Posts by Frank Baker2

Just me being an idiot... every single time I hop onto this forum looking for a second opinion... just to see if I'm losing my mind or if I'm still playing by the rules of the world.

Little Coppola has that feminine touch that was seriously missing from the screen for a while... that ability to say things that are totally banal or even stupid, yet you end up feeling humbled and moved because of the tenderness she puts into it.
Thanks for giving me those twenty minutes of much-needed silence after leaving the AMC Theatres. Thanks for bringing up those similar moments from my own life (like saying goodbye in hotel lobbies while secretly wishing I could just kidnap someone and flee to a deserted island)

Walter's answer already hit on his obsession with digging into the characters' pasts, but I'll say it anyway. Maybe she fell for him because they were physically close—you know, that scene in the hotel room where she’s looking at old photos while they're wrapped up in each other, totally head over heels. But searching for that stuff is pointless because this movie is so incredibly contained in both time and space. First off, they're both just temporary visitors to Tokyo, staying only a few days to get business done. So, that specific window is all that matters. There's this deep, subtle contrast between the interior (the hotel—calm, outward composure) and the exterior (the city—the chaos of concrete vs. their inner stillness). West meets East, maybe...?
The dialogue is banal because that's just how it goes when you meet someone in a hotel and you both know there's no future, but you crave it anyway because, in that moment, that person is your escape from your own mess. Even though they're stuck in different kinds of messes. She's dealing with a post-college crisis, and he's dealing with boredom and a lack of inspiration (he wants to make movies, not commercials). That's the common thread tying them together, and the camera captures that restless, bored feeling in the mud so precisely with that documentary-style realism and those long close-ups. (Really cranks up the psychological weight)

A ton of people are gonna say this movie mocks Japanese culture, but I'd bet my life it's just a Coppola trick to separate the intellectuals from the mediocre. (She's clearly fascinated by Japan, based on at least one interview). First off, not a single Japanese person is caricatured; everything is portrayed so realistically. Even the karaoke friend (playing into the whole cultural phenomenon of karaoke) and even the translator who simply can't find the right words for all those Japanese adjectives the director uses to describe how a macho guy should look, so she just settles for "more intense." The way the side characters are shown just highlights how much of a culture shock Japan—and specifically Tokyo—is for Westerners (which is what draws the two of them together in the first place). And then there's the contrast of visiting the temple, which is basically what most of us *think* Japan is. Thanks, Frank, for showing me just how many idiots were sitting around me in the theater.

One of the genius scenes is when Bill takes her to the room and covers her up, and she looks at him through this half-dreamy haze. He looks at her and... he just touches her shoulder and (I think) pulls the covers up... in that split second, you see a man who is in love, who likes her, but he's terrified like a little kid to do anything wrong, and maybe even his morals are tripping him up because of her age. But man, look at the emotions bubbling up in him. Then the next shot, transferring that emotion into his conversation with the woman. Wow. Perfectly acted for a guy who usually does in those half-stupid comedies....

I don't even feel like typing anymore, but I have one question: is there an American mailing list or a forum out there that isn't crawling with random idiots? Somewhere for people who actually have some knowledge or an education in film or art? Because I'm sick of reading about microphones and all those other dumb comments that just piss me off. It's obvious they just want to show their faces online because they think having an opinion makes them somebody.

velvetwalker222 said:Plus, even if it seems counterintuitive to a casual crowd, the movie actually goes way deeper than people realize. But hey, if you guys think watching de Palma is something you do while tying up your little pets at the beach, or if you think Hitchcock is just some random guy scratching his neck, or that Godard is some mystical bridge between God and fine art... then there's really no point in me listing out scenes where you can see all that stuff playing out.

Sorry, but I really wish you’d actually talk about specific scenes—you know, what they reminded you of or the vibe they left you with... because honestly, I don't think the whole point of this forum is to cater to casual fans or Fast & Furious types... it's about us actually digging into things together and building on each other's thoughts... I'm genuinely curious, for real.

:-)

Look, sorry, but that hospital scene? T. was definitely paying homage to Almodovar, and he basically admitted it. He just cranked up the theme and the colors to make it extra, you know? But that gut feeling stays the same. It all plays out for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Honestly, who did it better? I don't even know. I love Spanish cinema, but damn, this hits pretty close to home regarding stuff happening today...

And the way people talk in a Tarantino flick isn't linear at all. It’s not beginning to end; it’s more like jumping into the middle, moving forward a bit, then looping back... that’s exactly why Pulp Fiction won over the critics along with so many other movies...

