Sayonara (1957) Review

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(More customer reviews)Marlon Brando stars in "Sayonara," a 1957 love story based on the James Michener novel that tackles the issue of interracial romance. Brando plays a Major in the Air Force stationed in Korea, who also happens to be the son of a big-shot General and is wooing the daughter (played by Patricia Owens) of a Lt. General. When one of the men under his command (Red Buttons) declares his intentions of marrying a Japanese woman (Miyoshi Umeki), Brando tries to talk him out of it. When Brando and Buttons are transferred to Japan, Brando re-ignites his relationship with his girlfriend who is living there with her family. However, he also starts to realize that he's never explored what he actually wants in life - everything has been dictated by his family and social position. He then surprises even himself when he is attracted to a mysterious Japanese dancer, played by Miiko Taka.
"Sayonara" is surprisingly effective, both as a romance and as an "issues" movie; it really stands up better than most "issues" movies of its time. Most of the reason is because of the superb acting; Buttons and Umeki won Oscars for their supporting roles. In addition, Brando gives an under-stated, sensitive performance in his Oscar-nominated role. Fortunately, the outstanding acting allows the audience to believe Brando's transformation as well as the relationships that form, which is crucial for this film. Director Joshua Logan also does great work here, especially as he's best known for rather over-heated, unsubtle movies such as "Bus Stop" and "Picnic." The cinematography is exquisite and the segments in the Japanese theaters are wonderfully staged. Although "Sayonara" is a bit on the long side and probably could have used some editing, it's a first-class drama. Highly recommended.


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The story of American servicemen on leave in Japan during the Korean War, and the anguish they suffer after being spurned by both societies for loving Japanese women.Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: NRRelease Date: 11-JAN-2005Media Type: DVD

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The Hidden Fortress - Criterion Collection (1960) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to confess my bias at the start: Akira Kurosawa is easily one of my two or three favorite directors. If forced to sit down and do a list of my 25 favorite films, SEVEN SAMURAI would be in a tie for first, and two or three others would join it on the list.
This was the first movie that Kurosawa made that was widescreen, and therefore the first that will derive maximum benefit from DVD. (Read through the early reviews of the DVD of SEVEN SAMURAI to see some of the confusion over this.) His use of the wider angle is magnificent, presenting the view with extraordinary vistas again and again. Kurosawa never seemed to struggle with the technical aspects of filmmaking, and would later make a similarly effortless transition to color.
This is one of Kurosawa's finest films. It is difficult to say that it is his best, since his very best films are among the greatest ever made. Suffice it to say, that the film bears in every way the mark of greatness. The camera work is flawless. Though black and white, the film is gorgeous to look at every moment. The acting is impeccable, with Mifune giving a somewhat difference performance in this one. If we are more accustomed to think of him as a more fiery character, as in RASHOMON or SEVEN SAMURAI or THRONE OF BLOOD, in this one he is magisterial and aristocratic.
I think the parallels to STAR WARS are rather overblown, and anyone coming to this film looking for tones of George Lucas rather than Akira Kurosawa just may find themselves disappointed. Yes, there is a princess, and yes, there are some very small plot parallels, and yes, there are two comic characters included to provide light entertainment and to move the plot along. But none of these are crucial elements of THE HIDDEN FORTRESS.
But I do think the STAR WARS references bring up a very interesting point about Kurosawa: more than anyother foreign filmmaker in history, Kurosawa is the one with the easist relationship with American culture. People who normally dislike foregin film can respond powerfully to his films. I once showed SEVEN SAMURAI to a group of high school boys. These kids were almost in a state of mutiny, because 1) the film was black and white and 2) it was subtitled. But by the end of the evening they were all entranced and had become fans of the film.
I think the reason they responded so easily was partly because Kurosawa was a cinematic genius, but also because he had absorbed so much of American culture and film technique in his films. Just as many American films have borrowed directly from his work, so he borrowed from American sources. Many of his films bear evidence of extensive exposure to film noir and American Westerns, and several of his plots are borrowed from American and Western sources. One example: much has been made of the fact that A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS was based on Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, but it is not as often noted that YOJIMBO was based on Dashiell Hammett's RED HARVEST, in which the Continental Op goes to the town of Personville (or, as a Brooklyn-accented character in the book pronounces it, Poisonville) and turns two warring criminal factions against each other.
But if you haven't seen this film, do so. Without any question one of Kurosawa's very finest films.

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A general and a princess must dodge enemy clans while smuggling the royal treasure out of hostile territory with two bumbling, conniving peasants at their sides; it's a spirited adventure that only Akira Kurosawa could create. Acknowledged as a primary influence on George Lucas' Star Wars, The Hidden Fortress delivers Kurosawa's inimitably deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action and humanist compassion on an epic scale. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this landmark motion picture in a stunning, newly-restored Tohoscope edition.

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The Rape of Nanking (Disc 1 Side A). Unit 731, Sex Slaves & Comfort Women, Japanese War Time Atrocities, Hiroshima, and more (Disc 2, Side A). Tiananmen Massacre (Disc 2 Side B). Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw this movie, with several friends, in a crowded theater in California. This movie will give you nightmares! It is the most shocking, horrifying movie ever made! Let me tell you about the audience that saw it with me. By the end of the film, almost everyone was in shock. Many were crying and in tears. A friend of mine who is a journalist, told me she began having nightmares after watching it. This movie is not for the faint hearted. All the pictures and film clips are archival, and most were taken by the Japanese. This is truly shocking stuff. It does not get more real than this. As to the background music, I have only this to say: Bravo!

