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Have you seen Death - Japanese Style Moe? I find that even better than Tampopo, though not as mouth watering! I strongly disagree with Perkins Cobb here. Death - Japanese Style (aka The Funeral) could be seen in the Ozu vein, which is quite different from the later films.

And I love Minbo no onna (Anti-Extortion Woman), which is strangely joyous and in a comic vein for a film about a couple of low-level hotel employees being helped by the title character to stand up to the yakuza-types who are infesting their hotel after being pressured into taking the task on! It was suggested that depicting some of the tricks to counter the yazuka blackmail tactics in this film could have led to Juzo Itami's slighty suspicious 'suicide' five years later. Whether that is the case or not, the film certainly succeeds in empowering the individual trapped in those kinds of coercive situations.

Is this A Taxing Woman? That's a good one.

No, there were a number of "onna" movies. A Taxing Woman was the most acclaimed though - it was at least successful enough to get a sequel, A Taxing Woman Returns.

Yeah from what little I know Itami was a big popular type filmmaker in Japan so wasn't sure how his work is considered by those in the know, especially since he's never been in the collection. I've only seen Tampopo of his but I love the humor and randomness of it, it really makes me think of Bunuel more than anyone else.

Yeah me either. My professor didn't say much about him except that he was his favorite director so I guess he's maybe still more on the popular side with the added bonus that his films tend to be well made as well? He actually reminds me a lot like a cross between like early satirical Bunuel with kind of like late Kiarostami added in if you get what i mean? like the whole segment in Tampopo with the woman pressing the food almost felt like what would have happened if the two collaborated.

He's definitely more satirical but also with a strong sense of the absurdity and horror of the everyday For example the opening of Death - Japanese Style with the grumpy father having his heart attack while his wife is off clearing the dishes from the evening meal, dragging himself out onto the balcony to watch the sun set; the son watching the 'how to perform the proper funeral rites' instructional video; the mistress of one of the other sons bounding off into the field next to the house gaily throwing off clothes as she goes only to be quickly pursued and bundled back into a taxi; the way all the family peer into the crematorium in morbid curiosity as the mother is left on her own in the parking lot watching the smoke from the chimney; and so on.

Moe Dickstein wrote:wasn't sure how his work is considered by those in the know, especially since he's never been in the collection.

I keep seeing this thing that a film that winds up under Criterion somehow is somehow legitimized by the annointing. Certainly it is nicely contextualized and made available in a good edition, but there are uncounted masterpieces and directors that Criterion has never touched, either because of rights or materials, regardless of whether they would want to release it. So it's not like they get to release only what THEY want.

I thought A Taxing Woman was distinctly underwhelming when I saw it in the late VHS days. Especially considering how well-distributed it was over here. Broadly amusing to a degree perhaps, with a heavy emphasis on the broad. If it was at all satirical, one would probably have to be more tuned into Japanese sensibilities to catch any of it.

Zot! wrote:I keep seeing this thing that a film that winds up under Criterion somehow is somehow legitimized by the annointing. Certainly it is nicely contextualized and made available in a good edition, but there are uncounted masterpieces and directors that Criterion has never touched, either because of rights or materials, regardless of whether they would want to release it. So it's not like they get to release only what THEY want.

Absolutely agreed!!!! Bela Tarr and Theo Angelopoulos!

Numero Trois wrote:I thought A Taxing Woman was distinctly underwhelming when I saw it in the late VHS days. Especially considering how well-distributed it was over here. Broadly amusing to a degree perhaps, with a heavy emphasis on the broad. If it was at all satirical, one would probably have to be more tuned into Japanese sensibilities to catch any of it.

Well, I think this explains why Itami is not popular here. Yes, Taxing woman is a satirical black comedy, like all the Itami films I have seen. In general, outside of anime, I don't think Japanese comedy (or most comedies) seem to export well (financially).

Zot! wrote:

Moe Dickstein wrote:wasn't sure how his work is considered by those in the know, especially since he's never been in the collection.

I keep seeing this thing that a film that winds up under Criterion somehow is somehow legitimized by the annointing. Certainly it is nicely contextualized and made available in a good edition, but there are uncounted masterpieces and directors that Criterion has never touched, either because of rights or materials, regardless of whether they would want to release it. So it's not like they get to release only what THEY want.

