rickman

Friday, May 21, 2010



By KAORI SHOJI
"There are those who go to war and those who are left behind, with each experiencing a different kind of hell." This is a translation of an excerpt from a letter found among the possessions of a Nagasaki woman widowed when her husband was killed in action during World War II. Though it was displayed as part of a memorial exhibition, there was no mention of what had happened to the woman or whether she survived into the postwar years.

Brothers        Rating: (4 out of 5)
   

Coming home: Tobey Maguire stars as Sam with Natalie Portman as his wife, Grace, in "Brothers." © 2009 BROTHERS PRODUCTION, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Director: Jim Sheridan
Running time: 105 minutes
Language: English
Opens June 5, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
Most likely she experienced her share of hardship and hunger, as did most of the Japanese population. The government's method of dealing with such people was to try and make them understand that their suffering was merely a fraction of the agonies endured by the nation's soldiers. Based on this logic, it was only right that the women and their daughters, whose menfolk had been taken away, were forced into labor at munitions factories and that entire cities should subsist on water and ground-up tree roots. As the letter stated, war engendered a kind of hell, both on the front lines and back home.

There's a different kind of wartime reality sketched out in "Brothers," which traces the disintegration of a family following the absence of the father, a soldier reportedly killed in Afghanistan. The warzone scenes are hellish, a stark contrast to the relatively comfortable lives of American suburbia. There's a yawning gulf between the father's sand-and-rubble-based combat and the lives of his family members, who find it easier to leave what he experiences undiscussed.

Directed by Jim Sheridan, "Brothers" is a powerful movie but occasionally stiff and disjointed, mirroring the bewilderment, sadness and alienation felt by each of its characters. It's by no means an easy or palatable tale, as Sheridan guides the characters relentlessly through each stage of their pain.

"Brothers" is a remake of a similarly titled film by Denmark's Susanne Bier, in which a husband/father is reported as having been killed in action only to be miraculously returned to his kin. Once home, however, the loving man his family once knew is gone, replaced by a morose and suspicious individual unable to shake off memories of war and convinced that his wife and brother are having a torrid affair.

Sheridan's "Brothers" retreads this storyline, but the sexual tension between the wife, husband and brother — so crucial in Bier's tale — is significantly toned down. This is a broader tale of return and readjustment — issues that are a consequence of war conflict that few war movies have the patience (or guts) to deal with.

The story primarily revolves around Sam (Tobey Maguire), an army captain who married his high school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie Portman), and who still lives in the same army-focused town where he grew up. He is decent and self-disciplined, in contrast to his kid brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), the black sheep of the family who has just been released from prison. Everyone, including the brothers' straight-laced dad (Sam Shepherd), regards Tommy with a cold wariness. It is only Sam who shows compassion for his younger sibling and tries to help him get back on a stable footing.

rickman

Friday, May 21, 2010


By GIOVANNI FAZIO
"Legion" may not be a great film, but if you wanted to pick one film that was symptomatic of America in the early 21st century, this is it: a movie about angels . . . with machine guns.

Legion        Rating: (2 out of 5)
   

An angel dares: Paul Bettany stars as Michael, an angel who defies God to save mankind in "Legion."
Director: Scott Stewart
Running time: 100 minutes
Language: English
Opens May 22, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
Yeah, every other Hollywood movie these days is about exploding fireballs and cool acrobatic ass-kicking — even, sigh, "Alice in Wonderland" — but in a film about angels? It's impossible to overemphasize what a departure this is: From "It's A Wonderful Life" to "What Dreams May Come" and "Angels in the Outfield" to "City of Angels," angels have always been benevolent figures who offer compassion and guidance. (The sole exception being Christopher Walken in 1995's "The Prophecy.") "Legion" is the first time angels have come to Earth to coach humans in how to lock 'n' load automatic weapons, or slash people open with their razor-sharp wings and chain-saw maces.

"Legion" is a movie about being so sure that you're right that even God is wrong; it's a movie where scripture is forced to fit the message, not the other way around, and where metaphysical questions of mankind's role on Earth and the divine plan are settled through firepower and brute force. Like I said, it's a movie about America in 2010.

