Movie #1 at the 2012 Brisbane International Film Festival has happened! Before it even started! As with last year, the Festival has a couple of movies screening before the opening night event on Wednesday. Last night I went to see Hari-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 3D. I have to say that it was a slightly disappointing start for me this year. Only because I expect so much from director Takashi Miike, who is usually pretty extreme but this movie was more of a melodrama with a few extreme parts. Also the 3D was unwatchable, not sure whether it was the cinema projection, glasses or just me (normally I love 3D and have no problems) but I had to remove the glasses in any fast moving scenes. Luckily there weren't many (!).
This movie is a very good quality movie, just not what I was expecting really. After last year's '13 Assassins' which explored similar territory (the honour of a Samurai in post-feudal Japan) I was expecting something similar - an exploration of the issues but still with some crazy fighting scenes. Alas I was disappointed as the film chose instead to tell a sad and drawn out tale of a young man with a sick wife and baby and the lengths he will go to for them. It did have a good point to make about morality and humanity in the face of an honour bound society's expectations, told within an interesting structure for the film. However there were no real surprises to be found and I just missed that crazy edge his movies normally have. He's mellowing out!
Alas, Miike's films are hit or miss. I guess when you make 3 films a year they can't all be Ichi the Killers or Auditions. Good on ya for sticking with the BIFF though. What other films can we expect reviews for?
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Good point Nigel but I haven't seen much good from him lately to even out the meh. I'm still a big BIFF supporter, where else do you see such craziness. You can find a list of what I'm going to see at this post - http://melocracy.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/its-biff-time-again.html
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