The Incredible Memories of Matsuko

Memories of Matsuko tells the story of Matsuko, the eldest daughter of three born after World War II. Her life spans the rest of the 20th century, coming to a tragic close as her body is found near a river, outside her decrepit apartment. A young man, a slacker musician who has just lost his job and his girlfriend, is rotting his life away in his flat, when his father unexpectedly show up, carrying the cremated remains of the father's sister. It turns out Matsuko was the young man's aunt, and curious, he goes to her place to see what he can find about her. He acquaints himself with the punk rocker who lives next door, and they both find her apartment a shambles. Bags of garbage are piled high, graffiti etched into the walls -- the place is a disaster area. A pair of detectives arrive; they are investigating her death - she had been murdered. From them, and former friends, the young man is able to piece together her past and how she came to be here. Matsuko was a schoolteacher, a beautiful young woman with an angelic voice, and she taught her students singing. One day, a complaint is made against the school -- one of the students has stolen money from a local vendor. Matsuko is dismayed to learn that it is one of her students. She talks to him, but he refuses to admit his crime. A momentous decision is made. She takes money from a fellow teacher and "returns" it to the man, who accepts it, but wants the student to apologize in person. Matsuko apologizes, saying that she was the one who stole the money - she just wants to put this incident behind her. But it starts a long downward spiral for her. The student, after admitting to her that he took the money, in public accuses her of forcing him to admit blame. The teacher whom she "borrowed" the money claims that she took his cash, and finally she is fired by the school. She leaves home, which has become a stranglehold on her life, as everyone is investing their attentions to her younger sister, who is chronically ill. A series of men come in and out of her life -- a fellow teacher, a writer, the writer's rival, a barber, a gangster who turns out to be one of her ex students. Each and every time Matsuko tries to reassert her identity through the man she is with; she supports the writer; is a mistress to his rival; begins a career as a hair stylist, learning the trade from her lover; becomes a yakuza girl and whore; in the end she is left mistreated and terribly alone. Her relationship with her yakuza student was the most devestating, and after waiting for his release from prison, only to have him run away from her, she breaks down and decides not to trust any one and lives alone. No longer caring about herself, she gains weight, watches television, and only goes outside to get food and watch the sunset on the river. She forms one final attachment to a boy in a budding pop music band; it is her nephew, whom she recognizes. She develops an obsession for him, and writes her life story to him, in one final attempt to contact someone. But she never received a response, which eats away at her. Finally, she runs into an old friend, who is now a rich porn star. She remembers Matsuko from her salon days and wants to help her by offering her a job as her personal stylist. Matsuko, ashamed at her appearance, leaves, but not before the woman shoves her business card in her hand. That evening, while contemplating her future, she decides to start anew, but is killed by a bored group of kids playing baseball.

This is a stunning film. The visuals are over the top, from the rich colors to the drab corroded interiors of Matsuko's apartment, to the musical numbers of Matsuko's fantasies, everything is gorgeous visually. The story, a terrifying and sad portrait of a modern Japanese woman, seems to encapsulate how difficult it is for a woman to assert her own identity in a world where conformity is mandatory, from family to work. Her career is sabatouged because of her willingness to take a fall for the school's reputation. Her sense of worth can only be made valid by the man whom she is with, only to be constantly disappointed. While a hard and sad tale, it retains a sense of humor and sense of liveliness that transcends her hardships. From the director of Kamikzee Girls, this is a tour de force that can be considered one of the best Japanese films of this decade. While watching it I am reminded of another film dealing with the hardships of a singular woman - Sada, made in the 80's, reissued in the States on HVe. It too is a portrait of a woman - this time in the early 20th century - who after being sold, becomes a woman of pleasure and struggles to find her own happiness in a cruel man's world. The visuals in that film are remarkable as well, and I see Memories of Matsuko as a sequel to her tale. Highly recommended!

Ozu box set on Eclipse

Another Summer treat! Criterion's offshoot, Eclipse, specializes in compiling a series of films by prominent directors in one low priced box set. They began with the early films of Ingmar Bergman, and will follow up with a Louis Malle set. But what caught my eye is the third set slated, which is the late films of Yasujiro Ozu. It contains five movies - Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, The End of Summer. No bonus features, but all are remastered from the best prints. Definitely a must have.