The film's story begins in a small, hard-luck diner called "Paradise Falls" on the edge of the Mojave Desert. There we meet a heavily pregnant waitress at the diner named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), the diner's gruff owner Bob (Dennis Quaid) and his son Jeep (Lucas Black), a rather insecure young man who pines after Charlie even though he is not her child's father. Somewhere on the left coast, a fallen angel, Michael (Paul Bettany), cuts off his wings and stocks up on automatic weapons.

When TV, cell-phone and radio reception go out at the diner, they suspect they have a problem; when one customer, a little old lady with a walker, takes a bite out of someone's neck and then goes scuttling up the walls, they know they do. Soon Michael drives up, starts passing out weapons and tells everyone to prepare for the worst. God, he says, has given up on mankind and unleashed a force to exterminate them all, especially Charlie's unborn child, who — for reasons never clearly explained — is mankind's last hope. Michael has chosen to disobey God's orders because he doesn't want to be a "good German," and he's convinced God will eventually see the light, so to speak.

rickman

Friday, May 21, 2010


Back to basics: A scene from Masahiro Kobayashi's family-drama-cum-road-movie, "Haru tono Tabi" © 2010 HARU'S JOURNEY FILM PARTNERS
RE:VIEW FILM

Masahiro Kobayashi talks about his latest film, a Japanese family drama, and about the 'bashing' at home that has followed his remarkable string of successes abroad

By MARK SCHILLING
Special to The Japan Times
It's sad but true that Japanese directors with big reputations abroad are often odd men (or women) out back home.


Speaking out: Masahiro Kobayashi pictured during his recent JT interview. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO
Juzo Itami won the hearts of Western audiences with his 1985 foodie comedy "Tampopo," but in the Japanese film industry he was considered an outsider from the world of television, where he had won fame as an actor and chat-show personality.

Shinya Tsukamoto became a cult hero worldwide for his ultraviolent cyberpunk fantasies, beginning with his 1989 breakout "Tetsuo" ("Tetsuo the Iron Man"). In Japan, though, he often struggled to get his films screened, while many of his industry peers regarded them as little more than freak shows.

Itami and Tsukamoto told me the above themselves; I am assuming they were being truthful.

Nonetheless, Masahiro Kobayashi's case is among the more extreme.

Like many Japanese directors of his baby-boomer generation, he fell in love with European movies at a young age. After failing as a singer-songwriter and quitting his job as a postal worker, at age 28 Kobayashi journeyed to France to meet his idol, Francois Truffaut — and ask him if he could be his assistant.

His quest ended in failure (he couldn't bring himself to push the doorbell to Truffaut's office), but he later parlayed his passion for films into a successful career as a scriptwriter.

Not satisfied with grinding out scripts for TV and the made-in-Japan variety of soft porn known as pinku eiga (pink films), Kobayashi directed his first feature, "Closing Time," at age 42. Deeply influenced by his beloved European auteurs, Kobayashi's early films were barely released in Japan, but three in a row, beginning with 1999's "Bootleg Film," were screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

rickman

By GEORGE HADLEY-GARCIA
Special to The Japan Times
HOLLYWOOD — "The politest thing I can say is, 'It's about bleeping time!' " says Drew Barrymore with a giggle reminiscent of Gertie, the "E.T." role that made her famous back in 1982.


Derby days: A scene from "Whip It," actress Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, which stars Ellen Page (right) as a young Texan named Bliss who escapes her boring background and finds herself via the rough sport of roller derby. PHOTOS © 2009 BABE RUTHLESS PRODUCTIONS, LLC (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
The actress, recently turned director, is talking about the 2010 Oscar win for best director by Kathryn Bigelow, the first time a woman has won that accolade. Barrymore's directorial debut is "Whip It," starring Ellen Page ("Juno") as a young Texan named Bliss who escapes her boring background and finds herself via the rough sport of roller derby.

Barrymore, granddaughter of stage and screen legend John Barrymore (who died of alcoholism in 1942, aged 60), points out that an actress who decides to direct can have a tougher time of it when it comes to being prepared enough and confident enough that her cast and crew have confidence in her.

