Around the world....by movies 1

Around the world ... by movies

Several times my kids have asked me a list of interesting films to learn more about cinema and not only. With this new post, I begin a series that will take us through the non-European continents by films. I could not see them all: to give complete information, I had to point to some without watching them. However, I will try to offer a good international overview to my movie fans. We will start from the Far East. Good vision!
                                          JapanHow to start from Japan without the Last Samurai? This great movie, directed by E.Zwick in 2003, starring Tom Cruise (technically he did a very good performance) and a super Ken Watanabe as co-star, without forgetting the wonderful soundtrack by Hans Ziemmer (the same who created the music for Gladiator), it narrates a crucial point in Japanese history, the Meiji Revolution of 1876. Summary of previous episodes: during the nineteenth century, the Japanese government realized that, in order to oppose the Europeans, it was necessary to adopt their best discoveries; then it resorted to a bunch of consultants, who helped the emperor, the Mikado, and his ministers, to reform the nation in the Western sense. Tom Cruise plays one of these consultants, American Nathaniel Algren, who ends up on the samurai side to struggle in defense of the warrior tradition (based on Zen code of Honor Bushido).

Although the Japanese did not resort to the Americans, and instead of Algren there was a French man, the film's core is real (with the samurai a little idealized, as it was observed in Japan); the warrior class had to adapt by force: there were those who rebelled, as in the movie, and there were those who entered the new Western logic: did you know that the main Japanese industries, such as Toyota, were born from samurai families and ethics?Another attractive and successful film, which illustrates a fascinating side of Japanese culture, is Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005 (always with Watanabe), starring Zhang Ziyi (who is actually Chinese). I have only seen the clips, but  it won three Oscars for photography, sets and costumes, then, at the technical level it is very good. But you have to take cautiously some parts about the life of a geisha: the author of the novel, A.Golden, ran into some trouble with the geisha he had used as a source, because he had portrayed geisha as escorts. In fact, sexual favors were excluded from their work: geishas are artists and honored entertainers.

 

If you want to know Japan for real, you should watch a few films by the genius of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa (1910-98). He came from a samurai family, became famous for his historical reconstructions of the time of the samurai, similar to our westerns and characterized by epic tone; however, some of his productions are based on stories by Shakespeare and other classics of literature (for example, I have seen the Idiot, 1951, adapted from Dostoevsky: in fact, the film recreates very well the atmosphere of Japan after the war). The most famous films by Kurosawa are Ran (= Chaos, 1985, a Japanese remake of King Lear), Rashomon (1950, awarded the Oscar and the Golden Lion in Venice, it is the title of a 1915 short story and the name of a gate of Kyoto, where the characters relate to each other, in always different ways, a crime; the diversity of irreconcilable perspectives reminds As I Lay dying, by Faulkner) and, above all, Seven samurai, a true Japanese western, where a group of samurai (Ronin, masterless samurai) agrees to defend a poor farming village from a swarm of brigands (they come to our rescue!). The film was the model for the famous Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner (1960). In Kurosawa's film you will find sooner or later famous actor Toshiro Mifune: often compared to John Wayne, he is recognizable for its relentless and (often) spirited attitude.

                                         Finally, back to history. To understand a little better the trauma of Japan's defeat after the Second World War, you can see Emperor, 2012, starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones ,who excels in the role of General Douglas MacArthur. Practically, it is the story of the investigation carried out by the occupying Americans, to determine the degree of responsibility of Emperor Hirohito at the outbreak of war. Guys, it is an American movie: you feel the Manichean division between good guys and vilains, without many shades and with various clichés (like the ritual love story); Hirohito eventually saves the country from the atomic bombings agreeing to conclude the peace. But it is a decent film and can be instructive. Alas, I have not seen it, but always about Hirohito there is a 2005 film by respected Russian director Alexandr Sokurov: The sun. Even here, at the center of the story there is the trauma of defeat, and the emperor's decision to give up his divine status.

Finally, a masterpiece about war and peace: Hiroshima, mon amour. Maybe it's a bit difficult, lyrical, but it's really beautiful: in 1959, it was celebrated as the initiator of the Nouvelle Vague, that is the new way of French films, which roughly corresponds to Italian Neorealismo; in fact, the first film of the Nouvelle Vague is Les quatrecent coups, by François Truffaut, beautiful, 1959. The director here is Alain Resnais, the exceptional screenwriter Marguerite Duras, one of the biggest names in the '900 French culture ( Oscar-nominated for her screenplay). Hiroshima, mon amour tells the love story between a French actress and a Japanese architect, in the background of Hiroshima destroyed by the atomic bombing: the actress (who has no name, as her lover) has to deal with the traumas of war, during which she lost her first love; but, from a long series of flashbacks, she realizes she is alone in front of pain, while, around her, the courage stands out by which the Japanese, perhaps the real winners of the conflict, face their misfortune. The photography, black and white, is magnificent, scene blend the past and the present with dizzying and unsettling effects. The film is a beautiful story about loneliness, pain, but also about love.

Southeast Asia

Under this broad title, I put not only true Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Laos), but also the insular part. And here, there's really a lot of stuff, so much so that I will also go on in the next installment.First, the plethora of films about Vietnam. To be sure, not a few are largely set in America after the war, in the environment of veterans: the famous Hunter, 1978, by Michael Cimino (who died a few days ago, the film won five Oscars), with Robert De Niro (in Italy, which was on the left back then, it caused a scandal for the cruel representation of the Vietcong); Good Morning, Vietnam, the film that launched Robin Williams in 1987 (the title is taken from the greeting by which the protagonist, disc jockey Adrian Cronauer, addresses from the radio to the soldiers on the front); Born July 4, 1989, with Tom Cruise, directed by Oliver Stone (perhaps one of his best films), which tells the story of a paralyzed and horribly disillusioned war veteran; always by Oliver Stone and based on his personal experiences, Platoon, 1986, which won four Oscars; finally and above all, Apocalypse Now, directed in 1979 by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford and Martin Sheen (who risked almost to get crazy to identify with his character). The latter film is inspired by Joseph Conrad's masterpiece on colonialism, Heart of Darkness, a kind of journey into the hell of  Belgian Congo, focussed on mysterious and evanescent Kurtz, hidden in the forest (played by M.Brando). The hell is here the Vietnam jungle  (I remind my readers that Conrad was Polish, but wrote in a beautiful English, with a rare depth).

                                                                                                (to be continued)