2024 Movie Log: April

1st: Super Citizen Ko – Wan Jen (1995)
The third in an unofficial white terror trilogy along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s City of Sadness and Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. This one is particularly fascinating in that it connects us between timelines: one during the KMT’s takeover of Taipei in the 1950s and one in the aftermath of the KMT’s fall in the 1980s.
Grade: B

1st: A Visitor from the Living – Claude Lanzmann (1997)
In every effort to not sound supremely glib or like the 18 year old who just discovered existentialism, it feels like a whole lot of the world can be summed up in the explanation about how the International Red Cross was “legally”powerless to help most Jews in the Holocaust because they were technically considered enemies of the German state and not prisoners of war.
Grade: B

2nd: Late Spring – Yasujirō Ozu (1949)
I’m sure I will only repeat platitudes that have been laid upon Ozu for decades but his films truly feel like their own cinema. Even as someone who loves world cinema and the most meditative of stories, it still took me a couple of features to settle into Ozu. On the surface, you might be inclined to think that the structure of his films are really simple. What I’m finding is that while they are surely paired back, they’re almost more inventive and complicated for that reason.
Grade: A

2nd: Tokyo-Ga – Wim Wenders (1985)
Love Wenders and genuinely admire this as a vision of Tokyo and a travelogue. Where it works best is as a pseudo-documentary of Ozu. The closing interview with Ozu’s assistant director is especially moving. That being said, the film can be a bit shortsighted when Wenders (along with Werner Herzog in a legendary scene) laments how modernity has eclipsed Japan and Ozu’s world doesn’t exist anymore. I mean, there’s also a part where Wenders implies that the rise of pachinko parlors was a way for Japanese citizens to process nuclear trauma? In any case, this is absolutely worth a watch even if at times it’s a series of European filmmakers complaining about modern day Tokyo.
Grade: B-

3rd: Play While You Play – Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1981)
Look, I’ll probably never watch this again and would not generally recommend it unless you’re a Hou Hsiao-Hsien completionist, but I’m so in the bag for the guy I was charmed nonetheless. More movies should have pop songs that narrate the plot. Remember Jonathan Richman in There’s Something About Mary? That stuff is so good. I also didn’t know that you could go from being blind to seeing with surgery in this day and age, let alone in Taiwan in 1981 so this was educational in that respect as well.
Grade: B

4th: Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. – Claude Lanzmann (2001)
Nothing else that Lanzmann did could possibly live up to Shoah. That film is not only brilliantly devised and assembled but by its very nature transcends time. All that being said, this doc, made from the same research material is certainly worthwhile as a standalone film and I’d recommend it to anybody. There’s a description that the survivor, Yehuda Lerner, makes about the rebellion that is so specific it gives you chills. Lanzmann really hit upon something profound in focusing on specificity to bring about larger truths.
Grade: B+

4th: The Karski Report – Claude Lanzmann (2010)
A film that feels weirdly vital to today’s world. A cynic will look at this film with little surprise that Karski’s report of the Warsaw Ghetto and the genocide that was beginning failed to bring about any evident western action. An optimist could look at this and note that even in the face of great evil, that individual leaders still took the time to meet with Karski and hear his report even though their actions would be tied by endless bureaucratic red tape (the most charitable read of Felix Frankfurter’s infamous response). I think today it’s just hard to understand if people, governments, and leaders have changed fundamentally or if political response has always been theater. You can understand the perceived limitations of the US government taking action in 1942 when it’s one person giving a report about what’s happening in another country. Yet today, we see genocide and injustice happen in realtime on our phones and it’s assumed that our government won’t take action (if they aren’t the ones perpetrating it). In any case, I don’t know what answers can be found in this doc, but I think it’s pretty essential viewing.
Grade: B+

6th: Flight of the Red Balloon – Hou Hsiao-Hsien (2007)
When we were in Taipei, we went to a bookshop of the same name and I asked if there was any connection to the film and it turned out the owner is friends with Hou and named it after his favorite of Hou’s movies!!
Grade: B

6th: The Red Balloon – Albert Lamorisse (1956)
Magical. A fabulous portrait of Paris. Oh, to be a French boy in 1956!
Grade: A-

17th: The Lusty Men – Nicholas Ray (1952)
An almost perfectly executed film? The story, while highly compelling, is by no means reinventing the wheel. We follow the usual plot points of a love triangle as well as a student/master parable. And even if you can sense where we’re inevitably headed, it’s never boring. The performances (especially Mitchum’s) combined with Ray’s direction bring so much life to the screen. It really makes me want to watch a hundred of these films, though I doubt nearly that many exist (especially ones as great as this).
Grade: A-

19th: A Man Escaped – Robert Bresson (1956)
I may have just watched the best movie of all time on an airplane. Honestly, I’ll take it.
Grade: A

19th: Sans Soleil – Chris Marker (1983)
Might have a spicy take coming in on this one, gotta think about it…Okay, here’s my spicy take. This film really bothered me. It is undeniably beautiful. Marker’s eye as a documenter is as good as it gets. My problem with the film lies in its narrative framing. It’s the same issue that I had with Wenders’ Tokyo-Ga (a film in which Marker makes a cameo) and perhaps Sans Soleil is receiving some of the blowback from having watched that so recently. Still, I can’t help but think this film’s attitude is a bit leery and dismissive of the foreign cultures we visit. In general, I gravitate toward art that explores the world by revealing how similar we are. Here, it feels like Marker takes pride in showing these foreign cultures as if they are completely alien. In some context, that approach probably can be a worthy effort but here, either due to Marker’s background, the narration, or both, it feels pretentious and condescending.
Grade: C

22nd: The Emperor’s New Groove – Mark Dindal (2000)
Okay, new addendum for aspiring screenwriters: You’re allowed, and even encouraged, to start your movie with the “Hey, so you’re probably wondering how I wound up here” bit if it involves your character being a llama.
Grade: B+

23rd: Past Lives – Celine Song (2023)
Damn, could you imagine a scene in Before Sunset where Ethan Hawke calls his wife and she’s playing video games and has no personality?
Grade: B-