But where she — no question — has it tougher, is in the perception of those in the industry.

"Like, isn't it obvious that male actors who decide to direct are applauded, even excessively? Look at all the actors who directed a movie, got nominated and then actually won the Academy Award. The list includes Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Warren Beatty, Mel Gibson and Woody Allen.

"Not one of the women ever nominated for Best Director was an actress! It is ludicrous. If an actor directs, he is admired — he's expanding his horizons. If an actress directs, either she's getting older — as is anybody who's still breathing — or she's washed up or impossible to handle as an actress. Or else she's too ambitious and so uppity. I've heard all those things, and more, said about actresses who directed a movie.

rickman

Iconiq heads for World Stage at MTV Video Music Awards Japan

By ROBERT MICHAEL POOLE
Special to The Japan Times
In September 1984 — three years after MTV: Music Television had kicked into life with British electro-pop duo The Buggles' appropriately titled 1979 classic "Video Killed the Radio Star" — Madonna strode onto a New York stage for the fledgling channel's first Music Video Awards.


Statements of intent: Iconiq's androgynous appearance, and her name, are clear signs of the kind of "rebirth" she has in mind.



In so doing, she claimed her place as an '80s icon with a suggestive performance of "Like a Virgin." Clad in a lace wedding dress, Madonna presented an enduring symbol that many artists have toyed with in the decades since.

But MTV, its audience and the technology available to them have evolved drastically since then, and when the MTV Video Music Awards Japan take place Saturday, May 29, at Tokyo's Yoyogi National Stadium, it will for the first time be aligned with World Stage — MTV's latest attempt to draw viewers away from such on-demand Web sites as YouTube by broadcasting the same concerts and events on every MTV channel worldwide.

World Stage has proved timely for MTV Japan, whose market share has been slowly eroded by rivals Music On! TV and Space Shower and whose viewers have been shifting to online media.

In fact the awards show, which has served as the channel's flagship event since 2002 — attracting stars including Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Green Day and Missy Elliott — was in jeopardy this year as the company went through restructuring.

The Japanese public's appetite for international music has been declining, with record-label body RIAJ reporting that nondomestic product accounted for just 18 percent of the market in the first quarter of 2010.

Perhaps reflecting this, Saturday's MTV Video Music Awards Japan has only one certified international star scheduled, in the shape of U.S. chart-topping pop singer Ke$ha.

rickman

By KAORI SHOJI
When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that life got better after 50, he could have been prophesying about John Travolta. His career has been one of peaks and plunges, punctuated by some of cinema's most interesting fashion moments ("Saturday Night Fever" and "Battlefield Earth" come to mind). Ever since he hit 50 five years ago, however, Travolta seems ensconced in a mode of cinematic go-to-hell gleefulness.

From Paris With Love        Rating: (3 out of 5)
   

The odd couple: John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers star as Charlie Wax and James Reece, two U.S. agents, in Pierre Morel's "From Paris with Love." © 2009 EUROPACORP — M6 FILMS — GRIVE PRODUCTIONS - APIPOULAI PROD
Director: Pierre Morel
Running time: 92 minutes
Language: English, a little French
Opens May 15, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
While he single-handedly boosted the morale of the otherwise sleepily pedestrian "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" remake with the unforgettable line, "Lick my bunghole!," and dabbled in embarrassing music videos with daughter Ella Bleu ("Every Little Step"), for "From Paris With Love" he pulled out all the stops to go for total, undiluted obnoxiousness. Filthy, foul-mouthed racism: check. Stinking, offensive chauvinism: check. Unforgivable wardrobe and shining bald head accented with a classic gold hoop earring: jackpot. Travolta's jiving, crotch-bumping, bazooka-wielding Charlie Wax makes Bruce Willis' "Die Hard" protagonist John McClane look like a mild-mannered, salt-of-the-earth type.

"From Paris With Love" operates on the classic "odd couple" formula, pairing a smooth, suave and handsome guy with a greasy, off-color punk to create blockbuster gold. It's a formula that works across national borders and language barriers, and French filmmaker Pierre Morel (best known for the mean action thriller "Taken") takes the driver's seat, steering the film with enough gusto to confidently mow over any bumps or holes the plot may have. It kinda restores your faith in action movies.