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This edition contains two, 2-sided DVDs, 3 full length movies, and 8 short films. Disc 1: Side A: The Rape of NankingDisc 1: Side B: Hitler's DiariesDisc 2: Side A: Atrocities (8 short films)Disc 2 Side B: The Tiananmen MassacreRapeof Nanking begins with a historical overview of ancient China and the sun-cult of Shinto, Bushido, and Japanese Emporer Hirohito's dream to rule the world. There follows the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, the Rape of Nanking, and finally, the rape of Manilla, Unit 731 and the Baatan Death March.Japanese soldiers tear out the eyes of children, gang-rape women then set them on fire, bury people alive or use them for bayonet practice...beheading women, children, old men....and torturing people for fun...and then laughing hysterically as victims, who have been set on fire, run screaming through the night..."We had fun killing Chinese. We caught some innocent Chinese and either buried them alive, or pushed them into a fire, or beat them to death with clubs. When they were half dead we pushed them into ditches and burned them, torturing them to death. Everyone gets his entertainment this way. Its like killing dogs and cats." --Asahi Shimbun, Japanese soldier, describing Japanese atrocities during the Rape of Nanking."We took turns raping them. We always stabbed and killed them. When we were raping her, we looked at her as a woman. But when we killed her, we just thought of her as something like a pig." --Azuma Shiro, Japanese soldier.****The Tiananmen Massacre documents the rise and fall of the 1989 Student Democracy Movement when tens of millions of Chinese peacefully demonstrated for freedom, economic reform, and democracy. The film details how a few men controlling the government of China declared war against the Chinese people, and used tanks and machine guns to murder and maim thousands of innocent men and women whose only crime was a hunger for freedom and democracy. Includes rare footage of the fate of the "Tank Man" and answers the question about his fate: He was arrested, beaten, and never seen again.****"Atrocities" (Disc 2 Side B) includes 8 short films: The Ainu; Atrocities of the Japanese Army; Sex Slaves and comfort women; Japan and Asia's Stolen Treasures; Qing Dynasty Atrocities, Hiroshima and the Atomic Bomb; Hitler Nazi Atrocities; and what has been described as the most frightening, most horrifying film of all time, "Unit 731" which details Japanese war time medical experiments on human prisoners. ***The Rape of Nanking (Disc 1) was rated among the "Top 10 Most Discussed Films of All Time."

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Hiroshima - Why the Bomb Was Dropped (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)If one were to focus on Truman's description of the atomic bomb as "the greatest thing in history" and NOT keep it in context with the Second World War, Give 'em Hell Harry would come across as a bloodthirsty warmonger to make Attila look like a boy scout - wait a minute, make that a "cub scout". It would serve to recall that despite Japan's attempt to negotiate an end to the war with the Soviet Union (with whom they had a non-aggression pact), Molotov under the strict direction of Stalin refused to even meet with the Japanese until after Hiroshima had been destroyed. When a meeting was finally sanctioned on August 8th, the Soviet message to Japan was a declaration of war, which promptly ended any further discussion.
On the evening prior to Hirohito's message ("We must bear the unbearable . . ") on the 14th of August, a group of relatively junior officers attempted a coup to prevent the broadcast of the emperor's decision to surrender; their position, in the spirit of Bushido, was to defend their home soil to the last man. Indeed, even after the formal surrender, there were still units fighting fiercely on the Asian mainland. Small cells of Japanese soldiers held out on islands in the Pacific for literally years, although most were isolated and refused to believe the "propaganda" that the war had ended.
To grasp the enormity and gravemen of that time, and, consequently the political decisions that dictated the state of the world for generations to come, is not something that can be capsulized. Among a multitude of arguments, the arguments that conventional bombing precluded the need for a nuclear strike, or that an invasion of the Japanese mainland scheduled for November 01 would result in a million Allied casualties are grist for an academic mill, and will be debated for centuries. To conduct such debates along any moral guidelines is pointless: A conflagration that consumed no less than 55 million human beings is not a moral issue. It is an error in logic to try to make it so.

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HIROSHIMA WHY THE BOMB WAS DROPPED - DVD Movie

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Destroy All Monsters - 50th Anniversary Special Edition (1969) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever produced, but this DVD version is far from perfect. Unfortunately, this is just a re-issue of the same DVD released a few years ago. The film transfer is exactly the same as the one previously released by ADV films, which has a recently re-dubbed mono soundtrack. The ADV soundtrack is much inferior to the one originally produced for American International Pictures in 1968, which featured an excellent voice-cast and a different script. Apparently the AIP version can't be published because the ownership rights are in limbo. Based on the cover notes, I bought this DVD believing it had the original AIP voice-tracks. No such luck. The folks at ADV deliberately stretch the truth. The cover art claims it's the "50th Anniversary Special Edition", but Destroy All Monsters was made in 1968, which makes this DVD issue the 36th anniversary for the film (in 2004). The 50th year, is a reference to the first Godzilla movie "Gojira" made in 1954, but the text makes no mention of Gojira or Godzilla. It also claims to contain "The original motion picture and soundtrack", which is misrepresentation. The original film was Japanese language, and this DVD isn't even the original English version. I would've been a lot less disappointed if they had at least given this version some chapter stops and stereo audio (which there isn't). There's not even a menu for this low budget version. If you try to hit the chapter advance button, the movie starts over from the beginning. There's no menus, no extras, no subtitles, no secondary audio tracks, no trailer, no nothing. The only thing that's different from ADV's first issue of this movie, is the cover art and the addition of a music CD. The CD contains 30 mono-audio music tracks from the movie soundtrack. The music score is wonderful, but the audio is not stereo and the fidelity is only fair. My point of contention is that ADV is trying to fool us into believing this movie has the original audio soundtrack, but instead gives you fine-print on the back mentioning an extra music CD. Buyer beware, if you already own the original release of this DVD, don't be fooled into thinking this is a different version.

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