Escaped&lt;i&gt;, 1956)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  171. &lt;br /&gt;
  172. &lt;span&gt;&lt;b&gt;On bread alone&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  173. &lt;br /&gt;
  174. (&lt;i&gt;Note: plot discussed in close detail&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;br /&gt;
  175. &lt;br /&gt;
  176. The ostensible subject of Robert Bresson&#39;s last film &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085180/&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;L&#39;Argent&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (1983) is money (hence the title), and in fact Bresson uses the pulling out, counting, and passing over of franc notes from one person to another as a kind of repeated motif throughout. But it&#39;s the &lt;i&gt;love &lt;/i&gt;of the stuff that causes the real trouble (a distinction Catholic priests like to remind us of in Sunday mass) and initiates the central movement in the film, the downward slide of Yvon Targe (Christian Patey) from heating-oil deliveryman and husband to convict and axe murderer.&lt;br /&gt;
  177. &lt;br /&gt;
  178. &lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The film could play double bill to Bresson&#39;s earlier &lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2006/12/pickpocket-robert-bresson-1959.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Pickpocket &lt;/i&gt;(1959)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, where Michel, the eponymous petty thief, traces an opposite course: already outside of society at the film&#39;s beginning, he makes his long and tortuous way to prison and a strange, ironic redemption (ironic in that it&#39;s when he&#39;s shut away that he finds spiritual freedom and human contact). The conventional wisdom is that Bresson was deeply religious in his early films, became deeply pessimistic in his later ones; Bresson himself, according to Colin Burnett&#39;s 2004 interview with crew-member Jonathan Hourigan, preferred to use the word &quot;lucid&quot;--implying that he believed his view of the world has become clearer, not just darker.&lt;br /&gt;
  179. &lt;br /&gt;
  180. Bresson takes characters and incidents from Leo Tolstoy&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/243&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&quot;The Forged Coupon&quot;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;--a story about the widening effects on several people&#39;s lives caused by the spreading of counterfeit money--and to some extent modifies them. In Tolstoy&#39;s story as in Bresson&#39;s film those who do wrong are not immediately punished, and those who are wronged are not immediately vindicated; the workings-out of fate (or God&#39;s will, as Tolstoy might put it) are more tortuously complex than that.&lt;br /&gt;
  181. &lt;br /&gt;
  182. Where Bresson differs radically is in the emphasis and emotional reading he gives each story and its outcome--and I don&#39;t mean just the characteristically stylized acting of his &quot;models&quot; (so termed because Bresson never uses actors, never allows his performers to act in the conventional sense). In the case of the photographer (Didier Baussy) for example, he is saved by an unexpected act of kindness in Tolstoy&#39;s novella; in the film, the same miraculous rescue occurs, but the reading of the scene is more ambivalent; the photographer and his partner (Beatrice Tabourin) are as much insulted by the effrontery (the benefactor had stolen the money from them, and is actually returning a portion of the loot) as they are grateful for the gift.&lt;br /&gt;
  183. &lt;br /&gt;
  184. In Yvon&#39;s case the changes are even more radical. Yvon on film is a conflation of the novella&#39;s Ivan Mironov, the man falsely accused of intentionally spreading counterfeit money, and Stepan Pelageushkine, the man who murdered him--a strange combination, you might imagine. Yvon shows the stubbornness and pride of the labor class: when accused he attacks his accuser; when found guilty and fired, he refuses to beg for his job back; when financially desperate, he resorts to being hired as driver in a robbery, is caught, and sent to prison.&lt;br /&gt;
  185. &lt;br /&gt;
  186. Bresson carefully documents Yvon&#39;s transformation in prison, a transformation with no direct equivalent in Tolstoy. A series of letters (and we know how much Bresson loves the use of correspondence, and the reading of them) bring a series of catastrophically bad news; a fellow convict, commenting on Yvon&#39;s life, says philosophically &quot;We fear death because we love life.&quot; He says this at the sight of Yvon face down on bed, weeping; it&#39;s Bresson&#39;s classic technique of having an act or idea spoken aloud same time he presents it onscreen--in this case, we see Yvon mourning his lost love. But weeping also implies an outpouring of tears, emotion, an outpouring that stops when tears and feelings run out. Yvon has lost much of his love of life, has also lost his fear of death--both of his own (he attempts suicide), and of others (he reacts to an insult by raising a hand intent on violence).&lt;br /&gt;
  187. &lt;br /&gt;
  188. When released, he&#39;s a changed man, literally--he has become Tolstoy&#39;s Stepan, who thanks to the act of having killed Ivan (in the film, Yvon before imprisonment), has acquired a taste for shedding blood (When someone puts the question to him, Yvon replies simply: &quot;I enjoyed it.&quot; Bresson&#39;s trademark deadpan performance style has never to my mind been put to a more chilling use). He&#39;s torn through the fabric of French society to end up in prison; inside (thanks to his antagonistic attitude towards fellow inmates) he&#39;s torn through the fabric of &lt;i&gt;prison &lt;/i&gt;society to end up in a state of near-total isolation. When released, he&#39;s reached as low a status as anyone can possibly reach--has broken past (so to speak) all levels of civilization to stand alone on the other side.&lt;br /&gt;
  189. &lt;br /&gt;
  190. Which might be the film&#39;s true subject--money not as a source of evil per se, but as symbol and operative medium (both fuel and lubricant) of a larger concept, civilization itself. Money here is the crust on which we all subsist on, stand on, and we&#39;ll do anything--lie, cheat, steal, kill--to keep that brittle, fragile crust from crumbling, and us falling through. Yvon has fallen through, and has found the experience strangely liberating--he kills, then carelessly spends the little money he has taken from the murders. Money has stopped being the motivating factor--it never was meant to be one anyway; rather, it was the signpost that marked where society begins and ends, a signpost Yvon has uprooted and is swinging wildly over his head.&lt;br /&gt;
  191. &lt;br /&gt;
  192. Yvon follows an elderly woman (Sylvie Van den Elsen), presumably with the intent of robbing her, perhaps killing her; instead, she takes him in. It&#39;s tempting to see the kind lady as Yvon&#39;s second chance--his opportunity for redemption, in Tolstoy&#39;s terms--and at one point she does explicitly say &quot;If I were God, I would pardon the whole world.&quot; She is reprimanded for this, however, even slapped (as is usual with Bresson, we hear the slap, not see it), and Yvon as a result becomes curious about her as a person. She explains that she cleans and cares for her father (grown drunkenly bitter after being widowed) and married sister. &quot;Why don&#39;t you drown yourself,&quot; Yvon asks with the directness of the truly innocent &quot;Are you expecting a miracle?&quot; The housekeeper&#39;s kindness, especially in the face of her knowledge of Yvon&#39;s crimes, is well nigh inexplicable, unless you see them as being two of a kind--people who have been brought so low they recognize each other in their loneliness. I think it&#39;s telling that when Yvon lifts the axe he&#39;s holding the housekeeper looks upon him with a terrible serenity: she seems to see Yvon not as a dangerous stranger, but as a liberator.&lt;br /&gt;
  193. &lt;br /&gt;
  194. Yvon turns himself in and the film abruptly ends--no credits, no music, just the crowd of men and women staring at the doorway where he just passed, staring even when Yvon is long gone; then cut straight to black, arguably the single oddest cut in the film (in all of cinema, arguably). You wonder if the crowd realizes that Yvon&#39;s arrest is incidental, that what they&#39;re &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;looking forward to is this black, blank screen, the way the housekeeper, gazing at Yvon, seems to be looking forward to the massacre to come.&lt;br /&gt;
  195. &lt;br /&gt;
  196. In Tolstoy&#39;s novella, Stepan goes to prison and undergoes a gradual change of heart, made convincing by Tolstoy&#39;s detailed chronicling of the man&#39;s inner state; Bresson telescopes this, suggests that Yvon has already had his change of heart in prison, that he emerges from prison free of all illusions of society&#39;s essential goodness and necessity, that he goes forth with knife or axe in hand ready to free us from our miserable lives. Not exactly kosher Christianity, and Michel from &lt;i&gt;Pickpocket&lt;/i&gt; (to name someone from an earlier work) might look upon this later incarnation of his character with profound horror, but this seems to be the kind of bleak conclusion to which Bresson has arrived, at the end of his career. If there&#39;s a note of hope at all in all this, it&#39;s in Yvon&#39;s willingness to turn himself in; he of all the characters in the film, from the photographer to the counterfeiting youths to the photo shopkeeper to the shop assistant, feels the urge to answer for his actions. He, of all the characters in the film, seems to have arrived at a state of terminal lucidity.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  197. &lt;br /&gt;
  198. &lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;2006, redited 10.20.14&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXBtGySsb2qOSoaGWlmNoxzVWRuQX3birV08kRQ08l_cVWnfcxd58CP7pANcyThCYn9iXGB0jsnLewvAKJ85DQoQQRwz8NpsKcGnCsNbsT8q0xt8rXddCMTnQ9Cc-6Lgko90g4IwbUcJWOYTFqgA284tkoGEOcev-twDDyh94cZOrAumqglhz/s650/Current_LargentWindow3_medium.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;366&quot; data-original-width=&quot;650&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXBtGySsb2qOSoaGWlmNoxzVWRuQX3birV08kRQ08l_cVWnfcxd58CP7pANcyThCYn9iXGB0jsnLewvAKJ85DQoQQRwz8NpsKcGnCsNbsT8q0xt8rXddCMTnQ9Cc-6Lgko90g4IwbUcJWOYTFqgA284tkoGEOcev-twDDyh94cZOrAumqglhz/w400-h225/Current_LargentWindow3_medium.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/1136706848915549532/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=1136706848915549532' title='17 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1136706848915549532'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1136706848915549532'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2009/03/largent-robert-bresson-1983.html' title='L&#39;Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB8EbfjxgHIS4kyynCb8WynyKbYzufhxLszmPLRBNXu_4_eCEFcPga0bud2oYeBlBSDFERaJIYOWnVjVtH4R56QfKeaTZWMA3Kr-_qRbUPJalyMKKKO6jefHtMkE1_Gi0tXgDK62j-zXJH9-VcyGucp2ef-OUj6OGw14fhNZ8ls2a7Gc07ZG3/s72-w321-h400-c/l_argent_bd_1.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>17</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4112913801557441512</id><published>2024-01-22T19:50:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-31T20:36:21.959-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="British"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ireland"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Science Fiction"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Yorgos Lanthimos"/><title type='text'>Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVidQ3RSA5LteBMWhcJRY_smJ-RC8vz2QaRBZNe2ScQnqUu0OSgOz8d6_soyEeze52anmQJBNhFnEM8eWt2wxzIHJiW8__DjrstNikxEyOP83zdxpgNHFoLMtsDHT7ObMM93_q43jBJYW7aWsUMpIwls-03ttw1wOGuDHaZNzX-iF2U_izlSo/s1296/050_YLpt67-450-H-2023-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;730&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1296&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVidQ3RSA5LteBMWhcJRY_smJ-RC8vz2QaRBZNe2ScQnqUu0OSgOz8d6_soyEeze52anmQJBNhFnEM8eWt2wxzIHJiW8__DjrstNikxEyOP83zdxpgNHFoLMtsDHT7ObMM93_q43jBJYW7aWsUMpIwls-03ttw1wOGuDHaZNzX-iF2U_izlSo/w400-h225/050_YLpt67-450-H-2023-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pride of Frankenstein&lt;/b&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Yorgos Lanthimos&#39; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;latest&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;has an early scene of Bella (Emma Stone) holding a scalpel at an alarming angle and stabbing a corpse&#39;s eyeballs multiple times while her horrifically disfigured father Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe in heavy makeup) looks up fondly from the patient he himself is cutting-- and yet I agree with the assessment that the film is a comedy-- possibly Lanthimos&#39; warmest most cheerful most wholesome work yet.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;For those who haven&#39;t heard-- this adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray is a reworking of Mary Shelley&#39;s classic &lt;i&gt;Frankenstein&lt;/i&gt;, where the eponymous scientist constructs a body from various corpses and brought the unwieldy thing to life. Shelley it must be noted is something of a literary vivisectionist herself, having created a shell sewn out of elements of the Gothic and the Romance novel, and grafted into its chest a beating heart assembled from current scientific ideas about biology, evolution, and galvanism, a few key ideas from &lt;i&gt;Pygmalion&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Paradise Lost&lt;/i&gt;, and her own personal experiences, to create a new genre, Science Fiction.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Haven&#39;t read Gray&#39;s novel but judging from an outline Lanthimos seems to have followed his source relatively closely (Gray&#39;s novel is made of two competing accounts, Bella&#39;s husband and her own, the former insisting she&#39;s a resurrected suicide, the other insisting he&#39;s full of it-- you might agree that Lanthimos and his writer Tony MacNamara were right to get rid of the inventive but mostly literary narrative conceit). Gray does set his novel in Glasgow and parts criticize cultural issues involving that city, while Lanthimos decided to set his film in a fabulist steampunk world crisscrossed by airships and &lt;i&gt;Titanic&lt;/i&gt;-style ocean cruisers, with architecture that&#39;s a riotous mix of Victorian London, Antonio Gaudi (that half-melted organic feel), and either Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam depending on the phase of their career.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I wasn&#39;t on board with Lanthimos&#39; design decisions at first-- surely a premise as fantastic as this needed a realist background to help sell the idea-- but the steampunk Gaudi look creates a fairy tale feel that actually helps. All sorts of bad things can happen to Bella and you flinch every time you think they&#39;re about to-- all the adaptations and variations of &lt;i&gt;Frankenstein&lt;/i&gt; leading you to expect the worse every time-- but again and again Gray (and Lanthimos and MacNamara interpreting Gray) surprise you; that delicately balancing act of staying this side of comedy, with the occasional sway into horror, wouldn&#39;t be sustainable in anything less stylized.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Helps that the world Lanthimos realizes onscreen is so breathlessly gorgeous-- beyond Miyazaki&#39;s &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-boy-and-heron-hayao-miyazaki-2023.html&quot;&gt;latest feature&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; and a brief passage in Ari Aster&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Beau is Afraid&lt;/i&gt;, can&#39;t think of a more handsome-looking film from last year (think it significant that the only films that can come close to what Lanthimos is doing are both animated).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Critics praised Emma Stone for her fearless performance as Bella-- not just stabbing that corpse but the various instances of &#39;furious jumping&#39; in her birthday suit with various men, and the range of emotions involved from adult-sized toddler to poised woman of the world-- but I&#39;d also cite Willem Dafoe&#39;s Godwin Baxter, as far away from mad scientist as you can imagine despite the fact that he looks like a victim of Dr. Frankenstein&#39;s inexpert stitching. At first glance you may want to look away but with time the crevasses and chasms transecting his face come to lend it a sculptured dignity. His love for Bella isn&#39;t demonstrative but time and again he allows her the freedom to make choices and you eventually realize their relationship forms the film&#39;s carefully transplanted heart.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;That I suppose is the film&#39;s true power, and far as I can see a marked advance in Lanthimos&#39; work-- not that he&#39;s able to achieve a distinctive visual style, or create grotesque provocative moments-- he&#39;s done that in films as diverse as &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2011/02/dogtooth-yorgos-lanthimos-2009.html&quot;&gt;Dogtooth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-lobster-yorgos-lanthimos.html&quot;&gt;The Lobster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-killing-of-sacred-deer-yorgos.html&quot;&gt;Killing of a Sacred Deer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, and even in the relatively realist&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-favourite-yorgos-lanthimos.html&quot;&gt;The Favourite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;-- but that he&#39;s able to generate sympathy, and moments of genuine tenderness (you do feel sympathy in &lt;i&gt;The Favourite&lt;/i&gt;, but only you suspect thanks to Olivia Colman; you do feel some poignancy in &lt;i&gt;The Lobster&lt;/i&gt;-- but not anything as fully developed, as fully lived, as here).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Maybe my one major reservation with this film is its ultimate treatment of the creation myth. Gray as interpreted by Lanthimos and MacNamara feels like a sunny optimist-- albeit one grounded in an awareness of the world-- compared to Mary Shelley who was taught a different lesson by life: her mother died a few days after her birth and she lost a son not long before she started writing her most famous novel, all this still in her teens. Shelley&#39;s first full-length narrative&amp;nbsp;was born out of blood and guilt and shame, and you feel this in both the eponymous creator and above all in his nameless creation-- they aspire to love and life but are soon reduced to accepting the peace of death, and the monumental sense of the tragedy is part of the book&#39;s enduring power; Gray, Lanthimos, MacNamara have blunted that power considerably, perhaps necessarily when you think about it-- after all, there can only be one &lt;i&gt;Frankenstein&lt;/i&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;If there&#39;s one filmmaker who ever came close to tapping that power I&#39;d say it was &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2013/10/for-halloween-old-article-father-of.html&quot;&gt;James Whale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;, who put it all onscreen while wrapping the guilt and shame in a velvet cloak of comedy. Takes skill to tell a tale realizing a considerable share of its original weight and impact; takes more than skill to do it with apparent ease it takes wizardry, and Whale is a master of the art.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Otherwise-- bravo Lanthimos, well done, perhaps one of the better films of the year.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2-YyJLPpYV9ZQbeJzgQ7jzobyjlrmqNFOIKG9PM9F8s2riNeJW6M7_1t7SKw69ojiB1oKdilv8a4oxSnQZiK4LkWlIxHUR3DernfV4z5hQ1xr2M4LAX8QkVxkO0b9gkVSEuTL_yamMhg82v82yZ0Vh2ItAe8qcXQ0gu3bs8SISHB6noni51Z/s1600/14154612_120823-wabc-poor-things-img.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;900&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1600&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2-YyJLPpYV9ZQbeJzgQ7jzobyjlrmqNFOIKG9PM9F8s2riNeJW6M7_1t7SKw69ojiB1oKdilv8a4oxSnQZiK4LkWlIxHUR3DernfV4z5hQ1xr2M4LAX8QkVxkO0b9gkVSEuTL_yamMhg82v82yZ0Vh2ItAe8qcXQ0gu3bs8SISHB6noni51Z/w400-h225/14154612_120823-wabc-poor-things-img.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4112913801557441512/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4112913801557441512' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4112913801557441512'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4112913801557441512'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/poor-things-yorgos-lanthimos-2023.html' title='Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVidQ3RSA5LteBMWhcJRY_smJ-RC8vz2QaRBZNe2ScQnqUu0OSgOz8d6_soyEeze52anmQJBNhFnEM8eWt2wxzIHJiW8__DjrstNikxEyOP83zdxpgNHFoLMtsDHT7ObMM93_q43jBJYW7aWsUMpIwls-03ttw1wOGuDHaZNzX-iF2U_izlSo/s72-w400-h225-c/050_YLpt67-450-H-2023-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1697933222691582675</id><published>2024-01-15T15:20:00.007-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-20T23:33:51.769-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Independent"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Paul Schrader"/><title type='text'>Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, 2022)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qkmw8ji8CajkHOqXIIgS2ZRwIR_W-TwXAOPUVVpYx80QUGlRXS9vhVLg_1m-Pl-KK4pXVUjYHPZ79vV3AWIth0Oevhu_ibVQrFv9PG2ctNaw1Kkdz8T3LJv5bJ9TgnnRNaLBLbGgB5urGPQRlqQVW-1xLsAM09IiwNcTjeyNJLP8Cnxz7lpa/s2388/Master-Gardener.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1194&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2388&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qkmw8ji8CajkHOqXIIgS2ZRwIR_W-TwXAOPUVVpYx80QUGlRXS9vhVLg_1m-Pl-KK4pXVUjYHPZ79vV3AWIth0Oevhu_ibVQrFv9PG2ctNaw1Kkdz8T3LJv5bJ9TgnnRNaLBLbGgB5urGPQRlqQVW-1xLsAM09IiwNcTjeyNJLP8Cnxz7lpa/w400-h200/Master-Gardener.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bonsai!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heard it said of Paul Schrader&#39;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15342244/&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Master Gardener&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;that it&#39;s his umpteenth retelling of the God&#39;s Lonely Man trope, starting from &lt;i&gt;Taxi Driver&lt;/i&gt; (1976) to three of his last four films including &lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/08/first-reformed-paul-schrader.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;First Reformed&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;The Card Counter&lt;/i&gt;, but I disagree; those films ended with redemption or rebirth or some form of baptism as climax, either through love, or punishment, or blood. This film I think takes up the narrative years later, a &#39;what happens after?&#39; question hanging in the air.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) works as senior gardener at Gracewood Gardens, owned by wealthy Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver); Haverhill asks Roth to take in her grandniece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as an apprentice, despite the elder&#39;s distaste-- unspoken is the edge to Haverhill&#39;s voice as she talks of Maya (&quot;she&#39;s mixed blood,&quot; Haverhill notes), not obvious but lightly laced round the edges, like cookies dipped in arsenic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Roth himself has a background; he was a former white supremacist turned informant-- in effect he sought redemption long ago, putting his life in danger and in need of witness protection by turning in fellow supremacists, and Haverhill for all her haughtiness has granted him conditional forgiveness by taking him in and giving him a job.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Roth seems content tho his present life is hardly perfect; there&#39;s a hint of corruption to his situation in Gracewood Gardens, in the way he is constantly at Haverhill&#39;s beck and call, the way he cautiously taps his boot before climbing up to the porch, the way she looks at him when he stands passively with his shirt off, skulls and Nazi swastika tattoos on silent display. Why does he keep them? Why is there a hint of admiration-- of approval even-- in the way she gazes at them?