(1952) dir. Akira Kurosawa
viewed: 02/25/09
Plot: bureaucrat discovers that he has terminal stomach cancer and then dedicates his life to building a playground.
Sounds thrilling.
Though I’ve been watching a growing list of every Akira Kurosawa film, I somehow managed to queue this one up before really realizing what it was about. Like pretty much every Kurosawa film, [...]
Archive of entries posted on February 2009
Ikiru
Slumdog Millionaire
(2008) dir. Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
viewed: 02/22/09 at Village Cine Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
So, last day in Argentina, I’m feeling quite sick, had to check out of our hotel room and kill most of the day since the flight home wasn’t til late. So, after brief research, found out that all the American films in [...]
The Cat and the Canary
(1927) dir. Paul Leni
viewed: 02/14/09 at the Castro Theatre, SF, CA
The last of the three of the silent films from the Castro’s mini-fest for Valentine’s Day, The Cat and the Canary was one that I’d been wanting to see for a while, too. It’s one of the oldest of the “old dark house” horror/mystery/comedy genre, [...]
Sunrise
(1927) dir. F.W. Murnau
viewed: 02/14/09 at the Castro Theatre, SF, CA
I’d long wanted to see F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise, a film that is often cited as the greatest film of the Silent Era, and perhaps one of the greatest films ever made. High praise indeed, but it has been pervassive, certainly, this praise, over time throughout [...]
Our Hospitality
(1923) dir. John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton
viewed: 02/14/09 at the Castro Theatre, SF, CA
There was a special winter Valentine’s Day Silent Film Festival at the Castro and I made the most of it. Three films was a bit of an endurance run, especially with a lot of outward travel wrapped around it, but the opportunity [...]
The War of the Gargantuas
(1966) dir. Ishirô Honda
viewed: 02/08/09
Last year, I watched a long-time childhood favorite of Japanese monster movies (daikaiju eiga), Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965) and pondered when its sequel, The War of the Gargantuas would be released on DVD, because it was not at the time. Well, what a difference a half a year makes! Here [...]
Edward Scissorhands
(1990) dir. Tim Burton
viewed: 02/07/08
I’d long had Edward Scissorhands queued to re-watch. It was one of those films that I saw at the time it had come out and never again, despite having liked it fairly well. And whether or not I think positively of Tim Burton or not, I tend to still be drawn [...]
Coraline
(2009) dir. Henry Selick
viewed: 02/07/09 at the AMC Loews Metreon 16 with IMAX, SF, CA
Coraline is an amazing stop-motion animated film by director Henry Selick, adapted from a book by Neil Gaiman. Selick made his name, which will be truly made after this film, in directing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), James and the Giant [...]
Bangkok Dangerous
(2008) dir. Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang
viewed: 02/06/09
It’s not often that I am prescient. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t have a lot of good documentation to prove out my predictions. I saw the original Bangkok Dangerous (1999) a couple of years back as I was hearing of the American re-make of the film with [...]
Dead or Alive
(1999) dir. Takashi Miike
viewed: 02/05/08
For the uninitiated, Takashi Miike is one of the most prolific, bizarre, cult filmmakers out in the world today. And Dead or Alive is one of his more notable films, a film popular enough to have two “sequels” made. And I have to say, Dead or Alive, which I’d been meaning [...]