Criterion does it again - Hiroshi Teshigahara box set this summer

Criterion, the leader in dvd reissues, has struck gold. A four dvd set of Japanese director's Hiroshi Teshigahara film's will be released this summer, and I am eagerly looking forward to it. Yes, I already have the Masters of Cinema editions of Pitfall and the Face of Another, as well as the BFI dvd of Woman in the Dunes, which is an extended cut. But what makes this four dvd box set so appealing (other than it being in region 1), is that it includes four short films by the director Teshigahara, interviews and a documentary. The films are all remastered from new prints, although how different they are from the British dvd are to be determined. These three films established Teshigahara as an important director, a leader of the Japanese "new wave" of the 60's, who dealt with issues of identity, and the anxieties of the self in relation to the world. By the way, Anyone having the out of print Image dvd of Woman in the Dunes should sell it - this will also be the extended cut version by almost 20 minutes.

Man in the Red Flannel Suit - The Chairman

The Chairman is a real oddity. Released in 1970, this cold war artifact stars Gregory Peck as a Dr. John Hathaway, a scientist who is sent to China to steal a formula that has been recently developed that can increase agricultural crops. The brass at the Pentagon are able to maintain contact by inserting a microphone in his brain, so everything that he hears, they hear. But they added something more -- a bomb that can detonate at any moment, in case something wrong happens. Hathaway doesn't know this. The plot is very run of the mill -- lots of footage is spent on exotic China (or Hong Kong, Taiwan, or wherever the filmmakers could shoot) and showing how drab and different it all is. Mind you, this is during the Cultural Revolution, so there is a lot of exposition on the group social activities of the local Communists, such as public humiliation, protests, etc. Hathaway, like us, is an observer to the events, guided by pretty Asian women -- first, a prostitute who tries to seduce him, them knocks him out with his own shoe as he realizes that he is being spied upon, and then Dr. Soong's daughter, Chu, who helps him flee the country as the military finds out his true intentions (Hathaway was not sent here to socialize) and send troops to kill him. During a tense finale, Hathaway drives, then runs for the northern border where Russia awaits, and the brass back home negotiate for his safety with the Russians, while at the same time are about to trigger the bomb in his head. He makes it. Apparently this was produced by the team that had done Planet of the Apes a year before. Look for Number One Son Keye Luke as Dr. Soong. Gregory Peck does a workmanlike job in this film, which is probably far and above the call of duty. The conceit of having a microphone in his head falls apart when you realize that for him to talk to the Pentagon, he has to stick his head out of a window and talk to himself to ensure privacy! A few monologues later and this plot device becomes very silly, and makes Peck look like a nutcase (this is pre-cell phone Bluetooth era, remember!). The ending is a bit exciting, but color by numbers suspense. Plus, for a film that came out in 1970, it looks oddly out of place for it's time; it looks and feels like a late 50's or early 60's Cold War drama. The times had changed.

The Namesake

The Namesake is a wonderful film that focuses on an Indian family and their life in America from the 70's to the present. Irfan Khan is Ashoke Ganguli, a young man who is travelling on a train reading a Nikolai Gogol collection of short stories. He talks to a fellow passenger who remarks that now he is out of school he should see the world. Ashoke responds that by reading he can travel without leaving the chair. Then, a terrible train accident occurs in which many of the passengers are killed, but Ashoke survives. He takes the passenger's words to heart and goes to America, where he eventually settles. He visits his family back in India, where his parents are making plans to marry him to a beautiful female singer named Ashima (Tabu), who is intrigued by his white shoes. The marriage is arranged, and she goes with him to New York City, where it is winter, and she sees his spare apartment and the wintery landscape. At first she is miserable, but Ashoke proves to be a kind and loving husband, and they eventually have two children, Sonia and Nikhil "Gogol" - obviously named after the author that Ashoke loved. They had to come up with the name, not according to their customs, but in order to get the baby out of the hospital -- U.S. law states that a child must be named before he or she could leave (Ashoke's parents were to come up with a name, which would have taken a while). Gogol, as he grows older, comes to hate his name. He endures the constant teasing, in school and out. The years pass by and Gogol is now called Nik, and is a young promising architect, dating a blonde named Maxine, who is from a well to do family in Manhattan, and they are very much in love. She has not been introduced to his parents, because Gogol is aware of the culture differences. The one time they are all together for dinner, Maxine inadvertently touches Gogol, showing affection, and this raises eyebrows - public displays like that are not allowed in Indian culture. Ashoke, under the pretext of going to get some dessert for the dinner, has Gogol come with him. He stops the car near a park and explains to him the importance of his name, telling him of the train accident, and how that brought him here to the States. It leaves an impression on Gogol. Some time later, Gogol and Maxine are in bed, and he mentions about his dual name, and was thinking about reverting to Gogol. She thinks that is a silly name. Ashoke lands a university job in Cleveland, and has to leave Ashima in New York, to both their reluctance. This will be the first time that she will be alone -- the children are out in the world. Ashima wants Gogol to be in constant contact, especially during the upcoming Christmas holidays, but he is off with Maxine and her family, having a great time near a lake, and he forgets to call. Ashoke unexpectedly calls Ashima from the hospital, having difficulty breathing, but tells her not to worry. But she is worried, and later gets a nasty shock -- Ashoke dies from a heart attack. She tries to call Gogol, but he is unavailable, and he has to hear the news from his sister. Gogol goes to Cleveland to identify the body, and filled with regret for not being in contact. There is a large funeral ceremony when he gets home, and Gogol immerses himself in the customs and rites -- even shaving his head to show grief. It is during this time that he embraces the Gogol name, and when Maxine arrives during the wake, the cultural differences seem glaring, and Gogol sends her away, ending the relationship. Some time passes, and Ashima mentions that Moushumi, a woman whom she and Ashoke had tried to pair off earlier, has returned from England to live in New York. Moushumi at the time was plain, studious and not interested in even talking to Gogol, and he is not looking forward to meeting her. But the duckling became a swan, and Gogol is entranced. They hit it off well enough to start dating, and they eventually marry. All seems well until she keeps her maiden name, and Gogol finds that despite the common background in family and culture, there are differences that threaten the relationship, in outlook and expectations. She declines a job that was in Europe, a bitter pill for her to take. She lets slip a man's name, in such a way that clearly to Gogol this person was more than a friend. It turns out she had been seeing an old lover, and was resuming the relationship. Gogol leaves her. For the first time he takes comfort in his own life and family, seeing his mom leave to go back to India, who is also asserting herself for the first time, to be a singer. He embraces his name and identity, remembering his father.