Playing the other half of this duo is Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James Reece, a personal assistant to the U.S. ambassador in France, who is being secretly groomed for a future CIA career.

James is living it up in Paris. He dons stylish silk suits, has a gorgeous French girlfriend (Kasia Smutniak) and lives in a quaint Parisian apartment. James' pretty boy looks and odd-sounding American accent, however, belie his supposed history as a poor boy from the Bronx. This discrepancy could have led to an interesting twist in the film (does he have a hidden identity? false passport?), but Morel ignores such distractions and instead paints the character as a desk jockey looking to get his hands dirty with a little action. Charlie Wax — brought in from the United States to counter a terrorist attack — is happy to indulge him.

After gunning down what appears to be most of the population in Chinatown in the 13th Arrondisement, Wax soothes the guilt-ridden Reece with: "How many more of them do you think there are? Last census, about a billion!" And why stop at Chinatown? Wax guns his way through the "paki" and "raghead" slums to the sound of screaming babies and sobbing women, shrugging off the body count in the name of serving his country.

That, combined with Wax's reputation as America's best antiterrorism agent (with "unorthodox methods" of course), puts "Paris" comfortably into a screwball groove. The trailer may tout this as serious and soulful fare, but make no mistake, Morel is out to entertain with a hysteria-inducing film that pays no heed to the word "cringeworthy." From Wax's infamous self-descriptive quip "Wax on, Wax off" — delivered whenever he's about to do something brutal — to the all-too-familiar plot involving a suicide bomber at an Aid For Africa summit, Morel descends to below-sea level depths with astonishing determination.

Morel is, however, a disciple of director-producer Luc Besson, who coproduced this movie and appears to enjoy exposing a different side to French filmmaking (the "Taxi" movies he wrote became a franchise that bulldozed over the French film industry with its slapstick vigor). Not surprisingly, however, despite the location, the premise and the producer, no one speaks Francais in "From Paris with Love." In fact, if it weren't for Wax demanding to have breakfast on top of the Eiffel Tower (how classically American) you wouldn't even know it's Paris. But then, as Wax so crudely puts it: "Doesn't f--king matter!" We'll have to take his word for it.

rickman

By KAORI SHOJI
Jane Campion's heroines always seem to labor under the weight of suffering womanhood, even when they're empowered and supposedly in control (witness the prickly discomfort of "In the Cut's" Meg Ryan) but her latest, Fanny Brawne (played with dazzling excellence by Abby Cornish), in "Bright Star" is warm, confident, passionate: a woman unafraid to bask in her own self-made happiness. Fanny's introduction into the story belies her raison d'e^tre; the camera zooms in on her fingers, pushing a needle through a piece of fabric, over and over. Could this be a prelude to yet another Campion femme, forced into household drudgery by some ham-fisted, chauvinistic goon? But no — "Bright Star" wastes no time in depicting Fanny as a talented seamstress whose dress designs bring her a modest but adequate income. Her wardrobe is all her own creation and the striking colors and bold, fun designs (the triple mushroom collar would make Jil Sander envious) are a perfect match for her vivid personality.

Fanny is one half of the centerpiece of "Bright Star," an imagined love story between her and John Keats (Ben Whishaw), one of England's greatest poets. The two meet in 1818 when Fanny was 18 and John was 23. She was, literally, the girl next door and also the daughter of John's landlady (Kerry Fox). Despite the versatility of his pen, John hardly made enough to sustain himself and, at this time, was sharing extremely cramped living quarters with his friend Charles Armitage (Paul Schneider), while supporting his ill brother Tom. John was, in fact, the epitome of the starving artist (Whishaw's extreme thinness is very effective here). Fanny, on the other hand, is drawn as a strapping young woman with a saucy manner that caused the possessive Charles (Paul Schneider) to remark with a sneer: "She's made a religion out of flirting!"

rickman

By MARK SCHILLING
The Japanese have a love affair with trains, especially the ones that trundle through the more picturesque parts of the country. One sure way to draw tourists to your rural prefecture is an ancient steam locomotive that chugs through a pretty middle-of-nowhere. For many visitors, it's not the destination, but the train journey.

