Equinox Flower

This was Yasujiro Ozu's first color film in 1958. Throughout his work, Ozu controlled his elements so tightly and formally that adding color must have been a big step for him. The color serves to punctuate and tie together many scenes, though compared with the later Floating Weeds, the color sometimes seems overstated. But it enhances the visual imagery, as do several instances of reflected images which seem to comment on the characters. Ozu fans will relish this film, a poignant blend of family drama and societal change.

The story is similar to Early Summer in dealing with a daughter who wishes to make her own marriage decisions. But in Ozu, story doesn't count for much -- it's all about characters and relationships. The characters here are harder-edged, sometimes rude and manipulative, and in at least one case, blatantly hypocritical.

Much of the drama is watching the traditional father make a fool of himself as he publicly praises romantic love and privately condemns his own daughter for practicing what he has preached. He is utterly insensitive to his long-suffering wife. When the wife says, without apparent irony, that she was really happy when the family was all together in a bomb shelter during an air raid, her husband should have some clue as to what his family has endured since. Workaholic affluence has brought about greater distance between the father and his wife and two daughters. Can he ever see it, or will he left the family fall apart in his pride?

Relationships in other families mirror these dysfunctions in different ways. Ironically, the father who is driving his own family apart is seen as a source of wisdom and advice by other troubled parents. The end result is characteristically engaging and thought provoking in the quiet way that is uniquely Ozu.

Best films seen 2007

Top films seen either in theaters or on new DVD releases this past year:

1. Charlie Wilson's War
2. Paprika
3. Equinox Flower
4. Sweeney Todd
5. Waitress
6. The Taste of Tea
7. Apocalypto
8. Black Book
9. The Lives of Others
10. Blood Diamond
    
11. Letters from Iwo Jima
12. Babel
    
13. Volver
14. Pan's Labyrinth
15. Children of Men
    

The Taste of Tea

This film may be easier to experience than describe. Beautiful, cosmic, and goofy, this Japanese family comedy is overlong at 143 minutes, but never fails to entertain. Writer-director Katsuhiro Ishii's 2004 feature won several awards and was featured at Cannes.

The episodic story features overlapping vignettes following the lives of six members of the Haruno family in their strange world. The daughter is plagued by a giant-size version of herself, and the lovesick teenage boy has trains coming out of his head. Mom is trying to restart her career in anime, hypnotherapist Dad practices on his family, and the sound mixer uncle is drifting, unable to resolve emotional issues. Grandpa is just strange, listening to tuning forks, striking poses for Mom and hiding in his room.

Then there are lots of quirkier minor characters, including cosplayers, yakuza, a horndog manga artist aspiring-musician brother-in-law, and a free-spirited dancer. There are lots of little throwaway scenes, both charming and hysterically funny, and nature panoramas beautifully photographed. Legendary anime director Hideaki Anno has a cameo as -- an anime director.

This is reminiscent of an Ozu film as a quiet family story, with not much action but just the progress of life. While the gentle humor sometimes recalls Ozu, there are outrageous gags as well, a lot of surrealism and general strangeness, adding up to lots of fun!

Here's the music video that brother-in-law made with Grandpa:

The Golden Compass

The headline in tonight's paper reads "Atheistic Agenda?" I hope this sensationalized criticism sells lots of tickets. Then Hollywood will make the sequels and we'll find out about that atheism thing, since the theological problems in the novels are much more convoluted as Pullman's original trilogy progresses.

But you sure can't tell it from this film.

I enjoyed the movie, for lots of reasons. The production design is very good, ditto the special effects. The performers are well-cast and the performances uniformly good. The young lead, Dakota Blue Richards, can speak volumes with her eyes, and Sam Elliott was born to play Lee Scoresby.

The movie gets a couple of down-checks for over-simplification, particularly moral over-simplification, and an all-too-abrupt ending. But this is a largely satisfying fantasy. It's unclear how much the over-simplification and skating over plot points weakens the film. It bothered me, but I've read the book. People new to the story seem likely to find it more confusing.

Does this film assail religion? Not particularly. This is a fantasy after all, and patently not set in our world. It attacks authoritarianism, and indicates that there's a struggle to preserve free will. Anyone who feels threatened by that might wish to avoid the film.

Genre bending: Avalon High by Meg Cabot

The heroine of Avalon High has it tough. Transplanted into a new life and school when her parents take a sabbatical, she is forced to spend days floating in her pool, be a track star and hang out with the most popular kids.

Ok, maybe she doesn't have it so tough, but she still has a lot of problems, which are slowly revealed in this entertaining novel. Actually, it doesn't take a whole lot of figuring out, though Meg Cabot wisely saves a twist or two for the end of the book.

OK, I like young adult novels as a class, but it is seldom that I find myself reading a girls romance story. Fortunately I was reassured by my favorite YA librarian: "It's okay, Dad, it's pretty geeky."

And geeky it is, as Cabot nicely fuses the classic YA problem novel, romance and fantasy, and manages to turn the blend into a page turner rather than a hodge-podge Cabot show a nice sense of pacing and the book is quick and fun.. Hey, I'm a sucker for Arthurian fiction, and rather fond of the Tennyson poem "The Lady of Shalott" that Cabot uses for chapter epigraphs.

Classic quickies: The Seven Samurai

This is my favorite film, but I'm not very successful in persuading people to watch it. Maybe the idea of spending over three hours reading subtitles for what sounds like a martial arts film is daunting. I'll admit the first time or two I watched it, I was not all that impressed. But it's really important to watch the full-length version, not one of the shorter cuts extant. The film is full of richly developed characters and little vignettes that make it rich.

Although it seems like a war story, and its definitely a men's movie, Akira Kurosawa's theme is social change and progress. There is humor and pathos in plenty for the patient viewer. The two stars, Takeshi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune absolutely light up the screen among many fine supporting performances. Shimura's strength and confidence nicely plays off Mifune's over-the-top scenery chewing, even as the director plays off the tropes of John Ford westerns against those of historic Japanese samurai stories.

Classic quickies: The Wrong Man

Forget for a minutes that this could be the title of about half of Hitchcock's movies. For a fifty year old film, The Wrong Man (1957) still packs a lot of power and resonance. The performances are nearly flawless: Henry Fonda wonderfully understated as a musician wrongly accused of being a robber, and Vera Miles compelling as the wife driven to madness by stress.

The viewer is grabbed by the treatment of suspects before the Miranda decision's obvious impact on criminal investigations. Does this have modern echoes under the USA PATRIOT act? In any event, Hitchcock tells a true story, using fictionalized narrative in an almost documentary way. The result is offbeat, but worthwhile viewing.