Bright Star (2009)

Written and directed by Jane Campion (In the Cut), Bright Star tells the story of Fanny Brawne (played by Abbie Cornish), the muse for the poet John Keats before his death. The film follows their love affair from when they first meet to Keats’ inevitable demise. Fanny is an independent young woman who designs all of her own clothes, attends parties and does other things that woman in the 1800s typically tend to do: stitching, frolicking in fields, chatting with other women, etc. She becomes fascinated with a young John Keats (Ben Whishaw), a penniless poet (of a rapidly dying brother) who had recently published a book of poems subjected to generally hostile reviews. They begin a sort of awkward friendship that develops into a heavy romance (and this is a romance of two minds and souls, as Keats and Fanny never consummate their relationship) complete with various complications. For one, Keats is broke and completely incapable of providing Fanny a life of even mild luxury. The other complication comes when he gets sick which, in the 1800s, pretty much means that he’s done for. Despite the tone of this summary, the story is actually very tragic and moving. Abbie Cornish gives a very memorable performance as Fanny, which I would argue is the main reason that this film is worth seeing. It is mainly because of Abbie Cornish that it’s easy to buy the feelings that Fanny has for Keats. Though the dialogue is well written, she adds something extra that makes the story that much more engaging. There are several scenes with little dialogue, but the emotions are clearly visible in her face or mannerisms. It’s no coincidence that she dominates nearly 90% of the total screen time and this works in the films’ favor. There are many other good performances as well: Ben Whishaw as the depressed Keats does a great job of playing the poet as reserved, conflicted, and yet easy to sympathize with while Paul Schneider as Charles Brown, a friend to Keats and fellow poet provides one of the most interesting characters of the film. He’s often a bit of a bastard, but at the same time displays some vulnerable moments such as when he is alone with Keats and you can see how much he truly admires his friend.

The film can feel a bit slow in terms of pacing, but thinking back on the story overall, nearly every scene seems valuable in establishing and maintaining the heavy and somber tone of the film. There are several beautiful sequences showing off the landscapes and these are most often during the period of the story where Fanny and Keats are at their happiest. There is a great scene after their first kiss where the music swells and Keats ends up climbing into a tree recreating a dream that he had previously described to Fanny. The entire sequence comes off very whimsical and light, serving as the highest point in the happiness of the two characters. A thoughtful and tragic love story, Bright Star is definitely a film to see.

Versus (2000)

Versus is a campy Japanese action horror film that takes place in a “Forest of Resurrection.” The film opens with a brief explanation about how there are various places (666 of them to be exact) where one can transfer to the next world, and one of them is in a forest in Japan (the 444th place apparently). Immediately after this explanation, the first image shown on screen is a man being sliced in half by a katana. Then we are shown a samurai fighting off several zombie samurai eventually leading up to his death. Okay. Next we are taken to the present and two convicts are racing through the forest. We know they’re convicts because their uniforms are actually labeled, “lawbreaker.” They meet up with some yakuza that’ve shown up to meet them and have also kidnapped a young girl for reasons that they were never told. Because one of the escaped convicts (played by Tak Sakaguchi) is a feminist (and I’m not kidding about that; he actually says so himself), he kills one of the yakuza, takes the girl, and runs off into the forest. The remaining yakuza chase him while waiting for their leader to show and discover that if anything dies in the forest, it comes back as a zombie. Unfortunately for the yakuza, this forest was their ideal place for dumping bodies.

There’s plenty more story that appears between the zombie kill-fests, but it involves some kind of ancient prophecy and destined battles and immortals and other information that is not only pointlessly complicated, but forced into the story to create even more insane fight scenes. Nearly every character – no, make that EVERY character – is played so two dimensional and over the top (some more than others) that it often feels like watching a bad cartoon. Characters pose in specific stances before, after, and during fight scenes while they shout out stupid lines that one would expect to find in a B-movie. There is one character that is never named (played by Kenji Matsuda) who is so over the top it’s actually distracting. It’s like he was trying to out-crazy all the other psychos that make up this films cast. It’s no surprise that when he inevitably becomes a zombie, he reverts to basically acting like a wild dog (and I mean crawling around on all fours and barking). In some cases the acting is laughable, but after around two hours of this…it gets a little old. In fact, now that I think about it, not one character in this entire film even has a name.

