Powerful. Upsetting. Honest. Brilliant.

This film was not widely distributed in Japan because the subject matter was so delicate, and not distributed in theatres at all internationally. Nevertheless, it won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1986 and holds a top spot on most of Japan's film critics' lists, such as the uber prestigious Kinema Junpo.

The plot is centered on the true story of Japanese surgeons conducting vivisections on 8 American POWs. That's the ostensible subject of the film. But the real subject is Hanna Arendt's famous maxim, "The banality of evil." You see, we witness 3 ordinary individuals -- 2 medical interns and a nurse -- knowingly participating in the grotesque murder of 8 men for various reasons. For instance, because they were just following orders. Or because it was a way of pandering to superiors and advancing their career. Or because, in one case, they were acting out a personal grudge against another staff member. This particular person's motive was the most striking example of the Banality of Evil.

The writer, director and actors created believable characters whom the viewer cares about in a well paced plot that flies by over the course of 2 hours. It's a film of stunning realism and emotion. Highly recommended.

Read More

A Funny, Charming, and Altogether Delightful Little Movie

The MDL synopsis does not in the least reflect what this movie is. It gives a detailed description of what happens in the first 15 minutes of the movie, and then omits the next hour and a half.

The actual movie is about 5 men who'd been friends since they were little kids, and parted ways for 3 years after high school, only to reunite after one friend -- who'd joined the yakuza -- went on the run from his boss and needs help. The yakazu boss is played by Yoshida Kotaro (many will recognize him as the older man from Ossan's Love), who puts in a comically flamboyant performance while sporting a floral patterned suite, fedora hat, and cane.

Since none of the childhood friends, now in their early 20's, has any gainful employment or direction they all readily agree when one says, "Let's go back to being the idiots we were during the best times of our lives!" This effectively translates to: "Let's help our pal who's on the run because the yakuza thinks he stole 300 million yen by finding the thief who truly stole it." There are multiple plot points intertwined with this as it comes to light who truly did steal the money, as well as how and why they did it.

None of this, however, really matters. Because the actual point of this movie is to watch the gang of pals displaying their hilarious comradery as they try to outrun the bad guys. In other words, it's a bromance. Only instead of a bromance between 2 men, it's between a group of men. We see them backslapping as they trade the same jokes and insults they'd been trading since they were little kids.

For instance, one of them fell in love with a prostitute when he was 10 and asked her to marry him, causing his buddies to tease him for still wanting to honor his promise to her as an adult. Another has dreams which dictate the future so accurately that the other guys ask, "Wait, did you see such-and-such happen in your dream last night? No? Ok, then we'll be fine." Then, son of a bitch, they truly will be fine. It's a bit of silly, supernatural fun, among the movie's many such sparks of originality. There are also some tender scenes of them uplifting one another when feeling down, as well as some amusing scenes of them as children.

The cast was clearly having loads of fun playing their parts in such an agreeable, charming little romp. I could tell that their laughing in many scenes was not acting, but them genuinely cracking up at what they were doing in that particular scene. The feeling was infectious, meaning the viewer ends up smiling or laughing as well.

Read More

A Powerful Portrayal of Alienated Teens During Japan's "Lost Decade"

"Blue Spring" is regarded as a minor classic in Japan, and for 3 good reasons. First, the director maintains a swift pace and holds your interest despite the absence of one overarching plot (instead, the plot's fueled by a number of different acts of alienation portrayed by an ensemble cast). Second, it features then unknown teenage actors who went on to have extremely successful careers -- eg, Matsuda Ryuhei, Arai Hirofumi and Nagayama Eita.

Third, it is set in the late-90's, right when Japan's economic bubble had burst and the nation was reeling with unemployment, bankruptcy, crime and the inevitability of angry, futureless teens forming gangs. It's this third element more than anything else that accounts for the movie's fame, because this era looms so large in the Japanese psyche that they even refer to it as "The Lost Decade." And it was the teenagers of "The Lost Decade" who felt the brunt of economic despair the most because they were at what should've been the start of careers but were, instead, at the start of a road to nowhere. The movie conveys this hopelessness with excellent dialogue, such as the following exchange between a teen, and a teacher wherein the teen compares himself to a flower:

-- "Teacher, aren’t there some flowers that never bloom?"
-- "Flowers are meant to bloom, not to dry up. That’s what I choose to believe. It’s a very important thing.”