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve spoken of Edgerton&#39;s meticulously constructed performance but matching him detail for detail is Sigourney Weaver&#39;s superb Mrs. Haverhill-- arrogant and charming, and yes I&#39;ve heard it pointed out not a little racist, but the racism far as I can sense it is so thoroughly folded into her upperclass superiority she doesn&#39;t make it easy or obvious: is the lady-- and you can&#39;t help but call her a lady-- a rich racist or just a wealthy woman afflicted with racism, maybe something that seeped into her subconsciously in her childhood, thanks to her social position? Swindell plays Maya as cautiously as Edgerton plays Roth-- you suspect she&#39;s apprenticing under him as an actor as well as a character.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Horticulture and Schrader fit each other so well it&#39;s a surprise the writer-director hasn&#39;t touched on the subject before-- Edgerton&#39;s Roth is (as with Ethan Hawke&#39;s Toller and Oscar Isaac&#39;s William Tell) a representative consciousness or stand-in for Schrader, expressing his loneliness, his self-containment, his competence in a number of little skills that prove handy as the plot unfolds. The nature of his skills though-- his total familiarity with various blooms, his knowledge of the care of plant, his literal love of earth as he scoops up a double handful of loam and sniffs it-- the kind of attention to detail Roth lavishes on his work feels not unlike the attention to detail Schrader lavishes on his films. This is an elegantly wrought feature, with meals at Haverhill&#39;s dining table shot to look like a meal in an Ingmar Bergman drama, and a key sexual encounter is lit and photographed to resemble the high ritual in an underground cult. Perhaps my favorite shot is Roth marching out of a guest house stuffing his shirt back into his pants, the camera following then taking a Bressonian moment to linger on an empty window in the nearby mansion-- totally irrelevant detail but in the light of later developments one has to wonder: was someone watching?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even better than the severe visual style is the script, and the way Edgerton tosses off various bits of botanical wisdom like a sorcerer reciting incantations: &quot;Gardening is the most accessible of the arts. It&#39;s already there. Every seed is a plant waiting to be unlocked.&quot; &quot;People used to walk on the soil; now they walk on tar and concrete wearing rubber soles. They used to sleep on the land, and there was an exchange, and that was a healing process.&quot;&amp;nbsp;&quot;The nandina is a species of flowering plant native to Eastern Asia; the smell at certain times of the year is minty with a hint of almond. Gives you a real buzz, like the buzz you get just before pulling the trigger.&quot;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That last is pure Schrader, what everyone expects from his films of course but here you sense an attempt at transformation, at growing beyond the definition listed at the back of the seed packet he was delivered in (or, if you like, the Wikipedia entry that pops up with a Google search of his name). Every time a Schrader film is released everyone expects Bressonian austerity with a generous dose of Bergman angst and not a bit of pulpy noir, a &#39;crime thriller&#39; as the streaming site I saw this on puts it. But Schrader doesn&#39;t seem all that interested in the crime aspect, if anything it&#39;s a side salad, a sop to those who expect it of him; he&#39;s more interested in the characters and their intersecting arcs, and yes in gardening for its metaphoric possibilities.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Theodore Sturgeon put it best I think in his short story &#39;Slow Sculpture:&#39; &quot;A man cannot create a bonsai, nor can a tree; it takes both...one explains to the tree what one wants and if the explanation is well-enough made, and there is great enough understanding, the tree will respond and obey-- almost.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Always there will be its own self-respecting, highly individual variation: Very well, I shall do what you want, but I will do it my way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And for these variations, the tree is always willing to present a clear and logical explanation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And more often than not (almost smiling) it will make it clear to the man that he could have avoided it if his understanding had been better.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;It is the slowest sculpture in the world and there is, at times, doubt as to which is being sculpted, man or tree.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can dictate what we expect of him but Schrader will do what he wants to do for whatever reason-- in this case pivot towards his other favorite filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, to celebrate the special qualities found in everyone&#39;s everyday lives. And we respond to his response, adjust as he adjusts, and wonder which is really being sculpted, man or tree.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJulbI15Z0bWaSOAmjN_qAJZpffOpsLd8nssNgD965Bje3ybybI2j749rA6gP1hFKbCUt0ToNaSFZ8LWJMM3ZVd0T4A3SIHyoHJ8Eyr_7tz4PjGzeC3OLXZ_7wglCeU_ki2FRUvPwjiSw4DssATzVQgHbZZBFHHHyRWhojw0SmFLfRvdI2Po5h/s2048/Market%20Gardener%20Edgerton%20and%20Weaver%20gun.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;858&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2048&quot; height=&quot;168&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJulbI15Z0bWaSOAmjN_qAJZpffOpsLd8nssNgD965Bje3ybybI2j749rA6gP1hFKbCUt0ToNaSFZ8LWJMM3ZVd0T4A3SIHyoHJ8Eyr_7tz4PjGzeC3OLXZ_7wglCeU_ki2FRUvPwjiSw4DssATzVQgHbZZBFHHHyRWhojw0SmFLfRvdI2Po5h/w400-h168/Market%20Gardener%20Edgerton%20and%20Weaver%20gun.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/1697933222691582675/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=1697933222691582675' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1697933222691582675'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/1697933222691582675'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/master-gardener-paul-schrader-2022.html' title='Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, 2022)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qkmw8ji8CajkHOqXIIgS2ZRwIR_W-TwXAOPUVVpYx80QUGlRXS9vhVLg_1m-Pl-KK4pXVUjYHPZ79vV3AWIth0Oevhu_ibVQrFv9PG2ctNaw1Kkdz8T3LJv5bJ9TgnnRNaLBLbGgB5urGPQRlqQVW-1xLsAM09IiwNcTjeyNJLP8Cnxz7lpa/s72-w400-h200-c/Master-Gardener.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2930057094018868905</id><published>2024-01-08T13:26:00.009-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-23T11:04:38.328-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Brillante Mendoza"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Gerardo de Leon"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hayao Miyazaki"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Lav Diaz"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Law Fajardo"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Martin Scorsese"/><title type='text'>Films of 2023</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBicUXX-8oKKaoxw8mx_P_2L8iPikUJh2DCz3umlJXmkZ54_retogN4Q_13eHAl0CkZCsyQwrWlUosuanKiecnaw8Yxn1fQrFmBRgGKd4a8ftRc_hvEH969LEbzUbBJYiTZLaw8U5XZW-GO98_RWSob7s8nEVXYC-vnqO_M0g7qMdXkYxh5DDQ/s1500/Oppenheimer-Cillian-Murphy-072822-2000-a3f8a0a822484e50b6bf0aa8c1c12592.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;844&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1500&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBicUXX-8oKKaoxw8mx_P_2L8iPikUJh2DCz3umlJXmkZ54_retogN4Q_13eHAl0CkZCsyQwrWlUosuanKiecnaw8Yxn1fQrFmBRgGKd4a8ftRc_hvEH969LEbzUbBJYiTZLaw8U5XZW-GO98_RWSob7s8nEVXYC-vnqO_M0g7qMdXkYxh5DDQ/w400-h225/Oppenheimer-Cillian-Murphy-072822-2000-a3f8a0a822484e50b6bf0aa8c1c12592.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4Vl3qmrCjg6dC6tNrjdKD-btH3BAqU6MPvBXtpDjJjVnJaa9hYdFDv5trjP6H5N3Ep1GTQaGqL81Glu05-6mYLacR62vj4jyokcKRTU2w5o2qJJzmvS7bvK8es8NfA1k60IVMVwoweNCEeZwxQuOpzhldRky0m74RWfe1W_fvH3oEZ6k6kEv/s2560/1241583347-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1440&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2560&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4Vl3qmrCjg6dC6tNrjdKD-btH3BAqU6MPvBXtpDjJjVnJaa9hYdFDv5trjP6H5N3Ep1GTQaGqL81Glu05-6mYLacR62vj4jyokcKRTU2w5o2qJJzmvS7bvK8es8NfA1k60IVMVwoweNCEeZwxQuOpzhldRky0m74RWfe1W_fvH3oEZ6k6kEv/w400-h225/1241583347-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;
  199. List of 2023&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not everything I&#39;ve seen for the year but everything I think deserves to be noted, for good or bad. More mainstream than I&#39;d like but life happens. I do try note films I&#39;ve seen but not newly released in 2023, and why I thought them worth talking about.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;30.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Suzume&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Makoto Shinkai continues to ape Miyazaki&#39;s images, characters, and concepts, everything from &lt;i&gt;Spirited Away&lt;/i&gt; (protagonist&#39;s beloved cursed into taking another form, if not pigs then a nursery chair) to &lt;i&gt;Howl&#39;s Moving Castle&lt;/i&gt; (portals that open into different locations or time periods), troweling rough edges smooth with a thick serving of corn syrup. Emotionally stunted work, fixated on fantasy encounters between boy and girl at the expense of all else. Needs to be sent wandering the streets tolling a bell and crying &#39;Unclean! Unclean!&#39;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;29.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/06/spider-man-across-spider-verse.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse&lt;/a&gt; - everyone talks about how revolutionary it is to digitally animate on 2s (12 drawings or &#39;frames&#39; per second) as opposed to the standard-issue 1s (24 frames per second)-- in effect moving away from the smooth and photorealistic-- when the Japanese have been doing this all along, largely by hand and in far better films. Miles Morales is a groundbreaking character-- at least on the comic book page-- but his film incarnation feels too wholesome, like a Disney princess in drag (mind you I&#39;d welcome Disney in drag, just lose the 2% lowfat milk).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;28.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-flash-andy-muschietti-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;The Flash&lt;/a&gt; - Better than expected, mostly for the melancholic presence of Michael Keaton and his air of What Might Have Been. Otherwise disposable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;27.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/07/indiana-jones-and-dial-of-destiny.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny&lt;/a&gt; - Another I liked more for the what might have been than what is -- if you liked Indy, this is a passable capstone; if you like crisp inventive action sequences, you miss the Spielberg touch.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;26.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/07/oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Oppenheimer&lt;/a&gt; - Historical testimony, biographical study, investigative noir; drop in a blender and hit &#39;puree.&#39; Christopher Nolan is consistent-- when it comes to the money shot (a leap across an abyss, a stage trick involving magic cabinets, the detonating of the first-ever nuclear fission device) he cuts away to a different angle. A mess, and not in a good way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;25.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/07/barbie-greta-gerwig-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Barbie&lt;/a&gt; - The first twenty minutes is a witty parody of Barbie and her neon pink mythos; the remaining runtime is a toothless satire on male entitlement and corporate mismanagement, a neat-as-any demonstration of The Golden Rule: he who makes the gold (in this case toy manufacturing giant Mattel, who produced) makes the rules.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;24.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/napoleon-ridley-scott-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Napoleon&lt;/a&gt; - More sumptuous and expensive-looking than genuinely elegant, the movie emphasizes Napoleon the lovestruck buffoon over the brilliant strategist and innovative statesman, which leads one to ask: couldn&#39;t they depict the strategist and leader and &lt;i&gt;then&lt;/i&gt; demonstrate why he&#39;s still a buffoon? Nowhere near as passionate or prodigiously creative as Abel Gance&#39;s 1927 classic.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;23. &lt;i&gt;Talk to Me&lt;/i&gt; - Danny and Michael Philippou&#39;s visually freewheeling debut features a terrific premise inspired I presume by W.W. Jacobs&#39; classic tale &#39;The Monkey&#39;s Paw&#39; -- in this case an embalmed hand that helps one communicate with the dead. The second half flags not a little, partly because the brothers need to manipulate the characters into a contrived resolution, but interesting sequences still abound and the concluding image is a corker.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;22.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Saltburn&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;- as far as eat-the-rich films go not bad, with Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike the standouts in an excellent cast, but the genre includes some of the greatest most ferocious satires in all of cinema (&lt;i&gt;Purple Noon&lt;/i&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Teorema&lt;/i&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Boudu Saved From Drowning&lt;/i&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Rules of the Game&lt;/i&gt;) and this just isn&#39;t extraordinary enough to rank.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;21.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Anatomy of a Fall&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Justine Triet&#39;s legal drama with the help of Sandra Huller assembles the portrait of a marriage that has slid sideways, throws enough uncertainty into the process that like a juror you&#39;re not sure what verdict to deliver. Dry visual style but the performances and coy careful script make it work.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;20.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Beau is Afraid&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;- absurd and hugely self-indulgent but unlike previous Ari Asters (&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/06/hereditary-ari-aster.html&quot;&gt;Hereditary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2019/08/midsommar-ari-aster-2019.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Midsommar&lt;/a&gt;) this one is consistent throughout (&lt;i&gt;Hereditary&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;was terrific up to the halfway point), reasonably original (&lt;i&gt;Midsommar&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;was like a hysterical reworking of&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;The Wicker Man&lt;/i&gt;) and feels emotionally whole. Good-ish not great, though an animated sequence halfway through feels like the single most beautiful thing he&#39;s ever done.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;19.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/godzilla-minus-one-takashi-yamazaki-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Godzilla Minus One&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Back and badder than ever, only the humans swarming at its feet are depicted with more care than usual. Arguably the best since Hideaki Anno&#39;s majestic 2016 incarnation, Gareth Edwards&#39;s coyer 2014 version, and the still unmatched 1954 original. Not a fan, alas, of the have-your-cake-and-eat-it ending.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;18.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-meg-2-trench-ben-wheatley.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Meg 2: The Trench&lt;/a&gt; - The first hour is trapped underwater and dimly lit; when the movie surfaces and sets foot on dry land it morphs into goofy fun, a cross between&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Jurassic Park&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Free Fire&lt;/i&gt;. On the whole I prefer this kaiju production, warts and all.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;17.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-creator-gareth-edwards-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;The Creator&lt;/a&gt; - Derivative (of &lt;i&gt;Neon Genesis Evangelion&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Blade Runner&lt;/i&gt;, and &lt;i&gt;Platoon&lt;/i&gt;) and illogical (Why develop a floating assault platform so vast anyone can take a potshot? And why build a counterweapon that has to take years to grow into full power?) but the core narrative-- of a haunted man&#39;s developing affection for a foundling child-- is effective.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;16.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-exorcist-believer.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;The Exorcist Believer&lt;/a&gt; - David Gordon Green doing to &lt;i&gt;The Exorcist&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;what he did to &lt;i&gt;Halloween&lt;/i&gt;, picking up a well-loved horror classic and subverting its assumptions. If you&#39;re not a fan of the William Friedkin original (I&#39;m not) this is for you. Easily the best of the franchise since &lt;i&gt;Exorcist 2: The Heretic&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;15.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/05/guardians-of-galaxy-vol-3.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3&lt;/a&gt; - James Gunn&#39;s darkest entry of the franchise, yet still manages to be laugh out loud funny. Gunn has a gift for depicting damaged characters, on full display here.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;14.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/silent-night-john-woo-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Silent Night&lt;/a&gt; - Man loses his son and his voice, takes a year to prepare for payback. Grimmer less stylish John Woo nevertheless retains his spark.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;13.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-killer-david-fincher-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;The Killer&lt;/a&gt; - David Fincher at his more elliptical, more a sterile exercise of style and stylish performances than anything. Not quite Jean-Pierre Melville, master of the genre, but not bad either.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;12.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;The Holdovers&lt;/i&gt; - Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti&#39;s latest isn&#39;t visually distinctive but does evoke lowkey emotional magic, delivers the occasional sting.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;11.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Past Live&lt;/i&gt;s - Celine Song&#39;s debut feature is quiet but graceful; the finale, an extended tracking shot along an East Village sidewalk, unexpectedly potent.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;10.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Infinity Pool&lt;/i&gt; - Brandon Cronenberg eschews his father&#39;s clean pornographic style to do a more baroque version of John Frankenheimer&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Seconds&lt;/i&gt;, the true source of horror less the fleshy onscreen mutilations and more Mia Goth&#39;s sadomasochistic hold over Alexander Skarsgard.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;9.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/06/asteroid-city-wes-anderson-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Asteroid City&lt;/a&gt; - Wes Anderson doesn&#39;t indulge in the usual film bro cliches-- guns and assassins and fast cars-- but takes off in a trajectory all his own. The immersion in &#39;50s Space Age paraphernalia makes this a perfect double feature with Richard Linklater&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Apollo 10 1/2&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;8.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;May December&lt;/i&gt; - Todd Haynes&#39; unsettling look at tabloid narratives (in this case the Mary Kay Letourneau story) and the secrets they may or may not contain.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;7.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/ferrari-michael-mann-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Ferrari&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Michael Mann&#39;s latest is a stripped-down speed machine with huge wheels and even bigger engine, black maw of a mouth, hull painted a gleaming rosso cora; inside is a lot of roar and not much creature comfort, not even an ashtray.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;6. &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/poor-things-yorgos-lanthimos-2023.html&quot;&gt;Poor Things&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; - Yorgos Lanthimos&#39; most visually gorgeous work yet, a combination of Victorian England, Antonio Gaudi, and either Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam depending on what phase of their career you&#39;re looking at. Not perhaps as sophisticated yet deeply felt as James Whale&#39;s two &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2013/10/for-halloween-old-article-father-of.html&quot;&gt;Frankenstein&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; films-- arguably the definitive onscreen treatment of Mary Shelley&#39;s classic novel-- but good enough.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;5.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/master-gardener-paul-schrader-2022.html&quot;&gt;Master Gardener&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; - not so much another of Paul Schrader&#39;s God&#39;s Lonely Man narratives as a continuation: what happens &lt;i&gt;after&lt;/i&gt; a Schrader protagonist finds redemption? With incantatory passages on flowers casting a botanical spell, and sneaky good work by Joel Edgerton, Quintessa Swindell, and Sigourney Weaver-- one of the most underrated films of the year (premiered 2022, released in the USA 2023).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;4.&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Revoir Paris&lt;/i&gt; - Alice Winocour&#39;s latest begins with a terrorist attack that leaves us (and the heroine Mia-- a terrific Virginia Efira)-- feeling numb; the rest of the picture is our extremities twitching and coming back to life. Winocour records the process of healing with clinical detail, adding a touch of Bunuelian imagery to suggest the undercurrents of a traumatized mind (like the moment when Mia boards a subway only to notice every passenger is either a victim or survivor of that fateful night-- she leaves the car before the doors close and as the train departs one lost soul throws her a backward glance).&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;3.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/09/essential-truths-of-lake-lav-diaz-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Essential Truths of the Lake&lt;/a&gt; - Lav Diaz&#39;s first-ever prequel follows the early adventures of Hermes Papauran, the &#39;Philippines&#39; greatest investigator&#39;-- basically a detective with a philosophical bent and a gift for guilt-wracked obsessive brooding. He never lets go and neither does Diaz, in this latest meditation on the crimes of the Marcos dictatorship.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/10/killers-of-flower-moon-martin-scorsese.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Killers of the Flower Moon&lt;/a&gt; - less a depiction of the Native American victims (which I suspect Scorsese didn&#39;t want to presume to speak for) than a blackly comic takedown of the thugs that preyed on them. At its emotional heart: the strange strangely moving Jesus-Judas relationship between Ernest Burkhart (a deftly dimwitted Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Osage wife Mollie (a nicely understated Lily Gladstone).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-boy-and-heron-hayao-miyazaki-2023.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;The Boy and the Heron&lt;/a&gt; - perhaps Miyazaki&#39;s final film, done with economy and passion and a surfeit of fabulous imagery. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  200.  
