I have no discipline with my DVD cash lately. One double-DVD edition of Battle Royale is now on its way to me. Personally, I think seeing Japanese schoolgirls mowed down by gunfire and whatnot sounds like good fun. We'll see.

K

Good man!

Truth be told, I became giddy when familiarizing myself with the overall plot, since it is ripe with details that constitute a guilty pleasure.

If I can muster up some pithy philosophical commentary after seeing it, rest assured I'll be posting it here.

It stars Beat Takeshi as the schoolmaster.

And he's probably the best thing about the movie. This is my 1st exposure to Beat Takeshi, and the one decisive impression Battle Royale left me with, is that I definitely must see more of Beat Takeshi.

Not that I didn't enjoy the movie. You get your copy yet, John? It isn't really Great or anything, but it's interesting and reasonably successful for what it is, I guess; certainly worth seeing, at any rate. Charles sums it up decently, I suppose, although I can't find the word "scopophilic" in any dictionary available to me, and I disagree that the movie lacks humanism. It's pretty brutal but just like any typical gory war movie, it depicts brutality ultimately for the very purpose of condemning and illustrating the disturbing senselessness of it (all the more so because it's a bunch of kids.) You can go ahead and argue about having your cake and eating it too, but the movie's anti-violence pretentions are glaringly obvious, and such sensational, graphic satire has seen slicker execution under Verhoeven's hand. I wouldn't call it preachy, but I was actually hoping for a more explicitly nihilistic surface sheen, especially given what I've read about popular Japanese television.

It's a fairly entertaining and occasionally unsettling two hours, but I'm not convinced the film really extracted the full potential of its own ideas. Ultimately, it's a nice and fairly unpredictable ride, but it has the depth and atmosphere of, say, a slightly above-average manga. Which I wouldn't necessarily hold against it (after all, I don't hold it against The Running Man ) if it weren't for the fact that it flirts with the possibility of being something much more (and probably fancies itself as such.)

K

Hmm, I was going to link to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, but it's down. That's no good. First I lost my access to Oxford, now it looks like M-W will no longer be free. Scopophilia is voyeurism. I thought this was in any dictionary, but I guess not.

The only thing I'd take issue with, K, is that the premise of BK is so ridiculous that it effectively renders the film an exercise in voyeuristic violence. That's why I wanted to see it, and I'm betting that's why you bought the thing, as well. It's "humanistic" elements are so absurd and underdeveloped within the context of the film, that I just don't see them as being other than purely ironic at best or downright silly at worst. Note the stylistic difference between this film and its counterpart, LOGAN'S RUN, where that film isn't just an excuse to see a bunch of old people mowed down. Of course, I'd pay to see that, too.

Verhoeven's virtue is that he can deliver on the violence while still making you feel guilty about enjoying it.

Also, while I like Takeshi as an actor, I don't much care for his films.

Hmm ... it isn't in my Webster's, and www.dictionary.com directs me to medical dictionaries. "Voyeuristic" was ... insufficient somehow?



Ironic and/or silly, perhaps, but unquestionably there, and intended to be.



He directs too, huh?

What are some of the better films he's appeared in? "Brother" is available for rental at my local video store, but it seems to me I've heard so-so things about that one.

K

You want a good Beat Takeshi movie? Kikujiro. Or go the other way and get Hana-bi/Firecracker.

Unfortunately, I haven't received my copy. I got a package from them this past Saturday, which felt surprisingly light for a two-disc edition. Sure enough, I tear the thing open to find a product catalogue and invoice but no DVD. It should be on it's way shortly, however.

Well, I pretty much had to go with BROTHER for the time being. It's the only one available for rental and I'm out of DVD cash for the time being.

Brother was rather interesting. I'm not sure exactly what to make of it ... Takeshi's directing style is almost as inscrutable and unpredictable as his onscreen persona in some ways. But if this is not one of his better films, you can definitely count me in for some of his others when I get a chance to see them. Charles, I'd also be interested in hearing your qualms with Takeshi as a director if you feel like it.

K

Heh; just read that while a second martial arts film with Zhang Ziyi is a definite go, Yimou's given Miramax the boot. Gotta applaud him there. From Monkeypeaches:

"According to Beijing Times, producer of HERO Zhang Weijing, said filming of Zhang Yimou's next martial-art film, originally scheduled for next month, had been pushed back for at least two months due to the SARS factor. He said Zhang Ziyi was definitely in but no one else, including Andy Lau, had signed up. Zhang Yimou and his writing team are still working on the script. According to another paper, Shenyang Today, the budget of this untitled project will at lease match the level of HERO, which is US$31 million. He said several Hollywood studios had contact them for distributing the film in North American and other regions. Angered by MiramAxe's doing-nothing strategy for handling HERO, he has positively ruled out MiramAxe as the potential distributor."

K