Yes! It is now Samurai Week on Secret Garden!
the sacred island itself, I will theme the next week
on Japan's most famous nicety: the Samurai.
Today I'm going to review a movie I watched
recently, which deserves much noise made in its
honor. *fanfare* Samurai Fiction (1998)distributed by
Pony Canyon [which also takes charge of the recently
raved-about LM.C]. The film was the first full-length feature by director Nakano Hiroyuki, who was established as the director of music-videos for MTV Japan. This is apparent in particular scenes that are brief, but dreamlike and strange with no character movement or dialogue taking place, set under a dramatic music score.
Samurai Fiction begins when the aloof swordsman
Kazamatsuri, warden of the ancestral sword of the Iga Clan, steals the sword and leaves the Clan. The Clan
head's young son (in the lovely passion of youth! The
daring days of youth! The reckless-- ok, we get it) gets
the uppity idea to chase after Kazamatsuri and retrieve
the sword. The rest of the film follows both men in their
clashes and reprieves.
The other area in which we see homage to the director's
MTV-heritage is in the casting of musician Hotei Tomoyasu
in the villainous role of Kazamatsuri Rannosuke.
Hotei composed and performed the entire musical-score for the film,
and it was his acting debut. After Kagen No Tsuki, I've about had my
fill of 2-hour-long music video acting-debuts, but Samurai Fiction
soon revealed that I had nothing to worry about!
The musical-score was quite awesome. Mainly rock with some heavy
guitar-wailing courtesy of our villain, paired quite nicely with some
taiko (Japanese drums) tracks where appropriate, and a few licks
in honor of Clint Eastwood's cowboy flicks.
The film itself was an exceptionally awesome piece bowing
to famous Samurai productions such as the acclaimed Kurosawa's
masterpieces. The film, although shot in 1998, is done entirely
in classic black and white, except for some special situations.
Such as. There is no gore-- nope, not a spec of crimson blood
(and certainly no fountains exploding from graphically punctured
arteries). However, we are not entirely cheated! Whenever someone
is cut down by a masterful katana stroke, the screen flashes red,
and we shudder....punctured arteries exploding in our deep,
wounded conscious....
The film is also intended to be a comedy. And honestly...
it's the first Japanese comedy I have ever watched and
actually laughed really really hard at! It was truly hilarious!
Many aspects of SF and lots of the characters (especially
the frantic young protagonist) were almost parodies of
the same movies that inspired it. And it is as skillfully
done as the finest episodes of School Rumble! (yes...
I did just pull that comparison out of no where...
actually it has nothing in common with School Rumble
except for its wild abandon in hilarity and awesomeness).
If you have any pride as a samurai-movie-lover, you will acquire this masterpiece ASAP and do not just yourself, but all of us, a huge favor. Both parody and tip of the hat to the great Samurai films of the century, Samurai Fiction is the perfect blend of comedy and action, and is perfectly acceptable to watch with your mom.
Yes...finally I am freed from the enslaving obsession with NANA.
I'm not watching the anime or reading the manga anymore....which
means I get my life back. Not that it was a bad obsession or
anything! It just sort of took over my life, is all. And now that I
can actually justifiably count down the days until I leave for Japan,
I have to stop slacking off and get down to business. Maybe later.
There are still computer troubles....oh they go on eternally. People
tell me "Oh, you have to shut it down every night when you're not
using it." But you know how much trouble it is? It takes like ten
minutes for my internet to kick off in the morning if I shut it down!
But I guess it's better than having it freeze halfway through whatever
I'm doing and have to restart and lose stuff..
So last week sometime I heard [Sentimental Piggy Romance] by LM.C.
If you recall, I was interested but not entirely sold. Well, I've been
listening to them a lot recently and watching a lot of PVs, in the hopes
of hearing something really good and seeing something really cool.
To say I'm sold is an understatement.
I do this thing with people, too...Usually when I meet people I have a
"god they were obnoxious" or "they seemed really cool" experience.
More often than not I end up hating the people I originally thought
were cool, and actually end up really liking the ones I didn't like at first.
I often do this with bands, as well. When I find a band I just *love*
I usually get sick of it in a week, but bands I'm not so sure about....
usually become my favorites. :D So don't worry about trying to make
a good first-impression with me. Best to insult me and give me the cold-
shoulder. I find that really magnetic. But ANYway, fascinating as I'm sure
my warped psychology may be, let's get back on topic here...
I think it was around when I heard "Oh My Juliet" and "Cosmology".
Every time I would open iTunes on my computer I would go to the
store and browse LM.C without ever buying anything. I was just, y'know,
thinking about it. So finally the fateful day came... and I bought
GIMMICAL IMPACT~ LM.C
Two of my major complaints with some CDs these days are that 1: the
volume balance between music and vocals is slightly in the music's favor.
This shouldn't be. The other one is that 2: all the songs sound the same.
Most groups have a "signature" sound-- for example I can immediately
tell whether it's a Malice Mizer or an AnCafe song just by the guitar
riffs. This should be, after all we like these bands for a certain reason
(because we like their sound), and it's distracting and can be confusing
when a band changes their style too often (think song to song). But
sometimes they really do sound *exactly* the same.
The first two things that immediately struck me about GIMMICAL IMPACT
was that the music-vocal balance was really nicely done, which is helped by the
fact that Maya has a really clear, distinguishable voice. It's not getting lost
anywhere. I really do like his voice-- it's quite striking and interesting (without
being strange at all).
The other thing I noticed was that almost every song sounds really different.
Some songs are very electronicky, while others are more heavy-rock
in their use of effects and guitar. They even use spots of rap when they feel
like it, and actually pull it off.
The selection is really nicely balanced between the different styles
(so you're not stuck with too much of one kind), without it getting at all
distracted or overloaded. The pacing of the CD is well-done as well, without
any jarring transitions from melancholy or happy to heavy.
Again, each song is really well done-- very interesting and different melodies,
both music and vocal-wise, which has you favoriting all of them and then
never having to change tracks unless you're bi-polar.
Overall I think they have a great sound. It's really balanced, so I can't stop
describing them this way, haha. It's just hard to find good music, good vocals,
good variety, and cool vocal melodies and lyrics paired with a unique image.
They're like....cute....without being....cute. I think if you're a Jrock fan, you'll
understand this cryptic description. :D
On the topic of image: I think I originally described them as American-rock-influenced.
I spoke too soon, ahhhh....I spoke much too soon, shame on me. They're not really...
I mean, unless they claim to be-- in which case I would be redeemed, haha. I mean,
you could say they are, because they don't really do the whole "Harajuku look thing"
as I so articulately describe it. They're like... colorful. Wooooooo! Go me with my
awesome vocabulary! I think we can leave it at that, yeah....Let's do that.
So anyway, it's actually a breath of fresh air. Cool stuff.
I'm going to have to consider buying Super Glitter Loud Box next....
ahhh, iTunes gift cards slip through my fingers like a handful of sand....
