David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
Stolen Kisses was Francois Truffaut’s third exploration of the character Antoine Doinel, to whom we were introduced when he was a child in The 400 Blows and was glimpsed a few years later in a short segment Antoine and Colette that was part of an omnibus film titled Love at 20. Here we see Antoine as a young man, as he stumbles into adulthood working a variety of unskilled entry-level jobs, impulsively falling in love and gliding from one scrape with authority into another as he seeks to find his way through the world. The tone of this film is lighter, more overtly a romantic comedy, and seemingly inconsequential in terms of enduring substance and social commentary when compared to The 400 Blows. It could have been easily plausible to make this same movie with a lead character of a different name,...
Stolen Kisses was Francois Truffaut’s third exploration of the character Antoine Doinel, to whom we were introduced when he was a child in The 400 Blows and was glimpsed a few years later in a short segment Antoine and Colette that was part of an omnibus film titled Love at 20. Here we see Antoine as a young man, as he stumbles into adulthood working a variety of unskilled entry-level jobs, impulsively falling in love and gliding from one scrape with authority into another as he seeks to find his way through the world. The tone of this film is lighter, more overtly a romantic comedy, and seemingly inconsequential in terms of enduring substance and social commentary when compared to The 400 Blows. It could have been easily plausible to make this same movie with a lead character of a different name,...
- 8/7/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
Zatoichi and the Fugitives, the 18th installment in the series, is pretty solid overall, a well-made and swiftly paced action-adventure that adheres pretty closely to the standard Zatoichi formula. Once again, the ever-wandering blind swordsman gets drawn into a cruelly unbalanced conflict between merciless criminals and honest village folk who are just trying to trudge a path through life that keeps their suffering to a minimum. If allowed to pursue their brutal agenda without interference, the bosses will grind their subordinates into the dust and inflict a lot of personal anguish upon them through various acts of robbery and exploitation. Zatoichi recognizes the bestial nature of the men in charge and reluctantly takes it upon himself to defend the weak and vulnerable. I like these stories because of their relatively pure and straightforward approach to the heroic formula. That’s...
Zatoichi and the Fugitives, the 18th installment in the series, is pretty solid overall, a well-made and swiftly paced action-adventure that adheres pretty closely to the standard Zatoichi formula. Once again, the ever-wandering blind swordsman gets drawn into a cruelly unbalanced conflict between merciless criminals and honest village folk who are just trying to trudge a path through life that keeps their suffering to a minimum. If allowed to pursue their brutal agenda without interference, the bosses will grind their subordinates into the dust and inflict a lot of personal anguish upon them through various acts of robbery and exploitation. Zatoichi recognizes the bestial nature of the men in charge and reluctantly takes it upon himself to defend the weak and vulnerable. I like these stories because of their relatively pure and straightforward approach to the heroic formula. That’s...
- 7/17/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
- 7/4/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 26, 2013
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $224.95
Studio: Criterion
Shintaro Katsu relies on his blade in 1963's Zatoichi on the Road.
The colossally popular Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman action-adventure films make up the longest-running action series in Japanese history and created one of the screen’s great heroes: an itinerant blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman.
As this iconic figure, the charismatic and earthy Shintaro Katsu became an instant superstar, lending a larger-than-life presence to the thrilling adventures of a man who lives staunchly by a code of honor and delivers justice in every town and village he enters.
The films that feature him are variously pulse-pounding, hilarious, stirring, and completely off-the-wall.
This deluxe set features the string of 25 Zatoichi films made between 1962 and 1973, collected in one package for the first time.
Here’s a list of the films in the collection:
The Tale Of Zatoichi...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $224.95
Studio: Criterion
Shintaro Katsu relies on his blade in 1963's Zatoichi on the Road.
The colossally popular Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman action-adventure films make up the longest-running action series in Japanese history and created one of the screen’s great heroes: an itinerant blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman.
As this iconic figure, the charismatic and earthy Shintaro Katsu became an instant superstar, lending a larger-than-life presence to the thrilling adventures of a man who lives staunchly by a code of honor and delivers justice in every town and village he enters.
The films that feature him are variously pulse-pounding, hilarious, stirring, and completely off-the-wall.
This deluxe set features the string of 25 Zatoichi films made between 1962 and 1973, collected in one package for the first time.
Here’s a list of the films in the collection:
The Tale Of Zatoichi...
- 8/26/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Criterion has announced its upcoming November 2013 titles and they include some highly coveted films, one of 2013's better films, an impressive box set and their new dual-format DVD/Blu-ray releases. To begin, it was a little bit of a shock to see they have abandoned releasing both DVD and Blu-ray versions of their film and instead will now release DVD/Blu-ray, dual-format editions. Note here it says dual format "editions", not "discs", which leads me to believe most releases will include both a DVD and Blu-ray disc. Consider in today's announcement the 27-disc box set of the Zatoichi films. This consists of nine Blu-ray discs and 18 DVD discs. On top of that Criterion confirms features will be available for on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. As far as this months titles are concerned, I'll begin with the upgraded Blu-ray release of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, which was the December 2012 selection...
- 8/15/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.