Everything: Part II

I have finished most of western Europe, now I will go on to movies from Japan, Mongolia, Poland, and Sweden.
Japan


Spirited Away is the work of Japaneses animator Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is probably the greatest animator working today-- not anime animator, but animator period. Plus 90% of his work is hand-drawn when so much of animation is 3-D. The story of a young girl who is lost in a world of traditional gods and nature spirits after her parents are turned into pigs. Her quest is to survive in the spirit world, and to deliver her parents to the material world. Topics include hunger, and identity. But I would say the say the over-arching topic is courage. Finding courage through love, to sacrifice herself (or at least to be risk herself) so what she loves will be restored.

Foolish Knight's Totally Unauthorised and Unendorsed Bonus Guest Opinion: Hey folks! Eriol's annoying little brother here. Hey, I just stopped by to say that Spirited Away is a totally sweet movie! As far as fairy tales go, it is now one of my all time favorites. I was at the point of tears once or twice while viewing the movie (which I wasn't expecting at all). As a side note: If you're one of those people that say to yourself while reading reviews like this; "Eww! Anime! That's gross! I don't like anime! Yucky!" all I can do is call you a snob, tell you to get over you prejudice and just watch the movie! OK, that's all. I'm really hoping Eriol doesn't see this. Yikes! I could be in a lot of pain real soon! This concludes Foolish Knight's Totally Unauthorised, Unendorsed and Badly Punctuated Bonus Guest Opinion.

In 2004 I saw Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, which was the first of his movies I watched. This year I saw Throne of Blood, Rashomon, and Ikiru.
Throne of Blood, is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The plot elements of the play are kept but the dialogue is no longer Shakespeare's. I think this good for the actors did not need to try wrap their tongues about a Japanese translation of Macbeth, but to speak naturally, and leave it to the camera for the story's artistry. Plays take historical events and turn them into metaphysical dramas, but here Kurosawa turns the play back into history. There is no need to be philosophical about Macbeth's tragedy, just watch the movie and see how "he who lives by the sword also die by the sword."
Rashomon has often been considered to be Kurosawa's masterpiece, and certainly it is a great movie. A priest, a woodcutter, and a petty thief meet in an abandoned city gate to have shelter during a heavy rainfall. The thief sees the priest and the woodcutter are sorrowful. He asks for the cause of their sorrow. The woodcutter tells how he found a man's body in the woods. The man was killed. There is a trial, a bandit suspected of murder; the dead man's wife, and a medium speaking for the dead man, all testify of their innocence. But there was a second crime, the woman may've been raped. Nobody agrees if she was raped, or if her husband was murdered; the bandit says he died in a duel. After re-counting these three stories, the woodcutter confesses that he saw everything. But he may not be telling the truth either.
Each one of these stories is told in flashbacks. And all of the stories are the subjective perspectives of four people, who have their reasons to lie. So the viewer can choose between the priest's or the thief's interpretation: the thief's is that everyone is lying, and there's nothing wrong there because we need to survive. The priest's is that people cannot be so wicked, that somewhere there must be truth and goodness somewhere in one of the stories. There's much more to the movie beside my simplifications. And Rashomon is movie that dislikes (abhors) simplifications; don't read anything more, but watch the movie and see the complications unfold.
Both Rashomon and Throne of Blood feature the patnership between actor Toshiro Mifune, and Kurosawa.