  201. Films I found interesting: &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
  202.  
  203. Dust Devil&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1992) - Richard Stanley&#39;s hallucinatory second feature-- about a serial killer demon, the woman he&#39;s fated to meet, and the Namibian police officer hunting him-- seems less affected by supernatural forces than by heat haze and highway hypnosis. Fascinatingly unhinged.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/experiment-perilous-jacques-tourneur.html&quot;&gt;Experiment Perilous&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1944) - Jacques Tourneur&#39;s take on George Cukor&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Gaslight&lt;/i&gt; is hobbled by a smaller budget and an ostensibly less-than-stellar cast but does feature Tourneur&#39;s inimitably insinuating visual style and a simmering pas de deux between George Brent and twinkle-eyed Paul Lukas. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
  204.  
  205. The Suspect&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1944) - Robert Siodmak&#39;s camera follows Charles Laughton&#39;s spiraling descent into mayhem and murder in this sumptuously produced Edwardian noir.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
  206.  
  207. The Furies&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1950) - Walter Huston as a carnivorous King Lear and Barbara Stanwyck as his libidinous Cordelia dominate this larger-than-life psychodrama set against the backdrop of Anthony Mann&#39;s West-- a diorama of vast plains and craggy heights that reflect the characters&#39; emotional landscape.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Henry Fool&lt;/i&gt; (1997) - where Hal Hartley literally gives the Devil his due. The film follows the outlines of the Faust legend, with the eponymous character (Thomas Jay Ryan) enabling trash collector Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) to realize his potential as a literary celebrity-- and then things get a little weird. Offbeat, off-kilter, off the radar in every sense, one of the better films of the late 90s.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Could not with much regret keep up with the always vital Filipino independent filmmaking scene-- that&#39;s my fault-- but thanks to a recent project on Filipino-Asian collaborations have been been able to catch the following:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
  208.  
  209. Dawn of Freedom&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1944) - Yutaka Abe and Gerardo de Leon&#39;s handsomely produced propaganda film wields Manila like a gigantic studio set, yet details the tentatively developing relationship between Filipinos and their Japanese occupiers with surprising delicacy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Shiniuma&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Dead Horse&lt;/i&gt;, 2016) - Brillante Mendoza&#39;s haiku depicting an undocumented Filipino worker&#39;s life in Hokkaido, his capture by immigrant officers, and his eventual Manila homecoming. With an indelible performance by Lou Veloso.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Gensan Punch&lt;/i&gt; - Brillante Mendoza&#39;s biopic of &#39;Nao&#39; Tsuchiyama depicts a one-legged boxing champion full of grit and spirit and a startling sweetness.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;
  210.  
  211. A Hard Day&lt;/i&gt; - Law Fajardo&#39;s remake of the Kim Seong-hun original, about a corrupt cop trying to fix his fractured life, is a fascinating study on what can translate from Korean to Filipino setting in an action movie, and what can&#39;t.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Kintsugi&lt;/i&gt; - Law Fajardo&#39;s romance between a Filipino immigrant worker and the daughter of his Japanese boss is both a showcase for the charms of Saga prefecture (and its renowned ceramicware) and a quietly poignant romance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Imbisibol&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Invisible&lt;/i&gt;) - arguably Fajardo&#39;s best work, from a one-act play by Herlyn Alegre, an observant and ultimately devastating look at Filipino migrants, documented and undocumented, in bleak wintertime Japan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published in &lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2024/01/05/566858/list-of-2023/&quot;&gt;Businessworld&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt; 1.5.24&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXESNoTYygYSPoQnlF0FCzfxQVwtvIGCtq-nW60WtIzF1ReEmxZwgeaL2-j9M0GiGSk6-X1Acl756uh7xc1aLu47Vh22BXMIa5jpTD0-BWv7qQ-QvHiA-eoFEJR-u7Rwe6v74PnsjJCMxkLWVl8VtaDr0fXv2M1-syF1CMI3ygzleObLPF9g4/s1280/80464c269a209d49-filmsboutique.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;720&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXESNoTYygYSPoQnlF0FCzfxQVwtvIGCtq-nW60WtIzF1ReEmxZwgeaL2-j9M0GiGSk6-X1Acl756uh7xc1aLu47Vh22BXMIa5jpTD0-BWv7qQ-QvHiA-eoFEJR-u7Rwe6v74PnsjJCMxkLWVl8VtaDr0fXv2M1-syF1CMI3ygzleObLPF9g4/w400-h225/80464c269a209d49-filmsboutique.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; 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style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtbJZyCHM1iyFjKjh8UQMWPyCsqSPIvbrXMc8z2lA2CBTR9An_v_7IFwzISTsJ2G_Tj55R41SLdLAu5RmpK9H2flYR5ESM9_gFqQ-bmA5hZjYRz9UEcyC1zFE9NZyvMNsbFGnTF_eRYMeOvLF4TUzZpeqna5q-p1H6t9h5zo9xYQs7wk2pm30/s740/The-Boy-and-the-Heron-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;455&quot; data-original-width=&quot;740&quot; height=&quot;246&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtbJZyCHM1iyFjKjh8UQMWPyCsqSPIvbrXMc8z2lA2CBTR9An_v_7IFwzISTsJ2G_Tj55R41SLdLAu5RmpK9H2flYR5ESM9_gFqQ-bmA5hZjYRz9UEcyC1zFE9NZyvMNsbFGnTF_eRYMeOvLF4TUzZpeqna5q-p1H6t9h5zo9xYQs7wk2pm30/w400-h246/The-Boy-and-the-Heron-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/2930057094018868905/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=2930057094018868905' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2930057094018868905'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2930057094018868905'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2024/01/films-of-2023.html' title='Films of 2023'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBicUXX-8oKKaoxw8mx_P_2L8iPikUJh2DCz3umlJXmkZ54_retogN4Q_13eHAl0CkZCsyQwrWlUosuanKiecnaw8Yxn1fQrFmBRgGKd4a8ftRc_hvEH969LEbzUbBJYiTZLaw8U5XZW-GO98_RWSob7s8nEVXYC-vnqO_M0g7qMdXkYxh5DDQ/s72-w400-h225-c/Oppenheimer-Cillian-Murphy-072822-2000-a3f8a0a822484e50b6bf0aa8c1c12592.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2897840699886014319</id><published>2023-12-26T12:59:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2024-01-10T14:32:06.674-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biographical"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Italy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Michael Mann"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Sports"/><title type='text'>Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2kSVdckSqjSiZ_HU0AJ8zOeN1mm9o4xKPqhQsbtQ3prQN6uPbhfd0hVHqQPBCu66TNx2JzT1YvTiEV4J0Ae4EmhfJCzDYp29POol1xzwWjtMox8a-7E-y9kDOXycGOFuA1rd635h65jdWJ9JayRQ3X5SgvJd5Q2hYkuv5FJ5wwEQlOVnByA3/s1500/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter%20(1).jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;932&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1500&quot; height=&quot;249&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2kSVdckSqjSiZ_HU0AJ8zOeN1mm9o4xKPqhQsbtQ3prQN6uPbhfd0hVHqQPBCu66TNx2JzT1YvTiEV4J0Ae4EmhfJCzDYp29POol1xzwWjtMox8a-7E-y9kDOXycGOFuA1rd635h65jdWJ9JayRQ3X5SgvJd5Q2hYkuv5FJ5wwEQlOVnByA3/w400-h249/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter%20(1).jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fast car&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;i&gt;Warning: plot and story discussed in explicit detail&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Michael Mann&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3758542/&quot;&gt;Ferrari&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; continues his tradition of depicting work-obsessed introverted men but with a key difference: Enzo Ferrari was reportedly more gregarious till the death of his son Dino at the age of 24 from muscular dystrophy. Mann doesn&#39;t make the obvious connection, just shows the aftereffects: Enzo depressed and focused on his beloved racing cars with a singleminded ferocity.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Call this film Mann&#39;s speed machine: stripped-down with hulking huge wheels and even bigger engine; black maw of a mouth, hull painted a gleaming rosso corsa. Inside is a lot of noise and little creature comfort, not even an ashtray.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The film doesn&#39;t have the capacity for much baggage. We don&#39;t explore the moral issues involving Ferrari&#39;s cooperation with the Fascist government during the Second World War, or his appeasement of leftist guerrillas with covert support-- basically covering all bases so his factory can keep manufacturing during and after the conflict. We don&#39;t explore the consequences of the 1957 Mille Miglia crash that claimed the lives of nine people including racing driver Alfonso de Portago-- at most a closing title states Ferrari was cleared of all culpability. Did he &lt;i&gt;feel&lt;/i&gt; culpable? Adam Driver as Enzo glares wordlessly as his engineers peer into the twisted wreckage, utters a few terse sentences, conducts a press conference, which is about all Mann will allow. Snatch of dialogue from Portago saying he&#39;ll have his tire changed at a later stop suggests Mann is throwing some blame on the driver, tho seconds before the crash we see the official explanation sticking out of the asphalt-- a damaged cat&#39;s-eye reflector with edge angled fatefully, waiting for the oncoming car wheel.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This production is approved by the car company, with Piero Ferrari himself giving his blessings; how much dirt are they able to produce on the man? On one hand the film isn&#39;t shy about Ferrari&#39;s infidelities and deficiencies as a husband (and possibly as father); on the other... well we won&#39;t know without more online digging, will we?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Penelope Cruz looking unbelievably gorgeous as 57-year-old Laura Ferrari doesn&#39;t hesitate to point out Enzo&#39;s deficiencies, to the point of digging up a few herself. If Adam Driver&#39;s Enzo is a withdrawn brooder of a man then Cruz&#39;s Laura is his firebreathing partner, opening the film with a gun aimed pointblank at his chest. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The woman is terrifying but not a little tragic; Dino&#39;s death has affected her too, and she blames Enzo for possible neglect (tho muscular dystrophy is genetic; tho Enzo may have not been as assiduous in administering the child&#39;s difficult care; tho this tho that tho the many recriminations a longmarried couple can fling at each other&#39;s faces). Laura doesn&#39;t hate Enzo indiscriminately; what keeps her anger burning is the love she&#39;s had for the man, and her bitterness at how that love has since withered-- given half a chance she&#39;ll throw herself at him, over a dinner table at that, and still quarrel with him a few minutes later. Not subtle not elegant definitely not boring.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The racing sequences I&#39;ll presume are the main reason Mann wanted to make this film and they&#39;re amazing, not just for the visceral excitement but for the magisterial manner in which Mann orchestrates all elements, from dialogue to music to light to color to the gutclenching way the engines judder through your body. Just the first appearance of one of Ferrari&#39;s 355 or 315 or 450 growling through cobblestoned streets makes the hairs stand on the back of one&#39;s neck-- these are wild animals, barely kept in check, perfectly capable of biting your head off if you lose focus for even a millisecond.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mann directs not just for excitement but for beauty, or the excitement aroused by beauty-- in the Mille Miglia&#39;s opening for instance, the cars&#39; headlights as they shoot up a road at night; or the ribbon of asphalt draped across the muscled shoulders of the Gran Sasso d&#39;Italia range as the drivers negotiate narrow curves; or the perfect rows of trees flashing past on either side outside of the town of Guidizzolo, under an impossibly blue sky.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m reminded of another late work from another master, Hayao Miyazaki&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-wind-rises-hayao-miyazaki-2013.html&quot;&gt;The Wind Rises&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;-- the two would make for an interesting double feature. Like Enzo, Jiro Horikoshi is obsessed (Enzo with cars, Jiro with planes); like Enzo, Jiro has a dark record with his government, in his case designing fighter planes for the Imperial Navy. In Jiro&#39;s case, there&#39;s no record of resistance to or awareness of his planes&#39; wartime performance (he expressed regret after the war); in Enzo&#39;s case the record is more complicated as it would be for most any capitalist entrepreneur. Miyazaki took an interesting route-- inventing a loving figure (the fictional Nahoko Satomi) and an inspirational figure (the real Giovanni Battista Caproni) to speak to Jiro and help clarify his views; Mann simply stonewalls us on the more controversial issues, leaving them for us to suss out. One takes the more imaginative path, the other the more honest one; one chooses the approach one prefers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2mn6kF6Tox-hP5E3q0k0HPjgAElaXR44cD7W5zbUYeoEbpHZIi4-S0wY7DLG9Wj3NxEvPHHwjYs9bE0979wsfWjvl_MwC3B7R1sVwweCzfFpqWWUhHy6mTKQT6A3GbrePJZVBn1VsrKeSmUij4DECj307wX62Awld-vXHPUXeO0IVybSdjy_/s6240/image4.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;4160&quot; data-original-width=&quot;6240&quot; height=&quot;266&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2mn6kF6Tox-hP5E3q0k0HPjgAElaXR44cD7W5zbUYeoEbpHZIi4-S0wY7DLG9Wj3NxEvPHHwjYs9bE0979wsfWjvl_MwC3B7R1sVwweCzfFpqWWUhHy6mTKQT6A3GbrePJZVBn1VsrKeSmUij4DECj307wX62Awld-vXHPUXeO0IVybSdjy_/w400-h266/image4.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/2897840699886014319/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=2897840699886014319' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2897840699886014319'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2897840699886014319'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/ferrari-michael-mann-2023.html' title='Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2kSVdckSqjSiZ_HU0AJ8zOeN1mm9o4xKPqhQsbtQ3prQN6uPbhfd0hVHqQPBCu66TNx2JzT1YvTiEV4J0Ae4EmhfJCzDYp29POol1xzwWjtMox8a-7E-y9kDOXycGOFuA1rd635h65jdWJ9JayRQ3X5SgvJd5Q2hYkuv5FJ5wwEQlOVnByA3/s72-w400-h249-c/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter%20(1).jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-3814809175984487848</id><published>2023-12-18T15:06:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-18T15:26:22.416-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="French"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Jacques Tourneur"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Noir"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><title type='text'>Experiment Perilous (Jacques Tourneur, 1944)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqWectqVHr6HcInePTCURu7uGvRD4hqYpCiT6wOryRwQaRR5aPR0NboABqmggDLuUWSux_9W8Or2bDlLZbrXb02gO06c4KSTQP-U18APXGBi_inkrRL_BmD4HZ40bdw_ITb5HYzUGeqBmJlDpUBrueAHUUJbvKdpSqKzhnMzbCiRBpDYwTEvY/s640/57160668.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;480&quot; data-original-width=&quot;640&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqWectqVHr6HcInePTCURu7uGvRD4hqYpCiT6wOryRwQaRR5aPR0NboABqmggDLuUWSux_9W8Or2bDlLZbrXb02gO06c4KSTQP-U18APXGBi_inkrRL_BmD4HZ40bdw_ITb5HYzUGeqBmJlDpUBrueAHUUJbvKdpSqKzhnMzbCiRBpDYwTEvY/w400-h300/57160668.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Glass menagerie&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036807/&quot;&gt;Experiment Perilous&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; isn&#39;t the best-known Tourneur and critics of the time compare it unfavorably to &lt;i&gt;Gaslight&lt;/i&gt;, with Hedy Lamarr&#39;s Allida Bederaux in the Ingrid Bergman role of tormented housewife, Paul Lukas as Nick her husband, and George Brent as therapist Dr. Huntington Bailey, who comes from the outside world seeking to help Allida.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;Easy to see their point; Lamarr tho beautiful isn&#39;t in the same calibre as Bergman-- or rather hasn&#39;t been given the chance to show her dramatic chops the way Bergman has-- and Brent, who managed to convince Tourneur not just to cast him in this but in &lt;i&gt;The Spiral Staircase &lt;/i&gt;a few years later-- doesn&#39;t have the charisma of Joseph Cotten. Even saw an online piece that opined the film should have stuck to Lamarr and ignored Brent and Lukas-- in effect &lt;i&gt;Gaslight&lt;/i&gt; on a smaller budget with lower-wattage stars.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Tourneur has been underrated most of his career and remains underrated, even with the recent smoldering interest rekindled in recent years. The film starts with Dr. Bailey on a train meeting the borderline hysterical Cissie Bederaux (Olive Blakeney) both looking forward to and fearing her return home after years in unspecified exile-- her official excuse is that lightning storms make her nervous but one wonders if it isn&#39;t the prospect of encountering the psychic storm brewing at home that has unnerved her. She&#39;s introduced the main characters (verbally, as Tourneur rarely if ever underlines his points), set the tone of the film (barely suppressed hysteria), and discreetly makes her exit, as if she never existed, or only in Bailey&#39;s imagination.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the Bederaux residence, seen first at a party, with guests and husband Nick attending to the oddly spotlighted Allida-- yes it&#39;s been pointed out that Lamarr as an actress can be stiffer than Bergman, at times more mannequin than human, but in this context her performance such as it is works-- she&#39;s oddly affectless, distant from her fellow human beings, framed and lit like a creature under glass. Along the way Bailey is introduced to the Bederaux aquariums, a series of vast windows into underwater worlds, eerily cut off from us much like Allida is, in slow motion as if experiencing a different time rate (did Alan Moore see this before making that connection of slow time and snowglobes in his &lt;i&gt;Watchmen&lt;/i&gt;?).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Letterboxd &#39;critics&#39; claim it takes too much time at too slow a pace to get to its literally explosive finale but I submit the getting there is the film&#39;s main interest-- doesn&#39;t help that Tourneur added a flashback where Lamarr (and Lukas) are clearly too old to play the young girl and young man required for the scene (all we have to do tho is think of Dennis Potter&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Blue Remembered Hills&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;and wonder if maybe this flashback-- or dream within a dream if you like-- is just Tourneur anticipating Potter by decades).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We have a beauty under an enchantment; we have the clever warlock who plays cat and mouse games with the beauty&#39;s would-be rescuer, Paul Lukas never more smoothly sinister as when he drops little hints and flirts lightly with stolid Brent-- his come-hither cues holding more conviction than any profession of love or jealousy he may have expressed for his lawfully married wife. At times you feel as if Nick dangles his wife before Dr. Bailey like bait, a shiny bright object mesmerizing the psychiatrist, drawing him into Nick&#39;s strange world of aquariums and unseen children (Allida&#39;s son is heard only as a voice at first, such that for almost half the film we wonder if he even exists).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s a delicate dislocated dislocating film such that if you come to it wrong-- as a casual viewer, unreceptive to the tendrils of atmosphere and suggestion Tourneur weaves before you-- you&#39;d be bored stiff. Seen in a different frame of mind it&#39;s a fevered dream you can&#39;t snap yourself out of till the aquariums burst from their dark wood frames, and you wake to the immediate danger. The finale is standard-issue Hollywood but the field of flowers (an indoor set?) looks and feels so patently fake you wonder if we&#39;ve only woken from one nightmare to find ourselves in the grip of another, or if Tourneur-- unlike Nick-- isn&#39;t quite done toying with you. An underrated gem, I say.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGQRNfQIrrdKNqpKxaNQt7NfUBoabYqrelxHWr8gZRKC8jT_g4Aeof7xnXBgP8jRMkiYwqZ0mUlQDYiM2Oo7f8CoU7HUElR-Anhwrs27vHGekI93YyK94uEw4S-narylFWMkQB3CM56DohwnK2Zi1Ad2GzKKI_J4XvcwUGjMuWLeBq6uFzHvLx/s1600/Experiment-Perilous-1-1600x900-c-default.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;900&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1600&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGQRNfQIrrdKNqpKxaNQt7NfUBoabYqrelxHWr8gZRKC8jT_g4Aeof7xnXBgP8jRMkiYwqZ0mUlQDYiM2Oo7f8CoU7HUElR-Anhwrs27vHGekI93YyK94uEw4S-narylFWMkQB3CM56DohwnK2Zi1Ad2GzKKI_J4XvcwUGjMuWLeBq6uFzHvLx/w400-h225/Experiment-Perilous-1-1600x900-c-default.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/3814809175984487848/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=3814809175984487848' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/3814809175984487848'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/3814809175984487848'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/experiment-perilous-jacques-tourneur.html' title='Experiment Perilous (Jacques Tourneur, 1944)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqWectqVHr6HcInePTCURu7uGvRD4hqYpCiT6wOryRwQaRR5aPR0NboABqmggDLuUWSux_9W8Or2bDlLZbrXb02gO06c4KSTQP-U18APXGBi_inkrRL_BmD4HZ40bdw_ITb5HYzUGeqBmJlDpUBrueAHUUJbvKdpSqKzhnMzbCiRBpDYwTEvY/s72-w400-h300-c/57160668.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-982720611814147628</id><published>2023-12-18T14:11:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-18T14:11:11.567-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Action"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Steven Spielberg"/><title type='text'>Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  212. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDwDPGfH0bIs3Hu7-Od35_guDsfSpXCE0WjBPfonOFUvwFVa89gAe2u39MDmvPQHQcay4PCQADVUS5I43PuN1QfCEe2DewEtw_pCBZzxuG7rRC9KzMePVts8-Aa50fZIrLOs8/s1600/Indy_cuts_bridge.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;170&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDwDPGfH0bIs3Hu7-Od35_guDsfSpXCE0WjBPfonOFUvwFVa89gAe2u39MDmvPQHQcay4PCQADVUS5I43PuN1QfCEe2DewEtw_pCBZzxuG7rRC9KzMePVts8-Aa50fZIrLOs8/w400-h170/Indy_cuts_bridge.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  213. &lt;br /&gt;
