Posts by Dennis Martin6

This one and Filth are easily the best albums in the Swans catalog, IMO. Jarboe brought this massive layer of color to the music—it wasn't just straight-up epileptic noise and nuclear growling anymore (though there was definitely something to love about that 😁). COG also features some of their most convincing vocal work and their absolute best mantra, especially that title track.

goldenhound32 said:So, how exactly did Ms. Linguère Ramatou manage to scrape together her fortune? Did she perhaps stumble upon a mountain of gold in the wreckage after that plane crash?

Or was it more likely that, after years of selling herself, she finally settled down with some wealthy benefactor she had been pulling the strings on?

she literally said she was stripping all over the globe😁

Mostly I'm with you guys on the vibes—it’s solid satire with a massive scope. There are some killer lines in there, mostly coming out of the mouth of that one "total bitch" character. 😁 That church scene was incredibly atmospheric. 👍

imdb

Insane news hitting the streets of Coloban: Linguere Ramatou just hit billionaire status and she’s heading back home—and get this—her ex, Draman Drameh, is already scrambling to get back in her good graces. At this massive gala, Linguere Ramatou dropped a bombshell: she’s donating a fortune to the city, but there’s a catch—they have to hand over Draman as a sacrifice since he played her. (kinotuskanac)

Pretty solid stuff—got this Shakespearean lead with a killer dynamic going with the warden, all wrapped up in this metaphor about an unstoppable train. That ending sticks with you, too. Voight really nailed it. 👍

Steven Newman50 said:Watched it a few years back—honestly, I could go for a rewatch right now.

Same here. I still remember one of the most insane editing transitions ever—there’s this part where a guy is literally spitting out french fries from his mouth and then it cuts to a talking bear. 😁

Back in the seventies, he churned out maybe six or seven absolute masterpieces—still easily the most impressive run any single director has ever pulled off in a single decade. And honestly? Even beyond that. 😁

Steven Newman50 said:When they talk about elitism, they’re also talking about how he portrays people—like the peasants, who always seem totally helpless without those big heroes stepping in.

Which movie are you even talking about? 🤔

Steven Newman50 said:... since he was always fixated on those heroic types...

Look, these kinds of movies barely make up a third of Kurosawa's entire body of work—calling it a pattern is just a total myth.

electriccanyon26 said:Dennis Martin6, you got any directors who deal with Christian themes that you actually like—or at least find interesting? Need some ideas for... a thesis project. 😁

Even—do those directors even exist? All I can think of is Majid Majidi, but he’s from a different faith. 😁 Just write about Kurosawa or something. ☕

It’s not even about making this personal—I just have zero patience for religious propaganda, especially when they try to pin it on innocent Americans who didn't ask for any of it 😁

And now we’ve finally landed on these damn occult alchemists—as if all that Christian nonsense wasn't enough already 😵 😵
give it a rest already

ruggedbadger2 said:Truth is the only way, obviously.

So what’s actually "true" in Rashomon?

ruggedbadger2 said:The only reason I brought up Dante is because that dark forest thing is his whole vibe—just like how you tied that Faust stuff to your point.

Look, I brought up Faust because he's literally written into the script. And for the record—there’s zero mention of Dante in Rashomon. ☕

ruggedbadger2 said:Plus, if you look at the *Divine Comedy* and *Rashomon*, the arcs are basically identical—you get lost in some dark woods, your soul dives headfirst into the minds of sinners (Hell/Judgment), then you spend time chewing on your own flaws (Purgatory/that talk under the crumbling city gates), before finally hitting salvation (Heaven/adopting a baby). It's the same damn pattern.

Anyone got a movie recommendation that actually hits? Looking for something decent. Nah. Christian allegory? Please. 😁

I mean, I don't even know what to tell you... It’s honestly wild to try and force some Christian ontology onto a story set in feudal Japan—especially since that whole framework isn't even mentioned in the book or the movie. Akutagawa describes Kyoto as this wrecked-up place constantly getting hammered by natural disasters, and then Kurosawa’s film just cranks that up a notch by adding the human element—bandits, looters, all that mess. In the movie, Kyoto is a much worse place than any forest could ever be, but you don't seem to remember that, damn. And it's not even a "dark" forest. Quite the opposite—it’s full of light filtering through the leaves, hitting the characters like some black-and-white pattern, making them look even more cinematic.

