I Come With the Rain

I’ve been waiting a damn long time a new Anh Hung Tran movie.  It’s been 9 years since The Vertical Ray of the Sun.  But this is a far cry from the delicate serenity of that film and The Scent of Green Papaya.  It’s closer to the violent crime drama Cyclo, but it’s even more of a disappointment.  Much more.  It’s a goddamn mess.  I’m guessing this film was plagued with problems… it apparently finished shooting 2 years ago.  Also, it was originally supposed to star Harvey Keitel.  Instead we get Josh Hartnett.  Also tagging along are Korean superstar Byung-hun Lee, Japanese superstar Takuya Kimura, and Hong Kong superstar Shawn Yue (and, as always, Tran’s lovely wife).  Their English acting for all of them is quite awkward, including Hartnett.  But that’s not the worst of it.  The film is part Hong Kong cop thriller… a small part, which is unfortunate, because that might have been its best chance at success.  A much larger part is a serial killer flick in the vein of every goddamn serial killer flick since Silence of the Lambs.  Clichéd and stupid.  And wrapped up in all this is a horribly labored religious allegory.  It’s an unsatisfying, confusing, boring mish-mash.  And there’s something weird with the cinematography.  Either they did something funny with the lighting, or an awful lot of it is green-screened.  Perhaps quickie replacement scenes for stuff previously with Keitel?  I dunno, but it looks wrong.  There is a germ of a good idea here, and a few of the images are quite striking (and Hartnett really isn’t THAT bad)… but I’m still tremendously let down.  Rating: 3

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The Silence (rewatch)

This film really speaks to the power of context.  What would one make of it without knowing its title, and that it’s part of the “faith trilogy”?  Maybe it would just seem like a pointless, David Lynch-ian study in bleakness.  But I felt keenly aware that it was conveying the absolute absence of God.  Despite not mentioning God once (and perhaps because of this), you are overwhelmed by His silence.  And while nothing in it is the type of thing so horrible as to make someone exclaim “there is no God!”, it’s all drenched in this feeling of grim despair and emptiness.  I’ve previously been unimpressed by this movie, but now on the third viewing I’m awestruck by how masterfully Bergman creates such a palpable sense of doom, a “spiritual void” as the DVD case proclaims.  This is not the work of a man thumbing his nose at religion (as could be said of Winter Light) but rather a man violently extracting it out of himself.  And Nykvist’s photography here is some of his best.  The performances are excellent, although you could argue that both Thulin and Lindblom lay on the hysteria a little bit thick at a couple of points.  But overall, this is really powerful stuff, a film that’s grown on me immensely.  Rating: 9

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Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World

The Japanese must have a word for this kind of adolescent melodrama, they sure seem to crank out a lot of them.  Defining characteristics: gently paced, often nostalgic, bittersweet, tinkly score with a quiet pop song over the end credits, frequently features a romance with some kind of twist.  This one doesn’t do much to stand out from the others, but since I generally enjoy this type of thing, I didn’t mind.  A little too long, though.  Rating: 7

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Wings of Desire (rewatch)

Well, I still think that this movie is kind of a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” thing, at times very trite.  But it does have such an entrancing, hypnotic quality to it.  I like being in the world of this film, but afterwards I feel rather “meh” about it.  Seems that a lot of my Blu-Ray purchases lately have been too hastily made, I’m still on the fence about this one.  I’ll have to sleep on it, I guess.  Rating: 8-9

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Winter Light (rewatch)

Hard to believe it’s been 5 years since I last watched this.  It seemed so fresh in my memory.  But I’d forgotten how well it ties the “trilogy” together, openly mocking the false words of comfort at the end of Through a Glass Darkly and making frequent reference to “God’s silence”.  This is hard to reconcile with Bergman’s later assertion that he never intended them to be thought of a trilogy.  It doesn’t really matter, though… as part of the trilogy or on its own, it’s brilliant either way.  His most pointed, direct discussion and criticism of faith.  Nykvist’s understated, stark photography and some incredible performances.  Still one of my favorites.  Rating: 10