Well it's certainly a matter that it's brought into the consciousness of people who otherwise might not have been aware of it.

I know there are lots of things that I'd love them to get - mainly the German and some American silents that mostly go to Kino, and which MoC get. Mostly the Lang and now things like Foolish Wives. How amazing a piece could Criterion do about something like Queen Kelly?

Moe Dickstein wrote:Well it's certainly a matter that it's brought into the consciousness of people who otherwise might not have been aware of it.

Sure, my point being that CC, for obvious business reasons, cannot be an impartial critical overview of cinema, and probably shouldn't be regarded as such.

Zot! wrote:

Moe Dickstein wrote:Well it's certainly a matter that it's brought into the consciousness of people who otherwise might not have been aware of it.

Sure, my point being that CC, for obvious business reasons, cannot be an impartial critical overview of cinema, and probably shouldn't be regarded as such.

After the last Wexner talk, I think it's pretty clear that there are three "criteria" for being "worthy" of inclusion in the collection:

1) Criterion has the rights
2) Film materials are available
3) One of their producers likes it

"Being a masterpiece" or "holding significance in the world of cinema" only enter the picture tangentially, and in an extremely subjective way.

I think Suo in "Shall We Dance" managed to make a Japanese comedy that was better balanced (and more humane) than the work of his mentor Itami. But I don't expect anything by Suo to make it into the Criterion Collection either. Criterion simply can't acquire and release every good movie ever made.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I think Suo in "Shall We Dance" managed to make a Japanese comedy that was better balanced

I totally agree with that. How does the rest of of Suo's work compare?

I Just Didn't Do It is a really terrific, Kafkaesque drama of legal injustice ad absurdum, so naturally it didn't get picked up in the US (although it was in the NYFF that year).

Yes, I Just Didn't Do It is a superb film, and I was shocked to discover that it was his follow-up to Shall We Dance? After such huge success, he couldn't manage to make another film for ten years? It's a film in a completely commercial mode that's nevertheless tough, meaty, complex and serious. Which makes it an utter rarity in modern cinema.

Suo was also the producer of Isomura's wonderful (and also neglected in the West) Ganbatte ikimasshoi.

Agreed that I Just Didn't Do It was also excellent -- possibly too serious to get Western attention. {sigh}

At the NYFF I was told that IFC was sniffing around I Just Didn't Do It but ultimately passed. It's a very accessible film with a clear, linear narrative, and it's really bizarre that they didn't see any potential there. Eurocentrism at work there, I suspect.

If Michael Haneke had made a film on exactly the same subject, distributors would be falling over themselves to acquire it (and it would probably only be half as good).

I keep hoping Criterion could secure some bluray licensing for some Peter Greenaway films... say like Prospero's Books for starters.

and boy I'd love to see (and own) Ken Loach's My Name is Joe on bluray.

I'm so far unimpressed by the rumored possibilities for this Warner deal. I already have The New World, and I don't like Pakula or Nichols at all. I really hope Criterion puts some focus on the embarrassment of riches that is Warner's pre-60s catalogue, because it seems like a complete waste to go through all this trouble of signing a deal with Warner if they only release things I don't want.

Venting and being a crybaby in the proper thread. I'm sure we'll get some good stuff.

Not a bad month, not a great one either though. Here's Your Life, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, and The Killers are all ones I'll probably purchase (though I still need to see all of them for the first time, as being in college now means I can't blind buy the way I used to). As a whole, it just lacks that "wow" factor that I was expecting for the month of the B&N sale.

And I hate to be that person, especially considering it was confirmed a while back, but do we really need a CC Blu-Ray of Moonrise Kingdom? Sure, I like the film, but I'd much rather see Criterion use their resources for films more in need of a rescue, like Here's Your Life. (Though I do understand that a release like contributes to them being able to afford more niche titles, so...)

Releasing a Wes Anderson film is a license to print money for them, and that money goes into releasing other films, perhaps ones in need of rescue.

There are much, much, much, much worse cash cow films they could be releasing.