what are you watching in Spring 2024?

Bodyguard Kiba 1 & 2 - So by the early 70's, the Japanese film industry had already been declining for a decade due to the appearence of television. This crisis was really brought home when Nikkatsu, one of the major studios, decided to concentrate entirely on "roman porno" - closer to erotic films than actual porn, but still a significant downgrade from their past glories. They did this because of course sex was something you couldn't show on television yet. Toei, the studio that did Bodyguard Kiba, went a different route, opting for violent, testosterone filled action cinema with likewise unbroadcastable gore, aimed at a male, blue collar audience. The most famous of these are Fukasaku's yakuza films, but that guy's an auteur in his own right and has had plenty written about him.

What I've noticed from watching less lauded Toei efforts like these and the Game series is something approaching a house style - these films always feel CRAMPED, like the viewer is about to bump into one of the characters if they move an inch. Lots of cheap, small apartments and dingy, darkly lit nightclubs. The camera's always placed somewhere interesting, often behind a screen, from a window, sometimes from the ceiling! These films really telegraph their low budgets, but at the same time nothing ever feels perfunctory, every shot is interestingly composed, though often enough the intent is lost on me.

I focus on the style because the story, well...the first one's damn near incomprehensible, just a sleepy stoned succession of drug deals, double crosses, violence. Second one makes a bit more sense, which in a way makes it less interesting. But it does have an element of discrimination against the Okinawan and Korean population.

To give this thread a better chance at survival, I've made a LB list for all films that ppl mention watching here:

http://letterboxd.com/reifferschizzle/list/ilx-what-are-you-watching-spring-2024/

Whirlpool (Preminger, 1950)

rewatched ball of fire. give me this over bringing up baby anyday, cooper and stanwyck in their most charming modes, character actors like Dan Duryea and S Z Sakall delivering the juice. best film that wilder came within ten feet of

man I've tried to like Ball of Fire. On my third pass I switched to The Lady Eve again.

I love Ball Of Fire and Bringing Up Baby both. Stanwyck angrily placing some books on the floor so she can reach to kiss Cooper is perfection.

Evil does not exist (Hamaguchi, 2023). Great film though for once too short: the ending tries to pull something along the lines of a magical realist trick that felt like a way of trying to end something prematurely. But I really loved almost evetything up to it.

The guy has a talent for filming conversations in cars too.

Just dropping in to say I saw Poolman and was delighted by it. It's a mess as a film but so lovable I was won over. The dialog at the beginning is so full of bizarre non-sequiturs it made me feel like I was stoned!