The direction in this film is pretty erratic. There are only a few select scenes where the camera isn’t moving. Even a scene a simple as a few guys getting out of a car is made to be like some kind of incredible action scene featuring a camera that shakes, rotates, zooms, and just about everything else in order to keep the viewers’ attention. It’s just stupid for the most part. The few scenes without a constantly rotating camera or rapid-fire cutting usually just frame certain characters in certain positions in order to make them look cool. That’s pretty much how most of this film seems to be made. It’s as if director Ryûhei Kitamura (Sky High, Godzilla: Final Wars, The Midnight Meat Train) merely viewed each scene as a success if the characters looked cool; it didn’t matter if what they were doing made no sense, even in a film like this one.

Well, since I’ve made it clear by now what I thought of this film, let’s go over what actually works. First off, this film was clearly shot with a low budget and the zombie effects are pretty good. The blood and guts, though silly, look pretty decent by current standards. The fight scenes look pretty good as well. In some cases the camera uses a lot of quick cuts to make them seem more impressive than they actually are, but for the most part, the fight scenes are well shot and even entertaining. I’ll also admit that a few of the gags in this film are actually funny. Like in any action film, ammo never seems to run out. But in this film, there is a character that never runs out of guns. His gun is stolen from him twice, but somehow he always seems to have a replacement tucked away in the back of his pants. Now at first this seems almost unnoticeable, but then it happens again; and again. I couldn’t help but smirk at how this character seems to be able to pull guns out of his own ass. Another thing that was pretty funny (and I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny, but I found it to be hilarious after a while) was how often the hero and everyone else seemed to spit up blood. At first this is no big deal, but it starts happening all the time. It happens so much that it could probably be a successful drinking game; every time a character coughs up blood: you drink. The set up of the story, being yakuza fighting zombies, is kind of an interesting concept. Unfortunately this film actually delivers too much to satisfy such a simple and potentially interesting idea. As a 90 minute zombie comedy, this film possibly could have worked. Instead we are given a 2 hour gore-fest with a ludicrous plot and an ending that is as stupid as it is disappointing.

Samurai Fiction (1998)

Samurai Fiction is a comedy action film set in the Tokugawa Period in Japan. The opening narration refers to this period as being 300 years ago and tells the story in the past tense. This assumes that the narrator lives in modern times and establishes part of the tone of the film. The narrator is a character named Heishiro Inukai (Mitsuru Fukikoshi), who is a wealthy son in a clan that is robbed of its sacred sword by a master swordsman named Rannosuke Kazamatsuri (Tomoyasu Hotei). Dead set on proving himself, he goes against his father’s wishes and sets out to reclaim the sword and kill the thief. On the way he is accompanied by his two friends, the three of them having earned the nickname amongst others in the clan, “The Three Stooges.” They certainly live up to the name as they chase after the thief for miles screaming and shouting at each other, making for some pretty hilarious scenes. They eventually catch up with Kazamatsuri, but the three-on-one ends in expectedly disastrous results. Heishiro is rescued from certain death by another ronin named Hanbei Mizoguchi (Morio Kazama), who along with his beautiful daughter Koharu (Tamaki Ogawa), nurse him back to health and try to teach him to appreciate life. After this point, the film loses a bit of steam and could have benefited from cutting a few scenes. While Heishiro is recovering, there is another subplot following Kazamatsuri dealing with corrupt gamblers and gangs in town that doesn’t really build to a whole lot before the finale.