  214. &lt;span&gt;&lt;b&gt;Indiana Jones and the series of doom&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember enjoying &lt;i&gt;Raiders of the Lost Ark&lt;/i&gt; when it came out in 1981; hadn&#39;t seen the matinee serials that inspired producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg, but did respond to the junky theme-park ride feel (actually it wasn&#39;t so much a theme park ride (that came later) as it was a traveling carnival, complete with walking freaks, lurid exhibits, the hint of sex, and thrills galore). The picture shambled and lurched horribly (there wasn&#39;t much of a plot to speak of) but that was part of the charm, and it moved with agreeable speed (the huge fiberglass boulder threatening to roll over Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) pretty much set the pace and tone of the picture).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;So many decades later, the appetite for movies derived from other movies has been satiated to the point of nausea (for me, at least). &lt;i&gt;Raiders&lt;/i&gt; spawned endless clones, some amusing (I&#39;m thinking of &lt;i&gt;Romancing the Stone&lt;/i&gt; (1984)-- basically &lt;i&gt;Raiders&lt;/i&gt; told from the point of view of the heroine, ably directed by Spielberg protégé Robert Zemeckis), many not (the Richard Chamberlain remake of &lt;i&gt;King Solomon&#39;s Mines&lt;/i&gt; (1985) and Jon Turtletaub&#39;s &lt;i&gt;National Treasure &lt;/i&gt;(2004) anyone?). Re-watching the picture, the question of racism comes to fore: do South American savages Nepalese grotesques Tunisian thugs all exist to be mere fodder for Indy Jones to whip, kick, verbally and physically abuse, and-- when in a particularly bad mood-- simply shoot in the chest?* The picture moves so fast one may miss the subtext, unless one is South American, Nepalese, or Tunisian, or simply non-white...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  215. &lt;br /&gt;
  216. &lt;span&gt;*&lt;i&gt;Actually, Toshiro Mifune had a-- to my mind, at least-- far wittier response to the question of gun vs. blade, in Akira Kurosawa&#39;s great black comedy &lt;/i&gt;Yojimbo &lt;i&gt;(1961)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  217. &lt;br /&gt;
  218. &lt;span&gt;...Though I&#39;m sure there were nonwhites that &lt;i&gt;did &lt;/i&gt;miss the subtext (the movie was an international hit) and I&#39;m sure much of the racism was unintentional (Spielberg was-- still is, I&#39;d argue-- a political naïf; Lucas even more so), a carryover from the serials of old with their &#39;30s attitude toward darkskinned folk-- but a racial slur is a racial slur even when not intended to offend, even when the victim fails to notice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Might as well throw in the observation that the climax, involving the Ark of the Covenant sitting in a caldero structure shooting flames into the sky, is partly inspired by the &lt;i&gt;Night on Bald Mountain&lt;/i&gt; sequence in Disney&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Fantasia&lt;/i&gt; (1940). And that the &lt;i&gt;Bald Mountain&lt;/i&gt; sequence was in turn inspired by the opening passages of F.W. Murnau&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Faust&lt;/i&gt; (1926)-- with Emil Jannings &lt;a href=&quot;http://images.greencine.com/images/article/expressionism8.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;a far more impressive Devil&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; than Disney&#39;s rather sexless version, spreading his vast bat wings from horizon to horizon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Which reminds me of another grand adventure that trod heavily on racial lines-- George Stevens&#39; &lt;i&gt;Gunga Din&lt;/i&gt; (1939). Indians are depicted here as either ignorant buffoons or homicidal heathens (though the putative villains, the Thuggee cult, did actually exist). It&#39;s more difficult to condemn the implicit racism in Stevens&#39; film for several reasons: the producers were cunning enough to present a sympathetic Indian character (the eponymous Din, played by Sam Jaffee), and-- better yet-- they show the Englishmen to be equal if not bigger buffoons in their slapstick antics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The cries of racism probably weren&#39;t strong enough; in Spielberg&#39;s next movie &lt;i&gt;Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom&lt;/i&gt; (1984) the attitude towards foreigners-- in this case East Indians-- is even more virulent. Jones helps a poor Indian village recover their magic mcguffin;* not a case of the white archeologist-adventurer recovering a powerful device for the free world so much as powerful malevolent Indians oppressing their poorer brethren (the white adventurer is merely a benefactor). Spielberg&#39;s view of India (a country steeped in dire poverty, ancient architectural and cultural marvels, and great natural beauty) is almost unredeemably ugly, the ugliest I&#39;ve seen in any picture supposedly set in that country (actually shot in soundstages in Elstree Studios, England, and in Sri Lanka (the location scout must have deliberately chosen the least appealing spots), so that it doesn&#39;t look convincingly Indian, either). Offsetting this-- well, other than the poor victimized village and a spoiled brat of a prince who turns out to have been under hypnotic control, there aren&#39;t&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;any mitigating circumstances. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  219. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  220. &lt;span&gt;*&lt;i&gt;From Alfred Hitchcock: &quot;mcguffin&quot; being the device (uranium, stolen secrets, ancient talisman, whatever) that sets the plot in motion which the audience couldn&#39;t care less about.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  221. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  222. &lt;span&gt;A royal feast midway through the picture is especially insulting, with offerings of pregnant pythons slit open, eyeball soup with distinctly human eyes (uncooked), and chilled monkey brains. Spielberg doesn&#39;t even bother to get details of his gross-out fare right (none of these dishes are served in classic Indian cooking,* which has its own share of strange and wonderful dishes). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  223. &lt;br /&gt;
  224. &lt;span&gt;*&lt;i&gt;eating live monkey brains is most often attributed to the Chinese&lt;/i&gt; &lt;i&gt;not the Indians-- and even then there&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://maxent.org/ch/monkey_brains.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;little actual documentation&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The sequel does exceed &lt;i&gt;Raiders&lt;/i&gt; in number and quality of inventive action setpieces. The Chinese nightclub sequence with its diamond-delivering Lazy Susan, giant bulletproof gong, and Kate Capshaw singing &quot;Anything Goes&quot; in Mandarin, is a chopsuey wonder (here Capshaw&#39;s song sets the tone); the mine scenes feature an innovative (for the time) chase; the battle on the bridge is genuinely thrilling (and not for the acrophobic). If pure popcorn entertainment can in any way justify a picture&#39;s cultural insensitivity, this is one of the better arguments I&#39;ve heard from Hollywood in recent years. It almost makes its case.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  225. &lt;span&gt;Might add that &lt;i&gt;Temple of Doom &lt;/i&gt;had a subtler, more insidious effect on future popcorn movies: far as I know, this was the first chase explicitly shot and edited&amp;nbsp; like an amusement park ride, with lengthy footage of the action seen &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmSoQBkCd8k&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;riding inside the mine car&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. A special-effect wonder-- I remember reading production stories about how a camera was mounted on little tracks, riding up and down scale model recreations of a mine-- and here at least the connection between chase and roller-coaster feels witty; the elaborate effects are in the service of jokes, at least one of which was actually funny (&quot;Water! Water!&quot;). With time and endless repetition (by anything and everything from the &lt;i&gt;Star Wars &lt;/i&gt;prequels (1999 - 2005) to &lt;i&gt;Ice Age &lt;/i&gt;(2002)&lt;i&gt;, Chicken Little &lt;/i&gt;(2005-- notice how American animation features are the worse offenders?) and the recent &lt;i&gt;Horton Hears a Who! &lt;/i&gt;(2008)), the cliché has become tiresome.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  226. &lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The louder cries of racism and &lt;a href=&quot;http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/11/1106_banned/source/7.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;a temporary ban in India&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; may have prompted Spielberg to reconsider: with &lt;i&gt;Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade&lt;/i&gt; (1989), Spielberg abandons use of foreign cultures as hate effigies and takes aim at the convenient Nazis (when the swastika appears midway through the picture and Jones slumps back, saying &quot;I hate Nazis,&quot; it&#39;s almost with a sigh of relief; Nazi jokes can only offend skinheads). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  227. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  228. &lt;span&gt;Spielberg took care to include a little local color: the canals of Venice, of course as background to a motorboat chase, the stone facades of Petra, a &lt;a href=&quot;http://z.about.com/d/architecture/1/7/W/i/Petra-lge.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;desert city carved out of a mountainside&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;acting as stand-in for the ancient temple hiding the Grail. Middle Eastern characters are at best loyal sidekicks (Sallah, played by Englishman John Rhys-Davies), ambivalent antagonists (The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who at some points cross paths with Jones, then drop out of the picture entirely), or cannon fodder.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The action setpieces are-- serviceable (maybe three stand out: a young Indy Jones clambering his way through a chugging circus train; a flagpole wielded like a knight&#39;s lance on a motorcycle; a fighter plane confronted by a chivalric umbrella). The movie&#39;s feature attraction is really Indiana&#39;s ambivalent relations with his father (Henry Jones, Jr., played by the legendary Sean Connery). Of the three, &lt;i&gt;Raiders&lt;/i&gt; comes off as perhaps the &#39;freshest&#39; (considering most of its elements were secondhand), &lt;i&gt;Temple of Doom&lt;/i&gt; staged the best action (and worst violence), &lt;i&gt;Last Crusade&lt;/i&gt; was the most politically acceptable (translate: not out-and-out offensive), and emotionally complex (which isn&#39;t saying much actually).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The series as a whole is a fine example of popcorn entertainment (if you can set aside the frankly racist content of the first two pictures) but compared to earlier fare, well...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  229. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  230. &lt;span&gt;Take &lt;i&gt;Gunga Din&lt;/i&gt;. The Indy movies barely &lt;i&gt;have &lt;/i&gt;a story--just a Macguffin hidden away in some remote death-trap for Jones to uncover; &lt;i&gt;Gunga Din&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;which does do its share of borrowing borrows from the best: the plot and premise of &lt;i&gt;The Front Page &lt;/i&gt;transposed into an army comedy, where one officer (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) threatens to marry and leave the British Army while two fellow officers (Cary Grant and Victor McLaglen) scheme to keep him enlisted. If the Indy movies have one star turn (Ford, and at one point Connery), &lt;i&gt;Gunga Din&lt;/i&gt; had three (Fairbanks, McLaglen, a magnificently physical Grant); if the Indy movies have Rube Goldberg action setpieces, &lt;i&gt;Gunga Din&lt;/i&gt; has Rube Goldberg comic setpieces (and who&#39;s to say a comic setpiece is not&lt;i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;an action setpiece, only funnier?), plus a rousing finale that makes full use of all the character detail and comic goodwill built up in the past&amp;nbsp; hour. All in all, the &lt;i&gt;Indiana Jones&lt;/i&gt; series aren&#39;t all that bad; it&#39;s just that there&#39;s better out there, if you&#39;re willing to go and look for it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  231. &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  232. &lt;span&gt;First published for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bworldonline.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Businessworld&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 5.23.08)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 130%;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCYrB3ynSVxhVgv8_p2lC1J3RADK0w0ppNfu4qTiggNsL3lyo_bvGkLE-NoTp3weViSvoviZzJH06g1v1yY2JB_0wtlE0uvA1MOUHOc3jw0Mt07FEDL0YM-n7MY4jdouyw0MJ6W45lsxcW7RXJHqMzpyuRBv5i6gNgKFWHSfFVcKnABdwp-pq/s800/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converted.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;450&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;180&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCYrB3ynSVxhVgv8_p2lC1J3RADK0w0ppNfu4qTiggNsL3lyo_bvGkLE-NoTp3weViSvoviZzJH06g1v1yY2JB_0wtlE0uvA1MOUHOc3jw0Mt07FEDL0YM-n7MY4jdouyw0MJ6W45lsxcW7RXJHqMzpyuRBv5i6gNgKFWHSfFVcKnABdwp-pq/s320/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converted.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/982720611814147628/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=982720611814147628' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/982720611814147628'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/982720611814147628'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2008/05/indiana-jones-movies-raiders-of-lost.html' title='Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDwDPGfH0bIs3Hu7-Od35_guDsfSpXCE0WjBPfonOFUvwFVa89gAe2u39MDmvPQHQcay4PCQADVUS5I43PuN1QfCEe2DewEtw_pCBZzxuG7rRC9KzMePVts8-Aa50fZIrLOs8/s72-w400-h170-c/Indy_cuts_bridge.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-8118736663967376261</id><published>2023-12-18T03:47:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-18T04:05:15.574-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fantasy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Film Festival"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Gerardo de Leon"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Nora Aunor"/><title type='text'>Caridad (from &#39;Fe, Esperanza, Caridad,&#39; Gerardo de Leon, 1974)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  233. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWR3YBQmGtL1csWL6enEVL9AD3We9tEFcK3KCYGGJtITyRKREhUL2EdbjZaDyOhNwJHUqEcNiGReQ34fPAcgZfEAUMsB90F1328BCBFo7lpP6KXXGRDsm_Mfe0B7uZzucXm7xi/s1600/nora+Brown+beauty+2.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img align=&quot;BOTTOM&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; name=&quot;graphics1&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWR3YBQmGtL1csWL6enEVL9AD3We9tEFcK3KCYGGJtITyRKREhUL2EdbjZaDyOhNwJHUqEcNiGReQ34fPAcgZfEAUMsB90F1328BCBFo7lpP6KXXGRDsm_Mfe0B7uZzucXm7xi/w195-h400/nora+Brown+beauty+2.jpg&quot; width=&quot;195&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  234. &lt;style type=&quot;text/css&quot;&gt;P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link {  }&lt;/style&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;b&gt;A love profane&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  235. &lt;br /&gt;
  236. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;If anyone doubted Filipina
  237. singer/actress Nora Aunor&#39;s popularity in the late &#39;60s to early &#39;70s
  238. one only had to glance at her filmography, during which period she
  239. was on something worse than a hot streak, doing an unbelievable
  240. seventy or so films in seven years, from 1967 onwards.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  241. &lt;br /&gt;
  242. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;That said, a few caveats: she
  243. made her name as a singer first, not actress; she cranked out movies
  244. much the way Elvis Presley did, sacrificing quality for
  245. quantity...only I doubt if Presley managed even a fraction of her
  246. output, much less come up with as-bizarre titles (&lt;i&gt;Cinderella
  247. A-Go-Go&lt;/i&gt;; &lt;i&gt;D&#39;Musical Teenage Idols!&lt;/i&gt;; &lt;i&gt;Tomboy Nora&lt;/i&gt;;
  248. &lt;i&gt;Teenage Jamboree&lt;/i&gt;; &lt;i&gt;Nora in Wonderland&lt;/i&gt;; &lt;i&gt;My Blue Hawaii&lt;/i&gt;;
  249. &lt;i&gt;Super Gee&lt;/i&gt;).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;CENTER&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  250. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;In &#39;74 she would try something
  251. unusual, an omnibus film featuring three women (all played by Nora)
  252. entitled &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312680/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_116&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;Fe,
  253. Esperanza, Caridad&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;,
  254. under the direction of three veteran filmmakers: Cirio Santiago (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Fe&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;);
  255. Lamberto Avellana (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Esperanza&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;);
  256. and Gerardo de Leon (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Caridad&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;).