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Sada

Based on the same true story as In the Realm of the Senses.  I never thought much of Oshima’s version, and Obayashi completely blows him out of the water.  Instead focusing on the lurid details, Obayashi chooses to explore Sada’s history and how she ended up the way she did.  He basically thumbs his nose at Oshima right off the bat by stating there’s more to her story than slicing off a penis.  And although the erotic obsession isn’t the main point of the movie, it isn’t overlooked, either.  It manages to be much sexier than Oshima’s telling, and does so without on-screen blowjobs or eggs getting stuffed into pussies.  There’s a dazzling array of cinematic techniques being used (including Obayashi’s signature blending of color and black & white) to inject the tale with humor and vitality.  Some of the comedy is a little too slapsticky, but it’s a damn sight better than watching people fucking and chatting all the time.  As the only Obayashi film currently with a DVD release, I recommend it as a pretty good entry point.  Rating: 9

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Ijintachi tono natsu (Summer Among the Zombies)

An Obayashi movie with this kind of title (a mistranslation, according to an iMDB poster) sounds promising, but it’s not what you think it’d be.  It’s a mild kaidan that’s more family drama than anything else.  A recently divorced TV writer comes across his long-deceased parents and starts hanging out with them, while carrying on a relationship with a mysterious woman from his building.  It doesn’t do a whole lot with its premise, and it’s pretty conventional, but it’s a nice film with an off-kilter nostalgic tone.  I wish there was a little more meat on these bones, but it was okay.  Rating: 7

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Antichrist

Every fiber of my being is screaming out “fuck you, Lars Von Trier”.  One of the most awful experiences I’ve sat through.  The provocateur provokes again, lashing out at his audience in his most hostile manner to date (caveat: I still haven’t seen The Idiots, I’ve heard that one’s pretty bad too).  So much of this felt contrived and false and like LVT was setting up yet another “perfect storm” of misery that has little to do with how most people live and think and feel.  And yet — and isn’t it always the case with Von Trier? — he certainly succeeds at provoking a reaction.  This is a film that will undoubtedly be rattling around in my brain for some time, as much as I don’t want it to.  The symbolism is heavy-handed and muddled, but the message is elusive, which keeps me coming back to it (not that I’d ever watch it again, though).  I feel wishy-washy and lame giving such a noncommittal opinion about it.  Like most Von Trier, I both loved and hated it.  I will say that the look of the film is his most striking work, if not ever than at least since Europa.  The dedication is apt, since the rhythms and imagery often brought Tarkovsky to mind.  Rating: 7

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Observe and Report

I have to say I appreciate what Jody Hill has done with this.  The one thing I kept hearing over and over about this movie is “don’t expect a comedy, it’s more like Taxi Driver“.  The truth is it’s somewhere in between, which strikes a very unusual tone.  I’ve seen my share of black comedy, but never one that felt quite like this.  The closest I can think of is The Dark Backward, but without being so unrelentingly annoying.  So I kind of liked seeing something with such an odd balance to it.  Having said that, I didn’t like much else about it.  As a twisted character study (and yes, the Travis Bickle aspirations are painfully obvious) it almost works, as a black comedy it almost works, but never really seems to hit home on any level.  It does make you feel icky, and I suppose that was probably the intention, but it doesn’t go anywhere with that.  It’s just… unpleasant, but with a few laughs.  I can’t say I enjoyed it very much, but I do think Hill’s got some guts.  Rating: 6

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Nerawareta gakuen (The Aimed School)

Oof, this is a tough one.  At times, it rivals the mad genius of Hausu… incredibly bizarre and captivating techniques, highlighting a story that’s delightfully kooky.  A teenage girl discovers she has superpowers, and then must do battle with another superpowered girl who is turning the school into a fascist state.  The problem is that Obayashi doesn’t keep building it up the way he does in Hausu.  Bits that are really exciting and unusual alternate with bits that are rather mundane.  It’s missing that sustained madness.  Also, a lot of the humor is pretty dumb.  Still, when the movie is great, it’s super great, and the climax of the film is absolutely wild.  Rating: 8

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