World film project: Mexico
Aug. 15th, 2020 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livA few people recommended Roma, which we weren't sure about as it sounds kind of depressing. We ended up working from a random list of Mexican films on Netflix, and picked Mr Pig (2016, dir Diego Luna). It's about a elderly Black US-American man who goes on a road trip through Mexico with his estranged daughter and his prize hog.
So it turned out that Mr Pig is a very sad film after all, since it is revealed fairly early on that the protagonist, Ambrose, is dying. It generally falls on the right side of tragic rather than depressing, for me. It's not a political commentary about how much it sucks to be poor in America with no healthcare and no social safety net, it's about someone seeking a good death after a simple life, and it's about people who love each other in pragmatic, non-sentimental ways. It's very much a character piece, with really convincing acting by Danny Glover as Ambrose and Maya Rudolph as his daughter Eunice. Also the pig is delightful! (I'd love to see the 'making of' reel for this one and how they got the animal actor to carry out some complex scenes.)
The first half is sort of drama where Ambrose tries to sell his pig to family friends, who are willing to give him more than the real market value out of kindness, but in the end he can't cope with leaving his pig with modern factory farmers who don't treat their animals well. And there's some tragi-comedy where he sneaks this rather large pig into motel rooms in order to treat it for a minor infection.
After that, though, Eunice (whom he has hasn't been in touch with since she was five) manages to track him down and despite their lack of real relationship, tries to help him, but realizes he's dying. They drive across Mexico together, trying to reach some Mexicans who loved Ambrose before it's too late. And they bicker and smoke together and somehow build a connection that doesn't feel saccharine. There's no miraculous recovery from emphysema, but there is a peaceful death in a beautiful place surrounded by chosen family. And the film ends with the pig happily frolicking in the sparkling sea.
I didn't quite enjoy the film, it's very sad, but I appreciated it a lot and I'm glad I watched it.
Next up: Japan. I would like recommendations for Japanese films, please, ideally 21st century and not too grim and violent. I am especially interested in live-action films because Japan seems to be pretty good at exporting animé to the west whereas I know nothing about their cinema.
So it turned out that Mr Pig is a very sad film after all, since it is revealed fairly early on that the protagonist, Ambrose, is dying. It generally falls on the right side of tragic rather than depressing, for me. It's not a political commentary about how much it sucks to be poor in America with no healthcare and no social safety net, it's about someone seeking a good death after a simple life, and it's about people who love each other in pragmatic, non-sentimental ways. It's very much a character piece, with really convincing acting by Danny Glover as Ambrose and Maya Rudolph as his daughter Eunice. Also the pig is delightful! (I'd love to see the 'making of' reel for this one and how they got the animal actor to carry out some complex scenes.)
The first half is sort of drama where Ambrose tries to sell his pig to family friends, who are willing to give him more than the real market value out of kindness, but in the end he can't cope with leaving his pig with modern factory farmers who don't treat their animals well. And there's some tragi-comedy where he sneaks this rather large pig into motel rooms in order to treat it for a minor infection.
After that, though, Eunice (whom he has hasn't been in touch with since she was five) manages to track him down and despite their lack of real relationship, tries to help him, but realizes he's dying. They drive across Mexico together, trying to reach some Mexicans who loved Ambrose before it's too late. And they bicker and smoke together and somehow build a connection that doesn't feel saccharine. There's no miraculous recovery from emphysema, but there is a peaceful death in a beautiful place surrounded by chosen family. And the film ends with the pig happily frolicking in the sparkling sea.
I didn't quite enjoy the film, it's very sad, but I appreciated it a lot and I'm glad I watched it.
Next up: Japan. I would like recommendations for Japanese films, please, ideally 21st century and not too grim and violent. I am especially interested in live-action films because Japan seems to be pretty good at exporting animé to the west whereas I know nothing about their cinema.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-15 04:59 pm (UTC)The Twilight Samurai (2002) is my favorite film of all time, so of course I have to start with it. Set just a few years before the Meiji Restoration, it follows a very minor samurai (his job: inventorying salted fish in the clan castle storeroom) as he struggles to raise two daughters as a single father while Japan's feudal society slowly wanes. It's quiet, elegiac, and beautiful, focused on the joy of family love even in times of crisis.
Kakekomi (2015) was described by the Japanese embassy (where I see a lot of my Japanese films) as a "historical comedy-drama about divorce in feudal Japan." This is accurate but perhaps understates just how bizarrely slapstick the comedy occasionally gets. To summarize in slightly more detail, the premise of the movie is that, in the fading days of the Tokugawa era, women could not legally file for divorce and instead had to hide themselves away in a designated "divorce temple" for two years, at which point the temple would intercede on their behalf and make sure their men agreed to divorce them. The film follows various women seeking divorce for various reasons, sometimes improbably complicated ones. I found it charming, with solid acting and really great costuming.
Close Knit (2017) is about a young girl who, abandoned by her mother, moves in with her uncle and his trans girlfriend and slowly learns what a loving family can look like. Trans rights are central to the film (it's strongly in favor, although I will warn that the trans woman is played by a cis actor), which I thought managed to be wholesome and heartwarming without (mostly) becoming saccharine.
The Great Passage (2013; note that there is also a 2016 anime, which I haven't seen) is about a group of quirky word-loving people coming together to try to build a new and improved Japanese dictionary. It features an extremely chill cat who was the star of the show for me, but as a word nerd I also very much enjoyed the main plot. It is a little slow-paced and gets more into the weeds of the publishing industry than a similar American film would, I think, but for me that was a selling point.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-15 08:03 pm (UTC)When you get to Laos I have a family ghost story on DVD if you want to borrow it...
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-16 01:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-16 03:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-16 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-17 12:10 pm (UTC)