The film is shot entirely in black and white in tribute to old samurai films, such as those by Kurasawa, with the exception of a few key instances. These instances are death scenes which are not only shot in slow motion, but with the screen tinting to red, emphasizing the death. The appreciation of life is a big theme of the film, so these death scenes stand out pretty vividly. The story itself is pretty standard for a samurai film, but the added humor as well as the modern feel keep the story fresh and distinguish it from the genre that it pays tribute to. This modern feel is emphasized greatly with not only the way some characters talk, but with the music. The action scenes are accompanied by rock music by Tomoyasu Hotei, the actor playing Kazamatsuri. While this works for many of the fight scenes, especially those early on, in some cases it doesn’t really fit. In the first part of the film, the pace is much faster and following the opening credits (shot is in color showing the silhouettes of samurai dueling, not unlike a certain scene later used in Kill Bill vol.1), it matches the action and heightened sense of the world the story takes place in. The music, though amusing for the most part, is kind of a mixed bag. In most of the film it only plays during the action scenes, so later on in the film, when there are far fewer of them, they don’t feel as natural with the rock soundtrack.

There are some unique shots throughout the film, one of which is the use of the pull back when characters are walking. They seem to be moving with the camera as they walk towards the screen, but if they stop for whatever reason, the camera keeps pulling away from them, making them have to run to keep up. It’s a surprisingly funny use of the shot and adds a certain degree of humor to a simple scene. There are also a lot of extreme close-ups and long shots reminiscent of those seen in Spaghetti Westerns. Hiroyuki Nakano, having previously worked on music videos as well as other films, provides an interesting style that is easily distinguishable. Though it’s not perfect, Samurai Fiction is an entertaining comedy that is worth seeing for any fan of the Samurai film, or jidaigeki, genre.

The Dark Crystal (1982)

There was a time before the use of computer animation was the dominate way to create creatures and fantasy worlds. In the 1980s, Jim Henson was the man to see for creatures of any kind. Pretty much any creatures that weren’t animated came from his company. Directed by both Jim Henson and Frank Oz, The Dark Crystal features the most advanced animatronics of its day. Unlike Labyrinth, another of Jim Henson’s fantasy films featuring a large number of puppets, The Dark Crystal utilizes puppets exclusively; there are no people in this film whatsoever. It’s a bold choice, and I struggle to think of another feature length film that has attempted such a feat.

The story begins with a lengthy narration explaining the history of the world which dates back 1000 years where a race known as the urSkeks cracked the crystal of truth turning it into the dark crystal. Doing so split the urSkeks into two separate races: the Mystics and the Skeksis. The Mystics are a friendly group who are in tune with the earth and use magic like chanting, while the Skeksis are a vile and grotesque group of slave masters who look like a cross between a lizard and a vulture. There is a prophecy that a Gefling (an elf-like creature who looks like a cross between a Hobbit and one of those creepy goat puppets from The Sound of Music) will journey to the castle where the Skeksis reside and put a shard back into the crystal, thus destroying the Skeksis and bringing life and peace back to the world (the journey of a small unlikely hero carrying an object of great value to it’s origin may sound like the plot of The Lord of the Rings, but that’s only because it is). Because of this, the Skeksis have spent years sending out their Garthim (giant metallic beetles) to capture Geflings so that they can be drained of their life essence and killed. Jen is one of the last Geflings. Raised by the Mystics, he is told that he is the one from the prophecy who will restore balance to the world. He sets out on his journey and meets all sorts of characters like Kira, a female Gelfing (who is considerably more useful than Jen), her furry pet called a Fizzgig, and the traitorous Skeksis known as the Chamberlain.

