Cinematic Distractions...
Rams(2015):
Two brothers, Gummi(Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi(Theodór Júlíusson), share the run of a sheep farm in Iceland. Their parents left them an inequitable inheritance which split the flock, buildings, and the operation of the farm between the two brothers, but gave full ownership to only one.
Which is to say, they made one brother the tenant of the other. It fostered such deep resentment that the brothers lived separately and silently yet right next door to each other for forty years. They occasionally pass notes concerning financial matters back and forth using a dog. Scrapie hits the valley in which they farm. The authorities rule that every sheep in the entire valley must be culled.
Gummi and Kiddi raise a particular heritage breed of sheep. It's been a point of family pride and source of renown going back for generations. If they cull their herds, the breed will be lost. If they don't, the authorities will do it for them.
It's much more engrossing, exciting, and humorous than it sounds, and even the more geologically boring parts of Iceland are beautiful.
One Wonderful Sunday(Subarashiki nichiyobi - 1947):
In this early Kurosawa directorial effort, a charming, young, engaged couple goes on date. That's pretty much the movie except they're both flat, holes in the soles of their shoes broke, and the setting is a still devastated post-war Tokyo.
Yuzo(Isao Numasaki) and Masako(Chieko Nakakita) try their best to have a wonderful Sunday together. Without much in the way of money, they set off in search of fun things they can do at little to no expense. They wax optimistic about their future as they tour "affordable" housing they can't afford. They play ball with some kids in the street. They drink coffee together. A few costly misadventures cause them to despair, but neither wants to call it an early night. They bicker over whether they should go back to his place or hers. His is a one room shared with a roommate. Hers is a house shared with fifteen or so immediate and extended family members.
Engaged to be married and very much in love, they want to do what couples in that situation naturally want to do. He is more enthusiastic than she is, possibly because she is more keenly aware that they can't afford a pregnancy. She is being practical not prim. The birth control pill didn't exist yet, and people couldn't just go buy a box of condoms from a drug store amid the rubble of post-war Japan. They get into a squabble. They're adorable even when they fight. Depending on your perspective, what follows is either unbridled optimism or a mutual psychotic break.
Something they mention more than once is how they're only poor due to their insistence upon earning an honest living. At the time, there was a lot of money to be made in the black market, trading in contraband, and taking advantage of scarcity. Also, not explicitly stated but alluded to, engaging in prostitution with the occupying forces.
For a flip side of this movie, I highly recommend Gate of Flesh(1964) directed by Seijun Suzuki.
Chieko Nakakita appears in a few other Kurosawa movies: Drunken Angel(1948), No Regrets for Our Youth(1946), and The Most Beautiful(1944).
That last one will be on the next movie list.
This song that was popular at the time, "the apple song" - Ringo no Uta, gets mentioned in this movie:
Enter the Dragon(1973):
This is sort of a comfort movie for me. I've seen this Bruce Lee martial arts classic almost a dozen times. I know people who don't watch martial arts movies, yet they've seen this one.
One thing I love about it is that it's so wonderfully 1970s in color palette and sound. Being early 1970s, there is still a touch of the latter part of the previous decade, in particular the wardrobe worn by Han's(Kien Shih) lady staffers.
Next to Bruce Lee's performance, none is more powerful than Angela Mao's. John Saxon is also quite good.
Some other reasons I think it's great:
--The hero has a just cause that goes beyond revenge.
--I like the music that plays during the scene where the fighters are making their way to the boat to Han's island. It reminds me of another song called Search For Vulcan(LeRoy Holmes).
--The villain has a truly exquisite lair, and mostly sane nefarious plans.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier(2021):
I liked this as much and maybe even more than some of the movies. I've not read any of the comic books. Good cast, great action, interesting "villains", believable emotion.
Bastoni: The Stick Handlers(2002):
This was my fourth viewing of this movie. For a romantic comedy about the porn industry, it has a heavy story with a wide emotional range. It's cute, funny, sexy, sad, honest, uncomfortable, angry, and even slightly scary.
It centers around a couple of porn stars who are also a couple, Ryo(Shunsuke Matsuoka) and Natsuo(Yuka Kojima). They are about to get married. The already pregnant Natsuo plans to then quit the business to have and care for their child.
She is contractually obligated to do a series of farewell movies. One of which includes their wedding ceremony. There goes the bride, all dressed in white, ascending a staircase lined with men, each of whom ejaculate in her face. The groom and the priest are waiting at the top of the stairs with a large bowl of water so she can wash her face. When she gets there, the director interrupts and asks her to do the scene/ceremony covered in cum. She agrees, but only if he agrees to let her wash the cum out of her eyes, because it stings.
If that's not your idea of quality entertainment, do not watch this movie.
Although this movie is from 2002, it's a pretty accurate reflection of the modern porn industry with its use of technology. People don't get their porn from the backrooms of video stores anymore. Though it was still possible to do that in 2002.
Natsuo is very online. She has her own blog. It might be through the movie company, but she maintains and updates it with her own content. She records at least one video a day with her phone. She is very candid, especially when giving interviews. She thinks nothing of it, but Ryo is mortified.
When not making movies or being publicly humiliated by Natsuo, Ryo plays in an amateur soccer league. His team loses a lot, so if there is any money in it, it's probably not much. He mentions more than once that porn is how he pays his bills.
Things go along pretty well for the two until an old girlfriend of Ryo's shows up. Unhappily married Miyuki(Amiko Kanetani) dated Ryo until he started doing porn. Wanting no part of it, she left him. Some years later, she changes her mind. She insinuates herself back into his life in more than one way, leading to a dramatic confrontation.
