Recent content by MiniJamesW

Stray Dogs directed by Tsai Ming-liang - 6/10 The first Tsai film that didn't really do it for me. This has the most extreme form of his style in the form of an approximately 20 minute static long take shot with no dialogue and two characters that are practically not moving. Rather than being a...

Yeah, pretty much. The Wind Rises directed by Hayao Miyazaki - 10/10 A great swansong for a master filmmaker, this time Miyazaki moves away from more magical adventure stories to more realistic human drama. Yet it is still filled with dreams that add that uncontainable creativity that Miyazaki...

The Battle Of Midway directed by John Ford - 4/10 Good war footage, bad narration. Salomé directed by Pedro Almodovar - 7/10 Interesting debut short film, I love the way it portrays and ridicules a religious story at the same time. Attack On The Bakery directed by Naoto Yamakawa - 8/10 Insane...

Captain EO directed by Francis Ford Coppola; starring Michael Jackson - 6/10 OK so I don't know what the heck this is about, nor do I even really care. The crazy special effects, sci-fi setting, and Michael Jackson singing and dancing is just awesome so time flies by with this short film...

Django Unchained directed by Quentin Tarantino - 8/10 This is more like it! I actually liked this film a lot, it's just a lot of fun and yet it has a more serious tone than other Tarantino films. My only problem would be the music choices (they just feel inappropriate for this kind of film, I...

Yeah I love To Live as well but not quite as much as Raise The Red Lantern. Really you can't go wrong with any Yimou from 1987-1994, and then selections from later in his career. I saw To Live when I was much younger, so I can't wait to re-watch that and see what I think of it now, I remember...

Death Proof directed by Quentin Tarantino - 4/10 So far my least favorite Tarantino film, and I hated the Kill Bill films. This film just doesn't really do anything and isn't fun enough to justify that. The chase scene at the end was awesome, but the film just completely shifted styles a few...

Haha thanks, I'll try my best to recommend what are actually the essentials (since I'm so obsessed with this stuff that I know nearly everything is essential to me haha). The first thing I'll have to say though is that when discussing Chinese cinema, we have to break it down to three distinct...

Yeah I've read about Wiseman's other films and that's the one with the subject matter that interests me most. I'll give it a watch when I can! I haven't posted in a while so I have seen a ton of films since my last post, I'll just basically give ratings with little to no writing on the films...

Will do, I didn't mean to hijack the thread, I just wanted to make a comment or two with APE. Thanks.

Yeah I did notice that the role of sound designer was developed throughout several films, although it's interesting how it's a relatively recent development (in terms of overall film history, the late 70's and 80's aren't that long ago even if we just limit film history to the sync sound era)...

Laborer's Love directed by Shichuan Zhang - 7/10 The earliest surviving Chinese film is actually a pretty fun silent comedy with one extremely memorable gag. The film runs on a bit too long for me, particularly the beginning which I didn't find to be as interesting, but the second half is pure...

I see, yeah I suppose it is off-topic although I think it is a very important thing to talk about. Thanks for letting me know, I look forward to hearing from you!

A Girl At Dojo Temple directed by Kon Ichikawa - 8/10 Wow so this movie is actually pretty amazing. Kon Ichikawa's first film is a short film of traditional puppetry, and Ichikawa treats his puppets as if he were shooting anything else with really beautiful compositions, nice use of shadows and...

Yeah that's what I meant, specifically about the Sound Designer role. But many great directors already cared about sound, and to add a non-Anglophone one you can include Kurosawa in that list. Yeah but he was making mainstream films, I didn't necessarily mean Hollywood mainstream. American...