  257. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Fe&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
  258. I could barely remember-- a brief rehash of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;A
  259. Star is Born&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;, if
  260. I&#39;m not mistaken. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Esperanza&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
  261. was an enchanting romantic comedy memorable mainly for Avellana&#39;s
  262. comic touch, nimble pacing, deft way with colloquial conversation; in
  263. this sense at least one can see him as being superior to de Leon,
  264. whose dramaturgy (not to mention dialogue) still seems mired in the
  265. 19th century.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OuPlqZQxgCDA6KTTMpvaNXK6jRiqUpjXSDOAkrjYe1VwXOvbui0iZnL4VDq2ilBKeIZN0mYFv1noJ0DJ0565NJMeBeA5J8DNsSQdNqcmtpzy4ahpCZGKw0A2-ZSl2fEN892fCUZpec-9QCpLlI7KweTjcxKDUHlo9fr_6rGcdZKjqLqxODvi/s924/1702889904272.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;924&quot; data-original-width=&quot;708&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OuPlqZQxgCDA6KTTMpvaNXK6jRiqUpjXSDOAkrjYe1VwXOvbui0iZnL4VDq2ilBKeIZN0mYFv1noJ0DJ0565NJMeBeA5J8DNsSQdNqcmtpzy4ahpCZGKw0A2-ZSl2fEN892fCUZpec-9QCpLlI7KweTjcxKDUHlo9fr_6rGcdZKjqLqxODvi/s320/1702889904272.jpg&quot; width=&quot;245&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;CENTER&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;Seems, that is, till you see
  266. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Caridad&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;.
  267. De Leon dreamed up the story; Ka Ikong and Jojo Lapus fashioned it
  268. into a screenplay (the previous two segments only had one writer
  269. each); cinematographer Ricardo David shot it through a series of
  270. luridly tinted scarlet-and-mandarin filters. The result might be
  271. described as a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Rosemary&#39;s
  272. Baby&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt; for the
  273. disco era, the corruption and seduction of a beautiful innocent
  274. (Sister Caridad, at her deathbed and confessing her sinful past) by
  275. the Devil Himself (Ronaldo Valdez channeling John Travolta channeling
  276. Tony Montana).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  277. &lt;br /&gt;
  278. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;De Leon&#39;s segment deserves to be
  279. howled off the screen, but the intensity of Valdez (possibly the most
  280. virile onscreen Lucifer I can remember), the grave pacing, the
  281. highflown dialogue-- and yes despite all the aforementioned criticisms
  282. the dialogue &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
  283. poetic*-- kills the laughter in your throat. Consider as well De
  284. Leon&#39;s inimitably Gothic style-- can&#39;t think of a director more
  285. capable of investing emotional significance in a perfect blue sky,
  286. less a vision of paradise than a vision of relentless implacability.
  287. His angled compositions give us shifting balances of power
  288. between&amp;nbsp;man and woman, demon and mortal, seducer and seduced;
  289. his color palette is stylized to the point of fantasy-- which somehow
  290. makes the sequence more not less persuasive (Somehow you just &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;knew&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
  291. Satan would have epic bad taste).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  292. &lt;br /&gt;
  293. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;* &lt;i&gt;I could cite any number of
  294. examples but one that pops into mind is when Satan looks back at
  295. Caridad&#39;s dangling crucifix and says (rough translation) &quot;when
  296. that cross burned itself into my hand the pain made me forget myself,
  297. I thought I was in Paradise with you beside me; but here is my other
  298. palm, to remind me we possess different fates-- you to praise and
  299. adore, I to damn and blaspheme-- &quot;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  300. &lt;br /&gt;
  301. &lt;br /&gt;
  302. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;The result isn&#39;t
  303. old-fashioned but timeless-- the underlying structure of everything expressed in obvious but cinematic terms. The script&#39;s audaciously
  304. metaphysical (and fairly blasphemous) conceit is worthy of Graham
  305. Greene: that goodness is as seductive, as corrosively subversive,&amp;nbsp;
  306. as capable of inflicting suffering as evil... the Devil every bit as
  307. deserving of redemption as any other lost soul.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  308. &lt;br /&gt;
  309. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;And then there is
  310. Nora-- impossibly frail next to Valdez&#39;s towering frame, her dark skin
  311. and darker eyes an intoxicating mix, like rum and uncut cacao.
  312. Their shared chemistry is adulterous, to put it politely (hardly
  313. the first to notice; audiences did too, and the two were paired up
  314. again with De Leon directing a year later, this time on &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/05/banaue-stairway-to-sky-gerardo-de-leon.html&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;b&gt;a
  315. far more epic scale&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;).
  316. When he glares at her, it&#39;s with the fury of a man bewildered by the
  317. complexity that is woman; when she gazes at him it&#39;s with the
  318. terrifying confidence of unconditional love. Satan forgiven,
  319. re-admitted into Heaven? Think of the course of the universe
  320. interrupted, its order thrown upside-down, all angels and demons
  321. tossed about in the tumult; that&#39;s what De Leon suggests, in a
  322. segment barely an hour long, on a budget that wouldn&#39;t finance a
  323. standard Filipino television commercial.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  324. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published 7.13.14; edited 12.18.23&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  325. &lt;div align=&quot;CENTER&quot;&gt;
  326. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YFli0ScPlEz1HVvreL_DcmMbxyfbwf0fi3ywG26_K59NM9yMXu2FjuHmD1MLoWHYiikZHQ0CZSbgiQRu4SexlPqCJVtDdyabktG2dZmui9Cqen4yAHtD19o6sAwUj-Vjjx4l/s1600/feesperanzacaridad.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img align=&quot;BOTTOM&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;235&quot; name=&quot;graphics4&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YFli0ScPlEz1HVvreL_DcmMbxyfbwf0fi3ywG26_K59NM9yMXu2FjuHmD1MLoWHYiikZHQ0CZSbgiQRu4SexlPqCJVtDdyabktG2dZmui9Cqen4yAHtD19o6sAwUj-Vjjx4l/w400-h235/feesperanzacaridad.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  327.  
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  330. &lt;!--Blogger automated replacement: &quot;https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-YWn63vlyaJA%2FU8I3UOVG-9I%2FAAAAAAAAEP4%2F9YvpptPMUfk%2Fs1600%2Fespe1.jpg&amp;amp;container=blogger&amp;amp;gadget=a&amp;amp;rewriteMime=image%2F*&quot; with &quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ejghFZU5hW1sVYqxOKYGHpa3ovAQ3pQahWy1LDwNASdAPvv62yotn6d9X5s8QU45Sc0f38mDVaQFjQSoEJQDkBDnYdgPlyLQxTUlRUtUyTrEhhDV8TPIbqljPy24cDI-NwOu/s1600/espe1.jpg&quot;--&gt;&lt;!--Blogger automated replacement: &quot;https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-AactMiMRa6Q%2FU8C54gooSSI%2FAAAAAAAAEPM%2F4Rmi5JxzYtU%2Fs1600%2Fnora%2BBrown%2Bbeauty%2B2.jpg&amp;amp;container=blogger&amp;amp;gadget=a&amp;amp;rewriteMime=image%2F*&quot; with &quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWR3YBQmGtL1csWL6enEVL9AD3We9tEFcK3KCYGGJtITyRKREhUL2EdbjZaDyOhNwJHUqEcNiGReQ34fPAcgZfEAUMsB90F1328BCBFo7lpP6KXXGRDsm_Mfe0B7uZzucXm7xi/s1600/nora+Brown+beauty+2.jpg&quot;--&gt;&lt;!--Blogger automated replacement: &quot;https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-MOTe9W1mdds%2FU8I3U6W7GjI%2FAAAAAAAAEQQ%2Fvh_nDzuZXBw%2Fs1600%2Ffeesperanzacaridad.jpg&amp;amp;container=blogger&amp;amp;gadget=a&amp;amp;rewriteMime=image%2F*&quot; with &quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YFli0ScPlEz1HVvreL_DcmMbxyfbwf0fi3ywG26_K59NM9yMXu2FjuHmD1MLoWHYiikZHQ0CZSbgiQRu4SexlPqCJVtDdyabktG2dZmui9Cqen4yAHtD19o6sAwUj-Vjjx4l/s1600/feesperanzacaridad.jpg&quot;--&gt;&lt;!--Blogger automated replacement: &quot;https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-NO7qZ5m9kp4%2FU8I3T3Nw0rI%2FAAAAAAAAEP0%2FT3AxbxgeUnU%2Fs1600%2Fcaridad.jpg&amp;amp;container=blogger&amp;amp;gadget=a&amp;amp;rewriteMime=image%2F*&quot; with &quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_KXPfV9vCtBrQYWLM8ljNluAiTnLwtX5cmcLd0pWwoPfdJBhqeKtGQBb3eqTVKjPMXJ3SyG7BhaIhpFKQc_KHiTtbwsH3M-iN89YGt83FbKbuSAJrZSY1TL1eqll3s-5oy60/s1600/caridad.jpg&quot;--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/8118736663967376261/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=8118736663967376261' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/8118736663967376261'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/8118736663967376261'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/07/caridad-from-fe-esperanza-caridad.html' title='Caridad (from &#39;Fe, Esperanza, Caridad,&#39; Gerardo de Leon, 1974)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWR3YBQmGtL1csWL6enEVL9AD3We9tEFcK3KCYGGJtITyRKREhUL2EdbjZaDyOhNwJHUqEcNiGReQ34fPAcgZfEAUMsB90F1328BCBFo7lpP6KXXGRDsm_Mfe0B7uZzucXm7xi/s72-w195-h400-c/nora+Brown+beauty+2.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4766533499807000452</id><published>2023-12-11T10:36:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-12T10:01:29.232-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Animated"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fantasy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hayao Miyazaki"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Horror"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Japan"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Studio Ghibli"/><title type='text'>The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx18dJYCQOjXEXVE4dcai5BhfNKfmwExIRgO6xlwRup8GK_xZruvR7jl4KxdY5F-UotOnrBIccziLwOqbeKmKR3xUKXKpx9pqb9RsHEpGibAwjNRKRvANM5mG-m5YDqU3seRZUkw8g0H_oe2oAmemECEkVf3h6zyuCqfKo7CIOvXl-BGVMhZXA/s1248/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg%20(20).jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;702&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1248&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx18dJYCQOjXEXVE4dcai5BhfNKfmwExIRgO6xlwRup8GK_xZruvR7jl4KxdY5F-UotOnrBIccziLwOqbeKmKR3xUKXKpx9pqb9RsHEpGibAwjNRKRvANM5mG-m5YDqU3seRZUkw8g0H_oe2oAmemECEkVf3h6zyuCqfKo7CIOvXl-BGVMhZXA/w400-h225/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg%20(20).jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Angry birds&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Both a pain and a pleasure to write about a new &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6587046/&quot;&gt;Hayao Miyazaki film&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;-- a pleasure because for some three years after the man&#39;s &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-wind-rises-hayao-miyazaki-2013.html&quot;&gt;previous last film&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; it looked as if he had really retired and for seven years after looked as if he&#39;d never finish the film before, well, you know. But finish he did, and now pain comes from the possibility this may really be his last-- he&#39;s 82, the picture certainly feels like a summation, and as high points go this as good as any to bow out on.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The Japanese title &lt;i&gt;Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka &lt;/i&gt;(&lt;i&gt;How Do You Live?&lt;/i&gt;) is from Genzaburo Yoshino&#39;s 1937 novel of which little of the actual story is used, but answering the eponymous question (posed to the book&#39;s protagonist and its readers) seems to be the driving force behind two of the film&#39;s central characters, even posed to 12-year-old Mahito early in the film as the title to a book found with his mother&#39;s handwriting in one page.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yoshino&#39;s book may well be unfilmable-- the socialist writer&#39;s response to the imperialistic regime&#39;s request for an ethics textbook for children. The writer opted against a straight sermon, deciding instead on a format of questions asked by a young boy, answered in a series of philosophical essays by his uncle-- a children&#39;s classic on paper, a potentially inert animated feature on the big screen.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead Miyazaki opts to refashion circumstances to more closely fit his own boyhood, proceeds to answer the youth&#39;s unasked questions with vignettes reimagined or reworked from his previous films. Hence Mahito (voice of Soma Santoki, Luca Padovan in the English dub) has an absent mother (like the hospital-bound mother in &lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-neighbor-totoro-hayao-miyazaki-1988.html&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;My Neighbor Totoro&lt;/a&gt;-- which in turn is modeled after Miyazaki&#39;s own), stands against a background of aircraft manufacture (&lt;i&gt;The Wind Rises&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Porco Rosso&lt;/i&gt;, Miyazaki&#39;s own family), must deal with forest spirits (&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/08/princess-mononoke-hayao-miyazaki-1997.html&quot;&gt;Princess Mononoke&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;), seeks to restore a missing parent (&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/spirited-away-hayao-miyazaki-2001.html&quot;&gt;Spirited Away&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;). He encounters the Heron (voice of Masaki Suda, Robert Pattinson in the English)-- actually a short grotesque with ambivalent manners by turns rough, treacherous, ultimately supportive (see Yubaba/Zeniba in &lt;i&gt;Spirited Away&lt;/i&gt;); encounters the brash pirate Kiriko (Ko Shibasaki, Florence Pugh in the English), an intriguing mix of tomboy and motherly care who echoes Mama Dola in &lt;i&gt;Laputa, Castle in the Sky&lt;/i&gt;-- also modeled if one remembers after Miyazaki&#39;s mother).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Boy and the Heron&lt;/i&gt; has the look and feel of a classic European fairy tale, arguably Miyazaki&#39;s favorite storytelling form, adopting the matter-of-fact tone of The Brothers Grimm and melancholic romanticism of Hans Christian Andersen (the title could easy belong in one of Andersen&#39;s story anthologies)-- and definitely not in the Disney manner. There are touches of horror here including an abattoir with hunks of raw unbeeflike meat on stained chopping blocks next to large cleavers, and disturbingly human ribs curving right behind. There&#39;s bizarre humor involving an army of parakeets led by a cute if intimidatingly tall Parakeet King (Jun Kunimura, Dave Bautista in the English)-- the budgies sport disarmingly colorful feathery fuzz but brandish sharp blades, and often talk of having Mahito as snack or stew. And there&#39;s a spark of dreamlike fabulism straight out of Charles Dogdson, from the frogs that threaten to cover Mahito to the sleeping princess that melts away upon touch to the rose that drifts down to shatter against the flagstones to the swaying stack of blocks that insists on standing despite a swiped piece or two. Dodgson also helps inform the tone of the otherworldly creatures&#39; voices when they address Mahito-- callous, even hostile, with a cavalier attitude to the most fantastic of developments. When the warawara-- basically marshmallow puffs with pencil dot eyes and a permanent smile-- start to rise to the air, Kiriko immediately informs Mahito that they&#39;re ready to assume human form (implied: they&#39;re unborn souls). Mahito, this being his first visit, is often a step behind, but takes everything in stride and responds quickly, even resourcefully (he fashions a bow and arrow from bamboo to which he attaches the heron&#39;s feather for fletching-- a touch that lends the arrow unexpected powers).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But all the twists and turns and inexplicable imagery are in the service of a remarkably coherent emotional journey. Mahito has lost his mother, is unsure of his feelings to his father and new stepmother (in classic fairy tales the villainess of choice). He copes with wary eyes and willing attitude, applying to each request or challenge a curt nod of the head and even more determined shoulder to the grindstone (or wooden door, or barred gold gate, or whatever&#39;s in his way). He reminds me of Pazu from &lt;i&gt;Laputa&lt;/i&gt;, relentlessly determined and endlessly inventive, his flyer&#39;s goggles hiding a sense of hurt abandonment. If Mahito is reportedly meant to represent both the filmmaker in his boyhood and the young man he hopes his grandson will grow up to be, he couldn&#39;t have picked a better representative, or role model, or inspiration.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Along the way boy and film pause to confront one or two images of mortality, from the old pelican (voice of Kauru Kobayashi, Willem Dafoe-- could they have made a more appropriate choice?-- in the English) unflinchingly leaning against an outhouse to Mahito&#39;s Granduncle (Shohei Hino, Mark Hamill in the English) brooding over his hidden kingdom and its eventual fate (&lt;i&gt;Skip the rest of this paragraph if you haven&#39;t seen the film&lt;/i&gt;). The Granduncle&#39;s musings to Mahito may represent Miyazaki&#39;s musings to his grandson over his legacy: a realm of fantasy and inexplicable forces, with startlingly relatable creatures (brusque and often hungry) and constantly changing dynamics (hence the constantly tottering tower of blocks). Granduncle asks Mahito to take over and when the boy refuses, nods his understanding: the boy must make his own way, build his own realm fantastical or not. He does grant (or Mahito steals, or accidentally pockets) a block for the boy to take away-- a seed if you like for his realm to possibly continue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An overwhelming experience-- can&#39;t say much more than that. Miyazaki at the seeming top of his form, fusing the epic imagery of &lt;i&gt;Nausicaa&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Laputa&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;with the surrealism of &lt;i&gt;Spirited Away&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/09/howls-moving-castle-hayao-miyazaki-2004.html&quot;&gt;Howl&#39;s Moving Castle&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Ponyo&lt;/i&gt;, in the service of a self-reflecting self-judging narrative a la &lt;i&gt;The Wind Rises&lt;/i&gt;. It&#39;s like Matisse in his last decade, forsaking subtlety and detail to work in pure solid colors cut from paper. Miyazaki seems to telling his grandson-- and us: &quot;there&#39;s little time left, and I must say this before I go&quot; and then says it. Presumably he&#39;s ready to go.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9BA6yWCf_eIklpQpj883S00NwAhr19xawcew31Rg8Clj0MBZUZoyV07dlv9zrBJC1oC8hz_YBDtyL3A2XUYoAV1DlG5ghhnuTY7MyV8iJ203i1fA4Vi49lcK8kPqjm_1xC0gJMCPX6DMIDX-Q3im6niBjhHEt_F0VMc02kAJkKjsA1ROYuDN/s778/HERON_Website_Spinning-Globe.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;778&quot; data-original-width=&quot;778&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9BA6yWCf_eIklpQpj883S00NwAhr19xawcew31Rg8Clj0MBZUZoyV07dlv9zrBJC1oC8hz_YBDtyL3A2XUYoAV1DlG5ghhnuTY7MyV8iJ203i1fA4Vi49lcK8kPqjm_1xC0gJMCPX6DMIDX-Q3im6niBjhHEt_F0VMc02kAJkKjsA1ROYuDN/w400-h400/HERON_Website_Spinning-Globe.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4766533499807000452/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4766533499807000452' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4766533499807000452'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4766533499807000452'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-boy-and-heron-hayao-miyazaki-2023.html' title='The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx18dJYCQOjXEXVE4dcai5BhfNKfmwExIRgO6xlwRup8GK_xZruvR7jl4KxdY5F-UotOnrBIccziLwOqbeKmKR3xUKXKpx9pqb9RsHEpGibAwjNRKRvANM5mG-m5YDqU3seRZUkw8g0H_oe2oAmemECEkVf3h6zyuCqfKo7CIOvXl-BGVMhZXA/s72-w400-h225-c/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg%20(20).jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6636317324627556885</id><published>2023-12-09T22:34:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-09T22:34:50.744-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Animated"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hayao Miyazaki"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Japan"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Studio Ghibli"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="World War 2"/><title type='text'>The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  331. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NOsKwhZ9IccIn5MGUJmk3FmDlYySYiGKGdPE7c0hW_NdE5nwgJdcfqIR_cxV0U5aB7jt3q9YZj5wfa1Qs7jWECcYFKjXhyphenhyphenJ35WVt5GBUgrTcIAYAfELU5bBjuBn0rVcAuZtM/s1600/The-Wind-Rises-slice.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NOsKwhZ9IccIn5MGUJmk3FmDlYySYiGKGdPE7c0hW_NdE5nwgJdcfqIR_cxV0U5aB7jt3q9YZj5wfa1Qs7jWECcYFKjXhyphenhyphenJ35WVt5GBUgrTcIAYAfELU5bBjuBn0rVcAuZtM/w253-h400/The-Wind-Rises-slice.jpg&quot; width=&quot;253&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  332. &lt;br /&gt;
  333. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Skyward bound&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  334. &lt;br /&gt;
  335. &lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;(Warning-- article discusses &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Miyazaki&#39;s&lt;/span&gt; film (and&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; his manga &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Nausicaa of the Valley of th&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e Wind&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;) in some detail, including p&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;lot twists and surprises.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  336. &lt;br /&gt;
  337. &lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;In &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;short&lt;/span&gt;-- see the film (&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;maybe&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; read the manga)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; first)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  338. &lt;br /&gt;
  339. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Can&#39;t help but feel &lt;/span&gt;a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sharp&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;p&lt;/span&gt;ang watching&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Wind Rises&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (2013&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;knowing this to be H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ayao Miyazaki&#39;s last feature; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;can&#39;t help &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;but&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;see&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; this &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;s &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a valedictory work, a summing up of his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;thoughts and feelings about ar&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;t and aviation and everything else &lt;/span&gt;at this point in his life.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;It&#39;s beautifully done from opening sequence&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; onw&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ards: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;soon-to-be&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; aviation engineer&lt;/span&gt; Jiro&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; climb&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s&lt;/span&gt; aboard a&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (fantastically &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;shaped&lt;/span&gt; and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;feathered&lt;/span&gt;) &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;plane&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. T&lt;/span&gt;he &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;mac&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hine-creature&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hu&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;nkers down, shudders&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; you feel &lt;/span&gt;(classic Mi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yaz&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;aki moment) a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;tightening&lt;/span&gt;, a gathering of un&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;seen &lt;/span&gt;fo&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rces, the hairs &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;along&lt;/span&gt; Jiro&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&#39;s (and your) neck rising moments before the craft &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;bounds&lt;/span&gt; into the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sky.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  340. &lt;br /&gt;