The Namesake is beautifully shot, showing the colorful, warm homeland of India to the cool, blue and grey tones of New York City. It is well paced, and the characters are fully realized. I like how certain elements of the cultural integration are twisted - Gogol's rejection of the blonde all American gal for the Indian-American woman works against him, since Moushumi proves to be more independent, so unlike a traditional Indian woman than he expected. Perhaps he would have been better off with Maxine? The developing relationship of his parents provide a nice background as well -- theirs is a slow but long burning love that only grows as the years go on. This is a fine effort by Mira Nair, who also is notable for the films Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding. Worth seeing!

Slave to your influences - Grindhouse

Just saw this yesterday. I wanted to like it. Reeeaally wanted to, but couldn't. Grindhouse is a 3 hour plus double feature containing Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Death Proof by Quentin Tarrantino (Kill Bill). This is a loving tribute to the drive in films of the 60's and 70's, where z-grade, cheaply made independent films were paired with slightly better B films for an evening's entertainment. The genres ran from sci fi to horror to exploitation, sometimes combining all three. Tarrantino is a noted fan of this era, and has made an effort to collect the original reels of many of the pictures, exhibiting at his home his own curated versions of movie night. Rodriguez has also been a fan, and together they came up with the idea of each making a 90 minute film. Planet Terror stars Rose McGowan as Cherry, an exotic dancer who quits her job, having enough of this lifestyle, and prepares to leave the dingy Texan small town in search for a better life. Unfortunately, fate intervenes. At a nearby military base, a deal for an illegal shipment of chemicals falls apart as the dealer, a rogue scientist, gets double crossed and Lt. Mouldoon (Bruce Willis) takes the shipment. But the scientist shoots one of the canisters, and the green mist escapes, infecting most of the soldiers. It turns them into disfigured zombies, although continued small exposure doses keeps Mouldoon and some of his men from changing. At a local BBQ restaurant, the Bone Shack, Cherry unexpectedly reunites with an old boy friend, El Rey (Freddie Rodriguez), and is not happy to see him. He isn't pleased either -- she ran off with his favorite jacket, and in it an engagement ring that he had planned to give her. Cherry asks Ray if he could drive her out out town, as he was just passing through. As they leave, they are attacked by the first wave of zombies that leave the base. Cherry is assaulted and her leg ripped off. Meanwhile, in the town, people are getting infected. The victims are brought to the hospital, where Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) and his wife Dakota (Marley Shelton) are tending to the wounded. Their marriage is an unhappy one, rapidly disintegrating, as Dakota is making plans for a tryst with another woman, Tammy. El Ray brings Cherry to the hospital, but not before he is arrested by Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn), who treats Ray as a threat to the general public, and throws him into jail. The zombies rapidly take over the town. After Tammy's body is brought to the hospital, Dr Block confronts his wife. Is she going back to her cheating ways? He attacks her, injecting her hands with the anesthetics that she uses to treat patients. She escapes and manages to drive using her wrists and a watchband to go home. There she gets her son and goes over to her father's house for refuge. But her dad (Michael Parks) is busy killing his wife, an invalid who has turned into a zombie. Her son kills himself accidentally with the handgun that she gave him to protect them both. Dr. Block, now a zombie himself, tracks her down and attempts to kill her but is offed by her dad. Zombies are everywhere, and they attack the police station, where Sheriff Hague and his men fight a desperate battle against them. In the chaos El Rey escapes, and heads for the hospital where he cuts down a number of zombies to find Cherry. She is safe, hiding under a blanket, wallowing in self pity and fear. El Rey jams a 2 x 4 into the leg stub and forces her to walk, helping her out of the building. They, along with the remaining town survivors, flee to The Bone Shack, where they arm themselves and plan to escape. El Rey is a gun slinger, a fact that Sheriff Hague knew, and they become uneasy allies. Cherry manages to get the truck (with the help of El Rey's shooting) and crashes it into the restaurant. The survivors climb aboard it and a couple other vehicles and escape, heading toward the base. They attack the soldiers -- Cherry gets an upgrade by having her amputated leg augmented with an AK-47 -- and she becomes a one woman killing machine, using her go go talents in the process. El Rey confronts Lt. Muldoon, who has gone completely insane, turning into a zombie, and he and the chemicals are destroyed in a huge explosion. El Rey is killed in the end, but Cherry lives on to deliver the survivors to a coastal area in Mexico, near an ancient Mayan ruin, as they build a new future as idyllic beach bums.

