Friday, July 20, 2018

Japan Cuts 2018 Capsules: TOWARD A COMMON TENDERNESS, DREAM OF ILLUMINATION, and KUSHINA what will you be

TOWARD A COMMON TENDERNESS
Kaori Oda's personal and almost experimental cinematic essay on her time in Japan and with Bela Tarr at his film factory. Striving to be deep and meaningful I grew weary of it and had completely disconnected by the half way point. I'm sure it speaks volumes for those who connect, for me it was th loss of an hour I will never get back.

Plays July 22nd

DREAM OF ILLUMINATION
Moody and "meaningful" story of a man selling land to foreigners and his high school aged daughter.  He is the bane of the farmers whose land he is selling. She is trying to figure out where she is going in life. This is a film that very much insists its about something.  Personally I'm not not sure what it is since it's moody black and white photography, meaningful silences arty images never came together for me. I kept waiting for some big revelation that never came. Worth a shot if you like arty films.

Plays July 21

KUSHINA, what will you be
KUSHINA concerns a community of women in the wilderness that was started when the matriarch wandered off one day with her daughter. Everything is threatened when an anthropologist and her male assistant arrive to study the group.

To be honest this is a film that didn’t click with me. While I could tell you what happens over the film’s brief running time, I couldn’t really tell you what the purpose of it is. It is the uncertainty of purpose that is going to keep me from fully reviewing the film, I just didn’t think enough of it to take the time to write it up be yond this brief note. On the plus side I loved the look of the film and the performances are first rate.

This film plays July 25

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