There’s no heaven, hell, purgatory, sinners, or salvation in Rashomon—it just isn't that kind of movie.

ruggedbadger2 said:Maybe back in the early '50s he still believed technology could actually be used for something noble—but honestly? It looks like he didn't turn bitter about that stuff until somewhere around the time he made Dersu uzao.

Look, let's be real—he probably had a totally conflicted relationship with technology, just like pretty much everyone else. You can see it clearly enough in his movies.

ruggedbadger2 said:I can't quite recall what pop says about Kyoto, but the forest isn't exactly some earthly hellscape—it’s more like a crossroads where you decide if you're staying on the right path. It's not like Dante, where the woods represent all those low-life, shameful human impulses. In Rashomon, it’s more like that "living sand of the ego" thing Kurosawa talks about.

So what’s the "right path" in Rashomon even supposed to be? If they went off course, that implies they were actually on the right track to begin with—makes sense, doesn't it? And honestly, what does Dante have to do with this movie? It’s based on Akutagawa’s stories, so if you're gonna interpret it, stick to the source material. The forest in Rashomon isn't some metaphor for the Divine Comedy—that's just common sense.

ruggedbadger2 said:... and he especially hates technological progress...

—but in Ikiru, technology is actually what makes Watanabe-esque planning possible. 😉

Look, everything else you're saying relies on some pretty shady interpretations and forced connections. The real issue is that Akira Kurosawa's films are way too distinct from one another to just strip away the context and expect it to work. Take the forest in Rashomon—it isn't some Dante-esque metaphor for immorality or illusion. It’s about the complexity of the human mind, according to Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto—basically a space that blends vertical and horizontal formal elements (you see the dominance shift between the scenes at the gate and the trial scenes). That’s a much more solid argument, especially since Pop mentions the city of Kyoto at the start, not some forest acting as a literal hell on earth.
The grit in Drunken Angel and Sanshiro Sugata comes from totally different places—one was shot right after the war during the American occupation, while the other wasn't. Period.

It’s basically a mix of neorealism, Kafka, and Rashomon. But here’s the kicker—while Rashomon relies on four different perspectives from four different people, the lead guy here doesn't even have his own story. He isn't even the subject. In the first act, he just gets caught up by this writer—portrayed as your typical stereotype... I'm talking about the "I-novel"—that whole raw, confessional style where the author basically spills their guts about their own life. It’s intense, messy, and honestly? A bit much sometimes. But that's the point. It’s a novelist—heavy on that confessional tone and those intense autobiographical vibes—trying to drag a Faustian journey through a total "dark night of the soul." But here's the kicker: since the protagonist lacks any actual subjectivity, he’s got nothing to confess. So, he just tosses him aside. Then you’ve got this Watanabe-esque attempt to connect with a female coworker, but he doesn't understand her at all. It’s just a failed attempt at building an identity. Total miss.

This movie hits you with two massive reality checks. First, there’s that gut punch for Watanabe—realizing he’s actually going to die after living such a plain, forgettable life. Then there’s the second shock for the audience. You realize Watanabe is already gone. Even though we basically know he's a dead man walking from the very first frame, the Kurosawa-esque protagonist just... vanishes from the screen about two-thirds of the way through. It flies in the face of everything you expect—usually, the story ends right when the character's life does. But hey, death doesn't care about your narrative arcs—it catches everyone off guard.

It’s got this expressionist, Kafkaesque vibe—you could even call it pretty damn unique. Ghost stories—man, they hit different when you actually stop treating them like cheap jump scares and start looking at the soul of the thing. Most modern horror is just loud noises and shaky cams, but real chills? That comes from the atmosphere. It’s that lingering dread that stays in your gut long after the credits roll. Think about the classics—the stuff that actually sticks with you because it understands how to build tension without holding your hand through every single frame. Real horror isn't about what jumps out of the closet; it's about the feeling that something is watching you from the corner of the room while you're just trying to exist. Simple, but effective. So we’re talking about the guy who nearly drowned as a kid—parents nowhere to be found to pull him out. After that trauma, he spends his entire life stuck in this mental fog, basically living like a mummy. Shimura plays him with this absolute, hollowed-out stillness, and man, he nails it perfectly. Hands down one of the Kurosawa-esque peaks. 👍

10,000 Maniacs - Maniacs - Can't Ignore The train

Serena Williams - It's over

Salamat & Nazakat Ali Khan - Raga Darbari

Lino Capra Vaccina - Old School Slow Burn