Ikiru, routinely translated "to live" is about an aging bueraucrat, who is dying of stomach cancer, but never really lived. Yes, by the end he dies, but he dies after finding what to live for, a reason to live, and how to live.
One night in a saloon he softly sings to an unseen woman; telling her to live while she is young; while "your lips are red". He is in the saloon with a young writer, who is trying to teach him how to "live". But this life is exhausting him; anytime he drinks expensive saki or eat steak, the food ends up on the floor. At home in the morning he finds a young woman from his workplace seeking his permission for her to quit. She is fed up with working in such a place. He releases her and spends time with her, as he now sees her as a guide who knows the way to live. He buys her gifts, and they go to movies. For awhile he doesn't see her, but visits her for once last time. He visits her at her new job in a toy factory and they go to lunch together; he asks why she is happy. She says since working at the toy factory, she feels as if every child in Japan is her friend. He returns to his work with anonymous people sing "Happy Birthday" to someone unknown.
After this the movie flashes forward to (his) funeral. Here various former co-workers are gathered together, with his former bosses, and family. No one knew he was about to die; his family only cared for the salary he drew. The funeral is interuptted by a group of sobbing women. They came he was the only one to help them. Their neighborhood had a swamp in the center, they wanted to replace with a park. The family is insulted by the women's intursion, but are silent. The bosses try to take credit. But they are not there for long, as there so many other things to take credit for. With the women and bosses gone, his one-time co-workers reflect on the park project. They express suprise at his untimely death, they admire him for no longer trying to pass around the petition, but actively lobbying for this small park. He tirelessly follows the thread out of the labyrinth until the park sees the light of day.
The film is nearing the end with a shot him sitting peacefully in a swing snow all around. He is serene man after much toil. It was here, by the following morning he died. But the movie does not end here. It finishes in his old office, the men who admired him, are stupified with intoxicating sobriety of their office life, of competation for the next highest post. They may try to protest something but protest is quieted. Everyone has work to do.

Mongolia

Story of the Weeping Camel is simply about a multi-generational family living in Mongolia. It's a documentry actually-- but don't let your aversion to Mogolians, weeping, documentries, or bacterian camels (see the "B"; it means they have two humps. ) keep you from watching this movie. Here is the story, a mother camel gives birth but the delivery was too painful so she does not want to acknowledge her child (it's a calf, right? I'll go with calf). So the parents decide the two young boys should go fetch a fiddler at the cultural center at the nearest (distant) town, the fiddler is to play a certain tune within a certain ceremony and then cow and calf will be in harmony. Of course. I think I gave away all of the plot, but plot twists are not too special (save Ordet); after all you knew how that hated phantom movie ended, but you cried anyway. Story of the Weeping Camel works in a similar way that even if you know everything about the movie, it means nothing until you actually see how the film works. Also my mom liked it, and it wasn't even dubbed (she doesn't like dubbing anyway).

Poland
Dekalog (directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski) is nothing like any other movie you (or I) have seen. 10 55 minute films to illustrate the 10 Commandments. Not like a sermon illustration; no one to boo or hiss, and no heroes. And no one talks about any particular commandent. Sometimes Jesus or God are mentioned. Other times a Madonna (my lady who is not that Madonna) is shown, or a priest is briefly in the movie. The characters in these films are simply not religiously conscious. However they are morally conscious, actively trying to understand what they do not know. All characters in the film live in a single apartment complex which means their lives intersect. Past characters adding poignacy, and future characters have their stories begun. I won't give any summary or plot twists for the Dekalog, as any summary makes the movie appear flat, and plot twists would give away how various conflicts are resolved.
Sweden


I should now be writing about the films from Russia I've seen this year, but I'm saving that for a seperate post. So in place of Tarkovsky I'll write about Bergman's The Seventh Seal. A quote from Revelation to a knight returning to his homeland finds his country on the deathbed between the sheets of the Black Plague. Death, in the flesh, challenges him to a game of chess. What is at stake is his life and immortal soul (further proof that chess isn't just a game). Around the knight are gathered a cast of medevial characters; all playing their roles as if they're in a morality play. Two (three rather) characters, Jof and Mia, and their baby are the only ones who can transcend the bleakness of the story, where apparently the only action can be taken is to embrace the darkness.
There has been a good bit of debate on the merits of movie and the of Bergman's atheist perceptions. I am not skilled enough to debate the story's quality (hidin' behind Lady Excuses' skirts) but I think a Christian can watch and gain wisdom from this movie. In one scene the knight enters a chapel and begins to confess his doubts, but his confessor is Death. Outside are the ministers of the church, hysterical in a parade of converts. They have become sadists and masochists for God. Don't think this S&M reaction is exclusively Catholic; it happens in Baptist churches too. Someone says they have doubts in Christ's blood, so we spill our blood, and force others to bleed to wash away the pilgrim's doubts. Don't think Bergman didn't know what he was talking about; his father was a pastor. But still I think Ordet is better.