The movie is not about a monster attacking a city. It's about people's reactions to a monster attacking the city. So if you are expecting a monster movie like Godzilla you'll be disappointed.
Or so friends have told me that I trust. I really don't have much interest in it. :/
man, the lone wolf and cub films are amaaaazing! baby cart at the river styx was my favorite. i think the kid that plays diagoro is a better actor than most child actors ive seen in other films.
Which one was that one? The fifth? Hold on... I have to look it up.
Oh shit, the second one! That one was great! Those female ninjas kicked ass! But I really loved the entire sequence when Ogami Itto battles the female ninjas, all the way to the forest scene. There's one scene that is almost completely abstract, where Itto is almost mesmerized by the colorful patterns the ninja/performer is wearing.
oh yeh! that entire movie is just amazing - the story, the art direction, etc etc.
i think one of my favorite scenes from that one is when they're all wet and trapped in the cold- itto rips off sayaka's clothes, and there's a moment of "oh no," thinking that he's going to rape her (when up until then itto and diagoro were very much the protagonists)... but then it just turns out that he's trying to keep them all warm by huddling, with diagoro in the middle.
Dude, the moment of "oh no" happens when he takes out the lord, his mistress, and his young daughter. All after the daughter and Daigoro are making silly faces at each other.
recently watched Possession and was totally floored. It's one of the few "cult" movies that really lives up to its reputation.
I've never been a huge Lone Wolf fan. I haven't read the comic, but I did read the first six or so volumes of Samurai Assassin. I find Kazuo Koike's brand of perverted machismo kind of repulsive. It's funny for short periods, but in the long run it grates on my nerves. The art, on the other hand, is fantastic.
The films don't have nearly as much of that, so they are more palatable, but like Lady Snowblood they fall into the crack between being truly weird and being more serious/believable. The second film does have a few mind-blowing sequences. Some of the villans are pretty great. It's too bad that the series kind of petered out instead of reaching a totally overthetop conclusion. I prefer the 60s samurai films that had some connection to historical & contemporary reality. That said, the Lone Wolf films are a lot more entertaining than, say, Inagaki's staid epics
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Agreed. One of my friends HATED Possession, but everyone else loved it. He hated the overacting, which I thought was appropriate. And the end is totally off the wall. I haven't researched the film, but I'd bet $100 that the director went through a break up when he made it.
Lone Wolf is better than Assassin, but it still suffers the same archiac macho problems. Then again, I've only read about 10 issues of Lone Wolf and about 5 of Assassin.
I've just discovered all of the 70s stuff. Loved it all so far, but yeah, it's totally different from the 60s stuff. Sword of Doom is still my favorite, even over the Kurosawas and Kobayashis (which I love as well).
I can't get over how bleak and violent the samurai films are compared to the Hong Kong kung fu films.
And man, I didn't know that Wakayama was a pampered asshole. I love him in those films!
Harakiri, Ran, and Sanjuro are my favorites overall. I also really like Samurai Spy and Taboo, and I wish the "new wave" directors would've played more with the genre.
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have you written about cloverfield?
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But I am going to see it. I can't resist monster movies.
And I'll make you a list soon.
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Or so friends have told me that I trust. I really don't have much interest in it. :/
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And yeah, I like Polish faces too. Then again, I'm a sucker for a pretty face of any stripe.
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Oh shit, the second one! That one was great! Those female ninjas kicked ass! But I really loved the entire sequence when Ogami Itto battles the female ninjas, all the way to the forest scene. There's one scene that is almost completely abstract, where Itto is almost mesmerized by the colorful patterns the ninja/performer is wearing.
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i think one of my favorite scenes from that one is when they're all wet and trapped in the cold- itto rips off sayaka's clothes, and there's a moment of "oh no," thinking that he's going to rape her (when up until then itto and diagoro were very much the protagonists)... but then it just turns out that he's trying to keep them all warm by huddling, with diagoro in the middle.
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Rough.
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I've never been a huge Lone Wolf fan. I haven't read the comic, but I did read the first six or so volumes of Samurai Assassin. I find Kazuo Koike's brand of perverted machismo kind of repulsive. It's funny for short periods, but in the long run it grates on my nerves. The art, on the other hand, is fantastic.
The films don't have nearly as much of that, so they are more palatable, but like Lady Snowblood they fall into the crack between being truly weird and being more serious/believable. The second film does have a few mind-blowing sequences. Some of the villans are pretty great. It's too bad that the series kind of petered out instead of reaching a totally overthetop conclusion. I prefer the 60s samurai films that had some connection to historical & contemporary reality. That said, the Lone Wolf films are a lot more entertaining than, say, Inagaki's staid epics ( ... )
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Lone Wolf is better than Assassin, but it still suffers the same archiac macho problems. Then again, I've only read about 10 issues of Lone Wolf and about 5 of Assassin.
I've just discovered all of the 70s stuff. Loved it all so far, but yeah, it's totally different from the 60s stuff. Sword of Doom is still my favorite, even over the Kurosawas and Kobayashis (which I love as well).
I can't get over how bleak and violent the samurai films are compared to the Hong Kong kung fu films.
And man, I didn't know that Wakayama was a pampered asshole. I love him in those films!
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Harakiri, Ran, and Sanjuro are my favorites overall. I also really like Samurai Spy and Taboo, and I wish the "new wave" directors would've played more with the genre.
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Damn, I'm in love with samurai films again.
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