  341. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Then there&#39;s the earthquake, as &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;spectacular a sequence as anything in recent cinema&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/06/transformers-age-of-extinction-michael.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;digital&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/06/transformers-age-of-extinction-michael.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;ly enhanced movies&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; included): a nig&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;htmare fissuring of earth, a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;distant&lt;/span&gt; shot of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Tokyo as you see the quake&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&#39;s wa&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;vefront expanding across the city, a head-on view of the bu&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;il&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;dings &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;leaping&lt;/span&gt; and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;plunging&lt;/span&gt; row after row in an orchestrated ballet.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  342. &lt;br /&gt;
  343. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;All this gorgeous an&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;imation of course brushed aside in&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; the wake of con&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;troversy&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, as the film&#39;s introverted protagonist is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/12/obituaries/jiro-horikoshi-78-dies-in-tokyo-designer-of-zero-fighter-aircraft.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Jiro H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ori&lt;/span&gt;koshi&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;legendary designer of the Mitsubishi A&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;5M, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;later of the M&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;its&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ubishi A6M &#39;Zero,&#39; one of the most fea&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;red fighters &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;of the Second World War&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;who &lt;/span&gt;Miyazaki treats &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;respectfully, even sympathetically, despite his considerable contributions to the cause of Japanese imperialism. Is &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Miyazaki&lt;/span&gt; making &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a case for the p&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rimacy of&lt;/span&gt; technological innovation over &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;moral res&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ponsibility? That&#39;s what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/23/5337826/the-wind-rises-the-beauty-and-controversy-of-miyazakis-final-film&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;those critical&lt;/span&gt; of the film&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; would like you to think.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  344. &lt;br /&gt;
  345. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  346. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIvaMCLap0sWCmS72eog5QMsizai-RLPVRUUKbhy1DHgJo_J5C3V4c65SlGw7hcHe4_dpmb0ignpbT9s-tJNPvRsrGy-IEFA_r155skR7q9CHtQa6ukIViitW4eJ0aNJ1zS2V/s1600/the-wind-rises07+b.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;216&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIvaMCLap0sWCmS72eog5QMsizai-RLPVRUUKbhy1DHgJo_J5C3V4c65SlGw7hcHe4_dpmb0ignpbT9s-tJNPvRsrGy-IEFA_r155skR7q9CHtQa6ukIViitW4eJ0aNJ1zS2V/w400-h216/the-wind-rises07+b.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  347. &lt;br /&gt;
  348. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;It would be a stretch to call Mi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yazaki an advocate or even apologist for war&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: a&lt;/span&gt;s early as his &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-hayao.html&quot;&gt;N&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-hayao.html&quot;&gt;aus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-hayao.html&quot;&gt;icaa of th&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-hayao.html&quot;&gt;e &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/09/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-hayao.html&quot;&gt;Valley of the Wind&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (1984) we see the cost&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;-- physical, social, spiritual&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;mass violence&lt;/span&gt;; in &lt;i&gt;Laputa, Castle in the Sky&lt;/i&gt; (1986)&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hundreds of men &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;fall or leap&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;gargantuan burning aircraft to their deaths&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. &lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/08/princess-mononoke-hayao-miyazaki-1997.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;P&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2018/08/princess-mononoke-hayao-miyazaki-1997.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;rincess Mononoke&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; (1997) dwelt on the stupidity of factions quarreling i&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;n a vast &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;forest with&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ro&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;om and resources enough for all&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;; &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/09/howls-moving-castle-hayao-miyazaki-2004.html&quot;&gt;Howl&#39;s Moving Castle&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/i&gt;(2004) &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;showcased&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;carpet bombing&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;on&lt;/span&gt; a s&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;cale and brut&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ality that recalls&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; not just &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;the London Bli&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;tz&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; but&lt;/span&gt; the firebombin&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;g of Tokyo.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  349. &lt;br /&gt;
  350. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Why&lt;/span&gt; then &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;this&lt;/span&gt; onscreen&lt;/span&gt; depiction of&lt;/span&gt; H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;orikoshi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;? Why fictionalize &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the man&#39;s&lt;/span&gt; personal life so h&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;eavily&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (&lt;/span&gt;he loses an older brother, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; wife&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, and &lt;/span&gt;children&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; in favor of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;younger sister&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;and a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ickl&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;y girlfriend) while keep&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ing his p&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rofessional career relatively &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;accurate&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Why spare &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Horikoshi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;full realization of what his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;designs would cost the world&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;deny him the&lt;/span&gt; chanc&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e to repent his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sins&lt;/span&gt;?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  351. &lt;br /&gt;
  352. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  353. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPasL4hiJsdnXAN_pMi-azTz1BymEI-U9Vi_8LXgGJheDN-z8Zbi_R6m_HSnPJ4iYSb-66PWFVS8quPFCGSbDvxGj9LbzghZzlB5MXLgsDCpkzGFOb_f5TEZbdijPCo30oLByL/s1600/The-Wind-Rises-3+b.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;211&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPasL4hiJsdnXAN_pMi-azTz1BymEI-U9Vi_8LXgGJheDN-z8Zbi_R6m_HSnPJ4iYSb-66PWFVS8quPFCGSbDvxGj9LbzghZzlB5MXLgsDCpkzGFOb_f5TEZbdijPCo30oLByL/w400-h211/The-Wind-Rises-3+b.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  354. &lt;br /&gt;
  355. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Because&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; it&#39;s&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;too&lt;/span&gt; obvious? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Because having Horikoshi loudly&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and unequivocally denounce his creation would be f&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;alse not only to the h&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;istorical record but to &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Miyazaki&#39;s own&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;aesthetics? &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The filmmaker&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#39;s&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; st&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ory&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;telling is rarely overt&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (he&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&#39;&lt;/span&gt;s at his most insistent when dealing with the fragility of nature and&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;-- yes--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;stupidity of war); he tends to treat bio&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;graphical elements (hi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;storical and his own&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;) as a taking-off point &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;more&lt;/span&gt; than an actual guide&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. The real H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ori&lt;/span&gt;koshi &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;only &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;l&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;earned of his planes&#39; full military impac&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;t-- of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the damage it was capable of causing--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;after t&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;he war&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;He had been&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;uneasy about Japan&#39;s mil&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;itary ambitions and alliance with Germany&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;dismayed&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;to eventually learn his country was losing&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (to be fair so was the rest of Japan). He &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was hit hard by the news that his planes were being used &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;for kamikaz&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;missions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. &quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful,&quot; he once said, a statement which reportedly inspired Miyazaki to make this picture. You wonder at the words, so full of innocence and awareness, longing and despair; you wonder at the kind of film &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;that can be made&lt;/span&gt; from such an emotionally and psychologically loaded admission.&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  356. &lt;br /&gt;
  357. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I&lt;/span&gt;nstead of improving on or rehabilit&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ating&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Ho&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rikoshi&#39;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; actual&lt;/span&gt; sentiments&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;M&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;i&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yazaki&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;fold&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s&lt;/span&gt; into the main narrative speculations on how H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;orikoshi&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;i&gt;might&lt;/i&gt; have felt about his planes&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;their&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;use&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. He &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;has &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the young man&lt;/span&gt; bounce t&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;houghts and feelings off&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; another &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;personal&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; hero&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;aircraft manufacturer Giovanni Battista Capr&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;oni&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Studio Ghibli &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was &lt;/span&gt;named&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;after&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; a Ca&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;proni &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;creation)&lt;/span&gt;-- in several &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;imagined&lt;/span&gt; seq&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;uences&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;.*&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  358. &lt;br /&gt;
  359. &lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;* Capr&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;oni&#39;s &lt;/span&gt;historical record &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is suggestive&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: h&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is company started with experimental planes&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, then &lt;/span&gt;moved into bombers when Italy entered the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;First World War&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;afterwards&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; Capr&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;oni made a determined effort to &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;develop&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;the passenger aircraft, to the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;point of converting &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;on&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e of his&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; bombers (the Ca.4) into an airliner, even attempting a plane &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;large enough to&lt;/span&gt; carry a hundred passengers (the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;intimid&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ati&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ngly &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;immense&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=Kaze_tachinu&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ca.60 Noviplano&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;-- both of which &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;are featured&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;onscreen&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  360. &lt;br /&gt;
  361. &lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;n effect Capr&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;oni had the kind of swords&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;-into-&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;plowshares &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;career Hor&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ikoshi &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;might have wanted&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, or Miyaz&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;aki &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;might&lt;/span&gt; have wanted for him. &lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  362. &lt;br /&gt;
  363. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  364. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9IXKSdei40euhwqRMqzE-TGw5a7vUIS2p_hDs3-NVZqWS469EPl6tCdgd86zOaMOeXNr_xJdgBonhL8HFZnM-w9UvOaHqKLfRaSbouHRoiB6w-w55uhImUEhbrIEDQ1AFjcub/s1600/thewindrises2+b.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;216&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9IXKSdei40euhwqRMqzE-TGw5a7vUIS2p_hDs3-NVZqWS469EPl6tCdgd86zOaMOeXNr_xJdgBonhL8HFZnM-w9UvOaHqKLfRaSbouHRoiB6w-w55uhImUEhbrIEDQ1AFjcub/w400-h216/thewindrises2+b.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  365. &lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  366. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Na&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hoko Satomi is an even more interesting &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;creation&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. C&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;all her &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Miyazaki&#39;s i&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ncarnation of t&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;he beauty of form and function, and remember that in her &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;(as in Horikoshi&#39;s aeron&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;autic &lt;/span&gt;creations) festers &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a &lt;/span&gt;corruption that will t&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ake both away from him. Horikoshi &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;may have&lt;/span&gt; expresse&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;d&lt;/span&gt; misgivings a&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;bout &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Japan&#39;s &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ambitions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, but&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;his&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;torically speaking&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;pays&lt;/span&gt; no &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;explicit&lt;/span&gt; price for his participation&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Nahoko (&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I submit) &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is more tha&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;n just a metaphor or muse-- she &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;possibly&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;re&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;presents&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; the loss&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; Horikoshi (could have, must have) experience&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;d&lt;/span&gt; during the the war&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  367. &lt;br /&gt;
  368. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Or she may represent the Gretchen to Horikoshi&#39;s Faust, with Caproni &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;as&lt;/span&gt; the&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; most amiable of Mephistos. It&#39;s an old &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;story &lt;/span&gt;Miyazaki is &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;retelling,&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and an even older game he&#39;s playing&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;reimagining a portion of his hero&#39;s life to suit his sense of morality&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&#39;s at least&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; honest&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (if &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;not explicitly so) &lt;/span&gt;a&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;bout what part of his film is &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;fact&lt;/span&gt;,&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; what&lt;/span&gt; in his film is not.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  369. &lt;br /&gt;
  370. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  371. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtjo8J6rp9WyahtDXg-vZMbgjLe672c5QAxnxurSb5b5453wFf5YB9kkFu3DGIy7cf80FzB-eLXWdt_XygDj7dQrGVQItyQzu9z5aJMJkDBihtsa9BdiHYrvAG7xaoU4_1do5/s1600/TheWindRises_690.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;260&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtjo8J6rp9WyahtDXg-vZMbgjLe672c5QAxnxurSb5b5453wFf5YB9kkFu3DGIy7cf80FzB-eLXWdt_XygDj7dQrGVQItyQzu9z5aJMJkDBihtsa9BdiHYrvAG7xaoU4_1do5/w400-h260/TheWindRises_690.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  372. &lt;br /&gt;
  373. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;It&#39;s not as if this was the first time we &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ever caught&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a Mi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yazaki character &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;in a complicated relationship &lt;/span&gt;with &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; weapon&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Late i&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;n his epic manga &lt;i&gt;Nau&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;sicaa of the Valley of the Wind&lt;/i&gt; Nausicaa encounters a God Soldier-- a&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;n immensely powerful &lt;/span&gt;creature grown over &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a super&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hard ceramic skel&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;eton, capable of widespread nuclear devastation&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;T&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;he right thing to do (as Nausicaa susses out &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;for&lt;/span&gt; herself&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;) &lt;/span&gt;is destroy the thing, but when she speaks to it-- when it reaches out to&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; her like a confused and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;disoriented child, dying of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;radioactive&lt;/span&gt; pois&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;oning &lt;/span&gt;almost from the moment it was born-- she can&#39;t help but respond as a protective mother. Should she allow the monster to live?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; Should&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; Horikoshi allow his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;monster to &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;be created&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;? Was there ever a case of a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sc&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ientist or&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; e&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ngineer who &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;made history &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;by &lt;i&gt;refusing&lt;/i&gt; to &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;develop an idea or inv&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ention (&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;can we call &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;what he did then&lt;/span&gt; history?)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;By manga&#39;s end&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; the God Warrior &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;lives long enough to&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;fulfill a cru&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;cial function&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, though &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the full moral implications of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;what the Warrior--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;with Nausicaa &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;behind&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; it, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;directing--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;achieves &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;are murky at bes&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;t (&quot;I &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hudder at the depth&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s of my sin&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;,&quot; Nausicaa &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;admits to herself&lt;/span&gt;); Mi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yazaki doesn&#39;t grant Horikoshi even tha&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;t much of an out,&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; leaving him in an even unhappier po&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;sition.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  374. &lt;br /&gt;