Railways        Rating: (3 out of 5)
   

All aboard: Kiichi Nakai does his job in "Railways." © 2010 "RAILWAYS." SEISAKU IINKAI
Director: Yoshinari Nishikori
Running time: 130 minutes
Language: Japanese
Opens May 29, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
The long-running Tora-san (1969-1996) and "Tsuribaka Nisshi" ("Diary of a Fishing Fool," 1988-2009) series visited a different, often remote, part of Japan in each episode (though given its piscatorial theme, "Tsuribaka," didn't spend a lot of screen time up in the mountains). Fans enjoyed these perambulations, whether by train or not.

Robot Communications, maker of many successful commercial films, has combined the two themes of travel and trains in one heartwarming, if predictable, cinematic package, with the aim of spinning out another hit series.

Produced by Robot founder Shinji Abe, Yoshinari Nishikori's "Railways," is distinctly different from Tora-san and "Tsuribaka," however. For one thing, instead of a bumbling, but lovable tramp (Tora-san) or lazy, but lovable salaryman ("Tsuribaka") hero, "Railways" centers on a high-powered executive, played by Kiichi Nakai.

rickman

Laid-back Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges turns on the charm and talks about latest movie 'Crazy Heart'

By GEORGE HADLEY-GARCIA
Special to The Japan Times
HOLLYWOOD — "My next movie is a sequel to the one I did where I play a guy trapped inside a video game," says Jeff Bridges, veteran of over 60 films.

The film he's referring to is "TRON: Legacy," a sequel to "TRON," from 1982.

"It was kind of weird doing this, because it's some 28 years after the fact. When I did the first one, I was young. Now look what's happened," he snickers.

Bridges, son of TV and film star Lloyd Bridges and younger brother of actor Beau Bridges, is now 60. He is also the belated winner of an Academy Award for Best Actor, having received the prize earlier this year for his role as country and Western singer Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart." It was Bridges' fifth nomination.

He got his first shot at an Oscar when he was age 22 for "The Last Picture Show" (1971). "I couldn't believe I'd been nominated. I sort of asked some people, 'What for? Why did they nominate me?'

"There were some big hitters in that movie. Some got nominated, and I think one of them won. . . . Am I right, man? Sorry."

Bridges chuckles, explaining that although he admires his more talented peers, he's not "real heavy into awards and keeping track of who's won, who's been nominated, who hasn't been nominated, and etc." (Cloris Leachman won a Best Supporting Actress Award for "The Last Picture Show.")

Bridges continues, "When I made 'TRON,' the idea of being stuck in a video game was pretty wild. It was total fiction. But today, it seems like a lot of kids are stuck inside computers. I have one grandkid who . . . well, anyway, if I had to get trapped inside something, I'd rather it be a guitar or even a temporary marijuana haze than in a video game, and certainly not in a computer."

There were those who felt Bridges was endangering his chances of award recognition by mentioning in press and even TV interviews that "from time to time" he likes "to smoke a joint."

rickman

By KAORI SHOJI
Laurent Cantet's films are highly detailed, meticulously observed and they almost always take place in work situations.


Laurent Cantet
His 2000 film, "Human Resources," for example, had been about a young, earnest manager at odds with his factory's labor force. Cantet's latest, "Entre les murs," (winner of the 2008 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival) also portrays the rift between inspired ideas and actual execution, and the personal risk involved in workplace idealism, this time set in a school.

It seems that Cantet's interference on the set was minimal. He let the force of his nonprofessional actors carry the story, partly because he knew the film needed it, and partly because of the supreme confidence he had in cowriter and lead actor Francois Begaudeau, who plays the class teacher.

"Of everyone in the film, Francois is most naturally like himself. His personality anchors the story, even when all around him, chaos reigns," says Cantet.

A self-professed "watcher of human beings," Cantet loves to step back and just look at people and then let his observations seep into his stories.

"I'm always asking my cast to act less, and be a little more boring and therefore real!" he says.

rickman

There has been a lot of informed opinion lately suggesting that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has already become a "new Vietnam."