The blooming of flowers is a recurring metaphor, which is also expressed with an inner monologue of a boy who's just dropped out of school. He has realized that his life will never bloom and that he is, as he calls himself, a "loser."

-- "I staked my whole life on baseball. My only goal was the nationals. In this shithole of a school baseball was my only flower. I staked my life on my bat, my dreams on my pitches all to make the spirit of baseball bloom. In the midst of the roaring crowd, a glimpse of my mother's face. She's always there to love even a fool like me. Always ready to smile. I love you so much for that. Even if my body was broken and all my tears and sweat dried up, my dream remained the nationals. No regret for my youth. Loser."

What's especially marvelous about "Blue Spring" is how the theme of teenage alienation is conveyed just as powerfully with a punk rock soundtrack as it is with such dialogue. That is to say, it's the nature of punk rock to speak of the same raw, angry nihilism of futureless youths. And the song "Drop" from the uber cool J-punk band "Thee Michelle Gun Elephant" is pitch perfect for the final plot point.

Music, acting, setting, characters, and theme all converge seamlessly to create a movie that's just as compelling for contemporary audiences as it was to those actually experiencing "The Lost Decade" back then. You see, the movie succeeds as more than a cultural commentary about a specific era, and it does so by evoking a timeless, universal theme -- which is, of course, the timeless, universal theme of teenage alienation.

Read More

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Asshole

Sure, lots of writers are famous for being self destructive, substance abusing assholes (Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, and Norman Mailer, to name a few). But a biopic should not simply be a portrayal of an asshole writer doing lots of asshole things in cliched romantic ways as if to excuse his being, oh you know, an asshole. It should be somehow revelatory as to who he is as a complete, fully faceted human being. Even if he's unlikeable, we should still feel the authenticity of his humanity. This movie, however, has not given us a human being. It has given us a caricature.

And let's talk about the dialogue, which is god awful and packed with exposition. Characters continually have conversations that are exclusively designed to give us a cram-course in their backstories. The only thing worse is the dialogue delivering lectures about the exceptional nature of the Artiste (oh yea, make that a capitol A and spell it French, because that's how cliched it is). Naturally, it usually comes down to the Artiste's special license to be, yep, an asshole.

But I will give praise to the cinematographer. It was shot gorgeously.

Read More

Tender, Charming, Funny, and Altogether Moving

The Best Film prize that this won in the Hong Kong Film Awards was entirely deserved, as was every word of praise it received in the Western Press. It's fresh, original, and sincere, while also imparting a terrific sense of the grittiness of a street kid's life in 90's Hong Kong. Best of all, it has real heart. The characters were conceived with a feeling so true that it translates to the viewer in ways at once tender, charming, funny and, alas, sad.

For instance, the male lead's love for the pretty, pixie, teenage girl is adorable since he says all the goofy things to court her that we'd imagine a sweet, yet word-addled, high school dropout saying to his crush (eg, he looks at her manicure the first time he asks her out, and defiantly says, "Who do you think you are, Madonna?"). Yet we no sooner laugh at his clumsy pickup line than we're aching for him as he struggles to come up with cash for her life-or-death kidney surgery. The stakes are high, and this is signaled in a standout scene of the 2 teens -- each deep in the throes of first love -- joyously kissing in a cemetery.

I was equally touched watching the lead take care of a large, but slow-witted, boy whose family had abandoned him. There's a tenderness in how the small, skinny, clever lead cares for his big, dumb sidekick that's just beautiful. Indeed, it has echoes of Lenny and George from "Of Mice and Men." And without giving spoilers I can say that this film, like that novel, kicks you in the stomach at the end. But the journey toward that ending is well worth it because the emotions are earned, and nothing felt false or contrived.

"Made In Hong Kong," was completed for a mere eighty thousand dollars, but had me more emotionally invested than any hundred million dollar Hollywood Blockbuster where each star's individual paycheck is fifty times that of this film's entire budget. Indeed, the actors in this were all virtually unknown novices at the time (Sam Lee, the lead, went on to have an impressive career). This makes it all the more impressive that the actors put in such ace performances evoking their characters' innocence, confusion, and love for each other.