  375. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Jonathan Hoberman in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/982811/miyazakis-the-wind-rises-beautifully-restrained-and-wildly&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;a p&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/982811/miyazakis-the-wind-rises-beautifully-restrained-and-wildly&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;owerful indictment of an articl&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/982811/miyazakis-the-wind-rises-beautifully-restrained-and-wildly&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;e&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;accuses the film &lt;/span&gt;of whitewashing (&quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;how many tens or hundreds of thousands of real people in Asia and the Pacific were de-animated thanks to Horikoshi’s dreams?&quot;)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. T&lt;/span&gt;rue Miyazaki depicts the suffering of the Japanese and not of other Asians (mind you, we &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Filipinos experienced&lt;/span&gt; our share&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;when&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;as &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/02/tatlong-taong-walang-diyos-three-years.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;another great Asian filmmaker put it&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;for three full years God turned his face away&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;, but I see &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the images &lt;/span&gt;as less &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;an elegy than a warning to Horikoshi, and by extension to all Japanese particularly the new generation of militarists&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; is what&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&#39;&lt;/span&gt;s in store &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;should &lt;/span&gt;their country go to war, then&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; and in the future&lt;/span&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; is what the people will suffer, if &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;they insi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;st on&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; this course of action&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Such i&lt;/span&gt;mpl&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ications, along with &lt;a href=&quot;http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/23/japanese-nationalists-attack-animation-masters-new-film/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;more explicit statements&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; have helped &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;endear the filmmaker to ultra&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;right&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;nationalists (not). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  376. &lt;br /&gt;
  377. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Any &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;film master&lt;/span&gt; will &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;employ&lt;/span&gt; a motif &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;to visually unite his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;work&lt;/span&gt;; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;for this &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I&#39;d say &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Mi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;yazaki offers&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;the &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;image of&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; the&lt;/span&gt; b&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;orderline&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. The Tokyo earth&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;quake &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;shatters &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Tokyo and the surrounding land&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;up to a&lt;/span&gt; point, then stops&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;; Horikoshi and Satomi &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;run ahead of &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a curtain of summer &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; succeed in leaving it behind&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;orikoshi insists on&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;drawing a line between &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the creation of&lt;/span&gt; technological marvels and &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;their military ap&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;plication&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; (a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;line his bosses insist on blurring)&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;He&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;focuses&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; time and effort on pl&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;an&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e design&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;spending his&lt;/span&gt; weekend&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;s with Satomi; when &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;her&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; condition worsens&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; (she &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is compelled to follow&lt;/span&gt; her own deadline)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;she allows&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;them to marry and li&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ve toge&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ther awhile&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;and &lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;then&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt; leaves him. Boundaries are everywhere in this film, are a source of pleasure and pain, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;loss and gain, validation and regret; sometimes Horikoshi &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;successfully maintains the&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; lines&lt;/span&gt;, sometimes successfully defies them-- but &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;the success is &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;rarely c&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;omplete, nor is it ever permanent.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  378. &lt;br /&gt;
  379. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Miyazaki even &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;draws&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;lines&lt;/span&gt; around H&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;orikoshi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; is what we know of him h&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;istorically (his aviation design career), &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;what w&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e suspect he feels and thin&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ks about the war (his &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;conversations with Caproni&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; his relationship with Satomi)&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;...&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;and that&#39;s it&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;. Beyond the director will not &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;venture&lt;/span&gt;--&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Horikoshi&lt;/span&gt; remains&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; an enigma&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;a deliberate mystery&lt;/span&gt; we have no choice but to respect&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  380. &lt;br /&gt;
  381. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;P&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ossi&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;bly the&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; film itself &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;represents a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;boundary the filmmaker has drawn behind him&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;: b&lt;/span&gt;efore&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;som&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;e of the finest achievements in animated cinema; beyond&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;, a handful of&lt;/span&gt; artworks, a &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;scattering&lt;/span&gt; of possible shorts,&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt; perhaps &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;even a manga&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;...&lt;/span&gt;but no more major features&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Like a summer shower, like an e&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;arthquake, &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;like a g&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;irl&#39;s life, like a man&#39;s though&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;ts and feelings, like a great film, even Miyazaki&#39;s career must &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;come to&lt;/span&gt; an end.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  382. &lt;br /&gt;
  383. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;First &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;publis&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;hed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Weekender&amp;amp;title=Skyward-bound&amp;amp;id=99470&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Busin&lt;span id=&quot;goog_997040745&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id=&quot;goog_997040746&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;essworld&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. 12.&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;11.14&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  384. &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  385. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  386. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBTbYMwJ9rNQNNIyoK13K5IITBc2undtuOWfA4Gh2lnPp4NXCyB99V4sGBq_wX6Ts8XLdDg_aJrV0P9SnwK4zHW3L3PUJkoj8VVFXSGlb_Sq7rD18Jl9OIrfNsIjhfdXOGqXe0/s1600/wrises4+b.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;266&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBTbYMwJ9rNQNNIyoK13K5IITBc2undtuOWfA4Gh2lnPp4NXCyB99V4sGBq_wX6Ts8XLdDg_aJrV0P9SnwK4zHW3L3PUJkoj8VVFXSGlb_Sq7rD18Jl9OIrfNsIjhfdXOGqXe0/w400-h266/wrises4+b.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/6636317324627556885/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=6636317324627556885' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6636317324627556885'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/6636317324627556885'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-wind-rises-hayao-miyazaki-2013.html' title='The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NOsKwhZ9IccIn5MGUJmk3FmDlYySYiGKGdPE7c0hW_NdE5nwgJdcfqIR_cxV0U5aB7jt3q9YZj5wfa1Qs7jWECcYFKjXhyphenhyphenJ35WVt5GBUgrTcIAYAfELU5bBjuBn0rVcAuZtM/s72-w253-h400-c/The-Wind-Rises-slice.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4077935331321627521</id><published>2023-12-06T21:12:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-06T21:12:06.283-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Godzilla"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Japan"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Monster"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Science Fiction"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Takashi Yamazaki"/><title type='text'>Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRw5LwtKJdNo0DNqv7TmHQ1AzlK2KEtnqDgS_-YdD0DeRLTbHNEYBMecDevpBC3n7xV1HbuHM4Ki2KNvBtXyq1s6NUx-Q-kcuRVFblwhiz0VjVB3EWtg6c2vZqT8bd1Uo5KnpexsdGtGKDaDbt1l0g83QX8JbUBZxsmNP_2_UfgTQ93Z2hRcv/s800/GodzillaTopper.width-800.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;450&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRw5LwtKJdNo0DNqv7TmHQ1AzlK2KEtnqDgS_-YdD0DeRLTbHNEYBMecDevpBC3n7xV1HbuHM4Ki2KNvBtXyq1s6NUx-Q-kcuRVFblwhiz0VjVB3EWtg6c2vZqT8bd1Uo5KnpexsdGtGKDaDbt1l0g83QX8JbUBZxsmNP_2_UfgTQ93Z2hRcv/w400-h225/GodzillaTopper.width-800.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;War Godzilla&lt;/b&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Takashi Yamazaki&#39;s &lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23289160/&quot;&gt;Godzilla Minus One&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;is basically what you&#39;d get if you made a Godzilla movie based on an actual script-- y&#39;know, with a narrative arc populated by real characters having human interactions. Not a completely radical concept-- Ishiro Honda&#39;s&lt;i&gt; Godzilla&lt;/i&gt; (1954) featured a love triangle between an embittered scientist, his fiancée, and a salvage ship captain-- but for perhaps the first time (or at least one of the rare times) since the original we have a storyline more compelling than just &#39;oversized radioactive reptile stomps Tokyo.&#39;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;This time Godzilla&#39;s rampage plays out against a background of recent trauma, not just of the Hiroshima bombing but of Japan&#39;s defeat in the war. Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) nurses his ailing kamikaze plane to Odo Island; mechanic Sosaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) gently suggests that there&#39;s nothing wrong with the plane, to which Shikishima quickly bristles. &quot;Just what are you implying?&quot; he demands of Tachibana.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The matter is dropped, and soon (if not permanently) forgotten; a mysterious dinosaur has stepped out of the sea and is busy snatching up or stomping down the island&#39;s mechanics. At one point Shikishima has the creature-- dubbed &#39;Godzilla&#39; by island natives-- in his plane&#39;s gunsights but freezes; if he has survivor&#39;s guilt before for failing to fulfill his kamikaze mission, he&#39;s a double failure now.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;And so it goes. This &#39;less kaiju, more character&#39; mantra works well, thanks to Yamazaki&#39;s thoughtful script and the cast&#39;s intense acting. Like the implicit message, a pushback on the Japanese tendency to sacrifice one&#39;s life for a greater cause-- the film doesn&#39;t spell out that this is what got them into the war in the first place, but it does make some pointed statements. Not a big fan of the ending-- too much of a good thing in my view, though admittedly it goes with the theme of valuing life and trying to have everything, cake and eating and all-- could probably think up of an ending that can uphold said theme and still have one specific sacrifice remain a sacrifice... but why bother? It&#39;s a feelgood moment, let the audience feel good about it.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Add details like Godzilla&#39;s paunch being back and bigger than ever-- either he&#39;s sporting an enormous beer belly or he&#39;s at least two years pregnant. And the suggestion midway through that the Americans are responsible for Godzilla mutating to his present size and given regenerative powers (all the more reason for Shikishima to feel guilty for what he failed to do). The CGI effects are remarkably detailed, and feel they have heft-- I&#39;m guessing they actually filmed miniatures for some of the destruction sequences, and enhanced or integrated them digitally. Reportedly they didn&#39;t recreate or revise Godzilla&#39;s roar-- that&#39;s his actual roar from the 1954 film, played out on loudspeakers. The music to my inexpert ears sounds like a total lift from the 1954-- that&#39;s not a slam; I love the driving energy of the film&#39;s march.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Also love the appearance of the &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu_J7W_Shinden&quot;&gt;Kyuzu J7W Shigen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; with its distinct canard wings and pusher engine-- modern Japanese can talk all they want about pacifism but some can&#39;t help being proud of some the technological innovations accomplished (including one &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-wind-rises-hayao-miyazaki-2013.html&quot;&gt;noted animation director&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;) and I&#39;m betting they feel a nerd tingle running up their spine at the idea that this bit of late war tech finally got to see some action in battle. The landing wheels look disturbingly long-- it&#39;s like a goose with flamingo legs-- but once it takes to air it&#39;s as agile and lyrical as any bird in flight.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Would love to say the eponymous star is back to being a man in a rubber suit but that&#39;s probably a more sophisticated software using motion capture with a subroutine dictating how Godzilla&#39;s scaly skin will move and stretch. Motion capture is a help-- they&#39;ve opted not to make the big guy move like a T Rex or animal but &lt;i&gt;exactly&lt;/i&gt; like a guy in a rubber suit, and the anthropomorphism is appreciated-- Godzilla like &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2008/08/king-kong-2005.html&quot;&gt;Kong&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; aren&#39;t real animals, but fantasies of our imagination, a dark marriage of the animal and the human, and should be rendered as such.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I do miss the relentless pace of Honda&#39;s original (just the facts ma&#39;am), the coy grandeur of Edwards&#39; &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2014/05/godzilla-gareth-edwards-2014-locke.html&quot;&gt;2014 interpretation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;, and the awful splendor (not to mention government satire) of Hideako Anno&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Shin Godzilla&lt;/i&gt;, but for a creature feature with a surprisingly poignant story, this will do nicely till the next one comes along.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsTffILyRTip6VvNWwj-aoJzIkwEpDq7vx72NMpamBAN6ShbtDsMSeRgLB2PJbvod0QCsXUApWYrfhwyv-l0tHzLpq2GAT4eWd1Hh7FaHWCiRDhpzu7uZ025IDdcSkveLKNBal1UjnR5cmNaLKwzl_eD0aJTOnJsNXkc0kxuJOMEyHHtldKFk/s2048/Godzilla-Minus-One-2-min.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1368&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2048&quot; height=&quot;268&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsTffILyRTip6VvNWwj-aoJzIkwEpDq7vx72NMpamBAN6ShbtDsMSeRgLB2PJbvod0QCsXUApWYrfhwyv-l0tHzLpq2GAT4eWd1Hh7FaHWCiRDhpzu7uZ025IDdcSkveLKNBal1UjnR5cmNaLKwzl_eD0aJTOnJsNXkc0kxuJOMEyHHtldKFk/w400-h268/Godzilla-Minus-One-2-min.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4077935331321627521/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4077935331321627521' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4077935331321627521'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4077935331321627521'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/godzilla-minus-one-takashi-yamazaki-2023.html' title='Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRw5LwtKJdNo0DNqv7TmHQ1AzlK2KEtnqDgS_-YdD0DeRLTbHNEYBMecDevpBC3n7xV1HbuHM4Ki2KNvBtXyq1s6NUx-Q-kcuRVFblwhiz0VjVB3EWtg6c2vZqT8bd1Uo5KnpexsdGtGKDaDbt1l0g83QX8JbUBZxsmNP_2_UfgTQ93Z2hRcv/s72-w400-h225-c/GodzillaTopper.width-800.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-4719068434632802369</id><published>2023-12-04T11:34:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-05T18:33:04.579-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Action"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hong Kong"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="John Woo"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Thriller"/><title type='text'>Silent Night (John Woo, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYjJ71XGlH7XB8L7-mmfUVhyy451OSr8Jc8RFCwocZZ2qz0nyLhO2ePPf-PG-YB1oY36jQndP2C-rGNsjh3IIeNgCE9SES3dMbcHNjH9RdxJlT4xxNPKApJmmVOMlt8uSz9UlA16zqhfzHwxF695dnvj-pU-u5HDvHz2mAxqr9uCnv8VVn2kq/s888/silent-night-1696289847597.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;499&quot; data-original-width=&quot;888&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYjJ71XGlH7XB8L7-mmfUVhyy451OSr8Jc8RFCwocZZ2qz0nyLhO2ePPf-PG-YB1oY36jQndP2C-rGNsjh3IIeNgCE9SES3dMbcHNjH9RdxJlT4xxNPKApJmmVOMlt8uSz9UlA16zqhfzHwxF695dnvj-pU-u5HDvHz2mAxqr9uCnv8VVn2kq/w400-h225/silent-night-1696289847597.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;When you have to shoot shoot, don&#39;t talk&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;John Woo&#39;s &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15799866/&quot;&gt;latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;brings to mind Norma Desmond&#39;s immortal lines: &quot;There was a time when I had the eyes of the whole world. But that wasn&#39;t good enough for them O no-- they had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk talk talk...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;You&#39;ll make a rope of words and strangle this business. With a microphone to catch the last gurgles and Technicolor to photograph the red swollen tongue.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Not a great fan of the Billy Wilder film (much prefer &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2021/07/in-lonely-place-nicholas-ray-1950-from.html&quot;&gt;In a Lonely Place&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, yet another insider Hollywood noir that came out the same year) but Norma had a point: movies were great till sound came along (let&#39;s not even talk about color, and as for digital-- oy!).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Give it to John Woo then to come up with (or be attached to) the alleged script of &lt;i&gt;Silent Night&lt;/i&gt;: Brian Godlock (Joel Kinnaman) grieves for his lost son, a victim of a New Mexico drive-by shooting; he himself while giving the killers chase is shot in the back and throat, losing his voice in the process. Gimmicky premise, but neatly dispenses with the need for any dialogue whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results are pure Woo: a long montage of Brian falling into despair, picking himself up, training; a middle act of Brian doing reconnaissance and early interrogation of one gang member (which entertainingly goes awry); a series of fenderbending car chases and bone crunching hand-to-hand combat sequences and endless firefights follow. I remember a tagline to Woo&#39;s classic &lt;i&gt;The Killer&lt;/i&gt;: &quot;One vicious hitman. One relentless cop. Ten thousand bullets.&quot; Woo likes to cut to the chase, and in this case thanks to a Hollywood budget that I assume is a touch larger than his Hong Kong efforts (the numbers aren&#39;t posted anywhere, but I&#39;m guesstimating) I&#39;d say here he exceeded that count by a&amp;nbsp;few hundred rounds.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Well not quite pure Woo. Woo is quoted as saying he wanted to film in a &#39;more realistic manner&#39; which I take it isn&#39;t so much to have actual convincing gun battles or fistfights but that Brian starts out totally clueless about mixed martial arts and weaponry; he gives himself a year to train, and the limits of this extended session of autodidactism is apparent (most bruisingly against Yoko Hamamura as one of the gang&#39;s more formidable soldiers). Also Brian feels many of the blows and wounds inflicted on him-- doesn&#39;t quite shrug it off the way Chow Yun Fat did in &lt;i&gt;Hard Boiled&lt;/i&gt;, though to be fair the hero being hurt or mutilated in some way is a classic trope of Hong Kong action cinema, particularly the films of Chang Cheh, to which Woo owes a huge debt.