Death Proof stars Kurt Russell as Stunt Man Mike, a stunt double actor for television. His only pleasure in life is pursuing the young ladies - preferably in his muscle car Chevy Nova, which he uses to hunt down then plow though his victims. We are introduced to three young ladies, out of college and working and living the life. Sidney Potier is Jungle Julia, a dee jay for a local station, who has created a bit of trouble for her friend, Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito) by announcing on her program that whoever calls Arlene "Butterfly," buys her a drink and recites a segment of a Robert Frost poem to her, that she will give him a lap dance. Arlene is horrified. It is Jungle Julia's brithday, and the girls go to the local watering hole and get plastered. A couple of guys try to make a move on them by hitting them up with liquor, but nothing ever comes of it. Arlene notices a black Chevy Nova cruising around town, and that the driver is checking her out. Stunt Man Mike appears at the bar, and talks to a blond woman (Rose McGowan), and offers to drive her home. He asks if she knows the girls over int he corner, and she laughs, saying that she knew Julia from school. He introduces himself to them and looking at Arlene, does the quote. Jungle Julia intervenes, saying that Arlene has already done it, but Stunt Man Mike looks at Arlene and can tell that she is lying. He talks her into doing it (which is never shown, being a "lost reel"). We cut to the girls driving off, driving off to a cabin near a lake. But they never get there. Stunt Man Mike has been following them, and blows by them on the road. He turns around, waiting for them, and then jams on the accelerator, coming at them head on with the headlights off. The collision is textbook car crash, and we see in disturbing detail what happens to the girls in the car, who are all killed. Stunt Man Mike survives -- his car is made for tv and movie stunts, so it is extra armed. We are introduced to another group of ladies, all of whom work for a film crew which is in production in Tennessee. After an excruciatingly long girl talk at a diner, Zoe states that she wants to drive an old classic American muscle car, the one used in Zabriskie Point. And as luck would have it, she has found that car advertised for sale in the local paper. She talks her friends into taking her to the seller and seeing if they could con the person into letting them do a test drive without him present. They do, using an unsuspecting Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as man bait, while Zoe and her friends Abernathy and Kim drive off. Kim is just tagging along; Abernathy and Zoe are both car junkies, and they are out to do a stunt: the Ship's Mast, where Zoe climbs on the hood of the har while Abernathy drives at full speed, and holds onto two belts that are tied to the doors. They are all having a great time, until Stunt Man Mike comes out of nowhere to mess with them, crashing his Nova into their car, trying to jar Zoe loose. Somehow, Abernathy shakes him off by shooting at Stunt Man Mike, and he flees. After collecting themselves, their thoughts turn to revenge, and armed with a pipe, Zoe climbs back into the car and Abernathy turns the car around to pursue the Nova. Stunt Man Mike is taken by surprise; the cars crash against one another in a long chase sequence. The Nova is knocked out of action, and the girls drag Stunt Man Mike out of the car and beat him to death. The end.

