POWERFUL MESSAGE

Japanese culture is deeply rooted into the nature and the bonds between the people and flora and fauna of the land of the rising sun is very strong.

„Princess Mononoke” brings us one of those ecological stories about the extinction of ancient animal Gods in the wake of industrial revolution in Japan. All of the possible characters will be present, from super heroes to samurai and all of them will be overshadowed by the Deer God and his strength. Script will be overplayed and periodically drowned into random and bizarre events, but that fact will not diminish the powerful message to the generation that will inherit the Earth after ours.

„Princess Mononoke” deals with an everlasting subject in a traditional Japanese way.

PRINCESS MONONOKE – 6/10

FOTO: entropymag.org

 

TOO BIZARRE EVEN FOR JAPAN

Japanese folk traditional culture is somewhat unknown to the Westerners, so every trip inside it can cause a bit of a shock.

„Spirited away” is one of those hyper bizarre tales about and enchanted city that is being ruled by ghosts and where people are being used as livestock or labour force. Plethora of characters and randomness of the script will cause you to loose track of the plot very early inside the flick and not to pick it up even after this cartoon comes to an end.

„Spirited away” is too much, even for a die hard fan of Japanese animated movies.

SPIRITED AWAY – 2/10


FOTO: filmtakeout.com

SLOW BURNER

Every kingdom periodically flushes a madman at its helm and movies dealing with his/her actions can be very powerful. Especially when confronted with the common folk or, like in „The king and the clown”, a pair of satirical clowns.

All the perverted ideas and relations that will be derived from that concept will be laid out in a fine manner, followed by some truly convincing roles (Joon-Gi Lee). The symbolism of the final clashes will be hightened by a seamless transition to a pure Korean folk tale it is based on.

„The king and the clown” is one good Korean folk tale developed for the silver screen.

THE KING AND THE CLOWN – 6/10

FOTO: 2.bp.blogspot.com

QUALITY AND TIMELESNESS

FOTO: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

Japanese legends represent one of the major topics for their cinematography, but with variable success rate.

”Love and honor” is in its core basically an epic folk poem about the young samurai that turns blind after tasting poisonous food for the local shogun. His misfortunes that follow the accident are pretty much typical, including one of the major subjects of the traditional Japanese movie, adultery.

Overall rhythm is slow, but very intense, including the much expected catharsis of our hero that wins the hearts of everyone in the audience with his persistence and reverence. Camera is pretty much consistent, focusing on the wider shots. The end, is as always different from those that people from the West are used to.

”Love and honor” is one of the finest Japanese traditional tales ever to see the big screen and a warm recommendation for every true movie lover.

LOVE AND HONOR - 9/10