This may be the most stupid thing I have seen in 2013. I happen to think the 'Chushingura' is demented all on its own; however, it has nothing on this Hollywood version. The '47 Ronin' story happened, and has been retold by Japan's greatest kabuki playwrights. You want a metaphor? Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' with a half-Carthaginian hero, nymphs, satyrs and Greek gods, retold by the Chinese, in Chinese.
Keanu Reeves? The only thing he was cast right for was an alien, and the movie still sucked.
But hey, a 'magic white man' makes it all good.
I enjoyed his Ted Logan, but then again I can't take Keanu seriously.
ReplyDeleteI am curious who did the score for the trailer. I find often that Hollywood movies tend to use music in trailers that is not in the film at all.
I am judging you harshly for your disregard for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!
ReplyDeleteLooks like the time is right for my planned bitch about 47 ronin in particular and the lack of narrative structure in Japan storytelling.
"The lack of narrative structure in Japan." Good god true! Cannot read anything from this land anymore. At first it was refreshing to read something so different, but maybe I have become more conventional as I age, or it is as asinine as I feel: what is the point of a story that goes nowhere? Kurosawa movies are not like this, influenced by America as he was, but he is more popular outside of Japan than inside, it is said (which is an indictment against Japan, I say). Miyazaki can be like this, but his visuals, imagination, and moral vision make up for it. Murakami Haruki and many of the other writers, not so much.
DeleteBelieve it or not, I have not seen 'Bill and Ted'. One of the lacunae in my popular culture education.
DeleteEase off a bit on all the "white man" invective, eh?
ReplyDeleteVia Wikipedia:
His mother was English and his father was a Hawaiian-born American of Native Hawaiian, English, Irish, Portuguese, and Chinese descent.
A technicality of which I was aware. There was nobody in the 'Chushingura', dramas or history, that was identifiable as any part of non-Japanese. Also, it is the 'white' part of him that makes him 'special': 'magic white man'.
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