There are a few minor side stories. One involves a teammate of Ryo's who wants to get into porn. Another involves a veteran porn actor with marital troubles and a teenage daughter. There is the director who is always having a back and forth with the company's money man about the commercial viability or lack thereof of his scripts. Lastly, there is Midori, a young woman about to do her first movie. The movie company hopes she will be the next Natsuo.
It has a catchy score composed by Goro Yasukawa. Catchy or annoying, it depends on how much you like sports whistles.
Watch closely and you might spot a goatse-like logo on a t-shirt in the movie.
Cairo Station(Bab el hadid - 1958):
CW: This movie is fraught with ableism.
A soft drinks seller becomes the object of affection and obsession of a newsstand worker. Hind Rostum plays Hanuma, one of many young women who hop onto the trains that arrive at the station to sell bottled soft drinks carried in pails of ice. For a reason that wasn't clear to me, the work they do is illegal, thus the ladies are always being chased by the cops. They can't be arrested without evidence, so they stash their pails in the market stalls around the station.
Hanuma often leaves hers in the care of Qinawi, a young, disabled, newsstand worker played by Youssef Chahine. Qinawi is infatuated with Hanuma, but she spurns his awkward advances. She rejects him in part because of his disability, but also because she wants nothing to do with the simple, rural home life he offers her. There is also the fact that she is already engaged. She is days away from marrying station porter and union organizer, Abu Siri(Farid Shawqi). Qinawi aggressively pursues her anyway. When she rejects his marriage proposal, events take a tragic, violent turn.
Though she could end up with exactly the kind of life she doesn't want with Abu Siri, she prefers him because he makes more money than Quinawi, and he is respected rather than mocked. No matter whom she marries, she will not be allowed to work outside their home.
The negative, mocking attitude she has toward Quinawi is shared by all the women working at the station. Devoid of romantic prospects, his sexual repression is painfully apparent. There are moments when it's impossible not to have sympathy for him, but like the incels of our time, he has this sense of entitlement when it comes to women. When Hanuma rejects him, he considers it an affront to his manhood.
This is one of two movies on this list in which a romantically obsessed man attempts to strong-arm an already engaged woman into marrying him instead. Cairo Station is certainly the more realistic of the two.
This is the second Hind Rostum movie I've seen. The first was Struggle on the Nile(1959), which was on my previous list. She is sometimes referred to as The Marilyn Monroe of The East. She should carry a sharp curve warning sign, because she has the kind of figure that causes traffic accidents. I had rented Struggle on the Nile for a young Omar Sharif. Thanks to her, I barely noticed him.
On An Island With You(1948):
On an island somewhere in the South Pacific, no one seems to be sure where exactly...
The nightclub is Hawaiian-themed, but one of the dance numbers appears to be Aztec-inspired. The natives are a mix of Polynesian, Asian, maybe Filipino, and a whole bunch of white people in brown-face. It's some shabby brown-face too. Esther Williams and Cyd Charisse are so orange from the tan-in-a-can that they look like a couple of peeled carrots.
Wait...
There's more. That's not the only or most racist thing.
Lt. Lawrence Y. Kingslee(Peter Lawford), who serves as Navy technical advisor for the movie within the movie, objects to Ricardo Montez(Ricardo Montalbán) playing a Naval officer in the movie within the movie because of his Spanish accent.
That's another racist thing but not the most racist thing.
The most racist thing about this movie is Ricardo Montalbán being given second billing to Peter Lawford. Montalbán acts, swims, and dances. He does it all. When the plot begins, he is the romantic lead.
Peter Lawford's character is a creeper, a celebrity stalker that slowly and methodically over the course of several years plots to gain access to Rosalind Rennolds(Esther Williams) after seeing her perform in a USO show.
She pulled him out of the audience to do a bit during which she gave him a little kiss. He took it to mean she was madly in love with him. When he catches up to her on the set of a movie, she is about to be married to Ricardo. He tries to solve that problem by kidnapping her.
That! That's what they gave top billing! Since he has top billing, he can't be a villain. He is, but only until he gets HIS woman through social engineering, abduction, and coercion. The crazed stalker is laundered into a romantic lead. Ricardo Montalbán falls for Cyd Charisse in the best dance number in the movie, and they script her character a Spanish grandmother so the relationship won't upset any white people.
Redeeming Qualities -or- Why the hell did I rent this?
--Initially, Xavier Cugat, but his parts had too much chihuahua and not enough music.
--Jimmy Durante turned out to be a real treat. He has been referenced and imitated in so many things that I've seen, but this was the first time I actually saw him perform. I had only heard him before in Frosty the Snowman(1969), and old news reel clips.
--Montalbán and Charisse are dynamite together.
Fantasy Island: Season 01: Disc 02(1978):
This is so bad. So bad! I don't know if I can make it through another round. I was a toddler when these were new. It's not bad from a toddler's perspective.
I was pleased to see Mabel King listed in the cast for one episode, but her role was so cringe.
I gave the episode Family Reunion/Voodoo the nickname, Newhart vs. The Love Boat.
Among the guest stars on this disc: Alan Hale Jr., Maureen McKormick, Ed Begley Jr., and Dack Rambo.
This time around, I noticed that the show is heavy with celebrity mentions. I think they name-dropped Burt Reynolds in every episode I've watched so far. Maybe they were trying to get him as a guest star.