World film project: Russia

[liv]

We were a bit spoiled for choice with Russian films, but jack had heard good things about I am dragon (2015, dir Indar Dzhendubaev). Basically, it's a fairly standard subverted fairy tale where a princess is kidnapped by a dragon and decides she prefers the dragon to the knight who is supposed to rescue her.

The film is absolutely unbelievably gorgeous visually. Lovely landscapes, amazing use of colour, drool-worthy (though implausible) costumes. And the shadow puppets for the framing story are so pretty. Also very pretty music.

The developing relationship between Mira and Arman is rather charming, if you suspend disbelief and accept fairy-tale logic. It's not very sexually explicit, there's a lot of nudity but not much actual sex beyond soft-focus snogging, but it has something of the feel of soft porn somehow. It's very much in the genre of all those paranormal romances where the male love interest is a horrible monster but is also the perfect fantasy man. I thought it did quite an interesting job of addressing the tension inherent to falling in love with a powerful supernatural being. But also had plenty of hurt/comfort and smouldering angst and all the elements that make that kind of ravishment fantasy appealing.

Anyway, not exactly a work of genius, but very pleasant for a somewhat tired date night.

Next up: Mexico and then Japan, which I imagine should give us plenty of options. Does anyone have a recommendation for a Mexican film, ideally 21^st century and not too violent or depressing?

Comments

[anais_pf]

I can't remember what your rules are for the films, and you have probably already seen it, but if you haven't, Roma would be an excellent choice for Mexico.

[siderea]

Getting ahead of you a bit, for Japan, I'd like to recommend the legendary "Tampopo" (1985). It's a comedy. Though the reason to show up isn't the laughs. It's very thoughtful and I found it absolutely delightful in the way an insightful essay is. I could tell you what it's about but in a sense that's a spoiler - note it concerns a topic that is a trigger for some people and should perhaps come with a warning. I think it's a spoiler that doesn't ruin the movie, and in fact makes it easier to access. The movie can be slightly tough going for a while because it has a super weird structure. The structure is necessary to the movie and what's being said in it, but isn't actually informative itself; it took me a while - and some questions to people watching it with me who had seen it before – to get that there wasn't any meaning to decode there and then be able to parse what was going on.

I'm happy to just give you the two relevant clues to parsing the movie if you want; or if you like playing anthropologist (I wonder if this was easier for Japanese audiences to parse, and the issue is just that it violates American/Western norms for fiction) and solving puzzles for yourself, you can tackle it cold (read nothing about it).

The original has a part that's briefly sexually explicit, it is sometimes blacked out for several seconds for Western audiences. Note, the sexually explicit bit is wildly consensual and enthusiastic and joyous and has nothing of violence or meanness in it.

I've heard the movie described as being specific to Japanese culture, and in some ways yes, but, oh, no, this one is universal and arguably existential (though not a part of what I've ever seen considered existential).

[ambyr]

I do not think any of the Mexican films I've seen meet the "not too violent or depressing" criteria, heh. But I have lots and lots of recommendations for Japan when you get to it!