Lastly, do not be fooled by the small number of viewers, nor the low rating on this MDL page. MDL is a new site wherein people rarely visit pages for movies made over 5 years ago, and this was made 25 years ago. For a truer measure of this film's quality just google the professional critical reviews and you'll find it was highly regarded both at home in Hong Kong, and internationally.

Read More

A Movie That Makes One Care Deeply About a Loser

A serious, moving and brutally realistic movie about a 20-something loser who is continually attending peep shows and has a proclivity for offending people. Nevertheless, the screenplay and director did that miraculous thing of making the audience deeply feel for this character.

The lead is, indeed, a loser, and not a "likeable loser" either, as many movies would portray, because the film does not gloss anything over or shade it in pink. This poor sap has never been taught social skills because he had no family, nor schooling. He had to drop out in 8th grade and go to work as a young teen (I guess high school is not mandatory in Japan as it is in the USA). My heart broke for him as it went on, even as I was constantly cringing and thinking, "Noooo, don't do that!" because I was so afraid he'd commit yet another anti-social act while being utterly clueless as to the fact that he was doing so.

But as heartbreaking as it was, it did end well with the lead sitting down to write, and thus having the promise of a career as a writer. This is not a spoiler because, you see, the movie is based on an autobiographical novel. Meaning, the lead was based on the novel writer who had written about truly having had this kind of life.

Read More

A Lead You'll Want to Punch 10 Minutes Into the Show

Ordinarily, I enjoy dramas about a nerd who is in love with the class star, as I’ve seen that plot handled very well in other dramas. But in this one, the nerd is not merely obnoxious, but so horrifyingly obnoxious that there is no way to make it believable for the class star to fall for him. Forget a class star, even the audience wants to punch this nerd within the 1st ten minutes of the show.

He smiles constantly, which is a problem when one’s smile vacillates between creepy and goofy. So we have to look at some nerd who wears a creepy/goofy smile for virtually every frame of film that he’s in. His body movement is all jerky, spastic motions that are meant to be cute and funny, but are instead just plain idiotic. Between the goofy smile he wears 24/7, and the spastic body movements, he actually comes off as a slow-witted special ed kid.

Then we have the class star and his gang, whom the costume designer for some reason decided to put in lipstick. No kidding, the cast is all wearing lipstick – the guys, the girls, all of them. They all wear the same shade of pink lipstick. Now, the costume designer did create cute school uniforms with powder blue, white trimmed jackets and ties, but albeit cute, this was still unwise because we know from other BL’s that no Thai university has such uniforms. They wear black slacks/skirts with white button-down tops at all Thai universities. But hey, even if the uniforms in this show are unrealistic, at least they are appealing. Nothing else is.

The lead is so unappealing that if the audience can’t stand him in the first 10 minutes, there is no way to make it believable that the gorgeous class star will fall for him. Of course, we know that the plot will contrive to make the class star fall for him, but it will not be believable when it happens. The problem is not that it’s unlikely for a hot guy to fall for a nerd, as this plot has been handled in ways that are very believable in other dramas; it’s that we cannot possibly believe it could happen in this case because the nerd is obnoxious beyond the pale. I wanted to reach through my screen and gag him so he'd just stop shrieking every time he saw his beloved on campus. I felt the same with his gang of friends, who are also constantly shrieking, clapping, and jumping. Oh, that’s when they are not helping their nerd pal to stalk the class star.

And let’s talk about the stalking. The nerd saves anything his beloved touches, including empty soda cans, which he retrieves from the trash and adds to his vast collection of other souvenirs his beloved has touched. He keeps these souvenirs in his bedroom, which he has wallpapered with pix of his beloved from floor to ceiling on all 4 walls. He also has a life-size cardboard cutout of his beloved, which is bad enough. But here's the kicker: he has blanket with a life-size photo of his beloved on it. He sleeps on this blanket, beside the life-size pix of his beloved, and kisses it. He does this while fantasizing that the life-size pix is alive and kissing him back. It’s not merely creepy, it’s serial killer creepy.

I know the director wanted us to find this all kooky and endearing. Alas, the kid is already so unlikeable based on his facial expressions and mannerisms that once the audience sees his serial killer bedroom in the 1st episode, there's no coming back. The show simply cannot redeem itself from this premise. It is a total FAIL.

Read More