What a Beautiful Film
by - hexedd on Sun Oct 21 2012 22:58:15
What a great film. It manages to feel real but at the same time have an almost dream-like quality that is usually seen in his other (horror) movies. Every character was perfectly scripted and cast; They all had both redemptive qualities and ones that you hated. In short, they were perfectly human.
I haven't seen his other films, but this is such a fine, singular offering from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, I suspect. There's an almost baroque simplicity to his framings, for example, and the calm, diligent way he handles his various scenes: very poignant and affecting. The camera is often behind a shelf, or just at the edge of a doorway, like some nervous child attempting to process every word, or outdoors, it's off at some distance, capturing a sense of urban desolation that's funny, charming, sad, and absorbing. And the characters, yeah, are perfectly human. One touching example is the brief moment of Kurosu fussing the dog by himself: an expertly integrated snippet, showing the core of humanity beneath his flashy, hyper-confident exterior; helping to round him out and sow a seed of sadness before we discover his ultimate fate.
Regardless of how you want to interpret the million nuances in this film, as well as obvious social commentary about Japanese society (e.g. the patriarchal/authoritarian nature of the father and older generation of Japanese men), the movie is a beautiful story about success, failure, love, hate, secrecy, honesty, and ultimately redemption. The final scene, despite the obvious miscues with the boy's hands while playing the piano, is one of the most touching scenes I've ever seen in a movie. Using "Claire de Lune" was the perfect choice. I've never been so captivated by a movie with such a "slow" pace. I wasn't sure about Kurosawa doing a non-horror movie, but he pulled it off and then some. It reminded me of the Korean film "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring" in that it was slow but beautifully done and had a meaningful feel to it. There is a fine line between art and pretension, and Kurosawa has found the perfect balance here. Although I believe part of what makes movie watching so wonderful is that everyone takes different things and agrees or disagrees on every film, I honestly don't see how someone could intensely dislike this film.
I love those flowing curtains in the final scene -- in my estimation, they magnificently cap it off (and help to add to its dream-like, surreal vibe). After the pitiless struggle and the sheer sense of confusion and hopelessness these characters have slogged through, there is tranquility and hope. It's kind of ethereal and heavenly, the final scene, without being gaudy or overdone. In fact, the first time I watched TS, it came as a total surprise; and I daresay I shared the father's quietly astonished -- and truly moved -- reaction.
There are some gorgeous moments of cinematography, too, I think it's worth spotlighting, like the scene of Takashi and his friend riding on the moped at night, ditching their flyers, and then kicking that box around, before settling down into a private joke at the iniquity of the world. There's a kind of plangent beauty to a scene/sequence like that, and it's exactly the sort of thing I want to go back to the film to experience again (and again). The opening scene is superbly shot, as well, helping to set a slightly discordant mood, especially with the sparse musical accompaniment at its early peak (contrasted, I guess, with Kenji's piano recital at the end). And all those shots of the family at the table, the air constantly fraught. I just love the way it's all blocked and shot.
Unlike you, I can see how people could dislike the film; though, yes, maybe I stop short of seeing how they could "intensely" do so. I dunno. It's the sort of film -- if it can be figured a "sort" of anything -- that leaves some thoroughly disenchanted and may even get their backs up because it's a little off the beaten path. Off the beaten path, yet the recipient of awards. So, the accolades it has received suggest that people will find something of value in having the experience of watching it, only for the film to pull no punches in having and sustaining its own visual grammar and mood; which, I guess, may have big appeal, but will always leave some feeling shortchanged. You have to be prepared to meet the film on its own terms, and respect its humour and pace, but that is something some people are never able to do. What's more, you probably have to find the setting appealing in some pretty serious way, just as you do the characters, because they form a kind of "immaculate reality" -- to quote the *other* Kurosawa -- that can leave you in awe or in agony. Love and hate, after all, are two sides of the same coin.
But I find the film exquisite, make no mistake. And given that my top fave -- if it's possible to have only one film as one's all-time favourite -- is Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation", this film doubly impresses me in both subtly calling that film to mind (largely unconsciously, no doubt, owed to the setting), but in being rather different in any number of ways, too (proving -- to me -- the power of cinema and what a multi-hued portal of the imagination it really is). "Tokyo Sonata" is a masterful film I am very grateful for discovering.
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hexedd
11 years ago
Thank you for the elaborate and insightful post. I can see your point about how some could dislike it for various reasons. I hadn't even thought of the curtains in the final scene, though I did notice them; perhaps not on as a deep of a level as you did, so thanks for that insight. That last scene really was like a Wordsworth poem - sublime.
It's funny because Lost in Translation is my top-fave too. It reminded me of that a lot. They both deliver a perfect sense of humanity at its rawest, most ugly, and most beautiful. I am from Canada but spent some time overseas in Korea and Japan teaching, and the opening scene of Bill Murray in the cab looking at all of the neon signs was EXACTLY how I dealt with/looked at Korea and Japan when I first saw them - sheer awe and wonder. If you can think of anymore films like it or TS then please do recommend. :)
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Cryogenic
11 years ago
Re: What a Beautiful Film
by - hexedd on Wed Oct 24 2012 20:39:48
Thank you for the elaborate and insightful post.
No bother! Just a few random (personal/subjective) thoughts, really.
I can see your point about how some could dislike it for various reasons.
Being such a long-term fan of LIT, I feel I have some handle on the matter.
I hadn't even thought of the curtains in the final scene, though I did notice them; perhaps not on as a deep of a level as you did, so thanks for that insight. That last scene really was like a Wordsworth poem - sublime.
Well, I didn't really notice the curtains on a "deep" level; they've just always stood out to me, on all my viewings, as a particularly tranquil/arresting visual detail. If there is any subtext -- consciously intended or not -- it might be the curtains functioning as a calm "cap"/reprise of the violently-flapping net (and accompanying drape) curtain, getting lashed with wind and rain water, in the film's calm (interior; a home; a sanctuary) but stormy (exterior intruding on the interior; hinting of the transformative tumult to come) opening scene.
It's funny because Lost in Translation is my top-fave too. It reminded me of that a lot. They both deliver a perfect sense of humanity at its rawest, most ugly, and most beautiful. I am from Canada but spent some time overseas in Korea and Japan teaching, and the opening scene of Bill Murray in the cab looking at all of the neon signs was EXACTLY how I dealt with/looked at Korea and Japan when I first saw them - sheer awe and wonder. If you can think of anymore films like it or TS then please do recommend. :)
That's wonderful to hear! I've never been to the East, myself, but your kind of anecdotal experience is not uncommon: a lot seem to find resonance in these sorts of ways. I struggle a little to think of other films, because it depends what your particular tastes and interests are. But a few recent films that, in my estimation, offer a similar sense of the personal, the touching, and the transcendent, told with similar poise and restraint, and fused with mild horror -- though, of course, your mileage may vary -- would have to include:
Kikujiro, Takeshi Kitano, 1999
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199683/The Return, Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376968/My Summer of Love, Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382189/And as a bonus:
Somewhere, Sofia Coppola, 2010
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1421051/(Her unofficial and very beautiful LIT sequel)
* * *
Of course, this is a mere trifling suggestion of films for you to consider. There are, likely, hundreds more that others could name, from this century, and the previous. I have had a heck of a time watching all of the above, however.
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