A Few More Movie Reviews
Jan. 16th, 2014 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerAnd now for three movies that are most quite different! From Up On Poppy Hill is a gentle, picturesque period piece about Japan in 1963, which focuses on the first post-World War II cohort’s coming of age. It is perhaps the only animated film I’ve seen that has no magical elements, but there’s a gentle, nostalgic glow about the story and the settings that gives them a sort of magic of their own.
The most picturesque setting of all is the Latin Quarter, as the high school students call their clubhouse, a creaky three-story building with stained glass windows and a cobweb-encrusted chandelier. The building is redolent with character, by which I mean “so much dust that the dust may well have become necessary to the building’s structural integrity.”
The school, presumably out of concern that all that character has made the place a fire trap, wants to tear it down. But a few of the students band together to do battle for their Latin Quarter. Although our heroine, Umi, is busy with home responsibilities, she becomes embroiled in the struggle to save the clubhouse as she grows closer to one of its architects, a boy named Shun.
For all that there’s a touch of the soap-operatic about a particular part of the storyline, it’s a very peaceful movie to watch.
The Merry Gentleman, on the other hand…is actually a surprisingly quiet movie, which I did not at all expect from the description. It’s about the friendship between Frank, a suicidal assassin, and Kate, who just escaped from an abusive relationship. After committing a hit, Frank considers jumping off a roof, only to fall backward onto a rooftop when Kate sees him and shouts for him not to do it.
She didn’t get a very good look at his face, so she doesn’t recognize him when he shows up at her apartment later and helps her carry her massive Christmas tree inside. It is, in an odd sort of way, a Christmas movie: the “merry gentleman” of the title is a reference to the Christmas song, and ideas of hope, love, and redemption thread their way through the movie.
I sometimes had a sense that perhaps the director was just tossing religious imagery at the wall to see what stuck, but I think the fact that it doesn’t add up to a coherent thematic argument, that there isn’t an answer, is perhaps the point. It’s in keeping with the movie’s other choices: it’s an interesting movie, but also a deliberately frustrating one. We never learn why Frank is assassinating people (or why he’s suicidal. Is he suddenly suffering from scruples?), or much about Kate’s background, and we only get hints at the things that make them tick.
Because I’m not entirely clear what happened. I think Frank only pretended to kill himself, possibly so that Kate - who had only recently learned he was an assassin - would feel safe again. At least, I think he’s the one who picks up his cap from the water at the end? But the shot never comes into focus.
There’s a definite contrast to her abusive ex, who, after finding God, tracked Kate down and broke into her apartment to tell her that he was a totally changed man and she shouldn’t be afraid anymore (because nothing says “Fear not!” like stalking someone across a continent and sneaking into their apartment).
I also watched The Mask of Zorro, which is definitely not peaceful but does tend to the picturesque. I don’t have a lot to say about this movie, except that it would have been a clear improvement if Elena cut up Zorro’s shirt during their sword fight. Just think how much more exciting the horse-chase would be if Zorro’s shirt blew away from his chest at appropriate moments!
The most picturesque setting of all is the Latin Quarter, as the high school students call their clubhouse, a creaky three-story building with stained glass windows and a cobweb-encrusted chandelier. The building is redolent with character, by which I mean “so much dust that the dust may well have become necessary to the building’s structural integrity.”
The school, presumably out of concern that all that character has made the place a fire trap, wants to tear it down. But a few of the students band together to do battle for their Latin Quarter. Although our heroine, Umi, is busy with home responsibilities, she becomes embroiled in the struggle to save the clubhouse as she grows closer to one of its architects, a boy named Shun.
For all that there’s a touch of the soap-operatic about a particular part of the storyline, it’s a very peaceful movie to watch.
The Merry Gentleman, on the other hand…is actually a surprisingly quiet movie, which I did not at all expect from the description. It’s about the friendship between Frank, a suicidal assassin, and Kate, who just escaped from an abusive relationship. After committing a hit, Frank considers jumping off a roof, only to fall backward onto a rooftop when Kate sees him and shouts for him not to do it.
She didn’t get a very good look at his face, so she doesn’t recognize him when he shows up at her apartment later and helps her carry her massive Christmas tree inside. It is, in an odd sort of way, a Christmas movie: the “merry gentleman” of the title is a reference to the Christmas song, and ideas of hope, love, and redemption thread their way through the movie.
I sometimes had a sense that perhaps the director was just tossing religious imagery at the wall to see what stuck, but I think the fact that it doesn’t add up to a coherent thematic argument, that there isn’t an answer, is perhaps the point. It’s in keeping with the movie’s other choices: it’s an interesting movie, but also a deliberately frustrating one. We never learn why Frank is assassinating people (or why he’s suicidal. Is he suddenly suffering from scruples?), or much about Kate’s background, and we only get hints at the things that make them tick.
Because I’m not entirely clear what happened. I think Frank only pretended to kill himself, possibly so that Kate - who had only recently learned he was an assassin - would feel safe again. At least, I think he’s the one who picks up his cap from the water at the end? But the shot never comes into focus.
There’s a definite contrast to her abusive ex, who, after finding God, tracked Kate down and broke into her apartment to tell her that he was a totally changed man and she shouldn’t be afraid anymore (because nothing says “Fear not!” like stalking someone across a continent and sneaking into their apartment).
I also watched The Mask of Zorro, which is definitely not peaceful but does tend to the picturesque. I don’t have a lot to say about this movie, except that it would have been a clear improvement if Elena cut up Zorro’s shirt during their sword fight. Just think how much more exciting the horse-chase would be if Zorro’s shirt blew away from his chest at appropriate moments!