T. isn't exactly the type to shoot deep philosophical masterpieces like Van Trien or Bergman, Tarkovsky, or Woody... but hey, if you view him through that postmodern lens (which, unfortunately, is kind of the dominant worldview right now), then it totally works.
Basically, it's one big beautiful mess... as long as it smells good and looks great, hopefully it tastes good to at least some people...

;-)

All I'm trying to say is that this isn't some stupid or bad movie. It actually holds up and feels really intentional... though I'm keeping the possibility open that he completely screws it up in part two...

Visually, the guy absolutely nailed it. He took that stripped-back, minimalist aesthetic you see in Japan—you know, the motifs, the clean scenes, that specific vibe—and mashed it up with Western pop-glitz, all those loud colors and heavy contrasts. It’s such a smooth way to blend two totally opposite worlds.

Also, if you've read even a single page of actual Japanese samurai literature, the dialogue hits home. It’s a super sharp, precise reflection of the put samurai...
The choreography? Man, it shows how much he actually respects the ritual of the duel. Like, the whole thing with taking off the sandals—kind of a nod to that scene with O-Ren in the ninja flick, but here he keeps that true samurai discipline in the fight itself. (Classic QT, honestly... always stitching together things that shouldn't work together). Even that moment where O-Ren apologizes for being so arrogant...

See, the put samurai is a completely different animal. He’s actually questioning whether a samurai can even exist in a modern ninja role as a hired hitman...

Meanwhile, QT is just playing around with all these visual and dialogue clichés—all that karate movie stuff they shoved into our heads—but he looks at them through a lens that isn't just some cheap imitation. Like, why the sudden shift from red to blue in the color palette? Why the Japanese garden? There's more to it than meets the eye...
You basically have to be a total idiot not to start seeing these elements in a whole new light. And Tarantino definitely is... he's the kind of guy who crafts intentional, stylized trash just to pull off this deep artistic interrogation of old tropes... or, hey, maybe you can just watch it as a straight-up, linear, bloody good time with over-the-top fights...

It looks like after all these posts, the audience has split into two camps: people who had a childhood like QT's, and everyone else who just settled for whatever other entertainment was available...
I definitely fall into that first group. Back when the Garibaldi theater in Rhode Island was still a thing, I’d go see every possible martial arts movie imaginable with a friend and my old man (whenever he was bored)... man, I grew up on that kind of shlock... read every ninja novel out there, fell in love with Japanese culture and all that, and then eventually grew up and forgot most of it...
...then I go to the movies with a girlfriend to see Kill Bill and walk out feeling totally enlightened...
That whole poetic vibe during the final showdown between The Bride and O-something... with that dedication to the samurai duel, I haven't seen anything like it in any movie... not even in Japanese cinema. That moment where Lucy Liu gets insulted by Uma and she snaps because of the disrespect? That is the absolute peak of the movie...
To all you "intellectuals" whining about exaggeration—did you even notice that none of the fights Uma leads against any enemy, no matter how many are surrounding her, last more than three or four strikes or blocks?... QT respects the rules and codes of a samurai—ninja duel...
The way the master hands over the sword and how she takes it shows that QT hasn't just watched stuff, but actually studied the culture of the blade, because they depict the sword transfer ritual perfectly. The whole scene, including the master's dialogue with God, basically implies that seppuku is coming next...
...QT turned out to be a genius again... he paid attention to the tiny details... he used kitsch as an artistic form (intentional overkill) rather than accidental kitsch, which is just unintentional, bad, gross, and desperate.
He pulled it off through framing, color, and camera work (which hasn't always been his strongest suit), putting us in a spot where we're sitting on the edge of our seats for nearly two hours, wanting to grab a katana ourselves and jump into the screen like a bridesmaid...

Don't get me wrong, QT isn't my favorite director—I respect his cynicism and those editing twists in the story. He's a true postmodernist (mouse-mouse house). But now he's made something that borders on poetry; it's brutal for the aunties, stupid for the naive types, and absolutely genius for the open-minded crazies.

My only real gripe is with Anima—the drawing, or rather the framing, feels a bit too modern, leaning more toward Western cartoons or comics... but I'll forgive him.
...and honestly, you guys are starting to annoy me with this endless chatter about the soundtrack--- this is a movie, not a pair of headphones. As a standalone album, the soundtrack is mediocre because it lacks the visual context, making it feel boring and unorganized... but in the movie, it hits perfectly, as always, because music is huge for Tarantino and he uses it so well to add psychological depth to the situations and characters...

...now I'm just dreading the sequel because I'll end up forgetting parts of the first one while waiting for a miracle that never happens... the creators should have stood up to the producers and the studio and just released the film in a shed. Screw the Americans and their nonsense about how a movie shouldn't run longer than three hours...