I'm the
first one to admit that I'm watching a lot of soulless crap. Most of what I'm
watching never - NEVER - gets reviewed here, because it's too uninteresting. I
think this is one of the reasons why I'm from time to time looses interest in
writing reviews. These movies, the bad ones, works as (to quote Anton LaVey)
"Psychic Vampires". They steal all my energy and points out how
meaningless it is, this what I'm doing. The last couple of days, after a few
weeks of writing nothing, I've been watching Japanese genre cinema and hey...
this is very good for the soul! From Ultraseven (SO cool) to The H-Man and
Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds. Original, fresh, fun, absurd and with a
depth that a lot of other countries don't have in their art. So I decided to
once again take down Kon Ichikawa's The Inugami Family from the shelf and give
it a spin, and boy... this is freaking good stuff!
When it
comes to the work of Kon Ichikawa I'm not an expert at all, but I would love
some recommendations what to start with - preferably if it's out on a nice DVD
or even nicer BD. What I understand this is not a typical Ichikawa
Well, we
all know what this leads to: murder, murder and more murder - everything in a
delicate mess of intrigue and gossip and the question is if even the famous
Kindaichi can solve this mystery before it gets even bloodier!
The Inugami
Family is part murder mystery but maybe most of all an interesting and very
dark deconstruction of a typical rich (and greedy) Japanese family. I promise
you, there's multiple solutions to the murders and after each one it gets even
more and more complicated. The calm camera studies the reactions of everyone in
the shot, like I never seen it before. A couple of time the visual style
reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing: the paranoia growing bigger, the
unexpected kills, the subtle music. Ichikawa Bay of Blood
The story
is very complex and convoluted, and it takes 100 % concentration to watch this
film. Because if you look away you might miss a clue or a twist, and to fully
enjoy this story you need to know everything.
The Inugami
Family, with its black humour, ghastly murder mystery and scathing satire - and
don't forget the discrete use of homoeroticism - is one of my favourite
Japanese movies ever and a true masterpiece. For those interested, Ichikawa
2 comments:
"The last couple of days, after a few weeks of writing nothing, I've been watching Japanese genre cinema and hey..."
I would love to see some pinku eiga reviews.....please ninja?
"When it comes to the work of Kon Ichikawa I'm not an expert at all, but I would love some recommendations what to start with - preferably if it's out on a nice DVD or even nicer BD."
I don´´t think I´ve seen any of his films.....I think he is a prominent japanese filmmaker though, mostly famous for a documentary Tôkyô orimpikku (1965).
His range was diverse judging from IMDB, hey how about a Kon Ichikawa week at ninja dixon?
"The Inugami Family is part murder mystery but maybe most of all an interesting and very dark deconstruction of a typical rich (and greedy) Japanese family."
A wonderful chance to critize japanese society I guess.
"A couple of time the visual style reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing: the paranoia growing bigger, the unexpected kills, the subtle music. Ichikawa also has some fun with the murders - all of them off-screen, until the final revelation at the end when we gets a chance to see every kill again, but this time with blood and goo."
Yeah, people usually forgets to create a mood of paranoia when it comes to this type of whodunit.
"The Inugami Family, with its black humour, ghastly murder mystery and scathing satire - and don't forget the discrete use of homoeroticism - is one of my favourite Japanese movies ever and a true masterpiece."
Big praise coming from you ninja.....maybe I should see it.
Great review, thanks ninja.
Megatron
"When it comes to the work of Kon Ichikawa I'm not an expert at all, but I would love some recommendations what to start with - preferably if it's out on a nice DVD or even nicer BD."
I AM an Ichikawa Kon fan - I've seen eight or nine of his many films, but most are hard to find in the US. My first recommendation would have to be 'An Actor's Revenge' (aka 'Revenge of a Kabuki Actor'), about which Ichikawa said, 'My two major influences were Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock'. It's a brilliant, colorful, engaging revenge story with a brilliant performance by Hasegawa Kazuo - this version (1963) is a remake of a 1935 film that starred the same actor. The 1963 version is one of Ichikawa's best, and it's an utterly unique film.
If you like the family interactions in 'The Inugami Family', you'll probably also love 'The Makioka Sisters', a 1983 film by Ichikawa in a ravishing blu-ray from Criterion. It lacks the whodunnit element, but if anything the familial interplay is even more compelling.
Criterion has also released three of Ichikawa's earlier films - 'The Burmese Harp' and 'Fires on the Plain', two b&w films from early in Ichikawa's career - both treat different issues from WWII, and both are pretty strong anti-war films. Both are excellent films.
Finally, I recommend Ichikawa's 2000 film, 'Dora Heita', from a script planned originally for Mifune Toshiro in 1969. It's a rather pacific samurai film that focuses on character and narrative rather than action. Ichikawa also did a version of 47 Ronin/Chusingura in 1994 - it's a good retelling, but surprisingly not as beautiful of some Ichikawa films can be.
I can't recommend the remake of 'The Inugami Family', and it's rather hard to find. Sadly, not enough of this wonderful filmmaker's output is available in this country - that's a neglect that needs to change. But you should definitely take a look at 'An Actor's Revenge' and - if for nothing other than the visuals - 'The Makioka Sisters'.
Post a Comment