It's a study in contrasts. Planet Terror is an enjoyable romp that, while true to the spirit of the Grindhouse film, betters it in every aspect - story, acting, action. The characters are well realized, notably Rose MacGowan's Cherry, who is in a life crisis and though these wild series of events, becomes a self assured woman with a purpose. Josh Grolin is great as the thermometer chewing Dr. William Block with a chip on his shoulder -- his wife! On the other hand, Death Proof comes across as a conversation piece with moments of action. Sure, the dialogue is very well done -- it has to -- but the build up takes up so much time that it kills the payoff. In other words, it is just like a lot of the other Grindhouse films from the 60's and 70's, and it's a problem for Tarrantino. He loves his influences, but when making his films he never transcends them. Only in Jackie Brown did he do so, and I consider it his best picture, which I am sure will raise eyebrows. A key to his influence here is the t-shirt on one of the ladies, which has a poster of Faster Pussycat! Kill!! Kill!! on it. The nod is not to the film but to the director, Russ Meyer, and Death Proof echoes another film of his from the same time period, Motor Psycho. The innuendos, the visual gags are all from that movie, even if the story is different. The incessant girl talk was painful to sit though; like sitting in on another group's conversation and being forced to listen to it. Which is the point, but Tarrantino has to know that he is giving the finger to his mostly male audience who are expecting another Pulp Fiction exercise. Also, Kurt Russell is woefully used. In the first half of the movie, the interaction between him and his prey is suspenseful and creepy, but it completely vanishes in the second half, where he just shows up, and becomes a cartoon character. Silly. At least for a price of a ticket you can watch one decent shlock movie and then slip out.

Funny and Provocative - I Am an S+M Writer

Again, another long delay. Well, let's get right to it, shall we? I have been seeing a lot of films, especially because of the cold weather on the East Coast. Here we have an excellent film, Ryuichi Hikori's I Am an S+M Writer, a scathing and hilarious look at a battle between the sexes, a husband who writes lurid fiction and his wife, who will not tolerate the means that he goes to get his creative stimulation. The husband, Kurosaki (played by Ren Osugi), is a fiction writer who has only found success by writing sado-masochist fiction. He has an assistant, Kawada (Jun Murakami) who provides creative stimulation by hiring models who are tied up and seduced in front of Kurosaki. They describe in crude detail what is happening, and Kurosaki, in a fire of creativity, writes down the graphic sex. On one particular occasion, Kurosaki's wife (Yoko Hoshi) comes home to find them engaged in the "creative process" -- she wordlessly draws close the sliding doors to the outside around them, and leaves. Later at dinner, she calls him a pervert, and denies him access to sleep together, moving into a different room. One day she brings home a man, an English language professor from the west, and shamelessly flirts with him in front of Kurosaki. He is not amused, but does not show any real anger or jealously. His wife eventually turns to Kawada, seducing him and having sex at a hotel. Kurosaki observes the change in her behavior and sees a glow in her that can only come from making love, and correctly concludes that she is having an affair. Kawada confesses to Kurosaki that it is with him that she is seeing. Kurosaki, after showing a brief display of anger, decides to turn it around and use their affair as material for a novel, and asks Kawada to describe the intercourse in intimate detail. Kurosaki becomes absorbed, writing page after page, until he completes what he feels is his masterwork. He invites his neglected wife, Kawada, and the English professor to a bar where he boasts about his accomplishment. But his wife is no longer interested, and has made plans to leave him. Kawada and the professor fight, leaving Kawada with a bloody nose. In a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, Kurosaki attempts to make love to his wife, but he can not sustain the fervor. His wife eventually leaves him, but not before revealing that she has been an avid reader of erotic fiction, and had hoped that she could have been the one tied up as the model for her husband's musings. She meets Kawada one last time at a hotel for one last, intense tryst. Kurosaki dedicated the novel to her but fails to get it published, having second thoughts.

While it is a portrait of a crumbling marriage, I Am an S+M Writer is a very funny film, being outrageous and yet showing great humor and discretion, without going overboard. Let's face it, there are things that inhabit Japanese culture that are considered decadent or indecent here in the States. Bondage exists, but in Japanese culture and the arts one can find images dealing with women being tied up in various states as a sign of subordination and/or sexual liberation. In the 70's the Japanese film industry was making a lot of money from the Roman Porno genre, softcore sex films that was exploitative and arousing. I have not seen any of those films, but it is clear while watching this film that it is playing around with the master/slave relationship of bondage, feminist reaction and independence, and a basic notion of a creative person losing his sexual potency, finding his only arousal in his work. It is part of why the marriage fell apart -- that Kurosaki and his wife could no longer be a loving couple, and that his work superceded her in his world. Yoko Hoshi does a great job as the author's wife; being a sensible classy woman, while being exquisite and sexually provocative. Hiroki does an excellent job at keeping things on an even keel, a fine directing effort. Recommended!