Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

If I had to say, I'd probably declare Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom my favorite Jones movie.  When I think "Indiana Jones", imagery from this movie is what pops into my head.  I finally finished my Indiana Jones rewatch after seeing this today...finally!

I'd forgotten how over the top this movie is.  From being chased by raging water to almost falling off a bridge to sword fights in a couple of minutes...it's pretty ridiculous.  This movie also has a bunch of stupid stereotypes about women and Indian people (that aren't even true or real stereotypes, haha).  Still, though, it's a good adventure.

Also, Indiana Jones wouldn't have been nearly as good with a different background score.

I'd forgotten this opening sequence was even in the movie!

The Bourne Identity

For some reason, I'd seen The Bourne Ultimatum (the final movie in the Bourne trilogy) before I'd seen The Bourne Identity (which I just watched tonight).  Standard spy action movie.  The scene where Bourne is climbing around the side of a building was a pretty impressive stunt job, though.  

What is it about trilogies?  That is, the number 3?  Why 3 movies all the time, I wonder?  I guess it's just a good number.  Any more is a bit much...like 7 Harry Potter books/movies (8 movies, actually).  Ridiculous!  Who can even remember the first one by the end of it all?  There are a lot more Jason Bourne books, but they never made them into movies.

Three is just the magic number, I guess.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

fez guys

Continuing my rewatch of the Indiana Jones trilogy with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I'd forgotten how awesome the opening scene with the circus train was.

陽炎座

In watching Kagero-za, I finally finished Seijun Suzuki's  Taisho trilogy.  The Taisho is an interesting period in Japanese history, and Suzuki's take on it is just fascinating.  I'm glad he made this trilogy!  The Taisho is a great period to make a film about because there is just a lot of material available for great visuals eg. a guy in a suit wearing a tophat and a woman in kimono, etc...  Kagero-za is really good, along with Yumeji. Oh, the trilogy DVD covers are pretty funny, too.  Like 90s photoshop awesome.

As far as I can tell, "kagero" means "mist" or "fog"--a reference to the ghostliness of the story and characters. The film is really surreal and that's what I love about Suzuki (my favorite director of all time).  This film makes more sense story & theme-wise than some of Suzuki's other surreal films, and that's what really makes this work.  The acting in the movie is really deliberate; every action was taken so delicately, it was amazing.  The actors were all just great.  Most of them moved (or held still) like professional acrobats or dancers.   They were all really good at portraying sadness as well, it was so real and palpable.

The film had interesting themes as well...the man with two wives, one Japanese and the other German masquerading as Japanese...classic East vs. West themes?  I wonder...

drag geisha

super arty sex scene

this scene was just amazing...filmed using reflections in water.  ghostly.

ok ok another amazing scene

in closing: an awesome picture i found of my favorite director

Raiders of the Lost Ark

"love you" scene

I recently had the urge to re-watch all the Indiana Jones movies because I don't remember them too well.  My boyfriend's roommate happened to have Raiders of the Lost Ark on DVD so I caught this one the other day.  I remember the other movies being better than this one!

宮本武蔵

Musashi Miyamoto was a famous Japanese swordsman.  Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is the first in a trilogy about him...the origin story.  Miyamoto is played by the great Toshiro Mifune.  I thought all the actors did a great job with facial expressions.  Example:

Now to see the next two movies!