10.19.08
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)
East meets West meets East again, with palate-tingling results, in “The Good the Bad the Weird,” a kimchi Western that draws shamelessly on its spaghetti forebears but remains utterly, bracingly Korean. More than two years in production, and at a reported $17 million the most expensive South Korean movie to date, fifth feature by genre-bending helmer Kim Jee-woon (“The Quiet Family,” “A Bittersweet Life”), centered on a trio of treasure-seekers in 1930s Japanese-occupied Manchuria, looks headed for through-the-roof local biz, hunky returns throughout Asia and piquant specialized box offices in the West, in the right hands.
10.18.08
Yama no Anata: Tokuichi no Koi (2008)
Yama no Anata: Tokuichi no Koi aka My Darling of the Mountains (2008)
Yama no Anata: Tokuichi no Koi is a japanese film directed by Katsuhito Ishii. It is a remake of Hiroshi Shimizu’s 1938 film Anma to Onna (The Masseurs and a Woman).
Toku (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and Foku (Ryo Kase), both blind masseurs, travel between seaside spas in the North and mountain hot springs in the South from season to season. They are very much respected and appreciated by hotel owners and their patrons.
Unpronounced feelings are really the heart of the matter in the story. Toku, feels for Michiho (Maiko) but does not know how to express it. Michiho also has feelings for both Toku and Shintaro (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a visitor from Tokyo, but there is something that she is hiding from everyone that keeps her from committing to one or the other. Shintaro has feelings for Michiho but cannot bring himself to tell her. And the young boy Kenichi (Ryohei Hirota), Shintaro’s nephew, has a crush on Michiho.
Yama no Anata is a charming, calm and gentle film filled with beautiful and enchanting views of Izu Province in Japan.
