Print

[tsuchi akurei]

Has anyone seen (中国の鳥人) Bird people in China???

The struggles of a budding company man and a burnt out Yakuza to save a village from Civ and it's dreams of further domestication and electricity.
In a weird Takashi Miike kinda way.

[New-Trbl-Revolution]

yea pans labyrinth was awesome

[WildeRix]

I just watched Apocalypto last night, and I gotta say, that movie ROCKED!

I know people have some pretty heated feelings about Mel Gibson, but put that aside, if you can, and enjoy a really amazing story about a hunter-gatherer's direct struggle with civilization.  And the action scenes blew me away.

[Ando]

Yeah, Apocalypto was kick-ass and can easily be interpreted as anti-civ. I'm sure it wasn't exactly the filmmaker's intention, but the whole movie was filled with anti-civ material.

[The Prissiest Primitivist]

The Fountain! The Fountain! THE MOTHERFUCKING FOUNTAIN!!!!

It's the greatest movie evar, EVAR. Summary: "An examination of death from an animist perspective, with kick-ass special effects and half-naked Hugh Jackman." And it's directed by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). GO SEE IT, DAMMIT!!!

[WildeRix]

Yeah, Apocalypto was kick-ass and can easily be interpreted as anti-civ. I'm sure it wasn't exactly the filmmaker's intention, but the whole movie was filled with anti-civ material.

Well, it's definitely anti-Mayan-civ.  The contrast between the hunter gatherers and the city folks was deliberate, and the protagonist is a hunter gatherer that you want to see escape the city and get back to his forest.  As for whether it's anti-our-civ or not--I wonder if Gibson or his Icon company even have a clue that our history developed through similar circumstances.

The Fountain! The Fountain! THE MOTHERFUCKING FOUNTAIN!!!!

It's the greatest movie evar, EVAR. Summary: "An examination of death from an animist perspective, with kick-ass special effects and half-naked Hugh Jackman." And it's directed by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). GO SEE IT, DAMMIT!!!

What was that, Giuli?  I couldn't quite make out what you were saying.  Oh, The Fountain.  Gotcha.

[chiggles]

Has anyone seen (中国の鳥人) Bird people in China???

Oh hells yes I've seen Bird People of China. Was on a huge Miike (and Kitano) kick a number of years back, Bird People of China was definitely a favorite (and by far the least violent film by TM ever seen by me).

Summary: "An examination of death from an animist perspective, with kick-ass special effects and half-naked Hugh Jackman."

You know, I never read at all an animist perspective from that film, but instead... **spoiler?**
...but instead read more of an acceptance of death from it. Made me think of Nietzsche, in order for one to affirm life one must in turn embrace death. An overcoming and getting over aspect, moving on, whatever you wanna call it. I'll definitely have to watch it again (been meaning to anyhow).

[Willem]

on the advice presented here i saw the bird people of china too. i liked it, tho it did have that "how do we preserve this way of life from the inevitable onslaught of civilization' angle that always leaves me a little cold. i hope you know what i mean. i need stories about how the wild peoples hide in the cracks and stay mobile so that they make it through the  bottleneck, or how wildness spontaneously resurfaces in unexpected places.

also i liked the fountain a lot, tho the ken wilbur crowd digs on it too so maybe  i should reconsider. beware the new age intellectuals!! maybe i shouldn't let them liking a perfectly good movie ruin it.

[Ando]

The Fountain! The Fountain! THE MOTHERFUCKING FOUNTAIN!!!!

It's the greatest movie evar, EVAR. Summary: "An examination of death from an animist perspective, with kick-ass special effects and half-naked Hugh Jackman." And it's directed by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). GO SEE IT, DAMMIT!!!

I'm not sure about The Fountain. The movie went off into some confusing visual symbolism or something and that kind of turned me off.(But then Rachel Weisz turned me back on, as she always does.) I just didn't know what the fuck was going on at times, like when a bald Hugh Jackman was in that bubble. I found out later that he was a 26th century meditating astronaut or something. How the fuck was I supposed to know that?

I will say I did appreciate the movie's message and subject matter though, but I prefer movies that express its ideas in a more coherent manner.

Rachel Weisz is hot. (I should stick that on the end of all my posts.)

[jason]

If you're trying to follow the Fountain's plotline, you're going to get frustrated.  The Fountain's more like a dream--you just go with it and try not to think about the causality too much.

What I really liked about Apocalypto was how desperately he was struggling when he first got away, and then, as soon as he made it back to his forest, he become uber-badass.  And notice, it wasn't because of his own power.  He was in his land, a land he had a relationship with, and every living thing in that place stepped up to help him.  That was awesome....

Now, the European element ... I heard one reviewer say that if the Passion had had a similar grasp of history, at the end, Jesus would have come out of the tomb to punch out Hitler.  But I did like that at the end, they didn't go to the Europeans--they went to the forest.  Leave the Europeans for the city Maya--they deserve each other.

[tsuchi akurei]

Bird people is def. the least violent TM movie I've ever seen as well...

I do see what you're saying about it Willem,but I was surprised by the whole concept of it I guess...esp.coming from Takashi Miike.




Apocalypto is badass. I was surprised by it as well.Had to buy it.

and Pan's Labyrinth.and Bird People.





b/t/w: what is up with that Jericho show?
I ended up watching an episode tonight, cheesey yes,TV yes, but it did have some marginally interesting things going on....
but I must state this:::if a nuclear bomb went off in Denver, and it was viewed to the east of Colorado, it would NOT be behind any mountains at all.....silly hollywood. 

[WildeRix]

Ha, I started watching Jericho when it first aired--mostly because I knew one of the writers when he lived in NYC.  But even for a friend, I couldn't keep watching it.  I love that dude's other writing (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and I love Gerald McRainey (and not because I used to look EXACTLY like Rick Simon in highschool) but still, I couldn't get through the cheesyness.  Plus it felt really slow for an apocalyptic situation.  I generally have a lot of patience with shows, but I had to give up on that one.

[Richard]

I recommend the movie 'The Silent One'. A VHS copy fell out of a tree while I was walking by the creek one day. Just goes to show -you cannot escape your fate.

[yarrow dreamer]

I just saw Cave of the Yellow Dog, which follows a real-life family of nomadic Mongolians living a beautiful, simple life, right now. These folks keep domesticated animals, and use carts with wheels, a motorcycle, a treadle sewing machine, and a wind powered light bulb but live far closer to the land than us city dwellers on the spectrum of civ to tribal. Made by a Mongolian woman who grew up in the city, but had meaningful experiences visiting nomadic family members. After she moved to Europe for film school, she felt overwhelmed and tired by the endless choices about "stuff" and grew to appreciate the old ways of her people and their vanishing way of life.

The sheep herders say they used to all hunt wolves together, but more and more of these folks have given up the nomadic lifestyle and moved to the city. The family we follow sits right on the edge of moving to the city, too. Why? I feel curious about what doesn't work here, why this kind of civilization doesn't "fly". I'll be chewing on that question for a while.

Don't expect drama--this movie walks the line between documentary and fiction. After watching this film, I felt a deep desire to transport my small family to Mongolia and watch clouds with the kids, then snuggle up with them in a yurt and sleep in a big quiet valley.

[Fenriswolfr]

I saw that at the rental place and really wanted to check it out. Have to remind myself to, haven't had the chance to yet.