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Things That Are Good: April 2011
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Thursday, April 21, 2011. 8220;There’s night and day, brother, both sweet things. Sun, and moon and stars, brother; all sweet things. There’s likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother.”. A man who sits dying wheezes these words about halfway through The Proposition. His killer moves in close and finishes the poem: “’Life is very sweet, brother; Who would wish to die? Was undoubtedly one of the greatest films (of any genre) of the entire 1990s. But while Unforgiven. Consider one of the fil...
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Things That Are Good: February 2011
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Sunday, February 27, 2011. Skinhead by Nick Knight (1982). More like Fifth Price Books! On the shelf. Eight bucks! A no-braini-er no-brainer there never was. If you're unaware, Skinhead. Is one of the two best-known and most authoritative texts on the British skinhead subculture (the other of course being George Marshall's Spirit of 69),. And punk influenced skinhead revival. Number one crops, flight jackets, braces worn down in many cases. There are quite a few photos of girls, too, and while th...I'll ...
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Things That Are Good: Zatoichi (座頭市) (2003)
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Wednesday, February 9, 2011. I took a general Japanese culture class in college, and we spent a few days watching a Katsu Zatoichi. Film, if that tells you anything about how ingrained in Japan's cinema culture the series is. I was transfixed. There is something innately satisfying about knowing that some tough-talking yakuza bully is about to get his intestines splattered all over the wall by a meek blind man. The story stays true to the feel of the original Zatoichi. This is classic stuff, but many dir...
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Things That Are Good: Sonatine (ソナチネ) (1993)
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Saturday, May 14, 2011. Of Takeshi Kitano's take on the traditional Zatoichi. Mythology, I touched on the absurdist elements of that film, and the reactions they generated amongst viewers. Audiences have been conditioned over time to expect that every component in a film should have some purpose. After watching Sonatine,. Kitano's 1993 masterpiece, those absurdist scenes in Zatoichi. Make more sense within the context of Kitano's creative world and are, in addition, even more pleasing to me. Sonatine.
things-that-are-good.blogspot.com
Things That Are Good: The Proposition (2005)
http://things-that-are-good.blogspot.com/2011/04/proposition-2005.html
Thursday, April 21, 2011. 8220;There’s night and day, brother, both sweet things. Sun, and moon and stars, brother; all sweet things. There’s likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother.”. A man who sits dying wheezes these words about halfway through The Proposition. His killer moves in close and finishes the poem: “’Life is very sweet, brother; Who would wish to die? Was undoubtedly one of the greatest films (of any genre) of the entire 1990s. But while Unforgiven. Consider one of the fil...
things-that-are-good.blogspot.com
Things That Are Good: Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle (2004)
http://things-that-are-good.blogspot.com/2011/05/pyongyang-journey-in-north-korea-by-guy.html
Saturday, May 21, 2011. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle (2004). Sometime during my teenage years, my mom started listening habitually to NPR. In fact, if you were to walk through her house today, I guarantee that you would never be out of earshot of one radio or other tuned in to some human interest story about a guy who has built a solar-powered wildlife shelter for tuna.or something. Now, as a young lad I just wanted to jam to punk rock. 50 times a day. The (maniacal) North Korean st...
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Things That Are Good: Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城) (1957)
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Saturday, April 9, 2011. Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城) (1957). Akira Kurosawa's Japanese contemporaries often airily dismissed his work as "too Western". They pointed to his acceptance by an increasingly global film audience, as well as his alleged sentimentality, as evidence. It seems obvious to me that these criticisms were simply the sour grapes of jealous peers who were envious of Kurosawa's ability to hit upon human. Truths, and appeal to all. Adaptation, Throne of Blood. Transposed from Edo-era Japan to t...
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Things That Are Good: Paradise Now ( الجنّة الآن) (2005)
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Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Paradise Now ( الجنّة الآن) (2005). What drives a man to commit an act as universally reviled as a suicide bombing? Said and Khaled, the subjects of Paradise Now. Than a simple difference of political opinion. If you kill a man's family, he'll come looking for revenge. Ideology has little to do with it. I doubt there's an easy answer for that, but my feeling is that in this culture it's expected and not a very big deal. I don't mean to imply that the film lets the two men off t...
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Things That Are Good: January 2011
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Sunday, January 30, 2011. In Cold Blood - Hell on Earth (1998). Man, what was in the water in Cleveland in the 90's? Well, there is probably a long and toxic list of answers to that question, but I was mostly referring to the output of the Sixth City's hardcore scene. Because (strap yourself in for a controversial opinion here): this record is harder than any other Clevo-core record short of the OLC LP. This album came out in 1998. I was in eighth grade and too stupid to know about what was happening...
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