Let me just start by saying that I’m aware of my reputation as an Asiaphile, and it annoys even me. I’m also aware of my capacity to annoy others with it, but shit, you can’t help what you like. It’s like those women who just will not let the designer tracksuit look die, although the halcyon days of expressing your personality through bi-syllabic overstatements (juicy! hottie! princess!) splashed across your ass are deader than Elvis and about as dignified as being found drug-addled and expired on a toilet. I’m sure if you were to ask them, they couldn’t tell you why they’re so endeared to overpriced, unflattering loungewear. The same as I proabably can’t give you a straight answer as to why I prefer okonomiyaki to omelettes and like kimchi better than coleslaw, but I just chalk it up to familiarity and its keen ability to foster contempt. Uh, and the fact that I hate mayonnaise.
Anydamn way, IFC plays old Samurai movies on Saturday mornings, and to me it’s like the greatest thing ever. Right now, they’re doing the Samurai trilogy (1954 – 1956) based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s story of Musashi Miyamoto, the greatest swordsman in Japanese history.
Seriously, these movies are like my Saturday Morning Cartoons. They come on at, like, 7 am and Mr. Panda and I eat cereal and watch them in our jammies. It’s kind of the highlight of my weekends lately. Which is kind of sad, but whatever. I love waking up to a bunch of dudes in complicated outfits with even more complicated hairdos musing about war and valor (in Japanese, of course). There’s nothing like being 1/2 asleep, cradling my cup of coffee like a newborn kitten, and, through sleep-blurred eyes, watching the gorgeous Japanese landscape drift by in candy colors. 50-inch TVs were made for experiences such as this.
What I love most about these films is the gorgeous cinamatography and the nearly-intentional pastel effect of the faded Technicolor filmstock. I’m not gonna give you a full review of the films, but trust that they’re pretty emo. There’s a lot of love triangles and man-crying, but there are also some pretty cool battles and duels and shit. So, if you’re looking for something visually-stimulating to shake you out of your Netflix rut, I highly reccommend adding these films to your queue.
In the event that Samurai Saturdays are a regular thing on IFC, and not just a lucky couple of weeks for me & Mr. Panda, I’ll start giving you guys a more detailed run-down of the best vintage samurai films.
May 27, 2008 at 7:03 pm
This is so cool, Mr. K and I used to do something similar but with MXC. Not quite as visually stimulating or containing any, you know, “depth”, but fed our mutual needs for asian teevee. When we’re not watching Asia Squawk Box of course.
May 27, 2008 at 9:37 pm
One of my closest male friends is Asian. He constantly tells me I have “yellow fever.” Which makes me laugh, and then look around nervously.
May 27, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Yeah, we totally live for the Zatoichi films, which we first discovered through IFC’s Samurai Saturday. Every weekend, we get another one from Netflix and it’s heaven.
May 28, 2008 at 11:40 am
If the American movie-going public only knew how much of what they think is genuine U.S.A. filmmaking is actually badly copied brilliance from the Japanese (*cough*Tarantino*cough-cough*), they’d warm up to subtitles and having to look up something in a history book.
Thanks for the tip about IFC’s Saturday mornings. Having been glued to CNN these past months during the primaries, I forget sometimes that there are soooo many other things to amuse myself with.
May 28, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Perfect, I’ve just finished the Jackie Chan Rush Hour trilogy could do with some retro martial arts art with man-crying
thanks
May 28, 2008 at 9:17 pm
You:samauri movies::me:Iron Chef (the original). Seriously–you see the most amazing, inspiring shit go down on those episodes and all too often the boy and I would rather stay in during college and watch episodes at 10 than go to some shitty party or bar.
Also: we had to watch the movie Shogun in ninth grade during our World Cultures class, and it was pretty great–I’would greatly appreciate a suggested watching list of great movies of the genre.
May 29, 2008 at 12:43 am
A buddy of mine is a huge Japanese cinema geek and I’m a Russian lit fanatic, so when we combine our powers it’s like Captain Nerdathon. No idea why, but Kurosawa’s versions of the 19th c. Russian classics are some of the best interpretations I’ve ever seen. “Ikiru” (based on “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”) and “The Idiot” come to mind, as well as his version of “MacBeth,” the Japanese name of which escapes me. Not light fare exactly, but so so damn good.
May 31, 2008 at 11:24 pm
It doesn’t exactly count in terms of amazing vintage samurai film, but in more modern news I did sob my way through Unleashed and The Protector! I also read the last half of Shogun on my insanely long and miserable flight back from Beijing several years ago, and wondered (so wrongful, I know) at why the pretty girl and the blood and the snow in the final scene of House Of Flying Daggers was so damn sexy.
Anyway, y’all aren’t sad sacks for having your sleepy weekend indulgence! M & I do the same damn thing with DesiJams on Namaste America.