Hearts and Minds        Rating: (4 out of 5)
   

Collateral damage: Refugees flee bombing in Vietnam in "Hearts and Minds" © "HEARTS AND MINDS"
Director: Peter Davis
Running time: 112 minutes
Language: English, Vietnamese
Opens June 19, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
That's a debatable point. For all the similarities of fighting elusive insurgents and trying to prop up a corrupt puppet regime, there are considerable differences as well. The first question, though, is really: What do people mean by this comparison?

"Vietnam" has become synonymous with a military quagmire and political defeat despite the application of overwhelming force. In a word: failure. So when the left talks of the "new Vietnam," it's a code word for futility, a blanket caution against any imperialistic military action. Similarly, the right's reaction is a knee-jerk dismissal, a blind belief that lightning won't strike twice.

"Do you think we've learned anything from this?" asks an interviewer in "Hearts and Minds," the Oscar-winning 1974 documentary on the Vietnam conflict.

"I think we're trying not to," says the interviewee, a disillusioned airman. "I think we're all trying very hard to escape what we've learned in Vietnam."

"Hearts and Minds," which sees a timely revival on the big screen this month, seeks to remind us of some of those lessons. Such as: Make sure your president isn't lying to you about the reasons for a war; torture is never a good idea; and don't assume you'll win over a country's populace — the proverbial "hearts and minds" of the people — by turning their country into a free-fire zone. My, how times change.

rickman

'Iron Man' will leave your ears ringing; Cyrus passes test in big-screen debut 'Last Song'

There's an old piece of industry wisdom that says, when casting your leads, the audience has to either want to be them or sleep with them. (Actually, they use a coarser term, but my editors do so hate it when I lead off with an f-bomb.)

Iron Man 2        Rating: (2 out of 5)
   

Iron-clad stars: Robert Downey Jr. takes a breather in "Iron Man 2" © 2010 MVLFFLLC. LLC & SUBS.
Director: Jon Favreau
Running time: 124 minutes
Language: English
Opens June 11, 2010
[See Japan Times movie listing]
This doesn't solve the inexplicable mystery known as Shia LaBeouf's career — my theory is he's a low-wattage avatar that doesn't distract from his films' real stars, the digital effects — but it's true more often than not.

Just take a look at two films on release this week, "Iron Man 2," with Robert Downey Jr. back as the armor-clad superhero, and "The Last Song," with tween idol Miley Cyrus in her first "grown-up" role.

"Iron Man 2" knows its main demographic is boys, particularly fanboys, so the casting of Downey Jr. is especially savvy. Theoretically, any warm body in battle-armor who can fly through the air and blow up robots and cool stuff like that has you covered on the "I want to be him!" aspect with the fanboys; where Downey Jr. excels is in his fearless, utterly self-confident way in dealing with women.

rickman

By KAORI SHOJI
Special to The Japan Times
Many filmmakers say the difficulties of adapting a best-selling novel to the screen can be daunting. How about the challenge of adapting a story by a foreign best-selling author ("All God's Children Can Dance" by Haruki Murakami) from a country one had never visited (Japan) and to choose the project as a feature debut?

"As a first-time feature director, just the idea of taking on Murakami might not have been such a bright move," says Robert Logevall, who had nurtured a career in TV and film production design in LA before embarking on this project. "It is a tall task to use such layered and beautiful material to craft your film, on top of it being your first."

Logevall completed "All God's Children Can Dance" in 2007 — and the film finally makes it to Japanese shores this week, perhaps to set the scene for "Norwegian Wood" (directed by Anh Hung Tran), which opens Dec. 11.

Unlike "Norwegian Wood" however, "All God's Children . . ." makes significant departures from the original work. Logevall (working from a script by Scott Coffey) sets the story in Koreatown, L.A., and the cast is an intriguing multinational mix, including Joan Chen ("Lust, Caution"), Sonja Kinski (daughter of actress Nastassja Kinski) and Tzi Ma ("Rush Hour"). To play the all-important protagonist Kengo, Logevall handpicked Jason Lew, who teaches at New York University and is also a screenwriter.

rickman

have you watch the trailer of hansel and gretel the witch hunters???