Poetry

I saw a Korean film called Poetry. It was not a typical movie watched on a regular school night, but somehow it left a great big impression on me. Perhaps because it was such a dramatically sad setting however with such a happy, floating ambiance throughout the 2+ hour film.

The setting is in some country side in Korea with a 68-year old grandmother as the protagonist. She lives on welfare and works as a helper/maid for this older geezer, and lives in a tiny apartment with her grandson whom the protagonist found out raped a girl at school with his friends, and the girl committed suicide. Because the group of boys' fathers decide they need to shush the whole incident, they ask for the grandma to also contribute with an incredible amount of money for settlement, which she can no way come up with. On top of it, she starts getting Alzheimer. Her daughter has abandoned the family too.

All of this is beautifully depicted through her taking up poetry and finding beautiful things and phrases to practice poetry. Even when she was forced by the corrupt father to go see the dead girl's mother, she forgets her purpose of coming when she sees a beautiful fruit in her path, and completely turns happy and even holds a pleasant conversation with the dead girl's mother without mentioning who she is. Only later she realizes that she had forgotten her purpose of coming, and the next day has to face the mother again who learns that she was one of them.

The ending was particularly beautiful. The overall movie really depicts well the sensitive balance between the horrid things that can fall upon a single person, and her going through these things with beautiful poetry and taking a more proper path than many others.

Ran

I just finished watching Akira Kurosawa's Ran. It's made based on Shakespeare's King Lear as well as the Three Arrows, a story from a well known samurai lord from the 16th century. He had taught his three sons to stay close, that three arrows will not break together while one can easily break.

Ran is basically a tragedy with a strong war lord succeeding his throne to his sons (and unlike the historical figure, not all of his three sons are good), and the sons and surrounding characters for their respective reasons end up fighting each other and destroying everything. In the end, nothing remains other than the miserable and the weak.

It was Japan's most expensive movie produced back then, with very famous national treasures as the film location, including the Himeiji and Kumamoto Castle. As Kurosawa said that he put in everything he has, indeed it is really powerful, and has such a clear message to mankind. Bravo.

Photo credit: Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa as a painter

I watched a documentary-like film of Akira Kurosawa. I didn't know that he had wanted to become a painter in his youth, which explained a lot of his tendencies in his movies, but especially that he goes out of his way to sketch the storyboard.

The one above is for "Yume" which means dream. It shows the scene where Mt. Fuji has erupted because a nearby nuclear plant had exploded. Shortly after this, everyone jumps into the ocean and kills themselves. Intriguing that the film is from the 80s when nobody doubted the nuclear plant safety.

He says he doesn't create movies based on a theme, but based on scenes that would be interesting to be turned into a movie. He was a true director, designer, and editor to make the end product entertaining and inspirational to the viewers.

I look forward to going to his soba/shabu shabu restaurant Kurosawa again in a week. It's in a very serene area, right behind the Prime Minister's house in Tokyo.

Kurosawa
2-7-9, Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-3580-9638 Fax: 03-3580-3929



Photo credit: Kurosawa Production

A Separation

I went to see the Iranian film A Separation. The plot was intricate and the characters (who are all very civil) very well played. Each and every detail of the movie made a lot of sense but presented with a light touch, and altogether the film gives a very satisfying post-movie sensation. Excellent for a slow Friday or Saturday night.

Very cool short short film, The Bill

A very cool film I saw on the plane. The ending especially seeps into you...

Leo Tolstoy

I saw the film Last Station, which is about the final years of Leo Tolstoy.

It portrays the love between Tolstoy and his Countess wife beautifully, despite many stories that represent him as having gone crazy and leaving the family behind in his final years.

In the end, the desciples do succed in pulling Tolstoy away from his wife to give the Russian people his strong and clean message of equality. But in return, the Countess is devastated.

It was very human that while Tolstoy is godified as helping the movement of Russia freeing the serfs, etc., his wife is a Countess, therefore they fought seriously over ideals all the time. It resonated with me because even so, they both cared for and truly loved each other.

I felt that you don't need to pursue your ideals 100% to the point that you abandon someone (like how the desciples persuaded Tolstoy), because there is no such thing as a perfect world for all anyway, and the future will always be a balance with the contrasting ideas at the best.

Overall, the love story was very sentimental, and I may have been crying for a long time while watching. It is a nice Sunday afternoon movie.

Photo credit: Official website

Amadeus

I just finished watching the Mozart film Amadeus. I thought I had seen it before but apparently not. Everything was new and everything was astounding! Was Mozart such a prick and did he lead such a life!?

I was first and foremost shocked how much of a monkey Mozart was. His laugh! His arrogance! His obsession with alcohol!

Second, Mozart seems to have focused a lot on opera? He seems solely focused on this art whilst in his financial difficulty.

Lastly, the movie goes on to tell how he died in the hands of a crazy man Salieri, who was the Kappelmeister or imperial music director of Austria, and was criminally jealous of Mozart for his own mediocrity.

After the end of the movie, I got a tingly feeling that this image of Mozart could all just be the imagination of the protaganist, the crazy composer Salieri whose mind was so jiggled that he imagined he killed his beloved and most respectful composer.

... and of course, I just read now that there is very little evidence of their rivalry and that this movie was entirely made up, loosely around two composers that lived in the same era!

Coco Chanel

I just saw two of the recent Chanel movies (Coco Before Chanel and Coco Chanel) and did some quick reading, and cannot stop myself from writing about what I newly learned of her clothing and life.

First, unlike my previous perception, the Chanel suit is meant to be a simple attire and not a fancy, scare-thy-enemy-away woman banker's overt weapon. Not just that, but she possibly introduced jersey into women's clothing.

Also surprising is that towards and at the very end of her life, Chanel was not well received in France. Her post-war comeback collections from 1954 were instead fervently followed by the American and British women. She was also not allowed to rest in peace at France's rich and famous grave yard. Instead, she sleeps in Switzerland. These were all connected to having had a relationship with a German officer during WWII and living a somewhat privileged life (she was also arrested by Gestapo for acting as a British spy too - what drama!).

A positive learning from the reading as opposed to the movie is that Chanel had a lot of lovers, aside from the few really serious ones who have ended up in sudden deaths. One of her lovers the Duke of Westminster, who was the closest to a serious relationship, even built her logo into the city posts of Westminster in London!

I also had no idea about a painting of her by Marie Laurencin, which she so did not like that she returned it. Apparently, this is for viewing at the Orangerie. It looks very familiar.

Overall, her life is all drama, with my god, lots of downs. Even so, I would think her life is nothing but encouragement for her continuous trial and continued passion.

Photo credit: Chanel news.