So far the research for my so-called thesis-about-Hou is all just about Japanese directors. Got Ozu books, got Kurosawa books today and I know Mizoguchi books must be coming because of the three he's surely the closest in style.
What is going on?
1) Almost all the the NTC (New Taiwan Cinema) history I've found has been about the movement's politics.
2) Japan has a longer and more continuous industry, is bigger than Taiwan, wasn't in the shadow of HK and wasn't a dictatorship after WW2.
3) Maybe related to 2 but my crackpot assessment is that there is this weird longing in Hou's films for Japan, at least in MM and Cafe Lumiere. Associate that ad lib: Japan is really my utopia; Japanese colonialism is what was in Taiwan before humanity lost its mind in WW2; no one can make movies like Ozu's anymore (not so much a Taiwanese thing as what some critics and directors nowadays think); Japan is the alternative to becoming like PRC... Even when I first talked with Ban Wang about this he mentioned how Japan seems to have done a better job in preserving country life versus modern cities.
~
Incidentally Netflix sucks bad if you pay for it. I said earlier it's like in Audition--as long as you're exploiting her it's copacetic--but once you marry her get ready for a hypodermic in the cornea.
When I was doing a trial last summer everything shipped fast and slick as virgin olive oil but when I actually pay the Net-man money for his flix they take like 3-4 days longer to arrive, or if someone else has the film I want, rather than send me the next thing in my queue they just run the clock on my subscription taking my too-scarce money.
I was hoping to get my whole wish-list watched this month but now I'm not sure that's now possible. I subscribed like a week and a half ago and so far I've only seen two movies (Tokyo Story and Ugetsu--both fantastic and in re: the former after finding her annoying in No Regrets for Our Youth and plain in Late Spring I've got a crush on Setsuko Hara, who according to IMDB by the way is still alive).
What is going on?
1) Almost all the the NTC (New Taiwan Cinema) history I've found has been about the movement's politics.
2) Japan has a longer and more continuous industry, is bigger than Taiwan, wasn't in the shadow of HK and wasn't a dictatorship after WW2.
3) Maybe related to 2 but my crackpot assessment is that there is this weird longing in Hou's films for Japan, at least in MM and Cafe Lumiere. Associate that ad lib: Japan is really my utopia; Japanese colonialism is what was in Taiwan before humanity lost its mind in WW2; no one can make movies like Ozu's anymore (not so much a Taiwanese thing as what some critics and directors nowadays think); Japan is the alternative to becoming like PRC... Even when I first talked with Ban Wang about this he mentioned how Japan seems to have done a better job in preserving country life versus modern cities.
~
Incidentally Netflix sucks bad if you pay for it. I said earlier it's like in Audition--as long as you're exploiting her it's copacetic--but once you marry her get ready for a hypodermic in the cornea.
When I was doing a trial last summer everything shipped fast and slick as virgin olive oil but when I actually pay the Net-man money for his flix they take like 3-4 days longer to arrive, or if someone else has the film I want, rather than send me the next thing in my queue they just run the clock on my subscription taking my too-scarce money.
I was hoping to get my whole wish-list watched this month but now I'm not sure that's now possible. I subscribed like a week and a half ago and so far I've only seen two movies (Tokyo Story and Ugetsu--both fantastic and in re: the former after finding her annoying in No Regrets for Our Youth and plain in Late Spring I've got a crush on Setsuko Hara, who according to IMDB by the way is still alive).
posted by David @ 3:21 PM
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