Samurai Fiction

xo · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 11:03 pm Post subject: Samurai Fiction

I saw a movie a little while back, called Samurai Fiction.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0170544

I didn't really know what to expect but I found it rather amusing and it reminded me of anime in a lot of ways - sudden comical moments, broadly drawn characters that fit archetypes, etc. It's shot in black and white and I guess there's a lot of homage paid to classic samurai movies, but it had some real modern flavor as well: in camera angles, editing, and in particular the score which some rock-n-roll here and there mostly to good effect.

Anyway, if you have the opportunity to see this one, you might like it.

-xo

(inc) · Joined: 18 Feb 2002 Posts: 356 Location: San Diego

That really does look interesting, xo. Anyone check to see if it's ever been posted in alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese? I really should track that group more, I guess...

Minor point -- the first reviewer on IMDB uses the phrase "'old school' samurai drama like the ones of Akira Kurosawa." Totally off the mark with regard to AK anyway -- part of his problem with the typical Japanese critic was that he was totally non-compliant with traditional Japanese Samarui film. Watch 7 Samarui when they raid the bandits camp: haphazord sword play, tripping, falling, all the *nobility* of battle removed -- total *fog of war* if you will ... just the opposite of the traditional filmed dual of the time. Even in Yojimbo the biggest battle (only in the sense of the number of *combatents* envolved) is just the two main groups posturing at each other as they move in and out of frame (good stuff IMHO).

Maybe the reviewer was confusing AK's films with the Samurai Trilogy, which did star Mifune, but is much more standard fare.

If someone reading this is not too familiar with AK, but interested, here's a good place to start:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kurosawa.html

(inc)

xo · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 6:28 pm Post subject:

I should've mentioned that I believe I got it from abmj sometime ago, though I can't remember exactly when (dammit, I gotta start timestamping my CDs).

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I've never seen 7 Samurai, though I've seen a smattering of Kurosawa's other works. I see your point about reviewer comment on Kurosawa - other than maybe Ran, I don't seem to recall his fights and battles being particularly majestic. More like "scrappy". But Ran made up for that in a big way Wink

.

As for SF - the fighting is sort of stylized so I guess I wouldn't classify it as Kurosawa-esque myself.

In anycase, while there is some fighting, I definitely enjoyed the other parts more Smile

.

-xo

(inc) · Joined: 18 Feb 2002 Posts: 356 Location: San Diego

Keikai · Joined: 18 Feb 2002 Posts: 178 Location: Miami, FL

xo · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:40 am Post subject:

If any of you are curious about this movie, it's being posted in ABMJ started on 2004-01-03. I'm guessing a DVD rip in avi format as there is an .srt as part of the post as well as "extras".

-xo

(inc) · Joined: 18 Feb 2002 Posts: 356 Location: San Diego

xo · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:04 am Post subject:

Just to clarify in case there was a misunderstanding: Samurai Fiction was posted to ABMJ.

-xo