The sets and creatures are beautiful to look at and meticulously detailed. It’s incredible the amount of work that must have gone into this film. Every creature has its own distinct mannerisms, is capable of expressing a surprising range of emotion, and each location differs from the last. There are some really great scenes such as when Jen travels to the hometown of Kira, who was raised by a silly looking race called Podlings who live deep in the forest inside of trees. The inside of their city resembles a giant tavern filled with music and dancing. The story itself is interesting and the film looks great, but the biggest shortcoming of The Dark Crystal is the character depth. There just isn’t a whole lot of it. Jen is basically the same from the first scene to the last, which is a shame because he’s kind of bland. Had characterization been a bigger part of the story, this may have been a great film, but the way it is, it’s hard to care too much about the main characters. For instance, Jen and Kira, aside from being male and female, are practically the same character. In the scene where they meet, she reaches out her hand to help him up and when they touch, they inadvertently fuse their memories together in a montage. This not only covers their separate back stories quickly, but melds them together making the two personalities pretty much indistinguishable. It’s unfortunate, because that’s really the only issue I had with this film. Aside from the story being a bit of a Lord of the Rings knockoff (though not quite to the extent of other 80s fantasies like Willow), it’s the lack of characterization that hurts this film the most. Though entertaining to look at, you may find yourself not caring too deeply about the heroes by the end of the story.

Jin-Roh (1998)

Written and created by Mamoru Oshii, famed director of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, Jin-Roh is an interesting and dark look at an alternate universe where Japan has been occupied by Nazis after World War II and deals with political betrays as well as a violent uprising amongst the general populace. The main conflict is between the two police forces in Japan: the Capital Police and the Local Police. The Capital Police uses a special unit of enforcers known as the Panzer Corps who are heavily armored and excel at killing people as well as the guerilla group members called “the Sect” that have been terrorizing government officials; these guys are horrifying to anyone who has to fight them as they not only move fast despite their armor, but look like super Nazis out of a science fiction horror story. The story follows Kazuki Fuse (Yoshikazu Fujiki), a young new Panzer soldier who in the beginning of the film was unable to shoot down a young girl carrying an explosive hidden in her bag. This type of girl is known as a Little Red Riding Hood, a new and useful weapon that the guerillas use in their missions to move explosives undetected. The Little Red Riding Hood story also parallels the film and is key in terms of symbolism because there is another secret organization known as the Wolf Brigade that has supposedly infiltrated every level of government. There are many allusions to wolves and Fuse is often shown amongst them. The film opens with,

“This thing is like a wolf
This thing is a wolf
Thus, it is a thing to be banished”

This quote establishes a great deal of the imagery in the film and further adds to the tone that is consistently held throughout the story. The version of Little Red Riding Hood that is told throughout the film is probably not the version you’re familiar with. It is a dark and violent German version called Rotkäppchen (Red Cap) that may startle anyone familiar with the story. In this film however, it fits in with the bleak and gray world that the story takes place in. There are many parallels to the story and by the end the different roles become in synch with characters in the film.

So the girl that Fuse failed to kill blows herself up and he is sent back to the training academy. Racked with guilt and traumatized by the experience, he eventually meets the deceased girls’ older sister Kei (Sumi Mutoh), with whom he develops a relationship. Unfortunately, she is not quite what she seems, but then again, neither is he. There is a high amount of twists and backstabbing amongst the different organizations that it is easy to get lost. As a testament to how complicated the story can be, the special edition DVD comes complete with a map chronicling the different sections of government involved in the story and displays how each are connected and which ones have been compromised thanks to the Wolf Brigade (aka Jin-Roh). That aside, the film is still very good. The animation style is particularly noticeable. All the characters are drawn in a much unexaggerated way that it is easy to forget that they are animated; they all have distinct mannerisms and appearances so that they seem like actual people. The way Fuse moves and acts is very important to the character, because despite being the central protagonist, he has very little dialogue. There are few action scenes, but the few there are stand out greatly; the finale in the sewer tunnels is particularly memorable. The Panzer soldiers seem damn near invincible and they mow people down with inhuman precision and a complete lack of emotion (at least none that can be seen through their red eyed masks). Jin-Roh is definitely a film that gets better with repeated viewings. It maintains a slow pace and contains a layered and complex storyline that, for those willing to put the effort into understanding, can be very rewarding.