A more unabashed art movie than any of Takeshi Kitano’s other films, this exquisitely composed 2002 feature (made between Brother and The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) begins with a traditional form of Japanese puppet theater called Bunraku before it segues into three overlapping, highly stylized, but otherwise unrelated contemporary tales. In each the protagonist (a businessman, an aging yakuza, and a female pop singer disfigured in a traffic accident, as Kitano was several years ago) tries to compensate for having chosen work over love and winds up with a mate who has sacrificed everything for it. The overall mood is stately and melancholy, the selective use of color is ravishing, and some of the natural views are breathtaking. In Japanese with subtitles. 113 min. (JR) Read more
This painfully unfunny mockumentary, scripted by Dallas hopefuls Eric Jewell, Jeff Hays, and Dean Lewis, suggests that Christopher Guest has a lot to answer for. An unskilled comedian (Lewis) teaches a course in stand-up to even more unskilled locals, while an unskilled filmmaker (Jewell) and his crew document their fumblings; meanwhile another comic (David Wilk), who’s notorious for stealing material, lands his own TV series. Though Guest bases his humor on incompetence, his ensemble players know how to make the characters funny; this crew mainly tries to coast along on its amiable intentions, but it doesn’t wash. Jewell and Hays directed. 86 min. (JR) Read more
A more unabashed art movie than any of Takeshi Kitano’s other films, this exquisitely composed 2002 feature (made between Brother and The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) begins with a traditional form of Japanese puppet theater called Bunraku before it segues into three overlapping, highly stylized, but otherwise unrelated contemporary tales. In each the protagonist (a businessman, an aging yakuza, and a female pop singer disfigured in a traffic accident, as Kitano was several years ago) tries to compensate for having chosen work over love and winds up with a mate who has sacrificed everything for it. The overall mood is stately and melancholy, the selective use of color is ravishing, and some of the natural views are breathtaking. In Japanese with subtitles. 113 min. Music Box. Read more
