shiningwizard

[shiningwizard]

Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

I thought i ought to see it sooner or later. Reputably good movie is very good indeed, but also unexpectedly complex, ambiguous and cynical. It was hard not to reflect on the recent Dune. The things this did with sand (not to mention character, faces, scale) that that worthless thing never had the notion to realise.

#lawrence of arabia #last movie i saw #A

[shiningwizard]

Forbidden Letters (Arthur J. Bressan Jr., 1979)

A man waiting for his man interned. Unbelievably tender. Every stroke, suck, thrust and discharge instilled with longing and loneliness. Ejaculate like tears. B&W for a forced distant present, colour for a lost past of togetherness. Perhaps other than intended, but the voiceover is some glorious inarticulate articulateness, disembodied for bodies yearning to be retwined.

#fornidden letters #last movie i saw #A-

[shiningwizard]

Uninvited (Greydon Clark, 1988)

I do love them, but to feebly push back against the stranglehold horror and horror fandom has and has had over movies - what is made, what is made available, what bottoms of barrels are continually scraped: wouldn't this be better purely as the spring break boner comedy it began as? Where the characters could have really endeared themselves in some spackle of braindead buffoonery? All that i see: abundant horror . I need some balance. I'd have preferred a movie running out of steam on T&A and dumb jokes rather than kills. But it's all still fun. I might be enjoying actors a bit too much these days, but everyone in this - from do everything/anything aspiring young actors, to do everything/anything retiring old ones - is a treat.

#uninvited #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Corvette Summer (Matthew Robbins, 1978)

Moral high-ground Mark Hamill talking about power converters and womp rats or talking about manifolds and spoilers - it's all the same nonsense to me. Place some of the greatest supporting bit characters around him (Annie Potts, Eugene Roche, Dick Miller, Brion James, Jonathan Terry, it goes on) and you can hold my interest, but there's a hollowness to the central search for a stolen shop class project that they can only distract from so much. There's barely a car chase in this.

#corvette summer #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Kikujiro (Kitano Takeshi, 1999)

For the kid's sake

#菊次郎の夏 #kikujiro #last movie i saw #A

[shiningwizard]

Youth of the Son (Kobayashi Masaki, 1952)

Light bit of inconsequence on a family balancing two teenage boys. A proving test for a new director, allotted 45 minutes and a collection of on-roster Shochiku stars. Everything feels underrealised, jumping from romance to juvenile delinquency without a lot of challenge or resolution, but it does give some nice moments. The nicest being a scene with the parents alone, playful and pondering, on a beach. Characters figuring out young people on screen encompassed by a figuring out of how to portray young people through screen.

#息子の青春 #youth of the son #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Old Enough (Marisa Silver, 1984)

A teen movie with a clear empathetic mark ingested into it by its creators. I suppose they all have that, whether trying to compassionately/selfishly relate those years how filmmakers see them, how they believe teenagers now see them or basely trying to fulfil some sample of teenage desires. This has heart. And while imperfect, that heart combined with some great performances and sense of city makes it very endearing. This was a long time teen movie white whale for me and it feels bettersweet to cross it off.

#old enough #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Uttarayanam (Govindan Aravindan, 1975)

The depths of disillusionment. A country liberated to domestic corruption, opportunism, oppression and indolence. Missing a lot of context, but of course India fell to those rottening cycles of power after British rule, and resistance to power fell to its own rot. A young man trying to find his place and ideals within that world, a quarter of a century on. One of the quietest movies i've seen, possibly to highlight both his nothingness of being and opportunity and a magnificent sitar score when it comes in. More experimental than i was expecting. I'm new here.

#ഉത്തരായണം #uttarayanam #last movie i saw #B-

[shiningwizard]

The Last Dragon (Michael Schultz, 1985)

The movie of my and I assume many others’ young dreams. A perfect kids’ movie, given that it just gives them what they want while not ending up some braindead pretty light, zero substance quip reel. Great characters, music videos, snide comebacks, kickin pants action, the lowest stakes imaginable. Might do more on New York race relations than Do the Right Thing

#the last dragon #last movie i saw #B+

[shiningwizard]

Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994)

Inspired. On the list of oddly, profoundly formative things for me: that “white shoes after Labour Day” note.

#serial mom #last movie i saw #A-

[shiningwizard]

Dragon's Heaven (Kobayashi Makoto, 1988)

I think we're in animation demo territory here - insufficient funds, time or storytelling skills limiting this to a few robot fight scenes over a heavily Moebius-influenced world, impeccably rendered. The action reminded me of Space Harrier.

#dragon's heaven #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Dragon Princess (Kohira Yutaka, 1976)

Whatever happened to karate? It seemed like it was all that was available when i was a kid and now looking at martial arts options for my kid it's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, some face-pounding MMA or bust. And what happened to it as a film genre? It looks so stylish and graceful in a fight scene. So does Shihomi Etsuko. Here's a potboiler movie to showcase her talents

#必殺女拳士 #dragon princess #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Little Dragon Maiden (Hua Shan, 1983)

In league with the wildest mind and eye-bending wuxia movies. Even the non-action scenes looked like they were sped up. I may have become a more practical person in my advanced age, because i'm now in wonder at all the effort put into setting up hundreds of shots that last less than 10 frames, with coordinated movement of camera, wires, weapons and trains of fabric. And how anyone involved had an overall view that it could all be pieced together as sublimely as it is.

#楊過與小龍女 #little dragon maiden #last movie i saw #A-

[shiningwizard]

Daughter of the Dragon (Lloyd Corrigan, 1931)

So much for representation and visibility. Here you have Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa given top billing, the majority of screentime and perform far and above everyone else, but all in all they're in a Fu Manchu movie

#daughter of the dragon #last movie i saw #B-

[shiningwizard]

The Sword and the Dragon (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1956)

You wonder what economic imperatives led Roger Corman to hack his slice out of this. It's still under 90mins and would be more logical and as exciting to any viewer. Untouched (or now restored), it's a sight to behold : humans and horses filling every cinemascope corner, beautifully coloured, and falls comfortably along the continuum of things like Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. But it still does not have the knack for true fantasy that it should, plodded down by human concerns of power, righteousness, heroics, blacks and whites.

#илья муромец #the sword and the dragon #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946)

- I feel like I want to watch nothing but gothic melodramas - Vincent Price is an incredibly handsome and alluring leading man, an irresistible force - I now know who the Patroons were - This was ok. No surprise to see it was based on a novel as it has that palpable cram/excise feeling most Hollywood adaptations do

#dragonwyck #last movie i saw #B

[shiningwizard]

Revolution+1 (Adachi Masao, 2022)

I don't think i've seen a movie so devoted to causality. Not so much a form of rationalisation but the interceding, compounding, addling steps to decision and action - its own rationality. As long as action is taken, all that matters. The revolution variable, revolution+1 forming a sequence on which further causes and effects are plotted to infinity, always running ahead of mitigating encapsulations (legal, journalistic, refined historical narratives, movies).

#revolution+1 #last movie i saw #A-