(500) Days of Summer

I went into this film expecting to hate it. My friends didn't like it, I've read some bad reviews, and I'm not cowed by doe-eyed Zooey. I have a lot of contempt for mainstreamed indie films in general.

Let's start with what didn't work.

The first thing was the voiceover. This is always a dangerous move, and the voice just wasn't right. As not just a romantic comedy but an Indie Romantic Comedy, there was obviously supposed to be a lot of tongue-in-cheek treatment of traditional formats. The voiceover always threw me, always drew me out of the story.

The counter, on the other hand, was undoubtedly helpful. The chronology would've come out eventually, but it was nice to not have to fixate on it. Even so, the frame for it was, the aesthetic, was confused and overdesigned. I don't think it helped tie in the sub-plot of architecture, or even the greeting cards. I wish they'd used real shots from the view in the park; this is a film, not an design student's portfolio, and it should be treated accordingly.

Now, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was undoubtedly obnoxious. He was whining and discontent and foolish. Deschanel was comparatively far more tolerable. As much as I like to think I'm not won over by her, I end up liking her at least a little. I forget that I like her and her sister Emily's mannerism, and slightly deep voices. However, the idea of someone truly believing that there's no such thing as love, and that love is only a fantasy, an illusion, is a little bizarre. Someone who's been in relationships, who's lived their whole life without feeling love, is not modern or disillusioned, so much as they are a likely sociopath. 

Indie music. Oh, indie music. Oh, alternative lifestyles. A girl with dark hair and bangs, a twee retro-throwback aesthetic, a sweet girl-next-door who attracts everyone around her? What a massive surprise that she loves the Smiths and quoted Belle & Sebastian in her senior yearbook. Oh wait, is it not 1995 anymore? It's hard to tell.

There's nothing wrong with still liking the Smiths. It's just that it's such a weak move, a far stretch. The whole idea of Summer being a bitch (a random and pointless plot development) and Tom changing his mind about office gossip because she likes one of the most mainstream, heard-of indie mainstays is just wholly unnecessary.

The same can be said for that Salinger reference. "We talked about Bananafish for 20 minutes! We are so compatible!" I don't even have words for that, except for the quote from Tom's unsettlingly aware younger sister: "Just because a girl like the same bizarro crap you do doesn't make her your girlfriend." If only it was genuinely "bizarro crap", and then you would have an inkling of sympathy for Tom. Being so deeply invested in the meaning of such obvious and surface-level "alternative media" is more than just a little sad.

In the end it just didn't really say anything. Tom loses his faith in love and finds it again. Summer abandons her unrealistic defiance of love and finds the perfect man for her; both rejecting an unrealistic idea of the nonexistence of love, and embracing an equally unrealistic idea that love is fated and there is one perfect match in this world, and if you wait they'll come to you.

Shogun Assasin (March 23rd, 2008)

Lone Wolf and Cub was an epic series of film, and a masterpeice of chanbara cinema. In the vein of more realistic asian cinema, characters are observed more often than explained,  which creates the tension often recognized in films of that genre.

Lone Wolf employs this method most with main character Ogami Ittō, who rarely speaks. In fact, dialogue is highly uncommon throughout most of the 6 films. This makes for a slow movie, but it is still beautiful, and the story, while predictable in it's storytelling formula after the first film, is very interesting. The battle scenes are clearly fake, but still engaging and incredible. Although you can see the swords simply glide over a body rather than truly cut into it, you never doubt for a second Ittō's ability or intent.

Shogun, on the other hand, while certainly faster paced, and more action packed because of it, lacks the honesty and depth of Lone Wolf. Asian exploitation films are characterized by being more brutal than many of it's international counterparts, but in turn, takes itself more seriously, and is far more honest than the extremely tame American takes on "extreme" cinema. 

Daigoro is heavily featured in Shogun, being the films narrarator. This did not change much for me, as he was at the films center for me, with his unwavering clarity of spirit as a character, and the incredibly precocious and adorable young actor who played him was impossible to ignore. However, it just doesn't do Tomisaburo Wakayama's Ittō justice to ignore him, the hero, during the whole film. He is completely flat, as opposed to a complete mystery.

The story is a little twisted; it gets across the jist of the second film, Baby Cart at the River Styx, but it is not the same. The voices are too fake, and the shortened plot just doesn't do the same thing. I read an review of Shogun saying that it wouldn't be good enough for purists. Well, I would agree I am, but I don't think anyone else should have to settle for less.

As an incomplete, hacked up representation of a very long story, Shogun Assasin did a very decent job; but for me, a good job at being a fuck-up is not nearly good enough.