Broken empty people adrift in the new urban society searching for something meaningful but everywhere it's all the same. Whether wanting to remain attached to the past or discover a new life of adventure and opportunity there is always something static, something lacking. It bleakly depicts the outcome of being supportive to friends and family, the consequences of not being greedy in a society where it pays to take advantage of the less fortunate. A damn or be damned dystopia in the oppressive neon-lit city lights.
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Mahler 1974
It's never going to be possible to understand the power of Mahler's music from a film on his life, you just need to listen to it. What we have here is though are some of the important events that drove his creativity. His loves and the impact of prevailing religious thought. There are some great audio visual treats and of course the standout sequence in his declared conversion to Christianity, as theatrical and as full of artifice as the event itself.
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Memories 1995
An inconsistent anthology film in which the different films showed no connection with each other making the format seem pointless. It starts really well with something that was visually appealing and showed a great amount of inventiveness (8/10). The long second section was a silly comedy that felt like another rehash of something that I've seen countless times before (5/10). The short final episode made for a decent coda and if they tried to combine some of those moral aspects with the second piece they could have created something interesting (7/10).
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Swing Girls 2004
A typical teen comedy with the kind of characters and dumb scenarios that you'd expect but I liked it anyway. I think there is something about ones that feature a band of not very good musicians that make them more enjoyable. Being a dabbler of several instruments myself, I have an extra hook of interest.
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Eternal Heart 1929
The oldest surviving Shimizu feature is a drawn out tale of two people who compromise and sacrifice their own potential happiness due to politeness. A suggestion to stop being so nice sometimes maybe? I liked the dream sequence near the beginning and there were some good techniques on display for this 1920s film but the overall plotting was quite slow.
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Priest of Darkness 1936
Another great ensemble piece from Yamanaka. A plot that weaves through the lives of multiple well-drawn characters to bring to life this little town with a fine balance of tragic melodrama and situational comedy.
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