The first thing I noticed in Kurosawa's High and Low (B+) is that, gosh, it sure is weird seeing Toshiro Mifune in a contemporary business suit. The second thing I noticed is that in a standard movie plot where a kidnapper threatens a victim right after the victim has refused to join forces with his business associates, is the assumption in the viewer's mind is that the kidnapper is tied in with the victim's business associates somehow. That's not the case here, and it does leave the plot dangling for about three fourths of the way through the film.
Maybe it has something to do with the Japanese custom of deferring to authority, which is why the detectives in the case don't confront Mifune's business partners about the kidnapping-if only to clear their collective name. Nonetheless, it's a plot thread that I found disconcerting, and considering that Kurosawa is one of the most methodical and detailed filmmakers in history, I took it as a bit of sloppiness in his process. But it turns out Kurosawa's got bigger fish to fry.
What happens in High and Low is how Kurosawa takes the pulp origins of a Ed McBain novel and turns it into a critique of the differences between the rich and poor in post-war Japan. In the McBain novel, (from what I understand), the business guy tracks down the kidnapper and beats him like a red-headed stepchild until he gets his money back. And he triumphs over his competitors, too.
In High and Low, Mifune pays off the kidnapper by overextending himself to his bank, gets the kid back, wins the admiration of the town, and gets toppled from his perch by the bank, now calling in his loan. He leaves the movie a humble shoe-maker. If this came up in an American film, the David O. Selsnick-type producer would do a spit-take in his martini, lob his cigar into the screen writer's eye, and have the poor slob black-listed by HUAC for being a dirty Commie rat-fink. But we're in Japan. And Kurosawa is in Dostoevsky territory.
Turns out the kidnapper is a disfigured med student who has to watch Mifune every day in Mifune's air-conditioned home up on the hill while the poor slob sweats it out in his hovel. So in the end, even though he's been brought to justice, traditionally, the kidnapper ends the movie laughing remorselessly over his triumph of the 'low' over the 'high'.
The Book of Genesis: Illustrated by Robert Crumb (A) If Crumb never did another drawing for public viewing ever again, we'd be quite happy to have this bit as the capstone of his career. It is, simply put, the best thing he's done. And considering all he did was render the most literal rendition that he could of the first fifty chapters of the book of Genesis, it could be read by the average Crumb fan (like myself) as the most subversive bit of satire that makes 'When the God damned Niggers Take Over America' look like 'The Simpsons'.
Reading it at face value, you begin to see why the major Judeo-Christian sects take their cues from the New Testament. God does come across as a drunken sailor who caught his wife in bed with the first mate throughout the book. I don't want to get started on any theological discussions, here, but it seems that getting kicked out of the Garden doesn't improve anyone's idea of morality. It's not that God's view of mankind since the Fall from Grace is, 'No more Mr. Nice Guy', but rather, 'Where'd you all get the idea I was ever a Nice Guy in the first place?'
As for the book itself, Crumb must've scoured the Rogue's gallery of the Tel Aviv police department. I understand he was on this for five years, not just drawing but conducting the most pain-staking research he could, with the help of one Robert Moser, who's translation of the five books of Moses came out in 2004. The only thing I'm sorry about is that we'll never see Crumb's take on the next fifty chapters of the Old Testament...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (C) Looking at this movie, then reading the credits which have Eric Roth, the writer behind 'Forest Gump' as screenwriter, I'm tempted to ask, 'Why bother?' So it's 'Forest Gump' without Robert Zemekis' sense of satire. Since everyone in the movie treats Button's reverse-aging condition with the same surprise they'd treat someone who had six toes on one foot, there's no point to this movie. Yeah, it's sold as a love story, but if you think about it, since Benjamin Button doesn't seem to have any type of personality, it's hard to see why anyone would be attracted to him.
G.I. Joe: Rise of the Crap and Transformers 2: Crap of the Crapening (F) Well, serves me right. Even the mitigating factor that I saw these for free doesn't stop filling me with the regret that I could've spent my free rentals on anything else in the video store. Transformers goes from being stupid, in the first one, to being incoherent and stupid in this one. No surprise there. And G.I. Joe- well, it's 'Team America' by those South Park guys, only told in dead earnest, and with less poo and pee and puke. And less exploding-ham Michael Moore, which was a loss, in my view.
What I didn't count on was how much of a recruiting arm for the U.S. armed forces that they turned out to be, though anyone dumb enough to enlist on the appeal of these movies kinda deserves to be used only as live mine-sweepers. Just sayin', is all. Speaking of dumb, the people out there who actually liked these films can't really rise to any more of a defense than, "It's just a thrill ride, and you shouldn't expect too much when you're going to see these type of films." The trouble with that point of view is that, metaphorically speaking, I shouldn't be pelted with sewage while I'm seated in the proverbial roller-coaster. Again, just sayin'.
Planet Earth (B+) By now, it's an article of faith that if you own a Blu-ray player, and an H-D television, you will pick up this excellent BBC series. It's a testament to it's power that it impressed even me, a person indifferent to nature documentaries. Not only because of the amazing presentation in 1080p goodness in vivid colour and the 5.1 surround sound quality, certainly. But it manages to be entertaining by the footage of the unique flora and fauna of our world. In particular, the shots of the rare snow leopard, the recurring theme of having vast forests change colour through time-lapse photography, and if you think about it, the utter tenacity of the crew involved in getting these shots.
I have to admit, there were a couple of moments right out of a horror film. The first was the depiction of a type of spore that infects insects and turns them into zombies who sprout fungi out of their heads. Unfortunately, I can't recall any more details owing to my reaction of 'NYGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!' when I first saw that. The second was a tribe of cute little chimps on a raid to a rival group of chimps, which ended with them killing and eating one. Narrator David Attenborough disingenuously says, 'Perhaps they needed the extra protein.' No, Dave, they killed and ate him because chimpanzees are vicious, mean, ill-tempered brutes who will rip off your face and eat it if you give them a sliver of a chance. I am thus led to the conclusion that we humans are in the right when we dress them up in clown costumes and humiliate the hairy little shit-bags in public to further reinforce our dominance over other sentient beings on this planet...
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