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One Wooism I do regret is the sticky sentimentality shown when regarding family or the fairer sex. I get it that Brian loved his son, but the endless mourning and worshipping and hair-ripping on the child&#39;s altar got old by the first half hour (&lt;i&gt;Godzilla Minus One&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;did a better job of depicting this kind of grief and survivor&#39;s guilt-- but the movie had an actual script). Brian&#39;s wife Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is more subtly rendered-- she&#39;s strong for him till she isn&#39;t able to be, and their eventual parting is nicely wordless-- but she&#39;s still a cipher.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More serious is the lack of what I like to call unconscious homoeroticism-- Woo (taking his cue from Chang Cheh, who was an influence and gay) excels at intense male bonding, and there&#39;s little chance for Brian to emotionally connect with either his putative ally (Det. Vassel, played by Scott Mescudi), or declared adversary Playa (Harold Torres). Again the advantages of dialogue, which nicely sketched the playful and not a little sexy byplay between hero (John Travolta) and villain (Nicholas Cage) in arguably Woo&#39;s best Hollywood effort &lt;i&gt;Face/Off&lt;/i&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But if we lost the gay subtext we do have this, a nonstop kinetic exercise in violence, the best part of which is being set during the Yuletide season, with holiday lights blinking to the roar of high-calibre ordnance. Tis the season indeed and nothing warms the cockles of my poor excuse of a heart more than a Christmas movie with a high body count.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqOoZDoLYGS7_KaVFZxv4O5UPKI5M4wqVFfKseYvlvPA-G4IOqlHnnhStynX9J62aNpZkrAO9rkTIv5YUi8KK6RY5cHEnkf6PZtOXogQuosCcBIJyXl-c47DhnaQ4jLq-Vp6CYiJmbKc0DOEnrlp1bbwPs97JmolG_bywcOcVokOKHoroXjL-/s1280/silent-night-release-john-woo-joel-kinnaman-1280x720.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;720&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqOoZDoLYGS7_KaVFZxv4O5UPKI5M4wqVFfKseYvlvPA-G4IOqlHnnhStynX9J62aNpZkrAO9rkTIv5YUi8KK6RY5cHEnkf6PZtOXogQuosCcBIJyXl-c47DhnaQ4jLq-Vp6CYiJmbKc0DOEnrlp1bbwPs97JmolG_bywcOcVokOKHoroXjL-/w400-h225/silent-night-release-john-woo-joel-kinnaman-1280x720.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/4719068434632802369/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=4719068434632802369' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4719068434632802369'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/4719068434632802369'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/silent-night-john-woo-2023.html' title='Silent Night (John Woo, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYjJ71XGlH7XB8L7-mmfUVhyy451OSr8Jc8RFCwocZZ2qz0nyLhO2ePPf-PG-YB1oY36jQndP2C-rGNsjh3IIeNgCE9SES3dMbcHNjH9RdxJlT4xxNPKApJmmVOMlt8uSz9UlA16zqhfzHwxF695dnvj-pU-u5HDvHz2mAxqr9uCnv8VVn2kq/s72-w400-h225-c/silent-night-1696289847597.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-882929341498109370</id><published>2023-12-03T23:51:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2023-12-04T08:43:50.009-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biographical"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Drama"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="French"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Period"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ridley Scott"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="war"/><title type='text'>Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023)</title><content type='html'>&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-IxmYUYo8e6ey_9mClA0NWbMy0rgoep2S7uTBzMS0uO_77s1FhIcndwzaY3nLxf6WN5vUO-jE_7cMEd1kXc9I1BoT3Uv970PN-bs4m2-9P-rP8LF1bo00_f7QazZHWn0SmYS4iBDmhcVCdFJW7gzir-tLq-o_x4zXlr3J0Vz4AcfoeCzwvk3/s1620/attachment-napoleon-movie-1.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1082&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1620&quot; height=&quot;268&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-IxmYUYo8e6ey_9mClA0NWbMy0rgoep2S7uTBzMS0uO_77s1FhIcndwzaY3nLxf6WN5vUO-jE_7cMEd1kXc9I1BoT3Uv970PN-bs4m2-9P-rP8LF1bo00_f7QazZHWn0SmYS4iBDmhcVCdFJW7gzir-tLq-o_x4zXlr3J0Vz4AcfoeCzwvk3/w400-h268/attachment-napoleon-movie-1.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Make love, not war&lt;/b&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Ridley Scott at his best can be an immersive filmmaker and with the opening of his latest feature&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13287846/&quot;&gt;Napoleon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; &lt;/b&gt;he manages to locate you in the middle of the Place de Revolution, 1793, where a wood cart wheels one Marie Antoinette to the guillotine. Lovely little vignette with the queen (Catherine Walker) standing stoically while folks jeer and pelt her with rocks and rotting vegetables (a tomato stain marking her bosom like a scarlet letter). Some trouble fitting the stock onto her neck-- these are the little details that help you believe the reality of her oncoming death, and when the executioner picks up the head by its locks and shakes it at the roaring crowd you watch the expression closely wondering if you might catch it blink (you don&#39;t). Apocryphally Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) stands in the sidelines, watching.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;That&#39;s about the last time you actually feel lost in the story Scott tries to tell, a relatively quiet, recognizably human moment the way the rest of the film isn&#39;t. The film&#39;s concept (realized on paper by David Scarpa) is of a confident soldier and strategist constantly being undercut by his outsized ego and obvious enthrallment to Josephine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Ultimately it&#39;s standard biopic fare, well-staged battles inserted into scenes of a tumultuous rockstar marriage that feels more busy than passionate-- sex is mostly doggie style rutting with a few unusual locations (under a dining table for one) tossed in, not especially imaginative. Vanessa Kirby is introduced sporting an intriguing punk &#39;do which is the single most interesting facet of her performance; the role is sorely underwritten and the fact that Josephine was six years Napoleon&#39;s senior doesn&#39;t really come into play, unfortunately-- she &lt;i&gt;acts&lt;/i&gt; like she&#39;s Napoleon&#39;s master and commander but little develops from the few suggestive cues Kirby throws our way.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;As the eponymous general turned emperor Phoenix doesn&#39;t really turn on the charisma, opting to play an awkward insecure buffoon who on occasion manages a scowl and looks mysteriously authoritative. Scott and Phoenix make an effort to undercut the legend-- this Napoleon watches impassively as revolting Royalists are treated to &#39;a whiff of grapeshot;&#39; cowers comically as government officials rush forward to overthrow him (then struts like a peacock when his soldiers respond with cocked rifles). Napoleon is a complex character, and the filmmakers do attempt to convey something of his contradictory nature; what would be appreciated is a sense that the opposing impulses actually come from the same person, that this isn&#39;t just Phoenix clowning for one take, glaring for another. There&#39;s a nice interlude with his mother Letizia (a sorely underused Sinead Cusack) who recruits a fictitious young sexual volunteer to prove Napoleon isn&#39;t impotent (despite all the sex Josephine hasn&#39;t given him an heir). Unraveling&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; knotty relationship might have helped explain the emperor&#39;s hangups with older women but-- someone mentioned a 4 hour cut to stream on Apple; this feels more like a TikTok fragment carved out of a longer YouTube video waiting to be released.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The battles fare considerably better. The assault on Little Gibraltar in Toulon is a nicely staged amuse-bouche, served up with a side dish of horse blown spectacularly apart by cannonball (historically it was Napoleon who was wounded-- bayonet to the thigh-- not the horse). The battle of Waterloo is a suitably impressive climax: plenty of high-angle shots, possibly by drones, of vasty fields and antlike men assembled in endless formations. Napoleon sends cavalry against Wellington&#39;s square formations, a whirlwind of blue uniforms on horseflesh harrying the British soldiers, possibly the best war sequences that money can buy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;More impressive are the guerrilla tactics used by Cossacks against French troops during Napoleon&#39;s Russia campaign-- draw soldiers into the woods with sniper fire, unsettle them with horrific tableaux of mutilated and desecrated French soldiers, finish them off in the midst of sylvan cathedrallike silence. When Napoleon after occupying Moscow steps out of his quarters the next day to find the city torched by its own citizens, the burning orange buildings surround him with an intimidating impassivity-- this is Napoleon at the height of his megalomania, confronted with an attitude even more massively monomaniac and dismissive of rational thinking than his.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Arguably the film&#39;s visual climax occurs at Austerlitz, when Russian and Austrian troops are ambushed by French forces in hiding, then tricked onto treacherous ice and dropped into freezing water by cannonfire, wreathed in their own slowly twisting blood (details exaggerated-- supposed deep lake was actually ponds and the casualty count is likely two or three to at most a hundred men, not two thousand-- but to be fair to Scott, Napoleon probably encouraged the exaggeration himself).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I get it; Scott is a Brit and likely not a fan of the French general and with Phoenix&#39;s active collaboration was out to deflate the myth; would have thought with all the resources at his disposal the director might have made more effort to expand his subject-- give us the scale and size of a leader who not only pulled a good chunk of the world to its knees but gave us the Napoleonic Code (the basis for civil code in most countries of the world), developed a more centralized rationalized form of government, introduced higher education, established the study of Egyptology as we know it-- and &lt;i&gt;then&lt;/i&gt; cut him down to size.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Too ambitious? Stanley Kubrick might have pulled it off, and I don&#39;t just mean his never-realized proposal; you see glimmers of what might have been in a number of his films, from the sumptuous costumes and candlelit interiors of his &lt;i&gt;Barry Lyndon&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;(adapting lenses commissioned by NASA to photograph the dark side of the moon) to the massive military formations that climaxed &lt;i&gt;Spartacus&lt;/i&gt; (Roman ancestor to Napoleon&#39;s battle squares) to the harrowing violence shot with magisterial authority in both &lt;i&gt;Paths of Glory&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Full Metal Jacket&lt;/i&gt;. Kubrick, no stranger to the marshaling of exhaustive detail and tremendous resources, was perhaps the perfect filmmaker to realize the military genius onscreen-- not as sure about Napoleon&#39;s other accomplishments but if anyone could do it Kubrick can.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;But if we&#39;re talking a Napoleon film that best approximates the prodigious nature of the man-- that&#39;s been done, as far back as 1927. Abel Gance&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Napoleon&lt;/i&gt; is as impressive as Scott&#39;s for far less money, arguably as impressive as anything Kubrick has ever done. Gance begins his film with the boy in military school, engaged in a snowball fight. Napoleon at twelve years old leads his hopelessly outnumbered schoolmates in a pitched battle; they overwhelm their enemies through bravado and sheer ferocity. Gance matches the boy&#39;s fervor with a barrage of effects, from wide landscapes to huge closeups, hurtling handheld footage, and (in the sequence climax) a series of cuts so swift and strobelike it sends your heart racing.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The snowball fight-- which puts Scott&#39;s entire $200 million war epic to shame-- is merely the film&#39;s amuse bouche. Gance proceeds to command his camera to do literally everything, from sitting astride a galloping horse to gliding over water (sometimes underwater) to swinging like a pendulum over the French National Assembly, suggesting a political storm (which the director intercuts with Napoleon in a sailboat, negotiating a literal storm). Not content with shooting large arrays of soldiers he stretches the film frame itself, shooting not just with one camera but three, a prophecy of Cinemascope only more expressive (where Cinemascope usually projects a single image Gance would throw three, often tinted red white blue (the colors of the French flag), often in violent counterpoint).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The film&#39;s view of Napoleon may be even more simplistic than Scott&#39;s-- no English skepticism for this Frenchman-- but&amp;nbsp;one must remember Gance had originally proposed that this five-hour film be the first of six-- a thirty hour epic, or more Napoleon than anything outside of a multivolume biography. Did Gance mean to insert darker threads in later installments? He certainly had the room.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Meanwhile we have Scott&#39;s production which, for all its budget and historical revisionism, is a markedly timid effort, untouched by the taint of either genius or madness. Gance&#39;s superproduction is presently unavailable for streaming but folks are reportedly working on a seven-hour restoration, to be projected on a properly big screen. If I&#39;m going to hold my breath for anything I&#39;d hold it for that.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;First published in &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2023/12/01/560663/make-love-not-war/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Businessworld &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;i&gt;12.1.23&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0vIyNuOXgaiZDvSQocovmZu5nvWvEBURZUlJh1YeZ4UqFAghc9-ewneO-Et7xWUeJ8tueAOBHNkKn-OeTEERB1VqWvOyV5SAse72CxS_kZBoWxMHYaBhdc7IrwjWAI-HNG6K1s0E6ddkr-LY_xEX6jOAC4ULCjL0rspFiO0Z7GVV8meKyaKis/s3224/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1827&quot; data-original-width=&quot;3224&quot; height=&quot;226&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0vIyNuOXgaiZDvSQocovmZu5nvWvEBURZUlJh1YeZ4UqFAghc9-ewneO-Et7xWUeJ8tueAOBHNkKn-OeTEERB1VqWvOyV5SAse72CxS_kZBoWxMHYaBhdc7IrwjWAI-HNG6K1s0E6ddkr-LY_xEX6jOAC4ULCjL0rspFiO0Z7GVV8meKyaKis/w400-h226/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/882929341498109370/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=882929341498109370' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/882929341498109370'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/882929341498109370'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2023/12/napoleon-ridley-scott-2023.html' title='Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-IxmYUYo8e6ey_9mClA0NWbMy0rgoep2S7uTBzMS0uO_77s1FhIcndwzaY3nLxf6WN5vUO-jE_7cMEd1kXc9I1BoT3Uv970PN-bs4m2-9P-rP8LF1bo00_f7QazZHWn0SmYS4iBDmhcVCdFJW7gzir-tLq-o_x4zXlr3J0Vz4AcfoeCzwvk3/s72-w400-h268-c/attachment-napoleon-movie-1.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2355847575611510087</id><published>2023-11-25T12:38:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2023-11-25T13:09:41.702-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="adaptation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CGI Effects"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comedy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comic book"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Edgar Wright"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fantasy"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="video games"/><title type='text'>Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright 2010)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  387. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlprYKH81eir-XDDcZ0BGTw8VcDOYlPv-_S5y3p4fDtTgtfSUo7fWXz4lQL0uT3FUqWvD90rCQ5LYl6BzEJKna1ZA3UwFeEKMYBlWvIOCiTs2PVs_PFaOLf_uAKzJTDzai0541/s1600/scott-Pilgrim-butt-shot.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;213&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlprYKH81eir-XDDcZ0BGTw8VcDOYlPv-_S5y3p4fDtTgtfSUo7fWXz4lQL0uT3FUqWvD90rCQ5LYl6BzEJKna1ZA3UwFeEKMYBlWvIOCiTs2PVs_PFaOLf_uAKzJTDzai0541/w400-h213/scott-Pilgrim-butt-shot.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  388. &lt;br /&gt;
  389. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  390. &lt;b&gt;&lt;span&gt;Game on&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  391. &lt;br /&gt;
  392. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  393. &lt;span&gt;Not a big fan of video games. The last game I took even halfway serious was &lt;i&gt;Missile Command&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;back in the &#39;80s-- something somehow addictive about keeping all those relentlessly approaching nuclear missiles from wiping out everything you know and love, something somehow traumatic about the big flashing THE END that flashed your failure That, plus the cool trackball spinning in one hand, sending the crosshairs skittering across the screen--what&#39;s not to like?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  394. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  395. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;That was it between video games and me-- unless you count a brief infatuation with &lt;i&gt;Myst&lt;/i&gt; and its&amp;nbsp;otherwordly music, beautifully alien settings (especially liked Channelwood, a forest world spiderwebbed with rope-and-plank bridges) and sense of unknowability (got as far as the Selenitic Age where I got lost in an underground maze before giving up), plus a purely mindless affair with &lt;i&gt;Fallout&lt;/i&gt; (the lust to acquire objects from stimpaks to plasma rifles to the Holy Hand Grenade proved both irrational and irresistible). Never had a healthy relationship with video games-- felt I was investing too much time trying to master them with results less than impressive, the satisfaction rather anemic. It was too much like devouring a pounder bag of tater chips fried in lard-- you feel good at first, then the salts and cholesterol start backing up and blocking the blood flow to your brain.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  396. &lt;br /&gt;
  397. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  398. &lt;span&gt;But if I have a love-hate relationship with video games that&#39;s nothing to my dismay watching video game movies. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/10/resident-evil-extinction-russel-mulcahy.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Resident Evil&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; series case in point: basically chop-socky flicks with guns and zombies that like the undead seem to last forever (though those directed by Paul Anderson are more stylish). Love Milla Jovovich, know she can both act and kick ass, but one &lt;i&gt;Evil&lt;/i&gt; movie was one too much, let alone three. Cinematographer-turned-director Andrzej Bartkowiak&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Doom&lt;/i&gt; at one point successfully replicated the one-corridor-after-another-of-demonic-monsters feel of the game, and as with the game I felt a similar urge to walk away.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  399. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  400. &lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  401. &lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
  402. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  403. &lt;span&gt;Which is why Edgar Wright&#39;s &lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/&quot;&gt;Scott Pilgrim vs. the World&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt; is such a surprise. Here I am, a less-than-ardent fan of video games, sitting down, getting ready to hate this picture; the first few minutes confirmed my worst fears-- voiceover narration, swish-pans, pop music samples, snarky dialogue, cute sound effects (thought I was looking at a louder, more obnoxious, big-screen version of &lt;i&gt;Ned&#39;s Declassified School Survival Guide&lt;/i&gt;).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  404. &lt;br /&gt;
  405. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  406. &lt;span&gt;But it just went on and on and on. Some of the digital effects are funny-- Scott (Michael Cera) going to the men&#39;s room and a pee bar on upper right emptying; corny little pink hearts floating away from Scott and dream girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) first kiss; the lighting bolts that hurtle out when Scott&#39;s band the Sex Bob-ombs play. But what won me over (besides digital effects that actually showed a trace of wit) was the sense that stripped of its effects this was a funny little tale of a geeky boy trying to come to terms with his too-popular girl&#39;s past-- her &#39;seven evil exes.&#39; Hot girl; hostile exes; unhappy ambivalent relationship-- you can actually relate to his dilemma.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  407. &lt;br /&gt;
  408. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  409. &lt;span&gt;Figures that accomplished comic filmmaker Edgar Wright would make the first-- and for all I know only-- successfully entertaining videogame movie. &lt;i&gt;Hot Fuzz&lt;/i&gt; may have been disappointing, don&#39;t know what failed-- either British law enforcement is so inherently unfunny no parody is passable or British law enforcement is so inherently funny no parody is possible-- but &lt;i&gt;Shaun of the Dead&lt;/i&gt; took the idea of the zombie apocalypse and demonstrated that things wouldn&#39;t be all that different, not for the first few days (when everyone has yet to wake up to the idea of running from the walking dead) and not after a year (when everyone has settled down to the idea of living with the walking dead). Brilliant conceit.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  410. &lt;br /&gt;
  411. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  412. &lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Scott Pilgrim&lt;/i&gt; requires a different mindset, not satiric observation but absolute conviction-- that Scott&#39;s a hero, that Ramona&#39;s worth fighting for, that all seven evil exes are rotten to the core and need taking down. God-- or entertainment, at least-- is in the details, and Wright largely gets it right: just enough technogeek to give us the flavor of gamer enthusiasm, just enough realspeak to give us recognizably human characters to care for (thanks Cera, Winstead, Kieran Culkin (as Scott&#39;s unflappably gay roommate), Jason Schwartzmann as a game-show host slash dance club lord slash archvillain). &lt;i&gt;Scott Pilgrim&lt;/i&gt; is ultimately disposable, but you can say that of ninety-nine percent of what&#39;s showing in the multiplexes; difference is, Wright manages to make the ephemeral quality part of the movie&#39;s charm. You may not remember much of the movie once you leave the theater, but you may remember the glow you felt watching it.  &lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
  413. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  414. &lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  415. &lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
  416. &lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;
  417. &lt;span&gt;First published in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bworldonline.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Businessworld&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, 11.18.10&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpX363SZQMlw7XtF5MtBbCxZK9jWmHYJDxIEVwYw18QI__xLbA1sVH2omGKzwhAg5gJS0PDZZ1dK35_N1mSwCGxDaaLNaab1FvefyDTzM7wS2eFwsCbx13jUdKAJ_Jl7jcNTtQ0CjoKsicUvoCnizyi60hqGVr747S9P-dgC8fYYy4_Yy-OWyZ/s1200/eecdd739792ed320024b3401eab63d03.jpeg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;648&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;216&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpX363SZQMlw7XtF5MtBbCxZK9jWmHYJDxIEVwYw18QI__xLbA1sVH2omGKzwhAg5gJS0PDZZ1dK35_N1mSwCGxDaaLNaab1FvefyDTzM7wS2eFwsCbx13jUdKAJ_Jl7jcNTtQ0CjoKsicUvoCnizyi60hqGVr747S9P-dgC8fYYy4_Yy-OWyZ/w400-h216/eecdd739792ed320024b3401eab63d03.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  418. &lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bigomagazine.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html&quot;&gt;Critic After Dark: a Review of Philippine Cinema&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/feeds/2355847575611510087/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12690266&amp;postID=2355847575611510087' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2355847575611510087'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12690266/posts/default/2355847575611510087'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2010/11/scott-pilgrim-vs-world-edgar-wright.html' title='Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright 2010)'/><author><name>Noel Vera</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFGuWELWMo9OjoDwjBzTbiUrgfyqvjbwDaHz6DeIA0oINpB_5KVEDaN-6wNnpHaVZMr9NCJr43ySze-txyN5BblMcnkdzmQMw3ZuM2sEapbF7ymPifolTd_PtpTWj6FU/s220/journal+pics+6.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlprYKH81eir-XDDcZ0BGTw8VcDOYlPv-_S5y3p4fDtTgtfSUo7fWXz4lQL0uT3FUqWvD90rCQ5LYl6BzEJKna1ZA3UwFeEKMYBlWvIOCiTs2PVs_PFaOLf_uAKzJTDzai0541/s72-w400-h213-c/scott-Pilgrim-butt-shot.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry></feed>

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